“Which means they either had help from the inside or discovered how to circumvent your shield technology.”
Ziron hissed. “Nonsense! This tech is impregnable. I designed these shields myself.”
“You obviously did a bang-up job!”
Kevin could tell from Ziron’s face that he wasn’t amused. “But you must be right. If it were perfect, they wouldn’t have captured her.”
“That’s okay, don’t beat yourself up. I’m sure you thought your tech was adequate. I certainly was impressed by the nano-blaster you sent with the probe, I hope you have more.”
Ziron purred. “That’s nice of you to say. But if we’re being honest, my inventions aren’t always the most—how should I say this: reliable, even if I tell myself otherwise.”
Well, shit happens.
Ziron made a dubious face and then blinked his eyes rapidly. “Ah, interesting saying, I guess it does.”
“I thought you couldn’t read my direct thoughts?”
“Oh, now that you have on the nano-armor, I can access your brain directly.”
“Swell, now you can read my mind,” said Kevin pointing at Ziron, “This isn’t my favorite invention of yours. It’s a little creepy you accessing my brain or whatnot. Quite honestly, I’m not sure I’m very comfortable with the whole thing.”
Ziron extended his claws and scratched one of his ears. “I wouldn’t be if the roles were reversed, I suppose, but I’m just accessing live data so I can better interact with you. I don’t care about what you do at night when you think everyone’s asleep.”
Kevin’s neck and cheeks glowed red. “You didn’t just go there.”
“I’m an excellent secret keeper, don’t worry.” Ziron winked.
Kevin buried his face into his palms. But before his mind could go into overdrive of paranoid thoughts on the subject the ship rocked heavily.
“Shit!” uttered Ziron. “They found us.”
“Who? The Kregan?”
“Who else?”
Ziron entered a couple of commands on his spherical holo-interface, and the wall behind him turned into a giant screen, showing space and a ship whose design Kevin recognized immediately.
“I need you to interface with Mira 2.0 now!”
“How do I do that?”
“Close your eyes and think of her.”
“What?”
“Just trust me.”
Kevin closed his eyes and thought of Mira.
Mira? Can you hear me?
Five by five, Kevin, it’s good to hear your voice again.
We talked earlier, remember?
The ship shuddered and rocked once more, harder this time.
That was a separate instance of my AI matrix. A copy if you will. But we don’t have time to catch up I’m afraid, shields are already down to seventy percent. Are you authorizing me for AI-pilot partnership?
I am.
I’ll observe your tactics and intervene only in case you’re incapacitated or dead. Neuronal link now complete and operational.
Yeah…ok. I’ve missed you too—I guess. Can I reopen my eyes?
Only if you want to, I can project holographic instruments both inside the ship and inside your mind.
Kevin reopened his eyes, and a holographic war center appeared superimposed in his field of view. It gave him all the tactical information he needed, as well as a HUD that allowed him to keep an eye on the ship’s vitals and access to all the weapons with a single push of his mind.
There was only one enemy ship on their tail, but it looked significantly bigger than the Osiris. It took Kevin a few seconds to reacquaint himself with the neuronal link, but soon he got the hang of it, and the Osiris roared to life as he powered sub-light engines to seventy percent in an attempt to create distance with the pursuing Kregan destroyer.
Alright, there’s nothing to it, Kevin said to himself to bolster his confidence, even though he was acutely aware of his quickly rising anxiety levels. This didn’t feel the same as last time, as this time around, if he messed up, both he and Boomer could die. That worried him.
May I suggest you don’t focus on your own demise right now? inquired Mira. That won’t help you fight any better.
Easier said than done, you’re a machine, you probably have backups of your consciousness in other places. I’m, for the lack of a better word, unique.
Would it make you feel better if I backed up your consciousness? Or disabled some of your emotional pathways?
What? You can disable my fear?
Not completely, but I can help you manage it with software, yes.
Kevin thought about it but then a torpedo slammed into the shields, and the lights inside the bridge flickered wildly for a second.
No, not yet anyway. I think fear could be a great motivator in this case. But thanks, Mira.
Of course, Captain.
He missed hearing Mira call him that. But the captain needed to command his ship and not let himself become distracted, so in the end, Kevin did close his eyes and was surprised that every overlaid element in his field of view remained active.
“Why aren’t you firing back?” inquired a worried Ziron.
“On it. I do suggest you strap in though.”
“You aren’t strapped in either!”
“Well, I haven’t seen many chairs around.”
“Just think of a chair and sit.”
“What?”
“For crying out loud, just do it!”
Kevin did as he was told and was surprised when his bottom hit what felt like the seat of a chair. His eyes flew open, and he had a hard time believing what he saw: A beautiful and comfortable beige, leather chair with controls at the end of the armrest.
Holy crap, am I sitting on Jean-Luc Picard’s captain’s chair?
“Did my mind do this?” he asked Ziron.
“With the help of your nano-armor, yes. The nano-armor will help you construct anything you think of. I see you’ve created this one based on fond memories from a show you enjoyed.”
You can say that again.
Boomer barked nearby, and Kevin thought of a way to secure his pet. A couple of leathery bands looped around the Beagle and secured him to the bottom of the chair. Boomer yelped in fear.
