by G J Moses
“Sir, you may not remember, but my wife, Ensign Litzy, was pregnant during our last action prior to the New Providence activity. My wife was having a really tough time of it. You were kind enough to wait on us and, well… you were able to alleviate my wife’s anxiety with all the talk about the antics between you, your brother and sister while growing up. For one night at least, you took her mind totally off her concerns. We have not forgotten. When this came up…”
“I do remember. I am glad I was able to help. I heard you had a baby boy, how is he doing?”
“He is doing great; he will be a year-old next week. My wife and son stayed back to visit her parents for a few months.” a proud Chancy boasted.
“What is your son’s name, if you do not mind me asking?” inquired Jeanne.
“Chancy Friedell Jr. is his name, Chancy Ezekiel Friedell Jr. to be exact, “Chancy said as he started walking away. “Oh, by the way, I had stopped by to let you know your meal will be out in five minutes, so you both better finish up with your ‘specials’”.
Jeanne let out a surprised bellow of laughter. “You know, I like your crew Zeke, and they seem to like you.”
“They are a good crew and I am very proud of them all. They…” was all Zeke could get out as there was a major commotion at the door.
They turned to see Gunner and Isolde walking in with their arms wrapped around each other. They were surrounded by many others as all the patrons and staff rushed over to talk with Gunner.
“Ahh… it is good to see him getting around. Speaking of which, how is Masson doing?” Zeke asked while sampling some of the fruit.
“Masson is doing good. My sister pinged to thank me for sending him home safe. Now she wants to meet you as he seems to be getting a small case of hero worship himself. What did you two do out there?”
“No time, here are our meals. I told them to rush it when I made the reservations as our time is very limited.”
Looking up, Jeanne saw Clancy approaching with a large tray held up over his head. Just as he reached the table, he swung the tray around in a big half circle until he had one edge resting on the table and the other end on his raised knee. “Sorry, but the tray stands were destroyed in our first action. Hopefully your meal will not fall on the floor. But no worries if they do, we had the floors cleaned a few hours ago.” With that, Clancy started setting their plates on the table.
Jeanne looked at the floor “Ok, it looks clean enough for me. But if you are going to dump one, let’s make it Zeke’s ok? I heard he is a bad tipper where I am a legend for my generosity.” whereupon Clancy gave her a wide smile appreciating her dry wit.
“Excuse me Jeanne for a few moments, ok? I want to take a moment and check on Gunner.” Standing, Zeke walked by Jeanne, where he leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, I’ll be right back.”
Watching intently while he made his way to stand by Gunner and Isolde, she was a bit taken by surprise when Clancy puts her meal down in front of her.
“Here you are ma’am; I hope you will find everything satisfactory. Would you mind if I asked you a personal question? Are you and the Captain an item?”
Startled, Jeanne looked at Clancy in shock. “What??”
“I ask because the ladies in the back want to know. They never had an opportunity to get this close to the Captain in a personal setting, and want to jump on this rare opportunity. But the scuttlebutt is you and he are an item. True?”
“I wouldn’t… err… we are…” stammered a blushing Jeanne.
“Hmm… should I tell the ladies they are mistaken and the Captain is fair game?” asked a smiling Clancy.
Jeanne looked at Clancy with a flushed look and wide eyes. In an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice “Umm… no, he is not available.”
Clancy nodded his head affirmatively while positioning Zeke’s dinner. “Thought so. Well, you have a wonderful evening. Do not hesitate to let me know if you need anything else.”
Zeke walked back up just as Clancy was leaving. “Ah… dinner looks delicious. Did you get everything you wanted?”
A red-faced Jeanne, looked up innocently at Zeke. “Yes, and more. Clancy is definitely an interesting waiter. He was able to keep me amused while you were gone, most assuredly so.”
“Excellent, well, let’s eat while the food is hot. Speaking of hot, your face is red, are you feeling ok? Is it too warm in here for you?”
Choking on the champagne that she was in the process of sipping, Jeanne took a second to ponder on how she got herself in this situation. Then, seeing Zeke looking at her in concern, decided it was not so bad after all. “He sure strikes an imposing figure… now if only I could get another taste of those delicious looking lips…”
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Jeanne replied “No, I am fine, I just had some things on my mind. How is Gunner?”
“Gunner is doing good. I wanted to make sure he is not over tasking himself. We need his expertise in the upcoming engagement. But it seems Isolde is a better medicine than resting. Gunner sounds much better. Now, let’s concentrate on our meal as we have a big day ahead of us.”
As they ate, they shared their plates where many times their hands crossed and touched each other. By the time the meal was over, both were flushed with excitement, and it had nothing to do with the meal or the upcoming action.
Change of Plans
A bit later, Zeke and Jeanne walked onto the Bridge. A quick survey showed all the others were present, they were the last to arrive.
“Hello Captains, I was informed by your waiter that you had completed the specials so we all pinged each other it was time to meet. Just out of curiosity Jeanne, what were the ‘specials’, the waiter laughed and said I should ask you when I asked him. Jeanne, are you OK? Something you ate?” Will asked Jeanne when he saw her cough in embarrassment.
