This Corner of the Universe (19 page)

Vampires
Golf and Hotel streaked into
Anelace’s
5
ls
point defense range. 
The opening pulse laser shots from her starboard turrets both missed but with a
pitiful closure rate of only .12
c
, each missile reduced the range to
Anelace
by a mere .3
ls
during the turret’s two second recycle time.  A brief
flash of light heralded the incineration of vampire Golf by the next burst of
fire.  The other missile lost its weapons lock in the crowd of phantom targets
created by the corvette’s ECM and began to change its trajectory.  Ten seconds
later, the combined laser fire of both turrets finished it.

“Good
shooting, WEPS,” Heskan complimented.

“Thank
you, sir,” Vernay replied mechanically.  “Vampires India and Juliet will enter
point defense range in one minute forty-nine seconds.”

That
sounded pretty hollow
,
Heskan thought. 
If I know Stacy, she’s probably blaming herself for each
hit we take even though I’m the one who placed her in the position where she
and her section had to be impossibly perfect.

“Stacy,”
Heskan said, “you tell your folks they’re doing great.  You forget about those
near misses now; you’re keeping Ana alive—”

“Captain,”
Riedel interrupted but stopped.  He seemed to think to himself for a second and
then finally said, “Never mind, Captain.”

A
few seconds later, Heskan received a text message on his console from his first
officer.  ENGINEERING REPORTS DRIVE ONE IS NOW DEAD.  The message requested
confirmation of receipt. 
That was pretty savvy of Mike,
he thought as
he typed. 
Just as I was trying to restore a little morale, we get more bad
news of the consequences from those near misses.  Mike understood what I was
trying to do and acted accordingly
.  Heskan hit the acknowledge button as
he wondered if he would have had the situational awareness to do the same had
their positions been reversed.

Anelace
would not feel the effects of
losing the drive since she had already achieved her desired speed.  However,
once she slowed down, her remaining four operational drives would be unable to
accelerate and hold herself together near anything close to her former top
speed.  She would retain a speed advantage over her civilian adversaries but no
longer a decisive one.

One
minute later, both missiles from
Blackheart’s
fifth volley died to point
defense fire.  Heskan wiped away the sweat from his brow after the last missile
exploded 3
ls
away from his ship.  Although still worrying, the missiles now
seemed to come in at almost a leisurely rate compared to before, affording his
gunners plenty of time to knock them down.  Heskan was considering the
difference between
Anelace’s
charge into harm’s way and her withdrawal
from it when Selvaggio announced they were 5
ls
from the Beta Field.  He
ordered Selvaggio to turn
Anelace
one hundred eighty degrees and come to
rest just inside the belt.  As she slowed,
Anelace
penetrated the edge
of the asteroid field.  Shortly afterwards, the final three incoming missile
volleys lost sight of the little ship in the massive wall of interference
generated by the field.  After running their search programs twice and failing
to find a target, the missiles began pre-programmed S-turns in a fruitless
search for their lost prey.

Nine
minutes and forty-seven seconds had passed since
Anelace
had first
darted out of the Beta Field.  The battle’s aftermath included the loss of half
of
Anelace’s
laser armament, one third of her propulsion and another
three of her crew.  On the other side of the balance sheet was the broadening
debris field of
Cutthroat
.

The
situation now stabilized, Heskan disengaged his shockseat braces and leaned
back to consider his next course of action while taking in the tactical plot. 
Blackheart
was now stationary in space 163
ls
from him.  Ketch-One was headed toward
the schooner at .2
c
although it would take her another seven minutes to
reach it
.  Will you stop when you reach her or will you go further in-system
toward the RALF?
  Heskan knew the smart money was on heading to the RALF. 
It would put the most pressure on his ship and practically force him to
re-engage with the pirates.  After taking two near misses, he wanted to avoid
that at all costs if he could help it. 
Why can’t they just give up?  “Your
daring and audacity have inspired us, good Anelace.  We surrender to you and
will cooperate fully in your efforts to stop pirate activity in this system.”
 
He lightly shook his head
.  I’m pretty sure that won’t be the next message.

Heskan
called down to Engineering.  “Yes?” Jackamore answered.

