Ringship Discretion (18 page)

The middle of the night,

We prepare for what might.

Pawns on a razors edge between towering empires.

Our lives solely dependent on playing their desires.

The captain awoke suddenly to the sound of the intercom.  "...encryption to receive further details.  Ring ship Discretion, this is the OSA Ship Revealant. Switch to encryption to receive further details....Ring ship Discretion, thi..." Attie jumped up and yelled for Amelia to get up while he searched the floor for his pants.

She woke up in a start. "What?! What is..." And she could hear the transmission. She felt around to grab her nighty and threw it over herself and they both made it to the door at the same time.  Attie backed up, let her through and they ran to the bridge.  Ben and Doc were stumbling down the hallway as they passed.

Amelia and the Attie jumped into their respective seats.  Amelia shut the intercom off and looked at the transmission.  "OK, here's the encryption channel they want us to respond on." She hit a few buttons and pointed to the transmit button.

Attie nodded and hit it. "Come in Revealant.  This is captain Atticus Elliot aboard the Discretion.  We are ready to receive instructions."

A few seconds passed. "This is Captain Ralph Ferrington.  You are to proceed to the orbit of Oberon at the included coordinates.  You are to dock with the carrier Yorktown.  They are sending a fighter group to escort you in. You can expect them in 3 hours."

The captain looked at Ben. "A carrier?! The Oorters have been busy."

The captain turned back to the console and pressed transmit. "Roger that.  I assume our payment will be ready when we arrive."  He let go of the transmit button and cringed a bit.

Sixty seconds of silence, then, "Yes, Captain Elliot, the payment of 4 million will be there upon your arrival."

Atticus looked at the crew and could see the hope lighting their faces. He gave a broad smile and winked his right eye. He again turned and pushed the transmit button. "Roger that. We will proceed to the coordinates.  Is there anything else we need to know?"

Captain Ferrington responded. "I don't believe so.  The Big Sis ships that were on your immediate tail have been destroyed, although we took heavy losses in the process.  There shouldn't be any immediate threat to you, but we are sending the escort just the same."

Atticus responded "Sorry to hear of your losses captain. We wish to thank you for the protection and escort."

Captain Ferrington said "Good luck to you and your crew. Over and out..."

Amelia looked at Attie. "That's it. He cut the transmission."  She then looked at the new data that the Revealant had sent. "It looks like it will take us about three days to get there."

Attie looked out the window. "Man, we are getting close.  Just wish we could see something.  Never been out this far."

Amelia pushed some buttons and the main bridge display changed to the ship's rear view. "Well, there's Uranus." She pointed. "And there is Oberon." Everyone looked.

Amelia spoke again after she looked at the sensor display. "I can hardly make out anything.  No one is using their radar and there is almost no radio traffic." 

Attie turned to look. "Hmmm..Yeah, they are probably trying to hide their numbers and tactical positions from the massive Big Sis fleet that's coming.  By the way, how long till that fleet gets here?"

Amelia looked at her simulations folder and brought the appropriate one up. "It looks like about 3 weeks based on their current deceleration."

Attie said. "Wow, they really caught up to us!"

Amelia responded. "Well, they didn't stop at Jupiter like us and they used its gravity to give them a large boost."

Attie nodded. "Yeah...OK.  Well, lets get ready to meet these Oorters.  Let's check all our gear. Spacesuits, weapons..everything.  Make sure it's all in tip top shape.  We don't know what we are going into.  And let assume battle conditions.  Shut every hatch and only open and close them as you pass. Everyone got that?"

The crew nodded.

Ben spoke up in a gravely voice. "Can we finish our sleep first?"

The captain looked at Ben and then thought for a sec. "Oh, yeah. It is still the middle of our night isn't it?  I got so riled up, I forgot.  Alright. Everyone back to bed. We will get to it first thing in the morning. Amelia, reset the intercom for incoming transmissions."

