“Sulwan, put twenty clockwise rpms on the ship and let’s see where this jump takes us,” the skipper ordered.
“ Aye, aye, sir. Hell, here we come,” the navigator answered.
44
All three of the surviving corvettes of PatRon 10 made it through the jump. Under Kris’s orders, they fled for the nearest jump point, watched by a blood red sun.
Once Chief Beni located them on the star charts, he estimated they’d jumped close to fifteen hundred light-years. They were on the far outer rim of the Milky Way. And as best as either the chief or Nelly could tell, the system should not have had a jump point into it at all.
That they were very likely lost ranked as the least of their problems.
They were a third of the way to the next jump when the aliens began pouring through the jump behind them. Most of them held to a solid two-gee acceleration. A few tried to put on three gees, but most of those soon fell back to something less stressful on engines and hulls.
Sulwan held the Wasp at 3.75. They expanded their lead over their pursuers.
Then the Intrepid began to fall out of formation.
“Commodore, we have a problem here,” Intrepid reported.
“Battle damage?” Kris asked.
“Engineering thinks it’s just an old-fashioned material failure,” he said, not that the difference between them made either any less deadly.
“Can you fix it?”
“Not without banking down the reactors for a couple of hours,” he said. “We can hold two gees, which should keep us ahead of the thundering herd. At least for a while,” he added sardonically.
“You want us to fall back and pick up your crew?” Kris offered.
“No. One of us has to get back. You keep going hell for leather. We’ll keep up as best we can.”
The Wasp and Hornet gradually stretched out their lead.
“How are we going to take this next jump?” Kris asked Sulwan and Captain Drago. Before that last jump of theirs, no one had ever taken a jump at much over fifty thousand klicks per hour, and they were rapidly edging up toward four hundred thousand klicks.
“We were thinking of hitting this next one at what we’re doing now,” Captain Drago said, thoughtfully. “Keep accelerating for another third of the trip, then decelerate for the last third.”
“Will our next system be in this galaxy?” Kris asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Sulwan said. “But if the aliens continue to hold to only two-gee acceleration, we might jump farther than them.”
“I guess it’s worth the risk,” Kris agreed.
Captain Drago hunched over his board for a moment, eyeing it like he might a potential traitor. “We won’t be able to keep this speed up for too much longer. We’ll need enough reaction mass to slow us down. Otherwise, we’ll end our days drifting around real fast, going nowhere.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Kris admitted.
“That’s what they pay me for,” Captain Drago said with just the hint of a smile.
“How long do you think those alien ships can keep up this chase?” Kris asked.
“The reading I got on them is that they are pretty dense,” Chief Beni put in.
“There didn’t seem to be a lot of tankage for reaction mass on that one we shot up,” Captain Drago noted. “It’s just possible they may have to break off their chase for lack of fuel if we can keep this up a bit longer.”
“What are the chances they want to see us dead so much that they will chase us until their tanks are dry? What if the fellow doing all the talking on those videos doesn’t give a fig about his minions so long an anyone different from him does not live in this galaxy?” Penny asked over the net, ever the speculating intelligence officer.
That brought the conversation to a roaring halt for a while.
“I imagine if I’d just seen a third to half of Earth blasted to hot gas, maybe a third to half of all my race blown to bits, I might not be all that interested in giving up the chase for them what done the deed,” Abby drawled.
That put an end to speculation.
For the next nine hours, the Wasp and Hornet shot across space at ever-increasing speed. While the ships raced and the enemy ships chased, there was little to do, and the high-gee stations gave little encouragement to doing it.
Kris slept at her battle post in her high-gee station for maybe three hours. It gave her some respite from the nagging doubts that ate at her.
Against them she had a simple defense. It was done, and the only thing they could possibly do was run. Whether they would succeed or fail at running depended on matters she had no control over.
They hit the next jump at slightly over 450,000 klicks per hour, with forty revolutions per minute on the boat. The jump left Kris dizzy.
Nelly reported while the crew was recovering, “We’re still in the Milky Way, folks. But I have no idea where we are yet. I sure miss all that gear the boffins brought with them, Captain.”
“Yes, Nelly. Thank you, Nelly. Now save your lip for your princess. Remember, I’m the skipper. I can space you.”
“I thought Kris was the skipper now.”
“Wrong, Nelly,” Kris said. “When it comes to spacing unruly people and computers, Drago is still the man.”
“You humans never do anything rationally. But while you were jabbering about who is in charge of this madhouse, I have located our place in space. Kris, if you want to be as far from Earth as you possibly can be, we are there. If you look off to the right, you will see the void of intergalactic space.”
“Are there any jump points?” Drago asked.
“Three. Two of the old-fashioned ones and one of my new fuzzy ones. May I suggest that we head for that one?”
“If we disappear into a jump point that isn’t there, it’s bound to make the neighbors talk,” Kris said.
“If we get there fast, maybe they won’t be here when we do that disappearing thing,” Nelly said.
“Folks, Engineering asks if we can please take it down to 3.5 gees,” Sulwan said. “The engines were never meant to hold this acceleration for this long.”
“The Hornet has joined us,” Chief Beni announced.
