Solomon Family Warriors II

by Robert H. Cherny

  “Reload all tubes with heat seekers,” Rachel ordered.

  The enemy ship continued to roll.

  “Reloaded,” Rashi called.

  “Fire all tubes,” Rachel ordered.

  The Schweitzer bucked as another volley of missiles charged into space.

  “Reload all tubes armor piercing,” Rachel called.

  The Schweitzer shook as some of the enemy missiles slipped past the defenses and slammed into the ship. Sensors on the bridge indicated that the stranger was taking his share of hits as well. Unlike many of Rachel’s previous battles where her crews had talked to each other like a sports team, this time, the bridge was deathly quiet except for warnings, orders and acknowledgments.

  “Fire all tubes,” Rachel ordered.

  Damage to both ships was becoming more obvious. The stranger was leaking air and part of the battery of missile tubes did not appear to be firing.

  The strange ship continued its roll and bring its undamaged side to bear on the battle.

  Suddenly the two hexagonal ends of the enemy ship began to spin in the opposite directions pivoting from the center hull. The speed increased until the two ends appeared to blur. From the side of each end of the spinning ship, two bright blue spheres looking for all the world like toy plasma balls flew directly at them thrown toward them as if by centripetal force from the spinning ship that a few seconds earlier had appeared dead.

  A steady train of these balls marched toward the Schweitzer at one minute intervals.

  “Faye Anne! What the hell is that?” Rachel called.

  “I don’t know. Honest to God! I don’t know,” Faye Anne cried.

  “Plasma weapon,” Rashi responded. “Deep shit. Very deep shit.”

  The first of the balls struck the armored areas of the battleship. Sensors and external protuberances blew away, ripped off by the ball of energy as it raked the length of the ship. The ship bucked with the concussion. Red lights blossomed on Rachel’s display as crew members were injured by the concussive action of the plasmas. As many as a quarter of the people on the ship were now injured. There were no fatalities, yet.

  The balls continued to assault the ship. In the midst of the train of plasma balls a loud high pitched noise filled the ship. It increased in volume with each successive hit. Nothing they threw at the balls slowed them down and the noise grew louder.

  “Rachel!” Isaac yelled. “Stop the noise or we will all have cerebral hemorrhages!”

  Sound travels through air. “Elizabeth! Open the ship to the vacuum. Vent all compartments.”

  Massive air flows surrounded the ship. The air emptied out and had the ship’s personnel not been wearing their sealed flight suits, they would have all been dead. With as much air as was escaping the ship, the enemy captain might well have suspected that he had accomplished his mission and the crew of the Albert Schweitzer was dead.

  The noise reduced, but did not go away. Rachel realized the sound was coming through the suit’s comm. “Shut down all suit comm units. Do not restart until you see the green all clear lights. Shut down all suit comm units.”

  The noise was reduced to barely audible levels transmitted by contact with the ship’s hull.

  The destroyers and P I ships had eliminated all but four of the interceptors by the time the plasma ball attack began. Wendy called, “Destroyers, end for end on the big guy.”

  “Roger that, Go.”

  “Acknowledged.” Lt. Raphael Rivera had been in Rachel’s ship during the Saturn Industries move. He piloted the second of the destroyers. Wendy piloted the other. This was a move they had practiced in the simulators many times.

  “Engage!” Wendy called and the two ships hypered out of sight only to reappear an impossibly short time later on opposite axes of the enemy ship. The two destroyers poured their entire firepower into the two ends of the big ship trusting that the P I ships they left behind would shortly arrive to cover them. Unlike the P I and the battleships, the destroyers had tubes that fired aft as well as forward. Four of the forward tubes fired a missile like the ones the P I ships fired. The fifth tube fired a multiple warhead device. Through her view port, Wendy could see the rotating end of the ship as she pumped missiles into it. In rapid sequence she dumped her entire remaining inventory of missiles from her front tubes into the ship. It did not appear to slow the ship down.

  Lt. Rivera, at the opposite end of the ship was pumping it full of missiles as well. He exhausted his inventory of missiles at the same time Wendy exhausted hers. They turned to bring their aft tubes to bear. They had each fired a single volley from the rear tubes when the rotation stopped. The ship stopped spinning and the space between the “gun walls” faced the Schweitzer.

  Rachel text messaged to the fire control center displays. “Lasers! Focus on the dark spot amidships!”

  The force of all the battleship’s lasers concentrated on a single spot on the ship’s hull. The lasers cut a round hold in the hull and then passed through. Small explosions could be seen inside the damaged hull section. The explosions became larger and more frequent. Escape pods appeared at both ends of the ship’s center section. The enemy ship convulsed and jettisoned more pods. A massive explosion ripped the two ends of the ship apart. Escape pods multiplied. Some were caught in the explosion but most got away from the ship before it stopped breaking up.

  The sensors tallied a hundred pods.

