Chapter 15

Lee was relieved. A brief trip to the little boy’s vac-tube helped immensely. It must have been all that water. Listening to Resistance leaders pissed off about Duryss made him thirsty. Or, maybe it was the worry in the back of his mind that they’d see through him.

He arrived back at the briefing room to an argument between General Warrick and Tarrek.

“What are we vackin’ doing out here?” Warrick shouted at Tarrek.

“Bringing Duryss down,” Tarrek snarled back.

Warrick put his arms on the table forcefully. “Exactly! We can’t wage a front-on assault, even if we bring every cell together. If the other cells happen to be as well equipped as we are—and I doubt it—there’s no way to go up against a fleet of trained Sirius Navy military and survive. We have to be smarter. Strategic.”

Lee took a seat and jumped into the conversation, “Wait, you guys don’t know what the other Resistance cells have?”

“Of course not. Each Resistance cell is isolated to protect the movement,” Captain Becke explained to Lee. “If every group knew the strength and organization of the entire Resistance, we would have been wiped out by now.”

“Wow. You really are like terrorists,” Lee said without thinking.

“We are not terrorists!” Tarrek snapped. “We’re a citizen militia. Didn’t you say, ’you’re in’?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a terrorist now, too, I guess.”

Tarrek sighed and shook his head.

“The question is, how is Duryss stopped for good?” Xohn asked, trying to bring the conversation back on topic.

“Our strategy so far, has been skirmishes throughout the region. It keeps Duryss busy and drains his resources. But we’ve known that’s a losing strategy long-term. It’s meant to help us find the right weakness to exploit. So far it’s turned up nothing,” Warrick explained.

Lee decided to ask the obvious question nagging at him. “Why not go to the Empire, the Feds, or Sirius Corp with all your claims against the guy?”

“No one gives a screb about these people because this whole region is the sticks. It’s farmers and miners and plant workers. No big shot corporations, or high tech fancy firms,” Warrick spat.

Captain Becke added, “The Sirius Corporation investigated Duryss early last year and found nothing substantive. They’re bound by convention to protect him. The Feds couldn’t care less about this region. It’s mostly resource-poor, not worth the cost of a fleet, and already under Sirius Corporation jurisdiction.”

“And Duryss encourages Imperial involvement that isn’t helping situation,” Tarrek finished.

“Then the Sirius Corporation needs seeing what is happening under their noses,” Xohn offered.

Warrick shook his head, “No, we need to find key infrastructure that’s keeping his resource engine running. We can attack it and cripple him.”

Tarrek argued back, “I say find his itinerary, send a fleet in silent running, and vack him.”

Jackson raised his hand to speak. Lee saw it, but the rest of the room ignored him.

“Look, I’m all for vacking him for good,” Warrick replied. “But you’re naive if you think we’re going to take him out with a single direct assault. He’ll see us coming long before we can get enough forces into play to take out his escorts.”

Lee saw Jackson still holding his arm up. “What is it, man? It’s not the academy. Just spit it out.”

Jackson looked at Lee, put his arm down, and said, “Honestly, I think we need more information.”

“What did you have in mind, Commander Dekker?”

Encouraged, Jackson continued, “I mean, we launched a fair number of missions from the Vilant.”

“The science vessel?” Warrick sounded incredulous.

“Yes, but that’s not what they really use it for. It’s been retrofitted for reconnaissance. It’s a giant spy vessel hiding in plain sight. They used it to find and track ships. They have long-range sensors for sweeping enormous sections of space, and they fed the data to our ships during our ops.”

“Hmm,” General Warrick appeared to be considering it. He looked up to the ceiling with an absent-mindedness while he pulled at the beard hair on his chin.

“General?” Tarrek looked hopeful. “You have plan?”

“I’m starting to.”

“Please, tell me blowing things up is involved,” Tarrek half grinned—or rather, he grinned with the half of his face that could move.

“No, that’s not where I was vacking headed. Gyah, everything’s explosions with you.”

Tarrek shrugged, “Eh, gets job done.”

“Wow, see?” Lee gestured to Tarrek. “Terrorists.”

Tarrek rolled his eyes.

“We’re gonna need a little more vackin’ subtlety for this mission,” Warrick said to Tarrek. Then he turned to Lee, “Your ship. You’ve got the equipment that’s going to make this possible.”

“As long as it doesn’t involve spacewalks,” Lee muttered under his breath.

Warrick raised an eyebrow.

