swore. “It’s another Takaran warship,” she announced, her optimism falling along with everyone else in the room. “And it’s bigger than the last two.”
“How long until they can…”
Nathan didn’t have a chance to finish his question. “…We’ll be inside their weapons range in two minutes,” Jessica said.
“Time to safe jump?”
“Eight minutes,” Cameron answered. A split second later Marak spoke through his communicator, and the two remaining rebel ships that had been flying alongside the Aurora suddenly pulled ahead of them and angled to port on an intercept course with the third Takaran warship.
“You know, you could at least act like it was difficult to send your people off to die,” Nathan remarked, obvious anger in his voice. As expected, there was no response.
Nathan felt emotionally and physically exhausted. They had all been working for nearly eighteen hours now, and during that time his emotions had bounced from one end of the spectrum and back again at least a half dozen times. But he knew that he couldn’t give up now. He couldn’t ever give up. The stakes were just too damned high.
“Helm, turn us into the new target. Let’s bring our tubes to bear and give the enemy as little a silhouette as possible,” Nathan ordered.
“Coming to port, ten degrees and down slightly,” Cameron announced as she changed course. “Same speed, Captain?”
“Same speed,” he confirmed. “Jess, make sure all the rail guns are ready to fire as well. The only chance we’ve got is to blast our way through.”
“Yes Sir.”
Moments later, the rebel ships got close enough to launch their long range missiles at the third Takaran warship.
“Rebels ships are launching missiles,” Jessica announced. “Enemy is spinning up her point-defense screen. “Eight rebel missiles are on their way,” Jessica reported. “Impact in thirty seconds.”
“How many missiles do they carry?” Nathan asked Jalea.
“Four each.”
“They just fired their whole load,” he told Jessica.
“Takaran ship is firing missiles, but only two.”
“They’re either more conservative or they have better missiles,” Nathan decided.
“Rebels are launching decoys again,” Jessica announced. “We have got to get us some of those,” she whispered. “Rebel missiles have reached the enemy perimeter.” Jessica paused a moment before continuing. “Only two missiles made it through, impact in five seconds.”
Nathan watched the tactical display as the two lines representing the paths of the rebel missiles eventually connected to the symbol representing the Takaran warship.
“Impact.” Jessica checked her readouts on the enemy ship. “Only minor damage.”
A small orange and yellow fireball erupted on the main view screen. “One rebel ship has been destroyed. The other one is still advancing and is firing her flechettes.”
“Do you think our torpedoes will work any better?”
“Sure, if they get through. But that bastard’s got great point-defense systems.”
“Get firing solutions for all four torpedoes, Jess.”
“Yes Sir. Suggest we fire them consecutively, sir.” Jessica could see by the confused look on Nathan’s face that he didn’t know what she was talking about. “If we fire them all at once, they have to spread out to avoid knocking each other off course. That means they all hit the same point-defense flak wall at the same time. If we fire consecutively, with each one following the one in front of them, they all go through the same hole. If the first torpedo gets nailed, it’s blast will make a whole in the flak field for the next one to get through. Theoretically, that is. I mean, I’ve never actually done it before,” Jessica admitted sheepishly.
“Sounds good to me,” Nathan agreed.
“They’re firing missiles again,” Jessica added.
“Are we in weapons range yet?”
“Yes, wait…” Jessica double-checked her readouts before continuing. “Inbound ordnance! That last missile launch was at us! Tracking four!”
“I thought we weren’t in range yet?” Nathan snapped.
“Guess I was wrong?” Jessica admitted. “Not like I’ve seen a whole lot of Takaran warships before. Impact in two minutes.”
“Launch torpedoes!” Nathan ordered. “Then bring the turrets online, point-defense mode!”
“Firing one!” Jessica announced. Everyone watched as the first torpedo appeared on the left side of the forward view screen as it streaked past, turning to port as it departed.
“Firing two!” The second torpedo streaked across from the right side.
“Firing three!”
Marak leaned in closely to Jalea, giving her hand a squeeze as he whispered something in her ear. For the briefest of moments, the cold, pragmatic look in her eyes softened, turning sad. She turned and looked at him, respectfully, as he let go of her hand, after which he turned and left the bridge.
“Firing four!” They watched as the last torpedo streaked away. “Rail guns coming online, point-defense mode, firing all turrets.”
On the outside of the Aurora, in eight different locations along the upper side of the ship, doors slid open and rail-gun turrets popped up into view. Once fully deployed, the turrets once again raised their barrels and pivoted until they were pointed in the proper direction and began rapid-firing the special point-defense rounds. The turrets danced back and forth, as they attempted to fill in the gaps in the defensive field of flak left by the turrets that had either been damaged, or had not yet been installed.
“Point-defense perimeter established!” Jessica announced. “Torpedo one is, shot down. Torpedo two, also shot down.”
Nathan could feel his hope fade with each torpedo that was intercepted and destroyed before reaching its target.
“Torpedo three…damn!”
Nathan closed his eyes as he waited for the report on their last torpedo.
“Torpedo four…has made it through! Impact in five!” Jessica exclaimed. Suddenly, a warning indicator flashed on her tactical threat display. “Oh shit…Brace for impact!”
Jessica had been paying such close attention to their own torpedoes, she had failed to notice that one of the enemy missiles had made it past their own point-defense field. The missile streaked past the forward section of the ship, striking the upper portion of the main drive section just above the starboard torpedo tubes.
The force of the explosion rocked the ship, causing her stern to suddenly drop down sharply. On the bridge, it had nearly knocked them all off their feet. Nathan couldn’t help but wonder how Vladimir and his men were doing in engineering, which was far closer to the point of impact.
“Impact! Starboard edge of the drive section! Torpedo tubes two and four are damaged!”
“Propulsion is down!” Cameron alerted. “The impact is pushing us into a lateral spin! Attempting to compensate!”
“Bridge to engineering!” Nathan called out over his comm-set. “Vlad!”
“We’ve still got maneuvering!” Cameron added. “Course and speed are unchanged! ETA to safe jump, two minutes!”
“Captain! We’ve lost most of our rail-guns!” Jessica reported.
“That torpedo must’ve knocked out at least one of our reactors!” Nathan exclaimed. “Abby!” he shouted, spinning his chair around to face her. “Do you still have power!”
“Yes, all systems still show ready. I’ve almost got the sequence entered.”
“Captain!” Jessica reported. “Our torpedo! It took out their missile battery!”
Nathan looked at Jessica. “Nice shootin’.” He glanced at Jalea behind her, and noticed that Marak was no longer standing next to her.
“The last rebel ship made it through their defense perimeter!” Jessica announced. “He must’ve followed our