  The dogfight between the remaining fighter interceptors and Rachel’s fleet lasted eight more hours. When it was over, the Valiant fighter-interceptors had been destroyed. Disruptor missiles had claimed two of Rachel’s pickets. They needed rescue and would spend some time in “dry dock” being repaired before going out again. The other two had taken hits from traditional missiles. The hull in one of the pickets had been breached, but since the pilot was wearing his sealed flight suit, he survived although he would have nightmares for years. The other pilot was able to bring her damaged ship “home” to the Schweitzer.

  Rachel counted her blessings. Although three quarters of her crew had been injured, some seriously and her ship was badly damaged, there were no fatalities among her people. The victory paled, however, when she thought about how important bringing the enemy ship home intact could have been. The enemy ship was a radically new design and carried a new type of weapon. Had she captured it and its crew alive that would have been something to write home about! She shook her head and returned to the tasks at hand.

  DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  RETRIEVING THE ESCAPE PODS cost a week. By the end of the week, some of the pods’ occupants were already dead. They had either succumbed to their wounds or to mechanical failure in the pod. Rachel ended the search for survivors and the fleet returned to comet combat duty.

  Reuben frequently expressed his concern that the diversion had cost them the mission and that they would not be able to divert the comet enough to prevent catastrophe. He pleaded for reason and for someone to begin evacuating the planet immediately. Captain Bozak and his four ships, having escaped the battle unscathed, joined the comet fly-bys adding their mass to the endeavor. The P I ships, having exhausted all their munitions, massed less than they had before the battle and the addition of Captain Bozak’s ships to the comet repelling mission was appreciated.

  Prisoner interrogation was left to Lt. Suwanee Baxter-Abrams and the Marine detail. Rachel did not trust her intelligence officers enough to leave them with the prisoners. Faye Anne was particularly insulted by this decision. Her interrogation skills were clearly the most advanced of anyone on the ship. Rachel was steadfast in her decision in spite of the protests. The prisoners were housed in the troop transport pods attached to the cargo ship which had originally been intended for evacuees.

  The repeated jumps into and out of hyper drive were exhausting for the military personnel, but the civilians who were not accustomed to such treatment suffered the most. Isaac’s medical team did what they could with sedatives and anti-nausea medications, but the grind was
wearing everyone down.

  Suwanee reported the results of her interrogations. “They all claim to be civilians. Every one of them claims to be a non-combatant. I have never seen so many hydroponics experts and cooks on a single ship in my entire life. One even claims to be the captain’s mistress.”

  “Can I see them?” Rachel asked.

  “Certainly. We have them stand for inspection each morning. You can come then.”

  The following morning, Rachel walked slowly along the lines of the prisoners as they stood in the cargo ship’s hold. One prisoner in particular caught her eye. Rachel was not sure what it was about this one that piqued her interest. Most likely it was the way this prisoner’s eyes followed her every move while the others stared blankly ahead looking at the wall in front of them.

  “What is your name?”

  “Carrie Nation.”

  Rachel smiled. “Really? Break up any saloons lately?”

  The woman blinked.

  “What was your job on the ship?”

  “Captain’s mistress.”

  “Would you be my mistress?”

  “I don’t do women.”

  “Neither do I.”

  Rachel turned to Suwanee. “Keep her separate from the others. I will want to talk to her later.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “Thank you.”

  The interrogation sessions consisted of Rachel asking questions and the woman not answering them. She responded politely when Rachel asked general questions about her condition, whether she was getting enough food or exercise, or the way she was being treated, but more substantive inquiries were met with silence. For most of the third session, Rachel and the woman sat across the table from each other in silence before Rachel finally said. “I know you are not who you say you are. I may not be able to determine who you are, but I know someone who might. The guard will come for you tomorrow and we will be making a little voyage. Do not resist. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes.”

  The three female Marines Rachel most trusted, Suwanee, Patricia and Janet collected the woman who called herself Carrie Nation from her cell. The woman showed no reaction beyond intently scanning her surroundings when she was loaded into a med-evac ship for the trip to the planet’s surface. Captain Darwin piloted the ship with Lt. Mahoney as copilot. Wendy filled in as flight engineer. Rachel wondered if the woman realized that the fact that there no men on the ship was intentional. She had once been a beautiful woman. Her face had hardened. She was still strongly built and clearly in excellent physical shape. Her attention might have been more than a male may have been able to handle. Rachel was not willing to risk a man in this woman’s presence.

  Having received permission for their landing in advance, they were met at the dock by a detail of guards who escorted them to the cells in the basement of the council building where Curra was being held. Rachel had asked to see him alone first. She was ushered into an interrogation room. Two guards stood against the wall, alert but out of the way.

  He rose when she entered. “Hello, Captain.” The chains around his wrist and ankles restricted his movement.

  “Hello, sir. How are they treating you?” Rachel asked.

  “I can’t complain. Chess seems to be a national passion. I play against the guards all the time. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. It makes the day go by.”

  “No mistreatment?”

  “So you can make a protest and spring me? Unfortunately, no. Whoever said these people were barbarians did not know what they were talking about. You are right. They are worth saving.”

  “We haven’t saved them yet.”

  “Too close to call, I know. The guards listen to the talk shows all day. We heard about your exploits with the invading ship. Might have been a sporting event the way the commentators treated it.”

  “Must be difficult for you.”

