by Dave Bara
“Evacuation ordered, Captain. But it will be a tiny drop in the vast ocean if this weapon is as powerful as you say that it is. And I’m not prepared to abandon defense of my world. Our fleet is accelerating toward the HuK,” he said.
“Prince Katara, your ships cannot help us with the HuK, and they certainly can’t survive the anti-graviton weapon without a working Hoagland Field. It’s suicide,” said the captain.
“Then suicide it will be,” the prince replied. Dobrina moved away from the com and Serosian stepped up, not looking hopeful.
“Prince Katara, if this weapon is activated, it will devastate your world and its people, a people that will be left leaderless if you sacrifice yourself,” he said.
“I’m aware of my responsibilities, Historian,” the prince replied. The line went silent again. Serosian tried one last time.
“Prince Katara, please, if you are in range when this weapon goes off, it will not matter that you died a hero . . .” he trailed off at this, then continued. “Half your world will disintegrate, Prince Katara, as if it were never there.” The line crackled and popped in silence for several seconds and I feared I had lost the longwave. Then another voice came on.
“This is General Salibi. The prince has put me in military command of this mission. I am ordering our flagship to be withdrawn to the far side of Levant, to rendezvous with the evacuation fleet. Two ships will accompany us. The remaining vessels and their commanders insist on defending their world. They will not withdraw.”
Dobrina stepped up to the com again. “Good luck, General. And Godspeed to your ships.” At that, the signal was cut from the other end of the line. We watched as the Levant flagship and its escorts withdrew from the main body of the fleet. The other ships pressed on, their impellers on full burn.
“I’m not sure the general will be in command of the Levant Navy tomorrow, but he made the right decision today,” said Dobrina.
“Agreed,” said Serosian.
“Tactical report, Mr. Cochrane?” said the captain. I went back to my board and scanned the readouts.
“The HuK is slowing even more than anticipated,” I reported. “I don’t understand. There’s no tactical reason for them to do this.”
“They’re trying to draw us into the range of the weapon,” said Dobrina. She turned to Serosian. “They want the Relic.”
“I agree. And in my opinion we have no choice but to put it at risk,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“The only card we have to play is the Relic. The HuK is programmed to recover it. If we risk going inside the plasma weapon’s firing range, it’s possible we might delay activation of the weapon if it perceives that it can recover the Relic as well. Remember, it was much closer than its full range when it fired on the station,” he said.
“How close did you say it was when it fired?” the captain asked me.
“Ten thousand kilometers,” I replied.
“That’s almost torpedo range.”
“Exactly,” said the Historian. “If we can get off a torpedo against an unshielded ship, we might have a chance at disabling it. That’s if we can present the Relic as enough of a temptation.”
The captain contemplated this, then made her decision. “Take us in, Mr. Cochrane. Match the vector of the HuK. Keep our Hoagland Field at max. And if you detect any hint that it’s about to fire that weapon, unload everything we’ve got, regardless of the range.”
“Aye, sir,” I said, then set course to match the HuK and engaged the impellers, uncertain whether any of us would live through the next few minutes.
A Sacrifice
We followed the HuK’s track to the centimeter, staying on course and using our HD drive to substantially close the gap. Nonetheless, we were still eight minutes behind her and a good twenty thousand kilometers distant. Not close enough to even try a torpedo. And the ten-thousand-kilometer effective range of the HuK’s anti-graviton weapon against our Hoagland Field was looming.
“She could fire any time now,” warned Serosian. “She’s still six minutes from her optimal firing point between Tyre and Levant.”
“But once we cross inside ten thousand clicks it will know we can be disabled, temporarily at least, even through the Hoagland Field,” said Dobrina. “We need another option.”
“What about the Levant ships?” I asked. “They’re closer than we are.”
“They’re no match for the HuK,” said Dobrina.
“Perhaps they don’t need to be,” said Serosian. Dobrina crossed her arms and stared at him.
“Explain.”
The Historian thought for a moment. “If one of the Levant vessels could activate an atomic burst, send out an electromagnetic pulse, it could damage the HuK’s systems enough to take the weapon offline for a brief time and allow us to get close enough to engage it again,” he said.
“It’s likely the HuK is hardened against EMP,” said Dobrina. “What about one of your torpedoes, Mr. Serosian?”
“It would have to get close enough for a full-yield detonation, say fifty kilometers or less. But the HuK would likely fire the anti-graviton weapon as soon as we fired the torpedo. At least that’s what I’d do.”
The captain contemplated this for a brief moment, then came to a decision.
“Mr. Cochrane, can you still bore your longwave tunnel to those Levant ships?”
“Yes,” I replied, “In fact, the HuK is now putting out a lot less interference.”
“Likely conserving power, preparing to use her weapons,” said Serosian.
“Get on the line to those ships, Mr. Cochrane,” she said. “Tell them we need a volunteer to save their world, and we need it fast.”
“Aye, Captain,” I said, then did as instructed. I got a coded message back two minutes later. All it said was, “Understood.” We watched as the Levant fleet closed on the HuK. The HuK began a barrage of coil cannon fire from its remaining batteries at the flotilla. The Levant ships responded in kind, but with little effect. They were seriously overmatched. We watched as the seconds ticked by to the ten-thousand-kilometer mark we knew was effective even against our Hoagland Field.
