Changing of the Guard (A Galaxy Unknown - Book 11)

by Thomas DePrima

  "It looks like it's going to sleep," the sergeant said.

  "It might be conditioned to react to the shipping container that way," the SC engineer said.

  "Let's close the cover and the latches before we get too lax," Toleder said.

  Once the container was latched, the Marines at the airlock, except Toleder, suited up in EVA suits and began the process of transporting the Denubbewa to the Karl Linne. The airlock was large enough to hold the shipping container when it was upright, so they had the container outside the Denubbewa ship and in one of the maintenance sleds within several more minutes. The table, once the legs were collapsed, could also fit upright through the airlock. So that and what appeared to be a charging unit were sent over as well. The SC engineers remained behind in the Denubbewa warship.

  "Okay," Toleder said to the Marines outside the ship, "transport it to the Karl Linne. You Marines will remain with the container at all times. Never leave it until you receive a different order from either myself or the watch officer aboard the Koshi. You will sleep with it in shifts and eat next to it until relieved. Understand?"

  "Oo-rah," the Marines said as the maintenance cart began to move slowly towards the Karl Linne.

  "Captain," Toleder said as he and the engineers began walking back towards the area where they'd found the Denubbewa, "are you still observing?"

  "I'm here, Lieutenant. Good work."

  "What are your orders, ma'am?"

  "Leave a few of your people in the area where the Denubbewa are on the tables in case they awaken and continue searching the ship. And I'd also like to get an exact count of the number of Denubbewa still in those shipping containers and learn if there are any more such containers anywhere in the ship. Keep an eye out for any Denubbewa activity. As you said earlier, there should have been at least one on guard duty. I'm sending over the other platoon to assist in the search of the entire ship."

  * * *

  Chapter Nine

  ~ December 3rd, 2290 ~

  While waiting for further word from the Marines and engineers aboard the Denubbewa ship, Christa went to her office and sent an updated report to Admiral Holt and the two other CPS-16 squadrons in Region Three that were hunting for Denubbewa. Given the great distances, the first Priority-One transmission to Admiral Holt hadn't even really begun the long journey to Quesann, and it would be several days before the other squadron commanders received the reports sent to them, but Christa wanted to document everything that was happening in case it all just suddenly went south and there was no one left to tell the tale.

  The bridge crew continued to watch the front monitor as the Marines went about their assigned tasks. No one could dispute their thoroughness. After they completed the count of Denubbewa in the storage hold and restacked the containers, they began moving through every part of the ship that was accessible. Happily, they encountered no other Denubbewa either awake, sleeping on tables, or even entombed in shipping containers.

  ~

  It took almost eighteen hours to search the enormous ship with just the two platoons of Marines, but when they were done, the bridge crew aboard the Koshi could confirm that they had been as thorough as if searching for a lost cache of diamonds that included a significant finder's fee for the team that located it.

  Christa immediately sent another round of messages that included the precise count of Denubbewa found aboard the ship.

  Then it was time to confront the Denubbewa they'd removed from the ship. The shipping container, table, and charging unit had been transported via shuttle to the Koshi and placed in a hold especially prepared for the confrontation. Engineers aboard the Koshi had fashioned steel chains to be used when the Denubbewa was unpacked.

  Christa would watch on a monitor as the Denubbewa was uncrated and lifted onto the table. She wanted to be in the hold, but as the commanding officer, she had to remind herself that she had a duty to remain as safe as possible so that order and the chain of command was maintained during this potentially dangerous period.

  The container was placed near the table and opened, but the Denubbewa didn't stir until several Marines started to lift it out. At that point, its eyes glowed and the red light on its forehead lit up, but nothing else changed.

  As the Denubbewa was laid on the table, engineers fitted the prepared chains to various parts of its body. The shape and flexibility of the Denubbewa's wrists and ankles meant they couldn't be used to secure the cyborg, so the engineers routed the chains through openings in the protective plate covering the cyborg's torso. During the process, the cyborg moved its eyes to follow the actions of the engineers, but it never resisted or otherwise even moved.

