Humanity in the Deep

It was done. They were ready.

Roger knew that Kat was just as far away as before, but it felt like she was closer.

He was in a boat again, and for the next week would be just a pilot. The last two weeks had been full of planning and making decisions that would affect the lives of thousands of people.

Dianna said, “All weapon systems read as ready. Mass distribution model is input and looks good, although be aware that it has not been tested, Roger, the armor might cause our center of gravity off to be off if someone made a mistake.”

The other five boats were waiting for the signal just like Roger was.

Finally, it came. Over shipwide Adrian said, “All missiles have reported readiness. All boats prepare for hydraulic ejection. All hands prepare for erratic acceleration.”

Roger made sure he was secured, and the docking clamps were unlocked.

Roger braced himself while watching the composite sensor display of the local’s ships. Each had one or two dots near it, waiting to be turned into weapons.

“Launching.....now!!!”

The missiles all flared. Then a second later it felt like someone kicked him in the chest they were ejected. Shoved off of the docking ring with all the other boats.

An instant after that, they were floating free.

Roger was still canceling their spin when Dianna called out, “Three incoming! Baker is ours.”

There were three missiles burning for the Erikson on his board. He flipped the Hermes and pushed the plasma drive to almost two G’s.

The huge boat shuddered as Dianna fired chaff from the rail gun. His board showed no impacts.

He aimed the Hermes as close as he could, but the missile was swerving and accelerating so much that he had no hope of staying abeam of it.

They passed by the missile without hitting it. Dianna called out, “Impact in two minutes! I can’t hit it with the chaff, we need to get close enough to use the laser.”

The Erikson might be able to take one missile if was conventional, but if it was nuclear......

Roger flipped the boat again, hoping that his instincts would not fail him. He began burning back to the missile. Seconds later, as they caught up, it changed course randomly.

Roger got close to it when it careened off to port at two G’s. Dianna immediately said, “Get us closer!”

Roger adjusted their course and managed to hold abeam of it for a few seconds and was rewarded with a spike of radiation.

Roger sat back and breathed out when he heard the radio, “...success, one nuke was stopped, no incoming tracks detected. All enemies dead in space. All boats send damage reports and prepare for injection burn.”

Roger looked at the boards. It looked liked everything had gone according to plan; all the enemy ships were taken out and all of their boats were intact.

As he made ready for the burn, he asked, “I break anything this time?”

Thomas waited a few minutes before responding, then said, “No, we’re fine.”

He reported on the radio. “This is the Hermes, we are five by five and ready to burn.”

The Davis, the Williams, Churchill, and the Runner all reported none or minimal damage.

Alexi then reported, “This is the Zippo— we have a problem.”

He turned his screens to look at the Zippo. The small boat had some scratches, but what concerned him was the heat buildup that was showing on the IR display.

“We can’t dissipate...”

The heat spiked and almost in slow motion, the boat blew up.

Just like that, three people were gone; all that they were reduced to dust. Casualties in a war that never should have happened.

After a few moments, Adrian calmly said, “We can mourn later, right now we have a job to do. The Alice has the watch and will keep our families safe. Injection burn on my mark.”

---

The Hermes, along with the Churchill and the Jefferson Davis, had just finished decelerating. They were almost abeam of gas giant station one.

The Station hung in orbit and looked, more than anything, like two Frisbee’s stuck bottom to bottom with a large bulge in the middle.

There were four stations in orbit of the gas giant. The stations not only mined the planet for gasses, but also the rings and some of the moons for ice. They were not only vitally important to the locals but had almost all of what the Erikson needed to refuel, and at least some of what they needed to repair.

Dianna compiled the data they were receiving, and the image of the station sharpened with icons denoting rail guns. Fourteen of them. Roger really hoped they were right about two of the boats being able to shield all three from slug fire.

From the Churchill, he heard Commander Smith radio the locals using the translator program. “This is Commander Smith, in command of the Lief Erikson’s assault fleet. You are to power down your weapons and evacuate the outer sections of the station.

“You have five minutes to comply.”

He was answered with railgun slugs being fired in their direction. They were easily avoided but the message was clear.

“Assume V formation. Davis will assume gunner position. Churchill port and Hermes starboard. Hermes and Churchill set lasers to point defense. Use rail guns as directed only. This is a precision strike.”

