Battlecruiser Alamo: The First Duty Read online

   Turning to her, he asked, “I don’t suppose I dare ask how a Spaceman Third – or a Sub-Lieutenant, for that matter – knows more about confidential research projects than I do.”

   “I was assigned to the project for a while, looking for a United Nations mole that wasn’t there.” She paused, then said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you who I really was before. Frankly, I wouldn’t have now if Cooper hadn’t worked it out. Sharp guy, I’m thinking of recruiting him.”

   “Hands off.”

   “The fleet doesn’t seem to want him, but Intelligence can certainly use a man of his talents. In any event, my mission was simply to observe, nothing more. If we were captured, I was to escape and find my way back home. I thought that would be a lot easier as an anonymous crewman than as an officer.”

   “And Lieutenant Winter?”

   “Was always intended to leave the ship at Spitfire Station. He had another mission to accomplish, and before you ask, I can’t tell you what it was.”

   “I expected nothing less.” Turning back to the screen, he said, “Now, what do we do about our current problem?”

   “We’re drawing further away from them now, random effects, so I think we’re safe to change course to a different egress point than we had intended. Seems like the obvious thing to do, and we can naturally repeat that for the next system. Of course, there’s a catch.”

   Nodding, Marshall replied, “They’ll work out we’re heading for Hydra Station, and we’re going to be leading them right to Alamo.”

   “Under the circumstances, it might be worth trying for a different destination, but we don’t have the fuel. It’s a straight choice, I think. We either push ahead and accept the risk, or turn back and surrender, and I don’t want to try the second option.”

   “Hell no,” Fuller said from the helm. “You’ve got us into this mess, and you have to get us out of it again, even if it means getting your precious Alamo dirty.”

   “Basically, we’ve got two jumps to work out how to beat them, and we will at least be able to give Alamo some warning, even if it is just a few seconds.”

   “We can switch egress points so that we won’t be in the battle.”

   Glancing around the bridge, Marshall replied, “I want to concentrate on learning everything we can about the Dauntless. Full sensor probes once we get into the system, and I’d like you to go and talk to our guest. He commanded that ship, and…”

   “I wouldn’t trust anything he said, sir, and I haven’t got the equipment to determine the veracity of any of his statements. He has every reason to lie.” She smiled, and said, “You would if the roles were reversed, even if you had decided to change sides.”

   “There is that. Still, you might learn something, but don’t go too hard. He’s supposed to be defecting, and while I don’t know if I trust that…”

   “I don’t.”

   “...we still have to obey the formalities.”

   “Aye, sir. I’ll try and put a report together.”

   Fuller looked over, and said, “You aren’t thinking about taking us into a battle, are you? We’re a freighter, no armaments, no armor, no fancy countermeasures package or anything like that. We’d last about ten seconds before being shot out of the sky.”

   Turning to the technician, Marshall replied, “And how long would we last if the Cabal captured us? How long before we were shot or sold into slavery?” He glanced at Cantrell, and said, “I’m going down to have a word with Captain Newton. Call if you need me.”

   He turned, floating off the bridge and into the elevator, tapping for the quarters deck. After a moment, it opened up at the engineering level, and Cooper drifted in, nodding at Marshall as the elevator continued its descent. After a second, Marshall tapped a button to hold it in place.

   “I haven’t had a real chance to talk to you since we broke orbit,” he said.

   Raising a hand, Cooper replied, “You don’t need to say anything, sir. You would have done exactly the same for me.”

   “Well, even so, thank you. Thanks for coming after me. I owe you one.”

   “Captain, you led an expedition deep into enemy territory to rescue a dozen of my friends, knowing the risk to your life and your career. I know, I know, they were your crewmen too, but it was my crazy idea. I’m the one who owes you.”

   Marshall released the button, smiled, and said, “Cantrell’s hoping to recruit you to Fleet Intelligence, you know. Have you thought about it?”

   Shrugging, he replied, “I’ve got to do something, I suppose, but I know that it still means lots of paperwork, one way or another. I signed up to see some action, and I’m a soldier, not a secret agent. Say I get sent undercover to do an office job – I’m still doing that job, ninety-nine percent of the time.”

   “I’ll do what I can for you, Cooper. I promise you that.”

   “I know, sir, but aside from a letter of recommendation, I don’t know what there is you can do to help.”

   The door opened, and he pushed out, heading slowly down the corridor while Marshall watched. He was going to go through those Fleet Regulations again, come what may, and find some way to do something for him, something to allow him to continue to do what he was good at.

   Following him down the corridor, he pushed past one door after another until he found the one labeled ‘Newton’; she’d apparently opted not to move to the Captain’s cabin. When the door opened, he saw why. The room was filled with clutter, cupboards and shelves stuffed with items from all across space, bits and pieces of memorabilia, crew suits stashed in odd corners, and Newton herself sitting cross-legged on her bed.

   “Come in, Captain,” she said. “I figured you’d want to see me sooner or later. Excuse the mess.”

   “You should see my office on Alamo after a few months’ cruise.”

