Smuggler's Dilemma (18 page)

"I’m not sure what the decision is," Ada said.

"If we’re not here when Nick and Jake arrive, they could decide to keep going to Colony 40," Marny filled in.

"They’d sail right into the fight if we did that. They’d never survive," Ada said.

"Right. The flip side of that is, the sooner we tell the Navy, the sooner they’ll arrive and that could save people’s lives." I was sick to my stomach at the idea of leaving Nick and Jake behind, the danger to them was outrageous, but the moral dilemma made my head spin.

"If the
Adela Chen
were here right now, what would you do?" Marny asked.

That was an easy decision. "Send the tug back to Mars and I’d go to Colony 40."

Ada was horrified, tears once again forming in her eyes. "You can’t, Liam. Red Houzi would most certainly murder you."

"It’s my family, Ada. I can’t just leave them," I answered.

She nodded her head, understanding. "I’ll go with you," she said quietly and reached over to hold my hand. The touching move exemplified what I loved about her.

"That’s right, Cap," Marny said. "There’s nothing we can do that will stop that fleet from busting up your home, but if we take off right now, we’ll lose ten hours on our trip to Colony 40. Sometimes holding tight is the right thing to do, even though it sucks. We need to wait for Nick and Jake, then we can split up."

It took an excruciating ninety minutes for the
Adela Chen
to finally show up on our sensors.

"Ada, can you line up on them while I talk to Nick?"

"Will do."

Hail
Adela Chen
, I said.

"What’s the sit-rep, Liam," Nick asked. The communication disruption weapon caused his face to blink in and out on my HUD, but we were close enough to overcome full communication lockdown.

"I’ll come alongside. We need both you and Jake onboard to talk this through. Ninety minutes ago a large fleet passed within ten thousand kilometers of our current location, headed to Colony 40," I said.

"Understood," Nick answered. Ada hadn’t wasted any time and was neatly pulling us up parallel to the
Adela Chen
. He closed the comm and within a few minutes we were all seated around the table on the bridge.

"Did you get any communications off to Colony 40?" Nick asked.

"We don’t know," I shook my head in frustration. "I sent something about the same time they dropped the communication disruption weapon."

"What’s the plan?"

"I’d like to send the
Adela Chen
back to Mars. It has no business in a war zone. Whoever goes can relay our combat data stream and try to warn Colony 40. Marny estimates that they should be able to clear the comm dead-zone in ten hours, which would still be a hundred and ten hours before that fleet reaches home."

"What about the
Hotspur
?"

"I want to take it home and look for survivors - do whatever we can to help," I said. "They had two destroyers, it’s not going to be good, Nick. Honestly, I’d like all of you to go back on the tug."

"We can talk about that, but, did you use the Navy’s comm set?" Nick asked. He was referring to the communications gear the Navy had installed on
Sterra’s Gift
and that we’d moved over to the
Hotspur
.

"Communications are blacked out," I said, knowing that I was missing something.

"Shouldn’t affect a quantum device," Jake said.

"I’m not following."

"It’s a quantum communication device. It will work for the same reason it communicates almost instantly. It’s not sending a wave out from our ship like normal communications. There are crystals in the device that operate on a quantum level. When you stimulate the crystals on this side, their matching crystals get vibrated pretty much wherever they’re located," Jake explained.

The explanation didn’t do anything for me, but if it shortened our contact by ten hours I didn’t much care. I jumped up, ran to my quarters, pulled the comm set out from the wall and opened the box. I’d wondered why it took up so much space as just about anything digital was always microscopic.

"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is
Hotspur
. We’ve just witnessed a large, hostile fleet en route from Baru Manush to Colony 40. Estimated arrival in one hundred twenty six hours." I waited ten seconds and repeated the message. On my fourth iteration a voice broke in.

"Belcose here. Message received. Please identify yourself," he said.

"Captain Hoffen," I answered.

"Captain, there’s a small, clear stick in a pouch on the top of the box lid that this comm device came in. Do you see it?" Belcose asked.

