Rust Bucket (13 page)

      I ordered, "Communications, advise Headquarters that we have left the squadron facing two enemy ships and are drawing off the other seven enemy ships away from them. Then cut communications again."

      The communications officer went about her duties and then nodded when she finished.

      I then said, "Navigation, set course for the enemy home world. They're overdue for a visit."

      Then there was cheering as the bridge crew realized that I wasn't ducking out on a fight. They knew then that I was looking for a fight.

      I said over the intercom, "Gunners, resume normal battle instructions. Good hunting and good shooting!"

      We weren't in the clear yet, but the enemy ships behind us still had some catching up to do. We had damaged some of them already, but not enough to keep them out of the fight. The only advantage we had was that they were still trying to catch up with us. They wouldn't be able to do more than broadcast our position since we were too far ahead for them to fire on us. That left me with a dilemma. I couldn't attack the planet with seven ships behind me and an unknown number of ships in front of me. That would be a trap we would be unlikely to escape. To attack the planet successfully, we would have to either fight off the pursuit or lose them. I preferred to fight, especially since we had additional firepower.

      Then I saw the solution looming up ahead on our sensor screen. "What's that?" I asked.

      Jean said, "Asteroid or comet. I'll know when we get closer."

      I replied, "Good, Jean, steer for the asteroid or comet, pull in behind it, and do an emergency stop. Gunners, be prepared for a full stop. You'll have lots of targets flashing by pretty soon."

      "You really want a full stop?" she asked.

      I answered, "A relative stop in relation to it. I want the enemy to lose us with their sensors and visual sight behind that object. When they pass, I want you to turn to starboard and hit full speed again as quickly as possible so that we can shoot them in the ass."

      She nodded as I smiled at her to try to convey to her that I had full confidence in her instead of calling for Frank to come on duty. I felt he had done a good job of training our pilots to be just as good as him. Sooner or later, I had to let the other pilots have my confidence.

***

It was a close call when Jean slid us by the asteroid. She threw the engines into reverse to bring us to almost a full relative stop behind the asteroid before the enemy ships flashed by. Our guns shot them as they passed all around us. Their own forward speed carried them on by to where their own gunners were unable to return fire as we surprised them. Then Jean was putting us back into motion and taking us to starboard so that one side of our ship faced the enemies' engines before they got out of range. I was able to see two of them rupture from direct hits on the engines. By the time the enemy squadron was able to turn to chase after us again, we were again at full speed while there were only four of them.

      "What now, sir?" asked Jean. "Back to the enemy planet?"

      "In time. We still have four aliens to shake off first. I don't want us caught between two large forces when we go in. You got any ideas?" I asked.

      "Yes, you ever tack an old sailing ship?" she asked.

      I said, "No, but I think I know what you intend to do, so do it. Gunners, get ready for a new maneuver."

      Jean turned the ship and the four aliens turned with us, only they didn't see our speed change since the turn masked it. They suddenly overshot. Then Jean pulled in behind them for a second time as our gunners raked the engines of the four alien ships. Two were put out of commission right then while a third was heavily damaged, though still in operation. The fourth managed to evade our shots while Jean tacked the other way and then gathered speed again. We came in behind them again. Our gunners shot at the targets again. The heavily damaged ship ruptured into space. The remaining ship was damaged severely so that it had no engines. Only its weapons were keeping us away for the moment. Jean calmly let the enemy ship move away, slipped our ship back in behind him, and our gunners finished him off.

      "Good work, Jean!" I exclaimed.

      She said, "Well, I thought it was going to work out differently. I guess this isn't the same as sailing."

      I replied, "Don't worry about it. You made it turn out fine. Now resume course to their planet. We have a social call to make."

      "Yes sir!" she said enthusiastically.

***

We were able to avoid other enemy ships, circle the enemy planet by a wide berth, and then begin our attack from the opposite direction. That was enough to offset the lack of surprise that our attack lost when the enemy squadron broadcast our intentions. We took out one of the circling warships that protected the planet. Then we dove down into the atmosphere to fire quickly at a couple of ground installations before coming up under another enemy warship. We blasted it while it was still looking for us amidst all the ground clutter that its sensors were picking up. Then we used their planet to give a slingshot effect on our ship's speed and jetted out between two other enemy warships, watching one of them hit the other because they were so intent on hitting us. Other warships then started chasing after us.

      "We've got five, no six after us, Captain."

      "Is that all? I'm insulted," I said in a tone of false dramatics that picked up a lot of laughter from the personnel on the bridge. "Okay, let's lead them on a chase. Maybe they'll trip over each other." There was some more laughter as our people knew now that we were better than the aliens. All we had to do was hope the Navy could get the rest of its act together.

      Our ship sped outward with the six warships chasing after us just out of range.

      "Communications, have you broadcast the score yet to Headquarters?" I asked.

      "No sir. I've kept them cut off."

      I said, "Okay, go ahead and give them the score. Tell them that we'll do what we can out here for the time being."

      "Yes sir."

***

About five minutes later, the Communications officer said, "Sir, they want us to arrest you for insubordination, desertion, cowardice, theft of government property, and some other charges. What should I do?"

      I answered, "Tell them you'll take their request under advisement until we're clear of the current situation. You did advise them that we're being chased by six ships, didn't you?"

      "Yes sir."

