Dubious Heroes: a novel Read online

  “Are those ships in there?” I asked, looking at the scan of the big central cavity in the asteroid.

  “A couple of small ones”, Kyra said. “Neither are big enough to be the Defender or the pirate ship, though. I also see a bunch of little one-man maintenance pods. Probably swiped them off of a repair ship they raided. I’ve seen plenty of wildcat mining operations; these guys are not miners.”

  “I’m open to suggestions”, I said. “If they know we’re out here, then lurking around and waiting for someone to show up isn’t going to do us any good.”

  “I’m for being a little more… proactive”, Kyra said. “Any of you familiar with something called a hornet’s nest?”

  “Earth-based apian variety, known for their painful stings and hive behavior”, Angie said.

  “Wasn’t asking you”, Kyra said.

  “Some sort of flying insect, isn’t it?” I said.

  “It’s like a bee”, Cozi said. “Like Angie said, they can sting you, I think.”

  “Oh, hell yes”, Eng said. “Vicious little bastards. They’ll sting the bejesus out of you, if they get the chance. A nest of them would be a world of hurt. Doesn’t Luna have bees?”

  “No flying insects at all”, I said. “I think there might have been some bees in the arboretum. We did have roaches, though. Lots of them.”

  “Roaches are everywhere”, Kyra said. “And hornets are sort of like bees, but a bit nastier. That, and they tend to act as a group. You mess with their nest, and they all come to its defense.”

  “So, we treat that base like a hornet’s nest”, I said, “which means, we do what?”

  “Well”, Kyra said, “If you want to find any hornets around, all you have to do is whack their nest. They’ll show up.”

  “Well, it’s an idea”, I said. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea, though. Sounds like a great way to get stung.”

  “With a real hornet’s nest, yeah”, Kyra said. “The difference here is that we’re probably a lot nastier than any hornets that might be around. They know we’re out here now, and that we’re not in any hurry to leave. So, let’s fuck with them a bit, and see who shows up. If someone does, we grab them, and see if they know where Vassily and the Defender are. If no one shows, we can always raid the place, and see what we can find.”

  “Well, it’s a plan”, Eng said, not sounding particularly enthused.

  “Sounds more like one of my plans”, I said.

  “No shit”, Cozi said. “If it matters, I vote no.”

  “It doesn’t matter”, I said, “because this isn’t a democracy.”

  “Next time we steal a ship, you’re the engineer and I’m the Captain”, he said.

  “Fair enough”, I said. “How’s our power situation?”

  “Power is fine”, Cozi said. “As is everything else. About the only thing we haven’t fixed yet is the Avalon.”

  “Which we don’t need for this, anyway”, I said. “How about we go whack a hornet’s nest?”

  “Sounds like a wonderful idea”, Cozi said.

  Pretty sure he didn’t mean that.

  The main vidscreen displayed a crystal-clear view of what appeared to be nothing more than a big gray rock. The cameras were enhancing the picture, since there isn’t a lot of light in space, unless you’re near a star, and we weren’t. Not only is the universe fairly empty, it’s also pretty damn dark. With the millimeter-wave radar, we could count every bump on the thing, light or no light.

  The original miners had come in, and first stopped the asteroid from tumbling. We knew this because asteroids move, even if only just a little, and this one was stationary. After that, they’d blasted out a huge central chamber, so as to get better access to the core of the rock. The resulting hole was large enough to park three or four of the Revenge in, although this wasn’t the intention of the miners. Instead, they began drilling shafts and tunnels into the walls of the chamber. By the time they were done, the asteroid resembled a large chunk of Swiss cheese. Not that I’ve eaten any, but I’ve seen pictures.

  When someone converted it to a base, engineers had constructed huge doors to cover the central chamber, and covered them with matching rock from the asteroid. The resulting doors would never fool radar, but to someone just passing by, as we’d been, the doors looked a lot like any other part of the asteroid. This was not the work of some ragtag bunch of pirates; those doors had cost someone a small fortune. I had a pretty good idea who’d paid for it.

