Law's End (19 page)
Authors: Glenn Douglass
Tags: #adventure, #travel, #dog, #future, #space, #rescue, #supercluster
"Great, so what do we do about that?"
"Without fuel we'll have to get the
reactionless drive back online."
"We can do that right?"
Kassad knew well that there was only so much
that planning could accomplish and after that you just had to do
the best you could with whatever you had. "Maybe. Nobody has ever
been beyond Law's End as long as we have, at least not and returned
to tell the tale. We know what the effects have been on us, but
there's no telling what it has done to the equipment, even powered
down."
Now rubbing her temples Greene complained, "We
should have taken our chances with the Armhamon."
"We have no chance with the Armhamon, and I'll
take a slim chance over no chance." Kassad scoffed. "So don't wish
too hard because if both of the FTL drives are out then you'll get
to see what kind of greeting they want to give us."
Begrudgingly Greene admitted to herself that it
was well past the point of turning back there anyway. "Okay, fine.
So what's our contingency plan for the reactionless drive being
out?"
He'd already had this entire conversation in
his head with himself, but if it made Greene feel better and killed
some time Kassad couldn't see any reason to object. "We can try to
find a place with similar enough speed and velocity and the
capability and desire to send a rescue ship to retrieve us. That's
assuming our senses return enough to find and plot such a
course."
Groaning in frustration Greene snapped, "And do
you have a plan for our senses not coming back?"
It wasn't a possibility Kassad wanted to dwell
on. "That does tend to make things more desperate, which is why I
made sure to get the safest course plotted into the automated
navigation systems." Kassad did the broad calculations for their
course in his head for the umpteenth time. "Assuming the jump drive
works then in two days we'll be in a good drift position between
galaxies. Even at this velocity we could drift for hundreds of
years without coming close to anything. If it comes to that we can
load ourselves into the ships auto-medics and let them try to fix
us."
With a venting bitterness in her voice Greene
complained, "This is what I hate about space travel. It's all 'if'
and 'then' and 'with luck'. It's like the whole universe is
constantly flying apart."
Kassad observed dryly, "Well, technically the
whole universe is constantly flying apart."
Her upper limit of exasperation having been
surpassed Greene responded evenly, "You know what I mean. It's the
constant uncertainty."
Kassad smiled in remembrance of his first days
in the life. "Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we fly."
Laughing bitterly at the sentiment Greene
apologized, "I don't mean to be so…"
Helpfully Kassad supplied,
"Argumentative?"
"Well, I was going to say difficult." Greene
admitted, "It's just the stress getting to me."
"Yes, you live on a civilized world and
everything is engineered and managed to be low stress. I know. I
grew up in that life; comfortable, straightforward, understandable,
and simple," Kassad grinned, "and it's not like Sabha wasn't
designed to carry as much of that around with her as possible, but
it's not real." Shaking his head Kassad ran his left hand
reassuringly down the near bulkhead. "One thing I've learned living
out here is that back down the gravity well is just as complex and
dangerous, and maybe more so. It's just that there are systems
developed over millennia to hide the dangers from you and manage
them without your having to be aware. So long as those systems work
you can delude yourselves into thinking you're safe and everything
is straightforward, understandable, and simple." Kassad took a deep
breath, held it only briefly, and sighed heavily before continuing.
"Out here you have the ship's captain. Oh, a captain can lie to the
passengers and color everything with pretty words to make you feel
as safe as at home. Some see it as part of their job, but it's not
part of mine. I'm not going to lie to you. I'll tell you straight
how things are, what I'm going to do about them, what I need you to
do, and what I hope to accomplish, but there are no guarantees."
Kassad leaned back as far as his acceleration couch would permit.
"So I tell you that I will do everything possible to get us all
back safely. If need be I will lie and cheat, sneak and steal, and
even fight if I have to. That's my commitment as ship's captain,
and that's what we are depending on to keep us alive."
Canis who had retreated to his acceleration
couch sprang back to the center console and barked
enthusiastically.
Surrendering to the interjected opinion Kassad
conceded, "Well, my commitment, and Canis obviously."
Canis issued a single loud bark to reinforce
the point.
"I appreciate that." Greene said not making it
clear if she was speaking of Kassad or Canis. "I guess the only
question now is how long will our solar dive keep the Armhamon
confused?"
