Old Ironsides

by Dean Crawford

  ‘What’re you doin’?’ Vasquez asked.

  ‘Start the compactor again,’ he snarled.

  ‘What for?’

  Allen didn’t reply as he hurried across to the crane’s cab and jumped into the seat. He lifted the crane’s clamp and the driver was dragged up by his boots with it, slowly regaining consciousness and then crying out as he was lifted thirty feet above the deck.

  ‘Start the compactor!’ Allen screamed, seething with rage as he swung the clamp over the compactor once more.

  Vasquez, his features stricken, started the compactor once again. The huge presses and rams hissed and crackled as Allen guided his captive over the jaws and began lowering him down. The driver screamed in terror, his face a blotchy red as the blood flushed into his head, his eyes wide and wobbling with horror. He tried to undo his gravi-boots but his gut was too large and he didn’t have the strength to haul himself up. Allen smiled grimly and lowered him to within a metre of the jaws, his cries echoing across the bay.

  ‘Please, no, please!’

  ‘There’s no law right now!’ Allen yelled above the roar of the compactor, his eyes ablaze with the hellish joy of vengeance. ‘Nobody’s gonna miss your fat ass!’

  The driver screamed in terror and then vomited, the vile mess spilling down his face as he was forced to puke toward the compactor. Damp stains appeared beneath his grimy overalls around his crotch and his body shuddered as though gripped by convulsions.

  ‘Who owned the vehicle?!’ Allen screamed at the driver.

  The man’s reply was almost unintelligible, a stream of gibberish. Allen shut off the crane and Vasquez switched off the compactor. The sudden silence of the facility allowed the man’s terrified screams to soar all around them.

  ‘It belonged to Marshall!’ he cried. ‘Marshall, Admiral Marshall, of the CSS!’

  In the deep silence Allen felt his blood run cold in his veins, the rage vanished.

  ‘Admiral Marshall?’ Vasquez uttered. ‘Are you kiddin’ me?’

  ‘How do you know?!’ Allen yelled.

  The driver managed to speak between sobs. ‘Saw it… on the transponder ID chip before we… before we took it off. Marshall owned the vehicle.’

  Vasquez looked at Allen.

  ‘He’s behind the plague?’

  Allen jumped down from the cab and whirled to see a large display screen far outside the facility. Upon it, the Aleeyan fleet was in position above Neptune, and then into view zoomed a series of white streaks that slowed rapidly to reveal CSS Titan and a flotilla of warships and frigates.

  ‘He wanted this war,’ Allen said. ‘This is what he wanted, a reason to destroy the Aleeyans. He’s behind everything. We’ve got to warn the Director General!’

  ***

  XL

  CSS Titan

  ‘Sub-luminal velocity in three, two, one, disengage!’

  Doctor Helena Sears heard the command go out and the huge battleship surged as it lurched out of super luminal cruise. Admiral Marshall’s gaze never broke from the main viewing panel as the utter blackness suddenly flared white and then the star fields emerged along with the vast curved horizon of Neptune.

  A series of large white objects that reflected the distant sunlight, high in orbit above the planet, revealed the location of the Aleeyan fleet positioned around the Proteus mining station.

  ‘Status?!’

  Marshall’s clipped tones brooked no delay as Titan’s various stations checked in.

  ‘Shields engaged, plasma magazines at maximum charge, all fighter and bomber squadrons prepared for scramble.’

  ‘Range to enemy is twenty thousand meters! Twelve enemy vessels, of which three are capital ships!’

  ‘The fleet is right behind us, all vessels checking in and reporting ready!’

  Helena took a pace forward as she saw the Aleeyan fleet and at its head Havok’s enormous battleship.

  ‘Do you think that Nathan’s still alive?’ she asked.

  Marshall did not reply, instead turning to the Commander of the Air Group. ‘Launch all fighters, defensive screen. All ahead, full flank.’

  The CAG relayed the order and moments later the tiny specks of Phantom fighters appeared on the main screen, rocketing out into deep space ahead of the battleship as they flew in pairs to establish a perimeter about the fleet, ready to engage the Aleeyan Hawk fighters that themselves must soon launch their attack.

