Archaea 2: Janis (4 page)

Chapter 4

“Captain – please be advised, I am aware of an incoming orbital launch from Yak's last known position.”

“Very well Janis.” a miniscule pause. I felt like I was hyperventilating, the bridge was out of air. My eyes teared up involuntarily, and I rubbed them with hands that felt like they belonged to someone else.

“Pauli,” the captain said in a hiss through clenched teeth, “I want you to relax, son. Focus on doing what you can with Janis to keep that bogey on track.”

Right then we slewed farther sideways, and I fought against the urge to scream myself ragged as we hurtled through the sky, on the edge of control. The intensity of the moment was far beyond anything I have ever experienced. I remember thinking as clearly as I ever have, that life ends eventually, for everyone. 

Captain Smith made a sound somewhat between a snort and a scream of panic. Hauling against the yoke, knuckles white-tight, he added through clenched teeth “...you'd have to be incredibly heroic to try to launch in a howler like this.”

We slewed hard over to port, falling off the wind, desperately close to being lost. The captain played the reac drives to accelerate up and through the winds, and held us on the ragged edge of control.

Lined in the pipe again, but for how long.

“Pauli”, he added with a voice as solid and cold as a concrete floor, “eyes on, mister. I want that bogey locked son. ”

I swallowed a palpable, white hot knot of fear. 

“Will do Captain. Janis--” I paused to try and get my voice, which was cracking uncontrollably. “Janis, please build a complete mass and emissions profile for that target, and do what you need to do to gain access to any orbital platforms that may help you keep it in sight.”

“I am already doing this, Pauli”, Janis said, confidently. “Gravimetrics are currently showing this target ranged at 12,320 meters from our current position and accelerating at 3g, terran-equivalent. The target has not yet reached orbit, but appears to be maneuvering for an orbital insertion burn in approximately 41 seconds. I have gained access to orbital platform networks and should be able to keep the target on track, Pauli.”

“Thank you Janis. We need to try to also get a better picture of Jane's location, are you able to locate her more accurately?”

“Pauli, I am afraid I am unable to locate her precisely. I have covertly accessed the local LEOnet, and located the vehicle she was being transported in by radio frequency triangulation, but the atmospheric conditions right now are degrading signal performance to unacceptable amounts. I have tried to locate her more accurately using the emissions leakage from her handset, but am unable to improve on the precision. “

“Thanks Janis. Please keep working at it, as we approach her position, we will need to bring the Archaea right up to her as close as we can get.”

As I said this, it occurred to me that even if we knew precisely where she was, in gusts to 450, our captain would need a miracle.

“Janis,” the captain said, voice cracking slightly, “we may be in a little bit of a tight spot here dear.”

“Very well, Captain. How may I be of assistance, sir?” she said, casual as the day is long.

“I need a hand here. Can you help me with maneuvering jets to help null out this blasted roll and wobble?” As he spoke, the Archaea slewed back and forth, rotating hard over, swinging back across as the captain fought for control.

“Certainly sir.” Immediately, the Archaea's sickening wobble steadied. “I am currently providing feedback amplification and limitation for all controls, sir.”

“Janis, that's wonderful!” The relief in his voice was almost solid enough to touch.

*****

Even with Janis providing assistance, the yoke felt unresponsive and heavy, but compared to how it felt earlier, it was night-and-day different. I could point her in a different direction other than downwind, and I wasn't constantly dancing with translation and precess to keep her upright. The Archaea was built for atmo, but flying anything other than a tumbleweed on a day like this was madness.

I should know. I am probably the only one qualified to know. I may have been pushed almost to my limits, but I was on automatic now, focused to the best of my ability on everything around me. Wind speed, retro burn, I struggled to balance her on the bow as I waddled as slowly as I could towards downtown. Slow was relative, of course.

The downtown arcos were massive almost beyond belief, but even as far away as they were, they were approaching fast. Many times faster than I would have liked, as a point of fact. I had lined up a hole shot through them with plenty of clearance and the least compression, and focused all my will on staying in the pipe and holding course. The view forward was unforgettable, just a swirling mass of dust spiraling past.

Luckily, it was thick enough that anyone in an arco looking out wouldn't see us hurtle past like a nightmare – or we'd have sixteen shades of pure hell to try and deal with from the NTOC tower for cutting through downtown.

They are already probably hopping mad at us raising ship without clearance, if they even noticed. Not that I cared one iota how mad they were. The only thing that mattered now was my crew, my ship, and my life – in that order.

“Gene, we're getting close now, I am going to need you and Pauli on the cargo ramp soon. Naturally, I am going to recommend you remain on belay, mister, with retractor controls belt-side.”

“Aye Skipper”, Gene said, in a voice that sounded as if it was carved from wood. He definitely seemed awake.

“What's our plan Dak?”

“Gene, you know me, I don't often have a plan that makes enough sense to share with others. That's never stopped me, of course.”

I gave a brief thought, as brief as I could, about the benefit of planning, and often how pointless it is to try to plan against the unknown. Of course, rather than focusing on any specific plan, I try to just stay full to the scuppers with plans. I have so many plans stored up, I just swap the good bits around to fit the situation. Normally, I do it without thinking, and would expect any officer to do the same.

Of course, none of this was really helping me grasp the situation hurtling towards us. I figured talking it through couldn't hurt, and it might cheer up Gene. He sounded pretty tense. 

“Gene... if Janis can pinpoint which grounder Jane is in, I think I'll just bring us back upwind right above her. I'll hold station so you two can hook her grounder with the hoist and haul her aboard.”

Saying that out loud didn't make it sound less crazy, quite the opposite in fact. I couldn't see Gene's face at that point, but I really didn't need to – he was probably regretting his decision to join my crew.

