by Britt Ringel
“Good shooting, WEPS,” Heskan complimented.
“Thank you, sir,” Vernay replied mechanically. “Vampires India and Juliet will enter point defense range in one minute forty-nine seconds.”
That sounded pretty hollow, Heskan thought. If I know Stacy, she’s probably blaming herself for each hit we take even though I’m the one who placed her in the position where she and her section had to be impossibly perfect.
“Stacy,” Heskan said, “you tell your folks they’re doing great. You forget about those near misses now; you’re keeping Ana alive—”
“Captain,” Riedel interrupted but stopped. He seemed to think to himself for a second and then finally said, “Never mind, Captain.”
A few seconds later, Heskan received a text message on his console from his first officer. ENGINEERING REPORTS DRIVE ONE IS NOW DEAD. The message requested confirmation of receipt. That was pretty savvy of Mike, he thought as he typed. Just as I was trying to restore a little morale, we get more bad news of the consequences from those near misses. Mike understood what I was trying to do and acted accordingly. Heskan hit the acknowledge button as he wondered if he would have had the situational awareness to do the same had their positions been reversed.
Anelace would not feel the effects of losing the drive since she had already achieved her desired speed. However, once she slowed down, her remaining four operational drives would be unable to accelerate and hold herself together near anything close to her former top speed. She would retain a speed advantage over her civilian adversaries but no longer a decisive one.
One minute later, both missiles from Blackheart’s fifth volley died to point defense fire. Heskan wiped away the sweat from his brow after the last missile exploded 3ls away from his ship. Although still worrying, the missiles now seemed to come in at almost a leisurely rate compared to before, affording his gunners plenty of time to knock them down. Heskan was considering the difference between Anelace’s charge into harm’s way and her withdrawal from it when Selvaggio announced they were 5ls from the Beta Field. He ordered Selvaggio to turn Anelace one hundred eighty degrees and come to rest just inside the belt. As she slowed, Anelace penetrated the edge of the asteroid field. Shortly afterwards, the final three incoming missile volleys lost sight of the little ship in the massive wall of interference generated by the field. After running their search programs twice and failing to find a target, the missiles began pre-programmed S-turns in a fruitless search for their lost prey.
Nine minutes and forty-seven seconds had passed since Anelace had first darted out of the Beta Field. The battle’s aftermath included the loss of half of Anelace’s laser armament, one third of her propulsion and another three of her crew. On the other side of the balance sheet was the broadening debris field of Cutthroat.
The situation now stabilized, Heskan disengaged his shockseat braces and leaned back to consider his next course of action while taking in the tactical plot. Blackheart was now stationary in space 163ls from him. Ketch-One was headed toward the schooner at .2c although it would take her another seven minutes to reach it. Will you stop when you reach her or will you go further in-system toward the RALF? Heskan knew the smart money was on heading to the RALF. It would put the most pressure on his ship and practically force him to re-engage with the pirates. After taking two near misses, he wanted to avoid that at all costs if he could help it. Why can’t they just give up? “Your daring and audacity have inspired us, good Anelace. We surrender to you and will cooperate fully in your efforts to stop pirate activity in this system.” He lightly shook his head. I’m pretty sure that won’t be the next message.
Heskan called down to Engineering. “Yes?” Jackamore answered.
“Brandon, I need you or a representative from Engineering that can answer my questions in the briefing room in two minutes.” Heskan heard the acknowledgment as he cut the channel. “Boats, same with you.” He held up two fingers. “Meeting in two minutes.” He looked at Riedel and jerked his head in the direction of the door.
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Heskan stood. “Lieutenant Vernay, stand us down to Alert One and you have the bridge. I’ll be monitoring the situation from the briefing room but I want you to call over the instant you think I need to know something, understand?”
“Yes, Captain,” Vernay said as she nodded.
