by Dave Bara
“So they do have another line of defense,” said Yan as she watched her tactical display. This time the interceptors and flak batteries got nearly half the incoming torpedoes before they detonated.
“Command ship still sixty-five percent operational,” reported Amanda in her monotone after the volley. Then: “Soloth cruisers entering range of the station’s anti-graviton field.” It was a simple statement.
“Amanda,” said Yan. “If you can hold off using your weapon until the last possible moment, it will give us a slight tactical advantage. If the Soloth commanders think they can withstand our barrage and take out the station at the same time, they’ll likely hold back their support ships.”
“Understood,” said Amanda. Renwick watched as the Soloth cruisers passed into the twenty kilometer range of the anti-graviton field. They likely wouldn’t be able to launch until they got within ten kilometers. Renwick turned his attention to the incoming Soloth torpedoes, taking out the missiles with his own flak cannon batteries. He quickly switched back to loading the torpedo launchers.
“I’ll have another torpedo volley ready in ten seconds,” he told Yan.
“Hold your station,” she said, her hand whipping over her console. Abruptly a new display popped up on Renwick’s board.
“What do you make of that?” she asked. Renwick looked at two protruding anterior lobes on the underside of the Command ship.
“I’m no engineer,” he said.
“I am,” said Kish. “Captain, I’d make those for hydrazine fuel tanks, or possibly atomic waste storage, or diffusers.”
“A design flaw, then. And in any of those cases, the contents would be highly volatile,” she said.
“Agreed,” said Kish.
“Mr. Renwick, hold back your torpedo volley. I’m taking the Kali in close. Prepare to fire your forward coil cannon on my command,” said Yan.
“Yan, how close?” he said.
“Point blank range,” she replied.
Renwick took in a deep breath, then switched systems. “Ready when you are captain,” he said. Right on time the two automated Void Ships fired their torpedo volleys, but the Kali broke away, making a run for the fuel tanks as the Soloth defenders pelted her shielding with flak.
“Multiple interceptors fired at us, Captain!” said Renwick, watching as his screen filled with a swarm of the unmanned fighters.
“Keep us on course, Mischa,” said Yan, oblivious to the chaos around her as the Kali’s run exposed her mid-ship to the enemy. Alarms went off as the interceptors and flak batteries did their damage. The Kali stayed true to her run, and Renwick focused on his target.
“Three more seconds, Mr. Renwick... two... one... now! Fire the cannon!”
Renwick fired the heavy coil cannon as orange fire leapt out from the belly of the Kali, striking the exposed tanks and igniting a huge fireball in an instant.
“Get us out of here Mischa!” called Yan over the din of incoming flak, interceptor explosions against the Kali’s hull, and the sound of alarm claxons blaring. The Kali rocked as the Soloth Command ship exploded in flames, many of her decks spewing out escape pods as she listed disastrously from the damage.
“From the size of that explosion, I’d say we got her hydrazine store,” commented Kish from his engineering station.
“Soloth Command ship is at thirty-eight percent efficiency,” came Amanda’s voice over the din.
“That will give them something to think about,” said Yan.
“She’s still got her stinger, sir,” reminded Kish from his station. “That cannon is plenty to fire back with if she wants.”
“Reform the fleet,” said Yan. “Get some distance between us and the Command ship, back towards the station,” she said to Mischa.
“Will they bring in the support ships now?” asked Renwick. Yan nodded.
“Likely, after that bloody nose we just gave them,” she said.
“Captain,” said Mischa. “You should look at this. The cruisers are approaching the emitter station.”
Renwick moved from his station to stand next to Yan, watching the main display. It showed the flotilla of nine Soloth cruisers closing to firing range on the station.
“They’re locking torpedoes on the station,” reported Mischa.
“They just signed their death warrant,” said Renwick. They watched together as the lead cruiser closed on the station. Suddenly a wave of white energy swept out from the station, quickly enveloping the lead ship, then two more. It was like watching them turn to glittering dust in an instant. Seconds later the plasma wave spread over the remaining cruisers, enveloping them. Then the space around the station was empty. Renwick looked away.
“Soloth cruiser fleet eliminated, Captain Yan,” said Amanda’s voice, ringing hollow through the now-quiet bridge of the Kali. “The rest of this battle is now up to you,” she finished, then was gone. Renwick walked away from Yan.
“We had to do it,” Yan said to him as he went. “We had no choice.”
“Yes,” he agreed without turning back.
“And now they’ll come at us with everything they have.”
RENWICK WATCHED ON his tactical display as the Soloth Command ship struggled to right herself. Now left bereft of any heavy fleet support, the hundreds of support ships came swarming through the tunnel opening towards the Void ships and the station like angry bees.
“We’ll beat them back to the emitter station,” reported Kish.
“Yes, but what will we do when we get there?” said Renwick. “We can stay behind our trench lines. They won’t come close because of the anti-graviton field. But we can’t win from there either.”
“We’ll have to engage them as best we can,” said Yan. Renwick looked at her, standing next to his weapons console.
“These ships are from another time, and made for heavy fighting. If we try and take on those support ships, they’ll cut us to pieces. Oh, it will take time, but they’ll do it,” he said.
“Do you have another goddamned idea?” she demanded. He shook his head.
“No,” he admitted. He checked his monitor, watching as the support ships spread out like a gray cloud against a dark sky, an incoming swarm. “Let’s get this over with,” he said.
“Mischa,” said Yan, “bring us about to face the Soloth formation.”
“Aye, Captain,” said Mischa.
The small formation closed on the Soloth swarm as the minutes sped by. Renwick recharged the flak cannon batteries, just about the only useful weapon against the smaller displacement ships of the Soloth fleet. Torpedoes would likely just fly right through the formation, the HuK’s, destroyers, and frigates being too swift and maneuverable for the torpedoes to track accurately. The main coil cannon would be equally useless, like trying to smash a flea with sledgehammer.
The Kali and the two automated Void Ships slammed into the forward lines of the Soloth swarm.
“Keep us moving, Mischa. Do not stop to engage, and keep us well back from that Command ship,” said Yan. “Mr. Kish, when my shield power gets below thirty percent I want to know about it. Mr. Renwick, lock your batteries and engage the enemy at will.”
“Yes Captain,” said Renwick. He set the flak battery trackers on auto-fire. They would stay in this mode, automatically tracking and firing at the support ships, unless he chose to override the system and take manual command. Somehow that didn’t seem likely as the auto-fire systems could track and hit the support ships with far more accuracy than he could. Set like this the flak batteries were basically defensive weapons. It was their one advantage, Renwick thought, knowing the Soloth had to attack to complete their mission.
The batteries opened up, firing a series of strafing barrages at the swarming enemy. Some shots found their targets, but all too few to make a significant difference. Eventually the batteries would burn through too much of the Kali’s energy. Then they would have to withdraw to the station, and the stalemate would ensue.
Thirty minutes into the battle and th
e neither side had gained an advantage.
“Something has to change,” said Renwick out loud, more out of frustration than anything else.
Then something did.
“Captain Yan,” said Mischa, “I’m picking up more scoop signatures! Or rather, one more scoop signature. It’s near the station.”
“Show me,” said Yan. If this was some rogue element of the Soloth fleet, there was no doubt Amanda would disassemble their atoms as soon as they appeared in normal space. The scoop signature pulsed with a dim golden glow against space, then suddenly burst open, clearing a channel into normal space.
“They’re only twelve kilometers from the station,” said Mischa.
“Amanda will handle them,” said Yan, turning back to her console, not willing to watch sentient beings, even adversaries, be separated from their atoms one at a time.
“One scoop ship, Soloth configuration,” reported Mischa. Renwick looked at his board. There were more ships coming through the tunnel opening.
Cruisers.
“We’ve got more cruisers!” he called from his station. This got Yan’s attention and she switched her monitor to visual mode from tactical.
“That opening’s barely big enough for cruisers!” she said. “How did they manage that?”
Renwick eyed his board again. “They’re moving away from the station. Coming in towards our position,” he said calmly. Then he noticed something else. “Wait, these cruisers... something isn’t right, their operating frequencies are off... configuration is... these are-“
Before he could finish the main com system snapped on with an incoming message.
“Void Ship Kali, this is Ambassador Makera. Raelen fleet is joining the battle. I repeat, Raelen fleet is joining the battle.”
“But if Amanda thinks they’re Soloth ships-“ started Renwick.
“Not to worry, Senator,” came the android’s disembodied voice. “I have already identified the Raelen cruisers as allies.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Mischa, contact Makera and let her know they are free to engage any ships at will,” said Yan. Mischa acknowledged and sent the communication.
“You wanted something to change, Senator. It looks like we may not have a stalemate after all,” she said to Renwick. He turned back to his station
“Thank god for that,” he said under his breath.
Fifteen minutes later and all twenty-nine cruisers of the Raelen fleet had come through the scoop opening single file, with bare meters to spare. It was an impressive display of manual flying, and discipline. The Raelen were quickly on top of the engagement, scattering the support ships, pushing them into range of the Void Ship’s flak batteries, and even taking occasional potshots at the Soloth Command ship.
“Things have turned in our favor,” said Yan.
“Finally,” agreed Renwick.
Then they turned again.
“Captain,” said Mischa from her station, a tone of alarm in her voice. “I’m picking up some strange readings from the Command ship.” Renwick immediately turned to his board.
“Confirmed,” he said. “I’m reading multiple internal explosions aboard her. Overloads, internal dampening fields breaking down... it’s like... like she’s imploding.”
“Order the Raelen fleet to break off the attack!” said Yan, alarm in her voice. “Move this ship away from the Soloth, now Mischa!”
Renwick watched his visual display as the Command ship belched out escape pods and lifeboats, hundreds of tiny specks fleeing from the mother vessel. Suddenly a small ship, the size of a command yacht, broke away from her, then turned to flee the battle, speeding away from the fleet.
“Are the Raelen withdrawing?” demanded Yan.
“Affirmative,” said Renwick. “But a small ship, a command yacht or frigate, escaped and is heading back through the tunnel.” He looked at Yan.
