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20

The next five hours were tense. Yan did not return to the bridge until a few minutes before the radio-telescope scans were projected to sight the Earth Ark. She asked for Clement’s permission to take her station, and he granted it, but not without making her linger at the threshold for more than a few seconds. He wasn’t happy with her involvement in the mutiny, and he reserved the right to be pissed off about it. Until that point he had thought they had developed an excellent commander/first officer rapport, but now he felt that trust was broken and he admitted to himself that his feelings were hurt, and that was something he had to be conscious of going forward.

He watched as Yan took her station and activated her dark console. Just then Mika Ori unstrapped her holster and pulled her sidearm slightly out, fingering the safety by clicking it off and on several times before returning the weapon to the holster. She never looked at Yan, but the message was clear, and he was sure Yan picked up on the unspoken signal. There would be a price to pay if she undermined her captain again. Unfortunately, Yan decided to speak up about it.

“Are sidearms now standard issue on the bridge, Captain?” she said.

Clement took a deep breath before responding.

“Lieutenant Ori and Lieutenant Commander Massif have my permission to wear a sidearm at all times, as does Ensign Telco. I would prefer the rest of the crew remains unarmed,” he said in as calm and even a voice as he could muster. Ori glared at Yan with an angry look on her face, and Clement did nothing to discourage her, sitting with his hands folded across his console. After a tense moment Yan looked down at her board and Ori returned her attention to her console.

“Do we have a bead on the Earth Ark yet, Ensign?” Clement asked Adebayor.

“Long-range scanners should pick up the Ark in another thirty-three minutes, sir,” she said.

“Thank you, Ensign. Navigator, range to the intercept point of the Earth Ark?”

“Seven hundred fifty thousand kilometers, sir. Suggest we begin deceleration to slow our approach to any potential battlefield, sir,” Massif said. Ori turned and Clement nodded.

“As suggested, Pilot,” he said. She turned and began the deceleration process.

“Are we planning on entering a battlefield?” This came from Yan, and was seen as an unwelcome comment from the rest of the bridge crew, including Clement, who swiveled to face her, speaking slowly.

“I have no intent of taking this ship into battle again, Commander. But I do intend to get close enough to that Earth Ark to determine what she’s doing out here, and what her future intent is in the Trinity system and toward the natives. When that is done, other courses of action will be considered, including retreating to Kemmerine, but not until. Is that clear?” he said. His anger was apparent to all the bridge crew, including Yan.

“It is clear, sir,” was all she managed in reply.

“Good,” he said, swiveling back to the main screen. “Feel free to share the same with your colleagues, Commander,” he said, meaning of course her fellow failed mutineers.

Clement called down to Adebayor again. “Does the deceleration change your calculation to visual observation of the Earth Ark, Ensign?” he said.

“No, sir,” she said, flashing her stunning smile. “I calculated a standard deceleration into my equations, sir.”

“And what if I chose a nonstandard deceleration plan, Ensign?” said Ori, challenging the young officer.

The smile faded from Adebayor’s face. “Then obviously, ma’am, I would have to recalculate,” said Adebayor.

“Hmm . . . ” said Ori, then: “Deceleration rate is standard. Carry on, Ensign.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Clement smiled to himself at the exchange. This crew needed more of that, experienced spacers pushing the young officers to improve. He regretted it would probably not happen on this ill-fated mission.

Thirty-two minutes later they got their first ping.

“Detecting multiple large objects, about where we would expect them to be,” reported Adebayor.

“Multiple objects? Are you sure, Ensign?”

Adebayor threw her console display to the main screen. It showed a long cylinder, obviously the Earth Ark, but two more large blobs flanking her.

“Is that the best visual we can do?” Clement said.

“We’re still eighty thousand klicks from the Ark, sir, and moving, as are they,” said Massif, helping out the young Ensign with an explanation of the poor visual quality.

“I should be able to get higher-definition photography with the radio telescope as we get closer,” stated Adebayor.

“Keep it on the main screen, Ensign, and put up a tactical window as well.”

“Aye, sir.”

Clement watched as the main screen painted a new view about every ten seconds. With each pass, the picture became clearer. Clement went to the ship-wide com.

“All hands, this is the captain. We are now in visual range of the Earth Ark. She is moving slowly; her direction is pointing away from us, but her actions at this time are yet to be determined. As we get closer and the visual definition of the situation becomes more clear, I will update you on our status. Clement out.”

