10. To Sweeten the Honey Pot
Reagan sat gingerly in the office across from Tunney, some of the bruising faded from purple to an interesting shade of violet and yellow. His back hurt, mostly all of him hurt, but his back hurt the worst. He thought that he would be embarrassed or upset at the loss, but he wasn’t. He felt like he tried to hit back against an avalanche.
“That’s a pretty good analogy, Reagan,” said Tunney.
“Did I say that out loud?”
“Nope. I recognize that ‘I tried to go toe to toe against an unstoppable force’ look. I’ve seen it enough. Muschivk’s methods are tried and true and get results. He doesn’t change.”
“You mean I’m not the first victim,” said Reagan.
“Victim is only appropriate for your injuries. You got yourself in that stupid situation. All you had to do was not be a complete asshat and it wouldn’t have happened,” said Tunney.
“You can’t talk to me that way!” said Reagan.
“Why not? Do you want another day in Sickbay? Or perhaps an exploratory colonoscopy? Nobody messes with the ship's Doc,” said Tunney, “Besides, what the hell is your problem? You were a jerkoff. You tried to shitcan one of the most decorated sailors in the Navy because he called you out for being lazy,” said Tunney.
“How do you know about that, and that’s not exactly....” asked Reagan.
“There are 13 officers on this this station, ship, sorry,” said Tunney, ”Compared to 10 times that number of enlisted. The enlisted know everything you guys do or say, and aside from that,” Tunney’s voice rose about 100 decibels, and she grew in stature about 10 feet and thundered, “You are in my goddamn sickbay, and are my patient, and as such are in my care. I’ll call you whatever I want. This is my goddamn Medical!”
“I am very sorry,” said Reagan, now fully understanding why Perez apologized all the time, ”You totally are correct.”
“Well, now,” said Perez who appeared behind him as if by magic, “It appears you can learn. I suggest a full formal bow. Say ‘gozaimasendeshita’.”
“Stop that, Perez,” said Tunney, “You don’t get to make fun of me in my Sickbay!”
“I’m not making fun of you. Your mom would hurt me badly if she ever found out I was teasing you on duty.”
Tunney sighed, “You have to bring that up now?”
“Reagan works for me, per Master Chief’s and the Captain’s orders and is joining my merry band, as of now. He just transferred OutSystem. If he lives, he’ll find out eventually. You completed his interface modifications?”
Tunney looked at Reagan, “See what I mean? I can’t kill him. It’s very bad form in New Tokyo to kill your relatives. Frustrating. Yeah, Randy, he's all good, except for the residual personality ghosting. He should be completely normal in about 24 hours.”
“You are related? Perez is Japanese?” asked Reagan as he jumped up, ”Wait, what? I work for you? But you’re enlisted.”
“Not any more, apparently,” said Tunney, “And you’d better get over that enlisted thing, because Joe Muschivk and Ken Wamamere are enlisted and I highly suggest you follow through with their requests. They’ll probably kill you if you don’t. I’ll be mad at them, though. Waste of all that work.”
“Reagan, I know you went to the Academy, then spent 4 or 5 years InSystem. There’s some rules and regulations and protocols out here that aren’t used there. I don’t know how you got here, to this ship, exactly, but now you work for me, and if you want to stay in the Navy, it’s time to decide, now, “ said Perez.
Reagan started talking, then swallowed and then shut up and nodded.
Perez nodded,” Excellent. We’ll sit down and go over all of it when we have time. Cindy, can I have Mr. Reagan? He’s well rested and I need an hour or so of sleep before the fur starts to fly.”
Tunney said, “Try not to get him killed today, and Randy... be careful. I don’t really want to tell them how you died gloriously.”
“Not today, maybe tomorrow,” said Perez, “And I’m not getting killed. Not when things just got interesting.”
Perez bowed, a full formal bow from the waist, then whacked Reagan on the shoulder. Reagan bowed, “Domo arigato, jûshi."
“Urusei, jûkei,” said Tunney, “Shut up, Perez”.
They turned and left sickbay together with Perez talking, “First, I need you to find Graham and the fighter rack and make sure he doesn’t need... Oh. Right. You are the Assistant Flight Engineer, I am the Flight Engineer, till the Captain reads another cool book and gives us a title he likes better. Oh, yes, you now bear the burden of Special Ops. Don’t miss morning workouts, training sessions T-Sunday at noon, unless you are on watch. It’s a rule.”
“Um, okay,” said Reagan, overwhelmed, “Special Ops?”
“Yep. You need a suit, and quals to wear them. Special Ops. Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. You got seriously screwed by the InSystem Navy, and Muschivk is going to lay it all out for you, but not right now," said Perez.
