Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (11 page)

Captain
Bullig stretched. If he was going to die, he thought, at least he was going to do it in style. Although the Overlord still obviously bore him a grudge, even the Overlord had seen that Bullig needed more firepower to break into the new system and had given him one of their new dreadnoughts to use as his flagship. Built in the 54 Piscium system by some of their feeder races, the ship was made for Drakuls. Built on the Mrowry dreadnought design that was in the replicator they had captured, the feeder race had expanded it so that the ceilings were 15 feet high. Unlike the
Mangler
, he could move about freely without crouching everywhere he went.

Although he had disagreed with the Overlord’s policy of allowing
limited freedom for some of the members of captured species (he had only disagreed to himself; disagreeing with the Overlord publicly tended to decrease one’s lifespan significantly), this was one example of where they were helpful to have around. Drakuls were warriors and didn’t have time for things like building.

He couldn’t wait for the rest of the fleet to be assembled.
This was going to be fun.

* * * * *

“When do you advise turning on the stealth package?” asked Captain Yerrow from the view screen
. The ships were close to the stargate that would take them into the Ross 248 system. It was possible that the enemy waited on the other side.

Captain Sheppard looked at Lieutenant Finn, who
m he had asked to join him on the bridge.

“
Oh! You can turn them on at any time you’d like,” answered Lieutenant Finn. “The only problem is going to be fuel consumption. They eat helium-3 like it’s chocolate.”

“I do not know what chocolate is,” replied Captain Yerrow, “but I have seen how quickly
a space fighter’s stealth module consumes its fuel. Still, I think it would be prudent to turn it on prior to going through the stargate, in case there are any Ssselipsssiss on the other side. It would also be good to ensure they are operational prior to that.”

“I agree,” said Captain Sheppard. “Why don’t you turn your system on for five minutes
, and we’ll check you out. Then you can do the same for us.”

“That is a good plan,” agreed Captain Yerrow. “We will do so. Yerrow out.”

The screen blanked and then became an image of the
Emperor’s Paw
, paralleling them five miles to starboard. As the crew on the
Vella Gulf
watched, the
Paw
shimmered and then disappeared.

Captain Sheppard nodded. “All systems try to find the
Emperor’s Paw
,” he ordered. “Let me know if you have any success.”

The offensive systems officer and defensive systems officer both looked but were unable to find the
Paw
on their systems. A tight smile began to creep across Lieutenant Finn’s face.

“Ummm,” said Steropes, who was manning the science station.

“Yes?” Captain Sheppard asked. “Can you see them?”

“See them?” asked Steropes. “No, I can’t see them.” He paused. “However, I am getting some sort of weird gravity transient. It’s like there is something periodically there, but I can’t lock in on it.”

Lieutenant Finn looked crushed. “That has been a recurring problem,” he said. “The stealth system is really good on all forms of energy, like radar and laser. It produces a field that drinks them right up. Gravity is different, though; there’s no energy to absorb. It’s one of the four fundamental forces, and the only one that acts on all particles with mass. I’ve worked to try to make the shields provide a buffer against it, but it is wildly imperfect. It is rather like trying to play baseball with a soccer ball; you can do it, but it doesn’t work very well.”

“Perhaps it might have been helpful to tell us that prior to now,” chided Captain Sheppard. “We might have been able to work something out.”

“Oh! I did report it to my superiors at Department X before we left,” said Lieutenant Finn, “but they said the mission had to go, regardless, so it didn’t matter. I’m sorry; I thought you knew. Just don’t get close to any of the enemy ships, and it shouldn’t matter. You have to be fairly close to the stealth ship in order for them to see the gravity transient.”

“How close?” asked Calvin.

“If you are outside of 50,000 miles from a stealthed cruiser, it is unlikely that you’ll see it,” replied Lieutenant Finn. “A stealth fighter can’t be seen from more than about 10,000 miles.”

“So,” Captain Sheppard said, “as long as we don’t let them in close,
we’re OK?”

“Yes,” said Lieutenant Finn, “we should be.”

“I guess this is where we’ll find out how well your system works,” said Captain Sheppard.

