The Battle of the Hammer Worlds

the ache out of his back.

“Command, engineering.” Duricek was unable to conceal the resentment in his voice.

“Go ahead, Chief,” Michael replied, careful to keep his voice neutral.

“Sir. Main engines are nominal. Pinchspace jump generators are on line. Ship’s mass distribution model is nominal. All other systems are nominal. Confirm we are good to jump.”

Better, Michael thought. He did not care for the resentful overtones, but it could have been worse.

“Command, roger. Understand we are good to jump.”

“I’ll be here in propulsion control if you need me, sir.”

“Thanks, Chief. Changing the subject, did you resolve that problem with Weapons Power Foxtrot? God knows, I hope it’s the last system we need, but it would be good to have one hundred percent weapons availability.”

“The lads are working on it, sir. We found a damaged mount, so I think it’s a shock problem. There seems to be a misalignment somewhere. I’m hoping the system AI can work out a way around it because we can’t open it up to have a look. At this stage, we don’t know when or even if we can get it back online.”

Michael could not help smiling. Christ, the man was obvious, his tone making it abundantly clear that he thought worrying about one of the fusion plants that provided power to the Adamant’s after weapons systems was a completely pointless exercise. “Okay. Keep me posted on that one. I want it back if at all possible.”

“Sir.”

Michael settled back. In truth, he was captain in name only. The Adamant and all her systems were in the hands of scores of embedded AIs, all working under the control of the ship’s master AI. On a small ship like Eridani, the master AI would be called Mother. On a ship this size, calling the AI Mother somehow did not seem proper, even if the voice of Adamant’s AIs was, as tradition dictated, that of a middle-aged woman. So Michael stuck to the official title, AI Primary or simply Prime, cold and sterile though it was.

So far, Prime was doing it right. Adamant was on vector, and every system she needed to make the pinchspace transit to Terranova was online and nominal. He had rerun the pinchspace calculations off-line; he was pleased to see that his solution and Prime’s agreed to the required number of significant figures.

Michael settled back and closed his eyes, his neuronics putting him right at the heart of the Adamant to the point where he became one with the ship: His human senses were replaced by Adamant’s massive arrays of active and passive sensors reaching out millions of kilometers into space.

It was an awesome feeling.

With only an hour left before they dropped into Terranovan nearspace, the strident ringing of a primary systems alarm jolted Michael upright.

“Prime! Update.”

“Command, Prime. We have an intermittent failure reported by the navigation AI. We’re getting an unstable pinchspace vector solution. I’m working on the problem and will report back.”

Michael’s hands were suddenly damp. If the navigation AI was not able to keep Adamant on the right vector through the unstable n-dimensional probability field that made up pinchspace, things could get bad. His stomach did a quick backflip. He was in no mood to spend the rest of eternity wandering lost and alone somewhere in pinchspace or, if he took the chance and did a blind drop, spending the rest of eternity lost somewhere in normalspace hundreds of light-years from the rest of humankind, unable to jump back to civilization.

Bienefelt appeared from nowhere. “What’s up, sir?”

“Not sure, Matti. Problem with the navigation AI. Working on it.”

Matti looked worried. “Shit.”

“Shit is right. Let the team know I’ll brief them when I know something definite. I need to talk to the Chief.”

Matti nodded as Michael commed Duricek. His conversation was short and to the point because Duricek and his technicians could do nothing to solve the problem.

“Command, Prime.”

“This better be good,” Michael muttered. “Command.”

“I’ve been able to reduce the problem but not eliminate it. It seems to be coming from problems with the external pinchspace field sensors; there’s instability in the drift compensators. Most likely radiation damage.”

“The sensors. Anything we can do?”

“No. That’s a yard job.”

“So what’s it all mean?”

“Our ability to make an accurate drop out of pinchspace has been severely degraded, but not fatally so.”

“Okay, Prime. I want a new drop position to make absolutely sure we don’t come out of pinchspace inside Terra-nova.”

“Understood. Stand by. . position computed and uploaded.”

Michael checked and rechecked Prime’s new drop point. It might be a long way out from Terranova, but at least there was no chance that they would end up trying to share normalspace with something big and heavy. Like a planet.

“Revised drop position command approved.” It would be a pain in the ass flogging their way back in normalspace, but at least they would get back alive with Adamant intact. “All stations, this is command. We’ll be dropping shortly. As you know, we’ve had a small problem with the navigation AI, but Prime says she’s got it under control. To make sure we don’t hit anything, we’ll be dropping a long way out from Terra-nova, so we’ll be late getting to the pub tonight, guys. Sorry about that. Command out.”

Michael watched anxiously as the minutes to the drop ran off with excruciating slowness, but whatever Prime had done to the navigation AI seemed to be holding up. With ten minutes to go, Michael commed Bienefelt to come to the combat information center. The more he thought about dropping well out into Terranovan farspace, the more he realized how alone the Adamant would be, how far from help if things went wrong.

“Sir?”

“Matti. Get your guys together. We’re going to be hanging around out in deepspace for a long time. If we run into anything, we’re going to have to deal with it on our own. So get them up here. I want to know what’s going on. That means running full threat and command plots, and I would rather not leave Prime doing the job on its own. Any of them have sensor training?”

Bienefelt checked her neuronics. She nodded. “Yes. One gravitronics, one radar, a couple of electronic warfare types. None current, though.”

“Better than nothing. Put the rest on the holocams. Get ’em all up here; find them somewhere to sit. When you’ve done that, I want you next to me. Two pairs of eyes are always better than one. So move it; we’ll be dropping shortly.”

“Sir.”

“Oh, one more thing. Suit up.”

“Sir.”

Michael commed Prime. “Prime, this is command. Bring all combat systems online, alert zero.”

“Prime, roger. Bring combat systems online, alert zero. Stand by.”

Michael commed Duricek. “Engineering, command.”

“Engineering.” Duricek’s tone was as sulky as ever. Michael suppressed a sudden urge to go aft to give the man a good kick in the balls.

“Dropping in three. All set?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. I’ve brought the combat systems to instant readiness. I’m not expecting anything, but you never know. So stand by for emergency maneuvering and get your people suited up.”

“Sir.”