Star Carrier (Lost Colonies Trilogy Book 3) (10 page)

That had put him in a desperate situation. As
Defiant
was the only ship capable of intercepting the incoming battleship, he’d had to rely on me.

But could he trust me? Was I another plant, disloyal and hiding my true nature until a critical moment?

I could see that his new orders were a test of sorts. If I refused to follow them and attack, he could surmise that I was indeed in league with this threat. Fortunately, I wasn’t inclined to refuse. I’d been hoping for just such an order.

Looking up again at Admiral Perez, my mouth formed a thin, stern line.

“Very well, sir,” I said. “I concur with your judgment. I will meet
Victory
in open space and defeat her.”

“Excellent! Don’t bother to transmit the details of your attack plan down here to CENTCOM—further, if you’re required to do so by my replacement, give them false tactical data. I don’t trust anyone right now. This is too important.”

I considered telling him what I’d seen of the variants on
Victory
. I almost did—but again, paranoia struck me. I didn’t know if I could trust Perez—or whoever else might be listening.

Nodding, I agreed with his orders. We both signed off, and the channel closed.

Leaning back in a creaking chair for a few moments, I pondered the surreal situation I now found myself in. It was unenviable in the extreme. CENTCOM might or might not be turning against me.
Victory
surely had.

As far as I could determine, I was flying the only loyal capital ship Earth had left.

-15-

We left Luna’s orbit quietly and powered out into open space, heading toward the outer Solar System.

“According to our predictions,” Durris said, “we’ll intercept
Victory
here… approximately one hundred ninety five million kilometers out from the Sun.”

“We’ll be close to the orbit of Mars,” I said, looking over the data.

“Yes, but far from the planet itself.”

The plan had been approved and reviewed. We were now examining the enemy reaction. So far, there had been none. They had maintained their course and speed, heading directly toward us.

“We’ll do battle in this region,” I said, outlining an ovoid in space some ten million kilometers across. The shape glowed into being on the planning boards after I touched the controls.

The predictive software provided us two critical pieces of information regarding our plans. First was the timing element, which displayed as a fast-ticking digital clock floating over the ovoid. We’d reach the battleground in thirty-one hours’ time.

The second piece of information was far less encouraging. The battle computers were predicting a grim loss, and no less than the destruction of
Defiant
.

“Have you updated the scenario with the addition of the variant’s lance to our arsenal?” I asked Durris.

“Yes... The problem is the simulation software doesn’t think we’ll make it in that close to the enemy ship. According to the computer, we’ll be destroyed several hundred thousand kilometers outside the lance’s range.”

I stared at the screen. A few staffers circling the far side fell silent. Durris and the software were both calmly predicting our destruction.

“The trouble is,” I said, going over the stages of the simulated conflict, “we’re heavily outgunned too far out. We can’t even fire back until we’re badly damaged.”

“That’s correct, sir,” Durris said stiffly. “I was hoping… well…”

“What?” I said, turning to him. “Now isn’t the time to be shy.”

“It doesn’t matter. My hopes haven’t materialized.”

“Ah,” I said, looking at him. “You were hoping CENTCOM would commit the rest of the fleet to fight at our side, right?”

He nodded.

“Give me the best predictions you have in that case.”

He quickly edited the scene. More green contacts appeared, dotting space on our flanks. Every destroyer and pinnace we had flew with us in the new model.

The ovoid now displayed an amber shade.

“Still predicting defeat?” I asked.

“Yes. But not with one hundred percent certainty.”

“It does seem like a better play for Earth.
But
,” I said this single word loudly, “we’re not her last play. CENTCOM surely has gamed this all out as well. They’re hoping we’ll damage
Victory
badly. Maybe they dare to hope we’ll get lucky and destroy her, as she’s in an unknown state after clearly having been battered in your simulation.”

“That’s right, but if they’d only give us support—”

“No,” I said, “they won’t. They plan to hold back and marshal their final ships around Luna. They’re putting together every missile and ship they have. They’ll wait there to win or lose in a final desperate effort.”

“Perhaps we should be standing there with them. What good will it do to lose
Defiant
in a hopeless struggle?”

