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Day 363/2542
Trojan entered his office and activated the screen that filled one wall. Oracle’s intelligence update for today quickly appeared. The only thing of real interest was the news that a Union commerce raider had made another attempt to intercept a Navy transport ship leaving Hadley. Was it his imagination or was Hadley getting more attention from the Rebels lately? He checked to make sure that the audio channel to Oracle was open.
“Oracle, analyze Union activity in the Franklin Tri-system and calculate most likely reason for such activity,” said Trojan.
The electronic voice responded instantly. “Eighty-nine point four percent probability that the SSU knows about Project Springboard and is attempting to disrupt the build-up.”
Trojan shook his head. That didn’t make any sense. The project to build industrial and military infrastructure in that star system was a closely guarded secret. Springboard was the Master Plan to exploit the abundant mineral resources on the airless planet Makassar, while also using the habitable planet Hadley as a staging area for infantry and tanks, and yet Oracle’s calculations came up with over 89%. Given the hundreds of variables that Oracle had included in those calculations, there was very little reason for him to doubt it.
“What is the most likely explanation for how the Union is getting information on Project Springboard?”
“Ninety-five point nine percent probability that one or more individuals within Joint Army/Navy Planning Group is passing classified information to Union intelligence operatives operating on Earth.”
“Son of a bitch,” said Trojan softly. One or more of his own people a Union spy? How could that be? Hadn’t they all undergone verifier tests? No, wait, come to think of it, not all of them had been vetted that way. He seemed to recall that several had not, but off hand he couldn’t remember exactly who they were. Oracle would know.
“Check records of verifier tests on members of the JPG. Which members were not given the test?” asked Trojan.
“Captains Foster, Hernandez and Senior Lieutenant Asikowa.”
“Scan data-gathering activities of those three individuals since the start of the Rebellion. Is there any unusual activity that would not be consistent with their duties?”
“Captain Foster has downloaded classified data on 34 occasions. No downloads were requested by either Captain Hernandez or Senior Lieutenant Asikowa. Captain Foster has made eight attempts to access and download technical specifications of Majestic computer components.”
Trojan cursed loudly and with feeling as he quickly accessed his desk’s communications equipment to contact the head of HQ’s security detachment.
“Major Kaiser here, General.”
“Major, I want you to immediately cancel Captain Foster’s ability to access any classified data files. She is to be located and arrested asap. If she’s not in the building, you’re authorized to contact the local police and request their assistance in locating and detaining her. Is that clearly understood, Major?”
“Understood, Sir. May I ask what the charge will be for the arrest?”
“Espionage, Major. She’s a Union spy.”
“My God. We’ll get right on that, General.”
“Very good, Major. Keep me posted.” When he was sure that the connection was broken, he said, “Oracle, what is the most likely method for classified information to make its way back to the Union?”
“There is a 99.2 percent probability that devices containing the classified data were transported by civilian freighter to a Federation planet that permits contact with the SSU.”
Trojan nodded. Yes, that made perfect sense. “Oracle, put the Army garrison at the spaceport on alert. Send them Captain Foster’s picture with orders to detain her if she attempts to enter the spaceport or board any ship. The crew of any ship she attempts to board are to be detained too.”
“Army units have been alerted.”
It was time to notify the Army Chief of Staff. He contacted the ACoS’s office, and when the Aide answered Trojan said, “Lieutenant, I need to speak with the General on an urgent matter on a secure channel.” Trojan sighed. General Masterson wasn’t going to like this.
Foster relaxed a little bit as she got off the high speed train at the spaceport near London. Meeting her contact at the spaceport nearest to Geneva was too obvious a place for the security people to look if they started suspecting a mole in HQ. Not that it mattered anymore. The Joint Army/Navy Planning Group would be folded into the new 1st Fleet Army Force that was scheduled to set up operations on Hadley in three more months. This would be the last time that her contact’s ship would arrive on Earth before that move. If she was going to extract herself from further covert operations, then it had to be now.
As she made her way to the departure level, she patted the pocket containing the data chips to make sure they were still there. This would be her most important hand-off yet. The Union had the basic data on how Oracle worked and how it was constructed, but the chips in her pocket contained precise instructions on how to manufacture the components that an Oracle class computer was made of. Without that information, it would take the Union months, maybe even years to figure out the manufacturing process.
Once at the departure level, she looked for the sign indicating the boarding gate for the ship Titan’s Gift. She was glad that spaceports typically didn’t concern themselves over off-planet departures. They were far more concerned about arrivals from off-planet since that’s where the danger from alien plants, animals and micro-organisms came from. It was up to ship crews to make sure they let the right people on board their ships.
Eventually she found the right gate. The ship’s captain was standing there with two other crew.
“It’s about time you showed up, Cate, and you couldn’t have picked a better time to bug out. It looks like you’re blown. One of my crew is monitoring traffic control chatter. The spaceport near Geneva is in lockdown. Army troops are checking everyone entering the spaceport. They’re on the lookout for an Army Captain. That’s all I know at the moment, but I think we should get you aboard the ship without any further delay. Did you bring any luggage?”
Foster shook her head. “I didn’t want to risk looking as though I wasn’t coming back.”
“Good. My Exec will drive you to the ship. We’ll register you as a passenger under an alias, and we’ll lift off on schedule in six hours time.”
“Why wait for another six hours? Why not take off as soon as I’m aboard?”
“An unscheduled departure would be a good way to draw attention to ourselves. I don’t want to do that.”
Foster nodded and let herself be led to the groundcar that the ship carried with it in order to shuttle crew and passengers from the spaceport terminal to the ship that sat almost a kilometer away. Five minutes later she was walking up the boarding ramp. When she reached the top, she patted her pocket again to reassure herself that she still had the data chips. One of the crew showed her to her cabin. She was almost home free.
Trojan checked Oracle’s latest report on the search for Captain Foster. No sign of her. The search had now been going on for close to six hours. Had she been tipped off? He didn’t see how that was possible. Oracle hadn’t determined that she was a likely candidate until he had asked the computer. That was one of the major differences between Oracle and the much more capable Majestic. Majestic would have noticed the increased Union activity in the Franklin Tris-ystem and programmed itself to figure out why, as well as who and how, on its own. It wouldn’t have been necessary for a human to ask those questions.
“Oracle, scan all rail, air and ground transportation systems on the continent for signs of Captain Foster. Notify the nearest police units to apprehend her if you find evidence that she’s on the move. Also have passenger lists of all outbound space traffic reconfirmed with DNA traces. Ships that won’t comply are to be grounded until their passengers AND crew can be cleared by local Army or police personnel.”
Foster thanked her guide and stepped into the tiny Bridge of Titan’s Gift. The Captain gestured for her to stand beside his station. He was clearly speaking with Space Traffic Control. “We’ve already reconfirmed the identities of our passengers, Control, and we’re scheduled to lift off in less than 2 minutes...DNA scans? Are you serious?...No, we don’t have DNA scan equipment on board!...You want us to do what?...And how long is that going to take?...An hour? That’s not acceptable, Control...Let me remind you that under generally accepted regulations, once Space Traffic Control has given a provisional clearance, which you’ve done, I can lift off without any further approval from you. I’m not going to screw up my schedule by sitting here for another couple of hours. We’re lifting off on schedule. That’s my final word. Titan’s Gift clear.” When he was certain the circuit was broken he turned to her and said, “This is going to be close. Once we lift off, they can still send a navy ship to intercept us if they want to. We’re lifting in three...two...one...now.”
Oracle’s electronic voice made Trojan jump with surprise. “A small privately owned freighter has lifted off from London Spaceport after refusing to delay its departure in order to accommodate DNA scan of passengers and crew.”
“Does the Navy have any assets in orbit?” asked Trojan.
“Negative.”
“What about on the ground? Cruisers, assault shuttles, anything?”
“The 5001st Aerospace Squadron is on standby alert at the Geneva Navy spaceport. They’re equipped with assault shuttles capable of orbital interceptions.”
“That’s it! Get me the NCoS on a secure line.”
Seconds later Trojan heard the voice of Admiral Chenko. “Chenko here. What’s the emergency, General?”
“Admiral, I have compelling evidence that one of my planning group staff is a Union spy, and she’s attempting to leave Earth with information that could hurt us. Her ship is accelerating for the jump-limit as we speak. The only navy unit that has a chance at interception is the 5001st squadron. Do I have your approval to scramble that squadron right now?”
“What? You’re telling me we’ve had a Union spy in our midst all this time? Christ almighty! Leave the interception to me. I’ll scramble that squadron. Out.”
As soon as the connection was cut, Trojan got up and made his way to the Navy’s Operations Center. The Captain on duty greeted him.
“Welcome, General. Admiral Chenko mentioned that this interception was your idea and that you might drop in.”
Trojan was listening but his gaze was on the large display. “I don’t see any of the 5001’s birds, Captain.”
“No, General, they haven’t taken off yet.”
“Why the hell not? That ship can’t be allowed to jump away, Captain. What’s the hold up?”
“Well you see, General, those assault shuttles weren’t really designed as interceptors, and therefore we don’t keep them armed for that mission all the time. Before they can launch, we have to load anti-ship missiles on them. Standard procedure is to wait until all eight are armed before any of them take off.” The Captain’s smile vanished when Trojan started cursing.
“Son-of-a-bitch! Listen, Captain, this isn’t some goddamned exercise! The target ship is carrying classified military information on its way to the Union! Forget about standard procedure and get those birds in the sky as soon as they’re armed!”
The Captain briefly debated pointing out to the General that Army officers, even flag officers, do not have authority to give orders to Navy personnel but then decided that maybe he should make an exception in this case.
“I’ll light a fire under their tails, General.”
The Captain was as good as his word. Within 60 seconds two of the assault shuttles had taken off and were climbing through Earth’s atmosphere as fast as they could without suffering damage from air friction.
