Ringship Discretion Read online

  The Lieutenant looked at the scans. "So, Captain I see you fought in the war, on the right side."

  Atticus looked at him. "I'm not sure there was right side". The lieutenant pursed his lips and reflected for a second, before his face returned to its original matter of fact look.

  The ensign then pulled out a brain scanner and began scanning the captain. "Oh, so you are smuggling spare parts! Lieutenant, should we arrest them?"

  The Lieutenant waved a hand. "Don't worry about that, just finish your scans".

  When the ensign got to Amelia, the scanning device turned red and made a loud sound. "Sir! She has an implant!" He pushed backed and pulled his gun. Ben squeezed the shotgun he had behind him, ready for a firefight. Two other customs agents came flying down the tube to assist.

  The captain put his hands up and backed off. "Whoa, lets not get crazy here". He was watching the Lieutenant to gauge his reaction, but the lieutenant was preoccupied, with his hand against his forehead. He was obviously talking to someone.

  His face changed to concern. "Ensign, you two, back to the ship. NOW!" He turned, but looked back at the captain. "This isn't over, don't go anywhere!".

  All the men headed down the gantry tube. Ben relaxed his grip on the shotgun. "What the hell was that?"

  The captain replied as he went to shut the hatch. "Hell if I know!". He was watching the men who were now at the other side of the tube, when the tube lit up like the Sun. His face began to burn and he instinctively hid behind the hatch door. Then there was vacuum and the door slammed shut at incredible speed, dragging the captain along with it and slamming his chest into the hatch wheel.

  Atticus tried to breath and give orders, when Amelia, looking out the window at a huge long black slender vessel, yelled "The other ship! It's here! And I think it just hit us!" The captain, half bent over and not able to talk yet, started signaling Amelia. She understood perfectly, and went to maneuver the ship behind the customs ship. She yelled. "That beam must have taken out the plating, no response, switching to thrusters." As the Discretion began to slide down behind the Vigilant, there was another beam. And this time, with so much debris, they could see the beam go from the black ship to theirs. There was a loud pop and explosion. On the edge of panic, Amelia was banging the control panel trying to get anything to work, but nothing was responding. As they drifted behind the Vigilant, they could see part of black ship begin to sparkle.

  The captain strained to whisper loudly. "The customs ship has gamma rays!". There were a few more flashes, but they couldn't see what was happening until a beam penetrating all the way through the Vigilant A piece of the port side, which was facing them, began to glow and then melted away. The black ship's forward section started to come around the front end of the Vigilant The captain, doing his best to speak. "They're coming around trying to get another shot at us!". As the black ship maneuvered, the Vigilant's port gamma ray guns deployed and she started to spin to starboard to get another shot at the black ship. The next laser beam from the rear of the black ship vaporized the bridge of the Vigilant and, immediately, every thruster on the Vigilant fired at once. The rear of the customs ship was now facing the Discretion and a huge column of flame engulfed them and sent them spinning. The Vigilant quickly accelerated forward under all the thrust. She then slammed into the cross braced mid section of the black ship with her rear thrusters still firing at full throttle. The rear of the Vigilant swung on the pivot point of contact and into the engine section of the black ship. The momentum crushed the Vigilant's aft section and she exploded.

  Everyone was hovering around the control panel watching, helpless. Space became a white fireball and the Discretion shuddered as a piece of shrapnel hit so hard that everyone saw the forward bulkhead bend inward. They all took in a deep breath as though it might be there last. A few seconds went by and nothing happened. As they relaxed, the glass on the sensor control panel shattered and they all jumped.

  In the excitement, the captain hadn't even noticed all the noise his telecommunication implant had been making, until it was gone. "The black ship must have been jamming us. Status report?".

  Amelia replied "We're dead in space. No thrusters and no grav drives..and who knows what else...".

