Homeworld (Odyssey One) (18 page)

P.L.A.S.F.
WEIFANG
, INTERSTELLAR SPACE

“CAPTAIN, WE ARE ready.”

“Good,” Sun said. “All hands are to prepare for warping of space-time.”

“Yes, Captain.” The officer turned and gestured. A moment later a voice echoed over the ship’s comm.

“All hands, stand by to warp space-time. The
Weifang
is initiating FTL drives.”

The engines whined slightly as the reactors brought everything back to full power. The standby screens changed over to active as the CM generators began to draw power and warp the local space-time.

“Do we have any sign of pursuit on long range, Shi?” Sun asked.

“No, Captain. Space is empty.”

“Very well. Let us make very certain.”

“On your order, Captain.”

“It is given,” Sun said with finality.

The
Weifang
vibrated slightly as it began to move, swinging about in space as it accelerated toward light-speed. Within a
few minutes, it passed the relativistic threshold and exploded into FTL, still accelerating as the ship continuously “fell” down its own gravity well, heading back along the course it had come from.

Ivanth was startled from his work when alarms began to blare all over the ship. He scrambled from his station to the center of the command area, eyes flying to the screens.

“What is going on?”

“The alien vessel, sir, it’s coming back this way.”

“Speed?”

“Two lights, accelerating fast!”

“All ships, go stealth! Scatter out of its path. Stand ready to come about and pursue it as it passes!” he ordered. “And for the creators’ sake, get the drones out of the way! We want it in one piece and unaware!”

“Yes, Commander!”

Getting a fleet moving that quickly, and that quietly, was problematic at the best of times, but now Ivanth could only pray that the drones didn’t give them all away and blow the entire operation just after he’d arrived to oversee it.

Unbelievable. Barely on mission and about to lose everything. I may have set a record.

The ship’s acceleration was quick, he noted, surprisingly so. They clearly had decent command of trans-light technology, and while he could likely outrace them, there was no way he could do so without giving away his position.

Frustrated, Ivanth watched as the alien ship continued to accelerate toward them, passing twenty-five lights and still climbing. There was no way he could get his ships clear in
time, not without going to full acceleration, and that would defeat the point entirely.

He stared at the approaching ship as it continued to accelerate, mouth dry as his heart beat in his chest.
We’ll have to destroy them, I suppose.

“Lock all weapons onto the oncoming ship,” he ordered after hesitating. “Cease retreat scatter. Stand ready for combat maneuvers.”

Alarms began to wail about the ship as he walked over to his station and took a seat with as much calm authority as he could muster.

Just because the world is falling apart around me is no excuse for a lack of professionalism.

He’d learned that from his mentor at the imperial academy, and it was a lesson Ivanth took to heart as best he could. At all times one must act one’s station, for that was the duty of your station.

The ship was moving well over one hundred lights by the time it entered into their weapons envelope, still accelerating.

“All ships, open fi…”

“Commander!”

Ivanth twisted, eyes on the sensor station. “What? We’re somewhat busy here.”

“I’m reading no active trans-light particles from the ship.”

“What?” Ivanth spat the word, incredulous and unbelieving. “That’s impossible.”

“There is nothing, Commander. I swear it.”

He turned his focus to the screens again, this time staring with a confused wonder. “They’re flying
blind
? But that is
insane
!”

He shook himself, not quite believing it, but his next words seemed to come of their own volition.

“Check fire. All ships, hold positions. Let them pass.”

As he watched the ship barrel right through his ships’ formation, passing within light-seconds of the
Immortal
and her contingent of drones, Ivanth couldn’t help but stare at the plot. The alien ship didn’t even alter course slightly to avoid his forces.

It’s a trick. It
must
be a trick
.

The alien ship blew right through, totally ignoring vessels that simply
had
to be within its detection radius as though it hadn’t seen them at all.

“Orders?”

Ivanth couldn’t understand the maneuver. It couldn’t be an escape attempted. They had literally any other direction to run in. Why double back and head straight into his forces like that? They had to assume that they would be attacked when they came into range. Didn’t they?

“Commander? Orders?”

They doubled back. Was something of value in the system they were discovered in? No, there was nothing in any of the reports and the planets there are infested with drones. Why double back?

“Commander!”

“What?” Ivanth snapped, twisting to look at the speaker.

“Orders. We need orders.”

“Follow them. Leave them a lead time of at least a standard light-day. Best stealth,” Ivanth ordered, turning on his heel as he started walking off the command deck. “I’ll be in my quarters.”

“As you command, sir.”

What are they playing at? They can’t actually be flying blind, can they?

P.L.A.S.F.
WEIFANG
, INTERSTELLAR SPACE

“REVERSE POWER, ALL flank,” Sun ordered. “Shi, I want your eyes wide open as soon as we drop from FTL.”

“I am ready, Captain,” the man at the scanner station said firmly.

The
Weifang
shifted power to its CM generators, increasing the space-time gradient ahead of the ship and decreasing it to the rear, effectively throwing the big starship into reverse in a way that few things in the universe could ever match. They bled velocity at a blinding rate, throwing the ship out of FTL and back into relativistic space on a crash course for zero/zero acceleration.

As soon as they dropped below FTL, the Command deck lit up across every board, light-speed scanners coming to life as the ship’s eyes were once more opened to the universe at large. Information was pouring across every screen, faster than even the super-computers on board could manage to keep up with.

It didn’t take too long before the first images of local space began pouring in, however, and soon after that Sun had
a decent view of a few light-seconds around his ship. Beyond that, however, the data rapidly degraded into uselessness as it got older and older. He knew that any ships tracking them would be FTL craft, so light-speed data older than a few minutes was suspect.

“No contacts, Captain. Clear to one light-minute,” Shi announced.

“Understood. Ready the course for the next evasion.”

“Yes, Captain!”

Sun didn’t know if what he was doing was necessary, or effective for that matter, but it was what he had in his arsenal at the moment, so he intended to use it to the best of his capabilities. The new course brought the ship around, still in relativistic space, and headed down angle to the galactic plane.