Trial by Ice (A Star Too Far)

by Calouette, Casey

  Sebastien plopped down into an empty chair. His eyes were tired. The others came in and stood silently at the rear.

  William turned to face them with the display of the system map behind him. “In about two hours a Hun marauder is going to dock at this station.” He waited a second as the animation looped once more behind him. “This ship doesn’t have near the firepower to engage it successfully, and it is about a dead match for us in propulsion.”

  “So we run right now Mr. Grace?” Leduc said.

  William shook his head. “They’d slam us on the way out of the gravity well. If we power up now they have the benefit of velocity, they’d catch us quick. We’re going to wait till they slow down to dock and then hit them with a surprise.”

  Tired smiles appeared around the room.

  Williams eyes glinted as he continued. “So when a ship blinks between gravity wells they come from one gravity well and head to the next. Notice where this ship is coming from,” William turned and highlighted the trajectory. “It came from nowhere.”

  The course the Hun marauder had followed showed it coming from a blank point in space with no gravity wells inline. “Now it could have turned, or shifted in space, but I see no reason why it would. I don’t know how they did it, but we’ve got to get this information back.”

  “Find the crew quarters, strap yourselves in, and relax. Before we engage I’ll let everyone know. Questions?”

  “Um, Mr. Grace, what should we do?” Avi asked.

  “There’s not much to do. If we get hit to the point that the hull is breached just stay where you have life support. This ship has a full complement of repulsor shields and a nice coating of nickel ablative armor. We’ll be a tough nut to crack.” William looked around at the men and nodded. “We’ve come this far, let’s get home.”

  The Soldiers and Marines nodded and streamed off of the bridge.

  Sebastien stood like a creaking machine. “Wake me up when we’re clear.”

  Sebastien disliked starships. They were tight, compact, and everything seemed to want to squeeze against everything else. This one was a bit better as it was designed to carry ten times as many as were on it. But it was still tight.

  He disliked being useless on a starship. He was now just cargo for the Navy. At the end of every deployment came that initial moment of relaxation followed by the boredom. You could only clean, repair, and exercise so much. Then, he knew, the memories would hit as all those other voyages came back.

  He walked through the silent corridors. He opened doors and peered into the darkness until he found a room with a bed. A duffel bag sat on top in a crumpled pile. He swatted it onto the floor. He stripped out of his uniform and lay down.

  Diagnostics cascaded down over his closed eyelids. Nothing serious, nothing he hadn’t dealt with before. He still had a few months until the nanite grafts began to run out. Then he’d move like a 90 year old geriatric.

  Sleep wouldn’t come. It was always the same as the adrenaline seeped out. He’d been running on the edge of exhaustion for so long that he couldn’t just relax. This reminded him of his first drop. He sighed and opened his eyes.

  “Farshore,” he mouthed quietly.

  The Hun marauder decelerated and swept through the orbital plot just as William had expected. He feared that it would change course and cover an exit point. They had to know the ship had been attacked. Xan registered no comms chatter, though that was as telling as a hail.

  He took a few minutes to wander from the bridge and opened the door into the Captains quarters. The room was dimly lit and covered in bright red cloth. Displays flashed pictures of the woman with the dead man. A necklace of seashells hung near the edge of the bed. They had the one thing he desired, a steam-needle shower.

  He stripped down slowly and gently. It took a few tries to remove his jacket with a bandaged stump. He held the stump outside of the steam jets. The entire time he looked down the length of his arm and stared at nothing.

  William gave a quick salute to Avi as he passed onto the bridge. The Marine Private had stationed himself outside the door.

  “Oh, well, look at you!” Vito whistled. He wore a set of clean civilian clothes.

  William walked back onto the bridge in a clean set of mechanics coveralls. He smiled sheepishly and straightened himself up. They were a bit too large for him but he couldn’t manage to get anything else buttoned or zipped. “I’ve dreamed of a shower.” He sat down and stared at the display. No change. 30 minutes.

  William keyed the bindings. “Xan, Tero, Eduardo. To the bridge please.”

  Xan and Tero rushed onto the bridge, both in clean clothes. Eduardo came behind with overalls tied around his waist. He had found a clean uniform and his arms were bared. The tattoos shivered as a setting sun with the shadow of a crucifix. Williams stomach grumbled with hunger.

  “I’ve laid the course in. When they approach to secure themselves to the station we’re going to burn. Once they set a course to follow I need those batteries to hit em, and hit em in unison.” William turned and highlighted the course. “It’ll take us about an hour to clear the well, the first blink will take us about 2 AU’s out. It’ll be a few more hours to clear that peak, then an 8 AU blink. That next burn is going to be a few days.”

  “Where are we going?” Vito asked.

  “If we head in the most direct line back to UC space we expose our flank on the way out. So we’re going to head for K space, bounce a few systems, and get back that way.”

  “How long?”

  “Two months.”

  Vito nodded absently and stood. “I better go get seated.”

  William watched the marauder slide in closer. This was his first time in command of an actual starship. He had spent hundreds of hours in simulators competing against others. This though wouldn’t end with a scoreboard.

