A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (19 page)

              “All right, I want this nice and smooth,” the general ordered.  “Bek, get a nice firm grip on that rock.  Semela, on my order, very low acceleration.  This old girl,” he patted the arm of the command chair, “has got a lot of damage and I don’t want the tractoring beam tearing us apart.”

              “Yes, General.”

              “Ready, sir.”

              He gestured.  “Then proceed.”

              It was very slow going, but the crew showed their skill and dedication to the job.  Once they realized what it was that Typhon wanted, they set to the tasks with a will.  The ship grabbed a hold of the asteroid, a rock roughly shaped like a kidney bean, about two kilometers in length, two-thirds of one in width. 
Illuyanka
’s tractoring emitter latched on to one of the ends and slowly, slowly, began dragging the massive rock out of its previous orbit in the system’s asteroid belt.  Minutes passed and the ship and the asteroid continued to accelerate.

              “All right, it’s been more than an hour, I think that’s fast enough,” the general replied.  They were closing in on the gas giant again, and the destroyer was looking belligerent.  Like a bouncer ready to toss a drunk out of a bar, the destroyer had placed itself in
Illuyanka’s
path, though above and to port.  “Release the tractoring beam.  Helm, drop us down the z-axis; slow us once we’re clear and let the rock pass right over us.  Keep the rock between us and the destroyer for now.”

              There was a chorus of acknowledgements from the various bridge officers, but the sensor officer kept his eyes glued to the displays.  “Sir, that destroyer is holding position.  They’re not coming at us; they’re staying between us and the gas giant.”

              Typhon nodded, checking the display.  “That’s fine.  We’re not going to engage the destroyer.  Bek, keep a hand on the controls, though.  If they come after us, I want you to hammer them.”

              “Understood, General.”  Bek was confident and after the sucker punch Typhon (and Bek) had allowed to slip through the defenses last time, he knew that the tactical officer would be dying for some payback.  But, the wolf was solid and he wouldn’t allow his desire for revenge affect his judgment… too much.  Not enough that he would disobey orders or jump the gun. 

              The light cruiser flipped end for end, rolling down below the rock, and her main propulsion units fired, arresting her momentum.  The asteroid seemed to shoot ahead, as though it had somehow accelerated. 

              “Helm, bring us around.  Bek, lock on target.”

              “Captain,” the sensor officer aboard
Persistence of Vision
called.  “The cruiser is decelerating hard.  Well, as hard as the structural damage will allow anyway.”

              “I see it, Leytenant,” Kol Raydor said, rubbing his chair absently.  “Ready weapons, target that ship.  They’re clearly trying to lob the asteroid at the gas mine.  Once we deal with that ship, we’ll have plenty of time to nudge the rock out of the way before it hits the mine.” 
Just can’t let time get away from me.  They really got that thing moving.

              “Aye, sir.”

              “They think they’re being clever,” Kol said.  “I grant you, it’s a good plan, but they’d have to deal with us in order for it to work.  And I don’t know if they’re in good enough shape to handle us.  And if Leader Korqath can get his ships involved…”

              “Sir, the light cruiser is coming around.”

              “Helm, standby for evasive.  If they lock onto us with their weapons, go into immediate maneuvers,” he ordered.  “Don’t wait for my order.”

             
They’re out of position for a good shot at us, even with that heavy chase armament.  Meanwhile, I’m in position for an excellent shot, once they close the range.  So what the hell is that cruiser doing?

              “Locked on, General,” Bek reported.

              Typhon took another deep breath, then nodded.  “Fire.”

             
Illuyanka’s
bow turbolasers opened up, beams of coherent light slamming into the asteroid in very carefully selected and calculated points.  More and more shots pumped out until the ship had fired an even score.  Small chunks were torn off, small clouds of particulates, but the asteroid itself held mostly together.  Large cracks had formed in the surface of the kidney-bean shaped rock, but it hadn’t really broken, not yet.  Another salvo of turbolaser fire lanced out and hammered the asteroid.

              And it shattered.

              “How many pieces?” Typhon asked, his voice calm.

              The tactical officer studied the readout.  “Looks like eighteen bigger pieces, but two hundred or more shards.  The smaller bits range in size from a few meters to… well… larger, sir.”

              Typhon waved that away.  “That’s fine, Bek.  Nice shooting.  How badly did they disperse?”

              “Minimal dispersion, General.  Though there will be some that are completely off-target.  I think we’re looking at somewhere around eighty-percent that will still be on target.”

              He nodded.  “Excellent.  Helm, reverse course.  Take us away from this vector and bring us to link up with the rest of our ships.”  Perhaps it was not the greatest act of vengeance, but it would certainly give the local filth here something to think about.  And it was something that they couldn’t afford to ignore.

              “What the hell?” Kol demanded.  They saw the asteroid shatter into numerous pieces after the cruiser fired on it.  “They’re shooting it?”

              “One dangerous object suddenly becomes many,” Wotan answered, frowning.  “I am running vector calculations right now, sir.”

              “Good.  Tactical, ready tractoring beam,” the captain ordered. 

              “Sir, we’re not going to get everything,” the tactical watch-stander replied.  “Even if we dove straight into that mess.  There’s just too much.”

              “Much of the debris and smaller rocks will burn up in the atmosphere, Captain.  But there are a good number of them that might still be able to hit the station.”

              “Get the station on the line, have them launch all the tugs and shuttles they can.  And recall all of the shuttles and tugs not on search and rescue to help.”  He looked to Wotan’s image on the holo emitter.  “Estimated time to impact?”

