“I will kick your ass,” said Derrick, balling up a fist and looking down at the calm Monk.
“Derrick, don’t,” said Alyssa, looking back and forth between the men. She knew which one she would bet on come a fight, and it wasn’t the ex-marine. “Derrick,” she said again in a sharper voice when the man didn’t seem to be backing off. “Sit down, now. That’s an order. And I will be obeyed.”
Derrick looked over at her with an angry glare, then back at the Monk, and then finally sat back down.
“We don’t need to be fighting among ourselves,” said Alyssa, looking at the men. “And I for one am not going to swim in tsunami tossed seas. I don’t think he really meant it anyway, did you Patrick?”
“Not at all,” said the Monk with a smile. “If you want to leave, or I truly wanted you off this ship, I would let you take your Manta. That, after all, belongs to you.”
“If it comes down to it,” said Alyssa, flashing the Monk a smile, “I’ll take my chances trying to get off this world so we can get this wonder back to my world. Where we can build more like her.”
“I’m afraid we’re not taking her to your world,” said Patrick, giving her a long calm look in the eyes.
“What do you mean?” she said, a rush of anger and fear coming over her.
“I don’t intend to take this ship to your home world,” said Patrick, his gaze steady.
“Why not?” said Derrick, his voice rising in anger.
“Because I want to save my world, first and foremost,” said Patrick, returning Derrick’s glare with a serene gaze. “Because I don’t believe that you people will do everything you can to save my world. You will be more interested in taking apart the ship so you can build more like her. And who knows how many years that will take.”
“I told you we would do everything we could to help you save your world,” said Alyssa in a pleading voice. “Don’t you believe me?”
“Oh, I believe you well enough,” said Patrick with a smile. “I even trust you a bit. But do I believe you have the power in your government to make your promises stick? Now that’s the question. So I think I will trust in someone who has the interests of my world at heart and do what I can to save this tiny globe. And not allow the embroilment of empires to sidetrack me.”
“Come on,” said Derrick, his expression still angry. “You can’t compare us to those assholes in the Theocracy. Can’t you tell that we’re the good guys here?”
Patrick looked at Derrick for a moment, thinking over his answer. “I believe that if I had to choose between the two of you I would pick your Republic,” he finally said. “But that doesn’t mean I think your Republic has the best interests of my people at heart. So no, we will not be going to your home world. We will be going in toward whatever the ancients have orbiting this, black hole I think you said, that everything else seems to orbit around.”
“Why you upstart primitive,” said Derrick, again rising to his feet. “We won’t be able to get near those installations. Not without the pass code.”
Alyssa put her hand on Derrick’s shoulder and pushed the man back into his seat. He resisted at first, but she shook her head a lipped the word Stop. He shook his head and let her push him back down.
“The ship says that it should be able to break the encryption by the time we get there,” said Patrick, getting to his feet and moving to the door. “If not, then we will figure something out. Now, I intend to leave this world within the next ten minutes. You are invited to the bridge.” With that, he walked from the room and the door swished shut behind him.
“I think we need to rein him in,” said Derrick, his face red with anger. “The primitive has been given too much control.”
“I want to save that option for when we really need it,” said Alyssa, reaching a hand out to stroke Shadow where he sat on the table. “I agree that we need to leave this moon. And our best chance lies in using this ship, which we want to take with us anyway. And let me ask you this, Derrick. Can you command this ship?”
“Hell no,” answered Derrick, shaking his head. “You know damned well neither of us can.”
“And what if the ship determines that Patrick, its commander, is not in control of his own faculties,” she continued, holding up a hand to silence her partner.
“And how in the hell is it going to determine that?” asked Derrick, his eyes narrowing.
“Because it's much more advanced than any computer in our Republic,” said Alyssa with a shrug. “Even more than the planetary sentience net. Who knows what it can and cannot do? And making a determination that its commander is not in control of his own mind and body would not be something I would think was beyond it. So I think we need to let him stay in control of this ship to get us off this moon. Besides, a puppet does not have total control of its own reasoning abilities, and I for one want a commander who can think and react to the best of his abilities.”
“And once we get into space?” asked Derrick, looking at the door. “What then? What if he requires that we go on a suicide mission to the black hole?”
“Then I will consider taking control of him,” said the agent. “Then I will do what needs to be done.”
“Don’t let your attraction for him disrupt your reasoning,” said Derrick, looking into her eyes. “Oh, yes. It’s as plain as anything that you are attracted to his ass. Don’t let that exert too much influence on your decision making process.”
“Nothing will influence my decisions but my loyalty to the Council,” she said, feeling her anger begin to rise.
“Just make sure that is the only thing influencing you,” said Derrick, getting out of his seat and heading for the door.
“Is that a threat?”
“Just an observation,” said the ex-marine, looking at Shadow. “My oath is to the Republic. And I will do what I have to in order for this mission to proceed as planned. And nothing will get in my way. Not you or that animal.”
And with that Derrick was out the door, leaving Alyssa to sit there wondering about the changing dynamics of her relationship with everything in her world. “Well,” she said, stroking the cat, who looked up at her with his green eyes. “At least not with you.”