The bridge crew watched in silence as the picture continually repainted for several minutes. The tactical display gave no indication of any further identification of the two “blobs” on the Earth Ark’s flanks. Things stayed tense and quiet until the Beauregard reached the ten-thousand-kilometer mark. The two flanking clouds now had some definition, and Clement ordered Adebayor to enhance her scans on the closest visual blob of data near the Earth Ark.

The scan repainted a few more times before Clement ordered a hold. He pointed at the screen. “That’s a flotilla formation,” he said. “I’d stake my reputation on it. I can make out individual ships. That one there looks like one of the Earth Ark cruisers. Do you agree, Ivan?”

“I do, sir,” he said.

“I can make out the clippers as well,” said Mika Ori.

“There’s another class of ship—let me see if I can make it out,” piped in Yan, trying to contribute.

“Don’t bother. Those tubelike objects are hunter-killers,” said Clement. A few seconds later and the tactical system alerts went off like wildfire. The numbers came across the screen in rapid succession. Twenty-four of the cruisers. Over sixty light attack clippers and thirty hunter-killers. No doubt the other flanking formation was made up of similar numbers. “By volume and displacement, I’m willing to bet she’s deployed her entire battle force in those two formations. Do you agree, Mika?”

The Beauregard’s pilot nodded. “I do, sir. The other formation is now coming in with similar numbers. Assuming the rest of her mass area is reserved for ground soldiers and transports, I’d say she’s maxed out her space-borne battle capabilities.”

“Sir, those two battle groups are accelerating, pulling away from the Ark,” said Adebayor, a nervous tone in her voice.

“But pulling away toward what?” said Clement out loud. He sat back down in his couch and studied both the tactical and visual live streams of data.

“I would say this, sir.” The voice belonged to Ivan Massif, and he threw his navigational tracker to the main screen.

It showed a distant group of objects with glowing thrusters, their engines burning bright, hurtling toward the Earth Ark’s position at high speed. The Ark’s attack flotillas were accelerating to meet them.

“We’ve stumbled onto that battlefield,” said Clement.

“But who are they fighting?” asked Yan, looking to Clement. “The terraformers?”

Mika Ori’s head snapped around at that comment, but she said nothing.

Clement looked to his first officer, then back to the screen. He stepped forward and spoke loudly enough so that everyone on the bridge could hear him. “No, not terraformers,” he said, shaking his head. “But I’m willing to bet my entire bonus that the fleet coming at us is commanded by Admiral Elara DeVore.”


The bridge was dead silent at his proclamation, and no one challenged it. Within a few minutes they had confirmation of the same. The 5 Suns Alliance Navy fleet consisted of three battlecruisers, half of what was based at Kemmerine Station when they had left; and twelve heavy cruisers, sixteen destroyers, and five gunships, which Clement guessed were the remaining hulls from the Rim Confederation fleet, converted to use by the Admiral just as the Beauregard had been. They were in a spread wing formation, or “Eagle” as they termed it, much like he had faced many times in the War of the 5 Suns. The flanking pair of battlecruisers were surrounded by formations of four heavy cruisers and five destroyers each, with the central group having the extra sixth destroyer protecting the capital ship. The command battlecruiser, no doubt Admiral DeVore’s flagship, was positioned the furthest back in the formation. The five gunships were at the front of the whole fleet, essentially missile-launching platforms spread out evenly in the formation. The battlecruiser groups were designed to move independently if need be, or to be used as a blunt-force hammer if they stayed together.

The Earth forces were aligned in a seemingly haphazard way, with the light cruisers at different, random positions, the hunter-killers moving to the front of the formation, and the clippers mixing in at random throughout the formation. Both fleets were closing fast on each other now.

“I thought we were the only 5 Suns Navy ship that had the LEAP drive. Weren’t we supposed to be a prototype?” said Yan.

Clement shook his head. “No, Commander. We were just the bait. Admiral DeVore must have made this plan from the moment one of her automated probes detected the Earth Ark approaching the Trinity system,” he responded. “Estimation of the time until the two forces engage on the battlefield,” commanded Clement, not caring who answered the question.

It was Mika Ori. “Seven minutes until the 5 Suns Alliance ships reach missile range, sir, but at the rate everyone’s moving, they’ll crash into each other first and then it will be a free-for-all,” she said.

