The Battle for Terra Two
Page 23
“Yours is the only ship present that can jump intrasystem, Captain. But it’s only a thought—not even a suggestion. The decision’s yours.”
Imperial engineering remained unequaled. Toward the end, five thousand years before, the Empire had stasis-cached some of its warships. During the Scotar War many of those ships—Implacable and Glory Run among them—had been found and pressed into service, virtually untouched. Only the old Imperial drives could jump in-system—at some risk. About a third of all tight-jumping ships emerged either as scattering fragments or not at all.
“I’ll meet him at jump point, Admiral.” said Tilak, “cannons blazing.”
“Jump at will, Captain,” said Sagan. “Luck,” she added as the image disappeared.
“They’re not pursuing,” said Atir, reading a telltale. “Intercept probability’s too low.” They were almost at jump point.
“Not like her,” said Kotran, “just to sit there and watch us slip away.” He stared at the screen, watching the red points designating the Fleet units. “Computer,” he said, “enemy jump drives. Are any of them Imperial?”
“Not a programmed category,” said computer in its asexual contralto.
“The hardware gets better, the programming worse,” said Atir, eyes still on those eight red points.
“Computer,” said Kotran, “advise if any enemy vessel has five jump transponder nodules along the engine hull.”
“One vessel has that configuration,” reported computer.
“Current jump point deviation?” asked Kotran.
“Eight percent of ideal,” said Atir.
“Let’s do it now. Stand by to jump.”
“Ready to jump,” said Kalal after a moment.
“Initiate on my command,” said Kotran. He punched into the commnet. “Gunnery.”
“Gunnery,” said a voice from his chairarm.
“Fire a full shipbuster salvo, tight-grouped, at our initial jump point. Take your mark from the original jump-tied navheading. Fire when ready.”
“Missiles away,” said the voice a moment later.
A flight of silver needles flashed by on the outside scan.
Kotran slapped his chairarm. “And jump, Atir!”
A nanosecond after Glory Run emerged from jump, ship’s computer read the absence of a ship target and the presence of seventeen multimegaton missiles. It instantly fired a blocking salvo. Eight incoming missiles were destroyed by beam hits in less than a second. The rest detonated.
Overwhelmed, Glory Run’s shield failed. Miles of battlesteel and men flared into evanescent gases, the center of a blinding atomic vortex.
Captain Tilak’s final thought: brilliant.
Sagan stood in front of the big board for a long time, watching the pulsing red circle marking a destruct point, then turned and left the bridge. Yakor wanted to say something as she walked by him. Seeing her expression, he said nothing.
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