The Independent Command by James Doohan

Author:James Doohan [Doohan, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Space warfare, Space Opera, General, Science Fiction, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780671318512
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2001-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

“It was one of those serendipitous things,” the linguist said. He waved a hand. “It’s complicated.

But he’s willing to work with me on this translation stuff.” Sirgay turned away for a moment, then came back. “He says it’s fine if we send it out blind, by which he means audio only. There are complex gestures that should go along with the message, but if they can’t see you they’ll read them as given.”

“I have the message at com, sir,” Rivera called out.

“Thank you, Mr. Ticknor.” Raeder took a real look at him for the first time since they’d started talking. The circles under his eyes were so deep the man looked like a raccoon. “I’m probably going to be calling on you a great deal in the next few hours. Are you going to be all right?”

Ticknor grimaced. “I guess I should have slept some while we were in jump,” he said. “But the work had to get done . . . and I was feeling sort of, not exactly nauseated . . .” Half a dozen people nodded unconsciously. He shrugged. “I’ll do my best, Commander.”

“Thank you, Mr. Ticknor. But at the first opportunity I think you’d better get some rest.”

“That’s very kind of you, sir. But, I’m—”

“I want to keep a line open with you, Mr. Ticknor, in case we get any further messages. So I’m going to hand you over to Tech Rivera. Raeder out.”

I hated to do that, Peter thought, but he’d go on for hours if I let him.

“Send out that message,” he said to Rivera. “But give a little static to make it seem our com has been damaged. Keep us on this course, Mr. Goldberg.”

“Maintain heading, aye, sir.”

Raeder’s screen split. Part of it showed the oncoming Fibian patrol, mere computer-generated dots at this distance. The other half showed the jump point behind them. His mind was split, too. Part of him wondered if Skinner and his people were taking advantage of this downtime to fit a new baffle onto transit engine eight. He wondered when the oncoming Fibs were going to question the

Invincible keeping her weapons hot. He wondered when their pursuers would break through into real-space. He wondered if continuing to run forward was going to be a huge mistake.

“Sir,” Gunderson said, “estimate that the advancing Fibians will reach us in three minutes.”

“Sir,” Rivera said. “A new message from the Fibians. I’ve relayed it to Mr. Ticknor.”

Raeder tapped a key, “Ticknor,” he said, “what have you got for me?”

“Damp your weapons, or we will be forced to assume you are hostile,” Ticknor said. There was sweat on his brow and his dark eyes were anxious.

“Thank you, Mr. Ticknor, Raeder out.” He switched the linguist back to Rivera.

Now what? If we don’t shut down our weapons the Fibs in front will fire on us. If we do we might be sitting ducks for the Fibs coming in behind who I know damn well will fire on us.

He was about to make a decision about a civilization which he knew absolutely nothing about.

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