“I wouldn’t expect that from Admiral DeVore,” Clement replied, relying on his experiences with her in the War of the 5 Suns. “She’s usually quite calculated in how she approaches these things.” And many others, he thought to himself.

“What do we do?” It was Yan asking the question.

“We lay back and watch, then deal with the winner,” said Clement. “Bring us to full stop, Pilot.”

“Full stop, aye, sir,” said Ori.

“What about the Earth Ark itself? She’s just laying back,” said Yan.

“Keep an eye on her, Commander. And let me know if she starts to move.” Yan just nodded, upset at being relegated to side duty, but Clement didn’t care. She had made her own bed, now she had to lie in it.

They all watched as the two fleets closed on each other at incredible speeds. Ori had been right. It would be like a jousting match, both “horsemen” taking their best shots, then breaking off the attack and reforming for another run. It was the kind of battle that could only be conducted with large forces, but Clement found it wasteful. Many lives would be lost in the first few minutes, snuffed out in an instant, men and women disintegrated by atomic missiles or torn apart to die in space by kinetic weapons. And then it would get dirty. Ship-to-ship warfare, probably at too close of quarters for atomic weapons. It would devolve to Directed Energy Weapons or short-range conventional missiles, cutting each fleet to pieces, and possibly even boarding parties, invading and slaughtering each other. Clement had seen enough of it in the War of the 5 Suns, and had hoped never to see it again. In that moment, he regretted ever taking this command.

As he expected, Admiral DeVore made the first move. The starboard battlecruiser group broke from the Eagle formation and made a slashing, high-speed run at the corresponding Earth Ark battle group. The central and port 5 Suns battlecruiser groups, the central one being led by DeVore, both broke to the port side of the Earth Ark formation. They quickly regrouped into an attacking cylinder formation, with the battlecruisers enveloped by their heavy cruisers and destroyers. To his surprise, the five converted Rim Confederation gunships went to the front of the larger attacking group and accelerated, dropping some kind of kinetic charges ahead of the attacking fleet.

“What are those? Scatter mines?” asked Ori.

“Looks like it,” said Clement. “We don’t have any scatter mines on board and we’re not even designed to deploy them. Those gunships were probably retrofitted to carry them.”

They watched the portside battle formations as the Earth Ark’s hunter-killers took the initiative, fifteen of them accelerating at high-g speeds the manned ships couldn’t match. They were trying to get under the curtain of descending scatter mines that the gunships had laid down, but it would be a closely run thing. Very close. If the HuKs could get under the mines, they could attack the underbelly of Admiral DeVore’s portside battle group.

The scatter mines had a limited mobility programmed into them, and they burned their thrusters trying to reach the hunter-killers. The HuKs kept varying their approaches, trying to create different angles of attack.

The HuKs slammed into the minefield, several of them exploding in nuclear fireballs on contact. The mines were reacting by trying to track the HuKs and get close enough to detonate, but in the end six of the fifteen Earth weapons got through the initial Five Suns fleet line of defense.

Next, DeVore sent her heavy cruisers and destroyers into the fray against the Earth Ark’s light cruisers and clippers. Almost immediately two of the HuKs homed in on one of the 5 Suns cruisers and hit it almost simultaneously, with the heavy cruiser going up in a fireball of nuclear fission. DeVore’s destroyers and gunships then barraged the remaining HuKs with a copious amount of missiles, conventional ones, designed to create a literal web of explosive power in their paths. This was a tactic Clement had seen before in battles with the 5 Suns Alliance Navy many times. It was a sheer numbers game and the 5SN had the advantage, and whenever they had the advantage, they used it.

The four remaining HuKs weren’t smart enough to change course to avoid the web of incoming ordnance. They slammed into the missile barrage, exploding on contact with missiles or disintegrating into shredded metal as their speed itself tore them apart. At this, DeVore’s fleet started the long curve back to intercept the remainder of the Earth Ark’s forces. There were scattered skirmishes between the Earth light cruisers and DeVore’s destroyers, and the Earth ships had the firepower advantage there. But it would take any two Earth cruisers to take on one of the 5 Suns Alliance heavy cruisers, and DeVore had seven of those left in her formation. The clippers, for their part, simply picked out individual targets and hit them with missiles or DEW beams, trying to cut pieces into the larger 5 Suns Alliance ships. A group of the clippers broke away from the main group and pursued the gunships. Privately, Clement hoped the gunships survived, more out of nostalgia for his old Rim Confederation Navy days than anything else, but he showed none of that emotion to his crew.

