Trader Vyx

by DePrima, Thomas

  As the Raider gunners shifted their attention away from the base and helmsmen began to turn their ships to bring a greater percentage of the ship's lasers to bear on a target behind them, the Chiron made its move. Accelerating to ten kilometers per second, a speed that when used in a port under normal circumstances would cause a captain to be court-martialed for reckless endangerment, the ship slid evenly through the entrance and turned sharply to larboard. As it began its arc inside the ring of Raider ships, its tactical officers and gunners began to release their deadly volleys of laser fire and torpedoes.

  Raider gunners quickly began to shift their emphasis back away from the Song and towards the Chiron, but that act alone exhausted precious seconds of fire control time. Raider captains began screaming at their helmsmen to stop turning the ship. By that time, some had shifted completely around, trying to line up on the threat on their stern, a warship's weakest quarter. As Raider ships turned again towards the station, the Chiron was just a distant memory as it continued its flight around the diminishing circle of blockading warships. The Ottawa suddenly appeared and reminded the gunners that there were other ships besides the magnificent Chiron. The ring of Raider ships was already beginning to fall silent by the time the Asuncion rocketed out of the port at Plus Ten. It quickly gained speed as it turned to larboard to join the deadly trio of Space Command ships that were decimating the Raider ranks.

  When the Song completed its first pass around the circle, half the Raider fleet of nineteen was just a memory, and the rest had suffered crippling injuries. With each strike, less fire came at the four Space Command vessels, but the Raider hits had done little to reduce the fire coming from the Chiron, Song, Ottawa, and Asuncion.

  At 0332, the first Raider ship applied power to its Sub-Light engines and left the area while building its temporal envelope. There were only five ships still firing back at that time, so the Asuncion left its position and pursued. Months of inactivity from sitting in port had made Captain Novak yearn for even a quick trip at faster than light speeds.

  The old Raider destroyer Urodella, was no real match for the same sized but much faster Asuncion. Captain Novak hailed the ship twice, demanding its surrender, but the Raider ship didn't acknowledge. Once a ship in space has achieved FTL speed, there are only two known ways of stopping it. If the pursuing ship is fast enough, it can pass its quarry and cut across its bow. The action will cause the Anti-Collision System aboard the fleeing ship to abort its envelope. The pursuer would then have two minutes to sufficiently damage the fleeing ship so that it can't rebuild a temporal envelope and resume its retreat. However, most ships attempting to flee would have already disengaged their ACS system to prevent this from happening.

  The other procedure is one of the most dangerous maneuvers a space ship can attempt. The pursuing ship must approach the fleeing vessel and attempt to merge its temporal envelope with that of the quarry so that only one envelope covers both ships. If this can be accomplished, laser weapons or torpedoes can be used to disable the fleeing ship. The danger of bringing two enormous ships, traveling faster than the speed of light, to within five-point-two-four centimeters of one another should be readily apparent. The tiniest miscalculation can result in the loss of both ships.

  Captain Novak, determined to see that the Raider ship not escape, ordered his helmsman to pass across the bow of the fleeing Raider ship. In his haste to escape, the captain of the Urodella had neglected to disengage his ACS, so the system on the Raider ship immediately cancelled its temporal envelope when it perceived a possible collision.

  The Asuncion turned and returned to face the Urodella, which was trying to rebuild its envelope, this time with the ACS disengaged. Captain Novak was prepared to finish the Raider ship with torpedoes, but the Raider ship's captain signaled his surrender and the coalescing envelope evaporated. Captain Novak ordered the Raider captain to begin sending his crew over, unarmed, in the ship's shuttles. He left the threat unsaid that any resistance would be met with deadly force.

  It took an hour to transport all of the Urodella's crew to the Asuncion, check them for weapons, and place them in a secure hold for the ten minute trip back to the base. Captain Novak had maintained the open com line to the CIC so he knew that the Asuncion's presence wasn't missed. The Chiron, Song, and Ottawa had finished mopping up the Raiders within a few minutes after the Asuncion left. No other Raider ships had managed to escape the carnage.

