Homeworld (Odyssey One) (75 page)

Kian looked from where she was monitoring the Terran attempts to repair the damage to the ship they had towed clear of the last battle site, eyes falling on the new location of the enemy fleet. They’d been tracking the fight as it entwined around Mars, a shockingly one-sided battle for all the good it did. The Drasin weren’t interested in killing the smaller fighters of the Terrans. They barely seemed interested in killing the larger ships, aside from possibly the
Odyssey
itself.

They seem to hold a certain grudge against the
Odyssey
, I will admit that much. Not that I blame them, I suppose.

That grudge, however, only seemed to run so far as to have them split off a small task group to continue the pursuit of the Terran ship. It hadn’t been enough to redirect them entirely from their goal, which was obviously the third planet.

“Monitor the Drasin. Try and get a count of how many more the Terrans manage to kill,” she said, sounding almost disinterested even to herself.

Honestly she wasn’t, but it was difficult to be truly tied up in the events that were transpiring. The fleet was too large, the outcome already written. Now it was really just a matter of how impressive a last stand the Terrans could manage.

The answer, so far, was impressive.

That wouldn’t change anything, however.

Captain Kian walked over to where her lead engineer was observing the activities on the Terran ship intently.

“What are the odds that they will be able to repair their drive?”

“I don’t know, Captain. I’m shocked that the ship survived the drive failure, in all honestly. The
Posdan
would not have. Our singularities would have crushed our ship from the inside out,” he admitted. “They use a cruder but ultimately more stable power system.”

“Stable isn’t a word I would associate with anything those people touch”—she nodded her head to the stricken ship—“not after watching them in that last fight.”

The engineer chuffed lightly. “I won’t be arguing with you on that, at least. They had to be both crazy and suicidal to attempt it, and I’m not particularly happy to have been within three para-lights of the attempt.”

“You and I together,” she replied.

The very idea that she’d been as close to an uncontrolled drive shutdown as they obviously had been was chilling to the core, but it certainly served as an example of just how far the Terrans would take war. Deliberately blowing their own engines as a
weapon
was utter insanity.

“We’re showing Drasin ships being destroyed in the main group, Captain.”

“As ordered, keep a count,” Kian said, mind working as she tried to figure out just how they’d managed to pull off that particular trick.

The Prim needed that weaponry. Whatever that technology was, it could save the colonies if they could begin development of it in time. It was too late to save the Terrans. The irony of their developing the technology only to be destroyed before they could implement it was not lost on her, but the colonies still had time.

She’d made the request of the Terrans, of course, but had been politely turned down. Oh, they had told her that they would “consider her request,” “send it up the chain of command,” and other similar words. She knew what those pretty words meant, but couldn’t afford to take no for an answer.

At this moment there were three sources of the technology in the system—the
Odyssey
, the
Enterprise
, and the Space Station they called Liberty.

She had to acquire the technology, somehow.

P.L.A.S.F.
WEIFANG

CAPTAIN SUN DRIFTED in the corridor overlooking the
Weifang
’s main generators, scowling at the workers as they scoured the large equipment in an attempt to make repairs.

“Where do we stand?” he asked Pan, his lead engineer.

“The coils were completely melted, Captain. We’ve pulled them all and sent them to the fabricators for recycling. Hopefully we’ll be able to pull enough base materials from them to fabricate new coils,” Pan said. “Most of the rest of the generator system is still intact, and what isn’t is easily fabricated on our systems. We are low on fuel rods, however, Captain.”

“Those were supposed to run the
Weifang
for five
years
!” Sun sputtered.

“No one calculated the results of inverting the field generators in an uncontrolled shutdown, Captain. We’re lucky that the shielding held, or we’d all be dying of radiation sickness now as it is.”

Sun grimaced, but let his engineer’s scathing tone pass. He could hardly blame the man, not after what he’d done to the
Weifang
. No, he was lucky enough that Pan was willing to
speak with him given how the engineer babied the generators he’d had a hand in designing.

“How long to repairs?” he asked, almost hesitantly.

“That is still difficult to say, Captain. We have hours of fabrication left, then another hour perhaps of installation. If it works, we will be mobile then…if not….”

“I see. Do what you can to speed the process.”

“Fabricators work at the speed they work at, Captain. They will finish when they finish, and nothing I or you say will change it.”

Sun grimaced again, but nodded. “Understood.”

“Now go. Rest yourself, or stare at the screens while we work. There’s nothing you can do here, Captain, and you are making my men nervous.”

IMPERIAL DESTROYER
DEMIGOD
, DEEP SPACE NEAR SOL

“WE’VE UPDATED OUR estimates for the battle, Commander, based on their known capabilities. The Drasin should overwhelm local defenses of this star within the next few partial rotations.”

Ivanth snorted. “Your estimates are worthless. We don’t know their capabilities, only those that they’ve shown us already.”

He glared at the screens, caught between awe and terror. Honestly, he didn’t know which frightened him more, though he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone other than himself.

The drones were uncontrolled, and that was unacceptable. Unchecked they could decimate star systems for the best part of the galaxy.

However, for all that, these people in this star system might just represent a far worse threat.

Somehow they were mounting a defense against the drones that shouldn’t be possible. It just should not have ever happened. They used weapons that barely rated on the
Demigod
’s power scale, were almost entirely invisible to all scanners in
fact, yet packed sufficient destructive ability to destroy drone ships with invisible and inevitable precision.