Beyond Mars Crimson Fleet (29 page)

Although she wanted to
disperse the small fleet, it wasn’t within her to leave the
stricken vessels behind. And using a magnetic tow was completely
out of the question. The ships were old and being pushed just too
hard for any attempt in using the mechanisms that was more than
risky.

Hyperspace travel required
constant movement through its dimension by means of ships encased
in a rotating magnetic field. If a tow were to break, the
distressed vessel would immediately lose all forward movement,
becoming a phantom held motionless forever in a black tomb. Unless
it was destroyed by a direct inter-dimensional collision from a
jump initiated at that very point, this fate was very much
assured.

Tara was not about to
condemn the lives aboard the two transports to this. For the time
being, Tara kept her ships on a steady course, hoping either to
lose the Crimson Fleet in the depths of the system or forcing them
to abandon their chase.

* * * * *

Admiral Selena Darius held different ideas, however.
She was resolute on not aborting her mission because of “seven
miserable alien ships” blocking her way. Regardless of how much the
Indra were technologically advanced, she still held an ace up her
sleeve: the new battle matrix system.

“Computer, ready the battle matrix system!” Selena
ordered.

“By your command,” the artificial intelligence
responded.

Trager turned to a humming
that suddenly resonated behind him. The officer then noticed that
the energy pulses through the tubes of each huma-droid steadily
increased their flow at a rapid rate. The gases, which were trapped
within their orbs of glass, began to glow a luminous green. He then
realized that ions were reaching a saturated state in preparation
of the equipment’s usage.

Selena smiled wickedly as a domed pedestal raised
itself from the deck to the right of her command chair. After the
pillar had extended to its full height, the dome opened, revealing
headgear similar to a tiara crown. Darius’ smile broadened into a
mask of total satisfaction before reaching for and then placing the
crown upon her own head.

Trager just simply watched
with downcast eyes. Having run through training on the system,
Trager knew that the aliens were in for a nasty
surprise.

“Has the battle matrix been made-ready?” Selena
quizzed the ship’s main computer.

“The matrix is ready and all ships have been brought
online,” the command and control computer replied
emotionlessly.

Selena’s mouth then formed a snarl. “Activate!” her
voice was tainted with pure anger and revenge.

A moment
later, the computer that was merged with Selena’s brain dissolved
away the bridge in her mind, and she beheld all the space around
the
Quinton
. Her
mind’s eye perfectly visualized the Indra vessels as well as all of
her own ships in flawless 3 dimension. Distance, positions,
targeting information; the flood of knowledge was enormous. But her
cyborg brain automatically comprehended and guided every aspect of
the situation at the speed of thought. It was like
being—God.

From the commands given by her thoughts alone, the
Crimson Fleet robotically formed a huge wall of ships. They were
stacked one upon the other and rigidly held their positions within
the precise formation. The armada then swiftly began to advance
towards the Indra as the weapon systems of the Earth ships
energized.

Trager stole a quick glance
at Julie Morris’ head. He wondered if any part of her real mind was
still alive—and knew what she was about to become a part of.
Trager, himself, became a mere spectator to the impending battle as
he manned his scanner.

Suddenly, a flowing
transparent current of plasma energy materialized just in front of
the Earth vessels. It was as a blue river, glittering as it moved
as though parts of it were solidified ice. The aliens were not sure
of what was taking place, but it did not matter to them. As soon as
the Crimson Fleet came within range—the Indra fired.

Great energy bolts from
each of the Indra ships streaked away and cut through the space
between them and the Crimson Fleet. They traveled unswervingly and
with one intention—annihilation. The energy bolts finally impacted
seconds later against the blue plasma field that stood between them
and their intended targets.

The magnitude of the force
from the strike erupted in a gigantic and radiant blast that
matched the greatest flares of Tibula. As the energy dissipated and
sensors cleared to report, the Indra were astounded. Not one of the
Earth ships was damaged. It was apparent that the entire energy of
the Earth fleet was concentrated as an interweaved shield. This
allowed the shield to stretch and distort, but at the same time, it
did not permit any penetration by energy or any physical object. It
acted like a giant bulletproof vest. And the Indra now realized
that the certainty of a counter-strike would soon be on its
way.

Once the last of the energy from the Indra’s attack
had spent itself against her shield, Selena’s mind immediately
dropped the force field and fired the weapons of her entire fleet
together. At same moment, the Indra ships maneuvered away
erratically in different directions to escape. For most of them,
however, it was not enough.

Although the
inter-dimensional skins of the alien ships could disperse a few
laser hits, they were not designed to take a massive and precise
bombardment over a great length of time. With a constant
bombardment of laser and ion weapon strikes impacting over a span
minutes, the Indra ships blew apart in miniature super-nova like
explosions—all but one. Protected mainly by its six sister ships,
the alien vessel still sustained some damage. This was evident in a
clear breach of the hull, besides losing its luminescent glow. With
little or no power, it casually drifted away. The cold–gray alien
ship was now at the mercy of a ruthless enemy—who bore
none.

The pseudo goddess, Selena Darius, was most pleased
with how this had turned out. Not only was she a hyper-jump away
from obliterating the Martians, but her promotion and a hero’s
welcome was guaranteed when she towed this alien ship back to
Earth. New technology awaited the reverse engineering of her
dismantled Indra trophy, while she believed that it served to
demonstrate Earth’s superiority to the rest of the galaxy.
Regardless that these actions fostered the seeds of a new and
terrible war, Selena’s seat on the Supreme Defense Council and the
destruction of the Martians were all that motivated the woman
cyborg.

