by Kal Spriggs
“What good will that do?” Marcus asked.
“For one thing, it wasn’t trying to kill us then,” Mel said. “For another, we could reason with it, at least somewhat.”
Stasia nodded slowly and looked over at Swaim, “I will need your help. I think we can do it.” She frowned, “the ship will be helpless while it reboots. Perhaps you should look at the communications equipment so we don’t get shot?”
Bob nodded, “I handled communications on Frost’s ship. I’ll look at it.”
Mel tossed her pistol to Brian, who somehow managed to catch it with his one hand without setting down his fire ax. “I’ll have a look at the helm and navigation system.”
“Maybe I can help,” Marcus said. He stepped up next to her as she looked down at the two forward panels. The first was the helm and navigation. The AI ship, not designed with a crew in mind, ran everything off the one panel, rather than a full section a normal ship its size would have.
Luckily, that meant she’d be able to manage it all from one place.
“This one is weapons,” Marcus said. He gave a low whistle.
“What?” Mel asked. She looked over at him with puzzlement.
“I knew this baby was well armed… but wow. It’s got more weapons than any battlecruiser ought to. It’s like a pocket battleship!” Marcus shook his head, “And on top of that, if this panel were live, I could control it all from here.”
Bob spoke from behind them, “I’ve got the communications console up, I’m going to try—”
The console exploded. Bob stumbled back, hands up in front of his face.
“Don’t touch that. I can…see you now. I found… if I ripped a part of me out… I could…tear out your little worm. Clever… very clever,” Fenris said. The discordant voices had grown even worse; the AI stumbled as it tried to speak. The words were so disjointed that she barely understood them.
“Can you get a message out?” Brian asked.
Bob looked down at the smoking mess of the console, “No way. It’s toast.” He waved some of the smoke out of the way and grimaced. “I think we’re on our own.”
Mel snorted, “What else is new?” She looked over at where Swaim and Stasia worked, “How’s it coming?”
“I think we have it,” Stasia said. “When I do this, it will shut the AI down and reboot it. It could take hours or longer.”
“Do it.” Mel said.
“I will… stop you… you cannot… stop me…” Fenris said, or tried to.
Mel shook her head, “Fenris, we’re trying to help you. Frost hurt you. We’re doing what we can to fix you.”
Stasia plugged her datapad in. “Give me a few minutes.”
Bob looked over at another console, “I’ll try to get a look at what’s out there with the sensors. I’m sure the ship’s already scanned, maybe we can see.”
Mel watched him work. She slowly reached out her hand and found Marcus’s. She entwined her fingers with his. He squeezed her hand in reassurance.
“It will work out,” he said. “I promise.”
***
“That was too close!” Rawn shouted as the bomber shook.
Frost just growled.
Sweat poured off his forehead. The Fenris had ten anti-fighter batteries, five on each side. Those batteries spat thousands of rounds at the tiny bomber.
On their side, the bomber was very small, and very, very fast. Frost could outrun the battlecruiser, but only if it stopped tractoring him. Any time he got more than a thousand kilometers away, the AI would overwhelm the bomber’s warp drive and tractor them back.
It toyed with him, he knew, like a cat with a mouse. He knew the game could end only one way. He knew that the mice never got away. Even so, he couldn’t give up. He wouldn’t give it that satisfaction.
“Watch out, the two forward batteries just went active!” Rawn shouted.
***
The sensor console went active, and the bridge displays came alive with data.
The helm and weapons consoles shared one large display. Mel stared at it in confusion. She tried to make sense of what it showed. The display compressed the data, using archaic and unfamiliar icons.
“What are we looking at?” Brian asked
“What, the super-human warrior doesn’t know how to read a warship’s display?” Marcus said as he adjusting it. Mel knew she couldn’t make sense of it herself.
“I’m a lot better at directly killing people and breaking things,” Brian said pleasantly. He smiled at Marcus, “Probably something you should remember.”
“Noted,” Marcus murmured. “Remind me to duel you with warships at long range.”
Mel shook her head, “Can you two stop playing who’s the alpha dog and try to be helpful?”
