Chapter 23: chapter twenty three

The fighters clustered around the reader. An image sprang up in the air, showing them the area of the system where the mayday had originated. The border of the system was just on the other side of the beacon.

The Constance marked a flight path through a small asteroid field. The beacon seemed to be buried inside the area of floating rocks. The mobile base used rail guns to push the asteroids away from them as it floated through the debris. It hovered over a bigger rock than the rest. Then the image dropped toward the rock, obviously the ship coming in for a landing like O'Hara had said.

“I don't see anything so far,” said Yeager.

“Shhh,” said Schultz. She held up a hand. “I'm concentrating on this.”

The mayday seemed to be coming from the inside of a cave in the rock. O'Hara and part of his crew had used an airlock to get to the surface of the asteroid. The image recorded the other captain trying to call whomever was at the beacon.

The sparks of small arms lit up the inside of the cave for a few seconds. The surface crew sought cover as the blaster sprayed fire over the scene. Kowalski went down in the first few seconds. One of the other crewmen got hit in the leg and went down. O'Hara had made it to cover but the enemy fire tried to flush him out.

The second crewman was good as dead if the beam hadn't melted the hole closed with the hit. He was down and trying to pull himself to cover of his own.

O'Hara had a sidearm. He pulled that and sprayed the inside of the cave while he ran to the wounded crew member. He grabbed the man's arm and dragged him behind him with one hand while the other pointed his pistol at the hole in the ground and kept firing.

“Anybody see what was firing?,” asked Doolittle.

“No,” said Yeager. (“I failed the perception check.”)

“It looked like an automated turret in action,” said Mannheim. “You don't see them for ground defense that much anymore.”

“It waited for the crew to get close before it opened fire,” said Schultz. “Some kind of tripwire?”

“Or it waited for O'Hara to try to call it,” said Mannheim. “Some automated systems only opened fire if you tried to identify which side they were on.”

“So as long as we don't land in front of it, or try to call it, it shouldn't open fire on us?,” asked Doolittle.

“Maybe,” said Mannheim. “It might be safer just dropping missiles on it. There is another question that occurs to me.”

“What's that, Old Timer?,” asked Yeager.

“Are there more than one?,” asked Mannheim. “Usually you don't put down something like that without some backup in place to keep people away from the area.”

“Play the rest of it, Schultz,” said Doolittle. “Bucky said the Constance had been hit harder than he had expected. That has to be on the recording.”

They watched as O'Hara dragged his wounded comrade up the gangway to the interior of the ship. The spacecraft buttoned up and started to lift. Multiple lines of fire raked the Constance as she took off.

“More than one gun,” said Schultz. “I can't see all the emplacements.”

“The hull is blocking some of the view,” said Mannheim. “I'm counting at least four strike areas. There might be more that we can't see.”

“So we fly over this and see if they try to kill us?,” said Yeagher. “I'm down with that.”

“We'll stagger the approach,” said Doolittle. “They won't shoot until we land. We can do two flyovers without causing problems. They might be expecting people since they were broadcasting a distress signal.”

“They might have moved the trap,” said Mannheim. “If they did that, they might have changed how the trap works.”

“We'll be careful,” said Doolittle. “How long until the Fort is ready to fly?”

“A few hours at least,” said Schultz. “We should be able to catch up since the fighters aren't really designed to fly that far and come back to base.”

“We'll take a full load with us in case we need to shoot something,” said Doolittle. “If we have to run, we'll do that too.”

“That makes me feel better,” said Mannheim. “We'll help you load up and then we'll get the Fort ready for action.”

“O'Hara said he is trying to get the Constance ready to go out there and get some payback,” said Doolittle. “Unless we need you, maybe you should shadow him and make sure he doesn't blow everything up for us.”

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“If the Constance took as much damage as I think it did, we'll be done with our refit long before they will be able to leave their bay,” said Schultz.

“That sounds good to me,” said Doolittle. “We don't need someone angry getting in our way while we're trying to figure things out.”

“He still might get in the way,” said Schultz.

“Don't shoot him unless you have to,” said Doolittle. “Let's get the rest of this done so we can do the job and get paid.”

The four partners walked to where their fighters waited in their launch cradles. It took some time, but they had fresh torpedoes loaded, and fresh batteries for their wing guns. Converters were plugged in and tested to make sure they would carry the spacecraft out to the target zone and back with room to chase anything that tried to chase them.

Schultz gave approval after they were done with the readying for combat.

“We'll try to hold on while we're waiting for you to rescue us,” said Doolittle. “Try not to take too long.”

“If it's really bad, I will launch on my own and Schultz will bring the Fort in after me,” said Mannheim. “It will have to be a really desperate situation before I do anything like that.”

