This Corner of the Universe

by Britt Ringel

  Delta’s sister, vampire Charlie, made it to within 1ls of Anelace. Vernay had just started to work her thumbstick in an attempt to attain weapons lock when Pruette honed in the pulse laser on his own. His first two shots missed but his final attempt struck home. Vernay did breathe a sigh of relief this time at the disaster narrowly averted so early in the charge. Her console flashed and her eyes swept over the new information: Blackheart had launched another pair of missiles.

  Vernay’s was not the only sigh of relief on the bridge when the second volley exploded. Heskan had gripped the arms of his chair so hard he now felt his left wrist spasm. We’re still over one light-minute away… how can our defenses hold up? He looked over his officers, catching little movement beyond hands and eyes intensely focused on their jobs. Diane is busy keeping Anelace on course and properly oriented so our defenses are in the best position possible. Jack’s busy with the tactical plot and Anelace’s ECM efforts and an Interceptor missile could literally explode behind Stacy and she’d never know it because she’s so focused on point defense. Heskan glanced behind him. Even Mike and Chief Brown are lost in their consoles; Mike is monitoring the commands passed between the other bridge officers and Anelace’s projections to the tactical plot, and the Chief is watching over the status of Anelace’s systems and preparing his section to react to the inevitable next hit. Am I the only one without a job, Heskan wondered. He felt useless but also understood that he had done everything he could do and it was now time to trust his people to execute his plan. All I can do now is just monitor the events and adapt as the situation changes, he told himself. The next set of missiles was 10ls out, with each successive pair staggered 14ls behind the next.

  He watched the distance drop as vampires Echo and Foxtrot entered range of the pulse lasers. Both shots missed at 5ls but Echo died two seconds later under Thomas’ second burst. Foxtrot sped onward and when the third shot from Pruette went wide, Heskan braced for the impact.

  Slightly spoofed by Truesworth’s electronic countermeasures efforts, vampire Foxtrot had lost its lock at the 3ls mark and zoomed under Anelace. However, the missile’s guidance computer had “remembered” Anelace’s location and activated its proximity fuse to detonate where it thought best. The result was an explosion just over one thousand meters from the corvette. The explosive force struck at her port side but the distance between the explosion and the ship reduced the shock wave’s impact energy. The blast still caused the AIPS screen to disconnect to avoid burnout but the shield had absorbed eighty-three percent of the energy before it collapsed. The remaining seventeen percent pounded against Anelace’s damaged port hull.

  Heskan felt the ship tremble and then looked toward Chief Brown who was busy analyzing his damage control board. Heskan heard the old chief telling someone to “check it out” over his mic but could not glean any further information on the severity of the hit.

  The eighth missile volley erupted from Blackheart and applied full power to its tiny drives. As the schooner’s missile ports began to close, Blackheart’s missileer reported, “Starboard missile magazine is empty, Captain.”

  The captain grunted in acknowledgment. He had never emptied an entire magazine in a battle before but he had decided to do whatever was necessary to ensure the corvette did not reach him. Yes, Blackheart held a two to one advantage in a close range laser fight but he had reasoned not to take the risk of a lucky hit against his ship when he could throw missile volley after volley from a safe distance. The little ship sure seemed to have plenty of luck when it came to dodging his missiles and it seemed best not to tempt fate.

  “Begin rotation, helm,” he ordered as he smiled. In sixty seconds, he would get to see how that little ship endured his port broadside. As he watched the missile volleys from earlier eat the light-seconds between themselves and Anelace, he began to think of the opportunities that destroying a Brevic naval vessel would open for him. His smile changed to a nasty leer as he ordered a crewman to open up a communications channel.

  “Just some minor damage along our port side, Capt’n,” Brown informed Heskan. “We have some depressurization in some of the lower deck berths but containment fields are holdin’.”

