by TR Cameron
As she watched, the large hole in the side of the fortress became visible, and then, while she was still holding her breath, a gout of flame and debris shot from it. All over the sphere, fissures and cracks appeared. Its weapons fell silent, and the beam that had again been scouring the surface of the planet vanished.
"Tunnel jump," yelled Okoye, and all the Alliance and Union ships jumped to their safe locations, then accelerated to reengage. Kate and her vessels simply scattered, seeking whatever distance they could find.
Instead of exploding, the fortress went dark. It hung in space like a new moon for the tortured planet below.
"Wow," Kate breathed, and Claire echoed her.
"Very well done, Commander," said Pandora. "And congratulations. You’ve now gained full access to the capabilities of the ship and the knowledge contained within."
She turned and rested her arms on the helm, giving the projection a wry look. "About time. Had you told me that all I had to do was destroy a floating fortress, I would’ve given up long ago."
The AI gave her what she could only interpret as a smirk. "That’s not the only condition, Commander, but it is one of the easier ones. And that’s why I didn’t tell you."
Kate was about to respond when a flash of scarlet on the screen caught her eye. She turned, and saw, across the sector, the Ruby Rain and its escorts driving in on the Washington and its lone escort.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The command to jump was unexpected, but appropriate given the imminent destruction of the floating fortress. When the Washington reappeared an instant later, halfway across the sector, Cross noted hundreds of tiny pinpoints on the battle display as they changed course to reacquire them.
"Looks like the bastard missile ships got off another salvo before our surprise destroyed them," he said.
"Looks like," Jacobs confirmed.
"Lee, let's see how good their guidance systems are. Head for the nearest set of enemies and put them in between us and the missiles."
"Now you're talking, Commander," replied the helm officer. The Washington shifted onto a new course and accelerated at a group of enemy ships.
On the battle display, the pinpoints realigned to follow them, but now there was a large cluster of Xroeshyn vessels blocking the direct line to their target.
The enemy scattered, drawing laughs and jeers from the Washington's bridge crew. Several of them weren’t quick enough, and in trying to escape the missiles instead put themselves right back into their paths as the torpedoes made their own adjustments to avoid them. Two ships in the cluster were destroyed outright, while many others took damage from the torpedoes and their exploding counterparts.
The smile was wiped from Cross's face as the Washington staggered under the impact of what had to be multiple broadsides. Sure enough, while he was distracted, the blasted Ruby Rain had closed and attacked.
"Evasive," he snapped, the anger he felt at himself bleeding out into his voice. "No, not that way," Cross corrected as the ship turned. "She's got a friend."
That friend also launched on the Washington, but between Lee's fancy flying and Matthews's hot hand on the countermeasures, they avoided further damage.
"Incoming hail from the Ruby Rain, Commander," said Fitzpatrick.
"Oh, this ought to be good," Cross said and straightened in his seat. "On screen."
The satisfied face of his tormentor appeared, looking remarkably serene given the elimination of the floating fortress and the ongoing equality of the battle. "Commander Cross, I have preserved your ship as my personal prize. Soon, you’ll join your ancestors."
"That's a rather confident statement for someone who just lost her most potent weapon. Weren't you planning on destroying our planet? How's that going for you? Seems like not too well, from here."
He was rewarded with snickers from his officers and a frown from his opponent.
"Our gods didn’t see fit to grant us the destruction of your home planet this time, Commander. Perhaps they’re simply teaching us a lesson for our next encounter. In any case, you and your ship won’t get to see it."
Cross gestured, and Fitzpatrick closed the channel. "Why must they be so boring?" he asked.
"It looks like she was just delaying us, Commander, so that her reinforcements could arrive," answered Matthews. Sure enough, a third ship had joined the Ruby Rain and its partner.
"That's not so good," Cross said. "Evasive, get us out of here." Their attempt to flee was thwarted as one of the three ships interposed itself no matter which direction the Washington turned. The trio hammered relentlessly on his ship, focusing their strongest efforts on the aft section and the drives contained within.
