Obsidian Ressurection

by T J Bryan

  The distance was closing fast as the second volley raced toward the destructor. "Incoming" said Buddy in the calmest voice he could manage. One torpedo and we are inside the damage zone."

  "Fire" said Silvi as she tried to remain sitting in the Captains Chair.

  "Keep firing until those torpedoes are destroyed."

  The single torpedoes was intercepted and destroyed at 54,000 kilometres and the blast wave rocked and spun the Ragnarök around. The claxon sounded and Farn shouted, "Rebreathers everyone. Rebreathers." Silvi knew at that point they were venting atmosphere.

  "Farn, damage report!"

  Farn read the maintenance station log and began to shout in order to be heard over the outrush of air into the void. "Two of our engines are out. We have only one functioning tube. Only one autoloader is working. We have only two 'K's left on that tube. We are venting and should be vac-ed within 40 seconds."

  Silvi could see Lennie fighting to regain control of the ship as Buddy shouted in the thin air, "She's turning and coming about. The destructor is headed this way. She's 25,000 kilometres out and closing."

  Silvi thought to herself this is a really stupid ending. Ragnarök is helpless and that destructor is hardly damaged. Hildr is gone and Róta so damaged that she cannot help.

  Buddy continued, "She is closing fast. Why doesn't she shoot another torpedo? Were just sitting here.

  "That was her last torpedo shot Buddy," Silvi said letting her Captain speak fall away. "But I'm sure she has a missile or two left. All right Crew of the OCN Ragnarök, prepare for impact." Silvi knew this was probably the end but in her heart she was satisfied. They had done everything possible with the resources they had and they had saved the Commonwealth from starvation.

  As the Ragnarök continued to spin uncontrollably and the vacuum settled in on the bridge they could only watch the vid screen as the destroyer closed in. Awfully close Silvi realized. The captain of that thing must be enjoying his work.

  The vid screen flashed with a brilliant light and the Ragnarök trembled and shuddered. This is it thought Silvi.

  Buddy was pointing to the vid screen and gesturing wildly as the Banshees on Sváva sped past the Ragnarök. As Silvi looked closer the destructor was no more. Just another pile of floating junk in the Wu System. The Banshees had blown the destructor to hell. Silvi laughed within her rebreather hood. The captain of that destructor had been so enjoying his moment of the kill that he failed to realize the real killers on his tail. Six hormonal teen aged girls had sent the destructor a message; don't mess with the OCN.

  Chapter Fifty Five

  Wu System - Greenland Mess - Year 3246. July 27 ET: 04:32

  The after action 'hotwash' had been brutal. And Silvi was the most critical of all and she found herself responsible for a multitude of errors which resulted in the loss of Hildr and her crew as well as two casualties on Róta. Emmitt kept emphasizing their success. They had saved Wu Station and destroyed the destructor. The tactic of driving the fleet into the arms of Vidar Thoranson's Brynhildr had worked brilliantly. None of the ships survived except the liner which quickly surrendered and was towed to Wu Station. In Emmitt's mind, and the crews of all the other ships, they had achieved a victory, however at a very real cost.

  Silvi could not see the positive side. She outlined her errors and each one took a toll on her soul. She should never have split the SARs into two groups; one focused on the destructor and the other chasing after the retreating fleet. She should have concentrated her SARs on single most viable threat - the destructor. Instead the destructor managed to engage each SAR one on one and the results were catastrophic in Silvi's mind. The only way to take on a ship that sturdy was multiple simultaneous attacks. It was a mistake she vowed never to make again. She had understood Greayson tactics and had tried to apply them, but in the heat of battle she failed to follow through and had split her forces.

