by Peter Wood
‘Wirrin, I’m going to make sure Akama shows that decoy on the InterWeb of every habitat so they know what you did.’
‘And Sonic will tell all the dolphins that you’re the cleverest hunter they’ll ever meet.’
Feeling somewhat embarrassed at such high praise, but also good about it, Wirrin was distracted by a blue attention light on Thom’s console.
‘Whooee! The asteroid acceleration just dropped to 1.53G. That’s three engines each for the disablers now and all being well we’ll have two more Cadre ships completely out of action in another eleven minutes.’
Thom paused, concentrated for a moment, then looked at Wirrin. ‘I’ve rethought our plans again. We’re holding off our next attack till after the disablers are finished. We’ll be safer that way.’
Wirrin, startled, checked the countdown. ‘Can we take the chance? We’d be down to less than nine minutes with two Cadre ships still to disable.’
Thom shook his head. ‘It’s not taking a chance. It’s our best strategy. They need at least two fully functional ships to keep that asteroid manoeuvrable, so we only have to get one of them, and there’ll be an opportunity soon after the disablers finish.’
Wirrin and Calen watched Thom intently. The increased confidence of his tone meant he had something interesting in mind.
‘When that happens the last convoy ship will connect. It will have to or their whole mission will have been aborted, and that connection will take careful manoeuvring in very limited time.’
‘Nine minutes? Isn’t that plenty of time for them? You’d do it in less than a minute.’
‘With this ship, yes, but that monster is 700 metres long with massive momentum to control. I flew them after the Freedom hijack, remember, and I’m estimating they’ll need something like four or five minutes. They’re going to be desperate when the other two ships lose all their engines and that’s when we’ll make our move.’
‘But look at all those atomics they’re releasing. We’ll never get past them without another decoy.’
‘Yes we will. Only one ship will be releasing them and it will have to modify its pattern while the convoy ship makes its approach. That’s the opportunity I’m counting on.’
‘One? There are four of them.’
‘The two with their engines wrecked will disconnect and we can forget about them. The convoy ship will stop too, at least for the trickiest part of connecting, and that’s our moment.’
‘What if the two ships don’t disconnect? It makes more sense for them to keep protecting the convoy ship till it’s in place.’ Calen persisted and Wirrin agreed with his logic.
Thom shook his head. ‘They won’t. They know our habitats are moving by now and their tracking will have told them they must keep the asteroid at a bit over a full G. They’ll drop way below that if they keep the mass of two non-functional ships added to the load … They’ll disconnect.’
Wirrin wasn’t so sure, but he wasn’t going to argue against waiting for an opportunity that improved their chances. And anyway, if the break Thom was hoping for didn’t happen, there would still …
Red lights flashed, but after a glance Thom switched them off.
‘Weird! I don’t know what that means. They turned their jamming equipment on. It’s pointless because it stops them tracking the habitats. They’ll have to turn it off.’
‘They’re panicking.’
‘Not with the training they get. Wirrin, are transmissions still getting through from Pirramar?’
Wirrin scanned with his InfoSystem. ‘Yes, without a break … The Comets are still disintegrating the sixth asteroid … The habitat drives are all working at full power … The four K74 asteroids that are left are all directed at Attunga, and this big one is targeting Warrakan … The habitat picofactories are pouring out mobile spectrum-beam units.’
Wirrin stopped speaking to check an incoming transmission with a priority tag on it.
‘Thom, Pirramar says there’s a possibility that if they lose control of the asteroid then the remaining Cadre ships might commit to a suicide attempt against Warrakan.’
There was silence as the trio took this in.
‘This is bad! It means we will have to disable every single engine. There’s no choice. I’m still going to wait for the disablers to finish, though, because we have to survive this next attack to even have a chance at the last ship.’
‘Warrakan’s hull has had the strength upgrade. Won’t that be enough to stop Cadre ships?’
‘Not at this speed, Calen. There’s just too much kinetic energy involved. How long before the next two engines are disabled?’
‘Well, just over a minute if they work at the same rate they have so far. Thom, if we tricked the convoy ship into chasing after us that would make it easier to get at wouldn’t it?’
‘It would but it’s unlikely they’ll break position at this stage.’
‘I could design a set of signals that make it look like we’ve been damaged. That might lure them.’
‘Um, you’d have to be fast. Like in the next four or five minutes.’
Wirrin did it in two. He’d developed a database of ship signals and how to modify them when he was designing the decoy.
‘Their scanners will pick up a faulty engine and partial damage to our stealth defence. We’ll look like half a ship with a crippled engine.’
‘Half a ship? Let’s see what happens.’
Nothing happened. Except a barrage of missiles that were harmless because Thom had judged his distances and speed so well. After twenty-five seconds the apparently crippled and fleeing ship disappeared under full stealth and circled back to watch what happened when the disablers completed their job. Despite expecting a reaction, Thom’s yell still made Wirrin jump.
‘That’s perfection! You’re a total brainiac! You’ve done it again, Wirrin. The asteroid’s G just dropped to 0.79 and two more Cadre ships are completely disabled. Engage your emergency harnesses and prepare yourselves for action sometime in the next two and a half minutes. Calen, are you ready with the pre-sets?’