“Now we wait to see if the Intrepid and the aliens make the jump,” Captain Drago said. “And yes, Sulwan, take us down to 3.5 gees and make for the fuzzy jump.”
A few moments later, Lieutenant Commander Phil Taussig came on-screen. “I see you also need to slow down. Engineering tells me that if I don’t want to end up drifting in space, I’ve got to cut back to three gees.”
“We can still make 3.5,” Captain Drago said.
“You do that. I notice you’re headed for the fuzzy jump. We’ll head for the closest normal one.”
“You don’t have to,” Kris said.
“I think it’s time and past time for us to separate if there’s going to be any chance of one of us making it back home. If I were a betting man, I’d bet the Intrepid will try to repeat what the Fearless did at the first jump. I know that I would. They might just buy us enough time to escape.”
Kris knew that as a combat commander and as one of those damn Longknifes, she should be accepting these gifts, even ordering her subordinates to make these sacrifices. She found that, deep in her gut, she didn’t want to do it.
Maybe she had chosen the wrong profession. Maybe she wasn’t fit for anything better than planting the garden around Nuu House each spring.
Maybe she’d hide in the garden next year, but now she would do what she had to do. That was what Longknifes did.
“That sounds like a plan,” she said. “Sulwan, keep all the acceleration you can on the Wasp, no flipping ship. We’ll go through this jump with all the speed and rotations we can put on the boat.”
“I’ll have to start decelerating as soon as we get through,” Captain Drago said.
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it,” Kris said.
The Wasp was over halfway to the fuzzy jump when the Intrepid s
hot out of the jump, spinning. To no one’s surprise, she immediately began braking.
“I’m glad we could make the party,” Intrepid’s skipper said on net.
“Glad you’re here. What can you tell us about the aliens?”
“About half the fleet has given up the chase. Fifty-four are still chasing us. They accelerated the whole time at two gees, which was about all I could do, so I suspect they’ll be coming through here in a couple of hours. If they do, the Intrepid will be waiting for them. Is the Wasp headed for the weird jump point?”
“Yes. We’re splitting up.”
“Good idea. With any luck, you should be able to duck out of the system with none of them the wiser about where you went.”
“That’s what we’re hoping.”
“Good luck and Godspeed. By the way, Commodore, it’s been an honor to serve with a Longknife. At least this particular one.”
Kris found a catch in her throat. “Thank you, Intrepid. Good luck to you all.”
The Wasp fled for the new-type jump point. Sulwan had to cut her acceleration down to 3.4. An hour later, she reduced to 3.3 gees. Kris had Nelly do her own check on the reactors and engines.
KRIS, THE ENGINES AND REACTORS ARE WAY IN THE RED. THE CHIEF ENGINEER IS DOING SOME VERY STRANGE THINGS TO HOLD HIS TEAKETTLE TOGETHER.
The chief engineer was performing miracles, doing first this and then that to cool them. He ended up bleeding water around the edge of the ion stream between it and the jets. Not only did he cool the jets, but he seemed to be getting extra speed as the expanding water tightened the throat of the jet and forced the ion stream to even higher speeds. That, in turn, let him take more pressure off his reactors.
It also used up reaction mass at a blinding rate.
They were rapidly closing in on the fuzzy jump point when the first alien ship shot into the system.
The Intrepid had slowed down and swung around to return to the jump. She just managed to get behind the jump as the alien shot through. She hit the alien with two lasers to the engines and backed that up with a torpedo.
The alien blew into fine particles of gas before she ever got her forty rotations off the ship.
The next alien ship came through alone and came through shooting. She nipped the Intrepid’s shield but still took two laser hits and a pair of torpedoes. Like the first, she went to pieces. Very little ones.
There was a pause, and Kris was starting to hold out hopes that the other ships had hit the jump too slow to make the long passage, but then three ships came through in rapid succession.
All three were shooting off every laser and rocket they had, even as they were flipping ship to fire to their rear.
Spinning like a dervish, it was amazing they could hit anything
The Intrepid got the first one. A laser hit blew out an engine, then two torpedoes slashed into the ship’s vulnerable engines while they were still hers to hit.
The human ship tried the same treatment on the second one, but the alien managed to flip her vulnerable engines away from the incoming fire. The Intrepid badly damaged her, but doing that damage took time.
The third alien blew the gallant Intrepid to flaming gas even as two torpedoes slammed into it, leaving her little more than a wreck.
That was the last thing Kris saw before the Wasp shot into her jump making over seven hundred thousand kilometers an hour and spinning at forty revolutions a minute.
45
“Sulwan, take her smartly down to one gee,” Captain Drago ordered. “Get her out of this merry-go-round mode as soon as you can, but take the pressure off the reactors and engines first.”
“Engineering says we need to take the power down slowly,” Sulwan answered. “Everything is so hot down there that if we go too cold too quickly, something may snap.”
“Then you tell Engineering that it’s her call. We slow down when she says we slow down. Just tell her that the bridge would like to be included in any idle rumors coming out of that den of thieves.”
“Roger, sir.”
Captain Drago now turned to his next-most-important issue. “Chief, I don’t care where we are, but I sure would like to know if this system has a gas giant, a gas dwarf, an icy planet, or any other place we might find reaction mass.”
