The Jovian Sweep (Asteroid Scrabble Book 1)

by Martin Bourne

  “As part of that, I have a special mission to undertake,” he said, when they were no longer in danger of being bowled over. “I am going to need four “Carousels”, and I want four ex-members of training class 502 to volunteer to pilot them. I’m asking Stefan Parker, Constance Merriot, Marilyn…umm…” He looked over a vidscroll and blinked. “Umm…Marilyn, and you.”

  “Why us? And why me? There are loads of better pilots around.”

  “There are far more experienced pilots around, but it’s been a long time since they’ve linked into a ‘Carousel’. You ex-training class 502 people have by far the most recent experience. We need you for this one.” His eyes shifted. “As for needing you personally, that would be because you are a very good link warrior.”

  “Not according to my exam results.”

  “Examinations aren’t everything. I've seen link warriors that got top marks in training fall apart when they get to do the real thing.” He jerked a thumb in the direction of the main vidscreen. “It’s not a classroom out there.”

  A suspicion grew in her mind, one that half-angered and half-filled her with joy. “You’re not assigning me because of…”

  “What?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  He blinked. “I meant that the acid test is practical experience. I’ve also seen your after-action reports. You did really well on your first outing.”

  “I’m not sure everyone thinks that.”

  Donal cocked his head. “Are you perhaps referring to Lieutenant-Commander Ruwewang?”

  Josie felt her face warm.

  “I see you were. Well I can reassure you on that one. It so happens she was particularly complimentary about you.”

  “She was?”

  He smiled broadly. It made him look very good. “I know Lerato has a very sharp tongue, and she certainly doesn’t suffer fools, but she’s no fool herself. And in spite of her somewhat - fearsome - reputation she is actually very fair-minded.”

  “Oh.”

  “So are you up for it?”

  Josie considered - for appearance sake mostly.

  “What do we have to do?”

  Donal smiled. “Good. The rest should be arriving soon.” He looked over her shoulder. “Ah, here come some of them now.”

  A group of link warriors were working their way through the throng, three shepherding a fourth forward. Josie’s breath caught as she saw that the leading warrior was Constance. She looked very unsure of herself, almost lost, but when she caught sight of Josie she immediately straightened, and her face twisted with her habitual sneer.

  “What are you doing here Tallion?”

  Jose felt her hackles rise. The arrogance of the woman!

  “I was invited actually,” she said, as evenly as she could.

  “Really?”

  How was it possible that anyone could put so much disparagement into just one word? Josie swallowed a hasty reply and turned away.

  Another group of link warriors arrived from an adjacent corridor, Marilyn amongst them. More arrived in dribs and drabs, a mix of ex-502 cadets and Donal’s squadron mates. Packer came with Lilybeth – their hands seemed to be permanently entwined these days. Donal gave them a quizzical look.

  “I only requested Ensign Parker for this mission.”

  Lilybeth looked unhappy. Donal grinned.

  “Alright you can stick around for a little while – until we get our orders to move.” Lilybeth brightened. Packer promptly wrapped his arms around her.

  The intercom burst into life. “Attention all personnel, attention all personnel. Prepare for an emergency burn.”

  “OK,” said Donal. “I have our orders, but I've been strictly told not to relay them until this burn is completed, so everyone stick around and keep calm.”

  Then, amazingly, the ship positively jolted. The grins froze, and died. The people running around slowly came to a stop, their faces lifted, jerking from side to side, trying to spot the unknown terror. Packer put it into words.

  “What in the name of all that is virtuous is happening?”

  Usually the low throb of Belofte’s engines was just a background purr. It was only irritating if you concentrated hard on it. Rookies found it a novelty for a few days, and then the mind learned to tune it out. Now there was no ignoring the noise. It was thrashing through the ears of everyone on board. All over the ship crewmembers, even the most experienced, stared fearfully around them, exchanging glances of consternation. The mighty fusion reactors were positively booming their presence. No one had ever heard anything like this.

