A Planned Improvisation (24 page)

Tragackack started swinging the ship around, but before he could complete the maneuver the ear splitting screen of tearing metal began once more accompanied by the flickering display that indicated they were going in and out of stasis, but the condition lasted only a subjective split second and suddenly both the other ships vanished in twin explosions.

“Very good!” the booming voice of Admiral Ginalo commented over the radio. “You held their attention while we came in for the kill. Great teamwork, McArrgh!”

“According to our readings, that’s only half the blockade fleet,” Park pointed out. “We’re going to have to decelerate into the next half of this battle.”

“I have twenty ships under my command, Captain,” the admiral informed him. “We out-number them two-to-one.”

“I hate to be a nay-sayer, sir,” Park retorted, “but from the reports I’ve read, you have been losing five ships for every one of them you got.”

“But from the reports I’ve read,” Admiral Ginalo countered, “You Pirates have driven off several attacks without any casualties.”

“Someone has been exaggerating outrageously,” Park admitted. “Our record’s better than yours, but we have hardly been without losses. Do you have a battle plan or do expect us to distract them again?”

“Testy, aren’t you, Captain?” Ginalo rumbled. “Let’s face it. You have a ship that just took out eight out of ten dark ships.”

“Okay, we’ll take the eight on the left and you get the other two,” Park retorted.

“Funny,” the admiral told him flatly. “I have a way to use you and your ship.”

“Excuse me?” Park stopped him. “My ears must have stopped working properly. You plan to use me and my ship? Sorry, buddy, but I do not fall under your chain of command.”

“You, sir, are a ship’s captain,” Ginalo pointed out. “I am an admiral of the Alliance of Confederated Planets. I out-rank you.”

“Earthly titles can be misleading these days, admiral,” Park responded coolly. “We tend to understate our positions rather than exalt them.”

“Damn it, man!” the admiral swore. “This is a war. There has to be a chain of command.”

“Fine, then you follow me,” Park replied as though he did not care.

Marisea muted his microphone and asked, “Park, is it really wise to speak to an ally that way?”

“I never did like taking orders,” Park replied.

“Park, the remaining dark ships appear to be breaking out of orbit,” Iris told him. “I think they are headed toward us.”

“Put me back on,” Park told Marisea. “Admiral, do you have a tactic that actually works other than just sending my ship ahead of yours?”

“You do seem to be able to stand up to their weapons,” Ginalo admitted.

“There’s no way to know for certain they’ll concentrate on me when they see us all coming,” Park argues. “Furthermore, while we might be near each other right now, by the time we finish coming about and correcting our course your ships will be ahead of us by several minutes.”

“We can increase deceleration to correct for that,” Admiral Ginalo admitted.

“All right, then,” Park told him. “Follow my lead and bring your fleet in approximately one minute behind me.”

“One minute?” Ginalo asked incredulously. “You think you can do what you have to in one minute?”

“It’s what we used to call a one-two punch,” Park replied, “and yes,
Independent
, does seem to be more capable of resisting their weapons. We’re going plow past the dark ships as they come at us, shooting them up as we go. Then we will come about and try for another pass. If you can mop them up in our wake, that will be all the better, but I suspect we’re all only going to get one or two shots as we pass.”

The admiral thought about that and eventually conceded that it was what he had in mind. “Although I was planning to send you further ahead of us.”

“I cannot guarantee to get another eight out of ten, Admiral,” Park told him. “Phasers and gravity cannons can recharge, but a missile once spent is gone forever. We used up almost half our missiles on the first wave.”

“I see,” Ginalo conceded.

“Park,” Iris corrected him once the connection to the admiral’s ship was broken, “I used a lot of missiles, but hardly half of our supply. About one third, really.”

“I know,” Park grinned. “But I saw no reason to say so over an open connection.”

“And in spite of all your arguing,” Iris went on, “we’re still doing essentially what the admiral wanted us to.”

“Doing it on our terms, though,” Park pointed out. “Seriously, if his fleet could have handled the dark ships here, they would have been in the process of doing so when we arrived. Do you have your targets picked out yet?”

