I'm tracing it, too. I see a disruption two decks down and one over between here and the hangar bay. There is something else interesting there, too, his AIC, Debbie Three November One Uniform Zulu Juliet One, added with a very animated tone in her mindvoice. his AIC, Debbie Three November One Uniform Zulu Juliet One, added with a very animated tone in her mindvoice.

What? Joe tried to keep himself cool and focused. Joe tried to keep himself cool and focused. It's just a sim. It's just a sim.

That corridor is very close to the exterior hull, and the air pressure reads as though we are venting.

You mean a sim, right? There is a simulated leak?

No, Joe. I mean there is an actual venting taking place. The air handlers had to kick in. Wait. It just stopped. Debbie sounded perplexed, but Joe wasn't. Joe had loved every aspect of the modern-day hypers.p.a.ce supercarrier and enjoyed pouring over the blueprints, designs, and construction plans almost as much as he enjoyed s.e.x. Sometimes, he thought, even more. And he knew immediately where that corridor led and how many maintenance hatches there were along the way. If the SIFs were down, somebody could QMT inside the outer armor layer inside the bulkhead. There was no atmosphere in the outer hull sections to prevent fire from transferring from the armor to the inner pressure walls, but that wouldn't stop marines in armored e-suits. Debbie sounded perplexed, but Joe wasn't. Joe had loved every aspect of the modern-day hypers.p.a.ce supercarrier and enjoyed pouring over the blueprints, designs, and construction plans almost as much as he enjoyed s.e.x. Sometimes, he thought, even more. And he knew immediately where that corridor led and how many maintenance hatches there were along the way. If the SIFs were down, somebody could QMT inside the outer armor layer inside the bulkhead. There was no atmosphere in the outer hull sections to prevent fire from transferring from the armor to the inner pressure walls, but that wouldn't stop marines in armored e-suits.

"EM1 Sanchez! This is Buckley. Stop dead in your tracks! I repeat. Stop dead in your tracks. Communicate DTM only and hide your a.s.s! I think we've been boarded, and they are right on top of you!" Joe turned toward two firemen at the aft edge of Engineering near the hatch who, in a real fight, would have been putting out fires, pounding damaged metal back into shape, and scurrying about with heavy tools or repair parts for some senior NCO or officer. As it was, they were standing around watching with nothing to do but stay out of the way and keep their thumbs in a neutral posterior location.

"You two! Go out the pa.s.sageways from both Engineering Room exits three hatches deep and secure them. Dog them down and step back each level d.o.g.g.i.ng the hatch doors from the inside with lockdown protocol. Then get back in here and secure that hatch. Watch out for enemy boarding parties and get yourselves some firearms!"

"Aye, sir!" they responded eagerly. They were probably just happy to remove their thumbs from where they'd been and to get busy doing something useful to help the ship win the war game.

Debbie, patch me through DTM to Sanchez.

Patched! Go, Joe.

Andy! What do you see?

Nothing yet, Joe, he replied in a somewhat shaky mindvoice. he replied in a somewhat shaky mindvoice.

"CO, CHENG!".

"Hold on, CHENG!" the CO replied. Joe hated having to wait. Every second could matter here. In the meantime he turned to his technology officer, Lieutenant Kurt Hyerdahl. "Kurt, I think the structural integrity fields are down! Get on it! And G.o.ddammit, Mira, get that DCAS back online or get me a work-around!"

"CHENG, CO. Go!"

"CO. I think we've been boarded, sir. I've got someone trying to confirm visually, but we have real venting in the aft section that suddenly stopped. It's in the same corridor near an exterior maintenance hatch, sir," Joe said quickly.

"Understood, CHENG! Keep your man under cover."

"Aye, sir!"

"Kurt! Tell me about those SIFs!" Joe shouted with urgency.

"I've got it, Joe! There is a power inverter blown out on the main control panel of the SIF-generator distribution a.s.sembly. It is, uh, hold on..." Kurt clacked away at his panel keys and at the same time was talking DTM with his AIC, but it didn't matter. Joe knew the answer.

"Never mind, Kurt. I know where it is." Joe whipped his head around to look across the room at the SIF control panels. They should have been lit up like a d.a.m.ned Christmas tree, but instead they looked normal. Then he shook his head and glanced to his left at the DCAS panel. That d.a.m.ned diagnostic system was a single-point failure in the major systems. They weren't there six years ago, before the fight at the Oort. During the repair, updating, and retrofitting of the ship afterward, the d.a.m.ned engineers at the Luna City shipyards had seen fit to upgrade to the new, approved all-in-one Damage Control a.s.sessment System. If you asked Joe, it was a piece of s.h.i.t.

