by Damon Alan
Better than nothing, I guess.
The EF-2358 is stored internally, with about a meter to spare on each end. Thank goodness the Queen didn’t travel small.
While the others have been loading as much of the station supply stores on board as possible, Dr. Jannis and I have been surveying the Entalia. It is damaged in several sections by railgun hits, but overall in fairly good shape. The ordinance stores are about half depleted, but again, we can fix that.
The Korvandi methodology of relying on independent networks and no AIs on board their capital ships will be both a blessing and a curse. The Fyurigan should be able to easily reproduce the systems, repairing the ship shouldn’t be any issue at all.
Crewing it is another story. Because of the lack of AIs, the crew needs are higher. I’m estimating this ship had a crew of three thousand when fully staffed. I’ll have to ask Handal when I get the chance. I can barely staff the Stennis, let alone spare another three thousand souls.
[A seventeen second period of commlink communication unrelated to the log]
Dr. Jannis says the ship’s medical section is top notch, and she sounds as happy as I’ve heard her in a while. Something about nanite reconstructors. I hate nanites.
[A deep sigh]
I suppose they’re a necessary evil, but those little monsters are why we’re in this situation, but at least we’re getting closer and closer to a solution for the Hive problem.
Speaking of which, a few days ago I asked Peter if we could send the Hive colonized star systems nova as Emille did at the showdown with Orson at Backwater.
That’s a no go.
Something about the number of star systems the Hive possess and all those stars going nova at once creating a large sterile area inside human controlled space.
Spoilsport.
[Twenty seconds of silence]
Well, that should do it. Let’s see if I can save this so I can transfer it to Lucy once we get back to Oasis… yeah, there it—
[End of entry]
Chapter 47 - Encounter at Korvand
12 Febbed 15330
Sarah stood on the auxiliary control bridge of the Entalia. The ship was modern enough, the control center was undamaged, but the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the ship. Port side thrusters were down. They’d have to roll the ship to have full directional control.
She’d done that with the Stennis to get railgun coverage at Hamor, this was nothing new.
“Handal, how long before the loading is complete?” Sarah asked.
“We’re not going to get everything, but we’ve got the most important things. We loaded a lot on the ship before, since we never knew if we’d have to evacuate in a hurry. She’s damaged, but the weapons systems that are working have all the ammo they need from the ones that aren’t working. We didn’t have parts to fix them, so if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter.”
Sarah brought the weapons computers online. Stars! Over four-hundred missiles, two hundred railguns. Much of it might not be working, but this ship still had more teeth than the Stennis.
“This’ll do, Mister Matoos.”
Handal nodded, smiling. He still considered this his ship, although he’d yielded command to her as was wise. She wondered how he’d feel when they got to Oasis. Hopefully that wouldn’t be a source of conflict.
The radio crackled. Lots of static. The two crews weren’t even trying to practice radio discipline of any kind now, it was useless. Either the Hive would be on their way soon, or they wouldn’t. “EF-2358 is docked, Admiral. We fit well enough.”
“Lock down that frigate and get the crew loading,” Sarah ordered.
She activated the secondary bridge to its full capacity.
She cycled through the external cameras on a side monitor. One shot was straight down the hull, topside. The ship was massive. Unlike the Stennis, it wasn’t long and skinny. It was a diamond shape, with massive engines contained inside the hull, exhausting from the rear. The bridge, in an homage to older sailing vessels, was set on the surface of the ship, projecting above the top deck on an island.
Which was probably why it was currently unusable due to a massive hole in the top.
No, if they got this ship back to Oasis and the engineers on the Fyurigan thought it savable, this room would be the new command bridge. Too much of the Royal Navy had been for show. The Alliance, at least, knew how to build combat ships for actual combat.
“Admiral?”
It was Hamden. He floated in the entry hatch when she turned to face him. “Yes, ensign?”
“We’ve loaded all the spare parts that the engineers say can’t be fabricated easily. Do you want us to load food, and stuff like that?”
Dr. Jannis’s voice echoed down the gangway behind him. “Get all the medical supplies. Every last bandage.”
Hamden looked at Sarah, who looked at the chronograph. “One hour, Hamden. If you get everything else and there’s still time to grab food, get it. Otherwise have everyone on board and the hatches sealed in one hour.”
It was a fast hour. They were fifteen minutes past the time when the light from their evasive maneuvering reached the nearest possible Hive installation.
Her bridge crew was at their stations.
“Break moorings,” Sarah ordered.
A slight shudder passed through the pocket battleship as it separated from the massive station.
“Move us ten thousand kilometers from the station, Mister Algiss.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
“Where is your drive?” Handal asked.
“All in good time,” Sarah answered. “Alarin, how’s Emille?”
“She’s strapped in and focused. She has the reality of this ship in her mind, alongside home.”
“Very well,” Sarah said. “Mr. Harmeen, arm two nuclear weapons. Two megatons each. Target the station.”
“What?” Handal exclaimed.
“We will deny the Hive any and all resources,” Sarah said. “That station is still full of armaments, nuclear material, sensitive Korvandi technology.”
