Threshold part 4

Luytens stared at it his face an emotionless mask but Kyr knew him well enough to know that beneath he was far from calm.
“Commander, set condition to red alert; have the bridge crew check the status of all primary and secondary systems.” He said without facing the third man.
“But…”
“I know what the general said.” Luytens interrupted quietly. “But there’s no harm in being prepared is there Commander Keller?”
The younger man came to attention and snapped off a salute before leaving the room; his face dark.
Kyr waited until the door hissed closed behind him. “You can’t seriously buy this, sir.” His anger barely contained.
“It would seem that I have little in the way of choice in the matter.” Lutyens was still infuriatingly calm.
“Send a call to Admiral Sung; he’s in charge of out sector operations; he’s not stupid enough to send a single ship out into Freebooter territory.”
“He’s not stupid enough to cross General Keller you mean. No, Kyr, you’re wrong; Sung won’t countermand an order from Keller. I have no choice but to carry out the order. But exactly how I do that is my choice.” His voice was suddenly very hard. “I know no Freebooter would turn on his own kind; so either the General is being used to set up some kind of trap or…”
“Or he’s in on it.” Kyr finished.
“Better that you keep such thoughts to yourself; the general has ears everywhere.”
“I’m not afraid of Keller…”
“That’s because you’re young and you still think you’re invincible. I am afraid of Keller and his ambition to see his son as the youngest Admiral in terran history.”
“But we’re still walking into the trap.” Kyr pointed out.
“Yes, but we know it’s a trap so that gives us the edge. Make sure Keller has everything ready; he’s not likely to disobey a direct order but better safe…”
Kyr, his face still troubled gave an easy salute and followed the exec onto the bridge.
Keller stood to one side of the command chair at attention, his eyes focused on the view screen and the debris field that was looming fast. Kyr eased into the seat at his station and ran the comp through a quick systems check – the board was green and they were running at red alert, though main batteries and targeting computers were still inactive, as were the force fields. There was a slight pneumatic hiss behind him.
“Captain on deck.” Keller snapped.
“Carry on.” Luytens said, easing into the command seat.
“Thirty thousand kilometres to edge of the belt.” The navigator reported.
“Sensor sweep.” Luytens ordered.
“No clear readings; there’s too much clutter.” The helmsman replied.
“Recommend that we raise the force fields and charge main batteries.” Kyr said quickly, turning in his seat.
“With respect sir—” Keller interjected quickly; “—We aren’t here for a battle.” He shot Kyr a spiteful glare.
Luytens considered both their remarks. “Leave the force fields and weapons on standby but power up the targeting comps; they might be able to see through this junk better than navigational sensors.”
Kyr turned back to his console and activated the battle computers, watching his screen as the sensor scans switched from wide navigation sweeps to narrow tactical cones.
The sensors swept the mess of rock and ice before them.
“Sensor contact—” Kyr intoned his eyes on the screen, “—a single ship, bearing 015 mark 092; targeting comp reads it as an old type 12 corvette. Ship is stationary just inside the debris field.”
“Bring us in on an intercept course; I want to be nose to nose with it. Reduce speed by one third.”
“Aye sir.” The reply came simultaneously from helm and navigation.
Luytens looked at Kyr “Keep scanning the surrounding area; if you detect anything out of the ordinary bring shields and weapons on line immediately.”
“Aye sir.” Kyr made no effort to hide the satisfaction in his voice.
“Thirty seconds to intercept.” The helm reported.

