The Tau Ceti Agenda

by Travis S. Taylor

  "Sounds good to me, Lance Corporal Suez. Fire at will."

  "Yes, sir. I don't know who Will is, but if he's on that hauler, he's about to have a bad fucking day." Tommy toggled the virtual fire command.

  The room whined with the hum of thousands of repulsor fields firing at once. There was a short whoosh of air rushing upward, and out of the tunnel, the metal rails tracked up. Almost immediately following, there was a rapid flash of light against the hull of the Seppy hauler.

  "These bars here show the charging of the power banks. They're red because we just fired. When they are green, we can fire again. My AIC says that will take about thirty-one seconds." Tommy pointed out the controls to the rest of the AEMs with a smile.

  "Yes! Marines with a big fucking gun!" Pagoolas cheered. "Oo- fuckin'-rah!"

  The conveyor kicked on, loading another one of the large metal blocks forward and into place at the bottom of the two-beam metal rails. An automated giant lifter pad loaded it from the conveyor upward into the hole in the ceiling.

  "The thing seems mostly automated. I wonder what all those damned Seppies were doing," Bates asked.

  "Goldbricking," Pagoolas replied.

  "Probably maintenance. Big things like this got to need a lot of spit- polish and jiffy-lube," the lieutenant put it plainly. "Tommy, keep at it. Hammer those motherfuckers into oblivion. I'd better call this in to the major."

  "Hold it, Tamara . . . . Yes, Johnny?" Major Roberts held a finger up to Gunny to be quiet. They had been sitting patiently watching the control room topside for several minutes. It had been fairly uneventful once they had left they hangar. "You're fucking where? Uh huh. That is fucking outstanding, marine. We better patch this through up top. Hold on."

  "They did what?" Captain Jefferson shook his head in surprise.

  "Yes, sir. The Seppies fired the mass driver at the hauler. It was a direct hit. It looks like a large section of the forward section was blown completely out." The STO was just as amazed by the outcome as anybody else.

  "Well, damned if that wasn't helpful," the XO replied.

  "What the hell would they do that for?" the STO asked.

  "CO?"

  "Go, Ground Boss."

  "I've got Lieutenant Johnny Noonez from Roberts' Robots on the horn. He says that he and his recon unit have commandeered the mass driver on the moon and, sir, he's asking if it is okay to keep firing," the ground boss said with a smile.

  "Your goddamned right it is! Tell him to immediately target the straggling battle cruiser! Now!" Captain Wallace orderd over the cheers on the bridge.

  "How the hell did they get up there?" the COB asked, looking out the viewer at the small planetoid moon more than ten thousand kilometers away.

  "Who gives a damn, Charlie? They're up there. Let's use 'em," the XO replied.

  "You heard me, Tommy. That battle cruiser right now," the lieutenant ordered, pointing his gray armored finger at the formation- lagging battle cruiser on the flatscreen view.

  "Yes, sir." Tommy put the yellow X over the battle cruiser and locked it on. The X turned red. He waited patiently for the yellow bars on the charger graphic to turn green.

  "Look! It's about to teleport," Nicks said.

  The final bar went green, and Tommy depressed the trigger.

  Chapter 22

  October 31, 2388 AD

  Earth space, 100,000 kilometers above Orlando

  Saturday, 7:40 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

  "Goddamn, what was that!" General Ahmi was tired of asking that question. The Phlegra rang with secondary explosions, and warning klaxons sounded.

  "I think we were hit by the moon's mass driver," the captain answered.

  "Damage report?" Elle said impatiently.

  "I'm still checking. The teleport is operating as planned." The buzzing and popping from the QMT projection stopped, and the Moon filled the view of the bridge.

  "Well, shut those damned alarms off. We're here." Elle sat back at the empty station behind the captain's seat where she had been. She drummed her fingers against the console, waiting for Maximillian's report.

  "Sublight engines are down. We are venting like mad from every seal."

  "Tell me some good news."

  "Uh, yes, General. The auxiliary drive is unharmed, and we can reroute to that one. I'm working it. Propulsion will be up in five, four, three, two . . . there."

