by Britt Ringel
Heskan leaned back into his chair. It was too easy; she never had a chance, he thought ruefully as he watched the ketch’s death throes. A wave of regret washed over him. Oh God, Heskan, don’t get all guilty, you didn’t kill those people… Stacy did! The random and ludicrous thought made Heskan bark a short laugh before he could stifle it. The truth is those people put themselves in that ship and decided to become pirates on their own accord. How many miners and traders have they killed in this system alone? Get over it, Heskan. That’s the enemy and they’d have killed you if they’d had the chance. Sleep well tonight on a job well done… Speaking of well done…
“Excellent shooting, WEPS. Great work, everyone.” He double-checked the tactical plot and saw Anelace was 18ls from the remains of Raptor and moving farther away. “Diane, match Raptor’s velocity but keep us at least twenty light-seconds apart. Jack, send Raptor a surrender demand again and I want you to give me a damage estimate, specifically on those B-packs.” Heskan swiveled his command chair to face Chief Brown. “Chief, assuming it’s safe, we’re going to have to board her and look for survivors. Please prep a team.”
A chorus of acknowledgements filled the bridge and Heskan’s crew went to work.
It didn’t take long for Ensign Truesworth and his section to estimate the destruction of the pirate ship’s two lasers. A replay of the optical record clearly showed the starboard side laser was nearly blown off the hull in the subsequent depressurization. The laser on the opposite side of Raptor’s hull had probably taken several fragments as the remains of the iridium projectile passed through the port hull and into space. Lieutenant Riedel confirmed the sensor officer’s findings and classified the ship as combat ineffective. Raptor’s lasers were not the only non-functioning systems on the ketch. A few minutes after the attack run, her power plant’s fuel cell breakers popped and power dropped to the minimum for life support. Raptor’s main drive grew dim like a fading heartbeat as the wreck drifted through space in the general direction of the Narvi tunnel point at .13c. As she drifted, the ketch’s exterior lights were extinguished, a universal symbol for surrender. No reply had come from the ketch but with most of the ship destroyed from the center forward, that did not surprise Heskan. Still, it was likely there were trapped crew in the engine compartment and they, not the computer failsafe, had flushed her power core.
Twenty-five minutes later, Anelace was pacing the wreck, 20ls away. Chief Brown’s boarding party was loading into the borrowed shuttle as Spaceman Gables worked her way through the shuttle’s pre-flight checklist. Heskan was waiting on Brown’s message that they were ready when Truesworth broke the silence on the bridge.
“Incoming emergency call from RALF-Three!” The main screen flickered from the split tactical/optical combination to Demyen Timofei’s grim face. His heavily accented English conveyed great anguish.
“Captain Heskan, five minutes ago we pick up three unknown vessels leaving Alpha Field. Projected course takes them on intercept course for Anelace. We send this message to warn you. We cannot refine sensor data due to Alpha Field disturbance but as better data comes, we send to you. I have great concern for station and the six extractors currently harvesting Beta Field. I instruct them to hide in field until safe to return to station. We request assistance and instruction. Timofei out.”
Chapter 13
“Three more ketches?” Riedel exclaimed.
“I guess we really kicked the hornet’s nest,” Heskan said. “Jack—”
“On it, Captain,” Truesworth interjected as he typed furiously on his console. After a moment, the tactical plot expanded and displayed the estimated positions of the three mystery ships. Heskan was considering the data when Brown’s voice came over his command chair comm unit.
“Capt’n, we’re ready to launch. The team’s loaded fer bear but I don’t reckon Raptor’s survivors will be in a fightin’ mood when we reach ‘em.”
