Scout Ship: Rise of the Empyrean Empire: Novel 01 Page 13

  “I didn’t know you could do that, I’d be honored Samantha.”

  Out of my assignments, she was by far my favorite captain to serve under, but I couldn’t come out and say that. Politically it would be putting down all the other ones.

  She nodded, “Captains get to pick their first officers, but admirals get to veto, so we’ll see what happens. I expect we’d get another scout ship, but it will be a lot easier with a three shift fifteen-person bridge crew, and being assigned to a patrol it would be a month or two between days off in civilization. It will also be more work of course, but you’re up to it.”

  John said, “Transition in one minute.”

  We were both thinking our own thoughts as we counted down to transition.

  John said, “Thirty… fifteen… five… three, two, one,” the engines cut off, “Transition.”

  Klaxons went off.

  Carly reported, “Captain, four attack shuttles are surrounding us around the edge of the ship. They have missile lock on us. A fifth is below us, targeting our engines, and a sixth is on the other side of the alien ship.”

  What the hell? We were helpless, but who the hell were these people?

  Ally said, “Should I return the lock captain, I can target each four of them with one of our arrays.”

  The captain said, “Charge them, but don’t lock on yet, we have no maneuverability, and are sitting ducks to number five. We might get him with a missile, but not until after he launches. Jerry, get ready to launch countermeasures and bring the point defenses online.”

  Carly said, “We’re being hailed.”

  “On screen.”

  A middle aged man in a ship suit, with a menacing smile stared at us. He had hair far too long to be regulation, and his blue eyes were wide with excitement. He was most definitely not UEDF personnel, which meant he had to be a pirate, either working for himself, or more likely working for one of the large corporations.

  The real question was, how the hell did they know we were coming, because I had no doubt they were expecting us, and the alien ship. One thing the man didn’t look, was at all surprised to see the derelict. It wasn’t any of us, our implants would have snitched, which meant what? Some admiral thought they could make money? Maybe they had stock in whatever company this idiot had been hired by.

  “Corbin here, there’s no need for anyone to get hurt, I want you to disengage from the ship, and then transition out. If we see any indication of a subspace field forming we’ll take our chances and destroy your ship. If you fire on us, we’ll destroy your ship. Are you getting the idea?”

  The captain asked, “How could we possibly trust you, you just want us to disengage so you won’t damage the prize when you attack us.”

  Corbin nodded, “That’s a chance you’ll have to take, but despite the odds I’d bet if we did dance, you’d lose but you’d also take out a bunch of us. On the other hand, if you transition out we’ll have plenty of time to disappear with this thing. I’m not here for a fight captain, but I don’t know how to convince you of that.”

  She turned her head to the side, “Carly, disengage the links and power lines, and restore the FTL drives standard software. John, ease us back with the thrusters. Ally, plot a course to Sol and pass it to John.”

  She looked up, “Will that suffice? I assume you’ll let the field form once the alien ship is free from it?”

  Corbin said in mock gravity, “You have my word lady captain. Of course, I insist we keep our communications open until transition, just to avoid any unpleasant mistakes you understand.”

  The captain was casually typing on her board the whole time, I assumed it was some kind of instruction to someone on the bridge, but I had no idea who or what. This is one of the times where as first officer I just wouldn’t have the opportunity to give suggestions.

  “Of course… Corbin. I suppose it doesn’t matter, no need to end lives. We’ll know who hired you as soon as that corporation tries to sell the UEDF the reverse engineered tech. Perhaps the person that hired you is a complete idiot? They’ll be shut down for conspiracy and treason, we’ll take the technology and make it ourselves, and space the ones responsible.”

  Corbin frowned, but didn’t bite.

  She kept typing, as she said, “You do know we are at war, humanity is? The price of treason during war is the death penalty.”

  Then Amy spoke in my head, which of course no one else could hear.

  “Instructions are being passed from the captain to the Armstrong, and she’s sending them out to everyone on board through their A.I. audio interface. Primary bridge crew will immediately report to auxiliary control, if the bridge is lost in battle you will do whatever is required to keep the ship out of enemy hands. Ally, you must plot a null course, we’ll simply be transitioning to subspace, waiting ten minutes, and transitioning back. Do not plot the course I ordered out loud. If fired upon before transition, Jerry will immediately start missile countermeasures and engage with point defense laser arrays. Carly will fire plasma beams at the four ships in range of our plasma arrays, and launch four missiles, two for each of the other remaining ships. More instructions will follow in subspace if Corbin keeps his word.”

  Carly said, “Done captain, all links and power lines have been disengaged, and the default Chavez-Teller drive software has been restored by Armstrong.”

  John said, “Backing us out, maneuvering thrusters only, clear for FTL in twenty seconds.”

  I kept waiting for all hell to break loose, convinced the pirates would open fire. Maybe though, they needed all six shuttles in order to tow the derelict, if we destroyed most of them in an exchange, they wouldn’t be able to complete their mission.

  The bridge doors opened, and I frowned as the admiral stomped on the deck.

  “Are you insane captain! You can’t let them get the ship. I order you to fire on them, now!”

