Sudden Collisions Part 2

Posted on 16 Dec 2016 @ 7:33am by Lieutenant Colonel Cassandra Blackburn

1,693 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Errand of Mercy
Location: Hadronus Star System
Timeline: ED5 1100

ON:

When Cassandra Blackburn poked her head into the rear of the AWACs Antler she found Lieutenant Roberts in a state of almost childish excitement. He was playing with some electronic device whilst sat at a small table facing the port side of the small craft, almost chuckling to himself as he did so. He hadn't noticed her. She pulled her head back outside as she stood on the loading ramp and threw her helmet hard into the cabin, where it struck the bulkhead just above where he was sitting. She heard the commotion as he jumped to his feet in surprise and the contents of the table crashed to the floor. She waited a moment before boarding.

"Sorry, didn't see you there." She said to him as she entered. He was scrabbling on the floor, attempting to pick up whatever it was he'd been working on.

"Its fine, Ma'am" He said nervously, picking up her helmet and passing it over to her. She unceremoniously dumped the armour and belt kit she was carrying onto a nearby seat, before tossing the helmet on top of it all. It rolled off and fell to the floor again. Roberts frowned, thought about saying something, changed his mind and picked the helmet up again, placing it gently on the seat. Blackburn unslung her compression rifle from her shoulder and placed it into a storage rack.

"I don't think we'll need all that, ma'am, its not a ground combat sortie." Said Roberts. She glanced at him incredulously without replying before making her way forward to the cockpit. She stuck her head between the two seats. Second Lieutenant Racheal Smythe was sat in the pilot's chair, a Sergeant was sat next to her as the navigator. They were completing a flight checklist.

"All set?" Blackburn asked.

"Yes Ma'am" Replied Smythe. "We've filed the flight plan with the Major Cagney and the CAP will escort us out before coming back to the ship. We're starting main engines and will be leaving as soon as the deck signals us clear." Blackburn realised that from her pilot's position Smythe must have seen her throw the helmet into the back of the Antler, but had said nothing. She continued with her work, clearly a professional. Blackburn by trade was a logistical officer, and her combat experience was confined to small unit ground actions. She knew nothing of space flight and so retreated to the cabin.

The Antler was an aging craft in the Redemption's inventory. Converted from an old starfighter design, most of the weapons and other systems had been stripped out and replaced with bulky sensor and computational equipment for the AWACs role. The cabin for the EW officer was cramped and the cockpit even more so. Bulky and unwieldy in space, they were nevertheless loved by their crews for their hard worthiness.

Blackburn plonked herself down in a chair facing aft, with her back against the bulkhead that separated the cockpit from the cabin. She was wearing her standard field uniform, although all the others were in flight gear. She pulled at the straps and buckled herself in.

Roberts was sat with his side facing her, at the AWACs console. He turned to her and smiled, she did not return it.

"Everything's in hand, Ma'am. We've realigned the Link16 subspace carrier wave to offset the effect of the interference." He noticed that she wasn't really listening, but his enthusiasm led him on anyway. "Once we're spaceborne, we'll nip further out of the system and establish a data link with the Redemption. I've been working with her communications team." He seemed proud of himself; she tried to ignore him.

"Just get on with it." She said, eventually, silently cursing Ashcart for ordering her to come on the flight.

"Standby for departure" Came a voice from the cockpit. Blackburn felt the hum of the engines as they powered up and the slight shimmer in the artificial gravity as the strike craft took off. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw through a small window the flight deck zipping past, until it was suddenly replaced by the large structure of the Redemption's port nacelle. A few moments later, this was replaced by a blackness pin pricked by thousands of stars.

The Antler was noisy and vibrated in flight. Blackburn turned her head and shouted up to the cockpit, asking how long the flight to the test site was. 10 minutes was the reply.

Roberts and Blackburn sat in silence. A few minutes later Smythe clambered down to the cabin. "Sergeant Clarke has the flight." She said. "Do you need any help setting up, sir?" She said to Roberts. He grinned and flushed red in embarrassment, clearly pleased that he was being spoken to in such a way. Blackburn cleared her throat.

"No, thank you." He said. "All the hard work is done, all I have to do here is swap these out," He said as he opened a panel and moved around some isolinear chips, "and set the computer program running."