He switched his attention back to the starboard battle group. They had engaged at a much slower pace than DeVore’s main battle group. The Earth hunter-killers had taken a toll on the 5 Suns heavy cruisers and destroyers. There was no doubt that this 5 Suns battle group had a reliable commander, but he or she hadn’t had the advantage of the scatter-mine web that had been dropped by the gunships. The commander had endured the heavy punishment of the hunter-killers, taking three of the Earth weapons out with missiles before they could reach their targets. The destroyers and heavy cruisers had taken on the hard task of clearing the field of the remaining HuKs, and one of each of those class of ships had been taken out by the Earth weapons. The group commander had moved his battlecruiser up into the fray, unlike DeVore and her battle group, which had held the two capital ships back. The battlecruiser took hits from two of the surviving HuKs, but seemed none the worse for wear. She had ragged-edged tears in her port side and had no doubt lost crew, but she was actively engaging the Earth force’s light cruisers and clippers with her DEW weapons and a flurry of low-yield, high-speed conventional missiles. With the two groups so closely aligned, the use of nuclear weapons would have assured mutual destruction, so for the moment, they weren’t being used. Clement wondered if the Earth cruiser commanders had orders to self-destruct in the event of a potential loss. It certainly fit their previous mode of operation, and that made him worry.

He turned his attention back to the gunships that were attempting to get behind DeVore’s destroyer line while being pursued by the large flotilla of Earth clippers. One of the fleeing gunships had suffered propulsion damage of some kind, and at least a dozen of the clippers swarmed over her, attacking with their DEW weapons and short-range missiles. She was damaged and listing, and looked to be in serious trouble. The lead gunship commander, however, decelerated and then turned their ship toward the swarms of clippers, engaging in a rear-guard action to allow his fellow gunships to escape beyond DeVore’s destroyer line, while also attempting to rescue his wounded sister ship. He fired a barrage of six high-yield missiles, followed ten seconds later by a second volley. The missiles did the trick, taking out almost all of the clippers. The gunship commander pursued the remaining few enemy clippers and took them out with heavy Directed Energy Weapons fire. They were too late to save their sister ship, though. The mortally wounded gunship drifted, spinning rapidly and burning as it vented oxygen, fire, and probably crew into space. The gunship group commander watched from a safe distance as the critically damaged gunship exploded. There was a brief respite as the group commander waded in on the wreckage of its lost sister ship, no doubt searching for escape pods. Clement had been in one of those before and it was no safe haven in the midst of a battle. The command gunship completed a quick search, and finding no survivors, turned and made their way back to DeVore’s battle group, which was engaged in a maneuver to put it back onto the main battlefield. Clement wondered what the gunship’s captain must have been thinking. He’d been faced with the same situation many times, and it had always hurt to lose comrades.

While the portside battle group commander was simply holding the line against the arrayed Earth forces, Admiral DeVore’s starboard group was once again fully engaged in maneuvers against her foes. She hadn’t committed either of her battlecruisers as of yet, but he expected her to play that trump card soon, and she didn’t disappoint. The secondary battlecruiser jumped into the fray with DEW and high-yield conventional missiles, just a notch below a nuke in their total expended-energy levels. The use of the capital ship looked like it was going to be a decisive one.

The Earth forces responded the only way they could, by committing their ships to ramming their superior opponents. One of the Earth cruisers collided with a 5 Suns Alliance heavy cruiser and then did the unthinkable.

She detonated a nuke, destroying both ships.

“Oh my god,” said Mika Ori, her hand going to cover her mouth in horror. Clement was brought back to reality by the shock of seeing the Earth cruiser commit suicide, but he wasn’t surprised.

“We can’t be moved by what we see,” he said to his bridge crew, trying to reassure everyone. “The Earth forces play by a different set of rules than we do. We’ve seen that already.” A second suicide explosion occurred and then a third happened, and the 5 Suns Alliance forces smartly began to pull back from the Earth ships.

