Commander

by Richard F. Weyand

  “I saw that in the reports. They can’t escape that tremendous acceleration.”

  “Yes. That and the depleted uranium nose cone is a good defense against point-defense lasers. As long as they’re aiming for the nose, at least. The nose cones were pitted a bit, and some of the surviving ships lost a nose thruster or two, but otherwise they were unscathed. Once they figure out to re-aim their point-defense lasers, it may be a different story, but, so far, at least, we don’t think they’ve figured that out.”

  “OK, so the picket ship takes out the attacker. Then what does the freighter do?”

  Dunham shrugged.

  “Goes on to the planet as normal.”

  “You’re not afraid someone else is going to destroy the freighter in retribution?”

  “In all the cases we’ve seen so far, the commerce raider was the only ship in the system not squawking a transponder code. Once it’s taken out, anyone else taking out the freighter is going to be identifiable, and open to reprisals.”

  “Assuming you have another presence in the system that sees them,” Peters said.

  “That’s a good point. So we should probably have a second picket that just keeps an eye on what’s going on, so we have a record.”

  “Actually, you can probably do it in VR from the freighter. Just remotely monitor and record all the freighters’ sensors in VR. Then if a transponding ship attacks the freighter, we know who it is.”

  “Who monitors and records the freighter’s sensors?” Dunham asked.

  “The Imperial Navy. Isn’t commerce protection a traditional role of the Navy?”

  “Yes, absolutely. OK, so this all makes sense now. One picket ship per interstellar freighter, which we can afford, then monitor all freighters’ sensors remotely.”

  “At least, record them all remotely,” Peters said. “You can go to the recording if something happens. Maybe the captain has a way to signal a problem to get attention. You certainly need some way for them to report what’s going on as it’s happening. Our previous failure to do that is why we had to go pick up the memory modules. If we’d had an alarm system the captain could use to get attention over QE radio, which all the freighters carry, then we would have already had the sensor recordings.”

  “Of course. Hmm. No, this is all doable.”

  “What do you do for reprisals?”

  “Be very nasty,” Dunham said. “Take out a couple battleships with impunity. Something like that. Encourage them to go after a few picket ships with a squadron, and then drop a couple dozen of them in and wipe them out. When you poke the bear, you lose, so don’t do it.”

  Peters nodded, then sighed.

  “Bobby, why can’t people just get along?”

  “If they did, Amanda, we wouldn’t need government at all.”

  “I suppose.”

  They lay there for a while, each lost in their thoughts.

  “I do have one bit of news for you, Bobby.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. The nanites are reporting to me that I’m pregnant, and I’m carrying twins.”

  “Really. Any idea of the sexes?”

  “Not yet. I do know they’re fraternal twins, so it could be one of each. With identicals, they’re always the same.”

  “That’s exciting.”

  “Yes. I’m very happy about it.”

  “I am, too, Amanda. I am, too.”

  He held her more firmly, and she snuggled into him.

  They would have a family. Family was good.

  Garland

  The Sintaran freighter SCV Wanderlust dropped out of hyperspace in the Garland system. She was carrying eighteen hundred loaded containers, so she made her transition well outside the safety margins for down-translation into the system.

  “Announce our arrival to Garland Traffic Control,” said Captain Durst Wilhelm.

  “Yes, Sir. Transmitting.”

  “Sensors coming up, Sir.”

  “Let me know as soon as the plot stabilizes.”

  “Yes, Sir. Plot stabilizing now. We have one ship between us and Garland. Warship power levels. Looks like a light cruiser, Sir. He’s altering vector to intercept us.”

  “Time to his missile range?”

  “Ninety minutes, Sir.”

  So, Wanderlust was to be the latest target of the commerce raiders, eh? Since no state of war existed between Sintar and anyone else, they were really pirates. No matter. They were going to get a surprise.

  “Maintain profile. Mr. Novak, warn them off.”

