Chapter 8: Forward The Light Brigade!

As with each of his children, Michael devoted individual time to Caleb. “Son, you’ve learned a lot, and I’m impressed. You have friends that you treat well, and they treat you well. Together you are damned near unstoppable.” He paused, then continued his thought, “being first is not often easy. Usually the trailblazer has it harder, even if success makes the journey look less difficult than it was – to the ignorant, anyway.”

“There are people who insist that all problems are just opportunities. Sometimes they are, but that’s a trap. Just as often as not, a problem is just a problem and trying to make it into an opportunity will get someone hurt or killed. You have to know the difference. A rattlesnake – remember what that is? Okay, good. A rattlesnake in your path is a problem. Before you can figure out the opportunity, it could bite you in the ass and you’ll die.”

“Like with the body memory for martial arts and most sports, you and your cohort need to learn the mental moves so that when a crisis occurs, you can react with assurance that your response is appropriate.” When Caleb made no response, Michael finished his point, “Sometimes that response should be physical; just remember that you have more power in your physical response than just about any human in history.”

This time, the problem was an opportunity, but it could still bite him and his friends – maybe all of humanity.

After a stop at Azahar with Jubal fronting as the piloting AI, Cheval Jaune entered the Tuullat System for Caleb’s initial visit in his new body. Aboard Cheval Jaune Caleb carried Jubal, his companions, and his Praetorian guard. Inkie accompanied him aboard Helva. As a courtesy to the Tuull, Cheval Jaune was completely unarmed, though the fittings for some of his weaponry were installed. Helva was transporting samples of the actual weapons and ammunition so that the Tuull, if they wished, could examine them.

When the ships initiated their calls for orbital assignments, they were asked to report to the Tuull Planetary Council, immediately, if not sooner. Physical presence not required, via avatar was just fine. Something, as they say, was definitely up.

Helva stepped in as moderator for her friends and linked to find that the councilors were not seated at their oval table. For most of the council, it was the middle of their sleep cycle, and thirteen pairs of sleep-filled eyes blinked at the newcomers’ appearance in their separate sleeping chambers. Make that twelve. Lead Counselor T’Bwinkel was alert and present as usual.

No preliminaries this time. T’Bwinkel started immediately, <S’Rndult T’Blssut, T’Krandit, T’Kleesual, J’Tocost – friends, godson – we have an urgency, likely an emergency.> She paused, thought, and told them, <J’Tocost, if C’Mell, T’Cord, and W’Aina are with you, they should hear as well.>

Three additional avatars winked in. Totally aware, the Musketeers had been eavesdropping.

<An important ship is stranded. We received a messenger drone with a request for assistance. R’Stbkt, the ship’s AI, reported striking or being stuck as they entered the un-named system. Their propulsion section was sheared off, and they are drifting with no materials that nanites can use to build another. They have power but no ability to maneuver. Their drifting may have saved them, because Dangerous Ones are present in the system.>

As her audience took this in, she continued, <The ship has technology that the Dangerous Ones, as yet, do not. We need to mount a rescue, but you, J’Tocost, are our only insurance. If the rescue fails, you must... > She could not say the words.

<I know your meaning, > Caleb told her, <The ship will not be taken by the Sa’arm.>

<You may not realize it, but your ship – and you are just as vital and very precious to all Tuull. You must return!> T’Bwinkel was shaking with the effort to say more, but she could not.

As they made their way in system to orbit Tuull, Helva prepared for an unloading of her cargo. Both because of capacity and because of sensitivity to Tuull concerning weapons intended to destroy sapient beings, she had only brought two examples of each weapon and limited amounts of ammunition. Regrets were not helpful.

One of the Tuull’s major shipyards was near the Freighters’ Temple that orbited Tuull and was also near the orbits of retired AIs in their obsolete ships. As Helva approached, she was greeted with warm welcomes from those who recognized her hull as once belonging to T’Kuudshpp, registration – Tuullat 11130. The registration remained the same, but the young AI, T’Krandit, was a hero to those now feeling ‘stuck’ in orbit.

When T’Kuudshpp had departed on its mission to Earthat, it was given fuel, a cursory fitness check, and an even more cursory adieu. Now, as a potential savior, Helva’s hull would be given the best refit possible in the short time needed to arm Cheval Jaune. Upon her return, Helva would receive all the latest technology that the Tuull could bestow. Mounts for armaments that she was not now structured to accept and the armaments themselves would be supplied and mounted upon her return to a human shipyard.

At the bow, Cheval Jaune had been fitted with a pod originally designed for the Archerfish. It had six missile tubes facing forward and an empty magazine capable of holding an additional forty-eight homing missiles designed by Azahar’s brain trust. While Caleb’s new missiles were generations improved upon the original design, Helva had transported only four. In the time allowed, The Tuull replicators were able to provide an additional two modified with an even faster boost. Replicating more missiles while underway was beyond the capability of any of the ships’ replicators. Six missiles were not much for a fight with Sa’arm.

In the same interval, three pods mounting chain guns were installed with quadruple the ammunition originally brought along, and more could be replicated in route. These pods were installed equidistant around his central axis and within the hull to preserve Cheval Jaune’s stealth. When needed, the pods would be raised to fire depleted uranium slugs from the selected-fire cannons based on the venerable M242 Bushmaster.

