“She’s crashed out in the break room. She was up most of the night tying in her console with the asteroid’s external sensor array.”
“Did she get it working?”
“Yes, but it’s only a passive system. I guess the Karuzari don’t want to advertise their position. I’ve got her primary display up on my auxiliary here,” he added, pointing to one of his smaller side screens. “I’m supposed to wake her if we pick up anything out of the ordinary. Would you like me to wake her?”
“No, let her sleep awhile. She’s earned the rest, I’m sure.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who’s the duty officer?” he wondered, not seeing any command staff nearby.
“Ensign Nash, sir. She’s in your ready room.” The comm-officer made a face indicating that she too was probably sleeping.
Nathan nodded once his understanding as he turned his attention to the tactical station in front of him. He stood for a moment, looking over the displays. The same passive sensor readings that were currently displayed on the comm-officer’s side screen were also displayed on one of the tactical screens. There was plenty of traffic being tracked. But it was all standard civilian traffic, and it was all at a considerable distance from them without a single track bound anywhere near them. All in all, Nathan felt safer than he had in days. If a suspicious ship were to suddenly appear in the vicinity, unless they had sensors that could penetrate several kilometers of solid rock, their asteroid would appear to be just another abandoned mining camp, one of hundreds floating in the belt of the Darvano system. And should something go horribly wrong, he was confident they could exit the underground base, clear the belt, and jump away, all before sustaining any significant damage.
Satisfied that everything was in order, he turned his attention to the upgrade project being conducted by Abby and Deliza. “How’s it going, ladies?”
Deliza quickly stood, youthful exuberance and excitement in their little project evident in her demeanor. “Very well, Captain,” she announced proudly. “The shuttle’s computer core is much more powerful than the ones in this console.”
“That’s great news,” Nathan said, sensing that Deliza needed some confirmation. He looked to Abby for some sort of confirmation as to the young girl’s claims.
“She’s not exaggerating, sir,” Abby assured him. “Not only will this computer greatly decrease the time necessary to calculate a jump plot, but it will also significantly increase the accuracy of the jump as well.”
“How so?” Nathan asked. He didn’t for a moment expect to understand any of what he was sure she was about to tell him, but he was feeling unusually optimistic this morning.
“The calculations are far more precise than our own computers. Ours have a fixed number of digits available to either side of the decimal point. Granted, there are many. And in almost all cases they are more than adequate. But their computers use a floating point system that can accommodate a nearly infinite number size.” She could see that he did not understand what she was talking about. “The gist of it is that we can calculate most jumps in less than a minute. And the increased accuracy means that we can arrive as close as a few hundred meters without fear of merging with a nearby object.”
“Merging?” Nathan shuddered. “That doesn’t sound like something we would want to do.”
“No,” she agreed. “It does not. However, I should point out that we have no idea what the effects of such a ‘close-in-arrival’ would be, to us or to any nearby objects.”
“Don’t worry, Doctor. I have no intention of finding out,” he assured her as he turned to go to his ready room.
The skies of Corinair were thick with air traffic, as ships of every possible size and design darted back and forth between the surface and her orbital platforms.
“Is it just me, or does it seem like there’s a lot more traffic than there was yesterday?” Loki observed.
“Yeah there is,” Josh agreed. “I’m actually glad they use auto-landing systems today. I’d hate to have to try and navigate through all of this.”
“Yeah, and most of it is outbound,” Loki added. “In fact, nearly all of it is outbound.”
“I don’t like the looks of this,” Marcus commented from behind them. He had been looking between their seats out the front windows for the last few minutes.
Josh looked over his shoulder. Despite the old-timer’s many failings, he had grown to trust the man’s instincts about such matters. “You think something is bugger?”
“When this many people react the same way, it’s usually only one of two things,” Marcus said. “Something really good, or something really bad.” Loki also turned to look at Marcus. “My money’s always on bad.”
“Yes?” Jalea answered into her comm-unit.
“Jalea?” Loki called through the unit. “Is that you?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“We’re in the upper atmosphere now. Should be touching down in about half an hour.”
“The supplies are already there waiting for you. We’ll be there by the time you finish loading.”
“Copy that. You got any idea what the hell’s going on down there?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ships are leaving the surface in swarms! But not many are returning by the looks of it.”
“I do not know, but I will attempt to discern the cause.”
“Just be sure you get to the port quickly. I have a feeling that we don’t want to be hanging around when whatever is about to happen actually happens.”
“Agreed,” she said, as she unceremoniously ended the call and replaced the comm-unit into her jacket pocket.
“What was that all about?” Tug asked.
“We need to hasten our departure from Corinair,” she told him, trying not to appear overly concerned.
“Why? What has happened?”
“I do not know. But I suspect we will soon find out,” she told him as she quickly gathered her few things.
Nathan stepped quietly into the ready room. As the comm-officer had guessed, she was asleep on the couch. Between her, Cameron, and himself, that couch was going to wear out in a hurry. He moved silently over to his desk and sat, after which he activated the small monitor on the corner of the desk itself.
First he checked the reports. As usual, the most thorough and informative reports were the ones submitted by Cameron. As suspected, she had turned out to be a fine executive officer, always staying on top of every detail of the ship’s operation. From her reports, he knew that all of the rail guns were not only operational, but their rate of fire and rail velocities had also been improved. However, with the increased rates of fire, their ammunition levels were more dangerously low than before. The commander’s estimates showed that, given the average length of each engagement thus far, they only had enough point-defense rounds for one engagement, maybe two if they were relatively short. This reality greatly troubled Nathan, since it meant that they could not maintain a toe-to-toe slug-out for long. The good news was that, as far as solid kinetic rounds went, they had plenty. In addition, their relatively simple design meant they could manufacture additional rounds in respectable quantity if needed. Nathan suspected that the raw ores left over from their harvesting operation in the Haven system would provide the materials needed.
The bad news was that, although two of the four torpedo launch tubes were again operational, there were no more torpedoes left for them to shoot. Despite the rather adaptable design of the tubes, they were unlikely to acquire ordnance to launch from them.
With no shields, no long-range standoff weapons, and little more than kinetic rounds for the rail guns, Nathan didn’t see how they could ever hope to take on anything more powerful than a patrol frigate. And even then, only if they were lucky. The only trick he had up his sleeve was the jump drive, and that trick might get old really fast.