Timestar

by Robert George Mertens

  "I got one!" Tia yelled.

  "You got one of their ships?" Nikki asked.

  "No, I got one of their missiles."

  "Great. That leaves only three hundred more."

  "But they're evading!" Tia complained.

  "Use the tachyon cannons."

  "Did you get hold of Frank?" Anna asked.

  "I think so. They're jamming our signal, but I think he got the message," Sandy replied.

  "Brace for impact!" Tia cried, "The first missile will hit… now." As she said it, somewhere far off in another part of the ship, a boom rang out.

  "Oh!" came from the back of the bridge.

  They all looked around. It was Sahn, eyes wide open in shock.

  "Damage report, Dyna."

  "Surface impact only. Hull intact."

  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. By this time, everybody was on the bridge working in some capacity except Maria, who was still in the sick bay recovering from her landside ordeal.

  "What is it?" Sahn asked, the only English words she knew to say.

  "We're near light speed now, Anna. Should we break?"

  "What about Frank? We can't leave him here." Michelle said.

  "Can she help?" Anna asked.

  "Who?" Suni said.

  "Sahn."

  "No. Not enough training yet."

  "Outer hull disintegrating," Dyna announced.

  "What?" Anna said.

  "Sahn, have a seat. And strap in." Suni directed.

  "High-energy superlight particles are penetrating and deteriorating the neutronium skin," Paddy explained, looking over an imager.

  "Why don't we see it?" Anna asked.

  "Undetectable—until it's too late," Paddy answered.

  "Seventeen incoming missiles to impact in fourteen seconds." Tia announced.

  "Dyna, breaklight."

  "I got one! I got one!" Nikki cried.

  "One of their missiles?" Anna asked.

  "No, I got one of their ships! With a neutron torpedo!" Nikki said.

  The starship accelerated to breaklight in a blinding haze of flame as six missiles exploded simultaneously with their passage beyond the speed of light. Space was white and the stars were multicolored, as the ship and her crew flew their way to safety.

  "Screens dead," Sandy announced, "No scans on anything."

  "Now let's hope Frank is okay," Michelle asserted.

  "Oh my. He's still on the planet," Paddy realized.

  "Ready, Suni?" Anna asked.

  "Yes, I'll take command now," Suni replied. "You did well, Anna." The two women switched chairs, putting Suni in the command seat. "Set a new course vector, Sandy. We'll come in fast for an attack run. Nikki, are you ready on neutron torpedoes?"

  "Ready, Suni."

  "Tia, take tachyon cannons one through twenty. Michelle, twenty-one through forty."

  "Aye aye, Captain." they replied.

  "Anna on scanners. Heidi on ships systems, damage control and repairs. Paddy, standby to assist. You'll back-up for anything else that needs doing."

  "Aye aye, Captain."

  "Food service, I need some coffee," Suni said, bleary-eyed.

  "Compliance, Suni. It's on the way," a voice came over the com.

  "I help?" Sahn asked.

  "Can she do anything?" Nikki asked.

  "Maybe. Can you show her how to operate the lase cannons in five minutes or less?"

  "I'll try," Nikki said, "Come here, Sahn. You help." Sahn quickly walked over and sat at the console next to Nikki's.

  "Okay, here's the plan," Suni began, "The attack run will last for twenty seconds. That's how long we'll be at sub-light speed. We'll assume, for now, that they've slowed and regrouped. Chances are they're well above the planet. They should be fairly spread out by now and waiting for us. We'll come in the way they came in, low and fast. We'll be near light speed, so watch your calculations. How long before debreak, Sandy?"

  "Four minutes, Suni."

  "Give us a little distance above the planet before debreak." Suni's coffee arrived.

  "Will do," Sandy said, as she worked up some more calculations.

  "Are we all ready?" Suni asked.

  "Ready." Several of the girls answered.

  "Countdown, please," Suni requested.

  "Three minutes and seven seconds," Sandy replied.

  "Be sure of your target," Suni reminded them as they waited. "Don't shoot any civilian craft."

  "Three minutes."

