Archaea (7 page)

"Well, that's the plan, Wu", the captain replied around a mouthful. "We don't have a lot of time left in our schedule, and we need to get out of here before we lose the ship to the stationmaster. I had hoped to pick up some work before-hand, but we are just out of time."

"Well, that's part of why I asked...there's a farang who has been asking around the past few hours for information on ships headed out-system. I told him I would talk with you as I knew you were near departure. Should I send him over?"

"Absolutely, Wu, and thanks! Where is he?"

"He is the tall gentleman sitting alone in the corner booth", he pointed out a dark skinned and swarthy looking fellow, possibly of amerind ancestry. Wu floated over to his table and after a brief discussion, the man nodded, and kicked off for our booth.

"Hello, Captain" he said in a low, polite voice. He stood about 7', and was solidly built, definitely no stranger to hard work. His movements gave it away to those of us who spent time in the service, this man was a leatherneck, a jarhead, a marine - and from head to toe, a weapon.

"Captain, I am in need of transportation inter-system, to Europa Station. Are you headed out soon?"

"We are, what sort of accommodation are you looking for, and what time frame are you looking at to raise ship?"

"The sooner the better, today if at all possible. I need to be oscar mike soonest, sir, as I am already overdue for delivery on my current detail."

He fell quickly into a quick running patois, a sort of marine creole, he must have recognized the service in the square set of the captain's jaw.

"What is your detail Mr..." the captain trailed off...

"Onebull, sir", said the giant. "My first name is Shaun, but I'm Yakima Nation, and I've been called 'Yak' for so long, I almost forgot my given name. I am an ex-military man, sir, and served in the First Marine Division, Expeditionary, out of Camp Pendleton."

"I thought I caught a whiff of blood and guts on you son... Do you know Gunny Summers, at the Island?"

"Indeed I do sir; he was the most feared instructor on the Island when I was a boot. The toughest man alive, we thought. I still do, in fact."

"Well, that's outstanding Yak," said the captain with a smile. "Summers served on my first command, running the cap patrols of Sol system . Do you remember him Gene? Just the nicest man you ever met... Sure did scream abaft bulk twenty though..." he added with a chuckle.

I did remember him, a scary slab of muscle who moved like a cat expecting to pounce at any time. We almost lost him and his squad in a boarding mission that turned into a firefight on some grotty slaver tug the far side of Deimos. He left us shortly after, rotated back to Earth and we lost track of him, or at least I did. Clearly the captain kept tabs on his men, wherever they were.

"Well son, any boot of the Gunny's is worth a squad of squids. Welcome aboard the Archaea. We will be raising ship and clearing port just as soon as we finish our steaks. Are you packed and ready? Our time is short and our schedule is very tight."

"Absolutely sir. I am good to go.” He gestured towards a duffel bag at his booth. “There's just one thing, sir...I can't pay in advance. I've been waiting on this station for a few weeks now to catch a ride, and my travel allowance is gone. I can cover your portage fee when we arrive, however..." He looked embarrassed, and clearly didn't appreciate the thought of appealing to charity.

"That's okay son, we will have plenty of room aboard, and there may be an opportunity for you to work here and there to help. Gene has all sorts of valves he's probably sick of turning--" he was right of course. I would really appreciate a second set of arms in engineering. A jarhead is solid, reliable, and best of all, smart enough to know not to touch anything.

"When we land, I'll need to collect the standard in-system portage fee, less whatever we can work out of you, of course.” He smiled with a wink. “This is our first trip on this ship, so our accommodations are not luxurious, but it will be better than sleeping in a rentable here in Darkside." He took another bite, and added, "It's none of my business Yak, but what is your current mission?"

"Well, I am not sure of the details, to be honest. I am essentially an armed courier,  pulling security for a sealed canister that needed to be delivered to Europa station a few weeks back. My first ship fell through, the captain ended up getting his ticket pulled. Apparently there were claims of involvement in proscribed cargo, contraband of some sort. All I knew was the ship wasn't moving, and hasn't moved since the stationmaster's detail sealed off the locks."

"Sealed?" said the Captain, pausing mid-bite, fork in the air. "I wonder..." he started, looking thoughtfully out the port at the Archaea.

"Folks... I hate to do this to you, but I think given this information, we may want to leave. Now."

I stabbed my fork into my slab, took the biggest bite I could, and drained the last drop of that cold beer as I slid out from the booth and kicked for the door.

The Captain says hop, and the smart man is on the move before his lips stop moving. We slapped credit on the slot and kicked off down the corridor.

*****

I may not be very tall, but I can move fast when needed, and we needed it now. We were kicking down-corridor like the station was on fire. I wasn't too happy to say goodbye to the most seductively dreamy hunk of meat this side of Texas, but I also didn't want to spend my time squatting in a corridor hoping for a lift, either.

As fast as we were moving, we barely reached the Archaea in time – the captain's intuition was bang-on, as it turned out. The stationmaster arrived with a small army of armed, lantern-jaw muscle right as we were about to open the lock, and demanded we cease with departure at once.

I keyed the interlock anyway, of course, and his men learned the hard way not to put a hand on a weapon specialist, especially this one.

I turned the first one upside down and spun him up for a flight down the corridor, and after that it was all elbows and handholds, as everyone got rowdy. Yak earned our respect almost immediately with a viciously efficient one-two combo move that left nearly anyone in black shirts dreaming of clouds, and we all dove into the Archaea as soon as the lock opened.

I feel sort of sorry for those boys, but I guess they should have trained a little more before they decided to mix it up with a trained killer.... oh, and Yak too, he did alright. He sure is tall.