  “Thank you, Boats,” Heskan replied. Wow, some good news for a change. May all our future hits be as harmless, he thought. As relieved as he was for his ship, he was equally happy for Vernay. Heskan knew that she took each missile hit as her own personal failure and fate had been unusually cruel to her when each near miss before the latest one had hit Anelace hard. Half of her own laser section had been taken from her and that was after she had lost her mass driver crew. In Heskan’s nine years of service, he had only lost three crewmembers total. The deaths had struck at him viciously and given him nightmares for months. I’m not sure how she’s still operating. If she wasn’t our best chance at survival, I’d have already taken her off the bridge for a medical evaluation and some mandatory military counseling and leave.

  Trying to sound encouraging, Heskan said, “Stay with it, WEPS. You’re halfway there.” He had no sooner finished speaking when he watched vampire Golf start to veer wildly off its course.

  “Nice work, Jack,” Vernay praised. Six seconds later, her own crew blotted out vampire Hotel at 5ls. The relief was short-lived as vampires India and Juliet methodically rushed toward them.

  Ensign Truesworth was beginning to narrow in on the missiles’ exact guidance software package. The trial-and-error over the last dozen missiles had finally paid off with the spoofing of vampire Golf. He swore that he had hoaxed Foxtrot too, but he would not know for certain until he looked at the after battle data, assuming they were still alive. As the fifth volley of missiles thundered toward Anelace, he directed his ECM efforts toward the leading missile. Before the fight, Stacy had told him to concentrate on the missiles she assigned to PO Pruette. He had thought that was odd until he realized that she was helping Thomas with his targets. As vampire India hit the 15ls barrier, it failed to begin its evasive maneuvers. Jack smiled as he realized the missile’s computer must be in histrionics over the hundreds of “Anelaces” its silicon brain was seeing. The missile was still flying straight and dumbfounded when Pruette’s pulse laser easily intercepted it at maximum range. Vampire Juliet lived marginally longer. Thomas’ turret missed on the first shot but redeemed itself on the second. Juliet’s missile symbol on the tactical plot glowed brightly for an instant and disappeared.

  However, the parade of Interceptor-B missiles seemed endless. Even as vampires India and Juliet died, Kilo and Lima scorched their way across space. Sixteen seconds after Juliet’s destruction, the next pair entered Anelace’s point defense envelope.

  Inside his starboard turret control compartment, Gunner’s Mate Second Class Pruette was beginning to believe they might actually survive their suicidal charge. He had knocked down four of the five missiles assigned to him, which encouraged him greatly. It was almost unheard of to achieve an eighty percent success rate in point defense with a Lyle GP laser. The laser’s point defense mode was a secondary role and its software-targeting package could barely be considered cutting edge technology when it came to missile interception. It was a good, all-around pulse laser design, a workhorse for the system defense ships, but it was not designed to defend against the kind of sustained missile attack they were facing. Nonetheless, he was beating the odds and had stopped all but one missile so far. Sure, Thomas had a one hundred percent interception rate but Pruette consoled himself with the knowledge that Lieutenant Vernay was supporting the spaceman. The lieutenant was simply incredible when it came to operating weapons systems. In his eight years in the Brevic Navy, he had never seen a gunner with as much raw talent and instinct as Vernay and it was a smart decision to add her prowess to Thomas’ fledgling abilities. However, Pruette was wishing hard for Vernay’s support on vampire Kilo. His turret had been actively tracking Kilo for fourteen seconds and he still did not have a firing solution. He fired his pulse laser at 5ls with little hope of a hit and desp
erately tried to achieve computer lock while it recharged. Thomas had missed too and he knew that Vernay would be staying with the spaceman leaving him on his own. At 3ls, vampire Lima exploded under Thomas’ fire while Pruette’s own shot went hopelessly wide as he still struggled to achieve a lock. With his Lyle recycling for a last, desperate burst, Pruette found himself praying for ECM to spoof the missile or a miracle shot at 1ls.

