It was a normal run to Iota Horologii for Adept Lucian Bettin, captain of the commercial colonies tug "All Along The Watchtower", named for the classic track memorably performed by Jimi Hendrix and penned by the equally beloved Bob Dylan. This mission tasked her with hauling a train of cryochamber modules carrying two million colonists in suspended animation to escape the stellar heating crisis in Sol and make a new home on Iota Horologii II, which had been successfully terraformed many years before.
To NOVGLOV (New Order of the Velvet Glove), the names of great vessels like All Along The Watchtower held a significance which kept the spell of mystic heroes alive in the media and thereby in the minds humanity and in the administration of human affairs. NOVGLOV was the culmination of the work of scientist W after a temporal incursion from an alternative future for humankind, a future of criminality and the degradation of humanity, had things been allowed to run their course.
W had chosen a career in science because of the highminded and exacting logic behind experimentation and discovery, which contrasted with the the schoolyard politics they had encountered in youth. As a child W had lost many hours escaping into scifi stories and longed for a better world, inspired by the logic of Roddenberry's Vulcans, the forward thinking of Asimov's psychohistorians, the moral deliberation of Banks' Culture. W's revulsion at a future of widespread criminal corruption and megalomania, as revealed by the temporal incursion data transmitted to a quantum computer in W's lab, created a strong desire to use the power the data offered to change the future and W's scifi filled imagination furnished the initiative.
A criminal known as X (because X comes after W in the alphabet) in a drug induced psychosis had offered foreknowledge, believing it to be for their own advantage. This enabled W to develop a financial empire funding a PR machine which defeated the political demoralisation of the age by harking back to the golden age of post war peace, appealing to the heart of humanity, thus paradoxically ending the future which had given rise to X who, having changed the past before the time of their own birth, simply no longer existed.
In W's future, just laws would rule humanity, life was sacred and violence a horror but the organisation W created to govern human affairs, NOVGLOV, well understood the motto
para bellum and the need to prepare for war, a lesson taught to the human race by the barbarous acts of the Raiders in the early years. The necessary human reponse to such violence was the subject of many semi-fictional hero movies carefully curated by NOVGLOV to inspire a sense of cohesion between human beings everywhere.
Little did Adept Lucian Bettin suspect he was about to become one such semi-fictional hero as he oversaw the jump into 68 Bootis, an uninteresting red dwarf system, almost empty except for two comets. All that was on his mind in the midst of jumpshock was a small patisserie in the French quarter of Iota city, Chez Le Boulanger, which made the most divine croissants and beautifully black and bitter coffee in the known universe and that waitress, the one who had smiled at him so sweetly the last time he was there. He was wondering if she still worked there. Just one more jump to go and he would find out.
All Along The Watchtower automatically set course for the Iota Horologii jump point, behind her a tractor train of eight "Magenta Skye" cryomodules, each supporting a quarter of a million bodies in deep sleep, followed obediently as she slowly accelerated. Lucian gathered his wits and verified the course with the oversight astrogator, Pete Worsnip. Despite his dreams Lucian took his responsibilities for his crew and cargo of two million souls seriously, it was not something he could forget. He knew people in those cryopods, distant cousins, friends and friends of friends. Whole families and small communities were waiting to spring to life on the surface of Iota, just one more jump away.
The following day at 4:23am on 23rd May 2095, Lucian was on watch again. Halfway across the empty expanse of 68 Bootis, making steady progress towards their destination, the soft thunder of the engines which permeated the bridge was pierced by the automatic alarm of the friend or foe recognition system integrated into the Watchtower's environment monitoring systems.
Lucian was startled out of his reverie by the urgent beeping. His sensors specialist of the watch, Induja Krishnamurthi, looked shocked as she tried to make sense of the display. Her voice quavering in disbelief as she turned to look at her captain and with wide horrified eyes told him of the discovery the FoFRS had made, in the data of the Observer scan. The Observer was standard equipment on all civilian tugs, finest resolution, to avoid collisions navigating crowded orbits. It had a limited range, just over eight million clicks and there at the edge of its sweep was a red blob and unmistakable signature of a Raider gunship destroyer, 10Kt cloaked to 996t, class name Ant. This was a lone scout but there could be more behind it. Lucian knew what Induja knew, from the movies, from their training. The Raiders had only one objective, to destroy, then they would salvage and maybe take slaves, if anyone was left alive.
Lucian ordered Pete the astrogator to change course away from the Ant, then called for a vector analysis and thirty seconds later Induja informed him the Ant was on an intercept course. His delusional hope that the Raider had not detected the sluggish fifty kiloton tug with her train of eight sixty kiloton modules in tow was dashed.
