Homeworld (Odyssey One) (42 page)

P.L.A.S.F.
WEIFANG
, EARTH ORBIT

“WHAT IS THE status of our repairs?” Sun asked tiredly, still thinking about the Confederate transmission.

“Damage is, of course, extensive. We’re down by half our engineering section, Captain.”

“Most of those systems were covered by redundancy, yes?”

He could see the reluctance in his officers’ eyes as they nodded in agreement, not that Sun blamed them in all honesty. It was clear what he was going to ask them to do, he was sure, and it was equally clear that it was essentially a suicide mission. What could he do, though?

What could any of them do?

They had led the enemy to Earth. That was on their heads. Maybe the Confederates made them an enemy in the first place, maybe not. Sun was now privately disposed to believe that whatever these
things
were, they were now and always had been hostile.

Whichever was the case, however, didn’t really matter.

He had personally caused this particular battle, forget the war for the moment. This was Sun’s own mess, and he had to try to clean it up.

“How are our disposables?”

“Missiles are down by a third, Captain. We have sufficient reactor mass for a reasonable exchange,” his executive officer reported. “But a single strike by those lasers will wipe us from space and time as though we never were.”

Sun grimaced, but nodded in understanding.

The power of the enemy weapons was truly monstrous, of that there was no doubt whatsoever. That said, it was clear that despite whatever defenses they had, the enemy ships themselves weren’t invulnerable. The
Weifang
’s own shaped nuclear charges had proven effective enough, and it was clear that the Confederacy had their own to match.

Sun took a breath, looking over his men, and nodded firmly. “We break orbit in ten minutes.”

“Captain, we don’t have clearance….”

“I’ll make the request,” the
Weifang
’s XO said, “but it will take some time to process.”

“Command will deny it anyway,” Sun said. “As I said, we leave in ten minutes.”

He looked around the gathering slowly. “Unless someone wishes to object?”

His men exchanged glances slowly, but no one spoke. After a long minute, Sun nodded.

“Good. Then get your departments in order. We have things to do.”

N.A.C.S.
ODYSSEY

“THEY DIDN’T EVEN slow their approach,” Eric chuckled, mildly amused if he were to be completely honest.

“You didn’t really expect them to, did you, sir?” Roberts asked, eyebrow raised in eerie reminiscence of another first officer Eric might mention but wouldn’t for fear of his own XO’s reaction.

That amusing thought just made him smile a little wider as he shook his head.

“No, but of course it wasn’t intended for the Drasin anyway.”

“No, sir,” Roberts agreed. “Do you think they got the message?”

Eric nodded. “I would bet on it. We know that this group had handlers, so yeah, they’re out there.”

“For once, I rather hope so,” Roberts said wearily. “The Drasin don’t talk, they don’t negotiate…they’re not a people we can deal with outside of military might. I hope that whoever is holding their leash is at least a little different.”

“So do I,” Eric said tightly, eyes on the plot.

The Drasin ships had slowed, dropping from space warp as they penetrated the gravitational influence of Sol and began to dig deeper into the system. That meant that the
Odyssey
no longer had a real time lock on the twenty-eight Drasin cruisers inbound in her direction, but that hardly mattered. It was blatantly obvious where they were heading, and Eric was quite happy to stand his station in space and invite them in.

Better they come for us than head for Mars or Earth.

He’d ordered the
Odyssey
to show her broadsides to the enemy, bringing the full complement of the transition cannons into play. They were already coordinating with Liberty on the upcoming battle, so now all that was left was the shooting.

Just a little closer.

“The
Enterprise
is approaching our position,” Winger announced from across the bridge. “They cut across the orbit of Mars and were slung this way.”

Eric glanced at the plot of the other Confederate ship as it approached. “They made good time. Too bad they weren’t refit with the new cannons.”

“Would it really matter?”

Eric shrugged. “Against twenty-eight ships? Hard to say. I suppose that we’re about to find out, don’t you think, Commander?”

“We are at that, Captain.”

Eric tipped his head to Winger’s station. “Stand by for single tachyon ping, Lieutenant.”

“Aye, Captain, standing by.”

STATION LIBERTY

“ADMIRAL,” THE STATION commander spoke up, attracting Gracen’s attention from where she was speaking over the comm line to Earth. “We’re reading a drive buildup on the
Weifang.
”