Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (37 page)

“We’re getting some refits on our missile systems right now,” Nathan stated, “but as soon as that’s done, we’ll be ready for open space again. I expect that’ll happen well before your fighters start landing.”

“That is good news, Captain. Eighty percent of our training has traditionally focused on atmospheric intercepts, with the other twenty percent spent on orbital. My pilots have almost no training in deep-space engagements.”

“I suspect that will change rather soon, I’m afraid,” Nathan admitted. “Commander Taylor and I will lend any of our limited knowledge and experience in that area as well.”

“Thank you, sir. Anything you can share with us will be of use.”

“Doctor Sorenson?” Nathan said, inviting Abby to begin her updates.

“The Corinairans have successfully tested their first mini-jump drive equipped shuttle. They are currently installing the necessary sensory and deep space navigational gear required for their new mission as early warning ships. They expect to be able to produce and deploy at least four of them before the Loranoi arrives.”

“That will make Tug happy, I’m sure,” Nathan commented.

“Where is Tug?” Jessica wondered.

“He and Josh are out in the interceptor searching for the Wallach.”

“The Corinairans have expressed their displeasure at the fact that they have only one pair of fabricators available for the purpose of creating the mini-jump drives,” Abby stated.

“Tough,” Nathan answered. “We may be full up with rail gun ammo, but they’re nothing but dumb slugs. That means our only defense against a missile attack is to jump away, which is great if the jump drive is working. But if it goes down, we’re screwed. So until they can get some of their factories to agree to start producing fragmenting point-defense rounds for us, we’re hogging those fabricators.”

“Captain, even with all the fabricators running twenty-four hours a day, they will still not be able to produce enough frag-rounds to be of significant use,” Vladimir pointed out.

“Yeah, I know that, and you know that,” Nathan explained, “but the politicians on Corinair don’t, and I don’t have time to beg those industrialists to start stamping out ammo for us. This way, I get the politicians to put the pressure on them.”

“
Da
,
konyeshna
,” Vladimir agreed.

“They do realize there are two heavily armed Takaran warships on their way here, don’t they?” Jessica asked.

“They believe the Loranoi is coming,” Nathan admitted, “but I’m not so sure they believe that the Wallach is coming as well.”

“What, one warship’s not enough?”

“They seem convinced that we can handle the Loranoi all by ourselves,” Nathan said.

“Then why are they even bothering with the early warning shuttles?” Jessica asked.

“I have no idea,” Nathan admitted. “I suppose it makes them feel better.”

“The Loranoi is a formidable ship,” Tug warned. “She is equipped with the most advanced missile batteries and target acquisition systems. She also has an advanced electronic countermeasures system, which makes it very difficult to lock weapons onto her during battle.”

“Great,” Jessica commented.

“How are things going with our EC suite?” Nathan asked Vladimir.

“Slowly I’m afraid. It was severely damaged, and the power surge that resulted fried most of it and the control runs, all the way back to the control console on the bridge. I do not think we can fix it, as we simply do not have the parts.”

“Captain,” Willard interrupted, “I may have a solution for you.”

“Yes, Ensign?”

“I am no longer an Ensign, Captain. My shipmates and I are now officially considered defectors from the empire. Therefore, we no longer carry a rank.”

“Duly noted,” Nathan said. “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Mister Willard said. “As I was saying, the electronic countermeasures equipment on the Yamaro was undamaged and is currently not scheduled for use. It is not as advanced as that on the Loranoi, but it might be possible to remove it from the Yamaro and install it on the Aurora.”

“Do you think that would work?” Nathan asked.

“Their transponder array was pretty easy to adapt to our systems,” Vladimir said. “If it works, it would be better than nothing.”

“Very well. I’ll put in a request to the Corinairans to allow you to get started on that, Mister Willard.”

“Yes, sir,” Mister Willard acknowledged.

“Excellent. Moving on then.” Nathan turned to Doctor Chen. “Doc, how are things looking in Medical?”

