Princess of the Empire (JNC Edition)

by Hiroyuki Morioka

  “I like him, too.” She grinned as she recalled her time with him. “I liked how often he smacks you with blunt, straightforward questions. I’ve never given the nature of our race as much thought as I have in the past five days.”

  “Lonh is a little too outspoken to be a well-behaved imperial citizen. He should dial it down a little, for his own sake.”

  “That is him dialing it down.”

  “I believe that the time she spends with Lonh will do Her Highness some good, though.”

  “Agreed. Bringing those two together might be my greatest accomplishment. But only if they do manage to make it to the capital.”

  “You’re quite worried about them, aren’t you?” There was a hint of laughter in Reiria’s voice.

  “What, I can’t worry about them?” She shot her vice-captain a defiant look.

  “I’d say that our situation is the more worrying one. That’s why you sent them off to begin with. I don’t think we have time to spare worrying about them. Though it pains me to find fault with the feelings of my superior officer.”

  “You, feeling guilty for criticizing a superior? Now this is an amazing development.” The captain stared at the steadily approaching band of yellow blips. “But it’s just as you say. Now is the time to fulfill my responsibility to my crew.”

  It was 19:37.

  “Captain.” It was Senior Communications Officer and Rearguard Starpilot Ynséryac. “The unidentified space-time bubbles have entered within range of our transmissions.”

  “Tell them the name of the ship, and ask who they are,” Lexshue ordered.

  “Roger.” The Goslauth proceeded to engage in inter-bubble communication.

  “This is the patrol ship Goslauth. Please communicate the name of your ship and your affiliation.” After a frustratingly long interval, they finally received their reply.

  The senior communications officer scanned the transmission pattern that appeared on the inner surface of the space-time bubble using her froch. “This... this isn’t a message. It’s an agac izomhotr (AHGA EEZOHFOHT, signal of challenge)!”

  “Then it’s settled,” Lexshue murmurred. Her faint hopes that it was an allied fleet on the move due to some situation she wasn’t aware of now lay dashed. But the newfound certainty actually cleared her head.

  “The signal of challenge won’t stop blaring. Will we respond?”

  “No, ignore it. If they want to toy with us, then let them try their hardest to catch up.”

  While the signal continued ringing like a bloodthirsty war cry, the ten bubbles closed in ever nearer. The bubbles had been represented before as yellow blips, but were now red — confirmed enemies.

  20:30.

  “It is time, Captain,” Reiria informed her calmly.

  “Okay.” Lexshue broadcast the following message to all crewmembers at all posts.

  “Attention. This is your Captain. The unidentified space-time bubbles have made their hostility clear. We will be shifting to Stage 1 War Preparations. Now equip your helmets and assume your battle positions!” Her announcement was accompanied by an alarm claxon.

  Before the captain’s seat, the latonh (LAHTOHNYUH, tactical control counter) slowly rose. Its screen displayed the map of flat space, but only at a limited range of distance, so the enemy hadn’t appeared on it yet. Lexshue inserted one of her circlet’s access-cables into the control counter.

  In spite of their captain’s orders, not a single person on the bridge had put on their pressurized helmets. The space-time bubble engine beneath the bridge was securely protected by a shared spherical barrier. If the air-seal there were to be broken, it would spell the ship’s doom. In short, it was pointless to wear a pressurized helmet on the bridge, so there was an unwritten rule not to.

  “Battle stationing complete for all hands,” reported Vice-Captain Reiria, who was monitoring the devices that displayed the state of the crew’s onboard deployment.

  “Prepare for hocsatïocss (HOHKSAHTEEOHX, mine battle).” The captain wasted no time. “Load mines number 7 through 10 with baich (BEHSH, antimatter fuel).”

  Satyth gor hoca (SAHTYOOTH GOR HOHKA, mobile space-time mines), or hocsath for short, were unmanned but equipped with their own space-time bubble engines. They were akin to miniature-scale interstellar ships in their own right. Their volume and mass were significant, and as such, not even a gigantic patrol ship could house very many. The Goslauth could only hold 10, and numbers 1 through 6 had unfortunately already been used for practice exercises.