  Constance in particular looked petrified. It wasn’t as pleasing a sight as Josie would have imagined. “What’s happening?” the blonde squeaked. “Tallion – you’ve done systems engineering! What’s happening?”

  Josie shrugged. “We’re accelerating. Hard.”

  “I know that!” Amazingly Constance’s voice reached an even high pitch.

  “Very hard Constance, in fact probably harder than this old ship has had to do in a very long time - if ever.” She took mercy. “But it’ll still be within our operational parameters. We’ll be ok.”

  The low throb grew to a great roar, and then progressed to a high-pitched scream. When it became a tortured squeal the consternation of even the old hands became outright alarm, and some of the younger crewmembers began to panic. Human screams, the product of deeply buried animal instinct, began to join the mechanically created ones. Josie noticed a link warrior fainting. She later learned that a technician in the repair shops had to be restrained when he began running around striking doors and bulkheads with his bare fists. Constance simply curled up and sank to the floor, and began to rock gently back and forth, her arms wrapped around her knees.

  Then amazingly the whole ship really did start to shudder. Even Josie felt a sudden alarm. That was no imagined effect. The inertial dampeners must be straining to balance the competing forces pulling on the ship. The engines may all have been firing together and in the same direction, but there were minor variations in even the most finely tuned, and Belofte's ancient propulsion system was hardly that. The minor variations affected the way the ship moved, and that induced a strain upon the hull. A very great strain indeed.

  “Slag,” breathed Donal, so low only Josie could hear. She leaned in to him.

  "You knew there was going to be a burn."

  "Yes, but I didn't know it would be like this."

  Josie bit her lip. “If we don’t cut the engines soon, we’ll burn the propulsion units out. Or break up.” The howl from the engines impossibly reached an even higher intensity. “Or blow up.”

  Donal didn't say anything. Behind him the viewport showed something even more alarming. Josie pointed.

  “Is it my imagination, or is Jupiter getting bigger?”

  Donal peered through the viewport. “It’s not your imagination.”

  “How can that be? Where in the name of all that is virtuous is Hutton taking us?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we're out of control.”

  Josie had a brief vision of Belofte spiralling into Jupiter. She shook her head. “It would be very obvious if one of the engines failed.”

  “How about if one of the stabilisers packed in?”

  “Err....Less so, but we should...well, maybe not.”

  Jupiter was almost filling the viewscreen. The engines were really screaming now. A lot of the crew were joining in.

  "If the ship is in trouble, there's nothing we can do about it."

  "No," said Josie.

  “Then this could be it,” Donal said very quietly.

  Josie felt very calm. “Yes, it could be.”

  Donal looked about him, then squared his shoulders and stood up straighter. “Well, if this really could be the end, there's definitely no more time to waste. The way things are going I might never get another chance.” He took a deep breath, then made a deliberate stride right into Josie’s personal space and placed his hands on her shoulders, startling her. His
eyes were filled with determination and thrillingly, a deep, hot fire.

  “Ensign Josephine Tallion,” he began, “I think you are brave and beautiful, intelligent and discerning, hard-working and kindly, and; all in all, well...just wonderful. I have waited far too long to tell you that, and I'm sorry, but there might be no time left for propriety, so I had better properly express my feelings now.” Then his hands moved to cup her face and position her mouth, before he pressed his lips gently but firmly upon hers. She gave one muffled squawk before the dizzying contact took her. His right hand slowly slid round to the back of her head, while his left moved to cradle her waist.

  Eternities passed. Walls and blocks finally crumbled away. His lips were warm and sweet. The kiss was mostly tender, with just a faint undertone of passion and desire. Every cell in her body pulsed. She had never felt so alive. Dimly she could hear whoops in the background. Cheers or jeers or screams she could not tell. And did not care.

