by Florian Nagy
Chapter 19
“Captain Harka’yn, your orders sir?” the Ameerian officer asked his commanding officer. The captain stood leaning onto the command console on the ship with his eyes gazing intently into its surface. He had been silent for several minutes now. He gave no signs of life, but his mind stood in stark contrast to his outward appearance. It raged furiously as it tried to forge a logical solution to the problem he faced.
Too much time had gone by since his ship had carried out its daring escape, and he knew that his pursuers were on their way. The hours had already ticked into days; they were catching up with him, and he had little time left to spare. If they were to attempt to change course or to try to find some allies, they would have to act immediately before they yielded too much of their advantage to their pursuers.
Three main courses of action unfolded in front of the crew. Their first option was to try to somehow stop and fly into a nebulous area with high ambient energy levels, which would possibly hide their ship. A dust or asteroid field might mask the ship, but only from extremely large distances. The ship was simply too big, and if any seekers came close they would surely find it.
The Ameerians’ second option was to make their second jump to a location featuring several celestial objects such as moons or planets. They could position the ship to engage the pursuing fleet from their broadside, and have their other side covered. Arranging the enemy fleet against one long side of their hull would allow them to funnel all their power to that section of the hull and to those weapons. They would be able to resist a short while longer and to possibly destroy some of their attackers. This situation was sure to end in defeat, but the strategic decision on a place of battle would ensure that they maximized their damage output before they were destroyed.
The third, and most risky yet rewarding of them all, was to try to seek help. There would be great risk involved. They might expose and compromise several of their allies, but if they were lucky they could also save themselves. They were rapidly approaching Ameerian space, so there were a few people who could come to their assistance.
Harka’yn looked up and met eyes with the officer, “We will…” his speech dropped off as he immediately reconsidered his options. He could not make up his mind. His mind jumped, but he was the captain, and he was responsible for making decisions. If nothing else, a leader had to be firm and decisive.
He decided that he would send a distress signal to several of the systems in the area where several packs of raiders had lurked at one point or another. There was even an independent establishment in one of the vacant systems in the area that operated under the pretext of a mining operation while actually trading with and giving supplies to Ameerian renegades in the area.
Harka’yn’s voice came out strong, “I am going to prepare a voice and data transmission. I want you to relay it to all the systems in a two-day flight radius from the point where we will be in about five hours. We must try to gather to us as many of our friends as we can. We will drop out of hyperspace and then we will make for...” the captain quickly scanned over the charts in his command console and located the best and most defendable rally point, “the thick asteroid field in the QAX-23 system.”
The officer smiled and responded, “Very good, sir. I’m sure that many of the bands operating in this area are still here; one or two of them should answer our call. The time is short though, they will have to act immediately if they are to arrive at the same time as us.”
The officer left to complete his task. The preparations were made and the ship was ready to return to normal space. The crew had high hopes that the captain’s message would be received and heeded.
The next few hours wore on slowly. The ship prepared to stop and quickly make its second jump. The trajectory towards the uninhabited QAX-23 system had to be calculated. All preparations were made so they would have to spend as little time as possible between jumps. The QAX-23 system was simply one from the plethora of solar systems in the vicinity. The Ameerian ship had already travelled some distance, and the clusters of systems that would be ahead of them would be the last sparsely populated areas of space before the Ameerian and Rekked expanses, which in turn bordered the Galar battlestation.
This area of space was predominantly populated by Ameerian and Rekked peoples. It was relatively close to the galactic core, and so there were many systems in the area. Several were populated, but an overwhelming majority of them were not. Such an empty system had been chosen for the rendezvous point; it was almost an arbitrary choice. This would also slow down the pursuers because they would have to calculate the exact direction in which the Ameerians had travelled. Because the ripples in space lost accuracy over long distances, the Imperial fleet would have a large chance of making a few mis-jumps before arriving at QAX-23.
