Lens of Time: Book 05 - Star Rover-The Worst of Time (11 page)

“You show remarkable bravery waiting for me in the open.”

Dat gathered his senses. The Master in front of him was twice the size of the one that had chased him. Dat shook his head and forced himself to focus, “You’ve proven that you will honor your agreements. I just assumed you wouldn’t kill me and end our little event before it started. Are you the one that chased me?”

The Master squealed his laughter and rotated his body around his legs and head, “Yes, it’s me. How do you like the results of my training?”

“This happened from training? I’m absolutely astounded.”

The crowd of Masters hooted. The noise was deafening. The Master turned and looked at the large gathering, “Didn’t I tell you he was remarkably refreshing. What audacity.” The Masters’ laughter rang out and echoed in the community.

The giant Master turned back and said, “Even though I’m going to kill you, I must thank you for my new found strength. We live in starships and we’ve gotten soft and lazy. The training has made a huge difference in me.”

“I really preferred you soft and lazy, personally.”

The Masters heard Dat’s comment and Dat was sure some of them were going laugh themselves unconscious. Even the Giant was doubled over with his laughter. Finally they managed to gather themselves and the Pursuer said, “I am really going to hate losing you. You are so entertaining.”

Dat looked at the thousands of Masters and said, “How are we going to do this with so many in our way?”

“They’ve been told the rules. They will attach themselves to the walls above our height and will only observe our run. They will be allowed to cheer or howl but no one may offer information to either of us.”

“Drat, I was just learning to understand your hoots.”

The Master stared at Dat for a quick moment and then collapsed to the ground laughing. “I can’t take this.”

Dat looked around and saw hundreds of other Masters rolling on the ground in laughter. Dat shook his head. It wasn’t that funny.

After what seemed like a long time the Master stood and said, “It’s time for us to begin.”

Dat looked at him and said, “May I assume you are somewhat faster than you were last time?”

The Master’s head rolled completely around his body and he said, “You may.”

“Does that mean I get a larger head start?”

The Master tried to control himself and Dat saw the others in the crowd also fighting it, but one of the Masters let out a small squeal of laughter and the entire mob burst out laughing. Dat waited and though he didn’t want to, he laughed as well.

The Master finally said, “Last time you were halfway down this street when we started our little get together. I’ll allow you to go to the end of the street. I’m giving you a reward for entertaining my guests.”

Dat stood up, “I think it’s only fair to tell you that I have been training as well and I’m considerably faster than I was.”

The huge Master looked Dat up and down and said, “You don’t look any different.”

“My legs are a lot bigger.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“I see no difference.”

“Well, everyone here tells me they’re bigger.”

The Master leaned forward, put an arm around Dat’s shoulders, and quietly said, “They don’t want to make you feel bad.”

Dat looked up at the Master’s eyes and said, “That’s not nice.”

The Master rolled his head down his body until it was next to Dat’s, “No, it isn’t. It causes unrealistic expectations.”

Dat shook his head in obvious disappointment, “But they really tell me I’m faster.”

The Master rolled his head back up to the top of his body and actually looked sorry for Dat. If this weren’t a run for his life Dat might have liked the nightmare standing next to him. The Master looked at the gathered Masters and said, “Find your places and remember, everyone on the roof is not to be harmed.” The entire mob rushed to the end of the street and started climbing the walls.

Dat looked at the Master and said, “It appears they don’t expect me to make it very far. They all went to the first street.”

The Master rolled his head from side to side and said, “They’ve watched me train.” The Master extended an arm and pointed toward the end of the street. One Master stood beside the giant and Dat knew he would signal the start of the race. Dat walked slowly down the street and all the people on the roofs remained silent. They expected this to end badly. Dat was really worried that it would. He activated the overhead view and saw thousands of Masters on the walls of the street ahead of him. If this creature that was now twice as big was twice as fast, this could be over quickly. Dat arrived at the end of the street and turned and looked back at the huge black being. The Master beside the giant raised his arm and quickly dropped it.

