Battle of the Ring (20 page)

“Yes, Commander!” Lenna turned quickly and almost ran down the
steps. Smiling with amusement, Mayelna thought that this might not be such a
bad idea. After all, it was not every day that a problem became a potential
asset.

Three hours later, the Methryn was ready to begin her attack run.
Originally, Velmeran was to lead the fighters against the Challenger’s
support fleets, but he had decided at the last moment to remain aboard the
Methryn. It was the carrier, after all, that would be doing the actual fighting
in this battle; the packs were going out just to provide a diversion.

Still, Velmeran thought it best to encourage Donalt Trace to believe that he
was away with his pack. The packs were divided into two groups. A smaller, under
Baressa, would go after the supply ships orbiting the fifth planet. The larger
group, which was to have been his, was to attack the fleet of warships stationed
at the seventh planet. Baress was given command of both Velmeran’s pack
and this attack force, and Lenna Makayen was elected to fly replacement in the
pack. Although she could never equal real Starwolves in either skill or
endurance, she could run a good bluff.

“All packs away,” Valthyrra reported. “Both assault forces
have formed under their leaders and are ready to advance.”

“You may relay to them their order to advance,” Velmeran
responded as he stood leaning over the front console of the Commander’s
station, watching the forward viewscreen. “Close and secure the landing
bays and ready your primary and secondary batteries.”

“Yes, Captain,” Valthyrra answered with martial formality.

Velmeran turned quickly as he became aware that Mayelna was standing behind
him.

“This is your first time to fight from the bridge,” she began.
“It seems to me that you should be sitting at the Commander’s
station. It has all the monitors and controls you need to keep an eye on
everything.”

“But... that is your place,” he protested.

“That seat is for the Commander of this ship,” Mayelna insisted.
“I will assist you in every way I can, but just now you are the
Commander.”

“Oh, no. I could not,” Velmeran objected as she physically
pulled him over to the seat, retracted back on its runners. “I do not
feel up to that seat just yet.”

“Nonsense. It fits you just fine, I am sure.” Mayelna managed
to force him into the seat and activated the control to roll it forward.
“You see, it fits just fine.”

“I feel like a pretender to the throne.”

“Heir apparent, I believe they used to say,” Mayelna corrected
him, smiling. “You know, it has been just about twenty years since you
used to come up to the bridge and sit in my seat. I never suspected that you
were trying it on for size. But you have certainly grown into it. I am glad
that I am here to see it.”

Velmeran smiled shyly, glancing down, well aware of her deep sincerity. Then
he noticed Valthyrra’s camera pod hovering not two meters away.

“What are you waiting for? Begin your attack run,” he ordered
sharply. “This is where you get your lumps.”

“Here she comes now,” Maeken Kea warned, looking up from the
monitors of her own console.

Donalt Trace turned sharply from the forward viewscreen to look at her.
“Is she? They were taking so long, I was beginning to think that they
must be up to something.”

“That remains to be seen,” Maeken remarked. “There is
something about the way she just jumped up and started a run straight at us
that makes me think she knows exactly how to handle us. Marenna
Challenger?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Turn your forward battery to meet that ship, then shield your engines,”
she ordered sharply. “Give full power to your hull shields. Open fire as
soon as the Methryn comes into range.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Maeken sat back for a long moment, staring in silence at the Methryn’s
projected path on the central monitor of her console. Donalt Trace became
curious about what she could be thinking, and slowly walked over to stand
looking unobtrusively over her shoulder. He thought he understood. The Methryn
was moving fast, and projected to pass at one-half light speed. And she would
pass only two thousand kilometers to one side. That was not very far, not at
that speed, and much nearer than he would have expected.

“Do you know what they are up to?” he asked at last.

“Perhaps,” Maeken mused. “They might be thinking –
with some justification – that their weapons track better than our own.
Or rather, that they can move too fast for our weapons to track. By moving fast
enough, they can sneak through an attack run with little risk of serious
damage.”

“For all the good it does them,” Trace remarked contemptuously.
“A few seconds of cannonfire each run will get them nowhere.”

