//------------------------------// // Fleet // Story: The Price of Citizenship // by Colgate is best pony //------------------------------// ECY 1008.9 Unknown System, Antaran Space “You have a shower!?”          Applejack smirked as Rainbow poked her head around the Captain’s quarters. She did, indeed, have a full bathroom in her cabin, and she had taken advantage of it many times. Rainbow Dash and the rest of the crew had to make use of a portable sonic sterilizer for their bathing needs, and the cramped conditions aboard Daring did nothing to make that deficiency any more bearable. “Rainbow, I know you’ve never seen a working shower in your life, but could you come out here and tell me what Reign said? Did she figure out what the holdup is?” Rainbow shrugged and started pushing the buttons above the sink. After activating the automatic toothbrush and getting a spurt of toothpaste in her mane, she called back to the Captain. “She has no idea. She knows that we won’t be exiting the portal any time soon though. How, I have no--” she was interrupted by a stream of water blasting out of the showerhead, catching her in the face. Applejack caught herself laughing. “RD, would you get out of there before someone comes up here and sees you? I don’t want anyone to think that I invite my officers to my cabin to seduce them in the shower.” Rainbow finally found the off switch and exited the washroom, dripping reclaimed water everywhere. Applejack gave her a look, and she sheepishly reached for a towel. “Sorry, capt’. If it makes you feel better, I’d really hate to have a commanding officer that invites her underlings up to her cabin to seduce them. Or to feed their fish.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Feed whose fish?” “What, you haven’t heard of Commander Shep. . .” She couldn’t complete the thought, as the comm unit on Applejack’s desk chirped in. Cloud Reign’s voice came across as Applejack hit a switch. “Captain, sorry to disturb you, but I think we know what is going on with this portal.” Applejack let out a sigh of relief. They had been inside the portal for over four hours now, seemingly not going anywhere, and unable to get a sensor lock on their position. Some news, even if it was bad, would be very welcome. “Well, we haven’t been able to figure out our position. But we have noticed something very telling. This part of subspace is full of tachyons, suggesting that we aren’t only traveling in space, but also through time.” Over Applejack’s shoulder, Rainbow chirped in. “Tachyons?” “Tachyons are. . . well, put it this way. Sometimes scientists can observe fluctuations in time, usually in subspace. When those instances happen, we observe lots of these things called tachyons. We have no idea what they actually are, but they seem to have something to do with time.” Rainbow looked puzzled. Applejack felt no less certain about what this news had to do with anything. A new voice spoke over the comm. It was deep and impatient, suggesting that Lieutenant Beakerman, the lead science officer, was addressing them. “If we observe something happening to time, we attribute it to Tachyons. It’s a made up concept, really. But it lets us describe things we have no idea about. And what it tells us now is that we are, in fact, travelling through time as well as space.” Rainbow looked very, very excited at that news, but Applejack felt somber. She knew how Twilight had handled time travel; how would it affect her and her crew? Reign was back on the radio. “But don’t get too excited, Captain. We aren’t really ‘time-travelling’, per se. We entered the portal at 09:47 EQST, and, if our calculations are correct, we will exit the portal in three hours at 09:47 on the same exact date.” That was something to think about. Normal subspace travel would take hours both in and outside of subspace. If the Antarans had this technology, their already considerable technological advantage was increased significantly. Applejack needed confirmation on what she had heard, though, before she could believe it. “So we are going to be travelling thousands of lightyears instantly?” “To us, it won’t be instant. But anyone that could see both sides of the portal would see us enter and emerge at nearly the same time. Microseconds apart, most likely. And we will be passing through the portal in about two hours, based on the rate of Tachyon Deceleration in the portal right now.” Applejack thanked her and ended the call. She tapped some commands out in her console, standing the ship down from red alert, intending to let the crew have an hour or so to themselves. Rainbow shrugged and began to explore the rest of the cabin. Applejack followed her into the main area, which served as both her