The Accidental Explorer

by George Deeb

  He waited as long as he could without endangering the Orysta more than was necessary, then gave the command and all guns opened fire. Eight of the dhrojja ships were destroyed by the unexpected onslaught before the others realized what had happened and broke of their attack. Several others had been damaged, but were still operational. It only took a short time for the dhrojjas to locate all the guns and their remaining ships picked their target of choice. The seven Moon Base gun emplacements had been randomly located throughout the area - intentionally not placed in any pattern. Together the guns could cover all the visible area above the crater. This placement made it harder for the attacking ships to avoid flying into each other. The dhrojjas knew some basic tactics but didn't have the discipline of a trained military force. The sky became a dangerous criss-cross of single minded ships, serendipitously avoiding in-flight crashes – for a short time anyway. Three collisions occurred after the first few minutes, causing five of the dhrojja ships to crash into the moon and one to limp away from the battle.

  The dhrojjas were so involved with their attack, and trying to avoid crashing into each other, that they didn't notice the three smaller ships converging on them from the rear. The moon base shuttles had been on normal patrol, with their crews expecting a quiet routine mission when the alert came over their comm systems. Each base shuttle was equipped with two guns, modeled after the Orysta's shuttles. One was a forward facing gun that fired at whatever the shuttle was pointing at. The other was a turret mount that could rotate three hundred and sixty degrees around and pivot one hundred and eighty degrees in elevation, effectively covering the lower hemisphere of the ship.

  Over an encrypted low frequency comm channel the shuttles quickly decided on a plan of action. They had all flown away from the moon until they were beyond the attacking dhrojjas, and then turned back towards the rear flank of the attacking ships. They would get one or maybe two shots at taking out an enemy ship before they were noticed. The dhrojja ships had slowed to more accurately aim at their targets. The base shuttles closed for the attack in a diamond formation and at their maximum speed. The closure rate was high and in seconds they were in firing range.

  The shuttles easily took out the three rearmost dhrojja ships, then immediately changed course to intercept their next target. In each shuttle the pilot controlled the forward gun while flying directly at his intended target. The copilot controlled the turret gun and fired on the first target of opportunity that came into his fire zone. The dhrojjas were still not aware of the shuttles when the secondary targets were taken out. Five more dhrojja ships had been destroyed or disabled. The shuttles were forced to maneuver drastically to avoid debris from the destroyed ships. The advantage of surprise was now gone.

  More than half of the dhrojjas, not yet sure of where their enemy was, broke off their attack and maneuvered out of the attacking swarm. Not all dhrojjas are good fighters. Some will only attack when their target is unaware, and some will run at the first sign of resistance. There were a lot more of them than there were base shuttles, and the shuttles were soon on the defensive. Dog fights broke out with two to four dhrojja ships attacking each of the shuttles. What should have been an advantage of numbers for the enemy became one for the shuttles as too many dhrojjas attacking the same shuttle interfered with each other. Two dhrojjas ships were destroyed by friendly fire. The shuttle crews were all disciplined ex-military fliers, and what started as an outnumbered defense soon became one on one dogfights. The base shuttles were small and maneuverable. They could make tight turns and rapid heading changes. The dhrojja ships were larger, heavier, less maneuverable and more heavily armed. But having a lot of weapons doesn't do any good if you don't get to use them.

  6

  “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

  “I came to help.” said Cove.

  “Help with what, Doctor? This is a gun fight, and all the guns are already manned. I have very clear orders that your safety is a base priority, and Farber-Chatwell is right. You are too important right now. GET BELOW!”

  “You're not using all of your weapons.”

  “Unless you know something I don't, we're sending everything we've got at them. GET BELOW – NOW!”

  “The area lights! You're not using the area lights!”

  The curse words were just about to leave his mouth when Travellor realized what Cove was getting at. The area lighting fixtures were huge devices that put out an unbelievable amount of candle power. That much light was needed to illuminate this very large crater for outside work. They were capable of turning the entire area within the crater into a bright and sunny Florida summer day. Everyone always joked that you probably could get a tan if you could go outside without your space suit. Travellor didn't know the exact specifications on the arrays, but newcomers were instructed never to look directly into one. Each array sat on a computer controlled motorized mount that could swivel their beams to point to any section of the crater. During maintenance the arrays were pointed straight up, and they could be pointed to almost every section of the sky. The enemy ships were attacking from low altitude now, which meant they were operating visually.

  “How do we point them?”

  “We can't, not the way we need to. But the Orysta can. Her computer can calculate the intersection angle of the beams for maximum effect.”

  “Grilik Munen, this is Travellor.”

  “Yes Commander. I hear you.”

  “Doctor Cove believes we can use the area lights to blind our attackers. He says Orysta can calculate and control their aiming. Is that possible? Over.”

  “Commander, this is Plessa. The Orysta can generate her own code and create a program quickly. I will start on this now. It should only take a few fracins. Stand by.”

  “Grilik, while Plessa is doing that you should get your other shuttle ready to launch. Inform me when it is ready. Over.”

