Battle Lines Snippet 3

Hi,
Okay, here it is:

They sipped at the EM spectrum the best his little ship could, logging everything for future analysis. They didn't have the computer support to process even a tenth of the data however. “Sir, at this rate we'll be full up in a day,” Jim said when the captain came back on shift the next morning.

They had identified 11 possible ship contacts in orbit of the planet. 7 of them were of appreciable mass, either a destroyer or freighter. The others were unknowns, they were still attempting to get positive ID's on the large ships.

“We're scheduled to be here for longer,” the new captain stated mildly. Didn't anyone plan for this? No, of course not, he thought pedantically. Send a damn frigate on a tin can's mission. “Were you on this all night?”

“Yes sir.” The captain frowned thoughtfully. Jim looked okay but he had circles under his eyes. The kid had the energy of youth and his implants so he could handle it, but the work load and stresses involved were taking their toll.

The captain crossed his arms and looked down his nose at the rating. “Then you've got a problem. Solve it. Compress the files.” He frowned thoughtfully and then nodded to himself. “In fact, compress anything we don't need now as well. Restrict recreational use on the computer net. And move some material to hard copy backups.” He was curious about how the rating would do on this little test. It would push him a bit and might expand his horizons. It would go a long way to see if the young man was ready for more responsibility.

Jim nodded. “Aye aye sir. It's a drop in the bucket though sir.”

“It's a start. Are we filtering?”

“Our ears are picking up what we can sir. Filtering? I don't think... no sir.” Jim shook his head.

“Do so. We don't need the spectral noise of the gas giant or local star. Strip that out.”

“Yes sir.”

“Do the same for anything natural once it's been tagged and identified. Map its location and then filter it out. That should help.”

“Yes sir, it should.”

“Once you've nailed down the artificial sources tag them for further analysis. But have someone keep an ear out for new sources as well. Just in case.”

“Aye aye sir.”

He worried over being in the system though, he didn't want to blow his very first mission. The frigate wasn't set up for stealth however so they had to wing it. Three days on station. Just 72 measly hours and then they could jump out again.

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On the third day they got additional confirmation of occupation of planet. It was grim, Jim could barely listen to it. Hassan had tried but he didn't have the stomach for it. He shook his head. He didn't envy intel's job, not in the slightest.

Come to think of it, they should have sent a spook along for the ride. Not that they had room... he frowned thoughtfully. Hopefully Admiral White would have one assigned to his staff. He shrugged such problems off his shoulders. He had other concerns. Like if White was actually going to make the rendezvous. He had his doubts.

They had also gotten positive fingerprint ID's of each of the ships in the star system, EM from the ships when they were broadcasting. Any that were under power allowed the watching observer to fingerprint their drives. They gathered any other intel data they could without going active.

“Air getting a bit thick isn't it?”

“Don't worry,” Jim said.

“Just saying.”

“We're fine. Technically we could get almost all the way back if we reduced mass. We'd be a jump short but it could work. Could. Not that I have any intention of trying it.”

“But sir, what if we wait too long at the rendezvous and they are delayed or never show?”

“Then we're screwed.” That earned a wince. “We all knew the risks going into this people. It's worth it.” He glanced at the clock. It'd damn well better be he thought.

“What's that smell?” Jim asked, sniffing the air.

“I swear you're worse than my sainted mother,” Adel growled shaking her head.

“Don't ask a lady to admit she's ripped one,” Ensign Nissan Ham the navigator said maliciously.

“Funny,” Adel growled. “Very funny,” she drawled, giving the Neochimp navigator the stink eye. The young woman giggled.

“Mind your stations people. Work on the jump list,” the captain said mildly. When Jim sniffed the air again the captain sighed. “I knew they should have crewed this ship with midgets.”

“Or elves sir. Five to one of us sir,” Jim said with a grin.

“Something like that. Are you okay with computer space?”

Jim bobbed a nod. “It turns out we had some flash memory sticks in one of the storage containers sir. The XO found them this morning and we've been using them,” he said, indicating a bank of jury rigged electronic storage devices hooked up to his station. The captain leaned over slightly to get a look. They were by the man's feet, hooked up to some sort of hub to the port.

“Just don't step on them or the admiral might keel haul you,” the captain warned as he straightened. He glanced at the clock. One minute until they could leave. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Adel also superstitiously looking. He snorted. It wasn't like they needed to look, they could put the countdown on their HUD. But that was distracting.

When the clock hit zero he nodded and straightened his shoulders. The bridge crew looked at him expectantly for the order. “Time to go. Helm, bring us about. Navigation I want a soft translation into hyperspace.”

“A soft translation sir?”

“Low band. If you can, find us a rock to hide behind while we do it.”

“Sir? We can't be near any appreciable mass or...”

“I meant between us and the enemy. Run the numbers, even a planet or moon in system. We need to time it so our flash of departure isn't seen.”

“I see sir.” The navigator frowned as she ran scenarios. “This will take some time sir. I'll need to simulate each ship's point of view carefully.”

“Just do your best.”

“This would be quicker and easier with an AI,” the navigator grumbled.

Captain Gruber ignored her gripe. Sometimes they had to do their own grunt work, not rely on an AI or someone to do the heavy lifting for them. He turned his eyes to his XO and chief engineer. “Something to add Lieutenant?”

The XO shook his head. “No sir. They didn't notice our arrival so let's hope we can get out the same way,” the XO stated. “If we're far enough out and with enough scatter between us and them we may get lucky.”

“Exactly.”

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