Guard at the Gates of Hell (Gladius Book 1)

by George Olney

Lana shook her head. "Jamie? No. Well, not completely. I just felt I had to grow up sometime and had the opportunity. The Fleet needs people, Mother, and I'm a good worker when I want to be.

  "And I really want to be. Finally," she said a little sadly.

  Clarine stood, walked around her desk, lifted Lana to her feet, and hugged her. "You are, dear. You are a good worker. I'm certain you'll do well. It's just that..."

  Still standing and holding her mother, Lana looked her in the eye grimly. "It's just that it's finally common knowledge that we're going back to Central and finish off the damned Empire. I intend to be part of that. I want to know I'm finally doing something besides getting drunk, or drugged, or waking up beside a man I barely know. I want to know I'm doing something that will help people. I've got the chance to help change human history and I'm not walking away from that chance.

  "And I have someone that's worthwhile and who thinks he loves me, not just have sex. Jamie's a good man, Mother. I want to be worthy of him when we can finally be together after this is over."

  Clarine stood back and studied her daughter with a mother's concern. "He's a soldier, Lana, and one in a very dangerous part of a dangerous business."

  Lana's lips quirked in a grim smile. "Meaning he may not survive? We both know that, Mother. His odds aren't the best. We'll live with that. I helped keep him alive once without training. I want the training to do it right if I have to do it again. Besides, Jamie's told me he's thinking of hanging up his ax after the Empire's finished. I don't know what we'll do, but there'll be something. That exploration project, for instance. They'd love to have him and I can get qualified for one of the crews, once I get my nurse's training."

  Clarine studied the very new person in front of her that was not quite the daughter she'd taken from Central. Lana in military service (as a nurse!) was something different, but her new maturity of outlook was even more different. Now there was a new and changed Lana in front of her that wanted to do something worthwhile.

  Clarine was very, very proud.

  She'd worry later.

  THE WAHOO

  JACOBS EMPIRE SPACE

  The Wahoo was sitting in the Golden system, four AU out from the Primary, and doing an excellent imitation of pure vacuum. She had been in her position for the last 72 hours, mapping the system and evaluating Golden's potential for the Jacobs Empire. The Jacobs Empire, one of the breakaways that were so common now, was not currently classed as hostile, so the Wahoo wasn't hunting. On the other hand, Wltr Jacobs was an unstable megalomaniac, as beautiful an example as could be found in formerly Imperial space. That meant Niad wanted to keep a moderately beady eye on what he was doing. Ergo, the Wahoo quietly lying in place and watching many different things on passive sensors.

  "We've about got all the intel we're going to get, Jimmy," Alice was in her tiny cabin with her Exec, Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Zand. "I'm getting to the point where I want to blow something up again. Twelve more hours and we need to set course for our next station. At least that one's in Imperial space."

  Jimmy was nodding agreement when Alice's personal communicator spoke. //"Captain, Lieutenant Brk."// The third officer in their crew, he was Officer of the Deck at the moment.

  She looked apology at her XO as she answered immediately. //"Go."//

  //"Captain, we're getting a large ore carrier heading across our bows with a projected close approach of point zero five AU in two five mikes. Do we move?"//

  Alice thought for a moment. //"No, she won't see us, but I'm coming up there after I finish talking to the Exec. Let me look at the situation. Meanwhile plot an attack profile on the merchie. It'll be good training for the watch. Out."//

  Alice was on the bridge ten or so minutes later. "Captain has the conn."

  "Captain has the conn, aye," replied the OD.

  "Bring up visual," Alice commanded. Immediately, an image of the ore carrier was on the main screen. It was standard configuration for a merchantman, with a crew pod affixed to the front of three huge cargo globes, and a detachable drive pod fixed to the rear. It was about eleven megatons and slow, Alice reflected. She decided to go ahead and run an approach on the merchie, just to keep everyone in practice. "Battle stations torpedo."

  Within five minutes after the gong - gong - gong of the alarm, the XO reported, "All stations closed up. We are prepared to go hot with torpedoes."

