The Clones of Mawcett (23 page)

“Separate directions,” Two said. “Make it as difficult as possible for the Raiders to round them all up.”

“One should head towards Vinnia,” Three said. “It's the closest base. The closer they get, the better the chances that they'll encounter a Space Command vessel.”

“The direction that the Prometheus headed is almost directly away from Vinnia,” Jenetta said, “so another should head that same way.”

“The third can head towards Nordakia,” Two said. “It's as good a direction as any.”

“How long would it take the Tsgardi ship to round them all up if they leave at the same time?” Three thought aloud.

“Shuttles are limited to Sub-Light speeds since they aren't equipped with temporal field generators,” Jenetta said. “The Tsgardi ship should be able to make Light-187, or maybe even Light-225. I doubt if it can travel faster, but let's assume Light-300, just for argument's sake.”

“Their top speed doesn't matter,” Two said. “With FTL, the Tsgardi ship can overtake any shuttle leaving the planet within a few minutes.”

“But then they'll have a problem,” Three said. “If they don't want to risk damaging the equipment, they can't just start blasting away. They'll have to very carefully target the engines to halt the shuttle. The pilot can keep dodging and weaving to make that more difficult, but in the end, the shuttle can't escape. Also, the Tsgardi may be poor shots and might destroy the craft entirely.”

“Or they may simply puncture the hull and the pilot will lose atmosphere,” Jenetta said.

“So the pilot must be wearing an E.V.A. suit,” Two said.

“But that will only delay the inevitable,” Three said. “The pilot is doomed either way. And once the shuttle is halted, the Tsgardi are free to pursue and stop the others.”

“The longer it takes to collect the first shuttle, the more time the others have to get away,” Two said. “And with objects as tiny and slow as a shuttle, DeTect system efficiencies drop off quickly after a billion kilometers.”

“But at a shuttle's top speed, it will take 2.8 hours to reach the billion kilometer point,” Three said. “The Tsgardi will catch all three long before they can get far enough away to lose themselves in space.”

“We might be able to arrange it so the Tsgardi don't realize that more than one shuttle has departed,” Jenetta said.

“Yes,” Two said, “We can ensure which one they go after first, by sending up one alone, and waiting until the Tsgardi ship breaks orbit to pursue.”

“Then the others fly close to the planet surface until they reach a point directly opposite the flight path of the first shuttle,” Three said. “When they leave the planet's atmosphere, they keep the planet between them and the Tsgardi ship pursuing the first shuttle.”

“When we were talking to the Tsgardi captain,” Jenetta said, “I didn't see any holo-tables in the background. If they're relying solely on standard two-dimensional image screens for DeTect observations, the Raiders will never even know that the others have left because the planet's icon will be superimposed over the shuttle icons.”

 “So one of us deliberately sacrifices herself for the other two,” Two said, “and does everything that she can to prolong the capture to give them time to escape. At four-billion kilometers out, the others can change course and head directly for their destinations with little fear of being detected by the Tsgardi. They'll also transmit an IDS message as soon as they're a hundred-million kilometers away. The jamming satellites around this planet will prevent the Tsgardi from even knowing that a signal was sent. The jamming makes them as deaf and dumb as we presently are.”

“Assuming that there's only one Raider ship out there,” Three said.

“Yes,” Jenetta said. “We have to face the possibility that this is a trap to draw in ships coming to rescue us.”

“Possible, but not likely,” Two said. “This technology is too valuable to risk having it lost in a fight. I think that they'd want to get in quick, grab the prize, and get away. And if they wanted to draw in other ships, they wouldn't have blocked our IDS communications.”

“Okay,” Jenetta said, “the two shuttles carrying equipment will travel together towards Higgins. Only if they DeTect pursuit by the Tsgardi, will they split up.”

“Then the only remaining question is, 'when do we leave?' Now, or after the Tsgardi captain calls again,” Three said.

“During,” Jenetta said.

“That'll be interesting,” Two said. “Will his crew interrupt him while he's talking?”

“It may give us an additional minute if he's preoccupied with giving his 'prepare to die, Terran scum' speech,” Three said.

“So who goes?” Jenetta asked.

“Me,” Two said. “You're needed here and I'm the next oldest.”

“By less than seven days,” Three protested.

“As base commander, it's my decision,” Jenetta said. “Two, I'm sorry— you'll take the first shuttle. You'll head directly away from Vinnia. The other shuttles will lift off as soon as you've drawn off the Raiders and they can get away without being detected. They'll head directly towards Vinnia, so keep the planet between your ship and their course for as long as you possibly can. The umbra cone in which the other shuttles will remain indiscernible is considerable and will allow you quite a bit of room for maneuvering. Your astrogation computer will alert you if you move too close to the edge.”

“Right, Jen,” Two said.

“Who takes the other shuttles?” Three asked.

“You'll take one and I'll find a volunteer for the third. In seventeen minutes you'll be beyond a hundred-million kilometers from Mawcett and outside the jamming range, so you can send a mayday message to the base asking for emergency support. If the message gets out, a ship from Higgins can make it here in as little as thirty days, if they have a decent top speed. We might even get lucky and reach someone who's already much closer. We're a bit off the beaten path here, but you never know who's on patrol. The shuttles should have at least a week's worth of emergency rations on board. We'll add another ninety days worth, in consideration of our DNA enhanced appetites. Someone will definitely reach you within five weeks.”