To calm himself, he let his gaze settle for just a second on the Main Prop system-the true love of his life. The power couplings between the vacuum fluctuation energy collectors and storage system and the hypers.p.a.ce projector and fluctuation-field shields were intact, and the s.p.a.cetime metric modification projector tube was swirling a perfect pink and purple hue. That meant that the Main Prop was in tip-top shape and humming beautifully.

It's just a sim, Joe reminded himself. Joe had seen the real thing up close, personal, and almost deadly for himself. Sims were a piece of cake. h.e.l.l, there was no violent ship motion and gravity lurches that nearly made you vomit. There were no horrendous Joe reminded himself. Joe had seen the real thing up close, personal, and almost deadly for himself. Sims were a piece of cake. h.e.l.l, there was no violent ship motion and gravity lurches that nearly made you vomit. There were no horrendous thw.a.n.gs thw.a.n.gs against the hull plating from enemy missiles. No constant and never-ending fires, blowing circuit panels, fused breakers, overheating power couplings, and, best of all, no G.o.dd.a.m.ned liver-toasting hard X-rays! It against the hull plating from enemy missiles. No constant and never-ending fires, blowing circuit panels, fused breakers, overheating power couplings, and, best of all, no G.o.dd.a.m.ned liver-toasting hard X-rays! It was was just a sim. h.e.l.l, the firemen and other lower-rank sailors might as well have been playing checkers for all they could add. In a fight, they'd be working their collective a.s.ses off. At least now they were getting to stand guard and dog down the doors. Maybe there was more they could do. But Joe decided he'd just have to get back to that one. just a sim. h.e.l.l, the firemen and other lower-rank sailors might as well have been playing checkers for all they could add. In a fight, they'd be working their collective a.s.ses off. At least now they were getting to stand guard and dog down the doors. Maybe there was more they could do. But Joe decided he'd just have to get back to that one.

Right, it's just a sim, Debbie agreed with him. Debbie agreed with him.

The sentiment brought Joe's heart rate down a good fifteen beats per minute. That enabled him to focus on winning the sim. After all, winning was what the crew of the flagship of the fleet was best at. Under all types of unbelievable, overwhelming odds, they had come out on top time and time again in war games and and in battle. Joe was sure that the admiral wasn't going to let up without a fight, so he wasn't about to let up now, either. in battle. Joe was sure that the admiral wasn't going to let up without a fight, so he wasn't about to let up now, either.

"The problem here is, folks," he shouted to his engineering team as he tried to keep a calm demeanor and look each of them in the eye, "we have a blown fuse between the power to the SIFs, Aux Prop, Main Prop, Directed Energy Guns, et cetera. And that fuse is the G.o.dd.a.m.ned DCAS piece of c.r.a.p. We need to unhook that thing and bypa.s.s it without shutting down the major systems. I'm sure if the admiral were to out of the blue lose his DEGs just because we are monkeying around with s.h.i.t down here, he would be a bit, uh, unnerved. Any suggestions?"

Joe looked around and scratched at his head for a brief instant. He was perplexed. How the h.e.l.l did he bypa.s.s that d.a.m.ned DCAS panel without wrecking the ship? How the h.e.l.l did he bypa.s.s that d.a.m.ned DCAS panel without wrecking the ship?

The problem was that there was no way to get the energy from the storage units on one side of the DCAS to the power inverters across the room on the SIF panel. That was a distance between the two panels that might as well have been light-years. Besides, that d.a.m.ned DCAS was tied into everything. Joe was beginning to feel like he had been in this situation before. It was deja vu all over again for him.

"Joe." Lieutenant Mira Concepcion snapped her fingers. "Who cares about the DCAS? If we bypa.s.s each system to the appropriate control panel, the DCAS will just read that they are not working. But we're using visuals anyway, so who gives a s.h.i.t?"

"All right! Good plan. Everybody, we're breaking into teams. I'll take the SIFs. Fireman's Apprentice, you're with me." Joe pointed at a sailor behind the Aux Prop panel and motioned the young enlisted woman to follow him. "Keri, take the Props. Kurt, the DEGs. Mira, get the cats going."

"Aye, Joe!"

Joe! Eighteen AEMs just pa.s.sed by me. They're headed you're way! EM1 Sanchez reported through the DTM link. EM1 Sanchez reported through the DTM link.

Thanks, Andy. Good job. Unless you've got a weapon and want to tangle with a bunch of jarheads, just stay out of it. My guess is that the cat bay has been taken also, so don't go that way, either. Best to stay put and wait it out. If you see something nearby that needs fixin', and you can get to it, go ahead. Otherwise, sit the bench for a little while. Joe hated not having one of his well-trained, more-senior enlisted sailors where he needed him, but that was just the way it was. Joe hated not having one of his well-trained, more-senior enlisted sailors where he needed him, but that was just the way it was.

