Archaea 3: Red (15 page)

“Do you need a hand, Gene?” I asked, curious about the work he was gearing up for.

“Sure Yak, that'd be great. This access space is pretty tight, but once we're in there, it's going to be hard to yard out the old sensor package. If you wouldn't mind working this line, you can help us haul it out.” He handed me over a length of line with a clip at the end that I secured to a grabber at my station, so I wouldn't lose the bitter end.

The assembler had the new sensor package s
ecured to strongpoints along its back, and as it held to grabbers along the forward part of Pauli's station to port, four arms were moving in a sort of complex ballet as it unshipped the package. Gene was disappearing down the forward access tunnel head first, trailing a series of tethers back to his toolbox.

“Yak, would you please assist me?” Janis asked.

“Sure thing, Janis, what can I do to help?” I asked, moving over towards the assembler, which was lifting the sensor package up and moving out from under it smoothly.

“Please lower this into the access tunnel once I am down. Please use care, it is significantly massive.” The assembler held it in place un
til I had it under control, and then slid down into the access tunnel like water pouring down a drain. It moved so smooth, it reminded me of watching some sort of sea creature, like an octopus.

Once it was down, I started to move the
sensor package over, and nearly unclicked off the deck trying to move it.

“Need a hand Yak?” the captain asked from the helm.

“That would be nice, sir, thanks.”

“Pauli, please help Yak.” he said behind me.

I laughed, and turned to make fun of him, and noticed he was already inbound across the bridge.

“At ease Yak, I'm just having fun”, he smiled. “I was serious though Pauli. Get over here son, this is massive.”

With all three of us shoving and cursing, we managed to move it across the bridge and to the access tunnel, but it was incredibly difficult.

“The worst part, lads, will be when we move it down. Nothing to shove against”, the captain said through his teeth, trying to counterbalance a shove on Pauli's side so we all didn't end up squished against my station.

“This is crazy!” Pauli said, his feet floating off the deck as he tried to shove.

“Well, the assembler sure moved it through here easily”, I said thoughtfully, as we slowly brought the sensor package o
ver the access hatch.

“What’s our plan here folks?” Pauli
wondered out loud. The ceiling was too high overhead to get any leverage, and even with our soles magnetized, we just couldn't keep from clicking off the deck.

“I have it from below, please help guide it downward as I pull.” Janis said sweetly, while the entire massive unit smoothly moved downward, as if i
t weighed no more than a feather.

“
Whoa…” the captain said respectfully.

“Thank you sir
”, she replied proudly.

“How heavy is this unit, Janis?” I asked as it slid down into the access tunnel, and started to move forward.

“This unit is approximately 1,634.342 kilograms, Yak.” I whistled appreciatively and clipped on the leash for hauling out the old unit.

“What's everyone up to in here?” Jane asked, kicking in with some coffee and a short stack of sandwiches from the galley.

“We're overhauling the sensor array, Shorty. You missed all the fun, watching us wrestle an immovable object around the bridge”, the captain said around a mouthful of sandwich.

We loved PB&J
sandwiches on the Archaea. They were easy to make, and easy to eat. For variety, we might scare up some tomato soup and grilled cheese, or fire up the ball wok and make stir-fry and noodles – comfort food, perfect for null-g.

We don't really have any sort of set schedule for
eating; whoever is off watch and hungry usually makes something for everyone on watch. Sometimes, if they're feeling ambitions, a more involved meal might be prepared and served in the wardroom, though that's pretty rare.

Right now, I was happy to have something to gnaw
on; I was starting to get weak knees.

“How's it coming down there Gene?” the captain called down the access hatch.

“Pretty good Dak,” he called back on comms. “I have everything just about ready for the switch, it should go pretty smoothly. Are we still at a good point to go blind?”

Captain Smith looked at me, and I hooked over to my station to check tracks. “Sir, we're still clear.” I called over. We had a number of Sierra tracks, but they were way out, at extreme range.

“Gene, we're good. Make it happen, mister”, the captain called down the access tunnel.

“Okay Dak, we're going dark.” he called back, and my screens stayed lit.

“Captain, my screens are still on.” I called over. He looked up, and came over.

“Janis, are you extrapolating these tracks?”

“I am sir, maintaining course-and-heading by dead reckoning for all targets, but I am afraid I cannot certify their accuracy.”

“That's fine dear, this was just unexpected – I think we all expected to see the screens go dark.”

“Sir, I will try to minimize interruption. We are ready to extract the old model at this time.”

“Okay Janis, we're getting on the line.” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Let's pop that sucker out of there Yak, ready?”

“I was born naked, sir.” I said with a smile as he fixed me with an eyebrow and a concerned look. 