For their part, the clippers had taken to ramming the 5 Suns Alliance destroyers, something they were clearly designed to do, then attacking them with boarding parties. Clement saw one of the 5 Suns destroyers go up in flames, most likely from a nonatomic detonation. He doubted the 5 Suns Alliance crew would do such a thing, so it seemed likely that one of the clipper boarding parties had taken the destroyer’s missile room and detonated a warhead inside the ship, the resulting chain reaction leading to the fatal explosion. Another 5 Suns Alliance destroyer had six clippers dangling off of it as it listed through the battlefield. He watched as the destroyer turned on a nearby heavy cruiser, both ships flying the 5 Suns flag, and started firing missiles at it. Clearly the Earth forces boarding party had taken control of the destroyer’s bridge. A second 5 Suns heavy cruiser broke off from its engagement with two Earth cruisers and swept toward the rogue destroyer, firing missiles and DEW beams as it came. The destroyer, already damaged by the clippers and no doubt taken over by their Earth crews, didn’t last long under that barrage, exploding as her engine drives were taken out.

Finally, DeVore got her capital ships into the fray. Both battlecruisers slashed at the Earth force formation from different sides, DEW cannons firing but holding back on missiles. It was a crowded battlefield, and using even conventional missiles at these kinds of ranges could create serious battle damage to friendly forces. Clement wondered if the battlecruisers had something else up their sleeves, and it didn’t take long to detect a new development. Streaks of kinetic weapons, like long metal poles, started hitting the remaining Earth forces dead on.

“What are those things?” asked Ori.

“Some kind of nonexplosive kinetic rounds, likely fired by a rail gun of some kind. They look pretty long,” he said.

“I make them at almost twenty meters,” said Adebayor, surprise in her voice.

“About the height of your average telephone pole,” said Clement.

“What’s a ‘telephone pole’?” asked Yan.

Clement shook his head at Yan’s ignorance, but it was to be expected based on her privileged upbringing on Shenghai. “A telephone pole is a wooden pole stuck into the ground that carries elevated power, telecommunications, and information lines to rural houses, farms, and the like,” he said.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” said Yan, still surprised.

Clement turned to her, speaking without a hint of sympathy in his voice. “If you’d grown up on a Rim planet, like Ceta, or Argyle, or Helios, you’d know what they are. Coming from a privileged colony like Shenghai, I’m not surprised you’ve never seen one. Only poor colonies have to use them,” he said, then turned away from her.

“They’re made of some kind of metal alloy,” piped in Adebayor. “My scans show that much.”

“Most likely titanium and depleted uranium. They’ve been used in kinetic weapons for literally hundreds of years. Accelerated by a rail gun, their destructive power comes mostly from kinetic energy. You could cut a ship to pieces using one, especially with the penetrating properties of depleted uranium, and they’re a lot cheaper than missiles,” Clement said.

“It’s like a lance from Hell,” commented Ori.

“I like that,” said Clement, “Hell Lances.”

They watched as the two battlecruisers continued to bombard the Earth cruisers and clippers with the Hell Lances, cutting them to pieces with dozens of them with each pass through the battlefield. The destroyers and heavy cruisers swarmed the wounded Earth forces, finishing them off.

On the portside battlefield, things were more even, but the 5 Suns Alliance battlecruiser, obviously freed to use their own Hell Lances, was starting to cut up the Earth light cruisers and clippers. It wasn’t a fair fight to begin with, and now Elara DeVore turned her own formation toward the second battlefield.

It would be a slaughter.


They watched for a few minutes more as the Earth ships fought to the bitter end, but DeVore’s combined fleet finished them off to the last man, which is probably the way the Earth forces wanted it.

The total 5 Suns Alliance attack fleet reformed around the capital battlecruisers, and Clement did a recount of Admiral DeVore’s remaining ships. The three battlecruisers were mostly untouched. There were nine heavy cruisers still left and thirteen destroyers, although ships of both of those groups had taken some serious battle damage, but were still operational. Those plus the four gunships left Devore with twenty-nine operational ships.

“What now?” asked Ori.

“Now, I would assume they will take out the Earth Ark itself,” said Clement.

“How?”

“If it was me, I’d just fire long-range nukes and be done with her. But Admiral DeVore may have other plans. Captured technology is valuable technology.”

They watched as DeVore sent in the gunships to launch missiles at the Earth Ark. To his surprise the Ark didn’t respond to this provocation, and the conventional missiles did only minimal damage to the Ark’s reinforced hull. Next, she sent in a formation of three destroyers. They were clearly among the most damaged ships in her fleet, indicating she was not willing to risk her best. That was telling as to her regard for the people that served under her.

