Aurora: CV-01 (31 page)

“I know, they’re just irritating me.”

“You’re doing great,” he reassured.

A few minutes and about a dozen dodged asteroids later, the Aurora exited the asteroid field into open space, headed on a course directly away from both the field and the conflict still raging between the Takaran ships and the rebels ships acting as decoys.

“We’re clear,” Cameron announced proudly, an obvious relief in her voice. After tapping a few buttons, she added, “Ten minutes to safe jump distance.”

“Captain!” Jessica yelled in shock, causing Nathan to spin around to face her. “One of the rebel ships was just blown apart! A single shot, right in her reactor!” Nathan’s heart fell as he looked at Jalea and Marak. Jalea showed no emotion, just the same cold, determined eyes. Marak was muttering some unintelligible commands into his communicator.

“The second rebel ship just changed course and is accelerating!” Jessica continued. “I think he means to ram them!”

Nathan continued watching Jalea, but there was no change in her demeanor. Marak however had begun muttering some sort of chant, over and over, in a rhythmic fashion, as if he were praying. “He’s making a suicide run,” Nathan realized.

Both ships are targeting him! They’re firing! The rebel ship is breaking apart! I’m not sure if he’s going to…”

The bridge filled with a bright white flash of light reflecting off the forward sections of the ship that were visible through the main view screen. It only lasted a moment, but it was sudden and blinding during its brief presence.

“I’m reading a nuclear detonation!” Jessica announced. “At least ten megatons!”

“Why would they fire a nuke?” Nathan asked, baffled at what had just happened.

“I don’t think the Takarans fired it, sir,” Jessica warned.

All the pieces fell into place in Nathan’s mind. He turned back to Jalea, who stood unwavering, unaffected. “Do your ships carry nuclear weapons?”

Jalea looked at Nathan for a moment, contemplating her response before she spoke. She could no longer hide this fact from them. Our ships do not
carry
nuclear weapons, Captain. They
are
nuclear weapons.”

Nathan stared at Jalea again. “You mean to tell me, that all your ships are basically nuclear missiles? Even the one still in our hangar deck?”

“Yes. But it is only used as a last resort. And it has proven effective on several occasions.”

“It makes sense, Sir,” Jessica told him.

“Are you kidding? How in the…”

“…No seriously,” Jessica tried to explain. “I mean, when all else fails, use yourself as a nuclear torpedo. At least you won’t miss.”

“What is the disposition of the Takaran ships?” Jalea asked indignantly.

Jessica looked at her tactical display. “I’m only picking up one ship, Sir. And it’s sustained quite a bit of damage as well.”

“Is it still a threat?”

“I’m not sure. We’re way out of her range at the moment, but if her main propulsion is still operable, she might still be able to catch us before we jump.”

“They will not be able to prevent our departure,” Jalea insisted.

Nathan turned halfway back toward Jalea and Marak. “You know, I’ve got half a mind to shoot the both of you once we get out of this mess!” he stated angrily, turning to completely face them. “You both knew damned well that this was the way it was going to play out from the beginning, didn’t you?”

“New contact! Off our port beam!” Ensign Yosef interrupted. “Just dropped out of FTL! Transferring track to tactical!”

Jessica began analyzing the new contact as Nathan turned back around to look for himself. “Crap,” Jessica swore. “It’s another Takaran warship,” she announced, her optimism falling along with everyone else in the room. “And it’s bigger than the last two.”

“How long until they can…”

Nathan didn’t have a chance to finish his question. “…We’ll be inside their weapons range in two minutes,” Jessica said.

“Time to safe jump?”

“Eight minutes,” Cameron answered. A split second later Marak spoke through his communicator, and the two remaining rebel ships that had been flying alongside the Aurora suddenly pulled ahead of them and angled to port on an intercept course with the third Takaran warship.

“You know, you could at least act like it was difficult to send your people off to die,” Nathan remarked, obvious anger in his voice. As expected, there was no response.

Nathan felt emotionally and physically exhausted. They had all been working for nearly eighteen hours now, and during that time his emotions had bounced from one end of the spectrum and back again at least a half dozen times. But he knew that he couldn’t give up now. He couldn’t ever give up. The stakes were just too damned high.

