by D. J. Holmes
It took the rest of the freighters several seconds to react. Before they did, Sarah was on the move. She ordered Lady Luck’s engines to full and banked towards the next freighter in the convoy. It was one of the super heavy freighters. Though it may have looked to Draxler that she was flying Lady Luck as efficiently as possible, Sarah was holding back. She knew the longer it took her to give Divar a direct firing line, the more chance the freighters had to escape. The rest of the convoy had scattered. The freighters were accelerating away from Lady Luck in a multitude of directions. The aim was obviously to prevent Lady Luck closing to laser cannon range with them.
“Firing on target two,” Divar said as Sarah rolled Lady Luck around the large freighter towards where she knew its reactors were housed.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to get them all,” Sarah reported after the super heavy freighter was disabled.
“Just focus on getting us alongside the next target,” Draxler ordered. “Divar, prepare hypervelocity missiles. Any freighter we can’t disable we’re going to destroy. I don’t want our identity getting back to the Elders.”
“But Captain,” Sarah complained. “There is no profit in killing civilians.”
“That’s for me to decide slave,” Draxler spat at Sarah.
“Aaahhh,” Sarah screamed as a wave of pain washed through her body from her collar.
“You just see to my ship,” Draxler finished.
With a tingling pain still lingering throughout her body Sarah said nothing. Instead she tried to look as busy as possible.
“I’m detecting a massive energy spike from one of the freighters,” Lady Luck’s sensor officer shouted, drawing Sarah and Draxler’s attention.
Shifting her mind’s eye onto the freighter in question, Sarah saw several components shoot from the freighter into space. Then, to her horror, a small ship emerged from within the freighter. Immediately Sarah recognized it.
“It’s an Elder frigate,” she squealed. “It’s a trap.”
Sarah threw Lady Luck into a series of evasive maneuvers. Within seconds of it emerging, Lady Luck’s sensors detected a number of heat surges from the Elder frigate. Sarah guessed they were heat blooms from the laser cannons that the frigate was equipped with. Lady Luck had x-ray lasers, Draxler had commandeered them from some patrol cutter he had attacked once. No one knew just what type of laser technology the Elders had. They just knew that no Elder ship had been defeated in combat for more than two and a half millennia.
“Fire back damn you,” Draxler ordered Divar.
Sarah only barely aware of Draxler’s command. She knew the Elder ship had some kind of particle beam weapon. If it touched Lady Luck, it would rip right through her energy screen and armor. As a result, she kept jinking and twisting Lady Luck through space as she tried to make it as difficult as possible for the Elder ship to score a hit. Every few seconds, two heat blooms appeared on the Elder ship. Sarah was guessing they were some kind of energy build up before the ship fired its two laser cannons. She was using the blooms to predict when best to send Lady Luck onto a new random trajectory.
“I can’t get a firm lock,” Divar shouted. Sarah wasn’t sure if it was for her or Draxler’s benefit. Assuming it was for her, she twisted Lady Luck around and lined up her forward x-ray lasers on the Elder ship for less than a second. Divar was quick enough to take the opening he gave her as two laser beams shot from Lady Luck.
“I got a hit,” Divar shouted.
Sarah had already seen the two laser beams impact the Elder ship. It had barely been taking any evasive maneuvers. Both beams hit the nose section of the frigate. There was still a thermal bloom coming off the frigate where the lasers had caused two miniature explosions. It seemed like the Elder ship had failed to power up its energy screen. It should have been able to deflect a lot more of the damage away from the frigate’s hull. Even so, though the ship had clearly taken some damage, its speed hadn’t reduced. It was still closing with them.
A sudden jolt that shook her in her seat reminded Sarah that the frigate was very much in the fight.
“That was a laser beam,” Divar called out. “Our energy screen is down to sixty percent. We can only take a couple more hits.”
“Fire the hypervelocity missiles,” Draxler ordered desperately.
“Prepare the starboard missile tubes,” Sarah shouted to Divar. “Three, two...” Knowing that her life depended on destroying the Elder ship, Sarah used all her skill. She twisted Lady Luck around to momentarily bring four of her six missile tubes to bear on the Elder frigate. Divar launched the missiles towards their target. He followed up with two more x-ray beams.
Sarah guessed the Elder frigate had learnt from its previous mistake, as soon as Divar fired the lasers, it began a series of random maneuvers. Both laser beams flew harmlessly past their target. The hypervelocity missiles were another matter though. They were capable of tracking the other ship’s maneuvers.
As if the Elder ship had grown tired of trying to destroy Lady Luck with their own lasers and particle beam, eight hypervelocity missiles shot from the frigate and accelerated towards Lady Luck.
“We’re done for,” Draxler groaned.
“Prepare the point defenses,” Sarah shouted to Divar. “We can do this.”
