THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 6 – POWERPLAY

19:52 (Universal Time)

Wednesday, November 24, 2315

Government center of the Jovian Governorate

Callisto Prime, Callisto

Jupiter System

‘’Welcome to Callisto Prime, Governor Watts. I hope that you had a good trip from Mars?’’

‘’I certainly had, Governor Robeson.’’ replied Charles Watts as he shook hands with Janet Robeson in her office, in which he had just been introduced after being picked up with his aide and bodyguards at the city’s spaceport. ‘’The facilities aboard the cargo ship KOSTROMA are truly impressive and I was actually able to rest and relax in great comfort. You should try that ship one day.’’

‘’Really?’’ said Robeson, both surprised and amused. ‘’Well, then we will be able to start our discussions in earnest with the others tomorrow morning, since you are in such good shape.’’

‘’Who was able to make it to here up to now?’’

‘’Governor Perez, from Saturn; Nadia Suslov, of the Sverdlovsk Group on Hygiea; Jacobus Stein, of the Pallas Mining Industries; Karl Langemann, of the Vesta Consortium and, finally, Shinjo Suzuki, of the Ceres Consortium. Those in turn represent as well a number of minor consortiums in the Main Asteroid Belt and in the Trojans.’’

‘’Excellent! Grand Administrator Li will not be able to ignore such a sum of industrial might and mineral resources.’’

‘’I certainly hope so. But, please, sit down and tell me how things are going on Mars.’’

Watts took the comfortable sofa offered by Robeson, with the latter sitting on a padded chair in front of him, then took fifteen minutes to discuss the situation on his planet with her. Robeson in turn told him about the latest developments around the Outer Solar System, concluding with a bitter comment.

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‘’The worst part is that, apart from non-violent passive resistance, there is not much we could do to resist the excesses of the Terran Federation right now. Jacobus Stein, the CEO of Pallas Mining Industries, has confided to me that his consortium produces secretly a small quantity of small arms and light ship weapons, weapons that he has sold to various consortium security forces during the last few years. However, these light weapons won’t do much against the heavy units of the Terran Customs Navy. As for the Sverdlovsk Group of Nadia Suslov, it has a sizeable security force of well-trained guards and could possibly defeat any landing by TCN Marines on Hygiea, but that’s about it. On my part, all I have in the Jovian System is a few thousands public security officers who are trained for police work, not for combat. It the TCN came here to invade us; there would not be much we could do. We could start producing weapons easily enough with all the high-tech industries at our disposal, but training properly soldiers takes months. Any switching to a war footing would anyway alert Grand Administrator Li and trigger a Terran invasion. You have seen on news bulletin from Earth how brutal their Internal Security troopers are. To think that those goons would be let loose on my citizens gives me nightmares, Charles.’’

‘’An understandable reaction, Janet. The Terran Internal Security Forces have a well-deserved reputation for brutality and abusiveness, with most of their soldiers being rather poorly educated, coming in majority from the most impoverished regions of Earth. I certainly wouldn’t want to see them land on Mars. Would Pallas Mining be ready to sell discreetly weapons to Mars, so that my people could at least stand a chance against an invasion?’’

‘’I believe so, Charles. We were planning anyway to discuss tomorrow about what to do if the Federal Council decided to play rough with us. You will have your chance to talk with Jacobus Stein then.’’

‘’Good! I do have one good piece of news for you, Janet, but it must stay secret: we actually have a hidden ace up our sleeve if the TCN ever sends an invasion fleet here. It is called the KOSTROMA.’’

‘’The KOSTROMA?’’ exclaimed Robeson on a skeptical tone. ‘’I know that it did destroy a pirate ship a few months ago, but you can’t expect it to destroy a Terran cruiser by firing life pods at it.’’

‘’Well, it happens that, after her very lucrative contract to carry rare metals to Earth, Captain Forster decided to offer herself a major refit of her ship. That refit centered mostly on a vastly improved propulsion system, but a side effect of it was that

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she was then able to turn her fusion ignition laser banks into battleship-class laser batteries. That was of course done in utter secret, with the work completed during my trip to here.’’

Janet Robeson was left speechless for a moment by this.

‘’And how powerful are these laser batteries, exactly?’’

‘’In the gigawatt power range: powerful enough to cut to shreds a Terran cruiser in seconds. She also modified a few of her life pods to turn them into short range space missiles, but would need more parts and, especially, explosives, to produce more of them.’’