The last few minutes trickled down to a halt. The Ameerian flagship had now been on its escape route for almost a week. The Imperium’s ships would catch up in one to two days. They were not stopping at any system but were going to make their midway stop in the vast void of interstellar space. The last few seconds came to a grinding halt as the exact measurements came closer and closer. Their stop loomed ahead.
The engines came to life and fired in reverse. The ship was caught in the reverse thrust, and its speed abruptly changed. The fold in space immediately zipped past behind them, abandoning them to normal space. They decelerated and came to a stop. They seemed to float momentarily in a sea of blackness, their engine still shining blue from the antimatter discharge. It gleamed palely and weakly. All lights were lit aboard the ship, yet everyone except the engineers waited with drawn breaths.
Those responsible for the ship’s movement worked furiously at their stations. Both on the bridge and in the engineering rooms the tension could be cut with a knife. All members who were occupied communicated on a private channel through the ships communications system. The entire flagship was, as all ships are, equipped with a ship-wide communicator system. This system carried voice, text, images, design, and all manner of data to whomever needed it. It provided a reliable and immediate method of communication and was used for all the purposes it could serve. The crew at work now talked in rapid tones to one another. Their voices came through crystal clear, each reporting and receiving reports. They worked in unison, fueled by fear and dedication.
Their next hyperspace jump was plotted and confirmed with lightning speed. They were prepared to once again activate their antimatter engines. The bulky ship stood adrift in space, and for a moment it seemed to draw in a sharp breath before its engines flared and it was out of sight. It darted away quickly and decisively towards the QAX-23 system. The Ameerian vessel had been in normal space only for a minute.
It was now once again travelling swiftly through hyperspace. It was speeding toward the rendezvous point. Their message had been sent out when they had made their stop. It echoed through space, but there was no guarantee that anyone would be there to listen. The time frame for which support would be possible was miniscule, and any allies would have to set out immediately upon receiving the message. The ships of the Imperium were now almost upon them, and the climax of the chase was at hand.
Aboard the Defender IV, Captain Trein was informed that the Ameerian ship’s hyperspace disturbances had abruptly stopped. He quickly reviewed the findings and noticed that at a point they were to pass by momentarily, the tracks through space had vanished.
For a moment, he remained confused. Why would the ship stop and accept its fate? His thoughts sharpened, and he realized that the Ameerians might’ve had a strong ace up their sleeve.
Whatever their plan, and whatever trick they thought they could work, they were doubtlessly at a severe disadvantage. Their ship was crippled, and they were outnumbered five to one. Trein knew that no matter what the Ameerians tried to do, in the end they would fail.
Yet, because his enemies clearly thought that they would be better off by running this scheme, it was only logical to advance with cautio
n. Trein thought about what would be the most prudent course of action, but his resolve to advance stood unshaken: there was simply no evidence to turn the team back.
He contacted the other ships, which had also measured the disturbance, and they decided to stop. They dropped to normal space and scanned the area around them. For an enormous distance all around them, there was no sign of any ship or even of any matter. They then analyzed the pattern of the space itself and noticed disturbances leading away in a straight line.
The ripples left in space by one’s travel through it via hyperspace can be easily detected. The waves disturb the natural form of space by creating holes in it. These ruptures, however, dissipate if they are not continuously renewed. A ship’s passing will leave a mark, yet that mark will slowly fade and then be undistinguishable altogether.
Many attempts had been made to quantify the rate of this disappearance and its properties, but all attempts had failed. Every area of space had entirely different properties. Where one track would be all but erased in a matter of days, another location might showcase the hyperspace imprints for years. All locations had different rates of decomposition. Some locations allowed for clear readings whereas others completely distorted the tracks.
Some sites never got rid of the ruptures created in them and so the tracks continued to stand dull but present. These oddities made hyperspace disturbances almost useless for determining the size or number of ships that had passed by, and entirely useless for determining the time elapsed since their passing.
Fortunately, the Imperium’s fleet needed only a heading and it was quickly agreed that they would follow it. They traced its direction and launched into hyperspace in hot pursuit.