“Yes,” said Lieutenant Finn, who was uncharacteristically quiet as his big moment approached.

His system had worked as intended, with
two small glitches. The first of these was that the system had dropped for about five seconds when they entered the Ross 248 system from the WASP 18 system, due to the mechanical disorientation caused by going through the stargate. Happily, there hadn’t been any of the Ssselipsssiss in the system to see it. The other problem they would have to deal with was that the stealth system did nothing to prevent the signal associated with a stargate activation. When a ship entered a system, the stargate emitted an electromagnetic pulse. The magnitude of the pulse was proportional to the speed and mass of the ship going through it. The faster or larger the ship was, the bigger the pulse it gave off. If they entered the system going any faster than their slowest speed, the Ssselipsssiss would know that something had just entered the system, even if they couldn’t see the ship. Going that slowly would leave them vulnerable to any of the enemy’s weapons and especially vulnerable to mines.

As planned, the Mrowry had transited into the HD 40307 system first, with the
Vella Gulf
following them 10 minutes later. As they had feared, there
were
Ssselipsssiss in this system, as two of their battleships, eight battlecruisers and eight cruisers were positioned around the system’s other stargate into the 83 Leonis system. Although the star system had several planets, none were habitable, even if the system hadn’t been a war zone.

Their entrance into the system had been noticed by the Ssselipsssiss fleet. When the lizards had subsequently been unable to determine who or what had entered the system, they had detached two of their battlecruisers to investigate. The two battlecruisers had been easy to avoid, and the
Vella Gulf
had transited the system without being seen. With their stealth shields up, the crew of the
Vella Gulf
had no idea where the
Emperor’s Paw
was; they just had to assume that they were proceeding as planned. Space was large, so they probably wouldn’t run into the Mrowry ship, even if the Terrans took exactly the same route. Probably. They hadn’t had any spurious gravity readings, so they thought...hoped...that the
Paw
was where it should be.

As they approached the Ssselipsssiss fleet, the answer to th
e question of how well the system worked would determine whether they lived or died. Everyone was tense; conversations were held in whispers, as if the lizards would hear them across the intervening miles.

Captain Sheppard frowned. “I was actually hoping that your answer would be, ‘
Shouldn’t be a problem, Skipper. It’ll work perfectly.’”

“I would like to
be able to say that,” replied Lieutenant Finn, “but anything mechanical rarely works correctly the first time you try it. This one is especially hard because the modules were grafted onto two different types of ships. I’ve read everything I could on the
Vella Gulf
, and I’m pretty sure ours will work. I didn’t have as much material on the
Emperor’s Paw
. I hope it works for them...but I can’t be sure it will.”

“The
lizzie ships are moving,” said the defensive systems officer (DSO).

“Where are they going?” asked Captain Sheppard.

“I don’t know,” replied the DSO. “They appear to be randomly moving around.”

“Steropes? Ensign Sommers?” asked Captain Sheppard. “Any ideas?”

“We were just discussing it,” said Ensign Sara Sommers, who was manning the science station. “We’re pretty sure they know two ships are in the system; they just don’t know where. There are three stargates out of the system, the one we came through, the one going to Ssselipsssiss space and the one we’re headed to. They can probably guess that we’re trying to go toward Mrowry space, and they are either trying to find us or cut us off, or both.”

“What do you want me to do, Skipper?” asked the helmsman.

“Power levels on the enemy ships coming up,” said the DSO. “It looks like they’re preparing to fire on something. It’s not us though; we’re still out of range.”

“Got it,” said Captain Sheppard.

“Gate activation,” both Steropes and the DSO said simultaneously. “Looks like a transit out,” added the DSO; “I didn’t see anything come in. The lizzies are going crazy now. I think they’re looking for us.” The DSO paused. “What the...” he muttered. “Now they’re firing their lasers
all
over the place.”

“They are trying to find us,” said Steropes. “They’re hoping that we’ll fly through one of their laser beams
, and it will spotlight us.”

“Solomon,” said Captain Sheppard, “Are you watching the
Ssselipsssiss?”

