Chapter 25: Captain’s Plan
Julius heard the sound of battle drums fill the air and watched the lighting on the Sea Wolf’s command bridge darken.
Holographic displays activated around them. The illumination from the holograms pierced through the darkness, highlighting their crystal-clear details to him. Each one displayed tactical information ranging from shield and weapons status to damage control and life status. The latter had a special purpose as it showed the locations of the crew and any casualties—he would have to monitor this one more closely than he ever had before.
He rotated his command module to the Wave Warfare Officer.
“Jared, I want you to put a computer override on all escape pods. Lock them down from here. I don’t want any desertions.”
The bridge crew all turned to Jared and he hesitated.
“Do it!” Julius barked. “Garval, I want you to lock down all shuttles in the landing bay as well—including Merciless Errands. Encrypt the codes on the pods and ships to something that is nearly undecipherable. Then erase the private key so that even Jared can’t unlock it without several hours of cracking. That’s an order!”
“Yes, Captain!” they both responded in unison.
Julius did not like locking down potential military assets for so long, but keeping the crew from deserting him in this operation was more important.
He looked at the viewscreen and began to assess the tactical makeup of the situation.
The targets had moved into attack positions, but were not in tight formation. The UEP and Martian ships purposely distanced themselves from each other, and their ships were not commingled. Interestingly, the UEP and Venusian ships were in mixed formation with each other.
Allies, he thought to himself.
“Lockdown completed, sir,” Jared reported.
“Shuttles as well, sir,” Garval added.
“Good. Have there been any communications to us from the battle group?”
“Negative, sir,” Jared said. “Except for the communication from our pilots, it’s all quiet.”
Julius had almost forgotten about them. “What is the status of our friendlies?”
“They all managed to clear the battle-group perimeter without incident,” Garval said. “They are within twenty kilometers and should begin landing procedures shortly.”
“And no resistance from the battle group yet?” Julius asked, his eyes squinting with disbelief.
“No, sir. Nothing yet—but they do have all escape paths blocked.”
Julius rubbed his chin in thought. Why is it taking them so long to board us?
“Jessen, what is the status of the reactor?”
Jessen looked at his instruments then shrugged. “It’s strained, sir. But it is stable.”
Julius thought back to something that had been bugging him—the attack he tried to dissect that cost them so much, the failure caused by a power loss to the ship months ago.
He managed a faint grin. Julius knew he didn’t have enough crew to man the fighters… but this might just work.
“Jessen, do you think you could simulate a full power failure to the ship?”
Jessen turned his module to face him, and then paused in thought before answering.
“I don’t think I could without coming close to a full shutdown of the reactor.”
“Could you do it and then bring it back up with enough power for the engines and gravity generators?”
Jessen turned back to his instrumentation and ran calculations. After a moment, he nodded.
“I think so, sir,” he began. “But it’s a delicate set of procedures I’d have to run through—and without Murdock …”
“Would it be easier doing it from engineering?” Julius asked.
He nodded. “Yes, sir. I’m afraid I’d have to leave my post.”
Julius stood up and walked over to his module.
“Get down there, Jessen. I’ll take over navigation.”
Jessen stood up and saluted. Julius returned the salute.
“Good luck, sir,” Jessen said.
“We’ll make our luck, Lieutenant. Just as we always have.”
Julius sat in the navigation module adjacent to Ramey’s and took a second to rearrange the controls. He then looked to Ramey and they gave each other a nod.
This could be their last fight together, and they both knew it. But they were the most professional bunch of the unprofessional career of piracy. And as professionals, they would carry on their duties to the end.
At least, Julius thought to himself, I hope we do.
After a couple of minutes, Jessen signaled to Julius that he was ready to begin the reactor shutdown ruse.
“Before you begin,” Julius said to him, “we need to simulate an escape attempt. Let’s force the gravity amplifiers into a partial dispersion just prior to the shutdown. This will make it look as if we tried to break through their gravity well and it overloaded the reactor.”
“But sir,” Ramey interrupted, “if you do a partial dispersion, it will take ten minutes to recharge the lost energy for the capacitors. And that’s assuming we drop power to at least the weapons array.”
Julius nodded. “Yes, I know. But without showing a cause for the reactor failure, it will look far too suspicious. We will escape the gravity well on normal propulsion and evade the enemy for those ten minutes while the capacitor charges. Then we will jump out of the system. It is our only play at this point.”
Julius thought briefly to the crew they would be leaving behind. He’d come back for them later; he would not let them be tried and sentenced. But he could not worry about them now. Right now he had to concentrate on saving the ship.
Moments later, Jessen informed them he was ready. The controls to execute the jump attempt were on Julius’ station. He keyed in the sequence for the gravity jump and got it to the point where he only had to press one more button to execute it.
“Jessen,” he said into the conference link. “Get ready.”
Julius pressed the button.
The sound of the gravity generators could be heard, crescendoing from a low drone into a high-pitched whine. The bridge lights winked out completely and all of the holographic emitters deactivated, as did the instrumentation. The sound of the generators subsided and the bridge was completely dark and silent.
After a full second, the emergency power kicked in and things began to come back online. The lighting and holographic emitters activated, but the ship’s shields and weapons platform were inactive.
Julius opened a conference link to Engineering.
“Status?”
