by Gary Weston
Davron
The Universe Is Not Enough part 3
A serial
Gary Weston
Davron : The Universe Is Not Enough 3 © 2015 Gary Weston
All rights reserved
Chapter 48
'Some test run,' said Akrins. 'You all know this is nuts, right? Blasting off like this with untried engines.'
Matlock laughed and said, 'Toby. I've every confidence in your abilities. At least we haven't blown up yet.'
Belle said, 'The engines are one thing. We need to try the cannons out. I am not going into a fight without weapons I can depend on.'
'It shouldn't be too hard to find some space junk to play with,' said Patrick. Using the secure ship to ship radio frequency, he made a call. 'Major Burns. Can you hear me?'
Captain Renata Castell responded. 'Major Burns is here. One moment.'
'I'm here,' said Burns, his face filling the screen.
'The Romulus seems to be operating fine. We're just going slow for now, making sure the new parts have bedded in and look like being reliable.'
'Understood. We don't need to go far from Earth. The enemy is heading our way and we estimate that at their present speed they'll be within our firing range within nineteen hours. Of course, if we go racing to meet them, that time shortens.'
Danders said, 'Do we have all of Earth's ships here?'
'No,' said Burns. 'We have ten armed ships in total with your Romulus. Five here and the others ready to take off if we need them. It was considered prudent to maintain a backup force on Earth for anything getting past us.'
'Makes sense,' said Danders. 'Major. We wish to try out the lasers. Any space junk we can take a few shots at?'
'On the far side of the moon we have two defunct satellites. Why don't you blast them to pieces and the rest of us will clean up the scrap. That way we all get a little much needed practice.'
'Sounds like a plan,' said Patrick. 'Over.'
'One moment. I have somebody here wants a quick word.'
Burns moved aside and a woman's face appeared.
'April?' gasped Akrins.
'Hi, Toby. I'm part of our medical team. We have a doctor and two nurses. I'm the nurse here with Doctor Crowe. Hopefully we won't be having to use our training out here.'
'Copy that,' said Akrins. 'Have you been in space before?'
'This is my second time. I'm practically an old hand at it. The major wants to say something. Take care, Toby.'
Burns said, 'I know this is a dedicated frequency, but the less we use it, the less likely it is they'll pick it up, so no more calls between anyone unless urgent.'
Patrick joined in a chorus of responses from the other ships then cut the transmission.
Belle looked at Akrins and said, 'Are you ok, Toby?'
'April shouldn't be out here.'
'She has a job to do like the rest of us,' said Matlock, adding, 'We all care about someone, Toby.'
Akrins nodded. 'I know. It was just a shock seeing her on the screen.'
Belle said, 'Toby. She'll be fine. What we need is for you, for all of us, to focus on the task in hand. We can't afford to be distracted.'
'I'm more focussed than ever,' said Akrins. 'No damn aliens are gonna take April away from me. I'm going to check out the cannon mountings.'
They watched him leave for the new laser turrets and Danders said, 'We should keep an eye on him.'
Belle said, 'I'll look after Toby. You get us to those old satellites.'
The five ships, led by Burns, flew past the moon. Burns came on the screen.
'They're static targets. Plus they're not shooting back at us. No point in making this too easy.'
Patrick said, 'Agreed. You have something in mind?'
Burns laughed. 'Maybe. Everyone stay put and wait for my instructions.'
Danders said, 'Plasma drives cut, forward thrusters on. Slowing down. And here we are, just hanging with our friends.'
The only ship still moving was the one Burns' commanded. His pilot, Captain Castell was as one with her ship and all the others could do, including Danders, was to marvel at the way Castell "nudged" into the dead satellite with the delicate kiss of an angel. A subtle but sharp blast of her ships engines propelled the lump of scrap into an unstoppable journey through frictionless space. Unstoppable if Danders couldn't catch it and her shooters killed it.
'Belle?'
'Go. We have a lump of crap to shoot.'
Belle was on strapping herself into the new forward laser cannon. 'Toby. This thing going to work?'
