Alarm of War, Book II: The Other Side of Fear (35 page)

Chapter 35

On the Dominion Prison Ship
Tartarus

Cookie suddenly felt the prison ship shudder and for the first time ever was conscious that it was accelerating.  She looked anxiously at Wisnioswski.  “Did you feel that, Otto?”

              Wisnioswski was looking at the ceiling.  He nodded slowly.  “Something’s happening; they’ve never goosed it like this before.”  The acceleration continued and Cookie was suddenly conscious of the low background whine of the ship’s engines straining. 
They’re running,
she thought.  Her next thought followed: 
From whom?

              There could be only one answer to that.

              “There’s a Victorian warship out there,” she said abruptly.

              Wisnioswski looked at her incredulously.  “One of ours?”

              She nodded.  “One of ours.”

              Confirmation of this came an hour later when the door to their cell slid open and Karl and Schroder walked in.  Karl’s expression was thunderous. Schroder, as always, carried a neuro-baton and a sneer. Cookie slid the fork she had stolen from Karl’s room into the back of her pants.  Behind her Wisnioswski climbed laboriously to his feet and stood beside her.  Schroder glanced at his bare feet and snickered.

              “Still trying to figure out how to tie shoelaces without your cunt’s help, eh?  Not to worry, the boys and me, we have some plans for you, we do.  You won’t be needin’ to wear shoes at all, will ya?  It’s a mercy, really.”  He smiled at his own wit.

              Cookie ignored him and turned to Karl.  “Karl, what is it?” she asked softly, keeping her voice gentle and reasonable.  “You’re obviously upset, but it can’t be anything we’ve done because we’ve been here in this cell.”  She hoped that he hadn’t discovered the missing fork – she had plans for that fork.  But if that’s what this was, well, she would use it now and damn the consequences.

              Karl glowered at her.  “Victorian warships are attacking a very important Dominion facility.  Losses are already high.”  He leaned forward, his face reddening with anger.   “This is intolerable!” he grated.   “This is an insult to the Citizen Director and the people of the Dominion!  You and your kind are a blight upon the universe with your arrogance and your bullheadedness and your blind refusal to accept the order and structure the Citizen Director is trying to bring to the Human Universe.  Don’t you understand?  You are beaten!  Defeated!”

              Cookie just stared at him, knowing anything she said could only make it worse. 

It got worse anyway.  Karl took a deliberate step away from her.  “I wash my hands of you,” he continued in an eerily calm voice.  “Schroder is right; we suffer you to live only at our peril.  You leave us no choice.”  Karl stared at her for a long moment, then turned and left.  And with that, Cookie knew, her fate was sealed.

Schroder smiled warmly at her, but he kept the neuro-baton at the ready.  “We’re a little busy right now, me and the boys, but tomorrow morning, maybe then we’ll come by and have us a little party.  Won’t that be nice?  We’ve got plans for you and your crippled friend here.”

“When you were just a boy in school, Schroder,” Cookie asked matter-of-factly. “Did the girls make fun of you because you picked the wings off flies?”

Schroder glowered at her and stepped forward, the neuro-baton thrust forward. 

“Come on, you sick little
freak
,” Cookie taunted.  “Afraid of a girl and a cripple?  Or can you only get it up when your victim is tied up so they can’t fight back?” 
Go for it, you little bastard,
she mentally pleaded.  If he got just a little closer she could get that shock stick away from him and then-

But Schroder seemed to suddenly realize there were two of them and only one of him.  He stepped back quickly, keeping the neuro-baton ready.  When he was in the doorway he smirked at her.  “Be fun to see which one of you lasts longer, eh?  I hope it’s you, bitch, I really do.  Sweet dreams.”  He slid the door shut.

Neither Cookie nor Wisnioswski said anything.  The silence dragged on, then Wisnioswski chuckled.   “Shit, Sergeant, you are the very epitome of diplomacy.
’Did the girls make fun of you because you picked the wings off flies?’
  Nice touch.  Charming, engaging, all that crap.”

