Warborg - Star Panther (13 page)

Martin snapped a return salute. ^Nice to meet you Lieutenant.^ He smiled. ^Thanks for keeping track of me, sorry ‘bout that.^

Her face lit up with a huge smile. ^No problem Sir. It’s been . . . interesting.^ She giggled a little when Reese grumbled, ‘Interesting?’ in the background. ^Just glad to have you back, Sir.^

^Glad to have you back . . . Sir!^ Reese’s gravelly voice grumped. ^She obviously doesn’t know you very well yet.^ He sighed. ^I’ve got to get my lug nuts tightened or something. Lieutenant try to get this reprobate back to the fleet in one piece, and Martin, call Doc.^

Martin nodded as Lieutenant Rose snapped a salute at Reese and chirped, ^Yes, Sir.^

Reese answered with a relaxed salute. ^I’m getting too old for . . . ^ He faded out.

^Lieutenant,^ Martin contemplated the girl. ^Just call me Martin.^ He smiled. ^Where the hell are we?^

A grin lit up her young face. ^Ok, if you call me Mercy. We’re about one point eight light units from the fleet. Does that little thing have a nav system in it?^

Almost two light years?
^I’m sure it does Mercy, but this thing don’t look anything like the spec sheet or simulator. There’s more gizmos in here . . . man it’s like waking up in Disney World. There just so much crap you don’t know where to start. Ahhh . . . found it.^

^Take your time, Sir.^ She shook her head slightly trying to equate this friendly, laid back man with the vicious fighter who’s stunning simulations were used in training.

^There I think that should do it. I’ve got most of this thing figured out and safed the cannon. Mercy would you upload the fleets location to me?^ She nodded. ^Thanks, got it.^

^Do you feel up to starting back?^ There was a slight worry in her voice.

^It’s ok Mercy, I’m fine.^ He reassured the girl knowing she was apprehensive about a relapse. ^Any idea how far this little drive will take me in a pulse?^

^Well, the longest we saw you jump was about one twentieth a light unit, otherwise you were all over the spectrum.^

^Hmmm . . . looks like it was only partially energized.^ He picked an arbitrary point in the general direction of the fleet and uploaded it to Mercy. ^Well, let’s see how close this thing is calibrated.^ Her only response was a quick nod with a huge grin and sparkling eyes. Martin realized just how shy his companion really was. He triggered the drive as he called Doc.

Martin felt a swell of pride as he puttered around his new ship floating silently beside the base ship in his container. There was quite a crowd watching, mostly warborgs, but a couple manned ships were hanging around too.

“That, is a thing of beauty.” Reese mused from the co-pilot’s seat aboard Martin’s Yacht simulation.

Martin just nodded studying the subtle curves and graceful lines of his new ship. It was so strange, just floating peacefully the dull charcoal finish was hard to see even with his canister’s advanced vision. And Reese told him from his ship, even close by with its advanced instruments, it was just a hole in space.

“Are you ready Martin?” A fully uniformed Commander Briton asked from one of the cabin lounge chairs.

Martin swung his seat around and nodded. “I think so Commander.” He gave Maria a sad smile knowing this wasn’t easy for her. He shifted so he was wearing his uniform.

She shooed Prowler off her lap and he stalked off toward the rear of the cabin. “I guess I’d better go.” She was torn. While she was so proud of Martin and his incredible new ship its implications terrified her.

Martin stood up and gave her a hug. “It’ll be ok, Sweetie.” He whispered in her ear.

Her only response was to crush him to her for a second while she tried to believe it was true. She stepped back with pinched lips and disappeared.

“I just don’t know what that pretty gal sees in this no account.” Reese raised his eyebrows and rumbled at Briton.

“Your ship is ready to go Major. And I had them load the modified type three Mark Seventeen missile.” Briton hesitated. “Major Reese, would you excuse us for a moment.”

“Of course, Sir.” He winked at Martin and faded out.

“Martin, did you get the required intelligence upgrade for Prowler?” Briton asked.

“Yes Commander, he’s a full level nine now . . .” Martin answered then queried, “off the record Sir.”

Briton cocked an eyebrow and nodded.

