"Was that what I think it was?" Jason asked Oz quietly.
"I need to know for sure, sending a copy of that to you, Chief Grady. Helm, plot a hyperspace course to the nearest obstruction. Asteroid belt, planetoid, nebula, I don't care as long as it's uninhabited."
"Aye, I have a planetoid pair in a small nebula, only a few million klicks across, lots of asteroids in there too, at least that's what the hazard note says," Larry replied as he set the computer to start calculating a safe route.
"Can all our people navigate it?"
"Panloo or Darris could do it easy with their navigators," Ashley replied.
"All right, that's where we're headed."
"Commander McPatrick, is this the source of the energy readings we just got down here?" Engineering Chief Grady asked as his full sized avatar appeared in Oz's left hand command seat.
"It is."
"Then get us as close as you can so they can't do it again."
"So that was an antimatter enhanced nuke?"
"Yes. It's a smaller version of one I've seen used to excite a brown star. At range they'll be able to do terrible damage without disrupting their own systems."
"Ready to begin acceleration if field control can confirm hull coverage," Larry announced.
"Say the word and I'll charge the hull," Laura replied hurriedly.
"Hang on Chief, we're about to remove ourselves from the equation." Oz's tactical screen flashed red, marking several projectiles with antimatter detection warnings. "Frost! Take out those torpedoes!" he ordered.
The Triton’s weapons were just beginning to penetrate the lead battlecruiser's shields, doing severe damage. That came to an end as all the rail cannons changed their focus towards the incoming torpedoes. Several were destroyed in the first few seconds.
"Secure torpedo rooms, abandon the most damaged sections of the ship," he ordered as he highlighted the decks that had been breached as they left the Ossimi belt. "Get us out of here Ash." Oz watched as three of the torpedoes drew nearer, within ten thousand kilometres. They started moving towards them faster.
The Triton’s hull began to charge with the energized particles that would alter the space the ship occupied so they could accelerate at many times the normal rate and Ashley almost had the ship in position.
“All right, all the decks will mark areas under the influence of damaged inertial dampeners by turning the floor lighting red,” Laura announced from her field control station.
Oz watched in horror as several sections of the floor turned red. Most of the bridge was compromised, glowing faintly red, but there were dead spots. The communications terminal, engineering and the floor under the pilot seat were all unprotected. "Stand clear!” was all he had time to say.
Two of the torpedoes closed to within five hundred kilometres and exploded simultaneously. In one instant the lights went out, ears popped, and everyone aboard was thrown dangerously hard.
There was nothing he could do. He tried to hold the arms of the command seat but the force of the collision ripped him free and he swore he felt his shoulder graze the ceiling. His vacsuit had just enough time to cushion his landing as he struck the floor in front of the captain's char.
Lights began to come back on. Oz picked himself up off the floor and offered Jason a hand. He took it and pointed to his ear, shaking his head.
"I can't hear anything either," he mouthed back. "Rapid pressure change."
The Triton’s main holographic display came on and marked breaches in hangar three and on several other nearby decks. The hull had been thinned to millimetres in the space surrounding the damage, but it was still energized with hyperspace particles. Their velocity read as many times the speed of light, they had been knocked adrift while the ship was enshrouded in a hyperspace field.
Oz looked to the helm and saw that Larry was unconscious in his seat. Ashley's chair was empty; she had been thrown over her console and lay on the deck, breathing rapidly. Her legs were bent and turned at impossible angles. She was awake, however, and working at something on her command and control unit.
To his surprise, the Triton’s main engines came to life and with a deft hand that left him in awe; Ashley plotted a drifting course and initiated it as an automated manoeuvring sequence that would guide the ship in a broad arc. They would make the nebula after all. The navigational section of the main status display turned green as she initiated the sequence and marked herself as available and ready. Regardless of her condition, and the anaesthetics her vacsuit systems administered from the chest down for broken ribs, hairline fractures in her hip and her badly broken legs, the ship accepted her status change.