"Concentrate our attacks on the Ruby Rain. If we can knock her out, maybe the others will fall away."
Walsh fired everything they had, and the helm officer jogged the ship to bring the bow and aft armaments to bear, but they couldn’t penetrate the Xroeshyn ship's shields.
"Straight up, Lee. Execute." Cross saw an opening, but it turned out to be a trap, and the Washington moved directly into a conflagration of torpedoes and energy from two of the three ships. He could almost hear the scarlet wench laughing at him.
"I'm open to ideas, folks," he said. Before anyone could answer, they were jolted by a massive barrage that buckled the ship's port shield. Lee immediately flipped the Washington to protect that side, but the enemy ships surrounded her again and continued to batter her failing shields.
"Hang in there, Cross," the glorious voice of an angel said in his ear. "Help is on the way." He looked up and saw that the Pandora and the Phoebe were inbound, but wouldn’t arrive for at least half a minute. He wasn't sure the Washington could weather the assault for that long. "Okay, Lee, last ditch effort. Evasive pattern Zulu and put her into a spin."
Zulu, the last and least used of the Washington's evasive strategies, surrendered all flight control to the computer. The addition of a spin that occurred on multiple axes forced Cross to close his eyes against the nausea-inducing blurs on the real-time display. It had the advantage of denying the enemy a clear lock on any part of the ship, and the subsequent attacks were spread evenly over all of her shields, preventing them from continuing to drill into the engine compartment. The maneuver allowed for no offensive action, so the crew just held on and waited, trusting the computer to keep them safe for long enough. At the half minute mark, the aft shields buckled, and several torpedoes detonated against their drives. One failed, and the other became erratic. "Kill evasive Zulu and take over manually. Continue evading."
Lee nodded, and his fingers danced across his controls. Soon the Washington was no longer tumbling, but was darting from point to point like a dragonfly, never staying on the same vector for more than a moment or two to foil the enemy's weapons locks.
Suddenly, the remaining drive died, and Matthews yelled, "Incoming." Cross watched the torpedoes blast at them on the display, only to be intersected by energy beams and destroyed before they reached his crippled ship.
"Good job, Walsh."
"It wasn't me. It was the Ruby Rain."
"Voice message from that woman," Fitzpatrick reported.
"Play it," Cross replied
"No one will rob me of the pleasure of ending your existence, trespassers. Time to die." As the communication ended, the Ruby Rain fired one broadside, then spun to fire the rest of its weapons. Energy hammered the Washington as the missiles tore toward it.
"Did you miss me?" Kate yelled as she interposed the Pandora between the missiles and the Washington, accepting the blasts and shrugging them off. The Pandora's energy weapons blasted one of the escort ships, followed quickly by a set of her fancy torpedoes. Finally, the ship itself, glittering in its amazing armor, drove through the weakness that her weapons had created and shattered the enemy vessel into several pieces that floated away.
Right behind her, the Phoebe unloaded on the Ruby Rain. Her greater complement of weapons penetrated the smaller ship's protection in the firs
t assault. Claire rolled her ship to bring the other broadside to bear, and the Ruby Rain broke and ran. The move bought enough time for her countermeasures to eliminate the torpedoes, then she turned to reengage.
Cross smiled. The Washington was in the middle of the two Domeki vessels, and all three of them faced the pair of enemy ships. They finally held both the numerical and technological superiority that had eluded them throughout the war with the Xroeshyn.
"You ready?" Kate asked.
"Definitely," replied Claire.
"Long overdue," said Cross. "Let's get the wench."
The Pandora and the Phoebe fired, and the Washington added its paltry salvo a moment later. The weapons streaked in toward the two Xroeshyn ships, who put up a valiant defense as they fired countermeasures and energy to take out the incoming munitions. It wasn’t enough, and only a final move by the escort to interpose itself and accept the barrage intended for the Ruby Rain allowed Indraat Vray to survive the encounter. When the destructive brilliance faded, the command ship was in full retreat.