‘’My God! That girl won’t cease to amaze me. Alright, I will keep her in mind and will certainly assist her in producing more of those modified life pods cum missiles. We do have plenty of explosives, used by the mining industry in this system. I will make sure that she gets all she needs, courtesy of my administration. Well, we will be able to talk further about this tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s get you a comfortable room for the night.’’

10:36 (Shanghai Time)

Saturday, November 27, 2315

Office of the Terran Grand Administrator

Government central complex, Shanghai

China, Earth

John Li was not happy to see one of his aides storm in abruptly in his office as he was discussing economic matters with his minister of revenue.

‘’What the hell are you thinking, Mobuto, to barge in like this unannounced?’’ The aide, a tall, thin black man in his forties, bowed deeply while excusing himself.

‘’I am sorry for this interruption, Grand Administrator, but something of utter importance just came to our attention.’’

‘’Then speak!’’

‘’Grand Administrator, our intelligence services have just learned that Martian Governor Watts is presently on Callisto, along with the governors of the Jupiter and Saturn Systems and the heads of the most important consortiums from the Main

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Asteroid Belt. It appears that they are holding there a secret summit of Spacer administrators.’’

The aide’s intrusion instantly forgiven, Li jumped to his feet, anger flashing on his face.

‘’WHAT? ARE WE SURE?’’

‘’Yes, Grand Administrator. Our agents on Callisto Prime have been able to photograph all of these people together yesterday.’’

‘’That Watts bastard! He was supposed to be bed-ridden on Mars following a supposed heart attack. I will have his post for this. Do we know what that summit is for?’’

‘’We have only conjectures, Grand Administrator, but the head of our intelligence services believes that they are probably discussing ways to resist our latest budget amendments which cut into space programs.’’

‘’That would effectively make sense.’’ recognized Li, calming down somewhat as he thought about how to react to this move by Spacer administrators. ‘’Very well. Tell Grand Admiral Ming Wa and Field Marshal Reyat Khan that I want to see them here immediately, along with Minister of Space Affairs Andretti.’’

‘’Yes, Grand Administrator!’’ replied the aide before turning around and leaving. Li made a gesture of frustration to himself.

‘’I should have known that these Spacers would try to double-cross me. Well, they will pay for this for sure.’’

‘’What are you planning to do, sir?’’ asked the minister of revenue, somewhat overwhelmed by this. Li gave him a resolute stare.

‘’At the least, they will have to come here to Earth to explain themselves before me. If they refuse to come, then I will have them arrested for sedition. That Watts is however a goner: he deliberately lied to my administration to go to Jupiter in secret and will lose his governorship for that.’’

‘’What if the Spacers resist, sir?’’

Li laughed briefly at that, his eyes reflecting anticipated pleasure.

‘’With what? If they do, then they will have given me the perfect excuse to grab full control of their little space kingdoms. Then, this constitutional nonsense about Spacers rights and privileges will be out of the way and we will be able to use all these new resources to take care of our true priorities. You may now return to your ministry, Mister Vernon. Thank you for your time.’’

‘’Then, have a good day, Grand Administrator.’’

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The minister then left, preoccupation on his face. He was a strong partisan of Li’s policies, but he could not help think that a war was the last thing that the fragile economy of Earth needed right now.

The broadcasting in the evening of a declaration from the self-proclaimed ‘Spacers League’ across the whole of the Solar System did nothing to assuage Grand Administrator Li, on the contrary. It announced a public referendum to be held in one week’s time on all Spacer worlds, installations and ships, with the referendum to decide if Spacers would secede from the Terran Federation and declare their independence from Earth. An enraged Li, resolved not to let the Spacers League gain some legitimacy through that referendum, then decided to act without delay, just as the various news medias competed to describe the situation in wild hyperboles.

02:11 (Universal Time)

Sunday, November 28, 2315

Governor’s residence, Ares City

Mars

The public security officers guarding the residence of Governor Watts had little warning before six armored air troop carriers of the Terran Internal Security Forces landed around the building and disgorged dozens of heavily armed troopers. Being lightly armed and heavily outnumbered, the officer in charge of the watch decided not to throw away the lives of his men and women and surrendered without resistance. That did not save the Martian police officers from being brutally manhandled and arrested by the ISF troopers as the front door of the Watts’ residence was broken down. Three squads then spilled around inside, their guns at the ready. They caught Watts’ wife in her bedroom, as she was putting on a robe after being awakened abruptly by the noise of the front door giving in. Despite her protests, Carolyn Watts was pushed face down on her bed and her hands were forced into her back, to be handcuffed. The ISF officer in charge of the raiding force, an African major, looked on with mean eyes at the mature woman as she was pulled back up on her feet by two troopers to face him.

