Operation Hammerhead - 12. Speed Run

Speed Run

Evergreen

Scorpius Sector

Jeff Mason awoke in the dark. He was in some kind of transport, and he was moving. There was gravity, and he had a sharp pain in his left wrist. He noticed that he was wearing a headset.

He said, “Where am I?”

A voice answered, “Good morning, sunshine. You are in a cargo hauler. We had to knock you out to remove the tracker bug in your left wrist. We were able to take out the other one electronically. With luck, the Ministry goons won’t start looking for you until tomorrow.”

Jeff said, “What happened? How long will I have to be in here?”

The voice said, “We gave you a sedative to do minor surgery to take out your tracker implant. Once it was gone, you were just another student going home drunk in the wee hours of the morning.”

“We are about three hundred fifty klicks from the spaceport at Savannah. We’ll be there in a few hours, we’ll launch in three, maybe three and a half tops.”

Mason thought, what the hell? He said, as calmly as he could manage, “Wait, who am I talking to? I’m going to launch in a cargo pod?”

The voice answered, “I’m Seth. We met last night. We have to get you through customs. Our ship is carrying agricultural goods, so all of our containers are pressurized and climate controlled. They’ll just be weighing them. The container you are in is balanced for your exact weight.”

“Look. I know it’s not comfortable, but we did our best. Reach up almost directly over your head. There’s a switch.”

Jeff reached up and fumbled around in the dark. He found the switch and a light turned on. It blinded him at first and took a moment to adjust. He was lying on a pallet wedged between crates. A pillow was under his head. He spotted his backpack and some personal effects secured near his feet.

He said, “OK, I found it.”

Seth replied, “You aren’t going to like this, but we had to get rid of your old computer pad. It could have been bugged. Look in your backpack.”

Jeff rummaged around and pulled the backpack out of the space it was wedged into. He opened it and found a brand-new computer pad and a small box full of data crystals.

Seth said, “Find it?”

Jeff said, “Yeah. You backed up my old computer on these crystals?”

“That’s right. You’ll need to reload it. We scanned your files, and they are all clean with no trackers.”

Jeff sighed, “OK. This will take a while. I’ll have to beef up my firewall.”

Seth said, “We've got a great one loaded on one of the data crystals. Thanks for trusting us, Jeff. We’ll take good care of you. You won’t regret it.”

I already am.

Saratoga

Flag Bridge

Danny arrived as the morning shift was gathering near the Flag Bridge. Lt. Commander Dubois was the ranking officer on the shift. As Danny approached, Dubois smiled and said, “Commander Sokolsky. Good morning. Can you handle the jump calculations today?”

“Can do. I’m supposed to meet with my department staff after lunch.”

One of the other navigators said, “I’ve seen our jump schedule. It looks like we’re going to be pretty busy.”

Dubois said, “I’ll get Cruz to spell you this afternoon, but you’ll owe her one. OK, is everybody ready?” The four of them all nodded, and they entered the flag bridge proper.

Lt. Commander Zhao and the rest of the officers standing the night watch looked tired. When she saw her relief arrive, Zhao spoke into her headset, “Note for the log: Night shift ends at 0758.”

She took off her headset, logged off and stretched. “Not a moment too soon.”

Dubois asked, “Long night?”

Zhao said, “Boring. We have been on an engineering hold since 0400. It’s OK when things are busy, but night watch really drags when we are just standing around.”

She waved the day shift a sleepy farewell and followed the rest of her crew off the deck.

Sokolsky took his station at the primary navigation console. He logged into the station that sprawled over the port side of the Flag Bridge, put on his headset and let it synch to the system. He looked to his right at Dubois and said, “Plot is online.”

The other two stations signaled their readiness, and Dubois said, “Note to the log that day shift begins at this time.” He switched channels and said, “TOP HAT, this is PLOT. Day shift is on duty and awaiting instructions.”

“PLOT, this is TOP HAT. We’re currently on an engineering hold and should be ready to get underway again in another twenty minutes. Stand by to receive our jump schedule.”

Danny watched as the data raced across his screen. They were going to be busy. The fleet was scheduled for a jump every ten minutes for the next eight hours. He began calculations for the first jump of the series and handed them off to the computer to crunch the numbers.

Sokolsky asked, “Commander Dubois, the transports have a twenty-minute turnaround time to charge their jump engines. How can they keep up with the fleet?”

“That’s a good question, Sokolsky. Why don’t you ask them? You can open a private channel to any of the ships in the fleet from your console.”

