by Ingo Potsch
Meanwhile the destroyer was sending out encrypted hyperspace messages reporting the presence of the raiders. Busy in exchanging hyperspace signals with their far-flung line of covering frigates and destroyers, and with a couple of extra-fast hunter-cruisers that moved on parallel courses in a distance, working as telescoped eyes for the fleet, the Aesuron vessels made no attempt to jam the Mandana's aerial warning. They’d anyway only attract more attention.
Constantly ready for action at very brief notice, the Human Nation’s battle-squadrons were under way within a few minutes of the receipt of the Mandana's message, and Bartholomew-Caffrey's Tiger Squadron was heading towards the enemy’s assumed destination with all possible speed before the first hostile missile was sent by the Aesuron against Planet Radiant Ruby. The enemy managed to fire first, though, owing to the rough speed.
"They've opened fire," remarked Astley as a dull boom reverberated through hyperspace and was recognised by the destroyer’s instruments. It must have been a missile originating from the now invisible Aesuron ships, this a single report that was quickly taken up by other heavy detonations, and which was borne to the ears of the Mandana's crew by the speakers which transmitted news and the words of the skipper.. "And, by Heavens, what a big boom."
"Yes, “assented the doctor. "And ten to one the place is crowded with all kinds of folks. Before we left orbital station, didn't we see some idiotic advertisement on the screens stating that our side of the Grand Void would be ready for business as usual?"
"Let's hope the Aesuron will get cut off again," said the junior lieutenant. "Another couple of cruisers finished off will teach them a good lesson that we’re neither helpless nor undefended."
"They're too cautious to run into our defences," replied the somewhat pessimistic medico. "They've been indicated that the route of advance is clear. Before our cruisers from Planet Bald Beldame can come up the enemy will be off again; with their mission completed. And with twelve hours of advance working in their favour they'll be back long before our sixteenth destroyer flotilla can make an attack at the hyperspace haze field near Taurus Triple Stars, if they take that route to retreat at all."
For nearly twenty minutes the officers and enlisted astronauts witnessed in silence the furious bombardment, as brought to them by their ship’s hyperspace sensors. Detonating super-powerful nukes moved mass rapidly, which caused ripples in the usual wave pattern of the superposed dimension. Several of the enlisted astronauts had homes on the planet that now lay exposed to the enemy’s missiles. Realizing their helplessness, they could only hope that the damage done was no greater than that of the previous Space Fleet attack on the same place, and that this time the Tiger Squadron would intercept the raiders and exact a just and terrible retribution. For the Aesuron, the situation was just the opposite, of course. For them, the barracks and supporting facilities as well as the mineral mines and the industries which churned out strategic products, were legitimate military targets. Not that they cared much about this legitimacy or any other judicial terms or conventions of the Human Nation, but the mere fact of means being limited forced them to expend their weapons at important targets. Thus, they attempted to strike military installations first, and then any targets that were supporting the Human Nation’s war effort. Civilian settlements usually weren’t part of that, though the Aesuron gave a damn about collateral damage.
At length the bombardment ceased almost as suddenly as it had begun. In vain the destroyer's crew waited long and anxiously for the renewal of the artificial hyperspace disturbances in the offing that would announce the gratifying news that Bartholomew-Caffrey had once more intercepted the returning Aesuron.
At nineteen and a half lightyears per hour the Mandana returned towards the position in which she had left the two mining crafts. With feelings of relief it was seen that both craft were still unharmed and apparently all doing well.
Suddenly the Master Chief Petty Officer who kept the surrounding surveillance under his control raised the shout of: "Cruiser on the starboard bow, sir!"