“A couple of the engineers at Cyber Pets had the proper clearances and were briefed.” Martin laughed, “I guess it took some convincing that we really did want a military grade intelligence in a cat simulation.” He shook his head remembering the reaction to that request. “Anyway, they pushed the envelope pretty hard, Sir. Prowler is now a level ten with the exception of speech.” Martin grinned at the Commander. “I’m sorry, but a talking cat would be just a little much.” He grew more serious, “but they added supersoft logic and illogical behavior recognition and propagation.”

Briton nodded. “And his integration with the ship?”

“It went very well.” Martin gave Briton a toothy grin. “I’ve run the little guy through some simulations and he performed magnificently.” A momentary sadness ran through Martin’s eyes. “I guess I can’t think of him as just my little guy any more, he’s one tough nut in a battle simulation.” Martin heaved a sigh. “I have no doubt he will be able to control the ship in any foreseeable situation, Sir.”

“Very well.” Briton replied and softened. “I understand.”
Sometimes the small changes are the hardest to take.
“Are you ready to take your ship Major?”

“Yes Sir.” Martin stood facing Briton and snapped a salute. “Major Morgan reporting to take command of the combat scout ship, Sir.”

“Very well, Major. Command granted.” Briton answered Martin’s salute. “Continue Major, and God speed.” He took a step back and his form shifted to civilian dress. “Have you named her, Martin.”

Martin’s uniform faded. “Yes Commander.” He held his hand out toward his new ship. “Let me introduce you to the Federation ship, Star Panther.”

“Silent, invisible, fast and deadly with the mind of a cat. I think I approve Martin, I really do.” Briton nodded.

Martin gave a sheepish smile. “Thank you, Sir.” He straightened up. “I think I’d better shutdown all these simulations before I mate with the ship.” Briton gave Martin one of his few full smiles and faded out.

. . .

A moment later Martin was floating beside his new ship looking out from his container. He maneuvered under the ship, conscious of all the eyes observing his every move, but the mating proved to be anticlimactic. He relaxed as his container was pulled into the ship and a few seconds later was rewarded as he watched and felt the ship welcome him with its power up sequence.
Home sweet home.
He thought with a stinging pride. He looked out from his new perch at the ships around him. “Star Panther to control.”

“Go Star Panther,” came the instantaneous response.

“Ship is online and requesting departure to rear area for acclimation.”

“Departure granted for downloaded quadrant.” There was a short silence then a very human voice came back on, “Good luck Star Panther,” then a general broadcast, “Control to all ships,” a short laugh, “give him some room guys . . . you remember what happened last time we turned him loose out there.”

Martin felt himself go beet red.
Not very professional, but bless you for breaking the ice. Who ever you are.
^Ready, Reese.^

Reese’s relaxed image appeared. ^Sure . . .^ His eyes glinted. ^Just let me get out of range first.^ He laughed and his fighter headed out through the departing ships.

^Dang it Reese, just how bad was I out there?^ Martin fumed. It had been a conspiracy of silence; no one would tell him what he did. They all just commented it was bad, really bad.

Reese glumly studied Martin’s sad face as they sat at a table in the nearly deserted Charlie’s Place. “It’s getting rougher out there, Martin.”

“Yeah, I know.” Martin sighed. “The Koth are getting better at handling us warborgs . . .” His voice tapered off.

Reese gave a sad nod. “And these new kids, I just don’t know what to say.”

Martin leaned back in his chair. “Awww, there’s more to it than that. They managed to jump those guys. Mercy bought it without ever getting to fire a shot.” Martin gritted his teeth remembering the shyness and the brightness of her smile.

Reese knew Martin was taking this one personal.

“Ya know Reese,” Martin pondered quietly, “I think the sponge heads have another new toy. There’s no way they should’ve been able to get that close without our guys seeing them coming, I don’t care how green they were.”

Dottie wandered in and sat down at the table. “Hi guys.” Her normally bubbly personality was subdued. “Did you hear the news? Fleet Command ordered us to pull back a hundred units. I guess they don’t like what’s going on either.”

Reese shook his head. “Briton figured that was coming, due to his smarts we’ve been holding our own. Some of the other groups have been getting hammered.”

Dottie’s face pinched up. “We’re losing this war, aren’t we?”

The two men just studied their hands, why else would they give up a hundred light years of space.

