Just as the convoy began to pull away from withering alien fire, the trailing-most troop carrier lost integrity with its left baffle, crashing to the ground, spinning and sliding to a stop. Its ramp dropped and twenty Sasanian troopers poured out, took up positions and prepared themselves for the oncoming rush of rabid alien warriors.
As it sped away, all the rest of the convoy could do was offer prayers and experience the deep sadness of losing more of their own.
The Sasanian convoy reached the mountains. Everyone frantically pulled all portable weapons, equipment and survival gear from the remaining tanks, troop carriers, rocket platforms and communication van. With their artificially enhanced musculature and bone structure, the amount they planned to carry was substantial. With all wearing battle armor, they carried even more. The demolition specialists booby-trapped everything, all set to explode simultaneously if any of the vehicles were breached. Less than five hundred men and women resolutely shouldered their burdens and marched into the massive forest, intent on continuing the war as guerillas, saboteurs and sappers for as long as it took, for as long as they could.
Chapter 13
Aboard Griffin
After crossing Cencore space, Krag brought the Griffin to a heading that would take the ship to the Bridgelen gate. Everyone on board began assuming their roles, preparing to once again encounter the ubiquitous security patrols.
Buster interrupted the preparations. “Captain, we have three Federacy Ships closing at high speed. One is Odin. I am reading energy signatures indicating that weapons are being charged.”
“Buster, open a channel.”
“Done.”
“Ahoy, from Wyvern. Why are you charging weapons?”
“Captain Marston, you are flying under a false transponder I.D. You are in possession of stolen goods, specifically property that belongs to the Federacy. Surrender and power down or we will fire on you.”
Krag knew that voice. He had served under that sadist for years, performing deeds and atrocities that no sane commander would have ordered.
“Admiral Weiskoff. You wound me. I am just an executive transporter. Hold while I send all relevant documents.”
Aboard Odin
“You will heave to, Marston. You were a disgrace while you were under my command and now you are nothing more than a pirate. Heave to or I will fire.”
Cutting the transmission, Vice-Admiral Weiskoff, overriding Captain Brewer, turned to Odin’s weapons lieutenant and commanded, “Secure a target lock and bring the X-cannon to bear. We want the ship intact.”
Lieutenant Robinson looked at his captain, who nodded affirmatively.
Standing in his usual position of power, the Admiral was almost gleeful. He had never discharged this new piece of ordinance and was curious about its results. “To bad I won’t be able see the look on Marston’s face as he cooks to death,” he thought.
Aboard Griffin
Seeing the dropped communique, Krag spoke over the intercom. “People, I need you all in your positions, strapped down and ready for evasion and heavy gee’s. Buster, bring me about to sling around the sun and get me into any type of asteroid field. Bring up all fusion reactors. Prepare for an emergency acceleration.”
Just as he finished his commands, he heard Weiskoff, again. “Quit stalling. You have one minute to comply. Then we will open fire.”
“Reactors ready, heading achieved, Captain,” Buster announced.
As Krag set his ship for maximum flight, Mack and Keiko had rushed into the bridge, dropped into their perspective pods and initiated their survival sequences. Krag did the same as he stalled the Admiral.
Keiko, Mack, ready?”
“Yes, Captain,” was Keiko’s reply.
“Yes,” Mack also responded. “But we didn’t have time to secure the artifact. It is still in the cradle, anchored to the table.”
“That thing has lasted ten thousand years. It should last a few more days,” Krag answered. “Sue, strapped in?”
“Snug as a bug, Captain.”
“Set all deflective, evasive and concealment systems to full max.”
“Done, Captain.”
“Punch it. Max speed, emergency acceleration. No evasive maneuvers. Just run.”
Buster’s verbal response coincided with the ship’s response.
Aboard Odin
“What the?“ Admiral Weiskoff watched the three torches on his viewport burn brighter. “Sensors, what just happened?”
“Griffin is accelerating almost as fast as a fighter, Admiral.”
“That steep a curve? All ships, battle stations! Prepare for maximum acceleration! Captain Brewer, please prepare for maximum pursuit and resulting combat.”
Captain Brewer issued the orders for all personnel to access and seal their pods or climb into gravity bags, preparing for the killing forces of acceleration.
We can’t lose that bastard. I want that ship. Sensors, heading?”
“The sun, sir.”
“They’re going to slingshot. Lock target and fire.”
A cringing voice responded, “Target lock lost, Admiral.”
“What do you mean, ‘lost’?”
“Lost, sir. The ship is generating an impressive amount of stealth interference and sensor dampening. We can visually detect his wash, but we have no details on the ship, sir.”
“Will we hit them if we fire?”
“No, sir. At these speeds and their relative acceleration, our lasers, energy beams and torpedoes would take too long to reach the target. They would be easily avoided. Any deviation on its part will make any shots ineffective.”
“Damn. Ok.” The General thought furiously, pacing, clenching fists, bobbing his head. “We sling around the other way. Trap him in a vise. Navigator, set a course for a reverse sling around the sun.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral.”
Speaking to the other two ships in his task force as he closed his own pod and activated the cocooning process, “Captains, prepared for maximum acceleration?”
