The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) (29 page)

Applying their newly developed skills
, the raw crew performed a final run through live, with power channeled to the capacitor banks. They made no attempt to perform the procedure quickly. Instead, the crew moved at a steady, almost methodical pace. Even so, they managed to charge all eight sub-modules in just over twelve minutes. With both capacitor banks fully charged, the crew was finally ordered to stand down. Everyone involved let out a loud cheer. The Captain and the rest of the command staff breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The
Greyhound
was theoretically ready to fight but how well she would be able to perform under actual battle conditions remained a wide open question.

Chapter
42

On board renegade destroyer
Skorpios
, somewhere in the Heard's World Star System, December 11, 2598.

It had been an exhaust
ing week of almost constant, tedious, sometimes dangerous work muscling the capacitor components out of the wreck of the Succession War cruiser and then wrestling the ruined components out of the hijacked destroyer and installing the intact replacement assemblies. The crew of the
Skorpios
had successfully completed a test session wherein they had fired both weapons repeatedly just a few minutes earlier. Caleb Jordan reluctantly replaced the inspection cover that protected the connections for the aft pulse beam projector. He did so knowing that finishing the task could well sentence him and his wife, Hanna, to death.

The
Sheik, however, seemed to be pleased when Caleb was brought before him to give his report.

"So, my Christian friend, you have completed the repairs?"

"Yes, Hakim, I have," replied Caleb, using the proper form of address for a Sheik, even though the true status of this Sheik was somewhat in doubt as far as he was concerned. "You will keep your word and release us?"

"As you wish, Mr. Jordan," said the
Sheik, smiling wickedly. "Of course we will release you. I won't have it said that I am not a man of my word. Fahada?" he called out to his female Lieutenant. "See that our two guests are freed immediately."

"As you wish,
Sire!"

Hanna and Caleb Jordan were loaded onto the shuttle craft, and set free some twenty minutes later.
Freedom being, of course, a relative term. They were each given a spacesuit with twenty-four hours of air and deposited back on the moon near the wreck of the Veritian cruiser. Caleb and Hanna watched as the shuttle left to return to the destroyer, leaving the two of them marooned on the small worldlet.

"Well," said Caleb,
as they watched the shuttle depart, "he did keep his word. Technically, we're free."

"Yes, free to die!" replied his wife. She had a thought. "We're talking to one another, at least they didn't disable our suit radios. Maybe we can call for help. Maybe someone will be close enough to help us. Better than giving up without a fight!"

"I kept my word too," said Caleb, "I got their cursed guns to work again."

"
I sense that there is more to this story?"

"
Yeah, there's more. I got the guns to work but I didn't say how long they were going to work."

"You mean
...?"

"Yes, Hanna, I didn't
completely finish repairing those weapons."

"I'm
certain that God will forgive you, Caleb."

***

On board the renegade destroyer
Skorpios,
somewhere in the Heard's World Star System, December 11, 2598.

"I have the
unknown vessel on the long distance scanners, Captain Noori."

"Show me
," said the Captain, crossing the bridge to the imaging consoles along the starboard side. The sensor technician pointed to his display.

"
This is it here." With the Captain observing, the image grew larger as the sensor technician zoomed in on the old ship. "It appears to be an old cargo ship, Sir." The technician made some fine adjustments on the unfamiliar equipment. "Correction, Sir, it is a
very
old cargo ship. I do not believe that it poses much of a threat but I would still approach with caution."

"Why
would you recommend that?"

"There are some anomalies,
Sir."

"Such as
...?"

"Well
...the engine power level readings are somewhat higher than I would expect, Sir."

"Are you certain
your instruments are operating properly?"

"Yes,
Sir. As nearly as I can tell."

"I see.
Your concern is noted, Sirhan. I still think that we have little to fear from them, it is just a very old cargo ship after all. A ship that old may have required an engine upgrade at some point."

"As you say,
Captain."

"
Take us in closer, Helm, we'll hail that cargo ship and tell them to stand down and prepare to be boarded. I wouldn't mind having another ship, even a very old one. Fahada?"

The
deadly female operative was across the bridge in an instant. "Yes, Captain?"

"Prepare your team for a boarding exercise. You should have approximately a half hour
to get ready."

"
At your command, Sir."

The
crew of the
Skorpios
prepared to microjump their destroyer to a point close to the unknown cargo ship.

***

Onboard UTFN Auxiliary Ship
Greyhound
, somewhere in the Heard's World star system, December 11, 2598.

Perry Allen kept a nervous eye on the
recently-installed sensor array of the
Greyhound
. He had been tracking the movements of the other two ships in the Heard's World system for the better part of the morning. The two ships had remained in their original orbit, near the small moon, since they had come out from behind the planet.

"They're starting to move now, Lieutenant," said
Allen. "My God, this isn't good!"

"What do you mean?"
asked Murdock.

"Near as I can tell, it's a
n Alliance
Dagger
Class destroyer. It has to be over forty years old but it'll still be way more than a match for us. If we're going to run, we'd better think about doing it soon."

"Will our shields hold
against his weapons?" asked Murdock. "Carlisle? See what you can find out!"

