Linton Chronicles - Dilation
12 May 2018Andrew Linton
The full story03 Mar3304, Pirate Fleet Carrier, The Corner of No and Where
Four pirates block our path to the docking bay. Chief William Auer of the Ant Hill Mob and Eric Cobham are from Obsidian Orbital in Maia. Auer looks calm; Cobham adopts a combat stance, rocking slowly from foot to foot, his left hand supporting his right which is aiming a gun at my heart.
Next to them is John Crabbe, pirate lord, and leader of the gang based here on the fleet carrier. Next to Crabbe is Jenna Crumlin. On first sight, people dismiss her as harmless fluff, but now she's ready for combat, legs slightly bent and ready to pounce, arms raised with fingers splayed like a tiger's claws.
Facing them and standing side by side, we are three. I have Pnin Re next to me and Agneta Elonsdottir next to him. Behind us, Lena Wegener shields her children. We have no weapons.
"Just say the word, Chief," Cobham says through the side of his mouth while keeping his eyes steadily fixed on me, "and I'll solve the Linton problem for you."
"Hold on, Eric," Auer says, looking at Agneta, "I don't want any collateral damage. This here is Agneta Elonsdottir. If we keep her alive, and healthy, we can name our own ransom – probably enough to cripple the Rask operation."
My heart is thumping wildly in my chest, anticipating the violence to come. I want to strike now, but fear of the consequences holds me back.
"Bill," I say, hoping that a reminder of our previous friendship will take some tension out of the situation, "I see what you're trying to do here."
"Oh really," he says sarcastically, "and what do you think that might be?"
Keep him talking. Talking is not fighting.
"You're using this Thargoid ship to destroy the rival factions in order to take total control of Maia; and at a time when we should be working together to beat the Thargoids."
"You always did think small, Linton," he mocks, "running petty missions for the Mob to scrape together a few tens of millions. You need to expand your perspectives in time and space. Control of Maia is a tiny first step. What we're doing here can be replicated across human space. After Maia, we'll control the Pleiades, and then the trade between the Pleiades and Sol-centric space. Eventually, we will have operations everywhere, even in Colonia.
"Think of it. Ours will be the only secure logistics operation in the galaxy. Everyone else will run the risk of hyperdiction and loss of cargo. Independent pilots will abandon their meaningless power play when they understand that the only safe way to operate is through our missions.
"A galaxy run by piracy?" It's my turn to mock. "I think the superpowers might have something to say about that."
He laughs.
"Whoever controls trade controls the economy. With that comes political power, because hungry people don't care if it's the Empire or the Federation – or me – that's running things; what they want is food. People don't cry out for democracy when their livelihoods are at stake and they can see no future for their children. No, they cry out for work."
His megalomania seems limitless.
"And the Thargoids?" I remind him.
"Again, your timescale is too short. The Thargoid threat will pass, just like the last one; I'm thinking well beyond that. Indeed, the Thargoid battles will provide us with more of their ships for us to deploy wherever we like."
I can see no way to reason with Auer, and Cobham looks increasingly twitchy in his desire to end me.
"Of course, all of your plans depend on the cooperation of one man; the man we've come here to save. If you harm his family his work for you will end."
"I know that," he says, "and that's why you're going to hand them over to our care, right now."
The time has come to act. There's nothing else for it.
"Let me show you something," I say, reaching slowly for the pocket of my flight-suit.
"Easy," Cobham says, taking a step forward. "Nice and slow."
I gently ease the v-space modulator from my pocket and take a firm grip on it. With a rapid flick, and using the lifelong skill I've developed of tossing playing cards into an upturned helmet, I launch the device at Cobham's hand.
My aim is good and the gun is knocked from his hand; it skitters off down the corridor. With no weapons in play it's straightforward close-quarters combat. Pnin Re immediately lunges forwards at John Crabbe crouching low beneath the tall man's reach. At the same time Agneta engages with Jenna Crumlin.
That leaves me to take on Auer and Cobham. I'm really pumped up; I charge at Cobham and succeed at sending us both sprawling. As I stand up I feel Auer's arm sliding round my throat. He holds me in a powerful grip while Cobham regains his feet.
Pnin Re is having a hard time against Crabbe. You don't get to be a pirate lord without the ability to dominate physically. They trade blows but Crabbe has the better of it. Pnin is a little out of condition while Crabbe is back to his peak after his prison-break. The taller man's jabs strike home frequently. Pnin is tough, but there's a limit to what any man can take.
The fight between Crumlin and Agneta is more of a ballet. Legs swing high as kicks brush the air within centimetres of each other's faces. This time Agneta has the height advantage but Crumlin is fast. Then, both women have blood on their faces, Agneta from her nose and Crumlin from her left temple.