“Brandon,
I need you or a representative from Engineering that can answer my questions in
the briefing room in two minutes.”  Heskan heard the acknowledgment as he cut
the channel.  “Boats, same with you.” He held up two fingers.  “Meeting in two
minutes.”  He looked at Riedel and jerked his head in the direction of the
door.

“Aye,
aye, sir.”

Heskan
stood.  “Lieutenant Vernay, stand us down to Alert One and you have the
bridge.  I’ll be monitoring the situation from the briefing room but I want you
to call over the instant you think I need to know something, understand?”

“Yes,
Captain,” Vernay said as she nodded.

Heskan
walked to the door and then turned to face the room.  The bridge was in the
same condition as it was before the battle but the atmosphere was one of heavy
melancholy.  “I know we took some punches.  I know it’s hard to keep going when
we’ve already lost so many of our family.  But that’s what we’re going to do. 
We’re going to keep going.”  He looked each person in the eyes as he spoke.  “We’re
going to keep going not only because it’s our duty but also because we can’t do
anything else.  This ship doesn’t know how to quit.”  His voice hardened as he
pointed to the main screen.  “We’re not losing this system to a pack of
murderers and thieves and one day the miners in that RALF are going to tell
their grandchildren about the time they watched a little corvette fight like a
battleship.”

Walking
down the main hall of the upper deck, Heskan realized that he had forgotten to
check if the main briefing room had remained undamaged in the battle. 
Surely
the chief would have said something,
he mused as he ducked into his
quarters, less than ten meters from the bridge door.  Inside his bathroom, he
threw cold water onto his face before he looked in the mirror.  He was fairly
certain what the pirates would do next and how he would be forced to react.  He
also understood the most likely outcome from those actions.  Exhaling deeply,
he raised his eyes up and stared at his reflection.  The man in the mirror
looked ancient.  Deep creases had worked their way around his eyes to make him easily
appear twenty years older than he was.  Heskan peered deeply into the man’s
eyes.  Normally, they were friendly eyes seemingly with a light all their own. 
Now, he saw the dark and cold eyes of a man forced to accept the aftermath of harsh
decisions.  He had seen that look before.  Taken aback at their initial
appearance, he stared into those eyes thoroughly.  Yes, they looked grim, and
yes, they showed pain, but he was relieved when he could not find a trace of
defeat in them.  “I have not yet begun to fight,” he said to the stranger in
the mirror.  On his way out of his quarters, he briefly stopped at his computer
and searched the history files of
Anelace’s
standata before making his
way to the briefing room.

Lieutenant
Jackamore and Chief Brown both attended the meeting.  They were talking with
Lieutenant Riedel when Heskan entered.  All three stopped their conversation
and began to stand but Heskan waved them down.  The briefing room’s large view
screen displayed the bridge’s tactical plot but the situation was unchanged,
except Ketch-One had crawled slightly closer to
Blackheart
.  Without
preamble, Heskan asked, “How much speed can I expect from Engineering,
Brandon?”

Jackamore
tapped his datapad and technical information appeared on the screen built into
the conference table’s center.  “We’ll have about point two-five light available
to us.”

“Brandon,
will the remaining drives hold up in combat?” Riedel added as he skimmed the
technical data Jackamore had referenced.

“As
they are now?  I think so.  Of course, all bets are off if we take more
damage,” Jackamore hedged.

Heskan
studied the data and then changed the subject.  “Boats, how bad is Ana hurt?”

Brown
replaced Jackamore’s technical information with the ship’s status display. 
Anelace
had taken near misses to the stern by her keel and near the port side of her
bow.  The keel shot had essentially destroyed her shuttle bay and seriously
damaged the three lower engines, the middle one fatally so.  The chief
explained that either the shock wave from that near miss, or more likely,
projectile shots from Ketch-Two’s railguns had rung the death knell for the
starboard upper drive, Drive One.  The near miss by her port bow had crushed
that part of her hull and everything on the port side of the upper deck forward
of the AIPS control room was a total loss.  Brown finished his report by saying,
“Damage Controlman Second Class Stai says the first an’ second port frames are
bent an’ you already know we’ve closed off everythin’ forward of the gym on the
lower deck. We haven’t had a chance to get out an’ look at the drives but with
the vibrations we’re gettin’, you can bet their mounts are screwed up.”

“Casualties?” 
Heskan tried not to hold his breath.

