in0 (29 page)

“Directly at us, sir,” Tinns
replied. “Or where they expect us to be by this time tomorrow.”

“All right,” Park nodded,
“Dannet, let’s split the fleet as planned and see what they do next.”

“I’m not sure if I’m happy they
held their revised course or not,” Park commented the next day when reviewing
what had happened while he slept.

“I would have rather they
adjusted theirs again,” Iris told him. “Holding steady means they saw through
our maneuver and still expected to meet us in battle.”

“A reasonable assumption,” Park
told her. “They know we’re not coming out here to play ‘patty cake.’ How soon
until they are within range?”

“For our longest-range missiles,
five minutes,” Iris replied. “It will be another fifteen before we’re in phaser
range, sixteen for their metal-screech weapon, unless they’ve improved it.”

“Our missile range is that long?”
Park asked.

“Ronnie hasn’t just been working
on ships lately,” Iris replied. “I have all my long range jobs programmed to go
off in the first volley and they’ll come at the Dark Ships from nearly every
direction at once. After that I have a wide variety of shots scheduled with
backup targets in case the originals are gone by then. By the time we get to
phaser range my gunners and I will be too busy shooting when we get our
chances.”

“Nice plan,” Park replied. “Hope
we can keep to it. What are the other ships doing?”

“I don’t know for certain,” Iris
had to admit, “They’ve been too far away for easy conversation, but this is
more or less the way we’ve planned it. I’m aiming primarily at our selected
squadron and they have theirs. Of course after contact, the computers will
shoot at anything that isn’t one of ours. This is our first really big test of
the battle computers, though.”

“We’ve used them before,” Park
objected.

“Not with this many allies in
close proximity,” Iris pointed out. “Three minutes to launch.”

“Are all fighters manned and
ready?” Park asked Marisea.

“Aye, Admiral,” Marisea
responded.

“All right,” Park nodded. “They
launch directly after the first salvo of missiles”

Time slowed to a crawl for the
next three minutes and Park found himself tensing up until Cousin crawled up
into his lap and made entreating noises at him. Then he just shrugged and stroked
the animal’s fur until the missiles had been fired and the fighter ships
launched. After that, he placed Cousin back down on the deck. “Smart critter,”
he commented as Cousin walked purposefully away.

“What’s that?” Marisea asked.

“She knew when I needed to calm
down, and now she seems to understand it’s a good time to stay out of the way,”
Park explained.

“It’s hardly her first, battle
Park,” Marisea laughed. “Cousin’s smart enough to learn how out get out of the
way.”

“Second wave of missiles
launching now,” Iris announced, “Stand-by for phaser range.”

“Admiral,” Tinns reported, “Our
target squadron is breaking off to intercept that of Admiral Dannet.”

“Adjust course and follow them,”
Park ordered. “Hopefully, we’ll flank them.”

“Phaser range in five,” Iris
reported, “four, three, two, one…” Park saw her
 
hand twitch on her controls and then the
 
ship was full of the awful sound of tearing metal, the effect of the
mysterious weapons the Dark Ship Aliens used.

The sound only lasted a moment,
by their own perceptions during which everything seemed to be seen through a strobe
effect of shifting lights. And then there were beyond the range of the Dark
Ship weapons. “Report!” Park commanded.

“Stasis plating worked as
advertised, sir,” Trag reported from his pilot’s chair.

“We got half the Dark Ships on
the first pass,” Iris added. “Setting up the next missile shots.”

“We lost twenty-one Dennseean
ships,” Marisea told him. “Earth ships are all intact. Has Ronnie improved the
stasis plating?”

“Not much to improve,” Park
pointed out. “I think the Dark Ships had too many targets to choose from to
concentrate on us.”

“Park!” Ronnie’s voice came over
the intercom, “We have internal damage on the lower decks.”

“How bad?” Park asked.

“If this were a bar and that
attack was an earthquake, we’d be sweeping up a few broken glasses,” Ronnie
replied. “No structural problems, but the paint is chipped and anything that
wasn’t bolted down got shoved about. I’m worried about the circuit boards
though. We lost one circuit board, but fortunately all it controlled were our
running lights. It might not really be lost, though. Could have shaken loose,
but the controls are dark. I’d like to check the rest of the boards. How much
time do we have before the next round?”

