A Simple Mission Read online

  29 March 2546

  * * *

  "Don't worry, Colonel," said General Ulysses Erhart, smiling amiably. "It's a simple mission."

  Newly-minted Lieutenant Colonel James Henry nodded politely at the general. The gesture obscured his uncertainty about things. He was fresh from a combat command, having served as the first officer on the destroyer Sun Yat-sen. His new assignment was unfamiliar territory. The fact it was given by one of the Coalition's most respected war commanders, who’d repeatedly beaten the League over the last sixteen years, made him even more nervous.

  "Why have I been picked, sir?" asked Henry. "I was under the impression I would be given a destroyer, not assigned to an R&D operation."

  "You are, officially speaking, being given a destroyer," Erhart pointed out. "The Laffey is an old reserve ship that got shot to shit at Eta Capri six years ago, but she's still a spaceworthy ship, and this could bring us victory in the war." At the look on Henry's face, Erhart nodded. "I'm serious, Colonel. The new fusion drives will give our ships a significant advantage in maneuvering over League ships."

  Henry couldn't argue against that. Destroyer combat often hinged around maneuverability, who could out-turn who or evade the most fire. Having a significant edge would allow CDF destroyers to sweep away League destroyer squadrons and improve attack run capability against their battleships. But Erhart still hadn't answered his question. "I appreciate that, sir. But wouldn't this be a better command for someone with an engineering background?"

  "We already have all the engineers we need," Erhart said. "We want someone with field experience in destroyers to put the drive through its paces. Push its limits. We have to know this thing will operate under combat conditions. That's your part in this. As I said, it's a simple one." Erhart grinned. "You let the engineers do their work, run some combat power exercises, and you'll be first in line for a new destroyer. Maybe even for another promotion."

  "I don't need buttering up, sir," Henry said defensively. “I'll do my duty. I just wanted to make sure I was the best man for the job."

  "Good to hear it, Colonel. You're dismissed. Godspeed."

  Major Felix Rothbard was waiting for Henry when he walked out of the gravlift to New Sandhurst Station's commercial deck. His wheat-colored hair was combed into place, and he gave his friend a respectful salute, which Henry returned. "New assignment?" he asked.

  "Yes, and not what I expected," Henry answered.

  "Oh? What? A shore posting? Or XO slot on a cruiser or something?"

  Henry shook his head. "No, I'm going to command the Laffey. Technology testing ship."

  Felix's expression betrayed his surprise. "Really? After everything else that's happened, Colonel Goldstein's glowing recommendation, the New Denmark campaign…"

  "It's not going to be a long assignment, just a few months at most," Henry said. "I'm supposed to put the ship through combat maneuvers to test everything. That's it."

  "Huh." Felix sighed. "Well, good luck. I'm shipping out for the Epaminondas tomorrow."

  "That's good news. A cruiser assignment."

  "Tactical Action Officer. Another step on my own road to command. Maybe I'll catch up to you while you mind the designers and their toys?" Felix grinned as he spoke.

  Henry matched the grin. "Maybe."

  Felix patted him on the back. "Even if I don't, maybe I'll end up as your XO on the next ship." They walked off toward the heart of the commercial zone and to one of the favored establishments for CDF personnel. "Because I've always got your back, Jim, and I always will."

  "I know, Felix. And I've got yours.”

  Shadow Wolf

  Galt System

  Trifid Nebula Region, Neutral Space

  3 April 2559

  * * *

  The Shadow Wolf burned away from Galt and toward the nearest jump zone, where her Lawrence drive could generate a wormhole in safety. In the galley of the ship, Felix Rothbard looked over a handheld projector and the star map it was projecting as a three-dimensional sphere. "Yan'katar," he said, shaking his head. "Damn, Jim, that's quite a run. Never been out toward the Jalm'tar before. Lots of rumors about them."

  "I trust the compensation is worth this journey?" rumbled Yanik, his Saurian oral structure giving his words a slight hiss.

  "More than worth it," Henry said in reply. "It'll make good the refit Tia's people at Trinidad gave us."

