The ship pitched in a sharp, rolling turn, narrowly evading a salvo of missiles. Bluish-white streaks of plasma shot out from ports concealed on the Apocalypse's nose and wings and sped toward the Vr’amil’een Battlecruiser. “Admiral,” asked Zach, “You want me to head straight for the ‘Cruiser?”
“That’s right, Zach,” responded the Admiral coolly. He watched as the heavy ship began to turn ponderously toward them. “All possible speed.” Fingering a button on his control console, he spoke through the intercom. “Darren, I need all the speed you can give me—right now.”
“I’m giving her all she’s got, Admiral,” replied Darren’s voice from the speaker. “I can give you 15 more percent if I reroute hyperdrive coolant and auxiliary power, but then we won’t be able to use the hyperdrive or the Quantum—”
“Do it,” the Admiral replied. “Zach, change course 12 more degrees to port.” They were almost at the Battlecruiser now, and Daniel did not intend to let his ship get in the crosshairs of the ship’s heavy forward-facing cannons. Suddenly surging to even greater speed, the Apocalypse veered away from the nose of the heavy ship and fired bright streaks of energy into its hull. Checking the tactical display, the Admiral watched as most of the smaller ships, failing to allow for the Apocalypse's incredible speed, fell farther and farther behind as they converged on a spot well behind the speeding vessel.
A heavy blow rocked the ship as the Apocalypse passed by the still-turning Battlecruiser. Firing vigorously, the Apocalypse rushed by the larger ship and continued past the planet of Tu’oth’roor.
“Should I come back around for another pass?” asked Zach excitedly. The bright streaks of tracer rounds were still visible as they shot past the Apocalypse on the front viewscreen.
“No, Zach,” replied the Admiral. “Maintain course and speed. Continue evasives.”
“But Admiral,” he protested. “We’re not running, are we? I can take them … they can’t hit me! They can’t hit me!” The ship swerved crazily as a large shell from one of the Battlecruiser’s heavy cannons hummed past, narrowly missing the darting ship.
“We’re not running,” said the Admiral deliberately. “We are taking out that Battlecruiser. Dex, shield status?”
“Shields holding at 86 percent,” replied Dex tersely.
“So you want me to make another pass, Admiral?” Zach’s speech was halting and broken, owing to his intense concentration as he continued lurching the ship in a violently elaborate elusive pattern. “Or are we gaining distance so we can use the Cannon?”
The rest of the crew sat silently for several seconds, mouths agape. They all stared heavily at the Admiral.
Anastasia spoke up first. “You’re not thinking of using that thing on them, are you, Daniel?”
“Fry ‘em, Admiral!” yelled Zach. “Take ‘em all out!”
“We’re not using the Cannon, Zach,” Daniel said calmly. The cannon fire began to thin out as they outraced their pursuers. “Maintain course toward the system center. Nathan, what is our distance and ETA to the Tu’oth Asteroid Belt?”
“Seventy-five million kilometers, sir. ETA: 90 seconds.”
“But sir,” interjected Dex, “there’s no way we can take out that ‘Cruiser. If it didn’t have the other ships protecting it, maybe. But 43 to one? The only way for us to take it out is with the Cannon.”
“I disagree, Dex,” replied the Admiral firmly. “And I will not kill 7.9 billion people to destroy one ship.”
“But, sir, they are in violation of the Vr’amil’een Treaty. Legally, we have every right to—”
“Right?” asked the Admiral vehemently. “What man could ever have the right to kill eight billion people?” The Admiral gazed torridly at Dex. “This is not a war game, Dex; it’s not some simulation. Those are real people down there on those planets, not numbers. And I follow a higher code than that created by the diplomats who composed the Vr’amil’een treaty. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to capriciously butcher them like the Lucani Ibron butchered us.”
Humbled, Dex was silent as the Admiral turned to Zach. “Slow to cruising speed,” he ordered. As the ship decelerated rapidly, the first asteroids began to come into view as they sped toward the ship. The Admiral checked his tactical display and could see a handful of the faster ships beginning to come into firing range. The Battlecruiser, still chasing them, lagged some distance behind.