  When the engineers were finished, no one doubted that the Denubbewa could not get up off the table unless it was first unchained. Christa then came to the hold and moved over to the table. A squad of Marines was standing by, just in case.

  "Do you understand my words?" Christa asked.

  The cyborg just stared back at her as if it didn't have the slightest clue what she was saying.

  Looking at the engineering officer who had supervised securing the cyborg, Christa said, "It appears it doesn't understand me. That's to be expected. I want you to mount a monitor above it and begin running some basic Amer language instructional vids. Perhaps it can learn enough Amer that we'll be able to communicate with it on a basic level."

  "Aye, Captain. We'll have it set up within the hour."

  "Carry on, Lieutenant," she said to the Marine officer responsible for security.

  After transmitting an update on the situation with the Denubbewa, Christa sat down to think. There were Marines posted in the holds aboard the Denubbewa ship, and every bridge in the squadron was monitoring the helmet-cam transmissions so they'd know immediately if a situation developed. The Koshi and the CPS-16s couldn't simply leave the area with the Denubbewa still alive, and she didn't want to destroy them and the ship because they represented an incredible intelligence resource. She was in a quandary, but she knew there was one thing she should do immediately.

  "Lieutenant Kurt Aston," Christa said after touching her Space Command ring.

  "Aston here, Captain," she heard the captain of the Karl Linne say.

  "Captain, I want a piece of the material from that Denubbewa ship's hull. But I don't want the missing piece to interfere with the ship's invisibility or mobility. If other Denubbewa are hunting for it, I don't want them able to locate it. We know it's not emitting any homing beacons, and we're prepared to stop it should one start up. I want us to remain invisible for as long as we're here."

  "That's a tall order, Commander, but I'll get my engineers working on it. I can't promise they'll be able to remove a piece though. If it really is Dakinium, we'll never get a piece off the hull with cutting-torches or anything else we have on board."

  "There is one way."

  "Seriously?"

  "Seriously. But it's dangerous."

  "What isn't?"

  "While the Marines were searching the ship for Denubbewa holdouts, I was watching the helmet-cam images. At one point, they searched an armory, and I thought I saw some of those small missiles the Denubbewa use, like the ones used against the Yenisei and the Salado. If they are the same, those missiles have a warhead topped by a highly corrosive acid that can melt through Dakinium. That's how they managed to kill the crews of our two destroyers."

  "Yes, I read the report on the tactics employed by the Denubbewa and also the confidential report about those missiles."

  "Then you probably know that Space Command personnel were able to recover one of the unexploded missiles that missed its target and went ballistic in space. And— that they were able to disassemble it."

  "Yes, I recall hearing that."

  "The information for how to disassemble the missile is in the Space Command Tactical Weapons Database. Your engineers should be able to accomplish that as well. But they'll have to be extremely careful because that acid eats through practically everything except glass. And
it's not safe to disassemble one of those missiles inside one of our ships, so it should be done in a shuttle, far enough away from the ship so the nuclear explosion does no other damage should they be the slightest bit careless."

  "Are you ordering me to have my people disassemble a nuclear device so we can retrieve the acid?"

  "No. That would have to be a voluntary action."

  "I'll discuss it with my people. As I said, I'm not even sure we can remove a piece of the hull without destroying the ship's ability to remain invisible to all sensors. We'd have to determine that first before asking for volunteers to disassemble a nuclear device."

  "I know. And I'm sure your people will do their very best. Carver out."

  "Aston out."

  ~

  It was close to seven hours later when Lt. Aston contacted Christa.