Sokolsky navigated the menus on the communications panel at his station and picked the Raymond Burke. It only took a moment for the point-to-point laser system to establish a link between the two ships, but the active light turned green.

“Raymond Burke, this is Saratoga, do you copy?”

“Saratoga, this is Raymond Burke actual. Is that you, Danny?”

“Yes sir, Captain Schmit. I was just wondering how Ole Stubby could keep up a ten-minute jump turnaround?”

There was a short pause and Danny heard some background chatter and Muller’s voice returned, “Do you remember the containers we took on at Titan and the tech rep named Carter?”

“Yes sir.”

“One of the containers has two high-yield fusion reactors. Carter and Chen spent most of our liberty connecting it to our systems. Believe me, Mr. Chen wasn’t happy about it. He was afraid it would blow out our high-energy transfer feeds, but they got it done.”

“Is everything going OK?”

“Five by five, Danny. A little nervous about cruising into the war, but isn’t everybody? Congrats on your promotion. How is life in the fleet?”

“Busy. I’ve been meaning to call you guys and finally got a good excuse.”

“Good talking to you, Danny. I feel a lot better about this op knowing that you are driving. I’m saving a bottle for when this is over. I expect you for a drink.”

“Roger that, Raymond Burke. Saratoga out.”

“Burke out.”

Sokolsky turned to Dubois and said, “The answer is they are packing auxiliary fusion reactors.”

“That’s what I figured”, Dubois said. “I heard they were doing that on transports making the run to Epsilon Ceti slot, so they didn’t have to wait so long between jumps.”

“PLOT, this is TOP HAT. Our engineering hold is done. All ships, prepare to jump.”

Dubois ordered, “FLEET, this is PLOT. Begin jump sequence Master 61.”

Danny reported, “I have a solution computed for jump Master 61.”

“Very well, Mr. Sokolsky. Send it to the fleet. What is our status, Monroe?”

Lt. Monroe manning the fleet status board reported, “All ships report jump drives charging normally, sir.”

Danny said, “All ships acknowledge receipt of jump solution and recovery coordinates.”

Captain Carter’s voice boomed over the Saratoga’s 1MC, “Attention all hands, secure all stations for jump.”

The Flag Bridge was quiet and tense as time ticked down to jump. Over their connection to the fleet, there was a constant jabber of ship to ship communication. Dubois had the volume down, but it would automatically get louder if it was for the attention of the FLAG PLOT or an announced emergency.

It occurred to Danny that this was the jump that would actually take the task force to about 100 light years above the Northern plain of the galaxies spiral. He quickly linked to the science sections network and asked his AI to do a search of the ships' library for records of expeditions that explored the region.

He spoke out, “This is the one, guys. After this jump, we’ll be clear of the galaxy.”

Monroe reported, “The capital ships have passed the point of no return. The smaller ships still have another minute. We’re committed.”

The big banks of capacitors that charged the jump engines were saturated with energy, and there was no way to safely discharge them. The capital ships of the fleet had to jump or explode.

Dubois said, “Commander Haley thought you would like the honor of taking us out.”

Danny smiled and said, “My pleasure.”

Dubois shifted in his seat and said, “In the past, there have been ceremonies on ships that passed major milestones like the equator or the arctic circle. Any suggestion on what we should do to celebrate jumping outside the galaxy, Mr. Sokolsky?”

Danny replied, “Ice cream?”

The countdown clock turned over two minutes, thirty seconds.

“Point of no return, all ships”, Monroe reported dutifully.

“Seems a little tame, but I could get behind that”, Dubois said. He changed a setting on his communications panel and said, “All ships, this is PLOT: Two minutes, thirty seconds to jump.”

Sokolsky said, “Sir, I suggest that when we come out of jump that we pipe the outside cameras onto the view screens.”

Dubois nodded and said, “BRIDGE, this is PLOT. We suggest putting external cameras on the main view screens when we come out of jump. The view will be spectacular.”

“Roger that plot.”

Monroe reported, “Thirty seconds to jump. Field coils are charging. Here we go.”

At this point, their job was done. Things began to happen automatically all over the fleet. Massive capacitors discharged into the jump engines, energizing field coils which began opening rips in the fabric of the universe, burrowing through space to their destination. As all ship's jump engine ran through its cycle, a jump point formed in its path. With a flash, each ship passed thought and appeared on the other side.

