To Well And Back (The Deep Dark Well) (6 page)

“I have a tentative
plot,” said the Nav Officer, nodding.  “I can probably tighten it up if she
comes through again.”

“Do that,” said the
Commodore, pointing at the screen.  “No matter what, get a fix on that point. 
And you,” he said, pointing to the Com Tech.  “Get ready to send that fix to
all ships.  Maybe we can accomplish something.”

“Aye, sir,” said the
tech.

“Here she comes again,”
yelled the Tactical Officer.  The red vector arrow appeared again, heading
toward the force at high velocity.  Missile arrows appeared again, separating
from the ship.

How many of those
damned things can that ship carry
, thought the Commodore, watching as the arrows
continued to separate and single out their targets.  The plot erupted with
static again, the red vector arrows jumping all over the place. 
We’ll never
get her once she gets away from that hole and starts for us
.

The Commodore sweated
in his couch, watching the missiles come in.  Two more were knocked out this
time as well, but the other two went after separate targets, and two more
battleships were blotted from the heavens.  And then the ship was past and
heading for its exit hole.

“What’s the Suryan
force doing?” he asked, in a moment of panic forgetting that they were even
engaged with another enemy.

“They’re concentrating
on the Admiral’s task force,” said the Tactical Officer.

Thank the God for small
favors
,
thought the Commodore as he looked over his mauled force.  He had lost four
ships, and two of those left were heavily damaged.  But not enough to keep them
from firing.

“I have the hole
plotted,” said the Nav Officer.

“Coordinates sent,”
called out the Com Tech.

“All ships to fire all
weapons on that point,” said the Commodore.  “Maximum power, continuous.”

“We won’t be able to
keep that up too long,” said the Tactical Officer, looking back at the
Commodore.

“Fire as long as
possible,” said the Commodore.  “Until the barrels melt, or we’re out of
power.”

*     *     *

“I think you’ve done
enough,” said Watcher over the circuit.

Pandora felt the big
smile on her face and shook her head.  “I’m having too much fun, lover,” she
said, watching the approach to the wormhole mouth.

“I could shut down your
fun by closing the hole,” threatened Watcher, but she could tell by his tone
that it wasn’t going to happen.  She had always been good at judging men, and
using that judgment to manipulate them into doing what she wanted.  It was no
different with the superman she had come to know so well.

“Close it down and I’ll
just circle back in normal space,” she said with a smirk on her face.  “It may
take a little bit longer, but I’ll still get er done.”

“You are insufferable,”
said the being on the other end of the com link.  “They are going to figure out
what you are doing and blow you out of space.  That is not a warship you are
in.  And you are even out of missiles.”

“I figure a couple of
strafing runs with light amp and particle beams can whittle them down a bit
more.”

“And you don’t even
have your armor on,” said Watcher, his voice rising in exasperation.  “No
wonder you didn’t want a visual.”

“I’m fighting a bunch
of old Greek galleys in a fighter jet,” she said with a laugh.  “What the hell
do I have to worry about?”

“They are a little bit
more advanced than a galley,” said Watcher, his voice still at exasperation
level.  “Their weapons can still hurt you.  Enough of them can destroy you.”

“They have to hit me
first,” said Pandi, watching as the ripple in space that was the wormhole
appeared to her front.  “Tell you what.  I’ll just go in one more little time,
then high tail it out of here.”

Communications blacked
out for a moment as she entered the wormhole, then came back as she exited the
other end of the portal, lined up and ready for another attack run.

“We are taking fire,”
called out the ship’s computer as a klaxon sounded.  The ship shook and bucked.

“What’s going on?”
yelled the voice of Watcher, and then the com was gone.  Not interrupted, just
gone, cut off.

“We have hull
breaches,” called out the computer.  “Lasers and particle beams impacting the
hull.”

“Shit,” cursed Pandora,
looking over the control board, which kept fluctuating between active and
down.  “Get us the hell out here.  Maximum velocity, maximum evasive.”

“Engines two and three
are down,” said the computer voice.  “More hull breaches.”

The ship continued to shake,
and Pandora could now hear the sound of air whistling through, something.  And
suddenly there was no air to breath, and she felt a moment of regret that she
hadn’t put on that armor after all.

Chapter Six

I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain,
that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you
call a Gentle-man and is nothing else.   Oliver Cromwell

“We’ve got her,” cried
Midas, raising his fist in the air.  On the viewer was a telescopic shot of the
enemy vessel.  He was surprised at how small it was, to have done so much
damage to his force.  Now it looked pretty damned helpless, with laser light
reflecting from its skin and alloy boiling off into space.  A couple of
particle beams struck as well, cutting runnels through the hull metal.

