Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (2 page)

Trojan
checked Oracle’s latest report on the search for Captain Foster. No sign of
her. The search had now been going on for close to six hours. Had she been
tipped off? He didn’t see how that was possible. Oracle hadn’t determined that
she was a likely candidate until he had asked the computer. That was one of the
major differences between Oracle and the much more capable Majestic. Majestic
would have noticed the increased Union activity in the Franklin Tris-ystem and
programmed itself to figure out why, as well as who and how, on its own. It
wouldn’t have been necessary for a human to ask those questions.

“Oracle,
scan all rail, air and ground transportation systems on the continent for signs
of Captain Foster. Notify the nearest police units to apprehend her if you find
evidence that she’s on the move. Also have passenger lists of all outbound
space traffic reconfirmed with DNA traces. Ships that won’t comply are to be
grounded until their passengers AND crew can be cleared by local Army or police
personnel.”

Foster
thanked her guide and stepped into the tiny Bridge of Titan’s Gift. The Captain
gestured for her to stand beside his station. He was clearly speaking with
Space Traffic Control. “We’ve already reconfirmed the identities of our
passengers, Control, and we’re scheduled to lift off in less than 2 minutes…DNA
scans? Are you serious?...No, we don’t have DNA scan equipment on board!...You
want us to do what?...And how long is that going to take?...An hour? That’s not
acceptable, Control…Let me remind you that under generally accepted
regulations, once Space Traffic Control has given a provisional clearance,
which you’ve done, I can lift off without any further approval from you. I’m
not going to screw up my schedule by sitting here for another couple of hours.
We’re lifting off on schedule. That’s my final word. Titan’s Gift clear.” When
he was certain the circuit was broken he turned to her and said, “This is going
to be close. Once we lift off, they can still send a navy ship to intercept us
if they want to. We’re lifting in three…two…one…now.”

Oracle’s
electronic voice made Trojan jump with surprise. “A small privately owned
freighter has lifted off from London Spaceport after refusing to delay its
departure in order to accommodate DNA scan of passengers and crew.”

“Does
the Navy have any assets in orbit?” asked Trojan.

“Negative.”

“What
about on the ground? Cruisers, assault shuttles, anything?”

“The
5001
^st
Aerospace Squadron is on standby alert at the Geneva Navy
spaceport. They’re equipped with assault shuttles capable of orbital
interceptions.”

“That’s
it! Get me the NCoS on a secure line.”

Seconds
later Trojan heard the voice of Admiral Chenko. “Chenko here. What’s the
emergency, General?”

“Admiral,
I have compelling evidence that one of my planning group staff is a Union spy,
and she’s attempting to leave Earth with information that could hurt us. Her
ship is accelerating for the jump-limit as we speak. The only navy unit that
has a chance at interception is the 5001
^st
squadron. Do I have your
approval to scramble that squadron right now?”

“What?
You’re telling me we’ve had a Union spy in our midst all this time? Christ
almighty! Leave the interception to me. I’ll scramble that squadron. Out.”

As
soon as the connection was cut, Trojan got up and made his way to the Navy’s
Operations Center. The Captain on duty greeted him.

“Welcome,
General. Admiral Chenko mentioned that this interception was your idea and that
you might drop in.”

Trojan
was listening but his gaze was on the large display. “I don’t see any of the
5001’s birds, Captain.”

“No,
General, they haven’t taken off yet.”

“Why
the hell not? That ship can’t be allowed to jump away, Captain. What’s the hold
up?”

“Well
you see, General, those assault shuttles weren’t really designed as
interceptors, and therefore we don’t keep them armed for that mission all the
time. Before they can launch, we have to load anti-ship missiles on them.
Standard procedure is to wait until all eight are armed before any of them take
off.” The Captain’s smile vanished when Trojan started cursing.

“Son-of-a-bitch!
Listen, Captain, this isn’t some goddamned exercise! The target ship is
carrying classified military information on its way to the Union! Forget about
standard procedure and get those birds in the sky as soon as they’re armed!”

The
Captain briefly debated pointing out to the General that Army officers, even
flag officers, do not have authority to give orders to Navy personnel but then
decided that maybe he should make an exception in this case.

“I’ll
light a fire under their tails, General.”

The
Captain was as good as his word. Within 60 seconds two of the assault shuttles
had taken off and were climbing through Earth’s atmosphere as fast as they
could without suffering damage from air friction.

Foster
heard the unmistakeable warbling of a tactical alarm. “What’s happening
Captain?”

His
voice was surprisingly calm. “We’re being bombarded with long range radar from
two craft that are in pursuit. If they’re what I think they are, then this is
going to get tricky.”

“What
do you mean?” she asked.

“Earth
defenses don’t have missile boats. Instead, they rely on assault shuttles that
can be armed for anti-ship missions. I suspect that’s what those two craft are.
I wonder if they’ll bother to give us a chance to surrender before they fire.”

“Can
they stop us?”

“Well
they’re certainly going to try, but this ship has a few tricks that I don’t
believe the FEDs have seen before. You better find a seat and strap in. If they
do hit us, we’ll feel it.”

Foster
found a seat. As she strapped herself in, she suddenly heard a voice over the
loudspeaker.

