by D. J. Holmes
“You didn’t know we were being followed, you cannot blame yourself,” Alexandra said.
“Of course it’s not our fault,” Divar replied, thinking Alexandra was speaking to him. “The Elders didn’t have to destroy the colony. They could have just forced the colony to submit to their rule.”
“I was speaking to our Captain,” Alexandra said. “She is blaming herself and having doubts about her plan to return home.”
“Well, that is silly,” Divar said for Sarah’s sake. “You cannot be responsible for the evil of another sentient being.”
“Why did you have to speak out loud?” Sarah thought. “My thoughts are private.”
“Because I knew if I tried to console you, you would just ignore me,” Alexandra said and Sarah could almost hear the amusement in her voice. “This way, it’s two against one. In dangerous situations like this, you cannot afford to get lost in self-pity. If you really want to get home, then you have to deal with the world the way it is, not with the way you want it to be. What do you plan to do when you get home anyway? The chances are, your world will be a Tier One or Two colony. Your species will be slaves in everything but name. Getting home isn’t going to just solve all your problems.”
Sarah thought of a number of curse words she had heard Draxler use in the past. Alexandra had touched a nerve. No doubt because she was already aware of Sarah’s thoughts. Sarah had spent a lot of time studying all the information she could on the Elder Empire. Of particular interest had been its history and how it ruled the species it conquered. She had concluded that getting home wouldn’t be the end of her troubles. She wouldn’t be truly free unless her people were free. To do that, she would have to fight. The history she had access to told her the Elders knew nothing but strength. That was how they ruled the galaxy. Strength would be the only thing that would teach them to leave her and her people alone.
“If you want to fight and win, you need to be a warrior. A warrior doesn’t begin to sob the first time they see a catastrophe like this. There could already be three Elder cruisers charging towards us,” Alexandra followed up.
“Are there?” Sarah thought back alarmed.
Rather than answer right away, Alexandra pushed Sarah’s mind towards the ship’s sensors. As Sarah looked out beyond what was left of the Aral colony, towards the rest of the system, she saw they were alone.
“As you can see, there is not,” Alexandra replied. “Though if there were, you would only be finding out about them now.”
Sarah gave Alexander a mental nod. She recognized the lesson the artificial intelligence was trying to teach her.
“There really is no way you could have known what the Elders would have done, even if we had known they were following us,” Divar said, taking Sarah’s silence as a sign that she was continuing to second-guess herself.
“There was,” Sarah said. “According to Alexandra’s data banks, the Elders have destroyed twelve black colonies in the last two hundred years. They have also completely wiped out one species that tried to start a rebellion against them. Their homeworld was a Tier 3 colony, it was destroyed along with two other worlds the species had settled. We should have realized that taking an Elder frigate would draw the full force of the Elder Empire after us. Anyone we come into contact with is going to be at risk. It’s too late to change what has happened here, but this needs to be a lesson to us.”
Sarah changed the holographic display to show the Aral colony. Alexandra’s analysis of the sensor data they were receiving from the colony suggested the anti-matter explosions had gone off about twelve days ago. Even so, there were still fires raging across the planet and there were multiple craters that looked to be at least a mile or two in diameter.
“The Elders destroyed everything,” Sarah continued. “That’s what they do to anyone who thinks they can stand up to them. That will be our end and the end of anyone else who the Elders deem a threat. Let us not forget this.”
“I understand,” Divar said and from the look on his face Sarah knew that he did.
“Take us towards the colony,” she said. “We are going to check for survivors.” Through the bridge’s visual sensors, Sarah saw Divar nod in agreement. Though they hadn’t caused the Elders to destroy the colony, they were responsible for leading the Elders to Aral. The least they could do was to try and offer assistance to whatever survivors there might be.
*
“I’m still not detecting any signs of intelligent life,” Alexandra said an hour after settling into orbit around Aral. “There are no signals that would suggest anyone on the surface has a working COM unit, nor are there any heat blooms beyond those from the fires still raging. The surface temperature of the planet is decreasing every hour, if there were any survivors they would be trying to light fires to stay warm.”
“Okay,” Sarah said after pausing for a moment to come to a decision. She wanted to help, but if there was no one left. “Take us back towards the system’s mass shadow. There’s nothing more we can do here.”
A sudden jolt shook Sarah as she sat in her command chair. “What was that?” she demanded.
“Two gamma lasers just hit our energy screen,” Alexandra reported.
Before Alexandra had finished speaking, Sarah sent Destiny into a series of evasive maneuvers. “Where did they come from?” she asked. As she spoke, she reached out with her mind through the ship’s sensors to search the space around Destiny. “I see it,” she said to Alexandra. She sent the sensor feed to the main holographic display so that Divar could see as well.
“An Elder frigate,” Divar said as soon as the image appeared in front of him. “How did it get so close?” Even as he spoke, another shudder went through Destiny as her energy screen absorbed another laser bolt.
