A Faded Star 2: The Deadly Pact Read online

  “Computer, give me a summary of the current star system.”

  The computer beeped at her and then said, “The system primary is a main sequence K-type star. Five planets. The first planet is rocky with a diameter of seven thousand kilometers. The second planet is rocky with a diameter of thirty-five hundred kilometers. The third planet is gaseous with a diameter of sixty thousand kilometers. The fourth planet is rocky with extensive surface water and a diameter of fourteen thousand kilometers. The fifth planet is rocky with surface ice and a diameter of twenty-one hundred kilometers. An asteroid belt exists between the orbits on the fourth and fifth planets.”

  Simmons pondered the situation. She’d begun moving away from the Damocles as soon as it had appeared. The gas giant might produce enough interference that a departure would be untraceable.

  “Computer display detail scan of the third planet.” The computer obediently displayed the data. She looked it over for a few minutes before shaking her head. The radiation belts were strong enough for her to refuel but nowhere near strong enough to mask a jump ring. The gravitational distortion would shine all the way through the planet like a beacon for Damocles to follow. Her best bet would be to engage in some kind of misdirection. If she could trick Kri into thinking she’d departed without actually leaving.

  She tapped away at her console, programming a simulation. The jump ring could be formed with no problem. The issue became that the ring would have no mass to react to, and that would make it obvious that she had, in fact, not actually left the system. She shook her head. It wouldn’t work. The only other thing she could do would be to reprogram the onboard systems to use a mass nullification field for her next jump and go beyond Damocles’ range.

  Her comm beeped again. Kri’s long face appeared on a small screen next to her chair. “Come on, Marli. How long are you going to keep this up? I can stay in this system just as long as you can. Unlike you, I have a crew to keep watching. Talk to me, Marli. Please.”

  Simmons sighed as the message began to replay. She tapped the mute button again. The gas giant was on the far side of the system. “Computer set parabolic course around the system’s sun to enter orbit around the third planet. Maintain power usage below detection thresholds.”

  The computer beeped, and Loki maneuvered along a new heading. Simmons began programming a new simulation. She started by designing a system that set Loki’s mass to nearly zero. The nullification field generator design was in the database. All she really had to do was set a configuration that matched the Loki and then have the on board manufacturing plant produce it. The real difficulty was the interplay between the jump ring and the nullification field itself. If those had any energy interaction, then she would probably be ripped apart quite spectacularly.

  She ran through a series of simulations before she started getting a handle on the variables. She programmed a set of ranges and set the computer to running automated simulations in the background. She was getting close to the dim orange star at the center of the system. She watched as Loki slowly moved around it right on the edge of the safe zone. She sighed and made a mental note to program the computer to always set a reasonable margin of safety when it automatically plotted a course.

  Her comm beeped again. Kri’s face, looking more worried than the last time appeared. “Marli, I know where you’re headed. The charts we have of the area are pretty out of date, but there are only three systems you can jump to from here with your onboard fuel. None of them have gas giants that produce the isotopes we need to fuel the point to point drive. That means you have two options. You can either return to Lashmere or head to the gas giant here to refuel. I’m making a transit to the gas giant now. If you try to skim fuel from the gas giant, I’ll detect it. You have to know I’ll disable your ship once I know where you’re at, Marli. Think of what you’re doing.

  “I have you boxed in, and both of your choices lead you back to Lashmere. One with the Loki damaged, possibly destroyed, and the other with you in my custody. Please don’t make me take an action that might hurt you.” Kri’s attention turned from the screen for a second, and he said, “Execute jump as ordered.” He turned to face the screen once more. “You can’t get away. Surrender before you try something rash and get yourself hurt.”

  Simmons checked the data. Kri was right. What he didn’t know was that Marli was going to need far less fuel to make her next jump, and it was going to carry her much further than Damocles was capable of. She watched as Damocles executed its jump, vanishing from the edge of the system and appearing in orbit of the third planet. She observed the Damocles dipping its manufacturing ring into the upper atmosphere, stripping off fuel.

  “How long until we’re fully refueled, Mister Dowd,” Kri asked.

  “Another seventy or eighty minutes, sir. The density of isotopes is pretty low. As gas giants go, this one is pretty unimpressive.”

  “Impressive enough for us to refuel,” Kri said.

  “I suppose that is true, sir. I wonder if Simmons has considered the geometry of our current situation,” Dowd said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I was running a simulation, trying to sort out what I might do in this situation if I were her. If she goes into orbit of the gas giant exactly on the opposite side, she could play hide and seek with us for long enough to fully refuel and get back into stealth. I suggest we launch drones to cover the far side of the planet just in case.”

  “Good thinking, Mister Dowd. Mister Hultz, what is the status of our drone compliment?”

  “We’re up to fifty drones. We don’t have enough raw materials to rebuild any more.”

  “Very well. Launch all drones, standard combat profile. Set their targeting priority as disable only.”

  “Aye, sir,” Hultz said. He hunched over his console for a moment before saying, “Drone launch in forty seconds, sir.”

  “Very well,” Kri said. He waited patiently until he heard the drones thundering out of their launch tubes. “How long until she could be here if she is still approaching?”

  “I’ve been running a best guess plot of flight profiles. She could be here in as little as fifty minutes or as much as six hours, depending on how cautious she is and how much distance she kept between herself and the star.”

  Kri smiled. “Oh, she’s cautious. I’d assume it’s near the longer end of that estimate.” Come on, Marli, he thought. You can’t win here. Just give up and let me take you back without a fight.

  “Are there any asteroids in the area that we can capture for materials to begin our major repairs?”

  Taylor turned her attention to her console for a moment before answering. “Yes, sir. It looks like we have a pretty good field of asteroids up near the polar orbit. We can warp our orbit and pick most of it up in a single pass.”

  “Minimum estimate for Loki’s arrival?”

  “Coming up on forty-five minutes.”

  “Very well. Alter our orbit and pick up the asteroids. I want to begin using the materials to replace our damaged hull armor. If we can return to Lashmere fully repaired, I want to make sure we get it done.”

  “Aye, sir. Plotting orbit, now.”

  Simmons was standing in the maintenance bay when the computer chirped for her attention. She went to a wall mounted panel and tapped the remote sensor feed code into it. “Blast it,” she muttered. She watched Damocles launching a few drones. She knew they were headed to the opposite side of the planet as soon as she saw them exiting the tubes. Despite her constant movement towards the planet, she wouldn’t be there for another hour. She turned her attention to the fabricator in front of her.

  The mass nullification field emitter was a large device with a set of mounting legs that would allow her to attach it near the center of the Loki. Once it was fastened in place, she should be able to tune the field it generated to match the profile of the hull exactly and then, in theory, she’d be able to make jumps of two hundred light years or more, provided her calculations were correct.

  They’re correct, she thought to herself. A smile ghosted across her features. I’m never really wrong. She thought of all the time and effort she’d put in simulating the interactions between the jump ring and mass nullification field. She thought she was probably the only scientist in the entire Lashmere Navy who might have a chance of solving all of the problems and variables inherent to such a design.

  Loki’s onboard maintenance bay had a single manufacturing station with a large drawer roughly two meters in all three dimensions. The field emitter sat inside, having been completed while she set up her course towards the gas giant.

  She wrestled the bulky device onto a wheeled cart and moved it through the ship to the spot she’d selected to install it. Once it was bolted to the deck, she pulled out spools of cables and laid control runs to the bridge.

  She got the system set up and installed the control attached to a console on the bridge for the new FTL system. She settled into the command chair and slowed Loki to a stop relative to the gas giant. The Damocles had used the time wisely. A series of armor panels on the port side of the ship had been replaced, and the sensor systems appeared to be operating at full power. Kri had gotten his battle damage taken care of. She watched a shuttle fly into the forward boat bay.

  One thing was for certain. She didn’t know what would be waiting for her at the other end of a two hundred light year jump. She would have to refuel before she left. She watched the slow orbits of Damocles and its drones. They were orbiting right on the equator.

  “Computer, display isotope concentration.” The computer beeped and displayed the requested information. Based on sensor readings, she would only need about twenty minutes to refuel her ship completely. She punched in vectors for the drones and Damocles. The drones were tiny and fast. They could turn on a dime and build speed very quickly. The Damocles, on the other hand, was a big ship, far bigger than Loki. If she came in behind it and near the southern or northern pole, she could project an area where the drones and Damocles couldn’t intercept her within twenty minutes.

  She added Loki’s possible movements and decided she had a good chance of being able to refuel before the drones could effectively stop her. She might have to lose her current drone loadout, but she could always manufacture more once Damocles was safely a couple of hundred light years behind her.

  She eased the Loki into position and waited for Damocles to pass far above her in its orbit. She watched the intercept envelopes as they floated by her position on the main plot. Now. She punched the engines and dipped the ring into the upper atmosphere.

  “Sir, I have contact on Loki,” Hultz said. His tone was conversational, almost as though he had been expecting Loki to appear just at that moment.

  “What’s her position,” Kri asked.

  “South, five degrees off the planetary pole and orbiting behind us. I’m vectoring the drones to intercept her.” Hultz’s fingers flashed across his panel.

  Kri watched as the drones moved on a least time course for Loki’s position. “Time to intercept Loki?”

  “About twenty-four minutes, sir.” Hultz never turned from his console.

  “That’s too long. Maneuver to intercept, Exec,” Kri ordered.

  “Aye, sir. Helm, come about to one-two-two by one-seven-nine. Ahead flank. Maintain a parabolic trajectory to keep us clear of the radiation field. I don’t want to lose her if she decides to engage her stealth systems.”

  “It won’t matter in a few minutes. Once we’re within about twenty thousand kilometers, she can’t use it to escape. If she slows enough to bring her power below our detection threshold, we can close to point blank range and track her visually. If she runs, we can keep her on sensors just like any other ship.”

  Simmons clenched her fist as the fuel levels rose slowly. Too slowly. She looked at the drones under Damocles’ control. They were going to get through unless she stopped immediately. “Computer, combat launch all drones. Designate defensive fire against incoming drones from Damocles.”

  “Acknowledged,” the computer said.

  Simmons heard the faint rumble of the drones launching from the bay at the bottom of the manufacturing ring. They rose out of the gas giant’s atmosphere in perfect formation directly between her and Damocles’ drones. She had twenty-four drones. Damocles had put fifty into space. Fortunately for her, they were probably programmed to disable, not to destroy. She knew the drones could make the distinction between her ship and her drones, but unless Kri had anticipated she would attack the drones, she might have an advantage.

  Her gaze turned back to the fuel level. It was at seventy-six percent. Her eyes snapped back to her drones. They were being decimated. Obviously, Kri had thought she would use them to fend off his drones. Her heart sank as her entire force was cut down in less than a minute. “Computer, engage all onboard weapons systems. Target the incoming drones. The computer beeped, and her displays showed power being channeled to the weapons. A few seconds later, the first shots from her interceptors could be heard.

  “It looks like she’s lost her entire drone compliment, Captain,” Taylor said. “Did she ever go to tactical school? She would have stood a far better chance if she’d just kept them in close and used them to augment her on board weapons.”

  Kri shook his head. “Don’t underestimate her. She may not have a lot of experience at tactical thinking, but she’s one of the smartest people in the Lashmere Navy.

  “There she goes. Looks like she’s going to head for the asteroid belt,” Hultz said. His calm voice never showing an ounce of excitement.

  “That’s actually pretty smart. If she can keep the drones off of her for long enough to get in there, she can outrun us and, perhaps, get enough distance to make a jump,” Taylor said.

  Kri clenched his teeth in frustration. “Put me on instant comms, Exec,” he barked.

  “Aye, sir. You’re on.”

  “Simmons, if you don’t stand down immediately, I’ll update my drones to destroy your ship. You can’t withstand their fire.” He released the transmit button and watched the tactical display raptly. Loki continued to accelerate away from Damocles.

  “She’s responding, sir,” Dowd said.

  “Put her up.”

  Simmons’ heavily freckled face appeared on the main plot. “Sorry, Hal, but you won’t catch me. I’m acting in the best interests of humanity. If you kill me, you kill the best chance humanity has to survive the Omega Plague. Not to mention the best chance we have to live for hundreds of years.”

  Kri rubbed his eyes again with long fingers. He’d been awake for far too long to deal with this. “How long until she enters the asteroid field, Mister Dowd?”

  “We have about ten minutes, sir. She’s pouring it on. She’ll be out of range of the drones in the next five minutes.”

  Kri pushed the transmit button again. He saw a flicker of… something… in Simmons’ eyes when his face reappeared. “Marli, I don’t want to destroy you, but you have to give this obsession up. Come back to Lashmere with me, and I’m sure we can convince Admiral Stokes to mount an expedition to find what you’re after.”

  “Oh, of course, Hal. Why didn’t I think of that? He turned me down flat when I proposed it to him. Just because you’re an obedient lap dog for him doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by placidly while he ignores good sense.” Her voice was dead level and had a ring of condemnation in it as she spoke.

  Kri glanced at Taylor and gave her a questioning look. She quirked an eyebrow at him and gave a half shrug. Kri released the transmit key and said, “If she refuses to stand down, I think you have no choice, sir. I don’t want to kill her either, but… wait… she can’t get away in any event. She can’t steady to jump without us observing her departure. We can just follow her to the next system if we need to.”

  That was what had been nagging at Kri’s thoughts. “Agreed. Excellent. Thank you, Exec. Maintain drones on disable settings only. Chase her through the asteroid belt, and once she steadies up to jump, we’ll follow.”

  “Aye, sir,” Hultz said.

  “Entering the asteroid belt, now.”

  Kri looked back at the main plot and saw Simmons’ face still displayed. Her features were pinched in concentration. She must have left her transmit key locked down. He began transmitting again. “Even if you make a jump, we’ll just follow you again. It’ll be just like this system except next time you won’t have any drones to screen your escape. You know we don’t even know if Lashmere is still there. The crabs might have beaten us, and we just don’t know it yet. I-“ He stopped speaking when the screen flicked off and went back to displaying tactical information. “What happened?”

  “I think one of the drones must have hit her comms, sir,” Hultz said. “I’ve been trying to hit her engines, but the antenna is pretty close to where they’re aiming.”

  Kri returned his attention to the main plot. Loki was twisting and turning wildly to avoid asteroids. Damocles bored in ponderously behind her, forward weapons firing continuously to clear asteroids out of the way.

  “How long until she clears the asteroid field?”

  “It’s not a big field, sir,” Taylor said. “She’ll be through in about fifteen minutes. We’re just over seven minutes behind her.”

  “Keep our forward sensors locked on her. She might try to use the distance she gains when she clears to drop back into stealth. We have to make sure we stay inside twenty thousand kilometers so she can’t disappear on us again.”

  “Aye, sir,” Taylor said. She stepped behind the helm and began instructing her directly. Taylor noticed the enlisted woman who was stationed at the helm had a sheen of perspiration on her forehead, and her eyes were fixed with concentration on the bank of displays as she skillfully manipulated the controls, keeping Damocles away from the larger asteroids and trusting Hultz to destroy the smaller ones. Her plot was constantly being updated by Dowd as he fed her the relevant course recommendations and waypoints to avoid obstacles.