by T S Paul
“These people are fleeing that disaster. Most of them are pretty incoherent so we still have zero idea of the real status of that ship and those still on it. Your job is to find out what in the HELL is going on! Either get control of that ship or get the loyal crew off. You have about six hours before it impacts on the moon.” She looked Yannos in the eye. “I see a question in those eyes of yours. I have sent my best interrogation specialists to go and have a little chat with the former Governor and his aide, my husband. We should have some answers soon about his ‘need’ for a Navy destroyer. Now, get moving soldier!”
___
I was working on the upper level lift system when the station had gone to red alert and lock down. Wilson my ever present AI had informed me of the situation. I had him working with the computer tech ‘twins’ trying to rebuild the lift electronics. During the troubles last month this system has been fried during the assault. Even though it had been repaired it still kept stopping between floors, not going to the correct floor, or in one case the doors opened but no lift was present. So I, as ‘Chief Engineer’, decided use an old Engineering adage. “When in doubt, rip it out!” Full replacement for the system. I could hear Wilson talking to the two computer techs through one of their tablets. Even though the little maniac contests my accusations, I think that he may be behind the wild ride they both took. Talking to them will be penance for him.
My link dinged so I stopped trying to fit the lift motors into place. It was hard work. OK I will admit that I am supervising, but just watching is hard work. I told the maintenance techs to take five. “Sergeant Yannos, what can I do for you today?”
“Lieutenant Lee, are you available to help my team and I with a mission?”
“I would need to check with Major Lee since she controls the station now, but I think can do that, What is going on?”
The good sergeant explained the situation, telling me of the out of control ship. “Let me check something.” I put the conversation with him on hold. “Wilson I need you.”
“What’s up Athena? Those two girls are really funny. I like, should have talked to them more when we went on, Oops. Uh, I meant to say that I just met them and like how funny they are.”
“When we get back we will have a conversation about wild rides and other strange happenings on this station, OK? For now I need you to focus. Dig up everything you have on the EOM Paney. Class, schematics, crew, orders, whatever it is I want it.”
“OK, Athena you got it.”
I reconnected with Yannos and his conversation. “I have someone checking into information on that ship. What I do know is that it’s an old one. From the design it looks pre-war. Without knowing the modifications that have been made to it I can’t be sure I can get control. But I would be willing to try. Do we have a way in or do I need to find us a hatch we can open. That number I gave you last time should work on that ship too.”
Yannos chuckled, “we still need to have a talk about that number. I had forgotten. The security concerns alone boggle my mind. Does the Navy fleet commanders even know about the all the backdoors into their ships and stations? Don’t answer that yet. We can talk about it later. Your sister the Major, has given approval if you wish to come along. We could really use your help.”
“OK sergeant let me go get my things, where can I meet you?”
“We are in hanger bay one. See you in thirty.”
___
Back on the Paney, Lieutenant Mutai was helpless. Between he and his Marines they could perform basic command functions on the bridge. That had been part of their training. Of course that training was on a functional ship. Not one with burnt out bridge controls. The fire alarms had gone off a short while ago, all the air tight doors had slammed down. It was either a hull breach or something more serious like a ship fire. None of them had their ship suits anymore so either would be very bad. The readouts on the bridge had stopped working so he and his team were trapped. All they knew was what they could see out the view ports, which was not much. His hope was that Captain Pigot had been successful and had retaken the rest of the ship.
Captain Pigot was at a loss to understand what had happened to his ship. The attack on the pirates had been going so well. The CIC had been recaptured and a new temporary defensive wall had been built. The increase in gunfire has shown that the diversion worked. More pirates had been pulled away to help fight his men. Hopefully the Marine attack went well. The smoke and fire alarms had gone off after an explosion toward the bow. His men had reported white smoke boiling down the corridor just before the air tight doors had slammed down sealing the ship. CIC was a mess. The pirates had ripped out systems to deny control of the ship to the crew. Commander Kościuszko’s techs were unable to repair it. Monitors set up in Engineering could tell that the ship was no longer jumping, but not its location or what had caused the fire. It was all very maddening for the captain. He missed his readouts and computer controls, without them he felt lost.
___
Admiral Emily Kane, the new fleet commander, was hard at work in her office. Pirate attacks were on the rise all across the Empire. The recent destruction of the O’Malley clan and its leaders had helped to stem the tide but it was like a raging forest fire. Put out one spot and another pops up behind you. It almost seemed organized. She made a personal note to put the Intelligence service on that thought. Maybe an outside force was influencing things.
As she studied her monitors, making notations here and there, her screens went red and an unusual symbol began flashing on the screen. She sat up straight and quickly typed in a very long access code. She was receiving a report on a little used, mostly unknown communication system. This system was supposed to only be used in cases of dire emergency or potential invasion.