“It must have been lying in stealth,” Alexandra explained. “As soon as we came into range of its laser cannons, it powered up.”
“They were waiting to see if we returned,” Sarah added. “Get ready to return fire. There is no way we can out run this frigate. We have to defeat it.”
“Energy screen has been reduced to fifty-six percent efficiency,” Alexandra reported after another beam sent a tremor through the ship.
“I’m ready to return fire,” Divar announced moments later.
“Hypervelocity missiles first,” Sarah ordered. Knowing Divar was waiting for the right moment, she pulled Destiny out of one evasive maneuver and lined up her starboard missile tubes so they were facing the approaching frigate. Six missiles shot from Destiny and accelerated.
“Why aren’t they firing missiles too?” Divar asked.
“I believe they want to try and capture us,” Alexandra responded. “If they hit us with an anti-matter missile, there might not be much of us left.”
“Well then,” Sarah said as a feral grin spread across her face. “Let’s take the fight to them.”
She swung Destiny onto a new trajectory. Though she continued to jink and dodge the incoming laser fire as best she could, she closed the range to the Elder frigate. As soon as Divar had fired his missiles, he switched to Destiny’s gamma lasers. When Sarah saw two heat blooms appear around the Elder frigate, she let out a whoop. “Keep hitting them,” she shouted.
Sarah quickly concluded that whoever was captaining the Elder frigate was more competent than the Captain of Destiny in the battle with Lady Luck. As Divar’s six hypervelocity missiles came into point defense range, the Elder frigate shot down five in quick succession. For a moment, it looked like the sixth missile might get a hit, however, the frigate managed to dodge it at the last second and the missile flew harmlessly past its target.
Even so, for the few seconds the frigate had engaged its point defenses, it had been forced to seriously reduce its evasive maneuvers. Divar didn’t let the opportunity pass him by. In quick succession, Sarah counted five direct hits from Destiny’s laser cannons. From the sensor readouts Alexandra was pushing into her mind, she saw that the Elder frigate’s energy screen should be all but deple
ted. The next hits would start to cause some serious damage.
Another bolt struck Destiny’s energy screen, reminding Sarah the battle wasn’t entirely one-sided. Their energy screen had been reduced to just twenty-one percent efficiency. Sections of Destiny’s armor were screaming out to her, letting her know they had suffered damage.
“I’m ready to fire another salvo of missiles,” Divar reported.
Sarah twisted Destiny round to bring her missile tubes to bear on their opponent. Divar immediately opened fire. Though Sarah had only paused her evasive maneuvers for a second, the Elder frigate managed to get another laser bolt on target. The energy screen reflected much of the bolt’s force, however enough got through to burn a small hole in a section of Destiny’s armor.
“The next hit is going to do some serious damage,” Alexandra reported.
“Send all non-essential power to the energy screen emitters,” Sarah ordered. “Get ready with the laser cannons,” she said out loud. “We’re going to turn and give that frigate everything we’ve got.”
“Aye captain,” Divar replied, sounding far calmer than Sarah felt.
This is it, Sarah thought as their second salvo of hypervelocity missiles approached the Elder frigate’s point defenses. Seconds before Alexandra estimated the frigate would open fire to try and protect itself, she halted her evasive maneuvers and dove straight towards their adversary. Destiny was designed so all four of her laser cannons could track targets directly in front of the frigate. As a result, Divar was able to fire a constant stream of laser bolts at their opponent.
It took the Captain of the Elder frigate a second to recognize the opportunity Sarah was giving him. His mind had been focused on swatting away the incoming missiles. By the time he gave the order to open fire with his laser cannons, several bolts from Destiny had already struck his command. Damage sirens went off all across his bridge.
Sarah felt her smile widen as heat blooms erupted across the Elder frigate’s hull. As soon as she felt the first laser bolt hit her own ship, she threw Destiny into a series of evasive maneuvers. They hadn’t destroyed the Elder frigate, however they had distracted it and hopefully damaged some of its point defenses. With one part of her mind still fully focused on dodging the incoming laser fire, Sarah kept a part of herself focused on the Elder frigate.
It too had begun a series of evasive maneuvers after being hit by the first few laser beams Divar had fired. However, when Destiny stopped her constant fire, the Elder frigate turned itself to face the incoming hypervelocity missiles. As soon as it turned, Sarah stopped her evasive maneuvers for a second time and lined up Destiny to allow Divar to open fire once again.
*
The Captain of the Elder frigate felt caught in a catch twenty-two position. If he didn’t stop his evasive maneuvers and fire his point defenses at the incoming hypervelocity missiles, one, two or even three of them would certainly strike his frigate, destroying it. Yet at the same time he knew that if he didn’t try to dodge the incoming laser bolts, he would be done for anyway. Having never trained for such a situation, nor even expected to have to face battle during his assignment to the Empire Navy, he froze, unable to make a decision.