“I listened to some of the Captain’s briefing but didn’t finish, but I caught the part where I’m responsible for all of this. I’m in Special Ops? I thought you had to go to school for it,” asked Reagan.
“Not all, man. You didn’t create the bugs. You did mess up our timetable some, so you are responsible for me going 24 hours without sleep, and you will go to school. Enough questions, unless they are pertinent to saving our asses.”
“So, while the station is transitioning, I want you to do officer stuff for Graham, while I get an hour or so of sleep. Get him whatever he wants from supply, help him get tech direction. Oh, you shouldn’t need to order anybody to do anything, they all know what to do much better than you, you help them get it done. Sally, can you upload the plans for the fighter delivery rack to Reagan’s PIM, and …” said Perez enumerating the list of tasks he needed done.
They set off down the corridor, Perez issuing rapid fire instructions and Reagan noting them down.
* * *
The COB, standing in control as the acting Executive Officer and OOD said, “It’s 1605; Helm, contact Engineering, tell them to commence transition to Locomotive Mode.”
“Transition to Locomotive Mode, Aye,” the Petty Officer Chan parroted, then he touched the Engineering key on the panel, “Engineering, Conn, commence transition to Locomotive Mode.”
“Conn, Engineering, this is Kosnar,” crackled the comm, “first part of transition, drive module connection is complete as of 1600 hours, commencing living ring brake and stow. Please make the announcement. Shifting ring gravity to artificial. I hope the galley has dinner stowed.”
“We’ll notify them special, Engineer,” said the OOD, “Scatora, are you Comm Officer, right now?”
“Hard to tell, sir, we are about 5 bodies short up here. I’m thinking I am now. What do you need,” said Scatora.
“Tell the galley to hold on to dinner, we’re going to rotate their gravity. They should know, but... they’re cooks. Tell them again,” said Wamamere.
“The NAV is in AuxCon, the Captain is running around doing Captain stuff and making sure all the dept heads are in the right places, the XO is in the Aft Hangar Bay doing her Wing Commander stuff, Perez is in the rack, Muschivk is in the rack for another hour, the Weaps is in Docking Bay 2, getting that transmitter ready to launch, Eagles is now Assistant Wing, so Long is now RC division officer and is in Fusion One. That’s what I know”, said Kumar, the M-Division officer, covering the Immergence Officer station.
“Reagan is running around with Grahame and Rhodes and Jones getting that fighter launcher thing ready to go. He looks like a yellow striped lemur. Remind me not to get Muschivk mad at me, ever,” said the Detection Petty Officer, Josh Marver.
“Grahame said he didn’t have any problem with the dude. He said he helped a lot and actually worked on the fighter recovery system. Maybe Muschivk kicked the asshole outta him,” said Chan.
“Ladies, I believe this is the Control Room, I am standing on the Bridge, and this is not a quilting society,” said the OOD.
“Sorry, Master Chief,” said Chan.
“Think about this, young man. Reagan shows up here as an InSystem Officer with all cake tours ‘til now. Nobody trusts him, nobody talks to him, and you all think he acts like an idiot, because by OutSystem standards, he is an idiot,” says the COB, “So for six months he’s carrying this attitude around. The old CO ignores him, 'cause the CO’s just got some messages that Joseph Muschivk, the former MCPON, and current Joint Intelligence Advisor has been selected as the SEEA and Sector Intelligence Chief. CO knows Muschivk isn’t going to tolerate his little sideline for 5 minutes.”
The ship shuddered and shook, and the Bridge status display showed the hub and ring decouple and the ring thrusters fire to brake. “Helm, apply position keeping,” said Wamamere.
“Helm aye,” said Chan,”Position keeping on line, holding spindle steady.”
“Reagan is ignored some more, to the point where his attitude overcomes his fear of consequences. New CO, Cohen, sees the problem, but with all else going on around here, doesn’t have time to fix it, We all see it, but figure it will either work itself out or we’ll have to make some changes. Never thought he’d do something so dumb, but there you go,” said Wamamere, “Now, after all this Reagan has a damn hard job and the most demanding boss in the OutSystem, and some severe time limits. I think this will either fix him, or break him out of the service. I would really appreciate it if you would not go out of your way to give him shit. Perez is enough of a headache. I think he’ll come around.”
“Ring rotation stopped,” said Chan, “I thought you liked Perez?”.
“Good, split it. Do they have gravity yet?” asked Wamamere.
“Gravity generator in the ring is showing active and aligned to ring vertical. Ring is split, sir.”
“Make sure they get cables on it before they start to turn the sections, Chan.” said Wamamere.
“Captain is out there, sir, I can hear him yelling the same thing,” said Chan.
“Damn backseat drivers,” said Wamamere, “And I do like Perez, he’s just a pain in the ass. He wants to do what he wants to do, not what’s good for the ship, the crew and the Navy. Well, it’s too late for that, his playtime is over.”
