by Ryk Brown
“Someone find that damned frigate!” Nathan demanded.
“She’s not on my sensors!” Kaylah assured her captain as she tightened her restraints.
“Josh, if they try to hit our starboard shields again…”
“I’ll roll us over to protect our starboard side,” Josh replied, reading his captain’s mind as he continued sending plasma torpedoes toward the cruiser.
The ship rocked even more violently than before as energy weapons fire, from the Dusahn cruiser directly ahead of them, slammed into the Aurora’s forward shields, causing them to flash brightly.
“You need to strap in, Josh!” Nathan ordered, noticing his helmsman could barely manage to stay in his seat.
“I can’t!” Josh replied frantically. “My finger’s on the trigger!”
“I’ve got it,” Loki insisted, unbuckling himself so he could reach across the center console to assist his friend.
The ship rocked again as the cruiser continued its relentless attack. Loki fell to the deck, knocked off balance by the impact. He quickly regained control and stepped over to fasten his helmsman’s restraints before returning to his own seat and strapping himself back in.
“Why the hell are they still parked in front of us?” Jessica wondered aloud. “We can’t even jump.”
“They don’t know that,” Nathan realized. “Comms,” he continued without missing a beat, “order the Glendanon to jump ahead of the cruiser and take position along her orbit, matching her speed. Then tell the Weatherly to take a similar position just ahead of the Glendanon and slightly above her track.”
“Aye, sir,” Naralena replied, bracing herself against the violent shaking with her left hand as her right hand input the commands into her communications console.
“Nice idea,” Jessica said, “but they can still turn left or right to get a clear jump line.”
“Not if I put some of our cargo ships in their way,” Nathan replied. “Naralena, contact our cargo ships on the rim, and get them into similar position to the left and right of the cruiser’s track. Tell them to direct all available power to their shields and to jump clear before they take any permanent damage.”
“That will only buy us a minute, at the most,” Jessica insisted.
“Have all ships concentrate their fire on the same shields,” Nathan instructed. “Everyone in front of the cruiser targets their forward shields, and everyone else targets their aft shields.”
The ship rocked, yet again, and sparks flew from the panel above Kaylah’s station, causing her to flinch. “That still won’t do it, Captain,” she warned. “That cruiser’s shields are incredibly powerful. We’ll need more firepower.”
“That’s what I intend to deliver,” Nathan replied.
“New action orders from the Aurora,” the Glendanon’s XO reported. “They want us to position ourselves directly in front of the cruiser, matching her course and speed.”
“That’s insane,” the helmsman exclaimed.
“He obviously wants us to block the cruiser from jumping,” Captain Gullen surmised.
“They’ll just alter their course and jump past us,” the helmsman argued.
“I’m sure Captain Scott has a plan,” the captain told him.
“Or they’ll just blast their way through us!” the helmsman added.
“Adjust course and speed, and jump in front of the cruiser,” Captain Gullen instructed calmly. “XO, make sure all available power is routed to our active shields.”
“The Glendanon is in position,” Kaylah reported from the Aurora’s sensor station as the ship lurched.
“The Weatherly reports they will be in position in thirty seconds,” Naralena added.
“Octos are trying to reach our starboard side,” Kaylah reported, “but the Gunyoki are keeping them busy!”
“Starboard shields are holding at five percent,” Jessica added as the ship rocked with each weapons impact. “Forward shields at seventy percent!”
“Tell the Gunyoki to ignore the octos unless they attack them directly. I want everyone harassing that cruiser,” Nathan ordered.
“The Glendanon is taking fire,” Kaylah reported. “They’re channeling all available power to their shields, but they aren’t going to last more than a few minutes.”
“Hopefully, that will be enough,” Nathan commented.
“Captain, I’m unable to make contact with Rogen Defense Command,” Naralena reported. “I’m not even getting a comm-link signal.”
“They may have been hit,” Jessica suggested, bracing herself for the next weapons impact.
“Then get me a direct link to the fourth missile launcher,” Nathan instructed.
“Captain, we cannot launch without direct orders from Rogen Defense Command,” the senior officer of Rakuen’s newest missile launcher argued over comms.
“Rogen Defense Command is not responding to our hails,” Nathan explained. “We suspect their comms are down…or worse. We need your missiles to bring down that cruiser before she destroys half your planet! So make a fucking decision, Lieutenant!”
“Flash traffic,” Chief Mando reported. “Action orders. We’re jumping in close for a missile launch!”
“Finally!” Aiden exclaimed. “Spin them up, Ali!”
“Already on it!” she replied.
“It will take us three jumps to get into launch position without being detected,” the chief warned, “and we’ve got less than a minute to do it.”
“I can do it,” Aiden insisted. “Just give me the jump plots!”
The main lighting on the Aurora suddenly came back to life, albeit at subdued levels.
“New contacts!” Kaylah reported from the sensor station as the ship continued to shake from the incoming weapons fire. “The Quawli and the Manamu!”
“Comms, send the Quawli to the Glendanon’s port, and the Manamu to starboard!” Nathan instructed.
