Homeworld (Odyssey One) (29 page)

The drive readings were clearly not Drasin, now that they’d slowed enough for the
Posdan
and
Nept
to close on their position. They were also clearly very close to Priminae specification.

Something very strange is happening here. Who are you? Two ships, nearly the same drive specifications as the
Posdan
and
Nept
, yet obviously flying in formation with Drasin. Who are these people?

“How confident are you that the
Odyssey
has left the area?”

“Quite confident, Captain. The signal was a near perfect match for their departure into trans-light.”

“Very good then,” Kian said, straightening up. “Reduce speed and shield our drive signal. I want to stay in their trailing point until we have more information, or until we have a reason to engage them.”

“Yes, Captain, reducing speed.”

Kian looked over the displays, eyes cold and calculating.
I do not know who you are, but I will find out. And upon finding you, you have best pray that things are not the way I read them now or you will not like our introduction.

N.A.C.S.
ODYSSEY

“TRACKING INBOUND BOWSHOCK signals. Six moving at high speed in pursuit of the
Weifang
, Captain.”

“Are we close enough to detect the
Weifang
?” Eric asked.

“Yes, sir. They’re still on course. Looks like they’re bypassing Sol. I expect they’ll loop back shortly.”

The captain of the
Weifang
is a paranoid sort, apparently,
Eric thought approvingly. The damage was probably done, but any little misdirection would cost the enemy time, and that was what they were playing for now.

“What’s the status on the pulse torpedoes?”

“Charging, nearly ready to fire,” Waters announced. “We’ll have enough time.”

“Good. You may engage the firing program. Green light the computer,” Eric ordered. “I want those things cleared from my sky.”

“Yes sir,” Waters said, smiling nastily. “Program is engaged. Enemy will be in the engagement envelope in approximately five minutes.”

Eric nodded absently, only noting to himself now that this was the first time that the
Odyssey
had engaged the enemy
proactively. Well, after a fashion. They were still reacting to the enemy moves, but for the first time he hadn’t given the enemy first crack, so to speak. He supposed it hardly mattered. They were most certainly in a state of declared warfare, so it hardly mattered who opened the confrontation.

The enemy was trespassing on Earth’s front yard now, though, and he just didn’t have the luxury of giving up the first punch.

They were less than a light-year from Earth at this point, so close, yet still so very far. After this engagement, he’d have to wait around for a bit and see if the rest of the enemy fleet was going to press on, then transition directly to Earth and warn the Confederacy of the new situation.

He didn’t envy the headaches this was going to cause the brass, that much was certain.

We needed years, not months. Homeworld defenses are nowhere near where we need them to be, nowhere near. If the enemy presses an assault on Earth now, I don’t know what we’ll do.

That wasn’t quite true, to be honest.

Eric knew very well what they’d do in that case. They’d fight, and then they would
lose
. Even with all the advantages, there wasn’t a damned thing they could do against the force the Drasin could bring to bear on them.

Maybe, if we’re lucky, they’ll send small squadrons once every few months like they’ve done at Ranquil. I doubt we’d be that lucky though. They can’t be that stupid.

Though, honestly, as he still couldn’t figure out why in the hell they were doing that at Ranquil, maybe they
were
that stupid.

It wasn’t something to count on, however.

“Enemy ships entering the target envelope,” Waters announced. “Pulse torpedoes preparing to fire….”

The computer took control of the
Odyssey
’s thrusters, angling the ship to fire as the inbound signals of the enemy FTL drives entered range. The ship swung into position and opened fire, six shots flying out in staggered formation before the computer returned control back to the humans on board.

On her screens, the white lights representing the pulse torpedoes flashed away, little balls of hell in the human realm just itching to ruin someone’s day.

“Secure the instruments for flash overloads,” Eric ordered, eyes fixed on the torpedoes that were running hot and straight.

“Aye, Captain. Instrumentation secured.”

The screens didn’t change, but Eric knew that most of what they were now reporting was speculative data based on calculated events and probabilities. The torpedoes would continue to travel along their course until they intersected something, in this case the enemy ship’s warp fields.

The moment of intersect was anticlimactic on screen, just a blip and a beep to indicate that the moment had come and gone. Each point was registered as to where the ship was calculated to have dropped from warp and how long it would take the flashpoint to reach the
Odyssey
. They settled in for a wait.

