This Corner of the Universe (10 page)

The
duo acknowledged the orders as
Anelace
hurtled toward the freighter.  Eighty-five
tense minutes later, she kept pace with the dying freighter less than .5
ls
off
her starboard bow.  The distance was dangerously close but it allowed the
shuttle to transition immediately from launch protocol leaving
Anelace
to docking protocol approaching
Orphan
.  Transit time would be under twenty
seconds.

Chief
Brown’s confident voice washed over the bridge from his operations station.  “We’re
awaitin’ launch clearance, Capt’n.”

“Granted,
Boats,” Heskan said. 
This situation will start to get out of my hands now
,
he thought as he watched the shuttle’s symbol on the tactical plot move quickly
toward the freighter.  The plot had been zoomed to near maximum, showing only
the small area of space the events were playing out in.

“Soft
dock,” PO Lincoln’s voice announced over the comm unit, which was quickly
followed by “Hard dock, we’re opening the Orphan’s hatch now.”

Chaos
erupted on the bridge as several people started yelling all at once.  Over
Heskan’s comm unit, Lieutenant Jackamore’s voice shouted out, “Captain, the
safeties just shut down on Orphan!  Core overload in sixty seconds!”

Although
Jackamore was screaming, the comm unit speaker diminished his volume to where
his warning was nearly drowned out by Truesworth, who was sitting close to
Heskan.  “Whoa!  Big spike in radiation, Captain!  I’m picking up a major rad
source in Orphan’s hold.”

However,
as loud as Truesworth’s voice was, it was drowned out by Selvaggio’s high-pitched
alert, “She’s turning toward us, Captain!  Orphan’s main drives just lit off! 
Collision alert!”

All
these warnings hit Heskan at once.  Unprepared for the assault, his mind took
several seconds to process what he had just heard and the consequences of it
all.  After three heartbeats, he heard his voice and that of his first
officer’s crying out “Evasive action!” in unison.

The
commands proved unnecessary, as Selvaggio already had the lithe corvette
spinning like a top ninety degrees to port.  She had pounded her navigation
console’s command key ordering
Anelace
to full military power so hard
she drove the corner of the button into her palm, breaking the skin.

Truesworth
gasped, “My God, she’s loaded with dutronium thirty-six, Captain.  That’s the
radiation source in the hold.”

Not
good
, thought
Heskan.  Dutronium-36 was not only highly explosive but, when detonated, it
released radiation exponentially higher than an already deadly core overload. 
How
do I stop this?
 
What do I do?

“Orphan
core overload in thirty-five seconds, Captain.”  Jackamore’s voice came over not
only Heskan’s console but the entire ship’s main speakers, loudly carrying into
every compartment.  Heskan angrily snapped back over the ship wide speakers,
“Acknowledged, Lieutenant!”

Selvaggio
interrupted, “Collision averted but Orphan is pursuing.  Distance is point two light-seconds
but we’re pulling away.”

Heskan
spun his chair to face Chief Brown.  “Chief, can we get them back in time?”

The
chief shook his head, “No, I don’t think so.”

Heskan
hit the transmit button on his comm unit.  “Lincoln, Orphan’s core is
overloading, get to engineering and stop it!” 
I don’t even know if anyone
on that rescue team has any training in engineering but I’ve got to give them
something to believe in
.

Jackamore’s
voice once again came through Heskan’s chair arm comm unit, this time quieter. 
“If they’re carrying dutronium, we have to get away, Captain.  We need to be at
least a half light-second away before she blows.”

“Overload
estimated in twenty-five seconds, distance to Orphan is point three-one light-seconds,”
Selvaggio’s voice struggled to regain a semblance of calm.

I
need more time to pull away but I’m not going to get it.  Think, dammit
!  An idea came to Heskan as he
slammed his fist down on his chair arm console.  “Vernay, shoot her engines,” he
ordered bluntly.

Unfortunately
for
Anelace
, her main armament, the bow-mounted Kruger Mk 237 mass
driver, was facing directly away from the freighter.  Since
Orphan
was
outside of the two hundred seventy degree arc the mass driver could rotate
through, it was useless.  However, the freighter was within the firing arcs of
the two rearmost Lyle Dual GP pulse lasers.  Although no Brevic military
regulation or naval standard operating procedure had instructed Vernay to have
her crew at maximum alert with weapons trained toward the “friendly” civilian
freighter, the lieutenant had done so out of an abundance of caution.  When she
had given the order, even she had thought such action was unnecessary and
bordered on paranoia but she had spent the last two years aboard
Anelace
preaching to her weapons section that they were the ship’s guardians.  They
were the last line of defense and no extra action was unnecessary or too
paranoid when it came to protecting
Anelace
.

