The Tau Ceti Agenda

Chapter 22

October 31, 2388 AD

Earth space, 100,000 kilometers above Orlando

Saturday, 7:40 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

'Goddamn, what was that!' General Ahmi was tired of asking that question. The Phlegra rang with secondary explosions, and warning klaxons sounded.

'I think we were hit by the moon's mass driver,' the captain answered.

'Damage report?' Elle said impatiently.

'I'm still checking. The teleport is operating as planned.' The buzzing and popping from the QMT projection stopped, and the Moon filled the view of the bridge.

'Well, shut those damned alarms off. We're here.' Elle sat back at the empty station behind the captain's seat where she had been. She drummed her fingers against the console, waiting for Maximillian's report.

'Sublight engines are down. We are venting like mad from every seal.'

'Tell me some good news.'

'Uh, yes, General. The auxiliary drive is unharmed, and we can reroute to that one. I'm working it. Propulsion will be up in five, four, three, two . . . there.'

'Good. If aux is all that is left, she'll be going there. All personel are to report to that section of the ship and stop that bitch.' Elle slammed her fist into the screen of her console, cracking the cover. 'Stop her! Is that understood?'

'Yes, ma'am.'

'Full forward to Luna City. Ramming vector!' Elle ordered.

'Damnit, Jack, I'm cut off. I don't think I can get around to you. That last blast closed off several sections between us,' Nancy warned Boland. The hallway she had been going down was completely destroyed, and air was beginning to vent out of it. She had been lucky that whatever had just hit them hadn't crushed her in the process. So instead of being killed instantly, she was probably going to die slowly of hypothermia or from lack of oxygen.

'Roger that, Penzington. Can you get out of the ship?' Jack pushed his bot-mode Ares-T back up to its feet and looked out of the gaping tear in the ship's hull above him. The Moon loomed overhead, maybe a hundred thousand kilometers or so away. They were running out of time, and Jack had no real, good idea of how to stop the battle cruiser.

'I don't think so. I think I'm trapped in here.' Nancy looked in every direction but could see nothing but crunched metal. The ship had collapsed all around her, and it would take hours to cut her out with a laser cutter. There was no way that one mecha was going to dig her out in a few seconds.

'Hold on, we're coming to you. I'll blast you out if I have to.'

'Don't, Boland. I'm too deep in the ship. I did my job. I got some good info on the Separatists' plan. I'm downloading it to you now. I haven't even had the chance to read all of it. You read it and then figure out what to do with it. And don't trust anyone that you don't already trust completely, and be wary of them. I mean no one.' Nancy sat down in the corridor, listening to the air hissing through the cracks in the wreckage. She had done her job.

'That's defeatist talk,' Jack said. 'Now get your ass up and find a way out of there.'

'Sorry, Jack. I'm stuck here, and my air is running out.' She paused for a brief moment in thought. 'If you can't stop this ship, you have to get out with the data I just gave you. Now go. That data is more important than I am.'

'Come on, Jack.' Fish pulled her mecha through the gash in the ship to the exterior hull. The Moon continued to loom closer. At their present rate of acceleration, they would hit Luna City in less than a minute. Fish rolled her bot over into fighter mode and throttled toward Earth. Then her blue force system dinged at her. There were two supercarriers not far from their location. 'Jack, I've got two supercarriers Earthward.'

'I see.' Jack thrust his mecha up through the ship and outward into open space, where he toggled his bot back to fighter mode. He paused during the maneuver, only briefly, but long enough to look back at the Phlegra solemly. 'Godspeed Penzington, or whoever you are.'

Jack?

Yes, Candis.

Blue force tracker identifies the nearest ship as the U.S.S. John Tyler. Perhaps it can stop the battle cruiser.

Right.

'Captain! We've got a major electromagnetic disturbance Moonward, and a Seppy battle cruiser just appeared out of nowhere!' the CDC officer of the Tyler warned the captain over the command net.

'What the hell?' Captain Westerfeld looked confused.

'Sir, we're being hailed by the CAG of the Sienna Madira.'

'Can't be. Wally's ship is way out in the Oort somewhere.'

'Well, sir, his security codes validate.'

'Patch him through.'

'CO Tyler, this is Commander Jack DeathRay Boland of the U.S.S. Sienna Madira.'

'Commander, this is Captain Westerfeld. What can I do for you?'

'Sir, this battle cruiser is on a ramming vector for Luna City, and we can't seem to stop it! I thought you might