Setosha - the Beating Heart
Copyright© 2010 by Prince von Vlox
Chapter 2
System D-278, Families Catalogue
Families Scout Snooper emerged from hyperjump nine light-hours from the M4 red dwarf that was listed in their catalogue as D-278. They were more than four times the system’s calculated hyperjump limit. There was a fine line between bold action and stupidity. Snooper’s captain knew where that line was and on which side of it she wanted to be. Her arrival might not be stealthy, but this distance gave her plenty of time to sniff this system thoroughly as she approached.
Snooper boosted inwards at a modest 10 gravities with every sensor alert. The ship’s brain, a coyote known as Mad Dog, kept their jump drive charged and on standby. At the slightest twitch of something he didn’t like, they would be in hyperjump.
After 12 hours of observing, the Captain, Second Officer Tatiana Silversmith, was convinced there was nothing hostile in the system. Snooper made another jump to just outside the hyperjump limit. The sensors that had been showing only a few hints of activity when Snooper was farther out burst into life.
“Gravity disturbance, neutrino sources, some R/F, somebody was here recently.”
“Any idea how recent, Loren?” Tatiana had her eyes closed, preferring to sample the direct feed from the sensors through her shunt.
“Umm ... today for sure, ma’am. I’ve got the residual energy spike of their exit jump. If I was guessing, it happened a couple of hours before we got here.”
“Anything else? Power sources? Gravitational sources?”
“Couple of nearby wormholes that might be worth investigating when we have some time. There’s also a really dim companion star that’s so small and far off it might as well not be there. It looks like a brown dwarf. Be a minute or two on the rest, we’re still establishing the baseline.”
Tatiana switched to her direct connection to the ship’s brain. “Mad Dog, what are your instincts telling you?”
“Bet the hand, Tasha.”
Tatiana smiled. One of the problems with using an animal’s brain to run all of the systems on a ship was what to do for that brain when the ship was in hyperjump. All sensory input from outside the ship was cut off. Some crews read to their ships’ brains, others played videos. In Mad Dog’s case, someone had taught him to use a manipulator arm and camera to play cards. His favorite was the Old Terran game poker. Now references to poker filled everything he did. Tatiana didn’t always take his recommendations, but this time she agreed with him. Her hand was good.
“We’ll proceed across the hyperjump limit,” she said. “Maintain current acceleration. If something shows that we don’t like, we’ll try to outrun it.” They had done that more than a few times.
An hour later, Loren, who was running the scan board, nodded. “I’ve got a long baseline scan of the inner system,” she said. “There are a lot of ships there. I make it over a hundred.”
Tatiana spun Snooper so they could boost to the hyperjump limit, and her finger hovered over the button that would send them away. “What kinds of ships?”
“Don’t know yet. This is weird, boss. I don’t have the high-energy signatures that would say these are warships, and I have no residual He3 like you get when ships refuel in orbit. I think ... um, I’m not sure, but I think these are commercial ships, and they’re just sitting there.”
Every nerve quivered. Her instinct was to run away. Tatiana fought it down; there was still plenty of time to run. “Are there any active power sources?”
“Some. Tastes like residual power ... neutrino ... no artificial gravity. Sort of like that repair depot at Weon, remember? Powered-down ships waiting to be fixed, only this is quieter. If these ships are being repaired, I can’t detect it.”
“Do we have anything in this system that looks hostile?” Tatiana hated unknowns, but she was a Scout because she was good at turning unknowns into knowns and surviving the process.
Once, years before, she’d taken time off, gone home for what was supposed to be two months of relaxation. She lasted less than 20 days. In that brief time, she had driven her sib-sisters crazy. They had finally packed her gear, bundled her into an aircar, and delivered her to the nearest Navy base, tears leaking all over their faces the whole trip.
“What else do we have?” Tatiana asked, relaxing slightly. “What about that ship that jumped out?”
“They were Idenux, boss. It’s all over their drive emissions.” Every ship’s drive had a unique R/F signature. If your equipment was good enough, you could tell the manufacturer as well. Snooper’s equipment was the best the Families could build or buy. “There was an Imperial drive here, too,” Loren continued. “My guess is that they were here at the same time. Nothing else is active.”
“Mad Dog?”
“Your call, Tasha, but I’d say staying is a good bet.”
“Puppy, ‘There are old scouts and there are bold scouts, but... ‘“
”’ ... but there are no old bold scouts’.” She caught the faintest hint of his tongue-lolling coyote grin in her mind’s eye. “True, but times like this are why the lead dog gets the biggest share.”