“The mission is scrubbed, Chief. We have three unidentified ships from the Alpha Field on an intercept course for us. Stand your crew down and come up to the bridge, please.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Heskan thought he heard the chief joking with his boarding team about being left at the altar before the communications link was cut but he paid it little attention. Anelace had labeled the mystery flotilla as Unknown Fleet-Alpha. His stomach tightened as he realized that this was going to be as unfair a fight as the last one was, except for different sides. Okay, Heskan, give your crew something to do other than sit there and stare at the plot. Mustering a calm voice, he said, “Navigation, lay in an intercept course for the unknowns, point three light, if you please. Reduce our speed to point one light as we enter the Beta Field.” He had intentionally avoided calling it a fleet. There wasn’t any reason to pound in the fact that they were outnumbered. He quickly calculated the time necessary for each ship to traverse its part of space. “Estimated time to contact with the unknowns is two hours.” Lastly, Heskan took Anelace off battle stations. There would be plenty of time to bring the ship to full alert and keeping the crew at the highest state of readiness unnecessarily for two hours could hamper their performance when it would be needed most.
Heskan went to work on formulating a battle strategy when Lieutenant Riedel walked up to him and in a low voice asked, “Captain, you mean to leave the pirates stranded on Raptor and Paragon?”
Heskan nodded and shrugged, “For now. Even if we had the time for a rescue, I don’t have the manpower to spare posting guards for them.” He lowered his voice significantly, “Besides, the way the odds look, they’re probably safer on their wrecks anyway.”
Riedel tried to sound hopeful. “If we can stay out of laser range…”
“That’s assuming they’re armed the way Raptor was. I doubt pirate ships have standard armament. Plus, we’re assuming all three of those ships are ketches. With any luck, they’ll be smaller, like sloops, but I have a bad feeling at least one is heavier.”
“Why would they need something heavier out here?”
“To scare off the competition. We’re looking at four pirate ships in this backwater system. That’s a lot of dedicated resources.”
“But dedicated to what?” Riedel asked.
“I think Boats was right. I bet there is a major drug production facility or something similar inside the Alpha Field and these ships were placed here to deter outsiders.”
“Like Renard.”
Heskan agreed, “Yes, but also other pirate outfits. They all don’t fly under the same flag, you know, and my guess is that the primary function of these ships is to keep another pirate organization from coming in here and taking that facility for themselves. The ketches are probably escorts for a bigger ship.”
“Makes sense… unfortunately,” Riedel said.
Both men paused as they considered the implications when Vernay spoke up sheepishly, “Captain, I wasn’t intending to eavesdrop but it’s five ships, not four.”
“What?”
“Five ships, sir. The three in front of us, the Raptor and the stealth ship,” she pointed out.
Crap! I’d forgotten about that one. “Good point, Lieutenant.” Damn, I shouldn’t have called her by her rank. I don’t want her to think I’m irritated with her but it’ll seem weird if I go back and correct myself.
“Stacy, if you were the pirate commander, where would you place that stealth ship?” Riedel asked as he came up to her station.
Vernay looked down at her console. Heskan could see she was looking at the tactical plot but hers was zoomed out farther than the current tactical plot on the main screen. “I guess it depends on where it was during our ambush. The two most likely places are, one, safely docked at their facility, or two, shadowing the Raptor in the Beta Field.”
Vernay transferred her expanded view of the tactical plot onto the main screen. She picked up a lite-stylus and began making notes on her console screen, which were duplicated onto the main screen where everyone could see. “If it was docked, I
bet it’s with Unknown Fleet Alpha and the RALF just can’t detect it. However, if we fight the stealth ship in open space, it won’t be much use because I think we’ll be able to see it when it has to move at battle speeds.”
Vernay touched a button to clear her notes and then resumed. “But I think it was in the Beta Field. I bet it’s used as a scout and to keep track of us when it isn’t destroying navigation buoys. It would be practically invisible in the field and since we aren’t supposed to know about it, the chances of us detecting it are basically zero.” Vernay drew a circle around the navigation buoy they had used to detect the Raptor inside the Beta Field. The circle approximated the buoy’s detection area.
“If you look, Captain, Raptor and Paragon rendezvoused here.” Vernay put a dot inside the detection circle but roughly three quarters of the way from the buoy. “My guess is that the stealth ship was probably shadowing Raptor and pure coincidence put it on the opposite side from us, just far enough away from the buoy to avoid detection.”
