Running With Argentine (21 page)

In
Orbit at Trinity

“We’ve lost
their signal, Captain,” said Sami.

“We knew we probably would. A compound like that doesn’t
survive a war unless it’s shielded. Were you able to trace their entry point?”

“Yes Captain,” replied Barry. “We have optics on where they
went under the roof, but their signal didn’t cut out for several minutes after
that. I’d cut your arm off to know the goings on of that.”

Argentine glanced at Sami and she gave a quick nod and
smile.

“Chief West!”

“Captain?”

“Isn’t this boat supposed to have some auxiliary sensor
pods?”

“That’s true… though I’m not sure that I’ve seen them in a
while.”

Argentine knew they were aboard. He’d just inventoried them.

“I want to cover approaches to the planet that don’t vector
in on the elliptic plane. I don’t want the Asperian military sneaking up on us.
How long will it take to deploy them?”

A challenge for all warships was being able to ‘see’ the
enemy. Space is
big
. If you were in orbit like the Pelican, you wanted
as much notice as possible if another ship enters the system and starts
spiraling down to your position. The one advantage you have is that you know
they will be approaching more or less on the same elliptical plane as the
planet orbits the star. It’s possible to do it differently, but your energy
costs for planetary rendezvous go up by a huge factor.

Therefore, it was common for a ship’s most powerful sensor
arrays to be aligned two dimensionally in a 360° arc.

If, however, your opponent didn’t care about the energy
cost… or perhaps was already far inside the system and just lying doggo off of
the elliptic plane, they could be on top of you almost before you ever saw
them.

“If we had a full crew…” the chief stopped musing and said,
“I’m going to need ten hours Argentine. There’s just no way around it.”

It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but then he should have
thought of it earlier…

“Okay, chief. Use some of Marko’s people if you need to, but
get them operational.”

ΔΔΔ

Mandi and the chief had
followed him into his day cabin.

“Are you really worried they’ll be able to sneak up on us?”
the chief asked. “I would think we’d be able to spot them in time to pull our
people and prevent an intercept…”

“You’re probably right, but I just don’t feel like taking
any chances right now. So, humor me, Chief… Okay?”

The chief regarded his friend carefully and said, “No
problem. Rory’s probably reviewed the schematics by now, so I should get down
there to help him.”

After he’d left, Argentine turned to Mandi…

Did you tell everyone to start calling me,
Captain
?”

“I might have mentioned it to Sami.”

“Humph… and you have nothing acerbic or cutting to say? No
jokes about my paranoia or how ancient our sensor systems are?”

With a normal demeanor she responded, “No, I don’t think
you’re being paranoid. Your ship’s sensors
do
suck, but all ships tend
to be a little less sensitive off the horizon…

“I, uh… think you’re being prudent,” she concluded.

Was that almost a compliment?

“What am I forgetting?” Argentine wanted to know.

“You’re asking for my advice?”

Now it was Mandi’s turn to be surprised.

“You’re more familiar with the ways of Asperia than anyone
here. So… if you have any ideas I want to hear them.”

After a considered moment she replied, “I think you’re right
not to trust anyone. But that doesn’t mean just the military; don’t trust
anyone on Trinity either.”

On
Trinity

Several hours
later they were called to dinner, but Lord Tiren was nowhere to be found.

The servants, as usual, were almost entirely nonverbal.

As nice as the meal was, Gossip and the lieutenant contented
themselves with a couple of field ration bars.

The professor, however, had no such qualms.

“This roast really is quite excellent!” he said. Turning to
a servant he asked, “What type of beast is this?”

Receiving no answer he turned back to the table and took
another bite.

“Gossip, keep an eye on the professor. I’m going to get some
fresh air.”

The lieutenant made his way to the hallway outside the room.
Just as he’d remembered, there were a series of elegant etched glass doors
along one side that opened onto the formal front lawn of the house.

Also just as he remembered, there was a guard posted there.

Ignoring him, Lieutenant Stark made to open a door…

“That is not permitted.”

“I’m just going to get some fresh air. I’ll be right back.”

“No one is allowed outside. It is for your own safety.”

By now, a second guard was approaching.

“Actually, it’s everyone’s safety I’m worried about,” he
said. “I need to make contact with my ship so they don’t get worried about us.
It’s really not a good idea to get a warship worried, don’t you think?”

“No one is allowed outside. It is for your own safety.”

“I think we need to ask Lord Tiren about that. Summon him.”

“I will relay your request when he returns,” the second
guard responded.