"That's more like it," crowed Cross, and the three charged in pursuit. Along the way, enemy ships broke off from their engagements to deter the Domeki vessels, which allowed the Ruby Rain to increase its lead. However, those ships were quickly destroyed by their original opponents, and the sacrifices to protect the Ruby Rain resulted in a significant shift in the balance of power. Soon the human forces were at two-to-one and even three-to-one odds, and they swept the enemy ships from the sector as their commander ran.
"Hail the Ruby Rain, Fitzpatrick," said Cross, trying not to be smug and failing entirely.
On the screen, the angry eyes of Indraat Vray bore into him. "It seems as if you’ve failed in your objectives once again, Captain. How many times do your people allow someone to fail before deciding they’re a lost cause?"
The insult didn’t evoke a reaction. Instead, she just stared at him, as if she was hoping he’d die from the sheer force of her desire.
He laughed under her glare. "Now, it’s my turn to say goodbye, Captain. Should you somehow survive, don't come back. For if we meet again, it will be the end of you. Clearly, your gods have found you lacking."
The only answer was her image vanishing from the screen and a salvo of missiles rocketing toward the Washington. The ship's countermeasures sufficed, and the three hounded the Ruby Rain all the way to the gravitic transit point. It vanished into the wave, trailed by sixteen torpedoes, four of which disappeared with the Xroeshyn ship.
"Did you know they could do that?" Cross asked.
"Nope. As I said before, my girl is just full of surprises," Kate answered, and they all shared a relieved laugh.
"So, Kate," he began in what he considered his smoothest tone, "how about we—"
"All human commanders, this is Admiral Stephenson. You’re to dock with Starbase 1 and attend an after-action briefing immediately. You have thirty minutes and counting. If your ship cannot reach the base, take a shuttle. Hell, borrow a fighter if you need to, but get here."
Cross sighed, and thought he heard Kate do the same.
"Duty calls," Claire said with amusement in her tone.
"Duty sucks," Cross and Kate said together.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Cross, Kate, and Claire Martin all docked their ships at hardpoints next to one another. They reunited inside the starbase corridor, and while the hug wasn’t as deep or as long as he craved, being in Kate's arms was undeniably the best thing he’d felt in an eon or two. He luxuriated for just a moment before he released her and turned to give Claire a somewhat less exuberant embrace. Together they walked to the briefing, sharing stories along the way of their adventures while they were apart.
They entered exactly at the appointed time to find themselves in an old-style lecture hall. At the front was a stage, and on that stage, was a table filled with the highest-ranking officers of the United Atlantic League and the Allied Asian Nations. As they found their seats, the man in the center began to speak. "Captains, Commanders, you’ve delivered us a great victory today. Because of your actions, we live to fight another day. Because of your actions, our home planet still exists. Because of your actions, our enemy is on the run. You have our thanks and our congratulations." As one, the admirals at the table stood and applauded the assembled officers. Most of them broke into grins and added their own applause for their fellows.
After the jubilance had died down, Admiral Mark Stevenson reseated himself and cleared his throat. "Our victory wasn’t won without paying a significant price. We’ve lost ships. We’ve lost our fellow sailors. We’ve lost military installations on the ground. The geological events on Earth are still occurring, and there’s no way to predict how much the cost will be in lives and treasure from the enemy's cowardly attack on our home. But nonetheless, down below and up above, we have persevered." He paused as another smattering of applause rang out.
"It’s time to decide upon our next moves. The admiralty has identified three options, and we felt it appropriate to include our top command officers in this decision." Inside Cross snorted. Finally, he thought. If they’d listened to me, if they’d listened to Kate, if they’d analyzed what was right before their eyes...His accusatory rant trailed off as another, more critical voice within countered with, Most people do their best. Even admirals. And it's not like you haven't made a mistake or ten. And at least one of them was a screwup for the ages.