The crew filed off in the direction of the galley.  Amelia turned to Attie a minute later. "OK, everything is set. We can go back to bed again." She got up, yawned and started to walk toward the galley.  Attie jumped out of his seat and ran up behind her, pinching her butt. She let out a squeak and turned.  Attie grabbed her and pulled her in for a kiss.  He ran his hands up her blue silky back until she became limp in his arms. After a few seconds, she suddenly popped up, turned and ran to the galley hatchway, where she raised the back of her nighty revealing her round white behind. "You coming to bed?".

Attie gulped. "Hell yeah I am!"

As they chased each other through the galley, Ben pulled his head out of the fridge to watch them pass.  "Goodnight!.....Have fun you two.." But before he could even finish his sentence they had run down the corridor.  "Jeez...well, let's see if I can't at least find some food to cuddle with."

CHAPTER 11:
The Yorktown

The King of ships hovers large.

The King of fairies, its charge.

Filled with quaint mazes and wanton destruction.

Saving our plates, its greatest and final function.

Attie stared out the window at one of the escorting fighters.  "So, how much time do we have?"

Amelia, standing beside him sharing the view, said "About an hour."  She put her hand on his back, turned and sat in the pilot's chair. "Yes, we have 1 hour and 8 minutes."

Attie said. "Then it's time." He pushed the intercom. "Everyone suit up and grab your favorite weapon. You don't need to put your helmets on, but have them just in case.  Double check all the hatches and make sure everything is secure." He let go of the intercom and talked directly to Amelia again. "Go get suited up.  I'll take the helm until you get back".  She nodded, stood up, gave him a kiss and went to get her suit.

As Amelia was coming back on the bridge in her suit while carrying her helmet and an M24, the intercom crackled. "Discretion, this is The Yorktown. Please switch to laser communication aimed at the following coordinates and maintain radio silence."  Amelia shuffled up to her chair.  Attie quickly switched seats and she set her gear down.  She brought up the laser-comm and aimed it at the given coordinates. 

They immediately began receiving telemetry, then voice. "Discretion, this is Captain Morel aboard the Yorktown. Admiral Arakaki has requested that you dock in hangar bay 4.  We have sent you the necessary navigation data."

Atticus pushed talk. "This is Captain Atticus Elliot of the Discretion. We copy. Hangar bay 4 and are complying." He sat for a short while waiting for a possible response, but eventually Amelia said "Better get suited up.  I will handle it until you get back." 

Attie nodded. "Oh, lower the internal pressure to 60 kPa, just in case we have to use the suits in a hurry."  She acknowledged and he went to get his suit.

Amelia got on the intercom and broadcasted the change in pressure warning throughout the ship.

When the captain came back on the bridge, everyone was there and suited up. "Great. How close are we?"

Amelia ignored him for a few seconds, then said "We are on approach now...maybe five minutes."

The captain sat in his seat. "Everyone strap in." As he was tightening his shoulder strap, a sensor alarm went off. "What's that? Proximity alarm?"  He leaned forward to have a look.  "What the hell? We are being hit by radar again." 

Amelia glanced over for a second and then went back to her piloting. "Who?"

Attie pushed a few buttons. "It's registering as contact 1558 in our system...the BB cruiser!"

Ben said "Again?! It would be suicide for them to try and attack us here."

Attie looked at data for another minute. "No, if I'm reading this right, the BB cruiser is more than 300 million km away."

Ben asked "Why would they do that?  Are they trying to lure out the Oorter fleet or something?"

The captain said "I don't know, but I don't like it. Maybe.." Amelia interrupted "OK, here we go. We are on final approach."  The 30 second alarm sounded, but she hit the emergency override. She began to rotate the ship.

Over the radio came "Discretion. We've lost your laser comm and you are deviating from the assigned approach. Please respond."