  Atticus said "OK, Ben go down to the lower decks and see what you can tell us". The captain looked out the window again to get a better look at the situation. The front of the black ship had completely ripped free and was receding away. He grabbed his binoculars and he could see people on the bridge, but without the rest of their ship, they were no longer a threat. While the captain scanned the wreckage he asked, "Do you think we can use any parts from those ships if we need them?"

  Amelia thought for a second "Maybe, but I have to see what we lost first."

  Things were silent for a few minutes as everyone recovered. The only sound was Amelia's push of buttons as she checked systems. Helen began to pick pieces of glass out of the air that were floating about, and soon her husband and AJ were doing the same. Ben came back up from the lower decks and the captain spoke "I've got an idea. Do we still have the MFGs?"

  Ben nodded. "Both of them are fine, the only..." The captain interrupted "Amelia, can you stop the ship's rotation using the MFGs?"

  Amelia responded "Um...yeah...well, normally this far from the Sun it would take hours, but one of those ships is still putting out its own field, so we can push against it. It might take 15 to 20 minutes"

  Atticus looked at her "Good. Make it so the hatch is facing the wrecks. Oh, and lets turn the internal gravity plating back on"

  She reached for the gravity control panel. "Everyone ready?" and she hit the power button. Thirty seconds later, 1000's of tiny objects could be heard falling and bouncing off the floor. She got up, grabbed Ben's arm and dragged him in the direction of the lower decks. A few minutes later she came back on the bridge and announced "I've set the MFG's, should just be a few minutes". She walked up behind the chair AJ was sitting in and looked out.

  The captain turned to everyone. "Get ready to suit up!". AJ interrupted him "There is a message incoming for you Captain." Atticus was again looking out the window with the binocs. "Just put it on speakers".

  AJ clicked play "Atticus! This is Stevens! I don't know what you're hauling this time, but they've killed Drang and tortured Amelia's husband to death along with..." Bits of glass flew as Atticus slammed his fist on the mute button. Amelia backed away from the chair and began to shake. There was total silence, then the crunch of glass as Helen took a step towards Amelia and put her hand on her shaking shoulder. Amelia sorrow turned to rage and she threw Helen back. "Attie! This is all your fault! She flung her fists into his chest. "Its all your fault! It's your fucking fault!" The rest of the crew stood silent, not knowing what to do. Atticus winced with each blow, but he let her pound on him until he finally grabbed her and hugged her tightly. She screamed into his chest and began to sob. She went limp and Atticus had to keep her from falling to the floor. They all stayed like that for several minutes until an alarm went off on the sensor panel. Ben moved over to take a look. Wiping glass out of the way "Sir, I don't mean to interrupt, but it looks like we have four incoming ships."

  The captain lifted his head off of Amelia's and cleared his throat. "Time?"

  Ben said "Maybe two days, but one of them looks like it's the same type as the black ship."

  The captain looked down at Amelia. "I'm so sorry, but we need you now."

  She protested with another punch and then straightened up. She wiped her face and gave him a hard look, then turned around. "You heard him, suit up!". Everyone was shocked by her sudden clarity of command and they immediately jumped into action.

  As the Discretion stopped its rotational movement, Atticus engaged the vacuum pumps to remove the internal air. Once it had completed its cycle, he opened the inner and outer hatches, but as happened back on Earth, the artificial gravity stayed on. Their motion away from the debris started to slow and a few small fragments of debris flew in
from space and stuck to the artificial gravity plates on the floor. He pushed the talk button on his mic "Ben, let me know when we are closing with the wrecks at five meters per second and I will shut the hatch." Ben replied "Aye, Captain". Atticus looked back into the ship at Amelia. She was sitting in the pilot's seat pushing controls as though nothing had happened. He knew that it wasn't his fault but he felt guilty.

  After about 15 minutes, Ben said over the suit comm. "OK, Captain, we are at five meters per second".

  Atticus shut the outer hatch, but when he turned to walk through the inner hatch he stumbled. Looking down he found that a large pile of debris, attracted by the floor's artificial gravity, had accumulated. He stepped over most of it and used his boot to push it out of the way of the door. "How long before we impact?".

