by Ryan Krauter
"Torpedoes on the menu for the big one, laser batteries for the little one?" she asked.
"Agreed. We don't want to kill off too many of their comrades if we can help it, so try to disable first. Do what you have to, though, to protect Loren and Velk."
"Copy that, Captain."
Ravine's cruiser was maneuvering as best it could, changing heading and axis randomly to try to avoid getting caught between the two aggressor Priman ships.
The other two, conversely, were trying their best to place the Ravine family's ship between them so they'd be constantly in the crosshairs, unable to get a reprieve from the constant laser fire.
It was the maneuvering that made a microjump tricky for Avenger. As fast as she'd be traveling, she couldn't jump too close to the fight or she'd risk running right into one of the other ships as they weaved through space. The best they could do is pick an entry vector that would get them close to the action, plan to come up short, and be ready for anything when they showed up. Which is exactly what they did.
"Reversion, now!" called the helm officer as she grabbed her console. Microjumps were notoriously rocky as the ship's compensators and field generators struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing mass and energies involved in such a short jump.
Avenger ripped into normal space a perfect distance away from the fight, a little nose low relative to the Priman ships. Her mag-shield deactivated, revealing the ship in all her glory, scarred and patched hull evidence of her fighting pedigree. Elco ordered a pitch up to point them the right direction and saw three torpedoes tear away in a salvo from her forward tubes, then saw on the main holo field three more leaving the aft tubes. All the torpedoes were targeted on the heavy cruiser.
Avenger swung her bow to starboard and rolled to port, orienting her broadside at the aggressor light cruiser so she uncovered the maximum amount of laser batteries towards the enemy.
Priman countermeasures were still top notch; two of Avenger's torpedoes failed to guide and one more was shot down by concentrated laser fire. One detonated as a glancing blow across the enemy ship's forward dorsal area, but the other two hit dead-on one after the other at the vessel's starboard dorsal midships area. Great clouds of oxygen and burning debris shot out of the deeply scarred ship's hide, snuffed out instantly in the vacuum of space. Secondary explosions blossomed deep in the ship's interior as she peeled off hard to port to shield her wounded side from the Confed vessel.
As they passed the group of Priman ships, all her port side and most of her dorsal and ventral laser batteries opened up on the light cruiser, concentrating fire on the Priman ship's own laser batteries. The aggressor Primans attack on the Ravine ship had given Avenger a free pass through the formation to get in first blood, and the aggressor light cruiser sailed from the engagement zone trailing hull plates and leaving a trail of electrical sparks as damaged components arced voltage to any place that would ground out.
"Shields holding, minimal hull damage," Elco heard his damage control officer call out from her station in the sensor shack at the rear of the bridge. He felt the occasional reverb of a laser strike on his ship's hull but could tell from a quick glance at the display that the light cruiser was just scorching his hull and not doing any real damage.
"Bring us around in a turn to port so we can engage that heavy cruiser," Elco commanded.
Avenger was hit by another volley of shots. This time, he heard the telltale booms of metal straining and buckling under bombardment. Those damn Priman long range lasers were their own version of Confed's torpedoes; slow recharge time but long range and heavy damage. Avenger had just been on the receiving end of a barrage, and this time when Elco looked at the damage monitor he saw numerous yellow caution highlights over various systems.
"Sarria," Elco called out to his third in command on the screen, "prioritize on the heavy cruiser. Their long range lasers are apparently still working quite well."
"Aye, Captain," was all she said, then turned to tell her gunners how to make it happen.
Avenger swung in a wide arc to port around the stricken Ravine cruiser, which was turning to starboard and angling nose down to clear the area. The aggressor light cruiser was still headed away from the conflict; Elco would have to deal with her soon enough to make sure she didn't try to run off to hyperspace. For now, the ship was stuck because of her proximity to the other vessels and their mass prevented a hyperdrive field from forming. Elco guessed Avenger had about sixty seconds before the other cruiser was clear.
The aggressor heavy cruiser was finishing a turn, heading right for Avenger. The Confed ship triggered off another salvo of three torpedoes from her functioning forward tubes, then began a 180 degree roll to protect her underside and the vulnerable hangar bay. Though not in use at the time, a direct hit would wipe out her fighter craft and quite possibly injure or kill many of the personnel involved in flight ops.
So Avenger took her beating on her dorsal side, Priman lasers pounding away at her hull and cracking plates where the shields began to strain. Her external armor plates had seen better days, and though she'd managed to replace a few using the ones removed from the Crusader class ship they'd boarded previously, it wasn't as though she'd been lucky enough to get some quality yard time either. One external plate, a curved section just above the midline where her two decks worth of portholes were, shattered and peeled away, exposing the bare hull underneath. Priman gunners eagerly concentrated fire there and savaged the vulnerable spot, tearing deep into the superstructure and causing severe internal damage as well as disabling the laser battery just a few frames aft.
Avenger rolled again, trying to shield her damaged flank by exposing a different section of hull.
It was at that point Avenger's torpedoes hit the Priman cruiser. One had failed to guide, a victim of ECM. The other two had run right into the ship's bow, burrowing deep into her structure as they detonated. The ship seemed to light up from the inside, and several secondary explosions ripped outward from inside the hull. Her bow exploded outward and she sailed straight on as her drives flickered and went dim.
