by T. R. Harris
A cacophony of voices came over the comm. “Which of the attackers is will?” was the gist of their queries.
“Just shoot the damn Juireans!”
And the battle was joined.
The pirate ships were much more maneuverable than the larger Juirean ships, yet that was about all. The battlecruisers had more weapons, more shields, and greater thrust. Two of the pirates unloaded a barrage of plasma bolts at one of the cruisers, impacting the starboard shields only to be quickly absorbed. Then, as the pirates changed course and sped away, powerful bolts were released by the Juirean. One of the pirates got in the clear. The other didn’t.
“They can’t go head-to-head with those bastards,” Regina said between gritted teeth.
“No they can’t. Listen up everyone: shift all shield power to portside and then drop in near the rear of the battlecruisers. Target only their engines.”
Another voice came over the intercom, sounding almost embarrassed. “Which port might that be, General Tarazi? We are unfamiliar with any ports in this region in order to discern a direction.”
“What the hell are you talking—” Then Riyad realized that his reference to portside had been translated as harbor side. And yes, there were no harbors nearby to get their proper bearings.
“To your left side! Shift power to your left side shields.”
“Yes, that would make more sense.”
Regina glanced over her shoulder at an exasperated Riyad Tarazi. “Aliens…what can I say?”
Riyad just shook his head.
Now the battle was progressing a little smoother. Even though the Juireans unloaded on the marauders with torrents of plasma bolts, the pirates were able to sustain shield integrity long enough for them to get in close to the cruisers for more pinpoint targeting.
Shield screens were not continuous energy blankets surrounding a starship. They were rectangular areas of intense alternating current, designed to absorb the balance of negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions within a plasma bolt. But there were gaps between these invisible panels, and the pirates managed to get a few bolts between them. Two of the eight battlecruisers lost well integrity as their engines were struck. In a normal battle, the attackers would continue to target the stricken vessels until they exploded or surrendered. In this case, the pirates simply ignored them and moved on to the others.
Now it was Riyad’s turn to join the battle. Regina brought the Crescent Star into an attack profile on a huge Class-Three. “Trimen, ready the Starfire missiles.”
“I see the controls. What shall be their trajectory?”
“Already programmed in. All you have to do is launch.”
“And they will guide themselves?”
“Correct, my friend. Now…release!”
Most combat operations in space were between units firing incredibly hot balls of roiling plasma at each other. But the problem with this tactic was that all plasma bolts were ballistic in nature, and unable to alter course once fired. This issue was overcome by the fact that plasma batteries could be recharged quickly, so massive spreads of these deadly balls of fire could be sent toward an enemy, making evasion more difficult.
But now six missiles shot out from the Crescent Star. To an outside observer, the gravity-assisted, forty-foot-long tubes exited the ship and headed in the exact opposite direction from of the Juirean ships. But then they swept around, locking on targets and engaging their small gravity drives.
The Juireans saw the launch, and from experience knew what they were up against. Steering wells were intensified and the ship began to make radical evasive moves, as radical as the ship’s bulk would allow.
But the missiles kept coming, correcting their own course with every change the Juirean made.
Moments before impacting the shields of the Juirean Class-Three, the gravity drives shut down, as did all other electronics aboard the missiles. In less than the blink of an eye, the deadly projectiles passed through the electric haze of the shields as if they weren’t there and impacted the shiny hull of the Juirean warship. Without any electrical energy to absorb, the shields were completely useless, and the first of six missiles split the metal of the ship’s exterior and disappeared inside. A breath later, the Class-Three battlecruiser exploded.
The Juirean screening units were now down to three. Riyad’s force numbered five.
Three of the five were now harassing a Juirean ship that had broken away from the others.
A brilliant flash invaded the pilothouse of the Crescent Star, blinding the three- person crew momentarily before the polarizer could take effect.
“What the hell was that?” Regina asked. She shielded her eyes in the direction of the forward viewport and squinted at her command screen. “The damn Juirean just detonated a frickin’ nuke!” she shouted, answering her own question.
“A desperate act of defense,” Trimen commented.
“And we just lost three of our pirate ships,” Riyad added. His defenders were now down to just two, the Crescent Star and one pirate vessel.
“Reggie, get us past those other two Juireans,” he commanded. “We’re running out of time to stop the main force.”
“What about the other pirate ship?”
“Screw him. We’re going to have to do this on our own.”
“Let us hope others of the Juirean fleet do not elect to detonate nuclear weapons as well,” Trimen commented.
“I second that, my friend,” Riyad said. “But I don’t think anyone in the main fleet is going to do that. They need that cluster of ships intact to influence the path of the black hole. How we doing, Reggie?”
She appeared to relax noticeably. “Past the range of the two remaining Juireans. Even if they blow now, we’d be safe. The main cluster is a minute out.”
“Trimen, I’m going to need you to do a wide dispersal of the weapon labeled Cloud. It’s written in English, but the control is the third item in the first row on the weapon’s inventory screen. I’ll give you the word as we make our run. Maintain dispersal until I say when.”
