Badlands

by Randal Sloan

  Unfortunately, the two officers were wrong in their assumptions. Instead of the Katarina, they'd found a pirate ship that was hiding in the nebula targeted for the exercise. Apparently they didn't get the memo to avoid that location. When the Saber initiated their missile lock, they targeted the pirate ship, but since they weren't expecting a snake hiding in the grass, they weren't prepared for the reaction.

  For once, the pirate couldn't really be blamed for his behavior. He couldn't help but think he'd been found by a searching ship and his only chance was to fight back quickly and try to get away in the confusion. He was quite heavily armed for a pirate, but normally that would still be pathetic compared to the armament the destroyer carried. The pirate launched a full load of his missiles, hoping that just maybe he would get a lucky hit. A second launch immediately followed the first.

  On board the Saber, Lieutenant Barkley did a double-take when he saw the missiles. He was slow to respond and again he made the wrong decision, studying his display for the answers instead of letting his commander know at once.

  "Is this supposed to be a live weapons exercise?" he finally asked his commander.

  "No!" Commander Simpson stared at the display in front of him. There was no question they were under attack and he knew the Katarina didn't have any missiles. That had been in the mission brief.

  "Something's wrong. Stop those missiles. Get our shields up!" He immediately signaled an emergency on the ship's console.

  But it was much too late. By this time several of the missiles had acquired their ship and despite their tiny little brains, they weren't going to be deterred. A few defensive missiles shot out but they were too little, too late. The shields had barely started coming up.

  A destroyer was built for speed and for her defensive capabilities, but she wasn't built with robust armor. She would normally try to avoid a straight on attack, fighting from a distance and avoiding direct contact with her enemy. In this case, Saber had none of that going for her. She was caught completely off guard and the pirate was at nearly point-blank range.

  The first round of missiles struck, knocking down the minimal shields the ship had raised. They wouldn't have had any shields at all if Lieutenant Morrow hadn't been so well prepared. If she hadn't, they probably wouldn't have survived the onslaught long enough to worry about it, because the second set of missiles quickly followed the first set. Those missiles continued undeterred on their course, homing in on their now defenseless target.

  Needless to say, the results were catastrophic. Missiles struck the unprotected ship in a number of vital areas, destroying missile launchers, shuttle bays, etc. and knocking out most of the ship's engines. But by far the most vital area to be hit was the Engineering area of the ship. A destroyer didn't have the space necessary to bury Engineering the many levels deep that would have been used on a larger ship. Only a few levels were between them and the ship's hull. Two missiles, one right after the other, struck the hull above the area where the ship's reactors were located and the combo wreaked havoc.

  There were many heroes on board that day. Those heroes did their duty even at the risk of their lives. In Engineering, even as a breach warning flashed on her implants, Tinker did not even consider her own safety. Her two assistants panicked, leaving her alone as they rushed out with everyone else. But Tinker knew just how bad it was. The reactor control system had taken a direct hit and without intervention, the reactors would certainly explode in mere moments, destroying the ship and killing all aboard.

  Hating to do it to her beloved reactors and already struggling to breathe in the thinning air, she managed to eject the reactor cores, saving the ship. Only then did she try to make it out of the compartment. She wouldn't have made it, collapsing for lack of oxygen by the time she reached the door, but her two assistants quickly realized they'd left their boss behind and in shame they came back for her with an emergency breather. They knew they risked their own lives coming back, but they also found a way to do their duty.

  Still it looked as if all the heroism would be for naught. The pirate ship had expected limited results from his missile launches. He'd already turned to flee his adversary, desperately trying to escape in the nebula. But he stopped his flight, launching another round of missiles and with no way to raise a defense, it looked like it would be fatal for Saber.

  Katarina witnessed it all from her hiding place, just as much surprised by the events as the others. If it hadn't been for her ailing sensors, perhaps she would have prevented the disaster entirely by detecting the pirate from the beginning. The Saber should have been taking the exercise more seriously, running with his shields raised and defenses ready. But the commander had let his resentment affect his decision making, something he knew better than to do in their situation. He knew if he survived this, he would get a reprimand in his file. All of that and bad luck led to the current situation.

  "Oh my God," Sasha was the first to speak. Unlike the rest of the crew, this was the first time she'd really seen the results of a space battle up close. The last one had been over before she'd understood what was going on. "We've got to do something to help them."

  "I know," Jarra told her. "I just don't know what we're going to do to help or if we're ready for this. "We have no missiles for either offense or our defense. What can we do?"

  Gabo was first to respond. "It doesn't matter. We've got to do something." He glanced at his boards. "Our shields are at 100%; the AI raised them immediately on the detection of missiles, even though we weren't the target. They should be able to hold."

  "Get us in front of those missiles," Jarra told Galen. Just as shocked as the rest of them, somehow he managed to get their engines to fire off at max power, no fluctuations this time.

  Thus Katarina rushed into the fray, her entrance surprising both the destroyer and the pirate. Sara was working furiously, using their ship's advanced electronic warfare (EW) systems in an attempt to fool the missiles and she managed to divert a few of them harmlessly away. Still it wasn't enough as most of the onslaught struck their ship in a nearly simultaneous explosion.

  Her shields flaring violently, somehow Katarina managed to survive the onslaught. But even with her new technology, her shields could only take so much and they dipped dangerously low. Plus, Gabo hadn't had time to do any tuning to them, so they were nowhere near what they needed to be.

  "Shields are less than ten percent," Gabo warned. "Slowly rebuilding, but we can't take another hit like that."

  Jarra knew he was right. After all, they were still breaking this ship in. The shields would improve after they worked on them, making the adjustments needed to work together as a whole in battle. Perhaps after they optimized everything, they would have the shield power to survive such an attack, but not yet.

  "We have no choice," she told them all. "I know we're not ready, but we've got to try the beam. Gabo, get ready. Let him get just a little closer and then hit him with it."

  She looked into his shocked eyes. "Full power. The systems will either hold or they won't."

  Gabo just nodded. They'd had considerable discussion about that after looking over the new weapons system. No one was certain it was all going to work. They had planned to do a lot more testing before they actually fired it.

  The pirate crept a little closer. He would be ready to fire his missiles again any second now.

  "Fire!" Jarra ordered.

  Gabo complied, tapping the icon on his panel. There was a tremendous surge of power and then everything went pitch black.

  #

  The bridge of the Saber was still mostly intact, although they'd taken some damage from secondary explosions. Despite what the 3D VR entertainment programs tried to portray, the bridge of a ship was always in the most protected part of the ship. If a ship lost its command and control, it would be quickly doomed. But that didn't sell in entertainment vids that well, so they put their bridge on the top of the ship with a huge window so they could crash things through it, somehow managing to let th
e crew walk off unscathed episode after episode.

  Commander Simpson had often laughed at the absurdity of it all, but right now he was glad they were protected so well. Not that he expected to survive; he knew how critically his ship was hit and the ship they'd stumbled on undoubtedly was a pirate who would delight in the destruction of an Imperial ship.

  Momentarily his ship had lost sensors, but he could almost feel the missiles he knew had to be headed for them, probably only seconds away. Finally, the sensor tech was able to get his systems restarted, tossing up the display for all to see.

  "The Katarina!" he said in disbelief. As they watched, the tiny ship flew directly into the path of the oncoming missiles they'd known were coming. His disbelief was raised even higher as he watched the ship shrug off the missile attack, although her shields flared dangerously bright.

  "I can't believe it," he said. "Somehow, I don't know how, but they survived. I don't see how they can take another hit like that, though."

  The Commander shook his head. "They have no missiles to fire back. What can they possibly do?"

  His admiration growing for the tiny ship's crew, he went on. "All they can do is die with us." He watched as the pirate crept closer. "They should have tried to escape."

  What happened next completely shocked him.

  #

  Emergency lights came on in the Katarina. Jarra breathed a sigh of relief. At least their ship was alive for the moment.

  "We're on emergency power only," Gabo told her. "The reactor's completely scrammed. I'm working on bringing up what systems I can."

  "The pirate," Jarra had to ask. "Did we get him?" She knew if they hadn't, missiles of death would be raining down on their unprotected ship any moment.

  "I don't know. I'm trying to get my sensors back up, but it's going to take a moment."

  They all hoped they had that moment, but no one was certain. Everyone was practically holding his breath.

  "I don't believe it," Gabo stared at the board in front of him. "I've got only partial sensors, but I'm picking up nothing but debris in front of us. It worked! Even better than we hoped. It appears the pirate was completely destroyed."

  They couldn't help it. Cheers went up across their ship.

  Jarra let them go a moment, but she just shook her head. "Not a very practical weapon. Can't have our systems go down every time we fire it."

  She looked at Gabo and Galen. "How soon can we get the reactor back? I don't particularly like being dead in space like this. What if he has a companion nearby?"

  It was Gabo's turn to shake his head. "At least an hour. I'll have to go really slow and Galen will probably have to swap out a number of components. I know we burned out a few. We've just got to hope the pirate had no one with him."

  Sara broke in. "I'm getting a signal from the Saber. They're asking if we're alright."

  "Put them on a channel," Jarra told her. A VR view of the bridge of the destroyer appeared in front of them. A very shaken Lieutenant Commander Simpson faced her.

  "Commander," Jarra answered. "As you can see, we're still intact, although the main reactor is down. How is your ship?"

  "Hit pretty bad, but we'll survive, thanks to you. What in the galaxy was that weapon that you just fired?"

  "It's a top secret and highly experimental weapon we've managed to copy from the alien tech. We're the first ship to receive it. I must ask you to swear your crew to secrecy." She knew that would have limited effect; how could they not talk about their close brush with death? Still, hopefully it would keep it as a rumor that would be disbelieved for a time.

  "As you can see," she went on, waving a hand at their darkened bridge. "we're still working out the bugs."

  "It was something else to see from our point of view. Quite a weapon to possess if you can get those bugs worked out."

  The Commander glanced up at his VR view. "I have a message from Squadron Command. A task force is on its way to provide assistance. They'll be here in just over an hour."

