This Corner of the Universe (21 page)

Had
Gables continued down the hallway to the Operations Control Center, she would
have found it destroyed in the missile blast.  Located just aft of Auxiliary
Control, the large compartment was ripped apart by the force of the shock
front.  The bulkhead between Operations and Auxiliary Control was torn asunder,
throwing lethal metal shards into the OCC.  The fragments smashed through the
room, tearing apart its three occupants, Damage Controlman Second Class Lucas
Stai and Engineer’s Mates Shin Hong and Julie Hess who were filling in from Engineering. 
Buckling under the massive force, the shredded compartment formed an extended,
jagged open wound along the lower starboard hull of the corvette.  The interior
of Operations vented to space immediately and the ship bled yet more atmosphere
and debris through the twelve-meter long gash that began at Auxiliary Control and
radiated outward both fore and aft through DC-Four and the OCC.  A containment
field stopped the loss of atmosphere further aft, down the hall between the OCC
and the primary navigation room.

The
remaining energy from vampire Kilo dissipated as it expanded laterally through
the ship.  Navigation and the ship’s small medical bay suffered minor shock
damage but were spared from rapid decompression due to their containment
fields.  Similarly, as the shock wave dissipated upward into
Anelace
, it
passed through the floor of the upper deck and into the unoccupied officer
quarters.  Personal effects were tossed about but furniture inside the living
quarters had been secured in place by the ship constructors, holding the damage
to a minimum.  Most importantly, the ship suffered no additional hull breaches on
its top deck.

Anelace
bled openly from her right side
and belly even as she pushed on toward the pirate schooner still 51
ls
away. 
Across that expanse, the illegally converted civilian passenger ship had
finally completed its turn.  The twin port missile doors lazily opened to glare
at
Anelace
like sinister eyes.  The helmsman of
Blackheart
adjusted his bow thrusters to ease her revolution and announced to his captain,
“Rotation complete.”

“It’s
about damn well time,” grumbled the captain.  “Fire at will.”  Outside
Blackheart
,
the missile boat spewed her deadly payload.

Heskan
steadied himself as the shock wave from vampire Kilo reached the bridge.  The
jolt had been hard enough that he would probably have bruises on his shoulders
from his shockseat’s restraints and lights and computer consoles had flickered
as
Anelace
absorbed the blow. 
That had to be a bad one
, he
thought as he looked at his ship status screen on his left chair arm console. 
He saw decompression alarms going off all along
Anelace’s
lower deck  
Looks
like Aux Con took one close
.  He pressed his comm unit and spoke into his
mic, “Elena, can you hear me?  You folks all right down there?”  The situation,
already grave, had become even worse.  If Auxiliary Control was lost, the
bridge was the only remaining functional command center on the ship.  All Black
Space ships were built with at least three control centers: a bridge, a combat
information center and an auxiliary control room.  Many command cruisers and heavier
vessels had flag bridges, adding even more command and control capability
within the ship.  However, little
Anelace
had but two control centers. 
She was not a ship of war and her designers had little room for placing an
auxiliary control room into the tiny corvette let alone a third control
center.  As Heskan waited for Antipova to answer, he began wondering if
Anelace
had given all she had and the end was near.  His crew had performed wonders and
his ship had shrugged off several harsh blows but both were showing signs of
succumbing to the inevitable.  He cut his channel to Antipova, realizing no
response would be coming, and began to call down to Engineering to order
Lieutenant Jackamore to automatically announce abandon ship in the event the
bridge was lost as well.  His hand faltered over the call button.

Truesworth’s
surprised voice exclaimed, “Incoming message, Captain!”  Over the bridge
speakers, the scorn-filled voice of the pirate captain came through.  “Enjoying
those missiles, Captain?  Strike your lights now and maybe I’ll spare your
little ‘vette,” he taunted.

Heskan
nearly crushed the comm reply button.  A hard resolve roughened his voice as he
responded, “You son of a bitch, I may sink but I’ll be damned if I strike!”

Heskan
jolted upright as he heard his words echo throughout the ship on the main
speakers.  He looked down and realized that in his rage, he had mashed the 1-MC
button along with the button to reply to
Blackheart
. 
Oh God,
he cringed,
that’s going to be great for morale; I just told the whole crew we’re riding
Ana to her death!
  To his surprise, he heard whoops of camaraderie from
around the bridge.  Even Chief Brown joined in on the show of solidarity. 
Heskan looked over at a smiling Riedel who simply said, “We’re with you, Captain.”

