Reaper's Crossroad

by Timothy Ellis

  The B5 episodes for the evening were all good ones, and I stayed to watch them. After the first one, I opened a rift back to Redoubt for the fighters and drones which were now turning up at the other side of the system, and given the battlestations were now guarding it, they had no reason to be there. The ships were also nearly there, depending on where they'd been sent, and would be wanting to come back while we slept. So I left the rift there big enough for the Explorers to come back through, and orders to do just that as soon as they arrived. Jane sent all the tugs back through it immediately, and deployed them ready to do the same thing again next time.

  I sent everyone off to bed early, as Jane had informed me our morning training time was the middle of the night for the Keerah, and I timed the next attack for their equivalent to midnight.

  There was no extra bed activity with Aline that night, and no dreams either. I rose refreshed, we did the usual morning shower dance, and I was in my ready room before anyone else but Jane was on the bridge. She came in after me, grinning, and pulled out the navmap for the two remaining Keerah jump points. I grinned as well.

  On the other side from where Jen was in command, the Keerah had shifted their fleets back from the jump point, and had all thirty six ships pointed away from it, with every ship aligned differently, so almost anywhere we should appear, they would have guns which could fire on us. Except they'd forgotten something.

  On the other side from Crossroad, they had another thirty six ships, but these were deployed in a massive globe shape, with half the ships pointing in at the jump point, and half of them pointing out. The area in the middle was more than enough to jump in my entire fleet. I had a niggling idea of how to do it, but it needed more thought.

  What I did decide to do was take both fleets as fast as possible, leaving the stations for later. But when I told Annabelle, she quickly talked me out of it, saying we should take the first station straight away, even if the fleet moved on. They'd take Syrinx with them this time, and she would be able to rift them out to the station on Jen's side should something go wrong. And once a join was made, Dick and his and Walter's people could walk through from Redoubt via the station on Jen's side.

  It made sense. And most of it didn’t need me.

  Five minutes later, and just after midnight Keerah time, I opened a rift to the down lane on the other side of Jen's jump point, and the fleet once again in two lines, we moved through as if we'd jumped.

  There was another turkey shoot, and I was glad I’d not eaten breakfast. This time Jane called salvage droids through from the other side, and I sat there waiting for the teams to deploy. This time they were faster, but while the station was almost identical, the deployments were not. The Keerah had left fire teams in place where my teams had appeared last time, but Annabelle and Jack had planned for it.

  Unassailable was launching drones to explore the system with, and I sat there working on how we moved to the next system. Ideally, we moved into the center of the globe of ships, but all positioned to fire in all directions at once. The question was, how could we do that? It meant instead of the ships going through the rift, the rift would need to move rapidly across all the ships. Was it even possible?

  Well I had moved shield walls. Why couldn’t I move a rift? I brought Jane in on the idea, and she started issuing positioning orders. We ended up with the fleet also in a much smaller globe, with them all issued firing orders for specific targets as usual. This time though, we were limited in how many we could target at once, and at least half the enemy ships would be able to fire on us very quickly.

  All the same, it was after midnight, and the hope was the Keerah would have stood down because we'd already attacked elsewhere. Theory, anyway.

  With the teams and drones away, and ships in position, I gave the captains a standby warning, moved myself to my chair on the bridge, where only Jane, Aline, and Grace waited, and opened a rift large enough to take the whole fleet in cross-section. As soon as it was open, I pulled it across the fleet as fast as I could.

  And damn me if it worked as expected. My ships all fired as soon as they had targets, and by the time the Keerah had woken up to us being there, two thirds of their ships were gone. We took fire from the remainder as we picked them off, but once again, no ship was really threatened with shield loss.

  When the shooting stopped, Jane had salvage droids deploy, while the ships formed up. I made a rift out of the ball of debris we were now in the center of, and one by one, each ship followed BigMother through and into clear space.

  I looked at Aline.

  "Ralnor or Trixone next?" she asked.

  Forty Five

  A message arrived from the Ralnor before I could answer her.

  The vid showed the same general I’d talked to. It'd come through the Crossroad jump point via the comnavsat on his side, but the routing showed it had been sent through in expectation of being picked up on the Crossroad side, meaning they still didn’t know they were being observed on their side.

  "Admiral Hunter. Congratulations on dealing with the Keerah. I know one of their stations is yet to be taken, but we're assuming this is a foregone conclusion. Since you will now be deciding if you hit us or the Trixone next, I'm taking the opportunity to tell you to hit the Trixone."

  He paused, smiled a bit as if he was allowing me to wonder how he knew I was deciding exactly that, and then returned to being serious.

  "Here's my offer. We will withdraw from this system as per your request, as soon as it becomes obvious to us there is no longer any direct contact possible with either the Keerah or the Trixone. With you providing a buffer zone under your control, and no ships of either species being allowed into the system you now call Crossroad, we have no further use for this system, and are happy to surrender it to you to complete the buffer zone between the species."

