This Corner of the Universe (11 page)

After
deploying the buoy, Heskan had his ship slip 2.5
lm
from its location. 
Ensign Truesworth had carefully calculated this position as virtually
guaranteeing that
Anelace
would not be detected, yet she might still have
a chance to track
Paragon
once the freighter entered the Beta Field. 
Tracking
Paragon
from the tunnel point to the Beta Field could be done
easily through the Narvi buoy but once she entered the Beta Field, Heskan would
have to rely on
Anelace’s
passive sensors to maintain sensor contact
with the freighter.

Ensign
Selvaggio wrapped her hands around the sides of her console as she said, “Ana
is now at relative rest, Captain.  She’s facing the capture point.”

“Very
good, Diane.  Now we play the waiting game,” Heskan said hopefully.

“The
waiting game sucks,” Vernay countered.

The
HandyMax freighter transitioned from t-space into Skathi’s n-space with the
usual calamity of physics.  After several seconds in which human and silicon
senses on the ship readjusted to normal space, the freighter shifted course
slightly and began to thrust toward the star system’s RALF.

Twenty-two
minutes later, Ensign Truesworth calmly reported, “Captain, we have a tunnel
drive disturbance at the Narvi point.  The signal is a freighter’s beacon, twenty-two
light-minutes from us.  Her beacon color is green.  It’s the Paragon, sir. 
She’s altering course… heading toward the RALF at point one light.”

They’re
now twenty light-minutes out from us adjusting for the time lag
, Heskan thought. 
They’ll
have received our automated communications transmission from the Narvi buoy
informing them we’re halfway across the system and won’t be able to provide
escort for their ingress or egress but to broadcast on the standard emergency
frequency if they encounter a problem.

“Everyone
confirm that we are running silent,” Heskan ordered.  Confirmations came from
around the bridge, including the side stations occupied by Chief Brown and
Ensign Elena Antipova, the rarely seen second engineering officer.  Antipova’s battle
station was normally commanding Auxiliary Control but Heskan had wanted an
engineering officer on the bridge until it was certain that
Anelace
would
actually see action.  For now, he wanted a direct link to Engineering to ensure
Anelace’s
electronic profile was as reduced as possible.  Heskan’s
entire plan depended on the deception that the corvette was conveniently far
away, affording the pirates an opportunity to resupply via
Paragon
that
was too good to pass up. 
They must be critically low on supplies since
we’ve been escorting every remotely suspicious freighter through the Beta Field
the last five weeks
, he mused. 

Anelace
was relying purely on the Narvi
buoy for detecting and tracking the freighter.  She had shut down all
emissions, including active sensors, three hours ago and without the buoy would
have been blind.  Even her power plant was running on minimum, with most of her
power being pulled from her emergency batteries.  With such minimal output lost
inside the intense radiation generated by the asteroid field,
Anelace
was, in essence, a hole in space.

“Jack,
monitor Paragon’s progress continuously.  Let me know any changes in her
status.”

“Aye,
aye, sir,” Truesworth responded while inputting the necessary command to bring
the tactical view onto the bridge’s main view screen.  The screen showed the
relevant portions of the system. 
Anelace
was quietly tucked deep in the
Beta Field.  Twenty light-minutes away,
Paragon
was cruising at .1
c
on a course that would take her roughly within 1
lm
of the buoy
Anelace
had secretly deployed inside the asteroid field.  The freighter’s path was
projected to take her on the opposite side of the buoy, so
Paragon
would
pass no closer than 3.5
lm
to
Anelace
.

Three
and a half light-minutes.  Will we lose sight of her at that distance?
Heskan wondered.

“When
she enters the Beta Field, I don’t know if I can keep track of Paragon with
passive sensors, Captain,” Truesworth echoed Heskan’s thoughts.

“You’re
a mind reader, Jack.”  Heskan turned to Lieutenant Riedel.  “Options?”

Riedel
stared at the plot briefly.  “We can creep up some to the capture point, use our
active sensors on low power or do nothing and hope we can keep track of her,” he
offered.  It was obvious that none of those options appealed to the first
officer.

“We
both know that active sensors will give us away.  Paragon might not be able to
find us but she’ll know that someone is watching her, which will alert her crew
and ruin our plan.  Do we try to move up or just hope for the best?” Heskan
asked no one in particular. 
I need to move closer.  I can’t take the chance
of losing the pirates as this is probably our best shot at catching them in the
act.  On the other hand, we have no idea where the pirate ship is in the asteroid
field.  It could be a light-minute from us right now and powering up to move
would certainly give us away.  Is this what command is all about?  Not knowing
the right answer but being forced to act like I do anyway?