  Jarra nodded. "I just received that message as well. Hopefully, we'll have our reactor back up by then."

  Commander Simpson grimaced. "Unfortunately, we're in considerably worse shape. I expect we'll have to be towed in to repair facilities." His look changed to a near smile. "Thanks again for saving us. I will make sure they know just how big a risk you took to protect us."

  Jarra glanced up as a private message addressed to her personally came in. That message was a rather frantic message from her cousin, Crown Prince John. "Oh, they know. I can promise you, they know."

  Later they would all meet to honor the heroes of the day. Jarra's team would have another medal to add to their collection. So would a very surprised Lieutenant Skyla Morrow, who would also get a promotion to a much bigger ship. Her assistants were surprised when she asked them to join her, but they immediately said, "Yes!"

  They had learned their lesson the hard way, but they both knew who they wanted to learn the rest of their lessons from.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Putting the Pieces Together

  Admiral Conrad Janson opened the encrypted message he had just received. Appearing to only be a report on the pirate activity in the Basil district, when he supplied it with a special passcode, internally to his implants the report became modified slightly. Instead of a report on the losses to Imperial merchant ships, it was actually now a report on results from the viewpoint of the pirates.

  Fifteen successful captures, one pirate ship lost. Not bad. The one loss was due to its fool of a captain not correctly following his instructions and blundering right into a Rim Patrol cruiser. Despite the rebels' losses a few weeks before, everything was still moving forward.

  Janson knew it was only luck that had forced him to leave just before the attack that had apparently destroyed his two rebel squadrons, having been forced to return to his Rim Patrol vessel to prevent suspicion regarding his double identity. Janson smiled as he thought about that. Those fools still haven't a clue about me.

  Although if he'd been there, Janson was sure he could have prevented the loss. That commodore I left in charge must have really screwed up. I still don't see how he lost to them, even if the Imperials had the three squadrons I heard about. Not with the help from our friends with that monster ship. I bet most of those Imperial ships were badly damaged and their reports of no losses have to be bogus. Probably just a lie to make it look like the Empire is still doing well. No matter.

  Janson wasn't that worried about the losses of the older ships. They'll be obsolete soon anyway, as soon as we get the new ships, which they've promised will start arriving soon. No, the Empire has bought itself a little time, but it won't matter in the end.

  Janson was more concerned about his report. His take from the pirates would be quite substantial, but it wasn't enough to suit him. He completed his response to the report, incorporating the planned Rim Patrol's ship movements in the district so his inside person in the pirate ranks could schedule their attacks to be just outside that patrol's reach. He added a paragraph telling them to pick up their game. Yes, this business venture would work out quite well if they would do their part. He could wait a little while to get his revenge for the losses in the battle.

  #

  Sasha Alexandrai was in her own world. She had just gotten her newest full data stream from the Empire and had gone full in on her data dive. She knew the others had been testing their new ship and she knew that was necessary, but right now she had more important things to do. Already she was getting answers she didn't like. The Princess was certainly not going to like this.

  After another hour Sasha finally had the percentages pretty well nailed down. At least she thought she had the answer to one of the questions that had been bothering everyone. She now knew the name of the traitor admiral that everyone was looking for. He was close to the top of the list of suspects, but the man had been very careful, so they didn't have any proof of his involvement. Sasha knew without a doubt he was the one, but she knew
her data wouldn't prove it to anyone else. Well, maybe the Princess and John, but they would both be constrained by their strong belief in the justice system, despite the fact either could have taken it in their own hands.

  When Sasha finally came back to herself, she realized the others were arguing about something. Apparently while she'd been zoned out they'd been working on the new beam weapon. After their last trial by fire, it appeared that even with their enhanced power systems, they didn't have enough power to fire the beam at full strength. Gabo wanted to add the modern equivalent of a capacitor bank to store the power to fire the beam, but Jarra was insisting that would make the time between firings too long. Most battles would be over before they could fire the weapon more than a handful of times.

  "Hyperspace," Sasha told them. "As long as you're near a hyperspace stream, you should be able to tap into a part of the stream and feed it into the beam."

  Everyone looked up at her in surprise. Sasha tried to explain. "I saw the research on the beam. I thought it was obvious what was needed. The energy of the beam is a reflection of the same energy as hyperspace."

  Gabo shook his head. "The aliens on the moon had to use a power plant the size of this ship to fire their beam. It was more powerful than the one we're trying to produce, but not by a factor of that much."

  "Well, obviously the aliens haven't figured it out then. They appear to be AI-based, so I'm guessing they can't see the patterns. You know how limited AI's are at seeing outside the box."

  Gabo just stared at her. "Just how would you do this 'tapping in' as you put it?"

  "Kinda the opposite of how you do the missile launchers. You open a tiny hyperspace window into the beam system, while the rest of the ship remains in normal space. The frame of the 'window' would have to be reinforced, much like you do on the launcher. You wouldn't even need that if the ship's in hyperspace when you're firing the beam, just tune the window to a slightly different hyper frequency."