Cobham is alternately punching me in the face – one, two – and then in the abdomen while Auer holds me still. It's years since I was in a dust up like this and the pain brings it all back. I start to remember some moves.
His actions are repetitive, so I know exactly where and when the next assault will come. Using Auer's strong grip to brace me I swing my legs up and kick Cobham in the chest. Newton's Third Law helps me out. Cobham reels away and loses balance while Auer staggers backwards and hits the wall; his grip slackens and I break free.
Agneta and Crumlin are circling each other cautiously, looking for an opening. Crumlin has produced a short knife from a sheath hidden somewhere beneath her frills and she smiles, knowing that she has the upper hand.
Pnin Re is down. An uppercut has floored him. John Crabbe sits on him and punches his face.
It's not looking good for us. I'm one against two, and my friends seem to be getting the worse of their struggles.
The gunshot shocks everyone. Its loud report echoes the length of the corridor. I turn to see Lena Wegener with a wild and determined she-bear look in her eyes. She trembles and the hand holding the gun is shaking.
"I had to do it," she says uncertainly. "I had to do it."
"No!" Jenna Crumlin cries; she drops her knife and runs to John Crabbe. He looks in surprise at the growing patch of red spreading across the chest of his flight-suit.
Pnin Re pushes him off and Crabbe falls away. Crumlin crouches over him, hands pressing on the wound to staunch the flow of blood. "Somebody help me," she cries.
I move quickly to Lena and take the gun; her action as aggrieved and protective mother has changed the outcome; we're in control now. Little Elke screams and Lena picks her up again to comfort her. I point the gun at Auer.
"You can get him to the medical bay after you've let us go," I say to him.
Auer shrugs.
"He means nothing to me. Let him die. Pirate lords are ten-to-the-credit."
I'm weighing up what to do when Pnin Re, rubbing blood from his eyes, relieves me of the gun. His military discipline takes over. He shoots Cobham in the thigh, and then Auer in his. Both men go down screaming.
"Let's go," he commands, and sets off to the docking bay.
Through his pain Chief Auer calls after me, "Linton, you're kill-on-sight now; don't ever think of returning to Maia."
*
We approach the Cyclops in the Corvette and I feel increasingly apprehensive. I know there are no Thargoids on board but the shape is menacing and strongly redolent of real encounters I've had at non-human signal sources and previous hyperdictions. The powerful curves of the ship look muscular and it feels like it's about to lash out at us. I instinctively put four pips into the shields.
I see the Sidewinder manoeuvring away from the Cyclops. Dieter has done whatever he came here to do. I call him up.
"We came to you; things got a little heated on the fleet carrier. If you dock again at the Cyclops, we'll pick you up."
I hear the stress in his voice. "Very well, but we must hurry to get away. I have set my device to reach full power in about twenty minutes."
"What does it do?" I ask.
"No time to tell you now. Pick us up quickly. We must leave the area."
Five minutes later we are all on the bridge of the Corvette.
"I'll set a course for Sol," I say. "We can't go back to the Pleiades."
"No!" Dieter says urgently, and he leans over and pushes the throttle to one hundred percent. "The frame shift drive won't work this close. We have about fifteen minutes to get 100π kilometres away from the Cyclops in normal space."
He taps the boost and checks our maximum speed. He does a quick calculation and immediately taps the boost again.
"We might just make it, if we use continual boosting," he says, putting four pips back into the engines. After measuring how long it takes for the capacitors to recharge, he writes a quick macro for thruster management and executes it.
"I've programmed a boost to execute every eight seconds," he says, and turns to Wang Shu. "If a boost fails because the capacitor isn't charged fully, I need you to boost manually as soon as you can."
"I understand," she says, and sits in the pilot's seat with full concentration.
"What's happening?" I ask.
Dieter takes Elke in one arm and puts the other around Klaus. He smiles broadly for the first time since I've known him.
"Crabbe gave me far too much time to myself," he says. "Adapting the Thargoid hyperdiction technology to meet the pirates' needs was trivial. I told him that I could build a similar device that wouldn't need a Cyclops for its operation and he gave me everything I asked for."
"And what did you build?"
He pauses, like he's practicing the delivery for his next crowdfunding video.
"It's a frame dilation drive," he says enthusiastically. On seeing my look of confusion, he adds, "You know how a frame shift drive compresses space-time around your ship? Well the frame dilation drive does the opposite; it stretches space-time so that it takes much longer to travel a given distance. Quite soon any ship near the Cyclops won't even be able to reach supercruise. Using the FSD will be out of the question."