  “Actually, no. The talk shows are remarkably balanced. The only thing they all seem to agree on is that they doubt the Federation has their best interest at heart. In fact, they aren’t sure if the Federation has anyone’s best interest at heart except for a few power brokers in the center of the action. Given my experiences with the Federation, I agree with them.” He paused as a thought occurred to him. “You know we misjudged these people.”

  “How so?”

  He did not answer the question. “And I misjudged you. That misjudgment will cost me my life. I should have let you in on the truth from the beginning. I apologize.”

  “No apology is necessary.”

  “None of which is why you came. What brings you here today?”

  “I would like to know if you can identify someone for me.”

  “Oh?”

  “I think she’s the captain of the ship we fought.”

  “Did she give you a name?”

  “Carrie Nation.”

  “And you don’t think it’s her real name.”

  “No. Any more than I think I know your real name.”

  “Ah, I will miss having the opportunity to fight alongside you. Would have been great fun.”

  “You know I had contemplated trying to spring you from here.”

  “What’s that movie where the kid steals a jet and rescues his father by blowing up the air base?”

  “Something like that.”

  “You gave up the idea, I assume.”

  “Way too risky.”

  Rachel told Curra what little she knew about the woman she had brought for him to identify.

  “I think you are correct to be suspicious of the lady.” Curra described the woman perfectly with the experienced eye of an espionage agent. “If she is who I think she is, the truth is I don’t know her real name either. I know some of her aliases and some of her history, but not her real name.”

  “Shall we meet her?”

  Rachel had left instructions for her prisoner to be released from her restraints. The guards were unwilling to do the same for Curra. When the woman saw him, she paled and quickly regained her composure.

  Curra shuffled close to her and looked into her eyes. “Delilah Devine! Or at least that is the alias I prefer to remember. How many others are there? I know of ten. Do you remember them all? You left me to die on that snow covered mountaintop, didn’t you? You weren’t coming back, were you?”

  She stared at him with a look as cold as the snow must have been on the mountaintop.

  “Delilah Devine, the woman who brings down big and powerful men. The woman who almost brought me down. Just think, you were brought down by a woman.” He laughed. It was a loud, hoarse, bitter, unnatural laugh. He rolled his head back and laughed to the ceiling. While all attention was focused on him, the woman reached out and pulled a pistol from the holster on the guard to her left.

  Rachel and Wendy caught the movement out of the corners of their eyes. They saw the pistol raised in Curra’s direction. Acting by instinct rather than thought, they struck. Years of practice, simulations and exercise culminated in a single moment.

  Before anyone else had a chance to react, two crystal clear polymer throwing knives appeared on either side of the woman’s throat. She did not have time to scream. The shot went into the floor as she fell and ricocheted harmlessly into the soft material of the wall.

  Captain Darwin looked at the sisters still trembling with the aftershocks of the body rush that enabled them to react as they did. She shook her head as she noticed their dilated pupils and wild eyes. “And I thought I had a problem!”

  Curra looked at Rachel and said, “You jumped in my shit for not telling the truth and you just killed a woman in cold blood.”

  “Was it a surprise? Didn’t you know I was capable?” Rachel asked with a shake in her voice.

  “No, I guess not.” Curra addressed one of the guards. “Please take me back to my cell.”

  The captain of the guard nodded his approval and two guards walked behind him as he shuffled away down a long corridor. That would be the last time Rachel would see him, shuffling
off, chains dragging, broken and defeated with his head forward and downcast. He had once been a proud and lively man. She had done this to him. Somehow this seemed so unjust, in a complicated sort of way.

  The captain of the guard handed them their knives and suggested that they leave. He would take care of the body still bleeding on his floor.

  DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  THE COMET DIVERSION MISSION continued unabated until the comet was too close to the planet for the hyper jumps to be safe and Reuben called a halt to the flights. According to his calculations, the comet would pass completely inside the orbit of the planet’s solitary moon, but would not hit the moon due to the timing of its orbit. 80% of the comet would pass beyond the orbit of the geosynchronous satellites around the planet’s equator. Since the planet’s rotation put the satellites on the opposite side of the planet from the comet’s path, Reuben was relatively comfortable that any damage would be minimal. Less than 5% of the comet’s mass would hit the atmosphere and what did would be small enough pieces that they would burn up before they hit the surface.

  Captain Bozak and his crew returned to the surface to be with their families. He and most of his flight crews lived in the valleys of a mountain range not far from the main settlement.

  Rachel positioned the ship above the planetary plane where they could see the comet as it passed the planet. Given the comet’s and the planet’s relative speeds, they expected the passage to take eight hours. It would occur as the populated portion of the planet rotated from night into day and as the prison rotated from day into night.

  The time had come when all they could do was wait. During the breaks between hyper jumps the engineers had repaired most of the sensors ripped off by the plasma weapons so most of the ship’s sensors were functioning again. The bridge displays were distributed via the ship’s video system and everyone on board could see what the bridge crew saw.

  Time passed slowly as they watched the comet move toward the planet. The comet was moving at thousands of kilometers per hour, but from the distance, the two appeared to be creeping.