Unite the Frontier

by J Malcolm Patrick

  Leading the small squadron, Phoenix transitioned from warp as the Imperial fleet closed to smash the remnants of the United Fleet. Zane finally figured out how to counter the Imperial subspace echoes, and Aaron ordered a micro jump into the Imperial formation posing the greatest threat.

  Endeavor, Valiant and Exeter slammed into both Imperial formations.

  Aaron called the order of battle. “Ayres, take Endeavor and Valiant and hit the starboard flank, they look quite beat up already. Exeter and Phoenix will assault the other flank. Watch those Hemiolia-class destroyers, if enough lock onto you too close, they can be a problem. We’ll take the remaining battleship together when we’ve whittled down the rest.”

  They each acknowledged.

  “Bring us around, Ensign,” Aaron ordered. He turned to Lee. “Lieutenant, targets all around, in your own time . . . carry on.”

  The Imperials faced a fully experienced crew this time. He’d perfected the use of all his ship’s technologies. The ship wasn’t invincible, but Aaron knew just how much, how far to push her, to get maximum results. Optimum use of the blink drive, kinetic barrier and havoc missiles.

  Phoenix surged forward again. The crew was fluid. Lee executed tactical in synergy with Flaps. Together they were an orchestra, and they played a harmonious symphony. Port and starboard batteries battered the Imperial heavy cruiser formations. As she passed, havocs finished the job. The blink drive was charged.

  “That second formation of heavy cruisers, Ensign, bearing two-one-six mark six-two,” Aaron said.

  Flaps turned white. It was a lot of ships.

  “Twenty-ship formation, Commander?”

  “Yes, Ensign, the twenty-ship formation.”

  “Just checking to make sure your eyes are working properly, Commander.”

  “And now that you know they are?”

  “I’m really not sure, sir!” Flaps said, grinning.

  Max snorted. “Sounds reckless, Aaron. You’re not teaching a future starship captain very well.”

  “Pay attention, Max. I am teaching him that where we’re concerned, superior numbers is one way to gain a tactical advantage.”

  “What’s the other way?” Max asked.

  “Superior genius,” Aaron answered, grinning.

  Phoenix altered course and accelerated toward the twenty Imperial heavy cruisers. She was still twenty light-seconds away—well outside optimal laser range.

  “Lieutenant, drop a full volley of havocs. Keep dropping them, don’t ignite. I just want you to keep pouring them from the launchers and let them sit. Keep dead dropping.”

  Phoenix littered space with dozens of havocs. They dropped as fast as the magazines reloaded.

  “We’ll be within Imperial laser range in three seconds . . . mark,” Vee said.

  The missiles continued on a ballistic course, with the momentum they’d dropped them at. The ship rattled.

  “Laser strikes,” Vee reported. “Forward armor is weakening!”

  “Now, Ensign, micro jump, bring the bow around! Lee, ignite the missiles we dropped and maintain maximum firing rate, all batteries once we transition.”

  Phoenix leaped ahead of the incoming laser fire and positioned behind the looming formation of Imperial cruisers. As soon as she had, Flaps fired maneuvering thrusters on the bow to bring the ship around and Lee continued peppering them with railgun salvoes and more havoc missiles.

  Then the activation signal reached the havocs they’d dropped, and dozens of missiles tore into the Imperial formation from both sides. To an outside observer, for a brief moment, it would appear almost as if Phoenix was in two places at once. The Imperial formation sustained unrelenting fire from both flanks.

  Lee’s expert target selection resulted in twenty crippled Imperial ships. It had cost them their entire remaining complement of havocs, but it was worth the price.

  “I don’t think we’ll ever witness another maneuver like that!”

  They’d destroyed or crippled the entire port flank. While Endeavor and Exeter continued fighting on their side.

  “Ensign, best speed without overshooting. Take us into that melee. Let’s assist our sister ships.”

  Phoenix maneuvered through the remaining formation of Imperial ships. A couple destroyers had arrived to assist the beleaguered cruisers on this quadrant.

  “One battleship and a few destroyers are all that’s left,” Vee said.