Tatiana took a deep breath. Dead ships or live, all of these hulls in one place was definitely something Fleet had to know about. She should get out of here and report it. Nothing else would be prudent.
“Rosie, get a drone off with everything we’ve found so far, and plot a maximum acceleration course moving off the ecliptic for us. Keep the escape route plot current and warm up another drone. Copy everything we get from now on into the second drone as we get it.”
“Maximum acceleration course moving off the ecliptic, aye ma’am,” Rosie repeated, her hands busy across her board. “Locked in and updating every ten seconds. Touch the button and we’re headed elsewhere as fast as we can run.”
“Good.” Mad Dog was right: she had to check this out. “Shape orbit for the inner system. We’re staying. Something’s funny here, and I want to know what it is.”
Ten hours later, the mystery was only deeper. The system was full of merchant ships, but they were just drifting in orbit around the primary. There was nothing else constructed by humankind to be found in the system, no station, no planetoid base, no repair ships, nothing. Except for the ships, the system was empty.
Mad Dog had identified the ship that was the most recent arrival based on its power plant signature and infrared emissions. Tatiana decided that was as good a place to start as any. Snooper approached as skittishly as a cat ready to run screeching from trouble.
“Looks like a Families merchant,” Loren said. On a close-up video shot, they could see the crew/drive module and the skeleton for the cargo pods that were characteristic of Families bulk haulers. One cargo pod was still attached to the skeleton.
“Squawk them,” Tatiana told Anthoinett. “See if they respond. Low power, of course.”
Anthoinett rolled her eyes at the reminder of such a basic precaution. “Nothing. No return.”
“Again, just in case.”
Anthoinett shook her head. “Noth--wait one.” She ran through a quick series of signals. “The ship’s brain is still active. I’m getting something. Mad Dog? Can you understand any of this?”
Nobody could follow the complex signals that Mad Dog generated, but after a moment, they got a second response from the ship.
“Gone. My calves are gone,” Mad Dog reported. Everyone went quiet for a moment. Tatiana and Loren exchanged glances, and Rosie gave a slight shrug.
“I have residual power indications consistent with an active life support,” Loren said. “It’s not great life support, but it’s not shut off either.”
Tatiana got out of her Command Station and stretched her lanky frame. Given the close quarters Fleet declared adequate for the crew of a Scout, she was too tall. But her experience and luck made everyone put up with her height. She glanced around the tiny bridge with the three other girls working side by side, sighed, and made her way to Snooper’s miniature version of a galley. Her hands busied themselves making a pot of brew while her mind spun through their options. This was big, really big. She could taste it. An abandoned Families’ merchant, maybe more than one. Her first impulse was to run for the nearest Fleet base and bring in all of the experts she could. But she didn’t want to wait until later; she wanted to know now.
Leave? They had a live ship’s brain over there. They owed it to that ship’s brain to try everything possible to rescue it. But they had already recorded one recent Idenux incursion in this system, and an Imperial one as well. Others might show up at any moment.
Stay? They were unarmed. Their only real defense was their acceleration. They had a Fleet Carrier’s drive in a hull that was a fraction of a percent of a Fleet Carrier’s mass. They could run faster than anything except a missile, and if they had a head start, they could give most missiles a good run for it.
Fleet takes care of its own, she decided. We can’t leave that ship’s brain.
She carried a tray full of cups to her tiny bridge and passed them around. “Snuggle us up as close to that pod as you can,” she told Rosie. “Two volunteers to EVA. You all know the risks, but we should have plenty of warning if we have to leave.”
An hour later, the first EVA party entered the merchant. “It’s the Families Merchant Suzy Vi,” Anthoinnet reported. “Send over some food. I’ve got two very lonesome cats over here, and a bird that’s all over the place, frantic with joy.”
“Any people or crew?” Tatiana hoped there might be survivors hiding in the ship. It was unlikely, but stranger things had been known to happen in this war.
“Nothing, boss. But from the damage I’ve seen, they didn’t go quietly.”
“We never do. Maybe they took some with them. What about the ship’s brain?”
“We’ll know in a few minutes, ma’am. I’m on my way to the Bridge.”
“Now I’m worried,” Tatiana told Corella, her engineer. “When was the last time Anthoinnet called me ma’am?”
“Not in this lifetime. She’s nervous.”
