The Legend of Corinair (28 page)

“Good boy,” Nathan commended Josh. “You’re getting inside his turn.”

“Contact is reducing speed, trying to tighten his turn.”

“Stay with him, Josh. How’s the target’s shields, Kaylah?” Nathan asked.

“No change sir, still at one point five kilometers.”

“Set your distance from target to one kilometer, Abby.”

“One kilometer, aye.”

Nathan smiled slightly, noticing that Abby was beginning to sound more like a bridge officer each day.

“He’s launching missiles again,” Jessica reported from tactical. “Four more. Still no nukes.”

“Time to impact?”

“Four minutes. Looks like he can only launch them forward. They’ll take a little longer to reach us. They have to make their turn first.”

“That’s okay,” Nathan said. “In one minute, we won’t be on his tail any longer.”

“Contact is reversing his turn!” Jessica reported.

“Come back to starboard, Josh. Keep pointed slightly off his starboard side.”

“Yes, sir,” Josh answered as he reversed his turn to starboard.

“Abby?” Nathan asked, wondering if she was ready to jump.

“Ten more seconds,” she pleaded. “I had to update for his turn.”

“Don’t bother with a countdown, Abby. The word
jumping
will do.”

Abby watched as the progress bar on the transition plot calculations screen passed through ninety-six percent, ninety-seven, ninety-eight.
Come on,
she thought. The progress bar showed complete and the screen displayed the phrase
Transition Plot Locked
. “Jumping!” she announced as she hit the button.

The bridge again filled with the flash of the jump.

“Jump complete!” Abby announced, a wave of relief washing over her.

“He’s reversed his turn again!” Jessica yelled from tactical.

Nathan looked at the main view screen. They had jumped to a position only slightly astern of the Yamaro and just off her port side. They were considerably closer than one kilometer, and were only a few meters below the enemy warship at best. “Pitch down! Hard to port! Fire all guns!”

“Oh shit,” Josh mumbled as he pushed the Aurora’s nose down sharply, diving underneath the Yamaro as she moved over them from right to left. As soon as he knew they weren’t going to smash into the enemy ship’s underside, he leveled off his pitch maneuver and turned hard to port to try and match the Yamaro’s turn.

Nathan looked up at the portion of the view screen that was directly overhead. As the Yamaro passed within a few meters of them, he was pretty sure that if he understood their language, he could’ve read the lettering on one of the access panels on her external hull.

“A bit more roll, Josh,” Jessica called out, not bothering to waste time going through Nathan. “I need a better angle to get the starboard guns on him.”

Josh also didn’t wait for Nathan, rolling the Aurora slightly more to port in response to Jessica’s request.

Their speeds almost equal, the Aurora eased ahead of the Yamaro ever so slightly. “Watch your speed, Josh. Let’s try to keep our guns on him as long as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Abby, tell me you’re already plotting an escape jump.”

“From the moment I said
jump complete
,” she assured him.

“When the time comes, we’re going to break to starboard and run,” Nathan announced for the benefit of both Josh and Abby.

They all watched the upper portion of the main view screen as their rail guns ripped apart the underside of the Yamaro. As close as they still were, pieces flying off the enemy’s underside occasionally struck the Aurora as well.

“He’s turning tighter than us,” Jessica reported. “He’s starting to pull away. Range fifty meters and increasing.”

“Stay with him, Josh,” Nathan ordered.

“I’m trying.”

“Why isn’t he firing back at us?” Nathan asked Tug. They had already had their guns on them for over ten seconds, more than three times as long as on their first pass.

“His guns can’t target anything this close. They never expected a ship to be able to get inside their shields.”

“What about his fighters?”

“He can’t launch them while he’s maneuvering. It’s too dangerous. Besides, as long as you can still go to your maximum sub-light velocity, or jump, his fighters won’t be able to catch you. He needs to slow you down first.”

“And we won’t stay in one place long enough for him to hit us.”

“Correct.”

For a moment, Nathan felt that he was doing pretty good. But only for a moment.

Suddenly, the Yamaro began losing speed, and she quickly disappeared from the view screens as the warship slid behind them.

“Target is braking hard!” Jessica reported.

