A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (60 page)

              “Well, I don’t think this is the result of damage, Captain,” the man replied.  “These… pieces seem to be under power.”

              “We have an engine signature?”

              “No, Captain, not precisely,” he went on, “but the gravitational anomalies seem to be altering the courses of the various parts.  They’re not moving in a straight-line trajectory or being buffeted by the prevailing wind patterns from the atmosphere in the gas giant.  They seem to be blossoming outward, heading toward the rings of the gas giant.”

              Kreighton frowned.  “You’re right.  If they were on a straight line path from the ship they would be out in open space by now.”  He considered the information on the display.  “What’s in the rings that they could possibly be interested in?”

              “No idea, sir.  They don’t have grapples or tractoring beams deployed, certainly nothing that we’re familiar with,” the sensor officer replied.

              They all sat and watched.  Using the sensor readings on the displays, they could see that these chunks of hull material were moving into the rings, a small gravitic anomaly pulling the thing along. 
Or rather
, Kreighton corrected himself,
the thing is falling into the artificial singularity that each one is projecting.  That’s a fascinating piece of technology.
  “Imagine what we could do with one of those,” he muttered to himself.

              “Sir?” the sensor watch asked, turning to look at him.

              He hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud.  “Nothing.  Just wondering how it is that they’re projecting those singularities for propulsion like that.  If we could catch one of those things, could we reverse engineer the process?”

              The man looked concerned.  “I don’t know, sir,” he said after a moment’s thought.  Clearly he wasn’t sure how to answer the captain’s question, afraid of how his commander would react.  Was he looking for an actual answer?  Was he just speculating aloud?  Was he putting the question out there and expected that someone on the bridge would go away and come back with the answer he was looking for?  What answer
was
he looking for?

              “Me either,” Kreighton replied with a smirk.  He didn’t take his eyes off the display.  “Maybe we should see what we can do about getting one.”                The rest of the bridge watch looked at each other with considering looks and smiles breaking out among the various watch standers.  But then the captain waved one hand airily.  “I’m not going to attack them, people.  I don’t need mama out there getting upset because we hurt one of her cubs.  We wait and we watch, and maybe an opportunity will present itself.”

              The reason for the devices soon became clear to the crew of
Kingston
and the other nearby ships.  Focusing on one of them, Kreighton watched in fascination as the singularity disappeared from the “front” of the device and then another one appeared at the rear.  The delta-v of the device suddenly dropped as the micro singularity started pulling the device in the other direction.  He was amazed at the rate of deceleration and that the device wasn’t shredded in the process.  That would be something to analyze and debate later.  Once it was at a low enough speed, the main one collapsed and disappeared but others appeared for the barest instant, just enough to alter the trajectory of the device. 

              It closed in on one piece of rock floating around in the rings and once it was within a few dozen meters, a stuttering (that was the best work Kreighton could come up with to describe what the sensors were telling him) microsingularity appeared between the device and the rock.  Then, a solid one appeared in a direction that would pull it out of the rings and back down into the atmosphere. 

              “It’s gathering minerals for the ship,” he breathed, a sentiment which was confirmed by the sensor watch a moment later.  “Those are tugs.”

              “They’re tugs,” Hovin reported.  “But they don’t use tractoring beams or grapplers like we use.  The artificial black holes that they seem to be able to control double as a tractor.  Makes sense, it
is
a micro singularity.”  He checked another feed.  “And that stuttering effect keeps the rock moving along the right trajectory without gaining too much acceleration so it doesn’t slam into the back of the tug.”

              “But it wouldn’t,” Gokon mused.  “Slam into the tug, I mean.  It would just get swallowed up by the singularity.  And think about it.  A projected singularity along the path of incoming missiles?  It would just swallow them up, no damage taken.  A perfect defense.  I wonder if we can capture one of those tugs?”

              “Simplicity in itself to get in there, Trammen,” the helmsman pointed out.  “But to do it fast enough, we’d have to pour on enough speed and accel that we’d be visible to that warship.  The freighters might not detect us though.”

              The commander considered it.  “Hold off for now.  If an opportunity presents itself, then we’ll go in.”  It was a hell of an opportunity, and the tech that might be gained from such a capture was incalculable.  Lord Verrikoth would
definitely
want to get his hands on it.

              Dozens of tugs carried back rocks to the behemoth vessel over the next several hours.  The rocks pulled in were small, only a few meters in diameter, but they were very fast and efficient.  Neither the
Kingston
nor the pirate cutter
Toroj
were able to get a good scan of the rocks being taken, due to the gravitational distortion so no one had any idea what the big ship was taking on.  They could get good scans of the rings but there was such a variety of minerals and trace elements that no one had any idea what it was that the aliens were actually after, but with the repeated runs by the tugs it was clear that they needed a
lot
of whatever it was.

              Hours later, that opportunity both sides were looking for finally revealed itself.  Both the sensors on the corvette and the cutter were monitoring the activity of all the tugs, whizzing all over and through the rings of the planet.  The gravitational anomalies provided propulsion and the ability to yank the rocks along behind.  From any attacks from the front, the little tugs were invulnerable. 

              It was a small rock, only ten meters in size, roughly wedge-shaped, and it was tumbling along on its somewhat random course along some path around the planet.  One of the tugs was passing by this one chunk of rock on precisely the right vector, and was caught in the gravity field of the forward microsingularity, only for a few seconds.  The pull of the gravity was strong enough to accelerate the chunk of rock in just the right manner.