  “Yes, Sir. Transmitting.”

  Wilhelm checked his watch. About twenty more minutes.

  “No response, Sir.”

  “Status, Ms. Parker?”

  “She’s still accelerating toward us, Sir. 1.5 gravities.”

  The general quarters alarm sounded in the HMS Panther building on Imperial Fleet Base Draco. Spacers scrambled to their duty positions, which were in their bunks and logged into VR. They took up their positions and waited for their current ship, a picket ship on convoy duty following the freighter SCV Wanderlust to the Garland system.

  “Down-transition. Contact established. Sensors coming up.”

  “Sir, we have a non-transponding vessel accelerating to intercept Wanderlust. Warship power levels. She’s a light cruiser, Sir.”

  “War emergency power. Intercept and destroy the warship.”

  “Yes, Sir. Power levels coming up to war emergency power. Engines at maximum. We’re making 10.2 gravities.”

  “He’s seen us, Sir. He’s gonna try to run for it.”

  “Captain, that cruiser has seen HMS Panther. He’s making a skew turn, trying to run away.”

  “Good luck with that. He’s got enough velocity in our direction, he’s going to be burning that off for a while.”

  “Yes, Sir. I make it about twenty minutes to intercept.”

  The cruiser’s turn was as tight as it could make it. Accelerating now toward Garland at 1.5 gravities, it began losing velocity as it continued to slide toward Wanderlust and Panther.

  Panther, meanwhile, was accelerating at 10.2 gravities toward the cruiser. It’s velocity increased much faster than the cruiser’s decreased.

  The cruiser was just about at dead stop relative to Garland, and ready to begin to build velocity toward the planet, when Panther hit her in the stern at over twenty thousand miles an hour.

  The cruiser didn’t explode so much as it disintegrated, as Panther‘s remains passed completely through the cruiser along its long axis. The plasma released from the magnetic bottles of both ships incinerated the remains, but it was an unnecessary embellishment on the ships’ total destruction.

  “Wow! Did you see that, Sir? That was like a bullet through a strawberry. Whap! Gone.”

  Captain Wilhelm was taken aback by the suddenness and finality of it. Where two ships had been, there was now – nothing. Nothing at all.

  “Maintain profile. Make sure we don’t pass through that debris field.”

  “It’s out of our direct path, Sir, and drifting the other direction. We’re good on current trajectory.”

  Wanderlust remained on course for Garland. What Garland would do about it was unknown.

  “Sir, we have a report from HMS Panther that they destroyed a pirate cruiser in Garland.”

  “Were they on convoy duty?” Rear Admiral Paul Dennler asked.

  “Yes, Sir. They were convoy on SCV Wanderlust. The unidentified warship – identified as a light cruiser, Sir – maneuvered for missile range when Wanderlust dropped out of hyperspace. Panther dropped out of hyperspace thirty minutes later and destroyed the light cruiser.”

  “All right. Thank you, Commander.”

  Dennler reviewed the report, then contacted the captain of the Wanderlust, listed as one Captain Durst Wilhelm, in VR.

  “Wilhelm here.”

  “Hello, Captain. This is Rear Admiral Paul Dennler of the Imperial Navy.”

  “Yes, Admiral. I take it you heard about the little du
st-up out here?”

  “Yes, Captain. My understanding is you dropped out of hyperspace, some unidentified ship your sensors identified as a light cruiser vectored to intercept you, you warned them off, to which they neither responded nor changed vector, and then HMS Panther dropped out of hyperspace and blew them to dust bunnies. That about sum it up?”

  “To a tee, Admiral.”

  “All right, Captain. Here’s what we need you to do. First, neither you nor your crew should do anything to aggravate the situation. Whatever the authorities there say or do, just go along with it. Let us deal with any unpleasantness from here. If they ask you any questions, just say, ‘Hey, we were completely uninvolved. This warship is swanning around out there, we warned them off, and then another ship dropped out of hyperspace, and they collided. We weren’t involved at all.’ Can you do that?”

