Star Man 2: Star Rise

by I. G. Roberts

  Theseus and Freyja departed Cambridge Station, heading for the Jump-Point back towards Sankarah. Samurai, Thor, and Hiln left at the same time heading for the only other Jump-Point available in the Cambridge System. Neither of the two groups chose to Micro-Jump out to their respective Jump-Points. Instead, they elected to use their In-System drives to make their way to the Jump-Point event horizon. On arrival Theseus and Freyja transited in formation, emerging in a System designated FR2-955E at the other end sixteen hours later. The System was never given a name because there were no habitable planets there and not much else of interest beyond three Jump-Points, one leading to Cambridge and the other two ultimately leading deeper into Federation Space. They took their time transiting FR2-955E, scanning for other ships or debris as they went. Again, they saw nothing and entered their final Jump before reaching the Conomar System, home of the Codai colony they intended to visit. This Jump was a two day one, so the crew had time to rest a little because of the reduced state of readiness.

  When they entered the Conomar System, they set course for the planet, spiraling in, scanning as they went, looking for debris or anything else of interest. Colin was sitting in his office, looking through the database when Theseus interrupted him, telling him there was a running battle underway with two Federation Navy ships being pursued and fired upon by four others. Colin asked Theseus to connect him to Freyja, and as soon as he saw Siobhan, he could see she already knew about the drama being played out on the other side of the System. He asked her to go dark in Freyja and ordered the same for Theseus. They then plotted a Micro-Jump across to a location to one side and slightly above the attacking ships. On Jump emergence, they took the time to carry out a tactical evaluation then Colin ordered both ships to fire two full spreads of missiles on ballistic trajectories that would intercept the Pirate ships in thirty minutes’ time. By now, they had identified the two Federation ships as FNS Destiny and FNS Shurana, both owned and crewed by Tangesha. FNS Shurana appeared to be damaged, though not critically. The two ships were moving more slowly than he would have expected, so Colin asked Theseus to establish contact via Laser-Comms with FNS Destiny.

  It took a couple of minutes, but eventually, an exhausted looking Captain Carlon appeared on the screen. When he saw Colin, Carlon looked surprised, asking him where he was. Colin told him his whereabouts was not important right then, but FNS Destiny and her companion should just keep on running as fast as they could because help was on the way. Understanding dawned on Sophon Carlon’s face, and he agreed but told them FNS Shurana was disabled with damage to her drives and both ships had empty magazines. Colin nodded, explaining to Carlon that his magazines were most definitely, not empty, then ended the link, opening another to FNS Freyja.

  When Siobhan came on, he said, “Captain, I think we need to open up the Pirate formation a little, perhaps bounce them around, maybe a minute or so before our missiles arrive. Immediately after we do that, we should activate our missiles then loop around for another attack run and hit any remaining ships with everything we have. Let your ship’s AI enable your weapons, she can do it far more precisely than a human. Did Carl tell you about us buzzing the ships, at Lahoshar?”

  “Yes, he said it was a lot of fun, it fact, he said it was the most fun he’s ever had since joining the Navy. I’m not sure if I should be amused or insulted.”

  “Siobhan, I think you should be delighted, you know that you’re his world. In a lot of ways, you two remind me my wife and me. Okay, Theseus is relaying course data to Freyja now. I suggest we let the AI’s sync and fly the profile. We bring our Shields up to full as we pass the enemy ships. Having two Warships appearing out of nowhere on one side of them while our wake is bouncing them all over the place and our missiles are going live on the other side, is going to put them into information overload. They simply won’t know which direction the threat is coming from or where to look. By the time they begin to have any idea what’s happening, our missiles will be exploding against their Shields, and we’ll be well into our first strafing run.”

