The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  She sent a request for one of the destroyers to scan the shipyard. Maybe the shipyard has its own defenses, if it does, the High Admiral could be planning on using it as an anvil to crush us against, she thought. When the scans came back, they were inconclusive. It was clear there were a couple of cruisers currently under construction, yet they looked far from finished. Other parts of the shipyard were proving hard for the fleet’s long-range scanners to penetrate, yet there didn’t appear to be anything to be concerned about. Sending her thoughts to Hailey, Sarah turned her attention back to the Elder battleship. The fleet action was Hailey’s concern, the battleship was hers.

  Though the fleets were still hours away from each other, Sarah poured over the scans of the large warship as they came in. Over the next three hours, she studied it carefully until she knew it almost as well as Destiny. Outwardly it looked exactly like the schematics Alexandra had for the general Elder battleship design. She just hoped its internal structure was the same. She didn’t want to get lost, if and when she managed to board the vessel.

  “Open fire in thirty seconds,” Hailey ordered.

  Sarah was startled out of her thoughts. We are already that close? Of course we are, she scolded herself. “Fire with the fleet,” she sent to Kevin.

  Together, the twenty-two human destroyers and Destiny fired two hundred and seventy-two missiles at the Elder fleet. Then, as one, they decelerated and turned onto a parallel course to the Elders. Hailey was happy to stay out of range of the Elder fleet and hammer them from afar.

  The Elder High Admiral reacted as everyone expected him to. His fleet accelerated towards the humans to bring his own missiles into range. When the human missiles were about half way to their targets, the Elder fleet opened fire, firing two hundred and fifty missiles of their own.

  Destiny was stationed at the back of the human fleet and Sarah had little fear for her own safety during the opening throws of the battle. Even so, as she watched the Elder missiles approach, she knew some of them would hit their targets. Yet before that happened, she got to watch the first wave of devastation wash across the Elder fleet. The Elders had managed to destroy two hundred and fifty-six missiles with their point defenses. That still left sixteen anti-matter missiles to explode among the Elder fleet. For a couple of brief seconds Sarah’s vision was clouded by the enormous amounts of electromagnetic radiation the explosions gave off. She struggled to keep her disappointment from everyone who could access her mind as the Elder fleet came back into view. Only one Elder cruiser appeared to be damaged. It was falling back with debris being sucked out into space from two holes in its hull. It was out of the fight, but the rest of the Elder fleet appeared intact.

  “What happened?” she sent to Admiral Hailey.

  Instead of responding to her directly, Hailey sent a general message to all his Captains. “It appears the Elder’s ECM and fleet tactics are more effective than our estimates. We may be facing an above average Elder Admiral. It doesn’t matter, our scans still detected a number of proximity hits among their fleet. Their ships have to be hurting. Prepare to fend off their missile salvo and then we will hit them again, and again.”

  Sarah mentally nodded. They couldn’t expect the Elder’s to play dumb all the time. She had got lucky in the past. It made sense that a more experienced commander would be stationed at Earth. Just as she turned her attention to allowing Alexandra to target all her point defenses at the incoming missiles, alarms went off.

  “What is it?” Sarah asked the artificial intelligence.

  “Multiple new missile launches,” Alexandra answered.

  “Where?” Sarah followed up. She couldn’t see any more missiles coming from the Elder fleet.

  Alexandra shifted Sarah’s view so she was looking at the shipyard. More than one hundred missiles had been launched towards the human fleet from concealed missile tubes. Worse, behind the new salvo of missiles, coming out of the shipyard, was a battleship. While it didn’t look completely finished, it still looked like it could put up a decent fight. It was being escorted by a cruiser and three destroyers. They had been hiding within the shipyard.

  “How did we not detect any of them?” Sarah demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Kevin responded.

  “Focus,” Alexandra warned.

  In horror, Sarah shifted her attention back to the first Elder missile salvo. It was already upon them. The Elder Admiral had timed his surprise perfectly. The two new threats had appeared just as the human fleet should have been beginning to engage the missiles that were about to hit them. As she sent a warning out to the other Captains, Sarah gave Alexandra permission to open fire.

  Thousands of small laser beams and AM missiles streamed out to intercept the incoming wave of death. The Elder missile salvo was reduced to one hundred and fifty, then ninety, then thirty. Just as Sarah thought the remaining missiles were about to explode among their fleet, Hailey sent the order to disperse.

  Starting with the destroyers on the edge of the formation, then working in, the human ships began to break apart. Then, with more space to maneuver, they powered up their ECM to full and began to dive and jink about as they entered a dance with the missiles targeting them. Almost every destroyer had a missile targeted at it. Being at the back of the fleet, Destiny was safe. Twisting Destiny in space, she moved closer to a nearby destroyer. For a split second, she shut off all of Destiny’s ECM. The Elder missile, suddenly presented with a clear, unmistakable sensor reading, tried to switch targets. As soon as Sarah saw it alter course, she powered up the ECM and banked away from the missile. Vainly it tried to reacquire its original target, but at the closing velocity it had achieved, it failed miserably. The missile shot past both the human destroyer and Destiny and exploded harmlessly, well out of range.

