Crucible: Records of the Argos

by Michael J. Farlow

  “What?”

  When Wizzy said things like teensy-weensy, it usually meant big, as in big problem.

  “Fabricating the cannons is one thing. Installing them and all the supporting equipment is another.”

  “But you just said you could do it.”

  “No, I said I could fabricate the cannons. You didn’t say anything about installing them.”

  Mentally, I slapped my forehead. Sometimes this new version of our old AI was brilliant, but other times it seemed like it had a screw loose. I knew when the change happened we would have to change our way of communicating with him, but it was difficult to know when you had to treat him like and child and when you could trust his new massive brain.

  “OK, I’m sorry. It was my fault. My idea is to place a turret-mounted plasma cannon on every cargo ship we have or will have. In addition to all the great things you have done to these ships, we will need more firepower when we finally meet Gurko. Can you do that?”

  “Yes, but it will take time. And, it will be easier to start with the unimproved ships first since they don’t have much of the new equipment installed. The converted ships will take longer because our recently installed wiring and power supplies will have to be re-routed or moved to create space for the super-capacitors and inductors that will be required to store energy between cannon shots. Even at that, the rate of fire for the new cannons will be less than the Falcon.”

  “How much less?” I was worried.

  “Somewhere between thirty and fifty percent, I would say. I’ll know more when we test the first one.”

  “I was hoping for better, but it is what it is. How soon can you get started, and when will the first ship be ready for testing?”

  “I have already sent the design to our fabricator so, if we focus on upgrading one ship for this effort, we should be ready to test in a week. Maybe. Probably.”

  “Do the best you can and keep me posted on any problems.” I knew better than to push him any farther.

  “Ok, Nicky. Lots of stuff to do. This will be fun! See you later, alligator.”

  I had to look this one up. See You Later, Alligator was the name of a Top Ten hit for Bill Haley and His Comets in 1956. WAY before my time. Someday I’ll have to ask Wizzy where he gets all this stuff. Maybe it’s hidden in the entertainment storage of the ship, but 1956?

  Four days later, the test ship was done. We (Tiana and I plus some bots) took it out to a range we selected among a small asteroid cloud. We used a checklist provided by Wizzy, and he oversaw the test as we proceeded.

  “Firing checklist complete,” Tiana reported.

  “Roger, target locked in. Ready to do this?” I asked as I turned to look at my copilot for this mission.

  Tiana nodded and grinned as her stripes grew dark. If it worked, this would be a significant advancement to the growing Resistance fleet.

  “Here goes…” and I pressed the firing button.

  Nothing happened.

  We repeated the checklist and tried again.

  Nothing.

  Wizzy!”

  “What? You broke your toy already? Nothing for your birthday this year, children.”

  “What’s wrong?” I replied with irritation.

  “Got my bots on it now. Let’s see. OK, that works. That works also. What… Ah-ha, I found it. I may have to send my bots back to Big Lou’s Auto and Body school, silly things. They fused the cannon safety connection closed. No firing when the safety is engaged. There, that’s got it. Try again.”

  We did, and it worked. At least, the cannon fired, but missed the target.

  “Wait, don’t say anything,” Wizzy said before we could complain. “Realign the stabilization gyro. Yes, that’s got it. Tune the recoil dampeners. Yes. Hmm… OK, that should do it. Try it again.”

  This time it worked and spot on. We depressed the firing button again, and after a short lag, it fired a bullseye once more.

  “Yes!” Wizzy exclaimed. “Am I not magnificent, awesome, and stupendous?”

  I had to humor him.

  “You da man! But why the lag between shots?”

  “You noticed that, huh? Smart chimp. Ah, well, I told you there might be a reduction in the rate of fire compared to the Falcon, and there is. The good news is that it is the lowest prediction on my scale, thirty percent. We can overcome that in a way by having the cannon fire twice on one push of the firing button. That way, we take out the human lag between shots.”

  Tiana and I looked at each other and finally nodded our agreement.

  “That will do, Wizzy. Great job. Treat yourself to a banana!” Payback is so rewarding.

  Larona walked down the ramp of the large, armed shuttle and was followed by a troop of armed soldiers. Not the roughneck converted civilians that she and Toor used to enforce their will. These were trained troops from Krona, courtesy of General Gurko. Like her, they wore combat suits salvaged after the war and were armed with hard-hitting rifles using explosive-tipped projectiles. Their objective was the long, low, nondescript Resistance council meeting hall in the new town just ahead. Larona had been involved in the design and initial construction before she took Toor’s place. She divided her force into two sections, each entering the town from opposite directions. This was to minimize the escape of her prey, the council members themselves. The distant, yellow sun was just disappearing, marking the middle of the planet’s 28-hour day. Larona knew this was the day and the hour in which the council met.

  The former Resistance member and leader had some regrets at having to take this action. She knew everyone in the town. Grew up with many of them. Before she was placed in Toor’s vacated position, she had been relatively happy living among them with only the occasional reports required back to Toor. Up to now, those reports had seemed a trivial matter and ones which seldom caused harm to the people she lived with or much regret on her part. But this was different. She took this job in order to survive the wrath of Gurko and the retaliation of her people when she was exposed. There was some compensation, however. If she survived, she would be comfortable for the rest of her life. But she was still mentally burdened by the consequences to her people caused by her new position and actions. In the end, survival won out over sentimentality.

