by Ryk Brown
The bridge remained quiet for what seemed like an eternity. The only thing punctuating the silence was Josh reporting their velocity every few minutes until they reached seventy-five percent the speed of light.
Now at three-quarters the speed of light, the main engines were again quiet as they coasted along through the vacuum of space, patiently waiting for their target to streak past them. Try as he might to think of nothing, Nathan couldn’t help but contemplate all that was riding on the success of this single intercept. If successful, they would have several months in which to prepare the Darvano system to defend itself. It was even conceivable that several months might be enough time for them to wage some sort of guerrilla-style hit-and-run campaign to weaken the Ta’Akar enough that they could be completely overthrown. However, if they failed to intercept the drone, depending on the position of Takaran ships in the area, they could find themselves under attack within a month. That would barely be enough time to repair and rearm the Aurora, let alone establish any military capabilities within the Darvano system.
“Contact!” Ensign Yosef announced as her fingers danced across her consoles, quickly analyzing the incoming data streams. “The drone just blew past us, about a hundred thousand kilometers to port. Oh my God, it’s traveling at ninety times the speed of light.”
“That's what we expected,” Nathan reminded her.
“Yes, sir. I know. I’ve just never seen anything traveling that fast before.”
“Can you track it?” Nathan asked. “Can you verify its course?”
“Yes, sir. I just need a minute to collect enough data,” she assured him.
“Comms,” Nathan said, “tell Tug to get out onto the apron and get ready to launch.”
“Yes, sir,” Naralena answered.
“Abby, as soon as Kaylah has a plot, I need you to put us eight light hours ahead of that drone. That should give us just over five minutes to get Tug into position before the drone catches up to us.”
“Understood,” Abby replied.
“We’ll be jumping even closer to Takara, Jess,” Nathan warned.
“Don’t worry, Skipper,” she promised. “I’m not taking my eyes off the threat board.”
“I’ve got the drone’s true course and speed plotted, sir,” Ensign Yosef announced. “I’m feeding it to navigation and jump control.”
“Excellent. Whenever you guys are ready,” Nathan told them.
“Tug reports he is on the apron and ready for departure, Captain,” Naralena reported from the comms station.
“Remind him to close his eyes when we jump,” Nathan instructed Naralena.
“Yes, sir.”
“Jump plotted, Captain,” Abby reported.
“Mister Sheehan?” Nathan inquired, wondering if he was ready.
“All set here, Captain.”
“Let’s do it.”
“Attention all hands. Prepare to jump,” Naralena announced.
“Jumping in three……two…”
Tug checked the mag-locks on his landing gear and put his hand on his flight control stick as Abby’s voice finished counting down to the jump.
“…One……jump.”
Tug closed his eyes tightly as the brilliant blue-white light of the Aurora’s jump fields washed out over her surface, only to disappear a moment later.
“Jump complete,” Abby reported over the comms.
Tug released his mag-locks and applied full upward thrust. The interceptor leapt up off the flight apron of the Aurora, quickly rising above the top of her main propulsion section just aft of the apron. Another thrust stopped his ascent and he fired his main engines at full thrust, angling to port as he quickly left the Aurora behind.
“Tug, Aurora. I’m away, moving into position.”
“Start transmitting the dropout signal,” Nathan ordered.
“Transmitting now, sir,” Naralena reported. Ensign Willard watched over her shoulder, checking to see that the frequency and signal strength matched those used by warships of the Ta’Akar, which were the only ones authorized to order a comm-drone to drop out of FTL in order to exchange messages.
“Threat board is clear, Captain,” Jessica reported. “Tug is moving into the slot. His current velocity is point eight light and accelerating.”
Nathan said nothing, just stared straight ahead at the main view screen, wondering what good a view of the stars was at a time like this. “Jess, can you put your tactical view up on the main view screen?”
“Yes, sir,” Jessica answered. A moment later a large window appeared on the forward section of the spherical view screen, superimposed over the view of the stars ahead of them. The window showed a three-dimensional view of the area, with an icon indicating the Aurora at the center, and another icon indicating Tug’s interceptor moving away from them to port at a respectable rate. Sets of numbers indicating course and speed of both of the icons appeared just below them, moving along with them.
“Contact!” Ensign Yosef reported. “The drone just dropped out of FTL. Passing to port now, at point nine light.”
Nathan looked back to the tactical display on the main viewer as the icon representing the drone appeared on the display. The icon was moving considerably faster than them and was already passing directly to port, but it was only moving a little faster than Tug’s interceptor, which was now traveling at point eight seven light.
“Tug, Aurora,” Nathan called out over the comms. “You got it?”
“I’ve got it, Captain. Moving into position.”
Tug looked at his threat display, watching as the drone approached quickly from behind him and slightly to port. At the speeds they were both traveling he would only have a few seconds of targeting time to attempt to destroy the drone.
“Firing position in five seconds,” Tug reported. Tug watched as the drone caught up with him. He was only fifty meters to starboard of the drone’s flight path. Although it seemed like a safe distance, the amount of kinetic energy carried by any object traveling at such velocity was sobering.