  Helena watched the Aleeyan vessels as they began separating from their close formation, spreading out in response to the arrival of the CSS fleet.

  ‘They’re moving into defensive positions,’ the tactical officer reported. ‘Half flank, no sign of shields or plasma charges.’

  Marshall hesitated as Olsen looked up from his screen. ‘Why aren’t they attacking?’

  ‘And why don’t they have their shields up?’ Marshall asked out loud, uncertain as he watched the enemy fleet. ‘They’re not advancing.’

  ‘Something’s up,’ Olsen said. ‘They’re trying to draw us in.’

  Helena watched, fascinated despite the danger she knew they were all in. Admiral Marshall got out of his seat and surveyed the enemy craft before them as though trying to read the minds of the Aleeyan commander and deduce what he intended to do.

  ‘They’ve poisoned our people,’ Marshall said, ‘and they must have the cure. Either they give it up or we take it from them.’

  ‘Nathan’s aboard that ship,’ Helena said. ‘He might know something. It’s worth contacting them, finding out what’s really going on.’

  Marshall glared at her. ‘Our orbital cities are in a state of panic having been infected with plague and you’re blathering about what’s really going on? The hell with them, the faster we blast them back to the stone age the better!’

  ‘The Aleeyans are attacking!’ the tactical officer called. ‘They’re attempting to flank us!’

  Admiral Marshall saw the movement on the tactical display as the Aleeyan force began to break up, the faster ships moving to position themselves either side of the fleet.

  ‘Let them,’ Marshall said. ‘Bring them in close and then we’ll show them what Titan and her sister ships can really do.’

  An alarm blared through Titan’s corridors as the ship entered battle stations, and Helena flinched as the lighting on the bridge dimmed as though the power was being interfered with. The dull red glow seemed to her far too similar to the color of blood as she watched the two fleets begin to engage each other in an almost graceful ballet amid the bitter black vacuum of space, each preparing to unleash a barrage of plasma fire upon the other.

  ‘Enemy Hawk fighters launching, quadrant ten,’ Olsen observed. ‘They’re closing in.’

  Helena saw a swarm of tiny specks on the tactical display that denoted squadrons of Aleeyan fighters rushing out of their capital ships to engage the CSS fighters.

  ‘Cut our boys loose,’ Marshall said as he clenched one fist. ‘All Phantom squadrons cleared to engage.’

  ‘But they haven’t fired yet,’ Helena protested. ‘That’s not the rules of engagement that…’

  ‘Releasing that virus was their opening salvo!’ Marshall snarled at her. ‘We’re at war doctor, and I’m not about to let an enemy fleet achieve a superior position based on the Senate’s ill-conceived notions of how to win a battle!’

  Marshall whirled to the gunnery station. ‘All magazines prepare to open fire, broad aim at the largest target and fire as they bear!’

  ‘Aye, captain!’

  *

  Nathan stared at the huge form of CSS Titan on the main display screen as she loomed closer, even as the Aleeyans led him away from the bridge.

  ‘You’re making a mistake,’ Havok said to Nathan as he was pulled away. ‘The humans will betray you, it’s in their nature.’

  ‘You’re as human as they are,’ Nathan shot back. ‘You’re here to destroy them!’

  Nathan was shoved and jostled off the bridge and hustled along the steaming corridors of the
ship, his Aleeyan escort taking every opportunity to shove and push him. They got bolder the further they travelled from the bridge, and one of them slammed a thick hand into the back of Nathan’s shoulder and sent him sprawling onto the hard deck.

  ‘Maybe we should arrange an unfortunate incident for him,’ one of them growled as Nathan climbed to his feet once more.

  ‘Accidents do happen,’ snarled the other, both of them glaring down at Nathan and blocking him against the wall of the corridor.

  Nathan mastered his fear. ‘Havok will then arrange a similar accident for the both of you.’