“They say you’re a pretty good pilot, Zach,” said the Admiral. “Let’s see what you can do.”
“We’re going in?” asked Zach incredulously. “At this speed?” The violent and unpredictable nature of asteroid belts, especially dense ones such as this, meant that they were usually navigated at about one-tenth the Apocalypse’s current speed. After all, the asteroids, which ranged in size from a few meters to a few hundred kilometers, were composed of dense rock and iron. An impact at this velocity would be devastating, perhaps even deadly.
“I thought you said you were a good pilot, Zach?” challenged the Admiral. Daniel knew that if he stoked his ego, Zach could confidently fly the ship through a shopping mall.
“The best, sir,” declared Zach resolutely. “Hold on to your cane, old man. Let me show you how to fly this thing.”
Just as the trailing ships began to come into range, the Apocalypse entered the thick field of rock and debris. Deftly navigating through the fragments, Zach concentrated furiously as he maneuvered the nimble ship. Large chunks of rock screamed past the viewscreen, often missing the ship by mere meters.
“Are they following us in, Dex?” asked the Admiral, though his knowledge of the Vr’amil’een made him confident that they would be. To the Vr’amil’een, abandoning the chase of an enemy was an enormous dishonor despised more than death itself. The Captain who chased the Apocalypse into the asteroid belt and scored the kill would be honored highly and promoted immediately. Of course, Daniel had no intentions of getting anyone promoted today.
As Admiral Atgard expected, Dex confirmed that most of the Vr’amil’een pursuers continued into the asteroid field with reckless abandon. Trying in vain to keep up with the ship, they too plummeted into the cacophony of flying debris at breakneck speeds.
Shifting his attention back to the viewscreen, Daniel was alarmed to see an immense asteroid blocking their path. Suddenly, the rock dropped out of the viewscreen’s field of view as Zach pulled the ship up and into an inconceivably steep climb. Pulling over the jagged rim of the massive boulder, the Apocalypse executed a spectacularly-controlled turn and left the enormous asteroid behind it.
Looking once again at the tactical display, the Admiral tried to see how his pursuers were faring, with little success due to the clutter of the asteroid field. “Dex, can you read anything from tactical over there?” he asked. “Try to isolate the composition of the Vr’amil’een ships on the scanners. See if you can filter out some of the noise.”
“Aye, Admiral … recalibrating,” he replied. “Twenty-two ships have entered the field. Fourteen have disengaged, and the remaining six have not yet reached the belt. Seven of the 22 ships have been destroyed or disabled by asteroid collisions.”
“Excellent,” responded the Admiral. “Zach, maintain approximate course and speed.”
Zach, however, did not reply to the Admiral’s request. He was concentrating too intensely on the deadly obstacle course he was navigating.
“Nathan,” asked the Admiral, “how long until we clear the asteroid belt?”
“ETA: approximately two minutes, assuming we continue at our present course and speed,” replied Nathan, turning to face the Admiral. Daniel could see beads of perspiration wetting his wrinkled forehead as he struggled to maintain calm amidst the hailstorm of asteroids whizzing by the ship. “Of course,” he added softly, “we could reduce speed by 30 percent and still clear the belt in under three minutes …”
“Don’t worry, Nathan. Zach knows what he’s doing,” replied the Admiral confidently.
“Sure I do,” affirmed Zach, stil
l deep in concentration. “In fact, they suspended my license for doing stuff like this back when I was a kid.”
“H–How many times have you navigated an asteroid belt at this speed, Zach?” stammered Nathan, his brown skin several shades paler than normal.
“Huh?” replied Zach belatedly as they reached a relatively sparse pocket of the belt. “Oh … at this speed? This is my first time.” Yanking the control stick violently, he once again adroitly avoided an asteroid suddenly appearing in his path. “But I made a few runs like this on the sims back in flight school.” Pulling another gut-wrenching turn, he added, “My survival rate was almost 65 percent. That’s more than half.”
Somehow Nathan did not seem relieved.
“Tactical report, sir,” Dex interjected. “Fourteen pursuing vessels have been disabled.”
“How close is the nearest remaining ship?” asked the Admiral as he studied his own tactical display. “Try improving the signal gain and filtering out some more of the clutter.”
