The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (31 page)

Lexxi depressed the fire button and fired 5 offensive missiles. She waited 30 seconds and fired another 4 missiles. She repeated 30 seconds later with 5 missiles, then again 30 seconds later with another 4 missiles.

After the 5
^th
time, Lexxi had to switch fingers because the one she was using was getting tired. She inspected it for damage and noted that if they lived, she would have to file the nail and repaint it. Fortunately, she only had to fire one additional time.

An offensive missile had a top speed of .23 light. It was launched at an initial velocity of .005 light and reached its top speed after 45 seconds. A missile had 120 seconds of burn time before it went ballistic.

The first volley of 5 missiles crossed the 4,000 kilometer distance separating the two ships in just under two seconds. They reached a final velocity of .015 light at impact. This distance was too short to aim or even have the missiles make a course correction. The best they could do was aim the missiles in the general vicinity of the cruiser.

As a result, the missiles impacted all along the enemy ship. This battle lacked the surgical precision of the fighter strike from their last battle. It appeared more like two heavyweight fighters punching each other wherever they could.

The distance was too short for defensive missiles to have any effect. The only protection either ship would have was defensive lasers, shields, and the heavily armored hull. The enemy cruiser clearly had an advantage in hull strength, but the
Sunflower
had an overwhelming advantage in missile fire rate.

In the first moment of the battle, the enemy ship fired 10 missiles and the Sunflower launched 5. Over the course of the next two minutes, the
Sunflower
was able to fire an additional 4 times, giving it a 23 to 10 missile advantage.

The enemy missiles connected with
Sunflower
. At this short distance, even a miss felt like a hit. The ship rocked as the first wave of 5 missiles hit it. Fortunately, the enemy cruiser also had to aim along the entire length of the
Sunflower
, so no area was hit more than once. Four seconds later the remaining 5 missiles impacted and again were scattered along the hull.

Ella announced, “The defensive lasers stopped 2 of the missiles. The 8 remaining missiles impacted all along the hull. Our shields are down, there are impact wounds all along the hull, there may be more structural damage, and the secondary power is spiking uncontrollably.”

Solear nodded in acknowledgement and said, “Keep firing.”

Putat took advantage of the momentary lull in conversation and said, “Captain, all 8 Hiriculan units are down. Their life-signs have been extinguished.”

At the two minute mark Ella announced, “The enemy’s shields are down across the entire ship. There are multiple areas exposed to space. They are leaking something from the main power generator.”

Solear was about to order the bombardment to cease just as Lexxi pressed the fire button for the 6
^th
time at the 2:30 minute mark. The bridge crew watched as the final set of missiles exploded in the open areas and tore the ship into pieces. Their main power reactor suffered a massive chain reaction and violently exploded.

The enemy cruiser appeared to temporarily implode, then rapidly explode into a massive dust cloud. The force of the explosion rocked the
Sunflower
and pushed it nearly a 1,000 kilometers away from its current positon. Dust and small debris from the destroyed ship pelted the
Sunflower’s
hull, adding to the damage.

Lexxi said, “Are you happy now? I just broke nail.”

Solear was about to answer, but Clowy unfastened her restraints, grabbed her nail kit, and rushed over to Lexxi. She began by furiously removing the polish; then filed the nail down and rounded it even again.

She applied a base coat and placed Lexxi’s nail in a portable ultra-violet inductance system. The polish dried almost immediately. She then applied the final coat and repeated the ultra-violet light drying. Lexxi held her finger up for inspection.

Solear started to comment about the nail crisis being avoided, but Lexxi cut him off by saying, “Don’t talk to me right now!”

Solear instead said, “Computer, why did the cruiser so thoroughly explode?”

…The last volley of missiles were ship busters. The enemy ship is completely destroyed. There are no survivors…

Ella said, “Power is down again throughout the ship. All systems are off-line.”

A few minutes later Ella added, “The containment unit on the secondary power generator has been severely damaged. The generator is in real danger of creating a run-away fusion reaction.”