  The central chamber wasn’t pressurized, which figured; air is expensive, and the big doors probably leaked like a sieve. We could see from the radar that a number of tunnels and smaller chambers were indeed sealed, so it was a safe bet that this was where we’d find the people. People who were doing their level best to ignore us, as it were.

  “Well”, I said. “We’ve tried being polite and hailing them. What now? Go up and knock?”

  “Maybe we should sound battle stations”, Eng said.

  “I’m not detecting any weapons”, Kyra said.

  “Which doesn’t mean anything”, Eng said. “That radar isn’t penetrating all that far into the rock. Also, the point of this is to make someone show up, right?”

  “You’re right, Mister Eng”, I said. “Let’s give it a little while, then I’ll call it. For now, what we need to do is to get their attention.”

  “By which, you mean literally whacking the proverbial hornet’s nest”, he said.

  “Yep”, I said. “Exactly so. Kyra… whack it, please.”

  “Missile away”, Kyra said. “Impact in three, two, one… ”

  A huge plume of debris erupted from the surface of the asteroid, about a hundred meters to the left of the big doors.

  “Consider it whacked”, she said.

  “We’re being hailed”, Angie said.

  “Imagine that”, I said, smiling. “Someone’s home, after all. Onscreen, Angie.”

  “Audio only”, she said.

  “This is Captain Orel Doon of the Revenge“, I said. “Who’re you?”

  “I am Sergei”, a male voice said, the Russian accent heavy. “What the fock are you doing?”

  “We’re looking for some friends of ours”, I said. “Maybe you’ve seen them. Medium-sized cargo ship, with a bunch of Russians and Brits aboard.”

  “We have seen no one”, Sergei said. “We are peaceful colony. Leave us focking alone. Go away.”

  “How about if we have a chat”, I said. “Face to face.”

  No response.

  “I don’t think Sergei is interested in making new friends”, Kyra said. “Shoot em again?”

  “The guy might be telling the truth”, Eng said. “We could be harassing a bunch of innocent hermits.”

  “That’s a possibility”, I said. “But, I doubt it. Let’s see if he calls for help. Anything on radar?”

  “Nope”, Kyra said. “Still, you could hide a fleet among all these rocks.”

  “That’s a comforting thought”, Eng said, doing his best impression of Cozi.

  “It is what it is”, Kyra said. “Angie, can you give us a count of the humans in the base?”

  “I’m showing fifty-three people”, she said. “There could be more, though. As Mister Eng noted, the millimeter-wave radar isn’t penetrating very deeply into the rock.”

  “You thinking we ought to head in, and introduce ourselves?” I asked.

  “Maybe as a last resort”, Kyra said. “I’m not comfortable taking on a force that large. Maybe if we had more marines.”

  “In that case”, I said, “Let’s just hang around for a bit. We’ll wait about an hour, and shoot em again. If someone is on the way to help them, it might take some time for them to show up.”

  “Ship transiting in”, Angie said.

  “Or not”, Eng said.

  “Guess we know what kind of ship can transit into the middle of the asteroid belt”, Kyra said. “Sounding battle stations.”

  I could faintly hear the claxon whooping below us
, and I imagined the marines in a mad rush to get suited up.

  “Looks like one of the ships from Triton”, Kyra said. “Probably the one that got away.”

  “I would really like to know how many of these new ships they’ve built”, I said. “Counting this one, they’ve already lost three of them.”

  “I had an idea those pirates might be connected to the UP”, Eng said. “Guess this sort of proves it.”

  “How long have you suspected that?” I asked.

  “Awhile”, Eng said, shrugging, when I looked over at him.

  "I was thinking the same thing." I said, "We need to talk more."

  "That’s nice", Kyra said. "You two bond later. You got your hornet, and I’m betting that frigate didn’t show up to chat."

  "No, they did not", I said. “I hate the idea of getting into a fight in the middle of all these asteroids, though. Angie, how fast can you get us out of this asteroid belt?"

  "Without doing a microjump?"

  "Ideally, yes", I said. "Just using the pulse drive. I'd like them to follow us."

  "Four hours, thirteen minutes", she said. "A little faster, if we ignore the smaller rocks."

  "Do it", I said. "Try not to hit anything big enough to hurt us, please."

