Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades (42 page)

“That’s amazing,”
Ensign Tram said, shaking his head. “I never thought to adjust for
a time difference inside of the wormholes.”

“It’s all math,”
Kadri said as the other wormhole’s contents became clear. “Looks
like that cargo train is being shadowed by two corvettes and our
hauler is a four-hulled transport. Readings show one hundred and
forty-two on the destroyer, probably a skeleton crew, and ten
thousand fifty-one passengers on the transport, all reading in
stasis. I can’t get a reading on how many souls are aboard the
corvettes.”

“Could that hauler be
a slave ship?” Minh-Chu asked.

“I’ve seen it
before,” Kadri nodded. “These folks are probably being
transported so they can be sold to the Order.”

“How long do they
have left to their deceleration phase?”

“Nineteen hours,
maybe seventeen? Best ask someone who can figure out what those
thrusters can do to get a better estimate, Sir,” Kadri replied. “I
could look up similar thruster profiles and give you an estimate,
though.”

“That’s all right
the ensign can handle that. Thank you for the help, Lieutenant
Commander Dutta,” Minh-Chu said. “Sorry for kicking you out of
bed. Get a few more winks if you can.”

“You’re welcome,
and I’ll try,” Kadri said. “It’s all yours, Ensign,” she
told Tram.

“Good-night,” Alice
said as Kadri left. She moved to Minh-Chu, where he was checking the
course of the wormholes and the Barricade. “We can come out of our
wormhole in seven hours if we really push our thrusters, and we’ll
be in combat range when they come out of theirs.”

“You think we’re
going to take on a group that big?”

Minh-Chu highlighted a
section of the destroyer’s hull where a series of dates were
written. “They finished building this ship less than two weeks ago,
and they have a skeleton crew. I’m guessing they’re just
delivering it to the Order, there’s no way Jake is going to let it
go, not when we have antimatter bombs and a bunch of new toys loaded.
Wrecking the ship then taking the transport is the smart move, but I
think your father will want to make more of this opportunity.”

“But there’s
something we’re not seeing. Our scanners can’t penetrate the hull
on those escort corvettes. What if they’re as well armed as we
are?” Alice asked, quieting down so the rest of the bridge couldn’t
hear her question Minh-Chu.

“We’ll know it’s
too much right away and we’ll have time to bug out,” Minh-Chu
replied. “That’s the luxury of having cloaking systems and
battleship class shielding on a ship the size of the Warlord. We can
stick around for a few minutes and see what we’re really up
against.” Minh-Chu checked a timer on his wrist comm unit and
smiled. “Your dad is in for one hell of a surprise when he wakes up
in fifty seven minutes.”

“You got him to
sleep?”

“He’s been asleep
for almost eight hours. Bet he’ll feel as fresh as a daisy when he
rolls out of bed.”

“I don’t think he’s
ever felt like a daisy,” Alice snickered. “Or would admit it if
he did.”

“True. Either way, he
gets to free some slaves in a few hours. One of his very favourite
things.” Minh-Chu said. “Can’t say I blame him.”

One Ship

There was only one
major cargo bay left on the Warlord. The others were repurposed as
fighter bays, or reduced in size to make room for more on-board
systems or berthing. The remaining space was cluttered, to be sure,
but there was still enough room for one hundred and ninety-four of
the crew to assemble. They sat on crates, on stacked armour plating,
stood between stacks of sealed supplies, all gathered in front of the
main fore access hatches.

The last day had Alice
running around the ship, locking down anything loose, and helping the
on-board security teams get ready for combat. Before her new
assignment, she barely noticed if something was left out of a locker,
or loose from its cupboard, or if a storage bin was open. After a day
of running around righting these and other wrongs, she could notice a
surplus bolt on the deck from across the room. It was that
assignment, chosen for her by First Officer Stephanie Vega, that she
wanted to talk to her father about, but he had been busy.

He walked in, followed
by Stephanie and Minh-Chu. They were in full combat gear. Minh-Chu
wore his flight jacket over a medium armour vacsuit, which looked
like a thicker version of a normal vacsuit, but the layers built in
took care of much more than the average suit. Most importantly, the
extra built-in life support could last for a month or longer in
combination with extra supplies from his ship.