And then she blurred
away, using her impossible engines to pull six hundred gravities on an evasive
course that his weapons could not follow at distance.

“We hit her hard,”
yelled out the Tactical Officer.

“Not hard enough,” growled
Midas, watching as the other ship juked away.  At five light seconds difference
there was no way they could tell where the ship was at this moment, and so
could only fire a wide spread and hope for a hit.  There were some hits, some
reflected light and vapor boiling into space.  But not enough to totally
destroy the vessel.

“Midas,” came a voice
over the com, and the Commodore turned to the repeater screen to see the
Admiral, sitting on his bridge.  “Break action with that
Donut
vessel. 
We need your firepower to swing the action against the Suryan force.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the
Commodore, knowing it would be six seconds before the admiral received his
reply, turning back to the tactical screen which had switched view to the main
fleet action.

There were nine Nation
ships dueling with twelve Suryan ships.  Even bringing in his five functional
vessels would not be enough to ensure victory.  Not with the Suryan station
adding its fire to the mix.  Unless he did something rash.

“Order all ships to
engage Alcubierre drive,” he said to the Captain and the Com Tech.  “Course
directly toward the enemy force and their station.”

“Toward the station?”
asked the Captain, his eyes wide.

“Yes,” said Midas,
nodding his head.  “Engage on my command.”  Midas waited for the
acknowledgements to come in from the other vessels, time in which he watched
one of Gerasi’s ships taken out by missiles.  “Engage.”

Space blurred ahead
before turning black, while it darkened behind, the ship warping space.  The
engines were only engaged for a second.  Anything more would have risked
plowing into the planet.  There was still risk, and Midas breathed out a deep
breath as the drive shut off and the ship sat above the planet.

All five of his ships
were still intact, none having come close enough to the planetary body to wipe
themselves from existence.  The same could not be said for the enemy force.

The station was now a
mass of drifting debris, caught on the edge of a drive field and totally
destroyed.  Eight of the battleships were also gone, blotted out of existence
when their space was destroyed.  Midas knew that there were new debris fields
of elementary particles somewhere behind his ships.  Conservation of matter and
energy dictated that nothing could truly be destroyed, with the exception of
negative/positive matter interaction, which was a special case.  So new
particles were spawned from the quantum foam, and small areas of space would be
cauldrons of radioactivity for hours, until the quarks and leptons and other
bits spread through the region.

His three damaged
ships, still coming on through normal space, were firing at the enemy ships, as
were the eight remaining ships of Gerasi’s group, shifting their fire onto the
survivors, while missiles in flight took note of their original targets
disappearing and re-acquired new targets.

“All ships,” ordered
the Commodore over the com.  “Find a target and open fire.”

The enemy ships were in
shock, and committed a major error in trying to spread their fire over the
entire Nation force, instead of concentrating and taking them out in detail. 
First one enemy battleship died, secondary explosions erupting through the hull
while escape pods and shuttles headed toward the planet.  Some were shot down,
while most made it into the atmosphere and to temporary safety.  Then a second
battleship took multiple missile hits and exploded in space.  The remaining two
tried to make it around the curve of the planet, gaining distance and cover. 
Midas put his five ships in pursuit while Gerasi’s force came on.

*     *     *

“That little ship is
hammering the hell out of them,” said the Tactical Officer as they watched the
vector arrow move onto the enemy force, then move on for about a minute and
disappear.  Instantly it was back on another attack run.

“They must be using a
wormhole,” said Fleet Admiral Nagara Krishnamurta, nodding at the screen.  “And
that means the
Donut
.”

“So our allies are
helping us out,” said Lt. Commander Klish, looking up from his control panel
and smiling.

But how much of allies
are they?
thought
the Admiral, watching as the small ship began another run, and another one of
the enemy battleships exploded from a missile hit. 
And how much are we just
allies of convenience.

Of course, Watcher and
his consort had played it very fair with the Kingdom, equipping them with
exactly the same technology and data that the Nation of Humanity had stolen
from the station.  No more, no less, maintaining the status quo.  Not truly
allies, as the pair had offered no military support to the Kingdom.  And they
had refused to allow the Kingdom to set foot on the enormous station.  But if
they hadn’t given the Kingdom the catch up tech, the Nation would have rolled
over Surya.  If not today, then surely tomorrow.

