Crucible: Records of the Argos

by Michael J. Farlow

  Once again, the convoy originated from Jayton, comprising two ships with load-outs similar to the last convoy. This time, however, the convoy would be escorted by two, armed cargo ships and two more gunboats meeting them at Jayton for the entire run. Finally, I thought, Larona was running out of warships, which might mean an easier engagement. I didn’t trust “might”, however, and planned for more armed cargo ships to come along for this attack. Tiana and I both agreed that in addition to Dreng and a companion called 03, we would take an additional pair of armed ships (04 and 05) just to be on the safe side. I figured five, armed ships would do the trick. Wizzy told us when to expect the convoy at both Tye and Asteroid 3. We elected to meet the new ships at the old asteroid station, which we could hide behind before engaging our stealth systems and attacking.

  As before, the convoy kept to the same speed and schedule, approaching Asteroid 3 at the time Wizzy predicted. This time, Tiana and I both agreed to have Dreng and 03 attack one gunboat while 04 and 05 attacked the other — both attacks coming from below since the escort positions were the same as last time. I would circle around and get behind the two escorting armed cargo ships in their high perch for the coordinated attack. The attacking cargo ships would stay stealthy until the moment of attack. I debated launching Falcon, but with only two, armed cargo ships to deal with, I thought it unnecessary.

  I called Argos’ ready state and, as planned, let Tiana call for the attack when she was ready. The call came quickly as the four attacking cargo ships appeared from stealth and opened fire on the gunboats. Argos opened fire on both escorts at the same time. Then it all came apart. Instead of just cargo haulers, the two cargo ships in the center broke formation and opened fire on Tiana’s ships. It was a trap. There was no cargo, just armed ships ready to destroy any ship or ships that might want to seize the expected supplies and ships. To make matters worse, the ships Argos was attacking split away and joined the fight. That made Argos’ job nearly impossible with all the fighting ships engaged in a big furball (an old Earth fighter term for a massed gaggle of enemy and allied fighters). The “big” here referred to the vast area of space that was involved. Except for the gunboats, the converted cargo ships turned slowly and in big arcs. It was almost like slow motion, except it was still incredibly dangerous with ten ships exchanging fire, not including our ship. Nevertheless, Argos did fire into the mass. Our targeting systems were more precise and accurate than any of the vessels in the brawl. It was just that there were so many targets drawing our attention that our high rate of fire did less harm overall than usual. Even our plasma cannon was in heavy use as we tried to damage as many ships as possible. I know, you think we should pick just one target and concentrate on it. We tried, but friendly ships kept getting in the way. So, we had to pick and choose our targets. I was about to launch Falcon when Wizzy interrupted my thoughts.

  “We have a problem!”

  “No shit!”

  “Don’t get sassy with me, Nicky. Now is not the time. There is another ship out there.”

  That sobered me as I turned over the ship’s fight to Amini.

  “Another ship? Where? What kind?”

  “Unknown kind. It appears small at the moment, but it is close. Less than five hundred miles away. Check your viewscreen. I highlighted the anomaly in red.”

  “What’s it doing? Can you tell?”

  “So far, it has remained in position as if watching the fight. The curious thing is that while the image appears small, it is emitting a lot of power for its size. Almost like…”

  Argos was racked by a hit as we were rocked in our chairs and a few loose items flew around the small bridge.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “A plasma hit, but not a major one.”

  “What do you mean not a major one. Did you see how the ship reacted?”

  “Yes, of course, but there was no damage. Almost like…”

  Argos was hit again with a similarly jolting result as Amini tried to maneuver away from the unknown threat.

  “You’re repeating yourself, Wizzy. Almost like what?”

  “Almost like it was trying to heat us up. And I think it is a larger ship that has managed to open only a small window in its stealth system. Just enough to fire through.”

  Another hit. This time a little stronger.

  “How is it targeting us? We’re in stealth mode and maneuvering.”

  “I don’t think they see us yet. They have fired multiple times but have managed to score only the hits we have seen. Hmm. That’s interesting.”

  “Don’t toy with me, Wizzy. What’s so interesting?”

  “Our heat storage system is overloading and will have to cool soon.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, you mush heads! Don’t you know that in stealth mode, the ship has to control heat emissions by absorbing the heat from the interior and weapons into an internal storage system? That’s to keep down our infrared or heat signature outside the ship. When the capacity of the storage system is exceeded, heat is sent to the radiator fins on the exterior. Sort of like a radiator for a car. Keeps everything cool. We are about to vent heat from our weapons use and all the power we are exerting to keep up our shields and stealth system under this attack. The enemy ship is trying to make us visible to their IR sensors.”

  That made sense. The ship attacking us is both more capable than any we’ve faced, and the captain is smart.

  “Then how come the ship is maintaining such a small profile?”

  “As I said, I can only conclude that the ship is capable of opening a small hole in their stealth system in order to fire the plasma weapon. This is not an ordinary Arkon ship. It has to be one of the ones developed at the end of the war, a frigate or larger.”