Cookie laughed, despite herself.  “‘
Epitome’
of diplomacy?  Pretty fancy word for a Marine.”

Wisnioswski looked offended.  “I’m more than just a pretty face, Sergeant.”

Cookie leaned in closer and put her head next to his, always mindful the cell was probably bugged.  “We’re out of time, Otto.  It has to be tonight.”

Wisnioswski nodded somberly.  “We knew it was coming.  No use waiting.”

Cookie felt a heavy weight lift off her shoulders.  Tomorrow by this time it would all be over.

Chapter 36

The Battle for Siegstor

              “Tugs five and six, commence your run!  Tugs seven, eight, nine and ten, get ready, you’ll be going next,” Hiram ordered.  He watched through optical scanners as the tugs assigned to Rock Three activated their tractor beams and lurched forward.  They were taking the high approach, mostly because no one had been able to find that damn Duck frigate.  Forty gunboats formed a loose corridor through which the tugs would tow their precious cargo.  Those tugs should be safe.

              He frowned.  What was he missing?  He nervously scanned the holo display.  Tugs five and six were already on their way with a long line of gunboats to shield them.  The other four tugs were moving slowly along the asteroid belt, matching speed with it and so appearing to be motionless.  Far to the left and right the destroyers
Oxford
and
Edinburgh
were guarding the flanks.  His eyes drifted back to the four remaining tugboats, sitting on top of a dense mass of swirling asteroids that…that…

              Hiram cursed loudly.  Beside him, Avi Yaffe looked at him in alarm.  “What is it?”

Hiram ignored him, frantically waving to the Communications Officer.  “Connect me to the destroyers!”  A second later the green light flashed on his console and the tired, strained faces of Captains Michael Strong and Michael Sweeney appeared on the display.

              “Come back in!  Take up station next to the last four tugs and blast the area with active sensors!  Execute immediately!”  Hiram barked, trying hard not to shout.

              On the holo display he could see the destroyers turn and race towards the tugboat assembly point.  Both of them shot recon drones on active pinging into the asteroid field.  Hiram slumped back into his chair and blew out a lungful of air.  Avi Yaffe peered at him quizzically.

              “It’s the Duck frigate,” Hiram explained, shaking his head in frustration.  “Whoever the captain is, he likes to get in close.  I think tugs five and six are probably okay, but then I realized the last four tugs are just sitting there and I didn’t have anyone close enough to really protect them.  Gods of Our Mothers!”  He wiped nervous sweat off his face.

              Yaffe nodded, then ordered the Sensors Officer to launch active sensor drones from
Haifa
to compliment the two destroyers. Within a minute the area around the tug assembly point reverberated with enough sensor energy to weld hull plating.

* * * *

              “God in Heaven!”  Captain Astrid Drechsher flinched at the sound of the Victorian sensors hammering away at the space around them.  Over the last two hours she had managed to bring the
Draugr
within five hundred miles of the Vicky tugs, technically within missile range but still not able to fire because of the asteroid field clutter.  She was still trying to get closer when the Vickies opened up with active sensors and the
Draugr’s
sensor display lit up.  The audio output wailed like a fire siren. The sensor array was designed to make a sound when it detected search sensors in case the Sensors Officer was busy looking at something else, but it did have its drawbacks.

              “Set it to visual display only or we’ll all be deaf,” she said, trying to keep her voice mild.  The damn Vickies were using enough active sonars to wake the dead…or kill the living.

              “We’re within the red zone, Captain,” the Sensors Officer said.  “The only reason they haven’t detected us yet is because of the clutter in the asteroid field.  If we go any closer…”  His voice trailed off, but his meaning was clear enough.

              Drechsher settled into her chair and thought through the problem.  The primary target was too well guarded to get at.  She had three options:  Close in any way and fire her missiles, knowing the Vickies would blow her ship to hell.  She rejected that out of hand.  She rather doubted there was a time and a place for suicidal attacks, but if there was, this wasn’t it.

