April

by Mackey Chandler

"Things are less settled than you might think," Eddie said cautiously. "When I left, Jon was polling the security staff to see where their loyalties lie. If the Earthies push too hard and demand the sort of arrest they tried on ISSII. Well, Jon is not one to take illegal orders and try to hide behind them later to escape responsibility. If he and the other sworn officers split with Earth, how much easier the other residents, who don't have to weigh their solemn oath. He was concerned enough to be checking each shuttle flight to see if they might try to sneak an unprovoked paramilitary raid in a scheduled flight."

  "And what," Happy asked, "Was Jon prepared to do, if he found such a team doing basically an invasion?"

  "He didn't inform me and I wasn't around to see how his poll of the department went. But I'd point out he gave you a significant piece of department equipment to defend yourselves. That shows he will commit," Eddie said.

  "So how about you? Do you want to try to keep your hands clean and see if you can distance yourself from how we exited IISSII? Or do you vote to do as much damage to them as we can, before going home?" Easy asked him.

  "There's no way I'm coming out of this smelling sweet to the Norte Americanos. Even if I physically resisted you and came back duct taped to restrain me, it wouldn't matter. Everyone in this ship is marked. Might as well be hung for wolf as a lamb."

  "Okay then, it's unanimous to attack the sats, that's the main thing we wanted to know. Lets pump it down and we will explain everybody's battle stations," Happy ordered. "We can talk - talk more later, if they don't shoot our little butts off."

  With the coffin lock open they mounted the gun for Easy in the wider center section and Eddie would be prepared to shoot a missile out through the narrower opening on either side. April would have to keep the lock away from the enemy until quite close, then turn to let them fire from that side and fight the laser herself. She had a routine set for the ship to take a reading of their attitude on a single command and hold it, because they knew she could not work the laser and fly at the same time.

  They had suit patch material laid out and the Drs. Singh were prepared to help anyone with a leak. Easy was very aware he was asking April to do more than her experience warranted. He even considered leaving the machine gun in the case and joining her to run the flight controls and laser as a team. But he was not sure what it would take to kill a military shuttle and he knew the machine gun would be effective up close, even if they had some technology to absorb the laser.

  With everything prepared all they had to do was wait. And their plasma drive burn had lifted them so quickly to the higher orbit, it was a six hour wait before the Pretty as Jade came close enough they could detect its search radar. When they did so they gave everybody a chance to use the toilet, loaded the p-suits with water, medicines and snack bars in the helmet racks and fresh absorbent pads in case they were bottled up too long to hold it. Nobody had the equipment or desire for a micro catheter like the military used. They wanted to store as much air as possible in separate tanks, because they had no idea if they might lose some to combat damage, so they pumped down for almost two hours before cracking the lock open. They could crack the carbon dioxide as long as they had energy. But they needed enough volume to fill the cabin back to a breathable pressure and would prefer a normal mix, not oxygen rich.

  The crew of the Pretty as Jade had apparently decided to overshoot and do a quick look see, then burn back to a rendezvous. They determined to let him pass and come back. Only the laser would have tracked and fired at so quickly a moving target and they would have had to fire up the radar and give away their position to use the data through the navigation computer. Even then it was not a real combat targeting program and Easy doubted if it would work quickly enough to intercept missiles if Jade launched them, or if they had automated jamming equipment.

  The Chinese ship stopped their braking burn about fifty kilometers short of the radar reflectors and coasted by almost as far away from the decoy as the Happy Lewis, but on the opposite side. They had slowed way down to about 600 meters a second, but turned the ship as it went by so it was nose on to the decoy all the way past, presenting a minimum cross section to shoot at. Someone obviously took Easy's threat very seriously. Easy expressed his judgment to April that the fellow knew what he was doing and if they started shooting he did not expect him to sit around with his mouth hanging open, wondering what to do. They'd start shooting back pretty fast.

  The Jade braked to a stop about a hundred kilometers past the decoy and sat there for awhile. "He's trying to make sense of it I bet. He's looking at high definition video and he doesn't see anything but maybe a few points of light from the reflectors," Easy speculated.