Heskan walked to the door and then turned to face the room. The bridge was in the same condition as it was before the battle but the atmosphere was one of heavy melancholy. “I know we took some punches. I know it’s hard to keep going when we’ve already lost so many of our family. But that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to keep going.” He looked each person in the eyes as he spoke. “We’re going to keep going not only because it’s our duty but also because we can’t do anything else. This ship doesn’t know how to quit.” His voice hardened as he pointed to the main screen. “We’re not losing this system to a pack of murderers and thieves and one day the miners in that RALF are going to tell their grandchildren about the time they watched a little corvette fight like a battleship.”
Chapter 18
Walking down the main hall of the upper deck, Heskan realized that he had forgotten to check if the main briefing room had remained undamaged in the battle. Surely the chief would have said something, he mused as he ducked into his quarters, less than ten meters from the bridge door. Inside his bathroom, he threw cold water onto his face before he looked in the mirror. He was fairly certain what the pirates would do next and how he would be forced to react. He also understood the most likely outcome from those actions. Exhaling deeply, he raised his eyes up and stared at his reflection. The man in the mirror looked ancient. Deep creases had worked their way around his eyes to make him easily appear twenty years older than he was. Heskan peered deeply into the man’s eyes. Normally, they were friendly eyes seemingly with a light all their own. Now, he saw the dark and cold eyes of a man forced to accept the aftermath of harsh decisions. He had seen that look before. Taken aback at their initial appearance, he stared into those eyes thoroughly. Yes, they looked grim, and yes, they showed pain, but he was relieved when he could not find a trace of defeat in them. “I have not yet begun to fight,” he said to the stranger in the mirror. On his way out of his quarters, he briefly stopped at his computer and searched the history files of Anelace’s standata before making his way to the briefing room.
Lieutenant Jackamore and Chief Brown both attended the meeting. They were talking with Lieutenant Riedel when Heskan entered. All three stopped their conversation and began to stand but Heskan waved them down. The briefing room’s large view screen displayed the bridge’s tactical plot but the situation was unchanged, except Ketch-One had crawled slightly closer to Blackheart. Without preamble, Heskan asked, “How much speed can I expect from Engineering, Brandon?”
Jackamore tapped his datapad and technical information appeared on the screen built into the conference table’s center. “We’ll have about point two-five light available to us.”
“Brandon, will the remaining drives hold up in combat?” Riedel added as he skimmed the technical data Jackamore had referenced.
“As they are now? I think so. Of course, all bets are off if we take more damage,” Jackamore hedged.
Heskan studied the data and then changed the subject. “Boats, how bad is Ana hurt?”
Brown replaced Jackamore’s technical information with the ship’s status display. Anelace had taken near misses to the stern by her keel and near the port side of her bow. The keel shot had essentially destroyed her shuttle bay and seriously damaged the three lower engines, the middle one fatally so. The chief explained that either the shock wave from that near miss, or more likely, projectile shots from Ketch-Two’s railguns had rung the death knell for the starboard upper drive, Drive One. The near miss by her port bow had crushed that part of her hull and everything on the port side of the upper deck forward of the AIPS control room was a total loss. Brown finished his report by sayin
g, “Damage Controlman Second Class Stai says the first an’ second port frames are bent an’ you already know we’ve closed off everythin’ forward of the gym on the lower deck. We haven’t had a chance to get out an’ look at the drives but with the vibrations we’re gettin’, you can bet their mounts are screwed up.”
“Casualties?” Heskan tried not to hold his breath.
“Three more, all from the bow hit. Both port gunners an’ my OPS man. WEPS an’ OPS are runnin’ low, Capt’n.”
“None from Engineering?” Heskan asked hopefully.
Brown shook his head as he answered, “No, as designed, the hanger did a good job of shieldin’ our power plant an’ the engineerin’ compartments as a whole. The hanger’s a total wreck though.”
“That brings us up to ten KIA since we’ve been here.” Heskan felt himself flush with anger as he recalled Commander Treemont back on Anthe telling him nothing would happen at Skathi. Of course, I just sat there and said ‘Yes, sir.’ I’m as complicit as he is. I’ll never mask my concerns from a superior officer again, he vowed.
