by Don DeBon
"Negative, we will have 1.2 seconds to spare."
Deven tapped a button his data tab. "Galina? Drop the shields. Do you hear me? Drop the shields! Now!"
Static came back. A micro second later her garbled voice came through. "Getting interference. Shields dropped."
"Minerva!" Aleshia exclaimed as the doors continued to grind open. The carrier tilted to accommodate the narrow opening. They shot out of the tunnel like a bullet into the blue sky with only microns to spare.
A large Mechand carrier shot out of the base of the mountain. It was twice the size of the Valiant. "Where did that ship come from?"
Naud tapped a few keys. "I would say from the bunker the Chairman mentioned. And now we know why the Defiant was protecting the mountain."
Suddenly, all the weapons aboard the Valiant shutdown.
Halburn pointed at the two ships in front of them. "What are you doing? I didn't order a cease fire!"
"I didn't sir. I don't understand it, all cannons stopped on their own."
"Tell the fighters to increase their runs until we get this fixed."
"I can tell them, but they are having the same issue."
"What?" Halburn leaned over and studied the information on Naud's screen. "Do they have some sort of new weapon?"
"No, I do not detect any sort of energy leach or such."
Halburn's eyebrow went up. "Energy leach?"
"Well any sort of weapon capable of doing this is more advanced than that. We have power, but everything is responding as if we didn't."
Halburn folded his arms. "Wait a second, this is a Mechand carrier right? Perhaps they figured out a way to command the ship."
"Remote access? I suppose it is possible. Let me check."
"Do more than check, they are moving out. If we can't get this bucket of bolts moving in the next minute we won't be able to follow them."
"Sealing bunker. We can't let this Lavine get anything more than he already has," Minerva said. The communications array retracted and the doors slammed shut hiding the exact location once more.
Aleshia shook still leaning on a console. "Don't do that again."
"But I told you we would fit. It was a simple calculation of rate of speed compared to the opening rate of—"
"Galina! Get out of here. Do you hear me? Get out of here!" Deven pounded on the link button of his data tab.
Static on the screen flashed again and again before Galina's face appeared. "Interference has cleared. And they have stopped attacking. It is weird but they stopped all of a sudden. As if someone hit pause."
Deven stared at the fighters and carrier hanging in the air, doing nothing.
"They even dropped their shields. I can't explain it," Galina said.
"I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Let's get out of here."
"Rodger that. However, our overdrive is damaged. Gregory is working on it, but he is not Leon."
"Move away best speed. We will follow and try to take the brunt of any assault, should they wake up."
Minerva smiled. "Oh they will. But it will take them a while to do so."
Deven turned towards her. "What did you do?"
"Well I must admit, it wasn't intentional."
"I ask again. What did you do?"
"As I told you, the Mechand control network was never meant to be a local system. When we left the bunker and its shielding, the signal from this carrier was no longer limited."
Aleshia's eyes went wide. "You mean every Mechand left on the planet woke up?"
"Essentially yes. And as a result everything stops, falling back to initialization mode waiting for my instructions."
Deven cocked an eyebrow. "Even the fighters and the carrier? I thought they were operated by Mechands independently."
"Yes, but when I realized what had happened, I accessed both the carrier and fighters taking control of the Auto Nav systems. It won't last long though before they figure out a way to override. I hope it gives us enough time to get the Defiant's overdrive engines back online."
Aboard the Valiant, Naud's fingers slid across his console as he ran diagnostics. "I don't see any sign of remote access on the normal frequencies but the Auto Nav kicked in along with an energy conservation system. I'm trying to turn it off."
Halburn watched helpless as the Defiant's engines began to glow brighter. "They are going to jump into overdrive! Get this bucket moving!"
Naud tapped with increasing speed, his hands a blur. "I'm trying sir. There!" He looked over to Rechert. "Try now."
Rechert nodded. "That did it, we have navigation back."
"Weapons are back online as well."
"Good!" Halburn pointed to the Defiant and the Mechand carrier. "Take out those ships! Open fire!"
Deven looked down at his data tab. "Galina, did you hear what Minerva said?"
"Yeah I did. It happened just in time. One more hit on the back quarter and we would have went down."
Another voice came over the background intercom. "Gregory here, overdrive is online but it is a patch job at best, it could fail at any time. I am not Leon."
Leon laughed. "Gregory, you did well. I will fix them properly when I get back over there."
"Galina, head for our first cold home. We will hang back a bit and block anyone following, until you get out of range," Deven said.
