‘If there’s anything I can do officially or not, I’m in,’ said Vicks.
He nodded a thanks and headed for the door, then said, ‘I’ll be in touch.’
Straus went back to his quarters to start planning the mission. He had Darla’s position pinpointed to a mountain region near Austria’s border with Italy. She was being held in a villa that was built like a fortress with a courtyard and stone walls with a heavy iron gate. Satellite imagery showed that the grounds were crawling with guards.
The next step was to figure out the significance of the “three days” that Darla specified. After pursuing several dead-ends, he discovered that a major weather system was headed into that area. It would be producing thunder showers in three days.
Straus checked the time and saw that it was 0530. He decided on a shower to freshen up. After getting dressed he headed to the regular mess hall and waited for Dr. Ames to come in. Dr. Alan Ames, formerly of Pacific Tech, was now Darla’s second in command. They had become friends over the last several weeks and he knew that he could trust him.
He was working away on his electronic slate and sipping his coffee when he heard, ‘What brings you to our neck of the woods, Commander?’
He looked up to see Dr. Ames, got up, and led him to the chow line. In a low voice, he said, ‘I need your help... off the record. It involves Darla.’
After seeing Straus’s expression, he replied, ‘Is she OK? Whatever it is, you can count on me.’
After picking up breakfast they found a table away from the others, and Straus asked, ‘What’s the significance of 5.739 terahertz?’
Ames looked at him curiously and pulled out his comm device, then said, ‘I ran across that recently... here it is... Its the pulse frequency of a Corvan blaster pistol set to heavy stun.’
Straus nodded as the pieces fell into place and he said, ‘Of course, that’s what she meant. You’re familiar with the tuned EM Pulse weapon that the Weapon’s Group came up with?’
‘Sure. I helped redesign some of the control circuitry after you tested it during Second Strike.’
‘What would it take to tune it to that frequency?’
‘I’m not the expert, but my understanding is, that it's not a “tunable” system. Rather it's “tuned” to work at a specific frequency. In order to change it, would require a total redesign. It would take weeks.’
‘No... There’s got to be a way to make it work in less than three days, or she wouldn’t have suggested it.’
‘Who suggested three days? Darla? What’s this all about?’
Straus checked the immediate vicinity and lowered his voice as he leaned in toward Ames saying, ‘Darla’s been kidnapped. I’m putting together a rescue mission... against orders.’
Alan’s eyes widened and he sat back in his chair with a shocked expression. He then scanned the room and said, ‘I’ll be right back.’
He headed to the other side of the room to where there were several tables of people sitting together. He leaned over and spoke at one table and he could see people looking back in his direction. Ames started back and two people stood up with their trays and followed him over.
Ames took his seat and said, ‘You remember Joe and Mandy Emerson from Weapons Research.’
Straus nodded with a smile and said, ‘I hear congratulations are in order. You two will be making history by having the first child born in space.’
‘Thank you, Sir. It just sort of worked out that way,’ said Mandy as she blushed.
‘You can trust them Commander,’ said Ames with a nod.
‘This is totally off the record and absolutely secret. Darla has been kidnapped and being held for ransom in a stronghold near the Austrian-Italian border. Officially we are not to get involved and need to let the authorities handle it.’
‘Oh my word,’ said Mandy.
‘Is she OK?’ asked Joe.
‘At this point she’s unharmed. I was allowed to speak with her and she was able to relate a message. She wants us to rescue her in three days under the cover of a thunder storm. We need to outfit a Ninja and two Samurai with an EM Pulse tuned to 5.739Thz.’
‘Which is the frequency of the heavy stun setting from a Corvan blaster pistol,’ added Ames.
Mandy and Joe looked at each other, then she said, ‘We’ll need to reshape the resonator cavity.’
Joe shook his head and said, ‘The problem is that the emitter is matched to the RC. It would take weeks to grow one to the new geometry.’
Mandy countered, ‘We’ll loose efficiency, but the current emitter will work.’
‘True, but without a tuned system, the power demands will be tremendous,’ said Joe.
Straus interjected, ‘We just need one shot. What kind of range would it have?’
Mandy reached across to Straus’s electronic slate and slid it toward herself. She made some quick calculations and said, ‘Mind you this is just a rough estimate taking into account a partially tuned system and attenuation from the atmosphere, but I’d guess about fifty yards.’
‘That sounds about right,’ said Joe.
‘And everything in the area would be stunned?’ asked Straus.
‘Theoretically and it shouldn’t matter if they’re inside a structure or not, unless they have specific shielding in place, which is unlikely,’ said Mandy.
‘We’ll need to install the modified EM Pulse into the Training Ninja. I’ll move it to maintenance bay 2,’ said Straus.
‘We’ll work on the specs and crank out a prototype,’ added Joe.