Heskan copied the tactical plot onto the table’s central screen and began using his stylus to make annotations on it as he began to explain their next probable actions. The computer automatically filled in missing data as Heskan marked up the plot. He looked at Anelace’s math and groaned, “It will take over ten minutes to reach Blackheart from where we are.”
“We’ll get a two-minute jump on them due to the time lag but they’ll still have time to fire at least fourteen salvos before we close on her,” Riedel added. The look on his face told Heskan that he knew what that would mean to Anelace. After a moment’s pause, he asked, “What will we do if they continue their way toward the RALF?”
“We’re going to defend those citizens to the last.” Heskan’s voice had taken on a hard edge.
Jackamore gave his captain a grim look. “Those are some pretty long odds.”
“For them,” Heskan insisted as he pointed at the schooner’s tactical symbol. “We’re not beaten yet, Brandon, and we’re going to show those pirates how The Fleet fights.” He looked around at his officers. “You need to believe that, because when we leave this room, the crew, including our junior officers, will look to us for reassurance.” The briefing room was silent as he looked to each man and held his gaze. “I know that nobody here will let them down.”
* * *
Heskan walked through as the bridge door slid open, Lieutenant Riedel and Chief Brown following closely behind. Discussion on the bridge stopped as soon as Heskan entered. Were they talking about someone who was laughing during combat, he wondered. I couldn’t have heard that right.
“Captain on the bridge,” Vernay announced with a hint of relief.
Heskan noted the tactical situation was about to change as he seated himself. Ketch-One was approaching Blackheart and soon he would know if the pirates would continue to threaten the RALF or change their strategy. Actually, they’ve already made their decision, it happened two minutes ago and I’m just waiting for the light to reach me.
The minutes passed and the ketch failed to swing around to use her drives to slow her speed. Damn, it’s going to continue toward the RALF. He watched as the small ketch blew past Blackheart at .2c and made the minor course correction needed to intercept the RALF orbiting Skathi-3. He arched an eyebrow when he realized Blackheart had not joined the ketch. Instead, the schooner sat in space, her broadside taunting Anelace.
“Interesting,” Riedel said as he rubbed his chin.
“Indeed,” Heskan responded. “I suppose it’s possible that Blackheart’s captain doesn’t realize how much speed we’ve lost and is concerned that we could end around them to reach the RALF first.” As he finished, a terrifying thought raced through his mind. I should have done just that! Get around them and then let them come to us. That would have kept the closure rates on those missiles down to reasonable levels... No, I couldn’t have done that because then I would have faced all three ships at the same time. Relief washed through him as he realized he had not committed an enormous tactical mistake.
Oblivious to Heskan’s internal musings, Riedel went on. “So he sends his escort to destroy the RALF while he covers them. That makes sense because he’s free to chase us if we try to go around him and he could make us deviate so far around to avoid him that we won’t be able to reach the RALF before his ketch does.”
“It’s sound thinking except he’s split his forces again,” Heskan pointed out. “Yes, he’s forcing us to engage him but we’d have had to do that anyway near the RALF. Now we get to engage them one at a time instead of all at once near the mining station.”
Heskan used his lite-stylus to mark on his chair arm console and his annotations were mirrored on the bridge main screen. He drew a navigation line from Anelace to the RALF. Anelace computed the travel time instantly and the answer made Heskan’s blood run cold. Ketch-One, with its 163ls head start, would need exactly one hour to span the 12lm to reach the RALF. Anelace, starting farther away and at her reduced top speed of .25c would need the same amount of time. Clearing his writing from the plot he said, “We can’t let that ketch reach the station. Diane, lay in an intercept course for the ketch and bring Ana to her best speed.”
Selvaggio answered at once, “Aye, sir. Course laid in, best speed.”