It was the question Kassad's mind had been
preoccupied with since before committing to the course of action.
"The longer they have to search the more likely they are to find
us. Obviously the fastest route out of the system gives them the
shortest time to look, but is also the most likely. Farther away
gives them more space to cover but they've got military spec sensor
software so it's not as huge an advantage as it would have been a
few thousand years ago. If things remain as planned then right now
we're somewhere inside the sweet spot within a cone of space around
the shortest path."
Chapter 13: "Luck and Skill"
"By necessity fleet engagements are highly
structured affairs as anything less invariably results in a rout
inflicted by the better organized force. It's when you're involved
in ship to ship fighting involving no more than a handful of ships
that you rely most heavily on the initiative of individual
captains... 'initiative' may be too strong a word. The word 'luck'
is probably more honestly accurate. Luck and skill."
-Excerpt from a lecture on starship tactics
given by Admiral Thomas Brice
what they were doing Greene asked, "How long do we have?"
The words of a mentor came back to Kassad that
seemed adaptable to the situation at hand. "That depends on if
we're lucky and if they’re good. If we're lucky they're not even
looking. If they're bad at their job then we could be out here for
days before they get a fix on us."
"Do you think we'll be lucky?" Greene asked,
concerned that luck and especially their luck was a poor substitute
for a good plan.
Never having much use for luck himself except
in desperation Kassad optimistically admitted, "We've been very
lucky so far."
The concept of an adversary, let alone one who
was intent on killing her, was still to alien for her mind to fully
accept, but even so Greene asked, "What if they're good?"
"If they're good? About six hours, maybe less."
It was only after saying this aloud that Kassad remembered to
factor in the potential quality of the Lawship's software.
"Probably less." The re-juggled math leaned more heavily on luck
but then there still weren't any better alternatives. "I'm still
optimistic." Optimism was essential to morale.
Still trying to get her head around their
situation Greened kept asking questions, "What happens if they
start shooting at us?"
With a noncommittal shrug Kassad answered,
"Poor Sabha will get holes poked in her."
Beams of coherent energy were still the
preferred tool for ill intent delivered at the distances involved
in most activity in space. That energy might take the mundane form
of photons, or more of an exotic variety like x-rays, but
inevitably all functioned to burn holes in their target. For
military vessels burning a hole through them was almost certain to
hit systems vital to functioning, but for a civilian craft like
Sabha the odds of hitting empty space like cargo hold or crew
compartments was significantly greater.
Annoyance was being fueled by a sense of
helplessness and frustration into anger, the results of which crept
into Greene's voice. "I'm being serious."
"So am I" Kassad said mock defensively. "With
the engines cold they don't have much to take aim at. They'll
probably aim for center mass which is mostly cargo hold, quarters,
the lounge. They might try to aim for the drive systems, but Sabha
has been extensively rebuilt so there again they'll probably hit
the hold and living spaces."
With a hard edge in her voice Greene replied,
"The people we rescued are in the cargo hold."
Kassad lay out the facts as plainly as he
could. "We are traveling very fast relative to the Armhamon and
just about everything else. Our high gee stellar dive gave us
incredible inertia. Landing any hits on us at all will take
considerable skill. If that happens we're left with the fact that a
military laser will poke a one centimeter hole through just about
anything. Odds of the survivors being hit directly are pretty slim,
and if that does happen they're already in the automedics, which is
the best place to be."
Now trying to determine why Kassad was so
intent on being optimistic Greene asked, "Okay, fine, how good do
you think the Armhamon crew is?"
Balancing out what little he knew about the
Armhamon against his past experience with Lawships Kassad answered,
"You have to meet minimum standards to make a berth on a Lawship
crew. If the ship goes rogue you have to be really good to avoid
being caught and taken down by other Lawships. So my guess is that
they are very good indeed. Most of the crew probably served in
local military or militia and joined the Lawship crew for a bigger
challenge or a bigger payday." After a moment Kassad added, "I've
always suspected that most Lawships that go bad do so because
playing it straight isn't challenging enough for them."
A twinge of pain shot through Greene's head and
she rubbed at her eyes wondering if it were stress or the effects
of Lawless space. "We're being hunted by a rogue Lawship that wants
us dead crewed by an exceptional group of sociopaths."