‘’I see that your husband is not home, Misses Watts, contrary to what had been announced.’’

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‘’Why did you come here like this and arrested me? I have done nothing wrong?’’

The major’s smile disappeared, replaced by a hard expression. Taking a step forward, he then slapped hard Carolyn, twisting her head to one side.

‘’By hiding his absence from Mars, you made yourself an accomplice to sedition, like his aides, and you will pay for that. Take her away!’’

As the wife of the governor was dragged out of the house, the ISF major had the residence searched from top to bottom. After half an hour of searching, with the house now a shambles, a captain reported to his superior.

‘’We have found nothing of interest, sir. We have a few personal letters and papers, but none concerning Spacers affairs. It seems that Watt’s personal computer is missing, though: he must have brought it with him to Callisto.’’

‘’I expected that much already. Any indications about which ship he used to go to Callisto?’’

‘’None, Major.’’

‘’Well, that doesn’t matter much: we will beat it out of his aides anyway. Leave a squad here to watch the residence. Anyone who will try to approach it will be arrested.’’

‘’Understood, Major.’’

After one last look around the devastated bedroom, the ISF major walked out of the house, his mind going about the list of people he was going to arrest and question. With a full battalion of the ISF based permanently in Ares City, grabbing control of the city was not going to be hard, in view of the weakness of the opposition forces.

02:20 (Universal Time)

Callisto Prime Spaceport surface terminal

Callisto, Jupiter System

‘’I don’t like this, Lieutenant: it is too easy up to now.’’

The young TCN Marine lieutenant leading the forty Marines in armored spacesuits made a grimace at the comment from his platoon sergeant.

‘’Maybe, but we should not forget that the Jovians don’t have combat troops: only some police officers. They must know that resisting us would be futile, especially with our two frigates in orbit above us.’’

‘’Still, I don’t like this, Lieutenant.’’

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‘This’ was actually a short tunnel connecting the underground hangar where their assault shuttle was with the main communications tunnel linking the various hangars of the surface terminal with the spaceport’s main underground complex. The orders to land in Callisto Prime and go arrest Governor Robeson and any other leaders of the Spacers League they could find had come in the middle of the night, with directives to act without delay. That had left the TCN forces in the Jovian System with no time to properly plan their actions or to wait for reinforcements to arrive. That was why the lieutenant and his forty Marines were now on their own in the underground spaceport terminal, on their way to the city’s center. At this hour, the lights of the spaceport were dimmed out, as was normal, and nobody but a couple of maintenance robots was in sight. The noise of the armored doors closing at each end of the tunnel then made the sergeant swear.

‘’I knew it!’’

Before the lieutenant could tell him to shut up, the Marines were suddenly catapulted as a group upwards and slammed hard against the concrete ceiling five meters above. As they cried out in pain, the Marines fell down, slamming on the steel floor below. With his nose broken and lips split open, the lieutenant saw with horror that his helmet’s visor was cracked. He also understood that someone had played with the artificial gravity controls for the tunnel. An amplified voice then came out of hidden speakers.

‘’You have five seconds to throw away your weapons. If not, we will play ping pong with you again…after we depressurize this tunnel.’’

The young lieutenant swore to himself before yelling an order in his helmet microphone.

‘’DO AS THEY SAY! WE HAVE NO CHANCES AT ALL WHILE TRAPPED HERE.’’

His Marines obeyed reluctantly, their pride hurt, with most of them also suffering from a number of broken bones. Once their weapons had been thrown away, a large group of Jovians in spacesuits and armed with pistols entered the tunnel by a service door. Grabbing first the discarded weapons, the Jovians then stood over the battered Marines, most of whom were not able to stand by themselves. A tall Jovian woman wearing the insignias of a public security officer examined briefly the Marine lieutenant and gave him a not too friendly look.

‘’So, you thought that you could simply come and deny us our rights, as if we are mere peons of Earth?’’

‘’I had my orders, miss. What are you going to do to us now?’’

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‘’Probably a lot better than your forces would do to our own people, Lieutenant. Your wounds will be treated, then you will be detained until this crisis is resolved. Don’t worry: you and your Marines will be well treated.’’

