Time was pressing but Talley couldn’t resist asking another question.
“What about the Juniper?”
“We don’t know. The Vraxar ship carrying it has gone to lightspeed. The ES Blackbird was shadowing it and they’ve gone off the comms.”
“Destroyed?”
“No. They’re at lightspeed too. I don’t know what’s happened – I gave instructions for the deployment of an Obsidiar bomb and it seems that opportunity has been squandered.”
“Let’s keep our fingers crossed.”
“I’m getting arthritis from keeping so many of my fingers and toes crossed.” Duggan gave a sudden laugh. “I don’t know how this is going to end up, Henry and it makes me feel young again. It’s like no outcome is yet decided and we still have everything to play for.”
“Good luck with the Ghasts, sir.”
“You’ll hear shortly.”
With that, Duggan left the comms channel. Talley looked around at the expectant faces of his crew.
“We’ve got to try and avoid picking a fight with the Gallatrin-9 until Fleet Admiral Duggan gets back to us.”
“We could disengage the stealth modules,” said Lieutenant Johnson. “That might reassure them we have no hostile intent.”
“Let’s not give up our advantage just yet. Lieutenant Mercer, please open a channel to Tarjos Rioq-Tor.”
“Yes, sir. Their captain has been sending out transmissions asking for a response from the moment they detected us.”
The connection was soon made.
“Tarjos Rioq-Tor,” said Talley in greeting.
“Admiral Henry Talley. What cargo does the Astrinium carry?”
“Astrinium is the name of this crashed Interstellar?” asked Talley. He wasn’t unduly surprised to discover the Ghasts had a way of determining the vessel’s name.
“That is its name. What cargo?”
“Haven’t the Robanis told you?” asked Talley, uncertain if this Ghast was a master amongst his species when it came to pretending ignorance.
“They have not, though we can guess.”
Since Duggan was in the process of telling the most senior member of the Ghast navy about it, Talley didn’t see the need to lie. “The Estral were carrying Obsidiar amongst other things. A great quantity of Obsidiar.”
“Which you hoped to keep from us.”
“No, Tarjos, which we hoped to share with you. Assuming an agreement can be reached by our superiors.”
“What will be the price?”
“An alliance against the Vraxar.”
Rioq-Tor laughed, the sound reproduced as a mixture of static and white noise by the translation modules.
“They have already attacked your planet Roban.”
The Ghast was well-informed. “And together we will drive them away.”
“Together we will kill them.” There was more laughter. “I would enjoy the opportunity to test the Gallatrin-9 against those who pushed the Estral to the point of extinction. I hope our superiors reach a consensus.”
Lieutenant Mercer waved her hands frantically, mouthed a few words and put both of her thumbs into the air.
“I think that consensus has just been reached,” said Talley.
A top-priority message appeared at the head of his list. He scanned the contents, which confirmed what Mercer’s thumbs-up gesture had already communicated.
“I am receiving instructions from the Subjos,” said Rioq-Tor. “It appears I am to put my battleship at your immediate disposal, Admiral Talley. I am to follow your orders.”
Duggan had a reputation for fast action in a crisis and here was an example of it in practise. In a matter of a few minutes, he’d formed an alliance that gave humanity a far greater chance in the war with the Vraxar. Of course, the small matter of a few billion tonnes of the most valuable currency in the known universe played its part.
“We are going to kill some Vraxar, Tarjos. My comms lieutenant will invite you to our network and we will share our lightspeed calculations to ensure we arrive in the same place and at the same time. We are going to Roban and we will not leave until we’ve destroyed every last one of those bastards.”
“That is a plan I like.”
Less than five minutes later, the ES Devastator and the Gallatrin-9 were travelling at high lightspeed in the direction of Roban.
“That was easily done,” said Commander Adams.
“You always did approve of straight-talking, Commander,” said Talley.
“I should have been born a Ghast, sir.”
“We’re actually going to see some action,” said Lieutenant Poole.
“You sound unhappy,” said Talley.