“True, but it does waste time for more ships to arrive,” Maeken
pointed out. “Or, if she is carrying nuclear or conversion missiles, this
is exactly the type of run she would make. And where is the Kalvyn? We hurt
her, but she is still perfectly capable of a stiff fight.”

Commander Trace did not reply; there was hardly any need. If Velmeran knew
that help was coming, he needed only to keep the Challenger occupied until a
number of carriers converged on the vast warship. And if the Methryn was
carrying a score of high-energy warheads, this battle would be a short one. The
quartzite shielding could turn such an explosion, but not a sustained
barrage. Quartzite shielding was incredibly brittle; the smallest crack would
spread in seconds to peel the shell off the entire ship. And the heavy outer
shield was useless against missiles.

“Stand by,” Maeken warned the bridge crew. “Marenna
Challenger, remember to fire as soon as possible. The Methryn is going to be
moving into your bolts.”

“Yes, Captain,” the ship responded. “I calculate approximately
seven seconds of effective firing time on the Methryn’s approach, with
only about three as she passes. Beginning the count in five seconds from...
now.”

It was as if the entire ship snapped to attention as console after console
on the Challenger’s vast bridge leaped into life. Five separate scanning
and tracking systems identified the target for hundreds of cannons, and each
cannon locked on, not on the Methryn herself but where she would be. A moment
later those same consoles hummed with frantic activity as over half the
Challenger’s guns opened fire, shooting well ahead of their fast-moving
target so that their bolts would be there in time to intercept the Methryn.

The two ships closed to range and, for two full seconds, exchanged a fierce
barrage of fire. Then the Methryn was rocked by an explosion so intense that,
for a moment, she actually disappeared from scan in the violent backwash
of energy. The Challenger ceased fire immediately. Then the Methryn shot past,
still and lifeless, her original course deflected slightly by the force of that
explosion. She was tumbling already, her bow dipping as she began to roll end
over end.

“We got her?” Commander Trace asked in the stunned silence that
enveloped the entire bridge.

“I think...,” Maeken answered hesitantly in her disbelief.

“An apparent hit on the Methryn’s main generators
amid-ship,” Marenna Challenger reported with her usual calm detachment.
“I scan only emergency power in effect. The Methryn is drifting out of
control.”

“Open fire!” Maeken snapped impatiently.

“The Methryn is out of my range.”

“Then follow her! Chase her down! Pursue at your best speed until you
have her back in range,” Maeken ordered, repeating herself, in what was
becoming a habit, to be certain that she was understood. She turned to Donalt
Trace. “Hold on, Commander.”

Trace hurried to a spare seat at the rear of the bridge. Union ships did not
increase their gravity to counter acceleration, since ordinary humans could not
endure the extra stress. Instead they cut gravity and counted on everyone being
in a seat. The Challenger swung her blunt nose around and began to
accelerate, and she had a surprising amount of jump for her size. Even so, the
Methryn, drifting at one-half light, was leaving her far behind.

“How long?” Trace asked.

“Marenna is pushing herself to the limit,” Maeken reported.
“Even so, we’re looking at seven minutes to match her speed and
another nine to overtake her. I have already ordered the stingships to
intercept her packs and keep them clear. Surveillance just reported that
the Kalvyn is coming after us in a hurry, but we will overtake the Methryn
first.”

“We have to disable the Methryn completely in time to meet the
Kalvyn,” Commander Trace said. “Only missiles will catch her now.
Give her a pair.”

“The Methryn has no shields,” Maeken informed him.

“I want that ship as intact as possible,” Trace ordered.
“Set the missiles to explode close enough to give her a good, stiff
jolt.”

“Right.” Maeken quickly relayed the order. The Challenger needed
only an instant to ready and fire the two missiles, which shot away on flaring
star drives.

“Two missiles are away,” the ship reported. “Estimated impact
in three minutes, eleven seconds. The Methryn has restored directional
control.”

