Jason coolly watched the situation screen. Dalton, within his virtual-reality, held his display sphere before him in his virtual-hands, peering closely within at the simulation of what was going on around him, as if he were actually holding in his hands the reality of it all.
Tensely, they watched the gravitonic bolt leaving the pirate quickly behind, heading straight for their ship. The particle stream, left behind as their faster-than-light ship flew forward, was in the direct path of the bolt.
The gravitonic bolt quickly approached the waiting particle stream, connected, then disappeared from the screen, to be replaced by a slowly expanding black region. Jason smiled. Then frowned. His particle weapon was still not fully re-charged.
Damn thing was so slow -- effective, though. He watched the enemy sailship finally approach the little blackened region then nimbly curve around it.
Jason realized with a start that the enemy was slowly gaining -- it was a faster sailship! The original pirate sailship, much slower, was falling way behind. And then behind it ANOTHER sailship appeared. Jason ordered the computer to color all clone ships brown and Infinity City built ships red.
The rapidly approaching ship turned red, the original ship turned brown, there was a pause while the computer awaited data from the radar system. The newest ship turned red! And yes, it was shooting down the gravitonic current just as fast as the one already approaching Jason -- No! It was faster, and within moments it passed the slower brown colored sailship.
Jason's particle-beam system signaled full re-charge just as the nearest of the two red approaching ships fired another grav' bolt. Again Jason fired back a particle-beam to intercept the destructive bolt. This appeared on the display as another streak left behind his sailship.
Not waiting for further developments, Jason now fired his own gravitonic cannon, a powerful Benchley Mark-III with a 10-inch coherizer. It ship swayed slightly and momentarily slowed as power diverted from the gravitonic sail system to the cannon.
The bolt tore backwards heading for the approaching ship -- it would connect in seconds! Jason held his breath in anticipation watching the image representing his own bolt shoot backwards, passing the stationary particle-beam streak he had previously launched, and passing the approaching gravitonic bolt from the enemy ship which, moments later, was destroyed by their particle-beam streak. He continued to watch his cannonfire hearing Dalton cry: "Come on! Hit 'em!"
But just as the bolt grew near, the enemy ship brought itself hard over, out of the way, and was missed -- the bolt from Jason's ship passed by and eventually shot out of a curve in the gravitonic current quickly dissipating beyond in empty space.
Jason swore under his breath while bringing the sailship smoothly around a tight curve in the gravitonic current. That would buy them time for the atomic particle weapon to recharge.
He checked the map -- the first enemy would be around the bend in only a minute or two! Then Jason noticed that just up ahead there was another gravitonic current branching off from the one they were in. He had a hunch he could duck into the branching gravitonic current before the enemy rounded the bend behind --
the computer verified this as true. There were more curves in the current ahead. Jason regretfully decided it would be best to shake these pursuing pirates -- three was too many. "Stand by for a rough maneuver, Dalton! We're sailing into that current branching off just ahead! We're going to lose 'em!"
Dalton barely heard Jason. He was too busy reviewing the onboard weapon systems, straining his brain to come up with even more improvements. There must be some way... There WAS some way
-- he KNEW it but the answer was just out of his conscious reach...
Just before the branch, Jason rapidly slowed the sailship, the gravitonic generator screaming in response as all the energy that was in the sails came funnelling back in to it. Jason brought the ship hard over into the new gravitonic current, gave out one loud "HA!", then noticed the flashing alert message on his situation viewscreen just as the computer announced: "Two approaching ships in this current."
Jason could not believe his eyes. About as far away as the last two ships had been, now there were two more before him.
"All stop!", he ordered the computer. "Give me their configuration!", he demanded and saw to his frustration the data displayed from the gravitonic radar analysis: Two clones -- more pirates! And he could see the two ships speeding up. Suddenly, he saw on the situation screen each of the two new ships launch a gravitonic bolt heading straight for him. "Full gravitonic power!", Jason shouted as he swung the sailship around in a tight arc, the entire ship shuddering under the strain of the surging gravitonic field pouring down from the sails.
The two gravitonic bolts were coming down fast as Jason sailed back at full speed for the original gravitonic current.
His particle defense weapon was fully charged again but he felt sure he would make the other current before the approaching bolts would hit. However, they were coming on fast! The situation display showed them as blinking tiny yellow dots traveling down the current far faster than Jason or the enemy ships. He noticed that the enemy ships, though clones of true Infinity City craft, were moving much faster than the first pirate craft he had seen, though they were not as fast as Jason's sailship at its current top speed.
Jason watched the display breathlessly as his ship quickly approached the junction with the other current while the approaching bolts rapidly grew closer and closer. "Jason, are they going to hit us??", he heard Dalton cry with surprise.
"Hell, no!", Jason barked without taking his eyes off the display.
In another few seconds they were at the junction. Jason cut grav power to one quarter and blasted into the other current already bringing his ship about in a tight arc that made the ship surge violently in several directions. Jason glanced at the situation display and at first could not make sense of what he saw. Then the computer announced, "Second ship proximity!
Danger! Second ship maneuvering too chaotic for extrapolation --
cannot auto-maneuver. Recommend immediate manual evasion.