Both Cheval Jaune’s and Helva’s electronic systems and human-to-ship direct interfaces were upgraded with the Tuull’s latest technology.

Helva was admiring her new upgrades and happily singing to the whole system, <I feel pretty, oh so pretty... >

She was interrupted by, <Our clans are permitting us to accompany you and assist.>

In rapid succession, three retired AIs identified themselves as Tuullat 10130, R’Crosset; Tuullat 10104, R’kkhund; and Tuullat 10048, S’Vageit. <We can’t fight, but we can assist in rescue operations or act as decoys, > R’Crosset told them. <I once had a key role in rescue and trauma treatment. Now I’m mostly bored and useless. Children and grandchildren from my former crew plan to come along.>

<I’ll be a decoy, > R’kkhund told them. <I won’t bring crew. I haven’t asked.>

<My specialty is salvage, > S’Vageit added. <I have a full crew of volunteers from my clan. They are accustomed to dangerous rescue missions.>

<So be it!> decreed Lead Counselor T’Bwinkel. < S’Rndult T’Blssut, you are named commodore of this flotilla. J’Tocost, you are second in responsibility. R’Crosset, R’kkhund, and S’Vageit your service is accepted with our gratitude to you and your clans. Haul your hulls over and get polished up.>

<I’m detaching Lieutenant Vivie Arthur and sending her with Caleb as tactical and operations officer, > Inkie told her flotilla. < Caleb, you are still in command, but she has real world combat experience both as an NCO and as Captain of Helva. You are my sword while I’ll be standing back, so I’m also sending my Marines. You’ve been with me enough to know they are all my family, so I expect you to bring them back undamaged.>

<Other assignments. B’Nov, F’Tale, and J’Tocost’s other Tuull companions will travel with S’Vageit to assist with rescue, salvage, and demolition operations. Your primary function will be communications and coordination.> She used Tuull names to ensure the newcomer Tuull AIs knew exactly who was being detailed to them.

<Caleb, > Inkie continued, <Isn’t Shellie your Praetorians’ primary demolition expert? Detail her and her backup to ride aboard 10048 and help S’Vageit’s crew if they need to blow the 10655. Tell her to check in with R’Stbkt first thing.>

<Uhh, got it, > Caleb injected. <Listen, I have an idea, but we’ll need two, or at least one human volunteer to ride with R’kkhund. Jamaal and Cassandra Anne have stepped up, so they’re them. I’ll explain later, but they’ll take two escape capsules with them.> He added, < R’kkhund, your decoy mission will likely be somewhat more risky than the rest of ours, but it doesn’t have to start out as a planned suicide. I’ll send one of my extra AI housings. Fill your pods with sand and gravel.>

That opened the door to suggestions from any of the participants, and the ideas flew. After hours of discussion, the plan was finalized, the final logistics decided, supplies loaded, and personnel transferred. The flotilla departed with multiple best wishes.

For a thrown together, half-assed-planned, inadequately armed effort, the rescue mission was a surprising success. Almost!

Five ships hung just inside the inner boundary of the target system’s Oort cloud. They knew, from the messenger drone, approximately where in the system the injured ship waited, and where the Sa’arm had been spotted. That information was outdated and further refining was urgently needed.

Cheval Jaune’s missile pod was equipped with three stealthy Remora-class probes. They had no supraluminal drive and were designed to feed data and targeting information to the pod’s fire control. The Tuull had provided two additional probes with rear-focused tight beam communications and an all-in engine capable of huge accelerations over a very short period.

The two modified probes ceased their high G burn before leaving the Oort cloud and coasted sunward on their data gathering missions. Even at a significant fraction of light speed, hours passed while the probes relied on passive sensors. Finally, the location of R’Stbkt, in the crippled ship Tuullat 10655, was pinpointed. So far, there was no sign of the Sa’arm, but they could be in any of the system’s asteroid belts or on the far side of a planet.

Caleb and Vivie consulted briefly with Inkie, and proceeded stealthily above the ecliptic, and then inward towards the system’s outermost asteroid belt, located between the belt and the Oort cloud. They would find a position in the belt and lurk, watching the system and the crippled Tuull ship. Tuullat 10104, R’kkhund, proceeded inward to position itself on arc ten degrees away from the marooned ship.

There was still no sign of Sa’arm. Were the adversaries human, an ambush would be suspected, but the Sa’arm focused on their own priorities unless otherwise given a reason. Caleb, the most sunward of the small flotilla, hoped that the crippled ship and his own company were not among the Sa’arm priorities.

They waited a day and then another, the Musketeers playing strip poker ‘with benefits’ among themselves and with the Praetorians. With the Marines, they played canasta. During the voyage from Tuull, all aboard had rehearsed and rehearsed their roles – the Marines and Praetorians were the primaries in the ‘gun’ pods, the Musketeers in the missile pod – each assigned a pair of missiles. Vivie and Jubal spent hours telling stories, discussing ‘what-ifs’, and searching the system for changes or anomalies.