by Dietmar Wehr
“Comp, designate radar target as Sierra1. Can this ship match position and velocity with Sierra1 before it crosses the hyperzone boundary if it continues its present acceleration?” asked Drake.
“Negative,” said the electronic voice. It was just as he expected. That ship had too much of a head start. The only way to catch the freighter would be to damage her maneuvering engines with missiles in order to keep her velocity low enough that the Valley Forge could catch up. Since the hyperdrive was typically located deeper inside the ship, it should stay undamaged. After docking, his people would board the ship, secure the crew and use the working jump drive to take the freighter back to Sparta. If necessary, Valley Forge could use her own engines to slowly push the freighter to a new heading while the two ships were docked. It was a risky maneuver, but it could be done. That was all yet to come. Radar was showing that the freighter was not trying to veer off. Acceleration had increased slightly from 5.0Gs to 5.2Gs. Their captain was making a run for it.
“Transmit the recorded warning via maser. WO, if that captain refuses to shut his engines down, we’ll do it for him. Prepare to fire tubes one and two. You may as well go ahead and load the other tubes with HEs too.”
The Weapons Officer and the Communications Technician acknowledged their orders. Drake waited the 60 seconds the recorded message gave the freighter captain to shut his engines.
When it was clear that he was not going to comply, Drake said, “Fire one and two!”
“One and two fired! Tubes three to ten are loaded and ready to fire, Skipper!” said the Weapons Officer.
“He’s calling for help,” said the Com Tech.
Drake nodded. Of course he would, but both ships were too far from the planet for anyone there to help him. That was why Valley Forge had positioned herself this far out to begin with. No ship stationed on or near the planet could accelerate fast enough to catch them now. He checked the display sidebar to see that the missiles, with their 350Gs acceleration, would reach the freighter in just under six and a half minutes.
“He’s scanning us with radar now,” said the Com Tech.
“Good! That means he’ll see the missiles coming at him, and if he’s smart, he’ll shut his engines down before they reach him,” said Drake. The display pinged again. Sierra1 was now trying to veer off to one side in a futile attempt to avoid being hit by the missiles.
“It seems he’s not that smart,” said Drake, as he shook his head in dismay. How could that captain not know that navy missiles had their own terminal radar guidance and homing capability?
The 389 seconds went surprisingly fast. As soon as the icon representing the missiles merged with the freighter icon, her acceleration dropped to 0.4Gs. Drake had the tactical computer do a quick calculation and smiled at the result. Valley Forge could reach and match velocities with that ship before she crossed the boundary, with almost ten minutes to spare. Plenty of time to board and secure the crew.
“Com, tell that captain there’s no way his ship can jump away before we reach him. You can also tell him that if he and his crew are able to abandon ship, we’ll leave them alone. We’re not after prisoners, just the ship.”
Drake was pleased to see that the Helm Officer had taken the initiative to adjust Valley Forge’s trajectory to compensate for the freighter’s evasive maneuvers.
“Should we begin 360 degree radar sweeps now, Skipper?” asked the Weapons Officer. Drake pondered that as he listened to the Com Tech repeat his message to the other ship. The element of surprise was gone now. Dresden obviously knew about the Valley Forge from the freighter’s call for help. Radar scanning all around them would not provide Dresden with any information they didn’t already have.
“Yes, begin 360 degree sweeps,” said Drake. Seven seconds later the tactical display pinged for attention again. A new icon appeared at a distance of roughly 1.1 million kilometers. It was a ship heading towards Dresden with a velocity of 144 kps, and it was decelerating at the rate of 7.7Gs. Drake groaned. No freighter could change speed that quickly. It had to be a FED cruiser. The display pinged again. The FED cruiser was now accelerating AND slowly coming around, probably to a heading that would take it towards Sierra1, and that meant that Valley Forge was in trouble.
“Comp, designate the new contact as Sierra2. WO, re-target tubes three to ten on Sierra2, and reload them with KEs as soon as we fire.”
Drake banged his right fist on his Command Chair’s armrest. Of all the blasted bad luck, they would have to run into another cruiser. They were evenly matched. Valley Forge had an advantage due to its position, but Drake didn’t know if that would be enough to avoid Valley Forge being pounded into scrap in a missile exchange. It was small consolation to him that the other ship would also suffer a lot of damage. He wanted to get his ship and crew home, so that they could fight another day, and it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
“THEY’RE FIRING AT US!” yelled the Weapons Officer.
“Are we locked on to Sierra2 yet?” Drake tried to keep his voice calm. Captains weren’t supposed to get excited.
“All eight are re-targeted, Sir!”
“Then fire three to ten,” ordered Drake.
“Missiles fired!” said the WO.
“Fire one and two at the freighter, then reload them with KEs to be targeted on the cruiser,” ordered Drake. Capturing the freighter was now out of the question, but they could still damage it. The freighter would eventually be repaired, but in the meantime the Federation would not be able to use it. It would be a small victory, but worth taking advantage of while they were still able.
“One and two fired. All tubes reloading with KEs!” said the WO.
