The Pathfinder Trilogy Page 10

  He had noticed in life that you could never indefinitely delay a tough choice. As his own father had told him repeatedly as a kid, “Failing to make a decision is itself a decision. It is a decision to do nothing.” Sometimes just moving from one day to the next could also change a situation’s perspective. Life, as a whole, sometimes demonstrated the unique tendency to evolve on its own. This proved to be the case for the crew of the Pathfinder on the fifth day after the attack.

  Early in the morning on that day a general alarm sounded. Kaufield was already dressed and preparing to head for the Command Dome so it took him only seconds to finish putting on his jacket. He quieted a sleepy Joseph and urged him to stay in bed for now – Dennis promised to stop by and check on him later. The Captain exited his quarters and headed toward the lifts at the front of the ship. As he strode briskly along the moving sidewalk he could see the look of concern on the faces of the people moving past him to his left. Above them on speakers he could hear Mary using the all-call, urging civilians to return to their quarters for their own safety.

  “Status?” he inquired, striding quickly onto the Command Dome and taking his seat.

  “We’re receiving a distress call, sir,” Mary reported, glancing cautiously back at him. “The language is Chinese and it appears to be an automatically repeating beacon of some sort. The message states very clearly that they have survivors and are asking for any nearby ship to rendezvous and attempt rescue.”

  “When did it start?” asked Kaufield. He stroked his chin, extremely intrigued by this news. It was the first communication of any kind since the aftermath of the attack on Earth.

  “We began receiving it ten minutes ago. They say they were able to escape from the initial attack but ran out of supplies and had no choice but to come back.”

  “Distance to target?”

  “The signal is originating from a point inside our solar system, approximately 4.63 light minutes away. The transmission is confirmed as Chinese, and as far as I can tell it appears to be civilian.”

  Pathfinder Schematic (Side & Top Views)

  “Opinions?” the Captain queried. How often did a situation instantaneously change from a waiting game into a decision game? Dennis didn’t know for certain, but it had happened right now and it would no doubt happen again.

  “It has to be a trap!” Adam said, frowning in frustration from his station across from Mary. “It just has to be. After all this time you’re telling me that they transited back into a combat zone looking for groceries?”

  “Wouldn’t you, if your people were starving to death?” inquired Dennis.

  “Captain, it’s a trap,” insisted Adam. “Everyone on this side of the sun has picked up that transmission by now. If it is legit they’re going to lure Brotherhood vessels right to them.”

  “We are required to respond to distress signals by naval tradition,” the Captain reminded everyone sternly. “It seems to me the longer we wait the more likely we will encounter the enemy.” He touched the Comm-link on the arm of his chair. “Thomas, prepare to implement Contingency Plan Delta. We have a situation up here and I want the CAS Drive revved up to full capacity immediately.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Adam, calculate the neccessary coordinates to take us to the source of that transmission and relay them to Thomas’ station immediately.” Kaufield stood up and walked over to his new station next to Mary. The laptop was on and functioning as the Captain took his seat next to the Lieutenant… he tapped several entries into the keyboard and activated the motion sensor tie in.

  “Yes sir,” stated Adam firmly. He busied himself at his workstation and permitted himself to glance up once and meet Mary’s eyes. She was calm and professional as usual, but took a moment to return his look of concern.

  Kaufield opened the Comm-link again. “Hangar bay, this is the Captain. We have an emergency situation and potential combat scenario up here. Are your people ready down there?”

  “Bring ‘em on, Captain!” Nori replied enthusiastically. “Colonel Neeland and his men have everything set up, just as you requested.”

  “Thomas?”

  “We’ve got a hot singularity, Captain. The CAS Drive is on-line and ready to go. Just say the word and we’ll activate your computer. Once we arrive control will automatically transfer to your Delta console. If things get too hot, you can just punch out and relinquish control to us. We’ll immediately return the Pathfinder to this location.”