* * * * *

Aboard each of the colonist’s spacecraft, the
earlier bedlam settled into the bleakest hollow of gloom. Some
crying and occasional praying rose above the heavy murkiness of
silence at times. With all hope gone, the reality was slowly
grasped by every mind. Death was only moments away, sealed by the
cruel hands of the barbarous enemy that had stalked them. Sorrow
drew a curtain around the tiny fleet. There was no point in trying
to escape in life pods, for they offered only a few more moments of
extended existence.

With no
other alternative, Tara ordered the fleet to disperse. However,
the
Ariana
slowed
slightly to do what it could to draw fire away from the two
crippled ships. It was a fool’s plan the woman thought, deserving
of her stupidity and trust in believing that the Martians would
come. The mutants were monsters in the eyes of every “normal”
human, Tara tearfully admitted in her mind. How could she let
herself suppose otherwise, she thought.

The
colonist formation broke apart, readying themselves for the final
order. Tara paused, while gathering her strength to give it.
Suddenly, a claxon sounded on the bridge of the
Ariana
, as sensors cautioned to a
disturbance in the space-time continuum. Several jump fields were
forming behind colonist fleet. Tara and the rest of her bridge crew
held their breaths.

* * * * *

On the
bridge of the
Quinton
, the defense system alerted Selena’s mind to a new and
possible impending threat. Eight ships were coming out of
hyperspace, and somewhat close to the drifting Indra vessel. For a
moment, the system delayed, but as the ships totally emerged, a
clear identification was made—Martian warships: Eight
Dolphin
class destroyers
and their weapons were energized.

Selena laughed in her mind. She conjured up a replay
of the battle with the Indra, letting the Martians spend their
ordinance, drawing them in close and finally exterminating them
before they knew what happened. The blue plasma shield came up once
again.

* * * * *

“MARTIAN
SHIPS! MARTIAN SHIPS!” bellowed the sensor crewman of the
Ariana
ecstatically.

A loud cheer rose on the freighter’s bridge
as it did through the other colonist’s ships. “Thank God!” someone
yelled out from the back of the crowd. Even Martin smiled in
relief.

Tara placed a hand to her
face as tears of joy streamed out of her eyes. She cried with the
innocence of a child while her mind saw a sudden vision of a mighty
and noble knight charging in
to
defend
her
against a truly malevolent and evil dragon. True to his word,
Wakinyan and his eight Martian destroyers had arrived.

* * * * *

Selena
halted her fleet and waited for the Martians to attack. However,
someone else did not take the time to pause. Trager also noted the
appearance of the Wakinyan’s destroyers on his scanner. The command
officer of the
Quinton
knew it was now or never to be rid himself of this evil ship
and the “thing” that commanded it.

“Damn scanner!” Trager
suddenly mouthed loudly as he quickly knelt down and opened a
service compartment in pretense of repairing a malfunction.
Instead, his hands quickly fumbled the parts of an electron ion
pistol together. It was placed there in pieces over time to avoid
detection, while giving him the needed excuse to retrieve
it.

* * * * *

“MISSLES, AWAY!” Wakinyan
commanded the squadron of
Dolphin
class destroyers. A moment later, a wave of
anti-ship missiles flooded the space in front of the attacking
Martian warships and streaked for the Crimson Fleet.

* * * * *

Selena anxiously waited as a hunger spider waited
for a fly. In less than a minute, “these obsolete Martian garbage
scowls would be just a memory,” her mind echoed in a chuckle.

With a quick slap of his palm, Trager banged the
power pack into the hand weapon—and then set it to kill. For a
moment, his head turned and gazed hatefully at Selena. She,
however, was locked in a trace and was oblivious to everything on
the bridge. Trager then turned to his communicator and punched the
buttons “3-7-7” in rapid sequence. His finger then tapped the send
button.

In a
deafening and fiery detonation, the power converters of the
Quinton
blew themselves
apart along with a small section of its hull. As the massive
explosion rocked the Earth battleship, power to the lighting and
equipment became nonexistent or sporadic. It was then that Trager
stood up and raked the huma-droids with ion fire before anyone knew
what was happening. Every glass dome cracked open and disintegrated
while secondary energy explosions and fires lit up the
bridge.

The tiara crown upon Selena’s head suddenly began to
arc and sizzle in bluish white bands of electricity, while a scent
of burning carbon filled the air. Selena screamed in horrific,
agonizing pain as she dropped to the deck grabbing at stinging
crown, trying instinctively to pull it off her head. The pain,
however, was searing and overwhelming. She rolled over in
unconsciousness as her two android guards turned and began shooting
at Trager.

The firefight was so
intense that it filled the chamber in the smoke and flame of
detonating equipment. In a running gun battle across the bridge,
Trager made his way to the hatchway. Damaging one of the machines
just as it wounded his arm; he opened the hatch and dashed
through.

With a smack of his fist on
a nearby button, the massive hatch closed itself. Trager then shot
the controls, and ran down the corridor. Making his way to an
elevator, he knew that it was still operating off of the emergency
power grid system, which had snapped on. Brushing its floor sensor,
the man paused while he waited for the doors to open.

Holding his wounded arm, he looked solemnly back
towards the bridge. “Rest in peace, Julie!” the man’s eyes watered
in momentarily grief and respect. His sadness was short-lived, as
the elevator doors opened and allowed him to escape.

The
damage to the
Quinton
was perfectly timed as well as paralyzing. With no power, the
battle matrix system of the
Quinton
went offline, taking the blue plasma shield with
it. And as the missiles from the Martian destroyers approached, the
ships of the Crimson Fleet stood powerless and frozen to the will
of their own locked computers. The very same matrix mode that had
given them victory against the Indra now opened a door of
vulnerability and destruction.