WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (31 page)

“Wechselbalg,” Todd grimaced, “Can’t get them to see past the chance to fight.”

“Marines,” Peter answered, grinning, “always wanting an opportunity to fuck up the enemy before you get a chance to fight.”

“That
IS
the definition of fighting,” Todd answered, “Fuck them up before you get screwed without lubricant. The best way to fight is to cheat.”

“Not very manly,” Peter replied.

“Not here to be manly, here to win. Overly manly gets you dead.” Todd answered. “If all else fails, we will attain fire superiority, we will move towards the enemy guns, and we will kill everything in our path.”

“I can fully support that approach,” Peter nodded.

Todd slapped his friend on the shoulder, “Work with me, Wechselbalg, the Guardian Marines will get you where you need to go and protect your back while we do it.”

—

Bethany Anne strode on the bridge, to sit back down. She liked the look of her usual black leather outfit, but these slick blood red carbon graphite pieces pleased her immensely. They weren’t noticeably annoying, although there was something heavy inside them. John said the added mass would be helpful.

Maybe.

She had her hair tied back and her helmet with her.

“Ok, Paul, ArchAngel, and crew we are sixty seconds from uncovering. Confirm final prep from all departments.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

ADAM, we good?

>>Yes, ArchAngel says we are good. The other ship has slowed down and is most likely setting up a shot. They are six hundred kilometers distant. She would have brought everything online if we had been attacked.<<

Good, I want my people to go through this as much as possible without overt assistance. It wouldn’t be good to let them understand how intelligent she is.

>>I will take that as a compliment.<<

You should, now don’t get a big head. I don’t have the space for your ego in my skull at the moment.

>>That was a joke, correct?<<

Yes.

>>It was a poor joke.<<

Yeah, you’re right, it was.

“Puck Defense?” she asked.

“Streaming now, ma’am.”

Bethany Anne waited. “I want anything they shoot if you can, to explode five kilometers out.”

“Five ma’am?”

“Yes, I’m told we are good for a direct hit from something of this class, but I’m not a betting a person, yet. So, destroy anything you can five out.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Bethany Anne looked around and nodded one last time, “Light them up.”

—

Alarms started shrieking on the boards in the command center, Captain T’chmon bit back an oath, they had been caught in a trap.

“Fire,” he spoke and a pair of missiles, already queued and aimed solar minutes ago, tore out of the front of the ship.

They waited the solar seconds necessary for the weapons to cross the distance between the two ships. The picture, which had been zoomed in, darkened when the explosions occurred stopping the brightness from hurting their eyes. Seconds later, the video grew bright again, and the picture showed the alien ship.

With no damage.

“Uh, sir?” Weapons called out.

“Again,” Captain T’chmon spoke, and another pair of missiles went towards the ship, and again the same thing happened.
 

Two explosions and no damage.

“Helm, ahead quarter speed, get within beam range, we have too many particulates in between us at the moment.” Captain T’chmon ordered.

—

“Second set of missiles destroyed at three kilometers, no noticeable issues with the shields, ma’am.”

“Paul, bring us around, I want to use the medium guns.”

“Yes ma’am, bringing ship around.”

“Paul?” she said, and he turned to look at her, “I want that ship, don’t mess it up too much. We still have one of our own on board.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

—

“Sir, we have movement, they are turning to face us,” called out Melorn.

“Smaller surface area to hit, perhaps?” said Weapons.

“Or, they are about to return fire,” Captain T’chmon answered. So far, their missiles weren’t causing any noticeable damage. The only way that would be the case … The enemy had shields.

“Sir? They have a second ship lying beyond the Gate.”

“They have
WHAT
?” Captain T’chmon replied, looking at his display, calling up a new area, circled. It was a black ship radiating very little and the only way sensors must have caught it was the obscured stars behind it. “Refine the images.”

There was no doubt that the humans had created this ship. It was ugly, beyond ugly. He grimaced in distaste. “They have no couth,” he grated out, “Find out what this ship is doing and why it is here,” he stabbed his monitor, “They might have no ability to create beauty, except for that main ship, but they aren’t stupid.”

He stabbed a button, “Kiel, prepare.”

—

Bethany Anne leaned back, “Fire, Paul.”

Pilot Captain Paul Jameson pushed the button. He had no idea that moment would delineate The Pre-Queen Bethany Anne and Post-Queen Bethany Anne Wars time period. While there were a lot of arguments in the future, no one argued that the first shot of the wars, all of them, were fired in her own solar system, at the Yollins who had attacked her, first.

The destruction was evident almost immediately. The metal slug had traveled over one hundred feet down the railgun's barrel attaining a small percent of light speed before hitting the left wing area. The puncture succeeded in creating a five-meter hole and causing the ship to skew jerkily to the side.