Oz used his command and control unit to order all vacsuits aboard sealed and activated emergency medical measures. His ears tingled and itched fiercely as the nanobots went to work repairing the damage. It was a maddening, irritating sensation and he couldn't help but chuckle as Jason put one hand to his vacsuit protected head and threw him a rude gesture with the other. "-bastard. You know what a pain in the ass that is?"
"Aye, but we've got to get our hearing back."
"Well, no dead on the bridge, a few knockouts, and some serious injuries we shouldn't completely work through with nanobots. I've got a replacement pilot and navigator coming from the lounge. Agameg rode it out like a rubber ball. If anyone else was standing where he was we’d be scraping them off the ceiling."
Agameg Price helped the pair of tactical officers up from the floor; one was cringing as nanobots attended to his broken arm. "Ashley's condition looks serious, is someone on the way?" he asked.
"Internal bleeding has stopped, but she needs to get to medical for her hips and legs. We only have comms through half the ship, the rest is on relay and the only working internal sensors are on the command deck." Jason replied.
"Not good if we're boarded."
Jason waved to his wife, Laura, briefly before going on. She was taking her seat, like most of the crew her vacsuit protected her from anything worse than a bruise. "Considering the course our genius helmswoman just put us on, and where we'll be hiding, I doubt we'll be an easy catch."
Oz brought up the smaller command interface on his command and control unit. Several holograms hovered over his arm and semi-transparent screens populated his head's up display. He had to check on Ashley, she was the most injured.
She smiled wanly at him through her transparent face plate as he knelt down beside her. "My math checking out?"
"Sure did. The meds taking care of you?"
"Real good. Can't feel anything below the shoulders. Everyone else okay?"
"They'll be all right. Larry should be up once the nanos have fixed him up."
"Good, I could use his brain."
"Panloo is on her way. She'll be taking the shift."
"Thanks Oz, I thought I'd have to finish mine on the floor."
He couldn't believe her bravery. Ashley was in tears at the sight of someone else in pain, but with the lower half of her body twisted and broken she only needed someone to talk to or something to do.
"Oz, Iloona is coming to treat Ash personally. One minute out," Jason informed him.
"Thanks J, I'll tell her." He looked to Ashley. "Med team's on the way."
"I'm not going to be okay, am I?" she asked quietly.
Oz looked at her hand before he put his atop it, making sure he wasn't worsening a broken limb. "Check your fitness icon, just glance at it and it'll pop up."
She stared at him for a moment, her fear plain for the first time since he knelt down.
"Go on," he encouraged.
He watched her glance at the icon in her peripheral and saw the medical screen populate her transparent visor. Her eyes widened.
"There are a few problems but it's all in the yellow."
"I'm screwed," she said quietly. It would look bad to someone who wasn’t medically trained. There were a lot of breaks and recently repaired organs, but she was stable.
Oz squeezed her hand and shook his head.
"Look at me. The nanos were able to fix the internal bleeding and once you've been straightened out Iloona will be able to mend your legs and hips. She'll put you out while she does it so you'll wake up as fit as ever."
"I was just sitting at my console then I rag dolled in my chair and slipped over the console like a wet noodle. Nothing's ever hurt like that. How's she going to fix it all?"
"You'll be fine. If you were screwed there would be red marks on your fitness reading."
"None of those," she sniffed. "I knew I should have taken a medical qualifier."
"We'll take it together when we get clear of this. It's been a while since I've done one."
"Think we'll ever get clear of trouble?” she asked. “I mean, it's been one thing after another."
"Just some bad luck. We'll patch up and find clear skies somewhere."
"A beach. Find me a beach, Mister Wizard," Ashley chuckled. A tear escaped the corner of her eye. "And tell Iloona I want to look good in a bikini."
