Blackstar Command 1: Prominence

by A. C. Hadfield

  “Shields up,” Kai ordered.

  A brief whine throughout the hull indicated they were now shielded, and just in time. The trio of fighters fired their short-range lasers, but the shields dispersed their small pinpoint focus around the entire ship, dissipating their power.

  “Gravity array now charged,” the AI said.

  “Whoa, did you just charge our weapons with the power of their lasers?” Senaya said.

  “That is correct,” the AI said. “Would you like to return fire?”

  “Do it!” Senaya said, then looked to Kai. “Sorry, I got carried away.”

  “I agree,” Kai said. “Fire when ready.”

  Arm- and backrests raised from their couches and straps held them in. The light inside the bridge lowered and the walls filled with the video feeds, so they had a complete three-dimensional view around them.

  The fighters were less than a kilometer away now.

  They fired their lasers again, and a graph on one of the data screens showed the Blackstar’s power banks filling. Kai gripped the armrests as he ordered the return fire with the particle cannons.

  The three Arrows powered their thrusters so that they arced away from the oncoming Blackstar, but the cannons, fitted to each of the four main points, were omnidirectional. A groaning noise echoed around the ship as the guns fired a beam of disrupted particles.

  The hulls of the two Arrows on either side of the Blackstar turned a dark blue color before fragmenting and dispersing into space like confetti in the wind. A brief burst of flame erupted in their respective cockpit areas.

  Behind the Blackstar, the two red-tips were still following.

  The third, and remaining, Arrow flew overhead of the Blackstar, right into the path of the two following red-tips. A shower of debris exploded brightly.

  “Oh, that was awesome,” Senaya said. “These weapons are incredible. Kai, did I tell you how much I love Navigator tech?”

  “Pay attention; you’ll be taking manual control at some point,” Kai said.

  “We ought to get some distance,” Marella added. “There’s a lot of debris floating about.”

  “Blackstar, arc away from the path of the wreckage,” Kai ordered, “and face Capsis Prime. We need to find a way to help if we can.”

  “As you wish,” the AI said, using the ship’s thrusters to angle the ship onto a new vector facing Capsis Prime. Reverse thrusters slowed their approach.

  “Remain outside their firing range,” Kai ordered. “We need time to think. Sen, you keep an eye on the feeds for any more Arrows. I’m sure there are more out there somewhere. Marella, you take the comms and see if you can get a message to Captain Lopek or General Amelia. Let them know we’re alive and ready to help.’

  While Senaya and Marella carried out his orders, Kai watched the battle unfold before him. There had to be a way he could influence this without getting destroyed.

  It was one thing converting laser fire into energy, but he doubted the shields, although advanced, would survive a barrage from many massive Host destroyers.

  One thing he had learned since leaving Zarunda was that there was always a way if one just took a moment to assess what was before them.

  “Kai, I’ve got a channel to General Amelia,” Marella said.

  “Can you patch it through to the speakers?”

  The AI instructed Marella on how to do that manually.

  Amelia’s voice came over the speaker system.

  “Citizen Kai Locke, this better be important,” she said with an angry tone.

  “General Amelia, I’m here to help, and I bring with me a Navigator ship. We’re still getting to grips with it, but I’m trying to formulate a way to influence the outcome.”

  “I’m afraid you’re too late,” she said, her words thick with resignation. “Host reinforcements are imminent. We don’t have enough ships to put up a fight, our protective relay is destroyed, and our government is paralyzed from within. I’m afraid we’re going to need more than a single Navigator ship, no matter how technologically advanced it is.”

  “Then what do you suggest we do, give up?”

  “Surrender could be an option—we must save Capsis Prime and its citizens at all costs. If we fall, then there’s little hope for the rest of the quadrant.”

  “And surrendering would send the right message to the Coalition planets, would it?” Kai snarled back at her, his face flushed with anger at the thought of surrendering. His father never quit and neither did Bandar. People died for the Coalition so that it could remain free from tyranny.

  “We don’t have any other option!” Amelia barked.

  “You just want to save your own skin,” Kai said. “Which ship are you on, the Fang or the Trident?”

  There was a pause, then a quiet reply. “Neither, I’m out of the system, currently strategizing—”

  “What!” Senaya exploded, unable to hold back her incredulity. “Your people are getting slaughtered, and you’re not even at the battle? General, I don’t care what you do when I say this, but you’re nothing but a coward.”

  “I agree,” Kai said. “You need to get back to Capsis right now and help.”

  “This conversation is over,” Amelia said, cutting the channel.

  Kai looked at Marella and Senaya in stunned silence.

  Then the anger rose again.

  He slammed his fist against the armrest and let out a roar of frustration. Abandoned by their general and left for dead, the remaining CDF ships had no chance. It seemed to Kai as if Amelia had done a deal with the Host already—she had surrendered to save her own skin. He didn’t believe for one second she was monitoring the battle and strategizing.

  For the last few centuries, every Coalition general had flown with one of the capital ships and fought alongside their people.

  “We’re on our own,” Kai said after he had taken a breath. “We need to find a way of turning the tide or at the very least saving the people of Capsis Prime.”

