Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (40 page)

“
That was to escape certain death,
” Vladimir said. “
Antimatter reactors are not something to be pushed beyond safe limits whenever you feel like it, Nathan.
”

“Even when the fate of an entire world depends on it?”

“
The Jung fleet arrived,
” Vladimir realized.

“Yeah. They’ll be within striking distance of Tanna in just under four hours.”

“
And the gunships cannot handle them?
”

“A battleship, four cruisers, six frigates…so, doubtful.”

“
Even if I did push the reactors higher, it would not matter,
” Vladimir explained. “
You can only charge the jump drive’s energy banks so fast. Exceed that rate, and you risk losing cells, and that would only delay us further.
” Vladimir was silent for a moment. “
I’m sorry, Nathan. I wish there was something I could do.
”

Nathan sighed again. “I know. Thanks, Vlad.”

* * *

Jessica brought her vehicle to an abrupt stop outside of building seven at the Cobra production plant on Tanna. She quickly shut down the vehicle, pulled the control chip, and jumped out. She ran around the corner of the building and found several large, flatbed transport vehicles, loaded with Tannan engineers and their families.

“Where is Doctor Sorenson?” Jessica yelled. Several people pointed to the doors leading into the building, answering her in Tannan. Jessica ran inside, where she found more people preparing to leave the building and board the vehicles. “Doctor Sorenson?”

More pointing, this time, down the corridor.

“Abby!” Jessica yelled as she made her way down the corridor. A familiar face peaked out of a doorway. “Abby!”

“Jessica!” Abby exclaimed with relief. “Oh, thank God you’re here. Everyone is going crazy…”

“I know, I know,” Jessica replied, cutting her short. “We’ve got to move. I’ve got a vehicle outside.” Two children and a man came out of the office behind Abby. “Is this your family?”

“Yes… This is…”

“No time…” Jessica replied, interrupting her. “Stay together, and stay on my ass… Got it?”

“I got it,” Abby replied, nodding.

Jessica turned and headed back down the corridor toward the exit, moving at a brisk pace. “Who are these people?” she asked as she walked. “The ones getting on the vehicles outside.”

“Lead engineers, technical specialists, and their families.”

“How important are they?”

“If we are going to keep the Cobra project alive, or restart it elsewhere, they are very important,” Abby insisted.

“How many are we talking?”

“With their families, a couple hundred, maybe? We can take them with us, can’t we?”

“We can take seventy or eighty right now, but that’s it. The rest will have to wait for another ride.”

“Are more shuttles coming?” Abby asked as they approached the doors.

Jessica stopped at the doorway and looked back at Abby. “I really don’t know.”

“Jessica, those people…”

“Look, I know. I get it. But my orders are to get you and your family back to Sol, at any cost.
That
is my highest priority right now.” Jessica glanced through the window. Outside, she could see that the panicked workers from the production lines had noticed the assembly of people climbing onto the vehicles, and had decided to try and join them. Men on the vehicles were fighting to keep those who didn’t belong from climbing on board, and forcing women and children off the flatbed vehicles.

“Pick them up and carry them,” Jessica instructed sternly, pointing at Abby’s two children. She pulled her weapon from its holster. “Tell them to close their eyes tight, and don’t open them until you tell them to.”

Abby began to give instructions to her children in Danish, as she picked up their daughter, while her husband picked up their son.

Jessica glanced outside again. The scene was getting even more violent. She turned back to Abby. “Our vehicle is around the corner to the left. When you hear me fire, you run to it and get in.” Jessica handed her the control chip. “Put this chip in the slot under the power switch. Wait one minute. If I don’t come, drive as fast as you can to pad fourteen. Got it?”

Abby nodded, clutching her daughter close to her body, the child’s face buried in her mother’s neck.

Jessica pressed the power button on her energy weapon and flipped the safety off. She charged out the door and immediately fired three shots into the ground less than a meter from the men trying to force their way onto the truck. The men ducked, and she fired three more times, as Abby and her husband came through the doors carrying their children and headed to their left.

“Everyone get the fuck back!” Jessica ordered, pointing her weapon at the men in front of her.

The men moved back, a meter at first, then another. Jessica sidestepped over to the cab of the nearest vehicle, glancing at the driver. “Pad one four,” she said, holding up one finger, then four fingers, in case he didn’t understand. “Just follow me, and drive fast.”

