Defender of the Empire: Cadet #1 (43 page)

Cat sat in her command chair and brought up her holographic interface with a wave of her hand. "Ben, isolate the sector the two anomalous craft are vectoring in from and display on my board."

"Not possible. Targets are vectoring in from multiple directions."

"Fine!" Cat yelled. "Use the
Arizona
as the center point and show both approach vectors. Label the targets one and two based on the first to reach us."

"Understood, parameters accepted. Plotting multiple vectors now."

"Give me a time frame. How long before they get here?"

"Assuming neither craft changes velocity or vector, craft one will be in our vicinity in three minutes and twenty-six seconds. The second craft is adjusting its speed to arrive at exactly the same time."

It was the longest three and a half minutes in Cat's 30 year life. She had Ben try to hail the two craft, but there was no way to know if their communication technologies were in any way compatible. Neither craft responded to her attempts.

"Ben, prepare a message buoy. Attach a complete log and sensor track from our friends out there. On my mark, send it off best possible speed for Lunar One."

"Buoy ready. Launching for Lunar One on your mark."

When the approaching craft were five seconds out Cat gave the order to launch.

"Craft One is altering course and speed..."

A sudden brilliant flash lit up the holographic matrix in front of Cat. "Ben, report. What was that?"

"The message buoy was destroyed by a tightly focused 10 megajoule coherent energy beam emitted from a dorsal array on the first craft."

***

   Yarin watched the D'lralu scout ship destroy the small probe the Earth craft had ejected moments before. He wasn't sure what he was going to do. The D'lralu had not been expected to encounter Humanity for another hundred years or so. A scout ship showing up now meant humanity had far less time than the Heshe had anticipated. If the D'lralu scout kept to standard procedures it would disable the human craft and then dissect both it and its crew to learn as much as it could; prior to reporting the find to its home command. Once that report was made... Humanity was doomed.

***

"Ben, abort orbital insertion. Emergency acceleration... Get Phobos between us and that ship!"

"Emergency acceleration engaged."

Cat felt herself pushed back in her chair as the
Arizona
reached for her peak acceleration of 1.2 gravities. Older chemical rockets could achieve much greater accelerations, but the
Arizona
had been designed for efficiency and not acceleration.

"How long before we are shielded by
Phobos?"

"Current projections indicate we will not be able to accelerate fast enough to successfully hide before the approaching spacecraft
intercep..."

Cat was thrown out of her seat as a blinding flash enveloped the bridge. The flash was accompanied by a thunderclap and the sound of twisting metal. A shower of sparks filled the space between Cat and the main console.

"Ben, report! What just happened?"

There was no response. Her AI was offline. Scrambling to reach the backup overrides, she threw the breaker and brought emergency power systems up. Twenty seconds later Ben reported he was back online.

"There has been a hull breach near the aft thrusters. The VASIMR drive is inop. Chemical thrusters are online but will be insufficient to return to Earth orbit."

"Can we repair the drive?" Cat asked although she suspected she knew the answer.

"Negative. The primary drive was fused by a 250 megajoule coherent energy beam."

"250
megajoule? How is it we are still alive?"

"I would speculate that the operator of craft one simply wished to disable us."

"Well they've succeeded" Cat mused quietly. "I wonder what they want?"

"Unknown, Commander."

"Ben, can you bring up any sort of display... I'm blind here."

"Holographic systems are offline, but I can bring up a flat panel display."

"Good boy. Give me a split view, I want both crafts displayed."

The main view screen flickered to life. The ruddy red of Mars appeared as a small colored marble in a field of jet black.

"Isolate the alien crafts and highlight."

A yellow icon with a little "1" appeared in the upper right corner of the screen. A second icon with a "2" appended to it appeared in the lower middle section of the screen.

"Commander, craft one is emitting an energy signature similar to what it emitted just prior to firing on us and the buoy earlier. I suspect it is about to fire again."

"Quick, fire the maneuvering thrusters... Put us into as fast a spin as you can... We can't out run them, but perhaps we can spread enough of their blast around that our meteor shielding can protect us."