  “The shuttle is ready to launch now, Commander. We have been waiting for an opportunity to do so.”

  Travellor turned his attention back to Cove.

  “Thank you Doctor. Please go back below now.”

  “No. I should stay here.”

  “I believe Erika would be very upset if something happened to you.” said Travellor, trying to get a psychological advantage in his argument. “Go be...”

  “That's pretty low Commander. I'm staying! Precisely to help make sure that nothing happens to Erika. You seem to forget that I am also a resource at your disposal. I may come up with other ideas to help.”

  Travellor felt frustration, and anger at the younger man. The feelings quickly changed to respect. He knew what Cove was feeling. When the lives of people you care for are threatened, you want to fight – and you want to kill the threat. Cove was right. The lives of a lot of other people might depend on just one good idea today.

  7

  “Are you sure we can do this?” asked Smith.

  “I am calculating the time and direction of travel that should reverse our course and get us back to where we started.” said Califas.

  “Are you sure we can do it again – break into FTL?”

  Califas thought about that for a short time before answering.

  “Theoretically we have the same components that caused us to do it the first time. We should be able to recreate the same circumstances. I cannot guarantee it.”

  “And we're going to experience the same thing... the same pain... all of that?” asked Washington.

  “There is no way to avoid it on this ship. However, now that we are expecting it we can position ourselves more comfortably. We should place our backs against the seats, with our heads facing forward, and our arms down at our sides.”

  “I'd rather not do it again, myself.” said Washington.

  “We have no choice.” replied Califas. “We do not have enough fuel to make it back at at normal speed. We are not equipped with food or water for an extended period. If we can not replicate the factors that put this ship into FTL we will die in space. The
Orysta's shuttles searching at their maximum speed would be unlikely to find us.”

  “How do we shut it down? We were lucky the first time.” asked Smith.

  “Our luck is still with us, in that the ion drive control can be preprogrammed to shut down at a selected time. When the drive shuts down the parasitic oscillation should terminate, dropping us out of FTL.”

  Smith and Washington looked at Califas with some doubt in their eyes.

  “It should work. I cannot guarantee it. Perhaps, as a secondary option, you should also place your knees in a more advantageous position this time.”

  Washington closed his eyes and groaned. Then a thought came to him.

  “Hold on.” he said. “The shuttle has probably headed back to base by now. You said they have no way to track us. What else could they do? So you should calculate our flight to get us closer to the moon, instead of where we started FTL.”

  “Good thinking.” said Smith.

  “I agree.” said Califas.

  8

  “Is shuttle two ready Grilik?”

  “Yes Commander. The shuttle will launch on your command.”

  “Good. Stand by.” Travellor took one last look outside, then keyed his mic. “Arrowhead flight, this is Travellor. Report status. Over.”

  “This is Arrowhead one. Arrowhead flight ready for launch on command. Over.”

  “Roger. All ships, this is Travellor. Stand by for full power launch on my command.”

  He got acknowledgments from all four shuttles. The three base shuttles had been caught on standby in the landing bay when the attack started, as had the Orysta's number two shuttle. Now they were going to try to give those ships a chance to get off the ground without being destroyed. He turned to Cove.

  “Are we ready?”

  “All area lights are aimed and ready. Those pirate ships will be flying into a wall of light. They'll have to deviate over twenty-five degrees to be able to see again.” said Cove.

  Above them, the pirate ships were gathering into a wall of their own – a wall of attacking ships. Their intent was obvious. All ships releasing weapons at the same time would carpet bomb the crater. They didn't need to know exactly where the guns were located – everything in the crater would likely be hit. It would be devastating. It had to be stopped.

  “Commander, this is Munen. They have begun their attack run. The clock is running.”

  “Roger Grilik Munen.” said Travellor while looking at the two count down timers on his display. One was the time to turn on the area light, and one had five seconds more for launch time. “All ships stand by on throttles and brakes. Weapons hot.”

  Weapons hot was not a command normally given to ships still in the docking bay, but nothing about the next moments would be normal. Travellor watched the first timer count down. Seven... six... five... He knew all of the shuttles were also watching it. Four... three... two... one... The area lights bloomed together into a mini sun. Even the bleed-over light from the edges of the arrays was blinding.

  “Arrowhead flight, this is arrowhead one – ENGINES TO FULL POWER!” came over the comm.

  The metal structure of the building vibrated from the roaring thrust of the shuttles engines as they throttled up to the firewall. All unattached tools and equipment should already have been moved out of the bay, but there would still be a lot of damaged maintenance stations and certainly a big mess from the heat and combustion byproducts of the engines. The Orysta didn't have to worry about those things. Her shuttle's engines didn't work on the same principle.

  Travellor watched the second timer count down. Three... two... He couldn't see them, but knew the bay doors were opening as fast as they physically could – which was quite fast. He and Cove looked out the windows, both shielding their eyes from the lights with their hand. They saw three blurs, one after the other, heading away and towards the edge of the crater, and then upwards at an angle. They knew a forth ship also took off from Orysta, which they didn't see. They were running out of time before the enemy dropped their bombs.

