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“Captain,” Hawke said. “We’re picking up a distress signal from a mining colony!”
“Red Alert,” Naomi ordered. She frowned as an icon flashed up on the display. The attack was surprisingly close to Washington’s patrol route, but too far to let her intervene before it was too late. The pirates - or whoever they really were - would have ample time to see her coming and run before she could slip into weapons range. Or would they? “Program a sensor decoy to take our place, then activate the cloaking device.”
“Aye, Captain,” Hawke said. The lights dimmed. “Cloaking device engaged.”
“Helm, bring us about,” Naomi said, tightly. “Set course for the mining colony.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Naomi studied the display thoughtfully as Washington altered course and headed straight for the mining colony. The pirates - she assumed they were pirates, as anyone else would be more interested in the planet - were pushing their luck. They could easily have waited a few hours, just to ensure they had a chance to loot the colony and escape before she so much as picked up the distress call. Unless ... her eyes narrowed. Were they trying to lure Washington out of position? Or into a trap? It was possible, she supposed, but unlikely. A pirate ship wouldn’t pick a fight with a warship. And any regular military squadron wouldn’t need to bother. They’d just set course for the planet and force her to choose between engaging them or abandoning the planet.
And I’d have to abandon the planet, she thought, grimly. Her orders allowed little room for leeway. Washington was more important than Delaine. And that would mean leaving the marines on the surface, trapped.
She glanced up as Roger stepped onto the bridge, looking tired. He’d been in his cabin - he’d been ordered to get some sleep - when the alarms had sounded. Naomi was tempted to order him back to his bunk, but she knew he wouldn’t go back to sleep. She wouldn’t, if their positions were reversed. She nodded to him instead, then turned her attention back to the display as he took his seat. The cruiser was picking up speed, steadily closing the range. She wondered, idly, if the pirates had a competent sensor crew. Washington’s cloaking device wasn’t top of the range. The pirates might pick up some leakage if they were watching carefully.
Or if their electronic servants are properly programmed, she mused. Sensor-watching was as much an art as it was a science. A flicker of energy in the darkness of space might signal anything from a random fluctuation to a cloaked ship. How careful are they inclined to be?
“Picking up an update from the colony, Captain,” Hawke said. “The pirates are demanding their surplus of HE3 and raw materials.”
“Do not reply,” Naomi ordered, tersely. They were too far from the colony for tightbeam signalling. The pirates could hardly fail to miss a response. “Time to intercept?”
“Fifteen minutes, Captain,” Lieutenant Almont reported. “I can increase speed, but we’ll lose the cloaking field ...”
“Maintain current course and speed,” Naomi said. She wanted - she needed - to take out the pirate ship. Driving it away was not an option. Besides, if the pirates saw doom approaching from the rear, they might destroy the colony as they turned to flee. She pulled up the colony’s file and swore under her breath. Fifty-seven souls, twelve of them children. Their lives were in immense danger. She hoped the pirates weren’t trying to take hostages for ransom. “Tactical, calculate an intercept pattern.”
“Aye, Captain,” Lieutenant Commander Janet Ruthven said. “She reads out as a mid-sized cruiser, origin unknown.”
Roger glanced at Naomi. “She’s a little big for a pirate ship ...”
Naomi nodded. Pirates tended to prefer smaller ships, either surplus military vessels or armed freighters. They required less maintenance, as well as being less noticeable along the border. A full-fledged warship would draw attention wherever it went. And yet, the pirates had a warship ... either she was undermanned, Naomi mused, or she wasn’t a pirate ship at all. The Vulteks, if the files were to be believed, had built up their fleet by buying, borrowing, begging and stealing every ship within reach. She might be about to fire the first shot in the war.
“Send a signal to the planet,” she ordered, quietly. “Update the governor on our status and inform him he might need to put the planet on alert.”
“Aye, Captain,” Hawke said.
Naomi gritted her teeth as the range continued to close. Governor Singh had drawn up a series of contingency plans, for everything from a limited incursion to a full-scale invasion, but actually implementing any of those plans would cause massive disruption. Colonials tended to be more practical than civilians on Earth, but even so ... just signalling the alarm would send them scrambling for cover. Governor Singh would hesitate to put the planet on alert until he knew an invasion force was inbound. She didn’t really blame him. He’d pay a heavy price for a false alarm in the next election cycle.
Assuming there is a next election cycle, she thought, glumly. She’d gone through the reports and forwarded them back home. It’s only a matter of time until the shit really does hit the fan.
She tensed, feeling more alone than ever before. The freighters were armed, but she knew with a grim certainty born of experience that they couldn’t do more than irritate a real warship. Washington was the only human warship for dozens of light years, the sole deterrent to an invasion. She prayed, silently, that the EDF had managed to get its collective act together and dispatch reinforcements. A genuine squadron could give the enemy pause. Her ship might just look like a target. She’d done everything in her power to ensure they didn’t follow a predictable course, but ...
They could be luring us into a trap, she reminded herself. There could be an entire fleet lurking near the colony, waiting for us to show ourselves.
