Alabaster Noon Page 19

  Then a Steed-class battlecruiser moved into the line of fire, blocking their shot at Shadowfax, which Paka had believed to be commanding the fleet after Alicorn was destroyed. It took her a second to recognize the ship. Sphinx, the newest Steed, which Paka hadn’t known was operational. When she used her pinplants to review the battle at high speed, she saw Sphinx had stayed back and avoided the worst of the fight.

  “A skeleton crew then,” she said, shrugging. “Destroy it.”

  Six 5-terawatt particle beams might have been overkill, sure. But they were lined up on Shadowfax, so one or two would destroy the new Steed, and the rest would pass on to Shadowfax. The weapons fired…and bounced off.

  “What did I just see?” she demanded.

  “I don’t know,” the TacCom admitted, looking back at her with a single eyestalk.

  “Some strange fluke?” Captain Glashpooka asked.

  “Hit it again!” Paka yelled.

  This time ten particle beams lashed out…and they all bounced off!

  “Coordinate all ships’ weapons on that battlecruiser,” Paka ordered. Fear made the hair on her muzzle stand up and her whiskers flick. First the strange ships, now this? “Destroy it!”

  The captain made the order, and the fleet fired.

  CIC, EMS Shadowfax, New Warsaw System

  Elizabeth felt an injector jammed into her arm and cried out as medical nanites flooded her body with fire. Clarity returned a few seconds later. Not even bothering to thank whoever did it, she pushed the arm aside and leaned forward in her command chair, her brain racing to clear her tactical view of the battle. She saw Sphinx with dozens of high energy weapons beams bouncing off her shields like an old sci-fi movie, and she wondered if she had brain damage.

  “Sphinx says it’s a system Dr. Sato installed before he disappeared,” Evie told her.

  Elizabeth noted dimly that her XO had been the one to give her a nanite jolt. She struggled to understand how a ship could just deflect weapons’ fire with some sort of gimmick the loony scientist installed. Then she saw her XO look up, eyes wide in surprise. Elizabeth turned and saw Patrick floating in the open CIC hatchway.

  She was excited to see him up, then she saw his body language and black expression. “Patrick? You okay?”

  He didn’t look at her, instead he reached out with both hands and touched the CIC bulkhead. “I mUst acT!” he said in an ethereal voice that she felt in the core of her being. His eyes began to glow, and sparks jumped from his fingertips.

  The Tri-V drew her attention away from him as she felt the ship maneuver. Suddenly the five Egleesius, even the ones critically damaged, were all moving in perfect coordination. The CIC bridge lights dimmed.

  “I’ve lost helm!”

  “Weapons are off-line.”

  “The spinal mount is overloading!” Evie said.

  Elizabeth looked from Patrick to the Tri-V, her mouth beginning to form a question. All five Egleesius fired as one.

  * * *

  CIC, BMS Trushista, New Warsaw System

  “All beam weapons are ineffective,” TacCom announced.

  “Then use missiles, you idiot!” Paka all but screamed.

  “Ready a missile barrage,” Captain Glashpooka ordered, rasping his radula in distaste at his commander’s public show of emotion.

  “Standby,” the TacCom said.

  “The enemy battlecruisers,” SitCon said, and the five Egleesius were immediately the center of the Tri-V focus.

  Paka gawked as the five ships changed bearing in perfectly synchronized motion. They reminded her of the Kalta birds native to the Veetanho home world. Only the Kalta birds didn’t fire 40-terawatt particle accelerator spinal mounts in equally perfect precision. She just had time to open her mouth to speak a warning when the beams struck.

  The other battleship was hit precisely in its main engineering section. The Egleesius ships not only fired in precision, their angles adjusted while firing, delivering all 200-terawatts of energy to the same point. Shields failed in a split second, and the beams cut through the battleship’s armor and into its engineering section. As the beams penetrated, the Egleesius ships performed a tiny spin, widening the damage to ravage the battleship’s engineering section.

  Eight of the battleship’s twelve fusion reactors were breached, filling the engine rooms with star-hot plasma, setting off scores of rampaging secondary explosions. The battleship ruptured like an overripe melon.

  “Defensive screen!” Paka ordered, and the screening cruisers and battlecruisers moved to intercept positions, changing focus from the untouchable battlecruiser to the strangely acting Egleesius, all of which accelerated and began maneuvering in excess of 10 Gs, making them much more difficult targets.

  The swarms of missiles intended for Sphinx were instead launched against the Egleesius ships, which swept them from space with unbelievable accuracy. Nearly every laser fired by the Egleesius ships hit a missile, and all were destroyed before they could get to the ships. Paka had only ever seen such a display of accuracy.