In low orbit above Callisto Prime, the TCN commander in charge of the two frigates waited anxiously for a progress report from his Marines. His ships had up to now being strictly passive, coasting in orbit while surrounded by other ships in Callisto orbit. Commander Yu still hoped to conclude this without bloodshed, not relishing the idea of a war between Earth and the Spacers. Yu was loyal to Earth but also had learned to like and respect Spacers for the hard working pioneers they were. As Yu was about to request a report from his Marines, an unknown voice came on their tactical frequency.

‘’TCN frigate TORONADO, this is Callisto Prime Spaceport, over.’’ After a moment of surprise, Yu keyed his radio microphone to answer.

‘’This is the TCNS TORONADO. Send, Callisto Prime!’’

‘’TCNS TORONADO, be advised that your Marine landing party and their shuttle have been captured and disarmed. In view of your act of aggression, you are requested to leave orbit immediately and exit the Jovian System, over.’’

‘’You are ordering ME to leave the system, Callisto Prime? You are still subject to the authority of the Terran Federation, in which name I acted.’’

‘’The authority of the Terran Federation is no longer recognized here, TCNS TORONADO. Furthermore, your continued presence in orbit will be considered as a hostile act. You may come back if the coming referendum decides against

independence, but not before. You have one hour to comply and leave the system, over.’’

‘’And what if I don’t? You have no ships or weapons that can threaten us.’’

‘’Your Marines thought as well that we could not harm them, yet they are in our hands. You have no more troops to land anyway, TCNS TORONADO. Leave and let it be. Callisto Prime, out!’’

The radio link was then closed, leaving Yu indecisive in his command chair. His executive officer then approached him and spoke in a low voice.

‘’Shouldn’t we threaten them with missile bombardment, sir? We can’t let them chase us away like this.’’

Yu gave his executive officer a dubious look.

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‘’Our orders were to capture the leaders of this Spacers League, not to destroy that city, Mister Guraj. Are you ready to kill thousands of defenseless civilians? I’m not! We should never have launched that operation without waiting for reinforcements anyway.’’

Yu then looked at his navigator and his helmsman.

‘’Plot a course to leave orbit! We are returning to our sector base.’’ Yu already suspected that this was going to cost him his command. Better that though than having the deaths of innocents on his conscience.

Less than 2,000 kilometers away, on the bridge of the KOSTROMA, Tina Forster sighed with relief when she saw the two symbols representing the TCN frigates leave orbit without firing a shot.

‘’Thank God that this Terran commander proved reasonable. I would have hated to have to destroy his ships.’’

‘’The next time could be different, Tina.’’ said Dana Durning from her navigator’s station. ‘’Not all Terran commanders will be this reasonable. Some may even relish the occasion to make a name for themselves in a shooting war.’’

‘’Still, the idea of killing is not a palatable one to me, Dana.’’

16: 09 (Universal Time)

Tuesday, November 30, 2315

Vostok Spaceport

Hygiea, Main Asteroid Belt

Nadia Suslov eyed for a moment the projectile marks on the concrete walls of the shuttle hangar. Her eyes then coldly looked at the wrecked Terran assault shuttles which had been pushed into a far corner of the hangar.

‘’So, how much damage did these raiders do?’’ she asked to his head of security, a tough man with an iron will.

‘’Not much, actually, Miss Suslov. They never were able to go farther than this hangar and the bombardment from their supporting frigate didn’t go on for long before our fighters destroyed it. We lost a total of sixteen people, while the whole force of 87 Terran Marines was wiped out. We were also able to recuperate the weapons from the dead Marines. The whole attack was actually rather amateurish, in my opinion.’’

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‘’Put that on the undue haste they were in because of their orders from Earth. Grand Administrator Li has only himself to blame for his defeat.’’

‘’How did other Spacers centers fare against the Terrans initial assault, if I may ask, Miss Suslov?’’

‘’Except on Mars and Ceres, rather well, Leonov. On Mars, the Terrans were lucky in having already a battalion of troops established there and they were able to rapidly seize control of Ares City. They however did not have enough troops on or around Mars to occupy the other major cities. On Ceres, the Terrans had a field day against those eco-pacifists from Suzuki’s consortium and saw nearly no opposition. The Terrans control the main city, Demeter, but again lacked troops to properly occupy the whole of Ceres. We were however the only ones with the Pallas forces able to shoot down a Terran ship. The rest of the TCN ships then retreated to their sector bases or to Earth.’’