  As Sarah surveyed the rest of the human fleet, she saw some of the other destroyers hadn’t faired so well. Four had received direct hits. The energy screens on two of them had held, protecting the ships from damage. The other two hadn’t been so lucky. Both were falling back to take up station near Destiny at the back of the fleet. They could still fight, but one more direct hit would finish them. Three other destroyers were reporting damage from proximity hits, thankfully the rest of the fleet was alright.

  “Open fire,” Hailey ordered.

  Sarah sent the order on to Kevin and a second later another salvo of human missiles raced towards the Elder fleet.

  “Close the distance to the Elder fleet,” Hailey ordered. “We can’t stand up against the weight of fire that shipyard gives them. We need to get amongst them.”

  Sarah understood what Hailey intended. If the human and Elder fleets were engaged in a swarming ball of close dogfights, then the shipyard wouldn’t be able to target human ships without hitting Elder ones as well.

  Hailey sent orders to the two damaged destroyers and a third fully functional one. They broke off and moved onto an intercept course for the new battleship and its squadron.

  Sarah hated what Hailey had just done, but she understood his decision. If the second battleship joined the rest of the Elder fleet before the humans closed to laser range, the Elders would have the advantage in numbers. Hailey was all but sacrificing the three destroyers to keep the Elder squadron from reaching the main battle in time to turn the momentum against the humans.

  As if to reinforce just how precarious their situation was, as the one hundred missiles from the shipyard passed the Elder fleet, the Elder warships opened fire. Now three hundred and forty missiles were heading for the humans.

  “Screw the original plan,” Sarah thought to Alexandra and Kevin. “As soon as we get into laser range, we’re going for the battleship. We have to end this battle as soon as possible.”

  “Agreed,” Kevin and Alexandra replied, almost simultaneously.

  Her decision made, Sarah felt her impatience rise. The human fleet was charging straight for the Elders. It looked like the Elders were happy to close the range as well, for rather than trying to turn to
continue a missile duel, they were forming up into a new battle formation. However, before the close quarters fighting could begin, there were two salvos of missiles to deal with.

  The human missiles reached their targets first. This time, Hailey had ordered them targeted at the frigates. They had less point defenses and would be easier to pick off. His tactics had some success. Only fifteen missiles made it through the hail of Elder point defense fire. However, after their explosions cleared, five frigates were missing.

  Sarah didn’t have time to calculate how that changed the chances of success, for the massive Elder salvo was fast approaching point defense range.

  Able to focus of the incoming missiles without any surprises popping up, the human gunners put out a more coordinated weight of fire. The three hundred missiles were reduced to fifty, then Hailey gave the order to split up again.

  “This is going to be close,” Sarah called out to her crew. Two missiles were targeting Destiny. Sarah snapped her ship up on its end and gunned her main engines to one hundred percent. Then, less than a second later, she fired Destiny’s maneuvering thrusters and sent the ship into a spiral. Destiny’s momentum still had her heading towards the Elder fleet, but now she was a much harder target to hit. As the first missile came tearing in, Sarah banked Destiny away from it at the last second. The second was right behind it. Sensing it was going to hit them, Sarah turned away from it. Just as she began her maneuver a wave of explosive force crashed into Destiny. The first missile exploded as it passed its target. Recognizing it wasn’t going to score a direct hit, it had resorted to trying to do damage with a proximity explosion.

  The force of the explosion threw Sarah about in her flight seat and disrupted her evasive maneuver. Sarah let out a scream of rage. She couldn’t get Destiny under control quickly enough, they were doomed.

  A second explosion erupted, sending another shockwave vibrating through the bridge. Sarah closed her eyes, expecting to feel the sharp pain of flames consuming her body any second. When nothing happened, she forced her eyes open again. “Wha...?” she began to ask.

  The answer to her question made her cut off mid word. Through Destiny’s sensors she could see Hawk tumbling through space away from her ship. The corvette was a wreck, it was venting atmosphere and bodies into space from the massive hole that had been blown into its side.

  “Divar switched off Hawk’s ECM,” Alexandra said solemnly. “He knew we couldn’t dodge so they presented the missile with a better target.”

  “Is he alright?” Sarah demanded.

  “I am trying to raise Hawk,” Alexandra answered. “No one is replying.”

  Sarah’s heart threatened to sink into despair. Hawk was all but destroyed. It would be a miracle if anyone had survived. Divar was likely dead, so too was his crew. No doubt tens of people had just given their lives for her. Because they thought she was special. Checking the rest of the fleet, she saw two more destroyers were showing signs of damage, while a third was simply gone. There was barely even any debris where it had been. For a second, images of Aral and Elaijar flashed before her eyes. So many had died because of her, and now hundreds more were being added to the list.

  “Remember why we are here,” Kevin said sternly as he gave her a mental shove. “It’s not you that is special. It is Earth. They gave their lives so you can save Earth. Now let’s get on with it.”