Secretly she held little hope. No one had ever come up against an Elder warship and lived to tell the tale. Sarah was amazed they had lasted this long. As the eight missiles closed in on Lady Luck, Sarah’s focus was so fixed on them that she lost awareness of what the Elder ship or the fleeing freighters were up to. Frantically, she tried to give Divar the best opportunity to use Lady Luck’s point defense lasers and autocannons to shoot down the missiles.
When the first one exploded, Divar gave out a shout of triumph. It was short lived however, for the remaining seven missiles began their own evasive maneuvers, making them much harder to target.
Nevertheless, as Sarah continued to fly Lady Luck as skillfully as she could, Divar managed to shoot down four more missiles. When the missiles were less than twenty seconds away from hitting their ship, Sarah switched to trying to confuse the missiles. With a thought, she took control of Lady Luck’s electronic counter measures and launched a series of drones into space. Then, when the remaining three missiles were just five seconds out she shut down Lady Luck’s main reactors and impulse engines. At the same time, she powered up all five drones and they blasted electromagnetic energy out into space. Using only Lady Luck’s small maneuvering thrusters, Sarah pivoted the pirate ship away from the missiles, presenting as narrow a target to them as she could.
Her efforts proved somewhat successful. Two of the three remaining Elder missiles either homed in on the drones or overshot Lady Luck. The third wasn’t fooled. It struck Lady Luck amidships. Punching through her armor, the missile penetrated several decks before it exploded. The force ripped through several bulkheads and sent shockwaves right across the ship.
If one of her own thermonuclear missiles had exploded within her hull, Draxler might have hoped Lady Luck could have kept on fighting. Yet, with whatever warhead was in the Elder missile, there was no such luck. Though Lady Luck was several times larger than the Elder frigate, the Elder missile still blew a massive section of the pirate ship out into space.
On the bridge, the shockwave from the explosion sent everyone flying around in their command chairs. Several consoles exploded as power surges rippled across the ship. The sensory overload coming into Sarah’s brain through the interface helmet caused her to throw up. Frantically, she ripped off the helmet before it caused her to black out. As she rapidly blinked, Sarah thought the overload of data had damaged her brain. She couldn’t see anything, everything was pitch black. I’ve gone blind, she screamed into herself.
Chapter 3
The few seconds of darkness seemed like an eternity to Sarah as the fear she would never see again gripped her. Then Lady Luck’s reserve power capacitors kicked in. Emergency lighting came on around the bridge and
several consoles powered up. A flood of relief washed over her. She could see again.
As Sarah’s eyes adjusted to the low levels of light she saw the bridge was a mess. Several of the pirate crew were lolling in their command chairs, either unconscious or dead. One of the crew was a bloody mess. His station had exploded, sending shrapnel tearing through his body. The only thing holding him upright were the straps keeping him in his chair. If he wasn’t dead already, he soon would be.
“We’ve been hit,” one of Draxler’s cronies said.
“You don’t say,” Draxler snarled from his command chair. “Get me a status update.”
As Sarah turned around she was dismayed to see Draxler looked unhurt. “Get the helmet back on,” he shouted towards her.
“It’s damaged,” she replied.
Before Draxler could order her to put it on anyway, one of his crew spoke up. “Both of our reactors are down, and the impulse engines aren’t responding. I don’t think it matters Captain. We’re not going anywhere.”
“Then what the heck is that Elder ship doing? Why are we still here?” Draxler demanded.
“Sensors are coming back online now,” one of the bridge crew replied.
Turning to look at the main view screen, Sarah was shocked by what she saw. She wasn’t the only one, a series of gasps escaped the lips of almost everyone who was still conscious. The Elder frigate was tumbling through space on a random trajectory. A large hole was blown in its side.
“I hit it,” Divar said, sounding amazed at what he had done.
Sarah was glad to hear that he was okay, though the shock at seeing a damaged Elder ship overrode all other thoughts.
“How did it happen?” she asked. “We only fired four missiles at it.”
“Four Scythian missiles,” Draxler corrected her. “I knew spending a bit extra for those babies would pay off. How soon can we get Lady Luck moving again?” he said, turning to his other crew members. “Who knows how damaged that frigate really is, I don’t want to be around when its masters get it under control again.”
The thought sent a shiver down Sarah’s spine. She had no idea how they had beaten an Elder ship, but she didn’t want to face it again. If they could get Lady Luck out of here, it couldn’t come too soon.
“Damage control team has just reached engineering bay,” one of Draxler’s cronies reported. “They’re saying there’s massive damage to reactors three through five. The other two are completely gone. Chief Engineer Biggins is dead, along with most of his team.”
“Damn,” Draxler swore. “How are we going to get this bucket of bolts moving again without him? Can we redirect emergency power to the impulse engines or the jump drive?”
“I’m not sure,” the crew member replied. “I have no expertise in that area. We won’t know what power relays have been blown out until we do a full survey of the ship.”
“Right, that’s it,” Draxler said, sounding both angry and fearful. “Anyone on the bridge who is not already involved in damage control get out of here and assign yourself to one of the damage control teams. We need to get this ship moving as soon as possible.”
