The Lost Command (Lost Starship Series Book 2) (43 page)

That was too much for the cone formation. Each destroyed star cruiser did too much damage to its side-by-side neighbors. The cone broke apart. The New Men vessels drifted farther away from each other. That broke up the giant beam. Now, the enemy star cruisers fired their individual rays, striking various battleships and heavy cruiser shields.

“Captain,” Ludendorff said. “My make-shift dissipater is going to blow. We have to wait to fire again.”

“Yes,” Maddox said, “wait. We’ve busted up the enemy cone. Second Lieutenant Maker, pull us back from the front sheet.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” Keith said.

“Sir,” Valerie said, “the admiral is on the line.”

Maddox faced the big screen. Fletcher grinned like a maniac.

“You royal son of bitch!” Fletcher shouted. “You broke the cone formation. Congratulations, Captain Maddox. You’ve given me a fighting chance. I’ll never forget this. I owe you a debt I can’t repay. Anytime, anywhere, ask me for anything. If I can give it to you, I’ll do it.”

“I’m asking right now, sir,” Maddox said.

“Yes?”

“Destroy the New Men for me.”

Fletcher’s grin broke into a savage smile. “This is a death ride, son. You know that, right?”

“No, sir, I don’t know anything of the kind. When I play, I play to win, not to draw and never to take second place.”

“Right,” Fletcher said. “Win.” The smile vanished, leaving fierce determination on the admiral’s face. “I hope you have some more shots left in that miracle weapon of yours, Captain.”

“Yes, sir,” Maddox said. “So do I.”

-43-

The fleets converged on each other, the distance rapidly dwindling between them.

The big Earth missiles Maddox had unloaded earlier tried to reach the star cruisers. The enemy shot the Titans down, but that took time, targeting and beams. It meant those star cruisers didn’t fire for those minutes at Fifth Fleet vessels.

Battleship
Blucher
was gone. The enemy star cruisers now collapsed Battleship
Chattanooga’s
shield. Enemy beams burned deeper into the hull armor. Escape pods should have fled the stricken ship.

From Valerie’s board, Maddox heard the admiral ordering the battleship’s crew to flee.
Chattanooga’s
commodore respectfully informed Fletcher to stuff the order. The battleship’s personnel yearned to fire their lasers at the enemy. Soon, the vessel would be in range. They were dead anyway. It was time to enter the next life with glory in their hearts.

Thirty seconds later,
Chattanooga’s
crew no longer had a choice. The vessel broke apart under multiple star cruiser beams. Fortunately, there was no fusion core reaction. The chief engineer had braved critical radiation poisoning to go inside to pull the rods. He made sure such a chain-reaction had been impossible.

There were lesser explosions throughout the hit vessel, though. Battleship
Chattanooga
broke into five uneven pieces. The biggest chunk tumbled end-over-end. Two destroyers moved up at the admiral’s orders. With their lesser guns, the destroyers shattered the tumbling piece into smaller chunks, making sure it didn’t smash against a front-line vessel’s shield and weaken it.

The third lost battleship didn’t even break apart. It went gray, hurdling through space with Star Watch corpses in its belly.

By that time, the fleets entered heavy-mount laser range. The remaining battleships began firing back. Thick rays of deadly light speared from the huge Star Watch vessels. They hit enemy star cruisers, chewing against the shields.

It would still be some time before the smaller SW heavy cruisers could strike the approaching enemy with their shorter-range beams.

“Captain,” Ludendorff said over the screen. “I believe I can give you three more shots. That will be it then.”

“Three shots will only kill one more star cruiser,” Maddox said. “It takes two hits to destroy one of them. I need a fourth shot.”

“Sir,” Valerie said. “Maybe you can use the disruptor to just knock down an enemy shield. Let Fletcher know which star cruiser you’re going to strike. He can coordinate the battleships to shoot all their lasers at it. With the shield gone, the heavy lasers might be able to chew through the armor before the star cruiser can hide behind a different vessel.”

Maddox’s eyes gleamed. “That’s an excellent idea, Lieutenant. Get me the admiral.”

In seconds, Maddox explained the idea to Fletcher.

“Which star cruiser do we hit first?” the admiral asked.

“Pick it,” Maddox told Valerie. “Then tell the admiral your decision.”

Lieutenant Noonan did exactly that.