“The
greatest enemy of a good plan is a perfect one,” Heskan stated.  “We stay
here.  I trust that the Brevic Republic’s finest sensorman won’t lose our
target.”

“No
pressure, Jack,” Selvaggio teased in a muted tone.

Truesworth
shot her an irritated look as a bead of sweat glided down the side of his
face.  “I estimate three hours and forty minutes for Paragon to reach the
projected rendezvous point inside the Beta Field.  That’s assuming she
maintains point one light up to the asteroid field but then reduces to point
zero five light once inside.”

Each
hour passed slowly.  Heskan rotated his bridge crew so that each had at least twenty
minutes off duty and tried to keep the atmosphere relaxed.  However, as the
freighter approached the edge of the Beta Field, the tension on the bridge increased
exponentially.

“Paragon
is decelerating, Captain,” Truesworth called out.  After a minute, her speed
stabilized and the sensorman could confidently surmise the freighter would
traverse the asteroid field at .04
c
.  The revised estimate for when
Paragon would reach the point where Heskan thought it was most likely to meet
up with a pirate ship increased to fifty minutes.

The
Narvi buoy lost sight of the freighter once it entered the Beta Field and
Anelace’s
passive sensors could only intermittently achieve sensor contact. 
Consequently,
Paragon’s
symbol on the tactical plot kept fading in and
out.  Each time
Anelace
lost the freighter’s position, the symbol would
change from a solid red blip to a blinking red one.  A dashed red circle around
the blinking icon denoted the area of uncertainty where the ship’s position
could be, given the last known location and how much time had elapsed from the
last known position.

Heskan
wanted to pace the bridge.  Over the course of ten minutes, he almost twice
ordered his ship to power up and sail closer to reestablish contact.  Each time
before he could give the order, the blinking red blip would jump a short
distance to somewhere within the uncertainty zone and glow steadily for a few
seconds before blinking again.  Upon each reacquisition, Heskan would bite his
lip and curse his indecision.

With
thirty minutes remaining until
Paragon
reached the estimated rendezvous
point,
Anelace
had lost contact for a full ten minutes.  The uncertainty
zone was expanding wider and wider. 
We’re not getting her back this time
,
Heskan thought as doubt settled over him. 
They could have already met with
a pirate ship and we’d never know. 
Heskan counted down each second as the
silence on the bridge became unbearable. 
They’re all looking at me, waiting
for me to do something, even Mike.  I’m sitting here and the bad guys are
accomplishing their mission right under our noses
.

Ten
more agonizing minutes passed.  The freighter had been out of contact for twenty
minutes now.  When Heskan had formulated his plan, he had estimated that
Paragon
would need anywhere from twenty to forty minutes to join up with a pirate ship
and transfer cargo to her. 
She could be finished resupplying and I’m still
stuck here waiting for another ten minutes!  Just sitting here is stupid
. 
Heskan stared at the tactical plot and quickly recalculated the figures in his
head.

Two
more minutes passed and Heskan kept quiet as he ran the numbers and estimations
repeatedly. 
Am I afraid to act?  Analysis paralysis
.  “Keep cool,
folks.  The fun starts soon,” he said with what he hoped was a confident and
reassuring voice
.  I sounded like a teenager just now, how did my voice get
so high and whiny?  I have to act; it’s been too long. 
Heskan opened his
mouth, paused and then closed it. 
No, dammit, stick with the plan
.

The
final five minutes felt more like five hours.  The uncertainty zone was quite
wide now and the
Paragon
had been out of contact for half an hour. 
According to Heskan’s estimates, the freighter would now be three minutes from
forming up with the theoretical pirate ship to offload supplies.

Heskan
leaned forward in his command chair, grateful that it was almost time to act. “Get
ready to send the signal, Jack.  Thirty more seconds.”

Heskan
saw Truesworth had a running timer counting down on his console display.  It
was unnecessary, as there was also a countdown on the main tactical screen, but
Heskan would not begrudge his young ensign for the redundancy as he looked at
his own console display to his right, his own timer ticking down the seconds to
zero.

“Sensors,
send the signal and give me a full active sensor sweep on the capture point. 
Navigation, take us there, point one-C.”  Heskan looked down at his ship’s status
panel as Ensign Antipova declared that Engineering was bringing
Anelace’s
power plant up to full power.  Heskan waited a beat and then pushed the button
on his console that would call the ship to battle stations.  As soon as the
alarm was given, Antipova raced off the bridge toward Auxiliary Control.