Vernay then drew lines representing the courses Raptor and Paragon had taken, fleeing toward the Narvi tunnel point. “Once the stealth ship was sure it wasn’t detected, it probably just remained stationary until we were clear of the Beta Field. I bet it then moved to the inside edge of the field and sent a comm message back to its base.”
“That would explain why the pirates have reacted so quickly,” Riedel added.
“After warning the pirate base, if I was the captain of that ship, I’d then move to the outside edge of the field to observe what happened to Raptor and Paragon. So my guess is that she is somewhere here, sir.” Vernay drew a small rectangle along the outer edge of the Beta Field.
Heskan noticed that Anelace would pass through part of the rectangle as she entered the asteroid field. “That’s good analysis, Stacy.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Vernay beamed and then returned the main screen back to the tactical view it had formerly shown.
There’s so much to think about. What are they planning and how do I turn it to my advantage? Heskan stood from his command chair and said, “Mike, you have the bridge. I need to look something up and work on a plan.” Heskan glanced at the tactical plot and saw Anelace would hit the Beta Field in forty-three minutes. “I’ll be back in thirty.”
“Aye, Captain. I have the bridge.”
Chapter 14
Thirty minutes later, the bridge door opened and Heskan walked back to his command chair. Lieutenant Riedel immediately rose from it. “Your bridge, Captain.”
“I have the bridge,” Heskan replied. It may not be the greatest plan but at least it’s a plan. Strange how much better I feel now than when I was leaving here.
Once seated, Heskan reviewed the tactical plot. He had been keeping a close eye on it in his cabin and been particularly interested in any updates the RALF could provide regarding what types of ships he would face but none were forthcoming. Now, a quick scan confirmed that nothing significant had happened in the minute it had taken him to return to the bridge.
Anelace was 3lm from the Beta Field. She had about ten minutes of travel time at .3c before she would have to slow down to pass through the asteroid belt. During his planning, Heskan had worked under the assumption that the pirate fleet ships would want the stealth ship to coordinate its surprise attack with their own. Fortunately for Anelace, the laws of physics were working against them. When first discovered, the pirate fleet had needed two hours and five minutes to arrive at the inside edge of the Beta Field. Anelace, due to her faster speed and closer position, needed less than an hour to reach the outer edge. Traversing through the field to the inside edge would take Anelace another fifty minutes. The slower speed necessary to safely travel the 5lm wide asteroid field made the corvette’s total travel time roughly one hour and fifty minutes. This gave Heskan approximately fifteen minutes to break clear of the Beta Field and intercept the pirate fleet. If the stealth ship wanted to attack simultaneously with the fleet, it would have to do so in open space and would likely be forced to travel at a speed much greater than her stealth capabilities could mask.
Nope, as far as they know, their little stealth ship can’t wait for its friends to arrive and then ambush us while we are facing off with their fleet, Heskan had deliberated. Further, attacking Anelace in open space with a sloop was tantamount to suicide, so he believed it had to come while they were still inside the Beta Field. The next question was where in the field the attack would happen. After careful consideration, Heskan decided the better asked question was when the attack would happen. The obvious answer would be to time the attack to give Anelace as little time as possible to recover before the pirate fleet could engage her.
“Okay, folks, we‘re breaking this action into two separate engagements. First, we’re going to surprise that stealth ship and blow it to hell. Then we’re going to dance with those pirate ships and show them what it’s like to tango with the Brevic Navy.”
Heskan sounded battle stations. “WEPS, I want you ready to fire at a moment’s notice. When that stealth ship appears, don’t wait for a command from me. Unload everything you can into it, understood?”
Vernay nodded, “Yes, sir, WEPS will fire at will.”