“No, I’m serious. No vacking spacewalks.“

“If Commander Dekker is right,” Warrick began, ignoring him. “If the Vilant is being used for recon, then it’s likely to hold sensitive operations data. With luck, enough data to convince Li Yong-Rui that he’s got a rogue governor operating right under his nose.”

Captain Becke jumped in, “I think I see where you’re headed, General. You want to use the Nightcrawler’s stealth capabilities to get close enough to the Vilant to hack one of their data transmitters.”

“Exactly right. In the meantime, we work to establish a channel to the top of Sirius Corporation. Then, pass the data over to convince Li Yong-Rui to prosecute and remove Consular Duryss.”

“So, just to be clear: no spacewalks?”

Captain Becke said, straight-faced, “You only need to get close enough for your ship’s data link scanner. Then, attach a pre-programmed recon limpet to the transmitter.”

Xohn had a concerned expression, “General, in theory it will work, but the ThermARC on the Nightcrawler, it hasn’t been tested.”

Warrick gave a short nod of acknowledgment. “You’re sure you can get it working?”

“Haan,” he nodded. “At least functional, but how long it will run, who can say?”

Becke answered him, “Then let’s set up the test.”

Xohn put his hand to his chin, “But maneuvering close enough means the ship will be visible if someone is at a window looking out. Silent running won’t be enough.”

Jackson spoke up, this time without raising a hand. “Then, we need a diversion.”

“Agreed, and an escort for the way back,” Warrick added.

“Count me in for that,” Jackson offered.

Lee reacted, “No way! Not him—anybody but him.”

Jackson, Xohn, Lee, and Tarrek all started talking over each other.

“Alright, alright,” Warrick tried to quiet them, but the arguing continued. “Hey! Shut your screb holes!” He boomed over them. The room went silent. After a moment, Warrick gestured to Jackson to allow him to speak.

“Look, I have to do this. It’s the best way for me to make up for what I took part in.”

“It doesn’t even scratch the surface, and I don’t trust you to have my back. I don’t trust you at all,” Lee’s anger burst out of him.

“Honestly, I get it. Apparently, I’ll be making up for this for the rest of my life. But I swear to you– I swear to you all, I will. Just let me have the chance.”

“No, you look, kid, I don’t want you around me; the farther away, the better. You’re not the pilot you think you are. I’d rather have experienced Resistance pilots.”

Tarrek added in, “But, his ship. It’s most heavily armed we have.”

Lee had his arms crossed over his chest. He kept shaking his head, and muttered, “No way. No. No way.”

Warrick waded in, “Tarrek has a point, Lee. You’re going to want the firepower in case things get dicey.”

“Then put an experienced pilot in his ship,” Lee suggested.

“I go with him,” Tarrek offered. “He knows his ship best; we need him there. I can keep an eye on him.”

Lee sighed, “Make sure it’s your good eye.”

Tarrek held a half-grimace.

“Satisfied?” Warrick asked.

“Not really,” Lee answered. “Seems I have no choice but to deal with it.”

“We’ll send a couple of our own escorts with them,” Becke added. “It’ll make the distraction more effective, and will ensure Commander Dekker doesn’t go rogue.”

Jackson sighed at the distrust in the room.

“Lee I will go with you. The ThermARC needs to be kept performing.”

Lee nodded to Xohn.

Warrick cleared his throat, “Contingencies.”

Becke nodded, “What if they don’t go for the diversion?”

Tarrek answered, “We make them. We go attack the recon ship first, then draw their forces away while Lee and Xohn get into position for the hack.”

“I like it.” Warrick agreed. “Anything else?”

“If they split forces, you’ll need to coordinate the wing,” Becke said to Tarrek.

“I can be tactical coordinator. I’ll be in co-pilot’s chair.”

“What if the uplink has nothing?” Lee asked.

“Very unlikely,” Becke responded. “They still have to follow Pilots Federation protocol. It’s required for all capital class ships.”

“Alright, so what if the hack fails and sets off the intrusion alarms? That’s an instant bounty. Or what if they have feedback countermeasures?”

“Then you’ll need to use street hack experience,” Tarrek said.

“Right, so I guess the mission comes down to the ThermARC working, a convincing diversion, and a perfect hack. What could go wrong?” He made his sarcasm clear to everyone in the room.

“Impro, ada, over.” Captain Becke said.

“Impro what?” Lee looked at her quizzically.

“Impro, ada, over, Commander Sollinger. It’s a kind of motto for the Resistance. It comes from an ancient Earth-saying. It’s shorthand for ‘improvise, adapt, overcome.’”

“That explains a lot about the Athos. No offense, Captain.”

“None taken. She won’t win any beauty contests, but she’s a scary enough monster when she needs to be.”

Warrick stood up, and the rest around the table got to their feet. “Alright, people, let’s run simulations to prepare. We also need to run a test of the device. We’ll make sure you’re ready for this, Commanders.”

Tarrek turned to Captain Becke, “I’ll go set up the test with the crew.”

She nodded, “I’m needed back on the bridge. I’ll inform the deck chief to oversee the repair of your ships and provide any armor enhancements we can spare.” She turned and left the room, followed by Tarrek.

General Warrick stood by the doorway and pointed to the guards beside Jackson. “Take him to the simulation room. Run him through combat drills.”

The guards nodded and led Jackson out of the briefing room.

“You two,” Warrick spoke to Lee and Xohn. “There’s a lot riding on this—riding on you two. If we don’t get the intel, we can’t make a case, or know other weaknesses to exploit.”

“Get our ship ready, General. We’ll get the job done.” Lee answered. But for all the conviction in his words, he didn’t feel it.

Xohn nodded in agreement beside him.

All the while, Lee thought to himself, This is either going to be the most impressive hack I’ve ever pulled off or the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Maybe both.

“Alright, now pay attention,” Tarrek snapped.

“I am!” Jackson’s hands worked the flight controls.

They rocked from the cannon fire directed at them from the small, fast Imperial Eagle making an attack run at them. The shields, drained by the first two Eagle’s he managed to finish off, were picked away by the last one in the wing until they failed.

“He’s gonna do it again, unless…” Tarrek said for only the fifth time today.

The ship shot past them with an unmistakable boost maneuver.

“And… there he goes. Now you’re in a joust. Again.” The impatience from Tarrek set him off.

Jackson actually growled. “I know, I know! I see it Tarrek! Ahh, scrat!” He cursed. They’d been at it for three days, and he still couldn’t keep behind his target without getting into the same situation.

“You know what you need to do. You have much more powerful ship. Control battle, change game.”

“Right,” Jackson said. He fired chaff, hit the engine boost, and rerouted power from weapons to regenerate the shields. The maneuver pushed him back in his seat as the sleek, wedge-shaped Para Bellum launched away. It put distance between them and their attacker, making the rain of multi-cannon shells all but stop.

“Perfect, now quickly come about,” Tarrek continued to coach.

He pulled back on the throttle and the flight stick at the same time, making a tight loop for an attack run. As the ship lined up in his firing reticle, he pulled the trigger. The pulse cannons began to land and drained the shields until the pulses slowed. The enemy closed into range and opened up again. His ship’s hull integrity went critical in no time.

Tarrek sighed, “You forgot to reroute power back to weapons.”

“Aggghhh!” He smacked at the controls in frustration. He always forgot power management.

Tarrek punched a button on the console, “Alright, shut it down. Reset. Run it again.” He sat back in the flight chair and turned to Jackson. “Look, these are just a few Eagles. You’re going to have much harder targets, armed to the teeth and heavily armored. You can’t miss details. A ship like this requires much power management. You must be visualizing the battle a few steps ahead of your target. Predict their movement and have your counter-attack ready to execute.”

The lights in the simulator cockpit flashed amber before restoring to regular lighting. The projection outside the fake canopy showed them back in formation with the Athos.

“Okay, plot the jump, try it again,” Tarrek instructed. “You have the advantage. Plan it out before you arrive.”

Jackson drew a breath and went into the initial routine again. Setting the course, with power management to full weapons, the Para Bellum boosted into range. As soon as the targets engaged him, he dropped chaff. When the first target came into range, he opened with pulse lasers to chew through the Eagle’s flimsy shields. With its defenses almost gone and the target within 1.5 klicks, he opened up with the huge multi-cannon. The shields dropped, and the hull was chewed up by the onslaught. This time he anticipated the boost escape. Before the Eagle shot past, he opened up with a direct hit from the flak cannons. The target exploded around him.

He efficiently moved power back to systems to reinforce shield recovery and set up his next target.

“Very nice, keep going!” Tarrek was encouraged.

He rolled into position pitching toward the next target. Already close, he unloaded the pulse lasers and aimed the flak cannons, then remembered to route power again. Routing full power to the weapons, he unloaded all at once. In seconds the shields were gone, and the ship’s integrity dropped to 60%. It boosted away to avoid getting destroyed. This round, he was lucky, and the third Eagle flew right into his field of view. He switched targets and mounted a new assault, again draining shields. A couple more beatings and the target shields failed. He anticipated the maneuver correctly and was able to place his nose right in line with the flight path of his shieldless target. He pulled the trigger, and the second Eagle blew apart.

