A quick survey found him what he was looking for. There, near the aft of the ship, a rip in the armor near enough to the engines that it had to have made the ship’s power plants vulnerable to attack. Oh, there were still decks between the tear and the engines. But that armored shell was the ship’s true protection. Inside, it was vulnerable to a massive explosion. Say, one from a nuclear missile.
“Dan, I’ve got a crazy plan,” he said into his radio.
Nineteen
Andy finished cutting loose the bulkhead on the left side of the missile. The chunk of metal went spinning off into space. They were moving again, slowly easing their way back in toward the Naga ship. Beth and Majel had no idea what sort of range might have been set for the weapon’s failsafe, so they were staying close. The missile was detached now, at least. He’d tethered it to the Satori’s hull with a loop of lifeline until they decided what to do with it.
The enemy ship was moving in toward the planet. It kept the fighter screen near, but it was dipping nearer to the surface. It had been holding a steady distance before. The move couldn’t be a good thing.
“We need to stop them,” Andy said. “If we drop the missile into the hull breach I indicated and then Majel triggers it, the thing will go up. At the least, they’ll be badly damaged, maybe even destroyed.”
“How do you plan to deliver the weapon?” Dan asked. “We don’t have missile launchers. You going to build a slingshot?”
Andy paused. There was really only one way to do it. Someone had to sit outside the ship and shove it into the gap. Which meant someone needed to be outside while the Satori transitioned through a wormhole. The idea terrified him.
“I’ll stay out here and shove it over,” Andy said, pushing down his fears. “I can grab a suit jetpack, rig it to send the missile over.”
“You’re talking about staying outside during a jump?” Beth asked.
“No way in hell,” John said. His voice was heavy with pain. “We have no idea what that would do to you.”
They weren’t wrong, of course. They’d never sent a person through a wormhole without the ship around them the hull protecting them from whatever energy coruscated around the ship while it sailed through the space between entry and exit. Wormhole transitions were strange things. Even Beth didn’t understand the science behind them. Hell, even Majel couldn’t take readings to indicate what was going on during the jump itself. All they knew was that according to their instruments no time at all seemed to pass. But to the human perception, there was a distinct delay, a few moments where something happened.
It was weird. And not in a fun way.
“You have a better plan, John?” Andy asked. “The ship is beaten to hell. We can’t take another beating like that last. I don’t want to do this, so if you’ve got a better plan, now would be a great time.”
“Naga ship is firing missiles!” Majel said, breaking into the conversation.
Andy turned quickly toward the enemy ship. Sure enough, a dozen missiles were firing from the nose of the warship. At first he thought they had somehow found the Satori even through the cloak. But the missiles weren’t turning around to come at them. They drilled straight ahead.
“Oh my god,” Charline said.
She’d probably already plotted coordinates for each target. Andy didn’t have the computer in front of him to tell him precisely where those missiles would hit. He didn’t need one to know that they were aimed at Earth, most likely firing on an assortment of major cities. He’d seen what those missiles could do. The death toll from each missile would be in the millions.
“Majel, can we stop them?” John asked.
“Negative. We might be able to shoot one with the railguns, but targeting an object moving at that speed is problematic. We’d never get more than one,” she replied. “Sensors indicate the Naga vessel is loading a second volley.”
Another volley. They’d fire twelve more missiles, nuke twelve more cities. How many dozens of missiles did the ship have? The Naga were hurt, and lashing out at the Earth as payback for the injuries they’d received.
“Damn it, John. There’s no more time,” Andy said. “We need to do this now.”
There was another hesitation, but it wasn’t long. They were all watching those missiles break atmosphere, and John knew another set would be underway in moments.
“Do it,” John said, his voice cracking with emotion.
“Coming back to the airlock for a jet-pack,” Andy said. “Give me a few seconds with the sealant goop to attach it to the missile.”
“Naga ship will fire in approximately thirty-two seconds,” Majel said.
Andy rushed. He made the airlock, popped the outer door open. One hand grabbed the pack and he was racing back to the missile. There was a spray can of the sealant in his tool kit. He grabbed it.
“Twenty seconds,” Majel said.
“Calculating jump,” Dan said. “Andy, hang on to something.”
“Majel, show me where to hook this thing up,” Andy said. The AI could calculate the trajectory with an accuracy he’d never match. She placed an overlay on his HUD. He sprayed a bit of the foam where her diagram showed him to, gluing the thruster to the missile.
“Jumping!” Dan said.
Andy clung to the ship, praying that this would work. Lights flashed into being around the nose of the Satori. As he watched, space itself seemed to fold up, wrinkling around them as the lights shifted in unbelievable patterns. He closed his eyes and he could still see their brilliance. He opened his eyes again - and the Naga ship was there, only a few hundred meters ahead of them!
Dan had cut the jump incredibly close. The Naga ship was looming in front of them and they sailed in dangerously near to the ship, blasting it with railguns as they went. Andy stood on shaking legs, hoping his boots wouldn’t rattle so hard that they’d come loose from their magnetic clamps.
“They’re locking guns on us!” Charline said.