  “Great. Can we target that hole with our plasma cannon?”

  “Yes, but when we do, we will just add to the heat filling the storage system, and we will be forced to vent sooner.”

  “It’s going to happen anyway, regardless of what we do. Target that spot and fire and keep firing!”

  “Taking control of the plasma cannon and firing now.”

  I gave a short explanation to Amini and Sif as I took control of the Argos. We had to get rid of that ship, or we were all dead. I hoped that Tiana and her consorts were surviving, but there was nothing more important now than the new threat.

  Even during her Arkon-tormented life, Tiana never experienced anything like the horror in which she now found herself. Nick again referred to this kind of fight as a furball. He said it was an old Earth reference to smoke and exhaust contrails of a large number of fighter planes in the same big battle. There were no exhaust contrails here in space as there were on Earth in one of these furballs, as Nick explained. But escaping gasses, ship fragments, the confusion of multiple ships firing lasers and the occasional pair of missiles made up for the lack of the thin wisps of exhaust seen in planetary atmospheres. After her first pass on her designated gunboat, in which she and 03 scored significant hits, she lost sight of her target and fell into the life and death struggle of self-defense. Her spirits would bloom temporarily when a target of opportunity crossed in front of her and she scored hits, but, for the most part, she just tried to stay alive with her ship.

  “This isn’t working,” she screamed at herself, then remembered the old rule of safety in numbers.

  “All ships, this is Dreng. Head for Asteroid 3 and form up on me.”

  She wasn’t leaving the fight. She just pointed her ship at the nearest reference point to facilitate her other ships’ ability to form on her. It was not without cost, however. In the process, the gunboats jumped on 05. The old ship fought well and scored major hits on one gunboat, which ceased firing and began coasting without power. The remaining gunboat, possibly maddened by the loss of its companion, focused fire on 05’s engines, which soon erupted in a bright, short-lived ball of fire as
she erupted into fragments streaming away.

  03 and 04 caught up with Dreng and took a position in echelon right and left on either side of the now lead ship. Together they were more potent than the former lone ships they had been. Tiana entered her small formation into a climbing left-hand turn to look back on the battle area. What she saw both heartened her and caused fear. In addition to the inanimate gunboat floating in space, she could see one of the enemy cargo ships also out of action. That, she knew, meant there were three, armed cargo ships and a gunboat still lurking around that would be a major threat to her smaller force. She saw no sign of Argos, though she did see flashes of laser or plasma shots in the distance.

  Further out, perhaps five hundred miles, her sensors allowed her to “see” two of the enemy armed cargo ships trying to form up on each other, but nothing of the other ships. That is, until laser bolts flashed past her, scoring hits on all three of her ships. Now she knew where the other ships were. Behind her — and it was not good news. She chided herself and her other ships for not paying attention to the full range of their sensors. When she did study her rear sensors, she saw that the gunboat, the ship with the smallest sensor return, was the ship now firing at them. One of the armed cargo ships was trailing behind its small cousin hoping, Tiana guessed, it would do the job for them. She accelerated her formation as a plan formed in her head. Maybe not her plan, but a plan based on a story Nick once told her about his father in a similar kind of running fight. Lacking some other idea, she decided to try it. She accelerated more to make the gunboat think she and her cohorts were running away. It seemed to work because the lone enemy cargo ship stopped its chase and settled in to watch what its crew thought would be a quick victory for the smaller ship. Tiana briefed her two companions on what she was going to do, and when she received acknowledgment from both of them, she pulled back on her throttles along with her other ships. As Tiana hoped, and as in Nick’s story, the gunboat was slow to respond and overflew the formation of three ships. That was all Tiana’s ships had to see as they opened fire on the now defenseless gunboat whose life ended before it realized what had happened.

  Tiana heard whoops of joy from her two ships in formation, but she quieted them. They still had a mountain of work to do, and for now, at least, it would be three on one.

  Over Argos’ radios, I heard what was happening with Tiana and her fight but didn’t have time to worry. I had a bigger problem — one which could mean death to them all if we couldn’t do something about it. Sif took over weapons control from Wizzy now that he had the target and continued to pour plasma fire into the small opening in the enemy’s stealth cover. I was relieved to see Amini focus on trying to make sense of Tiana’s fight. Doc, the poor soul, sat rigid in an observer’s seat, not knowing what to do.

  “Wizzy. Status on our heat control.”

  “Bad news, I’m afraid. We just started venting.”

  “Crap! They can see us?”

  “If you mean the enemy ship’s crew when you say ‘they’, the answer is yes.”

  As if to prove Wizzy’s truth, Argos shook as two plasma hits rocked our home in space.

  “What about the enemy ship?”

  “That would be more bad news, Nicky. It just dropped stealth and is preparing to fire all weapons!”

  We were hit multiple times, and Argos staggered.

  This time I grinned. Now it was our turn. I pointed the nose of Argos at the visible enemy and accelerated.

  “What are you doing, Nick?’ Amini yelled.

