A. Warren Merkey

by Far Freedom

  “Another stop, sir?”

  “There is always a complication,” her mother said. The celestial view abruptly changed, replaced with a ghostly silhouette of the irregular mass of an asteroid seen against a curtain of ionized gas. Jamie turned her head to take in the panorama and saw two protostars shining in front of a pillar of black dust. She suffered another flood of memory. Her mother noted her inner distraction. “Have you been there before?”

  Jamie nodded, painfully absorbing the shock. She and Direk had lived there, off and on, for decades. It was their base of operations for prospecting. The dust clouds were both a signpost and camouflage. She never questioned Direk’s choice of the place but now knew he had a reason. He always had reasons. He always knew things he wouldn’t tell her. It was his own method of kindness but one she hated from her current perspective.

  “We have three probes relaying data by tightbeam. Here’s another view.”

  The asteroid zoomed closer to fill half of the view, which shifted to center on an opening in the dark rock. The view jumped toward the opening and showed a spacecraft docked inside. In a moment the old ship pried Jamie’s memory of it from her distant past. She realized the implication of its existence. Direk, or at least a copy of him, would be there! She would be damned if she would react to this with any sign of emotional weakness. She was a Navy captain. Her mother touched her hand, which meant she could sense Jamie’s stress. She almost lost the battle, but some of her old Marine anger arrived to save the day.

  “There’s more,” her mother said. The view switched to a small rock orbiting the larger asteroid. Data superimposed itself on the image in bright yellow letters.

  “Anomalous composition for that neighborhood,” Jamie said. “I know the geology of this spot and both rocks are anomalous. Is it a ship?”

  “It’s a ship,” Horss said. “We’ve logged about twenty transmat feeds from it to the big rock. We think it’s hostile. Probably a privateer.”

  “As in pirate ship? When can you get us close enough to deploy Marines?”

  “We’re attempting to sneak up on them. We may be within transmat range in about six hours. What would you do?”

  “Scare them. Hope they run. We’re a Navy ship. We’re ten times their size.”

  “And totally unarmed. And if they don’t run?”

  “Board them with Marines before they can pull on their drive envelope.”

  “Relative velocity will preclude transmat probing for safe v-nodes.”

  “We’re so big they’ll see our bowshock no matter how close we start our attack vector,” Jamie said. “But they probably have personnel in the big rock searching for loot. They might sit still long enough for us to come alongside and board. Except, they can dance their heading notch and confuse our transmat probing. If this is a test for the captain’s job, I’m flunking it.”

  “They have a cannon. Remember the hope of an unarmed warrior?”

  “That his opponent will focus too much on using his weapon and ignore his other assets. You want them to shoot at us?”

  “We have a plan. I hope they don’t have a cannon big enough to hurt us too badly. How many Marines can you muster for combat?”

  “All of them. They’re a strange bunch. They like to fight, but they don’t have any killer instinct.”

  “Get them ready. Your mother and I will keep you updated on the target and figure out how to get you deployed. Dismissed.”

  Jamie departed the bridge. They listened to pieces of communications intercepted by the probes. They watched as Freddy refined the data that described the privateer ship. Zakiya took a seat next to Horss. “Any other ideas, Jon?”

  “We can try talking to them. There isn’t much in the Navy Ops manuals on negotiating with privateers. The Navy usually shoots first and doesn’t leave anybody to question later.”

  “If we talk first and fail, do you have any doubt we can overcome them?”

  “I don’t want to try, Boss.”

  “That surprises me. Why not?”

  “If this was any other Navy ship, and I had an admiral aboard, I would find a way to follow orders with minimal casualties, but casualties nonetheless.”

  “You would have armament we don’t have.”

  “Doesn’t matter. The principle is the same. It’s the ship and the admiral that are different. I’m damned sure you don’t want to kill anyone. Neither do I. About all we can do to guaranty their defeat is to ram them. Then send in the Marines. That might still kill a few. To keep the body count nearest zero, we have to take a chance.”

  “Given time, talking will be successful, but we don’t know how much time we have. We need to make them listen quickly. Your plan is good, Jon. I wish I knew how the Marines will perform.”

  ” Your daughter can take that ship single-handed, if we could put her in the right place. The Marines will do the job. None of those guys will dare to disappoint Jamie. I’ve talked with a few of them.”

  “I’m sorry I need you to make these decisions, Jon. I can no longer make life-and-death decisions. I will always choose life. I can’t even think about sending Jamie into a hostile ship.”

  “Iggy is still mining the passive shield with explosives. Should I tell him to stop?”

  “No, we keep to our schedule. This is a Malay privateer, judging from the comm traffic.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I think it means there are families living aboard the ship.”

  “Mothers and children?”

  “Yes.”

  “Now I remember why I sometimes hate being a captain. There are probably five hundred people on that ship. It’s bigger than it looks. I hope you have something very nice to say to them.”

  “In case I don’t see you again,” she said, standing up.

  “You’re going to talk to them yourself,” Horss said, standing up also.

  “In case I don’t see you again,” she repeated.

  “Cut the crap, Boss! This is nothing compared to what you’ve already survived.”

