The Unscheduled Mission (23 page)

Park waited until just before they were in reliable weapons range before opening communications. “Alliance war fleet,” he called out on the open channel. “This is the Earth ship,
Phoenix Child
. “You are in our space illegally and I order you to retreat or stand down and surrender.” He gestured for Marisea to turn off his microphone and added, “I doubt they’ll listen anymore than I did when they tried it on me.

“
Vigilant
to
Phoenix Child
,” came a harsh laugh. “I’m ready for my rematch, Black Captain McArrgh!” As that came across, a barrage of x-ray phasers, plasmacasters and gravity cannons were fired at both Earth ships. The men and women on board
Phoenix Child
felt an odd vibration and then were suddenly facing the wrong way and spinning out of control.

“Bring us about and open fire!” Park instructed his crew. Marisea relayed the order to
Defense
, hoping she was still intact. On the view screens and through the glass ports, they could see the stars swinging around and the Alliance battle group come into view, but Iris wasted no time and assigned targets to her gunners even before Tina had completely brought them about.

As the enemy ships came back into their scopes, Iris gave the command and all gunners fired.
Defense
fired her guns at nearly the same time and as the first volley ended
Vigilant’s
bow had been blown apart by Iris’ missiles and two of the larger ships Grintz had left behind were dead in space, one having been hit by a phaser and the other’s hull stoved in by the gravity cannon. Two other ships were destroyed by
Defense
and Park called for the surrender of the surviving three.

The only reply was a combination of x-ray phasers and plasma balls thrown by one of the remaining ships, so Iris fired one of Ronnie’s special missiles at it. After a long three seconds, the missile hit the ship. At first nothing happened, but after a fraction of a second delay, the inside of her hull lit up and it burst open almost as if it were being pealed.

“What was that?” Park asked in spite of himself.

“The stasis-equipped missile,” Iris informed him. “I guess we can tell Ronnie they work.”

“Remaining Alliance ships,” Park called out once more, “you are ordered to surrender. I demand your paroles or we will finish this permanently.”

Both captains immediately surrendered, offering their paroles and jettisoning their weapons lockers. “I didn’t know they could do that,” Iris remarked.

 
Park ordered the two captains to search and rescue any survivors in the six other ships, while his own people retrieved the ejected weaponry. Throughout the entire battle, it turned out Cousin had been quietly sleeping in the same corner and only woke up and demanded affection from anyone who had time to pet her during the aftermath.

It turned out the ship that Wakack had hit with his gravity cannon, while badly damaged, was not completely destroyed and had suffered light casualties but would need a tow back to Earth orbit. Another few dozen survivors were found where independently pressurized cabins had survived the break ups of their ships. Finally when all were rescued, the ships turned back toward Earth with the two remaining Alliance ships,
Celestial
and
Courser
towing their damaged sister,
Defiant
.

They had to park
Defiant
in orbit before descending in formation, the two Alliance ships in front, to Van Winkle Spaceport. Park was not happy to see the crowds who had come up to greet them, however.

“It was a darned foolish thing to allow,” Park told Arn. “What if the Alliance captains had been planning treachery? They could have blown their drives and killed everyone at the port.”

“I couldn’t have kept them away if I tried,” Arn admitted. “I asked Dannet to see to finding places for the Alliance people. How soon can you go back up?”

“We have quite a few who need hospitalization this time,” Park told him, before answering the question. “Ronnie says it’s a minimum of two days and she would really like three.”

“Two is all you’ll have,” Arn told him. “Lagina Base is shipless now and Terius and I agree that this time we must invade and take control up there. Should have done it last time, I know, but we thought we were dealing with honorable people.”

“With Dannet we were,” Park replied. “These other ship captains are possibly the same. I think their military teaches idealism and honor. All the Alliance officers I’ve spoken to sound like they could be recording recruitment commercials, even that Captain Worrac who Grintz had on his ship. She’s reputed to have destroyed whole worlds, but she is still idealistic. I don’t think we have too much to worry about concerning them. They will keep their paroles. It’s the politicians who are a bunch of treacherous murderers.

