This Corner of the Universe (25 page)

“Hey,
I’m right here…” Pruette objected groggily.

“Thomas
is unconscious and I’d prefer to leave him that way until we’ve moved him to
medical.  He’s out of the fight anyway because both of his arms are badly
broken,” Gables continued.

Vernay
suppressed a smile. 
Both of them are still alive
.  Until now, she had
suffered the irrational fear of standing before her captain trying to explain
why she had allowed everyone under her to die while she had emerged completely unscathed. 
They’re in bad shape but both should pull through,
she thought
thankfully. 
At least I haven’t killed them all
.

The
computer beeped, signaling it had finished its diagnostics run.  The fire
control system had largely cleared itself during the self-diagnostics and
Vernay quickly cleared the remaining two error codes.  Starboard Turret-One was
back in business.

“Which
brings me to this, ma’am.”  Gables held two different pressure injection
applicators in her hand.  “I can put Gunner’s Mate Pruette fully under or I can
wake him up.”

“Hey,
I’m up,” Pruette protested and with great effort, looked up at Vernay.  “Why is
she saying I’m not awake?”

Gables
ignored the petty officer and continued, “He really should have some painkillers
and be taken to medical.  That’s the standard medical procedure with someone
who’s as wrecked as he is.”  Gables was a damage controlman with only the
minimum emergency medical training required by all damage control ratings and
it showed with her bedside manner.

Pruette
choked out between pain-filled shallow breaths, “Again… sitting right here…
less than a meter from you, Denise.”

“Or
you can order Option B,” Gables spoke over Pruette as she lifted the second
injector.  “These stimulants will bring him fully around and should let him
function for an hour or so.  He’s going to be in a lot of pain though since I
can’t give him a pain suppressant with the stimulant.  What do I do, Lieutenant?”

“Give
me the stimulant, Spaceman, I can manage,” Pruette insisted in between
agonizing coughs.

Gables
ignored him and looked directly into Vernay’s eyes.  “In his current state,
there’s a chance giving him stimulants will kill him.  I’d recommend the painkillers
unless we absolutely need him.”

Vernay
looked between both of the enlisted crewmembers.  She wanted to do the “right”
thing and ease Pruette’s pain. 
Hasn’t he already contributed to the fight
enough?
  However, she realized that if Thomas was out but his GP was
functional, she would need Pruette operating his Lyle in the S-One position while
she controlled S-Two. 
That’s not fair to Pruette
, she thought. 
The
man has given me everything he has and he deserves to rest.
  She hedged.  “Denise,
hand them both to me.  I need to look at S-Two before I decide.  I also need
you to make your way to storage and bring back enough routing flexi-cable to
run from S-Two to the bridge.”

“I’m
on it, L-T,” Gables said as she placed both injectors into Vernay’s hand and
quickly exited.

“Don’t
listen to Gabes, Lieutenant,” Pruette asserted weakly, “it doesn’t hurt that
bad and Ana needs every person we have right now.”

Vernay
looked at Pruette, his face contorted in obvious pain, each breath a misery. 
I
can’t ask this from him, it’s not fair.
  She lightly patted his shoulder.  “Just
rest right now, Tyler.  I’ll be back in a few.”

It
took four minutes to squeeze through the eight meters of wreckage strewn
between S-One and S-Two.  Halfway to the second turret, she realized she was a
lot further from the bridge than the two minutes Captain Heskan had ordered. 
I’m
not sure I have a choice but to keep going… I have to find out if we can use
the second GP
.  The damage worsened the closer she moved toward the bow and
the upward slope of the hallway seemed to be increasing with each meter.  She
pushed her way through the containment field to find the second starboard turret
room only moderately damaged.  The duralloy cages around the turret positions
conceived by the ship’s designers had saved both starboard gunners’ lives.  Vernay
looked at Thomas first even though she knew she was wasting time
Anelace
did not have.  Peacefully sleeping in his shockseat, both his arms were in
splints and his suit’s restriction band below his right knee had been activated.

Each
shocksuit had restriction bands placed at strategic locations around the suit. 
In the event that the suit suffered a tear in an extremity while in a vacuum,
the suit would automatically activate the appropriately located restriction
band sealing off the rest of the suit from the breach.  The bands could also
serve the dual purpose of acting as tourniquets, if activated manually.  In
this case, it appeared the restriction’s function was only to keep Thomas’ suit
habitable but not so tight as to cut off the blood flow to his lower right leg.