"It's pretty neat," Wang Shu chips in without taking her eyes off the capacitor level. "It runs by entangling the cosmic neutrino background and space becomes massively viscous."
"Yes," Dieter says triumphantly, "and the only component I was short of was the one you brought me."
"Is there no escape for the pirates – or the innocent commanders they hyperdicted?" Agneta asks.
We are all reflecting on that question when we pick up some voice comms. It's Chief Auer.
"We're coming to get you," he grunts through the pain of the gunshot wound. "You'll pay for what you've done."
I look at the scanner and see five ships coming after us. Auer is in a Fer-de-Lance and Cobham is flying his Security Services Viper MkIV. Jade Merz commands a Federal Assault Ship while Rondextro and Ronlevo are racing ahead of the pack in a pair of Imperial Eagles. I can't see the paintjobs, but I'm sure they'll be symmetrical, and I'm confident that their cockpits will reek.
"Wang Shu, can you calculate the velocities of those ships?" Dieter asks.
"It will take a few minutes, but I'll get on to it."
"Those Eagles are closing fast; we will definitely need to engage them," Pnin Re observes.
"No, we must keep boosting away in a straight line or we will be trapped here also," Dieter warns.
Agneta checks the fighter hangar.
"We have a GU-97 and a Taipan; we'll use them to tackle the Eagles. Looks like you and me, Pnin; are you up for it?"
Pnin Re grins, "Is that something else they taught you at finishing school?"
"Of course; every self-respecting rich girl knows her way around a Taipan."
"Looks like I'm in the GU-97 then," he says, and together they race off to the hangar.
Wang Shu completes her calculations, all the time ensuring the continual boosting is optimal.
"The Eagles are travelling at 550 metres per second. They will intercept us in four minutes. Chief Auer is the fastest of the others at 457 metres per second, then Cobham's Viper at 364 – in other words only a shade faster than us. Merz is only managing 291, so we're pulling away from her."
"So, Chief Auer will also intercept us, and even Cobham, eventually," I venture.
"I need to see it in a chart," Dieter says. "I want to know if they will escape dilation."
It sounds like the typical instruction from a professor to a research assistant and I think how easily the relationship between Dieter and Wang Shu has reasserted itself. Still, it was Wang Shu's going for coffee that saved her from being kidnapped along with Dieter.
"I'll take over monitoring the continual boost," I say to her and she smiles to me before leaving her seat to follow Dieter's "make it happen" command.
With the Eagles only two minutes away from interception, she completes the task and shows Dieter the results.
"There's good news and bad news," he says. "The good news is that neither Cobham nor Merz will escape the sphere of dilation which will have a 100π kilometre radius when the FDD is fully charged. On the other hand, Chief Auer might just make it, and he will be close to intercepting us."
"Launching now," Pnin Re reports, and we see the GU-97 briefly ahead of us before he arcs round to meet the Eagles. Moments later he's joined by Agneta in the Taipan. I feel a real concern for them in the fast, agile, but relatively fragile fighters, especially as I'm sitting safely in a heavily shielded Corvette.
"Don't stray more than about twenty kilometres from us," I warn, "and be safe."
The battle happens behind us so we don't see anything, except for the representation of the dog-fight on the ship's scanner. Four ships loop and gyrate on the display, coming close to exchange fire, then separating. We hear the taunts of the Ron twins and the banter of calm co-operation between Agneta and Pnin. They seem to work well together.
"I don't believe it! How did that happen?" we hear from Ronlevo, shortly before a shockwave of exploding debris rocks the Corvette.
"I'm out of here," Rondextro declares.
"Surge detected," Pnin Re reports.
"Now we see whether frame dilation is happening," Dieter says excitedly. "Our fighters should return to the ship while they still can."
"Heat sink deployed," Agneta says. "That Eagle is hot – it's starting to glow white-hot – it's going to…"
There's a huge explosion behind us, and immediately I think of the frailty of fighter shields.
"Agneta, Pnin, are you okay?"
There's an agonisingly long pause.
"I'm okay," I hear Agneta say, and I breathe a sigh of relief. "My shields are gone and the hull's at forty percent. Can't see Pnin."
"Dieter says to come back now before you're trapped by the dilation field."
"No, not yet, not without him; No Pnin Left Behind, that's my new motto."
There's crackling static on the voice comms and we hear, "I'm over here, on your six; been looking out for you."
I can hear the stress in his voice and I suspect he's injured.
"What's your status," I ask.
Another pause.
"The fighter's dead; two percent hull; no thrust."
"They must get back in the next few minutes or the consequences will be dire," Dieter insists.