Of course Calen was ready. They were all ready and hoping beyond hope that Thom’s prediction would eventuate.
Wirrin watched Calen’s multi-visual displays of the two newly disabled Cadre ships with tense anticipation.
Leave! Leave! You’re slowing that asteroid down! You should leave! After sixty interminable seconds a whisper of doubt edged its way into Wirrin’s mind.
At ninety seconds the whisper had become a cloud and fifteen seconds after that it was so much a certainty that the change in position of one of the ships didn’t seem real.
And then the other.
Wirrin’s spirits climbed. The two ships dwindled behind, not as rapidly as the earlier ones, but that didn’t matter because they were now out of the picture and no longer a threat. The level of danger ahead was now significantly lower and they focused their attention on the convoy ship. If Thom’s prediction was right it would start moving towards one of the vacated connection cradles.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Wirrin wanted to yell that Thom was unbelievable, fantastic, clever, brilliant, but he made do with a silently mouthed ‘yes’ at Calen, because right now Thom was a study of pure concentration as he manipulated his controls to keep their little ship in the best relative position while the Cadre monster manoeuvred closer to the asteroid. The barrage of missiles and atomics continued, just as Thom had said it would, but despite this Thom made his approach. Once again Wirrin marvelled at how close they were to the asteroid surface and, even more frightening, how close they were to their target. How could their stealth possibly hold at this range? The convoy ship slowed as it jockeyed close against the asteroid until, a scant 100 metres from connection its incessant barrage suddenly stopped.
Thom’s voice rang out. ‘Multi-spectrum-beam capacitors at maximum charge!
Engaging in … five … four … three … two … one … zero.’
For the fourth time the little ship put everything
into the totally controlled seconds of precise destruction and frantic evasion, and for the fourth time Wirrin’s relief at the release from that awful thrust was overlaid with the knowledge of success. Again there was quiet while Thom did his assessment, then shared elation when, more quickly than previously, he was able to speak.
‘Brilliant, Calen! That was 6.8 seconds and you did it with only one pre-set. Are you ready for the next one because I’m heading back for him right now? He’s going to disconnect and I want to get him while I can still hug the asteroid surface. It’s been a more effective strategy than I expected.’
‘I’m ready. It seemed easier that time.’
‘It wasn’t. You’re adapting to battle stress. Here we go! Capacitors building! Engage emergency harness!’
The harnesses didn’t need engaging. They hadn’t been released in the short recovery period.
Wirrin stared in shock as the ship raced faster and closer to the rugged asteroid exterior than seemed possible. Thom seemed to be able to dramatically increase their closing speed.
Right now Wirrin’s eyes were locked on the display while his mind flinched from each inevitable collision that somehow didn’t happen.
‘Capacitors at maximum!
Engaging in … five … four … three … two … one … zero.’
This attack went without a hitch. The whole two seconds of it.
The escape didn’t. Instead of one hammer of thrust the ship was hit by two. The first was the usual, the engines working at full power. The second was a sideways force with enough strength to scrape the little vessel fleetingly against the asteroid surface.
Interference from the first jamming device had caused an incoming missile to explode in the merest fraction of a second before it hit, and the concussive force of detritus against their hull had thrown them slightly off course. All Wirrin knew was two great lurches which tried to throw him from his seat, another minor lurch shortly after, more seconds of high G, and a blessed return to normal.
Thom was concentrating on his console with a frown. A frown?
The image in Wirrin’s mind of the multi-spectrum beam darting precisely as it had on all their other attacks meant that they had surely been successful. Hadn’t they? His concern growing, Wirrin blurted, ‘Thom, what’s wrong?’
There was a long silence, then Thom said, ‘They damaged my ship.’
Wirrin didn’t understand. There were no warnings showing on the consoles, the visual showed they were circling back towards the asteroid, and a quick glance at the screen that Calen had centred on the Cadre ship showed that none of its engines were firing.
‘But you saved Warrakan! The asteroid’s dead!’ He paused. ‘How bad is it?’
Thom shook his head as if to clear it. He tried to smile but it faltered and Wirrin saw that he was fighting tears. He and Calen rushed to Thom’s side, then hesitated, frightened by the look on his face and the tears welling in his eyes. Thom made a strange little sound.
‘Sorry … We did stop them … I didn’t think I was good enough.’
Wirrin stared at him in amazement while Calen released the harness and dragged him into an enormous hug.
‘You great lumping idiot! Of course you’re good enough. There’s no-one better.’
Wirrin wrapped his arms around both of them.
‘We fight off seven Cadre ships and you call me a lumping idiot? I deserve better than that,’ Thom said, a catch in his voice.
The smiles grew when Thom pointed at the display where the last Cadre ship was disconnected and apparently hovering close to the asteroid.
‘Why are they still here?’
‘You’re hopeless! They’re coasting. The same as the asteroid. They can’t do anything else now and Warrakan will just drive out of their path.’