Anelace left the safety of the Beta Field for the final time. Although wounded, she was still spry and achieved her maximum speed in just over twenty seconds. The corvette actually topped out at .26c, her remaining engines flirting with overload but refusing to expire.
The tactical plot revised the time to intercept from sixty minutes to fifty-nine minutes and forty seconds. Wow, a whole twenty extra seconds. Maybe we should stop for ice cream. The corner of his lip curled upward at the absurd thought.
Anelace sprinted toward the ketch for one hundred sixty seconds before Blackheart caught up with the time lag. “Here it comes,” Blackheart’s missileer called out as he noticed the corvette’s movement update on his console. The captain ordered his helmsman to make a minor velocity increase to ensure Blackheart lay directly in the fast ship’s path. Happy that there would be no escape for the corvette this time, he ordered his missileer to open fire.
The first volley of Interceptor-Bs was fired at a range of 123ls. While technically still beyond the missiles’ range, Anelace’s motion toward them would ensure the missiles’ engines would not burn out before they reached her. As they powered away from Blackheart, the next volley had already begun the reload process.
Blackheart fired a second volley, then a third. Anelace had just broken inside 100ls from the schooner when the fourth volley launched. The first missile pair was 35ls from Anelace when Blackheart belched her fifth volley. A full ten missiles now raced toward Anelace and she had still covered less than half the distance to Blackheart. The total increased to twelve missiles thirty seconds later.
“Vampires Alpha and Bravo entering point defense range in twelve seconds.” Vernay’s voice had taken on a determined edge. Her point defenses were spread precariously thin since losing the portside turrets. All that remained to defend the ship against the six confirmed incoming missile volleys were the starboard lasers manned by Gunner’s Mate Second Class Tyler Pruette and Spaceman Matt Thomas. More volleys would be on the way. She had entertained the idea of attempting missile intercepts with the mass driver but her computer had calculated the chances of a successful intercept at under a tenth of a percent. Instead, she would focus her efforts on helping the laser crew achieve and maintain weapon’s lock on the missile targets she designated. Her earlier grief and guilt over the loss of her men had been replaced by numbness, for which she was grateful. Her weapons console and the point defense plot on it became her only concern. The analytical part of her brain told her what they were attempting was impossible; two Lyle GP lasers could not stop the number of missiles Anelace would face as she charged. The chances of success seemed as statistically unlikely as the cha
nces that Skathi’s star would go supernova during the battle. However, statistics did not take into account the human will and Vernay’s intense desire to protect her ship and crew. One number going for them, she knew, was Anelace’s new .26c speed. When added to an Interceptor-B’s speed of .45c, the closing speed of the missiles and corvette was slow enough that each pulse laser would have an extra second in its engagement window. That seemingly miniscule fraction of time would allow her pulse lasers a third shot that would fire with a missile 1ls away, rather than as it hit Anelace.
The first two missiles were erased from existence 5ls from Anelace as her first laser shots struck them. Both turrets had a lock on their missiles for nearly five seconds before they had entered point defense range and the missiles deemed by Vernay as the easiest to intercept fell before the ship as predicted. Without so much as a sigh of relief, she sent Pruette and Thomas their next targets and began working with Thomas to gain a new lock with his GP.
Vampires Charlie and Delta were 14ls away when Vernay turned Anelace’s attention to them. In four seconds, each would begin their pre-programmed evasive maneuvers in an attempt to make interception as difficult as possible. Fourteen seconds after they started their evasive maneuvers, they would strike their target unless stopped.
Charlie and Delta both initiated their evasive routines and neither turret had gained a lock. At 8ls out, Thomas, with Vernay’s assistance, locked onto Delta. She immediately switched over to assist Pruette, as his target was now just 6ls from Anelace.
Thomas fired his pulse laser at maximum range, 5ls. He had had Delta locked down now for four seconds but his first shot still missed. Waiting patiently for his GP to recycle, he maintained the lock and fired his second burst. Vampire Delta erupted in a metallic shower 3ls away.
