The Chance Encounter: The Linda Eccles Series - Book One

by Robert Woodard

  “Overlord, are you sure that is wise? If we do not disable their weapon, they will surely fire back.”

  “If we can get a mine to strike them now, we just may be able to knock their propulsion offline, and that will probably knock out their power, too. Without power, how can they fire anything? Hurry, Underlord, we do not have much time. I need that mine ready to launch as quickly as possible.”

  Bresk hurried over to the tracking station. While the Underlord worked on carrying out the orders, Sinska studied the tracking view that finally came back online. The Tail Whip currently pointed away from the prey ship. Sinska knew that his ship needed to point directly at the prey ship for the mine to have any luck hitting it. With the Underlord busy getting the mine ready, Sinska decided to tackle that part himself.

  “Overling, are you showing propulsion output capability yet?” Sinska asked after moving over to the navigation station.

  “Yes, Overlord. Both propulsion drives are ready for full capacity.”

  “Bring us to a stop.”

  “At once, Overlord.”

  The Tail Whip slowly bled off speed until it stopped completely. Sinska decided to wait until the mine was close to ready before swinging the ship in the hope the prey ship would think he was giving up any further pursuit. If they ignored him, they just might not see his bow turning toward them.

  “Underlord, how close are you to having the mine ready to launch?”

  “The final commands have been entered, Overlord. We will be ready to launch in a few beats.”

  “Overling, I want you to slowly swing the Tail Whip until our tubes are aligned with this prey.”

  “At once, Overlord.”

  Sinska set one eye to watching the Overling enter the command that slowly swung the ship. With the other eye watching tracking, he could see the course line making tiny jumps as the ship turned. Swinging his eye away from the Overling, he took in the live viewer showing the prey ship.

  Sinska’s tongue lashed out at the monitor, flicked up and down, and then swiped his nostrils on the way back into his mouth. Do you detect me coming for you? Sinska almost let the words slip out in his excitement to strike back at his prey. Looking around at the backs of the overlings, he wondered if it would not be prudent to let them hear the confidence in his voice. He decided against it, believing that now was not the time to act like an excited ling. He would never launch himself at his prey until the last possible moment, so neither should he claim victory before he sealed their fate.

  “The mine is ready, Overlord,” Bresk said.

  “As soon as the Tail Whip is aligned, launch.”

  “Yes, Overlord.”

  The live viewer showed the blinking lights of the fading prey ship as the nose of the Tail Whip swung into it. Now aligned, the ship shook as the mine propelled out of its tube. When its small propulsion drive ignited, the mine shot away.

  Chapter Twenty

  When the alien ship came back to life, showing strong power readings, Linda had kept a close eye on them. So far, they seemed content on behaving themselves. She suspected they had come to respect the firepower the Privateer carried. They had even stopped and showed no sign of pursuit, but she also noticed their slow swing in her direction. Frowning, she wondered if they intended to fire at her again.

  “Captain, the alien ship is swinging to align with the Privateer,” the Nav Specialist reported. “However, the ship shows no forward momentum.”

  Linda was convinced the alien ship was preparing to fire again. She hit the comm option on her control panel and was just about to press weapons control when the specialist shouted out a warning.

  “Contact, bearing one-five-zero on a collision heading of three-three-zero!”

  A quick look at tactical told Linda all she needed to know. The alien ship had indeed fired again, and the speed of the incoming object made any thoughts of trying to shoot at it moot. Linda could feel her anger bubbling within, but she ignored it and took action.

  “Nav, hard up, hard right!”

  As the ship began its rapid climb, Linda locked the incoming object onto the live viewer to avoid having to track it manually. To her surprise, the object did not alter course to follow the ship. A sense of relief hit her when the tactical view showed the object would pass behind and slightly left of the Privateer’s stern.

  Linda gave out a huge sigh. She had just leaned back in her chair when the monitor flashed brightly, followed quickly by the shaking of the entire ship. Down in front of her she saw the tracking console and the nav console go dark, a clear indication that their sensitive electric circuits had triggered the safety fuses to protect them against damage.

  Giving the damage control board a quick look, Linda could see that the rear shielding indicated red, reflecting a complete failure of the aft emitters. One propulsion unit now lit bright red, a clear warning against the blue background of the status board. The second unit showed green, giving Linda a sign that the Privateer could still be maneuvered.

  “Nav, switch to manual control and return us back onto course three-three-zero!” Linda nearly shouted, her adrenalin forcing the volume of her words louder than intended.

  She watched as the Specialist slid an old-styled keyboard out from under the console. The designers of the Privateer had placed all the critical computer modules within emergency control, so that the ship had to suffer a near catastrophe before it was completely disabled. Linda was thankful for it. As the navigator entered in the manual commands that would route deep into the heart of the ship, Linda wanted to kiss those very designers whose foresight kept her ship under control, even though some of the bridge control modules had failed.

  Linda noticed that the tactical view no longer displayed, and she suspected the sensor data wasn't feeding into it. Looking at the monitor in front of her, she could see that the live feed still functioned, but it would be useless in detecting if the aliens fired again.