Without a perceivable moment's hesitation Bergerault ordered for full speed, at just subsequently telling the quartermaster to port helm. It was clear to the destroyer’s skipper that a lone cruiser meant easy prey. In this tactical situation of hit-and-run, nobody was to drop behind his fleet voluntarily. Having expended most of her missiles – bare a small emergency stock which was usually kept – the enemy cruiser must have experienced some form of disablement. The commander of the fleet to which she belonged was unwilling to sacrifice all his spaceships for the sake of one, given that the massive bombardment was likely to entail equally massive repercussions, probably in the shape of any available heavy unit hunting after the retreating attackers.
A light year and a half away could be discerned the typical hyperspace signature of a large Cruiser, although why she exposed herself to such danger was at first sight perplexing.
With all intentions set on annihilating the target the Mandana leapt forward at a good twenty four lights years per hour, churning up here engines well beyond the safe level for continuous duty, ready at the first sign of an opportunity to send a missile crashing into and pulverizing the enemy.
So intent was the lieutenant-commander upon his intended prey that he had failed to notice a tender warning issued by the automated navigation support system, announcing the proximity a perilous hyperspace counter-current now almost on the starboard bow. It was not until Astley reminded him of the fact that he realized that the destroyer was doing her level best to run herself into the freak eddy, a feat that the defective Aesuron cruiser had already accomplished to the rage and mortification of her officers and crew. This freak eddy had put her defective hyperspace drive nearly over the edge, a result of rash speed and hard-adjusted dampers, in conjunction with ordinary bad luck. Barely holding herself in the superposed dimension, the Aesuron cruiser was unable to escape. Her only remaining hope was to reach a planet where she could hide herself and where her crew was able to sustain life until they had either repaired their hyperspace drive or a rescue mission had come to collect them.
Listing violently as the ridges and troughs of unforeseen dimensional pressure waves interacted unpredictably with the vessel’s hyperspace drive, the destroyer swung round clear of the treacherous dimensional freak eddy, and for the first time Bergerault was aware of the ignominious predicament of the cruiser.
"The bastard may have a broadside missiles-tube," he remarked to his subordinate as he ordered the Mandana to be swung round, bows on to the failing craft, speed having been reduced to give the destroyer more steerage-way under the wavy conditions prevailing in this locality of the superposed dimension. "Give her a single missile” he ordered his weapons’ in-charge. “Plank a nuke right into her", he added, more was expression of his will and hope than as command.
As ordered, a single missile was despatched and rushed toward the enemy cruiser. Being a heavy unit, the vessel was still capable of defending herself, despite her damaged hyperspace drive. Upon coming closer, the missile met with furious defence fire, practically running into a wall of proximity-fuse projectiles which were exhaled by the Aesuron cruiser like the flames from the mouth of a fire-breathing dragon. The missile chose to detonate before being torn apart by the defence fire. Being powerful and decently close to her target, the detonating warhead scorched the cruiser’s protective armour, razed of antennas and sensors, and produced dimensional distortions powerful enough to push the enemy vessel out of hyperspace.
Seeing that the shot had the desired effect, the destroyer’s skipper had his ship slow down and wait, just to make sure the Aesuron wasn’t tricking him. After all, the descent from the superposed dimension could be feigned, with the vessel just ascending again once the destroyer had followed her to normal space. In that case, the Aesuron might again have a chance to escape, though it would be slim, depending on their true constitution.
When nothing like that happened and the destroyer perceived no activity
from the Aesuron cruiser’s hyperspace drive anymore, the human skipper had his vessel descent to normal space as well. There, it took about one and a half minutes till the sensors had caught the enemy cruiser again. She was heading toward a dark, cold, dry, lonely planet with nitrogen atmosphere. Provided oxygen masks and attire suitable for protecting against the cold, the alien crew could survive there for some weeks or perhaps even months. The Mandana’s skipper felt little intention to let them enjoy liberty for that long. Taking enemies captive always offered the chance of obtaining useful information via their interrogation; and perhaps the hostile cruiser could be salvaged, too, giving even more clue about the opponent’s technical level.
