Rocket’s Red Glare

by David Hardy

  “Lance, no!”

  Tolliver turned to his wife. He hated what was about to come next, but he had no choice.

  “Yes, Jennifer. It’s the only way.”

  “No, you’ll be killed. I’m not going through the gate without you. You can’t make me.”

  Tolliver stiffened. When he spoke, his voice was barely a whisper. “Yes, I can. You will be on the shuttle with Dr. Van Buren. That’s an order, Lieutenant.”

  “How dare you order me. I’m your wife.”

  “And you’re also the mother of my only child.” Tolliver reached out and caressed his wife’s tummy. “You’ve got more than just yourself and me to think about now.”

  Jennifer began crying. She didn’t sob or make a sound, but tears began to flow. In the micro gravity, they didn’t roll down her cheek but pooled in the corners of her eyes. One broke off and floated across the room to splatter against the wall.

  “Excuse me, Commander,” asked Van Buren, “but am I to understand that you’re expecting?”

  “Yes, we’ve just found out. You’re the first one we’ve told, Doctor.”

  “Allow me to offer my congratulations, then.”

  “Thank you.”

  Jennifer wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “Lance, I want our child to have a father.”

  “And I want our child to live in a world that’s free, where he – or she – can pursue their dreams. And that’s not going to happen if the UN gets control of the jump gate technology. Dr. Van Buren has destroyed all of it he can. Which is pretty substantial.”

  He reached out and took his wife’s hands. “The UN has gotten more heavy-handed. The colonies founded through the jump gate are primarily United States colonies. They’ve brought a great deal of wealth to the US, and consequently its citizens, through the discoveries we’ve made. Wealth much of the rest of the world is jealous of. There’s a resolution coming before the UN to have the US declared a rogue nation and have the colonies made UN protectorates. It will pass. The US is about to engage in a war it isn’t equipped to fight. It won’t be able to defend itself and protect the colonies.

  “We’re going to remove the colonies from the equation. Dr. Van Buren has managed to keep control of the jump gate technology, although pieces of it have gotten out. When we destroy the jump gate, that will be it. The colonies will be cut off from Earth. Not for good, but for a long time. Long enough for them to develop free standing societies. They’re almost there now. Sentiment for declaring independence is strong in the colonies. We’re going to give them their independence.”

  “But will they survive without the jump gate?”

  Van Buren spoke up. “Lieutenant Tolliver, they will have the jump gate. The last of the necessary equipment and materials were sent ahead of us three days ago.”

  Tolliver nodded his agreement, then added, “There’s an escort waiting on the other side of the jump gate to take us to Baldwin’s World. They’ll meet you on the other side. Dr. Van Buren isn’t going on a visit. He’s making a permanent move. He’ll help the colony maintain the jump gate they have back to Earth and help to establish jump gates to the other colonies. Anyone who wants to leave will be free to do so. And the colonies will be free to determine their own destiny without the UN interfering. “

  “All right. I see I don’t have any choice. As much as I hate to admit it, you’re right.” Jennifer unstrapped herself and pushed off against the wall, reaching for Tolliver. “Dr. Van Buren, if you don’t mind, please, I’d like to have a last few minutes alone with my husband.”

  ○●○

  Commander Tolliver watched the timer in the corner of the display. They would rendezvous with the Resolution in about three minutes. They were still seven minutes from the jump gate. The engineering crew had managed to shave a minute off their time, but it still wouldn’t be enough.

  He keyed his mic. “Shuttle Bay, report. What’s your status?”

  “We’re good here, Commander. The shuttle is ready to launch. Your wife, I mean Lieutenant Tolliver, and Dr. Van Buren are aboard and ready to go.”

  “What about that data packet I gave you?”

  “It’s aboard, sir.”

  “Good. Patch me in to my wife, please.”

  The officer on the other end of the line didn’t reply, but an instant later Jennifer said, “Lance?”

