Gravity Flux: Kestrel Class Saga Book 3

by Toby Neighbors

  “Come on,” Ben said to the device. “I need you to move. You’ve got to move.”

  An observer might have thought the device had heard its master and obeyed. The gravity wave projector slowly began to move, rotating around the silver ball, gaining speed with each rotation.

  It was working, and Ben felt relief wash away much of the adrenaline that had held his pain at bay. He suddenly became aware of just how tired he was. Pain from his wounded leg felt like fire. It was a miracle he was still on his feet, and yet he couldn’t be sure his device was working. He had to watch to ensure that it didn’t speed up too much. If it spun out of control and went flying across the engineering bay, they were in real trouble.

  “We’re approaching orbit,” Nance announced.

  “The fighters can’t climb this high,” Kim said. “But they can still shoot at us.”

  “Auxiliary battery power is down to one-third,” Nance said.

  “Tell us your plan is working?” Kim demanded.

  “It’s operational,” Ben said, hoping he was right.

  The small wave projector seemed to have settled into a consistent rate of spin, but it was hard to tell just by looking. And Ben didn’t have the proper tools to take readings. All he knew for certain was that his device was operating. It might fall to pieces the minute he turned his back. Worse still, he may have miscalculated the device’s power and they could be blown to bits by the Imperium Fleet. But if that was going to happen, Ben wanted to be on the bridge, near his friends.

  He hobbled over to the controls and set the artificial gravity for the ship. Immediately, pressure seemed to press down on him and made Ben groan from the pain in his leg. His head was swimming from the pain, and he thought for a few seconds that he might be sick, but nausea passed. A few seconds later, his body adjusted to the new sense of gravity.

  “I’m coming up,” he said.

  The pain in his leg was too great to put any weight on. Instead he hopped to the stairs and then used his good arm to help lever himself up the stairs. It took too long and he was hopping toward his seat on the bridge when the blue sky faded away. Ben saw his worst fears realized.

  “Oh my God,” Kim said.

  “Unbelievable,” Nance said.

  “I’ve never seen so many ships,” Jones added.

  There were at least ten huge cruisers ahead of them. More were crowding in from every side. Ben saw fighter squadrons and drones. They had space directly in front of them, like a gang gathering around combatants so that they could see the battle about to take place.

  “What do I do?” Kim asked.

  “Keep flying,” Ben said. “Go straight toward them.”

  “Are you sure about this?” Nance said.

  “We don’t have a choice,” Ben said. “Besides, if I’m right, they can’t touch us. Just fly straight to them. Avoid the big ships until we can get to a jump point.”

  “No shield is strong enough to deflect a direct hit from a battle cruiser’s laser array,” Kim said.

  “We aren’t deflecting,” Ben said. “We’re redirecting. Just keep flying.”

  “How do we know this shield thing works?” Kim said. “I’m not getting any readings on it.”

  “Should I lower the deflector shields?” Magnum asked.

  “No,” Ben said. “I don’t want to give anything away. Just act as if the big ships aren’t there.”

  “So act crazy,” Kim said. “I can do that.”

  Ben wanted to cross his fingers, but he didn’t want to show any outward sign that he wasn’t confident in their system. They crossed to the center of the space before the Imperium Fleet did anything.

  “We’re being hailed,” Jones said in a quaking voice.

  “Put it on the ship’s speakers,” Ben said.

  Kestrel class vessel, this is Admiral Minsk of the Royal Imperium Battle Cruiser Fortitude. You are hereby ordered to bring your ship to a full stop, lower all shields, cease all activities. If you do not, we will destroy you.

  “He’s pretty confident,” Kim said.

  “With good reason,” Nance said.

  “We’ll tell him what he can do with his Fortitude,” Ben said.

  “Are you kidding?” Kim said. “We’re hopelessly surrounded and you want to pick a fight?”

  “Connect me, Nance,” Ben said.

  “If we’re about to be vaporized,” Kim said, “I just want everyone here to know I’m sorry.”

  “This isn’t your fault, Kim,” Ben said.

