by Dietmar Wehr
Hoch had a sudden hunch and decided to act on it. Let station docking control know that Whirlwind will be leaving as soon as I return to the ship.
[Done. Traeger’s headband must have set up a search algorithm for just such an event because the station passed that information on to him, and he’s now sending a message back to his ship to prepare for departure. The three of them are finishing their drinks and look as though they’re ready to get up as soon as you’re out of sight. Is this what you were hoping to trigger?]
Yes, exactly this. I’d rather take them on out in space than on this station, especially as it now appears that there’s more than just the three of them. Can you find out what kind of ship they have?
[I’ve scanned recordings of their ship docking. It appears to be the same class of ship as Wolfbane. No obvious external signs of weapons. They may be carrying an armed auxiliary craft like Wolfbane does.]
Why do I find that possibility ominous?
[Perhaps because it’s another interesting synchronicity?]
Perhaps.
As soon as he stepped aboard Whirlwind, Keko notified the station that they wished to undock and instructed the auto-pilot to pull the ship back as soon as the docking clamps were clear. Hoch headed for the cockpit and strapped himself in securely.
[Station is asking for a flight plan, Hoch. Where do we want to go?]
“Tell them, Earth…no, wait. Tell them Ceridian Station.”
[I’ve told them our destination is Ceridian Station. Docking clamps have been released. The auto-pilot has been programmed for a Ceridian Station trajectory. Captain Traeger and his two companions are back aboard his ship. They have now requested to undock and have filed a flight plan for Ceridian Station as well, Hoch. Station has told them that they must wait until traffic has cleared the safety zone around the station. Captain Traeger is not happy about that.]
Hoch chuckled. “I’ll just bet he’s not. At least we get a bit of a head start. I’m not going to show off what Whirlwind can really do. There’s no sense in making Traeger wonder what other surprises this ship has up its sleeve. We’ll accelerate at the maximum speed this class of ship is known for.”
[In progress. Auto-pilot is now engaged.]
Hoch watched the view from the ship’s bow camera on the largest screen as Whirlwind pivoted on its axis and began accelerating on the heading for the transition to hyperspace that would take them to the star system containing the Ceridian Station. About three and a half minutes later he heard Keko’s update.
[Station has finally released Skies The Limit, and she is now on a parallel vector. Her rate of acceleration is higher than ours, Hoch. I calculate that she’ll catch up to us before we reach transition-to-hyperspace velocity unless we boost our own acceleration.]
Hoch nodded. “Let them catch up; by that time, we’ll both be well beyond the station’s radar range. When we blow Traeger’s ship to smithereens, Station will interpret the sudden stop of his transponder signal as the sign that his ship entered hyperspace, never to be seen again,” he added with a feral grin.
The time seemed to go quickly. He was surprised when Keko notified him that Whirlwind was now beyond Station’s radar range and that Skies The Limit would also pass that threshold in less than six minutes.
“Okay, Keko, let’s see if Traeger really does intend to intercept us. Shut down our transponder. If he wants to board us, he’ll have to start scanning with his own radar.”
[Transponder has been shut down. Shall I power up our defense systems now, Hoch?]
“Good idea. Remind me again what our missiles are armed with.”
[Certainly, Hoch. The starboard side missile is armed with a 144 kilogram high explosive chemical warhead. The port side missile is armed with a lithium plasma, sub-kiloton, fission warhead.] Keko stopped when she heard Hoch gasp in shock.
“My God! We’re carrying a missile armed with a nuke?”
[Technically, yes; however, the explosive power of that warhead is equivalent to only 34 metric tonnes of TNT. As fission warheads go, this one is tiny in terms of its explosive power.]
“What kind of damage can it do to Traeger’s ship?”
[Your earlier comment about blowing his ship to smithereens was actually quite accurate. The plasma warhead will vaporize it completely.]
“Wow! I was thinking more in terms of blowing it into little pieces, but vaporization is good too. What’s the tactical situation now, Keko?”
[We are just under 3.1 million kilometers from the station. Our velocity is 210.5 kps, and acceleration is 6.1Gs. The opposing ship is 987,000 kilometers behind us, travelling at 305.2 kps with an acceleration of 9.8Gs.]
“And what’s the effective range for our missile?”
[I think you mean to ask what the powered range is. If the bogey were to maintain his acceleration, we could fire our missile when the range is down to 771,000 klicks, and the missile would still have power to engage in terminal guidance maneuvers by the time the range to the bogey drops to zero. However, if the missile is detected on its way in, the smart thing for Traeger to do would be to decelerate, because then our missile would have exhausted its power supply and gone ballistic before reaching the target. In order to eliminate that possibility, we’d have to wait until the range is down to 699,000 klicks.]
Hoch couldn’t help smiling at Keko’s use of military terminology. She was certainly getting into the spirit of the coming battle.
“What about hit accuracy?”
[As you know, Hoch, distance to the target can affect the probability of hitting the target. We don’t know if the bogey has anti-missile ECM. Unlikely, but not impossible. Firing at long range also gives the target more time to engage in evasive maneuvers. Given the unknowns regarding Traeger’s ship’s capabilities, I would conservatively estimate the hit probability at long range to be no better than 61.8 percent. If you let the range drop down to less than 100,000 klicks, hit probability would be at 89.1 percent.]
