Revolutionary (The Athena Lee Chronicles Book 4)

by T S Paul

  “A few short minutes ago Commander Hadley, our new Chief Engineer, received orders from the Governor to turn Lieutenant Lee over to the ESS for arrest and interrogation. The Commander is now under arrest for his actions. Outside this ship are dozens of ESS troops with orders to capture the Lieutenant because of her families involvement with the Militia. This ship had received orders from the Governor to turn the lieutenant over. I have chosen not to do this. As your Captain I take full responsibility for anything that I may order you to do. In the eyes of the law what I am about to do is mutiny. If you do not wish to participate or would like to leave the ship you may. However it will be after we escape the Station. You will be allowed to eject via the life pods or use one of the shuttles. Please choose wisely.”

  I looked at Dar. “Staying with me or leaving?”

  She looked me in the eyes and said “where you go? I go.”

  Time to get to work.

  ___

  Asking Wilson to hack a system is like a child if he wants a candy bar. According to Wilson the dry dock system engineers should be fired. They were using something called STS-1 to secure the system, he said that Ranger 3 was better and longer lasting. I just shook my head and told him to stop making crazy comments that didn’t make a lot of sense. Wilson gave the go ahead that he had unlocked the clamps holding us in. We were free to engage the engines and get out of here.

  Up on the bridge the Captain gave the order and Lieutenant Hudson fired a small spread of torpedoes at the hanger doors. The explosion was a bit more dramatic in here than it was in space. There was a series of bright flashes and the interior of the dock area was sprayed with bulkhead fragments. Many of the ESS troops were hit and killed by shrapnel. When the ships engines turned on and began to warm up the black clad ESS troops began scurrying about like ants. Apparently some had been on top of the ship trying to get through an external hatch. If we had been outside the ship we would have witnessed a vacuum effect as the internal atmosphere was sucked out of the station. Red warning lights began to flash and pressure doors all over the station slammed shut. Our torpedoes had penetrated but not enough.

  A second volley of torpedoes was fired. Half went off course and impacted on the area around the doors. The other half punched through tearing the doors off. Like a mighty wind everything not nailed down in the hangar bay was sucked out into space. Carts, desks, chairs, tools, and ESS agents. Everything.

  With the dry dock hangar now in vacuum the ship lifted off and very carefully ‘threaded the needle’ as Commander Freeman the navigator like to say. The James Cook was now free of the station. Almost immediately our communications lines lit up with messages. The station was unable to jam us out in space.

  The planet was calling and they were pissed!

  Chapter 10

  The James Cook had taken up a stationary orbit out of range of Legation Station. When we had forced our way our of the dry dock hangar the stations point defense had begun to fire on the ship. The quick thinking Commander Freeman had engaged full thrusters and had powered the ship out of range. We had very minor damage easily repaired by my team. Now that we were clear of the station came the real challenge. The ship’s captain had disobeyed a direct order from his superior officer and had committed mutiny.

  Captain Gorshin stood by his offer of amnesty. Any crew member that wished to leave was allowed to. In all we were losing about half the crew. Our marine force was staying, all of them. Of the officers only Commander Dunne, our intelligence officer, and all but one of the ensigns chose to leave.

  We had intended to send the departing crew to the station but it was shooting first not bothering to ask questions later. The crewman were shuttling down to the planet. After a long and much needed conversation with the planetary Governor it had been decided that the crew would be interned along with other captured Navy personnel. Maybe one day we can send them home.

  My father and sister came up when the shuttle returned. We had to plan our attack on the Station soon, we could not risk the Governor getting reinforcements.

  ____

  I was studying the station plans when my sister and father entered the room. Captain Gorshin had called this meeting to come up with a unified plan to take over the Station. Destroying it would be pretty easy for us to do. Economically it would hurt the planet. To say nothing what 10 million tons of falling metal and burning debris would do. A plan needed to be put together pretty fast.

  Min came over to me and gave me a big hug. She looked me in the eyes and asked if I was all right. Then she asked about Dar. I love my sister. My father stood at the edge of the room. I glanced in his direction. I turned and looked at him. “Are you still trying to ‘sell’ me off to the highest bidder?”

  “Athena I am sorry, all I could think was family first.”

  “I see how well that worked out. You were an idiot. Now fix it.”

  Looking at my sister I said “where’s Han?”

  My father coughed and looked away. I scowled and look at him. “What did you do to him? Did he finally show what an ass he is?” At his look I just shook my head. “Father, he has always been like that. Just ask David.” A tear came to my eye. “Sorry, just ask Min. You never wanted to see it because he was the ‘heir,’ the apple of your eye and he knew it too. What happened to make you take his toys away?”

  Alexander Lee just stared at his daughter. When had his youngest child turned into this straight talking,and ass-kicking hellion? He shook himself and answered her question. “He charged into battle and got a lot of people killed. He attacked a fixed position with armor.”

