The Catalyst

-Chapter 39-


After we had the controls locked and had verified we were on course for the ring back to Helios, I had a quick strategy session with Gorski. The two women watched us closely. They both had their arms crossed and refused to look at each other. I didn’t know much about women, but I knew this was a bad sign. Instead of eyeing one another they were both eyeing me with venom. I found myself desperately wishing we hadn’t wiped out the last of our booze supplies long ago.
“We can’t just blast our way through the ring again,” Gorski was saying. “We have to assume there are explosives there, waiting for us.”
It took me a second to tear my eyes away from the two tail-lashing women and turn my attention back to Gorski. “Yeah,” I said. “There may be more mines.”
“There almost have to be more,” he said. “It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. We ran through a ten-mile wide ring, and hit two or three of them. There must be a large number of mines in a field there, waiting for anything that comes through like a net.”
We’d determined by this time that the ship had indeed run into mines. I’d wondered if the Macros had done it themselves in an attempt to blow us off the hull, but that simply didn’t make sense. They hadn’t needed to blast the nose off their own ship to attack us.
“Okay, so we are flying into a minefield, most likely one put up by the Worms,” I said. “Can’t we just fly through the same exact spot?”
“We can’t be sure exactly where that point was, we weren’t in control of the ship’s navigation at that point. Also, the mines may have shifted. Even more importantly, we aren’t in precise control of this vessel yet.”
I nodded. I had to agree with him there. Every time we touched the controls, everyone onboard got sick. “We have no choice then,” I said. “We’ll slow down as we approach the field. We’ll nose our way through, blowing the mines out of the way with our rifles if we have to. I’ll see if I can rig up a few auto laser turrets with some marine rifles and spare brainboxes. If we come into the field slowly enough, we can shoot the mines down.”
“Sir, there’s a few more considerations,” Major Sarin said.
I looked at her. Her expression had softened somewhat, as she became concerned for the lives of the crew, rather than just being angry. I welcomed the change. I needed my staff functioning again. I knew I’d brought this all on myself. My first mistake had been bringing Sandra onto the bridge staff—no, it went further back than that. I shouldn’t have brought her on the mission at all. It was madness to do so. Unprofessional. But my outfit was anything but pro. We were gifted amateurs at best.
But it was all my mess now. Sandra had been brought aboard and due to attrition—and probably unconscious favoritism, brought onto the bridge as an officer. I couldn’t kick her off now. Not without risking our relationship.
I thought bitterly how I’d compounded my errors by making a move on Sarin. I just hadn’t been thinking. Stress had a way of causing my mind to blank and drift at times. It made me act impulsively. I realized Sarin was still talking, so I struggled to listen to her.
“—that’s why we should consider doing another about-face and returning to Earth now.”
I realized belatedly she was talking about abandoning any survivors and spare equipment in the Helios system. I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I can’t leave them out there, floating around, hoping for pickup as they die one at a time. Hell, the Worms might come up and capture them. Or even another Macro ship.”
Sarin nodded rapidly, then winced and rubbed at the back of her head. “That’s another consideration,” she said. “For all we know, this is our one chance to escape. The enemy might have sent more ships after us than the four we took out.”
“Gorski,” I said, “run me some numbers. If a ship came in from the Eden system and flew all the way across the Helios system to the nearest ring, how long would we have before they could reach us?”
“Well,” he said, tapping at his tablet. “Assuming that they are flying cruisers with similar performance stats…and that they came through the moment after we left, because we would have seen them if they’d shown up earlier…I would say we have three days, sir.”
I nodded. “Three days. That will do it. We will be in and out of the Helios system and back here in a maximum of three days.”
Sarin didn’t look happy. I turned back to Gorski. “Watch the helm for me,” I told him. “Report anything.”
When I turned to do a ship inspection and a check on all the repair crews, Sandra put her hand on my wrist. She did it lightly.
“I want to talk,” she said quietly
Sarin was busy with a cracked tablet. We didn’t have much hardware left, and no way to build new stuff.
“Right,” I said, “we do need to talk. Both of you come along with me.”
Major Sarin glanced up, surprised. Sandra looked irritated.
“Come on,” I said, and walked off the bridge. Both the women followed me. I could feel the mutual hostility behind me, like heat emanating from a furnace. I had to put out this fire now, while I could. Either that, or one of these two was going to have to be kicked off the bridge.
We met in a side chamber that had possibly served the Macros as a repair center. Broken leg joints, springs, automated drill-presses and a selection of replacement head-sections for Macros were stored here. We’d not been able to get much use out of the workshop—with our nanite technology, we hadn’t really needed to. I thought that if we couldn’t recover our factories that would change soon. We would have to learn to control this equipment and rebuild elements of the cruiser.
