Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance (31 page)

"Sir, I have several more jumps plotted if we need them," Chekhov reported.

"Well done, Chekhov. We just might," Jenny said. "Make sure one of them drops us near the middle asteroid belt, please."

"Will do, Sir," Chekhov replied.

Ian moved over near the navigator. "Chekhov, in addition to what the Commander has asked you, I'd like you to plot a series of jumps to get us out of here that will keep the Empire guessing as to our travel direction. We'll want to execute them after we do our thing in the asteroid belt."

"I understand Sir, unless you want to seriously disrupt the asteroid belt, I'll have to drop us at least ten thousand klicks out. We'll have to be twice that distance when we jump away," the man reported.

Ian nodded. "I thought as much. We might have to, but no, we don't want to disrupt them if we don't have to. We need to drop teams of Marines in the asteroids so they can install listening posts. We'll also have to recover them. Chief Dommer says they'll need a half hour on station to install the devices. I think he'll want them spaced evenly around the system for the best effect. Once we get those posts set, I want to get us out of here in such a way that the Empire can't track us."

"Oh... Let me work on this, Sir, I think I can do this," Chekhov said. "Let me give the engineer a call, and I'll coordinate with the marines. Now that I know what you need, I'll make sure you get it, Sir."

"Great, just don't leave anyone behind!" Ian said winking at the shocked looking man.

––––––––

––––––––

"S
ir, we've got a plan worked out for this, but we'll need to remain on station after each jump for a minimum of ten minutes so the hyperdrives can cool down. Chief Dommer reminded me that the engines were not designed for this kind of abuse, and we are risking melting them down," Chekhov said after a few minutes.

"We'll try, but it might not always be possible. Just do the best you can," Jenny replied.

Chekhov nodded. "I thought that might be the case, Sir. Chief Dommer will do what he can to keep the hyperdrive initiators cool and try to minimize the damage. He asked me to pass on to you that he will be ready for the first team to head out in five minutes.

"Our plan calls for us to jump in near one of the places where Dommer recommends planting a device. The Marines will depart, we will head back out, and jump to the next location to drop the next team. By the time we have dropped the last team, we will then jump to set point to retrieve the first team, and so forth. None of the positions are all that close to any other positions so it shouldn't raise suspicion."

"Got time to show us?" Ian asked.

Chekhov nodded, and typed on his keyboard. A map of the Beta Hydri system appeared on the main viewer. As he continued to type, He explained the series of jumps and cool downs he, the chief Engineer, and the Marine commander had worked out.

"Finally, Sir, after the last team is back on board, we will make two more distraction jumps before we depart for home. The lead time on the final jump will be longer than the other because the Chief wants to make sure the drives are as cool as he can get them before we make the jump home," Chekhov finished.

An alarm sounding on his terminal got his attention.

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked.

"That big honkin' shipyard just jumped to one of my pre-plotted points. The refinery ship has also jumped, but it shouldn't affect our plan, it's going to the outer most asteroid field," Chekhov reported.

"Which point is disrupted?" Jenny asked.

"The last one, the point I set for our jump home," the man replied.

"Leave it there," Jenny ordered.

"Uh, Commander, I don't mean to argue with you, but that monster has mass. Enough mass to affect my jump calculations," Chekhov replied.

"Yeah, but it's a set quantity. Recalculate your jump, but include that mother. In fact, the closer to her you can put us when we jump, the happier I'll be," Jenny said.

"Oh, you're a cruel, cruel woman!" Ian said, chuckling and shaking his head.

Chekhov's eyes lit up as he realized what Jenny wanted to do; use the jump as a weapon to damage the enemy shipyard. "I'll do my best, Sir!" He said and got back to work. "Uh, we'll be jumping in two minutes, heading to our first drop point."

"You have the helm, Lieutenant. Do what you need," Jenny said. She opened her comm. "Commander to Armory."

"Congrats on the promotion, Commander!" Debbie replied. "What do you need?"

"Thanks Debbie, I'm going to need the biggest, baddest, firecracker you can put together without using gravimetrics. It doesn't have to fit on a missile, but that would make delivery easier," Jenny said. "I want to leave a nice going-away present for our new friends out there."