  Once all Raider prisoners were secured in the hold, Marine patrols searched the entire Raider ship for anyone who might be in hiding. Finding none, Captain Novak assigned a small crew to man the Raider ship and return it to Stewart with the Asuncion.

  Approaching the asteroid from open space gave the Asuncion bridge crew a unique perspective of the battle scene. The space outside the asteroid base was littered with broken and twisted ships. The Chiron, Song, and Ottawa had already docked inside the base and begun making emergency repairs to their ships when the Asuncion and Urodella moved into the port and proceeded to docking piers assigned by the port operations center. The Hayworth and O'Keefe were now outside the asteroid, assisting in the cleanup as teams checked the broken ships for any signs of life. Raider crews lucky enough to be trapped in airtight and radiation shielded compartments were being brought to either one or the other of the two transport ships. Twenty-five of the twenty-six ships that came to reclaim the asteroid for the Raiders, had been destroyed, and only the ship that the Asuncion had chased could ever be fit for use again. The rest were essentially broken and twisted hulls drifting in space. As the Asuncion completed its docking, the station's sweeper ships were moving outside to assist with the cleanup.

  Jenetta addressed the bridge crews of the ships just before the com lines were closed. "Well done, everyone. Very well done. Thank you for your heroic actions here this day and during the previous days. Please extend my compliments and praise to your crews. Every ship's company performed its assigned duty with skill and bravery. I'm deeply saddened by the loss of crewmen in this engagement and I hope that our losses were minor. We have dealt another horrible blow to the Raider organization during this operation, and I'm sure that they'll hesitate before ever trying anything like this again. God bless you all. The status condition of the CIC is now lowered from 'War Active' to 'War Ready' on my order."

  The com lines to the bridge of each ship were closed and Jenetta relaxed. The CIC would continue to operate in a more relaxed mode now. It would collect information from each ship and coordinate assignments of whatever additional manpower and equipment was needed for ship repair operations. Jenetta watched the monitors as damage assessments came in. The Song, the first ship into the battle, had lost eight crewmen when the hull was breached by a torpedo on the larboard side. Several dozen other crewmen had suffered injuries during the battle, but none were life threatening. The Ottawa had lost three crewmen from a hull breach in a larboard torpedo room, and had over a dozen crewmen injured. The Chiron and Asuncion hadn't lost any crew, but suffered dozens of minor injuries. The Chiron had been hit more often that any of the other ships, but its three layers of reinforced tritanium hull plating with self-sealing membranes, had prevented the loss of atmosphere. Hits to the Asuncion had likewise immediately self-sealed.

  While the loss of eleven crewmen was depressing, it paled in comparison to the losses suffered by the Raiders during a battle that lasted just twenty-one minutes, if one only considers the final action. One of the officers in the CIC prepared an estimate of crew sizes aboard the Raider ships based on type, size, and knowledge of normal staffing levels aboard Raider ships. He calculated that the total crew complement of the original force of twenty-six Raider warships could have been as high as nine-thousand three-hundred. They didn't yet know how many would be found alive and rescued, but it would surely only be a fraction of the original number.

  Jenetta remained in the CIC for the next several hours as the cleanup and repairs continued. She had an urge to go check on Christa, even though she knew that
the bridge of the Chiron hadn't suffered any damage, but suppressed the urge and finally just left and returned to her quarters to get some needed rest.

  * * *

  Jenetta spent the entire next day preparing her report of the operation. It was forwarded to Space Command along with a complete video record from the CIC, and all sensor information, while it was in 'War Active' status. The captain of each ship involved also forwarded his report and the video log from his bridge, along with all sensor information. From the supplied data, Space Command would reconstruct a simulation of the entire eleven-day period, and the actions of all ships. The Intelligence Section and War College analysts always studied such records in great detail.