The staffers were now staring at us with wide eyes. They’d been largely in the dark concerning the desperate nature of our situation. Even Rumbold and Yamada had stopped working and begun listening closely.

I didn’t care. I no longer thought it necessary or productive to maintain a secretive air among my own command staff. If there were spies, let them hear what we had to say. There were only a few hours left in any case.

“It may buy Earth time. If we can damage
Victory
—”

Durris shook his head and threw up his hands. This was a wild display of emotion for him.

“So what if we do slow her down? She can hold off and repair. She can roam around the outer system destroying our mining facilities at the asteroids and our labs at Mars. Earth won’t be in charge of anything other than the home world.”

“That’s true, but there is hope,” I said. “Remember the eighth battleship? She’s been under crash construction since the fleet left. They’ve stepped up her production rate by several months. She should be able to fly with a green crew and the majority of her systems working in a week or two.”

Durris stared at me. Slowly, he smiled.

“Ah,” he said. “I get it at last. We’re a speed bump. We’re to die well and buy Earth a few weeks’ time.”

“If so,” I said loudly, “it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

Then I turned to regard my crew. My eyes met theirs one at a time. Most of them stared back determinedly. A few dropped their eyes, but no one objected.

They knew the stakes. They hadn’t signed on to live forever in Earth’s service—well, that may have been the original intent of some. But most had known the dangers and accepted them from the outset.

“Good,” I said, after having taken their measure. “Now, let’s see if we can devise a way to beat the odds.”

I sat back and listened while my various officers gave me what they had. Not many suggested anything useful.

It was the usual stuff—editing our armor to the forward section of the ship to help deflect incoming fire captivated one group. That would give us more survivability as we approached, but nothing to protect our engines after a single pass. It would be a do-or-die one-shot attack.

There were other ideas, but all of them were lacking.

At last, when I was about to give up hope, aid came from a most unlikely source.

“Excuse me, Captain,” Rumbold said. “I know it’s not my place to—”

“No, no,” I said, “speak up, man. We could use wisdom from a spacer who’s seen more years of service than the rest of us combined.”

“Well, it’s like this, I think we need something to hide behind. Something that will stop a beam at least.”

Durris frowned at him. “What do you suggest, oldster?”

Rumbold didn’t ruffle up at the term oldster, although many of his peers might have been insulted.

“I’ve been checking the scans,” he said. “There are a few rocks out here. Nothing big, mind you, but some that are in the neighborhood of a hundred meters in diameter.”

Durris laughed. “Are you serious? Are you suggesting that we slow down, capture a rock, and throw it ahead of us in hopes it will catch some of the enemy fire? We’ll be crawling, and we’ll be more vulnerable for it.”

Rumbold’s eyes were narrowed as he looked over the planning table. He shook his white-haired head. “Not exactly, son. I’m not suggesting we fly behind a rock—I’m suggesting we turn it into gravel. Sand is even better, if you can manage it.”

They all stared at him. Durris opened his mouth then closed it again with an audible snap. He leaned over the table with sudden intensity.

He worked the controls, bringing up menu after menu. Finally, a small cloud of debris appeared in front of
Defiant
on the simulator.

He engaged the software engine, which did its magic, predicting likely hits and misses.

At last, the scene changed. The ovoid had gone from yellow to blue. That meant the software thought we had a chance.

“Forty percent?” Durris asked aloud in amazement. “That’s a thirty point jump…”

He reached for Rumbold’s shoulder and slapped it hard. “You’ve done it, man. We’ve got to move fast, however. There’s a window for grabbing a boulder. How far away we are will change everything. We’ll end up meeting the enemy closer to Earth, at lower speeds… so many variables!”

He set off to work on his simulator. In the meantime, Rumbold and I came up with a course that would allow us to intercept the rock he’d found and work with it. We’d have to change the rock’s course, speed it up, and blast it to bits right before we reached
Victory’s
effective range.

“Well done, Rumbold, old friend,” I told him an hour or so later. “You’ve pulled us all out of the fire.”

He snorted and lowered his voice, speaking only to me.

