He sighed. A puzzle for another time.
Interestingly enough, as if sensing some breakthrough Max had accompanied him during this last systems check. Perhaps the doctor brought good luck. Alvarez’s personnel device beeped. He’d interfaced it with the ship’s systems. Notwithstanding modern automation, one person couldn’t single handedly man a starship. Let alone a prototype.
Max shut his book and looked up. It was the first time in two days he’d shown interest in anything.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Ship’s sensors are detecting two approaching ships. One is Hammerhead and the other unknown. Power signature doesn’t read like a military ship though. Hammerhead is gaining on it, but it won’t over take by the time they reach the nebula.”
“What do we do?”
“What else? We help catch the Commander’s quarry. We’ll start vectoring for an intercept; we won’t overtake the other vessel before it breaches the nebula boundary, however.”
“Shouldn’t we signal Aaron? Let them know help is on the way?”
Alvarez shook his head. “If we signal him or he signals us, it could reveal our position to anyone looking. That’s why he hasn’t yet. He’ll know where we are, and that we’re likely to be right where he needs us. I’m going up to the bridge to monitor things. I’m pretty much finished what I was doing.”
To his surprise, Max closed the book and followed him to the bridge. The power issues might no longer be a concern, however, those power fluctuations revealed an uncomfortable reality about the ship. He’d seen those fluctuations before.
He and Max entered the bridge, and the latter took his assumed place in the seat reserved for the ship’s Executive Officer. Alvarez moved to the ops station and searched the primary systems. He had no theories on the possible sabotage, but if he was right about the resulting power fluctuations, then it wouldn’t take long to confirm his other suspicion about the ship.
He browsed through the weapons systems interface, scrolling through them—torpedoes, railguns, ah! Missiles. Then he saw it, he wished he hadn’t. Aaron would probably say something about curiosity killing some kind of furry pet or some other old unfunny joke.
Life sure seemed simpler when he was just an ops officer.
****
Almost two hours passed since their quarry entered the emission nebula and Hammerhead drifted beyond the fringes. Just as Aaron was about to order them to break away and head for the pre-determined rendezvous with Phoenix, Lee announced a startling discovery.
“Commander,” he said. “I’m picking up an anomalous reading. Medium range, source is inside the Nebula, can’t fully zero in on it from this distance. I believe it’s an emission from our quarry we could use to track it.”
X-1501-D was a large gas giant, and as old as it was large. The nebula gasses surrounding it stretched for three A.U. outwards. Initially he hadn’t wanted to risk entry, not knowing enough about the situation to speculate what they might encounter inside the nebula.
Aaron linked his station into the data and turned to face Lee over to his left. “What’s anomalous about it, Lee?”
“Vee would have worked this out sooner but I had the computer running a deep analysis of our long range scans. It flagged the reading. As you know, it normally just consists of a bunch of gasses. But there’s also a faint trace of deuterium.”
Flaps looked up. “What’s anomalous about that?”
“It shouldn’t be there,” Aaron said, turning to Flaps on his right. “Flaps, take us to within ten million kilometers of the source. Adjust course and zero in as detection becomes more apparent. Full power on short-range scan.”
As Hammerhead approached the nebula, it would be in a better position to localize the source of the deuterium despite the interference from within the nebula. The interior of a nebula was an unpredictable place, sudden energy discharges, electrical storms, and pockets of volatile plasma. Not a nice place to be, nor risk to take—no matter how slight—without good reasons.
In addition to advanced reflective polarized armor, Phoenix and her support ships came equipped with a full military-grade sensor suite. Sensors were just the common term applied to a range of diverse detection equipment meant to interpret a vast range of phenomena. Hence, the operator would know which piece of specialized equipment would be required to study a particular set of phenomena. In this case, the spectrometer was appropriate.
Human ingenuity was something to marvel. They’d created equipment to detect and analyze just about anything they were aware of and phenomena they probably weren’t. From proximity to motion, all kinds of imaging, photon, and optical sensors. Quantum sensors, radar, LIDAR, phased arrays, magnetic and pressure sensors. The list was exhaustive.
“Commander, I recommend an easy .3 c, cut engines and drift in there on momentum,” Miroslav said.
“Very well, Ensign,” Aaron nodded his approval. They didn’t want to disturb any volatile pockets of plasma and the speed would give them more flexibility to maneuver. Now to the tactical situation.
“Lee. Your thoughts please.”
Lee gestured wildly with his hands. “Just some speculation, Commander. That’s refined deuterium we’ve detected. I know that for sure. Far more refined than even the Fleet used before. I think that’s the most important thing here. This nebula was never found to contain pockets of hydrogen, there shouldn’t be any trace of deuterium in here. We’ll have to get much closer than ten million kilometers inside that thing to get clearer readings, localize the source and track it.”
Aaron nodded. “Our proximity will be dictated by safety. Any signs the armor isn’t up to the task and we turn around. Our polarization doesn’t have the power reserves to draw on like Phoenix.”
“Aye, sir, understood.”
The sensors projected their interpretation of the exotic swirling nebula gases on the holo-viewer. A hypnotic display.