  Activating the comm unit, Linda said, “Emergency control, this is the Captain. Is your tactical working?”

  The voice of Rebecca came back at her, responding, “No, Captain, the sensor array overloaded, and it will take a few minutes before it resets.”

  “Very well, stand by in case I need to transfer navigational control; Captain out.” Linda then switched the comm over to weapons control. “Mr. Launtra, this is the Captain, do you have tracking capability?”

  “Yes, Captain. While our targeting computer is not working properly, and we believe it is related to the lack of sensor input, the targeting scope is still functioning.”

  Linda knew that the targeting scope offered a far superior zooming capability than any of the external imagers. Although it was not ideal, it offered her a set of eyes against any more incoming missiles, rockets or whatever that damn alien ship fired.

  “Very well. Tactical is out, so I need you to be our eyes until the problem is corrected. Keep a sharp watch for any more activity from the alien vessel. You are free to fire upon any more of those weapons of theirs. You are not to return fire on the alien ship, however.”

  “Understood, Captain.”

  Linda felt mad enough to fire back, but her better judgment warned her not to do it. She was in their space, and they clearly didn’t like her being there. While she couldn’t understand why they weren’t content in letting her leave, she surely didn’t want to continue to escalate this situation until one ship finally destroyed the other. She just wanted to get out of this crazy nightmare and go home. She was going to use her ship’s superior speed to accomplish the task.

  Linda cut off the comm, having used all her internal strength at having avoided a lengthy blast of expletives in her conversation with Bill. She silently fumed as she watched the bridge crew pulling the console panels off to get to the fuses. One of the panels rested against a chair with its internal side facing outward, and Linda could see a row of clips that carried extra fuses.

  Nodding to herself, she figured whoever had designed the Privateer knew wh
at they were doing. Having fuses right at the point of failure would save valuable time in getting her ship up and running again. Another feature that Linda appreciated was the red warning lights that flashed inside the exposed consoles. These flashes signaled an open circuit, indicating which fuses had blown—another time saver.

  As she stared at the fuses, her thoughts went back to her days at the academy, and in the engineering portion of her training, she had questioned why fuses were still being used instead of cut-off switches. The answer she was given by an old, retired, engineer teaching the sessions was that fuses were still the best way to protect sensitive circuits because of their failsafe ability to burn out at the most critical step in a power surge. She remembered him saying, ‘Better a fuse then a circuit board when you need it fixed fast.’ Linda understood it all now.

  The more she watched the work going on in front of her, the more her blood boiled over the gall of the alien commander to fire upon her beloved Privateer. What had she done to deserve such violent behavior from these aliens? True she damaged their ship, but was it not also true that they started it by firing at her first? It seemed like school all over again. Cornered against a number of girls she had no hope of retaliating against, all the while wishing she could lash out, but knowing the injuries they would inflict upon her if she did. Well, she was not in school anymore, and she had more than enough capability to give as good as she got.

  In her anger, Linda punched the comm unit, coming ever so close to pressing weapons control. While her ire told her to blast the bullying alien bastard to whatever deity they believed in, her instincts told her no. For several seconds, the two sides of her emotions battled with each other for the right to control her actions.

  Forcing herself to take multiple deep breaths, slowly letting each one out, Linda brought herself back under control. The vision of the school bullies disappeared, as did the worst of her anger. Looking down, she could see the comm unit still awaited her selection. Lightly placing her hand over the option for weapons control, she said, “Mr. Launtra, do you show the alien ship underway again.”

  “The ship is turning starboard now, Captain, and they appear to be moving away.”

  “Very well. Let me know if they show any indication of following us again.”

  ◆◆◆

  Sinska ordered the Tail Whip into motion to put distance between him and the prey ship. When the prey ship had turned up and away in their wild maneuvering, he suspected their commander now knew that a mine could not track them. When the mine exploded, he had such high hopes, but it quickly faded when he saw the ship correct its course as if nothing had happened.

  The beats had been painfully slow as he waited for the return fire he assuredly knew was coming, but so far, the prey ship had held off shooting back. Sinska found this confusing. Had he knocked out the prey ship’s weapon? How could he know for sure? Should he take the risk of turning to fire another mine? The thought of provoking the other commander into firing at him again did not sound like the smartest option.

  Sinska tried to guess what the Council would do over his inability to follow through on their directive. They surely could not say he did not give it a valiant effort. He had just taken his best shot at disabling the prey ship, but they had managed to avoid it. He had also learned that this prey was not asleep in their control chamber, either. Their reaction to the incoming mine had been swift and effective. The upward, right turn had been the most accurate direction to take. Had they turned left, they never would have gotten their back end swung around quickly enough. Had they tried to descend their back section would have risen to present an even more inviting target for the mine.

  Sinska decided that the Council Members could criticize him all they wanted, but he was not going to risk ship and crew with anymore action against this prey. They had proven wily and dangerous, and that was a bad combination for a predator to try to tackle. He would not do it on Kracks, and he surely would not do it out here in space. Let the Masterlords do what they may to him for Sinska intended to bring his ship home safely.

