"Yeah," Marilyn Terrance agreed. "Look how the bays open. Two on each side. Quick egress."
"Lots of fire support, too," Julio Martinez noted. He had read the specs on the shuttles several times over and grew more appreciative each time.
"That's the idea, ladies and gents," Watkins said. "We don't know what we're getting into but these should help."
"Assuming the BEMS don't have something better," Jeeta Suharto said. She tucked an errant strand of coal black hair back behind her ear.
"I don't believe in bug eyed monsters," said Martinez. "I'm more worried about running into bad-ass aliens in numbers, with lots of weapons-that kind of shit keeps me up at night."
"It doesn't matter, troops. Marines make do. If we're outgunned, we just fight better and smarter. Personally, I think we ought to prepare for the Chinks rather than some hypothetical BEM."
"Me, too," Sun Lee said, ignoring the fact that he was as Chinese as the ones being referred to. "Fucking Chinks think they own the fucking world."
"Well, I'm here to tell you they don't, but I didn't bring you here to talk politics. I wanted all the Platoon Sergeants to get a good look at the layout here because we're going to start training on entrance and exit of these boats until you can do it in your sleep. There was a lot of skull sweat put into them. See there how they designed racks for our weapons by each seat? Easy to secure them, easy to get to before debarking."
"How 'bout simulators, Top? Are there any on board?" asked Martinez.
"Yes, and we're going to be practicing with those until your eyes are red, then we'll wake the troops at all hours and see how well the sims took. I want them to be able to come from sleep to sitting in their shuttles in three minutes flat, no more."
The platoon sergeants nodded, knowing First Sergeant Watkins never kidded around about training. Besides, it would keep the troops too busy to get bored even if the shuttles were never used.
***
"Sound general quarters," Keane ordered nonchalantly in the midst of the evening meal.
Chief of Boat Thomas Berry twitched his bushy brows and smiled evilly. The key officers and non commissioned officers were all alike in that they took their meals as they liked. Only at the formal dinner at the end of the "day" could they count on sitting down to a regular meal. This time the second tier crew was in the control room. Almost instantly the warbling sound of general quarters rang throughout Doc Travis. In the dining hall men and women pushed plates aside and ran for duty stations. Some crammed last bits of food into their mouths as they moved hurriedly through the ship. Others piled out of beds in their staterooms and into combat fatigues with a speed gained only from practice and more practice. The theatre emptied, the day rooms were suddenly bereft of idlers, fires were turned off under kettles of cooking food and everywhere in the vast ship, loose items were swiftly secured before the men and women rushed to duty stations.
In the control room Senior Master Chief Petty Officer Berry kept time. Officers skidded into sight and made for their duty stations, and if senior, pushed the other person aside and began running check lists on the status of those sections of the ship in their care.
"Weapons manned!" Commander June Mundahan said loudly, the first to report. She grinned proudly, brightening her beautiful face, although that wasn't usually the first part of her one noticed. Her body matched or even exceeded the beauty of her facial features.
"Gravitics normal, standing by for adjustment," Lieutenant White said. Next to Mundahan, the tall blond was one of the prettiest officers, not to mention one of the most competent.
"Astrogation manned, helm manned," Lieutenant Chavez said evenly.
"Engineering, all stations manned," Lieutenant Commander Levy said.
"Environmental, damage control, manned," Lieutenant Lan Nguyen chimed in his high voice.
"Damage control manned. Engineering manned." Chief Engineer William Levy announced.
"Marine contingent ready, assault shuttles manned and ready," Major Rambling's voice came over the com.
"All stations manned and ready, sir. Standing by," Commander Dunaway confirmed.
"Four minutes, seventeen seconds, sir," COB Berry intoned from his alcove at the opposite bulkhead from the control room workstations.
Keane nodded. "Good, but not quite up to standard yet. We're getting there, though. Thank you, gentlemen and ladies. Discontinue general quarters and let the crew get back to their meal. We'll have ours while we go over any discrepancies found during the drill." He strode out of the control room and back to his day cabin. Secretly, he was pleased with how well the crew was shaping up, especially the weapons section. He had ordered Commander Mundahan to drill all three subsections incessantly until they were well-nigh perfect. He had begun thinking that the ship's armament, shielding and EW capability would be critical in carrying out his mission, more so than having the extra marines aboard, although he had no idea why he felt that way. After years of service he had learned to pay attention to hunches, though. There was one other factor he chastised himself for not thinking about before but he intended to take care of it right now.
"Chief, find Lieutenant Wannstead and have him report to me in my cabin, please."
"Aye, aye, sir. I'll get him here."
***
"Sit down, Brian," Keane said after Wannstead reported to him in his day cabin. He was beginning to like doing business in its informal atmosphere. "I have some questions for you."
"Anything I can do to help, sir."
"Fine. I don't suppose you were old enough to know how those first two ships your father sent to the Bolt Cluster were equipped, but do you know anything about the last two?"
"In what way, sir?"
"Weapons. Special equipment or instruments. Anything not in the standard equipment specs when you deliver the ships to buyers."