We ran through pre-flight like well-oiled machines - as we had been practicing the procedure enough the past week we could have done it in our sleep, though Janis made it almost too easy. Every readout I needed to scope was on my screen as I needed it, so our process was fast...check, check, check, and a good to go for a green light on the master console on the bridge.

The captain blew the bolts holding us to the station and put her astern almost as soon as the last talkback was barber-poled. Without clearance it was more of a scram launch, as one might make in an emergency - but all the same it was smooth as silk. The captain plays the helm like a seasoned professional.

"All hands. We are now at condition yoke. Close all hatches and prepare for out-system burn, in 2 minutes. I am almost done checking the course recommendation given to us by Janis, and it looks like a 2g burn. Stand by."

A few moments later, with a massive shove in the small of my back, Archaea launched -- we were away!  

*****

I fed power to the reac drives slowly, my main goal here was to get us clear of the station cleanly, so there was no claim to damage, or any cause for undue attention from the local patrols.

The Archaea responded smoothly, as smooth and responsive as any ship I have ever conned, maybe even a little better due to her lower mass. The slightest nudge on the control, and she precessed smoothly, transitioning to a new inclination as if I was steering her with my thoughts.

"Pauli, please set my station for thought controls if you please."

"Sir?"

"Thought controls Pauli, on the double-quick. I want to be able to control her with my mind,  mister."

Pauli looked back at me, finding himself nearly blinded from the high-intensity flash from my indomitable toothy grin.

"Sure thing, Captain" he smirked. Turning back to his holos, "She handles well sir?"

"Like a dream Pauli, like a dream I don't want to wake up from, ever." I wasn't exaggerating, not even a bit. She was a beaut. "Pauli, I need some data to help me work up a solution for tightest perihelion to Europa-- oh, never mind, I see it now."

"Captain, I am sorry, what do you see?" Pauli turned around again, with a small-furry-animal-in-the-headlights look.

"The data and course plot, and it looks damn good too, right on the money and as efficient as I'd hope for. Your astrogation skills are impeccable, son."

"That's not mine, Captain... I haven't done anything like that. I was in the middle of running a memory check", he paused."I think that's from Janis, Captain."

My mind was racing as I checked celestial data for this system and ran the numbers on the plotted course. I am one of those old fashioned types that looks to see if the light is on if I flip a switch. Machinery is only as good as the operator, after all. Except in this case, where the damn machinery is the operator.

"Pauli, that was beyond fast, it was damn near instant", I arched an eyebrow a full centimeter higher than biologically possible, spraining a muscle in my back. "I mean, that was well and truly unexpected. What if I had wanted a course for Europa using slipspace drive..." a screen appeared "...um. Pauli, would you believe I have here in front of me a fully specced slipspace plot to Europa, for an in-system jump?"

“Is that even possible? I thought that wasn't really done."

"It's not, at least I haven't ever heard of for crewed vessels. The speed of a slipspace jump is just too fast for human reflex, though unmanned com drones do it all the time, supply drops to outer orbits and so on, but those jumps are precisely timed to the pico- or even atto-second by computer. A human couldn't pilot a course like this--" the skin on my head started crawling around in a 2/4 shuffle beat. On my screen was a modified course for slipspace to Europa with autopilot assist, and a flashing red button marked 'Execute'.

"Pauli, I am starting to really appreciate this AI, you know. Janis has now shaped a fourteen minute course to Europa by autopilot. Can she do that? Is her clock speed high enough for that level of accuracy?"

"Oh, I'd think so Captain. Her speed is actually curved a little bit past the subjective present, remember. Her clock speed is literally faster than any subdivision of 'now'. To her, an attosecond may seem like a few hours. She should be able to react even faster than 'now', in fact, though I don't know to what extent."

"Well, that's well and good, as a fun thought experiment or research paper to while away the weeks as we slog on through this system on reac... But I'm not too keen on testing your theories with a real world application of superluminal speed vs. rogue asteroid inside of Mars orbit..." I trailed off, as another flashing window opened front and center.

What I was looking at was an official hail from the captain of the Barracuda, a million-ton destroyer on station in Lunar patrol. What the hell? I pressed the button.

"Archaea, you are hereby ordered to heave to and prepare to be boarded in accordance with task force authority." My heart sank.

"This is Captain Dak Smith of the independent frigate Archaea. I am currently in an outsystem burn, and am not able to immediately comply. What is the reason for this request?"

"Dak, this is Captain William Hartley - I'm really sorry to have to do this, but my orders are clear. You are requested to heave-to, and I am to take possession of the Archaea for delivery to the stationmaster of Darkside Station for material breach of contract. The order is solid, approved by legal."

"William, it's so good to hear from you! Congratulations on your command, the last time I saw you, the ink on your commision was still damp. I am afraid I don't understand this request. I paid for the Archaea, fitted her out and launched on schedule, a few hours early, in fact."

"I understand Dak, but you know how it is. Once orders are cut, the only thing I can do is follow them. Come on over and I'll give you the full tour before I have to remand you to the brig for transport back to Luna. It'll be great to see you, and I promise I'll treat you and yours as my honored guests..."

Honored guests my aching butt. As soon as I dropped my burn, he'd close and grapple us, and the next sound we'd hear is a squad of marines marching up the companionway. I had to think fast, but act faster... Or is that the other way around? Wouldn't it be better to think faster, and then act?

Ah hell, I am stalling... I mashed the 1MC.

"All hands, General Quarters! General Quarters! Condition Zebra in 1
0 seconds. Secure for freefall." I reached for the last course plot on autopilot and mashed EXECUTE.

Chapter 7

I may be a dumb jarhead, but this native son of the Yakima Nation knows one thing as fact. No one, not even on full-smash, high alert burn, no one drops to slipspace in-system.