“I would be, too. You can spare Tori for the next few minutes. Send her over with food for the animals, but tell her to get back fast.”
“Bad feeling?”
“We’re a stationary target. I hate that.”
Corella nodded. “Tori?” she called aft. “Shake a leg, girl. Food for the animals over there, and make it quick. If you can, see about bringing them back.”
Loren, the gal on scan, uttered a curse only a Marine could have dreamed up. “I have a hyperjump footprint. It just popped up on the scan.”
“My happiness is complete,” Tatiana said dryly. She added a few comments about the personal habits of whoever was conning that ship. Standard drill for Snooper in a situation like this was to get everyone on board and run. But this was not a standard situation, and Tatiana had no intentions of leaving. They were covered by the mass shadow of this abandoned merchant and were in a perfect position to see whatever was arriving without being seen themselves.
“Shut down all sensors except passive scan. Cycle down the power and gravity systems and see if you can push us in closer to that pod.”
“I think I can get us inside the thing, boss,” Rosie said. “Lots of debris, we may get some bumps and scrapes from it.”
“Do it. And if it means damage to our hull, do it anyway.”
Within a few minutes, they were partially wedged inside the pod, surrounded by a drifting cloud of wheat.
“Any update on that incoming jump?” Tatiana asked.
“Just emerged, one source, and it’s moving in-system at about 100 Gs. I’m plotting a course, but it’ll be a few minutes before I have anything definitive.”
“Has anybody notified Anthoinett and Tori?” Tatiana hesitated to use the radio; even if they focused their beam and used low power, a good receiver might detect reflections from the transmission.
“Tori went over just before we wedged ourselves in the pod,” Loren said. “She knows. They’re keeping quiet.” She thought a moment. “We could run a hardwire link over to them. That way, we wouldn’t have to use the radios.”
“If you haven’t done it already, go ahead,” Tatiana ordered. She pulled herself in front of the scan and double-checked everything. They were in passive mode on all frequencies. “Not much else anyone can do,” she said after a check of their visitor. “Sunni, you run that line. Lilliana, you and Rosie get some sleep. It’s going to be a few hours before anything serious happens.”
Tatiana made one final check of the scan. “Mad Dog? Wake me if anything happens. I’m going to get some rest, too.”
“Pleasant dreams, Tasha.”
Tatiana went to the closet that masqueraded as her cabin. She wasn’t tired, but she knew she had to get some sleep. This might be her last chance for quite a while.
Six hours later, she was back on the bridge checking the Scan. “Anything new?” she asked.
“The drive is Idenux,” Loren said. “We got a passive video of him about 20 minutes ago. I think he’s attached to something big because he’s as misshapen as can be. We’re working to refine the picture. It’s difficult right now, since he’s on the other side of the star.”
“What about across the way?”
“That’s the good news,” Loren said. “The ship’s brain is practically delirious with joy that we’re here, and the cats are climbing all over Anthoinnet. Tori managed to bring the parrot back in her suit.”
“Intelligence will love them all,” Tatiana said. “They’ll be famous.” Fleet Intelligence would take those animals’ memories apart one molecule at a time if they had to, anything to find the Families’ lost kin. “Did anybody check to see if we’re radiating?” The looks on their faces told her all she needed to know. “We have time because the Idenux ship is on the other side of the primary. Get someone outside to check.” She pressed the back of her hand onto a contact pad.
“Mad Dog?” she asked in her link to Snooper’s brain.
“Yes, Tasha?”
“Can you think of anything?”
“We’re doing fine. Too bad we’re not a warship; we could have some fun. We’re in such a good position to ambush them; my teeth ache.”
“You’ve been keeping the wrong company, puppy. We don’t fight, we scout.”
“You’re the only ones I’ve been around for years.”
“All right, I deserved that. If you sniff anything, buzz me.”
He didn’t answer, not in so many words, but she received a strong impression of a happy coyote. Lurking in ambush was Coyote Heaven.
Tatiana headed down to Snooper’s galley. The food was tasteless, but it was filling. Try as she might, she couldn’t make the meal stretch to fill enough time. Nothing was happening, nothing could happen for hours yet, but she wanted to be doing something. Patience was supposed to be a virtue in the Scouts, but sometimes it was difficult exercising that virtue.
She wondered why it was that the most exciting times could be the most boring. Then she chuckled. She had asked herself that same question many times. She glanced into their excuse for a wardroom. Three other crew members were already burning up the clock as only Snooper’s crew could. She joined them in a card game.
“Boss?”
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