by Shane Black
“Affirmative, Lieutenant, Skywatch out.”
Yili unlatched her shock harness, drew her blaster pistol and went to the hatch. She had just about finished configuring her life support alarm and commlink when the sound of a fist pounding on the outside metal almost made her jump out of her boots.
The fist pounded again. “Is anyone in there?”
Curtiss thought the voice sounded familiar, but after what she had been through the last hour she wasn’t about to take any chances. She leaned close to the hatch, her blaster at the ready.
“Identify yourself.”
“Room service!”
Yili tried to keep herself from smiling.
“I didn’t order anything!”
“Sorry, Lieutenant. I thought you said you wanted some earplugs!”
She unlocked the hatch and Moo stepped through. He had burn marks on his armor and Yili instantly noticed his weapon was down to 15% reserve energy. Smudges and soot residue covered his chiseled face, but he still managed a grin.
“You’ve been through hell.”
“That’s affirmative, Engineer. We’ve still got intruders on Deck 31 but they’re pinned below the vital energy conduits for Reactor Six. They got two of our fusion plants and cut power to all the control systems above deck six just before the missile attack. It couldn’t have been timed better.”
“Any contact with the bridge yet?” Yili asked with concern in her eyes.
“Negative. To be honest, the only people I’ve had a chance to talk to in the last hour have been wounded marines and medics. Sickbay set up a triage in the machine shop loading area on deck 19.”
“Then you need to take command, sir.” Yili said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I’ve got a boarding party to neutralize, Lieutenant. Are you sure there aren’t any officers reachable?”
“The bridge has been cut off since the first missile impact. I’m in nominal command because frankly, I couldn’t find anyone who outranks me until now.”
“You stay in command, Lieutenant. You know the ship a hell of a lot better than me. I’ll make sure you get to the bridge or at least someplace where you can run things until we figure out what happened on deck one.” Moo keyed his mic. “Dog block, this is Chuck Wagon. Brass secured. Rendezvous at point Indigo. Confirm.”
A moment passed.
“Confirmed, Chuck Wagon. Dog block out.”
Moo hefted his weapon. “Let’s go join the party, Lieutenant. I’ll take point, you cover.”
“Anything to get out of this phone booth for a few minutes.”
Nine
A few minutes later, a dozen members of “Dog Block” were escorting the Argent’s Chief Engineer to the deck 29 magneto-lifts. The ad hoc marine defensive unit had been formed by the Major from the unwounded strays and mongrels he managed to scavenge after the Aux Con Seven explosion.
Damage above and below the strike point had prevented reinforcements from helping the stranded soldiers directly, so the Major had ordered the men he could find to cut their way through to the lower deck and fight their way back to the lifts. It was the long way around, and it was dangerous, but they had finally joined up with a squad of fresh rifles without sustaining any further casualties. Now that they had access to the lifts, they could form a perimeter and isolate the threat.
“Moo to bridge.”
“That’s not going to work until we can restore power above deck six.” Yili sighed.
“How long will that take?”
“No clue from here. I have to see what they did first. My guess is the damage control parties can’t restore the connections because the intruders found their way into one of the automatic routing subsystems. Until I get up there and switch the system back to manual routing, they’re on emergency power only. That plus the fact the anti-intruder system is off controls presents us with a number of related problems.”
One of the escorting marines punched the code in for the magneto-lifts.
“What about their personal commlinks?” a fresh-faced young PFC asked.
Moo raised an eyebrow.
“Uhh-- ma’am,” the PFC added quickly.
“Power levels, private. Argent has been jamming everything except wired connections. Since they set off that firecracker in Aux Seven, so have the intruders,” Yili replied. “I’m sure Zony is up there trying to make it work right now, but without those subsystems, she just doesn’t have the horsepower yet.”
“Where to, Lieutenant?” Moo asked as the gantry gate opened.
“Skywatch STC. If we can’t get to the bridge, we’ll have access to most of the command functions from there.”
Ten
The magneto-lift opened into a scene of abject chaos. The observation deck outside STC Command was nearly covered in scoring, scorch marks and impact points. Flashes of weapons fire were going off inside the darkened control room. Moo gave the rest of his squad an abrupt hand signal and the marines advanced on the access hatch.
Forward and aft of the starboard side bulkhead, Yili could see the sweeping dorsal surface of Argent’s hull. She felt a little twinge of pride when she noticed rail cannons three and four were still oriented for an off-starboard shot. It was pretty clear at this point they may have been the difference.
A debris cloud and intermittent venting atmosphere were occasionally visible over the leading edge of the port quarter. From this vantage point, Yili could see the superstructure of the bridge, but at this angle it was hard to make out any details or possible damage. She did note all the forward running lights were still dark. She cursed the fact she couldn’t get forward far enough to evaluate the problem.
The fact remained DSS Argent was badly wounded. Lieutenant Curtiss felt the difficult to ignore urge to get out there and evaluate the damage, everything else be damned, but she also knew the ship needed stable command and control. Without it, they were defenseless, and based on the events of the last hour, she was fairly certain there were more attack cruisers out there. If the next one arrived at the wrong time it could make the situation dramatically worse in a hurry.