Heskan smiled. “Jack, when we reach here,” Heskan made a note on the tactical plot as he spoke, “go active with sensors in a forty-five degree forward arc. Concentrate everything we have in front of us. Plus, activate the nav buoy. It won’t give us one hundred percent coverage behind us but it will help some.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Diane, the moment we find that ship, lay in an intercept course and close on it with your best speed. Forget the military regulations on speeds while travelling through a hazard to navigation; we can’t afford to lose contact with it. If we don’t find the ship, stop us right at the edge of the Beta Field. I don’t want us in open space yet.”
“Will do, Captain.” Selvaggio reached through the open visor of her shocksuit helmet and pushed her dark hair away from her eyes before inputting commands into her navigation console.
“Then that’s that,” Heskan said to Riedel.
Seven minutes later, Anelace slowed to .1c and entered the Beta Field.
“Captain,” Truesworth said in a hushed tone, “do you want us to reduce our sensor emissions?”
Heskan shook his head. “No, Ensign. We can’t tip them off that we suspect they have a stealth ship.”
Anelace glided through the Beta Field toward the pirate fleet. Her course would take her through the edge of the sensor range of the navigation buoy they had placed to catch Raptor and Paragon. The buoy was now silent but Heskan was sure the stealth ship‘s captain was well aware of it. I wonder if he’ll risk going through the detection zone of that buoy. There’s no reason we would reactivate it but then it would seem an unwise risk to take if he could avoid it.
Heskan knew that the sloop had all the time it would have needed to position itself for its ambush, as Anelace had been holding her intercept course for the pirate fleet now for over an hour. The small corvette continued to lazily slip through the dense radiation of the asteroid field at a fraction of her potential speed and as expected, Anelace lost contact with the pirate fleet due to the field’s distortion.
On the bridge, the tactical plot began blinking the red symbols of the three pirate ships with an ever-expanding uncertainty circle growing from them. Heskan realized there was a good chance that the stealth sloop had awaited Anelace at the edge of the field and was now shadowing them through the Beta Field, all the time relaying contact information to the fleet. Initially, he had been tempted to try a surprise maneuver once inside the Beta Field and emerge from an unexpected position to throw off the tactics of the pirates. However, when he realized the stealth sloop might be tracking him, he had decided to play it as “dumb” as possible. Let them get overconfident; let them think I’m just some dumb lieutenant with his first command. And let’s hope they’re only half-right.
Anelace continued
her crawl through the field and the uncertainty zones of the pirate fleet’s position widened. The waiting is maddening. How do other ship captains deal with it? Is the tension on the bridge crazy high or is it just me? Should I try to lighten the mood or let my people concentrate? When you put it like that, Heskan, the question kind of answers itself. He remained silent.
* * *
During the next forty-five minutes, Heskan tried to walk the fine line between constantly monitoring the situation and re-evaluating his plan but not modifying it unnecessarily. His last time in the Beta Field had taught him that if there were no significant benefits to changing things, then staying with what had been established was the better alternative. By the time Anelace had finally approached her trigger point within 5ls of the inside edge of the Beta Field, he had managed to refrain from changing anything. At her current speed, she was just five minutes from exiting the asteroid field.
“Almost there, folks.” Heskan’s voice shattered the tense silence. Heskan watched the countdown on tactical diminish to zero as his bridge crew sprang into action.
Anelace’s APG-85B BigEye Array, silent during the Beta Field transit, awoke and sent bursts of active sensor emissions ahead of her, powerful enough to literally fry an unprotected person out to a distance of 5ls. Heskan watched the tactical plot, waiting, hoping for the inevitable sensor hit on the sloop that would reveal its location. From the corner of his eye, he saw Vernay’s hands twitching in anticipation.
Seconds passed as the potent sensor emissions continued to fill space in front of Anelace. Ten seconds later and still nothing. Heskan’s heart sank as he realized he had guessed wrong, followed by a tiny rush of panic. Damn, nothing on the sensor buoy either. Okay, follow through with the steps in your plan; don’t let things fall apart because the sloop wasn’t exactly where you predicted it would be.