“Three
more, all from the bow hit.  Both port gunners an’ my OPS man.  WEPS an’ OPS
are runnin’ low, Capt’n.”

“None
from Engineering?” Heskan asked hopefully.

Brown
shook his head as he answered, “No, as designed, the hanger did a good job of shieldin’
our power plant an’ the engineerin’ compartments as a whole.  The hanger’s a
total wreck though.”

“That
brings us up to ten KIA since we’ve been here.”  Heskan felt himself flush with
anger as he recalled Commander Treemont back on Anthe telling him nothing would
happen at Skathi. 
Of course, I just sat there and said ‘Yes, sir.’  I’m as
complicit as he is.  I’ll never mask my concerns from a superior officer again
,
he vowed.

Heskan
copied the tactical plot onto the table’s central screen and began using his
stylus to make annotations on it as he began to explain their next probable actions. 
The computer automatically filled in missing data as Heskan marked up the
plot.  He looked at
Anelace’s
math and groaned, “It will take over ten
minutes to reach
Blackheart
from where we are.”

“We’ll
get a two-minute jump on them due to the time lag but they’ll still have time
to fire at least fourteen salvos before we close on her,” Riedel added.  The
look on his face told Heskan that he knew what that would mean to
Anelace
. 
After a moment’s pause, he asked, “What will we do if they continue their way toward
the RALF?”

“We’re
going to defend those citizens to the last.”  Heskan’s voice had taken on a
hard edge.

Jackamore
gave his captain a grim look.  “Those are some pretty long odds.”

“For them,” Heskan insisted as he
pointed at the schooner’s tactical symbol. “We’re not beaten yet, Brandon, and
we’re going to show those pirates how The Fleet fights.”  He looked around at
his officers.  “You need to believe that, because when we leave this room, the
crew, including our junior officers, will look to us for reassurance.”  The
briefing room was silent as he looked to each man and held his gaze.  “I know
that nobody here will let them down.”

*  *  *

Heskan
walked through as the bridge door slid open, Lieutenant Riedel and Chief Brown
following closely behind.  Discussion on the bridge stopped as soon as Heskan
entered. 
Were they talking about someone who was laughing during combat
,
he wondered. 
I couldn’t have heard that right.

“Captain
on the bridge,” Vernay announced with a hint of relief.

Heskan
noted the tactical situation was about to change as he seated himself. 
Ketch-One was approaching
Blackheart
and soon he would know if the
pirates would continue to threaten the RALF or change their strategy. 
Actually,
they’ve already made their decision, it happened two minutes ago and I’m just
waiting for the light to reach me
.

The
minutes passed and the ketch failed to swing around to use her drives to slow
her speed. 
Damn, it’s going to continue toward the RALF
.  He watched as
the small ketch blew past
Blackheart
at .2
c
and made the minor
course correction needed to intercept the RALF orbiting Skathi-3.  He arched an
eyebrow when he realized
Blackheart
had not joined the ketch.  Instead,
the schooner sat in space, her broadside taunting
Anelace
.

“Interesting,”
Riedel said as he rubbed his chin.

“Indeed,”
Heskan responded.  “I suppose it’s possible that Blackheart’s captain doesn’t
realize how much speed we’ve lost and is concerned that we could end around
them to reach the RALF first.”  As he finished, a terrifying thought raced
through his mind
.  I should have done just that!  Get around them and then
let them come to us.  That would have kept the closure rates on those missiles
down to reasonable levels...  No, I couldn’t have done that because then I
would have faced all three ships at the same time.
  Relief washed through
him as he realized he had not committed an enormous tactical mistake.

Oblivious
to Heskan’s internal musings, Riedel went on.  “So he sends his escort to
destroy the RALF while he covers them.  That makes sense because he’s free to
chase us if we try to go around him and he could make us deviate so far around
to avoid him that we won’t be able to reach the RALF before his ketch does.”

“It’s
sound thinking except he’s split his forces again,” Heskan pointed out.  “Yes,
he’s forcing us to engage him but we’d have had to do that anyway near the
RALF.  Now we get to engage them one at a time instead of all at once near the
mining station.”

