Shadows of Golstar (31 page)

He noted that Sharné was sitting in a crew chair
looking relatively calm, almost relaxed. He was pleased by her composure. He
nodded to her, dropped into the command chair and asked Hec for a status.

“That ship has just finished destroying another large
piece of debris. They’re beginning to change their course in the direction of
the last big piece of the
Saber
in their area. After they finish with
that, it looks like they’ll likely head towards our general vicinity,” Hec
reported.

“Alright, use…”

Hec interrupted, “Hey Boss, the ship that was
stationary just blew up.”

“Beginning to cover their tracks,” Owens said. “It’s
not really surprising.”

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” Hec added.

“Hec, I think it’s time to shed our disguise. Engage
our maneuvering thrusters to separate us from the docking rig. However, make it
nice and easy, as if two pieces are drifting apart. Once we’re well clear, then
to hell with it, engage the reaction engines, activate the shields and put our
weapons on-line. Hopefully, they’ll not be expecting to encounter an intact
ship. They should be caught off-guard and may hesitate a little when a piece of
the
Saber’s
wreckage starts to move out under its own power.”

He thought a moment, “And take the shortest heading
you can, directly away from the satellite grid and planetary gravity wells. We
need clear space in order to generate the subspace bubble. Let’s try to put
some more distance between us while we can, if we can.”

Hec immediately complied and Owens watched the
tactical screen as the space between the two active blips began to grow.
Minutes passed, and then at a safe distance from the remains of the docking rig
Hec engaged the steering thrusters and reaction engines. The
Holmes
attitude
was quickly stabilized, and it smoothly began to accelerate away from the still
tumbling wreckage.  

The next few minutes were agonizing as the
Holmes
continued to extend the distance from the Golstar ship. The enemy still hadn’t
reacted; it continued on its original course. Owens mentally thanked the
inattentive mutineer manning the ship’s scanners. He stared at the holo-display
and saw that the
Holmes
was approaching the outer boundaries of the
system. He asked Hec, “When can we go into subspace?”  

“In about seven minutes,” Hec replied. “Although we’re
away from any significant gravity well, the condensers are still recharging.
I’m sorry Boss. It would have been sooner, but I was ordered to void the
condensers after we docked with the
Light Saber
. You already left the
Holmes
.
And since the
Saber’s
destruction, I deliberately kept the generators
off-line while we were pretending to be a piece of wreckage. The mutineers
might have noticed an energy spike from their scanners had we tried to charge
them before now. I only just now restarted the generators to begin the
recharging cycle.”  

“And speaking of the devil, it looks like they finally
woke up and realized that we aren’t just a piece of the
Saber
after all.
It looks like they abandoned that last piece of debris they were heading for.”

Sharné asked, “Are you sure they have seen us?”

“Oh yeah, they’re beginning to accelerate toward our
position, but since we got the jump on them, our distance has increased,” Hec
replied. “But they’re still in weapons range, at least using Confederated Planets
weapons’ standards, so I’ve initiated an evasive flight pattern.”

While maintaining a general heading, the AI had
overlaid the evasive program. Under Hec’s control, the
Holmes
’ maneuvering
thrusters nudged the ship in one direction, then another within the three
dimensions of normal space. The duration of the thruster burns and sequence
were varied. This resulted in a herky-jerky flight path. The changes in the
trajectory seemed minuscule, but were enough to throw off an aggressor’s
weapons aiming programs when such great distances were involved.

Owens looked intently at the tactical display. The
separation between the two ships remained stable. The other ship seemed totally
surprised by the sudden, powered flight of an apparent piece of wreckage. It
was also clear the
Holmes
matched the acceleration of Golstar
battleship. The battleship’s huge engines vied with its greater mass. Although
it was more powerful, the bigger ship would not immediately overtake the
Holmes
.
However, depending on how long the chase went on, its larger engines likely
meant it had a better acceleration curve than that of the
Holmes.
 

“Boss, I think I can coax a little more out of our
reaction engines without much of a problem. In their rush to complete the
modifications, the techs failed to update all of throttle calibrations when
they beefed up the engines. I might be able to gain us a little more in
acceleration. Of course, this is all guess-work. After I fine tune our engines,
it could be that they’re still faster than we are. However, if that’s the case,
their engines will still take longer to reach maximum output and along with
their greater mass, they’ll lose some ground, initially.”

 Owens said, “Do it.” He wondered if that greater
mass also meant the Golstar ship would be slower in maneuvering. It might be a
good idea to test that theory before they gained any ground on the
Holmes.
 

He explained his thinking to Hec and ordered the AI to
change their course by twenty degrees as quickly as was possible. Hec complied
and halfway into the turn it became apparent that the
Holmes
could
indeed outmaneuver the Golstar ship, at least in abrupt sustained course
changes.

In conducting such a drastic turning maneuver, the
Holmes
needed all its maneuvering thrusters, and Hec had momentarily abandoned the
evasion pattern. The
Holmes
changed course and the weapons’ master
aboard the Golstar ship immediately observed through their sole functioning
medium-range scanner, a now more predictable trajectory. He saw an opportunity
and began to fire at the more easily tracked target before it could resume an
evasion routine.

  Hec immediately observed the weapons’ fire from
the pursuing ship, abandoned the course change and reinitiated the evasive
pattern. Unfortunately, Hec was a split-second too late. A gigantic blow shook
the ship. Owens’ ears were filled with the sound of multiple alarms going
off.  “Hec,” he shouted over the din. “What the hell just happened?”  

“Weapons fire, we were just hit by our friends in the
Golstar ship. I let our guard down; they saw an opening and took it.”

