The Pathfinder Project (13 page)

“I think you should go and get
some
rest
, young Thomas,” Glen suggested. He sat down next to the
younger man. “You know as well as I do that bad sleeping habits increase the
probability of error.”

“I agree,” Thomas replied.
“Unfortunately, as my brother Adam is so fond of pointing out – rarely does
rest get work done.”

“You are
not
your
brother,” countered Glen. “Your body is telling you it needs a break, and I
think that you should seriously consider getting something to eat in one of the
galleys and then turning in for a few hours.” He held up his hands. “After all,
I’m here. I have a couple of hours left on my shift and fresh personnel just
came on board. Trust me, we can handle things.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Thomas
said absently, trying to rub the tension from his neck. “There are still two
shuttles not working properly… the larger ones. I was planning on taking a look
at their software.”

“It can wait.
This
was
your priority, and the rest of this project is downhill from here,” said Glen
reassuringly. “We’ve got everything working according to specifications… so try
and take it easy a little bit. You’ve been running full steam since the attack
and your next scheduled shift isn’t until tomorrow morning – so get out of here
and go get some sleep!”

“Make sure the refinery
technicians continue their enhancements,” cautioned Thomas. “I signed off on
the last of the paperwork so they should be on it within the hour.” He paused,
glancing around the spacious Laboratory at its complex equipment and busily
working personnel. “If we continue to use the CAS Drive we’re going to continue
using the Canary probes too. Since they use liquid propellant to power their
thrusters, an increase in our reserve supply should be one of the next
priorities.”

“I’ll be sure to check on
them,” Glen promised, watching the young scientist head toward the exit hatches
at the ‘top’ of the wing.

THE PATHFINDER PROJECT

Two days later there were still
no friendly communications of any kind detectable. Captain Kaufield continued
to hold status meetings at least once a day, where options were reviewed and
possibilities discussed. They could not, however, dismiss the large number of
civilian scientists and families on board. The
Pathfinder
was a ship of
exploration… every debate came right back to that simple fact. To try and mount
some kind of attack against a trained, disciplined military with as many
unknowns as the Brotherhood was simply impossible. If they stayed where they
were they would eventually be discovered. If they tried to approach Earth to
look for survivors and provide relief they would almost certainly invite an
immediate attack.

Many people were starting to
show definite signs of stress, frustration and fatigue. The Captain had
naturally observed this and discussed the situation with Dr. Simmons. Her
advice had been to evaluate the situation until he was certain of the facts and
could make informed decisions. To let anyone rush him – and his command crew –
into quick choices would only invite disaster. In his spare time, off-shift and
in his quarters with Joseph, he took a few minutes to pray for guidance. He
didn’t realistically expect any divine help, but his spirituality had
strengthened since the death of Joseph’s mother and he wanted to continue
maturing as a Dad. Sorting through his thoughts and taking a few minutes now
and then to reflect helped him keep things in perspective. He also made certain
to take advantage of the opportunity to laugh and joke with his son.

He had noticed in life that you
could never indefinitely delay a tough choice. As his own father had told him
repeatedly as a kid, “Failing to make a decision is itself a decision. It is a
decision to do nothing.” Sometimes just moving from one day to the next could
also change a situation’s perspective. Life, as a whole, sometimes demonstrated
the unique tendency to evolve on its own. This proved to be the case for the
crew of the
Pathfinder
on the fifth day after the attack.

Early in the morning on that
day a general alarm sounded. Kaufield was already dressed and preparing to head
for the Command Dome so it took him only seconds to finish putting on his
jacket. He quieted a sleepy Joseph and urged him to stay in bed for now –
Dennis promised to stop by and check on him later. The Captain exited his
quarters and headed toward the lifts at the front of the ship. As he strode
briskly along the moving sidewalk he could see the look of concern on the faces
of the people moving past him to his left. Above them on speakers he could hear
Mary using the all-call, urging civilians to return to their quarters for their
own safety.

“Status?” he inquired, striding
quickly onto the Command Dome and taking his seat.

“We’re receiving a distress
call, sir,” Mary reported, glancing cautiously back at him. “The language is
Chinese and it appears to be an automatically repeating beacon of some sort.
The message states very clearly that they have survivors and are asking for any
nearby ship to rendezvous and attempt rescue.”

“When did it start?” asked
Kaufield. He stroked his chin, extremely intrigued by this news. It was the
first communication of
any
kind since the aftermath of the attack on
Earth.

“We began receiving it ten
minutes ago. They say they were able to escape from the initial attack but ran
out of supplies and had no choice but to come back.”

“Distance to target?”

“The signal is originating from
a point inside our solar system, approximately 4.63 light minutes away. The
transmission is confirmed as Chinese, and as far as I can tell it appears to be
civilian
.”

“Opinions?” the Captain
queried.
How often did a situation instantaneously change from a waiting
game into a decision game?
Dennis didn’t know for certain, but it had
happened right now and it would no doubt happen again.

“It has to be a trap!” Adam
said, frowning in frustration from his station across from Mary. “It just has
to be. After all this time you’re telling me that they transited back into a
combat zone looking for groceries?”

“Wouldn’t you, if your people
were starving to death?” inquired Dennis.

“Captain, it’s a
trap
,”
insisted Adam. “Everyone on this side of the sun has picked up that
transmission by now. If it is legit they’re going to lure Brotherhood vessels
right to them.”