Vernay turned her attention to
the control panel and was pleased to find it still had power.  The entire
console had been knocked off its mounts and the targeting system appeared to be
frozen.  She quickly cleared the existing commands and ordered it to run a
diagnostic but the computer remained frozen. 
It’s time for the tried and
true ultimate repair move: recycle power
, she thought as she completely
turned off each of the systems one by one.  With the station powered down, she
counted to ten and then reactivated the systems in reverse order.  The console
came back to life and the status display reflected just four error codes.  Vernay
fixed one of the codes easily but the other three each related to hardware
damage suffered inside the console.  The actual hardware that controlled the
turret had been severed from the system during the missile hit. 
Not too
surprising considering how close we are to where that missile struck
. 
Vernay ran through her options.  The actual GP laser was functional and the
software in the S-Two room was working; however, the laser could not be
controlled from this room because the physical control hardware was broken. 
Her own bridge controls would work but the connection between them and the turret
had been cut somewhere in between. 
Okay, Stacy, think.  I connect my
hardware on the bridge to the software in this room and we have a functioning
GP
. 
Glad I asked Gables to get that flexi-cable. 
Vernay started
opening the turret control panel to begin her work as she thought,
this
means Ana can have two functional GPs so long as she has two functional gunners. 
She bleakly considered what to do with Pruette.  She did not have a choice. 
Hating herself was not a choice either.

*  *  *

Ten
more precious minutes passed and
Anelace
and Ketch-One had closed to within
18
ls
from each other. 
We have about five minutes before the shooting
starts
, Heskan thought. 
I need my bridge officers back but if I pull
them from their tasks, will we even be able to fight?
  Ultimately, Heskan
was saved from the dilemma when the bridge door opened and Vernay came charging
through with Selvaggio limping behind her.  Both were carrying the heavy flexi-cable
and spooling it out behind them as they worked their way to Vernay’s station.

“Captain,
maneuverability has been restored as much as possible given our time
constraints,” Selvaggio said as she dropped the thick cordage and hobbled to
her station.  “It’s much worse than I originally thought.  The ship is bent all
through her hull.  Ana’s twists aren’t even all in the same direction.  Her
third frame looks like a ski jump and the sixth and seventh are twisted
laterally.”

“So
what do we have, Ensign?”

“Once
we have some of the drives up, and if we’re careful, I can roll and turn the
ship very slowly but at only about ten percent of her normal capacity,”
Selvaggio answered apologetically while shrugging her shoulders.

“It’s
better than nothing, Diane.  Just keep us pointed right at Ketch-One.  This
fight isn’t going to be about subtlety anyway.”  Heskan glanced at Lieutenant Vernay
who was kneeling at her station.  She had taken off the access panel and was
halfway inside her control panel busily connecting the flexi-cable to the internals
of her station.  “Stacy, do you need a hand?”

“No,
sir.  It’s so cramped in here that a second person would just get in the way,”
she replied.  “Both turrets should be operational in a minute here—” The panel
sparked and Heskan saw the lieutenant jump.  “Ouch!  Dammit.”  Vernay then snickered
and muttered to herself, “The sparks tell you it’s working.”  She pushed
herself out of the open panel and looked at her captain with a wry smile.  “I
guess that means the connection’s been restored.”  She hopped up and checked
her console.

Heskan
furrowed his eyebrows.  “Status, WEPS?”

Nodding,
Vernay replied, “Both starboard turrets are operational.  Gunner’s Mate Second Class
Pruette has control of S-One.  I have S-Two.”

“What’s
Spaceman Thomas’ condition?” Heskan cringed slightly at the implication.

Vernay
was quickly typing commands into her weapons console as she answered, “He’s
alive, sir.  He’s unconscious and with a lot of broken bones but alive.”  Her
console chirped an alarm at her and Vernay squashed a reset button with her
index finger.  “I hated to leave him in S-Two but Gables said he was safer in a
shockseat than trying to get him down to the medical bay.  By the way, Gabes
went down to Engineering to see the chief.”  Vernay stopped what she was doing
to turn and face the captain.  “Pruette is hurt badly too but insists he can
perform his duties,” she said meekly but with a prideful look before returning
to work.

Heskan
looked at the tactical display; three minutes until they were within weapons
range and still no propulsion.  Thinking of his first officer, Heskan muttered
under his breath, “Well, I hope Engineering is getting ready to get out and
push if they can’t get our drives running.”

Ketch-One
had not made any course changes over the last thirty minutes.  She had,
however, yawed toward
Anelace
to face her. 
They’ve been watching us,
doing a detailed damage analysis and have probably decided it’s better to
finish the job now than alter course and give us more time to repair.

“Ninety-seven
seconds until GP weapons range,” Vernay said in a cool and determined manner. 
Any trace of emotion she had about her dead crew or the direness of the
situation had evaporated.  “Diane, we need to roll starboard thirty degrees or the
GPs are going to be masked.”

