by Lance Berry
David knew the Alliance’s leaders had full confidence in Tholin, and so had more than likely neglected to prepare backup for their much-vaunted general. And as David said, the enemy fleet sent to retake the planet in the Arcturus system would never make it here in time to help. David had always loved playing chess from the time he was a young boy; in this current move, the Arcturan planet was just a pawn used and sacrificed in order to checkmate and take the king.
Tholin glared at Christenson as the human captain said, “This will be the last time we talk. I must say, dueling with you has had its moments. Goodbye, Tholin.” And before the angered Calvorian could get out a word, Christenson signaled for Buttlefield to cut the channel.
On the bridge of the Hawking, James Stubbs let out a short laugh as he stared in wonder at all the Earth warships that suddenly filled the viewscreen. “David, you son of a bitch. You never told any of us about this part. You really do know how to keep things interesting.”
“Incoming from the Horizon, audio only,” the com officer announced. Stubbs told him to put it on, and Christenson’s voice rang out over the ODC: “Attention, all ships. Close ranks, shore up your defenses. As they used to say in the 21st, we’re about to take this lot to school. Keep in mind that while you can all have your shot at him, the Necrosis and its commander are mine. No matter what, the Horizon is going to have the pleasure of destroying that great beast. All together now, my friends…and good hunting.”
The channel closed, and Nikki Tamamura moved to stand close to Mara. “How many of those pods are left?”
“We’re just getting the last one aboard now,” Mara informed her. There was more hope in her voice, as she had asked the computer to check Melissa King’s current location, and she was told the young officer was in escape pod #73 from the Delaware. It was one of the pods that had made it into the Hawking’s launch bay. Missy was alive—!
A sudden reading caught Mara’s attention. “The Delaware’s engines are going critical!”
“Let me see it,” Stubbs ordered. Mara switched the shot on the viewscreen, and the Delaware was now visible. Its hull began to crack open as the Beijing and Voltaire tried desperately to move out of the way. All at once the Delaware exploded, flaring up like a newborn sun, and all had to shield their eyes as it caught the Voltaire within its immediate blast radius. The blast didn’t entirely destroy the second ship however—it blackened its hull, debris raining into its side with the force of meteors pockmarking the smooth face of an infant moon. As the starboard side of the Voltaire’s hull caved in on itself, the only positive was that it took the brunt of the blast, protecting the Beijing and other nearby Cruisers from most of the immediate destruction. The shockwave from the blast was still felt throughout both fleets however, and many ships on either side were jostled and tossed about severely.
The Hawking, one of the ships closer to the blast, was one that was hit hardest. It pitched and yawed violently as its helmsman fought to ride out the main shockwave. Overhead lights fluctuated wildly, on the verge of going dark completely.
Like everyone else, Mara held on tightly to her console in an attempt to not be thrown out of her chair. She scanned the reports her sensors were delivering, and shouted above the groan of straining metal at Stubbs. “Emitted rads are measured at one hundred million ergs per square inch and climbing! Our shields are up to the red line, and this area of space is about to become uninhabitable real fast!”
Tamamura had managed to get back to her seat at Ops just in time. She also held onto her console as she called out to her husband, “That makes the base useless to us, given its proximity to the blast! Our only choice now is to get Tholin as quickly as possible and abandon this system! Even with our shields up, we can’t survive this radiation indefinitely!”
“I think David knows that,” Stubbs said, and pointed to the main viewscreen. On it, the Horizon was moving in close to the Necrosis—fighting to keep itself on a steady course even as it let off a salvo of lasers and antimatter torpedoes at the alien behemoth nearly twice its size. The lasers made it to point, only to bounce off the Calvorian vessel’s shields. The antimatter torpedoes were thrown off target by the stellar turbulence, and exploded very close to Tholin’s ship, but not upon its shields or hull.
“Let’s give the man a hand,” Stubbs said as the pitching of his own ship’s deck slowly ceased. “Helm, move us in to one hundred kilometers from the Necrosis. Elliot, target its forward shields and weapons array. I don’t want us to quit firing until we’ve punched a hole right through its hull!”
“Yes, sir,” came the eager replies from both helm and tactical. The Necrosis began to loom larger and larger on the viewscreen as the Hawking rapidly moved in. The Necrosis saw them coming and began firing its forward maser array. The bridge shook with great force as the beams struck their magnetic repulsion shields. “This is too much! Their weapons are colluding with the radiation to press our grids to breaking,”
Mara called over to Stubbs. “Tactical grids A-15 through C-22 are thirty seconds away from giving out!”
“Steady on, helm,” Stubbs ordered, ignoring the warning even as he jabbed a finger toward Mara. “All forward laser banks and antimatter torpedoes—fire!”
