Galactic Freighter: Scourge of the Deep Space Pirates (Contact) (10 page)

Buck searched the desks, and found a handful of blank data chips. They were an old style but so was the computer. Over the next hour, he downloaded the entire database, more gigabytes than he could count. From what he had learned, the reactor powered a vault that housed blood extracts. He opened the heavily shielded door. Clearly marked containers confirmed what the data had indicated. These beings were the descendants of the long-life people who had left Earth over one thousand years earlier. If still viable, the sera he was looking at could change the universe.

Stunned beyond anything he'd ever experienced, Buck considered what he should do. After thinking through many possibilities, he selected a dozen vials, then closed, and resealed the door. He left the bunker and climbed into the aircar. He decided to say nothing to the crew or Navy. He would tell the Emperor when Phoenix returned to Iona after dealing with Katakan. Earlier, Buck told Molly and Tommy if something happened to him, they were to open the safe and preferably in private.

He picked up the three crewmen he’d left scouring what had been a city and lifted off New Hope for Phoenix. The sailors had little to report that was of use and certainly nothing as significant as what he had found.

Buck stepped into the hanger bay, headed for his cabin, and put the data chips in his private safe. The vials he stowed in his small refrigerator.

***

A week later, Molly faced him in his cabin.

"Anything else?"

"Yes. Your actions since returning from that planet have the crew concerned. So, it isn't just me.

"Something's eating on you." Molly’s face was full of doubt.

Buck shrugged. "Katakan, what else?"

"I don't know. You tell me." Her concern didn't seem bellicose, that wasn't in her nature.

He wasn't ready to share what he'd found on New Hope. The longer he thought about it, the more he doubted it was true. If it was, keeping the secret to extended life was important. Letting others know before the Emperor decided how to proceed wouldn't be smart. Still, lying to Molly bothered him. It seemed more and more he lied to his people, and they were ready to give their lives following his orders. It didn't make him feel any better about himself. He'd never imagined leading a group would be like this.

Chapter Nine:
Katakan

B
uck stepped through the hatch onto the bridge and ordered astrogation to adjust their course for the agreed rendezvous at Katakan.

"We'll be on station in one T-hour," Danko reported. Over the past years, he had become a first rate navigator. Without formal math education, the man had schooled himself and handled the intricacies required when anything less could put the ship and crew at risk. "Want to set buoys, Sir?" It was standard practice to launch sensor buoys, particularly in enemy space to warn them of approaching ships. Technically, Phoenix was in neutral space but Katakan's aggressiveness toward any ship approaching their planet was enough to warrant buoys.

“Absolutely,” Buck said.

They waited at the designated coordinates, well off the standard shipping routes in a desolate part of space. Two days later, the pinnace returned having set an array of buoys that covered all approaches to Phoenix.

Buck continued to learn the finer points of the
special
equipment High Fleet Admiral Hizerman had ordered installed aboard Phoenix. Of particular interest, a small dose of anti-matter in each missile’s nose cone. The gadgets necessary to ensure containment were complicated to operate: one mistake and the mission was over for anyone within a thousand kilometers. Understandably, the entire crew wanted no screw-up. This was the weapon he would use against Katakan's formidable outer defenses. If their initial attack didn't wipe out those defensive batteries, ordering his remaining ships to attack would condemn them. To handle the antimatter containment required most of the missile's carrying capacity, drastically reducing its range. That meant the launch ship had to enter the enemy's kill zone.

***

Buck stepped through the hatch onto the bridge and at the plot board entered his, acknowledgement as each of the remaining five ships joined his squadron. Shortly after, Captain Tenkiller arrived aboard a picket ship with sideboard honors abbreviated.

Buck called all captains to Phoenix for a final briefing. Over the next three hours, they arrived and made their way to the conference room where Buck waited.

He took the chair at the head of the conference table, opened the meeting, and then asked Captain Tenkiller to brief them on what they could expect from the Navy.

Immaculate in dress khakis, his Indian heritage look at its best, Tenkiller's eyes seemed to carry concern and determination: all the assets of a warrior in every sense. With the wisdom and experience of numerous space and land engagements, Tenkiller faced the assembled captains. "Gentlemen, on behalf of Emperor Sebastian, the empire thanks you for your service. I won't pull any punches. What you will face…," he paused, "…I wish I could be with you. I don't pretend to agree with the political decisions that have determined who and how this battle will be fought, but I am a loyal naval officer and obey my orders." It rankled him that the Royal Navy had to stand by and watch civilians attack the pirate bastion—Buck suspected other officers would voice the same concerns given the chance. He did acknowledge it gave Sebastian deniability but that didn't rank high on the Captain's needs list.

Tenkiller's short review of the fleet's backup plan brought a number of questions, which he answered. He wished them good hunting, and returned the podium to Buck knowing some would not come back.

For the next two hours, the order of battle remained the central topic and the assembled covered many of the
what if's
Buck had considered. If Barnard's Star's fleet were on orbit over Katakan, he ordered, his ships would attack them as they would any hostile.

The discussion ran its course; Buck stood and looked at each officer then said, "We attack at zero two hundred standard tomorrow." He adjourned the meeting and had the stewards bring in lunch amid little conversation. The few attempts at humor fell flat and there was no bravado, these men knew what they faced.

Tenkiller and Buck walked to the shuttle bay sharing tidbits of idle conversation; they shook hands and the shuttle departed.

Buck did not go to bed and spent the shortened night talking with each on-duty crewman.

Minutes before zero two hundred, at the plot board outfitted in his new skin suit recently issued by the Royal Navy, helmet tucked under his arm, he studied the attack formation. He had no illusions about what was to happen. Phoenix took the lead position with the Whitecap and Gambit to starboard, Liberty to port, furthest out from the planet, and the ships, Forthright and Bolen flanked the attack on Katakan's outermost defensive installations. Katakan's two heavy weapons platforms effectively covered the planet and provided a formidable defensive posture. Buck reminded the captains that everything, the success of the campaign, the survival of the fleet, depended on destroying the orbital weapon stations.

"Thirty enemy ships have taken up close orbit, half-a-million klicks above Katakan," said Danko and continued his running dialog, "A dozen have spaced and some of them show Barnard's Star signatures." He pointed at the screen.

Tenkiller signaled he would handle any that ran from the fight. The ones remaining, mostly from Barnard's Star had significant firepower and could offer meaningful resistance. Buck would give them a chance to surrender and kill them if they chose otherwise.

Katakan's Navy amounted to six ships, modifications of what previously were Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) meant for close planet support. He had no idea who had supplied them. Iona had retired a similar design years earlier in favor of larger, faster, and more heavily armed picket ships. If Buck could draw them out, it maximized his advantage and exposed the thirty pirates and Barnard ships on close orbit to his attack. A few pinnace-sized ships made up the rest of the planet defense. Checking each ship’s electronic signature identified the Barnard's Star ships. As experienced naval officers, Buck expected them to offer the more credible resistance.

He took his seat on the bridge and punched an icon opening communications with all ships. "Captains, set general quarters. You are to begin your attack. Good hunting." On all six ships, bosun's whistle blared followed by the klaxon.

Now, Buck would find out how accurate the information on Katakan's defenses provided by the missionary ship was. His leading the attack not only gave the Emperor deniability, which would minimize the criticism from the Federation. Buck had heard the chatter about efforts to bring Katakan and Barnard's Star into the galactic family but also understood; both planets would use this as leverage against him if he didn't take the planet and hold it. He was stretching the Emperor's license and knew it.

"Half attack speed, full military on my signal," he ordered. At two tenth's c, the squadron moved forward. His eyes locked on the two flanking ships as they vectored toward the massive defensive arrays guarding the approaches to Katakan. At launch distance required for their antimatter carrying missiles, one hundred thousand kilometers, both ships would be well within the enemy's kill range. They would soon know if the added distance Iona's Navy had installed on their energy weapons gave them the advantage as advertised. Anything less than that and his ships would die. Beyond that, a ship's ability to target and destroy the enemy would depend on how well he had prepared his fleet. Even though the crews had bitched about the relentless training, he knew it could make the difference. Some of the weapons, the newest ones, would give them a decided edge in targeting the Katakan defenses. The enemy would pick up their intrusion and have a minimum of ten hours to prepare. Being independent spacers and not given to trusting others, the pirates would resist forming as an integrated fleet to reject the attack. At least, Buck counted on that. He would soon know if they made any effort to operate in a coordinated manner. That only applied to the pirates, not so with Barnard ships.

Even with the ten hour warning, facing a frontal assault there was little the enemy could do but take them head on. Buck's energy cannons ranged almost one hundred thousand kilometers over anything Katakan had except for the two defensive batteries. Once within their kill range, his Captains wouldn't look for the perfect shot but rake the enemy with as many salvos as the weapons could handle. He reminded them of what Tenkiller had said at their meeting;
there was no sense in going home with arrows in their quivers
. He wanted a sustained barrage that would pound the enemy for over one hour. His ships needed that to get their antimatter missiles within launch range, and trusted the Katakan remote installations could not survive. The attacking fleet always had the initiative and Buck intended to make the best of it.

For a second, his mind flashed back to the bunker on New Hope and the long life sera. He chuckled to himself at the irony of the prospects of living a few hundred years longer when being alive at the end of the day would be a major accomplishment.

"Forthright and Bolen have opened fire on their primary targets." Danko made his voice precise. At that range, fire would have little effect on the enemy installations, but that would change as each second took them sixty thousand kilometers closer. "Ten seconds and they will kill the enemy," Danko added. During that interval Buck's ships would come under the pirate's cannons. Whoever took a direct hit first would lose.

Buck studied the plot board intently. "Weapons, standby," he said and added, "Ten seconds." His finger tapped out the count against the plot board. "Fire."

Phoenix bucked slightly and lights dimmed as all six energy cannons discharged. Two of the weapons could alter their aim and swept the on orbit pirate ships.

"Bolen's taken a hit." Danko slightly raised his voice.

Damage reports flooded in all too quickly and Buck had communications contact ship-to-ship for more detailed reports.

"Everything on starboard is out of commission," reported the Bolen. "Rolling to bring port weapons to bear." Buck flinched listening to the response.

"Danko, bring our nose around. Aim us at that defensive installation.

Strapped to Phoenix's hull, eight laser-pumped torpedoes sped into the hellish bedlam. Six made it through the enemy's anti-missiles and hit the array almost dead center.

"Seems to have worked," said the astrogator. "Bolen launched its antimatter missile." As he spoke, the blast shields rose, protecting the bridge crew from the expected intense radiation.

"Scratch one installation," Danko reported with a grin.

Buck had no idea how many people manned that station. He now understood how the Navy people dealt with killing. They simply put it out of their minds—
kill or be killed
.

Phoenix returned to its original position and along with its sister ships, continued to fire into the pirates orbiting the planet. One by one, ships disappeared from the plot board.

"Captain, Forthright's in trouble. She's taken a direct hit and sustained major damage," said the radar operator.

Buck ordered Danko to alter course bringing the second Katakan station under his guns. "Continuous fire," he ordered as Forthright vented to space. From the size of the stream, there was no doubt they had suffered mortal damage. "Watch for escape capsules. Mark every one of them. Make sure we don't leave someone."

"Comm from Forthright," said communications.

Buck opened the link for the bridge crew to hear.

"Captain, looks like we've had it." Captain Mansfield's words spilled calmly from the speaker. "We need to get our missile off. I'm ordering the crew to abandon ship. Keeping containment appears impossible. I've set a course that should remove any possibility the rest of our fleet might suffer any damage if we lose it."

"Captain Mansfield, get off that ship with the rest of the crew." Buck didn't want any heroics.