by Jim Rudnick
He nodded. He could do no more than that.
"Should I call the guard captain, Ma’am?" he said.
She simply moved her arm up again and waited.
You could see the mental anguish in the young guard’s mind and the churning of his training versus his orders. And the training must have won out as he stabbed the buttons in front of him and the gate began to swing up to allow the visitors into the compound.
Moving ahead of the Lady and her Adept, the squad of Elite Guards broke into a trot and moved out sharply into the compound. Some peeled off toward the administration building, but the rest continued on to the top of the mining shaft. There, two climbed the headstock tower of the mining cage and quickly replaced the blown fuse, and the cage began to climb the shaft once more.
Another squad of Elite Guards left the Sterling and trotted over to help round up the hostages and manage the movement of the hostages back to the Sterling and the Valiant. Together, they'd be transporting the newly freed hostages over to Juno and their freedom.
"Barony Guards, Ma’am?" the Elite Guard asked.
She shrugged.
"They work for the Baroness. They can stay here for all I care, as I don't think they knew much more than to guard the hostages. She can look after them. It's not my job."
She looked at Gillian, her Adept, and raised an eyebrow and got a simple nod in response. She nodded back.
"Have Cadet Radisson Ansible back to Juno that we're on our way within the hour. And have our Ansible officer radio Eons with the same message."
A scant fifty minutes later, the Valiant and the Sterling lifted off of ITO and went to FTL within a few minutes more, the rescue of the hostages complete.
# # # # #
Lieutenant JG Whiteside poured a coffee for the captain and softly walked it over to the Comm chair.
"Sir …" he half-whispered, "Sir, here's that coffee."
Tanner nodded and tilted his head to the arm of the chair for his bull ensign to simply set it down, acknowledging the kindness, but his eyes never left the Bridge view-screen and the edge of the lateral arm of the Free Channel nebula.
The Marwick lay in wait, at almost the very edge of the nebula arm that pointed to ITO, hidden in a large swirling cloud of dust here that was especially thick.
They had been here, on station, for over two hours waiting for the Pirates to appear and as such were at battle stations but also in quiet mode—everything was shut down but life support and sensors.
"Helm, confirm the candle is ready," Tanner asked his Helm officer, Lieutenant Framingham, and received an “aye” in return.
"Ansible, confirm we're monitoring any registrations within our range," he asked his Ansible officer Lieutenant Bates and received another “aye” reply.
"XO, we good on tactical?" he asked as he spun slightly to his right.
Commander Templeton, the XO, nodded back as he checked his console.
"All weapons up and fully charged, Captain. Pulse cannons fore and aft set; lateral lasers set and plasma on standby," he rhymed off and Tanner nodded back.
"We're ready but where are they?" the bull ensign said with a note of exasperation almost.
A minute passed and then some minutes more.
Tanner sipped his coffee wishing that he could take the mug into his ready room for a bit of sprucing up. If this takes much longer, I'll need that for sure. Just a double maybe—
Klaxons screamed and it broke the tension. Just moving through the off-side end of the nebula arm, the Avalon appeared less than 20,000 miles away.
Roaring to the Helm to get on the intercept vector, Tanner punched in the captain’s code into his Comm console, and the ship’s shields jumped to life with their blue glow tinging the view-screen.
The Marwick jumped out of the orange cloud and into free space at max impulse, the engines pulsing with a huge surge of power.
"Ansible reporting, Sir—they know we're here, and they're going to light-speed …" Bates said, his eyes closed as he tuned out the chaos around him to listen to the communications traffic.
"Helm, go to light-speed," Tanner bellowed as the Avalon disappeared and seconds later they disappeared too.
"Ansible—messages?" Tanner queried.
"Moments ago, we got the confirmations from both the Valiant and the Lady St. August's frigate, the Sterling … their cargo loaded and on their way back to Juno—they just went to FTL!"
