“Me too, Captain. Herg’s not the only one with a history.” Ortiz looks sheepish.
Danielli floats up and spins around to look between me and Herg. “Then with your permission, Ma’am, I suggest Herg, Ortiz and I exit to the dronetugs and take them over. I am presuming your plan is to maneuver the drive back into place?”
I nod. “Anyone in possession of both the ship and the drive would be planning it. Working out if it’s even possible. Understanding how everything has to connect up. But there’s a big difference between weeks of planning, analysis and committee-based decision-making, and our need. Which is somewhat more urgent.”
Then there’s my idea.
Manually piloting the tugs to bring a skyscraper-sized battlecruiser-drive into place is fraught with danger. One slip, and a man might be crushed, or flung away into space. I know what Danielli is risking, and it’s not a request I can make.
I hesitate. “So, yes. It is my plan. But not my order to you and your men. I’m the ship’s captain, not your direct superior. I can’t order you to do that.”
“But I can.” General Garnek floats through the open helmdoor, and I belatedly realize it would have been smart to close that. “Excellent suggestion, Danielli. Take Herg and get into position.”
“No.” The Rykkan Chief stands stiff and proud. “Take me. Not the weak ones.” He indicates Herg and Ortiz.
Danielli smiles. “I’ll take you all. The more dronetugs we can run at once, the faster we’ll get the drive in.”
“You’ll need to be better than fast,” Garnek says. The anxious look in his eyes behind his faceplate belies his calm manner. “The Scorpion is only an hour away from her return. And she’s presumably worked out that something isn’t quite right, because what remains of her fleet is launching from planetside. If we don’t get the Constellation operational in the next thirty minutes, we’re all dead.”
I like it when there’s no pressure.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
“Can we get any more power in here?” I ask Zhang, who has stationed himself at a mezzanine workpod to my left. “Maybe redirect what is used elsewhere on the ship? I’d like to light this helmroom up.” Secretly I am worried that my audacious plan might require more power than we have on hand. I figure if I ask Zhang to investigate what is on tap without panicking anyone, that will help our mood. Then I can panic for everyone.
Zhang works on the controlpanel in front of him, then looks up at me. “All power available was already being used when we entered, Captain. I’m picking up messages from other engineering crews on deck saying that their energy supplies are shut down. They are leaving the ship.”
“Leaving?” I furrow my brow.
Aktip answers. “They have been ordered, Madam Captain. I monitored the comms.” She speaks in her normal flat tone, but I see the beginnings of a nervous swivel inside her suit.
“Which will also mean a party of soldiers will board to investigate,” Garnek adds. “Won’t be long before they discover what has happened and who is here.”
“Then we seal the helmroom. With all the trouble we had with access, we’ll be hard to dig out.” I get busy on my own panel, and the helmroom doors slide closed. I’m also painfully aware that in so doing, I’m locking Danielli, the Chief, Herg and Aktip out. A faint blue glow circles the holodome above. I presume this indicates some battlesafe mode.
Garnek points up and around. “The helmroom was deliberately constructed as a sphere, buried in the top third of the ship. Hard to penetrate. In theory it’s self-sustaining. Never tested though.” He looks at me from inside his helmet and says nothing.
I nod. I’m thinking of Danielli and the others, who aren’t under the protection of our spherical cocoon. I tap open our closed comms. “Danielli, status?”
“Exiting locks to the dronetugs, Ma’am. The ship was deserted—any ideas why?”
“All work crews ordered to leave. We may have shown our hand too early. It’s all on you now. Expect company. We’ll do what we can from here to prevent access. Make haste, as soon as you are in position begin operations. Don’t wait for my order.”
“Aye, Ma’am.” Danielli’s confidence is reassuring.
“Indy, we can lock down the ship,” Mitch says, looking into his own commPanel. “There’s a special mode. Want me to do it?”
I look at Garnek.
He shrugs. “Smart thinking. I never had call for it. No one ever got this close.”
“Then do it,” I say to Mitch. I mentally cross my fingers for sufficient power, now that the work crews have gone.
“Needs us both to authorize.” He places his hand on his chair’s holopanel and I do the same on mine. “Colonel Jackson requests lock down mode.”
<
“Captain Jackson authorizes override,” I say, and hold my breath.
<
All lights dim, but the blue glow around the lower edge of the holodome shifts to red.
Danielli’s voice comes through the comms. “Dronetugs under manual control and maneuvering Constellation’s drive into position.”
“Acknowledged.” I try to sound calm. Mitch, Garnek, Aktip and Plexi are all looking at me.
A siren erupts, startling us all. Plexi taps her navpanel, then looks at me with wide eyes. “Warships. Advancing on us.”
There is nothing we can do. I hear an echo of the Scorpion’s strange prophetic metaphor in my head: “We’ll be sitting ducks, unable to move.”
Only this time, she is not part of the “we.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
I slap my commPanel. “Danielli. We have company. How long?”
I hear a grunt in my helmet comm in reply. “Sorry Ma’am. We’re having to jump from drone to drone to up the speed. The Rykkan’s idea. It’s tricky,”—I hear another grunt and imagine him pushing off one tug—“if we miss a target there’s no coming back. I estimate three minutes for the drive to begin entering the ship.”