  "Losing two holds for it was a high price," Felix said. "You're still sure Tia's people did the work right? That we weren't scammed?"

  "She's never let me down yet," Henry answered. "And you saw how our tests went, Felix. The stuff works."

  The door to the mess hall slid open and admitted Piper Lopez. She had a pale bronze complexion with brown hair and eyes, while her hair was pulled back into a braid. A crystal hung from the necklace she wore. Beside her, Brigitte Tam'si entered, purple-dyed mohawk and all. Both wore the standard gray spacer jumpsuits common on many independent ships, these having "Shadow Wolf" stenciled over the heart and back. "The stores are all good, and some choice bits," Piper said. "Oskar is going to be having us jog the halls for hours to burn the calories."

  "And we'll jog them too," Brigitte said. "Where ever did you get cuts of Nueva Plata beef?"

  "You can find anything on Galt for the right price," Felix reminded them. "Coming to start away on our new grub, or did you have something else in mind?"

  "I'm just giving Brigitte some more history lessons," Piper offered. "To make up for the party line dogma she's grown up being told."

  "Let me guess." Felix put his fingers to his temples, mimicking a holoseries performer he'd once seen pretending to be psychic. "The true and noble World Society took over Earth while all of those foolish superstitious religious people, crazy nationalists, and evil capitalists left rather than become part of the great and beautiful whole of Society. And good riddance to them, because otherwise, we would have had to fight them and they might have beaten us."

  Brigitte was chortling through most of the performance. "Not the last," she said. "Your ancestors left because they knew the rest of Humanity was tired of their lies and exploitation, but they were so proud and selfish that they simply wouldn't accept the Society's wonderful future." She took a seat and flashed him a quick grin. Her voice was thick with sarcasm when she resumed speaking. "It's why the war happened, you know. The League's noble defenders came to your capital system under a flag of peace and offered you the chance to rejoin Society, and you sicced a fleet at them rather than listen to their perfectly reasonable offer."

  "Hell of a way to spin a surprise attack." Henry guffawed, matching Brigitte's grin. He took a swig from his flask before standing. "We're going to make our first jump soon."

  "I've got the course plotted in already," Piper assured him. "All anyone has to do is trigger the drive at the jump zones along the way. The rest of us can enjoy the two-week cruise to distant frontiers."

  "Ha," Felix laughed. "I guess it's just going to be one regular ol' pleasure cruise."

  Henry sighed at that, grinned to himself, and left for the bridge.

  CSV Laffey

  Berkshire System, Terran Coalition

  2 April 2546

  * * *

  "Now let's get one thing straight," declared Lt. Colonel James Henry to the assembled two hundred and five officers and crew of the CSV Laffey. "This isn't a pleasure cruise." From his place in her shuttle hangar, standing on a pallet of crates, he watched them pay the usual attention to a CO's welcome speech: as little as they could get away with.

  "We might be five hundred light-years from the nearest League ship, but that doesn't mean we get to relax. This ship is on full duty with the fleet, and we're going to behave appropriately. Watches will be properly manned, and you will conduct yourself as if we were on standard patrol." He gave them a moment to consider that before he came to his conclusion. "We've got an important job here. We're field-testing a new drive system that’ll give us an edge in the war. It'll help us defend o
ur homes from League attack. And we'll be the ones to make sure the damn thing works, so we need to be at our best and maybe make some history. That’s all I have to say. You’re dismissed. Godspeed."

  The crew dispersed. Major Tabitha Hale, his XO, approached. She was a slender woman, fair-skinned with hair the color of dark wine and dark brown eyes. "Well put, sir," she said in the tones of a New Ohio accent.

  "I would've put them to sleep if I'd talked any more," Henry replied.

  "Likely, sir," she agreed amiably. "The Kalling team is ready for you in the officers' wardroom, sir."

  He nodded in acknowledgment. "I'll see you on the bridge later."

  "Of course, sir."

