Rising Star Page 11

  As the tour continued, Tavia and Bill found themselves enjoying the outing more than they expected. The tour returned just before dinner and both young couples went to the dining room together. They were bonding the way only people on a cruise can, with shared experiences. Tavia and Bill found they really liked Ann and Greg and decided they would make sure they were protected when the shooting started. After dinner, they went along with Ann and Greg to the nightclub where they had some drinks. Tavia and Bill found out a lot about their new friends. They were both residents of Sinclair space and worked for the Sinclair Corporation. Tavia got them talking about some of the rumors they heard about a war coming and were told that Sinclair felt they had been bested in a big business deal by Highline corporation and were punishing the other corporation by attacking their facilities. They were convinced that Horatio Sinclair would never start a war for unjust reasons. To the corporations, punishing someone for getting the better of them in a negotiation was par for the course of corporate relations. Apparently, Ann and Greg came from old money and they were in Petrov space to look for opportunities for their families. The cruise was a gift from their families for a job well done. Their only concern was the constant attempt by Petrov rebels to reclaim their corporation from Sinclair. Tavia could tell by the inflection of Ann’s voice that her attitude was; how dare they not want to be part of the great Sinclair Corporation.

  Of course, the Romani thought they were misguided, but they admired their patriotism. After Ann and Greg showed them some dance moves, Tavia and Bill excused themselves and said good night. They made plans to go on another excursion at the next stop. Of course, that all depended on when the fleet would make its move. Again, before turning in, Tavia sent a report of the day’s findings and the passenger and crewmember count of the excursion. She also added her opinion that the number of crewmembers off the ship during an excursion was insignificant. She sent a tight band transmission to the fleet and then she and Bill turned in. As she dosed off, Tavia felt the ship vibrate and begin to move out of orbit. She remembered thinking this was strange, since they were scheduled to stay at this planet for another day. As she was thinking about this, she dozed off.

  While Tavia and Bill were enjoying some time in the nightclub, the fleet was getting ready for their rest period. There was a universal convention in human space that all time was measured in Earth units. It was the only way humans, in space, could maintain their activities. Therefore, the human day, no matter where the human might be, was twenty-four hours. Mornings, afternoons, evenings and night all started at the conventional hours of Earth. Slone was getting ready to leave the bridge with the day crew and turn command over to the night crew. He was reading about the activities of his spies on the starliner, when Roger Umgabe looked up from his console.

  “Captain, sensors indicate a ship coming through the inbound slipstream from deeper in Petrov Space.”

  “Do we have telemetry yet?”

  “Ship identifies as a Petrovian freighter.”

  “Is she automated?” Slone asked.

  “No, our files identify her as the freighter Pevek and she is crewed.”

  “How old is the data?” By this, Slone was asking how long it took the telemetry to reach them. This was an indication of distance.

  “Just under three hours. She is slow and will take almost 18 hours to cross the system.”

  Slone looked in the direction of the communication’s officer, Tom Gardner, “Tom, call General Golov to the bridge.”

  “Yes, captain,” Gardner responded and contacted the general. Five minutes later the general entered the bridge.

  “General Golov, we are picking up a Petrovian freighter, non-automated. She just entered the system. Designation indicates she is the freighter, Pevek.” Slone quickly filled the general in.

  “We use the Pevek as a refugee ship. She goes into contested space under a flag of truce and requests permission from Sinclair forces to remove women and children from the conflict. It is the standard, inter-corporation non-combatant agreement.”

  Just then, Roger Umgabe interrupted, “Captain, the Rising Star is breaking orbit and moving in the direction of the freighter.”

  “Is that also the direction to the starliner’s next stop?” Slone asked.

  Roger looked at his screen, “No, captain, the next destination is a gas giant in the opposite direction. She is heading for the freighter.”

  Slone realized they were planning to take out the freighter. “Order the fleet to stay in formation and prepare to follow the starliner. Paul, move us ahead of the starliner and between it and the freighter.”

  “Yes, captain,” Paul McMann, responded.

  The fleet began to pick up speed. Fortunately, the starliner was moving much slower than it was capable. It was obvious that the starliner was holding back to arrive near the freighter during the day cycle so the adventure cruisers could see them take out a “dummy target vessel”. Slone had to admit, the entire setup was genius from a military point of view. Moreover, the proceeds from the cruise funded the operation. He could only shake his head.

  “General, I need you to contact that freighter and find out if there are refugees aboard.”

  “Gladly, captain. However, I will need to use our resistance codes, or they will not respond.”

  “I understand. Do you have the codes with you?”

  “Yes, they are in my room.”

  “No need to bother with that then. Tom, do we have the Petrovian resistance codes?”

  “Yes, captain. They are loaded in now. General, just talk and the message will be encoded.”