“What?” Maeken demanded, and checked her own scanner monitors.
The Methryn’s power levels remained practically nonexistent, although she
had apparently found the power for field-drive steering. She had ceased her
slow tumble and now flew straight and level, although she continued to drift.
That meant that the Methryn was repairing herself, recircuiting auxiliary
power back into her main systems. The missiles had already covered a third
of the distance to their target; Maeken silently urged them on, hoping that
they would disable the Methryn somewhat more permanently before she recovered
any more control.

Seconds passed, and the two missiles gained steadily on their target. At
fifteen seconds to detonation, they armed their warheads and moved into
position so that one would pass below the carrier and one above, only a
kilometer separating them, catching the Starwolf ship in the worst of the
concussion between the two. That was hardly enough to destroy the Methryn, even
without hull shields, mostly because space was a very poor conductor of energy,
but it should slow down the repairs. But the situation resolved itself quickly.
The Methryn caught both missiles just two seconds short of their target with a
couple of precise shots from her rear cannons.

Maeken Kea muttered a favorite oath of her home world. “Well, that
answers that. Now we have to catch her ourselves.”

That still seemed likely enough, as long as the Methryn did not save
herself. The chase continued, and the Challenger gained steadily. Then, just as
the larger ship had closed half the distance between them, the Methryn turned
her bow nearly forty degrees and engaged her main drives. It seemed that she
was certain to escape, but after only seven seconds her power failed again to
leave her drifting. And yet the thrust, as short as it had been, threw her well
out of the Challenger’s reach. The Fortress adjusted her course on her
own initiative; she was not yet ready to give up the chase.

“Damn them!” Maeken declared. “I should have
guessed.”

“What is it?” Trace demanded, mystified.

“They found their escape,” she explained. “Apparently
their damage is such that they can never outrun us. But they do mean to duck into
the ring of the fifth planet for repairs.”

“Can we stop them?”

Maeken bent over her terminal to do some hasty calculations. Donalt Trace
was impressed; very few people had the mechanical ability to perform their
own trajectory mechanics. After a moment she sat back and frowned.

“Well, this is certainly going to be close,” she remarked at
last. “Assuming that the Methryn has to shed all her speed before
she can enter the ring, she should be coming into our range at almost the same
instant she loses herself in the debris. We have just over twenty-one minutes
to try to catch her.”

The race continued. After a few minutes the Challenger matched the
Methryn’s speed, and the task of closing on her prey began again. After
eighteen minutes more of running, the Fortress was now nearing seven-eighths
the speed of light. One of the brighter stars ahead suddenly began to expand
rapidly, quickly becoming a large world banded by yellow and reddish-orange
clouds and framed by an immense ring. Rings were common enough, but this one
was unique in that it was not banded and segmented but consisted of a single
disk that was a noticeable brown in color, with a grainy texture that betrayed
the large size of its components. Moments later the Methryn herself became
visible at the limit of the highly magnified image.

The Methryn was braking sharply now as she prepared to match speed with the
mass of the ring, rising quickly below the ship. The Challenger cut her own
acceleration but continued to drift at near light speed. But the race was lost
already, if by mere seconds. The Methryn braked hard a final time before
disappearing both visually and from scan. A moment later the Challenger fired a
quick volley at the region where she thought the carrier to be for the few
seconds that she remained within range, already braking with her forward
engines as she shot past the large planet. She began a slow circle that would
bring her back to the same area of the ring by the time she could cut her speed
to orbital velocity.

“Now what?” Trace demanded, gasping for breath as he was held
against the straps of his seat by a five-G deceleration.

Maeken spent a long moment studying her monitors before reporting.
“The Kalvyn is holding her distance, apparently too damaged herself to
fight us alone. On the other hand, the packs have destroyed our stingships and
are coming in a hurry.”

“And your recommendation?”

Maeken frowned, but made her decision quickly. “Finding the Methryn in
that place will be a real chore. Both ships can navigate the ring, but it will
keep our speed limited to little more than orbital velocity of the ring itself
And cut the range of our cannons. Neither ship will have effective scan. The
Starwolves can keep us preoccupied with their fighters, but we have the
undamaged ship. But she is leaving a trail for us to follow, And if she loses
power again we’ll have her. And if we do not go after her now, before
help arrives, she will get away. I say that we should go in after her
now.”