Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (54 page)

“Lock on the second target!” Jessica announced. “Firing!”

“Jump flash!” Mister Navashee reported. “It’s the Jar-Benakh! She’s moving in to shield the Celestia!”

“Second target destroyed!” Jessica announced.

“Helm! Slow us down and match the Celestia’s course and speed! Then bring our nose back around so we can fire torpedoes into the third cruiser!”

“Incoming missiles from two frigates!” Mister Navashee warned.

“Point-defenses are spinning up to intercept the missiles,” Jessica reported.

“The laser is charging again!” Mister Navashee warned.

“How long until the Celestia is out of that laser’s firing line?”

“One minute!”

“Captain! The Jar-Benakh is swinging her nose to starboard,” Jessica reported.

“The laser is firing!” Mister Navashee announced. “Holy shit! It hit the Jar-Benakh in her stern!”

“How bad?” Nathan asked, his eyes wide.

“You don’t understand. Her angle! She deflected most of the laser’s energy away. Her stern starboard shields are down to twenty percent, but she suffered no real damage.”

“Can she do that again?” Nathan wondered.

“She won’t have to, Captain,” Mister Navashee exclaimed. “We’ll be across the equator and out of that damned laser’s firing line in twenty more seconds.”

“I’ve got a shitload of incoming here,” Jessica warned. “I don’t know how long I can keep up with them.”

“Jump flashes!” Mister Navashee reported with excitement. “Dozens of them! Jump missiles! Oh, my God! They’re hitting everything!”

“It’s got to be the Tanna!” Nathan exclaimed.

“Damn right it is,” Jessica commented proudly.

“She just took out every ship in the area, Captain!” Mister Navashee shouted gleefully.

“How long until the next closest ships get within attack range?” Nathan asked.

“Assuming no more come out of that ring, about ten minutes!”

“Comms! Raise the Celestia! Green deck! Launch all SARs and shuttles! And tell them not to bother bringing anyone back here, just jump straight to the departure rally point! Then contact the Jar-Benakh and ask them to do the same.”

“Aye, sir,” Naralena replied.

“And dispatch a jump comm-drone to the launch boxcar,” Nathan added. “Tell them to launch the second KKV! Target is Zhu-Anok! Impact in ten!”

“Captain!” Jessica objected. “That KKV will…”

“You have your orders!” Nathan demanded.

“Aye, sir!” Naralena replied. “Dispatching jump comm-drone.”

Nathan stared at Jessica.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she muttered.

Me too
, Nathan thought.

The Celestia’s bridge was dark, lit only by the dim emergency lighting and the occasional sparking of electrical arcs from behind consoles. An acrid haze filled the air, and the sounds of alarms filled the bridge. Cameron looked around. Without the main view screen, the bridge seemed remarkably cut off from the rest of the universe. She had a flashback of the bridge of the Aurora, nearly two years ago.

“Any contact with engineering?” Cameron asked.

“No, sir,” Ensign Souza replied frantically. “We’ve lost contact with everything aft of midship.”

“I’m not getting any data from main propulsion or power generation,” the systems officer said. “I’m barely getting any data at all, Captain.”

“Sensors are dead,” Ensign Kono reported.

“I’ve lost all propulsion and maneuvering,” Ensign Hunt added.

“All nav and jump systems are down as well,” Ensign Sperry said. He looked at Captain Taylor. “We’re dead-stick, sir. Dead-stick and blind.”

“
Captain! Fighter Launch Control!
”

Cameron tapped her comm-set. “Go for Captain.”

“
Sir, I’m looking out the aft observation window! Our whole drive section is gone! We’ve been cut in half just aft of midship!
”

“Oh, my God,” Cameron exclaimed.

“We’re done, Captain,” Luis realized.

“Can you see the aft section?” Cameron asked over her comm-set.

“
Yes, sir, but barely. We’re in a slow end-over. She’s battered, but intact. She looks dead as shit, though.
”

“Understood.”

“I’ve got the Jar-Benakh on ship-to-ship local,” Ensign Souza reported from the Celestia’s comm station. “They’ve launched rescue shuttles. So has the Aurora! They’re on either side of us, trying to cover our evac!”

Cameron took a deep breath. “Give the order. All hands, abandon ship. Send everyone aft of the forward primary bulkheads to the port and starboard flight decks. Everyone forward, go to the bow escape pods. They’re set to auto-jump to the departure rally point.”