  Aaron hailed the lead vessel. “Commander, Imperial squadrons. This is Rayne A.—Commander, United Star Systems Ship Phoenix. Surrender immediately. There are no terms.”

  “Surrender? We surrender this, Commander Rayne.”

  The battleship fired a single torpedo.

  “Lee!” Aaron called.

  “It’s aimed at Earth,” Lee said.

  Aaron nodded to himself. “Your torpedo won’t get past Earth’s defenses. We can chase it and shoot it down ourselves. But I accept your answer.” He cut the comm.

  “Target the battleship, all weapons.”

  The battleship returned fire, but Phoenix strafed beyond range while continuing to hammer the larger and impossible to miss behemoth. Endeavor, Exeter and Valiant joined the barrage. The Imperial lead ship ate a significant amount of punishment, but they eventually succumbed. Its broken hull drifted away from the battle.

  “Commander!”

  Lee never sounded panicked. Nothing panics the lieutenant.

  “That torpedo is gone. Detonation three seconds ago. The Imperial destroyers have gone to flank acceleration towards Earth!”

  Aaron moved to stand over Lee. He swung to face Zane.

  “What am I seeing?”

  Zane shook his head wildly. “I don’t know. It’s some kind of tear or shear.”

  Vee slammed his fist on his console. “It’s a subspace weapon detonation! Or the effects of it. I’ve seen it before during our search for the Imperial research facility.”

  A large, charged swirl of energy expanded as wide as three million kilometers, enough to swallow Earth twice.

  Aaron stared at the holoviewer. “Can we stop it?”

  The question hung in the air.

  Aaron shook the scientist. “Zane, can we stop it!”

  Herman had turned several shades whiter. Any more and he’d be reflecting light.

  “I—I don’t know, Commander.” He scrambled at his board. Probably running a simulation based on calculations and hypotheses flashing into his mind.

  “Vee?”

  Vee stood silently staring at the holoviewer. His features reflected a deep concentration.

  “I don’t know for sure. I can only think of one thing.”

  “Vee…”

  “Time to impact, two minutes,” Lee said.

  Two minutes until Earth would be ripped from the universe.

  Chapter 32-Unthinkable

  “Dark energy binds the universe together” – Avery Alvarez

  Phoenix

  Vee’s eyes widened. He seemed to be reasoning through possible actions. “It’s a subspace tear, resulting from the weapon they detonated. The universe is still here, with us in it, so that answers the whole universe destruction theory for now. Unless this was just an infinitesimally small—”

  Aaron slapped his console. “Vee! The tear!”

  “Right. The tear is expanding in a manner similar to dark energy. Dark energy binds the universe together, and it’s been expanding unseen since the big bang. If they somehow released this energy into normal space time, it could explain why we are seeing the rip.”

  Aaron grimaced. His chest ached. The tear could as well be ripping him apart. “It won’t stop?”

  “I imagine the power, though ludicrous to us in its effects, cannot be quantified.”

  “Enough of what it is and what’s causing it. How do we stop it?”

  “Our dark-matter reactor.” Vee paused. “Yes! The reactor core could cancel the energy. They’re both exotic matter. We’d have to eject the core and release the containment fi
eld on the dark matter.”

  “What about potential convergence with the dark energy and doing further damage?” Rachael asked.

  Vee regarded her. “That’s not how it works,” he said.

  “What’s the charge on the blink drive, Ensign?” Aaron asked.

  “Thirty seconds, Commander.”

  “One minute until the tear reaches Earth,” Lee said. “We’re lucky the moon is on the far orbit…”

  “Bring us around. XO, sound the alarm,” Aaron said.

  Aaron had to rustle Vee from his reverie and into his seat. Vee pulled his harness, still mesmerized by the energy wave on the holoviewer. Aaron yanked on his own restraints.

  “Micro jump available,” Flaps said.

  “Jump us ahead of it, Yuri. Distance: three light-seconds. Eject the reactor core and flank acceleration away.”

  “Aye, sir. Distance—three light-seconds. Three-two-one. Phoenix jumping.”

