The Clones of Mawcett (34 page)

“Yes sir.”

“Any other ideas?” Gavin scanned the faces around the table and on the monitor, waiting until the silence seemed to become pervasive. “Very well. Dismissed.”

Kanes immediately headed for his assigned quarters to prepare the encrypted request for the ordnance. The cyphered request would be transmitted via regular RF to a communications relay satellite parked just outside the hundred-million kilometer IDS jamming range, and then retransmitted on IDS to Higgins Space Command base.

Jenetta was in the gym the next day when Kanes arrived for his workout.

“Good morning, Commander,” he said. “Does that punching bag have a name?”

“Sir?”

“The way you're hitting that bag, it seems personal.”

Jenetta smiled grimly. “No, no name, sir. I was just thinking back to my time in the Raider-One detention cell and wondering about Christa.”

“Ah, I see. You're worried that she might be in the Raider base that we're confronting?”

“It's not impossible.”

“No, it isn't. But you can't let it influence your duty as a Space Command officer.”

“It won't, sir, much as I would regret taking any action that might harm her. She knew the risk when she volunteered to pilot that shuttle. It was virtually a suicide mission, but I believed it was necessary if we were to keep the cloning technology out of the hands of the Raiders.”

Kanes nodded. “She certainly acquired your strength and courage.”

“I hope that it won't be her undoing. I've heard about bonds between siblings that are so strong you can sense when they're in danger, but I've tried as hard as I can and I don't get anything. You'd think that I could pick up something if there was any validity to that premise. When we were together we knew exactly what the other was thinking. When we talked, it was like thinking out loud. I've tried to stretch out with my senses here, but I get nothing back.”

“Most of those reports about such contact are at relatively short distances, such as within a building or maybe across town, not across tens of thousands of kilometers.”

“I suppose,” Jenetta said. “I hope that whatever else happens, I learn what happened to Christa. If we use the weapons that you've requested, there may not be enough left to determine if she was even in there.”

“I wish that it could be otherwise. Perhaps something will develop that will allow us to avoid using the new weapon.”

“It would be great if we could warn them, in the hope that they would surrender before we have to use it, but that may not be wise. I remember reading about the discussions among decision makers trying to decide whether or not they should warn the Japanese prior to the use of the first atomic weapon on Earth in 1945. Some felt that the Japanese would surrender if they knew what was about to befall them.”

“Yes, but the prevailing sentiment was that by warning them they would simply make more of an effort to shoot down the bomber. Since the United States only had two such weapons readily available, they decided to drop it without warning. In hindsight, a warning wouldn't have done any good. The Japanese refused to surrender even after the first bomb was dropped because their fanatical military leadership didn't believe that the U.S. could have more than one. Only after the second bomb was dropped did they decide that they couldn't continue to wage war against an opponent that possessed such awesome weapons.”

“But there won't be any second chances here, sir. Not if the weapon is as powerful as you say.”

“I only have preliminary testing data to go on, and the test results were from very small devices, but the yield is reportedly twenty times greater than the fusion warheads we've used so far. The potential power estimate was arrived at by extrapolating the yield of the small devices.”

“Then the yield from the larger devices could be much greater, or much less, than predicted?”

“It's possible, but not too likely. The extrapolation formula was developed by using information accumulated from multiple small test weapons of varying sizes. Because it burrows in first, it becomes hundreds of times more powerful than torpedoes that impact on the surface.”

“If we're successful here, you'd have a procedure in place to use against the other Raider bases.”

“Yes, we'll be using this as sort of a testing ground for the weapon and future such operations. It would be nice if we could recover the space station somewhat intact so we could examine it closely. The same Raider engineers are probably responsible for constructing all of them. You didn't leave us much to go on with Raider-One.”

“I'm sorry now, that the station was totally destroyed, but at the time I wasn't. Following my escape, I expected to be pursued by dozens of fully armed warships, with trained crews, whose only goal was to destroy me. The destruction of the station and the ships was fortunate at the time, to say the least, but if the explosion had only rendered the port's complement of ships unusable, it might have been better.”

“It'd be convenient if we'd been able to plant some conventional explosives here. Not enough to destroy the entire station; just enough to kick a hole in the side of that asteroid.” Captain Kanes stretched his arms. “Speaking of kicking, are you up for a little kick boxing practice?”

* * *

The next few days passed slowly. The seismic effort using torpedoes provided enough information about the asteroid's structure to enable the engineers to identify the placement of the main doors with reasonable certainty, and the three battleships moved their position to cover the newly identified entrance. Torpedoes fired against the doors didn't have much more effect than the early strikes, but the GSC task force was better positioned if any Raider ships tried to make a break for it.

On the fifth day of the siege, just as Jenetta's watch was ending, the tac officer suddenly said, “Commander, the DeTect system shows a ship approaching?”