Not wanting to find out just how much pain Draxler was willing to send through her collar given the mood he was in, Sarah jumped to her feet and fled the bridge. As she made her way towards the damage control team she had been assigned to, Sarah encountered more carnage. She came across several dead crew members and more than one section of the ship that had been distorted beyond recognition by the force of the blast that had twisted Lady Luck’s innards. At one point, she turned a corner and found herself staring out into space. The only thing between her and the certain death the cold hard vacuum of space would bring, was the emergency force field that had come down over the Lady Luck’s damaged sections. Quickly, she retreated, if one of Lady Luck’s emergency power capacitors overloaded and the force field failed, she would be sucked out into space in a second.
Despite a constant fear that the Elder ship would regain power and come to finish them off, Sarah did all she could to help the injured crew members she came across and to aid in fixing whatever damage she was able to. Though outwardly it looked like she was fully focused on doing the tasks her damage control team were assigned to, inwardly Sarah was replaying the battle over and over again in her head. How did we survive? She asked herself again and again.
*
Two hours later, Sarah’s fear of being destroyed had diminished. If the Elder ship hadn’t returned by now she figured they wouldn’t be coming back at all.
Draxler had ordered all surviving crew members to gather in Lady Luck’s shuttle bay. As Sarah stepped into the large hangar she was surprised by just how few of Draxler’s crew were there. Over sixty aliens from various races had been on board Lady Luck at the beginning of the attack on the convoy. Now less than twenty stood milling around. When Draxler stepped into the shuttle bay, they all looked towards him.
“Things are not good,” Draxler said. “Lady Luck has had it. She has had a good run, but unless we can get her back to a repair yard she’s not going to be taking any more prizes.”
“Then what do we do?” one of the pirates complained. “You can bet your ass there will be more Elder warships on their way here.”
“Of that I’m quite sure,” Draxler said with a nod. “Luckily, I have a plan,” he added as he broke into a smile.
Perhaps his smile appeared reassuring to some of the crew. Sarah couldn’t help but feel intimidated. Nevertheless, having come to know Draxler over the last couple of years, she knew he was trying to ease the tension among his remaining crew members.
“What is it?” another pirate barked impatiently.
“We’re all going to get aboard our shuttle here,” Draxler said as he patted the shuttle he was standing beside. “Then we’re going to head over to that stricken Elder ship and see if we can’t commandeer it.”
Before Draxler could say anything more a series of groans erupted from some of the crew members. “You can’t be serious,” one of the pirates said, putting words to everyone’s thoughts. “If there are any Elders left alive over there they’ll kill us for sure. And even if we could take control of one of their ships, no one knows how to fly it. Worse, they’ll be sure to track us down.”
“Perhaps,” Draxler said cautiously as he judged the mood of his crew. “Though I don’t see that we have any other option. We can’t stay on Lady Luck, we’re sure to be caught if we do. The Elder frigate at least gives us a chance. Besides, look on the bright side. Even if we take the frigate for just a few hours, we will go down in history. The first people to ever defeat an Elder warship.”
“What about one of the freighters we disabled?” One of the pirates asked. “Couldn’t we try and commandeer one of them. Or salvage the parts we need?”
“It wouldn’t work,” Draxler explained. “We destroyed their reactors. There is no way they are space worthy. The other freighters are no doubt long gone by now as well. The Elder frigate is our only hope.”
“I for one am not getting onto that cursed ship,” one of the pirates shouted. “I’ve followed you through thick and thin Draxler, but I’m not following you there.”
“Suit yourself,” Angrave said as he stepped up beside Draxler. “The Captain hasn’t seen us wrong yet and I’m going with him.”
Sarah wasn’t the least bit surprised. Angrave was Draxler’s right-hand man. Where Draxler was the brains behind Lady Luck had in her raids, Angrave was the one who recruited and looked after Draxler’s crew. They were of the same species and Sarah guessed they had both committed some crime or another that had forced them to flee their homeworld and turn to a life of piracy. The way they got on suggested they had been friends long before they had taken up piracy.
“I’m not going to force anyone to come with me,” Draxler said. “This is a decision for each of you to make. Those of you who choose to stay are welcome to Lady Luck. For those of you who choose to follow me, the possibilities could be endless.�
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Sarah knew the offer didn’t apply to her or Divar. They would be going wherever Draxler ordered them. A part of her wanted to demand Draxler let her stay nonetheless. Who knew what horrors awaited them on an Elder ship? If even half the stories about the aliens were true, there would be nothing pleasant there. Still, Sarah believed Draxler. If he was planning to abandon Lady Luck, then there really was no hope left for the ship. The Elder warship was their only chance.
As the gathered pirates separated into two groups, Sarah stepped towards Draxler. When Draxler saw her, he nodded and motioned for her to come to his side. Reluctantly, Sarah stepped closer to him. She had to fight not to shiver as he reached out and placed a pincer on her shoulder. “You’re definitely not getting out of my sight,” Draxler said. “Divar, come here, you’re not getting away so easy either.”