“Operation complete, sir,” Jessen’s voice came on. “Reactor is down to stage one startup—it would look like it was completely down to any remote ship scanners.”
“Good job, Lieutenant. Be ready to take her to full power. How many stages is that anyway?”
There was a pause. “Twelve stages until full power, sir. We’re going through the exact procedures for it now.”
“Well, then you better quickly acquaint yourselves with it. Stand by for execution order. Jared, get me a secure conference to whichever shuttle has our pilots in it.”
“Yes, sir. It’s the lead shuttle. You are linked,” he responded.
“Pilots, this is your captain. We need your help.”
Julius explained the plan to them. It was complicated, but if they stuck to their individual role in the operation, they would all make it out.
“Captain,” the voice from the pilot’s shuttle responded. Julius recognized it as Mac’s voice, and he briefly wondered why Reece was not with him.
“We’re towing a friendly and we don’t have much weaponry on these shuttles. We won’t be able to maneuver, and if we shoot at anything, it will be like a tickle on their arse.”
“I’m not expecting you to do any damage or acrobatics, Mac,” Julius said. “Just follow Garval’s direction according to plan and we wi
ll get out of this.”
“Yes, sir,” Mac said. “Godspeed, Sea Wolf.”
Julius cut the link off and could see Garval’s expression lighten up at being involved. Making sure the entire bridge crew did their part would be synergetic—and improved their chance of survival. It was also morale boosting, something they desperately needed right now.
“Jared, signal the nearest ship of our power loss situation—and that our life support systems are also affected. Signal to them our unconditional surrender.”
They waited as Jared broadcast the message.
“I am getting an acknowledgement from the UEP battleship,” Jared said finally. “They accept our surrender and have instructed us to prepare for boarding.”
He stared at the viewscreen in anticipation. Now they would wait for the task force’s next move.
The waiting did not last long.
“Sir, I’m picking up a small strike ship with intercept vectors on us. Target …” Ramey hesitated to finish.
Julius surmised it was probably because there was no letter designation available on the tactical for it.
Ramey’s hands operated the controls and the target letter designations changed. He reset the targeting computer to force it to re-letter them, but Julius could see him grimace from the result nonetheless.
“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t highlight it.”
“Do it old school, Lieutenant,” Julius said. “Like it was before we had all these fancy computers.”
Despite their situation, Ramey managed a fleeting grin—it was an inside joke between the two of them.
“Yes, sir. The incoming ship looks to be a UEP naval troop shuttle. It will be here in two minutes.”
“How many troops inside?”
“Two dozen, sir,” Ramey responded.
The Sea Wolf had enough crew and small arms on board to repel a boarding attempt, but it would likely result in being bombed into oblivion by the main fleet, so it was not an option. The plan required the element of surprise and subterfuge.
“Sir, I’m picking up some chatter!” Jared said. “It’s encrypted, but it’s an old encryption that I was easily able to crack. It’s between the UEP and Confed.”
Julius’ eyes squinted. “An old cipher? Hmmm, probably because they haven’t had joint exercises together in years. What’s the chatter about?”
“They appear to be …” Jared snorted. “Arguing with each other. About who should have jurisdiction over our capture. It’s pretty heated, sir.”
Julius looked at the viewscreen, a sense of new hope beginning to emerge in him.
“Between the UEP and Confed, you say?” Julius asked.
“Yes, sir,” Jared confirmed.
“That would explain their formations,” Ramey interjected.
“Or lack of formations,” Garval added.
Julius nodded. “This will play right into our plan, gentlemen. Jared, signal to the Martian Confederacy our desire to surrender to them directly and to grant asylum to the refugees we carry, those who wish to defect.”
Jared raised his eyebrows. “Sir?”
“A slight change of plan. Martian law requires they accept any requests for asylum, even from refugees on board a fugitive ship if their guilt has not yet been established. They will now have to decide whether to allow the UEP to take us, or accept the request in accordance with their own laws. I would imagine this would be a moral dilemma for them. And the Confed is big on morals.”
Thankfully, Laina had once educated him about the laws of the major governments. He wished she were here now to advise him.
Jared sent the signal. “The receipt of the communication was acknowledged. They have asked us to stand by.”
“Captain,” Ramey said a moment later. “New contact. Martian Confederacy troop ship. It’s headed toward us—very quickly.”
“It’s trying to overtake the UEP ship,” Garval interjected.
“Captain,” Jared began. “Heavy chatter—it’s getting heated again.”
“Sir,” Ramey pointed to the viewscreen.
Julius looked up at it and could see the UEP ships begin to change position, with the Confed ships matching their move.
The UEP and Confed moved their forces and created a new battle line, in apparent opposition to each other. The Venusians seemed to stay out of it, staying position to cover the Sea Wolf—but now there gaps in the line.
“This is getting hairy,” Garval said.
Julius watched on the viewscreen as the Martian troop ship approach the one from the UEP—a confrontation between the two navies would be imminent.
“Sir, I’ve received a communication from the Confed. They have accepted our request for surrender and asylum. They have instructed us to stand by for boarding by the Martian ship.” There was a pause. “Sir, they have also asked us to repel the UEP boarders!”
Julius grinned. It was even better than he had planned.
“Lieutenant Garval—execute this ruse de guerre.”