Roger assumed formation behind and to starboard of the Davis. He opened a channel to the pilot’s channel.

They accelerated to the target, angling to pass above the station so the lasers on the ships ventral section could defend them.

When they got close enough, alarms went off. It felt wrong not to change course, but Roger had to trust in the weapon officers to know what they were doing. He kept to the plotted course.

Just after he saw blips appear on screen, he heard Dianna use her controls and the blips went away; the lasers turning the slugs into vapor.

When the three boats got within a dozen klicks of the station, they veered port and starboard. The Davis then spun around and used its rail gun to score a direct hit on the array of sensors and comm systems. Given there was not a hole in the station, Roger guessed the Davis had used chaff.

Smith announced, “Weapon officers, make ready for high-intensity short duration laser burst. Fire lasers at rail guns one through six as we pass. Davis will provide cover.”

Roger saw the projected course change to pass just to the side of the station. They would pass within a few klick’s of it. He tried not to think of the damage the guns could do if the Davis could not handle the incoming slugs.

Such thoughts were not helpful.

He concentrated on keeping in formation and making sure the lasers were pointed in the right direction. He heard Dianna talking on the weapon officer’s channel, saying she was ready and then they accelerated again. Only one and a half G’s, but it was probably much more than the local systems were made to track. That was the theory, at least.

As they drew closer, the slugs were taken out later and later. When they were near the point of closest approach, they broke formation as was planned and flew erratically, keeping their bellies pointed at the rail guns. Roger was less than a kilometer from the station, so close that only a few of the rail guns could even swivel enough to target the Hermes.

Roger saw a few points of heat build up on the hull, probably weak lasers. He added more random rotation to his course and the points became unnoticeable.

They passed by in what felt like no time at all.

For probably the first time, Roger heard Dianna call out excitedly, “We got them! All six rail guns are down!” Thomas followed her up by saying that they had taken no damage.

All three of the boats repeated the procedure to get the rest of the rail guns, as well as the lasers for good measure. That done, they methodically searched the station for anything that might be a long range comm master and destroyed it. Lastly, they drilled holes in all the small ships docked to the station.

The station was helpless.

Using an open channel, Commander Smith transmitted with the computer translating. “You will attempt no repairs of your long-range comm systems nor of your weapon systems. If you attempt either, we will vent your atmosphere.”

He emphasized the last part by having one of the newly launched probes give the station a long ugly scar.

The probes were little more than a power source, a comm relay, and a laser. However, they were more than able to put holes in the station if directed to.

Roger thought it was overkill, but he could understand the desire to not leave the locals to their own devices.

---

Having arrived at the fourth station, they found that the Williams and the Runner had beaten them there.

The other three stations had been disabled more to cripple the local’s space capabilities than anything else. Station four they were going to capture and use.

Once the Hermes finished decelerating, Dianna said, “The station’s railguns are down, as are at least some of its sensors.”

Thomas asked, “Any damage to our boats?”

While waiting for Dianna, Roger corrected their rotation. “The Runner was hit by a rail slug. It was only a glancing blow but it’s out of the fight.”

Adrian broke over the radio and said, “Glad to see you, Hermes, Davis, and Churchill. I’m sending you your breach locations. For now, hold your vectors.

“Hermes, please make ready to line dock with the Williams.”

Roger held his vector and turned the Hermes, so their personal lock was facing the Williams and held them steady.

The Williams made its way in Roger’s direction. By the way it was being flown, Roger guessed it was low on reaction mass.

No sooner had they gotten close enough to fire a line then the cable was sent. Two minutes later, Adrian had traversed the cable and was in the lock. He was soon in the cockpit. He asked to be patched into the radio and the translator. “This is Colonel Adrian Moisey, Military Commander of the Starship Erikson. You have a thirty-second window to surrender unconditionally. If you do not, we will commandeer your station and kill anyone who resists. We have no wish to kill you, we could use the workers. If the station surrenders, whoever may be in charge at that time will stay in charge and no one else will be killed.”

Over a minute later, they still had nothing but dead air on the frequencies the locals used.

“Fuck,” he said without emotion. Over the general channel, Adrian said, “You have command of the boats, Commander Smith. Give me five minutes then you may begin. You are to accept only an unconditional surrender.”

Roger did the only thing he could, he prayed. For all that, he was a councilor and a pilot, he was helpless. Dozens of his people were going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.