“Aye, sir,” Ensign Souza replied, as the evacuation alarms began to sound.

“Two more cruisers coming out of the ring base, far side,” Ensign Marka reported from the Jar-Benakh’s sensor station. “They’ll have range on us in two minutes.”

“Tanna reports she’s all out of missiles, Captain,” Ensign Jullen reported from the comm station.

“Be ready to pound those cruisers,” Captain Roselle ordered.

“Aye, sir,” the tactical officer reported.

“Our first wave of rescue shuttles is on its way back, Captain,” Ensign Marka reported.

“Ring base is launching fighters!” the tactical officer reported.

“Mas! Recall all Eagles and Falcons from orbit! Tell them to fly cover for the Celestia!”

“Aye, sir.”

“Tactical,” Captain Roselle continued. “Until there are more missiles headed our way, put our point-defenses on those fighters. I don’t want them harassing our SAR ops. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Shoot and scoot! Shoot and scoot!” Loki instructed. “Don’t stay in one place long enough for them to get a lock on us!”

“I’m scootin’!” Josh replied as he executed his fifth single-kilometer jump in the last two minutes, ever since they had jumped from orbit over Nor-Patri to cover the Celestia’s evacuation.

“Two more, ten high!” Loki warned. “They’re firing!”

“And I’m scootin’!” Josh said again, activating the jump drive. As the windows cleared, he pulled their nose up hard, bringing it around to face aft as he pressed the trigger and fired his plasma torpedo cannons. He waved their nose back and forth, spraying the flight of fighters behind them, destroying three of the five pursuers in the process.

“Four more, four high!” Loki warned. He glanced at his tactical display, looking for friendlies. “Eagles at one one four by twenty-eight, Falcon One! Attack the guys to your left and get them off our ass, so we can go after the guys to our four high!”

“
Falcon One, Blue Leader. Engaging.
”

Josh pushed their nose back around and fired the main engines again, steering toward the gap between the Celestia’s forward section and the Aurora to her left.

“Two dead ahead!” Loki reported. “They’re going after one of the SAR shuttles!”

“I’ll take those two,” Josh said. “You handle the ones at our three with the nose turret.”

“Got it!” Loki replied.

“Fuck,” Josh muttered as he looked out the forward windows. The Aurora was to his left, and the forward two thirds of the Celestia was to his right. He glanced out the right windows, looking past Loki, and saw the battered propulsion section of the Celestia. He looked at Loki, exchanging glances. “This is insane.”

“I know.”

Josh turned his attention forward again, as four shuttles departed the Celestia and made a run for a clear jump line out of the system. Two Jung fighters turned to attack the fleeing shuttles. “I don’t think so,” Josh said as he turned the Super Falcon toward them and pressed his firing button. Plasma torpedoes shot out on either side of the cockpit, passing behind the attacking fighters moving from his left to right. Josh continued firing as he tightened his turn, walking each successive round of plasma torpedoes closer to the Jung fighters. Finally he tagged the trailing fighter. But before he could tag the leading one, it exploded in a fireball, after which two Super Eagles flashed past their starboard side in the opposite direction.

“Shit!” Loki yelled.

“Cutting it a little close, aren’t they?” Josh muttered.

“
We’ll take care of your jump drive,
” Nathan insisted over the Celestia’s bridge loudspeakers. “
Just get off that ship! The KKV will strike in two minutes!
”

“Copy that,” Cameron replied over her comm-set. “We’re leaving now.” She rose from her command chair. “All right, people! Time to go!” Cameron stood and watched as her bridge staff left their posts and headed out for the exits. As soon as they were all gone, she followed Luis out the starboard exit.

As they stepped into the starboard airlock corridor, the ship suddenly lurched, throwing them against the left wall.

“
Breach! Flight deck! Starboard side!
” a voice called over her comm-set. Cameron struggled to follow the others. She could feel the gravity fluctuating under her feet as she stepped from the airlock corridor into the main corridor.

“The ramp auto-sealed!” Ensign Souza yelled from ahead.

“Around the corner, back this way!” Cameron yelled. “Down the ladder to B deck, then forward to the escape pods!” she explained, turning to lead the way. She ran as best she could, her gait thrown off by the variance in gravity fields from deck plate to deck plate.