Nathan stood suddenly from his command chair. “You’re over-shooting—”

“Firing braking thrusters,” Josh reported.

“Range to contact, one kilometer!”

“Shit, she’s moving away too fast,” Nathan declared. “Helm hard to starboard, full speed ahead! Abby, emergency jump as soon as you’re ready!”

“Range to contact, one point five kilometers!” Jessica updated.

The ship began to vibrate and hum, with several systems shorting out and throwing sparks.

“We’re passing out of his shield bubble, sir!” Kaylah added.

The Aurora began to shake violently as the Yamaro’s main gun batteries began to pound their hull.

“Josh, zero thrust, pitch over and show them our belly!”

Feeling guilty for having let the enemy ship slip away from them, Josh followed orders without hesitation, even though he didn’t really understand why.

“I can’t get any guns on him at this angle,” Jessica warned.

“I can’t afford to show him our tail,” Nathan protested. “If he takes out main propulsion, we won’t stand a chance.”

“Jumping!” Abby yelled. Nathan felt a wave of relief wash over him as the room filled with the light from the jump. The sounds of the explosions that had been rocking the ship were suddenly gone, leaving only the sounds of comm-chatter and condition alarms from the various consoles.

“Jump complete,” she reported a moment later.

“Damage report,” Nathan ordered.

“Lost three of the four aft rail guns. And engineering reports the number four main drive thrust port is damaged and offline. Maximum sub-light velocity is now estimated at half light.” Jessica looked up from her console. “Other than that, mostly just outer hull damage.”

“A few of the aft emitters aren’t answering, Captain,” Abby added. “But since we did successfully jump, they are either working but not reporting, or nearby emitters were able to compensate.”

“But we can still jump, right?” Nathan asked.

“Yes, I believe so,” she answered, “and we still have more than eighty percent charge.”

“What’s our position?”

“About one light minute out,” Jessica reported. The Yamaro is at our eight o’clock.

“Josh, take the main drive to one percent thrust and come about, slow and easy.”

“One percent thrust, coming about.”

“Kaylah, his shields?”

“Give me a minute, sir. I’ve gotta wait for the light to catch up.”

“Medical, bridge,” Nathan called over the comms.

“
Medical,
” the voice answered.

“This is the captain. How is Commander Taylor doing?”

“
She’s in surgery now, Captain. Would you like me to check on her condition for you?
”

Nathan could hear the sounds of chaos in the background. Although they had only taken a few injuries thus far, Medical had already been overflowing with patients.

“No, thank you. Please let us know when there is news.”

“
Yes, sir.
”

Nathan clicked off the comm.

“She’ll be all right,” Jessica softly assured him.

“Yeah.”

“Captain,” Kaylah called, “the enemy ship has pulled in their shields. They’re at one hundred meters now, and contoured to his basic hull shape.”

“We can’t jump inside of that,” Nathan said. “That’s way too close.”

“True,” Tug agreed. “But it’s also too close for him to launch his fighters.”

“Captain, I’m also picking up a fluctuation in his aft shields, along the bottom edge under his main drive section.”

“If he is contouring his shields, it would put additional strain on the emitters. If some were damaged, the contouring would make it more difficult for emitters to compensate for neighboring malfunctioning ones. That fluctuation may in fact be a hole in his shields. If it is, you may be able to get a shot through and take out his propulsion plant.”

“It would have to be a very good shot.”

“Not really. They depend too much on their new shields. Their hulls are not as robustly constructed as they once were.”

“You mean they don’t build them like they used to?” Nathan said, making fun of the way that the Angla language seemed to always use the most complicated way to say something. Vladimir had once described it as ‘
reaching around with your right hand to scratch you left ear.
’

“Isn’t that what I said?”

“But we’ll still have to jump in close, to avoid his guns, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Abby plot a jump to a position as close in as possible, behind and below him.” Nathan turned to face the helm. “Josh, reduce your speed to one thousand KPH.”

“Are you serious?” Josh protested. “I’ve done docking approaches at faster than that.”

“One thousand KPH, please.”

“One thousand KPH, aye.”

Nathan turned to Jessica, an idea forming in his mind. “Jess? Can you slave all the rail guns to target as one?”