The view-screen showed the mass of the planet just ahead, but of course, there was no sign of the Avalon as the TachyonDrive hid all ships. The next few minutes were chaotic. At least we're on their trail, Tanner thought … as ITO grew and grew.
"Helm … douse the candle at the last possible moment," Tanner said.
As ITO filled the view-screen, they all watched as Lieutenant Framingham held his finger directly over the button, and then he punched it and they dropped out of light-speed.
Ahead at the edge of the atmosphere, the Avalon was pitching to start its descent.
"Tactical, fire both forward pulse cannons," Tanner yelled, and his XO stabbed the trigger buttons and the Marwick rocked to port.
Before them as the Avalon continued to pitch to vertical, the twin balls of pulse energy caught the Pirate ship partway through that turn. Her shields held so no damage was apparent, but the shock waves of the double hit pushed her to pitch more wildly than what they had planned.
Waiting for answering fire made the Bridge go quiet. But there was none. The Avalon was running not fighting, it appeared.
The Avalon fell almost under full gravity pull, the shields glowing as she dropped at thousands of feet per second, with the Marwick right on her tail.
As the land mass below came into focus on the view-screen, Tanner could see mountains and small valleys only … a mass of rock and green.
"Infrared," he barked at Tactical, and the view-screen showed heat signatures from those same mountains but still no sign of any mine.
"Stay on her tail," Tanner barked, hoping that there was no reason for the Pirates to run instead of turning to fight. He thought on that for a full second.
"Sir, the Avalon is charging her forward pulse cannons—both, Sir," his XO said quietly. While that did take a full thirty seconds, what it meant was that the Pirates had a target ahead of them—not behind them like where the Marwick was still chasing them.
Tanner knew it wouldn't be the Valiant, as that was a target the Pirates could care less about. He doubted too that they would aim at the Sterling as the Lady St. August was nothing more than a bureaucrat—no, those pulse cannon blasts were meant for the mine and the hostages within.
"Helm, on my mark, light the candle but just enough to go past them and interrupt that coming pulse—"
"Sir," the XO interrupted the interruption coming from the helm, "we can't do that—we're in the upper atmosphere …"
At the Helm, Lieutenant Framingham's fingers punched in the co-ordinates into the ship’s computer, and then that left hand danced over sliders and toggles, and he looked at the captain, smiling.
He nodded to his captain.
"Sir," the XO still protested, "we're plainly too close so the timing would need to be on the order of three or so microseconds of candle—I don't think the TachyonDrive can be that precise."
Tanner nodded to the Helm.
"Helm—now!" he yelled, and in the front view-screen, the world below suddenly jumped as they warped past the Avalon. The pulse cannon blasts hit the Marwick in the stern, and while the shields held, the klaxons started to scream again. She lurched sideways by half her beam and shuddered as the TachyonDrive quit so suddenly.
"XO, damn those klaxons—fire!" Tanner shouted above the chaos.
The resulting blast to their rear, directly into the path of the Avalon, caught her without the forward shields being on as all her power was still holding her rear shields as powered as possible since that was where the enemy was—or rather had been.
The cannon blasts carved into the
decks around the top tier of decks where the Bridge and most command and Bridge crew were.
Somehow, one of the blasts had caught the logistic bio-cables that connected the Bridge to engineering, it appeared, and the Avalon and the ship yawed hard to port. Even badly damaged, they returned fire immediately, and the rear shields of the Marwick dropped again by more than forty percent, and one more such blast would disable their rear shields and make them vulnerable to another pulse cannon blast.
"Helm, altitude?" Tanner asked quickly.
"Uh ... Sir, we're up at about 40,000 feet, Sir—say eight miles, but why?" Framingham asked back, wondering what the hell the altitude would have to do with anything.
Tanner smiled; he'd been in somewhat similar circumstances once before in the atmosphere of a planet in the Earldom … it might be worth a try.