“They’re all like kids at Christmas,” he said. “Never seen such a pack of fools so happy to learn they’re facing only a sixty percent chance of death.”

“You miss the key point,” I said back in a whisper. “What you’ve really given them all is hope.”

Rumbold nodded. He at last smiled and relaxed, accepting everyone’s praise. It did my heart good to see it.

At least my crew wouldn’t die in a state of cold despair.

-16-

Due to our diversion to intercept the asteroid, it was nearly forty hours later when we faced
Victory
.

The battleship was huge. It was impossible to describe how unnerving her presence was. Somehow, the fact it had been built by Earthmen made it all the worse. The fact we were going to be destroyed by our own sister ship seemed positively unfair.

In the final moments before we came within range of the big enemy guns, we had a final scare. The railgun lance wasn’t ready.

The only workers we had who could lever the weapon out onto the hull and attach it to the power cables were the variants themselves. It wasn’t encouraging to see them slowly scuttling over our hull carrying their burden like a bizarre trio of pallbearers carrying a massive cylindrical coffin.

“We’ll have to use exposed cables,” Rumbold complained for the hundredth time.

“I know,” I said patiently. “There’s no help for it. We’ve got to make do with what we have.”

“Exposed cables…” he muttered again, as if he hadn’t heard me. He shook his head slowly. “They’ll be cut sure as shit the moment the enemy burns through our gravel shield.”

“Again, I’m well aware of this.”

It wasn’t in my heart to reprimand Rumbold. The crew had been working to the point of near exhaustion. They’d taken only short breaks when ordered to. For all that, they seemed alert enough, if a little glassy-eyed.

At three million kilometers out, a million outside of our enemy’s maximum range, we blasted apart the asteroid we’d flung ahead of us.

Defiant’s
primary cannons hummed, then buzzed, then sang. The asteroid came apart in slow motion. Molten chunks drifted away from the central mass—but there was no helping that.

“She’s breaking up, Captain,” Durris said. “Just like the simulations.”

“Keep working the central chunk, and have the point defense weapons try to guide some of the large chunks back toward the core. There are bound to be holes in this defensive screen. Keep them from growing too—”

“Captain!” Yamada shouted suddenly. “The enemy ship is firing.
Victory
is firing, sir!”

My mouth hung open and my eyes roved the screens.

“We’re still too far out. What are they doing?”

“Maybe they’re trying to burn the screen…” Durris suggested.

The enemy fire lanced out and punched a hole in our improvised shielding. Yamada gasped.

“They don’t have that kind of range,” she said. “They
can’t
have that kind of range!”

The debris field we were hiding behind began to crumble. I felt like a charging spearman huddling behind an upraised shield with a crack in it.

“Durris, take more off the hard core of the asteroid. Patch that hole.”

“The algorithm is punched in… firing on full automatic.”

The ship shuddered as our secondary guns sent streams of slugs toward the asteroid shielding us. Fresh rock split and crumbled. Computer-guided aiming systems trimmed more mass from the core of the asteroid to create a larger debris field. This went smoothly, but my mind was elsewhere.

“Durris,” I said, “how’s it possible for the enemy to have this kind of range? Earth built those cannons. We should damned well be able to plot their reach.”

“I agree, sir,” he said, working feverishly over a screen full of calculations. He was adjusting the simulation to reflect the unexpected changes in the enemy capabilities.

The ovoid on the screen grew. We were now well within it. The field had also changed to orange, indicating we had about a twenty percent chance of survival.

He turned to me slowly when he was done. He had an odd look on his face.

“Captain, come examine the raw data. I have optical probes out on our flanks flying with us. We can see the enemy hull in detail now.”

I moved to do as he suggested. What I saw there made little sense.
Victory
looked… odd. Her central hull region had thinned out as far as I could see. It was as if the ship had gone on a crash diet.

“Could she have been damaged so severely?” I asked.

“No sir, I don’t think we’re looking at damage. In fact, I don’t think she’s been damaged at all. We made an error in our assumptions.”

Frowning at him and the scope, I began to understand. An idea was dawning within my mind. Unfortunately, I didn’t much care for the suspicion that was growing there.