Two of the destroyers closed on the Ark. The third destroyer seemed to be having propulsion problems and ended up dropping back several klicks from the other two. In the next few seconds, it would be her saving grace.

The first two destroyers began a bombardment of the Earth Ark with higher-yield missiles and DEW fire. The missiles had more of an effect than the ones launched by the gunships, but it was still fairly insignificant damage against the massive Ark. The directed-energy fire was a difference-maker though. The two destroyers began cutting into the sides of the Ark, exposing ragged gashes of her inner superstructure. In one case, there seemed to be a hit on a troop-containment area, and several bodies began pouring out of a jagged hole into space. Whether they were dead before or after the chamber they were in was exposed to space, Clement couldn’t answer.

It was then that the Earth Ark finally responded. A ring of energy formed around the Arks’ midsection, and then suddenly a beam of dark orange directed energy lanced out and cut the two destroyers to pieces in a single strike. At this the trailing destroyer turned as quickly as she could and retreated back to the main fleet. The Ark wound up a second DEW beam from her forward section, directing it toward the retreating destroyer, but missed as she maneuvered away at her best possible speed. At that point she was safe and out of range.

“Ivan, how far is the 5 Suns Alliance fleet from the Ark?” asked Clement.

“I make it three hundred kilometers, more or less, sir,” he responded. “Right now, except for that retreating destroyer, the whole fleet is at station-keeping.”

“So what’s her game? Does she attack in an all-out attempt to take the Ark intact? Or does she just nuke it from her safe location?” It was Yan asking the question. Mika Ori answered.

“The Elara DeVore that I knew would plan a strategy, but she would never hold back on anything once she committed to that plan. Once she started, it was all attack, all the time,” said Ori.

“But this is a very different Elara DeVore, Mika. She’s not the same woman we knew fifteen years ago,” said Clement. That created a feeling of regret in his gut; she surely wasn’t the woman he had once loved. He had to actively push that thought out of his mind. He turned slightly toward Yan, but not all the way, before asking his next question. “Yan, can you detect any communications between the Ark and the 5 Suns fleet?”

Yan checked her board for a few seconds. “No, sir, nothing. No attempts being made by either side,” she said, then added, “It looks like we have a stalemate.”

“Perhaps,” said Clement. Then: “That Earth Ark has got to be made of hardened regolith. If she is, then she can withstand conventional attack for days,” he posited.

“What’s regolith?” asked Yan.

Clement responded. “Surface material from a moon or asteroid, likely poured over an inner superstructure then compressed and hardened. Very helpful for avoiding collisions, say with meteors or other foreign objects, in deep space on long-duration space voyages. I’m not surprised they made their Ark out of it. A fifty-year journey leaves a lot of possibility for unwanted collisions.”

“If that hull is made of regolith, it will be very hard to penetrate,” interjected Ori, “or especially to land a boarding party.”

“I suspect that’s what the Admiral is thinking about right now,” said Clement, then said to Adebayor, “Any sign that either party has noticed us, Ensign?”

The young Ensign shook her head before saying, “Negative, sir. I’ve detected no incoming scans or attempts at communication, and none of the ships in the 5 Suns Alliance fleet has pinged our IFF beacon.”

“We’re five thousand klicks from the Earth Ark in this position, so unless they’re actively looking for a ship in this area, their odds of finding us without a deep-space scan are minimal,” said Massif.

“I suspect they both have all eyes on each other,” commented Clement. “So what’s the next move?”

“Sir.” It was Yan again.

He turned to her, fully this time. “Commander?” said Clement, not hiding his annoyance at her continued interruptions.

She stiffened, facing his glare. “Might I suggest that we have now completed our mission? In fact, I would say we have even surpassed it, knowing that the Earth Ark fleet has been destroyed, she poses no threat to this system. Perhaps, sir, it is time for us to go home,” she said.

Clement then pressed an icon on his console before answering.

“Our 5 Suns Alliance mission is complete, I agree with you on that,” he started. “But we still have additional interests in this star system, and that would be the natives. And, to be honest with you, I’m not sure leaving this system in the hands of Admiral Elara DeVore and the 5 Suns Alliance fleet is any better than leaving it to the Earth Ark forces.”

“So you’re refusing my demand that we vacate the battlefield and return home? That was part of our agreement to stand down from mutiny.”