'It all checks out. A bit different to what you're used to. Twin triggers, hairline target screen with a three sixty swivel.'
'Range?'
'Two hundred and fifty thousand miles before the strength fades. About fifty minutes continuous power. After that if you haven't hit whatever you're aiming at, we turn around and get the hell out of here.'
'Thanks Toby. Dale. You ok in aft turret?'
'Just waiting to play, Belle.'
Danders came on. 'Play? Something tells me you two expect an easy ride. Naw. Not my nature to play nice.'
Danders engaged the plasma engines and the chase was on.
'Interesting,' said Patrick. 'Full whack?'
'Yeah. Really test the engines and make it interesting for our shooters. You have a problem with that?'
'All I said was that it's interesting. I'll just kick back and enjoy the show.'
Danders grinned and said, 'You just buckle up and hang on to your teeth.'
Chapter 49
Patrick Davron thought he knew how to get the best out of the Romulus, but Liz Danders had a few moves of her own.
'Shooters,' called out Danders. 'You were in range ages ago. Your trigger fingers dropped off?' Then just to annoy them, she took the ship on a series of barrel-rolls that had their heads in a spin. Belle took the first hit as the huge ship spiralled like a spinning top. Blue shards of energy streaked through the cosmos, missing the lump of scrap by a hundred miles.
'That enemy ship is shooting back at you,' said Danders.
'Thanks for reminding us,' said Belle.
Matlock struck gold with a shot that winged the old satellite, sending it spinning away into deep space.
'That the best you can do?' said Danders. 'How about you drive the bus and I'll shoot the damn thing.'
Patrick grinned and said, 'You're enjoying this, aren't you?'
Danders shrugged. 'Yeah, just a bit. Hey, shooters! I'll make it easy for you. I'll slow us down, but I might just do a few for more tricks. Up for the challenge?'
'We were just getting our eye in,' said Belle. 'Give it your worst.'
Patrick said, 'I have the satellite pinpointed. Here's the coordinates.'
'Got it. You didn't have anything greasy for breakfast did you, because I'll not be cleaning it up.'
'I can take it.'
Danders increased the speed to catch up with the runaway satellite, then shutdown the engine, but set the ship spinning again. Both Belle and Matlock fired their cannons, missing by miles, then Belle scored a bullseye splitting the satellite into three pieces. Matlock took on two of them, turning them into shards of scrap metal.
'My sights are off five degrees,' said Belle.
'Excuses, excuses,' said Danders.
'Jazz is right,' said Akrins. 'I have the data here. Dale. How about yours?'
'About three degrees. I managed to compensate.'
Danders said, 'We need to sort that out. I'll take us back to the others then we'll fine-tune and see how we do with the other satellite.'
Chapter 50
'That's within half a degree,' said Akrins.
Patrick said, 'Over thousands of miles, that half a degree can mean the difference between a hit or a miss. Just a little more...now what do we have?'
'Zero point zero three. That's as close as we're going to get. Now for Aft cannon.'
They took another twelve minutes recalibrating the aft cannon until further tweaking didn't do anything.
'The rest is down to the shooters,' said Patrick. 'Liz? Ready for a rerun?'
Danders replied, 'If our shooters have their blinkers off we can go.'
'Oh, that's fighting talk,' said Belle. 'Major Burns? You might find the odd shard to blow up. Dale?'
'First strike to me, Jazz.'
'Ladies first. Liz. Let's shake it up a bit this time.'
Danders looked over at Patrick. 'Did I hear the sound of a gauntlet hitting the floor? Hang on tight.'
Danders took them well way from their next target, then did a long loop to head back. The now sweet running twin plasma drive engines were pushed hard and the thrusters had them doing wild spins that had the whole of space looking like a blurry mess of stars. Matlock and Belle had their freshly calibrated cannons locked on and they fired together, both shots a hit slicing the old satellite into a dozen fragments, which the other ships shooters made short work of.
Burns said, 'I think we're as ready as we're ever going to be.'
