Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr (30 page)

Admiral decided that two cannons and their reactors could fit in the cargo areas of the shuttles. Nothing else but its small crew would fit in such a shuttle, but it would be armed to the teeth. As far as anyone knew, no one had armed shuttles like this before.

Ashley was working with the new trainees learning to pilot the shuttles and the ship. It helped that they were all former military pilots. There were two marines from the United States, one pilot from the Israeli Air Force, two Royal Navy pilots, and one Russian cosmonaut. It had been twenty-six days since capturing the station. These men had been working as many hours as they could, day and night, to train themselves on the
Victory
’s computer system.

Oleg the Russian was the best at piloting a capital ship, with his Israeli copilot, Saul Elhanan. The two marines, Captains Vince and Copeland, and the two Royal Navy pilots, Lieutenants Stanley and Robinson, worked as two-man teams flying the large shuttles. It was one man’s job to fly the ship, while the other operated the armaments.

“No, no, no, gentlemen. You have to stay in my gravity field until I go to maximum acceleration. Otherwise, you will be an obvious target out there,” said Oleg to the shuttle pilots.

They were practicing a maneuver that would allow the shuttles to hide behind the
Victory
until the last possible moment.

Meanwhile, Jupiter Station had been provided with ten of the laser-cannons, pointing in every direction, including one over each Docking Bay. If these had been operating when
Victory
and
Space Dog
had approached, the two ships would have been blown to space debris. The station’s gun crew was working at “shooting down” the ships as they tried to attack. The low-power test setting made sure that no one got hurt.

Oleg was about to start the drill again when he noticed something on the console.

“Ashley, Admiral—we have a contact from one of the radar drones.”

“When was the contact?” asked Admiral.

“I saw it come in just now, but it was sent five-point-five hours ago. There were three ships of the same kind as
Victory
. The contact was traveling at zero-point-three of light-speed. That puts it twelve-point-eight-three hours from us. We have another sensor drone at two light-hours away, so we should get another reading in about ten hours,” said Oleg.

“Stop the practice drills. Get those shuttles to the defensive positions. Ashley, notify all personnel, and the station, that we are going to have visitors.”

“Right way, Admiral.”

“Also, Ashley, get the telescope to have a look at the contacts’ estimated position. Let’s see if we see them and determine their size and armament.”

“Will do, but I thought these ships could not be picked up on radar.”

“This is not radio radar like Earth has. It is a broad spectrum, laser and radio detection and ranging system. If we used an acronym, it would be called BS LARDAR,” said Oleg.

“Sounds French,” said Ashley.

Admiral gave her a quizzical look, but the humans smiled.

Ashley sent out the notifications, and then she set to work with the telescope. The telescope in the ship was a sixteen-meter single mirror one. Compared to the first human space telescope, the Hubble (at 2.4 meters), it was huge.

She had to take the last known position and heading of the ships and estimate for the 5.5 hours that the data had taken to travel to the
Victory
. Then she had to calculate a position along that route where the light would have had time to reach her. She found the ships.

“Putting the view up on the main viewer now,” Ashley announced.

Admiral stood silently for a time, his ears pricked forward and his lips slightly lifted from his fangs. Finally his tail started to wag slowly.

“This is a good sign—they are running with all lights on. I don’t recognize the clan markings. Ashley, please run those markings through the database. Find out if they are at war with the clan we took these ships from.”

Ashley had never done this kind of task before, but she wasn’t surprised that the Supes had such a database in their computer. After a few minutes she had an answer.

“They are not formally at war with them, but they are not friendly to the Green clan that had these ships.”

“Right. Ashley, please broadcast the standard greeting that the Station Master had pre-recorded. Let’s see what kind of response we get. In the meantime, ask Frosty to come aboard so we can have a chat,” thought Admiral. “Oleg, bring the ship in for docking at the station.”

“Sorry to wake you, Leona, but you asked to be notified if there was any change in the status of the ship at Earth,” said Hiroshi via the console.

“Uh, no problem.”

Leona sat up, struggling to wake. She had just been dreaming of a nice warm beach and Thor. Somehow Thor had been wearing swim trunks, but in her dream he was a somewhat furry human, with a very toothy grin and a calico beard. She became aware that Hiroshi was politely waiting for her to shed the fog of sleep, and the dream slipped away into the mists of forgetfulness.

“The ship has gone dark,” Hiroshi said, once he knew that she was awake. “It doesn’t appear to be orbiting Earth anymore.”

That news roused Leona with a spurt of adrenaline. “Where is it?”

“We don’t know. It went to the far side of Earth as part of its orbit. Then it didn’t come back around. It has either left orbit or is hiding from us on the far side.”

“OK, I’ll be on the Command Deck in ten minutes. Call Commander Gupta. Have him meet me there.”

Leona broke the connection. She went to the washroom to freshen up and then dressed quickly. Her quarters were very close to the Command Deck. She was there in less than the ten minutes she had quoted.

“Are we sure yet that it has left orbit?” asked Leona.

“No, we just stopped seeing it,” said Hiroshi.

“Let’s see the recording of the last orbit we saw,” said Leona.

“On screen.”

“Play that side by side with an orbit from three days ago,” said Leona.

The two images were played as requested. In the newer image, the ship stayed on screen for just a few seconds. It had not gone a quarter of the way across the planetary disk.

“Wow, those Supes are moving much quicker. The ship was definitely accelerating to break orbit. However, they did not want us to see a full power burn,” said Leona.

Commander Gupta arrived on the Command Deck and Leona brought him up to speed.

“Can we look along all possible routes?” Leona asked.