  Jenetta dispatched the Asuncion to intercept the Maid of Mephad and escort it back to the base while the Ottawa continued its repairs. The Maid had continued to travel at Light-187 since the Ottawa had left it to race to Stewart, so the intercept distance was greatly reduced. They reported that they hadn't encountered any difficulty following the Ottawa's departure.

  The next day a funeral service was held in the as yet unfinished stadium/convention center on the concourse. Except for those personnel on duty in essential positions, virtually the entire military complement of the base and the ships in port, attended. Jenetta, as base commander, officiated, along with the captains of the deceased crewmen, and their ship's chaplains. After the ceremony, the bodies would be cryogenically frozen for return to Earth.

  Following the funeral service, Jenetta went to the base hospital to visit the crewmen injured during the battle. The entire crew of the Star Gazer had been found alive in the brig of the damaged destroyer that had arrived at the station later than all the others. The crew had been brutally treated, but all would survive. They had been told by the Raiders that they would be sold as slaves after the station was retaken. The officers were anxious to enjoy their opportunity before they had to turn them over to a station commandant, so the nine women had been raped repeatedly during the eleven days that they were aboard the ship. The small research ship had been badly damaged during the attack, but was recovered and towed back to the base.

  About halfway through the visits, Jenetta came to Lieutenant Kesliski's room. Jenetta had been assigned to work for the lieutenant following her court-martial on Higgins, while she was still an ensign. The lieutenant hadn't made any secret of the fact that she disapproved of Jenetta's attitude towards the Raiders. Jenetta had once spent almost a month in captivity, during which time she was subjected to torture, humiliation, and an experimental DNA process that would alter her forever, in preparation for her being made a pleasure slave at a kinky resort in the Uthlaro Dominion.

  Pushing open the door, Jenetta walked into the hospital room. Lieutenant Kesliski, her face a puffy mask of multi-colored bruises, at first appeared to be sleeping. But her eyes opened, as much as they could, as Jenetta turned to leave.

  "I'm awake, Commander," Kesliski mumbled through her swollen mouth.

  Jenetta turned back. "Hello, Lieutenant. How are you feeling?"

  "Better now, ma'am. I've been assured that there's no lasting damage, and most of the swelling should go down in a few days."

  "That's wonderful news. I'm glad that you and the other crewmembers of the Star Gazer have all survived your ordeal."

  "Thank you, ma'am."

  "I'm sorry that we couldn't rescue you sooner, but we were vastly outnumbered and couldn't take on the Raiders until the Song and the Ottawa arrived back here."

  "I understand, Commander. I've heard all about the siege and the battle. If it wasn't for you, we'd all be headed for a life of slavery and degradation. I couldn't have stood much more of what I experienced. I would have killed myself if I had to face that for the rest of my life."

  "The Raiders brainwash you into believing that you love it. Then they wipe all your old memories so that you don't remember your former life. They end up with a compliant and obedient slave."

  "Is–– is that what they did to you?"

  "Just the first part. I escaped before they wiped my mind. The doctors at Higgins removed the programming that the Raiders had performed. Or at least covered it up. It hasn't been a problem."

  "I want to apologize for my behavior at Higgins, Commander. I didn't really appreciate what you had been subjected to." Lieutenant Kesliski's voice had become very hard and, although starting quietly, grew louder and more vehement with each word as she remembered the things that had been done to her. "If I could have done what you did after becoming a prisoner of the Raiders, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second. I won't ever hesitate again, if given the chance. I'll kill every one of them before letting them take me again." The last words were almost spat out.

  Jenetta nodded, and calmly said, "The Raiders are a malevolent group, opposed to the organization and rule of law that the Galactic Alliance brings with it, because it threatens to end the slavery, piracy, murder, and theft that is their life's blood. We have to end the stranglehold that they've had on this part of the galaxy, and destroy them at all costs. I'm glad that you've come to see that. I'm only sorry that you had to experience their brutality first hand."

