Authors: Evan Currie
She turned off the ship wide and flipped open the channel to the Admiral.
“I heard,” He cut her off before she could speak, “We’re preparing now, and I’ve already issued similar orders to the group. They’re linking into the battle network now, you have tactical command.”
“Thank you Admiral.” Kay said, sweating. She had never believed that she would hear those words from anyone, let alone an Admiral in a potential combat situation. “I have tactical command.”
He nodded, and she could see him look aside for a brief moment, “What is our maximum acceleration, Captain?”
“In fighting trim, Sir?” She asked, then shrugged as she went on, “Ten Gees... maybe fifteen.”
“I’m plotting overtake, Kay,” He said softly, “and my numbers say they’re going to take us one hour from the jump point.”
She only had to glance at the repeater plot on her left to confirm the numbers, “Aye, Sir.”
“Captain Monroe won the fleet speed trials last year, didn’t he?”
She hesitated, but nodded, “Aye Sir. Monroe and the Majesty’s Crew took top honor’s Admiral.”
“I’m ordering Monroe and the Majesty to go ahead, Captain,” Jorgen said after a moment, “We will turn and meet the unidentified ships.”
She nodded, then hesitated. “Sir, may I suggest shifting your flag to the Majesty.”
He actually chuckled, shaking his head, “I don’t think so, Kay. You’re stuck with me.”
“Aye, Sir.” She replied grimly, “Standing by to flip the ship.”
*****
“Do you understand the orders, Captain?”
Alexander Monroe stared at the large screen and the image of the Admiral for a few seconds longer than he probably should have, his mind trying to rewrite the orders he had just received into something more palatable. His mind failed miserably.
“Aye Sir,” he said, voice dull and speaking by rote. “Orders received and understood.”
“Good. Sweet out.”
The screen flickered back to the large scale echo of the fleet movements on Monroe’s own Tactical repeater, and for a long moment silence reigned in the Bridge of the HMSV Majesty DJS7. Monroe took that moment to reorder his thoughts, then his voice cut into it, startling the others who had listened in from their shock.
“You heard the Admiral, prepare for emergency acceleration.” He snapped, opening a computer screen and tapping in calculations.
The bridge bustled into action around him, voices suddenly seeming to talk at once as the people got things cleared with their departments.
“Now hear this, Now hear this,” The First Officer’s voice echoed over the speakers a second later, “All hands, prepare for emergency acceleration. This is not a drill. I say again, prepare for emergency acceleration. This is not a drill.”
Monroe let it all happen, his people were professionals and they were racers on top of it. The Majesty had won the fleet speed trials three years running, and that was a matter of pride to the people on her. Speed trials in space weren’t about the equipment, after all, they were a measure of the men and women on board each ship.
Pretty much all the ships ever built by any Earth Government were capable of speeds that would crush a human to death in seconds, so the challenge of speed trials wasn’t in how fast the ship could go. It was in how fast the crew could stand to let her go and still be in shape to work when they stopped boosting.
“Helm, give me a least time for the closest jump point.” Monroe ordered, noting the Squadron moving on his tactical repeater.
“Aye Captain. Shooting it over now.”
The numbers appeared on his screens a second later, and Alexander nodded. “Good enough. Are we secure for acceleration?”
“Navigation is green!”
“Labs are green!”
“Tactical is green!”
“Medical is green!”
“Duty boards are Green, Captain!”
“Roger that,” Monroe replied by rote, “All boards are green... Fire pulse drive.”
“Firing.”
A low rumble echoed through the Majesty just moments after the order as two pellets of material slammed into each other deep in the Iron-Nickel drive chamber. They self annihilated, spewing energy into a spontaneously growing foam mass that was being pumped into the drives, vaporizing the materials and spewing the result out the back.
The reaction slammed them back into their acceleration couches as they spun on their axis, aligning with the direction of the thrust. A few seconds later another blast slammed them back into their seats a second time, and then another just after.
“One gee accel and climbing, Captain.”
“Adjust VASIMR drive to Fourteen Gees.”
Someone gulped audibly on the bridge, but the Ensign at Helm just nodded, “Powering VASIMR drive.”
*****
“The Majesty is pulling away, Admiral.”
