The Solarian Celebration: Book 3 of the Alliance Conflict (28 page)

Kip checked his chronometer.  They had now been in the system exactly 5 minutes and 40 seconds.  Kip continued to watch the time to impact slowly tick down. 

.…………………….

Becky maneuvered the hoist.  Colin adjusted the hoist over the missile and waved.  Becky swung it around toward the missile launcher.  The launcher fired.  Colin pressed the palm pad to open the manual loading area.  Becky dropped the missile into the tube.  Colin palmed the pad to close the launcher. 

He said, “Not bad, 23 seconds.”

Just as Colin finished saying that they heard Jim make a general announcement to cease firing the missile launchers.

Colin looked at the firing board.  The screen was blank.  Colin announced, “Becky, that’s it.  We are done firing missiles.  Let’s head back to the bridge and get a status update.”

Just as they were turning to leave they heard another announcement – “All hands, brace for an emergency maneuver.” 

Becky and Colin strapped themselves to the missile launcher and waited.

.…………………….

The
Sunflower
fired another 6 times over the course of the last three minutes (263, 288, 313, 338, 363, and 388 seconds respectively).  The flight time for the missiles was dropping rapidly.  The missiles from the last volley would hit the enemy destroyer in a mere 13 seconds.

Jim said, “Shole, do you have an update on the missiles?”

Shole replied, “The enemy destroyer fired 26 defensive missiles.  Their defensive fire was particularly effective because they only had to defend a small area of space.”

Jim replied, “Because we are chasing them and all of the missiles have to travel directly behind them to hit the destroyer.  How bad was it?”

Shole said, “The 26 defensive missiles combined with defensive laser fire completely stopped the first 4 volleys.  The volley at time 363 scored 6 hits and significantly weakened the shields.  The last volley at time 388 had 10 hits.  Unfortunately, that volley was ship busters.”

Jim responded, “Yes.  Ship buster missiles work great against the hull, but no so amazing against shields.

Shole replied, “The good news is that they did do some damage because the shields are down across the entire destroyer.  It will be a while before they can restart them.”

Jim verified the distance and realized that the
Sunflower
was going to reach the enemy destroyer before they could load and fire the missile launcher again.  He opened a ship-wide channel and said, “All hands, cease firing.”

Russ said, “Our distance to target is 300,000 kilometers and closing.”

Shole reported, “The enemy destroyer EnDes80 is now making random course changes every 0.2 seconds.” 

It made sense, Jim thought.  EnDes80 is the one that were targeting with both missiles and the ion cannon.  Jim responded, “EnDes100?”

Shole said, “Steady.  They are not randomly altering their path.”

Kolvak stated, “I believe that is because they aren’t being targeted.  The zig-zag pattern is slower than a straight line.  They appear to be focusing on speed.”

“Perfect,” Jim replied.

He opened the ship wide channel again and said, “All hands, brace for an emergency maneuver.”

Kolvak interjected the moment Jim finished, “Captain, we have a problem.  The gravity field is significantly weaker here than I initially calculated.  The enemy destroyers will be able to jump to hyperspace momentarily.”

Jim checked the chronometer.  They had been in the Opron system for exactly 410 seconds.  The optimum time to fire the ion cannon was 413 seconds.  They had 3 seconds remaining.

“How long?” Jim barked.

Kolvak replied, “Three seconds, maybe less.”

Jim was going to be very angry if they missed.  Oh well, they were literally locked into the course of action.  The ion cannon was fully charged - all available electricity had been converted to ions.  The only way to get rid of the ions now was to discharge the entire mass. 

This meant two things.  They had to fire the ion cannon in the next 10 seconds or the ship would explode and they no longer had the ability to jump to hyperspace for the next few hours.

Russ said, “Everyone, verify you are strapped in place.  We are going to make a slight turn in 2 seconds.”

Jim aligned his finger perfectly on the fire button so that it wouldn’t hit the metal ring surrounding it.  For the perfection in the rest of the ship’s design, he was still surprised how poorly designed the two fire buttons were.

Jim patiently watched as the chronometer ticked to 411, then 412. 

The
Sunflower
was only 105,000 kilometers from the two destroyers.  Light from the ion cannon would take exactly 0.35 seconds to cover that distance.  The intended target would not have time to dodge.

The
Sunflower
lurched as it made a 20 sudden degree course correction. 

Shole shouted, “EnDes80’s hyper drive is starting to activate.  So is EnDes100.”

The ion cannon light turned orange.  Jim pushed the button.

…………………….

Kip was still 8 seconds away from the destroyer when he received the message to abort the attack.  Kip realized that they couldn’t catch it before it jumped into hyperspace.  He certainly didn’t want to be caught in the wake and drug through hyperspace behind the destroyer.

He sent a click to his squadron to follow him and banked hard to the left.  He continued in that direction until he had completed a wide, banking turn.  He located the remaining 14 enemy fighters and flew directly toward them.

The enemy fighters didn’t try a complicated maneuver this time.  They formed a line 14 fighters wide and flew directly at Alpha Squadron. 

Kip analyzed the enemy’s strategy and countered it.  He said, “Okay men, box formation, roll left and right at contact.  Let’s kill them in one pass.”

Kip targeted one of the enemy fighters and fired a guided missile.  The enemy juked up and directly into Kip’s unguided, or dummy missile.  Kip then dodged the enemy missile.  He was clear again.

Kip scanned the surrounding area.  There were no enemy fighters left.  Kip said, “Okay gents, play time is over.  Form back in box formation.  The odds are the battleship is going to micro jump to this area in a minute or two.”

Kip watched the destroyer get struck by the
Sunflower’s
ion cannon just as it was jumping.  Good, he thought, maybe it won’t be able to transition.

