by B. V. Larson
“We don’t know if Sokolov is a computer wiz or what,” he said. “We really don’t know that much about him.”
I stared at my chief of marines. “My God. You’re right.”
Kwon shrugged. “I don’t like him, and he hates you.”
“Hates me? That’s putting it a bit strong, don’t you think?”
“Nope. He hates you. When you turn your back, I can see it in his eyes.”
“Are you saying he suckered me with his wit and charm? I’m not that easy to sucker.”
Kwon shrugged again, clearly uncomfortable at contradicting me. “He gave you what you wanted. Maybe you gave him something he wanted. Now we’re here and he’s there and looky who’s in charge of Valiant.”
I thought about what Kwon had said. He wasn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but every senior noncom had to be a good judge of men or he didn’t keep his stripes long. Maybe what he said was true. Maybe I’d been blinded by finally getting something I craved: official validation in my role as captain. Hell, Sokolov had even sweetened the deal with an actual promotion to Commander logged and legal.
“I think you’re right,” I manned up and told him. “Marvin,” I said, “do you know who’s in charge of Valiant? Is it Hansen or someone else?”
“General Sokolov has claimed command in your absence,” Marvin replied.
“He’d never have been able to do that if the crew thought I was alive,” I muttered. “He played me, and now he thinks he’s gotten rid of me.” I snapped my fingers. “Not only that, he kept most of the Raptors he hates off Valiant and made himself look good doing it by beating up on the Stalker to feed the crew’s taste for revenge. Dammit, the man’s a diabolical genius!”
“Maybe he got Kalu to help him too,” Kwon said.
“Yeah…yeah, she always wanted to be the alpha dog’s woman. I know the type.” She’d almost seduced me a few months back in a weak moment. Sokolov and Kalu would be a good match.
“What are we gonna do about it?” Kwon asked, watching me.
“All we have to do is get word to our people we’re alive. Marvin, can you pass the word to everyone? Tell Hansen, Bradley, Adrienne, Sakura—and especially the marines: Taksin, Fuller, Moranian. It’s their job to uphold the law and the regs and safeguard the chain of command.”
“Captain Riggs, I cannot do that.”
“Marvin—”
“I’m not refusing, Captain Riggs. Rather, I’m unable to comply. Valiant is not answering my hails, either.”
I swore. “And all communications go through the central brainbox. Dammit, how could this have happened so fast? Sokolov didn’t have enough time to get it all in place.”
“Unless Kalu had it all set up, waiting for an opportunity,” Kwon pointed out.
“Marvin,” I said, “you have to have a way to get word to a real live person aboard. Make and send a drone, datalink with a marine suit, hack the brainbox yourself, something.”
“If you recall, Captain, you asked me to harden Valiant’s cyber-security over recent months, and you expressly forbade me to leave any back doors. I complied with your wishes in this instance.”
I groaned. “The one time you decide to obey me to the letter... Well, if you can’t get their attention, fly on over here and help us repair this tub we’re stuck on.”
“The point may be moot,” Kwon said. He grinned when he used his newly learned word. “Look.” He pointed at the screen.
Without my HUD I couldn’t read the details, but this time I didn’t need to. “It’s back. The Slab.”
“The Guardian Box,” Fleeg corrected me. “It visits once or twice a year at random intervals, apparently scouting us. I’ve never seen it appear twice in one day.”
“What’s it doing?” I asked, but the question was rhetorical. None of us knew any more than the other. We watched as the Slab moved in its bizarre rhythmic teleports. It began above the ring as if it had come through it though with its ability to jump I had no idea if rings were even necessary. Perhaps the Slab had a range limitation on its self-teleport and rings were still necessary for interstellar travel.
It circled the planet of Orn Six. In just a few moments it hovered low above the Square.
Greyhound, with Marvin aboard, looked to be blasting away from the area as fast as possible, curving her course gently toward us. Valiant, with her traitorous new commander and misled crew, stood off beyond maximum beam range and watched.
