Yorktown: Katana Krieger #1 (28 page)

."
"Engines to standby, rotating." Our straps become unnecessary, then we rotate at combat speed, slamming us into them sides for a few seconds. We've accelerated to more than 100,000 kph, and we have a one minute lead over our adversary.
"Mr. McAdams, fire at will, continuous fire. Mr. Bass, standby on missile six." They both acknowledge. I want McAdams to hold their attention, Bass to blow them to hell.
McAdams wakes me up again.
"Skipper, she's rotating." I check the screen, her engines are off, she's turning her broadside to us. Now we're more than a minute apart, given the change to free fall.
"Crossing the T, Courtney, normally smart, this time not so much. Target her weapons. Continuous fire. Mr. Bass, fire."
I keep the attack computer on my left, visual on my right.
Opportunity
comes around slowly, way more slowly than
Orion
did when we fought her. The forward most cannon on her port side doesn't make it into firing position, Courtney takes it out with three shots.
We take one in the nose from her center gun, but it's still off angle and we get no damage.
"Five seconds on missile six." Bass with the countdown this time.
He gets to zero, and what was a 240,000 ton cargo ship becomes a 1,000 meter ball of white light. No cheering this time, we just think this is our job now, or maybe we're all too mentally drained to get that excited. My butt reminds me of another explanation, but I tell it to shut up for now.
"Mr. Garcia, get us in orbit around 067, two gees please, no need to hurry. Mr. Bass, prepare tubes 21 and 22, target the dome."
Two ‘ayes,' then horns, then I weigh 240 pounds, my arm much happier at the relatively calm acceleration I've been using. We only use the engines to achieve orbit, so not too much pain. We complete three orbits of the planetoid, every sensor we have, active and passive, recording the smallest detail we can. I do everything I can to establish voice communication when we're line of sight, but nobody answers. We have no landing ship. No assault ship. Our sloop and gigs could only get half the Marines to the ground, and we'd have no backup if something happened to them. I only have one choice, I exercise it as we pass the dome for the fourth time.
"Mr. Bass, tubes 20 and 21, fire."
"Aye, missiles loose."
We watch the red trails track downwards for a few seconds, 067 disappearing for a millisecond in a white cloud. It reappears as a scarred brown apple missing a large bite, and with a somewhat wobbly orbital path. If anyone was alive down there, they are gone, no matter how far into the mining tunnels they were.
I have to tell my butt to shut up again, despite the fact that I agree with its assessment.
We spend the next two days in orbit, not looking for trouble, simply doing repairs. Gomez teaches McAdams about servers, and uses our spares to replace nine defective ones in our racks. Shelby reports no error messages for the first time in a while.
We patch the boat deck and pressurize it, patch the remaining outer hull breaches, make the doors on the unfired missiles operate as they should. Get recycling and life support back to normal. Heal the injuries to the jump engines. Dr. Bonilovich gives everyone a quick scan, no brain damage he can find, except Marcos and one Marine are out of commission with concussions.
Congress
,
Truxton
, and
Decatur
show up the second day, and we dock them on
Yorktown
, no problem with finding available collars now. Set up movie night on the Marines deck, the whole crew assembles to watch a double feature: snow-free camera footage of the Task Force killing three enemy ships, and a hit romantic comedy that came out while we were gone and Benson slipped to me quietly before we left Earth. The Marines pretended not to laugh, everyone else enjoyed it, the romantic comedy that is. We all enjoyed the first part.
The next morning I have McAdams do one last data download from the drones, then we turn
Yorktown
toward the sun and accelerate away from our planetoid. Twelve hours later, we are briefly enveloped in a black sphere, which fades away, leaving our screens full of gorgeous blue ocean accented by whiffs of cotton white clouds.

Chapter 22

"Armstrong Station,
Yorktown
, request approach and docking clearance." Shelby makes the standard radio call for clearance after jumping home, the station glimmering brightly 500 kilometers off our nose.