Two heavily armed Paladin marines bracketed the hatch while two more took up head-on positions, ready to fight their way in to the room if need be. The STC control room had become unsettlingly quiet in the few moments since their arrival, as if whomever was inside was preparing for something.
Moo moved up and keyed his command access code into the small control console. The lights shifted from amber to green and the hatch opened.
“Argent marines! Acknowledge!”
Silence.
“Argent marines!”
Moo looked to Yili and she nodded. He signaled his men to advance. The two at the door moved inside and took up defensive positions with side-to-side fields of fire. The two head-on riflemen advanced quickly and secured lines of sight.
“Clear!”
“Clear!”
The major rolled around the edge of the bulkhead and stood the doorway, TK40 at the ready.
“Nobody home, sir.”
Yili was getting that feeling something was just off enough that it didn’t make sense. She had just ordered Skywatch to ready a strike force on the flight deck. There was weapons fire. Where did everyone go?
“I don’t like it Moo. I just gave this station orders ten minutes ago.”
“Correction, lieutenant. You gave me orders ten minutes ago.”
Moo whirled. Yili felt the cold business end of a blaster pistol press against the side of her head. The voice behind her spoke in a commanding tone.
“Weapons down, gentlemen, or I’ll vaporize the lieutenant’s head and most of this deck with it.”
Standing behind Yili in a somewhat dilapidated marine colonel’s uniform was a man that looked to be at least in his sixties. He wore a fancifully styled mustache and had thin slicked-back gray hair. His eyes were small and gleamed with menace.
“That was not a request, major. This entire facility is wired. If I don’t activate the dea
dman switch in my coat pocket in twenty seconds, you’ll have a front row seat to the biggest explosion since the Gitairn primary went nova 100 million years ago.”
The major looked like he was weighing his options right up to the point when the colonel announced there were explosives wired into the STC control facility.
“Stand down, marines,” Moo said coldly. His arms relaxed and he let his weapon drop. After placing it on the floor, he rose back to his full height and glared at the colonel. The rest of his men reluctantly followed his lead.
“You too, lieutenant.”
Yili carefully placed her blaster on the deck, making sure it was within reach in case things got dicey.
“What’s this all about, colonel?” Moody challenged, putting a particular sarcastic emphasis on their opponent’s supposed rank.
“This is about a young crew that doesn’t seem to want to listen. I warned you to stay away. I told you this sector was a trap, but you wanted to do things your own way. Now you’re tangled up in this, and you’re going to have to pay your own freight to get out of it.”
The man pulled an electronic detonator out of his pocket and clicked the deadman switch. “That buys us another sixty seconds.”
“Colonel, if you’ll kindly lower your weapon, I will promise you no tricks.”
“Very well, lieutenant,” the colonel replied calmly. “No tricks.” He relaxed, pistol in one hand, detonator in the other.
Yili backed away a few steps and stood near the major. “What do you mean ‘tangled up in this?’ What are we tangled in?”
“What you’re experiencing here, lieutenant, is what happens when two opposing groups are in charge of the same military operation. The Dunkerque wasn’t sent here to ‘show the flag.’ Admiral Hughes was out here to make pretended peace overtures. His real orders were to mine the Reach side of Gitairn Sectors Eight and Ten and try to lure the enemy’s strength into it.”
“A sneak attack?!” Moo exclaimed. “Why start a war against a superior force?”
“Because they won’t be superior any more if the minefield goes off, boy!” the colonel shouted.
“Everything was going according to plan until some handwringing apron-wearing busybody at Skywatch Command took Hughes’ cover orders seriously and declared him overdue. Then you geniuses show up with your big shiny battleship ready to make a name for yourselves. If enemy command sees you here without a good explanation they’ll think Hughes is up to something, and it will blow the whole operation straight to hell!”
“Then it was you who fired on a Skywatch vessel, sir?” Yili asked. “You tried to blow up two of my reactors?”
“You had to be stopped.”
Moo wasn’t buying a word of it. There was something else going on here, and he was bound and determined to get at it one way or another. “Colonel, where is this enemy fleet of yours? So far we’ve seen one ship.”
“An old automated hull with a set of pre-programmed drills plugged in to its navicomp and battle computer. You saved us the trouble of disposing of it.”
The colonel clicked his deadman switch again.
“That old hull almost took our port quarter off!” Yili snapped. “That’s an act of war, sir, no matter what your rank or your supposed orders!”
“Grow up, lieutenant. I didn’t come all the way out here to listen to your idealistic accusations or your histrionics about who hit who first.” The older officer gestured in the direction of Barker’s Asteroid. “The strike force on the opposite side of that asteroid field is anchored by twelve heavies including four carriers. When they move on Core’s Edge, there will be fifteen billion lives at stake, and that’s a hell of a lot more important than a new paint job. Now I’m going to ask you this one time, major, as I’m presuming you are in charge of this little field trip. Are you going to join the winning side or not?”
Moo’s face darkened. The colonel stared right back at him.
