by M. D. Cooper
Tanis chuckled. “Yeah, but that makes for an awful pep talk.”
Angela said.
“Either way, I’m not going to let some puffed up administrator from an over-hyped backwater best me. I’ve fought better with fewer resources and come out on top every time. I know you have no reason to trust me, but believe me, I have some tricks up my sleeve. We won’t be the ones dead in space when this is over.”
“Would you care to share the details of your plan?” Markus asked. The expression Katrina’s face showed she already knew Tanis’s answer.
“No, I cannot. While I feel an instinctual trust for the two of you, it does not extend to your entire population, nor every computer on your ship. Lives rely on the element of surprise. However, when the Marines arrive, they will give you some more details.
After some final pleasantries Tanis severed the connection.
“The big guns eh?” Brandt asked from the entrance to the bridge. “That was quite the pitch.”
“I liked the part about Sirius being a backwater and all that, you had some good posturing going on there,” Trist giggled.
Petrov gave Trist a surprised look. Despite the fact that Petrov had been working with the crew for several months, he still had issues with the amount of familiarity and lack of discipline Trist showed.
Tanis saw Trist cast a sidelong glance at Petrov and realized she was trying to get a rise out of him. Given what she knew of Trist this was probably the woman’s way of flirting. It would do her well. Tanis was certain Trist hadn’t been in any relationships since she her best friend died on the Cho.
Tanis switched the main holo tank to show the local space around the Andromeda and studied the image.
Tanis saw that the Hyperion platform had settled into a high polar orbit around Victoria. Everything was nearly in place. The last piece was for their enemy to enter range.
Tanis wondered what the leadership of the Intrepid would think of her plan. The colony ship was certainly watching the conflict play out—with a light hour of delay.
It was a dangerous game. Letting word get out to the human sphere that the Intrepid was still on its way to New Eden could cause some other ship to lay claim to the system. It meant the cruiser from Sirius could not find out that the Intrepid was entering the Kapteyn’s system; it would have to be disabled before the colony ship arrived.
Privately, Tanis had considered and reconsidered her options. Helping the Hyperion was the right thing to do—especially now that she felt a bit of kinship with Markus and Katrina—though the risk was not insignificant.
While she put on a brave face to the Hyperion leadership, Tanis knew that her plan was far from foolproof and could see them all dead.
The safest course of action was to do nothing. Let the cruiser destroy the Hyperion platform and then wait for it to leave.
Tanis suspected that someone who chased a mining platform for over four decades between the stars; then destroyed it would want to control the story carefully. That would require no witnesses.
Tanis laughed inwardly.
She turned her attention back to the holo tank. The Arc was a half a million kilometers from Victoria and Tanis decided to send her first direct message to the inbound ship.
“Ship identified as Strident Arc. This is Captain Richards of the Andromeda, please respond.”
Tanis determined not to use her full name or military rank in case the enemy determined who she was and sent the information back to Sirius. Corsia was altering her appearance in the data stream so that it would not be possible for an analysis system to determine who she was.
The ships were close enough that it only took a few seconds for the response to arrive.
“Captain Richards, I am Vice President Yusuf.” The man on the holo looked as urbane as they came, his tone was even and belied no emotion—or even interest. “I require that you remove your ship to a distance no closer than one AU from the Hyperion, this is Luminescent government business.”
“Vice President Yusuf,” Tanis replied, allowing her forehead to wrinkle with a slight scowl. “This system is under my control and protection per interstellar law.”
The law was a bit squishy regarding who owned a system. Mostly it was by whoever showed up first and held onto it, but there were statutes and principles that everyone claimed to acknowledge.
“I’m going to have to ask you to cease your aggression against the Hyperion, which I have granted asylum, and leave the Kapteyn’s system. You may loop around the star, gather volatiles and then leave.”
Yusuf’s cultured expression showed a few cracks and indignance peeked through as he listened to Tanis’s response. He smoothed his expression before responding, but she could tell that he had no patience for people he viewed as his lessers.
“Let’s be honest, Captain Richards. Your ship is no match for mine. Furthermore, I do not recognize your authority, or your ability to grant asylum. I am here to regain my property in whatever way I see fit. If you interfere you will be destroyed.”
Tanis smiled sweetly in response. “I was hoping you’d say that. I don’t have a lot of patience for people that kill innocent civilians or consider them property. Although, it seems rash to assume I’m alone here.”