“Fighters are back in formation,”
Marisea reported. That bit had been one of Park’s ideas. The fighters
would
 
form a
 
V-formation
 
before the attack and reform between rounds with the enemy.

“Long range missiles away,” Iris
announced a moment later.

“Never mind,” Ronnie told Park.
“I heard that.”

“This round is bound to be
rougher, Ronnie,” Park warned her. “Our relative velocity compared to the Dark
Ships this time is slower. If we don’t beat them this time the third round will
be a dog-fight style slug-out.”

“I’ll do what I can to keep us
moving,” Ronnie promised.

“That would be nice,” Park
replied as Iris counted down to phaser range again.

The second round turned out to be
quiet. The long range missiles destroyed the remaining ships in the Dark Ship
Squadron Park’s group had encountered. “How are the other two groups?” he asked
as they took stock.

“Dannet’s group is chasing the
remaining three Dark Ships in his group back out of the system. He has
Peg Leg
and
Grantir’s Chance
in his squadron. The third one with
Forward Thinking
is having more trouble,
I think. Five of their Dark Ships are still alive. Part of that might be that
they have only had time for one round of fighting. They’re just turning to
attack again, only four of the Denseean ships are turning with
Forward Thinking
. The others are too
damaged to fight.”

“Navigator,” Park called to Garro
Tinns, “Can we get there from here?”

“Aye, Admiral!” Tinns replied a
moment later. “Fifteen minutes.”

“Do it,” Park told him. “Marisea,
open a link to engineering. Then
 
open a
link to the rest of our squadron.”

“Open,” Marisea responded.

“Ronnie,” Park told her, “you
have fifteen minutes but at full acceleration.”

“Thanks, Park,” Ronnie replied.
We’ll tighten up anything that’s loose.”

“Open channel to all captains,
Park,” Marisea reported. “Go ahead.”

“We’re going to help one of the
other squadrons,” Park told the Denseean captains, “but we have damaged ships.
You all stay back and pick up survivors.” The other captains agreed and
Tawatir
continued to pull away from the
rest of the group.

Once again, Park felt the
familiar feeling of slowed time as
Tawatir
and her ships seemed to slowly creep up on the Dark Ships that were
fighting with
Forward Thinking’s
squadron.

“I only have two of the long
range jobs left,” Iris told Park.

“We still have the phasers and
gravity cannons,” Park pointed out.

“The long-range ones have been
our battle staple,” Iris pointed out, “since once we’re under attack we’re in
stasis most of the time. The rest of the missiles are useful too, but compared to
those our other weapons don’t get much use.”

“They aren’t completely useless,”
Park told her. “We don’t spin out of control as much as we did against the
Alliance ships.”

“The Dark Ships don’t have
gravity cannons,” Iris replied as she fired off four more missiles. Two were
high speed darts, that could chase down a ship trying to run away and two were
Ronnie’s stasis specials, which induced stasis on a target for a moment as it
drew closer and then exploded as the stasis wore off. “It was the Alliance gravity
weapons that shoved us all over the sky. Phaser range in five, four…”

There was only the barest moment
of the Dark Ships’ weapons on
Tawatir
and suddenly three Dark Ships were out of range of her weapons. “What’s
happening?” Park asked.

“They must have tried something
new,” Marisea replied. “We were under stasis longer than usual. Our fighters
weren’t, though. They’re engaged with the remaining Dark Ships. The Dennseean
ships are all out of the fight. It’s just us and
Forward.
”

“Get us back in the fight,” Park
commanded.

“Aye aye, sir!” both Tinns and
Trag responded. “All hands,” Trag continued, “Secure yourselves and stand by
for emergency acceleration in fifteen seconds.

There was a pause and then Park
felt himself being slammed back into his chair. On the view screens, the sky
around them barely moved, but the ships in the distance rapidly became larger.
Iris barely had time to fire off another salvo of missiles before they were
once more in phaser and gravity cannon range.