  Phoenix vanished into the black as the seemingly unstoppable wave of destruction reached to embrace humanity’s birthplace. She flashed back into existence ahead of the tear, and without hesitation, Vee ejected the dark-matter core from the reactor.

  Aaron kept his eyes locked to the holodisplay. “Lee!”

  The lieutenant fired a single burst of tungsten, which destroyed the containment, and spilled the dark matter into the void. The tear collided.

  No one breathed.

  ***

  The subspace tear struck the virtual wall of dark matter and merged with the exotic energy. The powerful energies swirled and coruscated until the dark matter enveloped the subspace tear and both energies wavered and dissipated.

  “The tear has sealed!” Lee announced, with unaccustomed excitement.

  A low cheer erupted from the bridge. Aaron lowered his head burying his face in his hands.

  Lee ended the celebration. “No time for that, Imperial destroyers closing.”

  Phoenix only had the fusion reactor now. The first pass by the destroyers, the armor held without the electric field running through it.

  “We just fixed this ship too,” Max said.

  “Incoming hail from Endeavor,” Vee reported.

  Aaron nodded.

  Ayres appeared on the holoviewer.

  “Commander, stand by, we’re breaking off to assist.”

  “Negative, Ayres. You and Exeter finish those remaining destroyers near Excalibur, we don’t know if or how many of those weapons they have left. If they have more, this won’t end well. Unless you’re sure they’ve got less than three. You finish them, then worry about us.”

  She chewed her lip. “Aye, Commander. Hold on. We’ll get there.”

  Another pass. Lasers cut deep into the hull. More alarms blared.

  “The dorsal section’s breached. They’re concentrating fire near the fusion reactor.”

  Obviously.

  Aaron had used all their havocs. The railguns couldn’t track the fast moving Hemiolia-class. The Imperial destroyers didn’t risk slowing to maintain their laser fire, they had to make their attack runs fast to maintain high transversal velocities, or Lee would evaporate them with the railguns.

  Death by a thousand cuts. The deck lurched again.

  Vee reported the damage. “Level three hull breach in dorsal sections three, four and five. Not enough available power to seal with force fields.”

  “Commander,” Zane said. “Sections three, four and five account for twenty percent of the ship’s mass. If we can’t seal those breaches with force fields and we fall below seventy-five percent structural integrity, we won’t be able to maintain the inertia dampening field.”

  If that happened, they couldn’t maneuver without turning everyone into liquid, given the speeds involved. Their bodies couldn’t even handle the comparatively slow combat maneuvers.

  Aaron looked to Dawes. The marine knew what had to be done.

  “Ubu, Chen, with me. We’ve got some damage control duties to attend,” he said.

  The marines would have to enter the breached sections and apply a manual hull-seal. If the section took another direct hit with them in it, they’d be as lifeless as the void which would embrace them.

  ***

  Dawes exited the lift on the stricken deck and bolted for the damaged section. In the few seconds it took to reach the area, he lamented how such a supposedly high-speed lift on a starship could seem to take ten years off your life while you waited for it to whisk you to your destination. It felt like he could observe ants building nests, and eco systems evolving.

  At least he and his men didn’t have to waste any more time fighting with vac-suits. During battle alerts, and them being the mobile damage control team, they were already suited up.

  “Comm check,” Dawes said.

  “Good to go, Sarge,” Chen said.

  “Loud and clear, Sarge,” Ubu acknowledged.

  The deck lurched beneath them. A subtle reminder of the raging battle beyond the bulkheads.

  “Right, boys. There’re two man-sized breaches beyond this hatch. This tin can doesn’t have enough left in her for the emergency force fields. We’ll have to seal them manually.”

  Dawes knelt next to the emergency repair station, of which there was one near every major section of the ship, and he removed the repair kits. He handed one to Chen and kept the other one.

  “We can’t depressurize this deck before we go in. When we open this hatch, the compromised section is going to suck us out. There’s no way around it. Me and Chen will seal the breaches. Ubu you’ll seal this hatch once we’re through. If we take another hit in this section, I don’t want this deck opened to the rest of the ship. Once we’ve got it sealed, you’ll be clear to repressurize and open the hatch. Any questions?”