Joe and Mandy got up and left to get started, leaving Straus and Ames at the table.
‘The control circuitry will need to be modified slightly to handle the power requirements. Heavy stun will have everyone out for hours with some lasting effects lingering for days. The doc might be able to fix you up with something to counter the effects, for when you find her.’
‘Good idea. I’ll check with him,’ said Straus.
‘So what’s the plan? You just going to slip away from the station, fly down there against orders, pick her up, and fly back?’
‘I’ve got a plan that will let us do just that. I just need to do some programming to provide us with an alibi and cover our tracks. Guess I’d better get started on that,’ said Straus as he picked up his electronic slate and headed out.
He found Dr. Wadell in the patient ward just finishing up his morning rounds.
‘Morning Commander. Need some more “special sauce”?’
The doctor had come up with a special medication formulation that had the effect of preventing hangovers, if taken soon enough. The pilot’s relied on a steady supply so that they could be tack-sharp the next day for flight duty.
Straus laughed and said, ‘Yes... but that’s not why I’m here. I was wondering if you had anything that can counter the effects of a Corvan blaster set to heavy stun. Its not for me... it's for a friend.’
‘Ha ha ha. Did you accidentally shoot someone again?’
‘Not yet, but it may come to that. Look Doc, it's important,’ said Straus with a sudden serious tone.
‘It hasn’t come up yet, so no, I don’t have anything on hand, but I might be able to put something together. What’s this really about?’ asked the doctor quietly, as he stepped closer.
Straus glanced around, then led the doctor into an empty room and closed the door, then said, ‘Darla has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. We’re putting together a plan to send in a strike team, stun everyone in the area with a pulse field, and extract her. It would be easier to get her out, if I could give her something to counter the effect.’
The doctor was listening carefully and stood there a moment staring at Straus, then said, ‘Hmmm... We don’t even fully understand how “stun” works. I believe it has something to do with interfering with the nerve cell membranes within the synaptic gap from receiving neurotransmitters, but that’s just a theory. How soon do you need it?’
‘Three days.’
‘If you can lend me a blaster I’ll start making some tests.’
‘I’ll have one sent right over. Oh... and Doc... this is strictly off the record. We’ve been ordered not to do anything.’
‘I’ll be discrete.’
‘Discrete and blaster don’t really go together.’
Wadell laughed and said, ‘I’ll be as discrete as I can then.’
_ _ _
Over the next three days the plans had been set. The training Ninja and two Samurai had been outfitted with the modified EM Pulse. The doctor had come up with an antidote that he believe would be at least partially effective. Straus had completed the programming that would provide the alibi and the countdown had begun. The hard part was keeping up normal appearances and trying not to draw any undue attention.
Straus was in his office reading through the squadron mission reports from the previous day, when he was alerted to an incoming call from Flight Ops.
‘Hey Bernie. What’s on your mind?’ asked Straus seeing Colonel Doug “Bernie” Bernal who ran Flight Operations. Bernie was one of the original twelve pilots that survived First Strike. Straus had promoted him and assigned him to take over Flight Ops to reduce his own work load.
‘We’re showing an incursion into the Warp Jammer grid just opposite of us on the far side of the Earth. We don’t have a patrol in the area to check on it,’ explained Bernal.
‘Scramble the Alert squadron then. Who has the duty?’
‘That’s why I called, Sir. Its the Black Hats, Flight One.’
‘That’s fine. I could use a break from this paperwork. Scramble.’
Bernie nodded and cut the connection. A moment later a klaxon sounded and over the Public Address system a voice said, ‘Black Hats Flight One, scramble. Black Hats Flight One, scramble.’
Straus headed out and heard his sergeant say, ‘Good luck, Sir.’
He nodded and hurried down the corridor to the locker room to change into his armored flight suit. He grabbed his helmet and gloves and made his way to the fighter launch bay.
When he got there he found that there was a crew working on his Ninja and Master Chief Wilson was there overseeing the work.
‘Chief... what the heck? I need my ship,’ barked Straus.
‘Sorry Commander, the power couplings were polarized. We need to swap them out. She’ll be ready to go in ten minutes.’
‘I can’t wait ten minutes. What other ship is available.’
‘Well Sir, the training Ninja is all ready to go in maintenance bay Two,’ said the chief with a small nod.
‘Fine. That will have to do,’ said Straus with a huff.
He donned his helmet, trotted off to maintenance bay 2, then activated his suit’s comm system saying, ‘Black Hats Flight 1, launch when ready. I’ll brief you on the way.’
‘Acknowledged Sir,’ came the reply from his wingman Page.
Straus jumped into the training Ninja. It was a stretched version of the regular Ninja that added a rear seat. It was built to train new pilots, but was later found not to be needed because the simulation training was just as good.