Handal started to protest, but relented. Sarah understood. That station had kept the man’s people alive for decades. It was like burning down an old house.
“Admiral, I have gravitational lensing, zero-four-six mark zero-zero-two,” Harmeen said.
Sarah keyed the ship wide PA. “We don’t have enough crew to actually fight. Those we have at missile control stations, consider yourself at battlestations. Combat is imminent. The Hive are here.”
“They responded quicker than I thought,” Sarah murmured. “Now the question is do I let them see our new mode of transportation or not.”
“They are out of their bubble, at full sensors,” Harmeen said.
“Let us drift, Mister Algiss,” Sarah said. “It will take the machines a moment to figure out what they’re looking at.”
Do you have a plan? Alarin asked her.
If you have an idea, I’m open to it. I don’t want them to see us leave.
Alarin paused for a moment. He had something, she could tell. Remember how Emille hurt me on the Palino?
Of course. I see what you’re getting at. Can she move the station?
She can move part of it, or a shuttle from the hangar if you can spare one.
Sarah looked at the young adept strapped into her gravcouch. She looked unconscious, and, to be honest, vulnerable.
I assure you she is not. Her consciousness is transcendent if anything.
Then let’s do it your way, Sarah told him.
How to maximize damage? An idea popped into her mind.
“Admiral, they’ve locked onto us and the station. They’re firing railguns and missiles,” Harmeen reported.
“How long until first impact?”
“Four minutes, twelve seconds.”
“Understood,” Sarah answered. “Mister Harmeen, can you identify the antimatter tanks on the Hive FTL ship?”
Harmeen looked at her funny. “I can, but we can’t ge
t that kind of accuracy from here. Even if we had railguns operating.”
“Can you identify them, Lieutenant Commander?”
Harmeen gulped. Sarah knew they hated when she called them by rank. “Give me fifteen seconds.”
The image of the Hive fleet appeared on the main screen, and Harmeen zoomed in. Probably a dozen ships, the FTL vessel being the only cruiser. The rest were destroyer to corvette sized.
A section of the cruiser lit up in red.
“Alarin, can Emille put a shuttle into that section of the Hive ship?”
“Two minutes until first impacts, Admiral,” Harmeen reminded her.
“She can. She’ll need an hour or two after that in order to jump us to Oasis,” Alarin replied.
“Can she jump us a short distance and move the shuttle?” Sarah asked.
After a moment Alarin nodded. His delay wasn’t confidence inspiring.
Handal looked like they were talking madness. To him they probably were.
“Admiral,” Harmeen said nervously. “We have no evasive capability.”
“The starboard side armor is most intact,” Handal said. “If you’re going to take hits, take them there.”
This ship wouldn’t survive that sort of barrage. Sarah had to act now. She had ninety seconds.
“Launch the missiles at the station,” she ordered.
Two lances of fire rocketed into view on the front screen, racing away from the ship.
“Mister Algiss, show Emille a location on the other side of the station where we will be clear of the incoming fire.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
“Take us there, Emille.”
Space changed. They were no longer looking at the missiles as they raced away. The Entalia was now ten thousand kilometers on the other side of Chungathi station.
“Get me a visual, Lieutenant Seto,” Sarah ordered.
The main screen shifted around to view the station. Another showed the Hive FTL cruiser.
“Emille, examine the enemy cruiser that is on the screen, then put one of the shuttles from the hangar in the area Harmeen has marked in red.”
The screen flared. The shuttle overlapped the structure of the cruiser, and those atoms that overlapped each other after the teleportation ripped apart. That released tremendous energy. The explosion was spectacular enough the cruiser separated into two pieces.
That explosive process lasted about three seconds, then another took over.
A blue-white flare of energy pulsed onto the screen, then a shockwave erupted outward from the remnants of the cruiser.
Tons of antimatter in the cruiser’s magnetic bottles had suddenly intermixed with the exploding material of the shuttle and the Hive ship, creating a pulse of energetic matter-antimatter annihilation that Sarah had only seen once before. At Lirizam. It had been her own fueler going up in this particular form of destruction then.
Nukes didn’t form pressure waves in space. But as Emille had proven months earlier in pursuit of Orson, if the explosion was big enough, the fireball was a shockwave itself.
A storm front of energy raced from the detonation point, and as soon as the monitor adjusted for the brightness Sarah watched as the smaller Hive ships were shredded by the force of the wave front. They looked like toys being smashed under the fury of a giant hand.
There was no chance any of the nanites survived that.
Next the nuclear missiles Sarah had fired earlier hit the supply station, causing it to erupt in a much less spectacular red-orange firestorm. The fusion reactor on the station let loose magnetic containment and another explosion tore out of the first, destroying the entirety of the station in a one-two punch.
“Will that shockwave reach us?” Sarah asked Harmeen.
“No, Admiral, we’re too far away, it will disperse. We got the gamma pulse, but nothing else.”
“Dosage?”
“Nothing the bulk of this ship didn’t deal with,” Dr. Jannis assured Sarah.
