The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  “Very well,” Sarah said as she watched the freighter launch a small shuttle of its own. The shuttle accelerated towards the case of gold and platinum and collected it before heading back to its mothership. At the same time, she kept a close eye on the drone as it approached. With all of Destiny’s passive sensors she strained to figure out just what was behind the shielding around the cube. There was no doubt there was anti-matter within the cube, but she was still suspicious.

  “Bring up the active sensors,” she ordered with a thought when the drone was less than two hundred meters away from Destiny.

  “But we will reveal our position to Angrave,” Alexandra responded.

  “Just do it,” Sarah replied, putting as much concern into her thought as she could. Alexandra had never questioned an order before and now wasn’t the time.

  Within a second, all of Destiny’s sophisticated active sensors focused on the cube. Milliseconds later, Sarah knew something was wrong. Her limited scientific knowledge couldn’t figure out what she was looking at, but she knew it didn’t look right. Alexandra was able to understand. Sensing her Captain’s concern and recognizing that there wasn’t time to consult her, Alexandra threw the ship into a spin away from the drone and boosted up to full power. At the same time, she sent orders to the drone to pivot away from Destiny.

  *

  Angrave had been quietly watching events unfold after one of the pirates he had hired had collected the payment. When the vessel that had released the ping attached a grappling hook to the anti-matter container, he guessed that Sarah had sent some kind of automated vessel out to carry out the exchange. She’s smarter than I gave her credit for, he thought begrudgingly. Nevertheless, he waited and watched patiently as the vessel towed the anti-matter away from the rendezvous site.

  When a sudden flurry of active scanners powered up and filled space with electromagnetic energy, Angrave knew Sarah had figured out his ruse. The question was however, had she been too late? As soon as he saw the engine bloom from the ship and the drone he knew his plan had worked. They were very close together. As the crude sensors Angrave had installed in the anti-matter cube detected Destiny, it exploded, sending a massive wave of destructive energy out towards the Elder frigate. Though the energy quickly dissipated in the void of space, there was more than enough destructive force from the anti-matter explosion to reach out and wash over the frigate.

  “Time to make your move,” Angrave said over an open COM channel to the allies he had gathered.

  Chapter 10

  Sarah felt the harness fly out of her command chair and strap her tightly in place as Destiny’s inertial compensators struggled to deal with the massive g-forces Alexandra’s maneuver produced. It seemed as if time slowed as she watched a wave of explosive energy burst from the shielded anti-matter container. The explosive force engulfed the drone, cutting off its signal. Less than a second later, the wave crashed into her ship. As the g-forces increased exponentially, she felt her vision close over and her body being rocked and shaken as the frigate was twisted and thrown through space. For a second, Sarah thought the ship would tear itself apart.

  All sense of what was going on was forgotten as she felt the explosive force eat its way into the frigate’s hull. The interface helmet made it seem like the anti-matter was tearing into her flesh rather than just her ship. As the damage overwhelmed her, she screamed in pain. Sarah could no longer tell if the pain was coming from the ship or if the explosion had reached the bridge and her own body. Either way, it felt the anti-matter explosion was eating its way into her soul.

  For what seemed like an eternity, Sarah struggled to pull her mind away from the sensory overload. The fact that she was still able to feel told her she was still alive. Grasping onto that thought, she tried to suppress all the data flowing into her mind from the damaged ship. I need to think, she said to herself. Slowly at first, then more quickly, she cut her mind off from the parts of the ship that were screaming in pain. Eventually her mind cleared and she looked into space with the sensors that were still working. “What happened?” she asked Alexandra.

  “It was a trap,” Alexandra said. “There was a detonator attached to the anti-matter. Angrave tried to kill us.”

  “How’s the ship?” Sarah asked.

  Instead of answering with words, Alexandra opened Sarah’s mind up to the damaged sections of the ship. Having already experienced the sense of pain that came from connecting her mind to the ship’s internal sensors, Sarah was more prepared for what she felt and saw. Even so, it overwhelmed her.

