"Vyx," Trader Vyx said, identifying himself. "That's Nelligen and that's Byers," he said pointing to his two companions. "Those folks over there are from Bradley Mining Surveys. They dug us out after the Tsgardi buried us."
"We've been trying to raise you on the com for two days."
"Our communications are out as well."
"We saw the Tsgardi bodies in the bay. It looks like you had quite a battle?"
"There are a lot more bodies in one of the storerooms. The fight was a bit one-sided, even though we were outnumbered, because we had the advantage of fighting on our own ground."
"I'm glad to hear that you're all okay."
"We're glad that you happened by."
"We didn't just happen by. Commander Carver ordered us here to search for you. This base is way outside our patrol area. I have to report in, and we need to talk. Is there a place where we can have a little privacy?"
"Sure. Let's use that room over there," Vyx said pointing to a conference room.
Kinley spoke with the Thor and then turned to Vyx. "We've just received a message that Stewart is under attack by a large Raider force. If you're ready, we can return to the ship. The captain is anxious to leave orbit immediately."
"I'm definitely ready to leave this base, but there is still a large cache of weapons here. Its older ordnance, but some of it is pretty dangerous stuff."
"How long will it take to transport it?"
"Since we can't bring a shuttle into the bay, I estimate about a week. If we could get the flight bay entrance cleared, it could be transported in about two days."
Kinley whistled. "That complicates things. I'd better report this."
After relaying the information, he turned to Vyx again. "The captain is sending down a platoon of marines. They'll garrison this base to protect the cache while we respond to the attack on Stewart. Get your things together. We'll be leaving shortly."
"There's no fresh food left and the synthesizer supplies are low."
"They're bringing sufficient food and supplies to support the detachment."
"I told the folks from the mining company that this was a Space Command outpost. It would have been better if I could have avoided connecting myself to Space Command, but at the time I thought that we'd need their help contacting Stewart."
"I'll take care of it," Kinley said.
While Vyx left to get his few personal belongings, Kinley approached the people from Bradley Mining Surveys.
"Thank you for digging out our outpost," Kinley said. "If you'll submit an invoice we'll see that you're reimbursed for the effort that you've expended. Would you be willing to clear the rest of the rubble away so that we can use the flight bay properly?"
"We can do that," Denault said. "We've already moved the largest part anyway."
"Thank you. We appreciate it. One more thing," he said, pausing for effect. "If you ever again see any of the three people that were in here when you first arrived, you don't know them, or their names. That's for your safety as well as theirs. Do you understand?"
Denault nodded. "I understand, Commander."
The two additional shuttles from the ship arrived about thirty minutes later, and a tug dropped off a quarter-container loaded with supplies before returning to the ship. The container held sufficient food, clothing, and medical supplies to support a full platoon for up to twelve months. A complete communications equipment package was also standard issue when setting up a temporary base.
The original shuttle lifted off with the three Intelligence operatives aboard, and within an hour, the Thor was leaving orbit at top speed. It would take about two months to return to Stewart, but a call for help from any Space Command ship or base, meant that all warships in the deca-sector dropped whatever they were doing and headed there at their maximum speed.
* * *
It was five days since the Raider captain had tried to sneak a few dozen people onto the asteroid with sacks of Corplastizine explosives. Their intent had obviously been to destroy the surface-mounted laser and torpedo platforms. Afterward, one of Stewart's bots had snagged a floating body, or rather half a body, and brought it inside for examination. About half of the bodies had been vaporized when laser pulses hit the small canisters of Dithulene-35, the catalytic agent for the Corplastizine, that they carried. The plastic explosive immediately detonated as the two components came into contact with one another. Marker tags, mixed into the Corplastizine at the time of its manufacture, were found embedded in the recovered remains of the saboteur. The information would be sent on to SCI so that they might attempt to track the source. Those not killed in explosions, had met their maker when lasers perforated their space suits.
Jenetta was returning to the CIC after making a trip to her quarters to feed her pets, shower, and change her clothes when a chief petty officer intercepted her. He informed her that there were several merchants demanding to see her. They were waiting at the main entrance to the Space Command combat center.
"Tell them that I'm not available, and that they should see the appropriate leasing office officer to handle whatever problem they have."
"They claim to be representatives of the Merchant's Association, Commander. They say that they've received the run around long enough, and if you won't see them they're going to close all the shops and picket the concourse."
"Just what I need now," Jenetta said, exhaling loudly. "Okay, I'll give them five minutes. Bring them to the conference room down the hall. I'll be there in a few minutes.
When Jenetta arrived at the conference room ten minutes later, she found six Marines guarding the door. 'War Active' status required that there be two armed guards in escort of each unauthorized civilian in a restricted area. The Marines braced to attention as she approached. As she entered the conference room, she recognized all three of the merchants.
"Well, Mr. Diggot," she said to the head of the local merchant's association, "what do you find more important than our current crisis with the Raiders?"
"That is the issue that we wish to discuss, Commander. We want to know what's going on. There has been no news released, other than that the base is under siege by an overwhelming force of Raider warships."
"I'm handling the situation."
"What's Space Command doing about this?"