In another minute,
Victory’s
antimatter engines howled with build-up. Captain Maddox slid forward on his chair as he watched the main screen. His gut churned with anticipation. Would this work? Could they kill more star cruisers? The enemy was whittling away Fifth Fleet’s best battleships one at a time.

“Now,” Valerie whispered. She stabbed the firing pad.

Victory’s
disruptor cannon shot its blob of highly charged energy. The glob sped through the void and knocked down yet another enemy shield. Seconds before the shot, a spread of mighty Star Watch lasers beamed against it. As the shield blackened, overloaded and vanished, the heavy-mount lasers pounded against the hull armor. The star cruiser moved sharply, trying to get behind its nearest unwounded companion. The Star Watch lasers burned deeper, deeper into the armor. The enemy vessel increased speed—

A vaporization of matter and billowing energy told of the star cruiser’s brilliant ending. One second, it was there. The next, debris showed that nothing, not even New Men-built warships, lasted forever.

Two more times,
Victory
used the disruptor ray, knocking down enemy shields. Two more times, the combined wattage of heavy-mount laser power destroyed their foe.

The New Men had annihilated three battleships. The Fifth Fleet with
Victory
had taken out five star cruisers. Amazingly, the advantage belonged to the regular humans fighting under the Star Watch banner.

“Captain,” Ludendorff said. “That’s it. We dare not risk another shot.”

Maddox stared at the screen showing the enemy formation. Nineteen star cruisers yet faced thirty-three capital ships. How many star cruisers could the New Men lose before their resolve broke? How many reserve vessels did the enemy side have anyway? Winning this fight meant getting these Star Watch vessels back home to the repair yards. The Fifth Fleet had to reach the Tannish Laumer-Point.

In that moment, Maddox knew their lack of intelligence on the enemy keenly hurt Star Watch. How could one make informed decisions if one didn’t have all the information? Maybe the invasion armada was the full extent of the New Men’s manufacturing ability. They had these ships—and the others that hadn’t made it for the fight—and that would be it.

It didn’t make sense the New Men had huge fleets of star cruisers. If these star cruisers were the result of the Thomas Moore Society one hundred and fifty years ago, then the New Men did not have a vast number of planets behind them. They might only have the Throne World. That would mean the enemy couldn’t absorb many losses.

Yes, once
Victory
got in short range, they could use the neutron beam against the enemy fleet. That beam lacked the disruptor cannon’s firepower, though. The starship could work down a shield with the neutron beam, not simply swat it aside with one shot. There was another thing, once the star cruisers came in close range, they could annihilate the wrecks hidden by the present front sheet of heavy armored Star Watch vessels.

“I’m betting the New Men don’t have a big industrial base,” Maddox told the professor.

“Why would that matter to us here?” Ludendorff asked.

“The New Men’s willingness to take losses might be dependent on how easy it is to replace destroyed star cruisers.”

Ludendorff cocked his head, blinking rapidly. “Oh, I see. Yes, you’re right. It could make a critical difference.”

“Heat up the cannon, Professor,” Maddox said. “We’re going to shoot again.”

The professor closed his eyes, shaking his head. When he opened them, he said, “You don’t know when your luck has run out. We’re past the danger zone, Captain. This is red zone, lose the super-ship time.”

“Do it,” Maddox said.

Ludendorff heaved an explosive sigh. “As you wish, Captain.”

Once more, the antimatter engines howled. Once more, the disruptor cannon sent its package of globular terror at the enemy. Another enemy shield went down, and massed Star Watch heavy lasers burned into the hull armor. Another enemy vessel died to the Fifth Fleet.

Maddox’s throat was dry. He wanted to order one more strike. He’d helped take down six star cruisers. That meant eighteen enemy warships were left. What was the enemy commander thinking? Oran Rva couldn’t know each disruptor shot was a grave risk for
Victory
. The enemy commander might be computing the odds and what would happen if he kept the remaining star cruisers on an intercept course with the fleet.

“Look,” Valerie whispered.

Like ink from an octopus, each enemy star cruiser sprayed a red cloud before its ship. The twinkling clouds merged into a bigger field, blocking the two fleets, hiding the enemy ships from view.

Maddox stood up, walking toward the main screen. “Explain what I’m seeing, Lieutenant.”

Valerie studied her board, finally nodding. “The enemy is spraying some sort of crustal field, sir. As you can see, they’re spraying the crustals before their ships in relation to our vessels.”

“The enemy isn’t beaming us anymore,” Maddox said.

