The Heart of Matter: Odyssey One (36 page)

▸“THE SCANNERS ARE registering high acceleration from the new ship, Captain.”

Kierna frowned at the projections as he stood at his place just above his wrecked command chair. “I see them, Ithan. Are those power readings correct?”

“I believe so, Captain.”

He frowned, shaking his head.

Something was wrong here, very wrong. The power levels on the new ship were flat, ridiculously so. It appeared that almost the entirety of their profile came from reflected energy as opposed to the
Heralc
and other ships of its class with radiated immense power curves. Even transports showed higher power curves than this ship, which meant that it couldn’t possibly be a threat.

Yet something was gnawing at the back of his fatigued mind, something Kierna thought he should remember but couldn’t quite place.

He shook off the feeling. “Very well, Ithan. Do we have an active target lock on the vessel?”

“Not yet, Captain. It’s moving too fast. We’re trying to project its course now, but the ship is still accelerating.”

He nodded. “Understood. Use active sensors. The Drasin?”

“Still on course, Captain. We’ll close with them in just over two cycles.”

Decisions, decisions
, Kierna thought as he eyed the icons that represented the two distinct threats on his projections.

The Drasin were a known problem—and a lethal one, to be sure. They were closing on him of their own accord and, if they got past him, would destroy the refugees and possibly attack the core world of Ranquil. The new contact was an unknown, its profile not appearing in the computer, at least not that his weapons officer could find, and it was too damned close to the projected zone of battle.

Further, it was much closer to him than the Drasin, and for all its flat power curve, it was pulling some impressive acceleration. Not as high as the
Heralc
could manage, to be sure, but high enough to make him wonder why that power curve was so low, after all.

The numbers on the new ship were still changing, so he couldn’t tell one way or the other which one he would be contacting first—Drasin or unknown.

Either way, Kierna Senthe would be prepared.

“Status on forward lasers?” he growled, tapping a command into his projections.

“Repairs complete, Captain. All banks report ready to fire.”

“Excellent. My compliments to the repair team.” Kierna nodded grimly. “Ithan, please inform the crew that we will be reentering combat shortly. They have a few minutes to prepare.”

PRIMINAE VESSEL VULK
Ranquil System

▸THE TWO DRASIN ahead were undeterred by the blast of radiation from the war charges the
Vulk
had dropped in her wake, but Maran didn’t find that surprising. Even at near-point-blank ranges, the Drasin armor had stood up to the massive detonations and the subsequent chain reaction triggered by the explosives, so there was no reason to expect it to do any better at range. Still, it had been worth a shot.

The Drasin, though, weren’t the main thing occupying his attention at the moment.

He grunted once as he watched the projections, one eyebrow lifting as he saw the blaze of light erupt from the depths.

“Well, that answers
that
question,” he said, speaking to no one in particular.

“Sir?”

Johan glanced over to see his first approach from the side and nodded at the projection. “The
Odyssey
.”

The woman looked at the screen and nodded. “So that is where it was hiding.”

“Yes. But it’s out of hiding now.” Johan frowned. “I wonder why. They were in a good position, had a clean shot at
the Drasin from there. From what I know of Captain Weston, which I will admit isn’t as much as one might hope, I expected him to stay dark until he fired.”

His first shrugged. “Perhaps it is a tactical strategy.”

“Perhaps. In any event, it hardly matters. I wish him luck, but in the meantime, we have our own matters to attend to.”

“Captain!”

Johan jerked around, his attention locking back to a red blossom on the projection that mapped the
Odyssey
’s position. “What happened?”

NACS ODYSSEY
Ranquil System

▸“WE’VE BEEN PAINTED!” Winger’s call startled the bridge, shocking them out of the building tension they had been enduring as they waited for the countdown to run down.

“What?” Eric jerked around, one eye on the clock.

The Drasin shouldn’t have detected them for another minute, thirteen.

“Triangulating directionality now, Captain,” Winger announced. “It’s a high-energy tachyon pulse!”

“Shit!” Eric cursed. “Velocity?”

“Way the hell over light-speed, sir,” Winger said grimly. “Calculating now.”

Eric bit back another curse, the dull, agonizing tension that had been building long gone now, replaced by the bleeding-edged terror that made up about 1 percent or less of military life. Someone had spotted them and painted them with a high-energy tachyon pulse. That meant they were basically visible to anyone who had FTL receivers within tactical range.

Which meant that their element of surprise had been well and truly blown to hell.

“Fourteen times light-speed, Captain.” Winger groaned. “They’ve sure as hell seen us now, sir.”

Eric bit back his own groan, but nodded. “New countdown, Lieutenant. Start it from when they would have received the sensor reflection.”

“Aye, Captain.” Winger nodded, tapping in another command that started a countdown from when the Drasin would have a confirmed course and speed for the
Odyssey
.

“New game, everyone,” Eric told them calmly. Then his voice shifted to a harder edge. “Adapt.”

PRIMINAE VESSEL VULK
Ranquil System

▸“WHAT HAPPENED, ITHAN?” Johan Maran growled, watching his projections as the two Drasin vessels ahead shifted their course to intercept the
Odyssey
’s projected image.

“It was the
Heralc
, Captain,” came the answer. “They acquired the
Odyssey
on their active scanners.”

“What?” Maran blew, his voice roaring across the bridge. “Contact them! Now!”

“Yes, sir.”

Johan Maran glowered at the projection as the
Odyssey
continued to accelerate into the maw of the alien ships. Did they realize that they had been spotted? He couldn’t know, but they hadn’t altered their course in response.

Would they have?

It was another question he couldn’t answer. How could he get into the mind of an alien, even a very human one like Captain Weston? It was obvious that the man thought very differently than anyone Johan had ever met. It was even obvious that his…race, for lack of a better term, had different psychological leanings than Johan’s own people.

Unlike many people in Ranquil, Maran wasn’t entirely convinced that this was a good thing. The local population and even some members of the fleet, not to mention the admiral’s office, seemed convinced that Weston could calm a solar flare.

Johan was more skeptical.

He was willing to admit, however, that Weston and his people were a force to be contended with. And so long as that force was aimed away from Ranquil and at the Drasin, he wasn’t stupid enough to complain too loudly about the armed alien ship in orbit of one of the core worlds.

That did not, however, help him with his current problem. As he understood it, the
Odyssey
had been given a trans-comm for communications with the admiral’s office as well as emergency use. However, the power systems on the ship were not entirely compatible with it, and the military protocols that the
Odyssey
followed didn’t stretch so far as to permit the installation of a foreign power source.

Not an entirely unwise rule, he supposed, but it did limit the response options that he had at the moment.

“Captain Senthe is waiting, sir.”

Johan turned to glare at the secondary projection that appeared beside his chair. “What in the destroyer of worlds are you doing, Senthe?”

NACS ODYSSEY
Ranquil System