  I winced. Ouch. OK still an idiot.”Did you put him somewhere where he can’t get into trouble?”

  Father deep in thought nodded and turned away.

  Captain Gorshin came into the room, time to get the meeting started.

  ___

  Lieutenant Klinger led the discussion. The lieutenant was the junior officer from the intelligence group on the James Cook. According to Klinger the station was primarily defended by the ESS troops. Many of the regular navy officers and crew had been put in non-combat roles by the governor. Meaning that if he didn’t own an officer he didn’t trust them. With communications unable to penetrate into the station because of jamming we could not get any new information.

  From looking at Klingers information we knew where the communication and satellite control rooms were. If we did not secure those rooms the governor could request Empire assistance. Short of taking the ship and running we had to attack the station to regain control.

  I told the Captain that Wilson could take care of point defense and any computer controlled weaponry. ESS would catch on and switch over to manual control. So we had to be fast. We had four older shuttles to use in our attack. We would land assault teams on the station with intent to cause as much trouble as possible. A smaller team would capture the comm center and secure the power room. The computer room was a secondary target. If we cut power to the station we would be able to take control. It was back to the four basic needs: water, power, shelter, and air. Take away as many as you can and they would surrender.

  Making up the strike teams were Dar’s marines and Sergeant Yannos’s Special operations team. Each team has a three person technical team to help with access. Four teams total for the attack. Min’s fighter squadron, backed up by the Black Sheep, were to fly cover and keep the stations fighter component off of us. Two teams were going in at the top of the station. There were emergency access tubes on the top above some of the observation areas. The tubes were used by engineering teams to repair sensors and other external devices damaged by micrometeorites. We believed that the Governor’s men were not aware of the tubes.

  The remaining two teams were attacking the lower portions of the station. My team was going to hit the power station. The other was going to try for the communication switching station at the stations core.

  For ‘my’ team I had Sergeant Yannos and Dar’s best squad. It wasn’t really my team, it w
as Yannos’s team. I was going as one of the techs.

  ___

  The blast of weapons fire and the station shaking due to explosions woke Governor Norton from a sound sleep. The Governor had indulged the previous evening with a young woman who was not his wife. Blurry eyed and stumbling, he started yelling. “Cole! COLE! What in the hell is happening? COLE!”

  His personal aide came running into the room. Confronted by his boss wearing lingerie and weaving, he turned away, right into a half naked woman. Cole promptly turned to face the wall. “Sir, What is the matter?“

  “What is going on? What were those explosions?” The governor sat on the bed and threw on a robe. “Turn around and look at me! I don’t like looking at the back of your head.”

  Cole turned to see his boss and sighed in relief. Privately he thought that the governor was scary enough with his clothing on. “Sir, we attempted to arrest the Militia leaders daughter on the James Cook this morning. The ship broke out of the dry dock area and escaped.”

  “What! You let her escape? Damn it Cole we needed her. We need some kind of leverage on those hicks! Why didn’t you tell me you failed?” The Governors ranting brought a slight squeal from the escort in the lavatory. “Cole. Pay her off and get rid of her.”

  “Governor, you left strict instructions NOT to disturb you. Especially when you are having ‘play time.’ The last time I bothered you I didn’t get paid for a week!”

  “That doesn’t matter, Damn it! You should have woken me!” From behind the lavatory door sounds of water running could be heard. “Damn it Cole, what did I say? Take care of her and get back here. I haven’t finished yelling at you yet.”

  Grumbling under his breath Cole knocked on the lavatory and door and spoke with the escort. She exited the room several hundred credits richer.

  Thinking hard Cole needed to find something to say that would allow him to keep his job with the Governor.

  “Sir, we still have possession of the Laffey. That is the Destroyer with the broken drive. The only other ship in the sector is the Paney. That ship is still out on patrol. The XO is on our payroll and is ready to take over anytime that we want the ship.”

  Mollified by the new information the Governor forgot about yelling at Cole. He turned and stared down at the little man. “How damaged it that cruiser that escaped? Did our people hurt it?”

  “Our engineers say that the damage was only superficial to the hull. The cruiser is holding position relative to us but out of weapons range of the station.”

  His anger back the Governor glowered at his aide. “Damn it Cole you need to do better than that! Get with those tech geeks and figure something out. That director over there, Kip something, he is on our payroll right?” At Cole’s nod the Governor continued. “Bring him over here and work something out. He’s a genius he should know how to stop one little ship.”

  Cole left the Governors room and called the ESS security team. They needed to take a short trip over to the scientific station and bring back a scientist.