Heskan
was receiving Chief Brown’s damage report from vampire Kilo’s hit as vampires
Mike and November charged into range.  Vampire Mike, hopelessly confused by
Anelace’s
electronic countermeasures, passed well starboard of the vessel, allowing both
laser turrets to team up on November.  The missile was intercepted at 3
ls
from
a shot by Pruette’s turret.

“Aux
Con an’ the surroundin’ compartments have been opened to space, Capt’n.  That
means the forward an’ aft compartments on the lower deck are cut off from each
other.  All hands in Aux Con an’ the OCC are probably lost but Gables was up
near Rowe’s quarters when we got hit so she’s okay but the enlisted berth’s
hallway ain’t holdin’ atmo’ an’ her helmet got cracked so she’s stuck in
there.”

“Send
someone with a replacement helmet to get her.  We can’t have anyone sitting out
the rest of the battle,” Heskan ordered.

Brown
shook his head.  “Who, Capt’n?  After the hits we took from that stealth ship,
we sealed off the lower deck from the gym forward.  There ain’t nobody forward
of her on the lower deck an’ the only compartment aft of her but on her side of
Aux Con is the med bay, which is supposed to be manned by folks from the OCC an’
Gables herself!”

The
news rocked Heskan. 
Ana’s turning into a ghost ship on the lower deck
. 
Only one, live crewmember trapped in the lower front half of her and the
rest are beyond our help.
  “Tell her to sit tight then, Boats, and we’ll
get her when this is over.”

The incoming
missile count was back to six in three separate volleys when
Blackheart
fired its tenth total missile volley.  The duet leapt out of her missile ports
and then sped off at .45
c
toward their objective.  The nearest volley to
Anelace
, the eighth
,
was 8
ls
from finishing its run. 
After firing that eighth volley,
Blackheart’s
starboard magazine had run
dry and while she turned, she had been forced to wait sixty-five seconds before
she could begin launching missiles from her port broadside.  The gap between
the last starboard volley and the first port volley was a vast 20
ls
resulting
in the ninth volley being a full 28
ls
from the corvette and the newly
launched tenth volley beginning its sprint toward
Anelace
42
ls
away.

As
Spaceman Gables sat uncomfortably in helpless isolation, PO Pruette fought to
remain useful in his turret gunner’s seat.  The last hit on
Anelace
had
been an enormous shock to
Anelace’s
computer systems.  When his console
had flickered, his heart had leapt into his throat as he thought the whole
system might crash.  The collapse did not come but even though
Anelace
had successfully fought to keep her vital systems online, some damage had been
done.  Since the flicker, his targeting computer was behaving noticeably
slower.  Even his target reticule lagged behind his turret control stick’s
input.  Standard procedure was to reboot the system, but that would take time,
and vampires Oscar and Papa were just entering point defense range.  He had only
had a lock on Oscar for a scant two seconds but sighed with great relief when
his first shot took out the missile at 5
ls
.  Quickly slewing his turret
toward Papa, Pruette tried to lock his weapon’s computer onto the second
missile but stopped when Thomas negated it with his second shot.  He wrenched
his control stick back to the left to rotate his turret toward the next
volley.  Up until now, the volleys had been 14
ls
apart.  The rhythm of
the battle had been frantic, nineteen-second cycles of desperate lock-on
attempts followed by even more desperate laser shots at the deadly missiles.  However,
vampires Quebec and Romeo, the ninth volley, were a full 20
ls
from
Anelace
when Pruette and Thomas began training their pulse lasers upon them.  The
increased distance gave the gunners an extra nine seconds to achieve locks and
both Pruette and Thomas, with Vernay’s help, found themselves with solid target
locks while still waiting for the missiles to enter laser range.

