The Tau Ceti Agenda

'I've got a hyperspace conduit opening up about ten thousand kilometers away, XO. That is probably them,' the STO replied.

'CO Madira? This is CO Blair. You copy?' Fullback said over the command-net channel.

'CO, CDC!'

'Go, CDC.'

'Captain, we've got massive electromagnetic signatures building up over the Seppy facility. I think there's a teleportation occurring.'

'STO concurs with those readings, Captain. And the Madira just came out of hyperspace right beneath it!'

'Roger that, CDC. Roger that, STO. Madira! Do you copy?'

'CO Blair. CO Madira. Good of y'all to join us, Fullback. Watch out for the mass driver; it will be recharged in three minutes and twelve seconds. I'm having my STO synch up our clock to you. Be advised that we are dead in the water. Aux prop is at least five to ten minutes out, and we just did our last jaunt for a while, I'm told.' Captain Jefferson's voice sounded a bit strained over the net. Sharon needed to give him some good news, but right now that wasn't about to happen.

'Wally, in case you haven't noticed, there is a QMT disturbance forming less than ten kilometers above you. Is there anything we can do to help?'

'Yes. Knock out that damned mass driver, and then get your ass down here.'

'Roger that, Madira. Good luck, Wally. Blair, out.'

'Gunnery Officer Blake, do you have a target yet?'

'Nothing specific, Captain.'

'Captain! I've got a reading on the power source for the driver. There is signigicant buildup about a kilometer deep in the crust of that thing.'

'That's too deep to get at with DEGs, CO,' the XO replied.

'Where is the throat?' Sharon leaned back in her chair, watching the battle thousands of kilometers below them raging in her mindview. And the large disturbance over the teleportation facility continued to grow and grow for a few seconds more, and then there was a large flash of light in the sensors. The next thing she knew, the DTM was pinging new targets and painting the area with big red dots.

'Looking for the throat, ma'am, but until it fires, we probably won't find it,' the STO responded.

'Understood.'

'CO, CDC.'

'I see the bogies below, CDC.'

'Aye, ma'am. Just thought you'd want to know that we just had a Seppy hauler, three battle cruisers, and a couple frigates pop into normal space down there.'

'Thanks, CDC.' Sharon noted that the new red dots in her mindview had new labels on them, explaining what they were.

'Okay, Nav, jaunt us out into the line of fire of the last mass driver shot at the Madira bow-first. That will put us just a few thousand kilometers from the engagement zone. You have the coordinates.'

'Ma'am?'

'Well, we ain't gonna find them until they shoot at us.'

'Uh, yes ma'am. Prepping jaunt systems.'

'As soon as we take the first hit, or before if you can manage it, punch the jaunt drive. Understood?'

'Roger that, ma'am.'

'Okay, we've got more than two minutes to kill here. Somebody, find us some targets to shoot at.' Captain Walker made a bright, toothy smile at her bridge crew, hoping to spark an idea.

'Well, Captain,' the COB started between sips of coffee. 'If we ain't got nothing to shoot at up here, why not shoot at something down there?'

'Damned good idea, Bill.' She turned her chair slightly toward the gunnery officer. 'Ensign Blake, pick any enemy targets below and fire at your discretion.'

'Yes, ma'am. It'll be like shooting fish in barrel, whatever the hell that means,' the gunnery officer replied.

'Jaunt coordinates ready, Captain.'

'Captain Jefferson! We just had a Seppy hauler, three battle cruisers, and a couple frigates materialize in normal space about ten kilometers straight up, sir,' the STO reported.

'Roger that, STO. Gunnery Officer Rice, target those bastards with everything we've got.' Wallace spun his chair toward the air boss's station. 'Air Boss, where are the rest of the fighters now?'

'Well, sir, we let them out just before we jaunted through hyperspace, and even at max speed, they are still about four minutes out.'

'Goddamn, what a pickle,' the XO grunted. 'Sir, I'm getting reports from all over the ship. Whatever the hell Engineering did to give us that last jaunt blew out almost everything but the DEGs.'

'Well, then, keep firing them.' This was about as grim as Wallace had seen it get. The Madira was wounded badly and floating adrift in space with no structural integrity field