  “Just wanted to tell you one more time that I love you and wish you both, make that all three of you, godspeed.”

  “I love you, too, dear.”

  “Listen, we’re about to begin the operation, so be prepared. There may not be much warning.”

  “Understood. And Lance? I love you, too. Try not to get yourself killed.”

  “Will do.”

  Tolliver signed off. He needed to keep his composure for what was about to happen. He’d ordered the crew into pressure suits, keeping helmets within reach. His helmet was clamped to the side of his command chair.

  Taking a deep breath, Tolliver gave the order to rotate the ship. The motion was slow and wouldn’t do much to increase the speed of the shuttle. The smaller vessel would only be moving slightly faster than the Intrepid, but it would reach the jump gate ahead of the large ship by, if the calculations were correct, nearly a whole minute. The maneuver also turned the Intrepid so its forward guns were facing the Resolution. In the end, that might be what made the difference.

  Lieutenant Sweeny looked up from her console. “Shuttle away, sir. She’s on course to enter the jump gate.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  “Sir?”

  “Yes, Mac?”

  “Permission to speak freely, sir.”

  “Of course.” Tolliver wondered what Sweeny was going to say. They’d served together for years.

  “Sir, regardless of the outcome of the next few minutes, I wanted to say that it’s been an honor to serve with you. You’ll be remembered as hero in the colonies, and I’m honored and humbled to be part of your crew, whether we survive or not.”

  Lieutenant Sanchez, who had taken his wife’s station, spoke up, his gruff baritone in contrast to Sweeny’s contralto, “Same here, sir. I requested this post, and I don’t regret it.”

  Tolliver tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat, without much success. “Thank you, both of you. Now let’s make sure our sacrifice isn’t in vain.

  “Lieutenant Sanchez, patch me in to the Resolution.”

  “Aye, Commander.”

  There was no noticeable time delay this time.

  “USSS Intrepid, this is the UNP Resolution. A shuttle has just been launched towards the jump gate. You are to recall the shuttle immediately and stand down to be boarded. Is that understood? USS Intrepid, acknowledge.”

  “Resolution, this Commander Lance Tolliver of the USSS Intrepid. We will not stand down. Rather you will break off your pursuit and cease this harassment of a ship of a sovereign nation engaged in lawful business. Any further action on your part will be considered an act of aggression and will be met with force. Is that understood?”

  Tolliver didn’t wait for an answer. He made a chopping motion with his hand, and Sanchez cut the connection.

  “Mac, adjust our course so that we’re between the shuttle and the Resolution. I don’t think they’ll fire on the shuttle. They have to be aware of the possibility of Van Buren being onboard. But I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Aye, sir. Adjusting course now.”

  Tolliver felt a slight weight as the retro rockets fired, moving the Intrepid into line with the shuttle and the Resolution.

  “Lock the maser cannon on the jump gate control node. Lock secondary masers and high energy lasers on the Resolution. Prepare to fire on my command.”

  “Sir,” said Lieutenant Sanchez, “thirty seconds until rendezvous with the Resolution.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Tolliver glanced up from his personal display to the front screen. The Resolution was half again the size of the Intrepid, and the Intrepid wasn’t
a small ship by contemporary standards. The larger ship was maneuvering to go around the Intrepid by passing “above” her. Grappling clamps were beginning to extend towards the Intrepid. Tolliver could see the larger ship slowing to allow the clamps to attach to his ship.

  “Take out those grappling clamps, high energy lasers only.”

  Instead of targeting the clamps themselves, the lasers hit where they were extending from the ship. The metal began to glow as it was heated. The clamps stopped their outward motion.

  “Good work. ETA of the shuttle at the jump gate?”

  “About two minutes, ten seconds, sir.”

  “Good. Let’s make those minutes count. Take our her armaments.”

  Lasers and masers began to fire. The commander of the Resolution must have had the same idea, for as the words were leaving Tolliver’s mouth, the Resolution’s weapons began to target the Intrepid’s.

