Yorktown: Katana Krieger #1 (20 page)

"Master Sergeant, activate all explosives still on board
Defino
." It would be bad if he activated the ones on
Bainbridge
still in his pack.
I cut thrust to zero, and pivot the boat to watch. Yeager reports the explosives detonate, nothing obvious happens, but something's not right. Then it hits me,
Defino
is rotating, bringing her 42 inch cannons to bear on us. I punch the comm buttons.
"
Yorktown
, this is
Bainbridge
, do you read? Commander Perez, weapons free, destroy
Defino
, repeat, weapons free, destroy
Defino
."
I spin
Bainbridge
to starboard, and pin the thrust lever to the far stop, we need to get away, far away. If she followed the plan
Yorktown
is still out of effective laser range, but with missiles set. She should be astern of
Defino
, so that's the direction I'm headed, but at this point anything except parallel is a fine course by me.
"
Bainbridge
,
Yorktown
, get clear Skipper, two Javelins on their way. Repeat 60 megatons
en route
, ETA one minute. Over." It's McAdams voice.
"Roger,
Yorktown
, need an intercept course as soon as you've got one."
Shelby's voice answers. "Continue present course, over."
"
Bainbridge
, aye." Only one problem, and that's the red that's suddenly filling all my screens. Yeager sees it on his displays too.
"Weapons systems inactive, captain." That's not the only thing. We're done. The main reactor is dying, and not slowly. Maybe 30 seconds of power left, then we pray the batteries have a decent charge, something I should be able to determine from this couch, but that screen refuses to come up. Not a hopeful sign. I let Shel know.
"
Yorktown
, main reactor dead. Battery status unknown."
"Affirmative."
I put my helmet and gloves back on, activate my audio, start to tell Yeager to make sure he's buttoned up too. I don't finish the sentence. Behind us,
Defino
explodes in that white nuclear light, normally something I would enjoy immensely, except I am in an uncontrollable ship well within the debris and blast radius.
The radiation monitors in my suit warn me the debris is coming, the gamma rays got here virtually instantly at the speed of light, objects are slower. So far, radiation within survival limits inside the suit. Can't tell if Yeager got his buttoned.
We lose the lights except for the emergency lights, all of my panels go black. Works better than a battery gauge to tell me our status.
It starts like a gentle rain on the hull, the little pieces arriving, not a threat to us, just a warning. The radiation gauge is rising into the yellow. The rain sounds become those of hail, bigger pieces now, still not likely to kill us, another harbinger.
Then a definite bump. Another. Something big and
Bainbridge
starts a slow roll to port. Another, the roll becomes two dimensional, a little faster. A very large piece floats past the command window. Then another. And then we take a big hit, makes up rotate like a top in about eight directions simultaneously.
I do my best to fight, but your brain needs blood and even with the suit systems there are limits to what a human body can stand. I try to call
Yorktown
for help, but the world turns black before I get the first syllable out.

Chapter 14

Bright white light. That's what you see when you're dead, and that's what I see now. Only Heaven should smell better and be less noisy. I open my eyes to have a look at the place of eternal bliss, only to find Dr. Bonilovich inches from my face, staring at me, his bloodshot eyes and nasty breath in no way celestial.
"You're awake. Good. Don't try to move too fast. Would you like some water?" Doctors. They must teach them all to say certain phrases.
"Water would be wonderful, tea would be perfect." I know what the answer will be.
"Tea isn't good for you at this point." He hands me a cup with a straw. I'm the captain, I should get something more dignified, but I drink anyway until the cup runneth empty.
"Where's Commander Perez?" I need to talk to Shelby, see what's what.
"Right here, Katana." I'd turn my head to look, but it's too much trouble.
"Ship's status?"
"
Yorktown
and everyone else for that matter at 100 percent. We're in orbit around Gamma Theta 1, our corvettes and
Santa Cruz
will be linking up within 4 hours.
Defino
in a million pieces. Krieger and Yeager recovering. We used the assault ship to bring in
Bainbridge
, took you out through a hole in the hull, I've ordered the boat quarantined until you can tell us how to proceed. I assume there are things in there that not everyone needs to see."
"Shel," I recover some memories, "You have no idea."
"Doctor," I change direction, "what's my status?"
He thinks for a minute. He has only two patients if Shelby is right, and still he has to think for a minute.
"Radiation exposure not severe, and we've put enough meds in you to counteract. No concussion, which is lucky, no brain damage that we can detect." Does that mean there might be some brain damage? I'm afraid to ask.
"How about Yeager?"
"He's asleep, medically induced. Didn't have his suit sealed when the incident occurred, we'll be treating him a while longer. You can resume duty anytime, if you'll promise to get extra rest and extra fluids."
Very slowly I lift myself into a sitting position, get past the slight dizziness, then turn to port, hang my feet off the side of the bed, and push out. Once I'm floating, I discover I'm in a hospital gown, and I'm covered in some kind of lotion – then I realize it's standard radiation meds for the skin. Someone saw me naked and rubbed my body down. I dearly hope it wasn't Bonilovich. Shelby reads my mind.
