The Pilots and the Frontier
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: After all this time, you know what this means, right? Rating: K Time: About three years after my story the Pilots and the Passengers.
"Something coming into the system." Kate said. "Something big."
Castle leaned over her shoulder to look at the sensors.
"You smell of cherries." He whispered.
"That's not a ship." Simone said, peering past Rick.
"It's a space dock." Lindane said. "One or more of the ships here must have a serious problem if they've hauled a space dock out here."
They watched for almost a day as the space dock was maneuvered into an orbit around the gas giant and tugs began moving a battle cruiser into the dock.
"If the battle cruiser couldn't maneuver under its own power, the problem must be serious." Said Lindane.
"There are a dozen things that could be wrong with it." Castle replied.
"And all of them take a long time to repair. We should head for home as fast as we can. If we go straight to Kzin, they can put together a large enough task force to take the Pannonians our before they're ready."
"You keep thinking like that, Ensign Lindane, and we'll have to get you promoted."
"I'll be happier working back at the Labs, Skipper, but I could use the money, I guess."
"Guess is a mess, but we toast less." The Quinncunx said.
They waited until the asteroids had moved a bit past the gas giant and using their stealth capabilities to the fullest, snuck between two patrolling Pannonian warcraft and headed towards Kzin as fast as they could manage.
When they got within comm range, they sent all the information they had to the admiral in command of the Imperial forces around Kzin. Rick was surprised when they arrived in orbit around Kzin and were told to take the Pika-Don to the Imperial flagship and dock there.
"They have all the intel we have. Why do they want to see us?" Kate asked.
Rick shrugged.
"Maybe admirals don't like being sent off on potential wild goose chases by mere commanders."
"We're chasing an enemy fleet, not some avian." Spotty said, confused.
"Fleet by your feet, be it ever so neat." That, of course, was the Quinncunx.
Lindane explained the human expression to Spotty.
The flagship was big enough for them to dock inside of. When they got off of Pika-Don, a marine met them.
"Welcome to the Emperor Charles V, sirs and ma'ams. Please follow the red ball on the floor to the flag officers' command center."
Castle thought the marine sounded like he'd said the same thing over and over again, which he indeed had. He did have to laugh when the Quinncunx spoke as they walked away.
"Follow the red wall to the flap center."
The red ball led them deep into the ship and finally stopped outside a door, guarded by an Imperial Marine and a Kzin Marine.
"Go right in. You are expected, sirs." That was the Kzin. Castle wondered if the Kzin couldn't tell the difference between male and female humans, or just didn't care.
They entered and found two admirals, one human and one Kzin, waiting for them.
"Captain Castle, and your crew. I'm Vice Admiral Sir Reginald Tregaskis and this is my Kzin colleague, Vice Admiral Lefty."
For the first time, Castle noticed that the Kzin's left hand was made of steel.
"I lost my left hand a year ago against the damned Pannonians. Haven't had time to have the medics grow me a new one." He held up his prosthesis." The new hand is made our of one of the larger pieces of the Pannonian ship that attacked mine."
"You probably want to know why Admiral Tregaskis and I asked you here. We have a plan that involves you and your crew and we wanted to get a good look at all concerned before proceeding any further with the plan. You must admit, Captain, that you have a rather unorthodox crew."
"Sirs, Pika-Don is an unorthodox ship. Perhaps it's only fitting that we have an unorthodox crew."
The two admirals nodded.
"Perhaps you can give us some more detail about your ship and what you've done since leaving Llynathawr.
Castle spoke of their mission, trying not to sound boastful, but being truthful at the same time. Occasionally, one of the admirals would ask for further information, and twice Castle had to ask Kate and then Spotty for information he didn't have.
When he was done, the two admirals nodded and smiled at each other.
"You know, Lefty, I think we have just the people we need for our little mission."
"If I may ask, sirs, what is the mission?"
When he heard what it was, Castle wished he'd kept quiet.
"There seem to be fewer picket ships around the system." Lindane said from the sensor station. "We should have an easier time getting in."
"Let's hope we can get out again as easily. The Pannonians are likely to be rather miffed at us."
Castle guided Pika-Don into the system very slowly and succeeded to getting the ship into another small asteroid belt that was slowly approaching the Pannonian fleet.
"More luck." Lindane said. "It looks like they have another battle cruiser getting ready to enter the space dock while the other one isn't quite ready to leave."
"Leave a leaf, and announce the beef." That was the Quinncunx.
"Just how close to we have to get again?" Castle asked.
"The same as the last time you asked me." Spotty replied. "80,000 kilometers. Although with two possible ships to hit, we could go in closer."
"80,000 kilometers it is." Rick said.
"We'll be in range in under an hour."
A very long hour later, they were ready to shoot. Beneath the Pika-Don, on a magnetic sling, was a missile. Not just any missile, either, but the kind that usually were carried only by battleships. The idea was that firing it from well inside the solar system would cause chaos and confusion in the Pannonian fleet.
