No Man's Space 1: Starship Encounter (10 page)

The men deployed the explosives before we detected any signs of approaching ships. The attackers’ movement had been so slow that we waited for two days without getting any sign of the siege. I didn’t get many chances to sleep; I was too tired and too nervous about the upcoming fight.

This wasn’t about dying or surviving; it was about helping the men survive. One bad choice could cost many lives, and there was no going back, no second chances. Banner had suggested taking half of the men aboard the North Star and hope that the invading fleet ignored them. They’d be able to get back to Earth and maybe even ask for reinforcements. Unfortunately, the North Star wasn’t fit to fight or to fly, and we’d have a greater chance of survival if we all fought together.

We’d brought some of our equipment from the North Star to the port’s bridge to feel more at home and control the entire region from one central spot. Banner had rehearsed his flanking movements aboard fighters with the pilots, and Flanagan had recruited everyone who knew how to shoot long-range weapons. We lacked many drones and engineers to control them. We needed more time.

My eyelids were heavy, but I remained standing by the spaceport’s bridge. I hadn’t slept for over 20 hours, expecting the enemy to arrive as soon as I fell asleep. I worried that I’d wake up to another boarding from the Cassocks. I wanted to notice the ships approaching and to stand a chance to fight against them.

Banner joined me in the bridge and looked at the empty radar screens. “No sign of movement?” he said.

“Just the minor static we’ve heard all along,” I said. “It’s getting louder.”

Banner nodded. He looked much more awake than me; he’d probably sneaked a nap between one watch and the next.

Our voices broke an artificial silence that everyone was keeping. The men didn’t joke or talk to each other; they silently stared at their screens, hoping that our drone readings had been wrong and that we weren’t living our final days. The wait froze my blood and kept me alert, but stress and tiredness taxed my body. I didn’t know how long we’d have to wait before sleeping once more.

The faint signal that could’ve come from the governor’s ship had given us enough time to prepare for the attack. I’d been close to ignoring it, and it wasn’t reassuring. What if captains have a gut instinct and
feel
those things? Or was command a matter of investigating every possible sign before discarding it as a threat?

“You need some sleep, Wood,” Banner told me. “Won’t be of much use if our commanding officer is falling asleep in the middle of battle.” Was it a snide remark, or was he serious? “I can cover for you for a few hours and give you a call if something changes.”

Was he showing loyalty towards his commanding officer? Coming from Banner, I expected him to leave me asleep to get the fame and glory if things went well, and to wake me up if they didn’t.

Still, I needed to sleep and he could take care of the port for a few hours. Nobody was going to miss me unless we started hearing explosions. I thanked him and told him to wake me up at the smallest sign of attack, even if the enemy ships started orbiting around us.

“Keep the port afloat while I’m out,” I told him, “and don’t send a midshipman to wake me up. They’ll get distracted.”

Banner nodded and acquired his classically overexaggerated officer’s pose, looking ahead but without seeing anything in particular.

Hopefully, this time he’d realize if the Cassocks attacked us while he was in charge. Not noticing twice in a row would be an awful sign of his skills as an officer.

“They’re here, sir! They’re here!” Gomez’s screeching and clapping in front of my nose brought me back from sleep. “There’s over a dozen ships, maybe more! And we can’t see them! They’re invisible, just like last time.”

Curse the kid. How had he broken into my cabin?

“Sorry to interrupt your sweet dreams,” Banner said through the intercom’s speakers in my room, “but they’re here, Wood.”

“Yes, sir! They’re here!” Gomez ran towards the intercom and pressed it. “He’s waking up, sir. He’s almost up. We’re on our way.”

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” I said.

“I know!” Gomez said with a wide grin. He talked very quickly, as usual. “You’d locked the door, but Flanagan’s taught me a couple of tricks to disable locks, even if they’re high-security. Did you know that he was a famous bank robber? He’s broken into a bunch of banks, and he was dumped here to avoid jail. Breaking into rooms is really easy once you get the hang of it. Want to learn someday, sir?”

I groaned and tried to push him away, but he was running excitedly around the room and turning on the artificial windows to emulate daylight. He took my double-breasted jacket and threw it onto the bed, but it landed on my head.

I sat up and put on the jacket. I’d gone to sleep wearing my shirt and pants to waste as little time as possible, and I hadn’t even taken my boots off.

Once ready, I headed to the port bridge. Gomez followed after me and didn’t give me a second to breathe.