   “Don’t you have underlings to tidy up after you?”

   “How would I find anything if they did?” he replied, and they both laughed. He managed to find a handhold on the ceiling and reached up to it, lazily swinging back and forth.

   “I hear we have a bit of a problem. I knew the top capital ships had special equipment, but this is news to me. They must have been keeping it under wraps.”

   “It’s ahead of us as well. We think we can dodge them until we reach Hydra Station, but then we’re going to run into problems. Tell me,” he said. “How tough is this ship? How would she react…”

   “Under combat conditions?” she replied. “She’s fifty years old, but she’s been well-maintained. I doubt we’d take more than a couple of missile hits, but she can move when she has too. It really depends what you want to do, though I’d really rather not try and go toe-to-toe with a capital ship.”

   “Neither would I. What about this refueling installation we’re heading for?”

   “Guild supply depot. We’ve got three of them in that system, all of them buried. I suppose we’re not going to go to the easiest one now; I’ll work out a course plot to take us to another one. Doesn’t really matter, just more work for the crew.”

   “We’ll lend a hand.”

   “Of course you will. You aren’t paying enough that I don’t want you to work your passage.” She smiled, then said, “Don’t worry, I won’t work you quite to death.”

   “Why are they hidden anyway?”

   Shaking her head, she said, “Because if we didn’t, then the Fleet would steal – sorry, commandeer – them rather than pay their fuel bills, and they certainly wouldn’t compensate us for them. Worse, odds are they wouldn’t tell anyone they’d taken them, and someone would end up stranded.”

   “The Fleet just steals from civilian depots?”

   “The Fleet runs the Cabal. First and last, they are in charge. This is just yet another way that they make that quite clear, no matter what anyone else might say. That’s why some of us formed the Guild in the first place.”

   �
�Which is? Are you against the government?”

   “Not really. We’re more of a trade union for free traders, but it basically boils down that we look after each other and provide rescue and support where needed, arrange bulk trading deals, warehousing, lobbying, that sort of thing. We’re fairly new, and our lords and masters don’t like us very much, but there isn’t anything they can do about it.”

   “Sounds nicely subversive. I approve.”

   “I thought you might,” she said. “Though we aren’t part of the resistance, or even work with them.” Seeing the look on his face, she continued, “I gather you’ve encountered some of them.”

   “I’ve had run-ins with them, yes.”

   “There was a big purge about fifteen years ago, and I think they are still rather gun-shy about it. My uncle was one of those rounded up, and it isn’t entirely coincidence that it was about then that I started work up here.”

   “You’ve been on this ship for fifteen years?”

   “Signed up at sixteen, all starry-eyed and raring to see the galaxy.” She gestured around the shelves, and said, “I’ve probably been around most of Cabal space, even out to Spitfire Station once. I actually thought about jumping ship there, that was the only time. Wanted to see Sol.”

   “When was that?”

   “About ten years ago, I think. Your big war had just come to an end, I remember that much. The last decent Captain we had talked me out of it, pushed me up to First Mate around that time, and I never looked back.” She glanced around the room, and said, “I always wanted to command this ship, but I never thought I’d actually get to do it. No chance that I’d ever get a stake big enough to buy it.”

   “Wait long enough, good things can happen. I felt the same way when I took command of Alamo.”

   “How long ago?”

   “Three years, almost. When we formed the combined Triplanetary Fleet. Crazy time. Twenty-four hours after I reported on board, we were already on our way to our first mission. I’ve been spending most of my time putting out one fire or another ever since.”

   “Culminating in getting yourself stuck all the way out here. I must say, I was surprised at how much of a say Corporal Cooper seemed to have. Unless I got my ranks wrong.”

   “He had a good idea, and I was hardly going to contradict him while there were all those guns around. Not that I won’t go ahead with it, it actually solves another problem we were going to have to deal with.”

   Nodding, she replied, “I’ve been out to Hydra a few times. It’s in the middle of nowhere.”

   “Well, nowhere is about to get a lot more important, I think. One of my other officers bought it for the Triplanetary Fleet.”

   She laughed, and said, “Your junior officers seem to get up to rather a lot while you aren’t looking, don’t they!”

   “Hell, it gives us a jump right into the middle of your – Cabal – territory. With a way of supplying it that doesn’t require us to go through our lines, but on the other hand, we’d have to arrange a shipping contract.”

   “Which you just gave to us,” she said, nodding. “That makes sense. You’re likely to make me a very rich woman, Captain.”

   “Oh? And call me Danny, for heaven’s sake. We’ll be drowning in ranks otherwise.”

   “Two transport ships and a military contract to supply an expanding military base and presumably a fleet? Even with your people taking combat-critical stuff, we’ll clean up on personal shipping alone.”

   “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said, rubbing his chin. “No wonder you accepted so quickly.”

   “Offer of a lifetime,” she said. “Two ships, one for Tarrant and I – which solved a rather knotty problem that would otherwise have cropped up – and the chance to do a bit of trade pioneering. The trouble with our little company at the moment is that we’ve had far too many owners. Eight in twenty years, and each one had a brand new get-rich-quick scheme. I didn’t mind the chance to see new worlds, but this business works best on steady, reliable lines. Most of the time, anyway, I don’t mind a bit of trade pioneering.”