With his eyes wide and vacant Kassad shrugged.
"Technically I don't know that they're trying to kill us because
they went bad. They may have some perfectly legitimate and legal
reason for attempting our murder."
Although she might not have had much experience
with the Code of Law she was pretty sure of one thing. "There
aren't many reasons considered valid for attacking an unarmed
ship."
"This is true." Kassad conceded, although in
his experience it unfortunately didn't stop people from trying if
they thought they could get something out of it.
Going over the situation again in her mind
Greene finally shook her head at the convoluted mess she found
herself in. "Everything keeps coming back to the research team's
work, doesn't it?"
"Unavoidably."
Guilt over pressuring her husband to join the
expedition weighed heavily on her already fatigued mind and tears
rolled down Greene's face as she wondered aloud, "What did I get
you involved in?"
"Pretty sure I got myself involved in this."
Kassad quipped.
In tones that clearly conveyed her annoyance
Greene said, "I wasn't talking about you."
"I know. I was just trying to lighten the
mood."
This time Greene couldn't help but laugh in
spite of the pain. "Here, eat something." Greene said, forcing a
change of conversation by shoving an emergency meal packet into
Kassad's hands.
Half heartedly Kassad tried to pass the packet
back to Greene saying, "I'm not hungry."
Firmly pushing Kassad's arms away Greene
countered, "Yes you are. Your brain just doesn't know it. There are
a lot of things your brain doesn't know."
Gesturing vaguely Kassad stated, "The unknown
always outweighs the known by a considerable advantage."
Then in concession to the logic of Greene's
suggestion Kassad fumbled with the food package with his blind numb
fingers. Freeing the concentrated nutrient bar from its wrapping he
immediately bit down on it. There was little taste and even that
may have been his imagination, but the textures were so wrong as to
be revolting. It took an exercise of will to completely consume the
emergency ration, and it did not sit easily in his stomach.
For a time the two sat eating in silence and
long minutes ticked by until Kassad's restraint broke. "Sabha,
initiate verbal response. Give time to exit jump transit
waypoint."
Sabha's voice was set to the default insistent
feminine tones that had long ago been identified as commanding the
most attention from the average Terrestrial brain. "Two hours and
seventeen minutes to transit waypoint."
"Without fuel we'll have to get the
reactionless drive back online."
"We can do that right?"
Kassad knew well that there was only so much
that planning could accomplish and after that you just had to do
the best you could with whatever you had. "Maybe. Nobody has ever
been beyond Law's End as long as we have, at least not and returned
to tell the tale. We know what the effects have been on us, but
there's no telling what it has done to the equipment, even powered
down."
Now rubbing her temples Greene complained, "We
should have taken our chances with the Armhamon."
"We have no chance with the Armhamon, and I'll
take a slim chance over no chance." Kassad scoffed. "So don't wish
too hard because if both of the FTL drives are out then you'll get
to see what kind of greeting they want to give us."
Begrudgingly Greene admitted to herself that it
was well past the point of turning back there anyway. "Okay, fine.
So what's our contingency plan for the reactionless drive being
out?"
He'd already had this entire conversation in
his head with himself, but if it made Greene feel better and killed
some time Kassad couldn't see any reason to object. "We can try to
find a place with similar enough speed and velocity and the
capability and desire to send a rescue ship to retrieve us. That's
assuming our senses return enough to find and plot such a
course."
Groaning in frustration Greene snapped, "And do
you have a plan for our senses not coming back?"
It wasn't a possibility Kassad wanted to dwell
on. "That does tend to make things more desperate, which is why I
made sure to get the safest course plotted into the automated
navigation systems." Kassad did the broad calculations for their
course in his head for the umpteenth time. "Assuming the jump drive
works then in two days we'll be in a good drift position between
galaxies. Even at this velocity we could drift for hundreds of
years without coming close to anything. If it comes to that we can
load ourselves into the ships auto-medics and let them try to fix
us."
With a venting bitterness in her voice Greene
complained, "This is what I hate about space travel. It's all 'if'
and 'then' and 'with luck'. It's like the whole universe is
constantly flying apart."
Kassad observed dryly, "Well, technically the
whole universe is constantly flying apart."
Her upper limit of exasperation having been
surpassed Greene responded evenly, "You know what I mean. It's the
constant uncertainty."
