“The scans show your brain is working quite well, actually very well. I believe you have been overloading it a little though. You need to turn the learning tools off for at least 8 hours per day. This will give your mind time to assimilate the data that is going in.” she reported.
I asked, “Is there some sort of timer for me to set so this happens automatically?”
She nodded before saying, “I should have explained all this to you more fully when I first activated your implant. I didn’t because here in the Federation, we already know what implants can do. It quite simply never occurred to me you wouldn’t know about these things. We, that is Federation citizens in general, already know the sorts of impacts implants can have on us. We just don’t think about them much because they are so pervasive in our society.”
She began to patiently step me through the process to set up the timer, showing me how to bypass it and a host of other information that would help me to use the implant both more efficiently as well as more effectively. Under her instruction, I was able to save what she was telling me so I would be able to recall it easily on other occasions when I needed to. We decided I could set the timer to operate during my sleep cycle so my sleep would be more restful and effective.
RUNNING GAME
After I was finished in Medical, I went back down to the squad bay to do a little more exercise and practice with the weapons. By now my stamina had improved to a point well beyond where it was before my accident so I stayed there, working till well into the afternoon before I returned to my quarters so I could go and clean up before going to mess for food. I’d barely finished eating, and had started to chat to some of the crew and a few refugees who were in the mess when I received another message to report to the Captain. I excused myself before heading straight up to his office.
When I arrived there, I found Olin waiting outside for me. He nodded to me telling me not to worry, I wasn’t in trouble this time, then he pressed the call button next to the door to announce our arrival. The door opened immediately for us to enter. Even with Olin’s reassurance, I still thought to myself, something has the Captain rattled, I found myself hoping it wasn’t anything I’d done. He didn’t speak straight away as we entered but he waved us to some seats watching as we moved to them and sat facing him.
As soon as I was in the seat, I turned to the him and said, “I hope I haven’t done anything more to cause you concern sir? I didn’t mean to yesterday, but I still did without realising it. I went to medical this morning and Eri thinks she found a reason for my memory lapse.”
Carlon just shook his head and replied, “No, you haven’t done anything more to cause me concern. Eri has already reported the reasons for your memory lapses to me. This meeting isn’t about yesterday’s events, although I should apologise to you for suspecting you the way I did. It’s just your performance on the planet took us all completely by surprise.”
“Not least of all me Sir,” I replied, “I had no idea I was capable of the things I did down there. I think seeing the bodies of the children tipped me over the edge, then when the pirates started shooting, I just reacted violently.”
Looking back on it, I suspect the Captain was feeling me out, observing my behaviour while this meeting continued. I think he was observing my reaction to his news.
Captain Carlon simply nodded before saying, “The reason I have asked you here is to talk to you about options. Be aware, for now at least, anything said between the three of us during this meeting should stay that way. Colin, can you promise me this.”
I immediately promised not to divulge our conversation with anyone, at least, not without his permission. The Captain nodded before continuing, “Two unidentified ships began shadowing us soon after we boosted out of Zafar’s gravity well. They’ve stayed right at the edge of our sensor range so we are not certain what their intentions are though we suspect those intentions are not good, at least not good for us. Colin, Olin told me about the conversation the two of you had this morning a short while ago. The reason why I asked you here to this meeting is I think you are both right, something is going on. I also think whatever that something is, it will not be good for us if we don’t start considering options and planning how to address this threat quickly. At least it will be good for us if whoever is behind all this is successful.”
I thought for a moment about what the Captain said before I asked, “Sir, may I look at the charts with the unidentified ships on them in relation to us and the jump points please?” I continued, “I would like to try to gain a picture of the spatial relationships in my mind.”
He agreed to my request, then rose to lead us to the navigation compartment. This compartment held a system that could project a three-dimensional chart of any area of interest within the Federation or any part of space the Federation or its ships had been able to explore. All the deep space explorer ships like Destiny could not only project stored charts but also add to, or modify existing charts as well as compile new ones as they explored new regions of space.
Much later I discovered many of the Federation’s warships had these same capabilities. This was because the deep space explorers, and the Federation military in general, were the ones exploring past the Federation’s normal borders. Carlon issued some orders to the navigation rating who was manning the console. A holographic projection of the area soon came into being in the centre of the compartment. Actually, that is misleading, in fact, the projection actually filled the compartment. I was able to walk around it, and through it, looking at it from any angle I wanted, occasionally asking questions. Finally, after I examined the star map thoroughly, I nodded to the Captain and we all returned to his office.
“At the risk of stating the obvious,” I said, “it seems to me those people, whoever they are, seem to be herding us into a trap. Have you changed course at all as a result of their presence?”
