Jethro: First to Fight

by Hechtl, Chris

  "Crap," a tech said softly.

  Mayweather thought hard. A frigate had short legs. Lieandra had pretty good legs, she had heard they could do up to three jumps without a refuel. Apparently they'd picked up some legs somewhere to have made it all this way. Most likely Lieandra had run the frigate to exhaustion and she'd given up the chase to refuel at the planet. "Size of the main force?" she demanded.

  The tech looked down at his tablet. "CIC designated the first force as Alpha. At least four ships CIC designated frigates, a destroyer sized ship, a possible second tin can, one or two corvettes, a tanker, at least a half a dozen freighters, and a dozen other unidentified ships. Lieandra was too far away to see them clearly. That and they said there were some asteroids in the way."

  "Crap. How could they outrun pirates?" she asked dubiously. Did the pirates really send just one frigate to run them down? If so why? “Any self respecting pirate could overhaul a lumbering freighter.” Their recent experience as convoy escorts had made that point painfully clear.

  “Unless they weren't interested in catching them in the first place ma'am,” Commander Logan said quietly. Mayweather glanced her way and then nodded.

  The tech waited for the Captain to return her attention to him before continuing. "Ma'am there is more. Admiral Irons sent Lieandra out. Apparently he had repaired and upgraded her Ma'am. She had a full drive and major system rebuild."

  "He was aboard?" Mayweather asked, sitting up straight, Her hands clutched at the arm rests. Her eyes cut to Shelby. The XO was looking eager as well. Expectant faces turned to the tech who shook her head.

  Disappointment cut through the compartment as quickly as the eager thoughts had. "No ma'am, he had planned to leave Antigua on a rebuilt yacht some time ago. Dispatch 1701E he renamed it Phoenix. He... Ma'am apparently he and the crew of the Kiev 221 managed to salvage a ghost station. A full factory city. Antigua prime!"

  "Seriously?" Shelby asked, eyes wide. "Anvil was just a pre-processing node for one but..."

  The tech nodded, face serious as he continued to digest the report. One hand was still on his ear, a clear signal that he was still getting information. "Yes ma'am he did it. They did it I mean. He sent Kiev 221 and Lieandra out to let people know. Lieandra was supposed to let us know. Kiev 221 headed south to B450a and Centennial."

  Shelby's eyes were wide. "So, if the pirates jump to Antigua..."

  "They'll have a cake walk. The system is mostly undefended," the tech replied grimly.

  "Not if Irons has anything to do with it."

  "He was not in system. He left for Centennial ma'am."

  "Shit."

  "There are defenses on the planet but they aren't well maintained. They also only cover a quarter of the planet. If they stand out far enough..." Shelby said, pulling up a sketch report from the mainframe. They had little intel on Antigua, most of it provided by Mayweather herself.

  "They can rock bomb them. Yeah. And the station is completely undefended," the Captain replied grimly. She was now looking at the report the communication's rating had just sent her. The rating had highlighted that little tidbit of intel.

  "Yes ma'am, apparently so. It had been on the outer edge of the system, out beyond the heliopause apparently. Kiev 221 literally stumbled across it while transitioning out of hyper. Now it's in an Lagrange point in the inner system and lit up but defenseless. I'm getting something about that, something about that's why the admiral left the system, the people refused to defend the station."

  “Lotus eaters,” the tac officer said.

  Mayweather shot her a look and then nodded. "We'll have to do it," Mayweather said as faces turned to her XO.

  Shelby blinked. She knew the way it was going to go down but she also knew she had to play her role anyway. "Ma'am our orders..." she started to say cautiously.

  Captain Mayweather held up a restraining hand. "There isn't time. A month one way? Two months?” She shook her head. They all knew the information lag was a killer. “By the time we get word..."

  "It'll be too late. but still..." Commander Logan said doggedly, feeling her own emotions twist. On one hand she wanted to kick pirate ass. But she they also had a duty to the people on Agnosta. Not to mention to Pyrax. Firefly was the biggest fully operational warship in the sector. It was the only ship over one hundred megatons that was fully functional. Even Fuentes had some rough edges.

