Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) (13 page)

    “T plus two minutes,” Horyett said.

    “Bastards have launched!” Tollvyk
yelled.

    “Enemy One and Three have fired 40
rockets each towards the forward intercept…,” Horyett said.

    “Cut all power to engines,” Raptor
said.

    “What?” Flyptar was stunned.

    “Cut, damn it, cut,” Raptor shouted.

    “Energy cut to the engines,” Flyptar
said wiping sweat from his brow.

    “Forward interception point, T minus 1
minute,” Horyett said.

    Starship Conquistador started losing
speed as the engines no longer compensated for the micro black holes pull.

    “Switch energy to emergency
deceleration,” Raptor said.

    “SIR! SIR!” Flyptar was literally
jumping up and down. Barryett was gawking with eyes wide open at Raptor.

    “DO IT, DO IT,” Raptor yelled.    

    “Emergency deceleration engaged,”
Flyptar said.

    The Starship now literally flew
backward as the emergency deceleration system cut engines connection to rear
thrusters and reconnected to the  forward thrusters for immediate reversal. Not
only there was no energy to counteract the gravity weapons pull, the forward
momentum itself was being drastically drained.

    “Forward interception T minus 1
minute,” Horyett said.

    “Re-confirm,” Raptor demanded.

    “Re-confirmed,” Horyett said, “We are
falling back.”

    “Yes!” Tollvyk smacked his table in
joy.

    “Silent,” Raptor said.

    Then the collision warning alarms
started flicking off. The micro-black hole weapons were pulling both their
Starship from the front and the Starship in pursuit from the rear towards
themselves in the middle.

    “Collision with Enemy Two in T minus 30
seconds,” Horyett said.

    “Hold steady,” Raptor said then looked
at the Enemy Two on the display and said, “Come on you bastard, come on, blink,
blink.”

    “Enemy Two engaging emergency
deceleration, pulling a reversal roll,” Horyett said.

    “Now we fight!” Raptor said, “Switch
all energy to concentrated lasers.”

    “All energy to concentrated lasers,”
Flyptar said.

    Raptor saw Enemy Two performing a
reverse roll to escape the gravitational pull of MBH weapons. Its speed had
been drastically reduced and Raptor knew the lasers stood a chance of catching
it if directed at correct forward intercept.

    “Berserker, calculate three most
probable forward intercepts at light speed, send coordinates to Laser
Officers,”

    “Coordinates sent,” Berserker announced
next second.

    “Alvina, light the coordinates with
concentrated lasers,” Raptor said.

    “Concentrated lasers off,” Alvina said
as she and her officers thumbed down on their laser sticks.

    “Enemy One and Three Rockets destroyed
by mutual collision,” Horyett said.

    “Hold the cheers,” Raptor said. He did
not want any officers to get distracted just yet, “Colonel Tollvyk, Target
Enemy Two, Launch Repeller Rockets 151 to 300 and Launch Ober Rockets 1 to 25.”

    “Why Repeller?” Tollvyk asked.

    “Goddamn it, Toll, just launch,
launch,” Raptor said.

    “Launch, launch,” Antrar and Barryett
chimed in yelling. Now they were seeing Raptor’s attack plan more clearly.

    “Repellers 151 to 300 launched, Ober
Rockets 1 to 25 launched,” Tollvyk said, “blast that bastard, boys,” Tollvyk
said then chuckled.

    Next moment Starship Conquistador
smashed into the two MBH machines shattering them into tiny bits.

    “Normal gravity,” Horyett said.

    “Switch power back to forward
acceleration,” Raptor said.

    “Forward acceleration engaged,” Flyptar
said.

    “Plot a course bypassing Enemy One and
Three heading towards the next star system’s outermost planet,” Raptor said.

    “Plotting,” Overyk said, “course
ready.”

    Raptor was watching the display as the
rockets were headed towards Enemy Two. He saw that Berserker battle AI had done
its job and programmed the rockets so they came at Enemy Two from every which
way except the three forward intercept points where their laser was headed.

    Enemy Two maneuvered to avoid rockets
and reached the region in space where one of the concentrated lasers from the
Conquistador intercepted its hull right in the center and pierced the shield
and went out through the other side and then sliced an arc open as the
spaceship passed the laser in space.    

    Berserker had loaded its copies in the
computers onboard the rockets. The battle AI copies reprogrammed the rockets to
head for the opening in Enemy Two’s hull. Enemy Two launched its own
counter-rockets but they ended up intercepting most of the first arriving
Repeller rockets that served as decoys. Then Enemy Two’s laser defenses tried
to engage the Ober Rockets and managed to down 18 but the remaining 7 crashed
inside or near the opening created by the concentrated laser and unleashed 10
megaton of force each upon the spaceship. The massive forces blasted the entire
section of the hull near the opening out in the space and the shockwaves
created by the inner air ripped the spaceship inside out into multiple parts
flying away from each other.