J
on activated the Wing’s frequency, “The Connor Probe will be activating its fields in a few moments. I’m turning command over to Lt. Conner during this mission and you will follow her directives. Lt. Connor, do you have anything you want to say?”

“Just do what you’re sent to do. You’ll have a target and an escape route. Get in and get out. Are all of you ready?” No one said anything but she saw they were nervous. She activated the command circuit and said, “Link in.”

Jill’s mind suddenly saw the space around her through her ship’s scanners and she changed the mode to energy. Now the ships in her wing also looked like balls of energy. “Activate the probe, Captain.”

Jill watched the feed from a scanner being fed to her board and knew trouble was coming. The Connor Probe began extending its fields and she watched for enemy ships to arrive. She only had to wait three minutes. Fifty huge ships emerged into normal space and one of them hit the probe with a massive beam. It exploded in a bright explosion and the fifty ships gathered around the site of the probe’s destruction. Jill stared at the fifty ships and searched for a line of attack. “Lieutenant?”

“Standby!” The other nine Rovers wondered what she was doing. Suddenly, Jill saw a line under the ships that didn’t have any bright dots on it. She immediately sent attack routes to the other Rovers and hit her skip drive.

• • •

The black creature commanding the fifty ships stared at his monitor and looked at his scanner controller, “Perhaps we shouldn’t fire on emergence in normal space in the future. There’s nothing left to examine. I think we don’t need to see if we can damage whatever is sending those fields out so we can determine what it is. So far none of our ships have been damaged attacking whatever is generating those fields.”

“One of our ships was destroyed after it destroyed one of those things.”

“Yes, but the field generator didn’t do it.”

“Perhaps you’re…”

The Ship Controller never finished his sentence. A small white ship appeared under his vessel and fired a beam from point blank range into the bottom hull and the entire center of the giant ship disappeared. The conduits running through the ship were severed and the coolant for the reactors was released. The reactors were at full power in combat mode and they immediately went critical. The remaining pieces of the ship blew up in a massive explosion. Nine more ships blew up a moment later.

• • •

Jill watched the forty ships turn on the escape track and she skipped the Wing around the formations and lined them up for an attack from the rear. She waited and then saw another line. She sent the attack tracks and skipped back in.

Jack said, “We have more enemy ships arriving.”

Jill focused on her attack profile but saw a hundred more ships arrive. She hit another huge ship and skipped away. She saw three Rovers turn to hit a second ship and she screamed, “DON’T DO IT!!!”

She watched her faceplate and saw all three Rovers hit by more than thirty brilliant beams each and explode into massive blasts. Those blasts took out another enemy vessel but more were arriving every second. She felt her rage as she skipped the survivors out to the side of the giant formation, “You will only attack what you’re given in your profiles. If you want to die, go after another ship before you run!!” Jill was feeling rage and sorrow in equal measure for the loss of Tim, Loran, and Traci. “Captain, if the wing is going to showboat and not follow their directives, we need to stop this now!”

Jon had almost made the same mistake. He knew he could have hit the ship beside his target but had stopped himself at the last moment. “If anyone does anything not in their attack profile, you will be court-martialed for disobeying direct orders. Is that clear!?!” The five Rovers acknowledged the order. “Jill, are we still operational? There are more than five hundred enemy ships…make that six hundred.”

“I will assign each of you a track and a target. If you follow it you will not be where your target vessel can fire on you. Hit it and skip out. We’re going to start taking them on one by one.” Jill stared at the huge fleet giving chase to their ships and began seeing individual ships that could be hit. However, ships close by would be able to fire on the Rovers. She waited and began sending Rovers in one at a time. Enemy ships began exploding around the perimeter of the giant fleet. She saw Thomas’s ship explode when he attempted to fire two beams.