Lucian could hardly believe what was unfolding, it seemed surreal, like a scene from one of those movies. Surely they were the heroes, surely there would be a happy ending. The icy fingers of reality gripped his heart. The course change had bought them some time but the Raider was inexorably gaining on the slower tug and he had only a couple of hours to work out how to save the lives of two million colonists, his crew and himself before the Ant caught up and opened fire on Watchtower and her precious cargo.
Lucian caught the eye of the comms officer Olga Kravchuk and nodded, she understood his meaning and a superluminal system wide mayday was immediately transmitted by a trans newtonian device known as the teletrans but there was no answer, just a few relay pings from sensor buoys. They were alone in 68 Bootis but if the relays were working someone should hear their call for help.
As they raced and the Ant chased, amid the static another sensor buoy ping, then a verification code request from the minefield guarding the Iota Horologii jump point. A minefield, another crazy hope filled Lucian's head, if only they could reach it but it was too far away, at this speed they would not reach it before the Ant had caught up and opened fire, unless they dumped their cargo to the Ant's tender mercies, unthinkable.
At that moment Lucian discovered something about his character he had not known before. He knew in his heart he would rather die than give those unfeeling murderers the colony modules. He asked astrogator Pete Worsnip if there was any way the much larger and potentially faster Watchtower could ram the Ant. Pete replied it was impossible because of the inbuilt collision avoidance systems in the Watchtower's helm. NOVGLOV had designated ramming an act of barbarism, evoking the inhumanity and abuse of altruism of the kamikaze and suicide bombers, even military ships had the same prohibition upon them. Lucian frowned as he wondered if NOVGLOV had ever considered a scenario like this, two million lives could be saved by disabling the Ant, even if it meant the sacrifice of a tug crew, surely it would be worth it.
It took a while for the Iota Horologii jump point gate station to respond. The commanding adept, Darrel Hartranft, told Lucian the Watchtower's mayday and telemetry had been received, to maintain course and speed and standby for further instructions. The noise of the bridge was full of silence or was silence full of noise, Lucian in his dreaming way pondered the conundrum as time seemed to crawl. They were no longer alone and yet the Ant was gaining with terrifying speed. Hartranft spoke again to introduce another speaker, a military analyst, codenamed W who told Lucian to listen, there was plenty of time and not to panic and explained there was another way besides the desperation of ramming. However when W told him to drop the colony modules Lucian exploded with indignation. Hartranft who had known Lucian at the academy told him seriously to listen, so Lucian listened.
W explained calmly that NOVGLOV had captured many Ants and some of their crew had been interrogated. Fearsome as Raider warriors were, they were genetically programmed to fixate on destruction and this was their weakness. W told Lucian what to do and explained how and why it would work. As Lucian contemplated his conflicting responsibilities a familiar voice filled the bridge, the unmistakable deep and rugged tones of Grand Master Dominic Digiovanni, commander in chief of the entire human navy. Lucian sat down heavily in the chair as the commander echoed W's advice. The Grand Master was one of a select few in W's inner circle who knew the truth about W's position in NOVGLOV and even the source of W's knowledge.
The navy's commander explained, they had all received the alert from battle monitor HQ at the same time no more than a couple of minutes after Watchtower's alarm had sounded and he had immediately connected with W and the nearest FAC base in Iota Horologii and ordered the launch of a Crimson Rainbow search and destroy squad, which was on its way.
To Lucian W seemed an untrustworthy faceless spook, willing to order others to do things they would not dare to do themselves, the commander on the other hand was reknown for success in search and destroy missions during the battle for Omicron Phoenicis, against a different alien aggressor, while commanding a squadron of NOVGLOV's top of the line Mesh superfighters. Someone had even made a movie about it.
Besides which, the only living Grand Master was in command of the entire navy and well known to everyone on board Watchtower, there was no higher authority and Lucian knew that to continue on his current course would meet with sure disaster in just under two hours, while the Rainbows were thirty four hours away. Listening to his comforting gravely tones, Lucian felt a surge of gratitude for his commander's support and understood the risk he must take to save the colonists. The bridge crew, who had heard everything seemed in agreement.
Lucian ordered navigation to do the unthinkable and drop the colony modules, reverse course and make a beeline for the Ant at full speed, engines burning as hot as they could. A tug at full speed makes a larger thermal signature than static cryomodules. The plan was to obscure the location of the modules and give the Ant something else to focus on. Once free of its burden the Watchtower's top speed became 8188 km/s, nearly twice that of the well studied Ant which was known to be capable of 4393 km/s, she left the modules behind and closed rapidly on the enemy contact.
