Chapter 57 - Official Notices

My opponent abandoned his attempt to take over the teleport pad after about twenty minutes. I stood at the controls, waiting for the next attack. I was checking to see if I could set up some filters to help limit the scope of the attacks when I heard someone clear their throat behind me.

I froze, but a hand kept me from turning around. "Don't panic," I heard Brittany say. "I just didn't know how to get your attention. You were concentrating."

The console signaled that another attempt to crack my passwords had been initiated. I generated a new block and used it to cut the connection before glancing over my shoulder. "They don't stop for every long," I said. "What can I do?"

"Can you set up a connection with Athena?" Brittany asked.

"Not if there is an attempt to hijack the pad active," I said. "Why?"

Brittany sighed. "This is bad. We can't even talk to them in real time. They got in touch with us using an old laser system. Candi got it to work, I didn't even know we had it."

"Um..." I muttered as I forced the current cyber attack back. "What does that have to do with me?"

"Sorry," Brittany said kissing me on the cheek. "It's just that Athena has two crew in critical condition. Their own medical bay took a direct hit, so they can't treat them. If we are to save them, we need to get them to a medical pod here. They are in the aft transporter room on the Athena."

I nodded as I checked the console. The latest attack had stopped, but I still could see indications that the other party was monitoring our pad. "I can do it, but..." I began.

"Yeah," Brittany said with a sigh. "James has already ripped comrade Johanes up one side and down the other for interfering in the operation of the colony during a crisis. I'm afraid the man didn't take it well. He seems to believe that the appearance of those three ships is the prelude to him taking over completely."

"Will his minion back off and let me perform the teleport?" I asked. "It will make this a lot safer for the injured people I'm bringing over."

"We don't know. I listened to some of the arguing going on. It sounded like Colonel Johanes didn't believe that it was real," Brittany replied.

I sighed, but activated the pad scan to see what new teleporter pads I could connect with. I found that the unknown cruiser had two pads and that there was a new temporary pad set up near our triple door setup. Finally, the scan found the two rooms on Athena.

"Tell James that someone put a temporary pad down near our doors," I told Brittany. "They might be moving people from the cruiser."

"Can they move weapons?" Brittany asked.

"No weapons may be teleported onto Ishtar," the AI intoned.

Brittany giggled. "And the voice speaks. I'll run and tell James. How soon will you be bringing the injured over?"

"Get me people to move the gurneys and I'll activate the system. I've got the pad linked up and hot. But be quick, if they try to break through the security again, I'll have to activate the pad immediately to avoid losing the connection."

"You'd think the AI would lock them out completely," Brittany said in a huff.

"The AI can't always tell a real crisis from a good acting job. It errs on the side of believing that any person claiming that there is an emergency is telling the truth. That's why I have to keep overriding the emergency protocols," I told her. I then waved towards the door.

Brittany headed out. In her absence, I worked to strengthen the link to Athena's teleporter room. The attacks that had been almost constant had ceased, but I continued to watch for indications that the calm was ending.

Less than five minutes after Brittany had left, Nathan, Amanda's hunk of a concubine and Tom, the man who had escaped the other side of the colony to become Yvette's second male concubine dashed into the room. Tom immediately grabbed one of the two gurneys already in the teleporter room and moved it next to the pad. "Donna and Shawna are all set up," he told me. "Bring the injured people over."

I activated the teleporter pad. With the time I had spent, the connection was perfect. Instantly, two bodies appeared on the pad in the room. The bodies were on improvised stretchers. Tom and Nathan seized the first and lifted it onto one of the gurneys.

They pushed the gurney to the doorway and then rushed back to the pad with a second gurney. I was watching them work when a beeping sound from the control console got my attention. I looked down to see that someone from Sir Paridell was again trying to teleport to the pad.

"Damn," I muttered. "They haven't given up."

"What's wrong?" Tom asked.

"They keep trying to teleport to this pad," I said. "Right now, they are trying to open a connection, but the fact that we have someone already on the pad prevented the teleport."

"Are you blocking them?" Nathan asked.