  While Senaya and Marella brainstormed strategies, he analyzed their current situation. The battle was raging on, and the Fang and Trident were putting up an admirable resistance against the larger Host fleet, but they couldn’t do that indefinitely. At some point, their shields would fail, and they would fall.

  Kai counted the two forces.

  The CDF were down to ten ships from fourteen, two of those destroyed ships were reservist fighters. A hollow feeling settled in his guts at the thought of those being his friends. He’d have to grieve later, however. The Host still outnumbered the defenders two to one.

  Just as he finished counting the Host force, another subspace exit point opened up, and fifteen more large Host ships entered the fray. They shaped to swarm the Trident, which had been separated from the Fang by the forces on the right flank.

  With a cold dread traveling through his veins, Kai watched as one of the greatest Coalition ships ever built eventually succumbed to the overwhelming barrage of Host destroyers.

  The Trident had fallen.

  It wouldn’t take long for the Fang and the supporting squadron to follow.

  To the left of the Blackstar, some distance away, another subspace exit opened up, and a single small ship pierced the hole in space. It was his mother’s ship: the Rapier.

  Within a few seconds, a second much larger ship followed.

  “It’s the GTU!” Senaya said. “Look at that thing; it’s enormous.”

  It was true that the GTU flagship, the Spearhead, was the largest ship in the Coalition fleet, but even with that in the battle, the numbers would be too great.

  At least it was a fight now.

  If the Host were to win, they would do it with considerable losses.

  Kai hailed the Rapier. A few seconds later he heard his mother’s voice.

  “Kai, is that you?”

  “Mother, yes, it’s me. I’ve got the Blackstar. Lopek told me you were in trouble. Are you okay?”

  “I am now.”

  “What does that m
ean?”

  “No time to chat, son. We’ve got a fight on our hands. Let’s just say I’m no longer under Lopek’s command. But for now, we need to work together. If you want to show me what that thing can do, follow me in, I see a weakness on their left flank. If we survive this, I want to hear all about your mission. I don’t suppose you found your father?”

  “He’s… beyond the veil,” Kai said. “It’s all I know right now.” Yet he knew the answer was in his head; he just had to find a way of opening up the cache of data and making sense of it.

  “That's something, I guess," she said with sadness in her words. "Stay on my left wing and follow me in," she said with more conviction.

  Kai nodded to Senaya to maneuver the Blackstar into a formation with the Rapier. “What about the Spearhead?” he asked.

  “They’re following us in and providing long-range cover. The flea swarm will launch when I give the order to engage the smaller fighters and maintain a corridor of flight for us. You see the Host destroyer on the far left of their hemisphere, the big red one? We’re taking that down. We have intel to suggest that’s carrying the Host commander.”

  “It’s heavily armored; your small ship isn’t going to do much against its shields,” Marella said after briefly introducing herself.

  “The Spearhead is carrying the Doomsday. We’re going to drop that right into the Host’s flank.”

  “But… that’ll mean you won’t…” Kai said.

  “Trust me, son.”

  With that, the Rapier thrusters ignited and arced toward the Host’s left flank.

  “The Doomsday?” Marella asked, quirking an eyebrow.

  “The biggest nuke in the Coalition arsenal,” Senaya said. “It’ll do some serious damage all right—but not just to the Host.”

  “My mother won’t be able to get away fast enough. I can’t lose her too,” Kai said. He tried hailing her again but received no answer.

  “Blackstar, what is the weakness my mother noticed?”

  “Analyzing formation… there is indeed a gap between firing ranges. Although my models predict any ship entering that zone will have less than fifty-five-point-seven standard seconds before the Host ships readjust and narrow the firing arcs.”

  “That doesn’t leave us a lot of time,” Marella said. “Unless…”

  Kai caught on to her thinking. “Blackstar, this ship’s gravity engines, can that help us get in and out faster?”

  “We have enough power to do that, although it will mean breaking formation,” the AI said.

  Senaya added, “If we go in first, disrupt some of the smaller ships to break their formation, that’ll buy your mother and the Spearhead time to get some distance before deploying the Doomsday.”

  Kai scratched his chin.

  It wasn’t a bad idea, and it certainly would do a lot of damage, but would it be enough?

  Chapter 27

  The Host hemisphere was morphing, changing shape so that it more closely resembled an arrow—one that was pointing right for Capsis Prime.

  It appeared to Kai that they were shaping up for a frontal assault on the planet and forgetting about the Coalition ships. The latter wouldn’t be able to change course and intercept in time. This whole battle so far had been about pulling the CDF out of position.

  As Senaya piloted the ship to follow the Rapier, Kai racked his brain for a solution. He knew it was in there, could sense a plan forming in his subconscious, but couldn’t quite bring it up to his conscious mind.

  He thought back to his time with Bandar and considered what he would do. It would be something no one expected, something that would remove the entire problem. Right now, they were just playing with numbers, picking off the odd host ship here or there, but with the number advantage, the Host would easily win that game.

  Doomsday nuke or not, it wouldn’t matter even if they did take out the central command ship; the rest of the fleet was heading for Capsis Prime. The billions of people there were stranded with no defense.