  "Captain, my engineers have completed their examination of the hull. They tell me there's a flat piece of metal that doesn't appear to have any function other than covering a vent. It absorbs all electromagnetic particles that contact it. They believe the acid could be used to cut off the plate, and we could replace it with a spare Dakinium vent cover we have aboard the Koshi. The exposed area would be minimal to begin with, and our vent cover would ensure the cloaking nature of the ship remains intact. Would a piece of the metal only twelve centimeters by about eighteen centimeters be sufficient for your needs?"

  "Yes, I believe the scientists back at Quesann will be able to analyze the composition of the metal from a sample that size."

  "That's too bad."

  "Why?"

  "I was sort of hoping you would say no. Now I have to search for a couple of volunteers to disassemble a nuke."

  "Such tasks are always difficult, but it's why they pay us the big credits."

  Aston chuckled and said, "If money was such an important consideration, we wouldn't be able to find enough people to fully man even one battleship."

  "I know, but that line is always good for a laugh. If you can't find anyone to volunteer for the task, I'm sure I can find someone aboard one of the other ships."

  "I'll get back to you as soon as I've had chance to talk with my crew."

  "Okay. And thanks. Carver out."

  "Aston out."

  ~

  "I've found two volunteers for the missile disassembly. Actually, almost everyone aboard the ship wanted to volunteer, so I had to require that one is a pilot and the other an engineer. If neither was a pilot, I'd have to send a third person out."

  "Very good, Lieutenant. Have them both review the disassembly instructions and confirm they fully understand the process before they're allowed to leave. I'll contact the Marines aboard the Denubbewa ship and have them deliver a missile to the Karl Linne. Then your people can begin whenever they're ready. The most important task is naturally the safe disassembly of the missile, but of secondary importance is the safe handling of the acid. That stuff will eat through almost anything, so if they spill any, it will eat completely through the shuttle deck and won't stop until there's nothing left to eat or the acid is neutralized. The atmosphere inside the ship will be long gone by then."

  "We understand, Captain. The two individuals are presently reviewing the disassembly instructions with our entire team of engineers. They'll be ready when they leave here."

  "Very good. Carry on, Lieutenant. Carver out."

  "Aston out."

  Christa leaned back in her office chair. In battle, she didn't hesitate to place people in dangerous situations that might result in their deaths. It was a necessary part of the job. But when there wasn't someone shooting at her and her people, asking for volunteers to risk their lives was, for her, the most difficult chore in the universe. She did it without hesitation, but it always ate away at her.

  ~ ~ ~

  "Okay," Ensign Barbara Culchech said as she cut the engines on the shuttle, "we're far enough away that we won't harm anyone else if we go boom."

  "Go boom?" Lieutenant Harris Lockwood said with a wry expression.

  "It's an advanced technical term. It refers to an explosive force of significant intensity in a closed environment."

  "I see. Say, are you sure you graduated from the Academy? I mean you didn't just stow away on a freighter one day and happen to find yourself on Quesann?"

  "Shhh! Don't say that too loud. Someone might start an investigation."

  "You're something else, Barbie."

  "But what else you don't know, Harry."

  "No, but I'm hoping to find out one day."

  "Well, let's get started on this task. Tonight's pizza night and I want to get back before it's all gone."

  "The number one rule when dealing with a nuclear weapon is never hurry."

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now hurry up!"

  Harris laughed and climbed out of the right cockpit seat, then moved to the rear compartment as Culchech activated the cameras in the rear compartment. The other ships would get the images, but voice communication wasn't enabled so as to avoid possible distractions. As Harris opened the case containing the missile, he paused and took a deep breath.

  "It doesn't look very deadly, does it?" Culchech said. "I mean, it's so small."

  "Just one of these could kill everyone aboard the Karl Linne if it went boom while inside the ship. And it will definitely kill both of us, so let's get serious."

  Lockwood lifted the missile out of the storage case and placed it in a makeshift rack constructed by the Karl Linne engineering department.

  "Okay. I'm all business. What's first?"