Selvaggio
tapped several commands into her navigation console desperately.  “I know,
Stacy, I know.”  She spun around to face Heskan.  “Captain, I can’t roll us
until the drives are up and working with the inertial compensators.  I need
propulsion,” Selvaggio implored.

No
sooner had Ensign Selvaggio finished her plea than the ship’s status display
flashed to update two of her drives as functional.

Heskan
looked thankfully up to the heavens and then back at his navigator.  “Now ask
for a million credits, Diane.”

Selvaggio
smirked and said, “Sir, I can roll us now but it’s going to over-G.”

Heskan
punched the 1-MC and announced, “All hands prepare for over-G.”  He counted to ten
before issuing the order to roll.

As
Anelace
rolled, Heskan was forcefully thrown into the left side of his shockseat.  The g-forces
tore at his body and he grunted with the effort to keep from passing out.  He
pried his eyes open and saw his bridge crew suffering the same fate.  He felt
his hands clawing at the arms of his chair as he tried to keep breathing.

After
a few moments,
Anelace
mercifully settled into her new orientation and
the stress disappeared.  Heskan’s commlink chirped and Chief Brown’s voice came
through.  “Capt’n, I think Drive Six just ripped off Ana during that maneuver! 
Lieutenant Jackamore says she can’t take somethin’ that violent again an’ stay
together an’ I’m inclined to agree with him.”

“Understood,
Boats.  Sit tight in Engineering and then give me a damage report after the
action.”  Heskan closed the link.  Selvaggio turned to face him and Heskan
could see her blushing furiously after hearing the conversation.  She opened
her mouth as if to apologize but Heskan cut her off.  “Don’t worry about it,
Diane, we had to get oriented.  Just keep us straight and true now.”  He tried
to sound calm and reassuring but could only hope it came out that way.

“Twenty
seconds until laser range, Captain,” Vernay counted down.  Heskan thought he
heard her say “one more miracle” into her commlink to someone, probably
Pruette.  Her hands were unmoving except for the slight twitch on the
thumbstick necessary to keep her target reticule over the center of the pirate
ketch.

When
the ships were 6
ls
apart, the pirate ketch went to full thrust on her
engines.  The sixteen-second burn slowed the ketch’s rearward momentum, dramatically
increasing the closure rate of the combatants.  The gunners in the pirate ship
had been prepared for the maneuver; Vernay and Pruette had not.

Anelace
bridged the last light-second to
slip within the 5
ls
range and each ship spewed forth pulses of charged energy
from their lasers.  The pulse fire from both ships streaked across the distance
between them at the speed of light while each ship’s gunners adjusted aim and
loosed another barrage two seconds after the first.  Both ships had finished
firing their third bursts when the initial laser fire touched their targets.

Anelace
no longer had a shield to
protect her and the pirate captain had ordered his gunner to focus on the aft of
the corvette.  The bow, nothing but a mass of twisted wreckage, was not worth
firing at.  The ketch’s starboard laser burst hit
Anelace
four meters
aft of her twelfth frame.  Her duralloy armor flash boiled and the laser burned
through the hull and into Engineering.  The port laser’s pulse struck a few
meters behind and above the first but was partially deflected by the angle of
Anelace’s
armor, which boiled but held.  As the dripping armor froze, it formed a teardrop
shape on
Anelace’s
starboard side.

The engineering
compartment, housing an enormous Kanata Split power plant, was easily the
largest area on the ship.  The compartment was divided into the general
engineering section and the reactor room which housed the actual power plant
and the highly volatile power cells that provided the fuel for the hungry
engines.  The penetrating laser fire struck the engineering section,
specifically the machinist’s workshop and the electrical generator room.

The
workshop was unmanned during battle stations and the cacophony of its decompression
went unheard.  As per regulation, any tool light enough to be moved by a
decompression event had been secured, preventing the tools from being launched
as the atmosphere was blown through the fist-sized breaches in the hull.  Finished
with the workshop, the laser burst continued its path of destruction into the
electrical generator room.  Able Spaceman Vaughn’s abdomen disappeared in an
instant as the pulse laser burned through him and his operator’s panel which erupted
into a shower of sparks that rained down embers of burning metal onto Vaughn’s curled
body.  The electrical panel’s dying command to the ship’s generator was a kill
command to avoid a dangerous power surge inside
Anelace’s
electrical
systems.  The command proved unnecessary as the laser pulse had already burned a
killing blow deep inside
Anelace’s
main generator fractions of a second
earlier.  The two remaining crewmembers in the compartment looked around in
confusion as the compartment’s atmosphere began to rush out through the rupture
in the bulkhead.  Closing their helmet visors when the decompression alarm
sounded, they rushed toward their stricken comrade. 
Anelace’s
life
support sensor suite detected both breaches and swiftly erected containment
fields in the two compartments.