“Err… not used to your spices…” replied Jeanne trying to maintain her composure.
“I asked everyone to come here versus the conference room for the sake of time. Did you come up with a mine pattern that you want to deploy Gunner?” Zeke interjected seeing Jeanne’s stumbling. He was close to laughing himself.
“I will let Isolde review what we decided on since most of it is her plan anyway. Will and I added our own little tidbits to make it a bit more interesting for our friends. We would hate to disappoint them. Hope they get a real blast out of it.” a proud Gunner replied. Zeke noticed that Gunner’s voice, though still a little strained, sounded more like his booming voice of old.
Using the controls embedded in her wrists, Isolde brought up a 3D image of the tunnel exit. “Our plan is to deploy the mines in three layers. The first layer will be just a heavy layer of our regular space mines. The second layer, missile mines. The last layer will be a mixture of both.”
The 3D image pulled back quickly within the tunnel. Stopping a good distance from the exit, in the very center of the tunnel, was a line of mines laid out in haphazard order.
“This is a simulation of how the space mines will be arranged. The outside of the mines will mimic the features of the surrounding asteroids. We were going to use the mines normal camouflage, but Dale and Danny made some great recommendations. Along with their crew, they redid the camouflage for the mines to mimic an asteroid. We are hoping the Chohish will believe these are asteroids left over from when the tunnel was built. Maybe a waste if their maps are up to date and identify they do not belong there, but we believe that in their haste, they will ignore some warnings. Or that we placed them there trying to slow their advance. We are using our tractor beams to pull out asteroids and place them in the middle of the tunnel to help with this subterfuge.”
The image changed to show asteroids being pulled out of the side tunnel to be dumped into the middle.
“Gunner came up with that part.” a proud Isolde explained.
“The mines are configured to wait until all the Chohish ships are within range of the mines before arming. Our thought is since they
may not be familiar with mines, why waste missile mines when they will, hopefully anyway, run right into them.” explained Will.
“Gunner will explain the second set made up of the missile mines. That will take some special handling to get this set up properly. They will be hidden within the asteroids on the sides of the tunnel. We will have to use Meghan’s fighters and shuttles to get these placed.”
The display blanked out for a second as Gunner stepped forward to grab the manual controls off the center table. “Zeke, we need to get the RGN to build some of these shuttles that Meghan’s crew have, they are very useful. Their special shuttles are not as fast as ours, weigh a bit more to support the fighter hookup, and only half the cargo space, but… they sure do come in handy.”
Bringing up the one side wall of asteroids, he zoomed in until you could see an asteroid up close. Attached to this particular one was a high explosive. Looking around the room to be sure that all saw what he wanted, he then swung around behind it to show the missile mine.
Directly behind the asteroid was a large missile mine. “There is also a small sensor set on each asteroid that should not be detectable. It will relay a message to both the explosive and the mine once an enemy ship is in close proximity. The explosive is set to blow the asteroid off to the side, out of the way of the mine. We have seeded these in a full circle around the tunnel so any ships that stray towards the walls, well… boom! ‘.
Making his way to stand by Gunner, Will took to resetting the display so they were now looking at the whole tunnel. “Just past the missile mines, we have laid both regular and missile mines across the width of the tunnel. It is thin, but it is the best we could do.”
Leaning on the edge of one of the console platforms, Will looked over the group. “Our hopes are that the Chohish will come rushing through and run straight into the mines.”
While Will was relaying this, Isolde had the 3D display show a simulation of a score of Chohish ships coming through the tunnel. At first, they slowed down when they saw the asteroids in the center, but after a few laser blasts and no scan of any electronics, they resumed their breakneck speed.
“As Isolde is about to show, we are hoping they will rely on their reckless disregard for safety, along with having the latest maps, and take their chances. Not something we could do as we have no idea what the Chohish may have done. But following us so closely, one ship could not do very much, normally, if anything. Only because of unexpected resources,” at which Will gave Jeanne and Jan a nod, “are we even discussing about mining the tunnel. We believe, hope, pray, this is what will happen.”
The simulation paused while Isolde looked around to make sure all were now watching. Making a quick two finger contact, Isolde started the simulation running. “What you are seeing is what we hope will happen when the Chohish reach the asteroids we placed in the center of the tunnel. We do not think they will send too many ships.”
The simulation now showed six Chohish ships arrive in their far view. As they got closer you could make out asteroids scattered in the center of the tunnel. It was obvious when the Chohish slowed down and it was not long before the asteroids were being pelted with both laser fire and missiles. Continuing to track the Chohish, they watched as the Chohish continued at a slow pace, maintaining their fire on the asteroids.
“We believe after not getting any reaction from the asteroids, nor sensing any type of man-made device, they will be lulled into thinking that the asteroids were only meant to slow them down. They would then speed up while keeping a wary eye out for any stray asteroid” Gunner explained.
