by David Gunner
“What is everyone laughing at?”
Stavener wiped at the tears streaming down his face with the sleeve of his tunic and said, “Distance to gate point is seven kilometres. And we’re out of fuel.”
Everyone started laughing again.
After a long minute, Canthouse waved his hands to restore some sense of order and the bridge began to settle.
“Seven kilometres! Surely that’s close enough as there’s always some lee way.”
The navigator tapped his screen, “Not with the ferrites around us, LC. They’re dispersing the point formation and demanding a more focused gate point. We need to be closer.”
“Thrusters then. We can creep up to it.”
“All forward thrusters are offline due to the impact with only laterals to the rear. We can spin in circles but we can’t go forward.”
“God damn it!” Canthouse cried, his face white and wild from frustration as he paced with one hand behind his head. “Can we …”
ding ding
He spun to face the tilted image of the main screen. “What the hell is it?”
“We’ve got company.” Stavener said. “Looks like one of them broke from the herd and is pursuing us.”
“Distance?”
“Twelve hundred and closing quickly.”
“Weps, what have we got?”
Fueled by desperation the weapons officers fingers flew as he assessed their remaining might. “Torpedoes are spent and everything forward is offline. We’ve got one torpedo in the VLS, two turrets and the secondaries, nothing else.”
“I don’t need to tell you what to do, just give it everything she’s got. We must survive these seven kilometres.”
The rear of the gunship lit up as blue-white meteors and undulating trails of phalanx fire reached toward the approaching creature that appeared to shrug off the smaller rounds, and moved on a spiral path so as to avoid the deadlier but slower main weapons fire.
Stavener threw his hands in the air, “No, there’s nothing I can do. We have nothing to make us go forward.”
“There must be something, man. Think of an op –“
“Sir, weapons fire is having no affect as the creature is avoiding or absorbing all ordinance.”
Canthouse gave Stavener one final disappointed glance and turned away, “Do we have any torpedoes?”
“One CN3 in the VLS system, sir.”
“CN3! They’re nuclear capable, right?”
“Yes sir,” the weapons officer nodded.
Canthouse never even had to consider it. They couldn’t use the missile in its regular composite mode as it would attract everything toward them, so …
“Priority retask the CN3 to fission capable, and prepare for snap fire.”
“Nuclear retask requires command authorisation by two command officers,” said the weapons officer as he automatically pulled the cover off the ‘shot locker’ nuclear authorisation plate that demanded a palm print and voice code from an authorised officer.
Canthouse sat in the command chair and pressed the comm link for the main magazine only to freeze at the realisation that there was no one to do it. There was no one to authorise the second launch code. Avery was confined, Denz was none compos mentis, Hewton had been relieved and the chief was mad. “Munitions, Avery.”
Canthouse’s heart nearly fell out his mouth.
“Chris, I’ve no time to explain, but I need your hand on the shot locker, now!”
“Confirmed, LC. Give me the count.”
Canthouse reached the plate in one bound, “Three …two …one …” Both men placed their palms and entered their codes.
The weapons officer nodded at the green light, “Retask confirmed.”
“Fire!”
The silo door hissed open and rocket exhaust belched from the launch tube, but no missile emerged.
“Misfire, misfire. The tube is warped and the missile stuck. We have no launch!” The weapons officer cried slamming the console with a fist.
Canthouse threw his hands in the air, “Oh give us a God-damn break!” he cried to the ceiling.
“Charge the LAW!” the voice said from behind them.
Every eye turned to where Denz stood looking cold and bitterly hostile as he returned their stares. “Are you all deaf or do you want to start laughing again? Weapons officer, initiate the long axis weapon charging cycle, now!”
With his mouth hanging slack, Canthouse stared at the commander as if he were seeing a ghost. He then turned and nodded at the weapons officer. “Is she capable?”
“Yes, sir. Initiating long axis weapon prefire sequence now.” His hands rapped across the controls and a power meter began to climb.
The first officer couldn’t help but stare as Denz stepped up to and stroked the arm of the command chair as he looked over it. He looked old and life worn, as if he had lived through this existence a hundred times with every horrible experience as fresh the hundredth time as the first.
“Commander, I thought –“
“Later,” Denz said looking him in the eye. It was like gazing into the eye of the sole surviving vulture. “Let’s get through this first.” He moved around and deliberately lowered himself into the command seat with an alpha males certainty.
ding ding
“Creature is –“
“Commence secondary weapons bombardment.” Denz said.
The creature writhed in agony, its head swiping and mouth snapping at the stinging barrage of fragmentation grenades and explosive rounds of the close in solution, but on it came.
“LAW status?”
The weapons officer turned to him, “82%, but commander, we can’t target the –“
“Prepare to fire PFM on my mark.” Denz used his console to change the lopsided camera view to tactical. He watched the diminishing proximity counter with no show of emotion or concern.
Battered, torn and crazed with pain, the creatures great body undulated with living determination as it pushed itself on. No longer did it have a real purpose, no longer did it simply want to kill and consume, this had long since been surpassed by the terrible madness to end a life as painfully as its own was ending. It was close now and the great and terrible mouth lined with bone white stalactites and stalagmites began to open in final purpose.
“Main corrosive light weapon maxed out,” The weapons officer cried.