living and sleeping space. She remained pensive. The existence of such a portal was very, very big news. Twilight Sparkle had sent Daring out here to find out what the Antarans were up to, but nobody had anticipated anything like this. There were several natural portals between Equestrian and Antaran space, and while EqCom couldn’t actively guard them all, each was monitored on both ends, and any enemy incursion would set off enough alarms to allow the still incredibly understrength Celestial navy to mount a defense. But if a fleet could pass through such a portal instantly, the entire strategy would be invalidated, and an Antaran fleet could slip past all of Ponydom’s defenses without them knowing it. Exactly how they’d set up such a portal was something to think about, but Applejack would let the eggheads like Twilight figure that out. She had to give them the question first, though, before she could hope for an answer. Rainbow Dash, hovering across the room, was saying something that Applejack didn’t quite catch. “I said that you really need to add some Daring Do to your collection here, Captain!” she teased, pawing at the bookshelf. Applejack didn’t have the heart to tell her that none of the books were real, and that a switch on the side of the shelf would open it to reveal her wardrobe and weapons locker. It was a nice touch, to be honest. Rainbow continued going through her captain’s stuff, her back to the earth pony. “So what did you want to talk about?” Applejack sighed heavily. She had been dreading this moment for a long time. “Us.” Rainbow paused, her hoof hanging in the air where she had been investigating the trinkets on Applejack’s nightstand. She didn’t turn as she spoke. “What about us?” “You know.” Rainbow landed softly and turned to face her friend. Her face was unreadable. “Enlighten me, sir.” “Why’d you have to write that letter, Dash? You know we’d always be best friends regardless of anything else. I thought I told you. It will never work between us.” Rainbow looked to the side and shrugged. “Maybe I disagree.” Applejack showed her confusion, and let some of her anger show as well. Rainbow reacted by going on the defensive. “You said that with a war on, it would never work. Well we’re out here now with a chance to end that war. I say we deal with the Antarans, and then. . .” “No, RD, you know that isn’t going to happen. We’re friends. Best friends, always. But nothing more. War or not, I just don’t feel. . .” Rainbow Dash rose into the air again, and brought her face next to Applejack’s, her voice rising to a yell. “Don’t lie to me, AJ! You know that isn’t true. I know that isn’t true! Everybody sees it! Why can’t you just give us a chance!” Applejack tried to reply, but couldn’t find the words. Why can’t I just give it a chance? What have I got to lose? Everything, she thought. I can’t lose her. Not now. Not ever. “I just. . .” Rainbow landed with more force than was necessary. She brushed past Applejack and trotted to the door. “See? You can’t think of a good reason. Am I dismissed? Or do you want to open more old wounds?” Applejack began to tear up. This was not how things were supposed to go. “Go.” She stood, motionless, for several minutes after Rainbow had left. Tears continued to drop as she walked into the washroom to clean the mess the pegasus had left, her anger and frustration building. On the way out, she gave the tiled wall a good buck. She punched through to the other side of the bulkhead. ---- “This is the Captain speaking. Four minutes until we breach the portal. All stations report.” “Torpedo tubes one and two ready.” “Three and Four standing by.” “Forward laser bank charged, awaiting targets.” “Ventral side is ready.” “Rear guns ready.” “Disruptors armed, ready to rock.” “Anti-Missile system is online.” Applejack watched from her control station on the bridge as her officers counted off, repeating the pattern for what seemed like the hundredth time. In reality, the seven ponies at the tactical stations laid out along the corridor that stretched from the Captain’s chair to the cockpit had practiced this maneuver over a thousand times before Applejack was even in the military, and it made her feel a pang of guilt for intruding on what seemed like a sacred act. As the final station chimed in, Applejack focused on Lt. Reign, manning the engineering station just to the captain’s left. After conversing with her teams throughout the ship, the Ship’s Master gave Applejack a nod. “Engineering reports green across the board. Stealth systems are at max capacity and ready. Damage control teams are at their stations.” “Are we getting any readings from the system?” “Nothing at all, Captain. All we know is that it exists, and