Drake examined the tactical display. Valley Forge was moving away from the cruiser. In terms of the geometry, they were the lead ship in what was essentially a stern chase. That meant the Sierra2’s missiles were clawing their way towards his ship even as his ship was moving further away. His missiles and their target, on the other hand, were moving towards each other. Theoretically, if both ships fired a missile volley at the same time, his missiles would reach their target first. The other advantage of being the lead ship in a stern chase depended on what kinds of warheads were being used. All other things being equal, the ship being chased should fire kinetic energy warhead missiles. With those missiles and the chasing ship accelerating towards each other, their combined closing velocity would be extremely high, and the kinetic energy generated upon impact would be correspondingly high. It was also very likely that the warheads would hit that part of the ship that contained its missile tubes, thereby potentially crippling the chasing ship’s ability to continue firing.
From the perspective of the ship doing the chasing, kinetic energy warheads would be less effective because the closing velocity upon impact would be the difference between missile and ship velocity, not the sum of the two velocities. However, Valley Forge’s stern, where all the maneuvering engines were located, would be hit unless Drake took some action to avoid that. Crippling the other ship’s ability to fire more missiles would be useless if Valley Forge was unable to maneuver and therefore unable to line up on a target star for a hyperjump. If he were commanding that other cruiser, he would fire missiles with high explosive warheads to make up for the less effective KE warheads.
He checked the tactical display’s sidebar. Sierra2’s first missile volley would take 835 seconds to reach Valley Forge, almost fourteen minutes. His first volley, which was fired later, would hit Sierra2 at almost the same time. Drake got up and sprinted over to the Weapons Station.
When the WO looked up at him, Drake said, “As soon as our tubes are reloaded and targeted, fire them and reload with KEs. Keep firing as fast as you can. When you run out of KEs, use the HEs, but keep one HE missile in missile storage no matter what, understand?”
“Got it, Skipper.”
“Good man!” Drake patted the officer on the shoulder as he returned to his Command Chair. Holding one HE missile back would giv
e him and his crew the option of sabotaging the ship in case they needed to surrender, so that the FEDs wouldn’t be able to use her again. Before he sat back down, he said, “Comp…shipwide intercom.” He heard the two-tone signal to notify the crew that an announcement was coming. “Captain to crew. We’re in the process of swapping missile volleys with a FED cruiser. Get your pressure suits on and stay away from the outer edges of the ship. We’re going to get hit, and we’re going to suffer damage, but so will they. I’m hoping we’ll still be able to maneuver and jump by the time they run out of missiles. End of announcement.” Looking around, he said, “Pressure suits on everybody!” He pulled his pressure suit out from under his command chair and quickly put it on, except for the helmet, which he placed in a bracket at the top of the chair where he could reach it while seated.
“Helm, cut acceleration long enough to rotate us 90 degrees to a course that’s as close as possible to a jump trajectory for an SSU system, then resume acceleration.”
“Course change understood, Sir!”
As Drake sat back down and buckled himself in, he watched the tactical display. Sierra2 had fired another volley, but so had his ship. Once Valley Forge was accelerating on her new bearing, her engines would no longer be in that part of the hull that was closest to the incoming missiles. The ship would be hit on her side. The key piece of equipment was the jump drive, which was more or less in the center of the ship. It might be damaged no matter which direction the missiles came from. There was nothing he could do about that, but his re-orientation of the ship’s bow and stern just might let them retain their ability to maneuver, assuming that the missile impacts didn’t knock out the power plants. There were still almost nine minutes to go before the first incoming wave of missiles reached them. He looked down at his hands. They were shaking. It was hard to stay calm when you knew missiles were on their way to try to kill you. Who was it that said military duty was months of boredom interlaced with moments of sheer terror? How about nine minutes of terror?
“Third missile volley has fired,” said the WO in a much calmer voice. Drake shook his head. He must have missed the announcement about the second volley. He was about to say so when the Weapons Officer said, “We’ve hit Sierra1. Her accel has dropped to zero.”
“Good shooting, WO,” said Drake. At least he could get a small amount of satisfaction from that. The freighter crew would still be okay. Two missiles would not have been enough to endanger her crew. He returned his focus to how to minimize the damage to Valley Forge.
After thinking about that for a while, he said, “Helm, after their first volley hits us, I want you to roll the ship about 45 degrees around her axis, but keep the bow pointed in the same direction. Do the same thing again after each missile strike so that they’re not hitting the same section of hull twice.”
“Understood, Sir.” Drake saw the Helm Officer smile. He gets it, thought Drake. Undamaged hull, even if it is less than one centimeter thick, is better protection than hull that’s been blasted or ripped open. We have to put some anti-missile defenses on these ships. Cannon with a high rate of fire would probably be the easiest, but lasers would work better. We’ve known how to build anti-missile lasers for over five centuries, but no one expected Federation Navy cruisers to be fighting ships that could fire the same missiles back at them, and therefore they didn’t bother with anti-missile defenses.