  “That’s what I wanted to hear,” the Captain replied. “Let’s go see how many people we can rescue before the Brotherhood shows up.”

  “The first thing you’ll want to do is have them shut off that damned beacon,” Adam growled, clearly irritated by the situation. “Although I’m almost certain we’re already too late.”

  “Open a PTP portal and initiate transit to the source of that transmission, please,” the Captain requested. “We’ll have time to second guess a bad decision later.” He thought about the tactical data on the enemy he had been reviewing over the past several days. “I hope,” he whispered softly.

  *

  Mary targeted the ship they found using motion sensors and focused the cameras mounted on the Pathfinder’s landing skids so that they displayed its image on the overhead monitors. Most of the ship’s hull was pockmarked with holes and completely opened to space. The vessel hung suspended and nearly motionless, completely dark and powerless. The instant the Pathfinder emerged from transit the Command Center’s alarm klaxon changed from warning status and immediately called for general quarters.

  Lieutenant Hastings was their resident expert on motion sensors, but Dennis no longer needed to ask her for information. His laptop screen lit up with red enemy contacts in front and behind. Most were smaller vessels – more than likely fighters – but he noted that one of the signals registered as one of the larger warships. Curious, he switched one of the monitors so that its optical pickup targeted the enemy warship. It was difficult to see at first against the background of space, painted mostly black. It hung there, right in front of them, sporting a long, cylindrical nose nearly as long as the Pathfinder. Its design was meant to be intimidating.

  “I told you it was a trap,” Adam said dryly.

  “That’s okay – we needed to know for sure,” countered Kaufield.

  “It’s a carrier,” the elder Roh noted. “Those are landing bays hanging beneath the triangular wings in the engine section. I recognize the style – it looks as though the vessel’s construction was based on an obsolete design. The Chinese constructed a prototype but could never solve the power distribution problems for a vessel that large. It was going to be the largest military vessel ever constructed that could still land in a planetary atmosphere.”

  “So the Brotherhood of the Dragon obviously has access to plenty of fuel,” Kaufield guessed curiously.

  “If you need a target, sir, it’s probably in the wings.”

  “There are two fighter patrols behind us, consisting of twelve ships each,” Mary announced briskly. “And there’s a smaller task force of ten fighters in front of us with the warship behind them.” The information was useful to everyone else – Dennis had already reviewed the situation and made his decision. He activated the ship’s all-call.

  “All hands, stand by for battle maneuvers.”

  “The fighters are launching missiles at us, Captain. There are at least a dozen incoming targets. The mother ship is also launching ordnance.” He studied his console warily. “The warship missiles are hot… probably nuclear tipped.”

  Kaufield studied the situation carefully and adjusted the Z-Axis setting on his monitor. “This is a perfect way to bait surviving ships by using destroyed ones. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have traps like this set up all over our solar system.” He shook his head grimly. “Try and take advantage of our compassion…”

  “They don’t have to waste time chasing down the survivors because they know we’ll come to them and try to save our people,�
�� commented Adam. “What kind of cold-blooded monsters would do this?”

  “Based on what little we’ve learned about this Brotherhood, my guess is that they are not known for being compassionate,” said Kaufield. “I would imagine that’s why our military has so far been unable to successfully engage.” On his screen, two dozen missiles now spiraled closer and closer to the Pathfinder’s position.

  To put things simply, the Captain had run out of patience. Giving the enemy no warning, he rapidly touched the screen in front of him ten times. As the incoming missiles approached the large starship it suddenly executed ten transits in quick succession exactly 90 degrees to starboard. A series of bright flashes lit up the area between the fighter patrols as each transit completed almost instantaneously in rapid-fire sequence. Obeying their programming, the smart missiles hesitated briefly to search for and acquire the new target before changing course to pursue.