"Oh. Let me think, sir." He rubbed his chin while his eyes studied the ceiling. "Sir, so far as I know all that was out of the ordinary was a series of telescopes somewhat similar to the ones on this ship, although not nearly as powerful. For weapons ...we ...um ..." He squirmed in his seat despite all he could do to sit still.
"Something very much under the table, I take it?"
"I guess it doesn't matter right now, sir, but if we return and it got out there would be some repercussions."
"Let's worry about them later. I need to know anything that might affect our mission."
"Yes, sir. Dad pulled a great many strings and did some very heavy pushing on certain people. What resulted is that he obtained a plasma bomb to send with the last ship."
"Hmm." Keane ran through his mind the people the elder Wannstead must have twisted the arms of to obtain that kind of weaponry, but decided it didn't matter now. The plasma bomb was very nearly as powerful as a city-destroying nuke and much, much cleaner. "Let's put it this way. What you just told me will stay between us unless the safety of my ship is compromised. How was the PB to be delivered if it was found desirable to do so?"
"They had something like our assault shuttles but smaller and built especially to deliver the bomb. It was unmanned and had a robotic pilot, of course."
"I see. Well, apparently it didn't help, did it?"
"Who can say, sir? We'll have to take a look at Xanadu to see if it was used."
"Yes, I suppose so. We'll be arriving at our rendezvous with the Santa Cruz in another ten days or so. After that ...well, we'll see. And by the way, this conversation didn't take place."
Upon reflection, and after Wannstead had left his cabin, he wondered why he put the conversation off limits. He was certainly going to have to let his officers know that the last missing ship was carrying a plasma bomb and that it apparently hadn't made much difference so far as enabling the ship to survive. The thought made him very glad that he had a backup. At least if the Doc Travis was lost, the Santa Cruz could carry word back on how it happened, unless the effects were capable of getting to interstellar ships from a very long distance indeed. In which case
humanity might be in a great deal of trouble.
Keane sat alone for a good hour contemplating mankind's tenuous situation. How much trouble would this alien planet be? He thought back to the great Stephen Hawking who once said that the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational, but that the real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like. Were they BEMS or friendly? Hawking believed that if aliens ever visited us, the outcome would be much like when Christopher Columbus first landed in America. Keane knew that didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans. So who would be visiting whom? Keane had a special directive from the President and Space Navy Security Council to use whatever means it took to protect Earth's location. That could mean blowing up the alien planet or even the Doc Travis if necessary.
Important decisions would need to be made soon. They were getting close to the rendezvous system at the edge of the Bolt Cluster where they were to meet Santa Cruz. After that he had to decide how to approach the final phase of the mission. He had already made up his mind that they were going to visit the same planets the lost Wannstead ships had. On the face of it, some might call it stupid, but he thought it might turn out that some of the Wannstead ships were lost before arriving at Xanadu. If so, he wanted to know about it. Besides, the whole cluster contained less than a thousand stars so options were fairly limited.
What made the cluster unique to this area of space was the number of presumably habitable planets for that number of star systems. And the unfinished alien city, of course. He wondered if it had been completed by now, was inhabited, or whether robotic caretakers were still on the job maintaining a long-deserted site. After a quiet time of consideration, he made up his mind on the approach, barring legitimate objections from one or more of his officers or a better idea from one of them. It would take longer than originally planned and might give competing expeditions a lead on them, if there were any, but at least his approach might let them learn more than going directly to Xanadu. And maybe give that fucking Murphy pause for thought. He chuckled to himself. More likely, Murphy would just come up with something even more ludicrous than what he had intended to pull in the first place.
***
"Incoming traffic, Captain," CPO O'Neal announced. He and two other PO Com Mates served in communications in lieu of Lt. Jr. Grade Martin Bogarty, the senior com officer, when he wasn't present.
Had to be the Santa Cruz checking in, Keane thought. He had taken Doc Travis by a slightly different route and done some star surveys for the Naval Observatory along the way, given that his ship was much faster than Santa Cruz. "I'll take it here, Chief." He tapped his console.
It was voice only. He muted it to where only he could hear in case of intelligence that didn't need to be made public. Rumors were all too easy to start and very hard to stop in the closed environment of a ship in interstellar space, without news feeds or personal mail to ameliorate them.
Captain James Whittaker, Santa Cruz for Keane, Doc Travis . Awaiting rendezvous at station 3006F as per orders. No anomalous events to date. Whittaker out.
It went on to repeat at intervals.
"Chief, send this back."
Keane, Doc Travis . Will arrive rendezvous within 24 hours. You may drop your satellite now and prepare to follow Doc Travis while maintaining distance of ten AU in each system explored. Further direction of travel from rendezvous will be given upon meeting. Repeating mission orders: Santa Cruz to observe and record only unless specifically ordered otherwise. Save further questions until rendezvous. Keane, Doc Travis , out."
"Got it clear on the voice-crypto sir. On the way," O'Neal said.
"Now comes the hard part," Keane muttered to himself.
***
During the interval before meeting the other ship, Keane called a meeting of his chief officers to explain his strategy. Once all the officers and selected non-commissioned officers were present, the stewards poured coffee, left several carafes on the conference room table, and departed.
