The Pioneer 4 soared at full throttle as it moved away from the hostiles. The ship arced around from the burning world beneath it, accelerated out of orbit, and hurtled at maximum sublight speed from the deteriorating system.
“Readjusting burn parameters,” Matasire announced, his hands dancing over his command panels. Indicators winked green on the intervening holographic membranes as he removed the safeties. “Burning into a high slingshot orbit”
From the bowels of the three Tauron warships came swarms of single-piloted pursuit crafts. Known as Starhounds to the terrans, yet natively called Pterosoars. Of the fifty Tauron Pterosoars that were nearest to the Pioneer's position, ten took the lead.
"Commander!" Matasire's voice broke, filled with urgency. "I'm picking up unusual readings from the star cluster. The red supergiant is fluctuating, as well as this planet's star. I've never seen anything like this ---" The pilot froze, his mouth dropped open in horror as he suddenly realized the terrible moment was at hand... “Both stars are going to collapse in a matter of macronodes..." he stopped his report and turned to his control board as a sensor beeped ominously. When he looked back at his comrades, his eyes were wide with concern. "The deterioration of both stars will produce a level-nine shock wave. That is sufficient enough to destroy everything in this solar group."
From behind their tableau, the planet fell toward its flaring sun, which swelled with an intense blue-white light. Stellar flares burst from the incandescent surface, reaching out to capture anything within their grasp. Strange forces manipulated its interior, forcing the internal heat and pressure up to levels that such a star never experienced. Its surface began to roil more and more violently. Powerful seismic waves started to pulse through the super-compressed matter at the star's core. Its outer layers began to expand as a result of the increased heat and pressure.
The primary sun burned furiously, ripping of what remained of the melting planet's surface to ribbons. With its core gone, the planet became a red and brown sphere laced with cracks of crimson, like a partially extinguished ember. It began to collapse slowly, even gracefully, drawn together by the invisible hand of gravity, the empty rind of a fruit being crushed inward. When all the in-falling mass slammed together at the center, the shock waves set up an equal but opposite reaction. The mortally wounded world began to rebound. Broken shards of continents and the flying remnants of oceans tore apart what remained of the gauzy atmosphere. The primary star blasted out X-rays, gamma rays, and intense light. Curtains of flame overtook the planet, grating through the glowing world like it was made of cheese, washing over its hellish surface and igniting it, erupting it in the void, as the expanding firestorm front swept on.
The planet that had housed the Aidennian refugees exploded with a flash of red and a flare of yellow fragments that hurtled outward in all directions, resembling a giant dandelion asterisk. Even as the podship raced onward, the saucer’s bulb of projected protective energy shields resounded with hundreds of impacts. The automated systems compensated, taking evasive action, increasing speed as the remnants of the dead planet cooled into a handful of strewn glitter in the icy void of Space.
While the Pioneer 4 rocked in the death throes of the solar group, and the crew heard loose objects clattering and rolling about the decks and consoles and corridors of the great-ship.
"Engineering to flight deck," called a frantic Retho. "What in the Oversoul's name is going on up there? We're being tossed around down here like..."
Intraship static roared over the connection and the command crew had other priorities than an agenda update. The irritating hum of the strained sublight EmDrive engines burdened even more as thrusters and maneuvering fields pushed and pulsed against the ship's previous course. The lights on the flight deck dimmed as the thrusters drained the small ship's power, but the tumbling slowed and ceased; the ship stabilized.
Nicraan was desperate now; his chest pounded. The Pioneer had yet to shrug off four fighters that had overtaken the Pterosoar pack. The saucer tilted up and back with the momentum of an attack. Retrofields and stabilizers flared into life bringing the Pod 4 under control as it continued to speed away into the darkness of Space.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:
The original Spacecorps planning designated Deck 2 of the podship as a sanctuary for noncombatants during a hostile situation while the flight deck was its defense. Spacecorps exploration of Space had been far from uneventful, but there were only a few occasions where a command officer was authorized to take the extraordinary step of including the two, sending colonial personnel normally not involved into a combatant encounter into combat. Obviously, a command officer had to consider the situation so serious that this final measure was unavoidable.