  Neither happened as the missile darted below Anelace and exploded ninety-seven meters under her keel directly amidship. The shock front tore through the weakened, regenerating AIPS screen and struck the hull section closest to the missile’s detonation with nearly eleven tonnes of force. Anelace’s duralloy armor absorbed almost three-quarters of the shock front’s kinetic energy but the rest passed through to the corvette’s interior. Anelace had been constructed using thirteen structural frames over the one hundred six meter long ship. The seventh frame, in her center, snapped cleanly in two under the tremendous stress. The supporting structures associated with the frame warped in milliseconds as the wave reshaped bulkheads and decks sending the ship’s equipment attached to those surfaces, shockseats included, flying. Auxiliary Control, Anelace’s second brain, had been placed on the lower deck amidship because it was quite distant from the bridge yet still one of the most heavily protected places on the ship. Ensign Antipova, leading Aux Con, along with her crew of three never knew what hit them. Killed outright by the concussive force of the shock front, Antipova was spared the pain associated with the blunt force trauma her body suffered as it was tossed like a rag doll around the compartment while simultaneously being battered by the litany of objects jolted from their anchorages. Also in Auxiliary Control, Petty Officers Ball and Martin were likewise killed immediately and saved from the agony that Petty Officer Davis endured. His mind was unmercifully still conscious as his viciously broken body, strapped to his toppled shockseat, expired from anoxia in the freshly created vacuum. The adjacent compartments to Auxiliary Control, Damage Control Station Four and the Operations Control Center, faired nearly as bad.

  DC-Four, just forward of Aux Con, was shattered. Damage Controlman Denise Gables escaped death only because Chief Brown had pulled her from her station to check out the damage to the port hull their previous near miss had caused. She had reported several minor hull breaches in the enlisted berths but nothing serious. After hearing her account, Brown had ordered her to recheck the damage and containment fields and then return to DC-Four. She had just confirmed the containment fields were stable and was quickly moving to the safety of her station when she was tossed into the lower deck’s ceiling. The savage blow would have shattered her skull but for her shocksuit helmet. Before she could pick herself up from the deck, she heard a loud, shrill whistle sounding through the hall. Loose debris flew past her, blown toward DC-Four as decompression alarms blared and an astonished Gables gaped at the spectacle. When the situation finally registered in her mind, the stunned spaceman slammed shut her helmet’s visor but realized she had not heard the audible cue indicating her suit had achieved a secure seal. The air was nearly ripped from her lungs as she stood and staggered to the nearest door, that to the quarters of a trio of spacemen.

  On Anelace, every crewmember with the rank of able spaceman or lower was required to share quarters with two other spacemen. Petty officers shared their rooms with just one other PO, while chiefs and above roomed by themselves. Brevic naval regulations stated that every crew quarters must be locked when vacant. Theft was generally not a problem within the navy but locking the quarters discouraged it further. Gables knew if the door she was facing was locked, she would surely suffocate before she was able to try a second room. As she pounded the entrance button, Gables figured it had a fifty-fifty chance of opening since Anelace’s crew was a big family and many crewmembers disregarded the locked door regulation out of convenience. To her great relief, the door slid open and she threw herself into the room through the hurricane-force winds blowing out. The door closed behind her and Anelace’s environmental system labored to refill the room with a breathable atmosphere. After air returned to her lungs, she laughed aloud at escaping impending suffocation. She laid on the floor several moments, savoring each breath while considering the incredible headache she had before finally standing and moving to one of the beds inside the quarters. She then took her helmet off and, upon inspection, saw the top had an eighteen-centimeter long crack through it. Placing it on the bed, she stood up and moved to the communications panel to report her status to Chief Brown.

  Had Gables continued down the hallway to the Operations Control Center, she would have found it destroyed in the missile blast. Located just aft of Auxiliary Control, the large compartment was ripped apart by the force of the shock front. The bulkhead between Operations and Auxiliary Control was torn asunder, throwing lethal metal shards into the OCC. The fragments smashed through the room, tearing apart its three occupants, Damage Controlman Second Class Lucas Stai and Engineer’s Mates Shin Hong and Julie Hess who were filling in from Engineering. Buckling under the massive force, the shredded compartment formed an extended, jagged open wound along the lower starboard hull of the corvette. The interior of Operations vented to space immediately and the ship bled yet more atmosphere and debris through the twelve-meter long gash that began at Auxiliary Control and radiated outward both fore and aft through DC-Four and the OCC. A containment field stopped the loss of atmosphere further aft, down the hall between the OCC and the primary navigation room.

