MILO

Milo leaned forward, focusing on the display in front of him. Gun control. Since the crew had been heavily diminished, everyone had to do double duty. Or triple, depending on where you drew the lines. From the display he managed several of the laser turrets, the two railguns and the nuke tubes. The critical things were target locking, ammunition feeds and the firing of the weapons. But these had their own subsystems and details to learn. He needed to switch between targets in combat to prioritize not only the target, but the specific spot on the target. There were also automatic firing patterns and target locking if the situation grew too chaotic. He needed to know what type of weapon and ammunition was more effective in any given scenario. Laser turrets, railguns and nukes were all used for different purposes. Lasers were used for surgical attacks, railguns were used for ripping ships into pieces and nukes were used to blow them up. And then there was the daunting task of pulling the trigger. The responsibility of gun control was shared between him, Leo and Sam. Also, since he was the crew’s electrical engineer, he might need to leave the bridge and repair critical damages. But the thing with critical damages on a ship this small, it usually meant it blew up before anyone had time to react.

“Cap’n, you remember those probes we shot out a while back?” Leo said from the pilot’s seat.

Sam turned away from Milo, to Leo instead. “What about them?”

“They have picked up a ship following our tail,” Leo said. “Nothing surprising, we have talked about the possibility. But still, the confirmation is jaw clenching.”

Sam left Milo’s side. “Put it on the main.”

With Milo’s seat on the outside rim of the bridge, he had to turn around, it rotated smoothly.

The forward view screen turned dark, the image of their starship and the distance they had traveled from Europe13 were detailed on the screen. A dotted line connected the spherical city and their corvette. It was not a corvette chasing their tail. Neither was it a battleship. It was something far worse. A dreadnought. The Final Sight was an ant compared to that boot. A single battleship outgunned and outmanned their corvette easily, a dreadnought had a similar effect against several battleships.

“Well, Saif is taking us seriously,” Sam said.

Milo was not sure, but it looked like a vein in Sam’s neck bulged more than before and his forehead frowned. Was the Captain worried?

“Saif believes we are a threat to his plans,” Sam said.

“They must know what we are following,” Milo said. “Otherwise, why would they commit this heavy?”

Sam glanced around, thinking. “We hit him. Hard. He was not prepared for it or used to it. He wants to hit back. Put us into the ground. It could be enough of a reason. You saw his need to control, this is that reaction.”

The distance between the Final Sight and the dreadnought ticked down.

“Oh, no,” Milo said, his hands trembled and his shoulders tensed.

“Capt’n, we need a plan to deal with that,” Leo said, pointing to the screen. “There will be combat. Our advantages are Milo and Beth, but what could they do against that? I don’t see any clever outs. Our crew is shorthanded, our ship is not equipped to deal with that threat. Their cannons are bigger than ours and they have many more than us, and they are gaining on us! My best tricks with the Final Sight’s sticks can only get us so far. It will not be enough.”

Sam unscrewed the lid of his coffee thermos and poured a mug for himself. “And don’t forget, they will have powered people with them as well. I would stake this ship on it.”

“I agree. The best way to counter our small advantage is simply to throw more powered people at us. Me and Beth can only handle that much,” Milo said. “Carl will be on that ship. He is strong and probably holds a grudge against us.”

A brief flash of anger went across Sam’s face before it returned to normal. The fight they had shared against the magma covered Carl had been nasty, nearly ended with both of them killed.

Sam sipped his coffee. “Good point. Any open confrontation with that dreadnought and we lose. We will go full space pirates on them, we need to employ guerilla warfare. A dreadnought is not invincible, it just has thicker hulls and more firepower.”

Leo smiled, but it looked half hearted. “Suckerpunch them until they drop!”

“How do you use guerilla tactics in space?” Milo asked.

Milo served with a Navy crew, on a Navy corvette, was it strange that he didn’t know the details of fighting in one?

“Right, I always forget, you never went to the academy,” Sam said.

“Maybe we should have vetted him for that. Even an electrical engineer should know what to do and why everything goes to shit,” Leo said.