“I just finished tagging the Alliance ships as friends,” Iris replied. “The dark ships are just starting to assemble and I don’t think they are going to be in much of a formation by the time we rendezvous. More like several clumps, but I have an hour before we reach maximum range.”

“Do we have many long-range missiles left?” Park asked.

“Four,” Iris replied. “They’ll be our first volley again, followed up by the last two stasis specials and then our more conventional ones. I still have a full load of the extra high-speed darts though.”

“Why?” Park asked.

“They’re most useful when chasing a target down,” Iris remarked. “The dark ships don’t usually run for it until it’s too late. The one weapon we haven’t had a chance to use is Ronnie’s improved induced stasis generator. That would work well against most Alliance ships, but the dark ships don’t stay within range long enough.”

“That induced stasis works well enough in a missile, though,” Marisea pointed out.

“Problems ahead,” Sartena announced. “I’m picking up over two dozen launches from Owatino’s moon. Drive signatures indicate more dark ships.”

Park looked at the screen and noted that the capital planet’s moon was visibly smaller than Luna, but still a significant natural satellite. “Maybe we had better hold some of those missiles in reserve?” he commented.

“I can only use them once each,” Iris replied. “Too bad we can’t mount the missiles in the storage bay.”

“It’s the admiral again,” Marisea announced. “He wants a visual conference.”

“Put him on,” Park shrugged. “Too late to fake a uniform, I suppose.”

“I think jeans and a work shirt are a pirate’s uniform,” Iris laughed.

A moment later Admiral Ginalo appeared as a holograph in from of Park’s seat. Park may have been sitting, but the Admiral was pacing back and forth. He was a tall humanoid with bright blue skin and no visible hair on his face or head. As Park expected, however, the admiral was dressed in an obvious uniform; one that was bright white with black trim and dozens of ribbons, medals and patches attached to the left side of the white jacket. Park bit his tongue to keep from asking which one had been granted for joining the Clean Plate Club.

“Captain McArrgh?” Ginalo asked, studying Park as closely as Park was studying him.

“Guilty,” Park admitted.

“Have you seen the additional ships rising from Hona?” Ginalo asked.

“Hona?” Park echoed. “You mean Owatino’s moon?” Ginalo nodded. “Yes, we noticed. Looks like we’ll be able to leave some of the fun to your boys and girls after all.”

“McArrgh, I admit you pulled off an amazing victory over the first wave of dark ships, but my people have counted forty-one dark ships in all. That rather reverses the odds,” Ginalo added.

“The higher the odds, the bigger the payoff,” Park shrugged. “Admiral, if we back off now Owatino and all the members of the Diet are lost. I say we stick to the plan.”

“Aye,” the admiral nodded and abruptly disappeared.

“We have a plan?” Sartena asked, “aside from not dying, that is?”

“I plan to figure it out as we go,” Park shrugged. “I’m not sure what Admiral Ginalo plans, but it probably has something to do with watching what we do. We still have an hour?”

“A little less now,” Iris replied.

“I’m going to have a chat with Ronnie,” Park decided.

“You want to use the missiles in storage?” Ronnie asked him a minute later. “Can’t do it. We just don’t have enough time to mount them all in the racks and then reprogram Iris’ battle board. I could probably manage one or two.”

“How many stasis specials do we have there?” Park asked.

“None,” Ronnie laughed. “You didn’t think I’d let them have that do you? Someone might figure out how to disable our stasis shielding.”

“Is that possible?” Park asked.

“I can do it,” Ronnie replied, “The stasis induction generator works both ways.”

“Handy to know if anyone else ever develops stasis technology,” Park commented. “So what sort of weapons are we carrying?”

“Everything else we have that’s unique to Earth,” Ronnie replied. “We have one of our double-action gravity cannons, a visible light phaser and several of each sort of missile.”

“The extra long-range jobbies?” Park asked interestedly.

“Of course,” Ronnie nodded.

“You can mount them in the racks?” Park pressed.

“You wouldn’t rather use the nuclear-tipped ones?” she countered.

“Iris hasn’t used the ones in the rack yet,” Park replied, “but we could use more long range shots.”

“Two long-range missiles then,” Ronnie shrugged. “That’s all we have of those anyway.”