The reason he hadn’t seen the mine was confusing at first; the battle sensors should have detected it. Later he realised that it was one of the new type xx9 stealth mines; no active sensors so no power reading and with an outer casing composed of camadium composite it absorbed sensor scans. It was within three feet of the Palaminos hull, port of the bridge when it detonated. The hull itself withstood the blast but the shockwave passed through the hull washing across the bridge and its occupants. The panel in front of Kyr exploded, peppering his face with molten globules of metal and plastic; a shard the size of his thumb and razor sharp sliced into his face just below his eye and he was thrown back into his seat. He blacked out briefly; a few seconds no more but when he came back to his senses all he could hear was the blaring of emergency klaxons. He whirled in his seat to face the bridge, or what was left of it. The command chair had been torn from its fitting and blown across the bridge as if tossed by some giant hand and Kyr could make out Luyten’s crumpled form beneath it; he didn’t know if he was alive or dead. The navigator was down; her face a bloody, charred ruin but the helmsman was still conscious, groaning as he eased himself up from where he had been blown from his chair. Keller too was alive, picking himself up unsteadily from the floor.
Kyr turned back to the console; the tactical station was ruined but the engineering station still functioned. Ignoring the pain from his face he pulled his chair along the groove to the working station and ran a status check. It could have been worse; most of the bridge systems were down but main power was still functional. Unfortunately force fields, targeting computers and main cannon batteries were all down. Above the klaxon he heard Keller’s panicked voice.
“They tricked us, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
“Check on the captain!” Kyr snapped over his shoulder
There was a crackle from his panel, “Bridge, This is engineering, what the hell’s going on?”
Kyr hit the com key. “Thorvald! This is Harden, we’ve been hit by something, a mine I think, captain’s down so is most of the system’s up here. Activate the back up systems, you’ll have to take control down there; get us the hell out of here and watch out for another ship; they might hit us again.” He keyed off the mike
“Acknowledged bridge I’ll get the medics up there as soon as possible.”
Kyr turned to see Keller standing up from Luyten’s crumpled form, his face pale. Their eyes met and even before he spoke the words Kyr knew.
“He’s dead.” He said dully. He scanned the bridge; “We’re done for, we have to abandon ship. He looked at the surviving bridge crew, his voice becoming firmer. “I’m in command now, all crew abandon ship.”
Kyr eased himself out of his seat wincing at the pain that ran through his body. “Belay that order.”
Keller whirled on him and there was a light of terrified madness in his eyes.
“The ship is finished! Let them have it! They’ll be too busy focusing on it to bother with the escape pods!”
“I’m not gonna let those bastards get their hands on a fleet frigate.” Kyr snapped.
“What can you do to stop it? Most of the systems are down along with the weapons and force-fields…”
There was a scream of static from the com system and a new voice filled the bridge.
“Alliance frigate, this is Captain Brinn Argent; I claim your ship as spoils of war. Power down your drive systems and prepare to be boarded. If you surrender now I give you my word that no one aboard will be harmed.” The com channel hissed out.
“You see!” Keller almost screamed.
Kyr swallowed a mouthful of blood, “Get out of my sight.” He growled and started to turn back to his console.
In one smooth motion Keller drew his blaster and pointed it shakily at Kyr; “Stand down Harden! I’m in command now. We’ll send our surrender to him and at the same time we’ll launch the life pods; he won’t bother about us, he’ll be too distracted by the ship to care.”
The remainder of the bridge crew froze in their positions watching the confrontation.
“That’s assuming that there’s only one ship out there; there could be a dozen of them. Don’t you get it, he can’t let any of us leave here; if fleet hears about this then he’ll have the whole Alliance war machine on his back. If we surrender or abandon ship we’re dead. He won’t fire on us again because he wants the Palomino intact. As long as we stay on board we have a chance…” He could see his words were having no effect on Keller.
“You’re wrong.” He glanced over his shoulder at the helmsman; “Send a signal…”
Kyr launched himself at him, making a grab for the blaster. Keller was bigger and stronger than him anyway and his fear gave him even more strength; there was no way that Kyr could wrestle the blaster from his grasp but neither could he release his grip; to do so was certain death so they stood wrestling the gun between them… Kyr was never sure whether it was his finger or Keller’s that caught the firing stud. He stumbled back his hands and the chest of his uniform scorched by the energy bolt. The blaster klanged onto the deck plate and Kyr met Keller’s stunned eyes. His lips moved as if he were trying to say something but no sound came out then his eyes glazed and he folded up onto the deck beside his weapon. Kyr tore his eyes from the still form to look at his own burned hands.
