Hunter's Curse, page 13
“The Cartel will support this action,” Dumont added. “And will support Commodore Hunter during the remaining duration of the war. We will not oppose the liberation of these resources by Ithaca, Irkalla and Xibalba.”
“Who decides how those assets are to be divided?” Sabatini asked.
“That’s down to your respective governments,” Hunter said, a smile on his face. “As far as I am concerned you can draw lots or play poker for them if you wish. That’s down to you, but all I know is that there will be no spoils for anyone if we do not move at once. Six of my best officers have risked their lives to provide us with this opportunity, and I have no intention of allowing that to be wasted. We move. Now. Or not at all.”
“What about the team at Tortuga?” Schmidt asked.
“They’re on their own,” Hunter said. “They all knew that going in, but if I know Lieutenant Kozak and his team, they’ll find a way to come out smelling of roses.” He looked at his watch, then added, “I will be formally suspending this conference in five minutes, whereupon I will return to Melbourne and resume command of my fleet.”
“Commodore, if we can’t make it in time,” Sekibo began.
“Then I die, along with my three ships, and you suddenly have a real problem, because the Federation and Olympians will certainly attack.”
“You’re putting the future of the Free Worlds at risk…”
“No, Vice-President,” Hunter countered. “You are. All of you. We are at war. That’s nothing new, but this time the threat is existential. I don’t know if you’ve all quite understood this yet, but the Olympians are intending to attempt the extermination of what they consider inferior humanity, and its replacement with their specially-bred supermen. And I hate to break it to you, but none of us in this room qualify. We fight, we win, or we die. That’s it. If you want to guarantee the last outcome, that’s on you. I’m going to fight.” He turned to Schmidt, then said, “I’m counting on you to keep the home fires burning back here.”
“We’ll stand guard, Commodore,” she replied. “You have my word.”
Nodding, he rose to his feet, then said, “Then I think we have talked through everything that we’re going to decide today. I look forward to seeing the fleets of Ithaca, Xibalba and Irkalla in action at Gregor’s World in a little under nine days from now.”
Sabatini looked up at him, then said, “I can make no promises to you, Commodore, but I will speak on your behalf, and I will do all that I can to stress the need for urgency in this matter.”
“As will I,” Sekibo added. “And no matter what happens in the days to come, I hope you accept my best wishes for a successful operation.”
“Thank you,” Hunter said. He looked around the dome, then said, “I’ll be back in three weeks, and we can continue our discussions then.”
“I shall look forward to that,” replied Sabatini. “Good luck.”
“To both of us,” he said. “To pull this off, we’re going to need it.”
Chapter 18
“Message sent,” Bradley reported. “I’ve transmitted it fourteen times, all the way through. If they’re listening, they’ll have received it.” He looked at the console, then added, “I guess I’d better start the shut-down process. I don’t want to risk overloading the system.”
“No,” Kozak replied, a smile on his face. “Keep sending.”
“Nick,” Cortez said, “I think they’ve heard us, and the longer we send, the greater the chance that Gorski and his team will work out what exactly we’ve sent, and when they retake the ship, they’ll be able to warn the depot. You can bet they have a receiver, and if they call in reinforcements, our people will have a damn rough time when they attack.”
“Don’t worry, they won’t. Brad, is there a realspace transmission setup in here as well? I need to contact Lieutenant Flynn on the station.”
“Sure, I can do that,” Bradley said. He looked up at his gauges, and added, “I don’t know just how long I can continue transmission. We’re already beginning to get into danger levels on the power output. The systems, all of the conduits, they aren’t really designed to do this.”
“Boost the power, and ride it as long as you can.”
“Boost it? We could burn out half the relays on the ship.”
Knox nodded, then said, “I get it. While we’re using the bulk of the ship’s power to send messages into the dark, they can’t charge their weapons systems, or even think about maneuvering, still less warping out of here.”
“Exactly,” Kozak replied. “Right now, we’ve got them vulnerable to an attack. We just have to find a way to arrange one. Brad, I need…”
“I think I’ve got him,” the young technician replied. “I’ll patch you in.”
“Pat, this is Nick,” Kozak began, holding the microphone high. “Are you alone over there right now?”
“Jim Flanagan is with me, and Vic’s at the bar.”
“Get him, and anyone else you can find, as fast as you can.”
“Wait one.” In the background, Kozak could hear shouting, then voices in response, finally the sound of footsteps walking over to the transmitter. “I’ve got Vincent and Bryant, as well as Flanagan. I’d be…”
“Good. I’ve got a chance for the Rim Confederation to get the first ship for its navy, but you’re going to have to move like lightning if you’re going to secure it. The ship I’m on is vulnerable to attack, but that’s only going to hold for the next few minutes. Get guns, get shuttles, and get over here right now. No time for debate, you’ve got to move.”
“You want us to take that ship by storm?” Bryant asked. “They could shoot down every shuttle before we even got close, and supposing that we got on board, they’ve got trained troops, and we don’t.”
“The crew is scattered, dealing with other problems, and will struggle to respond to you in time. If you move now, get people on board, we can take this ship and get it onto the side of the angels.” He looked at the control panel again, grimacing at the winking red lights, and added, “We’ve got about a ten-minute window to make this happen. It’s up to you. Kozak out.”
