Battle Cruiser (23 page)

“No,” Zye said. “There are four such pods. Another is opposite this one on the prow. Then there are two more on the fantail.”

“Let’s have a look.”

By the time our little inspection tour was done on the prow, I’d found the robot team. They were working like ants on the second forward pod. They had a chain going, carting materials and tools back and forth with furious intensity. Each of the multi-limbed bots seemed capable of welding, lifting and placing elements at the same time.

“Before the enemy ships are in range,” Zye said. “We should have both the forward pods working. That’s only fifty percent of our armament, but it will have to do.”

“Enemy?” I asked. “Those are Star Guard destroyers out there—Earth’s finest. They aren’t our enemies.”

“Call them what you wish,” Zye said. “Everyone aboard knows they’re going to fire on us.”

“Let’s go below,” I said, clanking quickly back toward the airlock.

“There are other options,” Zye said as I left her behind.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ve got the bots working on defensive systems only. Maybe you should put them onto refurbishing the missile tubes. We could get them ready to fire within another hour or so.”

I stared at her for a moment. Was she bloodthirsty or just practical? I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was a little of both.

“Keep the bots working on the defensive pods,” I said.

“What will your next move be?” she asked me.

“I have to talk to them. To get them to see reason.”

“I don’t have much hope for your chances,” Zye said. “If they were Betas, they wouldn’t even reply. They would destroy you without compunction.”

“Well, they aren’t Betas. I’m going to give it a try.”

-33-

Back on the bridge, I asked Yamada to open a channel with the destroyers. The connection opened immediately. I suspected the source of the jamming didn’t mind allowing me to talk to this flotilla.

“This is Captain William Sparhawk,” I said, “in command of the newly captured battle cruiser,
Defiant
. We couldn’t help but notice Star Guard has seen fit to send out an escort to render aid and guide us to Earth. If you would be so kind as to coordinate with my navigator to make this go smoothly, I’d appreciate it.”

There was an expected delay as my ship and theirs were still over twenty light-seconds apart.

“Sir…” Yamada said. “They’re braking.”

“They’re moving to intercept,” Zye said with certainty. “They can’t very well destroy us on a single high-speed pass.”

I lifted a finger in her direction. “We don’t know their intentions yet, Zye. Relax.”

She looked anything but relaxed. I purposefully sat in a somewhat slouched position. When a commander isn’t worried, his crew tends to be calm as well. The trick is to be convincing.

Sliding my eyes around the bridge crew, I calculated that my ruse was only partly successful. Zye looked like she was gearing up for a boxing match. Rumbold was sweating, and Yamada kept glancing over her boards every second or so with quick movements.

“Sparhawk, this is Rear Admiral Hedon,” said a rumbly old voice at last. He didn’t sound happy—but then to my knowledge he never had. “You’re hereby ordered to match our course and speed. You’ll be boarded and we’ll take it from there. I thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.”

Without meaning to, I heaved a sigh. There it was, out in the open. They had no intention of letting me fly this ship home.

On the surface of it, the orders seemed like a reasonable precaution on their part. The trouble I had was the small matter of a perceived mutiny in my recent past.

“Yamada,” I said, spinning my chair so I could make eye contact with her. “We’ve found the source of the jamming, haven’t we? It’s the task force closing with us.”

She nodded her head. “Definitely. I’m still trying to transmit to Earth, and I can’t get a byte past them. The fact that our signal is crystal clear with the destroyers—well, there’s no other explanation.”

I rotated around slowly and faced the vid pickups. “Put me on screen. I want to see the admiral, if possible.”

“Active.”

At this point I was transmitting video, but we were still getting only audio in return.

“Admiral,” I said as affably as I could while talking to a blank wall, “please understand that my crew and I have suffered a variety of attacks and false allegations. In that light, can you explain why your ships are jamming all our communications with Earth?”

The delay was slightly shorter this time. “Sparhawk, stand down. That’s all you have to worry about. You’ll be relieved and processed accordingly. You’ll get your day in court—all of you.”

Before answering, I turned to Yamada. “Bring Lieutenant Morris to the bridge. I want him standing at my side.”

She nodded and quickly relayed the summons.

Turning back to the cameras, I activated the transmit button again. I forced a smile I didn’t feel in the slightest. “Admiral, you have not answered my question. Why are you jamming us? I’ve been trying to contact CENTCOM and report my status for many days. I have critical intel on dangers that involve all Earth.”

When the next response came in, the Admiral finally sent video as well.

I saw
Rigel’s
bridge. Admiral Hedon stood in the center of the scene with his hands behind his back, staring at me from under bushy eyebrows. He looked pissed off. Behind him, his crew craned their necks and gaped at the interior of my ship.

In comparison with
Rigel
,
Defiant’s
bridge was cavernous. Also, there was Zye, who was gathering a lot of attention.

“Sparhawk,” Hedon said. “I gather you’re refusing to follow my orders. That saddens me. I know you come from a good family, boy, so I’m going to lay my cards on the table. Maybe your breeding will win through, and you’ll do the right thing. I’ve been ordered to stop you from returning to Earth. You’re not going to be allowed to communicate with possible coconspirators back home.”

Hedon paused to look around my bridge. Possibly, he’d only just begun to notice the details. He frowned in confusion. “What kind of a ship is that—?” he asked someone off-screen. “And who is that hulking woman back there—is she even human?”

I turned toward Zye with a smile. I beckoned to her. “Come stand here beside my command chair, Zye.”

She did as I asked immediately. She towered over me, especially as I was sitting down.

“I’ll be God damned…” the Admiral said, gawking.

As if on cue, Lieutenant Morris stepped onto the bridge. I waved him up to the central stage area. He came up warily, eyeing the forward screens. He didn’t look happy to have his face on camera.

“Admiral,” I said, “let me introduce you to two important people. This woman is Zye. She’s a Beta—a colonist. Her people built this amazing ship, and she’s helped us to get it underway again. On my other side is Lieutenant Morris. He was the Marine Commander aboard
Altair
and previously served under Captain Singh.”

Admiral Hedon looked at the two in bafflement. From his point of view, both were impossible. How could Singh’s Marine Commander be aboard my ship? How could a colonist exist in the Solar System at all?

The Admiral shook his head and threw up his hands. “This conspiracy is beyond anything anyone’s presented to me, even in conjecture!” he said. “I didn’t believe it then, Sparhawk—and I don’t want to believe it now. But you’ve gone and presented living evidence and given me little choice.”

My eyes narrowed and my teeth clenched. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but I was sure this wasn’t going the way I’d hoped. I’d thought that if I showed him that this ship was a legitimate colonist vessel, an intelligence miracle, he’d listen to me. The fact I had rescued Singh’s crew and they were now working with me to help Earth wasn’t doing the trick, either. None of that seemed to matter.

“This is going dreadfully,” Hedon said, almost talking to himself. “You’re in league with alien colonists, you somehow colluded with mutineers aboard
Altair
, and you managed to destroy not one but
two
Star Guard ships.”

He faced the vid pickup angrily. “Your own ship, man? How could you? A Star Guard Captain’s sworn duty is to his ship and crew, and you destroyed one and corrupted the other. There’s no other explanation.”

It was my turn to throw up my hands when he finally stopped talking. “Sir, your account is inaccurate. Singh ordered
Altair’s
gunners to fire on
Cutlass
. That wasn’t my doing.”

Hedon’s brows bushed up and he glowered at me. “Twisting the story and standing on details won’t save you,” he said. “What matters to Earth is the loss of the destroyer, naturally. No one has been able to figure out how you managed to destroy Singh’s ship with a derelict wreck—the answer is now clear. You had inside help. It was sabotage, I’d wager my head on it!”

He leveled an accusatory finger at Lieutenant Morris, who stood at my side.

“I see here the traitor! Don’t bother to deny it. Anything else is unthinkable. I have to admit, I hadn’t thought a Sparhawk would sink so low, but I was clearly wrong.”

“Admiral,” I said patiently. “I found the ship as a derelict, you’re correct. But the Betas have excellent repair technology. Zye here was in dire straits, stranded aboard and unable to help herself. We rescued her and in turn she helped us get this ship going again.”

I gestured toward Lieutenant Morris, who was white-faced.

“Morris served on
Altair
. He and his men survived the attack we were forced to launch upon
Altair
when Singh attempted to kill my crew. Since that time, he’s joined me and become my supporter.”

Turning back to the cameras, I forced another smile. “Look, Admiral, all we want to do is bring this ship home to Earth. Let our people examine her and learn from her technology. We have to be able to build our own capital ships—otherwise when more colonists return to Earth, they’ll find us weak.”

There, I’d made my case as best I could. Surely, he had to see reason.

“It’s worse than I thought,” the admiral said on his next, and last, transmission. “It pains me to tell you, Sparhawk, that I must now follow my contingency orders. We will not come in close and dock with you—that is no longer an option. Since you destroyed Singh’s ship, you might be inclined to take down another. In case you’re still considering hostile action, let me assure you that my crew is completely loyal to myself and Star Guard. You will have no saboteurs here to help you this time!”

He paced a bit, shaking his head. “No, I don’t see any way out. Your surrender is no longer sufficient. I can’t let you get close to my vessels. I won’t be bamboozled by your trickery, endangering our last five ships. I’m going to have to destroy you at range, Sparhawk. Everything changed when you provided me such direct evidence of mutiny, conspiracy and even treachery with that—that monstrous alien of yours. If you have any decency, any shred of loyalty to Earth left, you’ll abandon ship and hope I’m allowed by CENTCOM to pick you up for trial. Admiral Hedon, out.”

Gawking at the screen, I couldn’t believe it. After a moment, it dimmed and went black.

“Open the channel again,” I snapped at Yamada.

“I’m trying sir—no response.”

“What about Earth?”

“They’re still jamming us, sir. We can’t get a byte past them.”

“They’ve opened their gun ports,” Zye boomed, interrupting our conversation. “I have missiles inbound. I repeat, missile launches detected. Six…eight…fourteen—sir, should I light up our weapons systems?”

I felt slightly ill. I stared at the dark screen facing me.

There was a horrible choice before me now, lying at my feet. Should I fight them, or let them destroy the battle cruiser?

At that moment, I honestly didn’t know which path I would ultimately choose.

-34-

The crushing weight of defeat. I’d read about it, but I’d never experienced it before. As a naval officer, I was relatively untested. Certainly, I’d done brief battle with
Altair
—but that had amounted to a single surprise shot. No such ruse would work to win the day this time.

That entire line of thinking begged the question in any regard. Should I fight at all? The man commanding those destroyers was my legitimate superior. He’d informed me that my ship was to be destroyed.
My ship.

Admiral Hedon was right about one thing, it was a Captain’s sworn duty to protect his ship and crew. On my honor, this time I would do both or die in the attempt.

My mind unfroze about ten seconds after Hedon had announced his decision. Everyone on the bridge was looking at me to make a decision—any decision.

Zye was the only person who wasn’t doubting my leadership.  She was focused on her boards, reading off the data that her commander needed. I struggled to listen. It was the least I could do.

“Forty missiles in total, Captain,” she said. “That appears to be all of them. We’re going to be within range of their cannons soon as well.”

Eight missiles from each destroyer. That was everything they had. For some reason, that gave me an idea.

“Yamada, plot us an escape course.”

“Already done. Considering our forward inertia, we’d do best to accelerate and flash right past them.”

“We’ll take a full blast from their cannons if we do that!” Rumbold objected loudly.

“There’s no choice—other than to abandon ship and let them destroy us. Fools!” I hammered at my cage-like seat. “Hedon doesn’t see it. He doesn’t value this ship, he only sees it as a threat.”

“Your orders, sir?” Yamada said.

This was it. The moment I’d been dreading. I was going to have to disobey my superiors again—but I hesitated. I had no pretext. My mind raced, trying to come up with—

“Zye,” I said. “Do we have any life pods aboard?”

“Negative. My people took them all when they abandoned her.”

“Right. Anything else? A small pinnace, perhaps? A launch for carrying officers?

“Nothing.”

Whirling around to Yamada, who looked at me in disbelief, I waved for her attention. “What kind of yield do these warheads have collectively? How big of a blast radius?”

She worked her board, but Zye at tactical came back with the answer first. “There’s no chance we’d survive. Even though we’re in hard vacuum the explosions would be relatively small in range, but the radiation would fry us for a number of kilometers. We can’t escape.”

I nodded, grinning savagely. My crewmen suspected I was mad, I could tell, but I didn’t care.

“That’s it!” I said. “He’s given me no choice. I don’t have to obey him if he orders me to stand and be annihilated. No trial, no due process—nothing. Admiral Hedon’s orders are null and void.”

“That’s very comforting, Captain,” Rumbold said, “but what are we going to do to keep breathing?”

“Helm,” I said. “Put the hammer down. Maximum acceleration. Blow right by them—now!”

Rumbold immediately complied. He must have had his finger on the button already.

The pressure was intense. I could hardly breathe. My nose began to bleed, then my eyes and cheeks wouldn’t stay closed.

“Zye,” I croaked, “take over. If we black out, it’s okay. But keep flying. Don’t kill us—but keep flying.”

“Taking the helm,” she said in a remarkably natural voice.

Things were a blur after that—literally. My eyes were compressed somewhat and I could barely move my head to see the instruments.

The destroyers were taken by surprise. Their missiles were left targeting empty space. We’d leapt ahead of them, and they whizzed by. They turned to follow, but we knew they would run out of fuel long before they could overtake our vessel.

Their cannons, however, were a different story. Beams lanced out, connecting our ship with theirs briefly.

I felt and heard impacts. The ship shook and the walls rang as if giants were beating upon the hull.

“Permission to return fire, sir?” Zye asked.

I shook my head. I tried to say no, but I couldn’t get the words out.

With  great effort, I looked around the bridge. Rumbold was out. Yamada—she was still moving weakly, but she couldn’t even touch the boards. Lieutenant Morris had wisely fled the bridge and sought a crash seat somewhere.

Zye came into my vision as I used the automated chair to spin me around.

She was upright. Her hunched shoulders were the only sign she was feeling the strain.

I could see in her eyes that she wanted to fire our cannons. She wanted to blast the destroyers out of the sky.

Struggling to suck in a breath, I wheezed out a few words.

“No, Zye,” I said. “Don’t fire on them. We’ll make it. Our armor will hold.”

She blinked, showing me her clenched teeth, but then she turned back to her boards and worked them.

I desperately hoped she would follow my orders, for everyone’s sake.

That was my last thought before I succumbed to the low blood pressure in my brain and blacked out.

* * *

When I awoke, I felt a touch on my forehead. My eyes fluttered open. Zye loomed over me, her face filled with concern.

“Can you speak?” she asked me.

“Yes,” I managed to croak out. “But I’ve got a huge headache.”

“That’s normal. What’s my name?” she asked.

“Zye.”

“What ship do you command?”

“Uh…” I hesitated. I almost said
Cutlass
, but I corrected myself. “
Defiant
,” I said firmly.

She smiled tightly. “Good. Your brain is functioning.”

With a degree of effort, I straightened up and looked around. Despite my throbbing head, I seemed uninjured. Rumbold was still unconscious, however, and Yamada was stirring and making mewling sounds.

“See to her,” I said to Zye.

“You should rest,” she said.

“No time,” I said. “What about the destroyers? Are they still firing on us?”

“We’re out of their effective range. Their missiles have run out of fuel, and I changed course, so they can never reach us.”

“Good, right,” I said, checking on Rumbold. He wasn’t waking up. “He’s an old man,” I said. “I hope he recovers.”

“How old?” Zye asked me.

I turned around, and saw honest curiosity on her face.

“About a hundred and sixty, I believe,” I said. “When he was a child, the colony ships were still flying. He said the huge, spherical vessels were like small silver moons in Earth’s orbit before they broke away and left the Solar System.”

Zye cocked her head, clearly astonished. “How can he be so old and still serving in the military? No Beta has ever lived so long.”

“Well, we have longevity treatments,” I said. “But they’re not perfect. He could easily tear an arterial wall—causing a stroke, or blood clots. They’re real dangers after the first century of life.”

Zye moved to Rumbold’s chair and knelt, examining him. She put her hand to his throat to feel his pulse. Then she brought out instruments.

“I might have killed him,” she said. “I didn’t know he was so frail. I’m sorry, Captain.”

“It’s all right,” I said. “You followed my orders and saved the rest of us. Besides, Rumbold is as tough as nails. He might surprise you.”

I lightly touched Zye’s back as I walked past. It was an automatic gesture of comfort.

She didn’t stiffen in alarm, but she did turn her head in my direction and give me a quizzical look. I got the feeling that Betas didn’t go around hugging one another when they felt bad.

Checking on Yamada, I found she was sick. She vomited, then tried to stand. I urged her to stay in her chair.

The door swished open and Lieutenant Morris walked onto the deck. He looked more fit than any of us, except for Zye herself.

“Did you do it?” he asked. “All the boys are betting on it down below.”

There was an odd look on his face, and a pistol in his hand. I glanced at the gun, then back at him.

Zye caught on a moment later. She stood quickly and moved to draw her weapon. I raised a hand, directing her to stop.

“What’s the problem, Morris?” I asked.

“You did it, didn’t you?” he asked, glaring at me. “You destroyed our last ships.”

“No,” I said, “I didn’t. Did you notice that extreme bout of acceleration? We outran them, that’s all.”

He frowned, looking back and forth between Zye and myself.

“I blacked out during the maneuvers,” he said, letting his hand slip from the butt of his pistol.

I noticed Zye kept her hand on her weapon, and I didn’t admonish her.

“We all blacked out,” I said. “Except for Zye.”

Morris looked at her with fresh suspicion. “Then why didn’t she shoot back?” he asked. “She’s always quick on the draw.”

“That’s true,” I said, “but I ordered her not to. She knows how to follow orders.”

Morris snorted. “That’s nice for her. Maybe you should try doing the same, occasionally.”

“If you’re referring to Admiral Hedon’s orders, they were illegal.”

“How’s that?”

“You can’t order a friendly ship to stand still while you destroy her and her crew—especially without any cause or trial. There was no investigation, no due process, nothing. We hadn’t fired a shot at them, so they couldn’t claim self-defense.”

Morris worked his lips for a moment, wiped his mouth with his hand, and nodded. “That does go against regs,” he admitted.

“That’s why we ran. We were within our rights to do so. Unless, of course, you and the rest of
Altair’s
crew would rather I had followed the good Admirals orders and had us jettisoned into space in hopes of being picked up—if we survived the blast radius of this ship?”

“Okay, okay—but what now? CENTCOM isn’t going to stand for this.”

“We’ll explain it to them.”

He laughed bitterly, found a chair and flopped tiredly into it. He dug out a flask of what I assumed to be whiskey and took a drink. He offered me some.

At first I refused, but then I thought the better of it and took a gulp. It was hot, body-warm, and tasted like gasoline.

“Good stuff, huh?” Morris asked.

I nodded, unable to speak.

“Is he okay?” Morris asked, pointing at Rumbold.

Zye was bending over him, applying a medical scanner. All the lights on it were yellow. I assumed that wasn’t a good sign.

“He’ll probably pull through,” I said.

“Good, I like that old guy.

“Lieutenant,” I said to Morris, “what would you have done if I’d said we
had
fired on the destroyers?”

He took another drink. “I think I would have blown my brains out.”

I eyed him in surprise. “That’s not what I expected you to say.”

“No? You ever been involved with a court-martial?”

“I can’t say that I have.”

“Me either,” he said, “and I don’t intend to—ever. It would kill my old man. He was in the Guard for fifty years. I couldn’t do that to him. I’d rather put myself down and be accounted as a man who died doing his duty.”

“I see... What do you think we should do next?”

“I’m not the Captain,” he answered gruffly.

“No, but I’m still asking for your advice.”

He appeared thoughtful. “I’d fly this bird home and park her in orbit. Then give CENTCOM the keys to her on your terms. They’ll have to take them. What else can they do? This is the biggest thing that’s happened to Star Guard since the Cataclysm itself.”

“That’s good advice, thank you.”

Standing, I went to check on Rumbold again. Yamada was working on him now. She had her portable medical kit out. The lights were now half-green and half-yellow, which was an improvement.

“I think he’s going to pull through,” she said. “He had some internal bleeding, but with a transfusion and a dose of surgical nanites in his veins, he should be okay in a few hours.”

“Where’s Zye?” I asked.

“Right here, Captain.”

I turned and saw she had positioned herself behind Morris.

The Lieutenant stood up and looked at her. “You’re as quiet as a cat when you want to be,” he said, laughing.

Zye just stared at him. She didn’t take her eyes off him or his gun for the next hour—not until he finally left the bridge.

“She’s like a cat staring down a canary all right!” Rumbold croaked after the lieutenant was gone.

Surprised, I turned to see he was awake but still lying groggily in his chair. I nodded my thanks to Yamada.

“He’ll pull through,” she said again. “He’s a tough old bird.”