I'm sitting in the commander's seat and I make an executive decision. I cancel the continual boost programme and pitch the ship around. "We're coming to you; get your helmet on if you haven't already; you're going for a walk in space."
Dieter looks distressed. "If we're not far enough away, we'll be trapped here forever."
"You can always go back and turn your device off," I say, "but there will be No Pnin Left Behind today."
"Don't you understand? Once the dilation device is fully charged, it might take a year for us fly back to the Cyclops. Do you have enough supplies to feed eight people for a year?"
"That's a chance we'll have to take," I say with more bravado than reason, all the while flying the Corvette to where Pnin's fighter is floating helplessly. I press push-to-talk. "Agneta, why don't you dock your fighter now?"
"I'll wait until Pnin's on board," she tells me, "there may be something I can do out here."
"Tell you what, guide me so the cargo hatch is exactly above the fighter. That'll be Pnin's way in to the Corvette."
It takes a few precious minutes more to get Pnin and Agneta on board and we resume our continual boost routine. I see that Chief Auer is a lot closer now.
Dieter seems moody, ready to say he told us so. There's probably a long German word, similar to schadenfreude, which describes what's he's feeling, but I don't know what it is. I guess I can understand him, though; he was the one with the family held hostage and wants more than any of us to escape.
"How's it looking, Dieter?" I ask as Pnin and Agneta join us on the bridge. Pnin is limping badly, but the main thing I notice is that they seem closer than before, leaning in to each other and looking into each other's eyes. I suspect Pnin's nearer than he thinks to flying his own fluorescent pink biowaste haulage Cutter. But that's for later, after we've escaped.
Dieter is making his own calculations; looking at the time, monitoring our velocity, and estimating the range from the Cyclops. Wang Shu resumes the task of managing the continual boosting.
"Mmm, it will be a close thing," Dieter tells me. "And we will know within the next two minutes. Now, let me work."
A minute later Wang Shu has news. "Our boost speed is falling. Each boost only takes us to 335 metres per second. The frame dilation drive is slowing us down."
"It will get steadily worse," Dieter predicts, looking at me like it's my fault – which it is. "Wang Shu, read out the peak speed each time we boost."
Over the next four cycles, the speed drops to the point where the booster seems to have no effect.
"Shall we stop boosting?" Wang Shu asks.
"No, no," Dieter says, "without it we would grind to a halt."
Chief Auer's Fer-de-Lance is now only twenty kilometres from us, but I notice something.
"Is Auer falling back? We seem to be pulling away from him."
Dieter looks at the scanner. "Yes, that will happen. He's deeper into the dilation field than us. Give me a moment and I'll give you the numbers."
Cobham's Viper and Jade Merz's Assault Ship seem to be going even slower than Auer. We all look anxiously at Dieter who's the only one who really knows what's happening. He takes his time and meanwhile Wang Shu continues to call out the peak boost speed. It's down to ten metres per second – barely a crawl – and the ship's heat dissipation is struggling; we're at eighty-five percent.
Dieter looks satisfied with his results.
"It will take us ten minutes to cover the final kilometre, after which we will leave the dilation zone. Then it will be safe to use the frame shift drive."
"And Auer?" I ask.
"He'll be okay," Dieter says. "It will take him three hours to reach where we are now and another ten minutes to break free – provided he continues to use his booster. Cobham and Merz, however, are trapped along with everyone else."
The next ten minutes are nerve-wracking. As predicted by Dieter, our boost speed falls to below two metres per second, which seems incredible, and the ship's heat approaches one hundred percent. I have three heat sinks and I use one each time the heat becomes critical. Agneta looks at the inventory.
"We have the mats to synthesise six premium heat sinks," she says. "I'll get on to it."
She makes them in batches of three and we need them all – in fact we could do with a few more.
"Taking heat damage," the ship announces cheerfully as smoke rises and the HUD flickers.
"Ten more metres and we'll be free," Dieter announces, and ten seconds later our speed starts to build. "You can stop boosting now, Wang Shu; that should help the heat output."
A few minutes later, it's a great relief to feel the power of the Corvette propelling us at normal speeds. I use the auto field maintenance to repair the damaged modules; I want to be in good shape before we use the frame shift drive.
"Where's it to be?" I ask the group. "Sol? Shinrarta? Is Colonia far enough away from Auer?"
"Been thinking about this," Pnin Re says. "We should go back to Maia."
"Maia?" I say, "but why would we do that?"
"We need to collect Eva Wegener before Auer gets back. He's sure to punish her if he can. By Dieter's reckoning we're a little over three hours ahead of Auer. That's our window of opportunity."
I see the looks of approval from Dieter and Lena.
"That's settled; Maia it is, and then somewhere else – to be decided."