From: Adam Crozer

To: Underway Reporting

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Subject: Final report, LRPF Quetelet

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Date: 15 Sep 2421 13:42:01 +0000

Date-Local: 15 Sep 2421 13:42:01 +0000

Adam Crozer, master of LRPF Quetelet on the regular Ganymede-Luna

run, reporting to headquarters Luna Lines. A complete log dump,

including current ecliptic coordinates (ref. WAS94) and projected

vectors to intercept, will promptly follow this report as

transmitted.

Our situation is dire, with no realistic prospect of relief. To

summarize the current incident:

We departed Ganymede on schedule at 1900, 10 September, with our

full complement of crew and passengers aboard. Per instructions

from home office, shortly before departure we also embarked Amelia

Nine, Earthgov expedition support director for the Voortrekker

project, and Joel Kenyon Fredericks, a deputy military attaché

rotating home from the Ganymede mission.

Our run was initially uneventful; we passed through the outer

system and transited the belt without incident, finding Ceres

Hollow traffic control no more than ordinarily

unprofessional. While the treaty announcement of 13 September

raised tensions among crew and passengers alike, no mishap ensued.

At 1533 on 14 September, our navigation surveillance systems

reported a probable Earth naval combatant with a heat signature

indicating a hard burn to match our vector. At 1612, we concluded

that the as yet unidentified ship was shaping to match our vector,

and would intercept us well short of any circumlunar approach

lane. We adjusted course to maximize time to intercept, and the

unidentified ship adjusted her own burn to compensate. We estimated

intercept within approximately twenty-six hours.

At 1644 on 14 September, we received a hail from the ship,

identifying herself as ENS Kearsarge under Captain John

Whitlow. Whitlow instructed us to cease acceleration at once and

heave to for boarding and the arrest of the passenger Amelia

Nine. Whitlow further instructed us to send no transmissions for

any reason, whether via QEC or conventional emission, and that he

would fire into us if we did not immediately comply with his

instructions.

Given Whitlow's apparent readiness to engage in hostilities against

an unarmed civilian vessel, and further considering his highly

atypical instruction to make no transmissions, I concluded that

surrender was not in the best interest of Quetelet or her

complement.

I informed Mr. Fredericks of the situation, and asked his

advice. He at once volunteered to send and sign a message to

Kearsarge, demonstrating his presence aboard Quetelet and claiming

her under secondment to the Foreign Affairs Office, thus protected

by diplomatic immunity under the definition established by the

Earth-Luna Memorandum of Consular Understanding, 2397. We

transmitted this message at 1732 on 14 September. We have received

no response.

In following discussion, Mr. Fredericks confirmed my appreciation

of Whitlow's probable intentions. Mr. Fredericks further noted

that, in light of the recent treaty of alliance, we could at best

expect to be interned following a surrender, and that, considering

the no-communication order, he personally thought it more likely

none of us would long survive such an action.

At 1749 on 14 September, we went to maximum emergency acceleration

and again adjusted course to maximize time to intercept. Kearsarge

again adjusted to match us and further increased her own

acceleration.

Kearsarge has continued to close us, and as of now we project her

no more than four hours thirty minutes from extreme weapons

range. We have no reason to doubt that Whitlow will fulfill his

prior threat at the earliest possible time, and we have no ability

to defend ourselves from such action.

We do not know with certainty what has driven Whitlow to so

contravene the accepted usages of interplanetary law and custom,

but - following further discussion with Mr. Fredericks and Amelia

Nine - I strongly suspect his orders are, by any necessary means,

to prevent certain information now in the possession of Ms. Nine

from reaching Luna. Therefore, at the request of Mr. Fredericks,

and with the consent of Ms. Nine, I include the following:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Hash: SHA1

I am Joel Kenyon Fredericks, most recently the deputy attaché for

military affairs in the Ganymede consulate of the Luna Free State.

