Last Full Measure - Michael A. Martin [55]
As the shuttlepod glided forward toward the mission objective, Chang watched as Mayweather worked at the flight controls, adjusting and stabilizing the hull’s ad hoc camouflage field, allowing some new, lighter particles to take hold while letting other, heavier ones drop away. To anyone outside the shuttlepod, the craft most likely would have appeared to be nothing more than a peculiarly shaped piece of icy shrapnel on a broadly elliptical trajectory through interstellar space, just beyond the confines of the Kaletoo system. During the shuttlepod’s occasional close passes with asteroid-sized bodies, Mayweather simulated random gravitational interactions by randomly spinning the ship. Between the thick coating of flotsam, Mayweather’s flight maneuvers, the ship’s systems being pared down to the bare essentials, and the natural damping effect that the dust cloud seemed to have on active sensor signals, Chang hoped any scans from nearby Xindi ships would fail to detect the shuttlepod’s presence—or would at least lead the Xindi to conclude that Shuttlepod Two was an utterly non-noteworthy natural object, tumbling without volition or intent for all eternity through the endless deeps of space.
At least until it’s too late for them to stop us from doing what we have to, Chang thought. Or until we’re able to figure out some way to take them out.
“We’re looping around one of the larger asteroids,” Mayweather said, peering intently at several consoles and displays arrayed in the shuttlepod’s forward section. “I’m starting to get a specific read on the facility they’ve placed inside the cloud.”
Chang leaned in closely, studying the readings; astrometrics wasn’t his strong suit, but he didn’t see any point in letting the ensign know that. He glanced up at the forward window, through which he could see a dark, tumbling rock illuminated only very dimly by the far distant, dust-shrouded Kaletoo sun.
“We need to get within half a kilometer of whatever structures the Xindi are hiding here,” Chang said as the great rock dropped away and another object loomed in the distance.
Mayweather frowned. “Why risk getting that close? The sensors won’t be able see all that much more than they can from here.”
Chang grinned. “Because if you park us much farther away than half a klick our tether lines won’t be long enough.”
“Tether lines?” Mayweather said, sounding incredulous. “You can’t be seriously considering going aboard a Xindi facility.”
“Of course I can. Haven’t you been paying attention?”
“Whatever happened to only taking action that’s ‘appropriate, prudent, and logical’?”
Struggling to keep his mounting irritation in check, Chang said, “I thought you agreed with me that anything that could slow the Xindi down is worth trying.”
“Sure, but only if it stands a real chance of working. Laying siege to a Xindi fuel station could get everyone on this shuttlepod killed without even giving us a chance to report back to Enterprise with what we’ve found so far. Seems to me an outcome like that would slow down our mission a lot more than it would the Xindi’s.”
“I say it’s worth the risk, if we can cripple one of their fuel depots, since that’s got to be what they’re hiding here,” Chang said, unexpectedly relishing the fact that a so-called space boomer could be so fainthearted in the face of danger—even though a tiny voice in the back of his mind asked if Mayweather’s overcautious impulses might not be warranted.
Chang turned, making brief eye contact with each one of the other MACOs. Seeing nothing other than faith and resolve in the faces of his people, he dismissed that small voice of doubt and redoubled his own resolve.
Mayweather, however, remained unconvinced. “Corporal,