by Randal Sloan
At first the canyon was broad, but gradually the walls narrowed and the canyon began to twist and turn, the team forced to move the ship back and forth to stay within the walls. But the canyon kept narrowing, the task becoming even more difficult until it looked like there was no chance; a dead-end box canyon the likely result.
Just as they almost despaired, the ship slowing to a near stop, the team mind spotted a tiny crevice in the end wall of the canyon. “It’s so very close, but we should be able to squeeze through,” ran through their thoughts. The move was so very dangerous, but they had no choice. Shrinking the fields tight against the ship and moving at a tiny crawl, they slipped the ship into the crevice.
Knowing that If they hit the hyperspace wall it would be no different than if they hit a physical wall, nevertheless they went forward. At one point it was so tight the ship ground against the walls on the two sides, the fields stretched dangerously thin. The risk of being thrown out of hyperspace was a very real danger, or the ship could easily be crushed by the walls. Somehow, the fields held and finally the crevice began to open up again. If they could have looked at the hull of the ship, physical gouges from the pressure of the hyperspace fields ran down both sides, but the hulls held.
Clear of the crevice, hyperspace opened up to them again, but now they faced another danger. A strong hyper current ran through the new area and their ship was pulled into it. Like a raft caught in the rapids on a river, all they could do was hold on and try to steer their ship around obstacles, obstacles that appeared with almost no warning even as Gabo expanded the fields as far abreast as they dared. Luckily the current pulled them through, the ship bucking from side to side and taking more damage, but somehow it held together.
Finally they slipped into a large hyper pool and they regained control of the ship, angling off to the side lest they be caught in the current again. Moving carefully along the edge and then into a small branch that forked off from the main hyper stream, they once again moved toward their goal. Soon they were getting close and Gabo started looking for another eddy. Finally he found one and they once more slipped out of the stream and dropped anchor.
For a few moments the team just sat there, reveling in their connection before finally Jarra smiled, telling her team, “I love you guys. I know that none of us will ever be the same, but I think from today on out we will each carry a little bit of our connection with us. Thank you for accepting me and thank you for being the best team anyone could ever ask for.” She slipped out of the connection before the tears could flow again.
When everyone was out, Jarra just looked at them, her team, before she had to explain to them what their next challenge was going to be. “One more time, we have to do the impossible. Rest for a few minutes, then we’ve got to figure out how we can launch our missiles while still in hyperspace. It is theoretically possible and I have a few ideas on how it might work, but I want your thoughts and attention in the matter.”
Her team just stared at her for a moment, once more shocked by the challenge given them by their leader, but not a one of them doubted that if she once more needed them to do the impossible task, they would find a way to do it.
#
“So how can we possibly do such a thing?” Galen asked Gabo as Jarra stepped out to the galley to get a cup of her favorite coffee. “I thought the ship had to be in the physical universe to launch a missile.”
“Well, theoretically, only the missile port has to be in physical space, but I don’t know how to do that.” Suddenly he smiled. “But maybe I do. It will be horrendously hard on the missile ports and we’re likely to lose one or both in the process, but we should be able to do it.”
As they were talking, Jarra slipped back into her seat. “So you have the same idea I had,” she told Gabo. “The question is, can you manipulate the fields tightly enough to do it and how long will the missile tubes hold out? We need to launch a spread of at least a half dozen, more if possible.”
Gabo smiled. “Give me a few minutes. I think I can figure it out, but I can’t promise how long the tubes will hold. Not long, but we should be able to get you a three or four missile launch from each tube. Any more than that, I think the risk would be too great.”
“I agree. Let me know when you’re ready.”
Jarra turned to the other team members. “While Gabo’s getting it all configured, I’ll try to explain what we’re attempting to do. Normally the missile tubes are retracted into the ship and a cover is in place over the tube. When we are preparing to fire our missiles, the cover is opened and the missile tube is extended slightly outside the ship’s hull. This is done to protect us from the backfire from the missile and to launch the missile itself clear of the ship’s shields.
“What Gabo is going to attempt to do, is to extend the missile tube and pull the hyperspace fields tight against the ship so the missile tube is sitting in normal space. That will allow the missile to be launched in normal space while the rest of the ship still sits in hyperspace. Of course, you can see the biggest problem. The missile tube will be subjected to tremendous shear forces as the current moves us in hyperspace while the missile tube resists the motion due to its position in real space. Luckily we’re anchored in the eddy, but there’s always still a slight component of motion within that anchorage.
“The biggest drawback I see is the missile tubes may become irreparably damaged and we might find ourselves quite defenseless. Not that two missile tubes are enough for us to take on even one of the destroyers now that they’re on alert, much less a cruiser. Still we’ve got to try, hoping to catch them by surprise.”
As Jarra made that last statement about the cruiser, she suddenly had another idea. “Our missiles won’t make a difference, but what about a few of their own mines? Galen, where is the cruiser now?”
“They’re still crisscrossing in the pattern as they lay out the mines.”
