Aaen snapped—
"Jensen?" Maxon pointed behind her wide-eyed.
"Charging cannons!"
"More of those energy signatures just showed up on sensors! Judging by their size. . .looks like they're battleships! Geez, there's a lot of them!"
"Cannons to full power!—Jonathan, are any of them moving towards us?"
". . .No. They're all on an adjacent course."
Wide-eyed, Aaen noted those beams were getting closer by the second!
"Maybe we can hack-in to one of the satellites and. . .maybe shut it down?—"
Not a bad idea, the question, Aaen realized, was time. That process involved establishing a wireless interface, breaking through the firewall, and all without being detected—
—Another alarm sounded, this one was different than the sensor alerts and put a knot in Aaen's stomach. A voice in the back of his head told him those scanning beams weren't looking for space dust—
"Cannons fully charged. . .weapons lock acquired! We're ready to shoot!" he looked at Maxon, "Just give the order!"
"Three minutes until that thing passes through us!"
The beam inched down the center of the screen like watching a radar beam combing the space around its projector.
Maxon was leaning forward with her palms coupled—her eyes determinedly scanning every inch of the viewscreen hoping for a different option that using the weapons and debating whether or not to give a different order to Mason—
"—Mason, how long would it take for you to break-in to that border satellite?"
She read through her screen and formed a rough estimate in her mind, and then replied, "I think I can get in in about a minute. . .maybe a minute in a half, depending on their firewall. That's assuming it's not programmed to fight off intruders, or alert any surrounding ships of what we're trying to do. This will put us at an elevated risk of being detected. The connection is two-way. If we break in, they can get access to our main computer, too—"
"—Get started. Mason, get ready to fire. If this doesn't work, we might have to shoot out way through,"
"We can also gun the engines up to maximum warp. Those other ships out there will detect the explosion at this distance,"
"Maybe not—some of them are at long-range. I'm only seeing three or four out there that potentially could be able to intercept us if we got detected,"
"Run, fight, or hide, captain?" Aaen asked rhetorically. He felt a little out-of-line by asking that question. Aaen made his choice. An explosion of that size would draw attention, and that could mean drawing attention away from them, enabling them to get through the border. The fact the satellite didn't react to the fact they had just established a weapon lock said something—
"—Fourty-five seconds!" Jonathan snapped.
Maxon snapped, "—Mason?"
"I'm working on it!. . ." she was working frantically at the controls, her erratic breathing indicated she was in a state of panic—"Urgh!" she started turning red as though she was lifting a heavy object, typing frantically, elaborate strings of code streamed across her screen, and then twin wavy lines appeared, one red, one green, intersecting seemingly at random points, "Dang!—It's fighting me!" she was starting to perspire on her forehead.
Aaen snapped—"Do we have a signal jammer? We can't let that thing send out a warning signal!"
"Agreed!" Maxon spun around in her chair, "Commander!"
". . .Got it! Shoot! I need more power!—"
Maxon pointed at Aaen and Mason, "Get ready! Both of you!"
Aaen and Mason determinedly glanced at each other, and then looked at Maxon. She was eyeing the viewscreen. Her eyes were so widely open the images shined in her eyes.
Aaen looked up—twenty seconds! He hovered his arm over the command for Warp Nine. Mason was still struggling—she wiped her forehead with her sleeve then continued frantically typing. She was losing. . .
". . .Jensen?—"
"—Cannons are charged and ready to fire!—"
"—TEN SECONDS!" Aaen looked over shoulder, "Are we gonna shoot or run?"
"The satellite's generating a dampening field!" Jonathan announced.
"I'm losing the computer connection to the satellite!. . .Ugh! It's trying to tap into our computer!"
Aaen snapped, "Boost the signal! We've gotta shut that satellite down!"
Maxon looked at Jonathan—he turned his head, then eyed his screen in panic. "Five seconds!"
Maxon snapped—"FIRE!"