"We've got company headed our way, people! Everybody grab a sidearm!"

Chapter 6.

July 1, 2394 AD Mars...o...b..t, Sol System Friday, 8:07 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time There was just no way in h.e.l.l that Andy Sanchez, United States Navy engineer's mate petty officer first cla.s.s, was going to sit in a wiring closet and hide while enemy marines, simulation or no, marched around on his ship. But first, he needed a plan.

How can one EM1, unarmed and unarmored, take out a squad of armored-to-the-d.a.m.ned-teeth e-suited harda.s.sed f.u.c.king marines with weapons, and explosives, and lidar, and radar, and infrared, and QM sensors, and no telling what other s.h.i.t that I ain't been trained on? he thought. he thought. I'm not about to let the I'm not about to let the Madira Madira lose this wargame if I can do anything about it. But what... lose this wargame if I can do anything about it. But what...

Joe said to stay put, his AIC, Petty Officer Third Cla.s.s Bebe Six Four Alpha One Sierra, reminded him. She had always been an AI that liked to follow orders to a tee. But she had no choice except to go where Andy took her, being inside his head and all. So she had learned, all the way back to Andy's fireman-apprentice days, to not push the spit and polish too much. his AIC, Petty Officer Third Cla.s.s Bebe Six Four Alpha One Sierra, reminded him. She had always been an AI that liked to follow orders to a tee. But she had no choice except to go where Andy took her, being inside his head and all. So she had learned, all the way back to Andy's fireman-apprentice days, to not push the spit and polish too much.

He said to fix something if it needed it. So we just need to find the right thing to fix. Andy started running scenarios in his mind about how he might be able to slow down a bunch of marines. He had been repairing and upgrading parts of the ship for the better part of six years now, and he understood it well. Not quite as well as Joe and Benny, but well. There had to be some repair trick he'd learned over the years that would let him set up some sort of catastrophe at the right time. But just what was the right thing to do? Andy started running scenarios in his mind about how he might be able to slow down a bunch of marines. He had been repairing and upgrading parts of the ship for the better part of six years now, and he understood it well. Not quite as well as Joe and Benny, but well. There had to be some repair trick he'd learned over the years that would let him set up some sort of catastrophe at the right time. But just what was the right thing to do?

Bebe, pull up the repair and upgrade schedule for this part of the ship. And can you track where those marines are? he asked. he asked.

Schedule up, Andy. Hmm...track the marines. Using the internal environment controls, I have been able to track a grouping of heat signatures travelling in a pattern that would suggest they are moving carefully and covertly. Also, using the internal sensors I can track them because there is a region of sensors being jammed that seems to be moving. Must be them. There is another group behind us several hundred meters, and one on the other side of the ship.

Good. Andy thought about it for a moment and then started reading through the maintenance schedule in his head. Andy thought about it for a moment and then started reading through the maintenance schedule in his head. Bebe, plot that track on a deck-overlay map for me and keep it up in my visual. Might as well start heading toward the ones going for Engineering. Pa.s.s this map along to the bridge. Bebe, plot that track on a deck-overlay map for me and keep it up in my visual. Might as well start heading toward the ones going for Engineering. Pa.s.s this map along to the bridge.

Aye, Andy. Though I'm not sure we'll make it to Engineering in time.

We'll see. If we don't, we don't.

Andy crawled out of the wiring cabinet and adjusted his orange coveralls. His tool belt hung on the cabinet door's handle, slamming the door against his back.

"s.h.i.t." Andy cursed at his clumsiness and told himself to be quiet. Then a thought hit him.

Bebe, those marines are in armored e-suits. They'll be b.u.mping into hatches and s.h.i.t all the way. They'll have to take the outer and larger corridors to get where they want to go without damaging the ship. And we know they don't want to do that-after all, they are U.S. Marines, right? So can you extrapolate from the motion you are detecting which likely big hatches and pa.s.sageways they would be taking to potential targets?

Sure, Andy. Here. Then his AIC highlighted three new paths in his mind. The three groups weren't going for different locations. Well, one of them was going for Engineering and was already knocking at the door. Nothing he could do for Joe and the rest of the Engineering team. But the other two were headed to the main elevator shaft internal to the upper deck tower located midship, which led to the bridge. Then he noticed one small line on the maintenance schedule that he had almost missed. The line read: Then his AIC highlighted three new paths in his mind. The three groups weren't going for different locations. Well, one of them was going for Engineering and was already knocking at the door. Nothing he could do for Joe and the rest of the Engineering team. But the other two were headed to the main elevator shaft internal to the upper deck tower located midship, which led to the bridge. Then he noticed one small line on the maintenance schedule that he had almost missed. The line read: Main Tower Elevator Repulsor-Field Generator Recalibration, Upgrade, and Checkout.

The main tower elevator shaft was the only internal pa.s.sage to the bridge and the command crew. Andy didn't have to think about what to do any longer. He had to shut off that elevator shaft somehow. He started running as fast as he could go in the direction of the forward main elevator. He made a point to stay in the tighter hallways. He also made it a point to beat those red-team marines to that d.a.m.ned elevator.

Patch me through to Joe.

Done.

The Engineering team had managed the patches around the confused and failed damage diagnostics hardware of the DCAS, and just in time as a squad of red-team AEMs started knocking on the doors three levels out. At first they tried hacking the protocols on the locks. When that didn't work, they went to high explosives-simulated high explosives. The sim boxes that attached to the door made a pop like a firecracker, and if the box was set to simulate the right level of HE, then the AIC referees running the simulation would open the hatch. It took the AEMs several tries on the first hatch. Joe knew that they wouldn't make the same mistakes a second and third time.

What the h.e.l.l can we do? he thought to himself, not necessarily to his AIC. he thought to himself, not necessarily to his AIC.

Too bad they're in suits or we could gas them, Debbie added. Debbie added.

Hey, do it anyway! Maybe they don't have their faceplates down. You know how AEMs are about breathing real air anytime they can. That might buy us some time. Joe thought more about that approach. They didn't have much heavy firepower, but they did have the power equivalent to a miniature neutron star trapped in the Main Prop hypers.p.a.ce-jaunt projector tube.

"Everybody on me!" Joe said in his voice of command. The full complement of the Engineering team and the supporting seamen and firemen and fireman apprentices converged on him as he made his way to the center of the room underneath the four meter in diameter pink and purple swirling tube that ran the length of a major portion of the ship. He reached up with his hands and tapped the bottom of the conduit to the projector tube. Then he addressed his team with a somewhat wacky idea. h.e.l.l, it wasn't that wacky-he'd actually done it before. Last time he did what he had in mind, it worked, but-and there was always a "but" in these situations-it had nearly killed him and his first engineer's mate.

"Listen up, everyone. We haven't got but a few minutes maybe. We're going to pull a cable from that power coupling on the jaunt drive projector here"-he pointed at the now-infamous Buckley Junction-"tie it around the junction housing, and then drag it to both exit doors and then over here to the power unit for Aux Prop. Get to it!" The team scurried about to set up the makeshift power conduit rerouting. The enlisted men and women began pulling the heavy flex-conduit that was several centimeters in diameter and heavy as h.e.l.l. The senior techs and engineers began rerouting power flow and making certain things were connected, they could get a power-flow circuit that would work, and that every breaker in the ship wouldn't blow.

"Keri!" Buckley grabbed his main propulsion a.s.sistant (MPA) by the shoulder. "Listen-when this thing is triggered, the backup systems and breakers will try to shut it down. You have to make certain that they don't. You and your AIC have to stay ahead of the ship's backup hardware long enough for this to work."

"Everybody has studied the Buckley Maneuver, Joe. They teach it at the Academy nowadays, I hear." Keri smiled at him. "Besides, I was actually there, if you recall. Good thing I wasn't actually in Engineering when it happened."

"Well, I'm just saying."

"Understood, sir!" Keri snapped back at her acting CHENG with another smile. "I've got it under control." Joe didn't say anything more. Keri had had been there at the Battle of the Oort when he did this before, and he had ordered her out of the room before he and EM1 Shah triggered the Buckley Junction and cooked themselves. He knew that she had seen him and Shah in the hospital with their bodies cooked through and through. She understood. been there at the Battle of the Oort when he did this before, and he had ordered her out of the room before he and EM1 Shah triggered the Buckley Junction and cooked themselves. He knew that she had seen him and Shah in the hospital with their bodies cooked through and through. She understood.

"Good. Now let's move." The sound of a firecracker popping one level out went off. The AEMs were on them.

It only took the AEMs about a minute to get through to the Engineering Room hatch. But that minute was all the Engineering team of the U.S. Navy flagship needed to set up a nice surprise for them. The team hunkered down behind a makeshift X-ray shelter that several of the enlisted sailors had stacked up. There was a stack of cabling spools, spare power couplings, sheet metal and armor plating, chairs, computer stands, and anything else of high density they could find.