  The wardroom was, like all such rooms on a destroyer, compact in size, one section aft of the ship's bridge. Henry walked in and found the table already attended by the design team, as well as who he assumed, was a senior executive of Kalling Engineering. General Erhart was present with General Barton, a rising star in the CDF's upper echelons. Their presence prompted Henry to brace to attention and state his presence. "Lieutenant Colonel Henry reports as ordered, sir."

  "At ease," Erhart said. "Now that you've seen to your crew, Colonel, I thought it was time to introduce you to the design team you'll be working with." He held out a hand toward the man with the best-looking suit, a high-collared business jacket of navy blue color. "This is Oliver Faulkner, the Chief Operating Officer of Kalling Engineering."

  As Faulkner approached, Henry got a good look at the man. He was solid in build, a little stocky, in fact, and his brown hair was combed to the left with great care. Blue eyes focused on Henry. He had the same fair skin tone as Major Hale and spoke with a similar accent. "Nice to meet you, Lieutenant Colonel. At last, our little team is complete." He offered his hand.

  Henry took the offered hand as a matter of politeness if nothing else. "Sir, a pleasure," he said as they shared a handshake. "You'll be overseeing the tests?"

  "Only at a high level, but yes." He nodded to a man who shared Henry's African descent. "This is Doctor Carl Larkin. He's the head of our design team and will be staying on your ship for the tests."

  "Captain," Larkin spoke with a faint New Antillean accent, the progeny of the various Anglo-Caribbean accents and dialects used by the original settlers of the planet. "Lookin' forward to working with you. What we have is nothing less than a breakthrough in starship propulsion."

  "So I've heard," said Henry.

  Larkin went on to introduce the rest of his team. They were evidently the cream of the crop of the Coalition's engineering profession, coming from worlds across Coalition territory. When Larkin finished, Henry asked, "Will Captain Soto be working with you?" He was speaking of the ship's official Chief Engineer, Captain Maria Soto.

  "My team will see to the engine itself, of course, but we will do so with the support of Captain Soto and her staff," was the answer.

  Henry wasn't surprised to hear it. But he did feel a little troubled the ship's actual chief engineer was being treated as nothing more than backup.

  "We might as well begin the presentation," Faulkner said, gaining everyone's attention. They returned to their seats, leaving the last for Henry. "Since the Exodus, spaceflight's come down mostly to ion and plasma thrust drives. We've been refining the technology for hundreds of years. But we've long come to a point of no return on improving the capability of the technology. Hence, the breakthrough of the fusion drive."

  "We've had fusion since the Exodus," Henry noted. "What's new about this?"

  "You're speaking of fusion for power generation, Colonel," Faulkner said. "The fusion drive fuses deuterium and helium-3 to produce plasma for thrust. It can even do double duty, adding to available electrical power for a ship while the plasma byproduct provides the thrust."

  "And it does so better than a standard plasma drive?" Henry asked.

  "Yes, greatly," Larkin began. "Our test engine has repeatedly shown thrust capacities above those of plasma drives. The increase in thrust is as high as 100 percent."

  Henry sucked in a breath. The reading materials he'd been given upon acceptance of the assignment hadn't made that point clear. He was already envisioning CDF ships running circles around their League foes.

  The rest of the meeting was taken up by discussions of the test range to be used, the fleet's backup shakedown range in Phi Philomena, and the maneuvers to be exercised. Henry made several proposed revisions to them, some of which were accepted, but it was quite clear that Faulkner and Erhart were determined to push the envelope. They wanted the fusion drive approved for fleet employment in new destroyer classes, and eventually the whole fleet.

  When the meeting ended, Faulkner made sure to shake Henry's hand again. "We're looking forward to your ship putting our engine through its paces," he said.

  "I'll do what I can," Henry replied.

  Shadow Wolf

  Open Space

  6 April 2559

  * * *

  The Shadow Wolf's engine room was toward the rear of the ship, between the rear-most holds. Here, fusion reactors providing the ship's electrical power were under the watchful eye of Pieter Hartzog. A descendant of the Boers who colonized New Oranje, Pieter was one of Henry's oldest hires for his ship. His experience in maintaining starship engines and power plants was a necessary talent to have in any crew, especially at his skill level.