Engineering was a mess. Broken equipment lay about on the deck where it had fallen. This close to the core, the gravitic stresses of the dying star system had caused more damage than anywhere else in the ship. Moela stepped over shattered syntheglass and electronic components as she made her way to Retho. He was working on realigning drive fields. The distortion produced by the dying yellow star was trying to nullify the hyperplasma engines. Just as the system was on the verge of crashing, Retho was recalibrating and resetting. Staying one step ahead of a systemic stalling. Fluids within the support conduits bubbled at an accelerated rate as pressures rose and fell, the liquid inside each emitting a noise like that of a powerful roaring wind rising and falling in a confined ventilation system.
"Fifteen micronodes to a core integrity breach," Retho breathed through clenched teeth at his sibling as his peripheral vision took note of her approach. From the paleness of her face, he could tell she didn't need to be told what that meant. His fingers flew faster than Moela could follow across the control interface. "Attempting to re-phase settings."
"Core temperature rising. Eight micronodes to integrity breach," the onboard computer reminded as a courtesy.
"Got it!" Retho grinned and slammed home the final commands with the tips of his hard-pressed fingers. He looked up at a holoset. "Engines' fields back on-line. Gravitic stresses negated."
"Retho...Retho..." Nicraan called to him from the upper deck. He was frantic. "Both Moela and you, get up here!"
"Guess we'll finally get to see what all the noise has been about," the lieutenant commented as he headed for the exit.
Like a shot, he lurched out of the engineering hold and raced up the rung ladder and back to the flight deck with Moela. They were stunned by what they saw through the bowport and on the holosets.
"Tauron Starhounds!" Retho gasped.
Two fighters were closing in and the bolts from their laser cannons bombarded the Pioneer’s defensive shields, making it lurch and carom to one side.
The saucer lurched again with the buffeting flak blasted at it by the Pterosoars. The flare of the explosions sizzled through the sensors. Holosets flashed, then darkened. The ship bucked violently and Moela lost her balance and stumbled.
"Retho!" Nicraan called; dripping sweat he raked a wet hand across his forehead. "Take up position at the astrogator. Feed me their flight coordinates! Moela, oversee engineering!"
Instantly, Retho and Moela moved from the quarterdeck and to their positions. As soon as Moela reclaimed the engineering station she rerouted all control of the podship’s engines to the flight deck console. Retho returned to his astrogator position, once more taking over the console's controls. Nausea flushed Retho a fraction before he studied the grainy images that floated 3-D before his concentrating stare. Power and engine output flashed right off the holoscreens and Retho didn't see any reason to waste the time recalibrating sensors just so he could get an exact reading. “This should be fun,” he breathed to himself.
Nicraan felt he had to stay as calm as possible; otherwise they might not last more than a few moments. "Capel," he ordered through gritted teeth, "I need you to operate the lasers while I coordinate flight data with Retho."
"I'm afraid lasers won't be affective," Moela called out, h
er eyes mirroring the frantic controls that stared back at her. "Scanners are detecting an ablative coating on the Starhounds' hull cladding."
"A particle beam could also deliver a massive jolt of energy to its target," Nicraan said to Capel. "It would not be absorbed as a laser beam would be."
"Pulse the beams many times per micronode," Moela advised, confirming her theories with the data floating on her console's holoset. "The ship's repulsor guns have the ability to generate bursts at a pulse thousandths of a micronode in duration, or even shorter. Very high-energy pulses could also damage the Starhounds by mechanical shock, literally shaking their innards apart."
"Yes," Capel concurred as he began to manipulate his console's touch-sensitive keypad controls. "A very energetic pulse would blast a small fissure in the target's surface and send a shock wave penetrating into its interior. I'll program the BattleComp to put at least ten to one hundred kilowatts per square centiretem of laser-particle energy on the skin of the Starhounds, over a range of more than one thousand mets."
"That much energy on the fighters will boil away enough of the hull alloy within one micronode to make a Starhound's structure crumple and destroy itself," Moela informed her commander.
