Darklight Pirates

“Two more traders scared away,” Cletus Tomlins said, staring at the chart of space around Ballymore that had arrived by Lift message capsule that morning. He knew the reports by heart. They differed only in detail from a half dozen others. The Shillelagh had become proficient at interdicting trade with the rest of the galaxy, shutting off the planet. That wouldn’t cripple the economy, but it caused unrest.

For the moment. Eventually they would create enough dissent between the merchants and off-world entrepreneurs to dislodge Weir. He knew it was a long-term strategy, but he chaffed at the lack of real movement now. Being in command of the Belfast took him out of the real fight back home. Refitting the cruiser at Scrutiny was a necessity if he was to reinforce the pirate fleet. A wry smile faded when he knew that two ships hardly constituted a fleet, even if both were equipped with the darklight energy batteries and weapons a dozen years in advance of what Burran could field against them. But he had been stuck on Scrutiny for what stretched into an eternity as those modifications were made. At least his father--or had it been Leanne?--Had decided not to launch the Shillelagh against Weir immediately. Better to have both cruiser and dreadnought ready for battle. The turmoil on-planet was not going to diminish, not with Weir increasingly using AI modules to deal with the worst problems rather than relying on his own instincts as Programmer General.

“Another two weeks.”

Cletus looked from the HUD chart with all the battle intelligence sent by his father to reassure him all went well to a vidscreen where Doctor Germain peered down at him, larger than life.

“Has the darklight radiation turned you into a telepath, Doctor?”

“That’s a skill I don’t need. When not supervising the Belfast project, you spend all your spare time going over reports from Ballymore. I saw the report that a new capsule arrived. That makes six since you docked.”

“I’m too obvious. That’s not a good trait for a strategist.”

“Your skills lie more in tactical situations, from what I see. You miss her, too. I can tell. Did she send a personal message along with the sitrep from your father?”

Cletus stiffened. The scientist didn’t have to be a mind reader to know Cletus grew increasingly upset that Leanne had remained with his father instead of coming to Scrutiny with him. He missed her, but a touch of anger entered that longing. He felt abandoned, as he often had by his family growing up.

“What is your appraisal of Captain O’Malley? Is he learning the new systems?”

“He isn’t as quick a study as you, Commander, but he knows his ship and appreciates the added capabilities. I might suggest you leave him in command of the cruiser and accompany him as fleet admiral.”

“Are you saying his loyalty is wavering?” Cletus didn’t like the implications. If O’Malley went rogue or, worse, defected back to Weir’s forces, the batteries would be turned against the Shillelagh. No one could reproduce them without the TZO radiation and the special collectors on Scrutiny’s sunward side, but knowing Scrutiny even existed would be a serious breach. Finding it wasn’t likely, but every crumb of information lost eroded his--his father’s--chance to regain Burran.

“He is a proud man. Give him a chance to serve you, and he will not disappoint. I have seen many similar situations since becoming Chief Scientist here. Once bruised, egos take a long time to heal. It is better to never do damage in the first place. Use talent wherever you find it. Officers such as your captain may surprise you with the heights they can attain.”

Cletus heard the advice and still considered removing O’Malley from command and stranding him on Scrutiny for the rest of his days. Germain might use the cruiser captain in the scoopship fleet mining the gas giants or even put him on a dartabout supplying the accelerator ring around the planet. He wished he had the Shillelagh’s captain, Sullivan, here. She had shown herself able and loyal. Still, giving O’Malley the chance to similarly gain honor in the Programmer General’s service appealed to him. He had become too skeptical of others since the coup.

He glanced at the chart again, wondering how his father and Leanne fared. How did Leanne fare? There hadn’t been so much as a scribbled note to him with the battle reports, much less a lengthy video.

“Alert me if he shows any sign of not being the officer you believe him to be.”