Marcus snorted, “Just passing time. Ah, here we go.”
He made a final adjustment to the screen and it leapt into focus. The icons were the more modern ones, sensor contacts were color-coded, and the scale of the system now made some kind of sense.
“Let’s see….” Marcus said. Right here, we’ve got… huh,” He highlighted a small craft. “Bob, can you confirm that?”
“No need, it’s one of Fenris’ bomber drones, and that hash around it is Fenris firing at it,” Mel said as calmly as she could manage.
“There’s no proof Rawn—”
“He’ll be aboard. He’s the only one who’d know how to get it running, I’d bet,” Mel said. She gritted her teeth. She spoke through lips that barely moved, “If he gets killed, I’ll never forgive him.”
Marcus adjusted the display again, bringing it out. “Next nearest ships are… oh.”
She blinked at the new contact. ‘Oh’ was right, she decided.
Thirty or more ships floated sat only a few million kilometers away, out of range of weapons but only a few seconds away by warp drive. They’d pulled into a formation. That boxy formation was positioned to intercept the Fenris if it approached Vagyr. Every one of the icons showed deep enough drive fields that they could only be warships.
“That’s… a lot of ships,” Mel said.
***
Commodore Jason Webb grimaced at his holographic display. “Well, Agent Scadden, there’s the ship, right on schedule. Right where you said it would be.”
The GI Agent smirked at the naval officer. Webb fought an urge to spit in disgust. He hated the slinking spies and their many plots. He hated being one of their errand boys even more.
He looked around his bridge and felt a bit of pride creep into his heart. The Torrent wasn’t the newest ship. She wasn’t even new for a Tsunami-class. Webb’s father had served as an ensign aboard this ship, a fact her present commander took some pride in.
Despite her age, the Torrent was a fine fighting ship. She’d kept up with her maintenance overhauls and at this point, almost everything but the hull had been replaced. With even a decent crew, the heavy cruiser was more than a match for almost anything in space.
And Jason Webb knew he had the best crew in space.
This ‘training exercise’ suggested by Admiral Silm, had his teeth on edge, though.
It wasn’t the independent command. Command of the squadron of Tsunami heavy cruisers, and the two squadrons of the lighter Carnivores along with the escorts was a challenge and a delight. The location at Vagyr increased the possibility for some real action. He doubted any sane pirate would try to do a snatch and run right under the nose of a task-force, but he’d be happy to smack them down if they tried.
No, what set him on edge was the Guard Intelligence Agent who smirked from the observer’s chair on his bridge. Especially when he read the secret orders which warned him that terrorists had hijacked a robotic relic from a century ago.
Webb hadn’t liked the overview of that ship’s capabilities. He especially didn’t like that was tougher and bigger than anything he had. Guard Fleet didn’t normally find itself at a size disadvantage. There was no good reason Fleet couldn’t have sent out a battleship or even a dreadnou
ght to bring the weight of fire in the opposite direction. But that hadn’t happened. Instead, they sent a squadron of heavy cruisers, two squadrons of light cruisers, and a handful of destroyer escorts to deal with it. The combat disparity made him uncertain. The battlecruiser had a far deeper warp drive than any of his vessels. That gave it not only better defenses than any of his individual ships, but also greater speed than anything besides his attack craft and missiles. The ship could, in theory, outmaneuver and outrun him.
The… rush of the operation gave him a chill too.
Hasty wasn’t a planning technique the military supported.
“Our probes detected a drone separate from the ship earlier. It fired on it, but the drone went evasive. Should I dispatch a vessel to… collect it?”
That he had to ask some weasel for instructions on his own bridge didn’t sit well with him either.
“No, Commodore. We had an agent inserted in the terrorist group. I expect that’s him on his way out,” Agent Scadden said. He seemed very pleased.
Webb grimaced. “Commander Fredrich, order battle stations, if you please.”
The alarm bells rang throughout the ship. Webb pulled his suit helmet from the strap on the side of his chair and settled it on his head.
