Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) (14 page)

Tola smiled. “Good. Just remember, if you need help, call out.”

Neo felt some of his anxiety abate. He nodded back. As Tola moved back out front he glanced back at the commander. ‘She’s doing it again’ he said to himself. He found himself staring at her as she had her eyes closed. He could see from the easy rise and fall of her chest that she was breathing steadily and at ease. He found himself taking a deeper breath in and syncing it with hers. He kept breathing in that fashion and found the tension easing.

When she opened her eyes she gave him a quick smile before nodding to Tola. “Coming out of warp in 1 minute” hailed Tola. By the time Tola looked in his direction he felt a lot better. He called out “Ready” and he meant it.

The first words heard after coming out of warp were from the battle systems officer 2
^nd
Lt Phil Turnbull. “Bloody hell what is that?” He quickly recovered. “Some form of space station, very big over Cheklin; one cap, three frigates, a shit load of commercial traffic around Cheklin, moderate amount between it and the fourth and fifth planets. Could be more on the far sides.”

The Phantom had come out of warp in a position midway been the orbits of Cheklin, the second planet in the system, and Tinitis, the third planet. Tinitis was at this time on the far side of the Sturum sun. The huge gas giants known as Rendidium and Poltis were on the near side but way out on their own orbits and separated by a huge asteroid belt. The inner planet, Delinum, was also on the far side at this time.

The icons began populating the holo display. Neo was working his way through his checklist. He had already kicked off the multispectral scanners and the AI that analysed these. The AI would give priority to identifying military transmissions and it was already seeding a list that was now being processed by the decryptors and translators. Once decrypted and translated, they would be further processed to identify the nature of the transmission, the subject, recipients and critical components, especially anything which could pose a threat.

There was an overwhelming amount of data but Alice, in the last few weeks, had taught Neo well on the use of filters. These had been automatically invoked and indeed within the immediate threats list there were no reports at all. “No immediate threat transmissions” announced Neo. The usual procedure was to say nothing unless there were some but Neo felt the need to say something. It was reassuring to do so.

Tola cut him some slack and simply acknowledged it with an “OK.” She then added. “We need more info on this space station. Is it armed and with what? Is it in geo? This frigate here, Bogey 5, is obviously en-route to somewhere. Where?”

At this time one of the filters had identified a transmission of high political priority. It popped up an alert on Neo’s screen and he examined the report. “I’ve got something here Maam” said Neo as he turned to Aubrey “it’s a message that contains the name of that rogan guy, Ciantus Melnar.”

At this Evie Plentun and the other rogan Cmdr Felis Draag, raised their large heads in interest.

“It appears he’s being watched” added Neo “by someone in the Internal Security Service. That’s their domestic spooks Maam.”

Aubrey turned to Evie with a questioning expression.

“I’m not surprised” said Evie. “All the more reason to hurry and be discreet.”

“Indeed” said Aubrey a little peeved that their prime contact was already under surveillance. She cut Commodore Pious a glance but he let it pass to the keeper. Julian Pious wasn’t phased. Right now he knew that before they could do anything down on Cheklin they had to gain a true picture of the enemy’s forces in the system.

“Neo” said Aubrey definitively “launch a P22 and have it sweep past to the far side of Cheklin and back. Have it take a good look at that space station on the way. I want that data before we commit.”

“Right Maam” replied Neo. ‘Yes I can do this’ he thought to himself. He was actually feeling useful and that was a good feeling. “Probe route to your liking Maam?” he asked after displaying it on the holo.

Aubrey noticed Alice in the ops seat scrutinising it and she looked very pleased with it. “Yes it is Mr Kone. Launch it” commanded Aubrey.

“Probe away” said Neo.

“How long before we get a report?”

Neo worked at his controls. “We can have a ‘loud’ report in 67 minutes or a silent one in just over two hours.” A loud report would involve the probe making a transmission which would result it in being detected. This could be done once it had gone around the planet and was returning having crested the planet. A silent report would involve it returning to the ship, recovering the probe and then transferring the data inside the ship.

“And what would you recommend?” asked Aubrey.

“Silent Maam for sure.”

“Well done Neo” praised Aubrey. Neo grinned with pride. “Ask Martin to do the honours on the recovery?”

“Of course Maam!” responded Neo. He hailed 2
^nd
Lt Martin Lodi, the Quartermaster, and gave him a warning order for the recovery.

Down in his office on D deck Martin was delighted by the diversion. So far they had only practiced such a recovery once before during their work up trials two months ago. That had been with one of the P19s. He pulled up the knowledge base on the P22 recovery and noted that for it to be done cloaked he had to rely on the P22’s AI. This was the default procedure and would be invoked once the probe was within range.

It would manoeuvre the probe to approach the Phantom from the stern and sync with their current speed. It also had to position itself within the Phantom’s cloaking envelope and then within effective range of the MagGrab device. Once the MagGrab was activated the sensors on the probe would detect it and cut power to the probe’s engines.

Martin winced a little on reading that. He knew that he had to be really sure before he activated the MagGrab lest it prove effective enough to cut the probe’s engines but not effective enough to secure it. He checked the time and decided it best to run through a simulation of the manoeuvre before he would have to do it for real.

Chapter 5. Resolute in Qwantum 1255, 13 August

Martin Lodi was not the only quartermaster anxious to affect a clean MagGrab in space. Val had her hand on her lover’s shoulder, Cpl Tracy Gordon, as Tracy was about to activate the MagGrab on the Konkorda Pod 2. There was absolute concentration on both their faces as Tracy lined up the sight for the grab.

Tracy had been issuing manoeuvre instructions to James up in the cockpit. Together they had decelerated the big ship to a point where it was only just going faster than the pod. “Ease off a notch James” ordered Tracy.

“Roger” said James. His voice betrayed the tension.

Val could see the pod within the MagGrab’s sight as displayed on their control station. She had a green light. It looked good. She tapped Tracy’s shoulder.

“No wait…let’s close the distance a bit more” said Tracy calmly. “A bit more. Come on. Yeah gottcha!” she exclaimed as she activated the device and saw the blue light confirming the grab.

“Way to go girl!” said Val and she leaned over and gave Tracy a peck on her cheek. But Tracy ignored it and maintained her focus as they reeled in the pod. She tapped the control to open the bay door on Hold R2. “Well go on Val. You need to hurry” harried Tracy.

Val turned and darted out of the MagGrab control room and ran down the corridor of H deck to the big hatch that was the entrance to the R2 hold. Standing outside were the two military police, all suited up with their pulse rifles. But they still looked nervous. They could see Val at full stretch and instinctively tensed. She hit the seal switch on her suit and felt her helmet lock. She drew her pistol and hit the hatch control. They entered into the air lock and waited till the outside hatch closed. Val instinctively checked her suit seal and oxy level. ‘All good’ she said to herself. She glanced at the others and they nodded. So she turned on the hold lights and opened the inner door to reveal the pod suspended below the MagGrab device. Tracy had obviously secured the external doors.

“Tracy I’m in” hailed Val. “You can let it down now…gently and turn on the atmosphere.” The pod was lowered down and the MagGrab released. “Nice” hailed Val.

“My pleasure” replied Tracy. “Now remember what I said about not rushing in.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll be careful” replied Val like a school kid receiving advice from a big sister.

One of the police had shouldered his weapon so he could use both hands to release the pod hatch. “Stop” ordered Val. “Not a good idea if you value your life.” The policeman backed off. “I’ll do this” said Val.

She unclipped the small rectangular device from her belt, pressed a control on it and then positioned it over the hull of the pod. Its magnetic field clamped to the hull. Val selected the right comms channel for the device and hailed. “Whoever is inside, we come in peace. We are from the Human Federation and are here to rescue you. Please acknowledge.”

Inside the pod Retna could not believe what he heard. At first he didn’t understand it at all but then the message was automatically translated into rogan, which he did understand. He wasn’t sure if this was a ruse or not. His hand hovered over the control he had setup to activate an explosion of sorts. Yes it had been jerry rigged to use the remaining fuel but Retna was confident it would work. Better to go out with a bang he had told himself.

But right now part of him so wanted to believe the message. It was so fanciful that he knew he should hit the control. But still…

“Please acknowledge. This is 1
^st
Lt Gomez of the Federation Ship Resolute. Please acknowledge in whatever language you can.”

This time the message was relayed in gelk and sleth as well as rogan. Hearing his tongue tipped the balance. Retna knew it was a silly thing really but he wanted to hope, he wanted to believe.

“Lt Gomez this is Retna. Is there a breathable atmosphere outside?”

The device relayed the message to Val. Her suit’s comms protocols handled the translation and Val noted that it was the sleth language on her HUD (Heads Up Display) on her visor.

“Yes it is breathable Retna. Welcome. Please come out. You will be safe.”

Retna forced his free right arm to reach for his pistol ‘just in case’. But then he dropped the idea all together. He activated the hatch release. He breathed in the air mixing in from the outside, took hold of the hatch rim with his right hand and began the laborious task of extracting himself. The effort required was too much and he slumped back down.

Val saw the familiar reptilian hand of a sleth and then realised he had stopped. “It’s OK Retna. Please come out.”

“I need help” came the weak voice. “Please!”

Val was still wary. She checked to see that the police had their weapons trained on the opening. She then put her foot into the foot step only then realising how small it was. She pushed up and, raising her other leg, took hold of the hatch rim with her free hand. Her other hand brought her pistol into alignment with the opening.

As soon as she could see into the vessel she holstered her pistol. The sleth lay slumped at the bottom almost completely filling the space. “How on earth did you get in?” she asked.

Retna craned his head to look back up through the opening. Three weeks of being crammed in, virtually unable to move, had accelerated his muscle atrophy. His dark green eyes looked up at the suited human. They bore his shame at not being able to extract himself but they also carried his plea for help.

Val could not help but be moved by his plight. She leaned a little further over and extended her gloved hand but Retna was too weak to meet it with his own. “Just stay put for a moment. I’ll get some help. We’ll have you out soon.”

“Thank you” said Retna.

“John this is Val, I need a med team with a gurney down in Hold R2 pronto and have Jelka come down. It’s a sleth named Retna. We need time to extract him but you can tell the boss we’re right to warp now.”

“Right Oh” acknowledged John, who had taken over the watch. He barked off some quick instructions and then turned to Dave. “We’re right to warp!”

Dave was pleased to finally get the go ahead to warp. It was now almost 1330 and the whole recovery operation had taken a lot longer than he had hoped. He wasted no time in ordering the Resolute to warp in to Q2. John had been watching his boss for the last five minutes as Dave was getting restless in his seat. The tell-tale tapping of his fingers on his arm rest was a sure indication of his skipper’s impatience. So when he got the order John too wasted no time in activating the warp.

But instead of the usual transition there came an alert and a loud audio warning “Gravity fluctuations have exceeded the safe threshold. Warp sequence aborted.”

“What the fuck!” called out Dave in frustration. “Chase! You should have checked for this” said Dave angrily.

“Sorry” said a chastened Chase. He double checked the route and position. “Oh, Iooks like I didn’t allow for the pod drift. It’s entered the no go zone. Only just. Give me a sec!” He didn’t dare glance across at Dave who he knew would be fuming and he was.

But Dave checked himself. He was already regretting the outburst of anger. He didn’t lose his temper often but when he did everyone knew it. So he started taking in some deep breaths. But his mind was working against his will. It was drawn to the problems of time and space that now confronted him. The inner tension wasn’t helping his stress levels. Finally he said to himself ‘Stop it. Wait for Chase. Relax.’ He deliberately forced his back upright to maximise the flow of breath in his body and he took a few more deep breaths.

“Got it” exclaimed Chase. “If we go back the way we came on max impulse power we can be ready to warp in twenty.”

“We could force an override of the warp protocols” suggested John.

“What and risk being bundled out of warp and vulnerable just as an enemy frigate is due to arrive” challenged Dave. “No we won’t do that. Options?”

“Stay and fight the frigate” contributed John.