  He looked directly into whatever they used for a cam.

  "We are well aware we have provided you with a reason to hate us through our aggression into your space. But I've taken to heart your assertion you want peace and trade, and are willing to overlook recent hostilities. I've convinced the local governor to allow this system to be surrendered as a show of good faith, but only when the Keerah and Trixone no long have any way of entering this end of our space."

  He shifted uncomfortably.

  "We will allow trade to resume, and in due course assuming nothing untoward happens, we will consider opening a diplomatic dialogue with you. To this end, we will be leaving the station in this system where it is, for you to assume control of it. There will be a civilian operations staff left behind, most of whom are Ralnor, and our first test for you will be how well our people can work together. You are of course at liberty to send our people away."

  He smiled again, indicating this would be a failed test in his eyes.

  "We will of course maintain a fleet in the next system, but we will allow a civilian ship of yours to come through the jump point slowly, and drop a communication device at the jump point on our side, so future communications can occur easily. In due course, we'll be building a station to support our fleet, replacing the one we are leaving behind. My hope is one day we will have an open border, but my superiors and government will undoubtedly take a long time to reach the same view. Hence what happens in the next few days and weeks is crucial to long term relations."

  "I look forward to the Trixone being dealt with as efficiently as the Keerah have been, and to future diplomatic relations with your people."

  He gave me a Ralnor salute, and the vid ended. I opened a reply vid.

  "General. Your offer is acceptable. Be advised your station will be moved close to your jump point, so traders will not need to travel far into the buffer zone. We will fortify the jump point on our side, and notify you when trading can recommence. As long as civilian ships come through the jump point one at a time, there should be no problems. Ships entering together or in groups at the same time may be mistaken for hostile forces and fired on. Any military incursio
n will be detained pending diplomatic relations, and I should inform you we do have one of your ship crews in custody already. We will send a single civilian courier ship through to place a communications device, and thank you for the courtesy."

  I paused, considering something he'd said.

  "I can offer you two options as far as a fleet support station goes. We can have a replacement station built in several weeks, after which we can return your station to you. Or I can offer to move one of your existing stations for you, say up to ten jumps away, using automated tugs controlled from the courier we'll use to drop the communications device. The courier will have a single person aboard. The movement of the station will be completely safe, take less than an hour, and be positioned wherever you wish. The courier and tugs will then return to our side of the jump point."

  "My congratulations on the efficiency of your intelligence service, and I look forward to seeing your forces begin to move when they inform you the Trixone have been neutralized where our space joins. Hunter out."

  I sent it off.

  "Do you think they'll take you up on the offer to move a station?" asked Aline.

  "Possibly. They won't believe it's possible, but seeing it done would give them a better idea of our capabilities, and also demonstrate moving freight long distances in a short time would be possible."

  "Is that a good idea?"

  "Sooner or later, we'd have to rift deep into their space to reach a governor, or even Ralnor itself. If we can convince them it's possible, it might speed diplomacy in order to stop us sending warships instead. I think that’s worth giving away that particular ability we have over them."

  "What if the Keerah find out?"

  "Hopefully it will have the same result. If not, we may have to visit Keerah."

  "I was looking forward to it."

  My mouth fell open. She laughed.

  Forty Six

  The Trixone had two fleets lined up at the jump point.

  Either they hadn't received any notification we were coming, or the local admiral hadn't believed it. Jane had finally located their station, orbiting a very marginally habitable planet. In the process she found a third fleet on its way to the jump point, presumably to go through. But we had plenty of time to worry about it.

  The planet was in an ice age affecting the whole surface. There was no indication of if this was a phase like Earth had once had, or if it'd been triggered by the Trixone. At least without someone going down there and investigating. There were no signs of radioactivity, so presumably the planet hadn't been nuked into an ice age. Jane found almost no signs of life anywhere, no Trixone at all down there, and no indication as to why the station was in orbit.

  Being cloaked, she successfully docked with the station, and 'walked' a combat droid wearing a plant shape onto it. Knowing what to look for from the ship's we'd taken, she found and managed to infiltrate the station computer system. Which gave her no more information about why the station was there either. It appeared to be nothing more than a waystation for Trixone ships on their way to the war.

  What it did provide however was a question. Was it worth using as a trading station, or not. The corridors were all covered in dirt, the same as their ships. But foot and paw prints in some places did indicate other beings than the plants had been on it at some stage.

  What made it a null question was when Jane saw the cargo handling facilities. Nothing about them was compatible with our own. I tasked her into finding out if that area of Trixone space actually had any traders of other species still wanting to trade with the Keerah or Ralnor, and possibly us. Her answer was yes, and I tasked Bob to making a new trading station, one which could dock Trixone in a dedicated area, and everyone else separately.

