“Engines to full stop.” Wilson looked up at the viewscreen. “We’re directly beneath the target—about ten meters below it.” We’re freakin’ close to losing some paint . . . If we—OR they—drift too far too fast. . . Holy crap. Wilson gasped.
Sandberg
loaded the torpedo onto the loading slider. Three seconds and a few
straight-forward commands later, the torpedo showed as “ARMED”. The warhead was
set to ‘HIGH-YIELD’; the homing sensor
was seeking and the detonator was standing by to—he shook his head. He didn’t
want to think about how big that bang was going to be, to say nothing
about the subsequent chain reaction that would. . .be visible for light years
and could potentially change the orbit of any planets nearby. A ton of variables went into something
like that. He didn’t want to think about them. . . He would do what he had to
do. . .but—
“Jones, where we at?” Aaen asked loudly and
directly.
She eyed
the new sensor data for a moment. It was easy to mentally metabolize. She
formed an answer near-instantaneously. She was more worried about that thing at 11 o’clock on the port bow,
about 1000 yards away. She selected the target and directed a scan at it.
It disappeared.
What the heck? Jones asked in silence with a
frustrated wince. Sandburg noticed and glanced at Jones’ computer. Those ships were still approaching. Too close for comfort. There must have been at least two carriers
mixed in with the smaller cruisers and whatever ships or armaments they might
be carrying.
—Shoot.
“So far—okay,” she breathed, “Those other ships are still approaching our
position. No indication of a collision course yet.”
Smith
looked at Jones’ computer—shoot.
“Torpedo
is armed and standing by,” Sandberg declared confidently to Smith.
Smith
turned to Connors, “Get a phase lock
on the warhead. Standby to send it over.” He turned for his chair.
Connors
nodded and worked to carry out the order. In what seemed like seconds.
“The other ships will be right on top of us
in two minutes!” Jones declared aloud.
The same
exclaiming thought rolled with an uneasy burning sensation across every crew
member’s synapses. Some of the crew forgot to blink for a full 30 seconds. Four
crewmembers wiped their sweat off their foreheads while the others anxiously
breathed deeply and more rapidly.
C’mon! C’mon! Aaen and Smith thought silently. “Put those ships on the
viewscreen,” Aaen commanded, sounding calmer. Jones did so, still watching the
contact indicators inch diagonally closer along her screen.
“Sir, I recommend launching a class-one
probe with a decoy node. If those ships are
coming for us, they might go after the probe inst—” A sensor alert sounded.
Jones screen flashed thrice. “Holy-cow!
They’re changing course: they’re flying
circles around us! Still no
indication they’ve detected us!”
“Why aren’t they scanning?” Smith asked
quietly.
“Why haven’t they opened fire?” Aaen
followed, darkly.
“It might be a patrol,” Jones guessed. But so focused? It’s probably just a precaution?
“Captain,
the torpedo is armed and ready for deployment,” Smith told his Captain.
“Execute,”
Connors
blinked at her screen as she watched the energizers engage. In seconds, the
torpedo’s icon fragmented into a fine blurry mist until the screen showed “PHASE
COMPLETE”; the sound flowed like a wave through the bridge.
Smith
turned to the back of the bridge. “Connors?”
Connors
nodded, “It’s done.”
Another
sensor alert, “THEY DETECTED THE PHASE!”
The contacts turned into an angry swarm as an alarm filled the bridge. “MULTIPLE TARGETS CLOSING!”
“GET US OUTTA HERE, Commander!” Aaen
commanded.
“WITH PLEASURE!” He was already working
the controls.
“Signal Aurora! Designate any target with a weapon lock on us and tell them to engage!”
Smith commanded. There would be no giving the enemy a clear target.
“AYE!”
The crew
could feel the hull’s acceleration and turning to starboard, and then abruptly
to port. Jones guessed Wilson was pulling a long “U” turn. Shoot!
“THEY’RE TRYING TO FIND US! They’re trying to get a weapon lock but
their targeting sensors can’t get acquisition!”
“Let’s not give them a target. Wilson,
maximum sublight! Evasive maneuvers!
Get us back to Aurora!”
“Aye!”
“Designating targets!—Sending data to Hayes!” Jones declared.
A trio
of beeping sounds later, “Got ‘em!
Relaying to Aurora!”
“HOSTILES ARE TIGHT ON OUR STERN!” Jones
declared in a panic. A few hundred
inbounds were gaining like fire flowing along a fuel line.
“AURORA CONFIRMS: TARGETS DESIGNATED!” Hayes shouted over the layers of alarms.
