“Captain, we have multiple contacts, two clusters, on extreme range. More data as we get closer.”
“Very well, open ship wide comms, This is the captain, quiet battle stations. I repeat, quiet battle stations.”
The crew knew the drill and would cut all unnecessary energy use as well as comms. Panther would fire all thrusters for maximum speed and then go cold, the ship would cruise on inertia until they hopefully passed the fleets. At the same time they would be prepared to run or fight depending on the captains orders. Six hours later they had passed the cluster of Gog and Magog ships. They had passed close enough that passive scans broke them out to be twenty corvettes and fifteen frigates, way more than they could hope to take on and survive. Zak gave the command.
“Fire up long range scan, let's see what is ahead of us.”
A few minutes later the radar operator came back.
“Sir, I see two ships close to the jump point.”
“Very well, fire full thrust straight on and keep watch for more ships.”
To the crew Zak relayed their status.
“This is the captain, we have passed the armadas undetected. Remain at quiet battle stations as we make for the jump point. Three hours to jump if we cut thrust in ten minutes.”
Parkor had been sitting in his quarters the whole time but now wanted to get out and headed for engineering, the last place anyone would expect him to go.
“You should be in your quarters Parkor, things could get rough at any minute.”
“I understand but I felt a need to come and apologize for my earlier behavior. Until now I had no idea how dangerous space travel could be. My only other space travel was on a Cyrillium destroyer.”
The days on Panther had cooled his arrogance to the point he was fearful. As he left he said one more thing to Gina and Dihr.
“That goes for you two as well, I just wanted to clear the air.”
Uhr responded.
“Thank you, now go and put on your suit, if there is a hull breach you are dead without it.”
Parkor headed to the aft galley for some food, forgetting about the warning to put on the environment suit.
“Got something. Not one of ours and wait, it's gone.”
The overanxious Gog radar operator yelled out. The battle cruiser's captain, Grisom responded.
“What do you mean it's gone, that is not possible unless they cut thrusters, So what was the trajectory, do you have enough data to plot it's course.”
Grisom was an old veteran left to command one of the patrol ships, away from the main action. Gog's younger commanders did not believe older people had much value and pushed them aside in favor of the 'younger and more clear thinking'.
“Sir, I have a course and plot.”
“Navigator, chart and execute, full speed ahead. That ship is definitely trying to make the jump point undetected. Send all data to command, how long till we are in hailing range.”
Grisom would follow procedure to the letter, at least to start with. How long it would take for command to acknowledge the report was anybody's guess.
On board Panther.
“Captain, we have been discovered. They must have picked us up just before we shut down thrust. It is a single ship vectoring on our charted course and estimated to be in extreme comms range in one hour fifteen at present speeds.”
“How much would we gain if we thrust at maximum.”
Hart, now on the bridge responded.
“Not enough to give away that we are aware of them, or to give away our capabilities, no doubt they have commed their command.”
Parkor was in the galley enjoying a meal when a crew member stopped in and shook his head.
“You are crazy for not being suited up. This would not be the first time we have had a hull breach plus just having the extra padding during evasive maneuvers can save a lot of pain.”
Instead of barking at the man he simply nodded in acknowledgment. He finished his meal and headed to his quarters, still not convinced that there was any real danger. It was just over an hour later before he regretted that decision.
“This is captain Grisom of the Gog command, you are in violation of restricted space. Come to station keeping and prepare to be boarded.”
Zak looked around the bridge, considering his response but before he could formulate a response another hail came in.
“This is Grisom of Gog command, your lack of response will be taken as a hostile act and you will be fired upon.”
No one on Panther's bridge showed any reaction to the threat. Zak gave it a few more minutes before responding.
“This is captain Zak Jahns transporting medical equipment to the Cyrillium home world. We are, as is custom, prepared to pay any fees or tariffs at the jump point. Meanwhile, our fuel reserves are low so we have been coasting whenever possible.”
Grisom was not happy with this response and ordered a volley of five missiles be launched. This was not enough to destroy the ship, just to disable it. Any medical equipment the ship carried would be state of the art and be a big benefit to the Gog military. He was confident the old container ship was his.
“Zak, they have fired on us, five medium missiles, time to us about twenty minutes at present course and speed. They have fired at what must be their maximum range.”
Zak responded, making sure ship wide comms were on.
“This is the captain, we have been fired on and a single battleship is following. We will be firing thrusters at full before those missiles are in range and we will outrun them and the following battleship. That will be in about fifteen minutes, be prepared.”
And in fifteen minutes the captain gave the orders, all but Parkor were ready. He was slammed against a wall so hard it almost knocked the wind out of him as the four giant thrusters fired putting the ship six gee over dampers. Parkor had no suit on to cushion the blow so a broken shoulder resulted in much pain that he would have to endure for some time. The bridge crew of the Gog battleship were astounded at the rapid acceleration of the old containership which Grisom now realized was not what it seemed.