"
Yorktown
, welcome home." Again a surprisingly quick response, and a surprising direction. "Cleared to Grissom Station, track Delta, bay Alpha 7, over."
Shel gives her the read back, we detach the corvettes who head to their own docks on Shepard, followed by a brief retro thrust down to the lower orbit of track Delta to catch up with Grissom. I call ahead for a reservation.
"NAVCOMM,
Yorktown
, track Delta, heading Grissom, ETA 1622 hours." The Boss answers the phone again.
"Krieger, the is Benson, welcome home. ChiNO and I will meet you, no one to disembark without my authorization. Remind your crew about the regs and the consequences of disobeying. Out."
"Copy, Admiral.
Yorktown
out." I hit the shipwide speakers.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Captain. First, thank you all for a mission extraordinarily well done. Second, I must remind you that we are still governed by regulation. Any discussion of our mission or your knowledge of our enemy is considered treason, and will result in the most severe penalties. Finally, initiate your shut down check lists as soon as we dock, but do not disembark without authorization from your chain of command. Krieger out."
The doors to Alpha 7 are already open when we arrive, no Marines in the giant landing bay this time, no interruptions with getting the moorings and docking collar in place. Everybody starts to work shutting systems down, I disengage myself and float down to the main hatch in the boat deck.
There's a very large, very heavily armed Marine next to the hatch when I get there, not one of ours. Then another bigger one floats in. They take positions each side of the hatch. Benson enters, then Everingham, then Marine General Cuellar, then another maybe even larger Marine. I'm wearing a two day old stained dark blue uniform with the hair not very well tied down, my left arm still in it's cast. Clearly underdressed.
I snap to attention and bring my right hand to my forehead for the first one, I bring it down when Benson returns my salute with all three officers on board. The Admiral is normally straight to business, but he looks at the cast for a second before he starts.
"Specialist First Class William Scott is under arrest." Nothing at all what I expected him to say, they have obviously been busy while we were gone. My face must have given something away because he stops there. I finish for him.
"Specialist William Scott is in a body container in the freezer on deck one, two holes in his chest courtesy of my security force." Satisfied looks from all three officers, and all three Marine guards who are supposed to be more stoic than that and probably not supposed to be listening in. Benson relaxes.
"Must be a good story. Let's get to your ready room, have your Marine commander meet us there."
"Aye, sir." I touch my collar and talk to Tony while I let the guards orchestrate the order in which the four of us without weapons move upstairs.
The lead Marine announces "Admiral on the bridge," just before he steps through, my crew in free float trying to be at attention without the motion causing them to do it upside down. Benson hits them with an "as you were" almost instantly.
Shelby is waiting with Tony at the hatch to my room, which I open, then float aside. One Marine goes first, hopefully not concerned that there is some unexpected danger sitting in my office, then the three flag officers, then the three of us. The last two Marines are going to guard the door. Something pretty crazy is going on.
Benson looks at me again.
"Condensed version of your mission now, Katana, I'll read your logs this afternoon." I guess that means I'm on.
"Sirs, we jumped to Gamma Theta, and quickly determined no Navy ships were present. We jumped to Nu, discovered wreckage which we identified as coming from
Roenicke
and
Santa Cruz
, found our corvettes disabled. No survivors from the two destroyers, five dead on the corvettes." Everingham and Benson exchange multiple looks during that one paragraph.
"We destroyed four
Fitzgerald
class ships and assaulted the base in Gamma Nu, Specialist Scott attempted to sabotage the ship during the battle, we survived, he did not. Then we jumped to Gamma Upsilon, where we destroyed CSS
Opportunity
, four smaller ships, and a base, while sustaining heavy damage ourselves."
"We repaired Yorktown sufficiently to jump home, and here we are."
Benson thinks for a second, then starts in.
"Fine work, Captain." He pauses. "While you were gone, saboteurs overloaded the reactors on Carpenter Station. The explosion killed nearly 12,000 Navy, Marines, and civilians, and obliterated
Saratoga
and
Independence
." Benson just named the third and fourth frigates which were in early stages of construction, parts of their crews already on site. Frak. Those captains were my friends.