That was the precise moment one of his fleet was blasted to hell with a bolt of red energy.
Chapter 51
Just two full seconds of stunned inability to move followed as they saw the ball of fire extinguished immediately by the vacuum of space. That all on the ship had been killed was in no doubt.
Burns said, 'Tell me that shot wasn't from the Romulus?'
'Hell, no,' said Patrick. 'From the moon. Move!'
And move the four ships they did as more red energy shots streaked between them.
'What's on the moon?' said Danders, taking evasive action with a barrel-roll. 'Are we being shot at by our own?'
'Nothing on there,' said Burns. 'The helium three extraction plant will be down for months with the crew on extended leave on Earth. Our enemy must have been hiding a ship there.'
'I have it,' said a voice from another human ship. 'We're returning fire to where it is.'
Patrick said, 'I see it. It's on the move and coming our way. Just one ship.'
The alien vessel knowing it was outnumbered by angry humans and also that it had been detected, was racing away, but still firing its lasers. Spread wide apart to reduce the target area, the four fighters gave determined chase, only one ambition focusing their minds.
Danders tried to give Matlock and Belle their best chance to take out the ship using only the slightest manoeuvres to avoid being hit themselves. Burns didn't waste his breath barking out orders, letting the crews do what they did best, and the black velvet of deep space lit up in a spectacular display of laser fire. The relentless pace continued with all ships firing at once, and nobody could claim the hit that finally killed the alien ship. The combined fire-power left nothing but fragments.
Burns said, 'I guess that takes care of our cannon practice.' They heard his deep long sigh. 'Seven good people and a ship lost.'
'They caught us with our guard down,' admitted Danders.
'I needn't tell anyone we can't do that again,' said Burns. 'Now all we have to do is meet them head on.'
Patrick asked, 'Do we go looking for them?'
'No point,' said Burns. 'We've lost them for the time being. They're going to be wise to us being out here so we can assume they'll have changed their original plans. Hopefully our Command Centre will track them when they decide to attack. In the meantime, I want to land on the moon and see if they left any clues behind. Follow me, everyone.'
They retraced their route through space back to the moon, Burns ordering a thorough search for any unwelcome trespassers still lurking with suspicious intent.
'Nothing,' said Danders. 'We're over where that ship was. Do we land, Major Burns?'
'With extreme caution. My ship will land first. I want your lasers for back-up, just in case. Do me a favour. Make sure we aren't in your cannon sights.'
Everyone watched Burns' ship thrusters blast the grey dust away as it landed, ready for anything, their spirits still down from the tragic loss of their comrades. As the landing legs settled into the dust, the other three fighters followed the ship down.
Captain Castell turned to Burns and said, 'Clear to leave the ship, sir. Which officer will you take with you?'
'I'm going alone. I'll meet up with Patrick outside. Anything happens to us out there, get the hell out of here.'
'Understood, sir.'
Burns called Patrick. 'I'm taking the rover out. Patrick. Join me please. All shooters watch out for us and also be ready for any sneaky attacks from space.'
'You might need your helmet,' said Danders.
Patrick said, 'Why? Is it raining outside?'
'Go. And be careful.'
Patrick fitted his helmet and checked his life support. 'Careful is my middle name. Don't take off without me.'
Chapter 52
The airlock door hissed up into place as Patrick Davron stepped ankle deep into grey dust. The covered six-wheeled rover waited thirty steps away with Burns' looking back at him from the control seat. His image was blurred, distorted with the lights from the ships on the vehicle's transparent cover. The cover lifted for Patrick to climb in as he approached. He climbed in next to the major and the cover lowered back down and clicked into place. Burns engaged a lever and the rover trundled slowly forwards a little way from the ships then it stopped, Burns cutting the electric motor.
' Don't worry. Nobody can hear us and we may wish to keep this conversation to ourselves. I don't know about you, but I'm more than a little concerned.'
Patrick said, 'A man doesn't make major without seeing a heap of action. That you're concerned, concerns me.'