  "They'll be the ones not shooting at us, won't they?" Tia said. A few nervous giggles moved across the bridge. The crewmembers were tense.

  "Two minutes, thirty seconds," Sandy continued.

  Stars slowed around them, now, as they waited. They all sat on hair-triggers.

  "Two minutes."

  "Dyna, when we go in I need short and long scans, and IDs on shipping traffic. Mark shipping in green, and don't forget trajectories," Anna asked.

  "Compliance," Dyna said.

  "One minute to debreak."

  "Paddy, when we get in close to the planet, try reaching Frank over the com link, will you."

  "Aye, Suni."

  "Thirty seconds," Sandy said.

  "Twenty."

  "Fields at full power, Dyna," Suni ordered.

  "Compliance."

  "Ten… five, four, three, two, one."

  The colored stars winked out as the universe flipped around from white to black. They were at sublight speed in normal space now. Iskol was coming into view quickly.

  "Short scan indicates one… three… seven… ten… twelve enemy ships," Anna reported, as they winked into view in red on the main wall imager.

  "I have lock on targets," Nikki said.

  "Fire at will," Suni gave the order.

  Aboard the ship, they heard the sounds of torpedoes being launched and the groaning of engines as they supported the restless firing of forty tachyon cannons. The main wall imager lit up with trajectories, missiles and enemy targets.

  "More behind us!" Anna said. "Fifty-one incoming missiles." The ship shook as the missiles made their mark.

  "Hull damage; two point three percent. Fields are holding, but they're not stopping much," Heidi announced.

  "Long scan shows ten more enemy ships," Anna said.

  "Ten seconds to breaklight," Sandy said.

  "I got one," Tia said.

  "Me too," said Michelle.

  "I've got two," Nikki proudly informed them.

  "I get one!" Sahn said.

  "Hull damage; six percent."

  "I got another one!" Tia shrieked.

  The ship heaved as a loud, deep rumble came over the bridge in a wave.

  "Hull penetration!" Heidi said. "Damage to mid-ship and most systems,"

  "Tachyon cannons inoperative," Tia reported.

  "Mine too," Michelle said.

  "Neutron torpedoes still operative," said Nikki, who was still shooting.

  "No laser," Sahn called dejectedly.

  "Breaklight—three seconds," Sandy said.

  "Abort breaklight!" Suni ordered.

  "Compliance, breaklight aborted."

  "Accelerate to light speed."

  "Long range scanners are inoperative," Anna reported.

  "Won’t they catch us, if they can go two hundred and fifty times the speed of light, Suni?" Tia asked.

  "We'll beat them on time dilation, Tia. It may cost us a week or two, but with a hole in our ship, attempting breaklight would be a disaster."

  "They're gaining on us," Anna said.

  "Give me a gamma factor of two-sixty, Sandy," Suni requested.

  "We're at a hundred now, Suni. It'll take a few minutes to get there," Sandy replied.

  "They're still gaining on us, but not as quickly. They're at one-twenty-five c and accelerating. They don't realize what we're doing," Anna said.

  "We have full power acceleration?" Suni asked.

  "Affirmative," Sandy replied.

  "Seven incoming missiles," Anna sai
d. "Estimated speeds; two-fifty-five c."

  "Can you get them, Nikki?"

  "I can try."

  "I have six laser cannons back on line," Michelle said.

  "Go! Nikki, stay on the lead ships," Suni ordered.

  "Four tachyons back on line," Tia said.

  "Go after the missiles, Tia."

  "Time dilation gamma factor is one-eighty," Sandy reported.

  The crew of the Butterworth was dilating time for themselves. For every second they continued their course, one hundred and eighty seconds slipped away in the universe around them. Their only hope was to dilate time faster than the enemy could slip through it.

  "How long will it take to repair the hull damage, Heidi?" Suni asked.

  "Before we can breaklight, about two hours just to patch it. It's being repaired now."

  "That'll cost us three weeks."

  "The missiles are dropping off," Anna said. "They must be running out of fuel."

  "Thank the Lord something's going our way," Sandy exclaimed.

  "You may get a chance to—in person if we don't get away from these people," Paddy remarked. "Gamma factor is two-ten."