The Ant's sensor capabilities were also known, it would probably detect the modules but the warriors on board would attack the nearest target, as W had explained. It had become Lucian's task to make the Watchtower the nearest target and lure the Ant away from the colonists, towards its doom. A task he and his crew embraced with defiant commitment. He told his crew over the ship wide address system, this was a job worth living for.
Watchtower approached the Ant at high velocity, to 320,000 km, twice the known range of the Ant's main guns and changed course for the Iota Horologii jump point, slowing to match her enemy's speed. It was imperative that she take the Ant with her, the modules were only two million clicks away, if she opened up range to the Ant it might change target and attack them, they had to stay close.
As the Ant swung around behind Watchtower it followed and closed, it was evident the Raiders had taken the bait.
Lucian held his nerve and Watchtower made for the jump point maintaining a 220,000km distance to the Ant for the several hours it took to receive an in system hail from the Crimson Rainbow squad.
Adept Tod Para in command of Rainbow Violet and the squad including Rainbow Purple and Peaceful Pine recon, sounded cool and professional, which he was. Inside the confined bridge of Violet he touched the local coms button and politely requested Bernice Alejandre commander of the Pine keeping formation just behind the two Rainbows, to go dark. His sparks had verified, using the known sensitivity of the Ant's EM detector, a likely detection range of just over 32m km if the Pine's large active sensor remained active, which was a little too early, as he explained to Bernice, it would be nice to get closer and Bernice understood. Pine's time to shine would come later once the known threat was dealt with and the unknown threats were being sought. In the meantime telemetry on the Ant's position from Watchtower's sensors meant his squad knew exactly where to go.
On the morning of 24th May at 11:56am, at range 20m km the Ant was within range of the Rainbow's sensors, calibrated to pick up cloaked Raiders. Adept Para ordered the squad's beam fire controls to lock onto the enemy contact as they approached. He knew they had another ten minutes before the Ant's sensor would pick up the Violet and Purple. Crimson Rainbow III's were not large but they packed a significant punch and were an improvement on the previous generation, with a particle beam firing 400,000 km and improved beam fire control accuracy. There would be no mistakes. The enemy ship would be neutralised and if disabled, Ocean Blue was already on her way from Earth to capture and tractor the Ant and turn the threat into an opportunity to learn more about enemy cloaking systems.
FAC-09 Rainbow Violet (Crimson Rainbow III class Fast Attack Craft) 1,650 tons 45 Crew 573.9 BP TCS 33 TH 98 EM 0
8485 km/s Armour 2-12 Shields 0-0 HTK 11 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 7
Maint Life 3.74 Years MSP 804 AFR 87% IFR 1.2% 1YR 90 5YR 1,345 Max Repair 187.5 MSP
Adept Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 37 months Morale Check Required
StarBurst ICF3 800 P280 T3 0.097 (1) Power 280 Fuel Use 9.72% Signature 98.00 Explosion 7%
Fuel Capacity 33,000 Litres Range 37 billion km (50 days at full power)
Heavy Particles III (1) Range 400,000km TS: 10,000 km/s Power 10-5 ROF 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Divine Light V (1) Max Range: 600,000 km TS: 10,000 km/s 98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
P5 32t Ring (1) Total Power Output 5 Exp 5%
R18 15t - Scavenger (1) GPS 195 Range 20.6m km Resolution 18
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposesRC-05 Peaceful Pine (Peaceful Oak class Recon Craft) 600 tons 11 Crew 242.5 BP TCS 12 TH 37 EM 0
8755 km/s Armour 1-6 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 3/1/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 6.13 Years MSP 335 AFR 29% IFR 0.4% 1YR 15 5YR 229 Max Repair 146.2 MSP
Seeker Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 68 months Morale Check Required
StarBurst ICF3 280 P105 T3 0.195 recon (1) Power 105 Fuel Use 19.53% Signature 36.75 Explosion 7%
Fuel Capacity 40,000 Litres Range 61.5 billion km (81 days at full power)
R18 163t - Junker (1) GPS 2106 Range 67.9m km Resolution 18
Yin 5t (1) Sensitivity 1.8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10.6m km
Deeper Heat (1) Sensitivity 3.6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 15m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a None for auto-assignment purposesClosing to 12m clicks the Ant finally detected the Rainbows and broke off pursuit of Watchtower but it was too late for the Raiders, the Rainbows outpaced them significantly at 8485 km/s. At Tod Para's request Peaceful Pine lit up her sensor again and broke formation to escort Watchtower picking up the colony modules.