The Captain paled then replied, “Yes we had to in order to avoid one of their ships. At this point, we don’t have the ability to safely change course again before we jump. One of those ships is still blocking the route we would need to take so we could reach our preferred jump point.”
“And where will this jump take us?” I asked.
“It will drop us into a gravity well” He replied, “ You can’t jump from that system directly back to this one. Once there we will be unable to jump for at least two days because that’s how long it will take us to reach one of the two available exit jump points available in that system. Clearly, we won’t be able to turn around to return to this system, even if we could jump back here, we would still have those two ships waiting for us.”
I asked, “What are the chances of an FSP Navy presence in the system we’re going to?”
“Little to none,” the Captain replied, “that system is not in FSP space so our Navy would have no reason to go there, not unless they were pursuing a pirate who happened to run to there and even then they would most likely break off the pursuit before they went that far.”
I looked at Olin. He just nodded so I turned to the Captain, “Sir” I said, “I think we need to take steps immediately to protect the ship. We need to begin planning a response to a possible boarding action. We also need to arm any crew-members who are qualified to carry a weapon and should probably even consider training some of the others. I think the more people we have to defend this ship, the better. We also need to step up the prisoner interrogations. I don’t think we will get much out of them but we need to know everything they do. Honestly, I think they were just cannon fodder but you never know, we could get lucky, one of them may have overheard something, or even been told something. I also think you should consider starting to distribute weapons to the qualified crew as soon as the first threat is issued or shot fired.”
Carlon gave me an appraising look but agreed with my assessment. He ordered Olin and I to go plan the on board defence. He also made a request for me to report any other thoughts or suggestions I might have directly to him as soon as I c
ould. At that point, it was clear to all of us the meeting was over because there was nothing to be gained by continuing it then, so the Captain dismissed us. Both Olin and I immediately rose to leave the Captain’s office our minds whirling in thought. As we headed back towards the squad bay, I started wondering. Why would the pirates take such elaborate steps over a deep space explorer? Why would they go to so much trouble to herd us to a specific jump point?
Suddenly a thought occurred to me so I asked, “Olin, do pirates ever try to ransom hostages, and if they do, is there anyone on board this ship who might be worth something to them?”
He thought for a minute before replying, “They don’t usually try to make ransom demands simply because the FSP normally won’t negotiate. Also, there is nobody on-board who would be worth a ransom. Some of the crew may have value as slaves though.”
“Then” I replied, “they must be after this ship. If they can capture some of us alive they will simply take us to sell as slaves to add a little extra cream.”
Olin’s eyes grew wider as he took in what I said. He didn’t comment, just nodded his head so I could see he agreed with my assessment.
I continued, “To my mind, this means they will probably try to take the ship with minimal damage. They may try to damage the drives to slow us down with the intention of repairing or replacing them afterwards but I don’t think they will want to blow us into space dust. After all, what would be the point of that, they would be risking a lot for little or no gain.”
Olin grunted before replying, “We really don’t want to be captured by these people. They can be incredibly brutal. Their captives, the ones they don’t kill out of hand just for the fun of it, don’t usually live more than a few years after capture unless they are lucky enough to be sold off in one of the slave markets. Even then it’s a lottery, some slave owners treat their slaves incredibly brutally while others see them as a valuable investment and look after them.”
I nodded as I thought to myself, I will find a way to destroy this ship and everyone aboard before I surrender to slavery. Of course, I didn’t express that thought to Olin, these people were suspicious enough of me as it was at the moment. The last thing I needed was to give them yet another thing to worry about where I was concerned. Besides, my preferred option was to help the Captain reach home with both his ship and his crew still intact.
By then, we’d arrived in the squad bay where Olin called all the available Troopers together for a briefing. Two were wounded on Zafar the day before and were still in the medical bay. Those two were expected to stay there for at least another couple of days. Still, all the rest were available for the briefing. Olin told the Troopers what was happening before setting them various tasks to help preparations to defend the ship in case she were boarded. The Troopers always kept their equipment in good repair so much of the preparation was about thinking and planning. I heard the Troopers already identifying a number of choke points and alternate routes they thought they would be able to use to attack any hostile boarders from the rear. I suggested we look for places where we may be able to hide ammunition and power packs around the ship so we would not be limited to what we could carry if we are cut off from the armoury. I saw both Olin and his Troopers nodding in agreement to this suggestion. We also considered locations where we thought we could set booby traps as well as what form such traps might take. We knew these would most likely work only once, or at best a few times before an enemy began to be more cautious but hoped they might slow any invaders down, for a while at least. If we were lucky, we might even be able to entice any boarders to bunch up into a group small enough and in the right location so we could cause them some serious casualties. In all honesty though, none of us knew how to cause that much damage to hostile boarders without also damaging the ship.