“Sure.”

“Just how good a shot are you?”

“With a rifle? Damn good. With rail guns? If you can get your pilot to get us in close and hold her steady, all I’ve got to do is put the little red dot on the target. The fire control system will do the rest.”

“Can you show her where to put the dot?” Nathan asked Tug.

“Yes. I believe so.”

“Abby, let me know when you’re ready to jump. Josh, as soon as we jump, you have to pitch over again and fire the mains at full thrust so that we can change our direction of travel as quickly as possible so as not to fall too far behind the enemy.”

“I don’t know, Captain. Maybe you’d better do it?”

Nathan knew exactly how Josh felt. It was the way he felt right now about being Captain. “You can do it, Josh. You’re already better at flying this thing than I am.”

“But I don’t know all the tricks. I mean, that guy got over on me real quick, you know?”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ve got instincts. Trust them. That’s what flying is all about.”

“Yes, sir,” Josh answered.

A few moments later, Abby spoke up. “Jump is plotted, Captain.”

“Very well. Everyone ready?” Nathan looked around the bridge. Seeing no signs of objection, he gave the command. “Let her rip.”

“Jumping,” Abby announced.

Another brief flash of blue-white light and the view screen suddenly showed the Yamaro up close and personal, just above their heads as she streaked past them.

“Pitch over one eighty and all ahead full, Josh!” Nathan ordered.

Josh pitched the nose up and over sharply as he rolled the ship over to put her guns on the target ahead of him. As soon as his pitch over was nearly complete, he fired the main engines at full thrust. Even with one thrust port out of service, the other three were more than powerful enough for the smaller and more maneuverable Aurora to quickly reverse her direction of travel and catch up to the Yamaro as she tried to escape.

“Range to target, three kilometers and closing,” Jessica reported.

“Pick your target out as soon as you can and open up, Jess,” Nathan instructed. “As soon as he figures out what we’re up to, he’s either going to roll over and deny us a shot, or try that braking maneuver again.”

“Yes, sir,” she answered. She had already called up one of the ship’s forward cameras and was using it to zoom in on the target and let Tug inspect it to find the exact point she should aim for. “Two kilometers and closing.”

Nathan watched as the enemy ship continued on its course, making no evasive maneuvers whatsoever. “Why isn’t he maneuvering?”

“Captain!” Kaylah shouted. “His aft sensor array is in shreds! He can’t see us!”

“Hot damn!” Nathan declared, realizing they had just gotten the luckiest break they could ask for.

“One kilometer!” Jessica reported.

“There,” Tug stated, pointing at the image on the tactical console and zooming in. Aim there.”

“Target acquired and locked, Captain,” Jessica reported. “Waiting for optimum firing range.”

“Come on, Josh. A little bit more.”

“Five hundred meters.”

“A little more,” Nathan coaxed.

“Two hundred and fifty meters.”

“Close enough. Fire!” Nathan ordered.

All remaining eleven rail guns fired their explosive hull penetrating rounds at the same time, and on the same exact spot on the underside of the Yamaro. The first few hundred rounds tore away at the outer hull enough that the following rounds were able to penetrate the hull and wreak havoc inside the engineering section of the warship. Within moments, secondary explosions began to rock the ship, sending sections of her outer hull spiraling away.

“Cease fire! Disengage and peel off!”

The Aurora dove down and banked to starboard, turning away from the damaged warship as more explosions rocked her aft section.

“Her shields are down, Captain!” Kaylah reported.

“She’s slowing as well,” Cameron reported. “I think she’s losing power,” Jessica reported.

“Maintain full power, Josh. Get us away from her guns.”

Nathan rotated around in his seat to look at Jessica. “Nice shootin’ Tex.” Jessica just winked, and then looked back down at her console. “She’s launching fighters.”

“So, this would mean that he’s desperate, right?” Nathan asked Tug.

“I’d say yes.”

“New contact!” Kaylah reported. “Transferring to tactical.”

“What? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“It’s multiple contacts,” Jessica corrected. “I’m picking up at least three more squadrons of Ta’Akar fighters coming from Corinair, sir.”