There was another crackle from the com system, “Bridge, this is engineering, What’s going on? Did you receive the transmission? Harden, What are your orders?” The Bridge door hissed open and the medics streamed onto the bridge.
Kyr blinked then turned to the engineering console hitting the com switch.
“We got the transmission, ignore it. Have you got any sensor readings at all?”
“Navigational only and that’s at 45% output.” Came the crackly reply.
“How many ships have you detected?”
“Three. The corvette you picked up earlier and it looks like two D-gamma shuttles. The Corvette’s dead astern and the shuttles are to port and starboard; their staying with us.”
“Arrogant Bastard.” Kyr muttered – under normal circumstances the Palomino would easily be able to deal with the three ships but the circumstances were far from normal.
“Can you get the Force-fields up?” He said louder.
“Main inverter is down.”
“Weapons?”
“The inverter feeds the cannons so their out too but the rail guns and missile launch tubes are still functioning. The only thing is the battle comp is fried, we’ve got no way of targeting them.”
One of the medics approached him and started to dab the blood away from the gash on his cheek but he shouldered him away irritably. “See to the others first.”
The rail-guns fired accelerated rounds of depleted uranium alloy along a magnetic stream and could do terrible damage to an unshielded hull but without the battle comp to plot targeting solutions chances of hitting a moving target were slim. The Corvette was big enough to have a force-field generator so the guns would be useless against it but they still had missiles. Unfortunately with the battle comp down so was the guidance interface; there was no way to target the corvette.
There was a high static hiss and the ship shuddered.
“The Corvette just fired a salvo; they missed us by six meters!”
“A warning shot, nothing more, he wants the ship intact.”
Kyr’s tired and pain wracked mind fought its way through the options open to them; there were ways of taking out the corvette or the shuttles but no way to do both and he knew that whichever he destroyed the remaining ships would finish them. He glanced over his shoulder at the blanket that covered Luytens’ still form; he’d have figured a way… He gritted his teeth in frustration; no matter what he did; they would see any preparation that he made and act before he had a chance. If only he had a couple of stealth mines…
His eyes narrowed.
“Thorvald, how much heptritium gas have you got?”
“Two of the five main tanks are full the third is about 16% and then there’s the three back up tanks, why?”
“How much will you need to get this crate back to Neptune outpost?”
“One of the main tanks should do it but what difference does…” The words died as he realised what Kyr had in mind.
“It might work.”
“Is there a way you can release everything we don’t need and make it look like some kind of malfunction; if they get wind of what we’re doing…”
There was a moment’s silent thought from the other side of the com line, “Do you think he’ll fire another warning shot at us?”
“Most likely, probably closer than the last.”
“Even better,” He could almost hear Thorvald’s evil grin.
“Once the gas has spread do a one eighty on her Z access and wait for my command.”
“Gotcha.” The com line flicked off.
Kyr turned to the Helmsman, sitting uselessly at his station.
“Can you get the main screen back up?”
“Startled the helmsman stared at him a moment before nodding, “It’s just the relays that are blown I can re-route the feeds through the back up relay.” He continued to look at Kyr.
“As soon as you’re ready.”
With a start the helmsman turned back to his panel.
Less than a minute later the screen flashed to life to reveal the star field and the dim distant glimmer of Sol. If this didn’t work then this was as close as any of them were ever going to get to it.
“Everything’s prepared, now all we need is for him to play his part.” Thorvald’s voice sounded over the com, “If this works Harden, you and me are going to get drunk as soon as we make landfall.”
“My treat.” Kyr said hitting the com button. Now all they could do was wait and hope.