“It just don’t seem right,” Reese growled. “We’re better fighters than they are.”

“True, my friend,” Martin sighed. “But their technology is better, whether we want to believe it or not, and there’s just too many of ‘em,”.

“When are you leaving Martin?” Dottie quietly asked.

“I figure I’ll spend a little time with Maria then head out. I’m going to take a cruise down the line, so I should be able to maintain communication for a while. But once I head into Koth territory . . .?” He gave a fatalistic shrug. “I’m going to have to run silent.”

“Running silent,” Dottie shuddered. “I don’t thi . . .”.

. . .

“Attention crew. This is Commander Briton. All warborgs go active. All crews to your ready rooms. All ships readying for launch you have fifteen seconds to launch or hold. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. We have just been scouted by a group of Koth fighters. The fleet will be departing in thirty seconds. Commander Briton out.”

^Martin.^ Briton’s voice was harried in an audio only hard link.

^Go, Commander.^ Martin was already back in his ship still in the training quadrant.

^The entire fleet is pulling back, but I want you to stay in the area.^

^Copy, I’ll stay put here.^ Martin snapped back.

Briton’s voice lost its edge. ^I managed to convince the Admiral to disperse the ships over a wider area when we fall back.^

^Good idea Commander. I was set to leave anyway so I shouldn’t need anything from the base ship.^

^Copy Major, check in before you go silent.^

^Copy, will do, Commander. I’m going to make a run down the front line first to wring out this ship, so that should be in a few days.^

^Very well, Briton out.^

Several seconds later the fleet vanished from his sensors.  Martin gazed at the solemn emptiness as the old awe crept back into his soul, and a slight pang of loneliness. He started his yacht simulation and Prowler jumped into his lap bumping the top of his head under Martin’s chin. He set his ship to run silent.

Less than a minute later Prowler stopped treading his leg, laid his ears back and gave a low growl. Almost a hundred Koth fighters erupted from nowhere into the area where the fleet had been, followed by several dozen mixed heavy ships.
That was really close, too close.
He thought, studying the Koth fleet while it disappeared, never coming near his position. Prowler’s tail stub lashed as Martin absently scratched him between the ears. “I saw them fella.”

Martin sighed as he thought about Maria. After the unsuccessful Koth attack he reported what he had seen to Commander Briton and uploaded all his sensor data. Everyone at the command level was stunned at the sheer massiveness of the assault. Had the fleet been thirty seconds slower it could have been a disaster with the Koth following them. The gravest concern was how the Koth got that many ships to one location so quickly. The consensus was that the Koth did indeed have a new technology and the Federation better figure it out quick. Then with nothing left to hold him there he headed out and contacted Maria.

She was so quiet and sad about his going. She didn’t say anything, but he could tell the fact that he was going to be running silent in Koth space terrified her. Not about the fact that they wouldn’t be in contact for long periods of time, but never knowing from day to day if he were still alive.
This is just so damn unfair to her.
Martin thought sadly.

He set out in a zig zag course that cris-crossed contested space taking a day for each leg, constantly scanning space around him and randomly dropping into normal space for a few minutes to perform high precision sensor scans. So far nothing had shown up except some debris and a couple derelict Koth ships. The Koth never retrieved any damaged ships leaving any surviving crew to die; why, the Federation could never fathom. They were a goldmine of information.
It’s almost as if they want us to have their technology.
Martin had thought so many times.
It just don’t make any sense. Go ahead, try to apply human logic to an alien mind, that’s a sure way to drive yourself crazy.

Martin looked down at Prowler grooming himself it the co-pilot seat. “Last night was rough on her.” Prowler stopped grooming momentarily to look up at Martin and blink a couple times in seeming agreement before resuming with one back leg stuck up in the air. “Couple more days and we’re going to have to head out.”
Last night was tough on me too. I just don’t know what to say to her, it all sounds so trite.
The memory of the last fifteen minutes with her still burned in his mind. She just laid there on top of him, straddling him in a kneeling position with her legs up along his sides and her arms around his chest and her head lying on its side under his chin. No tears, not saying anything just every so often she would crush herself to him for a few seconds. The feel of her smooth skin, with the underlying subtle curves in her back of muscle and bone, added to the sensation of closeness as their bodies pressed together, haunting him. It wasn’t sexual; it was something way beyond that.
I’ll be back girl.
He gritted his teeth.
I don’t care if I have to row myself clear across the universe in my little bucket, I’ll be back.
He lost himself in wandering thought, watching the quiet emptiness flow around his ship.

