A Planned Improvisation (23 page)

“I’m hoping our role,” Park told them, “will be less to break the siege than it will be to slip past the besieging ships in much the same way packet ships did during the American colonial days and on up through the War of 1812. Once we’ve landed on Owatino we can arm other ships with what we have in our holds.”

“There may not be many flight-worthy ships left to arm,” Sartena pointed out.

“If we can slip in through the blockade,” Park replied, “I imagine we can slip out again and go wherever Lord Rebbert thinks he has allies. We were asked to bring these weapons to the Owat system, so that’s where we’ll go first at least.”

“We were asked to send the weapons the weapons to Owat system,” Marisea pointed out. “We were not asked to bring them ourselves. Lord Rebbert knows we have a star drive.”

“True,” Park agreed, “and he wanted us to keep it secret for now, but if we did that, we would still be back on Pangaea and so would the weapons he requested. Well, so much for secrecy. It’s time we showed the Alliance who we are and what we can do. Intercom, please, Marisea.” The Mer nodded and gestured that he had a live microphone. “All hands, we will be making the jump to Owat System shortly. Please commence your pre-jump checklists and report.”

“Checklists?” Sartena asked. “We have all the calculations laid in. There’s not much left to do.”

“Perhaps you forget, our star drive is all hand-soldered and connected by twisted wires,” Park laughed. “We have to be sure we can not only get into Other Space, but back out again.”

“You had to remind me?” Sartena asked nervously.

“Well, that’s why I commanded we go through pre-jump checks,” he replied. “How’s your station?”

“I’ll recheck my calculations,” Sartena replied.

Finally all departments reported their readiness and Tragackack activated the star drive.

Once more the crew of
Independent
felt the world being twisted inside out and experienced the psychedelic shifts in colors from several seconds and then suddenly they were back in normal space and around a star noticeably not the Sun. “Status!” Park commanded.

“Successful transit,” Sartena reported. “Like nothing I’ve ever been through, but successful. Establishing our position and course.”

“Tragackack, head straight into the system,” Park ordered. “High acceleration.”

“Huh, Captain?” Sartena asked. “Why?”

“If we’re far enough from the Owat sun to enter Other Space, we could be surrounded in seconds by dark ships,” Park pointed out. “If we get inside the limit we’ll at least see them coming.”

“Engineering reporting,” Ronnie’s voice came through the intercom. “All systems functional. Park, I heard what you said about getting inside the
Stierdach
limit. Good thinking. We can’t jump out again until the batteries recharge. About five minutes.”

“Good recharge time,” Sartena commented.

“Maybe we need an emergency battery,” Park mused.

“Not normally needed,” Sartena replied. “I’m picking up eight, nine, no ten ships headed our way from Owatino. Dark ships, I imagine. The blockade fleet.”

“All of them?” Park wondered. “That’s pretty poor strategy.”

“No only about half the fleet is coming to intercept us,” Marisea announced. “My scopes are picking up the same number in orbit around, well if Sartena says that is Owatino, I’ll have to take her word for it.”

“It’s going to take a day or two before they reach us,” Sartena added.

“Good,” Iris remarked. “Plenty of time to program the battle computers.”

Three hours later, Marisea announced, “Park, transmission coming in from the outer system.” She did not wait for Park to request it be put on the speakers.

“Unknown ship, This is Admiral Gilatino,” they heard a deep, booming voice. “The Diet world Owatino is under siege by hostile forces, turn back immediately.”

“We can’t,” Sartena told Park, “If we come about now the dark ships would catch up to us before we could get back to the
Stierdach
limit.”

“Admiral,” Park responded, “This is Black Captain McArrgh from Earth aboard the Starship
Independent
. Turning back is not an option. We’re going through the blockade fleet and back out the other side. You’re welcome to join us.”

There was no immediate response. “Park, I think the Admiral is nearly three light hours away from us,” Marisea told him. That’s why it took his warning so long to get here.”

“Then he’s going to be late to the party,” Park replied.

“This from the man who wanted to slip past the blockade undetected,” Iris laughed.

“It seems I don’t always get what I want,” Park rejoined.