  As the troops entered the small town at a trot, the alarm went out from the local citizens. But it was too late. A few valiant people tried to resist but were met with a hail of fire that cowed those remaining, the ones not dead that is. As expected, the council members tried to flee, but most were caught by the two sections of troops in their vise-like approach and surrounded in a neat circle. Some of the town’s people were also caught in the circle.

  Larona elbowed her way through her troops and broke into the center of the confining circle, lifting her faceplate.

  “Larona!” called out one of the council members in shock.

  “Yes, Zanta, it is me. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but you and the others are to be my guests for a while. I have a shuttle nearby to ferry you and the rest to a safe place. We don’t want to see you hurt in these troubling times.”

  “The only safe place is away from you! You are taking us as hostages. What is it you want in trade for us?” exclaimed the Resistance leader.

  “Now that wasn’t nice. Here I’ve created an opportunity for you and the rest to take a nice vacation, and you are ungrateful. Take them to the shuttle!”

  Chapter 21

  When you were a kid, did you ever have a time when everything was going great for you? I mean so great that nothing could possibly go wrong? That is, until your world changed and smacked you in the face? Like out of the blue, your boyfriend or girlfriend said something like, “I think we should see other people”? Yeah, me too. But this time, things were different. This time, the universe rose up and bit me in the ass.

  Somebody was pounding on the door to the Argos’
captain’s cabin. I knew that because I was inside sleeping, the first good sleep since we came to Fort Apache. It took me a few moments to change from a state of fog to one of semi-rational awareness.

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s Amini. I need to talk with you. It’s important.”

  I stumbled out of bed, draping a blanket over me, and unlocked the door. It was Amini all right, and she was more agitated than I had seen her in a while.

  “Larona has kidnapped the Resistance leaders plus a few others and run off with them.”

  I was still a little hazy. “You mean she took all of them or just some of them? Where’d they go?”

  “They got eleven of them, which is most, and took off in a ship.”

  I was now fully awake and invited Amini into the cabin. I closed the door behind her to minimize the volume of her voice and the chance of waking other people. Amini could be loud, I found out.

  “Ok, take it from the top, just don’t yell. What do we know, how do we know it, and what has Gurko or his henchwoman said?’

  “Our fast shuttle just got in after taking Tiana to Tye and back. She was told what happened by members of the Resistance, and she radioed me before she docked. According to friendly intelligence agents, the ship was headed toward Ledo. You know that storage operation we raided a while ago. Tiana should be here any minute, by the way.”

  “Why would they do that? Never mind, that was a dumb question. They are holding them hostage for something, right? What have they asked for?”

  “They want all their ships back and the cargo that we took.”

  “That won’t happen. Besides, the cargo has mostly been used up in modifying our ships. So what if we don’t or can’t do what they want?”

  “They said they would kill them all within 24 Earth hours.”

  See, the universe did bite me in the ass. I knew things were too good to be true.

  “What kind of ship did they use? I assume there was only one.”

  “They used an armed shuttle and troops to gather the leaders, and then flew back to an armed cargo ship that departed as soon as the shuttle docked.”

  “Security at Ledo?”

  “We don’t know that beyond the armed cargo ship. There could be more or not.”

  “Double crap!”

  I was going to ask more questions when my door flew open and Tiana appeared in an obviously pissed off state, her stripes colored a deep black.

  “When are we going after them?”

  “Whoa. Calm down. We…”

  “We have to go now! Every minute we delay could mean death to our leaders.”

  “Stop!” I yelled to quiet Tiana. “We have to think this out and set a plan in place. We have time, 24 hours, in fact.”

  Tiana quieted and dissipated her nervous energy by folding her arms and pacing back and forth in the small cabin. I reached out a hand and gently stopped her.

  “Relax, Tiana. We have to keep our heads and play this the smart way.”

  She stopped her pacing and looked up at me. “You’re right. I’m just so angry.”

  “I could tell. First, how many experienced ships and crews do we have ready now?”

  “Besides Argos, we have only Dreng. All the others are either still in overhaul or out on maneuvers or test runs. As far as I know, Dreng hasn’t yet had her cannon installed.”

  “That’s not exactly right, Missy,” came the voice of Wizzy, followed by his avatar playing with an ancient calculator.

  “What’s not exactly right, Wizzy?” I asked.

  He appeared to punch the numeric keys of the calculator several times and looked up. “Well, I increased my number of bots by twenty-five percent, and our process has been refined to be thirty percent more efficient. I took advantage of that and had a cannon installed on Dreng while Tiana was gone. So, you see, my awesomeness has come to the front yet again.”

  “You are awesome, Wizzy, thank you,” I said to keep his ego in control.

  “Um, yes, I deserved that. But before you go off on your chivalrous rescue adventure, I may have to share a tiny bit of information?” The calculator disappeared and Wizzy’s arms folded behind him. He looked at me like Mrs. Thomas did in school when I got an answer wrong.