“No sir, that wasn’t my intention. I’m glad we’re going to get something done. It’s just that this whole thing with the Vraxar came so suddenly. One minute we’re travelling towards Roban to head off the threat of a rebellion, the next thing we know, the rebellion’s taken place and we’re fighting an alien species which has wiped out half of the universe for all we know. So, to summarise, it feels a bit strange but also good to be amongst the first to start the fightback.”
It was the most Talley could ever remember hearing from Poole’s mouth in one go. “We’re going to give them hell, Lieutenant.”
The conversation reminded him of something which hadn’t been a high priority at the time, since he hadn’t been expecting it to become significant.
“I saw a notification that the central weapons guidance lab has issued new software for the Lambdas. Our missiles were somewhat less than effective during our first engagements with the Vraxar. Have we received the new coding?”
“We did receive it, sir,” said Adams. “There was an update for the Shatterer launchers as well.”
“What about the Shimmers?”
“As far as I’m aware, they have yet to be tested against the Vraxar. They’ve not received an update.”
“At least the particle beams can’t miss.”
“A couple of double overcharges will see off those bastards,” said Ensign Sykes, using her fingers as a pistol, which she aimed at Ensign Chambers sitting nearby.
Not for the first time, Talley set himself a mental reminder to have Sykes moved onto another warship when they got through this. Maybe I’ll have her assigned to Duggan’s office, he thought with great relish.
The return journey from Vontaren seemed to take less time than the journey out. Talley attributed this to the high levels of activity and preparation which happened on the bridge while they travelled. A nervous energy clung to him, enhancing his senses and making the usually stifling bridge feel cold. He paced constantly in order to keep warm.
After a couple of hours, he caved in and ordered the bridge replicator to vend a huge cup of strong coffee, a drink he’d sworn off many years ago. Now seemed like as good a time as any to reacquaint himself with it. It was like finding a long-lost friend.
Lieutenant Johnson gave the standard ten-minute warning, shouting it loud enough to make the crew jump. It was a call for the testing and the checking to end – a time to settle and mentally prepare for whatever was to come.
Talley lay back in his seat and rested his hands on his chest. The captain’s console on the Devastator was a vastly complicated and intricate affair, but it was so much second nature to him he could assimilate the information and updates with scarcely a glance. The control bars protruded from the centre section, in exactly the same position as they’d always been. Some captains felt the allure of manual control. Not Talley – he’d always preferred to let the computers handle the flight.
“Two minutes!”
“Everybody remains at their station,” said Talley. “You know what’s required once we exit lightspeed. We’re going to find the Vraxar and we’re going to destroy their spaceships. There will be no standoff and no caution. We go in with everything and we don’t stop until we have achieved victory. Do you understand?”
His crew understood perfectly and Talley received a chorus
of acknowledgements.
The Devastator’s cluster of processing cores shut down the fission engines, dumping the battleship out of lightspeed at precisely the time predicted. Five hundred kilometres to starboard, the Ghast Oblivion Gallatrin-9 did likewise.
“One-point-five million klicks to Roban, sir,” said Lieutenant Johnson. “Far enough to see the bigger picture, not so close they can shoot us down before we respond.”
“Stealth modules and energy shield activated, sir. The Gallatrin-9 has activated its shields,” said Sykes.
“Send the Gallatrin-9 a message – make sure they’re aware we aren’t intending to hang them out to dry by activating the stealth modules.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Nothing on the nears,” said Mercer. “Switching to fars.”
“There’s barely any activity on Roban,” said Ensign Harper. “A few lights amongst the larger population centres and that’s about it.”
“How defenceless we become when the power is gone,” said Talley.
“Our own power is still at one hundred percent,” said Lieutenant Johnson. “Wherever the Neutraliser is, we aren’t close enough to it for them to shut us down.”
Talley gave an instruction and the Devastator’s gravity engines exerted sufficient thrust to get the battleship moving towards Roban. “Steady as we go,” he said.
