Peacekeeper 2

by Doug Farren

  Tom nodded back and smiled. “Talk to you again soon,” he said. Her image vanished.

  After finishing his sandwich, he spent a few moments donning his spacesuit then sat back in the command chair and waited. Forty minutes later, the ship shuddered again as it separated itself from the station.

  He continued to watch his screens as the station’s computer shut down its fusion reactor along with almost all of its other equipment. Running on battery power alone, the station engaged its various stealth technologies and vanished from most of the passive sensors. Several minutes passed as the station’s heat dissipaters cooled down allowing it to slowly become thermally invisible. Satisfied that the station was now as undetectable as possible, the computer moved away to finish its preparations by placing a dozen gravity mine missiles in the area.

  After dropping the last missile, the Orion maneuvered into its assigned location and began its own process of becoming invisible. Tom monitored the entire sequence as his ship engaged stealth mode. A few minutes later, the Orion had become notably quieter as many of the pumps and equipment were turned off.

  “Stealth mode engaged,” the ship reported.

  “How long before the battleship gets here?” he asked.

  “One hour 38 minutes. Care for a game of chess?”

  “I don’t think I’d be able to keep my mind on the game.”

  “It will help pass the time. I’ll go easy on you.”

  “Okay then, let’s play. Where are you learning to talk like that?”

  “From you,” the computer replied as it created a virtual chessboard.

  * * * * *

  Captain Scarboro was nervous—more nervous than he’d been in a very long time.

  “We’re rigged for emergency acceleration,” Commander Stiles reported from CIC.

  “Very well,” Scarboro replied. In addition to putting the ship at battle stations, he’d taken the additional precaution of ordering the crew to rig for high acceleration.

  “Helm?”

  “Holding steady at 150,000 kilometers from the battleship. We are lagging behind by about 100,000.”

  “Weapon status?”

  “Main guns are fully charged. Sledgehammers remain in standby. All other weapon systems are on hot standby.”

  Tapping a button on his console brought up the face of his chief engineer. “Are you all set down there?” Scarboro asked as soon as the connection was made.

  “We’re ready Captain,” Skip replied. “How long?”

  Scarboro glanced at one of his screens. “We’re still waiting for a signal from the stealth fleet. My clock here says we have about three minutes before we begin rotation. Once we initiate the sequence, the computer will have full control. I hope our programming is right.”

  “We’ll never know if it was wrong,” Skip replied. “If we shear the drive field we’ll be torn to shreds and spread out over a million kilometers of space.”

  Scarboro’s jaw dropped and his head shifted forward. “And you’ve decided to tell this to me now?”

  Skip shrugged his shoulders. “It wouldn’t have made any difference. I’d better go so I can watch the drive’s maintenance terminal.”

  The screen flipped back to a display of the ship’s defense status as Skip cut the link. Scarboro waited as the clock ticked its way down. At the 20 second mark, the helm made a ship-wide announcement. “Attention all-hands! Rotation in 15 seconds.”

  As the clock hit zero, the helm’s index finger lightly depressed a button on his main console. While in normal space, the Dragon could alter its orientation by adjusting the sublight fields of its propulsion system. These fields hook into spacetime itself, pushing and pulling the vessel in any desired direction. It was this ability that allowed a ship to literally float above a planet’s surface without generating a backwash.

  Activating those fields while under FTL drive would have been catastrophic, resulting in a cataclysmic disruption of the FTL drive as the two fields came into conflict. The ship would tear itself apart as the drive fields curled in on themselves. Bits and pieces would drop back into normal space in chunks spread out across millions of kilometers.

  Since the sublight drive fields could not be used to rotate the ship, the emergency chemical thrusters were fired. As the ship slowly rotated, the FTL drive fields had to be continuously and smoothly adjusted to account for the new orientation in relationship to their direction of travel. If this was not done correctly, the drive fields would shear and again the ship would be torn apart. Scarboro grabbed the arms of his chair as the maneuver began.