“We’ll try to draw fire, Danielli.”
Plexi looks at me in alarm. “How?”
I point to Garnek. “My guess is that the General here didn’t take a shuttle up to us. He would have looked for the fastest, most capable ship that just happened to be available to him.”
Plexi sucks in a breath, audible behind her faceplate. “The Slingshot.”
Garnek nods confirmation. “I don’t see how that helps.”
I grin. “Then watch.” I tap into my commPanel and activate a private hack channel into the stolen cruiser. Errikson built these things with a few extras. He assumed that no one knew that, but pirates have a habit of finding these things. The smart ones.
I punch up a display and manage to direct a small holo to the center table below us. A schematic of my ship appears. It’s docked to the side of the Constellation. I power up and impel it slowly away—but fast enough to alert anyone monitoring movement. The ship is several hundred meters from us when Plexi reports a splinter group of warships moving away from the main group heading our way.
I smile. Exactly what I would do: use part of my force to track down and capture a rogue ship. Spread out and wait.
They’ll be expecting the lightCruiser to flee. Instead I steer it to face the main incoming force.
They won’t be expecting a suicide mission.
Especially one carrying a powerful cargo.
I launch the fDrive.
The holo shows the ship dwindle to a dot, and I activate autozoom. We track the ship as I turn it back toward the main cluster of advancing ships. The Scorpion’s captains are no fools, however, and their primary formation shifts instantly, as if constructing an open-ended spherical net around the lightCruiser.
The cruiser speeds into the net, which starts to close behind me, and I register alerts from the ship’s sensors showing armed weaponry trained on it. Its shields are up, but I wonder what they are waiting for—then I realize that the Scorpion expect
s me to be aboard. She wants me alive.
I play her game and bring the cruiser to a halt. In a standoff, encircled by a slowly closing group of warships.
The cruiser’s comm blares. “Jackson and crew. Surrender and you will be given safe passage. Shut down all power except life-support and prepare for boarding.”
I hold my finger over an unusual icon on my holopad. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Plexi peering at me, but I keep my gaze trained on the holo above the table. The circle is tightening, the gap has closed. I wait until the inevitable—the sphere to form completely and close around my ship.
“Jackson, acknowledge.”
I cannot stall much longer, but I have no idea how close Danielli is. “Captain Jackson acknowledging comms. How will you guarantee safe passage? From where I sit, it doesn’t look safe.”
Another voice comes through the comms. Private channel to the cruiser. A female voice. “No games, Jackson. You’ll be safe. My personal guarantee.”
The Scorpion knows I’m important. But I sense she is still missing some vital information.
“Then send your personal escort. I will shut down systems as requested.”
“You have it. Standby.” I hear the Scorpion’s victorious smile escaping through her tone.
I shut down the cruiser’s drives and watch the holo intently. A tiny object detaches from a ship in the sphere and makes its way to my trapped cruiser.
My finger hovers.
The object is close—only a few hundred meters from the cruiser.
I tap my finger.
The entire holo flashes brilliant white, and gradually fades, leaving us all blinking to restore vision.
My ship is still encircled.
But the Constellation’s sensors tell me that every single warship in that sphere no longer has power.
Thousands of vessels, dead in space. Including mine. A pang of regret crosses my thoughts. I liked my cruiser. Maybe I’ll get it back one day.
“What the—?” Mitch is staring at the holo.
I give my crew a rueful smile. “I didn’t kill anyone. As long as they have a rescue operation, they’ll have enough oxygen to last until they’re picked up. Though they might get a little cold while they wait.”
“Ma’am, I am unable to understand,” Aktip says.
Garnek clears his throat. “Let me hypothesize. Captain Jackson here just used a highly illegal—and massively powerful by the look of it—EMP hull-penetrating device to fry the main operational systems of over a thousand ships.” He narrows his eyes at me. “A device outlawed at the end of the last Sector War. All state bodies agreed ownership created too great a risk. Small enough to transport unnoticed and too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. Every instance was dumped into a remote red dwarf.”
I shrug. “Every instance except one.”
“Where did you get it?” Plexi’s face is flushed, even through her faceplate, which appears to be partially steamed. There’s no doubting Plexi has a thing for weaponry.
“Rykkamon. Paid a lot of money for it. I hid it in the cruiser. I wasn’t expecting to use it. I was hoping to trade it for information about Papa’s death.”
“I think you just did. You’re a lot smarter than I gave you credit. However”—the Scorpion’s voice hardens—“I can no longer guarantee safe passage.”
I immediately cut the comms channel to my defunct lightCruiser. With no power to her vessel, I have no idea how the Scorpion has kept the channel open.
Zhang looks up at me from his workpod, panic in his eyes. “Captain. The Scorpion is in the group of splinter ships. They’re reforming and coming around on Sergeant Danielli and the others right now.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
“Drive is entering the ship.”
“Danielli, you’ll have company very soon. Abandon project.” I can’t place my friends in danger. We’ve done enough.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am. Comms breaking up. One minute and we should be able to let the drive run accurately on inertia. As long as you can stop it.”