A full ship’s day cycle passed as they gradually converged with the dark ships. Several hours after they first heard from Admiral Gilatino, they received a second message. “Captain McArrgh, your reputation precedes you, sir. I’m not sure if a single Pirate ship can break this blockade, but I’ll bring my fleet in to support you.”

“There’s that ‘Pirate’ thing again,” Park muttered. “Are the words Terran and Earthling really all that hard to say? Marisea, transmit this. Arr, me hearty! Follow us to glory!”

“That ought to confuse him,” Sartena laughed. “I know it confused the heck out of me until you showed me some of those old entertainments.”

 
“The situation is reversed for a change,” Park remarked, suddenly far more serious as he studied the screen with the relative positions of the dark ships and
Independent
. “This time they have to match courses with us and since we do not want to rendezvous we can make that as hard to so as possible. Tragackack, I’ll want you to mix up our acceleration as much as you can. Don’t let them match with us if you can help it.”

“Once we start fighting,” Iris pointed out, “The stasis field is going to make us a sitting duck.”

“A very fast and flying duck,” Park corrected her.

“A spinning and tumbling duck too, if past exploits are any indication,” Iris shot back.

“Our last fight with the dark ships didn’t send us tumbling all that much,” Marisea pointed out. “That usually only happens against gravity cannons.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” Iris told her. “I haven’t programmed the gravity cannon for automatic fire yet. Between that and the long range missiles we may at least scare them.” She went to work.

“What’s a duck?” Tragackack asked.

“An extinct form of flying bird,” Park replied. “Whatever else, let’s keep ourselves from becoming a dead duck.” There was a long silence until Park spoke again. “In a just universe that would have been the start of the battle.”

“We will not engage the enemy for another four hours,” Sartena told him.

“My timing is off then,” Park replied ruefully.

As the time to fight drew near, Park became increasingly restless. He was the only one with nothing to do. Sartena and Tragackack were busy varying the speed and course of
Independent
and Iris was intently programming in battle scenarios into the gunnery computers, while also running drills with the three gunners who sat in a cabin on the lower deck just below the bridge. Even Marisea was busy monitoring communications and occasionally passing messages back and forth.

So Park started pacing the deck and when the bridge became too small to contain him, he started visiting other parts of the ship. The gunnery room had an empty seat and Park sat down to watch the Mer and two Atackack who were practicing with Iris. It seemed easy enough, but when he tried to join in, one of the Atackack click-clacked at him, “Sir, your attempts are appreciated, but that console is only there in case one of these breaks down in battle.”

“A nice way to tell me I’m screwing up your practice,” Park interpreted. He stayed in the room another few minutes, mostly to save face, but soon left to watch Ronnie work with her assistants.

“Don’t forget to applaud at the right times,” Ronnie told him sourly when she caught him looking over her shoulder. “Sorry, Park, but keeping the engines tuned while Tragackack plays with the acceleration rates is a tricky business.”

“Too bad we don’t have a ship’s doctor,” Park remarked.

“Why?” Ronnie asked.

“Because at the moment he or she would have as little to do as I do,” Park replied.

“Take a nap,” Ronnie suggested. “Half my boys and girls are trying to do that now. So’s your bridge night shift, but everyone will be up for the big fight.”

“I couldn’t sleep right now,” Park told her.

“Then go to the galley and make yourself something to eat,” Ronnie advised. If you stay here much longer, I’ll send you outside to inspect the hull.”

“Is there something wrong with the hull?” Park asked, not realizing she wasn’t serious.

“Why don’t you step outside and let me know?” Ronnie retorted sourly.

“Uh, no thanks,” Park shook his head. He wandered into the galley area and tried drinking a cup of coffee but managed to finish it without noticing. He was still sipping at the empty cup when Marisea called over the intercom, “Parker Holman, please report to the bridge.” She repeated herself twice before Park responded.

“Holman here,” he replied, via the uplink in his torc. “What’s the situation, Marisea?”

“Park, we’ll be engaging the dark ships in a few minutes,” Marisea replied. “I don’t know. I just thought you might like to be up here when it happens.”

“You were a lot cuter before you learned sarcasm,” Park told her.