  One of the guards reached out and a heavy arm and thick knuckles flew toward Nathan’s face. He ducked, the blow sweeping over his head, but there was no way he could fight two such enormous warriors, and a moment later the second escort’s electrified prod struck him across the stomach and his body jerked and twisted with the current as he gagged and collapsed to his knees, folding over the pain.

  A big hand grabbed him and hauled him to his feet, the Aleeyan’s yellow eyes glaring into his from inches away. Nathan smelled the leathery scent of its skin, the stale odor of its breath. Its. He realized that he no longer saw them as human, just like everybody else.

  ‘Walk, while you still have your legs.’

  The Aleeyan shoved him down the hallway and Nathan stumbled onward. From somewhere in the distance he heard deep thuds echo through the ship. They rippled along as though coming toward him and then moments later the huge vessel shuddered as blows landed outside on the hull.

  ‘Move it,’ one of the guards snapped at him. ‘We’re engaged in battle and killing your people.’

  They reached a series of barred cells and Nathan was shoved into one and the door slammed shut behind him.

  ‘You’re killing your own people,’ he snapped back at them, feeling strangely safer behind the bars.

  Both guards snarled at him as the ray-shielding came down on the far side of the metal bars, sealing Nathan inside.

  ‘We’re nothing like you.’

  The two guards stalked away from the cells, and Nathan stood in silence for several seconds as he listened to the booms echoing through the warship’s hull and wondered at the carnage and destruction being wrought outside.

  Then he stepped back from the bars and reached into his pocket. From within the lining he retrieved a small, cylindrical device made from glossy black metal that was no larger than his own palm. Nathan set it down on the deck inside his cell and then pressed a small button on the tip of the device. The button glowed bright blue and then Nathan stepped back as a small projection flickered into life.

  The hologram was only a foot tall and flickered as though the transmission was poor, but Nathan knew that it was not a signal he was looking at.

  ‘I was shut down!’

  Doctor Hans Schmidt’s diminutive form looked up at Nathan, who crouched down beside him. ‘I grabbed your back-up projector from the precinct on New Washington, just in case.’

  ‘That’s theft!’ Schmidt exclaimed, horrified, and then he looked around. ‘Where are we?’

  ‘We’re on the Aleeyan flagship and I’m in a cell,’ Nathan replied.

  ‘How on earth did we…?

  ‘Long story,’ Nathan cut him off. ‘Right now, I need your help. You said that the Aleeyans have a similar technology base to our own.’

  ‘You grabbed my back-up projector,’ Schmidt said, ignoring Nathan’s last as a smile spread across his features. ‘You believe that I’m innocent.’

  ‘I didn’t know that you’d been shut down,’ Nathan admitted, ‘or arrested. I took your back-up as a precaution.’

  ‘None the less,’ Schmidt said, ‘I’m genuinely touched.’

  ‘You’ll be genuinely history if I don’t get your help. Can you access the systems aboard this ship, hack into them like you can back on Earth?’

  ‘Yes, I should think so. Their programming dialogue is not dissimilar to ours and…’

  ‘The Aleeyans claim that they had nothing to do with the plague.’

  ‘A likely story,’ Schmidt uttered. ‘They’ve been intent on destroying humanity for centuries.’

  ‘And for good reason,’ Nathan challenged. ‘They told me about a few things, Schmidt, and somehow it all seemed quite believable.’

  Schmidt lifted his chin. ‘There were acts committed in the wake of the plague that we all consider to have been unjust, cruel even. But it was the Aleeyan’s choice to leave and we assisted them as much as we could.’

  ‘Not according to Havok, and right now he’s saying that the source of the plague is inside the CSS.’

  Schmidt stared into space for a moment. ‘Marshall,’ he said finally. ‘He had me shut down right after the frigate Endeavour arrived in Neptune’s orbit. They might have brought fresh evidence with them, something that implicated me in the case, or something that might implicate him.’

  Nathan couldn’t be sure if Schmidt was right, but if so the very person charged with protecting the human race was now committed to destroying it.

  ‘Eugenics,’ Nathan murmured. ‘Marshall hates the Aleeyans, would do anything to see them eradicated. If he’s decided to take that notion too far…’

  ‘Then he may wish to remove all undesirables from the human population,’ Schmidt finished the sentence for him. ‘The surface population would be protected and the populations in the orbital cities allowed to perish.’