  "Good. If aux is all that is left, she'll be going there. All personel are to report to that section of the ship and stop that bitch." Elle slammed her fist into the screen of her console, cracking the cover. "Stop her! Is that understood?"

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "Full forward to Luna City. Ramming vector!" Elle ordered.

  "Damnit, Jack, I'm cut off. I don't think I can get around to you. That last blast closed off several sections between us," Nancy warned Boland. The hallway she had been going down was completely destroyed, and air was beginning to vent out of it. She had been lucky that whatever had just hit them hadn't crushed her in the process. So instead of being killed instantly, she was probably going to die slowly of hypothermia or from lack of oxygen.

  "Roger that, Penzington. Can you get out of the ship?" Jack pushed his bot-mode Ares-T back up to its feet and looked out of the gaping tear in the ship's hull above him. The Moon loomed overhead, maybe a hundred thousand kilometers or so away. They were running out of time, and Jack had no real, good idea of how to stop the battle cruiser.

  "I don't think so. I think I'm trapped in here." Nancy looked in every direction but could see nothing but crunched metal. The ship had collapsed all around her, and it would take hours to cut her out with a laser cutter. There was no way that one mecha was going to dig her out in a few seconds.

  "Hold on, we're coming to you. I'll blast you out if I have to."

  "Don't, Boland. I'm too deep in the ship. I did my job. I got some good info on the Separatists' plan. I'm downloading it to you now. I haven't even had the chance to read all of it. You read it and then figure out what to do with it. And don't trust anyone that you don't already trust completely, and be wary of them. I mean no one." Nancy sat down in the corridor, listening to the air hissing through the cracks in the wreckage. She had done her job.

  "That's defeatist talk," Jack said. "Now get your ass up and find a way out of there."

  "Sorry, Jack. I'm stuck here, and my air is running out." She paused for a brief moment in thought. "If you can't stop this ship, you have to get out with the data I just gave you. Now go. That data is more important than I am."

  "Come on, Jack." Fish pulled her mecha through the gash in the ship to the exterior hull. The Moon continued to loom closer. At their present rate of acceleration, they would hit Luna City in less than a minute. Fish rolled her bot over into fighter mode and throttled toward Earth. Then her blue force system dinged at her. There were two supercarriers not far from their location. "Jack, I've got two supercarriers Earthward."

  "I see." Jack thrust his mecha up through the ship and outward into open space, where he toggled his bot back to fighter mode. He paused during the maneuver, only briefly, but long enough to look back at the Phlegra solemly. "Godspeed Penzington, or whoever you are."

  Jack?

  Yes, Candis.

  Blue force tracker identifies the nearest ship as the U.S.S. John Tyler. Perhaps it can stop the battle cruiser.

  Right.

  "Captain! We've got a major electromagnetic disturbance Moonward, and a Seppy battle cruiser just appeared out of nowhere!" the CDC officer of the Tyler warned the captain over the command net.

  "What the hell?" Captain Westerfeld looked confused.

  "Sir, we're being hailed by the CAG of the Sienna Madira."

  "Can't be. Wally's ship is way out in the Oort somewhere."

  "Well, sir, his security codes validate."

  "Patch him through."

  "CO Tyler, this is Commander Jack DeathRay Boland of the U.S.S. Sienna Madira."

  "Commander, this is Captain Wes
terfeld. What can I do for you?"

  "Sir, this battle cruiser is on a ramming vector for Luna City, and we can't seem to stop it! I thought you might be able to help us out."

  "Captain," Alexander Moore interrupted. "I have an idea." He shoved the AI Sienna Madira onto the teleport pad.

  "Agreed," Westerfeld nodded. "Commander Boland. I recommend that you get out of there as quickly as you can. We'll take care of it."

  "Trick or treat, bitch!" Moore said to the AI-driven Sienna Madira.

  "General, the propulsion system is locked on. Even if it were knocked out, at this point our trajectory will still take us to Luna City," Maximillian said, nodding toward the bright silver and blue dome of the great metropolis in the Sea of Tranquility. The captain of the Phlegra tapped a few keys on his chair arm and moved several virtual icons around in his DTM mindview. Then he turned to Ahmi and said, "We should go now, ma'am."