“Sir?” asked Chan.
“No, don’t relay that. Just get confirmation that the cables are attached please.”
Wamamere looked at the status display, which showed the ring halted, still 90 normal to the hub and showing the rings split but still together. It wouldn’t show the cabling until the attach points felt tension. The Operation SOP for converting was a pile of junk, probably because it didn’t happen unless an outpost was rotated out for refit, a 14 year cycle, so most times a crew would do one evolution of the transition. He vaguely wondered how he got stuck as XO and OOD for this. He ran the sim 10 or 12 times bringing the ferry module back, after he got word he was tapped for control room supervisor. He and his PIM modified the instructions and realized there was no way to prevent the rings from drifting outward after separation. His PIM found 3 separate previous instances where this had happened, and EVA’s had to catch them and push them back. Wamamere modified the SOP to handle the rings the way they handled the drive module, by attaching the movement cables. The internal hydraulics in the cables made it trivial to move the ring halves in and out.
He routed the change to the CO just this morning and got it back within about 15 minutes, with a note to add two more safety cables and a winch at the pivot points, showing the CO was as concerned as he. He made the changes and routed it to the Engineer. It was a stupidly dangerous evolution just to avoid creating a new class of subspace going repair shop. Larger stations rotated modules in and out or attached them to rocks with some mass to protect them from various annoyances, but the sector outposts were just modified frigates. Wamamere figured the lifespan of the unarmored and unshielded station was over anyway. The Captain appeared to be staying in locomotive mode for the foreseeable future.
The basic idea of the shift was pretty simple, couple the drive to the station by opening the cargo hanger in the dead middle and joining the drive housing parallel to it, then slow down and stop the ring, uncouple it and reattach it to the station by turning it 90 and joining it to the spindle parallel. The ship ended up looking a bit strange, but worked just fine.
“Cables and hoses are verified attached, sir,” said Chan.
“Separate the rings to 40 meters, Chan,” said Wamamere.
“Sir, the rings are starting to move outward,” said Detection.
Wamamere watched the status display as the rings drifted outward, then slowed, then stopped. The cables to the attachment points were loose. The suited figures crawling all over the rings and spindled appeared purposeful and not random. The bright yellow color the SOP required for EVA operations made them look like bizarre ants.
“Rings at 40 meters,” said Chan.
“Are they ready to start turning them,” asked Wamamere.
“Lin says yes,” said Chan.
“Begin the 90 degree rotation,” said Wamamere.
The rings began to slowly spin, drifting in a slow dance, becoming parallel to the plane of the spindle, now the main hull of the ship. This part took about 30 minutes, was dangerous, and if interrupted the ship was completely defenseless. Wamamere, took a deep breath and tried to calm down. There were three Cobras hanging out at about 10km, scanners going to prevent annoying interruptions. Sevrinofsky was in one, Eagles in another, Rhodes in a third, and Perez should be heading out in the fourth in about 10 minutes. Perez had called it CAP for Combat Air Patrol, this morning. Wamamere thought that Perez and Sevrinofsky watched too many 20th century movies. He looked up at the status display as the rings lined up parallel.
“How’s it going,” said a familiar deep rumbling voice, behind him.
“No problems. It’s not performing like a ballet, but nobody is hurt or dead, and we haven’t hit anything,” said Wamamere.
“Cohen is out there, isn’t he,” said Muschivk.
“Yep. Can’t blame him. This was my ship, I probably would be,” said Wamamere
“Only way we could have kept him in here is if you or I went, he don’t trust nobody else. Heard anything about the Reagan thing,” asked Muschivk.
“It appears to be going according to your design,” said Wamamere.
Muschivk shrugged, “I wasn’t really going to nail him this hard, until he pulled that stupid ploy. I was just going to pull him into Engineering and make Perez ride herd on him as RC-div. Oh well, best laid.”
“Were you worried about him being honest?”
“No. The old CO kept him completely separated. That's why I replaced the entire command structure. He was Morale Officer when I got here.”
Wamamere laughed, “I didn’t know that. That’s a point for him.”
“Fourth Cobra launched and in the air, sir,” said Chan.
“Oh, you are funny, Chan,” said Wamamere.
“Thank you, Master Chief,” said Chan.
“Tell Perez he is not allowed to buzz the tower,” said Muschivk.
“Yes, Master Chief,” said Chan, pause, “Perez says, Maverick is clear, headed out on CAP.”
Mucschivk laughed. Wamamare shook his head in mock despair, “Do you children ever grow up?”
“Not if we can help it,” said Muschivk.
“OOD, the ring segments are in position for engagement, distance 5 meters on a side,” said Chan.