  That set me to worrying. Any time Wizzy looked the way he looked and described anything as little, small, and especially tiny, they were never trivial.

  “What?” I asked as with narrowed eyes and folded arms.

  “Only 06 has been on the firing test range, and it was the one you tested. She, unfortunately, is out on maneuvers. The others, including Dreng, have not been test fired.”

  “Let me get this straight. The ships that have cannons have not tested them, and the only ship that was tested has no combat experience and is not available. That about sums it up?”

  “Yup. Precisely. Well put. Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

  I wanted to ask why he didn’t test each one when the installation was complete, but I would just get back something like, “it wouldn’t be efficient”.

  “And I suppose that testing would take between twenty-four and forty-eight hours to complete. Right?”

  “Very good, Captain Nick. Smart for an ape. However, how many ships would we need to overwhelm one cargo ship, even an armed one?”

  “Ah, Mr. I Know Everything, there could be other armed ships at Ledo just waiting for us to show up.”

  “Oh. Good point. Why didn’t I think of that? I really must go. Toodles.”

  Argos and Dreng headed for Ledo, both ships in stealth mode. Wizzy detailed more bots to step up conversions and established a schedule to conduct test firings while we were gone. Our plan was to defeat or scare away any armed ships in the area of Ledo, rescue the hostages, and take them home. That was the plan, emphasis on was. As we approached Ledo, Wizzy appeared.

  “I have good news and not so good news. Which would you like to hear first?”

  I always hated that particular question. This time was no exception.

  “How about the good news first, if you don’t mind.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind. I just didn’t know what you were in the mood for. Apes are so hard to read. Good news first it is. I scanned Ledo, and there are only two, armed cargo ships there right now.”

  “Only two, armed cargo ships? That’s the good news?”

  “Yes. Did you want more?”

  “No, Wizzy. What’s the bad news?”

  “Well, heh, heh, there are armed ships orbiting Tye. One of them is a frigate.”

  Crap. That ruled out taking the hostages back to Tye. Too much of a risk to the lives of the Resistance leaders. It also made our planned rescue at Ledo more of a risk. If those ships in orbit around Tye knew we were rescuing the hostages, they could be after us in a hurry. In my mind, that left only one choice for Argos.

  “Amini,” who, along with Sif, had heard what Wizzy said, “tell Tiana she will have to handle the rescue on her own with Dreng if she can. Her call.”

  “What will we be doing?” she asked.

  “We’re going to attract the attention of those ships in orbit over Tye and keep them away from Ledo.” That brought on a toothy smile from Sif. Doc was in his medical center, making preparations for potential wounded. He didn’t know about the new plan.

  “Wait, wait, wait!” Wizzy shouted as he appeared.

  “What is it now?” I asked impatiently.

  “I gave Tiana some fireflies and a couple of mantis drones, as you call them. I need to make some changes to the drones before we leave the proximity of Dreng. Wait for it. Almost done. There, done! Tell Tiana that the drones can make a mess of the hostile ships if she can get close and send them on their way.”

  Once Amini passed the messages to Tiana, Argos broke away and headed for Tye. Wizzy reported that there were two formation
s of ships. Three, armed cargo ships on one side of Tye and the frigate and another armed cargo ship on the other side. None were in stealth. My guess was they wanted to be seen by the people on Tye. Big nasty threats. To cause the most damage, I chose the three cargo ships to go after first. They would be easier to attack and defeat than the frigate and her consort. Besides, I suspected once we started the attack, the frigate would come running to the rescue.

  Since the firepower needed against the cargo ships would be less than required against the frigate, I elected to launch Falcon. Two ships in stealth could do more damage with these ships faster than one. As before, Amini, Sif, and Doc took to the old bridge and closed the hatch behind them just before I launched Falcon.

  The three unaware cargo ships were in a racetrack pattern over Tye. The lead ship was flanked by the other two in left and right echelon. We came up behind them and coordinated our target selections — the two outboard ships. Falcon took the one on the right and Argos, the one on the left. This wasn’t very sporting, but out here it didn’t matter. As I’ve noted before, there are no rules of engagement in space. At least, thankfully, not yet. I was in no mood to play with these ships, so I opened up with a plasma cannon shot followed by two missiles and laser blasts. The cannon shot hit home followed quickly by the laser shots and then the missiles. All this firepower streaming into an unaware, unshielded cargo ship, armed or not, was more than she was prepared for, and she went DIW.

  Argos was doing okay but did not possess a plasma cannon with Falcon not integrated. I may have to do something about that later. Anyway, her fight took on a tail chase as her target tried to get away with damaged systems, including her stealth system.

  I turned back to look for the former lead ship, but she was nowhere in sight. None of Falcon’s sensors could find a trace. I made the assumption that she had run from the fight. In her position, I would probably have done the same. Live to fight another day.

  I watched the fight with Argos with interest. The wiry cargo ship was giving Argos a run for her money, jinking and zigzagging while still trying to fire on the invisible and dogged ship behind her. The end was inevitable, however, and she suddenly vanished in a white and orange gas ball. Now it was the frigate’s turn.