“Hmm. That still gives them one chance in ten of the missile missing. How close do they have to get for the hit probability to rise to 98 percent?”
[Twenty-one thousand klicks.]
“And if I wanted to fire our railgun cannon at them, how close would they have to get to make the hit probability high enough to be worthwhile?”
[Theoretically, we could fire it right now, and as long as we aimed it carefully enough and the target didn’t change heading or acceleration, we’d have a chance of hitting it. The cannon can fire ten rounds a minute; a hundred rounds every ten minutes. At this range, five out of those hundred could be expected to hit. What complicates the calculation is that the bogey is not directly behind us. It’s off to one side by 558 klicks. That means that the cannon would have to be aimed at where the bogey will be by the time the rounds get there. If the bogey was directly behind us, we could expect to get four times as many hits for the same number of rounds fired. I would not recommend firing the cannon at long ranges. Once the target knows we’re firing at it, they’ll be able to reduce hits to zero by maneuvering. Even if we began scanning behind us with radar, we still couldn’t be sure of where the target would be by the time our rounds got that far.]
“Okay, so we’ll stick with the plasma missile. My only regret in using it is that they’ll die too quickly, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over that.”
[The bogey has just shut down its transponder and has commenced active scanning in our direction. The radar signals reaching us are weak enough that I don’t believe the return signal is strong enough to be detected. Therefore, if you want to try to make the chase more difficult for them by changing our vector, now would be the time to do it.]
“It’s an amusing thought, but I’m not in the mood to play with them. We’re about to kill a ship with at least four human beings on board. That’s serious business, and I want to keep my focus serious as well.”
When the range got down to 111,000 kilometers, the situation suddenly became a whole lot more
serious.
[Hoch! That bogey just fired a missile at us! It’ll get here in less than 60 seconds. I’m activating our ECM and the cannon in anti-missile mode.]
“How in the hell did they get their hands on a missile for God’s sakes?”
[Cannon is swivelling around! It’ll be able to fire in…three…two…one…now! Cannon is set to auto-fire. No hits yet. Missile is still inbound. ECM hasn’t spoofed it yet. Time to impact is now 21 seconds.]
Hoch did the math quickly. One round every six seconds meant that they only had three, maybe four shots left before the missile reached them.
[Missile has been hit and destroyed,] said Keko before Hoch had a chance to say anything.
“What’s our missile hit probability now?”
[Eighty-six percent. If we’re going to fire, we need to shut down the engines and rotate the ship so that the missile is pointing to our rear, Hoch.]
Hoch hated the idea of firing with odds that low. If that plasma missile missed, he could still fire the other one, but it would not cause crippling damage even if it did hit, and he’d have to resort to either finishing Traeger off with cannon fire or boosting acceleration and running away.
“Okay, rotate the ship and fire the plasma missile as soon as possible, Keko.”
As it turned out, both ships fired missiles within a fraction of a second of each other.
“AUTO-CANNON!” shouted Hoch.
[Has already commenced anti-missile fire! Recommend you move to the rear of the ship, Hoch. It’ll be safer there.]
“Hell no! A Captain doesn’t leave the cockpit during a fight! Time to our missile intercept?”
[The bogey has started evading. Our missile should intercept in…four…three…two…one…missed! We missed, Hoch! But we just destroyed his second missile. I recommend evasive maneuvers and firing our last missile now, Hoch!]
“DO IT!”
[Missile fired. Target is still evading but has not fired again. They may have used up their limited supply of missiles.]
“If they haven’t veered off, then they’ve got at least one more missile left!” said Hoch, “They probably want to get closer before they fire it! That’s what I would do!”
[If that’s the case, then we should switch the auto-cannon to anti-ship mode while there’s no missile inbound, although accuracy will be poor due to target evasion.]
“I agree! Maybe we’ll get some lucky hits!”
[Second missile will intercept in…three…two…one…HIT! She’s hit, Hoch! Acceleration and maneuvering have dropped off, so there must be damage to their control systems, maybe even a direct hit on their Bridge.]
“Any distress signals?” asked Hoch in a calmer and more somber voice.
[None detected so far. Target has gone ballistic, but it still has sufficient overtake velocity to catch up and pass us, Hoch. If we want to make sure there are no survivors, we’ll have to fire at her as she goes by, and even then there would still be a small probability of survivors.]
“But not for very long,” said Hoch with grim certainty. “If we make sure all compartments are holed by cannon fire, any survivors will die of decompression, or at the most, only last as long as their spacesuit oxygen holds out. Fire the cannon as needed to decompress every compartment as she goes by.”
It took another 22 minutes before the crippled ship passed Whirlwind at a distance of less than a kilometer. At that range, there was no chance of missing with the railgun cannon. Hoch remembered too late to tell Keko to hold back a few rounds. As a result, Whirlwind was now out of ammunition and defenseless. Not that Traeger’s ship was a threat any more. Whirlwind’s optics were good enough that Hoch could see how badly damaged the other ship was. It was a derelict that had enough velocity to take it out of the Blue Horizon star system altogether. And without a distress signal, the station would have no way of knowing that the ship was helpless or where it was.