“Detection confirms. 5 meters port and starboard separation.” said Marver.
“Begin engagement,” said Wamamere.
“Conn, this is the Captain. Any sign of guests?” crackled the comm on the bridge.
“No, sir... all detection is clear. Marver, check the buoys for subspace impressions,” said Wamamere.
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“No detection from the buoys, sir,” reported Marver.
“Did Perez and Kosnar put subspace detection in the Cobras,” asked Muschivk.
“Not yet, I don’t think. I know he has a bundle of idea, but he’s limited by the 3 EVA battery power budget. He said he wanted more weapons,” said Wamamere.
“No amount of firepower is enough for Perez. He prefers to blow the front door in and then blow the back out, rather than knock. I sympathize. Big craters don’t shoot back. There’s been a couple times where it would have been nice to have an extra cannon or two,” said Muschivk.
“One of the other techs mentioned that we might be able to put a real fusion plant in the thing, given the increase in efficiency that the stellerator wall shieldings give us.”
“This is the frustrating part where we all bewail and bemoan the absolute fact that we don’t have more time,” said Muschivk.
“Oh, funny guy, everybody’s a comedian today.” said Wamamere in his Monty Python voice.
* * *
Perez moved his hands forward on the control pads and the little ship leapt forward under about 10g’s compensated to 2 or so. There was no time for sims, or real training, so probably the best medicine was a little flight. He couldn’t begin to figure out his designs if he didn’t get to use them. He decided then and there to create an ‘everybody fights’ philosophy, just like the Special Ops squads. There was no way he was going to miss out on the fun while everybody else flew these things around. He arrowed out to link up with Sevrinofsky.
“Top of the even to ya, ma’am,” said Perez.
“You’re late,” said Sevrinofsky.
“Sorry, had to get a decent fit on the suit interface, took a minute,” said Perez.
“You gonna be my wing,” asked Sevrinofsky.
“Need a cool callsign, I wanna be Maverick,” said Perez.
“Why do you get to be Maverick,” said Sevrinofsky, ”I want to be Maverick.”
“Not fair, Mavrick isn’t a girl,” said Perez.
“I’m not a girl!” said Sevrinofsky.
“Perez, I’m willing to go along with you being Maverick if I can be Raptor,” said Eagles.
“Perez, I can go with that, as long as I can be Highlander,” said Rhodes.
“Okay, Okay, but I’m not allowing anybody to call me Princess,” said Sevrinofsky.
“I thought the Wing Commander was always Wing, and you can’t be princess cause Raptor is a girl and Princess was supposed to be the only girl in the squadron, how about Nad” said Perez.
“Nad, what the hell is that,” asked Sevrinofsky.
“Not A Dude,” said Perez.
“Shut up, Perez.”
“This is way too much fun to be the Navy,” said Rhodes, "I think I understand why those in-atmosphere fighter guys always look so happy."
They paired up and spiraled out from the ship, Perez and Sevrinofsky, and Rhodes and Eagles, doing opposite circles in the ecliptic plane.
“We need another pair out here,” said Sevrinofsky.
“Too right,” said Perez,” There’s one flyable right now, the next one should be ready in an hour or so.”
“Well, somebody needs to cover the top and I only want pairs, ever,” said Sevrinofsky.
“I agree. I think they’ll come in the ecliptic first, though. It’s probably going to be a couple of scout type bugs. Much faster than the ones we fought, probably not as strong,” said Perez.
“How do you know that,” said Sevrinofsky, “We don’t know a damn thing about these aliens.”
“Hunch. Based on what ants do,” said Perez.
“That’s a leap,” said Sevrinofsky.
“I know. I’m not counting on it, I just think so,” said Perez.
“Sevrinofsky, this is Muschivk,” crackled the comm (it was designed that way), “The ring is attached and the decoy is out. We are about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Do you want to come in for a few moments before we hop out? The retrieval rack is ready to go. Captain wants to know how your little toys are doing.”
“Perez you pair up with Rhodes, and Eagles and I will go in and talk to the Skipper,” said Sevrinofsky.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Perez.
“Joe, how do you feel about this,” asked Sevrinofsky.
“I got nuthin. Sorry.” said Muschivk.
“Joe, I think we need to get everyone in suits that has one and put EM fields around everything else. I got a bad feeling. If we were messing with people, we’d have heard something by now.” said Perez.
“Captain feels the same way, Randy... He gave that order as soon as the rings were engaged.”
“Can we shield the whole ship?”
“Not yet, Reagan and Kumar are working on your plan. We’ve got the drive module, rings and the control and AuxCon, has its own.”
“What about Control and the Bridge.”
“Coming on line in about 15 minutes,” said Muschivk.
“You in a suit, Joe?”
