Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (3 page)

“Whenever a Ta’Akar warship is going to cross a known comm-drone route, it first broadcasts a signal to alert any drones in their area that they wish to exchange messages. When a comm-drone detects this signal, it drops out of FTL and decelerates enough to allow the exchange of messages. By piggybacking our own messages onto the inter-system drones, we reduce the use of our own drones.”

“Then it’s possible to intercept that drone,” Nathan exclaimed, “to stop it from reaching Takara.”

“Theoretically, yes.”

“No one has ever tried,” Tug interrupted, obviously intrigued.

“Why not?” Nathan couldn’t help but ask.

“Comm-drones are the fastest thing in space,” Tug explained. “At least they were until you came along.”

“Then it is possible for us to catch it. We could jump ahead of it and broadcast that signal.”

“Actually, you would have to jump behind it first,” Abby interjected. “You can’t see an object traveling faster than light when it is coming toward you. The object would arrive before its light, until the very last second that is. By that time it would be too late. Once it passes you, it would already be traveling faster than the stop signal, so you would then have to jump ahead of it in order to transmit a stop signal.”

“But once it passes us, we could see it,” Nathan said, seeking clarification.

“Yes. Its light would be red-shifted, of course, but we would see it.”

“So we find it, calculate its exact course and speed, then jump just ahead of it. Then we transmit the stop signal so we can target it and kill it.” Nathan looked at everyone in the room, expecting them to be as excited about the idea as he was. “It could work, right?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Abby conceded.

“You’re talking about a really small target traveling extremely fast,” Jessica warned. “I don’t think the rail guns could track it accurately enough.”

“Can we tell it to slow down?”

“Once the drone drops out of FTL, it will automatically reduce its subluminal velocity by at least ten percent in order to facilitate signal exchange. If it had to reduce its velocity much more than that, it would expend too much energy during re-acceleration and would be unable to decelerate once it arrived at its final destination,” Ensign Willard explained.

“Shoot at it head on,” Abby suggested.

“What?” Jessica asked.

“If you take your shot from head on, the target’s only motion is toward you, which means it’s essentially no longer a moving target.”

“Oh yes it is,” Jessica objected. “It’s moving toward you at ninety percent the speed of light!”

“You just have to be ready to move out of the way in case you miss,” Abby told them.

“Problem is, at that velocity, there wouldn’t be enough time to fire and maneuver out of its path,” Nathan explained. “And the accuracy of our rail guns drops significantly as the range to target increases, so firing from behind won’t work either. Besides, we don’t have any ammo for them. We’d get about a two second burst, which would only be a few hundred rounds,
and
we’d have to fire blind.”

“We could use my interceptor,” Tug suggested. “It has energy weapons, it is more maneuverable, and it is faster. Also, as the interceptor uses energy weapons, I could fire continuously without fear of running out of ammunition. It would just be a matter of slipping into position behind the drone just after it passes by and opening fire.”

“You would only have a limited window of opportunity, Captain,” Ensign Willard warned. “The drone will automatically return to FTL and continue on at top speed after five minutes.”

“So,” Nathan stated, “we’ve got five minutes to hit a drone the size of a bus, traveling at nearly the speed of light, with a laser cannon mounted on an interceptor.” Nathan shrugged his shoulders. “Piece of cake. Question is: is it worth the risk?”

“What risk?” Jessica wondered. “It’s not like the drone will be shooting back at us.”

“Three spacecraft traveling at near relativistic speeds, all within close proximity to each other,” Nathan said. “Trust me, there’s risk.”

“Destroying the drone would keep the Ta’Akar from becoming aware that anything is amiss in the Darvano system,” Ensign Willard pointed out. “It could provide you with weeks or even months of additional time in which to prepare a defense.”

“We will need the help of the Corinairans,” Tug reminded him.

“Leave that to me,” Nathan assured him. “They love me down there.”

“As you wish, Captain.”

“Does anyone else have any immediate concerns to discuss?” Nathan looked around the table. “Very well. Doctor Sorenson, I will need to meet with you later. I have some questions regarding physics and relativity I need answered.”

“Whenever you like, Captain,” Abby responded.

“Nash, Kamenetskiy, you two remain seated. Ensign Willard, if you’ll wait outside with the guards, Ensign Nash will be out to take you for your debriefing shortly.”

“Of course.”

“Everyone else, thank you. You’re dismissed.”

Nathan leaned back in his chair, watching the others exit, waiting until the room was clear before speaking. He couldn’t help but feel like a secondary school administrator about to punish a couple of unruly teens. It was an amusing thought, as in the past he was usually the one doing the misbehaving.

Although he wasn’t looking directly at them, he could see Jessica and Vladimir exchange glances. Neither of them appeared to have any idea why they had been asked to stay behind. Jessica, however, appeared as calm as ever, confident that she could do no wrong. That was her strength, and Nathan knew it. But at times it was also her weakness, and he wondered if she was aware of that side of her personality.

Vladimir was a different story altogether: excitable, emotional, outspoken, but generally a nice, dependable guy. On Haven, in fact, he had also proven himself quite reliable under fire. If he had any real fault, it was that he worked too hard. The man refused to sleep unless everything was working, sometimes falling asleep on his console in engineering with a tool in his hand. The Aurora had been in need of repair since they first jumped away from Earth, so it was reasonable to assume that Vladimir had gotten very little sleep over the last two weeks.

Two weeks
, Nathan thought. It seemed like only a few days ago. Everything had been happening so fast. At other times it felt like months since he had looked down on the familiar sight of the Earth slowly rotating below them. That view had been comforting, but he hadn’t realized just how comforting it had been until now.

Tug was the last to exit the briefing room, casting a knowing look Nathan's way as he closed the hatch behind him. Nathan stared at the hatch as he thought about how to best proceed. He didn’t relish the idea of having to admonish his friends. They had been through a lot together. The events of the last two weeks had been hard on everyone, but they had also brought them closer together. They were rapidly becoming comrades in arms, family. Unfortunately, the behavior of his friends was disrupting the operations of his ship, and as captain he could not tolerate it.

“It has come to my attention that the two of you have been casting blame on one another for the most recent attempted assault on this ship. Is that correct?”

“I never said it was his fault,” Jessica began.

“Oh, please. Why do you lie?” Vladimir objected.

“I didn’t say it was your fault. I said that you should have…”

“Enough!” Nathan warned sternly, his earlier soft spoken tone having vanished. “Listen to you two. You’re like a couple of teenagers…”

“If he had just taken the time to check…”

“Time? What time? If she had done her job to begin with…”

“Zip it!” Nathan said even louder. “It’s not your fault,” he told Vladimir, “and it’s not yours either, Jess. The fault is mine. I’m the captain. I should have made damned sure that the ship was secure before I went down to the surface. Hell, I probably shouldn’t have gone down to the surface at all, for that matter. But I was more worried about my injured friend than my ship. I should have given clear instructions to both of you. So the fault is mine and mine alone, got it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“
Da
.”

“I’ve got to stop being everyone’s friend and start being the captain of this ship,” he said, more to himself than to his friends. He turned to look at them again. “And that also means you two have to start treating me like the captain as well. No more 'Nathan this' or 'Nathan that'. It’s either ‘Captain’ or ‘sir’. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Jessica answered.

Nathan looked at Vladimir. His lips were pursed as if he were about to explode into laughter. Nathan swung out his foot under the table and kicked Vladimir in the shin.

“
Oy!
”

“I said, is that clear?” Nathan asked again, also trying to hold back a grin of his own.

“
Da, da, da,
” Vladimir responded, holding his bruised shin.

“There’s going to be a hundred or so Corinairan volunteers joining our crew; many of them will be members of the Corinari. We need an obvious chain of command for
everyone
to follow if we expect them to do the same. As command ranked officers, we have to lead by example. We have to…” Nathan paused mid sentence, noticing that Jessica was hesitantly raising her hand for permission to speak. “What is it?”

“Beg your pardon, sir, but we’re not command ranked officers. We’re ensigns.” Jessica looked at Vladimir. “Right?”

