The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  “Target the closest frigate,” Sarah said to Divar.

  Putting their plan into motion, Divar switched from firing laser beams at both frigates to rapidly firing tens of beams at just one. The beams were half powered so Divar could fire them twice as quickly. To the Elders, Sarah hoped it appeared as if Destiny had been holding back her full strength.

  It appeared to be working for the one Elder frigate under attack began to frantically turn away from Destiny. Carefully Sarah lined up the particle lance. “Now,” she called.

  Divar fired. Normally it took the particle lance’s capacitators thirty seconds to recharge to full power. Divar had only fired his first shot at half power. Hence his inability to do serious damage with it. His second shot was at eighty percent power. The range had also closed between Destiny and his target, making it harder to dodge a particle lance beam.

  So focused on dodging the hail of laser beams coming at them, the Elder frigate didn’t detect the particle beam until it was too late. The beam struck the frigate amidships. It tore down the frigate’s energy screen. It then blew its way through the frigate. The force of the explosion blew entire sections of the frigate into space. Amazingly though, the frigate survived.

  “Target Alpha is still functioning,” Alexandra said.

  “No kidding,” Sarah replied. The frigate was still firing laser beams at them. Though its evasive maneuvers were not nearly as effective. As she watched, Divar quickly scored two hits.

  “Go back to full powered shots,” she ordered.

  “Ten seconds until we pass,” Alexandra reported.

  The next few seconds flew past quickly for Sarah. As the Elder frigates came closer and closer, it was harder to dodge their laser beams. Two, three and then a fourth beam hit Destiny in quick succession. She didn’t need Alexandra to tell her the energy screen was close to failing. She had felt the impact of the last two beams on the hull. Her task was made much harder by the damage Destiny had already suffered. She couldn’t let the Elder frigates get a clear shot at the sections where the energy screen had already failed.

  Then, before she knew it, Destiny was past her adversaries. Almost immediately the weight of fire dropped off. In its place, a massive explosion clouded Sarah’s vision of the space around Destiny.

  “Target Alpha is down,” Alexandra said.

  “It was a sitting duck,” Divar said. “Though that Elder armor was still tough.”

  “Ready the particle lance,” Sarah said as she watched the remaining Elder frigate. It was already turning to bring its particle lance to bear on Destiny. The fight wasn’t over yet.

  Again, Sarah directed all her focus on the Elder frigate. As soon as she saw the telltale sign of its lance being fired, she dodged. When Divar fired his own shot the elder frigate also escaped being hit. For thirty more seconds both ships exchanged a constant stream of laser beams. Only one managed to hit Destiny. It easily broke through what was left of the energy screen and burnt its way through two sections. Divar hit the Elder frigate two or three times. Its energy screen still seemed to be intact though.

  Then the space around Destiny calmed. Though the Elder frigate was decelerating rapidly to come after Destiny, both ships’ momentum had carried them out of range of each other with their directed energy weapons.

  Chapter 24

  The pause in the action was short lived. Within a minute the Elder frigate fired a salvo of missiles at Destiny. Then, before the missiles reached their target, the frigate fired another salvo. In response, Divar fired two salvos of his own.

  Between the proximity missile hit and the laser beams, Destiny had lost several point defense nodes. “This is going to be close,” Alexandra warned Sarah and Divar.

  As the eight missiles came in, Alexandra destroyed seven of them. Sarah kept Destiny on a steady course that allowed Alexandra to bring as many point defenses to bear on the missiles as possible. As soon as Alexandra told her she didn’t think she would get the last one, Sarah sprang into action. Destiny pivoted in space. It was a close call, but she managed to fool the missile and cause it to overshoot.

  Minutes later, Alexandra proved more efficient as she took on the second wave of missiles. Sarah wasn’t needed as the artificial intelligence destroyed them all. The Elder frigate wasn’t so lucky. Whilst it had dealt with Divar’s first salvo of missiles without incident, one missile from the second salvo got a proximity hit.

  “That must have caused some hull damage,” Divar shouted. “They’ll think twice about chasing us now.”

  “I don’t know,” Sarah said. The frigate was still decelerating so that it could come after them. “At least now we can get out of here before it catches us.”

  “We’re not safe just yet,” Alexandra said. “We have taken some serious damage. I don’t think we can safety exceed 0.6c for the next couple of hours. Our hull has taken a lot of damage and cannot protect you from the radiation we will encounter if we exceed that speed. I have already begun repairing the most damaged sections. Hopefully they will be completed in time to help us escape.”

  “Let’s see,” Sarah said. She had already removed the interface helmet. She needed some room to breathe and unwind her muscles.

  On the main holo projector Alexandra showed Destiny and the 10045x system. Destiny was currently travelling straight through the system on a trajectory that would take her past the system’s sun and then out again toward its mass shadow. The Elder frigate was decelerating along the same trajectory. Alexandra projected the course of both ships and then sped up time. Forty-five minutes before Destiny reached the point where she could jump out of the system, the Elder frigate would catch them and be able to open fire with its missiles.