"Constantly," I moaned. "But whoever is trying to teleport here has figured out that the AI will believe that any declared emergency is real. So far, every attempt has had an emergency tag of some kind." I reached over to put the pad into emergency shutdown. This broke the connection to Sir Paridell, although they could attempt to turn the pad back on remotely.

Tom and Nathan had moved the second injured crewman to a gurney. "We'll be back when there are more people to move," Tom shouted as they pushed the gurneys from the room. Their feet beat a fast patter on the floor as they departed.

Alone again, I sighed. The overhead speakers had been broadcasting nothing but static for the last hour. The situation was frustrating and frightening. The only thing that was clear was that the man sent to be the acting governor did not have the well-being of James and the others as a priority.

I was pondering this when Margaux returned. "Sorry," she told me as I brought me another cup filled with water. "Mommy was talking to the boss guy."

"To James?" I asked.

"The quiet guy who runs everything," Margaux affirmed. "He was discussing the ships."

"What were they saying?" I asked.

"I don't know," Margaux admitted.

I took the cup from her and drained it in one long gulp. "Did they have any messages for me?" I asked as I lowered the now empty cup.

"Just that he'll need you here for a while. I heard Kitty and Tina talking about bringing your daughter to you. They'll probably also set up a bed here," Margaux replied.

"Makes sense," I said with a nod. I was about to say more when the speakers stopped hissing. Margaux and I both looked up at the ceiling.

"James!" Colonel Johanes voice screamed out. "You kept claiming you were some miracle worker who could bring order out of chaos."

"It helps when we don't have other people actively working to generate additional chaos," James snapped back. "I'm guessing that missile cruiser and its escorts are supposed to work with you. Tell them to stop the jamming. Athena needs repair and guidance."

"James!" I heard Veronica, one of Timothy's concubines call out. "We have a new jump point opening. It's in line with the Wolf system."

"Any idea what ship it might be?" James asked.

"It's on the small side right now. If it doesn't continue to grow I'd say it's probably a corvette," Veronica replied.

"Keep an eye on it," James said. "Terrence, have you got any scans for Athena? We know they took damage and we need to prepare to repair the ship."

"It's hard to get a clear scan with those corvettes dancing around the ship. We have managed a couple of clean scans though," Terrence replied. "The majority of the damage is isolated. They took one hit that punched through the skin and, from what they have reported, penetrated to the medical bay. We have got a view of that."

"Repairable?" James asked.

"Yes," Terrence replied. "I've already set up a couple of the replicators on Inanna working on prefabrication of repair patches. And we have one of the dry docks prepared to perform the installation and repair work through the open hole made by the hit. If all goes well, we'll have the major damage patched in six hours. Full repair will be twenty."

"Good," James said. "Make sure Timothy and Louis are..."

"James!" Veronica called out. "Something emerged from the jump point I told you about."

"Something?" Colonel Johanes screamed. "What the fuck do you mean by that? Can't you identify it?"

There was a loud sniff from the speakers. "It's a heavily damaged ship. The damage to the superstructure makes it impossible to make a quick identification," Veronica said.

"What the ... ?" I heard Ulla gasp. "James, you'll never guess what bundle of armor plate just arrived."

"Bundle of armor plate?" Tiffany called out. "You can't mean..."

Ulla's voice interrupted her. "Cancun, this is Ishtar control. Can you read me?"

Everyone was quiet. Outside the room, I could hear a few people running in the corridors. Then the speakers crackled. "Oh, we read you loud and clear, Ishtar Control. Unfortunately, we can't see you right now. We've lost every scanner and sensor on the ship."

"Is this Captain Gates?" Ulla asked.

"Certainly," the voice replied. "My communications officer is back in engineering helping keep the engines in balance."

"Can you give me a damage report?" Ulla asked.

I could hear Captain Gates smile as she replied. "Well, as I said, we don't have any working scanners or sensors, and that includes all our navigational aids. We managed to arrive here using computerized timing and a bit of luck. Lieutenant Darwin down in engineering is unhappy with how much damage the engines have taken. He's struggling to keep them stable. And of course, our armor has just a few holes."

