Frontiers 07 - The Expanse

by Ryk Brown

  “Too much energy use,” Loki answered as he, too, struggled to breathe. “Makes us even easier to track.”

  “It would be worth it.”

  “Five seconds to shutdown,” Loki reported.

  Josh struggled to get his finger back in position to kill the burn. “Ready.”

  “Three……two……one……shutdown!”

  Josh pressed the button, and the mains instantly silenced, releasing them from the crushing force of acceleration. “Mains are off,” he reported. He pulled the throttles back to zero. “Throttles at zero. Taking reactors off…”

  “We’re being scanned!” Loki announced, the panic beginning to sneak back into his voice. “Active radar!”

  “From where?” Josh asked, his finger backing away from the reactor control panel.

  “The fifth moon!” Loki answered.

  “What?”

  “The fifth moon! There’s a base down there!”

  “Why didn’t we see any…”

  “Missile lock!”

  “I’m bringing the reactors to full power!” Josh announced. “Bring the inertial dampeners online fast, or we’re gonna be piles of goo in our flight seats!”

  “I can’t until the reactors reach at least eighty percent, or we’ll lose power to flight systems!”

  “They’re at forty!”

  “Contacts!” Loki reported. “Four missiles inbound from the moon! Impact in twenty seconds!”

  Josh quickly backed the reactors back down to one percent and shut off the mains completely. “Going cold! Pop decoys!”

  A dozen small decoys shot out of the back of the Falcon and began emitting both thermal and radar signatures that approximated that of the Falcon. At the same time, Josh used the cold maneuvering jets to spin the Falcon around, flinging the decoys out around them. “Translating down!” Josh announced as he again used the cold jets to push the Falcon down and away from the spread of decoys.

  “Ten seconds!”

  “Come on,” Josh mumbled as he continued to apply cold thrust to push them down and away from the decoys.

  “Josh, you’re going to use up the cold jets if you keep…”

  “We need some distance from those decoys!”

  “Five seconds!” Loki reported.

  Josh watched the propellant level indicators for the cold jet maneuvering system the Corinairan engineers had installed before they had started recon flights of the Takaran system back in the Pentaurus cluster. Loki was right, it was dropping rapidly. Either way, in a few seconds, it wouldn’t matter.

  The cockpit lit up as all four missiles struck the decoys above them and exploded in rapid succession.

  “Bringing the reactors back to full power!” Josh announced, skipping his usual celebratory cry. “Spinning the mains back up. As soon as the reactors are at eighty percent, start up the inertial dampeners! I need to be free to maneuver!”

  “Got it!” Loki answered. “More contacts, slower ones, coming from the fifth moon again! Count four!”

  “More missiles?” Josh wondered. He looked at the reactor panel. The Falcon’s twin fusion reactors were only up to forty percent. He also didn’t have enough cold jet propellant to pull the same trick a second time.

  “Negative, they’re maneuvering, moving into attack position.” Loki swallowed hard. “They’re fighters, Josh.”

  “ETA?”

  “Forty seconds.”

  Josh looked at the reactor panel. “We’re up to sixty. We’ll be flying at full throttle before then.”

  “They’re accelerating pretty quickly, Josh,” Loki said, tension in his voice.

  “That’s okay; so can we.” Josh was tuned in mentally, ready for the game. He had spent all his childhood playing in flight sims and everything after that bouncing around the rings of Haven in that old harvester. He knew how to fly. He also knew that, while he might be able to out-fly the enemy pilots, he couldn’t out-fight them. Tug had taught him that. Tug had also taught him that no game could simulate real combat. Although he and Loki had been under fire and had returned fire, they had never engaged in a real dogfight. Josh was cocky and arrogant, but he wasn’t stupid.

  “Eighty percent!” Loki reported. “Spinning up the inertial dampeners.”