  General Golov was floored. She and her resistance people had protected those codes with their lives, and these people claim to have them. Well if they are right, then she must find out how they got them. If they are wrong then the freighter will not respond. She will play their game. “Freighter Pevek, this is General Golov, identification number R54Y6, I am in system and request information on your cargo.” General Golov then nodded to Tom Gardner indicating she was finished.

  “Message sent. Response time will be close to three hours.”

  Slone looked at the others, “Well then, we have some time to plan. It’s going to be a long night. Tom, send a narrow band text signal to Tavia and Bill, tell them to be ready to move tonight.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  “Also, send a message to the other ships and have their captains and primary centurions ready for action,” Slone ordered as he signaled General Golov to follow him.

  Slone and General Golov sat down in the conference room. “Well, general, we will have to move sooner than I had planned.”

  “So it appears, and please, call me Alisa. Where is your lovely wife?”

  “Only if you call me Christopher. I sent her to retrieve the cruiser I left with the pirate corvette. I thought we might need her if it comes to a fight. That Q-Ship is heavily armed. I have no doubt we can win, but I have to look to making it back to Nova Romae space. That means limiting our damage,” Slone pointed out.

  “Will your cruiser make it in time?”

  “I’m afraid not. She just left and round trip is at least a week. We have to use what we have. It’s my hope our operatives aboard the starliner can get what we need to capture that ship.”

  “You plan to capture it?”

  “Yes, and use it for our own purposes. We also need to capture it to make sure of its origin.” Slone then communicated with the bridge, “Tom, set up a conference call with the ship captains and the primary centurions.”

  After a few minutes, Tom Gardner indicated that the line was open. Slone began the conference, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to have to move sooner than I had wanted. I am sure you all picked up the arrival of a freighter in the system. That freighter is Petrovian and usually carries refugees. We are awaiting a response from the freighter to our inquires. If it is running empty, then we can use it, as a decoy, if not then we will have to stop the starliner before she interce
pts the freighter. You are also aware that the starliner has broken orbit and is heading to intercept the freighter. The fleet will remain between the ships for now.” The fleet was maintaining a distance of 10,000 kilometers ahead of the starliner.

  Slone continued, “We know that the Rising Star is a Q-Ship and we know from the video retrieved from the Broken Arrow that she has three gun decks of twelve cannons per deck. That is a third more than Romani dreadnoughts and two-thirds more than corporation dreadnoughts. Our dreadnoughts and two destroyers can take it out, but the damage a full broadside of 36 cannons can do to even our dreadnoughts will probably cost us one, maybe two ships. Since we are working in a contested area with no backup, the cost is unacceptable. Therefore, it is my intention to capture the starliner intact.” Slone could hear the humans on the line grumble a bit at this, whereas the serpents were quiet. There were only two serpents on the line but Slone had always noticed that nothing seemed to bother serpents. Their thought processes were completely different from humans. The concept of impossible was not in their sphere of recognition. If you tell a serpent to do something, they will or die trying. They will not question if it is possible. In their concept of the universe, if you can think about doing something then it must be possible or you would not have been able to think of it. To humans, this was a circuitous argument, but to serpents, it was the height of logic. Slone knew he would not have to explain to the serpents that it was possible; they already assumed it was. Slone now asked that Tom Garner send a projection of the Rising Star to all of the commands that they can follow along with him.

  “Computer, enlarge enemy vessel,” Slone ordered and the image of the Rising Star was enlarged to show a view of the exterior of the ship. During their time shadowing the enemy, Slone had sent an invisible destroyer around the entire starliner to scan sides, top and bottom. This gave the computer a three dimensional projection of the ship. This now appeared in the conference rooms of all vessels in the fleet. Slone continued, “As you can see, the ship has the usual shape of human vessels but has much higher sides. From what our operatives aboard the enemy tell us, the upper portion of the ship is where the passengers and passenger serving crew is located. The ship should be carrying around 1500 passengers with a like number of support crew. This gives us 3000 souls whom we believe to be non-combatants. Our spies have determined that the passengers seem oblivious to the true nature of the ship. Below the passenger decks, a three deck thick, windowless band entirely encircles the ship. These are the triple gun decks. We have only seen them use their guns on the video from the Broken Arrow; therefore, missiles are an unknown as are the forward and rear number of cannons and missiles. We assume the gun decks and the entire lower section of the ship are all given over to military personnel. Given the size of this lower section, we estimate there could be as many as 4000 combatants. That means they outnumber us two to one in combat troops, however I think our serpent cohort and centuries will make up for the difference.” Slone paused a minute for the information to sink in.