First Officer Stephanie
Vega wore her heavy combat suit. The dark coloured bands of armour
flexed and moved with her as though they were heavy cloth. Those
bands had incredible stopping power, and hid hundreds of tiny
emitters that could propel someone in space in an emergency, or
create a shield barrier in combat. They also helped in heavy gravity
situations.

Alice’s father wore
his long coat, which had been outfitted with the same type of
emitters that were built into his heavy combat armour. She couldn’t
see his face with his helmet up, but she could tell from his size,
his armour, and the way he walked that it must have been him. He
turned towards the assembly, revealing a holographic horror. Through
a trick of holography, Jacob Valent looked like his head had been
roughly stripped of flesh behind his helmet’s faceplate. The grisly
visage moved perfectly as he spoke, and Alice couldn’t help but
snicker to herself as many in the crowd cringed and turned away from
the convincing illusion.

“There are people who
believe that we must be better than our enemies, fight with honour
and be civilized. I am not one of those people. When we fight today,
our intent is to murder anyone who does not immediately surrender and
take whatever is worth stealing. We are making an example of these
new Order of Eden soldiers. They’re not technicians, officers, and
button pushers. Every one of them will eventually be responsible for
killing people on our side, so we’re going to treat them like the
murdering traitors they are.” Captain Valent said. He retracted his
headpiece, revealing his normal, real face. “It is critical that
our engagement here is successful. By now you know we face a large,
armed cargo hauler. We’re also facing a destroyer with a skeleton
crew and two corvette class escorts, all fresh from the factory. Most
of you have never seen one ship like the Warlord approach a combat
ready group of this size, but that’s about to change. Thanks to
intelligence gathered by my first officer, Lieutenant Commander
Stephanie Vega, I’ve had time to plan our attack. Six hours ago, I
shared the details with your commanding officers, and we’ve refined
it.

“We have already
emerged from our wormhole, and have successfully cloaked. Half an
hour ago, we entered the range of the waypoint sensor drones on the
edge of the Iron Head Nebula and they have not detected us. The only
thing the Order knows at this point is that a mysterious ship emerged
from a wormhole seventeen million kilometres out from the waypoint.
The ships we’re after are still in faster-than-light transit, and
have not changed speed or course, so we will have a clear opportunity
to attack.

“We have three tasks
to perform during this engagement: the Warlord and Samurai Squadron
must demonstrate that we can defeat a superior force. We must destroy
or capture the supplies and ships being delivered to the Order of
Eden, and we will capture at least one of their armed ships. If we
accomplish all of this, we will send a clear message to the Order of
Eden, establishing ourselves as a clear threat. The overall point to
this is to damage morale in the Order.

“Every person on this
crew has qualified on their station, and more importantly, you joined
with the expectation that you would have a chance to take the fight
to the Order. Here it is, your first shot. You’ll perform your
duties, we’ll fight like hell, and in twenty-two hours, most of us
will know what it really feels like to strike a blow to the Order.
Your assignments and your part of the plan will be uploaded to your
communicators when your senior officers are finished.”

Captain Valent stepped
aside and allowed Wing Commander Minh-Chu Buu to take the fore. Alice
was already excited and anxious.

Minh-Chu looked more
serious than Alice could remember seeing him. “Like the captain
said, we haven’t been spotted since we emerged from our wormhole.
The enemy will be emerging in twelve hours, and when they arrive,
there will be a minimum of two hours before their assistance arrives.
We have picked up no transmissions from the enemy that would indicate
that they have called for help. There is still a chance that the
Order has cloaked ships in the area. Our plan, in that case, is to
fight through those extra defences or retreat and reassess. Multiple
contingencies have been put together for each scenario.

“All of you have
combat experience and you’ve seen the best laid plans turn into
panicky chaos before. I think it’s important that you know that
your commanding officers, myself included, have survived more chaos
minutes than well-planned engagements, so don’t worry if all but
the laws of physics change on a dime and our plans go out the
airlock. We’ll do the heavy improvising, and you just have to
follow orders. All of your commanding officers have won against
superior forces without having time to prepare.