“We are required to respond to
distress signals by naval tradition,” the Captain reminded everyone sternly.
“It seems to me the longer we wait the more likely we will encounter the
enemy.” He touched the Comm-link on the arm of his chair. “Thomas, prepare to
implement Contingency Plan Delta. We have a situation up here and I want the CAS
Drive revved up to full capacity immediately.”

“
Acknowledged
.”

“Adam, calculate the neccessary
coordinates to take us to the source of that transmission and relay them to
Thomas’ station immediately.” Kaufield stood up and walked over to his new
station next to Mary. The laptop was on and functioning as the Captain took his
seat next to the Lieutenant… he tapped several entries into the keyboard and
activated the motion sensor tie in.

“Yes sir,” stated Adam firmly.
He busied himself at his workstation and permitted himself to glance up once
and meet Mary’s eyes. She was calm and professional as usual, but took a moment
to return his look of concern.

Kaufield opened the Comm-link
again. “Hangar bay, this is the Captain. We have an emergency situation and
potential combat scenario up here. Are your people ready down there?”

“
Bring ‘em on, Captain
!”
Nori replied enthusiastically. “
Colonel Neeland and his men have everything
set up, just as you requested
.”

 “Thomas?”

“
We’ve got a hot singularity,
Captain. The CAS Drive is on-line and ready to go. Just say the word and we’ll activate
your computer. Once we arrive control will automatically transfer to your Delta
console. If things get too hot, you can just punch out and relinquish control
to us. We’ll immediately return the
Pathfinder
to this location
.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,”
the Captain replied. “Let’s go see how many people we can rescue before the
Brotherhood shows up.”

“The first thing you’ll want to
do is have them shut off that damned
beacon
,” Adam growled, clearly
irritated by the situation. “Although I’m almost certain we’re already too
late.”

“Open a PTP portal and initiate
transit to the source of that transmission, please,” the Captain requested.
“We’ll have time to second guess a bad decision later.” He thought about the
tactical data on the enemy he had been reviewing over the past several days. “I
hope,” he whispered softly.

*    
* * *     *

Mary targeted the ship they
found using motion sensors and focused the cameras mounted on the
Pathfinder
’s
landing skids so that they displayed its image on the overhead monitors. Most
of the ship’s hull was pockmarked with holes and completely opened to space.
The vessel hung suspended and nearly motionless, completely dark and powerless.
The instant the
Pathfinder
emerged from transit the Command Center’s
alarm klaxon changed from warning status and immediately called for general
quarters.

Lieutenant Hastings was their
resident expert on motion sensors, but Dennis no longer needed to ask her for
information. His laptop screen lit up with red enemy contacts in front and
behind. Most were smaller vessels – more than likely fighters – but he noted
that one of the signals registered as one of the larger warships. Curious, he
switched one of the monitors so that its optical pickup targeted the enemy
warship. It was difficult to see at first against the background of space,
painted mostly black. It hung there, right in front of them, sporting a long,
cylindrical nose nearly as long as the
Pathfinder
. Its design was meant
to be intimidating.

“I told you it was a trap,”
Adam said dryly.

“That’s okay – we needed to
know for sure,” countered Kaufield.

“It’s a carrier,” the elder Roh
noted. “Those are landing bays hanging beneath the triangular wings in the
engine section. I recognize the style – it looks as though the vessel’s
construction was based on an obsolete design. The Chinese constructed a
prototype but could never solve the power distribution problems for a vessel
that large. It was going to be the largest military vessel ever constructed
that could still land in a planetary atmosphere.”

“So the Brotherhood of the
Dragon obviously has access to plenty of fuel,” Kaufield guessed curiously.

“If you need a target, sir,
it’s probably in the wings.”

“There are two fighter patrols
behind us, consisting of twelve ships each,” Mary announced briskly. “And
there’s a smaller task force of ten fighters in front of us with the warship
behind them.” The information was useful to everyone else – Dennis had already
reviewed the situation and made his decision. He activated the ship’s all-call.

“
All hands, stand by for
battle maneuvers
.”

“The fighters are launching
missiles at us, Captain. There are at least a dozen incoming targets. The
mother ship is also launching ordnance.” He studied his console warily. “The
warship missiles are hot… probably nuclear tipped.”

Kaufield studied the situation
carefully and adjusted the Z-Axis setting on his monitor. “This is a perfect
way to bait surviving ships by using destroyed ones. I wouldn’t be surprised if
they have traps like this set up all over our solar system.” He shook his head
grimly. “Try and take advantage of our compassion…”

“They don’t have to waste time
chasing down the survivors because they know we’ll come to them and try to save
our people,” commented Adam. “What kind of cold-blooded monsters would do
this?”

“Based on what little we’ve
learned about this Brotherhood, my guess is that they are not known for being compassionate,”
said Kaufield. “I would imagine that’s why our military has so far been unable
to successfully engage.” On his screen, two dozen missiles now spiraled closer
and closer to the
Pathfinder
’s position.

To put things simply, the
Captain had run out of patience. Giving the enemy no warning, he rapidly
touched the screen in front of him ten times. As the incoming missiles
approached the large starship it suddenly executed ten transits in quick
succession exactly 90 degrees to starboard. A series of bright flashes lit up
the area between the fighter patrols as each transit completed almost
instantaneously in rapid-fire sequence. Obeying their programming, the smart
missiles hesitated briefly to search for and acquire the new target before
changing course to pursue.