“Yep. All of us are, and I have Squad Two with me right now,” said Muschivk, “Calm down, Randy. I don’t think this is going the way of the ferry.”
“They’re coming, Joe, I can feel them,” said Perez, "It's like that movie
“The longer they wait, the bigger bill they’re gonna pay when they get here,” said Muschivk, "In the end the charge will be 100%. Calm down."
He and Rhodes flew around the station several more times, then something hit him hard. Perez felt in his gut that there was something evil, nasty right around the corner. He took several deep breaths. It was like being a kid in the dark, sure there was something under the bed. He started to panic, he couldn’t control it. “Sally, they’re here. Are they hiding in subspace? Why the creepy feeling,” he asked. He felt the suit start to apply the calming protocols.
“Insufficient data for hypothesis, Randy, but I believe you. Your vitals are elevated. I am checking the subspace buoys... Randy, there are numerous logged waves in the subspace detector warning event list. It seems that something is causing subspace here to ripple, but it’s too small to trigger the detector alarm. You are feeling the subspace transits. I think the aliens are passing through your physical locii,” said the PIM.
“All the buoys?”
“No, just the north and west. It started about two minutes ago, right when you started to panic,” said Sally. “ I am applying anti-spatial-distress protocols. It looks like they are passing through this location directly and you feel the ripple in space. The have to keep some kind of extension to normal space, with no buoy to signal emergence.”
“Joe, Sally says they’re here. They started in two minutes ago. She says that I can feel them passing through me,” said Perez on the private channel. Mind numbing fear isn’t the best emotion to share.
“I can feel it,” said Muschivk, “We are moving the ship away west, and Sevrinofsky and Eagles are coming back out. We got another ready so two more in a couple of minutes. I feel it too, not as bad as you. Your PIM called me when it applied the calming protocols.”
“Now we know why the resistance is so low on ships they jump on," said Perez.
“Yeah. Things are about to get unpleasant for the bugs.”
Perez switched over to the local and said, ”Rhodes, you okay?”
“Rhodes here, yeah, my PIM said that your PIM ran my calming protocols. Can it do that,” asked Rhodes.
“Mine can. Special programming and design courtesy of the computer genius who is my wingleader.”
“Well, thank it for me. I was freaking out,” said Rhodes.
“You’re welcome, Dusty,” said Sally.
"She talks?" said Dusty.
“They’re here,” said Perez.
“Wing to Maverick, coming out to meet you.”
“Perez here, we are coming inwards. I think they’ll pop out at the former ship’s position, then look around for it. The more we get there, the less they’ll be around to hassle the ship.”
“Cohen to Cobra Wing, the EM local detectors are going off. We are currently outbound west and will loop around galactic east when you clear the area. It’s unlikely we will clear all the aliens, but get as many as you can, and we are moving the rack thing you made east as well,” said the Captain.
“Wing here, Maverick on me, Highlander on Raptor, I expect things to happen in minutes, not hours. Pay attention,” said Sevrinofsky.
“BossLady,” said Perez.
“What,” asked Sevrinofsky.
“Callsign. You,” said Perez.
“Huhn. I like it. How’d you think of that,” said Sevrinofsky.
“That’s how I think of you, at home or away,” said Perez.
“Aww, that’s sweet. Don’t get killed,” said Sevrinofsky.
“You either,” said Perez.
“Sally, what time is it,” asked Perez.
“1741 T-Standard, Randy,” said the PIM.
“Is the relay online,” asked Perez as he matched velocities with Severinofsky’s Cobra and pulled in beside her. They turned as a unit and headed in towards the relay.
“It appears it is. The ship is moving east and accelerating. Cohen is on the ball, I think,” said Sevrinofsky, "They put it out and activated it as soon as the ship started to move relative.
“Rhodes here, two more Cobras are in flight.”
“Good, who is in them,” asked Sevrinofsky.
“Sado and Karnez,” said Rhodes.
“Where’s the rack, so we can get out of here if we have to run,” said Sevrinofsky.
“Headed south and down as fast as Graham and Scatora can push it,” said Sado, joining the circuit.
“Valkyrie,” said Perez, out of the blue.
“Sure,” said Sevrinofsky, “Miyuki, your callsign is Valkryie.”
“Oh, cool,” she enthused.
“Freya, for Freya,” said Sevrinofsky.
“How lame. Making her callsign her name,” said Perez.
“Detection, detection,” shouted the ships comm officer, a new voice none of them recognized right away, “15, more than 15 emergences, 4 have fusion sources and are showing fast neutrinos and neutrons, they appear to be small fighters. The other emergences are just sitting there.”
“Ship this is Wing,” Sevrinofsky said, “Where are they, it’s dark out here!”