Turning to him, the lieutenant asked, “Where has he gone and
when will he be back?”

Receiving no answer, he took another tack…

“If I’m not allowed to contact my ship immediately it could
be fatal for me.”

“No one is allowed outside. It is for your own safety,”
guard number two responded.

“Humph,” the lieutenant said as he turned and headed back to
the room.

It was very curious indeed. Not only had the two guards
never once looked him in the eye… they’d never even looked at each other.

ΔΔΔ

The professor
woke with a hand pressed firmly down over his mouth.

His eyes bugged wide until he realized it was the lieutenant
waking him.

“Get up and get dressed,” he whispered.

As the professor looked around to get his bearings, he
realized the hulking shadow at the door was Gossip.

“What time is it?” he whispered back.

“It’s just before dawn, but right now I need you to get
dressed quickly.”

The night before, after finishing an excellent meal, they
had waited a few more hours for Lord Tiren to return. Eventually, they had been
escorted to this small suite of rooms for the night.

“Has Lord Tiren arrived?”

“No, and he’s not going to…”

“What?” Professor Sullivan stopped with only one arm
sleeved. “What do you mean?”

“Look professor… you’ve been scammed. This is all a set-up.
We need to get out of here before whatever they’re waiting for happens.”

“No! I… I’m sure if we just wait a little longer Lord Tir…”

“You need to face the facts, professor! We’re prisoners and
if we don’t get out of here now we never will.”

“How do you know that? I can’t believe it!”

“Shhh… Keep your voice down!”

“I’m going to go talk to someone. I’ll demand to be put in
touch with Lord Tiren immediately! I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“How are you going to do that?” the lieutenant wanted to
know. “We’re locked in our suite.”

ΔΔΔ

Once the lieutenant had
calmed him down, they turned their attention to the matter at hand: escape.

To his credit, the professor was recovering from his initial
shock surprisingly fast, but there was no question that he was lamenting the
lost opportunity to make a name for himself with alien fossils.

“Should we go out the windows?” he wanted to know.

“They’re not windows; they’re projection panels. It was the
first thing I checked.”

The second thing had been ventilation ducts and wall
integrity. The ducts were all small, and if an observer looked closely, they
would notice small holes all over the walls and ceiling. The lieutenant had
pushed a small stiff wire through the relatively soft wall and ceiling material
only to encounter an impenetrable backing, probably some type of stone or
metal.

As plush as this suite was, it was still a cage.

That only left the door… which was locked… and guarded?

There was only one way to find out…

Fortunately, the lock, like many things in this Villa, was
old fashioned low-tech. After the lieutenant fiddled with it for a few minutes,
Gossip placed a hand on his shoulder.

He raised an eyebrow as he watched Gossip pull what looked
like an impressive set of tools and picks from a hidden pouch on his wrist.
With a half grin on his face, he just shrugged.

They traded places.

Within a few moments, the lock emitted a small click…

In
Orbit at Trinity

“Contact!

“Captain, we have a contact approaching our position. She’s
on a high energy burn, but… it’s definitely an intercept!” Barry elaborated.

“Identification?” Argentine asked quickly.

“So far, no communications,” said Sami. “I don’t have drive
signatures for the Asperian military, but if I had to guess…”

Argentine didn’t have any doubt that she was right.

“How long to intercept?” he asked calmly.

“If they’re good, and I’m guessing they bloody well are,
they’ll be able to intercept directly into a matching high-altitude orbit in…
oh bollocks! They’ll be here in forty-seven minutes!”

“How did they get so close?” Argentine asked with a little
more emotion than he intended…

“They’re coming in from 82° above the elliptic plane,” Barry
explained. “It looks like you were right, Captain. Our sensors just aren’t good
enough and we didn’t have enough time to get all the sensor pods in place.”

“Sami, what’s going on below? Any changes at the villa?”

“Nothing obvious. It’s just past sunrise and a few flitters
are arriving with passengers, but other than that it looks like a quiet
morning.”

“Have we heard from our team?”

“No, still no word.”

“Okay. Barry, I need more info on that ship. How big is she?
What are her capabilities?”

“If I had a decent sensor suite I could accommodate you,
Captain. As it is I have bugger all facts for you. My best guess, though, is
that it’s the equivalent of a Haven Scepter Class patrol ship.”

“And what in a just and fair universe is a Scepter Class
ship,” Argentine asked rather pointedly.