I looked at the box top and found a sleeve that had a dozen finger-long, clear, thin tubes. I pulled one out. "Roger that, Lieutenant. I’ve extracted one and am holding it."

"This is going to pinch a little, I need you to remove your glove and poke the sharp end of that into your finger. Once you do that, slide the stick into the small hole on top of the handset you’re holding."

The rest of the crew was standing in the room watching the exchange. Marny helped me understand by explaining, "It will transmit your identity after doing an analysis."

I raised my eyebrows at the suggestion. I trusted Belcose to do the right thing for Mars Protectorate, which most often lined up with what I cared about. Sure, he’d spied on us, put us in some bad spots and skimped on the sharing of information, but mostly he was looking out for the greater good. I did as he suggested and stabbed my finger, probably more vigorously than needed. The clear tube turned red and I withdrew it from my finger and slid it into the end of the handset.

"Thank you, Captain Hoffen. We can’t be too careful with this kind of information. We’re reading that you’re feeling a substantial amount of stress, but we don’t get any indication that you are currently under duress. Are you able to speak freely?" he asked.

I had difficulty believing that he could tell all that from the phial of blood, but then I suppose the entire box could have been designed to gather information that I didn’t know was getting transmitted. It certainly wouldn't be the first time for this device.

"I’ve got my crew in here. We’re not currently under duress. We don’t have any mechanism for transmitting a data stream to you, but we got a decent look at the fleet. Any suggestions?"

"Have your AI repeat the data stream information using a Morse encoded protocol. We’ll have an AI on this side receive and decode it," he instructed.

I conveyed his instructions to the ship’s AI and it started beeping a monotone signal at high speed. Within three minutes it appeared to be complete.

"What are your plans now, Captain?" Belcose asked.

"I’m not sure how secure this channel is Lieutenant, so I won’t be sharing that information," I answered. I looked at Nick who nodded his head in agreement.

"Look, Liam. I know you have family back there, but you need to stay clear," Belcose said.

"Understood. Hoffen out," I said.

"
Kuznetsov
out," he responded.

BEACHHEAD

"I intend to take the
Hotspur
on to Colony 40. The tug needs to head back to Mars." I wasn’t sure we’d be coming back from this one.

"I’m in," Nick said, without hesitation.

"Try to stop me," Marny said.

"Count me in," Ada answered.

"You all are nuts," Jake said defensively.

"That’s the first sane thing I’ve heard," I said to Jake. "I don’t like our odds on this one. I also don’t think it’s safe to just send Jake back alone."

"Please don’t ask me to go back," Ada said. "You were there when Mom needed you." Ugh, I could see her logic.

Jake responded, "I can handle the tug as long as I arrange for a master pilot when I get into Mars space."

"Ada, I can’t change your mind on this?" I asked. "It would be safer for Jake if you went with him."

"Liam, you can order me to do this. I will respect your position. But if you’re asking, then I’m staying."

"I won’t order you. Nick, can you punch up orders for Jake so he knows what to do with the cargo upon arriving? Ada, will you head over with Jake and do a systems check and help him lay out a navigation path?"

"Any stops?" Ada asked.

"No. Not solo, especially with all the crap that’s going on right now. Jake, you should be safe, mostly because you’re taking off from a random point in space. I doubt anyone could estimate where you’re coming from."

"Agreed," he said soberly.

"If we don’t come back or make contact within ninety days, I’m transferring ownership of the
Adela Chen
to you, Jake," Nick said. "Otherwise, I’m bumping you to a captain’s share for the return leg."

"That’s more than fair. Good luck to you all," he said.

Ada followed him to the lift and looked over at me before it dropped. "Don’t even think about locking me out. You gave me your word." The lift dropped out of sight. I thought back to the conversation and didn’t recall giving her my word. But, I wasn’t about to lock her out either.

Thirty minutes later we were burning hard for Colony 40. We’d burned through quite a bit of fuel scuffling with the frigate and I was thankful we’d topped off in Terrence. As it was, we were going to need every last kilogram of fuel.