"I would've thought that the Redemption's science or engineering teams would have come up with a solution." Blackburn said, with the intention of deflating him. She was surprised when he bit back.

"The science department is working on a mission critical project apparently and engineering did help but have other priorities. Link16 is a Marine strike craft issue and I'm up to the job." He snapped, before remembering himself and tagging on a "Ma'am" at the end. Blackburn grunted to herself, maybe the kid had some promise after all.

Smythe broke the atmosphere. "Well, we can't be far off. I'll head back up." She trotted back up to the cockpit before her head reappeared at the bulkhead. "We're pretty much on target, 9AU from the Redemption. Crack on and I'll maintain a holding pattern here. The CAP has gone back to cover the ship."

"Right!" Said Roberts excitedly. His hands started flying over the control console as he operated it. Blackburn sat where she was, looking out at the starfield. It was a beautiful as it always had been, but it didn't really move her that much anymore. She could hear the beeping of the console as he entered commands. After a few minutes she turned back to Roberts.

"We're all set up" He said, as Smythe came back from the cockpit. "Just a few adjustments to the bandwidth, and..." He tapped the console with an air of triumph, and was immediately met with an error noise from the computer. Blackburn and Smythe looked at each other.

"Surely, such a masterwork hath never before seen." Blackburn said sarcastically after a few moments in the silence.

"Just give me a moment." Roberts said, getting flustered. He typed a few more commands into the console and got the same infuriating error message in return. Blackburn sighed, Smythe remained silent. Roberts got onto the floor and pulled a panel out from the bulkhead under the console. "I don't understand!" He said to himself. "It should work!"

"Take us back to the ship." Blackburn ordered Smythe. Roberts tried to climb out from under the console but banged his head as he did so. "What a waste of time" She said to him as he got to his feet. For Roberts, it was the straw that broke the camel's back, and he lost his temper.

"God, nothing is ever good enough for you!" He shouted at Blackburn. "You're supposed to support us, not berate us at every turn!"

"Lieutenant!" Interrupted Smythe, horrified.

"No, no!" He continued, waving his hands. "You might not want to be here but some of us do! You're supposed to be our leader, not some feckless sardonic witch! Oh yes, it's all the talk of the mess, our deranged piss head Major!"

Blackburn stepped forward and grabbed the front of his jacket, pulling him in so that their faces almost met. "Sit down, or I'll put you down." She growled. Roberts face changed colour from red to white as if he had just realised what he had done. He sank down onto the chair. Blackburn turned to Smythe. "Redemption, now." She barked to her. Smythe turned to head up to the cockpit, but the intercom chirped before she could do so. It was Sergeant Clarke.

"Rachel, I've got a short range sensor trace at red 130 mark 50. Range 150 thousand klicks" He said, the concern in his voice obvious. Blackburn glanced at Smythe.

"The CAP?" Smythe asked.

"Don't think so. It's not the heading for the ship and I'm picking up no IFF at all."

Smythe looked at Roberts. "What exactly did you do?" She asked him.

"A concentrated high power EM burst carrying data packets for Link16. To overpower the interference." He replied.

"On which part of the subspace spectrum?"

"All of it." Said Roberts.

"All of it?" Blackburn and Smythe said together.

"Well, most of it. We didn't know which part of the band would cut through the interference best. Once we found it we could narrow the frequency down to the most efficient narrow band".

Smythe turned to Blackburn, pale. "We might have just as well fired a giant flare for anyone in the system to find us." She didn't wait for a reply and turned again to run up to the cockpit. Just as she reached the bulkhead, a sudden flash of blinding light erupted from the direction she was heading and threw her back into Roberts with force, sending them both crashing to the deck. Blackburn fell into the console and as she recovered saw a bolts of energy followed by a flash of metal shoot past the window to her front. A thin air of smoke filled the cabin and Blackburn smelt burning; a harsh, chemical smell.

Smythe got to her feet quickly. "We're under fire!" She said, bounding up to the cockpit. Blackburn turned and grabbed Roberts, sitting him into the console seat. He was dazed but unharmed. She thrust her finger into his face. "You stay here." She ordered, before turning towards the cockpit herself.

OFF

Major Cassandra Blackburn
Marine Detachment Commander
USS Redemption

 

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