  “Shut up, sir. Or I’ll have you thrown off my bridge.”

  The admiral turned red when Corbin started laughing.

  Hmm, maybe the admiral wasn’t considered crew, and wasn’t updated by Armstrong? I wondered how he heard then, maybe a crew person told him after the shuttle bay didn’t open to let him and the scientists out?

  John said, “We’re clear captain.”

  The captain ordered, “Transition.”

  John hit the button.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The admiral bellowed, “I’ll have you shot for this!”

  She sighed, “Sit down sir, not all is as it appears. Status.”

  Carly replied, “Primary bridge crew is in the auxiliary bridge. We’ll come out of subspace in nine minutes, thirty-five seconds.”

  The captain said, “Okay, when we come back in we’ll no longer be surrounded. Assume the six shuttles are towing the ship away, most likely with simple tow cables using the holes scattered around the hull. They’ll all be faced away from us, which means we’ll have a limited amount of surprise to take them from behind. Question, how do we do it while minimizing any damage to the ship.”

  Ally said, “If we limit the energy output of the plasma arrays to twenty percent, and take out their engines, they should be dead in the water and without power to launch missiles. No explosions, and we get to question them and hang them later.”

  The captain snorted, “That will work for maybe three of them, when we come out of subspace it’s likely half will be behind the alien ship their towing, depending on what angle they leave. That leaves us fighting the other half after they disengage their tow, or they’ll run.”

  Ally shook her head, “Normally I’d suggest a lower yield missile for those, on a parabolic course around the alien ship, but all of them were converted to bomb pumped x-ray lasers, which will greatly damage the unprotected ship.”

  Cindy interjected from the other room, “She’s right, there’s no way to program a lower yield on the missiles as they are now.”

  I said, “It might be safe to use them kinetically, don’t enable the wa
rhead, and just run into them at several thousand meters per second. The ballistic mass should do plenty of damage on its own to a small combat shuttle. Even if it doesn’t penetrate the hull, the shock wave the impact causes inside will most likely kill them. Either way, we should vector for a clear shot with the arrays in case that fails.”

  The captain nodded, “We have a plan, Ally, I want you to target and fire, three arrays, and three missiles as soon as you get a lock. I doubt they’re out of range, it will probably take them ten minutes just to hook up. A soon as we transition, John will start a burn to get a clear shot at the other side. Any questions?”

  The admiral still looked angry, but not as angry. I was pretty sure he was just embarrassed by his assumptions and behavior. Of course, no one could call an admiral out on that kind of thing.

  He asked, “What if they have another ship, and was planning to make off with it?”

  She nodded, “They didn’t have any close by, there’s no asteroids or planetary bodies even close to where we came in, it would take hours to get them there from the closest possibility, and we’re only leaving for ten minutes. I suppose one could transition in, but the timing is impossible, they might have known a week window for us to show up, but a ten-minute random window in that week is impossible to calculate.”

  Katy said over the line from auxiliary control, “They might have the ship waiting in subspace, and have a way to signal it? Either way, it will take them a lot longer to hook up to the sensors and power than ten minutes.”

  We didn’t have anything like that, but there were plenty of conspiracies out there that a lot of new tech and advances had been suppressed by the government. If that was true, I supposed the corporations would know about them and even be capable of using them. Still, even I wasn’t that paranoid, I’d be genuinely surprised if there was another ship when we transitioned back.

  The captain seemed to agree with me, “I doubt it, but if so we’ll task the fourth missile for that ship. Admiral, do you know how many attack shuttles it would take to tow that alien ship?”

  The admiral considered it for a second, “Three, but four would be better. We wanted to minimize involvement, which is why we were going to use the experimental tug.”

  She nodded thoughtfully, “Okay, assume two of the ships may be flying escort, if that’s the case Ally, hit them with full powered missiles or plasma beams at your discretion, but those will be the highest priority targets.”

  No one else said anything for about ten seconds, and the captain said, “Alright, we’re ready for this and they won’t see it coming.”

  John said, “Transition, in three, two, one, transition.”

  As the captain suspected, four of the ships were towing the alien ship from top bottom, and the two sides, and two flew on either side of it. Their slightly angled course meant just the one towing ship and the escort on the starboard side was protected from beams by the ship. The four to port, top, and bottom had clear lines of fire.

  Ally’s hands flew across her board, and in less than five seconds she had a solution.

  Four beams reached out from the ship, and the escort was burned out of existence, while the other three took direct hits, and their engines cut off. Two missiles were launched as well, but would take a lot more time than the speed of light to hit, which meant the pirate ships saw it coming.

  The one towing didn’t have a chance, and the impact of the missile literally ripped it apart, they were done. They did have enough time however, to launch four missiles.

  Jerry said, “Launching countermeasures.”

  The second ship flying escort flipped ship, and released its four missiles as well. It also tried to use its front laser mount as point defense, but the first shot missed the missile, and then the missile exploded, and the resultant x-ray laser reached out and vaporized the shuttle. Honestly, I was kind of impressed, Ally had programmed the first to just be ballistic, and the second one with the shuttle not close enough to the alien ship to be a threat, as a full out bomb pumped laser. Not to mention targeting four plasma beams, again, only one at full power.