“Wait for my mark,” Denz said watching the counter.
500
The navigator and weapons officer sat back in their seats as they stared at the screen.
400
“Commander!” Stavener said with a ring of urgency.
300
Canthouse gave Denz a concerned side glance, “Comm -”.
“Mark!”
A million lightning strikes ionised the dense metalloid gasses surrounding the rear of the ship, with a blazing cone of plasma brighter than a hundred suns reaching out like electric fingers to touch the Tyrannosaur maw of the monster.
“We’ve got movement!” The navigator cried. “I don’t know how but the ship is accelerating. Sixty meters a second, seventy, eighty …” Then the ecstasy left him as he realised that it wasn’t enough. That what little drag the tendrils offered was sufficient to overcome the push of the LAW and prevent them from reaching the gate point.
“We’re slowing down. We’re not going to make it,” He cried.
“Charge the gate drive and set destination as Trent station. Jump at the earliest moment.” Denz said.
With tears in his eyes, the emotion driven navigator struck his console with clenched fists and stood to confront Denz, “Did you not hear me! I said we’re slowing down. We’re not going to make it!”
Canthouse and Palmer both stepped forward to block the navigator’s advance, but Denz raised a hand to halt them. Leaning forward he looked the navigator in the eye, “Charge the gate drive and set destination as Trent quarter station.”
Unable to hold his commander’s eye, the young con officer sank unde
r Denz’s intense stare, and casting a glance at his comrades he returned to his station and initiated the jump process.
The lightning storm continued to rage with something long and irregular forming in its heart, and as the mass absorbed the storm’s heat so the gases cooled and coalesced and the object solidified.
The creature had never known such pain and it reeled from the lightning forks stabbing at it from all directions, with the great head scything and the immense jaw snapping as if at invisible insects as the heat cooked its brain. With its one failing eye, the creature caught sight of the derelict Bristol, and in a last ditch attempt at murder it drove forward directly onto the cooling metal at the heart of the lightning storm. The two hundred meter fulgurite entered the rear of its throat, driving through its multiple hearts and breathing sacs to lodge deep within in its digestive tract, and ending its life almost immediately. With a final series of spasmodic twitches the great form drifted into the rear of the gunship to send it tumbling through the open gate portal.
Chapter 18
…Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Royal Navy gunboat, Bristol H-20. We are adrift without power and life support is failing, We require immediate assistance…
…Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Royal Navy gunboat, Bristol H-20. We are adrift without power and life support is failing, We require immediate assistance…
…Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Royal Navy gunboat, Bristol H-20. We are –
…Bristol H-20, This is Trent 002. We acknowledge you request for emergency assistance and have your coordinates. We are launching search and rescue units. Keep this channel open and please stand by…
Denz stood with his arms crossed as he and Canthouse observed the slowly rotating capital H that was Trent station, and the two dozen greywhite specs that were the ships of the EDP Rim-Paq squadron.
Though it hadn’t left them completely, the unfathomable time anomaly had not quite been on their side with the return voyage taking three weeks instead of the six seconds it took to arrive. They had used the time to keep the crew alive, as without fuel or engines there was little more they could do. They had also had many long talks as to what, why and how, but as much as he desired it these conversations with the command staff held little source of conclusion to him. He desperately wanted to ask the deeper questions, to speak to someone who knew his problems intimately, but such a person no longer drew breath.
Four of the greywhite specs were now grey black with their strobing navigation lights clear and bright.
He’d lost his confident. The private ear he could whisper into, and as no such other existed he kept the questions to himself and spoke to no one of his concerns.
Raulin handed Denz a clipboard which he looked over, signed and returned. Denz said something private to Canthouse, shook him by the hand and saluted him. The first officer returned the salute with all the strict rigor he could muster, and watched solemnly as his commander moved across the bridge to open a door.
Twice now they’d taken everything from him. But no penance was without patron and an amends would be exacted.
Denz looked about the cramped room with the eye of a long absent tenant, then stared at the door that had slammed shut only to find his own hand gripping the handle. He reset the mattress, straightened the unruly pillow and blanket, picked several pieces of paper off the floor and dusted them needlessly before setting them on the cover. He sat down and gazed about the room with his welling eyes coming to rest on the domed rivets that held the door in form.
I think we should call him George after your father…
Placing trembling hands on his thighs he began to count.
There would be sufferings.
End of book 2
The RN series continues with book 3: Koll fired machines. Expected late 2015.
If you’d like to be kept up to date on updates and new releases why not join the RN mailing list. Oh, and it would be great if you would leave a review at Amazon, Goodreads or your favourite ebook store.
The final word
This is my second attempt at writing and publishing anything, and despite the grammatical vigilance of myself, my editor and the beta readers, problems do slip through the cracks. So if you do spot something, or if you just want to pass a note in general, I’d appreciate it if you could drop me a line at [email protected], or use the contact us form at the RN website www.delinquentscribe.com.
Thanks for taking the time to read this book.
D. Gunner
Contacts and information
Website: www.delinquentscribe.com
Facebook
Twitter
Gmail: [email protected]
Goodreads: David Gunner
* * *
Cover art
Ronell D Porter
www.ronnelldporter.wix.com/design
Editor
Lee Burton
www.oceansedgeediting.com
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Final word
Resources