A few minutes later at 12:43am on 24th May 2095 the Ant was finally disabled. Bernice Alejandre commanding the Peaceful Pine had logged its escape vector and would later extrapolate and search along the same line to seek out other Raiders in the system but first the colonists must be recovered. As she considered the huge number of civilians adrift in the middle of the Raider infested sector like sitting ducks, she began to appreciate the Watchtower commander's evident sense of urgency seeing her blasting engines lighting up the star strewn vista ahead as Watchtower reversed course at full power. Bernice began to understand the cunning of the strategy which had brought them this far and reflected on the old maxim that hers was not to question why, just to do or die but someone had made the right call and it gave her faith in command. When Grand Master Dominic Digiovanni, commander of the human navy commed her personally and asked her to proceed with all haste to recon the colony modules and the space around them she did not hesitate to comply and move ahead of the tug.
A few parting shots from Violet squad struck the disabled Raider as they too raced to support the recovery effort, now disabled the Ant did not matter, only the defenceless colonists who had mercifully slept through the event. Ocean Blue's boarding marines would deal with the Ant. Meanwhile Cosmic River Expedition, an exploration vessel docked at Iota Horologii II awaiting refit, was launched to assist the search effort with her supersized "Warm Breath on a Winters Night" class thermal sensors.
On the bridge of the Watchtower Lucian Bettin felt a deep sense of guilt, that something was missing from the proper order of things as he urged his ship to make haste towards the colony modules he had abandoned in his effort to save them. He could not hide the emotion in his voice as he contacted the supervising crews on board the modules and advised them to prepare for pick up by reassembling the tractor train which had been automatically disassembled the moment the emergency release had been activated. Now for the first time in over a day, with the Watchtower surrounded by friendly navy vessels, specifically designed and highly trained to tackle the Raider threat, Lucian felt hope instead of dread fear.
In the distant dark, tractor beams wrangled the eight Magenta Skye modules into a long caterpillar ready to reunite its body to its head and resume its journey among the stars.
Colonists in tow, Watchtower made her way to her destination as Peaceful Pine and Expedition swept the system but with little to go on and possibly because there was no reason for the Raiders to send more ships into a barren system, they found nothing.
After a long debriefing meeting somewhere in the bowels of naval command HQ near Iota city, Lucian Bettin invited the commanders of the search and destroy squad, Tod Para, Bernice Alejandre, Wilbur Carrick for a coffee at his favourite patisserie to thank them for all they had done. Tod insisted they needed no thanks and Bernice chimed in that it was they who should thank him. Wilbur suggested they all thank each other and find the cake shop Lucian had been talking about. This they did and after eating sumptious hot croissants with melting butter and tangy marmalade from the farms of Iota Horologii II washed down with fresh black coffee from the equatorial plantations they shook hands and went their ways, though Lucian left a large tip and found the courage to ask the waitress with such a sweet smile out to dinner. Luckily she was not doing anything that evening and agreed.
Epilogue - a teletrans meeting of the inner circle of NOVGLOV was called to discuss the events which had unfolded in 68 Bootis and the peril which two million colonists had faced. W raised the prospect that in the not too distant future, colony transports would need to be increased to evacuate Earth and finally surrender her to the ever heating sun. Several transports like All Along The Watchtower would be needed and the risk of losing any to Raiders could not be countenanced. Suggestions included escorts and concealed hangar modules carrying fighters. Roger Sasaki, head of propulsion research at MIT, commented the tugs were last generation and suggested upgrading them simply to be faster than Raiders even when pulling Magenta Skye modules. The circle agreed this was worthwhile and in due course post-doc Darius Briles was commissioned to develope a prototype engine which could be used to upgrade the existing fleet. The result was the Mastodon commercial inertial confinement fusion engine 11,350t EPH-0.006 and the Purple Rain class of tug, named after the song created by Prince for the Magenta Skye modules they would tow and Rainbows Violet and Purple which had by a curiously colour matched coincidence brought the 'rain' which saved their occupants from a fate worse than death.
Purple Rain class Tug 62,696 tons 535 Crew 2,955 BP TCS 1,254 TH 11,350 EM 0
9051 km/s Armour 1-140 Shields 0-0 HTK 108 Sensors 24/24/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 1,029 Max Repair 454 MSP
Troop Capacity 1,000 tons Boarding Capable Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 10 Tractor Beam
Seeker Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Com ICF3 11.35k P2270 0.006 Mastodon (5) Power 11350 Fuel Use 0.64% Signature 2270 Explosion 4%
Fuel Capacity 1,280,000 Litres Range 576.7 billion km (737 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 100,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 12 hours
R18 50t - Crow - 1 (1) GPS 864 Range 50.2m km Resolution 18
R01 50t - Observer I (1) GPS 48 Range 19.1m km MCR 1.7m km Resolution 1
Deepest Heat - I (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 38.7m km
Yin (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 38.7m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