Handal’s mouth hung open, causing Sarah to laugh.
“How did—” he started to say.
Sarah held up her hand to stop him. “We’ll explain everything once we’re out of here, Mister Matoos. Until then, you should go see to your people and make sure they’re okay. Tell them we have a new home waiting for them with white sandy beaches, good fishing, and most of the comforts they knew on Korvand.”
Handal nodded and unstrapped from his position before heading out the hatch.
Sarah could tell he had a million questions. And she’d answer them once they reached safety.
But first they had to get home, if no more Hive fleets showed up in the next hour or so.
Sarah looked at Emille, who was coming back to them on the bridge.
“Good job, Adept.” Sarah gave the young woman a thumbs up. “You saved us again.”
Emille’s eyes had an intensity Sarah hadn’t seen before as she answered. It was almost as if the young adept looked through her. She remembered the look Merik had when she’d gone blind before her death and had used the gift to see.
Sarah shuddered.
“So that is the threat Merik showed me,” Emille said. She brushed sweat away from her eyes. “They don’t seem that tough.”
“We will not underestimate them,” Sarah said sternly.
“No, we will not,” Emille assured her. “I sensed the emptiness of their intelligence. The universe will not exist if that is what wins.” The young woman’s voice oozed tiredness.
Alarin, unsecured from his gravcouch, patted his wife down with a soft cloth.
The meaning of Emille’s last statement wasn’t at all clear, but now was not the time to press her. She was the only way they were leaving here alive, and they needed her to be well enough to perform.
Sarah wasn’t sure if the worry on Alarin’s face was something she should worry about as well, or if it was simply the burden of a man whose mate was extending herself past his comfort zone.
Once more the future hinged on an uncertain moment.
Chapter 48 - All Ways Uphill
Cycle 148, Year 8750
Alarin switched to viewing the world around him with the gift. Emille was overheating. He locked onto the thermal vibrations in the deck below his feet as well as the cloth he kept draped over her forehead, then transposed the heat of the cloth into the steel.
He felt the cloth cool in his hand, the deck was massive enough the difference in temperature was undetectable.
“Rest, Emille,” he whispered to her. “You’re the hero of this day.”
She looked up into his eyes. “I need to get us home.”
“Rest for the moment. You have stressed yourself too much. I’m not going to let you be sacrificed for Sarah’s goals.”
“She would never sacrifice me. You know that.”
As usual, she was right. Sarah would never do that. His pain and fear made him say something stupid.
“You say stupid stuff all the time,” Emille whispered. “Why should now be any different?” Her smile lit up her face.
“You’re the worst acolyte in the history of Zeffult,” he replied, stroking her hair. “Now who’s touching minds without permission?”
“I thought Eislen saved me from that title.”
He thought about how fond he’d grown of Emille. He loved her, which had never been a doubtful proposition in her mind. Or apparently in Merik’s.
“No. You and he are both destined for greatness. Apparently not in the same location, but that’s fine.”
She nodded slightly. “I know.”
“How’s the patient?” Thea said from behind him, pulling him out of his reverie.
“You startled me,” he said. “She’s doing better. What’s going on with this sudden illness? Is the drug not working on her?”
“An interaction with the sedative that Brantis gave her, I think. I’ll know better once we get to a place where I can take a look,” Thea replied. “I can give her a stimulant, but I don’t know how it will b
ehave with the protein lattice that is keeping you and her whole.”
“Why did the machine give her a drug when it would hurt her?”
“The AI doesn’t know she has another drug in her system. It gave her the meds it felt she needed to accomplish her tasks in a controlled fashion.”
“Your system needs some work,” Alarin said, with a bit of an edge.
“That’s not something you need to tell me,” Thea responded. “We humans come as brilliant as the stars and as stupid as a mud fence post. Apparently the guy who thought of the systems that keep the crew functioning didn’t consider all the possibilities.”
Thea put her hand on Emille’s forehead, slipping it under the cloth.
“I think you’re doing the right thing, Alarin,” she said. She looked at a readout on Emille’s gravcouch. “Her temperature is dropping. You might have made a good doctor under other circumstances.”
“There isn’t anything he can’t do,” Emille said.
Alarin coughed. “There might be a few things.”
“Emille, when you feel you can jump us back home, Sarah wants you to let her know. Normally I’d suggest letting you rest as long as needed,” Thea said. “But we don’t want to be here if another Hive patrol shows up. And I can treat your fever. I can’t treat us all being dead.”
“I get it,” Emille responded. Her eyes closed for a few seconds, then reopened. “We have about two of your hours.”
“Two hours?” Thea asked.
“I can sense another demon approaching. The voices of the gods say two hours.”
“Voices of gods?”
Alarin shook his head and held up his hand, indicating Thea should not pursue it at the moment.
“Okay, two hours. I’ll let Sarah know,” the doctor said. “Maybe she’ll be okay with another thirty minutes of recovery time before we go.”
Alarin liked the sound of that. He wasn’t sure what was going on with Emille, but he didn’t think he would remain sane if anything happened to her.