“Zueros,” she said, practically spitting out his name. They shared a look of recognition, then an alarm took Renwick back to his display.
The Soloth Command ship collapsed in upon itself, deck after deck breaking down and falling inward. A monstrous explosion blew the ship to pieces, enveloping a large portion of the remaining Soloth fleet in atomic destruction.
“She’s gone,” said Yan. After a long moment of silence on the bridge she spoke to Mischa.
“Send out a general surrender call. I assume they have translating equipment on board. And suspend the attack. Began rescue and recovery operations,” she said.
“Yes, Captain Yan,” said Mischa.
With that, Captain Tanitha Yan turned away from the command console and headed for the galley.
TWO DAYS LATER AND Renwick had completed the surrender negotiations with the surviving Soloth fleet captain, a woman named Kai’Ina. He was glad to be back in a more familiar role, that of diplomat, and privately he wished he would never see battle again.
The Soloth themselves looked very much like Zueros, though Renwick doubted anything about him, most especially his appearance, could be trusted. They had light gray to white hair mostly, with some darker gray mixed in, and crimson tinged skin. Other than these obvious differences they appeared very much like the rest of the Successor races.
Kai’Ina revealed what Yan and Renwick had suspected, that Zueros had portrayed himself as a representative of the Preservers to gain their trust and had convinced her government that the other Successor races were an enemy who had created the ‘other Void’.
“What ‘other Void’?” Renwick had asked. The one that had encompassed Soloth space for the last three centuries, Kai’Ina explained. Their systems were far enough distant that the Void surrounding the Soloth home world wasn’t even visible from the Known Cosmos. Nonetheless, Zueros had convinced her government that the Void was an attack by the other Successor races, and had managed to gather the fleet to bring it across vast space to attack the emitter station, all for his own purposes. When all was settled it turned out the Soloth, the Unity, the Gataan, and the Raelen had much more in common than not.
On the third day after the battle Kai’Ina and the surviving Soloth fleet members, less than a thousand out of nearly ten thousand souls, were allowed to make their way home on their remaining ships, but without their weapons at Makera and Yan’s insistence.
Kai’Ina agreed to carry an offer of a diplomatic mission from the races of the Known Cosmos to the Soloth home world, though she did not promise how it would be received.
Renwick had to be satisfied with that.
epilogue
Senator Tam Renwick looked up to the starry sky of a tropical evening on the Raelen home world of Raellos, savoring a local alcoholic drink that tasted very much like brandy. The day had been a successful one, what with the signing ceremony of the treaty between the Terran Unity and the Raelen Empire finally concluded.
They had been forced to rewrite the treaty, the original diplomatic pouch having gone missing somewhere amongst all the adventures he and Ambassador Makera had been on. He thought perhaps that was a good thing. The original treaty had been almost one hundred pages; the new one, less than ten. But the new treaty covered all the significant points; free access to Thousand Suns Space, joint colonies, trade, relief efforts, relocation, forward bases and the like, and that’s what really mattered.
He took another drink as the door chime in his quarters tolled gently, signifying an arrival. He knew who his impending guest was, and although he wasn’t as excited about it as he once might have been, his heart still jumped, just a bit, at the sound.
He opened the door and welcomed Ambassador Makera to his quarters. After a few moments of niceties he got her a matching drink and she joined him on his balcony, her brightly colored dress flowing in the evening breeze.
“You have a beautiful view of the city from here,” she said as she sat down at his table and contemplated her drink. He looked out over the distant skyline, lit now with beautiful amber lights and accented by the dual orange moons of Raellos.
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“You’re right, I do,” he said before sitting down across from her.
“But you’ve hardly noticed,” she said. He nodded.
“My mind is on the stars,” he admitted.
“Your mind is on Captain Tanitha Yan,” she said. He nodded again.
“You may be right.” Then he raised his glass. “May I suggest a toast? To the successful signing of the treaty of Pentauri.” She raised her glass, but didn’t join him in the drink.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. She shook her head.
“No, everything is perfect.” Then she leaned forward, putting her hand on his arm. “You miss her already don’t you? Barely more than a month away from her and you’re already heartsick for your android lover. Aren’t my attentions enough to soothe you?”
Renwick smiled. “Such as they are,” he said.
“And they’ve taken your Gataan wife from you to,” she said. He laughed.
“She’s in diplomatic training,” he said.
“Still, you must be lonely.”
He looked up to the stars, wondering where in the Known Cosmos the Kali might be right now.
“A bit,” he admitted.
“We’ll be back up there, soon enough. You’ll be back aboard the Kali on your diplomatic mission to the Soloth and I will be with you, if they let me go,” she said. He looked puzzled.
“Why wouldn’t they let you go?” he said.
She tipped her head at him, avoiding the question. “And did your government approve the mission yet?” she said, changing the subject.
“I’m sure they will. It’s merely a formality. Now, tell me, why wouldn’t they let you join the mission to the Soloth with me?” he asked again. She brushed him off with a pleasant smile, then stood and went to the balcony railing, looking out over the capital city of her home world. He joined her.
She pointed to the dark spot blotting out a third of the heavens over Raellos.