Roger took the Churchill out to a dozen kilometers, close enough to see the Erikson without having to zoom the camera.
He could just make out the Alice, floating above the Erikson.
"Shipmates, thanks to everyone's hard work we are ready to leave." The captain's voice came over the radio, not only to the Churchill, but to the Jefferson Davis, the Runner, and the George Washington Williams.
The Davis was hanging back with the Churchill. They were to guard the Erikson. The Runner and the Williams were going several AU ahead of the Erikson to act as scouts.
"It is not my way to lie for people's feelings. This is going to be risky, and we may die."
The Hermes was the only boat not deployed yet.
"The truth is that we all will die at some point. That can't be helped. We have done all we can to postpone it, and I believe it will be enough. For all that the locals have resources and ships they don't have what we all do, humanity."
Roger had wanted to be on the Hermes. To his shame, he had even tried to pull rank, but Adrian had refused. He was told that he had no practical atmospheric experience and that he was needed in a warship guarding the Erikson.
He knew both points to be true, but every part of him wanted to be on the Hermes, to be there for Kat. To save her.
"Humanity is not a weakness. It's our greatest strength. With it, we can sacrifice for each other and even die for each other. We hold together, not because we are afraid like they are, but because we know that there are things more important than ourselves. That is something they don't understand, that they can't understand."
He was silent for a moment then said, "Before we leave, there is one last duty. The Alice served us well; her longevity is a testament to engineering and to her maintenance teams. She did things she was never made to do and survived things she should not have survived.
"But the Alice can't come with us—she's too damaged for it to be safe for her to dock during relativistic travel. Nor can we in good conscience leave more tech for the locals to find."
The Alice began moving away from the Erikson, being pushed by several service pods.
When she was several klicks's away, the captain said, "She will be remembered." The boat blew up without a sound.
The explosion was not huge. It almost looked gentle.
For the first time in five months, the Erikson lit up. The torch came on, and fusion fire started to propel the Erikson away.
It was starting slowly, only one-fifth of a G.
Until they got to the edge of the system, they would be vulnerable. It would take at least weeks.
They thought they knew where at least most of the local's ships were. However, launches from the massive rail guns were hard to track.
Not to mention that there could be ships running cold, waiting.
Roger settled in wishing for a long boring trip, but he doubted that wish would be granted.
---
He felt alone when away from the Erikson, even with Dianna and Thomas.
The gas giant they were leaving, which apparently was called, "Gas Giant One" by the locals, was beautiful. Even from five hundred klick's. It seemed both wrong and fitting that something of such beauty would be in a system of people who didn't appreciate it. He made sure to copy images of it to his personal archive. As unimportant as it may have sounded then and there, he thought he might use it in a painting.
The Churchill and the Jefferson Davis were holding steady at one-fifth G a few hundred kilometers behind the Erikson. Roger hoped the stations and ships that worked with them would survive the change in leadership.
They were still waiting for the locals to try something. After a day, nothing. Nothing but status checks and scans with the radar and mass detector.
At ten minutes past the hour, Dianna called out. "Sensors and weapons are online and read green."
No doubt prompted by that, Thomas called out, "All other systems are green, engines..."
Roger saw tracks appear as Dianna called out, "Targets burning; polar orbit!"
Roger cut thrust and said, "Go over the engines and NEG's again, Thomas. We might need to do an extended high-G burn."
Roger was going through the records of the overwatch sats in high orbit of the gas giant when they received a transmission.
It was Adrian; he was in the C&C and did not look at all happy. "We have in excess of a dozen incoming bogies. Most likely their iron-nickel rocks outfitted with enough of a plasma drive to break orbit, maybe with a low impulse drive too. We project them using the planet to slingshot.
"Sending you the numbers now. These rocks are massive. If any of them hit the Erikson, the damage will be total. Worse if they have explosives; they would only have to make a fast pass within spitting distance to utterly destroy us."