“Full stop, Mr. Marker,” ordered Dobrina. “Station keeping, Mr. Layton.” They both responded with “Aye, sir,” as we watched the unfolding battle on our main display. Both Marker and Layton had inquired about what a “Relic” was, but I had told them it was need-to-know.
“The Levant fleet is inflicting little damage on the HuK, Captain,” I said.
“As expected,” she replied. “Hopefully they’re planning to evacuate the crew from the sacrificial ship. Mr. Marker, when I give the signal, fire the sub-light HD drive back to full. Mr. Layton, plot our intercept course. Mr. Cochrane will take us straight in at the HuK. We may have seconds. We may have minutes. But we’ll have to fire our torpedoes and hope for the best.”
“The coil cannon has a greater effective range,” I noted.
“Yes, but can you identify the plasma weapon on the body of the HuK? Pinpoint its location exactly? If you can’t guarantee an exact shot, then we can’t take the chance,” she said. I went back to my board as the captain started pacing around the cabin. No one liked our options now.
“I’m not seeing any evacuation activity, Captain, All those ships are holding steady, closing on the HuK,” I reported. Dobrina’s head snapped up at this news.
“Raise them again, they’re not following the plan,” she said excitedly. “We only need one ship for the EMP.” I sent my coded signal through the longwave. There was no reply.
“I don’t understand, they’re not responding,” I said.
“Repeat, Commander,” she demanded.
“They’re still holding steady and not responding to my hails, Captain.” Dobrina’s eyes went wide.
“They’re all going to self-destruct!” she said. “Marker! Take
us in now, sub-light HD drive on full! Cochrane, raise them on the longwave again! Tell them to stop!”
It was too late. In the next instant the Levant fleet, all nine ships, exploded in a series of fireballs that lit up our main plasma to a blinding level before the compensators took over and lowered the light. When the display cleared and readjusted, the HuK was drifting and sparking, damaged heavily. The Levant fleet and all of their crews were gone from the universe forever.
I looked to my captain. Her eyes turned red, her face flushed with anger at the devastation and loss of life she had just witnessed. “Commander Cochrane, take us in on Mr. Layton’s course, as fast as she’ll go.” She wiped at her eyes. “They’ve given us our opening, let’s not blow it.”
She turned to Serosian. “Can we destroy that thing with one of your torpedoes?” she asked.
“I don’t recommend it, Captain,” said the Historian. “The HuK is drifting but its internal systems are still operational. From what I can tell it’s in a rebooting sequence and the plasma weapon appears to still be active. Anti-graviton levels are off the charts. A direct hit by an atomic detonation would likely result in the anti-gravitons being dispersed all over the inner Levant system, with much the same effect as the HuK firing the weapon itself.”
Dobrina let out a grunt of exasperation. “Do we have any other options? I don’t want their sacrifice to be in vain,” she said.
“Can’t we go closer and EVA over to the HuK? Disable it somehow?” I posited. Serosian shook his head.
“Not enough time by my readings. Its power curve is coming back up. We may only have minutes,” he said.
“We can’t just stand here and watch it detonate!” said Dobrina.
I chimed in at this, just shooting my mouth off in frustration. “I wish we could attach that damned Relic to the HuK and send it back to whatever hell it came from.” Dobrina and Serosian exchanged looks of recognition, then Dobrina said:
“Mr. Cochrane, you may have just earned your tactical commendation for this mission.” I looked at them, confused, and then wondered what the hell I might have just gotten us into.
We were on the lower deck of the yacht, working quickly on a torpedo. I was holding the Founder Relic, our local jump point generator, while Serosian was busy removing a tactical nuclear warhead from the torpedo’s “brain.”
“You really think this thing will work after two hundred thousand years?” I asked nervously, the Relic humming with power and warmth as I held it with both hands. Serosian didn’t look up from his work to answer.
“Theoretically, yes,” he said as his hands moved swiftly over the warhead casing, disconnecting it from the torpedo. “Replacing the warhead with the jump point generator should allow the Relic to access the torpedo’s hyperdimensional drive. Although it’s got minimal power, it should be enough to keep the Relic active until it reaches its destination.”
“And you’re sure you’ve programmed it properly?” I asked.
“When dealing with Founder technology, one can never be sure. But it does appear I was able to set both a timer and a destination properly within the unit.”
“What destination?” He let go of the warhead with one hand and picked up a tool.
“I set it for Tarchus, a system with no habitable planets. It was mostly used as a refueling base back in the First Empire days. It has some valuable mineral deposits,” he said. Then I watched as he pulled the warhead out slowly and set it aside. He gestured to me. “Hand me the Relic.”
I was glad to do so. I watched again as he set the Relic in place, securing it with an inertial damping field and then connecting it to the torpedo’s power source. The device accepted the torpedo’s power plug and I watched as the plug melted seamlessly into the Relic. “And we’re still here,” Serosian said, holding his hands clear, then resealing the torpedo with his tools.