Jessica stepped back to her left, keeping her weapon trained on the desperate men standing in front of her. Their eyes were blazing with fear and determination. They were men fighting to survive, and Jessica knew what that meant. They would do anything.

“Look, I know you all want to get off this planet before the Jung arrive,” Jessica began calmly. “I get that. But this, what you’re doing, the way you’re behaving, it isn’t going to work.”

One of the men began to step forward, rage and desperation boiling in his dark eyes.

“Eh, eh, eh,” she warned, pointing her gun directly at his face. “You’re not listening.” Jessica’s eyes widened, staring at the man with an unblinking, deadly gaze. “Step the fuck back, or I
will
drop you.”

The man studied her for a moment, unsure whether or not she was bluffing. Then he noticed her finger moving back to the trigger, and decided that he was not yet ready to die, and stepped back. The other men around him followed suit, all of them backing away from the vehicles.

Jessica glanced at the men on the truck who were trying to help the women who had gotten pulled down. “Help your people onto the truck,” she instructed calmly. “Quickly.” She looked at the driver again, as the men on the truck helped their families on board. “Start ’em up, boys.”

As the vehicles’ engines started, Jessica heard the sound of another electric vehicle coming around the corner. She glanced over her shoulder. It was Abby, driving the vehicle from the Mirai, her husband in the back clutching both of their children, their faces still buried in their father’s chest.

Jessica walked backward to the vehicle. Abby slid over to the right as Jessica climbed into the driver’s seat. “More ships will come for you!” Jessica told the men she had threatened. “But if you act like assholes, they will shoot you dead. Just a warning.” Jessica looked at the driver of the nearest vehicle. “Follow me, boys,” she instructed.

Jessica gunned the electric engine, turning the vehicle sharply left. “Are the trucks following us?” she asked Abby as they accelerated between the rows of buildings.

“Yes, they are.”

“And the others?”

“They are just standing there.”

“Mirai, Nash!” Jessica called over her comm-set.

“
Go ahead, Lieutenant Commander!
” Sergeant Isan answered.

“We’re on our way! ETA five! I got two trucks full of people coming with…”

“Three…” Abby corrected.

“Make that three trucks,” Jessica updated. “Have your boys break out the big guns, the people here are freaked out and liable to do anything.”

“
We already have, sir,
” the sergeant assured her. “
We saw trouble on pad eleven already. They had to shoot some people. We’ve already set up a perimeter around the ship.
”

“Good job!” Jessica replied. “We’ll get the primaries on board first. Put them in the master stateroom and lock the doors. After they’re secure, we’ll load the rest of them. I want to be wheels up and jumping as soon as possible, understood?”

“
Engines are still running, sir.
”

“Any luck on that call?” Jessica asked.

“
No, sir, I haven’t been able to get through to her. Tanna’s public comms are all jammed up right now. I’m sorry.
”

“Copy that. See you shortly.”

“Synda?” Abby asked, having overheard the conversation.

“Yeah. I had the ship’s comm-tech try calling her so I could arrange to get her out of here, maybe on another ship or something, but he can’t get through. Circuits are all jammed up.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I haven’t given up yet. The Jung are still a little over three hours out, so there’s still time.”

“What are you going to do?” Abby wondered.

“I’m coming back for her,” Jessica insisted. “Just as soon as I get you and yours back to Sol.”

* * *

“Cobra Leader to all gunships,” Captain Nash called over the comms. “You have your targets. Follow your flight leaders. We’ll start with their frigates, then their cruisers. Flight leaders, if your primary target goes to FTL, switch to your secondary target. Do not repeat the same attack pattern with a single ship, especially the bigger ships. Their guns will knock your shields out with only a few rounds, then they’ll open you up and tear you apart. Strike fast, single round, then jump away. Keep your time in the kill zone as low as possible. If we lose too many gunships, we lose the planet, plain and simple. So, no heroes today. Just do your jobs the way you were trained. Cobra Leader, out.”

“Very inspiring,” Commander Rano commented from Cobra One’s copilot seat.

“I wasn’t going for
inspiring
.”

“I never would have guessed.”

Captain Nash looked at his friend with a pained expression. “
Now
, Izzu?
Now
you decide to be funny?”

“One minute to intercept jump,” the commander announced. “On course and speed. Jumping in three…”

Captain Nash took a deep breath.

“Two…”

“Here we go,” the captain said.

“One……jumping.”