The
captain of
Blackheart
shook his fist in victory as the light from
Anelace’s
Auxiliary Control “near miss” reached the schooner.  “Yes!” he called out
triumphantly while rocking forward in his chair.  The hit had to be the deathblow
for the resilient little ship.  Smiles broke out on the bridge as the ship
spewed atmosphere and wreckage from the gaping hole punched into her side by
the detonation.  The damned ship had put up a fight though.  Until now, he had watched
with increasing concern as the corvette danced by missile after missile to
close the range from 2
lm
away to just over 30
ls
, all the while
its fearsome, possibly operational mass driver barrel pointing ominously at them. 
In
Blackheart’s
two-year career as a pirate enforcer ship, she had never
permitted an enemy to close within 30
ls
of her, let alone ever been hit
by the enemy.  The captain felt
Blackheart
lightly shudder as she pushed
out her eleventh missile volley and began to tell his missileer to stand down
but stopped as he examined
Anelace
.  Unbelievably, the ship was still
closing. 
Not just closing due to forward momentum either
, he thought. 
She’s
still under power!  What’s it going to take to stop her?

Vernay
watched both missile symbols of the ninth volley wink out at maximum point
defense range with satisfaction.  The extra time granted to lock onto vampires
Quebec and Romeo had made their interception almost seem routine but her team’s
respite from the battle’s previous hectic pace was over as the remaining
volleys were once again coming in 14
ls
intervals.  Vernay’s attention on
her task was so total that she had barely felt the bone-jarring near miss in Auxiliary
Control and she had not heard Brown’s damage report that implied the demise of
her section chief, CPO Martin.  Her entire world was herself, two gunners and
the inverted “v” missile symbols on the point defense plot. 
Anelace
was
one hundred and five seconds from entering mass driver range and in that time,
Vernay estimated the schooner could fire just three more volleys.  With only
two missile volleys in flight currently, she knew her weapons crew needed ten
more successful interceptions before they would finally get their turn to
respond.

Trying
hard not to think too far ahead, she willed herself to stay focused on the
current task of helping Thomas lock on to vampire Tango.  To Vernay’s relief,
she saw that Tango’s companion, Sierra, was already in Pruette’s sights.  As
she locked on to Tango and held the lock,
Anelace’s
targeting computer
spent each microsecond accumulating better data on the missile’s velocity,
trajectory and evasive maneuvers, postulating with increasing accuracy the
point in space at which to fire to have her laser burst and the vampire
converge.

Pruette’s
target died 5
ls
from
Anelace
but Thomas needed a full three shots
to kill Tango.  The crafty missile had nearly evaded his point defense fire but
Thomas had calmly let his weapon recycle and then took a final, coolly aimed
shot to stop the Interceptor-B missile 200,000 kilometers from
Anelace.

Vernay
and her gunners now turned their attention to the eleventh volley.  Unnerved by
the close call, both gunners were having trouble gaining an initial lock. 
Struggling herself, Vernay barely registered Selvaggio calling out that she was
yawing
Anelace
to starboard forty degrees in the pre-planned maneuver that
would skirt
Anelace
through mass driver range while staying out of the reach
of
Blackheart’s
ten laser turrets.  Heskan had chosen a starboard turn due
to
Blackheart’s
orientation.  By turning toward the schooner’s stern, he
ensured
Blackheart
would have to rotate one hundred eighty degrees
before she could engage her main drives to close to laser range and Heskan
planned to have
Anelace
well past the larger vessel before that could
happen.

Anelace’s
bow began to turn at the 26
ls
mark from
Blackheart
.  Rolling to keep her starboard lasers
unmasked, she was thirty-six seconds from entering mass driver range.  The
captain of
Blackheart
would have just ten seconds to react when he saw
Anelace
start her turn and Heskan thought it was most likely that the captain would
order
Blackheart’s
drives to full power in an attempt to push his ship
outside of the 10
ls
range of the Kruger.  As a result, he had ordered a
slightly shallower turn to starboard that would take them closer to the
schooner as
Anelace
zoomed by.  It was all a gamble.  If he brought
Anelace
to within 5
ls
of the schooner, its ten B-pack lasers would slice
Anelace
to pieces.  If he tried to play it safe and keep
Anelace
further out on
her firing run but
Blackheart
was able to push the range outside of 10
ls
,
Anelace
would slip by without being able to fire a shot and would have
to make another pass while still under missile attack.  The game was a high
stakes match.  The winner would live.

