Ep.#3.5 - Escape of the Free Fleet , page 27
“Aye, sir.”
“Aurora, jump us to Calayapus and prepare to lay down a cover barrage.”
“Setting course for Calayapus,” his AI acknowledged.
Jeneva nervously maneuvered her tug into position to connect her power umbilical to the two nets she had draped over the top and bottom of Gate Three. Over comms, she could still hear the frantic chatter of Dragon pilots as they wrestled with the drones attempting to harass hers and Barris’ tugs.
With her power umbilical boom lined up with the primary net’s receptacle, she extended it, making the connection. She looked at her net status display as every emitter status indicator changed from gray to green, indicating they were now connected to the tug’s jump system and were ready. She turned to her jump control console, which also showed ready.
“Command, Bumper One,” she called over comms. “Ready for execution. Awaiting instructions.
A second later, jump parameters appeared on her comms screen, calculated by the Aurora and sent to her via the subspace node link. She immediately began manually entering the parameters, checking every single line twice before moving to the next. After surviving this long, the last thing she wanted was to get one character wrong and jump into a star or a planet. Of course, if she did, she’d never know it since she would perish instantly.
The comms chatter was distracting, but within a minute, she had completed the entry. “Bumper One is ready!” she announced over comms.
A moment later, Barris replied. “Bumper Two is ready! See you on the other side, kid.”
Jeneva watched her sensor display as the icons for Gate Four and Tug Two both vanished. She took a deep breath and pressed the jump button on her own panel, closing her eyes and praying.
There was no sound, just a single beep indicating the jump was complete.
“We made it, kid!” Barris exclaimed over comms.
Jeneva opened her eyes, spotting Gate Three in the distance ahead of her.
“Let’s get these things turned, kid,” Barris said. “Bumper Two, deploying thruster packs.”
For an old man who hadn’t flown a tug in four decades, he was far more on top of things than she was. “Bumper One, deploying thruster packs,” she replied, reaching for the pack deployment console.
Josh checked his tactical display, which was littered with more drone icons than he could count. But what wasn’t on there were the two gates and the tugs that had just jumped them out.
“Lead to all Dragons,” Josh called over comms. “Time to bug out to rally point Yankee.”
“I’m more than ready!” Talisha exclaimed.
“Me too,” Tricia agreed.
“Remo, you and I will jump last. Let’s keep these buggers busy for another minute, shall we?”
“The Aurora has jumped in over Calayapus,” his AI announced.
“Thank you, sweetie,” Josh replied as he turned toward the nearest group of drones and opened fire.
“Jump complete,” the Aurora’s AI announced as the jump flash faded. “Beginning low-level orbit over target area.”
Nathan tapped his comm-panel. “Heads up down there. It’s about to rain hell all around you.”
“Bring it,” Jessica urged over comms.
“Ready here,” Aiden confirmed.
“Loading firing pattern Cover One,” Aurora reported. “Ready.”
“Begin barrage,” Nathan ordered.
All the Aurora channel guns swung downward toward the asteroid’s surface below, as did the four main guns on her ventral side. They began repeatedly firing, staggering their bursts so as not to appear patterned or intentional but aggressive, as if they were looking to simply wipe out the entire facility.
“Holy shit!” Jessica exclaimed as she glanced out the windows of the Seiiki’s cockpit at the heavy barrage of plasma cannon fire raining down all around them.
“Boga Two, jumping!” Aiden reported over comms.
Loki increased the grav-lift throttles just enough to get them off the ground and above the roof of the main warehouse. He didn’t dare move in any direction for fear of being hit by the incoming barrage of plasma energy from above. “First time I’ve ever jumped using just the planet’s motion as my own,” Loki admitted.
“Is that a bad thing?”
“I have no idea,” he pressed the transmit button. “Boga One, jumping,” he announced, pressing the jump button on his flight control stick. A moment later, they were back in open space, the only other ship around being the Mirai, a few kilometers away.
“That was fun,” Aiden commented. “But not so much that I’d do it again.”
“Changing course for the rally point,” Loki announced.
The last of Jeneva’s thruster packs fired its thrusters, slowing it to a near stop. It extended its mooring arms and attached itself to the anchor points on Gate Three, then signaled its readiness back to the tug.
Inside, Jeneva saw the last thruster pack indicator change to ‘ready’. “All thrusters are in place,” she announced over comms. “How are you doing, Barris?”
“Last one’s closing now. Don’t wait on me.”
Jeneva punched in the new heading sent to them by the Aurora’s AI, then pressed the engage button. “Starting my turn to three zero five by two eight two. Setting single-jump range to five light years.”
“Thruster packs in place,” Barris reported. “Starting my turn. We’re almost home, kid.”
Jeneva didn’t reply. To her, the most frightening part was still to come.
Josh rolled his fighter over and pulled back on his flight control stick, breaking off his attack on the pair of drones in front of him. “Time to go, Remo!” he announced, pressing his jump button. A second later, he was clear of the system and at the rally point. The only contacts he had on his threat board were the Seiiki, the Mirai, and the other nine Dragons.
“Fuck, yeah!” Josh declared, happy that he hadn’t lost anyone.
“Contact!” Laza announced. “Starboard side! In close!”
The bridge rocked as it was hit with a heavy barrage of plasma cannon fire.
“Executing escape jump,” Aurora announced.
“Negative!” Nathan barked. “Hold jump! Hold jump!” he instructed as he leapt from his command chair and dropped down into the seat at the helm station. “Aurora, I’m taking manual flight control. Be ready to blast that fucker with our dorsal main guns as we pass under her!” he added as he pushed his flight control stick down and right, and then thumbed the vertical translation thruster lever on the stick’s back upper face. At the same time, he brought his deceleration drive thrusters up sharply, rapidly decreasing the speed relative to their attacker.
“Firing all dorsal guns,” Aurora reported.
“It’s an Alliance ship!” Laza reported. “Biggest one we’ve seen yet.”
“Target is an Alliance battle cruiser,” Aurora clarified. “Omega-class. A hunter-killer.”
“We can’t let that thing follow our jump trail,” Abby warned. “We can’t rush the antimatter jump.”
“My thinking, exactly,” Nathan confirmed as he pulled his deceleration drive throttles back to zero and reversed his attitude change as the warship passed over them, their ventral guns firing away at close range.
“Shields down to fifty percent,” Aurora warned. “Their guns are extremely powerful at such close range.”
“They are attempting to disable our jump drive,” Laza warned.
“Good luck,” Abby stated confidently.
“Aurora, ready four missiles. Shield busters. No jump. Follow full-power plasma torpedoes on all forward tubes and forward main guns.” He pulled the flight control stick back, pitching the Aurora’s nose up slightly to bring it to bear on the cruiser, which was now turning to port to bring its own guns to bear. “Abby, power down the jump drive. Make it look like their little gizmo worked.”
“Shutting it down,” Abby confirmed.
“Aurora…” Nathan said as the ship came to point at the close-in battle cruiser as it continued turning to port. One by one, its port guns opened fire as their firing angles opened up, pounding the Aurora’s forward shields as her nose came to bear. “FIRE!”
The Aurora’s main forward guns opened fire with her tracked guns, which were now clustered toward her bow, adding to the barrage. The target’s shields flashed brightly as it absorbed the energy from the Aurora’s weapons, returning fire with increasing ferocity as more of their guns gained the angles.
Two missiles leapt from the Aurora’s port launch tube, one after the other, quickly joining the two fired from the starboard tube a few seconds later. All four missiles streaked across the now two hundred meter and growing gap between the ships in seconds, the first two detonating as they sensed proximity to the enemy ship’s shields. They flashed brilliantly as their warheads dumped massive amounts of energy into the cruiser’s defensive barrier. A moment later, the second pair of missiles detonated, doubling the load and overpowering the cruiser’s barrier. Shield emitters all over the cruiser’s stern erupted in sparks, unable to deal with the sudden dump of energy into them.
With their aft shields now collapsed, the Aurora’s guns tore into the target’s stern, opening up her hull and setting off secondary explosions. Knowing it was his only hope, the captain of the battle cruiser chose to escape, disappearing in a flash of blue-white light.
Nathan pushed his flight control stick hard right, twisting it clockwise at the same time. “Aurora, one hundred and twenty-eight light-year jump. On my mark.”
“Ready.”
Nathan watched as his course heading changed, finally reaching the direction he wished to go. “Mark!”
“Jumping,” Aurora replied, the jump flash washing over them.
When the jump flash faded a second later, a brilliant light-blue star was directly ahead of them and closing fast.
“Aurora,” Nathan said. “Plot a gravity-assist maneuver around the star that will put us on a trajectory toward the rally point.”
“Understood,” Aurora replied. “And nicely done, Captain.”
“Thank you, Aurora,” Nathan replied.
“How did you know there would be a good star here?” Abby wondered.
“Part of being a good leader is knowing what all your escape options are, at all times, just in case things go south on you.”
“Message from the Tugs, sir,” Sima announced. “They are at the final rally point.”
“What about our other elements?” Nathan asked.
“They are waiting for us at the exit rally point,” Sima replied. “Lieutenant Commander Nash also sent a message specifically for you, sir. She said, ‘Hurry up, I’m bored.’”
Nathan smiled.
* * *
“Comms are back,” Nabil announced. “Nodes too.”
“Sensors are online,” Lynzee reported.
“I’ve got calls coming in from every transport in the system, asking what to do,” Nabil added.
“Tell them to stand by. Lynzee, I want full diagnostics on all six gates before we start sending ships through them again,” Keenan instructed.
“I’m on it.”
“Nabil, find out if anyone is still alive on Calayapus. If they are, have them figure out what was stolen.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Uh, sir?” Lynzee called.
“What is it?”
“I’m only detecting four gates,” she told him, turning to look at him. “Gates three and four are…gone.”
