Near Future 1: Awakening (9 page)

The part his brother didn't know about was Phase II. The plan was to build satellites that would be equipped with kinetic strike weapons that would work on the same principle as the railguns, but with significantly larger masses. He would need the capability to fire on ground targets once he had eliminated the space-based elements of the Organization. He did not expect that the satellites would be popular with any of the earth-based governments, since they represented a significant threat they would have no defense against. However, once they were built, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. To be safe, this phase included the additional plans to expand the fixed defenses for Space Tech Space Station, in case some idiot decided that a first strike against the station would be a solution. Those fixed defenses would be larger versions of the missile and railgun systems they had so far tested successfully.

All of this was being built in total secrecy and would not be deployed until they were ready to be used. He even had it set up so that half of the components would be built in one area and half in the other, so no one would be able to figure it out. He anticipated that when he did deploy them, he and those close to him would have to be ready to move up to the space station if necessary. Once he had that in place, he would be able to take out all the Organization targets on the ground, too. And no one would be able to stop him!

Right now, he was working on the first phase to knock the pirates out of space. It would bring him great satisfaction while doing it. The last piece needed to do that was the propulsion system they would be testing soon. With it they should be able to chase down the pirates who right now used the vastness of space to stage an attack and then escape before they could be reached.

Even so, it looked like he might be able to get a shot at some of them anyway, based on the memo he had read a few days ago. He needed to test the weapons live, didn't he? He really wanted a little payback.

Space Tech's mining process used a semi-automated mining craft with a small crew that would mine the raw materials from one of the orbiting objects, and then deliver the raw materials to a centralized processing center at the same Lagrange point. All of the mining was currently being done out of the L5 Lagrange point, called R5 by everyone. He wasn't sure who had decided to call it that, but the name had stuck, and similarly the other Lagrange point (L4) was called R4. The rest of the earth-moon Lagrange points were not being used by Space Tech, so at least they got to keep their designations.

When the mining ship delivered its new raw materials, it would then pick up the processed materials from the previous run, delivering them to the earth's orbit. The materials would go to the space-based facility, where they could be used in the manufacturing processes to produce the Space Tech products. The high tech products were in turn transported to the earth on the return trips of the Space Tech launch vehicles. A by-product of the manufacturing process was the water produced from the small amounts of ice extracted along with the raw materials. Not wasting anything, some of the water was put directly to use in the Space Tech Space Station, and some of the water was broken down into hydrogen for fuel and oxygen for breathing.

The plan today had involved a little schedule shuffling and trickery. He had clandestinely boarded the newly completed first ship of the defense fleet right before it left the station for its maiden voyage. He had watched as they successfully tested their weapons against some of the asteroids near R5. Now they were lying in wait for the pirates that he expected to appear if their analysis was correct. They were literally hiding in the shadow of the mining vessel, which had completed its mining and was headed back toward the R5 processing center.

Just to be safe, the small crew had been brought aboard his ship. They had the signals broadcast by the ship emulating the signals that would be expected from the semi-automated miner. So they had basic detection equipment running instead of the high power system that their ship had installed. They had a man watching constantly for the signs of incoming vessels, and it would be enough to accomplish what they needed.

"I have a potential contact," said the tech manning the station. "It is right at the limit of our detection range."

"Just keep everything steady. We want him a little closer and we need to find his buddy who has to be out there somewhere. We do know that they always use two ships. Ideally we want to get the first one in railgun range, and the second where we can hit him with missiles until we can close for the kill."

"Got the second one. He's about 1500 kilometers behind the first and 12 degrees sunward of him. I estimate 75 seconds until the first is in railgun range."

"Ok, sound the alert to all stations. Lock railguns on the first and missiles on the second, but wait for my signal. We have to give them the chance to surrender. They won't do it, but we will give them the chance. Let me know when the first is at least 15 seconds inside railgun range. We don't want him to get away, do we?"

Seconds passed and they seemed to pass slowly to the waiting crew. Finally, the tech said, "Ok, he is now well within range. Activating full scanners. Continuing to detect only the two ships."

"Bring us out from beneath the mining ship and move us toward him." They moved out from their position in hiding and surged toward the pirate ship.

"Unknown vessels, this is Space Tech defense vessel
Retribution
. Please drop all acceleration and stand by for boarding. You are trespassing in Space Tech space, and are subject to search and seizure."

At first there was no response, as if the other ships had been caught entirely by surprise. Then there came the response from the one closest to them. "No way! We don't recognize your authority, and we will never surrender to you."

The pirate ship fired its load of small missiles that they carried to use against the mining ships. The Retribution had been given light armor to handle those type missiles, so the ship shrugged them off with no real damage.

Sam smiled a rather evil smile. "You have 15 seconds to comply or you will be fired upon."

The sensor tech spoke up, "He's changing course and attempting to escape. He is well within our range, and there's no way he can move fast enough to get beyond it."

"He has ten more seconds and then we will open fire. Wouldn't want to cheat him of those few seconds," Doctor Randolph said facetiously. By the time the doctor had finished speaking, the seconds had nearly counted down. He tapped the button connecting him to the railgun control room. "Fire One! Fire Two!"

The railgun weapon systems were mounted on each side of the bow. They launched two barrages of metal pellets. In seconds they crossed the distance between the two ships. The pirate ship was completely unarmored, and the one double barrage was all it took. The high-speed pellets tore through the ship's hull as if it were paper. The motion of the two vessels meant that the pellets struck first toward the bow and moved down the length of the ship. Most of the second barrage struck near the stern of the ship, with some of the pellets striking the rocket engines. Whatever was remaining from the areas hit toward the bow was immediately destroyed by the resulting explosion of rocket fuel from the engines. The end result was there wasn't enough left of the ship to be detected, even on their full scanners.