Foster heard the unmistakeable warbling of a tactical alarm. “What’s happening Captain?”
His voice was surprisingly calm. “We’re being bombarded with long range radar from two craft that are in pursuit. If they’re what I think they are, then this is going to get tricky.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Earth defenses don’t have missile boats. Instead, they rely on assault shuttles that can be armed for anti-ship missions. I suspect that’s what those two craft are. I wonder if they’ll bother to give us a chance to surrender before they fire.”
“Can they stop us?”
“Well they’re certainly going to try, but this ship has a few tricks that I don’t believe the FEDs have seen before. You better find a seat and strap in. If they do hit us, we’ll feel it.”
Foster found a seat. As she strapped herself in, she suddenly heard a voice over the loudspeaker.
“—one and only warning. Begin immediate deceleration to zero velocity and obey further instructions or you’ll be fired upon.”
Before Foster could say anything, she heard the Captain speak.
“This is Titan’s Gift. Go fuck yourself, you FED bastards!” The rest of the Bridge crew laughed.
“Was that wise, antagonizing them like that?” asked Foster.
The Captain chuckled. “I’m hoping that it’ll make them angry enough to make a mistake. We may as well shut down our transponder. No sense in making us an easy target. Mitch, prepare to shut down the engines and retract them on my command.”
“I’m ready, Skipper,” said one of the Bridge crew.
“Good. Standby,” said the Captain.
They waited. The only sound that Foster heard was the gentle beeping of some of the equipment. She jumped in surprise as one of the crew began speaking.
“Multiple targeting radars! They’ve fired on us! Estimated time to impact is just over two minutes!”
“Okay. No sense in taking any chances. Mitch, shut down the engines, retract them and deploy the armor.”
Foster was amazed at how calm the Captain was.
“Engines retracted and armor deployed, Skipper.”
“Very good.” The Captain turned his chair so that he could see Foster. “You’re wondering what I’m doing.” Foster nodded. “Those craft are firing on us from behind which means that when their missiles hit, they’ll hit that part of the hull where our engines are. Since the engines are exposed, any hit would damage them to the point where they’d be completely useless. One way to avoid that would be to rotate the ship so that some other part of the hull gets hit, but that isn’t really a good idea either because hull penetrations could damage other vital pieces of equipment or injure crew or passengers. Union engineers came up with what I think is an ingenious solution to this problem. The engines are designed so that they can be pulled up into the ship and slabs of thick steel can be moved to cover the open sections in the hull. That armor, along with the whole bottom quarter of the hull, is thick enough that high explosive warheads and kinetic energy penetrators will have difficulty getting through. When the missile barrage is over, we’ll uncover the engine spaces, lower the engines and turn them back on. In the meantime, we’ll just coast closer to the jump-limit. As long as they’re chasing us from behind, we should be okay.”
“How thick is that armor? Is it neutron armor?” asked Foster.
“It’s ten centimeters of the hardest alloy we know how to make, with the thinnest possible layer of collapsed matter on the inner side. When the missile warhead hits the outside of the armor, it’ll explode against the alloy, which will absorb most of the energy. The idea is that the explosion or slug of super-hot plasma from the KE penetrator won’t have enough energy left to force its way past the neutron layer.” The Captain looked at the chronometer and said, “Any second now.”
Foster heard and felt something hit the ship. Before she could say anything, one of the crew spoke.
“No damage!”
“Are we still being bombarded by targeting radar?” asked the Captain.
“No, Sir.”
“Okay, Mitch, retract the armor and get us underway again.”
Trojan frowned as he watched the tactical display. “They’re accelerating again. Did those missiles miss?”
The Duty Officer took his time answering. “As far as we can tell, they didn’t miss, General. I don’t understand why there doesn’t seem to be any damage to their engines.”
Trojan slapped his hand down on the console he happened to be standing beside, causing the console operator to jump in surprise. “Can those two shuttles fire again?” he asked.
“No, General. They’ve fired all the missiles they were carrying, but we have two more birds that are just about to clear the atmosphere. They’ll be able to fire in less than a minute.”
“Let’s hope they have better luck. Keep arming more shuttles, Captain. I have a feeling we’re going to need them,” said Trojan
When the fourth wave of anti-ship missiles failed to penetrate the deployed armor, Foster heard the Captain sigh with obvious relief.
“I think that’s the last missile attack we have to worry about because we’re getting pretty close to the jump-limit. Once past that, we’ll be able to micro-jump so far away that they won’t be able to catch us. Then we alter course to line up for the long-jump back to Union territory.”
Foster sighed. “That was quite impressive, Captain Paladin. I’ll be sure to sing your praises to the Union leadership when I report to them.”
Paladin laughed. “Well if you’re going to do that, you better get my name right. Girard Paladin is my cover identity for use when I’m in FED territory. My real name is Roland Drake.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that, Captain Drake,” said Foster with a grin.