“I’m a scientist. I deal with the universe.” Germain coughed and shook his head sadly. “Humans are far more complex than the mathematics I use daily. But I will watch him as he works on the cruiser. Not for nothing have I kept this planet filled with scientists and engineers productive for all those years. I know something of human dynamics, though I prefer measuring darklight radiation and finding new ways to use it.”

“The batteries for the Belfast are charged?”

“Charged and ready for installation. What is taking the most time is rewiring the laser cannon to prevent overload when the more powerful energy surges are dumped into the solid state lasing crystals.”

“I saw a report from a basic science team saying you are growing single crystals in darklight energy fields that can take the energy density during lasing.”

“A complex experiment, but one with great promise. The crystals seem to exist in more than our usual dimensions.” Germain sucked on his teeth, lost in thought. “That ass Herkimer thinks the darklight energy itself exists in multiple dimension, but his math is suspect.”

“Like StringSpace?”

“The portion of the crystal lattice not in our usual dimensions doesn’t propagate at light speed. Why that doesn’t happen is part of the experimental study. I have found ancient earth papers dealing with Alcubierre causality that--”

“Doctor.” Cletus glanced from the vidscreen to his reconstruction of the Shillelagh’s last encounter. “None of this makes any sense to me.”

“You are so right, Commander. Apologies. This will be more to your liking and something to school Captain O’Malley in. My rough calculations show such a lasing crystal in your weaponry gives five orders of magnitude more energy in the beam. With a dreadnought-mounted laser cannon using this, it’s possible to boil off a planet’s atmosphere.”

Cletus’ eyes widened. He had not realized the cruiser would carry such powerful armament.

“Another world killer weapon.” German sighed. “Such power can be used for other purposes, but I understand your eagerness for it to be deployed.”

“The only planet of interest to me is Ballymore. Destroying its atmosphere is not a goal. I am more interested in how you are coming with reverse engineering the warbots.”

“We recorded all we could when the Shillelagh was ported here. With the darklight batteries powering such a fighting machine, heavier armor and armament is possible. Increased speed, range, lasers, our version will be greatly improved over the Far Kingdom designs.”

“I wonder what Leanne would say about that.”

“She has the two Far Kingdom warbots aboard the Shillelagh refitted with the batteries and new armor. What was her reaction to them?”

Cletus wondered. She had avoided commenting on the fact that those two units were more than a match for even the heaviest models Far Kingdom produced. His own calculations showed the two, working in tandem, outclassed ten of the warbots without the updated power and armor.

“Will our model be ready to put aboard the Belfast when I return to Ballymore?”

“There might be some adjustments required if final testing is skipped. A few techs can accompany you and work on it since you aren’t intending to use the warbots on-planet immediately, are you?”

“I am planning on joining the Shillelagh in interdiction for a few weeks. If we capture enough ships and assemble a real fleet, then is our best chance to use the warbot in an attack against the capital.”

He had worked through a tentative battle plan. Bombardment from space was out of the question since too many civilians would die. The space station had to fall quickly, without much damage done to it. Then the real fight began. Precision strikes, pinpoint targeting against ground troops, use of the warbot, that would crush resistance and gain access to a control helmet linked with the Blarney Stone. His father could cut off supplies to the military then and end the conflict quickly.

“I need to return to my experiments. I will keep you--wait. Are you getting the feed from another message capsule?”

“Another? But I just got one. It’s difficult sending them. This must be an emergency!”

Cletus adjusted his HUD and brought the encoded message into view. A few quick blinks verified his identity and started the decryption. He slowly got to his feet.

“I’m not sure this is accurate. The capsule came from my father?”

“All the proper challenge codes were answered.”

Cletus read the message again, emotions battling within him.

“There has been another coup in Burran. Weir is dead, and my father is returning to take over as Programmer General again.”

“That’s excellent news, Commander. It means Programmer General Tomlins is one again in charge of Burran. I must let the others know. They worried that this civil war would affect our contact with Ballymore.”

The thought that rose to the top of Cletus’s mind was an outraged, Without me!