"I told you. I'm handling the situation."
"Not you. We mean your superiors."
"I have no superiors within four hundred light-years. We're too far away from any other base to expect support during this situation. I'm coping, using all the resources at my disposal."
"We should open a dialog with the Raiders. Perhaps we can offer them something to leave us alone."
"Buy them off? Not likely, Mr. Diggot."
"How do you know? Have you tried?"
"No, and I don't intend to. Space Command doesn't pay tribute to anyone. This is our base and we're going to defend it to the last man or woman."
"We're only suggesting that we might reach an amicable solution if we speak to the Raiders. They're business people."
"Business people?" Jenetta echoed. "They may call themselves a corporation, but they're not business people. They're pirates, slavers, murderers, and thieves. I've already spoken to them, and they've spoken to us, with their attacks. There's only one way to deal with Raiders, and that's what I'm doing. Allow me to make myself perfectly clear, gentlemen. While I normally welcome suggestions and dialog from the merchants on the base, this is a military operation and I don't think that any of you are particularly qualified to offer advice in that arena. I will handle this situation, and there will be no negotiations with the Raiders. Now, I suggest that you return to your businesses and concentrate on them, while I concentrate on my business."
"I intend to file a protest with Space Command, Commander. You have no right to risk our lives like this."
"This is a military base in a very forward location. You knew that when you left your nice, safe, former homes to come here. As the base commander, I am the fir
st, last, and only authority in this part of space, but you're welcome to file all the protests that you wish with Space Command HQ on Earth. You should have an answer in several weeks, but the situation will be over by that time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the CIC. The Marines will escort you out. Good day, gentlemen."
Jenetta turned on her heel and left the conference room, leaving three very dissatisfied merchants behind her. She didn't have time to think about that as she had only been back in the CIC for a few minutes when one of the watch officers noticed that a ship was moving.
"What kind of ship and which way is it headed?"
"It's a light destroyer and it's headed directly away from the port's entrance."
"Com, notify all gunners to be alert."
"The ship is slowing, Commander."
Jenetta watched the holographic image in the center of the room. As the ship turned and began heading towards the station, she said, "Tactical, fire tubes four and nine as soon you get a lock. Hold fire on all other tubes."
The ship picked up speed quickly, heading for the base's entrance doors. Torpedoes armed with fusion warheads belched from launching tubes near the port entrance as the Raider ship's course was firmly established. The ship and torpedoes all reached the same point in space within micro-seconds of one another.
"Wow!" one of the junior officers manning a console shouted as the fusion warheads detonated and the ship suddenly erupted into a gigantic ball of plasma that burned as hot as a sun for several seconds. The blast winked out quickly and returned the area to relative darkness. In space, a nuclear explosion looks like a giant spotlight being turned on and instantly off. There is normally no fire, flame, or smoke. The effect they witnessed had to be the result of explosives inside the ship's bow, coupled with a hull full of oxygen and combustible material. Realizing that he had screamed out loud, the young officer looked towards Jenetta with an anxious look on his face. As if he feared censure for his outburst, he said, "Sorry, Commander."
Jenetta smiled slightly and said, "Wow, indeed, Lieutenant."
"That would have done some damage," Lieutenant Ashraf said. "It must have had ten tons of Corplastizine in it."
"That was the way that we broke into Raider Three," Jenetta said. "We filled the bow of a captured ship with explosives and flew it against the doors. They're using our tactics, but they didn't count on the torpedoes. Neither Dixon nor this base had exterior torpedo capability when we took it. That will probably change on other Raider bases now that they see the effectiveness in combating such an assault technique. At Dixon, we had the benefit of using a ship for which we had no other use, while they've used up a valuable asset. Even if it was their oldest ship, it was still a warship." Deep in thought, Jenetta said, "I wonder if the helmsman got out." She couldn't keep thoughts of Lt. Sabella's lifepod tumbling uncontrollably away from Dixon, from flooding her mind.
"What now?" Lieutenant Ashraf asked. Her question refocused Jenetta's mind.
"We send out a ship while they're angry and upset that their attempt was unsuccessful."
"Who? The Chiron?"
"No, the Baroness."
"The Baroness? Isn't that one of the Raider transport ships that you captured?"
"Yes, I've had Lieutenant Jacoby rig the controls during the past few days so that it can be piloted remotely at Sub-Light speeds." Turning to the chief engineering officer, who was standing by at a combat station, Jenetta said, "Lieutenant Jacoby, are you ready?
"Aye, Commander."
"Com, have the Station Control Center open the doors according to the instructions that I left. Lieutenant, as soon as the doors are open far enough, send out the Baroness. Com, notify all laser gunners that the Raiders may try to sneak some torpedoes in while the doors are partly open."
Everyone in the CIC not required to be monitoring other activities, watched the movement of the Baroness on the monitors as it was maneuvered into position behind the giant doors at the entrance to the tunnel. Once it reached the outer end of the tunnel, it had to stop until the doors were open wide enough for it to squeeze through.
* * *
Captain Tolatsak sat in his chair on the bridge scowling and muttering invectives for his latest failure.
"Captain," the com operator said, "a laser gunner reports that there's something going on at the station entrance."