“Their rays mustn’t be able to burn through the crustal field, or not easily, anyway,” Valerie said.

“What do you mean by crustal?” Maddox asked.

“Tiny pieces of highly reflective matter, sir,” Valerie said.

“To reflect laser light?” Maddox asked.

“To dissipate a laser’s killing power,” she told him. “Oh, no.”

Maddox’s stomach muscles tightened until it became painful. “What now?” he whispered. Had he come this close only to lose to a New Men surprise?

“According to my sensors—”

“You can see past the cloud?” Maddox asked.

“A dim outline of a view, yes, sir,” Valerie said. “It looks like they’re running away, sir.”

“What?”

“They’re trying to get out of our path, sir,” Valerie said. “One half of their fleet is going right, and the other half is going to the left of us, sir. They engaged their engines. It looks as if the star cruisers are accelerating at full speed.”

Maddox envisioned what that meant in terms of the battle.

“They don’t want to go head-to-head with us,” the captain said. “The New Men will try to set up and rake our ships at long range.”

“Maybe,” Valerie said. “Or maybe they’re just trying to get the hell away from
Victory
. Sir, I think you’ve intimidated the enemy. The New Men don’t like our disruptor cannon one bit.”

***

The star cruisers fairly leapt away from their former position. Using the quickly sprayed crustal field as a temporary shield, they accelerated out of the Fifth Fleet’s path.

Fletcher’s ships moved fifteen times faster than the star cruisers. That meant it was many times more difficult for the Star Watch vessels to alter course. They still headed for the Tannish Laumer-Point. In another few hours, they would have to begin braking if they wanted to use the jump point.

The New Men vessels could alter course easily because they did not have a high initial velocity. Now, for the first time, Star Watch personnel saw how fast the enemy’s vessels could accelerate. The star cruisers moved away from the crustal field, becoming visible again. The enemy ships
moved
. Not only that, but they moved beyond the battleships’ long-range heavy lasers and beyond the star cruiser beam range. The enemy commander made it clear he feared the disruptor cannon.

I used it exactly right, firing just enough and not one shot more
. Only as Maddox thought that did he begin to tremble. He realized how close he’d come to losing the ancient starship and his life.

Maddox stood on the bridge watching the star cruisers fleeing. The crustal field had been the enemy’s surprise. It meant the New Men had eighteen of their twenty-four original vessels this time around.

During the last battle in Caria 323, Fletcher had destroyed seven star cruisers. This time, Star Watch killed one less. Last time, however, the enemy had brutally wiped out masses of Star Watch ships. This time, the New Men had destroyed three battleships. What’s more, this time, Star Watch had beaten the enemy and driven him from the field of conflict.

That was what he was seeing, right? Maddox could hardly believe the New Men fled for safety away from the Fifth Fleet.

“Lieutenant,” Maddox said. “Hail the enemy. Demand to speak to Commander Oran Rva.”

“Are you sure, sir?” Valerie asked. “They’re running. Maybe we should leave it at that.”

“That isn’t how an aggressive admiral would act,” Maddox told her. “We’re bluffing them. We’ve played the extent of our super-weapon. That means we have to speak like a victor to keep them running.”

Valerie turned to her board and began to send the signal.

Was it the last disruptor shot that had decided it? Maddox wondered. If he hadn’t taken the risk, would the star cruisers be among them soon? Would he now be fighting the last battle of his life? How strange that a single order might have tipped the scales and saved humanity, saved this wrecked fleet. Would these remaining warships be enough to shift the balance of the interstellar war in the Commonwealth’s favor?

“Sir,” Valerie whispered. “I have Oran Rva on the line.”

Maddox squared his shoulders. A second later, the golden-skinned New Man in his silver suit stood before him on the screen.

“You run away like a beaten cur with its tail between its legs,” Maddox said.

The New Man’s inky eyes burned with intensity. The slit of a mouth tightened into a razor line. Then, the lips parted, and Oran Rva spoke:

“Ancient alien technology saved your paltry fleet,” the New Man said in an arrogant voice. “It has nothing to do with your capabilities.”

“Oh, sure,” Maddox said. “Keep telling yourself that as we hunt you down throughout the galaxy. You tried a cowardly sneak attack against the Commonwealth. Now, your people will have to pay a bitter price. You have one hope left, Oran Rva. Surrender and save your people.”

“You dare to say that to me?” the New Man asked.