Never one to overdo a point he then said, "Sending both of you new courses. You're to burn to the estimated perigee and alter their courses."
Roger made sure their flight suits were registering with the computer. Then he turned the boat around started the four G burn.
---
After a not very restful five hours sleep, Captain Patel exited his tiny emergency quarters. He put on his uniform, making sure it was immaculate before he left.
The Erikson had yet to travel a single AU. They had weeks at least until they would be past the reach of the locals.
He walked to the lift, making sure his pace was slow and measured. He made sure to pass by a couple mess halls.
---
Three handshakes and one fist bump later, he was in the lift and descending to engineering. That early in the morning, most people were still waking up, so the lift took him directly there.
Engineering was on several decks, it and consisted mostly of control and monitoring stations.
Not yet three meters in, the chief turned a corner and saw him.
"What can I do for you? We're kind of busy right now." Chief Harken said as he turned around and continued to walk into the torch control room.
Everyone looked intent on what they were doing, for most that involved the large tank in the middle of the room, which showed a diagram of the torch.
Before he could even speak, Chief Harken continued, "Shit, you're here to tell me we need to crank it up, aren't you?"
"If even one of those rocks hits us, that would be it. We need to be ready to take the Erikson up to one G, and maybe even passed that," the captain said.
This caused Harken to stop mid-step. Speaking slowing he said, "Fuck, you know we've never done that right? We did a sim a couple years ago to settle a bet. In theory, we could take her up to one point three, but that assumed a good plate and near ideal conditions. You know how I feel about assuming ideal conditions."
Under his stare, Harken sighed. and said, "Fine, I'll see what I can do. Should be able to dredge up that sim info. But we will have to run the fusion generator up well past the red line to get there."
"If I give that order, we will have worse problems, trust me."
---
The blip was getting closer. They were almost there when Roger flipped the Churchill around and brought them to ten G's very briefly.
Dianna reported, "Radar and lidar have a lock, holding at fifty mps and fifty klicks. No indication of weapons or engines."
"I've heard that before. Locals are damn good at hiding them, and the last serval have been hidden a damn sight better than the first ones we stopped a week ago," Thomas said from behind Roger.
"We are well aware of that, Thomas, as always we should assume it has weapons until proven otherwise," Dianna said.
"You're clear to make a pass. Suggest you use the laser, we don't have that many rail slugs left." Dianna said.
Roger took them up to four G's. He then brought them back down to two and started to do evasive maneuvers. He felt a pain in his side and a coldness, then the world turned sluggish and he felt his heartbeat slow, the high G drugs were entering his system.
It took five passes before they had slagged the ion drives and altered the course of the rock enough to push it into the green.
Just after they finished, Roger's alarm went off. If things had gone as planned, the Hermes had just left the Erikson to pick up Kat.
---
Another day or so and enough rocks would have been diverted that they could head back.
"Rock C-18 reads as off-course and its engines are dead. We are clear to go to the next target."
Roger lined them up for the next rock, "Prepare for burn. We have twenty minutes to minimum range."
He took them to one and a half G's.
Thomas cracked his knuckles. "Just one day to go. Anyone else want some pizza when we get back? I hear your brother-in-law has a new recipe that tastes almost as good as the real thing."
Roger saw A blip appeared on his screen. It read as optical and thermal only, too far for radar or mass detector to pick up. It was far too large to be a missile.
It read as more uniform than the rocks they had been shooting.
Then it started to accelerate at over five G's.
Thomas slowly said, "That's.... not possible."
Dianna stated, "It's not an asteroid, not if it's accelerating at five G's. That is a ship, if a small one."
Roger started to run the numbers as best as he could, it was far away, across the curve of the planet. They only knew about it because the overwatch sats were relaying their readings.
The Davis came over the radio, "With your permission, we're going to investigate that ship, Roger."