“—one
and only warning. Begin immediate deceleration to zero velocity and obey
further instructions or you’ll be fired upon.”

Before
Foster could say anything, she heard the Captain speak.

“This
is Titan’s Gift. Go fuck yourself, you FED bastards!” The rest of the Bridge
crew laughed.

“Was
that wise, antagonizing them like that?” asked Foster.

The
Captain chuckled. “I’m hoping that it’ll make them angry enough to make a
mistake. We may as well shut down our transponder. No sense in making us an
easy target. Mitch, prepare to shut down the engines and retract them on my
command.”

“I’m
ready, Skipper,” said one of the Bridge crew.

“Good.
Standby,” said the Captain.

They
waited. The only sound that Foster heard was the gentle beeping of some of the
equipment. She jumped in surprise as one of the crew began speaking.

“Multiple
targeting radars! They’ve fired on us! Estimated time to impact is just over
two minutes!”

“Okay.
No sense in taking any chances. Mitch, shut down the engines, retract them and
deploy the armor.”

Foster
was amazed at how calm the Captain was.

“Engines
retracted and armor deployed, Skipper.”

“Very
good.” The Captain turned his chair so that he could see Foster. “You’re
wondering what I’m doing.” Foster nodded. “Those craft are firing on us from
behind which means that when their missiles hit, they’ll hit that part of the
hull where our engines are. Since the engines are exposed, any hit would damage
them to the point where they’d be completely useless. One way to avoid that
would be to rotate the ship so that some other part of the hull gets hit, but
that isn’t really a good idea either because hull penetrations could damage
other vital pieces of equipment or injure crew or passengers. Union engineers
came up with what I think is an ingenious solution to this problem. The engines
are designed so that they can be pulled up into the ship and slabs of thick
steel can be moved to cover the open sections in the hull. That armor, along
with the whole bottom quarter of the hull, is thick enough that high explosive
warheads and kinetic energy penetrators will have difficulty getting through.
When the missile barrage is over, we’ll uncover the engine spaces, lower the
engines and turn them back on. In the meantime, we’ll just coast closer to the
jump-limit. As long as they’re chasing us from behind, we should be okay.”

“How
thick is that armor? Is it neutron armor?” asked Foster.

“It’s
ten centimeters of the hardest alloy we know how to make, with the thinnest
possible layer of collapsed matter on the inner side. When the missile warhead
hits the outside of the armor, it’ll explode against the alloy, which will
absorb most of the energy. The idea is that the explosion or slug of super-hot
plasma from the KE penetrator won’t have enough energy left to force its way
past the neutron layer.” The Captain looked at the chronometer and said, “Any
second now.”

Foster
heard and felt something hit the ship. Before she could say anything, one of
the crew spoke.

“No
damage!”

“Are
we still being bombarded by targeting radar?” asked the Captain.

“No,
Sir.”

“Okay,
Mitch, retract the armor and get us underway again.”

Trojan
frowned as he watched the tactical display. “They’re accelerating again. Did
those missiles miss?”

The
Duty Officer took his time answering. “As far as we can tell, they didn’t miss,
General. I don’t understand why there doesn’t seem to be any damage to their
engines.”

Trojan
slapped his hand down on the console he happened to be standing beside, causing
the console operator to jump in surprise. “Can those two shuttles fire again?”
he asked.

“No,
General. They’ve fired all the missiles they were carrying, but we have two
more birds that are just about to clear the atmosphere. They’ll be able to fire
in less than a minute.”

“Let’s
hope they have better luck. Keep arming more shuttles, Captain. I have a
feeling we’re going to need them,” said Trojan

When
the fourth wave of anti-ship missiles failed to penetrate the deployed armor,
Foster heard the Captain sigh with obvious relief.

“I
think that’s the last missile attack we have to worry about because we’re
getting pretty close to the jump-limit. Once past that, we’ll be able to
micro-jump so far away that they won’t be able to catch us. Then we alter
course to line up for the long-jump back to Union territory.”

Foster
sighed. “That was quite impressive, Captain Paladin. I’ll be sure to sing your
praises to the Union leadership when I report to them.”

Paladin
laughed. “Well if you’re going to do that, you better get my name right. Girard
Paladin is my cover identity for use when I’m in FED territory. My real name is
Roland Drake.”

“I’ll
be sure to remember that, Captain Drake,” said Foster with a grin.

Chapter Two

Day
364/2542

Trojan
made sure he was early for the emergency meeting with both Chiefs of Staff.
General Masterson and Admiral Chenko both looked annoyed as they entered and
sat down. Masterson glanced at Chenko before turning his gaze back to Trojan.

“We’ve
both read your report, General. Needless to say, the discovery that a Union spy
has been operating on your staff for the last three years is causing a lot of
ulcers right up to the Council and the Assembly. There are Assembly
representatives screaming for your head. Fortunately you had the foresight to
request verifier tests of all your staff back when the vetting program was
getting started. It’s not your fault that the officer in charge of that program
didn’t follow through. Admiral Chenko and I are agreed that if someone has to
fall on their sword in order to satisfy the politicians’ bloodlust, it won’t be
you.”