Lieutenant
Jackamore saw the warnings on his system’s status board from the engineering command
room and ordered battery reserves to compensate for the loss of the ship’s main
electrical generator.  While not a permanent solution, he was confident the
emergency procedure would provide enough electrical power to get
Anelace
through the fight.

Ketch-One’s
second salvo of pulse fire arrived two seconds after the first and struck much
further aft.  One shot burned a hole through the enormous mount of the second
drive and due to the roll angle of
Anelace
, the laser burst continued
through the hole and hit the corvette’s topside hull near her twelfth frame.  The
duralloy armor, however, easily absorbed the energy from the now weakened laser
bolt.  The second shot hit the drive itself.  Armor flash boiled once again and
the laser pulse played havoc inside the delicate internal structure of the
Allison T-22 drive.  Pieces fused together or fell away entirely, throwing the
engine out of balance.  The vibrations quickly grew and automatic safeties cut
the power to the engine in an effort to avoid major structural damage to the
ship.

The
hits were neither felt nor heard inside the bridge.  All Heskan could do was
draw conclusions as to the effectiveness of his opponent’s laser fire by
watching the ship’s status display blink warnings about affected systems. 
Judging by the warnings, he knew that Engineering had been hit but was unaware
of the severity.

“Number
Two Drive is offline,” Selvaggio called out.

They
are definitely focusing on the rear of our ship
, Heskan noted. 
Why can’t the
enemy be stupid?

Heskan
asked himself the rhetorical question just as the ketch’s third burst arrived
at
Anelace
.  The first shot struck the highly sloped armor just two
meters from the front of the bridge.  Due to the extreme angle of the blow, the
charged energy deflected off the duralloy armor and carried deeper into space. 
The second shot struck slightly aft of the first burst and hit the bridge sidewall
bulkhead at nearly ninety degrees.  The armor protecting the bridge evaporated and
the laser punched through the bridge walls.  Heskan swore he saw a flash for an
instant; just a hint of a strobe of light before chaos erupted around him.  The
bolt flashed between Vernay and Heskan.  First, it drove through Vernay’s
weapons console, exiting the station a half meter from Vernay’s hip.  The
panel’s surge protectors kept the panel from bursting into a shower of sparks
but it died instantly.  The laser bolt then crossed the bridge behind the
captain’s chair and burned through the rear bulkhead and into the sensor compartment. 
Air from the bridge escaped to space in a high-pitched whistle more audible
than the decompression alarm blaring in the background.  Everyone on the bridge
slapped their helmets closed but
Anelace’s
quick reactions had already
constructed a containment field for the bridge’s starboard bulkhead and only
the rhythmic honking of the decompression warning pervaded inside the
compartment.  Lieutenant Vernay sat in unmoving astonishment as the ketch’s
next duo of pulse fire scorched their way into
Anelace
.  Her shock saved
her from witnessing
Anelace’s
first pulse fire shots directed at
Ketch-One miss by a mere two kilometers.

The Kanata
Split power plant was designed completely with system defense ships in mind. 
The smaller layout of the SDS simply did not have the space to hold multiple
power plants.  The Brevic military, refusing to compromise on redundancy,
enlisted Kanata Mil-tech Engineering to devise a power plant small enough to
fit in a corvette-sized ship yet with some redundant capability.  Four years
later, the split power plant was born.  With the ability to maintain two
separate reactions simultaneously inside each half of the power plant, the
design gave
Anelace
redundancy in the event that part of the power plant
needed to be shut down.  As laser fire from the pirate ketch blasted into the
starboard side of the power plant, the fueling systems were destroyed along
with the induction fuel lines.  The weakened laser continued inside
Anelace’s
heart and evaporated the coupling equipment of the A-side invertor mechanisms
before being absorbed by the plant’s robust reaction containment field.

Engineers
in the reactor room scrambled to secure their suits even as containment fields
snapped into place to stop the ship’s bleeding atmosphere.  In the engineering
command room, Lieutenant Jackamore felt a surge of panic as he watched his
station light up several warnings ranging from critical power plant
temperatures inside the A-side reactor to uncontrolled power fluctuations
flowing out of it.  Jackamore immediately punched the main A-side cut-off button
and stopped the reaction completely.  His hand was moving for the core jettison
controls but stopped short when he realized the A-side containment field, while
severely reduced, had not been breached.  The accompanying pulse fire shot
struck the corvette once more in the second drive.  The T-22, already shutting
down due to earlier damage, had her main rotary drive shaft melted under the
intense heat of the laser bolt but took no other significant damage.

