by Ryk Brown
“Don’t worry about that right now, Ensign,” Nathan ordered. “You just keep your eye on that mission clock.”
Of course, it wasn’t only hull punctures they were worried about. There were a lot of things on the hull that could be damaged, and they had already lost several external systems. If it hadn’t been for the constant jamming being performed by Mister Willard, the Wallach would have gotten a much clearer targeting image and would have been able to take aim at specific components.
“Captain!” Abby shouted above the noise of rail gun rounds striking the hull and the various warnings and alarms going off all around the bridge. “We’ll have a much better chance of hitting the Wallach if we can get her to turn and show us her profile.”
“Not much chance of that!” Nathan told her. “No captain shows any more cross-section to an enemy than they have to.”
“Contact!” Ensign Yosef reported.
“It’s Tug, sir!” Naralena reported. “I am receiving a data transmission from him now.”
“It’s about time!” Nathan observed.
“Missiles reloaded,” Jessica reported.
“Fire when ready,” Nathan ordered.
“I’ve got the launch data,” Ensign Yosef reported.
“Send a copy to Doctor Sorenson as well,” Nathan ordered. “I want two brains as well as all our computers checking the math on this one.”
“Missiles away!” Jessica reported. “We’re down to seventy-five percent on our rail gun ammo.”
“Why isn’t she firing any missiles at us?” Nathan wondered.
“She doesn’t need to,” Jessica stated. “She’s just harassing us, giving her rail gun operators some target practice. “If she ever runs out of rail gun ammo, she might start lobbing missiles at us. Besides, she knows we can jump away if she does.”
“Her captain’s not as dumb as I’d hoped,” Nathan stated.
“I have a solution, Captain!” Ensign Yosef announced. “Coming up on two minutes to impact. Setting countdown clock.”
“Abby?” Nathan called, turning her way.
“I concur!”
“Very well,” Nathan agreed. “I just hope we can last two more minutes.”
“Captain, can’t we just turn our belly to him and take the shots?” Jessica asked.
“If we stop firing, he might think we’re out of ammo and turn his energy weapon on us for a finishing blow,” Nathan stated. “Mister Willard, what can he see of us through your jamming?”
“Nothing more than a silhouette, sir,” Mister Willard explained. “He cannot see any more detail than that.”
“I’ll keep that as a last option,” Nathan decided.
“Ninety seconds to impact!” Ensign Yosef announced.
Nathan tried not to think about the comm-drone that was streaking toward him at ten times the speed of light.
An alarm sounded on Abby’s console. Red and orange lights began flashing on a drawing that represented the Aurora and all the jump field emitters that were placed about her hull. “Captain, I’ve got a hit on a primary junction on the power distribution system for the emitters!”
“What does that mean?” Nathan asked.
“It means I’m not sure if the system will compensate properly through the other nodes.”
“Will it or won’t it, Doc?” Nathan asked, shouting to be heard above the alarms as well as the sound of rail gun rounds as the sprayed across the top of the ship.
“I don’t know! I did not design that part of the system; my father did!”
“Great! Can we pull out of the way manually?” Nathan asked.
“If we do, the drone may alter course to stay with us,” Mister Willard warned.
“What if we just turn the transponder off and then try to move?”
“I don’t know, Captain,” Mister Willard admitted. “It may just track the ship itself, in which case it will still alter course to stay with us. The whole plan was based on the idea that we could jump out of the way at the last second!”
“One minute to impact!” Ensign Yosef announced.
“Do what you can to make sure the other nodes compensate, Doctor,” Nathan ordered. “And pray that your father designed those compensation systems correctly.”
“I will try, Captain,” Abby promised, “but it would help if we did not take any more hits like that along our topside. The system can only compensate for so much before it will refuse to allow a jump to occur.”
“Doctor, you have to override that particular fail safe. This ship has to jump!”
“If I do and the other nodes do not compensate for the damaged power pathways, some parts of the ship might not be included in the jump!”
“Yeah, I was trying not to think about that part!” Nathan admitted. “Josh, roll us over and show them our belly!”
“Rolling!” Josh announced as the ship began to roll, the stars on the main view screen rotating.
Nathan could hear and feel the vibrations of the Wallach’s rail gun rounds as they walked from the top of his ship, around the port side, and across onto her reinforced underside. The shaking eased slightly, as did the noise, but both were still present.
“Thirty seconds to impact!” Ensign Yosef reported.
“Tell me you have our escape jump already plotted,” Nathan said to Loki.
“Are you kidding?” Loki asked.
“Captain,” Jessica called, “she’s turning!”
“What?”
“The Wallach, she’s yawing and rolling! I think she’s trying to bring more guns on us!”
“She thinks we’re out of ammo!” Nathan exclaimed.
“Twenty seconds to impact!”
“She’s moving in closer as well!” Jessica added. “She’s trying to move in for the kill!”
“I was wrong about that guy,” Nathan mumbled. “He’s a dumbass.”
“Ten seconds to impact!” Ensign Yosef yelled.
“Mister Sheehan! Stand by to jump on my command!” Nathan ordered.
“Standing by to jump, aye!” Loki answered.
“Five……”
“Set forward view screen to the target!” Nathan ordered, wanting to take one last look at the ship he was about to destroy.
“Four……”
The main view screen switched over, showing a view of the Wallach as she approached. She was still a few hundred meters away.
“Three……”
“Magnify,” Nathan ordered.
“Two……”
The image on the screen magnified once. The image of the Wallach now filled the screen.