  A sharp bang rang through the overhead ceiling, and Sinska realized it was the damaged upper hatch striking against the hull. The sound created a harsh reminder of what his prey was capable of doing to his ship. It saddened him to think he would be bringing a proud Kracks ship home with damage from a failed mission. Like a hunt that proved fruitless, his brave crew would return empty handed.

  Sinska felt sure that this was the last time he would be in command of the Tail Whip. Once the Council was done with him, he would be lucky if he was ever allowed near a ship again. Searching his feelings, Sinska tried to decide if that was really a bad thing. Maybe it was someone else’s turn to spend time in the coldness of space.

  Looking at tracking, Sinska could see the two ships continued to put serious distance between each other. With the prey ship seeming content to continue moving in the other direction, Sinska preferred to keep it that way. Once that ship finally disappeared out of Remp, Sinska would focus his energy on getting his ship repaired enough to get back to Kracks.

  “I would have liked to have seen what creatures inhabited that ship; especially who commanded it,” Bresk said, breaking the silence that had taken hold of the control chamber.

  “Yes, Underlord, that would have been most desirable. That ship is leaving a lot of unanswered questions behind it. For instance, why did they come alongside my ship when they could have kept going? Why did they not finish us off? It even baffles me as to why they did not fire at us when we launched that last mine. These creatures are very hard to figure out.”

  “Who can really understand the thinking of prey? What causes a female of one species to fight fiercely to protect her young, while another will simply run away to leave it to its own fate?”

  “You make a good point, Underlord. Perhaps I am reading too much into this species. Maybe their unpredictable ways are characteristics of a panicked prey, rather than a hunter like us.”

  The control chamber went quiet again as Sinska went into deep thought. This species had a ship with a nasty weapon, but did that really make them a superior race? After all, some plants have long, sharp thorns in defense of being eaten, but that does not make them smart. They simply adapted a natural defense. Perhaps these creatures fled now out of pure instinct. After all, they seemed to prefer running over taking a stand. Unlike two males battling it out for territory, these creatures seemed more like a female that had accidentally wandered into the wrong gugg to be chased away by the gugg mother. Sure, the fleeing female may throw a rock back at the gugg mother, but only to gain ground in getting to a safe distance.

  Sinska started to feel better about this entire ordeal. He had shown these creatures that he owned this section of space, and that he would defend it bitterly. Was he not chasing the intruder away? Was it not fleeing for safety with its tail between it legs? He did that. He made the challenger run. Sinska decided he had nothing to be ashamed of, and when it came time to explain his actions to the Council, he would state that exact fact to them, too.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Aft shielding is operational again, Captain,” Sharon reported. “The damage control computer is reporting that two emitters are functioning at only one-third capacity. I suspect they may be bent, or possibly pushed back into the hull. There’s nothing we can do about it until the ship goes in for repairs.”

  Linda gave the damage control board a quick peek, confirming the status of the shielding. The starboard side aft shielding showed green, while the port side shielding shined a troubling yellow. Glancing over at tactical, she could see the alien ship still moving away, making the risk of having to rely on that weakened shielding less of a concern. Looking back at the status board, she noticed both propulsion units showed green again.

  “What is the status of the port propulsion unit?”

  “No worries there, Captain. The unit simply stalled when a back-blast of propulsion output forced back up the exhaust port. Lieuten
ant Slone gave the unit a once over before declaring it fit for duty. They restarted it, and it has been running without any problems, so far.”

  “Thank you, Commander. I doubt we will have any further trouble with our friends out there. I think it is safe to return to a regular ship’s routine.”

  “I agree, Captain. Do you want me to take the first bridge shift?”

  “No, Commander, I’ll take it. You go get some rest.”

  “Thank you, Captain.”

  As Sharon walked off the bridge, Linda thought over her performance during these troubling times. While she may have been lazy in shirking her duties during their setup mission, she held her own during this crisis. Perhaps she isn’t as bad as I first suspected. Linda decided to keep a close watch on her executive officer to see if she was worth salvaging after all.

  ◆◆◆

  “Five ships have entered the Remp system, Overlord!”

  The report from the excited Tracking Overling caused Sinska to rotate on eye his way and his other eye onto the monitor showing tracking data. Five new objects flashed onto the screen, soon followed by their track lines reflecting their current heading. The data clearly showed him that these ships had come in from Kracks. Nearly 11,000 beats had passed since he broke off contact with the prey ship, and he felt it was about time the other ships finally arrived.

  “Have you identified the ships yet, Overling?” Sinska asked.

  “I am getting their identification markers now, Overlord. They are the Slayer, Claw Plunge, Biting Prey, Wicked Bite and Tracker.”

  As the Overling rattled them off, Sinska could see each of their names appear below their symbol on the monitor. Clenching a claw in victory, he said, “Now our prey will feel our sting.” Sinska rotated an eye onto the live viewer and hissed at the blinking lights from the prey ship. Getting his mind back into action in running his ship, he ordered, “Overling, have the Underlord return to the control chamber.”