Ragnarok-ARC

by Patrick A. Vanner

  "Alex, are you sure about this?" Greg asked over their private net. "We're already redlining the reactors, plus we're shot full of holes. Hitting the wall, especially at this speed, might be pushing our luck."

  "Greg, look at the display." She waved her hand at the projection. "Those cruisers that are chasing us have backup, and they're pouring on the speed." As they both watched, they saw what appeared to be two destroyer squadrons on a high-speed interception course with the Fenris. "If we go for a zero-zero jump, those ships will be on top of us almost two hours before we reach the limit. We'd never survive the encounter. No, we hit the wall running full out, and we'll just have to hope that she holds together. The admiral wanted us to warn Earth, and that is exactly what I intend to do."

  "Yes, ma'am," Greg replied, but he did not sound defeated. She knew he was only playing devil's advocate, like any good XO, and he was one of the best. Alex began to order a stand down from battle stations when Ensign Green once again broke into her thoughts.

  "Status change! Captain, a Sally battleship and her escorts just jumped in."

  * * *

  The xan-liarn pacing back and forth across the command center of the kisnan Swift Current ran a talon along one of the three stripes adorning his muzzle, tracing it down his heavily muscled neck, waiting. The pale yellow light filling the compartment was quickly replaced by the dim green lighting of combat stations as the ship secured from fold operations.

  "Ki-Tesh, what is the status of my squadron?" the xan-liarn demanded in a guttural voice of the Xan-Sskarn operating the communications position.

  "Squadron all present and at combat stations, Xan-Liarn."

  He did not bother to acknowledge the information given by his subordinate, but instead turned to his second-in-command.

  "Is the Swift Current ready for battle, Ki-Xarn?" The quiet, lisplike hiss of his question was more civil than his demand of the communications officer; etiquette and protocol dictated this. His second-in-command's muzzle was marked with the same three stripes as his own, making the ki-xarn the closest thing to an equal the xan-liarn would find within his squadron.

  "We have secured from fold operations, and all combat stations report ready, Xan-Liarn."

  "Excellent." Flaring his nostrils and picking up the slightly damp, musky odor of excitement, the xan-liarn ran a talon down his neck once again. "When those pathetic Dry-Skins attempt to flee like a pack of frightened hatchlings, they shall be ours."

  * * *

  "What's their heading?" Alex asked quickly. She was afraid that she knew the answer even before Green told her. If she hadn't believed the admiral's statement that someone had sold them out, the sudden arrival of the Xan-Sskarn battleship would have changed her mind. That battleship was on a reciprocal heading for any Earth ship that might be trying to escape the system and jump to Sol. They weren't moving to intercept the Fenris yet, but that wouldn't last for long. Either the distortions from the residual jump energy would clear, and they would pick up the Fenris themselves on their long-range sensors, or they would receive the messages their companions were no doubt sending, telling them of the Fenris' attempt to escape. Whichever happened first, the outcome would be the same. The Fenris would have no choice but to engage the Sally battleship group if she wished to exit the system on a heading to Sol.

  "They're maneuvering toward us now, Captain, coming in on our starboard side. Ninety minutes to engagement range," Ensign Green informed Alex as soon as his sensors reported the change. That would put the Fenris under enemy fire for twenty-seven minutes before she could make the jump to Sol. The only good news was that the position the Xan-Sskarns were starting from was not an exact reciprocal and would not put them on a direct interception course; they would be coming in at a steep angle relative to the Fenris. The difference in their vectors would keep the range open enough for the Xan-Sskarns to be able to engage with missiles and torpedoes only, and Alex was thankful for that. Xan-Sskarn battleships mounted hellishly powerful lasers and she had no desire to be on the receiving end of the damage they could dish out.

  "XO, stand down from general quarters, sixty minutes, then we're back to work." She wanted her crew to have a chance to relax, and she needed a break as well. She released her harness, stood up, stretched, then began to pace around the command deck, looking over displays and murmuring words of encouragement. A steward entered arrived on the lift, carrying a tray, and Alex grabbed a bottle of water from it, drinking deeply, trying to clear her mind now that the immediate threat was over and adrenaline levels in her bloodstream were dropping. She desperately wanted a cigarette, and her hand moved of its own accord to her breast, stopping as it encountered a row of ribbons. She blinked twice in confusion and looked down, startled to realize that she was still in her dress uniform. No wonder she was feeling so spent—except for a short catnap on the shuttle ride back to the Fenris, she had been awake for almost twenty-four hours. She saw Greg pass by the steward, grab two cups of coffee, and head toward her. Handing her a cup as he reached her, he spoke up.

  "Yeah, I just noticed it, too." He indicated his once-pristine white uniform. "Thanks to those harnesses, it's going to take weeks to get the creases out of it, and I don't even want to think about the blood." She looked over his and then her uniform and could see what he meant. She put her water down and swallowed half the contents of the cup and grimaced. The coffee was bitter, but strong, and just what she needed. She continued her rounds on the command deck, working her way through three cups of coffee in the process. The haze was just beginning to lift from her mind as Greg broke in over their net.