‘’I’m afraid that it won’t be as easy the second time around, Miss Suslov. The Terrans will probably wait for proper reinforcements before attacking again. We will have to work damn fast to improve our defenses.’’

‘’Actually, Leonov, I am not that worried overall, you know.’’ said the blond, primly dressed woman, surprising her head of security. ‘’The TCN may look like a formidable force when concentrated, but it has only about a hundred ships to patrol the whole of the Solar System. This time around, they tried to take dozens of places at the same time and it proved their undoing. Now, it is up to us to act before they regain their balance. Governors Robeson and Perez have ordered their systems to go on a war footing and they have started producing weapons as fast as they can, using designs stolen from the Terrans, but it will take time before we see concrete results from that. In the meantime, me, Robeson and Watts have decided on a mission to go try to expel the Terrans from Mars. I offered some of our security troops, while Jacobus Stein, of the Pallas Mining Industries, has offered a sizeable stock of small arms and ammunition to help arm the resistance forces on Mars. On her part, Governor Robeson is providing the ship to transport and land the weapons and troops on Mars. Do you have a good security officer whom you could recommend to me and spare for that operation, along with about 200 troopers who will help train and lead the Martians?’’

The head of security thought for a moment before answering her.

‘’I may have such a man, in fact. You remember Captain Michel Koniev?’’ Nadia Suslov beamed on hearing the name.

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‘’The one who led our raiding force against that bunch of claim-jumpers who pretended to have ownership of one of our asteroids? I think that he will do just fine.’’

‘’And he is a handsome man as well, right?’’ said Leonov, smiling, who knew well his boss. Nadia Suslov’s personal reputation was about as sulfurous as that of the infamous ‘Zero-G HEAVEN’ space brothel, one of the space installations controlled by her business group. ‘’Okay, I will send him to you to be briefed, while I assemble that Mars contingent.’’

17:25 (Universal Time)

Crew mess of the MSS KOSTROMA

Callisto orbit, Jupiter System

Tina Forster felt her frustration grow as she faced her assembled crew and their families in the crew mess. Even the owners and employees of the commercial concessions on the Promenade Deck were present, and they were proving as pig-headed as the rest.

‘’Please understand what is to come, my friends. This ship is going into combat and may suffer serious damage, or may even be destroyed. That is no place for non-crewmembers to be. In fact, I will understand if any crewmembers will refuse to go. None of us are trained military personnel and our weapons are improvised, untested ones. At the least, send your spouses and children to the safety of Callisto Prime.’’

‘’I’m sorry, Captain,’’ replied Robert Leblanc, one of the cooks of the ship’s main cafeteria, ‘’but Callisto Prime won’t be safe if the Terrans come back. At least, our ship can defend itself. Callisto Prime can’t, yet.’’

Vera Lutjens, one of the stripper girls from the JUPITER sex club, was next to jump to her feet.

‘’Captain, us ‘non-crewmembers’ from the Promenade Deck know the ship from top to bottom and are familiar with all the ship’s security and damage control procedures. God knows you and your uncle involved us in enough disaster drills in the past. I am more than ready to work as a damage control team member or as a cargo handler. I am also good with a spacesuit in zero-G.’’

‘’But, what about our children?’’ pleaded Tina, getting an immediate response from Alice Sweeny.

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‘’And what about our children indeed, Captain? These bastards on Earth did not hesitate to beat and abuse my three young daughters. You think that they can expect better from Terran assault troopers?’’

‘’And you think that they will be safe if we are boarded after a fight? Let’s be sensible, my friends: let’s put at least our younger children in a safe place, along with the mothers with babies. We can send them temporarily to, say, Triton, in the Neptune System. They should be safe there.’’

The men, women and children in the mess looked at each other in silence for a moment, undecided. Finally, Alice Sweeny rose again, partly subdued.

‘’You are right, Captain. The younger ones should go, along with mothers with babies. However, let the rest of us above the age of twelve decide individually if we stay or go. Every one of us can be useful to the ship in one way or another. Personally, I will go with my youngest daughter Cynthia and will help care for the small children of other crewmembers.’’

With a big lump rapidly forming in her throat, Tina nodded her head and pointed her left arm towards one end of the mess.

‘’Very well, then. The mothers of infants, the children under twelve and all the others who do not wish to end up in combat, please go sit in that corner. Again, nobody will call anyone a coward for not going to war.’’