      I then said, "Okay, then tell them that you'll pass that message on to the First Officer. In the meantime, give them a message for me. As far as insubordination, Captain Jingle didn't give us any instructions when the enemy was facing us and about to pound our faces in. Tell them that Captain Jingle brought the attack upon his squadron by broadcasting our presence. I was forced to take action to give our squadron the best chance for survival. I don't consider it cowardice or desertion to run with seven enemy ships on my ass and then pick them off one by one. As far as stealing government property, no such thing has occurred. This ship is still Pennyweight Shipping Company's property. I'm still an employee of that outfit and will take care of and return their ship to the best of my ability after I use it for the purpose in which it was intended to be used. If there's any other charges, they'll have to stand in line behind six alien warships right now. Give them that message."

      The Communications officer turned to the microphone and gave them a raspberry in reply. Then she looked at me and said, "Sorry, sir, but I couldn't remember all that. I'm sure they'll understand our meaning."

      I didn't even bother trying to stop the rest of the bridge personnel from cheering her action. I was sure they were going to become good officers if we could all avoid being convicted upon our return. Instead, I turned my attention back to the six ships pursuing us. "Okay, status," I responded, at which point everyone began rechecking.

***

We were headed back towards our own territory. I wondered if the other ships of our squadron had held up against the two enemy ships that stayed behind. "Communications, I need to know what the outcome was for the rest of our squadron. Are they still there or did they retreat or what?" I asked.

      "They're still there, but no good to anyone," she replied.

      I understood immediately. They had been destroyed when they were only facingeven odds of two ships. Had we stayed, we'd still be there too, unless the enemy chose to carry us off as a trophy. "Okay, Navigation, give us a course away from our territory and the enemy home planet. Let's take these aliens on a ride. At least, it'll be six fewer facing the Navy."

      I sat back and watched my bridge personnel go through their tasks and get the ship moving away from our territory and out toward unexplored space. The wide turn we made let the enemy ships catch up slightly to where they were just barely out of range. I wished we had just one Mark IV quad on board. We could have torn them apart from that range with that weapon.

***

Hours later, I looked at the sensor scope and saw what was ahead of us. "Is that a planet with a moon?" I asked.

      "Yes," the sensor operator answered.

      Already, I could sense an opportunity coming at us. I said, "Take us between them and circle the planet. I want us to whip out of there on this side of the moon and to whip around the moon back on them. Gunners, battle stations. Everyone else keep alert."

      Rendall piloted us right through the gap between the planet and its moon and then hugged the atmosphere of the planet as we dove in and circled it. The planet and moon were hiding us temporarily from the enemy's sensors. The question was what would they do in their reaction? I was hoping that they would all follow. Regardless, if they all didn't, some of them were either going to have to slow down or head in other directions either around the planet or the moon. With six of them, they could easily cover all the angles, but they would also have to give up one of their advantages, namely having numerical odds over us. In an even battle, I felt we could take anyone of them.

      "Ship ahead!" shouted the sensor operator.

      One of the enemy ships tried to stay outside the area between the planet and moon. They had to almost stop to do so. We were heading at them fast with the planet temporarily hiding us. When we got in range, our gunners opened up on the enemy ship. With everything of ours concentrated on it, it was destroyed before it could maneuver evasively. We continued on past over to the moon and hugged it even closer. We almost ran into one of the enemy ships that was travelling the other way. Neither of us hit the other with our shots and the alien ship broadcasted that it found us. At least, that was my guess. We crossed on around the moon and came up behind the other four enemy ships that were trying desperately to move as a unit formation to counter our sudden appearance. Our gunners got off a number of good shots, destroying one and damaging another quite heavily. I began liking the odds a lot better.

      The sensor operator announced, "Alien ship coming up behind us!"

      The other ship we passed without hitting had circled the moon and was trying to get us from behind.

      "Dive for the surface of the planet!" I ordered.

      I didn't need to say that. Rendall was already doing just that action, keeping us behind the other alien ships. That allowed our gunners to continue pouring a heavy concentration of fire on them. Another of the alien ships was destroyed, rupturing and spilling its contents into space. Then the heavily damaged ship went silent and couldn't finish its turn. It headed towards the moon at high speed. There were only two of the enemy ships left. I considered the battle even at that point.

      Then the
Thurman
vibrated throughout from a hit. It was a bad hit, I could tell. Regardless, the crew moved to damage control while the gunners continued firing at the two enemy ships. We were still behind one and saw it become silent as our shots hulled it and let its atmosphere out, killing the crew most likely. I felt another bad vibration. Rendall suddenly dropped our speed so that the remaining enemy ship was suddenly more in our gunners' sights. Then we felt heavy vibrations hitting our ship as we pounded away at the other ship. Then the other ship went on by and out of range for either of us to shoot at each other.

      "Status!" I said.

      Reports of damage and casualties were already coming in. The engines and steering were damaged. Two of our Mark III quads and one Mark II single were destroyed. Their gunners were dead. Two sections of the ship were hulled and lost their air, killing some more of the crew. Response from the helm was difficult to control because of the engine and steering damage. With the reports came recommendations that we land somewhere to make repairs.

      "Sensors, what type of planet atmosphere is below us?" I asked.

      The sensor operator reported, "Breathable, slightly less gravity than Earth. Should make repairs and liftoff easier."

      It was more than I could hope for. I said, "Okay, Rendall, take us down to the best spot you can find." Then another report came in that we were losing water. To that I added, "Try to place us near a fresh water supply. Communications, quit broadcasting the score."

      Then it was up to Rendall to get us down safely in one piece so that we could make repairs.

      "Enemy ship entering atmosphere!" shouted out the sensor operator.