Reuben and Rashi donned the E V A suits, replenished the air bottles and went outside. The first of the cargo containers was beginning to arrive and the two young man had their hands full attaching them to the ship as they arrived. Rachel, Wendy and Faye Anne greeted the refugees as each container was attached and, as they had done for years as they grew up, explained to the passengers where they would be going from here.
A couple of hours later, Suwanee and the rest of the marines returned with Brenda and Kelly. When Kelly saw Simon she flew like a small forest sprite fairy across the deck and wrapped herself around him. “I was afraid you were hurt. Are you okay?”
Simon stroked a little girl’s hair. “Yes I’m okay and you’re coming to live with me.”
“My Mommy too?”
“Yes, your Mommy too. We’re running away together,” Simon said.
“Good!” Kelly snuggled into his arms.
Nathan said to Brenda, “I think we need to get you squared away in your quarters.”
Brenda looked at Simon said, “It looks like the ship is going to be pretty crowded. We can share Simon’s quarters if that’s okay.”
Kelly looked at her mother and said, “Are we gonna to live with Simon?”
Brenda said, “We’re gonna live with Simon.”
Kelly squirmed out of Simon’s arms, picked up her little suitcase and headed for Simon’s room.
Simon put his arm around Brenda said, “Yes, that’ll be fine.”
He picked up Brenda’s luggage and headed for his quarters.
As soon as they had passed out of earshot Rachel and Wendy both said, “Awww, isn’t that sweet!”
Faye Anne shook her head and said, “Hopeless romantics!” Everybody laughed.
In a few hours all the refugees were loaded, and the cargo containers bound for New Saint Louis had been attached the ship. The ship was ready to leave except that one of the containers had four nuclear tipped missiles that they did not want to be carrying.
By the end of the day Saturday they were ready to leave. Rachel had briefed everyone on their parts in the plans. Even little Kelly knew her role. The trap was baited. All that remained was for the quarry to appear. Partially due to the lack of sleeping quarters and partially due to the need to be prepared for whatever would happen, Rachel slept in the pilot seat in her P I ship. Suwanee slept in the fire control seat behind her. Wendy and Pat moved into the other P I ship. Reuben, Rashi, Darius and Lionel camped in the cargo ship’s flight deck. Faye Anne and Janet stood watch from a concealed location near the air lock. Saturday night and into the early morning hours of Sunday all the humans on board slept. Only the ships’ sensors were alert to potential dangers.
Warning alarms sounded in all three flight decks at the same time. The pilots awoke instantly. They scanned their displays to determine what the ship’s sensors had picked up that instigated the alarm. The displays showed a ten second burst of targeting radar. That could only mean one thing. Somebody was on to them and was testing their defenses. Within minutes of the alarm, the entire defensive team was awake. This was the scenario that Rachel least expected. Of all of the scenarios they had made plans for, the idea that somebody was preparing to fire on them was the one that concerned them the most in spite of their confidence that no one would try and shoot at them this close to a Space Force installation. The fact that they were wrong was a frightening thought in itself.
“Suwanee!” Rachel said, “Wake up!”
“Wuzzup?”
“See the yellow handle on your right? Pull it towards you,” Rachel said.
Rachel heard the servos close the displays around Suwanee’s position.
“Why? What’s going on?” Suwanee asked.
“You just became a fire control officer.”
“Say what?”
“It’s not so much different from what you’ve done in the mobile armored vehicles we played with on the ground. Put the helmet on.”
Suwanee put the helmet on. “Now what?”
“Let me turn it on. See those two lasers coming from either side of your helmet?”
“Yeah.”
“See those symbols on the display?”
“Yeah.”
“Those are ships.”
“Yeah. What are the arrows?”
“Direction of travel relative to us. Red is toward us and blue is away. Purple is perpendicular to our direction of travel.”
“What are the circles?”
“Either directly toward us or away. Any red circles?”
“One. Whoa!” Suwanee found the controls that spun the seat so it faced where she was looking.
“If you look at it, I can pick it up on my display. I can slave my display to yours so I can see part of what you see. I see a small red circle. That means it is moving toward us, but it’s moving slowly. The code beside it tells me it is probably a passenger ship, but that space frame is used for a variety of types of ships and some of them are armed.”
“Nice. So, if I’m fire control officer, how do I shoot something?”
“Focus the helmet lasers on the image and push the white button under your right thumb. Whatever those little red lasers on your helmet are pointing at will be the target.”
“That it?”
“I tied the lasers together. If I was back there I would control the lasers individually, but forty-eight lasers is a lot to keep track of and we will be more effective if they focus on the same point.”
“Got it. How will I see something small coming straight at us? It’s like trying to hit a bullet with another bullet.”
“Yes, but all three of our ships are electronically linked together. Once we separate physically, we will increase the difference in our vantage points. With the difference in viewing angles we will be able to see better. We have the advantages of parallax working for us.”
“If you say so. There’s a lot of ships out there. How do we know which one targeted us?”
“We don’t. We have to wait for it to target again.”
“That can be too late.”
“Yes, it could. Command mode!” Rachel said. “What do I have for munitions?”
