Ringship Discretion (16 page)

Attie looked at Amelia with a cocked head. "It's all bullshit.  They just want to get those plates back and badly. They are willing to.." Amelia interrupted "But, Attie, this means we can never go home! None of us can. Look they have pictures of you Ben, and you Helen...and Doc too. " 

Helen and Ben both got behind her chair and tried to look closer.  Amelia said "Hold on a sec." She tapped a few things and the article appeared on the big screen.  The whole crew crowded around the big screen, except Amelia and the captain.  Attie just looked at Amelia and watched as she read through AJ's tablet.

Helen spoke up. "It doesn't say anything about AJ.  Maybe they don't know about him. She turned and AJ was right in front of her. "I mean you, AJ."

The captain turned towards them. "Well, he was a last minute add and had never been on a mission with us before.  We are the only ones who know he's here with us."

Doc, still looking at the article. "How do they know so much about us?".

The captain looked at Doc about to answer and then a thought came to mind. "Dammit! This means my ex-bitch girlfriend is going to get my ship!"

Amelia put her hand on his shoulder. "Attie, really, I think we have more important things to worry about."  Attie swung around about to yell, but held back and said "Yeah..." as his face cringed. "It just pisses me off!"  Amelia was watching Attie when she looked up to see Ben smiling.  She gave him a look, which made him smile even more and he had to turn around.

After about 30 seconds, the captain stood up. "Alright, enough of this. We are big time wanted fugitives, and maybe we can have our own talk show or write a book someday, but lets get back to staying alive first.  Ben, you had that inventory list?  Ben reached up while still smiling, and handed it to him. The captain saw the smile and just growled.  He started going down the list. "6 M24s, 1492 rounds of ammo, 1 brain scanner, 6.4 kg of C7, 100 warp probes, 9 and a half grav drive plate power cables....what does that mean?"

Ben looked at the list. "The half is referring to the one that is not made for our plates, that was causing the drive..." The intercom interrupted. "Discretion, we are aware of your cargo, and have arranged protection.  Maintain a direct course to Oberon.  You will be given further instructions as you approach. Over."  Everyone froze.  Then Amelia whipped around in her chair and Attie exclaimed "That was so fast!!"

Amelia checked the sensor panel. "Yes! We shouldn't have heard from anyone for at least 3 and half more hours."

Attie hopped back into the co-pilot seat. "Can we get a fix on where that came from?"

Amelia didn't look up. "Yes, I've got it.  They are about 250 million km in front of us, almost on a direct course to Uranus.  Their transmission was slightly off frequency.  If it's from doppler shift, that tells me that we are moving towards them, but they are at more than half our current velocity, relative to Uranus."

Attie looked over at her. "They are showing up on our sensors now. Why didn't we pick their ships up before?  "

She ignored his question. "Look at the wave. During their whole broadcast, the doppler shift was decreasing, so I think they are trying to match our speed."

Ben tried to say something, but the captain interrupted. "How long till they match our velocity?"

Amelia glanced at Ben, but then focused back on Attie. "Hmm..Well, I am not sure. I don't know if they can out accelerate us or not.  If they can't, then we will pass them soon and they will still be trying to catch up. If they are going to protect us, they will have to decelerate also.. no wait a minute. Scratch that.  They only have to match the velocity of the BB cruiser to protect us".

Attie leaned forward toward Amelia. "Can they do that? Match the BB cruiser's speed?"

She  nodded "Yes..and they should be able to before it gets to us." Everyone breathed a small sigh of relief and Amelia continued "As to your previous question, the reason we can see them now is because the BB ships radar was not only hitting us, but them as well, but with a delay.  We should keep an eye on the space in front of us and record all data for the next 5 hours or so.  That radar wave should light everything in our path up. Too bad we don't have our own radar any more." She pointed to the large dent under the console. "Or we could see for ourselves."

Attie nodded. "Oh yeah, right. I should have figured that one out. There is just so much happening at once." Amelia put her hand on his. "Now Captain, you can't think of everything.  That's why you've got us.  Your job is just to put all these pieces together and give us a direction." 

The captain loudly exclaimed "Hey! I'm the captain and its my job to be condescending and comforting to you guys. Don't go taking over my job!......or..or I'll have nothing to do."  At that, everyone chuckled a bit.

Ten days later, Amelia came into the galley and found Attie asleep on the table. She touched his head and whispered "Attie, you're drooling on the components.  Maybe you should go to bed."

He took in a deep breath and sat up wiping his face. "Hi...yeah, maybe I should.  Want to join me?"

She opened the fridge. "I will in a little bit.  I tweaking a few things on the schematics we've made and adding the photos."

He stood up, put his arm around her and his head over her shoulder, while looking into the open fridge. "How close do you think we are?"

She pulled out a piece of cheesecake. "Look Attie. Look what Ben found in the food supplies." She put the plate up to his face and his eyes got big.

He backed up and let her close the fridge. "Oh, maybe I can stay up a little longer!"

Amelia grabbed two spoons and handed one to him. "Attie, I think we are almost done, but with the BB ship and the Oorters jamming the hell out of everything,  I don't see how we are going to get this information out."

Attie closed his eyes as he savored the cheesecake. "Mmmm...we'll figure a way.  They have to stop jamming us eventually. We may just have to wait."

The next morning Amelia came over the intercom. "Attie, the BB ship. It's slowing down."

A few seconds later, everyone was on the bridge.  Attie ran up and looked at her panel. "What? Really?"

She pointed to the radar reflection on the screen. "Yes, they are still jamming us and pinging us with their radar, but they are decelerating and changing course.  Guess our Oorter friends scared them off."

Attie sat in his chair. "How many Oorter ships now?"

Amelia looked. "There are three that are almost up to his speed, but are now behind us, and another four that are trying to catch up."

Attie smiled. "Guess the BB captain didn't feel like taking on seven capital ships."

Amelia changed screens. "Yeah, I guess not, but Attie, look at this."

A huge mass of ships appeared on the screen. "They are just about to Jupiter.  From their trajectory, it looks like they are going to slingshot and head right for Uranus."

Attie changed the resolution of the display and zoomed in. "There's over a 100 ships here.  That has to be most of the Big Sis fleet!". Amelia had rigged a 'Time to Oberon' clock on the bridge a few days earlier.  The captain looked up at it. "We still have 76 days...All this waiting to see who catches us first is driving me nuts. Amelia, can you put together a simulation based on what we saw from the other Big Sis ships as to when that fleet should reach Uranus?"

She looked over at him. "Sure Attie."

CHAPTER 8:
Two Months To Oberon

Flying towards a small green star.

Heading out into the black, out so far.

We know not to expect foe or friend.

To start a new beginning, or to end.

Attie walked up to the bridge, looked up at the clock and said to himself, "62 days...".  It was early morning by the ship's usual schedule and everyone was still sleeping. He sat in the pilot's chair and sipped at his hot chocolate.  The lights were off except the displays. Uranus shown as a blue green dot against an infinite see of stars and he thought to himself, "It is getting brighter."

He sat and watched the sky for a long while and then he heard a whisper from behind.

"Attie. What are you are doing? I woke up and you were gone." She walked up behind him and kissed the top of his blonde head. He reached back with his hand and she quietly moved around next to him.  She lifted her deep blue nighty from her ankles and sat on his lap.  Her sweater started to slip and she quickly wrapped it tightly around her.  Attie hugged her. "Cold? Want me to turn the temperature up?"

She snuggled up to him. "No, it feels so cozy to just sit and get warm with you.  Like a cold winter morning back on Earth."

Attie put the mug in front of her face. "Want some hot chocolate? Well, at least it used to be hot." He smiled and she took a sip from from the mug.  Her face was deep in the large mug when a quick pulsing sensor alarm went off.  She put the mug down and they both leaned forward. She pushed her right hand out of her sweater and silenced the alarm. "We're being scanned again. Probably just the Oorters." She scooted forward in his lap and leaned over the panel to get more information.  Attie looked down at her shape through the nighty as her sweater climbed up her back.  He grabbed her hips and pulled her back. At first she responded, but then she resisted. "Attie. It's the Big Sis ships.  That's who's scanning us!"

Attie's thoughts changed and he leaned forward to look over her shoulder. "What? They're way too far away." 

She pointed "No, not the fleet. The two ships that were following the BB ship. They're following us now."

Attie's concern started to fade. "Wait, if the BB ship could barely catch us, can they get near enough to hurt us?"

Amelia took a minute to put in the numbers to one of her many models. "No, they shouldn't be able to get to us before we reach Uranus.  Hmmm.. Actually, they may be scanning the Oorter ships.  They are behind us and much closer to them, but our systems registered it as a scan on us.  I wouldn't think they could get too much useful data on us from that distance. Hell, what is there to know. We're a ring ship with some cargo.  It's not like we pose a threat....not directly anyway."

Attie said "I wonder if those Oorter ships will engage them."

Amelia sat upright. "Well, their speeds and range are pretty close, so they could."

Attie tightened his grip on her waist and pulled her back. "Where were we?".

She turned her head and started to kiss him as his hands ran down the sides of her thighs and slowly pulled up her nighty.

"Good morning Captain!" came from Ben as he walked in from the galley. Amelia stood straight up and pushed her clothes down. Then, leaning casually. "Morning Ben! We were just checking some scans..scans of us that is." 

Attie crossed his legs and leaned forward, while pretending to push buttons. "Ah, yeah, we were picking up, I mean the, a sensor alarm went off.  See right here. But it was just Big Sis scanning the Oorters behind us."

As Ben got close, he stopped and looked at both of them. His eyes went from one to the other until he said "Um, oh, yeah, I have something to do in engine room, which is fully repaired by the way. And as he walked away "Along with the grav control panel Amelia's leaning on. Toodles!"

Amelia slowly took her hand off the panel, not really sure if she should believe him.  She looked at Attie and sucked her lips in. "Oops". They both started to giggle.  Amelia tilted her head in the direction of their quarters. Attie nodded eagerly and they went back to bed.

CHAPTER 9:
Deceleration

To risk the love of my family,

For the love of humanity.

To throw bottles into the sea,

That the information may set them free.

Attie awoke to Amelia poking his nose. "Hey sleepy head. Guess what today is." 

As he tried to focus on her face. "Um..Tuesday? Sunday?..."

She kissed him. "No, that's not what I mean.  It's deceleration day."

He sat up. "So we are half way?!"

She sat up with him. "Well, close, 49 days to go. Come on, let's go make breakfast. Hey! We can use the table today! Have a real sit down meal!" 

As they walked into the galley, everyone was sitting down.  Ben said "So THIS is the galley table! Didn't know we still had one of these!."  Amelia cocked her head and said. "Ha ha". 

AJ looked at the captain. "So does this mean you have finished with the grav plate?"

The captain grabbed a dish and silverware, and sat down. "Yep. We finished it last night.  We now have a schematic and a complete 'how to manual' on how to put it together.  The only thing we don't know is how to link the plates together or where to put them on the hull."