On
the bridge, Heskan had recovered enough to realize the bridge had taken a direct
hit.  He looked around to check his crew and to his great relief, saw nobody
had been struck.  Only afterwards did he think to check himself.  Vernay had
likewise recovered, reporting that her weapons panel was dead.  She now noticed
that her first shot had missed and could not prevent the blush she felt
overtaking her cheeks.  Even as she silently cursed herself, she watched her
second salvo tear into the Fearson-class ketch.  Her turret fire had struck the
first third of the ketch and she smiled cruelly as twin streams of debris flowed
from each side of the ship.

The
final salvo reached
Anelace
as her second drive’s main shaft fused
permanently in the frigid space environment.  The first pulse missed aft while
the second pulse struck the last four meters of the corvette.  It cut cleanly
through the ship, striking no manned sections but destroying both emergency
reactor core jettison tubes.

Heskan’s
commlink chirped as he watched
Anelace’s
third burst slice into the
pirate ketch amidship.  One burst pierced her sides completely as the other cut
a path of destruction just above the ketch’s port B-pack turret.

“The
reactor’s been hit, Captain.  We stopped the A-side core reaction but we still
have fifty percent power,” Jackamore cried out.  His voice was hard to hear
over the shouting inside the engineering command room.

Heskan
leaned toward his commlink and answered, “Acknowledged, Brandon.  Keep her
together for just a little longer.”  His eyes refocused on the deceptive beauty
of the ketch’s death throes as their fourth salvo tore into the tiny ship.  He raised
his fist in triumph when he saw the ketch’s exterior running lights flash twice
and then blink out in surrender.

“Cease
fire, WEPS!” he ordered, not realizing that
Anelace
had partially ceased
fire seven seconds ago with the loss of control over S-Two.  Vernay relayed his
command to Pruette even as Ensign Truesworth called out that the ketch had signaled
its surrender via voice message.  An instant later,
Anelace’s
lone GP
laser went silent.

Even though
Anelace
had
stopped hostilities, the pirate ketch had to endure multiple barrages from the S-One
turret, as those shots had already been fired before Heskan had accepted the
surrender.  The civilian yacht staggered from blow after blow as large pieces
began to break off from her.  The pirate captain had waited too long to
capitulate and his command disintegrated under the last burst. 
Anelace
limped
noiselessly past the expanding debris cloud of her final opponent.

*  *  *

“I
guess we won,” Truesworth said flatly, breaking what had become a preternatural
silence on the bridge after the battle.

I
guess we did
,
Heskan thought.  He checked the atmosphere inside the bridge and once he was sure
the containment field was holding, slipped his visor up.  He pressed his commlink
and called Chief Brown in Engineering.  “Boats, how is Ana?”

He
waited for a response and after what seemed an eternity, the chief’s voice came
back to him.  “We’re still figurin’ that out, Capt’n.  We lost another engine an’
the reactor took a beatin’ but she’s still givin’ us power and Drive Three is
functional.”

Heskan
took a long, hard look at the ship’s system status as the chief continued,
“Still, Capt’n, if you want Ana to stop, you’re goin’ to have to seriously plan
ahead.”

“Thank
you, Chief.  Get back to me when you know more.  Heskan out.”  He looked around
the bridge.  “Good work, people, but let’s not let our guard down yet.  Jack,
full scan of the area, I don’t want to be surprised by another ketch.”

He
looked at Ensign Selvaggio next.  “Diane, start a very slow rotation so we can
decelerate and come to rest by the RALF.  Let’s keep the Gs to a minimum if you
please.”

Selvaggio
grimaced and began to enter the commands into her console as Heskan turned to
his right to face Lieutenant Vernay.

“Stacy,
keep the GPs hot just in case.”

Vernay
shook her head.  “Can’t do that from here, Captain.”  She pointed at the
blackened hole fifty centimeters from her shockseat.

Heskan
stared at the weapons station’s exit wound and then followed the path the laser
had taken through the bridge.  He unfastened his shockseat restraints and
turned completely around to inspect the back of his chair.  Sure enough, a long
scorch mark was etched along its back.  Heskan felt dizzy as the implication
sank in. 
How did that not hit one of us… or both of us?
  After letting
out a long exhale, he asked, “Stacy, can you command your—” Heskan almost said
“crew” but given that her crew of eight had only one functioning survivor, he
thought better of it, “—section from the bridge?”