Honor Bound

take some major damage if this occurs; we may even be destroyed. But if we don’t take this risk, we leave our homes and our families naked to the aggression of the madman Antonov.

“I took my oath to defend our world and our people and I will gladly put myself between them and the war’s desolation. I know that I can count on the same from each of you. Do your job well and make them proud.”

The Captain gestured to Mandel and the Comm officer cut the transmission. Estefan Nunez glanced at Patel almost involuntarily, the look of a student to the teacher that even years as a senior officer hadn’t burned out of his system. Patel nodded almost imperceptibly to him, feeling a surge of pride.

“Captain,” Pirelli said, “the enemy cruiser has ceased his braking burn and is accelerating at one g. And she’s changed course, sir… she’s heading straight for the Bradley.”

“They can’t be trying for a field intersect,” Nunez reasoned, frowning. “That would leave them wide open for a strike from us… with our field up, we’d destroy them in one pass.”

“I suppose that depends on how quickly they can recover from one,” Patel said, frowning with concern. “Steve, this whole journey, I’ve seen the enemy do things that I might call crazy, but never one so far I would call stupid.”

Nunez considered that for a moment and his expression hardened. “Helm, sound high-gravity warning and accelerate to two g’s. Engineering, prepare for possible drive field collision.”

“If we hit him, it’ll still take half our assets off the board,” Patel reminded him, his words concealed beneath the din of the acceleration warning klaxon.

“The Brad is an older design,” Nunez said, eyes fixed on the Tactical display. “It can’t take the hit as well as we can.”

“Going to two g’s,” the Helm officer announced and everyone was abruptly pressed back into their liquid-filled couches , the breath leaving their lungs in a choreographed whoosh that no one could hear for the roaring in their ears.

“Besides,” Nunez croaked, his voice filled with the strain of the increased weight, “can’t let the enemy call the shots.”

Patel didn’t respond. They’ve been calling the shots this whole time, he thought bitterly. Why should now be any different?

* * *

“What the hell are they doing?” Larry Gianeto muttered, watching the enemy cruiser burning towards them on the Tactical display.

“If I had to guess,” Joyce Minishimi answered, “I’d say they’re going for a quick kill.” She waved at the Earth, looming huge on the main viewscreen. “We’re about as low as we can go and keep our drive field up… they’re going for a field intersect, take out our field, knock out our power and let us burn up in the atmosphere while they assume a low Earth orbit.”

“And the Sheridan will have to drop their field to fire at them,” Franks finished for her, nodding grimly. “Which will leave them open to ground fire from the launch lasers.”

“Take us out of orbit, ma’am?” Bevins asked, a bit hopefully she thought.

“No, Mr. Bevins,” she said, a bit of amusement slipping into her reply. “That’s his secondary objective, I should think. If we leave orbit, he can take up a position to bombard our cities unopposed and force us to retreat.”

“So what are we going to do, Captain?” Commander Lee asked hesitantly. Minishimi read on Lee’s hard-angled face a struggle between a desire not to look afraid and a need to know what was going to happen to her ship. She sympathized with the younger woman, especially given the position in which they found themselves.

“We’re staying right here,” she told the XO. She nodded towards the icon of the Sheridan as it plunged closer to the enemy ship. “They’re trying to disrupt the attack… we need to be ready to back them up. Mr. Bevins, slave the drive field controls to Tactical. Mr. Gianeto, the second the enemy cruiser comes out of his drive field, drop ours and target him with the lasers and Gauss guns. Be prepared to raise the Eysselink field if… when we come under fire.”

“What if he reaches us before they reach him?” Lee asked so quietly that the Captain almost didn’t hear her.

“In that case,” she answered anyway, grinning fiercely, “I hope the Sheridan‘s Captain is giving the same orders.”

* * *

“Are we going to reach him in time?” Captain Nunez grunted against the acceleration, unable to get his eyes to focus on the Tactical display.

“Field contact in thirty seconds, sir,” Pirelli said, her voice as calm and clear as if she wasn’t being pushed down by twice her normal weight. “He’s a minute away from the Bradley‘s drive field.”

“Sound the collision alarm, Ms. Pirelli,” Nunez ordered. “Lt. McElroy,” he said to the Engineering bridge officer, “alert Commander Kopecky that we are twenty seconds from field collision.”

Patel saw the computer-simulated image of the enemy ship beginning to grow ever larger on the main display and felt an emptiness in the pit of his stomach, as if he were in a flyer heading straight for a mountain. He was so caught up in the roller-coaster feeling that he missed Commander Pirelli’s count-down until he heard her say “… one!” and then…

* * *

Larry Gianeto didn’t bother to announce it when the enemy ship’s field collapsed… he didn’t have to with Captain Minishimi, Commander Lee and Lieutenant Franks all blurting “Fire!” at the same moment. His left hand had been hovering over the field controls for ten seconds and he chopped it downward, then stabbed at the fire controls with his right, swiping his finger across the display to the icon of the enemy ship.

“Lasers and Gauss cannons firing!” He finally said, feeling the faint shudder from the 800 kilogram slugs exiting the coilguns at hypersonic velocities, imparting a slight backwards impetus to the huge ship. “Jesus!” He blurted, seeing a starburst flare from the enemy ship’s aft engine bell. “He’s got his fusion bottle up already!”

“That’s damn fast,” Franks murmured, shaking his head. His eyes tracked the Sheridan where it drifted a few thousand kilometers away, showing no signs of activity.

“He’s climbing into a higher orbit,” Gianeto bit off, using his Tactical override to take control of the ship’s maneuvering thrusters and track the cannon and laser fire to follow the enemy ship. “We are getting positive impact on him though… I’m reading an oxygen bleed…”

Then there was a flare of white light from the exterior camera feed and the view went fuzzy with electromagnetic interference for a moment before it cut to black. Gianeto swatted the field controls with his left hand and sighed out a deep breath as the Eysselink drive field coalesced around them.

“We took a half second’s fire from one of the ground based defense lasers,” he said. “Drive field is back up.”

“Damage control!” Minishimi snapped. “Give me a sitrep! Bevins, get us between the Sheridan and that laser now!”

“On it!” Bevins touched his controls and acceleration pressed them back in their seats once again. “Ma’am, I’m going from the position we recorded from before the laser strike, but I am not receiving any navigational data from the gravimetic sensors.”

“Nothing here either, Captain,” Gianeto reported. “The gravimetic sensor feed is inactive.”

“Damage control here, Captain,” a female voice came over the bridge speakers. “I can’t say how bad it is until we come out of the Eysselink field, but preliminary indications are that the exterior gravimetic sensor emitters have taken significant damage. No idea yet how long repairs might take.”

“We should be in position to shield the Sheridan now, Captain,” Bevins cut in. “Drive field to station keeping.”

“We’re flying blind,” Minishimi mused, frowning at the computer simulation on the main and Tactical screens. Those were nothing now but best guesses based on the last known readings before the laser had hit them. “Mr. Bevins, turn our fusion drive bell toward the laser; then, on my command, drop drive field for five seconds and then reactivate. Get me a 360 degree sensor reading during that second, Mr. Gianeto.”