  “Don’t show me so much,” Sarah complained, bringing her hands up and trying to place them on her head even though the interface helmet was in the way.

  “I can’t,” Alexandra said. “Either you take in everything or nothing. Being connected to the ship has consequences, consequences I can’t change. You will get used to it over time though.”

  “Fine,” Sarah thought as she ground her teeth together. With a great deal of effort, she tried to think through the feelings of pain washing over her to actually look at what state the frigate was in. Several sections of the ship had been opened up to space. Destiny’s armor and outer hull having been completely burnt away by the anti-matter in those areas. Though the explosive force hadn’t penetrated more than a couple of decks, there was widespread damage over the rest of the outer hull as well.

  “How much can you repair?” Sarah asked Alexandra.

  “I can repair the damage to the outer hull and replace the armor,” she replied. “There isn’t enough gold and platinum left in the fabrication hangar to repair the internal damage.”

  Sarah understood what Alexandra was saying. If she ordered the repairs to the ship then they would have no more precious metals left to purchase any anti-matter with. Before she could decide what to do, another thought occurred to her. “Angrave wouldn’t just try to destroy us,” she said to Alexandra. “He would want this ship for himself. Bring up all the active sensors. I want to see what’s around us.”

  As Sarah turned her mind away from Destiny’s internal sensors back towards the external ones, nine new contacts appeared less than three light minutes away from the frigate. Destiny was currently heading out of the Aral system at 0.2c, the nine ships where already on a converging course travelling at 0.28c. “Get us away from them,” Sarah thought. “Begin repairing the ship immediately, use all the gold and platinum we have,” she added.

  Turning her mind back to the internal sensors, Sarah checked the status of Destiny’s weapons. Though they hadn’t had a chance to practice any live fire drills, both she and Divar had spent several hours drilling with the weapons on the journey to Aral. Damn, she swore. The frigate’s particle lance was down. The weapon itself wasn’t damaged, but all the power relays to it had been destroyed by the anti-matter blast. Worse, the frigate’s energy screen was inoperable. Too many of the emitters had been burnt off the hull. Destiny’s armor, what was left of it anyway, would have to protect her hull from the weapons the pirate ships were carrying.

  With a thought, she turned on a sub routine that projected her thoughts as audio onto the bridge for Divar to hear. “We’ve got nine hostiles approaching us, the particle lance is down. We’ll have to rely on the gamma lasers and our hypervelocity missiles. As soon as we can, I’m going to jump us to subspace, but get ready, we may have to put up a fight first.”

  “Understood,” Divar replied.

  From the internal sensors on the bridge Sarah was able to see the look of determination on his face. Knowing that she could trust him with her life, she sent her mind back towards the nine sensor contacts that were approaching. Alexandra had already turned Destiny away from the ships and was accelerating as quickly as was safe, given the current damage to the ship. In response, the pirate ships abandoned all attempt at stealth and accelerated themselves.

  With a thought, Sarah overlaid the gravimetric map onto her view of the system. At her current rate of acceleration, it would take Destiny twenty m
inutes to get beyond the system’s mass shadow and jump into subspace. From her experience on board Lady Luck, she guessed that if they could get to subspace, the nine pirate ships wouldn’t be much of a match for them, even with the damage they had sustained. Destiny had twelve hypervelocity missile tubes still functioning. She also had eight subspace missile tubes. Draxler had only equipped Lady Luck with two subspace missile tubes, and she suspected the nine pirate ships weren’t any better armed. Pirates didn’t like to fight in subspace.

  “Missile launches,” Alexandra announced as twenty-one new contacts appeared, accelerating away from the four pirate ships. “If the pirate ships are equipped with the same x-ray lasers that Lady Luck was, they will be in laser range in four minutes.”

