Chapter 6 - Polar Opposites

CSS Archerfish sat directly above the North Magnetic Pole of the system's largest gas giant. The electrical fields of the planet's ionosphere were playing Hobb with the enemy's sensors, or at least Wilhelm had been assured of this by Technical Intelligence back at Borneo. The enemy suspected someone or something was in the area, but apparently couldn't see him at all. He praised any and every God and Goddess he'd ever heard the name of, including several goddesses they had yet to name battle cruisers after.

Three large Vervactor Class cruisers, about 800 Sa'arm on board each by estimate, were now hovering in equatorial orbit together. Suddenly two drew ahead of the third, who seemed to remain behind for some reason.

"What is that one doing just sitting there?" puzzled Lieutenant Quinn.

Captain Koenig was a trifle concerned as well, but reasoned it away. "I think he's forming part of a synchronous triple play. They'll be able to cover the entire equator once those other two get in position." He turned to his Executive Officer. "Let's not think too deeply, though. If he wants someone to take a shot at him, it's up to us to accommodate him."

His crew grinned as Koenig turned to Sheila to lay out his strategy. "We'll fire two missiles down his tailpipe, and two more down each of the others. As soon as we've fired the last shot, reload - don't wait for an order, this is your order. If any survive, we'll down them at our leisure."

He settled back in his chair. "Fire one! Fire two!"

"Firing one!"

"Number one fired electrically."

"Firing two!"

"Number two fired electrically."

He waited until the first two missiles were about a quarter the distance to the target, and ordered the last four birds away. Charles immediately went through the cumbersome reload procedure and within less than a minute was ready to fire another volley.

The first missile took out the forward wall of the combustion chamber of one engine of the first cruiser and the second sailed clear through the cloud of expanding dust and gas to puncture several fuel tanks and expend the bulk of its energy deep in pressurized spaces within the ship. The two ships in motion hadn't known why the first exploded - the missiles were in all three vessels' blind spots - and hadn't had a chance to react in any meaningful way when they received their DU suppositories with similar results.

"Systems report."

"All systems nominal, Captain. We are down to 25 torpedoes."

"Now," ventured Lieutenant Quinn, "what were they hunting for? Us?"

"Possibly, or also possibly they were just scouting," suggested Koenig, curious himself.

"Three Vervactor Class cruisers? Scouting? They were looking for something specific, Skipper, something big."

"We've destroyed a hive ship, two destroyers and three scouts in not quite two weeks, Sam. They might think we're bigger than we are."

"Captain, Sensors. We've picked up another exhaust trail." Lance Corporal Wach dragged the AI into the analysis.

"Or maybe there's more looking for us." Koenig's visage was grim.

"Not Sa'arm," Lance Corporal Wach added after conferring with Charlie.

"Or maybe somebody else is looking for us," Quinn suggested. Koenig shrugged - the answer was coming.

"Appears to be Confederacy," concluded Wach uncertainly.

"Or maybe they were looking for somebody else. Ping for IFF."

"Aye, Sir," advised Corporal Hurst. "Pinging for IFF."

"Well, we'll know in a second," conceded Quinn.

"Sir, IFF answers as Castle Class corvette DE015, Dover Castle, Roger Beverton commanding. They are pinging back. Code matches."

"Respond appropriately," Koenig ordered. "And follow up with a message of greetings by tight laser."

"Captain Koenig, this is Captain Beverton of the Dover Castle. Were you the ones who got those three cruisers? If so, much thanks, they've been following us since we escaped their system two weeks ago."

"Just doing our job, Captain Beverton, we're pleased to be of assistance. What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"We've received battle damage to our main engines, and have been cut off from home as a result. Can you spare any engine parts or replicate any?"

"Unfortunately no to either. We don't use the same engines, so we don't have any spares ready, and we don't have a lot of material to replicate anything. Are your replicators off line?"

"No, but every time we go to use them the Swarm show up and we have to divert power to weapons and shields again. What we really need is the time to make the repairs without having to go back into battle again first. It's been a struggle to find that time."

"Stay against that rock, we'll stay where we are and protect you until your repairs are completed," suggested Captain Koenig, indicating a nice-sized piece of space debris.

"Great," responded a slightly relieved Captain Beverton. "By the way, where are you exactly? You're not showing up on our sensors."

"We're trying to not show up on Sa'arm sensors. We're new. You'll find out about us when you get back to Borneo."

"Can you send over any engineer, anyway? He could help speed up our repairs."

"We're kind of small, but we do have a motor machinist's mate. Would that help?"

Captain Beverton blinked. How big was this battlewagon that had just destroyed three cruisers? They had no engineering staff more senior than a motor machinist's mate?

"Give us your transporter nexus link."

Now it was Captain Beverton's turn to apologize, as Charlie advised Koenig, "The Castle class does not come equipped with a transporter nexus."

"That's a bit of a design flaw," mused Captain Koenig absently.

"When the Castles were designed, it was the early days of the Confederacy, before we knew much about the subject of transporters. We could dock with you," suggested Captain Beverton.

"Not possible. We have no docking ports."

"That's a bit of a design flaw," responded Beverton, throwing Koenig's own words back at him.

"No, it's a feature. Our class of ship needs to keep its signature down to the least possible, which means as few seams as we can get away with, which means no unnecessary hatches. Which means we can't dock. We use the transporter nexus when necessary."

Beverton harrumphed. "Well, if you keep up your picket duty, that will be plenty of help right there. Thanks again for getting those three battlewagons off my tail. I'll contact you before you leave. Dover Castle out."

For the next twelve hours, the Dover Castle sat and made repairs while Archerfish hovered protectively from the cover of the gas giant's North Pole, its crew standing watch-and-watch: half the crew on duty for four hours and then trading off with the other half for a four hour rest.

After a tradeoff of messages, the two finally made their goodbyes. Archerfish decided to stay where she was for another twenty-four hours, just in case more Sa'arm decided to try to track down the errant Dover Castle.

It turned out to be a smart move. About three hours after Dover Castle departed for Borneo, two more Vervactor Class cruisers entered the system, obviously sniffing for the trail of her engines, or the debris left from her battle damage. They also went sniffing at the debris that hadn't yet descended onto the gas giant from their three sister ships.

The brace of battlewagons decided to depart, turned their stern toward the gas giant... and ate three fish apiece, right up their tailpipes.

The Dover Castle's engine trail had by this time long dissipated. Before more unfriendlies showed up and maybe guessed his hiding hole's location, Captain Koenig decided to try a new fishing spot.

He now had 19 missiles to go before he had to return and reload.