There was a fast, sharp, building buzz as the viewscreen lit up as twin bright gold lightning bolts exploded the satellite. The explosion violently hurtled burning, jagged, sparking debris in every direction. The crew braced against the hull rattling against the blast.
"DIRECT HIT! The satellite's disabled," the crew cheered and exchanged high-fives and then Jonathan sat back down as his screen flashed.
Blew the thing in half! Aaen admired.
"Oh, great! Those energy signatures are starting to closing-in on the satellite's position. They'll be here in less than thirty seconds,"
Maxon turned, "Aaen, take us to warp nine! HURRY!"
He carried out the order. The speed indicator changed—
"Contact! Twelve o'clock!. .It's a—"
—Battleship. Aaen thought darkly, watching as the sensor contact's cloaking field rippled away and the massive green bird-like hull became visible from 1 o'clock, its bow directed sharply at the satellite's debris field.
"Their weapons are hot!"
"But have they detected us?—Commander?"
The warp engines' hum built gradually, quickly almost to a scream; the floor vibrations were as sharp as any of the crew could remember.
"They're right in front of us! What about the warp engines?" Aaen asked, leaning into his seat and held onto his side of the desk with both hands, gripping so hard his arms felt stiff.
Another alarm sounded, much louder and sharper than the sensor alert as the overhead red lights glared at the crew and the AIU loudly declared the collision alert.
"All-stop! ALL-STOP!"
The command was executed, and the shuttle calmed.
"They haven't detected us—but they're looking around they're using a ultra-high-intensity poloron beam. . . It doesn't look like their scanning beam is getting through the stealth system. . ." another sensor alert, ". . .Oh, CRAP!" wide-eyed, his eyes jumped all over the display, "Another energy signat—ANOTHER ONE!"
Aaen snapped. Navigation just went from a game of cat and mouse to hide-and-seek. His mind quickly, gradually blanked out of escape options. . .no, there was still one—but he wondered if Maxon had what it takes to give that order—
"How many are there?" Maxon asked.
"Three. . .five. . .seven! Battleship, ten to two o'clock. They've all got weapons charged and are combing this area for half a light-year,"
"But none of them are getting through, right?" Aaen asked. Jonathan knew what Aaen was talking about and began double-checking the sensor display for several seconds as Aaen looked up at the viewscreen, hovering over the command to jump to "Warp 9.95." C'mon. C'mon! The search formation was odd, Aaen opined—he found a gap in the formation, and reasoned they had a chance to get through the border. C'MON! Give the order while there's still time!
"There's a lot more ships coming in from long-range at high-warp. There's a path to get through their search formation with just seven ships out there. We can basically fly right through that formation, but we've only got a window of thirty seconds. . .and we'll have to have to jump to high-warp as soon as we're clear, otherwise they'll be close enough to penetrate our stealth field,"
"Show me the flight path. Put it on the viewscreen," Maxon turned sharply and looked at the viewscreen.
After a brief series of beeping sounds, the flight path was outlined as a lined variably curved line between combing scanning beams moving around both sides of the screen around small government crests representing the sensor contacts traveling up and down both sides of the screen.
. . .Oh, great. . ."Captain, I think I can get us through that gap. It'll be dang close, but if we can keep power in the thrusters. . ." he exhaled gradually. . ."I can get us through it," Aaen made eye contact with Maxon—she nodded at him. He turned to the controls. . .Forward thrusters—
"Watch their courses, Commander. We have virtually no room for error at this point," Aaen said. "Let me know if those ships get too close. Captain, if I have to, I'll punch the engines up to maximum warp to keep us from being detected," he looked at Maxon who nodded approval.
"I'm watching those ships," Jonathan determinedly affirmed.
They were getting closer, Aaen noted. . .We don't have that much time—
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
DANIEL STORM, a Jordan Foutin eBook, is available for $8.99 at any of these fine online retailers:
smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)
apple iBooks (This link is best viewed on iPhone or iPad)
Make sure to buy your copy today, and like and share!
Make sure to like the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page for the latest, including when DANIEL STORM will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle eBook and softcover! Coming soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment