“Clever, how do we want to handle this?”
“Ron, I think we should follow Trent’s lead.”
“Hey guys, both of you are senior to me. One of you should be the overall commander.”
“Seniority doesn’t carry weight during space battles. Tactics and ingenuity trump seniority. You’ve demonstrated that you’re more effective in ship maneuvers than either of us. You’re in command and that’s an order.”
Trent laughed and said, “This is how we’ll go in; we’ll form an equilateral triangle with our ships separated by two thousand miles on each leg. That way we’ll overlap our beams and support each other in the event one of us is heavily outnumbered. Every ten seconds we’ll teleport a thousand miles and rotate the triangle forty five degrees. Every thirty seconds we will turn the triangle ninety degrees horizontally and rotate in the opposite direction. We’ll start the maneuver on my mark.”
Ron looked at his drive officer, “Lock the pattern in and start the clock with Commodore Moore’s signal.”
Jingos said, “We’ve locked the pattern and will implement it on your signal.”
“At some point we’re going to have to withdraw and we should do it together. The escape command is Bristone. We’ll jump to our predetermined escape coordinates and wait to see if we’re followed. Commodore Kune, if you will deploy the stealth probe.”
“It will be my pleasure, Sir.”
Trent sighed, “Thank you.”
“Get used to it. As an admiral you’ll hear it all the time.”
“I’d rather be here fighting.”
Jingos laughed, “We’ll all miss the next round if we’re successful here so enjoy it while you can.”
Trent looked at his Drive Officer and he nodded, “Set your chronometers on our departure and that will happen in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, execute!”
“Alright, Greyson, it’s show time.”
“We’re teleporting right behind them, Sir.”
“Keep your teleport system hot. If we’re seen we won’t have much time to escape.”
“You could use a psychic bubble.”
“Yes, but then we won’t know if our stealth technology is effective.”
“Stealth is active and we’re teleporting now.”
The Ship Master sat in his chair and fought the constant mind numbing boredom of watching ships land and leave with the finished production of Remid. This was a warship, yet there was no war to fight. He had instructed his Sensor Master to keep an active scan of deep space running at all times in the hope of something happening to break the monotony of guard duty. Destroying those two white ships had been a welcome distraction. He settled back in his chair and fought falling asleep. Then…
“Sire, I have three ships on the long range scan.”
He jumped up and sat erect in his chair, “Send me an image.” He stared at the three ships and thought he recognized them.
“Sire, those ships are exactly like the ones we destroyed in our last attack.”
“Get the Fleet Master on the channel. Power up all systems and prepare to jump to their location.”
“Why are you disturbing me?”
“Master, there are three ships exactly like the two ships I killed out in open space.” He looked at his board, “They are at the same location as the last encounter.”
“Take you ship out and eliminate them. Notify me when you’re done.”
The Ship Master looked at the Drive Master and nodded, “Now this was more like it.” He was about to learn that sometimes boredom is not always a bad thing. He thought about killing two of the ships quickly and chasing the third. He started to issue the orders as his ship broke into normal space but all he was able to get out was the first three words when the rest of his sentence was blown away by the heat of the beam that burned through his bridge and ignited his reactors. Even the reactors couldn’t explode when the following two beams burned the nuclear fuel out of existence. A fourth beam was fired and all the dust and debris were burned into gas.
“Gentlemen, let’s move a hundred miles starboard to get away from this cloud.”
“That didn’t take long.”
“All weapons are free. We should be receiving some uninvited guests momentarily.”
“Hey Trent, I sent an invitation to all of them.”
“What address did you use, Ron?”
“1234 Get Your Grump Fried Ave.”
“Maybe they aren’t sociable.”
“Give them a moment. They need to be dressed appropriately.”
The Fleet Master looked over the harvest inventory and took a pinch of orange powder and sniffed it. Oh that was so good. He turned back to his reports and noticed that the light on his communication panel from the ship that was sent to investigate the three ships was extinguished. That was odd. He pushed a control toggle and sent a query. No response. Something wasn’t right. He punched his board and sent the coordinates of the three ships to a ten ship group. “Tell me what’s going on out there.”
“I’ll contact you as soon as we arrive.”
The Fleet Master watched his board and saw all ten lights on his panel go out in less than three micro units. He stood and hit his main alarm and sent the coordinates out to the quick response units. He looked at his Ship Master, “Take me one light year from these coordinates and feed the view to my display.”
The Empire’s Ships had moved another eight hundred miles starboard to clear the huge cloud of vapor caused by the destruction of the ten Black Ships that had jumped in on them. The three ship’s beams fired so fast that all ten were dead in less than three seconds. “Alright, the party is about to start. I’m sure the band will arrive with the next group and we’ll have the opportunity to show our dance moves. Start the rotation now and listen for the escape signal. I would suggest a beam width of fifty miles and don’t be afraid to sweep up the floor around you.”
Jingos and Ron looked at their Weapons Officers and they nodded that they heard the order.
One moment the three ships were alone in empty space and the next moment they were surrounded by a thousand Black Ships.
Trent watched his display carefully and saw that half of the Black Ships were close to Jingos’ Ship. “Sweep to the top of the formation.”
As the three ships fired a wide white beam and moved it across the space surrounding their formation, they rotated forty five degrees, and the five hundred ships surrounding Jingos’ ships were caught in a cross fire between two Empire Ships as they rotated. All five hundred were disintegrated and the three ships rotated again and eliminated the remaining ships. Trent heard his Drive Officer yell, “Going horizontal, Sir.”
“Trey, it looks like you were right. The current model of Black Ships can’t stand up to our beams.”
“Greyson, keep your attention on your scanner. We need to see if we’re detected.”
“I’ve felt several active scans pass us. If they can see us, they would have sent a ship in the last group to our location.”
“I don’t care at this point. Keep your attention on the scanner and have your recorders gather the view of the battle site. You can watch it later.”
“Will do.”
Trent watched his display and said, “More incoming; continuous firing of the beams.”
Each of the three white ships had six huge beams sweeping space around and inside their formation. “How are the collectors holding up?”
“We’ve been hit seventy four times by one of their main beams. The Collectors are still in the blue.”