The alarm
was unnecessary as the crewmembers were already wearing their shocksuits at
their stations but it served to alert them that the waiting was over and gave
notice to PO3 Deveraux to activate the AIPS defense screen.  The crew, at the
ready, responded immediately. 
Anelace’s
AIPS formed around her within
seconds, although the shield was severely weakened due to the high radiation
environment.  It would offer only minimal protection inside the Beta Field but
even a compromised defensive screen could deflect or absorb a shot or two from
the weapons Heskan thought they might most likely encounter.

The
signal sent from
Anelace
to the capture point buoy hidden in the Beta
Field raced along at the speed of light.  Two and a half minutes after being
sent, the buoy received the transmission and went into full active sensor mode
itself, immediately relaying any sensor contact’s information back to
Anelace
. 

The
buoy’s active sensor emissions took ten seconds to hit the
Paragon
and
the pirate ship stationed just .1
ls
off her port side.  The round trip of
the buoy’s active emissions was twenty seconds and relaying the information
back to
Anelace
took an additional two minutes and four seconds as the
corvette had traveled slightly closer during that time.

Heskan
raised his fist in triumph as the tactical display updated. 
Paragon’s
solid red blip was within 4
ls
of the projected rendezvous point.  A second,
red blip, this one labeled as Unknown-1, was immediately adjacent to
Paragon
.

Holy
crap, it worked!  If I had moved Ana a half hour ago like I’d wanted, they may
have detected us and the trap would’ve failed.  There’s a huge lesson to be
learned from this, Heskan, but now isn’t the time to chew on it.

“You
did it, sir,” Riedel called out as the tactical screen updated.  Selvaggio and
Truesworth exchanged smiles.

“Tally-ho,”
Vernay said wickedly, using an ancient hunter’s phrase.

Heskan
tried his hardest to remain outwardly calm. 
Dammit, I’m grinning like an
idiot.  Stop it, Heskan!  You’re the captain and the crew is looking to you for
example.  The hard work is still ahead of us.

“We’ve
only just begun, folks, maintain your bearing.  Jack, tell me about Unknown-One.”

Truesworth
continued to work at his console a full ten seconds before replying.  “Aye, Captain. 
No active beacon from the ship and the buoy’s optics can barely see her.  She’s
much smaller than the freighter.  Ana estimates she is a ketch-sized civilian
ship.  That’s about all I can tell with all of this sensor disturbance in the
field.”

Riedel
stepped next to Heskan and said, “It’s all we need, really.  Running without an
active beacon is a serious offense.  We can impound her for that violation
alone.”

Truesworth’s
hands continued to dance along his console.  “Both ships are still at relative
rest.”

“Why
aren’t they running?” Selvaggio asked.

“I’m
pretty sure the pirates outside both of those ships, transferring cargo via
EMU, wouldn’t appreciate that,” Vernay said.

Heskan
nodded, “Yep, right now it’s a fire drill over there to get their loaders back
inside and the ships secured.  Give them a couple minutes and then we’ll see
them bolt.”

Vernay
turned to face her captain. “The question is, sir, do they panic and run
together or do they split up?”

Heskan
smiled at his forward-thinking weapons officer.  “What would you do, Stacy?”

“If
I’m tunnel-capable, I’d split up the ships inside the Beta Field and then
whichever one we don’t chase, point it at the Narvi tunnel point and go hell
bent for leather to it.  The Paragon is dead to rights, she’s too slow to make
it but if that ketch is fast enough, she could have a chance to escape.”

Selvaggio
interjected, “Probably not though.  We’re too close and Ana is greased
lightning.  We don’t even have to catch them; we just have to enter our weapons
envelope.”

“Course
change from the ships, Captain,” Truesworth called out. 

SENS
updated the information.  Both red icons were coming about, finally settling on
a course pointing them toward the Narvi tunnel point.  Velocities of both ships
increased. 

“Paragon
is leveling out at point one light.  Unknown-One is at point one-three and
increasing, sir.”

Heskan
looked toward Riedel.  “That’s awfully fast inside the belt.  I guess they
figure Anelace is a bigger threat than a collision inside the Beta Field.”

“She
is,” Riedel confirmed.  “Diane, keep us on an intercept course with them.  How
long until each ship clears the Beta Field?”

Selvaggio
answered before Truesworth, “If we changed our heading, Ana will be clear in twenty-five
minutes.”

“At
point one light, Paragon will be clear in twenty minutes.  Unknown-One will
clear the field in thirteen minutes, assuming she stays steady at point one-five. 
That’s her speed now, sir, and it looks like it’s steady.”  Truesworth’s hand
glided over his console and the updated times to clear the asteroid belt
appeared next to each ship’s ID tag on the main screen.

