Ion Trail 25: Combat Math

It took some time to piece together everything that had happened during those frantic final minutes before the jump. It turned out that Clinton had shut down the stealth field and reactivated the shields as soon as Diaz had reported the cannon charging, though they’d barely been enough to withstand the hit. Diaz had fired back- the buzzing sound I’d heard- which had apparently caused the pursuing ship to falter for a few seconds.

“And you were doing what now?” Omar asked incredulously. The crew was gathered in the galley for the debrief, even those who hadn’t had any direct involvement.

“I was finishing calculations for the Jump,” I explained, feeling defensive. “We weren’t going to survive trying to go toe-to-toe with that ship.

“Wait,” Shanna interrupted with a wide-eyed grin. “So we’re under attack by a ship at least twice our size and you’re up there in the cockpit doing math?”

“Combat math!” I protested amidst a chorus of laughter. “It’s not funny!”

“It’s a little funny,” Lorna said with a placating smile. I looked from her around at the rest of the group, and only Sister Estrada was making any effort to hide her smile.

“You guys suck,” I complained sulkily. Combat math. I couldn’t help it; my scowl cracked and I found myself smiling, too. “Anyway, it worked didn’t it?”

“Either that or it didn’t, and this is the afterlife,” Shanna said. “Could be worse, if it were.” She winked at me and I blushed, looking down at my empty coffee mug.

“Best to probably assume we made it,” I replied with my best poker face. “Until we have reason to believe otherwise.” I cleared my throat and dared to look around at everyone; fortunately no one seemed to have noticed anything. “We’ve got a few hours until we’re back to The Forge and once we’re there, I want the recordings packaged up and sent back to Terra Primus as soon as possible.” I looked at Janice as I said that and she nodded.

“Any chance they’d follow us?” Diaz asked.

“No,” I answered, then thought again. “Well, possibly? There’s nothing closer, but there are a lot of other stations and bases within a day or two of TDG-14526-D, so there’s no special reason they’d assume we were coming from The Forge. Unless they can somehow track us without a transponder.” That thought gave me a shiver; it wouldn’t be the first advanced tech we’d seen from the black ships, after all. “Anyway, it’s unlikely, but we’ll make sure to drop out combat ready, just in case.” I swatted the table with both hands and stood up. “Alright, we’ve got a few hours, but I want everyone in their normal places by D-minus thirty minutes.” I turned to go, leaving everyone else to disperse as they chose. I was debating whether I wanted to go take a nap or catch up on some of my updated shows.

“Captain,” I heard and turned. Janice was cutting through the group to catch up with me.

“Yes?” I responded.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you about something you mentioned,” she said, unusually reticent. I waited. “You were talking about how the navcomputer wasn’t quite up to handling the calculations by itself?”

“Oh, are we going to see who can do the nav calculations faster, you or me? You want to do this now?” I raised an eyebrow and rested a fist on one hip, and put on my very best ‘come at me’ expression.

“No,” she scowled. “That’s stupid.” She waved it off before I could retort. “No, I wanted to see if I could take a look at the navcomputer. It’s possible I could upgrade it a little bit, if I got a look at how it works.”

“I, uh,” I paused to shift gears, my mind still in banter mode. “You could do that?”

“Maybe,” she qualified. “I’d need to get a look at the hardware, and see what kind of software it’s running, too. Probably can’t do anything until we’re back in star dock for a few days anyway, but I wanted to at least ask.”

“Yeah, okay. If you can do anything to improve performance, I wouldn’t mind at all,” I agreed. “Though even if you can’t, I may look into another upgrade anyway, if we’re going to keep getting into scrapes like this.”

“Are we?” Janice looked at me seriously; I couldn’t tell which answer she hoped to hear.

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Probably, though not because I intend to keep trying. I’m not a combat pilot, and this isn’t a ship of war.”

“But we have to do something,” she said, finishing the thought; it wasn’t a question. She nodded to herself as she turned away. Unenthusiastically I decided that I’d skip the both nap and the show and instead drop in to the message boards I’d been lurking in, to do some more reading before it was time to drop out.

=+=

We dropped into a war zone.

At least, that’s what it looked like at first glance. The station was on fire at several points, which meant it was venting atmosphere like crazy, and I saw it firing kinetics and beams before I saw the target. It was hard to make out, but it easily could have been the same ship we saw in TDG-14526-D. Somehow it’d known or guessed where we were going.

“I thought you said this was unlikely!” Diaz yelled across the commlink.

“I know!” I said, still trying to quickly assess the situation. I saw a flicker of shields as the black ship took a hit from one of the station beams, but several others missed. It didn’t look good for the station at all. I hailed them.

“Forge Traffic Control, this is Hostile Witness,” I said. “Is there any way we can assist?”

“Hostile Witness, are you armed?” the traffic controller’s voice held an edge of panic, but he was keeping it together.

“Lightly armed, kinetics only,” I responded.

“We cannot pin it down, and our missiles cannot lock,” the controller replied. “If you can slow it down, we may be able to mass fires.”

“I was hoping you’d say ‘no’, but I’ll do what I can,” I replied grimly. I switched to the intercom. “All crew, The Forge is under attack by a single ship, possibly the one we tangled with. We’re going to render assistance.” I pushed the throttle to full.

“We’re fighting?” Clinton’s voice was surprised.

“We’re probably the reason the ship is here,” I answered. “While we could jump straight back to where we came from, we’d be leaving everyone here to die if we did.”

“Copy,” he said. “May I make a risky suggestion?”

“Wait one,” I replied. “Diaz, I want you ready to fire as soon as we get in range. If we can surprise it, maybe it’ll slow down enough for the station to land some solid hits, got it?” I didn’t wait for a response before going back to Clinton. “As long as it’s not going to get us dead sooner, I’m all ears.” I adjusted our course to keep the black ship dead ahead.

“If we turn off the atmo scrubbers and internal gravity, we should be able to bring the shields up to full. So long as everyone’s secure, we won’t need them during the fight.” That was a risky suggestion, but he was right; A little extra power to the shields might spell the difference between life and death.

“Do it,” I replied. “No, wait.” I keyed the intercom again. “All crew, all crew. Find a secure location. Gravity will be deactivated in thirty seconds.” I keyed back to commlink. “Give me a thirty count, then do it.”

“Copy.”

By now, we were nearly in range, and the black ship did not seem to be reacting to our presence. I continued to drive straight at the ship; I wasn’t going to ram it, but I wanted to get close enough that it wouldn’t be able to target us very well. Diaz announced that he was in range and I heard the buzzing rip again, then saw the lines of a half dozen supersonic projectiles zip out from beneath our ship toward the black ship, then a flash as they splashed against its shields. Another burst followed, then another. It’d probably take more time than we had to penetrate those shields, if we could at all, but it had an effect; the black ship faltered on its strafing run against the station.

“Remember us, asshole?” I growled, then pulled up in time to bring us over top of the black ship, listening with satisfaction as Diaz tore off several more bursts at point blank range; as close as we were, it might even have been enough to do some damage.

“Captain, it’s coming around,” Diaz said. I couldn’t see it now that we’d buzzed over the top, but proximity sensors confirmed what he was saying. “I think we pissed them off.” I kept a course that would take us right over top of the station, hopefully giving them more time to fire.

“Keep it up, Hostile Witness,” I heard the controller say. “Our gunners should be able to lead them if they follow you.”

“Acknowledged,” I replied. “I just hope you can do some damage before they do too much damage to us.” As if my words summoned them, the ship rocked several times from impacts to the shields.

“How we looking?” I asked across the commlink.

“Shields are holding, but we can’t survive too many of those,” Clinton replied. I jinked toward one of the larger batteries on the station before I realized they were missile batteries.

“Damn it, I wish their missiles could lock on. This station’s loaded for bear when it comes to missiles.”

“Loaded for what?”

“Never mind!” I saw a beam trace by us from behind, and jerked the yoke away from it, instinctively. Despite my maneuvers, we took another good hit.