“I’m getting some odd readings on the displays, sir,” reported Dex. “I’m getting ghost images of that Battlecruiser all over the asteroid belt. I’ll try a vector filtration … there. That should do it, sir. The nearest ship is …” Dex studied the display, punching buttons hastily. “Right behind us!” As he spoke, a projectile impacted the rear of the ship, jarring it slightly. “Four heavy fighters—they must have been launched by the ‘Cruiser. They were too small—I hadn’t detected them before.”
“Alright Dex, return fire with the rear batteries. I don’t know if you can hit anything with all this movement, but see what you can do. Zach, we’ve got company. Evasive maneuvers.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Zach replied incredulously. “This is as evasive as it gets!”
Still gaining on the heavier Apocalypse, the nimble fighters fired repeatedly at the darting ship. As they neared their target, a disturbing amount of their shots found their marks, somehow tracking the spasmodically lurching vessel. Suddenly, a heavy missile impact rocked the Apocalypse, jarring her off course and spinning her precariously.
Fighting valiantly with the controls, Zach struggled in vain to correct for the deviation. Heaving on the control stick with all his might, he pulled the ship into yet another steep turn. Daniel could see, however, that this one was not going to be quite steep enough.
“Brace yourselves!” bellowed the Admiral as he watched the spinning rock careen into their path on the viewscreen. Though Zach still wrestled with the controls, the ship could not turn sharply enough. Suddenly, there was a furious jolt as the Apocalypse impacted the small asteroid. Alarm klaxons rang out and emergency harnesses sprang into place as the bone-chilling sound of scraping metal filled the cabin. Within an instant, the asteroid had skipped off the Apocalypse and continued its haphazard path through space.
“Shields down, Admiral!” yelled Dex, recovering quickly. “Starboard hull plating damaged, but intact.”
The Admiral instinctively scanned the bridge and saw the limp body of Lieutenant Wallace hunched over the controls. Acting immediately, he thumbed a switch on the arm of his chair and a control stick flipped up into his hand. Without hesitation, he veered the ship away from a collision with yet another asteroid, finally wrestling the ship under control.
Suddenly, another nearby explosion rocked the cabin mildly. “Got one!” reported Dex triumphantly.
The relentless onslaught of asteroids continued as the Admiral expertly guided the ship through the maelstrom of rock. As the Apocalypse pulled around the rim of an immense boulder, three smaller asteroids suddenly appeared on the viewscreen. Approaching at a startling pace, the three tall rocks were splayed horizontally along the Apocalypse's path, with the center one arrayed slightly behind the other two. Reacting instantly, the Admiral jerked the stick to the right and brought the ship into an impossible turn, veering to the right of the starboard asteroid. Clearing the rock by mere centimeters, the Admiral coerced the ship into a tight, corkscrewing turn, looping back around the jagged boulder. Decelerating frantically, the ship spun into position between the three rocks, facing back in the direction from which it had come. Daniel thumbed the firing studs on the control stick, and the Apocalypse opened up with a fusillade of laser fire that caught the three trailing fighters just as they cleared the rim of the immense asteroid. The fighters’ armour was no match for the Apocalypse’s weapons, and within a few moments, all three had been destroyed.
Suddenly tranquil as it floated between the rocks, the Admiral began to ease the Apocalypse the remaining distance to the edge of the asteroid belt. Unbuckling her safety harness and jumping from her seat, Anastasia ran to the front console and knelt down beside Zach. As she touched him, he regained consciousness and sat up groggily in his seat. A narrow rivulet of blood streamed from his forehead as he shakily rose to his feet. “I think he’ll be okay,” Anastasia reported as she helped him to the rear doors and off the bridge.
Clearing the last remnants of the asteroid field, Admiral Atgard killed the engines as the Apocalypse turned back to face the wall of rocks and slowly drifted away from them. “Tactical?” asked the Admiral as he turned to face Dex.
“Most of the ships have either retreated or been disabled, Admiral,” reported Dex. I can only find two more still making their way through the belt.”
“Do you have a fix on the Battlecruiser, Dex?”
“Scanning … sir, it appears the Battlecruiser is coming through the belt as well.”
