by Ryk Brown
“A slow pitch, looks easy to hit, then it changes direction at the last moment and you miss.” Tug still looked puzzled. “Never mind.”
“Captain? You want me to evade those missiles?” Josh asked.
“Nope. Hold your course.”
Josh looked over his shoulder at the captain, then at Loki.
“Helm, current speed?”
“Uh, twenty thousand KPH.”
“Reduce thrust to one percent.”
“But Captain, it’ll take us forever to accelerate—”
“I don’t want to accelerate. In fact, we’re going to want to go slower.”
Josh was now even more confused, but followed his captain’s orders nonetheless. “Reducing thrust to one percent.”
“Still trying to look stupid?” Jessica quipped.
“Indecisive would be more accurate. Send the missile track to Abby,” Nathan ordered. He then turned to Doctor Sorenson at the jump control console. “Abby, calculate your first jump from a point a split second before those missiles hit us, to a point like we talked about—five hundred meters forward and five hundred meters to port of that ship.”
“Understood.”
“Can you do that in two minutes?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Great,” Nathan told her. “Josh, just before we jump you’re gonna pitch over so we’re flying backwards, and you’re going to bring the mains back up to full thrust. We need to slow down as much as we can so we get a chance to do some damage before we blow past him.”
“Okay,” Josh answered, trying not to look nervous. “And that won’t screw up our jump?”
Nathan had assumed that it wouldn’t matter, as long as their flight path remained the same. But as he wasn’t entirely sure, he looked to Abby.
“It shouldn’t be an issue,” she promised. “Just don’t start your deceleration any sooner than necessary, as an abrupt change in speed could slightly alter our arrival point.”
Nathan gestured understandingly at Abby as he continued instructing his new helmsman. “You’re also going to have to roll us over just enough to get our topsides facing the target as we slide past her. We need to get as many guns as possible on her.”
“No problem,” Josh told him. He looked at Loki, who didn’t look any more confident than he felt.
“Missile impact in ninety seconds,” Jessica reported.
“When do you think he will launch his fighters?” Nathan asked Tug.
“Only when he believes he has severely wounded you… or when he becomes desperate.”
“I’m hoping for the second reason, myself,” Nathan told him. “Kaylah, what’s the current radius of the target’s shield bubble?”
“One point five kilometers, sir.”
“Excellent, plenty of room,” Nathan reassured himself. “Jessica, spin up the rail guns, kinetic rounds only, fastest fire rate they can muster. And point them all straight up.”
“Aye, sir. Kinetic rounds, full rate auto-fire. Pre-aiming all batteries straight up.”
Nathan noticed a smile on Tug’s face.
“I imagine that Captain de Winter is wondering why you are not firing your long-range weapons at him as well.”
“Yeah, he must think I’m a real idiot. He doesn’t know that I don’t have any left,” Nathan answered, also smiling.
Tug’s expression changed to one of concern.
“Missile impact in sixty seconds,” Jessica reported.
“Helm, main propulsion to zero thrust. Abby, prepare to jump.”
“Helm answering zero thrust. Speed twenty five thousand KPH.”
“Jessica?” Vladimir’s voice called over Jessica’s comm-set.
“Yeah, Vlad, go ahead,” she answered through her comm-set.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, but we’re a little busy up here—”
“Are you aware we are at zero thrust?” he asked, his voice curiously concerned.
“Yeah, we’re trying to look stupid.”
“Of course,” Vladimir answered, still confused.
“Don’t worry. It’s all part of the plan. Gotta run.” Jessica switched off her mic and returned her attention to her console. “Missile impact in thirty seconds.”
Nathan let out a long, slow exhalation. He was about to take his ship into battle against a vastly superior enemy who had already demonstrated hostile intent not only to his ship, but to his own empire’s subjects on Corinair. There was no longer any doubt in Nathan’s mind that what they were doing was right. Now all his doubts centered on whether or not his plan would work.
Abby flipped open the safety cover on the jump button to begin her countdown. “Jumping in five,
“Now, Josh! Pitch over and roll!” Nathan ordered. Josh immediately pushed the Aurora’s nose down and her tail up, as hard as he could, starting a slow roll at the same time.
“Four—”
“I hope this works,” Nathan muttered to himself.
“Three—”
“Pitch and roll complete,” Josh reported gleefully.
“Two—”
“Mains to full power!” Nathan ordered. “Jess! Fire all rail guns!”
“One—”
“Mains at full power,” Josh reported.
“Jumping,” Abby reported as she pressed the red jump button on her console.
The incoming missiles were met with a sudden flash of blue-white light, after which their target vanished, leaving nothing but an empty hole in space before them. Having lost their target lock, they simply continued forward at break-neck speeds, their acquisition systems automatically changing back to search mode.
A blue-white flash appeared approximately five hundred meters ahead and to port of the Yamaro. When the flash quickly subsided, the Aurora could be seen, her main engines ablaze and her rail guns spewing out projectiles in tight streams as she slid past the surprised Yamaro.
“Jump complete,” Abby reported.
“Main viewer to topside!” Nathan ordered.