“Was that a joke?” I asked. He smiled grimly.
“Dark humor, Peter. There was a tiny possibility connecting the Relic to the torpedo’s power source would have activated it, but we seem to have avoided that predicament.”
I helped him finish the seal and then we both scrambled up to the main deck, retaking our positions.
“We’re ready to fire, Captain,” I said. Dobrina nodded, then turned to Serosian.
“You have this timed correctly?” she asked him.
“It will be very, very close, but the torpedo should arrive before the HuK can detonate the weapon, and the Relic should activate in time to send them both away to Tarchus,” he said.
“That’s a lot of ‘shoulds,’” she said.
He nodded. “It’s our best shot.”
“Time to detonation?”
“Three minutes, by my estimate,” Serosian said. The captain turned to me.
“Mr. Cochrane, fire our torpedo,” she ordered.
“Aye, sir,” I said, and launched the torpedo. “On course, Captain.” She turned to Marker and Layton.
“Mr. Marker, activate the HD drive again and give us some distance. Mr. Layton, set us on a course away from Levant.” I could tell she hated giving that order. Retreat was not in her makeup, but it was the wise thing for the mission.
The next few moments passed in impatient silence for us all. Eventually I overheard Dobrina speaking to Serosian as we watched the clock tick down.
“Navy brass is going to be upset about losing their Relic, Mr. Serosian,” I heard her say under her breath.
“As will the priesthood. They will both get over it,” he replied, just as quietly.
“Tracking the torpedo. On course for the HuK,” I said so that everyone could hear. Serosian’s alarmed voice behind me caught my attention.
“Power levels have jumped on the HuK,” he said. “It’s spooling up the weapon ahead of schedule. Its systems must have recovered enough to detect the HD signature from the torpedo’s drive and assess it as a threat. It could fire anytime now.”
“Time and distance, Mr. Cochrane?” the captain demanded.
“One minute forty-three seconds to the HuK. Seventeen thousand kilometer range,” I reported.
“Can we detonate that device remotely?” asked the captain.
“From Peter’s board we can,” replied Serosian. He came up and pushed me aside, pulling up the torpedo display on my board, then retreated back to his station. “Transferring firing control to your console, Peter.”
“Why me?” I responded.
“Because I have to monitor the Hoagland Field,” he said. “If the weapon goes off prematurely the Field has to be optimal.”
“What’s the range on the Relic?” asked Dobrina out loud. Both Marker and Layton looked up from their stations at the reference, then quickly returned their attention to their boards.
“Nineteen thousand,” replied Serosian. “Maximum range for the Relic activation signal is probably twenty thousand clicks.”
“How much time left on the plasma weapon?” asked Dobrina.
“Fifteen seconds until its able to fire,” replied Serosian.
“Mr. Cochrane, prepare to activate the Relic remotely,” ordered Dobrina. “How close is the torpedo?”
“Three thousand kilometers,” I said.
“Is that close enough?” she asked Serosian.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, “It’s our only chance, and Levant’s.”
“Ten seconds,” I counted down.
“Range?”
“Two thousand,” I said.
My hand hovered over the activation control. The captain gripped the sides of the console so hard that the fluid surface bubbled around her fingers.
“Five. Hoagland Field at maximum,” called Serosian.
“Range twelve hundred!” I said.
“Mr. Cochrane . . .” said Dobrina.
“Two . . .” called Serosian.
; “Activate the Relic!”
I pressed down on the button. On the main display the torpedo glittered with the light of a hundred stars. The HuK detonated with anti-graviton plasma at nearly the same instant. We watched in awe as the starlight from the Relic burst out into space, covering the distance between itself and the HuK, enveloping the plasma, and then exploding in a sparkle of pure white fire.
The next instant, the space where the HuK had been was empty.
“A small ejection of anti-graviton plasma escaped the Relic activation, but it won’t be in sufficient mass or at sufficient speed to impact anything before it dissipates. In short: we did it,” Serosian said.
I slumped over my console.
“Mr. Layton,” said the captain’s voice from behind me. “Take us back to Levant. I think we’ll have some celebrating to do.”
Celebrating was the last thing I felt like doing.
Two days later, I attended a memorial ceremony for the fallen Levant Navy sailors who had given their lives. It was a somber occasion, and I attended not as a Union Navy officer, but as a royal diplomat. Prince Katara sat on his official throne, Janaan next to him on hers. I was first on the dais of dignitaries, and although I had been asked to speak I chose not to. I did join both of Levant’s regents in laying a memorial wreath near the cedar coffin symbolizing the navy sailors lost defending their world. As I set the wreath down, Janaan reached out a lace-gloved hand and gripped mine, if ever so briefly. The funeral music brought me close to tears even though I didn’t recognize the tune.
That evening I attended a wake at the palace, once again as the honored guest of the prince and princess. We were all there, and the talk turned to the imminently arriving Starbound. I was anxious to get aboard her and get on with the Impulse rescue mission that I assumed would follow in short order. But I had to confess I was enjoying playing the role of royal and diplomat more and more. Janaan’s presence had more to do with that than I would probably have liked to admit.