“I think we need to pull back on the speed a little, Paul. It went right through their wing.”

“You did ask me not to mess up their ship too much, ma’am.”

“Yes,” Bethany Anne agreed, “That is true.”

—

“WHAT HAPPENED!” Captain T’chmon yelled when their ship suddenly ripped to the left violently.

“Sir, we have been punctured on the left wing. There is a significant hole, minimal effect on space movement.”

“I understand that, but WHAT happened? What did they hit us with?”

“We believe they hit us with a metallic non-explosive momentum based device.”

Captain T’chmon wasn’t sure if the Weapons specialist was trying to be obtuse, or it was his training coming to the forefront. “So, you are telling me they hit us with a metal rod?” he asked.

“Um, … yes, sir.”

“Sir, they are coming towards us.”
 

Captain T’chmon punched the comm button, “Kiel, expect boarding action soon.”

“When do you want us to leave, sir?” Kiel responded.

Captain T’chmon shook his head, “Not us boarding them, Kiel. Them boarding us.”

—

Royleen lost his balance and fell to his knees when their ship suddenly lurched to the side. The alien on the table started laughing, he babbled something. Then the translation came through the speaker as Royleen got up.

 
“She’s coming, you asshole. Now you have gone and screwed the pooch!”

—

“All five boarding devices are on their way, ma’am,” Paul called out.

“Start hitting them with pucks, I want to know if we have a force-field to worry about.”

I doubt they do,
TOM told her.

I know you doubt it, but I’d like to know before we try and connect.

“Pucks are hitting metal, ma’am. We have one puncture near the far back. One engine has cut out,” the weapons officer called out.

“Stop fucking up my new ship.” Bethany Anne said, “Reduce the Puck damage. Keep hitting the ship, it’s got to annoy the hell out of them. Well, I hope it annoys the hell out of them.”

“They could like it, like music,” Paul told her.

Bethany Anne grimaced, “That would be my luck, I’m secretly asking them to wed me using some form of Galactic Morse Code.”

—

“Sir, we’ve lost engine one. We expect to have it back up in fifteen solar minutes.”

“Understood,” Captain T’chmon closed the communication line. The constant barrage hitting his ship was aggravating. Except for the one time, they weren’t getting through the outer protection.

“Sir, we have attachments hitting the ship,” Melorn informed him.

“What else are these humans up to? This will not go well for them.” Captain T’chmon said when Melorn turned to him, his eyes opened wide.

“Sir, we are being hailed on high bands.”

“From where?” Captain T’chmon asked, “there are no other ships out here.”

“From that one,” Melorn said, pointing to the large ship coming at them.

—

“…so, you pain in the ass, I am coming over there, and you will surrender, or I will space every one of you. You attacked my people and took them which is a declaration of war. You lost. Surrender or die…”

Bethany Anne finished her statement.

TOM send that in whatever languages you have that might work.

Bethany Anne stood up from her chair, “Paul, take the seat. You have command until I get back.”

Paul slaved his console over to Bethany Anne’s chair and switched places, “I’ve got the chair, yes ma’am.”

Bethany Anne swept out of the bridge, her protection detail escorting her to the Pod Bay.

—

“Sir, it is coming over in multiple languages, I do not have a match yet.”

“Work the translation, Melorn. However, I imagine it says something like
surrender or die
. That is what I would be saying if I were them.”

Captain T’chmon looked around at his crew, his people. Those that trusted him to get them back home safely and possibly with riches.

They had been so close, and he had failed them all.

He punched the comms button, “Kiel, come to the command center.”

“Coming, Captain.”

It took Kiel one solar minute to arrive, “Permission to enter, sir?”

Captain T’chmon hit the button to let him come in, “Permission granted, Kiel.”

Kiel came and stood next to him, “Command, Captain?”

Captain T’chmon looked around one more time and unhooked his four legs from the captain’s chair. “Come with me.”

The two left the command center, the specialists left in the command center all looked around at each other in surprise. The Captain was forbidden to leave the command center in battle.

Unless he was giving up his ship.

—

Royleen looked up when the Captain and Kiel entered, “Are we victors, then?” Royleen asked. The Captain shook his head in the negative, “No, we are not at the moment victors. Unhook the alien and have Kiel take him with us.”

It took the scientist only a few moments to unhook the alien who spoke gibberish but didn’t fight the larger alien who had his military armor on.

The three of them left the lab.

Captain T’chmon lifted up his arm and hit his shipwide comms button, “This is Captain T’chmon…”

—

The fight for the ship was anti-climatic. Their field expedient boarding devices connected, well four of them did. One did not work correctly, and the group could not acquire a seal. By the time they had made the adjustments, their comms had informed them of the alien’s surrender.

—