  “Returning fire,” Divar announced before Sarah could reply. “I’m targeting everything at the lead pirate ship.”

  The pirate missiles quickly accelerated to 0.6C and then their velocity leveled off. Sarah guessed the missile’s radiation plating couldn’t handle the levels of radiation that would be encountered at greater velocities. Even so, their velocity relative to Destiny meant they would close the distance in just five minutes.

  Divar’s twelve missiles accelerated up to 0.8C. As the pirate ships were directly astern of Destiny, accelerating towards her, the closing time was nearly half that of the pirate missiles. The pirate vessels spread out to catch Divar’s missiles in a crossfire of point defense lasers. Spread out, they would be able to target the missiles as they approached their target with relative ease. It was always easier to take out a missile that wasn’t heading directly towards you as its evasive maneuvers were easier to counter. Even so, Divar had said that Elder ECM and missile technology was way beyond anything Lady Luck had been equipped with. Sarah was confident the pirates were about to have a rough time.

  “The pirates are engaging our missiles now,” Alexandra informed her.

  Come on, Sarah thought as she willed the missiles on to their target. As small point defense laser beams and anti-missile missiles reached out from the nine pirate ships, Divar’s missiles began to explode. Quickly twelve were reduced to eight, then just four remained. All but one of them were destroyed in quick succession as the pirate ships focused their fire.

  The last missile proved elusive. Realizing it wasn’t going to destroy the Elder missile in time, the lead pirate ship began evasive maneuvers. Whoever was piloting the ship wasn’t good enough. The missile’s seeker head wasn’t fooled. Matching the roll the pirate pilot had thrown their ship into, the missile struck the ship directly amidships. It burst through the ship’s armor and outer hull before it detonated. The anti-matter warhead blew the pirate ship in half. Both sides fell away from each other before the rear of the pirate ship disappeared in a massive explosion. Sarah guessed its reactors had overloaded.

  “That’s one down,” Divar shouted. “Firing second salvo in ten seconds.”

  Sarah checked to see what pirate ship he was targeting with his second salvo before she switched her mind to the incoming missiles intent on destroying her ship. Alexandra was already preparing Destiny’s point defenses. As they entered engagement range, Sarah cut the power to Destiny’s main engines and spun her nose round to face the threat. The majority of Destiny’s surviving point defenses were located on the forward third of the ship and this was their best chance at stopping them.

  Her maneuver complete, Sarah had nothing else to do but sit back and watch. Alexandra could handle the point defenses far better than she could. In a matter of seconds, the twenty-one pirate missiles were reduced by more than half. Alexandra then powered up Destiny’s ECM to full. Seven of the remaining missiles were overwhelmed and lost track of Destiny, heading aimlessly into space. The remaining two were quickly dispatched.

  You going to have to try harder than that, Sarah thought. She guessed Angrave had fed the pirates on Aral some concocted story about how easy it had been for Lady Luck to engage the Elder frigate. She knew Lady Luck’s victory had been down to chance and the overconfidence of the Elder captain and pilot. It had also helped that the engagement had taken place at a much closer range. In a long-range missile exchange, Destiny’s superior sensors and point defenses gave her an overwhelming advantage. The pirate captains were no doubt questioning the wisdom of attacking an Elder ship. Even with odds of nine to one.

  Moments later, Divar’s second volley of missiles came crashing into the pirate ships, reinforcing Sarah’s confidence in her ship. Two missiles struck another pirate ship, obliterating it. Divar let out a whoop as a third pirate ship exploded.

  With a start, Sarah realized that Destiny’s gamma lasers were now able to hit the closing pirate ships. Before she could celebrate, Alexandra warned her that the pirate ships were about to enter range with their own laser cannons. Sarah threw Destiny into a series of jinks and dives so as to make her a difficult target. She had always loved flying Lady Luck randomly through space. The feel of the pirate ship responding to her thoughts had been thrilling. Destiny was an entirely different beast. She was about half the size of Lady Luck, yet her engines and maneuvering thrusters were more than five times as powerful. It was hard to put into words just how exhilarating it felt to fly Destiny using her full capabilities.