“Captain, I have an idea,” Omar said.

“Just do it,” I replied, looking between the station below and the radar. I shoved the yoke forward, diving down past a row of flaming star docks and coming up underneath the station. It gained us some time; as fast as the black ship was, it was too big for tight maneuvers this close to the station, whereas close-proximity maneuvers was what I excelled at.

“Deploying drone,” Omar announced.

“What’s the idea?” I asked. “A drone’s not going to be able to do sufficient damage to a ship that size, and I’d rather not just crash it into it if it can be helped.”

“Nope, didn’t even deploy the combat drone,” Omar replied. I watched the blip on radar fall behind the ship, moving toward the black ship.

“What?”

“Hang on,” he replied. “Just a little closer…” I heard him grunt, and imagined him leaning into the drone console like a kid’s video game; everyone knew leaning helped. Then I heard Diaz open fire again, which meant that the ship was back on our tail. I cut to port, aiming for a gap between two of the larger industrial complexes on the outer rim of the station. Then I heard Omar laugh.

“Holy shit,” he burst out. “I think it’s actually working.” I opened my mouth to demand he explain what his plan was, but he beat me to it. “Captain, ask The Forge if they can track a signal in the 28MHz band.”

“What?”

“Just do it, Captain!” We took another hit, and the lights flickered. We were running out of time, so I did what he said.

“Forge Control, this is Hostile Witness!” I said. “Look for a signal at 28MHz!”

“We’re tracking it,” the controller said, then exclaimed, “It’s coming from the black ship!” I suddenly realized what Omar had done, and I started laughing in spite of another hit and more flickering lights.

“Then light that fucker up!” I yelled. Bringing my ship in an upward arc, back around to the top of the station, I aimed directly for one of the large missile batteries and watched as they came to life and began to track.

“Captain, we can’t take another hit like that,” Clinton warned. I gritted my teeth, but kept on course toward the missile battery, hearing the occasional burst of gunfire from Diaz. “Captain!” Clinton yelled urgently. I leaned hard into the yoke, taking us sharply to starboard just as I saw the missile batteries fire.

Too late. A massive crash ripped through the ship and I was slammed forward so hard I smashed my face into the yoke. Instinctively I jerked it back, blinking through tears and pain to confirm that our unexpected nosedive had brought us perilously close to the station. Alarms were blaring and lights were flashing all over the console, including one I’d hoped to never see: Breach.

“All crew report in!” I yelled over the intercom. Clinton, Diaz and Omar reported in immediately, followed by a shaky-voiced Janice, then Lorna. After that, the only sound was the insistent alarms. I pulled the yoke hard again, bringing us around another of the industrial complexes and down, giving us a respite as the black ship would be forced to maneuver around the station to continue its pursuit. “Shanna! Melva!” I shouted. “Report in!”

Nothing. I finally located the breach in the cargo bay, a big one; they’d shot us right in the ass, and it looked like the shields were still down.

“Clinton, get those shields back up,” I ordered, then keyed the intercom again. “Medic Harper, attempt to locate the non-responsive crew members and report their status.” I continued to maneuver, wishing I could see what was going on behind me, but I didn’t have the time to try to pull up a visual; I’d probably need to set up a console macro at some point, if we lived through this. “Diaz, what’s going on back there?”

“The black ship hasn’t come back around, I don’t see it,” he replied. “The station did manage several direct hits, before I lost sight of it.”

“Drone’s still transmitting,” Omar added, “but I’ve lost visuals from it. It was probably damaged.”

“Shit, Captain,” Clinton said. “I can’t get the atmo scrubbers to respond, and we’re losing O2 like crazy.”

“Uh, Captain,” Omar interjected again, worriedly, “I hate to add to the bad news, but the drone just went quiet.”

“Alright already,” I yelled, struggling to control my panic. Jumping away had been an option I’d kept open from the moment we engaged, but with a breach and no atmo recovery, it wasn’t anymore; with two of my crew not responding, I feared the worst. We were going to have to attempt to dock and take our chances along with everyone else.