And a lot of people looking for the shooter. Castle thought.
"Are you ready, Spotty?"
"Of course, Skipper."
"Then fire."
It took no more than a second for the missile to speed away from the Pika-Don. At the close range they were at, the missile hit one battlecruiser before its automated defenses had a chance to engage. The battle cruiser blew up spectacularly, sending huge pieces of debris flying in all directions. Many large pieces hit the space dock, wrecking it. The nearest battle cruiser took multiple hits from debris, putting it out of action. Other ships in the area were damaged, but not as severely.
The spike in communications from the Pannonians alerted the Imperial-Kzin fleet that was waiting just outside of the sensor range of the Pannonian picket ships. They went full ahead and were soon in among the enemy fleet, savaging the stunned ships.
Castle had decided that staying within the asteroid belt was the best bet for keeping Pika-Don in one piece. There would be too many people shooting first and not asking questions at all.
As the battle moved away from them, Kate called out.
"There's a battle cruiser making a break for it. The Imperial fleet is moving away from it. It looks like they'll get away."
"We'll go after it. Jane, get on the horn and let the fleet know what we're doing and ask for someone to come kill the bastard before he's too far away to be caught. Keep broadcasting our position."
They sped after the retreating ship which quickly figured out it was being followed. The ship sped up, but the Pika-Don easily matched its pace. The ship turned toward them to attack, but Castle was able to move out of range while still keeping the ship in their sensor range. The ship turned away from them.
"He's launching fighters." Kate said.
"How many?"
"Four."
"That's odd." Spotty said. "A ship that size should have a full squadron. Twenty-four at least. Of course, a few might be red lined for maintenance at any given time, but, still…"
"But still four is all we have coming at us." Kate cut the young Kzin off.
"If they're getting ready for a raid, they could have most of the squadron undergoing maintenance so that all twenty-four would be ready for the raid." Lindane said.
"Spotty, are you ready?"
"I'm always ready, Skipper."
"We're a lot faster than they are, but they're probably more maneuverable. I'll head straight at them. You pick one and concentrate on it. When we're past, I'll turn hard to the port and come at them again. We'll keep doing that. Understood."
"Yes, skipper."
The Pika-Don flashed past the four ships so fast that only one fight had a chance to fire and that one missed. Spotty managed to rake one ship which slowed it down, but didn't destroy it.
Castle banked as hard as he could and could hear and feel in inertia compensators straining, but he headed straight for the remaining three undamaged fighters. This time Spotty scored a direct hit and one fighter exploded.
Castle banked hard again and Spotty found the damaged fighter in his sights. He destroyed it. But the time taken with that left him with a difficult shot at the remaining fighters and he hit none.
Cranking around once more, Castle headed straight for one fighter and screamed as Spotty obliterated it.
"Break right! Hard." Kate yelled. "I think the last one is trying to ram us."
Later, Castle estimated that he had missed the last fighter by a good two inches, but it set Spotty up with a perfect shot. The last fighter was destroyed.
"Where's the battle cruiser?" Rick Yelled.
"Right where it was before, but a bit farther away. Still in easy sensor range." Lindane said.
"I'm…I'm an ace." Spotty said.
"A what?" Lindane asked.
"An ace. I've destroyed four enemy fighters as a fighter pilot before joining Pika-Don, and now I've destroyed four more. I'm an ace."
"I didn't know Kzin had borrowed the human concept of an ace." Moecious said.
"We've borrowed a lot of things from the humans. Not enough, in my mind." Spotty suddenly frowned. "I hope they accept my claims for the four ships I Just destroyed."
"Why wouldn't they?" Rick asked. "Our combat records will confirm their destruction."
"The first four I destroyed were in a single seat fighter. The four I destroyed today were as a gunnery officer on a ship. They might feel that I didn't deserve any personal credit for the kills. After all, the skipper was piloting, Lindane was on sensors, and, well, everyone helped. There are eight of us, nine if you count the Quinncunx. Suppose they give each of us a one eighth share of each kill? That's only half a kill for me personally. I wouldn't be an ace."
"Tell you what, Spotty. As the captain of the Pika-Don, I'm going to have the outlines of eight Pannonian fighters painted on the ship and put your name right beside each one."
That made Spotty feel better.
The radio came to life.
"Pika-Don, this is Kzin ship Death in the Dark. Where's this Pannonian battle cruiser?"
"Death in the Dark, this is Pika-Don. It's about a half a million kilometers ahead of us. Just follow our course and you'll pick it up on your sensors soon. We've tentatively IDed the ship as one of the new CB 27s. They're very well armed and fast, but not well armored. What class of ship are you?" Jane replied.
"We're a Fast Death class battle cruiser."
"We're not familiar with thar class. Do you think you can take him?"
"To use a human expression, "Hold my beer." Death in the Dark out."
TBC