Archaea 3: Red (17 page)

I laughed. “Eat while you can, Gene. I think the captain will have us skipping atmo around Mars soon. I am needed on the bridge without a dilly or
even a dally – you know how he is.” I waved a handful of coffee, and kicked up the ladder.

Climbing the ladder in null-g with a stack of sandwiches in one hand, and two pots of coffee in the other isn't the easiest or most balletic ways to move around the Archaea, but I'm pretty used to it. A few
well-placed elbows, knees, and a shove with the side of my head, and I was up. I hooked a toe on the top rung, and got some angular momentum towards Jane's ladder, and landed pretty well, though only with one leg. The other slid by and I was destined for a trip to the deck, but for a little arm coming down.

“Caught ya!” Jane said, hanging upside down out of her station, eagerly reaching for a coffee cup.

“Thanks Jane!” I said with a smile, handing it over. “Fresh and hot, just like the captain makes it.”

“Yum.” she said, eyes open wide. “No one makes better coffee, that's a fact”, her eager sip and rapturous sigh of delight punctuating her statement.

I laughed, and waved a sandwich hand at her, as I launched off for the safety zone, and made my way towards the forward end of the gun deck. She had a point. We were really in the presence of greatness when it came to coffee. Actually, it wasn't just coffee, or bread, or ready access to huckleberry jam – the Archaea was a really great place to call home.

When I first met these folks, in a little pub nestled deep in the mooring  corridors of Darkside Station, little did I know that I would soon consider them the type of friends I would gladly die to protect, though I hoped it wouldn't come to that, and knocked on wood just in case. Of course, there was no real wood to knock on, so I had to substitute my skull.

Close enough.

“Well, there you are!” Captain Smith said, as I kicked to his console with his refill. “And you brought me a sandwich? Mister Onebull, by the power vested in my as the Captain of this vessel, I am hereby promoting you to All Around Great Guy, First Class, with all the rights and privileges due to the station, accordingly. Janis
my dear?”

“Yes sir?”

“Please make a note in the Ships Log, Mister Yak Onebull is now in charge of all things nice and decent, and shall be afforded one additional cup of coffee per month.”

“Aye sir
”, Janis said brightly, as I tossed Pauli a sandwich with a smile.

“Thanks Yak,” he said around a mouthful, “are these huckleberries?”

“They sure are, Pauli. Gene just about manhandled me out of the way when he noticed I was cutting into the new loaf. You'd think he was deprived as a child.”

“He was, Yak. We all were, on Vega 6. Huckleberries never took off in the tube farms. You may have been neck deep in them on Earth, but where we come
from they are worth their weight in gold, literally.”

“Well, I wouldn't say I was neck-deep, sir. What you call huckleberries we call 'wew-nu'. They grow on Potato Hill, in the foothills of the Cascade Range in the Yakima Nation. I haven't been back there in a long time, not since I was a kid. You aren't supposed to eat them when you pick them, you are supposed to wait. But every kid munches a few. Your lips, teeth and gums turn purple. Of course, I didn't just eat a few - I ate so many I wasn't allowed to have any when
my family ate them later in the evening.”

I hadn't thought about my childhood in a while. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that I was a person before the Marines made me what I am today – but I was once a gangly little kid, a proud son of
an ancient and honorable tribe. My family didn't have much, but they freely gave me whatever they had, and were always there for me.

No matter how far away I get from Potato Hill, I can shut my eyes and remember the wind through the scrub pines, the moss blowing in the breeze from the high branches. I can hear the haunting sound of magpie
s and remember the smile on my Kuth-La's face as she sang songs passed down from time immemorial. Her hair, silver gray and kissed by the sun through light clouds, shining through the years of memory.

A part of me is there, forever.

“Yak, that sounds really nice, son”, the captain said quietly. “Someday, I'd like to go see that.”

I laughed. “Sorry Captain, as much as I'd like to show you – it's on the reservation, off limits unless you're in the tribe.”

“Off limits? What if I just hover, lower the ramp, breathe the air, maybe... you know... pick a few of the huckleberries? Surely that wouldn't be too bad, would it?”

I laughed. “I'll introduce you to Grandmother, sir. I'll let you try the charm on her. You better start practicing, sir, she's heard it all.”

He chuckled. “I'd like that very much, Yak. One of these days, I will take you up on that. I would very much like to see where you are from. If it’s anywhere near Whitefish, we might...” He trailed off, as an alert showed up on both of our screens. I leaned in, and got to work, dry swallowing a half chewed lump.

“Sir, I have two contacts
classified hostile, designated Master 3 and 4, bearing 13 degrees, burning for high orbit from the surface of Mars. It looks like they either boosted from Arsia or Meridiani Prospect. They are burning hard, range 243k and closing.”

“
Well, that’s interesting.” He paused briefly, long enough for me to turn around and take a look. “Yep, hostile or not, they are burning for our lane, with a near-collision vector.” He called out on the 1MC, “All hands, secure for battle stations. Weapons, make our main gun ready for firing in all respects, including opening the forward port.”

“Making main gun ready, opening forward
port, aye” Jane said immediately on comms, in a solid, calm voice.

“Engineering, energize all systems
to maximum please.”

“Energizing, aye Skipper”, Gene said smoothly. A slight vibration thrummed through the deck as the Archaea came alive.

“Conn, Weapons, outgoing turret fire, sir.” Jane didn't sound concerned, just passing along information.

“Very well
... Yak, do you have solutions?”

I scanned my screens, swiping through layers looking for firing solutions. “Negative
, sir… the scope is clear.”

“Pauli, please look into this with Janis.”

“Yes sir.” he said, working on his screens. Outgoing turret fire was nearly solid, streams of fire reaching forward and curving. Mars was starting to fill our screen, and cast a ruddy glow through the bridge.