“Send a data pack to command, hostile ship heading for jump point, stop at all costs.”
On board Panther they intercepted the comm and at the same time discovered several ships ahead on long range scans. Hart spoke first.
This looks like trouble but if the ships ahead are as slow as the one following we should be able to run straight through them without too much trouble.”
Zak responded.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
And then things started to go sideways.
“Where did they come from, two ships in range and firing.”
Zak ordered.
“Prepare for evasive, ready point defense, return fire, two missiles each ship, on my mark. How many incoming and what type are those ships.”
“The ships are not the same as those others so, possibly Magog and our hails are going unanswered. We should be able to take out the missiles, closing in fourteen minutes.”
Panther had gotten in between opposing forces and it did not look like either side was listening to any reasoning. The two ships did not did not appear on radar until just before they fired indicating some level of cloaking or shielding. This meant they also may have a high level of defense capabilities also. Along with the bridge crew he came to some conclusions and made his decision.
“Mark.”
Four of Panther's new smart missiles sped away at incredible velocity, the latest of Cyrillium engineering further enhanced by Uhr. All of Panther's had now been outfitted with this advanced technology which included evasion capabilities which made them quite formidable. Still, there were only so many in the racks and they faced an unknown number of ships.
Parkor had just gotten into his suit after calling for help. He was in extreme pain and screamed in agony as a crew member injected him with something and then pulled pulled the suit over his broken shoulder. Parkor screamed once more as he passed out
and the crew man dragged him to his bed and strapped him in then hurried back to his post. The crew all knew that things were going to get really rough just by Zak's tone of voice as he issued orders.
“There is no turning back, we have fired on by two different forces of unknown size. Stay sharp as we make a run for the jump point.”
Zak queried the bridge crew and Hart specifically.
“How much can we deviate from our current trajectory and still make the jump point.”
“I suggest we go wide of our intended course and then cut back to it when we are closer.”
“Excellent, let us do that, so ordered.”
Panther changed course and so did the ships they had been heading towards. This in itself was not a worry until two Magog ships appeared and fired at the pursuing ships. They were walking into an ongoing battle as the Gog ships fired back. Panther was still out of range. The other two ships that had fired on them suffered hits from Panther's smart missiles, one of them appeared dead while the other maneuvered to possibly rescue it's crew. The new Cyrillium tech made the smart missiles difficult to fool with any type of counter measures or point defenses. Still they tried to hail the pursuing ships having confirmed frequencies for the Gog but not the Magog. Zak had a way of talking his way out of troubles but with no communications and missiles flying it seemed unlikely this time.
The Magog captains on the two ships that were hit by Panther's missiles were convinced that Panther was a Gog ship and marshaled more ships to stop and hopefully take possession of it in order to discover why it's missiles tracked and performed so well. The Gog of course, wanted it for the same reason despite the fact it had fired at their enemy and hailed them that it was neutral. Despite the change in course the enemy ships would be closing in a short amount of time and before Zak could come up with any sort of evasion strategy another ship, presumably Magog appeared on radar.
“Another ship, this one much bigger is on us and deploying fighters.”
Zak responded.
“Hold steady and be prepared to launch one missile on each fighter, on my mark.”
Uhr broke in.
“Captain, if you do that we will not have enough missiles left to defend against any of the ships, Gina says we can take the fighters with lasers.”
Zak considered.
“Belay missile deployment and get ready on lasers, fire as soon as those fighters are in range.”
What Zak had not considered was the range advantage the the upgraded lasers had over the fighters. Conversely, the all fighters had was speed and so came on faster than expected. Gina broke over the comms.
“Don't worry about the fighters, take out the missiles first.”
No sooner had she said that the fighters launched missiles, two dozen and closing fast. Panthers six gunners had their hands full but managed to take out over half of the missiles while Zak rolled the ship in a cartwheel allowing the gunners more time to hit the remaining before they turned around and relocked on Panther. Five managed to make it through and exploded on the starboard container shields.
“Starboard shields down twenty percent.”
Zak jinked the ship again and rolled the ship over presenting the bow to the incoming fighters. Before those fighters could get in range Panther started firing and despite of the long range managed to take out four almost immediately. The remaining two fighters broke off as Panther came in range of four Gog battleships coming in a wedge formation. Zak ordered.
“Lock two missiles on each ship and fire now. Hart, change course and estimate how long till we can jump.”
Before Hart could reply or helm could evade, four missiles rocked Panther. There were just too many for the lasers to take out. Dihr reported.
”We just lost some med beds, port container was compromised but still has integrity, shields down twenty percent in that area otherwise we are still good.”