“If not, I’ll just drop this switch down the lift shaft and let eight tons of explosives solve your problem for you.”
One
“What’s it going to be, major?!”
The edge in the as yet unidentified intruder’s voice was unmistakable. Even Yili could tell the man was in a rush for some reason. His face looked drawn and his fingers were white around the grip of his blaster pistol.
“I can’t speak for the entire ship, colonel. I’m not in command.”
“Well then who is!?”
At that moment a faint greenish glow appeared all across the colonel’s body. It flickered and shifted back and forth a few times before focusing bright and sharp. It was a targeting matrix. The intruder looked down at his shoes and pants.
“What the--?”
By now he was covered in a pattern of two-inch-square glowing green targeting lines. From somewhere nearby, Yili and Moo felt and heard sympathetic vibrations in the floor and walls. The nearby observation window darkened.
“That’s a drive field,” Yili muttered.
A moment later, the unmistakable sleek lines of a Two-Gen Yellowjacket fighter rose into view outside the Skywatch access bay observation port. It was roughly the size of three racing boats parked side by side, and the sharp leading edges of its weapons emplacements made it look like an angry metal bird of prey. On its forward edge was the proud emblem of Argent Squadron Four - the Tigersharks.
At its controls was Captain Jason Hunter.
A blinding green targeting laser illuminated the shocked colonel’s face and then performed a mass and position scan of his entire body. The fighter’s short range guns rolled out of their inboard weapons bays and locked into place. The targeting grid reflected from the colonel’s jacket and clothing shifted red. Hunter’s voice came over the intraship.
“I believe I have you covered, colonel.”
The intruder did not speak. He looked as if he were trying to catch his breath.
“Major, relieve the colonel of his weapon and take him into custody.”
Moo activated his commlink. “All due respect, sir, he’s holding a detonator.”
“It was a bluff, Moo. He’s just trying to buy himself time. His co-saboteurs have been cut off, and we’ve got some fascinating information about the little operation going on all the way out here at Shangri-la.”
Two
Zony, Moo, Yili and Annora were seated in Captain Hunter’s in-board cabin once again. This time they looked a little less awestruck and a little more determined to get to the bottom of whatever was happening to their ship. All four officers were armed with blaster pistols and Moo was still wearing the wrist appliques from his powerarmor.
They were engaged in a boiling discussion over what went right, what went wrong and just who exactly they should consider their enemy.
“Attention on deck!” Moo snapped. All four of the Bandit Jacks rose to academy-perfect postures.
“As you were,” Captain Hunter said quickly. He was also armed and the look on his face told the others this meeting was at least going to start all business. “Be seated.”
Hunter placed a tablet on the conference table. Behind him, the crystal projection screen was displaying the Argent emblem and vessel designation. The letters spelling out the ship’s name were at least a foot tall.
“Our visitors have been pinned on deck 34 for several hours. Doctor Doverly has assured me they will not be permanently harmed by the introduction of a narcotic compound through the life support systems. Lieutenant Simpkins has been instructed to give them another 30 minutes.”
“What are they holding out for, sir?” Moo asked, genuinely interested in why a dozen men would barricade themselves on someone else’s ship and still expect to prevail.
“That falls into our other subject of discussion. Apparently, there’s a little more going on out here than an overdue ship.”
“A lot more,” Annora added.
“Colonel Atwell hasn’t been very helpful yet. Although his stories about deadman switches and tons of explosives wer
e certainly entertaining, they didn’t give us much in the way of clues regarding his involvement.”
Yili was drawing little imaginary circles on the table. Her posture made her look like a teenage girl listening to her parents lecture her about getting a job. “We should have listened to the doctor, sir.”
Hunter stopped and considered his lieutenant’s words. “Go ahead, Engineer. I called this meeting for opinions.”
“We knew sabotage was a clear threat. We didn’t do enough to prepare. It cost me two men and it just about cost us the ship.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Yili,” Annora said gently.
“I’m not trying assign or avoid blame here, ma’am. I’m just pointing out we all got caught flat-footed. I don’t know the ship’s systems well enough. That cost us critical time that put more people in danger.”
“They were one step ahead of us the entire time,” Moo said. “Even the colonel and his stories about poison gas and the fake light show in Skywatch got me to at least think about striking a deal to save whatever was left.”
“It was my fault,” Zony said. “We froze down communications too soon. By the time we realized the whole thing was going sideways it was too late to restore our emergency channels, and then the bridge got cut off and I--”
Hunter held up his hand. Zony quieted down and shrank back into her seat.
“If there’s any blame to be laid here, it’s mine and mine alone. I’m the Captain of this ship. I’m responsible for the lives of every man and woman aboard and I’m responsible for the safety and survival of this vessel. Yili?”
The Engineer looked up, recognizing that peculiar tone Jason Hunter was capable of that told her he was about to say something heartfelt and important.
“We lost two men in Engineering, but you saved almost a thousand lives by your quick thinking. The best way we can honor the memory of those two men is to avoid making the same mistake twice.”
Yili nodded.
“And to go pay our friends a little visit,” Moo added.