Heskan
used his lite-stylus to mark on his chair arm console and his annotations were
mirrored on the bridge main screen.  He drew a navigation line from
Anelace
to the RALF. 
Anelace
computed the travel time instantly and the answer
made Heskan’s blood run cold.  Ketch-One, with its 163
ls
head start,
would need exactly one hour to span the 12
lm
to reach the RALF. 
Anelace
,
starting farther away and at her reduced top speed of .25
c
would need
the same amount of time.  Clearing his writing from the plot he said, “We can’t
let that ketch reach the station.  Diane, lay in an intercept course for the
ketch and bring Ana to her best speed.”

Selvaggio
answered at once, “Aye, sir.  Course laid in, best speed.”

Anelace
left the safety of the Beta
Field for the final time.  Although wounded, she was still spry and achieved
her maximum speed in just over twenty seconds.  The corvette actually topped
out at .26
c
, her remaining engines flirting with overload but refusing
to expire.

The
tactical plot revised the time to intercept from sixty minutes to fifty-nine
minutes and forty seconds. 
Wow, a whole twenty extra seconds.  Maybe we
should stop for ice cream. 
The corner of his lip curled upward at the
absurd thought.

Anelace
sprinted toward
the ketch for one hundred sixty seconds before
Blackheart
caught up with
the time lag.  “Here it comes,”
Blackheart’s
missileer called out as he
noticed the corvette’s movement update on his console.  The captain ordered his
helmsman to make a minor velocity increase to ensure
Blackheart
lay
directly in the fast ship’s path.  Happy that there would be no escape for the
corvette this time, he ordered his missileer to open fire.

The
first volley of Interceptor-Bs was fired at a range of 123
ls
.  While
technically still beyond the missiles’ range,
Anelace’s
motion toward
them would ensure the missiles’ engines would not burn out before they reached
her.  As they powered away from
Blackheart
, the next volley had already
begun the reload process.

Blackheart
fired a second volley, then a
third. 
Anelace
had just broken inside 100
ls
from the schooner
when the fourth volley launched.  The first missile pair was 35
ls
from
Anelace
when
Blackheart
belched her fifth volley.  A full ten missiles now raced
toward
Anelace
and she had still covered less than half the distance to
Blackheart
. 
The total increased to twelve missiles thirty seconds later.

“Vampires
Alpha and Bravo entering point defense range in twelve seconds.”  Vernay’s
voice had taken on a determined edge.  Her point defenses were spread
precariously thin since losing the portside turrets.  All that remained to
defend the ship against the six confirmed incoming missile volleys were the
starboard lasers manned by Gunner’s Mate Second Class Tyler Pruette and
Spaceman Matt Thomas.  More volleys would be on the way.  She had entertained
the idea of attempting missile intercepts with the mass driver but her computer
had calculated the chances of a successful intercept at under a tenth of a
percent.  Instead, she would focus her efforts on helping the laser crew
achieve and maintain weapon’s lock on the missile targets she designated.  Her earlier
grief and guilt over the loss of her men had been replaced by numbness, for
which she was grateful.  Her weapons console and the point defense plot on it became
her only concern.  The analytical part of her brain told her what they were
attempting was impossible; two Lyle GP lasers could not stop the number of
missiles
Anelace
would face as she charged.  The chances of success seemed
as statistically unlikely as the chances that Skathi’s star would go supernova
during the battle.  However, statistics did not take into account the human
will and Vernay’s intense desire to protect her ship and crew.  One number
going for them, she knew, was
Anelace’s
new .26
c
speed.  When
added to an Interceptor-B’s speed of .45
c
, the closing speed of the
missiles and corvette was slow enough that each pulse laser would have an extra
second in its engagement window.  That seemingly miniscule fraction of time would
allow her pulse lasers a third shot that would fire with a missile 1
ls
away,
rather than as it hit
Anelace
.

The
first two missiles were erased from existence 5
ls
from
Anelace
as
her first laser shots struck them.  Both turrets had a lock on their missiles
for nearly five seconds before they had entered point defense range and the
missiles deemed by Vernay as the easiest to intercept fell before the ship as
predicted.  Without so much as a sigh of relief, she sent Pruette and Thomas
their next targets and began working with Thomas to gain a new lock with his GP.

Vampires
Charlie and Delta were 14
ls
away when Vernay turned
Anelace’s
attention to them.  In four seconds, each would begin their pre-programmed
evasive maneuvers in an attempt to make interception as difficult as possible. 
Fourteen seconds after they started their evasive maneuvers, they would strike
their target unless stopped.