Solear said, “Computer, analysis.”

…If the generator’s output is set to 20% it should avoid blowing up, at least for a while…

Clowy asked, “What if we go below 20%?”

…Creating too little power may have the same effect as creating too much…

Solear said, “Ella, set the power output to 20% and lock it there.”

Solear knew that sooner or later he would have to say it. He tried to talk himself out of it a couple times, but finally gave up. He sighed heavily and said, “Putat. Thank you. By pointing out the regulation to charge the ion cannon before jumping you have effectively saved the ship. If we live through this, I am putting you on the list for a commendation.”

Putat said, “Thank you, but we now have another problem. The passive scanner just picked up an image.” Putat displayed the image on the main monitor and said, “There is another Hiriculan warship in the system. Passive scan shows it at the three-hour light mark.”

Solear pointed to the monitor and said, “Three hours would physically put the ship on the far side of this tiny system.” He thought a moment and continued, “Therefore, they will see the light of the battle in 3 hours and will micro-jump here.”

Ella said, “It’s about a 7 minute jump.”

Solear said, “That means they will be here in just over 4 hours, actually more like 4 ½.”

Putat asked, “So what do we do now?”

Clowy answered, “Take a nap?”

Solear responded, “Tempting, but no. Really though, there is nothing we can do. We can only sit trapped in this bridge and wait for them to get here.”

Waiting for hours for the enemy to come and more than likely kill them wasn’t as fun as it sounds. There was precious little for the bridge crew to do in the intervening 4 hours. They had taken turns leaving the bridge and eating and showering, but that really didn’t take their mind off of what was to come.

Lexxi donned her enormous earphones and began rocking back and forth in her chair. Solear normally told her stop as soon as started rocking. It was annoying and disruptive. Usually, he would even threaten to have the chair welded in one position. However, this time he remained silent and let her rock. She needed the distraction and the rocking seemed to bother Putat more than it did him.

Rocking aside, Solear was frustrated beyond reproach. He had just defeated two enemy ships, but was no better off than before. He only had a smashed cruiser to show for his effort. He was stranded in a nowhere system with no chance of escaping or being rescued. Based on the travel times, Solear knew it would be a week before an Alliance ship would be able to come looking for him.

Solear looked at the monitor. He didn’t know how long a car battery lasted, so he had Putat activate the passive scanners once every 40 minutes. Now that it was getting closer to the 4 hour window, Solear changed it to every 10. The scan still showed the enemy cruiser on the other side of the system.

He laughed at the silent cruelty of the passive scanner. It takes a snapshot of the light and assembles it to make a cohesive picture. The area close to his location is in real time, but as the time delay increases, the accuracy decreases.

Normally, this isn’t an issue, but because this system is so small it will soon give him an erroneous reading. It takes light 3 hours to cross the system, but it only takes the enemy cruiser 70 minutes to complete a micro-jump to his location. Therefore, the ship will suddenly appear at his location roughly 2 hours before it disappears from its current location.

Exactly 4 hours and 24 minutes had passed. Solear figured that the enemy cruiser should be here any minute. The earlier battle had taken 7 minutes and he knew the enemy would wait and watch the entire battle before deciding what to do. So, 3 hours for the light to reach the other cruiser, 7 minutes for them to watch, 7 more minutes to plot a course, and finally 70 minutes to micro-jump means the ship should be here now.

Solear said, “Putat, leave the passive scanner on. We need to know when they arrive.”

Solear had given the command forcefully, as if the information would truly help them. However, it really didn’t matter. The ship would arrive at some point in the immediate future and either blow them up or force them to surrender. If they tried to surrender, the humans would kill the Hiriculan boarding party and then the enemy cruiser would blow them up.

Solear thought for the 264
^th
time that he would like to able to communicate the humans. He really wanted to know what they were doing and how long they could survive in smart suits. He also really needed to know how many were alive.