“That’s what I’ve been hunting for, sir,” the chief answered.
“We’re still in the Milky Way,” Nelly reported. “I think we jumped about a quarter of the way around the rim. We may very well have to go through Iteeche space to get back to human space, but they are both still a long way off.”
“Any activity in the system?” Kris asked.
“Other than three suns radiating their hearts away, nothing,” the chief said, then went on. “Skipper, there are three gas giants in the system. We’re closest to the smallest of the three.”
“Give Sulwan the course, and let’s get going.”
“Are we actually going to go cloud dancing with the Wasp?” the chief asked.
“It’s either that or we get out and push the Wasp home,” Captain Drago grumbled. “I don’t know about you, but I vote for refueling.”
“Can she hold together?” squeaked the chief.
“Now that she’s gotten rid of most of those crates that add weight and mess up her lines, of course the old lady can. But just to be on the safe side, we’ll park the rest of them in orbit and muster all hands in the hull spindle, okay, Chief? That worry you less?”
“I guess so.”
“Now, folks,” the skipper went on, “we’re going to be very busy in a couple of days doing the kind of work that makes hands blister, so why don’t you all take this time to catch up on your rest . . . and get out of my hair.”
Kris gave the rest of the bridge crew a good example by powering back her high-gee station, but she couldn’t close her eyes. Now if an alien did shoot through the jump, there would be no more running. True, the Wasp would put up the best fight she could, but it would be a short one.
Kris watched her board and watched the chief watch his. Nothing showed up as the time went long. Kris found her eyes growing heavy; the battle had taken its toll.
NELLY, CAN YOU KEEP A WATCH OUT FOR HOSTILES? Kris asked.
THE CHIEF HAS HIS DA VINCI COVERING FOR HIM, TOO, Nelly answered. IF YOU FALL ASLEEP, I’LL WAKE YOU IF THINGS GET INTERESTING. GO AHEAD. THE SKIPPER SAID SLEEP. DO IT.
Apparently, Kris did manage to nap. The next thing she heard was Sulwan’s announcement to all hands, “We’re down to 1.5 gees, folks. You can quit lounging around in your high-gee stations.”
Kris found she needed a hand up, which the young 2/c gunner’s mate who backed her up on weapons was only too ready to supply.
Kris headed for the head, which put her third in line for the facilities. A stuttering young ensign was only too willing to offer Kris her place in line, but Kris didn’t need to go that desperately, quite, and she figured if she did, the story about one of those damn Longknifes pulling rank to get to the head of the head line would be around the ship before she was out of the stall.
She waited like her father had taught her to do, as any good politician’s child better do.
Chow that night was steaks, more stuff scrounged from the now-long-gone restaurants from the good old days. Cookie let everyone know they better enjoy his chow while they could, it would be wormy hardtack and salt pork before this cruise was over.
Kris hoped it wouldn’t be that bad, but she didn’t contradict the old cook. Something told her he knew more about maintaining morale than she was likely to ever learn.
Despite the nap, Kris found herself falling asleep at the wardroom table. She managed to stumble to her quarters and fall into bed still dressed.
Exactly when the nightmares came, it was hard to tell, but she came awake screaming and covered in sweat at 0200 ship time. For the next two hours visions of ships dying held her hostage as they ran over and over in her mind’s eye.
When sleep finally returned, it was hardly less exhaus
ting than wakefulness.
46
Kris stumbled into the wardroom for early breakfast. She’d given up on risking further sleep.
The colonel and Penny were already there, and Jack and Abby straggled in before Kris had drawn little more than dry toast and coffee for herself. At the table, they stared blearyeyed at each other.
“That was one bad night,” the colonel said, taking a sip from his coffee cup.
“I don’t never want to sleep through that again,” Abby agreed.
“I’m glad we’re all agreed that that mean kitty should be belled,” Jack said. “Any idea how we do it?”
“Cops have incident interventions, or so my dad told me. Somebody has to use their weapon, they get sat down and talk it through. Someone gets suddenly dead, it gets more serious,” Penny finished.
“What could get more serious than this week,” Kris said, pushing her toast away. She was hungry, but she couldn’t eat.
“May I suggest we ‘cry-tique’ this puppy,” the colonel offered. “It might not do a whole lot, but if we can all review what we saw, squeeze it of any information we can, then develop a single narrative we can all stand by, it might help. If we can agree that this choice, bad as it was, was far and away better than the other options, we might save ourselves from running the question over and over in our minds late at night.”
He paused for another sip of steaming coffee. “I know talking over that little fight we had on Panda has helped me come to accept that the princess here simply outplayed me. Not that my employers had dealt me all that good a hand.”
“I have most of the data saved,” Nelly said. “I can project it here, or in Kris’s Tac Center.”
Kris looked around the room. It was filled with other officers just as bedraggled by the night as her team. She shook her head. “Let’s figure out what happened first before we subject the rest of the crew to our nightmares.”
They headed for the Tac Center.
Nelly had the main screen already showing the deployment as the monstrous mother ship made its appearance.
Daring Page 25