we’ll be there in three minutes.” She lowered her voice, even though only Applejack could hear her over the comm. “Not too late to turn around, Captain.” Applejack had been thinking the same thing for a few hours, but steeled herself and shook her head. “Negative on that, Reign. We’ve come this far.” She looked down at the clock on her display. “Helm, ninety seconds. Is the Lieutenant strapped in?” The helm officer, normally relegated to the sidelines when Rainbow Dash was strapped in, confirmed, and asked if the comm link between her and the matrix was down. Applejack replied that it was not. She didn’t mention that talking to her pilot was not something she wanted to do for the next few days. The clock hit sixty seconds and Applejack activated the red alert; why she actually needed to when everpony on board was already at their stations was still a mystery, but it was the easiest way to divert power and computer processing away from Daring’s few non-essential systems. At forty five seconds, she nodded to Reign, and the stealth systems were engaged. A blue glow of processed magic emanated throughout the hull until the entire cabin was bathed in a slight hue. When it finished, a new countdown appeared on every HUD on the bridge, showing 4 hours until things would start to melt. Applejack had a feeling that remaining in the system for anywhere near that long would be a very, very bad idea. At thirty seconds she transferred control of the ship to the matrix, and the ship shook rather violently as the pegasus controlling it metaphorically stretched her wings. Had the gyroscope not been in use, anyone not strapped in would have likely lost more than their lunch. Applejack’s terminal showed that the matrix was in full command of the ship, but Rainbow’s usual verbal confirmation was not forthcoming. Applejack let her be for the time being. As the timers continued to click down on her display, the rookie captain let her thoughts wander. She wondered what Apple Bloom was getting herself into. It had been over a year since she last saw her sister. The same questions she’d been asking herself since that night in the clubhouse floated amongst her thoughts. Should I be doing this? Should I be home with my family? Will I ever see them again? The trepidation made her want to kill the engines and head for home as fast as possible. But the other half of her subconscious, the one that got her in this mess in the first place, overruled its counterpart; nevertheless, the call to run was very loud indeed. So loud, in fact, that Applejack barely noticed Reign counting down from ten, her face glued to her station. She reached zero, and the ship shuddered, then abruptly came to a stop. A cacophony of noise rang about the cabin as every passive sensor available began to take in data. Applejack observed it all, and, like the rest of her crew, hardly noticed anything except one detail. She swallowed hard and looked up at Reign, who returned a panicked stare. Rainbow Dash’s voice came over the comm. “Uh. . . Captain? Any thoughts here?” Applejack couldn’t find an answer. She flipped a switch to activate the external camera, hoping against all hope that it would prove that every single other device on the ship was malfunctioning. It didn’t. Daring had emerged in the middle of an Antaran Fleet, less than a kilometer from several warships twice the Equestrian vessel’s size. Rainbow Dash must have hit the brakes as soon as she realized where the ship had materialized; if she hadn’t, no stealth system in the universe would have protected them from the collisions that would have followed. The viewscreen showed what looked like a forest of jet black vessels, some of which made Daring look like a runabout. Two Sathanas classes formed the centerpoint of the armada, and dozens of escorts surrounded each. The computer counted over eighty vessels, none of whom’s configurations matched those of any craft recorded at the Battle of Antara. If the data Applejack was seeing was accurate-- and she had no reason to doubt that it was-- EqCom intelligence was vastly underestimating the strength of the Antaran navy. If they completely outnumbered us at Antara, and had reserves to spare, thought Applejack, we might be in a lot of trouble. The more pressing issue of not getting smeared forced itself back into Applejacks subconscious. Reign was now looking at her intently, as were the seven sets of eyes that should have been monitoring the tactical stations. They weren’t helping. Rainbow Dash again hailed the captain. “Applejack? What are we doing here? We’ve got about twenty seconds before the Rakshasa class behind us runs up our exhaust ports.” Applejack looked at her 3-D readout. There was no room to