At this point, he could have decided to change course for Earth. Mistress Fontaine would be pleased with what he had accomplished so far, and he could sell the liquor for a nice pile of credits. However, he kept the ship on course for the Ceridian Station system. He wanted to know who was behind the attack on Sara Fontaine, and maybe, just maybe, there was a clue to that at Ceridian. It also occurred to him that they might be able to replenish his supply of railgun rounds too.
The trip to Ceridian seemed to take longer than he had expected. He couldn’t help feeling nervous about going there. It was almost as if his intuition was trying to warn him of some danger. Upon arrival in the system, the approach to the station was routine. No sign of Wolfbane, not that he really expected her to be here, but if she had been, that at least would have justified his anxiety. With the docking complete, Hoch headed for Admin Offices with only his stunner. After exchanging the routine data that all stations demanded, he inquired about buying some rounds for a railgun. Yes, they said, they could accommodate his request. They only had a dozen rounds ready for immediate delivery, but more could be manufactured relatively quickly if he wanted to wait. Hoch decided to take the dozen, and because the station didn’t need anything he was carrying (except the liquor that he wanted credits for that were spendable on Earth), he offered to pay with gold. By the time he got back to Whirlwind, Keko had penetrated and searched the station’s network. She found nothing that would help determine who on Earth was behind the whole thing. Wolfbane had been there, but had left again several days previously, taking all of its crew with it. The station had, in fact, modified Wolfbane’s auxiliary craft to install the railgun almost a year ago, and that hadn’t been the only railgun installation the station had done. Keko downloaded the list of modified craft and ships for future reference.
Hoch had just extracted the four gold bars from the secret compartment when Keko notified him that four station personnel were waiting to come aboard with the railgun rounds.
“Let ’em in, Keko.” The secondary cargo bay hatch opened, and four men came in carrying three rounds each. Hoch pointed to where the access panel to the railgun was. The first man stopped at the access panel, carefully put down the three rounds and as he stood up, reached into a pocket.
“I’ve got a printed transaction document here for you, Captain…”
Before Hoch could respond, he was sprayed with a cloud of gas from a small device the other man now had in his hand. Hoch passed out before his head hit the deck. When he woke up, he was sitting up against one of the main hull support struts with his hands tied behind his back. He immediately noticed that his headband had been taken off.
“It’s about damn time you woke up, Hoch.”
Hoch’s eyes opened wide as he recognized the voice. He looked around until he saw her. Her hair was much shorter, which was why he hadn’t recognized her as one of the four ‘men’.
“Kasia, my God, it IS you. What—”
“Never mind the pleasantries,” she said as she walked towards him with a menacing-looking pistol in one hand. “The only reason I didn’t kill you in your sleep is the gold that you’ve got on board. We’ve looked everywhere for it and haven’t found it. Tell me where it is, and I promise you a quick death, which is more than you deserve for what you must have done to Claus.” Hoch’s expression must have shown his confusion. She nodded. “Oh, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. Claus has disappeared. Blue Horizon has no record of him leaving, and they can’t find him on the station anywhere. We know you were there at the time he vanished. He was supposed to get you out of the way, but obviously you turned the tables on him. So, tell me where the gold is, but first, tell me what you did to Claus.” She stopped in front of him and looked him in the eyes. He had never seen such anger in her before.
He shook his head to clear away the rest of the mental fog. “Why do you even care about Claus? You told me you wanted to get away from him.”
“Yes, I did say that, and you obviously swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Buying me that trip voucher back to Earth was very generou
s of you, Hoch. I cashed it in and stayed on Thule until Wolfbane returned on schedule to pick me up. I thought my performance was quite good. I even had myself convinced it was true. It got you to Blue Horizon, didn’t it?”
Hoch said nothing as some of the pieces started falling into place. Kasia had been a plant to lure him to Blue Horizon where Honniger had been waiting for him. That meant that she was also part of the operation that killed Sara, but Traeger’s ship had intercepted Sara’s ship, hadn’t it?
“Claus confessed to raping and killing Sara. Did you know that, Kasia?”
She snorted. “Oh God, Hoch, you still haven’t figured it all out? Of course, I knew that. Claus and I were on Wolfbane when she intercepted Fontaine’s ship. He’s my half-brother. We didn’t advertise the fact to the rest of Wolfbane’s crew, and my last name is different from his so it wasn’t obvious. And in case you’re wondering, Hoch, I wasn’t lying about Claus, me and rough sex.” She laughed as she saw his shocked expression. “And as far as Sara Fontaine is concerned, I didn’t care what he did to that bitch. We were paid and paid well, I might add, to kill the grand-daughter. Claus and I kept the payment to ourselves. The rest of the crew had no idea that the attack was pre-meditated, and we told them the pilot was unharmed when we pulled away. By now, Mistress Fontaine has probably been taken out too. How could you not have figured out that Wolfbane attacked that ship?”