The outside cameras were fed to the big holographic display in PLOT. The fleet was indeed 100 light years above the upper edge of the galaxy. From their vantage point, they had a spectacular view of the Orion and Sagittarius spiral arms. Globular clusters floated lazily like clouds above the galaxy's disk, and the shapes of numerous nearby galaxies blazed bright like giant pieces of celestial jewelry against the velvet black of intergalactic space. The bulge of the galactic core rose above the disk like an ancient monolith. There was just the slightest ripple in the galaxies' disk caused by gravitational interaction with another galaxy countless eons ago. Across the galactic disk and just to port of the galactic bulge was their destination: the Cygnus Arm, a little over 40,000 light years away.

The crew in the Flag Bridge was momentarily stunned into silence by the spectacular display surrounding them. Apparently, much of the fleet was as well. All chatter from the fleet's numerous communications links fell silent momentarily.

Monroe finally broke the spell by saying, “All ships present and accounted for.”

Dubois switched on the fleet command circuit and reported, “PLOT to Fleet: Jump Master 61 completed successfully. Stand by to begin Jump Sequence Master 62.”

Admiral Bassett’s voice came over the command circuit, “TOP HAT actual to fleet, hold jump sequence Master 62 for twenty minutes. I want all of our people to see this. Only a handful of people have ever seen the galaxy from this vantage point. This will be something we can all tell our grandkids about.”

Scorpius Sector

Evergreen

Savannah Spaceport

Jeff Mason was dozing in his improvised hidey-hole inside a cargo container when his headset came alive, “Mason, you awake?”

“Uhh… yeah, sure. What’s happening?”

“We’re not far outside the outskirts of Savannah and will be at the spaceport within the hour. We’re going through customs but all the containers have valid seals. We need for you to be quiet and turn off everything electronic. Understand?”

Mason said, “Yeah, I got it. There’s nothing back here but us potatoes.” He switched off the headset he was wearing and looked around and secured everything that might shake, rattle or roll.

In the cab of the big cargo hauler, Seth down-shifted as a started a flock of thousands of the little blue starling-like birds rose from feeding in the grasses surrounding the road, frustrating the tiny raptor-like green lizards that were hunting them.

The rich rolling plains of Evergreen spread out as far as he could see in all directions. The only thing that broke the terrain was the occasional ranch or farm. Since dawn, he had seen many farmers out on tractors or combines preparing their farms for the next plantings. Friendly people, none of them failed to wave as the big transport passed.

In the passenger seat beside him, his twin Shawn was sleeping soundly.

Seth wondered what a life like that of the farmers of Evergreen would be like. Such an existence seemed quite alien to his conditioning, but strangely appealing. On this part of the planet, the fields could yield crops year round. Apparently, the rich volcanic soil could grow almost anything. He had seen everything growing from rich orchards of fruit bearing trees, vineyards, cotton, soy beans, corn and many things that he couldn’t readily identify.

When Evergreen had been discovered, it was like a primordial earth, sometime around the Paleozoic era. Many thought that they had discovered a paradise, but in those days it was a dangerous and difficult place. Evergreen’s nocturnal predators found humans a welcome addition to their abundant buffet. It had taken many years, but most of the dangerous predators had been relocated to a preserve - a continent in the planet's Eastern hemisphere that was left pristine. There were still many reminders of the planet's savage past, like the little lizards that were disturbingly similar to earth’s raptors and the big predatory cats that lived in the mountains. There were also numerous snakes, arachnids and several nasty kinds of infections that were native to the planet. Evergreen’s equatorial swamps and jungles were in a state of perpetual feeding frenzy. Despite its dangers and numerous dangerous creatures, it was a popular planet for colonists and had grown to a population of three billion.

Seth imagined what it must have been like living here in the beginning with nocturnal dinosaurs trying to eat you, fungus trying to poison you and a thousand pound cats attempting to bat you around like a toy. The thought of the dangers made his heart race.

His brother Shawn spoke without opening his eyes, “What are you thinking about so loud?”

Seth said, “What it must have been like to live here when the first colonists arrived.”

Shawn laughed and said, “From what I’ve read, life on colonial Evergreen was terrifying, brutal and short.”

“I have to wonder how we would have done.”

Shawn said, “It’s like anything else. Success depends on intelligence, equipment and preparation. In those days, the colonists didn’t know what they were getting into, weren’t equipped to fight dinosaurs in the dark and were not prepared. It’s a miracle any of them survived.”

Seth said, “Just thinking about it made my heart race. Can you imagine fighting dinosaurs?”

Shawn rubbed his eyes and said, “When we get a chance, I’ll program a couple of combat sims, and we’ll see. Anyway - that’s not all you’ve been thinking about.”