  Carefully, the Captain adjusted his Z-Axis setting to minus 1,200 meters. He tapped the screen again. The first hop brought the Pathfinder down to the same level of the fighter patrols closing in from behind them. Five more quick flashes and the ship moved within firing distance. The lead fighters instantly began shooting at the starship, but one more tap of the screen by Kaufield caught the enemy pilots by surprise again as the Pathfinder reappeared behind them.

  Some of the incoming missiles flew cleanly through the two fighter patrols, still seeking their assigned target, while others detonated. At least three of the smaller fighters were destroyed by the unexpected turn of events and half a dozen more suffered damage from flying shrapnel.

  “That’s not bad, Captain,” Adam commented. “You’re successfully using our new ‘edge’. Their PTP technology can’t possibly keep up with ours – we’re leading their missiles around by the nose.”

  “Thank God your brother and Glen got the CAS Drive working,” Kaufield said gratefully. “Or we wouldn’t have been able to risk a rescue mission – not without the ability to defend ourselves.”

  The surviving fighters in both patrols spun quickly around and accelerated in pursuit of the Pathfinder. Many of them quickly narrowed the distance to the starship, pinning it between their position and the remaining missiles arcing in the background. The instant the fighters launched another wave of missiles Kaufield began tapping his finger on the screen again. “I guess you didn’t learn the first time,” he commented with a dry smile.

  Another series of twelve flashes lit up the local space, this time curving back and gradually upward toward the main battle group. The missiles quickly turned to follow, only to find their target was again executing a rapid sequence of transits to port. Mechanically programmed to be patient, they paused again to recalculate target coordinates before resuming their pursuit.

  “Did you notice?” the Captain asked carefully. “On the first pass through the fighters, did you spot the differences in the missiles that they launched at us?”

  “Yes. Some of them are armed only with proximity detectors,” Adam said, smiling for the first time in quite a while. “They couldn’t identify the fighters as friendly and detonated as soon as they detected a nearby object.”

  “That’s right. It’s a saturation technique meant to destroy a target before it can react. But some of the missiles have better programming and didn’t detonate. They’ve acquired the Pathfinder as their sole target and I would wager that they will follow us indefinitely until we destroy them or they run out of fuel.” Again he touched his laptop screen and prompted their ship’s CAS Drive, executing a rapid-fire series of PTP jumps. As the short-range hops continued to confound the enemy, Kaufield suddenly thought of a new wrinkle.

  “Thomas, if I position the Pathfinder above that civilian ship would you and Glen be able to temporarily retake command of our CAS Drive?” He continued moving his fingertip across his console as he spoke, keeping the Pathfinder constantly skipping to new locations and thereby impossible to reach.

  “Certainly – what are you planning?”

  “I want you to do your PTP shrinking process, like you did with the probe and the shuttle.”

  “I get it. You want us to roll a transit window across the civilian ship – where do we send it?”

  “Into the enemy warship, where else?” the Captain said angrily. “That asshole who confronted us back on Khyber Base really pissed me off. I want to send his friends a message.”

  “The civvy is pretty big,” Thomas replied. “We’re supposed to shrink the PTP field for smaller ships. If Glen doesn’t reduce it enough we could risk catching the edges of the Pathfinder’s lower wings in the transit.” He paused to let the seriousness of his comments register. “You can understand that we DOWN here think that would be bad.”

  “Then transit part of that ship, for God’s sake!” growled Kaufield brusquely. “I’m setting my clock at thirty seconds to target. As soon as we arrive I’m going to transfer control to your station. I need you to transport the civilian ship into the warship and then return PTP control immediately to my station. We’ve still got at least two dozen missiles stalking us.” He continued pressing his finger softly against the screen’s surface and sending the Pathfinder quickly to half a dozen new locations. The maneuver separated the incoming missiles from the fighters. The enemy ships didn’t seem to mind at this point in the battle – they were busy merging into a single strike force and taking up a defensive posture in front of the mammoth-sized mother vessel.