Shaking her head, Knox said, “You want them to grab a gun, climb into a shuttle, and storm a warship at anchor. I’m surprised you didn’t suggest that they brought cutlasses along for the ride.”
“Whatever the occasion demands. Brad, we’re all depending on you. Keep the power funneled into the FTL transmitter for as long as possible. We can’t let them charge their primary armament, and right now, they’ll have all of their internal defenses focused on us. We need to keep it that way.”
“As soon as it fails, they’ll storm,” Rogers said. “If we’ve burned out the transmitter, there’s nothing in here to protect. Before they killed the feeds, we had at least eight people outside, all of them armed, and they had cutting equipment with them. By now they could easily have more.”
“I certainly hope so,” he replied, “and we’re going to get ready for that right now. Move any mobile equipment to the doors, about a meter in front of them. Close enough to cause some trouble to anyone charging through, not close enough to be affected by the heat coming from the cutter. We’re going to need respirators, as well.”
“Emergency cabinet,” Bradley said. “Just to the left of the door, but they’re only good for ten minutes. They’re designed to give you time to get to an escape pod, a shuttle, or one of the shelter rooms.”
“Ten minutes should be more than enough. If we don’t have some company over here by then, all of this is going to be over anyway.”
The lights flickered, and as Knox handed around the respirators, Bradley looked up from his console, and said, “We just lost one of the primary power conduits, down in sensor operations. That’s a canary in the coal mine. I’d say the whole system will crash at some point within the next five minutes, six at the most.”
“It’ll take at least two for them to charge the weapons, more if they sustain some damage to the conduits along the way,” Cortez said. “There’s still a chance that we might actually pull this off.” He looked at the panel, then added, “Hey, I don’t think that failed on its own.”
“Sabotage?” Kozak asked. “They’re trying to knock out their own grid.”
“Makes sense,” Rogers replied. “That way they can lock us out without damaging the FTL transmitter. If they can do that, then they win.”
“I just wish we could get access to the external sensors,” Kozak said. “We don’t know what is happening out there.”
Glancing at her watch, Knox replied, “If they moved as quickly as you wanted, they’ll have launched by now and be on their way over. This could be finished up in fairly short order.”
Nodding, Kozak asked, “Bradley, can you still contact the bridge?
“Not a problem, that channel is open,” he said. “You’re on.”
“Captain Gorski, you have a problem,” Kozak began.
“From where I’m sitting, you are the one with the problem,” Gorski said. “I have a team outside your room right now, and they will be burning their way inside in less than a minute. You’ve lost your chance to get out of this in one piece, but if you surrender right now, I will…”
“Gorski, quit acting like you have a good hand, because I’ve seen it, and it’s full of garbage. You can’t win this. My boarding teams will be arriving in a few minutes. Do you really think that I came out here from the Republic with a single strike team on board? Cydonia was prepared for a full-scale strike on Federation installations, and we’re more than ready to take you on. I have effective control of your power grid, so there’s no chance that you can shoot them down or stop them boarding, and when they get on board, you lose.”
“The High Command will shoot you, Gorski,” Bradley said. “Just like they killed my parents, my brother. I just wish I’d had the guts to die with them when the time came, but I know these controls a damn sight better than you, and if you want to push me, I can blow every circuit on this ship at once. You’re a dead man, you bastard. You just don’t know it.”
Knox glanced at Cortez, then said, “Well, that’s a bit of personal history that might have been nice to know.”
“Surrender now, Gorski. If you care about the safety of your crew, you need to surrender for their sake. I’ll offer them the same deal that I offered before. Safe passage home, or a new life on one of the Free Worlds. They get to make the choice, and so do you.”
“The party’s over anyway,” Cortez added. “We sent our signal. Your secret is out. Even if by some miracle you manage to fight us off, and right now, that’s about what it is going to take, our fleet will hunt you down and see you dead. We tend to do that to war criminals.”
“War criminals? What the hell do…”
“What else is it?” Kozak asked.
There was a brief pause, and he could hear some murmured discussion just out of range of the microphone pickup, and a few seconds later, Gorski said, “We would need certain undertakings…”
“Unconditional surrender, Captain. I keep my word. That’s going to have to be good enough for you.”
Another, longer pause followed, and finally, Gorski said, “You have my complements, Lieutenant. You have played the game to perfection. I have no alternative other than to yield. The guards outside have been instructed to surrender to you, and I will allow you to assume control of the internal security system to allow you to verify that.”
“Rogers,” Kozak asked. “Check the images, and make sure that they are live, not some sort of recording.”
Rogers tapped a control, nodded, then said, “I see ten people outside, and they have dropped their rifles to the deck, and are standing with their hands raised. Time index matches perfectly.”
“Captain Gorski,” Kozak asked, “I’d like you to order your men to each take a single step to the right, then a step backward, just to confirm that this isn’t some sort of manipulated image.”
“Very well, Lieutenant.”
“They’ve done it,” Rogers said. “It’s real.”