“We’re doing this by the book,” Aaron said. “Polarize the armor. Secure Hammerhead for entry.” The others must have been feeling something similar. They too were looking at the display with wide eyes.
Polarizing the armor plating would strengthen the molecular bonding of the armor material and deflect high-energy strikes which the nebula might discharge incidentally. It would also protect the ship against directed energy weapons such as military strength lasers. Though the polarization was subject to attrition once contacted by extreme heat sources.
The small strike craft only had one micro-fabricator. She wasn’t designed as a long-range combat vessel, but rather one capable of defending itself long enough to escape when deployed on a scout mission. With only one full magazine of tungsten ammunition Hammerhead wouldn’t be firing long barrages of sustained railgun fire.
All systems were ready. They were ready.
“Take us in.”
“Aye, sir,” Flaps responded.
The deck rumbled as Flaps pushed the engines. On the holo-viewer the rainbow display of swirling nebula gasses embraced the ship. It was almost a calming effect. Two minutes later Phoenix cleared the effective boundary where they would no longer be visible to elements outside the nebula. Aaron barely propped on the edge of his seat.
“Lee, anything further?”
Lee shook his head. His eyes never left his instruments as he spoke. “Not quite, Commander.”
“Define not quite, Lee. As in nothing further at all, or a little but you still haven’t pinpointed the source?”
“The latter mostly. I’m doing the best I can. I’m feeding a search pattern into the computer now. We can move through those areas first. Either I’m getting a ghost reading or the source has split in two. It’s somewhere within one of our search grids,” he highlighted it on the main holo-viewer. “Unless there’re two different sources. Those discharges are nasty. We could spring a leak if one hits us. We should peep around the corners from here on.”
The tactical officer’s words lingered in the air, and he hadn’t even realiz
ed the ominous implications of what he’d said. The nebula was the least of their problems.
Aaron pounded a fist on his seat. Why hadn’t he seen this?
He could just kick himself. “Ensign, full reverse! Bring us around. Take us out of the nebula, maximum acceleration once we’re clear.”
Another minute and the evasive maneuver may have been too late.
If the helmsman wanted to protest the sudden change in orders, he didn’t show it. Hearing his commander’s hard tone, he complied nearly immediately. Good on him.
“What’s changed, Commander?” Flaps asked.
“I don’t know it changed, but rather always was. That courier isn’t trying to evade us in here, it may be a rendezvous. Another vessel is definitely inside with us. We’ll dock with Phoenix and prepare for anything. A nebula discharge must have struck the other ship. They’ve definitely been in here a while and have a damaged a fuel cell. They—whoever they are—must be leaking deuterium and by now have detected our entry. Lee, deploy PDCs.”
Miroslav suddenly pulled tighter on his restraints. “I probably was better off not knowing.”
“PDCs deployed, Commander,” Lee reported.
Whoever they were, they hadn’t chosen to hide in a nebula because they wanted to send mutual greetings of peace and long life. Aaron laughed inside at the ridiculous idea.
The deck lurched slightly. The curtains were drawn the show had begun.
Flaps shouted. “Explosion above us, sir! Point defense cannons took out some kind of missile. Reading traces of matter/antimatter.”
That had been close. The nebula interference scrambling the sensors would wreak havoc with the detection of hostile ordnance. But it proved adequate for now. But how much closer would they get?
“Flaps. Ahead flank! Get us out of here, we’re blind.”
“Sir, that’ll likely cause some damage to the engines,” Flaps called back.
“And unknown weapons fire will likely cause certain death,” Aaron answered. “Punch it, Ensign.”
The Ensign shoved the control forward to signal the ship its pilot demanded full power to engines. The patrol craft obeyed, and each of them slammed against the seats as the inertia compensators lagged slightly behind. The ship bucked and lurched as it vectored through nearby electrical and plasma discharges.
“Nearing the nebula boundary!” Flaps yelped.
A quick look showed they had just two minutes to go before exiting the embrace of the nebula. Sometimes, two minutes could feel like two days.
The vibration increased throughout the ship. They weren’t using headsets in this small space. It hadn’t been necessary. And none of them had put on any, so they resorted to shouting to project above the chaos.
Lee reported. “Commander! Huge power signature detected—directly astern! Not detecting any signs of damage to it, no deuterium leaks, it can’t be what we detected earlier.”
Aaron gripped his armrests. “Regardless, whoever it is definitely doesn’t like us, or the fact we won at hide and seek.”
“Energy spikes from the contact! He’s firing lasers!”
One minute until the effective boundary of the nebula. The deck lurched—harder this time.
“Direct hit astern. He’s almost on top of us, Commander, we can’t evade at this range!” Flaps said.
A laser fired from less than one light-second would strike instantaneously. How such a huge contact got so close without them detecting it was more what Aaron wished to know now.
Thunderous booms echoed inside the cabin. More laser strikes. The armor had been compromised. Laser effectiveness rose exponentially the longer the beam sustained contact with a target, heating up its surface and incinerating it.
“Polarization is weakening, those lasers are powerful! Twenty seconds to boundary.”
A collective breath was held by all and blown out when they emerged with the patrol craft intact.