  At first, nothing seemed to be happening but then it felt like the room was spinning around him. Scraboro closed his eyes but that only made things worse. The unpleasant sensations continued to grow as the ship slowly reoriented itself. At one point, the Captain was sure he felt a wave of something pass through his entire body, moving from one side to the other like a slow moving wave. Looking down at his arm, he was shocked to see a ripple form on his skin as if an invisible blast of air was pushing against it. The ripple moved across his arm then reappeared a moment later on his other before vanishing. The disorienting feelings lasted for nearly five minutes then came to a sudden halt.

  The Captain, along with everyone else on the bridge, let out a collective sigh of relief. “Rotation complete,” the helm announced.

  Scarboro was about to give Skip a call when he received an indication of an incoming call. Hitting the accept button caused the engineer’s face to appear. “Thought you might like to know that everything’s okay down here,” Skip said.

  “I was just about to call you,” Scarboro replied. “Thanks for the update. What the hell was all that?”

  “Gravity waves generated from the slight mismatch between the alignment of the drive fields and spacetime. Years ago, the Lamaltans used a similar mismatch to generate the gravity waves in their planetary assault kinetic energy cannons. It’s those waves that could rip us apart if the mismatch became too great.”

  “Let’s not do that again,” Scarboro said. “I don’t- - -”

  “Homing beacon detected!” Petty Officer Owens loudly announced from the communications console. He spent a moment working his console then said, “I have a lock on its location.”

  The event clock displayed on every console instantly went from zero to 57 seconds then began counting down.

  Scarboro activated the ship-wide PA and said, “Attention all hands, this is the captain. Stand by for high-speed FTL maneuver in 50 seconds.” After shutting off the microphone, he continued, “Computer, execute command stack Sigma three. Authorization—hang on to your hats.”

  “Command stack authorization accepted,” the ship’s computer replied. “Warning, weapon interlocks have been bypassed. Helm control established. Stand by for high-speed FTL maneuver.”

  It is very difficult and dangerous for ships traveling at FTL speed to perform any type of high-speed maneuver. A ship moves through space at FTL speed by manipulating the interface between the drive fields and normal space. Even traveling in a straight line requires constant calculation and adjustment to the spacetime interface. Changing course must be done gradually, otherwise the critical synchronization with spacetime can be lost, causing a ship to drop out of FTL drive or worse.

  Skip walked away from the screen while the computer was talking, leaving the circuit open. Scarboro stared at the clock and waited. The coming maneuver was far too complex for any living being to perform. The timing had to be absolutely precise in order to bring the battleship to a halt inside the assembled collection of cloaked ships. The moment the clock hit zero, the computer acted.

  The entire maneuver required less than seven seconds to execute. Scarboro felt as if his insides had been placed into a high speed blender. The Dragon accelerated and altered course, cutting in front of the battleship. Because of their previous maneuver, this put the two ships facing each other, bow to bow, a mere 2,000 kilometers between them. The moment they were in position, the m
ain batteries opened fire causing both ships to instantly drop out of stardrive. A half-second later, down became up as the computer applied emergency acceleration. Alarms flared red on multiple panels as a good portion of the crew struggled to remain conscious.

  Chapter 53

  “Captain!” Tanaktak practically yelled from the tactical station. “I’m picking up some very strange readings from the Alliance vessel shadowing us.”

  Captain Albrath turned around in his chair and said, “Define strange. What are they doing?”

  “I’ve never seen readings like this before,” Tanaktak replied, his hands dancing over his console.

  “Have Masthuma take a look at it,” Albrath ordered. “Computer, ask Commander Varku to come to the bridge.”

  Varku appeared on the bridge, still buttoning his vest. “What’s going on?” he demanded, obviously not pleased that he’d been woken up from a deep sleep.

  Albrath was about to respond when Masthuma came through the door as it was closing. “We are detecting some unusual readings from the Alliance ship,” Albrath summarized. “Tanaktak has been unable to identify what they mean.”