    “Enemy Two destroyed,” Berserker
announced at the same time as Horyett.

    There was a loud cheer in the room and
Antrar stood up on his broken ankle and put a hand on Raptor’s shoulder, “I
could not have done that.”

    “Enemy One and Three are reversing
course and heading towards Enemy Two,” VC Barryett said.

    “They will be picking up the survivors
and that should keep them busy for a while,” Antrar said.

    “Time for us to put as much distance
between them and us as we can,” Raptor said, “Flyptar, accelerate to 7,000
lights.”

    “That should show them better than to
tangle with a Starfirian Starship,” Tollvyk said.

    “Don’t forget how close it was,” Raptor
said, “I have a feeling it is not over yet. I just hope our signal has reached
Bravo and the Sixth Frontier Fleet has mobilized in full force to reinforce
us.”

    “Com. Raptor,” Antrar whispered to him
while conversations broke out in the room as the tension was cleared, “I want
to talk to you, privately,” he spoke the last word so softly that Raptor barely
made it out through context.

    “VC Barryett, you have the command,”
Raptor said, “I will be in my quarters for a few. Alert me if Enemy One and
Three resume pursuit. Terminate the battle alert.”

    “Yes sir,” VC Barryett replied.

    “I will help you to your new quarters,”
Raptor said to Antrar and helped him down the stairs and he fetched a hover
mobile outside the command room.

Nolfus Berrum, the Commander of the
Nestorian Republican Guard, was pacing back and forth in the visitor room
outside of his office in the command tower located on the capital planet of
Nestor. Nolfus was tall and lean of face with intense eyes. There were two
large windows on the front wall and occasionally Nolfus looked outside to the
flight decks where airships were parked. He was holding his gloves in one of his
hands and would smack the other hand with them at times. There was a large sofa
for visitors’ right underneath the windows and an older man with a beard and a
round face sat on them.

    “I did not agree with that decision,”
Nolfus said still pacing the room.

    “I did not even have a say in it,” the
old man replied.

    “But it wasn’t right,” Nolfus said,
“Jag Manus was a dedicated officer just doing his job. It was not his fault
that he was assigned to that traitor Vice Chancellor Remus.”

    “What can I say?”

    “Aurus, you informed the Cloaked Man
about Jag’s visit to your company and his acquiring information that might lead
him to suspect you,” Nolfus said.

    “I asked him to give me money to help
me hide and not in some backwater,” Aurus Janus said, “the Cloaked Man is our
leader, if you couldn’t convince him otherwise, how can I? I am just a pawn.”

    “Looks like he is here,” Nolfus said
looking out of the window. He picked up a radio on a small table nearby and
said to the guards outside the building, “I have a guest coming to visit me. If
he speaks the password I have told you, let him in without carding his
identification and this visit doesn’t go in the records.”

    “Yes sir,” the guards replied over the
radio.

    A few seconds later they heard
footsteps come up the stairs and then the door opened.

    “Stairs!” their guest said, “when are
you going to get an elevator in this place?”

    “Just under repair,” Nolfus said.

    Their guest was dressed in a cloak from
head to toe and had a hood over his head. He took a glance at Aurus and then
turned back to Nolfus.

    “You should not have had Jag Manus
killed,” Nolfus said, “I could have handled him. I was his direct superior.”

    “Do you realize,” the cloaked man said,
“how close he was getting to Aurus here,” he pointed to Aurus, “and he has the
backing of VC Remus who can override your orders to him.”

    “Too bad the assassin you sent after VC
Remus couldn’t do likewise,” Nolfus said, “I told you we should have sent a
Republican Guard marksman.”

    “He was the best assassin in Nestorian
Republic,” cloaked man said, “It wasn’t his fault. He was operating in a
foreign territory and he didn’t know that Starfirians have some strange
protective field that can deflect laser. We all didn’t know.”

    “He tried to fire through a glass? That
fool!” Nolfus said.

    “Glass? Who said glass?” the cloaked
figure said, “It was air. The shield was invisible in the air.”

    “That’s impossible,” Nolfus said.

    “Starfirian have it,” cloaked man said,
“I have it through a trusted source. Speaking of the dastardly hordes, they
have dispatched a Starship our way.”

    “Single one?” Nolfus grinned, “We don’t
have much to worry then.”

    “Yes we do,” Cloaked man said, “Remus’s
plan is working as he planned even if it is not hewing 100% to his devious
mind.”

