Wolves at the Gate (Star Wolf Squadron Book 3)

by Shane VanAulen

  “They’re on the hook,” Mike announced letting out a breath.

  “Orders, sir?” Pitt asked.

  “Take us deeper into the nebula but slow our speed a bit. Let’s give them a hope of catching us,” he said with a hard grin.

  “Aye sir,” came the reply.

  They continued on for the next thirty minutes with the destroyer slowly closing the range. Even though their space suits or combat armor were environmental sealed and climate controlled they still felt like they were sweating.

  “What is the status of the convoy?” Collins inquired his blue eyes scanning the holo-map. It was also having trouble from the radiation interference to the ship’s sensor readings and was flickering.

  “I don’t know sir, we are now too far away for the maser unit to detect them,” PO2 Curtis replied.

  “Hopefully, they are already out of the nebula and on their way to the gravity well,” Mike commented almost making it a prayer.

  “Should we try to open up a comm. channel?” Specialist Ryan asked from his station.

  “No, we’ll run silent. I don’t want anything messing this up,” Mike answered fearful that the enemy may detect the signal within the nebula and trace it to the convoy.

  “The destroyer is slowly gaining on us,” Curtis announced.

  “Mister Pitt, keep them just out of range if you please,” Collins said.

  “Aye captain,” Pitt answered.

  A few minutes later the maser operator’s panel lit up and an alarm went off.

  “Cut impulse drives now!” the Petty Officer yelled in panic.

  Ensign Pitt didn’t know what was going but he immediately cut the power to the fusion drives.

  “What going on,” Mike demanded looking to the maser station.

  “Sir, we were about to enter a bubble of unstable gas within the cloud. I think if our fusion drives were active they might have ignited the gas.”

  “Good call, what about EM thrusters?”

  “I think they would be ok but I really don’t know?” PO2 Curtis truthfully admitted.

  Mike got up and moved to the maser and sensors station. It should have had two people manning it but he was short-handed. He looked over the data and agreed it was a volatile mess out there and he wasn’t sure either.

  “Sir, the destroyer is moving into range. If they get a fusion shot at us in here we’ll be done for,” Greg whispered to him pointing to his monitor.

  “Right! Mister Pitt, EM thrusters full power and get us the hell out of this hot soup,” Mike ordered and then looked back to Curtis, “Find us a way out.”

  Both men said, “Aye sir,” almost simultaneously.

  “Hard a port, course 2-6-0 Mark Four,” Curtis called out.

  “Aye, 2-6-0 Mark Four,” Pitt called back.

  “Baker, we have one missile pod left, rotate pod three to the rear and fire. Maybe that will slow them down a bit and give us a chance to get out of this pocket.”

  “Aye sir,” Cindy said and then added, “Pod three firing.”

  “One Minute, sir, until we are out of the bubble,” Curtis said.

  Mike opened a channel to engineering, “I need more power to EM thrusters,” he said.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Schmidty’s German accented voice replied.

  “How soon until they detect and enter the bubble,” Mike asked looking at the flickering holo-map.

  “They don’t seem to see it. Hell, we only had a few seconds warning,” Curtis answered from the maser unit something that the destroyer didn’t have.

  “Thruster power has increased by five percent,” Pitt said looking at his monitor and added, “Almost clear!”

  “Missiles slowed them for a moment and seven even got through,” PO2 Baker said and continued, “Their sensors must be scrambled, should we continue firing with missile turrets and torpedoes?”

  “No, let them enter the unstable gasses and then we’ll see what happens,” Mike said moving to the edge of his seat and wishing he had a cup of coffee to sip on like Captain Hope always did at times like this.

  “Sir, we’re just clear of the bubble and the destroyer is just entering,” Curtis called out.

  “Full impulse, get us as much distance as possible!” Mike commanded.