Flaps was looking at him. “What do we do, sir?”
Only one thing to do.
“We fight—and run.” Undoubtedly, that confused the young Ensign. How does one fight and run is what he was probably wondering.
Well, he was about to find out. The unfortunate reality, however, like other smaller warships, the most potent of Hammerhead’s armaments were forward firing.
“Cut acceleration, bring the bow around one eighty. We’ll coast away with our fists up. Time to punch back. Lee, arm torpedo warheads, full railgun spread on my mark. Maximum firing rate, empty the magazine. Before we fire, Ensign, I want you to execute delta nine strike pattern.”
“Delta nine, aye,” Flaps said.
“Warheads armed, railguns primed, firing solution locked in,” Lee acknowledged.
Aaron watched the tactical display. He focused on Hammerhead’s and the contact’s speed, and its projected distance from Hammerhead when the latter moved beyond the nebula boundary. Barring any sudden deceleration on the contact’s end, which was unlikely given how intent it seemed on scattering their atoms across the void—he knew exactly when the contact would emerge. Until it did, its sensors were likely just as scrambled as theirs when breaching the boundary of the nebula, where there was a large concentration of radiation.
The timing had to be just right.
“Ensign. Stand by,” he held his breath and waited.
Three, two, one.
“Ensign, delta dine maneuver . . . hammer them, Lieutenant!”
Hammerhead launched all ten of her anti-capital ship ordnance, from her single forward micro-torpedo launcher. Immediately, the dorsal and ventral railgun turrets thundered a destructive hail of projectiles on target which accelerated ahead of the slower torpedoes.
The target emerged from the nebula, like a leviathan from the ocean. It fired some kind of point defense, but there wasn’t enough time for it to track and destroy Hammerhead’s volley of torpedoes. This close to the nebula, gases still extended slightly outwards and the rounds from the railgun left long streaks in their wake before they slammed into the target.
The predator was now visible to Hammerhead’s equipment.
“Commander! Target is Imperial Emperor-class Dreadnought—designation Phalanx. We scored strikes along their forward section,” Lee reported.
An Emperor-class warship was a behemoth, just short of eighteen hundred meters, and the limited railgun fire from Hammerhead was not very effective.
Moments later the heavier ordnance reached.
The first four torpedoes missed entirely. The next three compromised the obviously impressive armor protecting the oversized belligerent. Despite the ordnance having a smaller yield than her larger counterparts on Phoenix, Hammerhead’s torpedoes were one weapon you didn’t want impacting weakened hull armor. The target’s compromised forward armor buckled when the remaining three torpedoes struck. The contact finally reacted and now veered to starboard. But that didn’t save them from catastrophic damage. The Imperials clearly had no intelligence about the Fleet’s latest weapons systems.
“Reading massive power fall off, Commander,” Lee reported. “The big beast is definitely wounded! One moment . . . I’m detecting several destroyer-sized ships emerging from the nebula! Same power emissions—tracking.” He adjusted and tweaked the returns from the sensors as the computer assisted him in analyzing the data. “One of them is leaking deuterium—I guess we found what we were looking for!”
“And more it would seem,” Aaron said.
“Three contacts, each 200 meters in length,” Lee reported. “High power curve, unknown design, but definitely Imperial power signature! They’re pursuing. The dreadnought has veered off.”
“Ensign, new course; one-six-zero mark three-zero,” Aaron said. “Ahead full, by now Phoenix should be nearing us from that vector.”
“Aye, sir. Engaging new course one-six-zero mark three-zero and ahead full.”
Hammerhead, fired a maximum burn, her antagonists—minus one behemoth—hot on her stern.
Aaron adjusted hi
s tactical view resolution. The cruisers hadn’t fired yet. At least not that he could tell. They’d bloodied the dreadnought’s nose with a hit and run. Then the situation turned complicated with the appearance of three more Imperial vessels and there was nothing in the USSF database about these new ships. He saw no indication the pursuing vessels had fired. Hammerhead was definitely within firing range of known Imperial weapon systems.
“Lee, what are they doing?”
Lee was no operations expert. Aaron would have to be patient as the tactical officer struggled to interpret the numerous graphs, waves, and readouts on his instruments. It was one thing to view a tactical layout as displayed visually by the sensors, but another to interpret the raw reception of data received. He was playing the role of ops and tactical now.
“Chasing us, Commander?” Lee responded.
“Lieutenant!”
“I don’t know, Commander. They aren’t doing anything. There’s nothing here telling me they’re doing anything else. No LIDAR returns for near objects, no motion detection or proximity alerts—nothing.”
“We’ve got to go outside the box here, Lee.”
Lee shook his head, he was getting frustrated. “Sir, the PDCs are active. All scanning astern. The moment they launch any warheads the guns will take care of them. I don’t know why they haven’t fired lasers, maybe these new ships aren’t equipped with any. Like us, Imperial ships retract main batteries inside the hull for protection when they aren’t firing. I can’t think of any other reason not to finish us. We know the Empire made recent breakthroughs with laser weapons, but we haven’t exactly, ah—measured these breakthroughs.”
Border Worlds (United Star Systems Book 1) Page 19
