Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series (31 page)

Jonathan looked at the position of Uffern, the wormway and the description of the
Brixton
class. Maybe just maybe.

“Mr. Heath,” Jonathan said. “Get Lieutenant-Captain Trendale and
Commander Pence
on the line. I believe I might have a plan.”

While Heath was setting up the transmission, Jonathan typed a note to George, ‘Get Knowles up here ASAP.’

“Well I...” Knowles was somewhat hesitant. He sat in the
Fury's
wardroom with Jonathan, George and the holo displays of Will and Commander Pence.

“Damn it man! Now’s not the time to equivocate. Do you think it could work?” Pence said her fury evident.

“At ease Commander,” Jonathan said then turning to Knowles, “
Terrance,
I went back through that report you handed me, you know ETO ships. I need to know in your honest opinion could this work?”

Terrance bit his lip then slowly nodded, “Aye sir. Bear in mind, I never served on a
Brixton,
but if she is a Burlington Applied Systems design  then she probably takes after the earlier classes. Those boys at Burlington, they aren't know for innovating their designs. So yes sir, it could work.”

“Thank you Bosun. You are dismissed,” Jonathan said.

“Sirs,” Knowles said rising and saluting before heading to the door.

Jonathan turned to the holo displays of the other two officers.

“Look I know this is a long shot, and it means dividing our forces, but every way I crunch the numbers this looks to be the our only viable option,” Jonathan said.

“I am forced to agree,” Will said. “If we make a stand against that battle cruiser we are all dead. Best case scenario, this plan lets
Prime
get away clean along with both
Fury
and
Cronus.
Worst case, at least
Prime
will get away free. I think that
Cronus
should be the one who...”

“No Will,
Fury
is far better equipped for this maneuver,” Jonathan said.

“Damn it John,” Will said.

Jonathan made a chopping motion with his hand as he said, “I am the senior officer here Will, it's my decision.”

“The
Fury
is better equipped for this,” Commander Pence said. “We're going to have to time this perfectly though. If they don't take the bait...”

“Then we’ll adapt,” Jonathan finished. “I’ll get my tactical department and navigator to start crunching the numbers. With luck, in fourteen hours we’ll all be free and clear and on our way back to rendezvous with the 5th Fleet.”

“God speed Captain,” Pence said before breaking the link.

Will remained for a moment glaring at his friend, “You better come out of the other side of this in one piece John. I am not explaining to Bethany that you threw your life away keeping me safe.”

Jonathan smiled, “Don't worry Will, I’ll do my best.”

Will cut the link.

Jonathan looked over at George who seemed a bit lost in thought. “George can you get  Lieutenant Tang, Lieutenant Sing, and Lieutenant Commander Elman down here. We have some planning to do. Then why don't you take a couple hours off and get some rest.”

“I’ll summon them, but I don't need a break John,” George said.

“Actually, can you do a favor for me? I have a file of letters for my family I haven't sent yet. I am sure a lot of folks do.
Cronus
will still be in range to receive data packets for a few good hours...” Jonathan trailed off as he saw George recognize what he was trying to say.

Despite his optimism, there was a good chance this wouldn't work and they’d all be dead or POWs. Now was the last chance for folks to say good bye.

“You know I have a few letters to send myself. I’ll get the Bosun and the Reverend to help,” George said.

“I think that's a good idea George,” Jonathan said.

George rose to leave, “You know John the last couple months have been some of the best of my life. It’s been a privilege to be back in the khaki and serving under you.”

“Thanks George and don't tell Will, but I couldn't ask for a better XO.”

George saluted a bit more formerly and left, leaving Jonathan alone in the wardroom.

His eyes fell on the painting of the wooden frigate with the ridiculously crowded red, white and blue banner. He smiled as he looked at the serene scene and the white name painted across the stern of the ship,
USS Constitution.
Every student of Naval history knew that name and the legend behind it. That ship had been manned by brave men who in an age of wooden hulled vessels and black powder cannons had fought numerous battles at impossible odds, and in the process sailed into legend. Jonathan wondered what they would make of Naval warfare almost a thousand years later. It would probably be both alien and familiar to them. Men still fought each other and there were still battles of impossible odds with only the faintest hope of victory. Jonathan closed his eyes and listened. The
Sound of Fury
was more than a hunk of battle steel and fusion engines. She was a living breathing thing now.  Her crew was her heart and soul and Jonathan was her mind. God willing she’d see them through the next day. 

Chapter XIV

Tso System, Near
Uffern
Solarian Republic-Colonial Border Region

On board
RSNS Sound of Fury,

November 30th 844 AE

Hours past. Jonathan and his staff planned and plotted the maneuver as best they could, until finally there was nothing left to do but wait. From his chair on the bridge, Jonathan blinked. He had maybe four hours sleep in the last 24 hours. Yet he wasn't tired. It was miraculous what a combination of stress, caffeine and adrenaline could do for you.

Ernest Tang the navigator came on the bridge offering a cup of coffee to Jonathan.

He took it and thanked the navigator.

“Are we ready Mr. Tang?” Jonathan asked taking a sip. Tang did know how to brew a good cup.

“Ready as we can be Captain,” Tang replied.