Tears came to her eyes when only a pitiful number of the people present, nearly all young children, went to sit in the corner. Only a very few children of twelve or more chose to go to the designated corner, while all of the employees and owners of commercial concessions chose to volunteer for the war. Searching for Piotr Romanski in the crowd and finding him in the front ranks, she spoke to him in a strangled voice.

‘’Piotr, we won’t need your financial and business genius where we are going, but our children and mothers will need a resourceful leader to conduct them to a safe haven. I would like you to be that leader. Get our children to Triton and keep them safe there. You will have as much funds from me as you wish for that. I will also provide you with one passenger shuttle, to improve your chances.’’

Piotr, himself near to tears, nodded slowly his head.

‘’You can count on me, Tina.’’

Looking around her with tears rolling on her cheeks, Tina manage to say one last sentence before starting to cry openly.

‘’May you all be safe through this. I…I love you all.’’

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Piotr’ group left the KOSTROMA the next morning aboard one passenger shuttle, to go board another cargo ship due soon to leave for the Neptune System. That ship’s departure brought tears to many on the KOSTROMA. Then, every man, woman and teenager left on the ship concentrated on the tasks at hand. The food warehouses and cold rooms were filled in prevision of a long period in space; the last maintenance problems were corrected; the vast fuel tanks were filled to capacity and extra stocks of spare parts were acquired and loaded aboard. Those who were not already formally trained as crewmembers, in majority young teenagers and concession employees, were allotted to specific sections of the ship according to their talents and qualifications, where they immediately started a crash training program to at least teach them the basics. The high level of education of most helped, with even teenagers having already some useful scientific or technical knowledge.

Two days later, cargo shuttles from the surface of Callisto started bringing in the first locally-produced missiles, which were then loaded into emptied life pod launch tubes around the bow and stern gravity sail decks. Some stocks of small arms and ammunition also arrived, not much but at least enough to arm the KOSTROMA’s internal defense force, which would have the responsibility to repel any Terran boarding party. During all that time, Tina studied with her bridge officers and personnel how best to face Terran ships, using the information provided by Gustav Shomberg to find their weak points and devise tactics against them. Then came December 4, 2315, a date to become of great significance for the whole of Humanity.

The crew of the KOSTROMA suspended work for one hour on the morning of Saturday, December 4th, in order to register their votes in the referendum for independence held in the whole of the Outer Solar System. The citizens of Mars, being under occupation, were not allowed by Terran troopers to participate, while the governors of the Moon and of Mercury, being creatures of the Grand Administrator Li, refused to hold the referendum. Just before eight in the evening that day, Universal Time, the results were announced to the whole Solar System: the referendum had passed by a wide margin, with 81 percent of the participating Spacers having voted for independence and separation from Earth. The brief cheering which greeted that result in Spacer territory was quickly replaced by grim determination, as all realized that the

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Terran Federation would not simply accept that result and let them go peacefully. Effectively, it took only three hours before Grand Administrator Li appeared on system-wide news to declare the referendum results null and void and to call the referendum itself an act of sedition, promising to have the leaders of the new Spacers League arrested and judged for high treason. With that fresh threat in mind, the crewmembers of the KOSTROMA redoubled their efforts to prepare for the undeclared war that was certain to come.

04:08 (Universal Time)

Monday, December 6, 2315

Captain’s cabin, MSS KOSTROMA

High orbit around Callisto

Jupiter System

Tina, deeply asleep after a long day of work and frantic preparations, was awakened in her dark cabin by the insistent buzz of her intercom. Trying to focus her eyes, she pushed the answer button while sitting up in bed.

‘’Yes, what is it?’’

The worried face of Germaine Brown, on duty on the bridge, appeared on the small screen.

‘’Captain, the long range sensors on the moon Sinope have detected the approach of a fleet of seven unidentified ships coming from the Main Asteroid Belt. They are heading directly towards Callisto and will arrive in orbit above Callisto in approximately two hours.’’

All ideas of sleep evaporating, Tina swung her legs out of the bed while still looking at the intercom.

‘’Alright! Start moving the ship by gravity sail to close to the orbital cargo terminal, but make sure we keep at the same time a clear line of sight to where any ship orbiting above Callisto Prime would have to be. With luck, we will have them think we are in the process of loading some cargo. Is Callisto Prime on alert?’’

‘’Yes, Captain! They in fact passed the alert to us.’’

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‘’Then tell them on tight beam directional link not to call for our help, whatever happens. I want a chance at taking these bastards by surprise at close range. Have also ‘Battle Stations’ called across the ship.’’