Isolde looked at Gunner questioningly. It was easy to see they knew each other’s expression when Gunner smiled and shook his head positively. The display now showed the Chohish moving along and arriving at the area of the first missile trap. This was easily identified as Isolde had the missiles colored red and flashing. The leading Chohish passed halfway down the mined area before it became obvious the Chohish detected something. But it was too late. The mines, using internal tractor beams, pulled themselves towards the Chohish ships. The Chohish point defense was good, but, not good enough.
Mines have gone through a lot of development and electronic measures were their key to their effectiveness. Everyone watched as chaff was ejected by the mines along with miniature missiles loaded with ghost signatures. They were not meant to fool for long, just a few seconds, which is all that they needed. They watched as several mines were destroyed before they could get into effective range. But then, the rest of the mine’s reached their desired distance from the enemy ships, where they exploded with a terrific explosion.
“What damage is inflicted, of course, would be a wild guess at best so we will not conjecture on that. We are just showing what our hopes are. We have placed a few probes and transmitters that are set to sit idle and undetectable until the mines go off. We are hoping they can transmit to the others we have placed further down the tunnel to relay to us what happens. But we do not have much hope of that being successful. Between electronic countermeasures and the fallout from the mines, getting a signal out will be near impossible. “Isolde explained.
“After the first set of mines, we expect that the Chohish fleet will slow down and stay away from the middle.” Whereupon the display now showed the Chohish fleet, avoiding the center of the tunnel which was still populated with asteroids, scattered and hugging the sides of the tunnel.
“We do not expect them to resume full speed, maybe even pausing a bit to assess their damaged ships, but to continue on while being much more alert. Better to get through later than being so battered that they would be ineffective when they did. This will work in our favor, hopefully. The second set of mines is just beyond the first set so as to not allow the Chohish much time to think or react.”
Saying this Isolde, now showed the enemy fleet reaching the area where the missile mines were marked in the same colored red and flashing used earlier. The display showed the Chohish fleet, with their speed much reduced, resuming their fire upon the asteroids in the center.
As the fleet proceeded down the tunnel, the sensors marked in red, flashed when the last Chohish entered the killing zone. All the asteroids that hid the mines were blown to the side and the missile mines fired off towards the Chohish ships.
The display showed the mines now being in the element they were made for, namely space, hurtling toward the Chohish.
The Chohish fired their point defense in desperation, but it had only minimal effect. Missile mines, when in their effective kill zone, were hard to stop.
The missile mines raced to the enemy ships and exploded.
Still leaning on the console platform, Will spoke up. “At this time, we expect the Chohish fleet, no matter how effective the mines have been, to be now crawling along and doing their due diligence. To make sure they stay at this speed, we have set up a last area where we scattered the area with both types of mines.”
“We do not expect these mines to have any major impact, but more to slow the Chohish fleet down. We considered saving these mines, but determined the presence of additional mines will ensure that the Chohish stay vigilant and more importantly, slowing them down was worth their deployment.”
Shutting down the display, Isolde looked around. “Questions? Suggestions?”
Patiently waiting to see if anyone had any suggestions, Zeke finally stood up. “How far along are you with deployment?”
Isolde paused the simulation. “We had no option but to start deployment before we could show you our plans. Time was very limited.”
“Good, I was counting on that.”
With a nod, Jeanne turned around to glance at Jan who nodded his head in concurrence. Leaning forward, he whispered to Jeanne. “They had enough confidence in their plan while also knowing that the Captain would trust their judgement so they started the deployment on their own. I like this crew; they are top notch.”
While turning back around, Jeanne whispered so only Jan could hear “I concur. G
ood officers draw the same.”
“We are close to finishing the first layer while we are working on the second layer. We will start on the third immediately afterwards once the necessary shuttles are freed up. Why?” replied Isolde.
Zeke, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, smiled at Isolde before replying. “Because I am thinking of a change in your plans. Until now, I worked off what I was thinking was our only option. Get to Nocuous as quickly as possible, do whatever we can to eliminate the enemy forces deployed there, and if lucky enough, capture some of their senior staff. All within a few hours as we needed to leave before a Chohish fleet, following us through the tunnel arrived. We are not strong enough to take on a full undamaged Chohish fleet head to head. It would be a short battle.”
Walking over to stand by Isolde, he glanced at her with admiration very evident on his face. “But, young lady, you along with Will and Gunner, have me reconsidering. So… let me put another option out there for you. Jeanne, Jan and Hawke, please assist here if you would.”
With a puzzled look on her face, Jeanne thought “Why do I have a feeling life just became a lot more dangerous?”
Shrugging it off and now sporting a huge smile on her face, Jeanne acknowledged Zeke’s request, “My blood is screaming for vengeance on a race that would kill my family and friends sitting harmlessly in escape pods. Vengeance may be frowned on in the RGN but these were my family, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, and many more. Losing family in a battle is to be expected and we do not have an issue with that. But firing on escape pods? That cowardly type of murder must be avenged. With that, Jan and I would be glad to help out if your plans will help us out.”
“I am with Jeanne on that one” Hawke concurred.