. . .

Prowler’s head snapped up, ears forward, whiskers fully extended. His head shifted a little bit and he uncurled into a low crouch. His head shifted again and his tail stub started to lash and shake.

Martin studied his small companion. “What do you see boy? Show me.” A display next to Martin lit up with a view of space off to the side, the view shifted several times, but Martin saw nothing. “I don’t see anything, are you sure?” Prowler gave a low growl.
Panorama.
Martin commanded. He was instantly floating in empty space. “Show me again fella.” Once again Martin saw nothing. “Where? I don’t see it. Highlight it.” A small red circle floated in space for a split second then jumped, hesitated and jumped again. It repeated this five times before it left sensor range. “Detail your best scan and show it to me.”
Normal!
Martin commanded. And he was back in his yacht. The display in front of him displayed a grainy image of a small cylinder with rounded ends, no bigger than his thumb. “Now what the hell . . . can you track and follow?” Prowler gave a low chirup. “Hunt it down fella, I think we just found part of the Koth’s new toy. Sensor range only at a hundred LK
[4]
, don’t let it approach us.”
I wanna’ watch thing for a bit.
“Get us in front of it when you think you’ve got its path predicted. Tag locations.”

Martin’s ship jumped several times as he watched, then made a longer jump. The little cylinder hopped across the screen with each appearance showing as a red dot. Martin studied his navigation hologram for a second with the path of the object super imposed on it. “Good boy, fella. It’s definitely heading deeper into our space and all in all moves pretty damned fast.” Martin commanded the predicted path to appear in the hologram and traced it. The path wasn’t going to come anywhere near any Federation ships he knew of. He reached over and scratched Prowler between the ears. “Ohh, it’s cute all right, but just what in hell is it doing? Well let’s see, it’s going about a hundred LK each jump and jumping about a hundred times a minute. So that little piece of shit is covering about three light hours a minute.” Martin did a quick mental calculation. “Holy schmoly, that thing’s covering about a half a light year a day.”
I only see one, but say they randomly fire off a shitload of these things . . .
Martin leaned back in his seat, thinking about what was happening in the war. “Ya know Prowler, I’ve got a hunch. I bet that thing is some sort of reconnaissance drone. By itself it ain’t much, but if you send in hundreds, or even thousands, of them they would scour a lot of space in a big hurry.”
But how do they work?

. . .

Rear Admiral Chinn looked up from the reports she was reading and tapped the buzzing vidphone. “Admiral Chinn.”

“Comm central, Admiral.” The unknown Major replied.

She set down the reports. “Go ahead, Major.”

“Yes Ma’am,” He glanced at a display off to the side. “We have a request from a Major Morgan aboard the Star Panther for a direct communication to the Fleet Officer on duty.”

Admiral Chinn sighed. “His authorization, Major.”

He returned a quick smile. “Off the bloom’in chart, Ma’am.”

She had to stifle a laugh, it was good to see moral was still good after the disaster the past two weeks had been. She smiled. “Thank you Major, patch him through.”

“Will do, Ma’am.” He gave a quick nod and disappeared.

Admiral Chinn fidgeted for a second as the connection was made.
We’re getting shot to shit out here and some hot shot Major has the authority to contact the Fleet Commander directly without going through the chain of command.
The thought was still born as the authorizations rolled down her screen.
Whoa, that Major Morgan.
She felt a slight tingle of apprehension remembering the memo she had received on this warborg and his ship . . . and their mission. A shaky heartbeat later a pleasant face appeared on her vidphone.

“Major Morgan reporting , Ss . . . Ma’am.” His face was relaxed.

She let out a sigh of relief at his calm demeanor. “Admiral Chinn here, what can we do for you Major?”

“Ma’am, I’m tracking a single bogey that is headed into your sector.”

The apprehension came roaring back. “Go ahead , Major. I’m listening. What kind of bogey?”

Martin sighed. “I wish I knew Admiral.” He fed through the display of the cylinder.”