  “Here is how I plan to capture the ship intact,” Slone continued. “The fleet will slow and let them catch up. When they are one thousand kilometers behind us, the Invicta and the Avenging Talon will break formation and take position 100 meters above and below the starliner. This will take us out of her cannon arcs. When all are in position, the dreadnoughts will launch their boarding shuttles, while remaining invisible. I am hoping the confusion as to the source of the shuttles will prevent activation of the point defenses, unless we can shut down all weapons ahead of time.”

  General Golov now interrupted, “How can you shut down their weapons systems?”

  “I will notify our spies aboard the Rising Star to gain us access to their computer systems. Captain, Artok, I would like you to direct your boarding shuttles to the rear hangar deck. From the information Tavia supplied to us, there is no room to land so you will have to leap down about three stories to the deck.”

  “Sss. Captain Slone, that distance is not a problem. We will await your command.”

  “Excellent. The Invicta will send her shuttles to the forward hangar deck where there is some room but for the most part; it will be a dust off. Once the shuttles leave, it is, win or die for us. Pickup is only possible from the front hangar.”

  General Golov noted that none of the ground commanders commented on this statement. She had been on the receiving end of Romani ground combat during the New Wales campaign and she knew they fought like machines. Now with their reptilian allies, she had no doubt that winning was a foregone conclusion. Yet, combat was always a risk.

  “Lastly, we will attempt to prevent casualties among the non combatants. Unless told otherwise, all combat is to be limited to the lower decks with nothing above the gun decks. Our operatives will be charged with taking the bridge. If they need help they will call for it. Any questions?”

  General Golov had plenty but said nothing, since she was not in charge. What surprised her was that no one else hand any. These people do not question orders and they must all know exactly what is expected of them. She was not used to this from the corporate lackeys that made up the ground forces of the corporations.

  “Very well, then. Return to your duties and await orders.” The teleconference broke up and Slone returned to the bridge. “Tom, send a text message to Tavia. Tell her to tap us into the starliner’s computer.”

  “Yes, captain,” Tom Gardner transmitted the text message. “Message sent, captain.”

  Aboard the starliner, Tavia and Bill were in their cabin two hours into the night cycle. They had dressed in their black, legionary jumpsuits, which had been made to look like civilian clothes with some easily removable attachments, which had now been removed. They were awaiting further instructions after the original standby order. Tavia’s tap node beeped and she pressed the button and read the message.

  “T, find access to the ship’s computers and place the tap node next to one and return to the yacht for further orders.” Tavia tapped the button twice to indicate receipt and the message self erased. She then turned to Bill and said in serpent speak, “Time to see where that door leads.”

  “Lead the way, dear,” Bill said.

  Tavia went to the stateroom door and looked into the hallway. It was empty and the lights had been dimmed for nighttime. She signaled Bill to follow and they walked down the hall. Since they were paying passengers and they were not armed, there was no reason they couldn’t take a little stroll down the promenade deck. After a leisurely walk, they entered the promenade deck and began to walk as fast as they could without attracting attention. About fifteen minutes later, they were back at the door. They still had the problem of the camera pointed down the hall. Tavia did not think the camera could pick up activity at the door, but she was not sure. If it was using a wide-angle lens, it might. Unless the crew of the starliner was completely incompetent, it should include the door. They casually walked past the door and the camera. They had determined in a previous walk that the next camera was around the corner and not able to view them if they stayed near the wall. As soon as they passed the first camera, Tavia tapped the heels of her boots together and activated the magnetic soles. After making sure the coast was clear, she walked half way up the steel bulkhead and quickly detached the wire from the camera and came right back down. She tapped her heels again and the magnetic soles deactivated. They both moved quickly to the door and Tavia placed the tap node on it and pressed the button. There was a slight whirring of gears and the door unlocked. They pushed on it and it opened inward. After moving through the door, they quickly closed it. Tavia and Bill found themselves in a small room with a large circular hole with a ladder running downward. Bill went over to the opening and looked down. He then said to Tavia, “It looks like the ladder runs down four decks, so no access to the gun decks. If they keep military routines, there should only be a skeleton night crew as they move towards their target.”

  Bill went down the ladder first and they both came ou
t in a similar room to the one they left. This one had a door that was not locked. Bill cracked the door open and saw that it was deserted. They left the room and found themselves in a passageway, the walls of which were lined with pipes and electrical conduits.

  “Let’s hope this is not just a utility closet or it will be a short walk,” Bill said.

  The lighting was dim and they were not wearing their battle armor, so infrared was out. This meant they had to be very cautious. After about ten minutes of careful walking, they found themselves in front of another door. As they slowly opened it and looked out, they could see that it opened into a room filled with electronics. Bill only had a rudimentary knowledge of electronics, since legionaries were trained to fight and left the electronics to techs. Tavia, on the other hand, was a scout and they were trained in every aspect of electronics. It took Tavia all of five seconds to look at the electronics and realize these were all maintenance systems that would not yield what they were sent to get.