  "I was only interested in my work, and I allowed myself to be blinded to everything else. I'm sorry. I support your efforts a hundred percent now."

  "Thank you." Trying to calm the lieutenant and lighten the mood in the room, Jenetta added, "Speaking of work, you should concentrate on getting better now. There's enough work waiting to keep your section busy for decades to come."

  "We don't have a ship. The engines of the Star Gazer were destroyed, according to the captain."

  "There are other ships available. We can have one outfitted and ready in a couple of months. In the meantime, we've recovered the Star Gazer, and its computer still contains all the data that you've collected already. There's plenty to do, Lieutenant."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "You come visit me after you're released here, and we'll get to work on preparing another ship for your work."

  Lieutenant Kesliski actually smiled slightly, until her face reminded her of the swelling.

  "Get well, Lieutenant. I'll see you soon."

  "Goodbye, Commander. Thank you."

  Jenetta nodded and turned. She stopped just outside the door to think about the short conversation. Lieutenant Kesliski had undergone an amazing change of attitude, but the experience of being beaten and raped repeatedly would do that to anyone. It was fortunate that not everyone had to be subjected to such pain and cruelty to see the truth.

  Most of the other women were in better physical shape than Kesliski. They hadn't resisted the inevitable quite as fiercely. All would begin counseling immediately to help them overcome the trauma of the captivity and their treatment at the hands of the Raiders.

  Continuing her visits until she had seen everyone captured by the raiders or injured in the battle, Jenetta returned to her office in a melancholy mood. Although gratified that Space Command had so many dedicated crewmen, she was sad that so many had been injured as a result of orders that she had given.

  Jenetta had forwarded a report to Space Command immediately after the Raider ships arrived, but she didn't receive an answer until three days after the battle was over. In the message, Space Command instructed her to immediately turn command of the base over to Captain Powers of the Chiron for the duration of the Raider threat.

  Jenetta listened to the week old message, leaned back in her chair, smiled widely, and said, "Oops."

  * * *

  The meeting hall where the Admiralty Board conducted its sessions was unusually quiet after the composite vid record of the battle at Stewart had been viewed. The video report, prepared by the Intelligence Section from the days of CIC log videos, lasted several hours and included all pertinent actions and communications that occurred from the moment that the CIC was activated with War Active status. The gallery was empty, but all ten of the admirals were present, along with the usual complement of aides and clerks who sat dutif
ully behind their admirals around the perimeter of the horseshoe shaped table. The earlier conviviality over the victory had dampened, and the Board was now assessing the tactics of the battle plan.

  "Would anyone care to view the record again?" Admiral Moore asked of the other board members. As he looked at each, they just shook their heads slightly. "It would seem that our order to Captain Powers, placing him in command of the base during the recent crisis, didn't arrive until three days after the battle was over, owing to the distance to Stewart. Commander Carver did a magnificent job in responding to the surprise attack, defending the station, and defeating the Raiders. I'm deeply ashamed. The order to replace her during a difficult period, arriving on the heels of her outstanding victory, had to have come like a slap to her face."

  Silence descended over the room again until it was broken by Admiral Hubera. "Let's not forget she recklessly ordered the Thor to leave its assigned patrol route to run off on a crazy search for three people, thereby endangering the base, and thousands of Space Command personnel, in the first place."

  "Even with the Thor, she would have been outnumbered twenty-six to five," Admiral Hillaire said. "She can hardly be accused of endangering the base in the first place because the presence of one more warship in the port would not have dissuaded the Raiders from attacking. One of the basic tenets of our military service is that we never leave a man behind. The three individuals that Commander Carver was trying to recover could very well have perished if not rescued. She couldn't know that a mining survey crew would happen across them. I believe that Commander Carver did a splendid job under impossible conditions, and turned what might have easily been a major blow into an incredible victory."