   “I’ve been wanting to do some real exploration myself. We were hoping...but we only managed a single, short cruise a couple of years ago, and we ended up going straight into the Cabal.”

   “Strange new worlds, eh, Danny? That why you joined up?”

   Shaking his head, he replied, “We were seven years into the war when I turned seventeen, old enough to enlist. A year in Flight School, and then I went straight to the front. I fought my first dogfight three days after reporting to my duty station.”

   “Old fighter jock, then.”

   “I’m afraid so. They cut the training down to six months just after I graduated. We were losing pilots faster than we could get them into the fight.” He seemed to be looking through the wall, at somewhere else, as he continued, “I was a raw as they came, I thought I knew it all. Didn’t take me long to realize I didn’t. After four months, there were only two survivors out of my squadron. Just two.”

   “It must have been terrible.”

   “Wars usually are. By the end of it I was a twenty-two year-old Acting Major, pretending to command a Group. I’ve got midshipmen that age on Alamo right now.” He looked over at her again, and said, “That’s why I joined up. To defend my planet, my nation. I stayed on afterward because, well, I didn’t really have anything else. I didn’t have any family left, and all I knew was the service.”

   “I’m sorry,” she said. “They really put you through the mill, didn’t they.”

   “It was worth it,” he replied. “That’s the one thing I can hold on to. All my friends, my shipmates, all the ones who didn’t make it back, they died for something. We won our freedom, our independence. The other reason I stayed in. I’d like to get to some real exploration, but I suppose that’s just the little kid inside me who watched too many movies.”

   “I know what you mean,” she replied. “Joining the Fleet was never an option for me, not with my background, but I’d love to head out there one day, see what’s beyond the frontiers. The Cabal hasn’t launched any expeditions in forty years. No resources, they claim, too much needed at home. They’re just getting ready to start a war with someone.”

   “Probably us. You know that, right.”

   “Hell, I’ve seen everything there is to see in the Cabal anyway. I might as well see some new places for a change. Besides, your reputation precedes you. I heard about what you did to that Cabal task force. No way they could keep that secret. I’d bet on the Confederation in a war.”

   “I wish I was as sanguine.” He shook his head, and said, “We’ve fought enough battles that it’s still a war, and there are a lot of people back home who would go to war with the Cabal tomorrow once they find out about the Neander, the indents…”

   “There are others, as well. The Skylari, the Milandro.”

   “Alien races?” he said, his eyes widening. “We heard rumors, but…”

   “Found at the turn of the century, and confined to their homeworlds. The Skylari were just getting a start at a space program, but that couldn’t be permitted. We do a little trading for artifacts, but nothing more than that. We just don’t have enough in common, I suppose.”

   “And they sit on their planets, looking up at the stars, wearing out their hearts, and something special vanishes from their souls forever. Maybe we should go to war, no matter what the cost.”

   “You’re a poet, Danny,” she replied.

   “I just remember a small boy looking up at the stars and wondering what it would be like to go there, that’s all. I’d have ended up in space one way or another, I know that much.”

   “I was the same, back on Golgotha.”

   “Lovely name.”

   “The planet definitely lives up to it. But it has clear skies, and that was all I needed back then. My imagination could do the rest. That and the stories my grand
parents told of the flight out from Earth, all the things they saw.” She paused, then said, “Of course, I know now that they made most of it up to keep me quiet, but I still want to find the planet with the ice cream tree.”

   Marshall laughed, then said, “So we’re both condemned to wander the spaceways forever, following the whims of our inner ten-year-olds, looking for the strange and the new.”

   “Something like that,” she said, laughing. “I’m always the first one down whenever we see something knew, I know that much. I guess I’m just a born tourist.”

   “That’s probably true of anyone who sees this life as more than just a job.”

   “True,” she replied. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry. Fancy snatching a bite of lunch? I’ve got a couple of ration packs lying around somewhere, though finding them could be an expedition into strange new places in its own right.”

   “As long as someone sends out a search party if we go missing,” he replied with a smile, “I haven’t got anything else to do this afternoon.”

  Chapter Twelve

   Orlova walked into the Science Lab, on a frustrated Carpenter trying to clear up one of the few images she’d managed to take before the attack. She waved her down to a chair while she worked controls, shaking her head.

   “It was just too damn dark to get much,” she said. “Damned vandals. That body had been there for thousands of years, I know it. It could have told us so much.”

   “Another Neander corpse, Susan? I know, I know, but we’ve found plenty of them on Earth, haven’t we? It isn’t as though you haven’t got some living specimens to look at if you want to do your research.”

   “I’m not sure what it was,” she replied, pointing at the screen. “The skull doesn’t look quite right, and there are some...I don’t know. There isn’t enough to the image to properly determine anything. All I have are guesswork and theories, and precious little of those.”

   “What about the writing.”