              She could attack some of the ships guarding the tugs and then go after the tugs themselves.  She mentally shook her head.  Too many Vickies out there for that to work.

              Or she could change the odds by luring away some of the ships guarding the tugs.

              “Captain!” her Sensors Officer called out.  “I’ve picked up a Vicky carrier coming in at high speed.”  He peered at his display.  “She’s applying Dark Matter Brake, throwing off a huge plume.  She’ll come to rest within a hundred miles or so of the tugboats.”

              “Pilot, turn us around and take us out of here.  Set course for-“  Drechsher looked at the display and picked a point just inside the asteroid belt, near the Vicky carrier – “there.  Let’s do this very quietly, Pilot, very quietly.  Weapons!  Our new target will be the carrier. Missiles only, save the lasers for the tugs.  As soon as we fire on the carrier, we will turn and make a run at the tugs.  I’ll need all missile tubes ready to fire by the time we reach the tugs.”  She only had six missile tubes and three lasers.  There was almost no chance of taking out the carrier, but if she could draw off the destroyers and those annoying gunboats, she might get another chance to take out the tugs.

              The
Draugr
turned and began to pick its way through the asteroid field.

* * * *

              The Dominion cruiser
Swift Justice
activated its Dark Matter Brake and dumped its speed in a huge plume of heat and light.  It quickly fired a brace of five decoys to keep the Vickies guessing and gingerly entered the asteroid field.  It was still west of the Victorian destroyers and tugboats, moving against the flow of the asteroid belt.  Siegestor was behind it, perhaps a thousand miles away.  Its sensors pulsed with the active sensor searches from the enemy gunboats.

              “Captain,” reported his Sensors Officer, “I think they’ve already launched a pair of tugs at the shipyard.  They are probably towing one or two small asteroids and will try to sling-shot them into the shipyard.”

              The Captain mentally shrugged.  Nothing to be done about them, but he could still stop the others.  “Do you have a fix on the remaining Vicky tugs?” he asked.

              The Sensors Officer shook his head.  “Too much clutter, sir.  We’ll have to get a lot closer to pick up anything.”  He hesitated.  “Sir, there’s active sensor probes everywhere.  They’re going to detect us very soon.”

              The Captain seethed.  There must be some way to disrupt the attack.  “Show me everything within missile range,” he snapped.  The holo display rippled and eighteen objects appeared each pulsing red.  He leaned forward to see the identification tags better.  Sixteen were the small attack craft the Vickies seemed to be using, one was tentatively identified as a destroyer and the last one, larger than the rest, was just coming to a stop outside of the asteroid belt, enveloped by a Dark Matter Brake plume.

              “What is that ship?” he asked.

              “Sir, sensors identify it as the Victorian ship
Fes
, one of their new carriers.”

              The Captain looked at the display.  The
Fes
had arrived with no escorts.  All of the smaller Vicky attack craft were busy searching within the asteroid belt and could not possibly respond quickly if the
Fes
needed help.  Good.  He smiled.  Although he was unaware that the Dominion frigate
Draugr
was targeting the same ship, he gave the order that would bring the utmost confusion to the Victorians. And in that confusion and chaos, maybe he could find the damn tugboats. He turned to his Weapons Officer.

              “As soon as we’re clear of the asteroid field, lock all weapons on the
Fes
and fire.  We will already be within range, so fire at once!  Do you understand?”

              The Weapons Officer nodded.  He was an old hand, but he had never actually been in combat until an hour ago and what he dreaded the most was making a mistake and letting down his ship.  “Orders understood, sir!” he barked.

              The Captain leaned in and spoke softly.  “Just like all of the drills, Reinhardt.  We’ll be at point blank range, so just kill the bastards.”  He clapped him on the shoulder and turned to the helm.

              “Helm, mark a course for the carrier
Fes
, then take us out of the asteroid belt by the quickest means possible.  Execute!”  He sat back in his command chair, displaying nothing but confidence.