With that, Tanis cut the connection and turned to Trist. “How long until we’re in lethal range of their beams?”
“Nine minutes, I have our orbit timed so we’ll pass behind the moon, Anne, before we come into range. They should be in position to fire on us when we re-emerge.”
“Very good,” Tanis said.
“Did you expect anything to come out of that exchange?” Brandt asked.
Tanis shook her head. “Not really, but I think you should at least look someone in the eye before you shoot them out of the dark.”
Brandt chuckled as she stood and saluted at Tanis. “I’m going to join my Marines. We’ll be in position when you call.”
The minutes stretched on, the bridge crew shifted in their seats, tested systems and confirmed communications channels. Trist rose to get a cup of coffee and stopped to talk with Petrov for a minute. Tanis stood as well, carefully stretching her limbs, all too aware how the stress and pressure of combat would cause her to tense and clench muscles.
Thus far the timing appeared to be perfect. The Strident Arc’s trajectory had it on course for the L1 point between Victoria and its largest moon. The Andromeda was in an elliptical orbit around Anne and would pass behind the moon before the Arc was within effective firing range.
Tanis expected that. The Arc’s beams would not do any damage at this range, but the enemy could test their effectiveness, as well as the reflective and ablative properties of the Andromeda’s hull.
Tanis smiled and shook her head. Corsia identified her ship as her body more than most AI. It surprised Tanis that Corsia would let her put her precious skin in such peril.
The statement took
Tanis by surprise. Trust was not a word AI often used. She found herself wondering if Corsia did actually trust her, or if Angela was becoming more human because of her intertwining with Tanis’s mind.
Did that mean she was becoming more like an AI herself?
Angela’s soft laugh echoed through her mind.
Angela’s avatar in her mind crossed her arms and cocked her head. Tanis realized that she always saw Angela’s avatar when they communicated now. Perhaps it was just her mind’s way of coping with sharing its thoughts with another consciousness.
Angela smiled.
Tanis sighed aloud and Trist glanced at her. Tanis waved her hand and pointed at her head with a wry smile. Trist laughed and nodded. Her own AI often made for interesting internal conversation as well.
Back in her mind, Tanis imagined herself shaking a finger at Angela.
Tanis knew that wouldn’t have been possible and decided to put the whole exchange out of her mind, pulling her focus back to the present.
In thirteen seconds they would pass behind the moon and be hidden from the Strident Arc. That’s when things would get interesting.
Tanis counted the seconds in her mind, noting as Corsia showed two more probing shots from the Arc. The projections held up; when the Andromeda passed beyond the moon it would be in lethal range of the enemy ship’s beams.
She flipped the holo tank to show a visual from the ship’s bow, checking the reports from four of the Hyperion’s tugs to see that the preparations were complete.
Everything checked out and she smiled as the large icy asteroid came into view. Oblong in shape, it was just over two kilometers long. The tugs had spent several hours pulling it into place and hollowing out an Andromeda-shaped cavity.
It was snug, but it would do the trick.
Fusion engines flared and four tugs began pushing the ice-shield, working to match velocities with the Andromeda. Tanis tapped into the data stream between the ships, impressed with the precision the Hyperion’s tugs showed as they worked with Petrov and Corsia.
The ice filled the forward viewscreen and Tanis accessed the feeds from the remote observers, placing the visual on the bridge’s main holo.
It was a dangerous maneuver, and Tanis hoped it would work. They only had one chance to get in the ice. If they failed, the Arc would destroy them without a fight.
She widened the view, including the moon and the enemy vessel. A line showed where and when the Arc would have a firing solution. The Andromeda would cross that line in seven minutes.
Trist, Corsia and the Hyperion’s tugs worked in concert to line the ship up. Tanis listened in, and after several tense minutes of vector matching the ship was lined up with its new shell.
The ship’s nose slid into the ice cavern and Corsia fired grapples into the walls. The tugs and the Andromeda ceased all thrust, allowing momentum to carry the ship forward at one meter per second. Corsia and Petrov carefully slowed the ship with maneuvering thrusters until the forward docking clamps gently met ice.
The holo showed less than one minute to spare. Trist wiped her brow and leaned back in her seat.
“Made it without a scratch,” she smiled.
“Thank the tug captains and tell them to get into position,” Tanis replied.
