Chapter Five – Overwhelming Odds

Commander Bell had given up trusting her eyes, and had gone to the goggles. Something was down there. She just couldn't find it. Which was strange.

The scanning equipment at her disposal, both long and short range, was as good as any presently in service. They found nothing, though. Heat sensors, designed to detect any sort of life form, or mechanical engines, also seemed to be inoperative, and Bell suspected that the cause of it was down there. Her crew knew something was off, too, there was a tension in the craft that was higher than the one already the result of being sent out to kill human beings. Those who could see the indicator dials fore and aft, showing air speed, altitude and other readings, watched nervously as the dials continued to spin slowly in a full circle, failing to do their job, useless. Even the robots seemed on edge, which was impossible, since robots could not experience emotion. Though 'on' and primed to go, they functioned only via their human programmers.

Shortly before, as Bell maintained her position at the northernmost edge, two hundred meters above, of the large forested area that the escapees were thought to be in, something very weird happened, raising the tension to its present degree. The indicator dials on her console had suddenly gone crazy, spinning madly, and something at the same time innervated the robots, sent them jumping in their harnesses briefly before subsiding to slight trembling, along with the indicator dials slowing. Then, barely a minute later, it happened again, and then a third time, after several more minutes. Though they hadn't been moving, just to be safe, Bell's second in command, occupying the pilot's position in the seat to her right, had put the ship's steering into manual. Anything electronic seemed to be affected by this new event. The hydraulic system, though ancient technology, still was the most reliable, and would work when the onboard computers, and everything else electronic, was dead.

Certain that what they were after was the cause, Bell told her crew to relax. "They're scientists. You didn't expect them not to try and jam our scanners, did you?" She was angry with herself for not suggesting that possibility ahead of time. But even that couldn't explain away the robots and the dials, and her instructions to relax had little effect.

She had previously radioed her 'partner' in this mission, Team Grey, to move in over the forest from the south, scanning as they went, close to within ten klicks of her position, and hold there. Now, two more brief spikes in the electronic anomaly spurred her to action. She contacted base and reported the incidents, along with her belief that they had found what they were looking for. She advised her mission leader that all team leaders should prepare themselves, their crews and their robots for the same experience, and to be ready to go to manual steering. Firepower was briefly discussed between the two. Bell suggested that if worse came to worst and all electrical components failed, including their weaponry, they could use the craft themselves as torpedoes, if positive identity of the fugitives could be made. Upon this suggestion, headquarters immediately agreed, and told Bell she would be assuming command of the entire twelve-ship detail from that point forward.

That last suggestion raised the tension level a bit higher. A few nervous glances were exchanged in the rear compartment. Bell's pilot spoke up. "Hey, Bell, I didn't sign up for a suicide mission. What're you, crazy?"

Bell turned to him and snapped, "It's Commander Bell, Leftenant Balmer, and I suggest that you keep your hand on the stick and your mouth closed."

Bell being given complete command of the mission was not sitting well with the other team leaders and many in their crews, and it definitely didn't agree with Balmer. In his case, though, there was another reason. He had told her, more than once, that he found her very attractive, and she had shown zero interest. Balmer was a decent enough person and a competent officer, but Bell, being strong herself, was attracted to strong men…like Howard Chang, maybe?

That fantasy wasn't on her mind just then, however. She wasn't without friends on the security force, or on her ship. She called back to the rest of her crew, "How're we doing back there?"

Over the steady, low hum of the robots' continued jittering, several voices answered from their respective duty stations, "All systems near normal, Commander."

"Near normal is the best we might see tonight," she told herself. Then, one more voice was heard, that of Daggett, the chief engineer, the one in charge of maintaining the ship's computers, and responsible for the robots' delicate programming. He had an assistant engineer; the other four crew members were weapons specialists, which was a nicer way of saying they would be the ones doing the shooting, or controlling their mechanical helpers while they did the job. Crews were rotated regularly; Bell wasn't always assigned the same people, but Daggett was someone she always hoped to get. He was a jovial man twenty years older than Bell, and had immediately taken a liking to the hard-nosed, aggressive young cadet, and she to him. He was one of the few who could get away with calling her by her nickname while on the job.

Daggett called out to the front, "Rosey, I think I might have somethin' for ya."

"Whatcha got for me, Chief?"

"These power spikes are all upward. By reconfiguring the power array to disperse more energy to the robots' field dampeners, I should be able to boost surge protection. I'll know in another minute."

In that time, the proposed repair was successfully tested on one robot, then instantly uploaded to the rest. The steady hum stopped, and the robots were once again motionless in the cargo bay. There was an immediate sigh of relief, and one man said, "All right. Them things were driving me nuts."

"Good job," Bell said. "Think you can put this fix into something I can send upline?"

"Doing that now, Commander," Daggett answered. "There, check your console now."

The tiny light indicating data ready for transmitting flashed on and off. Bell verified that the signal was properly encrypted, then sent it out with the touch of a keypad. Wireless relay towers on the ground would have it to its destination in a microsecond. Bell called in to base to explain what she'd just sent. It would get to the other ships faster from there than from her. She opened a frequency to the other ships en route, to let them know what to expect from base, and to install the fix immediately. She turned in her seat toward the back. "Hey Chief, how about trying the same thing with the ship's field dampeners? How much juice will that cost us?"

Daggett grinned back at her from the dimly lit rear. "None, Commander. That energy source, whatever it is, is giving us more power than we know what to do with. Dampening'll keep vital systems safe from surge, and the rest we can just dump."

"Or feed right back at those techies," Bell muttered, relishing the thought.

Within minutes, all ship's indicators had resumed to pre-interruption readings. Bell sent that fix upline as well. With the scanners now operative, in theory, Bell did the job herself. Within seconds, a small, hazy yellow-orange object appeared in the mass of turquoise on the screen. No need now to do a life-form scan.

As a child, Bell had devoured everything she could get her hands on concerning the history of man taming the five seas, before turning her attentions skyward. Man had learned to sail long before conquering the heavens. But the only sailing done now was for pleasure. The last of the great warships, and she had learned the names of all of them, had been decommissioned almost fifteen hundred years ago. Bell had forgotten most of those names, but the thrill of imagining the excitement of those long-gone times had never completely left her. Bell leaned forward to see her quarry close-up, imagining herself high up in the crow's nest, and whispered softly, "Thar she be, Cap'n."

Only ten more minutes or so, and then, when everyone was in position…whatever it was, whoever they were…it was the end of the line. The odds against escape were overwhelming.

Author's notes: What I do in the next chapter will have a major impact on where the rest of the story goes. I am not yet sure how to handle it. If I get it wrong, because I've elected to do this story 'on the fly' instead of finishing it before beginning to post it, it will mean having to try and crawl out of the corner I've painted myself into without making a big mess. There's a good deal of philosophical stuff I want to include, along with the action and adventure and political chicanery parts, and it needs to be well thought out.

Unfortunately, my work (long hours, outdoors in some brutal winter conditions) leaves me kind of burnt, evenings, and my brain objects to strenuous philosophical musings. I've decided to post what passes as a mini-chapter, before the (first) big confrontation, now. I am leaving the cold and snow behind for almost two weeks and going somewhere warm, and, I hope, relaxing. (When you travel, you want to feel that you've got your money's worth, thus you tend to try to cram in too much activity and end up coming home needing another vacation :) - though we will be at sea three whole days between ports - so I hope to have a lot of this figured out so that I can get going on the writing.)

Thanks to those who are following for being patient.