“It’s okay, buddy, these will keep you safe.”
Boomer barked twice.
Kevin had to admit that the level of technology he witnessed today alone was far beyond anything he thought would even be possible. It was enthralling, but awe would have to wait, he had a Kregan destroyer to deal with first.
5
The Kregan destroyer came about for another volley of laser fire and torpedoes. Kevin banked the ship at the last moment in order to avoid the full brunt of the torpedo spread and managed to dodge sixty percent of them. The multiple collisions rocked the ship and lowered the shields to forty percent.
Boomer growled and barked several times, straining against the leather straps.
Kevin was where he wanted to be now regarding position. A quick simulation ran in his mind while maneuvering the Osiris and showed him that its shields should be able to sustain grazing the shields of the Kregan destroyer.
It was time to put this theory to the test, and Kevin changed his heading to position the Osiris face to face with the enemy ship. The ship vibrated, and the shields lowered another twenty percent.
“Are you nuts? Are you trying to get us killed?” Ziron complained.
“Let me fight my way!”
As if echoing his master, Boomer barked and growled at Ziron.
Kevin redirected power from life support and artificial gravity but not before thinking seatbelt. A metallic belt looped around the top of his shoulders, however, Ziron was left floating in the bridge knocking against the ship’s interior.
The Sphynx hissed. “I’m starting to regret saving your life.”
Kevin ignored the blue cat and unleashed all laser batteries and torpedoes, hoping the power boost to the shields would protect the Os
iris from the destroyer exploding near their ship.
The result was devastating. Multiple explosions appeared on the surface of the Kregan destroyer, and its shields flickered and died within seconds.
Sparks flew inside the bridge as an alarm blared. Their own shields were critically low, but the alarm resounded because of an overload of the weapon’s systems, disabling the Osiris’ offensive capabilities in the middle of the fight.
“I told you, you’re going to get us all killed,” said Ziron, holding on for dear life to a nearby piece of equipment.
“Well, at least I won’t have to hear your incessant complaining anymore.”
“How rude.”
“Shut up, let me focus if you want to keep breathing.”
Kevin ignored the resulting Sphynx’s spit-hiss.
He had to admit that his strategy had been bold, and in this case, he had been too cocky for his own good. The Osiris clearly wasn’t as strong as the previous ship he had remote piloted with his mind. He longed for the Thalamos. Nevertheless, he needed to get them out of this predicament.
“Mira, any other weapon online?” said Kevin, not realizing he was speaking out loud.
“Only the multiphasic quantum torpedo prototype I’m afraid,” Mira replied.
“That’s not ready for use!” protested Ziron.
“Well, today it is,” Kevin answered dismissively.
I’m only gonna have one shot at this, better not waste it.
Kevin analyzed the sensors and his eyes focused on the star of the system. A bright orange sun that seemed significantly larger than the one from his own solar system.
“Mira, can you locate the Kregan engine’s weak spot now that their shields are down?”
A hologram of the enemy ship appeared in front of Kevin’s field of view and rotated momentarily, then stopped when a portion of the hull painted itself in red.
“Thank you, dear.”
“You’re perfectly welcome, Kevin,” Mira cooed.
Here goes nothing.
Kevin redirected all weapons power to the shields while delivering nano-bots to the weapons in order to repair them. He had no doubt that this battle could be over before that happened though. But better safe than sorry, and he needed to think two or even three moves ahead if they intended to survive this battle.
Then came the crazy part of the plan. Kevin locked onto the destroyer with the Osiris tractor beam, and the moment the lock was confirmed, he activated a micro-hyperspace jump toward the sun. The moment the jump ended, the viewport filled with an intense and burning bright yellow light, nearly blinding Kevin on the spot.
“Deploying shading coating,” said Mira.
“I’m blind!” screamed Ziron. “You’re a menace, Kevin!”
Was he? In all fairness, Kevin could have clued him in on his plan, but he had been forced to swiftly react to the failure of his first maneuver. He’ll have plenty of time to apologize later for his rush tactics. If they survived.
Kevin blinked a few times as his vision slowly returned. He locked the prototype torpedo onto the spot Mira showed him earlier.
Another alarmed blared, and the bridge filled with red hues.
“Forty seconds to structural integrity failure. The Osiris can’t take this much heat with our current shield levels,” said Mira.
Hopefully, the Kregan ship would sustain even more damage with their shields down, but its armor was much stronger than the Osiris’ armor, so Kevin had to make sure he finished them off. With a brief subconscious prayer, he fired the multiphasic torpedo.
The torpedo veered madly and started doing loops.
“What the hell? What—What’s happening?” Kevin’s voice stuttered with fear.
“I told you the weapon’s not ready for deployment, I never got the guidance system working properly,” answered Ziron.
“A little heads-up would have been nice.”
“You’re not seriously blaming me for this? I told you it wasn’t ready, you decided to use it anyway, and now we’re all going to die!”
“Nobody but the Kregans are dying today.”
“Mira, can you link me to the torpedo’s guidance system like you did with the starfighters on board the Thalamos last week?”