The third Eagle was using an orbiting strike to follow around him and fire from a distance. As soon as he trained his weapons on it, it boosted past him, and he found himself in a joust. He boosted away from the target, cycled power for shield recovery, and pitched about for his attack run. The target was a good 4 klicks away. He pushed the throttle to full, cycled full power to weapons, and the rest to engines. When the Eagle made it in weapons range, he opened fire with pulse lasers, followed by the multi-cannon and, before it shot past him, a round of flak cannons. He ripped through the shields and pummeled it to critical hull integrity.

He pitched around, relieved, and finished it off.

He looked over to Tarrek, who was all grins. “Yah! You did it!”

Jackson was beaming. It was starting to click. Tarrek gave him a high five right before hitting the console button, “Now, run it again.”

Jackson’s smile dropped to a scowl.

Tarrek raised his arms in his chair, “Single victory isn’t meaning you’re better pilot. We run it until you do it on instinct. You got me?” He turned to the console, “Reset, but this time with new targets.” Then he leaned to Jackson and repeated, “Again.”

Lee walked to the central transit lift of the Athos. The week aboard flew by. The ship was beginning to feel like a third home beside the Nightcrawler and Foden Dock.

Foden Dock.

His mind wandered back to his narrow escape from the outpost. The news that Foden was taken over by Duryss goons unsettled him. What happened to Dex and Zee? So much had happened since he last saw them. Guilt gnawed at him—both for leaving them behind and for stringing Zee along. He should have properly dated her—taken it seriously. Now there was only regret. It pained him to realize he might never get the chance.

He arrived at the cargo bay and hopped off the transit lift. His magboots engaged, he walked with more labored effort than the low gravity environment of the habitat rings. Trudging over the deck plates, he made his way to the Nightcrawler. She sat with the bay lighting gleaming off of her distinctive angles.

The maintenance crew from the Athos repaired the hull punctures from their grappling tethers and gave her a new paint job. The glossy black made her look new despite her age.

He went up the ramp where he found Xohn already working. His bald partner for the mission was in a maintenance suit hunched inside the compartment that housed the ThermARC. Lee assumed he was working on some last-minute fine-tuning.

The Athos maintenance crews had added structural reinforcements to help with any potential beating they might take on the upcoming mission. An enhanced recon limpet controller was added to accomplish the data hack. More than anything else Lee was excited they completed the install of the new shield generator he picked up on 60 Tau. Xohn’s engineering acumen helped them tune it for higher capacity and a faster recharge rate.

He’d become rather fond of having Xohn around. He was skillful, of course, but also had a quiet compassion and naive willingness to help others that he couldn’t help but admire. It was a funny thing given his predilection for going it alone that he’d find himself enjoying being around anyone this long. Maybe it was because he found Xohn had a kindness that reminded him of Vic. It seemed he had stumbled into a new kind of family.

“You’re up early,” Lee shouted over the noise coming from Xohn’s tools.

Xohn backed out of the maintenance access passage, with big black goggles adorning his face and tools in both hands. It gave him a sort of mad scientist look that made Lee chuckle.

Xohn pushed the goggles off his eyes and squinted at the bright lights of the corridor. “Oh, Lee, yes! Good morning! I’ve been working on better integrating the ThermARC into Nightcrawler’s systems. It’s a good thing we never turned it on! It would have melted the main induction coil of the power distributor!” Xohn smiled with amusement, his eyes bright as if he’d told a joke.

“Yeah, lucky us.” Lee scratched the back of his head. “So, are you about finished so we can start the test? They want us to launch in like 20 minutes.”

“Uhhh,” he sounded nervous. “I’ll try. This ship is… finicky.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s difficult to get a clean integration. There are so many jury-rigged connections and cross-wired systems. It’s a wonder how she works at all. With the ThermARC installed though, it’s overloading the power distributor.”

“Well, can you do anything about it?”

“That’s what I’ve been working on. I think we are down to two options. I can either reduce the efficiency of the ThermARC, or downcycle the compute core of that new limpet controller.”

Lee weighed it for a moment. “I think the priority is staying in silent running. That buys us the time we need for the hack to complete. Right?”

Xohn held a distant look as if running calculations in his mind, then nodded. “It is a tricky balance. The longer it takes the riskier it is. Maybe they discover us. Also the longer Jackson and Tarrek are distracting the patrols.”