"If those are the original weapons on that ship then
...," Carlisle checked her wrist computer, "...Yes, we could probably take several hits from the main batteries before we'd start having some serious problems. The shield generators on the Mark IV's were beefed up enough to handle a limited amount of small beam weapons fire before the ships were sent into the final battle. I'd sure as hell hate to risk it though."

"Captain Murdock?" said Harris.

"What is it Lieutenant?" replied Murdock.

"
I suggest we get the ship ready for a microjump immediately. There's no way we can stand toe to toe with these guys. Our best, actually our only, option is to run."

"
We're calculating a minimum distance microjump towards the hyperlink point now, Lieutenant, but we have to bring the jump module back online, it got kicked off when we lost power."

"Lieutenant?" said Allen
from the sensor station.

"What is it, Chief?"

"I'm picking up some weak signals from the moon where those two ships are. There's someone on that moon right now. I'll see if I can boost the signal." He fiddled with the controls. "My God! It sounds like Hanna and Caleb Jordan!"

There was a brief silence on the bridge of the
Greyhound
. Then Allen made a breathless announcement, "The destroyer has phased into microjump! I can't tell where he'll come out but what do you want to bet he's coming towards us? Is that jump module online yet?"

"Negative, Chief," came the reply.

The bridge crew frantically
continued work on executing a microjump back towards the Whitney hyperlink transfer point but they were unable to complete their preparations in time. They were able to upload the coordinates into the jump computer but the hyperlink module was still offline.

"Enemy ship has just phased out of microjump, Captain," said Allen, "He's only a couple thousand kilometers away
and closing."

"Battle stations, everyone!, said Captain Murdock. "
It appears we aren't leaving this system yet! Let me know the instant that jump module is available, Chief Allen! Hawkins? Get those shields up to maximum power!"

***

On board the renegade destroyer
Skorpios,
somewhere in the Heard's World Star System, December 11, 2598.

The terrorist
destroyer rapidly closed with the unknown cargo ship until they were well within range of where the crew of the old destroyer could effectively use their weapons. From a distance of only two hundred kilometers, the sensor operator on the
Skorpios
watched in fascination on his magnified viewer as he examined a flat, somewhat out-of-place hump behind the bridge area of the ancient cargo ship. More than the power readings were out of the ordinary on this old cargo ship! He was about to say something when the leader gave the order to fire.

"On my signal, Abdullah, fire a shot across his bow," said the Captain.

"As you wish, Sir," said the weapons tech. The cargo ship remained on the same course.

"Fire now, Abdullah!"

A bolt of energy blazed past the bow of the
Greyhound
.

"Are you
r boarders ready for action, Fahada?"

"Yes,
Captain, we but await your signal."

A message
was sent from the destroyer to the
Greyhound
.

"
Attention, unknown cargo ship, stand down and prepare to be boarded. If you do not comply you will be destroyed
!" Having made his warning announcement, the Ship's Captain turned to his weapons tech. "Target a system on that ship that won't do too much damage, Abdullah. We want her intact if possible."

"I obey,
Captain," said Abdullah. A moment later he called out to the leader, concern in his voice. "Sir, the forward capacitor system is not recharging."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we cannot fire the forward gun!"

"Is there any damage?"

"Not that I can tell, Sir, but the capacitor bank remains depleted."

"That confounded Christian must have done something. Do you have
a charge on the stern gun?"

"Yes."

"Then target his engine area. If he is disabled it will not matter that we no longer have power to the front battery. After we capture this ship, we will return to the moon and retrieve that little Christian. He will suffer for this outrage! Fire!"

The two men watched the viewscreens as another bolt of destruction blasted out from the rear battery of the old destroyer. The aim
seemed to be true but...the decrepit old cargo ship remained unharmed! Both men had seen the purplish, lozenge-shaped bubble of a military grade shield momentarily light up as their second pulse bolt was dissipated without any apparent damage to the old ship.

Then they discovered that their stern battery wasn't recharging either.

***

Onboard
UTFN Auxiliary Ship
Greyhound
, somewhere in the Heard's World star system, December 11, 2598.

On board the
Greyhound
, the lights on the bridge went out and all other systems on the ship went down as the surge of energy demanded by the suddenly overloaded shield generator forced the overprotective breaker to take the strained power plant off line. Again. After a couple of seconds, the emergency lighting came on.

"What the hell
just happened?" shouted Harris.

"The power went down
again," said Murdock. "We'd better do something, Lieutenant, we can't jump without power."

Harris fought down a surge of pure panic as he frantically went through their options.

"Can we get the power back up?"

"They're working on it but it'll take at least a half an hour, just like it did last time," said Murdock.

"Why haven't they fired again?" asked Harris, of no one in particular.

A voice of reason intervened.

"We have weapons," said Carlisle calmly, over the ship's intercom. "All eight capacitors for our beam weapons are fully charged. Request permission to fire on the enemy ship, Captain?"

On the bridge, a
not nearly as calm Murdock gave the order. "Fire when ready, Ensign! We'd better do something and do it quick!"

Back in the turret, Carlisle
mustered the gun crews as quickly as she could and then headed up into the projector level of the turret and strapped herself into the gunner's seat. "Hawk! I'm going to target the bridge area of that ship. Port side gun first and then the starboard gun. I'll count to ten between shots. Switch in the number one Portside capacitor module as quickly as you can. I'm ready whenever you are!"