Bitfrost, p.14
Incursion at Elea Station, page 14
"Let me see," I said. "You're right, Berifid. Your team scored both the most damage to the second ship as well as the kill shot which disabled it. Tonifi and Jerifi did manage to destroy their ship, though."
"What's our treat? What's our treat?" Berifid asked. As a group, the Musi erupted into chaotic chatter. I watched Tonifi for a moment, puzzled. I thought we'd shared a moment of understanding.
"Tell you what," I said. "First ship we capture, you get to choose as many things as you can carry as long as those items aren't of tactical value to that ship."
"Oooh," Berifid said. "We will plan."
"Do that," I said. "Noah, Tabby, with me, please."
"That was a huge risk," Noah said once we were in the hallway with the hatch to fire control closed.
"I know. I thought we were in deep shite."
"You should have put Tabby, Prajna and me in fire control to start with," he said.
"Do you think any of us could have made those shots in a single pass?"
"It took three passes," Noah pointed out.
"Analyze the data-stream," I said. "I'm not a hundred percent confident when I say this, but I think their accuracy is so much better than ours that even three passes was worth it."
Admitting that I wasn't all-knowing seemed to take the wind from Noah's sails. "I'll review it," he said. "We'd have been screwed if they hadn't bought your story. You're a fantastic liar."
"Did you see how Tonifi looked at you after she blew up that ship?" Tabby asked. "She figured out it wasn't a simulation."
It somewhat hurt to hear Noah refer to me as a liar. Even Tabby had felt bad about my ruse. I didn't like to think of myself as an ends-justifies-the-means kind of guy. In this case, however, we'd come away victorious. Of course, we still needed to land on the station and defeat two more fleets with virtually no fuel in our tanks. Still, you could only win one battle at a time.
"What now?" Noah asked.
I waved him on to follow me into the bridge. "Prajna, chase down that disabled sloop," I said.
"Aye, aye," Prajna said.
"Tabby, is your team ready for a boarding action?"
"They are," she said. "As long as you let me go with them."
I frowned. Sending Tabby wasn't what I was looking to do, but she'd been drilling with the team and it was her call.
"Go," I said. "Jonathan, hail that sloop. Let's see if they want to talk."
"Captain, do you intend to take prisoners?" Jonathan asked.
"If they don't put up a fight. I suppose that's right," I said. "We can turn them over to the big fleet once we get things worked out."
"You and Tabby have blue eyes that give away the connection you share with Iskstar," he said. "If you release prisoners, they will share that information. This conflict will escalate, given the inherent Mendari hostility toward Iskstar."
I shook my head in disgust. "Okay, audio only," I said.
"Captain, the Musi disrupted power conduits throughout the ship. Communication and weapon systems appear to be off line," Jonathan said as we slid closer to the vessel, but still outside of weapon's range.
"Noah, send Musi back to their quarters. I need you and Prajna in fire control," I said.
"Captain, you have the helm," Prajna said as I slid into the starboard pilot's chair.
"I have the helm," I agreed and felt the stick in my hand tighten as control passed.
"Liam, we're loaded into the forward cargo bay. Let me know when to open the hatch," Tabby said. We were carrying no cargo, but the bay had an energy field that kept atmosphere inside the hold while allowing objects to pass through without harm. Well, little harm at least. I always felt a twinge as I passed through the energy barriers and some crates had to be shielded if they carried sensitive electronics.
"We're online, Liam," Noah said.
Intrepid’s top-view display popped onto the forward vid screen, showing four of our turrets aligned on the beefy Mendari sloop. While Mendari were humanoid and not substantially different in size from humans, joining with the mechanical spider bodies pushed them to over three meters tall. It was not surprising, therefore, that the sloop had to be considerably larger than Hotspur to serve virtually the same function.
"Hold on." I nudged further into the Mendari ship’s weapons range. Watching the heavy turrets for movement, I held my breath as I committed Intrepid.
"Ship looks off-line," Noah said, no doubt watching the same things I was.