“Better that than the power distributor going up in flames though, right?”

Xohn stared at him, then gave him a half shrug and nodded. “Right, yes. Okay. Give me about ten minutes to make the adjustment on the limpet controller.”

“Alright. I’m heading up to the command deck. Come up when you’re done.”

Xohn gave a quick nod, pulled his work goggles back on and slid himself back into the access path in the chamber.

Lee made his way through the ship and settled into his flight chair. Tapping on the systems panel, he brought the ship to full power to prep for launch.

“Alright, baby, let’s see what you can do,” he said in a low voice.

He could hear systems coming online throughout the ship behind him. The sounds of the power-up sequence was subtly different. It was almost as if she was a new ship. Though he rarely did it, he decided to run the Nightcrawler through a series of pre-flight checks, followed by some manual review of the latest enhancements.

A chirp indicated a comm request from the Athos. He opened the channel and acknowledged, “Sollinger.”

“Lakon Sierra Oscar One One Alpha,” an unfamiliar voice said, “this is Athos Control. We’re ready for your cold-run test.”

“Understood, Control. We’re finalizing some details down here. I’ll signal when we’re ready.”

Lee noted the noise of another system online and checked his systems panel. It was the ThermARC.

“Your flight plan is to clear the mass-lock zone, enable silent running, then return to the Athos at an exact velocity of 100 meters per second. Do not deviate from the test plan.”

He heard the clanking of magboots nearing the command deck; Xohn was on his way. “Acknowledged. Clear mass-lock, go cold, return at 100 meters a second.”

“That’s affirmative. Control out.”

The door to the lower command deck opened. “Okay, Lee, we’re as ready as I can make it. I can’t say for sure what it will do.”

“Way to make me nervous, Xohn. We’re not gonna blow up, are we?”

“No, nothing like that, but,” he hesitated, “it is good we are testing to find out.”

“Comforting. So, we’re ready?”

“Ready.”

“Alright, Xohn, strap in.” Lee opened the comm channel. “Control, this is Nightcrawler. Requesting departure.”

“Roger, Nightcrawler. Stand by.”

A loud clank sound and mild shudder signaled the deck clamps releasing. The ship was lifted from the deck by the large crane armature that had towed them into the makeshift hangar of the cargo bay pod. Amber lights spun inside the pod to alert folks of imminent exposure to space. The arm rotated them to face the outer door of the bay while they were towed down the track. It slowed to a stop while the wedge of the large bay door opened.

After they cleared the door, another clunk gave Lee a new free-floating feeling.

*“*Nightcrawler, you’re free to navigate.”

“Thank you, Control. Initiating flight test.”

Lee grabbed the controls and adjusted their heading, pointing the Nightcrawler to face roughly 90 degrees from the Athos. He pushed to full throttle, leaving the makeshift carrier behind them. After some cruising, the mass-lock indicator blipped off and Lee let off the throttle to bring the ship to station-keeping.

“Alright, Athos Control. We’re just outside of mass-lock at around 9 clicks,” he reported over the comm channel.

“Copy. We have you. We’re recording sensor readings now. Proceed with the test when you’re ready.”

Lee hesitated. A feeling of doubt came over him. Xohn was good, but with all the jury-rigging Vic had done to the ship over the years, he worried about about overloads starting a fire. Among the dangers of space travel that most quickly lead to death, fire was near the top of the list.

Xohn’s voice came over the ship intercom, “Everything is ready here.”

“Right,” Lee stalled. “Right. Let’s see your magic, Xohn. Going cold.” Lee flipped the switch for silent running mode. Lee’s eyes locked on the system temperature and watched heat level steadily rise.

“ThermARC enabled,” Xohn announced.

The temperature immediately jumped. Sparks flew over the control panels in front of Lee. The cabin lights went off, and the holo-displays flickered in and out.

“Temperature critical,” COVAS reported.

“Wait… wait, I got it,” Xohn shouted.

“Temperature critical.”

The systems and lights came back on. The temperature began to drop. More impressive, the engines showed more power available.

“Hah! It works, Xohn!”

“Cheeyoo!” Xohn’s uncharacteristic exclamation exploded over the intercom. “It is working!” Lee could almost hear his smile.

The temperature read ‘zero’ and ice began to form on the inside at the edges of the canopy.

“Nightcrawler, you’re off our scopes. We’re continuing to record high-resolution sensor data. Begin your transit back.”

Lee eased the throttle up for the few minutes of flight time back to the Athos.

“Roger, Athos. On our way,” he grinned. “But you’ll have to take my word for it.”