With a grim frown, Mara tabbed the firing panel. Instantly, fifty forward laser arrays on the vessel’s bow activated along with the two forward antimatter cannons. The force of the Delaware blast had subsided enough that all the beams and torpedoes now struck true. Combined with firepower from the Horizon and now the Heavy Cruiser Lednicer that had joined the fray, the enemy flagship’s forward shields began to glow intensely and finally dampened out. The Necrosis arced downward sharply as the humans’ weapons penetrated to touch firmly upon solid metal and crack open a portion of the upper bow.
“Superficial damage to the outer hull and a couple of upper decks only. The main bridge is untouched,” Tanner Matthews reported over the ODC on the bridge of the Horizon. There was a letdown in his voice, which David Christenson mirrored in his heart.
“A good move on Tholin’s part…one which I would’ve done,”
David reflected more to himself, then said to the ODC, “We’ve still got a shot where their shield grids gave out, and Captain Stubbs had the right idea. Target their weapons array and have the Lednicer go after their engines. Between the three of us, we may be able to give the General an early retirement!”
On the bridge of the Hawking, Stubbs followed Christenson’s lead and ordered his helmsman to press in further. But another maser blast from the Necrosis threw a serious wrench into the plan as, with a massive jolt, the majority of overhead lights went out and two consoles blew, one of them knocking the navigator unconscious.
“Shit,” Tamamura called out as she rushed to the fallen crewman’s side. As she checked the young man’s pulse, Stubbs peered through the almost-blackness at Mara. “Status report, Lieutenant!”
“Forward shielding is gone, Captain! Another shot might cripple us severely or slice open the bridge!”
Stubbs swore under his breath. “Helm, move us off!”
“Yes, sir,” the helmsman replied and the Necrosis began to recede on the viewscreen. Abruptly though, it started moving forward, coming after the damaged cruiser.
“What’s he doing?” Tamamura asked as she looked up from her position on the floor.
Stubbs had it figured out in an instant. “He’s ignoring the other two ships, figuring that because we’re damaged, they’ll have to try and shield this vessel if he pursues us.”
“But David wouldn’t—” Tamamura began, then stopped.
She chewed on her lip and looked at Mara, who saw the stare and looked away, focusing on her console. Although she tried not to acknowledge it, Mara had no choice but to accept what Stubbs and Tamamura had to be thinking: although Tholin couldn’t know about her and David, he instinctively picked up that if Christenson were distracted with looking after a wounded Cruiser, he’d have no time to focus his attention on the Calvoria
n ship. David of course would not let anything happen to Mara or her ship. Through her relationship with David Christenson, Mara had just become a liability to the fleet!
A corporal at one of the auxiliary terminals quickly switched his console over to control navigational functions, then sent the signal to the helmsman, who acknowledged the change with a brisk nod back. Stubbs sat back in his chair, gripping the arms anxiously as he called out, “Veer off! Keep our portside to the enemy, don’t let them get a shot at our bridge!”
The helmsman replied affirmatively and the Necrosis began to fall away on the main screen as the Hawking turned swiftly to starboard, keeping its left side—and what shields there were still intact—on guard against the Calvorian ship’s weaponry.
The ship was battered and shaken hard as the masers dealt a hard blow to the magnetic repulsion field once more, but the bridge crew maintained a state of cohesiveness in spite of the ongoing attack.
On the bridge of the Horizon, David Christenson leaned forward in his chair, studying the long stretch of enemy ship which blocked his view of the Hawking. He feared for his old friends James and Nikki, but worried more for Mara…even though he tried to maintain focus on the overall battle between the two fleets. “Tactical—what’s the status of the war outside?” he snapped tersely.
“We’ve managed to whittle down the enemy bit by bit, Captain,” Matthews returned over the ODC. “The enemy’s still holding tight, but if we can just bring down the damn Necrosis…”
David swore under his breath, but then a thought came to him. “How’s our path to the graving yard?”
A momentary pause as Matthews sent the query through his tactical console. “We’ve got it, but sir…there’s no point to it.
The expenditure of radiation from the Delaware’s explosion is going to leave every inch of space within two light years uninhabitable for at least two solar years. I know part of the plan was to capture the graving yards and make them our own, but now—”
“Now’s our chance to give them a distraction of their own to think about, just like they’re doing with us and the Hawking.
Trust me, Tanner.”
“You know I do, sir.”
“Buttlefield! Patch me in to Captain Sittam aboard the
Pintoresco!”
Buttlefield’s fingers danced across the communications console. She looked back at Christenson within seconds. “Got you, Captain.”
On the bridge of the Heavy Cruiser Pintoresco, Captain Nancy Sittam sat back in the center seat and crossed her legs as the order came in via com-link: “Christenson to Sittam. You have a clear path to the enemy’s graving yards, Captain. Take your assigned ships and double-time it! I want you to blast their sterling new ships to ashes, and I want it to be noticeable from five parsecs away!”
One corner of Sittam’s mouth curled upward in a half-smile.