"A few?" Veronica called back. "I've seen cheese graters with fewer holes."

"Veronica..." Timothy was heard to call out. "Be nice."

"I'm trying," Veronica replied. "I'm just in shock that the ship has any power."

"Power, life support, heck we even have our medical bay working," Captain Gates replied. "We just can't see anything. Any chance you can get us to a dock for repairs?"

"Someone get Maggie to a control station and get a tug out there to pick up Cancun," James called out. "Captain Gates, did you have any casualties?"

"Bumps and bruises," she replied. "I have a very good helmsman who makes sure we never take a direct hit."

"Well, you'll have to sit tight for a while," Yvette called out. "It's going to take a couple of hours to get the tug out there and to bring you to our repair docks."

"That's fine," Captain Gates replied. "I'll stand down most of my crew while we wait. The fighting at Wolf has gotten a bit nasty."

"Should we expect more damaged ships?" Yvette asked.

"Probably," Captain Gates replied. "We've managed to wipe out the orbital stations the Sa'arm had set up, but that still leaves a large number of ships. From what we heard before we lost our long range scanners, the Sa'arm are launching ships as fast as they can build them."

"Any other ships in the system when you were there?" James asked.

"Several," Captain Gates said. "Siberia and Andrew Jackson both jumped back to Borneo shortly after we arrived."

"AJ is back in service?" Tiffany called out. "I wonder if they put Bernadette back on her."

"They are based in Borneo, so I don't know who is on the ship," Captain Gates replied. "I remember they were with a Hero class ship when I saw them. The Hero stuck around for another two days. It looked like the captain was testing some new missiles."

"That kind of testing is unauthorized!" Colonel Johanes shouted. "All new developments are supposed to be sent to a proper research station."

"I'm sure it has," Captain Gates replied. "But there is no harm in testing. Meanwhile, I thought I was reporting which ships were in the Wolf system."

I heard James laugh. "You were. Unfortunately, the raspy voice that just cut in seems to believe he has some level of authority over the district."

"Really..." The one word was full of sarcasm and disbelief. "I know that I don't have to obey you. Anyways. Morrigan jumped in about the time we made our final attack run. We lost most of our sensors in the run, so I had my helmsman aim for Ishtarat and take us into a jump. We listened though, and it sounded like Sif, Ahti and Tintagel Castle all jumped in while we were accelerating away from the system."

"Lots of ships," Brad said. "It sounds like there isn't much left at Borneo to defend the planet."

"Kelorat rarely has a ship in the system," Captain Gates replied. "The base there is actually built into a large airless moon of one of the three gas giants that make up the planets of the system."

"So you live in tunnels too?" I asked.

"More like sculpted caverns," Captain Gates replied. "We actually have quite a bit of open space."

"Why am I listening to idle chatter!" Colonel Johanes screamed. "James, you are supposed to be in charge here."

"Maggie," I heard my master call. "What is the status of the tug?"

"After the last visit from Borneo, we moved one tug to be closer to the most likely egress from jump space that was in line with Borneo," Maggie replied. "The tug will link up with Cancun in five minutes. Once we have the ship in tow, we're going to pull it to the new special dry dock on Astarte. That won't be as fast. With the damage to Cancun, I won't be able to run the tug faster than about one quarter c. They are currently about thirty light minutes from the dock, so call it just over two hours to get them into a dock."

"Terrence, how is Athena coming along?" James asked.

"I'm still trying to get some improved scans," Terrence said. "Ravenna has backed off, but River Oaks has been hovering directly over the damaged section of Athena's hull. I have some of the replacement parts being assembled, but won't know for sure if I have it right until River Oaks gets out of the way."

"Do they answer any communication?" James asked.

"No," Ulla said. "Ravenna's captain has expressed some confusion. Apparently, the situation here doesn't match the information in the briefing he received. But River Oaks and the missile cruiser both ignore our attempts to hail them."

Just then, Veronica screamed out. "I have more jump points opening. Two, no four, all in line with the ones that brought the missile cruiser."