The image on the main view screen suddenly switched to the view of the topside cameras, looking directly upward. The scene showed a swath of destruction being ripped across the side of the Yamaro as the Aurora’s rail guns blasted away at her indiscriminately. The increased rate of fire as well as the increased rail velocities were making a huge difference, as the Aurora’s guns were now able to inflict twice the damage in the same amount of time. But at the speeds the two ships were traveling, their closure rate on one another was even faster. The first pass gave them only a few seconds of attack at the most. As soon as it had started, they found themselves sliding past the Yamaro and rapidly falling behind her.
“Jesus!” Nathan exclaimed. “Did you see that?”
“Damn, that was nice,” Jessica agreed.
“Kaylah, how do his shields look?”
“Weakened, sir. He lost quite a few emitters along his port side, but they’re still holding.”
“Helm, kill the mains and pitch back over.”
“Aye, sir. Pitching over.”
Jessica switched the main view screen back to its default view from the forward facing cameras.
Nathan turned to Tug. “Do you think we’ll get another pass?”
“If he does not adjust his shields too quickly, then yes. But do not delay your attack.”
“Kaylah,” Nathan called, “keep your eyes on his shield radius. Let me know if it changes.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Pitch over complete, Captain,” Josh reported.
“Go to full power and come about on a pursuit course. I want to be just a little faster than him on our next pass.”
“Yes, sir. Full power,” Josh announced as he pushed the throttles forward. “Coming about.”
“I’m feeding a pursuit course now,” Loki reported.
“Contact is turning to port,” Jessica reported. He’s trying to bring his guns to bear.”
“Helm, reverse your turn,” Nathan ordered, noticing that with the Yam
aro now turning to port, they were turning into him instead of with him. “Drop your speed and come about to port as fast as you can. He’s got a lot more speed up than we do, so we should be able to turn inside him and set up for another jump pass before he comes around. And we can do more damage if we pass him in the same direction.”
“Yes, sir.”
The ship immediately began to lean back over to the left, the stars on the view screen rolling slightly in a clockwise direction. The inertial dampeners, still not at full operational strength, only partially compensated for the ship’s movement and acceleration. Even though he had been dealing with such sensations for days, it still required conscious effort.
“Abby, we’re going to try and get in position behind him for another jump pass. But he’s turning, so you’re going to have to try and anticipate his position at the time of the jump. This time, preferably just barely inside his shield perimeter. Since he’s turning, we may need room to maneuver,” he told her.
“Yes sir,” she answered.
“Oh, and put us below and astern of him.”
“Yes, sir.” Abby began pre-plotting the next jump, trying to use the navigation info currently being fed to her from Loki and Jessica. She knew she could calculate a tentative jump based on the data using her best guess at exactly where both they and their enemy would be at the time of the jump. She could even calculate a small margin within which a jump would be safe even if either target were slightly out of position. At such short jump distances, the timing could be slightly more inexact without the consequences being too dire.
“Good boy,” Nathan commended Josh. “You’re getting inside his turn.”
“Contact is reducing speed, trying to tighten his turn.”
“Stay with him, Josh. How’s the target’s shields, Kaylah?” Nathan asked.
“No change sir, still at one point five kilometers.”
“Set your distance from target to one kilometer, Abby.”
“One kilometer, aye.”
Nathan smiled slightly, noticing that Abby was beginning to sound more like a bridge officer each day.
“He’s launching missiles again,” Jessica reported from tactical. “Four more. Still no nukes.”
“Time to impact?”
“Four minutes. Looks like he can only launch them forward. They’ll take a little longer to reach us. They have to make their turn first.”
“That’s okay,” Nathan said. “In one minute, we won’t be on his tail any longer.”
“Contact is reversing his turn!” Jessica reported.
“Come back to starboard, Josh. Keep pointed slightly off his starboard side.”
“Yes, sir,” Josh answered as he reversed his turn to starboard.
“Abby?” Nathan asked, wondering if she was ready to jump.
“Ten more seconds,” she pleaded. “I had to update for his turn.”
“Don’t bother with a countdown, Abby. The word jumping will do.”
Abby watched as the progress bar on the transition plot calculations screen passed through ninety-six percent, ninety-seven, ninety-eight. Come on, she thought. The progress bar showed complete and the screen displayed the phrase Transition Plot Locked. “Jumping!” she announced as she hit the button.
The bridge again filled with the flash of the jump.
“Jump complete!” Abby announced, a wave of relief washing over her.
“He’s reversed his turn again!” Jessica yelled from tactical.
Nathan looked at the main view screen. They had jumped to a position only slightly astern of the Yamaro and just off her port side. They were considerably closer than one kilometer, and were only a few meters below the enemy warship at best. “Pitch down! Hard to port! Fire all guns!”
“Oh shit,” Josh mumbled as he pushed the Aurora’s nose down sharply, diving underneath the Yamaro as she moved over them from right to left. As soon as he knew they weren’t going to smash into the enemy ship’s underside, he leveled off his pitch maneuver and turned hard to port to try and match the Yamaro’s turn.