“That’s totally unnecessary,” Agent Scadden said. “The ship won’t even defend itself.”
Commodore Webb turned a basilisk glare on the Agent, “I like to be prepared.”
CHAPTER XIX
Time: 0220 Zulu, 18 June 291 G.D.
Location: Fenris, Vagyr System
“Here goes nothing!” Stasia shouted.
The lights flickered. For a second, the entire ship seemed to stutter. Then it continued onwards.
“Okay, so… now what?” Mel asked.
Marcus looked at his console and a beatific smile crossed his face. “Well, that’s nice.”
“What?” she asked.
“My console is live. You’ll be happy to know that we’re no longer shooting at your brother.” Marcus said.
She looked down at the helm and tried to adjust the course. The ship responded and she broke into a broad smile of her own. “I’ve got control of the ship, I’m altering course.”
“Why?” Brian asked. His face pulled into an irritated frown at the fact he had to ask.
“Because I want some distance between us and that fleet until they know we’re not here to fight,” she responded.
“Oh, right,” Brian said. He sounded slightly disappointed.
“Uh, we got a problem,” Bob said. Flashing red halos suddenly surrounded the icons of the fleet.
“What’s that mean?” Brian asked.
“It means they’re hitting us with targeting sensors,” Marcus snapped. “It means they’re not interested in asking a whole lot of questions.”
***
Frost grunted in surprise as the turret fire cut off, but continued to dodge and weave as he sped away from the ship.
This time, at last, the ship didn’t tractor the bomber back toward it.
He shot a glance back at Rawn, “What happened?”
“I don’t know, something happened with the ship. I can’t communicate with it.” Rawn spoke slowly, as if he feared to get his hopes up. “They might have knocked out the AI.”
Frost grimaced; he didn’t doubt that Rawn’s sister would try. He just doubted they’d succeed where he’d failed. He squinted at the tiny sensor screen aboard the fighter. Slowly, he brought the scale out until he found what he was looking for.
“Something took its attention,” Frost said. “Guard Fleet is here in strength. Look, the Fenris is altering course.”
“It’s running?” Rawn asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s gone insane. Who knows what it’s thinking?” Frost asked. He chewed on his lip. “I’m going to make a course for Vagyr. I can probably swing wide around them and they won’t even notice us—”
“No!” Rawn shouted. “We have to go back for her!”
Frost sighed, “Rawn, there’s no way we can help her. The computer wants to kill us. If we go back, it will swat us like a fly.”
“She might have shut down the AI,” Rawn said. He’d gone mulish, Frost saw.
Frost looked forward, and made a face, “All right. Say she’s shut down the AI. She’s got Roush with her, she just saved Vagyr and prevented the Guard from looking ridiculous. How do you think she’ll make out?”
“I don’t trust Roush,” Rawn said stubbornly.
“Good. But you can assume she’s got some credit with him. After all, she saved his life. Now think about what happens if we go back,” Frost said. He let those words percolate through Rawn’s brain for a moment. “Think about it: what’s your sister likely to do if Guard Intelligence says they’re going to take her brother off to prison for the rest of his life?”
Rawn didn’t answer.
Frost could tell he’d won the kid over when he finally did speak, “I still say we could help.”
“As long as she plays it smart, she’s better off without you there right now,” Frost said. He actually figured the odds of her survival at only fifty-fifty, but he knew if he went back, his own life and a lot of GFN’s secrets would be forfeit. If he was forced to, he’d shoot Rawn down in cold blood to prevent that.
He didn’t want to, though. He’d always had a soft spot for the kid. Rawn had too much potential to waste. Too much hatred and too much dedication for the cause. Frost didn’t want to waste that, not if he didn’t have to.
A small lie was a lot gentler than the alternatives.
***
“Okay, we’re reversing course, but they’re still going to catch us,” Mel sighed. “I can’t engage the FTL warp drive; the AI locked that down. Without that, we can’t escape an engagement.”
“I’m not sure we’d survive FTL warp,” Marcus said with a grimace. “Not after that last transition.”