"Our investigation identified one of the saboteurs, and his data trail led us to Scott. We were unable to send you help because the president ordered the four cruiser battle groups deployed to the Earth, Argentina, Brazil, and Canada systems, and the destroyer groups to various smaller systems. He assured us repeatedly that Admiral Bode must have things well in hand."
"We've been waiting for your return, and the president for Bode's, before an official announcement beyond ‘terrorists' went out to the public. We have released the names of the three saboteurs that we identified, including Scott, and explained a new set of heightened security measures, but nothing beyond that."
The president is up for re-election in five months. I wonder how this all is going to play out in that. I don't say my thought out loud.
"Your crew gets seven days leave each, starting as soon as you can release them. I need your logs now, report to my office at 0800 tomorrow. We've got quarters reserved for you in the VIP section on station.
Yorktown
has top priority for repair and re-supply. The president is meeting with his security team three days from now, Admiral Everingham will be leaving tomorrow to join them on Canada Two after we're through with you."
Great. Everybody gets to leave but me. Would have been nice to go home for a couple days and see my mom.
"The press will be all over you again, that's why we brought you directly to Grissom instead of docking you on Armstrong. I will have my team set up another interview with Ms. Langston for you in a few days. My guess is the president will want to give a speech announcing the presence of the aliens before then, and he'll expect you to convince eight billion people that they are safe."
"Me?"
"You are the only commander to beat them, not just once, but multiple times now. We may have to make you an Admiral."
"God no, sir." I didn't mean to say it, it just came out. The room explodes in laughter, everybody but me, including the Marines.
When they return to a composed state, Benson looks at Cuellar who looks at Palmer.
"Lieutenant, let's go visit with your detachment." Palmer acknowledges, and they exit.
Benson puts his pad into a spare port in my console, so does Everingham. I get the hint, attach mine, and upload all of the data, video, and logs I've got into both of theirs. FRIGCOM hands me a card key for my quarters, then they move together to the hatch.
Everingham gets the last word. "We'll see you in 15 hours." We all salute, and Shelby and I are floating alone. I don't say a word, just motion toward the hatch, and I follow her back out to the bridge.
I get back to my couch, and pad all crew their seven day leaves, plus two extra days for the folks I owe from Gamma Omicron, subject to early recall and the usual stay on comm warnings. Then I pad each department head authority to detach their people when ready.
"Shelby, Matt, you're both on leave as of right now. I'll let you know what happens with the bosses tomorrow, if they'll let me."
Matt acknowledges and heads off to his quarters. Shelby stays put. Takes me a second, but I finally realize why.
"Come on."
We float out into the passageway and open the hatch to deck two, then float up. Thirty Marines are getting a pep talk from their commandant, actually 31 because Yeager has joined them. The 32nd is still aboard
Decatur
. He finishes with a flourish, earns a giant OohRah. Tony tells them they have earned a week's leave, and dismisses them.
I discover warp speed actually does exist, the Marines clear the deck faster than light. Cuellar and Palmer exchange a few words and a salute, then the general floats over to me, tells me he wants to talk about how to better train his Marines to serve with the frigate fleet, and leaves. I wait where I am for Tony and Shelby to finish talking. Shel floats back over in a couple minutes.
"Tony's only got 48 hours leave. I won't take mine, you can use my help."
I look at her.
"Permission denied. Get something at the BOQ, cohabitate for the week, relax. You and I can hit the spa a couple times while he's busy." She laughs, nods. I give her a head flick toward Palmer, she floats that way, I head back down to my now almost empty bridge.
I run the crew roster screen, there are six of us left on board, McAdams and Gomez with me on the bridge, the two up on the Marine deck, and, of course, Powell. I start with the two closest to me.
"Ladies, what are your plans for the week?" Courtney answers for both of them.
