This Corner of the Universe (20 page)

Charlie
and Delta both initiated their evasive routines and neither turret had gained a
lock.  At 8
ls
out, Thomas, with Vernay’s assistance, locked onto Delta. 
She immediately switched over to assist Pruette, as his target was now just 6
ls
from
Anelace
.

Thomas
fired his pulse laser at maximum range, 5
ls
.  He had had Delta locked
down now for four seconds but his first shot still missed.  Waiting patiently
for his GP to recycle, he maintained the lock and fired his second burst. 
Vampire Delta erupted in a metallic shower 3
ls
away.

Delta’s
sister, vampire Charlie, made it to within 1
ls
of
Anelace
. 
Vernay had just started to work her thumbstick in an attempt to attain weapons
lock when Pruette honed in the pulse laser on his own.  His first two shots
missed but his final attempt struck home.  Vernay did breathe a sigh of relief
this time at the disaster narrowly averted so early in the charge.  Her console
flashed and her eyes swept over the new information:
Blackheart
had
launched another pair of missiles.

Vernay’s
was not the only sigh of relief on the bridge when the second volley exploded. 
Heskan had gripped the arms of his chair so hard he now felt his left wrist
spasm. 
We’re still over one light-minute away… how can our defenses hold
up?
  He looked over his officers, catching little movement beyond hands and
eyes intensely focused on their jobs. 
Diane is busy keeping Anelace on
course and properly oriented so our defenses are in the best position
possible.  Jack’s busy with the tactical plot and Anelace’s ECM efforts and an
Interceptor missile could literally explode behind Stacy and she’d never know
it because she’s so focused on point defense.
  Heskan glanced behind him. 
Even
Mike and Chief Brown are lost in their consoles; Mike is monitoring the
commands passed between the other bridge officers and Anelace’s projections to
the tactical plot, and the Chief is watching over the status of Anelace’s
systems and preparing his section to react to the inevitable next hit.  Am I
the only one without a job,
Heskan wondered.  He felt useless but also
understood that he had done everything he could do and it was now time to trust
his people to execute his plan. 
All I can do now is just monitor the events
and adapt as the situation changes
, he told himself.  The next set of
missiles was 10
ls
out, with each successive pair staggered 14
ls
behind
the next.

He
watched the distance drop as vampires Echo and Foxtrot entered range of the
pulse lasers.  Both shots missed at 5
ls
but Echo died two seconds later
under Thomas’ second burst.  Foxtrot sped onward and when the third shot from
Pruette went wide, Heskan braced for the impact.

Slightly
spoofed by Truesworth’s electronic countermeasures efforts, vampire Foxtrot had
lost its lock at the 3
ls
mark and zoomed under
Anelace
.  However,
the missile’s guidance computer had “remembered”
Anelace’s
location and activated
its proximity fuse to detonate where it thought best.  The result was an
explosion just over one thousand meters from the corvette.  The explosive force
struck at her port side but the distance between the explosion and the ship reduced
the shock wave’s impact energy.  The blast still caused the AIPS screen to
disconnect to avoid burnout but the shield had absorbed eighty-three percent of
the energy before it collapsed.  The remaining seventeen percent pounded
against
Anelace’s
damaged port hull.

Heskan
felt the ship tremble and then looked toward Chief Brown who was busy analyzing
his damage control board.  Heskan heard the old chief telling someone to “check
it out” over his mic but could not glean any further information on the
severity of the hit.

The
eighth missile volley erupted from
Blackheart
and applied full power to its
tiny drives.  As the schooner’s missile ports began to close,
Blackheart’s
missileer reported, “Starboard missile magazine is empty, Captain.”

The
captain grunted in acknowledgment.  He had never emptied an entire magazine in
a battle before but he had decided to do whatever was necessary to ensure the
corvette did not reach him.  Yes,
Blackheart
held a two to one advantage
in a close range laser fight but he had reasoned not to take the risk of a
lucky hit against his ship when he could throw missile volley after volley from
a safe distance.  The little ship sure seemed to have plenty of luck when it
came to dodging his missiles and it seemed best not to tempt fate.