The enemy cruiser was no rushing toward her intended destinations, looking a bit shaky on her course. Apparently, she had sustained damaged that did cause her severe problems over and above her issues with her hyperspace drive. The Aesuron cruiser then entered the icy atmosphere of that world at a speed incommensurate with safe landing. Her deflector field was unable to keep the compressed and heated atmosphere away from her bows, and the hot plasma came in direct contact with the ship’s nose, which turned red, yellow, white, in rapid succession. Leaving a black trail of fume, the enemy cruiser slowly lost way, literally reducing speed at the cost of her life weight. Observing the scene from the bridge of the pursuing destroyer, the human officers feared for their prise. Admittedly, the Aesuron knew how to build sturdy spaceships, as no comparable unit of the Human Nation could survive that kind of severe punishment. Staying nicely above the slowing-down while burning-up cruiser, the destroyer kept her sensors directed at her prey, which might just disappear in flames at any moment. Understanding the ordeal to which the enemies were exposed, some members of the human crew even felt some little, basic sympathy for them, as they feared such situations as well. Finally, after leaving a fearsome trail of black smoke in the severely disturbed atmosphere of that lone, rocky planet, the enemy came to slow down more and more, till the cruiser finally closed up with the ground and – ploughing a deep furrow into a dusty desert – came to a halt. Once it lay there, motionless, the icy nitrogen started to cool down her heated-up protective armour.
The Human Nation cruiser was still hovering safely at a distance. Given that the enemy had survived the crash landing in one – though reduced – piece, the risk remained that the cruiser was going to defend her honour, when her life was practically lost. There could be functional missiles left on-board the enemy vessel and some of the artillery could still be in working condition.
When the shipwrecked enemy cruiser’s armoured hull slowly cooled down in the icy atmosphere, and still there was no hint of hostile activities, the destroyer’s commander considered taking the hostile crew captives; if they were still alive. Yet, still fearing an ambush, he decided to send the destroyer’s main shuttle down there.
The shuttle carefully closed up with the cruiser from the Aesuron Empire. Circling around the crash-landed wreck, the Human space soldiers inspected the damaged vessel from every angle. The sensors and antennas had all been burned away and communication was thus difficult by ordinary means. Whenever ordinary means failed, it was time to take recourse to extra-ordinary methods. Therefore, the shuttle landed on the cruiser’s wreck. Several astronauts in mecha-suits jumped from the shuttle, holding powerful handguns and pulled security. Then, one fellow exited the shuttle with a big hammer. He took position, the broad-standing legs firmly on the flattest area of surface which could be found, and then hit the hull with the heavy tool, hammering home Morse code. It was the demand to surrender, transmitted the brute’s way. It was in common human vernacular, using the ancient Morse code which Homo sapiens had utilized in low-bandwidth situations for ages; and it worked.
The Morse code must have been understood, for the conning-tower emergency hatch was thrown open, and the helmeted head and armoured shoulders of the Aesuron variety of a petty officer wearing a combat space suit appeared. For a few moments he hesitated, appearing thoroughly scared, then his hands were extended above his head.
In this position of surrender he remained, until, finding that the human space soldiers in their awe-inspiring mecha-suits made no further attempt to damage the cruiser, he emerged from the conning-tower. Two officers followed, and then the rest of the crew - forty-four all told.
"Fetch them off, Mr. Astley," ordered the lieutenant-commander of the destroyer Mandana. "Half of them at a time."
The junior lieutenant who commanded the shuttle hastened to fulfil the order. As he did so he received a message from Doctor Randolphfield:
"Shall I lend you a bone saw, old fellow?" (medical conversations were exempt from the archival storage.)
"A saw!" replied Astley in astonishment. "What on earth for?"
"Skipper said you were to bring half of them at a time," explained the irresponsible medico with a grin. "Better try the top half of each Aesuron first trip."
"That I will of course do, Coroner," retorted the junior lieutenant. "If it is surgery you are after, you had better do your own dirty work."