"What do you have in mind to destroy?" Debbie asked.

"I'll send you what we have on it, but keep in mind, it's a one shot deal; like a fly-by bombing. This thing is huge in the extreme, so I doubt we could destroy it, but damage is always nice," Jenny said as she sent the specs on the Imperial shipyard to the Weapons Master.

"Ho-ly-fuck!" Debbie said. "How much time do we have?"

"About forty-five minutes, give or take. It's liable to be a bumpy ride, so try not to make it too volatile," Jenny finished.

"Gotcha, I'll whip up something. Call ya back when we're ready," Debbie said and cut the channel.

"Remind me not to piss you off," Ian said, grinning.

"Stand by for jump!" Chekhov announced. "Three, two, one, Jumping!"

Once again the great ship disappeared into hyperspace, this time to reappear just outside the mid-system asteroid field.

"Setting course to drop point one; Marine shuttle one, stand by for launch," Chekhov said.

"Brimstone is loaded and ready to rock," a male voice replied.

"Brimstone?" Ian asked, looking at Jenny.

"Ever since the Grave Digger incident, the Marine pilots have been altering their call signs to fit the unit assigned to them. In this case, Brimstone is assigned to the 'Helldivers'," she explained.

"I wonder who comes up with these names," Ian asked.

"The team leader, Lieutenant King named them to honor his grandfather who was a pioneer in combat jumps during World War II," she explained.

Ian nodded. "I can't fault that. Just so we don't end up with units with names like 'bunny humpers', I'll be okay with it."

Upon hearing the Admiral, one of the guards at the door had a sudden coughing fit, the other guard did manage to keep the smile from his face, but only barely. Ian got the guard a glass of water, and winked at him.

"Flight control, this is Navigation, insertion point one reached, launch when ready," Chekhov said. "Altering course for jump point two."

"Brimstone, you are clear to launch," Flight operations could be heard to say.

"Roger that, Flight," the pilot replied. A few seconds later he added. "Brimstone is clear, leave a light on for us."

"Increasing speed full, next jump now in four minutes, thirteen seconds...Mark!" Chekhov said.

"Damn! At this rate, we'll make a Commander out of you yet, Chekhov!" Jenny teased.

The man took a moment from his calculations to turn around and innocently ask, "Why do you hate me?"

Jenny chuckled, and winked at a now smiling Chekhov, who turned around and got back to work.

Ian went to the bridge replicator and got a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and a mint-chocolate shake for Jenny. He took it to her before turning to the Navigator. "Are you hungry, Cory?" for once using the navigator's real first name.

"I am now! That burger smells fabulous, can I have one of those too, Sir?" Chekhov asked.

"Sure, what would you like for the milk shake?" Ian asked.

"Butterscotch?" Chekhov asked.

Ian got the food and took it to the man at his station before getting his own food.

"Thank you, Sir," Chekhov said when Ian sat it down.

"Not a problem, you're busy, I'm not. We're all getting hungry, so I thought I'd be nice to you for once!" Ian replied, grinning.

While he was delivering the food to Chekhov, Mel left the ready room, and started helping to serve the crew.

"Stand-by by for next jump. Ten seconds!" Chekhov said between bites. "..And three, two, one, jumping!"

Chekhov's plan worked pretty well. The Imperial forces in the system kept trying to engage them, and even tried to anticipate a few of the jumps, but to no avail. The pattern was too random for them to figure out at this point. As the ship was moving to the next jump after dropping off the last seeding team, the first one reported mission complete and that it was in transit to the rendezvous. Chekhov's timing had been perfect.

––––––––

I
t had been an interesting couple of hours, but now that Star Dancer had retrieved her last seeding team and was moving out to the next jump. Chief Dommer had warned Jenny that the hyperdrive initiator was not cooling as fast as it should, so she ordered Chekhov to slow their transit to the next jump point to give it and the engineering team more time.