Reading the message here eyes widened. She pulled up all communications and orders that had been sent to the EOM ship Paney in the Hong Kong system. There was nothing in official Navy communications that ordered the replacement of half a ship’s complement of crew! What was going on in that sector? She pressed a control on her console. “Margaret? Get me Commander Nelson in Intelligence as soon as possible. Tell him I want everything he has about the Hong Kong system and Sector Governor Norton. I want him in my office no later than an hour from now.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Right away.” Her aide was very efficient.
If what this message from Captain Pigot says is true, they may have a fully armed Navy destroyer in the hands of pirates. She needed to respond to this threat.
Commander Barry Nelson was in her office in thirty minutes. Smart man. “Admiral, I got here as fast as I could.” Holding up a tablet he stated, “this is everything that we have on Governor Norton and the Hong Kong system. We actually have been tracking him for some time. The recent corruption accusations against many of the sector governors have allowed us to investigate them. He is living beyond his means. Corporate sponsors have been using him to gain control of the local government and its people. The primary planet in the system is an important agrarian world. They supply about 10% of the food we use to make ship rations. The Norton has raised taxes and has been building casino’s and red light districts on the planet. We in intelligence, think that his goal is to bring in the corporate mechanized farming guilds and push out the locals. He is raking in a lot of credits fleecing money from visiting navy ships in his casinos and strip clubs.”
Admiral Kane showed the Commander the message she had received. “What do you make of this? If the orders came from the Governor, why does he need one of our ships? As a Sector Governor he can just order them to do something, that is his right.”
“Admiral he may be working with the pirates in that sector. We have reports” he stopped and searched his tablet. “We have reports of several pirate clans working openly in that area. What if he is keeping us off of them for some secret agenda? I am just speculating here.”
“Put more people on it Commander. Start looking deeper at those other Governors with similar accusations. I think
we need to send a fleet response to this threat. That will be all, for now. Dismissed.”
The Admiral considered her options for a few minutes. “Margaret? Can you get Admiral Darlan on the phone for me?”
Within moments Margaret had him on the ‘phone’ for her. “François I need for you to send a task force to the Hong Kong system. Pirates may have taken over one of our ships. We need to figure out what is going on and stop it.” She nodded her head as he argued not sending a fleet and just sending one ship. “No, NO. Damn it, Follow my God Dammed orders! You will send Task Force 25 to that system or I will bust you so far that you will be the oldest damn ensign in the whole frigging fleet! Do you understand me, Admiral! Fine, good, tell Commodore Vakulinchuk that he is to investigate the pirate threat and to stop it if possible. Any other issues he it to refer to higher upon. We do not need another incident with a sector government. We have already had two more than we should have had in recent months.”
Damn that man! He is another one that intelligence needs to take a hard look at. Too many officers in the navy these days act like orders given are only a suggestion. Maybe a few executions are in order. Oh well I can only dream.
___
Commodore Vakulinchuk was the commander of Task Force 25. This group of ships was his baby. He had conceived of a anti-piracy fleet that would jump into a system wipe out the pirate ‘nests’ and then jump out. The local forces would take care of clean up. His goal was to take the fight to the pirates, not the other way around. He had a personal grudge to settle, pirates had killed or enslaved his whole family on Tendra 2 in the Rus system. Unfortunately, in his rush to put the fleet together and find targets, he made a few political enemies. Because of that, his recent assignments for the fleet had been very quiet systems, not a pirate in sight.
His new orders took him completely by surprise. He carefully read his new orders noting the fine print about contacting higher authority. He had heard rumors about corruption charges and other crimes surrounding some members of the government. He was from Rus, that sort of thing was not that unusual there. He alerted his aides to sound a recall of all crew members from liberty. He should be able to get there in a week or so.
Chapter 8
I held my briefing during the shuttle ride out to the destroyer. I looked at Sergeant Yannos and his two squads. The ten of us were about to enter the unknown. Should be fun!
“OK boys and girls here is what I know about the EOM Paney.” I typed a quick message to Wilson on my tablet and a holographic representation was beamed out of it.
“It is a pre-war Fubuki class destroyer. It was originally configured as a pirate fighting ship. Things you might need to know. It is bigger than most destroyers by about 30%. Most of that is in length and girth. It has more armor too. According to the fleet records that I was able to access, it has double the armor and more compartments than newer vessels. This is one tough ship. From talking to the fighter squadron shadowing it, I learned that the ‘pirates’ left the hangar bay open. We should be able to get in from there. If not we could use the fusion vent tubes, again.” I heard audible groans after I said that. “So hangar bay it is. The special code that I gave Yannos should work on most doors. If I can get to the computer system and access it, I have a few other tricks I can use.”