“Isn’t this exciting, sir?” Gomez ran to my desk, grabbed my tablet and handed it to me before following me out of the room. “This is like the most exciting moment in my whole life. I’ve never fought against a dozen Cassock ships, you know? And I’ve never seen any invisible ships. Why are they invisible? Are they using cloaking systems, or is this something else? Can you imagine if we hadn’t noticed their static? Or if the governor hadn’t disappeared?”

“Why don’t you relax for a while, Gomez?” I told him. “And stop eating sugar.”

“I haven’t eaten sugar this time,” he said. “I’ve drunk soda, lots of it. Did you know that local restaurants don’t charge you if you’re in uniform? And you get a bunch of pretty women sitting on your lap. Not sure why, but York held hands with one of them. And Flanagan left with three of them. Is he going to marry them?”

Banner had sent him to me to get rid of the kid for a while, but he sometimes got too difficult to handle. I was going to pay Banner back with the same coin: Banner needed a copilot for his fighter, and he might as well find it in Gomez.

“Quieten down, Gomez,” I said.

“Yes, sir.” Gomez saluted at me and continued hurrying after me. He spoke just as fast as before. “Is it because I keep talking so fast? Because I can talk slower too if you like. I just don’t like talking slowly because I get idea jams in my brain. Know what idea jams are? They’re like traffic jams, but with thoughts, and you say silly things because you skip the odd word or sentence.”

Ugh! Did he ever lose his voice? Or fall asleep? Kids are supposed to sleep a lot, but Gomez was always running around and annoying everyone.

We were under an imminent attack aboard a civilian spaceport which wasn’t ready for battle, and one of our few officers remained on a sugar high. If the Admiralty judged the North Star’s acting captain by the men who served under him, I was in trouble.

We’d deployed the port’s satellites and my engineers had added explosives to most of them. We’d put nuclear surprises to show our lack of sympathy towards sneaky Cassocks who try to defeat us without battling. If any visible or invisible ships got close to them, they wouldn’t like the result. We also had a few long-range cannons, but we couldn’t shoot blindly until we detected the enemy.

Banner had taken the pilots aboard the North Star’s fighters. The port’s fighters were supposed to be more modern, but nobody had performed the routine check-ups for many years, and I wasn’t going to lose half of the men to depressurization or to engines that stopped working and left them in the middle of space.

Lady Elizabeth’s father had trusted his relatives and friends too much with important jobs. Nepotism rules the world, but one or two people out of ten need to know what they’re doing, or you end up risking too many lives. Some captains didn’t take care of their ships, but O’Keeffe had kept everything in shape. I’d read the Star’s maintenance logs and they gave me much more reassurance than the port.

What? Did you expect me to dump Banner and everyone I disliked aboard a broken fighter and wait until they died? As tempting as it sounds, I needed them to flank the Cassock ships and to be ready in case our satellites weren’t enough. We’d loaded the fighters with a special corrosive foam to destroy outer hulls. The fighters would have to fly quickly and release the foam once they got close enough to the Cassock ships. With some luck, the foam would disable the cloaking and blind their sensors, giving us an advantage. If the system worked, we could always use a similar method as a permanent orbiting radar system.

This battle wasn’t about facing a dozen ships; it was about facing them, making them retreat, and deterring them from returning ever again. We needed them to keep out. They’d been very aggressive towards the North Star and we’d been close to losing the ship and the entire crew. I wasn’t going to let them think that they could crush our ports too.

The radars’ constant scanning kept everyone in silence. I’d asked Gomez to go to the hangars and gesture at the ships once they arrived. Nobody would arrive until after the battle, but I needed him entertained.

“They’re still waiting, sir,” one of my engineers said.

I told them to turn on the communications systems and attempt to establish a direct connection with one of them. None of the ships accepted the signal; they still expected to be invisible to us.

I sent them a pre-recorded message anyway: I told them that they were entering port space and that they had to retreat immediately unless they wanted us to open fire. I told them that we were well-protected by some of the Navy’s best ships and ready to use them. They acted deaf.

York and Kozinski were guarding the bridge in case we had any anti-militaristic heroes. I don’t have any problems towards pacifists, but it’s easier to talk about peace once you’re safe after battle. Breaking into the bridge and disabling our controls was hardly a good way to debate.

“What are they doing?” Kozinski asked York. He gestured at the mild static marks on the radars. We’d calibrated the radars to convert static into potential ships, and all the little points remained still.

“They’re observing us before attacking,” York said. “They don’t like jumping to battle without knowing their enemy, and now they’re waiting until they can land and slit our throats.”

“What’s the point of waiting if they’re invisible,” Kozinski said. “Won’t scare anyone, they won’t.”