              And with all of his attention fixed on the Victorian carrier, he never once gave a thought to the Victorian battleship.

* * * *

              The Refuge carrier
Fes
skidded to a stop just short of the asteroid belt, casting a huge plume of heat and light that effectively deadened its sensors for several minutes.

              Grant Skiffington was furious.  Furious at himself for not realizing the importance of the escaping Duck cruiser and furious at Emily Tuttle for rubbing his nose in it.  “Prepare to take on any gunboats that need refueling or rearming,” he barked to his bridge crew.  They glanced at him warily.  The skipper didn’t have many temper tantrums, but when he did it was best to stay out of his way.

              “Anything on sensors?” Skiffington snapped. 

The Sensors Officer shook his head.  “With the DMB plume, we’re blind for another two minutes, Commander.”

Skiffington gritted his teeth.  He wanted to
do
something, not just sit here and wait to learn if the gunboats found their prey.  Why did he let Emily Tuttle talk him into this job?  He should have taken a destroyer or better yet, tried to get another cruiser command.  Now he was sitting here, watching while other people met the enemy head on--

Four hundred miles to the west, the Dominion Ship
Swift Justice
burst from the concealment of the asteroid belt, confirmed its lock on its target, then fired every weapon that could be brought to bear.  Twenty-five missiles and five heavy lasers lashed out in a paroxysm of destruction.

One hundred miles to the east, the Dominion Ship
Draugr
barely cleared the top of the asteroid belt before it fired its six missiles and one heavy laser, then dropped down into the asteroid belt again and changed course for the Vicky tugboats.

On board the
Fes,
the Sensors Officer breathed a sigh of relief as the sensor display finally cleared up.  Then the missile alarms began to wail.  Skiffington looked up in consternation.  He saw the holo display and paled.  In his haste, he had left his ship exposed.

He turned to his bridge crew.  “I am so sorry,” he said.

The Weapons Officer slapped the toggle for the anti-missile defense to ‘auto,’ but it was too late, much too late.

The first missile struck home, followed immediately by five more, then six more.  And more, and more yet.  Of the thirty-one Dominion missiles, twenty-four smashed through the thin hull plating and exploded deep in the
Fes’s
interior.  All six of the laser beams found their target.  Inside the
Fes
, fuel and lubricants burst into flame and munitions exploded. A horrific, endless minute later the air itself burned.  Those not already dead died in agony.

In less than three minutes, the
Fes
broke into four parts, each a funeral pyre. 

It happened so fast.   There were no life pods.

* * * *

              “Turn!  Turn!” Captain Teller of
Swift Justice
ordered.  “Get us into the asteroid field!”  Just then a proximity alarm blared.  The Captain stared at the display panel, aghast.

              Hurtling towards them was the Victorian battleship,
Lionheart.

              “Weapons, lock on them and fire!” he ordered, his voice shrill, but even as he said it, he knew that there were no missiles ready to fire and the lasers were not yet recharged.  His beloved ship was toothless. 

“Evasive maneuvers!  Helm, dive into the-“

              He never got to finish.

              The
Lionheart
fired forty missiles and ten heavy lasers at point-blank range. The ten-inch lasers speared through the hull and ravaged the
Swift Justice
from one side to the other, creating gaping canyons of destruction and death, made worse by the vacuum that instantly filled them.   Seconds later the missiles fell upon it like an avalanche from Hell.

              Exactly two minutes and fifteen seconds after the
Swift Justice
killed the
Fes,
it blew apart. 

              A scant five hundred miles away, the death of the
Swift Justice
was recorded by the
Draugr’s
sensors.  Captain Drechsher stared disbelievingly at the sensor display and the pulsing red icon where the
Swift Justice
had been until a moment ago.  She stared a long time, not seeing the worried glances exchanged by her bridge crew.  Finally the senior member of the bridge crew, the Sensors Officer, came and knelt down beside her.