Jethro: First to Fight (68 page)

Right now Pendeckle was glad he was
here. Oh, not just because of the possibility of kicking pirate ass... because
his boss was probably a complete bear right now, biting every head off that
entered his engagement range.

He chuckled mentally at the thought as
he surveyed the Marines around him.

“We can do this later,” he said looking
at the Marines. He had been briefing Valenko and his squad on possible boarding
plans. They started to get up. They had worked their way through conventional
boarding techniques and were now exploring contingency plans.

“This will only take a moment actually.
I just wanted to keep you in the loop. It looks like we're going to have a long
transit time, longer than anticipated.”

“Why is that?” Valenko asked, brows
knit. “We can hit the upper delta bands...”

A holo of their course was projected in
the center of the room. It zoomed in to a system and they could see a line
blinking.

“The problem is we're short jumping the
exits. We will be coming out a few light hours short of the normal exit to get
a look at the system in case it is a trap. That means we will have a longer
subspace transit time between jumps,” Firefly explained.

“Why sir if I may ask?” Deja said,
looking at the jump data.

“In case of an ambush. It's going to
leave us short on fuel too. We may have to stop and refuel in Triang before
heading into the last leg to Antigua.”

“Ouch,” Deja murmured. They all knew
what that meant. Triang didn't have a station or gas giant platform. That meant
either getting the fuel up out of the planet's gravity well or sucking it out
from the gas giant. They would have to enter the system, wait until the fuel
was available and then spend precious hours and even days taking on fuel. Then
more time processing it into deuterium and helium 3 before leaving to the
Antigua jump point. Using a gas giant refinery would be marginally quicker than
stopping at the planet... if they had the material to build the platform. In
theory Firefly could scoop what she needed but it was tedious and dangerous.
Either way was time consuming. Time they didn't have available to spend.

“The Captain is concerned about the time
it gives the pirates to set up shop in Triang or Antigua. Especially Antigua
with her station.”

“Anything more on the station?” Valenko
asked, looking up from the holo to the AI avatar.

“A full factory station, Antigua prime.
She was a sitting duck,” Firefly sighed and shook his head. “The people there
are idiots. It is run by a group of cybers. They are pacifists. Well, not
simple pacifists, but ignorant and obstinate. They decided to focus on bread
and circuses for the populous over defense.”

“Um...”

“He means they handed out candy and
shiny new toys with the factory instead of building the defenses,” Pendeckle
said with a grimace.

“Got that,” Valenko said with a sour
grimace. His hand paws reached out and touched Triang. The system blinked then
zoomed in until it filled the holo field. “Are we sure they'll go to Antigua?”

“Without a doubt. Someone will drop the
ball in Triang or Protodon no doubt. If only to get the pirates to leave them
alone and go for easier better pickings elsewhere,” Pendeckle said in disgust.
It was human nature to try to distract a predator. Hell, not just human nature,
aliens of many species were known for doing it as well.

“True,” Firefly said.

“We've been working on what we're going
to do. Standard boarding ops or...”

“Unfortunately we have to be concerned
about boarding ops,” Firefly interrupted. “If the enemy gets in for too long
and gain control there is a definite risk of a scuttle if they do. Blowing that
station would be a major setback for us.”

“Not to mention the thousands of people
on board her sir,” Pendeckle said with a straight face. “The loss of life is
going to be enormous as it is. Is there any way we can speed things up?”

“Unfortunately no. We can't rule out an
ambush and our navigator and helmsmen aren't up for a short jump. We're not
even sure they can handle the upper Delta octaves either. Lieutenant Janice
doesn't sound thrilled at the chance since it is her first attempt. We won't
know until we're underway.”

“Surely with implants... haven't they
simmed?”

“Sims and real world knowledge are
entirely different things Major, as you well know,” Firefly replied tartly.

Deja looked down. He grimaced, hand
flippers moving. “Point,” Pendeckle said with a grimace.

There was a lengthy silence and then the
Selkie sighed. “I'll do it,” he said softly.

The others looked at him. He opened his
eyes and locked onto the AI. “That's what you're really here for isn't it?” he
asked.

“I was hoping you would take an interest
Corporal,” Firefly said with a nod.

“You've got your wish. I can't sit back
and let people die knowing I can help. That's a part of being a Marine. I'll
need some sim time, I've never helmed with implants before.”

“You'll actually find it an even more
enjoyable experience than before. We've set up a null G tank for the helmsman.
Virtual reality linkage.”

Deja suddenly looked intrigued. “Can you
program it for anything?”

“Within reason Corporal. I am assuming
you'd like something ocean related?” Firefly asked amused. He was already
shooting off requests to the computer geeks to set up the sim. Some of the IT
geeks were already on it, but others were already griping about the work
involved.

“Yes sir.”

“That is definitely possible then.
Shoals, kelp forests, the entire bit correct?” the AI asked, writing the
parameters of the program. Deja nodded. Firefly checked the records and then
nodded as he sent the links to the IT crew. “I've got some of that on file and
we can surely come up with a crude set up by the time we get to the jump point.
We'll even set up a salt water tank for you to be in to make it more
comfortable for you.”

“Thank you sir,” Deja said getting up.
He looked at Pendeckle. “With your permission of course Major.”

“Granted and with eternal thanks
Corporal. I'll remember this son, we all will. Get us there as quickly as you
can.”

“I'll do my best sir. We all will.”

“Good to hear. Goddess speed.”

...*...*...*...*...

A few minutes later Firefly briefed the Captain
and Janice, the Chief helmswoman. Janice is a bit put out.

