Ep.#14 - "The Weak and the Innocent" (The Frontiers Saga) (19 page)

“Yeah, I heard.” Robert tugged at his gown, pressing at his lower abdomen. “Why do they hurt mostly in the groin, though?”

Jessica snickered. “That’s probably why they put a tube up your dick. What the hell were you doing in that crawler, Bobert?”

Robert looked at her crossly. “My dick is just fine, thank you.” He adjusted himself in his bed and settled back down. “They have to monitor my fluid output, make sure my kidneys aren’t damaged.”

“So, anyway, I’ve got good news…and I’ve got bad news,” she told him.

“Give me the bad news first,” he said as he finished his last bite of pizza.

“I can’t, it won’t make sense.”

“Then give me the good news.”

“Because of that jump of yours, we managed to capture the Jar-Benakh intact.”

“Seriously? You mean they boarded her?”

“Yeah. Telles took a handful of Ghatazhak in and kept the Jung busy until reinforcements arrived. It’s ours. They’re hauling prisoners down here as we speak. All because your little jump opened up a hole in her side.”

“That’s incredible,” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, it is. Dumar wants to fix her up and put a jump drive on her.”

“That’s great!” he exclaimed. “Wait… What’s the bad news?”

“They’re giving command of her to Roselle.”

“You’re kidding me!”

“Sorry, no.”

“That figures. I lose my ship, and he gets a new one… A bigger one at that.”

“You’re getting a new ship too,” she told him.

“I am?”

“Actually, you’re getting a whole fleet of ships, so to speak.”

“What?”

“Remember the Tannan gunboat project? You’re going to run the crew training program.”

“I’m going to be a teacher?” Robert leaned back in bed and closed his eyes, sighing heavily. “
That
should have been the bad news.”

“Only until the Tannans are up and running. Then they’ll take over and teach their own. Hey, at least you’re getting the first one as your own ship.”

“So I’m going to be a test pilot as well?”

“I guess you could call it that. Someone’s got to figure out how to fly the new ships, right? Figure out how to get the most out of them, develop attack strategies, discover their strengths and weaknesses?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“And from what I’ve seen, the new gunboats are going to be pretty sweet.”

“I don’t know,” Robert said, not quite convinced that his new assignment was as good as his little sister was trying to make it sound. “I think you’re going to have go back to Italy and get me another slice of pizza.”

“What,” she said, reaching back into her bag, “you thought I went all the way to Italy and only bought one slice?”

* * *

“This is amazing,” Cameron exclaimed as she dishe
d up another portion of the strange purple salad that Vladimir had made. “What did you call it again?”

A long string of Russian words poured out of Vladimir’s mouth, none of which she nor Nathan could even begin to understand, let alone repeat. She stared at him for a moment, trying to form the words.

“Just call it beet salad,” Nathan suggested.

“I had no idea you were so skilled in the galley,” Cameron admitted.

“Russian winters…very cold,” Vladimir explained as he shoveled a spoonful of the salad into his mouth. “I spent many evenings with my
babushka
in the kitchen, helping her cook.”

“I’m actually becoming quite the connoisseur of Russian cuisine,” Nathan boasted. “Not to mention I’ve put on a few extra pounds,” he added, patting his belly.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Cameron teased. “But if you want to get some exercise, you’re welcome to come lend a hand on the Celestia.”

“Yeah, I heard you guys have been busting hump around the clock.”

“You heard the admiral. He’s kicking us out of dry dock in eighteen days, ready or not.”

“That doesn’t sound right,” Nathan said, taking a bite of his dinner.

“It’s not like we’re not space-worthy,” Cameron insisted. “Pretty much everything important that needs to be done to the exterior has been completed. We’ve just got to finish wiring up the secondary jump emitter array, install the second pair of jump field generators, and then connect the mounts for additional turrets. Like he said, the rest we can do in orbit.”

“What about all your external doors?” Vladimir wondered. “They are all still off, no?”

“Yes, they are, but we’re not putting them back on. As long as we’re running shields, we don’t need them.”

“How about if you need to service one of your point-defense turrets, or your quads?” Vladimir asked.

“They installed collars around the turret bases, so that an external repair bay can be connected to the hull, completely covering the weapon in a pressurized maintenance bay. We’re even going to carry one in our hangar deck that a utility shuttle can carry out and put into place.”

“What about the quads?” Nathan wondered. “They’re huge.”

“Those will have to be serviced in port,” she explained. “It’s all about a change in mission profile, Nathan. The explorer class ships were designed to be out for years at a time, so we had to carry consumables, propellant, accommodations, hell, the Aurora even has a movie theater and a huge recreation facility.”

“It
needs
an ice rink,” Nathan muttered as he sipped his drink.

“The point is, we had a lot of wasted space and a lot of design features that, while logical for long duration missions of exploration and diplomacy, made no sense for combat missions that don’t even last a week.”

“But what if they
do
last more than a week?” Nathan asked. “If our jump drive failed while we’re away, we could be stranded for weeks just waiting for help.”

“That’s why we’re getting
two
separate jump drive systems,” Cameron reminded him. “That, and it doubles our jump range between charging cycles.”

“Now
that
part I agree with,” Nathan admitted.

“Wait until you see the new forward launch tubes,” Cameron exclaimed. “Fifty percent wider, twenty-five percent taller, and twenty-five percent longer. They have three catapults built into the deck instead of the sides, just like the old aircraft carriers used to have. Two short, and one longer one down the center. We’ll be able to launch pretty much anything that fits inside, plus they can be used as an entrance in a pinch.”

“You were going to show me where they were putting the super cannons,” Nathan reminded her.

“Oh yeah,” she replied, reaching for her data pad, “but they’re not called super cannons anymore. They’re called mark one, mark two, mark three, and mark four. Ones are the little guys, like on the Falcon and the combat jumpers. The mark one cannons were also used to replace all of our mini rail guns, the ones we use for point-defense. Except now they’re quads instead of twins, so they can lay down a lot more defensive fire. The original plasma cannon turret that you gave us used mark twos, and our fore and aft torpedo tubes use mark threes.”

“So the old super cannons were mark fours then,” Nathan surmised. “Is that what they’re installing under your bow?”

Cameron leaned back in her chair and smiled as if her child had just brought home an award. “Mark fives.”

“What are mark fives?” Nathan wondered.

“The big boys that the Karuzara uses to attack ships at a distance.”

“
Bozhe moi,
” Vladimir exclaimed.

“Wait, it gets better,” Cameron said, almost giggling. “The lateral track on all four cannons can be adjusted. They can fan out slightly, fire in parallel, or all focus on the same point, ten kilometers out. When we install the broadside cannons in the utility bays, the mark twos will be able to do the same thing.”

“Jesus,” Nathan exclaimed.

“That’s brilliant!” Vladimir added. “Was that your idea?”

“I wish. It was your friend Tilly’s idea.”

Nathan sighed. “Maybe Dumar’s right. Maybe we can stand toe-to-toe with a battle platform.”

“Can you imagine how much fire power we could put on a single shield section, with two ships doing time-on-target attacks with those mark fives?” Cameron exclaimed.

“It might work on a battleship,” Vladimir admitted, “but not on a platform. Weaken them noticeably? Yes. Maybe a fifty percent drop, if you can get enough shots in, but complete collapse? No.”

“Can the mark fives fire triplets?” Nathan asked.

“No, singles only, and no more than one shot per cannon every fifteen seconds. Even
with
all the extra heat exchangers they put on the bottom of our hull.”

“So a sustained fire-rate of a shot every four seconds,” Nathan nodded. “Not bad. Maybe they can add more heat exchangers and get us a quicker fire-rate?”

“Doubtful,” Vladimir said. “It’s not the number of heat exchangers that is limiting. It is the amount of transfer area around the plasma generators themselves. The mark fives are very powerful, a lot of heat to get rid of, I’m afraid. I am surprised they can get it down to fifteen seconds.”

“No matter how you look at it, both our ships are getting a lot more fire power.”

“More importantly, we’re getting shields,” Vladimir reminded them both. “I cannot begin to make you understand how happy that makes me.”

Nathan sighed, leaning back in his chair as he gazed at the design specs on Cameron’s data pad. “We really could have used all of this yesterday.”

“What happened yesterday wasn’t your fault, Nathan,” Cameron insisted. “You did what any of us would have done… You tried to give them a way to survive.”

“But at what cost?”

“At no cost,” Cameron argued.

“I nearly handed the Jung a jump drive, Cam.”

“But you didn’t.”

“We still don’t know that for sure.”

“For all we know, they got one a long time ago. Maybe they had the plans for it all along and we just haven’t seen it yet. Maybe they’re working on it right now. There are a lot of maybes, Nathan. Besides, if you would’ve had that much fire power yesterday, we wouldn’t have another Jung battleship to add to our fleet today,” Cameron said.

“And I would not have a new and interesting project tomorrow,” Vladimir added. “This, of course, means that I will not be cooking for you for awhile, Nathan.”

“I think I’ll survive.”

* * *

“What’s with all the girls?” Jessica asked Master Sergeant Jahal as she walked across the
tarmac toward him. “The Ghatazhak having a slumber party?”

“They are prisoners,” the master sergeant stated, fighting back a smile, “from the Jar-Benakh.”

Jessica stopped next to the master sergeant, turning to look at the group of women as they disembarked from the cargo shuttle. There were at least fifty of them, all dressed quite nicely in feminine attire of a fashion she had not seen before. “I thought the Jung didn’t have women in their military.”

“To my knowledge they do not.”

“Captain’s harem, then?”

“In a manner of speaking, I suppose,” the master sergeant replied. “Most of them were found in a dormitory of sorts, however, others were found hiding in various officer’s quarters throughout the ship, mostly those of higher rank.”

“Mistresses, perhaps?”

“It would not be the first time I have heard of such arrangements. Many nobles, serving on board imperial ships, had similar personnel. They usually referred to them as ‘housekeepers’, or ‘personal assistants.’”

“Very personal, right?” Jessica commented, poking the master sergeant in the side with her elbow. When she got no response, she turned to look at him. “What’s the deal, Master Sergeant, you’re usually so jovial. Someone kick your dog?”

“No, my commander.”

“Ah… Shook him up a bit, did I?”

“Do not flatter yourself, Lieutenant Commander. You are not capable of ‘shaking up’ Commander Telles, or any other Ghatazhak, for that matter. However, you might want to review the commander’s after-action reports before you attempt to—how do you Terrans put it—‘get in his face’ over his failure to rescue your associate.”

“I see,” Jessica replied, nodding her understanding. “Look, I know that the Ghatazhak don’t have a problem leaving people behind, for the ‘good of the mission’ and all that, but us Terrans, we don’t like leaving our people behind.”

Master Sergeant Jahal turned and looked Jessica in the eyes. “You left Sergeant Weatherly behind—for the good of the mission—did you not? Or was it to save your own skin? Perhaps that is why you are so upset that the commander had to leave Miss Avakian behind?”

Jessica’s expression became as cold as ice, as she stepped closer to the master sergeant. She stared up into his steadfast gaze, unflinching. “You’re just begging for an ass-kicking, aren’t you, Master Sergeant?”

“Please…… Sir.”

Jessica stood there staring at him for several seconds. Finally, she stepped back. “Another time, perhaps. We’re short enough of you boys as it is,” she added as she stepped back further and turned to walk away. “There may be a woman named Kaya Allemahn among them,” Jessica called back to the master sergeant. “Isolate her. I’ll be back to question her later.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

Naralena followed Gerard and his two men as they continued along the trail that followed the perimeter of the mountai
n lake. They had spent all night in the back of one of the CLA’s smuggling vans in order to get as far away from the city as possible. After ditching the van in the river at dawn, they had spent the entire day hiking the river trail up into the mountains. After ascending at least a thousand meters, they had come to a lake, which they had spent the afternoon circumnavigating. There had been little discussion during their journey, partly because two of the men only spoke Koharan, and partly because they preferred to save their energy for the hike up the mountain.

Gerard stopped, kneeling down in the tall grass of the meadow that had just appeared beyond the forest. He signaled for his men to circle around, which they did so immediately.

“What is it?” Naralena whispered.

“Our destination.”

“Great.” Naralena looked around. “Then why aren’t we going there?”

“We must be sure that it is unoccupied at the moment.”

“I don’t understand. Doesn’t it belong to you?”

“Yes, but we cannot be too cautious.”

“Okay. Cautious is good,” Naralena agreed, kneeling down behind him. “I like cautious.” She pulled out her last piece of rations. It was a chewy, overly sweet mixture of grains and dried berries, with a slightly bitter taste. It was not appetizing but, as far as she could tell, it was nutritious.

She gazed out across the meadow from her position behind Gerard. The grass was an unusual lime-green, unnaturally vibrant in its coloring. It was quite different than the grass she had seen on Earth during her few visits to the surface, and it was even more different than the blue-gray vegetation that covered such areas on her homeworld of Volon. Still, it was better than Haven had been, where there was little growth other than the dead-looking tiga trees, dusty scrub brush and, of course, molo. She did not miss that place, and she thanked destiny that the Aurora pulled her from it.