“Begin
rotation, helm,” he ordered as he smiled.  In sixty seconds, he would get to
see how that little ship endured his port broadside.  As he watched the missile
volleys from earlier eat the light-seconds between themselves and
Anelace
,
he began to think of the opportunities that destroying a Brevic naval vessel
would open for him.  His smile changed to a nasty leer as he ordered a crewman
to open up a communications channel.

“Just
some minor damage along our port side, Capt’n,” Brown informed Heskan.  “We
have some depressurization in some of the lower deck berths but containment
fields are holdin’.”

“Thank
you, Boats,” Heskan replied. 
Wow, some good news for a change.  May all our
future hits be as harmless,
he thought
. 
As relieved as he was for
his ship, he was equally happy for Vernay.  Heskan knew that she took each
missile hit as her own personal failure and fate had been unusually cruel to
her when each near miss before the latest one had hit
Anelace
hard. 
Half of her own laser section had been taken from her and that was after she
had lost her mass driver crew.  In Heskan’s nine years of service, he had only
lost three crewmembers total.  The deaths had struck at him viciously and given
him nightmares for months. 
I’m not sure how she’s still operating.  If she
wasn’t our best chance at survival, I’d have already taken her off the bridge
for a medical evaluation and some mandatory military counseling and leave.

Trying
to sound encouraging, Heskan said, “Stay with it, WEPS.  You’re halfway there.” 
He had no sooner finished speaking when he watched vampire Golf start to veer
wildly off its course.

“Nice
work, Jack,” Vernay praised.  Six seconds later, her own crew blotted out
vampire Hotel at 5
ls
.  The relief was short-lived as vampires India and
Juliet methodically rushed toward them.

Ensign
Truesworth was beginning to narrow in on the missiles’ exact guidance software
package.  The trial-and-error over the last dozen missiles had finally paid off
with the spoofing of vampire Golf.  He swore that he had hoaxed Foxtrot too,
but he would not know for certain until he looked at the after battle data,
assuming they were still alive.  As the fifth volley of missiles thundered toward
Anelace
, he directed his ECM efforts toward the leading missile.  Before
the fight, Stacy had told him to concentrate on the missiles she assigned to PO
Pruette.  He had thought that was odd until he realized that she was helping
Thomas with his targets.  As vampire India hit the 15
ls
barrier, it
failed to begin its evasive maneuvers.  Jack smiled as he realized the
missile’s computer must be in histrionics over the hundreds of
“Anelaces”
its silicon brain was seeing.  The missile was still flying straight and dumbfounded
when Pruette’s pulse laser easily intercepted it at maximum range.  Vampire
Juliet lived marginally longer.  Thomas’ turret missed on the first shot but
redeemed itself on the second.  Juliet’s missile symbol on the tactical plot
glowed brightly for an instant and disappeared.

However,
the parade of Interceptor-B missiles seemed endless.  Even as vampires India
and Juliet died, Kilo and Lima scorched their way across space.  Sixteen
seconds after Juliet’s destruction, the next pair entered
Anelace’s
point defense envelope.

Inside
his starboard turret control compartment, Gunner’s Mate Second Class Pruette
was beginning to believe they might actually survive their suicidal charge.  He
had knocked down four of the five missiles assigned to him, which encouraged
him greatly.  It was almost unheard of to achieve an eighty percent success
rate in point defense with a Lyle GP laser.  The laser’s point defense mode was
a secondary role and its software-targeting package could barely be considered cutting
edge technology when it came to missile interception.  It was a good,
all-around pulse laser design, a workhorse for the system defense ships, but it
was not designed to defend against the kind of sustained missile attack they
were facing.  Nonetheless, he was beating the odds and had stopped all but one
missile so far.  Sure, Thomas had a one hundred percent interception rate but Pruette
consoled himself with the knowledge that Lieutenant Vernay was supporting the
spaceman.  The lieutenant was simply incredible when it came to operating
weapons systems. In his eight years in the Brevic Navy, he had never seen a gunner
with as much raw talent and instinct as Vernay and it was a smart decision to
add her prowess to Thomas’ fledgling abilities.  However, Pruette was wishing
hard for Vernay’s support on vampire Kilo.  His turret had been actively
tracking Kilo for fourteen seconds and he still did not have a firing
solution.  He fired his pulse laser at 5
ls
with little hope of a hit and
desperately tried to achieve computer lock while it recharged.  Thomas had
missed too and he knew that Vernay would be staying with the spaceman leaving
him on his own.  At 3
ls
, vampire Lima exploded under Thomas’ fire while
Pruette’s own shot went hopelessly wide as he still struggled to achieve a
lock.  With his Lyle recycling for a last, desperate burst, Pruette found
himself praying for ECM to spoof the missile or a miracle shot at 1
ls
.