  "I think we can do it,” Mayweather said tugging her jacket down firmly and straightening her shoulders. “Firefly, prepare for movement. Get me Hecate, She was rearguard. Tell Lieandra we want everything they've got and then to refuel and then head to Pyrax at their best speed to report. Refuel on our tab. Dispatches to follow."

  "Aye aye ma'am." He frowned, one hand on his ear. “Ma'am the admiral has dispatches and cargo aboard the ship for us.”

  Mayweather's sculpted eyebrow rose in polite inquiry. “Us personally or the navy in general?”

  “The military ma'am,” he said, face working. “They have a general inventory. Most of it is like what we received on Destiny.”

  She nodded. “Good. Send it along to Pyrax then. They can sort it out there. I'll take a copy of the dispatches though. Firefly can puzzle over them while we're in transit. Right Firefly?”

  “A pleasure,” the AI responded.

  “Aye aye ma'am,” the rating replied as she looked at him.

  "Get with the ground side. Let them know the plan and that I intend to move out in six to eight hours. I want this ship fully refueled and stuffed to the deck heads so get on that. We'll be a long way from home so remember that. Barrels of spare fuel, parts, missiles, stuff them in every nook and cranny you can find. Then call down to the planet. Get the Major to send up his best, I think we'll need them. Recon and Raiders. Noobs need not apply."

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Anything on the dump from Lieandra?” Mayweather asked six hours later. It was getting quite past dinner time and she was getting a headache from the lack of food. She had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in so she'd skipped the meal. Now she was regretting the choice.

  “Not much more than we've already teased out of it ma'am,” the elven tac officer said blinking her large eyes. “I'm not sure we'll get much more out of it.” Each of them had the report in their cybernetics, it was a matter of processing it. But organic and even inorganic minds tended to strain things differently, sometimes missing something. That was why it was important to filter the information through as many eyes as possible.

  “Keep trying. Just fingerprinting their emission signatures isn't enough.” They had a general idea of some of their foes, and it sounded like a fair fight. She didn't like fair, and she didn't like not knowing the full picture. She wanted every advantage her people could dream up or tease out of the intel they had.

  “I know ma'am. But at least Firefly has refined the data on the frigate classes. The one freighter we also picked up on let us know the best they can do in hyper is the low octaves of beta band ma'am.”

  “If, that is, they kept the freighters tucked in with them. If they race ahead, secure a target with warships then wait for the freighters to come in to loot it's a different story,” Mayweather mused darkly.

  “Doctrine change ma'am?”

  The Captain grimaced. “I've been reading some of the archives. We need to be prepared for that possibility.”

  The elf nodded. “Yes ma'am. Was there much from Admiral Irons on Antigua?”

  Mayweather grimaced once more and shook her head. “The good news is she was carrying a hold full of parts for the yard, most of them were critical hyperdrive components and reactor components. There were even a few military grade replicators and other tech toys. With them we can build a few more ships or finish the one's we've got started.” the bridge crew smiled at that. She didn't bother mentioning the Marine equipment he'd tucked in as well.

  “Most of the dispatches were tagged with Commander Logan's name and coding so we can't decrypt them. Firefly picked up
a few with headers to us but they were general I guess.”

  “In general?”

  “General letters. Hey how are you, I'm fine sort of thing.”

  “Ouch,” the elf said, shaking her head. “Not much to go on. We're going in virtually blind with little intel.”

  “It's a thought. We're going to short jump at each jump just in case someone's there waiting. It'll take us a bit longer to cross the system though,” Mayweather replied. She wasn't happy about the idea but it was the only thing she could think of to minimize the risk involved.

  “Can we do a short hop ma'am?” the elf asked, pulling a holo up of the system. “It's been done before. Jump around the peripheral of the system to the next jump point and then off to our next destination.”

  “We unfortunately don't have the helm crew that can handle that. The way points...” Mayweather looked at Janice who shook her head no.