“JUMP!”
Tug watched from his position just a few kilometers away in a higher orbit over Corinair. He could see neither ship from his position, but had all of his reconnaissance cameras trained on the event. On his main console, he had one of his cameras zoomed in on the Wallach’s position. He saw the Aurora’s jump flash, followed a moment later by a flash so intense he had to cover his eyes despite the auto-darkening capabilities of his helmet visor. It took several seconds for the flash to subside enough to actually see anything on his monitor. He zoomed out slightly in order to encompass the entire image of the explosion. The force of the drone’s impact had ripped the massive battleship in half. The concussion and subsequent secondary explosions had then blasted her apart from the inside out sending fragments spinning off in all directions. The biggest debris field had shot out from the opposite side of the once great warship, the force of the impact causing the far side of the ship to spew outward. Those pieces would have enough velocity to leave orbit. They probably would have enough velocity to leave the entire system.
Tug wondered if pieces of the Wallach might be found thousands of light years away some time in the distant future. He wondered what the finders of such objects would think. Would they figure out what it was, where it came from, and how it was destroyed? Would they even know of the battle that took place here this day? If so, would they display their artifact in some private col
lection, or in a museum on some distant world?
His thoughts were interrupted by his helmet comm. “Tug, Aurora. Do you copy?” It was Naralena.
“Aurora, go for Tug,” he answered.
“Tug, Aurora. Hold one.”
Tug continued to watch his monitor as pieces of the Wallach began to burn up on the Corinairan atmosphere. It must have been an incredible sight for them to behold, he thought.
“Tug, Nathan. How does it look?”
Tug laughed. “Glorious, my friend. Glorious.”
* * *
Nathan entered his ready room, thankful to finally have a moment alone. The bridge, in fact the entire ship, had been awash with congratulatory handshakes and pats on the back. He had thanked his bridge crew for their excellent work, and had waited for all his surviving fighters to be recovered before he set a course back to Karuzara. There were repairs to be made, and wounded to be tended. Unfortunately, Tug had been right; there were new dead to be buried.
He sat alone in his chair, his hands quivering, the adrenaline of the engagement still coursing through his veins. It would wear off soon—he was sure of this—and then he might finally sleep, from pure exhaustion if nothing else. It would not be from peace of mind, of that he could be sure. Although the losses among his crew had been few, thousands had surely died on Corinair. The Wallach had been allowed to make nearly a full orbit around the planet, bombarding the Corinairans with a near constant rain from her energy pulse cannons. It had been a difficult decision to wait to take their shot, but he had been left with no other choice. The risk of cracking the planet in half was too great. It had been better to sacrifice thousands to protect millions. At least that was what he would continue to tell himself.
The door buzzer sounded, breaking him from his guilt. He grasped his hands together to stop the quivering and tried as best he could to compose himself. “Enter,” he called out.
The hatch opened and Cameron stepped into the room, closing the hatch behind her. “You look like hell,” she commented upon seeing him.
“I feel like hell,” he admitted. “It’s probably just the adrenaline rush wearing off.”
“You should be pleased with yourself right about now,” she encouraged.
“I don’t think so, Cam. I just allowed thousands of people to die on Corinair,” he stated in hushed tones.
“But you saved millions by doing so.”
“Did I save them,” Nathan wondered, “or did I just postpone their deaths another day?”
“You can’t look at it that way, Nathan, not if you expect to live with yourself in the end.”
“Perhaps.” Nathan leaned back in his chair, taking in a deep breath and changing the subject. “How many of our own did we lose?”
“Twelve dead, forty-seven injured, fourteen of them are serious.”
“How many pilots?”
“Four did not return.”
The hatch opened again, slowly, and Tug peeked inside. “Captain?”
“Tug, come in,” Nathan said.
“Commander,” Tug added, noticing Cameron as he entered.
“Nice work,” Nathan congratulated.
“To you as well,” Tug returned. “Your crew performed admirably.”
“Yes, they surely did,” Nathan agreed. “By the way, in all the excitement, I forgot to ask you about the drone. Did you manage to catch it?”
“No, I did not,” Tug admitted, his expression falling. “But I am afraid I have even more troubling news to report.”
“What is it?” Nathan asked, noticing the dour expression on the face of his friend and mentor.
“I’m afraid Mister Dumar was correct in his conclusions, Nathan. That drone was traveling at well over five hundred times the speed of light. It will only take three days for it to reach Takara.”
“Then it’s true,” Nathan said, his expression falling as well. “They’ve already started implementing the zero-point energy device.”
“Yes. If we do not act quickly, soon it will be too late.”
“Then we have to attack immediately,” Cameron stated emphatically.
Both Nathan and Tug looked at Cameron with surprise. From the beginning, she had been against their involvement in the affairs of the Pentaurus cluster. She had never made any illusions to the contrary. Her sudden and enthusiastic endorsement was all Nathan needed.
“We will, Commander. We will.”
Thank you for reading this story.
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COMING SOON
“THE HEAD OF THE DRAGON”
Episode #6
of
The Frontiers Saga
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Table of Contents
Ch. 1: Birth of the Alliance
Ch. 2: Repairs and Negotiations
Ch. 3: Chasing Drones
Ch. 4: The Alliance is Official
Ch. 5: A New Crew
Ch. 6: Training
Ch. 7: Masquerading as the Yamaro
Ch. 8: Tug's New Toy
Ch. 9: Preparing for a New Threat
Ch. 10: Defending the Darvano System
End Page