Rescue Mission
Chapter 4

Copyright© 2009 by Duke of Ramus

"Commander."

"Ma'am."

"These are my concubines," said the Captain indicating a young man and a slightly older looking woman.

"Ma'am?" replied Bert.

"You wanted two people to watch your back."

"That's right, Ma'am," said Bert.

"These are they," said Alice, favouring Bert with a smile. "I'd be most appreciative if you could bring them back when you've finished with them."

Bert nodded, "I'll do that, Ma'am."

"David, Yvonne, this is Commander Murray. You'll be working with him until this, uhmm, problem is solved."

The two concubines nodded but looked confused. Bert took charge, "Come on, you two, let's go and get things organised."

He nodded to Alice and headed off, the two confused concubines following in his wake. He headed straight for the small medical bay and didn't say a word until the three of them were inside and the door was shut.

"Have either of you ever fired a gun before?"

David shook his head, "No."

Yvonne nodded, "I have," she said. "My dad was a hunter and he taught all of us kids to shoot."

"OK," said Bert and then paused. "I take it neither of you has a clue as to what is going on?"

"No, Sir," they responded in unison. Yvonne added, "I know we've been sent somewhere unexpected and there's a lot of tension in the air."

Bert nodded, "You're right there," he said. "Simply put, one of our bases is in trouble. We're being sent there to evacuate the base and destroy what's left behind. Where you two come in is that I'm going to be on the ground sort of directing things and I need someone to watch my back. It looks like you two have been given the job."

Yvonne swallowed and David looked shocked.

"How it's going to work is this," explained Bert, "You're going to be made to look like Marines." He waved towards the med tubes, "Physically at least. After that it's down to uniform. Yvonne will get a rifle and you'll get a stinger, David. When we go down to the planet you'll follow me around and keep an eye open."

Yvonne looked troubled, "Sir, we, err, are not allowed, you know, to urmm, harm volunteers."

"Normally that's right," said Bert, "but in this case you will be operating under my direct supervision. If you take down a volunteer, even kill one, it will be at my command. Any trouble that flows from this will be coming in my direction, not yours. As soon as you are returned to the Captain anything you've done whilst with me will be forgotten about."

"Can you do that?" asked David.

"AI?"

"Under the parameters of this mission 'any and all options are acceptable, '" responded the AI. "Commander Murray has given a legal set of orders and the concubines of Alice Freeman will not be held responsible for the death or injuries suffered by any volunteers," it paused, "or any others."

Yvonne and David stood there looking at Bert, who grinned back. "That's right, I'm even more god-like than normal," he said and chuckled. "Now hop into these pods so we can get you looking like Marines. I'll see you when you come out and we can get you fitted out then."

Slowly, nervously even, the two concubines entered the med tubes as Bert gave his instructions to the AI. As the two tubes sealed another concubine entered the room, "I'm here to keep watch, Sir," she said softly.

Bert nodded to the concubine but was listening as the AI said in his ear, "Transformation will be finished in eight hours. There will be some residual pain but it should be present for no more than two hours after they exit the med tubes."

Bert turned to the concubine, "I'll be back for those two in eight hours, if there are any problems, or you have questions, give me a call."

"Yes, Sir," responded the woman as Bert left.


The bridge of the Eddie Stobart was fully manned once more as the ship approached the Morgat system. Commander Murray had found a place to stand behind the Captain's command chair and was watching silently as the Fleet Auxiliary personnel went about their allotted tasks.

Tension was high, much higher than it was for a normal transition to normal space. No one was sure what they would find and more than one of the people present had spent the previous night working through their own version of a nightmare scenario.

For Bert this was a worrying time, he could deal with going into danger on the ground because there he could have some impact on events. Here he was entirely in the hands of the ship's crew, admittedly a crew for which his respect had slowly been growing but it was still out of his hands.

Alice Freeman had her own worries, headed by dropping into normal space under the guns of a Sa'arm dreadnought. She'd been trying to convince herself that the Navy wouldn't have sent her into a situation where she didn't have a chance but she hadn't been successful. Things change. They may not have known what was here when they sent her. Thoughts like that kept nibbling away at the back of her mind as she sat there trying to look calm.

"Prepare for transition," announced the AI, it seemed excessively loud on the nearly silent bridge. Although everyone had been waiting for the announcement it managed to take almost everyone by surprise. Gasps greeted the words as the crew reacted.

"Five, four, three, two, one," came the countdown. "Transition..."

"Position confirmed, Ma'am," reported Jon Webb.

"Thank you, Jon," replied Alice. "Gerry, what can we see?"

"Scanning, Ma'am," replied Gerry Stevens as he worked the ship's limited sensor suite hard.

The bridge returned to silence as everyone there did their job but most of them were distracted, waiting for Gerry to announce his findings.

"Ma'am, there's one other ship in the system as far as I can tell," said Gerry looking up.

"And?" responded Alice.

"It is a Sa'arm ship, Ma'am. It is in orbit around the moon we're here to visit," said Gerry glancing at his screen. "The AI identifies it as a Volturnus freighter which, according to this readout has a capacity somewhere between ours and a Kilo class ship."

"Is there anything from the base yet?"

"Not yet, ma'am," replied Jon immediately. "but even if they're watching for us it'll take the best part of four hours for a radio message to reach us. We're going to have to deal with that transmission lag until we can get hyperspeed communications established." He shrugged, "And to be honest I don't think that it would be worth the effort it in this case."

"Agreed," said Alice, "we shouldn't be here long enough to need it."

She thought for a moment and then said, "Gerry, keep an eye on that ship and let me know if it starts to move." Gerry nodded once and turned back to his displays.

"Jon, head us towards the moon but keep it slow and easy. The last thing I want is to draw attention to ourselves."

"Ma'am," replied the First Officer and turned back to his duties.

"Should we deploy the modified pods?" asked Bert.

"Not yet," said Alice glancing towards the Marine. "We'll detach them about a light hour from the moon but keep them alongside us as we move in. I know that velocity would increase their impact value but the flight time from out here would give the Swarm a chance to evacuate the target area."

"A surgical strike rather than trying to disrupt the whole satellite," said Jon as he stepped up to the command chair.

"Don't get me wrong," said Bert, "I'm all in favour of that approach. Lobbing those pods from here would add another time constraint when we're on the ground. Having them in close may lower their destructive power but it does give us more control over when that impact is going to be."

 
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