"We surrender!" declared the commander of the Cruiser as the human space soldiers in their mecha-suits drew closer. "Our ship is damaged."
"Sorry to hear it," replied Astley.
"Is that so?" enquired the perplexed Aesuron, mystified at his foe's solicitude.
"Yes," soliloquized the junior lieutenant. "We would much rather have collared your Cruiser intact. We didn't bargain for her being a heap of trash.”
“I regret any inconvenience caused”, responded the alien commander who by now understood that he had been exposed to human sarcasm. “I will do my best to report the matter to our engineers so that they will design ships which will not break down. Until we are equipped with such improved material, we have to take advantage of your hospitality.” The foreign warrior knew how to apply sarcasm as well.
"Now then!" Astley exclaimed. "I'll take twenty two of you men first trip."
Having delivered the first batch of prisoners on the destroyer, Astley returned, but, instead of immediately landing his shuttle right on the prize, he ordered it to hover around. With the shuttle drifting at a distance of about two hundred meters from the cruiser, the junior lieutenant coolly awaited developments.
The Aesuron - officers and enlisted folks alike - were far from cool, though. Gesticulating by waving arms, they were making signs to the shuttle to take them off. Never before had Astley seen a greater anxiety on the part of the Aesuron to abandon their ship, and in the course of twelve months' service in the Inter-Arm Void his knowledge of the ways of the usually disciplines Aesuron was fairly extensive.
At length two of the Cruiser's crew, unable to restrain their panic, roped overboard and started running for their live, immediately after having touched the ground with their feet.
"Keep nice distance to them" ordered Astley. "Tease them a bit."
"We surrender!" signalled the Aesuron, seeing their companions running after the shuttle which kept hovering just above the ground and maintained an equal distance.
"Yes, I know that you surrender," replied Astley. "You have informed me of that already. A few minutes' wait will not hurt you. There is plenty of time."
"Increase height!" ordered the junior lieutenant, as the Aesuron, terrified beyond measure, slid along ropes from the Cruiser's deck to the ground, officers and men running frantically away from the wreck.
From their high position, the humans viewed the odd spectacle. The Aesuron really behaved weird. Then, as if the command to seek cover had been shouted, the alien space soldiers all dropped to the ground, jumping into whatever more or less deep depression they could find. A few seconds later came the dull muffled sound of an explosion. A thin wreath of smoke issued from the open emergency hatch of the conning-tower.
"Not much of a blow-up, that," exclaimed Astley contemptuously. "It would not have flicked a humming bird from her deck. Well, I suppose I must take the bastards into the ferry now."
The l
ightness of the explosion had also astonished the Aesuron officers. Adopting their usual procedure they had taken measures to have their fusion reactors detonate, with the intention of atomising hull of the stranded vessel – and anything inside, and upon the approach of the Mandana's shuttle the second time they had set off the countdown for the delayed detonation.
Astley, guessing rightly what had been done, had resolved to give the Aesuron some bad time. He, too, had expected to see the Cruiser's hull disintegrated by a terrific explosion and was slightly disappointed by the weak show. He should have been lucky instead, though, for the intended detonation, had it occurred according to plan, would have wiped him out as well, for the shuttle had been way to close for certain survival.
On the shuttle's return to the destroyer with the rest of the alien prisoners of war, Astley made his report to the lieutenant-commander.
"Cannot blame them," declared Bergerault. "In similar circumstances we would have done the same, but with better results, I hope. Send that Aesuron petty officer who came out first aft to my office; I want to talk to him."
The creature indicated was, as luck would have it, the fellow responsible for setting forth the delayed detonation. Putting on his fiercest expression, Lieutenant-Commander Bergerault sternly accused the alien with attempting to destroy the Cruiser after she had surrendered.
Taken aback, the creature admitted that this was the fact.
"How many detonators?" asked Bergerault.
"Three. Each reactor is one."