Burns glanced nervously about them. 'The enemy could be anywhere. Literally. It seems they can evade our tracking systems anytime they want. That's how come they landed here undetected. Let's face it, Patrick. They're smarter than we are.'
'Smarter or just more advanced?'
Burns stared at Patrick. 'Same thing, isn't it?'
'Not necessarily. They've probably had a few more years with space ships than we have. That's just a time thing. Think about it. A couple hundred years from now, we'd be more advanced, right? But would we be more intelligent?'
Burns considered that. 'A good point. One I like. They just have bigger rocks to throw.'
'And that's probably all they have. Better technology. We just have to out-think them.'
A grin from Burns as he said, 'Then I'm glad we have our very own genius along for the ride. That's you, by the way. Their ship was over there. Might as well take a look around.'
Burns started the motor and engaged the drive. They came to the lip of a crater where they could see telltale signs where the enemy ship had fired from.
'Notice something odd?' Patrick asked.
'No footsteps. No tracks. Just landing marks. I suppose the blast of their ship taking off could have covered any tracks.'
Patrick said, 'Not as completely as this, Sir.'
Burns knew this to be so. ' Nobody got off that ship to stretch their legs or whatever they have for legs.'
Patrick said, 'Meaning one of two things. One, and a very real possibility, they hadn't parked here long. Just a few days and they stayed on the ship. Or two....'
'The ship doesn't need anyone on it. Controlled by a mother ship. That option really pisses me off. They killed our people, we only killed a ship.'
Patrick said, 'We need to try to stay up-beat in front of the others. We're already all bags of nerves with the loss of that ship.'
'I'll take you back to your ship. We'll stay here and wait for them to come to us. We'll each do six-hour shifts so we should still be fresh when the time comes. No chance
in hell of me sleeping now, so I'll take the first watch. You and your friends try to get some sleep.'
'I know just how you feel. I'll take the second watch. Will you inform Earth we're staying here?'
Burns said, 'No. They can track us ok so there should be no need. We all know we must keep communication to a minimum.'
They returned to the Romulus and without saying more Patrick entered the ship and Burns drove the rover into his ship's airlock. The way the airlock door closed behind him on that cold dead rock the moon, seemed like a harbinger of a nightmare barely begun.
Chapter 53
Danders waited as Patrick removed his helmet then said, 'Find any clues?'
'Only the lack of them.'
Belle entered from her cannon turret. 'Dale and I will take shifts so we always have cover. Hey, Dale. Don't you go falling asleep in there.'
'As if. Are we staying here?'
Patrick said, 'For the time being. Better to let the enemy come to us. Conserves fuel and we're nearer to back-up.'
'We have a score to settle,' said Belle. 'I never even met those people, but they're humans like us. I just want the opportunity to balance the ledger.'
Patrick nodded then said, 'That time will come. Liz. Take a break. I'll man the flight-deck awhile.'
They swapped seats and Danders walked off to the kitchen. Belle was about to join her but sat next to Patrick instead. 'Can I get you a coffee?'
'No, thanks.'
'Are you ok? You look like you've something on your mind.'
Patrick studied the computer read-outs on the screen. 'It's just this situation got me a little tense.'
Belle knew there was something more to his mood than that. 'There's something else, I can tell.'
He turned to face her and said, 'I don't know, Jazz. Something staring me in the face I can't quite see.' He forced a smile. 'I'll be ok. Go take a break and leave me to my introspection.'
Belle stood up and kissed him. 'Ok. But don't keep anything bottled up. We need to be on our best game.'
'If I get a handle on it, I'll talk it over with you I promise.'
'You'd better had.'
She kissed him again and walked off.
Chapter 54
Muffin sat on Paul Davron's lap on an ornate padded high-back chair, staring at Commander Drakov with deep brown suspicious eyes. Muffin was a creature of instinct and some humans he liked, others not so much. Drakov was equally suspicious of a genetically modified primate. Wings on a chimp seemed to him to be as pointless as an ashtray on a motorcycle.