"Tabby, we're at forty meters," I said.
"Opening the hatch," Tabby answered.
A quartet of video feeds popped onto the forward vid-screen. Each of the boarding crew's names showed on a small plaque at the top of their own display area. My heart rate increased and I took in a deep breath. Boarding a ship was dangerous business.
"Zaida, go for breaching charges," Tabby ordered. "Matt Matt, careful on your firing lane. Remember, you're in zero-g and you won't be able to keep that muzzle down as easily."
Zaida floated across the space between the two ships, landing softly against the Mendari's large aft hatch. I flipped my attention between Tabby's and Zaida's views. It was clear that Zaida was familiar with zero-g operation as she cared little for her orientation on the door as she applied charges.
"I'm clear," she said, slipping around the hull to avoid shrapnel.
Tabby blew the door charges and paused as a cloud of atmosphere expelled from the open hatch. I marked the tumbling door, just in case we wanted to chase it down.
"Contact." Matt Matt let loose with a volley of fully-automatic fire from his oversized weapon. Still on Intrepid and with solid gravity, he fought for and successfully controlled the muzzle, sending most of his fire directly into the sloop's hold. His fire tore a humanoid body from the top of spidery legs, the Mendari’s weapon firing harmlessly into space.
"Zaida, frags!" Tabby ordered, as she and Inder joined Matt Matt in unleashing hell upon the ship.
I zoomed in and discovered what they'd already seen. The spider base of the Mendari had propelled itself into the gap that separated the ships, its long legs reaching forward to find an enemy. Under fire and with nothing to hold onto, the base soon lost its momentum and was flung harmlessly into space. I tracked its destination and saw that it would likely contact Elea's atmosphere, burning up on entry if not intercepted.
Dual explosions lit up the Mendari hold and Tabby urged her boarding team forward. "Matt Matt, go. Inder, go. Zaida, fall in once they land. I'll provide cover."
It was exciting to see the three rookies in action. The Mendari were a physically imposing species, but having lost power and atmosphere, they would soon lose the ability to prolong a fight. Regardless, Tabby would play it safe and keep her team up. They wouldn’t resist our boarding for long.
"Contact," Matt Matt said again, firing his automatic weapon before landing. I winced. It was a mistake that would cost him. He careened off as the oversized weapon's recoil deflected his trajectory.
Tabby seized control of his vac-suit and righted his path. "Hold fire until you're down, Matt Matt," she ordered, all the while sending fire over the top of Inder's head.
Her quick thinking got her team back on line and a second Mendari dropped a moment later, its mechanical legs already severely limited in mobility due to Zaida's frag grenades.
"Hold that bay," Tabby ordered as Matt Matt touched down and took his place at the front of the group. She launched across and ordered them forward moments before landing herself.
The final Mendari launched itself into the fray when Matt Matt opened the cargo hold's forward hatch. The takedown was a messy affair and Matt Matt was injured, although not grievously. I added it to the list of things we would talk about in the after-action review. The fact was, they'd met the enemy on the field of battle and had been victorious. It was the truest test of a team that existed. Everything else was fine tuning.
13
Field Repairs
"Liam, this ship is a mess," Tabby reported from the bridge of the heavily-armored sloop her team had just boarded. "It looks like they've been living aboard for extended periods. There's waste everywhere."
"Jonathan, can we safely take over the ship's systems?" I asked.
"We have penetrated their cyber defenses," he answered. "Tabitha, you should have control of the ship. The main power grid has been disrupted and it appears the ship could be made operational within a few hours."
"We don't have hours." Indeed, we had thirty-five minutes before the smaller Mendari fleet arrived.
"Not be needin' so many clocks," Prajna interrupted excitedly. She tossed a view of the ruined energy couplings onto the screen. Tight groupings of blaster fire had furrowed through the thick Mendari armor and surgically separated the power source from the ship's main systems. Even so, there were man-sized hunks of slagged conduit missing. "Bring dat sparkin' box and armor plate, then we be makin' power."