  Captain Mills of Róta had lost a pilot and their environmental specialist from internal blast shock. Other crew members including the captain had been seriously injured but were expected to fully recover. Doctor Orloff with the help of three doc-boxes assured them that a full recovery was possible given enough time. The maintenance bots immediately following the hit on Róta had set about repairs and had managed to return one engine of the four to service. The other damaged engine would need replacement from spares in the Commonwealth. However Róta would easily make her way home. Brynhildr with Captain Vidar Thoranson was untouched. At the 'hotwash' Vidar had described chasing the Unity dreadnaught toward the exit portal to Nelots when the Unity ship's engines failed and blew out the aft portion of the huge ship. Vidar was trying to decide whether to finish her off in an act of mercy when the Unity ship missed the portal and continued on into the void unable to manoeuvre. The liner however might well be successful in escape so Vidar pulled away from perusing the Unity ship and instead captured the liner. The liner, when entered by the marines appeared to have been used as a kind of flying palace and bordello by the raiders, and although the ship was old it was still sound and was towed to Wu Station for a survey and hopefully a return to service as a Wu ship. The Unity dreadnought was last seen heading into nowhere. The captured pirates from the liner would be left to Wu Station justice.

  Ragnarök was so badly damaged that outside a full Greayson ship yard she could not be repaired. And Greayson shipyards had not existed for over 200 years. Ragnarök was a write off. Emmitt had her towed to Wu Station. The station thought she might make a good decoy. Captain Smilot thought that if they put an energy source on Ragnarök and simply parked her at the station any incoming ship might well assume the station had a functioning SAR. Such an assumption was likely to lead to a more welcoming reception for any visitor intent on trade and not piracy. Additionally the eight remaining missiles on Ragnarök and 32 sand casters were off loaded onto Wu Station and placed in the monitor section. Wu Station now had some sting.

  Silvi took the loss of Ragnarök with a heavy heart. Her ship was lost, but her crew was rescued. Just another example she thought of her failure as a captain and as a commodore. Emmitt knew that assuring Silvi of her success would not help at this time. He could only let Silvi think her way through the days action and hopefully come to the correct conclusion. Although costly the OCN had achieved a victory over a fleet that outgunned them by at least eight to one and in the face of anti-matter ship killer torpedoes.

  After a short discussion with Emmitt, it was decided to immediately return home. The exhausted crews of the SAR's found comfort in the Greenland as The Banshees' Sváva, Vidar Thoranson's Brynhildr, and Jason Mills' Róta were brought to Greenland's SAR dock. The SAR's would return home in the flight deck of Greenland. Their crews needed rest.

  The passage to and through Nelots System was uneventful. Emmitt stood on the bridge of Greenland and Silvi had retired to a room in the supercargo deck. Meg Asgeir sat in her padded pilots seat while Fivecent Huagen manned the defence station and Eirik Njall sat at weapons.

  The passage to Nelots was uneventful. Nelots was one of the rare systems which had both an entry and exit portal to Wu. In the Great War this had made Nelots a critical choke point for the Wu knot line to eight systems most of which had more complicated knot lines leading back to Wu.

  Nelots was to all intents and purposes a dead system clustered around a sub-giant M class sun. Nelots eight planets were burned out cinders from some cosmic catastrophe lost in galactic time. Comets and wandering bodies made astrogation through the system tricky and Nomi spent several hours plotting a course that was safe but not swift. Emmitt felt that, though he and the crew of Greenland were anxious to return home, there was no sense in taking a risk by racing home. After ten hours they approached the exit portal to Arn, which 90 hours later would lead to Dello and home.

  Tunnel time from Nelots to Arn was only 15 hours, but transiting across Arn to the Dello entry portal would take 22 hours. Emmitt stood on the bridge as Meg Asgeir took the Greenland into the tunnel Since noth
ing could happen in the tunnel Emmitt reduced the watch staff to two; Rod Galindo their second pilot and Fivecent Huagen who manned the defence station. Emmitt had not realized how tired he was until he hit the bed in the tiny captain's quarters. He fell into a deep sleep as the tension of the last weeks faded away. Emmitt and the crew were grateful for the time in the tunnel.

  Emmitt awoke after 12 hours of sleep. That's how tired he felt. After a quick shower he climbed to the bridge and the bridge mess where he found Silvi drinking coffee and chatting with Farn and Nomi. As Farn described Nomi's latest research on Nomi's Book of Stars, Nomi remained focused on her inter-tab. Emmitt could see Nomi was calculating something.