  “Giving that bastard something to think about. Sif, fire everything.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Sif, I said fire!”

  “I cannot. None of the weapons will fire!

  “Wizzy!”

  “I hear you. No need to shout.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “The heat overload has temporarily blocked the weapons from firing while the ship cools.”

  “Override!”

  “I cannot. Hmm, this is curious. Such a shutdown should not happen. I wonder if, in the original design process, they failed…”

  “Wizzy, stay on track! Can we fix it?”

  “Oh, sure. But not right now. The heat will have to dissipate, and then I can…”

  “So, not anytime soon, like in the next two minutes?” I was getting tired of Wizzy’s rambling.

  “Oh, no way, dude.”

  “Amini, contact Tiana, tell her to break off the action, and go home now! We have a problem and cannot continue the fight.”

  “On it now, Nick.”

  I turned Argos away from the frigate and entered FTL. We lost the battle and the lives of invaluable people, to say nothing of ships. We gained nothing except the determination to not let this happen again. What I worried about was how the Resistance members would take this loss. Would their overall confidence suffer? Would they suddenly not trust Argos as they had? Those were possibilities I would like to avoid. That meant doing some redesign of Argos and then getting back out to fight as soon as possible. The first part would start with Wizzy.

  Chapter 20

  Fort Apache was looking good to us. It took Wizzy about two hours to find the design fault in the heat exchange system and fix it. Two hours we could not have survived had we stayed in combat. When we arrived back here, I worried about what just happened and sharing the explanation of why we had to abandon the fight. To my surprise, everyone seemed to understand. After all, many said, “You can’t expect to win every fight. Besides, think of the experience we gained.” They were right, of course. However, it was still like a lump of coal at Christmas to me.

  With the chance to look around, I was pleased to see that the two storage ships were joined by another, a similar one freed by the Resistance. It also had a variety of parts and supplies and was not worth the conversion to an armed ship. I was pleased to see that somebody took my defense suggestions to heart. Weapons were starting to sprout from the tops and bottoms of the triangle of ships forming the heart of our fort. More would be coming, I was sure, but it was a start.

  Tiana took the initiative to send tugs to recover the ships we damaged near Asteroid 3. It was unlikely they could be repaired, but they would be another source of parts and materials.

  As it stood at present, the Resistance now had six, armed cargo ships groomed and refurbished by Wizzy’s bots. It helped that we now had three ships full of parts and supplies. And, at least for the near-term, more ships were coming in on their own from businesses and from families. Wizzy estimated that in less than two weeks and with the parts on hand, there could easily be twelve, maybe thirteen, armed cargo ships ready to fly with the Resistance. To top it all off, the local asteroid miners volunteered to harvest and donate large amounts of the materials needed to make improved armor. They even volunteered to set up a smelting facility to draw out the specific stuff Wizzy wanted to fashion the armor plating.

  From a viewscreen in the Argos’ bridge, I watched with amazement the activity happening all over Fort Apache. We had constructed an active shipyard in the middle of nowhere. It was mostly the Resistance doing all this with Wizzy’s help, but I thought of the four of us on Argos as part of the “we.” It felt good to be part of a fantastic project like this.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Wizzy said as his holo image appeared next to me, a smile on his face.

  “Oh, hi, Wizzy. I was watching all this activity and thinking how far we have gone past our original orders. I’ll probably be court-martialed when we get back. If we get back.”

  “Yes, that’s probably true. But think of it this way. It’s fun. It’s daring. And it’s all for a good cause.”

  “Thanks for the support, Wizzy. But I’m not sure how fun and daring will help me at the trial. We were just supposed to come out here, find out what was happening, who was responsible, what the threats were, and go home to report.�
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  “Yes, that is true. But remember, we couldn’t and can’t go home yet.”

  “Speaking of yet. How are you coming with fixing our leap drive? You’ve had lots of time.”

  “Lots of time? Are you kidding? How do you think all these ships are being changed and upgraded? By using my valuable time, that’s how. Which ships do you want me to stop work on? What systems do you not want to work? Don’t tell me about lots of time, mush head!”

  “Sorry, your magnificence. I failed to recognize the burden you carry.”

  That seemed to calm him down.

  “That’s better. It’s about time I was appreciated around here. Could we talk about something else? This is too depressing.”

  “Sure, can you use the fabricator to build plasma cannons and their support systems to arm our new fleet?”

  “More? You want more from me? I thought we were going to change the subject.”

  “We are. I’m not talking about the leap drive here. It’s a different subject. I’m not asking for me. It’s for the Resistance. Their ships need help.”

  “You can say that again, and the thought of a cannon has crossed my mind. Let me think. Fixed-mount or turret?”

  “Turret would be best.”

  “Yes, I agree. If I use the blueprint from the Falcon -— maybe. Yes. I can do it.”

  “Great, get started, and install them on all the cargo ships - in the belly like Falcon.”

  “Ah, you’re not going to like this. There’s a teensy-weensy problem.”