  “Nothing to forgive,” Nance replied.

  “No,” Kim said. “I left. I let everyone down. And I’m sorry.”

  “You’re connected to the Fortitude, Ben,” Nance said.

  He grinned and cracked his knuckles.

  “I think he’s lost it,” Kim said.

  Magnum shook his head, and Nance looked worried as Ben reached out and pressed the button that activated the microphone on his console.

  “We’re not surrendering, Admiral Minsk,” Ben said. “This is the Modulus Echo. We’ve flown through black holes and destroyed battle cruisers. If you fire on us, you will regret it.”

  The response from the big battleship was a volley of laser fire that had been carefully aimed to impact the Echo’s wing engines. The Imperium wanted to toy with them. Ben guessed they wanted to hear him begging for mercy, before they blasted him to ions. He held his breath as the massive red laser beams shot toward him.

  Everything happened fast. The lasers, while powerful beams of energy, had no mass and no kinetic energy. They hit the spinning sphere of gravity surrounding the Echo, bent slightly, then shot away. Ben looked at his console and saw that every system was green across the board.

  The lasers continued but in different directions. One impacted the shields of another battle cruiser, causing a crackling electric display of energy that spread across the ship’s deflector screens. The other blast struck a smaller ship, one that had been projecting a gravity well to keep the Echo from making a run for hyperspace. The ship was four times the size of the Kestrel class vessel that had been initially targeted, but the Imperium ship, and interdictor, vanished under the laser’s power.

  “Holy crap!” Kim said.

  “It worked!” Jones declared. “This proves my theory. My life’s work is validated.”

  “They aren’t finished,” Magnum said.

  Ben knew the big man was right. And suddenly the space around them lit up with laser fire. Eight capital warships fired massive laser batteries straight at the little Kestrel class ship. Ben had just enough time to look down at his console as his heart froze in his chest with fear.

  The external camera feed cut out from the brightness of the massive laser blasts, but the ship’s systems didn’t blink. Everything remained in the green. There wasn’t even a strain on the fusion reactor. When Ben looked up, the cameras came back online just in time to see the laser blasts impacting the big Imperium ships. One vessel took three full blasts, lost part of its shielding and suffered a massive hull breach. The ship began to drift, its running light suddenly going dark as equipment and debris shot out of the side of the hull breach. Ben had no doubt that some of what he saw spilling out of the ship were people.

  The crew of the little ship were speechless. They were still moving forward. Kim picked up her water bottle and took a long drink, then popped the knuckles on both her hands.

  “We’re getting out of here,” she said.

  “Missiles,” Nance said.

  Ben checked the ship’s power. The life support was on, but at minimum output. The main drive had plenty of power to get them past the armada and make a hyperspace jump before he would need to change the Zexum tank.

  “Should I evade?” Kim said.

  “No,” Ben said. His heart fluttering with fear as the missiles shot toward the ship.

  They waited, and just like the lasers, the missiles were caught in the spinning gravity and flung away. It was like they were inside a bubble of invincibility. The r
ockets were locked onto the Echo’s heat signature and after being flung away, reacquired their target and returned. Some of the powerful missiles collided, their explosions lit up the mass of Imperium ships like lightning flashing in a bank of storm clouds. Others returned to the Echo only to be flung away again.

  “Here come the fighters,” Nance said.

  “This is madness,” Kim said.

  “Get us out of here,” Ben said.

  “Can the fighters hurt us?” Kim asked.

  “Not with their weapons,” Ben said. “I’m not sure what would happen if they tried to ram us.”

  “Well, let’s not find out,” Kim said.

  She increased their speed, flying straight toward a big battle cruiser, then spiraling down below it. At least a hundred fast attack fighters came streaking toward them, firing their laser weapons, which were flung away effortlessly by the Echo’s flux shield. The laser beams shot up into the cruiser above them or back into the mass of fighters. Most of the laser energy was absorbed by shields or deflected, but a few found the gaps in the armor of the small fighters. And some of the pilots panicked, jerking their yokes to the side. Several collided, broke apart, and went spinning wildly through space. Others actually smashed straight into the battle cruiser above them. The big ship’s thick metal plating took the brunt of the collision without structural damage, but the fighters exploded in brilliant balls of fire.