“I have been looking, with no luck,” said Hiroshi.

“So much for the element of surprise,” said Leona.

“It has been my experience that often the element of surprise only exists in the mind of the commander,” thought Gupta wryly.

“Good point!” Leona chuckled. “Hiroshi, let’s find out where that other ship is. Please set our radar to maximum and scan the area where we might expect the ship to be. How long will it be until we can expect to see some returns?” Leona watched as Hiroshi started the radar scans.

“Given his distance from us, at least twenty minutes,” said Hiroshi.

“Sometimes even light-speed seems really slow,” said Leona, her lips quirking upward.

“Why don’t we put the element of surprise in the other commander’s mind?” thought Commander Gupta.

“What have you got in mind?” asked Leona.

“First, please tell me, what is the status of the gravity units that are being repaired?”

“They finished being repaired forty minutes ago. The maintenance bots are just doing final testing before we bring that system online,” said Hiroshi.

“Do we have any of those remote radar systems on board?”

“Yes, Commander, we have six of them. I think I know where you might be going with this,” said Leona.

Commander Gupta stood looking at his thoughts for a minute, flexing and retracting his claws several times. Then his eyes focused on Leona. She was not sure, but it was almost as if the commander winked at her. Then he addressed Hiroshi again.

“Hiroshi, bring that gravity system online as soon as possible. Plot an alternate course for Earth around the far side of the planet—with plenty of clearance around the moon,” thought Gupta.

Fifteen minutes later, Hiroshi sighed and straightened his back. His vertebrae clicked faintly. “The gravity system is tested and ready for use.”

“Launch one of those radar systems, set at the maximum strength and aimed at Earth. Prepare to change course to that new heading you plotted,” said Leona.

Three minutes later Hiroshi smiled. “Radar system deployed. Changing course to the new heading.”

“Kill all exterior lights, go to radio silence. Now give us everything she’s got, Hiroshi. Maximum speed,” said Leona.

“Hiroshi, make sure you stay out of the radar beam of our sensor probe. No point in telling our adversary what we are doing,” thought Commander Gupta.

Leona set the telescope so that it was focused on the radar system. She thought about the times she had gone fishing with her dad when she was a girl. He used to say, the kind of fish you catch depends on the bait you use. It was time to go fishing, and the radar system was the bait.

CHAPTER 10

Homeward

December 4, 2038, 1:29 p.m.

Leona had never seen the Earth from this vantage point before. The view was beautiful. When she was taken by the Supes’ werewolves, Leona hadn’t seen anything but the inside of the transport shuttle and a prison cell. But now, she drank in the view—so many clouds, such a thin blue layer of atmosphere!

The sight of the Earth made Leona homesick. She missed the smell of the air on her farm. She wondered if she would ever see her house again. A deep yearning overtook her, for
home
. She ached to hear the swish of leaves in the treetops, the music of frogs and crickets, and the sound and smell of rain.

But Leona realized that she—and the crew of the
Space Dog
—were the defense of Earth. In order for her to enjoy her life on planet Earth, she would have to turn her back on the safety of every human being, including herself.

And what about Thor? Leona’s throat constricted. Could she abandon him, her beloved Wolf, for the sake of clouds and wind? No, she would deliver the passengers that wanted to return to Earth, but then she would go back to space and the war against the Supes.

The Earth was growing in the window at an incredible rate. Ordinarily, it was hard to imagine the speed they were traveling until there was an object to compare with and put it in perspective. The ship’s telescope automatically adjusted the picture that was displayed, so it took away from the sense of speed. But nothing compared to looking out a window.

It had been almost two months since they left Jupiter. They had been playing “hide the spaceship” with the other ship for ten days now. The
Space Dog
had accelerated to .01 of light-speed and was approaching the Earth and its moon from the direction of the North Pole. They were still 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Their closest approach would take them within six hundred thousand kilometers. They would be past the Earth in nine minutes.

“Leona, the other vessel has just fired on our radar probe. It has been destroyed,” said Hiroshi.

“They have started active radar,” thought Commander Gupta. He had one red-furred ear back, though the other still pointed forward.

“Have they detected us?” asked Leona.

“No, they have not pointed it our way yet. I am just receiving radar returns from what is left of the radar array,” thought Gupta.

“I think they discovered that was a decoy,” said Leona.

“I have pinpointed the origin of their radar signal. It is a shuttle that is near the moon,” thought Gupta.

Gunnery Sergeant Ray Masters had turned the crew into a cohesive unit. He and Commander Gupta, with the help of Isamu for translation and insight, had drilled everyone on all the possible ship’s motions. Hiroshi had helped to make the Command Deck functions accessible to the werewolves, as far as the system fail-safes would allow. The command team had a task for everyone who wanted to stay on board. They had also been running “general quarters” drills at all times of the day and night. So even the “passengers” who anticipated returning to Earth knew what to do in zero-g.

“Continue on course, and kill the gravity field in case they have some way to detect our gravity well. Sound general quarters,” said Leona.

“Aye, aye, Captain,” said the gunnery sergeant, who was standing behind her.

Leona smiled at the joke the gunny made.
Heh! Captain Leona!
Then she looked at him and thought, same as Gupta, Gunny was not joking.

“Should I power up main weapons?” asked Hiroshi.

“No, they might have something to detect that too. Let’s just stay quiet a while longer,” said Leona.

“Other than that shuttle, I cannot see any other ships,” thought Gupta.

“That laser blast had to come from somewhere. Replay the video we made from the telescope and see if you can pick up a direction,” said Leona.

Commander Gupta started working on the video. Hiroshi started say something, but then a look of surprise crossed his face.