Homeworld (Odyssey One) (36 page)

IMPERIAL DESTROYER
DEMIGOD

“ORDERS HAVE ARRIVED from the command ship at the Hive, Commander.”

Ivanth blinked away the sleep, getting up as he spoke to the air.

“And?”

“We’re cleared to probe the system, Commander.”

“Unleash the drone ships we have positioned in the cometary belt.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

N.A.C.S.
Odyssey

REFUELING WAS COMPLETED and now the waiting was well underway. The
Odyssey
was in transit between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, having slung past the ring world during the fueling pass.

Eric sat at his desk in his office, not wanting to sleep and not wanting to loom over his people on the bridge without due cause. The last thing any of them needed was to start thinking that the captain didn’t trust them to do their jobs. Soon enough, he actually wouldn’t be able to trust them if they started to believe that.

There wasn’t anything for a captain to do yet anyway.

His ship could run itself without him, even through a scuffle or two. He knew Roberts could keep it together well enough. The man might not be ready for his own command yet, but he was close. Still, there was a lot to be said for having the captain visible when things were about to get hot.

He had almost finished his paperwork when the call came in.

“Captain. Bowshock waves inbound.”

“On my way,” Eric said instantly, shutting his system down with a pass of his hand and getting up.

Waiting’s over. Let’s play.

“What do we have?” Eric asked as he walked onto the bridge and headed directly for his command station.

“Four bowshocks, inbound. They must have snuck into the Oort cloud, because we didn’t pick them up until they were inside the heliopause,” Winger answered automatically.

“Database match?”

“Drasin, sir.”

Eric curled his lips, grimacing slightly though he wasn’t surprised by the news.

“Only four, is it?” he asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Probing the system, then,” he decided, speaking softly to himself.

“Shall I have the transition cannons brought online, sir?” Roberts asked.

Eric considered, letting out a breath. “No.”

“Captain?” Roberts looked over at him, clearly perplexed.

“Winger, send a signal to Liberty,” Eric said, face pensive. “Tell them to leave these four to us. Emphasize that, please. They are
not
to engage.”

“Uh, yes, sir.”

Eric turned back to Roberts. “This is just a probe. Let’s keep our ace in the hole as much a secret as we can until we have enough of the bastards in our range to make it really pay.”

“We used it against them already.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t leave any survivors to report back. They may know something hit them,” Eric said, “but I’ll bet my pension that they don’t have the slightest clue
what
hit them.”

Roberts tipped his head, conceding the point. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

“In the meantime, lay us in a course for intercept.”

“Course already laid in, Captain. Awaiting your orders,” Daniels answered.

“Consider them given. Best speed.”

“Best speed, aye, sir.” Daniels nodded. “Course engaged.”

Eric checked the numbers, noting the intercept time, and sighed to himself as he smiled and then chuckled.

“All that fuss, and we still have almost two hours before anything happens.”

The
Odyssey
curved outward, heading for deeper space on an intercept course with the inbound ships. The alien vessels inverted the
Odyssey
’s course automatically and headed for a least-time intercept, increasing their acceleration as they did. Any doubt the crew of the Terran ship had that the enemy had picked their entry point specifically and carefully was laid to rest, but none of them were complaining.

Better to meet them in the outer system than to let a single one of the things anywhere near Earth.

The
Enterprise
was a quarter the way around the system, well out of position to make an intercept, but she began to star dive in an attempt to cut off some of the distance and be ready to stop the aliens cold if they got past the
Odyssey
. Still,
it was already clear to everyone with eyes in and out of the system that this one was going to be the
Odyssey
’s battle.

“Reports from the torpedo room, Captain. Pulse capacitors full charged,” Roberts reported.

“Thank you, Commander,” Eric said, tapping in some notes as he eyed the plot.

The Drasin ships were clearly aiming right for them, which was fine with Eric. Better to have them focused on the
Odyssey
than to have them heading for Mars or Earth.

That said,
he thought as he eyed the trajectories of the converging points on the plot,
can’t make it too easy for them.

“Take us to full stealth,” Eric ordered, “and alter course to three degrees, south of the system plane.”

“Aye, Captain.” Both Daniels and Waters echoed each other as they bent to follow the order.

The
Odyssey
’s lights dimmed, shifting over to low-powered and better-insulated systems as the ship went to black-hole settings on her armor. The key to stealth was to both limit all possible reflection of energy as well as all possible
emission
of energy that might be seen by the enemy, so as to shrink the cross section the ship presented to any onlooking scanners.

Shortly after stealth settings were securely in place, the big ship’s thrusters flared, pushing her down and “under” the orbital plane of the system and away from any oncoming lasers of the enemy ships.

With the sails still extended and in maximum-absorption mode themselves, the stealth settings caused incoming photons and other detection energies to become clearer. The
Odyssey
didn’t have to adjust for local light pollution caused
by the ship reflecting starlight or emitting photons from its various systems.

The flip side of the coin, of course, was an instantaneous spike in radiation penetrating the armor now that general deflection settings were suspended. Those levels would limit the time the
Odyssey
could spend in stealth, particularly if they were in the vicinity of a solar flare or someone deployed particularly messy nuclear devices.