On the evening of September 13, I was approached aboard Quetelet by

Ms. Amelia Nine, a citizen of Earth, with a request for political

refuge under the terms of the Lunar Declaration on Human

Rights, 2354. Being empowered to respond to such a request on

behalf of my government, and having judged Ms. Nine's reasons for

so requesting to fall within the relevant terms of the Declaration,

I proceeded at 2054 on September 13 to grant Ms. Nine's request.

Following this discussion, Ms. Nine disclosed to me information held

by her government in extreme confidence. Specifically, she advised me

that Earth's heavy spaceborne industry has recently achieved the

ability to construct armed combatant vessels equipped for superluminal

travel.

Ms. Nine substantiated this statement with copies of documents

obtained by technical means from the archives of the prototype

project. While Ms. Nine's collection does not describe that project in

complete detail, the engineering drawings and correspondence therein

suffice, in my judgment, to confirm her statements.

Based on examination of those drawings, I would provisionally classify

the prototype they describe as a corvette or gunship type. Due perhaps

to constrained generation capability, she is described as mounting no

power weapons, and only four frigate-class kinetic bombards. Her

internal spaces include eight large launch bays, each equipped to

support four LCA(H) 1180 or compatible landing shuttles.

Based on known capabilities of similar types, this ship most likely

can deploy mechanized formations, in battalion to division strength,

within two hours of arrival in orbit. However, such landings could

only take place unopposed; this ship's weakness as a combatant renders

her largely ineffectual in reducing defenses of any strength.

In particular, a ship of this type could not hope to approach within

weapons range of Luna, even via FTL drive, without being engaged and

destroyed by our planetary defenses. Should she survive long enough to

launch her boats, they would meet the same fate, inflicting minimal to

no damage on our installations in return.

However, the existence of a working Earth FTL prototype is nonetheless

frightening. I most strongly recommend this matter be discussed among

the parties to the new treaty, and that no effort be spared to obtain

dispositive information regarding her full capabilities, and the

current state of Earth's naval construction programs, particularly in

their Ganymede yards.

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If preventing this disclosure is indeed Whitlow's purpose, perhaps

he will desist when the transmission of this report proves that his

mission has failed. But I am not optimistic. Therefore, in the

interests of simple humanity, I have advised our passenger

complement of our current situation, and made available our QEC

sender for brief personal messages. We will append these to our log

dump, to be transmitted following this report.

In a similar vein: Thecla, I know you'll see this. I'm sorry to ask

it, but will you please bear the news? I'd rather it came from a

friend. Give Tim and Bertie my regrets and my love, and tell

Susanna and Marigold I'm sorry I couldn't make it home for their

birthday and they'll always be my favorite little squirrel butts.

Kearsarge is now within two hours of firing range, and continues to

ignore our hails. I will transmit this report momentarily, followed

by our log dump and our passengers' personal messages.

Of note: Ms. Nine has requested that she be placed in a lifeboat

and the lifeboat then jettisoned, in the hope that Kearsarge might

be satisfied with her capture alone, or might be diverted long

enough for Quetelet to reach safety. Given Whitlow's apparent

intentions, and the certainty that Kearsarge carries launches

capable of overhauling our own boats, I declined her request: we

all have to go, looks like, but none of us has to go alone and

afraid.

All the same - she was clearly terrified at the prospect, but she

fought for it anyway, and made us convince her it wouldn't help

before she'd concede the argument. I think that was the bravest

thing I've ever seen anyone do. Her people deserve to know that.

Finally, I wish to state for the record that my crew has performed

admirably throughout this ordeal, and I confide they will continue

to do so, right up to the end. Almost everyone is downship in the

passenger cabins right now, looking after the souls who've

entrusted themselves to our care. I didn't order that; my people

decided on their own to do it, and set to with a will. For all that

I regret we've come to this, my people could not have done me

prouder.

Adam Crozer, master of LRPF Quetelet, signing off.