She smiled. "You got it. Engaging overdrive." The massive engines on the back of the Defiant began to glow, a second later a bright flash and they were gone.
Deven's eyes widened as the carrier began to move. "Minerva, shields up and be ready to block that carrier."
"Done, and done. They won't get past me."
Aleshia pointed at the smaller ships. "What about the fighters? They could follow. We can't block them all."
Minerva smiled. "We don't have to. They are simple fighters not interceptors. They do not have overdrive capability." The carrier shuddered as several blasts impacted the shields. "Shields holding, but weakening. Shall I return fire?"
Deven shook his head. "No, it takes pinpoint accuracy to incapacitate without killing, and I don't trust your old cannons to do that."
"Technically it should be possible, but understood. Transferring weapons power to shields."
Leon sat down at a navigators console. "Deven, if I am reading this right the Defiant should be out of range. And if I know Galina, she is already zig-zaging her way to the rendezvous."
Minerva nodded. "I concur, I can no longer detect the Defiant. It is reasonable to assume neither can they." Several blasts hit the bottom of the bow port side. "Front port shield is failing."
"Get us out of here," Deven said.
"Overdrive is online. Brace yourselves, this ship does not have any inertia dampers."
Deven, Aleshia and Otis ran for chairs and sat in them. "Ready," they said in unison.
The engines glowed with a blue-white light and the carrier leapt into overdrive as several energy blasts sailed through where it was.
Every one of the Valiant's cannons along with the fighters opened fire at the same moment lashing out with multiple energy beams. Most of them hit head on and they saw the front shield buckle. But the next barrage missed as the carrier disappeared into overdrive a micro second before they hit.
"Dang it!" Halburn said clenching his chair's arm rests. "Follow them!"
Rechert braced himself. "I am sorry sir, the overdrive went offline due to the power conservation system. It will take a few more minutes to charge."
"We don't have a few minutes!"
Naud's screen flashed and his eyes drifted up. "Chairman Lavine is requesting an update."
"Great. I will take this in my cabin," Halburn grunted as he headed off the bridge. He turned back. "See if you can find the entrance to that bunker. Perhaps they left something behind we can use."
"Yes sir."
Halburn climbed down a level and opened the door to his cabin. It was small, but he was thankful the Mechands had built one at all since they didn't need
to. The dim floor safety lights glowed brighter as he sat behind his makeshift desk containing his data tab connected to the Valiant's systems. He sighed as he placed it into a cradle consisting of two repurposed boots and tapped a button. Lavine's face appeared. "Status?"
Halburn's eyes slid down to center on the desk below the data tab. "Stable."
Lavine's eyebrows met. "What the heck does that mean?"
"It means we are functional."
"And the Defiant?"
Halburn coughed. "They have left?"
"Left? I want more information than that! Don't tell me they got the Nexus out of there!"
Halburn chewed his bottom lip for a full five seconds. "Well …"
"Well what?!"
Halburn shifted in his seat. "When we arrived they had extended their shields over the mountain."
Lavine glared. "They what? I didn't think that would be possible given the size."
"I didn't either, but they managed it."
"Their shields must have been much weaker than normal. So how did they leave and not in a fireball?"
"They were about to, when another carrier showed up."
Lavine's eyes went wide. "What! Where did that come from?"
"I assume it came from the bunker you mentioned."
Lavine sat back. "So they not only have the Nexus, but a Mechand carrier as well and who knows what else? Explain to me again how they both got past you?"
"Once the second carrier appeared, we had … issues."
Lavine's teeth clenched. "What do you mean 'issues'?"
"We were held in place and unable to move. At least that was our first assessment. Later on we found the ship had responded to a command, Auto Nav was engaged, and ordered to hold us motionless. An energy conservation system was activated as well, shutting down our weapons."
Lavine's brow furrowed. "That … should have been an easy fix."
Halburn coughed. "It was, once we figured out what happened. But by that time, both ships had left the area."
"I assume you are on their trail?"
Halburn shrugged. "Not much of a trail to follow. We are still looking though."
"Well I have to hand it to you. The first mission of the Valiant, with an enemy you have foreknowledge of, and you blow it."
"With all due respect, I told you we were not ready yet. If they wanted us down, we would be scattered all over the mountain side."
"How do you figure that?"
Halburn sat forward in his chair and glared. "They were hitting to disable, not kill. They had us out gunned three to one. If they had released the full might of the Defiant, I would not be speaking to you now. Whatever you think they are guilty of, it deserves reinvestigation. Perhaps call up Doran and ask him what is going on."