“Send the course information to the helm. Helm, turn towards the contact and build our envelope. Com, signal GQ.”

“Aye, Commander,” the two officers and com Chief said.

Gavin, who had just arrived to relieve Jenetta, turned towards the tac officer, “Speed and ETA?”

“Light-187, Sir; twelve minutes.”

“Helm, engage as soon as our envelope is built,” Jenetta said. “Light-375.”

“Yes ma'am. Helm will engage at Light-375.”

“Com, notify the other ships to hold position,” Gavin said.

“Aye, Captain,” the com Chief said.

“I'll take it, Jen,” Captain Gavin said. “You're relieved.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Four minutes later the Prometheus came to a stop directly in the path of the oncoming ship and waited.

“The configuration of the approaching ship matches that of a Tsgardi vessel, Captain,” the tactical officer said.

The collision avoidance system of the oncoming ship automatically cut its Light Speed drive and dropped its temporal envelope when it sensed the Prometheus directly in its path.

“Tactical, jam all IDS communications,” Gavin said. “Helm, take us up to her using Sub-Light-5. Tactical, have our laser gunners target their temporal envelope generator and be prepared to fire on my command.”

“Aye, Captain.”

As with the jamming satellites at Mawcett, any attempted transmission of IDS com traffic within a hundred-million kilometer radius would be blocked. You couldn't 'see' the signal canceling effect and only knew that it was there when you flew into the 'dead air' zone and tried to send a message. The Prometheus would stay close enough to make sure that the approaching ship couldn't transmit any messages to other Raider ships.

Jenetta moved towards the larboard side of the bridge, taking a position where she knew she'd be 'off camera' to the lens on the front view screen. She would be able to obliquely see the bridge view of the approaching ship, but they wouldn't be able to see her if vid communications were established.

“Com, hail the ship using RF com frequencies in the microwave spectrum. Send this message, 'This is Captain Lawrence Gavin of the GSC Battleship Prometheus, calling the ship off our bow.'”

They waited about ten seconds and then the com operator said, “Visual image coming from the ship, Captain.”

“Put it on the front monitor.”

An image of the Tsgardi captain that Jenetta had seen while she was on Mawcett, appeared on the front view-screen.

“This is Captain Atakis Verdisqi of the Boshdyte. Why have you blocked our path and our IDS communications?”

Captain Gavin immediately recognized the name from the report that Jenetta had filed. “Captain, shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded.”

“We are a merchant ship in open space. By what right do you propose to board my ship?”

“By the authority vested in me by Galactic Space Command, according to the laws established by the Galactic Alliance. You will be charged with attacking the archeological dig-site at Loudescott on the planet Mawcett and remanded to a Space Command justice court location for trial.”

“That's ridiculous. We haven't been anywhere near Mawcett.”

“You'll have the right to defense council if you surrender peacefully. Otherwise, we'll terminate your career right here and now. Your choice, Captain.”

“You have no right to stop honest merchants in the pursuit of trade,” Verdisqi said angrily.

“Your ship is carrying too much firepower to simply be a merchant vessel,” Captain Gavin commented.

“These are dangerous times. We have the right to defend ourselves.”

“You'd have less need for defense if you weren't attacking innocent civilian settlements, such as the one on Mawcett.”

“That charge is absurd. What proof do you have that we were involved in any attack on Mawcett?”

Captain Gavin turned to Jenetta. “Commander, would you come over here please.”

Jenetta walked over to the center of the bridge and stood next to the command chair.

“Commander, is this the ship's captain that attacked you on Mawcett?”

“Yes sir, that's him.”

Captain Verdisqi's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe his own eyes. There on the view screen in front of him was the woman that he had taken prisoner near Mawcett. He looked at Jenetta and then momentarily turned to glance over his shoulder.

“What's your decision, Captain? Do you yield, or die?”

The view-screen suddenly went dark and reverted to an exterior view of the Tsgardi vessel. The huge engines amidship engaged, and the Tsgardi ship swiveled 180 degrees before his stern engines engaged.

“The target has engaged his Sub-Light engines,” the tactical officer said. “He's trying to build his temporal envelope, sir. We can't target his temporal envelope generator from this angle.”

“Helm, get us to where we can target his generator. Weapons gunners, as soon as you have a shot, destroy the temporal envelope generator with our lasers.”

As the most powerful Sub-Light engines currently being produced in GA space were engaged, the Prometheus shot forward. The gravitative inertial compensators immediately kicked in to prevent the ship's occupants from being splattered against the rear bulkhead walls in each compartment, but everyone felt a slight lurch at the motion. Anticipating possible resistance, most of the bridge personnel had already fastened their seatbelts. Jenetta grabbed hold of the First Officer's chair until the brief effect abated.