  Masthuma headed directly for the science station located next to the tactical console. A few seconds later several complex graphs appeared on multiple screens. The squiggly lines jumped and bounced while the chief engineer stared at them.

  “Well?” Varku demanded. He’d not bothered to take his seat, electing to remain standing next to it.

  “This is very odd,” Masthuma replied. “At first, I thought their stardrive had malfunctioned but the phase shift from the drive field seems to indicate they’re rotating their ship.”

  “Is that even possible?” Albrath asked.

  The bouncing lines settled down and became smooth again. Pointing at one of the screens, Masthuma said, “Ah! They’ve finished the maneuver. Their drive field has returned to normal.”

  “Why would they do such a thing?” Varku asked.

  “I don’t know,” Masthuma replied. “It’s a very difficult thing to do. If it’s not done right they could destroy themselves.”

  “But why would they do it?” Varku again demanded, the tone of his voice indicating he wanted some kind of an answer.

  “Perhaps they’re preparing to deploy a new type of weapon,” Albrath said, trying to come up with at least some kind of a response.

  “If they had such a weapon they would’ve used it against us before now,” Varku replied. “Charge weapons and- - -”

  A crescendo of alarms interrupted. Tanaktak spun around and announced, “Multiple drive wakes detected all around us!”

  Varku turned to the helm and yelled, “Helm! Plot a- - -”

  WHAM! The ship dropped out of stardrive, sending Varku to the floor. He tried to arrest his fall but there was nothing within reach for him to grab onto. He pitched forward, slamming his chin into the back of Masthuma’s chair, clamping his jaw on his tongue so hard it nearly severed the tip. Alarms began screaming for attention and a second later people began shouting all at once.

  “FTL field has collapsed!”

  “Hull breach, multiple frames!”

  “Enemy ship directly ahead and rapidly retreating!”

  “Raising shield!”

  Varku pulled himself up and tried to issue orders but the damage to his tongue prevented him from making any intelligible sounds. Captain Albrath took over. “Target that ship and fire—all weapons!” he ordered.

  “Powering weapons,” the weapon station reported.

  “Unable to target with the new weapon,” Tanaktak reported.

  “Roll the ship!” Albrath screamed. “I want him dead!”

  A warning appeared on the tactical screen. Tanaktak glanced at it and yelled, “Multiple targets have just appeared! Two defense stations and a large number of missiles.”

  “It’s a trap!” Varku managed to say. He grabbed Albrath’s shoulder, his hand clamping down like an eagle grabbing its prey, his claws digging into the Captain’s skin. Blood gushed from his mouth as he enunciated each word so he could be understood. Bright red droplets sprayed out, leaving red splotches on the Captain’s uniform and fur. “Retreat!”

  “Helm, get us out of here. Emergency acceleration,” Albrath ordered.

  * * * * *

  The clock indicating the expected arrival time of the battleship rolled toward zero. With only minimal instrumentation available, Tom watched the progress of the approaching ships, hoping to catch the moment when the Komodo Dragon began its unusual and dangerous maneuver. But with an approach speed measured in multiples of the speed of light, it was an impossible task even for a cybernetically enhanced individual. One moment, the ships were approaching and the next they were sublight, sitting half a million kilometers from his location.

  The alignment between the two ships must have been nearly perfect. Traveling at FTL speed, the beams from the Dragon’s Kyrra-built weapons simultaneously hit the drive fields of both ships causing them to collapse. The beams struck the bow of the battleship and began chewing their way through the armor. As the stardrive fields collapsed, the intrinsic velocity of the vessels caused them to fly away from each other. This resulted in the beam drawing a red-hot line of destruction across a section of the battleship. If the two ships had remained stationary for any longer the battle would have been over.