  Then the boards showed a new radar at a much higher frequency, as the Jade moved in to approached the decoy.

  "He's looking it over with a targeting radar. Hope he doesn't swing it around and search the entire volume around him. It might be good enough to see some of the gaps in our coverage. He might, or might not, show the decoy's reflectors as individual targets. Too bad we didn't make it more complicated to drive him nuts. We could have left a cloud of trash and junk and he might think we had a mishap and blew up for some reason."

  From the back Eddie said, "In submarine warfare on Earth's oceans sometimes a submarine would blow oil and clothing and various kinds of junk which would float out a torpedo tube, to make the ships above trying to kill her think she had broken up. Same idea."

  "Well if you know any more tricks we can apply successfully to our circumstances, feel free to offer them," Easy requested. "When they get back to the decoy there are a couple possibilities. They may sit and consult with home, or they may send somebody out in a suit to examine the reflectors for any clues they give about us. Or they may move off again because they're worried about an ambush. Anybody else have any other ideas about what they might do?"

  Singh Nam-Kah spoke up. "They are Chinese military. They will ask what they should do. Initiative is rarely encouraged and often punished, even if it succeeds. Especially when they are able to talk to their mission command for direction. They won't move off if you have not fired on them, because of their great arrogance and because it would look cowardly, not thoughtfully cautious to their superiors."

  "Thanks Ma'am. I appreciate you know these people. Keep telling me how they'd think. OK, if they stop and put a man out it will take him maybe twelve to fifteen minutes to suit up and jet over to look even superficially at the decoy. But if they just ask what to do and they have a real decisive guy running their operation, he may just tell them to high tail it out of here in just a minute or two. It will take us over nine minutes to burn in on him, flip and burn to a halt. So he could be well away by the time we get there if he runs."

  "And maybe it would be OK?" April asked. "We just let him go home?"

  "I wish it was that simple. If we shoot up the sats and he sticks around at this level he could be right back on us. Next time he might succeed in sneaking up on us. And he may just be the first of a couple looking for us. USNA was complaining about us also. And I don't really want him to leave and go sit at M3, waiting for us to come home either. No, I'm afraid we need to take him if he can. We should start the burn when he stops at the decoy, it will give him just time enough to look around with radar and shake off the twitchies and he will either be talking to his handlers, or have them suiting a man up and cycling him out in the back. With a little luck he'll be too busy to see us coming until we do our braking burn."

  "If we used the plasma drive to decelerate, aimed right at him, instead of to the side and ended the burn on a power ramp up and chop off so our exhaust plume played over him at full power, do you think it would damage his ship?" April asked.

  "I don't know. I have no idea what the power densities are very far from our tail. But even if it doesn't damage him, it won't help him make calm decisions to see a white hot jet of plasma coming at him. The closer the better, but we have to leave enough margin we don't accidentally ram them. I'll allo
w two hundred meters. Somebody's gotta try it out, so it might as well be us," he said grinning. He started keying the flight profile in the navigation computer. "We'll use it both burns. It'll be pointed straight away from them the first burn. They won't see it and we need to conserve the regular fuel. But run off the accumulators. Don't program to crank up the fusion power until we are right next to them."

  They watched the Chinese ship creep back. The crew was surprisingly cautious. They were back to the decoy and the Happy Lewis was on count to burn and meet them. Suddenly Easy slapped the kill button and said: "Abort, Abort. I have another radar coming in. Somebody else is joining us."

  The Chinese had probably seen the same signal before them, with their military level gear. Within seconds of stopping they had deployed two suited figures. They must have been riding in the lock, suited up ready to go out. Even at their telescope's highest magnification, they were just fuzzy little silhouettes from kilometers away. You couldn't see their helmet faceplates, or their fingers and thumbs.

  When Eddie sneezed in the back, the vibration shook the whole vessel hard enough to made their image shake violently on the screen. At first they didn't understand what they were doing. The suited men were waving their arms around and easing closer to each other. It looked like they were going to have a karate match in space suits. "I got it!" April announced. "They are gathering up our decoy. They are pulling the wire in to loops and making a bundle of them. It looks like someone pantomiming coiling a power cord back up to put it away."