At one hundred fifty hours out - just over six days - the pirate fleet would arrive a day before we would. Whatever resistance the colony put up would be crushed within a couple of hours. I hoped Dad hadn’t decided to make a stand. Colony 40 wouldn’t stand a chance this time with the firepower sailing toward them. My mind raced with the rumors I’d heard about how pirates treated their captives and made it impossible to sleep more than a few hours every twenty four.

When we were a day out, I knew the fleet would have arrived by now. I was unable to stop my mind from inventing all sorts of awful things that might be occurring. Ada slid into the other pilot’s chair even though it wasn’t her watch.

"You can’t do that to yourself," she said.

I wasn’t ready to be honest about my inner turmoil. "What’s that?"

"I can see it in your face."

"The waiting is impossible," I said.

"Let’s think of something more constructive. What’s the plan?" she asked.

"It depends mostly on what we run into. I’d like to locate our families and get them out safely. We can’t possibly stand up to these guys," I said.

"Why’s that?" she asked. "You’ve certainly gone up against bad odds in the past."

I shook my head in confusion. "You know why. Two destroyers, four frigates. No way could we take on a group of that size."

"Geez, the way I heard it, you and Marny took out an entire outpost with two blaster rifles and some flash-bangs. And who’s saying you need to stand toe-to-toe? Like you said, we need to find your people and get 'em out. It’s just a bonus if we take out the baddies in the process. Think audaciously, Liam. You’re shutting down because of the stakes. They can only kill us one time and we’ve certainly been up against that before." She smiled at me after delivering her lecture.

I smiled for the first time in several days. Ada’s attitude was infectious. Oh, I thought she was nuts, but a little swagger at this point was worth a lot. She was right, too. I needed to start thinking like someone who was going to come out on top.

"The first step is to find our family and I have an idea about that," I said.

"Great, what’s your idea?"

"Let’s get Marny and Nick and we’ll talk it through," I said. "And, thanks for the pep talk. I needed it."

"I was going to kick your ass if that didn’t work, so you’re lucky." She was still smiling. I was shocked, I’d never heard her say anything remotely like cussing.

Nick and Marny were on the couch with the bridge holo showing what I recognized as the collection of asteroids that made up Colony 40. If you backed off far enough, you saw that the claims around Colony 40 were shaped like a crescent, with P-Zero at the center.

"Any thoughts?" Nick asked as we approached.

"I’ve nudged us downward so we’ll end below the ecliptic at ten thousand kilometers as we pass under P-Zero," I said.

"I think our best shot is to try Big Pete’s claim first. It should be quieter out there. After that we work our way in and try to get whatever information we can. It really depends on how much they’ve spread the fleet out," Nick said.

"If we can derive anything from their previous occupations, they stay in the area for a maximum of five days," Marny said. "If people outlast them, they should be in the clear."

"Haven’t they been blowing the stations on the way out?" Nick asked. I understood his concern. His mother Wendy and brother Jack lived on the station, as did Tabby’s dad.

"From what I can tell, P-Zero is a completely different type of station for them. It’s not a totally man-made structure, but a hollowed out, primarily iron asteroid. They could cause a lot of destruction, but they’d have a hard time completely blowing it up," Marny said.

"My point is, whoever we don’t find by the time these guys move on will be in immense peril," Nick said.

"Aye, that is certain. I also think it’s fair to say they’ll focus much of the looting to the station and the refinery," Marny said. "Individual claims probably don’t hold enough value for any specific fleet action."

"Shouldn’t we try to get to your mom and Jack first?" I asked.

Marny obviously had something to say but waited for Nick to speak.

"If Mom and Jack are on station, they’ll already have had to deal with the invasion for twenty hours. It’s not like we’re going to sail up to the station, get out and go look for them. We should start at your dad’s claim. I think the risk is worth it. If your parents are there, it would give us a beachhead - a place to start," Nick said.

It had taken us an additional five hours to arrive at the outer edge of the colony. It was a sure bet that a hard-burn deceleration would have been picked up by the attacking force, so we’d played it safe. I wished we could just run in, guns blazing, but the destroyers eliminated that as a possibility.