We all got a grip on the line, like some sort of crazy game of tug-o-war, and got ready, clicking to the deck. On Janis' signal, we started to pull and inch by inch, the old unit started to move down the access tunnel.

“Easy now, folks...once we have it moving, just let it come. We don’t want to crush little Shorty down there”, the captain said as we reeled in the line. Jane looked small indeed, down in the access tunnel, pulling down on the line to prevent the sensors from clipping the top of the tunnel.

“Why are these sensors so heavy?” Pauli asked through clenched teeth.

Jane replied from the tunnel below. “Pauli, some of the weight is in the comms array, as there's about a million meters of fine wire in a fractal helix coil.  The rest of it is the mounting plate, which is dense enough to provide a stable foundation for the gravimetric sensors.”

Bit by bit, we wrestled the old unit closer and closer, and soon Jane had to kick up out of the tunnel as it pulled into sight. Compared to what we sent down the tunnel, the old unit looked like it was made behind a stable somewhere in the dark ages by a man in a leather apron.

“Captain, how old is this unit?” I asked.

“Yak, it's at least a hundred years old, maybe older. Who knows where it came from originally; it may have been old tech at the time. Considerably different from the new one, though”, he added thoughtfully. “It's sure going to be nice to have decent eyes and ears on this bird,” he said with a grin.

“Captain, please stand clear, I am bringing the old unit out of the tunnel now with the assembler”, Janis said.

We all stood back, and watched as the old unit slid up out of the access hatch with centimeters to spare on all sides. It moved smoothly, effortlessly. The assembler came out underneath it and secured it to the strongpoints along its back, and then moved aft through the bridge like nothing. It took four of us pulling for all we were worth to get it to budge – I was amazed at the strength in the assembler.

“Captain, I am about to energize the new sensors”, Gene called up out of the tunnel.

“Very well Gene. Yak, please take your station and let me know when it comes online. Pauli, are you and Janis working on a new interface for the new sensors?”

“We've been wo
rking on it for a while now; it should be ready to go. Once the unit is energized, it ought to come online immediately.” He kicked across the bridge and clipped in to his station.

I was making my way across the bridge when the collision alarm blared out, an unmistakable rising alarm.

“All hands, brace for impact – Janis, report!” Captain Smith called out, pulling to get his crash bars secured.  I was moments behind him, pulling down my bars until they clicked.

Janis replied calmly.
“Sir, be advised we have an imminent high-order impact. The hull shielding has been energized appropriately.”

I was just about to ask what was happening, when all of the sudden something smashed into
the port quarter of the Archaea, throwing Jane across the bridge, and stunning us all with the sudden ferocity and unexpected violence of the massive impact.

“Battle Stations!” the captain yelled across the bridge, though I could barely hear him through the ringing in my ears. My head was spinning and I felt like I was going to be sick. I was lucky,
clipped in as I was, the concussion from the impact just rattled me, but Jane wasn't so lucky.

Chapter 4

I was
suddenly faced with a situation right out of my deepest, darkest fears - the unknown, and unknowable, clawing for the upper hand on my destiny.

With our eyes and ears dark, we were
locked in to a very limited set of options. With crew out of their stations, I couldn't get underway, and even if we could burn out of here, it would be foolish to burn without gravimetrics – that would be lunacy. Our armor was going to have to do its job for now.

“Gene?” I called on comms,
watching Shorty slowly pivoting across the forward section of the bridge in a glittering cloud of red globules. “Jane?” I called out, but she didn’t reply.

“Sir, I can get her”, Yak said, hands ready to unclip
.

“Yak, do it
son”, I called back right as the collision alarm sounded. I had no time to think, and less time to act. “Get her into your station and clipped in. Put her on your lap, and put pressure on that bleeder.  Pauli, I need you to get into the sensor compartment and check on Gene, but—” at that moment, another massive impact on our port quarter hammered us sideways, and an array of lights on my boards flashed orange.

Yak had fetched up pretty good across the port bulkhead in the last impact, but was moving, orienting himself and kicking for Jane.

“Pauli, take a medpack and get Gene now, please”, I said calmly, focusing on the moment to the limit of my abilities, and working through status screens. Janis flashed reports to my side as fast as I could open them, as fast as I could think of them. So far, the Archaea was holding up quite well, considering.

Pauli was lowering himself into the forward access hatch as the collision alarm came on again.

“Brace for impact!” I called out across the bridge, and watched in silent horror as Yak and Jane kicked across towards his station. They weren't going to make it.

“Captain, Gene's hurt sir, he's unconscious and bleeding”, Pauli called on comms.