  “If we try to alter course to jump out sooner it just allows the frigate to catch us and hold us in missile range for longer,” Alexandra explained.

  “So I see,” Sarah said. “I guess we have no choice. We need to work on our repairs as fast as we can. Is there anything we can do?”

  “Yes,” Alexandra said. “There are a few power relays I can walk you through fixing. It will be slower than using nanites, but it will allow me to focus on using them elsewhere. It won’t buy us more than a few minutes.”

  “A couple less minutes having to dodge missiles is worth a bit of work in my book,” Sarah said as she stood. “Where do you want us to go?”

  “Look at this,” Divar said, interrupting Sarah. On the holo projector he had switched the image to show Destiny’s sensor feed of the penal colony.

  “That doesn’t look like a penal colony,” Sarah said. There was no sign of any buildings on the planet’s surface. Instead there were large mechanical devices that looked as if they were eating their way through the planet.

  “Those are automated mining machines,” Alexandra said. “They are only used on uninhabited planets. They strip hundreds of meters of a planet’s surface and process the rock material, sifting out any heavy metals.”

  “They’re mining gold,” Divar said. “Look at the sensor readings. There are huge deposits of gold near the planet’s surface. I’ve never seen so much gold so easily accessible. Normally it’s far deeper underground, that’s what makes it so rare and valuable.”

  “That’s what Ranack is after,” Sarah said as her feelings of betrayal welled up again. She had forgotten all about him as the fight had developed.

  “And we are leading the only ship that can stop him getting away from the planet,” Divar said, clearly bitter.

  “Further scans of the planet’s surface show large quantities of processed gold waiting to be picked up by an Elder freighter,” Alexandra said. “All Ranack will have to do is destroy the two loading stations in space and then land shuttles and load up the gold himself. There looks to be at least several billion credits worth of gold down there.”

  “Maybe we can convince our pursuer to turn back,” Sarah said. “Open an unencrypted COM channel.”

  “It’s open,” Alexandra said.

  “Elder fri
gate,” Sarah began. “My name is Sarah. I am the Captain of this ship. I captured it from Captain Klixar. I was tricked by a group of pirates into coming to this system. The drone alerting you to our presence was placed there by them. They hoped we would destroy each other so they could sweep in and raid your gold mining operation. We did not come here looking for a fight. It is our desire to leave this system. You should turn back now and prevent the pirates from carrying off the gold you have mined.”

  “Do you think that will work?” Divar asked as soon as Sarah finished speaking.

  “I doubt it,” Sarah replied. “But there is no harm in trying. Alexandra, send our most recent sub space scans of Ranack and his flotilla. The Elders will probably think the scans are faked, but we may as well send them whatever information we have.”

  “If it leads to Ranack being killed I’m all for it,” Divar said.

  Sarah went to agree with him, but she stopped short. A part of her wanted nothing more than to know the man who had betrayed her so badly was dead. Yet, she still felt something for him. The idea of him dying caused a knot of sadness in her belly.

  Don’t be so weak, she chastised herself. He has already shown he doesn’t care for you. You were just a means to an end. Why do you still care for him?

  “We have our answer,” Alexandra said. On the holo display she showed Sarah and Divar the text message the Elder frigate had sent back.

  All enemies of the Elder Empire will be wiped out.

  “I guess we are going to fight again,” Divar said. “After what you just did I’m surprised the remaining frigate hasn’t turned tail and run.”

  “Elder’s aren’t that easily frightened,” Sarah said.

  “I know that,” Divar replied. “But today wasn’t just any old battle. You just stared down sixteen Elder missiles and flew right through them. No one should be able to do that.”

  “It wasn’t that impressive,” Sarah said. “Alexandra and I have simmed it. The seeker heads on Elder missiles aren’t perfect.”

  “I’m sure they’re not,” Divar said. “But they’re close to it. Yet you still beat them. There is something strange about you. First the interface helmet works for you. Now your flying skills just seem to be getting better and better.”

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

  “You were good on-board Lady Luck when we fought Destiny, Divar explained. “You were even better when we fought that Elder frigate in the Aral system. Today was on another level.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Sarah replied. Divar’s stare was making her uncomfortable. “I have been practicing with Alexandra, that is all.”

  “Well you are something,” Divar said. “We just got surprised by two Elder frigates and we escaped with barely a scratch.”

  “We were lucky,” Sarah said. “And we have taken more than a scratch. We were hit multiple times. I wasn’t that good.”

  “We were hit yes,” Divar acknowledged. “But if anyone else had been flying we would have been destroyed.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Sarah said as she thought of a way to change the subject. “Anyway, the battle isn’t over yet. We have work to do. Come on. You can compliment me later.”

  “Come to think of it, we hardly need to bother repairing anything,” Divar said with a grin.