All the captains of the ships in his flotilla responded affirmatively.
Continue a following pursuit. Odin will proceed to cut off the criminal’s flight. Captain Jones, release fighters to cut off any flight variations.”
Both captains acknowledged their orders.
“Flight plan plotted, Admiral.”
“Excellent. Captain, engage.”
Aboard Griffin
Even in their pressurized pods and gravity bag, the G-forces pressed everyone to the point of almost passing out. Breathing became almost impossible. Vision blurred, arms couldn’t be lifted and even fingers were almost useless. The gravitational torture lasted just over thirty minutes.
When the drives finally cut out, the Griffin’s speed had hit its maximum of six-tenths the speed of light, the same as the pursuing Federacy ships.
Being a heavy-worlder, Krag was the first to recover. “Everyone ok?”
Both Keiko and Mack groaningly acknowledged with a ‘yes’.
“I hurt my wrist,” Sue said.
“Mack, check on Sue. Keiko, I need you to see what kind of distance we achieved. Buster, set avoidance pattern ‘Scramble’”
“Done, Captain.”
“And increase the magneto-gravity dampeners to offset Griffin’s course corrections.”
“Done, Captain.”
“Thank you, Buster.”
“Captain, we didn’t get that much distance. We just stopped them from gaining on us.”
“Thanks, Keiko. So, we’re still in deep trouble.”
“I would say so. They’re about three light-seconds back.”
“Then we have time to dodge. Well, that’s something.” Krag acknowledged. “Buster, details on our path?”
“We will be looping the sun and heading towards a large cluster of asteroids on the other side, Captain.”
“That works, Buster. Start planning a random, dynamic course plot to keep evading our friends and getting back to the Bridgele
n gate.”
“Yes, Sir.”
As Krag tracked his ship’s bobbing and weaving, he asked, “Mack, how’s Sue?”
“A little banged up, but nothing broken.”
“I can speak for myself, Captain,” Sue huffed.
“Yeah, yeah. We just need to make sure that beautiful brain of yours isn’t scrambled.”
“That’ll be the day, Lug-Nut.”
“Lug-Nut? First Keiko, now you?”
Krag was glad to see that his team still had their humor. The next few minutes would determine if they all lived or died.
“Captain?”
“Yes, Buster?”
“We’ve dropped into the vector that will use the Sun to slingshot us around to a heading that will take us into the asteroid belt.”
“Thank you, Buster.”
“Captain?”
“Yes, Keiko?”
“I’ve been monitoring the ships and one has broken off, heading towards the Sun, in the opposite direction as ours.”
Krag furiously thought, then asked, “Which ship?”
“The lead ship.”
“That would be the Vice-Admiral. He’s going to do the same maneuver as we are, only in the opposite direction. What are the other two ships doing?”
“Trailing.”
“Not good. Buster, calculate if the Admiral’s ship will intercept us before we get to the asteroid field.”
A short moment passed. “Captain, I calculate that he will be within attack range for about thirty seconds before we reach the belt.”
“Thirty seconds. We can take a hit or two, but not thirty seconds worth.” Thinking out loud, Krag continued. “If we change course, that changes the angles and the following ships can get closer, close enough for effective fire. We can’t take on the dreadnaught. That’s just suicide. We keep running and hope to survive the volley.”
Everyone heard the forlorn tone in his voice.
“Captain, you know what you are doing.”
“Thank you, Keiko.”
“Really. This is what you trained for. We know you. We trust you. You’ll get us through.”
“Listen to the lady, Cap. And get to doing your flying stuff. Griffin can take some licks. My Pa, he built her tough. She’ll hold together.”
“Thanks, people. No more mothering. I need to set up some very crazy flying patterns before we meet up with my old commander.”
“Captain?”
Yes, Buster?”
“One of the pursuing ships has launched fighters.”
“Thank you, Buster. That just means that they are cutting us off if we pick a new heading. That means nothing. We have to get to the asteroids. Any other course just prolongs the inevitable. Take a break, people. In about two hours we’ll be back into the soup. Then it gets fun.”
Two hours later everyone returned to their stations, including Sue swaddled in her gravity bag. As Griffin accelerated around Cencore’s star, Krag, Keiko and Mack anxiously watched the screens, hoping for nothing. Their hopes died. They all saw the giant dreadnaught, Odin, powering towards their small.
“Damn, damn, damn,” Krag swore as he frantically punched in a heading that jerked his ship into a vertical climb, angling away from the oncoming enemy and away from the safety of the asteroids.
Aboard the Oden
“They’ve altered course, Admiral.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Weiskoff responded. “Continue pursuit. Weapons, prepare a nine torpedo spread. When we come astern, launch.”
“Aye, aye, Sir.”
After Odin established its pursuit position, the officer in charge of the torpedo batteries, declared, “We can’t establish target lock, Admiral. Whatever jamming systems they have, they are extremely effective.”
“Marston, you ass-hole. Weapons fire anyway. Set a grid pattern and follow with another grid pattern of nine more, rotated twenty-two degrees and fire five seconds after the first.”
Aye, aye, Sir.”