Kassad smiled in remembrance of his first days
in the life. "Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we fly."
Laughing bitterly at the sentiment Greene
apologized, "I don't mean to be so…"
Helpfully Kassad supplied,
"Argumentative?"
"Well, I was going to say difficult." Greene
admitted, "It's just the stress getting to me."
"Yes, you live on a civilized world and
everything is engineered and managed to be low stress. I know. I
grew up in that life; comfortable, straightforward, understandable,
and simple," Kassad grinned, "and it's not like Sabha wasn't
designed to carry as much of that around with her as possible, but
it's not real." Shaking his head Kassad ran his left hand
reassuringly down the near bulkhead. "One thing I've learned living
out here is that back down the gravity well is just as complex and
dangerous, and maybe more so. It's just that there are systems
developed over millennia to hide the dangers from you and manage
them without your having to be aware. So long as those systems work
you can delude yourselves into thinking you're safe and everything
is straightforward, understandable, and simple." Kassad took a deep
breath, held it only briefly, and sighed heavily before continuing.
"Out here you have the ship's captain. Oh, a captain can lie to the
passengers and color everything with pretty words to make you feel
as safe as at home. Some see it as part of their job, but it's not
part of mine. I'm not going to lie to you. I'll tell you straight
how things are, what I'm going to do about them, what I need you to
do, and what I hope to accomplish, but there are no guarantees."
Kassad leaned back as far as his acceleration couch would permit.
"So I tell you that I will do everything possible to get us all
back safely. If need be I will lie and cheat, sneak and steal, and
even fight if I have to. That's my commitment as ship's captain,
and that's what we are depending on to keep us alive."
Canis who had retreated to his acceleration
couch sprang back to the center console and barked
enthusiastically.
Surrendering to the interjected opinion Kassad
conceded, "Well, my commitment, and Canis obviously."
Canis issued a single loud bark to reinforce
the point.
"I appreciate that." Greene said not making it
clear if she was speaking of Kassad or Canis. "I guess the only
question now is how long will our solar dive keep the Armhamon
confused?"
It was the question Kassad's mind had been
preoccupied with since before committing to the course of action.
"The longer they have to search the more likely they are to find
us. Obviously the fastest route out of the system gives them the
shortest time to look, but is also the most likely. Farther away
gives them more space to cover but they've got military spec sensor
software so it's not as huge an advantage as it would have been a
few thousand years ago. If things remain as planned then right now
we're somewhere inside the sweet spot within a cone of space around
the shortest path."
Chapter 13: "Luck and Skill"
"By necessity fleet engagements are highly
structured affairs as anything less invariably results in a rout
inflicted by the better organized force. It's when you're involved
in ship to ship fighting involving no more than a handful of ships
that you rely most heavily on the initiative of individual
captains... 'initiative' may be too strong a word. The word 'luck'
is probably more honestly accurate. Luck and skill."
-Excerpt from a lecture on starship tactics
given by Admiral Thomas Brice
what they were doing Greene asked, "How long do we have?"
The words of a mentor came back to Kassad that
seemed adaptable to the situation at hand. "That depends on if
we're lucky and if they’re good. If we're lucky they're not even
looking. If they're bad at their job then we could be out here for
days before they get a fix on us."
"Do you think we'll be lucky?" Greene asked,
concerned that luck and especially their luck was a poor substitute
for a good plan.
Never having much use for luck himself except
in desperation Kassad optimistically admitted, "We've been very
lucky so far."
The concept of an adversary, let alone one who
was intent on killing her, was still to alien for her mind to fully
accept, but even so Greene asked, "What if they're good?"
"If they're good? About six hours, maybe less."
It was only after saying this aloud that Kassad remembered to
factor in the potential quality of the Lawship's software.
"Probably less." The re-juggled math leaned more heavily on luck
but then there still weren't any better alternatives. "I'm still
optimistic." Optimism was essential to morale.
Still trying to get her head around their
situation Greened kept asking questions, "What happens if they
start shooting at us?"
With a noncommittal shrug Kassad answered,
"Poor Sabha will get holes poked in her."