“That’s the problem we’re going to have on Luna, you know,” Park continued. “The politicians are in charge up there. By the way, is there any special award you can work up for Ronnie?”

“Award?” Arn asked.

“You know, something analogous to the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Park explained. “We would have been tin foil if it hadn’t been for her stasis plating up there and frankly none of us would have survived our first encounter with the Galactics had she not been part of the crew. She definitely deserves something nice.”

“But if I give out something like that, it will be like a knighthood from a king,” Arn protested.”

“Look you have an advisory council that the members of the colony have chosen representatives for,” Park pointed out.

“Half of them only represent themselves,” Arn shot back. “I guess I should have expected that when we made them all at-large. Some folks talk only for themselves and others have constituents, people who trust them to do their speaking for them.”

“I predicted it, you may recall,” Park agreed, “but that’s fine. Everyone knows they can come to a council meeting and be heard if they feel so inclined. Only a few have abused it. Let them approve this new award of honor or valor or whatever you choose to call it. In a sense everyone in my crew deserves a pat on the back. I may be giving the orders, but they’re the ones to make it happen. Ronnie, however, is the one we all depend on and I think she deserves to be told so and in public.

“Battles in space tend to be fast,” Park went on, “at least ours do. Dannet tells me that’s par for the course. The victory goes to the one who can score a hit first. We got lucky on our first encounter because Iris is so darned fast on that battle board of hers and we still had to crash land. The second time it was Ronnie’s magnetic shielding that protected us from a ball of plasma. We were damned lucky none of the ships here at the time had the x-ray phasers or gravity cannons, so the magnetic shields saved us and gave us time to shoot back, with weapons Ronnie designed. She worked with Iris on the first laser too. This time it was the stasis plating that saved us. The Alliance gravity cannons are much more powerful than ours are. We can stove in a hull, but theirs turn a hull into tin foil.”

“Our recharge is a lot faster though,” Arn pointed out.

“True, but one shot is generally all they need,” Park replied. “Until now the Galactics thought there was no defense against a gravity cannon. The only way to survive was to not be in front of one when it was fired, hmm, or behind one? I never asked. Ronnie actually made ours double ended so the forces equalize and we don’t get shoved backward when we fire ahead. We could easily shoot at a ship coming up our tail too, but the Alliance ships may just use their drives to compensate. I don’t know.

“In any case,” Park concluded, “Ronnie’s been our DaVinci and Edison of weapons and defense.”

“Okay. You have me convinced,” Arn admitted. “We’ll do something nice for her on her return.”

“A hearty ‘atta-girl’ during the next day or two won’t go amiss either,” Park added.

“Shouldn’t you do that?” Arn asked.

“I already have several times,” Park retorted. “It’s your turn.”

“Hmm,” Arn considered, “perhaps a ceremony before you leave then. I’ll call Terius and see what we can do together. I think you all deserve some commendations.”

“Not for me, though,” Park told him.

“What?” Arn asked, startled. “Why the hell not?”

“I’m just the guy giving orders,” Park replied. “The crew could function even if I weren’t there.”

“The commanding officer always gets credit for what the men and women under him accomplish,” Arn argued.

“I’d like to demolish that tradition,” Park replied. “Credit only where it is due. I have not done anything remarkable. My decisions were the only possible ones I could have made.”

“You’re full of it, Park,” Arn told him. “There are all sorts of stupid decisions you could have made. You just didn’t.”

“That’s not the point,” Park maintained. “Throughout the history of our species, our leaders have garnered all the highest honors while the common folks get a pat on the back if they’re lucky. Often enough it was a knife in the back. I don’t think I truly appreciated that until I found myself forced to be a leader. I stand around telling people to do stuff and they do.”

“Yeah,” Arn nodded. “That’s what being a leader is.”

“No,” Park shook his head. “Or rather it is what leading is, but while I can command action, I cannot command quality. I certainly can’t command something I cannot imagine. And yet by all the old rules if my team accomplishes miracles, and they have, I get the credit? It just is not right and we have a chance to get that right this time. A good leader is not an autocrat, Arn, he is the greatest among equals. People follow him, not because he tells them to but because they feel he is going the way they want.”