“Nothing,” the ship replied. “You have only your lasers. You have no missiles.”
“Damn, I forgot we offloaded them at the Space Force Nuclear Power School along with the Disruptor missiles. Defensive weapons?”
“A little chaff, for whatever use that is.”
Rachel said, “We’ll just have to do with lasers alone this time.”
Wendy called, “Rachel, what’s your status?”
“Armed and ready,” Rachel replied.
“Only lasers?” Wendy asked.
“Yup.”
Another alert sounded on the cargo ship’s flight deck.
“We have visitors,” Reuben called into the comm. “Two approaching through the air lock.”
Simon watched the monitor attached to a miniature camera Reuben had mounted near the end of the access tube. “That’s them. That’s the two guys. Nathan, let’s go.”
The flight deck had an eerie air of suspense after Simon and Nathan left. Brenda moved into the flight engineer’s seat with Kelly in her lap. Kelly studied the displays watching intently for red lights.
“Two more men entering the tube,” Reuben said into his communicator. “They look like pilots. They’re wearing standard issue flight suits. No identifying marks.”
“We’re on it,” Darius said as he and Lionel floated away.
“Oh shit,” Reuben said softly under his breath. Then in a normal voice he spoke into the communicator. “We have more company. The munitions Spec 5 entered the tube dragging a woman I have to assume is his wife and two small children. They look frightened.”
“Oh shit,” was clearly the consensus opinion. None of their plans allowed for this possibility.
“That passageway is about to be real crowded,” Rashi observed.
“Sardine people?” Kelly asked.
Reuben and Ra
shi laughed.
“Maybe,” Brenda said, “We’ll see.”
The two men entered the ship through the air lock. “Greetings Simon, Nathan,” the older one smiled. “We have come to collect the ships.”
“Um, before you do that, do you have documentation that says you are to take possession of these ships?” Simon challenged.
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah, like title transfer papers. You know, legal documents for me to sign so that if some Federation Police Officer or a Ranger pulls you over for a routine traffic inspection you can prove you have a right to have that ship in your possession.”
Simon was sweating profusely. He was terrified that he would spoil their opportunity to capture these men. He need not have worried.
Reuben said softly, “Command mode. Close the air lock at the far end of the access tube.”
“Closing aye, sir.”
“No more surprises?” Rashi asked. “What about reinforcements?”
“If it comes to that, we’ll open it again.”
The pilots entered the passageway and headed directly for the P I ships. The two men who had arrived first nodded to acknowledge their passing. The pilots arrived at the sealed airlocks to find Darius and Lionel waiting for them, one at each airlock.
“Your orders please?” Darius asked.
“Don’t need no orders,” the pilot replied.
“I think you do.” Darius smiled at him.
“Lissen, I don’t need to take no shit from you. Get out of my way.”
“Sir, with all due respect, I need to see your orders.”
“I don’t need to be bossed around by no nigg…”
The man never finished the word. Nobody used that word in Darius’ presence and got away with it. Darius quickly subdued the pilot and stuffed him in the same trash can he had earlier used for Dubya, the backstabber.
Hearing the commotion over the comm and correctly guessing what had happened, Lionel subdued and tied up the second pilot. He dragged the pilot away from the airlock and strapped him to a convenient beam.
Darius and Lionel arrived at the passageway at the same time the munitions specialist and his family did. The munitions specialist took one look at the older man arguing with Simon and started to scream, “It’s him! He tried to kill me!” He screamed in fright and soon the two small children were screaming in terror as well. He tried to turn to flee the way he came, but he tripped over his wife.
The man pulled a pistol out of his holster on the back of his belt and leveled it at the munitions specialist. Nathan, realizing that a bullet hole in the ship’s hull would cause a pressure leak and kill them all, lunged for the gun. Faye Anne and Janet exploded out of hiding and subdued the strangers.
Kelly on the flight deck shouted, “Mommy! Red light!”
“Where dear?”
“This one!” she pointed.
“Are you sure?”
“It was on for this much long.” She held her thumb and finger close together.
“R F signal,” Brenda said, “possibly a beacon.”
Alarms sounded on the flight decks. “Targeting radar!” Rachel, Reuben and Wendy shouted at the same time.
“Wendy!” Rachel shouted, “Disengage and initiate Plan 12.”
“Plan 12!” Wendy responded.
“Plan 12!” Reuben responded.
Brenda shouted into the microphone that fed the speakers in the refugee transport containers, “Everyone strap in! We’re leaving now! Everyone strap in.”
Instead of the panic Rachel had feared from the refugees, a cheer arose as they scrambled struggling against the sudden acceleration to their places. Cameras monitoring the status of the cargo areas showed the refugees as they made their way to their cabins.
The warships separated from the cargo ship and turned to face the source of the targeting radar.
Rashi closed the internal compartment doors so that a failure in any one compartment would not doom the whole ship. He closed the external air lock but not before Faye Anne and Janet, who had secured their captives, had a chance to drag the munitions expert and his family to safety inside the ship. Janet and Darius had wrested the weapon from the man who had argued with Simon. Lionel and Faye Anne subdued the companion. Simon and Nathan searched the captives for the transmitter as the ship gained momentum and pulled away from the dock. Simon and Nathan found small transmitters and disabled them.