Sweet nodded as his acceleration couch pivoted on its axis, keeping his back to the acceleration of the USS Los Angeles DDJ 101. He could see the Majesty pulling away at five gees and climbing rapidly, and wished the crew of the Los Angeles’ sister ship the best of luck before he turned his attention back to the unknown targets that were closing at insane acceleration levels.
On the main bridge of the Los Angeles, Captain Kay Richards was doing much the same thing, eyes watching the hundred and ten Gee acceleration of the unknown ships with trepidation. They were so far beyond what the ships in USV Task Force Two were capable of that just the sight of them was daunting.
“Reorientation complete, Captain.”
“Fire Pulse drive. One Gee Accel.” She ordered, “Bring all forward targeting sweeps to full power and charge weapon’s capacitors.”
“Aye Captain. Shall I unlock the guns?”
“Negative.” Kay replied, “All ships are to maintain weapons secure.”
“Aye Aye Ma’am.”
Kay glanced down, then plotted a diverging course for the task force to apply, wanting to keep her command spread out a bit more than it had been. The order went out over the battle network instantly, and the ships began to spread apart as the red light on her energy weapon mounts changed to yellow.
“Unknown vessels have accelerated!”
“How fast!?”
“One hundred fifty Gees and climbing!”
Kay swore under her breath, “plot intercept!”
The numbers were updating even as she gave the order, though, and they didn’t look good. The unknown ships were going to sweep right through their position at almost forty percent the speed of light, and continue on to intercept the Majesty well short of the jump point.
“Active locks forming up! We’ve got fuzzy locks on the lead ship... maybe seventy percent.”
Kay ignored the report, knowing that the lock would firm up a lot as the ships hurtled together. She was trying to decide if she should recommend to the Admiral to go weapons free, despite the fact that they still had zero identification on the bogeys that were barreling down on them. If those ships belonged to the Chinese it could be a nasty political mess to open fire on them.
Of course, if those ships belonged to the Chinese, Kay was a painted spider monkey.
“Give me a missile lock, full active sensors. Let them know they’ve been painted!” She commanded.
“Aye Ma’am.”
The powerful targeting suite of the Los Angeles was a combination of multiple transmitters, ranging from old style AEGIS-X RADAR to Microwave and more advanced Casimir Doppler Pulse Ranging systems. The CDPR System was relatively low powered, but had the advantage of being FTL based, capable of producing an instantaneous response.
“Hard locked!”
“All stop!” Kay ordered, “Steady your aim, people. It’s their move next.”
“All stop, Aye ma’am.”
The pulse acceleration from the drive system died out, leaving a quiet through the ships that was almost palpable. Kay could hear breathing from all around her, and could imagine it through the ship. The tensions rose as the unknown ships spread out slightly on the plot, two of them suddenly cutting their acceleration while the third pushed on.
They made their move, She thought, they’re testing us. But what’s the correct response? What do they want to see?
The Los Angeles suddenly groaned and pitched to port, slamming Kay and her crew to the side, alarms blaring to life.
“Helm!” Kay snarled, “What the hell...!?”
“All thrusters read clear! That wasn’t us!”
Kay suddenly paled, one of the items in the intel they’d retrieved from Sergeant Aida floating to the front of her mind.
Gravity manipulation
.
“Priority Command to the fleet! Re-designate bogeys one through three to Bandits One through Three! Weapons Free! I say again, Weapons Free!” Kay called, hands punching open a line to the Admiral, “Admiral, I think they just-”
“I concur,” He cut her off, “Assume they are hostile.”
“Show me the lock on Bandit One.” Kay growled, bringing the Los Angeles’ torpedoes and energy banks fully online as she opened a command channel to the local battle network. “Delaware, Guardian Spirit, and Sierra, Fire when ready.”
The order came a moment too late it seemed a second later when alarms howled through the squadron as the Delaware’s computers began to wail. The Los Angeles swung about again, like some invisible hand was batting it around like a cat’s toy, but this time the Helm was ready for it and they began compensating.
“Put the Delaware on Screen! Captain Timmons! Do you read me!?” Kay yelled over the din, “Captain!?”
