Deadly Squad (Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Book 3)

by Gray Lanter

  I returned to my cabin and flicked on the hologram. In the distance was the Black Ship that flew rather monotonously unmoved by events or emotion. Six tiny flickers of silver zoomed in an intercept course. Our six Toys remained far away but they headed steadily toward their target.

  The big screen in my office flashed what the bridge saw – a larger picture of our adversary, sailing nonchalantly to kill us. I buzzed the admiral.

  “Yes, major.”

  “Admiral, I never asked you how long the range is for our Disintegrator Ray. Since it might come handy, I was thinking I should inquire.”

  He smiled. “The range is about five hundred miles, major.”

  “Five hundred. Not really a long distance for a space battle.”

  “Right now it’s the best we can do, or at least the best our scientists were able to do.”

  “We’re going to have to travel pretty close to them before we fire.”

  “Yes, we will. But on the plus side, if we get close enough to use it, we won’t have to worry about any explosive backlash. There is no explosion. Whatever we hit with it will simply… come apart and gradually disintegrate. No noise, no explosion. They just go gentle into the space night.”

  “I’ll look forward to seeing that.”

  “One small caveat, major. The weapon works on all known materials. If our adversary has a ship built out of an unknown materials…The Ray might be as effective on anything it touches. But we’ll never know for sure until we try it out. Good grief! Did you see that?”

  I turned and looked at the screen. The Black Ship flickered. And kept flickering. Then it changed. Like plastic moldering into a cast. The configurations of the ship shifted, not greatly, but changed.

  “That’s impossible,” I said. “A ship can’t simply… morph into a different style of ship. Never seen anything like that before.”

  “No one has ever seen anything like that before,” the admiral said. “That violates every law of physics in the known universe. Wait… it’s shifting again.”

  Like some giant animal shedding its skin, the metal ship changed again. The final result wasn’t that much different than the original design. But it was merely the fact that it shifted that was unbelievable.

  “Major, I think that answers your question about their level of technology. Whoever did that is highly advanced. Our scientists would not have even speculated about shifting a ship because it’s clearly impossible.”

  “These days the impossible gets done almost every week,” I said.

  “Not this style of impossible.” He turned around and I saw panic in his face. “Major, if they can do that, we have to think about what their weapons technology would be.”

  “So we do. Any change in speed?”

  “No, sir. Slow and steady.”

  I switched off and called engineering. Our top engineer was James Christie. He was a pleasant-looking man who always smiled. Or almost always smiled. He was frowning when his face popped up on the screen.

  “I assume you saw that, Jim.”

  “I did and I still can’t fathom it. I can’t even imagine how that was done. I mean that. I have a couple of advanced degrees and I could not begin to tell you the science behind that. Einstein couldn’t have figured that out.”

  “Don’t bother to try right now but I am curious about one thing. It seems to me the ship was speeding merrily across the galaxy to get to us. Why did they change the configuration of the ship? What was the advantage? Is the ship somehow better than it was before it metamorphosed to show-off for us? The shifting was stunningly dramatic but I’m wondering what practical application it had.”

  Christie furrowed his brow. He brought his hand up to his mouth and a finger scratched his lips. “Never thought of that, major. I was so taken aback by the achievement… Off the top of my head I can’t see how the shifting benefitted them.” He turned back and stared at the screen for about thirty seconds. “In total, the changes to the vessel are not that significant. The modifications appear to be almost incidental. The ship is running about the same now than it did a few minutes ago.”

  “Then why go through the shifting?”

  “I don’t know. But it was impressive.”

  “Yes, it was. But I’m wondering… if there was no practical reason for the change, could they have just been trying to impress us or shake us up a little? Do the gold guys know anything about psychological warfare? I assume they would at least grasp the concept even though they wouldn’t understand it.”

  “Maybe, sir, but I don’t think that makes sense,” he said. “They are planning to kill us. They’re simple, blunt, practical. Why bother to put on a show for us? They seem to be slow and methodical. Such a mindset doesn’t lend itself to psychological warfare.”

  I nodded. “I think you’re right. So why do it?”

  “Sir, it’s possible the changes did in some way benefit them but in ways we don’t understand yet. It’s alien technology. So we can’t give a definitive opinion. My best guess was the shifting wasn’t efficacious but my opinion about this piece of equipment may be worthless, major.”

