by Adam Gaffen
Daniela spent the next few minutes with her thoughts before Locksmith arrived.
Lieutenant Lexie Marsh, recently promoted, was nearly a mirror image of Double Dip. She was just as tall and built in a similar, athletic manner. Her hair, which she wore in a single long braid, was dyed a pale green which set off her emerald eyes and dark skin. Her most prominent feature, though, was her smile. It was said in her division that as long as Locksmith was smiling you were doing well. If it flickered, though, you were in trouble. Nobody knew what would happen if it disappeared. Yet.
Today, it was in full force.
“Morning, Danni,” Locksmith said, already carrying her own mug.
“Morning Lexie,” Daniela answered around another sip. “Ready for today?”
“As soon as I finish my cacao.”
“You and Commander Cassidy,” Daniela chuckled. “What is it about that stuff?”
“I could ask you the same,” countered Locksmith. “Coffee, yuck.”
“Just for that I’m going to dust you,” Daniela said.
“Hello? We’re both flying the same bird?”
“Nope. I have the first of the Mark II’s.”
Instantly Locksmith was all business.
“I didn’t think they were going to be in production until next year! That’s what my girlfriend told me, and she should know; she works at HLC, testing.”
“She’s not wrong. But someone has to break them in before they start rolling them out, and since I have the most hours in Direwolves of any pilot in Starfleet, well, the decision was simple. Mine’s one of the two-seaters, too, a training model.”
“Is the scuttlebutt true?”
Daniela laughed. “I hope so! We’ll find out today anyways.”
Locksmith put down her mug, sloshing the contents onto the table, and stood. “What are we waiting for?”
Daniela took a final swallow and led the way to the bay. After they’d done the mandatory walkarounds and pre-flight checks they each climbed into their cockpits.
“About time,” grumped her AI as she settled in.
“It’s my honeymoon,” she grumped right back. “I’m permitted.”
“It’s all well and good for you, you can get out of the ship just by standing up. Me, it takes major mechanical surgery.”
“Sorry, Boomer. Admiral’s orders. I tried to delay the wedding but she wouldn’t allow it.”
“Hmmph.”
She could tell he was somewhat mollified, though, as they ran through the power-up checklists. They’d developed enough of a rapport over the previous months that they could do the tasks almost on automatic while holding a conversation.
“How does she feel?” Daniela asked now.
“It’s different,” Boomer said. “The basic systems are all the same, except where they aren’t. It’s tough to explain.”
“Anything I need to be concerned about? Anything radically different?”
“No. Most of the changes they made are incremental, evolutionary. Like the aiming mechanism on the lasers.”
“We can aim?”
“A little. About two degrees, but it’s enough so we can do some pinpoint shooting at longer ranges.”
“Awesome!”
“If you ask me, though, I’m most impressed with the new reactor, if it works.”
“What do you mean, ‘if it works’?”
“It’s a new design. The old reactor was a laser-pumped design, while the new one is a z-pinch. If it works the way it should, we ought to achieve increased thrust as well as higher power for the other systems.”
“How much increased thrust?”
“Up to 650 g.”
Daniela allowed herself a low whistle. The Mark 1 already had the highest acceleration of any sublight craft in any fleet, 500 g, and a skilled pilot/AI combination could squeeze an extra 10 g or 20 g performance. 650 g, though, was unheard-of.
“What will I feel?” she asked. She knew she could tap her implant to get the information, but one of the reasons she and Boomer were such an effective team was she treated him as a partner. Currently, at max accel, she felt 6 g, which was eight times more than the Federation standard aboard vessels and habitats. Her nanobots prevented the lower gravity from weakening her bones and muscles, but she’d been in Starfleet since the beginning. Three-quarter g felt normal now, hence her concern.
“You’ll love this. Five g.”
“Five?”
“Evolutionary improvement. The compensator could always handle more accel, but didn’t have the power. Well, we’ve got the power now.”
“What else?” She was grinning like a kid at her birthday party.