“I’m not sure we’ll survive without it,” Mel said. “Hopefully when Fenris reboots, he can tell Guard Fleet he surrenders.”
She shrugged, “Otherwise, they’ll be in missile range in thirty minutes. There are a lot of fighters with those ships, too. They aren't that dangerous individually, but they pack a lot of firepower.”
“Well, your brother made it out,” Marcus said. He highlighted the small bomber drone, which was rapidly accelerating away. “I doubt that fleet even sees it at this range.”
Mel frowned, “And I can guess who’s with him piloting.” She grimaced, irritated by the thought that Frost had escaped. Then again, at least her brother was safe.
She turned, and found Stasia stood only a few steps away. Impulsively Mel grabbed her in a big hug, “Thanks for saving my brother. I can’t possibly thank you enough for that.”
The other woman hugged her tightly. Then, she surprised Mel and pulled her head around in a kiss. Stasia broke it off and chuckled, “I can think of a way…”
Mel stumbled back a few steps, “Uh, what was that?”
“Well…” Stasia said, then she shook her head, “Aw, hell, I’m so tired of that stupid accent.” She rolled her eyes. “Since we’re probably going to die anyway, you can call me Lace.”
“What?” Mel asked.
The woman chuckled again. She made a bow with a flourish, “My name is Lace, I’m a registered member of the Mercenary Guild. Pleased to meet you.”
Even Brian looked confused, “But…”
“But no one expected it? But I accomplished so much as the hacker?” Lace shook her head, “I’m very good at what I do. That’s why I got hired to make sure this ship wasn’t turned against humanity.”
“And who hired you to do that?” Bob asked.
The mercenary smiled sweetly, “Wouldn’t you like to know, Bob?”
“I can be very persuasive,” Bob said. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Sorry Bob. Mel’s more my style.”.
Mel flushed beet red, “Uh, can we get back onto topic?”
>
Stasia/Lace looked over at Marcus, “Isn’t she so cute when she’s embarrassed?”
***
“This thing needs a user’s manual,” Marcus muttered.
Mel looked over at his panel. It did seem far more complex than her own, somewhat familiar controls. She looked down at the helm controls, “I can’t get over how mine seems kind of familiar.”
Marcus snorted, “That’s because you flew a ship with an identical console for a while.” He pointed at hers, “Looking at that, I’d bet the Kip Thorne had a console made by the same people around the same time.”
Mel blinked in surprise. “You’re right.” She stared down at the console, it felt… right somehow. It felt, in an odd way, as if she had a link to her parents. She wondered if they’d approve of her decisions. She wondered if they’d have forgiven Marcus if they’d known him.
“Of course I am,” Marcus said. “It took me almost a year to familiarize myself with that ancient hunk-of-junk.”
“We don’t have a year,” Brian said. “They’re getting closer, and they’ve locked on.” His face had a hungry look, almost like he felt eager to fight.
“You don’t expect me to fight them?” Marcus said, surprised.
Bob cocked his head, “I think we’re in the realms of self-defense if we shoot down inbound missiles. It’s not like I’m asking you to fire on their ships.”
“Yet,” Brian said. A flash of hunger passed across his face again.
They all turned to face him.
“I’m just saying it. I’m sure others are thinking it. I’ve got no personal love for the Guard. I agreed with the plan to stop the ship from bombing Vagyr. Letting someone else shoot me without shooting back is just stupid.” Brian shrugged, he looked around the room.
No one spoke for a minute.
“Maybe it won’t come to that,” Mel said.
The Guard blockade out there might well give up after they expended their warp missiles. Most ships only carried twenty or thirty of the expensive and large weapons, and the Guard Fleet used predominantly heavy guns for close range firepower. Warp missiles bypassed the standard rule of maximum tactical velocities through altered drive geometries. Rather than a warp bubble, they produced a warp envelope, which allowed them to obtain extremely high velocities, matched only by the strongest of warp drives. On the other hand, they were huge and any ship that mounted them had less room for other weapons and had only a finite number to use. If the Fenris's tactical drive held out, then they could stay ahead of the enemy, other than their missiles.