Jarra’s eyes had a gleam in them now. “Think you have enough of their pattern to predict their path?”
“Yeah, sure, but what good will that do?” Galen asked. Then he smiled, his own eyes gleaming. “You’re right. If we time the launch of our missiles to coincide with their path closest to the center, they will be caught in the explosion of not only our missiles, but also a considerable number of their own mines. They won’t be able to just shrug that off.”
“That means we need to launch as many missiles as we can, until we can’t launch any more, even if it does wreck our offensive capability.”
Galen nodded. “In that case, we need to be ready to fire in five minutes. That’s when they should be closest to the center.” He smiled, “Just think about what they’re going to see in that cruiser. Missiles appearing out of nowhere. I’ll bet it takes them several seconds to even react and by that time it will be too late.”
“Do it! Let me know when you are ready. Gabo, target the missiles to bracket the area where the cruiser will be located as indicated on Galen’s plot. Make it a total of ten missiles. I hope we get that many off.”
The minutes quickly ticked by. As the deadline neared, Gabo told them, “I’m ready. Everyone should strap in. It could get a little rough before we’re done.”
Everyone quickly complied. At the appointed time, Gabo shrank the hyperspace fields tightly against the ship, so that the missile tubes were no longer within hyperspace, and they began to launch missiles. The missiles shook the ship as they exited, the interaction of hyperspace against normal space making it much worse. Each launch of missiles was rougher in their reaction than the set before. Finally, the last two missiles were away, the ship giving a huge lurch and they heard a grinding sound from the missile tubes.
“That’s it,” Galen told them. “Those last two pretty much twisted the tubes beyond repair. The only way we’ll ever fire missiles again is if we go into dry dock and have the tubes replaced.”
“Uncle is not going to be happy I broke his new ship,” Jarra said dryly.
That broke the tension, all of them la
ughing at her statement and the way she said it. Especially now that they knew who her uncle was.
Meanwhile, the missiles ran true, the cruiser not reacting for several seconds and even then they barely had begun to bring their defenses up as the missiles detonated, not against their ship as perhaps they expected, but amongst the mines that now surrounded their ship. The cruiser had barely gotten their shields to half power so that the explosion quickly overwhelmed them, leaving the cruiser a broken wreck.
The results of their effort much better than their wildest dreams, they all broke out with cheers.
#
As the team unstrapped once more from their stations, Jarra had one more idea. She looked over at her team. “Call me crazy, but how fast can you put that drone back together, installing one of our own AI’s in it?”
When they all stared at her, Jarra told them. “It appears to me that we only have one destroyer blocking our way to the main hyperspace channel. The other two are still out of range; since they were watching our original entry point to hyperspace, it will be some time before they can reach this area. If we move fast enough, and the destructive capability of that drone is as high as the AI bragged it was, we should be able to use the drone to remove that destroyer as an obstacle.”
“You’re one crazy human being,” Sara told her friend and liege. “I’ve got a spare AI, if Galen and Gabo can put the thing back together.”
“Piece of cake,” Galen said. “It should go together a lot faster than it came apart and we don’t have to worry about trigger points this time.”
Fifteen minutes later, the toothless shark had one last trick. “You know there’s no turning back,” Jarra told them. “We have to drop back into normal space to launch the drone, and if it doesn’t work, we have no way to get back into hyperspace.”
They all soberly considered that statement. Once more Galen became spokesman for the group. “I really believe it’s going to work. If it doesn’t work, I’m tired of hiding, waiting for help that may never come, and for those destroyers to find us and finish us off with their depth charges. We’re getting out of here one way or the other.”
“Let’s do it!” Jarra told them, ordering the ship to drop them out of hyperspace and using the ship’s standard drives to move them toward their target. “Launching the drone,” she told them.
They all waited with baited breath as the drone shot toward its target. Once again, their enemy didn’t fail to disappoint them. Like the rest of their ships had been, they were slow to raise their shields, not that it probably would have mattered as the drone reached them and self-destructed with a huge explosion, even bigger than Jarra had expected. When their viewport cleared, there was nothing left of the destroyer but debris.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jarra told her team as she moved them through the area cleared of the mines, preparing to initialize their hyperspace fields once again.
“Wait!” Sara shouted. Sheepishly she spoke in a quieter voice. “Don’t do that just yet. Look what I just found.” She flashed up a view of one of the mines and its AI controller.
“We really caught that cruiser with their pants down. They left one of the mines with the AI controller uninitiated and due to its location, it was protected by their ship during the explosion. I just took control of it and now have their encryption codes and the passcode to the remainder of the mines. You want to finish off those last two destroyers?”
Jarra stared at her newest friend and teammate. “I love you! It’s personal for me, as you know. That would be like the icing on the cake.”
Smiling, Sara told her, “Too bad it’s not your birthday, which I happen to know is still months away. Nevertheless, I now have control of all the mines left. How do you want to do this?”
“We set a trap and bait it. Guess who’s the bait.”
With Galen’s help, Sara repositioned the mines so that those remaining moved between them and the two destroyers, which had left their previous position and were headed toward where they sat, motionless in space.
“Gabo,” Jarra said. “See if you can open a channel to the destroyers. I want to get them talking so they’re not paying much attention to where they’re going. We wouldn’t want them to figure out our little trap, would we?”
A moment later, Gabo told her, “I now have the destroyers on the com. Neither of them is very happy.”
Jarra addressed the com. “This is Princess Jarraosa Christinee Von Hasson, third in line to the throne. I demand that you both surrender immediately and face charges for treason and sedition. I am personally offended that you have betrayed the Empire. If we were standing on a planet, I would call you both out in a duel, so that I could shoot you dead.”
As Jarra had expected, the two destroyer captains just laughed at her. One of them managed to speak in between his bouts of laughter. “You, little girl. You should have stayed home with Daddy. If you surrender your ship now, we might let you live.”
Jarra watched her plot as the two destroyers neared the line of mines. She goaded them one more time. “No, it is I that demand your surrender. You will without a doubt be hanged, but at least it will be a quick death, much better than you deserve.”
The two men continued to laugh, not bothering to answer her. Or pay much attention to their ship’s sensors.
By this time both ships were well within the zone of mines. Jarra turned to Sara. “Activate the mines and send those two to hell, where they most assuredly belong.”
Sara sent the activation code.
Tremendous explosions flashed in the area of space where the two destroyers were located. When the explosions cleared, all that was left was more debris.
“Now that’s done,” Jarra told her team, “Let’s go home.” She turned their ship once more toward the hyperspace boundary.
They didn’t get very far!
CHAPTER TEN
Reunion
“Multiple contacts,” Gabo yelled as he furiously worked his scanners. “I have a large number of cruisers, destroyers, battleships.” One more contact appeared. “And make that one super-dreadnought,” he said in awe.
“They’re ours,” he finally said. “I have the Crown Prince John Dansi Von Hasson on the com, demanding to speak to you, Princess.”
Smiling, Jarra answered the com. “Hello, cousin. As usual, you’re late to the party. And this time, I didn’t leave you any leftovers.”
For a moment, John just stared at his cousin. “My scanner tech is reading several debris fields. One he thinks is what’s left of a cruiser, the rest he believes were once destroyers. Yet we see only your tiny little ship.”
“They were all traitors to the Empire, cousin. I just delivered them to the fate they deserved.”
John continued to stare at her incredulously. “You’re telling me you destroyed them all?”
“Yes, sorry. If I had known you were coming, I would have saved you a couple. I suggest you bring my little ship aboard yours. I will try to explain all that has happened. You probably won’t believe it.”
Jarra had to fight back the tears that were threatening to come. “I’ll tell you this much, John. I have the best team and crew in the Empire. Without their help, you now would be third in line to the throne.”
Her last statement quickly sobered John up. “By all means, come aboard. I would very much like to see you in person and hear your story of what has happened. You can also tell me what you know of this threat to the Empire.”
“I’ll be there shortly. It’s good to see you, John.”
Her little ship might be battered, the signs of her mighty struggle written all over her hull and the twisted and broken missile tubes so mangled they couldn’t be retracted into the ship any more, but Jarra was quite proud as she brought the ship into the hangar on the Dauntless, the flagship of the Imperial Navy and the current transportation of her beloved cousin John.
As she completed the process of bringing her ship to rest and engaged the magnetic clamps, Jarra turned to he
r team who were so much more than that now. “I know you all saw John in my memories while we were linked. John is the reason I’m here today as your commander. I very much love and respect him. Although we are cousins, we are more like brother and sister.”
She couldn’t help but smile at their reactions. “Look, guys. You all love and accept me and we’re like family. So you’re really just gaining a big brother too. I promise, you’ll like him.
“Ok, enough of the pep talk. Dress uniforms, everyone. We still want to make an impression on them, don’t we?” Jarra hurried to her own cabin, where she quickly pulled on her dress uniform, her wings and her medals. She checked it all by changing her wall into a mirror surface. Not bad; a little straightening here, a little tug there, and she was set.
As quick as she was, her team still beat her. “Not fair, guys. You have a few less medals than me. Although, I suspect you’re all going to be getting a new one now.”
That got their attention, but as a group they bowed to her. “After you, Your Highness.”
Jarra stuck her tongue out at them. “That’s Commander to you while on this ship and Lieutenant off ship as long as I have this uniform on. Best you remember that.” Smiling at them, she went on, “Let’s go, guys. We have a debriefing to attend.” She proudly led them off the ship, stopping to salute the Marine honor guard awaiting them.
Not surprisingly, Jarra recognized the Marine Master Sergeant leading the honor guard. This time his name popped up in her implants with an ID tag. Robert, that suits him, Jarra thought. “It’s good to see you again, Master Sergeant Gibbons.”
“My Lady. It is indeed good to see you,” the Master Sergeant answered her. “I understand that was in question up until a few minutes ago.”
“Not really,” Jarra answered him. “Not with this team looking after me.”