Putat interrupted Solear’s silent musings. He spoke just above a whisper, in a quiet hushed tone that was very uncharacteristic of his normal speaking voice. He said, “The enemy cruiser is here. They are stationary at 4.6 million kilometers away. They are launching fighters.

Clowy said, “The maximum powered missile range of the missiles is only 120 seconds or 4.5 million kilometers.” Clowy smiled, clearly proud that she had remembered that fact.

Solear lowered his head and sat heavily back in his chair. He doubted the humans had any tricks left to repair the ship and their time was rapidly drawing to a close. The fighters would destroy the ship unopposed.

Lexxi removed her earphones and stopped rocking. She couldn’t hear anyone talk at a normal voice, but somehow she had heard Putat whisper.

Solear looked at his bridge crew and said, “Suggestions.”

Putat responded, “We really have no choice except to surrender and hope that the Hiriculans will rescue us. I would prefer to spend the remainder of my life on a satellite station instead of dying for no reason.”

Ella and Clowy slowly nodded. Solear noted that weren’t necessarily in agreement with Putat, but just acknowledging the inevitable.

Lexxi shouted, “It’s not fair” and banged her fist on her weapons console. She bruised her hand, but didn’t care because the panel suddenly lit up. She looked down and shouted, “Main power back on-line.”

Ella said, “Main power is showing only 50% capacity, but is temporarily being supplemented by power from the ion cannon reservoir.”

Solear shouted, “Where did we get the extra power?”

Ella replied, “Unknown. The secondary is still generating only 20%. Computer?”

…Main power is still off-line. Secondary power is still at 20%. There are no other energy sources…

Solear said, “I don’t care where they found it. We will take it.”

Lexxi looked at her console and shouted, “Shields are scrolling up. Shields are now at 99.4% strength and holding.”

Putat spun back around and activated his panel. He announced, “Active scanners are back on-line. We have internal communications.”

Ella said, “The sub-light propulsion system is back on-line.”

Solear said, “Putat, establish a connection with Colin O’Neal.” A second later Solear was connected and asked, “Colin, we are under attack by a third enemy warship. Do you have any recommendations?”

Colin yelled, “Give em hell Captain.” It appeared that he wanted to say more, but the communication system broke again and the transmission was cut.

Solear noted that there were other humans around Colin. The other humans raised their hands and appeared to cheer. He had seen at least 10 humans in the room, possibly more. This confirmed his earlier suspicion that several, perhaps many of the humans had survived.

He didn’t understand the answer, so he said, “Computer, please give possible interpretations of the Earth saying ‘Give em hell’.”

…86.4% Kill your enemies and desecrate their bodies such that their souls cannot reach eternal salvation…

…81.2% Fight without pause or concern despite all odds…

…79.2%...

Solear interrupted the last translation. He said, “Computer, stop. We get the general idea. It looks like the humans still have some fight left in them. Let’s see what we can do.”

Lexxi silently repeated ‘Give em hell,’ clearly filing it away for later use.

Putat commented, “Deny your enemy eternal salvation. That seems a little harsh, even for humans.”

Solear nodded and responded, “Sometimes the humans’ colloquialisms defy proper interpretation.”

Solear tried to think of possible maneuvers to avoid the fighters and engage the enemy cruiser. He only had one decisive advantage over the Hiriculan cruiser; the
Sunflower
can fire 2.7 missiles for every 1 the enemy ship fires.

However, based on the arrival time of the enemy cruiser, the enemy captain had certainly stayed long enough to watch the entire battle before jumping. He imagined that the enemy captain also knew this fact and would continue to stay well out of missile range. Plus, since they weren’t in the gravity well of the system, the enemy could micro-jump at the first sign of trouble.

Solear feverishly worked on the problem – how could their missiles hit the enemy before they jumped away? Solear smiled when he thought of a potential solution that would make even Lorano proud. It just might be possible to hit the enemy ship before their fighters arrived.

Clowy looked at her monitor strangely and said hesitantly, “Proximity alert, I think.”

Solear answered, “The enemy fighters are still a few minutes away. Is it a sensor glitch?”