by M. D. Cooper
The salvo lasted only seven seconds, but it felt like an eternity to Tanis.
The assault ceased as if a switch had been flipped. Scan took a moment to clear and then the bridge erupted with cheers. The squadron was still there, surrounding their comrade’s ship, all undamaged.
The pirate fleet had passed the fighters and split into two groups, each looping around to re-engage the squadron, a maneuver they were executing while taking great care not to expose their engines to the Arc6’s.
Tanis watched trajectory estimates and corrections scroll down a secondary holo. It was going to be a direct hit.
She finally let out her breath.
Both groups of Padre’s armada passed right through dense fields of grapeshot courtesy of the Enterprise and Defiance. The lead ships were torn to ribbons under the barrage and even one of the cruisers blossomed into a cloud of hot gas and jets of fire.
Seconds later, twenty-two new signatures lit up on the display. The relativistic missiles seeded by the Andromeda came to life and sought their targets with ruthless efficiency. The enemy fleet was completely obscured by the nuclear fireballs, their explosions just far enough from the squadron of Arc-6s that they evaded everything but the light from the blast.
When scan was finally able to get a clear picture, less than a hundred enemy ships remained and only fifty of those appeared to be operational.
Calls of surrender flooded the comm channels while two cruisers and a dozen of the corvettes altered course, pushing for a tight loop around Kithari to gain an outsystem vector.
On her command, the 42nd squadron, consisting of newly deployed Arc-6s, broke from their approach to Fierra’s northern hemisphere and pursued the fleeing ships, beams flashing and missiles flying from both formations.
Tanis turned her attention back to Jessica’s squadron. The Excelsior Nova was matching velocity with Cary’s fighter to effect the pickup, and the Black Death squadron was maintaining a protective shield, should any of the remaining pirate vessels get any ideas.
“What happens when everyone gets shields like these?” Captain Andrews asked softly. “What level of destructive power will two ships need to level against one another?”
Tanis cast the captain a sidelong glance. He had never opposed it, but she knew he had never been comfortable with the military buildup of the Intrepid and its fleet. Though, on deeper refection, she had to admit that he was right. If fleets could no longer do battle with conventional weapons, what would they resort to? Planetary destruction? Stellar destruction?
Tanis took a moment to consider her feelings on the matter before replying.
“You’re right, Captain. I’m passing orders to ensure that the keys to this technology never leave Bob and Earnest’s minds,” Tanis said to Captain Andrews. “It’s too dangerous to ever let loose.”
The captain nodded slowly, and Admiral Sanderson gave her an evaluating look before inclining his head in agreement.
During the battle with Padre’s ships, Tanis had observed The Mark fleet repositioning itself. Rebecca’s ships were now five-thousand kilometers beyond the effective beam range of the Arc-5s in position north of Fierra.
Tanis was beginning to think she shouldn’t have been so rash in sending her other Arc-6s after the remnants of Padre’s fleet. They had destroyed or disabled the fleeing ships, but now needed to pass around Kithari before coming back into range.
With Padre’s fleet taken care of, Jessica’s squadron could fill the gap, but the Boller fleet had also shifted to a more aggressive stance.
She addressed the ISF over the general fleet net.
Tanis looked around the bridge, every crewmember’s eyes were on her. She took a deep breath and continued.
Tanis felt her mental tone waver at the last word. She hoped it didn’t detract from her speech—though from the expressions on the faces of those around her, it seemed to have had a positive effect.
There was a moment’s pause after her words, and then another round of cheers erupted across the bridge.
“Ok, ok, back to work,” Tanis said with her hands raised and a small smile. “We still have go survive the next thirty hours.”
* * * * *
Sabrina boosted away from the Intrepid, Cheeky threading the arcs of the colony ship’s super structure like it was something she did every day. Once in open space, she spun out the AP nozzle and boosted toward Fierra’s northern hemisphere.
Sera smiled to herself. No one needed to ask where she wanted to go. She had a score to settle with Rebecca.
“Incoming signal,” Flaherty announced from the new scan and weapons console.
He turned to look Sera in the eyes. “You’ll never guess who it is.”
Sera stood. “Put her on.”
The holo shifted its display of the space around the moon to a secondary tank and Rebecca appeared on the bridge, as clear as though she were really there.
The pirate leader’s eyebrows rose and she smiled. “I see you’ve appropriated some of my style.”
Sera looked down at her gleaming crimson skin and shrugged. “If I’m going to kick your ass, I’m going to do it in style.”
“We’ll see about that,” Rebecca smiled. “I have to admit; I’m pleased to have both prizes in one place. My new ship out there, and the power module you stole from me. It’s going to be a good day.”
“What about me?” Sera asked with a faux pout. “I thought I was your prize?”
“There’ll be time enough for you, I promise,” Rebecca stepped close to Sera, her holographically projected hand tracing down Sera’s breast, along her side and to her hip. “I am very curious how you survived stealing my clothing—though you don’t seem to have escaped unscathed.”
“I wanted to thank you for that,” Sera replied. “You may be the dumbest bitch in the galaxy, but you do have a sense of style—I’ll grant you that. If your flagship survives, I may raid the rest of your wardrobe. There were some shoes in there I’d kill for.”
Cargo replied sourly.
“If you think you’re going to take out even one of my ships, you have another thing coming,” Rebecca spat back. “I’m not just going to sit there and take it like that moron Padre did. By the way, thank your friends on the Intrepid for me. It’ll be good business taking over all his operations.”