If
the mood on
Anelace’s
bridge was tense, the atmosphere on
Blackheart
was nerve-wracking.  Originally,
Blackheart’s
captain had watched with
an almost heady delight when the corvette had broken from the cover of the Beta
Field to defend the mining station.  The little ship had already lost half of
its defenses and the 2
lm
expanse between it and his ship amounted to an
eternity, as he knew his enforcer ship would be able to dispense missile salvo
after salvo against his foe.  However, after each successive hit on
Anelace
,
he grew more and more anxious as the little ship refused to die while
determinedly clawing a path from 2
lm
to 1
lm
and now to 26
ls
. 
The tiny ship was a nightmare, methodically and seemingly unstoppably marching
its way toward him while apparently ignoring all effects of the hits he had
delivered.  He had no illusions about the resiliency of his own civilian
converted missile boat, nor any about the lethality of
Anelace’s
mass
driver, which he now presumed was functional.  As
Anelace
decreased the light-seconds
between them, the pressure had inversely increased on his bridge.  The almost
casual attitude of his bridge crew at the beginning of the rush had changed incrementally
to a quiet foreboding bordering on panic.  His men now knew that this might not
be a bloodless battle like all the battles before.  The approaching ruin of a
ship, the monstrosity streaming atmosphere and wreckage, promised to exact a
toll higher than any of them was willing to pay.  Yet
Blackheart
couldn’t run.  If he ordered full emergency power in an attempt to open the
range again, the faster corvette would simply take a position on
Blackheart’s
now empty starboard side while she pumped mass driver shots into his ship.  He
had to keep his port side facing
Anelace
and that restricted his options
to almost none.  Goosebumps broke out on the captain’s arms and a shiver ran
down the pirate’s spine. 
Blackheart
trembled as well, her twelfth
volley of missiles launching from her port side.

Tyler
Pruette had fallen behind on his current target, vampire Uniform.  The first
burst from his turret had missed and he actually lost weapons lock during his
pulse laser’s recycle.  Panicked, he rushed his second shot, which converged on
the space Uniform had occupied one quarter of a second earlier.

Thomas
was doing better.  Thanks to Vernay, he had weapons lock for two seconds but
his first shot still went over its target.  Able to maintain lock during his
recycle, Thomas was rewarded with a direct hit to vampire Victor on his second
attempt.  Thomas’ eyes moved on to his next target, vampire X-ray, 14
ls
away,
even as Pruette’s second shot missed Uniform.

Pruette’s
panic was now borderline hysteria.  They had come so close but this was the
end.  Vampire Uniform was 3
ls
away from
Anelace
giving him barely
four seconds to achieve weapons lock and fire at the missile.  In his heart, he
was certain this would be the missile that killed the ship and it would be his
fault they would all die.  His target reticule staggered drunkenly around his
console screen as his right hand quivered.  He wasn’t even going to get a lock
before he was forced to fire.  As he resigned himself to failure, he watched
the reticule shift slightly on its own and glow the glorious bright green of
weapons lock.  Although his finger still hovered over the command-accept-execute
button, his turret nonetheless spewed a burst of laser fire that struck down
the incoming missile less than 1
ls
from
Anelace
.

“You’re
still in the game, Tyler.  Stay with it,” Vernay’s sweet, soprano voice urged
over his helmet’s speakers.

Vernay
knew something was definitely wrong with
Anelace
.  The old girl had
suffered too many blows, had been pounded too many times and now, like a prizefighter
who had taken too many head shots,
Anelace
was punch-drunk.  Her computer
systems were dying.  Somewhere inside the ship’s processors, something had
broken and each decision was taking slightly longer than the last.  Vernay
considered telling Captain Heskan but by the time she even explained the
problem, she would have her hands full trying to fire the Kruger at
Blackheart
. 
She could not initiate a system reboot because they would be hit by the next
wave of missiles before it had completed and switching to the redundant weapon control
system that ran concurrently was pointless as it seemed to be having the same
problem.  The range between the two ships had diminished to where life and
death events were happening every few seconds and having neither the time nor
the experience to devise a solution, she decided that they would just have to
live with what they had.  On the main screen,
Anelace
plotted
Blackheart’s
thirteenth broadside launch and Vernay knew that, at most, there would be time
for only one more missile volley before
Anelace
could finally return
fire.