  “Are possible Captain,” Firefly said. “The risk with the crew however...”

  “Isn't worth it. I know I know, you told me already,” Mayweather said, sighing. They had wrangled the subject in her wardroom a few hours ago. “If we only had that Ssilli on board still. I bet he could do it.”

  “It is a regret. However we do have the next best thing. Perhaps he can be persuaded to do it?” Firefly mused, looking thoughtful.

  “Something I'm missing?” Mayweather asked raising a cool eyebrow.

  “I'd rather not commit until I know more Captain. Let me look into it and get back to you,” Firefly said. His holo winked out.

  The Captain glanced at her tac officer. The elf shrugged. “I have no idea Captain, honest.”

  “Neither do I. Maybe he can pull a rabbit out of his hat.”

  “Ssilli or cetacean actually Captain. About the data we do have on the system. I was wondering if we could use that and the information on that station's movement to plot the likely locations of the pirates if they beat us to the system.”

  “You're thinking about possible ambush scenarios?” the Captain asked, glad someone else was planning a few steps ahead. Her plan was a bit nebulous, get in there, kick ass, and drive the enemy out period. She had a few ideas, but she didn't like to plan without intel to go on.

  “We can set up a sim and try a few things Captain. See what works and what needs work.”

  Mayweather nodded slowly. They had data on the system, perhaps there was something there they could use. “Good. It might be opening night jitters but I'd rather our people are kept busy. Set them up. Throw in curve balls and worst case scenarios. I don't want to panic our people but I don't want to sail fat dumb and overconfident into something and get my head handed to me either.”

  “Yes ma'am. I'll see to it.”

  “Dismissed,” Mayweather said, turning and pulling up an ops status display on her board.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Major a moment if you will,” Firefly popped in. Brevet Major Pendeckle looked up and nodded. The Major had reluctantly sent him out with Firefly. Pendeckle knew how badly his boss had wanted in on this, but his assigned station was Agnosta. Someone of senior rank had to stay behind and tend to the growing base.

  Right now Pendeckle was glad he was here. Oh, not just because of the possibility of kicking pirate ass... because his boss was probably a complete bear right now, biting every head off that entered his engagement range.

  He chuckled mentally at the thought as he surveyed the Marines around him.

  “We can do this later,” he said looking at the Marines. He had been briefing Valenko and his squad on possible boarding plans. They started to get up. They had worked their way through conventional boarding techniques and were now exploring contingency plans.

  “This will only take a moment actually. I just wanted to keep you in the loop. It looks like we're going to have a long transit time, longer than anticipated.”

  “Why is that?” Valenko asked, brows knit. “We can hit the upper delta bands...”

  A holo of their course was projected in the center of the room. It zoomed in to a system and they could see a line blinking.

  “The problem is we're short jumping the exits. We will be coming out a few light hours short of the normal exit to get a look at the system in case it is a trap. That means we will have a longer subspace transit time between jumps,” Firefly explained.

  “Why sir if I may ask?” Deja said, looking at the jump data.

  “In case of an ambush. It's going to leave us short on fuel too. We may have to stop and refuel in Triang before heading into the last leg to Antigua.”

  “Ouch,” Deja murmured. They all knew what that meant. Triang didn't have a station or gas giant platform. That meant either getting the fuel up out of the planet's gravity well or sucking it out from the gas giant. They would have to enter the system, wait until the fuel was available and then spend precious hours and even days taking on fuel. Then more time processing it into deuterium and helium 3 before leaving to the Antigua jump point. Using a gas giant refinery would be marginally quicker than stopping at the planet... if they had the material to build the platform. In theory Firefly could scoop what she needed but it was tedious and dangerous. Either way was time consuming. Time they didn't have available to spend.

  “The Captain is concerned about the time it gives the pirates to set up shop in Triang or Antigua. Especially Antigua with her station.”

  “Anything more on the station?” Valenko asked, looking up from the holo to the AI avatar.