  Sarah couldn’t dwell on the feeling for too long, she soon sensed laser beams as they flew past her ship. None of them came close to hitting their target. Even so, Sarah had to be careful. Occasionally, in between evasive maneuvers, she twisted Destiny around to line up her gamma lasers on a pirate vessel. Like Destiny, the pirate ships had begun evasive maneuvers. Even so, she and Divar managed to destroy one more pirate ship. Then his third volley of missiles destroyed a second. The nine pirate ships had been reduced to four.

  “Now comes the hard part,” Sarah thought to Alexandra as the pirate’s second volley of missiles approached.

  “I have full confidence in you,” Alexandra thought back.

  “That’s good to know,” Sarah thought, not sure if Alexandra meant it, or was just saying it to give her confidence. As the pirate missiles entered point defense range, she didn’t have time to decide.

  Whilst continuing to carry out random evasive maneuvers, Sarah tried to keep as many of Alexandra’s point defenses pointed towards the incoming missiles as possible. First one, and then two pirate missiles were destroyed. Then, taking a risk, Sarah banked Destiny’s nose towards the missiles and held the ship steady for several seconds.

  She felt rather than saw a laser brush the side of Destiny’s hull. Then another one directly impacted her armor. It tried to burn its way through the armor and into Destiny, but the armor held. Sensing that several more laser beams would strike Destiny in mere seconds, Sarah threw the ship into a series of new evasive maneuvers. Checking the progress of the pirate missiles, she saw that Alexandra had used her opportunity well. They were only ten pirate missiles closing in on them.

  For the next twenty seconds Alexandra continued to shoot them down. She managed to score hits on another three. Then she boosted Destiny’s ECM to full. Only three of the missiles were fooled this time. Four continued to close. A lucky hit from a point defense laser beam struck one. Being less than four seconds away from striking the ship, Sarah knew it was up to her. Forgetting about trying to avoid any laser beams, she desperately pivoted Destiny away from the incoming missiles. She managed to swing the frigate between two of them, causing both to overshoot and detonate too far away to do any damage. As the third approached, she rolled the ship to get away from it. Luck wasn’t on her side this time. Though the missile failed to strike Destiny, its seeker head sensed that it was close enough to get a proximity hit. Sending the signal to detonate, it released a thermonuclear explosion to wash over Destiny’s hull.

  Though Alexandra had managed to regrow some of the armor burnt off by the anti-matter explosion, part of the ship was still essentially unprotected. The thermonuclear blast swept around Destiny and broke into the weakened spots on the hull. On the bridge, Sarah was throw
n about in her pilot’s chair and she felt the explosion tearing into her ship.

  This time, the pain was nothing like the anti-matter explosion. Sarah guessed this was partly because she was getting used to interacting with the ship’s internal sensors and partly because the pirate’s missile was not particularly impressive. As she checked the damage, she confirmed her hopes, the blast had only caused minimal damage. Destiny’s internal bulkheads were strong and they had limited how far the explosive force penetrated her internal structure. Sarah’s relief was short lived however as another laser beam scorched Destiny’s armor and caused her to throw the ship into more evasive maneuvers. Sitting still even for a few seconds was asking for trouble.

  “The pirate ships are no longer gaining on us,” Alexandra announced. Sarah checked the relative velocities of Destiny and her pursuers. Alexandra had repaired enough of the ship to allow Destiny to increase her maximum velocity. Soon, Alexandra would be able to pull away from the pirate ships. She checked the distance to the system’s mass shadow; they would be able to jump to subspace in just two minutes. The final volley of missiles from the remaining pirate ships wouldn’t catch them in time. All she had to do was keep avoiding their laser cannon fire and they would be free.