“Milo, you can calm down, Leo is messing with you.” Sam smiled. “A good ‘ole trap would be a great way to start. Given the probes we have placed out so far, we have an approximation of their trajectory, we could begin with committing iron balls through the new railgun. We could fashion mines from the remaining probes. Hide nukes behind asteroids and command them to strike when the moment is right. Tear off the older railgun and mount it on an asteroid or a mobile platform. Make the Final Sight go cold and hide behind something larger, then come around them,” Sam said. “The objective is not to destroy the dreadnought, but to cripple it enough to provide us with enough time to arrive at our destination. So we need to damage its drive cone or fusion reactor.”

Leo leaned forward. “Theoretically, only one nuke, iron ball or mine would need to score a direct hit to its drive. If only we could get something through their defences.”

“A well-timed ambush and then boom! We unload everything we have,” Sam said.

“All or nothing. If we commit to this and it fails, we are dead,” Milo said. “But then again, we have to do something. We don’t know when the alien sphere’s trail will end.”

Sam finished the coffee in his cup. “A well-timed lightning bolt would be great. I wonder how your lightning would affect a vacuum suit as it traveled out from your hands?”

“We need to try. We need all the advantages we can get,” Milo said.

His training room on the Final Sight had been isolated from the rest of the vessel, which meant that even if he electrified those bullheads, the discharge would not travel beyond the room. Starships hulls were often secured in this way to prevent electrical failures to threaten the crew, very important if the ship was damaged in battle. It would be enough with a single exposed wire. He could overload the electrical grid, which would make the reactor go critical and explode.

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“Leo, I will speak to Claire and Birgitta about our plans. We need to prepare all the pieces,” Sam said. “You try to find a suitable location for our ambush and look into how we could remote control our nukes even under a dreadnought’s jamming. Simulate some runs and see what happens. Blue, with me.”

Leo nodded at the Captain’s instructions and pulled up the alien sphere’s predicted trajectory. Star charts were layered over it.

Sam stood up and grabbed Milo’s shoulder, that cybernetic hand pinching a bit too forceful.

“Sorry, I am not used to it yet,” Sam said, letting go of him.

They made their way out from the bridge.

-

The door to Claire’s workshop was already open. They navigated through the racked tools and boxes of materials, walking beside a half finished combat suit Milo didn’t recognise, it was slimmer than Sam’s rig and which had some interesting implications, but there was no time to think too much on it and so he shoved the thoughts away. They found Claire underneath Sam’s rig, welding torch in hand.

“Claire, what if I told you we need to pick apart the older railgun and mount it on a rock?” Sam asked.

Claire put away the welding torch and pulled up the protective mask. “If you are able to get Milo to take some time off his training, then we might be able to make it work. How big is the rock”

“What does that have to do with it?” Sam asked.

Claire held the torch up, simulating what she explained. “If the rock is too small, the kickback from the railgun will put it into a spin. A second shot will be impossible.” She spun the torch in her hand.

“Good point, we will have to choose a big, sturdy rock.” Sam turned to Milo. “You can take time off from your training?”

“Of course I will, you are the Cap’n and I follow your orders. This ambush is a bit more important than my training.”

“A bit? Bah! We don’t have time for that attitude,” Sam said. “Claire, you have his time, if he misbehaves whack him with a wrench. Also, I need you to retrofit the remaining probes we have in stock with high yield explosives. Nuclear would be optimal, but our schedule is tight so give me the biggest boom you can.”

“You are planning an ambush. Well, then I have some suggestions. We should try to accelerate rocks into the ambush site prior to our prey’s arrival. Leo can solve the timing issue and I can find some spare boosters. I hope you have found a suitable location? Maybe we should try the ‘dead in the water’-play or the ‘floating spaceman’-play? If we are fighting a dreadnought, we will need all the scummy tactics.”

“Leo is already looking for a site,” Sam said and patted Milo on the back. “Blue has already been nominated for being the floating spaceman.”

“Really? You are actually sending him out?” A smile grew on Claire’s face. “To shot lightning against a dreadnought?”

Sam laughed. “No. I am kidding.”

“What?” Milo asked. “It was a joke, to send me out?”

“Yes. I am not sending you out to be the floating spaceman. No chance in hell.” Sam said.

“I thought I was going to be involved. To help,” Milo said.

“There will be plenty to do, trust me. But I am not sending you out to die,” Sam said, turning around. “There you are, Birgitta.”