“Helm, turn us into the new target. Let’s bring our tubes to bear and give the enemy as little a silhouette as possible,” Nathan ordered.

“Coming to port, ten degrees and down slightly,” Cameron announced as she changed course. “Same speed, Captain?”

“Same speed,” he confirmed. “Jess, make sure all the rail guns are ready to fire as well. The only chance we’ve got is to blast our way through.”

“Yes Sir.”

Moments later, the rebel ships got close enough to launch their long range missiles at the third Takaran warship.

“Rebels ships are launching missiles,” Jessica announced. “Enemy is spinning up her point-defense screen. “Eight rebel missiles are on their way,” Jessica reported. “Impact in thirty seconds.”

“How many missiles do they carry?” Nathan asked Jalea.

“Four each.”

“They just fired their whole load,” he told Jessica.

“Takaran ship is firing missiles, but only two.”

“They’re either more conservative or they have better missiles,” Nathan decided.

“Rebels are launching decoys again,” Jessica announced. “We have got to get us some of those,” she whispered. “Rebel missiles have reached the enemy perimeter.” Jessica paused a moment before continuing. “Only two missiles made it through, impact in five seconds.”

Nathan watched the tactical display as the two lines representing the paths of the rebel missiles eventually connected to the symbol representing the Takaran warship.

“Impact.” Jessica checked her readouts on the enemy ship. “Only minor damage.”

A small orange and yellow fireball erupted on the main view screen. “One rebel ship has been destroyed. The other one is still advancing and is firing her flechettes.”

“Do you think our torpedoes will work any better?”

“Sure, if they get through. But that bastard’s got great point-defense systems.”

“Get firing solutions for all four torpedoes, Jess.”

“Yes Sir. Suggest we fire them consecutively, sir.” Jessica could see by the confused look on Nathan’s face that he didn’t know what she was talking about. “If we fire them all at once, they have to spread out to avoid knocking each other off course. That means they all hit the same point-defense flak wall at the same time. If we fire consecutively, with each one following the one in front of them, they all go through the same hole. If the first torpedo gets nailed, it’s blast will make a whole in the flak field for the next one to get through. Theoretically, that is. I mean, I’ve never actually done it before,” Jessica admitted sheepishly.

“Sounds good to me,” Nathan agreed.

“They’re firing missiles again,” Jessica added.

“Are we in weapons range yet?”

“Yes, wait…” Jessica double-checked her readouts before continuing. “Inbound ordnance! That last missile launch was at us! Tracking four!”

“I thought we weren’t in range yet?” Nathan snapped.

“Guess I was wrong?” Jessica admitted. “Not like I’ve seen a whole lot of Takaran warships before. Impact in two minutes.”

“Launch torpedoes!” Nathan ordered. “Then bring the turrets online, point-defense mode!”

“Firing one!” Jessica announced. Everyone watched as the first torpedo appeared on the left side of the forward view screen as it streaked past, turning to port as it departed.

“Firing two!” The second torpedo streaked across from the right side.

“Firing three!”

Marak leaned in closely to Jalea, giving her hand a squeeze as he whispered something in her ear. For the briefest of moments, the cold, pragmatic look in her eyes softened, turning sad. She turned and looked at him, respectfully, as he let go of her hand, after which he turned and left the bridge.

“Firing four!” They watched as the last torpedo streaked away. “Rail guns coming online, point-defense mode, firing all turrets.”

On the outside of the Aurora, in eight different locations along the upper side of the ship, doors slid open and rail-gun turrets popped up into view. Once fully deployed, the turrets once again raised their barrels and pivoted until they were pointed in the proper direction and began rapid-firing the special point-defense rounds. The turrets danced back and forth, as they attempted to fill in the gaps in the defensive field of flak left by the turrets that had either been damaged, or had not yet been installed.

“Point-defense perimeter established!” Jessica announced. “Torpedo one is, shot down. Torpedo two, also shot down.”

Nathan could feel his hope fade with each torpedo that was intercepted and destroyed before reaching its target.

“Torpedo three……damn!”

Nathan closed his eyes as he waited for the report on their last torpedo.