  “I just wanted to say - “

  “I told your daughter about Direk’s copy. Didn’t want her to go all stupid on us.” She opened her mouth, shut it. “Got you!” Horss said.

  “Don’t make me kiss you, Jon! I’ve already embarrassed Iggy that way.”

  “What is it like back there?” “I’m reminded of scenes from 20th-century war movies,” Jamie said, “where paratroopers are waiting to jump out the door of an airplane.”

  “I know you’ve seen action,” Zakiya said. “I know you’re nearly as old as I am. But my heart is in my throat as I think about placing my daughter in harm’s way. Being a mother is still new to me.”

  “Being a daughter is new again to me. Don’t worry. All of my guys have seen some action. They know what to do. They just don’t like it when it looks like murder. This isn’t murder, it’s survival. We’ll be as nice as we can and as bad as we need to be.”

  “I want you to come get this if I fail.” Zakiya showed Jamie the silver bag.

  “The cryptikon?”

  “It may impress the Malay, if I live long enough to get their attention.”

  “You can transmat with it?”

  “No. You need to hold a docking bay for me.”

  “That’s one of our targets. This is moving too fast!”

  “You did something to the cryptikon, Jamie.”

  “Me? Nobody can do anything to it. It’s a cryptikon.”

  “Nevertheless, it’s changed. The patterns are different.”

  “It could have been you.”

  ” Somebody is supposed to use it. If you changed it, you need to have it.”

  “Are you that calm before battle, that you can discuss such things?”

  “It’s important,” Zakiya said. “They have a use. Come get it, no matter what the cost. No, I’m not calm, just determined.”

  “It’s a hundred years old!” Iggy declared. “You should be able to detect it! Technology advances.�
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  “It was upgraded by you,” Horss said. “Next time, don’t be so good at what you do.”

  “I need to know where it is! I don’t want to involve it in the electrodynamics!”

  “Let’s assume she knows where to put the yacht! Start detuning the envelope! We’re within range!”

  “Maybe she can sing to them and none of this will be necessary.”

  “Field eddy opening toward us,” Freddy reported.

  “They’ve seen us,” Horss said. “Are you fully detuned, Admiral?”

  “Close enough. Rotating to maximize discharge.”

  ” Stand by. The admiral is talking to them.”

  “Twelve eddies in their far hemisphere,” Freddy said. “Multiple transmations inbound to the privateer.”

  “They anticipate boarding. Or they’re preparing to run.”

  “These are Malay,” Iggy said. “They don’t run. At least, not according to popular fiction.”

  “Stand by,” Horss repeated. “You read space adventures, Admiral?”

  “I write them, too.”

  “Really? Would I know any of the titles?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Cannon apparent!” Freddy warned. “Class two coherent particle accelerator. Field eddy deepening.”

  “Automatic response locked in,” Iggy said.

  The privateer cannon stabbed its brief bursts of energy across space and struck the drive envelope of the Freedom. Instead of reflecting away, the first pulse found a weakness in the detuned drive field and punched into the rocky material of the passive shielding. The unstable drive field collapsed into a river of quantum circuitry pointed back along the vector to the privateer’s cannon. The small amount of energy chaos transferred to the passive shielding set off a chain reaction in the explosives in the rock. The cascade of explosions hurled chunks of spongy rock everywhere. The brilliant shaft of energy connected the two ships and the smaller ship began losing its drive envelope. At the same time, the gravity effect of the connecting circuit began to accelerate the two ships toward each other.

  “Shield debris is disrupting the circuit,” Iggy said. “We need a little more time to kill their envelope.”

  “You sure you have the timing right? That’s a lot of delta-v.”

  “When the drive envelopes degrade, changes in effective mass can be impossible to predict. I had to make a few guesses.”

  “Thank you for adding a little excitement to my afternoon!”

  “Added to that is the uncertainty of our drive efficiency after the explosives blasted against our hull.”

  “I think I can see the whites of their eyes,” Horss said. “Twenty thousand klicks.”

  “Killed their drive. Program is running.”

  “Here they come!” Horss was trying to be as calm as Iggy seemed.

  The privateer ship lost its acceleration but retained its accumulated velocity. The Freedom began to reboot its drive envelope. In a few seconds the ship was able to slip aside, just as the privateer flew by.

  “Perfect!” Horss declared. “Turn and pursue!”

  “Too close for my old heart!” Iggy groaned, after his held breath exploded from his lungs.

  “Active sensor sweep now!”

  “Priority targets one through ten acquired,” Freddy said. “Relaying to the admiral.”

  “Where is she?”

  “The yacht is inside the privateer,” Freddy replied. “Their cannon apparently exploded and she entered the privateer there.”

  “Is that you, Lam?”

  “J.J.?” How many billions of people in the universe? she thought. How much empty space between the stars? How few Marines? “Small galaxy!”

  “When did you get out of the brig?” Lam asked.

  “Which time?”

  “Must be you. Are you still a Marine? Why aren’t we all dead?”

  “You’re not dead because we don’t want to kill anyone.”

  “Say again? I was a Marine, too.”