They continued this way for a few minutes, with the comms team frantically searching for signs of the Vraxar. The Gallatrin-9 stayed on a parallel course, its own sensors sweeping across the skies.
“Some of our gauges are starting to jump around,” said Johnson.
“I wonder if they know we’re here or if these Neutralising vessels project a sphere that works on anything close enough,” said Talley.
“The Gallatrin-9 has detected a fast-moving object coming out of Roban’s orbit, sir,” said Mercer. “Make that two fast-moving objects.”
“Put them onto the tactical.”
They two approaching spaceships were definitely Vraxar. The closest was five thousand metres in length and the second nearer to eight thousand metres. They made no effort to disguise their course – the two enemy vessels sped directly towards the Devastator and the Gallatrin-9. Behind, a series of smaller spaceships came into sensor view, these ones following the larger craft. There was no sign of the Neutraliser, wherever it was.
“We’re outnumbered,” muttered Talley. “Let’s hope we aren’t outgunned as well.”
He didn’t think it likely his hopes would come to fruition. It didn’t matter – Talley was determined to come out of this engagement victorious.
“Load up six cores for short range transits,” he said. “Target Shimmers and fire when ready.”
The Ghast captain was already ahead of them. The Gallatrin-9 was equipped with thirty-two Shatterer launchers and each of them spat out a high-velocity missile, aimed directly at the lead Vraxar.
“Let battle commence,” said Talley.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ON THE BRIDGE of the ES Blackbird, Captain Charlie Blake could feel things slipping away from him. The spy craft’s Obsidiar power supply had recharged to maximum and he kept the vessel hovering a few metres above the immense hangar floor of the Vraxar mothership. The aliens had launched a few small rockets at them from maintenance walkways high above. These rockets weren’t enough to cause any significant damage, nor enough to prompt Blake to activate the energy shield, though the explosions would eventually whittle away at the spaceship’s outer plates.
The trouble at the moment was the absolute refusal of the battle computer to target the Juniper. Lieutenant Hawkins had the ability to re-programme Lambda missiles on the fly, but there was plenty of deeply-embedded coding that she couldn’t touch. It was this coding that prevented a launch against the Juniper’s hangar bay doors. The Shatterers were the same – the original design was copied from the Ghasts, but parts of the guidance systems were taken from existing Space Corps tech, which was to say, the Lambda missiles.
To add to the problems, their comms wouldn’t reach Lieutenant McKinney owing to their being at lightspeed.
“I hate being late,” Blake growled.
“We could still, you know…use the bomb,” said Pointer. “I don’t like the idea of dying, but we’ve still got the opportunity.”
Blake turned in his seat and smiled. “We’re not going to blow ourselves up quite yet, Lieutenant. For a start, I have no idea what would happen if we set off an Obsidiar bomb when travelling at lightspeed. I doubt there has been extensive testing.”
“It seems likely we’d destroy this mothership,” said Hawkins.
“And let the Neutralisers escape,” said Blake. He raised a hand. “Don’t worry, I’ve got no intention of backing away from the difficult decisions. We’re still alive and we have to assume Lieutenant McKinney is likewise. While that’s the case, we’re not going to do anything hasty. Besides, I’m curious to learn where the Vraxar are taking us.”
“If they’re stupid enough to take us anyplace that’s significant to them.”
“We don’t know if they care what we learn about them. They’ve shown no indication they want to hide in the shadows. Anyway, we need to get through the Juniper’s doors. Can anyone hazard a guess what would happen if we rammed them?”
“Not going to work, sir,” said Hawkins at once. “They’re too thick for a spaceship of this size to break through. In addition, I’m not sure we have the room to gather enough speed, plus the necessary angle of approach would make it almost impossible to strike the doors dead-on. We’d glance away.”
“Do the Shimmers have the same coding as the Lambdas?” he asked. “They’re a new design – maybe they didn’t expect anyone to target Space Corps assets.”
“They fire from the forward tubes, sir. The Juniper is clamped overhead, so we’d need to sit on our tail and launch straight into the hangar doors from about five hundred metres.”
