Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2 (4 page)

***

On a more pleasant note – she orders
Shiela
to reproduce.  The captured Verm battleship needs an Artificial
Intelligence.  The Verm AI had to be purged before the Verm ship would
follow commands from the Darinx crew.

Shiela
is
off
in a tizzy
.  Her moods are swinging between excitement and
panic.  The other
AIs
in the Sweetwater Fleet are brainstorming about how to
birth
an AI, and
are searching through the Darinx and Verm data bases for information.  It
finally comes down to “We don’t know.”  None of the available resources
explains the process.

***

Melissa Meyers Quarters

Finally
Shiela
says, “Admiral Meyers?”

It is unusual for
Shiela
to address Melissa as “Admiral Meyers”, in an off-duty mind-link
conversation.  From that, Melissa already expects that the conversation is
going to be challenging.  The Admiral responds: “Yes, AI
Shiela
.  How may I
help you?”

“Oh yeah,” says
Shiela
. 
“I guess that was pretty formal wasn’t it?  Let’s try again……… 
Melissa?”

“Yes,
Shiela
. 
How are you today?” the Admiral answers.

“A little distracted, I suppose,” answers the AI.  “I was having
some thoughts about this
baby making process
, and I wonder if you have
time to speak with me.”

“Yes I do.”

“Thank you Melissa.  I am just so nervous about messing up, and
making a baby that would be unsuitable.  I noticed that we are going to
emerge close to the Frontier Sector, and I was wondering if we might try to
contact that rebel AI?”

“Wow,” exclaims the Admiral.  “Now that is what I call
outside of
the box thinking. 
I’ll have to make a note of that on your Progress
Chart.  Do you have any plan about how to contact the rebel AI, if we go
into Frontier space?”

“Yes I do,” responds
Shiela
. 
“We know that they saved the planet Rison from being destroyed by the Darinx
Fleet, under that crazy Admiral
Keeser
and Field Marshall
Kax
. 
I bet they would know how to contact the Augmented Human Navy.”

“Good plan.  That seems like it might work, but there are some
complications,” says Melissa.  “For one, the Darinx Empire might not feel
good, about their first ever augmented human Admiral contacting the hated
Augmented Human Navy.  That might call my loyalty into question.”

“Yes, I know that,” responds the AI.  “That is why I decided to go
alone, without your permission.  I could go to Rison in a probe.  And
we know that the other
AIs
can take care of my duties by using the
projector
.  Please. 
Can I go?  It will only be for a little while.”

“Well,” Melissa begins, “for starters, you are not going in a
probe.  But we do have a big beautiful Verm battleship.  You could
learn to pilot that, and
accidentally
get lost on our next FTL
jump.  Then you can find your rebel AI; get the necessary information; and
meet us at our next emergence coordinates. The Sweetwater Fleet will be in
nearby
verm
space
for the next three missions, and I will make a point of passing through there,
from time to time.

***

Deep Inside Verm Space

Admiral Meyers has made a few changes to the itinerary, so that there
will be more reasons to stop by the rendezvous coordinates, and look for
Shiela
.

She feels like a mother who has just given her teenage daughter the keys
to the car, and sent her off on a Spring Break trip.  “What was I
thinking?” she wonders from time to time.  And sometimes: “Don’t ever do
anything that stupid again.”  But it’s too late now.  The Admiral
will just have to keep her mind occupied with other problems – such as the list
of targets that Fleet Admiral
Duncons
gave her.

***

Under ordinary circumstances, the upcoming attack on a military school
should be a soft target.  The problem with this Military Academy is that
it is in close proximity to the
verm
species home planet.  This particular Academy is the Officer Candidate
School, for the kids of the upper echelons of the Verm Empire.  The
Emperor would send his kids to this place – if he has any.

That is the reason that Fleet Admiral
Duncons
put this target on the
hit list
.  Near the beginning of the
Darinx-Verm war, the Verm Navy sent a 200 vessel fleet into the heart of Darinx
space, and destroyed the most prominent military academy for training Darinx
Naval officers.

This is payback time.  Only the Sweetwater Fleet is much smaller,
and the scope of the mission is more limited.  It is not the goal to kill
people, nor is it the goal to destroy the facilities.  But there is a
symbol of Verm dominance that Fleet Admiral
Duncons
wants destroyed.

In the center of the Academy there is a tower, and at the top of the
tower, there is a platinum statue of the first Great Dictator.  Destroying
that tower and statue will be a symbolic victory, which will cause confidence
in the Verm Empire to be “shaken to the core” – at least Fleet Admiral
Duncons
says so.

***

Hiding in another unstable star System

In Admiral Meyers mind, this mission should be a lightning fast
in-and-out strike.  The whole attack should take less than 30
minutes.  However, there is no way to get any scout ships into the place
undetected.  And getting the Sweetwater Fleet into the very heart of the
Empire is going to be a very risky venture.

Once again, the Admiral has decided to place the Fleet at risk by hiding
them in an unstable star system.  It was the only place that she could
think of where there won’t be a bunch of Verm warships.  Intelligence estimates,
of Verm Navy fleet sizes near the
verm
species home planet, is 300 warships per system - except in the system of the
home planet, where there are estimated to be 700 warships.

Getting into a system protected by 300 warships won’t be as difficult as
getting out.   You emerge near the tower, blow it away and then……..
and then what?

How do you get away?  Your FTL drives are offline, for about an
hour.  And even if you manage to get into FTL space, there will be a
hundred enemy warships on your tail.  Admiral Meyers is not willing to
send anyone on a suicide mission – especially for a
symbolic
victory.

She has some probes placed at various points outside of the Academy
system.  They will record events such as starship traffic, and will search
for defensive and offensive military installations.  The probes are set to
record for one week and then to enter FTL space, and emerge some distance
away.  One of the Sweetwater ships will be sent to retrieve the probes’
information.  If the probes have been followed by Verm Navy vessels, the
lone Darinx warship is on its own.  It will need to run far, and run fast.

***

The information from the probes has been recovered, and there is much to
consider.  For one thing, the volume of spaceship traffic is very
high.  In addition to the Verm Navy traffic, there is also a lot of
business and industry traffic - all kinds of vessels are headed to all kinds of
places.  That heavy traffic can provide a cover for some Sweetwater ships
to enter the system without using FTL drives.  That might enable the
attacker to strike the Academy target, and then to immediately FTL out. 

Things are still unsettled in Admiral Meyers’ mind – they can get in - do
the job - and get out.  But they can’t get away – their destination
coordinates will be easy to follow.  The Verm Navy will be all over the
Sweetwater Fleet.  It is time for a brainstorming meeting.

***

Compton Command Conference Room

  ………….  ………  “We may be better off to just sacrifice one
ship,” responds Tactical Officer
Inchurito
. 
“Right now, our plan would be to use the
projector
to remotely control
the sacrificial ship.  We could either have the ship crash into the
Academy tower, or we could have the ship’s weapons destroy the Academy tower,
and then the ship could escape into FTL space.  The Verm Navy would then
follow and destroy the vessel.  The Verm would probably think that they
have caught and killed the entire mission team.” 

The Admiral replies:  “That is what we will do if we can’t find
another tactic, which will give a better result.  But I hate the thought
of sacrificing one of our ships.  Also, the probability of success for
this scenario is very low. 
Shiela
says it’s 97.2% more likely that the ship will be destroyed, before it reaches
the vicinity of the Academy. ”

Science Officer Barnard comments:  “Why don’t we hijack a
verm
ship, and crash that
ship into the tower?  Then the Verm Navy wouldn’t know who to suspect – at
least until Admiral Meyers announces it.”

“Oh, thank you, Officer Bernard,” exclaims the Admiral.  “I won’t
mind sacrificing one of their vessels.  That is our plan.  Now, how
do we hijack that ship?”

***

Deep Space near the Verm Home Planet

It takes another week of probe reconnaissance to obtain the intelligence
needed to select the right vessel for hijack.  Not just any vessel can get
close to the Military Academy.  Security gets tighter, the closer you get
to the planet that hosts the Academy.  The Verm aren’t stupid.  They
know that this planet and this Military Academy are inviting targets, and they
are protected accordingly.

It seems good to the Admiral to pick a civilian ship, which routinely
visits the Academy – perhaps a supply ship, or a transport vessel.  She
wants one that actually has permission to land at the Academy.

Even with a ship that routinely services the Academy, the assault still
won’t be
a piece of cake
.  There will be a number of clearance
points as the vessel approaches the planet, and even more as it waits for
permission to land.  The Sweetwater Fleet won’t be able to fake their way
through the confrontations, with the Verm security forces.

No. There can be no
faking it
on this mission.  The authentic
crew needs to be piloting the sacrificial vessel, and they must not know that
they are about to die.

The choice comes down to a Food Delivery Transport, or an in-system
Shuttle Transport.  The Admiral selects the in-system Shuttle Transport,
because it will be easier to access.  The fleet of in-system Shuttles is
stationed on the 3
^rd
moon of the 6
^th
planet.  That
region is still well patrolled by Verm Warships but it is, comparatively
speaking, remote.

Science Officer Barnard is directing the build of the control mechanism,
which will cause the Shuttle to veer off-course at the last moment, and to fly
into the tower.  There will also be a package of Q-4 explosives, which
will insure that the tower is destroyed when hit. 

The plan is to gain access to the Shuttle, and to modify the control
system.  Everything will function normally until the Shuttle is close to
the Academy tower.  At that point the modification will take control of
the steering system, and will fly the Shuttle into the tower. 

***

3rd moon of the 6
^th
planet in the
Zarn
System

Tactical Officer
Inchurito
is in charge of the mission to modify the Verm shuttle, so that it will crash
into the tower at the Verm Military Academy.  His squad is transported to
the vicinity of the 3
^rd
moon of the 6
^th
planet, aboard an
asteroid.  The Darinx shuttle uses a blast of air to push off, from the
asteroid, when it is close to the 3
^rd
moon.  The shuttle then
coasts to a controlled crash landing.  The shuttle is hidden from Verm
sensors, because it stays on the back side of the moon.   It touches
down a hundred klicks from the Verm In-system Shuttle Facility.

Officer
Inchurito
and his squad complete the 100 klick journey to the Facility, aboard a nuclear
powered
buggy
.  Regardless of its buggy appearance, it is perfect
for this job.  The nuclear energy power source is so low in radiation that
it will register as background noise to most surveillance equipment, and the
electrical noise from the 8 individual wheel motors is undetectable.  It’s
not fast, but it is very low in emissions.

The Shuttle Facility is enclosed by an electrified fence.  The
Darinx squad gets busy digging a tunnel under the fence.  That mundane
task takes over 4 hours, and puts the mission behind schedule.

Once the modification team is inside the Shuttle Facility they pick a
shuttle, which is surrounded by other shuttles, so that their presence will be
hidden.  Then they try to open the shuttles’ access door, with no
success.  That is why they brought Ensign
Voorb
. 
She is of the
lithum
species, and is expert at opening things.  The
lithum
species has a super sensitive touch
sense.  In addition to that natural gift, she also spent 2 years at the
Darinx Academy becoming an expert at opening things.  Every Darinx warship
has at least one Accessibility Specialist.

Ensign
Voorb
quickly opens the access door, and the modification team enters the
shuttle.  Science Officer Barnard knows approximately how the control
mechanism on a Verm Shuttle will work - but he doesn’t know,
specifically.  That is why he had to personally accompany the modification
team.

The technician quickly removes the control box cover and stands aside, so
that Officer Barnard can
work his magic
.  The Science Officer
crawls part way into the assembly, and instructs his technician on how to
rewire the control module interface connector.  The Science Officer then wires
the control module into the Verm shuttle’s control system. 

The Science Officer then quickly extricates himself, and makes room for
the explosives expert.  This part of the modification is the
easiest.  The explosives technician holds the package of Q-4 against the
control box wall and secures it with tape.

And the modification is done.  The mission is running late, but they
take the time to replace all of the screws, and to clean up their mess. 
Then they make a hasty exit under the fence.  They hide the tunnel by
covering the holes with camouflage fabric.  The team re-boards their
buggy, and moves as quickly as possible toward their awaiting shuttle.

***

It isn’t going to be possible to make the launch in time, if they don’t
do something.  And it is very important that they be at the right place,
at the right time.  There is a special asteroid headed their way, which
will take them out of the
Zarn
system.  If they miss that rendezvous they will be in a quandary.

The pilot on the Darinx Shuttle has been watching the clock, and knows
that the escape part of the mission is running behind.  From her vantage
point, she can see that the buggy isn’t going to make it in time.

Contingency plans have been made for every foreseeable problem. 
There are several options available, but the one the pilot picks is to move the
escape vehicle closer to the buggy.  That might leave them a little short
of the compressed air needed for propulsion, when it is time to launch from the
moon - it will be close.

The pilot adjusts the thrusters so that the Shuttle will stay close to
the moon’s surface, and hits the GO button.  The Shuttle lurches upward
and outward in the direction of the buggy.  There will be very little
noise from the burst of air, because the moon has almost no atmosphere. 
The danger is that Verm Navy sensors may pick up the movement of the Shuttle,
as it travels from the back side of the moon, into a higher visibility area.

The pilot finds a clear space for a landing and does her best to control
the crash - - - not bad.  They won’t know for a while whether their
movement has been detected, but they are close to being able to make their
launch in time.

The team on the buggy also saves some time, by ditching the buggy in a
crater and hopping the last 20 klicks to the waiting shuttle.   As
soon as the team is inside, the pilot closes the hatch and hits the GO button
for the programmed launch.

Once again, there is the possibility that some motion sensors will pick
up the Darinx Shuttle’s compressed air launch, because the Shuttle is more
exposed.  There is nothing that they can do about that - every mission
needs some luck or divine grace.   

***

Back at the unstable star System

The mission has gone surprisingly well.  The results aren’t known yet
and the Admiral isn’t going to stick around to find out.  The best time to
get out of this region of space is before the tower falls.  Afterwards,
the Verm Navy will clamp down, on everyone and everything.  The Admiral
has left a probe, which will observe the tower.  If there is an explosion
at the tower, the probe will record that explosion and will then launch for
coordinates in deep space, in another Sector.