“That makes sense in a Russian kind of way,” Minishimi mused. “If they have enough to spare…”
“Should we launch again, ma’am?”
“Not yet, Commander… no use throwing good money after bad. Let’s see what happens. How long till their missiles intercept?”
“Not long, ma’am,” he temporized, checking the readings. “Ten minutes, twenty four seconds.”
“What heading are the enemy ships following?”
“Two of them are changing course to follow us, ma’am. One is breaking from the others and seems to be heading into planetary orbit.”
“Helm,” Minishimi snapped urgently. “Immediate drive cutoff. Communications, get a message to the patrol shuttles and to the landing party that they have possible incoming enemy spacecraft. Tactical, target the ship heading for the planet and fire off four Shipbusters, overwhelm their defenses.”
“That will only leave us with four, ma’am,” Gianeto reminded her as her officers scrambled to obey.
“Understood, Commander, carry out the order.”
“Drive shutting down,” Witten said loudly, and the apparent gravity disappeared, sending stomachs lurching throughout the ship.
“Launch ports open, missiles running out,” Gianeto announced, drowning out the voice of the Communications officer on the other side of the bridge trying to hail the shuttles. An alarm sounded from the Tactical station, one Minishimi had never heard before outside of a drill. “Ma’am, they’re targeting us with a weapons laser… it’s extreme range right now, not penetrating the ship’s armor. Looks like it’s a continuous wave weapon, probably a gas laser, nuclear powered. Launching missiles now,” he added, hitting the control. They all felt a significant jolt as the four weapons were ejected from the ship. “They’re away. Laser is causing significant heating on the forward hull, ma’am.”
“Communications?” Minishimi demanded.
“Message delivered,” Lt. Higgs reported from her station.
“Reinitializing drive field,” Witten shook his head, blowing out a breath. “Reestablishing course.”
“Missile drives have ignited,” Gianeto told her. “The first flight is closing on target, and the countermeasures are still inbound.”
“We are clear of lunar orbit,” Witten said. “Drive field set at station keeping, negative g burn coming.” Minishimi felt herself coming up against her seat restraints as their acceleration ceased, and with it the faux gravity. There was a warning klaxon and then there was a brief, punishing burst in the opposite direction that pushed her forward against the restraints as the drive field braked them at three gravities for a couple minutes to slow their forward velocity before they were once again in zero gravity.
Minishimi suppressed an urge to chew at her lip as the minutes dragged by… space battles required patience and steady nerves. She had the latter and could fake the former.
“Shipbusters are approaching countermeasures,” Gianeto finally reported. “It looks like the missile AIs are attempting evasive maneuvers, but I don’t think they’re gonna’ have enough time… no, the first of them just detonated. Jesus, that’s a big blast! Gotta’ be twenty megatons!”
“Commander,” she admonished quietly.
“Sorry, ma’am,” he apologized, abashed. “There’s the second detonation, though… now the third. Sensors are pretty much blinded by the flash, it’s gonna’ be a second…” He hesitated, then shook his head, frowning with disappointment. “Damn it, I was afraid of that. The first wave of Shipbusters are slag, ma’am. The second flight is still on target. The bogie heading for the planet has launched two countermeasures… that may be all she has. The other two bogies are still heading our way… no further launches from either of them. Orders, ma’am?”
“No use wasting any more Shipbusters,” she reasoned, “or time. Helm, intercept course… get us to weapons range so we can get this over with.”
“Aye, ma’am,” Witten said, “initializing one g acceleration.”
“Estimate five minutes to effective Gauss gun range,” Gianeto announced after a quick calculation. “Ten minutes, thirty five seconds to effective laser range.”
“Tactical, plot me a targeting package and charge capacitors,” she instructed.
“Charging capacitors, aye.” Gianeto worked the holotank controls, plotting firing solutions for the approaching Protectorate ships. “Ma’am, the larger of the two ships is moving into a blocking position for the other.”
“Target the leader first, then… we can deal with the trailing ship afterward.” She wasn’t worried. That tactic might have meant trouble for a conventional spacecraft, but with the Eysselink drive, they were maneuverable enough to target both ships.
“Ships are within extreme visual range, ma’am,” the communications officer informed her.
“On screen,” she ordered. The sensor display that had been projected on the main holographic viewscreen disappeared, to be replaced by a computer-enhanced visual of the Protectorate starships. The lead ship was some sort of converted in-system cargo hauler, likely pirated, its utilitarian lines obscured behind makeshift armor, the flare of fusion pulse engines lighting up like a star at its aft drive bell. Partially obscured behind it was a smaller ship, wedge-shaped and unrecognizable.
“Lead ship is coming into range,” Gianeto announced a few minutes later. “Targeting operations center and weapons.”
“Helm,” Minishimi snapped, “prepare to deactivate drive field.”
“Ready to drop field,” Witten confirmed.
“Deactivate drive field now.”
“Deactivating drive field.” More zero gravity and her stomach lurched.
“Open fire,” Minishimi snapped, trying to keep the satisfaction out of her voice.
“Gauss guns firing,” Gianeto confirmed, palming the control. The ship vibrated as tungsten slugs that weighed tons each were ejected from the port and starboard coilguns at thousands of meters per second. “He’s firing too, Captain… Gauss guns and lasers. Gauss gun rounds are a minute out, lasers starting to melt armor on the bow.” He bit back a curse. “Losing sensors on the bow, too…”
“Are our capacitors charged?” Captain Minishimi asked.
“Aye, Captain, lasers ready to fire.”
“Target their lasers and fire all batteries!”
“Firing lasers.”
Four huge capacitors in the twin weapons pods, fed by the ship’s fusion reactor, pulsed through semiconductor rods and were focused by gravimetic lenses using the ship’s drive field generator. The pulses were invisible in the vacuum of space, but the ship’s computer simulated them with crimson threads that speared out to strike the enemy ship in its weapons ports. Vaporizing metal flashed and escaping atmosphere ignited with incandescent clouds as the weapons ports blew apart.
“Gauss guns cease fire,” Minishimi ordered. “Reinitialize drive fields.”
“Drive fields engaged,” Witten sighed, relieved… the enemy Gauss rounds were getting close.
“Just in time,” Gianeto echoed the Helmsman’s unspoken concern. “Incoming Gauss rounds being shunted by the drive field. Our rounds should start impacting… now.”
Even as he spoke, Minishimi could see the tungsten darts slam into the bow armor of the Protectorate warship, ripping through it and sending a cloud of vaporized and splintered armor into an orbit around the accelerating ship. The huge projectiles kept impacting, one after another, until finally the armor was gone and they penetrated deep into the heart of the ship, coring through its nuclear reactor and killing its fusion pulse drive. Unpowered and helpless, the dead hull lost its acceleration but kept its course, the proverbial object in motion.
“Gauss rounds effective,” Gianeto reported with a touch of savage joy. “She’s a rock now… current course will take her out of the system. The trailing ship is still accelerating, should be past the derelict in a couple minutes.”
“Helm,” Minishimi ordered, “flip us end for end… I want our weapons pods on him as we pass. Tactical, are capacitors recharged?”
“Capacitors at full, ma’am,” Gianeto reported. “We’ll be ready to hit her with all laser batteries…” He clipped off his sentence, staring at the sensor display. “She’s adjusting course, ma’am… it looks like he’s trying for a collision course!”