  Ben came back "About 12 minutes".

  The captain responded "I assume the docking clamps and grapplers are still working" then mumbling to himself "I guess I should have asked that before we did this".

  Ben said "Aye, we have green indicators on all of them."

  Relieved to hear that, the captain closed the inner hatch. "Good, then grapple the superstructure as we impact it, oh, and retract my telescope, if it's still up there."

  Amelia came over the suit comm. "Attie, I have a full damage report. We lost the 4 port grav drive plates, nothing left but the bottoms of the mounts. We also lost the main computer interface module for the drives. As for the thrusters, they hit the turbo pumps and main injector assembly. They knew exactly where to hit us. The engine room is also open to space where the beam penetrated. That piece of shrapnel from the explosion took out our long range radar, although we still have short distance ranging."

  The captain listened to her cool methodical report and responded "What can we fix?". Amelia said "Well, those big ships aren't going to have compatible drive plates, but we might be able use the ones we are carrying as our cargo."

  Ben nodded "Sir, the thrusters are fucked. There is no way we can fix that mess. Amelia got louder, not appreciating being interrupted. "The good news is that both of those ships are likely to use compatible drive computer interface modules. In the worse case, we would just have to reroute the commands. As for the radar, beyond physically detaching their entire radar assembly and strapping it to our ship, I don't think there is anything we can do there."

  Ben pointed out the window. "Two minutes".

  The captain nodded. "OK, ready the hooks, and as soon as we are attached I want Ben, AJ and Doc to search that ship for parts or anything else we can use. Amelia..." He paused not feeling comfortable asking for her help. "You and I will try and jury rig those drive plates on. Helen, you monitor the comms".

  Ben yelled "Here we go! Everyone hold on to your butts!" as the Discretion crashed into the central I-beam superstructure of the black ship. Ben fired the grapplers and secured the Discretion to the massive hulk. Then the captain simply banged the gravity control panel and they were free floating. He opened the hatches and grabbed the welding equipment. Then Ben, with a cutting torch strapped to him, signaled the others to follow.

  The captain and Amelia went around the ship to the smuggler's hatch and opened it. They were starting to pull out the crate when she put her arm on his. He stopped, and she pushed her helmet against his, not wanting to use the comms, and she said "I'm sorry for blaming you". She could see Atticus's tears forming in the bright sunlight that was shining on his face.

  He was choking a bit and said "No, I'm sorry for everything I've done." She touched the visor of his helmet shading the Sun from his eyes and then he could see her give him a loving look.

  Then her expression suddenly went cold and she said "We need to get this done".

  He nodded and began pulling again. He said to himself "Shit, now I can't see crap" and he did his best to wipe his eyes against the velcro and fabric on the inside of the helmet. They took the crate back into the ship and pulled out one of the panels. It looked just like their GD-15s except the add ons. It even had the same main connector. The captain asked "Do you think we can just weld these on?"

  Amelia pushed her mic "I don't think..." and Ben interrupted "No! Don't weld the grav plates! It will destroy them! There should be a central hole. Just put a bolt through it and weld the bolt to the old base. That is supposed to be a pivot point so we can gimbal the plates, but we will be able to steer with the intact starboard drives, so don't worry about it."

  The captain replied "OK, thanks Ben. How is it going over there?"

  Ben's voice crackled a little. "We just burned through one of the outer hatches and the inner hatch opened easily. No pressure. Few dead bodies, but the electron....Son of a bitch! This is a Blue Ball ship. The patches say United States. Why the hell would they be after us?!".

  The captain paused and then replied "I have no idea! But it has to be something big if they're chasing us all the way out here and risking war with Big Sis. Keep looking and let me know if you find anything. Amelia and I found some rods and some soft spacers that should work, so we are heading out to install the plates. Helen, what do have as far as contacts? "

  Helen responded "It looks like 11 ships now, eight Big Sis and three more of those BB ships. The nearest one must have accelerated, as they are only 34 hours out at their current speed."