  ___

  Kip Wilson was working late. The project notes that his small group of scientists had put together were lengthy. It was highly unusual for a navy lieutenant to have a hand in changing navy policies. This Lieutenant Lee had definitely thrown a sprocket into the works in that regard. He really didn’t care about what the navy felt. Kip considered himself just a ‘cog’ in the machine. Director of the Navy Brad Johnson had sent him a memo asking for details of the new revolutionary designs. Maybe if he sent him all of these notes he would stop asking. Kip looked up from his work when the door to his office chimed. Thinking it was his aide he said “enter.”

  Two large black clad ESS agents entered his office. “Dr. Wilson you need to come with us.”

  “What? How did you get in here? I’m not going anywhere. Get out of my office!” Kip pointed at the door and glared at the agents. He had a lot of work to do and they were interrupting.

  The agents smiled and said “I guess its the hard way then.” The larger of the two agents grabbed for Kip as the scientist ducked under his desk. The other agent kicked the desk over to one side and pulled a short barreled weapon from his belt. Kip seeing this scrambled on all fours trying to escape. He jerked back in pain as 350,000 volts arced through his body. The shock of the stun weapon stopped his heart and he slumped to the floor.

  The larger of the two agents looked at the scientist’s body and then back at his companion. “Oops? I think the governor is going to kill us.”

  His companion looked back and said “I think you are right about that.”

  ___

  It was third shift on the station when we started our attack. Min and her squadrons buzzed the station shooting at targets of opportunity such as sensors and communication nodes. Her task was to draw off the fighters and keep the station distracted. The James Cook drew closer just inside the stations attack envelope. Captain Gorshin began peppering the station with laser fire. The four shuttle craft had taken us out toward deep space then looped around to come at the station space ward. Hopefully those watching for such a move were concentrating on the fighters and cruiser attack.

  We could see on the sensors that there was a huge fight around the station planet side. Min’s fighters were being attacked by what looked like two full squadrons of mixed spacecraft. According to Wilson, the attackers were a mercenary company. Not the navy squadrons that we were expecting. Not that I was complaining, but where are the full squadron of Navy fighters?

  “Everyone hold on back there this is going to get a little rough!” The shuttle pilot saw on his readout that we had been detected. The co-pilot fired counter measures and held on as the pilot maxed out the speed. The shuttle jinked left and then a hard right trying to lose the torpedo that was after us. Skimming the surface of the station our pilot whipped the ship around a gun battery, the pursuing torpedo hit the battery destroying it in a flash of light. The shuttle that had been with us carrying the third attack squad had not been as lucky. The torpedo salvo that we avoided, hit them full on destroying the ship with all hands. Our pilot reversed his course. He stayed as close to the station as possible, until we reached the reactor ventilation tubes.

  The ventilation tubes were only used in case of a reactor scram. The tubes were kept open to space to prevent accidents. If the reactor had to vent, for any reason, and the vents were not open it would cause an explosion that would destroy the station. The tubes, like most things in engineering, needed to be inspected and maintained on a monthly basis. What most non-engineering people did not know was that there were controls on the inside of the vent to allow a trapped crew member access to engineering. The codes to get in were universal to engineers. Knowing was half the battle.

  In single file with me at the head we crawled up the ventilation tubes. We used our anti-grav units to get halfway into the tubes. At that point was a build in ladder. The access port controls were built into the side of the hatch. I entered the universal code 8675309 and the access hatch opened to a very quiet engineering. It was too quiet as we carefully climbed out of the tube.

  ___

  Sergeant Yannos was starting to like this navy wonk. She had gotten them inside the station without having to fight their way in. He had no idea that there were “universal codes’ that worked on ships and space stations. When all this was over he needed to get with this Lieutenant Lee and pick her brain. Creeping around the consoles trying to stay hidden Yannos could hear voices coming from the offices to the right. A navy chief and a couple of crewmen were locked in one of the offices. Standing outside the door were two bored looking ESS troops armed with submachine guns.

  Yannos signaled his small team he pointed to his eyes, then pointed to the direction of the ESS and signed two. Using silenced weapons they shot and killed the two guards. With weapons raised they unlocked the office door. The three navy personnel raised their hands as if to surrender. Lieutenant Lee peaked around the corner spotting the crewmen. She looked at the chief and said
“ report!” The Navy personnel looked relieved to see a Navy officer.

  “Ma’am, Chief Cledus Snow and a party of two reporting.”

  “At ease Chief Snow. Why do the ESS have you locked in here?”

  “Ma’am, when the James Cook blasted its way out of the dry dock the ESS started interrogations of everyone in engineering. The computers had been overridden and they were trying to find who did it. Commander Justice died under interrogation. After that none of us agreed to cooperate. Only a few were helping the ESS. Those few are traitors who were being ‘Paid’ to help. They locked up the rest of us. They only let us out if we need to fix something. Hey, how did you get in here anyway?” The lieutenant just smiled.