“Cruiser’s aft shields are down to sixty percent!” Jessica reported. “We’re making progress!”
“Not fast enough,” Nathan commented.
“New contacts!” Kaylah reported urgently. “Four missiles to starboard! Five seconds!”
“Josh!” Nathan barked.
“Already on it,” Josh replied, pushing his flight control stick to the right, causing the ship to roll to starboard.
With the inertial dampeners not working, the ship’s sudden roll was felt by everyone inside. Nathan found himself clutching the arms of his command chair even more tightly than before, his body being pushed to the left as his ship rolled over to bring its dorsal shields between itself and the incoming jump missiles. The ship rocked violently as all four missiles detonated upon impact with the Aurora’s topside shields, his poor ship creaking and groaning as its hull and internal structure absorbed the force of the explosions.
“That was too close!” Jessica declared. “That’s not going to work more than a few times!”
“Are the Dusahn jump missiles single or multi-jump?” Nathan wondered.
“We’ve never seen them multi-jump,” Kaylah replied, “but that doesn’t mean they can’t.”
“If they can, they’ll use the multi-jump to send a killing blow toward where they expect our weak side to be,” Jessica surmised. “Then they’ll send a decoy shot at our weak side to force us to roll…”
“Causing us to expose our weak side to the kill shot,” Nathan said, finishing her sentence. “Josh, keep rolling us around. Left; right; vary it and try not to be predictable.”
“You got it!” Josh replied, immediately putting the Aurora into an opposing roll.
“Comms, get me Striker One!” Nathan added.
“One more shot to our starboard shields and this war will be over,” Nathan said over comms.
“We’ll find the son-of-a-bitch,” Robert promised. “Gil, you receivin
g the last missile tracks?”
“I’ve got ‘em,” Captain Roselle replied from Striker Two. “Based on the last tracks from the frigate, and the angles of the last two missile attacks, I’m guessing she’s somewhere around position three eight five.”
“That would make sense,” Robert agreed as he entered the parameters for their next jump. “I’ll jump to position three eight eight and look back. You go to three eight seven and look forward. First one to find them shouts out and attacks.”
“We looking to kill this bastard or just knock them off their attack?”
“What do you think?” Robert replied as he pressed the jump button on his gunship’s flight control stick.
“You can’t do this!” the junior missile officer objected. “They’ll throw you in prison, or worse!”
“If there’s something worse than everyone dying, I don’t want to know,” the senior officer replied. “Now insert your damned key, and switch to manual override, NOW!”
The junior officer shook his head as he inserted his key and turned it to the appropriate position. The launcher status display switched from remote active to manual. “Launcher is in manual,” the junior officer announced. He looked at the senior officer. “You now have launch control. I hope you’re right.”
“So do I,” the senior officer said as he typed in the targeting data. After a few seconds, he pressed the launch button, repeating, “So do I.”
“Fifteen seconds to launch,” Chief Mando warned.
“Why the fuck is it always us?” Aiden mumbled to himself as he finished his turn and pressed the jump button.
“Jump complete,” Chief Mando announced. “We’re on firing station!”
“Ali!” Aiden called.
“I’m on it!” she replied as she typed the final launch instructions into the missile control console.
“Five seconds!” the chief warned.
“Come on!” Aiden urged.
“Four…”
“Not helping!” Ali snapped as she typed in the last few instructions.
“Three…”
She flipped up the arming button’s cover and pressed it down.
“Two…”
Ali also flipped the cover off the launch button and pressed it down even harder.
“One…”
She glanced at the display screen showing the status of all of Orochi Three’s missile launchers, just as the two launchers she had activated changed from ‘ready’ to ‘missile launch confirmed’. “Missiles away!” she declared triumphantly.
Aiden twisted his flight control stick hard to the left, bringing their nose around, in the direction that the jump missile had left, just in time to see all eight jump flashes.
“Missiles have jumped!” Ali added, sinking back into her seat. After breathing a sigh of relief, she added, “Twelve hours of boredom followed by a few minutes of terror. There has got to be an easier way to make a living.”
“The Manamu’s shields are failing!” Jessica warned. “They’re jumping!”
“Missile launches on the surface!” Kaylah reported. “Four of them!”
“YES!” Nathan exclaimed.
“The cruiser is turning to starboard!” Kaylah added.
“They’re looking for a clear jump line!” Jessica said.
“Good bet they’ve spotted those missiles,” Nathan added.
“The Glendanon is yawing!” Kaylah reported. “They’re trying to block the cruiser from getting a clear jump line!”
“That’s it, Gullen, sell it,” Nathan mumbled.
“Cruiser is turning its ventral point-defenses toward the missile tracks,” Jessica announced.
“The Glendanon is translating to starboard, as well,” Kaylah reported.
Nathan watched the main view screen as the enemy cruiser in front of him jockeyed for a clear jump line, and the Glendanon tried in vain to stop them.
“Rakuen missiles have jumped!” Kaylah added. “They’re now ten seconds out!”
“Cruiser has a clear jump line!” Jessica warned. “They’re jumping!”