As his threat display showed the drone passing him, Tug applied thrust and started to slide his interceptor to port, slipping in behind the drone as it passed. A moment later, his nose turret targeting systems indicated that it had a lock on the drone. Tug depressed the trigger, sending a staccato stream of energy bursts stretching out ahead of him toward the target.
“What the hell?” Tug exclaimed as he stared at his weapons targeting display. The icon representing the drone was sliding randomly from side to side and up and down, and it was doing so both quickly and erratically. “Aurora, Tug,” he called over comms. “The drone is maneuvering. It is taking evasive actions. I believe it knows it is being attacked.”
“Can you hit it?” Nathan asked over the comms.
“I am trying, but it is moving away from me and I cannot accelerate further. How much time?”
“Thirty seconds,” Nathan reported.
Tug continued firing his nose turret, struggling to try and track the erratic target, but it was no use. The drone was simply moving about faster than he could move the turret. “Switching to auto-track,” Tug announced as he released control of the turret to the targeting systems. Suddenly, the icon representing the drone vanished from his display.
“The drone is gone!” Jessica reported.
“Did he hit it?” Nathan asked.
“No, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported. “It went back into FTL.”
“Can you plot its course again?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, sir. Give me a moment.”
“Tug, Aurora,” Nathan called over his comm set. “Get back on the deck and lock on. We’ll jump ahead and give it another try.”
“Understood,” Tug answered.
“Abby, new plot. Put us twenty light hours ahead this time,”
“Yes, sir,” Abby responded.
“Cheng,” Nathan called over the comms.
“Yes, Captain?” Vladimir answered.
“Could you possibly squeez
e a little more power into the mains? I’d really like to try and get us up to point eight light.”
“I will try,” Vladimir answered. “Lieutenant Commander Patel originally believed we could do point eight.”
“Great, let’s see if we can prove he was right.” Nathan switched off his comms and rose from his chair, stepping up between Josh and Loki at the flight consoles. “Josh, as soon as we come out of the jump, I want you to go to full power on the mains. The more speed we can get out of her the less Tug will have to accelerate to chase that thing.”
“Yes, sir,” Josh answered, a bit nervous considering that at zero point seven five light, he was already going faster than he had ever gone before.
“I’ve got an updated plot for the drone, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported. “Feeding it to navigation and jump control.”
After a few minutes of deceleration, Tug was able to match his velocity to that of the Aurora’s and began sliding his way to starboard to line up with her in order to land. He had never attempted to land on a ship traveling this fast, and although the procedure was relatively the same, he could not help but think about the incredible speeds at which they were traveling. The most deceptive part about space flight was that there was almost no sense of motion. Everything in space is moving at incredible speeds. Other than your own instrumentation, your only perception of motion is in relation to objects near you. In the case of the Aurora, they were both traveling at relatively the same speed, so the massive ship appeared to be moving quite slowly, despite the fact that they were both moving fast enough to experience a considerable amount of time dilation.
“We’re ready to jump as soon as you’re down, Tug,” Nathan informed him over the comms.
“I am on final approach now,” Tug assured him. “I should be down and locked in sixty seconds.”
“Listen, after we jump, don’t launch until we tell you. We’re going to try and squeeze out a little more velocity first,” Nathan explained.
“Understood. I am curious as to why Ensign Willard did not know about the drone’s evasive capabilities,” Tug added.
“My specialty was in communications systems and cryptology, Captain,” Ensign Willard defended. “What I know about the drone’s operational capabilities I learned from one of the technicians that maintained the drones carried on the Yamaro. I was not even aware they had a rear facing sensor package. I find it very odd, in fact, as their forward sensor suite is only for navigation and collision avoidance.”
“It makes sense, sir,” Jessica interjected. “Given the state of Takaran technology, I mean. They don’t have jump drives; they haven’t even conceived of one. The only way anyone could hope to shoot down a drone would be to chase after it when it’s flying at subluminal velocity. Even then, the logistics are mind-numbing. I’m surprised they even bothered putting any kind of protective systems in it to begin with.”
“They probably know how dependent they are on the drones as well,” Nathan commented.
“I would expect so, sir,” Jessica continued. “My guess is that the drone probably activates a threat detection system whenever it receives a command to drop out of FTL. Running that kind of evasive maneuvering system at all times would use a lot of power. I doubt that small drone could generate enough power to run both systems simultaneously.”
“Tug is down and locked, Captain,” Naralena reported.
“Jump us, Abby,” Nathan ordered without hesitation.
“Jumping in three……two……one……jump.”
Blue-white light splashed across the bridge once more as the ship jumped ahead.
“Jump complete,” Abby reported.
“Full power, Mister Hayes,” Nathan ordered.
“Aye, sir. Mains to full,” Josh answered as he throttled up the main engines again.
“The drone should catch up to us in ten minutes and thirty-two seconds, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported.
“Understood. Let me know when it’s five minutes out,” Nathan ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
“Comms, relay everything we just discussed to Tug.”
“Yes, sir,” Naralena answered.