Prajna twisted her hand and an animation of a piece of ship's armor was set sideways into the energy pathway.
"Curious," Jonathan said.
"What's that?"
"We do not understand how Prajna is aware of the particular conductive properties of Intrepid's armor plating, nor did we consider removing such a unique piece of material from a currently working ship," Jonathan said.
"Let me rephrase," I said. "Will it work?"
"The work cannot be completed in thirty-five minutes," he said. "The fix, while not ideal under normal circumstances, is quite reasonable."
"Tabby, what do those weapon systems look like? If you had power, are they usable?" I asked.
"My AI is currently mapping bridge function," she said. "I'd recommend against restoring atmo, but a ship's a ship and the pointy end of their guns go boom just like everyone else's. We should be good."
"Noah, you have command of Intrepid," I said, jumping from my seat. "Prajna, you're with me. Tabbs, I need you to finish mapping bridge functions and then get your crew back to Intrepid."
"Captain, if we could interject," Jonathan said. I palmed my way through the bridge hatch. Jonathan could communicate while I was on the run. "The Phentara group would like to assist on the captured Mendari ship. We believe it possible there remains inactive semi-sentient Mendari agents within ship systems."
"Sure, that works."
"You want me to sail Intrepid into combat?" Noah asked.
"I've sailed dozens of different ships, Noah. We're going to need a fighter pilot in that sloop," I said.
"Understood."
"Liam, don't be dumb," Tabby said. "I've got more experience as a fighter pilot than you do. I've got this."
I slid to a stop in the engineering bay and pushed a weld/cut belt into Prajna's hands.
"It's not that." I slapped on my own belt and grabbed a bundle of welding filler material. "The first wave of Mendari ships is going to arrive before we're done with the repairs. I need Intrepid to draw them off.
"I don't like it," Tabby said. "You'll be sitting ducks."
"Don't worry, Mendari will be focused on Intrepid," I said. "They can come finish us off any time they want."
Prajna and I swung through a small maintenance hatch just below engine number two, which was the topside, port engine. While we'd been talking, I'd run a shape match on various pieces of armor that I felt Prajna and I could remove in a reasonable amount of time. I'd located just that piece on the underside of the engine. It was risky, taking a piece from the engine, but it would truly be a golden shot that threaded its way to the barely-visible component.
"Be good and sticky," Prajna said, prying at the armor with a long bar we'd brought along.
Most armor was attached with a multitude of equally-armored bolts that ended up being heat fused with the surface post installation. Removal of such a piece would take a couple of hours of laborious cutting. The engine, however, was a piece of machinery that required regular maintenance and as a result, the armor had to be more easily removed.
I played out a magnetic anchor from my belt and affixed it to Intrepid. "Get connected," I said. "We've got five bolts to burn off. I've marked the two I need you to get."
We'd been moving at top speed and I fretted as I burned at my final bolt. The fleet was already in local space and moving at us with horrible purpose. We'd taken too long. It was too late to transit to the disabled sloop.
"Try it now!" I ordered as a bubble of slag floated up from the ragged hole I'd burned around the stubborn bolt.
"Floaty," Prajna said.
"Noah, go! We're non-comm," I said.
"We can't," Noah argued.
"Orders," Tabby said. "Time for conversation is done."
I cut our communication as Prajna and I pushed away from Intrepid, my tether dragging the thousand-kilogram plate armor with us.
Intrepid slid away, picked up speed and distanced itself from us. Prajna started flailing and I realized she was frantically pointing at something above me. I pushed my grav-suit's systems and accelerated into her, colliding. I wrapped my legs around her and pulled at my tether, causing the armor piece to slowly spin. I knew what she’d seen without having to look: the telltale glow of space-bound ship engines as they approached.
