Connection (27 page)

“Admiral. It shows as a faint return ahead.”

“Alert the other ships. Fire at any questionable returns or where visuals show occluded celestial objects.”

“Sir. Shadows…” the Captain said as his voice trailed off and he saw the deadly look the Admiral cast his way. “All ships…fire at any visually occluded celestial objects or moving returns on radar. Fire at will.”

                                                                    ****

The railgun on the large Earth ship fired and an antenna array was sheared off of the Nemesis with a near hit.

“This isn’t right,” Robert said over the quantum link to the shuttle and Cassandra. “All ships. Disable the railgun on that large ship. Don’t fire otherwise. Their lasers can’t do anything to us,” he frowned and his jaw clamped. “Disable anything that can harm us,” he ordered.

Cassandra and the shuttle began to maneuver. Their lasers tore gaping holes in the railgun assembly and the large Earth ship began venting atmosphere through a side breach. Every ship in the Earth fleet was firing their lasers wildly but having no effect on the metacrete hulls – even when they happened to hit anything.

[You do not want to destroy this threat?]

“What can they do to us? This is a setup. Cease fire, unless you are threatened. Tod. I am going to try to hail them like you suggested.”

                                                                    ****

Prometheus bridge – enroute to Mars

“Sir. A large ship just appeared on our sensors directly ahead of us. Admiral. That ship appears to just have moved directly to port. All other ships report that their lasers have no effect on any of these ships. Our railgun is offline and we are venting atmosphere with a minor hull breach. We are being hailed.”

“We will not surrender. We will fight to the last man.”

“Sir. The hail?” said the Captain. The Admiral’s face was livid – past red and almost purple. The Admiral clasped his head with both hands and collapsed like an empty balloon. The Captain hit a button on the command chair. “Medical team to the bridge.”

A crewman shouted, “A death ray!”

“Get a grip seaman. He had a cerebral hemorrhage – a stroke,” he chastised the frightened crewman who was probably only twenty years old. He checked the Admiral’s neck pulse and found none as the medical team rushed onto the bridge a minute later.

The lead on the medical team checked pulse and pupils and shook his head.

“Take him to his cabin – all honors. We’ll have a service later,” the Captain said.

“Later?” questioned the lead medical petty officer.

“Yes Chief. We’re going to have a later,” he said and turned to the communications tech. “Sparks. Patch me to all ships. All ships. This is Captain Beasley. I am taking command of the task force. Admiral DeAngelo has had massive stroke and is no longer with us. Cease fire, unless fired upon. All ships – cease fire. Okay Sparks. Let’s answer that hail.”

                                                                        ****

Prometheus bridge – enroute to Mars

“Okay Captain. We have contact.”

“This is Captain Phillip Beasley commanding the Earth Task Force Alpha.”

“This is Robert Kobe. Why did you fire on us?”

“You attacked us. This is ridiculous. I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“We were to meet you at these coordinates. Admiral DeAngelo was supposed to be in charge. Generals Hernandez, Chen, and Petrov said they had the data and they would send the appropriate force to deal with the situation,” Robert said.

“I don’t know what you are talking about but I’m not about to surrender my people to you,” Captain Beasley said.

“Of course not. Surrender? Nobody wants you to surrender. I have been going crazy talking to those generals – not to mention the CIA, GRU, and Chinese MSS,” Robert said.

“Talking to them how and about what?” asked Captain Beasley – obviously feeling very much out of the loop…

“Through the quantum link communications sets I gave them. You know – the ones with no time lag – instantaneous communication. We’ve been talking for months. I can send over logs of all the discussions.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull Kobe, but you’ll not get away with it,” the Captain said.

“Captain. Aren’t you here about 2011 SR52?” Robert said in his best, exasperated voice.

“SR what?” the Captain said.

“2011 SR52…the 2.6 diameter kilometer asteroid that is currently on a collision course with Earth by the end of March,” Robert said. “Isn’t that why you have the lasers and the nuke?”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull but I not going to fall for it,” Beasley said.

“We need to talk and you need to see the communiqués Hernandez and Chen gave me access to…you can verify their authenticity I guess but you need to see them,” Robert said.

“I am not going to your ship and you cannot bring your troops here,” Beasley said.

“My troops,” Robert laughed. “It’s just me and Twlise in the Nemesis…say hi to the Captain, Twlise.”

“Hi Captain…just Robert and me here. Tod and Chief Latima in the shuttle…oh…and Cassandra flying herself,” Twlise said in a sweet, sexy voice.

“Captain. I’ll come over to your ship because you don’t have good access – you’ll have to offer me safe passage though after you fired on us,” Robert said.

“You have my word Kobe. Bring whatever proof you have,” the Captain said. “Access through the port airlock.”

“Will be there in five minutes,” Robert said.

[Do you think he bought it? Cassandra queried.]