Heskan
watched as the lieutenant updated the target data into the weapons’ director computer. 
Milliseconds later, commands were sent to each of the pulse laser stations
manned by Petty Officers Pruette and Jamison, her LAZ subsection heads. 
Already pointed toward
Orphan
, the laser mounts adjusted an average of
only two millimeters and barked out their first pulsed shots within three
seconds of Heskan’s command.  The charged energy bursts moved toward
Orphan
at the speed of light. 

Orphan
possessed two engines.  Each was
positioned at her stern, one mounted above the ship’s hull and one below.  Both
energy bursts struck the unshielded, unarmored topside engine of
Orphan
. 
The engine, technically running at one hundred eight percent of maximum, was
already tearing itself apart when the bursts burned through the exterior casing,
melting many of the engine’s moving parts.  As the energy dissipated, the cold
of space immediately fused those parts together and the resultant destruction
created an imbalance inside the engine that caused enormous vibrations
throughout the engine frame.  Four seconds later, the twelve mounts attaching
the engine to the hull failed and the drive physically separated from
Orphan
. 
Orphan’s
course immediately altered “upward” as her bow was pushed high
into the z-axis of travel by the remaining lower engine.  The freighter’s automated
navigation computers were unable to compensate and maintained neither her
course nor her acceleration. Heskan watched the tactical plot draw an increasingly
greater distance between his corvette and the freighter. 

“Fifteen
seconds to go and point five-one apart, Captain,” a relieved Selvaggio called
out.

Heskan’s
comm unit flashed again and he heard the tortured voice of Petty Officer
Lincoln.  “We’re at the door to Engineering, Captain, but it’s been welded
shut, we can’t get in.”  The anguish and fear in the man’s voice were easily
apparent.

Unsure
what he would say, Heskan opened his mouth to respond but stopped when the
freighter’s tactical symbol on the plot flashed once and faded.

“Detonation,”
Truesworth quietly confirmed.

The
explosion reached
Anelace
six seconds later.  Now outside the
destructive zone of the dutronium-36, her shield protected the crew from the
shock wave and radiation.

Heskan
saw expressions of relief begin to break out among the bridge crew but felt his
heart sink when he gazed back to tactical.  The symbol that was
Orphan
and his four crewmembers was now gone. 

“Damage
report,” he said sedately.

It
had been thirty minutes since
Orphan
had ceased to exist.  Heskan had
ordered
Anelace
to cut power to her engines and she was currently
drifting.  The corvette had surpassed her V-max speed, the speed that Brevic
Naval Regulations had recommended she never exceed.  Of course, in this
instance, the potential danger of destroying her power plant or drive systems
due to V-max was far less than the very real danger of exploding in
Orphan’s
shock wave or frying in the intense radioactive aftermath.  The shock wave had
imparted a six degree yaw to port, which had not been corrected before
Anelace’s
power plant went into standby mode giving the corvette’s track through space
the appearance of a heavily damaged ship. 

The
mood in the meeting room was equally bruised.  After the immediate relief of escaping
destruction, the loss of nearly half of the operations section’s personnel began
to sink in.  Heskan looked around the room at his senior staff and saw the
faces of people just starting to realize that some of their fellow crewmembers
would not be leaving Skathi.

“Funeral
services will be at Oh-eight hundred tomorrow.  I’ll accept a skeleton crew in
all sections and Operations is excused from duty entirely.  Brandon, get with
the chief and detail some of your men to fill the vital functions during services.”

The
chief engineering officer nodded as Heskan continued, “Boats, I’ll do the
service but I’d like you to say some words and then anyone else who wants to
speak will get the opportunity.  Services will be in the hanger.  Any
questions?”

Heskan
looked around the room and noticed that most of his officers were staring
straight down at the conference table. 
They look defeated
, he thought. 
I can’t blame them for feeling like they do but I need to change the mood in
here before this meeting breaks
. 

“Let’s
move on.  Ship’s status?” Heskan asked.

Riedel
tapped the console in front of him and an image of
Anelace
appeared in
the middle of the conference table.  “Ana is fine.  Her shield took the shock
wave well and Engineering is double-checking her systems after the V-max.  Of
course, the damage to the rescue crew’s shuttle was total.”

“That’s
a problem,” Heskan noted.  “We only carried one.  How do we perform
inspections?”

“Our
only option is to commandeer a shuttle from the RALF.  They use Class B and
Class F shuttles.  The B’s are too big but the F’s will fit easily.  They’re
smaller and we won’t be able to carry more than eight people on board but it
will have to do,” Riedel offered.  “Spaceman Gables and the Chief here are our
only fully qualified shuttle pilots now too.”