  As Emmitt went for tea he heard Farn talking. "So Nomi tells me she has completed her preliminary methodology work on 'backwash' analysis, but she needs to confer, or argue with Dilli when we return home before completing her work. When we get home she wants any future voyages to gather data on new systems or confirm the findings to date. If Nomi's work is correct, and Dilli agrees, then astrogation will be enormously simplified. The OCN will still need astrogators with advanced mathematical and computational skills, but those skills can be found at the Collegium. Perhaps most of the advanced students in the mathematics or physics departments will qualify."

  "That's great," said Silvi drinking her second cup of coffee and without conviction. Silvi caught herself staring at Nomi as Nomi entered one of her trance like states everyone knew was the result of calculations she was completing in her mind.

  Emmitt said, "Were about to enter Arn in an hour. Would you three like to join me on the bridge as we enter the system. There is not much there, but it is getting closer to home.

  Farn and Silvi agreed, but Nomi shook her head no. She was busy with something and wanted to concentrate. Silvi knew that even getting Nomi into a public area like the mess had taken some effort from Farn. If Nomi was not at the astrogation station she insisted on being alone or with Farn. Silvi was increasingly concerned with Nomi's growing anti-social behaviour but she dismissed her concerns. Nomi was growing up and in five days would have a birthday at 15. Perhaps she will grow out of her dislike of social interaction. Time would tell.

  They entered the bridge and the command con as the shift change was occurring and a full bridge crew was assembling. Nomi soon entered and sat at the Astrogation Station. Meg Asgeir entered in her custom built slider chair and she adjusted the cushions and the anti-gravity chips that surrounded her. Moments later Fivecent Huagen and Eirik Njall took their positions at defence and weapons. The bridge was calm as Silvi pulled down one of the jump seats behind the captain's chair. Emmitt remained standing for the entry to Arn.

  Pilot Asgeir called the time of entry to Arn at fifteen minutes. Silvi spent those minutes going over and over in her mind all the mistakes she had made at Wu. The crew were starting to call it the Second Battle of Wu, the first having been Wu's liberation. And although all the crews were satisfied with the results of the battle, even given the tragedy of the loss of Hildr and her crew and the injuries to the crew of Róta, none blamed Silvi for the losses. Only Silvi blamed herself.

  "Entering Arn in one minute," Meg said in her quiet voice. Moments later the dark of the tunnel was replaced by the dark of the void sprinkled with millions of pinpoints of light and a dull red glow from Arn's sun.

  Fivecent called out "We have something in system that does not belong. Three things in fact. Too massive to be ships. Almost small planetoids. They were not here before."

  Emmitt asked, "Mr. Huagen, can you scan at this distance."

  Fivecent replied, "Those things are so big I could hardly miss. But for an accurate assessment of what they are we need to get closer. At least 500,000 kilometers out. That will take us about 10 hours."

  Emmitt nodded, "Mr. Asgeir take us in to about a million kilometers from those things. I don't want to get too close. After all we are going home."

  Fivecent continued, "Wow, I have huge intermittent energy radiating from those things. Off the charts. "

  Silvi's immediate thought was Spikeys. "Could they be aliens like the Spikeys?"

  Fivecent continued, "Might be. Hard to tell from this distance."

  Emmitt asked, "Are they stationary, or moving, and if so how fast."

  Fivecent looked carefully at his console, "They are moving across the system at about 4% of SOL."

  Emmitt turned to Silvi. "How fast did the Spikey move at Girots?"

  "Its' maximum speed chasing us out of the system was about 3% SOL. The Spikey is so massive it takes enormous energy to move the thing. Just getting it started must take enormous effort."

  Emmitt continued, "Could it be headed to our portal?"

  Nomi who was manning the astrogation station answered. "No. Too big."

  Silvi remembered that Nomi had concluded the Spikeys simply travel through the void at that slow sub light pace. Probably for thousands of years until they find what they are looking for. Silvi said, "I suspect they are attracted to a goldilocks planet. There is nothing here in the Arn system to attract them. If I were to speculate I'd say they were traveling through to somewhere else on a long long flight."

  "Could this be from Girots?" Emmitt asked.

  Nomi responded. "No."

  Lennie spoke up, "At 4% SOL or even 50% SOL it would take years to reach Arn from Girots. This cannot be the same Spikey that burned Girots."