“Putting in on your HMD, now,” said the unknown voice.
“Wing, this is the Captain,” said a crackly voice on the global channel, ”There are several emergences inside the ship and near the relay. Muschivk and his squads are hunting them down, so far no casualties. We have no crew outside a shield, so make sure they don’t eat the relay or get the reaction mass tank.”
“Wing here, I acknowledge, Captain, we are about 30 seconds out of center... we’ll clean them up. Did they manage to shield the relay?”
“Yes, they did, and the shield is holding, probably because they’re not hitting it too hard. They can’t seem to figure out what it is.”
Perez display lit up with 4 bright contacts and about 20 not so bright ones. He assumed the bright ones were fighters and selected them in order of distance, “Sally pass target selection to Barbara.”
“Yes, Randy.”
Perez said, “Bosslady this is Maverick, first pass is yours, let’s go kill us some bugs.”
“I forgot my shoe, Perez, I hate spiders,” said Sevrinofsky.
“That’s a big shoe, Barb,” said Perez.
Sevrinofsky’s cobra lit up as she energized the two front weapons and streaked in towards the center. She hit about 5km from the first bright enemy and braked hard with thrusters, hitting 100g’s for a couple of milliseconds, then slammed about 20 rounds into it. It looked like a flying 4 point shuriken for about 2 seconds, then it exploded as it passed the relay station.
Perez was about 200 ft off her port and locked on the next closest, then fired a burst. It spun around and slipped sideways, making most of the rounds miss. The weird looking thing had some kind of energy cannon that splashed off the Cobras front shield and made the little ship hum.
“Shit,” said Perez. He moved both hands sideways on the pad and the little ship jumped straight sideways, and he re-locked the target. He tried another burst and hit it dead on. It didn’t explode, it just busted apart.
“Two down, “ said Sevrinofsky, "Calm down, and that was great."
Rhodes eschewed all grace and just ran straight at the third one, firing. It glanced off the top of the 4-pointed ship, and then the little alien fighter headed straight for the relay. It fired two shots and then Eagles nailed it from the top.
“Three down,” said Sevrinofsky.
“Sado here, I’ve got one locked north of your position, firing,” said Sado, “Crap! Missed. It’s headed north at about 7g’s.”
“Karnez, where are you,” yelled Sevrinofsky.
“About a klick behind Sado, I’m catching up. She caught me off guard when she went out after the thing,” said Karnez.
“Sado, don’t run away from your wingman,” said Sevrinofsky.
“I got it, I’m almost there,” said Sado.
“Sado, slow down a bit and wait for Karnez, that’s an order,” said Sevrinofsky.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Sado, and the accel for her Cobra dropped to around 5g’s.
The other Cobra increased its accel and they closed the distance in about a minute, then Karnez took station off Sado’s port. Then a huge arc of ball lightning blew past them at about .3 c, glowing plasma making red streams of all the ships sharp corners. The subspace relay downlink dumped energy as it came on line, it lit up all the alien creatures right near it, and they froze in place. The fighter the two were chasing zeroed its accel and drifted, making it easy for the two to match velocities and pump a few hundred antimatter rounds into it. The transmission lasted several minutes, so it was a complete game changer.
“Well, isn’t that interesting, the relay zoinked them out,” said Sevrinofsky.
“Yeah but if I think about it I’ll zone out. Let’s kill everything first,” said Perez.
“Piece of pie,” said Karnez as she and Sado decelerated and reversed course back towards the relay.
“That’s cake, Karnez, cake,” said Rhodes.
“Watch out for the second transmission,” said Sevrinofsky.
As if on cue, the relay lit up again, and fired off a second plasma burst. The ball raced outward in a donut shape perpendicular to the normal space antenna. Perez took station of Sevrinofsky’s wing and enjoyed the show. Rhodes and Eagles moved in and started blowing the aliens near the relay apart, with verve and vigor.
* * *
Muschivk leaned back and smacked the worker type bug in the thorax. It flew up and slammed back down with no visible effect. It turned its nasty head with three mandibles and a mouth with rotating teeth towards him and darted forward. He stepped out of the way and booted it in the abdomen, or whatever this thing’s analogue is. He looked around. All the suits around him seemed fine, though one was pinned up against wall by a couple of buggy aliens. The suit raised a fist and poked the thing in the eye. The alien pulled its head back and slammed the suit in the chest. Ah, it was Barnes, he thought. Barnes turned and side kicked the thing in the head and rammed his rifle down it’s throat and pulled the trigger. The alien just disappeared in a haze of black and grey goo. The other alien’s head came apart when one of the other suits nailed it with a HV round. The corridor they were securing was right outside AuxCon, and the damn things had scared the door AI out of its mind and put a 3mm gash right down the center of the door. The AI was practically gibbering in fear. Muschivk’s PIM snorted with contempt,” How did we miss that AuxCon had a civilian AI. It can’t open the door.”