She studied the image for a few seconds wanting to yell at this Major for bothering her with this piece of nonsense with everything else that was going on. She took a deep breath and regained her composure. “I assume you give this find some importance.”

Martin fed through all the data he had. “Yes Ma’am. I think it’s a reconnaissance drone of some sort.”

She scrolled through the data.
Well, he is thorough.
Her eyebrows shot up and she scrolled back to the physical description. “This thing is tiny!”

“Yes Ma’am, and quiet. The only reason we spotted it is because we were running silent. Even then Prowler, sorry, he’s my AI companion, was the one who noted it. I would never have seen it.”

Chinn had to fight off a momentary shiver.
These cyborgs are SO strange, an AI companion?
“Still Major, I don’t believe one could have gotten by a surveillance ship undetected.”

Martin nodded. “That was my thought also. But then it hit me, we don’t run those ships deep in our own space.”

She shrugged, then sagged a little as she understood what he was going to say. “Son of a bitch. So they sneak into our space, fire off a bunch of these things and sneak back.”

“Yep, and they’re so damn quiet one could flitter right through the middle of your fleet and you’d be none the wiser.” He shot her a questioning half smile.

“Aww, for cryin’ in the beer.” She seethed. “There could be thousands of these little turds running around and we’d be none the wiser.”

Martin laughed, he liked this officer.

Admiral Chinn smiled in embarrassment over her outburst. “Sorry, Major.”

“Fer what? Being human?” He gave a loose chuckle. “Welcome aboard, Ma’am.”

She studied the amiable face in the vidphone.
You must have been one hell of a man, Major.
This was no ordinary officer, she could feel it.

She frowned. “Okay, you’re tracking this little bugger, so now what do we do?”

“We need to know how it works. There’s nothing in its path, so we need to put something there and watch what it does.” He nodded to her for any suggestions.

. . .

“Decoy squadrons jump.” Admiral Chinn’s voice commanded.

The two groups of warborg strikes disappeared instantly.

“Are you sure they came through, Admiral?” The senior squadron leader asked. “We didn’t see a thing.”

“Yes Major, both the bogey and our ship went through about a half klick from you.” Admiral Chinn responded, noting with satisfaction the two groups of warborgs had reappeared in normal space twenty thousand klicks from where they had been.

Thirty seconds later several dozen Koth fighters appeared. The warborgs vanished from the area without a fight.

. . .

The senior squadron leader looked at those around him in the hardlink. ^Well, now we’re fighting ghosts and ambushes. Just great.^

^Yeah, but remember Jeff, one of those ghosts was one of us.^ Another spoke up.

They all broke the link in deep thought. It was a whole new ball game and they didn’t know the rules yet.

. . .

Martin watched Prowler, marveling at how much he could read from his buddy’s body language. They followed the cylinder through seemingly endless jumps waiting for the one he hoped would make it respond. He watched in silence as they drew closer to the two squadrons of fighters, he could pick them up several jumps before they got there. He involuntarily held his breath as they flashed through his close range sensors. They followed the cylinder through the next jump. But this time it didn’t jump, it floated in space for a few seconds then detonated. “Well that sucks.” Martin slumped in his seat.
Follow the little turd all over hell and gone and it blows itself up in the middle of nowhere. Real effective weapon guys.
He sat in silence waiting to see if anything else happened. His vidphone buzzed.

“Morgan here.”

Admiral Chinn’s excited face lit up the screen. “Tell me you saw something.”

“Why? What happened?” He sputtered.

“About two dozen Koth fighters showed up right on schedule, right on target.”

“What?” Martin stared at her face. “Nothing happened, the little piece of junk took one more jump then blooey. It blew itself up. End of story.”

She drooped a little. “So you never picked up a transmission from it of any kind?”

“Not a twitch. Damn.” Martin sighed in exasperation and reached over to scratch Prowler. He looked at his cat and chuckled. “Hey Admiral, you ever have a cat or dog?”

She looked confused. “Sure, we had both while I grew up. Why?”

“Ever seen them smile?”

“Yeah, all the time.” She gazed at Martin wondering about his sanity for thinking about that at a time like this.

“Well,” he gave her a wink, “you see I got a cat here grinning from ear to ear. He caught his self a mouse and is damned proud of it.”