The Slab made one last teleport from low Orn Six space to rest on the surface. Now it appeared less like an odd rectangular spaceship and more like a squat skyscraper with its long axis vertical.
“It’s sitting directly on the Square,” I said, squinting. “Zoom in.”
“I apologize, Commodore,” Fleeg replied. “Because of our damage, that is the best optical picture we can obtain.”
“Damn. What’s it doing?”
Marvin’s voice interjected. “It appears to be mating with the Square.”
“It’s having machine sex?”
“‘Mating’ as in two connecting plugs,” the robot clarified. “Machines do not have sex.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“On the contrary. I have extensive files on the mating practices of many biotic species and especially humans.”
I just grimaced and let that one go. “I’m still asking: what’s it doing?”
Before Marvin could answer, the Slab winked out, appearing thousands of miles out in space once more.
“It looks bigger,” I said.
“The Slab has approximately doubled in length,” Marvin replied. “And there is a corresponding excavation on the surface of the planet it left behind.”
“The Slab picked up the Square,” I said with amazement. “Dug it right out of the ground. Good thing you left, Marvin.”
“Given the combat between Valiant and the Raptor battleship, I thought it prudent to remove myself from the battlefield.”
“Well, you got lucky this time. You’d have been squished. How long until you rendezvous with us?”
“Approximately two hours at standard acceleration.”
“Make it faster, Marvin. She’s not called Greyhound for nothing.”
“That may draw attention to what I’m doing. What if General Sokolov forbids me to assist the transport?”
“Marvin, he has no legitimate authority. He’s not your commander.”
“That is not true, Captain Riggs. You acknowledged his legitimate authority as a Star Force general officer when you allowed him to promote you and confirm your captaincy. If he can promote you and confirm you, he can take over in your absence.”
Aghast, I realized Marvin was right. I’d missed that aspect entirely. It wouldn’t be enough to just get back aboard and take charge. I’d have to prove our battlesuits and Valiant’s brainbox had been maliciously hacked. Even then, Sokolov might deny all knowledge and claim innocence, simply declaring that he was in charge. The crew would be caught between two leaders, both of whom seemed to have legitimate claims to the top spot. Whenever I made my move, I’d have to be on firm legal ground.
Sure, I figured Kwon would follow my orders and the marines would go along with him. I could retake my ship by force. But what if Valiant itself didn’t agree? We’d installed internal defensive systems to assist our handful of marines. Did I really want a civil war breaking out? Did I want to kill human beings, many of whom would be innocently trying to do the right thing?
No, this wasn’t going to be easy or free of cost.
“Dammit, Marvin, you’re right. I did give him legitimacy—superficially at least. But if we can prove Sokolov was involved in any of this mutiny against me, he can be arrested and tried. So Marvin, I’m appointing you my special investigating officer with full powers to dig into this mess. That means you don’t report to Sokolov or anyone else but me to avoid undue command influence. Got it?”
“I am sorry, but I must decline.”
“Why
?”
“According to Star Force regulations, you must appoint a commissioned officer as a special investigating officer. I am a mere warrant officer.”
Ha. He had me there, but I had a simple solution. “No problem, Marvin. By my authority as a full commander in Star Force, I hereby commission you acting ensign and appoint you as my special investigator. I also charge you to not reveal your status to anyone who doesn’t already know of it.”
“I’m to be a secret investigator?” he asked with a hint of excitement in his voice.
“Exactly.”
“And I’m an ensign?”
“Absolutely.”
“With pay?”
“Sure, why not?”
“In that case, Captain Riggs, I accept.”
“Then log your commissioning oath and get to work.”
“Yes, Captain. Thank you.” He closed the channel leaving us to stare at the flickering Raptor screens while we tried to ignore the foul air.
