No Direction Home (20 page)

‘But unavoidable, as is the case here. Even more so if EarthCorp intends to fight, which is what I would do in their position, to be perfectly honest. We are faced with a grim reality, Vinter. Either they die or we do – it is as simple as that, I'm afraid, and I intend to make sure that it isn't us.'

Vinter shook his head slowly; further argument was pointless. The trouble was that, from a purely military standpoint, Ferreira was absolutely right.
But then, so was bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki… From a purely military viewpoint.

Ferreira waited to see if Vinter was going to say any more, then turned to the others. ‘Does anyone else have any observations?'

Yung-Sien sighed, as if releasing some inner tension, then said, ‘Is it worth continuing with the bombardment? Will it serve any useful purpose now?' He seemed almost grateful to return to a straightforward tactical issue.

‘I doubt it,' Ferreira conceded. ‘If that initial blitz bombardment didn't succeed, or even cause any detectable damage, then any further attempts would be a waste of both time and resources. Major Watanabe, issue the order to stand the rail guns down.'

Watanabe nodded and turned aside, subvocalising the order into his comm.

Ferreira stared levelly at Vinter and said, ‘At least you haven't said
I told you so
, Major.'

Vinter shrugged. ‘This outcome doesn't give me any pleasure, I assure you.'

‘Perhaps not, but it means that we are running out of options, aren't we?'

‘I'm not sure we ever had any, Colonel.' He sighed, sensing the other's frustration. ‘Look, it's like in the old days of naval warfare, where you've got an unarmed passenger ship being chased by a heavy cruiser – there's damn all you can do except wait for the cruiser to catch up and hope that it doesn't blow you out of the water in the meantime. There's no point in wishing you had something up your sleeve, some secret weapon you can use, because you haven't, and that's all there is to it.'

Ferreira glared at him, then nodded slowly. ‘So you're saying that all we can do is wait for them to catch us up and, basically, hope for the best?'

‘Unless anyone has any better ideas, because I sure as hell don't, then, yes, that is exactly what I am saying.'

Varaphan was the last to arrive at the briefing, muttering an apology as she took her seat next to Vinter.

‘Very well, gentlemen and lady, if we can begin?' Ferreira asked, with more than a trace of asperity; Vinter guessed that it was because this was a scheduled meeting and that Varaphan would be taken to task privately later on for her lateness, especially as it was not the first time it had happened. ‘Now that we have been forced to abandon our initial strategy, we need to decide what we do when Stalker catches up with us and, if Major Vinter is right, attempts to board us. For the record, I am inclined to agree with him on that being their most likely approach. Major Vinter, Captain Sharma and myself have been assessing our situation and we've come up with the following evaluation.' He nodded at Vinter. ‘Major?'

Vinter nodded. ‘If they're not going to nuke us, then they've got two options, bearing in mind that they will almost certainly want the propellant mass contained in our deuterium ice shield. The first is, basically, to steal the ice shield by detaching it from the rest of
Terra Nova
, then transferring it to Stalker. The second is to capture
Terra Nova
by boarding, then take possession of the shield – which will be the ultimate objective, either way.

‘The first option, basically, is too risky from their point of view. For obvious reasons, the shield is not designed to be easily detached. EarthCorp would have to place a large amount of explosives, nuclear or otherwise, in carefully planned locations and then detonate them simultaneously in order to achieve any separation, virtually impossible to do in a combat situation and carrying a serious risk of shattering the ice shield into fragments if they don't get it exactly right. Chasing after those fragments would almost certainly involve using up more propellant mass in their shuttles than they would actually retrieve anyway.'

‘You've done the maths on this?' asked Teymourian.

Vinter nodded. ‘
I
have, anyway. If you want to check the figures, go ahead.'

‘Later,' Ferreira said firmly. ‘I think the point that Major Vinter is making is that this would be an unacceptably large gamble for EarthCorp.'

‘Exactly,' Vinter said. ‘That doesn't mean to say they won't try it, but I think it's their least likely approach.'

‘Because of the risks involved,' said Sharma, evidently feeling that he needed to add something to the discussion.