Calen’s little grin meant his question had been purposely designed to give Thom a payback opportunity, and Thom, realising this a second after he’d responded, shook his head and told Calen he was crazy.
The elation at their success was short-lived though as Thom turned to his console again. The asteroid and the Cadre ship suddenly dropped away at incredible speed as they began their deceleration process.
‘What’s coming through from Pirramar?’
Thom’s voice once more sounded serious and controlled. Wirrin did a quick update.
‘The Comets have been working on the last K74 asteroid for just over two minutes with a countdown of four minutes and seventeen seconds before it reaches Attunga.’
‘They’ve run out of time. They’re not going to stop it.’
‘Why didn’t they use your strategy of hugging close to the asteroid to get at the Cadre ships?’
‘They couldn’t, Calen. The Comets are way too big. Wirrin, that time doesn’t match with the earlier prediction. It’s twenty-one seconds longer.’
It was too.
‘I don’t know why, but it must mean that the asteroid has slowed down.’
Right now Pirramar was channelling an overload of information from the habitats, every Comet, the AIs, and the Witness Council. Without hesitation Wirrin linked to the data coming from their own Comet, checked it, then immediately switched the visual component to the big display. They gasped at the view of a great lance penetrating the asteroid, an incandescent wall of fire and destruction disintegrating more and more asteroid material.
The Comet-sized multi-spectrum beam at work made their own look puny, and Wirrin wondered briefly what the heavy-duty habitat units must be capable of. They watched for ten seconds or so but the view didn’t change and Thom wanted more.
‘Can we see the other Comets? That doesn’t show us their progress.’
‘Where’s Sonic? Can we see if he’s all right?’
‘Um, I can only show you what they’re sending. Hang on … the Witness Council transmission might tell us more.’
It did. One big window showed a representation of the oncoming asteroid with the nine Comets down in the great pit their beams were gouging. Attendant to it were graphs and icons with relevant and continually updating information.
Another window had a Witness advising Attunga people of the actions they should be taking right now, and as they listened to the futile instructions about brace positions and cautions to keep away from any large free-standing object, the horror of what eight hundred million Attungans were facing welled within Wirrin.
With their own hours of tension and stress there’d been no real time to dwell on the crisis facing others but now, watching helplessly as the deadly asteroid raced closer and closer, it filled their thoughts. Wirrin and Calen moved closer to Thom.
‘Look! The first of the mobile beams just activated.’
Somehow the AIs had forced the habitat picofactories to construct nearly fifty mobile multi-spectrum-beam units and place them along the path of the approaching asteroid so each unit could deliver a fleeting blow in the short period while the speeding mass was in range. They watched quietly till, with just under two minutes left, Calen suddenly jolted and looked at Thom.
‘What about the Comets? They’re down in that pit. They won’t be trapped will they? Sonic’s with them.’
‘They’ll all be safe. They’ll stay as long as they can then leave at exactly the right second. It will already be carefully calculated.’
Together they watched, despairing and fearful under the growing realisation there would be no miraculous reprieve.
Fourteen seconds to impact.
Where were the Comets?
Eleven seconds.
Ten seconds.
Nine Comets streaked from the pit.
Seven seconds.
Six seconds.
Wirrin took a deep breath and held it, transfixed as he stared at the display.
Three seconds.
Two seconds.
One second.
The display flickered for several seconds then completely blanked out.
***
Aboard the Comet, along with all the rest of th
e crew, Sonic and Gulara watched the shocking sight of the rear section of the habitat disappear behind an explosively spreading envelope of fire and destruction as kinetic energy was transformed instantly to heat.
Safety filters dimmed the real brilliance of the rushing corona to a glowing red and white.
Inside the habitat eight hundred million people felt the jolt and tremor of their home.
In the transport pools aboard the Comet, every enhanced dolphin joined in the age-old call of distress.
Deep in the protected section of Attunga the AI gestalt leapt to an unprecedented level of activity.
Along the exterior, the great construction complex ceased to exist, picofactories, buildings, docking bays and construction-bots all vaporised in an instant.
The people of Warrakan and Freedom stared at the same blank transmission till the screen flickered again and activated with the image of Akama.
‘People of the open habitats. Attunga has survived.’
Chapter 37
‘But we were there just fifteen minutes ago.’
Calen was finding it hard to cope with the news that it was going to take seventeen hours to get back to the habitats.
‘Yes, and we were travelling at over 7000 kilometres every second. We have to lose all that velocity before we even start coming back.’
‘Why don’t they invent some other way to travel then? It always takes too much time. On Attunga and Warrakan you can get anywhere in twenty minutes.’
‘Some other way? Like what?’
‘I don’t know. Like the warp holes they have in virtual reality dramas.’
Thom loved it and Wirrin couldn’t help laughing.
‘Warp holes? Idiot! I’ll never understand how your brain works. You mean worm holes. Warp is different. It’s the engine making everything super-fast.’
‘So I was right. We should be able to worm our way through the warp holes with super-fast engines the AIs make for us.’
‘Make a techbot to fix his head please, Wirrin.’
‘My head? It’s your head that needs fixing. You said the ship was damaged but everything’s working perfectly.’