"Wow!" someone exclaimed. Some of the others looked on with horror at what they had seen.

"Wow indeed!" said Sam, who was almost giddy with the results. "One vermin down. Has the second vessel responded?" He was anxious to take care of him, too. He was just getting started. They would rue the day they had attacked his family.

"No response. He is also attempting to turn away, and he will not enter railgun range unless we close on him."

"That's ok. We need to test our missiles." Tapping the connection to the missile control room, he told them, "Fire all missiles in the forward tubes!"

All but one of the four forward missiles left their launch tubes. The three sped toward their target which attempted one last desperate maneuver, to no avail. All three struck the target ship and exploded. Again nothing of significance was left when the explosions ceased.

"Well, that was certainly successful," Sam told the bridge crew. "We now know that the weapons are effective against the current pirate ships. I expect that they will eventually adapt and make this a little tougher, but this should get the job done." He turned to the lead tech. "Find out why the fourth missile failed to launch, and include it in the logs from the mission."

"Listen guys," Sam had keyed the mike on the intercom so he could talk to the entire crew. "I know from the expressions here on the bridge that some of you didn't know it would be like this. You probably thought that they would either surrender without a shot, or that we would simply disable them and capture them. You have to understand. We are basically at war with them over our way of life, and they have already shown us that they don't care what happens to anyone on our side. The crews of our mining vessels and those killed or injured in their terrorist attacks are evidence of that. And I'm sorry to tell you, it will probably get worse before it gets better. But, remember this. You are on the side of right and we will prevail!"

He paused a second to let that sink in. Then he continued. "Thanks everyone for your service today. It was very much appreciated."

He released the mike, once again only speaking to the bridge crew, "Return the ship to normal operations. Get the mining crew returned to their ship, and then we need to all get out of here. We're going to take a page from their book. Their ships will simply disappear without a trace, just like our mining platforms have in the past." He turned to the man next to him. "As soon as you can, resume our spin for artificial gravity."

Sam watched as the crew went about their tasks. Soon the mining crew members were away, and a little while after that, both ships were on their way home.
 

As soon as the ship was spinning enough to provide a semblance of gravity, he unstrapped from his station and returned to the tiny closet-like captain's office that he had on board the ship. There he worked on his notes from the mission regarding the effectiveness of the weapon systems. As he worked, he saw the VR update come in on the misfired missile. It appeared that the issue was simply human error; one step had been skipped in the arming and launch process. The tech recommended adding a checklist or setting up a more automated process for launching. The doctor agreed with the second choice, since he anticipated at some point needing a fast reload in the middle of a battle. No one would have time to go through a checklist in such circumstances. He added that to his notes.

He made one more addition to his notes. Better determine how much armor we need to include on our ships to protect against a similar attack. Eventually these guys will figure it out, and arm themselves with better weapons. If we get the new propulsion system to work, it won't matter how much mass we have to move around with us, and we will need that armor. We will also need to develop anti-missile defense systems, because even armor wouldn't necessarily be enough against missiles like the ones we used here, or worse, if they were somehow able to get possession of nuclear warheads.

He was almost positive that the mole in his company was entirely earthbound because the Organization had not been able to gain any information on their plans that had been developed up on the space station. He had a couple of ideas of how they could use that information to smoke out the mole. Next to wiping out the Organization, his desire to get his hands on this mole that was to blame for what had happened to his family was paramount. He caught himself pounding his fist into his other hand thinking about it.

He submitted his reports and worked on relaxation techniques to calm himself. He decided that he would set up that visit with the professional makeup artist as soon as he got back to earth. He needed something to take his mind off the Organization. Nevertheless, he would have his revenge. Soon!

#

Zeke had decided that it was time to come clean with Caitlyn. He respected her for her abilities on the soccer field, but he was not interested in any kind of relationship. So he sent her a VR message to meet in the food court, and gathered up his courage. He suspected that this wasn't going to go well, but it was necessary. He also knew that part of it was a result of meeting Miranda, who had affected him in some way. He certainly wasn't going to tell Caitlyn that.

Due to his desire to avoid the conflict he knew was coming, for once he was late arriving. So when he entered the food court, he saw her sitting there, and actually felt sorry for her. He still found her very attractive, but because of her self-centered viewpoint he wasn't interested in her. If she could ever get beyond that, which he figured was greatly due to her family's influence and wealth, he thought she might actually be an ok person. Probably not today, though.

As he walked up to her table, she looked up at him and somehow she already knew. "You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

He could almost see her thought process. First, he saw shock, then he saw the anger flash in her eyes that he had expected.

"It's that new girl," she said. "I saw the way you were looking at her. I can't believe you would choose her over me."

"No," said Zeke. "It has nothing to do with her. It's just you and me, it doesn't work and I'm sorry about that. I do think a lot of you as a person, and I hope everything works out for you. You are amazing on the soccer field, and I will continue to watch and cheer you on."

"Fine! Don't come crawling back after you get tired of her." With that, Caitlyn grabbed her backpack and stormed out the door, giving Zeke one last angry look as she left.

"That went well." Zeke spotted his friend Joe Thomas, who was sitting a couple of tables over.

"Yeah, Joe, it went about as well as could be expected. You always liked her better than me anyway. You should ask her out. Maybe you would survive."