“Yes, Captain Sheppard, I am,” replied the AI.

“Good,” said Captain Sheppard. “Please analyze their patterns. If we were to make a high speed run from here to the stargate, what are the odds of their hitting us with one of their lasers?”

“The odds are minimal,” answered Solomon. “The beams are very narrow,
and they have a lot of space to cover. Even if they concentrated all of their weapons on the area near the stargate, they would still have less than a 2% chance of hitting us.”

“Thanks, Solomon, that’s pretty much what I thought, too,” replied Captain Sheppard. “Helmsman, all ahead full to the stargate.”

“All ahead full, aye,” said the helmsman.

The ship began accelerating toward the stargate.

“Shit!” swore the DSO. “One of the battlecruisers just changed direction. We’re going to pass about 26,000 miles from it.”

“All ahead flank,” said Captain Sheppard.

“Increasing to flank speed, aye” replied the helmsman.

“The odds of detection have increased to 57%,” Solomon noted, “based on the probability of
gravimetric detection.”

“Noted,” Captain Sheppard said.

“The lizzies are going crazy,” the DSO said. “They are firing everywhere. One of the battlecruisers just hit one of the battleships, and the battleship shot back at it, too. Neither penetrated the other’s shields, but still. It’s crazy, sir.”

“Five minutes to stargate,”
the helmsman said.

“Entering
detection range of battlecruiser,” the DSO said.

“Four minutes to stargate,” the helmsman said.

“They know we’re here,” the DSO called. “All laser batteries are firing in our general direction.”

“On screen,” said Captain Sheppard. The AI indicated where the laser beams were
being fired in relation to the
Vella Gulf
.  Lieutenant Finn was pretty sure he was happier not knowing. There were a
lot
of lasers firing in their direction.

“Three minutes to stargate,” the helmsman said.

“We’re hit!” the DSO said. “Glancing shot, starboard shield. Shields at 98%, but they’re going to know we’re here.” He paused. “Yep, they’ve got us,” he added. “All of their weapons are refocusing in our vicinity. The battlecruiser is turning to port to unmask its broadside.”

“Two minutes to stargate!” the helmsman said.

“All ships turning toward us and accelerating,” the DSO said. “We’re hit!” Everyone on the bridge could feel the extra energy around them as the shields absorbed it. “Battleship hit! Stealth is down. Shields at 78%.”

“Permission to fire?” requested the
offensive systems officer (OSO). Many of the
Vella Gulf’s
systems were covered with the stealth modules, but not all.

“
Permission granted,” said Captain Sheppard. “Fire at will!”

“One battleship, four battlecruisers and four cruisers giving chase,” Steropes noted. “It appears they mean to chase us into the next system.”

“Missiles launching, both sides,” noted the OSO. The crew could feel the ship shudder as the missiles blasted out of their tubes. “Lasers and grasers firing,” he added.

“
Minefield!
” the DSO called. “Mines appear inactive,” he added a few second later, “probably because of the ships following us.”

“One minute to stargate,” said the helmsman.

“Two hits on our aft shields,” said the DSO. “Shields are at 12%. We’ll lose them with the next hit.
Missiles inbound!
”

“Standby to launch all fighters as soon as we emerge,” Captain Sheppard ordered.

“Launch all fighters on emergence, aye,” Lieutenant Commander Brighton repeated.

“We’re hit!”
called the DSO. “Aft shields are down.”

“
Laser hit at Frame 220 aft,” the duty engineer reported. “Damage control crews responding.”

“
Counter-missile lasers and missiles firing,” added the DSO. Only the OSO sitting next to him could hear him mutter, “C’mon baby, get me to the gate...”

“Ssselipsssiss ships definitely intend to follow us,” Steropes advised. “
The battleship and two battlecruisers are continuing to accelerate. They will catch us in the next system.”

“
We’re not going to stop all the missiles!” called the DSO. He dialed up the ship’s intercom system. “
Missile impact in 10 seconds,
” he transmitted. “
All hands brace for shock!
”

“Five seconds...” the DSO said under his breath. “Four...three...two...”

The ship hit the stargate and jumped.