don’t understand the course-setting controls yet. I only know how to aim the ship and apply thrust.”
I grunted unhappily at this news. I decided braking was taking too long. We stopped applying the forward brake-jets and instead managed to turn the ship around. This was a harsh moment, as it took us two full revolutions before we had ourselves aiming back the way we had come. I was heeling over, struggling to keep on my feet as we spun. I recalled doing things like this back in high school parking lots as a kid.
Finally, we got the ship’s main engines headed in the direction we wanted. We were able to apply maximum thrust and use the primary engines for braking. Every hour that passed, more of my marines were running out of air and heat back in the Helios system. I wanted to save every last man I could.
After braking for more than an hour, we began slowly heading the other way.
“How long do we have before we reach the ring?” I asked.
“At this acceleration rate,” said a female voice behind me, “I’d estimate we have just over ninety minutes to go, Colonel.”
I chanced a glance over my shoulder in surprise. There was Major Sarin. I recognized her voice, but hadn’t believed it for a moment. I saw she was glaring at me. Sandra was still there-she was glaring too.
“The magic of nanites!” I said, with a slightly nervous laugh. “Good to see you back on duty, Major.” I turned my back upon these two women only because I had to. I returned my attention to the impossible Macro control systems. I felt like I was playing twister while pissed off people stood behind me and contemplated kicking me in the rear.
“Good to be here,” Sarin said in a sour voice.
“Let’s lock this thing and take a break from the controls, Gorski,” I said.
He gave me a dirty grin. “Got somewhere else to be, Colonel?” he asked.
I knew right then that everyone on the ship knew the whole story. How could they not? They knew about the kiss-and the thumping Sandra had given Jasmine after the kiss-the whole thing. I felt a hot, embarrassed flush coming up my neck. Soon, my cheeks were burning. I’d never been in the middle of a scandal before. I didn’t like the sensation.
39
After we had the controls locked and had verified we were on course for the ring back to Helios, I had a quick strategy session with Gorski. The two women watched us closely. They both had their arms crossed and refused to look at each other. I didn’t know much about women, but I knew this was a bad sign. Instead of eyeing one another they were both eyeing me with venom. I found myself desperately wishing we hadn’t wiped out the last of our booze supplies long ago.
“We can’t just blast our way through the ring again,” Gorski was saying. “We have to assume there are explosives there, waiting for us.”
It took me a second to tear my eyes away from the two tail-lashing women and turn my attention back to Gorski. “Yeah,” I said. “There may be more mines.”
“There almost have to be more,” he said. “It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. We ran through a ten-mile wide ring, and hit two or three of them. There must be a large number of mines in a field there, waiting for anything that comes through like a net.”
We’d determined by this time that the ship had indeed run into mines. I’d wondered if the Macros had done it themselves in an attempt to blow us off the hull, but that simply didn’t make sense. They hadn’t needed to blast the nose off their own ship to attack us.
“Okay, so we are flying into a minefield, most likely one put up by the Worms,” I said. “Can’t we just fly through the same exact spot?”
“We can’t be sure exactly where that point was, we weren’t in control of the ship’s navigation at that point. Also, the mines may have shifted. Even more importantly, we aren’t in precise control of this vessel yet.”
I nodded. I had to agree with him there. Every time we touched the controls, everyone onboard got sick. “We have no choice then,” I said. “We’ll slow down as we approach the field. We’ll nose our way through, blowing the mines out of the way with our rifles if we have to. I’ll see if I can rig up a few auto laser turrets with some marine rifles and spare brainboxes. If we come into the field slowly enough, we can shoot the mines down.”
“Sir, there’s a few more considerations,” Major Sarin said.
I looked at her. Her expression had softened somewhat, as she became concerned for the lives of the crew, rather than just being angry. I welcomed the change. I needed my staff functioning again. I knew I’d brought this all on myself. My first mistake had been bringing Sandra onto the bridge staff-no, it went further back than that. I shouldn’t have brought her on the mission at all. It was madness to do so. Unprofessional. But my outfit was anything but pro. We were gifted amateurs at best.
But it was all my mess now. Sandra had been brought aboard and due to attrition-and probably unconscious favoritism, brought onto the bridge as an officer. I couldn’t kick her off now. Not without risking our relationship.
I thought bitterly how I’d compounded my errors by making a move on Sarin. I just hadn’t been thinking. Stress had a way of causing my mind to blank and drift at times. It made me act impulsively. I realized Sarin was still talking, so I struggled to listen to her.
“-that’s why we should consider doing another about-face and returning to Earth now.”
I realized belatedly she was talking about abandoning any survivors and spare equipment in the Helios system. I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I can’t leave them out there, floating around, hoping for pickup as they die one at a time. Hell, the Worms might come up and capture them. Or even another Macro ship.”
Sarin nodded rapidly, then winced and rubbed at the back of her head. “That’s another consideration,” she said. “For all we know, this is our one chance to escape. The enemy might have sent more ships after us than the four we took out.”
“Gorski,” I said, “run me some numbers. If a ship came in from the Eden system and flew all the way across the Helios system to the nearest ring, how long would we have before they could reach us?”
“Well,” he said, tapping at his tablet. “Assuming that they are flying cruisers with similar performance stats…and that they came through the moment after we left, because we would have seen them if they’d shown up earlier…I would say we have three days, sir.”
I nodded. “Three days. That will do it. We will be in and out of the Helios system and back here in a maximum of three days.”
Sarin didn’t look happy. I turned back to Gorski. “Watch the helm for me,” I told him. “Report anything.”
When I turned to do a ship inspection and a check on all the repair crews, Sandra put her hand on my wrist. She did it lightly.
“I want to talk,” she said quietly
Sarin was busy with a cracked tablet. We didn’t have much hardware left, and no way to build new stuff.
“Right,” I said, “we do need to talk. Both of you come along with me.”
Major Sarin glanced up, surprised. Sandra looked irritated.
“Come on,” I said, and walked off the bridge. Both the women followed me. I could feel the mutual hostility behind me, like heat emanating from a furnace. I had to put out this fire now, while I could. Either that, or one of these two was going to have to be kicked off the bridge.
We met in a side chamber that had possibly served the Macros as a repair center. Broken leg joints, springs, automated drill-presses and a selection of replacement head-sections for Macros were stored here. We’d not been able to get much use out of the workshop-with our nanite technology, we hadn’t really needed to. I thought that if we couldn’t recover our factories that would change soon. We would have to learn to control this equipment and rebuild elements of the cruiser.
“You see this room?” I asked the two women. They looked at me in surprise. They’d expected a lecture on civil treatment of your fellow officer. I didn’t like to give anyone exactly what they were expecting, however, it wasn’t my style.
They looked around, but didn’t say anything. I realized then that I did know something about women: when
