Revolutionary (The Athena Lee Chronicles Book 4) (10 page)

“Excuse me Commander but this area is closed due to Battle Stations. You and the lieutenant will have to return to your stations.”

Commander Hadley vented his rage on the Ensign. “Ensign, how dare you tell a Superior officer where he may go! I will put you on report for that! Now open the outer door the lieutenant and I have business on the station.”

“Sir, only the Captain may give those orders. While the ship is at Battle stations the door will remain sealed.” Ensign Darville tried to keep a stern face.

The now furious Commander thrust hard copy printouts of the ‘secret’ order that he had been given by the Governor at the ensign. “This is my order. It is signed by the sector governor himself. I am to take Lieutenant Lee through that door and give her over to the ESS troops! Now open that door!”

Turning to me the Ensign asked if I knew why I was being sent to the station. I immediately objected to the Commanders orders and said that he was forcing me to go under orders.

Red faced the Commander whirled around and struck me across the face. “How dare you question my orders! I am a superior officer you WILL obey me! I have official orders given to me personally by the Sector Governor placing you under arrest and turning you over to the ESS! The Governor trust me to…” He didn’t get to finish.

The forward hatch opened and two full squads of armed and armored marines marched through followed by Captain Gorshin. “Go ahead and finish your statement Commander Hadley. I’d like to know how the Chief Engineer gets orders from, what did you say ‘the Governor himself’ to arrest an officer without telling either security or the Captain of the ship? Just how is that Commander?” He motioned to the marines.”Take the commander into custody please.”

“Captain, you can’t do this I have official orders from Governor Norton. His orders supersede yours! You have to release me and turn the traitor over to the ESS. Her family are rebels they killed Empire troops. Look at the orders!”

“I have already seen those illegal orders commander. Place him in lock-up please.” Captain Gorshin looked over at me. “Athena, are you alright?”

“I’m fine Captain. I think that he was working for the Governor.”

“He was lieutenant. We have bigger problems. There is several platoons of ESS troops waiting outside the ship for him and presumably you. Is it possible for us to unhook the ship and get out in one piece and can we do it from inside the ship?”

Walking over to the OOD desk I logged into the system and sat down. I pulled up schematics of the docking system from the engineering database. The circuitry involved was not THAT complicated except that accessing it was. The Captain had followed me and was looking over my shoulder.

“Excuse my lieutenant, but how are you doing that? Those look like the Station plans.”

Absently I answered the Captain. “Yes sir, every engineering database contains records and information of places and ships it encounters. Everything updates automatically. It really helps when you have to fix something unfamiliar.”

“I had no idea that that kind of information was all in there. Does it have everything?”

“No sire not everything. Just anything that we might encounter. It helps if we are called in to repair something. As Engineers we really hate going in blind and not knowing something.”

“Sir, I think we can do part of this. The clamps holding us in place we can disconnect from here. I will have to have the assistance of a ‘friend’ of mine. The outer doors are a problem. That system is manual according to the plans. It is not tied into the system. This says that it is a security measure. We can lift off but we can’t get out.”

The Captain thought about it for awhile. Giving me a smile he asked “how thick is the outer door. Could our torpedoes blow through it?”

Checking the plans I looked at the Captain.”I think that we can do it but its going to be messy. It will take at least 2 salvos to penetrate. We need to fire first before unhooking or the shrapnel will cut us to pieces. Sir if we do this it is mutiny.”

“I like to think of it more like revolutionary lieutenant. Get with your friend. Be ready to cut us loose. Is the communication console ‘repaired’?”

“Yes sir my people put it back together this morning. I will have Wilson stand by.Thank you sir.”

“Don’t thank me yet, we still have to get out.” The Captain turned and hurried back to the bridge.

My girlfriend Dar was in one of the armored marine suits. She came over and asked if I was OK. Wilson had sent her a message that I needed help. She had been suiting up when the Captain called her and sent her to the ramp area.

On the overhead speaker a tone sounded. “This is the Captain speaking. As you may or may not know there was an incident on the planet 24 hours ago. Peaceful protesters marching to change the tax rate they were being charged were gunned down by the ESS. Tens of thousand of innocent people were murdered on the orders of the Sector Governor. The planet-side Colonial Militia attacked the ESS troops and destroyed or captured them. They then captured all Empire facilities on the planet. The Sector Governor has since locked down the system. No communications with anyone other than Official Navy orders. “ The Captain paused to catch his breath.

“A few short minutes ago Commander Hadley, our new Chief Engineer, received orders from the Governor to turn Lieutenant Lee over to the ESS for arrest and interrogation. The Commander is now under arrest for his actions. Outside this ship are dozens of ESS troops with orders to capture the Lieutenant because of her families involvement with the Militia. This ship had received orders from the Governor to turn the lieutenant over. I have chosen not to do this. As your Captain I take full responsibility for anything that I may order you to do. In the eyes of the law what I am about to do is mutiny. If you do not wish to participate or would like to leave the ship you may. However it will be after we escape the Station. You will be allowed to eject via the life pods or use one of the shuttles. Please choose wisely.”

I looked at Dar. “Staying with me or leaving?”

She looked me in the eyes and said “where you go? I go.”

Time to get to work.

___

Asking Wilson to hack a system is like a child if he wants a candy bar. According to Wilson the dry dock system engineers should be fired. They were using something called STS-1 to secure the system, he said that Ranger 3 was better and longer lasting. I just shook my head and told him to stop making crazy comments that didn’t make a lot of sense. Wilson gave the go ahead that he had unlocked the clamps holding us in. We were free to engage the engines and get out of here.