* * *
Two hours later, Marvin rendezvoused with our still-drifting transport and set to work on repairs. I had to sternly order the Raptors not to interfere as the synthesis of Marvin and Greyhound reached out with its many tentacles and began disassembling and reassembling pieces of the ship, taking in critical structures for fine work and slapping constructive nanites on the bigger holes. In his current form, Marvin “wore” Greyhound like a larger body or a giant mechanical suit. I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began, and I doubted whether the former yacht could really accommodate biotics anymore without extensive remodeling.
I was beyond caring, however. Marvin was so critical to our survival that as far as I was concerned he could have the damn ship. I’d let Adrienne’s old man, Lord Grantham Turnbull, try to get his property back from the robot if we ever made it home.
Within the hour we had a working engine, though I told Fleeg to keep us drifting. I hoped Sovolov would leave us alone and stay focused on the enemy battleship.
The new, larger Slab took off on a cruise toward the three inner Raptor planets, the ones we called Orn Prime, Two and Three. Its jumps grew longer and quicker, effectively exceeding light speed by a factor of at least ten. Despite these astounding leaps, its actual velocity while drifting between jumps roughly matched the planetary bodies it visited. Eventually, it vanished from view as it outran our ability to track it.
I’d give a lot for technology like that. With Valiant so equipped, we could skip across star systems, blithely running from anything threatening. Nothing would be able to touch us.
“You’re turning green, boss,” Kwon said.
“Bad air.”
“No, it’s envy. You want what the Slab has, I can tell. All you Fleet guys love ship upgrades.”
I turned to the big man. “Marines don’t like their toys?”
“Sure, but it’s the man that matters.”
“You’re talkative today.”
Kwon laughed. “I’m bored. No beer, nothing to fight, not even any damage control I can do. Might as well bitch to the boss while I have his ear.”
“I’m bored too, but I’m worried that anything exciting will be bad for us.”
“At least Marvin’s repairing the ship. Hey, why don’t you order him to give us recordings of—”
I cut Kwon off. “—of whatever he knows?” I put a finger to my lips then pointed at my ear and the ceiling. I didn’t want Kwon revealing to Marvin that I knew about his malware bug within Valiant’s system. Not yet. “It wouldn’t really matter to what we do. Not until Ox is repaired. I don’t want to distract him.” Hopefully Kwon got the message. In any case, he shut up.
The Slab completed its tour of the Raptor’s planets and facilities ending with the inner ring that led to the Lithos’ system. I’d hoped the ship of the Ancients, if that’s what it was, would go through and cause some trouble for our implacable enemy, but they didn’t.
When the Slab was at its most distant from us, Sokolov made his move.
Valiant went from a slow drift to flank acceleration in under a second, clearly trying to take our enemies by surprise. Blasting straight at Orn Six in order to use its gravity assist, within ten minutes it was at combat speed and had deployed all available Daggers along with a cloud of several dozen missiles. This battle group diverted slightly, aiming for the edge of the planet in order to keep in its shadow as long as possible before the Raptor fortresses and the battleship could see it.
In response, Stalker fell back behind the fortresses. They must have had spy drones out because Sokolov’s surprise trick wasn’t all that effective. Missiles blossomed from it and the four fortresses, and I groaned. The Raptor installations had at least sixty tubes each, so over two hundred nukes spread out in looping trajectories to come at Valiant from all sides.
“Dammit, Sokolov’s going to get everyone killed. What the hell is he thinking?”
I found out a moment later. At the last moment, Valiant turned and blasted sideways, altering course to pass on the opposite side of the planet from the Daggers and missiles. As the enemy salvoes had aimed at my ship’s predicted course, they couldn’t see or react to Valiant’s surprise move quickly enough.
They did tear up our missiles and drones in a rolling burst of atomic weapons. “Not too bad,” I said, admiring the man’s tactics in spite of myself. “He sacrificed our unmanned assets but completely neutralized their missile barrage. Now let’s see what he does with it.”