“You see this room?” I asked the two women. They looked at me in surprise. They’d expected a lecture on civil treatment of your fellow officer. I didn’t like to give anyone exactly what they were expecting, however, it wasn’t my style.
They looked around, but didn’t say anything. I realized then that I did know something about women: when they were real quiet, that was a bad sign.
“Do either of you know how to use this stuff?” I asked. I didn’t really expect an answer, and I didn’t get one. I picked up a piece of outer plating and banged it on a slanted surface with beveled edges. It felt weird to hold a piece of an enemy body in my hands.
Major Sarin finally answered me. I supposed she couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “We have no idea how to use most of this stuff—or even what it does,” she said.
“Exactly,” I said, pointing at her. I tapped a machine’s control board. It whirred as if trying to start up, but then the sound died away. “These devices were built for Macro technicians who had a dozen fast-moving metal arms. You don’t just touch a single button and start one up. All the options are chosen at the moment the system starts. The helm works like that, which is why we’re having such a hard time with it. Imagine a car that has to know where you are going before you start it. You have to input your destination even as you hit the gas, hold down the clutch and start the ignition. Everything at once.”
I had their attention, but they still didn’t look happy. They had no idea where I was going with all this, but they were beginning to suspect a speech was coming. There had to be one in here somewhere. I decided to give it to them.
“This is just a sample of the technology this ship represents. High-grade Macro technology. A thousand secrets Earth can use to improve our forces, and to learn how to defeat the enemy.”
“So we should both shut up and be good girls, is that it?” Sandra asked.
My face darkened, but I fought not to be baited into a shouting match. “There’s only one way we can help Earth now. We can’t fight anymore, not in the condition this unit is in. But we have a lot of intel. Critical information Earth must have. For example: they don’t even know yet the Macros are shooting at us again.”
That got their attention. They looked worried. Everyone knew what had happened the last time the Macros had become annoyed. They’d come and blown away half of China.
“I’ve been hoping the Macros will react the way they did when the Chinese fired on them. I hope they’ll only try to kill us. But maybe they won’t. It’s hard to say.”
Sandra sighed explosively. “Okay, I can’t take anymore,” she said. “Yes, the stakes are high. Yes, we should all cooperate. And yes, I’m sorry I conked you on the head, Jasmine.”
Major Sarin studied the floor with a fierce frown. “I’m sorry if I intruded on your relationship.”
“No,” I said. “You don’t have to apologize, I was the one who weakened.”
“I don’t know why you have to weaken,” Sandra said. “If you really want her, then just be with her, and be happy.” Sandra did a pretty good job of keeping her face neutral as she said this. She really did look like she didn’t care, but her shaky hands and voice gave her away.
“It’s not like that!” I said.
“No, no,” Major Sarin said, her face suddenly horrified. “I wasn’t trying to take your man.”
Sandra opened her mouth. In my mind, I expected her to shout: then why did you let him kiss you, you slut? Or other words to that effect, but it didn’t happen. She controlled herself. Everybody knew Jasmine Sarin was a rules-follower. She abhorred personal messes in her life. Maybe she had a thing for her commander, but that tended to happen in mixed-sex armed forces.
“I accept your apology,” Sandra said. They still weren’t looking at each other.
“I too, accept yours,” Jasmine said.
“Okay!” I said, deciding to end on an up-note. “Let’s get this boat flying, then. We have a minefield to detect and sneak past. We have people to pick up.”
Major Sarin exited first, but Sandra lingered. I stepped toward her, hesitantly. She took a step toward me as well. I eyed her, trying to figure my next move. I wanted to go for a hug, but a kiss—I figured that was pushing too far.
Sandra let me hug her, briefly. But she was as stiff as a board to my touch. It was like hugging a Macro.
“Still mad?” I whispered in her ear.
“It’s going to be a looong time for you,” she whispered back.
She pulled away with her lips tight. The expression of disappointment on my face made her face shift, however. She snorted, then smiled and laughed. She flounced out of the workshop and I watched her shapely form as she exited. I heaved a sigh. I was pretty sure there wasn’t going to be any make-up loving tonight.
I realized then that with the nature of warfare in space, things like this were bound to be a problem. The navy had struggled with sexual relationships on ships for years, I knew. My Star Force marines were in an even worse situation. We’d been removed from the rest of humanity for long periods and then put under great stress. It wasn’t like the old days in the U. S. military on deployment. I’d done a reservist’s tour in the Mideast myself, so I understood the comparison. The sort of duty I was doing now was harsh. We were more like conquistadores than peace-keepers on a mission to some third-world country. We were facing alien machines determined to exterminate us. We fought in unknown star systems lightyears away from Earth. We couldn’t even figure out most of the time where in the heavens we were, much less know when we would get back. People became desperate under such circumstances and did things they might regret later. It was only natural, and I would have to think about what we should do about it to maximize our effectiveness.