“We’re
also down to half our inspection crew,” Heskan observed.  He looked across the
table to his engineering officer.  “Brandon, your section is the largest which
means you’ll have to take the hit.  I need four crewmembers to split their time
between Engineering and Operations.  The chief will train them up for normal
ship operations and for cargo inspections.” 

Jackamore
produced a frown but merely nodded.  No section chief liked to have his
resources taken from him.

“I
know it’s a bad deal, Brandon, but that’s how it is.”  Heskan looked over to
Chief Brown and added, “During inspections, Boats, I want the newbies to be
paired with a regular ops crewman.”

Chief
Brown nodded wearily but spoke up, “We’ll make it work, Capt’n.  I’m goin’ to
have my guys doin’ double shifts from here on out.  That way we won’t have to
impact Engineerin’ too much.”

The
ship’s business settled, Heskan switched gears.  “We need to go over the events
with Orphan.  What happened?”

There
was a deep silence for a moment and then Brown finally replied.  “It was a
trap, Capt’n.  They suckered us in good an’ then tried to take us out an’ it
woulda looked like an accident.”

“Captain,”
Jackamore added, “looking at the sequence of events, I think Orphan’s computer
was set to initiate a core overload when the starboard docking hatch opened. 
She also had some containment fields up in her cargo hold which helped hide the
dutronium but those dropped too when the safeties were released.”

“They
also used the ship’s computer to light up their engines and ram us, or, in the
worst case, keep us from getting to a safe distance,” Selvaggio said.  “It was
a damn good trap.”

“Bastards
even welded Engineerin’ up to prevent access,” Brown growled.  “This was well thought
out.”

Heskan
looked over the room.  The defeat he had seen in the eyes of his crew seemed to
be transforming into something different.  “Yes, it was.  Not to mention whoever
did this had to highjack Orphan in the first place.  I looked at her record in
the standata and it looks clean.  Orphan wasn’t even scheduled to come to
Skathi.”  He shook his head, “I doubt her crew was complicit in this.”

“Captain,”
Selvaggio asked with wide, brown eyes, “what do you think happened to her
crew?”

“The
same thing you think happened,” Heskan responded simply.

Truesworth
looked over to Selvaggio and shrugged, “We never did get positive confirmation
of life signs.”

“I
bet that stealth ship was watching us the whole time, probably still is,”
Vernay suggested.  Her face turned bitter as she thought about how that crew
must have cheered when
Orphan
exploded.

“That’s
what I would do,” Heskan said.  “But we can use that against them.”  Heskan
leaned forward to operate his console.  He pressed several buttons until a
steady green “Recording” image pulsed silently.  “RALF-Three, this is Anelace. 
We were unable to prevent the total destruction of the freighter, Orphan.  Our
engineering officer reports that he believes the initial cascade failure during
their tunnel jump collapsed further when they dove out.  She suffered numerous
computer malfunctions ending in critical failure.  We got caught in the
resulting core overload and took moderate damage and crew casualties.  Power
will be restored shortly but propulsion has been reduced by seventeen percent. 
We’ve also lost our shuttle and request the use of one of your Class F
shuttles.  Under the ISC Rules, Renard will be fully compensated for its use. 
Once we can maneuver, we will return to the RALF.  No estimated time of arrival
yet.  Heskan out.”

Heskan
stopped the recording and then called up to the bridge. 

“Davis
here, sir,” the sensorman immediately responded.

“Davis,
send this recording out to the RALF over broadband.  Mark it priority,” Heskan
said.

After
receiving confirmation from Petty Officer Davis, Heskan looked back to his
senior staff.  “Two can play the deception game.  Brandon, when we bring the
power plant back up, I don’t want you to use Engine Three.  Keep it shut down
as if it were damaged.”

Jackamore
smiled slightly and acknowledged.  Vernay, who had been reviewing the text of
Heskan’s message, looked up at Heskan, “So what else can we do, Captain?”

That’s
the million credit question
,
Heskan thought.  “Right now, we head back to the RALF and collect a shuttle. 
I’ll also send a coded message to Narvi with the next freighter, updating them
of our real status and findings, although I don’t expect any additional
support.”  Heskan tried his best to keep the bitterness out of his last
statement. 
Time for a pep talk
.

“The circle is closing and these
pirates are getting desperate.”  Heskan could see a little more optimism in his
crew now.  “We’ll keep the pressure on them and when Paragon comes into the
system, we’ll show these murderers that we can set a trap too.”  Although it
felt forced, Heskan smiled and was rewarded with hopeful and determined
expressions from his officers.  Chief Brown’s face remained stoic. 