They huge dreadnaught didn’t even shudder as the first wave and second wave of missiles left their launch tubes.
Aboard the Griffin
“They’ve launch missiles, Captain,” Keiko announced as she stared at her displays. “Looks like two waves, nine each.”
“Thank you, Keiko.” Krag had been in this position before. He knew what to do. “Mack, when the first wave is within a thousand kilometers blow half our chaff, also four decoy buoys. Keiko, what is the spread?”
Reading her monitor, Keiko responded, “Ten kilometers, Captain.”
“Interval?”
“Five seconds.”
“Mack, five seconds after the first chaff release, all remaining chaff and four more decoys.”
“On it.”
Krag was proud of his team as they stayed focused on their tasks, not letting the fear of impending death interfere with what needed to be done.
“Buster, two seconds after the first chaff, set a course with a declination of fifty degrees. Wait five seconds then do a thirty degrees right, wait five seconds seventy degrees incline, wait five seconds then back to course.”
“Understood. This heading takes us into void space, Captain.”
“I know. I can only hope that we reach something and hide, or go dark before that ship gets us.”
The next ten minutes seemed interminable to the four fleeing fugitives. But they finally passed. As the first nine torpedoes hit the thousand kilometer mark, Mack released the chaff and Buster executed the first course correction. Five seconds later Mack release the final chaff. Buster executed the second correction, followed by the third and fourth.
Aboard Odin
“Sir, the target has dispersed chaff and decoys. First wave was ineffectual.”
Admiral Weiskoff tensed his jaw and tightened his grip on the armrests of his command chair.
“Sir, second wave is also ineffectual. We’ve lost readings on the target.” The sensor officer cringed as he made his pronouncements, anticipating another of the Admiral’s infamous outbursts.”
Slapping the armrest, Weiskoff lunged to his feet and snarled, “Weapons, ready the X-cannon!”
“Sir, that is experimental, untested.”
“I know that, Lieutenant. Just do it.”
“Sir,” the subordinate replied as he brought the weapon up.
“Broad spectrum, fire on my mark.”
“The X-rays will kill everyone on board. The electro-magnetic pulse will fry everything electronic.”
“I know that, too, Lieutenant. I want that ship. I want its cargo. Marston has had his fun. It’s my turn. Fire!”
The completely invisible, completely deadly X-rays and EMP pulse discharged from the experimental cannon mounted on the Oden. At the speed of light they radiated towards Griffin, travelling four-tenths faster than the fleeing ship.
Aboard the Griffin
Three seconds later the massive X-ray/EMP bombardment reached the stern of Griffin. Within less than a millisecond it reached the electronics that controlled the drives and fried the processors. Less than a millisecond later it destroyed all electronics between the drives and the galley.
The deadly wave of X-rays touched the artifact and never reached Sue wrapped in her gravity bag or Keiko, Mack and Krag strapped into their pods.
Aboard Odin
“Sensors, locate that ship!”
“Searching now, sir.”
Admiral Weiskoff strode to the huge view screen at the bow of his ship and impatiently waited. He managed to last six minutes.
“Well?” he demanded as he glared at the officer frantically working his sensor arrays.
“Nothing, sir.”
“What do you mean by nothing?”
“Nothing, sir. I’ve use visual, long range radar, lidar, audio, everything we have. And I’ve found nothing, sir.”
“Nothing.”
“Yes, sir. I’ve even done repetitive sweeps of star light to observe any objects blocking their light. There’s nothing
there, sir. It’s gone.”
“That bastard can’t be gone! Find him! Keep looking!”
“Yes, sir.” The officer knew his job. He knew he wouldn’t find the little ship. But he did as he was ordered. And he, as did the rest of the command staff, knew that it was going to be a long, miserable day.
Aboard the Griffin
Klaxons howled, red lights flashed. No one on board heard any of it. They all lay unconscious.
Time passed. The four fugitives shifted from unconsciousness to sleep. Krag was the first to awaken. Still cocooned in his command pod, he struggled to shake of the cottony grogginess permeating his brain and dampening his thoughts. Releasing his bindings he fought his way out of his pod, looked around and wondered why he was still alive.
“Shut off that noise and those lights.”
A sudden silence swept over the ship.
“Buster, what happened?” Krag’s voice almost broke with panic as he stared at his status monitor, awash with red lights.
“Unknown, Captain.”
“What have we got?”
“Life support. Gravity. Chemical propulsion. Maneuvering thrusters. Sensors on the front half of the ship. Everything else is off line. The back half of the ship is non-functional.”
Wobbly, Krag staggered over to Keiko’s pod and initiated the emergency release. Following that, he did the same for Mack. Back to Keiko, he felt for pulse and breathing. Satisfied, he gave her a fairly strong shake and waited as she swam up from the sleep of the dead and into the harsh awakening of the present.
“Are you back?” the worry in his voice bespoke of his concern.
“Yes, Krag,” Keiko answered.
“Can you function? Can you find Weiskoff?”
Keiko studied her displays, worked slides, touched icons. After a longer than normal period of time, she answered, “I can’t find him, Captain.”
Sleeping in the Stars Page 36