“Armor.”
“We’ve got armor?”
“It’s not much,” Boomer tried to tell her. “Two millimeters of CeeSea, as well as platinum flakes and shavings in the optical sapphire cockpit. It won’t help if we’re hit by one of the big boys, but anything that an Apollo or Gemini packs, we ought to survive.”
That was a huge improvement. Direwolves had always been eggshells armed with sledgehammers: an Artemis capital ship could take them out with a single shot if they could target them before the Direwolf could get their shots off. The saving graces of the Direwolves were their speed, agility, and long-range weaponry. Close-in combat was a different story. CeeSea was highly reflective, as well as being extremely durable, and the platinum flakes would tend to refract any lasers which might contact the cockpit.
“Let’s get into the black!” she said excitedly. “Njord, Nymeria Actual. Requesting simulated combat launch.”
“Nymeria Actual, Njord.” The voice was that of an early teenage girl, energetic and enthusiastic, which meant Hecate the Beta-class AI was manning the comms instead of one of the human crew.
“Tubes primed. Skies clear. Control passed to probe craft. Be aware of CAP at West 90, distance 100 kiloklicks.”
“Thank you, Hecate. Nymeria out.” Daniela checked her readings one more time.
“Locksmith, we’re cleared for launch.”
“Ready.”
“On my count. Three, two, one, go!”
The two fighters were catapulted straight into ship-shaped holes in the outer bulkhead and spat into space a fraction of a second later. Since she’d asked for a ‘simulated combat launch’, they were already traveling at 2 KPS before they’d lit off their engines.
“Maximum accel,” she ordered, and she eased her throttle forward and matched Locksmith.
“Max accel,” confirmed Locksmith. “Course?”
They were now headed into the black and adding almost 5 KPS per second to their speed, Daniela enjoying the comparatively low 4 g she was experiencing.
“Scanner shows all clear to the South, all the way out to 2103 KR23. Let’s do a little target practice.” The asteroid she referred to, known as ‘Krunchy’, was a favorite destination for the Direwolf pilots. Nearly eighteen kilometers across and a C-type asteroid, its orbit was canted nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic and was located between Earth and Venus. Technically a near-Earth asteroid, it was one of several which had been claimed by the Federation for weapons testing, due to its positioning outside the normal space lanes. It was currently on the ‘northbound’ leg of its orbit and just over ten million kilometers distant.
“I’ll race you,” said Locksmith and found a few extra g’s.
“Systems are stable,” said Boomer in response to Daniela’s unspoken question. “Reactor’s running at 72% rated capacity. Feels good.”
“Shall we?” she said, hand over the throttle.
“Let’s,” agreed Boomer.
Flying a Direwolf was a complex ballet between the pilot, the AI, and the hyper-sensitive controls. Few were better than Double Dip and Boomer. Now her hand pushed the throttle full forward.
“Yee-hah!” shouted Boomer as they passed to their rated top acceleration, 6.37 KPS per second. They whipped past Locksmith in no time at all, then held that gap the rest of the forty minutes the journey cons
umed.
From there her day kept improving and the grin never left her face.
CHAPTER FIVE
Tycho Under
“Autumn. Autumn? Autumn!”
Autumn Newling raised her head from her appropriated desk in the Tycho Under Government Center.
“Back here, Nour!” she shouted before diving back into her work. When she heard Nour, followed by Caitlin, enter a minute later she looked up again with gratitude.
“If I’d known how much paperwork there was in overthrowing a corrupt government, I never would have taken the job!” she joked.
Caitlin flashed a millimetric grin before turning serious again.
“Autumn, we just heard from Armstrong. They’re still insisting that your cousin –”
“Stop. For the last time, Vasilia Newling’s relationship to me is irrelevant.”
“Fine. Vasilia; better?”
Autumn nodded.
“They insist that Vasilia is the legitimate leader of Artemis and won’t even allow our representative entry.”