“Just one beam and skip! Two beams will get you killed!” Jill was lost in the system. She sent targets without thinking and attacked without focusing on the ships around her. She saw a line and the six Rovers flew in together over the top of the enemy fleet and six more enemy ships exploded. The giant fleet turned on the line the six ships had taken. Jill thought it looked like a single creature as it turned on the Rovers hurting it. Jill heard Jon break through her focus, “Take us away, Lieutenant.”

Jill forced herself to stop before sending the ships back in and saw a thousand ships emerge around the other vessels. If she had activated that last track, they would have been killed. Those ships weren’t there when she saw the line. She entered the skip track and the six Rovers skipped into open space between the galaxies. She wondered how long the attacks had been going on and was shocked to learn that the Wing had attacked the enemy fleet for thirty minutes. She deactivated the command system and looked at the feed from a scanner at the attack site. More than ten thousand enemy warships were now searching for their attackers. She fell back in her chair and wept for the four Rovers that had died. Jon saw her on his display and said, “Take a few moments to collect yourself, Jill. We’ll discuss this later.” Jon shook his head. Jill had just learned the sorrow associated with leading warriors into combat; some would not survive. He hoped she had what it took to continue fighting. Jon shook his head, “Did you send a record of this to Fleet?”

“They were watching it through the microprobes.”

“Let me know if they contact us.”

“I will.”

• • •

Dat saw the Master’s arm drop and he sprinted up the street. He hoped he could add some distance before the huge Master made the turn.

The Master moved down the street to the howls and hoots from the thousands of Masters clinging to the walls ahead of him. Instantly, the thousands of Masters went silent and he wondered what had caused them to stop cheering. He made the turn and understood. The small creature had covered an unbelievable distance and it shocked him. He had not run at full speed down the street hoping to draw the run out before he killed his prey but he realized he had made a mistake. The creature was right; it was faster…a lot faster. He went to full speed as the creature made a turn at the end of the street.

The thousands of Masters were stunned at how fast the prey had run away. They looked at each other and suddenly all of them exploded off the walls to find another spot to view the chase. They spread out in the community trying to get ahead of the pursuit. They could barely restrain their excitement. This was glorious.

Dat watched the overhead and saw the huge Master accelerate at an unbelievable speed. He turned another corner and hoped it would have to pause to see which way he went. He sprinted back toward the front of the community as Masters began jumping onto nearby walls, squealing at the top of their voices. He knew that the one chasing him would hear their screams and not have to slow down. He made another turn and saw the Master had incrementally closed the distance. Damn that monster was fast.

The Master sped up the street and had lost sight of his prey. He added speed anticipating having to slow but the howls and hoots told him that the prey had taken a right at the end of the street. It should have been angry at the help but was secretly thankful for it. The prey was incredibly fast. The street was wider than the others and his turn around the corner caused him to lose some ground. He focused and picked up speed. He saw the small creature turn another corner into a smaller alleyway and smiled.

Dat saw the Master’s larger body didn’t allow him to turn as quickly as the first chase and then he saw in the overhead view that he was both right and wrong. The Master turned down the alley and extended the two arms he wasn’t using to run to brace him against the far wall. It made the turn instantly and closed the gap. The huge Master was more alive than it had ever been. It had to force itself not to bob in excitement and one bob took him. The small creature opened the gap again and it focused on restraining his enthusiasm. It smiled as it saw the creature realized that turning down the narrow alleys would be too dangerous. This was wonderful. It made another turn on a wider street and pulled one of its two arms in and extended the single arm across to the far wall. It didn’t lose much speed and it howled its excitement. Now the people on the roofs began cheering for Dat. The noise was deafening as the Masters joined their cheers with even louder voices. Everyone was lost in the life and death moment.

• • •

Jon looked at Admiral Hull and President Connor on his display as the other five Rovers listened it. “Captain, congratulations are in order. We’ve determined that your Wing destroyed 350 enemy vessels. You have performed marvelously.”

“Thank you, Admiral.”

“Your ability to learn the system in such a short time is remarkable.”