  Josh watched as the reactor’s power levels continued to climb toward one hundred percent. He knew it would take a few seconds for the inertial dampening systems to spin up and balance before they would be effective. If he fired his flight systems—especially his main drive—too soon, he risked crashing the inertial dampeners before they stabilized. That would require a restart which would not complete before the incoming fighters were in attack range.

  As much as he hated math, Josh was amazed at how many numbers flew through his head during such situations. Attack angles, turn rates, electrical energy loads, thrust levels, and acceleration curves; it was like his head was doing the math at a subconscious level. As he lit his main engines, it was as if he could sense the additional energy load the act placed on the reactors. He could even anticipate the millisecond lag between the movement of his throttles and the reaction of his engines.

  “Inertial dampeners online!” Loki announced as Josh started easing the throttle forward. “Twenty seconds to intercept!”

  “Mains coming up!” Josh announced. He glanced at the reactor control panel as the indicators reached one hundred percent. “We’re outta here!” he declared as he slammed the throttles forward against their stops.

  With the inertial dampeners now online, only enough force for the crew to feel their maneuvers was allowed to translate into the cockpit of the Falcon. “Bringing forward turret online.”

  “Why?” Josh wondered. “We’re not going to be able to hit anything, not at this distance.”

  “Gives them something to think about,” Loki argued. “Maybe it will keep them from coming to close.”

  “Doubtful.” Josh looked at their trajectory around the moon. “Uh, Loki, this ain’t gonna work.”

  “What’s not gonna work?”

  “The angles. We’re never gonna get that moon between us and them.”

  “So?”

  “Captain said not to jump if someone can see us!”

  “Fuck, I almost forgot.” Loki suddenly felt himself being pushed right as Josh rolled the ship to port and started a hard turn. “Where are you going?”

  “Toward the planet,” Josh answered. “I think I can put just enough distance between us and them that we can pull a hard turn around the planet and jump away when they can’t see us.”

  “At this speed?”

  “No, at a lot faster than this speed!”

  “Are you insane?”

  “Pretty much,” Josh said with a chuckle.

  “Josh, that’s not physically possible, not even at half our current speed. Orbital velocity is…”

  “I’m not trying to go into fucking orbit, Loki! I just want to put the planet between us and them. I never said it was gonna be pretty!”

  “Okay! Okay! But let me run the numbers first. Maybe we don’t have to go at full power all the way around!”

  “Fine!”

  Loki studied his console as he ran the numbers over and over, each time adjusting the speed of both the Falcon and its pursuers. A warning light began to flash, pulling his attention away from his calculations momentarily. “Shit. Four more contacts coming from the moon. No doubt more fighters. They’re moving into formation and accelerating faster than the first four.”

  “What? How many fighters do they need to shoot down one recon ship?”

  “The first four were probably the ready flight,” Loki surmised.

  “The what?”

  “The ready flight. Major Prechitt always keeps four fighters in the tubes with pilots in their cockpits ready to launch at a moment’s notice.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I’ve been tracking flight ops during our jump layovers,” Loki told him. “That’s odd. The first four fighters haven�
�t changed their rate of acceleration. In fact, they’re matching our speed, accelerating as we accelerate.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?”

  “Back off on the throttles, Josh.”

  “Why?”

  “I think I know what they’re doing.”

  “How much?” Josh asked as he put his left hand on the pair of throttles.

  “Try taking it down ten percent.”

  “Got it.”

  Loki watched as the Falcon slowed her acceleration. “They’re slowing down as well.”

  “What about the second flight?”

  “They’re still accelerating, but they’re not even at half the other flight’s speed yet. They’re going to try and catch us as we come around the planet,” Loki explained, “from the opposite side.”

  “How did you figure that out?”

  “The CAG had our fighters practicing the same maneuver a few jumps ago,” Loki told him, “only they were using the Aurora as the planet.”

  “I’ve got to stop reading so much,” Josh said.

  “Is it just me, or does this conversation seem backwards?”