“Thank God,” said Yeager. “Having you flying around is nothing but trouble.”

“Sure, sure,” said Mannheim. “That's no way to talk to the pilot who might have to pull you out of the soup.”

“If that happens, I might have to give up flying,” said the irascible pilot.

“We're counting on you to get the Fort into the air and back us up,” said Doolittle. “If you have to save Yeager, that will be a bonus.”

“That will be the day,” said Yeager. He pulled on his helmet as he walked to his fighter.

“Better clear the bay,” said Doolittle. “He might dump the deck to vacuum just because he's in a hurry to get into the zone.”

“Good luck,” said Mannheim. He started for the door to the launch control center. He sat down in a command chair in the center and started feeding data to the fighter craft to get them ready to launch from the bay.

Schultz sat down in one of the other chairs and began checking data at her pad. The flowchart for launch readiness lit up completely in a few minutes.

“All right,” said Schultz. “Lifting the bay doors, readying the catapults, alerting station guides so they aren't alarmed by your flight line. Shooting the catapults in ten seconds.”

“Falcon Six is ready to go,” said Doolittle.

“Fox Two is ready to go,” said Yeager.

“Pushing the button on Falcon Six,” said Schultz.

“Pushing the button on Fox Two,” said Mannheim.

The catapults roared down the tracks in the bay floor, carrying the fighters with them. The spacecraft flew out in the void beyond the door. They ignited their converters and turned to follow the line of travel given to them by O'Hara.

“I still have to get work done while they are goldbricking,” said Schultz. She closed the bay door, and reset the catapults with their winches.

“No respect for the mechanical side of things at all,” said Mannheim.

“Exactly,” said the mechanic. “Now I have to figure out what I was working on, and what I needed to buy so I can send you out for it.”

“I think we were resetting some of the armor, and the defensive guns,” said Mannheim.

“Let's see what we can do to fix the armor,” said Schultz. “I have a feeling we're going to need it before things are through.”

“I'll be the last to object to more armor on my primary base of operations,” said Mannheim.

Doolittle led the way across the system. He had the navigational markers lined up as he raced along the route to where the Constance had been ambushed. The ship being able to fly out of there might have been a surprise to the pirates.

They probably wouldn't make that mistake again.

“I see the asteroid field, Fox Two,” said Doolittle. “Split and maneuver?”

“I'll take the right and see what happens,” said Yeager. “They might have moved since shooting the Constance up.”

“I'll take the left and see if something pops up,” said Doolittle. “Weapons hot. Let's be ready to shoot back if they shoot at us.”

“Weapons ready,” said Yeager. “Call the separation.”

“Veering left now,” said Doolittle. He worked the stick to turn through a smaller field of rocks. Nothing stood out to him as he started his slow circle to meet Yeager on the other side of the asteroids.

The other pilot copied his motion, cutting through on the other side of the rocks. Nothing shot at him as he cut back to where they could meet and circle back through the field toward the station.

“No sign, Falcon Six,” said Yeager. “Anything?”

“No,” said Doolittle. “The target might have moved while we were coming out here. Let's see if we can find the rock the Constance landed on to see if anything was left behind.”

“Marking the coordinates,” said Yeager. “Did you get a ping?”

“I got it,” said Doolittle. “I see a rock the right size. It's about fifty marks below the sightline.”

“I've got it,” said Yeager. “I see a small amount of scorch marks. Leftover from the Constance taking off?”

“O'Hara said they left one of their guys behind,” said Doolittle. “See if you can get a marker for his transponder.”

“I don't have anything,” said Yeager. “Got rid of the transponder?”

“I'm setting down,” said Doolittle. “Cover me if things start. I want a chance to lift off without getting shot out of the sky.”

“I don't think that's a good idea,” said Yeager. “Let's do a flyby first before we commit to anything.”

“All right,” said Doolittle. “I'll go in first, then you come in behind me. They can't shoot the both of us down at the same time.”

“You know that's not true,” said Yeager. “But you're right that they won't shoot me down at least.”

“Mannheim will gloat if he has to save you,” said Doolittle. “Get ready for that to happen.”

“It will be a bad day if I have to depend on him to save me,” said Yeager.

“Going in,” said Doolittle. “I don't see anything yet.”

“Movement,” said Yeager. “Movement at six low.”

Doolittle cranked back on the stick and jammed the throttle wide open. He saw a trail of light pass to his right and rolled his craft to the left.

“Firing torpedoes,” said Yeager. “Payload is away.”

Three explosions marked where the torpedoes impacted against the surface of the rock. The flare of the blasts hid whatever counter the ambusher was unrolling after being lit up.

“Circling around to see if there is any movement,” said Doolittle.