  An explosion rocked the starboard side of the ship. A moment later the main laser turret on the Resolution blew. Klaxons began to sound. Blast doors closed.

  Tolliver activated the intercom system. “Attention all hands, this is Commander Tolliver. We have engaged the UN in combat. All hands don helmets. Repeat, get your helmets on, people. Be prepared loss of power and loss of pressure. Things have gone hot.”

  Tolliver cut the intercom. His people were well trained and knew what to do. Every single one of them had known the risks when they’d volunteered for this mission. Sanchez and Sweeny had their helmets on. He quickly put his on. There was a slight hiss as the air flow activated.

  “What’s the shuttle’s ETA?”

  “Seventy-seven seconds, sir.”

  Too long. Far too long.

  “Lock the main maser on the jump gate generator. Prepare to fire as soon as the shuttle is through the gate.”

  “Aye.” Sanchez’s fingers flew across his terminal.

  The main maser was on the bottom of the Intrepid, while the main lasers and secondary masers were on the top. A couple of secondary lasers completed the armament on the lower side of the ship. The maser was powerful enough to take out the generator for the jump gate.

  The gate was rectangular, consisting of a carbon monofilament frame. The generator was an ovoid in the lower right corner. The gate was programmed to activate for any ship that came within a certain range. It was active now, so as soon as the shuttle was through, Tolliver intended to destroy it.

  “What’s our ETA to gate?”

  “Eighty-nine seconds.”

  Tolliver swore. Like the Intrepid, the Resolution had weapons on both sides. There was too much time for the Resolution to shoot the shuttle out of the sky. At this point, he didn’t trust the captain of the other ship not to destroy the shuttle if he couldn’t keep it from passing through the jump gate.

  “Push us into that other ship. Keep it from getting a clear shot at the shuttle.”

  The Intrepid shuddered as her engines fired. The ship shuddered again as it rammed against the Resolution. The Intrepid didn’t have the momentum to change the Resolution’s course much, but all she needed to do was keep the larger ship from getting a shot at the shuttle.

  “Shuttle ETA thirty-three seconds.”

  A different klaxon began to blare. Hull breach. A red light began to flash.

  The Intrepid continued to press against the Resolution. Tolliver could hear metal strain.

  There was still too much time.

  Tolliver wished he could call for more power like the captains in the old television shows he’d watched as a kid. The main rockets weren’t that kind. Designed for long hauls rather than short maneuvers, they were basically on or off. And right now they were doing all they could do.

  Tolliver prayed it would be enough.

  “Shuttle ETA twenty-five seconds.”

  “Fire all remaining topside weapons at the Resolution. Do it now.”

  “Captain, all topside weapons are damaged or offline.”

  Tolliver swore.

  “Mr. Sanchez, are we locked on to the jump gate generator?”

  “Not any longer, sir. We weren’t able to maintain the lock when we rammed the Resolution. I’ve been trying to reestablish the lock, but so far without success. We need to break contact.”

  Tolliver felt his heart sink. They had to destroy the jump gate generator. It was the only one in this solar system. All the others were in the colony systems. If the colonies were to have any hope of becoming independent societies, they needed to be free from UN interference. If Van Buren could make it to Baldwin’s World, he would share the applications of the jump gate technology with the colonies that he hadn’t made public yet.

  But that could only happen if the jump gate generator were destroyed. If it weren’t, the UN could show up with more firepower than the colonies could resist. The dream of independence would die.

  The only way to guarantee the jump gate generator was destroyed would be to break contact with the Resolution. But that would give the other ship a clear shot at the shuttle.

  Tolliver knew what he had to do

  “Break away. Now. And reestablish that lock.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  There was another sound of tortured metal shrieking as the Intrepid fired its retro-rockets. The ships separated with a great tearing sound. On the main display, Tolliver could see the rents in the Resolution’s hull. He imagined the holes in his own ship were just as bad. The view shifted as the Intrepid rotated to get a clear shot at the generator. The distance between the two ships wasn’t great, but it was enough. It had to be.