As the Andromeda, sheathed in its new ice shell emerged from behind the moon, two of the tugs latched onto the ice and fired their thrusters, spinning the ship and its shell on its axis.
When the Arc fired on the Andromeda it wouldn’t hit the same spot for more than a second.
“Have I ever mentioned that I hate space travel?” Trist said, looking queasy.
As expected, the moment the Andromeda’s ice-sheathed bow passed beyond the moon it was hit by laser fire. Tanis reviewed the two ship’s relative positions. Both were exactly where she had planned.
The Arc was facing directly toward the Andromeda, aligned to present a smaller target, its two main beams lashing out across the darkness, finding not the ship they expected, but what appeared to be a spinning ice asteroid.
Ice boiled off the Andromeda’s ablative covering into the vacuum of space as the Arc’s beams cut long gashes across its surface.
Tanis calculated the rate of dissipation and determined the ice-shield would hold up for at least fifteen minutes of continuous fire. Beyond that it would be structurally compromised and would fracture.
The tugs had bored holes for the Andromeda’s weapons and Tanis let fire with several shots of her own. She targeted every beam at what they could see of the Arc’s port engine. Each weapon fired for a second as the ship rotated. Once they had drained their batteries, a measurable amount of ablative plating had been burned away from the Arc.
“Commence your burn, Ensign,” Tanis issued the command to Petrov and the Andromeda boosted away from Anne toward Victoria.
More ice boiled away from the back of the asteroid as the fusion engines came to life. The resultant cloud of dust and ice looked like a comet’s tail, which would protect Andromeda’s engines from the Arc’s beam fire.
“They’re recharging their batteries,” Trist reported. “We have maybe two minutes before they start up again.”
Tanis pivoted the display on the holo, looking at all the angles. The Arc was doing exactly what she’d hoped, its commander was eager to make a decisive strike.
“They’re not yet in position; we’ll need to weather one more salvo.”
“No,” Tanis said. “We’re not the only ones with missiles, I want to be sure we can shoot theirs down if needs be.”
Tanis thought it over for a moment before responding. “Good idea. Corsia, make a strike at where we think their bridge is and then overextend the shot and flicker it out.”
One of the Andromeda’s beams lanced out through the void, burning away ablative plating where Tanis suspected the enemy’s bridge to be located. The beam burned through half a meter of carbon plating before Angela faked a battery discharge. The beam’s intensity flashed brighter for just a moment and then died.
“That was convincing,” Tanis pulled up the beam’s status. “Did you actually melt the lens?”
“They’re hailing,” Trist announced.
Tanis nodded and Yusuf’s face replaced the battleground on the main holo, a cruel smile on his face.
“Your beams are dead and your silly ice shield won’t hold for long. Surrender and we may still let you live.” His smug tone made Tanis doubt that he had any intention of letting anyone live.
“You’re going to have to come over here and take us out yourself,” Tanis attempted to appear frightened but brave. “Or shoot us out of the stars if you have the balls for it.”
The Arc cut the transmission and four missiles raced out from the ship. Their intention was clear, with the ship’s beams supposedly offline, the missiles would crack the ice shell apart and expose the Andromeda.
Tanis smiled, her guess had been correct and Corsia took instant action.
Three ports shut before any damage was done, but the fourth beam penetrated the enemy’s hull and hopefully did some damage before carbon foam filled the void.
At the same time, Corsia directed defensive beams, catching two of the missiles moments after they left the enemy ship. One detonated only a hundred meters from the Arc, blowing a meter-deep crater in the ship’s ablative plating.
The other two missiles slipped past her beams and raced toward the Andromeda.
“Come on…” Trist whispered softly.
“Twenty seconds to impact,” Tanis said, catching Trist’s eye, biting her lip, watching laser charge count-up race against the missiles’ impact count-down.
“Very funny,” Tanis chided her.
she said to Angela.
Angela replied.
A moment later, just before the time to impact slipped into the single digits, the first missile bloomed into a nuclear cloud off the starboard bow. The second detonated a moment later.
“Brace!” Corsia shouted over the audible systems a second before the shockwave hit the Andromida. The sound of rending steel shrieked around them as grapples and clamps broke free. Vibrations reverberated back through the ice for over a minute, tearing at the Andromeda and fracturing the asteroid.
“How much are we leaking?” Tanis asked.
“Thrust?”