  "Are the drives holding up?" Henry asked him. "It's been a while since we pushed them like this."

  "They're doing fine, sir." Pieter's accent extended the "ooo" sound in "doing." He looked up from one of his monitoring consoles. "We've still got at least a dozen jumps before we even have to think about maintenance."

  "Well, a dozen jumps from now, we'll be on our trip back home," Henry pointed out. "So I want you to keep a sharp eye on everything."

  Pieter gave him a look that spoke of feeling offended. "As if I'd do anything else, sir?"

  "Just covering all the bases, Pieter. You're one of the best ship engineers I've worked with."

  Pieter flashed a silly grin. "But not the best? I should feel hurt, I think."

  Henry returned it with one of his own, although it wasn't as prominent, and there was an edge to it. "There have been others," he said quietly before departing.

  CSV Laffey

  Berkshire System, Terran Coalition

  7 April 2546

  * * *

  Captain Maria Soto entered James Henry's office on the Laffey and brought herself to attention. She was on the slim side, a faint bronze coloration to her skin, with cloud-gray eyes and dark brown hair held in a tight bun at the back of her neck. “Captain Maria Soto reports as ordered, sir.”

  He glanced up. "At ease, Captain."

  "Aye aye, sir," she answered. Her voice held a Spanish accent.

  Nueva Plata-born, I'm betting.

  "Colonel, sir, I must respectfully request your assistance or a transfer."

  Henry’s face morphed into a frown. "Oh? What's wrong?"

  "Everything, sir. Permission to speak freely?"

  That’s never a good sign. "Granted.”

  "I believe the Kalling team is cutting corners on the drive system," she said succinctly. "They’re more concerned with making deadlines than ensuring the safety of the ship and crew."

  Henry frowned. "That's a serious charge, Captain. Can you prove this?"

  She handed him a digital reader. "I've got their work orders and specs loaded, sir. You can see where they're cutting safety regs in favor of time."

  Henry took the reader and looked it over. He wasn't an engineer, but he thought he could see what she was getting at. Steps were being glossed over, and assumptions made instead of checked. "Alright," he said. "I'll bring this up with Larkin at tomorrow's meeting. But it's too late to ask for a transfer, Captain."

  "I understand that, sir, but respectfully… I am the Chief Engineer of this ship, and these systems are my responsibility," she said. "If something goes wrong, it’s on my head as much as their
s."

  "I understand, Captain," Henry assured her, "and I will bring it up with Larkin. You can be sure of that."

  "Then you should also ask him about the materials being used for the nozzle housing," Soto continued. "Because from what I've seen, I'm worried their alloy won't maintain strength when subjected to the stresses of a full burn. Especially if the plasma is stronger than the Kalling figures claim it will be."

  Henry typed the query down on his tablet. "I'll make sure to bring it up. Anything else I can do for you, Captain?"

  "No, sir. And thank you for hearing my concerns." Her expression didn't soften. "It looks like you're the only one who cares."

  Henry went through the meeting with Faulkner, Erhart, Barton, and Larkin without saying much, not until the end, at which point he laid out what Soto's concerns were. "The captain's position is understandable, Colonel," Larkin said, "but in this matter, I will be responsible, not her. Please impress that upon her. And I would never endanger your ship and crew in such a way."

  It was a reasonable reply, and Henry responded with a nod. "I will." He moved on to the note he had with him. "And what about the drive itself? The materials you're using for the nozzle housing and the electro-plasma flow conduits, they're too light for the thrust level."

  "We're using a proprietary alloy," Faulkner answered. "We cannot share the formula until our contract is finalized and the CDF needs to know."

  Henry was given no chance to inquire further. "Concern yourself and your crew with the maneuvers, Colonel," Barton said abruptly. "Don't worry about the matters outside of your competence."

  "I have a responsibility to my crew to know as much as I can, sir," Henry said, his jaw set.

  "And you also have a responsibility to follow orders, Colonel, so consider yourself ordered to drop this matter."