  “Shuttle ETA eight seconds.”

  “Get that maser locked onto the generator, Lieutenant Sanchez.”

  Lieutenant Sweeny turned to Tolliver. Her face was pale through her helmet. “Sir, sensors indicate they’re powering up their main laser on the other side of the ship. The only target they have is the shuttle.”

  Before Tolliver could reply, Sanchez almost shouted, “Sir, I’ve got the lock and the shuttle is through the gate.”

  “Fire!”

  Sanchez was already firing by the time the word was out of Tolliver’s mouth.

  For a moment nothing happened. As long as the gate was open, the Resolution could fire through it and hit the shuttle.

  Then everything was washed in an actinic white. The self-darkening optics weren’t able to keep the first instant of the jump gate generator’s explosion from blinding the crew on the command deck.

  The shock wave caused the Intrepid to spin wildly. The Resolution had to be spinning as well. Something hit the ship and scraped along the hull, probably a piece of carbon monofilament.

  “Get us stabilized,” Tolliver barked. “The Resolution isn’t going to break off the battle now that we’ve destroyed the jump gate. Let’s finish this thing before they can respond.”

  ○●○

  Baldwin’s World System, Approximately 130 years later

  Marshall Tolliver IV, commander of the BWS Pershing peered at the data on the screen before him. Next to it was a small realtime image. The image wasn’t clear, but it was obviously some type of spacecraft. The craft was heading directly towards a small asteroid that was out of the field of view.

  “Yep, that’s a jump gate signature all right. ColSec wasn’t wrong.”

  Lieutenant Selina Romanova looked over his shoulder. “Colonial Security rarely is about this sort of thing.”

  “True. Which is why we’re out here rather than waiting for confirmation on Baldwin’s World. Let’s go shut them down.”

  Marshall touched the screen in front of him. The data disappeared, to be replaced with a set of controls. He touched the screen in several places, and the small capsule began to accelerate. By the time the acceleration could be felt, Romanova had strapped in on Marshall’s left. Sergeant Travis Butler did the same behind Romanova.

  On Marshall’s right, Lieutenant Luis Montoya sent a coded message back to ColSec headquarters informing them of their confirmation of the jump gat
e. It seemed the UN, or someone on Earth, was back in the interstellar exploration business.

  Marshall thought back to his classified briefing with Commodore Nolan.

  ○●○

  Nolan tended to be a taciturn man. The years he’d worked in ColSec had taken a toll on him. Marshall thought that toll showed most in his eyes.

  “For the last couple of months, Colonial Space Command has been detecting sporadic particle fluxes that shouldn’t be there. They seem to be coming from the same part of the sky.”

  “Okay. Is the source of these fluxes in this solar system?”

  “Yes and no. Space Command immediately brought ColSec into the matter. We’ve finally managed to pinpoint them. They’re in the same region of the sky, and all the ones that have been seen have occurred within a few minutes of arc.”

  Nolan paused before continuing.

  “The particle flux fits no known natural source. It does, however, fit what you would expect the flux to look like if a jump gate were opening and closing.”

  “So, what are you saying, Commodore? That Earth has been able to reproduce jump gate technology?”

  “Yes, Captain Tolliver, that’s exactly what I’m saying. After over a century of unrest on Earth, they’ve managed to get their act together and reproduce Van Buren’s work. They seem to have a working jump gate.”

  He met Tolliver’s gaze for a moment, judging the younger officer’s reaction before continuing.

  “The flux isn’t from the same side of the sky as Earth. No reason it should be, of course. A jump gate can open from the opposite side of a solar system from its star system of origin. It’s a harder trick to pull off, but it can be done.

  “You’ll recall that the particle flux is different on the destination side of a jump gate than it is on the departure side?”

  “Yes, sir, but they aren’t that different, are they?”