As long as you can stop it. That’s what I want to know as well. I turn to Mitch. “You wanted to know my big idea?” He says nothing, just looks. “I thought I’d better share. You know ... in case.”
“Get on with it, Sis.”
I feel the tension in my jaw. “The Constellation has a self-repair system. It’s why we never see any damage. I’m guessing that the reason for the drive’s surgically precise extraction is that it could be put back together using the ship’s own system.”
I hear Mitch exhale and watch his faceplate cloud over. “You’re guessing?”
I nod. “I watched Aktip get ‘self-repaired’ on Rykkamon. You had the same experience as me on Takao, when we were badly wounded. If flesh and blood can be encouraged to accelerate self-repair, why not an inert object?”
“An asteroid-sized hole and a do-it-yourself engine installation? Seems like a long shot to me. Not so much a guess, as a lottery bet.”
“If you have a better idea, now’s the time to share.” I hold his gaze.
Garnek regards me with a look of curiosity. “I’d bet on Frederic’s daughter. Seems to me one of his little secrets has just been revealed.”
I don’t have any idea what he is on about, but now is not the time to question why Mitch and I know so little about Papa’s secret life.
“Sorry to interrupt the chit-chat. Drive entering under inertia. Abandoning drones and—” Danielli’s comm goes dead.
I ignore Mitch and turn my attention to my holopanel. I locate the ship’s maintenance systems and tap through the commands.
The Rykkan Chief’s voice bursts into my comms. “Captain, open locks! We cannot enter!”
I stay focused on my panel, frantically punching settings and yell at my comm-mike. “Mitch, disable lock down. Let them in.”
“You’re the Constellation’s Captain. Now I understand.” The Scorpion’s voice enters my earpiece. She speaks softly. “I have your friends in my weapon range. Right now they are outside starboard minilock 138. Open the locks and you save your friends. But your defense will disappear, and I will force your surrender. Or keep your defense and lose your friends. Your choice.” Her voice clicks off. I have no way of knowing if she is telling the truth, but I will not abandon my friends. I locate her channel and block all comms.
“Let them in, Mitch.”
“Already done, as ordered, Captain.”
<
Really? You have to ask? “Confirm drive installation. Proceed at maximum speed.”
I see Garnek’s eyes widen as the holodome above us springs to life, showing an interior view of the massive drive descending into the bowels of the battlecruiser. I have no idea how severed connections, pipes, cables and bulkheads become reattached to the drive’s enigmatic interior, but this time I do more than mentally cross my fingers.
<
“What does that mean?” I look at Plexi and Aktip in panic.
“I dunno. You’re the Captain,” Plexi says, looking down at her panel. “But I think we’re running down the battery to start the engine.”
Trust Plexi to sum it up so simply.
“We are in. Close locks.” It’s Herg. He sounds hurt.
“Madam Captain. Lock down mode is unavailable.” Aktip’s head swivels inside her helmet.
“Constellation, this is Captain Jackson. Engage lock down mode.”
<
I take a deep breath and look up at the holodome. The drive is almost in place. The Constellation’s system had done what I expected: converted the drive’s inertia to energy and slowed it down, as well as provide more juice for the self-repair. Whoever modified it was a genius.
“I heard rumors of top-to-bottom mods—after we’d been ordered off.” Gar
nek is also looking up at the holodome. “But nothing of this magnitude. Then again”—he looks directly at me—“your father was much like you. Ambitious to the point of defiance.”
Papa did this? Mitch and I exchange glances.
“Are you closing the locks or not?”
Herg. I look to Mitch and the General. “Sorry, Herg. Operation not possible. Can you make it back to the helmroom?” And where is Danielli? My heart sinks.
“Negative. Preparing to engage enemy. Good luck with the drive.”
My friends are dying. Or dead. I draw myself up to leave. I will not let the Scorpion get the better of me.
Garnek is watching me. “Let me go to them. I’m no use to you here.”
“No use?” I look at the dome then back to Garnek. “You’re the only one of us who has actually commanded this ship in battle.”
He shrugs. “You two have full authorization. You only need me as an adviser.” He pushes over to the exit lock. “And that I can do over the comms. Let me out. Maybe I can save them.”
My mouth tightens and I nod to Zhang to open the helmdoors.
The General is barely out of sight and the doors closing when the dome’s red glow intensifies and an insistent buzzer sounds in my ear. I whip my head around to Aktip and Plexi.
But it’s Mitch who answers. “Proximity alarm. Sensors say around two thousand Jovian fighters just appeared in local space. Got any more EMP bombs?”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
“Where in hell were they hiding?” My brain asks my rhetorical question out loud.
“We’d always suspected the Jovians had a contingency plan.” Garnek answers over the comm, breathing heavily. I envisage him pushing through the passageways, twisting and turning in an attempt to reach Danielli, Herg, Ortiz and the Chief before the inevitable. “My guess is they’d gathered a strong base somewhere off Galantria, or close by, waiting on a hyper-relay, or local spies.”
Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1) Page 23