On Avenger's bridge Elco ordered flank speed to catch the fleeing light cruiser while Lieutenant Commander Mastruk had her gunners concentrate on the ship's engines. The light cruiser fired at Avenger, but Elco ordered all her shield generator energy sent forward. He hesitated to use torpedoes, first because a direct hit to the engines might completely destroy the vessel and second because he was simply running out of the weapons. Being branded a traitor meant they hadn't resupplied on many items in months, and their torpedo magazines were almost empty.
Captain Elco sat on the bridge and grimaced as the cruiser fired on him. The good news was that it didn't have many aft-facing batteries, and even in a less than optimal state of repair, Avenger was faster. He ordered his ship to angle back and forth across the cruiser's stern to give more of his laser batteries a chance to fire.
A minute later, one of the engine exhaust ports exploded and the ship took on a yaw towards the ruined engine. Elco saw the cruiser use maneuvering and braking thrusters to straighten out its' course, then the other main engine dimmed noticeably as they tried to bring her steering back under control. He ordered one more volley into the good engine, and Avenger's laser batteries carved it up, shredding the remaining functioning engine. The lights of the ship flickered on and off, then stabilized with only a few light sources still powered. The engines were destroyed and the ship started to tumble, though slowly now since she hadn't been going very fast in the first place.
"Threats neutralized," Elco said softly on the bridge. He stood up and walked briefly to each station and the officer there as he made the circuit which took him back to the sensor and weapons shack.
"Helm, bring us about and reduce speed to half. We'll fly by the bow of the ship Loren and Velk are on and then engage the mag shield. Then we'll change course and resume our original position behind them. Be ready to shadow and follow as before. They may try to render aid to the other s
hips here, but that's their deal, not ours. And let's just hope they still trust Loren and Velk after this little display we put on here."
Elco returned to his chair and sat down, shoulders heavy with the weight of his decision. He had saved his XO and given the mission a chance to succeed, but would it still go on? If the Primans on that ship took offense to being followed or thought it was some sort of elaborate setup to get a Confed ship to the heart of Priman territory, he might have just gotten his XO killed.
Despite his offer to help in whatever way he could, Loren was locked up in the salon where he, Velk and the elder Ravine had been when the attack started. He saw his Confed uniform and jacket piled in a corner and took a minute to change out of his civilian clothes and into the uniform. The meaning was twofold; first, the fabric was tough, rip and tear resistant, and provided a moderate amount of protection from heat and flame. The second was that, should this be the end of his days, he wanted to go out wearing a Confed Navy uniform, not the shabby clothes he'd disguised himself in.
There hadn't been any noise for several minutes after the firing had stopped, and Loren was finally starting to worry. What if there were hull breaches and everyone was dead or dying? What if the attackers had landed a boarding party?
Being a polite captive was all well and good, but Loren figured it was time to make himself heard. He went to the control panel against the hatch and inspected the buttons and controls. His understanding of Priman language was minimal, but he was able to piece together the idea of the panel. There was a lock function, keypad, emergency commands, and some sort of reset. On the chance that telling the panel there was an emergency would initiate a lockdown or fire suppression gas, he started with the reset button. He suspected that the disrupted power system of the wounded ship would work in his favor; if the main computer or power distribution was affected, he might have a chance to escape a cell that the normally very thorough Primans wouldn't have planned for. He found a diagnostic screen and commanded the panel to run a self-test. He heard a click from within the hatch and quickly pushed the door aside into the bulkhead as it tested the locking mechanism.
His sense of accomplishment at his ingenuity was quickly replaced by one of shock as he took in the scene around him. He was in a wide corridor that seemed to be a main thoroughfare for the deck. To his left he saw a large hatch that was resting half open. Inside, despite the haze of smoke being wafted around by recirc fans, Loren could see the makings of a bridge. To his right were more corridors, split by symmetrically placed hatches that ran back as far as the eye could see.
He turned to head towards the bridge as a deep explosion made the ship shudder. He felt a change in air pressure as it dropped, then felt a slight breeze as air moved past him back towards the distant end of the corridor. Abruptly, the pressure stabilized and the airflow stopped. Loren had been unfortunate enough to have experienced a hull breach before; this ship had just vented some of its atmosphere into space.
When he got to the bridge, he saw the scene was even worse than he'd prepared himself for. There was a small electrical fire still burning on a console near the front of the bridge, unconscious or dead Priman crewmember slumped back in the seat attached to it. Where was everyone else?
Loren ran over to the station and took off his jacket, draping it over the console to smother the flames. After a few seconds, he pulled it off and saw the fire was out. His jacket only minimally scorched for the effort, he put it back on and turned to see Velk and Ravine looking at him through a hatch to another compartment off the bridge. Captain's quarters, or a ready room perhaps?
"You were told to wait in the salon," Ravine said with no inflection as Loren walked towards the aft compartment.
"Allies or not," Loren said calmly, "after the beating your ship just took, you need every able body out here helping." He looked at each of them in turn, waiting for someone to point out the crazy boat they all found themselves in. Nobody spoke up. "So, what do you need me to do?"