  "Ten minutes to engagement range, ma'am."

  "Thanks. Bring us back up to general quarters." She moved to her command chair and began to strap herself down as alarms called everyone back to their stations.

  "All battle stations manned and ready, Captain," Greg reported to her ninety seconds later.

  "Commander Samuels, maintain a continual monitoring of our jump calculations. Any changes in ship status, and I want them updated immediately."

  "Understood, ma'am." Alex looked down at the projection, watching the time and distance count down. At one minute until engagement range, she spoke up again.

  "Commander Martin, prepare your drones. Launch at thirty seconds out."

  "Yes, ma'am." His hands began to move across his board as he programmed the first pair of drones and then waited as the time counted down. "Drones away."

  Thirty seconds later, the first of the Xan-Sskarn missiles began to home in on the Fenris. As they closed, the point-defense net began to clear them from space. The range was great enough that point defense was able to track and destroy all of the first three waves of incoming missiles. First a missile, then an energy torpedo managed to weave past the defense net, and the Fenris once again began to bleed vapor from hull breaches.

  The Fenris had not been silent during this onslaught. Her missile tubes continued to launch wave after wave of missiles back at the enemy. This exchange continued for several minutes before the Xan-Sskarns inflicted major damage as a salvo of four energy torpedoes impacted along the starboard bow, rocking the ship and vaporizing entire sections of armor.

  "Damage report." Alex could see their acceleration as well as their volume of fire beginning to drop.

  "The entire bow has been stripped down to the frame, and we've lost contact with everything forward of beam forty, including the hangar bay. Multiple fires are being reported throughout the ship. Engineering reports that the drive envelope is beginning to become unstable and maximum speed is down to one hundred eight percent. Reactor three's in emergency shutdown, and reactor one's mag bottle is showing signs of imminent containment loss." Greg finished his recital of the damages and looked up at her. Alex could see the hopeless look on his face, and she smiled at him. Hopeless or not, the Fenris was not going down without a fight.

  "Guns, deploy our mines, two groups. First group set for delayed proximity detonation twenty seconds, second group prox
imity detonation, no delay."

  "Yes, ma'am!" Commander Martin shouted back. Deploying the mines for delayed detonation would ensure that they were in the middle of the Sally formation when they exploded. The second wave would go up right in their faces. Unless they wanted to attempt to break off their pursuit, they would have no choice but to sail right through the middle of them. Mines tumbled from the sides of the Fenris, oriented themselves, and, with a large burst of energy, set themselves directly toward the Xan-Sskarns. "Mines deployed."

  It would be several long minutes before the Xan-Sskarns entered the minefield that had just sprung up in front of them. All the while, the long-range duel continued. The Fenris had fallen to one hundred one percent acceleration when a pair of missiles detonated amidships topside. Explosions ripped through the command deck. Lieutenant McKeenan's head and chest disappeared as his console erupted in his face, and Commander Martin slumped in his chair, pieces of Lieutenant McKeenan's console, and Lieutenant McKeenan, embedded in his head and neck. Petty Officer Conrad was shrieking in pain, her left arm severed above the elbow by a piece of shrapnel from the exploding overhead. As blood loss caused the sensor tech to lose consciousness, Alex could hear several more moans of pain from around the command deck. Her XO was already on his way over to the weapons console, ignoring the gory mess that covered it, as Ensign Green attended to his tech. She was shocked by the familiarity of this situation, realizing that she had been here before. At Ross 128, with her ship being blown apart around her, half the command crew dead or too wounded to function, Greg had sat calmly at a blood-drenched tactical station, awaiting her orders. She heard herself issuing the same order she had during that battle.

  "Rapid fire, all tubes, cascade launch. Run them dry!" Greg also seemed to be reliving the same battle, as the new firing solution was locked in and in effect before she even finished issuing the order. Missiles blasted from the tubes, one after another, moving down the ship. By the time the last tube had fired, the first tube was reloaded and launching. A continuous flow of missiles streaked from the Fenris, blurring into one steady stream of fire on the Xan-Sskarns' sensor displays, making them easier to intercept but much harder to track, as the sensors read them as one long target. Typically, this was a tactic to be used against a single opponent or a formation of light ships where their point-defense nets were not as tightly concentrated as larger formations. They were two minutes from the jump limit when the ship was once again rocked by an explosion. This time, Commander Samuels was killed as a support strut broke free from the overhead, swinging down and caving in the side of his head. Several more consoles exploded, sending shards of metal and plastic spinning through the air, cutting down several more people on the command deck. The Fenris was now ninety seconds from the jump limit, and there was no one updating their jump program. Alex ripped at her harness, freeing herself from her chair, and raced across command to the navigation station, slipping in the gore covering the deck. She reached the console at sixty seconds from the jump limit and began to update the program, not even noticing that her hands were covered in blood that was not her own.

  "Greg, status?" She had to shout to be heard over the alarms and sparks erupting from consoles.