This time they saw the missiles
strike their targets. The high speed darts went right through the Dark ships
without effect and one of the stasis specials spun away, out of control.”

“One out of three?” Iris wondered
aloud.

“I’m more worried about the ones
that reached their targets and kept going,” Park told her. “Are we fighting
ghosts?”

“Holographic projection requires
a colloidal suspension to reflect off of,” Iris informed him. “In air, there’s
always a little dust to do the trick, and the air itself carries the rest of
it, but in space? Sometimes, maybe in a nebula, but not here.”

“Those missiles,” Park continued
against the strain of talking with an invisible weight on his chest, “are they
timed charges or with a proximity fuse?”

“The high speeds explode on
impact,” Iris explained. You don’t know when they’ll be close enough, after
all. The stasis jobs can detect proximity of their targets, though. They have
to.”

“And one failed in flight,” Park
commented. “Do we have more of the stasis darts?”

“Quite a few,” Iris admitted. “We
also have two with atomic warheads.”

“We could hit our own ships with
those,” Park told her. “Next time we’re in range send a full salvo of stasis
missiles. Let’s see what they do.” Iris played with her battle board and sent
off another four missiles. Then they were in phaser range again and the ship’s
guns started firing.

The phasers hit one of the
remaining Dark Ships and lit it up. The Dark Ship turned the same bright green
as
Tawatir’s
phasers, but were
otherwise unaffected. “Grav cannon,” Iris announced tersely. The ship shuddered
slightly, but in front of them a Dark Ship crumpled in on itself and then
exploded in a blinding yellow-white flash. “Why aren’t they shooting back?” she
wondered.

“Too busy with our fighters,
maybe,” Park replied. “Too bad we didn’t equip them with grav cannons.”

“Questo is doing that with the
next batch of fighters, we just got the first five off the line,” Iris told
him. “Grav cannon is recharging. Here come the stasis darts.”
 
Three of the stasis missiles malfunctioned. Instead
of continuing on toward their targets they started spiraling out of control,
flying wide of their targets. Only one continued on and destroyed the Dark Ship
it was aimed at. That left a single Dark Ship, but it turned and started away
at high acceleration.

“Iris,” Park commanded. “High
speed missiles!”

“No use,” Iris admitted. “That
ship is accelerating almost as rapidly as our missiles. They would never catch
up.”

“Fire one anyway,” Park told her.
“I don’t want them thinking we let them get away.”

“Done,” Iris told him.

“Park!” Marisea shouted suddenly,
“we have another Dark Ship coming up behind us.”

“Grav cannon,” Iris announced.
Park recalled that the gravity cannon fired both forwards and backwards to
balance the shock against the ship. “Firing again in four, three…” She never
reached zero.

They saw a flash of bluish violet
and then the
Tawatir
lost all power.
“We’re dead in space,” Tinns commented, working the controls on his board in
the dark. Even the screens had gone dark.

“Anyone got a flashlight?” Park
wondered. Just then the lights came back on. “That’s better,” he continued.
“How about our screens?” Nothing happened. “Marisea, call Ronnie if you can.”

“Park, let her work,” Iris told
him. “If she doesn’t get our stasis plating back up…” she let it hang
meaningfully, but after nothing seemed to happen, the bridge crew started to
relax.

“You’re right,” Park admitted. He
looked around the bridge and noticed as though for the first time that every
position had an assistant. “Packtikac,” He singled out Marisea’s second. “Do me
a favor and have a look below on the Engineering deck. Don’t get in anyone’s
way, but see if you can see how they’re doing down there?”

“Aye aye, sir,” Packtikac replied
with the click-clacks of his language instantly translated by a torc. The
Atackack communicator had only been off the bridge a few seconds before the
screens began to flicker and then came back on.

Outside Park and the others could
see the stars and the rapidly retreating shape of a Dark Ship. “Do we have controls
yet?” Park asked anyone could answer.

“You could,” Ronnie Sheetz’s
voice told him over the intercom, “but I need the engines offline for the next
thirty minutes. If not, they might just explode on you.”

“What?” Park asked. “Did we take
that much damage?”

“Park, the engines are cold,”
Ronnie told him and closed the connection.