Nathan looked up at the portion of the view screen that was directly overhead. As the Yamaro passed within a few meters of them, he was pretty sure that if he understood their language, he could’ve read the lettering on one of the access panels on her external hull.
“A bit more roll, Josh,” Jessica called out, not bothering to waste time going through Nathan. “I need a better angle to get the starboard guns on him.”
Josh also didn’t wait for Nathan, rolling the Aurora slightly more to port in response to Jessica’s request.
Their speeds almost equal, the Aurora eased ahead of the Yamaro ever so slightly. “Watch your speed, Josh. Let’s try to keep our guns on him as long as possible.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Abby, tell me you’re already plotting an escape jump.”
“From the moment I said jump complete,” she assured him.
“When the time comes, we’re going to break to starboard and run,” Nathan announced for the benefit of both Josh and Abby.
They all watched the upper portion of the main view screen as their rail guns ripped apart the underside of the Yamaro. As close as they still were, pieces flying off the enemy’s underside occasionally struck the Aurora as well.
“He’s turning tighter than us,” Jessica reported. “He’s starting to pull away. Range fifty meters and increasing.”
“Stay with him, Josh,” Nathan ordered.
“I’m trying.”
“Why isn’t he firing back at us?” Nathan asked Tug. They had already had their guns on them for over ten seconds, more than three times as long as on their first pass.
“His guns can’t target anything this close. They never expected a ship to be able to get inside their shields.”
“What about his fighters?”
“He can’t launch them while he’s maneuvering. It’s too dangerous. Besides, as long as you can still go to your maximum sub-light velocity, or jump, his fighters won’t be able to catch you. He needs to slow you down first.”
“And we won’t stay in one place long enough for him to hit us.”
“Correct.”
For a moment, Nathan felt that he was doing pretty good. But only for a moment.
Suddenly, the Yamaro began losing speed, and she quickly disappeared from the view screens as the warship slid behind them.
“Target is braking hard!” Jessica reported.
Nathan stood suddenly from his command chair. “You’re over-shooting—”
“Firing braking thrusters,” Josh reported.
“Range to contact, one kilometer!”
“Shit, she’s moving away too fast,” Nathan declared. “Helm hard to starboard, full speed ahead! Abby, emergency jump as soon as you’re ready!”
“Range to contact, one point five kilometers!” Jessica updated.
The ship began to vibrate and hum, with several systems shorting out and throwing sparks.
“We’re passing out of his shield bubble, sir!” Kaylah added.
The Aurora began to shake violently as the Yamaro’s main gun batteries began to pound their hull.
“Josh, zero thrust, pitch over and show them our belly!”
Feeling guilty for having let the enemy ship slip away from them, Josh followed orders without hesitation, even though he didn’t really understand why.
“I can’t get any guns on him at this angle,” Jessica warned.
“I can’t afford to show him our tail,” Nathan protested. “If he takes out main propulsion, we won’t stand a chance.”
“Jumping!” Abby yelled. Nathan felt a wave of relief wash over him as the room filled with the light from the jump. The sounds of the explosions that had been rocking the ship were suddenly gone, leaving only the sounds of comm-chatter and condition alarms from the various consoles.
“Jump complete,” she reported a moment later.
“Damage report,” Nathan ordered.
“Lost
three of the four aft rail guns. And engineering reports the number four main drive thrust port is damaged and offline. Maximum sub-light velocity is now estimated at half light.” Jessica looked up from her console. “Other than that, mostly just outer hull damage.”
“A few of the aft emitters aren’t answering, Captain,” Abby added. “But since we did successfully jump, they are either working but not reporting, or nearby emitters were able to compensate.”
“But we can still jump, right?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” she answered, “and we still have more than eighty percent charge.”
“What’s our position?”
“About one light minute out,” Jessica reported. The Yamaro is at our eight o’clock.
“Josh, take the main drive to one percent thrust and come about, slow and easy.”
“One percent thrust, coming about.”
“Kaylah, his shields?”
“Give me a minute, sir. I’ve gotta wait for the light to catch up.”
“Medical, bridge,” Nathan called over the comms.
“Medical,” the voice answered.
“This is the captain. How is Commander Taylor doing?”
“She’s in surgery now, Captain. Would you like me to check on her condition for you?”
Nathan could hear the sounds of chaos in the background. Although they had only taken a few injuries thus far, Medical had already been overflowing with patients.
“No, thank you. Please let us know when there is news.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nathan clicked off the comm.
“She’ll be all right,” Jessica softly assured him.
“Yeah.”
“Captain,” Kaylah called, “the enemy ship has pulled in their shields. They’re at one hundred meters now, and contoured to his basic hull shape.”
“We can’t jump inside of that,” Nathan said. “That’s way too close.”
“True,” Tug agreed. “But it’s also too close for him to launch his fighters.”
“Captain, I’m also picking up a fluctuation in his aft shields, along the bottom edge under his main drive section.”
“If he is contouring his shields, it would put additional strain on the emitters. If some were damaged, the contouring would make it more difficult for emitters to compensate for neighboring malfunctioning ones. That fluctuation may in fact be a hole in his shields. If it is, you may be able to get a shot through and take out his propulsion plant.”