  "Confirmed," Anna said. "They're still gaining on us, but only slightly. I show four of them left on short range scan. They must be giving it everything they’ve got to catch us." "Anti-mass fields are back online!" Sandy shrieked. "Choose any gamma factor you like, Suni. We can't breaklight yet, but we can put some of our power to work now."

  "Thank you, Lord," Paddy said.

  "Make it one thousand, Sandy, and put us on a new course vector. Let's get the hell out of here," Suni said with reluctance.

  "Aye aye," Sandy complied, working with her instruments and imager.

  In a few moments, the universe about them flattened as they accelerated to a gamma factor of a thousand.

  "I've lost short scan on the enemy ships," said Anna, "They fell out of range pretty fast."

  "How long do you want to do this, Suni? Every second makes a thousand," Sandy mentioned.

  "Put three hours between us and them, Sandy. Just enough time to patch the hull for breaklight."

  "That'll cost us seventeen days," Sandy replied.

  "Better seventeen days than our lives," Suni reminded her.

  "But what about Frank?" Heidi asked.

  "We can't help him if we're dead," Suni replied.

  "Right. We'll be decelerating in twenty-one minutes. That'll give us a three hour advantage," Sandy said.

  "Heidi, Michelle, you're next shift aren't you?" Suni asked.

  "Yes," Heidi said.

  "Okay, go back to bed and get some sleep. You'll be taking over in four hours. Tia, take over the systems console."

  "Aye, Suni."

  "Paddy, you can go to bed also, but be ready if I need you. Sahn, you can go back to bed. You did a good job."

  "Thank you, Suni."

  The three women and Sahn left the bridge immediately, while the other five kept vigil on the repairs being made. Twenty minutes later, the drives engaged and slowed them to a gamma factor of one point one.

  "Long range scanners are operative," Anna reported.

  "Thank you, Anna. What hit us?" Suni asked.

  "I don't know, but we can try replaying the view from the external scanners," Anna said.

  "Try it."

  Anna worked some controls and in a minute, the forward wall imager was dancing again with a replay of the battle that had taken place only an hour earlier.

  "There's when we took the hit," Anna explained. "Analysis of the damage shows that the direction it came from would place it on this vector."

  A red line drawn from a still shot of the battle appeared on the main imager.

  "But as you can see, there were no enemy ships on that vector. And since we haven't found debris from a missile, we must assume for now, that it was a beam or particle weapon of some sort. Now, this is on short scan. On long scan, we still find no enemy ships on or even near that vector. And that leaves us with nothing. I don't know."

  "What about the external cams? What did they see?"

  "We can play those back also." Anna touched some more controls, and the main imager went white.

  "This is just after we were hit. This cam was destroyed when it happened. I’ll run it backwards slowly so we can see."

  Slowly the imager formed a three-dimensional picture of a white-hot explosion. Then, as the image of whiteness receded, flames of bright yellow appeared. They also receded and the puncture in the ship slowly sealed itself. Anna stopped the image there.

  Whatever hit us, hit us right then. As you can see, it’s not a visible source, or we’d see particle disintegration in the path of the beam. I’ll scan the spectrum for whatever I can find.

  Anna played with her controls, but no matter what she did, the imager remained devoid of any evidence of a beam.

  "I’ve done everything I can," she said, still working the controls. "There’s nothing there."

  "What’s that?" Suni asked.

  "That? Oh, just some x-ray spillage. That could come from any one of a thousand sources."

  "But it’s on the vector. Back it up a little."

  Anna backed it up and something barely discernable changed on the imager.

  "There is something there," Anna agreed, confusedly, "But why only in the x-ray spectrum? There should be path particle emissions all the way through it."

  "But look. Look at the stars beyond. See how they’re displaced?"

  "So they are," Anna said in wonderment.

  "Look closer. Back it up a little more."

  Anna did so.

  "Yes. There is something there. But only one thing I know of acts like that," Anna explained.

  "What’s that?" Suni asked.

  "A black hole."

  "Could it be?"

  "Impossible… 1 think."

  "A heavy particle, maybe?" Suni ventured.