The windows turned opaque, then cleared a second later. A Jung frigate was suddenly in front of them, filling up both windows.

“Pitching up,” Robert announced. “Fire away, boys.”

“Target lock,” Commander Rano reported as streaks of red-orange plasma traced from their side gun turrets toward the rapidly approaching frigate.

“Her shields are already up!” Ensign Doray warned.

“Firing forward tubes!” Captain Nash announced.

“Target’s point-defense turrets are coming online,” Ensign Doray added. “Direct hits on target’s midship ventral shields. Down twenty percent! Jump flash behind us!” the ensign added. “Cobra Two is lining up for a shot!”

“Jumping out,” Commander Rano reported as their forward windows turned opaque.

Robert called up the next maneuver and activated the auto-flight system. The gunship immediately responded, firing its maneuvering thrusters to change its flight attitude, and then firing its main engines to initiate its first turn. As much as Robert preferred to fly the maneuvers manually, he knew damn well that the auto-flight systems could do it more precisely. Today, of all days, there was no room for error.

“
Target is firing point-defenses,
” Ensign Saari reported over Captain Annatah’s comm-set.

Cobra Two’s copilot, Lieutenant Commander Jahansir, glanced at the threat board on the center pedestal between them, taking note of the direction of fire. “Suggest left translation, Captain.”

“I’m on it,” Captain Annatah replied, pushing his flight control stick to the left so his gunship would slide to port, away from the enemy frigate’s point-defense turret directly to their starboard side.

“Target lock.”

“Firing forward tubes,” the captain announced.

Four red-orange plasma torpedoes shot out from under their bow, streaking toward the enemy frigate and slamming into her shields, causing them to glow a bright yellow.

“Direct hits,” Cobra Two’s tactical officer reported. “Her shields are down to sixty percent.”

“Jumping,” the copilot reported.

Captain Annatah smiled. “First one might be ours, Vann.”

“Either us or Cobra Three,” his XO said as they came out of the jump.

“No way,” Captain Annatah said as he activated their next maneuvering sequence. “Twenty percent each means Cobra One drops their shields, and
we
get a clean shot for the kill.”

Lieutenant Commander Jahansir smiled.

“I’m telling you, Vann, the number two spot
is
the kill slot.”

“At least when it comes to frigates,” the lieutenant commander replied.

“They should be down to twenty percent by our next shot,” Commander Rano said.

“If this was any other mission, I’d double-tap and finish her off myself,” Captain Nash commented.

“Jumping in five…”

“But, I can’t very well do what I told them
not
to do, now can I?”

“…Two……one……jumping.”

Captain Nash waited one second for the windows to clear after the jump, but when they did, there was nothing but empty space and distant stars in front of them. “What the hell?” the captain wondered, looking around. “Doray?”

“I got nothing, sir.”

“They must have gone to FTL,” Commander Rano concluded.

“Doray, where’s our secondary target?” Captain Nash asked.

“There is nothing, Captain,” the ensign replied. “No ships anywhere…except Cobra Two, who just jumped in behind us.”

“Falcon One, Cobra One,” Captain Nash called over the comms. “You got eyes on?”

“
Cobra One, Falcon One,
” Loki replied. “
All targets went to FTL about twenty seconds ago.
”

“Did we get any of them?” Captain Nash wondered.

“
No, sir,
” Loki replied over the comms. “
Not that we saw. Counted eleven FTL transition signatures.
”

“Damn it!” Captain Nash swore. “I was hoping we’d at least get one or two of them before they went back into FTL.” Captain Nash sighed. “We’ll wait for everyone else to finish their maneuvers and jump back. Then we’ll form up and return to base.” Captain Nash keyed his comms again. “Falcon One, Cobra One. Keep a track on them, and let us know if anything changes.”

“
Falcon One, copies.
”

“I’m sorry, Robert.”

“This is going to get ugly, Izzu,” Captain Nash said. “Nothing is worse than fighting with your back against the wall.”

* * *

Commander Telles and Master Sergeant Jahal stood to the side of the Mirai’s cargo ramp as the Tannan engineers and their families were escorted from the ship by Alliance marines. After nearly ten minutes, the last of the evacuees walked down the ramp and onto the tarmac.

Jessica was next, followed by Abby, her husband, and their two children.

“Doctor Sorenson,” Commander Telles greeted. “Welcome to Porto Santo.”