  As he told her the plan, Colin could see a predatory gleam appear in Siobhan’s eyes, and her face lit up with a beautiful smile, the two not quite fitting together because they were caused by different parts of the conversation. At home, this woman was kind, gentle, affectionate and funny, in the CCC of a Warship, she was deadly. It was almost as though there were two people in the one body. She was born into another family with long military traditions so, like Anne, the stories of her ancestor's deeds were like mother’s milk to her. Even while the call was underway, the ship’s AI’s were already starting to perform the synchronization process. This was a process where they would effectively become one, flying both ships locked only 100 metres apart. The AI control was so precise, the distance between the two ships never varied by more than two metres during any of the many maneuvers this technique could be used for. Colin didn’t invent the art. In fact, the AI’s in FNS Thor and FNS Forseti did, after one too many close calls, but he had practiced it, as had Siobhan. The AI’s took over control as soon as Colin and Siobhan gave the order, bringing the two ships together till they were flying the optimum distance apart to be able to cause the maximum disturbance to space-time as they passed by the Pirate vessels.

  On board the Pirate command ship, Tavatoz, Captain Surgea Baneme was entirely focused on his prey running from him like the frightened rabbits he thought them to be. He and his crew had no idea new players were about to enter the game. They were making the fatal mistake of focusing too intently on their quarry and didn’t see the few signs their Sensors were giving them of the threat on their flank. The Pirates even failed to see the brief appearance of the two Cobras when they first entered the System, and they didn’t know anything about the missiles that were coasting toward them. One of the ships Surgea was chasing was FNS Destiny. He lost a close friend and ally the last time the Peschal Alliance encountered this ship. Surgea couldn’t capture Colin Gordon, nobody even knew where the man was now, but he could catch this ship. Then he would have the pleasure of taking her back home, and the crew would sell for a good price in the slave markets, at least the ones who lived long enough to reach the slave markets would. Captain Baneme might allow his crew to have a few for fun, it would depend on how many they could capture alive, and their condition. He would pick out the injured ones for entertainment, there wasn’t much point in giving them medical assistance, and they wouldn’t fetch a very high price at auction, not if they were damaged goods. The Federation ships stopped firing missiles at them a short while ago, so he thought they had most likely run out, so much easier for him to capture them then. He could almost taste the victory.

  Meanwhile, the Cobras arced up and over, beginning their first run in toward the Pirates, their speed increasing as the AI’s gradually increasing the power to the primary drives. The plan was to have the spatial distortion at maximum just before passing the Pirates then flipping the drives into reverse. This technique was developed after Colin returned from Lahoshar and it was hoped it would be far more disruptive to the Pirates because of the rapid polarity change. The Cobras reached the critical point, and the AI’s activated the missiles, then only seconds later, flipped the drive polarity, rapidly decelerating the two Cobras as the Shields came up to full power.

  The first Surgea Baneme knew anything was wrong was when Chiasa to his starboard side was literally torn in two with the stern cartwheeling end over end before ploughing into Katantos, the ship holding station beside her. Chiasa barely missed Tavatoz, Surgea’s ship, and then only because Tavatoz was pushed aside in time by whatever caused all the damage in the first place. All the ships in the group were buffeted about by something though nobody among the Pirate fleet knew what it was. Then his tactical Officer and friend Gonsu Hagae yelled there were missiles on their port side, too close to stop. Missiles they could understand, these were weapons they could do something about. This was a well-trained crew, they either did their jobs well, or they paid in pai
n or with their lives. Already, the Point-Defense was firing at the incoming weapons, but they weren’t behaving like any missiles he’d ever seen before, they kept making random course changes. Of course, the continuing buffeting they were experiencing didn’t help targeting either.

  Then Gonsu yelled, “Ships! What are they? They’re tiny, but where did they come from? Oh, by the deity, they’re attacking. I’ve never seen anything move that quickly before.”

  Surgea’s face went white as he saw what Gonsu was talking about on his own screens. He knew even then, they were already dead. Then an incoming message lit the Comms screen. When he accepted the call, a hard-looking man, a human in Federation Naval Officers uniform was looking back at him. Surgea didn’t recognize the man but felt he’d seen him, or at least his image, somewhere before.

  Surgea barely had time to open his mouth to say something, when the man on the other end cut him off, saying, “The destruction of you, and your ships comes compliments of Commander Colin Gordon. Enjoy the afterlife.”