We considered our biggest advantage was the fact we knew every crook and cranny on FNS Destiny intimately. We could lock out or disconnect any or all of the control ports at will, we, or at least the crew, knew all the routes from any given location to any other, and we felt we had more than enough time to make preparations to repel any likely boarders. This meant we should be able to direct any invading force down specific pathways where we could limit there access and cause them maximum possible damage. Of course, our primary focus was to protect the bridge and engineering, especially engineering because if they captured engineering and we could not quickly push them back out, the ship was already lost because from their they had control of all the ship’s systems. The Troopers also knew where all the entrances and exits for the maintenance tunnels were located. This would help them flank an enemy or even hit them from the rear. I just hoped my fears about us being boarded would prove to be unfounded but somehow I didn’t think this would be the case.
Finally, I voiced my opinion that if we were boarded, the ship would end up a mess. She was going to require extensive refit afterwards even if we could fly her to safety. I mused that if we are going to take damage anyway, then we should only worry about protecting essential systems. Life support, navigation, the engineering spaces, food supplies and such. Once more, we considered the options for decentralising the storage of essential materials as much as possible. The last thing we could afford was to have them capture all our stores and starve us out, or take control of environmental or some other essential system.
As FNS Destiny continued her approach to the jump point, our planning sessions continued at a frenetic pace. Olin began to send his Troopers off, one team at a time to sleep and eat so they would be as ready as possible for trouble if it came. We came to the conclusion that if we couldn’t evict the invaders and escape within 36 hours then we would most likely be in serious trouble. I asked Olin what we could do to protect the civilians who we had on board. Could we hide them somewhere? He replied to me this was another thing we needed to take into account. Of course, we were feeling a little like trapped animals, but in the end that feeling would only make us so much more dangerous to our enemy.
In the meantime, I managed to convince the Captain to authorise full access for me so in the small amount of downtime I had, I could begin exploring the ship and familiarising myself with her layout. If I was going to help defend the ship, I needed to be able to find my way around her. As I worked my way around the ship, I found access hatchways to places I’d previously never known existed. I began talking to engineering about areas that were relatively damage tolerant and what might cause terminal issues if they were damaged. I started to formulate even more ideas to protect and defend the ship, passing them on to Olin and the Captain whenever I had them. All the while, we continued our run towards the jump point, trying to avoid a confrontation with our pursuers. In all honesty, The Captain, Olin and I all felt FNS Destiny was ill equipped to handle the two ships pursuing us, at least it was then and not without finding some way to even the odds.
Of course, I was fully aware that whatever strategies and tactics we were able to come up with, no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy, he after all, will have his own plans and ideas, he gets a vote. As time passed, we continued our preparations until finally, our sensor operators noticed the two ships that were shadowing us seemed to be speeding up with obvious intentions to close in. By this stage I found myself making regular trips to the navigation room to look at the relative positions of the jump point, our ship and our shadows. While it was clear they could not catch us before we jumped, something was tugging at the corners of my mind, something I just couldn’t quite pin down. By the end of the day, I knew we could almost certainly outrun them but I still knew I was missing something, something I felt should be obvious. It was during one of my visits to the navigation room while I was looking at the current placement of FNS Destiny and her pursuers, wondering what they were up to when suddenly, I had a startling thought.
I turned to the navigation rating, “Could you bring our destination system up here please.”
The rating made the changes I asked for and I realised we might be in
serious trouble. We would need to down jump into the system, then reorient to head for one of the other two jump points. These two were relatively close together and to me it seemed it would be quite easy for one or two ships to block both of those jump points. In addition to that, only one of those two jump points was really of any use to us. The useful one led into Federation space while the other, led deep into a sector that was a well-known hot spot for pirate activity. I thought, we could have anything from three ships or more including our pursuers to dodge or fight off. It was clear to me we needed to find a way to reduce the odds against us somehow.
I decided it was time for me to share my thinking with Captain Carlon so I made my way up to the bridge to see if I could find him. He wasn’t on the bridge but they told me he was in his quarters so I went down there to see if he had time to see me. When I pressed the call button on his door, he invited me to enter. He’d just been resting but thankfully was preparing to return to duty when I knocked on his door.
He looked at me before asking, “What can I do for you Colin?”
“Well,” I said, “I think I may have worked out the pirate plan to capture us, at a superficial level anyway.”
He gave be an appraising look. “Tell me”, he replied.
So I laid out my thinking to him. I told him what I’d noticed about our target system, how our shadows seemed to be closing the gap, I related my theories of pirate ships waiting to block us in. I told him how we may have to deal with at least three pirate ships, possibly more. I explained my observations about the geometry of the destination system and how and why there was really only one viable jump point for us to head towards.
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 9