She swiped a long lock of auburn hair out of her eye. The Pintoresco had held its own well, but the enemy had managed to do some serious damage to its starboard side and part of its underbelly. Now it was time for payback. “I read you loud and clear, Captain. You better put some sunglasses on.” As the com-line closed, Sittam exhaled lightly and checked the tactical display on the dsp affixed to the right arm of her chair.
“Communications, notify our wing to form up. Helm, bring us about on heading two-two-eight by four-seven-nine. We’re going in!”
“The task force is on their way, Captain,” Matthews announced over the Horizon’s ODC.
“Acknowledged, Tanner. If anyone can do this, it’s Nancy Sittam.” The Captain then rubbed his hand thoughtfully across his chin as he considered his current plan. Yes, Tanner was right that for all intents and purposes, the graving yards would now be useless to them…but that was if one considered it useless on a continual basis. UEF could always send specialized construction teams in with radiation-proof gear on rotating shifts. It would take far longer to construct Heavy Cruisers now than the standard one year at Hephaestus…but the job could still be done. Once completed, the ships could be cleansed of all lingering radiation traces and sent out to confront the enemy.
Specialized human teams could do the job—but so could Calvorian ones, using the same methods. David realized Tholin would had to have considered this, and he was banking that if the yards and their precious new ships were suddenly under siege, the Calvorian general might pull his own ship away from the engagement with the Hawking in order to look after the Alliance’s interests.
“Status of the Hawking?”
“Firing as it retreats,” Matthews answered. “They’re trying to keep their port side to the Necrosis’ guns, but it’s not working. I can’t believe a ship that size is so damn maneuverable! The Lednicer is trying to draw fire on the enemy’s port side, but the Necrosis is just ignoring them.”
“Drop us back a bit, helm…let the good General think we’re giving up our chase.”
The helmsman gave his captain a questioning look.
“You heard me. Let him pass by.”
“Aye, sir…”
On the viewscreen, the Necrosis’ starboard side began to continue onward as the Horizon abruptly dropped its own speed. First the registry went by…then amid-ships…then the last few meters of the ship’s stern…
Matthews was the first to realize the captain’s plan. “The Necrosis is beginning to turn hard to starboard,” the tactical chief said slyly.
Christenson licked his lips. “Too late, old boy,” he spoke to the viewscreen through clenched teeth. “Far, far too late.” His voice rose sharply in volume as he called out, “Now, Tanner— antimatter torpedoes! Fire!”
The distance between the bow of the Horizon and the rear engines of the Necrosis could be measured in a few dozen kilometers. Six torpedoes of charged antimatter from the Earth flagship’s forward launchers cleared the distance in less than four seconds. Their impact against the Calvorian vessel’s force fields was tremendous, and as the third torpedo cracked through and its brothers followed, the resultant explosion was so great its repercussive force shook the Horizon as well.
All aboard Christenson’s ship had to shield their eyes momentarily. As the light died down, the captain allowed himself a small laugh at the satisfying sight of the massive war vehicle lain out crippled in stark relief against the star-speckled blackness. Three of its five immense engine casings were either cracked or destroyed entirely. A section of one engine hung partially off, and a portion of the large, angular ship’s rear hull was blasted clear open and spilled debris and bodies into the void. The last two engines were more or less exteriorly intact, although one was sputtering intermittently and leaking energy.
On the bridge of the recently beleaguered Hawking, an amazed silence filled the command center as all observed the wounded Calvorian flagship lying stunned amidst the stars, the Horizon cautiously moving in for the kill. Nikki Tamamura broke the silence as she moved to stand beside her husband and nodded toward Christenson’s ship. “If he pulls this off, I may have to marry him, too.”
Stubbs looked up at her and laughed as they briefly clasped hands. She then headed back to her console as Mara announced, “The Pintoresco and its wing are hitting the graving yards. Switching view…”
She tabbed a panel and the image changed to a medium shot of the yards, where Captain Sittam’s ship and about a dozen others were blowing the hell out of whatever ships were still drydocked there. The Earth ships were making a clean run of the place, warding off fire from the asteroid base even as they rained laser fire upon the still Calvorian ships.
The communications officer turned in his chair to face Stubbs. “Captain, the enemy fleet’s in disarray. There’s some arguments as to which ship commanders are now in charge. Some want to head to the graving yards, some to aid Tholin… they can’t agree on anything.”
Stubbs let out a small grunt of satisfaction and nodded. “They’re helpless without a clear leader. That’s something we didn’t know about them before. That’s somethin
g we can use. Notify the Lednicer, the Ambato and at least five other ships: it’s time to pick off the stragglers before they get reorganized.”
An alerting beep emitted from Mara’s board and her eyes scanned the tactical info swiftly. “Too late. Fifteen battlecruisers headed this way, fast. Looks like they made their decision.”