  The only hitch was if the marauder opened fire while they sat on the station. They’d most definitely destroy the docking station and the elevator with it. He wondered what the Captain of the other vessel was thinking, they had to know it was a ruse, but how to proceed?

  “Well gentleman, here we go. Xan, I need you to load a program to the orbital batteries. Tero, Eduardo, you’ll need to monitor critical systems. I’m going to run the guns and do some fine tuning on the piloting.”

  “May I suggest Von Hess to handle the piloting Sir?” Eduardo said.

  William turned his head. “He’s rated for starships?”

  “I’ve yet to find a vehicle or vessel he cannot handle.”

  “Very well, send him up.” William nodded and wondered what he could do with a truly talented pilot.

  William clicked on the ships comm system. “In 10 minutes we burn. We’ve got one hour to dance, stay put until we give the all clear.”

  The navigation program was laid out before him. He gave one final scan to the critical systems. Everything was set. He tapped a gray icon and the clamps unhooked with a deep shudder. They were floating free, waiting.

  Von Hess entered with a limp and sat in the cloth couch. He attached the carbon leads that the dead man wore last.

  William gave him a nod. He’d never look at the quiet German quite the same after the massacre earlier. “Can you fly this?”

  Von Hess closed his eyes and nodded with a smile. “Of course Mr. Grace, I can fly anything. How hard can it be?”

  William smirked and nodded. “The vector out can’t change, we’re locked into that. But with a ship this nimble we can roll.”

  “Here we go, we’re burning in 10.” William tapped the program execution tab gently and watched as the numbers counted down. He turned his eyes to the display and watched the velocity of the marauder drop to match the station. He tapped again and let the screen split into the system view with the visual tiled alongside. The marauder slid into view.

  The corvette slowly edged away from the docking station.

  William held his breath. Part of him wanted the marauder to dock and leave him be, but another
part wanted it to follow. Not just for the chase, but also to spare the militia another fight. A fight he was fairly sure they would lose.

  The screen showed the velocity remaining stable with zero acceleration. The bulky form hovered and turned slightly. The numbers began to rise. It was going to chase.

  “Xan, load it up! As soon as it’s clear of the needle we’re going to open fire,” William said. The excitement was beginning to rise and a wicked little smile spread on his lips. He brought up the weapons control and laid out the program. His left hand began to throb, he glanced down and wondered how something that didn’t exist could hurt.

  “Von Hess, after the first barrage I need you to roll so that we can get the second. After that keep the stronger set of fields or armor facing them. I’ll handle the weapons.”

  Alarms sounded and a subtle metallic humming passed through the ship. The marauder had began to fire with prow mounted railguns. Sparks of light flickered on the top of the marauder as a barrage of missiles powered in.

  William gritted his teeth as the warheads came closer. He could feel the light hum of the repulsor field momentarily increasing the gravitational field to counteract the missiles. The mass driver opened up to intercept the missiles.

  Alarms flashed onto the display. The shields peaked and redlined as the missiles overwhelmed it. The railguns punched in for another volley. William braced himself.

  The ship rolled in a gentle arc allowing the stressed fields to bleed the energy they had retained. The remaining rounds impacted on the fresh field. William shot a glance at Von Hess. There was a slight smile across the pilots lips. “Well done Von Hess.”

  “They’ll clear the station in about 30 seconds.” Tero said.

  William knew that the missile barrage would take a few minutes to reload. He prepped his weapons program and watched as the marauder built velocity up.

  “Clear!” Tero yelled.

  William slapped his hand down onto the granite table and set the program into motion.

  Rear mounted batteries of lower caliber mass drivers began to expel a stream of tungsten-nickel pellets. Each projectile contained a bit of energy but the combined force of the stream could overwhelm a repulsor grid. The marauder, small in the distance of the camera, winked with green flashes as the nickel impacted silently.

  “Orbital batteries have fired!” Xan yelled.

  The orbital batteries were arrayed around the planet in a simple spread. Each one out of sight of the others. William had generated a program that would deliver each of the projectiles into an orbit that would, hopefully, impact the marauder.

  The marauder tilted slowly, but not before a stream of the mass driver particles punished through the repulsor and impacted the hull. Railguns opened fire a split second later driving a pair of depleted uranium slugs into it. Nanite particles charged into the hull in an incandescent white burn before winking out.

  William felt excited as he watched his program burn through and deliver a blow that they definitely felt. The marauders velocity was rising and the acceleration was growing at a rate that troubled him.

  “Mr. Xan, how long? Tero, everything good?”

  “Uh, four minutes,” Xan replied.

  “Well enough Mr. Grace,” Tero called back.

  William slapped down the next program and hoped that they could handle the next barrage. He had no doubt the marauder learned and would deliver the next blow more decisively. He had to keep the attention on him and not on what was coming over the horizon.

  The marauder sparkled as both top and bottom batteries deployed another array of missiles. The prow railguns continued to pound the repulsor fields. The rotating of the corvette would only do so much to spread the damage out. Tero began to hum to himself as the missiles approached.

  The missiles, after expending the initial fuel, coasted until they reached the corvette where they drove in with a renewed vigor.