“Fine. Cut them off. Nothing and nobody in or out. Is that all?” Nour nodded, but Caitlin protested.
“Autumn, we can’t just cut them off!”
Newling looked up. “Why not?”
“They’ll die! If we cut off their access to the planetary power and air grids, their internal supplies will be exhausted in days!”
Newling shrugged.
“They’ve had their chances. We laid out the crimes the government have committed to stay in power, including their latest outrages. We gave them our manifesto and our plans for a free, open government. Then we told them to make a choice. If they want to choose the government, that’s fine by me.”
“At least leave their comms open! Maybe they’ll change their minds,” pleaded Caitlin. “And it will show that we can be merciful to those who disagree with us, which could play well with some of the other reluctant warrens.”
Newling sighed. “You must have been a heck of a diplomat. I’ll agree to leaving a single dedicated line open, one that goes to us. If they want to communicate to Artemis City, they can take their chances with open frequency radios. Nour, can you handle that?”
The former MinSec agent nodded. “We have people who can.”
“Good. How about the other warrens?”
“Armstrong, Scipio City, and Copernicus are the only three who are still actively pledging allegiance to the current regime. Nuevo Madrid and Marseilles en Lune are wavering. The others are solidly behind us.”
“Caitlin, increase the pressure on Copernicus. Use Armstrong as an example. Scipio City won’t budge; the Union’s naval college and main base is there. But we need to cut them off as well.”
“They have their own connections to Artemis City,” said Nour. “It won’t be as effective.”
“No, but it also won’t be a drain on our resources any longer.”
“Makes sense.”
“Where’s Sharon? I haven’t seen her today.”
“She’s trying to organize some sort of naval force for us. HKL is producing parts as quickly as they can, but it still takes time to convert a merchant into an armed vessel.”
“What about the smugglers?”
“None of them will admit to anything.”
Newling puffed hair out of her eyes, exasperated. “I want a meeting with them, again. They’re just as dead as we are if we can’t hold off the Navy, at least until the Federation jumps in to support us. Speaking of which, have we heard anything?”
“Only that Cassidy is out-system but is returning, or maybe she’s returned by now. Basically, ‘don’t comm us, we’ll comm you’, but at least Stone added a personal message,” Caitlin said.
“A personal message? What was it?”
“Let me call it up.” The former foreign service diplomat pulled out a padd and tapped.
“There it is. ‘Sorry about the breakage on the way out. I’ll be back soon to pay the tab. Stone.’”
“Breakage?”
“I’m sure she’ll tell us when she gets back. When did that come in?”
“A half-hour ago.”
“Somehow I feel better.” Newling’s grin was predatory. “Get going on Armstrong and Copernicus. Then maybe Madrid and Marseilles will fall in line.”
She put her head back down into the paperwork and the meeting was over.
CHAPTER SIX
Habitat Njord
“You knew about this?”
“Why weren’t we informed? This is vital information!”
“What part of Need to Know don’t you understand?”
“We’re protecting you!”
Kendra allowed the arguments to rage for a few more moments before sending a command to Diana through her ‘plant.
Let’s get their attention.
As you say, Admiral.
“Pipe down!” Kendra’s amplified voice blasted through the conference room and silence fell abruptly.
“Take your seats,” she said at a more normal volume.
“Please,” she added, obviously an afterthought.
“Tamara, Kyra, we didn’t tell you because we haven’t been able to bring you up to speed yet on everything. This is all new to us, and we’ve had more than just ourselves to worry about for what, six weeks? Seven? You’re just going to have to forgive us when we forget things, because we don’t know what we don’t know.”
Kendra locked eyes with the two planetary leaders until she got agreement from both.
“Thank you. Now, let’s try this again. Cristina, bring us up to speed.”
Cristina Montana, a tall, strongly-built woman with a pair of anachronistic square-framed black glasses, stood. She was Director of OutLook and the de facto Director of Intelligence for the Federation, but anyone who mistook her for a chair-bound warrior would be sorely mistaken. She’d started as an agent who specialized in, as she put it, “hurting people and breaking things,” and she’d maintained her trim.