  “A full factory station, Antigua prime. She was a sitting duck,” Firefly sighed and shook his head. “The people there are idiots. It is run by a group of cybers. They are pacifists. Well, not simple pacifists, but ignorant and obstinate. They decided to focus on bread and circuses for the populous over defense.”

  “Um...”

  “He means they handed out candy and shiny new toys with the factory instead of building the defenses,” Pendeckle said with a grimace.

  “Got that,” Valenko said with a sour grimace. His hand paws reached out and touched Triang. The system blinked then zoomed in until it filled the holo field. “Are we sure they'll go to Antigua?”

  “Without a doubt. Someone will drop the ball in Triang or Protodon no doubt. If only to get the pirates to leave them alone and go for easier better pickings elsewhere,” Pendeckle said in disgust. It was human nature to try to distract a predator. Hell, not just human nature, aliens of many species were known for doing it as well.

  “True,” Firefly said.

  “We've been working on what we're going to do. Standard boarding ops or...”

  “Unfortunately we have to be concerned about boarding ops,” Firefly interrupted. “If the enemy gets in for too long and gain control there is a definite risk of a scuttle if they do. Blowing that station would be a major setback for us.”

  “Not to mention the thousands of people on board her sir,” Pendeckle said with a straight face. “The loss of life is going to be enormous as it is. Is there any way we can speed things up?”

  “Unfortunately no. We can't rule out an ambush and our navigator and helmsmen aren't up for a short jump. We're not even sure they can handle the upper Delta octaves either. Lieutenant Janice doesn't sound thrilled at the chance since it is her first attempt. We won't know until we're underway.”

  “Surely with implants... haven't they simmed?”

  “Sims and real world knowledge are entirely different things Major, as you well know,” Firefly replied tartly.

  Deja looked down. He grimaced, hand flippers moving. “Point,” Pendeckle said with a grimace.

  There was a lengthy silence and then the Selkie sighed. “I'll do it,” he said softly.

  The others looked at him. He opened his eyes and locked onto the AI. “That's what you're really here for isn't it?” he asked.

  “I was hoping you would take an interest Corporal,” Firefly said with a nod.

  “You've got your wish. I can't sit back and let people die knowing I can he
lp. That's a part of being a Marine. I'll need some sim time, I've never helmed with implants before.”

  “You'll actually find it an even more enjoyable experience than before. We've set up a null G tank for the helmsman. Virtual reality linkage.”

  Deja suddenly looked intrigued. “Can you program it for anything?”

  “Within reason Corporal. I am assuming you'd like something ocean related?” Firefly asked amused. He was already shooting off requests to the computer geeks to set up the sim. Some of the IT geeks were already on it, but others were already griping about the work involved.

  “Yes sir.”

  “That is definitely possible then. Shoals, kelp forests, the entire bit correct?” the AI asked, writing the parameters of the program. Deja nodded. Firefly checked the records and then nodded as he sent the links to the IT crew. “I've got some of that on file and we can surely come up with a crude set up by the time we get to the jump point. We'll even set up a salt water tank for you to be in to make it more comfortable for you.”

  “Thank you sir,” Deja said getting up. He looked at Pendeckle. “With your permission of course Major.”

  “Granted and with eternal thanks Corporal. I'll remember this son, we all will. Get us there as quickly as you can.”

  “I'll do my best sir. We all will.”

  “Good to hear. Goddess speed.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  A few minutes later Firefly briefed the Captain and Janice, the Chief helmswoman. Janice is a bit put out.

  “He can't fly us all the way there Captain! It's suicide!” Janice said stubbornly, shaking her head as she threw her hands up in the air. “I can't spell him, none of us can!”

  “Look Lieutenant, what we are going to do is relatively simple,” Firefly said doggedly.

  Janice shook her head vehemently. She knew better. “Not in a million years. Well, maybe in your time...” Janice said scowling.

  “No, what we are going to do is you and your team are going to take the straight runs. We'll short jump out and have a look around,” Firefly turned to the Captain. “That way we can assess each system to see if the pirates are there or not before moving on.”