John Ringo - Eye of the Storm

“Clear,” the team leaders chorused.

“Mentat Chan?”

“We are taking fourteen adepts,” Chan said. “Two masters, myself and Indowy Master Shaina, nine class six adepts and three class five. During the preparatory phase they will work to support and improve the Des Moines’ cloak. We believe that this will permit us to close to within no more than five thousand meters of the Hedren cruiser before we are detected. Eight of those adepts are human. Five will remain on the Des Moines to shut down the cruiser and its defenses. Three, including myself, will accompany the strike team. The six Indowy adepts will remain on the Des Moines. They will ensure that the Des Moines remains combat functional through the entire engagement and give support to the assault adepts as well as preventing broadcast by the Imeg or the ship. Assuming that between the adepts on the cruiser, myself and the two sixth level that will accompany me we can prevent the Imeg from interfering, we believe we can prevent the cruiser from escaping or even firing its weapons. If we cannot, things will get interesting. I would make a note.”

“Go,” Mosovich said.

“The purpose of this mission is for we adepts to gain an understanding of the methods of our enemies,” Chan said. “We may determine, quite early, that fourteen adepts including two masters cannot successfully hide a ship from Imeg and or cannot successfully secure them. We simply do not know the abilities of the Imeg. In the event this is the case, the mission should be aborted.”

“For anything involving sohon, you’re calling the shots Mentat Chan,” Mosovich said. “If you say abort, we abort. On the basis that we won’t, I’ll continue. Upon securing the Imeg adept we will move to the shuttles and egress from the ship. Upon rendezvous with the Des Moines the cruiser will be destroyed.”

“What if they grab our shuttles?” Mueller asked. “Or blow them?”

“Chance we’re going to have to take,” Mosovich said. “We’re short bodies as it is. And more bodies means more shuttles.”

“Rig ’em,” Mueller said.

“We can do that,” Ugly said. The Bravo team leader grinned ferally. “Plenty of ways to make them not want to touch them. Stuff we can turn off on the way back.”

“Works,” Mosovich said. “Questions.”

“We’ve got pics of the Kotha and the Snakes and the Porkies,” Moustache said, rolling a ball of Redman in his cheek. “What’s an Imeg look like?”

“The Himmit don’t know,” Mentat Chan said. “They have no images of one. Because the Himmit do not or cannot use sohon, they cannot approach an Imeg without being detected. They assume that some of their lost scouts did so but that is an assumption. We are going to be the first beings outside the Hedren Tyranny to see one. From Himmit accounts, even the Kotha rarely if ever see one in the flesh. They are very secretive. Equally, no one knows what the Hedren look like. But let us first examine the Imeg before we consider facing their masters.”

“We board the Des Moines tomorrow,” Mosovich said. “We’ll hash out the details and routes there and work on our situational awareness. The Des Moines doesn’t have the same configuration but we can work with it in VR. Start getting it on.”

“Mentat Chan,” Captain McNair said as he greeted the party at the boarding tube. “Welcome, again, to the Des Moines.”

“Captain,” the mentat said, bowing slightly. “I believe I should ask for permission to board.”

“Y’all come ahead,” Daisy Mae said, grinning. “We ain’t particular round here.”

“That means permission for your party to come aboard is granted,” Captain McNair said, rolling his eyes. “Mentat Shaina, I see you.”

“Captain McNair, I see you,” the Indowy said, nodding his head. “Entity Daisy Mae, I see you,” he added, actually adding a slight bow. As he bowed he saw a small carnivore, brown and furry, stropping the legs of the entity called “Daisy.” Shaina filed that information away for future analysis.

“Y’all’s set up in a section of the officer’s quarters,” Daisy said. “Put in some appliances for makin’ y’all’s food and a supply for about a week. All the room there was. Y’all need anything, you just announce it. I can ignore things if you don’t want me to see but seein’ as I am the ship, any time you talk to me I’ll hear it.”

“The point to this is that you should require minimum interaction with the human crew,” Captain McNair pointed out.

“My thanks, Entity Mae, Captain McNair,” the mentat said, nodding his head again.

“I’ll lead y’all to your quarters,” Daisy said. “Pretty sure you know the way but it’s fittin’.”

“I cccoulllddd llleaddd thththemmm, Dddaisssy,” said the small carnivore.

Fascinating, though Shaina.

“Daisy Mae is an interesting entity,” Mentat Chan said as the captain led the way to his quarters. He’d been installed in the captain’s cabin. There was, in addition, a small captain’s day cabin near the bridge which McNair would use for the trip.

“She’s a handful,” McNair admitted, while thinking, Actually, she’s at least two handfuls . “But it makes running the ship easier that’s for sure.”

“I think I was actually referring to her entire being,” Chan said. “The reality of it approaches, if you do not mind my saying so, the metaphysical. She is more than just an AI that took on the appearance of a minor actress and her being infuses the ship far more than the nannite systems can account for. In a way, it seems more that the ship infuses her.”

“Ships have souls,” McNair said as he opened the hatch to the cabin. “All good ships and certainly any that have been used for long enough. Daisy doesn’t talk about it much, but the AI she used to be got… changed by being hooked into the Des Moines. The original one that is. I hope that making this new one hasn’t… killed something.”

“I do not think it did,” Chan said looking at the small cabin.

“Sorry it’s not larger,” the captain said, shrugging. “But, you know there’s only so much room on a ship.”

“I was actually thinking how wasteful it was of space,” Chan replied. “Humans who are not Indowy raised are simply used to so much room . I will probably share this with my students.”

“Well, we’ve got bunking for them, too,” McNair said, looking at the cabin. He always found it mildly claustrophobic.

“No, this is sufficient for all of us,” Chan said. “I’m sure that someone has been discommoded by our presence. Since we will be comfortable sharing this room, it is better to let them have their space back.”

“I’ll leave you to get settled in, then,” the CO said. “We’re breaking dock right away. We’re on tight time to make the intercept.”

“Indeed,” Chan said. “Haste is an unfortunate necessity.”

“Hot bunking,” Mueller said, grumpily.

“It’s a warship,” Mosovich replied. “We’re going to need to start work-ups as soon as the mentats are ready. I’m not sure they’re up to keeping up with us.”

“That’s going to be fun,” Mueller said, grinning.

“Y’all don’t do a whole bunch of physical training, do you?” Mosovich said, frowning, as the junior mentat bent over and threw up.

They had started, he thought, with the easy stuff. There was a route in the Des Moines which was pretty close to the route they were going to have to take to get to the place they thought the Imeg might be. So with all the blast doors open they had hoofed it from the notional entry point to the target compartment, working on coverage and general movement.