…………………….

A hyper-drive functions by using time to bend or curve space.  The effect can be represented by a sine wave with distance as the X axis and time as the Y.  The drive bends, or perhaps compresses, time so that the ship can travel from peak to peak and completely bypass the intervening distance. 

Travel through hyperspace isn’t instantaneous.  For those in hyperspace, the time compression makes time seem to pass at a much slower pace than in real space.  Conversely, for those in real space, objects speed up when transitioning into hyperspace.

Jim aimed the ion cannon at the enemy’s hangar bay, near the front of the ship.  Because the destroyer had partially transitioned into hyperspace when the ion cannon shot hit it, the shot grazed the very back of the destroyer instead of hitting the hangar bay.

However, the graze did far more damage than usual because the destroyer’s shields were turned off to allow it to jump to hyperspace.  The ion cannon blast disintegrated the last 41 centimeters (16 inches) of the ship and exposed the entire rear end to space.

There were numerous safety protocols to keep ships from jumping into hyperspace when they are damaged.  Specifically, hyperdrive engines are integrally linked to the ship’s sensors and will not activate unless it receives verification that the entire hull is sound.

The safety protocol failed because part of the ship had already begun the transition to hyperspace.  Therefore, the enemy destroyer jumped into hyperspace missing a significant portion of the back of its hull. 

The destroyer’s hyperdrive was still active and was still following the laws of hyperspace physics.  It curved time and the ship leaped to its first peak.  However, the exposed rear of the spaceship created a significant drag that unbalanced the ship.

This caused the entire ship to begin folding upon itself.  By the time it reached the 100
th
peak, the entire destroyer had been compressed into a circular mass the size of a wafer.  The destroyer still had the same mass, it was just crushed upon itself hundreds of thousands of times.  After a completing a few more peaks, it crushed together so tightly that it became antimatter.

Five minutes later the destroyer reached the rendezvous point and exited hyperspace right beside the other enemy destroyer. The ship violently decompressed upon reentry and spewed antimatter in the direction the destroyer had originally been traveling.

Every atom of antimatter searched for an atom of matter.  When it found one it completely and utterly annihilated it.  Unfortunately, the destroyer’s initial direction was directly toward the second destroyer.  As a result, nearly all of the antimatter bombarded the unshielded second destroyer.  The antimatter cut through the second destroyer and disintegrated everything it touched.

The antimatter contacted the second destroyer’s reactor core.  This caused the second ship to first implode, then erupt in an intense explosion that atomized the entire ship and threw it for kilometers in every direction.  Most of this debris then collided with the remaining antimatter and created secondary and tertiary explosions that extinguished every sliver of matter in the entire area.

There was literally nothing left of the two destroyers.  Further, the space around the two ships was completely and utterly empty.  It looked like someone had taken an eraser and erased part of the night sky.

…………………….

Jim said, “Shole, check the passive scan.  Does it show anyone on the observation moon or any other ship trying to make contact with us?”  He paused for a moment and added, “Heck, are there any other ships in this system?”

Shole replied, “The passive scanners have completed charting the entire system.  The observation post on the moon is vacant.  There are no other ships, warship, private, or commercial in the system.”

Russ replied, “Then our mission briefing was incorrect.  Apparently there is no defector or anyone else with information about Neto breeding here.”

Jim said, “I am calling it a day.  Russ, set a course to the Opron – Conron hyperspace lane.  Continue at .05 light.”

Kolvak asked, “What about the battleship?”

Jim shrugged and said, “If it engages us, we will destroy it.  Otherwise, it can jump to hyperspace long before our missiles or fighters can reach it.”

Russ gracefully steered the cruiser through a relatively tight arc and perfectly aligned it with the center of the corridor.  He reported, “Our course it set.  We will reach the ideal jump point in 16 minutes.”

Jim opened a general channel to everyone and said, “Both destroyers have jumped away.  We are returning to Conron.”

He continued, “All fighters, form up around the
Sunflower
in your squadrons and match our course and speed.  Stay wary.  The battleship may have already jumped to our location.”

Jim cut the general channel and asked Shole, “Where is the battleship?”

Shole replied, “The sensors in that direction are still partially blinded from the debris from the 4 enemy cruisers.  We won’t know where the battleship is until it either jumps on top of us or we clear the dust cloud.”

Colin returned to the bridge and Jim moved back to the captain’s chair.  They spent the next few minutes retelling stories from the battle and nervously watching the monitor for signs of the battleship or the return of the destroyers. 

Kolvak mentioned more than once that they would be in serious trouble if the destroyers and battleship coordinated an attack at the entry to the hyperspace lane.  His argued, “They know exactly where we are and exactly where we are going.”

No one could think of a response, so eventually Jim responded that if that occurred, then they would die with honor.  Somehow, that response managed to placate Kolvak. 

Eight minutes later they cleared the debris cloud of the 4 cruisers.  Shole reported, “I have an updated scan.  I am displaying it on the main monitor now.”

The monitor showed that the battleship hadn’t moved.  A minute later the light from the explosion of the two destroyers reached the ship.

“Nice shot!” Russ summarized.

Jim laughed and said, “Just the way I planned it.”

Russ answered, “That has to be a record.  We killed two destroyers with a single shot.”

Shole was listening to the exchange.  She replied, “I cannot believe that you intentionally killed the entire crews of two ships by converting their bodies into antimatter.  Do you know how painful that is?”

Jim was at a complete loss.  He had absolutely no idea how painful it was.  He replied, “No, I don’t know.  How painful it is to convert someone into antimatter?”

Shole realized that she had absolutely no idea either.  She replied, “Very painful.”