The last six minutes seemed to take forever. With seconds left to go, Drake ordered the crew to put on their helmets and grab hold of something. After fumbling with his own helmet, he got it on just in time. All ten FED missiles hit at virtually the same time. They must have been armed with high explosive warheads because Drake felt the ship shudder. Half a dozen system status lights shifted from green to yellow or red. No reports of casualties, thank God.
“Sierra2’s been hit! She’s venting atmosphere!” The Weapons Officer’s voice was getting loud and high-pitched again. We’re venting atmosphere too! thought Drake. It was entirely possible that both cruisers would be good for nothing more than scrap metal by the time this was all over. At least the tactical display was still working. Drake counted the incoming missile volleys. God, there were eight more waves of ten missiles each on their way. Sierra2 might run out of missile before all their tubes were damaged.
The next incoming wave would hit in less than 60 seconds. More terror. He checked the ship’s orientation. The Helm Officer had remembered to roll the ship 45 degrees. Valley Forge’s second volley hit. It was too early to tell if Sierra2’s ability to fire missiles was compromised. When the second incoming wave hit, the ship shuddered again. More systems became damaged, but they still had power and full maneuvering, and the hyperdrive was still undamaged.
“We’ve just fired our last volley, Skipper! One HE left in storage,” said the WO.
Drake nodded. Hopefully Sierra2 was running out as well.
The terror continued for three more incoming waves. By then it was obvious that Sierra2 either couldn’t fire or had run out of missiles too. When that third wave hit, a lot of systems went down. Main power was off-line, which meant no tactical display and no way to maneuver. Artificial gravity was off-line too. Emergency power was enough for lights and life support. The Valley Forge was blind and paralyzed. There was no point in staying on the Bridge any longer. Drake used the intercom to tell the crew to rendezvous at the missile storage compartment, and then led the Bridge crew there. It didn’t take long to re-learn how to get around without gravity.
When everyone had found a handhold near the missile storage compartment (to hold on to), Drake told them what he wanted them to do.
“Here’s the situation. Valley Forge is crippled. I’ve ordered our backup transmitter to send out a Mayday call. I doubt that the FED cruiser is in much better shape than we are, so we won’t be getting any help from them, but Dresden may send out a rescue ship. The problem is that there are still at least four—“ The ship shuddered again. “—at least three more waves of incoming missiles that can’t possibly miss now that we’re coasting. What we’re going to do is detach the warhead on our remaining missile and move it to the hyperdrive chamber. We’ll set the warhead to explode, and then we move everyone to the side of the ship that’s least likely to be hit by missiles. Detonating the warhead will make sure that the FEDs aren’t going to be able to get Valley Forge back in action for a long time, if ever. When we’ve accomplished that, we then wait for rescue. Since moving the warhead doesn’t require all of us, I’ll ask for eight volunteers. The rest of you will accompany the XO to the safe side of the ship.
After picking eight men from the volunteers, Drake led them into the missile storage compartment. Detaching the warhead in zero gravity proved to be more difficult than he expected, but they finally had it off and were able to maneuver the warhead carefully down the corridor to the stairs and down to the level where the hyperdrive unit was located. By this time, three more waves of missiles had hit the ship. All hits were HE type, for which Drake was grateful. With the outer hull blasted open, any incoming kinetic energy warheads would have penetrated deeper into the ship and almost certainly would have made their task far more difficult, if not impossible.
By the time the warhead was secured and wired for a timed detonation, Drake was surprised to discover that almost an hour had gone by since he had left the Bridge. With the timer set, he led his men to where the rest of the crew was waiting. That part of the ship still had atmosphere, although life support had stopped working at some point. The air would soon get toxic with CO2 and get a lot colder too, but everyone still had their pressure suits on. Those pressure suits were able to recycle air by removing CO2 and separating the oxygen from the carbon. In terms of air, Drake and the crew could survive indefinitely. What would kill them eventually was running out of food and/or freezing to death.
A few minutes after rejoining the rest of the crew, Drake felt/heard the ship shudder again. He checked his chronometer. The warhead had gone off on schedule. Eventually
the emergency power supply ran out, and the lights died. Each pressure suit had its own battery-powered light, but those wouldn’t last forever, so Drake ordered that only one suit’s light would be on at any one time. That gave them just enough light to prevent total darkness.
Now if only he could….
Drake woke up to find the XO shaking his arm.
“Skipper, we’re hearing what sounds like someone trying to dock with us.”
Drake was momentarily disoriented by the dim light. “Okay, where’s the nearest docking hatch?”
The XO pointed. “This way, Skipper.” Drake followed him into the next compartment. Just as they floated over to the outer hatch, they heard someone hitting the other side of the hatch door with a metal object. Without power, the only way to open the hatch was with muscle power from the inside.
“Okay men, let’s get this hatch open so that we can surrender and be rescued,” said Drake. He heard a ragged chorus of agreement. When the hatch was unlocked and was ready to be pulled open, Drake said, “They’re probably armed, so stay calm and don’t do or say anything that might be considered threatening. Okay, XO, open her up.”