*  *  *

Anelace
“limped” back to the RALF where
she stayed docked for ten days to “repair.”  The first freighter that delivered
its cargo and loaded the RALF’s ore to be hauled away was an Emeray Freight
Company bulk carrier.  Odds that it was affiliated with the illegal activity in
Skathi were low.

It
was a risk not to be on station near the Narvi tunnel point or near the Beta
Field where Renard extractors were operating, but Heskan believed the deception
that
Anelace
was hurt would embolden the pirates and provide a valuable
advantage when it came to drawing them out.  He felt a bit like he was putting
all of his eggs in one basket but frustration was creeping into his judgment.  He
was frustrated at the lack of support he had from Narvi, frustrated at being
one step behind the pirates for the last several months and frustrated at the
loss of his crewmembers.  He knew the feeling could make him act rashly but at
this point, he was not sure he cared.  The asteroid fields and ensuing
radiation made it almost impossible for a single corvette to find any criminal base
of operations.  Consequently, the only way to stop them was to starve their
source of supplies and draw them out.  He had been doing everything he could to
make it impossible for them to resupply and it must have been working for the
pirates to try something as outright audacious as they had.  The pirates’
gambit had failed but Heskan knew that while the pirates had not succeeded,
neither had he.  He had traded away four lives for no new information.  This
deception was the only element of advantage he could take from a disastrous
situation and he owed it to those crewmembers to make every use of their
sacrifice that he could.

While
Anelace
sat at the RALF, he had asked Chief Brown to let word slip from
some of his operations crewmembers that
Anelace’s
next task was to
replace the navigation buoy at the distant Skoll tunnel point.  Heskan was
still confident that pirates had not actually infiltrated the RALF but it wouldn’t
hurt to spread the misinformation just in case. 
Anelace
waited three
more days, ostensibly under repair until she was ready to make her move.

“Navigator,
cut the moorings,” Heskan ordered and the corvette slipped the bonds securing
her to the refining station.  “Set a course for the Skoll tunnel point, Diane. 
Point one-five light, if you please.”

The
sleek corvette glided through the blackness of space slower than her normal cruising
speed, five of her Allison drives pushing her toward the distant tunnel point.

While
Anelace
drew further from RALF-3, Heskan brought up the master freighter
schedule for the system and saw that
Paragon
wasn’t due to dive in-system
for eighteen more hours. 
I hope I’m right about this
, he thought. 
This
is my best chance to catch them and if I’m wrong, they’ll know for certain that
we’ve figured out how they are resupplying inside the Beta Field.
  Even
though he knew nothing was going to happen for a day, Heskan felt anxious. 
Trying to look relaxed, he stretched out and yawned.  His shift was nearing its
end and he decided that he would eat before getting some rest. 

The
food was tasteless and the rest was sleepless.  During the time Heskan spent
futilely seeking sleep,
Anelace
had moved into the Beta Field on an
intercept course for the Skoll tunnel point.  However, once inside the Beta
Field and now hidden from anyone monitoring her movements,
Anelace
cut
her navigation emissions, technically illegal under the Rules of Interstellar and
System Commerce, and came about.  Moving at just .05
c
,
Anelace
crept to what her captain had designated as the capture point in his planning
sessions with his staff.  Fourteen hours after leaving the RALF, the corvette was
at relative rest, exactly halfway through the Beta Field in a straight line between
the Narvi tunnel point and the RALF.  Heskan had decided this was the most
likely rendezvous point for a resupply mission between a freighter and a pirate
ship.  The corvette was in the heart of the interference zone of the Beta Field
and even a full-fledged Brevic surveyor ship would have had great difficulty
detecting it. 

The
EMU to deploy their last buoy took three hours.  Petty Officer Deveraux and
Spaceman Ford painstakingly checked and double-checked every setting on the
modified buoy.  Normally, a navigation buoy detected space traffic and
automatically broadcast that information to any ship in the area.  Buoys were also
programmed to accept any active navigation request from a nearby ship, commonly
called a “ping.”  The ping would give that ship extra navigational data and
assistance in augmenting sensor sweeps in specifically requested portions of
space, or augment the ship’s communications capability with the buoy’s powerful
repeater transmitters.  All of these functions were placed into sleep mode in
Anelace’s
final buoy.  The buoy would only monitor and record the space traffic it
detected.  It would also only use its passive detection mode, meaning that it
would not emit any transmissions common to a navigation buoy.  Officially, this
too was in violation of the ISC Rules.  Any tampering with a governmental aide
to navigation could result in a serious sanction.  Fortunately, there were military
regulations that could supersede these edicts.

The
modified buoy would remain silent, even if it detected two ships on a collision
course.  The only exception to this rule was if it received a coded
transmission from
Anelace
. 
If that happens
, Heskan thought,
all
hell will break loose
.