“Park, you’re half right,” Arn shook his head. “People who can take care of themselves and think for themselves, self-reliant individuals, those sorts will follow a leader who is their greatest of equals. Most people aren’t all that self-reliant, although they usually want to think they are. Most people need someone to tell them what to do. They need and want guidance.

“Look at the sorts who won elections back in the Twenty First Century,” Arn went on. “Would a self-reliant man have voted for any of them? One or two out of every hundred perhaps, although I do think I’m not being harsh enough on those politicians.”

“No need to speak ill of the dead,” Park chuckled, “but think about the guys they ran against.”

“Just as bad,” Arn retorted, “sometimes worse, sometimes better, but on the average they were just different flavors of the same thing.”

“Uh huh,” Park nodded. “And with choices like that, it didn’t really matter who got elected. Did you know that voter turnout in the last two presidential elections was only forty point two percent of all registered voters? And in exit polls most responders stated they voted because they felt it was their duty to do so and not because they liked one candidate over the others. Sorry, Arn but you aren’t going to convince me that most people are sheep looking for someone to lead the flock.”

“I don’t think people are sheep,” Arn protested and added, “Our people especially are not, but even they look to you and me to lead. We bring out the best in them when we do that well and that’s why a good leader deserves recognition.”

“When that leader does something extraordinary,” Park retorted, “then maybe, but that isn’t the case here. The people on my team excel because they are literally excellent. They don’t need my leadership to make them so. All I do is set the goals, but they achieve them.”

“You’re wrong, Park,” Arn insisted.

“No empty awards for me,” Park told him firmly, “but see to recognizing Ronnie and the rest of the people I work with.”

The two days passed during which Arn and Terius appeared together to demand the unconditional surrender of Moon Base Lagina. “I don’t think this Governor Vextor is using the same dictionary as you are,” Park chuckled. “He obviously does not know the meaning of ‘unconditional.’”

Governor Vextor
 
had never quite refused to surrender, but had run a number of familiar-sounding phrases past Arn and Terius that sounded nearly identical to the stall tactics his predecessors had used. This time they were not working and the two ships were being prepped for their next mission with record speed.

Hundreds of Mer security agents, the closest thing Pangaea had to a land-bound armed force, were flowing into Van Winkle Base. They would be the cargo
Phoenix Child
and
Defense
would take to Luna. Among them were several dozen one-time military men from Van Winkle Town.

The two-day turnaround felt like it lasted forever, but finally it was time to board the ships and Park stepped on to the bridge and took stock of his crew. “Marisea?” he asked sternly. “What are you doing here this time?”

“Assistant pilot, skipper,” the mermaid replied seriously. She was seated next to Paul Gonnes. Tina Linea was in the navigator’s chair. As Marisea turned to face Park, Cousin jumped off her lap and ran across the bridge to greet him happily. “My turn on the rotation.”

“Since when are you a pilot?” Park demanded, trying to ignore Cousin tugging at his pants leg.

“About a year,” Marisea replied. “I started training after we crashed the
Hudson
.”

Park recalled that at one point they had decided that until the Humans of Van Winkle were accepted as spacefarers, they would not use a Mer pilot on one of their ships. Then he decided the silly idea had gone out the window, or airlock rather, when they were forced to crash land
Hendrick Hudson
in the middle of Kogack territory. There was no need to maintain the fiction that Van Winkle Humans or Pirates, as the Alliance called them, were fully equipped to build and fly their own ships. He was not sure if there ever had been a need to do so, but something else bothered him. “Communications, gunner, engineer, pilot. Are there any positions you are not on the rotation for?” he asked Marisea skeptically.

“Ship’s cook, maybe,” she grinned impudently.

Park finally acknowledged Cousin and picked her up to hold her gently in his arms. She had been putting on weight since they found her and now massed about twelve kilograms. Even in the lighter ship’s gravity, she was hefty for a small critter. Park briefly wondered if she were pregnant and quickly shelved the idea. They had found her months earlier and was certain she would have given birth already had that been the case. She had obviously not been much more than a child and a rather thin child at that. She was not fat now, but she had gained a fair amount of muscle.