  "Very good," Alice said in acknowledgment. Not bad, with the off duty watch in their bunks at the time of the alert. Meanwhile, the merchie was closer. "Commence approach, .09C. Pilot, make your course 2495 relative and 1100 declension."

  "2-4-9-5 relative and down 1-1-0-0, aye."

  The main screen changed to a schematic of the two ships as the Wahoo began to gently slide down and behind the merchie. Alice's concentration on the approach was broken when Sensors spoke up. "Captain, I have suppresser field bleed through approximately seven light minutes behind the merchie and high at a rough 3-4-0-0 mils reciprocal from its course. Designate Bogie Two. It appears to be heading for the merchie."

  "Engines to 10 percent thrust. Let's slow down and see what happens. Sensors, continue to refine plot." Somebody was careless and Alice wanted to see just who it was.

  The ore carrier was passing in front of them when the sensor tech spoke up again. "Captain, the bleed through is getting more definite as the bogie approaches. I now make it three sources in tight formation. If they stay on course, I ought to be able to register energy signatures at close approach."

  "Understood." Curiouser and curiouser, thought Alice. The unknowns had no need for the kind of speed that generated bleed through against a merchie, if what they were doing was a hostile approach. If they weren't making a hostile approach, what in the hell were they doing? Some kind of Jacobs fleet exercise? In any case, she didn't want to be noticed, not as close as those unknowns were going to be coming. "All stop. Rig ship for silent running."

  That meant no emission signature at all. Anything that could possibly radiate was shut down or minimized. Even the boat's engine was damped down.

  The icons of the three bogies were solid on the screen now. Passive sensors had a firm lock. As they passed in front of the Wahoo, the icons were suddenly accompanied by data. "Captain, signatures on those bogies are consistent with Imperial frigates. They will do a close intercept on the merchie in less than ten mikes."

  "Very good." This was the first sighting of Imperial frigates since they'd slapped around TF 16.2 near Tactine. That was the Frontier Fleet's very first contact with frigates. Possibly another boat had seen some, but she wouldn't know until they reported in on Niad. It looked like she was in a good spot to gather some data on the mysterious ships. Just sit and watch, Alice, and be sure everything was recorded. She called up the after-action report from TF 16.2 on her terminal while she was waiting for the intercept and did a little refresher reading. She had been a member of the task force during that scrap. Under orders to hide her collier, she'd worried more about detection than the fight. 16.2 had destroyed all six frigates, but at unacceptably high cost. Imperial frigates were very, very dangerous ships.

  "Frigates intercepting target," Sensors announced. Alice watched the main screen as the frigates swarmed up to the merchie in a triangular formation and crash decelerated. Stupid maneuver. They could have done it a lot more smoothly. On the other hand, that might be easy for them, given the way the frigates behaved against 16.2. She wasn't prepared for what happened next.

  As soon as the frigates surrounded the merchie, gunfire from all three ships destroyed the crew pod, killing all aboard. The frigates dropped their suppresser screens and simply held station on the cargo globes.

  "What the hell are they up to, Skipper?" asked her Exec. "Everyone in the system will pick up those guns on light speed sensors, even the half-assed Jacobs people."

  "Damned if I know, Jimmy," she replied softly, "but I think we're seeing Imperial piracy." The killing of the merchant crew bothered her in a way that destroying two previo
us Imperial merchantmen hadn't. They were at war with the Empire, even if Central didn't know it yet. This was simple smash and grab of an innocent bystander.

  Alice was amazed at the smooth, absolutely perfect coordination the three frigates showed. No normally crewed warship in history could match that. It was like the three ships were parts of one entity. Given the firepower and the maneuverability the frigates had shown, one of those three ship formations was damn near as dangerous as a dreadnought. On the other hand, Alice thought, combat reports said the loss of one ship in a formation heavily degraded the effectiveness of the other two. A plan began to form.

  "Indications of a Bogie Three approaching," Sensors reported. "Just fast enough to bleed through suppresser. It's at 3-1-3-0 mils relative to merchant ship."