  He sounded like the Lam Syed bin Hamid she once knew. He sounded less than completely serious, just like the old Lam. But this was his home. She was certain he would defend it with his life. She was certain he would kill her if she gave him a chance. She was also certain that he still thought well of her. Would it help if she tried to reason with him?

  “We don’t want to kill anyone, Lam. Admiral’s orders. Why are you privateering?”

  “More like scavenging, J.J. We don’t endanger lives unless we’re threatened. Can’t say the same for the Navy.”

  “I agree, Lam. We’re not a Navy warship. There’s something we need in that asteroid and you are in the way. If we were real Navy we would have destroyed your ship without warning.”

  “Are you receiving an order to stand down?” Lam asked, sounding shocked but suspicious.

  Relief flooded through her body and drained away the tension and dread. She had the same message from her shiplink. She couldn’t have killed Lam and she had no idea what she could have done otherwise. It was a measure of how much she was changed, that only weeks ago it would not have been a problem - Lam would already be dead. “I have orders to cease hostilities. I’m not surprised but I think you are.”

  “Yes! Are you going to shoot me, anyway?”

  “I was hoping to, for old time’s sake.”

  “One shot each?”

  “Sure. On the count of three. Three.” Jamie stood up from her place of concealment behind smoldering bales of plant fiber. A beam of energy punched through the smoke and fire-suppression vapor and illuminated her personal defense field. She staggered a little, absorbing the kinetic energy translated from the weapon’s beam by her defense field. “Nice shot, but you missed my heart.”

  “I was compensating for a feint left which you didn’t do. Are you going to shoot?”

  “No. I need to check on my people, make sure they’re still alive. Give me a second.”

  “Did you finally get religion? You’re different from the J.J. I knew.”

  “I got family, Lam. I’ll introduce you to them. It’s good to see you again. Are you happy being out of the Marine Corps?” She completed a roll call of her Marines as she walked over to Lam and slapped him on the back.

  “I sometimes miss the old days.” Lam shouldered his rifle and grabbed Jamie’s hand in friendship. “But this is where I belong. I can’t believe you’re still a Marine. You had a hard time obeying Navy orders. Navy is bad, you know.”

  “I know! I don’t think I have time to explain, but I’ll tell you this: the rest of the Navy is after us, and if you guys stay around here very long, you’ll get more trouble than you can handle.” They walked rapidly through the privateer ship. People emerged from hiding to watch them pass.

  “The rest of the Navy is after you? Sounds like fun. Do you think you could take me with you?”

  “I’d be glad to have you aboard, Lam. But I just heard you say you belonged here.”

  “I belong here. I belong there. You’re the good Navy, right? I always wanted to be in the Good Navy, to be a Marine in the Good Navy, to do good and important things. These are my people but I don’t always like the way they live. Maybe I can make things better for them by serving with you.”

  They entered a large room filled with people laughing and talking. Admiral Demba, the apparent guest of honor, put down her cup of tea and smiled at her daughter. “They saw me on the Mother Earth Opera broadcast. Isn’t that strange?”

  Section 018 Princess Charming

  Jamie was following Demba - Zakiya - her mother - someday she would decide how to think of her. She was following the Mission Commander from place to place, watching her solve problems. She dealt mainly with the civilian crew, and now the Malay. Jamie tried to be a good student of the process but she found it difficult to concentrate. Didn’t admirals sit in offices and wait for people to bring the problems to them?

  Direk was her main distraction. In the brief interval since Khalanov and the engineers gained a
ccess to the asteroid they had not found Direk. She knew he was here. The problems would begin for Jamie when they found him. She almost dreaded meeting him. Her emotions would be highly exercised and she wouldn’t understand what she was feeling. It wasn’t only that Direk was always false with her, hiding the Great Plan from her, hiding what else she didn’t know. Direk was whatever he was and he always would be. But Jamie was not anyone even close to who she was when she lived with him. She would be a stranger to him. She was a stranger to herself. She could already feel the pressure of expectations from Aylis Mnro and her mother. Aylis Mnro, especially, would want every good thing for her son. She was not sure she could be any good thing for him. She was also unsure of her response to any man who wanted emotional or physical intimacy with her.

  When Jamie and Zakiya transmatted to the control room in the asteroid, she discovered she could be nervous. After a long career in the Marines it was strange to have feelings a normal woman might have.

  “Did the Malay damage anything?” Zakiya asked Khalanov.

  “I don’t think so.” Khalanov was distracted by Wingren who was pointing to a certain control on the console at which Khalanov was seated. He touched the control. A virtual window appeared on the wall in front of them. It displayed a vast, dimly-lit cavern within the asteroid. Everyone focused their attention on the odd structures in the ceiling and on the floor of the cavern.

  “That’s our new hardware,” Zakiya said. “We need to get the ship inside as fast as possible. It’s too naked and reflective.”

  A team of civilian scientists and engineers working at an adjacent console found an instructional program which quickly allowed them to activate many functions, including opening the space door to the cavern. In a few more moments the Freedom, cleaned of much of its passive shielding, gleamed in the slowly widening gap of a door that was more than three kilometers wide and over a kilometer tall. It would be several hours before the ship was moored inside the cavern.