Daniel turned to stare at Dex in disbelief. “How in the hell will that thing ever get through there?”
“It’s moving slowly, Admiral,” Dex continued. “ETA: three more minutes.” Glancing back at the tactical display, he appended: “The remaining two ships are clearing the field, sir.”
“Fire as soon as they clear the belt, Dex,” said the Admiral. “Take them out quickly; shields are still off-line.”
“Shouldn’t we be moving, sir?” asked Dex. “With shields down, evasive maneuvers are—”
“The Vr’amil’een are probably tracking us through vector analysis,” responded the Admiral confidently. “With shields down and engines off, they should think we’re just another asteroid coasting through space. Don’t fire until you have a lock on them.”
“Aye, sir,” replied Dex as the first ship cleared the rocks. Erupting in a deluge of energy, the Apocalypse's powerful cannons targeted the incoming vessel, overwhelming its shields and destroying the oblivious ship before it could manage to return fire. The second ship, following a minute later, met the same fate.
Flipping a switch on his chair, the Admiral addressed Lieutenant Alexander in Engineering. “How long until we have those shields back, Darren?”
“I’m afraid not for some time, Admiral,” he replied. “The shield capacitors were fried when we hit that asteroid. It’s a wonder they kept us in one piece. But I can’t repair them until we reach port.”
His brow furrowed, Daniel mulled over his situation. “Alright, Dex,” he said. “Looks like we’ll just have to duke it out with that ‘Cruiser. Target the bridge.”
“Yes sir,” Dex replied enthusiastically. “Now the odds are evened up a little bit.”
Before he had a chance to reply, the hulking form of the Vr’amil’een Battlecruiser cleared the asteroid field and, like some primeval beast intent on a kill, headed toward the wounded Apocalypse.
Admiral Atgard jerked violently on the control stick, darting the Apocalypse out of the path of an enormous blast from the ‘Cruiser’s nose cannon. Pulling around in a controlled circle, Daniel headed for the aft of the oblong vessel as Lieutenant Rutcliffe poured well-aimed plasma bolts into the bridge of the ship.
Returning fire with its secondary weapons, the Battlecruiser ponderously struggled to turn quickly enough to face the speedy Apocalypse. Obviously unprepared for a vessel with the speed and firepower of the Apocalypse, the massive ‘Cruiser looked like a lumbering bear harangued by a pestering insect. The w
eapons of the Apocalypse packed quite a potent sting, however, and, even with her shields down, her almost impregnable armour could withstand all but the most powerful of barrages. Unable to bring her heavy cannon to bear, the Vr’amil’een ship was clearly outmatched as the agile Apocalypse repeatedly darted around the damaged vessel, firing relentlessly at her vulnerable bridge area. Finally, in a fierce explosion, the bridge erupted, leaving the Battlecruiser to drift helplessly back into the writhing mass of deadly asteroids.
• • •
His crewmates wounded, his ship badly damaged, Admiral Atgard examined his options. Without shields, continuing the search for the Lucani Ibron was hopeless. Sighing imperceptibly, the Admiral reluctantly turned to Nathan. “Plot in a course, all possible speed, Lieutenant.”
“What is our destination?” asked Nathan.
“The Sol System, Nathan,” replied the Admiral wearily. “We’re going back to Earth.”
CHAPTER 7
The darkness of space hung over the Earth like a sable curtain, insulating her from the malevolent Universe that surrounded her. Even Earth itself somehow seemed abnormally dark now; without the resplendent Indomitable nearby, she appeared lonely and forlorn—a dark, mourning planet patiently awaiting her own annihilation.
Slowing to orbital speed, the Apocalypse approached Earth through the dense traffic of military and civilian space vessels that surrounded her. While the Admiral had heard vague rumors of people evacuating Earth in fear, he had no inkling of the mass exodus that continued now before his eyes.
“I have ConFedCom on the comlink,” reported Nathan. “They …” His voice trailed off as he continued listening through his earphones. “They are not too happy, sir.”
“I figured they might be a little upset,” mused the Admiral. “Just tell them I’m on my way down.”
“I’m on my way down?” repeated Anastasia. “Aren’t we all going?”
Right Ascension Page 7