“Will their warheads activate and detonate from that range?” Blake asked. The Lambda missiles had a failsafe to prevent them exploding in their launch tubes. He didn’t know if the Shimmers were the same.
“I genuinely don’t know the answer to that one, sir,” said Hawkins. “What I do know is that we will suffer extensive, perhaps terminal, damage should we allow a Shimmer warhead to detonate so close to our hull. I imagine that anyone within the Juniper will be likewise incinerated.”
“We have an energy shield, Lieutenant.”
Hawkins didn’t look happy. “Assuming we manage to balance the Blackbird on its tail, activate our energy shield and fire a missile at the Juniper’s doors, the explosion may occur within the shield itself.”
“It might work, sir,” said Quinn unexpectedly. “When the shield is activated, any part of it which would materialise within a solid object is simply not generated. In other words, we can rest ourselves right on the floor of the mothership’s hangar bay and the shield will extend into the places where there are no walls. If the leading edge of the shield were to reach the hull of the Juniper then it wouldn’t be created in that space and Lieutenant Hawkins’ description of our likely deaths would be accurate. I don’t think that will happen. I reckon there are a few metres spare.”
“You aren’t going to listen to me are you, sir?” said Hawkins.
“That’s not accurate, Lieutenant. I’m not going to agree with you. There’s a difference.”
“What about Lieutenant McKinney? There’s no way to predict how much of the Shimmer explosion will penetrate into the Juniper’s hangar bay.”
“Lieutenant McKinney is blessed with two attributes. Firstly, he has a natural skill for survival. Secondly and most importantly, he’s proven time and again that he’s lucky when it counts. We’re going to blow open those doors for him and get him out.”
Hawkins didn’t complain further even if her face showed her inner feelings. It was her place to offer the benefits of knowledge and expertise, but the final decision was not hers to make.
/> “We’re going to move quickly,” said Blake now he’d made up his mind.
What he intended wasn’t in the manual and the autopilot computer evidently thought something was amiss. It refused to accept the instruction, leaving Blake to do the fine-tuning himself. Swearing under his breath at the inability of computers to do as they were told, he moved the Blackbird’s control rods gently until the vessel was positioned directly beneath the doors of Hangar Bay One. He made a couple of minor adjustments until he was satisfied. Then, he rotated the spaceship around its lateral axis until the nose pointed straight up. The Blackbird’s tail scraped against the inner side of the mothership’s hull.
“Couldn’t have got it much closer,” said Pointer.
The front sensor feed showed how close they were to the orbital. The Juniper appeared as a wall of grey, marked here and there by the impacts from minor space debris. The seams of the massive hangar doors were visible as dark, deep lines.
“Confirm our positioning,” said Blake.
“The Shimmer tubes are aimed directly at the Juniper’s hangar doors, sir,” said Hawkins.
“Activate the energy shield.”
“Activated.”
“Well?”
“Sir, I can confirm the leading edge of the shield does not extend as far as the Juniper.”
“We’re protected?”
Quinn smiled. “Absolutely.”
It wasn’t the time for further thought or for the seeking of doubt. “Fire Shimmer tube one,” said Blake.
“Firing Shimmer tube one,” said Hawkins.
The missile shot from its tube, already travelling at several hundred kilometres per second. The Blackbird’s battle computer turned off a five-metre diameter section of the energy shield for the briefest of times to allow the missile out. With the weapon gone, the battle computer reactivated the missing section of the shield again.
A moment later, the front sensor feed overloaded and turned into a pure, bright white. Gauges on Blake’s console jumped and warnings vied for his attention. The Obsidiar power source maintaining the energy shield took a big dive. When the front sensor array adjusted itself to the high levels of input, it revealed the extent of the damage – there was a hole in the Juniper’s hangar doors that was several hundred metres across. Plasma fires raged across the metal and the edges sagged, dropping thousands of tonnes of molten alloy onto the Blackbird’s energy shield.
Inferno Sphere (Obsidiar Fleet Book 2) Page 19