  "With an event horizon? I don't think so… unless they know how to play with gravity. And if they do, then why are they still using Vulaxium starships."

  "This particle didn't come from one of their ships," Suni realized.

  "Then where did it come from?" Anna asked.

  "Play back the battle scene again—just before we were hit."

  Anna backed up the scene on the main imager.

  "Now plot the trajectory on the imager."

  The red trajectory line went off the imager and Anna moved the image around to where the vector went off into infinity.

  "Okay. Back it up slowly, and watch for anything unusual," Suni said, watching.

  Anna backed the scene, frame by frame, as the two watched the main imager intently.

  "There!" Suni exclaimed.

  "What?"

  "Move it forward just a bit." Anna did so. "Now back one. See it?"

  "Yes I see."

  "Now play this whole scene over in the x-ray spectrum," Suni suggested.

  Anna moved the scene forward to the end of the record and reset the frequency. The imager lost almost all of its light and only a few speckles were seen.

  "There. Do you see it moving."

  "Yes. I see. But what is it?"

  "Dyna, analysis please?"

  "Compliance… analysis complete. It appears to be a black hole," Dyna replied.

  "Even the Okofani don't have this kind of technology."

  "Then what—"

  "They had help."

  Fourteen

  Frank awoke in a small, dimly lit room and recalled the events of the early morning hours that had brought him here. He looked around to see Trong standing outside his door, and found comfort in knowing he was still there.

  "Trong," he called.

  "Sir?" Trong turned around in the doorway to face him.

  "What time is it?"

  "Almost noon, sir."

  Frank sat up realizing he had slept on the floor of a room that belonged to a slave named Gaf.

  "Have you contacted the ship?"

&n
bsp; "We have been unable to do so."

  There had been a lot of shooting and chaos during the night.

  "What happened?"

  "There's been a military takeover of the Iskolian government. The Emperor has been imprisoned along with his nephew, the Duke. Okofani troops were smuggled in on commercial transports over the last few weeks and kept hidden until early this morning," Trong explained.

  "What happened then?"

  "Thirty-eight Okofani warships arrived to assist in the attack of several military and patroller strongholds. One of their targets was the Butterworth."

  "My ship was attacked? Oh yes. It was. How could I have forgotten? Did they get away?" Frank asked, worried.

  "Yes. At first. It was a surprise attack, but the crew seemed well prepared. They destroyed one Okofani warship and were able to leave the system and breaklight out."

  "Then what?"

  "They returned a few minutes later with a surprise counterattack. On this run they destroyed six more Okofani warships," Trong explained, and Frank detected a hint of pride in Trong's voice as he said it. "Then the ship incurred major structural damage and was forced to retreat. They left the system at sublight speed while being pursued by twelve enemy warships."

  "Did they get away?"

  "Unknown. We've monitored the enemy's broadcasts, and we believe we understand the escape strategy."

  "What was that?"

  "When the ship's hull was damaged, they were unable to breaklight. Since the enemy ships are able to go two hundred and fifty times faster than light, the Captain of our ship pushed light speed and used time dilation to escape."

  "They did this?"

  "It is just a hypothesis, sir."

  "It would work," Frank said, thoughtfully.

  "The pursuers have not returned yet. If this is the case, it may be several weeks before we know what's happened to them."

  "Anything else?"

  "Yes. There is a planet-wide news black-out, and Net informs me that the Iskolian government is looking for you."

  "I suppose they might be worried about my safety after all this."

  "There's a reward for you—dead or alive," Trong corrected him.

  "Oh? Who would make such an offer?"

  "The new Emperor, Wellum, sir."

  "Him? He's the one who led the overthrow of the old Emperor?"

  "Affirmative. It was he who ordered your assassination and Maria's abduction."

  "That explains it," Frank realized why he had been allowed to have the meeting with Tog, and then called as a witness to a trial. Lord Wellum wanted to see personally where Frank stood on the issue. He also now understood why Lord Wellum had been one of the statesmen to greet him at the start. Frank was an unknown to Lord Wellum, who had apparently been planning this takeover for some time.