  “I understand, Jim. Thanks.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Five minutes later I had settled in my chair. I had a cigar in one hand and my whisky glass was on my desk. I stared at the hologram with our six Toys roaring toward the Black Ship. The next minutes I viewed the helm and Admiral Nikanawa. Nowadays you can go to war while seated. The machines do the work.

  The admiral sat calmly in his chair on the bridge. All the young officers appeared efficient. None of them looked worried. I thought that was a good thing. I had an open com. to the admiral and had told him to keep me informed. I’m sure he would, but as he stared at the Black Ship on his screen it didn’t appear to be his first priority. Which was fine with me. His first priority was keeping the ship intact. For ten minutes I simply watched, taking an occasional puff on my cigar and an occasional sip from the drink. Then I heard Nikanawa’s voice.

  “My estimation is our Toys will be in shooting range of the Black Ship in about two minutes, major.”

  “Thank you, admiral.”

  Our silver ships moved relentlessly through space and through the hologram. As they moved closer to the Black Ship they spread even farther apart. When Astrid knocked, I waved her in. She said nothing, simply looked at the hologram as she sat down.

  “That’s the best we could do but they will all be destroyed,” she said.

  “Probably.”

  I had just drained the glass when the orange flashes shot from the Black Ship. But our technology worked. The flashes zoomed past our ships. I guessed they missed by at least a hundred miles but it’s difficult to estimate distance in a hologram. Our ships broke formation and drove toward their adversary in a jagged path. The next burst of orange flames also missed them but the fire zoomed closer. I nodded. The weapons specialists would be recalculating their guns. Or the computers would be doing some quick math. Hard to tell nowadays.

  As our silver Toys moved closer, a third blast of fire came. It engulfed one ship. It spun around and fell from the attack. Then exploded.

  All in silence. There is no sound in space. We watch a silent battle in silence. But, surprisingly, the other shots missed the remaining five ships. They zoomed closer heading straight toward their enemy. They had already made it farther than I had predicted.

  Clearly, the Black Ship gunners were having trouble. Another blast singed one silver ship but it keep going. I wondered if the Black Ship was designed to combat large battle cruisers and battleships. The Toys might be too small for their sensors to focus on.

  Six dark objects sprang from the Black Ships and headed for the silver Toys.

  “Their fighters?” Astrid asked.

  “Must be. Some type of smaller vessels. For whatever reason they had trouble knocking the Toys down. They’re trying another tactic.”

  It’s always nice when you are battling incompetents.

  Or at least when t
he enemy acts incompetently. As the dark jets flew toward our Toys, another blast of orange flame came from the large ship. Badly aimed. One wave of fire hit a dark fighter. It evaporated.

  “And we pray confusion to our enemies,” Astrid said.

  “We sure do.”

  The destruction of the dark jet gave an open pathway to one of our Toys. It increased velocity and took dead aim at the Black Ship. For a moment I wondered if it would plunge into the side of the ship. But about fifty miles away it shot a missile. I expected an explosion. I expected the Black Ship had shields that would easily deflect the incoming volley.

  But the unexpected happened.

  The missile collided with the Black Ship. Instead of an explosion, a… blue fire erupted on the hull. It spread until it covered a quarter of the ship. Blue smoke and debris rose up.

  “Admiral, what is that? Not familiar with that weapon.”

  “That is something else Belen’s scientists came up with. Like the Disintegrator Ray, I was told it hadn’t been perfected yet but it looks like it’s working pretty good.”

  “So it does. What exactly is it?”

  “Blue fire, major.”

  I smirked. “I can see that, admiral. That’s the scientific name for it?”

  “That’s what I was told, major. I didn’t press the issue. The scientists told me not to use it because it probably wouldn’t work. It was still in the experimental stage. I should’ve mentioned it to you but we didn’t think we’d deploy the weapon trip so didn’t bother. I’m sorry, sir.”

  The blue fire crawled even farther across the Black Ship’s hull.

  “That’s all right, admiral. Every once in a while I enjoy surprises, if they’re good ones. And this looks like a very good one indeed. We must compliment the scientists when we get back.”

  “And send them a few gifts,” the admiral said.

  “Can you tell what damage the fire is doing, if any?”

  “Yes, sir. Our sensors tell us the hull is weakening. The fire has penetrated the outer perimeter and is causing damage to communications and possibly other systems in the ship. Right now, they seem to have nothing to stop it. The blue fire is spreading.”