“No data,” said Muschivk, “Can we upgrade it?”
“Yes, Master Chief, we can, but it has to calm down to accept the new protocols.”
“Shit, what a mess,” said Barnes.
Muschivk turned and shot the one he’d just kicked and it fell, cut in half. He looked up and down the corridor, “Barnes, Briggs, let’s go, there's more up the spindle. Squad Two has a couple by Fusion Two, but it looks like they’re okay.”
Squad One fanned out behind Muschivk and headed forward along the transport rail.
"Muschivk this is Cohen, can you head over to the propulsion Sickbay, Mei Lu just got her arm nipped off and Krunch and Hulk are holding off a bunch of aliens."
"Yeah, no problem, we are moving that way. Mei Lu isn't ops or interdiction, what the hell was she out from behind a shield?"
"No clue, but Crunch has an engineering suit so she's okay. Hulk is watching over them, but he's having trouble keeping all the bugs away," said Cohen.
"He needs bigger fly swatter. Okay Captain, we're on the way. Muschivk out." said Muschivk.
Muschivk turned and looked at Barnes and waved down spindle, "We'll go take care of them down by Propulsion, then we'll go kill some others."
"Hulk, this is Master Chief, what's the problem?"
"Master Chief... I'm outta ammo... the blasted things won't stay down and they won't back down or go away... I can't hold here much longer. Need some help. Crunch is behind me protecting Mei Lu," said Hulk.
"Drew, we are on the way. Stay alive. We will all be there in 2 minutes or less," he looked over at Barnes and the rest of Squad One, "Propulsion Sickbay, move. Now."
"Right, Joe. Hang on...." an oof sound came from the circuit.
Muschivk took of down spindle at a dead run, at full boosted suit speed. 20 seconds later he reached the AuxCon junction and squatted and jumped straight up into the propulsion module. He reoriented himself in mid-air and landed in the main hatch feet first. His PIM queried the airlock door and opened it as his feet hit. Barnes yelled over the suit circuit, "Master Chief, wait!"
"Fuck that," said Muschivk, "Catch up when you can."
He bounded down the corridor and rounded the turn for Sickbay, and saw a pile of aliens, writhing around, a severed bleeding arm, and a SickBay guerney sitting in the corridor. He decided not to bother stopping, and slammed into the pile at full speed. The pile busted apart like a pool break and he noticed these aliens looked more like mantises than the ant types before. Hulk had one bug by the center thing and was holding it over Crunch and Mei Lu as a shield. He kept hitting it in the head with the door alcove corner.
"Clever boy," he grunted. He snapped his rifle around and unloaded a burst into the thing’s head. He still had some speed left, he reached out and grabbed one of the swinging forelimbs of what had to be a soldier type bug and pulled it right out of the socket with suit augmentation then spun and chopped off the buggy head. Goop flew everywhere. Muschivk landed on the wall next to Crunch and turned to face Hulk.
"Sha, how ya doing," said Muschivk.
"A... a... a... a... alive," she stuttered.
Muschivk handed his HV pistol to Hulk, pulled his rifle around again and sprayed the corridor. The 5 or so bugs left pressed themselves against the floor and walls. It didn't help them.
"Down everybody," said Barnes, and Muschivk dropped to cover Mei Lu with his suit. Hulk grabbed Crunch in her Engineering suit and fell to the floor. There was a scream of HV rounds and the corridor exploded with black goo, as Squad One opened up on the hallway. Muschivk stood up and wiped his visor and looked at the carnage.
"PIM, is there something you can do with Crunch's suit to calm her down?"
"No, Master Chief, she is not in a battle suit, however I can increase her O2 and give her some fluids. Her suit does not carry battle drugs."
"Do that then," said Muschivk, "Drew, get them into Medical."
Muschivk picked up the arm and put it on the relatively undamaged gurney. Hulk elbowed the door control and it opened just fine, and he carried the medic into Sickbay gently in a princess carry. Muschivk looked around and waved at Barnes. Barnes hopped over and picked up Mei Lu in her vac suit and put her on the gurney and pushed it into sick bay.
“Drew, are you good? Can you take it from here,” he asked.
“Need some ammo, Master Chief,” said Hulk.
“Right,” Muschivk unclipped a case of HV rounds and handed it in through the door, “When this is over, you’re gonna explain how you let this happen. In detail.”
“Sorry, Master Chief,” said Hulk.
“Good job on keeping them alive. I assume you cleared the aft corridor towards Propulsion AuxCon,” said Muschvik.
“Yeah, I’m not sure got them all, but I got a bunch, all in the main corridor,” said Hulk.