maneuver in any direction. She took in the sensor data that Daring’s computers had been producing since it had entered the system. It was a binary system, apparently one of few known to exist, and the two suns sandwiched a small, barren looking planetoid in between. The Antaran fleet appeared to be orbiting the system on an elliptical path, and, of course, was as far from the bodies as Applejack guessed it was likely to be. The flight path of the vessels, as was usually observed with Antaran fleets, was spherical, with the smaller vessels surrounding the larger ones in a constant loop. This gave Applejack an idea, and with seconds to spare, she found and marked a Lilith class frigate passing 700 meters to starboard. “Rainbow, put us right underneath the Lilith. Match its course and speed. Real gentle like, understood?” “Are you sure. . . we can. . .” “Just do it! We don’t have time!” Applejack looked up to see that her subordinates had witnessed this outburst. Before she had time to react, though, the ship turned on its side and accelerated. Reign spoke to her, again in a whisper. “Captain, I’ll calibrate the shields to match the Lilith. You’re right that its sensors are too weak to get past the stealth system, but it would have noticed the interference our shields caused their uplinks to the hive. Good idea, though. We should have a few minutes to figure out what next.” This information shook the Captain. She hadn’t thought of the interference, and while she did know that the Lilith wouldn’t be able to detect them, she had almost made a grievous tactical error. She shook her head and took a deep breath to steady herself. Now was certainly not the time for any more doubt. I’m ready for this. Twilight wouldn’t have given me command if I wasn’t. If only I could make myself believe that. . . Rainbow Dash angled the ship just below the frigate and slowed to match its speed. The black vessel was slightly wider than Daring, but the nose of the Equestrian vessel poked a few meters beyond the pointed edge of the windowless Antaran. Applejack and the crew held their breath, waiting for the red beams of light to rip the life from them. When, after thirty long seconds, they failed to come, Applejack released both the air and trepidation she had been holding. She again called up the 3-D map of the system, and was able to confirm that the flotilla was indeed lazily patrolling the system. What bothered her about the pattern, however, was its odd shape; the path had an elliptical look to it, and while this was certainly nothing out of the ordinary, it seemed somehow wrong to Applejack. She pushed a few buttons and sent her readout to the tactical stations. “Anypony else see what I see here?” Of all the ponies aboard, it was Rainbow Dash who saw it first. “One of the vertices on the long axis is where we came in to the system. . .” Reign cut her off. “. . . and the other end is where our friends are heading.” “So maybe there’s another point of entry at that point? I can fly us out when we get there? Or should we just turn back the way we came?” Applejack was surprised that Rainbow Dash was willing to turn tail so quickly. In her youth, she would have needed some serious convincing to back down from even this momentous a challenge. Perhaps she had matured since Applejack last saw her. Or maybe she’s just as scared as I am. “Negative on going backwards. We’re too far into the formation to make it out without being seen. Let’s ride it out and hope we’ve got a better path on the other side. Reign, get as much data as you can about this fleet. RD, keep as low a profile as possible. Everyone else, stay frosty.” Her last comment earned her a few looks from the less cliche-inclined naval personnel, but Applejack let it slide; they’d have to try harder than that to take the infantry-pony completely out of her. Several minutes passed with little happening besides Rainbow Dash subtly guiding Daring towards the point in space she had  assumed and hoped would hold another artificial portal. As the formation rounded the mass of stars at the center of the system, Daring’s computers were able to confirm, via a long range visual scan, that the point indeed held such an anomaly. As the fleet inched closer to the portal, sensors across the board began to pick up a flood of tachyons emitting from the aperture. Seconds after they appeared, a blue burst of energy flashed across space, and an Antaran Arjuna cruiser emerged from nothingness. It adjusted course to meet up with the mass of ships moving towards it and the portal. Rainbow Dash announced that she wouldn’t need to adjust course to avoid it, and Rainbow Dash breathed another sigh of relief. She checked her subspace drive readouts to make