"Tactical, right after the next pulse cannon foray, lay a barrage of our magnetic mines into the course to port and starboard—but set the closing distance to full extension; turn on our forward shields and push them out to max, and Helm—a burst of max impulse but stay right above those co-ordinates!"
The XO looked at his captain with a look that said, “pardon?”
Tanner just shook his head as their rear shields took another pulse cannon blast, and the sidebar up front on the view-screen abruptly went full red on the rear icon of the ship.
"Sir," Framingham said from the Helm, "shields are down, and they'll fire again in twenty-eight seconds."
As the two ships dropped in tandem, the Marwick in the lead pulled slightly ahead to lead by a mile or so. Behind them, the Avalon was charging her forward pulse cannon to finish off the Marwick as they both flew toward the surface.
At less than seven miles, the atmosphere around the diving ships thickened, and then by five miles, it was noticeable as a whine that sounded like it was tearing apart the various arrays and ship's fins and weapons ports.
But the atmosphere did something else too, especially to falling unpowered objects like mines. Pushing through the full spread of those mines that were smaller than a few yards across was easy for the Marwick as she was the first ship in the lineup of two and under power. But that passage, the movement itself through the thickening atmosphere, meant that the motion first pushed the mines aside, but then the mines drifted in behind the Marwick.
As they were unpowered, they followed and floated and congealed in the exact path of the Marwick whose engines pushed them further back and then back directly into the path of the Avalon.
The mines attached themselves to the Avalon hull by the dozens, and they started their countdown.
"Sir," the XO said, "contact in T-minus five seconds."
"Helm," Tanner bellowed, "hard port, full impulse burst, and get us the hell out of here."
Every Bridge crew member swayed in their seats as the Marwick went left hard, and they cursed as the Helm powered up to full impulse.
Behind them the Avalon continued still down toward the surface for a few seconds, and then the flash and shock-waves that carried through the atmosphere pushed the Marwick to port even more.
The fireball that started to flare off the Avalon's port side appeared first and then blossomed to include what looked like the Bridge ignited too.
Turning away from straight down, the Avalon rode a course that drifted a mile or so to starboard of the tor that lay below, flaming now from many hull breach holes that the mines had blown and then drifted back again. Obviously not under Helm control, the Avalon drifted back toward the tarmac and compound below … and then struck the area with vengeance.
As the ship exploded, the Marwick was moved hard to port as the shock-wave took her and shook her. The Perseus engine on the Avalon blew less than a second later, and the cloud that arose was a huge, black, roiling, thunderous mass of flame-driven gasses. That sent another shock-wave out across the valley and again up the few thousand feet to the Marwick.
"Helm," Tanner said, "let's get down there and set-up rescue duty. XO, shut down Tactical and take charge of the first responders, and if there's any way, get any survivors into Sick Bay."
Tanner continued to watch the fire that now seemed to be a thousand feet tall, black smoke billowing over the valley reaching up and up toward the peaks and tors above. He knew the compound area that he'd barely seen of barracks and buildings and the shafts of the mine were all gone as the crater would surely be almost a full mile across. The area shook almost like a wave on the ocean as the Avalon armory first imploded and then exploded at the same time. The ship was a loss, it appeared. While the hope was that someone in charge, someone from the Bridge, would be found alive and could stand trial for the crime of piracy, Tanner doubted anyone could survive that kind of a crash.
"Did you hear back, Ansible, from the Valiant or the Sterling?" Tanner asked, turning to the port side of the Bridge.
"Aye, Captain, both fully underway to Juno. Cadet Radisson reports that they're crowded but fine, and the hostages on board the Valiant seem to be mostly malnourished and dehydrated. Minor injuries and sprains mostly. Numbers on board are 274 men, women, and children."
"And the Sterling report?" Tanner asked.
"Sir, the Sterling—the Lady St. August’s cruiser? She went to FTL and sent only that there are 492 hostages total and they're all under care. Uh … in case you were interested, Sir—she didn't 'report' at all. This was relayed to us via the Valiant," Lieutenant Bates offered, his voice a bit hesitant.