  Finally they pulled apart, and stared into each other’s souls. She slowly became aware of the background noise again. The ship was no longer shuddering. The frantic thrash of the engines had receded. Josie stole a look around the room. People were cheering and hugging and slapping each other on the back in relief, but amazingly no one was looking at them. A few were slumped on the floor, breathing sonorously. Some were weeping. One or two were praying. The ship was safe. The crisis was over, but for her possibly a greater one had replaced it. With a gulp she turned to face it.

  Donal was staring tenderly at her. Calmly, with a faint twist to his lips. Gently he reached out and pushed the hair away from her eyes and tucked it behind her ears. She felt a quiver of raw pleasure at his touch.

  “I think” he said slowly, “we had better discuss this in more detail later on.”

  “I think you’re right,” she managed to gasp.

  The ships intercom came on, impossibly loud.

  “Attention all ship’s personnel,” it blared, “the emergency burn has been completed. Normal battle routines are now in force. All link warriors report immediately to the drone bays.”

  Donal turned back to her. “That’s us. Are you ok? Are you still up for it?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  His face softened. “Good. Let’s go.”

  He became all business and motioned to the other end of the room. Packer and Lilybeth were there, looking wan but still holding hands. Constance was rocking on the floor. There were a few others that she recognised only by sight, including that woman from Donal’s squadron she had first seen at the party; the one that had been making eyes at him all the time – what was her name? Monkey? Minkie? Yes Lieutenant-Commander Minkie.

  Donal clapped his hands together a few times to get their attention. “Alright people, it’s time to go.” Most of them uncertainly began to shuffle forward. Constance was still shaking. Donal bent down to look at her.

  “Ensign? Are you alright? It's time to go.”

  Constance looked up, her face bloodless and blotchy with body fluids. Josie caught an almost imperceptible shake of the head.

  "Alright. Get to the medicentre." Donal straightened and caught sight of Lilybeth.

  “It seems like I might need you after all Ensign. How are you at piloting drones?”

  Lilybeth smiled weakly. “Not bad I guess.” Packer gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Good. That's what I like to hear." He motioned and set off at a brisk pace. Everyone followed.

  “What’s the idea Donal?” said Minkie, to his back.

  “You’ll find out soon enough.” He turned and spread his hands. “I’m not being difficult. It’s just that I'm under strict orders not to tell you right here and now.”

  They hurried to keep up with him. He led them left and right, up and down, along corridors at first choked with Humanity but then into ones where the crowds had thinned out. Finally they reached the flight decks. Donal showed his perscomp to a technician who guided them down to the far bays. Josie got a sinking feeling as they promenaded further and further down. THE bay was just a little further down. Donal looked like he was heading straight down towards it, but suddenly stopped and twisted to face them all. He smiled at her, and then thrust a sealed vidscroll into her hand before ushering her into another flight bay.

  It was surprisingly large. It took her a double take to realise it had been modified. The dividing walls of four bays had been removed so it formed one large bay. All the other doors bar the one she had entered had been sealed. Donal handed out vidscrolls to each person as they entered.

  “What’s this?” asked Minkie quizzically, holding up her scroll of electronic paper. “Bit old tech isn’t it? Why didn’t they just dump the orders right onto our perscomps?”

  Donal wrinkled his face. “I don’t know. Security gone mad I guess. Anyway, we are free to discuss it now. Sit down everyone. Make yourself comfortable.”

  There was a shuffling as everyone found chairs, corners of consoles and bits of wall to prop themselves up against. It was a quadruple training bay, but even so it was still very cramped for twelve people. Donal paused until everyone was paying attention.

  “All right. We twelve will be forming a special mini squadron. Our call sign will be ‘Coverall’.” Josie gave him a sharp glance, but he continued blandly on. “It’ll be for one mission only, and consist of four ‘Carousels’, three of us to each one.” He flipped a vidscroll open and entered details as he talked. “In seat order: Coverall one, me, Shirata and Tallion. Coverall two: Minkie, Laskins, Parker. Coverall three: Majanki, Frost, Beign…err this young lady here.” He motioned to Lilybeth. “Coverall four: Porass, Ruan and…uh…Marilyn.” He frowned at the vidscroll again. “Hmm…OK. We will be making full use of the Carousel’s multi controls, so be prepared to take on any task that is needed, but seats one and two will concentrate on countermeasures and seat three will do all the Piloting. Everyone got that?”