* * *
“We ready to go,” said Derrick, walking onto the bridge and heading for his seat.
Patrick occupied the central seat, several holo screens opened up to his front and side. Alyssa had already gotten into the seat to the right of Patrick, Shadow in her lap. Derrick took his place to the left and looked over the seat for a moment.
“Where are the straps?” he asked, turning to look at Alyssa.
“There is no need for strapping in,” said Patrick. “The ship says that we will not even notice the acceleration or change of direction. Something about inertial compensators.”
“Hot damn,” said Derrick, and Alyssa looked over at him with a smile.
That had been one of the dreamed about technologies of the ages. To be able to accelerate without the crushing force of pseudo-gravity. The only thing more treasured was the possibility of hyperlight travel. And that could be waiting in the wings as well.
“How many gees can she pull?” asked Derrick.
Patrick closed his eyes for a moment, then looked over at the man. “The ship says she can pull four hundred gravities for a short period of time. Then twenty for an indefinite period.”
“Why only a short period?” asked Derrick, his eyes narrowing. “I thought ancient tech was all about the stamina of the processes. And the ship was supposed to be self repairing.”
Patrick closed his eyes again, and a schematic of the ship appeared on the holo. Engineering was outlined in blue, and a pair of blinking dots showed something of interest.
“Seems the ship used to have, wormholes, to take away the heat the compensators generated,” said Patrick, his forehead wrinkling in thought. “They faded away when the other end was disconnected for some reason. The compensators convert inertia to heat. After a buildup to a certain point the
y have to throttle back or the ship will overheat. When the wormholes were installed, the ship could accelerate at four hundred gees indefinitely.”
“I wonder what they did before they had wormholes in abundance?” said Alyssa, still thrilled that they had a ship with any kind of compensator system, which was centuries ahead of what her culture had.
“The ship says they had other methods,” said Patrick, nodding toward the schematic. “But they stopped using them when wormhole production was discovered. I think it says it can still produce the old methods, but it will take some time and effort.”
“Why don’t you let the ship tell all of us this?” said Derrick, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the monk. “You know, just so there are no misunderstandings.”
“Of course,” said Patrick, looking over at Derrick with a tight smile on his face. “Ship. Answer in the open so that all might hear.”
“Of course, commander,” said the voice of the ship. “We are ready to leave on your command.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Alyssa, reaching out and putting a hand on the Monk’s forearm.
“I’m sure,” he said, looking into her eyes. “Ship. Execute escape trajectory. Now.”
The view on the forward holo shifted, though it still showed deep water. Alyssa could feel no movement, so she really wasn’t sure if that was an illusion or just a trick of the viewer. For several minutes nothing seemed to happen. Then the water ahead lightened, and she knew they were looking at the surface ahead. It grew lighter with rapidity, until they broke through and were in the air, heading up.
“We are pulling ten gravities through atmosphere,” announce the ship. It didn’t seem like they were moving, though the sky began to blacken and stars appeared. “We have just left the atmosphere.”
“And now for part two of the plan,” said Patrick, as the holo changed to an orbital view of the moon, complete with the blinking dots of enemy ships. “Ship. Locate the vessel that was dropping those tsunami makers into the ocean.”
One of the dots stopped blinking, then the holo zoomed in on it.
“Destroy that target,” said Patrick, a wolfish smile on his face.
“What?” yelled Alyssa, looking at the target, then over at Patrick. “Patrick. Don’t do this.”
But he just looked over at her with that smile on his face as the ship turned and accelerated.
* * *
“We have something leaving the water,” said the sensor tech in an excited voice.
Chung looked over at the viewer to see the ancient ship come rocketing out of the ocean, water spraying high into the air. It climbed straight up into the air, on a heading to leave the atmosphere.
“That’s them, alright,” said Colonel, leaning forward in his chair, feeling the excitement growing. “How fast are they accelerating?”
“Ten standard gee,” said the sensor tech, his eyes wide.
“Signal the admiral and the rest of the fleet,” he told the com tech, who nodded back. “Tell them I want that ship disabled when it has gotten into a stable orbit. Not destroyed. Disabled. We need that tech.”
The com tech nodded his head again and went back to work. Chung looked at the holo as saw that a half dozen battleships were already starting to move into possible interception courses. Five gees was their maximum course change.
“She’s leaving the atmosphere,” yelled the Commander of the ship.
Chung looked over and saw that the dot was now above the gas envelop of the moon, and was starting to turn over on her course. Is she really going to go into orbit? he thought. That seemed an insane strategy. He knew that a dozen capital ships would now be locking onto the ancient vessel, and more would be coming around the curve of the moon within minutes to add their firepower.
“My Gods,” yelled the Commander.
Chung looked up to see that the ancient ship was accelerating at what seemed an impossible rate. Over two hundred gravities and going up. Enough to crush whatever was on the ship to jelly. They have to have working inertial compensators, he thought, a thrill rushing up his spine. If they could get those before the Republic they would never be challenged in space, and could crush their effeminate enemies. And if the Republic got them first the Theocracy would be the one to fall. So they either had to get them, or stop the Republic from getting them.