  9

  The four shuttles engaged the attacking ships on their rear flank. Unspotted and unexpected they destroyed seven of the dhrojja ships before completing their traverse through the attacking formation. All shuttles had been equipped with IFF. It was one of the few 361 supplied systems the Ganaphe' had fitted to their ships. The Identification Friend or Foe system showed which ships were friendlies and which were not, and displayed their location on the radar screens. They could see the first three base shuttles engaged in dog fights, but couldn't do anything for them at the moment. They had their own job to do – stopping the attack on the moon base.

  The shuttles came back around behind the dhrojja ships. They spread wide, and at high speed flew into the rear of the formation. The element of surprise was not going to last and they took advantage of it while they could. Locking onto the lead dhrojja ships with their targeting systems they launched self guiding missiles just at the moment some of the other dhrojja ships became aware of the rear attack and broke formation. The evasive maneuvering of these dhrojjas was only helpful to the shuttles, making the path to the targeted ships less obstructed.

  Everything was happening in such close proximity that in less than three seconds after launch several dhrojja ships in the front of the formation blew up. Any dhrojjas that hadn't realized they were under attack from the rear were now aware of it. They quickly took evasive action, which put an end to the massive bombing run. But not all of the dhrojjas were undisciplined, and three ships continued flying towards the moon. The dhrojjas that had scattered now targeted the four shuttles and a repeat of the original dog fights took place, with multiple dhrojja ships targeting a single shuttle.

  10

  Shuttle one came into detection range with their fire control systems armed and ready. What appeared on their display screen shocked them. It was filled with target detections, and only a handful were friendlies. At first they were confused by the number of ships being indicated, but they had no choice but to believe what was being shown to them.

  Keeping their speed up, Mersuul flew towards the outermost targets. Three of them were marked as base shuttles. The others had to be dhrojjas. Plessa controlled the turret guns, and del Rio was given control of the forward guns. Their plan was simple – pick off the easiest targets first and hope they could get most of them before they themselves were targeted. Mersuul and Plessa operated like a well trained team, working almost emotionlessly. Del Rio was angry – and ready to kill. These pirates were attacking her friends and her home. She intended to kill them all.

  Mersuul headed for the nearest dog fight and directly for the trailing dhrojja ship while rotating the shuttle so that the lower part of the ship faced the other attacker. The fire control display went from red to green indicating their guns were in range. Del Rio could barely keep herself from activating the guns until the enemy ship was in her sights. When they were she fired. The tips of the shuttle's guns glowed brightly and pumped volley after volley of cohesive energy pulses that proved to be right on target. The energy pulses didn't penetrate the target like a bullet would have. Instead they transferred their tremendous level of energy to the molecules of the material they contacted disrupting the bonds of the material at an atomic level. The result was that the material fell apart into its constituent substances. In the end it was just a high tech way of creating a hole – a big hole. A very effective big hole.

  Plessa had locked on to the second dhrojja ship in the dog fight, and his turret guns had fired shortly after del Rio's. He had aimed for the rear of the ship, and must have hit the energy conversion chamber. The rear of the dhrojja ship blew apart leaving only the front half intact and tumbling uncontrollably in space.

  “Thanks shuttle one.” came over the radio. “Base two joining up with you. Let's get some more of the bastards.”

  Base shuttle number two smoothly arced around and came up beside shuttle one. They quickly decided on their next targets. The p
lan was the same. Each would assist the other shuttles still engaged in a fight. With all four free, they could re-engage the enemy as a force.

  “BREAK AWAY NOW! BREAK AWAY NOW!” yelled Plessa, who had been monitoring the dhrojjas.

  Both ships immediately pulled away from each other at maximum power. The fire from the enemy's guns traveled right through the space they had been occupying. Plans can often go wrong.

  11

  Mahna could not believe what he was seeing on his screens. It had taken him decitans to get this fleet of ships together. They were a formidable force – he had thought. They would be able to fly through any galaxy of their choice, and take whatever they wanted – he had thought. All they had to do this diest was attack one damaged mining ship. One lousy helpless mining ship! Before his eyes he watched as more than half of the dhrojjas were destroyed by a handful of smaller vessels. They weren't even fighter craft! They were just shuttles! What kind of incompetents had he assembled? He grew angrier with each passing fracin.

  He wondered where the mining ship had gotten so many weapons. And most of those shuttles were not standard designs either. Where did they come from? The miners wouldn't have dared to contact anyone in this non-affiliated solar system. They knew the penalty for that was severe under the IGT. The so-called law abiding citizens of the IGT feared its laws and penalties. Then again, none of this really mattered. The truth was that those selfish, greedy, useless excuses for dhrojjas that he had gathered never bothered to better their ships or their weapons. He would have to correct that when this was over. He would kill a few of them and destroy their ships (after first taking anything of value) as an example to the others. No one would argue when he told them to spend their plunder on better weapons and armor. If they did he would kill them too.