  Along with the mental shove, Kevin forced his desire to defeat the Elders into Sarah’s mind. It felt like an intrusion, yet as Kevin’s desire became hers, Sarah welcome the renewed focus. She could cry later. Now the Elders had to die.

  Chapter 45

  With a renewed passion, Sarah drove Destiny towards the Elder fleet. Having abandoned all attempts to keep the range open, the human fleet was closing fast. The destroyers easily out accelerated Destiny and Sarah found herself on her own. Frustratingly, she had to watch as the human warships opened fire with their lasers and tachyon beams. Then the Elders followed suit as their less powerful lasers came into range. Finally, a series of particle lance beams crisscrossed between each fleet.

  Two Elder frigates and a cruiser vanished from the ranks of the Elder fleet. Two particle lance beams struck human destroyers. One had already taken a direct hit from an anti-matter missile. Its energy screen already weakened, the particle lance easily pierced it. As soon as the stream of particles hit the destroyer it disappeared in a blinding flash. The second destroyer managed to fend off the direct hit from the lance. However, Sarah saw three Elder cruisers redirect their fire towards the destroyer. What was left of its energy screen wouldn’t last for long.

  Then all thought of the other ships in the human fleet evaporated as Destiny entered weapons range. Lining up Destiny’s laser on a frigate in the process of changing course, Sarah gave Kevin the perfect opportunity. He wasted no time in discharging six full powered beams into the frigate. Though its energy screen held, Sarah knew it had been seriously depleted.

  As multiple laser beams zipped past Destiny on all sides. Sarah had no more time to focus on the frigate. Instead, she began to dive and dodge her way through the incoming fire, trying to give Kevin the best firing opportunities she could at whatever target presented itself. For a couple of minutes, she wove through the maelstrom of laser fire, particle lance beams and tachyon pulses. Slowly, as ships on both sides entered one on one duels, the intensity of the battle subsided.

  Sarah took a moment to assess the situation. The combination of each human ship having a battle meld, and the fleet wide cognizance that Hailey was commanding, seemed to be balancing the advantages the Elders had from their interface helmets and artificial intelligences. One on one, the Elder ships appeared to be better handled, yet the human ships were fighting together with a far higher level of coordination. As soon as one human ship detected an Elder ship’s energy screen was down, several other destroyers opened fire on it. Already two frigates and a cruiser had been dispatched using such tactics.

  Sadly, as Sarah checked, she saw the destroyer that had taken the particle lance hit was no more. The Elders had managed to focus their fire and take it out.

  “It’s time,” Alexandra said to Sarah.

  Alexandra’s words drew her attention to the Elder battleship. Sarah immediately understood what Alexandra was saying. The battleship had moved to the edge of the battle. It appeared to be trying to hit targets with its four particle lances while avoiding the intensity of the firefight going on in the center of the fleet action. Yet, being more isolated also made it more vulnerable. There would be less ships to come to its aid. “I see,” Sarah replied. Switching her focus, she told Admiral Hailey she was making her move. He acknowledged and assigned two destroyers to watch over her.

  Pivoting away from the main fight, Sarah began to jink her way towards the battleship. Twice she had to engage frigates that tried to take her on. In both cases, the frigates turned away after taking a few hits from Kevin’s lasers. Destiny wasn’t as easy a target as she appeared.

  “There’s a cruiser and two frigates maneuvering to intercept us,” Alexandra reported.

  Sarah quickly spotted the three warships. They were trying to disengage themselves from a destroyer and come after her. She recognized the cruiser, it was Klixar’s. Though Elder warships looked essentially alike, she had seen his enough to recognize its hull markings. “He won’t let us get to the battleship,” she said. “We’re going to have to deal with him.” A quick check on her two escorts told Sarah that they were engaging other Elder cruisers. “Alone,” she added. “Let’s hope your upgrades turn out to be as good as you’ve said.”

  “They will,” Alexandra said with supreme confidence.

  After letting Hailey know what she was about to do, Sarah turned to intercept Klixar. She knew he wouldn’t leave her alone. If she didn’t destroy him now, he would make taking on the battleship even harder.

  As soon as both frigates brought their noses to bear on Destiny, they fired their particle lances. Sarah barely managed to dod
ge both beams. Sarah expected the cruiser to fire a quick follow up shot, but nothing came. She concluded the cruiser had fired recently, or it was waiting for a better chance. Either way, Sarah wasn’t going to give Klixar an opening.

  Throwing caution to the wind, Sarah pushed Destiny’s engines beyond their safety limits as she closed the distance to the cruiser. “Concentrate everything on it,” she said to Kevin. “Fire the particle lance when I say.”

  As she got closer and closer to the three Elder ships, their fire became harder and harder to dodge. Nevertheless, despite the screams from Destiny’s energy screen, Sarah resolutely continued. She knew that for every hit Destiny took, Kevin was making sure Klixar’s cruiser was taking two. The Elder warship simply couldn’t handle the combination of Sarah’s skill and her and Kevin’s battle meld. They were working together seamlessly.