“Our ships are firing,” said the Commander, pointing to the screen. Lasers reached out like instantaneous lances of energy and struck the ancient ship. With no effect. Light reflected off surfaces that refused to bubble away.
“What setting are they using?” asked Chung, watching the shots with frustration.
The com tech got on the com and talked for a moment. “They are using half power,” said the tech. “They are afraid of damaging the ship too severely.”
“Tell them to fire full power,” ordered Chung, slamming his fist on his chair arm. Their materials are too strong for an attenuated blast of light amp, he thought, wondering if full power would do anything more.
“Bishop Cunningham has an interception” said the Commander, again pointing at the viewer.
Chung saw that the ship, which was a designated planetary bombardment vessel, did indeed have the intercept. In fact the ancient ship was heading right for the battleship, and he was wondering what their captain could possibly be thinking. Then he found out.
* * *
“What the hell are you trying to do?” yelled Derrick as the ship turned and streaked at one of the enemy battleships.
“Two hundred and ten gravities acceleration,” said the ship. “We are taking fire from ten sources.”
“Any damage?” asked Patrick, a feeling of panic coming over him, wondering if he really knew what he was doing.
“Nothing but some superficial scarring to the outer hull,” announced the ship. “Nothing functional. Moving toward target and locking on lasers.”
The ship shuddered as something hit that might have caused some damage. “Firing,” said the ship. Nothing seemed to happen at their end, and Patrick was somewhat disappointed. He thought he would see beams of power slamming into the other ship. But after an instant there was an effect. The front of the alien battleship flared with light and gasses puffed out into space. The beam moved across the top of the ship, eating a line through the hull that let out more of the atmosphere and the gassing of metal.
The enemy ship fired back. Its laser struck the laser ring of Daedelus and ruptured the structure in an instant. With one last pulse the laser of the ancient ship went offline. That pulse hit the engineering section of the battleship and took out the main engines.
“I wanted to kill that ship,” growled Patrick, watching as the ship started to cant into the moon’s atmosphere.
“I think you accomplished that,” said Derrick, gesturing toward the holo. “That sucker’s on a dive she won’t recover from. Unless they can get something to her that boosts her back into orbit she going to break up and burn up on the way down.”
“Daedelus,” said Patrick to the ship. “What is the status of that vessel” The ship shook from a hit before the computer could answer.
“We have sustained damage to our main drive,” said the ship.
“How bad?”
“Not enough to affect us in the short term,” answered the ship. “What it will do in the long term remains to be seen. As to the status of that vessel, it is on a heading into the atmosphere of the planet, where it will most likely break up. If it survives its passage through the atmosphere, it will hit the surface with enough velocity to kill the ship.”
“And where will it hit if it comes down in one piece?” asked Patrick, feeling the ugly head of panic come back to gnaw at his guts.
“It will hit in the center of this continent,” said the ship, the holo changing to show an orbital view of the Honoras Continent. “It will most probably hit near to or directly on this city, Larasha.”
“How many people in that city?” asked Patrick in a hushed voice, that
gnawing of panic transforming into a sick feeling of dread.
“Approximately forty-five thousand. The ship will hit with an estimated force of eighty megatons.”
“Say goodbye to that town,” said Derrick, looking over at Patrick with a smug look.
“Damn you,” said Patrick, getting up from his seat and towering over the ex-marine. “Those are real people there.”
Derrick got up from his seat, a smile on his face and his fists balled up.
“And you killed them,” said Alyssa, getting up and between the two men. “You, Patrick. Because you are playing with things you don’t really understand.”
Patrick took a step back and fell into his seat. She’s right, he thought. That was my fault. I should have asked more questions. Made sure what the possible consequences were. He looked up at the holo and saw that the battleship was glowing red along its bottom, a sign that it was entering the atmosphere.
“Daedelus,” he said, hoping that he was wrong. “Is there any way to make that ship break up to small enough pieces that it will burn up before hitting the ground?”
“It is possible,” said the ship, and hope soared for a moment in Patrick’s breast. “But it is not within my capabilities, outside of my ramming the ship.”
Patrick thought about that for a moment. It would be worth the sacrifice of their lives to save forty thousand. And then he thought about the entire world, and how it would be destroyed in ten years if he didn’t do something about it. The ship shook again as he was thinking.
“We need to get out of here, Patrick,” said Alyssa, her eyes pleading with him. “Now, before they cripple us.”
“Get us out of here Daedelus,” he ordered, still mourning inside for those who were about to die because of his need for revenge. “Fastest speed. And get us on a heading for the ancient control center.”
“Acknowledged,” said the voice of the ship as the vessel shuddered again. “Two hundred twenty gravities. Two fifty. Three hundred. Three fifty. Four hundred gravities. Four hundred twenty-three gravities. Maximum acceleration achieved.”
Theocracy: Book 1. Page 17
