"He's about sixty degrees to starboard of our firing vector, ma'am. Well clear."
"Is he within range of the test weapon?"
Carl didn't have to check. "He will be when we're at the designated firing point, yes, ma'am."
"Then let's move his butt. Tell comms to send him a 'get out of here, restricted area' message. Medium heat version, for now."
"Yes, ma'am." A few minutes passed while Carl passed on the order to the communications personnel and the standard scripted message went out directed to the skunk. "He should be getting it about now."
Paul nodded with satisfaction. "We're seeing an aspect change. He's maneuvering to head away."
"Yeah." Carl's expression went from casual to concerned as he scanned the readout. "Something doesn't look right."
Captain Gonzalez raised an eyebrow and checked her own screen. "What's wrong, Carl?"
"I don't know, yet, Captain. Something about the way that guy's moving makes me wonder which way he's pointing."
Commander Kwan had returned to the bridge, unnoticed by Paul, and now pulled himself close to Carl, squinting at the display. "You don't think he's going to leave the area?"
"Sir, he just looks funny to me."
Gonzalez glanced over to where Captain Hayes had hooked himself to a tie-down near her chair. "Lieutenant Meadows is one of our most experienced watch officers. Sometimes an experienced sailor can spot things your instruments can't."
Hayes nodded. "Just like back on Earth."
"Yup. Mr. Meadows, is there — "
Carl interrupted as his display flashed. "He's lighting off his main drive, Captain."
Paul slapped his console. "Look at that vector! He's headed in, not out. You were right, Carl. What's he up to?"
"Beats me. Captain, request permission to order the range safety ship to intercept that guy."
"Granted. We can't do the test shot with him there. Have comms send a high-heat version of the get-out-of-here message to that idiot."
The range safety ship, positioned closer to the intruder than the Michaelson, boosted onto an intercept course with the unknown spacecraft. A moment later, a green spacecraft identification symbol blossomed on the Michaelson 's display where the skunk had previously been represented by a yellow "unknown" symbol. "He's finally broadcasting a specific ship code. Ah, hell. He's Greenspace."
"Greenspace." Gonzalez shook her head in disgust. "That figures. No wonder they're messing with our test firing."
Captain Hayes indicated the glowing symbol. "Do they interfere with a lot of test firings?"
"They interfere with anything they can. Anything they think is about the 'militarization' or 'economic exploitation' of space. Hell, humans came up here to exploit space economically, and once we started doing that some people wanted to fight over who got to exploit what, which is why the Navy's here."
Hayes smiled humorlessly. "So, basically they interfere with everything."
"If they can. But spacecraft are expensive and we're watching for them, so they don't get too many places. Unfortunately, they got to this one."
"I see. If they enter an operating area like this, do they fall under our jurisdiction, or do we need to call in civil authorities to arrest them?"
Gonzalez waved toward Paul. "Ensign… pardon me, Lieutenant Junior Grade Sinclair there is your collateral duty ship's legal officer. He will provide you with all appropriate guidance in such situations. Correct, Mr. Sinclair?"
Paul nodded, acutely aware he was the object of two captains' attention. "Yes, ma'am."
"And such guidance in this case would be…?"
It's a good thing I checked the rules on that subject before we got underway for this test shot. At least I've learned something since I was a new ensign. "We're authorized to make arrests and seize property if the protesters enter a posted restricted area and disregard instructions to leave." And… "We're to notify civil authorities and turn over the protestors and property as soon as, uh, reasonably feasible."
"Very well. If we end up needing to know just what 'reasonably feasible' means we'll get back to you, Mr. Sinclair." Captain Gonzalez motioned to Carl. "Lieutenant Meadows, did the Greenspacers acknowledge our latest warning to leave?"
Carl double-checked his panel, then shook his head. "No, ma'am. No reply."
"Then have comms tell that ship to get out of here now, or we will intercept and seize it. Make sure they know there'll be no more warnings."
"Aye, aye, ma'am." Carl bent to the task, but halted as an alarm sounded. "What the hell? That Greenspace ship is launching something."
"A lot of somethings," Paul added. "What are those?"
Gonzalez was chewing on a thumbnail. "Since that's a Greenspace ship, at least we can be reasonably sure they're not weapons. I want a quick ID on those things."
Paul and Carl exchanged a quick glance. When ships' captains said 'I want,' their crews knew they'd better satisfy the request. Commander Kwan wedged between them, his expression and voice harsh. "Let's get that ID for the Captain. Now."
As if we needed the XO telling us that, and as if leaning on us will get the Captain a faster answer. Bad Kwan strikes again, but then he might still be ticked off at me for screwing up earlier. Biting his lip to help hide his reaction, Paul tapped in commands which up'd the priority on a target ID. The Michaelson 's targeting system beeped a moment later, calling attention to its identification of the objects. Paul stared at it. "They're short-range emergency escape pods."
"Escape pods?" Gonzalez checked the ID herself, as did Commander Kwan.
"There's nothing wrong with that ship," Paul insisted.
"I'm sure there isn't." Gonzalez looked seriously out of sorts now. "But they've just sown a dozen of those pods through our firing area. It'll take us and the range safety ship so long to round them up that we'll have to postpone the test firing."
"Sweet," Commander Kwan muttered. "Maybe we should just leave them."
"Wish we could, George, but those short-range pods have real limited life-support capability. If we don't pick them up within a few hours, those protesters will be dead meat, and letting them die because of their own stupidity will make us look real bad. Go figure. I've got to give them credit for thinking of this." Gonzalez unbuckled her harness and swung out of her chair. "I'll go get on a private line to the Commodore and let her know what happened. Lieutenant Meadows, plot intercepts to those pods. Tell the range safety ship I'd appreciate it if she seized that mothership."
"Aye, aye, ma'am. Best-speed intercepts on the pods?"
"Naw. We've got to postpone the firing, anyway. Make sure we take a while to get to those pods. Not too long, but long enough to make 'em sweat on whether their life support'll hold out."
Carl grinned. "Aye, aye, ma'am."
The bosun mate of the watch stiffened to attention again as Gonzalez and Hayes exited through the hatch. "Captain's left the bridge!"
Commander Kwan pointed at Carl. "Keep me informed."
"Yes, sir."
Paul glanced at Carl after Kwan left. "Not exactly the nice, routine evolution you were looking forward to."
Carl shrugged in an exaggerated fashion as he worked on the intercept plan. "No. But that's okay. This is kinda fun. Maybe I can meet our 'visitors' when we haul them aboard. 'Welcome to the USS Michaelson. We hope you have a pleasant stay in the two-meter-square compartment we're going to cram you all into.'"
Paul chuckled despite the stress of recent events. "Thanks for mentioning that. I'd better give the Sheriff a heads-up." He quickly paged the ship's master-at-arms. "Hey, Sheriff. We've going to have some hippie peacemongers coming aboard." Paul vaguely knew "hippies" had been a group of some sort back in the twentieth century, but the term had long ago entered the permanent vocabulary of the military to describe any particularly unmilitary appearance or anti-military civilians.