“Yak
, open comms with MOC please”, the captain asked.

I reached for the tab, but it was already open, with the proper channel active and ready. “Thanks Janis” I said softly.

“You're most welcome Yak.” she said sweetly in my ear.

“S
ir, comms are open.”

“MOC, Archaea on slingshot approach, how copy?”

“Archaea, MOC, good signal.”

“MOC, Archaea, we have two inbound tracks that appear convergent with our filed course. Please advise.”

“MOC, Archaea, stand by one.”

As we waited, another salvo of outgoing turret fire blazed into the darkness ahead of us, lighting up the bridge with a savage glow.

“Sir, Janis is pre-firing intercepts for inbound bogeys.” Pauli stated calmly.

“She is? I
don't have anything on track.” As he said that, I nodded. There was nothing red on my screen, except Master 3 and Master 4.

“Sir, they aren't on track yet because t
hey haven't been fired.”

A brief pause
filled the bridge. “Very well, carry on.” the captain said calmly, sipping his coffee. Pauli smiled across the aisle at me. 

“Archaea, we are unable to raise comms with outbound
vessels, and recommend you come to new course bearing 285.”

“Janis, what would that do for our current course?”

“Sir, we need to remain on this course to remain effective for our current mission.”

“I figured that might be the case. Does our current mission involve Master 3 and 4?”

“Yes sir.”

I looked over at Pauli, who shrugged back at me. We were along for the ride, it looked like.

“Very well… MOC, Archaea.” he replied on comms.

“Copy Archaea”

“MOC, we are unable to adjust course at this time, we are committed to this track.”

“Understood, Captain. Please stand by.”

Right then, a swarm of bogeys lit up my screens, and immediately blanked out. “Sir, direct hit on 16 bogeys, looks like Janis splashed them right out of the tubes, sir.”

He
chuckled softly. “Very well Yak… Janis, please keep up the good work, dear.”

“Thank you sir, I shall
”, she said smoothly.

We were close enough now to see the dropships clawing for orbit, twin points of light
climbing towards a divergent point ahead of us.

Mars had us in its grasp
, and we were slipping down into a tight hook as it hurtled past. It was moving towards us nearly as fast as we were moving towards it, and the captain was aiming for a thin corridor between capture and escape. Unfortunately, the two dropships looked to be aimed toward the same pipe.

“Sir, their course tracks converge wi
th ours at our closest approach, though we will have considerably more headway at that point.”

“Son, for Mars, we call that the Apoareion.”

“I thought it was called the Apogee? Isn't that the opposite of Perigee?”

“Only for Earth... It's a silly bit of ancient custom, but if you don't want to be laughed at by other spacers...on Mars the closest orbital approach is the Apoareion, and the farthest is called the Periareion.” he trailed off, watching his screens, and adjusting our angle slightly. “Yak, do you have anything on comms yet?”

I took a quick scan through the full spectrum, marveling in the sensitivity and range of our new gear. Even though they weren’t communicating with us, the occasional burst of RF leakage seemed to indicate they were communicating with each other.

“Sir, I am tracking what appears to be narrow-band comms chatter leakage between Masters 3 and 4 – there might be enough leakage for Janis to work on.”

“Very well, Yak. Please get her working on that. Pauli, let me kno
w the moment they are in range…“ The bridge lit up again with a salvo of outgoing turret fire, flashing out and down. We all leaned up and looked forward, watching as flash after flash registered direct hits on torps as they were launched.

“That has to be pretty damn frustrating”, he chortled, tapping his fingers on his console. “Serves them right, you can't just go through life picking fights. Sooner or later, no matter how tough you think you are, you run into
people like us.”

I chuckled, smiling across the aisle at Pauli shaking his head.

“Archaea, MOC… request confirmation of high-order detonations adjacent to your track… are you being fired on?” Orbital Control didn't sound at all pleased with this turn of events. 

“MOC, that's affirmative
. No damage sustained yet, though I don't know how much longer I intend to let that continue.” Captain Smith sounded upbeat, but ominous.

“Archaea, be advised we have scrambled interceptors from Arsia, they will be on station in 10.”

“Very well MOC, 10 minutes, Archaea out.”

“Sir, comms key is cracked”, Pauli called across the bridge. I saw the channel open onscreen and
quickly put it on speaker.

“-- cant
can't get a shot! All misfired!” we heard, followed by a hiss and crackle.

“Janis…
can you encode a return channel on that frequency for me, same encryption?”

“Certainly sir”, she said after a very brief pause. “Comms channel is open now.”

“This is Captain Dak Smith of the Archaea, how copy, over?”

A muted crackle and hiss was our only answer, then suddenly, in a blast of static, “--at the hell? How did you get on this channel?”

“Unidentified hostile vessels, this is Captain Dak Smith of the independent frigate Archaea. You have thirty seconds to alter your course, or you will be fired on. Do you copy?”

There was no answer, just the hiss of background radiation.

Their course track had closed to within 200 kilometers, on a rapidly diverging course. Their ships no longer looked like points of light… I could almost see individual features.

“Pauli, are
we in range of their network yet?” Captain Smith called across the bridge.

“No sir, not yet”, he replied immediately.

“Well, I am not going to mess around with these grommets. We have places to go, and people to save. Janis, if they were to lose their boost capability right now, would they fall into a stable orbit?”

“Negative
, sir, their orbital speed is insufficient for a stable orbit. They would re-enter atmosphere just over 14 hours from subjective now, sir.”

“That's good enough for me, the cavalry
is coming. Janis, fire mission, target fire on Masters 3 and 4. Remove their maneuvering capability. Please advise when you have a valid solution.”