“What are the other
ships doing?” he asked, turning in his couch toward the Tactical Officer.

“Maintaining course,”
called out that officer.  “Maintaining fire on us.”

“Continue to fire on
those ships,” said the Admiral, looking over at the Com Tech, feeling the
Danaus
shake underneath as she fired particle beams and missiles, and was hit by
return beams.  “Order the station to do so as well.  We’ll let our little
friend out there take care of the other force, for now.  They seem to be able
to handle those ships.”

“Aye, sir,” yelled the
com, sending out the messages.

The forward viewer lit
up again with a flash like lightning.  “She’s taken out another battleship,”
called Tactical.  “At this rate we’ll be able to stop firing and just watch.”

“Don’t get too cocky,”
warned the Admiral, wagging a finger from side to side.  “And keep a close
watch on those other ships.  The last thing we want is to give in to
arrogance.”

“Shit,” yelled out one
of the sensor techs, the one detailed to keep track of the ship that was
attacking the Nation force to front.  “They hit her.”

“How?” asked the
Admiral, coming out of his couch and walking over to the tech.  The screen
above the station was showing the small ship, lit up with laser and particle
beam strikes.  Vapor was boiling off the hull, and pieces were flying off from
particle beam hits.  And then the ship sped away, the cameras following it as
far as possible before a violent maneuver caused the video to lose lock.

“Keep a close watch on
those ships,” ordered the Admiral, pointing to the screen that showed the reduced
enemy force.  There were still six ships, though he was sure some of them were
damaged, but to what extent he couldn’t tell.

“Yes, sir,” said the
tech, while the Admiral turned to look at the main viewer, which showed the
other nine vessels still firing at his.

A cheer erupted as one
of those ships went up in a bright flash that brightened and expanded again
until there was nothing left but hot plasma.  The Admiral was about to say
something when
Danaus
shook and trembled, and the officer had to steady
himself to keep from falling.  He looked over at a nearby screen in time to see
the space station come apart like it was made of sand and a giant had kicked
it.  About twenty percent of the station just disappeared, while the rest broke
into pieces, none more than a ton.  The Admiral knew there were no survivors
from that strike. 
Commodore Sundraka.  All of her crew.

“They’re gone,” called
out a voice behind the Admiral, and he turned to look at the main viewer, and
the other three of his ships that were still in space over the planet.  The
rest were either completely gone or in pieces.

“What the Hells
happened,” he croaked, noting the enemy ships that were now in close proximity
to his own.

“They warped out in
their drive and came in among us,” yelled out the Navigator, who was staring
into a screen.  “That damned drive took out the station and the other eight
ships.”

“Tactical,” yelled the
Admiral, a sinking feeling in his stomach, knowing the enemy ships were not in
a state of shock.  “Open fire on the nearest ship.”

But the enemy beat his
ships to it, and
Danaus
shuddered again as particle beams craved into
her hull, imparting their kinetic energy.  A ship started venting gas and
secondary explosions blew through the hull.  Escape pods and shuttles launched,
the crew that still could getting off the ship while they could.  Some were
shot down before the angry eyes of the bridge crew, some drifted after taking
disabling shots, but most made it into the atmosphere.  Then a second of the
remaining ships blew up in a catastrophic detonation, then blew out again as
antimatter touched matter.  There would be no survivors from that one.

“Get us the hell out of
here,” yelled the Admiral, knowing that they couldn’t get away in space.  The
Alcubierre drive vessels would catch them before they could accelerate up to
enough speed to escape, and would then wipe them from the Universe.  “Take us
around the planet.  Tell
Aneus
to follow.  Everyone prepare to abandon
ship as soon as we get clear of the enemy.  To the planet.” 
And hopefully
to the base, where maybe we can gather enough strength to take to the jungle
and fight back if they come down
. 
At least for a little while
.

Danaus
accelerated away from
the fight, going low and using the curve of the planet.  Alcuberrie drive could
not follow around the planet without swinging wide out, and they risked a
catastrophic collision with the large body if they tried to engage their drive
close in.  And the Suryan ships could accelerate much faster in normal space. 
They still took ten minutes of close in fire, and some close missile
explosions, but they made it around the planet, and kept increasing the
distance while the crew got to escape pods and shuttles.

All the Nation ships
found when they finally caught up were two battleships scuttling in space,
blowing to pieces that fell into the atmosphere and burned up.  And a swarm of
small ships plunging into that atmosphere, headed to a landing on the planet
below.