Badlands

by Randal Sloan

  "I know that's true," Sasha told him. "But who knows what will happen in a battle? You haven't had time to really test them. My statement still stands. Are you with me?"

  "Oh, we're with you. We were always with you." Gabo told her with a smile. "Get us out of here — we have a battle to win."

  Sasha nodded, finishing up the last tasks to have the ship ready to go. She opened her coms, using their special circuit that connected to the Princess and Jason's control center with a real-time connection. That had been one of the first requirements Jarra had included in her plan. They dared not go into battle without it, the timing of the maneuvers Jarra intended had to be very precise.

  "Your Highness, we're about to depart. We should be in position in about five minutes. Still no sign of the Admiral and the aliens?"

  "Still no sign but we know about where they'll be coming from when they get here, so we'll be ready." She just stared at Sasha for a moment. "I know what you're thinking, you know. It's not going to happen, because my plan will work. So I'm telling you now, be careful and don't do anything reckless."

  "Yes, Your Highness. However, if it does go bad, you'll understand what I have to do."

  Jarra just shook her head. "I should be there with you, but I can't change the way things are. Go with my blessings, Katarina."

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  To Do Battle

  Admiral Janson was getting impatient. Besides the fact looking at them was quite disconcerting, it didn't take long to recognize the aliens were entirely AI in their way of thinking. Instead of moving faster when the ship obviously could, they continued at their same drudging pace. Because it was the most efficient, the alien said.

  Janson finally gave up on him. I need to get this little battle over so I can go get a human crew and get away from these aliens. I'm not sure how much more I can stand.

  The aliens didn't even go to the trouble to name their ships. Instead each ship had a number. Theirs was RZA-900001. Janson had already decided he was calling the ship the Sword of Retribution.

  Finally they neared the side of the Badlands where the Relentless was waiting. Janson had half expected the ship to be somewhere other than where he'd left it, either in a futile attempt to run away or to try to somehow catch them by surprise. But after all, where do you hide a super-dreadnought? It never crossed his mind that they might not be alone or that a smaller ship might be hiding just inside the Badlands. Even if he had known, he wouldn't have been worried.

  After all, despite the fact he couldn't stand the aliens, they'd built a pretty good ship. Their reactors gave them as much power as a super-dreadnought had and their hyperspace engines could carry them up to the delta band, whatever that meant. All Janson knew was they could move really fast and they could navigate areas such as the Badlands without having a detailed map beforehand.

  And then there was that beam weapon. The aliens insisted it was powerful enough to knock down the shields on the Relentless in just a couple of hits and then after that it was just a matter of carving them into little pieces. Janson was looking forward to that. They never gave me the respect I deserved on that ship. I guess I'll have that now, right before they die. Too bad. Too little. Too late.

  Their ship was finally out of the Badlands so they came to a stop. Already they were in range of that beam weapon, but Janson couldn't resist one last conversation with Captain Arkwright. Janson knew the man despised him. Well, I can't stand the man either. Him and his Empire that he so strongly believes in. Where is that Empire now?

  Arkwright had been so strong in his beliefs about the Empire, Janson hadn't even considered recruiting him. Him and the rest of the ship! Even the incompetent officers Janson had recruited for the ship had been strong supporters of the Empire. I just don't get it. The Emperor is just another man. Why would anyone care what that man wants?

  Janson frowned at the alien at the coms. Why hadn't the thing called the Relentless already? That was just Standard Operations Procedure. What did those stupid aliens do? Just open fire without even talking? Janson would have been disgusted to find out that was exactly what they normally did.

  "Open me a channel," he told the alien at the coms in a gruff tone. His impatience was getting the better of him, not that anything seemed to faze these aliens. The alien just ignored his tone, working at the console.

  At least they were efficient. Within seconds the alien said, "Channel open."

  "This is the Sword of Retribution. Arkwright, I'm surprised you didn't try to run away, not that it would have done you any good."

  "Why would I run away? All I see is a little ship with a pop gun. We'll make short work of you and I'll still be on time for my afternoon tea."

  Still no respect. That was fine with him. It just meant he wouldn't have to waste his time chasing the ship down. "We'll see how you feel about it after I start blowing up your ship around you."

  He cut the coms in disgust. Turning to the alien in charge of the beam weapon, he said, "Fire the beam."

  Again, the aliens were stupid. "Charging," the alien said.

  Janson stared in disbelief. What kind of idiot would go into battle and not have his big gun ready to fire? For reasons he didn't understand, the beam weapon was tied into a huge capacitor bank and couldn't fire until the array was charged. That was the biggest limitation Janson saw in the thing. His impatience grew as he waited.

  Relentless had already fired their missiles and Janson laughed as dozens of smaller versions of those beams shot out from their ship to destroy the incoming missiles. Still, with the number of missiles a super-dreadnought could fire, quite a few made it through. The ship's shields staggered a little bit, but they could take quite a few of those hits.

  Finally the beam weapon was ready and it fired, a fearsome display of their power. Janson watched in eager anticipation.