“TARGETS ACQUIRED!” Additional data populated. “. .HOLY HEAVEN!” She shouted wide-eyed, “WE’VE GOT COVERING FIRE INBOUND!” The viewscreen showed a building light in the forward distance drowning out the stars, instantly turning into countless particle and projectiles shooting past within inches of the hull. The hull shuddered sharply like an abrupt 10-magnitude quake as Jones followed the fire aft.
“Impact in two—one—!”
A
blinding light filled the viewscreen and flooded the bridge, virtually blinding
the crew. The crew braced against the shuddering with one arm and shielded
their eyes with the other.
“REPORT!” Smith demanded at the top of
his lungs.
Jones
strained to read the flood of sensor data. “CONFIRMING
IMPACT! THERE’S FIFTEEN MILLION
METRIC TONS OF DEBRIS SCATTERING LIKE SHRAPNEL! HEAVEN HELP US!—THERE’S A LEVEL-FIFTEEN SHOCKWAVE INBOUND! IMPACT—” She struggled to remain steady
amid the building shuddering. “IMPACT.
.IN THIRTY SECONDS!” The countdown displayed on her computer monitor, along
with several jagged lines highlighting the hazards increasing in number by the
second. Jones ran computations on her computer to figure out how far they
needed to go in contrast to the blast wave to see if they could out-run it.
Seconds later, she sharply faced Smith, “WE
NEED TO INCREASE OUR VELOCITY TO AT LAST TRANSLIGHT-FACTOR SEVEN IF WE’RE TO
OUT-RUN IT!”
Another
alarm sounded.
“HULL TEMPERATURE INCREASING! HULL
TEMPERATURE WILL REACH CRITICAL IN TEN SECONDS! REACTOR STRESS INCREASING!
IMPLOSION IMMINENT! USE OF TRANSLIGHT DRIVE COULD CAUSE A CORE BREACH, CAPTAIN!”
“SIR?” Smith asked Aaen in shock.
“DO IT!”
Wilson
turned in his seat. “ENGAGING TRANSLIGHT
DRIVE!” The command was executed. The velocity gauge climbed, slowed, then gradually
declined to “FULL STOP”. “NEGATIVE ON
TRANSLIGHT DRIVE!” He examined the navigational data on his screen. “TRANSLIGHT DRIVE CAN’T FORM A STABLE
INTERSPATIAL FIELD!”
“OPS!
DIVERT ALL POWER FROM TRANSLIGHT TO THE SUBLIGHT ENGINES!”
“THAT MUCH POWER COULD—”
“FIFTEEN SECONDS TO IMPACT!” Jones
declared.
“DO IT! DO IT NOW!” Smith commanded.
“Aye, sir!” She carried out the command
promptly.
“WE’RE BARELY STAYING AHEAD OF IT!” Jones
declared. “IT’S GAINING ON US! WILSON!”
The
sublight engines power levels were showing as being 250 percent of maximum. .
.He took a deep breath and then roared, “ENGAGING
SUBLIGHT DESTRUCTIVE!”
The ship’s
velocity increased exponentially per second. They were approaching light speed. “JONES?”
She
pushed herself upright. The dot in the center was inching away from the
inflating wall of fire behind it. “WE’RE GETTING
AHEAD OF IT! THE SHOCK WAVE IS STILL
ACCELERATING!”
“TIME TO INTERCEPT AURORA?” Smith asked.
“TEN SECONDS!”
The
shuddering began to steady. Another sensor alert sounded amid the alarming chaos.
“WE’RE CLEAR OF THE BLAST WAVE!” The
shuddering finally calmed. “The blast
wave is dissipating! It destroyed
most of the debris!”
“Jones. Confirm ‘all-clear’.”
“Confirming the same!”
“All right,” Aaen pointed to Smith. “Stand
down from red alert. Sandberg, secure from silent running; power down the
stealth system. Connors! Normalize all power levels. Hayes! Open a channel to
the Aurora.” The alarms promptly ended.
“They’ve
already signaled us, sir: they’ve received new orders. They’re departing the
system. . . A second message just came in—we’ve
been ordered to report to Starbase 251.”
Aaen
took his seat.
Jones
admired how effectively Aurora faded
off the sensor grid.
“Why
would they send us all there?” Aaen asked Smith.
“Let’s find out.”
*****
Smashwords.com (Remember to like and share!)
Apple iBooks
Barnesandnoble.com
Scribd.com
Kobo.com
Blio.com
 |
