Gianeto nodded in appreciation as well as assent. Though the defense lasers could eventually burn through even the fusion drive plates, they would hold up long enough for this to work.
“Now.”
At the Captain’s word, Bevins cut the drive field, the specified five seconds feeling more like five hours before the computer automatically reactivated it. Gianeto flinched as laser fire flared against the fusion drive plates just before the Eysselink field reformed, but he forced himself to scan the sensor input that had flowed into the system in the scant seconds that they’d been open to the rest of the universe.
“The enemy ship’s drive field is up,” Gianeto said. “Captain, he’s heading this way… I think he might be moving in to finish off the
“And we can’t even
“Lt. Bevins,” Drew Franks said suddenly, eyes widening as a thought sparked, “how quickly can you turn the Eysselink drive on and off?”
“Ummm…” Bevins stuttered, caught off guard. “Uh, I think, theoretically…”
“Commander Infante,” Franks snapped, hitting a control on his ‘link. “How quickly can you turn the Eysselink drive on and off?”
“One half second is the time it takes for the field to propagate,” she responded without hesitation. “The main power trunks would only be able to handle that sort of surge for a few tens of thousands of cycles though… maybe 30 minutes continuous before it blew.”
“Commander Gianeto,” Franks turned to the Tactical officer quickly, “is there any way to detect the enemy ship with the drive field up without our gravimetic sensors?”
“Yeah,” Gianeto said with a thoughtful nod. “This close to the planet, we should get some major radiation flares from the drive field interacting with the ionosphere… we can track it.”
“Lieutenant Franks,” Minishimi interrupted, her tone urgent and eager, like a hound on the scent, “I see where you’re going with this. Lieutenant Bevins, set up a program to pulse the drive on and off each half-second. Commander Gianeto, set up a sensor survey to run in that interval and find that damned ship. We need to get between them and the
As the two men went to their tasks, Minishimi glanced at Franks and nodded in appreciation. “You have quite a grasp of practical engineering. What’s your degree in?”
His mouth twisted in a wry grin and he suddenly looked very much his age. “Eighteenth Century English Literature,” he told her. “But as a desk jockey, I have lots of time to do research.”
“We’re up, Captain,” Gianeto reported after a nod from Bevins.
“Starting the field modulation,” Bevins said, wincing in expectation as he hit a control. Despite his fears, they felt nothing different as the Eysselink field began switching on and off in an eyeblink; the only difference was that a stream of data from the exterior sensors began painting a more complete picture on the Tactical display and the main viewscreens.
“There he is,” Gianeto said, seeing the Threat icon of the enemy cruiser crawling across the display. “He’s coming for the
“Communications,” Minishimi said, “any word from the
“She’s not answering my hails, ma’am,” Lt. Reno responded, shaking his head. “I’m not reading any transmissions from her at all.”
“From the thermal scans,” Gianeto put in, “her reactor is still down. She hasn’t even used maneuvering thrusters…” He frowned deeply. “Ma’am, I’m getting some oxygen leaks near the hangar bay too.”
“Right now we have to worry about that cruiser… and the laser,” Minishimi reminded him.
“Captain,” Franks said, “the
“I think we’ve just about run out of other options, Larry,” the Captain replied quietly. “Drop field long enough to launch every Shipbuster we have left on board and program them to target that cruiser once her field is down. At least that could keep her occupied for a while… maybe give us more time to recover.”
“Slaving drive field to Tactical,” Bevins said, anticipating her command. Gianeto felt a smile tug at the side of his mouth. The Helm officer wasn’t very experienced, but he was catching up fast.
“We have two Shipbusters left in the magazine,” Gianeto told the Captain as he punched in a series of commands. “I’ve programmed them to go into standby and target the enemy cruiser when he’s in the open.” He hesitated for a moment, double-checking his work. “Dropping field and launching now.”
They could all feel the ship lurch slightly as one of the huge missiles shot out of each of the weapons pods. “I hope they can’t track well enough from whatever they’re using to control the ground lasers to take out those missiles,” he said with a shrug as he reactivated the drive field. “The enemy ship is two minutes out, Captain,” he told her.
“Mr. Bevins,” Minishimi said, “put us in a position to intercept him but make sure we stay in place to shield the
It was only when he began coughing uncontrollably that Arvid Patel realized that he was still alive. When he pried open his eyes, he half expected to see pitch darkness, but there were still lights on the bridge. The chemical ghostlights on the floor never went out, of course, but to his surprise some of the control stations still seemed to have power, though the main screen and Tactical displays were both dark. Black smoke drifted slowly towards the ventilators, which seemed to be working at a much lower speed than usual, and with the clouds of electrical smoke floated bright red globules of blood…
Patel snapped to alertness as he realized what that meant, and he began working at his harness with numb hands. A low moaning sounded from the Tactical station and Patel glanced up to see Commander Pirelli cradling her head, in pain but apparently still intact. The Helm officer, Lt. Ghent, was awake and blinking his eyes to try to clear them, and Reno the Communications officer seemed to be recovering.
Lt. McElroy, the Engineering bridge officer, was floating limply in his harness, his mouth and eyes hanging open and blood droplets slowly floating away from his ear. The security guard who’d been watching him was breathing, but still unconscious and there was a trickle of blood from his nose. Captain Nunez… Estefan Nunez was clearly dead. Blood leaked from his ears and nose and even his eyes from the massive cerebral hemorrhages that the stress of the field intersect had set loose in his brain.
Patel groaned involuntarily, feeling a pain in his chest as if he’d been struck. “Oh God, Steve…” he murmured. Then he shook himself, forcing the shock and pain away. His fingers finally began to get feeling back and he managed to free himself from his harness, pushing over to the Captain’s station and hitting the control to ‘link with the auxiliary control room.
“Commander Sweeny,” he called. “This is Admiral Patel. Come in please, Commander Sweeny.” He waited for another few seconds and called again, but there was no response. He let out a deep breath and made a decision, switching the comm channel to Engineering.
“Commander Kopecky,” he said. “Are you there? Anyone in Engineering, please respond!”
“This is Lieutenant Christian,” a female voice responded, then broke into a pained cough that lasted several seconds before she went on. “The main trunk line blew… we have at least three dead-including Commander Kopecky-and a lot more wounded.” She paused again with a wet cough. “Including me.”
“This is Admiral Patel,” he said gently, trying to keep her as calm as possible. “What’s our status?”
“Sir, we have backup battery power, but we’ve got burnouts all to hell and gone from the power surge, so it’s not getting everywhere it should.” Another fit of coughing that made Patel wince. “The antimatter storage pods are all jettisoned and I can’t be sure, but I think the whole Eysselink field generator is trashed… I’m not even certain the drive nacelles are still attached to the ship, but if they are, it’s only by metal, not by any power trunks.”
“Can the fusion reactor be re-started?” He asked her urgently.
“Wait one,” she said.
“Sir,” Patel heard Pirelli speaking to him, her voice a pained rasp. He looked over and saw her unfolding a backup monitor screen from a recess in her station. It was 2D and only 40 centimeters across, and included an actual physical keyboard; but it worked, unlike the holographic display that it was replacing.