Keane pulled up a galactoview he had already set to show the Bolt Cluster and little else. System 3006F was tagged and its numerical designation blinked slowly. The Xanadu system was centered almost exactly within the oval-shaped cluster, as if purposely put within a protecting phalanx of main spectrum stars, but his astronomer had assured him it was almost pure chance rather than a purposeful design. Besides, if an entity could move stellar objects around like pieces on a game board, they had little chance of competing anyway.
"Hold steady and focus in on the Xanadu system, then locate the planet please," Keane requested.
"Aye, aye, sir," Lieutenant Anita Chavez answered. She and a petty officer worked her scopes and the galactoview together. Her PO handled the big galactoview while she manipulated two screens depicting magnified views. Since the orbital characteristics had already been recorded from Wannstead's first interstellar voyage the planet's position wasn't hard to calculate.
"We have it sir," she announced.
"Fine. Now show the vectors the Wannstead starships are presumed to have taken."
Chavez played with her controls and four blue lines quickly appeared, zigzagging somewhat on its path from the edge of the cluster inward to Xanadu. The first two headed directly from the edge of the cluster to Xanadu. The other two depicted several stops on the way, indicating the cautious approach they'd intended to take after the first ships were lost.
"Good. Those vectors, ladies and gentlemen, depict the routes we shall not be taking, although we will be stopping at the designated systems the Wannstead ships intended to visit. In short, we'll be investigating the same planets but getting to them by a different route, just in case there is something between the stars that killed the Wannstead ships. Unless I hear a good argument to the contrary, that is the path I propose to use. Anita?"
A different colored line now appeared. The gathered officers and noncoms unconsciously leaned forward to look, as if that would help clarify the proposed route. It didn't, but they had no trouble following the vector. It departed from 3006F in a direction ninety degrees removed laterally from the other presumptive pathways and ninety degrees "up" from them, then eventually turned again toward the center of the cluster. The line stopped at a number of systems but always worked closer toward Xanadu.
"What I propose," Keane said, "is to stop at each system on the way in as the vectors indicate. Each of those systems contains at least one habitable planet, as best as the original survey was able to determine from orbit. Wannstead has told us the first ship wasn't designed to land, but after leaving the Xanadu system it did a good job of charting the cluster on the way home. We shall launch a satellite at each designated planet first and then begin searching for any signs of intelligent life or for any sign of the lost Wannstead ships. The last two did have well-nigh indestructible recorders with atomic powered batteries that will broadcast their positions for at least fifty years. They were also under orders to deploy satellites in any system they stopped at which had habitable planets. In case they deviated from their intended courses, we may get lucky and find one of those. In any case, we shall proceed very slowly and carefully with our surveys and searches, and at the same time remain alert to the possibility of other ships from Earth. If, or let's be optimistic and say when, we arrive at the Xanadu system, we will be even more cautious. At all times the Santa Cruz will be hanging well back and recording all that we do. Questions?"
"Yes, sir," Major Rambling said. "Do you anticipate landing on any of the planets in the systems leading up to Xanadu?" Rambling and his men were ready, and he wanted to keep them sharp.
"Major Rambling, I don't know about landing the Doc Travis, but it's safe to assume we'll at the very least send an assault shuttle down to run a more exhaustive and careful check on the environments. We may as well get that done while we're out here. At the same time we can claim those planets for the United States. I imagine our marines are itching for some action." He smiled at the assembled group, knowing that most of them wan
ted to set foot on new worlds whether it was part of the mission or not.
Rambling nodded, apparently satisfied, but resisted smiling. Keane knew his history. Although he did occasionally let loose with close friends, he'd seem too many of his men die over the years to let his guard down. He had told Keane that maybe after this mission he'd retire, take it easy, find a new girl, and maybe even smile more. But for now, he said, they were probably approaching a hornet's nest, giving him the same bad feeling he'd had years back when he was the sole survivor of a mission on Rex World, a planet coined so because of animals that the scientists hadn't taken seriously.
Things went well until Murphy showed his ugly head. The men accidentally stirred up a herd of nasty alien creatures-boney lion-like monsters the size of buffalo who decided that humans were walking meat sticks. To make things worse, a solar flare blew out their radios and they had to make a run for it. As the men tried to find safety in small caverns a carnivorous python-like snake picked the men off one by one. Rambling was the only one from a squad of eight to survive, and watching each of his comrades die by some strange animal burned a hole in his heart for years to come. That event never left his soul. He'd never let anything like that happen again. It was probably one of the reasons he was chosen for this job. Even though people thought Rambling was cold as ice they all knew he was experienced, smart and quick at making decisions. Keane thought the name Steel didn't exactly fit him, but it certainly came close.
Commander Jerome Manheimer, the chief astrogator, studied the galactoview and spoke up. "I note that the vectors you've projected will take us to five of the eleven habitable planets of the cluster before reaching Xanadu, sir. If this isn't set in stone, I see a way to include one more without adding significantly to the time spent."
"Put it up there and let's see," Keane ordered.
Once Manheimer had the new vectors plotted it was easy to see he knew what he was about.
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