  The mass drivers opened fire on the approaching missiles. The missile explosions coalesced in a field of plasma that blossomed onto the armor. The marauder’s railgun walked rounds onto the hull stitching a jagged trail in the nickel alloy armor.

  William tensed his stomach as the repulsors peaked into the red. His eyes stared unblinking until the readouts finally slid lower. Another barrage like that would overwhelm the heat sinks and the armor couldn’t take a sustained railgun assault.

  “Xan, give me something good.” William laid out the next weapons program.

  “It’s going to be close, they might get off another shot. Orbital batteries weren’t designed for this sort of thing.”

  “I can bring her around and cut the drive,” Von Hess said in a low tone.

  “Negative.” William called back. His hands hovered over the console. He held his breath and watched the display. Any second, he knew, any second. The desire to strike again was almost overwhelming.

  The marauder began to fire the railguns once more. The rounds impacted further along the hull at a steeper angle. The heat each round generated was dispersed among more of the repulsor fields. William realized that this would be more than they could handle when the missiles landed. Already the repulsors were stressed.

  “William…” Tero called out. “We’re going to have-”

  “I know!” William snapped back. Think think! What if the batteries missed? Had they already gone past and they hadn’t seen it? Ten seconds more and he’d strike back with something, anything.

  He counted down till he reached four and something happened.

  At first it appeared like another barrage was incoming. The color was different and the position was random. Blinks of green and yellow flashed against the repulsor fields before an overwhelming light blinked out the display. Something hit the marauder. Something hit it hard.

  William slapped the console. The sensors were all recalibrating and the weapons fired blind. The mass driver took in the last known position and wavered through a minute of angle to cover a probable grid. The railguns compensated for the velocity and spouted out more rounds. The ship hummed as an electromagnetic shockwave slammed against it.

  “Eduardo, how long?” William yelled. The excitement was getting to him. The steely taste floated in the back of his mouth as the adrenaline was back. He needed to try and calm himself. This was going to be a long haul.

  “I don’t know!” Eduardo called out. He fidgeted and tapped the consoles cautiously with arms wreathed in scrolling figures.

  William sat forward and flexed the fingers on his right hand. The tactical display flickered on. The icon of the marauder showed that it was still moving. Still in place. His heart dropped a second until he saw that the acceleration was dropping slowly.

  “Hey hey! We got something, they’re slowing down,” William yelled out.

  The celebration was short lived as the acceleration slowly began to edge up again. But it was enough. Every meter they grew apart was another meter of breathing room for the repulsors to recharge. Every meter gave the mass drivers more time to engage the missiles. Railgun fire continued to pound against the repulsors but they were holding steady.

  “10 minutes till blink,” Von Hess said in a low tone.

  The marauder seemed to pause as the acceleration winked to zero. Was this it? Were they going to fall back? William blinked his eyes and watched.

  The marauder reengaged the drives. The ships acceleration tripled what it had been.

  “Shit.” William slapped in another program. “Tero, can you see anything yet? How the hell?”

  “Uh, I don’t know, they shouldn’t be able to do that. They’re moving at nearly four gees, they aren’t designed for that.” He tapped at the console and sat back. “They repositioned the crew grav fields in line. Once you do that you can’t realign. They’re giving it all they got to catch us now.”

  William stared up at the screen. The visual display popped back on again. Everything seemed slightly grainy as the sensors were still coming online. The marauder still glowed on the oute
r edge where the orbital battery had struck.

  “Can you hit them on the nose?” Tero asked.

  “What? Maybe. Why?” William replied. His stump ached and tingled.

  The weapons systems were computer controlled for maximum impact. The program preferred to work in concert with the other weapons for optimal damage instead of targeting individual points. They had the statistical proficiency that no human gunner ever would. But in regards to single shots, statistics wouldn’t cover the numbers.

  “They’ve changed the field layout, the repulsors aren’t tuned for that acceleration, the field is dragging behind.” Tero let the words hang. The very tip of the Hun marauder was unshielded.

  “Highlight where, I’m going to need to override and do it manually,” William said. He delved deeper into the command console rigging the weapons program for manual control.

  The nose of the marauder wore a dim orange overlay. A small area directly in the center was vulnerable. It would be a shot that only a railgun could make.

  William drifted his fingers over the console and watched as the impact point shifted on the marauder. It would take a direct hit to punch through the armored nose. The time to blink was drawing close. He sat back and took a deep breath.

  The marauder’s armor was finally beginning to cool enough that it didn’t glow. One entire edge was a ragged mess of slagged armor and wrecked launcher tubes. A bit closer and the Hun railguns would begin to fire once more. The repulsors were stressed enough from the last barrage.

  William realized if his repulsors were almost spent that the Huns must be maxed out as well. The time was now, he had to fire. “Hess, slam em!”

  The mass drivers opened up into a less accurate spread. The green flashes of vaporized nickel peppered the entire leading edge of the accelerating marauder. One burst through and then another.

  The focal point changed for a split second and William twitched it aside. With a gentle tap he set off the first pair of railgun rounds. Each one sped from a Xeno designed turret and careened through the empty space. One of the rounds deflected off of the grav field but the other was funneled right in and exploded in a spectacular display of incandescent light.