“Affirmative, link established.”
Kevin thought he would throw up when his vision was replaced with what the torpedo’s head was showing him, which was wild spinning in between the Osiris, the Kregan ship, and the scary, massive sun.
Definitely not what I expected it would feel like.
Kevin had to fight the urge not to vomit and he had to focus his mind in order to regain control over the wild torpedo. It took a second or two, and soon the projectile was flying more or less in a straight line.
“Is that…?” said Kevin.
“You’re flying the torpedo toward the Osiris’ engines!” screamed Ziron.
“Oops, my bad, hang on.”
Kevin calculated a new trajectory and a blue line was drawn in his holographic HUD. It ended in the part of the enemy ship that Mira had told him would damage the Kregan’s engines. He stayed with the torpedo until impact, making sure it hit its target.
The moment it exploded, Kevin’s vision was replaced with flames hurling back toward the bridge, which did nothing to lower his need for vomiting, but he fought against it nonetheless.
“Ten seconds to structural integrity failure. Shields are failing,” said Mira.
Kevin disconnected the tractor beam and veered the ship hard to port. He redirected every ounce of power he could from other systems, including life support, and injected them to the engines.
The Kregan ship’s engines had been disabled and it continued its course toward the burning star. Flames engulfed it little by little and soon it exploded into a raging inferno.
“We have a kill!” cheered Mira.
But the Osiris wasn’t out of Dodge just yet; the engine rumbled and complained as the gravitational forces of the sun were trying to tear the ship apart.
“Can we jump?” asked Kevin.
“Chances of survival in these conditions are lower than fifty-two percent.”
“What are our chances of survival if we keep pushing the engines more?”
“Less than five percent.”
Well, I know which odds I prefer.
“Jump!” said Kevin, feeding their last pre-jump coordinates into the jump engines with his mind.
The ship blinked out of existence and reappeared in space a fraction of a second later.
The lights on the bridge turned off, sparks flew from the ceiling and nearly burned Kevin’s eyes.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl when Kevin noticed a bolt of blue lightning shoot from a console and head straight for his torso. All he could think of was how much he needed a shield as he raised his forearms in an attempt to protect himself from the deadly jolt of electricity heading his way.
Translucent blue circular shields enveloped both his forearms and deflected the bolt. At that moment, time felt like it resumed to its normal pace, and Kevin watched in horror as the bolt of energy grazed Ziron.
The Sphynx screeched as the brunt of the bolt burned the tip of his blue tail.
“Sorry Zee!” said Kevin, his face somewhat apologetic. “Mira, status report?” he asked.
But there was no answer.
“Mira?”
Kevin noticed all the holographic instruments had disappeared from his field of view. Only a few emergency lights provided very subdued lighting to the bridge. Mira, just like most of the ship, must have been disabled.
Boomer was barking madly, his sharp cries reverberating inside the bridge. Kevin reached with his hand and scratched his best friend’s head to calm him down. Boomer added one last sharp woof that sounded like a way to grab Kevin’s attention. That’s when he saw it.
Ziron’s motionless body floated through the bridge. He was drifting toward the wall.
“Zee! Are you okay? Please, wake up!” said Kevin alarmingl
y.
But the Sphynx was out of it. The pain from his tail burning earlier probably made him pass out.
Kevin released his restraints. He started floating almost instantly, which brought back his earlier motion sickness. But then Kevin realized that he had unlatched the seatbelts with a thought, which meant that even though most of the ship’s systems were offline, his nano-armor wasn’t.
He thought magnetic boots and his feet grounded with the metallic floor. He ran toward Ziron but wouldn’t make it in time before the blue cat cracked his skull against the wall. Kevin had to improvise. He thought lasso and lashed forward to grab Ziron. Things didn’t go as he hoped though, and instead of lassoing and grabbing the blue cat in midair, he whipped Ziron. The cat’s legs extended, and he screeched hard from the lasso’s impact that propelled him against the nearest wall face first.
An unpleasant clanging noise stopped Ziron’s momentum. The lights in the bridge blinked back into existence and gravity was restored. Ziron, still spread eagled against the wall, started sliding down with a squeaking sound until he hit the ground.
Kevin ran to his aid but stopped short the moment he saw fire in the cat’s eyes and long diamond-like claws shot from Ziron’s paws.
Ziron hissed. “Don’t! Don’t try to help, in fact, don’t you do a single thing—please.”
“I—I’m sorry, Zee, I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Yeah, well you did a bang-up job at it…nice work!”
Ziron picked himself up and dusted off his blue fur when his eyes locked onto the now black tip of his tail. He turned his head slowly toward Kevin with so much fire inside his eyes that Kevin thought for a second that they were two miniature suns.
“I think it’s best I leave the bridge now.”
Ziron didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to. Kevin deactivated the magnetic boots since gravity had been restored and took a knee as he undid Boomer’s belts with a single thought. Boomer jumped into his arms and licked Kevin’s face a couple of times before the Beagle’s face changed.
Before Kevin could react, the dog barfed all over him.
“I guess I deserved as much,” said Kevin.
Fire at Will: A Space Opera Adventure With LitRPG Elements Page 4