“Pauli, get ahold of him and brace for impact, son”, I called back, right as another blast pounded us senseless. Yak had managed a handhold on a grabber along his station, and had held on with Shorty crushed to his chest. We were getting tapped by something big, long range torps maybe, or close range kinetics, it was hard to tell. Through the little points of light swarming around in my vision, I could see Yak securing Jane to his station, a big hand clapped to her temple while the other piled through a medpack looking for medifoam. I noticed a pretty good gash streaming rivulets of blood out of his left arm, but he didn't look concerned.

“How is she doing, Yak?” I called over, desperately aware that the situation had slippe
d completely out of my control, but trying my level best to sound as calm and confident as my crew needed me.

“She'll be fine sir, I've stopped the bleeding.” Yak was trying
hard to sound positive, but I could tell he was very concerned. Her face was a sickly shade of gray.

“Easy son, it'll be okay. Let's bring her around”, I said calmly, far more calmly than I felt. I had a sinking pit in my stomach and a screen full of orange screaming for my attention.

“Pauli, report”, I said on comms, and got nothing in reply. “Pauli?” I asked again, a little bit less casually.

“Dak, Pauli's fine, he's working on my head at the moment”, Gene replied on comms.
A feeling of relief broke across me like a tidal wave. Nothing is too broken for Gene to fix, so long as we have a Gene.

“Did you have a nice little nap up there, mister?” I asked lightly, despite the
crushing waves of mounting panic I was experiencing.

“Aye skipper, just great
, thanks”, he replied, dryly. “I was looking for the snooze button, but it sounded like the collision alarm.”

“Yeah, we're in a bad spot Gene. We need that sensor package energized immediately-if-not-sooner.”

“I should have it up in thirty seconds, sir.”

“Very well Gene.” I replied, as the collision alarm blared out again across the Archaea.

“Janis, what do we know about our attacker?” I said, as Shorty started to rouse.

“Sir, I am afraid I do not have any information on our attacker.” she said instantly.

“Very well, Janis. The instant we have the ability to return fire, please do so, dear.”

“I will do so Captain. Please advise as to the appropriate level of our response.” She caught me up short, despite the stress of the moment.

Of course, I was angry. I tend to not appreciate it when someone starts lobbing torps at me. All the same, I wanted to make sure I considered all options.

“Janis, first priority is defense. If you must destroy their vessel to defend the Archaea, do so without hesitation. If you are able to safely disable their vessel without loss of life, please do so.”

At that moment, the screens on Yak's station flickered and switched, full of information. Almost simultaneously, we felt the turrets firing. I pulled a ghost of Yak's screen and took a look at the situation. Janis had plotted 12 inbound torpedos originating from a point at least 1.2 million kilometers to 335, and 23 degrees elevation. She was engaging the closest ones and utterly dominating, destroying them one after the other.

“Gene, we have eyes!” I called out on comms, and looked up at Shorty, who was working on Yak’s arm with some medifoam.
“Jane... Shorty, I need you on your station immediately, that’ll keep. In fact...” I laughed at myself, and mashed the 1MC, “…all hands, battle stations!”

I laughed despite the tension of the moment, what a tangled mess. 

Pauli appeared out of the forward access hatch, pulling Gene's toolbox behind him, followed by Gene, his face streaked with dust. Both of them were splattered with blood and looked like they had been in a blender, though they were smiling the determined look mountaineers have as they approach the summit.

Shorty unclipped from Yak's station and clapped him on the shoulder as she kicked aft for the gun deck, and he
leaned into his screens and got back to work.

“Sir, we have nine inc
oming targets, long range torp—”

“Yes, I noticed that Yak. Do you have any gravimetric data on the vessel firing them?”

“Checking sir”, he said as he zoomed in through his screens.

“Pauli, are we updated, all sensors online?” I asked, the beginnings of an idea forming in my mind.

“Yes sir, all systems are updated.” he replied immediately.

“Conn, Weapons,
I am in position, sir” Shorty called up on comms.

“Very well Shorty, please energize our main gun.”

“Energizing main gun, aye” she said icily.

“Captain, engineering. On station, sir” Gene called back on comms.

“Very well Gene. I have a lot of orange and some twigged talkbacks. Can you begin work on that?”

“Aye skipper, I'm on it”, he replied grimly. I understood perfectly how he felt. The Archaea was our home, and someone took it on themselves to attack our home without warning.

“Captain, main gun energized.” Shorty reported on comms.

“Very well Shorty. Stand by.” I answered. “Yak, what do you have on our target, son?”

“Sir... I have everything... designate Master 2, bearing 323, ranged 1.283 million kilometers, massed 253 tons, it's a light cruiser configuration – Sir, I can practically count the rivets”, he laughed, despite the moment.

“That's good to hear, son. Janis?”

“Yes Captain?”