Marisea laughed at her
tamovir
. “You didn’t know me before I learned sarcasm.”

“True,” Park chuckled. “You were already a teenager when we met. On my way.”

“Have a nice nap?” Iris asked as Park entered the bridge.

Park ignored that. “On a real navy ship someone would have announced, ‘Captain on the bridge.’ as I entered.”

“I thought we were pirates,” Sartena teased him.

“Park,” Iris advised, “calm down. We’re all on edge right now.”

“You want to enter the pool?” Marisea offered.

“What pool?” Park asked.

“I just bet Sartena that Iris and her gunners would pick off six dark ships in the first volley,” Marisea explained. “She doubts we can get more than two.”

“You haven’t been watching closely enough, Sartena,” Park chuckled, brightening up at last. “Whatever the stakes, put me down for seven.”

“First wave of missiles launched,” Iris announced.
 
“All extra long-range.”

“They’re not headed toward their targets,” Sartena noted, squinting nervously at her displays.

“No, I decided to send them on an arcing course,” Iris admitted. “Last time we lost most of the missiles in incidental fire that was actually directed at the ship. Second wave launched, two standards and two stasis specials. This way if they choose to shoot down our misssiles, it will have to be at the expense of not shooting at us at the same time. Third wave; four high speed darts. All gunners prime your weapons, fire in three, two, one, now!”

Park saw Iris’ hand come down on the console and then the initial shots from the dark ships hit
Independent
and the stasis plating cut in. Once again the
 
scream of
 
tearing metal filled their ears and the view on the forward facing screen flickered as they moved forward, but here and there Park saw explosions in space ahead of them and then the view began to roll. It was still rolling slowly as they came out of range from the dark ships’ weapons and the ear splitting noise ended.

“Report!” Park ordered.

“Star drive is down,” Ronnie reported. “Loads of cosmetic damage, nothing else.”

“We weren’t planning to run for it,” Park replied. “Did we get them?”

“Marisea won the pool,” Iris reported as her hand flashed across her battle board and several more high speed missiles flash away from
Independent
. “Six dark ships are destroyed or apparently inert. There are four still on our tail.”

“Pulling away from them” Tragackack reported.

One more missile found its target a few seconds later and then there were only three dark ships left. “I wish we had mines,” Park remarked. “Or a gun that could fire backwards.”

“We don’t have the mines,” Iris told him, “but have you forgotten how the gravity cannon works?”

“You have it swivel mounted?” Sartena asked.

“No,” Park shook his head. “Ronnie had trouble with letting the ship’s engines and internal artificial gravity compensation for the grav. gun, so she made it double ended. It fires equally front and back so ship velocity doesn’t change under fire. Equal and opposite reactions and the gun balances itself without relying on an external devices to absorb the difference.”

“Interesting,” Sartena admitted. “But isn’t it dangerous if you are fighting in close formation with your other ships?”

“When have we had all that many ships?” Park countered. “But it isn’t all that hard to keep our spacing.”

“And the gun won’t fire if a tagged friendly ship is in the way,” Iris added. “We use the Phasers more often anyway. They fire more rapidly and work better under the impartial stasis defense.”

“In comparison, most Alliance ships fight by just slugging it out,” Park put in. “Well, if you don’t know about that, Sartena, there’s a good chance the dark ships don’t either. Let’s allow them to catch up to us and then give it to them.”

“We’ll only get one shot,” Iris warned him.

“Yes, but our gravity cannon range is slightly longer than that metal-screech weapon of theirs,” Park pointed out. “Give them a blast. They should be in a tight formation as they chase us down. With luck, you can pick off one and provide some damage to the other two. Trag, as soon as that shot gets off, I need you to bring the ship around so we can train our phasers on them.”

“Aye aye, sir!” Tragackack clacked in response.

The pilot slowed their rate of acceleration subtly, sometimes pulling away from the pursuing dark ships but allowing them to get a little closer each time. Finally, Iris, reading from her range readouts proclaimed, “Targets coming within extreme range in five, four, three, two, one…” she slammed her hand down on the activator for the gravity cannon and one of the dark ships crumpled under the force.