Beams of coherent energy were still the
preferred tool for ill intent delivered at the distances involved
in most activity in space. That energy might take the mundane form
of photons, or more of an exotic variety like x-rays, but
inevitably all functioned to burn holes in their target. For
military vessels burning a hole through them was almost certain to
hit systems vital to functioning, but for a civilian craft like
Sabha the odds of hitting empty space like cargo hold or crew
compartments was significantly greater.
Annoyance was being fueled by a sense of
helplessness and frustration into anger, the results of which crept
into Greene's voice. "I'm being serious."
"So am I" Kassad said mock defensively. "With
the engines cold they don't have much to take aim at. They'll
probably aim for center mass which is mostly cargo hold, quarters,
the lounge. They might try to aim for the drive systems, but Sabha
has been extensively rebuilt so there again they'll probably hit
the hold and living spaces."
With a hard edge in her voice Greene replied,
"The people we rescued are in the cargo hold."
Kassad lay out the facts as plainly as he
could. "We are traveling very fast relative to the Armhamon and
just about everything else. Our high gee stellar dive gave us
incredible inertia. Landing any hits on us at all will take
considerable skill. If that happens we're left with the fact that a
military laser will poke a one centimeter hole through just about
anything. Odds of the survivors being hit directly are pretty slim,
and if that does happen they're already in the automedics, which is
the best place to be."
Now trying to determine why Kassad was so
intent on being optimistic Greene asked, "Okay, fine, how good do
you think the Armhamon crew is?"
Balancing out what little he knew about the
Armhamon against his past experience with Lawships Kassad answered,
"You have to meet minimum standards to make a berth on a Lawship
crew. If the ship goes rogue you have to be really good to avoid
being caught and taken down by other Lawships. So my guess is that
they are very good indeed. Most of the crew probably served in
local military or militia and joined the Lawship crew for a bigger
challenge or a bigger payday." After a moment Kassad added, "I've
always suspected that most Lawships that go bad do so because
playing it straight isn't challenging enough for them."
A twinge of pain shot through Greene's head and
she rubbed at her eyes wondering if it were stress or the effects
of Lawless space. "We're being hunted by a rogue Lawship that wants
us dead crewed by an exceptional group of sociopaths."
With his eyes wide and vacant Kassad shrugged.
"Technically I don't know that they're trying to kill us because
they went bad. They may have some perfectly legitimate and legal
reason for attempting our murder."
Although she might not have had much experience
with the Code of Law she was pretty sure of one thing. "There
aren't many reasons considered valid for attacking an unarmed
ship."
"This is true." Kassad conceded, although in
his experience it unfortunately didn't stop people from trying if
they thought they could get something out of it.
Going over the situation again in her mind
Greene finally shook her head at the convoluted mess she found
herself in. "Everything keeps coming back to the research team's
work, doesn't it?"
"Unavoidably."
Guilt over pressuring her husband to join the
expedition weighed heavily on her already fatigued mind and tears
rolled down Greene's face as she wondered aloud, "What did I get
you involved in?"
"Pretty sure I got myself involved in this."
Kassad quipped.
In tones that clearly conveyed her annoyance
Greene said, "I wasn't talking about you."
"I know. I was just trying to lighten the
mood."
This time Greene couldn't help but laugh in
spite of the pain. "Here, eat something." Greene said, forcing a
change of conversation by shoving an emergency meal packet into
Kassad's hands.
Half heartedly Kassad tried to pass the packet
back to Greene saying, "I'm not hungry."
Firmly pushing Kassad's arms away Greene
countered, "Yes you are. Your brain just doesn't know it. There are
a lot of things your brain doesn't know."
Gesturing vaguely Kassad stated, "The unknown
always outweighs the known by a considerable advantage."
Then in concession to the logic of Greene's
suggestion Kassad fumbled with the food package with his blind numb
fingers. Freeing the concentrated nutrient bar from its wrapping he
immediately bit down on it. There was little taste and even that
may have been his imagination, but the textures were so wrong as to
be revolting. It took an exercise of will to completely consume the
emergency ration, and it did not sit easily in his stomach.
For a time the two sat eating in silence and
long minutes ticked by until Kassad's restraint broke. "Sabha,
initiate verbal response. Give time to exit jump transit
waypoint."
Sabha's voice was set to the default insistent
feminine tones that had long ago been identified as commanding the
most attention from the average Terrestrial brain. "Two hours and
seventeen minutes to transit waypoint."
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