  Their explosive impelling force derived from matter-antimatter annihilation. Since it was exceedingly dangerous to maintain the antimatter fuel if it was equipped on a continuous basis, they had made a habit of getting it supplied from a mother ship’s baicœcec (BEKEK, fuel tank).

  Supervisor and Deca-commander Gyrmryac ordered the fuel transferred to the deck containing the antimatter tanks. The antiprotons flowed into the mine deck, conducted by magnetic pipes. They allocated the antimatter fuel into magnetically confined containers of the four mines on deck.

  “Loading of antimatter fuel complete,” conveyed Senior Gunner and Vanguard Starpilot Sarrych.

  The captain heard him loud and clear. “Fire the mines. Keep them within the bubble until the time is right.”

  The four mines were pitched. They settled into the same pocket of space-time as Goslauth, and began to slowly rotate.

  21:30.

  “Enemy bubbles have entered mine range,” reported the surveying communications officer.

  Sarrych looked up inquiringly at the Captain, but she shook her head wordlessly.

  The ten bubbles pressed in even further, steadily assuming a battle formation encircling the Goslauth.

  “A textbook attack formation,” Lexshue remarked. “Generate the bubbles on the mines.”

  “Generating bubbles on mines,” parroted the tlaciac hocsathasairr (TLAHKEEA HOHKSAHTHAHSEHR, mine gunner). After quickly working the controls, the mine gunner looked up and said, “Bubble generation confirmed!”

  The enemy bubbles had already appeared on the control counter’s screen. They were accompanied by red numbers.

  “Aim the mines. 7 on 3, 8 on 1, 9 on 6, 10 on 7,” Lexshue commanded.

  Ideally, they would land two mine blasts on each space-time bubble. In this situation, however, they had no such hopes.

  “Inputting data.” The mine gunner’s voice raised the tension of the bridge. “Targets aligned.”

  Lexshue switched her circlet to external-data mode. The data of the ship’s sensors flooded into her brain’s rilbidoc area. Her perception of the bridge disappeared as she focused her frocragh.

  Lexshue was now at the center of a spherical space. The inner surface of their bubble whimpered with blotches of gray, the product of all the space-time particle collisions. It was pregnant with the stillness preceding a battle.

  “Prepare for dadïocss (DAHDEEOHX, normal space battle). Fire up the main engine system.”

  “Roger. Firing up main engine system,” repeated Gymryac.

  The telltale rumble of antimatter and matter’s bitter quarrel rattled the ship. There were, however, many crewmembers who saw the vibrations as ominous.

  “Senior Gunner, prepare the irgymh (EERGYOOF, electromagnetic cannons).”

  “Roger. Preparing the EM cannons. “Vanguard Sarrych equipped his control glove. He was in charge of steering while within the bubble. He released the safety on the EM cannons and loaded their first volleys. “EM cannon preparations complete.”

  The red blips had the blue blip, the Goslauth, completely encircled. They swooped in curved trajectories while closing the distance on their prey.

  It really is right out of the drill manual, Lexshue thought with some admiration. It was clear to see that the enemy possessed a high level of proficiency. It was exceptionally difficult to maintain that clean formation while in flat space, where communication between units was tricky at best.

  But her faith that her crew was not infer
ior when it came to skill was more than justified. While the Goslauth may have been commissioned a mere three months prior, and one would be hard-pressed to claim that a sense of unity had formed in the crew, taken individually, they were all seasoned soldiers, each capable of satisfactorily carrying out their respective duties.

  21:32.

  Lexshue stood up from her chair and extracted the command staff from her belt. Then, the captain’s seat sank into the floor. Using the call-device on her control counter, she addressed her entire crew.

  “My dears, it’s show time. I’m sure you were tired of waiting — SAPORGAC! (SAHPORGA, commence battle)” As soon as Lexshue puffed up her chest, the alarm claxon trilled through the air all across the ship.

  She pointed the command staff at her mine gunner. “Detach all the mines.”

  “Detaching mines,” said the gunner. “Number 7 undergoing gor reutecoth (GOR RYEUTKOHTH, space-time severance). Number 8, likewise. Number 9...”

  Each mine exited her field of frocragh perception, one after the other. Four new blue blips shot out of the blue blip that represented the Goslauth. Each traced its own path of attack to a red blip.