While I never have second thoughts about telling myself what to do, I always struggle over moments in my command where I have to ask my crew to place themselves at my disposal, to follow my lead and face unimaginable danger, to succeed in the face of failure.

Gene and Pauli were up for the task, of course. To think otherwise was to contemplate the alternative, and the alternative was unthinkable. Jane was going to live, as far as I was concerned, there was no alternative.

As we punched through the thickest parts of downtown, riding a nearly solid current of wind and navigating spires like strange chromium seaweed, Janis and I kept the Archaea pointed true, balanced in the current of wind. Even with help, it was tremendously difficult to hold a line, and required every last bit of concentration.

Every moment seemed to last forever, anything I didn't need to see or hear became relegated to background static as I paid one-hundred-percent attention to the pipe.

Even though I had picked a course with the least compression and acceleration, even with Janis balancing the ship, I knew we were approaching our absolute limit for safe operation of this frigate.

Maybe a little beyond, actually.

Of course, Gene might think we were dangerously past any rational limit, but if I went through my life trying to keep Gene from freaking out, we wouldn't have any adventure. Probably end up sitting in port and drinking beer all day. I couldn't deny that sounded like a mighty good place to end up after a day like this, but first we needed to make sure Jane and Yak could be there to enjoy it with us.

We were almost there, one last arco on the port side, and I needed to haul us around to the leeward eddy, so we can line up for a shot at Shorty.

“Janis, I am about to get into the lee of this one to port. Would you please give me a best guess on Shorty's location? I will need this LZ on screen and mapped at maximum resolution to make this approach.”

“Absolutely sir. Jane is located 324 meters below us, ranged 1284 meters at 278.” She flashed a new pipe on my screen, coming about to port in the wind shadow of the nearest arco, then rounding over to starboard to come back upwind.

As we rounded the last arco, an unbelievably massive wall of metal even at this altitude, we started to buck wildly up and down, buffeted by incredible turbulence. I fought for control with my stomach in my throat as wind shear flung us down a few thousand meters in a heartbeat.

Not that my heart was actually beating at that point.

I tucked us in as close as I could to the arco, and held station as best as I could in the swirling, chaotic leeward eddy.

“Sir, would you like me to take the helm?” asked Janis sweetly. I considered it for the briefest of moments. Some choices are hard... others are very easy.

“Very well Janis. You have the conn.”

“I have the conn, aye”.

Immediately the Archaea hung solid, unmoving, as stable as if we had docked on the hard. Pauli looked back at me and I nodded as confidently as I could. He unclipped and started to make his way aft on legs that looked like they were made of water.

“Alright Gene, we're as stable now as we're going to get, about 1800 meters away from Jane, and Janis has a pretty good fix on her. Please make your way to the cargo hold at this time. We're going to come around, and then run upwind to place the cargo ramp as close as we can get. Pauli will drive the hoist, and you will need to hook up her grounder from the end of the ramp so we can yard it up into the cargo bay.”

“Aye skipper, piece of cake, right?”

I laughed, ignoring how much it sounded like a shriek.

“I don't know what kind of cake you normally have Gene... if this was a cake, it would be frosted with fear and smell like the south end of my shorts!”

*****

Pauli arrived just as I was latching my retractor to the ramp hardpoint with hands that were shaking uncontrollably. I waved him to the hoist controls, and gave him both thumbs up to let him know I was ready.

“Captain, we're in position now” Pauli said in comms.

“Very well, Pauli. Stand by and hold on.”

My hands felt like they were welded to the rail on the side of the ramp. It was all I could do to keep my feet as the captain eased us out from the eddy and into the full blast of the howler.

Inside the cargo hold, just hanging on like we were... this was incredibly dangerous, even with him at the controls. One wrong move, mistake, or random gust, and Pauli and I might end up dashed senseless on the deck. I felt utterly helpless, once again finding myself deep in the bowels of a ship while Dak does something heroic beyond comprehension, my life in his hands.

“Okay folks, I can see the lights of Shorty's grounder, or at least I hope it's hers. All hands, prepare to come about!”

“Ready about, aye” I said, and looked up at Pauli gripping the controls like he was trying to tear them off the rail. He nodded down at me, but looked like he was about to be sick. I couldn't blame him, not one bit. I felt a little dropsick myself.

Our captain was far and away the best starship pilot I've ever worked with, and the only person I would trust to do what we were doing. All the same, I was amazed at how smoothly he pulled us around. The reac drives were ramping up and back as he fought across the wind, and the lifter compensation was making my stomach flutter and lurch, but all in all, I was expecting far worse.

“Gene, I am on final approach... Shorty's grounder is wedged up really tight against a barricade on the lee side of the expressway, and looks like it's about to go over. I don't think we have much time left, so let's move with a purpose!”

I nodded at Pauli, and he started to drop the ramp as we made our final approach. Turbulence from the trailing edge of the expressway hurled us up and down violently, almost tearing my hands away from the rail – I gripped as hard as I could, tight enough to leave dents. I was too scared to be scared at that point, it was as if I had pushed through terror to some sort of serene place. I briefly wondered if this was how Dak felt all the time. My brain started filling up with all sorts of random thoughts, as if in self-defense, as a buffer against the reality of our situation.

We started weaving from side to side as we fought upwind. The sound of the drives at the end of the ramp were thunderous, but they were almost impossible to hear over the scream of the wind as it blew past the opening ramp.

It was all I could do to stay sane, as the wind filled the hold with swirling dust, glittering in the loading lights. With the hoist hook clipped to my belt, I started making my way down the ramp as it dropped into madness.