The next half hour passed quickly with the engineering team returning from their extra-vehicular activity just minutes before the first wave of dark ships came within range. “We put them in slot twenty-four of each rack,” she told Iris. “With a bit of luck you’ll see their indicators before you actually need them.”

“Thanks, Ronnie,” Iris replied and went back to her programming. Most of that, Park knew was in setting up targets for her gunners.

Against the dark ships, the automatic computer-firing system had been doing most of the work, but there were stray moments when the gunners had to actually fire their own weapons.
The fewer such moments, the better
, Park thought silently as Iris began to count down to the first missile launches.

The first wave of dark ships coming from Owatino only consisted of five ships and with three missiles, the gravity cannon and a salvo of well-placed phaser fire all five were gone in seconds. “Ten minutes to the next wave,” Iris commented and added, “The other five ships from orbit. After that we have the large force that had been on the moon.”

“Looks like they’re correcting their course to come right at us,” Sartena
 
noted.

“We are the bigger threat,” Iris noted. “We’ve been lucky so far and I don’t know how much they have learned about us. Too much and…”

“The Alliance cottoned on to how to fight our stasis shielding almost at once,” Park noted. “They almost got us three years ago before Lord Rebbert stepped in and stopped the battle.”

“That’s why Ronnie computer-automated our weapons,” Iris reminded him.

“Yes and so we’re not completely helpless while under stasis, but our guns aren’t as powerful, fired, as they are, in microsecond bursts,” Park pointed out. “Well, it’s better than nothing. Are we ready for the next pass?”

“Not quite,” Iris shook her head. “Trag, I need you to adjust our course and velocity. Feeding it to your workstation now.”

“Decellerate until just before contact?” Tragackack asked. “We don’t have any time to spare.” He went to work immediately and the view on the front-facing screen swung around until they could see the ships under Admiral Ginalo’s command.

“I’d better advise the Admiral,” Marisea commented, “or they’ll hit the next wave before we do.”

“Better warn him to keep out of the way of our gravity cannon too,” Park added.

“Roger,” Marisea acknowledged.

Iris and her gunners only destroyed three of the next five ships, but Admiral Ginalo’s fleet picked off the other two as they tried to flee. That left the twenty-six ships that had been on the moon, Hona. “We have thirty-two minutes,” Sartena pointed out.

“Ronnie,” Iris called over the intercom. “Any chance of mounting additional missiles while we’re waiting?”

“None whatsoever,” Ronnie replied. “I
am
trying to amp up the x-ray phaser though by diverting a bit of engine power.”

“Not the visible light phasers?” Iris asked.

“I only have time to try it once,” Ronnie replied. “If it works, we’ll see about spreading the joy around next time.”

“All right,” Iris accepted. “Park, we’re going for broke this time.”

“Throw everything we have left at them then,” Park agreed.

“Right,” Iris nodded.

“Do you need any course changes?” Tragackack asked.

“Not this time,” Iris told him. “Keep a steady course and acceleration until after we come out the other side of that pack. Then we’ll come about and try again and again.”

“Good battle plan,” Park told her.

“And we all know how long those things survive,” Iris shot back. “Now if you don’t mind, I have a lot of priorities to plunk into the computer.” After that, Iris spoke exclusively with her gunnery team until it was time to fire off the missiles.

“Stand by to fire at will,” Iris told her gunners, “in five, four, three, two, one, fire!”

As before they got one shot off before the terrible shrieking noise began and the image on the screen began to flicker as they sailed through the approaching formation. By the time she got out of range of the dark ships,
Independent
was tumbling end over end.

“Stabilize us,” Park commanded instantly. “What happened?”

“I think we rammed at least one of the dark ships,” Sartena remarked.

“That’s doing it the hard way,” Park muttered. “Status, all stations?”

“Thrusters seem sluggish, sir,” Tragackack reported.

“I’m picking up a lot of static, Park,” Marisea told him. “We may have lost our antennae in the crash.”

“We still have radar,” Iris told him.

“Ronnie?” Park shouted. There was no response so he called her via his torc.

“I’m kinda busy down here!” Ronnie replied testily. “What did you do up there? Ram the moon?”

“Just one of the dark ships,” Park told her.