Anelace
cruised at .1
c
.  Heskan
had judged that increasing her speed was an unnecessary risk to the ship and
her crew.  She would catch her prey well before the tunnel point and increasing
speed inside the Beta Field would not substantially change that.  Heskan stared
at the tactical plot. 
So far, so good.  Better than good, in fact.  This is
optimal.  If both ships stay on that course, I’ll barely have to maneuver. 
They should have split up.  Sent Paragon to the tunnel point so we’d have to
chase her and keep that pirate ketch in the Beta Field so we’d eventually lose
contact with her. Was this “mistake” made in a panic or am I missing something?

The bridge
crew of
Anelace
monitored the tactical plot as each ship’s icon crawled toward
the empty space past the Beta Field.  Thirteen minutes later Ensign Truesworth
announced that Unknown-1 had cleared the asteroid field.  “She’s increasing
speed, sir.”

“Let
me know what she stabilizes at, Ensign.”

Seven
minutes later,
Paragon
left the asteroid field and accelerated toward
the Narvi tunnel point.  Finally, five minutes after that,
Anelace
broke
free.  Heskan quickly ordered the ship to her sprint speed, her drive system
pushing the sleek corvette toward .33
c
.  The unknown ship had reached
.25
c
before her velocity leveled out while
Paragon
could only
manage a paltry .19
c
.

“Captain,”
Truesworth said, “we’re getting our first, good look at Unknown-One.  She’s a
civie... Ana is labeling her as a civilian ketch.”  He tapped on his console
and the tactical display listed estimated intercept times.  If all ships
remained on their current courses,
Anelace
would overtake the freighter
in six minutes and thirty-five seconds.  It would take an additional twenty-nine
minutes to catch the faster pirate ship, still well in advance of the eighty
minutes the pirate ketch needed to reach the Narvi tunnel point.  After classifying
the pirate ship as a ketch,
Anelace’s
computers began to provide the
ship’s specifications.

In
Terran space, ships could be broken down into two major types, military and
civilian, with civilian ships outnumbering the military ships by an order of
magnitude.  Military ships were further split into two categories, so-called Black
Space ships and System Defense ships.  The difference between them stemmed from
the intended area of operations for the category of ship.

Black
Space ships were designed to operate in the “deep, dark” of space.  They rarely
sailed alone, usually traveling in a squadron with at least two other ships. 
These were the ships that holo-movies were made about… the dashing captain
commanding a heavy cruiser facing incredible odds yet still winning the
battle.  The Brevic navy classified these ships by order of tonnage as frigates,
destroyers, cruisers, battleships, dreadnaughts and, most recently, carriers. 
Each class was often further broken down according to its mission and capabilities. 
Destroyers designed for stealth and with enhanced sensor detection capabilities
were called scout destroyers, cruisers with greater than normal weaponry and a
flag bridge were called heavy cruisers and so on.

System
Defense ships were littoral in nature.  These ships were usually much smaller
and designed to operate in a single star system as nearly all of them lacked a
tunnel drive.  “Defense” might be considered a misleading term as these ships
had neither the offensive nor defensive capabilities to stand up to a Black
Space ship.  Even a frigate could best a System Defense ship unless outnumbered. 
The usual mission of an SDS was the policing of a particular system.  The Brevic
Navy labeled these SDSs as cutters, gunboats, patrol crafts and fast ships. 
Corvettes were technically fast ships but slightly larger and were historically
called corvettes because of this distinction. 
Anelace
was a corvette
but still bore the official fast ship designation “FS-776” on her hull.

The
other major type of space-going vessels was civilian ships.  Encompassing
everything non-military, the number of categories of civilian ships was
enormous.  The ketch category was used to describe a small vessel with two standard
drives.  A sloop was a similar, often smaller craft but with only one drive,
while a schooner was the general term used for a civilian ship with multiple
drives plus tunneling capability.  Typically, ketches and sloops were private
recreational ships.  Schooners were most often, but not always, commercial ships
built as specialized courier ships, high-end, low capacity passenger ships and
other similar employments.  A sloop, with its single drive, ranged anywhere
from thirty to sixty meters long.  Ketches were roughly equivalent in size or
smaller than
Anelace’s
one hundred six meter hull.  A schooner usually
picked up where a ketch left off and could span several hundred meters.