“Command mode,” Rashi said, “Arm laser.”
“Laser armed.”
Simon called, “Brenda, please open the compartment door aft of the passageway. We have the situation under control.”
Brenda opened the door and the people who had just been by the airlock emptied out of the small passageway into the larger common area of the cargo bay.
Realizing that the ship was moving, one of the pilots started to beg and plead to be let off the ship. “I didn’t harm anyone! I’m not a soldier. I’m a civilian. Please let me go! I’m just a contractor.”
Faye Anne quickly tired of his whining and, with her nose to his, said, “Contractor? Is that like a mercenary?”
Nathan, who was still tying the man down said, “Contractor sounds like a synonym for mercenary to me. Now there’s a dirty word.”
“Mercenary, soldier of fortune, hired killer, is that you mister contractor?” Faye Anne taunted.
“No, please!” the man whined. “Don’t hurt me! I don’t know anything!”
Faye Anne looked at the other captives who glared back. “Simon, Nathan, you probably better go forward. My Marine friends and I have some serious interrogating to do. It’s not going to be pretty. Oh, and tell Reuben to turn off the cameras.”
Nathan and Simon escaped out the door. Faye Anne closed and secured it behind them. “Now, I have questions and you have answers.”
The three ships rapidly increased their separation as the crews scanned their sensors for the source of the targeting radar. What had previously been a small red circle on the spacecraft traffic displays was now a small one and a large one around it. “Missile incoming!” Reuben shouted.
Wendy and Rachel started shouting orders at the same time. Pat and Suwanee aimed their helmets at the incoming missile and engaged their lasers. After an agonizing few seconds, the missile disappeared from their screens.
From the relative safety of the upper observation area of the arboretum Mrs. O’Donnell watched the three ships leave. She saw the flash as the missile vaporized. She saw a second missile leave what had previously appeared to be an unarmed passenger ship. She noticed that the escape chute which had previously been attached to the station was still attached to the cargo ship. They had left too quickly to detach it and had ripped it free as they left.
“Incoming!” Reuben shouted.
The P I ships’ lasers vaporized the missile. Four Federation Space Force picket ships appeared behind the ship that had fired the missiles. They locked their targeting radar and prepared to fire.
“Wendy! Three and Nine on the Bogey!”
“Got it.”
Rachel and Wendy short jumped their P I ships to the three and nine o’clock positions on the ship that had fired on them. Finding itself in an indefensible position, the mysterious ship jumped into hyper drive and disappeared. The mysterious ship’s hyper energy wave buffeted the cargo ship as it passed, but did no damage although it did cause considerable discomfort among the passengers and crew. The picket ships continued to close in on them with their targeting radar seeking a firing solution even as the cargo ship increased its speed away from them.
“Take picket one,” Rachel shouted into the comm. “Sever the cable from the reactor.”
“Great idea,” Wendy answered. “We don’t want kill our misguided friends. I’m on it!”
Wendy and Rachel initiated jumps to positions perpendicular to the approaching picket ships. Wendy lined up on the first picket and Rachel lined up on the second.
Rachel punched up an image of the picket ship and display
ed it in the enclosed space in front of Suwanee’s seat. “See the four heavy beams connecting the reactor to the rest of the ship?”
“Yes.”
“In the middle of the beams is a cable bundle. We need to cut that cable with the lasers.”
“Won’t that detonate the reactor?”
“No, they’re designed to shut down in case of a failure like that.”
“Then what happens?”
“The ship loses propulsion and the power to fire its lasers. Life support and communications will continue to function for up to twenty-four hours by which time the crew should have been rescued. The ship can then be towed to the shipyard for repairs. Be ready. When we drop out of hyper, start firing right away.”
Pat and Suwanee both fired as soon as their ships had dropped out of hyper. At that close range the displays showed a rendition of the ship that was not very different from the image Rachel had pulled from the computer’s data base. In less than a minute of concentrated force from forty-eight lasers, they had severed both of the picket ships’ cable bundles and rendered the ships inoperable.
Wendy and Rachel turned their attention to the other pickets. The remaining pickets fled leaving their disabled comrades behind. Suddenly images appeared all around them on their displays. An entire squadron of light attack destroyers appeared in the space around them. The destroyers, the newest addition to the Federation’s fleet, had often been described as a WWI artillery shell with a thyroid problem. Their gently curved shape and polished brassy golden exterior was designed to deflect lasers. The shielding extended all the way back to the engines preventing an attack like the one that had just disabled the two picket ships. They were virtually immune to lasers, but they were still vulnerable to a wide variety of types of missiles. Their design borrowed heavily from the battleship and the P I ship. The question was whether the combination worked. None of them had seen battle to the best of Rachel’s knowledge.
“Wow! Short jump destroyers!” Rachel gushed.
“Students!” Wendy snorted looking at the sloppiness of the formation. “Justine’s crew flew better than this!”
Solomon Family Warriors II Page 50
