Command Decisions (Book 3 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (31 page)

She smiled wolfishly. “We go take them back.”

“That’s a tall order for a few hundred marines. Don’t you think you’re being a bit optimistic?”

“It beats the alternative. You pass this on to Lieutenant Reese. I have to go see Doctor Cartwright. He might have some idea what those devices are.”

Kelsey left her lover and made her way down to the labs. She found the good doctor in a heated consultation with several other scientists she didn’t know. The discussion involved a lot of arm waving and writing long equations on a board mounted on the wall.

They were so engrossed in their discussions that she was able to get close enough to see some drawings beside the equations that told her they were already arguing about the devices.

The older scientist stopped speaking when his colleagues finally noticed her. He spun on his heel and smiled. “I didn’t see you come in, Kelsey. We were just going over the information that Commander Baxter sent us. Allow me to introduce my associates.”

He gestured at a heavyset woman with her gray hair in a rather severe bun. “This is Doctor Brenda Griffin, a specialist in flip theory.”

The woman bowed slightly. “Highness.”

“And this is Doctor Gary Reid, a specialist in fusion power plants.” The rather young, bespectacled scientist gave her an identical bow. “Highness.”

Kelsey smiled at them. “Doctors, it’s a pleasure to meet you. What do you think of those things?”

The older woman gestured to the board. “Without seeing the machinery in person, all we can do is speculate. My working theory is that the multiple flip drives influence the wormhole linking the two flip points, most likely in a negative manner.”

Doctor Reid pointed at the equations on the lower half of the board. “The fusion plant is quite capable of operating a flip drive at full power with plenty of capacity to spare, but it seems to be wired into no less than three flip drives. Possibly four. Until we can build a complete set of schematics, we’re only guessing. No offense, but Commander Baxter didn’t give us enough information to make a sound determination.”

“He has other pressing matters on his mind, I’m sure,” Kelsey said dryly. “What kind of negative outcome is it supposed to generate?”

Cartwright made an ambivalent gesture with his hand. “The amount of energy required to trigger a wormhole is…sizable. This device seems optimized to deliver a less than adequate amount of power to one drive and then move on to the next. Or perhaps two at a time with some kind of order in operation.”

“What would that do?”

“While it’s unlikely to destabilize the wormhole, it might create some kind of resonance. That could be…unhealthy for a ship in transit.”

“It could potentially rip a ship apart,” Doctor Griffin said. “A wormhole is a multispace construct, existing outside normal space as we see it. If the device disrupts the internal structure, the resonance might affect a vessel in transit. In theory, that amount of energy could reduce the ship to very small pieces in the moment it transits. Only debris would appear on the far end.”

“Or the ship might never appear at all,” Reid said. “The volume of energy we’re speaking about makes anything manmade seem puny. A layman could reasonably compare the energy in play to be similar to that of the solar output of the sun in this system. Focused on one ship.”

Kelsey imagined that wouldn’t turn out well for the poor bastards on the receiving end. “The people who built these things were most likely expanding on work done at the Grant Research Facility on Harrison’s World. It was a Fleet research center before the Fall. I’d imagine this was somewhere beyond cutting edge for the Old Empire. Maybe a way to deny an enemy the ability to move into certain areas. Which would’ve been very useful during the rebellion.”

She sighed. “A supply of these would’ve allowed Fleet to bottle up the AIs. To save the Empire. I wonder if they ever tested them.”

“One would think so, if they were going to the expense of building three. They would’ve been quite costly. The units seem to be of relatively new construction, so perhaps we’ll find out.”

“If they survive the upcoming battle. We’re in desperate straits, Doctors. There’s no guarantee that any of us is going to make it. Perhaps you should take the next cutter over to
Invincible
. Jared is gathering the crew he needs and I think you can justify your presence. Get us some information on these devices. Plans, if possible. Just in case.”

The three scientists looked somewhat shaken by her grim assessment, but they agreed to head over as soon as practical.

Kelsey consulted her internal chronometer and decided that she and Talbot had time to sleep after all.

* * * * *

Five hours later, they were in the marine pinnaces, armed and armored. She watched the station grow slowly larger in the passive scanners with growing trepidation.

Reese stopped them well short of the station. “We go in on suit thrusters now. Our armor gives off a low enough return that we should be able to get in without them detecting us. They aren’t actively scanning, after all.”

Kelsey knew what would happen to them if the AI detected them, so she prayed they made it in unobserved.

They depressurized the pinnaces and connected lines to one another.
Courageous
had six pinnaces, so they split the combined marine force into six teams. Each had a different set of objectives defined by the area of Boxer Station that they were boarding. They had almost 300 marines, including the ones from
New York
and
Ginnie Dare
. That made for teams of around fifty.

Kelsey and her team would make the push to the main computer center. A station this big had more than one computer, but one of them was the primary. The rest were supporting units that could take over if required. At least that had been the case before the Fall. The AIs might have modified the layout in any number of ways since then.

They’d spread the pinnaces around the station, so there was no chance they could see one another. They didn’t dare communicate, so they’d set a time for every aspect of the operation. Right on schedule, her team pushed off and they used several packs of chemical reaction mass to start in toward the station. It would take them a while to close the distance.

Kelsey settled in for a long, tension-filled wait as they drifted through space. Even she couldn’t see the station at this distance, so she devoted herself to studying the layout around where they were going to dock. The biggest chance of discovery would come once they boarded, so she preferred to take as many back corridors and maintenance shafts as possible.

A tug on her line called her attention back to the outside after a while. Talbot pointed ahead of them. The station had grown huge. They were almost there.

With her vision, it was easy to look around and find their entry point. The lock was marked as personnel access for one of the large cargo bays. Reese was moderately certain that they could bypass the monitors on it so that no one would note it opening. If not, they could cut it open and patch the outside to prevent any atmospheric loss. Then they’d use the collapsible portable lock they’d brought with them.

Just short of the hull, the marines braked with the chemical thrusters. Her landing on the hull was as light as she could’ve hoped for. The team raised their weapons to cover the surrounding area while the designated specialists worked on the lock.

Kelsey watched them with interest. She might need a skill like this at some point. If she survived the raid, of course.

One of the marines used a portable torch to open the hull beside the airlock controls. The box had a pair of cables bound together coming out of it and running to the lock. There was a third line leading off. The marine cut that line and left it hanging.

She’d expected something a little more high tech.

Reese signaled with his hand and activated the control. The hatch slid open. The raid was entering phase two. Kelsey gripped her rifle a little tighter and waited her turn to enter. It wouldn’t be long now.

Chapter Thirty-One

Jared sat on the flag bridge of
Invincible
and watched the timer in his mind slowly count down. The teams on the station should already be making their entries. In a few minutes, the space battle would begin.

He took a few minutes to look over his expansive console. He had enough space to bring up any display he chose. All of them, in fact. Maybe they could modify
Courageous
to have a setup like this. Admirals had it good.

The one thing he wouldn’t be able to keep was the flag bridge. It had three times as many stations as his bridge on
Courageous
. Even
Invincible
’s bridge was smaller.

Courageous
was on the other side of Boxer Station, ready to spring her own surprise on the AIs. All that remained was for him to signal
Scott Pond
to make her last run. It was inevitable that the enemy would destroy the crippled battlecruiser in the first few salvoes and that saddened him.

“Are we ready?” he asked Zia. She’d come over from
Courageous
with the rest of his bridge crew.

The battlecruiser would be operating at about half strength during the fight, which shouldn’t make a difference. The superdreadnaught was even more understrength and they’d be relying on the AI for operation of the non-critical systems.

“All weapons online and targeted. Scanners on standby. Battle screens ready to go. All departments report ready for combat. Signals from
New York
indicate
Courageous
is ready to go. The enemy destroyers have departed Harrison’s World and are at least three hours away.”

“What is the status of the enemy forces around the station?”

“Unchanged. We have eight destroyers in orbit around Boxer Station. We cannot determine how many units are docked.”

Jared waited for the mission counter to draw down to zero and spoke. “Phase two activation. Send the signal to
Scott Pond
.”

Zia touched a button on her console, sending the tight beam signal to the battlecruiser to act.

He saw the other ship’s grav drives come online as the ship howled out of her parking orbit and her battle screens sprang to life. Her course took her away from the station and toward the distant flip point leading deeper into the Old Empire.

The reaction from the ships on patrol was immediate. They boosted after the crippled ship at maximum acceleration. He’d expected them to open fire at once, but they seemed content to chase her for the first few moments. At this short range, they could fire at any time and hit her. Eight destroyers would overwhelm the battlecruiser’s screens on the first salvo since she couldn’t even operate her antimissile defenses.

As soon as the destroyers turned away from the station and the two hidden attackers, Jared spoke again. “Raise battle screens and open fire on the scanner arrays with beams. Missiles on standby.”

Intense beams of energy lanced out from the superdreadnaught and smashed into Boxer Station. It immediately opened fire on them, beams and missiles. The AI on board had been just as ready as the destroyers. He hadn’t expected it to return fire so quickly.

The missiles smashed into the superdreadnaught even as it moved to evade them. At this range, antimissile defenses were almost useless. The ship rocked and the power fluctuated.

“Screens down,” Zia said tersely. “
Courageous
is firing. Damage all over the side of
Invincible
facing the station. Rolling the ship. Combat effectiveness down to sixty percent. We lost about a third of our missile tubes and beams. We missed some of the scanners on the base. Retargeting.”

The battle screens on the station snapped up just as Zia fired again. Her beams bounced off them, but the missiles she’d fired took them down. Barely.

The second salvo from Boxer Station jarred the superdreadnaught so heavily that the impacts would have thrown Jared from his chair without the restraints. Power went out and the flag bridge plunged into darkness.

“Negative control!” Zia shouted. “I have no control of the ship!”

The AI spoke in Jared’s implants.
Bridge also offline. I’m assuming control of the ship. Firing missiles and remaining beam weapons at the last scanner platforms.

Jared was so shocked that his jaw dropped. AIs couldn’t control weapons. Yet that was what was happening. He watched through his implants as the superdreadnaught lashed the station with beams.

It only belatedly occurred to him that if he could access the scanners through his implants and hear the AI, he could control the weapons. He made ready to do so, if required, but left the AI in control.

“
Invincible
has positive control of the ship and weapons,” Jared said. “Relocate to operations.”

Unfortunately, the lift was offline. They weren’t going anywhere.

All scanner platforms destroyed. Boxer Station is still firing beams, but they missed us.
Courageous
is now firing on the destroyers. I am joining her. Combat effectiveness down to thirty percent.

“Focus on four ships and open fire.” He expanded his internal awareness of the scanner readings and saw that the enemy had also heavily damaged
Courageous
.

The destroyers peeled away from
Scott Pond
and opened fire on
Invincible
. This time, the superdreadnaught had enough range to use her anti-missile defenses.

The short-range missile duel was brutal. Thank God the superdreadnaught could absorb damage that would kill a battlecruiser. The first exchange took out three of the destroyers and crippled a fourth. It also dropped
Invincible
to twenty percent combat effectiveness.
Courageous
was also operating way below normal, but she killed two destroyers.

The second exchange eliminated all the destroyers. Which is, of course, when four more disengaged from the station and came after them.