  Sarah knew he was messing with her but she couldn’t help herself. “Why?” she asked.

  “Well when that Elder frigate catches up to us, I’m sure you can just fly rings around it again,” Divar said as his grin widened.

  Sarah just rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she said. “Or do I have to make it an order?”

  “Ok, Ok, I’m coming Captain,” Divar said as he stood and followed Sarah out of the bridge.

  *

  “Five minutes until the Elder frigate get into missile range,” Alexandra informed Sarah and Divar. They were back on the bridge after having spent six hours working on Destiny. For all their efforts, they had only managed to shorten the time the Elder frigate would be able to shoot at them by ten minutes.

  “We can open fire now,” Divar reported.

  “Do it,” Sarah ordered. In a stern chase the ship running away always had the advantage. Because the Elder frigate was chasing them, any missile they fired at it would start with a greater closing velocity. It would allow Divar to fire two missile salvos before the Elder frigate could open fire. The only problem was Destiny only had five functioning missiles tubes that Sarah could bring to bear.

  “Firing,” Divar said.

  Sarah watched the missiles shoot towards their target. Before they entered attack range, Divar fired his second salvo. “Good timing,” she commented. Divar’s first missile salvo reached the Elder frigate just as it should have been opening fire itself. As it had to focus on shooting down Divar’s missiles, it had to wait a full sixty seconds before it fired its own. Sixty seconds wasn’t much, but it was something.

  “I’m tracking seven missiles inbound,” Alexandra said as soon as the Elder missiles cleared the frigate. “The frigate destroyed all our missiles.”

  “Look at this,” Divar said as he altered the view on the main holo projector.

  Sarah couldn’t see the holo projector as she had her interface helmet on. Nevertheless, she could directly access the sensor data Divar had highlighted. “Ranack,” she growled. Destiny’s long-range sensors were detecting a series of explosions in orbit around what they had thought was a penal colony. There were also intermittent signs of at least three or four ships moving into orbit. “He has come for the gold.”

  “It’s almost perfect timing,” Divar said. “There is no way the remaining Elder frigate can get back to the planet in time to stop them. They will be able to carry away as much gold as they want.”

  “The Elder frigate is firing again,” Alexandra shouted, drawing Sarah’s attention back to their fight. “Look, it’s turning. It’s going back to try and stop Ranack.”

  Sarah couldn’t believe it. It would take the frigate at least six hours to get back to the mining planet. It was wasting its time. Yet when she checked Destiny’s sensors, she saw it was true.

  “There must be a heck of a lot of gold on that planet,” Divar said. “If they are going back now, they must think they will still be able to save some of it.”

  “Indeed,” Sarah said. “I’m sure Ranack will run before the frigate gets anywhere near them. He’s not foolish enough to get caught.”

  “We still have two missile salvos coming toward us,” Alexandra reminded them.

  “We know,” Sarah said as she sought out the first salvo with her mind. “Let’s deal with them and get out of here.

  It was easier said than done, yet together Sarah and Alexandra managed to shoot down or avoid all the missiles the Elder frigate had fired at them. Likewise, the Elder frigate was untouched by Divar’s second salvo of missiles.

  “Jump us out,” Sarah said as soon as Destiny crossed the system’s mass shadow.

  As soon as they passed into subspace Sarah and Divar relaxed. However, Sarah didn’t remove her interface helmet. “Reduce our speed and swing us around the system,” she ordered.

  “Why aren’t we getting out of here?” Divar queried.

  “We are not done with Ranack yet,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “But we can escape,” Divar protested.

  “It is no use arguing,” Alexandra said. “Her mind is made up.”

  “Thank you,” Sarah thought to Alexandra.

  “Don’t thank me,” Alexandra replied. “I agree with Divar. I just have the advantage of being able to read your thoughts.” Out loud she continued, “I don’t think Sarah intends to let Ranack get away with his betrayal.”

  “He still has Earth’s coordinates,” Sarah said. “I’m going to make sure he gives them to us.”

  “He may of have been bluffing all along,” Divar said.

  “Then I’ll settle for revenge,” Sarah said. “He used my desire to get home to manipulate me.
He is as much a pirate as Draxler was. The galaxy will be a better place without him and his friends. We thought we were doing something good here. Instead we just helped a group of pirates enrich themselves. It will only embolden them to carry out more raids and murders. After all the destruction we have left in our wake. Stopping Ranack is one good thing we can do.”

  “Fine,” Divar said, throwing his arms up in the air. “Have it your way again.”

  Sarah disengaged her interface helmet and turned to look at Divar. “I’m sorry,” she said as she held his gaze. “I know it makes more sense to run away. But I can’t. I have to do this. I trusted him. He is the only other human I know about in this part of the galaxy. I want my people to stand for something. For justice and honor. That is what I have dreamed about all my life. I can’t let him continue to run about terrorizing this part of the galaxy. I may be a fool for thinking such things. But please, let me keep my dreams.”