"Jump point nine ETA now fifteen minutes." Chekhov reported. "You know, Commander, we can just jump for home from here. I highly doubt they would be able to track us."

"I'm considering that, but I really want to give these assholes a black-eye. They attacked an unarmed transport, and now they're trying to get set up to take over the quadrant. I'm not okay with that," Jenny said. "If we had a chance of pulling it off, I'd say we should stick around and blow these fuckers back to their own galaxy."

"That day will come, Commander," Ian said. "But it's not today. Operations, what's the status of the shipyard?"

"Looks like they're setting up shop, Admiral. Since they've arrived, the bloody woggerts took up position in open space between the orbits of the second and third planets. They've extended the gantries, and it looks like that battleship we damaged is heading in for repairs. The other ships haven't been idle either; they've been busy setting up a defensive perimeter that should be finished in about a month. By the by, I've recorded everything I could about the shipyard and that mining/refining ship they have. I'll have a brief sent to your aide for you to look over. The system is pretty efficient from what we can tell," Chloe finished.

"Thanks Colonel, but do you think we'll survive a fly-by?" Ian asked.

"Not bloody likely with that battlewagon in dock!" she replied. "Hm... but we would survive docking."

"I think the comm is broken. Chloe did you just suggest docking with it?" Jenny said.

"Actually, yes, I did, Commander. Look here," and a visual appeared on the main viewer on the bridge. "That monster has an automatic docking system. An inbound ship simply lines up, and coasts in. The station itself uses tractors to do the final corrections, and stop the ship. If we line up for docking, I don't think they'll attack us, if we dock on the far side from that battleship, it will ensure it.

"Jump in, and line up like we're going to slide in for a docking. The only weapons on that bitch are small point defense and anti-meteor guns, neither of which can breach our armor even with shields down. We glide in, push your surprise package on ahead of us, and jump out from there. The jump effect will tear up the station on that side, and the demo charge will capitalize on it," she finished.

"You want me to attempt to dock with an enemy station, in hostile space, with my shields down?" Jenny asked.

"Yes, and weapons disabled. They'd detect a weapons lock," Chloe replied.

"Chloe, who's side are you on?" Jenny asked, reasonably.

"Chekhov? Can you do that?" Ian asked. "Bring us in like we are a docking ship?"

"Sir, I could do Cossak Dance on her hull if I wanted!" Chekhov said in a cheesy Russian accent.

"I'll take that as a yes." Ian looked thoughtful for a moment as he considered his options. "Do it. If we can set these fuckers back even a little, it could mean the difference in saving our sector."

"Ian, this is suicide!" Jenny protested. "I admit we've been lucky so far, but this is another matter entirely!"

"Is it?" Ian said, looking her in the eyes. "Jenny, you know as well as I do that if we leave these fuckers alone, they'll be all over us in less than six months. We have to do something to them to slow them down."

"I know, but this?" Jenny replied. "They'll blow us to dust before we get within ten thousand clicks of that station!"

"With what?" Ian said, he typed on his keyboard quickly and brought up a system schematic. The fleet that had jumped in was spread out all over the system setting up border defenses. "There is nothing other than that battleship close enough to threaten us. If we come in on the lee side as Chloe suggests, that removes everything but the battleships missiles and the point defense from the station. By the time anything else could jump back to take us on, we'll be gone, and so will a large chunk of that station."

Jenny set her jaw to argue, but Ian only raised one eyebrow. She shook her head. "Navigation, adjust the next jump to bring us in on a docking vector for the station. Operations, drop shields and secure all weapons immediately after jump."

No one said a word as they followed her orders. Very quietly, she leaned toward Ian. "This is a mistake, Ian."

"Jenny, I need to know if this is a premonition," Ian asked intently.

"No, I'm not getting anything right now. No foreboding at all," Jenny admitted.

"Sweetheart, you have to learn to trust your ability. If you tell me that you knew this was a mistake, I'd rescind all those orders, but if you can't, we're going in," Ian said.

"I could lie to you about it," Jenny countered.

Ian chuckled softly. "No, you can't."

"Commander, in order to do this, I'm going to need helm control," Chekhov said.