The image of the Los Angeles Class destroyer appeared a second later, floating quietly in space as if nothing was wrong. For a moment, between the beats of their hearts, the observers wondered if it was a computer error.
Then the Delaware shuddered, and the two foot thick armor plating that cast the big ship from stem to stern seemed to shiver from the distance. It buckled amidships a second later, the heavy armor pleating like the folds of a dress, and Kay watched in horror as the stem and stern of the Los Angeles’ sister ship began a long journey to meet each other. It crushed like a beer can before their eyes, accelerating toward the end, then there was a flash of light and the screens went dead to protect them from damage by the sudden flare of light.
“Radiation alert! Her plant must have blown!”
Kay shook her head, not believing it for a moment. The Fission plants on the Los Angeles class destroyers didn’t blow like that, they couldn’t. That had been something else entirely.
“Hard lock! We have a hard lock!”
“Fire!” She snarled, snapping out of her shock. “All weapons, all ships! Fire!”
On the flag bridge, Jorgen watched the lines reach out from the remaining ships of the squadron, each one indicating a missile or beam launching from one of the Los Angeles Class destroyers, toward the onrushing vessel. It was an awesome sight, but he wondered if it would be enough. His fingers danced over his console controls as he opened a tight beam to the departing Majesty.
*****
“Holy shit.”
The curse echoed across the bridge, sounding over the throbbing power of the drives, as the crew panted under the force of acceleration and watched the Delaware vanish from their plot. The flare of nuclear fire reached the Majesty entire seconds after the event had happened, and Monroe honestly didn’t know what the hell was going on, but suddenly the fact that he was running for safety felt even worse than it had a moment earlier.
Or it would, if he thought he would reach safety.
He wouldn’t, that was obvious, if the remaining ships of the Task Force weren’t able to stop the onrushing Juggernaut that was screaming through the black coming right at them. He’d done the math, even the Majesty’s crew wasn’t that good.
A light lit up on his command screen then, however, and he looked away from the destruction to see what it was.
A direct line from the Los Angeles, he noted with a frown. His brow furrowed as he opened it up, then smoothed as he recognized the contents. The Admiral had started to dump everything the task force was picking up directly into his computers.
Data that was going to be worth more than all the Uranium in ten solar systems, unless Monroe was very much mistaken.
He swallowed, glancing down at his numbers again, then he reached up with great effort, opening a private channel to the Helm.
“Hey Jacky,” He said softly, using his implants to talk straight to her.
“Sir?” She asked, glancing over her shoulder with taxed pain as she panted.
He licked his lips, “Can you rig an automatic jump?”
He could see her pale across the bridge, the implications sinking in almost immediately, but she nodded weakly.
“All the way home?”
She shook her head, “Too far. We’re three jumps from Earth, at least.”
He nodded, he knew that, but he could wish.
“Where’s the closest friendly ship?”
“One jump?” She asked, “Signi Major. Survey ship there, won’t be clear for at least another month.”
He nodded, “Program it. Don’t screw up.”
She gave him a sour look, “Aye Captain.”
Alexander Monroe took a deep breath, then powered down all nonessential systems and rerouted everything to the VASIMR drive. Those actions were quickly noticed by others around the Bridge, of course.
“Captain? My board is showing we’re half blind...”
“What the... lab computers just shut off! There were experiments running...”
“Captain! What are you doing!? The VASIMR drive is running in the red!”
“We’re not going to let them catch us.” Monroe said then, looking around the Bridge with a rock solid glare. “Am I understood?”
He was, he could see it in the fear their eyes showed, and the sudden loss of color in their faces. Even Robert Calsey, his Engineer and the blackest man Alexander had ever met, looked pasty ill. He gave them a moment to object, though, and not one of them did. He looked over at them all, silent as they strained to look back at him, and then simply nodded.
“Jump plotted, Sir.” Jacky panted out, voice straining as she fought for each breath under the heavy acceleration.
He didn’t answer, but lifted his hand painfully to rest it on the thrust override. “Godspeed and fair journey.”
Then he pushed the VASIMR controls all the way to maximum power and the thrum of the ships drives exploded into an overpowering rumble that slammed him hard back into the seat. He regretted for an instant not having warned the crew, but they could have done nothing to prepare themselves anyway.