“Forge Control,” I said, keying up external comms. “We are damaged and losing atmo. Request permission to dock.”

“Permission denied,” the controller answered, regret evident in his tone. “All star docks have been breached as well.”

“Acknowledged,” I replied dully.

Then I saw the black ship. It was coming down around the edge of the station, for the first time visibly damaged. I felt my lips curl back into a snarl and I jammed the throttle all the way to max. I keyed the intercom. “I’m…” I swallowed a sob and dashed my hand across my eyes angrily, noting in passing that it came away covered in blood. “I’m truly sorry, everyone,” I said. “For everything.” Then I drove the ship directly at the black ship, as fast as I could. If we were going to die, I was going to do everything I could to take that bastard down too.

Instead of firing on us the black ship attempted to pull away, but its maneuvering had obviously been damaged. I was able to course correct easily to keep the ship dead ahead. Diaz was firing in staccato bursts, and to my surprise, they were actually hitting the ship instead of being deflected by the shields. If I could get there, we could cripple it.

“Captain!” Lorna’s voice burst across the commlink, startling me. “I’ve found Shanna and Melva. Shanna’s okay, but Melva’s unconscious.”

“Hey Captain,” I heard Shanna say faintly through Lorna’s commlink. They didn’t know that we were about to die. I steeled my nerves and leaned into it, not responding. The black ship had turned completely away from us now and we’d become the pursuers. I smiled grimly.

Then it started to pull away. It was wallowing like a pig in a pond, but the main thrust appeared to be fine; they were running.

“No!” I screamed, denied even revenge. My vision swam, and I shook my head to try to keep it clear. Someone was talking over the comms, but it was barely more than a buzz on the edge of my consciousness. I felt tears of helpless anger stinging my eyes, but I wasn’t really seeing anyway; all I knew was hatred.

I felt an insistent hand on my shoulder, pulling at me, a voice, calling. I tried to swat it away, but the effort was too much and suddenly the darkness rushed in.

=+=

When I woke up, I immediately started thrashing. Something was holding me down! I struggled and started to scream until a hand touched my cheek and I smelled a familiar perfume. I tried to open my eyes, but still couldn’t see and felt the panic start to rise again.

“Hush, hush,” I heard a voice say, and the soft hand stroked my cheek. “It’s okay Suze, you’re okay.”

“Shanna?” I tried to reach up, but found I was still restrained. “What’s happening? Why can’t I move? Why can’t I see?” The hand left my face and I felt it tugging, then the gauze that had covered my eyes was pulled away and I could see again. I was in a dimly lit room in a high bed with raised sides; a hospital bed. Shanna sat beside the bed, gauze wrapped around her head as well, and she smiled at me when I finally focused on her. Aside from the gauze, she looked like hell. Her eyes were blood red all around the iris, and there was a dark bruise on her cheek.

“There you are,” she said. “Back among the living.”

“What happened?” I asked. “Why am I restrained?”

“You were pretty wild when Lorna and I came to check on you,” she replied. “You’d stopped responding on the commlink and when we got to you, you were screaming incoherently and took a swing at her before you passed out. I can hardly blame you, between the crack on your head and the oxygen loss.”

“How’d we get here?”

“When we came to get you, the station was calling on comms. They’d sent a shuttle once the black ship turned tail and were trying to get you to stop the ship.”

“So, everyone’s alive?” I asked, feeling hope blossom again, then wither immediately as I remembered more of what had transpired. “Melva!” I tried to sit up, but the straps holding me were too firm.

“Shh,” Shanna said again, putting a gentle hand on my chest. “She’s okay. Concussion and a sprained wrist, but she’s okay. Everyone’s okay.”

“Everyone?” I sighed, settling back. “We won again?”

“Yeah, we did,” she replied. I started to laugh, a silent, wheezing laugh that was very, very close to crying.

“I think, once Melva’s up and around, I might need to talk to her about this God of hers,” I murmured. “Because someone out there is obviously looking out for us.”