A12 Who Can Own the Stars?

by Mackey Chandler

  “It might surprise you to know I’d rather not be working on a vessel a few meters away while you are blasting it with a cannon,” Mackay told him.

  “Sometimes, I get the feeling you don’t trust me,” Otis said.

  Mackay just ripped the cable out and gave Otis his sternest look.

  “Going across now,” Mackay reported to Jeff.

  They didn’t hurry. A meter every couple of seconds was fine. Jeff brought them within about twenty meters and sideways to the very slow end over end tumble the ship retained. They landed softly on all four and then slowly stood back up.

  “They have sticky pads?” April asked. “I didn’t think they worked in vacuum.”

  “These are new,” Jeff said. “They are infused with silicone fluid and have to be replaced or regenerated under pressure when they dry out.”

  “By my display, we should be right about where your image shows the radiation sources,” Mackay said. “How does it look from there?”

  “You are standing right about where they are,” Jeff agreed. “We have no idea what sort of launch tube they use or even if it has one or three individual ports to expel them.

  “Let’s just go straight in,” Otis said and looked to Mackay for confirmation. When he got a tilt of the helmet and a verbal ‘go’, he swung the Halligan tool through a long arch to avoid breaking his boots loose from the hull. The spike went through the hull easily then he wrenched it upright. Planting his boot by it and pulling up on it stabilized him better than sticky boots alone could. He drew his ax with the other hand and started hacking a slit in the hull.

  “I know it’s not our ship but it hurts to see it chopped like scrap metal,” April said.

  “Think enemy ship,” Jeff said. “They are that, and you’d blow it to plasma with a missile if it came to a duel between them and you.”

  Mackay joined in, cutting from the start of the slit Otis made at right angles. When they had an area cut on three sides, they folded the skin back by hand, severing ribs and braces as needed.

  “There’s other machinery around them, unrelated to the missiles,” Mackay said. “We may have to cut some loose to reach where the data and command cables attach. The missile is inside a tube with ports for connectors, mounted on a pad like a shotgun wad. I see one other tube behind it and assume the third is spaced out symmetrically. They angle out and forward at about sixty degrees from the long axis of the ship. Each missile is in its own tube rather than feeding from a magazine.”

  “That’s good design,” Jeff said. “A failure in one won’t keep the other two from launching. It’s more work for you. Can you extract them?”

  “Yes, certainly, the question is how long it will take. Rather than cut them out sideways I think we need to detach the electrical connectors and pry open the hatch further forward on the hull. Let us do one and then you’ll know about how long the other two are going to take.”

  “Go ahead. Is there anything we can do to help?” Jeff asked.

  “Not you, but if you’d have Deloris ease the Hringhorni in close it will make loading them up easier. They are smaller than I expected, a bit over two meters, and nearly half that is the warhead. I see recesses with fasteners so we may be able to detach them.”

  “Do you want Johnson to suit up and help?” Jeff suggested.

  “In a conventional suit? I wouldn’t want him out here. If he wants to stay in his hold and help by strapping them down that would be great.”

  “I’ll have Johnson transfer to the hold and then move in close,” Deloris said.

  “This strut is in the way,” Otis said, “with no room to swing an ax.”

  “Got it,” Mackay said, slipping what looked like hooked pruning shears over it. He just held it, not squeezing or pumping, so it was powered. It cut the composite strut easily. Another cut and the whole thing got tossed gently away.

  “The cable terminations have break-away cable-ties. Pull them loose?” Otis asked.

  “Nah, just cut the cable behind them,” Mackay ordered.

  “OK, this is disconnected. It sits on a pusher pad and probably has a cold charge behind it like an air-bag to expel it. I see three shear pins to rip that off when it exits. I’ll pull those and it should float right up the tube.”

  “Leave one,” Mackay said. “Let’s make sure the hatch is open before releasing it.”

  “Figure the latch opens forward and is hinged to the rear?” Otis asked.

