Chapter 30: Emergency Measures

"You need to get that fire out!" I heard Timothy shout. "It's too close to your missile magazine."

"The magazine is empty!" a female voice called back. "We shot everything during our breakout from Ursus!"

"I'm not worried about an explosion," Timothy called back. "The smoke from that fire will be poisonous if it reaches the loading tubes. Those tubes contain heavy metals that you really don't want to breathe."

"Everyone here is in suits!" the voice cried back. "We haven't had atmosphere in most of our major compartments since we got jumped by two Sa'arm scouts during our raid on Ursus. How could we breathe your bad smoke in? Right now the fire isn't near anyone."

"We're just trying to keep as many people alive as we can," Ed replied softly. "This isn't an attack on you Captain..."

"Captain Custer is dead. As is our navigation officer. This is Lieutenant Dawn. I was weapons officer," the angry voice replied.

"Dawn," James said calmly. "Please understand, we're trying to get your ship to a repair dock so we can fix it."

"I agree with that!" Dawn shouted. "But the only officers left are Ensign Rutledge down in engineering and me. We lost eight crew as well, and right now Captain Custer's concubine is driving. Fortunately the man was some kind of champion racecar driver and he's been able to evade the Sa'arm attacks. Better than I can at least."

I glanced over at Diana to see one of her eyebrows rise. Cassidy was staring at the speaker in silence as the others continued to speak.

James," I heard Linus call out. "We have four Sa'arm scouts in the system now. Two are definitely stalking the Cabo San Lucas. The others appear to be aiming for a gravity slingshot around Kali to give them speed for an attack run on us."

"We mined that route well enough, I hope," James replied. "And I hope we've done something about the timing of our system defenses so that we have a better chance to catch the scouts."

"We did," Reggie replied. "But Terrence is the best at this and he's sleeping. I'm covering and will try to time it right. We still need to get rid of the two after Cabo, and with Cabo's IFF not functional we can't use most of our automated defenses."

"I have Debby ready and Linus has Brad ready to go," Tyson said. "But they are still out of range."

"Can you get them before they get us?" Dawn asked. "We're down to about sixty percent of our maximum acceleration and it's dropping. Our starboard engine is starting to fail."

"I'm turning on a navigational beacon," Linus said. "Turn and head for that. Unless your acceleration drops to nothing you'll stay far enough ahead of the scouts to avoid any attacks until we can range on them and this should get them to line up nicely for our shots."

"Turning now," Lieutenant Dawn said.

"James!" I heard Michelle call out. "Admiral Himmel is calling for a report on Sahara."

"Damn!" James replied. "Put him through and then see if you can wake Captain Narvaza. Yvette do we have any status on the people in the medical pods?"

"Mieko!" A voice called out from the medical room. I turned to look and saw Gina stepping from the passage. "Let James know that all of Sahara's crew we put into pods are recovering nicely, and remind him that I need a couple helpers for when they start emerging. The first two should be out in about thirty minutes."

Before I could speak three children ran into the room. I glanced over and realized that Roge, Jose and Lupe had just entered.

"Auntie Marie told us to come here and help Gina!" Roge called out.

"Helpers for you Gina," Ingrid called out. "Meiko we have a crewman from Sahara incoming."

Lieutenant Cassidy looked over at the doorway to the main passage. "I'll talk to him," she replied.

I turned my attention back to the speakers. "James," Admiral Himmel gruffly said. "You have another of my ships there I hear."

"Two now," James replied. "The original report was for Sahara. She arrived from Wolf with severe damage to her port side. Originally we hoped we could turn her in a day, but it now looks like a four-day repair. We're having to cut away a lot of damage."

"And the second?" the Admiral asked.

"Cabo San Lucas jumped in about two hours ago," James replied. "She's being pursued right now, and we are trying to eliminate the scouts that are chasing her. The casualties on Cabo appear to be severe."

"How bad?"

"We haven't been able to get a full report as the ship is still trying to run from the Sa'arm scouts, but the weapons officer is in charge and she's said that the only other officer is the ensign in engineering. She's also reported at least eight crew killed," James replied.

"Damn," The Admiral growled.

"Admiral!" I heard a new voice call out. "This is Captain Narvaza. Sorry I didn't report immediately, but it was recommended that I get some rest while the full extent of the damage was determined."

"I'd rather that, than receive a half-baked report that contains omissions," the Admiral growled again. "I've seen the preliminary report and the combat logs. Your approach was masterful, but you should have paid attention to your navigation officer when she asked about the echoes."

"She's a navigation officer!" Captain Narvaza shouted. "How was I supposed to know that she'd found some new weapon?"

Cassidy gasped. I jumped over to hug her and warn her to be quiet.

James jumped in. "Captain, please remain calm. No one is accusing you of any fault. Take the Admiral's words as advice on how to handle the situation next time. Now, Michelle should have passed on the latest repair data."

"Yes," the Captain growled. "Four days. Can't you do it faster?"

"We have to cut through two layers of armor and several damaged decks to get at the communications relays that were damaged. It will take time to do that, and then more time because we basically have to rebuild the entire portside structure. Unless you want a ship that is almost defenseless on one side," James replied calmly.

"If he does, warn me now so I can arrange a replacement captain," Admiral Himmel barked. "I don't need commanders who throw away men."

Ishtar!" Dawn's voice cried out, breaking into the conversation. "The Sa'arm are firing on my ship and the starboard engine has failed."

"Don't panic," Linus replied. "And tell your helmsman to hold his vector a bit better. We have to hurry the shots and the more time the Sa'arm run in a straight line, the more accurate we can be. Right now he's jumping around too much and the Sa'arm aren't keeping a steady vector."

"We'll be hit!" Dawn replied. "And our armor back there is already battered."

"Not if we can shoot first," Tyson said. "Linus I have a solution. It's a risk, but I'm sending Debby up."

"Roger, I'll have Brad on ... Brad! Check your suit's right shoulder, I'm showing a seal failure warning," Linus replied.

"What's the problem?" the Admiral asked.

"Cabo San Lucas is in system, but is being chased by a couple of Sa'arm scouts. We are trying to shoot them, but you know our atmosphere," James replied. "Linus, who else do we have who can armor up?"