Good morning, Dee," Cale replied. "I'm glad you're here. I have news. I have selected a destination."
Her eyes narrowed and an angry flush suffused her face. "Oh," she replied in a barely controlled tone, "Have you? I thought I was to have a voice in that selection." Her fists balled.
"I'm sorry," Cale hurriedly replied. "We're being followed. I think it may be a pirate." He quickly summarized the reasons for heading to Angeles. "How many people would know about the letter of credit your father gave you?"
The flush faded from her face, replaced by a concerned expression. "I don't know. I'm sure my father wouldn't have kept it very secret. Surely you don't think it is large enough to attract a pirate?"
Cale shrugged. "Another non-secret was the fees and bonuses awarded by the Senate and the church. Between them and the letter of credit, I suspect it's quite enough to attract a pirate, especially a small-timer or one down on his luck."
She sat down with a thump. “Is there anything we can do?" She appeared composed, but there was a tinge of fear in her voice.
"Oh, yes," he replied. “ Cheetah was an Old Empire viceroy's yacht. She is armed. But she's no warship, and Tess's programming limits what she can do to help. She's also quite fast in normal space, and Tess is quite an advanced AI. Largely, our chances depend on what modifications, if any, they've made to that Epsilon-class tramp they're pushing. There's no way to tell about that until we fight her, of course, but I think our chances would be pretty good."
"So you've decided to fight?" Her tone was cold, distant.
Cale shook his head and smiled. "No, of course not. Everyone aboard has a vote on that. I'm trying to make certain your vote is an informed one. If possible, I intend to try to run away. If that doesn not seem possible, the only options are to surrender or fight. If we surrender, the options are probably gang rape and slavery or death for you, and torture and death for me. I'm voting to fight. What's your vote?"
Suddenly one of her blinding smiles bloomed. "Fight, of course. I just wanted to be consulted."
He returned her smile. "All right. Now, have you ever fired a weapon?"
She shrugged, creating unintended distractions for Cale. "I was the daughter of the most important church official on Faith. Of course, I received self-defense training in hand-to-hand, firearms, lasers, needlers, blasters, vibroblades, and swords. But not with ship's weapons, of course."
He nodded, impressed. "Then you will have had to confront your ability to kill another human."
"Yes. It is not a pleasant prospect. But some of the simulations were total immersion. Sight, sound and even touch and smell. If I was hit, it stung or burned. And when I hit an attacker, I might be splashed with his 'blood' and smell the burning flesh. Yes, I'd say I've had to confront that problem. Don't worry, Captain, I can defend myself, if necessary. Do you have any hand weapons aboard?"
Cale grinned again. "None that we advertise. But I suspect we can produce something. Mainly, though, I was asking whether you could help me with the ship's weapons. Tess's programming prohibits her from harming a human, and it is an absolute prohibition. We have jury-rigged weapons systems installed, but I can only operate one at a time. I could use some help."
That blinding smile flared again. "I volunteer. How many weapons do we have, and what kind?"
"We have an Alliance-style quickfirer and a destroyer-sized laser. Both are controllable from here or from the control room. Now, the control room is only large enough for one person. If you can handle the quickfirer from there, I think Tess and I can handle the laser from here."
"Is this 'quickfirer' easy to handle? And what about the controls?"
He shrugged. "It's dead easy. You have a joystick and you're watching a viewscreen that illuminates the projectiles' path. It fires a twenty-millimeter rocket that's plated with collapsed metal. It'll punch right through that Epsilon-class."
"What about aiming?"
Cale smiled. "Nothing to it. No gravity field or weather, so the rocket travels dead straight. Just walk it onto your target."
Her smile this time showed an edge of savagery. "Can you set up a sim, so I can get some practice?"
"Of course, Mistress Raum," Tess's voice put in. "The program already exists, and may be run at your pleasure."
Cale walked her down the corridor to the tiny control room, and stood in the passage as he showed her the controls for the quickfirer. "Please don't touch anything else. Tess and I will be very busy, and won't need the kind of distractions that could cause."
She gave him a wintry look. "I may not be a spacer," she replied frostily, "But I know what not to touch!"
Cale started to straighten, and hit his head on the hatch frame. He shook his head to clear it. "I didn't mean…" he started, rubbing his head. He paused, and a grin crossed his face. "Well, maybe I did. Have fun. Tess and I will be busy for awhile in my stateroom."
He returned to his stateroom. "All right, Tess. Any suggestions?"
There was almost a smile in her voice. "The 'secret agent' files loaded aboard contain both strategic and tactical planning subroutines. While I did not permit the installation of the main programming," she continued primly, "I have retained those files. I regret that I find nothing immediately applicable to our current situation in them."
Cale suppressed a grin at her ironic tone. "Then we're on our own."
Both were silent for a moment.
Finally, Cale broke the silence. "Tess, how long does it take you to physically reverse your attitude?"
"The question is unclear," came the suddenly mechanical response. "Do you mean how long to reverse course in normal space?"
He waved an irritated negative. "No, no! I mean to swap ends so your nose is pointing where your drives are pointing now. No change of direction, just attitude."
"Using attitude jets, about 30 seconds."
"Attitude jets?"
"Yes. When I was constructed, attitude jets were still in limited use. Essentially, they are small jets that use compressed gas from pressurized tanks to rapidly change attitude. With them, I can literally spin on my long axis in nearly any direction. They have never been used except in trials," she added.
Cale frowned. "Let's see if I understand. These 'attitude jets' are self-contained? They don't use the inertial drives at all? Are they still functional?"
"I would never permit one of my systems to deteriorate beyond usability."
Cale again suppressed a grin at the outrage in her tone. "Then we wouldn't have to wait for your jump engines to spin down and your inertial drives to light off," he said thoughtfully. "Is that correct?"
"They are self-contained units. No external power beyond that for controls is required."
Cale was slightly exasperated that Tess did not seem to see the potential in the antique fittings.
"All right, how about this," he said. "Suppose we exit jump at the recal point, then, while you're getting the inertial drives online, you use these 'attitude jets' to reverse your attitude. The pirate pops out of the jump point, and we're already waiting for him, armed and aimed!"
Tess seemed unimpressed. "We still must cycle down the jump engines and initiate the reaction drives in order to use the shields and weapons."
Cale was getting excited, now. "Of course we do, but so does he! Didn't your Admiral Kedron take advantage of the power plant time lag in his war?"
"Indeed. Until Admiral Kedron, there was a long debate about who held the tactical advantage, attacker, or defender. Since shields and weapons are powered by the inertial drives, an attacker has neither until his jump engines spin down and his inertial drives come online. Of course, crews cannot be kept in a battle-ready status at all times, and it takes time to man the weapons and shields. Admiral Kedron was able to use small intrasystem fighters carried aboard his ships to attack the enemy before they had weapons or shields."