  I had been distracted by the conversation. When I turned back to the hologram another silver ship, wobbling as it flew, roared close to our enemy. A blue flash came from it and splattered onto the Black Ship. A second later our Toy broke apart.

  The Black Ship wavered and floundered. It looked like it was discombobulated. A word I don’t use much. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever used the word, but it described what was happening to the Black Ship. It had decreased its speed. The ship was no longer heading toward us. It stopped and, initially, circled, then wobbled like a drunk stepping out of a saloon. The blue fire continued spreading. Now it was burning half the ship.

  I scratched my jaw. What we call blue fire could not be fire, not in space with no air. Then what was it? Then again I didn’t really care for a detailed explanation. That could come later. All that mattered was that it kept ‘burning’ and spreading.

  The dark jets spun on their tail and zoomed back toward the mother ship. I doubted they’d be of any help in the ship’s current difficulty. I buzzed the admiral.

  “How close are we to the enemy?”

  “We’re about two thousand miles away, major. Are you thinking about the Disintegrator Ray?”

  “I am. Only fifteen hundred miles more and we could use it. I do appreciate what our MITTS did for us.”

  CHAPTER 12

  The Black Ship kept weaving. Back and forth. North and south. The blue kept inching its way across the hall. Soon, the ship might be completely covered in blue. It seemed odd to see what was quickly becoming the destruction of a huge space ship without sound, but that’s space. I buzzed Rab.

  “Rab, I’ve got an idea. I want you to get two shuttles ready. We’re going to use them.”

  “Yes, sir, but for what?”

  “We may have a chance to use our D-Ray. If so, and if the scientists are right, then the enemy ship should slowly dissipate. No big explosion. No debris. So if that happens I’m guessing we’re going to see numerous gold and whatever color men or androids they have floating in space. I’d like to collect an officer. See if you can get the top guy. I don’t want to waste time with ensigns. I want officers.”

  “How are we supposed to tell one from another? They seem to look very much alike,” Rab said.

  “Maybe there will be some color differences when the ship breaks up. Try to haul in a guy who looks distinctive.”

  “What if they all are gold?”

  “Then don’t give them a ride back to the Ranger II. I only want the top people.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The four remaining Toys headed back our way. I would have given them a medal if they were human. Battle can be full of surprises but, usually, those surprises are nasty and often deadly. You rarely see pleasant surprises on battlefields or in space battles. But we did this day. And I was very thankful for it.

  “Major, it looks like our enemy is almost dead in space. Speed has diminished to almost nothing. Our sensors indicate disruptions of many of the Black Ship’s systems. Their engine is giving them trouble now. Looks like the problems are getting worse with every minute that passes.”

  “More good news. Keep it coming…”

  The admiral shook his head. “I still have no idea what that is, major. I can’t explain it.”

  “That’s all right with me. I don’t care if you can explain it or not. I just want it to keep burning and keep destroying the Black Ship. How close are we?”

  “Nine hundred and fifty miles, major. Should we use our D-Ray when we are within range?”

  “Absolutely. When we get within five hundred miles, shoot it. If we have to. It does look like our blue fire may take care of our enemies for us. Any chance the ship might self-destruct?”

  “I have no idea, major. But I doubt any ship with androids or robots or whatever it is they are would self-destruct. They’d just ride into the blackness.”

  As I looked at the screen, a large segment of the enemy ship broke off and floated into space. The fire burned bluer and, I thought, more intense. As I watched, a huge swirl of blue flame shot into space. The ship rocked back and forth, shaking as if it had been hit by a solar storm.

  “What’s the distance, admiral?”

  “Less than seven hundred miles, major.”

  “Missiles headed this way, major. We are taking evasion action and will launch interceptors.”

  “Very good, admiral.”

  I spied three rockets zooming from the Black Ship. If it was being gutted it was going to try to take out its enemies. A second later they exploded. The admiral was taking countermeasures. As the Black Ship rolled over on its side, one last missile was launched but even at this distance I could tell it would miss the Ranger II by hundreds of miles.

  “We are just under five hundred miles from our target, major,” the admiral said.

  “Fire,” I said.

  A second later the Ray roared from the ship in an orange wavering stream of light. When it first hit the black ship, nothing happened. No explosions, no sparks and, of course, no noise. For a minute or more, nothing changed. Then the ship… started getting smaller. At least to my eyes. The blue fire and the orange beam mingled and gave off an odd light.