  An aerial bombardment would reduce the planet to a smoking ruin within days, if not hours.

  Kai checked the video feeds around him. The Spearhead was following in behind, and they were following the Rapier into the left flank of the morphing Host hemisphere. Some fighters had peeled off and were coming right at them.

  “Fighters on your right flank incoming,” Kai said to his mother over the channel. He didn’t know if she was hearing him or not as she continued to aim for the red destroyer.

  Kai diverted the message to the Spearhead.

  An operative named Cho confirmed the communication and ordered the flea swarm to launch; a dozen small fighters disembarked from the Spearhead and set an interception course to engage the host ships.

  Although small and not very powerful, they flew in formation better than almost any other ship in the quadrant. They’d give the Host fighters a difficult problem to deal with, and that would buy his mother time.

  But that still didn’t address the main issue of their strategy essentially being a suicide mission. “Cho, put me through to Captain Lopek,” Kai said.

  A few seconds later the head of the GTU came online. “Mr. Locke, this better be important; I have a WMD to ready.”

  “Yeah, about that; it’s not going to be enough. You know that, and I know that. My mother is on a suicide course, and I can’t be okay with that.”

  “If you have an alternative strategy, I’m happy to hear it. But you better make it quick. We have just a few minutes before engagement and deployment.”

  “And what about the other Coalition ships—are they cool with this plan of yours?”

  “I’ve informed them of the situation, and they’re in agreement. With General Amelia abandoning her post, I’m the highest-ranking officer in the fleet and—”

  “I don’t care for hierarchy, Lopek,” Kai said. “Just give me two minutes before you do anything hasty and make sure that flea swarm protects my mother. If anything happens to her, I’m holding you personally responsible.”

  Lopek went to say something but kept his response to himself. A moment later he said, “I respect your viewpoint, Mr. Locke, but tell me, what can the Blackstar do? Does it have any technology that can help us?”

  “I’m still working on that; it’s a complex system,” Kai said.

  “Then I suggest you hurry up. Lopek out.”

  Lopek closed the channel.

  The flea swarm had reached the squadron of eight Host fighters and were doing well to keep them away from the Rapier’s flight path. They were all getting close to the firing range of the Host destroyers, however. Kai hoped the CDF ships would keep them occupied, but he was sure the sight of the Spearhead approaching would divert their attention.

  Kai slumped to the couch and sighed. “There’s got to be a way out of this,” he said.

  The face of the holocube showing various metrics included a countdown to the Doomsday’s deployment based on the model outlined by his mother. They had less than a minute to come up with something.

  “Senaya, map the battlefield. See if there’s any advantage we’re missing.”

  “Okay, Captain,” she said, giving him a wink.

  “Marella, communicate with the rest of the Coalition fleet to see if anyone has any radical ideas that Lopek has dismissed.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “And you, Blackstar,” Kai said, “tell me exactly how the gravity drive works.”

  “May I enquire as to the purpose?” the AI responded.

  “No, just give me the nuts and bolts of how it works.”

  As the AI continued to explain the details of the system, Kai thought back to his racing days and to one race in particular where he was losing to three other ships. Each one of them more advanced and stronger than his, yet he won the race by trusting his gut and ignoring known strategies.

  Back then he went into a reaction mode and let his natural talents guide his decisions. On the tight banks, he flew high, which was often regarded
as a waste of energy and a slower way around due to not following the slipstream, but what it did do was give him an overview of the formation ahead of him, so that when he flew down on the straight, he could outmaneuver them on the following bank by going low and essentially providing an unpredictable element to the race.

  The leaders were so concerned with what he was doing that they lost focus, giving him the advantage.

  With a single turn to go, he took the lead and won the race, and all without barely remembering what he had done. He only solidified his choices during the race after watching the video feed.

  The data cache he had received from the pedestal was still whirling around in his brain, and he started to follow the tendrils, reacting to each thought as it came up instead of fighting to establish a strategy.

  Kai closed his eyes and relaxed.

  Outside of his bubble, Senaya, Marella and the AI communicated about the status of the battle, spoke orders, and demanded to know what to do.

  He ignored all of it and thought of his father.

  He pictured the image he had seen in Bandar’s cabin with the two men.

  He ran through the conversations he’d had with Marella about his father.

  He thought of the footlocker, the wreck, the tetrahedron.

  Slowly, his understanding of the Navigators began to sharpen. The massive amounts of information sitting in his head began to organize itself. Knowledge of the ancient race bubbled up to his consciousness, and he got an image that snapped him out of his meditative state.

  Senaya was shaking him by the shoulder. “Kai, you’ve been out for ages. We’re about to enter the firing zone. The Doomsday is launching any second now.”

  “I have a plan,” he said as he watched the Spearhead fly over them and into the corridor of the Host flank.

  “Blackstar, halt our momentum. Target the area of space a few meters ahead of that forming Host arrow, right near the point.”

  “As you wish,” the AI said. “What would you like me to do?”

  “Kai, what are you doing?” Senaya said, her forehead crinkled with concern.

  Marella stopped chatting with the rest of the fleet and looked at him with dark eyes. “Why have we stopped?” she asked.