"Tactical, give us an extreme closeup of the entrance," Captain Tolatsak said.
Almost immediately a view of the station's giant doors appeared on the front monitor. They were definitely rolling back.
"What's that she-devil up to now," Tolatsak muttered. "Com, alert all ships to be ready for anything. Torpedo gunners, fire a full spread at the opening as soon as the doors are open wide enough."
* * *
As expected, a number of torpedoes came at the base as soon as the doors rolled back, but the multitudinous laser weapons mounted on the exterior surface provided an excellent defense and the base's trained gunners made short work of the deadly missiles. The Raider ships, although outside effective laser weapon range at twenty-five thousand kilometers, nevertheless fired their laser arrays at the opening with abandon. Pulses harmlessly impacted the doors and surface of the asteroid due to the factors that made such weapons ineffective at such great distances. The Baroness, waiting in the tunnel just behind the doors, absorbed the few pulses that made it into the cavern entrance.
As soon as the opening was sufficiently wide enough to accommodate its body width, the Baroness surged ahead, immediately turning to larboard to head for an obvious gap in the coverage of Raider ships. As it pulled away from the base, two things happened, its Sub-Light speed increased dramatically, and every Raider ship opened fire on it with their laser arrays, regardless of the range. Four ships, a cruiser and three destroyers, immediately broke from formation to pursue. The Baroness' engines died before it managed forty-thousand kilometers from the base, but it continued to fly on at the Sub-Light speed it had already achieved, with the four Raider ships in close pursuit. As it reached a point fifty-thousand kilometers from the base, one of its Deuterium thrusters in the stern appeared to short-circuit because the ship began a 360 degree horizontal rotation to starboard. Stewart's port entrance doors were already closed.
* * *
Captain Tolatsak sat in his chair laughing almost manically as he watched the large ship spin. The bridge of his ship erupted in applause. "That'll show that she-devil," he said loudly. "Thought she could sneak a ship past us, did she?"
"Captain," the com operator said, "Captain Bradcock wants to know what your orders are regarding the captured ship, sir."
"Have him move in and board her. Anyone left alive is now a Raider slave. If the ship can be easily repaired, it will bolster our forces here."
* * *
The four Raider ships in pursuit had continued to accelerate for several seconds after the Baroness's engines died, closing the distance between the ships. The cruiser was closest, and launched tugs that would attempt to stop the circular spin of the apparently luckless ship while the three destroyers looked on from a kilometer or two away.
The larboard and starboard engine nacelles of the Baroness were riddled with laser blast holes and the hull was scarred and breached in hundreds of locations, dozens of them in critical places, leaving the Raiders to assume the ship was completely incapacitated. Captain Bradcock, aboard the medium cruiser Demons Lair wondered if there was even anyone left alive aboard the ship to take as prisoners. Not a single laser pulse had come their way since the pursuit began.
* * *
"Standby, Lieutenant Jacoby," Jenetta said in the CIC.
Jenetta knew that Captain Tolatsak would have the three destroyers move back into position around the asteroid now that the Baroness was about to be boarded. Waiting as long as she dared, she said, "Now, Lieutenant."
The Baroness had no stern torpedo tubes, but she did have eight in the bow. Jenetta had waited until the slowly rotating ship reached a point
where the bow was almost turned towards the four nearby Raider ships before giving the order. Eight torpedoes suddenly erupted from the bow tubes and raced toward the Raider ships. The Raider laser gunners, busy celebrating their victory, never even had a chance to focus their laser weapons on the approaching missiles. Within seconds of leaving the Baroness, the fusion warheads were detonating against the hulls of the four Raider pursuit ships.
The eight torpedoes flickered like fireflies on a summer night and the exposed skin of the four ships began to vaporize from the heat, while the impulsive shock effect crushed anything along the leading edge of the blast. X ray radiation then coursed through any direct path no longer protected by shielding. Any enemy that managed to survive the heat of the blast, the crushing effect of the shock wave, and the loss of atmosphere, would begin the slow, painful march towards death as their bodies were irradiated by lethal doses of unseen rays.
As the station's sensors readjusted after the final blinding explosion, everyone saw that there was little left of the Raider cruiser. Pieces of its broken and lifeless hull were tumbling slowly away from where two nuclear devices had detonated against its hull. The three destroyers had likewise each been crushed and broken by two torpedoes.
"Wow," the young lieutenant(jg) said again, but this time he said it quietly.
* * *
Captain Tolatsak jumped to his feet and screamed in anger and shock as his four ships died. "Target that ship," he screamed. "I want everyone still alive, dead!"
Torpedoes raced at the Baroness, across the kilometers of space from the ships encircling the asteroid. No less than sixteen missiles found the ship and detonated either against the hull or inside the ship. When the explosions ended, there was nothing salvageable left, except perhaps seventy thousand tons of scrap metal in assorted sizes.
Captain Tolatsak flopped back into his chair, grinding his teeth and glaring at the image of the asteroid base on the front monitor.
* * *
Lieutenant Ashraf looked at Jenetta. "It was rigged to launch torpedoes after they caught it?"
Trader Vyx Page 30