A quartet of Pterosoars tailed the Pioneer vehemently, blasting at its stern with full laser fire; but Nicraan thought he could outstrip them. The podship was buffeted violently by the fighters' laser blasts, forcing Dara to hold onto her medical board in a desperate attempt to keep upright.
“Are we in any state to go to hyperdrive?” Capel urgently asked his pilot.
His answer came not from Matasire, yet from the onboard as it interjected, "Attention, secondaries off-line, automation system overload, rear deflector shield failure."
Just then a resounding thump hit the Pioneer 4's side, making the podship pitch and turn radically. Nicraan braced himself at the impact; when he managed to regain his balance, he shouted at Capel over the noise, "That was no laser blast! Something hit us!"
"Nicraan...Nicraan..." Moela called to him from the engineering station. She was frantic. "They're firing concussion torpedoes at us! Forget the particle pulse strategy!"
Nicraan swallowed hard and remained as calm as possible. Turning his head over his left shoulder, yet keeping his eyes locked on his flight controls, he ordered, "Retho, set seven-two-one mark eleven."
"Aye. Setting coordinates seven-two-one mark eleven," the young lieutenant echoed as he manipulated his astrogation controls as he spoke.
"One more direct hit on the back side and that's it!" Moela yelled, with a subvocal curse. "We need those secondaries!"
"Emergency power to shields!" Capel ordered.
"Attempting to bring secondaries on-line," Retho said distractedly, for his concentration was fixed on smoothing out his rerouting routine.
Moela had her hands on the controls to apply full emergency power to the shields when the indicators finally lit up and revealed that a temporary power feed had been established. On the defensive system's schematic of the ship's surrounding fields, the aft quarter illuminated once again. "We have full back quarter shield strength again," she said.
All around the ship, the strafing attack increased violently. The Pioneer Pod 4 could only continue at its maximum sublight velocity as it moved deeper into Space, closely followed by its foursome of Pterosoar fighters. Nicraan accelerated the podship to attack speed, spun out toward the phalanx of the quartet of incoming hostiles that glowed red on the tracking holo-scopes like flaming rubies. Bolts of blue concussion torpedo impact ripped across the Pioneer's prow deflector shields, bounced off in an envelope of turquoise lightning as the podship screamed past the foursome.
"They're in range!" Nicraan shouted. "Why not give them a taste of their own medicine. We've got concussion torpedoes of our own."
Moela jerked around at the engineering station. "Yes, but they’re programmed for excavation purposes and a ship of this class is only equipped with four," she reminded the two in the command apse.
"Mountainside or spacecraft hull, I don’t think they’ll know the difference," Nicraan voiced back unruffled. “And, since we’re only equipped with four, I guess we'll have to make each shot count.”
"Targeting a torpedo now," Capel announced, turning his attention to his co-pilot's defensive panel. "Triquantic mechanisms reading ready."
"Hostile in position," Retho sang out from the astrogator.
The commander raced his fingers over the ship's weaponry panel, aimed the rear torpedo cannon and thumbed its firing control. A spinning glimmer of energy, flashing like a brilliant sapphire, arced out from under the tail of the podship, speeding through the glowing starmap on its way. A burst blew the lead fighter into a mushrooming ball of flaming oblivion that lit up Space with shrapnel and ignited gas.
Nicraan banked the ship starboard and the remaining fighters followed like a birds-of-prey flock after their quarry. Angrily, Capel fired the ship's aft gun -- releasing a hail of Aidennian firepower that shook the trio in a barrage of flak.
"Keep shooting, Commander," Nicraan said, his fingers a blur over the helm controls. "Just give me a few more good shots so the astronav computer can figure out where we are so we can make the jump to hyperspace."
The Pioneer bucked against a port shot. Regaining control of the ship, Nicraan continued to plow the ship away from the small swarm of insect-like Pterosoars. A huge explosion flashed behind the rushing Pioneer in response to another of Capel's targeting maneuvers and dissipated as another Pterosoar, roaring after the saucer, disappeared.
