“Good. I’ll back you up on navigation if I can.”
“Thanks, but I’ve seen your navigation skills,” Cameron jabbed, finally getting a smile to crack Nathan’s serious expression.
“Jess, I assume you trained for tactical at some point?”
“You bet,” she answered. Spec-ops was a branch of the Security division. And all spec-ops applicants had to have graduated as rated security officers before they could get accepted into the spec-ops training course. Jessica stepped up to the tactical station and looked it over like she was being reunited with a long lost favorite toy.
“What’s the plan, Skipper?” Jessica asked, giddy at being back behind the tactical console.
“First, we get the hell outta here and jump to someplace safe,” Nathan explained. “Then we beg, borrow, or steal whatever we need to get our ship fixed. Then we find a way to get this ship, and that jump drive, back to Earth as quickly as possible. If that means we have to deal with the devil, then so be it.” Nathan stepped away from the tactical station and moved forward, taking a seat in the command chair directly in front of the station. Cameron traded looks with Jessica before taking the helm directly in front of Nathan.
“Sound General Quarters.”
CHAPTER 9
“The rebel ships have exited the asteroid field,” Jessica reported from the tactical station.
“Any change in the Takaran ships?” Nathan could feel the tension in the room as they waited to see if the diversion would have its desired effect.
“Nothing yet, but there’s still a lot of the field still in their way. They may not see them yet,” she pointed out.
“Captain,” Ensign Yosef called. “The rebel ships are generating an unusually high radiation output from their propulsion systems.”
Nathan spun his chair around to look at Jalea. “They’re lighting themselves up?”
“To ensure that they will be noticed,” Jalea explained.
“Isn’t that an obvious tactic?” Jessica asked.
“To you and I, perhaps,” Jalea answered. “But the Takarans do not usually win their battles through intelligence. They prefer overwhelming force.”
Jessica smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
She knew it was usually much easier to outthink an opponent than outgun them. Especially if they had a tendency to think with their guns.
“I don’t,” Nathan added. They had already been through a pounding by Takaran guns, and he didn’t care to go through it again anytime soon.
“Well, it worked,” Jessica reported. “The closest Takaran ship just lit up their mains and is giving chase. At their current speed, they should intercept the rebel ships in three minutes.”
“What about the second ship?” Nathan asked. If they were going to make their escape, they would need both of the enemy ships to take the bait.
“No change.”
Nathan was becoming nervous, and had to fight to hide it from his crew. He knew that although they might be able to slug it out with one Takaran ship, there was little chance of defeating two of them, unless they got really lucky with a few torpedo shots.
“Doctor Sorenson,” Nathan said. “How long do you need to calculate our jump?”
“Maybe five more minutes. But it will take twice that just to manually key it into the event sequencer.”
“Sounds like something that should be done automatically,” he commented.
“This is just a prototype, remember?”
“How long will it take us to reach a safe jump distance?” This time he was asking Cameron.
“About ten minutes at ten percent thrust.”
“That’s going to be cutting it close.”
“The ship finally reports ready for battle, Sir,” Jessica reported.
“Good. Make sure the forward torpedo tubes get loaded.”
“I’m on it,” Jessica answered. “The Takaran ship is launching missiles at the rebels. She’s launched four, two per target. The rebel ships are breaking formation, they’re launching countermeasures, and jamming. They’re performing evasive maneuvers.”
“At least they’re not going down without a fight,” he observed.
“Whoa! I’m seeing four rebel contacts now!”
“What? Where’d they come from?” Nathan stood in alarm at the news.
“Beats the hell outta me!”
“They are decoys,” Jalea reported calmly. “Impossible to distinguish from the real ships.”
“And they’re working, Sir!” Jessica added. “If I’m reading this right, it looks like the decoys continued on course and the original ships veered away sharply! And the missiles are tracking the decoys! Damn! That was slick!” Jessica cheered, pounding the console with her hand. “Missile impacts! All four. And I’m pretty sure they only destroyed the decoys.”
Nathan was impressed by the ingenuity that the rebel pilots were displaying. And he couldn’t help but wonder if those decoys were one of the improvements that Jalea had eluded to earlier. “We’ll know in a moment,” he mumbled. Either the rebels were really good tacticians, or they had grossly underestimated their opponents. “Can those decoys maneuver?”
“Yes, nearly as well as the ships that launched them,” Jalea assured Nathan.
“The rebel ships, or decoys, I don’t know which yet, they’re turning to engage the Takaran ship,” Jessica continued. “The Takaran is opening up with her cannons. But it doesn’t seem to be slowing down the rebel ships.”
“I’m picking up new signatures from the rebels ships, Captain,” Ensign Yosef reported. “They’re enveloped in some kind of an energy barrier, EM mostly, but highly charged.”
“Some kind of shielding?” Nathan surmised. He looked at Jalea, who simply nodded, seemingly surprised that Nathan understood the concept so easily. The Aurora was designed to use shielding herself, but it was ablative in nature, designed only to reflect energy weapons away from them. They had nothing to stop solid projectiles from striking their hull. If these rebels did, then that was something that would be quite useful in the defense of Earth. And it made Nathan wonder what other technologies this region of space might hold that would be useful back home.
“Holy shit!” Jessica cried out, immediately turning red as she realized she had let the inappropriate expletive fly. “Sorry, Sir. But the rebels ships just unleashed a hellish barrage of something!”
“Cannon fire?” Nathan hadn’t noticed any cannons on the rebel ships.
“No Sir, too big for cannon launched projectiles. They’re like mini-missiles, or flechettes or something. Whatever they are, they’re pounding that Takaran ship!”
Nathan was standing now, as was Cameron. If two of the rebel ships could possibly take out a Takaran warship, then they might be able to escape without further damage. “Can they actually take him out?”
“I doubt it, Sir, they can’t possibly keep up this level of bombardment long enough.”
Nathan again looked at Jalea, who simply said, “They will not need to.”
“The second ship is changing course, Captain!” Ensign Yosef announced.
Nathan felt another surge of hope well up from inside him, despite his best efforts to keep his emotions under control and stay focused.
Jessica checked the second ship’s course, quickly plotting the ship’s probable destination. “She’s right. Looks like they’re taking the bait as well,” Jessica reported.
“Yes!” Nathan exclaimed excitedly, not caring if he did show emotion. “Time to intercept?”
“Five minutes,” Jessica reported instantly, having anticipated his request.
Nathan looked at Abigail, “Doctor?”
“I’ll be done with the transition plot in a few minutes,” she answered. She was not accustomed to performing