sure they had cooled significantly to be used again, and was about to order their prep to begin when Reign frantically yelled for her attention, this time abandoning both her inside voice and her comm unit. “Captain! About that cruiser. . .” “We’re going to avoid it, aren’t we?” “Yes, but, well. . . if I’m reading it’s configuration and stats right, and I’m pretty sure that I am, that Arjuna is the same one sighted in the Beta Eridani system two months ago. It smeared some transports and vanished without a trace. Beta Eridani is on the other side of the galaxy, well within our borders. . .” As if she had been waiting for the opportunity, Rainbow Dash now interrupted the first officer. “Are you saying that this portal leads to Home’s back door?” A new voice joined the group. “Captain,” said Beakerman, from his station a deck below the bridge, “sorry to interrupt, but I’ve done an analysis, and I believe Reign is correct. The cruiser has sustained damage that only could have come from Equestrian weapons. And if it was in Beta Eridani two months ago, and didn’t have a portal directly here, it would still be at least four weeks away, even at it’s highest FTL speed. Unless it ran one of our blockades, of course, in which case we probably lost the war last week anyway. This system, to put it bluntly, has just become the most important piece of real estate in the galaxy.” “So what do we do about it, Captain? Destroy it, right?” “Sorry, Lieutenant Dash,” replied Beakerman, “but even if we could, we shouldn’t. If we can secure this portal, we can not only use it for our own invasion, but we can force the Antarans to devote a fleet to protecting it. Captain, I suggest we slip through the portal, and inform EqCom. They need to reinforce Beta Eridani immediately.” Applejack considered this. She didn’t like the idea of leaving the portal unguarded while they sought reinforcements, and was doubly concerned about being seen using the portal; if the Antarans guessed that Equestria knew about the portal, the logical thing to do would be to act first and launch an invasion. That said, Beta Eridani was by no means a system that would win or lose the war on its own, and perhaps forcing the Antarans to attack before they were ready would indeed pay dividends. The captain rubbed her temple, realizing for the first time that she felt very, very tired. She looked at a reflective piece of metal on her console and saw a grizzled, wrinkling ball of stress looking back at her. It was hard to witness. “Beakerman is right. Even if we wanted to destroy it, we have no idea how to. Let’s try and sneak in and get back to Home as soon as possible. Rainbow Dash, quietly, if you please.” Rainbow Dash grunted her acknowledgement of the order and slowly edged the ship away from the flotilla, which had come close enough to the portal for the pilot to sneak away unnoticed. She was successful in that regard, and Daring slipped out from under its escort and towards the gateway. She glided, near invisible, until the aperture of the portal beckoned. Reign began activating the subspace drive, and Applejack felt herself relax. It was at that moment that the portal exploded in a shower of blue energy and another Antaran vessel, this one much larger than the Arjuna, exited the tear in space less than a hundred meters from Daring. “Evasive action!” Rainbow Dash dove before the words were even formed on Applejack’s lips. Daring dove, steeply, the gyros keeping her crew from being crushed but doing little to prevent her frame from shaking violently. Applejack, strapped into her chair more out of habit than necessity, checked the sensors to see what had nearly pulverized them. It was a Rakshasa, twice as big as Daring and, while not as well armed, twice as well armored. The former fact did little to help Applejack’s state of mind as the vessel opened fire, Daring shuddering even more as the disruptor bolts singed the shields. The crew needed no instruction on how to return the favor. Rainbow Dash’s dive had put the Rakshasa’s cylindrical form within the 180 degree  targeting arcs of both the forward and rear guns. As Daring passed almost directly underneath the enemy vessel, Ensign Calibrator called the shots from his station on forward lasers. Applejack couldn’t hear what he was saying, and was too distracted to tune in to the gunnery frequency; if she did, she’d have heard him directing fire at the spike along the rear of the Rakshasa housing the rear weapons array. The result was a barrage of fire from the forward and rear lasers poking a hole in the green tinted shields just large enough for a torpedo to slip through. After it did, Applejack’s viewscreen showed only smoldering ruins where the weapons