Nicraan and Retho caused the Pod to soar up and away from the two remaining fighters. The abrupt movement of the ship jostled the crew. Trying to keep her grip on the engineering station, Moela shouted, "Whoa! Nicraan, you're taxing the ship's restraints!"
Explosions rocked the Pioneer, tossing it about violently in the enveloping flak of the duo Pterosoars as they flanked the ship. Capel tapped the laser batteries energy reserves into the hyperplasma engines to increase their output light-modulation frequencies. He then realigned the Pod's lateral defense array, making each fighter targets as they flew, moving in a descending arc. Both Pterosoars were firing directly at the Pioneer, creating walls of laser bolts and flak.
"Just hang on, everyone," Capel yelled over the din, "and get ready, Nicraan, to increase to hyperspace speed!" There was not a moment to waste -- the laser attack was intense now, and the Pterosoars were on top of them. He keyed in the particle pulse program he had been working on as quickly as his fingers would type in the command codes.
"They've closed in on us," Moela warned, finally able to speak.
Another great blast shook the Pioneer. Nicraan fought to regain control as the ship wobbled in its flight. Retho began to sweat profusely as the astral-horizon indicator spun in front of him.
Capel looked at his daughter with a wicked glint in his eyes. "Oh, yeah? Watch this."
Coding in both fighters' coordinates, Capel's fingers flew over the weapons panel, activating the port and starboard laser guns. A rapid succession of retorts blasted outward into rushing Space. Simultaneously, concussion torpedoes leapt away from the Pioneer's starboard and port tubes with solid satisfying ka-chunks. Each one flashed and glittered as it sped outward -- the multiple flares of torpedo explosions glistened around the Pterosoars as they exploded into great plumes of rippling flames.
“Solar detonations positive,” Moela sobbed, reading her console’s instruments. Light-lettered calculations flashed in three-dimensions before her anxious eyes. “Yellow star’s shock wave will hit the Tauron Armada and remaining Starhound squadron in ten micronodes, us eighteen micronodes later. Red supergiant will detonate five micronodes afterward.”
On the astrogator and all SitRep tracking holosets a pinpoint of light appeared, dead in the holograms’ centers. The illumination of the yellow star grew in intensity as it began to swell. Quite suddenly, the once-yellow star detonated. Ripped apart by unimaginable forces, it disintegrated int
o atoms, into stripped nuclei and electrons, into subatomic particles, sending concentric shock waves of blinding light and searing radiation blasting outward like an astral hurricane.
The armada's Strikecruisers and the remainder of the fighter squadrons were engulfed with shocking suddenness by an energy wave roiling with superheated gases and flaming chunks of debris. Bits of stellar junk moving at thirty thousand mets per micronode slammed into their hulls like buckshot, puncturing them in dozens of places. Chemical fountains spewed and hot sparks erupted all over the forward and aft portions of the ships. Crystallized air sprayed out of scissures all over, slits opened along seams, and some chambers blew open spitting flotsam. Within heartbeats, they were disintegrated by the out-rushing nova shock waves.
Everyone on the Pioneer’s command deck braced themselves as they watched the deathly effects of the nova star tried to reach out and consume the hurrying Pod -- each prepared to be buffeted by tidal forces that could rip the ship apart if their trajectory deviated from its current path. The pressure wave's energy front expanded out from the star's center like an inflating transparent balloon, its fringe tickled and played with the fleeing Pioneer. The podship began to tumble.
All around the crew, their ship rocked and tilted against its own artificial gravity as all systems went haywire. Klaxons warbled and rang, as if the sentient beings on board didn't know they'd just been hit and hit hard. Vibrations tortured the vessel -- a relentless force, wave after wave. The podship tilted upward as though it had taken an undercut punch to the rear and started to spin.
"Emergency power to the RCS thrusters!" Capel shouted, clutching the arms of his acceleration chair. "Prepare to engage hyperdrive!"
"The supergiant!" Moela screamed; her mouth was open before the sound came out, her eyes locked to her station's holoset that displayed real-time data. "It's going! It's breaking up!"
Sidereal Quest Page 25