“I’m happy to report that, for the first time since we left Earth, I have nothing but empty beds. Two more crewmen have returned from their rehabilitation down on Corinair. Those remaining will be there for at least another month. Also, along with more staff, we are also getting more diagnostic and laboratory equipment.”

“More staff?” Nathan asked.

“Yes, sir. Somebody has to show us how to use the new equipment, and since we are expected to go into combat in the near future, they decided they might as well give us doctors. In fact, they gave us two trauma surgeons, as well as about eight nurses and technicians. We’ve almost got a full staff at this point.”

“Well, with two more shifts coming on board in the next few days, we’re going to need them.” Nathan stated. “What about the nanite guys?”

“They’re coming aboard with Commander Taylor later today,” Doctor Chen stated.

“Cam’s coming back?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah, I was saving that last,” Nathan joked.

“Great,” Jessica said, “now we can get our butts chewed on a daily basis.”

“Well, she’ll be touching down around fifteen hundred, so be ready,” Nathan warned. “Very well, that about does it. We’ve all got lots of work to do, so let’s get to it. Cheng, Abby, and Mister Willard, if you’ll all please remain, everyone else is dismissed.”

Once the others had left the briefing room, Nathan began speaking again. “Mister Willard, how many comm-drones are there remaining aboard the Yamaro?”

“I believe there were twelve when we arrived in the Darvano system, Captain. There are probably just as many on the comm-drone platform in the Darvano system, the one used by the local Ta’Akar communications office.”

“How much do you know about their programming?”

“Enough, mostly about their communications code. Although I was primarily a communications technician, I also worked quite closely with the men responsible for maintenance and programming of the drones.”

“Could those drones be reprogrammed to fly courses and speeds according to instructions transmitted to them on the fly?”

“The ones from the Yamaro, yes. They are already programmable, as they were designed to be used from anywhere. But the ones used by the Darvano system are fixed-destination drones, designed to travel between Darvano and Takara. They would need to be rewired.”

“Could that be done?”

“I believe so,” Mister Willard stated. “They are essentially the same, with just slightly different navigational packages. Even if they cannot be rewired, you could use the fabricators to create copies of the navigational packages in the Yamaro’s drones and install them into the ones from the Darvano platform. May I inquire as to why?”

“I was thinking of using them as faster-than-light kinetic kill vehicles.”

“Really?”

“If we could get a Takaran ship into a designated kill zone, we could send the jump interceptor out to a drone parked some distance away to issue launch orders. At FTL speeds, it would pack a hell of a wallop.”

“
Bozhe moi
,” Vladimir exclaimed. “Do you realize how much of a ‘wallop’?”

“I haven’t tried to calculate that yet,” Nathan admitted, “but I’m pretty sure it would be enough to penetrate the shields of a Ta’Akar battleship.”

“And then some,” Abby agreed.

“Forget nuclear weapons, Nathan,” Vladimir exclaimed, “you are an evil genius.”

“Captain, the odds of successfully striking a moving target in such a manner are astronomically small,” Abby warned.

“I’m not so sure, Doctor,” Nathan argued. “If we already know the speed and course of the target, and we can keep them on course and at that speed for even a short length of time, say five to ten minutes, I think we have a very good chance of hitting it. Anyway, it’s something that I do want to experiment with, and I’m hoping that you’ll spearhead the development along with the Corinairans, Doctor.”

“I’ll do my best, Captain,” Abby promised.

* * *

Cameron stared out the window of the shuttle as it made its way through the Karuzara entrance tunnel. She thought about the last time she had made this passage, and about the auto-flight script she had written to simplify the Aurora’s transit through the long corridor. She hadn’t really thought much about it at the time, but the tunnel had barely been big enough for use by a ship as large as the Aurora. Luckily, Nathan had been smart enough to send a shuttle in ahead of them, scanning and mapping the tunnel on their way in to be sure the Aurora really would fit. It had been tight, but they had made it through time and time again.

