The Venusian Baron

Baron Cartis pulled himself along the hall of his craft, squeezing by claustrophobic work stations on both sides. He stopped just short of the raised conn deck, watching his staff officers pour over the semi-digital map on the central table. The dark interior of low ceilings, narrow walls and metallic fixtures bounced the bathing light of monochrome green phosphor displays. Cartis stood listening to the quiet ambience of his men at work, the hushed conversations in their headsets, nervous scribbling of notes on paper, the hard clicking of buttons and switches being worked back and forth. The bridge was cramped, a narrow walkway wide enough for one man, computers set into the walls on either side as you moved. At either end there were narrow circular bulkheads leading the fore and aft. A few roof lights provided not enough illumination and there was the ever present taste of thin, recycled, air.

“Lord on deck,” the team of four officers on the conn deck snapped to attention.

“As you were,” Cartis said, stepping up onto the conn. “Status report,” he slid in between his officers to peer at hybrid map on the table.

“Just as you anticipated my Lord,” Commander Jaynis pulled repeatedly on a lever, flicking through the maps with a loud mechanical clunking. He stopped on one, then played with the projector lights above bringing into view a monochrome projection on the paper map below. “House Cawdor has taken their entire fleet and is on an intercept course with the Imperial Seat,” he drew a finger across the projected line from a diamond marker. “They were let through the asteroid belt unmolested by the Duke of Ceres.”

“So the great Duke Efrique is a traitor as well,” the youngest of the officer said grimly. He was a lieutenant, around 35 Venusian years, and the Baron’s nephew.

“Or more likely,” the Baron began, looking over their position, “he is biding his time, waiting to see who will come out of this alive. House Efrique has long looked covetously upon the Emperor’s hold of the Phobos moon and this opportunity, I’m sure, has not been overlooked.”

“We’re in a good position here,” Jaynis said, drawing a finger down from the projected mark of the Cawdor fleet to the circle which represented their own fleet. “We’re on their eight o’clock now, on an intercept course due to merge in thirty minutes.” Jaynis looked up from his map, waiting to see the Baron’s response.

“Aye,” Cartis said slowly. “Order the crew to battle stations.”

“Yes, my Lord!”

The alert sounded, the few white lights in the narrow corridor dimming to red. All around Cartis his crew went into a quiet worried frenzy. He listened to the hushed talk across the bridge: “Tracking Sierra one one, for sixty…”

“Closing speed three hundred, range five hundred thousand, confirm radar return…”

“Ready tubes one through four, standby to load…”

“Henrietta, this is Outrider, ranging you with laz for six hundred…”

“Helm,” Cartis spoke firmly, “are you set for the attack run?”

“Yes, my lord,” the helmsman sat amongst glowing green screens reading out headings and ranges, a set of manual control sticks and his hand ready on a lever.

Cartis looked back to Jaynis, “Pull the sails.”

“Pull the sails!”Jaynis repeated the order, so that all in the narrow room could hear. Bridge officers and enlisted men scurried across the room, from the engine room in the rear to the sail room. A few moments later there was a screeching of metal on metal followed by a loud thunk reverberating through the vessel.

“Sir, solar sails are secured!” a saluting officer stood by the small round bulkhead at the forward end of the bridge. Several enlisted men crawled out of the same door and scurried past the raised conn platform, averting their gaze from his Lordship only to disappear through the aft bulkhead.

“Thank you Ensign,” Jaynis said, dismissing the young officer.

“My lord, we have radar track on all sixteen of the Cawdor’s vessels, including the family ancient. Just give the word.”

“Hold fire on the ancient. Destroy the rest.” Cartis ordered.

“As you wish my lord,” Jaynis turned to the radio operator and signaled for him to broadcast the new rules of engagement. A moment of hushed radio chatter went by and the operator turned back to Jaynis with a thumbs up.

“Load tubes one through four,” Cartis said calmly.

“Load tubes one through four!” Jaynis repeated the order loudly, directing it to the weapons officer.

“Loading tubes one through four, aye sir!” the weapons operator confirmed. A moment passed followed by a series of metal clunking. “Tubes one through four report ready to shoot, sir!”

“Read to shoot, my lord.” Jaynis said, allowing Cartis a moment to think.