He looked at the charts and saw that the Davis was much closer, so he said, "You have a go. Be careful."
---
The Churchill had taken out two more rocks and were in transit to a third when the Davis caught up to the bogie.
It was a cylinder with plasma coming out one end.
"That drive exhaust is at least four times hotter than anything we have seen from the local's ships," Dianna said.
Roger got the feeling they had missed something big.
"Firing twenty slugs." Roger heard as the Davis fired rail slugs at the target. The ship immediately flipped around and started an even harder burn. It easily evaded the rail slugs.
"Fuck," he heard as a missile left the ship and went after the Davis.
Roger felt antsy, he wanted to help to do something, but he couldn't; he was stuck light seconds away.
The Davis waited for it to get only twenty klick's away then went five G's at a ninety-degree angle.
It turned and followed. It then blew up at ten klick's away from the Davis. Then the telemetry feed cut out.
"That is not good," Dianna said. Roger turned and saw that she was reviewing the telemetry they got from the last few seconds of signal.
"What was it?" Thomas asked.
Just then over the radio came, "We're here. That was a nuke, Churchill."
Dianna, talking to Roger said, "Specifically that was a neutron bomb. Moreover, that missile looked too cumbersome for use against any of the boats. It was far too large and took far too long to turn."
Thomas softly said, "There's only one reason to use a neutron bomb. They mean to capture the Erikson and kill us all."
Dead silence hung in the air.
"We're going to try a fast pass with the lasers. It evades and accelerates too much for our rail guns. Wish us luck."
The Davis had to push it to almost seven G's. Enough that the pilot would not be able to control the boat at all. They would have to rely on pre-programming the boat just to catch up. They got within a kilometer of it and used their lasers at full power.
Nothing.
No effect at all.
After backing off to only two G's, the pilot of the Davis said, "It looks like it has some sort of reflective coating and is spinning down its long axis. Lasers won't work. But I know what will.
"Roger, please tell our families that we love them. Have a round on me when you get back."
Before Roger could reply, the Davis started burning impossibly hot. They approached fifteen G's.
He saw the distance close to nothing, then the signal feed cut. The sensors showed an explosion.
In a silent explosion, they were gone, three lives given so others could live.
Roger said a short prayer and tried not to think about the crew of the Davis. He still had a job to do.
The computer warned him that another bogie was detected. It was burning in polar orbit at over ten G's.
With horror, he realized that the rocks had never been the plan. The locals had never wanted to destroy the Erikson. They were a diversion, a way to draw the boats.
And it had worked.
---
Roger started shaking, feeling overwhelmed.
He really wanted to ask for help but the Erikson was six AU's away and it would take almost two hours to get a reply.
He asked Dianna, "How many of the rocks are serious threats? How many do we have to divert?"
While she did that, he asked the computer for an intercept course to the missile carrier. He was hoping there was a solution. That there was some way to both divert the rocks and destroy the carrier. Some way to protect the Erikson.
She finally spoke with a steadiness he envied, "Five. They are tagged on your board."
Thomas cut in and said. "We can't do both. There is no way we can stop the carrier and the rocks."
Looking at the display, he saw that Thomas was right. If they left right then, they might be able to take the carrier out. But that would leave at least five rocks able to do serious damage to the Erikson. They were massive enough that even if the Erickson could turn in time, he was not sure if the navigation lasers could take them out.
Dianna reported, "Current round-trip transmission time to the Erikson is approximately one hour and forty-six minutes."
Roger spoke into the radio. "This is the Churchill. We see no way to stop both the rocks and what we can only take to be a nuke carrier you have incoming."
Roger gathered his courage and said, "We... , I, have decided that we are going to divert the rocks. Sorry, we can't do more."
The Erikson would have to find a way to stop the carrier on its own. Roger had no idea if that was even possible, but he tried to have faith.
Roger went back to shooting down rocks, hoping that he had not signed the death warrant of more than four thousand people.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
