by Peter Kenson
"Are you sure?" "How do you know?" came from Mikael and Anton simultaneously.
“I was in contact with Lord David when gunmen broke into his cabin and started firing. He broke the contact and I haven't been able to reach him since."
"Make a signal to the Salamander," Mikael ordered. "Advise them of the trouble on the Aldebaran and ask for instructions.
"Frank, I want a complete scan of this region of space."
"We've been scanning continuously, sir. There's only two ships on the scanners: the Salamander and the Aldebaran."
"Then put out some probes to extend the range, Frank."
"Yes sir, I can do that. But we don't have enough probes to extend the range in all directions."
"Then concentrate on the region between the Aldebaran and the system of Parm, as far out as you can go."
"Aye aye, sir."
One of the comms technicians swivelled round at his console. "Captain, Salamander acknowledges our signal and requests that we stand by."
"Stand by," Mikael snorted exasperatedly. "It's starting. I can feel it. And they tell us to 'Stand by'.
"Frank, bring the ship to Action Stations. Let's at least be ready, when they do slip the leash on us."
Above the clamour of the alarm bells and the noise of the crew arriving to take up their action stations, Mikael could hear the preparations for extending the scan.
"Probe 1, ready for launch. Launched. Probe 2, ready for launch. Launched."
"Ship cleared for action, sir," Frank reported. "2 minutes 43 seconds, sir."
"Thank you, Frank. Carry on."
"Message from Salamander, sir," the duty officer reported. "They want to know why we are launching probes."
"Reply 'Intuition'," Mikael ordered.
Frank was there when he turned round. "We have two contacts on the probe scanners, sir. Extreme range, but they're on an intercept course with the Aldebaran. We can't make out their type yet, but we're putting the signals through analysis now. That was very well done, sir, ordering out the probes when you did."
"Thank you, Frank. Feed the signals through to the tank and relay them to the Salamander, please."
This time the response from the Salamander was more positive. "Follow me. Move to intercept incoming craft."
This was followed almost immediately by a second signal. "Information from Lord David: Opposition have seized Princess.... will probably attempt escape using Aldebaran's lifeboat."
As the two ships piled on the power and sped in formation towards the unidentified ships, the Analysis Computers were fed with more and better data about the targets. Three main types of data were sought: the mass displacement of the craft, the pattern of heat emission from the hull, and the pattern of emissions across the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum. By combining these signals, a unique signature of the spacecraft could be obtained. The databanks of both the Salamander and the Cleopatra, contained the group signatures of every known class of spaceship, so that classifying the new ships was quite straightforward.
"One of the ships is a naval craft, sir. Frigate type. The other is a heavily armed freighter, a modified P-class vessel. Neither ship has IFF. Provisional classification is hostile."
From this point, however, the databanks of the two ships diverged. As well as the group signatures, the databanks contained the actual signatures of many thousands of individual ships. The signature of every new ship that was met, was added to the databank, and existing data was revised if necessary, as almost any modification to a ship could change its signature. Signatures, too, were traded whenever ships met in deep space. Information is a valuable commodity, and none more so than the identification of ships which might be in your region of space.
And so the databanks of the Cleopatra and the Salamander contained quite different lists of individual signatures, and it was the Salamander that came up first with the positive identification of the two ships.
"Message from Salamander, sir. The frigate is the Ragnar, the latest addition to the Vostovian Navy. The freighter is the Palomar, out of Parm. The Palomar has been suspected of involvement in several acts of space piracy, but nothing has ever been proved."
"We have the two ships on the main scanners now, sir," Frank reported. "I am recalling the probes. We can...."
"Sir, sir." The shout came from the main scanner console. "We've got another contact on the scanners. It's in close to the Aldebaran but heading out towards the other two ships. It looks as though she's launched one of her lifeboats, sir."
"Damn. They must have got through to the lifeboat with the Princess. Can we cut them off before they reach the other ships?"
"No sir. They will rendezvous with the incoming ships before we can even get within laser range."
Cursing silently to himself, Mikael went over to the tank and adjusted the controls, so that the local area of operations expanded to fill the whole display. He watched helplessly as the orange dot representing the lifeboat, closed rapidly with the two red dots of the ships from Vostov and Parm.
"Sir, we're picking up a transmission from the lifeboat."
"Is it in code?"
"No sir. It's in clear. It's from somebody called Pulofsky... he's wounded and requesting that they stop to pick him up. There's a lot of coded traffic between the two big ships, sir, but nothing that I can make out."
"Thank you." Mikael turned to Garcia and called him over. "Run some of these coded signals through the decrypt computers, Georges. See what you can make of them,"
"There's another signal in clear, sir. They want to know how many people are aboard the lifeboat....
"Lifeboat's replying now, sir.... it's apparently only this Pulofsky chap on board."
"He's on his own?"
"Apparently, sir."
"It looks as though they didn't get through to the lifeboat with the Princess after all," Mikael said. "It'll be interesting to see what they do now."
There wasn't long to wait. On the main viewing screen, a long finger of brilliant light streaked out from the Vostovian frigate and connected it with the onrushing lifeboat. There was a ball of flame and debris which expanded rapidly and then faded from view, and when it had gone, the lifeboat had vanished.