I think so. You have all the intercepted communiqués that we will let him see. You have ‘pre-selected’ the damning ones, right? Those are the ones showing the collusion between the intelligence agencies and the corporations planning to use this ‘incident’ to divvy up the solar systems resources and retake Mars and Titan.

[Yes. I added communications between the Generals and how they planned the incident. Their collusion to implicate you as a ‘bad guy’ didn’t need much tweaking. The ‘corporate funds’ to their accounts has already been accomplished and I’ve backdated everything in all the computers to match your account. I was able to edit the Near Earth Object data at NASA to show tampering ‘after’ you alerted them to the threat from the asteroid.]

How about the armament and the shootout with Tod bringing your parts?

[That one fit beautifully. Hernandez is trying to set you up as the bad guy and I added warnings to you from him. He will have told you mercenaries were pretending to be US troops so they could steal your ship. You showed them the calculations and the Russian and Chinese intelligence are implicated in helping you get the laser components so quickly. Your kidnapping is shown as a non-sanctioned ploy by the corporations to steal your plans for themselves.]

The quantum set on Earth?

[I have booby-trapped it to self-destruct if opened and it only picks up the Net in real-time. We don’t have many units left on Earth. We have access to the web there but this proves the real-time access and the ‘intercept communiques’ says they destroyed some of the units you gave them. There is a lot of real data here that they can check.]

“Wish me luck. I don’t trust them. Be prepared to cut them apart and come get me Chief.”

“Will do, sir…these robots and I will pull that ship apart if we have to…”

“Thanks Chief. That makes me feel a lot better,” Robert said as he sealed his helmet and carried the box and data modules out the airlock of the Nemesis.

                                                                        ****

Robert floated out a starboard airlock of the Nemesis and drifted to the indicated airlock of the Prometheus. He opened the outside door easily, sealed it, and cycled the lock. The inside hatch swung open to reveal four soldiers with rifles pointed in his direction.

“May I remove my helmet gentlemen?” he asked.

“Do it slowly. Don’t try any funny stuff,” said one of the men. “What’s in the case?” asked the soldier.

“This is a quantum entanglement link to the web on Earth. It will let you text and send messages in real time – both ways without the time delay the radios give you. Here you go,” he said handing it over.

“No shit…in real time?” the soldier said.

“No delay. You can check the time stamp on messages. I’m really happy to see you guys. I thought everybody on Earth was gonna’ die and they weren’t gonna do shit to stop it,” Robert said.

“What are you talking about? The captain said you had some fantastic spin to throw on us.”

“There is a big asteroid that is on a collision course with Earth. I can’t move the damn thing myself. That’s why I’m doing all this crap. Good God. I had it made but who gives a shit how much money you have if your whole planet goes blooey,” Robert said. “Which way to the captain? Oh. Search me for weapons and stuff first so he can’t diss you for putting him at risk,” Robert said and put his hands straight up.

The soldier that had been talking to Robert motioned with his rifle to another soldier and that one came forward and frisked Robert very thoroughly. “He’s clean.”

“This way sir,” the first soldier said to Robert and motioned for the others to lower their weapons.

“Thank you…” Robert said letting the name hang in the air.

“Ensign Rawlings Mister Kobe,” said the soldier.

“Thank you Ensign. I hope we can get this worked out. The pouch attached to the communicator contains the communiqués from me, and the different generals on Earth. It also has some between big corporations and the intelligence services of China, Russia, and the US. I imagine the Captain will restrict them to his eyes only. You won’t believe some of that shit. They want to use the threat of the asteroid to gain control of the star drive so they can divide up the resources of the solar system and get rich. I’ve said too much. Sorry.”

The ensign spoke up. “Do you really have that alien model as a girl friend?”

“Twlise? She is something isn’t she? She’s alone on the ship I just left. We figured a big ship could take you and any you need with you anywhere in a few minutes…hour back to Earth or an hour to the site of that damn asteroid.”

“She sure is pretty, said the ensign.

“You wouldn’t believe but she is considered mediocre on her planet. They like their women with bigger hips and heavier. The ones like Twlise are the ones who can’t get dates…oh…and this isn’t for publication. Earth males have huge wangs compared to the little ones of the locals and the males don’t do cunnilingus. There is a one year time lapse when you travel that far but it only takes a couple of hours real time…and those pictures we brought back of their homeworld don’t do it justice. They didn’t fuck up the environment like we are doing. That’s why the corporations want the drive so bad,” Robert said as they walked down the narrow corridors of the Prometheus.

“Mister Kobe…better not talk any more. We’re near the bridge.”

“Thank you ensign. Just want you to know that my offer to give the star drive for a new interstellar patrol is in there too…any of you guys near reenlistment time…after we move that asteroid…any of you guys will be heroes.” Robert said as they walked the last bit in silence.

They walked onto the bridge of the Prometheus and Captain Beasley was in the command chair. He did not get up as they entered the bridge.