“Jumping out,” Dan warned. More lights began flaring in front of the ship.
But there was the rent in the Naga vessel, just off to the port side of the Satori. They were sailing directly past it. Andy felt like he could almost jump across and touch the thing. Majel fed a countdown onto his HUD. When it struck zero he pushed down the thruster button and blasted it with a bit of the sealant to hold it down. The missile sped away from the Satori, powered by the suit thruster.
Without warning, the glowing lights spread back out across the ship. Andy flinched away from them, almost tearing himself free from the hull with the violence of his movement. He reached down and clung to a bit of torn hull plating with his gloves, hanging on with everything he had.
They were out! Andy’s stomach heaved, and he almost lost his control. He could taste bile in the back of his mouth. His arms and legs were shaking so hard that he could barely hang on to the ship. But they were through. Had it worked, though? Had Majel been able to detonate the weapon before the Naga could launch more missiles? He scanned space, looking for the Naga vessel.
He found where it had been easily enough, but he couldn’t see the ship itself. All that was visible was a brilliant flash of blinding light, so bright that his helmet dimmed in immediate reaction.
Twenty
There was a hushed silence in the cockpit while everyone waited for Andrew to respond. John was practically holding his breath. Two wormhole jumps, outside the ship? They’d never experimented with sending anything living through the wormhole outside of a ship. There was no way to tell what that might have done to him, or if he’d even been able to hang on during the second jump.
If he’d been jarred loose, where would he be? Back there in the middle of a nuclear fireball? Or lost somewhere in the space between? He shuddered, imagining being lost for eternity in that glowing space where the Satori traveled in between entry and exit, the space all of their science said did not exist - but all of their minds agreed was there.
“Andy, you OK?” Charline repeated into her radio.
The wait seemed like an eternity, the weight of each nanosecond feeling like an epoch to John. Was he dead? Gone? Vanished? He never should have allowed Andrew to try such an insane stunt. But there hadn’t been any other way to stop the Naga from raining down nuclear destruction upon their home planet. He’d done what needed doing. At what cost?
“I’m here,” Andrew’s voice came back to them. “Just a little out of breath. That was closer than I ever want to come again.”
Then the cheering started in earnest. The rest of the crew was all smiles. Dan gave a whoop. Charline was grinning ear to ear. John allowed himself to calm at last, relaxing back against his chair gently so as not to disturb the wound in his abdomen.
“Majel, give me a damage estimate on the Naga vessel,” John said.
“Their ship has lost primary power and attitude control. Their engines are offline. Current course will send them into Earth’s atmosphere at terminal velocity,” she replied.
“Ouch,” Dan said.
John smiled grimly. With luck the thing would burn up on entry to the atmosphere. He hoped whatever was left of it at least crashed someplace relatively harmless.
“The other two ships?” John asked. There was still a hell of a lot more to do. They’d only taken down one of the three vessels, and the Satori was just about spent. The ship couldn’t take much more damage, and he knew that even though the micro-jumps used a lot less power than an interstellar wormhole, they had to be low on charge for the drive.
“Both ships are returning to Earth, towing a small asteroid,” Majel said. “Based on their courses, they intend to strike the planet with rocks from opposite sides.”
“Analysis of damage?” John asked.
“Total. Unlikely for any life to survive the impacts.”
Planet killers. The Naga were done playing games. They knew they had the right place as soon as the Satori revealed itself to them. That was enough. The early feints were just to be certain. As soon as they were sure this was the right planet, that this world was where the Satori had come from, the two ships had sailed off to get planet-killing asteroids. They were taking no chances with a battle the Satori might escape from. Destroy the planet itself, and the Satori had little future impact. Even if they fled and survived, humanity would no longer be a factor.
He had done this. His pride, his desire to explore, his need to know what was out there. John cursed himself in silence. On the planet below millions had just died in nuclear fireballs, annihilated because he had roused the Naga and led them here. Now they would wipe out every last human on Earth if they could. All because of him.
Around him the bridge was silent again as Majel’s words soaked in, damping the previous enthusiasm.
“They must be stopped,” John said. “No matter the cost.”
“Great,” Dan said, nodding. “You have a plan for that? Because we have enough juice for two, maybe three more micro-jumps. The structure is beaten all to hell. And we’ve burned through about three-quarters of our railgun ammunitions. On one ship.”
“Which we only beat because they threw a nuke at us,” Beth added via the radio. She was still locked in the hallway, working to reinforce the damaged compartment as best she could.
“I…” John paused. His gut hurt enough that he was having trouble thinking. There had to be something they could do. Some new tactic they could try, some brilliant plan that would win the day. But for the life of him there was nothing he could think of through his pain. Another failure tacked on to the list. He had doomed humanity, and now he couldn’t even save it.
The airlock cycled, and Andrew stepped onto the bridge. He sealed the door behind himself and took off his helmet, shaking out his hair.
“Ugh. Air’s thin in here, but still a little better than the stale stink of raw terror in my helmet right now,” Andrew said. “I have an idea.”