"Nice to see they look after their own," Mikael commented.
"The frigate is changing course, sir. She's now heading straight for us."
"And the freighter?"
"The freighter's still heading for the Aldebaran, sir."
"Signal the Salamander. Request permission to engage frigate."
There was an air of nervous excitement building on the bridge of the Cleopatra now. Mikael and Frank walked slowly around, calming down the youngsters in the crew for whom this would be their first engagement. There was time for a few words with everybody at the various control positions, ensuring that the usual pre-engagement procedures were being followed, and that no checks were being missed in the excitement.
"Message from the Salamander, sir. The Officer Commanding is requesting direct talk-through with you, sir."
"Thank you. Put him through to the Command Position, please."
Mikael walked over to his Command Console and sat down. No sooner had he done so, than the screen in front of him cleared and Simon's face appeared.
"Captain Boronin, good day. Please switch your communicator to secure mode using Scrambler A43/B." Simon's face vanished from the screen to be replaced with a pattern of white noise.
Mikael quickly suppressed his surprise at the civilian craft being equipped with the latest Naval Scrambling Device, which was, to the best of his knowledge, still on the Top Secret list, and flicked the switches on his console to bring the A43/B into the circuit. This time the noise pattern was replaced, a line at a time from the top of the screen, by the image of Simon's face.
"Thank you, Captain. Our assessment of the situation is this: the opposition has been frustrated in their original plan to seize the Princess and leave the Aldebaran in one of its lifeboats, by the action o
f Lord David and his group of agents on board. We have had confirmation from Lord David that the Princess is safe at the moment. The opposition's back-up plan will be to board the Aldebaran from the freighter, using armed men or possibly even troops, and seize the Princess by force. The frigate, which as you have observed, has altered course towards us, is presumably intending to ensure that we do not interfere with this act of piracy.
"We cannot intercept the freighter before she reaches and boards the liner, so the priority must be to get your detachment of Imperial Guard onto the Aldebaran as well. You will, therefore, not engage the Ragnar, but will maintain your present course and speed towards the Aldebaran."
"But what about the Ragnar?" interrupted Mikael. "We can't just ignore her. She may force us to engage."
"Don't worry about the Ragnar, Captain. The Salamander will keep her busy."
"I admire your confidence, sir. But, if the reports I have of the Ragnar are correct, she is extremely fast and powerful for a ship of her class. Are you sure you won't need some help?"
"The Salamander can handle the Ragnar," Simon repeated. "We have the weapons to do that. What we do not have is any capability for the sort of on-ship fighting that will be taking place on the Aldebaran. Your objective is to get that squad of Guardsmen onto the liner as quickly as you possibly can. Do not divert from that objective for any reason, Captain. The safety of the Princess is in your hands."
On the bridge of the Ragnar, Wolfram, ex-duke of Gan, stood talking to Captain Siccardes.
"You see Captain. I promised you action and you shall have it. And against the Imperial Navy as well. Their High Command has, I think, made a serious error of judgement here, in sending only a corvette against us."
"Do you want us to take out the corvette first?"
"Yes, and do it cleanly. Our friend the Colonel gets a mite nervous with the Imperial Navy around."
"You can tell him that the Imperial Navy won't be around for long. I'll bring all lasers to bear on the first pass and rake her from stem to stern. If her screens survive that, we'll swing round and run parallel on her port quarter."
"Why the port quarter?"
"Analysis reports that her main port laser turret has been completely destroyed. If we can lock on to her port side, and stay with her while she wriggles, we can hit her at a point where she's already been damaged and, as a bonus, she won't be able to return our fire."
"Very well, Captain. Carry on."
The Ragnar was closing rapidly now with the Cleopatra, as Captain Siccardes gave the orders for the attack. The Salamander, which had maintained station with the Cleopatra, now drew slightly ahead and took up a position on her port bow to pre-empt an initial attack on her weakened port side.
"They won't stop the Ragnar with such a simple manoeuvre," Siccardes boasted to Wolfram. "We'll feint to her starboard, then roll underneath and come up in between the two ships. With a bit of luck, we might even get a shot at that civilian ship while we're at it."
As the Ragnar was approaching her targets almost head-on, she reduced her velocity both to increase manoeuvrability and to extend the period of time when she would be in passage between the two ships and able to bring her lasers to bear. A slight course correction to bring her onto the Cleopatra's starboard bow and an opening blast from the bow lasers, then she slipped away to roll under the approaching corvette.
"Each turret, independent fire as she bears," Siccardes ordered.
"We can't bear on the corvette, sir. The civilian ship is in the way." Each turret reported the same story.
"That's impossible," Siccardes blustered. He pushed his way over to the viewing screen, to be met with the image of the Salamander, filling the screen and totally obscuring any sight of the Cleopatra.
"How the devil did she manage to get in our way? Never mind, we'll soon be past her. Then we'll swing round and pick up the corvette again."
"I'm afraid not, Captain," Wolfram observed. "It appears that this civilian craft has reversed course and is now tracking us; running parallel to our course and lying between us and the corvette."