At about the same time the AI engaged the thrusters, the first alien craft fired. Fortunately it was nowhere near the 250 megajoule blast that had disabled her engines. But it was enough. Had she not been spinning, the shot would had breached her hull somewhere near environmental.

Cat struggled to hold her seat as the
Arizona
spun wildly in her attempt to dissipate the energies being fired at her by the other craft. Suddenly the emergency klaxons, which had started the moment the ship had begun taking fire, ceased.

Ben automatically fired reverse thrusters to stop the rotation.

"What happened? Why did they stop firing at us?"

The AI responded "The second ship intervened. Analysis would seem to indicate it instantaneously trans-located to a position just in front of the attacking ship and physically collided with it. The first ship has been destroyed. The second ship is in a rapidly decaying orbit. It does not seem to be under power."

They sacrificed themselves to save us.
Cat mused. "Ben, do we have enough chemical thruster left to maneuver under them and push them into a stable orbit?"

"Unknown. That calculation would require knowledge of their mass."

"Get us in position. Speculate assuming their craft masses similar to ours for a comparable size. Will we have enough fuel?"

"Within the parameters specified there is a 19 percent chance we will have enough fuel."

"19 percent it is. As fast as you can maneuver us into position, attempt to improve their orbit."

The deck shook wildly as the two craft touched. Acceleration became negligible and Cat began to float away from the flooring deck.

"Ben, report! Are we making a difference?"

"Affirmative Commander. The alien craft seems to be 43 percent the anticipated mass. There is now a 72 percent chance we will have sufficient fuel for their vessel to achieve a stable orbit."

"Wonderful... What about us?"

"The
Arizona
is considerably heaver that the alien vessel. We will not achieve a stable orbit. Calculations indicate we will impact near Olympus Mons in thirty-six minutes."

Cat listened to Ben's cold and analytical assessment of their pending demise. In some ways, she envied his detachment. But death was not an option she was willing to entertain.

"If we ejected the LFTR power cores and VASIMR drive unit would our mass be sufficiently reduced to achieve orbit?"

"Yes, however, the
nanite mesh that repaired the port reserve tank failed during the engagement with the aggressive alien. Fuel reserves are now at 43 percent. There is no longer sufficient fuel to both save the remaining alien and this vessel."

"Nuts..." Cat said under her breath. "Ben, new orders. Continuously calculate the orbital status of the vessel we are assisting. The moment it is in a likely stable orbit disengage thrust and attempt a controlled reentry into Mars. Eject the cores and main drive now."

"Orders accepted. Please note the
Arizona
in its current configuration is not aerodynamic."

"That's OK, We are not going to glide. I want you to time our reentry so we gently kiss the trailing slope of Olympus Mons. With any luck, we can dissipate our excess reentry energy in a controlled slide down the slope of Mons."

"Shall I calculate the odds of success?"

"Absolutely Not!"

***

Yarin's
consciousness came back online at 4352. It noted eye stalk seven was missing and instructed construction nanites to replace it at the earliest opportunity. To be honest, Yarin was amazed it was still alive. The collision with the D'lralu had resulted in massive system failures. It was unlikely the repair systems within its craft would have sufficient time to effect repairs prior to impact with the planet they were orbiting.  

Once the
Heshe's external sensors and their associated system log came online Yarin had its answer. The human had sacrificed herself to save the Heshe!

Remarkable.
Yarin could not remember a time in recent memory when a non-Heshe had saved a Heshe'slife. Certainly not while forfeiting the creato
r’
s gift of one's own life. For all practical purposes this forced Yarin's hand. For the first time in dozens of millennia, a Heshe would repay a life debt!

***

"Ben, give me all you have on reverse thrusters. We're about to hit, and we are coming in way too hot."

"I'm sorry Commander. Fuel reserves are depleted. Impact in 2.4 seconds."

"It's been an honor Ben..." Cat began. Before she could finish, the
ESX Arizona
impacted with the north wall of Olympus Mons at 643 miles per hour. It was December 7th, 2067. It would be the first time Lt. Commander Catherine Kimbridge would die... but certainly not the last.

Coming to the Big Screen soon!