  Following its preprogrammed instructions, the Dragon’s computer spent several microseconds analyzing the tactical situation. During the brief instant the enemy ship’s shield was down, the Dragon scanned for and identified the location of the Kyrra antimatter cannon. Using this information, it applied maximum permissible acceleration, taking the ship away from a direct line of sight of that deadly weapon. Power was fed into the Dragon’s more conventional weapons and three seconds after dropping into normal space, the Dragon attacked.

  The Komodo Dragon was under very strict orders to disengage from the Chroniech as quickly as possible. If the battleship managed to destroy the Dragon, and escape destruction, the Alliance would have no means of tracking its whereabouts. But that didn’t prevent Scarboro from attacking with all available weapons as it retreated. Missiles flew out of the launch tubes as fast as the auto-loader could move a new one into position. They flew off into space, oriented themselves, identified the target, then headed in for the kill.

  The Chroniech responded in kind, firing off a bevy of missiles. Point defense systems from both ships took aim and blasted them into useless clouds of debris. The fast movement between the two ships initially made it very difficult to obtain a lock but as the distance increased, the relative angles needed to align the weapons also shrank. At a distance of 8,000 kilometers, well over a minute after the action began, the Dragon obtained a lock and opened fire. Unfortunately, the orientation of the ship made it impossible to target the battleship with the more powerful Kyrra-built weapons. The Alliance-built energy beams were easily deflected. Several seconds later, the Chroniech responded with their own weapons with similar results.

  Several of the missiles fired by the Dragon were gravity mines. One of them made it close enough and the mine activated. The battleship’s sublight drive instantly shut down as the intense gravitational field interfered with its ability to function. It also prevented the ship from engaging its stardrive. In a matter of seconds though, the mine was destroyed and the battleship was once again moving.

  “Power all systems and engage sublight drive as soon as we have the power,” Tom ordered.

  “Acknowledged,” the ship’s computer instantly replied.

  The control console came to life as the Orion’s auxiliary fusion reactor powered up. Tom scanned his now fully active control board and noted that at least three battle stations were within range of the battleship and were powering their weapons. One of the stations suddenly blossomed in a spectacular display of released energy as the battleship blasted it into its component atoms with the Kyrra weapon.

  As the rest of his ship came to life, Tom noted tha
t the Chroniech were making an attempt to escape. A peacekeeper vessel located only 1,000 kilometers from the battleship opened fire with its single particle beam cannon and rapidly moved in for the attack, launching a flurry of missiles as it approached. A single energy beam flashed out and struck the scout ship, passing through the shield and quickly burning its way through the ship’s relatively thin armor. The peacekeeper’s particle beam went silent and the shield vanished as the ship died.

  The hulk of what remained continued to move toward the battleship on an inevitable collision course. The wreckage clipped the edge of the shield, transferring a portion of its considerable kinetic energy through the invisible lines of force, connecting the shield to the shield generator. The generator, mounted on massive shock absorbing struts, bounced like a spider in the middle of a web that had just been hit by a large insect. The shield wavered but the glancing blow did not have enough energy to cause permanent damage. The crushed and splintered remains of the peacekeeper ship slipped off the shield and spun away into space.

  “How long before the fleet arrives?” Tom asked, as his propulsion system came on line and the Orion began to accelerate.

  “Seventeen minutes,” the computer instantly replied. That was an eternity when modern weapons were in use.

  The arrow next to the icon tracking the battleship suddenly shrank. The Orion picked up on his question before Tom had a chance to verbalize it and said, “A gravity mine has activated and disrupted the battleship’s sublight drive fields.”

  Tom glanced at his tactical display. As he did so, the Dragon, which had been steadily firing on the battleship with its secondary weapons, scored a direct hit with one of its main guns. The beam created a spectacular display of pyrotechnics as kilometer-long streamers of plasma spewed out into space off the suddenly overloaded shield. Although it did a significant amount of damage, it was not a killing blow as the Dragon quickly moved out of range. It did, however, render one of the battleship’s main guns, along with three point defense nodes, inoperable.