Lavine gave a wave of his hand. "Hardly, I already know his plan. To take over."
Halburn shook his head. "Not possible. If it was, he would have taken us down. He didn't."
"Just because we do not see his full plan does not mean this is not part of it."
"Perhaps. But you know my feelings."
Lavine's eyes narrowed to mere slits. "I do. But that is irrelevant. You will follow my orders, and the orders of the council which are to find the Defiant, eliminate her and anyone aboard. And this new carrier as well. Do I make myself clear?"
Halburn sighed. "I will do as you ask."
"Good, I would hate to have to replace you. I am sure Officer Naud would love a promotion."
Halburn gritted his teeth. "That won't be necessary."
"Good. Now I suggest you get to work." Lavine's image vanished leaving behind a black screen in a dark room. It took Halburn's eyes a moment to adjust to the dim floor safety lights before he could stand up and slap the light control.
He walked over and hit the intercom on the wall. "Naud? Did you find where they went?"
"No sir, I did find they went on two separate trajectories though. Of course, that could have changed en route."
"I have my doubts about that. But even if true, it still means a rendezvous somewhere. An out-of-the-way location where they can repair the Defiant. Is there any way we can follow them?"
"Now? No. If we were able to match speed a second or two after they left yes. Now it is not possible. I am sorry sir."
"It is not your fault they shut us down and it took too long to find out what happened. I was hoping they might have left a trail in their haste to get out here. Perhaps due to their damaged systems."
"Damaged systems …" Naud paused, thinking. "Sir, an idea occurs to me, that might be possible. They sustained multiple hits to their engines. If the damping system took a direct hit, they might be leaking energy. Not much, but perhaps enough we can follow."
"Even now?"
"Yes sir, it may have dissipated some, but it still should give us a general path."
"Then stop talking to me and get on it! I will be up in a minute."
"Yes sir," Naud said as the intercom clicked off.
Chapter 11
The Defiant fell out of overdrive short of their target. "I am sorry Galina, I tried," Gregory said over the intercom.
"Fix it again!"
"I told you I tried. It is being finicky. The whole drive might need to be pulled."
Galina shook her head. "I'm sorry Gregory, I know you did your best. But we're a couple of hours from our targeted rendezvous at this speed."
"Better tell Deven we are going to be a little late."
"I would if the communications system was working better than the overdrive."
"Oh great."
"You can say that again!"
Hovering high above Antarctic storms, a lone Mechand carrier sits waiting. Deven paced back and forth on the carrier's bridge. "I don't like this. They should have been here by now."
Aleshia turned. "Minerva, can you contact the Defiant and find out what is going on?"
Minerva shook her head on the large screen. "No, I was never given the necessary encryption keys required, and if I use an unencrypted link this Lavine will be aware of it. But I can tell you there is no report of their capture."
Deven sighed. "I already tried contacting them. No response."
Aleshia folded her arms. "Shouldn't we go looking for them?"
"Where? The Earth is a big place. They could be anywhere."
"Well we can't just sit here waiting."
"No, that is exactly what we are going to do. If we go looking for them, and they arrive here, what then? My bet is their communications took a bad hit and perhaps the fixes Gregory did to the overdrive didn't hold. They will get here eventually, but if we go off looking for them, the chances of meeting go down fast."
"Agreed," Leon said looking at the console in front of him. "We can't waste time by hunting for them around the world."
All the screens on the bridge flashed and displayed a small blip. "I detect one lone vehicle approaching from the northwest," Minerva said.
Aleshia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Finally. About time they showed up."
"No, this is much too small to be the Defiant. It may be a scout."
Otis smiled. "It isn't either. It's my truck."
Deven whirled around. "Your truck? You left it parked next to the mountain."
Otis nodded. "I did. But I also sent a few remote commands with a detailed path of how to get here before we jumped into overdrive." He raised his hand. "Before you ask, yes I had it go on a very roundabout method in case anyone was following it."
"But why is the question."
"Why? Do you know how much time I spent customizing that thing? I am not going to leave it for Lavine to add to his arsenal."
"Minerva, it is alone?"
Her eyes darted around the screen. "As far as I can tell, yes. However, the landing bay lacks sufficient room for the vehicle to come aboard. You will have to instruct it to remain in a stationary hover."
Otis shrugged. "It will do that anyway if I don't tell it otherwise."
De
ven folded his arms. "Minerva, I have a question for you, actually three."
"And I will answer them of course."
"You said all the Mechands have been initialized around the world. How many and where? Also, what did you tell them to do?"