array had once been. The entire maneuver had taken less than fifteen seconds. It also, rather unfortunately, put Daring  well off course for the portal. Rainbow Dash spoke to Applejack, the pegasus’ voice rampant. “I’ve overshot it! We need to do a pretty big loop to get back around! Sixty seconds, tops!” “Just do it then!” “Roger!” The ship swung in a wide arc, rotating as it flew. More impacts rocked the hull, the more intense being strong enough to knock Rainbow Dash off course. Daring swing high above the Rakshasa, showing it the top half of the vessel. Reign adjusted shields to compensate as the enemy’s dorsal weapons array laid into the ship, moving at top speed into a position directly above the Antaran. Applejack observed this and planned her next move. She could feed Rainbow Dash course data, and was searching for a path that would put them as far from harm as possible so that the stealth systems could at least be recalibrated to avoid the sensor heavy Rakshasa. As she nearly found one, six new contacts appeared on her radar, and she called them out to the pilot. “Rainbow! Six fighters on our six!” “I see them! Hang on!” Hanging on was not totally necessary, but Applejack appreciated the sentiment as Daring flipped 180 degrees and dove straight at the enemy cruiser, the six fighters in close pursuit. Applejack didn’t have time to wonder what Rainbow had in mind by charging at the vessel, which had turned towards Daring almost enough to bring her substantial forward batteries to bear; as she formed the thought, the gunners raked the ship with disruptor fire, scrambling the shields in a wide enough area for the forward cannons to hammer away. While the forward banks fired for effect, the stern chasers were having a harder time fending off the fighters. Ordinarily, six fighters wouldn’t pose too much of a threat to Daring, but even a glancing blow to a critical system could seriously hamper her ability to escape the system. Both the laser and disruptor cannons were firing at will, but the shiftiness of the fighters combined with Rainbow Dash’s less than smooth evasive maneuvers restricted their aim. One fighter was hit, more by luck than anything else, but the others followed closely, targeting Daring’’s engine casings. One scored a direct hit, causing warning lights to flash throughout the bridge. That development didn’t faze Applejack, however, as she was too busy watching the increasingly solid looking Rakshasa getting bigger and bigger in her viewscreen. “Rainbow, what. . .” “Not now! Concentrating!” Applejack closed the channel and looked back at her terminal and saw Daring begin to pitch towards the stern of the Antaran vessel. The gunners had done enough damage to prevent it from returning fire from above, and Rainbow took advantage by guiding the ship on an intercept course. Just before impact, when Applejack had resigned herself to the scrap heap, Rainbow first pulled the nose of the craft up, avoiding crashing directly into the Antaran, and initiated a burst from the rear ventral thrusters, kicking the stern of the ship forward enough to barely avoid scraping the Rakshasa’s engine ports. The five fighters couldn’t react quickly enough, though, and slammed en masse into the stern of their ally, each causing a green tinged explosion. As Daring passed by unscathed, the ship went dark, and the telltale shockwaves signalling a reactor breach began to emanate from its stern. Daring’s frame buckled as Rainbow returned to a path perpendicular to the enemy ship, eventually flattening out of the dive, without losing an ounce of speed. The Rakshasa completed its demise with by quickly imploding, followed by the shockwaves of the explosions brought about by its munitions exploding. Daring was just able to outrun the blast, the ship again shaking as it was overtaken by plasma, debris and the pure energy once housed within the former vessel’s drive core. Rainbow opened the comm again. “Sorry about that, boss. Little closer than I thought.” Flabbergasted but, somehow, not surprised at her friend’s audacity, Applejack replied.         “Where in the hay did you learn that?”         “It’s called drifting. Manticore trick. Except you’re supposed to do it horizontally, not vertically. You like it?”         “Yes. But let’s try not to need that particular move anymore, understood?”         “Fair enough.”         Lt. Reign broke up their chat.         “Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got about eight ships and a few hundred fighters coming our way. I think they finally figured out why their buddy was firing at something they couldn’t see on sensors. I’d suggest we get in that portal while we still can.”         “Understood. Rainbow, make it so.”