"Skipper, we've been invited to the Naval Experimental Research Division's lab on Dakota One,
Orinoco
's leaving in the morning." I laugh, that's exactly what I would have expected.
"Promise me you'll do something fun too." They both look at me like I don't understand. "Okay, promise me you'll do something not work related." Now they laugh. "If I leave you two alone here, promise me you won't stay more than 20 minutes."
I get a laughing ‘aye' out of each of them.
Then it's float down to Engineering. I have a plan this time to get her out of here, named meet your captain for dinner. I tell her, not ask her, tell her to meet me for dinner at the bar where they make those "tea" things at 1900. Then I float to my cabin, pack my duffel, do something I said I wouldn't which is download the ship's status reports and the first repair sheets from the station crew, then go find my temporary quarters.
It's a three bedroom suite. I should almost get myself killed more often. Constant flow shower gets a full on 20 minute test, I get dressed in my one civi outfit, and go to the bar. Powell joins me exactly at 1900, five minutes into my first "tea" and two minutes later Courtney and Olivia walk in unexpectedly. We move to a table for four, and have a real conversation for the first time in months, rank free.
Two admirals and one general are waiting for me next morning. Everingham starts, the last sentence in my log the first sentence out of his mouth.
"You think they're still in our space."
"Aye, Admiral, I have absolutely no doubt. Once we penetrated their defenses at Gamma Upsilon, it got way too easy. They used their zombie crew to distract us while they snuck off. They might be back in Theta or Omicron or Nu, or still in Upsilon, but they're there."
"I'm inclined to agree, so are John and Van." Stop with the first names already, I can't handle it. I assume John and Van are the two star admiral and four star general across from me. "I'll bring it up with the president, but these things need to be done delicately, it may take a while for his staff to see the light."
He turns the meeting over to Benson, and we go step by step through every decision, every fight, every action and every reaction. As usual, they don't second guess me, they are more interested in next time: how to improve our ships, our weapons, and our tactics.
I want the ship coating the bad guys have, I want multiple medium range missiles in some of my tubes rather than single long range weapons, I would prefer fewer cannons and more missiles. I figure I'm not getting any of it,
Constitution
might get some of it, but the replacement
Saratoga
and
Independence
probably will, and ships five and six,
Chacabuco
and
Constellation
, almost certainly will.
They conveniently ignore the fact that I warned Julio, or that the explosion was intentional, nothing hidden in my logs. On the other hand, it's also pretty clear that we don't know for sure what happened to
Roenicke
, it's end isn't on any of the corvette videos, and it's impossible to separate the debris we have by source.
Cuellar agrees with both me and Palmer that the Marines bring a lot more to the table than just muscle, approves my using them as I see fit and wants to get them through an advanced RISTA training course before we go back out.
They keep saying "back out," but they never attach a date to it. Scares me.
Yorktown
is a while from being ready.
They spend the last half hour ignoring me and discussing options for searching the four sectors with and without the cooperation of the administration. We did at least kill nearly a dozen ships full of zombies, that has to help a little. The downside is that some of those zombies were my friends, and I lost more friends who knew what was coming.
We finish at 2300, ChiNO floats away at high speed to jump for Canada system, I go get a good night's sleep.
Spend the next day bothering the repair crews, who assure me that the only real damage is to the outer hull, that they'll have everything inside her at 100 percent in a couple days. Three inch thick titanium alloys are tougher to work with.
Head to my favorite bar around 1800, only to discover why I need three bedrooms. My mom, dad, and baby sisters Kelly and Kaelyn have a table for five. A present from Everingham.
What I thought was going to be early to bed turns into the most fun evening I've had in a long time, talking about nothing, just enjoying being with them. We don't leave until both sisters have nodded off at least once, then I load everyone into their bedrooms and sleep soundly in mine.
We're sitting in the zero gee Mexican restaurant on Argo station 24 hours later after a day at the spa (even my dad submitted), when all the screens in the place go to the Presidential Seal, which is quickly replaced by an announcer who simply says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the president of the Union of American States."