  "All right. Very good. Activate the QMT projector snap-back routine," Elle ordered.

  "Yes, ma'am. Recalling all personell to original Tau Ceti QMT projection in three, two, one . . ."

  Nancy Penzington or Kira Shavi or . . . well, her real first name had been Nancy at least . . . sat with her back against the collapsed bulkhead of the Phlegra, hugging her knees and waiting for the end. The air hissed by her, and it was getting very cold in the corridor, and she was shivering uncontrollably. None of that really mattered at this point, since the ship she was trapped on was about to crash and explode in seconds.

  Nancy, we did our job, her AIC consoled her.

  Yes, we did. And hopefully it will save some lives or do some good.

  It will. Boland will figure out what to do with it. Allison had had the time to read the data when she had finally decrypted it. There was some very interesting data in there and some contacts that went all the way up to the White House. The data was more important than Nancy and Allison themselves. The data was worth the sacrifice.

  I hope it isn't too big for him.

  He'll figure it out.

  Nancy?

  Yes, Allison?

  I've really enjoyed being your friend.

  Me too, Allison.

  The ship started popping and crackling around her, and then white light filled her vision. Through the light, she caught faint glimpses of the ship exploding all around her. She braced herself for the pain of the exploding hot ionizing plasma rushing toward her. And, she braced for death.

  "Damn! That's a fireworks show!" Fish shouted. The battle cruiser exploded into a cloud of vapor and orange and white plasma that could have only been generated from a gluonium explosion.

  "Tyler ATC, this is DeathRay requesting a landing vector, over?"

  "Roger that, DeathRay. Vector has been transmitted, and you have the ball."

  "Captain." Alexander Moore turned to Westerfeld and smiled. "Drop every AEM and AAI and tankhead and fighting mecha you have on Orlando and clean it up."

  "Yes, sir. Uh, you realize that I officially can't take orders from you." Captain Westerfeld raised an eyebrow and grinned back at Moore.

  "Well, consider that a recommendation from an advisor."

  "I'm not one to ignore good advice." Captain Westerfeld smiled and finished with, "Mr. President. Now, sir, if you don't mind, I've got a cleanup to take care of and you have a letter to write."

  October 31, 2388 AD

  Oort Cloud

  Saturday, 7:57 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

  "CO, CDC."

  "Go, CDC," Captain Walker said. The last shot from the mass driver had taken the hauler completely out, and it ruptured with violent orange plasma from every seam and weld joint. The hauler exploded, sending debris reeling in all directions. The remaining vehicles from the Separatist fleet scattered and fought for their very lives.

  "We need to take evasives from the debris field, ma'am. The cloud is gonna be hell on the flight wing."

  "Understood, CDC. Air Boss!"

  "Yes, Captain?"

  "Pull the fighters in under the ship or spread them out from the debris cloud vectors." Sharon looked at the tracks in her mindview battlescape and could see that if the Blair didn't take the brunt of the debris cloud it would be bad news for both the Madira and a large portion of the fighters. The Madira was still without her SIFs and propulsion and had been battered to bits. It couldn't take much more damage. "Nav!"

  "Ma'am?"

  "Move us upward into the debris vector to cut off as much of it as we can. SIFs full power to upper decks, XO."

  "Aye, ma'am."

  The battle was winding down, from a large-vessel standpoint. The mass driver had turned the tide. The hauler and all the remaining battle cruisers except for one had been completely destroyed, which seemed to have knocked the wind from the Seppies' sails. The one remaining enemy battle cruiser was taking up station under the Madira, using it as cover from the mass driver. It was taking potshots at the wounded supercarrier from underneath but was reluctant to completely take out its umbrella. For some reason, it hadn't jaunted out, so its hyperspace system must have been damaged in the fray.

  With the full flight wing of both supercarriers now in the action, the numbers game was turning, too. The Blair had been able to vector within the battlespace without fear of being hit by the big guns, which enabled it to dump its full load of mecha and drop tanks onto the surface. That had made a tremendous tide-turning swell on the planetoid. Last word from the tank line was that it was collapsing, and the U.S. forces were pushing through to the teleport facility walls. That was how the plan was supposed to have worked from the beginning.