Cross growled for his inner voice to shut up and turned his attention back to the admirals.
Admiral Sergey Laskin from the Allied Asian Nations was the first to speak, "It’s my belief, and that of my people, that we shouldn’t delay, but should take the attack to the enemy right away. We can guess where they might be headed, as we know the navigation points they used on the way here. We should send our combined forces to those locations, one after the other, to find and destroy the remnants of the Xroeshyn fleet."
"What if there are more ships that we don't know about waiting for us?" yelled an audience member.
The Alliance admiral looked at Stevenson, who raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Captains, Commanders," he said, "please allow us to present all three options. Then your input will be welcome."
There was mumbling, but no one shouted out any additional comments.
Laskin sat, and Admiral James Okoye stood. "Our second option is more conservative. I propose we take the time we need to repair and upgrade our decks, so that we’re as prepared as possible for our next battles. There’s no guarantee we can catch the enemy if we leave now, but the chances that we’ll find ourselves in a battle with undamaged ships on their side fighting wounded ones on ours is all too real. As much as we’d all like to indulge our hot blood and make them pay for their actions before the day is out, it isn’t the prudent thing to do." He sat again, returning the floor to Stevenson with a nod.
"Our final option is to play defense. To build up our forces here, and then carefully move forward and reacquire the territories we lost during their offensive. Perhaps it will be some time before we again encounter the birds. Perhaps we will never run into them again. I believe this is our best, and safest, bet." He gestured to the audience as an indication they could now speak.
The resulting hubbub was cut off before it truly began by the sharp tone of Kate's command voice. "Admiral Stevenson, do I understand that you wish to continue to employ the strategy that trades space to delay engagements, only this time perhaps over generations? Where will it stop, Admiral? Will we allow them to set up an outpost on Saturn, and only then say 'No, you’ve come too close. We must take action.'"
The captains and commanders around her broke into laughter, and Stevenson reddened. A wicked glare from Kate's mother stilled the reply he was about to make, though, and he remained silent.
Cross admired Kate's profile as she enjoyed her small victory over her nemesis in the admiralty.
The conversation continued, with the final decision in support of option two, that they shou
ld pursue the enemy but only after a suitable time had been allotted for repairs and upgrades. Stevenson banged his hand on the table to quiet the room.
"There is but one matter remaining. As I call your name, please join us on the stage." He began naming officers, and they ascended to receive medals in some cases, promotions in others. Finally, next to last, Cross was called. He marched forward with appropriate dignity and was met by Admiral James Okoye.
"Commander Anderson Cross, in recognition of your role in this battle, and in many battles previously, you are hereby promoted to Captain." A grin broke out on Cross's face as Okoye pinned the insignia to his collar. "Further, you remain in command of the Washington, DC, which will undergo a full refit and upgrade before she ventures out again." Cross saluted, and it was returned by his friend and mentor. "Dismissed, Captain," said the admiral, and Cross made a snappy about-face to rejoin the audience.
As he walked back, that voice that was so much like Kate's called, "Commander Kate Flynn." Kate gave him a surreptitious fist bump on her way to the stage. She stood before her mother and saluted, and Admiral Margaret Flynn mirrored the gesture. "Commander Kate Flynn, in recognition of your efforts, above and beyond the call of duty, to explore new territory and discover resources that were influential, if not pivotal, in the defense of Earth, you are awarded the navigator's compass."
Kate's face was split by a giant smile as her mother pinned the ornate medallion on her sleeve. "As you know, the compass is given only to those who make truly significant discoveries under extenuating circumstances. This is the fifth time it has been bestowed, and the first to an individual who isn’t a part of the exploration division. Congratulations, Commander." Another exchange of salutes, and Kate returned to her seat.
Stevenson stood up, looked disgustedly down both ends the table as if to say, "is that all?" and dismissed the assembly.
Kate grabbed Cross's arm and steered him toward Okoye, then motioned them both into a secluded corner. "Congratulations, Kate," he said. "It’s well deserved."