I looked at the time counter. “We have just under four hours before this ship makes contact with the moon and is destroyed. Don’t get bogged down. Any questions?”
Corporal Anton raised his hand. “Yes, corporal. Do you have a question?”
“Yes, Ma’am. This feature here,” he pointed to the hologram. “Does that tunnel go the length of the ship?”
“It does. It is similar to our engineering tubes back on the station. When this ship was built, shipboard engineers did most of the repairs, not shipyards.”
“My question is, can we use it to access the ship?”
“Of course you can, I thought I said that. If you do, be very careful. Most of the ship’s electrical conduits run through there as well as the navigation and communication lines.” I left the hologram up, so they could map out routes and look at the ship.
“One more thing. I got this information from fleet engineering records. Not every ship’s engineer reports every modification that they do. There may be differences when we get inside the ship. Be very aware of that.”
“Excellent briefing Lieutenant Lee. More information that we were expecting. Where did you get so much of that information?
“Sergeant, it is in most Empire databases. I am not a computer expert. You would need to ask one of the station techs, try either DI or DJ. But, why I know is because every network on the major ships and stations are linked. When they update everyone gets the same information. You do need special access keys to see some of it, but the information is there.”
“That surprises me, because any time that we had asked for information about a target we were always told that it was unavailable or hard to obtain.”
“I’m sorry Yannos. Most likely your briefer was unaware of the system or just too lazy to go and look it up.”
“Attention back there we are five minutes out, five minutes people!”
In a loud voice Yannos got his group’s attention. “OK everyone. Suit up! Let’s get ready.”
___
Lieutenant Mutai had a new hope about his predicament. He and his squad of Marines, were still trapped on the bridge. None of the controls were functional except for life support and they did not dare tamper with that! Private Ascot had seen movement outside the ship. Kinno had ordered the men to scrape off some of the smoke and fire residue that coated the bridge windows. A squadron of Fuglies and one strangely, evil looking ship was now escorting the destroyer. Unable to see very clearly, the Marines concluded that they must be a pirate group come to finish them off.
If there were more pirates his men would fight them to their last breaths. Better to go down fighting than work yourself to death in the radiation mines.
___
Seth and the five idiot cowboys were still alive. When the fire alert had started the tube they were in lit up like a casino sign. Bright, flashing lights everywhere. Recognizing them Seth forced the first hatch they came to open and pulled the cowboys in after him.
“Seal that hatch you flaming idiot. This is not the time to go lallygagging around getting your breeches all knotted up, shit fire.” Seth stopped talking and covered his mouth with his hands. What is association with these hicks doing to him?
Looking around he realized that they were in one of the quartermaster storerooms. Prying open a crate he hoped that maybe they stored alcohol here and he could get rip-roaring drunk. Fate is cruel. Paper products and and cleaning supplies. Seth checked the air tight door to the corridor. It was warm to the touch and sealed up tighter than a minister’s daughter on Sunday.
He had to get away from these five cowboys. He just had to.
Turning around he saw that they had placed boxes in a circle and were telling stories to each other. They were passing around a bag of chewing tobacco. Sighing, Seth sat down next to Flint as he told his story. When the bag came around he just stared at it for a while. Finally he took a chunk and started chewing.
___
Surprisingly, no one contested our landing inside the hangar bay of the Paney. We knew that it was not a dead ship because Commander Conrad swore, that someone was on the bridge. We parked our assault shuttle for best possible exit with the bow facing outward. Depending on what we found inside, we might have to leave in a hurry. The two shuttle pilots were not part of out group and stayed behind. They had been assigned personal weapons and space suits, but we told them to stay safe inside their ships. If we did not return within one hour from the destroyer’s impact on the moon. They were not to come look for us. They had orders to save the ships and their lives first.
We decided to leave the hangar bay doors open. They were shuttles not tanks. If we had to leave in a hurry, we might not have time to open t
he doors. Crashing through the doors would destroy the shuttles and us.
The airlock controls were covered in what looked like dried blood. There was a story here. I said a prayer to Jenny and punched in the override numbers. The airlock door hissed open. Sergeant Yannos and his team entered first with me last. I punched in numbers again and the door closed. There was a hissing and blowing noise as the air inside the airlock equalized. I was about to open the door when Yannos grabbed my hand.
“Hold on Lieutenant. Let me check the door first. The interrogations that intelligence did said something about white smoke or gas killing some of the pirates.” He pulled out a sensor package of some kind and affixed it to the door. Lights began to blink rapidly then settled into a pulsing pattern.