  "Aye, Captain." I would have sworn she sighed.

  "Why are we running away?" Kyra asked. "Toe-to-toe, we can take those guys."

  "We aren't running away, but that's what I want them to think. The problem with hanging around here to fight is that there's way too high of a chance that someone else will show up and ambush us. If we can lure them out into open space, we'll be able to take them at our convenience. If they do have help show up, at least we won't be surprised."

  "Still not much of a plan", Kyra said.

  "And shooting at their base was?" I asked. She shot a scowl my way, then returned her attention to one of her vidscreens.

  "Incoming torpedo", Angie said. "Impact in nine seconds."

  “Guess they didn’t want to wait”, Kyra said. “Probably because they do have help in the area.”

  I felt the Revenge begin to accelerate, as Angie fired the main drives.

  "Can you get a bead on it with one of the cannon?" I asked. The torpedo was approaching from our port side; I had an idea they might line up.

  "Not a problem", Angie said. "Axial spin, now." My inner ear felt us begin to spin, as the attitude jets fired.

  "Firing rail gun", Angie said.

  "Fuck yeah!" Kyra said, as the torpedo disintegrated amid the pile of scrap metal we'd fired at it. "The rest of that scrap is headed for their ship, too. They also work as PDCs."

  “As what?” I asked.

  “Point Defense Cannon”, she said. “Used to shoot incoming missiles. Ships used to have them, back when there was a lot of ship-to-ship combat. Nobody does them anymore; no real need for them, since the UPDF has the only navy.”

  “Wouldn’t mind having them now”, I said.

  "They're evading", Eng said. "We really have to be a lot closer to use that against a ship."

  "I suspect it still made life interesting for them, at least for a minute", I said.

  "You're not gonna get another shot with it", Kyra said. "We're passing them in about 40 seconds, and the next missile will come at us from behind."

  "Pass as close to those asteroids as you can, Angie", I said. "Weaving in and out of them should keep them too busy to shoot at us."

  "It'll definitely keep me busy", she said, a little annoyance creeping into her voice. "If you haven't strapped in, I'd suggest doing so."

  "I have another ship", Kyra said. "Ahead, and starboard. If we maintain this course, we'll pass by them, and they'll be able to strafe us."

  "That works both ways", I said. "Maintain course."

  "Third ship", Angie said. "Aft, and to starboard. I don't think it's UPDF, either."

  "What about the one ahead?" I asked, trying to find the data on one of my screens. This was one of the drawbacks of using AI's for everything; you got used to having someone right there with the answers.

  "Definitely UPDF", Kyra said. "Not one like ours, though; it's just a cruiser. They have weapons lock on us."

  "Looks like whichever way we turn, someone is going to shoot at us", I said.

  "More like multiple someones", Eng said. "This might be a good time to consider transiting out."

  "I want a crack at that ship ahead", Kyra said. "I'm betting they've never been strafed with cannon before."

  "I have another ship", Angie said. "Also ahead and starboard, on the other side of the UP cruiser."

  "Steady as she goes", I said. "Let's deal with the closer target."

  "We'll be abroad in ninety seconds", Kyra said. "Firing plasma cannon... now."

  "We're being hailed", Angie said.

  "Firing missiles at both aft targets", Kyra said. "That ought to keep em busy for a minute or two."

  "Onscreen", I said, wondering who wanted to chat at a time like this.

  The main vidscreen lit up with the image of Vassily Vostock. He wasn't smiling.

  "That has to be the Defender up ahead", Kyra said. "The drive signature doesn't match, though."

  "Not hard to change that", Eng said. "Both aft torpedoes missed."

  "Hi Vassily", I said. "We were kinda hoping to find you guys. Doesn’t look like you’re in need of rescue, though."

  "Not at the moment", he said. "By the way, you're about to get shot."

  "We're working on that", I said.

  "Any particular plan?" he asked, looking as though he didn't think we'd have one. To his credit, we didn't have much of one.

  "How about we hit em in a crossfire", I said. "I dunno what you guys can bring to the party...?"

  "We can dance", Vostock said. "Two torpedoes, away."