Up on the bridge the Captain gave the order and Lieutenant Hudson fired a small spread of torpedoes at the hanger doors. The explosion was a bit more dramatic in here than it was in space. There was a series of bright flashes and the interior of the dock area was sprayed with bulkhead fragments. Many of the ESS troops were hit and killed by shrapnel. When the ships engines turned on and began to warm up the black clad ESS troops began scurrying about like ants. Apparently some had been on top of the ship trying to get through an external hatch. If we had been outside the ship we would have witnessed a vacuum effect as the internal atmosphere was sucked out of the station. Red warning lights began to flash and pressure doors all over the station slammed shut. Our torpedoes had penetrated but not enough.

A second volley of torpedoes was fired. Half went off course and impacted on the area around the doors. The other half punched through tearing the doors off. Like a mighty wind everything not nailed down in the hangar bay was sucked out into space. Carts, desks, chairs, tools, and ESS agents. Everything.

With the dry dock hangar now in vacuum the ship lifted off and very carefully ‘threaded the needle’ as Commander Freeman the navigator like to say. The James Cook was now free of the station. Almost immediately our communications lines lit up with messages. The station was unable to jam us out in space.

The planet was calling and they were pissed!

Chapter 10

The James Cook had taken up a stationary orbit out of range of Legation Station. When we had forced our way our of the dry dock hangar the stations point defense had begun to fire on the ship. The quick thinking Commander Freeman had engaged full thrusters and had powered the ship out of range. We had very minor damage easily repaired by my team. Now that we were clear of the station came the real challenge. The ship’s captain had disobeyed a direct order from his superior officer and had committed mutiny.

Captain Gorshin stood by his offer of amnesty. Any crew member that wished to leave was allowed to. In all we were losing about half the crew. Our marine force was staying, all of them. Of the officers only Commander Dunne, our intelligence officer, and all but one of the ensigns chose to leave.

We had intended to send the departing crew to the station but it was shooting first not bothering to ask questions later. The crewman were shuttling down to the planet. After a long and much needed conversation with the planetary Governor it had been decided that the crew would be interned along with other captured Navy personnel. Maybe one day we can send them home.

My father and sister came up when the shuttle returned. We had to plan our attack on the Station soon, we could not risk the Governor getting reinforcements.

____

I was studying the station plans when my sister and father entered the room. Captain Gorshin had called this meeting to come up with a unified plan to take over the Station. Destroying it would be pretty easy for us to do. Economically it would hurt the planet. To say nothing what 10 million tons of falling metal and burning debris would do. A plan needed to be put together pretty fast.

Min came over to me and gave me a big hug. She looked me in the eyes and asked if I was all right. Then she asked about Dar. I love my sister. My father stood at the edge of the room. I glanced in his direction. I turned and looked at him. “Are you still trying to ‘sell’ me off to the highest bidder?”

“Athena I am sorry, all I could think was family first.”

“I see how well that worked out. You were an idiot. Now fix it.”

Looking at my sister I said “where’s Han?”

My father coughed and looked away. I scowled and look at him. “What did you do to him? Did he finally show what an ass he is?” At his look I just shook my head. “Father, he has always been like that. Just ask David.” A tear came to my eye. “Sorry, just ask Min. You never wanted to see it because he was the ‘heir,’ the apple of your eye and he knew it too. What happened to make you take his toys away?”

Alexander Lee just stared at his daughter. When had his youngest child turned into this straight talking,and ass-kicking hellion? He shook himself and answered her question. “He charged into battle and got a lot of people killed. He attacked a fixed position with armor.”

I winced. Ouch. OK still an idiot.”Did you put him somewhere where he can’t get into trouble?”

Father deep in thought nodded and turned away.

Captain Gorshin came into the room, time to get the meeting started.

___

Lieutenant Klinger led the discussion. The lieutenant was the junior officer from the intelligence group on the James Cook. According to Klinger the station was primarily defended by the ESS troops. Many of the regular navy officers and crew had been put in non-combat roles by the governor. Meaning that if he didn’t own an officer he didn’t trust them. With communications unable to penetrate into the station because of jamming we could not get any new information.

From looking at Klingers information we knew where the communication and satellite control rooms were. If we did not secure those rooms the governor could request Empire assistance. Short of taking the ship and running we had to attack the station to regain control.

I told the Captain that Wilson could take care of point defense and any computer controlled weaponry. ESS would catch on and switch over to manual control. So we had to be fast. We had four older shuttles to use in our attack. We would land assault teams on the station with intent to cause as much trouble as possible. A smaller team would capture the comm center and secure the power room. The computer room was a secondary target. If we cut power to the station we would be able to take control. It was back to the four basic needs: water, power, shelter, and air. Take away as many as you can and they would surrender.

Making up the strike teams were Dar’s marines and Sergeant Yannos’s Special operations team. Each team has a three person technical team to help with access. Four teams total for the attack. Min’s fighter squadron, backed up by the Black Sheep, were to fly cover and keep the stations fighter component off of us. Two teams were going in at the top of the station. There were emergency access tubes on the top above some of the observation areas. The tubes were used by engineering teams to repair sensors and other external devices damaged by micrometeorites. We believed that the Governor’s men were not aware of the tubes.