‘’Uh, yes Captain!’’

That said, Tina jumped out of bed and started dressing up in her coveralls as the ship’s alarm started whooping. She then put on her spacesuit and left her cabin, on her way to the bridge.

05:52 (Universal Time)

Terran cruiser TCNS MUMBAY

Approaching Callisto

Rear Admiral Sanjit Parwan put on a martial air before stepping on the command bridge of his flagship, the cruiser TCNS MUMBAY. Despite his apparent assurance, he knew that he could not afford to fail on this mission. It had taken all of his powerful political contacts to stop Commodore Misawa’s investigation from getting too close to him concerning the pirate ship encountered by the cargo ship KOSTROMA eight months ago. The mediocre performance of his sector fleet during the initial strike on Spacer worlds had also not made him look good. This was his last chance to avoid being relieved of command by an increasingly impatient Grand Admiral Wa.

Captain Joshua Nkomo, the commander of the MUMBAY, was in his command chair when Parwan entered the bridge. He, like the rest of the bridge crew, wore his spacesuit, but with its visor opened. Nkomo, twisting his head to look at Parwan, then saw that his superior was not wearing a spacesuit.

‘’Admiral, we will be in orbit over Callisto in less than twenty minutes and we are at Battle Stations. It would be prudent to don your spacesuit, sir.’’ Parwan made a dismissive gesture of the hand and stood erect in the middle of the bridge.

‘’This won’t even be worthy of being called a battle, Captain Nkomo. Contrary to those consortium bandits of the Main Asteroid Belt, these Jovians haven’t bothered to arm themselves in the past years. How many ships are in orbit around or in proximity to Callisto?’’

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‘’We have a total of 58 ships and craft of various sizes within detection range, sir, including a passenger liner at the main orbital terminal and a super-heavy cargo ship at the cargo terminal. Four of the smaller craft have started to flee at our approach but most of the ships have stayed in their anchorage.’’

‘’Show me the list of those ships on my command chair’s display, please.’’

‘’Yes, Admiral.’’

Parwan walked lazily to his command chair and sat in it, but didn’t bother buckling his safety harness before looking at his display screen. He nearly twitched when he saw the name ‘MSS KOSTROMA’ in the list, but managed to hide his reaction.

‘’I see that we have the famous KOSTROMA sitting at the cargo terminal. I suppose that we will have to be careful not to get within life pod shooting range of it.’’ His joke made a few officers grin or laugh, but not Nkomo.

‘’It is still a huge ship, sir. I wouldn’t care being rammed by it.’’

‘’Then we will make sure that it doesn’t get within ramming range of us, won’t we? Has Callisto Prime challenged us yet?’’

‘’No, Admiral. We haven’t contacted them yet, though.’’

‘’Then do it now, Captain.’’

‘’Yes, Admiral. Lieutenant Bashir, start transmitting our ultimatum.’’ The communications officer nodded, then spoke calmly but coldly in his microphone.

‘’Callisto Prime Control, this is Terran Task Force Five. You will surrender to us Governor Janet Robeson and the members of her cabinet, plus any leader of the so-called Spacers League still on Callisto. If you don’t comply within the hour, we will start the bombardment of Callisto Prime and will keep up our fire until those persons are surrendered to us, over.’’

The lieutenant waited for a response for ten seconds before starting to repeat his message.

‘’Callisto Prime Control, this is Terran Task Force Five…’’

On the bridge of the KOSTROMA, Tina gave a nod to her weapons systems operators.

‘’Fire Plan ‘A’. Fire at will!’’

The Terran fleet was 3,400 kilometers away from the cargo terminal and about to enter orbit when the laser beams from the KOSTROMA struck, the beams being invisible

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to the naked eye due to their frequency. The first visible indication of strikes came from the showers of sparks which flew from the hulls of the stricken ships. Each 250 megawatt laser beam took only milliseconds to vaporize the outer hull surfaces it struck and to burn through, digging deeper inside the ships while the outer compartments experienced catastrophic explosive decompressions. The unfortunate crewmembers present in the holed compartments were brutally sucked towards the holes in the hulls, where they were either shred to pieces while their bodies squeezed through the breaches or were themselves vaporized by the continuous laser beams. With the laser beams moving over the surface of their targets, penetrating deeply within fractions of seconds, the Terran ships started suffering heavy damages before their bridge crews could even realize that they were being fired upon, unless of course the bridge itself had been hit by a laser beam. Six of the Terran ships, four frigates, one troopship and a light cruiser, were each targeted by one laser beam, while two laser beams concentrated their fire on the sides of the cruiser MUMBAY.