  It was a direct hit on the Relentless. After all, the aliens didn't miss. Except absolutely nothing happened. Their shields barely flickered.

  "Why is it not working?" Janson screamed at the alien Sub-Commander. "I thought you said it would only take a couple of shots."

  Janson should have anticipated the alien's response. After all, he'd already spent a day with them. "It should have worked. It appears the shields of your super-dreadnought are stronger than we thought."

  Janson stared at him in disgust. "No, you idiot. I gave you the specs myself. I know how strong those shields are. It has to be something else. Maybe they just got lucky and hit the exact frequency or something. Change the frequency and fire again."

  "Charging," the alien said.

  Janson couldn't believe it. "Until I tell you otherwise, you will charge and fire that weapon until there's nothing to fire at. Do you understand?" Janson was practically yelling.

  "So noted," said the alien. It still appeared to be totally unfazed.

  By this time, more missiles had started to come in from the Relentless. This time more missiles got through. Apparently the defensive beam weapons couldn't all fire at one spot and the Relentless had grouped their missiles tighter together so that a number of the missiles were missed in the confusion. Plus, the aliens depended entirely on the beams with no defensive missiles to break up the pattern. Their shields dipped even more. A super-dreadnought could fire a lot of missiles. Janson wasn't worried, but he knew they couldn't take it all day. Sooner or later they would wear down even the strong shields of the aliens.

  Once more, the beam was finally ready and it fired again. Again, Janson was eager for the results and again he was disappointed. The shields flickered but they easily held once more.

  "What's wrong with it?" Janson yelled once more in frustration.

  The alien didn't even bother to answer him. Its AI brain had already decided. Its logic matrix told him that it was 99.999 percent certain that the information they had been given was false and that the weapon was not going to work. The enemy's shields were stronger than they'd been led to believe. It was illogical but apparently their human allies ha
d lied.

  The alien didn't really care if it died or not. After all, its brain was "backed up" on its home world and it could just be given a new body. He downloaded the current changes to his life experience, including the information on the battle and his experience with the humans and sent it out on a com drone.

  AI command would pull the battle information from the drone and understand that the technology of this ship was insufficient and they would have to redesign an attack vessel. They would then send the rest of the brain dump to his home world. The next time, he'd know to avoid these humans. Besides being stupid, they stank.

  More missiles were already on their way. Then the Relentless did something that Janson had believed was impossible. They turned their ship into the Badlands.

  #

  Jarra had given Amy a hug and sent her away to her position on the bridge. She was nervously awaiting the arrival of the Admiral and his alien crew. Despite the confidence she had shown outwardly, she was more than a little worried about the outcome of this battle.

  What if the alien weapon is stronger than we believe? What if the jury-rigged shields didn't hold? Jarra knew she was taking a big chance, but as she saw it, she didn't have a choice.

  Jarra didn't know how she knew it, but this battle was a critical event in the war with the aliens. She had to destroy that ship at all costs, but yet she couldn't tip her hand about the capabilities her crew had managed to put together on the Katarina.

  Jarra had too many people on both ships that she cared deeply for. She was terrified that something would happen to one or more of them and she was determined not to let anything happen to them. She already had two of her Marines suffering from very severe injuries thanks to that madman and his crazy desire to hurt her.

  All of this meant Jarra was quite nervous until the battle began. Once it began, she no longer had time to worry.

  The alien ship appeared at the spot they'd expected, right on time. Those aliens are too predictable. I wonder if we can find a way to use that against them in the future. Surprise attacks and ambushes were some of the ideas that flashed through her head. In this case, it meant that the Katarina was in the exact position they needed to be in, so they didn't have to move from their well-hidden location.

  Jarra listened in as the former Admiral talked with Captain Arkwright. Janson was just as arrogant as ever. She'd asked Nick to try to push the man's buttons to get him angry and the Captain did a good job at that. Just a little insurance. Jarra believed that if the Admiral was angry, he would be less likely to figure it all out. Not that she thought he was smart enough to do it.

  Jarra held her breath. Now was the time she would know. It all came down to when they fired that beam. Her plans would work or they wouldn't.

  Except nothing happened. Surely the aliens would fire their beam. It finally dawned on her. Jynks, count the time from when the Admiral disconnected the call until they fire the beam. She smiled to herself. The idiots didn't have their capacitor bank charged and they were having to charge it.

  At least that told her something. The aliens didn't have the tech she had. Jarra had rejected using an array for power storage for just this reason. It took much too long to charge in battle.

  Finally the beam fired. The shields flickered a tiny bit but they held! Maybe her plans were going to work out after all.

  #

  Jason was rather busy in his position on the bridge. He was worried too; mostly afraid that he would let the Princess down. Her very life depended on his actions. Like everyone else, he held his breath waiting for the beam to fire. Would their shields hold?

  They held! At least the first time. Jason had a slot designated for Engineering and he quickly queried the Engineer.

  "Engineering. What's your status?"

  "We're holding. We blew a couple of power couplings but everything else is good right now. I've got men working on that as we speak." He glanced at his panel. "The main transfer point is running a little hotter than I'd like."