  “Number 8 undergoing gor ptarhoth (GOR PTARROHTH, space-time fusion)... Enemy Bubble Number 1, destroyed!” At the surveying communications officer’s report, the bridge suddenly burst with emotion.

  Though Lexshue had no way of knowing it, the ship hiding within Bubble 1 was the United Humankind Peacekeeping Force’s destroyer, the KEO3799. Captain Cartzen and the 23 other crew would go down as the first casualties of this lengthy war.

  Bombs 7 and 10 also hit their marks, consigning two more enemy bubbles into oblivion. The space-time bubbles smashed up against the space-time particles, causing the fabric of flat space to undulate.

  Number 9, however, missed its mark. The enemy bubble continued closing in as though nothing had happened.

  “Turn 40 degrees right! We’re going to ram Enemy 4!” she commanded the rilbigac flactlochothasairr (REELBEEGA FLAHCTLOH’SHOHTHAH’SEHR, bubble-steerer navigator) with her command staff.

  The enemy, meanwhile, was fusing with their space-time from many different directions, seemingly determined to thrash the Goslauth in a group attack. The basic blueprint of battle involved faithfully executing on a solid strategy, but the Goslauth had no obligation to go along with that.

  “Roger,” said the navigator. Around the stationary blue dot, the flat space map rapidly zoomed as red blip 4 charged toward them.

  “They’re 100 chéscédlairh (SHESKEDLEHRR) away... 50 away...”

  “Initiating space-time fusion, at position...”

  The captain’s frocragh detected that part of the inner surface of their bubble had already begun to froth due to bombardment by a large number of space-time particles.

  “Direct the ship’s bow into the point of fusion.” Lexshue thrust her command staff at the ominously frothing portion of the bubble’s inner barrier. That staff was pointing at what the devices on the bridge had detected, and after the computing crystals processed that information, it was beamed into Sarrych’s froch.

  Now, the senior gunner’s frocragh sensed the external environment, just as the captain’s did. The command staff’s motions overlapped with that sensation, in a way that could be understood by the vanguard starpilot.

  “As soon as we fuse, fire at will.”

  “Roger.” But Sarrych’s voice had grown high-pitched.

  “All hands, prepare for an EM cannon volley,” Vice-Captain Reiria advised.

  The ship’s bow was pushed into the froth. “Space-time fusion underway!”

  What they saw defied all expectation. A giant tunnel opened its maw within the quiet sphere of space. At the other end of it lay an alternate universe, and at its center lay an enemy warship. Its aim to destroy the Goslauth undisguised, it faced off against them.

  The very second Lexshue realized there was a tunnel, the EM cannons were fired.

  The Goslauth’s main weapons, it sported four EM cannons in the front and two in the back.

  All at once, the four front cannons fired spytec (SPYOOT, fusion warheads) accelerated all the way to 0.01 times the speed of light. Another volley followed soon after. The massive recoil overloaded the ship’s gravity control system, and all the crew members that weren’t fixed in place toppled forward.

  Lexshue clasped onto the control counter and endured the tremors.

  The eight fusion warheads jetted in unpredictable trajectories and dodged the enemy’s defensive barrage to hurtle steadily onward. With the warheads’ last attitude control, all the fuel they had left was fired through their backs, and they made their final bursts of acceleration flying toward their target from all directions.

  The enemy also fired its lunygh (LOONYOOZH, antiproton cannon). However, the flow of antiprotons was shot from almost point-blank range, ricocheting pointlessly into space off the magnetic field the Goslauth had laid out.

  The enemy ship exploded into smithereens, but they had no time to celebrate their victory.

  “The enemy is fusing with this space-time — Ships 2, 5, 6...” The inner wall of the space-time bubble was already showing signs of entry from six different spots.

  “Bow!” Lexshue thrust her staff at Enemy Bubble 2, having concluded it would be the first to arrive.

  The ship’s nose detached. An instant before space, merciless and full of enmity, opened its maw to usher in the enemy, a volley was launched at it. But they couldn’t stop to check the results — they were already onto their next mark. Another enemy vessel was threatening to breach nearly right behind the patrol ship.