Oz couldn't help but chuckle. "Done and done." Damage reports were coming in, his visor was active with scrolling the summaries. Two reactors were down; bulkheads were sealed where previously damaged sections of the ship were reopened by the trauma.
Iloona arrived in a careful rush with two medics behind her. They carried a stretcher equipped for emergency stasis. "Hello Ashley. Looks like you'll be spending your next few shifts in medical."
"Yay, hooky," Ashley managed. She sounded tired, a side effect of one of the emergency anaesthetics.
"Do you feel any pain?" Iloona asked as she gently touched Ashley's reversed ankle.
Oz knew that if the anaesthetic wasn't working as well as it should have, Ashley would be screaming. Instead she sighed and replied; "nope, all doped up. Feeling better all the time."
"Okay, good. What I'd like you to do is keep your eyes on the Commander while we get you onto the stretcher. Ignore everything but him, okay?"
"Okie dokie."
The responder team placed a pole on either side of Ashley and Iloona pressed a button on one. A grey material flowed from the poles and slipped under her, joining seamlessly in the centre and solidifying to form the bed of a stretcher. It solidified and Iloona carefully adjusted Ashley's legs so they were both squarely in the centre.
"Bikini's and beaches, I'll make it happen Ash," Oz told her.
"And drinks with umbrellas. Make sure Ronen’s there too," she added drowsily.
Iloona and the responders brought the stretcher's restraint blanket up and over her and sealed it to the sides so their patient wouldn't roll off. "My, the system's drugged you up good, hasn't it?" Iloona smiled at Ashley. Her thin lips stretched back and upward along her narrow snout, exaggerating the expression.
"Uh huh. Oh hi Panloo. Taking over?" She asked as she noticed the nafalli night shift pilot take her station at the helm.
She was wide eyed, trying not to stare at Ashley's awkwardly bent legs. "Yes, I, um-"
"The course and sequence are already set, all you have to do is make sure the ship is doing what it’s supposed to then pilot us into the nebula."
"I see that, you've done well." She smiled, glancing at the bent metal edge of the console. It was crushed in a few millimetres, the only sign of Ashley's body breaking against it before she sailed over top and struck the forward wall.
"I'll see you in medical soon Ash," Oz smiled at her.
"See you soon!" she called back cheerily.
"We'll have her straightened up and recovered in about two days, Commander." Iloona told him as she followed the medical responders and the stretcher closely.
"Thank you Doc."
"Two days? But I'm going to the beach," Ashley muttered.
Oz moved to help Larry to his feet. "You're off duty, everything feel okay?"
"Fine. Suit says I had a concussion and hairline fracture across my forehead, fixed me up before waking me up."
"I know, it was the first thing I checked on."
"Nice to know I'm in good hands," he whispered. "We in trouble Commander?"
"Tons. Now go look after your pilot."
"Yes sir,"
Oz could feel Jason's eyes on him as he returned to the Command seat. "What?"
"Oh, nothing. Just picking up one of those vibes."
"Ignore it."
"Yes sir."
"How hard will it be for them to find us in that nebula?"
"If we power down during repairs and cling to one of the hotter asteroids, we'll be undetectable. I'm wishing Ashley were at the helm for that though, landing on the back edge of a drifting mass isn't exactly a walk in the park."
"Do we have the shields to make it through the tails Laura?" Oz asked.
"Our aft shields are worse than ever, but I don't think we're going in ass end first, so they are."
"What about repairs, Chief?"
"In dry dock it could happen in a few days. Out here? We can patch, place temporary shield emitters in a few hours, but anything else is on the scale of months," answered Liam Grady over his comm. unit.
"What about installing the main thrusters we have sitting in storage?"
"I'll have to survey the damage outside, make sure the prep work is still good. If it is, then maybe. No guarantees."
"All right, get on it. We'll need the speed if we want to get out of this." Oz set his command and control unit to privacy mode and entered a message to the flight control deck that said; Have the hangar prepare three Muriel fighters with wormhole generators installed. Arm all our fighters with fusion rounds. Keep it quiet.