“Oh, right. You wouldn’t know… Lightly armored, built for
speed, no real cargo capacity to speak of… They carry a compliment of 42; which
includes a dozen Spears of the Light, or space marines in your parlance.”

“So, they’re bigger than we are,” Argentine mused.

“No question about that mate… err, Captain. Much more
powerful too, if these readings are to be trusted. Her power plant output is
off the scale compared to ours.”

“Enough to power those long range energy weapons everyone
around here talks about?”

“No question about that. If they want to reach out and touch
us we’re all mucked up.”

“I don’t know what that is, but it doesn’t sound good… so
let’s all just keep our cool and see if we can’t talk our way out of this.”

“We could always run,” Barry suggested. “If we leave now we
can avoid an intercept.”

Everyone on the bridge turned to look at him. Then they
turned to Argentine…

“We’re not leaving our people behind.”

“How are we going to finagle this?” Sami wanted to know.

Argentine looked at her and said with as much confidence as
he could, “I’m not sure yet, but we’ve talked our way out of worse! But just in
case, let’s have our rail guns ready to go…”

They all looked over to the unmanned weapons station.

ΔΔΔ

"Shit!"
Argentine said under his breath.

"Has anyone been trained to use the guns?" he
asked aloud.

No one responded and when he turned to Mandi she held her
hands up and said, "Don't look at me!"

He slapped his hand down on the intercom button and said,
"Chief, I need you on the bridge. Now."

After a moment, he pushed the button again and said,
"Marco, I need…"

"I'm on my way," came the response before he could
finish.

Argentine frowned slightly but then turned his attention
back to the matter at hand…

"Barry, let me know if there's any change of course or
estimated intercept time for the bogey."

"Righto, Captain. Eh, what's a bogey?"

"It's the ship," Sami whispered loudly.

"I figured that; I just never heard the term
before."

"Hello, Captain," Marco said as he walked onto the
bridge with the chief right behind him.

"Chief, I need you to power up the rail guns."

Without hesitation, the chief moved to the weapons station.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"There's a ship bearing down on us, fast!" replied
Marco.

"How the hell do you know what's going on?"
Argentine heard himself ask.

"Well, it is a small ship. Right, Captain? Very
small…"

"Chief, get those guns online and then get yourself
back to engineering. Have Rory standing by in the shuttle."

"Captain, I'll get Rory ready to go… But if it's all
the same, I'd like to say here on the weapons station."

When Argentine raised an eyebrow the chief said, "If
they do fire on us their first shot will probably be to take out our engines.
I'd just as soon not be there when that happens. Besides, all the controls are
routed to the bridge anyway."

Just then, Sami said loudly…

"Captain! I've got the lieutenant on the comm! He's… It
sounds like he's in trouble!"

Argentine pressed the button and said, "Lieutenant
Stark, report!"

When Argentine pressed the button the conversation went to
the bridge speakers. For a moment, all they could hear was hard breathing. And
then… Some weird background noise and a definite thud.

"Captain, we need an emergency extraction. How fast can
you get the shuttle here?"

"We'll launch now. If we go with a hard reentry we can
be down in thirty…"

He stopped in midsentence as he saw Barry wildly shaking his
head…

"No good, Captain. The whole compound just lit up. It's
filthy with laser grids and radar. That's got to be targeting sensors for
antiaircraft. Our shuttle wouldn't stand a chance."

"Lieutenant…"

"That's okay, Captain. I heard," he interrupted.
"We couldn’t have waited thirty minutes anyway…

“Listen, you need to know that this was a set-up. They took
the professor’s money when we first arrived and have kept us under lock and key
ever since. I don’t know what they were waiting for but we decided not to stick
around and find out.”

“I think I can answer that Lieutenant; we’ve got an Asperian
military ship bearing down on us now.”

It didn’t take long for both of them to put two and two
together…

“They’re trying to scare you off,” the lieutenant said
first. “That way you’re forced to leave us behind and nobody is the wiser about
the scam they’re running.”

“Well, they’ve blown their cover, but I’m still not sure how
we’re going to get you back to the ship. We’re no match for them and they’ll
achieve intercept in about 35 minutes.”

After a moment of thought, the lieutenant responded…

“Ok, here’s what we can do… There's a medium-size city
almost directly to our planetary East – we’ll figure out a way to get there.
We’ll attempt communications everyday at dawn. If you have to run… go ahead.
But Argentine… Make sure you come back."

Argentine was incredibly frustrated. He said,
"Lieutenant… Good luck."

"Thank you Captain. Just don't forget about us."