              The rock slipped past the forward singularity and slammed into the side of the tug.  For all of the vaunted protection the artificial singularity gave, the hull of the tug was incredibly fragile.  The rock punched into its side, lodging there like a dagger.  The singularities, both of them, immediately collapsed and the force of the impact drove the tug off course and into the rings.

              “Captain!” the sensor watch called, jerking Kreighton’s attention back to the bridge and away from the report he had been reading.  “Tug 27 was hit by a rock and it seems to be off line.  It’s floating into the rings.”

              Kreighton sat up straighter in his command seat.  “What’s the status of the other ships?”

              “They’re not moving, sir,” the sensor watch replied immediately.  “None of the freighters have changed position.  Wait, strike my last,” he replied, shaking his head.  “One of the freighters is powering engines, but…”

              “But what?” Kreighton asked, leaning forward.

              “The ship is the
Josephine Bellerophon
out of Ulla-tran,” the sensor watch reported.  “They’re reversing course, heading away from the planet and toward the hyperlimit, on a vector for Heb.”

              “All right.  Sensors, helm, plot us a course that will take us into the rings.  I want to move in and see if we can’t grab that tug and pull her out.  Then once we’re out, we’ll figure out some way to get it back home.”

              “Aye sir.”

              “Trammen, they’re going for it.”

              “I see it, Hovin,” the zheen said, sitting up in his chair.  He’d rubbed his hands together when he’d seen the tug take the hit.  It was their chance.  The mothership wasn’t doing anything to try and recover the tug, so perhaps they hadn’t seen it, or were just writing it off.  Either way was fine by him.  “Keep our emission signature low, I don’t want to spook them.  But be ready to move in on my order.”

              The helmsman sighed, but rolled his neck to loosen up his shoulders.  There was the prospect of some combat and a high-speed pursuit.  He wanted to be loose and ready.

              Gokon let out a long buzz of a sigh in anticipation, getting up from his command seat and moving to the back of
Toroj
’s cramped bridge.  There were already three people in the compartment, and for economy’s sake there was almost no space to move around.  He wanted to go into one of the aft compartments, get a snack or a drink, but he knew it wouldn’t take long for the Seylonique Navy ship to get into the rings and nab the tug.  He didn’t want to get a call from the bridge and then have to rush forward.

              “I hope they hurry.”

              Maneuvering through the rings of the gas giant proved to be difficult, but it wasn’t impossible.  The helmsman knew his craft and gripped the control levers.  It was far from a smooth ride as the rocks and other particulates, which varied from the size of a grain of sand to the size of a small shuttlecraft.  All of them were sliding along, over and under each other, occasionally colliding.  It didn’t make for the easiest area to fly a ship into, even a ship as small as a corvette.  One hundred and twenty-four meters wasn’t a lot of ship and the helm and engines were well-tuned, but the field of space that the
Kingston
needed to fly through was constantly changing.  It was certainly a test for the helmsman’s skill and training.

              One that he was showing every sign of passing. 

              “How you holding up, Jackson?” Kreighton asked.

              “Fine, sir,” the man replied through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the beads of sweat forming on his forehead.  He couldn’t release the control levers, not without letting various bits of debris slam into the hull of the ship. 

              Kreighton checked the status feeds.  The shields were under heavy strain; dust and small rocks the size of bullets were hitting the shields, forcing them to keep them up and at full power.  “Two hundred meters,” he muttered to himself.  “Tactical, ready for the tractoring beam.”

              “Ready, sir.  As soon as we’re within range, I’ll get locked on.”

              “Can you?” the captain asked, glancing over at the zheen seated there.  “There’s a lot of dust and junk in the way.  Can you capture the tug, Kiexek?”

              The zheen’s antennae curled and then straightened.  “I can do it, Captain,” he assured him. 

              Kreighton grimaced, though the zheen had his back to him and couldn’t see his captain’s doubts.  He wasn’t sure if Kiexek was trying to convince his captain or himself.

              “Closing to forty meters,” Jackson at the helm reported, wiping his forehead with one sleeve, his other hand still holding the control lever.

              “Helm, maintain our position here,” Kreighton ordered.  “Kiexek, get a lock on the tug, if you please.”  He mentally crossed his fingers.

              “Locking on,” the zheen answered, his mouthparts writhing.  After a moment, he nodded.  “Ready, Captain.”

              “Do it, Mister Kiexek,” the man ordered, grimacing at the anticipated failure.

              Kiexek pressed the activation control and the beam emerged from the tractor emitter on the
Kingston
’s ventral side.  It took two firings to actually catch the tug with the tractoring beam.  The beam slid off the alien device on the first shot; there was simply too much particulate matter and dust in the way.  The first shot swept it clear from the tractor’s range and the second shot caught the device and held it tight.  He let out a sustained buzz, then slumped back in his seat.  “We have capture, Captain.  Tractoring beam is locked on and we are ready to depart the rings.”

              “You heard him, Jackson,” Kreighton ordered.

              “Engaging engines, Captain,” the dark-skinned pilot replied, his voice energized.  “Can you clear me a path?”

              “Kiexek, don’t lose the lock, but see if you can’t blast us a clear lane,” the captain ordered, glancing over at the now nervous looking zheen, whose antennae was whirling around.

              “On it, Captain.”

             
Toroj
watched as the Navy corvette cut loose, her forward weapons tearing open space in front of the ship, blasting apart rocks and vaporizing a lane of dust in front of the ship.  The energy cannons, lasers and heavy lasers, kept firing while the corvette accelerated through the open lane.