The couple of seconds of inaction were fatal. Three laser beams from Destiny struck their target. Two blew right through the frigate’s armor and caused serious internal damage. The damage alerts shocked the Elder Captain into action. Sending a thought to his ship’s artificial intelligence, he ordered the point defenses to open fire while also ordering his ship to fire a salvo of its own hypervelocity missiles. If he was going to die, he intended to take the damned rogue frigate with him.
*
By the time the Elder frigate’s point defenses opened fire, Sarah knew it was too late. Only two thirds of the frigate’s defensive weapons seemed operational. They managed to destroy four of Divar’s missiles. Yet the other two came crashing in on the Elder frigate. One scored a proximity hit. The frigate’s energy screen was now fully depleted and the energy from the detonation washed unchecked over the frigate’s hull. Just a second later, the second missile struck the frigate. It punched through its armor and then exploded, releasing a colossal amount of destructive force.
As Destiny’s sensors cleared after the twin explosions, Sarah saw the Elder frigate was no more. The battle wasn’t over yet however. Three hypervelocity missiles were still closing in on Destiny.
With no need to worry about dodging any more laser bolts, Sarah turned Destiny to bring as many of her point defenses to bear on the three missiles as she could. As the battle had been fought at such a close range, the hypervelocity missiles closed the distance to Destiny in less than ten seconds.
Sarah feared they didn’t have enough time to track the missiles. For a moment, it looked like she was mistaken. Once again Alexandra showed her skills with Destiny’s point defenses. She destroyed two of the missiles in quick succession.
Yet the third missile dodged everything she fired at it. Sensing Alexandra wasn’t going to get a hit, Sarah tried to twist Destiny away from the incoming missile. She was partly successful. The missile overshot Destiny. Yet it exploded as soon as it sensed it wouldn’t get a direct hit. The resultant wave of explosive energy brushed Destiny’s hull.
“Damage report,” Sarah requested as soon as the force of the explosion stopped rattling her around in her command chair. Along with the final hit, she knew she had felt at least one more laser beam strike Destiny during the last seconds of the battle.
“No serious damage,” Alexandra replied. “The proximity hit burnt off some of our armor, but it failed to do any more damage. The last two laser beams burnt into our internal sections but they didn’t hit anything vital. However, we no longer have enough reserve heavy metals to feed into the fabricators to produce more armor and still have some left to buy anti-matter.”
“What a victory,” Divar said as he jumped to his feet, elated. “We destroyed an Elder frigate and we barely took a scratch. No Elder ship has ever been destroyed in battle before.”
“We were lucky,” Sarah replied. She wanted to join Divar in celebrating. However, she knew that if the Elder frigate had used their hypervelocity missiles from the beginning of the battle, things could have been very different.
“But we fought an Elder ship in a one on one battle and we survived. They ambushed us, and we still beat them,” Divar said, his excitement unabated.
“Lighten up,” Alexandra said to Sarah privately. “You both did the best you could, given the circumstances. It’s as much down to your skill as luck that we are all still here.”
“I guess,” Sarah reluctantly thought. Her mind was still on the colony. With the interface helmet still on, it was easy for her to look back towards the destruction that she felt responsible for. A part of her felt like she didn’t deserve to be alive.
“That frigate may have been one of the ships that bombarded the colony from space,” Alexandra reminded her.
“Yes,” Sarah said, brightening. “You’re right. Maybe some justice was done here today.” With a thought, she ordered the interface helmet to disengage from her brain and retract back into the bridge’s ceiling. As soon as it disconnected from her, she stood and stretched. “Take us back to the system’s mass shadow. Keep us as stealthy as possible, I don’t want to bump into any more Elder ships. Then work up a course towards Elaijar. If we can’t find any anti-matter there, I don’t know what we’re going to do.
“We’ll find a way,” Divar said with a smile. “After today, I’m sure we’ll be able to find a way.”
“We’ll see,” Sarah said as she returned a small smile towards Divar. Ever since they had come to the Aral system it seemed like things had been going from bad to worse. She was struggling to share Divar’s optimism. “You can take over the bridge,” she said to him. “Keep a keen eye out for any more Elder ships. I need to take a short nap and then I’ll return to relieve you.”
“Yes Captain,” Divar said as he gave her another salut
e. This time there was a look of admiration in his eyes she hadn’t seen before.
Sarah was too tired to try to stop him. She simply shook her head and rolled her eyes at him as she walked by.
Chapter 14
The Elaijar System
As her shuttle approached the large asteroid, Sarah felt more nervous than she had been in two weeks. After the battle with the Elder frigate, they had feared more Elder ships would try to pursue them. Despite the risk, they had pressed on to Elaijar. As each day passed with no sign of pursuit, Sarah relaxed more and more. Now, having spent the last two weeks carrying out constant training exercises and simulations, Sarah finally felt she was able to appreciate all of Destiny’s capabilities. Her new-found confidence in Destiny was the source of her nervousness. She felt very vulnerable now just flying a small shuttle.