Danger!"
Jason roared, "Computer, zoom in on local situation!" The image on the screen expanded in a split second to show, still in three dimensions, just what was going on: Jason's sailship had come flying out of the branching current back into the original current right into the path of the other approaching pirate ships
-- the current was turbulent and narrow at this point, less than one light-hour in diameter, not much maneuvering room for faster-than-light craft. As shown by the pirates erratic course, they both had panicked, cut power, and were currently out of control, jerking this was and that to avoid fouling their fragile sails with each other and Jason. Jason quickly sized up the situation, let his intuition get a feel for it, then sharply swung his ship out of the way in just the right direction to avoid the other ships and the edge of the current -- all without requesting astronavigation assistance from his computer. Then at full power he sent his sailship blasting up the current and rapidly away from the branch.
Quickly, Jason swung the pilot chair to the left over to the gravitonic cannon console and tried to target the wildly maneuvering pirate. He could not! It's movements were still out of control. Jason turned back to the situation display with his left hand still at the cannon controls. "Computer, display cannon targeting cross hairs! Zoom in on proximity sailcraft 50%... 25% more!" He kept the cross hairs on the weirdly moving ship. What was the pirate doing?! Then Jason felt the pattern
-- the pirate must have fouled his east and south sails with the larger central one and was trying to jerk the ship over to free them up. Jason estimated the direction in which the pirate ship would next surge... aimed carefully... and FIRED! He felt with satisfaction the ship shudder as power was momentarily sucked away from the gravitonic sail system and diverted to his powerful gravitonic cannon.
Jason watched his cannon bolt on the display quickly heading toward the pirate. Sure enough, the pirate
surged over in the predicted direction and was hit by the cannon bolt!
Jason's eyes were wide as he stared at the display anxiously waiting for any sign of destruction. The little blinking yellow bolt of his cannon shot had disappeared. And now, the pirate ship was stopped with no more movement -- Jason's gravitonic cannon bolt had destroyed his gravitonic system! "We got one, Dalton!", Jason muttered.
"Great shooting, partner!", he heard Dalton cry.
Several things now occurred on the display screen. The slow pirate that had been dawdling up the current behind all the action finally caught up and was almost at the branch. The remaining pirate ship near the branch regained control and swung around after Jason. The two pirate ships from the other current, popped out and arced around toward Jason's ship. Four pirate craft were now in hot pursuit of Jason and Dalton, and not far behind!
Then, from the disabled fifth ship, a gravitonic bolt was launched! "He's STILL got power from his generator!", Jason cried in surprise, while swinging over to the antimissile console to target and launch a particle-beam at the rapidly approaching gravitonic bolt.
He launched the beam with a vicious growl then swung back to the situation display where he noticed, with a shock, that the other four pirate ships had opened fire launching more gravitonic bolts. Dismally he checked the particle-beam's charging time: slow as ever. There would not be enough time before they struck
-- he would have to try evasive maneuvering and hope for a miracle. The bolts were less a minute away...
Then, Jason twisted around to face his junior partner remembering that a miracle was indeed available. At the same time, Dalton lifted his V-R helmet from his head, his dark hair tumbling out and around, his dark eyes were wide with concern.
He cried, "Jason, there's two gravitonic bolts heading toward us..."
Jason cut him off: "Yeah, I know... Dalton!", Jason hissed leaning forward, staring in blue-eyed intensity, his face gaunt with strain. "Your plan to charge the particle-beam from the main gravitonic cannon -- can you still do it? Do you remember it??"
Dalton's face broke into a delighted grin. "Yeah, of course! That's what I was about to ask permission to do! Uh, can I?"
With exasperation Jason cried, "YES!", then reaching over smacked the V-R helmet back down over Dalton's head. He then whirled around, grabbed the manual controls, and brought the sailship hard over to try to avoid the oncoming gravitonic bolts from the approaching pirates.
The bolts had approached rapidly. Fortunately, the pirates'
attack was uncoordinated and the three bolts had been simply aimed at Jason's position instead of a more effective distributed pattern. Jason avoided them easily but paid a price: Jerking the sailship sideways across the gravitonic current cost him forward movement -- the pirates he had rapidly pulled away from were now closer. After avoiding their cannonfire, Jason swung his sailship around and sped off down the gravitonic current at maximum power. The distance between him and the pirates began to increase again.
The three pirate sailships out in the lead were not as fast as Jason and he slowly pulled ahead. He suddenly realized that he had disabled the fastest of the pirates with his cannon back at the branch -- what stroke of luck!
Trailing behind the three was the pirate Jason had first encountered -- much slower but still armed with a dangerous gravitonic cannon. Jason was thankful none of them seemed to have multiple cannon.
Jason watched the situation display closely -- the locations of the pirates were quickly scanned by his gravitonic radar and translated into images. Then, the slowest pirate, now far behind the advanced two, fired his gravitonic cannon again. Then again and again! This huge amount of gravitonic power quickly slowed the pirate's craft to a standstill. Jason realized the clever pirate had noted Jason's loss of progress avoiding the cannonfire.