  "What a strange waste of time," Dr. Singh remarked. Watching on the screen they had rigged now for the passengers.

  Very quickly they finished their task and hurried back to the shelter of their ship, before the approaching vessel caught them in the open.

  "Their superiors probably ordered them to do so over the radio," His wife remarked. "They would want to examine it themselves. Rather than trust their report."

  "Well it will confuse the other ship coming in. They had two targets on the scope and they merged and then when they get here - one's gone. The Chinese ship looks big enough to take us inboard. It probably has an inboard fuel tank to reach this orbit, but maybe the new guys will think they pulled us into their cargo bay."

  "OK," April asked. "What's your game plan now?"

  "If it's another Chinese ship we sit and hope they separate, because I don't want to fight them both at the same time. If it's somebody else's and they sit talking, let's still wait. They still may decide to take us together if we approach. But if they show any hostility to each other at all, lets dive in and follow our plan with the drive. I'll want to turn so we can see both ships from the lock when we stop."

  "Eddie, if he looks dangerous you carefully put a missile in the new guy and then the Chinese second, because hopefully we may have already damaged them with the drive as we come in. April you use the laser on anything which looks like a weapons system real fast. Their laser mast first and any bays you see open up, because it probably means a missile launch. No finesse trying to wing them. Just keep burning the crap out of it at high power."

  "Where's the best place to aim one of these for the most damage?" Eddie asked.

  "Don't get fancy on me," Easy growled with no humor in his voice. "Just aim for the middle with the selector on show and release, because if you waste one, I'm gonna shoot the other one up your ass to show you how!"

  "Yes Sir, Captain Sir," Eddie replied, rattled at the unaccustomed stern demeanor.

  April was trying not to laugh at the unexpected threat. "It's Aye-aye. Eddie," she corrected him, teasing. Their boards showed the incoming ship painting the Jade with millimeter targeting radar and the Jade turned their target radar, on besides both running navigation radars. Both were also transmitting heavy encrypted data traffic on multiple channels. The Jade turned her nose to the incoming space plane in a classic minimum profile. The new arrival came to a sudden high acceleration stop with no taper off and flipped right over to look at them. It was showy piloting, but it would have been much safer to go past and come back, keeping his face and radar to the Chinese ship, the way they had approached the decoy. It was bold to the point of recklessness.

  "The Chinese commander just missed his chance to put a shot up his butt while he was blind. He may regret not doing so very soon." Easy predicted.

  "USNA Space Plane James Kelly here. Joseph Buckley commanding." He introduced himself with a casualness that had to be fabricated. You folks wouldn't have seen the shuttle Happy Lewis hereabouts would you? It's real puzzling, but she seems to have gone missing and there was a radar return from her here not an hour ago."

  "This is the heavenly vessel Pretty as Jade," the commander of the Chinese boat informed him. "We are not folk. Our command does not send peasants to man a space vessel." He didn't offer his name, which was a deliberate insult.

  "Probably a glitch in translation there fella." Wayne drawled. "But you wouldn't mind I'm sure, if I send a couple of my boys, fine officers not peasants, to take a look at your pretty ship, especially the big cargo hold y'all got. We have orders to take the Happy Lewis and I don't see it anywhere else. And if I'm wrong about where she ended up, you can all have a cup of tea together or whatever and we'll be moseying along."

  "We also are ordered to capture the Happy Lewis and arrest two people on the ship. One of them is a Chinese subject so our claim is superior to yours in regard to her. If there is anything left when we have fulfilled our duty, you are welcome to it. Until then you will stand off from us and maintain your distance if we find this vessel."

  Easy just growled at the point he spoke so casually of "taking" the Happy Lewis.

  "Go Easy. Attack now," Singh Nam-Kah called from the back. "They'd skin him alive at home if he ever let foreigners on his ship. They'll end up fighting now for sure. It's just a matter of exchanging a few more words. They're at a fatal impasse."

  Easy slapped the button to send the camera boom home and hit the navigation computer actuate square. There was no wait, because there was no window to count to. The drive kicked right in. It seemed even more important hearing what was happening, knowing they'd be cut off when they flipped to brake.

  They listened to the outraged Chinese commander explain in profane detail why a sovereign ship of the Chinese people did not subject itself to search by barbarians and how he would rather extend social hospitality to swine freshly rolled in the mud. "Keep talking baby." Easy encouraged him. The plasma drive caused static on the radio. Easy hoped it was just internal and not something they were broadcasting. Neither of the other ships seemed to notice anything yet.

  "Commander Buckley," the Chinese officer said, at least acknowledging the other's rank, "I see you deploying men outside your airlock. You will take them back inboard and leave, or I will be compelled to fire on you."

  "Now that, as they say friend, would have - consequences. Why don't you welcome two of them and you'll live to bounce your grandchildren on your knee?"

  "Uh-Oh," April said. "He sounds like you Easy."

  An excited voice broke the channel. "Laser fire! One of my men is - gone."

  "Harold, fight your ship. Mr. Edwards disperse your men and direct fire at their cockpit."

  "I hate this when we can't see what's going on," Easy said."

  "I think I have his laser shot out." A new American voice said.

  "The cockpit is Swiss cheese." The voice which must be Edwards reported. "Not armored at all. Ports shot out. I doubt if anyone can be alive there. Oh Shit! Coming out the air lock! Suited troops. We need laser support."

  "Ten seconds to braking burn," April calmly informed her mates, as the ship tumbled over hard to point its drive the other way. "Three hundred twenty second burn," she informed them. She was surprised at herself, how steady her voice was, as they hurried to kill these strangers. Then the electric drive came on and pushed them down hard in their seats. Over the increased interference the drive created on the radio they heard a static squawk of voices break
ing radio discipline, as the plasma torch relit pointed right at them. But spewing plasma ahead of them now the drive interfered too much for them to understand speech, it was just bursts of louder static with the cadence of speech.

  There was no way now for them not to see the Happy Lewis. It must seem a sudden nova in their heavens. They watched the countdown to the end of their burn knowing they were an easy shot right now, but confident the others were under orders to capture them, not destroy them. The garbled transmissions from the Jade ceased suddenly, reducing the babble, then the drive cut off and they heard clearly again Wayne telling his number two.

  "If they turn the damn thing towards us burn them."

  "Yes Sir. But our orders are to take them prisoner."

  "I don't give a shit. Look what they did to the Chinese." Unthinking they were still broadcasting in the clear. "Get a missile lock on them right now."

  Cutting off from six G to nothing was such a shock, April wondered if it was worth spraying their exhaust on the Jade point-blank. She felt stunned and queasy from the sudden transition.

  "Damn!" the American said. "They're too close to launch on. The missile might ram them, but the warhead needs a good kilometer to arm. You'd think they expect to run out a frigging boarding plank to run in this close."

  "What the hell is that crap on them? It looks like flocking on their boat, or fur"

  "Harold, Hail the Happy Lewis and demand their surrender."

  Easy was half way back to the machine gun by now. April knew what to do and he hadn't wasted any words on her. He could feel the Happy twisting, turning under him to take up the firing position - still listening to the chatter.

  "They're turning sideways to us and deploying a camera arm."

  "Good. Let them look all they want. Just watch out for the torch from their stern. Is it their drive or a weapon?"

  "I think it could be both," his second answered.

  As soon as they were sideways April stabbed the hot key on the computer to hold position on auto pilot and grabbed the laser controls. There was a post like a periscope sticking up from behind the cabin of the space plane. The laser beam from it was almost invisible when it flashed despite all the debris, but little star-bursts of molten metal droplets off the edge of the Chinese ship, showed where it was keeping two suited figures pinned behind the hulk. They were popping up and peppering the USNA shuttle with small arms fire, then ducking down quickly to move to a new location to fire.