The entire crew was operating at peak as Hart called out.
“Still nineteen minutes till we can jump.”
Zak continued crazy evasive maneuvers that stressed the crew with gee forces up to ten gee at times, some of them blacked out. Now both Gog and Magog ships engaged Panther and each other in a running battle that left Panther at a severe disadvantage. She was taking a pounding as the powerful thrusters slowly gave her an advantage as she pulled away. The crew was busy launching missiles and firing lasers when a ship got too close. Their smart missiles were taking a toll on the enemies, not destroying but causing enough damage to take a few out of the fight. As Panther pulled further away a barrage from two different directions took out a main thruster and created a hull breach. Uhr reported.
“We just lost a thruster, hull breach contained. We can still do this, jump in ten minutes.”
Ten minutes may seem like a short amount of time but when you are being pounded by five ships it seemed like an eternity. Gina reported.
“We are out of missiles.”
No one said a word as Zak continued a bizarre series of maneuvers as the gunners continued to take out the continual stream of missiles coming at them. Then Panther shuddered as another barrage took out another main thruster, her speed dropped again. At the same time a forward hit created a hull breach near the bridge. Still they continued on as a hail came on ordering them to surrender, Zak did not respond as they closed in on the jump point. Just then, a strange thing happened, all the pursuing ships dropped off and started to pull away, trying to reverse course. Panthers crew had been too busy to look at long range scans or they to would have seen the giant ship that had just jumped in. Unlike the Gog and Magog, Panther's crew knew just what they were looking at, a Cyrillium empire ship. Four times larger than anything else in the known worlds. Just her presence was enough to stop most hostilities. Now fifty fighters shot out in different vectors towards the retreating ships. Hails on many frequencies and languages went out to all the ships ordering them to stand down and come to station keeping. Empire ships rarely left Cyrillium space and Zak could not understand why this one was here now, until Admiral Byrd came on the comm.
“Looks like they just about had you Zak but we can talk about that later. For now you will dock in bay seven and don't scratch the paint on your way in or you will be doing touch up personally.”
Panther had taken a beating that most ships could never withstand and remain in one piece. The multilayered hull was missing layers in places, rows of shield emitters were fried and two small hull breaches would require repairs in a drydock. Still, the ship was still intact as well as the crew. None of the injuries were critical or life threatening. Parkor's shoulder was the worst of it. What remained was that Panther disabled seven battleships plus a few frigates and fighters, not bad for a century old containership. Of the two containers one was in bad shape while the other suffered only minor damage. The cargo inside, the med beds, had taken some damage and a few were totally destroyed. None of this mattered to Zak, all he cared about is that they had survived the ordeal. He was exhausted after hours of waiting interspersed with frantic but calculated evasive maneuvers. Zak thanked the crew, called a pilot to bring Panther into the empire ship and for those who could to stand down and rest. Zak headed to his quarters to do the same and get some rest. Once in his quarters a big shot of brandy was followed by another allowing him to wind down so he could sleep after being awake for over thirty hours. He slept almost that long until a Cyrillium woman came to wake him up, he awoke to pounding on the door.
“Enter.”
Zak said as he headed for the fresher leaving his guest to fend. Commander Junes was amused by Zak's behavior, she knew him too well. When he came out he was not amused.
“Commander Junes, of all the people he could send why does it have to be you.”
“The why will be clear in a little while, Admiral Byrd requires your presence and he will explain. As to your crew they are free to use our ships facilities with the usual restrictions. A repair group has already started repairs on your ship and your missile bays are fu
lly stocked again. All while you slept. Hart authorized that for you.”
There was no contempt in her voice.
“Shall we go.”
Zak did not like Junes, they had a rocky history and she had made him look bad more than once. Zak had only been on a empire ship once and he begrudgingly thanked Junes for the escort as they made way forward through many levels and horizontal rides to the Admiral's dining.
“Ah, Zak Jahns, it has been awhile please sit down. I take it Junes did not tell you. I am surprised.”
Zak entered and moved to the long table where Admiral Byrd sat at the head. Admiral Byrd was the most respected officer in the Cyrillium services and wielded almost as much power as the high council. He did not sit on the military command council preferring to live in space but still had far reaching influence. He gestured for Junes and Zak to sit one on each side of him so that they would face each other.
“That was impressive, I believe you would have made it to jump space even if we had not shown up. Despite your stubbornness you managed to learn some of what the military tried to drum into you. Right now the two forces that were so bent on destroying you have agreed to a cease fire. Partly because your actions and of course our presence.
Zak replied.
“Glad to be of service and thank you for the restock and repairs. But that is not why you asked me up here and what has this to do with your capable commander Junes.”
Zak Jahns Page 5