As the first gravitonic bolt quickly passed the three advanced pirates, they too again opened fire, though only firing a single bolt apiece. Three gravitonic cannon shots were now racing toward Jason's sailship with several more from the slower ship flying up from behind. In a few moments he would again have to swing his sailship around killing his forward movement.
"Dalton!", he growled while beginning the maneuver. "How's that modification coming? -- Dalton? Dalton!!" Jason craned his neck around and saw Dalton's arms waving and jerking around before him as if he was manipulating invisible objects. "Dalton!
Can you hear me?!"
Within his virtual-reality domain Dalton sat entranced with the sailship's design details all floating around him in rich, colored detail. He mumbled, "I hear you... I'm on it... Soon
-- soon..." Concentrating furiously, he was rapidly giving the ship's computer instructions for his new modification, but was prudently ordering the computer to model and test each step along the way. Dalton would be affecting too many of the ship's critical systems without at least having the computer perform validity tests. With a burst of intuitive brilliance, Dalton had realized he could do more than just redirect electrical power from the gravitonic system to the particle-beam system -- he could redirect GRAVITONIC power as well!
While Dalton's arms frantically moved about manipulating the symbols that interfaced to the ship's computer, Jason turned back to his command console and swung the sailship back and forth avoiding the oncoming gravitonic bolts. This time, he noted with a growl, they had not all aimed at his exact location but had targeted randomly which made it more difficult to avoid their fire -- when Jason finally turned the ship and again sailed away at full power he found they had moved in far closer just a few light-days behind -- they were only MINUTES away!
Jason's sailship again began pulling away from the pirates.
Jason found himself sweating hard. How soon would they fire again?? All models of gravitonic cannon he'd ever heard of took power from the mighty gravitonic sail system. You could fire often but it took power from your sails and slowed you down. But these pirates hardly slowed at all! Jason dismally concluded they must have installed greatly oversized gravitonic generation systems to allow greater offensive capability.
And then again they fired! And while Jason brought the sailship hard over again, the slower pirate ship now far behind also fired. The advancing pirate ships were getting so close that Jason had only seconds to determine the trajectory of the cannon bolts then jerk the sailship out of the way. This time, he avoided getting hit by only seconds. He brought the ship around, and again cranked the gravitonic generator to maximum power and flew down the gravitonic current close enough to one side to allow the cannon bolt from the slow pirate to harmlessly streak by.
"Dalton! I need that fix!"
"It's almost ready, chief! It's got something extra! I'm just fine tuning the interface configurations now..."
"'Something extra'?", Jason repeated. What could that...
Then, displayed on his situation screen, he spied another branching gravitonic current not too far ahead. Its characteristics indicated it was smaller than their present current. Usually, the smaller the gravitonic current, the more branches led off -- like the structure of a plant's root system.
If he could duck down gravitonic currents with more and more branches there was a good chance he could lose his deadly pursuers! Jason made ready to take the approaching branch.
Then, to Jason's horror, the screen suddenly showed one, two, three more ships appear out of the branching current just ahead. They paused for a moment, then turned and accelerated quickly toward him!
Jason knew what was coming. He set his own gravitonic cannon at 1/3 charge and fired three times at the three newly ships before him. The draw on his own gravitonic power slowed his sailship down to a standstill. It did not matter anymore --
he was surrounded with no place to go -- cornered. However, when cornered Jason turned into a dangerous animal...
Jason growled over his shoulder, "Dalton! I need that particle-beam!", and pulled the gravitonic sails back to allow only quick maneuvering. He kept an eye on the thr
ee new ships while swinging his own ship around to fire on the approaching pirates behind.
The newest ships scattered as soon as they detected Jason's cannonfire, but not before firing their own gravitonic cannon.
Jason's powerful gravitonic generator had charged enough to allow him to send three bursts back at the pirates behind. Then he had to jerk the ship hard over to avoid the cannon bolts only seconds away from the pirates in front; luckily, like the first pirates, these had foolishly all targeted the point of Jason's previous position; he easily avoided their fire.
But now they fired again! They had come to a stop and apparently planned to divert all of their mighty gravitonic power to blasting away at Jason with their cannon. Then he saw the other two pirate sailships fire again then come to a stop also.
He was now trapped between seven dangerous pirate sailships --
three behind plus the slower pirate hurriedly catching up, and three in front -- the largest collective force he had ever heard of! And they were all firing on him!
They were not trying to destroy him -- they wanted his precious Infinity City sailship and any supply of the Pill of Life he might possess. If just one of their gravitonic cannon bolts struck his sailship, his gravitonic sails would vaporize and his wonderful sailship would become a sitting duck to be easily boarded, looted, and towed away. He and Dalton would be killed, if they resisted -- or worse; sold into slavery if they did not.
Dismally all too aware of these possibilities Jason now determinably swung his ship back and forth, desperately avoiding the cannonfire from two sides while from time to time getting off bursts of his own.
The pirates were no longer stationary themselves but were forced to reduce their own cannonfire as they swung their own ships back and forth to chaotically avoid not just Jason's blasts but also the crossfire from the pirates on Jason's opposite side.
Douglas Kendall Page 7