The Aurora’s bridge filled with the blue-white flash from the Dusahn cruiser’s jump, but instead of fading away a second later, it was replaced by a brilliant white blast of light that immediately turned yellow, then reddish-orange. Only a kilometer or two beyond the Glendanon, a massive explosion had appeared. The burning gases of the explosion used up the free oxygen from within the enemy cruiser in a split second. When the fireball subsided, the broken remnants of the target’s hull could be seen scattering in all directions as secondary explosions tore the remaining section apart, as well.
“What the hell happened?” Jessica asked, shocked by the explosion.
Nathan smiled. “Now we know what happens when two objects collide in a jump and one of them has warheads.”
* * *
The Reaper jumped in less than fifty meters above the hospital’s shuttle pad, its four engine pods screaming at full power. Its landing gear had barely touched the ground when the side door opened and Loki jumped out, making a mad dash toward the entrance. Nathan and Jessica jumped out, as well, also heading for the door, albeit not as quickly.
Loki burst into the hospital emergency entrance, plowing his way through the crowds of people waiting to be treated. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching his family.
“My wife is here!” he declared to the overburdened receptionist.
“So is everyone else’s,” the lady replied.
“Lael Sheehan is my wife!” Loki said, demanding attention. “She came in with our baby daughter, Ailsa!” he added, almost pleading.
Nathan and Jessica worked their way through the crowd, as well, coming up behind Loki.
“If you’ll just be patient…”
Nathan stepped up next to Loki, leaning in over the counter to speak to the receptionist. “I am Nathan Scott, captain of the Aurora, and with this man’s help, we just saved your fucking planet. So I suggest you tell us where we can find his wife and daughter, or I’ll blast that door open and find her myself. Then you’ll have a really hard time keeping all these people from swarming your facility.”
The woman stared at Nathan for a moment, her mouth agape. “What was the name?” she finally asked.
“Sheehan,” Loki replied. “Lael and Ailsa.”
The woman studied her screen, frantically searching for the name. “You have to understand, so many people have come in; we don’t even have most of their names yet…”
Both Nathan and Jessica drew their sidearms, flipping the charge buttons as they turned toward the entrance to the treatment area.
The whine of the weapons charging up caught the woman’s attention, as well as the nearby guard’s.
“I wouldn’t,” Jessica warned the guard, turning her sidearm to point at him.
Screams erupted in the waiting area. People ducked down, trying to find cover, while others ran for the exit. The guard froze, his hand on his holstered weapon. The confident smile on Jessica’s face convinced him to slowly remove it.
The receptionist pressed a button, and the doors to the treatment area swung open. “If they’re not in there, then they’re either in one of the wards on the two floors above or in surgery on the fourth floor.”
“Thank you,” Nathan replied, holstering his weapon as he turned and followed Loki through the doors.
Jessica followed, walking backwards, keeping her weapon trained on the security guard. “Don’t worry, we’ll be good,” she told the guard as she, too, holstered her weapon and then turned to follow them through the doors.
The treatment area was a madhouse of semi-organized chaos. The wounded were everywhere, and various medical personnel were trying their best to provide care for everyone. Even family members had been pressed into service, maintaining pressure on bleeding woun
ds and providing supportive care to their loved ones.
Loki searched frantically for Lael and Ailsa, calling out his wife’s name over and over again. After a few minutes, he turned to Nathan, exasperated.
“Excuse me,” Nathan said, catching a nurse as she hurried passed by. “We’re looking for a young woman and a baby girl.”
“You’re Na-Tan, aren’t you?” the woman replied. “I’ve seen you on the news.”
“Can you help us find them?” Nathan pleaded.
“Names?”
“Sheehan,” Nathan replied. “Lael and Ailsa.”
The woman moved to a nearby terminal and punched the names into the system. “Ah, here we go. The baby, Ailsa, is stable. She went to pediatrics on the third floor.”
“What about the mother, Lael?” Nathan asked.
The woman glanced at the screen again, then back to Nathan, her expression changing. “I’m sorry, she didn’t make it. She’s downstairs in the morgue.”
“Damn,” Nathan sighed.
“Captain, I can’t find them,” Loki said, coming back to join them.
“I found them, Loki,” Nathan told him, “Ailsa’s in pediatrics, and she’s stable.”
“Oh, thank God,” Loki sighed. “What about Lael?”
Nathan was unsure how to respond. That alone said more than Loki was prepared to hear.
“Oh, God,” Loki said, his voice breaking as his eyes welled up. “Oh, God.”
Jessica put her arms around Loki and pulled him in close as he began to weep.
CHAPTER SIX
Nathan studied the images on the main view screen in the command briefing room as Lieutenant Commander Shinoda gave his after-action report of the Alliance’s latest retaliatory attack against the Dusahn.
“In total, we’ve expended another sixteen jump missiles, reducing our total reserve back down to forty-two,” the lieutenant commander said. “For this expenditure, we destroyed another frigate, four gunships, and inflicted damage on two cruisers.”
“Hardly worth the missiles,” Cameron observed.