“Passing point seven six, Captain,” Josh reported.
“Cheng, How are we doing down there?” Nathan called over the comms.
“I’m running reactors one and two at one hundred and twenty percent, Captain. They seem to be tolerating the additional load nicely,” Vladimir bragged.
“Good job. Keep me posted,” Nathan answered, switching off his comm.
“Passing point seven, seven,” Josh reported.
“Tug,” Nathan hailed, “got any bright ideas?”
“I do have one,” Tug admitted, “but it is extremely dangerous. I would prefer to save it as a final option, if you do not mind.”
“Understood.”
“Passing point seven eight,” Josh reported.
“Seven minutes, Captain,” Ensign Yosef reported.
“Start transmitting the dropout signal,” Nathan ordered Naralena.
“Transmitting dropout signal,” Naralena answered from the comm station.
Tug flipped through the various auto-fire patterns the Corinari programmers had entered into the fire control system on his nose turret. There were several new patterns added, a few of which appeared to cover a large area in an extremely random pattern. However, on his first attempt, the comm-drone had been so unpredictable in its evasive maneuvers that Tug seriously doubted that any of the firing patterns would be able to score a hit.
“One minute to launch,” Naralena’s voice announced over his comms.
Tug switched off the auto-fire pattern selector and turned his attention back to his flight controls. A quick check showed everything was functioning normally. In fact, his interceptor was now performing better than he could ever remember, thanks to the highly skilled Corinari flight mechanics.
“Thirty seconds,” Naralena prompted.
“Passing point eight light, Captain,” Josh exclaimed, trying to control his enthusiasm.
“Fifteen seconds,” Ensign Yosef announced.
“Launch the interceptor,” Nathan instructed calmly.
“Tug, Aurora,” Naralena called. “Go for launch.”
“Understood,” Tug’s voice crackled over the comms. “Launching.”
Nathan watched the window on the forward display screen as the icon representing Tug’s interceptor moved away from the Aurora and closer to the expected path of the drone.
“Passing point eight one,” Josh said. “Acceleration is almost nonexistent now, Captain.”
“Keep the throttles up, Mister Hayes,” Nathan ordered. “Let’s see if we can make point eight two.”
“Contact!” Ensign Yosef announced. “Right on time; same course and speed, sir.”
“Good work, Ensign.” Nathan activated his comm set. “You got it, Tug?”
“I have the contact on my screens,” Tug announced. “Moving into firing position.”
Tug waited a few more seconds before he started his side slip to port, waiting for the drone to get a little closer. The Aurora’s additional velocity at the time he had launched had helped him get up to eighty-nine percent the speed of light, a mere one percent less than the velocity of the drone. However, one percent the speed of light was still one percent; the drone was still going to pass him rather quickly. He figured he had maybe five seconds of firing time before the drone would be too far ahead of him for his targeting systems to effectively track.
Tug moved even closer to the drone’s flight path than before, coming within thirty meters.
“You’re awfully close there Tug,” Nathan warned over the comms.
“I will be fine, Captain,” Tug assured him, trying to convince himself it was true. A few seconds later the drone was passing him on his port side. Tug slid the ship hard over the last fifty meters, his nose cannon attempting to track the target as it streaked past. Tug fired continuously, but again he had no luck as the drone jinked left and
right, up and down, just as erratically as the last time. Tug continued to fire after the nose turret lost its track on the drone. Even though the turret could not track it, the bolts of energy spewing forth from the turret’s twin cannons had incredible range, and those bolts traveled at the speed of light. He even kicked in his wingtip lasers, firing continuous streams of energy as he swept his nose about wildly in nearly imperceptable increments in a frustrated attempt to score a hit. Then the contact disappeared again as it slipped back into FTL.
“Damn!”
“Tug, Aurora. Get back on deck. We’ve got one more chance at this,” Nathan’s voice ordered.
Tug reeled his emotions back in. “Copy. Returning.”
“One more time, Abby,” Nathan ordered. “Twenty light hours ahead again.”
“Understood.”
“Are we still accelerating, Josh?” Nathan asked.
“Barely, sir. We’re mostly just burning propellant at this point.”
“Shut down the mains.”
“Yes, sir. Shutting down the mains,” Josh answered as he throttled back the Aurora’s main drive. “Velocity holding at point eight two light.”
“Well, at least we know we can go point eight two now,” Nathan commented.
Tug carefully brought his interceptor back down onto the deck of the Aurora as both ships hurtled along at over eighty percent the speed of light. Both attempts to intercept and destroy the drone had failed, and now they had but one chance remaining. If they failed, the drone would reach its destination in a few more days, and the Ta’Akar would immediately dispatch the nearest warship to the Darvano system. Within a month, the new alliance would have to defend itself against one or more aggressors, whether they were ready or not.
Tug closed his eyes as Abby’s voice counted down to the next jump. Even with tightly closed lids, he could still see the flash—that miraculous flash that instantly propelled the Aurora across enormous stretches of space. The Aurora’s jump drive was more powerful than any weapon he could ever dream of, and yet, if not given enough time to prepare, it might end up of little use.