“He can't fly us all the way there
Captain! It's suicide!” Janice said stubbornly, shaking her head as she threw
her hands up in the air. “I can't spell him, none of us can!”

“Look Lieutenant, what we are going to
do is relatively simple,” Firefly said doggedly.

Janice shook her head vehemently. She
knew better. “Not in a million years. Well, maybe in your time...” Janice said
scowling.

“No, what we are going to do is you and
your team are going to take the straight runs. We'll short jump out and have a
look around,” Firefly turned to the Captain. “That way we can assess each
system to see if the pirates are there or not before moving on.”

“Okay,” Mayweather said nodding.

“When we're certain it is cleared
Corporal Deja will short jump us.”

“That's what I'm trying to say. Even if
he did it in alpha it's suicide to take a straight path. We'd...”

“We're not going to take a straight
path,” Firefly explained patiently.

Janice paused and blinked in
consternation. “Wait we're not?”

“No. What your people are going to do,
specifically Ensign Chemwa, you and myself are going to do is plot a series of
way points
around
the peripheral of the system dodging the major mass
objects we know about. Short cutting through it only if there is nothing near.
We can run a rough sim of that while CIC checks the system for trouble.”

“Ah...”

“The Corporal will fly us in the tank.
He was a professional with over a decade of experience as a hyper navigator and
pilot.”

“It's still a long hop.”

“It's about ten to fourteen hours
depending on each system. I'm betting once he gets back into the seat he'll
shave that time.”

“Oh.”

“He'll get us to the next jump point.
From there he hands it over to you and your crew and they take us on the next
leg. He can then recover.”

“Simple,” Janice said.

“Even the simplest things are the
hardest to pull off,” Mayweather said.

Firefly looked at the Captain. Every
once and a while she came up with references like that. “True. I believe we can
make this work Captain. With your permission of course.”

“Don't let me stop you,” Mayweather said
with a smile and an airy hand wave.

“You're just itching for a fight,”
Janice teased with an answering smile.

“You know it.”

“So, we can what? Do Delta?” Janice
asked.

“Upper octaves of Delta easily. I'd like
to hit Epsilon but I'm not sure you're up for it,” Firefly said.

“So what are we talking about?”
Mayweather asked. “Time wise I mean.”

“In Delta we can cut transit time down
to three weeks or less depending on the length of the jump. If we can get to
Epsilon and stay there we can shave that number by thirty to forty percent.”

“Wow.”

“Unfortunately it still gives the
pirates plenty of time to get to Antigua.”

“There's no doubt then?”

“None in my book Captain. Based on
Lieandra's readings the pirates were heading to the other jump point in
Protodon. That one leads to two empty systems and then Antigua. I'm actually
betting they won't be in any of the other systems. There isn't any way to get
to them except by going first to Antigua and then moving on to Triang and the
others.”

“But we have to check just in case,”
Mayweather said scowling. “How are we with the crew? Moral? Are the Marines
settling in?”

“Moral is fine Captain, the crew is a
little nervous but eager to blow up some pirates,” Firefly said, seeing the
feral gleam in the Captain's eyes. “As are you apparently.” She gave a small
smile and nod.

“We've got the Marines bunked everywhere
we could stash them. We've even stashed a few in stasis pods in the life pods
for later decanting.”

“Fascinating.”

“They are taking bets on who has the
loudest snore.”

“Put me down for twenty on the bear,”
Mayweather said with an amused smirk.

“You're on,” Janice said making a note on
her tablet. “My money's on the liger.”

...*...*...*...*...

Clive had a brief and emotional good bye
with his pregnant wife on the flight line. The squad gave them as much privacy
as they could. Families of the Marines lined the chain link fence, saying their
tearful good byes. For some, it was a heart wrenching moment. For the single
people, they felt sympathy for their friends, but it really didn't hurt them as
much. You had to be in love to understand that loss and helpless anger at such
a separation.

Clive went forehead to forehead with his
wife briefly, holding her fingers with one hand tightly while the fingers of
his left hand gently stroked her swollen belly. They whispered for a moment,
then kissed through the fence. Then he nodded and stepped back, releasing her
fingers.

She touched a locket around her neck,
smiled, eyes tearing. He put his cover on properly and nodded to her. She
mouthed the words I love you to him. He returned them.

“Come on Bret, we've got to move,”
Harley urged. Bret looked over to her and then back to his wife briefly. She
waved for him to go. He nodded, moving out.

His wife turned away, crying softly. A
friend patted and rubbed her shoulder.

Clive climbed on board. “Sometimes this
job sucks,” he said simply. They all knew he would miss the birth of his child.
He may not even live long enough to see the kid. Who lived or died in the next
six months was up in the air for all of them. None knew what the future would
bring.

“Yeah,” Jethro said nodding as the ramp
closed. He saw Clive's eyes clinging to the sight of his love until the hatch
closed and latched. “Yeah, sometimes it does indeed.”

...*...*...*...*...

The Marines sucked it up, packing the
ship to the deck heads with gear and bodies. They triple bunked in every nook
and crannie of the ship including in the shuttles they would be using in any
possible boarding or landing actions. Firefly had offloaded her Prejudice
shuttles and exchanged them for Warhawks. The Warhawk was better suited for
combat ops in space. It was also smaller, allowing them to tuck two extra
shuttles in.

The shuttle boat bays were packed and
stacked. Marine Warhawk assault shuttles hung from the ceiling over the
fighters, shuttles, and tugs on the deck. Each had a grav tractor holding them
to the ceiling hard points, as well as plenty of cables.