Ravine looked at Velk, who just nodded imperceptibly. The old Priman beckoned Loren forward, and he crossed into the small compartment. It did in fact appear to be some sort of ready room or briefing space, but the three of them were here alone.
"You can tell us what this means," Ravine said softly.
Loren looked at a monitor as Ravine pointed to it. The screen came to life, showing what appeared to be an external view of space. Two Priman cruisers appeared in the camera's field of view and began firing towards the camera's location. Bright light flared, washing out the camera's optics on more than one occasion. The meaning was clear; this ship had been fired on by other Priman vessels.
"I can't explain why your own people attacked you," Loren began, confused as to where this conversation was going.
"Wait," was all Velk replied with.
The camera slewed its position, trying to track the other Priman cruisers as they maneuvered around the stricken Ravine ship. The camera feed suddenly shifted, showing the aft of the ship, engine bulges visible at the bottom of the frame. Just as Loren was about to ask what he was looking for, a ship shimmered into existence. A Crusader class hunter/killer. Loren recognized the scorching and mismatched hull plates, as if the large weathered lettering on the bow proclaiming it to be 'CSS AVENGER' wasn't enough. Avenger launched a spread of torpedoes, her laser batteries opening up and unleashing devastating energy blasts across space. The camera couldn't track the shots all the way to their end, but Loren understood. Avenger had revealed herself to save Ravine's ship. The camera footage ended with Avenger accelerating away, mag shield powering up and rendering her invisible again as a Priman cruiser drifted dark in the background.
"Oh. That." Loren didn't know what to say.
There was silence in the compartment. With the recirculation fans inoperative like most of the bridge around them, there was almost no background noise. Loren found it unsettling to be on a ship that wasn't making sounds. It was like a person who wasn't breathing; there seemed to be no life in the vessel.
"A breach of trust," Ravine said softly, almost accusingly.
"Breach?" Loren replied. "We haven't betrayed you. Avenger wanted to shadow us to make sure we hooked up with the right people. Besides, what good is one Confed ship in Priman space? They're not out there to try and cause problems; our wellbeing is what they're taking care of, and by what I just saw I'd say it was mission accomplished. Your own people attacked you."
"And yet she failed to announce her presence," Ravine continued, drawing the conversation back to his chosen course. He turned to look at Velk. "You have not spoken up. I take it you also knew of this?"
Velk only hesitated long enough to compose his thoughts. "I knew they would attempt to follow us for a while. They also know they could lose track of us at any time, and they were willing to take that risk with my potential escape as well as Commander Stone's life. I do not fear their motives."
"Perhaps you should."
Ravine seemed spent, not knowing what to say next, so Loren took it as his chance.
"You see the video; my ship left us and faded away. They didn't attack you or finish off the other two ships. And now they've left me and the Representative behind in your hands. I'd say that's a hell of a lot of trust they're putting in you, Mr. Ravine."
Ravine looked into Loren's eyes, unblinking and intense. Loren wanted to look away but held the Priman's gaze.
"Alright, Commander Stone," Ravine finally said. "We will continue. You are right about needing able bodies right now. The bridge has been severed from the main computer; all the controls are dead. The bridge crew is at our secondary control room, but we are short handed. We plan to render assistance to the ships Avenger crippled. Whether they knew the specifics of their objective or not, we will at least make sure they are rescued. Judgment will come at another time." Ravine sighed and sat down in a utilitarian chair, one of many that surrounded a holographic briefing table in the center of the compartment.
"There was a time that an
act like this would have been unthinkable. And I, for just the briefest of moments, wondered if we should in fact help the crew on those other ships. They attacked us, after all. This all goes to illustrate Representative Velk's point; we as a people are straying from our ideals, our path. We need to rediscover ourselves, and at this point I care less about claiming this galaxy for ourselves and more about the future of our civilization."
"What can we do?" Loren asked.
"The crew is trying to restore bridge functionality. Representative Velk will man the stations as they become operational. You can help with whatever tasks he needs assistance with. I hope that doesn't seem beneath the second in command of a starship."
"I've been the sidekick before, and I can do it again." Loren assured Ravine. Velk motioned to him and they both left the compartment to work on restoring the bridge to service.
Six
It was break-out day, Web realized as he regained consciousness. The last night's interrogation had run long, and after having some success with their latest setup the Primans had continued with the questioning long into the night. Web had the realization that at some point they were just trying to see if he'd crack; he had a hard time remembering much of it but was certain that after a while the meaningful questions dried up and it was just a steady diet of injections and jolts from the electrodes taped all over his head and torso.
Halley had told him they were going to use him and her as lab animals for their interrogation drugs; that was just one of many reasons to get out of this lockup as quickly as possible.
He rolled to his side in order to make sitting up easier, pausing to let a mild wave of nausea pass as his inner ear tried to figure out which way was up. He needed a vacation.
He shuffled out into the common area to find breakfast wrapping up. The plan revolved around not drawing attention to meetings with himself, Mithus and Halley, so he sought out only Mithus at the far end of the cafeteria where the man sat alone.