  ‘War would be waged on the Aleeyans,’ Nathan went on, ‘and their people eradicated, leaving the way free for Marshall and his perfect human race to colonize the galaxy.’

  Schmidt punched a fist into the open palm of his other hand.

  ‘It’s genocide, and to do that he would have to act without the authority of the Senate, which would effectively be a military coup,’ he said. ‘Marshall’s gone rogue!’

  Nathan stood up. ‘How about you figure out a way to open this damned door and get us the hell out of here?’

  ***

  XLI

  ‘Fire all starboard batteries!’

  Admiral Marshall’s voice boomed across the bridge as Titan rocked beneath the first blows from a salvo that burst from the Aleeyan capital ships and rocketed past the warship’s enormous hull.

  The bridge shuddered as impacts hammered the ray-shielding, the lights flickering as Helena steadied herself against a railing. Through the main screen she could see the vast fleets engaging each other above the sweeping blue horizon of Neptune, bright flares of blue and red plasma zipping between them and clouds of fighters swarming through space as they tried to shoot each other down.

  ‘All squadrons fully engaged!’ the tactical officer yelled. ‘The fleet’s pulling in and awaiting your orders!’

  Marshall glanced at the tactical display and saw the Aleeyan fleet breaking left and right, hoping to catch them in a deadly crossfire, but he had seen the tactic a dozen times before and already knew how to oppose it.

  ‘Vertical split!’ he ordered. ‘All vessels break in order of designation, Titan high!’

  The helmsman responded instantly and the huge warship began to pull up. Helena watched in fascination as the massive craft’s bow rose up above the line of battle, pitching ever higher even as the Aleeyan’s split to the left and right either side of them. On the tactical display, she saw the rest of the CSS fleet likewise splitting high and low, breaking to avoid the Aleeyan’s planned crossfire.

  ‘Now let’s see what you’ve got,’ Marshall growled as he barked another order. ‘All stop, hard to starboard and ninety degree roll!’

  Titan reared up out of the line of battle and her bow swung to the right as she rolled overhead the massive bulk of an Aleeyan capital ship. Helena was no expert in battle tactics, but she could see that Marshall intended to spoil the enemy’s aim while bringing his own immense arsenal of weapons to bear. As the huge ship crawled to a halt so the Aleeyan ship beneath them passed by, already rolling to try to bring her own weapons to bear back at Titan.
/>   Marshall clenched his fists. ‘Let her have it!’

  ‘All weapons, fire as you bear!’ Olsen snapped.

  The gunnery station responded immediately, the four officers manning their posts coordinating their firing solution perfectly. Helena felt the huge ship tremble as though giant footsteps were thundering down one side of the hull, the sound of massive plasma charges exploding out of the barrels of cannons as long as fifty men and blasting their way into the Aleeyan battleship.

  The display screen showed the impacts as they slammed into the huge enemy ship, brilliant flares of white light bursting like new born stars across her hull in the wake of the immense salvo.

  ‘She’s breached, decks five through seven!’ the tactical officer yelled. ‘Shields holding across the rest of her hull and she’ll have the damage repaired within a few minutes.’

  ‘Send CSS Valiant in for a pass!’ Marshall ordered. ‘Keep that breach open!’

  Helena saw the crew scrambling to undertake their orders, the admiral utterly occupied with the task of coordinating the battle. Upon the main screen she could see swarms of fighters warring around the huge capital ships like fireflies around metallic elephants engaged in a deadly dance amid the blackness of space, the radio transmissions from the fighter pilots echoing across the bridge.

  She barely felt the gentle vibration against her hip amid the chaos, and almost ignored it until she realized that her communicator was buzzing for attention. The furor on the bridge was already far too loud and she hurried outside into the elevator corridor as she retrieved the communicator from her pocket and held it in the palm of her hand.

  The device glowed into life and she gasped as she saw the miniaturized head of Doctor Schmidt looking up at her.