  "Targeting aft targets with the plasma cannon", Kyra said. "Launching two torpedoes at forward target."

  "You called them torpedoes", I said, smiling over at her. This earned me another look.

  "How about you grow the fuck up", she said. "Sir."

  I smiled at her again, then returned my attention to the vidscreen.

  "Vassily", I said, "Match our course, if you can. You don't want to be on the other side of that cruiser in about thirty seconds."

  "Copy that", he said. "Call you back when we're clear. Defender out."

  "What's that cruiser doing?" I asked, as the Revenge lurched with what felt like a plasma cannon hit.

  "Firing only beam weapons at us", Kyra said. "I imagine they don't want to use torpedoes, with this many fast moving ships around. Gotta be a lot of ECM fucking with their guidance systems, too. It’s definitely fucking with ours."

  "They probably shot one of their own ships, last time", Eng said. "These guys may have been trained for combat, but we've got at least as much combat experience as they do."

  "Maybe so", I said, "But they're learning fast."

  "Ten seconds", Kyra said. "You're only going to get one shot, at this speed."

  "Is the Defender clear?" I asked.

  "Defender is clear", Kyra said.

  The ship shook again, as we took another plasma cannon hit. A loud whoosh of air began immediately afterward, until the hatch above us slammed shut.

  "Hull breach", Angie said. "Forward observation deck. The area is sealed."

  I looked over at Eng, and saw he was thinking the same thing I was; if they punched through the hull in the Bridge, we were screwed. None of us had suited up. I knew it was SOP to suit up before combat, but like a lot of other rules, we’d been ignoring it.

  "Angie", I said. "Strafe those motherfuckers."

  "Firing rail gun", she said. "One hundred percent."

  "Hell yes!" Kyra said. "That's a hit!" She put the view up on the main vidscreen. "We holed them. They’re venting atmo from their cargo and engineering modules."

  The view quickly slipped away, as we sped by the anonymous UPDF cruiser, battered by both the Defender, and us.

  "They aren't f
iring anymore", Eng said. "I think they're dead in space. We must have really fubar'd their engineering module."

  "Fubar'd?" Angie asked.

  "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition", I said, wondering how she'd missed out on that jewel of slang. "Please hail the Defender."

  A moment later, the vidscreen lit up with Vostock, wearing a suit helmet.

  "Defender here", he said, looking a little more dour than usual. "The crossfire worked, but we notice two other ships to aft, one like yours. Plus, we have other problems."

  "Like what?" I asked.

  "Holes", he said. "Hull breach, and they hit our fuel cells with the plasma cannon. We're about to lose our pulse drive."

  "Kyra", I said, looking over at her. She looked up from a screen. "Can you keep those ships back there busy for two or three minutes?"

  "I'll try", she said. "No guarantees, though."

  "Eng", I said, "Bring us alongside the Defender. Let's see if we can take them under tow."

  "Angie, you heard the man", Eng said. "I wouldn't even know where to begin."

  "Aye", Angie said.

  "Vassily", I said.

  "Here", he said. "We've got maybe thirty seconds before pulse drive failure."

  "Kill them", I said. "We're going to try and rig for tow in..."

  "Thirty four seconds", Angie said.

  "In the middle of combat?” he asked. “Aren't you being fired on?"

  "Well, yeah", I said. "It’s been days since we’ve done anything crazy. Don't worry, we can handle it." He didn’t look particularly reassured, but didn't say anything. I continued. "Kyra is keeping them busy dodging torpedoes and our plasma cannon. The plan is to snag you, then transit out of here."

  "If it works", Eng said, doing his Cozi impression again.

  "It'll work", I said, "Mister Negativity notwithstanding. Kyra, plug in some coordinates where we'll be safe. Preferably someplace where they like the United Planets about as much as we do. Send the data over to Vassily, in case we get separated again."

  "Alright", Kyra said. "Not a smart move, though."

  "How so?"

  "It's not like the Defender can get there on their own", she said. "If I send those coordinates over, the ships behind us might pick them up, too."

  She was right; it wasn't something we could encrypt, since that had fallen by the wayside with the advent of AI's. Your average AI could crack a code in less time than it took to wonder if they could do it.