“They don’t want to scare us,” York said. “Cassocks don’t need to scare anyone. They just walk into a place and get rid of everyone, quick and clean. No point in letting us notice beforehand.”

One of them whistled at the door, and they both turned to look.

Lady Elizabeth walked in and observed the bridge. Several of her men were taking care of the controls instead of patrolling around the port. She curled her upper lip.

I honestly didn’t care if she felt defenseless; we had a minor emergency orbiting around us.

“Lady Elizabeth,” I greeted her. “Are you looking for Lieutenant Banner? I’m afraid that he’s gone for a ride. He’ll be busy for a couple of hours.”
And I’d have sent you with him to get rid of you too.

“
Acting
Captain Wood.” Lady Elizabeth marked my rank, especially the
acting
part. “I demand an explanation for this madness. Why have you taken my father’s men from their posts and assigned them to take part in your silly drill?”

First: this was no drill. Second: a fleet of enemy ships had sneaked into our airspace. Third: since the governor had taken many of his men with him, I was the highest-ranked officer in the port. I was responsible for the outcome of the attack, regardless of whether Lady Elizabeth approved.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” I told her, “but you can’t enter the bridge during our operations. We’re tracking several enemy ships, and we can’t have any distractions.”

She strode from one side of the room to the other, staring at the screens and our control panels. “This is nothing but a silly drill. I can’t see any ships out there.”

“Our radars can’t see them either,” I said. “They’re invisible, actually.” Right, it sounded like an awful excuse.
Don’t grin, don’t grin, don’t― Too late
.

“What do you mean, ‘invisible’?” Lady Elizabeth’s voice screeched. She thought I was making a fool of her, and it was slowly chipping at her ego. She wasn’t going to let a man with old boots like me make her feel unimportant. She wanted to be in charge, and she was going to fight for it.

I’d explained everything about the static and how our drones had detected invisible ships during our trip. She’d understood it and she’d agreed that we needed to protect the port, but she didn’t want to let me make any decisions.

I should’ve given her a way out instead of imposing my authority. That’s what Banner or Hatfield would’ve wanted. Banner was aboard a fighter and preparing his squad to flank the enemy; Hatfield was too busy in sick bay. And I was a big-headed and undiplomatic idiot.

“This is a restricted area right now,” I told her. “We need to concentrate.”

I know, I know. I was an asshole. But have you ever tried to defend a spaceport from an enemy fleet while a nerve-wracked woman is screeching in your ear? I hadn’t either, but I didn’t want to try.

She wasn’t satisfied with my response. As the self-styled queen of the port, she stepped forward and looked for the men she knew.

“Smith!” she barked at one of the security men. “Return to your post and make sure that none of the slum roaches get out of their designated areas. I don’t want any surprises this week after the egg incident. My father wouldn’t like this to happen twice, would he?”

Smith stood up from his place and walked over to her. “We’re needed here more than out there, m’lady. Don’t want anyone to throw eggs at you, but I won’t have anyone to protect if we’re invaded by Cassocks.”

“Cassocks? Nobody said anything about Cassocks!” Lady Elizabeth started shouting, telling everyone to prepare an escape shuttle and to accompany her away from the port. She didn’t care about the locals and she didn’t care if the port was lost, as expected from her generous soul and tolerant personality.

But hey, I was an asshole, wasn’t I? Lucky that I’d kept some of Flanagan’s men on the bridge in case someone decided to sabotage us.

I told York and Kozinski to escort Lady Elizabeth to her home. It was all for her own safety… and mine. Her silence was going to reduce the risk of making a Navy officer go mad.

York tipped an invisible hat. “I’m sorry, m’lady,” he said. “Officer’s orders.”

“No offense meant,” Kozinski added.

Kozinski held her from her elbows and raised her in the air to move her out of the room. She kicked and screamed, but her struggling wasn’t going to stop him. York simply led the way out of the room towards Lady Elizabeth’s home.

“I won’t accept this treatment!” she said. “Tell your brutes to let go of me immediately. Mr. Wood! This isn’t the way to treat a lady. My father won’t tolerate this.”

I waved at her with two fingers. “We’ll chat later, Lady Elizabeth. As long as the port still stands.”

She wasn’t going to forgive me easily, but I didn’t care. I’d end up caring the next time that she acted nice towards Banner and ignored me, but that’s the price of command.

“They’re moving, sir!” one of my engineers shouted. “They’re approaching the port.”

About time.

“Activate proximity bombs,” I said. “Make our satellites say what we think of them.”