  “Why two people on countermeasures?” demanded someone. “Won’t they clash?”

  “Ordinarily yes, but some special modifications have been made to these drones. They will need two warriors to work properly, and I’ve put you into teams that should work really well together according to the psych profiles.” He gave a tight smile. “Anyway if mere trainees and instructors can handle multiple controls, I’m sure that hot shot warriors like you lot will have no trouble!” That got some grins. The tension eased considerably. Someone put a hand up.

  “Yes Nicky?”

  “What modifications?”

  “You can take a look now. The details are in the vidscrolls I’ve just handed out. Now I warn you this is pretty unconventional, but if we can pull this one off it’ll be a tale that you can eat off for the rest of your days.” More grins. “After you’ve all had a good look, we’ll link in and test the modifications out on the simulator. Everyone understand?”

  There were a few grunts, but most people had their noses in the vidscrolls. Josie saw Donal grin and do the same. It did not take long for the comments to fly.

  “What in the belt is…” began Packer.

  “This is insane!” said Minkie.

  “It’s certainly very ambitious,” temporised the one called Nicky.

  “Ambitious? That’s the understatement of the year,” exploded Minkie. “We’ll never get away with it!”

  Donal looked at the oldest man in the group. “What do you think Maj? Is it possible?”

  The veteran shifted on his chair. “Yes it's possible. Theoretically. It’s also very dodgy.”

  “Far too risky if you want my opinion,” said Minkie.

  Before she could think about it, Josie spoke up. “Well, it seems to me that we don’t have much choice but to take some risks. We aren’t exactly in a commanding tactical position here.” She was conscious of many eyes upon her, and she felt herself colouring. She noticed some very disparaging looks. She knew instinctively what that meant – ‘who are you to express an opinion, you bronze armed rookie colonial nobody.’ For
some reason Minkie stood out amongst the detractors. Josie felt her cheeks burn, but she held all the gazes.

  “Agreed,” said Donal, cutting off any possible comment. “Keep reading. I want everyone clear on what we are doing."

  Everyone resumed perusing the vidscrolls. Josie did the same, but not before she saw Donal give her an approving wink.

  There were a few more questions, mostly of a very technical nature involving countermeasures. Josie paid as much attention to it as she could, although she would only be driving the drone.

  "Alright," said Donal eventually. "Let's link in and see how it goes.”

  Everyone began fumbling with their link connections. Josie composed herself, activated the link, and spiralled into the virtual reality of the drone.

  Chapter 34.

  Depot Ship Valiant, Jovian high orbit.

  The Bridge was unnaturally quiet. The ship was only at third level readiness, which meant that most of the crew were off duty. The few Deck officers present were absorbed in their duties, silently working, making just the occasional professional query or reply, and even then in hushed, clipped voices. The steady pulse from the displays and controls provided a gentle soporific background.

  Jack Courage was sitting quite still, his mind ticking over. He had completed his analysis and finished all of his calculations, so there was now very little for him to do. It was now the job of others to put into effect what he had planned. The situation was pretty much out of his hands.

  It never ceased to amaze him that just as campaigns reached their crisis point, his role declined to little more than that of spectator. He had decided on his strategy and he had carried out all the necessary steps to implement it. The fleet was now committed. Oh there was some wriggle room. It was dangerous to assume anything in war because no plan ever survived contact with reality. However, he had worked out a list of responses to cover most of what an unforgiving universe and an uncooperative foe might do. Unless fate, or his opponents, did something really erratic, it was just a matter of choosing from the alternatives as the information came in. The better he had done his job, the fewer changes would need to be made.