“It’s not damage,” I said, repeating his statement. “They’ve altered the ship. The variants—they’re like the ones aboard
Defiant
. They haven’t been content to merely man
Victory
…”

“That’s right, sir. They’ve altered her. We have no real idea what we’re facing.”

Our exchange left me feeling sick. The math hadn’t been on our side to begin with, but at least we’d had a fighting chance. Now, I had no idea how events might unfold.

“Can we break off?” I asked.

“Negative. We’re within her best range now. We’ll be raked by her cannons if we try to move away from the debris shield we’re following.”

My heart sank as I realized the truth of his words. The enemy had caught us neatly in their trap. Lulled by the trickery of our makeshift shield, we hadn’t stopped to consider the fact that variants like to change things and worked very quickly.

The whole idea that they’d brought a damaged ship into the home system now seemed absurd in the extreme. Such creatures weren’t the sort to sit idle while their ship needed repairs—or improvements.

“All right then, we’re committed,” I said. “We’ll have to make the best of it.”

“Another volley incoming,” Yamada warned us. “They’re striking for the center of the asteroid now. I… I don’t understand it. That’s the safest place they could hit.”

Durris and I exchanged glances. Durris took the job of explaining the situation.

“They’ve decided to burn down our asteroid entirely,” he said. “Rather than punching holes in the maelstrom of gravel, allowing us to tear away a fresh protective sheet, they’re going to try to melt the core down and leave us with no defense.”

Her face was bloodless, shocked. She turned slowly back to her instruments.

No one on the deck spoke for several seconds. We watched as the enemy weapons punched through the debris and dug into the core. The asteroid had a nickel-iron center, tough, but not invulnerable.

After six total strikes, the core vaporized entirely. We were without significant defenses.

“Missiles launched, sir,” said one of the staffers.

“Countermeasures,” I called back mechanically. “Launch our own barrage in return. It’s time.”

“How many?”

I hesitated before answering.

“Throw everything we’ve got at them,” I said at last.

The ship shook rhythmically as our missiles were fired in rapid sequence. The drumbeat of launches went on and on.

I checked the range. We were still six hundred thousand kilometers out. Our main batteries could do damage at this distance, but the lance wouldn’t be effective. We had to get in closer to use it—much closer.

“How long until the debris shield loses integrity?” I asked.

“It’s coming apart now, Captain,” Durris answered. “We’ll be taking hits from their cannons in a few more minutes.”

I nodded, unsurprised. Returning to my command chair, I strapped myself in. Reaching out with one hand, I activated the ship-wide PA system.

“All hands, hear this,” I said. “We’re going to accelerate hard in thirty seconds. Get to an acceleration couch and strap in. Secure equipment, if you have time to do so.”

Bringing up my external hull view, I saw the variants retreat into the ship. Their lance was fixed on the prow, looking odd and stubby. Could it be that all our hopes truly rested on these strange creatures?

“Captain,” Durris said, “I know what you’re thinking, but—”

“Excellent. Make it happen. Helmsman, pull us away from the debris cloud. Durris, prime the guns. We’ll get one or two shots in, then we’ll be down to the lance.”

“But Captain,” Durris continued. “We’ll only get one shot with the lance if we come in fast. Then we’ll be past them after that and our tail will be exposed.”

“I know. We’re only going to get one shot. That’s why the damned computer has halved the odds of our survival.”

He nodded and hunched over his controls. Everyone had strapped in by now—and if they hadn’t, God help them.

“Rumbold, pull us out from behind the debris. Full power to the engines. Let’s charge her amidships.”

He gaped at me. “Are we going to ram
Victory
, sir?” he croaked.

I considered it. The idea wasn’t without merit.

“Not yet. Just get me in close as fast as possible. Then, we’ll fire that lance and see if it operates as advertised.

No one cheered as we made our desperate maneuver. We pulled out from behind the remains of the asteroid which was now a swirl of glowing dust.

The moment we were out in the open, the battleship landed her first punch at us. The hull bubbled and ran with slag. A hotspot appeared and damage reports began flowing in.

Fortunately, they hadn’t taken out the lance—not yet.