  Jane sent him details of how the plants moved cargo, as some sort of transfer facility would be needed, even if it came down to cargo droids repacking into standard containers. I frankly didn’t want to know. I suggested maybe the station needed to make its own containers, and sell them to traders who wanted to do business with us.

  With the fleet and Lacey's fighters out searching the system for Keerah ships not docked to the station still to be taken, I took BigMother back to the previous station, waited for the marines to complete their tasks and be replaced by security droids, and make their way into BigMother's cargo bay.

  I then rifted us to just off the other station, and Syrinx opened new rifts for boarding.

  Over the course of the rest of the day, everything was repeated in both systems, so by the time we were back in Redoubt, the systems were proved to be clear of ships not docked to the stations, the stations were moved to the other side of the system, battlestations moved there as well, and security forces and fighters were stationed at each station, which were linked into the network.

  Once down jump lanes were cleared for the first two systems we'd taken, freighters in both systems in Thorn's space were allowed to jump through and continue their normal freight runs back into Keerah space. They were warned they would not be able to return to human space, and should dock at the new stations when they returned, and use the freight transit system to get their goods the rest of the way. The idea was in letting them go, they would spread the word trade was possible again.

  In the system off Crossroad, the few civilian ships were also allowed to go, with the same warnings, since Crossroad was going to be off-limits except for my own ships, and those like Arthur who had permission.

  The wait for everything to complete during the day was lightened by two minor events which had nothing at all to do with the day's activities.

  Jane interrupted me thinking about what to do with the Trixone station, which did have a crew and several docked military courier ships, and the scout we'd seen in Crossroads a few times.

  "You'll want to see this," she said, popping up a screen.

  The ship looked like General Custer, and from the hanger dropped a Python class dropship. The view changed to what the pilot saw. After going through the atmosphere, it was soon apparent there was a city underneath, and as the altitude dropped, I recognized it as Melbourne. Or Melbourne as it was before the time line shift, as now, as far as I knew, there was no Melbourne. If there was, it was somewhere else.

  "The same drop I did first up?"

  It was a hostage situation on a very tall skyscraper, and the pilot's job had been to put the dropship down on the roof. Only the pilot back then, me, hadn't had more than a few hours training in how to do it.

  "The same. Watch."

  It quickly became apparent the pilot this time had no training whatsoever.

  "Pull up," I yelled, causing Jane to start laughing at my hands reaching for controls which weren't there.

  The dropship didn’t pull up. As far as I could tell, it made no attempt to slow down at all, just changed attitude at the last moment for landing on the roof.

  The dropship went straight through the roof, and began cutting the building apart from within, its shields still up.

  Fifty stories down, the shields finally failed, and the dropship began to break up, its remains coming to rest a further twenty floors down. For a few long moments, the building appeared from the outside as if nothing had happened, with just a hole in the roof, and some dust blowing out of it.

  Then, almost in slow motion, the entire building collapsed into itself, finally becoming a giant pile of rubble. I looked at Jane and she nodded. It had been a real pile of rubble, and the building coming down had happened. Not because of a ship, but a pirate trying to kill me with a bomb, resulting in the building being destroyed. Jane had joined two different events.

  The screen image froze, and text appeared.

  Hostages dead.

  Team dead.

  Pilot dead.

  Mission failed.

  Would you like to try again, Dreamwalker?

  Jane was still laughing, and now I knew who the pilot was, I started to as well. Reality would have been the pilot and team would have lived, given they would h
ave been wearing our belt suits. But obviously this technology wasn’t being used in the mission scenario.

  The image reset, and the dropship started down a second time. And a third. And a fourth. The fifth time Dreamwalker managed to land on the roof, the team deployed, and the dropship was destroyed by a missile fired by a local air fighter.

  By the tenth time, Dreamwalker successfully evacuated the hostages, and completed the mission. I checked his combat scores, and he was still the best of those thinking it was a game. He'd now gone head to head with Lacey, Greer, and Miriam, and had performed reasonably well considering he'd had no formal training on the medium fighters being used. Miriam had totally kicked his arse, but then, she'd been a squadron leader in that exact fighter. I expected Greer to do the same when he went up to heavy fighters, and Lacey to do it when he went up to privateers.

  "Should we be thinking about recruiting this Dreamwalker?" I asked Jane.

  "It's being considered. He's already better as a fighter pilot than the last lot of rookies from Thorn's space. And without any training at all, he's looking good as a dropship pilot. We need new dropship pilots more than we need rookie fighter pilots."

  "Do we?""

  "Do we what?"

  "Need dropships at all now?"

  She actually thought about it.

  "Yes. While we can put troops almost anywhere with rifts now, there is still the advantage of having a mobile base on hand, especially for ground actions. We'd also need the dropships for ship boarding, since in most cases we'll have no idea of internal layouts to allow a rift. You can look inside a ship, sure, but it might take too long, and might be too restricted a space to get troops deployed fast enough, or you might be doing something else. And as yet, we still only have two of you capable of doing rifts."