On the bridge of the MUMBAY, the first indication of an attack for Rear Admiral Parwan was the sudden ringing of alarm bells, followed by the flickering of the lights.

‘’What the…’’ started to say Parwan, who was then interrupted by a scream from a technician.

‘’MULTIPLE HULL BREACHES AMIDSHIP! LASERS ARE BURNING THROUGH OUR SHIP!’’

‘’WERE DO THESE LASERS COME FROM, DAMMIT?’’ shouted Captain Nkomo. It took a few precious seconds for a sensors officer to find out via his infra-red detectors, seconds during which the laser beams burned through more compartments.

‘’THE LASER FIRE IS COMING FROM THE CARGO SHIP KOSTROMA, SIR.’’ That froze Parwan with a mixture of utter surprise and rage. Before he could give an order, a technician sitting at a station at the rear of the bridge suddenly was cut in two, while sparks flew from the wall and floor. Still not attached to his command chair, Parwan was then sucked out of the bridge, shred against the incandescent metal edges of the hole and pulled into the vacuum of space. All power to the bridge and to most of the ship then failed, preventing Nkomo and his crew from firing a single shot before the cruiser was bodily cut in two and became a space wreck. The laser fire continued on though, until what was left was clearly no longer a threat to Callisto Prime or to the KOSTROMA.

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‘’CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE! REPORT ANY DAMAGE!’’ Martha Lang, acting as the bridge engineer, looked around at her status boards before answering Tina.

‘’NO APPARENT DAMAGE! WE HAVE NOT BEEN HIT, CAPTAIN!’’ Tina breathed a sigh of relief at that announcement. She then looked at her

chronometer. Incredibly, the battle had gone on for no more than fourteen seconds, with the Terran ships neutralized in the first eight seconds of firing. Dana Durning looked at her with a face still flush with tension.

‘’We did it, Tina. WE DID IT!’’

‘’Yes, we did it, Dana. Now, we will use this victory to the maximum, before Earth realizes that it has lost its task force, and how. I intend to depart now for Pallas without delay.’’

‘’What about possible survivors from those Terran ships?’’ Tina gave a sad look at the viewing screens, then shook her head.

‘’No! Others here will have to go through the debris. For us, speed is now of the essence. Calculate a high-speed trajectory to Pallas. We will leave as soon as Governor Robeson is informed of the situation here. Patricia, connect me with the Governor via tight directional beam, please.’’

‘’You have the Governor on line two, Tina.’’

‘’Thank you!’’

Switching to line two, Tina got Robeson’s face staring anxiously at her on her screen.

‘’Captain Forster, is your ship alright?’’

‘’It is, Madam Governor. We were not hit at all. In fact, it seems that the enemy never had time to fire before we cut their ships to shreds. We have thus accounted for two enemy cruisers, four frigates and a troopship operating under the designation of Task Force Five. I now intend to depart without delay for Pallas, while Earth still doesn’t know about the loss of its flotilla and while surprise is still on our side. Your orbital craft can take care of the Terran survivors among the debris.’’

‘’Wait! Before you go, you must wait for Governor Watts and his party to return to your ship.’’

‘’But, why, Madam Governor? Governor Watts would be much safer here, on Callisto.’’

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The face of Charles Watts, who politely pushed aside Janet Robeson to speak to Tina, then filled the screen.

‘’I may be safer here, Captain Forster, but it is not my planet and my people desperately needs me. We will be aboard in less than an hour. By the way, congratulation for your second space victory, Captain.’’

‘’Uh, you’re welcome, sir.’’ could only say Tina, taken off balance. Janet Robeson then reappeared on the screen.

‘’Those Martian politicians can be so pushy. I will use that last opportunity to send to you by cargo shuttle our last available batch of missiles, along with Governor Watts, so that you can load them in your tubes during your trip. I will advise our friends by coded message to Pallas and Hygiea that you are departing now for Pallas. Everything should be ready there when you will arrive. After that, I can only wish you and your crew good luck.’’

‘’Thank you, Madam Governor. And tell Governor Watts to step on it, or we will leave him behind on the sidewalk.’’

‘’I will tell him, Captain.’’ replied Robeson with a smile before cutting the link.

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