"We had two of the female Marines get you out of your suit and put the RadGel on you. That tattoo on your butt is safe."
I don't actually have a tattoo on my butt, but the crew will all know that I do within 20 minutes. Thanks, my loyal First officer. I turn to look at her anyway.
"Commander, get Lt. Palmer down to the boat deck and into his suit. I'll join you there in five. We'll need one of his containers. I think the three of us can handle it. Once we're done, send an engineering team over there to see if they can restart the reactor. Find my camera before we go, and make sure no one looks at it, or at the suit cam video for either me or Yeager."
She gives me a dirty look, but doesn't argue. I make the quick trip to my quarters (which are luckily 15 feet away) to put on some real clothes before floating down to the boat deck.
I have to put on a standard issue Navy rig to go outside, not fun, but my personal gear won't be battle ready again for a while. The three of us are soon dressed and ready to go, the body container loaded into the pod.
Shelby flies the pod out of the bay, Palmer and I holding on to specially designed points on the outside of the hull. The pod holds two, but four can ride along outside. It's a quick trip out to
Bainbridge
.
The little boat is a mess. In addition to the big hole in the front just under the command deck, there are numerous dents, small and large. One big object hit near the docking collar, it's unlikely she could have attached herself to
Yorktown
even if Shelby had tried. I have Powell stop the engineers. Even if we get the reactor started, nobody could possibly fly her.
We get back in through the big hole. I stop the two of them.
"You aren't going to like what you're about to see. Tony, this is top secret. Regulation 222, you may tell no one not above you in your direct chain of command. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. What am I about to see if I may ask?"
"A body, Mr. Palmer, not a human being."
He doesn't respond. We push the container to the rear of the command deck, and then down to the docking collar. There are droplets of red in the air the last few feet, but not bad. Upside down, the body could almost pass for human, certainly would if you just took a quick glance.
I think for a second about not letting them see, then I intentionally flip the body over. Neither of them says anything, or they had their transmitters off. Tony opens the container, and we put it inside.
"There's more of them?" Tony asks a legitimate question.
"Aye, and we have no idea how many. It took three shots to the heart and one to the head to put it down."
We're quiet all the way back to
Yorktown
. We stow the body in the freezer, next to the two of our own.
Palmer gets to work organizing his survey teams for the debris field and
Bainbridge
, now that he knows what to look for.
I call McAdams to join me and Shelby in my ready room. It's movie night, but I don't have any popcorn. I do offer them tea, then we put my suit cam video up on screen and watch. McAdams appears excited, Shelby has her disgusted face on. I can barely watch it a second time. We repeat with Yeager's cam, and then the photos from the high def camera.
Definitely Lt. Dempsey standing there with his head shaved. We also come to the conclusion that they were firing civilian ammo which wouldn't have penetrated our suits except at close range. However, whatever they were rolling in at the end was not something we recognized, though we all agree it was a weapon.
I don't have much to say when we're done, so I just give an order.
"Once the site survey is complete, we're going home." Both of my officers relax considerably at that. "Give me options on bringing
Bainbridge
with us. I'm going to assume that every battle group in the Navy is going to go into Gamma Nu, let's not worry about any future battle plans. By the regs you two, nobody knows anything, nobody says anything. The three of us, Tony, Yeager, and Olivia are it. ChiNO is the only person in the universe that can authorize a disclosure. If you even mention Reg 222 to someone without a need to know, it's a Court Martial."
"Aye, Skipper." McAdams responds, Shelby doesn't have to.
"Any luck on your experiments, Courtney?"
"Sorry, skipper, I almost forgot." She reaches to her pad, hits the screen a few times, and mine beeps. She taps my screen a couple times and sound plays. It sounds like human speech with an almost French flow to it, modified with a few of what Hawaiians would call okinas. Forty five to fifty seconds worth, 25 words roughly.
When it's done, Courtney goes on. "That's the five seconds from
Orion
. No doubt in my mind we can figure out how to translate their language, and maybe even computer generate responses once we have enough data."
"I'm impressed Ensign. Put together a package on this, you'll be presenting it to the boss once we're home." The blue eyes light up.
"Aye, sir, thank you. I can't take all the credit, Olivia is amazing." I nod my understanding.
"On your way now, Ensign, see if there's anything interesting in the data stream from the Marines."
"Aye, skipper." And she's off. Once we get home, she's not coming back with us, I calculate a 99.9 percent probability that ChiNO will be adding a shiny new blonde Lieutenant to his staff and I'll be looking for a replacement. The only good thing is I just realized she hasn't cut her hair since we started this, it's touching her shoulders now on its way south. Worth a wry smile.
Shelby's gone back to giving me dirty looks, lets her look speak as soon as the hatch seals. Then she actually speaks.
"Katana, I am not letting you out of my sight again. Do you realize how close you came to making everyone call me ‘skipper'?"
"I had to be there, Shel, I had to be, and you know it." I pause, she fills.
"Gym?"
I laugh, let her know I'll meet her there. We float off to our respective quarters to get into our workout clothes, then work up a sweat. I wonder if mine is radioactive.
An hour and a half later, exercised, showered, and properly dressed, we meet back on the bridge. McAdams floats over to tell us that Palmer's team found nothing of interest on board the ruined corvette, and, so far at least, nothing of interest in the debris field. They are, however, using the sloop to expand the search radius outside of the usual parameters.
Our battle group is now within visual range, we watch Garcia and Wallace coordinate their approach and make plans to dock the corvettes. The wreck of
Bainbridge
off the starboard side complicates it a little, but eventually all three are docked, and Mendoza has shuttled over from
Santa Cruz
.
We pack the three corvette skippers, Julio, Shelby and me into my ready room. I pass around tea to everyone except coffee for Julio. I forgot last time that he doesn't like tea, and he was too polite to remind me.
They are looking at me, I know they want an explanation. I've spent the last couple hours working on one.
"Mission went as planned at first. We found ore and various basic supplies in the cargo holds, until the crew found us. During a little fire fight, we ducked into compartment four, found a big surprise and flew it out of there.
Yorktown
took
Defino
out, and here we are. Other than finding
Bainbridge
, we did not solve life's mysteries."
Hate lying to them, but the alternative is maybe worse. The length of time a secret stays a secret is inversely related to the cube of the number of people who know it, and we're already at six. Especially a secret that might just change the life of every single living human being.
"We're going home. I deem the discovery of
Bainbridge
worthy of at least a quick trip back, and we're all going." I try to make that sound final. It doesn't work.
"Sir," it's Lieutenant Rivera, skipper of
Decatur
, "mission parameters would seem to dictate some or all of us stay behind." She's technically correct.
"My call, Lieutenant. We got lucky once and took
Orion
down with laser fire, but I don't believe it's safe for any of you here without
Yorktown
and her missile batteries, no matter what our command authority put in the orders. I'm not even sure it's safe with us here."
Summerlin's about to add something, I look him quiet.
"That's it folks. We have to get our Marines back on board, no ETA from them yet. Wheels up as soon as possible, go prep your ships. Commander Perez will relay course and speed. Rivera, Summerlin, Maxwell, you're swimming this time, no room to ride. If you have any ideas on attaching
Bainbridge
, let us know."
They float out, I nudge Shelby and she and I take up the rear. No reason
Yorktown
isn't 100 percent battle worthy, and ready to jump, but we've thought that before as well. I make Shelby oversee the checks, so I can sit with McAdams and Gomez, chatting about the impossible.
Rivera and Summerlin pop onto the bridge about 15 minutes later. They didn't go back to their ships immediately, instead hid in the ward room and sketched out a system to attach the damaged corvette. Seems that we're not the first crew to have the problem, just not something I've run into before, and it's not in The Book.
I thank them, send them on their way, and float to Engineering to get them to work with a welding torch.
Over the next four hours we manage to check our ship systems, weld
Bainbridge
to a lattice attached to the top docking port, and retrieve our Marines, empty-handed.
It's time to go. Thirty two minutes to launch window, or wait another orbit. We're strapped in, doing our last coordination checks to make sure we don't rear end each other when McAdams makes us jump, again.
"New target, bearing 000 relative, distance 250,000 kilometers. She just jumped into the system, skipper." There's a pause. "It's
Roenicke
."
"Confirm, Ensign."
"Confirmed sir, it's definitely
Roenicke
. Admiral Bode's ship."
I already knew that. Who else but a desk jockey would be stupid enough to jump openly into orbit around the only planet in an entire system, when that planet is likely a war zone? Savannah Roenicke gave her life while in command of a cruiser at the battle of Delta Rho, took out two Dynasty battleships, saved the Union fleet, and maybe the whole Union. She would never have made such an error.
I go to the comm panel on my overhead, heat up the radios.
"
Roenicke
, this is
Yorktown
, do you read? Over."
"
Yorktown
, this is
Roenicke
, stand by for Admiral Bode." Another one who won't answer his own phone.
"Roger,
Roenicke
, standing by."
"Krieger," his voice does have the perfect tone for a commander, I'll give him that, "hold station, I'm coming aboard. Have your squadron commanders join us."
"Affirmative, Admiral, awaiting your arrival."
"Ninety minutes.
Roenicke
out."
The only way we can hook the three corvettes back to
Yorktown
now is for both the ZR and the LS to be cut loose. I simplify things and just have their crews take them out for a spin, then we park
Congress
,
Truxton
, and
Decatur
. Mendoza pods back over, joins us on the bridge.
Roenicke
's pilot coordinates with Garcia, parks them carefully a hundred meters beneath the boat deck. I head down to meet the incoming shuttle, his ship not content with the usual pods.
He steps off, and stops. My bad, he's obviously expecting to be piped aboard, maybe an honor guard, instead he has a me, dressed in my usual dark blue enlisted space casual uniform.
He looks at me, doesn't salute so I continue to hold mine. He has mag boots on, literally walks my way while I remain frozen, stops in front of me, turns so that we're chest to face, and looks down at me. I am smart enough not to break position and look up.