  “Ghost!” she hissed. The damned AI was controlling all five Egleesius at once! I should have thought of that, she realized in horror, but the damned AI hadn’t done it in the previous battles. With Alexis out of the game, she’d been counting on the AI’s inability to affect the battle. She’d never completely understood how it worked, anyway. When it hadn’t produced any magic as dozens of the Hussars’ ships died, she’d ceased worrying about it. It was a mistake.

  “Withdraw behind the screen,” she ordered.

  “Our screen will have to stand in the face of their fire,” Glashpooka said.

  “Do it,” Paka said.

  Glashpooka stared at her with all three eyes.

  “Do it, or I will relieve you on the spot!”

  Many eyes in the CIC turned to regard their captain, and the Veetanho placed in charge of their ship. A moment passed before Glashpooka passed along the order.

  “Prepare for high-G maneuvers,” the battleship’s automated system announced as the ship’s engines poured power into the void. The escort ships moved to screen the battleship, and the five Egleesius killed them in ones and twos.

  “We’ll join up with the dreadnought’s squadron,” Paka said to herself, not aware the Bakulu were listening. “The entropy-cursed AI can’t defeat the dreadnought, even with five Egleesius.”

  * * *

  CIC, EMS Shadowfax, New Warsaw System

  “We have injuries all over the ship!” Evie said with a groan as she fought the effects of the intermittently horrendous gravity. Every tactically important system on Shadowfax was no longer under their control; the announcement to warn the crew about coming maneuvers had to be passed via the damage control teams. Some sections hadn’t gotten it in time; others were simply unable to resist 10 Gs of force.

  “Have medical do what they can,” Elizabeth said helplessly. Her seat was one of the most padded in the CIC, and she was still in hell. She carefully turned her head and saw her boyfriend, only she was sure it wasn’t him anymore. Shortly after he’d shown up and started talking like a horror film—glowing eyes and all—robots had appeared out of the walls and created a support framework for him that responded to each maneuver to minimize the effects on him.

  All the captains in the Winged Hussars had heard of the Ghost which haunted Pegasus. Some even spread rumors of how Alexis was friends with it. Elizabeth never believed in her wildest dreams that Ghost was real, though, or that some kind of poltergeist could possess people. Patrick, why you? she wondered.

  “Status on Sphinx?” she asked her XO.

  “Captain Jameson reports no damage from enemy fire, only overloaded power systems. He’s still fully operational.”

  Shadowfax maneuvered so hard to the side Elizabeth felt ribs pop. She cried out and held onto her couch arms so tight she felt her fingernails crack. He’s going to kill us trying to save us, she thought.

  “The enemy battleship is disengaging,” TacCom said. “The Egl
eesius are destroying the screening ships wholesale.”

  Elizabeth could see her TacCom coughing up blood. The med tech who had reached the CIC was lying on the floor, possibly dead herself. She saw another wave of missiles from the enemy escorts. Her ship and the other Egleesius swatted them from the black with ease. One laser, one missile destroyed. What was a space battle like in these ships’ heyday? she wondered.

  She watched her command station’s little Tri-V; her head was G-locked in place, and she couldn’t see the main one. On the display, the twenty-odd Dusman ships darted around the battleship, joining in the slaughter of the enemy’s screening ships.

  Elizabeth might have blacked out for a minute because she realized she was floating in zero G, and a med tech was attaching a medical scanner to her arm. “What happened?” she asked, gasping. Every breath felt like there was a knife sliding between her ribs.

  “We’re adrift,” the med tech said. “The DC teams are working on it, but nothing is working right now.”

  “Did we get hit?” Elizabeth asked.

  “No,” Evie said, floating into view. The right side of her XO’s face was a nasty, bloody bruise, and blood matted her hair. “The enemy screen is destroyed, and the battleship is running to join the dreadnought’s squadron. As soon as it moved away, he relinquished control of the ship’s main system.” Evie nodded to where Patrick still floated, but the bots were gone.

  His eyes glowed dimly, and static discharges leaped from his fingertips where they floated near the CIC wall.

  “Why don’t we have control?” she asked.

  “The computer’s OS has been completely overwritten. We’re trying to rig a workaround, but we have nearly fifty percent casualties.”

  Elizabeth noted the majority of her command crew was incapacitated. Her DCC officer, Ensign Todd Stone, who’d only come aboard during the attack on Earth, was dead. A med tech had wrapped a blanket over his head and torso, and it was stained crimson.

  “Do you know what Patr…do you know what he’s still controlling?” Elizabeth asked, looking at what had once been her boyfriend.

  “We have no control over the high-gain comms. All five Egleesius are transiting toward Prime Base.”

  “But not to Prime Base?”

  “No,” