Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (43 page)

Robinson said, “I think we’re going to make—”

The mine closest to them detonated, causing a chain reaction of detonations.

For the observers on the
Victory,
the lights and the chaff were consumed by the nuclear fires. The one shuttle that they saw flying below the formation looked like a piece of space debris being ejected by the exploding ship.

Admiral had enough experience on the Supe ships to know that the Masters on board would be congratulating themselves. There would be massive amounts of telepathic messages, with everyone claiming their role to be much larger than it was.

“Let’s give them a surprise. Weapons: fire all cannons and missiles,” Admiral thought.

The enemy ship did not stand a chance. Its Command Deck and Battle Bridge were both destroyed instantly.
Victory
’s gunners then targeted the offensive weapons.

On
Boss
, Oleg realized he was on a collision course with an asteroid. Without thinking, he turned the port and overhead thrusters on full. They came within a meter of the asteroid, so close that their shuttle’s small artificial gravity field kicked up a rooster tail of dust on the asteroid. Then, suddenly, they were out of the asteroid field.

“We’re clear, no sign of the other shuttles yet,” Saul said.

When the weapons ports of the Supe ship were destroyed, the
Victory
’s gunners shot up the matter ejectors to disable the main drive and finally the life support recycling system. The entire engagement was over in minutes,

“Engage the main drive to retrieve our shuttles before they run into one of those asteroids. We will come back for our prey later.”

It took fourteen hours to retrieve the shuttles. They had changed course and spread out after they got close to the enemy ship. That, along with the necessity of
Victory
dodging asteroids, made for a slow recovery.

Bright Boy 2
was the first shuttle recovered; they were still under power and had not received much radiation.
Boss
had drifted the farthest away; the shuttle had lost power after the close encounter with the asteroid, and the stress the shuttle had been subjected to was too much for the power systems. Not much of
Bright Boy 1
was found; the recovery team looked for eight hours and all they found was debris.

The
Victory
headed back to the enemy ship and prepared boarding parties. Then pilots Oleg, Saul, Vince, and Copeland each commanded a shuttle. These were shuttles “borrowed” from Jupiter Station as transport shuttles, for carrying the boarding parties to the vanquished Supe vessel.

Admiral addressed the werewolves with his ears back and his fangs bared. Because of their history with the Supes, only wolves were selected for the boarding parties. The humans were only pilots.

“I want that ship as intact as possible, but don’t leave any of the ‘infestation’ alive. We told them not to come back. They should have listened!” growled Admiral.

Forth-three hours later, O’Neil called the bridge crew together in the
Semper Fi
’s Command Deck.

“For those of you who have not seen it on the Earth news channels, Admiral engaged the Supe ship that was hiding in the asteroid belt in battle, and was victorious. He has captured another ship. Meanwhile, we have our work cut out for us with the six asteroid fragments. Hiroshi, what is the status of the repairs?”

“The repairs to the gravity drives are almost completed,” said Hiroshi.

“The bots worked faster than expected,” said O’Neil. “OK, Thor, it’s your show: what’s next?”

“Once the gravity drives are fixed, we need to get close to the six pieces that are still on a collision course with Earth and extend our external gravity field. Then we will use our main drive to accelerate perpendicular to the fragment group’s current course. They will be carried along in our gravity field, and this will move them aside, and they should miss Earth,” thought Thor.

“That should work. However, we have another problem,” said Hiroshi. “I decided to recalculate all the trajectories in case I missed something. Before, I was satisfied when I saw that the largest fragment that is trailing the line of asteroids we have created was not going to hit the Earth. So I did not work on it further than that. However, when I redid the trajectories, I discovered that it’s going to hit the moon,” said Hiroshi.

“Why is that a problem? Things have been hitting the moon for millions of years,” said O’Neil.

Hiroshi brought up a diagram. It showed the Earth moving around the sun. The display showed the path of the largest piece missing the Earth. But Luna’s orbit around the Earth meant that it would be traveling in a direction that was directly toward the asteroid.

“If the asteroid hits the moon in this fashion, it has enough speed and mass to split the moon in parts, or cause the moon to slow enough that its orbit would start to decay, and it could fall down and hit the planet.”

“Can we do both—redirect the six small parts and take care of the last big one?” asked O’Neil.

“No, in order to redirect the largest piece away from destroying the moon, we are going to have to ride it almost right to the moon’s surface,” said Hiroshi.

“So, we have a choice of saving tens of thousands of people from this first strike, or maybe saving the whole planet Earth from the moon being destroyed? Heck of a choice,” said O’Neil.

“I think we can do both,” said Sarah. “We have five shuttles on board. We can send the shuttles to deal with the six large fragments while the
Semper Fi
deals with the dangerous trailing piece. We’ll do the same thing with the shuttles that we were going to do with the
Semper Fi
.”

“The small gravity drives on the shuttles are not as strong as the
Semper Fi
’s. You would have to land right on the surfaces of most of the fragments in order to move them. That would be very dangerous,” said Hiroshi.

“Hiroshi, talk to your pilots. See if you can get six volunteers to do this,” said O’Neil.

Hiroshi went on the comm system and talked to the pilots privately as a group. He told them what they had to do and how dangerous it would be. Hiroshi’s normally pleasant face became impassive, and he was blocking his feelings from the telepaths in the room.

“I have eight volunteers ready to go,” Hiroshi told O’Neil.

“How many pilots do we have?” asked Thor.

“Eight,” said O’Neil. “Nine, counting Hiroshi, but he has to stay here and do the heavy lifting. Thor, I need you to stay here and help Hiroshi with all the calculations. Sarah, could you go with the shuttles and coordinate the required trajectories?”

Thor started to object to his little girl going on the dangerous mission. However, Sarah was too quick, because before Thor could say anything she said, “Of course I’ll go.”

It was a good thing that werewolves didn’t cry because Thor felt himself getting all choked up with emotion. Thor did not realize it, but his ears were drooping and his tail hung down like a dog who had just been scolded. That he was blocking his feelings from broadcasting made no difference.

Sarah walked over to Thor and looked into his eyes. “Don’t worry, Dad, I’ll be careful.”

She gave him a hug and with that she was gone, off to find the shuttle pilots and get the mission started.

Leona was having breakfast when someone she did not recognize called her from the Battle Bridge.

“We have detected a ship on an intercept course with us.”

“Who is this?” asked Leona.

“I am Sergeant Macross. I was assigned the night watch on the Battle Bridge by the gunny.”

“Have you tried hailing the vessel?”

“Yes, with no response.”

“Sound general quarters, I will be there ASAP.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The alarm system that Gunny had installed started to make its energetic sound. Leona gulped down the last very bits of food. She was going to guzzle her coffee down quickly, but she decided to take it with her instead.

She walked out into the hallway and her guard wolves were ready for her. There were humans and some wolves running in both directions in the main hallway.

“There is nothing like a general quarters alarm to get everyone moving in the morning, right?” Leona thought to her entourage.

Joe, Barry, and John replied nothing back to her; they just kept moving with her. Others in the corridors moved back to the sides to let the captain and the trio of wolves pass them swiftly.

Her son, Will, was already on the Battle Bridge when she got there. He looked neatly dressed and handsome; much like his grandfather had looked at that age. He was wearing a uniform that the gunny had found for him. Gunny had set about getting all duty personnel a uniform appropriate for their duties. Leona was pleased with the result.

“Status report,” Leona said.

“A ship is approaching very fast at zero-point-seven-five light-speed. It is not slowing down. It is not on a collision course with us but will pass very close to us. Also, I think they have their weapons charged,” replied Will.

“They have fired, I am checking for damage,” said Gunny.

Leona watched the approaching ship on the screen. It fired its lasers again, and this time the screen was nearly shut down by a blinding explosion.

“Damage report.”

“No one is reporting any new damage. One of the repair bots on the outside of the ship has stopped reporting.”

“A bot couldn’t have made the kind of explosion that we just saw.”

“They have fired again. There was a large explosion three hundred meters below us near Deck Three. Captain, should we return fire?”

“No, something is not right about this. Find out what exploded. Scan for other objects near to us. Continue taking evasive action,” Leona said.

Leona walked from near the doorway and belatedly took her seat in the captain’s chair.

I hope you’re right about this
, Leona thought to herself.

She was surprised to hear one of her guard wolves think back to her, “Yeah, me too.” Leona sipped her coffee from the mug, which was still in her hand.

“That ship has started emergency full-engine braking. It’s trying to match course with us. It has fired again. Mom, are you sure we shouldn’t return fire?” Will said.

“We have hull breaches on Decks Four and Eight on the opposite side of the ship from that approaching ship. I am sending repair crews,” said Gunny.

Something was bothering Leona so much, she wanted to scream. She was wondering if a Supe was trying to manipulate her. However, this felt different somehow.

“Negative, Gunny, send units to repel boarders instead. Tell them to arm for werewolves. Do we have anyone who is a good telepath who can get eyes on that inbound ship?”

Gunny took a long look at the captain; she looked normal to him.

“Captain, is there anything you want to tell us?”

“I am not being controlled by a Supe. I just don’t get the feeling that ship means us harm. Why are the boarders on the opposite side from that ship?” Leona said.

“That is just weird enough to make sense. I have deployed the fighting units to the hull breaches,” said Gunny.

“We don’t have any telepaths that can communicate with that ship,” said Will, sounding frustrated.

“I’m going to an observation point. Gunny, you have command.”

Leona did not wait for him to respond. She took a handheld radio with her in case Gunny had to get hold of her right away. It was nearly a twenty-minute walk-run to the observation deck. With the possibility of boarders, her trio of bodyguard wolves were extra protective.

“Captain, you were right, they were boarding parties of wolves. We have them pinned down for now,” Gunny reported.

“Thanks, Gunny. Keep an eye out for stealth nukes. I think that is what the ship is shooting at.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

Leona opened up the viewing ports that had closed automatically when general quarters were sounded. Before she looked for the ship, however, she turned to her guard wolves.

“If it looks or feels like I have been taken by a Master, pull me out of here and slap me around until I come back again. Do
not
look out the observation port and fall prey to a mind-control attack yourselves.”