“According to our sources, Newling’s cabal now controls roughly 90% of the warrens in Artemis. Unfortunately, that only accounts for less than 30% of the population, so they’re not going to do anything by brute force. They’ve sent messages requesting our formal recognition and assistance, which we’ve deferred until after this meeting.”
“What are their chances if we don’t assist them?” asked Kendra.
“Ye can’t be serious!” burst out an older woman, jumping to her feet on the far side. “We spent a month there planning with them, pledging our support, and ye expect us to walk away?”
“Mikki, stand down. I’m asking questions, not making decisions. Stand. Down,” Kendra repeated when she remained standing. “That’s an order, Master Chief.”
“Aye-aye, Admiral,” she nearly snarled. “But if ye think we’re going to abandon them, we’re going to go a few rounds.”
“Any time, Chief,” Kendra replied, smiling. Master Chief Mikayla Stone was passionate, and death on two feet, but she was also one of the adopted ‘aunts’ to Cass and Ken’s daughters. She might be quick to anger, which led in part to her retirement from the SEALs, but she also would cool off quickly. Kendra felt safe in challenging her, at least in this setting.
“We have no intention of abandoning them,” she said now. “But we’re going to talk about it first. That’s part of working in a partnership.”
Looking around again, she said, “Let’s do this in an orderly way. Nicole, I want to hear from you first. Give us your best guess for next steps. Cristina, I’ll want your analysis. Kyran, I’ll need your evaluation of our ability to support them. Davie, you’re covering our military capabilities. Chief, I want your evaluation of their chances on the ground and of their personalities. Now they’ve kicked off I don’t want to replace a Stalin with a Qin Yang.”
Seeing nods around the group she finally turned to Kyra and Tamara, she said, “I’m going to want your opinions as well. You’ve worked with Artemis more recently than anyone else here. Fair en
ough? Moderator Kumlien?”
The head of the Asteroid Miner’s Guild nodded. “Quite fair. Thank you.”
“President Smith?”
The leader of the Titan Colony also nodded. “Equitable.”
“Good. Diana, record session. Official Federation business.”
“Recording, Admiral.”
“Nicole?”
The former Minister of War stood gracefully. “Admiral, before I begin, I’d like to suggest we bring Colin Dent and Jake Taylor in on this discussion.”
“I thought you might ask,” Kendra said. “Why?”
“Dent was the Minister of Intelligence for years and will bring a valuable perspective on this rebellion from the position of the authorities they’re trying to replace. Taylor replaced me as Minister and has the most current information on the capacities of the Artemis, Martian, and Union navies. And I trust them both.”
Her voice caught.
“I know Jake took a huge risk in bringing my family aboard the Averroes when they fled. He didn’t have to. It would have been far simpler to leave them behind, but he didn’t. He brought them – home – to me, safely.” She stopped and sniffed. Given the history her family had with MinSec, and the events of the past few days, it was certain they would have been picked up for ‘questioning’ again. The odds of them surviving would not have been good.
“Cris? Are they cleared?”
The intel specialist nodded her agreement.
“Their stories check out seven ways from Sunday. I had Stephanie interview them as well and they passed without a blip. I think Dent is itching for some revenge on the Primus; she ordered him to kill his cousin, Arthur, or else. He won’t talk about it, not in any detail, but he did say he chose to follow the order because he didn’t want Arthur to suffer.” Montana’s voice hardened. “Nicole’s right, I think. He’s a decent man who finally escaped a crappy system. I’m planning to bring him in-house and pick his brains.”
“Then we should have them here.”
“Admiral,” said a dark-complexioned woman. “I think we need to break this up for a while, maybe an hour, to get the various specialists together. Then we can just have a few short reports, rather than all the in-depth analysis. We need to move quickly on this if we’re going to support them, otherwise their morale will suffer and that will crush the revolution as surely as Artemis bombing the other warrens.”