  Kim swerved around several chunks of metal that had once been Imperium fast attack fighters. The Imperium armada was beginning to panic. Their plan had seemed foolproof, but nothing they threw at the Echo made a difference. The ships were moving, some faster than others. Ben knew it would take a coordinated plan of egress to get the ships safely out of orbit, but it didn’t appear that they were moving in any kind of prepared progression.

  “It’s about to get really dicey around here,” Ben said.

  “This is unbelievable,” Jones said.

  “I need a jump point,” Kim said.

  “Still calculating,” Nance said. “There are too many ships in the system.”

  “And they’re all moving at once,” Kim said.

  The first real damage occurred directly ahead of the Echo. A battle cruiser was turning, but another cruiser lay in its path and couldn’t move away fast enough. The first ship raked down the second’s side, peeling metal, weapons, components, and thruster nodules from both ships. The space Kim was flying into was suddenly filled with debris. Some of them were large enough to see and evade, but many more were tiny. They flew on, through the cloud of debris, focused on the ships around them, until a light began to flash on Ben’s console to warn him the artificial gravity generator was failing.

  “Oh no” Ben said.

  “What?” Kim demanded.

  “The flux shield is overloading. It’s gaining too much mass from the debris,” Ben said.

  “What does that mean?” Kim asked.

  “It means the gravitational force is increasing, exactly like a black hole,” Professor Jones said. “Instead of flinging things away, it will begin to pull things in.”

  “That’s not good,” Kim said.

  “No, it might rip the ship apart,” Ben said. “I have to shut it down.”

  “That’s not good either,” Kim said. “We could get slagged.”

  “So don’t get us blown up,” Ben said. “And get us away from debris.”

  “Easier said than done,” Kim replied. “But I’m trying. Tell me we can get that shield back up.”

  “I don’t know,” Ben said. “I just don’t know.”

  Chapter 31

  General Pershing watched the destruction of the armada. The Deception had a perfect view from high orbit. They were recording the failure of the Imperium’s Fleet from a distance, but also from a series of drones broadcasting from amid the carnage.

  The entire bridge of the spy ship fell silent when the first laser beams bounced harmlessly off the Modulus Echo. Pershing was both appalled and delighted by the unexpected turn of events. She sat riveted by the footage being broadcast across an array of screens around the bridge of the Deception. Pershing had feared something exactly like what she saw. Not that she had foreseen the way it would happen. All that Pershing expected was for the little Kestrel class ship to find a way to survive. Yet, once again, any action taken by the Fleet against the Modulus Echo resulted in destruction.

  It was almost as if the little ship were blessed, or cursed, depending on which side a person took. Perhaps the best thing the Imperium could do was avoid it at all costs. Yet, Pershing didn’t fear the small vessel. The mistakes had happened because her superiors failed to respect the ship. They underestimated the rebellion, and acted out of some perceived slight rather than take notice of the real threat. Whoever was on the Modulus Echo knew things that she, and her superiors, did not.

  What was it, Pershing wondered, that gave the Kestrel class ship such power? Why could they fly through a black hole? Even the thought of attempting such a feat was terrifying. Yet the Modulus Echo had done it. Pershing’s doubt that it was the same ship was gone.

  “Excuse me, General,” said a meek voice belonging to the communications officer.

  “Yes,” Pershing said without taking her eyes from the screen. A squadron of fighters had just been annihilated by two battle cruisers slamming together.

  “Major Le Croix is hailing you.”

  Pershing had been expecting the call. “Put him through,” she said.

  “General Pershing, what is happening?” Le Croix said.

  “Are you in orbit yet?” Pershing asked.

  “Negative, we just lifted off, but it looks like battle cruiser just entered atmo. Watch out, there, pilot!”