Vinter nodded again. ‘Indeed. So, if we assume that EarthCorp will go for the boarding approach, then we have two further options to consider if they want to get inside
Terra Nova
, bearing in mind we've got an armoured hull that is not going to be easily breached.' He pressed a key on his comp pad and the screen behind Ferreira displayed a side and a head on outline of
Terra Nova.
‘The main ways in through the hull are the external airlocks.' Three lights glowed on the display screen, locating the airlocks at intervals of 120 degrees around the Habitat Section. ‘The doors there are not as thick as the hull, so could be drilled or blasted through relatively easily. There are a number of problems with this approach, however, not the least being the Habitat's rotation. They'd have to match velocities and vectors while under fire from us, which won't exactly be easy. In addition, the airlocks are intended mainly for external hull maintenance purposes and so they're not designed to take any more than about half a dozen people at once. Similarly, the passageways linking them to the interior of the ship are also fairly narrow, and so each airlock and its approaches can be easily defended by a relatively small unit. Any attack on the airlocks would be extremely costly for EarthCorp and would probably be beaten off, unless they were prepared to inflict serious damage on
Terra Nova
's interior with, say, battlefield nukes. If they have any, that is.'

‘And how do you know they don't?' Yung-Sien interjected.

Vinter shrugged. ‘I don't. However, if their original mission was to nuke us on the way past, then they'd be carrying large warheads for that – five megatons or more – which you couldn't then re-distribute into battlefield nuclear weapons. And why would they have battlefield nukes aboard when there was no intention to board us originally? Who would they be intending to use them against?'

Yung-Sien gave an amused snort. ‘You've forgotten one thing, Major – they're
soldiers
. Any commanding officer given the chance to take along battlefield nukes on a mission will jump at the chance, even if he knows he almost certainly won't need them. You may be a military genius, Major, but do you really understand the military mind?'

Vinter nodded ruefully. ‘Fair point, Major, but if they
do
have these nukes, there's bugger all we can do about it, is there? We're screwed, to put it bluntly. In any case, nukes or not, I suspect they'll go for the other option – the Shuttle Bay.' He pressed a second key on his pad and a large section of
Terra Nova
was illuminated on the screen. ‘For starters, the Bay isn't under rotation, which makes things easier for them. It's got two large doors, one on each side, big enough to take shuttles, while the airlock into the Bay is far bigger than any of the external locks, because that's where all the heavy duty equipment and vehicles will go through at PlanetFall, so if they can gain a foothold there, they can get large numbers of troops through it at once. Beyond that, they're in the zero grav area, but
inside
the ship. Once they get that far, we won't be able to stop them spreading out and taking over the key areas – Engineering, Life Support, the lot.'

‘So we have to make sure they don't get in, in other words?' Sharma again, determined not to be left out.

‘Exactly. Or if they do, we need enough firepower in the Bay to inflict maximum casualties on them once they're in there.'

‘Deploying rail guns, you mean?' asked Yung-Sien.

Smothering a smile at how everyone seemed to use that expression now, Vinter shook his head. ‘Not unless we want large holes blown in the internal bulkheads, no. The projectiles contain far too much kinetic energy for the inner walls to deal with, so we'd have to restrict the weapons' fields of fire to the extent that they'd become impractical. No, we need as many Gatlings as we can get in there, so that we can target the enemy when they exit from the shuttles. Even then, it's a bit of a risk – they pack a huge punch if they're aimed at a weaker section of the internal walls for too long. Our best bet is to keep any rail guns we've got on the external hull, so that they can target the shuttles on their way in.' He smiled briefly. ‘That way, they'll be pointing away from us, which, given the fact that they've been somewhat cobbled together, would make me feel just a little more comfortable, if nothing else.'

‘I take it that we won't be putting all our eggs in one basket by committing all our forces to the Shuttle Bay?' asked Yung-Sien. ‘We'll still be guarding the external airlocks, won't we?'

‘Naturally,' Ferreira said smoothly, acknowledging the point. ‘It's just that our main effort must be to defend the Shuttle Bay.'

‘How about rocket launchers?' asked Varaphan, then shook her head in realisation. ‘No, forget that. It would be the same problem as the rail guns, wouldn't it? If they're designed to pierce the armour of a tank, our internal bulkheads wouldn't stand much chance, would they?'

‘Believe me, I don't like the idea of
anything
flying around inside the Shuttle Bay,' said Vinter. ‘Ideally, we keep them out altogether, but if they do get in, the Gatlings and small arms fire is the most we can risk.'

‘Unless they use nukes to blow holes in the bulkheads themselves,' Yung-Sien observed sourly. ‘But, as you say, there is little we can do about that. Sorry,
bugger all
we can do.'

‘That being the case, we had better start making provision for setting up the Gatlings in the Shuttle Bay,' Ferreira said briskly, ignoring Yung-Sien's comment. ‘I'm inclined to have some rocket launchers in there, but only in the hands of specialists who can be relied on to observe stipulated fields of fire.'

Yung-Sien nodded and typed in a brief note on his pad.

‘Major Varaphan, would you please step up the monitoring programme for intercepting covert incoming and outgoing signals?'