  The Wahoo was totally undetectable as Bogie Two plowed past them at a more sedate pace than the frigates. It dropped its suppresser field as it passed, turning into a collier towing a crew pod. As they watched, the collier stopped near the merchie and detached the new crew pod. Swarms of mechs emerged from the collier and began to remove the damaged pod from the merchie and affix the new pod to the front of the ore carrier.

  "Piracy all right," Alice said. "One will get you ten that ore carrier's going to be headed for Middle Empire."

  "No bets, Skipper," the Exec said. "What do we do?"

  That was the question, Alice thought. The cautious approach would be to simply sit here and record everything. If the Empire was out grabbing cargoes with their best ships, they were already hurting. Nothing the Cluster or the S-boats had done so far was major, so they had to be already critically short of resources. This was important information. Add to that the suspicion there might be more smash and grab teams hiding in this system, and watching began to look like a good option.

  On the other hand, those frigates were priority targets. The fewer of them, the more Fleet ships would survive the upcoming attack on Central. There were three right in front of her boat, and they were all preoccupied. Great chance for an ambush. But how to get the word back to Niad?

  Making a decision, Alice began to issue orders. "XO, prep a tachyon data packet drone to Commander, S-boats, Niad. Download all sensor readings and my estimation that this is official piracy on the Empire's part. Include all bridge commands for the next two mikes then drop it ballistic and set it to activate in one hundred hours if no abort command received.

  "Pilot, drive at 20 percent strength. Make your course 5150 mils relative and over. Put us on the six of those three frigates."

  The Exec came up on his private intercom channel to her. "Sure this is wise, Skipper? We can't hide the destruction of those frigates."

  "We're going to make it look like the ore carrier blew up accidentally and took the Imperial ships with it, Jimmy," Alice replied. "Then we're going to hide and see what happens. If they find us, we'll take out whoever we can then self-destruct if it looks like we can't get away. We can't afford to let the Empire know S-boats exist."

  "Aye, Skipper," the Exec replied after a moment's hesitation. Every S-boat spacer knew the standing orders if detected. It went with the job, and was also why the crews were all volunteers. "Let's just keep from being detected, shall we? I'd like to get back to Niad."

  "Agreed."

  Alice was watching the Imperial ships and the merchie. It was going to be a while longer before that ore carrier would be ready to go. Hopefully, that would hold the attention of the frigates until the Wahoo got into firing range.

  The approach was slow and careful. Tension on the bridge was beginning to run high again, a familiar feeling to Alice by now, but there was an extra strain to it. She was gambling her boat and all their lives on her ability to destroy all three frigates then get out of the area without being detected. Carefully, she used her terminal to go back over all the Fleet knew about the frigates. The formation in her screen tended to confirm the estimation they operated in three ship elements. Those elements were deadly, as maneuverable as any ship in space, fast as a thief, and they acted as one ship instead of three in formation. They had a weakness, however, shown in the scrap with 16.2. Kill one of the frigates and they lost coordination. Kill two and the survivor ran for it.

  At least, that was the current guess at Intel. She was about to find out if that was true. In fact, she was planning on it.

  With agonizing slowness, the three icons and their captive swung into her firing arc. "Designate all ships as targets. Range?"

  "Range is now point oh nine light minutes, Captain," said Weapons. "Designate frigate at twelve o'clock as Target One. Target Two frigate is at seven o'clock and Target Three frigate is at five o'clock. Target Four, collier, is at eleven o'clock and close to Target Five, ore carrier."

  "At point oh eight light minutes," Alice said, "launch a six tube ballistic spread set for delayed activation. Torpedoes from Tubes One and Four on Targets Five and Four, set for ten - that's one zero - mikes activation. Two and Five on Target One set for one zero point oh one mikes activation. Three and Six on Target Two same setting. Reload tubes One and Four and shoot with appropriate settings to impact Target Three at the same time we hit the first two."

  "Understood," Weapons acknowledged. He was busy with his board for a few moments. All torpedoes set. The automatic reloaders on their tubes had a seven second reload time. They would be able to drop enough torpedoes to attack the whole group and move away before they activated.