Amelia quickly hit a few buttons. "This is the Discretion.  We have lost our maneuvering thrusters. Coming in on grav drive plates only.  We will be coming to a relative stop outside your hangar bay, rotating, thrusting in, then rotating to stop."

Over the radio came "Roger that Discretion. You are the only traffic for hangar 4. Use all the room you need."

Amelia rotated the ship so the top was facing the hangar bay. Everyone gasped as the Carrier came into view.  It was larger than the window's view and blocked the stars.  They could see the huge hangar doors opening. Internal lighting of yellow and deep blue lights showed where they were supposed to touch down. Amelia engaged the drives and instantly overrode the 30 second alarm. They slowly drifted into the mammoth hangar.  There were fighter and cargo ships to the right and left.  Cargo loading machines moved about the hangar deck and there were men in space suits.  The cargo ships were quite large, while the fighters were about half the size of the Discretion. The fighters had large rings at their back, with a hollow cylindrical central body.  Missiles and laser could be seen protruding from the sides of the cylinder.  The rear ring housed the gravity plating, while the cylindrical shape allowed for radiation to pass through the ship when its magnetic field was activated.

As they approached the center of the hangar, Amelia rotated the ship 180 degrees.  The cockpit window slewed until it faced 'down' at the deck, which had an illuminated giant X with yellow lights converging to the center point. Everyone instinctively grabbed their seats, thinking they were going to fall forward.  Once they had come to a dead stop over the X, Amelia again rotated the ship until they were looking up at the X from an inverted position.  She touched the plate thrust for a second and immediately turned the ship 180 degrees so that the bottom of the Discretion faced the deck.  The crew was now looking back out the hangar door, which was closing.  Their drift downward was almost imperceptible. Amelia got on the radio "Yorktown, standby to reengage your artificial gravity plating on my mark."

The Yorktown acknowledge.

The slight jerk of hitting the deck was immediately followed by Amelia saying "Mark!" A second later everyone felt their full weight pulling them down into their seats again.  Amelia breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that was a little nerve racking.  Felt like a million people were watching me!".

Attie looked over at her. "Did great! Perfect landing!" Amelia looked at him smiling and looked back at everyone.  They all gave her the thumbs up.

The captain said "OK, grab the 3 plates and put them in the airlock". He turned to back to the console. "This is the Discretion.  We have touched down and are awaiting instructions."

The radio came back "A team is heading to you now with a transport. Please meet them outside your ship with the plates."

Atticus replied. "Roger that. I assume the team will also have our money."

The man on the radio replied. "That is affirmative."

Atticus turned to Ben "You and Amelia are with me.  Helen, you have the comms.  Doc, help her out.

AJ asked "What about me?"

Atticus said "There is only room for 3 and the plates in this airlock.  You stay with the ship. Guard the hatch and don't let anyone in, except us."

AJ replied "Yes sir."

The captain, Ben and Amelia got into the airlock and shut the hatch.  It only took a minute to lower the pressure to 40 kPa before they put their helmets on.  Ben's eyes got big and he started to breath heavily.

The captain asked "You OK Ben?!"

Ben shook his head.  Atticus looked at Ben's gauges. "Its the mix. Its not on pure oxygen. Amelia bring the lock pressure back up!" 

Ben clicked manual override on his suit, grabbed the valve on the front, shut it off and opened his oxygen valve more.  He watched it so that it didn't exceed 40 kPa. "There, I think I've got it now. The damn thing didn't auto adjust to the pressure change." 

The captain asked while signaling "You OK Ben?"

Ben returned the signal and said "Yeah, should be fine now.  It's supposed to go to pure oxygen at this low of pressure, but for some damn reason I think it stuck on the high pressure mixture."

Atticus asked again. "You sure your OK?"

Ben nodded. "Yeah, no problem now."

Attie looked at Amelia with an expression of relief. "OK, bring the pressure back down to zero."

Over the comm came Helen. "Captain, they are asking what is the hold up."