“All right, time to go children. Drew, can you brink Shakisha out of this, I can’t send Tunney down here, till I find out if she has any casualties. She’s the only combat medic aboard.”
“I don’t know. I think there’s a simple food replicator in here. Maybe some good ol’ fashioned whisky might help,” said Hulk.
“Try it. We’ll be back. Don’t open the door unless you hear the secret knock,” said Muschvick, "I'm shielding this room now."
Muschivk headed back out and down to AuxCon junction, Squad One trotting behind him. He didn’t think there were any left on the drive module, but it was hard to tell with all the action going on. Squad Two should’ve finished with the main spindle propulsion and the aft spaces, the Docking Bay and Hangar Bay were being covered by two half-finished Cobras, so he thought things were pretty much under control. He started thinking about the report he would have to make and how it would sound InSystem. He sighed and picked up the pace.
Five minutes later he was heading up spindle again, trying to pinpoint the feeling the bugs gave him. He thought they were in front of him, still, maybe in the storage section. Barnes asked, “Still more, Master Chief?”
“Yeah, a couple. I think. Be careful, these are smarter and tougher,” Muschivk said.
They hit the storage deck 30 seconds later and fanned out by twos to search the compartments. Muschivk waved to the left and said, “That way.”
Briggs said, “That’s so spooky. How does he do that.”
Barnes said, “Dunno, but he always has been able. Saved our asses many a time. I ain’t complaining.”
Muschivk said, “Shut up. Over there,” he waved at a compartment with the sliding portal yanked out of the rails.
“That’s just parts and stuff in there. What do they want in there?”
“Hard to say. I’m not a 2 meter long praying mantis with subspace capability. Turn the lights on, Barnes.”
Barnes put his suit gauntlet up against the control panel and said, “Lights.”
The lights came on, and two ‘soldier’ type buggies whirled around and raised some kind of pointy thing. All the troopies instantly jumped back behind the door.
“Anybody got an EM grenade,” asked Muschivk.
“No, Master Chief,” Barnes said, “It’s not standard loadout on shipboard.”
The corridor outside the door exploded. If they hadn’t been in suits, they would all have died right there. “Nice,” said Briggs.
“I gotta flash-bang, Master Chief,” said another troop, a kid named Taylor. He wasn’t Engineering so Muschivk didn’t know him very well, but he thought the kid’s name was Taylor Taylor. Muschivk couldn’t remember whether he was a boy or a girl. He thought girl. Strangest things go through the mind in a firefight. He shook his head.
“Toss it in. Let’s see what happens,” said Barnes.
The kid leaned forward and lobbed the grenade into the storage compartment. Big explosion and flash of light, and Barnes darted in the room with a suit enhanced sprint.
“Shithead,” grunted Muschivk, and followed.
Barnes was looking around, trying to find the missing bugs. Muschivk pounded him on the shoulder and pointed up. They were hanging from the ceiling in opposite corners trying to shake off the glare, or something. The other troopies piled in through the door and sent a hail of HV rounds where their HMD’s lit up. One of the bugs dissolved under the hail of fire, but the other jumped ‘down’ and turned over scuttled behind the big thick military crates, but it seemed blind. Taylor jumped over the crates in a big arc and slammed down behind it. The bug flew out from behind the crate and into the middle of the compartment, where 5 HV rifles pounded it into pulp.
Muschivk took a deep breath, waited, and then called Control.
“Control, this is Muschivk, I think that’s the last of them. I can’t feel anything else. Messy, but all gone.”
“Cohen here, can you handle having your teams sweep the ship one more time?”
“Yeah, no problem, Captain.”
“We need to immerge. The bugs are pushing the timetable every time we turn around. I’m programming the decoy Goldberg thing to transmit a complete log of events up until now. You got anything you want to add? I want it to transmit at the same time we immerge.”
“No, Captain, I assume you added the little item that the subspace transmitter disorients them?”
“Yep.”
“Captain, one casualty. Mei Lu, serious condition. I’m headed to Aft Sickbay. Once the ship is cleared, have Tunney head that way, please.”
“No problem, and good job,” said Cohen, "How did she get hurt?"
"No clue, Skipper, I will find out and let you know," said Muschivk.
“Barnes, take the squad and round up Two and search the ship top to bottom, let Control know when you’re finished. And Barnes, that was a stupid maneuver worthy of Perez at his best. Next time, wait. Where were they gonna go? Even if they jumped into subspace, we’re moving the ship under accel. They’d end up outside.”
“Sorry, Master Chief. We’ll get started clearing the ship,” said Barnes. He waved to the squad and started barking orders into the commlink.
Muschivk headed back down spindle to the Aft Sickbay, where he’d been spending entirely too much time lately.