  "Pilot," Alice said, "once we drop, move us around in front of the group. I want to wind up as close to zero mils relative to enemy formation as possible. Weapons, set up for a down the throat snap shot in case we miss one of those frigates. Don't wait on my command, those frigates are too fast. A miss will be your signal to fire."

  "Understood."

  She'd set it up. Now to see if it worked.

  "Point oh eight light minutes," Weapons announced. "Launching."

  There was a series of six thumps, followed seven seconds later by two more. The Wahoo edged away from her heading and began to circle the frigates and their captured ore carrier. Alice kept her eyes on the main screen, occasionally checking the time readout as it counted down to torpedo activation.

  They were nearly in position when the torpedo drives lit off. "Torpedoes are hot," Weapons announced. "All are functioning. Running hot, straight, and normal." The last sentence was unnecessary with modern missiles, simply borrowed from the ancient movies. By now, Alice was so into the attack, the thought didn't even make her smile. Besides, the phrase was just right.

  Weapons spoke up. "Captain, we are within point zero five light minutes of the group. Request permission to fire a full spread at the frigates when the first spread is within point zero two light minutes of their targets."

  Alice thought about it for a minute. It was a good idea, but it would only leave them with five torpedoes if things fell into the crapper. She snorted. If they didn't kill all three frigates and they were detected, a hundred torpedoes wouldn't be enough. "Good idea, Weapons. Do it."

  They watched with breathless concentration as the icons of the torpedoes crawled towards their targets. Another spread rumbled from their tubes. Sensors said, "No active scanners detected on the frigates. Torpedoes should be within passive detector range in one zero seconds from mark... mark."

  The frigates suddenly jumped forward and began firing small caliber bolts back at the torpedoes. Torpedoes aimed at the ore carrier and collier simultaneously detonated on target and the whole area was washed in antimatter backblast.

  Alice could feel the nervous sweat beading on her forehead as she watched. They still hadn't killed a frigate.

  There!

  "Hit! Target Three destroyed," Sensors announced. "One and Two cranking on speed."

  And they were fast! Those frigates had come up to speed from a dead stop faster than any ship Alice had ever seen. But...

  "Hit! Two hits!" Sensors said, excitement making his voice harsh. "Both targets destroyed by second salvo."

&nb
sp; "Pilot, make your course 3-5-5-0 relative and up," Alice commanded. "Get us the hell out of here in case there are more of them. Good job, Weapons." Hopefully, there weren't any more Impies nearby.

  There were more.

  "Suppresser fields dropping!" Sensors said. "Two enemy formations inbound. Confirmed as frigates."

  "Drive zero," Alice snapped. "Silent running."

  For the next twelve hours, the two frigate formations were all over the area, active sensors lashing in every direction. Everybody remained at their stations, tensely watching the two elements of frigates repeatedly crossing the area where their comrades had died. Several times, a triplet of frigates came close, but not close enough for them to detect the Wahoo coasting away on ballistic, suppressed, and drives down.

  As the searchers began to work their way away from the scene, Sensors spoke up again. "Drive sources have broken orbit from Golden IV and are headed this way. Energy signature conforms to conventional destroyers. I make their strength at around twelve."

  "Okay, boys," Alice breathed to the oncoming destroyers, "get those bastards off us and we'll just quietly leave." Right now, conventional destroyers seemed relatively harmless.

  The two divisions of frigates did the unexpected. They joined, but instead of attacking the Jacobs destroyers, all six frigates accelerated away and translated into TFD. Alice let out her breath in a long whoosh. "Thank you Jacobs fleet. Pilot, return to original heading, but set course for Niad. Communications, transmit self-destruct to the drone. I think it's time we went home and talked to somebody in a higher pay grade, folks."

  She was leaving the bridge when the XO caught up with her. "Captain, something's strange happening with those frigates."

  "Stranger, you mean, Jimmy," she cracked with a smile.

  "Stranger, then," he replied with a matching smile. "They could have taken that bunch of destroyers, even at two to one. Why didn't they?"

  Alice thought for a moment. "Good point, but they were sure to take damage or losses if they did."