John smiled. Of course he did. It was probably another crazy but good one, too. Like drawing the giant insect up to battle the Naga, back on the dust world. Or like the action he’d taken in the watery world against the rogue Cyanauts. Or daring to stay outside the ship to launch a nuke back at the enemies from which it had come.
He’d watched Andrew change so much over the past year. He’d gone from someone who took orders to someone who acted. Now, he was growing into a man capable of giving them as well. It was an amazing experience, watching his son of the heart grow into what he could be. It felt remarkable. John had a sense of completion and fulfillment deep enough that it shocked him.
“The ship is yours, Andrew,” John said. He saw the young man give a half wince, half grin on hearing his full name. John always called him that, even though his friends all called him Andy. It had been intended as a sign of respect, but maybe it was time to change that, too. “Andy. Make it count.”
Andy took a step toward him, dropping a hand on his shoulder. He had an odd expression on his face, a mixed look of surprise, gratitude, and concern. “Thanks. You OK?”
“I will be for the moment,” John said. He leaned back again, settling into his chair and trying to ignore the growing pain in his belly. Regardless what happened to him, Andrew - Andy - and the others would get this job done. That was what mattered most to him. They, more than anything else, were his legacy to the world and the future. He closed his eyes to rest, listening to his children take command of their destiny - and the destinies of everyone on Earth.
Twenty-One
Andy stalked over to stand beside Dan, staring out the front window into space. The Satori had come about, orienting back toward the Naga vessel. The explosion hadn’t killed the damned thing, but they’d crippled it. Even kilometers away, he could still see air and flame vent from the ship as it fell toward the planet below. The back end of the battle cruiser was tipping upward. Soon the entire ship would enter into a spin. That one was finished.
It had already done incalculable damage though, and the other two ships were closing in for the kill. It wasn’t enough to have the Satori out here defending the planet on her own. It was time to bring in allies. They needed help out here, and they needed it right away if they were going to have any chance of beating both ships.
He looked down at Dan, who met his gaze. Andy felt a little guilt at taking over like this. Dan was the more experienced spacer. The most experienced of any of them, truth be told. But Dan’s eyes showed no anger or resentment. Instead, he gave Andy a thin smile and a tiny nod of his head. That alone was enough to buoy Andy’s spirits. Dan, at least, was with him. That support meant more than he could say.
“Charline, that base we were at signaled the Satori,” Andy said. “Can you reach out to them along the same frequency, see if you can raise them?”
“I can try,” she said.
“Good. Majel, time to get some more people on the phone,” Andy said. “I need to speak to the heads of the Russian, Chinese, and EU space programs.”
“I’ll ring their numbers.”
“Be convincing,” Andy replied. They needed to get as many teams on board as possible. There were few enough true spacecraft available on Earth. They needed all of them in the air right away.
“I’ve got Hereford,” Charline said.
“Put him on speaker,” Andy replied.
There was a crackling of static as the connection went through. That was how long Andy had to suck in a deep breath and consider his words. Hereford was a general, which meant he was a political animal. But he was an airman as well, which meant somewhere in his background he’d been a man of action too. Andy just needed to get the latter to override the former. Oh, and he needed to do it with no authority or power beyond what they’d already demonstrated by blowing up one enemy ship.
“God damn,” Hereford said over the radio. “We’ve been watching the fight from here. Hell of a show.”
“It was way more exciting up here, sir,” Andy replied.
Hereford chuckled. “I’ll bet. Where’s John? Figured I’d be talking to that old bastard, no
t you.”
Andy glanced over at John, still in his seat. His eyes were closed, his breathing steady and slow. He couldn’t tell for sure if he was awake and just letting Andy handle the situation, or if he’d passed out again. This whole thing was delaying treatment that might be critical to John’s survival, and it grated on him. He wanted nothing more than to get John ground-side to a hospital. But there just wasn’t time.
“He’s resting. Took a shot during the fight,” Andy said.
“Damn, take care of him. Old birds like he and I are too few as it is,” Hereford said. Then his voice cracked like a whip, serious again. “Can you take out those other two ships? Out radar says they’re coming our way with some very big rocks. My daddy always said sticks and stones would break my bones, but I have a hunch these aliens are planning something a little more drastic than kneecapping us.”
“That matches our assessment. Put together, those rocks are planet killers,” Andy said. “Something might survive on the planet with one impact.”
“Microbes, most likely,” Majel put in.
“But not both,” Andy finished.
“Can you stop them, son?” Hereford asked.
This was it. The moment of truth. He needed to do something that put all of them at risk here, something that many of the crew were probably not going to be comfortable with. But there wasn’t any choice.
“No,” Andy said.
He heard the general sigh. “Then we’re screwed? I don’t accept that.”
“I didn’t say that. But the Satori is badly shot up and low on ammunition,” Andy replied. “We got lucky with that first ship. We can’t repeat it with the others. Not without help.”
Andy heard a shifting noise on the other side of the line. In his mind, he imagined Hereford sitting up in his chair, maybe gesturing to aides nearby. “You have a plan then,” Hereford said. It wasn’t a question.
Adventures of the Starship Satori: Book 1-6 Complete Library Page 63