“Very well, execute at your discretion Lieutenant,” Jonathan said.

“Aye sir,” Tang said then addressing the bridge crew, “I have the com.”

“Mr. Tang has the com,” Jonathan confirmed.

Tang went and stood near the helmsman pulling from his pocket a digital timer.

“Stand by to initiate maneuver burn in 5..4..3..2..1..burn.”

At Mr. Tang's signal
Fury
altered course, her maneuver thrusters firing and her main engine cutting out for a few moments while the course was altering then resuming firing at maximum thrust.

For a brief moment Jonathan and everyone on board felt a sense of weightlessness, and then a tug of gravity as the compensators adjusted. Not for the first time. Jonathan thanked God for the compensators and grav plates. Without those the crew would be bouncing around in the
Fury
like marbles in a milk shaker.  On the display screen
Fury’s
new course resolved as the comp calculated its trajectory. The complexity of orbital mechanics made it seem a lot more intricate than it was, but in layman's terms
Fury
was still heading fo
r
Uffern, but her trajectory was now diverging from that of
Cronus
and
Liberty Prime.
While both of those ships would pass to the right of the planet toward the wormway picking up a gravity assist as they did,
Fury
was now heading to the left of the planet this would slow her as she entered the gravity field. It was Jonathan's hope that the Colonial battle cruiser would believe this was an attempt by
Fury
to lure him away from the transport and refuse to pursue
Fury.
If he decided to follow well... Jonathan would cross that bridge when he came to it.

“Mr. Elman what is Tango-1 up to?” Jonathan asked.

Elman didn't even respond. His young face was taut as he leaned over the shoulders of the Specialist at the Lidar’s screens. Seconds ticked by, then minutes. Jonathan did his best to keep his face calm, but internally he wanted to scream. The entire plan hinged on the Colonials reacting the way Jonathan thought they would, which was to say arrogantly and over confidently. The way a foe drunk on victory behaved when engaged with one who was being beaten down by defeat.

Finally Elman stood up and smiled, “Sir Tango-1 has continued pursuit of
Cronus
and
Liberty Prime.

Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief as did everyone else on the bridge.

“Mr. Heath, transmit coded message to both
Liberty Prime
and
Cronus
message reads, ‘Whatever happens next keep running.’ add an addendum in message to
Cronus,
addendum reads, ‘That is an order’.

Heath nodded as he started to transmit the message.

George who had come on the bridge from auxiliary just in time to hear that came over to Jonathan.

“It sucks when you have to give friends orders,” he said.

Jonathan nodded, “You know George, you're not wrong about that. Is the decoy ready?”

“Aye ready as we can make her. Heath was right. Petty Officer Bento is a regular whiz with EM signatures. We’ve run six different tests and the decoy fooled the lidar all six times.”

“We’ll seventh time's the charm. Load her up and get ready to fire. Mr. Tang how long until we're in the planet's shadow?” Jonathan asked.

“I estimate no more that two and a half hours sir, at which point we will have a twenty minute window.”

“Well let’s be about it then people. We have big game to hunt and I personally would like to mount the keel of that Colonial monstrosity on the wardroom wall,” Jonathan said.

Despite the tension and the looming spectre of imminent death several people cracked a smile, some even chuckled. Privately, Jonathan felt a calmness come over him. Once more that poem his mother had so often quoted floated through his mind.

‘To all men upon this earth death cometh soon or late,

But what better way for a man to die than facing fearful odds.

Before the ashes of his fathers and the temple of his gods.

In a moment of personal levity Jonathan tweaked the words to suit his situation.

To all men within this universe death cometh soon or late,

But what better way for a man to die than facing fearful odds.

Against the enemies of his nation, next to his comrades in arms.

Sound of Fury
flew like a dart toward the frozen world of Uffern. As she closed on world she passed into the planet's shadow, briefly hidden from lidar range. At that moment, several things happened at once. One was the decoy that George and half the EW department had laboriously been constructing was launched from the forward missile tube. The decoy, which was emitting the same electromagnetic emissions signature as
Sound of Fury,
would continue on the trajectory
Fury
would have followed around the planet and back toward the
Cronus
and
Prime
seeming to try to put herself between the smaller ships and the Colonial battle cruiser. The real
Fury,
meanwhile, flipped herself end over end and fired her engine at full burn. This slowed her velocity and brought her into orbit of Uffern. It wasn't without problems though. Half way through the 20 minute burn the sweaty, nervous face of Lt. Commander Okai appeared on Jonathan's screen.

“Skipper were pushing closer and closer to the red line with all these burns I don't know how much longer she’s gonna hold.”

“Is the retrofit holding though Mr. Okai?” Jonathan asked.

“Aye sir, but by her fingernails if anything,” Okai said

“Do what you have to keep her together Mr. Okai. She's only got to make one more hard burn after this.”

“Aye sir, we’ll do our best,” Okai said.

The retrofit apparently held because there was no reactor meltdown or cascading power failure which crippled the ship.

Once
Fury
had sufficiently slowed she moved to just above the debris field.  Mindful of how he had caught the Colonial raiders in
Casaopia
Jonathan kept
Fury
close enough to mask the lidar readings.