“I understand that, Commander. What I’m saying is that this ship has a weapon powerful enough to decide the outcome of this battle, and the terms and conditions under which we leave this system. Trading one set of slavers for another is not an option I’m willing to accept.”

“You know goddamn well using the MAD weapon again could crack the reactor permanently, stranding us here,” snapped Yan.

“Yes, but under those conditions we could go back to Bellus and live among the natives, then hitch a ride home on a 5 Suns Alliance ship when they took over the system. A ride that, I might add, would surely find me enjoying the trip in the brig. No, Commander, I’m not willing to head home to an unknown fate, not when this entire crew could end up facing court-martial. I’m of a mind to stay, and perhaps even help determine the outcome,” he said.

“So you’re breaking our agreement?” said Yan, demanding an answer.

“I never negotiate with mutineers,” he said, turning away from her.

“So you lied?”

Instead of answering, Clement hit the com on his console. “Ensign Telco, is the reactor room secure?”

“Aye, sir,” came Telco’s reply over the com speakers. “As soon as I got your ping I locked up the missile room and came down to Engineering, just like we talked about,” he said. “The room is now locked and I’m armed, sir.”

“Good work, Ensign,” said Clement. He stood. “Lieutenant Ori, please escort Commander Yan to her quarters and lock her inside.”

When Yan turned Ori already had her cobra pistol trained on her. She surrendered without a fight and Ori took her down the six metal steps to the cabin area. Clement hit the com again.

“Telco, you still there?”

“Sir,” replied Telco.

“Put Mr. Nobli on.”

After a second of shuffling Nobli’s gruff voice came over the com. “What do you demand of me now, tyrant?” he said.

Clement smiled, just a little, at that. “Condition of the LEAP reactor?”

“The cracks have been sealed, but she’s still fragile.”

“Can we use her as a weapon without destroying the ship?”

Nobli paused before answering. “It’s a risk, sir. As I said before, opening up a contained system like this for just fractions of a second to make a short jump or fire the weapon would put a great strain on her. She could fracture again, enough so that we couldn’t repair her, then we couldn’t get home. Or worse, she could break wide open, in which case we’d likely be consumed by an implosion, along with anything within an astronomical unit, give or take.”

“That would be the entire solar system, including the star,” said Clement. “Any other alternatives?”

“All I can say, sir, is if you’re going to use this thing as a weapon, use it for a sustained period; don’t turn it on and off quickly. That would allow us to back the thing down slowly, and create much less stress on the reactor casing,” Nobli said.

“I hear you,” said Clement. “Thank you, Nobli.” He shut down the com as Mika Ori returned to the bridge.

“The commander is safely ensconced in her cabin, sir. I even gave her a chance to get some food and tea from the galley, so we don’t have to worry about her for quite a while,” she said. “The access hatch from the cargo bay is also secure and the rest of the crew have no access to the cabin area, bridge, or critical systems.”

“Well done, Ori. The missile room is secure and Telco just locked down the LEAP reactor room. You all did your jobs well,” Clement said, then he turned to Adebayor.

“Ensign, these people have been part of my crew for long time. We are loyal to each other in every way. But I want you to know that I do not and would not require you to serve against your will. The actions we take next could be considered capital offenses by the 5 Suns Navy, or they could result in a positive outcome for both us onboard the Beauregard and the settlers in this system. If you have any doubts, then you are free to go to the spare cabin and sit this one out,” he said.

Adebayor turned to face him directly. “I understand, sir. I’ve come this far, and I’m committed to the outcome of this mission, so I will give my commitment to you for the duration of this action, however it might come out,” she said.

Clement nodded. “You’re a very brave young woman, Kayla Adebayor,” he said to her. “Also, know that I’m going to wipe the mission tapes from this little adventure before we get home, so when we do get back, you will be under no obligation to me. Your record will be clean.”

“Understood, sir. Thank you, sir.”

“Carry on,” he said, which was the highest compliment he could give her.

“So what do we do next?” asked Massif.

Clement looked back and forth to his small crew. “Pilot, fire the engines and accelerate us toward the Earth Ark at 1.5 gs,” he said. “Navigator, make sure that our flight path will keep us aligned with the 5 Suns Navy fleet as well.”

“Aligned in what way?” Massif asked.

Clement clasped his hands behind his back. “Aligned so that we can fire the weapon at them both, the Ark and the fleet,” stated Clement flatly. “We’re going to end this battle.”


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Framed