  Fivecent interrupted. "Those energy spike are some kind of X-ray plasma discharge. Those are weapons they are firing and whatever that plasma stream is awesome in its' power." Fivecent paused looking worried, "Emmitt, I mean Captain, we need to stay far away from those plasma discharges. At least a million kilometers. If one of those discharges comes our way we could be in a world of hurt."

  "Agreed Mr. Haugen. Meg lets stay at least one and a half million kilometers away, And lets spend as little time here as possible."

  Meg spoke up, "Our plot to the exit portal and on to Dello takes us within 400,000 kilometers of the fight. So we will have to stay in-system until they leave, or do whatever they are here to do. Arn has only one exit and right now those things seem to be slugging it out too near the portal we need. I think that ..."

  Fivecent interrupted Meg. "Ok, I have a signature on two of them. They look a lot like Spikeys. In fact I'm sure they are. That other thing is just too strange and my systems seem unable to really scan the thing. It is big, that's obvious, but I can get no mass reading or internal energy fix. The Spikeys however have energy readings and mass equivalent to what Silvi saw on that first voyage to Girots.

  Emmitt spoke, "Bring up the vid screen and magnify on those ships please Mr. Haugen"

  Moments later the vid screen flashed and at maximum magnification revealed tiny specks in the distance often obscured by intense flashes of light.

  Fivecent commented, "That intense light is nothing. Its' the pulsed X-rays that are the killers. And my scanners for that type of energy discharge are simply unable to measure the extreme intensity of those blasts."

  "Those blasts seem regular Mr. Haugen. Can you estimate the cycle time for each blast." Emmitt asked.

  Fivecent nodded and a few minutes later he replied, "It's not the Spikeys firing those blasts, it's the other ship or planetoid or whatever it is. Cycle time is 135 seconds between blasts. I am picking up traces of fission explosions. Silvi does that make any sense?"

  "Yes, in our encounter with the first Spikey the only weapon they fired at us were missiles with fission warheads. Nasty things, but not exactly state of the art. Further the missiles were far slower than ours. Perhaps 800 kilometers a second tops."

  Meg called out, "We are at 1,500,000 kilometers out from that fight. Do you want me to hold here?"

  Emmitt thought a moment and looked at Silvi. Silvi was reluctant to offer advice to the Captain, after all Silvi was a Commodore and Emmitt was in charge of his ship.

  Emmitt spoke, "Yes, hold here. Have the SAR's prepared to launch if necessary. Silvi if I rememb
er you used sand casters with success against those slow missiles."

  Silvi nodded. It went unsaid that there was simply no defense against X-ray pulsars at the energy rating being fired in the exchange.

  Mr. Njall load Greenland's tubes with sand casters. Have the SAR's do the same. My intention is not to fight but to follow Abel's admonition about battle. If given the opportunity we are going to run. Run as fast as we can and let those things fight among themselves. We have nothing to gain here except dying." Emmitt paused a moment before continuing. "Mr. Haugen and Mr. Asgeir I will be in my quarters. Notify me immediately of any change in status and hold at this location until I return."

  Emmitt turned to leave the bridge and motioned for Silvi to follow.

  Emmitt entered his captains quarters which were no larger than those found on a SAR. He sat at his small desk. Silvi knew where the small jump seat was located and pulled it down and sat. Emmitt bowed his head for a moment and passed his fingers through what was left of the hair on his balding scalp, before straightening up and looking at Silvi. "Well Silvi, what do we do? Wait? Make a run for it past that mess out there?"

  Silvi thought a moment. "We don't have options here Emmitt. We wait. How long that fight out there goes on is anyone's guess, but if Fivecent is right and someone is using enormous X-ray plasma guns this fight cannot go on for very long. The energy required for those bursts must be incredible. And you are right to choose running over fighting. We simply don't belong in that fight, regardless of our anger at the Spikeys for Girots."

  Emmitt replied, "Well, It's nice to know the Spikey's have enemies. I'm not sure the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and in this case I really doubt that is the case, but it is still good to know that someone is kicking Spikey butt. Assuming the Spikeys have butts."