Thorvald had thoughtfully routed sensor data up onto the console so that Kyr could see the ships shadowing the Palomino on the plot; they were all close; the corvette less than ten thousand meters astern and the shuttles about five thousand to port and starboard. Even if everything worked they would get real close… There was another static scream and the ship shuddered more violently as another blaster volley shot past from the corvette this time less than a meter from the hull. Perfectly timed the starboard pressure baffles blew off the side of the ship and the heptritium began billowing out around the ship in a thick, white cloud; forced away by the ships magnetic field. Kyr glanced at the sensor read out the pirate ships slowly faded from the screen as the heptritium diffused the sensor beams.
“Keep our speed, course and heading until it’s more dispersed; let’s not get him too nervous.” Kyr said into the com.
“The tanks are almost depleted.” Came Thorvalds reply.
Kyr waited, counting off silently in his mind.
“Now.” He said into the intercom.
There was that gut-wrenching second as his sense of up and down were momentarily disrupted then the view screen was filled with billowing whiteness of the heptritium.
“On my command give him everything we’ve got.”
Visibility within the gas cloud was minimal, perhaps a little more than a thousand meters. Argent would close the distance, eager to keep his eye on his prize. Kyr kept his eyes on the screen and his finger on the com switch.
Through the swirling gas he caught the dull wedge of dark metal.
“Now!”
The ship shuddered slightly as all six missile tubes fired their fusion warheads. They sped away from the ship in a straight line with no guidance but at that range they didn’t need guidance.
“All hands brace for impact.!” Kyr shouted over the com then took a firm hold on the arms of his seat.
The corvette detected the missiles less than a second before they hit her force-field; it withstood the first two detonations but after the third it flickered and faded, the next two hammered into the hull and detonated; the final missile shot harmlessly past but the two that had hit the hull had done their work, tearing off a massive chunk of the forward bulkhead. Even as they watched the blast wave caught the Palomino and she shuddered more sparks exploded but the view screen stayed on as a spray of the rail-guns tore into the wounded corvette. More metal exploded off her hull and she seemed to stagger in space then fold in on herself in an expanding glow that was diffused by the rapidly dispersing heptritium. A ragged cheer sounded from the bridge crew but Kyr ignored it, his face still grim; there were still the two shuttles to think about.
“Thorvald, give me a three sixty on her y axis and keep firing those rail-guns. The demise of the corvette moved of the screen to port as the ship spun around a constant stream of depleted uranium curving out. Seconds later there was a second explosion and metal fragments careened of the hull of the Palomino but the ship continued it’s spin. The gas had all but disipitated now and as the second shuttle came into view they could see that it had brought it’s own guns to bear on the wounded Palomino. The stream of rounds stopped abruptly but the frigate’s nose swung onto to the waiting shuttle.
“We’re out of ammo sir, it’ll take about two minutes for the crews to reload.” Thorvald’s strained voice sounded over the com.
“Patch me through to them.” Kyr replied.
The panel lit up to show an open channel.
“Pirate shuttle, this is the Palomino, we have you in our sights and are prepared to destroy you unless you withdraw immediately.” There was no response.
“That glow off to starboard is what’s left of your Captain; we’ve sustained damage and have no wish to take anymore and you have an opening in your organisation. It would be a shame if we were to take anymore damage while destroying you and it would be a shame that you wouldn’t be able to make a run at the vacant captaincy, being dead an’ all.”
Still no reply then, after perhaps a minute of silent, the shuttle’s nose swung away and her engines powered up.
“Chief, keep our nose on her until she’s out of gun range then get us the hell out of here best possible speed.” He slumped back into his chair.
“Damn me, remind me never to play poker with you boy.”
Kyr had already passed out.
It all happened quickly after that. The provost marshals’ were waiting for them as soon as they docked at the Neptune outpost and Kyr was placed under immediate arrest; charged with mutiny, two counts of murder and high treason.