There were two speeds in space: immediate and impossibly slow. Crossing the short distance to Prajna and getting the armor section to start moving had happened with excruciating sluggishness and was in sharp contrast with what we saw next. The Mendari fleet flashed by us like a lightning bolt, heading straight for Intrepid. Within a few nanoseconds, the Mendari fleet arrived atop Intrepid and the result was as instantaneous as it was violent. The space around us crackled with energy as seven ships traded angry blows. Fortunately, I’d been able to rotate the armor, placing it between us and the blowback of the blasters against Intrepid's hull.
I felt a frantic tugging on my ring. Tabby reached out in the only way she knew how to learn if I was still alive. I tapped twice to let her know that we lived. She would be angry when she learned just how close we’d come to dying. If not for Prajna's identification of the incoming threat and my ability to turn that armor in time, we'd have been cooked off as collateral damage.
I pressed my face-shield against Prajna's. "We gotta move now!"
"Chiney smoothie!" she answered. "Smoked by bangers should fated us."
"Standard, Prajna," I said. "But I read you. We need to get into this fight already."
For someone who'd spent limited time working in zero-g, Prajna was relatively adept at helping me navigate the oversized armor piece. I pushed away the thoughts of the battle that raged over our heads and focused on our task. Removing the armor had been the most difficult part. Putting it in place wouldn't require much more than orienting it correctly and melting it into place with the filler material we'd brought along.
"Hold it steady," I urged. I'd locked myself to the ship and we struggled to slow the armor into perfect synchronicity with the Mendari ship. The problem was, we didn't have a great grip on the armor and as it significantly outmassed the two of us, we were somewhat at its mercy.
Out of desperation, I spot-welded a piece of the filler material in place to give me something to grasp. Prajna, seeing my plan, did the same and we soon wrangled the slab into place.
"We're off ten centimeters," Prajna said in perfect Standard,
"Fifteen centimeters the wrong way, now," she said. The material was frustrating to move around. Once we got it moving again, we found it difficult to stop in just the right position.
"Slow this time." Together we attempted to locate the armor in place.
"Still four centimeters," Prajna said.
"Hold it." I retracted my tether so I was held close to the hull, then laid down a strip of filler and burned it onto the end of the armor piece. Unexpectedly, the filler turned cherry red and I barely pulled my gloves off in time. "Frak, the power source is still live! Get inside and turn everything off. We'll switch to a low power comm channel."
"Chiney." She swung around the aft end of the ship and entered the hold.
"We have reduced all power consumption, Captain." While the voice sounded a lot like Jonathan, it felt edgier. I was talking with Jonathan's Phentara group. "We recommend caution, though."
They didn't have to tell me twice. The draw had burned completely through the thin filler strip I'd tried to put in place. I would not make the same mistake twice. First, I welded five filler strips together and then carefully pushed them into place. The skin of my grav-suit had virtually no conductivity and as long as the joining material didn't slag off like it did before, I'd be fine.
"Power be goin'," Prajna announced as I pushed the strips into place.
"Hold on. Let me get this all seated."
I burned weld material into place, not completely sure just how much was needed. I went for overkill. Racing to the other side, I ended up with the opposite problem. Since we hadn't seated the armor exactly in place, the opposite side wasn't seated very well. I saw a cherry glow where the bottom of the armor made contact and had no doubt, given a higher electrical load, the patch would burn through.
I'd run through most of my filler material on the other end and decided to cut off the piece that was obstructing the armor plate from sitting down. In that I'd hard-welded the other side already, there would be no pushing the plate down, but I could use the cut-off armor as filler material. I worked quickly but time moved at a snail's pace and we were already well past the normal duration of most space battles.
"I've got it," I finally said. "Power up."
Smoke billowed out from around the oddly embedded piece of armor. I searched for hot spots as the gas dissipated in the vacuum of space. I found none. It was a janky setup, like someone had taken the door off a passenger transport vehicle and jammed it in sideways to the ship. I hoped it would hold.
"Engines be gassin', Bangers be angry," Prajna said. "Jus needin' a chiney smoothie to find me some spideys."