  The remaining energy from vampire Kilo dissipated as it expanded laterally through the ship. Navigation and the ship’s small medical bay suffered minor shock damage but were spared from rapid decompression due to their containment fields. Similarly, as the shock wave dissipated upward into Anelace, it passed through the floor of the upper deck and into the unoccupied officer quarters. Personal effects were tossed about but furniture inside the living quarters had been secured in place by the ship constructors, holding the damage to a minimum. Most importantly, the ship suffered no additional hull breaches on its top deck.

  Anelace bled openly from her right side and belly even as she pushed on toward the pirate schooner still 51ls away. Across that expanse, the illegally converted civilian passenger ship had finally completed its turn. The twin port missile doors lazily opened to glare at Anelace like sinister eyes. The helmsman of Blackheart adjusted his bow thrusters to ease her revolution and announced to his captain, “Rotation complete.”

  “It’s about damn well time,” grumbled the captain. “Fire at will.” Outside Blackheart, the missile boat spewed her deadly payload.

  Heskan steadied himself as the shock wave from vampire Kilo reached the bridge. The jolt had been hard enough that he would probably have bruises on his shoulders from his shockseat’s restraints and lights and computer consoles had flickered as Anelace absorbed the blow. That had to be a bad one, he thought as he looked at his ship status screen on his left chair arm console. He saw decompression alarms going off all along Anelace’s lower deck Looks like Aux Con took one close. He pressed his comm unit and spoke into his mic, “Elena, can you hear me? You folks all right down there?” The situation, already grave, had become even worse. If Auxiliary Control was lost, the bridge was the only remaining functional command center on the ship. All Black Space ships were built with at least three control centers: a bridge, a combat information center and an auxiliary control room. Many command cruisers and heavier vessels had flag bridges, adding even more command and control capability within the ship. However, little Anelace had but two control centers. She was not a ship of war and her designers had little room for placing an auxiliary control room into the tiny corvette let alone a third control center. As Heskan waited for Antipova to answer, he began wondering if Anelace had given all she had and the end was near. His crew had performed wonders and his ship had shrugged off several harsh blows but both were showing signs of succumbing to the inevitable. He cut his channel to Antipova, realizing no response would
be coming, and began to call down to Engineering to order Lieutenant Jackamore to automatically announce abandon ship in the event the bridge was lost as well. His hand faltered over the call button.

  Truesworth’s surprised voice exclaimed, “Incoming message, Captain!” Over the bridge speakers, the scorn-filled voice of the pirate captain came through. “Enjoying those missiles, Captain? Strike your lights now and maybe I’ll spare your little ‘vette,” he taunted.

  Heskan nearly crushed the comm reply button. A hard resolve roughened his voice as he responded, “You son of a bitch, I may sink but I’ll be damned if I strike!”

  Heskan jolted upright as he heard his words echo throughout the ship on the main speakers. He looked down and realized that in his rage, he had mashed the 1-MC button along with the button to reply to Blackheart. Oh God, he cringed, that’s going to be great for morale; I just told the whole crew we’re riding Ana to her death! To his surprise, he heard whoops of camaraderie from around the bridge. Even Chief Brown joined in on the show of solidarity. Heskan looked over at a smiling Riedel who simply said, “We’re with you, Captain.”

  Chapter 19

  Heskan was receiving Chief Brown’s damage report from vampire Kilo’s hit as vampires Mike and November charged into range. Vampire Mike, hopelessly confused by Anelace’s electronic countermeasures, passed well starboard of the vessel, allowing both laser turrets to team up on November. The missile was intercepted at 3ls from a shot by Pruette’s turret.

  “Aux Con an’ the surroundin’ compartments have been opened to space, Capt’n. That means the forward an’ aft compartments on the lower deck are cut off from each other. All hands in Aux Con an’ the OCC are probably lost but Gables was up near Rowe’s quarters when we got hit so she’s okay but the enlisted berth’s hallway ain’t holdin’ atmo’ an’ her helmet got cracked so she’s stuck in there.”