  Just as Colin finished, missiles began impacting the Shields on Tavatoz, rapidly battering them down. The two Federation ships were now firing more missiles, each firing ten at a time. These new ships were dancing around, just like their missiles did as they bore down on the remaining Pirate ships. Hardly any of the shots fired at the Federation ships hit anything, and the few that did seemed to just bounce off their Shields. Then a combination of missiles, Laser fire, and Rail-Gun rounds all converged on Tavatoz simultaneously, finally demolishing the Shields and then penetrating the hull. A warhead burst into the bridge compartment and exploded. Surgea’s Brain never even had time to process the fact before he was vaporized by the exploding warhead. Now only one Pirate ship, Melia, remained. Vrahal Cadaza, the Captain of Melia, began frantically trying to signal his surrender even as the incoming weapons were battering down the Shields. Colin and Siobhan stopped firing, waiting to see if the Pirate would still be alive, and willing to surrender after the last of the ordnance they had already fired was expended. By the time it was, Melia’s Shields were only holding on by a thread. When the explosions stopped, Vrahal Cadaza looked around his bridge, barely believing they were still alive. Today's experience was the most terrifying he’d ever been exposed to. He thought, never before was a Peschal Alliance fleet so soundly beaten, and by only two small ships, not much more than half the size of his. His Comm System lit up and when he accepted the call a hard, implacable, unyielding face looked back at him from the screen. He too, thought he should know who this was, the man looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t put a name to the face.

  The man spoke, “Do you still wish to surrender, or do we continue with your destruction?”

  When he looked around the bridge, he saw a lot of terrified faces. On his tactical screen, he could see those two monstrous little ships buzzing around near the edge of his weapons range moving and turning impossibly fast. Vrahal only had two choices, surrender, or die. He knew it, and so did this Federation Officer. While the Federation might execute him, they might not. Even a Federation prison was better than being killed alone out here. Outside of the Point-Defense, Melia hadn’t fired a single weapon on this mission. More than that, this was the first mission he’d been on where he commanded a ship, he might not be sentenced to death.

  He keyed his transmit switch to reply, “We surrender, I requested it while you were shooting at us, now I shall accept the opportunity you offer. What are your instructions?”

  The answer came back quickly, “Power down weapons and Shields. Have your crew abandon ship in the escape pods. We’ll arrange for you to be picked up as soon as we can. Don’t worry, you have my word that we will pick you up, it just might take a while to retrieve every pod out here.”

  “Thank you, I will follow your instructions. Abandoning ship now.”

  With that, Vrahal ordered all weapons, Shields, and drives powered down on Melia then he and his crew entered the escape pods and ejected into space to await pick up. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, they had no choice but to trust their lives to the Federation. At least Federation Naval Officers had a reputation of doing as they promised. He hoped this human would uphold the tradition. The look in the man’s eyes was terrifying. There was no give in them at all, if Vrahal didn’t do as he was told, to the letter, he would die, and probably his crew with him. All the escape pods were out in less than five minutes from the time Colin issued the ultimatum.

  Colin took a moment to calm himself down. He’d let the thrill of the hunt pull him along during the battle, now it was time to pick up the pieces. A call came in from FNS Freyja.

  When he accepted the call, Siobhan, apparently high on adrenalin, said, “I can see what Carl was talking about now, maybe I shouldn’t be angry with him. We broke a ship in two without firing a weapon. I’ve got one up on my husband now, he hasn’t cut a ship in two just by flying past it. Colin, this must be one for the record books. I can’t believe we did that. How did we do that? Colin, did you know that would happen?”

  Colin, listened, letting her run down naturally because he could see she was over excited, for that matter, so was he.

  When Siobhan finally stopped talking, Colin said, “Well, I always have an interesting time when I go somewhere with you Frasers.”