              “Three hours, eleven minutes, until they hit the atmosphere of the gas giant, Captain.”

              “Sir, the cruiser is reversing course, accelerating out system,” the specialist at sensors said. 

              “I see it,” Kol replied, clenching a fist.  “But we can’t worry about them now.  Helm, bring us in closer.  Tactical, ready the tractoring beam.  Grab the closest big chunk and lock on as soon as we’re close enough.”  This is going to be close. 
Persistence of Vision
had some pulling capability, but it was more in line with towing disabled starships, not pulling dense rocks, but needs must and all that. 

              As the ship moved in close to the distance and with a press of a few keys, the beam activated, connecting the ship with the chunk of asteroid.  The beam itself was invisible, nothing but a cone of force stretching out from the ship to the rock.  A moment later, the ship changed course, slowly pulling on the rock, trying to edge it out of position.

              Kol frowned, watching as the ship strained against its tether.  This was taking longer than he’d expected.  “Tactical, the beam is locked on tight?”

              The operator nodded.  “Yes, Captain.  We’ve got a good, solid lock on the center of mass.  I don’t want it to spin, we want to pull it clear.”

              “Any movement?”

              “No change in vector so far, sir.”  The operator frowned, pressing a few other controls.

              “Helm,” Kol said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the helm.  “Increase speed, bring it up slowly.  I want to give it another good yank.”

              “Aye, sir,” the pilot said calmly, entering in the commands and increasing power to the engines. 

              “My tractoring system really wasn’t intended for objects of this size and mass, Captain,” Wotan said, his otherwise strong voice sounding strangely self-effacing and apologetic.  Normally the AI spoke and acted like a confident warrior.  This was an odd change.

              “Not your fault, Wotan,” the captain assured him.  “I’m trying this slowly.  We need to do this methodically.  I don’t want to pull one rock out of formation just to have it slam into another piece of real estate, or burn out your emitter on the first pass.  It’s just going to take some time.”

              “We don’t have much,” the AI reminded him.  Then he blinked his eyes, an unnecessary gesture as the AI didn’t need to keep his holographic eyes moist.  “Captain, I’m showing a number of shuttles and tugs coming this way, from various vectors.”

              “How long until they get here?”

              “We are moving as well, Captain, as you know.  The first two tugs will be arriving in forty-six minutes, the other five, all
Testudo
shuttles, twenty minutes after that.”

              “Wait, the
Testudos
have tractoring beams?” Kol asked.  “I don’t remember reading that on their specs.”

              Wotan shook his head.  “No, sir, but they do have two magnetic grapplers that can be retrofitted with hooks if need be.  They won’t be able to pull the bigger pieces like we or the tugs can,” the AI warned, “but they should be able to work on the smaller pieces.  And there are a lot of those.  And the sensors are showing a large concentration of iron in the makeup of this asteroid.”

              “Can’t we just shoot them, sir?” the tactical officer asked, not looking up from his station.  “The smaller stuff, I mean, sir.  The big ones I know, we have to move out of the way, but the rest of it, just open up with our energy weapons and have the starfighters and any other armed ships move in and try and pulverize it all.  We won’t be able to catch all of the shards and pull them out of the way, sir, not in the timeframe we have.”

              Kol nodded.  “It’s an option to consider.  But as you said, we have to deal with the bigger chunks first.  Helm, status?”

              “We’re getting some movement, sir,” the pilot said with a very tight-lipped smile.  “We’re pulling the first big rock out of the dangerous vector.”

              “Good.  So it won’t hit anything else once we pull it completely clear of the vector for the gas giant?”

              The pilot shook his head.  “No, sir.  It’ll just keep flying away, hurtling off into the deep dark, eventually.” 

              “Sir, another six minutes on this and we’ll have brought this piece out of the danger vector for the gas mine.”  The sensor watch stander sounded very sure.

              “Understood.  Helm, you heard him.  Once we’ve gotten this one clear, release the tractoring beam and bring us back around to grab the next one.”

              “Aye, Captain.”

              Kol turned to the comms watch.  “Comms, send a message to Leader Korqath, or whoever’s in charge up here, I know some of the fighters have headed back to the station.  Request assistance.  And send a message to the gas mine as well.  Request that they launch everything up here to assist.  Tugs, shuttles, fighters, everything.”

              “Sending now, Captain.”

              Kol turned to look at his displays, watching the icon of
Persistence of Vision
as it slowly pulled the icon for the asteroid chunk away from the others.  Time was passing and with every second, this mess was riding closer to the gas mine.  According to sensor extrapolations, a large portion of this debris had a very high probability of striking the gas mining station.  It was going to take a lot of fast work and luck to save them.

              Tamara climbed aboard
Moxie-2
and slapped the control to get the hatch closed.  She signaled the pilot and the ship roared out of the gas giant’s atmosphere.  She’d sent the recall order for the rest of the shuttles and tugs that were operating in this area to come in and help, adding her authority to Captain Raydor’s, though it didn’t appear that it was needed.  Everyone in the area was moving in to assist with the diverting of the rocks.  It would be tight, but she was fairly certain that they could do it.  With everyone going after the rocks, dragging them out of the way, and then rounding it out with a few missile and heavy laser salvos, they could do this.  And,
she
would get a chance to actively help protecting the system and company assets from the pirates.  Oh, the battle was effectively over, and she had organized the workers on building more of the missiles as well as launching those salvos up from the hangar bay, but now she actually felt as though she was making a serious contribution. 

              Hustling up into the cockpit, she brushed past Viktoriya, who sat down on one of the long couches.  “What’ve we got, Mike?”