She leaned forward. The display was updating rapidly, drawing on passive sensor readings and the live update from the colony. Whoever was in charge was a cool customer, she acknowledged silently. Someone with less nerve might have turned off the live feed, hoping to appease the pirates. Or ... she frowned as she scanned the data. It was also possible the pirates were trying to lull her into a false sense of security. The colony’s sensors weren’t mil-grade. They might miss a cloaked fleet bare metres from their rocky hull.
“Captain,” Janet said. “We’ll be within weapons range in two minutes.”
Naomi nodded, considering her options. The closer they got, the greater the chance of detection. The pirates were already committed to action, although they didn’t know it ... or did they? If they were as cool as the asteroid miners, they might have already spotted her ship ... and biding their time, allowing her to slip closer and closer before they unleashed a devastating barrage. It was what she’d done, during the last encounter. Pirates weren’t known for their nerve, but ... she shook her head. It only took one pirate with balls to give someone a very bad day.
“Target their drives and weapons, fire the moment we enter burner range,” she said. “And be ready to take out any missiles they fire at the colony.”
“Aye, Captain,” Janet said. The display updated as two shuttles left the colony and headed towards the pirate ship. “Captain ...”
“Don’t engage the shuttles unless they turn hostile,” Naomi ordered. It was possible - all too possible - the pirates had taken hostages. There were women and children on the colony roster. They might have been taken hostage - or worse. “They’ll have nowhere to run once we take out their mothership.”
The display flashed red. “Captain,” Hawke snapped. “They see us!”
“Drop the cloak, open fire,” Naomi ordered, sharply. “And order them to surrender!”
“They’re trying to come about,” Hawke reported. “They’re charging weapons ...”
“Targets locked,” Janet said. A low shudder ran through the ship. “Firing ... now!”
Naomi leaned forward as the enemy ship staggered under the weight of her fire. The ship had good armour, she noted; their drive nodes had taken a battering, but they hadn’t been disabled. She managed to empty a missile pod in Washington’s direction before the pod - and the rest of her port-side weapons - were blown out of existence. Her CO seemed torn between rotating his ship to bring the remainder of his weapons to bear and trying to run for his life. Naomi hoped he’d choose the latter. It hadn’t dawned on him that he had little hope of escape. Not yet.
“Captain,” Hawke said. “They’re bringing their missile batteries to bear ...”
“Stand by point defence,” Naomi said. The pirate ship staggered, then started to leak atmosphere. It was only a matter of time. “Communications, order them to surrender. Tell them we’ll take prisoners if they surrender at once.”
“Aye, Captain,” Walcott said. Another shudder ran through the ship. “No response.”
Naomi cursed under her breath. She’d off-loaded the marines five days ago. She’d had no choice - the colony needed the marines to train the militia - but she had a feeling she was going to miss them. Her crew was already putting together a boarding party ... she shook her head. Her crewmen could take the ship, if the pirates surrendered and offered no further resistance, but they weren’t trained to board and secure a ship by force. She had no intention of throwing their lives away ... and yet, she was all too aware that destroying the pirate ship meant killing any hostages or slaves held within its bowels. She couldn’t convince herself she was merely putting them out of their misery.
“Continue firing,” she ordered, grimly. If she battered the ship into a useless hulk, it wouldn’t matter if the pirates surrendered or not. “Tactical, prepare to ...”
“Captain,” Walcott snapped. “I’m picking up an encoded signal!”
Naomi looked up, sharply. “From the pirates?”
“Negative, Captain,” Walcott said. “The source appears to be empty space!”
A cloaked ship, Naomi thought. Or a concealed relay platform ...
“Launch a probe towards the source,” she ordered. “And ...”
The pirate ship blinked, then vanished from the display. Naomi stared in horror at the expanding cloud of debris. The pirates were gone ... had they hit something vital? Destroyed an antimatter containment chamber? Or ... what? It was rare for pirates to hit the self-destruct, at least until the marines boarded their ship. They’d just blown themselves up ... why?
“What happened?” Roger sounded stunned. “Did they blow themselves to hell?”
“Confirmed,” Janet said. “They triggered their self-destruct.”
“The signal must have triggered it,” Naomi said. She’d never heard of anything like it - the EDF was all too aware that communications datanets could be hacked - but it was technically possible. The pirate ship had been doomed. Someone had made damn certain she couldn’t pull anything useful - prisoners, datacores, whatever - from the wreckage. “Communications, order the enemy shuttles to return to the colony and surrender. If they refuse, we’ll blow them out of space.”
“Aye, Captain,” Walcott said.
“Captain, the probe is picking up a starship of unknown origin,” Hawke said. A new icon appeared on the display. “Correction, she’s a Pashtali design. She appears to be a destroyer.”
And she’s the sort of ship they’d gift to their clients, Naomi thought. She’d be completely deniable if she fell into enemy hands.
“Helm, alter course to intercept,” she ordered, sharply. “Communications, raise her.”