“What?” Keenan asked, unable to believe what he was hearing. “Are you sure? Did you check for debris?”
“No debris, sir. They’re just gone.”
Keenan Lyson suddenly realized he might be looking for a new line of work.
* * *
“Jump complete,” Aurora announced as the jump flash faded.
“Multiple contacts,” Laza reported. “All forces are present and accounted for, including the tugs and gates.”
Nathan climbed out of the helm seat, walked forward to the window screens, and looked out at the massive gates in the distance, growing larger as they closed. “Sima, signal the Seiiki, the Mirai, and the Dragons to R.T.B.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Aurora, are those gates on the proper course and speed for the super-jump?”
“They are close, but not exact.”
“Captain, they need to be within one-tenth of a degree, and even that can make them light years off target when they come out of the jump.”
“But you factored that possibility in when we selected the jump line, right?” Nathan inquired.
“Yes, but we’re using an antimatter event to supercharge our jump. What if one of us suffers damage? For example, an AICC node is out. It could take us months to find them. Especially since we can’t go back and analyze their jump flash to help us find them.”
“How exact would you like them to be?” Nathan wondered.
“I’d prefer one-one hundredth of a degree, but I don’t see how we can get that if they’re being piloted manually.”
Nathan thought for a moment. “Aurora, assuming the Alliance sends more ships to look for us and is able to trace us to here, how long would it take them?”
“Best case; six hours,” Aurora answered. “Most likely case, based on all known variables, ten to twelve hours. I should point out that I cannot estimate the number of ships they might actually assign to the task.”
“And how long, based on flight performance to date, will it take for our tug pilots to achieve a course accuracy of one-one hundredth of a degree variance?”
“Eight to ten hours.”
“What about one-tenth of a degree in variance?”
“One to two hours.”
Nathan sighed. “We’re going with one-tenth,” he decided. “Aurora, help them as best you can.”
“Understood.”
“As soon as the Seiiki unloads, have them ferry backup nodes with batteries to those tugs,” Nathan instructed.
“I recommend sending Mister Hayes and Mister Sheehan to pilot the tugs,” Aurora said. “They have both demonstrated extremely precise piloting skills.”
Nathan shook his head. “Nope. These people volunteered for this. I’m not yanking them at the most critical moment.”
“Would you like to know the probabilities of success?” Aurora inquired.
“No, thank you,” Nathan replied. “Sometimes you just have to have faith.”
* * *
“This is impossible,” Jeneva declared as she struggled to get her gate on the specified course. “You can’t steer something this size, using thruster packs, that accurately!”
“You can,” Barris insisted. “It just takes time.”
“Are you making any progress?”
“Not really. Every time I thrust in one direction and then apply opposite thrust to stop the movement, it comes out half a degree off.”
“That’s what I’m talking about!”
“I have analyzed your maneuvering systems,” the Aurora’s AI announced over comms. “If you access the interface code for your thruster pack controller, you can adjust the thrust increments, thereby allowing for more precise thrust control.”
“What?” Jeneva replied.
“I get what she’s saying,” Nathan added over comms. “It’s like the difference between maneuvering thrusters and docking thrusters. Docking thrusters are far less powerful. You have to hold thrust for something like ten seconds to get the equivalent of one second of thrust from maneuvering thrusters.”
“Tugs don’t have docking thrusters,” Jeneva replied. “I mean, they do, but only for the tugs, not on the thruster packs.”
“Which is why Aurora wants to rewrite your control code,” Nathan explained.
“But I don’t know anything about code editing,” Jeneva protested.
“I can talk you through it,” Aurora assured her.
“I’m willing to try anything at this point,” Jeneva said, throwing up her hands.
* * *
Nathan paced as the Aurora began dictating the process to the two tug pilots. “Is this going to work?” he asked Abby.
“As long as they enter the code exactly as she dictates,” Abby replied.
“How does she even know what the code is?” Nathan wondered. “I thought she didn’t have control over the tugs.”
“She doesn’t, but only because she doesn’t have authorization from someone in their command authorization files. She doesn’t need that authorization to simply view their systems, including their operating code.”
“Then she is able to see if they’ve entered the edits correctly?”
“Yes.”
Nathan shook his head. “If the pilot can alter the control code, you’d think they’d be able to grant authorization to another AI to take over. You know, in case their own AI failed.”
“Everyone has a different idea of how to properly authorize an AI,” Abby explained. “Some preach a highly granular approach, while others believe in giving their AI open authority to maximize their usefulness. This case is a perfect example of the latter. Aurora has found a way around the limitations placed on her by the tugs, using their human pilots as her interface.”
“So, she out-thunk them,” Nathan said.
“For lack of an actual word, yes.”
“I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”
“It’s all in how you apply it,” Abby insisted.
Nathan listened to the comms banter in the background as his AI continued to dictate code edits to Jeneva and Barris. “I can’t even imagine how crappy something that size handles using just thruster packs.”
Abby was also listening to the comms traffic. “It sounds like she’s talking them through creating a new interface window.”