  “Before you give us control, I need you to move us to a point thirty meters above the civilian ship, Captain,” Glen specified. “Please center the civvy as close as possible beneath the Pathfinder.”

  “Thirty meters and centered? Is that all?” demanded Kaufield sarcastically. Another question occurred to him. “Do you mean thirty meters from the bottom of the hangar bay or thirty meters from the bottom of the lower wings?” There was no immediate answer, so he hastily glanced at the civilian ship’s Z-Axis setting and used his scroll bar to set the next destination to arrive at plus one hundred meters above it. “Adam, please stand by on thrusters. When we arrive at our destination I need you to lower us from one hundred to within thirty meters.”

  “Do you mean thirty meters from the bottom of the hangar bay or thirty meters from the bottom of the wings?” Adam repeated cautiously. He ignored the dirty look Kaufield shot his way.

  “Initiating CAS transit to the civilian ship.” He pressed his finger firmly on top of the screen’s second white dot – it represented the only other friendly target in their area. The monitors above them lit up with the familiar PTP flash and he could hear cheers coming from the still open Comm-link – apparently they liked what they saw.

  The Pathfinder’s hull rumbled slightly as her thrusters fired. Adam’s face was a frozen mask of concentration as he quickly lowered the starship the rest of the way downward. His expression remained unchanged for almost thirty additional seconds before he looked up at Dennis and nodded.

  “It’s now or never, Lab wing!” Kaufield shouted excitedly.

  “Transferring Delta console control now,” Thomas excitedly informed him.

  At almost the same instant they heard Glen reply, “Shrinking PTP window.”

  On the Captain’s motion sensor screen, the huge red target representing the enemy warship noticeably wobbled. “My guess is they noticed that,” the Captain commented.

  “I’m returning CAS control to you Captain. As before, just hit the panic button when you want us out of here.”

  “Acknowledged – and good work gentlemen!” said a pleased Kaufield, intensely focusing on the incoming missiles that were still tracking the Pathfinder. Another series of screen taps and the ship was hopping quickly across local space directly toward the newly organized, integrated fighter patrol. Once again Kaufield paused long enough to tempt, then skipped the Pathfinder between the smaller fighters and the larger mother vessel. The fighters reacted much more quickly this time, but several more were still picked off as the relentless
array of missiles passed through them a second time. The rest immediately altered course and continued their rush toward the Earth starship. Kaufield took a quick look at the monitor above him.

  One of the triangular wings on the warship had broken off and was drifting away. Most of the central mass within the engine section of the huge starship had become a bizarre, blazing mass of molten metal. The huge ship began tilting awkwardly to one side – its XYZ coordinates on Dennis’ console indicating that the warship was entering an uncontrolled spin. Thus far, the decision to use the remnants of the civilian ship against them was proving to be extremely helpful as the enemy starship had so far been unable to fire a second wave of missiles in their direction. Again, Kaufield opened his Comm-link.

  “I hope you’re ready down there, Nori,” he said somewhat nervously. “We’re only going to get one chance at this.”

  “Just say the word, Captain,” replied his air group commander confidently. “We’ve got the Colonel’s ground based missile launchers set up down here and ready to fire.”

  “What about the recoil?” Kaufield asked, curious. “Last I heard, you still weren’t sure how you were going to handle that.”

  “No problem,” she replied. “We drove a couple of the heavier forklifts onto the back of the missile launchers. They’ll hold the whole setup in place, and absorb the recoil.”

  Like a stone skipping across a pond, the Pathfinder continued its series of transits and skittered unpredictably toward the damaged Brotherhood warship with enemy missiles following closely behind. The ship’s rail guns finally began firing at them – again too late as the Captain pressed a forefinger to his screen and instantaneously hopped them to the far side of the enemy mother ship. The fighters managed to shoot down most of the incoming missiles, but Kaufield watched at least three of them score direct impacts against the warship’s hull. He studied the radiology telemetry pouring across a screen next to the laptop and smiled with satisfaction.