“Tachyon detection confirms six bowshock signals are now dead, sir,” Winger said.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

At least that meant that they didn’t have to worry about anyone slipping past them just now.

“Five minutes, thirty nine seconds until the last flashpoint passes us.”

“How close is the nearest ship?”

That was a bit of a concern. They wouldn’t be able to sit around like a lame duck if they had a Drasin cruiser sitting just off their bow after all.

“Two light-minutes, twenty three light-seconds, Captain.”

Well, considering that they should be disorientated by the attack, and we’re under stealth…should be enough time.

It never failed to shake him when he realized just how different space combat was from his core training. He had learned to make decisions in the shavings between seconds, bank left or die, throttle up or die. Hell, on a few occasions the best option that passed through his mind was basically open fire now
and
die, but at least die with his mission accomplished.

Here, on the
Odyssey
, decisions were made in minutes and then often second-guessed for hours before the event occurred.

There was something about that situation that never sat right with him, though he did his professional best not to let it affect how he worked. He’d spent the majority of his military career living by the creed that “speed is life”; now he found himself, in the midst of combat no less, with time to drink a cup of coffee and idly chat with his officers.

Life is a strange thing.

The seconds finally ticked past and they brought their light-speed scanners back to full operation, getting details on a situation already more than five minutes old.

“We recorded direct hits on all six enemy cruisers, Captain,” Winger said, confirming the initial intelligence they had from the tachyon traps. “They appear disoriented, uncertain where to look.”

“No surprise there,” Eric said. “Waters, warm up the transition cannons.”

“Aye, Captain. The long guns are ready to fire.”

“Ping them.”

The
Odyssey
’s tachyon pulse transmitter was an energy intensive device that used the ship’s cyclotron to generate a sudden burst of particles that barely existed in the natural universe. The burst could be directed, giving the
Odyssey
a momentary slice of real-time imagery at distances well beyond anything a light-speed limited instrument could manage.

“We have real time coordinates on my station,” Waters said calmly. “Targeting info has been sent to the gun teams.”

“Captain! Bandits inbound!” Winger announced. “Bowshock waves reading strong, hot, and steady. Blue shifting hard.”

“Numbers?” Eric demanded, thoughts roiling over. The enemy hadn’t spent much time investigating at their last ambush site from the sounds of things.

“North of twenty bandits, Captain. Can’t be more precise. The signals are interfering with each other.”

Damn it.

The long guns of the t-cannons were a hell of a force multiplier, giving the
Odyssey
the equivalent of “over the horizon” capability, but they had limits. Power was still one of the big ones. The
Odyssey
didn’t have enough power to engage a fleet that size and escape afterwards.

Eric looked over the numbers, careful to note the shot-to-kill ratio they’d achieved in their first ambush. One would expect that a nuclear-triggered device detonating inside your hull would be enough to destroy just about anything and, he hoped, one would be right. But just because the t-cannons could potentially materialize shells inside the enemy ships didn’t mean that they would get a kill from those shots. Even
hardened electronics didn’t react well with sharing the same space with other physical matter. The nuclear material didn’t seem to be particularly affected, according to the test data Eric had read, but the electronic triggers were another matter.

Blasting a round into the enemy hull was highly likely to destroy the trigger, requiring a second shot. The Drasin ships could easily move unexpectedly, given that the
Odyssey
’s single-ping ranging system translated only into a snapshot of the enemy and didn’t always provide accurate course and speed information.

Basically, a lot of things could be expected to go wrong in any engagement of more than four targets, give or take. Six he’d been willing to risk, even though they’d not yet fully charged their capacitors from the last engagement.

North of twenty bandits?
Twenty-six, actually,
Eric corrected himself.

That was just asking for trouble of biblical proportions.

“Daniels, you best get us a path out of here. I get the feeling that we’re not going to like the company shortly.”

“Aye, sir. Destination?”

“Sol.”

There was a moment’s hesitation before Daniels bobbed his head. “Aye, aye.”

“Waters, let’s throw ourselves a going-out party, shall we?”

“You’ve got it, Captain. Long guns are prepped. Fire on your mark.”