  Now it was up to Jerry.

  Half the missiles were spoofed, and flew off randomly after sensor ghosts. Of the four left he was able to take out two of them using the point defense lasers. The last two were headed straight for the engines.

  The captain said, “Brace for impact!”

  John shocked us all, when he yelled, “Transition!” and slammed the button…

  Chapter Nineteen

  The captain raised her eyebrow, as we popped into subspace, and the two missiles back in normal space no doubt sailed harmlessly by.

  “Transition? I don’t remember giving that order.”

  Of course, the big smile on her face took a lot of the sting out of the rebuke.

  She turned to me, “Did I order that and forget?”

  John blushed crimson and said, “Sorry maam, but I hadn’t started the ship moving forward yet, and the last transition program was still on the board. I thought with them all dead, it wouldn’t hurt to be in subspace for another ten minutes. Better that than taking two missiles for no reason at all, with the battle being over. There was really no time to ask.”

  She sighed, “I can’t give you a commendation, ensigns aren’t supposed to take action without orders, although I suppose we could call it a creative evasive action maneuver. So, I’m not going to write you up for it either,” she turned to Rear Admiral Dawes, “Admiral, if you’d report to the landing bay, you’ll be able to launch in just ten minutes, and take your prize to base? Are you sure you don’t need an escort? Whoever was behind this may have a backup plan.”

  The admiral shook his head, “We don’t have to go far, and the base has formidable if hidden defenses captain. I’ll be writing you a commendation for your file, it’s the least I could do for earlier.”

  I was shocked, that almost sounded like an apology. Admirals were gods in the UEDF, and most definitely didn’t apologize.

  She nodded, “Thank you sir, and good luck with your efforts.”

  The admiral stood up and left the bridge.

  “Ally and Jerry, excellent job. Please navigate us a course to Sol, as soon as the admiral is clear, we’re heading home.”

  It didn’t take long before we were in subspace, again, this time on the way to Sol. The captain had stood down auxiliary control, and went to get a bite to eat and a short nap before her actual shift. The trip back to Sol was only ten minutes this time, the randomness of subspace decided on a quick trip this time. Which meant just a six and a half day trip back to Mars, and we’d finally all get leave. No doubt after another intense debriefing…

  “Play it Amy.”

  Katy’s voice filled my mind, “Leave? I’ve honestly not given it any thought, I’ve been avoiding thinking about it at all since the plans I did have…” she trailed off and I felt guilty. Maybe I was obsessed, what kind of asshole falls for a grieving woman anyway? One mourning their best friend’s death. Definitely an ass, though I suppose I get a pass if I don’t act on it.

  She continued after a pause, “I suppose I’ll visit my step-brother and father, and then… I don’t know. Most of my friends that have normal jobs or are unemployed, are married and things just aren’t the same anymore, and most of my military ones are on duty. If I was a pushy type of person, I might drop in on you, who am I kidding, that actually sounds like a great plan. What do you say? How could you possibly resist spending time with a woman on the edge?”

  She sounded a bit sarcastic, and I was sure then she had no clue just how much I wanted exactly that. Not that it would go anywhere, I just wanted to… be there for her.

  Her voice returned, “Never mind me, thanks for being here for me and for all the talks, I hope you don’t expect to get away when the mission is over.”

  More guilt.

  “Sorry, this message got a bit maudlin on you, it kind of all came rushing back. I’ll cut this one short before I embarrass myself.
Too late,” she laughed but there was no joy in the sound, and then the message was done.

  I remembered her just a half hour ago, giving me a genuine smile, and wondered at her strength, she must have felt better again after getting some rest. Either way, I decided to sleep on it before I replied to her message, it wouldn’t make a difference to her, she wouldn’t get it until I was back on the bridge anyway.

  Most vacations involved a location with a beach, and I knew that idea was out, since she’d had plans to be married on one. I had a fairly nice house in the mountains, near a lake. No one needed to work, but those that did were afforded greater luxuries in life, and for those with willingness to sacrifice and put their lives on the line for others, it was even more generous.

  The next morning, I invited her to do as she suggested, and drop by, and gave her the address of my cabin home. I didn’t know what the future would bring, but in the short term I’d just be there for her, what else could I do? Despite the way I felt, I’d do the right thing.

  Epilogue

  I’d been home for five days. My mother and sister were both happy to see me, and had both been shocked to hear about Timothy, and the implant failure. My sister Anne cried for almost two hours as I’d held her, and then on and off for days. We were fairly close despite the nine-year age difference, and I’d spent a lot of time with her the last week. She was still dead set on following our dad and I into the UEDF to my mother’s frustration.

  My mother’s response, after she had gotten past the tears had been strange. She’d accepted almost too quickly, and seemed angry about it for some reason, but when I asked she wouldn’t talk about it. I tried again that night.

  “Mom, what’s going on.”

  She shook her head, “Not a good idea to talk about. You know, the world is a good place. No one starves, low crime rate because they’re solved easily with the A.I. implants. A.I.s and automation have made a beautiful world, and I dare say much better than before the UE started almost two hundred years ago now.