“This time we are
ready, and the Order of Eden has never seen what happens when we set
out to make a point. I think a few imploding ships and some
terrifying video on the open ‘nets should be a good start.”
Minh-Chu nodded at the gathering and left as Lieutenant Commander
Stephanie Vega took his place. Samurai Squadron and their support
team quietly followed their wing commander out for what Alice assumed
would be a private briefing.

“I didn’t see
Pandem first hand like our captain or wing commander did, and they
didn’t want to mention it. When I asked them why they didn’t want
to tell you that they were there to see the aftermath of the
slaughter and the destruction of a culture, they said there was no
point. You have all seen what the Holocaust Virus did for yourselves.
I took another look at the roster then, and realized that we have
forty-two Aucharians aboard. You were among the first to lose your
homes; I saw a part of that happen and will never forget. There are
nine here who had relatives on Pandem, and I can only imagine the
hate you have for the Order. Dozens of you were stranded in space for
days, sometimes weeks, after Eden ships attacked you. Other people on
the roster were slaves when the Holocaust Virus hit, and a few of you
were even in the middle of labour camps or factories when industrial
machines turned on your co-workers.

“No, no one has to
mention Pandem. There are thousands of places where the Order of Eden
caused incredible destruction, murdered billions either through the
Holocaust Virus or in the war that we’ve barely seen in this
sector. Wing Commander Minh-Chu did say something I’ll never forget
when we were talking about this though. He said, ‘tragedy martyrs
some, victimises a people, and makes soldiers of many.” Stephanie
took a shuddering breath and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment
before continuing. “My family is gone. They got in the way of the
Order and I wasn’t there to fight alongside them. Pandem isn’t
important to me. I was a soldier before I heard of it. I was a
soldier before my family was killed. I’m a soldier now, and as a
soldier I know that my best chance of victory, of survival, is to put
my rage aside and do my job. When our work is done, and we’re on
our way back to the Rega Gain System, we can do so knowing that the
Warlord was the first to counterattack the Order in this sector. That
is an act that will outlive us in history, and when the guns stop
firing I’ll be able to say I did it for my family and the friends
I’ve already lost to this war. Until then, we all have to do as
soldiers do: keep our heads down, listen to orders, think on our
feet, and do our jobs. Your comms are being updated with your
orders.”

Lieutenant Commander
Stephanie Vega turned to Captain Valent then, and he nodded at her
knowingly. A few of their subordinates approached them with questions
while much of the crew dispersed through several hatches leading to
their duty stations. Alice did her best to navigate through the crowd
so she could speak to her father.

After weaving through
the crowd, squeezing through the door and into the hallway, she
caught up with him as he stepped into a side passage with Minh-Chu.
“That’s bad timing,” Minh was saying. “Was it at least a good
dream?”

“It was Ayan, of
course it was a good dream,” Jake replied. “Been trying to put it
out of my head since, but it just comes…” he noticed her then and
stopped.

It was good to hear
that Ayan was on his mind; she had to stifle a grin. Just the same,
Alice couldn’t let herself be distracted by a little encouraging
news. “Dad, why am I on counter incursion and support duty for this
mission?” she whispered to him.

Minh-Chu patted Jake on
the shoulder and said, “I’ll see you later,” before leaving.

Jake nodded at him then
focused on Alice. He didn’t seem surprised by her question. “That’s
Stephanie’s call, and I think it’s a good one.”

“I have more Order of
Eden kills than her entire boarding team combined, and I’m
improving my team work. You can’t keep me out of harm’s way when
I can be useful,” she objected.

Stephanie stepped into
the narrow side passage and the trio moved into an adjacent room. It
was a storage space for replacement parts. Shelves were marked with a
grease pencil, designating places and desired quantities for
equipment that was depleted. Most of the shelves were empty. “Okay,
I caught part of that,” Stephanie said. “I know you want to be on
one of the boarding teams, Alice, and you have improved. There were a
lot of factors to my decision, and even though I want you with us,
it’s not happening.”