Seth sighed. “Does it show?”

“Not that anyone else would notice but me. Spit it out, Bro. What’s on your mind?”

“I don’t know. I’ve got reservations about what we're doing.”, Seth said after an uncomfortable pause. “It seems like it could make things worse for our people. We’ve been raised on a steady diet of religious mumbo-jumbo and revolutionary ideology. Does the guy in the container we’re smuggling strike you as a great leader?”

“You know how it works, Seth. We know all that we need to know to accomplish the mission. The operation is compartmentalized. It’s not supposed to make sense to the foot soldiers.”

Seth said, “It just doesn’t feel right somehow. I think we’re being used or something.”

Shawn said, “We’re soldiers, Bro. That’s what we’re for. We were literally born to fight other people’s battles.”

“Are we, really? Are we soldiers or some corporation's failed lab experiment?”

“Don’t you trust Beck?”

“Yeah. Well, sort of, I guess. I don’t know. That Bishop guy that’s around sometimes gives me the creeps. He looks at us like we’re bugs or something, and Beck answers to him.”

“Some super-soldier you turned out to be questioning our superiors.”

Seth said, “They didn’t just make us to be mindless killers, Shawn. They gave us the capacity to think for ourselves. I’m not afraid of any kind of fight. I’m afraid of getting blindsided by something that we didn’t need to know.”

Shawn thought for a moment and said, “Here’s a plan. How about we give it the benefit of a doubt for now and, see what we can quietly figure out about the big picture.”

Seth nodded. “That’s really about all that we can do. And… watch each other’s back.”

“Always have, always will, Bro. Let’s get Pancho Villa in the back up to the ship. Then we’ll see what we can find out.”

Seth laughed and said, “I don’t know. Mason strikes me more as a deer in the headlights. He seems a nice guy, but we're going to have to help him with the leadership thing.”

The brother bumped knuckles as Seth down shifted the transport and changed into the lane marked Spaceport Customs.

Saratoga

Training Simulators

“When Crash told me to get qualified on the Spectra, I thought I was supposed to be a pilot, not a controller.”

The training officer looked at his computer pad and said, “The training order is specific. You know that he can’t fly anymore. It’s only logical that he would want his deputy out there.”

Tom sighed and said, “But I’ve got no experience as a controller.”

The trainer said, “You’ve flown under direction of a flight controller before, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s different”, Tom grumbled.

“You understand the concept. The rest is execution. Look- I understand. It will take some work, but we’ll start slow, and I’ll work you through it, OK?”

Tom nodded and closed the hatch of the virtual reality simulator. The simulator was identical to the CM-72 Spectra, right down to the cramped interior. He worked his way down the corridor from the cockpit to the controller pit- a spherical space with a multi-aspect chair mounted in the center. He strapped into the chair and put on the virtual-reality helmet and spoke into his head-set: “OK, I’m ready to begin.”

The trainer’s voice said, “Spectras will always get a call sign that’s a variation of the electromagnetic spectrum. Like Romeo-Whiskey for radio waves or Uniform-Victor for ultraviolet. Just for laughs, your call sign will be Golf-Romeo for this sim. We’ll begin with a simple vectoring problem.”

Tom watched as the 3 dimensional Virtual Reality representation as the carrier and four pairs of fighters appeared.

“Golf-Romeo, this is Sierra-Alpha 1, flight of four elements of two, requesting landing instructions.”

“Sierra-Alpha 1, come to starboard 330 degrees and line up for approach. Sierra-Alpha flights line up on the outer marker by flight number and stagger approach by 20 second intervals.”

Tom watched as the first pair of fighters landed, and the other three flights followed in twenty-second intervals.

The instructor's voice came through, “Not so bad was it?” Now, let’s run a Combat Air Patrol intercept…”

Saratoga

Science Section

Danny’s habit was to arrive early for meetings. When he arrived in the Science section, Saratoga’s Chief Engineer Commander Gene Watts and several members of his division were waiting for him to arrive.

Watts approached Danny with his hand out, “Commander Sokolsky, sorry we haven’t had the chance to meet yet. I’m Gene Watts, this is Terry Gosselin and Swede Lundquist, my experts on the hyperspace projectors. This is Mai Saito. She knows more about how our systems are integrated than most of the designers.”

Danny greeted them all with handshakes and asked, “What can I do for you, Commander Watts?”

“The XO said you are working on some interesting applications.”

Danny said, “Yes, you might say that I’ve got my hands full.”

Watts said, “We’re all about interesting applications. How can we help?”