“You can thank her yourself,” Sera said as Tanis joined the conversation.
“Nice to see you again, Rebecca,” Tanis said with a smile.
A look of confusion washed across Rebecca’s face. “No! You’re that navigator woman on Sera’s hunk of junk…who are you really?”
“General Tanis Richards, XO of the ISS Intrepid, at your service,” Tanis replied with a nod. “It’s really time for you to go now. You saw what we did to Padre’s fleet. You don’t stand a chance.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rebecca said with a swipe of her hand. “We know a few tricks that fool Padre never even dreamed of. I’ll be sleeping in your quarters tonight, General Richards.”
Rebecca cut the communication and Tanis looked Sera.
“What do you think she has up her sleeve?”
Sera raced through the possibilities, of which there were many. One, however, stood out.
“She said that we wouldn’t damage even one of her ships. I think they may try a shield lock.”
“No!” Cheeky shouted. “She wouldn’t be so stupid. This close to a mass like Kithari? She’s just as likely to create a singularity.”
“What does that mean?” Tanis asked.
“With some skill—and guts—it’s possible to merge the shields of multiple ships into a multi-layered, shifting shell of protection. If she can pull it off with her fleet, it’s going to be pretty hard to punch through.”
Tanis glanced away. “Damn, that Boller admiral is calling, and he seems upset—you’d think they’d be happy we took out Padre.” The general paused and frowned, thinking for a moment. “The Thracia and Babylon are already on their way to the moon’s northern hemisphere. I’m sending the Enterprise as well—show her we mean business. Amanda will get you onto their tactical net. You’re the only one with a stasis shield till the 42nd squadron gets back into play, so use it wisely.”
“Wise is my middle name,” Sera replied with a roguish grin.
Tanis laughed in response and cut the holo connection.
Count on it, Sera thought to herself.
She sat back in her chair and connected to the tactical net Amanda had opened to her.
A virtual space opened up in her mind and she saw the captains of the four capital ships, as well as three fighter group commanders.
Usef shrugged.
Captain Espensen said.
* * * * *
“That’s definitely an unfriendly posture,” Tanis sighed.
The Bollam’s World Space Force was upping the ante as the minutes ticked by. Their initial blockade of fifty-two ships had ballooned to nearly four-hundred. More took up positions in a defensive grid near the AST dreadnaughts than the Intrepid and The Mark fleet.
Even with the Black Death’s demonstration of near invincibility, it appeared that the Bollam’s World Space Force was more concerned about the AST ships.
“The nano probes we shot out of the rails earlier have started to send in some interesting data. So far we’ve picked up seventy-two rail platforms in the system—more than Sera thought there would be. They’re all pointed at us and the AST ships,” the scan officer reported.
Tanis nodded and added every rail platform within thirty light minutes to the priority target list. The second the Bollers turned hostile, half-ton slugs would be fired at each of those platforms. They probably wouldn’t all hit, but it was better than leaving them there to fire on the ISF fleet.
For added insurance, the Andromeda was quietly seeding relativistic missiles throughout potential paths of approach for enemy ships. If there was one thing no one objected to after the Battle for Victoria, it was an oversupply of RMs.
“Well, if that’s not a clear sign, I don’t know what is,” Captain Andrews said. “What’s the latest on our stasis shield?”
“Abby reported that they’re working through some kinks. She wouldn’t give me a time, but based on her level of surliness I don’t think that we should count on it right now.”
If the pressure stemming from the overwhelming force encircling the Intrepid wasn’t so great, Tanis would have laughed.
“There,” scan pointed out. “Three of their ships just slid over three kilometers.”
Tanis began mapping trajectories, but Amanda beat her to it.
Tanis sent the signal across the fleet for all ships to institute gamma-pattern jinking.
The Intrepid’s helm and ships fleet-wide signaled their acknowledgement and Tanis settled in to wait. If a shot passed through the Orkney’s former path, then she would not wait for further provocation.
Barely a word was uttered on the bridge as the five minutes passed. Then, right on cue, scan picked up a three hundred kilogram slug travelling at a quarter the speed of light.
Across the fleet, fifty-two rail guns opened fire, sending half-ton slugs hurling into the black. In less than a minute, two hundred and sixty kinetic rounds were en route to their targets. Scan showed Boller ships changing position, attempting to intercept and lase the slugs before they reached their targets.
Several fired rails at the ISF slugs, hoping to impact and deflect the incoming projectiles.
“I bet they didn’t think we knew about quite so many of those,” the admiral chuckled.
“I read a dozen slugs passing through positions our ships would have been occupying right now,” scan reported.
“Well done in seeing the significance on that ship movement,” Tanis said. “Your team just saved the fleet.”
The scan officer sat up straighter and smiled in acknowledgement before turning back to his console and the never-ending streams of information being fed from the NSAIs, which handled the raw sensor data. He gave a word of encouragement over the Link to the humans and AI on scan.
“Incoming from the Boller fleet admiral,” the comm officer said. “Should I put it on the main tank?”
“What the hell?” Tanis sighed. “I expect we could all use a good laugh.”
The figure on the display was a woman this time, and her expression was less than pleased.
“You’ve just sentenced thousands of Bollam’s citizens to death,” she said in soft, icy tones. “There will be no more treaties. We will reclaim our new world, take your ship—whole or in pieces—and crush your pathetic little fleet.”
Tanis turned to Terrance. “At least when we were dealing with the Sirians they had proper megalomaniacs. This pales in comparison.”