  “Yeah, if you ever expected to fire them under acceleration,” Mackay agreed.

  “Which first?”

  “Neither. Pry across the middle of the hatch and see if it releases,” Mackay said.

  The spike jammed in the crack and wrenched bent it up. The duckbill lifted it further but it just stretched and didn’t break. The other end of the Halligan was inserted until the claw came out the other side of the cover to give Otis some leverage against the hull. The hatch finally ripped off sailing off end over end, but it took so much force Otis pushed a dent in the hull under his feet.

  “I’ll stay here,” Mackay said. “You go pull the last pin and gently push it to me.”

  “Close enough?” Deloris asked.

  Mackay twisted and looked over his shoulder. The open hold hatch was three meters away, with Johnson in the opening hanging on a take-hold He’d have been nervous if he’d watched her approach that close. He noted with approval Johnson had a safety line on and a cargo net strung midway across the hold. The open hold was not only close, it was in direct line for the missile to go straight across into the hold. Mackay wondered if she was that good, or if it was a lucky accident.

  “On the move,” Otis called. Indeed it was, but only about a meter every twenty seconds. That was plenty fast for moving anything this massive in zero g. The nose was a hemisphere, not streamlined for an atmosphere at all. Mackay resisted any temptation to touch it. It was aimed so well all he could do would be to misdirect it.

  When it reached the hold opening Johnson did push on the nose of it. starting it to turn. Mackay didn’t understand why at first but watched as it hit the net at an angle and the rear pivoted from the front contact point until the entire side contacted the net.

  Johnson grabbed the edge of another net Mackay hadn’t seen and jumped to the far side of the hold, fastening the new net before the missile stretched the first one out and rebounded. The missile bounced between the two nets a dozen times, the rocking motion slowly damping with each cycle. Then, when it was almost still, Johnson folded the edge of the rear net over the missile and eased it down to the deck.”

  Mackay didn’t realize Otis had joined him and was watching too.

  “Johnson, that was pretty slick,” Mackay complimented him.

  “I’ve handled a little freight. You pick up tricks,” he said modestly. “I see normal fasteners here. Do you guys want to keep the whole thing or separate the warhead? I have a tool kit here in the hold and could do it while you are getting the next one.”

  “Let’s keep one booster after we separate it, but all the warheads,” Jeff said. “Are you guys up to recovering all three? I know this is a long shift for vacuum work.”

  “It is, and we’re already tired, but that only took thirty-five minutes,” Mackay said. “We have stim and the powered suits make it easier. If Deloris can shift around and make the other two transfers as easy to do, we’ll be headed home in an hour and a half.”

  “Yeah, no problem. I can shift around to the other hatches. Are you getting any signs of life from inside the ship?” she asked.

  Otis shook his head no. “We haven’t felt any motion,” Mackay said.

  “We still haven’t heard anything on the radio,” Jeff added.

  “OK, let’s finish it up,” Mackay said. He was pleased to find Deloris was able to position the Hringhorni as well for the other missiles. Indeed, she got so close on the last one that Mackay tensed and got ready to jump clear before she brought it to a stop.

  * * *

  “How do
we do this in reverse?” Deloris asked Jeff

  “I have it follow the same program to a theoretical point near their station. Since there is no need to be as close, I’m allowing a full kilometer.”

  Deloris nodded. She liked the extra room.

  “When we arrive, we can’t jump out until we move far enough away from the Constitution that it won’t be in our jump fields. There’s no way to do that as fast as I’d like. We’ll accelerate six seconds at two gs and jump out.”

  “Six seconds is a long time,” Deloris objected.

  “We could drop them off some distance away and tell them to go get them,” Jeff said, “but if they need medical attention that would be terrible PR. Only an automated system could fire on us in six seconds and we’ll be too close for most such systems to accept us as a sudden target.”

  “That puts us how far away?” Deloris asked. “How far do we need to be?”