“Commence firing sequence.” Cartis said, solemnly.

“Commence firing sequence!” Jaynis repeated.

“Commencing firing sequence, aye sir!” the weapons operator cried.

“Confirming firing solution for target Sierra One Three, four round spread. Transferring targeting data now.” the radar operator spoke calmly.

“I’ve got your firing solution,” the weapons operator tapped at his console, loading the radar’s data into his weapons system.

“Target Sierra One Three, Harvek class corvette, locked and ready. Helm, confirm firing position stable?”

“Helm, confirmed stable for firing, ready to shoot.” the helmsman returned.

“This is weapons, preparing to go dark,” the weapons operator said, reaching up above his head to the ceiling controls. He pulled a key from around his neck, plunged it into the lock above him and turned. A plastic cover popped open on the desk in front of him and he flicked the switch under it. “Going dark in five… four… three… two… one…” there was a clunk of breakers and fuses. The lights inside the bridge cut off, all the computer displays dipped into darkness, the forgotten background hum of life support suddenly cut to an eerie silence. “Directing all power to capacitors… Capacitors charged. Testing rail circuit… Tube one, okay… Tube two, okay… Tube three, okay… Tube four, okay. We are ready to fire.”

Cartis slid in behind the weapons operator’s station. He was the only one in the room with a functional display. He sat bathed in a phosphor green glow, eyes daring not to move from the important work at his fingertips. “Tube one selected,” the weapons operator paused for a moment and took a deep breath in, “Firing!” He squeezed the trigger on his joystick, clicking his dials over to select the next tube. There was a thud through the floor below them, a moment later, a terrific bang as if the deck below were playing with hand grenades. “Tube two selected, firing!” a second crash and bang rang out through the ship. All the eyes on the bridge focused on the single man at work. “Tube three selected, firing!” another thud, another bang. The room hung in silence as the weapons officer clicked the selector dial over to the fourth and final tube. “Tube four selected, firing!” Thud. Bang. The room broke into applause as the fourth tube fired successfully, congratulations rang back and forth.

“Bring us back online!” Jaynis ordered, cutting the celebrations short. Quickly the lights came back on with the thumping of breaker panels and fresher air began pumping into the stagnant room.

“I have a track on Sierra One Three and all four launches, we’re right on target.” the radar operator said, glancing back and forth between his different screens. “ETA to target, two mikes and counting.” Cartis looked across at the radar display. There were some forty projectiles closing on the tiny blips of House Cawdor. It would have only been just a few seconds ago, as the radars locked the Cawdor vessels right before firing, that they would have been alerted to a hostile presence. Now they would try to avoid the incoming fires, turning this way and that in desperate hopes that they might not be hit. But this was a game of mathematics and chance, not of ace pilots and skilled flying. The projected most likely position of the target had already been calculated and a shot aligned to cut through that spot in time and space, just as the target was predicted to cross it. The next most likely location was assigned the next round, and so on. Killing wasn’t anything personal, it was all just applied mathematics.

The bridge held their breath for the longest two minutes. “Impact in ten seconds,” the radar operator said. “Five, four, three, two, one… Miss.” The radar display tracked the first round shooting clean past the target, “three, two, one… Miss,” he said again. Sierra One Three was hemorrhaging speed, trying desperately to throw off the weapons track. “Three, two, one,” the radar operator paused for a moment, waiting for the display to update. The solid green line marking Sierra One Three updated, returning as a splattering of green across the display. “Hit!” he cried in excitement. “Splash one, Sierra One Three is gone!”

“Sir, Haytheodore wing is reporting hits across the board,” the radio operator said to Jaynis. The radar operator cycled his display to a broad image. The clean formation of the Cawdor fleet had now been turned into a smattering of tiny markers across the screen, spraying clouds of radar contacts across the heavens. There was only a single marker still intact, Sierra One One, House Cawdor’s ancient.

“Request a surrender from House Cawdor,” Cartis said.

“Rose Light, Rose Light. This is Outrider, speaking on behalf of Pero Cartis, Baron of Venus. Surrender immediately or you will be fired upon. Over.” The radio operator waited a moment, pushing the headset into his ear, straining to hear the reply. “Roger that Rose Light, prepare to be boarded. Out.”