"Whatever, Lieutenant, whatever. Royalty is as royalty does, son," Tanner answered. If he cared at all, he showed nothing to his Bridge crew as they put down as close as they dared to the still burning Avalon, klaxons screaming again as the ship’s first responders got ready to help search for any surviving Pirates.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Lady St. August nursed her power drink in her gym aboard the Sterling, her trainer still shaking his head.
"Ma’am, a real part of any routine is just that—you need, as you know, to follow the same repetitions to gain muscle mass and lose caloric intake." He shook his head again as she just sat on the bench beside the incline track machine.
"While I understand the issues we've just faced, Ma’am, surely getting back into shape would be at the top of anyone's list. Ma’am. I mean, please, Ma’am," His muscular arms stretched out to her like a persuasive gesture.
This one, she thought, really is a single minded type-A trainer that even though they were only a day or two past the fireball on ITO, he wanted just for her to get back on the machines.
She took another large swig of the gingko and taurine salty mixture and swallowed noisily.
"Enough, Adam," she said, "Be back on the incline in a minute."
She swigged again and then sighed, got up, stepped into the foot mounts, and then pressed the monitoring button on the console to start this set of timed efforts.
The machine began to pulse and time her response to the walking steps up and then down and then up once more. She slowly got into the rhythm and ramped up her output to get into what the trainer was chanting was “her beat … get the beat,” and she did try.
Behind her she knew lay death and the loss of her step-mother's attempt to … well … to do whatever she wanted to do to gain some kind of advantage over the RIM and even its Council.
Down in the decks holding the cargo bays, the Sick Bay, and the extra crew bunk decks, the hostages were being treated, fed, cared for, and yes, each of them debriefed and made whole again. At least as good as we can for now, she thought.
The incline machine beeped now that she was hitting her maximum step and lifted her to the plus ten percent to test her resolve.
She bitched at the machine now … sweat just beginning to course down the swell between her breasts. Her breathing got tougher, and she pushed out the exhales with abandon. Her blonde hair was already sweaty as it now fell in strands that clung to her neck, and she remembered how much she hated to stay trim.
Damn this Captain Scott, sh
e repeated over and over to herself using the repetition to power her push downs on the machine. She felt happy—no satisfied—well, appreciative. She thought that Scott had come through for the best thing for the RIM. Perhaps not for the Barony as her step-mother still was in charge of the Barony and its nine worlds and billions of inhabitants.
But not the hostages anymore. And judging by the reports of the Pirate ship crashing into the mine compound and the death all around, no one would know. No one but her and this Captain Scott. And her step-mother.
All knelt to her, she thought, but not I.
She knew that even though the Avalon was gone, the crew as well as the truth must be held in close check for now, but not for long.
Her breathing came more and more spotty as her lungs clasped for air; she was hitting her all-out expenditure of energy, and the sweat now ran down her back and into her gym shorts. Right down in her shoes, the sweat was pooling in the toes, and her steps felt both wet and yet grippy.
“Scott,” she said to herself, “we will meet again. This is not over, and with the power of the Barony, I will see that you heel. You will be mine.” She nodded as the sweat still poured down her breasts.
# # # # #
"At ease, Captain," the admiral said with an unexpected degree of force.
Tanner changed his stance from attention to at ease and half-smiled to himself; surely this can't be a bad post mortem. After all, things had changed dramatically in the past month or so with the end of the Pirate threats and the return of all the hostages.
"Sir, if you please, could we discuss the Pirates up front?" he asked, his voice only slightly off point.
McQueen nodded back.
"Yes, Captain, let's go through the list one by one."
Tanner nodded and waited for the admiral to begin.
"First, the Pirates. Destroyed, ship and every single crew member by yourself and the Marwick—but did I detect a note of a Kinross Navy upper atmosphere tactic?"
The Admiral almost smiled, Tanner assumed.