  “A bit over three hundred meters,” Jeff said. “The problem is we haven’t mapped out how far the jump field extends. It seems to depend on the way the mass is distributed how it pulls it along, and we have no data on anything positioned slightly ahead of us. It’s going to take a lot of experimentation to get all that data for a single ship, much less two or three acting together.”

  “OK then,” Deloris allowed reluctantly, “Let’s experiment again.”

  * * *

  After six seconds of acceleration, they jumped so the Moon suddenly appeared close off the forward ports. The Constitution, somewhat shot, shortened, bent, and torn open amidships was left behind them near its original station. The radio message they transmitted three jumps back from dropping it off would just be arriving at the station. It would be a shame if they left it floating nearby and nobody looked or noticed it.

  “We’re going to be subjected to an unending barrage of foolishness,” Jeff predicted.

  “Just leave our names out of it,” Mackay requested. “People show up periodically wanting to assassinate you. I’m sure we can deal with that, but I don’t want to.”

  “I’ll be careful of that,” Jeff promised. “I imagine you are ready to shower and decompress. April and I have both experienced being cooped up in suits for too long at a time and know what it is like.

  “It’s getting pretty ripe in here,” Otis volunteered. “It’s going to take more than a bag of No-Stink-Um. It’ll take a couple of days with an ozone generator, then vacuum.”

  “I’m just dropping you two off at Home. We’re immediately going to the Moon,” Jeff said. “I don’t want to be responsible for having nukes I didn’t build at Home. We’ll disassemble at least one on the Moon to see what makes them tick. If it goes off on the surface outside Central, it’s no big deal. At Home, it also might tempt them to try to recover them.”

  “It will be a big deal for you if you are doing the disassembly,” Otis warned.

  “A solar says they have no booby traps but the authorization software, and that to prevent detonation, not force it,” Jeff said.

  “Do I collect from your estate if you lose? Wouldn’t that look tacky,” Otis said.

  Jeff didn’t understand that so he ignored it.

  “I’m going to dock at Home rather than make a long and complicated explanation to traffic control that we are just dropping you off at the north terminal. Do you want a cart called to the elevators and is the Bofors unloaded and safe?”

  “A cart would be welcome,” Mackay said. “A freight cart because we won’t fit a regular seat in this armor. The Bofors has the expended round in the chamber and was set not to auto-load from the magazine. I suggest you leave it that way because we have no rack or container for the shell casing.”

  “That works for me,” Jeff agreed. “You’ll find a little extra in your account for the long suit hours and extra EV hazard.”

  “Thanks, we won’t turn that down,” Mackay agreed.

  “We’ll wait to call for undocking until you tell us you are safely inside.”

  After a few minutes, Mackay called.

  “We’re in and safe, but be aware there were three reporters with cameramen waiting at your dock door to interrogate you. When you do come back, I think they will still be waiting. At least if you come back in Dionysus’ Chariot. I suspect they know the ship by name.”

  “Joy, I had no idea there were three Earthie reporters on Home now. We used to get one once in a while and they didn’t stay that long. It’s too soon for any of them to have lifted from Earth in response to our intercept,” Jeff figured.

  “One of the teams might be an independent stringer, but the one pair was from The Mouse with Disney logos pasted on their clothing and gear,” Mackay said. “The other was Australian. They had neat khaki uniforms with logos and PRESS on the back.”

  “They didn’t stop you and give you a hard time?” April asked.

  “Your dock hatch is marked with the ship name on the screen and the occupied light on. We came in from the maintenance lock down the tube and I don’t think they connected us with you. They all backed up and looked intimidated by the armor. I know they took video as we passed, but I’d bet they just saw it as local color.”

  “Thanks, Mackay. They’ll be disappointed when we undock,” Jeff said. “I’m calling for clearance now.” He didn’t sound in the least sorry.

  * * *

  “Do you want a feed of the Earthie’s reactions to your capture?” Chen asked them before they even reached the Moon.