“Yes, she is correct… uh… sir,” Vladimir agreed.

Nathan looked at the two of them, finally acquiescing. “Good point. Go down to the quartermaster’s office and dig up some new rank insignias. You’re both lieutenant commanders now.”

Smiles crept across both their faces as they exchanged looks.

“Do we get a pay raise as well?” Jessica asked.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Nathan told her. “Dismissed.”

Jessica and Vladimir quickly rose and headed for the exit, afraid Nathan might change his mind.

“The two of you had better earn your new ranks, or I’ll take them away just as quickly.”

Jessica exited the briefing room first, with Vladimir only a step behind her. The big Russian paused in the hatchway for a moment, checking to make sure no one in the corridor would hear him before turning back toward Nathan. “I am still not saluting you,” he joked.

“If you don’t, I’ll cut off your hand and have the Corinairan surgeons reattach it.”

“Maybe just this once then,” he said. He snapped to attention in proper military fashion, issuing a perfect salute which Nathan promptly returned.

“Go, get your new rank pins,” he ordered.

* * *

Compared to how it had been before, the Aurora’s hangar bay seemed busy. There were four Corinari shuttles on board, as well as a medevac shuttle and a cargo shuttle that came every day with meals for the Aurora’s crew as well as the Corinari troops that were currently providing security for the ship. A maintenance team from Corinair had set up shop in a corner of the bay in order to take care of the various shuttles the Corinari were flying between the Aurora and the surface. For the first time since they left Earth, the hangar bay actually felt alive.

After nearly losing both the Aurora and the captured Takaran vessel, the Yamaro, the Corinari were taking security quite seriously. The automatic doors for the transfer airlocks had been deactivated, and inbound shuttles were held on the landing apron while Corinari technicians in full pressure suits inspected their exteriors for suspicious devices. Once cleared by exterior inspectors, the inbound shuttle was allowed to enter the transfer airlock where their interiors were also searched, and the crew and any passengers had their identities thoroughly checked. With the Corinari on duty, no one was getting on board the Aurora who did not belong there.

Similar measures had been taken on board the Yamaro, although activity in her hangars was almost nothing. The remaining crew on board the Yamaro had made their way off the ship using the escape pods a few days ago, when they feared that Captain de Winter would scuttle the Yamaro to keep her out of the hands of the Corinairans. Most of them had either been picked up on the surface or had voluntarily turned themselves in and were being detained until arrangements could be made to get them back to their home worlds. However, given the current circumstances, getting them home might take considerable time.

Nathan strode out across the flight deck toward the shuttle that appeared to be preparing for departure. A group of four Corinari were standing near the shuttle’s boarding hatch, apparently waiting to board. As he continued toward the shuttle, Tug, Jessica, and Sergeant Weatherly appeared from the starboard entrance to the hangar and came toward him. Jessica said something to the sergeant as they approached, and he left them and headed toward the four Corinari guards standing by the shuttle.

“Captain,” Tug greeted as he approached.

“The sergeant’s going with us?” Nathan asked Jessica as he nodded to acknowledge Tug’s greeting.

“I figured he needed an assignment to keep his mind off things,” Jessica answered. “So I gave him one.”

“Doing what?”

“He’s in charge of your security detail.”

“Do I really need a security detail?”

“Regulations state that, while out of the Sol system, the captain of the ship doesn’t leave without a security detail.” Jessica flashed a grin. “Just doing my job, sir,” she added, tapping the new lieutenant commander rank insignia pin on her collar.

“You’re really trying to earn that pay raise, aren’t you?” Nathan said.

“You bet.”

“I really don’t think I need…”

“Actually, you do,” Tug interrupted. “There are still people on Corinair who oppose you. In fact, you would be a high value target for a Takaran assassin.”

“Thanks, I feel so much better.” Nathan looked back at Jessica. “You sure five guys are enough?” He was only half joking.

“These five will stick to you two like glue. And I’ve already contacted the security office at the Aitkenna spaceport. They’ll provide additional personnel for you when you arrive.”