Siccardes and Grey Wolf looked at each other, trying to comprehend the enormous g-forces involved in suddenly reversing the course of a ship travelling at that speed. All spaceships have anti-gravity screens of some description fitted, to cushion the human travellers from the effects of high-g manoeuvres. The hulls of modern ships, particularly warships built for manoeuvrability, are well able to take stresses of up to 100g but, without gravity protection screens, the human body tends to get smeared across the interior walls at anything above 20-30g.
"That's impossible," Siccardes said again. "There's no g-screen in existence which could take that pressure."
"Captain, you are a fool. It is obviously possible because it has happened. To deny it is futile. What we must do is to reassess the relative threat posed by this civilian ship, if indeed it is civilian after all. Let's see what her defensive screens are like."
"Bring all lasers to bear on the civilian ship: maximum power, sustained fire," Siccardes ordered. "All turrets fire as you bear."
"All turrets engaged and firing, sir," the gunnery officer reported. "No discernible weakening of the defensive shielding."
"Cease fire. We can't waste any more time on her now. We'll come back and finish the job later. Helm hard a'port.... maximum rate of turn."
"She's not answering the helm, sir."
"What!" Siccardes nearly exploded.
"Sir, we're being held by two tractor beams. Point of origin is aboard the civilian ship, sir."
"Well break the bloody tractor beams, then. That's what we've got all that countermeasures equipment on board for."
"These tractor beams are of a type I've never seen before, sir. The countermeasures are not effective on these beams."
"Then blast that goddam ship out of space." Siccardes was nearly beside himself with rage now. "All lasers open fire and keep firing until I tell you to stop."
The main gunnery control panel sprang into life, the pattern of lights indicating the active lasers. On the main viewing screen, the space between the Ragnar and the Salamander was filled with streaks of brilliant light. Then on the gunnery panel, one light winked out, followed by another.... and then another. On the viewing screen, the streaks of light connecting the two ships became fewer and fewer.... and eventually none.
"What the hell's going on," Siccardes demanded. "I ordered you to keep firing."
"The laser firing mechanism's being disrupted, sir. Some sort of jamming signal from that civilian ship. None of the main laser systems are operative, sir."
This time as Wolfram and Siccardes looked at each other, there was fear in their eyes. Fear which quickly changed to panic when the next report came in.
"Sir, the tractor beams are moving."
"Moving. What do you mean, moving?"
"Sir, the beams are being rotated.... in opposite directions."
One tractor beam from the Salamander had locked on to the bow of the frigate, while the other had fastened itself near the stern. The effect of these two beams now moving in opposite directions, was to twist the hull of the warship as one might discard an empty drinks can.
Inside the Ragnar, the sounds of the unnatural stresses being placed upon her hull, could now be clearly heard. All through the ship, crewmen were rushing to launch the ship's boats or to don space armour. The ones who went for their armour and, of those, the few who managed to get their armour on in time, were the lucky ones. The boats would not launch because the twist in the hull was now so severe that the launch mechanism had jammed.
On the bridge, Wolfram, Counsellor to the President of the Federation of Vostov, and prime architect of the plan to overrun Serta, sat in the Captain's command position and watched as the Ragnar, pride of the Vostovian Fleet, was twisted further and further out of shape, until finally the vacuum broke through and the Ragnar died.
***
Mikael and Anton had watched the approaching Ragnar
on the main viewing screen.
"Will we be able to get through without taking too much punishment?" Anton asked.
"I hope so, Tony. On this first pass, with our combined speeds, we'll only be within range of her lasers for a few seconds. It's when she swings round for a second pass that we could be in trouble.
"Look there. The Salamander's trying to force him to come down our starboard side rather than the port side where the damage is."
"Will she succeed?"
"It depends on how good the Ragnar's Captain is. If it were up to me, I'd allow myself to be forced to the outside and then, at the last minute, roll over and come down the channel between the Salamander and ourselves."
They watched in silence as the Ragnar closed within firing range and opened up with her bow lasers.
"That's all right," Mikael said. "The screens can take that. It's when she brings her main lasers to bear as well, that the screens will come under pressure.
"Look now. She's slipping sideways. I told you so. She's going to try to come down between us."
The Ragnar had started to roll under the path of the Cleopatra and so temporarily vanished from the main viewing screen. Mikael led the rush across to the tank, which was on maximum magnification. The Ragnar could now be seen crossing under the Cleopatra, but the Salamander was also manoeuvring. There was something wrong with the data on the Salamander but it took Mikael a minute to realise what it was.
"The Salamander's reversed course. Technically that should not be possible. There should not be a living soul left on that ship."
That the Salamander was still under control was evident from the neat way in which she completed the manoeuvre, dropping precisely into the slot between the Cleopatra and the point where the Ragnar was emerging from its roll.
The two ships now started to drop behind the Cleopatra and Mikael turned to his Exec with the expression on his face alternating between relief at escaping so lightly and utter disbelief at the manoeuvre he had just seen performed.
"We're through, Frank. I don't know how she did it but she got us through. Please inform Prince Gerald that we're commencing our approach run on the Aldebaran. Jump off time will be in ten minutes.