The tunnel looked bigger to her this time around. She wondered if the Karuzari had widened it, or if it was just an optical illusion since she was flying in a ship only a fraction of the size of the Aurora. In the end, she decided that it was a little bit of both, since she noticed a few spots that appeared to have been freshly excavated.

Cameron thought about all that had happened to her over the last three months, ever since she had first reported for duty aboard the Aurora back at the assembly platform orbiting the Earth. By this time, she had spent more than half of their mission in the hospital on Corinair. She was excited to get back to her ship, back to her people, but she was nervous as well. It was not the same crew that had left Earth. Three quarters of them were dead, most of them buried on Corinair. Those that remained no longer shared the same experiences as her. They had all been through a lot more on their own, without her. It was almost as if she were reporting to a new assignment, on a new ship.

At least she wouldn’t have to prove herself to anyone this time around. She was reporting for duty as the executive officer, and with a full crew, her job would be a big one. She would no longer be just second-in-command, she would be running the day to day operations of the ship. That was, after all, the role of the XO, to make the ship and her crew do what her captain decided he wanted them to do. A good XO enabled the captain to think about what to do with his ship, instead of how to do it.

To think about what to do with the ship.
The thought struck her as ironic to say the least. Nathan was not exactly the type to give something a lot of thought before acting. She had to admit that he had changed somewhat over the past month, but to her, he would always be Nathan Scott, the spoiled son of a rich politician whose daddy always bailed him out of trouble.

Not this time
, she thought. He was going to have to get himself out of trouble. Funny thing was, he seemed to be doing all right without his father’s help.

The interior of the shuttle filled with light as it left the tunnel and entered the main central cavern of the asteroid now officially known as Karuzara.
Karuzara. That’s what you get for letting Josh pick a name
, she thought. She moved her face closer to the glass in order to look forward to get a better view of her ship. She hadn’t seen the outside of her since she first walked through the windowed boarding tunnel from the assembly platform. It looked different somehow—more shiny, almost like she was wet. She remembered reading the notes about the special coating the Karuzari technicians had applied and concluded the glimmer must have been the result of the reflective elements in that coating. She decided she liked it, as it was far more interesting than the standard white and gray of most EDF ships. It looked more polished, more impressive.

Cameron could feel her pulse rate increase as she saw her ship for the first time in more than a month. As the shuttle descended toward the Aurora, she strained to try and see any evidence of the previous damage to her bow, but there was none. The Corinairan technicians had done a fine job of repairing her, a service for which she would forever be grateful.

The Corinari shuttle continued to descend in expert fashion, making only the slightest of adjustments to her flight path on the way in. Finally, it settled gently on the Aurora’s flight apron, creating only the slightest bump within the cabin.
Now that’s how you land a shuttle
, she thought.
Nothing like that little hotshot, Josh
. He was too undisciplined for her taste, much like her captain—at least how he used to be. Now, she wasn’t too sure.

After the shuttle rolled into the transfer airlock and the chamber had pressurized, four heavily armored security guards in Corinari uniforms came through the personnel hatch into the bay and made their way to the shuttle. Two of them came on board while the other two began inspecting the exterior of the shuttle. One guard went forward into the cockpit to check the flight crew, while the other guard came into the passenger cabin and went straight to Cameron.

“Identification, ma’am,” the guard said in a serious tone. Cameron handed him the ident chip that the Corinari had made for her before she left the hospital. After inserting the ident chip into his reader, he held it up and scanned Cameron’s face. “Thank you, Commander.” The guard then repeated the process for the doctor that had accompanied her and the nanite technician that would be monitoring and programming the remaining nanites in her body until they finally finished their work and left her system.

A message squawked in the guards comm-set. “Your shuttle has been cleared. If you’ll remain seated, the ship will continue into the main hangar bay where you may disembark. Welcome aboard the Aurora.”

The big inner airlock door began to rise, as did Cameron’s pulse rate once more. As the shuttle began to roll forward, she could feel a queasiness building in her stomach.

“Are you all right, Commander?” the doctor asked. Apparently she looked like she felt.