  “We’re tired, Chen. I don’t trust myself to respond appropriately until I’m rested,” April said. “Queue them up and I’ll look at them after breakfast. The only reaction I want to be awakened for is if we’re under attack. Put any official response from the North Americans at the head of the list. I’m not much interested in what media people think.”

  “North Americans and then I’ll list friends and allies,” Chen promised.

  The next morning came early because Jeff and April both had gene mods that reduced their need for sleep a couple of hours a night. Jeff begged off and told April to tell him anything he really needed to know. “Why put both of us in a foul mood?” he asked. Heather didn’t seem eager to hear the reactions either, although the challenge was directly to her law.

  “OK, one more cup of coffee, and I’ll look at Chen’s report,” April said. “No point in putting it off any longer. I know it’s just going to irritate me. She put in earbuds out of respect for Jeff not caring to hear it.

  “No official communication is reported to have been received by anyone at Home or Central. No statements in commercial media attributed to North American officials have been directed at Home or Central.

  “The Senator from West Ontario, Robert Hodge, on Brad and Suzie’s Morning Show (Highly watched show. Details in attached files.) stated it was an act of war and the USNA should respond by declaring war with Home. Suzie Bradshaw the co-host asked him if the USNA wasn’t still at war with Home from before this incident? Hodge replied it was in doubt that carried over from previous administrations and it should be affirmed and declared again based on this act.”

  “Until they really mean it?” April mused aloud. Jeff gave her a look for that.

  “I’m not sure the Senator distinguishes between Home and Central or is at all aware of the fact that they are separate nations with different governments,” Chen said. “It is worth noting the Senator does not belong to any space related committees.

  “China, or significant separatist regions in China, have made no official statements.

  “There are no official pronouncements from the rest of the Far East or Africa.

  “In the Near East and European nations, Turkey condemns the “Space Pirates” and considers this simply an extension of previous lawless behavior.

  “No official statements have been made by European Union members.

  “As far as the media. More European news outlets have carried stories on the intercept and seizure than American sources. The difference being the tone of the European
stories is one of concern and questions and the American news outlets are using very strong words and condemning the action unambiguously. I’ve condensed this report as much as possible being aware you have access to the same media feeds and can tailor your own keyword searches.”

  April dropped a brief text to Chen thanking him.

  “Anything?” Jeff asked, seeing she was done.

  “Not official. One powerless Senator posturing. The usual media blah, blah, blah. I have no idea why but Turkey has always seemed to hate us.”

  Jeff nodded and went back to his own pad.

  “Think over what you will say to the reporters,” Heather suggested. “I suspect this story is big enough they will be watching for your return even if you delay a week. The North Americans and their media are probably confused why you aren’t shouting your versions of events to counteract anything they say.”

  “Why aren’t you blessed with them here?” Jeff wondered.

  “I suspect because there are very few monarchies left. The media are uncomfortable with them. Even the ones where they are largely ceremonial and kept isolated behind security. They associate an absolute monarch with the ability to say: “Off with his head.” The fact I hold court with a weapon at hand in front of me probably doesn’t help. Home seems a democracy they think they understand, and much safer to visit.”

  “I care very little what they are going to say. In the past, it’s been contradictions, lies, and nonsense. I care more for what they can do and the will to do it,” Jeff said.

  “Knowing that, it’s better to let them speak first so you have something to work with to debunk it,” April said. “I guarantee they’ll give you plenty to work with.”

  “I agree,” Heather said. “Wait and let them spout off first.”

  Chen called back before lunch.

  “The Secretary of State says this was a peaceful mission of exploration, headed out of the Solar System on a heading that took it nowhere near the Moon or Home and presented no threat to spacers. That the crew is in rough shape because the ship was destabilized and they were subject to prolonged tumbling. The file is attached, but he did not specifically blame Central or Home, and did not name Jeffrey or April, neither did he condemn you with terms like piracy.”