"I hear them at the hatch, sir!" one of the firemen standing guard at the door shouted.

"Then get your a.s.s over here under cover, Fireman!" Joe turned to his MPA. "Keri, you know, we really ought to consider installing an X-ray shelter in here somewhere."

"Not a bad idea, Joe."

"All right, as soon as that door opens, snap the trap on our mice."

About that time another popper went off just outside the hatch. The lock cycled and the hatch swung open. An infinitely long second or two pa.s.sed, and then another popper went off on the aft hatch. Both pa.s.sageways were opened and simultaneously AEMs burst through the doors with their rifles drawn.

"Wait," Joe whispered to Keri. "We need them all in here."

Several more AEMs filed into the large Engineering Room in cover formation. They were getting ever so close to the makeshift redoubt. It was now or never.

"Do it!" Joe said. "Everybody down."

There were no fireworks this time. There were no lightning boltsized arcs jumping around the room from deck to bulkhead. There were no vapor clouds from ionized metal being thrown about. And most importantly, in Joe's mind, was that there were no real real hard X-rays cooking his liver and brain! But as far as the sim refs were concerned, it was all there, and the AEMs from the hard X-rays cooking his liver and brain! But as far as the sim refs were concerned, it was all there, and the AEMs from the Blair Blair were right in the midst of it. were right in the midst of it.

The AEMs must have been told of their predicament as there was a chorus of "What the..." and "G.o.dd.a.m.ned motherf-" and other such colorful and untranslatable AEM lingo drowning out the hum of the jaunt drive and the other high-technology components of a state-of-the-art supercarrier's Engineering Room. The AEMs had their masks down, probably because of Joe's gas trick. That hadn't helped with the X-rays. A moment more of the cursing continued as the marines started popping up the antireflection-coated visors one by one. One of them actually twisted his helmet off and tethered it down the back of his armor.

"G.o.dd.a.m.ned needed some more sack time any-f.u.c.king-way," the AEM lance corporal said. He started to sit down, but his NCO was on top of him and in his face in a heartbeat.

Debbie?

They're dead, Joe. All of them!

Hot d.a.m.n! And us?

The sim has given us fifteen minutes of effectiveness, and then we will be listed as casualties. The pile of stuff helped, I guess.

I guess. Joe smiled to himself then stood up. Joe smiled to himself then stood up.

"Welcome to the Sienna Madira Sienna Madira," Joe said. One of the AEMs instinctively pulled up his weapon. Joe just smiled and raised his left eyebrow at the man. "Dead marines have a hard time pulling the trigger on those things. Now, if you folks wouldn't mind standing over by the port bulkhead out of our way, we have more work to do."

"Son of a f.u.c.kin' b.i.t.c.h!" One of the marines kicked at the deck with his armored foot, making a loud clank clank as he did. as he did.

"f.u.c.k it!" one of them replied. "We're dead. You f.u.c.king move us."

"If that's the way you want it, I'll have one of the firemen pull a repulsor lift in here and have him push you up against the bulkhead. Be advised, we haven't really trained him on that thing yet, and he's as likely to squish you into the bulkhead as he is to run over you. But if that's what you want."

"Stow that s.h.i.t, Private!" The same NCO turned to Joe. "Lieutenant Commander, we're out of the game. No need in us causing a ruckus between the two best crews in the fleet."

"Thank you, Staff Sergeant." Joe turned back to his work. The d.a.m.ned AEMs had taken precious time off his fifteen-minute clock.

"You heard the lieutenant commander. I want your dead a.s.ses against that bulkhead out of the way." The staff sergeant clanked his armored boots across the deck to the far side of the room, glaring at one of his privates.

"Mira, Keri, make sure to get the Main and Aux Props back on line. We have about fourteen minutes before the sim refs take us out of the game." Joe thought about their predicament. He'd kept the AEMs from taking Engineering, but he had also wrecked a whole bunch of systems. They had work to do.

"You did it, Joe!" Keri slapped him on the back.

"Not yet. There's still two teams of AEMs trying to get to the bridge."

"Let our marines take care of that, Joe. We did our part," Keri said to her longtime friend and colleague. "We just need to make sure the ship is in the best shape it can be before we die."

"Right. Maybe." Joe thought for a few brief seconds as the rest of the team set to work on undoing the damage they had just caused to the ship's propulsion hardware and software.

Joe, EM1 Sanchez is trying to DTM you, Debbie said. Debbie said.

Patch him through. Joe gave her a second to turn the link on. Joe gave her a second to turn the link on. What's up, Andy? What's up, Andy?

Joe, the AEMs are trying to get through to the main elevator up the tower. I need you to help me shut the thing down.