Chief Vercelli looked up through the semi-transparent deck to Oz after reading it and nodded. Is it that bad? Came his coded response.
Oz nodded. It was the only appropriate answer.
"What's going on Oz?" Jason whispered.
"I don't think we'll have much time in that nebula. I need you to code a message for the Captain. Make sure he knows there's nothing he can do to help and he has to find another solution."
"You're thinking those three battlecruisers will have friends before long."
Oz nodded slowly. "If I were running that battle group I'd call reinforcements."
Jason watched him. Oz had become a tactical thinker and a great commander over the years. He was still easy to read up close, however, it was one of his minor flaws as a Captain. "What's on your mind Oz?"
"I keep getting the feeling that we should turn and brawl this out. Running… well it’s just not sitting right."
"We've got holes and old damage from the city ship we ran across at Ossimi. They'd know where to hit us."
"This is a close combat carrier. If they manage to track us in the nebula this will turn into a siege and we're not in any kind of shape to shield up or fight at range."
"So you're taking the safe route, getting us in shape to run. Makes sense."
Oz paused for a moment, staring at the navigational hologram in the centre of the bridge. They were moving fast, but he knew the enemy would be on top of them if they tried to run in a straight line or if they extended their course past the nebula. "Chief Grady."
"Yes Commander?"
"I don't care what you have to do, get those main thrusters installed as soon as we're in a stable position. Until then get our reactors back online and prep any teams who won't be working on the engines to get emergency shield emitters in place. We're going to need them."
"Yes sir," Chief Grady's holographic avatar flickered out.
"Preparing for the worst?" Jason asked.
"Always."
Chapter 4
Messengers
Buster was followed by Hood and Hatter as she walked down the gangway to their waiting Ariel fighters. "So, if we're only going to meet the Captain, why have they set us up with enough fusion rounds to wipe out a small fleet?" asked Hatter, a bug eyed, tall fellow. He'd been named after his tendency to completely lose his temper during simulations. His tantrums had become legendary in the pilot's lounge, and when someone called him "mad
as a hatter," it stuck.
"Were you watching the live brief before we were hit?"
"No, I was busy."
"He was busy crushing on Pisser," Hood said with a crooked grin.
"We were having an enlightened conversation, I'll have you know."
"Really? What could have been so important that you missed the most exciting thing on this ship?"
"Uh, well. Don't remember, it'll come to me."
"You tell me when it does." Buster shook her head and checked her fighter over. The machine was hanging so it pointed down towards the lower hull and the punter launch system. It would be her second trip out in the same fighter, without her SIO this time. They had retooled the systems to run with one pilot. The fighter also had a much longer range, especially with the addition of a wormhole generator. They had repaired the scorch damage to her number three engine so well she couldn't tell if they had regenerated it or replaced the pod entirely.
As they focused on preparing for their upcoming mission the other fighters were being rotated towards the sides of the launch bay. The tracks moved the ships to the left and right where they were drawn up into the hangar for servicing or reconfiguration. Buster only assumed they were being loaded with fusion rounds and other heavy armaments, preparing for something dire.
"What was I talking about?" Hatter asked as he began his inspection.
"Armaments."
"Yeah. Why so heavy?"
"If I were to guess, I've got an encoded message for the Captain so we're not really meant to know the details."
"But, we were in a wormhole, then we weren't? What's with that?" Hatter asked.
"Man, I'm surprised you were focused enough to get your certs. You think like a roulette wheel," Hood chuckled.
"The live brief said it was some kind of energy pulse. Dissipates practically anything, I’ve heard of pirates super charging junk in transport lanes to do the same thing. In this case they managed to find our wormhole, plot a course along side and knock us off our rails."
"So we’re getting torn apart by pirates?"
"No, we’re getting nailed by some corp who wants to collect on a bounty or some kind of repo."
Fragments sf-6 Page 3