  There were none.

  Dawes tapped each man’s chest with a fist. They each did the same to one another. He then readied his tether. He’d have to latch onto something in the breached section once they blew past the hatch. Next to him, Chen did the same. Ubu tethered himself to a nearby deck anchor.

  Dawes nodded to Ubu. The hatch recessed and yanked Dawes and Chen off the deck and through. Dawes never heard the hatch shut. He grimaced against the sudden g-force and blind-fired his tether. He braced for the arresting motion.

  Swinging around, he breathed a sigh of relief as Chen hung in the vacuum a few meters to his left and below him. They set to work on the breaches. Dawes pulled a sheet of expanding nanite-seal and slapped it to an intact part of the breached bulkhead. He then drew his bonding energizer and pointed it at the center of the sheet.

  “Sarge, my energizer is borked. Not getting a peep. Send yours my way when you’re done.”

  “You probably broke it, Corporal. Trust a marine to damage his damage control equipment.”

  “We marines do find creative ways to destroy things, Sarge.”

  When Dawes pulled the trigger, a dim, thin, blue beam washed over the sheet and it expanded in the direction he moved the beam.

  After a minute, he was finished sealing his breach, and he looked around to Chen.

  “Corporal, please tell me you can catch in micro gravity.”

  “Oh sure, Sarge, I’ve had plenty of practice catching things in breached sections of starships.”

  “No one likes a smartass, Corporal. Here.”

  Dawes pushed the energizing gun towards Chen. The corporal reached.

  He never caught it.

  ***

  Aaron was throw forward in his harness as the ship bucked sideways. All systems were having trouble maintaining full operational status.

  “The other destroyer is concentrating fire amidships,” Vee reported. “I think he’s trying to find the bridge.”

  How fitting. The Imperial was taking this rather personal. Good thing the bridge was buried four decks deep and not perched on top the ship saying to the enemy: here I am shoot me!

  Another thunderous boom reverberated through the decks. Aaron flinched.

  “Iner
tia dampening field is offline!”

  They truly were pigeons in a shooting gallery, now. The ship drifted a couple hundred meters a second.

  Dawes would come through. He had too.

  “Ensign, steady. As they come for another pass, roll her hard to starboard. Protect our dorsal breach best you can.”

  They couldn’t accelerate or decelerate without seriously injuring or killing everyone aboard, but they could still adjust the attitude of the ship.

  The destroyers neared. Phoenix rolled. The lasers struck the starboard quarter.

  “Excellent, Flaps!”

  Aaron was buying time. Though he didn’t know for what.

  ***

  A blast rocked the ship so hard it felt like someone had smashed each of Dawes’ ears with a drum hat. Suddenly the ship and Chen were both oriented the wrong way. The section overhead had breached and the atmosphere was exploding through the breach in both sections.

  The enemy strike dislodged Chen’s tether, and he was seconds away from joining the debris tumbling away from the ship. A small piece of which had breached the left leg of Chen’s suit.

  Dawes was being sucked into the void as well, he reached and grabbed Chen’s good leg and hugged it to his chest and his tether went taut.

  Commander Rayne cut into the comm.

  “Sergeant, what’s your status? We’ve just lost the inertia dampening field. We can’t power the field when too many sections of the ship are compromised, the other half of the ship will be torn to bits and pieces and us with it if we try to maneuver!”

  Dawes gritted his teeth reaching for his second tethering-gun. “Working on it, Commander. Stand by!”

  “Stand by? Sergeant we’re sitting ducks if we can’t maneuver at all!”

  Dawes muted the channel.

  “Let go of me and seal the breaches, Sarge, your tether won’t hold both of us against this!”

  “Quit yapping, Corporal! I’ve got this.”

  Dawes finally reached the gun, although it felt like he’d popped something in his hand. He aimed and fired it near the breach in the overhead. The other tether let out as he reversed the second tether’s mechanism to pull them towards the overhead.