  “Well, their plan is not going to work,” Josh said with a smile. “As soon as the first flight loses sight of us, we flash out of here.”

  “Yeah, but they don’t know that,” Loki said. “This just might work, assuming they don’t shoot us down first.”

  “They tried, remember? The missiles?”

  “That might have been a knee-jerk reaction on their part,” Loki said. “We suddenly appeared on their sensors, really close. They probably thought we were about to launch a sneak-attack. Drop a nuke or something.”

  “So what are they trying to do now?” Josh wondered. “Capture us?”

  “Maybe? They’re probably curious as to how we managed to get in so close without being detected. That would explain why they’re launching so many fighters,” Loki added, “to try and scare us into surrendering.”

  “Aren’t they gonna be surprised when we don’t come out around the other side of the planet?” Josh giggled.

  “They’re probably going to think we dove down into the atmosphere to hide. If so, they could be searching for days.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Josh said. “How long until we start our turn?”

  “Two minutes.”

  Josh’s comm-set suddenly crackled to life as an endless river of unintelligible words began to stream through his ear piece. “What the hell? Are you getting this?”

  “Yeah,” Loki answered. “I think they’re trying to contact us.”

  “In what language?”

  “I think they’re repeating the same message in many different languages.” Loki listened intently for several seconds as the message continued to replay, each time in a different language. “Wait!”

  “…immediately indicate your surrender, or we are to begin on hostile action.” Loki backed up the recorded message a few seconds and replayed it. After a few unintelligible words followed by some static, he heard, “You have aggressed into Jung space. Immediately indicate your surrender, or we are to begin on hostile action.”

  “Wow,” Josh said. “Their Angla sucks.”

  “I’m pretty sure they hope to capture us,” Loki said. “I’m sure they’re in missile range by now.”

  “What’s the second group doing?”

  “They’re still following the first group. They probably won’t break off and change course to come around the other side of the planet until after we duck behind so that they don’t tip us off on their little plan.” The message began repeating, going through every language version again. “Should we answer them?” Loki asked.

  “Yeah. How about, ‘Fuck you. Open your eyes wide and check out our pretty jump flash’?”

  Loki chuckled. “They’ll probably translate it as ‘flash fuck your wide open eyes’ anyway. One minute to turn.”

  “Uh, I just thought of something,” Josh said. “What if they are tracking us from the planet? Wouldn’t they see us jump?”

  “Yeah, I thought about that,” Loki answered. “But we’re going to be jumping from the dark side, so maybe everyone is asleep on that side. And so far, there are no tracking signals coming from the planet. Comm-signals, yes, emissions that would indicate tracking systems or sensors, no.”

  “You can’t detect some junior-Junger looking at the night sky with his toy telescope.”

  “All we can do at this point is take the course of action that results in the least probability of our jump being witnessed,” Loki explained. “The captain never said, ‘Die before being seen jumping.’ He said, ‘Die before being captured.’”

  “I’m with you on that one,” Josh said.

  “Twenty seconds to turn.”

  The two of them sat in silence for several seconds. Loki kept running his calculations over and over, making sure they were correct, while Josh stared out the window at the approaching planet, preparing himself for the nasty, high-speed turn he was about to attempt.

  “Five seconds.”

  “Sure beats the hell out of jump-recharge-repeat, don’t it?” Josh mused.

  “Four……There really is something wrong with you.”

  Josh smiled.

  “Two……one……start your turn.”

  Josh pulled the stick hard to port, slightly rolling the ship as he did so. Despite the inertial dampener’s efforts, the force of his turn pushed them both hard to starboard, their bodies pulling against their flight harnesses. Josh peered out the left side as the planet started to move toward them more quickly. If he did the turn correctly, the planet’s gravity would whip them around and accelerate them further, dropping them out of the sight of their pursuers just long enough for them to jump away unseen.

  “Twenty seconds until they lose line of sight on us,” Loki announced.