“Do you have enough of a firing solution for a hull shot at this range?”
I figured I might as well consider my options, given that she just confidently lobbed rounds downrange at targets eleven million clicks out.

“Certainly sir, they are well within range.
”

I thought for a moment. The decision in front of me was a tough one.
Having her fail to hit something at eleven million clicks was a good object lesson. It was entirely likely she might actually hit this target. To fail and then as a result end up killing someone that I didn’t necessarily want, or more to the point, need to kill – well, that isn’t a very responsible way to handle a weapon. In any case, it didn’t hurt to get the pieces moving into place.

“Yak, post a Unet message to Deimos Patrol…
I believe the vessel to reach is the Clairvoyant, a corvette-class cruiser under the command of Captain Johnson.” Gus Johnson was one of the meanest, most demanding old bastards that ever plied the space-lanes – aside from me of course.

“Aye sir, w
hat should I say?”

“Let's see... Att
ention Captain Johnson, Clairvoyant from Captain Smith, Archaea. Gus, we're investigating a hostile cruiser located... where are they, specifically, Yak?

“Good question.
Janis has the target ranged 12,321 kilometers at 118 degrees, 16 degrees ascension from 4719 Toutatis.”

“It's been a while since I worked this patrol, is that an Alinda or Amor asteroids?”

“Um… it’s classified as an Alinda, sir.”

“That should be enough to orient him. Please let him know we
would appreciate his assistance in that vicinity at his earliest convenience.”

“Aye Captain, sending now
”, Yak replied.

I gave this some more thought.
Like flipping a switch, we had gained the upper hand, and I knew I had enough time to make a good decision.

“Janis, please continue to engage inbound torps at the limit of your range while I close with Master 2.” I clicked on the 1MC, “All hands stand by for a heavy, prolonged burn in 30 seconds. This is going to be a 60 second burn compensated at 6g.”

Pauli and Yak groaned.

I laughed. “6g is hardly a big deal, guys. You know the record for g-force is over 50g?”

“Why not just slip there, sir?” Pauli asked meekly. It seemed like no one on my crew liked acceleration. As it turns out, I like it enough for all of us combined, and maybe a whole lot more.

“Pauli, why do you think Master 2 is shooting at us?”
Yak asked across the aisle.

“We were a target of opportuni
ty for some pirate?” he replied with a shrug.

“
Personally, I don't think those torps were meant for us, boys”, I said, opening our forward shield so we could watch outbound turret fire – a sight I never get sick of seeing, especially when I know there are bad people on the other end of the view. After a moment, I added, “I’d bet Pauli’s coffee ration they were intended for the Talus Federation vessel on our current course track.”

“Sir, maybe they're working under the direction of the criminal organization we just tangled with on Luna?” Yak said thoughtfully.
One by one, orange lights were going green or yellow across my board as Gene worked his magic back there.

“Could be, son,” I replied, adding “
It doesn’t much matter, really. They’re bad, and need to learn some damn manners. My main concern is with a flight of torps inbound, if we slip past them they will end up seeking the Talus Federation vessel on our six.” I watched the few remaining yellow lights fade to green as Gene pushed a status update to my boards. “No getting away from it this time, we have to meet this one head-on, boys. Okay, it looks like we’re go for burn. Everyone hunker down, burn in 3... 2... 1...”

I fed power to the reac drives smoothly, bringing us up to 6
g acceleration over 10 seconds, rather than blasting off in full smash. Even so, the burn was decent, even with compensation and crash bar inflation.

Acceleration is one of those things you never really get used to. You acclimate to it, like pressure differences or temperature, but you never really get used to it. Human physiology has evolutionary requirements, limits on what it can and can't do. Blood must be pumped, lungs need to work, eyeballs can't see when they're squished – that sort of thing.

Luckily, sixty seconds doesn't last forever, though it might feel that way at six gravities – it's really not that long. Before my bridge crew even worked through their repertoire of grunts, moans and whimpers, I cut the burn and we fell into null-g again, none the worse for wear.

“Yak, what's our rate of closure on the remaining bogeys?”

“116km/s sir”, Yak said almost immediately, as if he was waiting for the question. He’s going to make a steely-eyed missile man yet. The turrets were continuing to fire solutions for incoming torpedoes and a sudden flash ahead of us reminded me that we were currently charging head-first into the barrel of a gun.

The reality of our situation
was that I didn't really have a plan. I needed to disable this vessel, to lock down the threat to the Talus Federation ship – but this wasn't our moment of opportunity. This was something else.

“Janis, I am a little concerned we are getting a little sidetracked here, and may miss our moment of opportunity to save the
Talus Federation.”

“Sir there is nothing to be concerned about. We are on schedule, and tracking well for an optimal solution.”