Birgitta entered the workshop. “I was busy with something, I had to finish up. You called for me?”

Sam’s face lit up as she entered, his focus directed entirely on her.

“We are creating an ambush. Leo needs assistance to calculate asteroid trajectories and Claire needs help arming probes and scavenging for rocket boosters,” Sam said. “Maths or manual labor, take your pick.”

“I could start with the calculations and which should not take too long. Then I can help Miss Williams,” Dr. Birgitta said. “I will get started right away. But there is one thing I would like to finish first.”

“And what is that?” Sam said.

“I am designing a vacuum suit for you, Milo,” Dr. Birgitta said. “I have been thinking. Have you tried using your power while wearing a vacuum suit?”

Milo shook his head. “No, the opportunity never presented itself.”

“Good! Because if you did, you might have killed yourself. They are not designed to allow that. There is too much conduciveness in them, the bolt would have been absorbed by the vac suit and the result would be it heating up, potentially cooking you alive,” Dr. Birgitta said.

Milo swallowed.

“Good catch!” Sam said. “Do that. Then continue with your assignments. I will send Blue your way for testing.”

Dr. Birgitta smiled wide, her teeth showed. “Thank you!”

“You are talking about me as if I am not even in the room,” Milo said.

“Don’t take it personal, but you look a bit worn and full of thoughts,” Sam said. “Power up the rig, Claire! I am going to show Blue the new gadgets.”

-

“So the idea is that I launch the battery in your general direction and you will catch it,” Sam said. “In combat, stress levels are higher, which makes your fingers slippery and hands shaky.”

Milo walked to the end of the training room, shaking his head. “This sounds like a really good idea.”

“Just catch it,” Sam said.

“Easy for you to say,” Milo said. “Alright. Give it a go.”

The detachable batteries were arrayed on the combat suit’s back, all connected to a rail. Sam triggered something, the first battery in the line moved along the rail until it arrived to the left arm. Sam pulled back and threw it.

Milo had never been interested in sports, he had been overweight all his life and it was not until he started training with his power that he had started to slim down. He reached for the battery, his fingers grasping around the metal, but he slipped. The battery bounced twice when it landed on the floor.

“You will have to tell Claire if the seal on that battery breaks, I am not doing it. She has worked hard on these,” Sam said. “I don’t need to alienate my crew. It is your fingers that slipped.”

Milo sighed, walking over to the battery. “You were the one who threw it. This one is fine, we don’t have to tell her anything. Not yet at least. You will have to tell her, you are the Captain.”

“Grease-fingers, just goddamn catch it,” Sam said.

Milo smiled. “Don’t throw like a man. Give it a woman’s touch. Let it sail through the air.”

“Goddamn,” Sam muttered.

The next battery slid along the rail and Sam threw it right as it arrived to the left arm. Milo was more ready this time, he leapt into the battery’s trajectory and reached well ahead of it. His fingers grabbed it better. But it’s weight surprised him as he caught and tried canceling its momentum. The battery slipped from his fingers and landed hard against the floor.

Milo looked at the landed battery. His weariness would go away if he drained it.

“You okay?” Sam asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Alright. This is harder than I thought and I have already worked up a sweat,” Milo said. “But we cannot give up yet. Throw the next one.”

“You seem happy. I like that. Everybody in the crew seems to be in a good mood. But you know that will not last, right?” Sam said.

Milo stepped aside. “What do you mean? We are a well-functioning crew. I just need to help Beth return to her previous state of mind and then everything will be better.”

“Anxiety, stress and isolation screws with peoples’ heads. Leo is already showing the signs. I am what I am, so I will be alright. Claire will probably be too. But what about you? Dr. Birgitta? Beth is already deep in it. This family will break apart. I have seen it before and I am seeing it again. The patterns are distinct.”

Milo had not thought about it before. He had felt alright. He might be a little horrified by the violence that had occurred on Europe13, but was the isolation really affecting him now? He was a bit worn out and felt a small need to drain some electricity to provide that powerful feeling again, but otherwise he felt alright.

“A good observation. But I disagree, I will be good,” Milo said.

“Okay, then. Catch this one,” Sam said. “Then Claire will need you.”