Cameron rounded the corner to her left, ran a few more steps forward, then turned right and continued to the end of the short corridor. She popped open the hatch, revealing a microgravity tunnel that stretched from the fighter deck above to the lowest deck in the Celestia. “Here!” she ordered. “Down two decks to C, then forward through the primary bulkhead. Escape pods should be on your right as soon as you pass through the bulkhead!”

Luis stopped and looked at her. “You first, Captain!”

“No way!” Cameron objected. “The Captain is the last one off the ship!”

“Then I’m the second to the last!” he insisted.

“Suit yourself, Lieutenant!”

They watched as the other eleven members of the bridge staff dove down the microgravity tunnel, pulling their way quickly along the ladder. After the last one dove in, Luis followed, and then Cameron.

Cameron pulled herself along, rung by rung, at a steady pace, following the line of crewmen down to C deck. Finally, she came out of the tunnel onto the deck in a prone position, again being held by the deck’s artificial gravity plating.

Luis grabbed Cameron and helped her to her feet, pushing her through the bulkhead hatch. He stepped through after her, swung the hatch closed, and locked it.

They ran nearly all the way forward before they found the one escape pod that had not yet been launched.

There was a terrible twisting noise, followed by the screeching sound of metal being twisted and torn. The deck shifted, and the gravity plating failed, sending them spiraling in all directions. Cameron grabbed the railing and pulled herself toward the hatch to the escape pod, following the others. She looked behind her. Luis was only two meters away, struggling to make it to the hatch. Debris, tearing away from the decks and walls of the corridor swirled about, careening off the walls and ceiling.

Cameron managed to pull herself inside the escape pod hatch. She turned around to look for Luis, just as something tore through the bow of the ship with incredible force. There was a rush of escaping air, and Luis shot down the corridor with the rest of the debris, as everything was sucked out into space through the breach.

“LUIS!” Cameron cried out, reaching for him as the air around her was sucked out into space. Ensigns Souza and Kono grabbed their captain and pulled her into the escape pod, while Ensign Sperry closed the hatch behind them.

Seconds later, the Celestia’s last escape pod ejected.

“Direct hits on her bow!” Mister Navashee reported from the Aurora’s sensor station. “The last escape pod is away!”

“Kill that son of a bitch!” Nathan ordered.

“Give me ten to starboard and two down!” Jessica ordered the helmsman.

“Ten starboard, two down, aye,” Mister Chiles replied as he executed the change in course to bring their tubes to bear on the Jung cruiser that had just put a few hundred rail gun slugs into the bow of the Celestia.

“Firing all forward tubes!” Jessica reported.

“Mister Navashee! Tell me you have a data link with the Celestia’s self-destruct system!” Nathan said.

“Yes, sir, I do!”

“Target destroyed!” Jessica exclaimed.

“How long until the KKV hits?” Nathan asked.

“Thirty seconds!”

“Set it to blow in twenty!” Nathan ordered. “Helm, put us on a run out of here, full power! Don’t jump us until my order!”

“Yes, sir!” Mister Chiles replied.

“Comms! Tell all ships to jump to the departure rally point! NOW!” Nathan instructed.

“
Aurora to all Alliance ships!
” Naralena’s voice called over Josh and Loki’s comm-set. “
Jump to Foxtrot One, immediately! Jump to Foxtrot One!
”

“That’s it,” Loki declared. “Time to go!”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice,” Josh replied as he brought his throttles to full power and turned away from Zhu-Anok and toward open space.

“Jumping in three…” Loki began.

“Fuck that!” Josh replied, pushing the selector switch on his flight control stick up and pressing the jump button.

“Five seconds to detonation,” Mister Navashee announced from the Aurora’s sensor station.

Nathan watched the rear camera view on the Aurora’s main view screen as Nor-Patri, Zhu-Anok, and what was left of the Celestia, shrank away from them as they accelerated out into deep space. There was a bright white flash where the Celestia’s propulsion section had once been, as her antimatter reactors dropped their containment fields right on cue, destroying the jump drive along with everything within two thousand kilometers of it.

The flash only lasted a few seconds, and then it was gone. Five seconds later, the super jump KKV appeared from a flash of blue-white light, and slammed into Zhu-Anok, breaking the asteroid apart and taking the ring base along with it.

In the blink of an eye, Nathan had just killed close to a million Jung, and he didn’t feel the slightest bit of remorse.
Is this what I’ve become?

Nathan stared at the destruction on the view screen for several seconds, then gave the order. “Jump us to the departure rally point, Mister Riley.”