Neither
happened as the missile darted below
Anelace
and exploded ninety-seven
meters under her keel directly amidship.  The shock front tore through the weakened,
regenerating AIPS screen and struck the hull section closest to the missile’s detonation
with nearly eleven tonnes of force. 
Anelace’s
duralloy armor absorbed
almost three-quarters of the shock front’s kinetic energy but the rest passed
through to the corvette’s interior. 
Anelace
had been constructed using
thirteen structural frames over the one hundred six meter long ship.  The
seventh frame, in her center, snapped cleanly in two under the tremendous
stress.  The supporting structures associated with the frame warped in
milliseconds as the wave reshaped bulkheads and decks sending the ship’s
equipment attached to those surfaces, shockseats included, flying.  Auxiliary Control,
Anelace’s
second brain, had been placed on the lower deck amidship because
it was quite distant from the bridge yet still one of the most heavily
protected places on the ship.  Ensign Antipova, leading Aux Con, along with her
crew of three never knew what hit them.  Killed outright by the concussive
force of the shock front, Antipova was spared the pain associated with the
blunt force trauma her body suffered as it was tossed like a rag doll around
the compartment while simultaneously being battered by the litany of objects
jolted from their anchorages.  Also in Auxiliary Control, Petty Officers Ball
and Martin were likewise killed immediately and saved from the agony that Petty
Officer Davis endured.  His mind was unmercifully still conscious as his
viciously broken body, strapped to his toppled shockseat, expired from anoxia
in the freshly created vacuum.  The adjacent compartments to Auxiliary Control,
Damage Control Station Four and the Operations Control Center, faired nearly as
bad.

DC-Four,
just forward of Aux Con, was shattered.  Damage Controlman Denise Gables
escaped death only because Chief Brown had pulled her from her station to check
out the damage to the port hull their previous near miss had caused.  She had
reported several minor hull breaches in the enlisted berths but nothing
serious.  After hearing her account, Brown had ordered her to recheck the damage
and containment fields and then return to DC-Four.  She had just confirmed the
containment fields were stable and was quickly moving to the safety of her
station when she was tossed into the lower deck’s ceiling.  The savage blow
would have shattered her skull but for her shocksuit helmet.  Before she could
pick herself up from the deck, she heard a loud, shrill whistle sounding
through the hall.  Loose debris flew past her, blown toward DC-Four as
decompression alarms blared and an astonished Gables gaped at the spectacle.  When
the situation finally registered in her mind, the stunned spaceman slammed shut
her helmet’s visor but realized she had not heard the audible cue indicating her
suit had achieved a secure seal.  The air was nearly ripped from her lungs as
she stood and staggered to the nearest door, that to the quarters of a trio of
spacemen. 

On
Anelace
,
every crewmember with the rank of able spaceman or lower was required to share
quarters with two other spacemen.  Petty officers shared their rooms with just
one other PO, while chiefs and above roomed by themselves.  Brevic naval regulations
stated that every crew quarters must be locked when vacant.  Theft was
generally not a problem within the navy but locking the quarters discouraged it
further.  Gables knew if the door she was facing was locked, she would surely suffocate
before she was able to try a second room.  As she pounded the entrance button, Gables
figured it had a fifty-fifty chance of opening since
Anelace’s
crew was
a big family and many crewmembers disregarded the locked door regulation out of
convenience.  To her great relief, the door slid open and she threw herself
into the room through the hurricane-force winds blowing out.  The door closed
behind her and
Anelace’s
environmental system labored to refill the room
with a breathable atmosphere.  After air returned to her lungs, she laughed aloud
at escaping impending suffocation.  She laid on the floor several moments,
savoring each breath while considering the incredible headache she had before finally
standing and moving to one of the beds inside the quarters.  She then took her
helmet off and, upon inspection, saw the top had an eighteen-centimeter long crack
through it.  Placing it on the bed, she stood up and moved to the
communications panel to report her status to Chief Brown.