Varaphan nodded in turn. ‘Will do, sir.'

‘Very well. Unless there are any questions? In that case, the briefing is closed.'

*****

‘Persephone.'

‘
Here
.' Kari's voice.

‘Where are you?'

‘
In my office.
'

‘Get to the bridge if you can. You might want to see this.'

‘
On my way
.'

‘Proserpina.'

Vinter took a deep breath, then set off for the bridge, striding rapidly along the corridors, his face now set in a mask of fury:
Better make this convincing, sunshine… Didn't they use to call this method acting, back in the TwentyCee? They gave bloody awards for it, for crying out loud…

He stalked up to the door onto the bridge, glaring at the guards as he approached; one of them even made a half movement towards his sidearm, reacting to the expression on his face, but then the doors slid smoothly open and he was on the bridge itself, looking rapidly around.

There – at the main control console…
‘Ferreira!' he yelled, coming to a halt.

Ferreira looked quickly around, evidently startled. ‘Yes?'

‘What the fuck do you think you're doing, breaking into my quarters?'

‘I beg your pardon?'

‘You heard me – someone's broken into my quarters.'

‘Are you sure?' The look of bewilderment on Ferreira's face was almost comical.

‘Of course I'm fucking sure!' Out of the corner of his eye, Vinter saw Kari slip unobtrusively onto the bridge. ‘Someone's been in there and gone through all my belongings, so what the hell are you playing at, you bastard?' He saw the other man take out the control device –
Jesus, I thought he'd never get round to it
– then launched himself forward, arm raised for a blow to the neck as Ferreira brought the device up, almost as if it were a weapon, and pressed the button.

Vinter froze in mid-leap and fell to the deck, motionless, his head facing the bridge door, where Kari was standing, shock written all over her face.

She stared down at him for perhaps a second, then darted forward, crouching over him.

And then, when she was the only one who could see his face, he winked at her, slowly and deliberately, a very faint smile on his lips, instantly removed. Her eyes widened momentarily in realisation, then she looked away, yelling at Ferreira, ‘Turn that off. You've made your point, haven't you?'

‘Not forcefully enough, apparently… But there is nothing to be gained by prolonging this, I agree.' Her eyes came back to his and she inclined her head, almost imperceptibly, indicating that Ferreira had switched off the device; Vinter began to move slowly on the deck, swearing under his breath.

‘That was pretty bloody stupid,' he said, rising to his feet, very aware that all of Ferreira's Security Unit had their weapons trained on him.
Bloody hell – it worked! I really am free! That bastard doesn't have any hold on me…

OK, calm down…

Ferreira was staring intently at him. ‘Yes, it was, Vinter. You didn't really think you could beat this device, did you?'

‘You never know, do you? Worth a try, I suppose.' His eyes glittered. ‘Doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't have had someone turn my room over, Ferreira. I won't forget that.'

‘No, I don't suppose you will,' Ferreira said, thoughtfully, and for a moment, Vinter wondered if the other man had seen through the charade, but then Ferreira continued, ‘But, just for the record, I did
not
order your quarters searched. What would be the point? I have enough respect for your capabilities to know that you would not leave anything incriminating lying around to be found, so searching your quarters would be a complete waste of time.'

Vinter nodded slowly, as if reluctantly acknowledging the point. ‘In that case, Colonel, you've got an even bigger problem on your hands.
Someone
broke into my quarters and left no trace on the surveillance cams. Someone who can gain access to one of the most secure areas in the ship while evading all of our monitoring systems. If I were you, I'd be getting a little worried about that.'

Ferreira's eyes widened momentarily in realisation, then he nodded in turn. ‘I see what you mean. However, I suggest we continue this in private.' He inclined his head towards the Briefing Room. ‘Shall we adjourn?'

As he turned to follow Ferreira, Vinter's eyes met Kari's; again, she nodded, the faintest smile on her face.

Message received.

*****

Vinter took a beer from the fridge and crossed to the sofa, opening the canister as he did so. He sat down, took a preliminary sip, mentally crossed his fingers, then said, under his breath, ‘Persephone.'

There was a delay of several seconds before Kari replied.
‘Here.'

‘Awkward time?'

‘I was in the shower.'

Vinter smothered a grin. ‘Sorry. Bad timing.'
Pity this system doesn't have visuals…
He pushed the thought aside.

‘No problem.'

‘Did I convince you?'

Again, there was a delay, but Vinter sensed she was considering the implications of her answer, before she said,
‘Yes, you did. I expect you were pretty relieved as well, weren't you?'

‘You could say that, yes… OK, I won't beat about the bush – are you in?'