After powering up, he eased through the shield barrier and rendezvoused with his wingman, and the other two ships of First flight, piloted by Vicks and Tron.
‘Alright people listen up. We’ve detected an incursion into the Warp Jammer grid on the far side of the Earth. We’re going to check it out and deal with whatever we find. We’ll head for low orbit, skip off the atmosphere, and head back out.’
‘Right with you Sir,’ said Page.
The group shot off to low orbit and disappeared from sight of the station as they headed over the horizon.
‘Full power to shields,’ ordered Straus as they headed into the upper atmosphere.
Rather than skip off the atmosphere they plowed into it and decelerated as they quickly lost altitude in a fiery high speed re-entry. They flew down through the tops of some thunder clouds that topped out at over fifty thousand feet.
The ships were buffeted by the violent winds as they continued to decelerate toward the ground.
‘Power up the weapons, and switch to automatic,’ said Straus. ‘Thirty seconds to target.’
Meanwhile back on the station, Bernie was monitoring the progress of Flight One as it seemingly approached the coordinates of the unidentified mass that set off the alert in the first place. He was listening to what he thought was the inter-ship comm channel.
“Should be coming up on it soon. Switch to long range scans,” said Straus.
“Not picking anything up yet, Sir,” said Page.
“Page you stick with me. Vicks, you and Tron head north and see if you can find anything.”
“Roger that, Sir.”
Straus was monitoring their progress within the cloud deck and said, ‘Assume Attack formation. Once the pulses fire, Page and I will break right. Vicks, you and Tron break left. Take up defensive positions and I’ll head in.’
‘Acknowledged.’
The ships were still doing Mach 2 and had leveled out at two thousand feet above the terrain to stay just within the cloud cover. They continued to decelerate to below Mach 1 and dove down to tree-top level, speeding up a narrow valley toward the villa. Five seconds later the pulses fired and Straus threw his ship into a sharp ninety degree right turn and decelerated.
He circled around and spotted the courtyard. He could see guards lying on the ground. It appeared that the stun pulse worked. He lowered the landing struts, set down, and opened the canopy. Rain was pelting down and he could hear thunder echoing off the valley walls. He spotted Vicks's Galleon as it circled past waggling it's wings, and he waved back.
Using the augmented-reality view of his helmet visor he proceeded passed the unconscious guards and through the front door. He saw a small red-flashing dot projected onto the scene and leaned over to a man lying on the floor. He rolled him over and pulled Darla’s comm device out of his pocket. For good measure he pulled out his blaster pistol and aimed it at the man's head. After a few moments of hesitation, he reconsidered that move and instead punched him as hard as he could, breaking his nose. He then rolled him back over so he wouldn't drown in his on blood.
'Commander, there are two black SUV's racing up the road. They'll reach the main gate in about two minutes,' reported Page.
'Understood. See if you can take down a tree and block the road out ahead of them... and be sure to stay out of sight. If they ID us, then our alibi collapses,' said Straus.
'Roger that.'
He picked up his pace and wondered about who was closing in on their position. Perhaps they were “the clients”, concerned about the sudden communication black out. After searching several rooms on the first floor he hurried upstairs and noticed two men lying on the floor outside of a locked door.
Straus heaved his foot into the door, but the two inch thick solid door didn't budge. He looked down to the guards and searched their pockets, found the key, and unlocked the door.
Inside Darla was lying on top of a bed fully dressed with her packed suitcase ready to go. Clearly she was expecting to be picked up.
Straus pulled out a small kit and laid it out on the bed next to her. He removed a hypo-stick, and shot it into her carotid artery. He then took what looked like an inhaler, placed it in her mouth, held her nose closed, then activated it. After she had taken several breaths through the device he set it aside and shook her by the shoulder.
‘Dar... Sweetheart it's me. Wake up.’
‘Hmm... mmm.... Whaa?’
‘Its time to go. Here, you need to take these,’ he said as he opened a vial and poured an assortment of pills into his hand.
'Commander, Its Page. They're pulling the tree out of the way. They'll be there in no time,' said Page.
'Understood.'
He helped her to sit up and though groggy, she was able to swallow the pills as Straus helped her with the glass of water. He rubbed her arms and legs to increase circulation then helped her to her feet. She was
still just half awake and couldn’t quite stand on her own. He pulled out another hypo-stick and shot it into her neck.
‘Sweetheart... focus. We need to go... Now.’
‘I’ll.... try...’ she said as she tried to force her eyes to stay open.
He put his arm around her waist and grabbed her suitcase with the other hand and left the room. He quickly stepped over the guards sprawled on the floor, dragging Darla and her suitcase over them as she fought to get her legs to work. She shuffled down the hall and stairs with Straus’s help as they headed outside.
Corvus Prime: Escalation Page 4