  "I can't raise anyone. Internal comms are down, and so are internal sensors," he shouted back as his hands continued to update targeting solutions. Fifteen seconds from the jump limit, his hand slapped down one final time, and the last of the Fenris' missiles shot from the remaining missile tubes. "That's it, Alex. I'm dry."

  "Ten seconds to jump!" Alex shouted across to him.

  "Incoming energy torpedoes!" They were both shocked to hear Ensign Green's voice coming out from the smoke-filled command deck. "Point defense is down. Impact in five seconds." Alex looked at her countdown; seven seconds to jump. Two damn seconds—that's all they needed. Just two more seconds, and the Fenris would be able to escape this death trap.

  The torpedoes impacted, and the Fenris rocked once more. Someone shouted her name, and then something heavy collided with her, knocking her off her feet. But she didn't notice. Alex's eyes were transfixed, staring at the painfully beautiful, delicate flames that danced over the command deck, directly at her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Folkvang Station

  October 8, 2197

  0920 z

  Lunar Polar Orbit, Sol

  Petty Officer Third Class, Brian Phelps arrived in Folkvang station's operations center and headed directly toward the coffee. His almost fanatical love of coffee had earned him the nickname Chief in tech school, when an instructor said that he drank more coffee than any three navy chiefs he knew. A demon with all types of sensor equipment, the pimply faced nineteen-year-old had only two loves: coffee and his job.

  Sitting down at his station with a large mug of coffee, Phelps looked over at the woman who had become one of his few friends and greeted her.

  "Morning, Lisa."

  "Morning, Chief. How's the coffee this morning?" she asked, smiling sweetly at him as she teased him.

  "Just like mom used to make. You know, you should really give it a chance. It'll put hair on your chest."

  "Yeah, and guys just love the hairy chest."

  "Huh?" He glanced up from his console and looked at her, puzzled. Lisa rolled her eyes at his total lack of comprehension.

  "Nothing. Anyway, I'll stick with my tea, thank you very much."

  "Suit yourself—more for me. So, what's on the agenda for today?" Phelps turned back to his panels, focusing on his job now that his repertoire of pleasantries was exhausted.

  "Looks to be nothing much outside of the norm. No training exercises today, but then I'm not too surprised by that. Every time they schedule an exercise and try to surprise us, you and I pick 'em up, and gunnery tracks them in and picks them off. I think they finally gave up on us and are concentrating on the other shifts now." She sounded rather smug.

  "Well, let's get to work, then," Phelps said cheerfully at that thought and began almost lovingly to manipulate his boards. Shaking her head and smiling, Lisa turned to her own station. They sat in companionable silence, listening to the humming and chirping emanating from their respective readouts.

  They both began to run their overlapping sensor sweeps, monitoring and recording over a wide range of spectrums. Information was relayed to their consoles from Folkvang's own sensor suites as well as all of the sensor platforms seeded throughout the system. They were on the lookout for a wide variety of objects and readings: Xan-Sskarn drones, unauthorized communication waves, stealthed enemy vessels, and, most importantly, space-fold phenomena.

  Umeko Hoshiko and Terrance Muxlo were not the first scientists to theorize folding space or FTL travel, but they were the first to combine Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle with an innovative and truly unique drive design. By starting with Heisenberg's principle, they discovered the possibility of determining, with a high degree of accuracy, where a jump would take a ship, but the means to achieve that jump still needed to be figured out. Hoshiko and Muxlo's unique drive design took care of that problem. Utilizing not one but two quantumly entangled jump engines, the Heisenberg Umeko Muxlo Dimensional Drive was created, and FTL became a reality. The first engine opened a jump point where the generating ship was, the second opened a point at the desired destination at the same instant, light years away, and the ship simply translated between the two. Due to the egglike shape of the drives, coupled with their tongue-twisting name, they were christened with a new, shorter name by fleet engineers: the Humpty.

  Space folds not only required a great deal of power to generate jump points; they released a large amount of energy across both the visible and nonvisible spectrum during the translation between those points. They could be the easiest disturbance to detect, or they could be nearly impossible to read. The difference came from the location of the event in relation to a sensor platform. That's what made detecting them such a tricky and complicated task, and such a challenge to people like Petty Offic
er Phelps. Xan-Sskarn scout-ship standard doctrine called for them to jump up to a light-month out from the target system, and the residual energy from a jump that far out of a system was almost impossible to detect among the background energy of the universe. Needle in a haystack would be a gross understatement.

  Jerking up in his chair, Phelps let his coffee mug fall to the deck as his sensors began to shrill a warning at him.

  Modern sensor and communication satellites were not restricted by the conventions of transmission lag. Powered by a large onboard reactor with a life span measured in years, opening and maintaining a microscopic jump portal was relatively simple. Satellite transmissions were energy with no mass, and this lack of mass, coupled with the extremely short distances that a signal had to travel in-system, meant that the effects of local gravity wells were negligible. However, even without mass, transmissions were still affected by gravity over interstellar distances. The constant motion of planetary bodies and the consequent change in a system's gravity fields made anything beyond transmitting across a solar system nigh impossible. The expense of the satellites as well as the need to maintain the secrecy of their functioning dictated that they only be deployed in secure systems.