With their plan formulated, the women began to make preparations so they'd be ready when the Tsgardi captain made contact again. Lieutenant Crocker immediately volunteered to pilot the third shuttle when offered the opportunity, and was briefed on the plan. Marine Captain Greene sat in on the briefing and was advised of the role that he and his people would play. Then it became simply a matter of executing the plan.

Tension filled the command center as everyone waited for the Tsgardi captain to make contact again. All three shuttle pilots were sitting nervously at the controls of the three ships, suited up in bulky E.V.A. suits, just waiting for the signal. Their courses had been plotted and entered into the navigation system on each small ship.

When Captain Verdisqi's disagreeable countenance once again filled the communications monitor, Jenetta stalled as she gave the signal to commence the operation. The order was relayed to Marines standing by to open the end of the shelter containing the first shuttle. Two had already engaged the 'oh gee' system and raised the craft enough to retract the landing skids. As the end panels swung clear, she flew the shuttle out slowly, then punched the throttle as the vehicle gained enough separation that the vortices of opposed gravity waves would not effect the Marines or the shelter.

Verdisqi continued to glower at the screen and ignore the voices calling for his attention as he demanded her answer, while Jenetta again asked him to state the terms of surrender for the equipment. The Tsgardi captain was growing angry with the stall and ignored other voices calling for his attention as he ranted at Jenetta. The com screen suddenly went blank.

The tactical station operator announced, “Commander, the shuttle is away from the planet. The Raider ship hasn't moved yet. The transmission went dead from the source.”

It took the Tsgardi captain more than five minutes to decide on a course of action. His first step was to examine the site optically. Only when they spotted the open end of the shelter did they realize that they had been duped into thinking that the base didn't have any transportation. Then he had to decide whether or not to pursue. If he didn't, key elements of the cloning process might be lost to him, but it might also simply be an attempt to get far enough away from the jamming equipment to send a signal. He didn't expect to be around long enough to be caught here, but catching the shuttle before it got to clear space might buy extra time needed to overrun the base without having the equipment destroyed. In the end, he decided that he couldn't afford to let the shuttle get away. The Tsgardi ship left orbit in hot pursuit.

Seeing the ship leave orbit made it clear that there weren't any other ships out there. If there were, the captain would simply have sent one of them after the shuttle, rather than leaving the planet unobserved. As soon as the Tsgardi ship was gone, Jenetta gave the order for the other two shuttles to depart. The ends of the shelters were opened, and the ships flew off on their mission. Unlike with the first shelter, the ends of the other two were closed back up again so the returning Tsgardi ship wouldn't know that two other shuttles had been secreted there.

With the shuttles away, the base prepared for the expected attack. Two torpedoes from the ship could probably flatten the entire area, but Jenetta was gambling that they wouldn't want to risk damaging the equipment. The Marines climbed into their personal battle armor and prepared their positions in the trenches around the facility. The battle armor wouldn't protect them from a direct hit by a gunship-mounted laser or kinetic weapon, but each armor surface did provide camouflage by duplicating the patterns and colors on the opposite side of the Marine. It enabled them to blend into the background better than a Nordakian. It also blocked all thermal readings produced by a warm body, while mimicking the temperature of the surroundings. Lastly, since it had an inner layer of lightweight tritanium, the same material as the hull of the Prometheus, the wearer was protected from direct hits by most hand-held weapons and from most collateral damage resulting from nearby explosions.

The Tsgardi ship didn't return to planetary orbit for six hours, and when it did, it came from the direction that the first shuttle had taken. Jenetta calculated that the second and third shuttles, having attained Sub-Light-100, should be more than two-billion kilometers away. Although the small ships might appear on the DeTect equipment in the Raider ship, they wouldn't activate any alarms since there was no risk of a collision. And given their small size and slow speed, the Tsgardi tac officer might simply dismiss them as simply being natural celestial objects such as tiny asteroids. That is, if he even noticed them and realized that they were moving. Limited to Sub-Light speeds, the shuttles could never reach Higgins SCB on their own, but once the base received their IDS transmission, a Space Command vessel would be dispatched immediately. The jamming satellite, placed in the planet's ionosphere by the Tsgardi, would continue to prevent them from even being aware that a signal for help had been sent until an SC warship appeared on their sensors. So now, the base defenders just had to hang on until the cavalry came to the rescue.

The Tsgardi captain didn't attempt to communicate with the base until the following morning. Jenetta had finished breakfast and was enjoying a cup of coffee when the call came in. She hurried to the command center to respond.

“This is the Commander,” Jenetta said.

“Oh, Commander is it?” The Raider captain said. “Well, Commander, we have one of your officers up here. She refuses to cooperate, and wears no rank insignia, but we know from her slave imprint that she's Lt. Commander Jenetta Carver. If you don't turn over the cloning equipment, you'll never see her again. How would that look to your Galactic Alliance? I'm sure they don't want to lose their biggest hero.”

“She knew the risks, and she knows we'd rescue her if we could. But she also knows that we won't pay ransom for any Space Command officer, or every piece of scum in the galaxy would be trying to kidnap them. Tell her we're sorry and that we wish her well.”

“What kind of people are you?!” the Tsgardi captain screamed. “How can you leave your people to die with your enemies? Don't you have some rule about never leaving anyone behind in an engagement?”