Heskan
analyzed the bridge’s main screen.  The ketch was on the small side, much
smaller than even
Anelace
.  His eyes moved to
Paragon’s
position
on the plot. 
Anelace
had exited the Beta Field only 1
lm
behind
Paragon
. 
“Jack, open up communications and broadcast it on the general civilian
frequency.”  After a moment, Truesworth replied, “You’re on, Captain.”

“Freighter
Paragon and unidentified civilian ketch three light-minutes off our bow, this
is BRS Anelace. By authority of Brevic Military Regulations and the Brevic
Rules of Interstellar and System Commerce, I hereby order you both to heave
to.  Prepare to be boarded for a ship’s inspection per ISC Rule 4505.25.” 
Heskan motioned to Truesworth to cut the channel and then looked over to Riedel.
“Think we’ll get a response, Mike?”  The first officer considered the question
briefly and shook his head.

The
transmission would take a minute to reach Paragon and three minutes to reach
the ketch.  A minute or two to respond and then the return trip back to
Anelace
meant the quickest possible response would come in four and eight minutes,
respectively. 
By that time, we should know a lot more about that pirate
ship
, Heskan thought.

“Captain,
we have a much clearer picture of that ketch,” Truesworth said after a few
minutes.  “Definitely a ketch and not a sloop.  It looks like a Fearson
design.  She’s been modified, one second, sir.” Truesworth again went to work
on his console.  The main screen split into two halves.  The left side maintained
the tactical situation; the right showed a fine resolution near real-time
picture of the ketch. 
Anelace’s
military optics were easily able to
enhance and augment the image, only 3
lm
away. 

The
picture exposed the unmistakable image of a civilian ketch.  The stern view of
the small ship, about half the size of
Anelace
, revealed a severely
modified hull with laser mounts crudely installed on each side of the ship. 
Anelace’s
computers regarded them as first generation “B-pack” lasers.  These lasers,
routinely used by licensed, independently owned freighter escort vessels, were
the best non-military lasers available.  They had enough power to punch through
an armored hull though suffered from the limited range, about 5
ls
, that
generally restricted all light lasers.  They were slightly inferior to the Lyle
Dual GP pulse laser in that they could not sustain their fire the way
Anelace’s
lasers could without overheating; however, their punch was similar.

“Not
exactly a fair match,” Heskan noted.

Vernay,
who had been uncharacteristically quiet over the last half hour, added, “No,
sir.  She’s got nothing but lasers so we can chew her up at range with our
Kruger and they wouldn’t be able to even fire a shot back at us.”  The Kruger
Mk 237 mass driver had twice the range of the lasers.

That’s
assuming that I can keep it from closing on us.  It’s not easy to get within
mass driver range but still stay outside of the laser envelopes
, Heskan thought.  “Let me know
if that ketch rotates its bow toward us, Jack.”  If the ketch used its
thrusters to rotate the bow of the ship to face
Anelace
, her momentum
would still carry her toward the tunnel point but allow her lasers’ firing arcs
to be unmasked and pointed at
Anelace
.  Even worse, if
Anelace
closed the distance to fire her mass driver on the ketch, the pirate ship could
use its drive system to quickly and dramatically reduce its speed, thus causing
the corvette to overshoot and wander into laser range.  Extreme speed skirmishes
were a difficult dance that required years of experience, timing and luck to
execute correctly.  Too often even veteran combatants miscalculated, causing their
ships to either streak past each other outside of any weapons’ range, or worse,
blunder into point blank range with each side being battered severely by every
gun brought to bear.  This huge potential for error was one of the main reasons
why most military naval battles were fought at .2
c
speeds or slower, as
ship computers were better able to analyze and react with the precise control
needed during an engagement. 

The
time had come and gone for each ship to respond to Heskan’s demand to heave
to.  He was not surprised by the silence.  Both ships had limited options,
which were only narrowing as his ship closed the distance. 
Anelace
was
now two and a half minutes from intercepting
Paragon
. 

“Jack,
there’s no signs of weapon mounts on Paragon, right?” Heskan asked.  After
Truesworth answered in the negative, he turned toward Lieutenant Vernay. 
“Stacy, I want you to use lasers to disable Paragon’s main drive.”  They were
more accurate and had a faster rate of fire.

“Aye,
sir.  Targeting solution locked, we’ll fire one burst from each turret when we
reach five light-seconds and follow up as necessary,” Vernay replied.

“Thank
you.  Jack, open a channel to Paragon.”  Heskan waited and then projected a
confident voice, “Freighter Paragon, I advise you to pull your people away from
your ship’s drive system.  We will fire upon it in roughly…,” he checked the
tactical display, “two minutes.”