  "Good work, Tommy." Lieutenant Noonez nodded to the marine and then turned away from the viewscreen and took a few steps away to answer a call. "Yes, Major."

  "Well, there's one battle cruiser left, Tommy. You didn't get them all." Pagoolas slapped him on the armored buttocks with an armored hand and laughed.

  "I'm not so sure about that," Tommy replied. The yellow targeting X zoomed all the way in to the upper decks of the Madira. The view was so zoomed that Tommy could see popped rivets on some of the hull plates. "Wow, she's taken a real beating."

  "Seppy motherfuckers," Bates whispered.

  Tommy worked the targeting system back over the hull of the ship until he found the large blown-out section in aft decks. The hole went all the way through the ship and was several meters in diameter. Tommy looked over at the metal cubes on the conveyor belt, which were only two meters on a side. Then he looked back at the hole in the Madira. He panned the view to the center of the hole and could see the Seppy battle cruiser on the other side using the supercarrier as a shield. Tommy zoomed in through the hole onto the hull of the enemy battle cruiser and locked the targeting system on to a hatch on the exterior of the enemy ship.

  "I'm not sure that is a good ide . . ." Sergeant Nicks started to say but was interrupted by the whooshing of the mass driver.

  A fraction of a second later, there was a flash of light from the other side of the supercarrier.

  "Got you, you Seppy son of a bitch."

  "I can't believe you did that," Bates grunted.

  "Oh! He shoots, he scores!" Pagoolas added.

  "Oh shit." Then Lance Corporal Suez realized what he had just done. What if the pointing system had been off slightly? It hadn't been, but what if. "Uh, maybe we ought to not brag about that shot. In fact, let's not even discuss it any further. Let's just forget it ever happened."

  "What the hell?" Lieutenant Noonez turned toward the marines and the viewscreen.

  "Captain, the enemy ship just took a mass driver hit!" Colonel Chekov said, surprised.

  "From the facility?" Captain Jefferson asked. The view in his mindview showed the ship beneath them suffering from secondary explosions down the length of it. It was going to blow. "Shit! Brace for impact!"

  "Looks like the shot came from the moon's gun, Captain." The STO gripped his console as the supercarrier was jolted from the enemy ship exploding.

  "How's that p
ossible, STO?" The XO banged an elbow against the edge of his station. "Goddamnit all to hell."

  "The vector I'm getting from the debris ionization trail of the pellet shows it passing right through the hull breach in the aft section of the Madira, sir."

  "Damage reports?" Jefferson said as he scanned his own DTM inputs. The damage had been minimal exterior hull dings. They were far enough above the exploding enemy ship that the debris field was scattered, and since their relative velocity had been matched, the debris only had the velocity given to it from the explosion. The hull plating of a supercarrier could handle much worse.

  "We're good, sir." EndRun consulted with his AIC and tapped at his console for moment and then added with some enthusiasm, "We're a damned sight better now that there ain't a goddamned ship beneath us blasting us with DEGs."

  "Good. Air Boss, how're our pilots doing?"

  "They've caught up and are now superior numbers, Captain. It's only a matter of time before they've mopped up."

  "Ground Boss?"

  "Same story, Captain. The Warlords suffered pretty heavy casualties, but Warboys had pushed them all the way to the southwest wall of the facility."

  "Have the Angels been deployed?"

  "Search and rescue are in theater, Captain. They're staging them here and to the Blair," the air boss replied.

  "CO, Captain Walker is hailing us," the communications officer announced.

  "Sharon? What can I do for you?"

  "Well, Wally, that was going to be my question. Your ship looks like it has seen better days. What can we do to help?" Fullback asked.

  "CO, we could take casualties and let them focus on the mop-up," the XO commented, rubbing at his elbow.

  "Good idea, Larry. Sharon, route your SARs here. We'll be the hospital. You mop up this mess."

  "Roger that, Wally."

  "Once we've got this station completely under control, then we'll figure out what we need in the way of repairs. Good hunting."