  “Tell me you’ve already plotted our jump,” Josh answered.

  “Plotted and locked. Ten seconds.”

  “No fucking auto-nav this time, either.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Loki promised. “Five sec… SHIT!”

  “What?”

  “Contacts! Four more fighters, coming up from the planet, dead ahead!”

  “Fuck!”

  “They’re painting us! They’re firing! Four missiles inbound! Impact in fifteen seconds!”

  “Shit!” Josh screamed in frustration. “I thought they wanted us alive!”

  “They must think we’re attacking the planet!” Loki responded. “Screw it, Josh! Let’s jump!”

  Josh looked at his tracking displays, then his flight data, and then glanced out the window at the planet below. There was a massive mountain range looming a few hundred kilometers below them. “I’ve got an idea!”

  Loki’s heart sank. Josh’s ideas, although they usually worked, were usually wild rides that took years off Loki’s life span.

  “Charge up the reentry shields, and stand by to pop another dozen decoys.” Without warning, Josh flipped the interceptor end over so that they were flying backwards, and then slammed his throttles back up to full power. Again, they were pushed back into their flight seats as the Falcon began to rapidly decelerate.

  “Ten seconds to impact!” Loki called out.

  The planet was now above them, sliding by from stern to nose. Josh eased the Falcon’s nose toward the planet above, pitching the ship into a decelerating dive.

  “Five……”

  “Just a little more,” Josh mumbled.

  “Four……”

  “Stand by decoys,” Josh ordered.

  “Three……decoys ready,” Loki acknowledged. “Two……”

  “Launch decoys,” Josh ordered calmly.

  “Decoys away!”

  Another dozen decoys shot out the back of the Falcon as Josh pushed the nose straight into the planet and started a powered dive. Again, all four missiles struck the decoys and exploded.

  The interceptor shook lightly for several seconds as the shock wav
e rippled through the planet’s thin, upper atmosphere.

  “If that had happened deeper in the atmosphere, we’d have been screwed!” Josh announced gleefully.

  “Josh! You’re in a powered dive at greater than orbital velocity!”

  “Yeah, I’m gonna have to do something about that sooner or later, aren’t I?”

  “Sooner would be good.”

  “Where is that third group of fighters?” Josh asked.

  “They’re turning back into the planet to follow us,” Loki answered, “two hundred kilometers and closing.”

  “Hang on,” Josh warned. “You’re not gonna like this.”

  Loki grabbed the handrails on either side of the cockpit and held on tight. Josh cut his engines, jerked back on the interceptor’s nose, and pulled the ship level as they continued to fall toward the planet.

  “Are you nuts?” Loki cried out. “A zero atmospheric entry angle?”

  “Dump all power into the thermal shielding, Loki!” Josh barked.

  “It isn’t going to be enough, Josh! You’re going to rip us to pieces!”

  “It’ll work! Trust me!” Josh yelled as the Falcon began to shake.

  “Not in a million years, you psychotic, little shit!”

  Josh laughed. That was the Loki he knew.

  The Falcon continued its fiery descent through the planet’s thickening atmosphere, the shaking becoming more violent with every meter they fell.

  “Thermal shields are at maximum!” Loki announced. “Shield temp three thousand and climbing!”

  Josh struggled to keep the interceptor’s attitude perpendicular to their angle of attack. The more drag he created, the greater the rate of deceleration. But it also meant the greater the amount of heat their thermal shields were subjected to, and they had their limits as well.

  “Altitude: ninety kilometers. Speed: fifty thousand. Shield temp: four thousand!” Loki called out. “Max shield temp is six, Josh!”

  “I know!”

  “Just sayin’.”

  Josh checked his propellant levels, quickly running the calculations in his head. They had used very little propellant thus far, having only made a few maneuvers since they had left the Aurora. In fact, they had used more propellant in the last five minutes than they had in the entire flight. “I need to know the escape velocity of this world,” Josh said.