“Open the hatch,” Kozak ordered. “Knox, take them to the nearest airlock and hand them over to our people when they board. Rogers, Bradley, Cortez, we’re heading up to the bridge.” Bradley’s face turned pale, and Kozak replied with a smile, adding, “We won, kid. You can relax now.”
“If you say, sir,” Bradley replied.
Kozak stepped through the door, Knox already rounding up the guards as Rogers kicked away the explosive charges that they had almost finished positioning on the door, then walked calmly to the elevator, tapping a control that he assumed would take him to the bridge. Bradley had snatched a rifle from the floor, and was attempting a defiant stare that Kozak knew was just a mask for raw fear.
“Want to talk about it?” Kozak asked.
“I’d rather not,” Bradley replied.
A moment later, the door slid open, and Kozak stepped onto the flight deck to see a fuming Gorski standing at the heart of the bridge, Vincent and Bryant covering the room with aged blasters, the Federation technicians sitting ruefully at their posts.
“Damn it, Lieutenant, this is your elite strike force?”
“I think they’ve done a damn good job,” Kozak replied.
“If I’d known…”
“Then you wouldn’t have surrendered, and we would have had a fight on our hands. Nevertheless, I will keep my part of the bargain. Vincent, we’d better get these happy people to one of the secure storage units on the station as fast as possible. Just out of interest, has Colfax made a recent appearance?”
“Oddly enough, he’s barricaded in his office.”
“We’ll deal with him later.” He looked around, then turned to Gorski, asking, “Just how much more work did you need to do on this ship?”
“If you think that I am going to help you in the…”
“The dimensional compensator was burned out,” Bradley said. “We had a lot more than that, but the warp drive is the only essential that needs working on. If we had a spare, we could ship out in a few hours.”
“We’d need a crew,” Cortez warned. “I don’t think that we could run this ship with six people.”
“Six!” Gorski yelled. “There were six of you!”
“The best of the best,” Kozak replied. “Vic, you might want to slip this guy a sedative. I don’t like what the current situation is doing for his blood pressure, and I’d hate for him to have some sort of medical problem while he is in our care.”
“We stripped the dimensional compensator from Cydonia,” suggested Vincent. “It’s not exactly in mint condition, but with a little work, we might be able to rig it to work at least temporarily.” Turning to Kozak, he said, “I will not ever be playing you at poker, Lieutenant. I don’t think my bank balance would ever recover.” He looked around, then said, “Well, I guess we have ourselves a ship. What are we going to do with it?”
Kozak smiled, then said, “Oddly enough, I have an idea.”
Chapter 19
Melbourne’s bridge was totally different to that of any other ship in Hunter’s fleet, the subject of a host of modifications designed to allow multiple ships to be commanded from her. The forward section was conventional, the usual stations clustered in a semi-circle around the command chair, the main viewscreen in front of guidance control, but to the rear, on a raised platform, a strategic operations center had been installed, three stations for the sensor and communications technicians and a central table for the fleet commander and his deputy, instantly displaying all the information flooding in from all the ships under his command.
It made the improvised systems they’d installed on Samarkand look like something put together by a community theatre for a play, helped by some high schoolers fresh from being beaten at the science fair. Hunter stood at his position, looking out over the whole operation, watching as the simulated ships danced back and forth, Fitzroy issuing orders to keep the three ships of the squadron in line, wincing as they winked out, one after another, before the last of them, Melbourne herself, fell to the enemy.
“That’s five for five,” Kruger said, shaking his head. Turning to Hunter, he continued, “Bluntly, if we don’t have the other ships to help us, we don’t stand a chance of reducing that depot. Even with everything else working in our favor, based on the simulated defenses that we can expect…”
“We lose, and badly,” Hunter replied. “Fortunately, I made sure that all of the data we are basing these simulations on was sent to both Sabatini and Sekibo before we left, so I have at least some confidence that they will make the same point to their respective governments.”
“Melbourne is performing well, sir,” Fitzroy said. “In all of the battle drills, the crew respond well above established targets. I have every confidence that they will do just as well in a real firefight.”
“What do we do if we are out there on our own?” Kruger asked.
Hunter frowned, then replied, “Tough question to answer. We have to take out that depot, and you can bet that the Federation will be well aware that we’re on the way to meet them. Right now, that merely means that we’ll be facing defenses that are prepared to face us, but you can bet that they’ll be rushing any forces they have to meet them.”
“The Olympians?” Fitzroy asked.
“I doubt it,” Hunter said. “It’s in their interests to keep this base a tight, tight secret. They won’t want to lose one of their best bargaining chips.”
“Even in the face of a potential full-scale attack?” she countered. “If I was the enemy commander, I’d be assuming that we’d be coming out in full strength, including our carrier, all of our cruisers, everything we had. Based on that, I’d think they’d want to use every potential resource they have.”
Nodding, Kruger said, “I’d agree with that.”
“So would I, assuming it was a decision that the base commander was able to make on his own authority, but I very much doubt that it is. He’ll have to contact his superiors, and by the time they’ve worked whether or not to take the risk, we’ll attack. I expect an Olympian counter-attack, but repelling that might well be something we don’t have to deal with.”