“Torpedo four……has made it through! Impact in five!” Jessica exclaimed. Suddenly, a warning indicator flashed on her tactical threat display. “Oh shit…Brace for impact!”

Jessica had been paying such close attention to their own torpedoes, she had failed to notice that one of the enemy missiles had made it past their own point-defense field. The missile streaked past the forward section of the ship, striking the upper portion of the main drive section just above the starboard torpedo tubes.

The force of the explosion rocked the ship, causing her stern to suddenly drop down sharply. On the bridge, it had nearly knocked them all off their feet. Nathan couldn’t help but wonder how Vladimir and his men were doing in engineering, which was far closer to the point of impact.

“Impact! Starboard edge of the drive section! Torpedo tubes two and four are damaged!”

“Propulsion is down!” Cameron alerted. “The impact is pushing us into a lateral spin! Attempting to compensate!”

“Bridge to engineering!” Nathan called out over his comm-set. “Vlad!”

“We’ve still got maneuvering!” Cameron added. “Course and speed are unchanged! ETA to safe jump, two minutes!”

“Captain! We’ve lost most of our rail-guns!” Jessica reported.

“That torpedo must’ve knocked out at least one of our reactors!” Nathan exclaimed. “Abby!” he shouted, spinning his chair around to face her. “Do you still have power!”

“Yes, all systems still show ready. I’ve almost got the sequence entered.”

“Captain!” Jessica reported. “Our torpedo! It took out their missile battery!”

Nathan looked at Jessica. “Nice shootin’.” He glanced at Jalea behind her, and noticed that Marak was no longer standing next to her.

“The last rebel ship made it through their defense perimeter!” Jessica announced. “He must’ve followed our last torpedo through the gap in their flak field!”

Nathan spun back around to face forward. He could barely make out the rebel ship as it plunged toward the Takaran warship. The enemy’s flak exploded all across the screen in front of them as they drifted closer, their main engines still offline.

“He’s making a suicide run!” Nathan exclaimed.

“Captain! Another rebel ship just launched from our flight deck!”

Nathan spun back around to look at Jalea. He thought he saw her nod her head slightly in confirmation, but it might have just been the violent vibrations as they began taking hits from the enemy ship’s rail-guns.

“We’re taking fire!” Jessica announced.

“Time to safe jump?”

“One minute!” Cameron answered.

Suddenly, the room lit up in a brilliant white light that came from the center of the main view screen. Seconds later, as the light began to die, Nathan thought he could see the last rebel ship, piloted by Marak, dive toward the Takaran warship.

“He’s using the detonation from the first ship to slip in undetected!” Jessica deduced. Nathan turned back to look at Jessica. “Clever little fucker,” she added.

Nathan wondered if they had planned it this way all along. “Time to safe jump?”

“Forty-five seconds!” Cameron announced.

“Jess, how long till Marak impacts the Takaran ship?”

“Fifteen seconds!” Jessica answered, tension starting to creep into her voice.

“Helm, quick as you can, show them our belly.”

“Pitching up,” Cameron announced, as she pulled the control stick back and slightly right.

The Aurora began to roll onto her right side as her nose pitched back. A few seconds later, she ended the maneuver, leaving the ship drifting forward belly-first toward the enemy.

“Impact,” Jessica announced. “Detonation.”

With their belly pointed toward the detonation, there was no blinding flash this time, just a good deal of turbulence as the shock wave from the nuclear detonation struck them.

“Kill the main view screen,” Nathan ordered. He waited a few more seconds for the shock wave to subside before giving the next order. “Abby, jump the ship.”

Abigail quickly tapped in the commands and pressed the execute button. “Jumping,” she announced.

The Aurora again seemed to glow a brilliant blue-white for a fraction of a second before disappearing in a bright flash of white light. The vibrations from the shock wave instantly stopped, leaving the bridge quiet once again.

“Jump complete,” she announced, having fully adopted Nathan’s parlance.

“Viewer on,” Nathan asked, turning back towards the front. The screen that surrounded the entire forward section of the bridge flickered back to life, resolving into a black star field, with a small star directly ahead of them that was significantly brighter than all the rest.

Nathan looked confused. “Are we facing the wrong way?” he asked Cameron. “I thought we were jumping into a system?”