  With an elevated voice, the captain exclaimed "Holy shit! 11 ships! Even with all those gamma rays flying around from the fire fight, it shouldn't have attracted that much attention. Well, I don't think I need to tell everyone to move their ass, but I'm going to say it anyway. Move your ass!"

  There were multiple responses "Aye! Captain."

  Amelia and the captain went back out the hatch with one of the plates and a set of rods and spacers. As they worked their way underneath the ship, Amelia was taken aback by the damage. "Shit, there's nothing left of the old plates."

  Attie nodded as grabbed an end of a cable sticking out of the hull. "This looks like the right one, and the laser didn't get the connector. Lucky on that."

  She touched a wire nub and said "Well, not on this one, it's....look!" She stood up straight and backed up a step. "You can see the outline of the gantry-way where it shadowed part of the hull".

  The captain arched back to get a look. "Damn!" and he looked into the distance to see if he could find the front of the black ship that had done this to them. The Milky Way lead a path across the background with Orion shining brilliantly nearby. Sure enough, he could still see it floating off in the direction of Aldebaran. The captain stood up and gave them a whole arm flip of the bird.

  Amelia put her arm around his back. "Did that feel good?"

  He kept staring out at them "Yeah, they probably can't see me anyway, but yeah...I hope they float out there for the rest of their miserable lives!".

  She turned back. "Come on Attie, let's do this, so we can leave their asses behind".

  Attie smiled. "Putting it that way.." Ben interrupted "Damn straight!". Attie and Amelia looked at each other, both forgetting they were on a public comm.

  The knobs were shiny metal where they had been melted off and that made them easy to weld to. Attie held a rod up to the side of one of the old stanchions. "OK give me a few tack welds". Amelia hit the rod in 3 places. The captain withdrew his hand. "OK, go ahead." He looked away as she beaded a line up and down the rod and it became one with the stanchion. She welded a few more support rods in place and then they slid the plate on. The captain looked underneath the plate. "Just wanted to make sure we have it on in the right direction." He then looked up at her and smiled.

  She chuckled "Yeah. We wouldn't have it long otherwise!".

  The captain asked Ben "How close can we weld to this plate?".

  There was a long silence and Ben's voice full of distortion and crackling said "Just don't directly touch it, the plates are OK to take some heat, but not direct exposure."

  Atticus questioned "Ben, why are you breaking up so bad?"...nothing..."Helen, what's going on?"

  Helen came
back, her voice also cracking "We are being scanned by the approaching ships. I assume they are trying to find out what's going on."

  Atticus asked "Any change in their course or speed?".

  She said "No, still looks like about 33 hours now".

  "Roger".

  Amelia grabbed another rod. "OK, so I'll just weld this across the other a few centimeters from the plate and we can squeeze the spacers in." Attie nodded. Once she had completed the weld, they pushed the spacers in place and tried to move the panel. It rotated, but didn't have much play otherwise. "Good! Let's plug this one in and do the next one. I sure wish we could test these first!"

  After getting a second plate and completing its installation, the captain called Ben again. No response. "Helen, can you try relaying a message to Ben? Ask him how its going over there."

  Helen acknowledged and said "Ben, or anyone on the wrecked ship, please respond".

  AJ came over full of static. "I can hear you. They had me move halfway back to the ship to see if I could relay. They found some weapons lockers and a shuttle with some useful parts, but they will need help getting everything off." Helen then relayed the message to the captain.

  Amelia nudged the captain. "Attie, it's a good bet a shuttle would have the grav drive plate control interface we need. If we can get that part we will already have a balanced four plate thrust system." Attie looked at the plates they had welded on. "Right, Helen, we're going to come over and help. We need those parts more than what we are doing here. Relay AJ to wait for us, so he can lead us to them."

  Amelia and the captain came back into the Discretion and dropped off the welding equipment. It was bright inside the ship and it took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust. The captain asked Amelia "How much time you got on air?"