  A second later, the frigate was hit by a shock wave as the gas bubble exploded inside of the nebula. The main viewer flashed in a brilliance of light and then everything went black.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What the fuck just happened?” PO2 Curtis asked just as the emergency lighting came on flooding the bridge in a pale red light.

  Anyone that hadn’t been buckled in were now slowly pulling themselves up from the floor. Specialist Ryan thought his shoulder was dislocated and though Pitt was strapped in he had hit his head on his console and had a thin but bloody cut on his forehead from where his head hit his helmet’s face shield. Mike had hung onto the arms of his captain’s chair and had managed to stay seated. Curtis and Baker had both been buckled in and were no worse for wear.

  “All stations, report,” Lt. Collins ordered and opened a channel throughout the ship to report all damage and get him a systems update.

  “My scope is down,” Baker called out form the weapons console.

  “Mine too,” Ensign Pitt added from the helm.

  The main viewer was off as well as the holo-map.

  “We’re blind here people, let’s get to it,” Mike said encouraging them to move a little faster.

  “Rebooting maser system,” Greg Curtis replied hearing the unit’s familiar startup whine answer his command sequence.

  “How soon?” Mike asked.

  “Give me two minutes and she should be back online,” the Petty Officer replied.

  “Sir, thrusters are now available,” Pitt said seeing the green light on his panel light up.

  “Same course, full thrusters,” Mike said.

  “We’ll be flying blind,” Pitt informed in concern.

  “Noted, full thrusters,” he said knowing nothing was ahead of them and hoping they had been thrown further away from the explosion.

  “Thrusters Aye!” the helmsman answered.

  “Warning, radiation is approaching dangerous levels,” the ship’s computer announced and then repeated.

  “Turn that off,” Mike ordered looking to Ryan.

  “Hull polarization is down,” Pitt said as some of his panel’s instruments came back to life.

  “Curtis?” Mike prompted.

  “One more minute, sir,” he said and went back to sweet-talking his maser unit and sensors to restart a little faster.

  “Chief, what is the status of the maneuver drives?” Mike asked opening a direct line to the engineering section.

  A moment later Schmidt’s voice could be heard.

  “I’ll need at least fifteen minutes to get them back online and do a restart,” he declared.

  Mike wanted to tell him he had only ten minutes but he knew that if the Chief Petty Officer said fifteen, then fifteen is what he needed.

  “Come on Curtis! I need some eyes!” he said getting a little anxious.

  “Coming on now!” the Petty Officer Second Class said with a big grin just as the system came back to life

  “Where is the destroyer?” Mike said looking from the main viewer to the restored holo-map.

  “Coming up,” the maser operator said.

  The main viewer’s picture screen filled up and gave them a long-range view of the Karduan Destroyer KD102. Its bow and forward hull look like a blowtorch had been held to it.

  “Enlarge image,” Mike directed not taking his eyes from the enemy ship.

  An instant later the image zoomed in and they could see the Karduan ship more clearly.

  “She took the brunt of that explosion,” Baker commented as her weapons panel lit up with half of her systems showing green and the rest glowing red.

  “It looks like her forward gun emplacements are all damaged and that there are several large cr
acks in her forward hull plating,” Pitt said.

  “She is also listing,” Mike added seeing that the ship had tilted and her dampeners hadn’t kicked in. This didn’t mean she couldn’t fight, hell with artificial gravity you could fight with the damn ship upside down in relation to your enemy.

  “Sir, her engines appear to be dead. Her forward inertia has been checked by the explosion. She is now slowly tumbling and drifting back the way she came in,” Curtis reported.

  “Back the same way we need to go to get to the gravity well,” Collins said letting out a hard sigh.

  “Orders, sir?” Ensign Pitt asked as second in command and first officer.

  “Bring us about with thrusters and set a course around where that gas pocket was and follow after that destroyer. Best possible speed until maneuver drives are back online,” he directed.

  “Should we try to finish her off?” Baker asked.

  “Can we?” he countered seeing her board form his seat.

  “Fusion turrets are still reporting in as functioning,” she replied as unlike most of her systems which all needed a diagnostics or repairs.

  “No, let’s not tempt fate by blasting away with fusion weapons in this mess of a nebula,” he advised and continued as he opened up the ship-wide PA system from his chair. “All hands to damage control stations, start A-Rad inoculations and follow all radiation protocols,” he ordered.

  “Eight hours, that how long the good doctor said we could last in here without the hull polarized,” Curtis reminded.

  “Then let’s make sure we’re not still here in eight hours,” Mike said getting up from his chair and moving to the navigation station to pull its access panel and see what he could do. Everyone followed his example on the bridge and got to work putting the old girl back together again.

  Fifteen minutes to get the maneuver drive back online became an hour and then an hour and a half. Every time CPO Schmidt was ready to do a startup another relay would blow out. One of his team had even been injured in the last relay rupture.

  “Sir, I need Med-Bot, Petty Officer Santiago took the brunt of power relay overload. He is unconscious, has second degrees burns and a bleeding head wound,” CPO Schmidt said calling to the bridge.

  Med-Bot had just reset Specialist Ryan’s dislocated shoulder and was about to give everyone on the bridge an A-Rad inoculation to help protect them from nebula’s radiation.

  “He is on his way,” Mike replied and ordered the robot to follow him.

  “Sir?” Jeremy asked looking up from the console he was repairing.

  “You have the bridge, Mister Pitt,” Lt. Collins said heading for the door. “Just keep us on a course to get us out of here and keep working on repairs.”

  “Aye sir,” he said with a nod.

  “Oh’ and keep an eye on the enemy,” he added as he left.

  Both Ensign Pitt and PO2 Curtis said, “Aye sir” at the same time and then looked to each other with concerned faces.

  The Karduan destroyer was still heading out of the nebula on almost the same course as they had taken. It was hard to read if there were still life signs on board but it was tumbling as it headed back towards normal space.

  Reaching the engine room, they found it a mess of smoke, steam as well numerous torn open systems that all of the engineering staff were hurriedly working on to repair.

  CPO Schmidt was kneeling next to PO1 Santiago with a first aid kit. The Med-Bot didn’t need anyone to tell him what to do and went directly to the fallen man. Mike followed and looked down as the machine worked on the injured man.

  “How is he?” Mike asked.

  “He’ll pull through but those burns will be hard to fully fix without a regeneration tank,” Schmidty said having seen worse during his long career as an engineer.

  The Med-Bot quickly finished, having given the injured man a shot of the slow acting Heal-X Two, an injection of non-addictive pain meds followed a spray of pseudo-flesh for his head wound. The medical robot moved away from the huddled group and returned to its primary mission of inoculating the rest of the crew with A-Rad shots.

  Collins knelt down and looked at the Petty Officer for a second taking in the burns and the potential scars. Pulling out his backup auto digital med-kit he placed it on his chest and looked to the small monitor at the flash scan’s reading. He then adjusted it and instructed it to inject a small amount of Regen-X.

  “He’ll be alright,” Mike declared as the man’s burned skin was slowly replaced with pink new flesh. He could still remember the first time he had used the miracle drug but that time it was for the most beautiful woman he had ever known. It was back when he had helped rescue the crew of the Alamo and had met Lt. Dr. Angelique Duarte, the love of his life.

  He was still thinking about this when the chief petty officer broke him from his thoughts of the past.

  “Damn! I only wish we could do that for the ship,” he said watching the injured man heal right before his eyes.

  “No, only hard work can do that,” Mike said and asked, “So, where do you need an extra hand?”

  The chief made a crooked grin of a smile knowing that his captain not only got his hands dirty but that he wasn’t a half bad engineer to boot.

  “You can give me a hand with these relays and then we’ll tackle the power couplers,” he said as they returned to putting the Goliad back together.

  Twenty minutes later Petty Officer First Class Santiago woke up finding himself on the sofa in the Chief’s office. He immediately got up and went looking for his team. When they saw him up and walking around they all told him to go to his quarters and rest. The stubborn Latino refused and said he was alright, giving everyone a scowl almost daring them to tell him otherwise. They were short-handed ever since they came on board this ship and they weren’t about to argue with him now.

  An hour later they were ready for another try at an impulse drive restart.

  Once more crossing their fingers they all smiled and let out sighs of relief when the engines came back to life.

  Mike called up to the bridge, “Mister Pitt, best speed and get us out of this nebula.”

  “Aye sir,” came the happy voice of his helmsman.

  Lt. Collins looked to his engineer still smiling but the expression on the old German’s face told a different tale.

  “Ok, what else is wrong?” he asked even though he didn’t want to.

  “The Bender drive needs a lot of work,” he revealed.

  “And?” Mike prompted.

  “We don’t have enough parts,” he said.

  “Well, we’ll have to make them or steal them,” the ship’s captain said never believing in giving up. Captain Hope taught him to find a way to succeed by doing whatever it took to survive and win.

  “I hope your right because we don’t have a digital parts copier,” CPO Schmidt said.

  Mike knew that the old frigate didn’t have one and they were never able to find one along their journey. Even their scrounger came up empty in his efforts to locate this basic component to any ship’s machine shop.

  “Just keep fixing things and let me worry about that,” he said and walked to the hatch to head back to the bridge. “Get your list together and let me know what we still need.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said shaking his head at his young captain as he left. Turning to his engineering team he yelled at them to get back to work. This was unneeded as they were already working but it made him feel better.

  When he got to the bridge he found it a sight better than when he left. They had all been working to restore the bridge’s systems and their hard work was paying off.

  Lt. Collins nodded as he sat in his command chair and brought up the systems reports that had been waiting for him. He was impressed with his crew as they made repairs and dealt with damage from the battle as well as the nebula’s gas explosion.

  Sitting back in his chair, he went through the reports and also those wounded during the action. He was lucky that no one had been killed so f
ar. Several crewmen had been wounded or injured but were on the mend thanks to the old Med-Bot. The repair droids had been just as industrious acting as the ship’s damage control team while everyone else was busy at their stations. People might have died without the Med-Bot and the ship would be far worse off without the repair droids, Mike thought as he read through the last of the systems updates.

  “Sir, the edge of nebula coming up,” Ensign Pitt informed.

  Mike looked up as the main viewer just as the static cleared up and the screen became clear. Activating his holo-map he looked over the situation in the system. The Karduan destroyer that had been tumbling out of the nebula was still tumbling just ahead of them. It didn’t look like they had managed to make any repairs or get their ship stabilized and back under power.

  The other three Karduan ships were right where they had been and didn’t seem to be under power at all. This made him wonder if everyone was dead on those ships or if they had made enough repairs to give him a fight as he tried to reach the bender point.

  “Long range sensor, scan for life on the Blue’s ships,” he ordered.

  “Aye sir,” the maser station operator called back.

  Mike then looked to the fire control station, “Status of our weapons?”

  PO2 Baker looked back to him as she answered.

  “Fusion turrets are all good to go, two gauss cannons are damaged and inoperable. One of the missile turrets has been knocked out of commission. The particle turret is fragged and we’re down to four standard torpedoes. All missile pods are spent and missile stores are at twenty percent standard load.”

  “So, don’t shoot unless we have to,” Mike commented mostly to himself.

  “Sir, long range sensors aren’t reading the convoy,” Curtis reported.

  “They must have made it to the gravity well and escaped the system,” Pitt said stating what they were all thinking.

  “Leaving us behind,” Ryan added.

  “That was my orders, for them to escape as soon as they were able,” Lt. Collins said clarifying that they did exactly what he told them to do and that was to make it to safety.

  “Captain, now that we are clear of the nebula’s radiation, I’m reading life signs on all four of the Karduan ships,” PO2 Curtis informed.