  “Navigator,” Pershing said to the woman at the nav console nearby, “plot a course off-world that will avoid that fiasco.”

  “Yes, General,” the navigation officer said.

  “We’re sending you an exit vector, Major. For your sake, stick to it.”

  “Yes, General,” Le Croix said. “Are the rebels attacking?”

  “That would be the smart thing to do,” Pershing said. “They have us on our heels, but no. This is a prime example of incompetence meeting panic. I’ll explain it all once you arrive.”

  “Yes, General,” Le Croix said.

  There were dozens more warships around the planet. Fortunately, they were out of danger. Admiral Minsk had projected the Modulus Echo’s trajectory and then moved the bulk of his armada into an intercept position. It looked impressive to the cameras, until the huge warships panicked like elephants frightened by a mouse. Three were destroyed; one had even exploded. At least eight were damaged, and one had lost steerage and was at that very moment plunging through Torrent Four’s atmosphere. Pershing wondered briefly how many people would die from the impact. Not just those on the ship, surely, the brigadier general thought. The impact of a capital ship crashing onto a planet would be devastating for a long time, she supposed.

  “General,” the ship’s captain approached cautiously. Pershing wasn’t a frightening officer under normal circumstances, but the destruction of so many Imperium vessels was unprecedented, and everyone on the bridge of the Deception feared taking the brunt of their superior’s outrage. “Should we cease filming?”

  “Negative,” Pershing said. “The admiral general needs to see this. That wretch who commands the Fleet will be humiliated, perhaps even blamed for the entire fiasco. Not that he doesn’t deserve it. The Fortitude was destroyed, so that takes Admiral Minsk off the hook, but someone will have to be blamed. Fortunately, we weren’t involved. The video footage proves as much.”

  “But how is it possible for a little rogue ship to survive a direct attack?”

  Pershing guessed the captain of the Deception was itching to ask that very question all along. She couldn’t blame the sour-faced woman. Wendy Derringer would never gain enough favor to command a ship of the line. Yet, she had managed to have a front-row seat to the biggest de
bacle in the history of the Imperium Fleet. The very officers who looked down their noses at the plain-faced captain were dying by the droves above a trash world in the Torrent system.

  “I don’t know,” Pershing answered honestly. “But the data we collect might give us a clue. Return to your station and continue recording everything.”

  “Yes, General,” Derringer said.

  One of the drone operators was trying to follow the Modulus Echo, but it was hit with a chunk of debris and knocked offline. One of the screens on the bridge went dark and they lost track of the Kestrel class ship.

  “We’ve lost her,” said the tactical officer.

  “No, we’ve only lost sight of her,” Pershing said. “We’ll give her time to get away. Once she’s lowered her guard, we’ll activate the tracking beacon my operators affixed to the hull. Then we’ll know right where to find the rebel ship.”

  Pershing felt a small thrill knowing that her people had succeeded in getting the tracking device onto the ship. Most of Le Croix’s Spec Ops unit had been wounded or killed fighting the outlaws. It was a total waste of resources in Pershing’s opinion. Good operators had been killed because of the admiral general’s vanity. Yet Pershing’s hands were tied for now. The best she could do was finish her mission, collect Major Le Croix, and return to the Celeste system. Hopefully, whoever was named acting commander-in-chief would listen to reason. But just in case they were as stupid as Volgate, she would stop at the Yelsin system and download everything they had acquired regarding the Modulus Echo. It was only prudent that if a war was coming, her Special Forces division should have as much intel as they could get their hands on.

  Chapter 32

  The problem with the flux shield was that it wasn’t part of Nance’s computer system. That meant they couldn’t control the shielding from the bridge. Ben meant to rectify that problem as soon as possible, but first they had to survive.

  He cut the power to the artificial gravity generator and felt the immediate effects of zero-gravity. The system was offline, and Ben would have to go back down to the engineering bay to restart it. The biggest flaw with the gravity shield was the time it took to become effective. Even if he could restart it immediately, it would take several minutes before the wave projector began circling the gravity generator and producing an effective shield around the ship.