The Heart of Matter: Odyssey One (42 page)

▸“MIDLEVEL SYSTEM SCANNERS have shown the destruction of two of the Drasin cruisers, Admiral.”

Tanner nodded, suppressing the urge to sigh in relief.

That sight probably wouldn’t do much for morale, but he couldn’t quite help it. Any amount of Drasin in his star system was too many, but two less than there were before was a good start. Some of the tension he’d been hiding was gone now, but he didn’t have time to relax just yet.

“Have our orbital defenses been brought online?” he asked.

“Almost, Admiral. We’ll have them ready shortly.”

Rael Tanner nodded, knowing that the orbital arrays were much like shipboard energy banks, only they didn’t use collapsing power cores to provide energy. The power requirements were extreme and had to be fed into the systems from the planet or from an orbital relay station. In this case, the orbital station was still under construction and wouldn’t be operational for some time.

Given that the defense satellites were unable to move, it hardly mattered. There was more than ample time to fully charge them for any conceivable battle that they could win.

“Contact Captain Maran.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

A moment later, the projection screen flickered, and the image of the captain of the
Vulk
appeared a dozen meters ahead of Tanner. The captain was sitting in his command chair, looking away from the transceiver, so Tanner waited while Johan finished up something.

Finally, the captain turned his focus to the transceiver. “Yes, Admiral?”

“The two closest Drasin have been destroyed, Captain,” Rael began.

“I’m aware of that, Admiral. I am moving to intercept and destroy the remaining two now,” Johan replied.

“I see. My scanners indicate that they do not have the required acceleration to reach Ranquil before the refugees do. May I suggest that you pull back to cover the refugee ships and come into our defensive sphere?”

“I don’t believe that would be wise, Admiral,” Johan said, shaking his head. “If we have the power to end the threat out here, it would be best to do so.”

“Very well. In that case, I am…
strongly
advising that you allow the
Odyssey
and the
Heralc
time to match your acceleration,” Tanner said after a moment. “The
Vulk
, and its crew, are too valuable to risk to mischance, Captain.”

Johan fell silent for a moment, then gestured to someone off-screen. “Very well, Admiral. We are reducing acceleration now.”

“Very good, Captain. Good Luck,” Tanner said before signing off.

A snort from behind him caused Rael to half turn and see Nero Jehan approaching from behind.

“You have something to add, Commander?” Rael asked, his lip twisting ironically as the huge six-foot-plus figure came to a stop beside his own five-foot-three frame.

“Yes.” Nero smiled toothily. “I can see that the chain of command is as much a confusion to your captains as it is to my squads.”

Rael grimaced. “I’m certain that you mean that as some sort of comfort, Nero, because I’m equally certain you don’t intend to insult the capability of the glorious fleet of the Priminae people.”

“Oh, no, of course not, Admiral.”

NACS ODYSSEY

▸“PRIMMY SHIP IS slowing acceleration, Captain.”

“Interesting.” Eric took note of the relative positions of the five starships currently plying the ancient art of war in this sector of space. Things were a bit crowded.

The
Odyssey
was almost three million kilometers positive to the system elliptic, her course adjusting to bring her in a rapidly flattening curve as she continued to accelerate toward the two remaining Drasin cruisers that were still in-system. The
Vulk
was far ahead of them, the planet in their rearview while the other warship was pulling hard to match relative velocity with her.

Eric’s course changes would bring the
Odyssey
into the battle from above, relative to the Priminae ships, which was just where he wanted to be. The
Odyssey
would no more survive friendly fire from an accidental beam crossing of a Priminae ship than it would the hostile fire of a Drasin warship.

Likewise, the dangerously charged homing abilities of the pulse torpedoes were quite uncontrollable and didn’t pay attention to IFF signals, even if the Priminae ships had any.

“What’s the status on the other ship, Michelle?”

Winger tapped in a command and brought up the latest visuals of the damaged vessel, causing someone to whistle.

Eric ignored them, eyeing the damage with a critical eye. “Are they still streaming atmosphere?”

“Aye, sir,” Winger replied, frowning. “Don’t know where they’re getting it all, sir. Even a ship that size shouldn’t be able to vent like that.”

“Generators on board, maybe, sir?”

“Maybe,” Eric said, acknowledging the suggestion from Lieutenant Daniels. “We know that energy conversion technology is possible.”

“That’s true, sir. Basic theory has been around and proven since the twentieth century, but the power requirements and the computational power…” Michelle Winger shrugged.

Commander Roberts glanced up. “We know that they have power to burn, but if that’s the case, then why the hell haven’t they sealed off the affected sections and stopped atmosphere production?”

“Unknown, Commander,” Winger said. “Maybe their system is an all or nothing deal?”

“Damned fool way to build a warship.”

Eric finally shrugged. “Either way, it’s irrelevant right now. Code the images. Shunt them over to the engineering labs. Let them puzzle over it. When we get back, I’ll ask Admiral Tanner myself.”

“Aye, sir.” Winger nodded, tapping a command to clear the images.

A moment later, however, an insistent tone sounded from her station. Michelle instantly began poring over something, staring at numbers as they flashed past her screen almost too quickly to see.

Eric waited a moment, then frowned when she didn’t say anything. “Winger…”

“It’s the Drasin, Captain. They’re up to something.”

“What?”

“Unknown. I’m not getting high enough resolution off these sensors, sir. If I had my main array—”

“We struck those sails for a reason, Michelle,” Eric reminded her.

Traveling at light-speed through a vacuum wasn’t precisely the “null zone” that it seemed. Micrometeorites could and would punch holes through anything they collided with, especially at the speeds the
Odyssey
was moving. The forward field generators were calibrated to shunt anything larger than a spec of dust out of the path of the
Odyssey
, or in the case of certain extremely massive objects, push the
Odyssey
out of a direct-collision path if the pilot was asleep at the controls. However, the fields were aimed straight front, as far ahead as the power allowed, and didn’t do a lot to cover above and below the ship on the theory that the ship didn’t have any reasonable right to be traveling sideways, anyway.

There was some leeway built into the system to account for maneuvering and such, but at the speed the
Odyssey
was traveling, her reflector sails would be ripped to tatters if they extended them. Actually, large segments were already in bad shape from their earlier deployment.

“Aye, sir,” Winger reluctantly agreed.

The reflector sails were meant to be used up, that’s how they were designed, but there was no point in doing so when it wouldn’t give them a reasonable amount of sensor time.

“Keep working on those signals. Clean them up. I want to know what the Drasin are doing.”

PRIMINAE VESSEL VULK

▸“DRASIN ARE LAUNCHING fighters, Captain.”

Johan grunted, not looking up. “What are the main ships doing?”

“We can’t see, Captain. The fighters are screening them, sir.”

Captain Maran didn’t like that, not in the least. There was no reason to launch fighters that far out. The small ships must have the same problems that plagued the Priminae equivalents, so why waste their energy supplies by flying them in when their mother ships could easily carry them?

“Increase scanning,” he ordered. “Go to all active measures.”

NACS ODYSSEY

▸“WHOA!” WINGER BLINKED.

“What’s going on, Lieutenant?” Eric was concerned. Every time something happened they were left with more questions and fewer answers than they had at the start.