  With that, Siobhan laughed then retorted with a wide grin on her face, “Listen ‘Bucko,' I think you have that the wrong way around. Carl and I were living nice quiet lives till you arrived on our doorstep, then all hell broke loose. I must admit, you do have such a refreshing approach to fighting in space, it seems you’re writing your own rule book. By the way, you do know those other two Federation ships are still running, don’t you? Perhaps you should tell them it’s safe to stop now.”

  Colin nodded and cut the connection. He understood Siobhan needed the release, once again he’d been involved in an unprecedented action. Colin asked Theseus to establish a Comm-link with FNS Destiny. When Destiny accepted the call Sophon, Carlon looked a little pale. Destiny’s Sensors would have seen in gruesome detail the mess Theseus and Freyja caused.

  Colin said, “Hi Captain, Destiny, and Shurana can stop running now. It’s safe, and we could use some help rescuing the survivors from the Pirate fleet, I don’t have very much room on Theseus or Freyja to house them.”

  “How did you do that Colin. I’ve never seen a ship broken in two like that before and we never saw any sign of a weapons discharge.”

  On the periphery, Colin noticed the two fleeing ships were already starting to decelerate as he replied, “I’ll delay telling you all of that till I can tell you face to face. I’d prefer not to send the information over a Comms channel, I’ll tell you when we’re able to meet face to face, I promise. Now, do you or Shurana need any assistance from us?”

  “No, we’re okay. Shurana won’t be very fast till we can make our way somewhere for repairs but both ships are sound enough. Is there any chance of an escort to Cambridge Colin? We were going there when we were attacked.”

  “We have to show the flag on Conomar Sophon, but then we’re heading home so if you’d like to come along, an escort is certainly no problem.”

  “That will work perfectly for us, thank you, Colin. We will rendezvous with you at your current location as soon as we can turn ourselves around.”

  Theseus and Freyja kept an eye on the escape pods, using their drive fields to gently keep them in a relatively confined space. While they were doing that, Colin looked at his space issues, he could only really fit a maximum of about twenty people in his brig, and that was packing them in like sardines. So, Theseus and Freyja could take a maximum of about forty prisoners between them, he thought Destiny could probably hold perhaps 100 or so. Colin wondered about commandeering the abandoned Pirate vessel. He contacted Siobhan to see what she thought about the idea of taking the abandoned Pirate ship to transport some of the prisoners. She’d been grappling with the same problem. All the Pirates, or at least most of them, would need to go back to C
ambridge. Conomar simply didn’t have the facilities or the extra security forces to be able to house them all, or for that matter, the food to feed them, or even the ability to keep them from being freed during another raid. They had no Warships of their own to defend the System, relying on their location that little bit closer to the core of the Federation and regular visits from the Federation Navy to discourage any Pirates.

  It took over a day for Destiny and Shurana to stop, turn around, and make their way back near the scene of the battle so they could begin picking up pods. During that time, Theseus and Freyja recovered as many Pirates as they could fit in their brigs. The two ships also managed to secure the abandoned vessel. Engineers from all the ships went over to look at Melia to see if taking it for prisoner transport would be a viable option. After a thorough inspection, they concluded they’d only be able to put a maximum of about forty prisoners in her simply because there was no way to secure more. The four Federation ships continued efforts to rescue as many of the Pirates as they could, hoping that at least some could be redeemed, but they were rapidly running out of space. Soon, they’d be unable to safely pick up any additional people. Colin contacted Conomar orbital control and was told nobody had bothered them or come near the planet. They said to Colin that their Sensors did see most of the ships and they were able to see the battle as it unfolded. They were in the process of mobilizing their militia to resist the Pirates when Theseus and Freyja ended the engagement in the Federation’s favour. After discussing their shortage of space for a while, Colin asked Siobhan on Freyja to fly over to Conomar and see if she could arrange for some of the Pirates to be secured there till other arrangements could be made for keeping them. Technically, and legally, all the prisoners were Conomar’s problem, but for a small colony like this, it was very rare for that responsibility to be enforced. Still, Colin had made a promise, and it was looking more and more like there were simply too many Pirates to be safely accommodated on the available ships.