  “Sure, Admiral. No problem. Do you expect Garland to be difficult?”

  “We don’t know, Captain. Someone is stirring up trouble out there, and we don’t know who it is. So we don’t know if Garland is just going along with someone else, or if they’re the actual problem. Do you pick up any other non-transponding ships in the system right now?”

  “Not at the moment, Admiral.”

  “All right. Well, stay in touch. We have other assets on the way to the area now, and if they want to cause trouble, they’re going to get a lot of it. Just don’t do anything to aggravate them or make yourself a target.”

  “Understood, Admiral.”

  “Oh, and per the commercial spacing regulations, you should probably report that collision.”

  “Good point, Admiral. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thank you, Captain.”

  Picket ships started gathering at a rendezvous point a quarter light-year from Garland. The little ships came in one at a time and had very little hyperspace wake. Garland was notoriously bad at monitoring their hyperspace region, so the build-up went unnoticed.

  Various crews piloted these ships, including HMS Panther, HMS Bald Eagle, HMS Peregrine, HMS Falcon, and HMS Loba.

  Vice Admiral Maria della Espinoza was in command of the flotilla.

  SCV Wanderlust made its way to the large commercial freight station in orbit about Garland. When they neared the station, they put control in the hands of a local pilot who steered them into their assigned berth.

  The ship was in free fall now, a situation with which the experienced crew was familiar. The twenty crew members made their way down the boarding tubes and transfer tubes of the station to the central core, where they would transfer to the large rotating personnel section. The transfer tubes did not have elevators per se, but a belt ran along the side on which there were handles to grab onto.

  When they got to the central hub of the station, they transferred from the freighter docking arms portion of the station to the rotating portion, then took a large elevator down one arm of the personnel section to the outer wheel.

  The outer wheel was over a thousand feet in diameter, and a couple of hundred feet thick. It rotated slowly, providing simulated gravity. The dozens of floors of the wheel contained an entire city in orbit.

  When they got off the elevator, they were met by MPs of the Garland Space Navy and taken into custody. Having been briefed by their captain ahead of leaving Wanderlust, they all went quietly and were taken to jail cells on the station.

  Rear Admiral Dennler watched until the MPs turned on a VR suppressor and cut off contact of his feed from Captain Wilhelm.

  “So that’s the situation, Sire. They’ve taken our spacers, and seized the Wanderlust,” said Martin Wellner, the department head of the foreign service section for the farside north portion of neighboring space.

  “And our response so far, Mr. Wellner?”

  “Our ambassador has protested to the Garland Foreign Minister, Sire, and has asked for a meeting with the Foreign Minister.”

  “Let me know when that meeting is scheduled, Mr. Wellner. I’m going to want to monitor it.”

  “Yes, Sire. And if they refuse a meeting?”

  “Let me know that as well, Mr. Wellner.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  The meeting between the Honorable Marc Chabot, Ambassador to Garland of the Sintaran Empire and His Excellency Baron Francis Schmitt-deVries, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Garland, took place in VR. It began with all the pleasantries, but went downhill quickly.

  “Excellency, we must insist that our spacers and our commercial vessel be released by Garland.”

  “That will not be possible, Mr. Ambassador. They are being held on serious criminal charges.”

  “What charges could those possibly be, Excellency?”

  “Suspicion of piracy, Mr. Ambassador. They conspired with another vessel to destroy a visiting warship in Garland space.”

  “I don’t understand, Excellency.”

  “Mr. Ambassador, they arrived in Garland space farther out than is typically customary for legitimate commercial vessels arriving in Garland. When this visiting warship, curious, went to investigate, another Sintaran vessel – a military vessel – appeared and destroyed them without provocation. That is conspiracy to piracy pure and simple.”