  "You keep a close eye on it. Everything is depending on those shields holding."

  "I can get you at least a couple more of those hits. Any more than that, I'm not sure."

  "I'm passing that on to the Princess. We may have to speed up the timetable."

  Jason quickly connected to Jarra. She must have been listening in because she just shook her head. "It's too early, Jase."

  The beam fired again. This time the flicker of the shields was more noticeable. Just a little longer, Jarra whispered. You've got to hold a little longer.

  Finally, the thing she was waiting for. A com drone shot out from the enemy ship. Jarra sent a message to Amy of one word. Go!

  #

  Because of the upgrade to their shields, the Relentless could access the lower end of the delta band of hyperspace. Only for a limited time and the additional load on their hyperspace engines would further strain their ailing main transfer module, but they only needed a short run. They had to be in the right position at the right time.

  Just a couple of minutes more, Jarra prayed. It all must come together or the risk of discovery by the aliens was too high. The whole point of her gamble was to hide the existence of the tech in the Katarina until it was too late. The alien High Command, or whatever they called their military leaders, must not know. Not yet.

  Of course, the aliens followed them. What else could they do? They seemed to be confused by the move, having been told the humans couldn't operate in the delta band. But they wouldn't want them getting away. It did mean that they were slow to respond, something else Jarra filed away for future use.

  What the aliens didn't understand about humans was something their logic matrixes couldn't wrap themselves around. The humans had something the aliens didn't have. A killer instinct. After centuries of warfare, where it was kill or be killed, humans knew just when to go for the throat.

  Oh, the aliens could kill. They did it very well in their logical, take care of business manner. They'd been doing it for millennia, after somewhere back in the history they'd forgotten, the decision had been made to wipe out all biological life in the galaxy. It was just too inefficient. But they didn't have the extra instinct. If one of the aliens died, he just downloaded himself again.

  That killer instinct told the Relentless that the aliens had a small hole in their defense grid. A human ship would have constantly rotated that small hole to keep it from being so vulnerable. But the aliens didn't think that way.

  The XO had spotted the weakness in their first missile launch. He'd honed in on it in the second launch. By the third launch, he had it pinpointed. As they shot into the Badlands, that third launch was on its way. Caught by surprise, the aliens were slow to respond and by that time the missiles were closing in. A number of the missiles struck home, shaking the alien craft and sending their shields down quite a bit, but it wasn't enough.

  That was never the plan anyway. Given enough time, with stable shields, the Relentless would have been able to pound away with her missiles, eventually winning out. Instead, the XO transmitted the location of that weakness to the waiting Katarina. The two ships would cross in front of their hiding place in a few moments.

  All wasn't good for the home team, however. For the Relentless, the jury-rigged shields and the increased strain due to the hyperspace engines were pushing that transfer module beyond the limits of its cooling ability. Part of it was due to the high frequencies that were beyond its design capability, something Gabo had missed in their quick, quick fix. The alien beam fired again and it was very close. The flicker of the shields was very obvious, even to the watching alien ship.

  "We have them," Admiral Janson said to the alien sub-commander. "One more shot of our weapon and that'll be all." He had been close to ordering a quick retreat; unlike these aliens who appeared to have a death wish, he didn't want to die. But this, this looked like this was it. He waited impatiently for the alien weapon to charge. Those aliens were crazy. No sane human would ever have depended on such
a weapon.

  The alien sub-commander had decided maybe the humans were right after all. He readied another com drone; he would launch it after they fired the beam if it was successful. No matter what, he was requesting his next assignment to be as far away from the humans as possible. Perhaps the Borjon front, which was soon to be heating up. After all, the aliens didn't even consider the human race a significant foe. They were only a way to get to their real enemy.

  Janson watched as the charge on the beam weapon slowly inched up. He wanted to fire it now, while he had them, lest they somehow get away. It was nearly there. Just a little more...

  Jarra was watching the battle from what seemed like a far distance. It was almost as if she were floating above it all, looking down on everything. It was going to be close, so very close and that thought worried her. So many were depending on her.

  The ships were almost in position. The fourth missile launch was on its way and the missiles would arrive at exactly her planned time. Jarra had also worked out exactly how long it took that alien weapon to fire. She knew it was going to be so very, very close. She prayed Sasha would hold her position. It all depended on her now, even if the Relentless was lost.

  Time seemed to slow for Jarra. Almost there, almost there. Finally, she ordered, "Fire!"

  On the alien ship the beam charge hit one hundred percent. "Fire!" Admiral Janson yelled.

  All hell broke loose!

  #

  The Katarina fired a fraction of a second before the alien ship. A tiny fraction of a second. They were also minutely closer to their target. Minutely. Their beam hit the weakness in the alien shields, a weakness magnified by the dozens of missile strikes that had slipped into that small vulnerable window just ahead of their attack. Magnitudes stronger than the alien version of the weapon, the Katarina's beam chewed through the weakened alien shields as if they weren't there, boring through the ship's innards as if they were paper until it struck a vital component.

  The alien ship vanished in a gigantic explosion.