by Rob Buckman
“Aye-aye, Skipper.” She answered attempting to keep a straight face.
“Discipline on this ship is definitely slipping, Captain.” Pete huffed, rocking his seat from side to side.
“You think so, Number One? I didn’t think we had any in the first place.” Pete scratched his chin again.
“Yes, come to think of it, you could be right about that.”
“Not much we can do about it now, except bring back flogging.” He offered.
“How about walking the plank, Skipper.” Gable put in brightly.
“Oh, I think we should bring back keel hauling.” Janice added. “That should be fun to watch.”
“You demented people are no help at all. I shall gather what dignity I have remaining a push off to the Wardroom for a cup of coffee.”
“Err, can you bring me one back? Cream and sugar.” Jan asked, giving him her sweetest smile.
“Permission to go drown my sorrow, Skipper.”
“Permission granted, but don’t forget to bring back the donuts.” Mike gave him his killer smile.
“Et tu, Brute.” Pete muttered as he passed through the hatch.
“So, if the Leftenant can find one like that, Skipper, I take it you want me to set her down on it?”
“Right, Conner. We then go to ultra-quite and passive scan only as the asteroid rotates, that way there is less chance of someone spotting us as we pass through their security net. It will also get us through the defense lines without them even knowing we are here, I hope.”
Conner Blake drifted the ship slowly sideways a few degrees at the time to bring her around to head for the asteroid belt. Mike crossed his fingers that no Sirrien sensor tech would notice an asteroid almost turning in a circle. The hatch opened, and Pete came back on the Bridge with a tray of drinking bulbs with coffee and a plate of donuts, catching the last part of Mike’s statement.
“Then what?” Jan asked.
“We scan as we go in and if everything looks good, we launch a raid and locate our fighter. Find them, destroy them, or fly them out of there.” It sounded lame even as he said it but Janice didn’t make any sly comments or remarks.
“Sounds worthwhile, sir, and if not, we can at least stay put and wait till we are out the other side.” Pete walked around handing out coffee and donuts.
“Right again, Peter.”
“Although I do wish we had a plan to get onto that station for a look see.” Pete brushed sugar out of his beard as he spoke.
“I see you’ve recovered your dignity sufficiently to rejoin us, Number One, but I’m with you. I wish we had a plan as well, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the lady of fortune brings us.”
They drifted for six days until they were on the outside and shadowed by the asteroid belt, and well outside any possible sensor sweep. Other than keeping an eye out for wandering picket ships, they ghosted in-system scanning the local asteroid for another two days before Janice found a good-sized chuck of rock and painted it for the helm. With all the delicacy of a surgeon, Conner Blake manoeuvred, the ship behind the asteroid to the one Janice picked. This was about a quarter of a mile long by an eighth of a mile and just the right rotation for what they needed. Conner had his work cut out, as not only was the asteroid turning around its axis, but also the whole belt was turning in two directions. One in a circular path around the sun, and secondly in a slow undulating twist around itself. This was caused by four small shepherding moons that tended to pull and move the whole belt in a spiral. The distance between the numerous rocks didn’t help, and four sets of eyes watched spellbound as he inserted the ship between the two asteroids. Once he’d establish the ship directly behind the rock, he now had to spin the ship to match its rotation. Mike felt himself get dizzy just watching all the different movements, and he wondered how Conner was doing under the VR helmet. He could see sweat trickling down Conner’s neck, yet at this point, he dare not say a word. One false move and they'd be like a pinball, bouncing from rock to rock. As a precaution, he’d ordered all hands to slow battle stations and sealed the ship. He didn’t use the alarm system, just the all-stations intercom so as not to distract Conner Blake. There was no way the shield could handle a multi-thousand ton rock slamming against the hull, and even some of the small chucks of debris came a little close for comfort. As the ship began to spin to match the asteroid, Mike spotted a cleft, or fissure in the surface.
“Chief,” he said, softly, “see if you can put us down in the cleft.”
“All ready spotted it, Skipper, heading there now.” He murmured, his hands delicately moving the control yoke.
The second ticked by, each an eternity, nerves stretched to the breaking point as Conner inched the ship forward. A knife edged crag swept passed them, barley missing the hull by inches and setting off the proximity alarm. Janice quickly killed it, and Mike swore his heart skipped a beat. Then Conner lowered her as he matched speed with the asteroid and put her down on the landing sponsons as gentle as a mother putting a baby to bed. Everyone felt/heard the clang-crunch and she settled, the hull tilted and right itself on a level footing.
“Sweet Jesus! That gets you a week's liberty on me, Chief, at the port of your choice.” Mike slumped in his seat, shaking like a leaf. It was a giant gamble, and it was paying off, thanks to Conner and his skill at the helm.
“Chief, you have my undying admiration, Sheesh! I thought I was a hot shot pilot, but that was something to behold.” Janice applauded. She came over and gave him a hug as he removed the VR helmet. Conner looked embarrassed and shrugged.
“It wasn’t as hard as it looked, Ma’am.” He smiled sheepishly. He wasn’t use to all this attention. “Besides that, if this is where the Skipper won’t it, that where she’ll be.”
“Chief, you are relieved of duty as of now, go take a shower, get a drink, relax and sleep, you deserve it.”
“I still have a lot to do, Skipper.”
“No you don’t. She’s down and the standby helm can handle any adjustment, now go, and that’s an order.” He smiled.
“Aye-aye, sir, shower, drink, relax and sleep.” He stood and saluted, grinning from ear to ear, and then left the Bridge.
“All right people, shut down everything that not essential for our survival, and I mean everything,” he paused a moment, “that is after CPO Blake has taken his shower.”
“Aye-aye, sir.” Everyone on the Bridge answered.
“I want ultra-quite, everything electronics, including personal comm units and portable stereos.”
In less than an hour after Conner had finished his shower, the ship was a dead as they could make her, and the only consult manned was the sensor array. Even the main lighting was off-line to kill any stray EM radiation, and they sat and watched under the reddish glow of the emergency lighting system. Janice and two ratings, took turn passively monitoring the screens and read-outs as hour by hour the asteroid belt swept them closer and closer to the Sirrien picket line and the waiting sensor net. Mike spent his time wandering around the ship, finding innumerable card games and a few chess match in progress. He was restless and knew it was useless trying to relax or sleep, and in the end made his way forward and unsealed the star port. Here was one of the few places on the ship that you could look at the star directly, and with a sigh, he sat down in a seat.
“Oh, sorry, Skipper, I didn’t know anyone would be using this room.”
“Sit still, Janice. I didn’t see you in the dark, didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“Couldn’t think what else to do between watches, sir.”
“Janice, drop the ‘sir’ we know each other too long to get wrapped up in all that.” He looked over in the darkness, seeing a flash of white teeth as she smiled.
“Yes, Mike, I guess we have, and thank to you and a certain lady, I’m still in the Navy and serving on a ship with a Captain I can respect.”
“You are too good to let a pick like Heartmore force you out.”
“True, but there’s somethi
ng about you, something that tells me you are destined for something great.”
“Oh right!” He snorted. “Just because I got lucky on that rescue mission.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it, destiny did.”
“You’ve in an odd mood tonight, Janice.”
“No, not really, I talked with Conner Blake and Jenks, and they’re like me, seeing something in you.”
“Oh what, me stumbling around and falling into one frying pan after another?”
“No, it's like this mad cap scheme of yours, if anyone else suggested it, which they wouldn’t, I’d have said they were daft, or crazy and probably been court marshaled for refusing to do it.”
“Maybe I am crazy.”
“Like when you told Conner to fly an assault shuttle down that gorge, or ask him to land a 125,000 ton Corvette on a spinning asteroid.”
“Now that you mention it, it does sound a little crazy.” He said, rubbing his chin.
“But that’s the point, Mike, it works, don’t ask me how, but you are going to make this whole mission a success, just like you did on the last one.”
“Oh, so you have a crystal ball now?” Thankful of the darkness to cover his red ears. The way people talked, they thought he’d done something unusual on his last mission.
“Don’t laugh,” she looked around at him, “I don’t know of another officer that wouldn’t have just beat a hasty retreat home, last time and this time, with good reason. But not you, you have to find a way to do it, don’t you?”
“Well,” he said lamely, “my orders read for us to get those fighter’s and that’s just what I’m doing, or try to.”
“Mike, Mike, Mike, you don’t get it, do you.”
“Get what?” Suddenly he felt uncomfortable, but couldn’t say why.
“Why didn’t you just beat a hasty retreat when the Captain and CPO were killed, why didn’t you just go home when you learned from that Voss Suritan that he’d all ready delivered the cargo?”
“I just thought we still had a chance of pulling this off, that’s all.”
“And now, do you still think there a chance to get those fighters?”
“Yes, if this works and we get inside their defense parameter, we can figure out a way to sneak onto that station and find them.”
“Do you remember what the motto of the ‘Special Air Service’ it?”
“Haven’t got a clue.” Puzzled by her question, but he knew who she meant.
“Their motto fits you and this ship like a glove.”
“Okay, drop the other shoe, ‘Death or Glory’?”
“No, far from it, their motto is, ‘Who dares wins’.” Mike thought about that for a moment as Janice stood up.
“Some truth to that, Janice.”
“I know, goodnight, Mike.”
“Goodnight, Jan.” She kissed him on top of the head as she left.
She would have like to have done more, but this wasn’t the time or place to do it. He was her Captain now and that ended any hopes she might harbor. He sat there in the darkness, watching the asteroids as they rotated and spun around in the star speckled darkness outside the view port. It was like watching some complicated ballet, seeing patterns among the seeming random dance. Was life like that, each person moving randomly around in his or her life, yet shepherded by unseen forces? Did they have any more free will than these rocks? In the end, he gave up trying to work it out, and brushed the thoughts away and went to bed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
“Coming up to the picket line, Skipper.” Janice announced. “We’ll be in sensor range in fifteen minutes.”
“How’s our rotation, which side will we be on when we pass?”
“We have 52.3 second for a full 360 rotation, Skipper, and from what I can calculate we’ll be in full view for 18.5 seconds on the first rotation, and 25.315 on the second pass, sir.” Janice reported.
“Shit!” Pete muttered.
“Don’t sweat it Peter, either Gable’s shielding works or it doesn’t.” Mike looked over at Gable, seeing him shaking his head. “We okay there, Gable?”
“I’m not sure, Skipper. There’s a couple of things we didn’t coat!” Gable hunched his shoulders as if expecting someone to hit him. Everyone stopped to look at him, seeing the worried frown on his face.
“What?” Mike asked.
“I didn’t think of it until just now, and it's been driving me crazy.”
“What, Gable?”
“The legs of the landing sponsons, sir, I didn’t think we need to do them, since they’d be retracted into the hull in space.” There were one or two groans around the Bridge, but Mike waved his hand for silence.
“I don’t think it matters.” He said, giving Gable a reassuring smile.
“This asteroid is nickel iron with a few trace eliminates throw in, so I doubt that a little extra metal like cobalt, iridium or titanium will trigger their sensors.”
“You’re forgetting the other metals, like phase chance and stainless steel, in the hydraulic system, sir, you don’t find them occurring naturally.”
“Gable, stop worrying, the amount is too small to matter. The nickel iron in this rock will mask most of it.”
“I hope you’re right, sir.”
“Too late to worry about it now, Gable, here we go for the first pass.” Janice cut in.
Everyone held their breath as the screen lit up with multiple sensor trace, then more at three second intervals. That was something Mike hadn’t expected, and he should have. The asteroid belt was a perfect place to try and sneak passed the net, and the Sirriens had obviously thought of it as well. None of the ships on picket duty moved, and there were no outward signs they’d been spotted. 18 seconds later, they rotated onto the asteroid's shadow and the screen stopped signaling.
“So far so good.” Someone muttered.
Mike watched the ship's clock on the bulkhead, counting down. The next pass they’d be exposed for the full 25 seconds. If they had been spotted and the picket ships moving into an attack position, they wouldn’t know, nor be able to do anything about it until they rotated into view. He could see Pete with his hand hovering over the shield key, just in case. Whether they could get them up in time to do any good was anyone's guess, but he supposed it made Pete feel better.
“Coming round now, Skipper.” He didn’t need Janice to tell him, and she said it more from nervousness than anything.
The battle board lit up again as it picked up the Sirrien ships and a quick comparison showed that hadn’t moved. The sensor detector screens lit up again, with the same sweeps at three second intervals, but like before, there was no alarm. They were passed, and for the next ten minutes, the intensity of the probe diminished.
“Oh shit!”
“What?”
“Skipper, I have a small ship, coming up on us from ahead.” Janice pointed to a small white dot on her screen.
“What is it, military or what?”
“Can’t tell right now, sir, it's small and ducking in and out between the asteroids, as if looking for something.”
“A military scout or drone probing the belt?” Pete suggested.
“It's a mining scout ship, sir.” Conner put in.
“A mining ship?”
“That’s what it looks like to me, Skipper, he’s searching or prospects asteroid for the solar furnace.”
“The Chief could be right.”
“If he gets close enough, Skipper, he’ll pick up the other metal traces and come and investigate.”
“Comm, can you pick up his radio signal?”
“I’ll try, sir.”
“Chief, get Rice and a team together as quick as you can, I want that ship.” Mike called, as an idea burst into full bloom in his mind.
“Sir?”
“The picket ships aren't taking any notice of him, so he must have some sort of automatic signaling device so they know who he is. Otherwise the automatic defense grid would trigger and start firing at anything that ge
ts this close.”
“Right! Of course.” Pete muttered.
“I want him out of the way so he doesn’t detect and report us, and, I think we have just found our Trojan horse and a way into the Star Base.” Without waiting for orders, Conner snapped an order to one of the Marines on duty, and sent him pounding down the passageways towards the Marine deck.
“I have his signal, Skipper, but he’s not saying much except he’d spotted something unusual and is going to investigate.”