“Damage assessment?” Owens asked.

Hec silenced the audible alarms. A myriad of red
blinking indicators continued to flash their muted warnings. “We lost about
eighty percent of shield strength in the A-band and fifteen percent of the C,
but that’s not the bad news. Unfortunately, that single salvo hit us square
amidships. That shot took away our subspace capability, at least for now. A
power bus broke loose and grounded. The safeties worked but not before we lost
both the primary and secondary power couplers. We can still charge the subspace
condensers, but we have no way to connect the condensers to the pulse emitters.
We can’t generate a subspace bubble.” Hec finished with, “I’m sorry, but I blew
it.”

Owens waved his hands in quick dismissal. “No Hec, I’m
just as responsible as you are, more actually. I gave you the damn order for
the turn, not taking into account that we were still in their weapons range. I
should have realized that before I ordered you to change course. My own damn
thoughtlessness forced you to abandon your evasive pattern.”

“But Boss I should have warned you myself. I didn’t
consider we would provide such a predictable target when I initiated the turn.”

 Owens rubbed his forehead, “It’s nobody’s fault,
or it’s everybody’s fault. We might as well face it. We're not trained as
military; we don’t think like the military. Admit it Hec, we’re only human. So
stop feeling sorry for yourself and tell me how long it will take to fix.”

Hec was both surprised and pleased by Owens’ ‘only
human’ comment. The AI said, “I’m sorry Boss… once more. Well, at least it will
never happen again. It’s in my programming now.”

Owens rubbed his eyes, “Okay, stop stalling, and give
me the real bad news. How long will it take to repair it?  

“The damage is relatively minor. It’s
repairable.
We have plenty of spares, but we just can’t do it right away. There’s a
critical control conduit that runs parallel to the affected coupler housings.
We would have to disconnect each end of the conduit’s section connectors in
order to get at the couplers. To do that, we would have to take the reaction
drives off-line until we could finish the repairs. It wouldn’t take too long,
but during the repair, we would be coasting. We would only have the maneuvering
thrusters.”

Owens sighed heavily, “Okay. That's obviously not an
option, for now at least. You have any other ideas?”

“Well not for fixing the servos, but there is a little
good news. I found I can use the secondary power buss relays to divert the
output from the subspace condensers and directly energize the shields through
them. This cuts the time to recharge the shields by two thirds. As we were
talking, I made the switch and the C-band is already back up to one hundred
percent; A-band is at forty-five percent and rapidly climbing.”

“Okay, anything else on our status?”

“Our reaction drives are undamaged, remain on-line and
in the green. As we speak, we’re still being fired upon, but so far our return
to evasive maneuvering has prevented any more strikes. In addition,” Hec
continued, “by throwing in some abrupt turns, but shorter than you had me try;
I’ve managed to keep them from attaining their full normal-space acceleration.
Believe it or not, we’re actually putting some distance between us. If we can
keep this up, we might be able to move out of their weapons range.”

“That
is
some decent news… great work, Hec.
Would it do us any good to fire back?”

“Other than making us feel a little better by
thoroughly pissing them off, I don’t think so. Their shields are just too
strong for our class of weapons.”

“Too bad, a little payback would have been nice.”
Owens turned to look at Sharné. “Now it’s your turn. Can you think of anything
that might help us? Do you have any ideas on where we might now head? Is your
seat of government close? If so, how long will it take to make it there?”

“I have already given it some thought,” she began
slowly. “As a government official, I know the coordinates for Berralton, our
capital planet. It should take only about three-day cycles to reach it by
reaction drive. However, it may not be the best destination for us, given our
present circumstances.” She paused, weighing her next words.

“I confess the attack was as much of a surprise to me
as it was to you. It has been hard for me to accept an attempt of this
magnitude could be mounted without our knowledge. However, now, in thinking
about the resources amassed to execute such an attack, I do have to wonder if
there may even be more attackers anticipating a possible attempt by any
survivors to make it back to Berralton.” She said nothing about the mutiny, the
target of the attack or its motivation.

Owens noted Sharné’s lack of further comment. He really
needed to have a discussion with her on that subject later, provided there was
a
later
. As for her concern regarding other attackers lurking around
Berralton, he thought it logical their unknown nemesis might very well have
such a back-up plan in case the initial attack was not successful.

“I guess contacting someone in your government
continues to be out of the question. Hec, can you verify that the Golstar ship
is still jamming communications?” Owens asked. Hec responded that the jamming
signals were still blanketing a communications spectrum that must be used by
Golstar. Sighing, Owens asked Sharné, “It looks like signaling for help is out
too. Well, this is your backyard. I’m open to any suggestions.”

Sharné had expected this and decided earlier she would
have to reveal much more than she or her father had originally intended. All
the plans that her father had made were rapidly falling apart in the face of
the calamity that had just occurred.

She said, “You are probably aware there are a number of
planets comprising the Golstar solar system.”

“That information was included in my navigation
package and since we entered the system, we supplemented the data with long
range scans. Hec, give us a picture.”

Sharné watched as the tactical display winked out and
was replaced by three-dimensional representation of the Golstar system. “We
must cross the orbits of two of them before we reach Berralton. The next
planet’s orbit that we will encounter is Waystop.” She pointed to the planet.
“I propose that we pass it by. It is Golstar’s smallest planet and basically
little more than a lifeless rock.” Her finger moved to the next planet nearer
the sun. “We should continue on to Selane, and try to make planet-fall there.
We are little less than a one-day cycle, about twenty-six hours out from
Selane. It is the outermost habitable planet in our system. I cannot imagine
that we would be expected to go there.”