The Heart of Matter: Odyssey One (41 page)

He and the rest of the bridge crew had managed to crawl into their vacuum suits some time earlier, but none of them had either their helmets sealed or their gloves on, as both of those would reduce the effectiveness of their control over the shipboard systems.

In space war, there were long periods of time, even during the most ferocious firefight. Time to think, time to panic, time to die, even—all before the enemy weapons could even reach your position. But like in any form of combat, there were also short scant seconds of pure, unadulterated panic.

In those seconds, time was everything, and suddenly, you didn’t have enough of it anymore. The bridge crew wore their vacuum suits, as per regulations, but kept their hands free and eyes clear so they could make better use of those few rare seconds they sometimes had to endure.

If a shot burst close enough to the bridge to cause explosive decompression, they were probably dead, anyway. Otherwise, the rate that atmosphere would escape from any survivable
leak would give them all plenty of time to don their gloves and rack their helmets shut.

“Aye, Captain,” Waters replied, tapping in a few last commands. “Firing.”

The bridge filled with the distinctive snap/whine of the superconducting capacitors discharging, then being recharged with power from the reactors, and the forward lasers burned forth, lighting the way as another barrage of pulse torpedoes spat out into space.

In space, they say no one can hear you scream.

That is something that only holds true for those species, like humans, who rely on the vibrations through atmosphere to conduct what they refer to as sound. Other species, especially those born to the harsh environment of space, hear things in other ways.

For the Drasin, a scream is a thing of raw animal fury, however, and never something as draining as terror. So when the scream of one Drasin ship crossed the void and alerted the other to a known danger that had now become intolerable, the tactical situation was even more muddied for the lead ship.

The sheer malevolent scarlet of the target it was tracking was anathema to the entity, as it was to the entire hive. It
must
be destroyed. The reaction was as simple and unavoidable as the jerk of a human knee when tapped with a hammer.

Survival wasn’t of particular concern, except that the numbers of the Drasin hive were still building, and now was not a time to lose ship minds so easily.

So instead of continuing on to hammer the hated crimson band, the injured ship hesitated for a moment in space.

That hesitation cost the ship mind, and the hive, when it was suddenly forced to deal with another problem that compounded its dilemma. First, a low-powered beam of coherent light struck its hull, confusing the mind for several seconds as it tried to determine the reason for the beam.

A moment after that, the beam suddenly leapt up ten thousand fold in strength and began to heat up the damaged hull. Again, the situation was confusing. The beam, though stronger, was not appreciably dangerous, as the majority of its energy was being radiated away, so the Drasin ship mind calculated the odds for several moments instead of maneuvering.

Those moments proved fatal.

The moderately warm beam shifted frequency suddenly, this time dumping all of its energy into the armor and suddenly vaporizing several cubic meters of it every second.

Instinctual instincts kicked in then, and the Drasin leapt away from the beam, accelerating under all available thrust to avoid the searing energy.

And it flew right into a second burst of those deceptively low-powered projectiles, and the ship mind had only a few seconds to scream its own rage before it was blotted out by the malevolence of the crimson band.

NACS ODYSSEY
Ranquil System

▸“TARGET ELIMINATED.” Waters’s simple pronouncement was filled with deep satisfaction as he calmly kept plotting out the vectors on the other target.

Eric examined the plot, one ear on the reports, but his mind focused more on what might happen next. The enemy only had so many options available to them, given their weapons and maneuvering abilities. He just had to outthink a completely alien intelligence.

“The Primmy got the other one, too,” Winger announced. “I’m reading a powerful thermal bloom from its position. Consistent with a Prim laser strike.”

Eric nodded. “Destroyed?”

“Uncertain, Captain.”

“Understood. Daniels, take us in closer to intercept the second ship. If it is still kicking, I want it put down before we have to deal with its friends.”

“Aye, Captain. Adjusting course now.”

PRIMINAE VESSEL HERALC

▸“HIT!” SERRA ANNOUNCED, flushed with a fierce sort of elation.

Kierna nodded grimly, forcing down his own bout with the bloodthirsty emotions he’d come to know so well over the past few weeks. “Hit it again.”

“Yes, sir!”

PRIMINAE VESSEL VULK
Ranquil System

▸“CAPTAIN, I AM reading two massive energy readings from the Drasin cruisers. I believe that they have been struck by the
Odyssey
and the
Heralc
.”

Johan Maran nodded, watching the projections himself.

The energy readings they were detecting from this range were, or should be, enough to ensure that the Drasin ships were dead and gone, but so far, neither the
Odyssey
nor the
Heralc
had turned from their targets.

“They’re both firing again, sir.”

Indeed, they were. Flashes of energy colored his screens, denoting the destruction of any remaining remnants of the Drasin threat those two ships might have posed.

That only left the two chasing up behind the
Vulk
, then.

“Reverse thrust,” Johan ordered. “Take us around to intercept the remaining two enemy ships.”

COMMAND BUNKER
Ranquil