  “Stern!” Lexshue thrust her staff over her shoulder. In order to slightly shift position, the Goslauth prepared its attitude and fired two fusillades from its twin back-cannons.

  Despite having just broken through, Enemy Bubble 6 immediately proceeded to escape, detaching from their space-time.

  In that moment, the first fusillade burst into their space-time. The second detonated within the patrol ship’s bubble to no effect, but the enemy bubble dispersed as soon as it had fled.

  To one of the ship’s sides, Enemy Bubble 5 had completed fusion with their space-time. Neither the bow nor the stern could face it in time.

  “Use the mobile cannons!” She thrust her staff to the side, so that they could mow it down.

  The Goslauth was equipped with mobile bhoclanh (VOHCLAHNYUH, laser cannons) as well as antiproton cannons, controlled centrally from the bridge. The cannoneers aimed cannons both big and small and unleashed torrents of clanragh (CLAHNRAZH, lasers) and antiprotons at the enemy. These, however, were not furnished with the homing mechanisms of electromagnetically-propelled shells, and their accuracy rate was exceedingly low, to say nothing of their inferior firepower.

  The enemy ship detached its four antimatter ballistic missiles and fired its antiproton cannons.

  The missiles were not the problem. A missile that hadn’t been accelerated beforehand lacked in speed, making it easy prey for the patrol ship’s rounds of defensive fire. However, the antiproton cannons equipped on the enemy ship’s bow were more potent than the Goslauth’s mobile counterparts, and as such were capable of obliterating a giant vessel like it in the blink of an eye with a clean hit.

  The enemy’s torrent of antiprotons formed a clump and then surged toward the Goslauth. Though slowed by the Goslauth’s snœsaibec (SNESEB, magnetic shield), the antiproton torrent pierced into its outer hull like it was rÿabonn (RYOOABOHN, crystal pottery). It instantly penetrated and boiled the water stored within the barrier walls. Then it reached the inner hull, composed of heavy metals, and devastated it. Meanwhile, the boiling water blew away part of the outer hull and the attitude control nozzle.

  The Goslauth’s computing crystals didn’t need to wait for the direction of a supervisor; they detected the damage and switched the ship to a mode where it could stay in control of its locomotion without that nozzle. Even so, the ship had lost most of its maneuverab
ility.

  The space-time bubble, agitated at multiple points, began to distort and curve in on itself. Within the writhing space, the battle was in a state of transition.

  23:05.

  “Enemy 10” was now a lump of plasma. Two ships remained.

  The Goslauth was also wounded. Around half of its mobile cannons had been rendered silent, while many attitude control nozzles were damaged as well.

  “Major damage on Laser 3!”

  “Front Attitude Control Nozzle 3, incapacitated.”

  “The main engine system’s power output, it’s...”

  Unpleasant news was pouring in from everywhere. There was nary a second to rest for Gymryac, who had organized an emergency repair team and sent them to places where the damage could be seen to.

  “Section 907 undergoing depressurization. No remaining crew there. Locking down.” Sweat glistened on the brow of Dich, the clerk, as well. There were more than 50 dead or missing. That was a significant portion of a warship’s crew of 220.

  Lexshue kept her eyes closed and strained her froch to perceive what she could. Debris drifted all throughout their pocket of space. A vast number of broken-off fragments cluttered her senses. There were probably bodies amidst the cloud, though they were beyond saving. Any lifeboats sent to retrieve them would simply get shot down. Besides, their uniforms were too thin to protect them from the raging radioactive winds.

  The two enemies flitted about, like a pair of butterflies, and spat their fell exhalations upon the Goslauth. Try though they did to hit them with the EM cannons, the painfully sluggish patrol ship was a sorrowful sight now. The enemy dodged their attacks with utter ease.

  Of course, the mobile cannons never ceased hurling fire at them. Their lasers broke through the outer hull of the enemy and sublimated its splintered pieces. The ionized hydrogen of the warship’s driving flames piled on the resultant effluvium, and the particle density within its space-time bubble gradually decreased. Wandering protons and antiprotons collided, and transformed into electromagnetic waves. This microcosmos blazed like the beginnings of the Drïan (DREEAHN, Big Bang).