  “That is preposterous, Excellency. That visiting warship was not transponding any identification, and ‘approached’ our vessel, as you put it, at military attack acceleration levels.”

  “Nevertheless, Mr. Ambassador, an investigation must be made to determine the truth of the matter. Neither the crew of the Wanderlust or the ship itself will be released prior to that investigation having completed.”

  “And how long will that investigation take, Excellency?”

  “They are usually complete within a year, Mr. Ambassador. In a case like this, however, it is hard to estimate the time required.”

  While Chabot was considering his response, Dunham, who had been monitoring in management mode, appeared in the VR meeting room. Chabot shot to his feet.

  “Your Majesty.”

  “Be seated, Mr. Chabot. Excellency, I’ve heard quite enough. Interesting that you don’t identify the country of origin of this mysterious visiting warship. However, I will put Garland’s options in rather starker terms than Mr. Chabot has been instructed to use.

  “Garland will release our spacers, and our ship, and further will allow our ship to be offloaded, loaded, serviced, and depart in peace, or Sintar will destroy one warship in Garland space every twenty-four hours until you comply.”

  King James III, King of Garland, popped into existence in the meeting room.

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Ah, Your Highness. How nice of you to join us. Why wouldn’t I dare? You dared to harbor a pirate ship, allow it to prey on Sintaran commercial vessels, and now, when we have struck back by destroying the pirate, you hold our ship and crew as hostages on trumped-up charges.”

  “We have done no such thing. That was a visiting warship. It went out to see why your vessel arrived farther out than normal, and you destroyed it. And they are not hostages, they are being held as criminals.”

  “None of that is true, Your Highness, and we both know it.”

  “Are you calling me a liar?”

  “If you wish. And you still hide the name of whose visiting warship it is. No matter, Your Highness. We will come into Garland space and determine whose warship it was ourselves.”

  “Then your ships will be destroyed.”

  “Unlikely, Your Highness.”

  “We will execute your spacers.”

  Dunham’s white-blue eyes turned cold and his face stern. He looked into King James’s eyes.

  “Listen to me very carefully, Your Highness. If you harm our spacers, I will destroy the space station in which you are now holding them.”

  “That’s against your treaty obligations. That’s a commercial space station.”

  “Is it, Your Highness? Not if commercial ships cannot peaceably call there under the commercial shipping treaty. Not if it services your mi
litary vessels when they collude with piracy. No, it is then a valid military target.”

  “There are two million people on that space station.”

  “Then you should be concerned for their well-being, and not utilize it in military and criminal endeavors, Your Highness. As for me, ten billion people die of natural causes in the Sintaran Empire every single day. Your two million are of little concern to me.”

  “But you can’t!”

  “Of course, I can. And you might want to confer with the King of Estvia with regard to the cost of replacing a commercial space station of that kind. I believe he has current numbers he can share with you.”

  The blood drained from King James’s face as he was reminded that this very Sintaran emperor had destroyed the commercial space station at Galveston in Estvia a mere three years before.

  “In any case, I am finished, Your Highness. You will release our spacers, and our ship, and offload, load, and service them properly, per the commercial shipping treaty to which you are a signatory, or you will suffer the consequences.”

  “That’s an act of war!”

  “War with Sintar is one of your options, Your Highness.”

  Those white-blue eyes considered King James coldly.

  “Choose wisely,” Dunham said, then disappeared.

  Chabot also disappeared, as Dunham, with management override, killed his connection as well.

  “He’s bluffing,” King James said.

  “I’m not so sure, Your Highness,” Schmitt-deVries said.

  “Well, we won’t do anything to enflame him.”

  “Are we going to release his spacers?”

  “No. We’ll just sit tight and see what he does.”

  Dunham received a VR call from Admiral Howard Leicester.

  “It’s been twenty-four hours, Your Majesty,” Leicester said.

  “Very well, Admiral Leicester. Destroy one warship.”

  Dunham thought about it.