“The third item in the first row, that I understood. I am still confused as to what word I will be expecting, as well as why the word when would be the signal to cease dispersal?”
“The word will be now, and the when is when I tell you stop the dispersal.”
“That is much clearer. Thank you.” From the tone of his reply, Riyad knew Trimen was still confused. It didn’t matter, Riyad had backup controls on the arms of his chair.
“We’re beginning our run. Trimen, transfer shields to port—I mean to the left side. Prepare for dispersement.”
“May I ask what we are dispersing?”
“You’ll see. Ready…now! Release!”
Trimen touched the screen where indicated, even though he had no idea what he was doing. Riyad watched him out the corner of his eye, as the alien studied his screen for any sign that something was happening. His screen was clear, or at least his screen as currently configured.
Regina looked back at Riyad and smiled. It had taken the oversexed redhead several minutes after Trimen’s arrival and introduction before she could concentrate on her job once again. The dude was a hunk, even if he was an alien. It was like that with all Formilians, male and female. But now Regina was all business, and Riyad returned the smile, exposing teeth almost as brilliant as the nuclear explosion.
“My friend Trimen, you may stop the dispersement now.”
“As you order, yet I see that nothing has happened.”
“Not yet, but it will. Please observe the extreme magnification view of the Juirean warships.”
The ships of the cluster appeared to be in close proximity of each, yet in reality they were separated by approximately a thousand miles of space between them. And as the Crescent Star swept past the outer row of ships, the Juireans unleashed a series of deadly plasma bolts at the Human starship. Regina angled the ship away from the bolts, avoiding them with ease.
That’s when Trimen notic
ed a series of tiny light rays beginning to erupt from the surface of the first Juirean ship they’d passed on their run. The lights grew in intensity and number as more and more of them connected. Then the hull of the warship exploded, the air pressure inside escaping with the force of a bomb.
Then the next ship along the line suffered the same catastrophic fate, followed by three others. All told, half of the Juirean cluster force was now gone.
“May I inquire as to what secret weapon you employed? The results are beyond compare,” Trimen said, in awe of the two Humans, who were grinning at him like a couple of Cheshire Cats.
Riyad was prepared for this. He walked over to the stunned alien and placed something in Trimen’s hand. When the alien opened his palm, he frowned, looking up at Riyad with even more confusion than before.
“They’re called ball bearings.”
“They appear to be made of metal.”
“That’s right, steel. And you just released about a billion of these little buggers on a collision course with the Juirean ships.”
“They carry no charge, so they passed through the shields unobstructed,” Trimen said, understanding dawning on him. “And as I can testify, they are too small to notice on threat screens.”
“Mass detectors would have picked them up, but then with dispersal over such a wide area, even those readings would have been misleading.”
“And at the speed with which they impacted the Juirean vessels, they would carry an incredible amount of kinetic energy.”
Riyad turned to Regina. “By Jove, I think he gets it!” He turned back to Trimen. “The most basic of weapons, with devastating effect.”
“It’s like throwing a shitload of rocks at them, all traveling at thousands of miles per hour,” Regina added. And then her tone shifted. “There’s still five ships—plus the two from before.” She brought the Crescent Star back around for another run.
By now the Juireans had studied the attack and knew they had fallen victim to a nearly invisible yet deadly force. They wouldn’t let that happen again. Plasma bolts were adjusted, widening their energy fields so they would spread out quicker when fired. The range and force of the bolts would be greatly diminished, yet they would be strong enough to vaporize any incoming metal balls.
“Shall I launch more of your missiles?” Trimen asked, once Regina had explained the Juirean’s new defensive posture.
“That would be a great idea,” Riyad stated, “if we had any more aboard. I used up ten of the missiles during demonstrations, and after taking out that other battlecruiser, we’re all out.”
“Any other secret weapons you can reveal?”
“Nothing except standard plasma bolts. We do have standard projectile machinegun batteries, but they’re ineffective at this range and used mainly for surface strafing. But the Juireans have lined up, exposing only one of their ships to us at a time, and according to Panur’s timetable, we only have six minutes to fight our way through five battlecruisers.”
“Anyone need a hero?”
Everyone aboard the Crescent Star turned their heads to the main view screen. There, an oversized head of Adam Cain was staring into the pilothouse.
“Where are you?” Riyad asked.
“Just entering the fray.”
“What about the other Juireans?”
“I’ll tell you later. Right now, let’s take out the rest of these pesky party crashers”
********
After the last battlecruiser had been destroyed, the Pegasus II slipped in next to the Crescent Star. With Adam’s DPS engine, he’d help make short work of the remaining Juirean force, popping into and out of the battlefield with deadly results.
Now everyone’s attention was focused on the drama taking place at the center of the star system.
“How much longer, Panur?” Adam asked the mutant.
“Two minutes.”
On extreme magnification, the crew of both starships could see the white dwarf going through some radical changes. The entire left upper quadrant of the star was a tumultuous wreck, deformed and spitting out massive solar flares the size of planets. The black hole wasn’t visible any longer, yet its effects were obvious. Huge bolts of stellar lightning were lashing out into space, only to arc over and return to the surface. The flaming surface was also experiencing starquakes, and each time one struck, a hazy shockwave raced away into space.
On the main screen, Adam also saw that the intense gravity influence surrounding the colliding pair was in flux, shifting unpredictably as matter was jockeyed about within the massive bodies. Two of the ships in the gravity line had been caught up in the gravity maelstrom.
Adam reached over and tapped Panur’s screen. “What about them? Are they going to make it?”
Panur stared at the point on the screen for two seconds before answering. “No, they will not.”
“Then let them engage their gravity drives. Two ships can’t make that big of a difference, not now.”
“Unfortunately, they still can.”
The forward screen had switched views, this time to the bridge of one of the pirate marauders. Her captain was screaming into the comm: “Give us back control! We cannot fight this attraction. We need the gravity drive!”
Panur remained passive and unreadable.
Adam checked the locations of the FS-475 and Angar’s ship. They were at the center and leading edge of the line respectively, and appeared to be safe from danger. The last two ships in the line weren’t fairing that well. Now both the captains shared the split screen.
“Cut the control, you mutant raineic,” screamed one of them. Adam had never heard the word raineic before, but he was pretty sure he didn’t need to query the translation bug for a definition.
Panur remained stoic.
Adam looked over at Arieel and Lila. They were strapped in on the other side of the pilothouse, watching him and Panur. They remained silent—as did Adam—as the two ships on the screen began to fall back from the others, being sucked in toward the swirling mass of the white dwarf, their captains still frantically yelling in the now-muted images on the view screen.
Adam reached up and switched the screen view to the bridges of the FS-475 and Angar’s ship. Even with the sound restored, there was a deathly silence in both scenes, with all eyes of the bridge crews either staring forward or down at their workstations. No one raised a protest. They knew what was at stake, and that sacrifices had to be made.
Moments later, the two pirate ships disappeared from the mass screen.
“How much longer until the fireworks?” Adam asked the mutant, breaking the silence.
“Forty-two seconds, approximately.”
“Kaylor, Angar, prepare yourselves. Under forty seconds now.”
Panur put the nav image of the main view screen. At this range, it was hard to see anything other than the fiery brilliance of the now active star. Where once its surface barely reached three thousand degrees, it was now experiencing a sudden rebirth of its nuclear fire. This would be short-lived however, as this new energy source was being drawn from the passing black hole. Once it was gone, the cold star would once again wink out.
A brilliant light flared up, cancelling out the view screen before being dampened by the near-instantaneous polarizing of the exterior viewport.
Something had hit the white dwarf, something small yet powerful. And now a huge plume of yellow fire shot out from the star, as if a stick had punctured the surface of a balloon full of fire and allowed the contents to escape into space.
And there was more.
Adam could see—or thought he could see—a hazy line radiating out from the point of impact, causing background objects, mainly stars, to turn blurry for a moment until the ripple passed. This was much more intense than the other starquake shockwaves. And it was coming their way.
“Detecting a shockwave,” Panur announced. “Those closest to the star should prepare for its impact.”
“You heard him. Everyone hold on,” Adam sa
id.
“I do not know how we can hold on any tighter than we already are,” cried Jym from the FS-475. Then the image on the screen turned to static a moment later, as did the view of Angar’s bridge.
“Status, Panur. Are they still there?”
“Yes, but transmission waves have been disrupted. It should clear in a moment.”
Chapter 18
In the lull of the passing shockwave, and as the white dwarf continued to rumble and roil, Riyad opened a channel to the Pegasus II.
“So answer me now, what happened to the other Juireans?”
Adam laughed. “Well, since you asked, Panur’s DPS engines worked to perfection, at least once I got a hang of how to use them in close quarters combat. I found I was able to pop in and out of the battlefield at will, kind of like in a galactic game of whack-a-mole, although I was doing the whacking, not them. I was taking out their units left and right, and if there’s one thing to be said about the mane-heads, they’re a pragmatic bunch of assholes. After a while they were bolting out of the area in a wholesale retreat. In the immortal words of M.C. Hammer, they must have realized…You can’t touch this!”
“Captain Cain, I didn’t know you were into rap music?” Regina said over the comm, her dimpled face displaying a wide smile.
“Couldn’t help it, especially with a song like that. It had a pretty contagious beat… and damn, my homeboy sure could dance.”
A moment later, a music track began to blare from the speakers aboard all the ships in Adam’s tiny fleet, both Human and alien.
“You can’t touch this…You can’t touch this…!”
“How the hell?”
“You can thank the wonders of the galactic Library,” Regina replied. “Just think of all the music piracy taking place these days across the entire galaxy.”
“Like that, like that. Cold on a mission so fall them back. Let ‘em know that you’re too much. And this is a beat, uh, they can’t touch.”