As Valiant swung around the planet opposite from the exploding nukes, she unleashed a full salvo of primary and secondary beams. I saw both anti-proton weapons—APs—and lasers reach out at short range and hammer Stalker, slamming shots into her armored hull and boiling pieces off with every shot. I was amazed the Raptor ship could take the pounding. I was proud of my ship—my ship, dammit!—and how effective we’d made her over the last few months of hard work.
The enemy didn’t sit idle. Stalker’s big main beam lanced out, taking Valiant amidships and punching a hole through her from the top. It looked like one of the drone launch tubes and several secondary beams were destroyed, and I felt like someone had slugged me in the gut.
I heard Kwon growl next to me. “Bastards,” he muttered.
“Blame Sokolov. This is a fight he didn’t need, at least not right now.”
“I’ll rip him in half,” Kwon said, staring at the mess on the screen.
“Hold that thought,” I said.
Stalker had shot her load for now. I knew it took several seconds to recharge the big gun, but Valiant didn’t give the enemy that time, slamming blast after blast into Stalker as she zoomed past.
The battleship turned to present her tail to Valiant at close range, and for a moment I was sure Sokolov had made a fatal mistake. Suddenly the fire from my ship ceased altogether.
For an instant, hundreds of point-defense beams blazed from Stalker, pinning Valiant in a web of light.
The detail on the Raptor screen wasn’t good enough to be sure what had happened, but I could deduce that someone, either Sokolov or Hansen at the controls, had suspended weapons fire and threw up all the magnetic shields we had. That was the only explanation I could see for Valiant’s lack of damage. Except for the one bad hit, she looked fine.
In fact, she was decelerating and pointing back toward the planet and enemy in perfect tactical position. Her primary batteries were aiming and beginning to fire again. Stalker was out of position and seemed to be having trouble controlling her movements. Valiant drove shot after shot into her, giving her a beating I was certain she couldn’t take for long.
The mini-fortresses finally weighed in. Their combined beams weren’t as powerful as their one battleship, but by this time they had reloaded their missile tubes and another salvo of two hundred forty missiles vomited forth.
Fortunately, Valiant was still streaking away from them so the missiles would have to overtake her. In response, she stopped decelerating and began picking off the enemy nukes. While she was in no
immediate danger—the rockets would take tens of minutes to catch up with her even if she didn’t turn to run—the barrage did have the effect of relieving pressure on Stalker.
I watched as Stalker stopped tumbling, attitude jets flaring. Once still, I was able to get a better look at her on Ox’s long-range optics, which seemed to have improved lately. Marvin must have repaired some of the sensors.
“Stalker’s falling,” I said with growing pleasure. “Look…it’s slow, but accelerating. She’s got all her thrusters on but no main propulsion. They’re going to crash on the planet unless they get some help.”
“Good,” Kwon said. “Serves them right.”
We watched as shuttles launched from the fortresses, but it soon became evident that there was nothing to be done. The shuttles pulled back, probably full of evacuated crew, but it looked like Stalker was going down.
“Let’s see Valiant,” I said.
Fleeg ordered the view changed. It took a while to find her receding in the distance, though the flare of chasing missiles helped.
“She’s looping back around,” Fleeg said.
It was true. Valiant was aiming sideways, forcing the missiles to turn with her as she picked them off with beams. Every minute or so she fired a missile, detonating it among the enemy rockets as a defense and taking out several with each blast. It was an expensive technique but far better than getting hit. I couldn’t fault the man’s tactics.
“Valiant’s fine,” I mused. “But as long as those fortresses have missiles to fire, she can’t approach. She’s out of drones to provide a screen.”
“At least Stalker’s dead soon.”
“Yeah.” I watched the big ship continue to fall. “That’s odd.” I pointed at the screen. “They’re steering with their thrusters now and not trying to retard their fall. I don’t see anyone abandoning ship.”
“Maybe they’re committing suicide,” Kwon replied.
“No,” Fleeg said. “These rebels have no honor and so would not proudly eat their tails.” I understood this time he was speaking metaphorically. He leaned forward, narrowing his hawk’s eyes. “In fact, I believe they’re trying to get away.”