“Aye, Captain,” Walcott said.
Roger glanced at her. “Captain, what do you intend to do if we catch her?”
Naomi had a sudden odd impression of a dog chasing a car down the street with no thought whatsoever as to what he’d do if he actually managed to catch the vehicle. Technically, she would be perfectly within her rights to bring the intruder to a halt and demand answers by any means necessary. Galactic law was clear on that point. Delaine was a human system and she had authority. But, practically speaking, it wouldn’t be so easy. The Vulteks could claim, if they wished, that it wasn’t wholly a human system. Or they could simply resort to force.
“Whatever we have to do,” she said. She knew it wasn’t an answer. Whatever the legalities of the situation, whatever her orders said, Earth might disown her if there was a prospect of a clash turning into an interstellar war. The xenospecialists claimed that showing weakness was the worst thing they could do, when confronting a predatory race, but the politicians might not believe it. They might try to appease their enemies until it was far too late. “That ship certainly shouldn’t be here.”
“And she was clearly supervising the pirate ship.” Roger agreed.
“We don’t have any proof,” Naomi countered. She was certain it was true - either the intruder had sent the message or there was another ship lurking along the same vector - but she had no solid proof. She wouldn’t get it either, unless she managed to convince the intruder to surrender without destroying her datacores. It wouldn’t be easy to convince people who didn’t want to believe.
She frowned as the alien ship altered course, turning back towards the nearest crossroads. The last message from Earth had stated that the new government was negotiating with a dozen interstellar powers. It was hard to tell if the interstellar powers were interested in actually allying with Earth or merely sizing the human race up before they attacked. Naomi had studied enough galactic history to know weak races very rarely got to decide their own destinies. The cynic in her insisted it was just a matter of time before someone tested the defences.
Which is what they might be doing here, she thought sourly. The alien ship was picking up speed, displaying an acceleration curve considerably superior to her own. She felt a flash of bitter rage. The bastards might simply outrun her, if she didn’t manage to get into weapons range before it was too late. And her reluctance to fire into the alien hull, to risk the complete destruction of the vessel, worked against her. They’re gambling they can outrun us and they might win.
“Captain,” Lieutenant Almont said. “My projections suggest we’re unlikely to catch them before they hit the crossroads and vanish.”
Naomi studied the projections for a long moment. Theoretically, she’d have a window of opportunity to cripple the enemy ship’s drives and bring her to a halt. Practically, a long-range engagement was unlikely to do more than expend missiles for no return. The enemy would do themselves more harm by laughing than anything she’d do to them. A wave of frustration swept over her, dimmed by the grim certainty there was nothing to be gained by trying to run the alien ship down. She’d gambled and lost.
“Deploy the probe to shadow her to the crossroads,” she ordered. It was probably futile, but it might give them some useful data. “Helm, bring us about and set course to the asteroid colony.”
“Aye, Captain,” Almont said.
Naomi settled back into her chair. “Mr. XO, arrange for the prisoners to be transferred onboard as soon as we’re within range,” she ordered. “We’ll drop them on the planet and have the marines interrogate them. Hopefully, some of them know something useful.”
“Aye, Captain,” Roger said. His face darkened. “I thought the Vulteks never ran from a fight.”
“Unless they thought they couldn’t take us,” Naomi said. It was possible. Washington had charged the alien ship like a bat out of hell. She did have more firepower than a lowly destroyer. The Vulteks might have decided discretion was the better part of valour. Or their patrons might have made the call for them. She found it hard to believe the Vulteks would get very far without their patrons backing them up. “Or if they weren’t the ones calling the shots.”
It wasn’t a pleasant thought. Earth might be able to take the Vulteks. Or, at least, look tough enough to give them pause. But the Pashtali? The datafiles suggested the Pashtali outmassed Earth ten to one. The Alphans could have stood up to them. There weren’t many other interstellar powers that could give the Pashtali a hard time. They could trash Sol in a day if they were prepared to soak up the losses. If they knew how badly the EDF had been weakened by independence, and they might, they could just decide smashing the human race into slavery was worth the cost.
And everyone knows the Pashtali want to succeed the Alphans as masters of the known universe, she reminded herself. Intelligence had speculated the Pashtali had backed the Lupines, although nothing had ever been proven. They’d certainly made a show of staying out of the fighting and that, in her experience, meant they were heavily - if covertly - involved. They might intend to use their clients to test our mettle before they show their hand.
It made sense, she supposed. The risk of triggering off a second major war would be too great, she thought. But a limited war, fought between a pair of client races ... she wondered, grimly, if the Alphans had really abandoned Earth to its fate. It seemed unlikely, despite everything. The Pashtali would certainly be unwilling to take it for granted. They might poke and prod the human sector, just to see if the Alphans did anything. And if they decided the Alphans weren’t going to do anything ...
She stood. “I’ll be in my ready room, composing a message to Earth,” she said. Her superiors had to be informed, before things really went sour. They’d probably have new orders for her. “Alert me if anything changes.”
“Aye, Captain,” Roger said.