  "First, we remove the warhead. Once we separate that from the nuclear second stage, the greatest danger is past. We just have to hope this missile isn't different than the one our people in Region Two were able to disassemble."

  "Okay, let's do it. What do I do?"

  "You reviewed the disassembly videos, right?"

  "Of course. I was standing right next to you the second time. Lieutenant Aston insisted those instructions be burned into our memories."

  "Right. So you will hold the second-stage part of the missile steady while I attempt to remove the warhead."

  "Right."

  "So kneel on the deck and grab hold of the second stage now that I've placed the missile in the special rack. And hang on like your life depends on it— because it does."

  Culchech knelt and placed both hands on the body of the missile to keep it from moving on the rack as Lockwood knelt by the head.

  "Ready?" Lockwood asked as he held a ceramic probe near the warhead.

  "Of course. Get on with it. I'm starting to sweat a little."

  "That's good. It tells me you're taking this seriously."

  Lockwood held the tip of the ceramic probe near a small hole in the warhead where it met the nuclear stage of the missile. Taking a deep breath, he inserted the probe slowly until he met resistance. He placed his left hand beneath the warhead to hold it in place and steadily applied pressure on the probe. When he heard an almost inaudible click, he felt the full weight of the warhead in his left hand. Slowly he pulled the warhead away from the nuclear stage. As it came completely free, he lowered it into a small packing case with interior padding designed to secure it from moving about. He slowly closed the case and snapped the latches. Then he released the breath he'd been holding and took another deep breath.

  "You can let go now," Lockwood said.

  Culchech relaxed and sat back on her heels, then released the breath she'd been holding and took another full breath and released it. "Okay, what's next? That's all they showed in the video."

  "That's it."

  "That's it? We're done?"

  "We're done here. The most dangerous part of this operation is over. I just have to put the missile back in its storage box and we can head back to our ship."

  "There's no more danger?"

  "This was just the first step but by far the most dangerous. There's still a level of danger as this effort progresses, but the number of personnel in danger of imminent death has b
een reduced to a handful. The next step is to remove the acid in the warhead so we can use it to cut off a small piece of that Denubbewa ship's hull for analysis. If the proper procedures are followed and there're no slipups or accidents, everyone will be fine."

  "It's almost anticlimactic."

  "I guess it's like that sometimes. You prepare for the worst while hoping for the best."

  "Okay. Then let's wrap it up and head for home."

  "Yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to pizza myself now."

  "I hope we get there before all the pepperoni's gone."

  "Maybe they'll hold one just for us. We're heroes."

  "I think that works for most things but never on pizza night."

  ~ ~ ~

  As the shuttle piloted by Culchech docked with the Karl Linne, a shuttle from the Koshi was docking on the opposite side of the CPS-16. The hatchways to both small vessels opened into the Karl Linne at the same time. An engineer from the Koshi hurried in and carefully took the case containing the acid from Lockwood, who was emerging from the shuttle with Culchech.

  "I've got it," the lieutenant from the Koshi said. "Thanks." He then turned and reentered the Koshi shuttle. A Marine waiting at the hatchway then closed the Karl Linne hatch. Within a minute, the shuttle's hatch was closed and sealed. The diminutive ship then returned to the Koshi.

  "I guess our part is done," Lockwood said.

  "Yeah. Hey, let's go grab some pizza."

  "Okay, but first we have to put the rest of the missile into the armory locker so no one gets curious."

  "Who would want to tinker with a nuclear weapon?"

  "You just never know. And if we go boom, we don't get any pizza."

  ~ ~ ~

  The acid was delivered to the engineering section on the Koshi for the next step. Christa believed the much larger engineering staff aboard the Scout-Destroyer was better equipped to handle the dangerous fluid than the CPS-16 engineering section. That point probably wouldn't be disputed by Lockwood or anyone else.

  ~

  "Captain," Lt. Mollago said from the command chair on the Koshi bridge, "the acid has arrived and been delivered to engineering."