    “We should approach the Chancellor,”
Aurus Janus said.

    “How many times have I told you the
Chancellor is old, decrepit and gone senile,” cloaked man said, “I can’t reach
him, how will you? He didn’t realize that Remus is bringing Starfirians here to
stage a coup. Starfire Empire doesn’t like republics. Once their fleet is
parked out here they can install a King and Remus will be their choice. He did
not just go there to request help against this fictional enemy but also to
conspire with them.”

    “Fictional enemy?” Nolfus said, “They
are attacking our mining and exploration spaceships in the frontier space.”

    “Nolfus, Nolfus, my dear,” Cloaked Man
said, “You don’t realize that they are just some frightened aliens whom Remus –
Bakus Axis have stirred up and are reacting in fear and anger.”

    “You don’t show sympathy for our
enemies now,” Nolfus said.

    “Sympathy no, explanation for their
behavior, yes,” Cloaked Man said, “A war gives Bakus an excuse to concentrate
all the battleship commands in his hand and to declare martial law. When
Chancellor dies and he will any minute, they will use the excuse of war to
cancel elections and declare VC Remus the next chancellor. There is a legal precedent
for that.”

    “I can’t believe the entire Nestorian
Army would go for it,” Nolfus said, “more than half the battleships are under
the command of the generals who don’t care for Bakus and his barking.”

    “Exactly why Starfirians are coming,”
cloaked man said, “their spaceship won’t hesitate to take out battleships that
aren’t loyal to Bakus.”

    “A single one?” Nolfus was skeptical.

    “No, but once the battle is underway
they have an excuse under their protection contract,” cloaked man said, “Suppression
of insurrections clause. Their Starship will call in reinforcements and the
Sixth Frontier Fleet can wipe the floor with our battleships.”

    “But if they really wanted to interfere
in our politics what stops them from sending the Sixth Frontier and taking us
over?” Nolfus asked.

    “Telling that you are a policeman and
not a politician,”

    “Policeman? I am an army man,” Nolfus
protested.

    “Still,” cloaked man said, “They can’t
directly take us over because the Regional Star Commander at planet Bravo would
need his central government’s permission for that. The other Star Commanders
would flip out that one of theirs was getting so ambitious and trying to expand
his own domain far out across hundred light years. No, he needs an excuse to dispatch
the Frontier Fleet.”   

    “What are you going to do?” Nolfus
asked.

    “Me?” Cloaked Man said, “what can I do?
I am a politician and the Senate is not even in session. I was hoping it was
you who could save our republic.”

    “Me? How?” Nolfus was puzzled, “I don’t
command a single battleship. Nestorian Republican Guards are elite troops but
there are only a hundred thousand of us and almost all are on Nestor. We can
try to reach and commandeer the four battleships in Nestor’s orbit when Bakus makes
his move but the outcome is uncertain.”

    “Not battleships,” Cloaked Man said,
“just your troops.”

    “What is infantry going to do?” Nolfus
said, “Besides, we are just on this planet. Nestorian Army’s infantry controls
rest of the 59 planets.”

    “Exactly, you are on this planet, the
capital of the republic,” Cloaked Man said, “There is only a police force here,
no army troops. You can depose VC Remus, call new elections before Starfirians
get here and the new Chancellor will revoke the protection clause of the treaty
and send the Starfirians back.”

    “Bakus has battleships,” Nolfus said.

    “This planet’s defenses are strong
enough to withstand multiple battleships,” cloaked man said, “Once Starfirians
leave, Bakus won’t dare move alone.”

    Nolfus thought for a few seconds and
once again paced back and forth in the room then stopped in front of the
cloaked man.

    “You are asking me to stage a coup to
prevent another coup?” Nolfus asked.

    “Starfirians are coming,” cloaked man
said, “you are saving the Republic. Once you take the Senate you will announce
that you are calling new elections.”

    “That I will do,” Nolfus, “It’s not for
nothing that my troops are called Republican Guard. We protect the Nestorian
Republic itself. And if we have to do it against our own army, we will do it.
But what is my window of action here? I am not privy to the data about
Starfirian spaceship’s location and its estimated time of arrival.”

    “I can get that data,” cloaked man
said, “I will tell you the date that they will arrive at the capital to
register their formal presence with our Chancellor. You must move before they
reach Nestorian Space.”

    “I will,” Nolfus said then suddenly
realized the gravity of his words.

    “Don’t lose your nerve now,” cloaked
man said, “we have come this far to save our republic we can’t let it down
now.” He placed a hand on Nolfus’ shoulder and smiled at him. Then he motioned
for Aurus to get up and told him to accompany him. Both of them took Nolfus’
leave and left him standing there contemplating his thoughts.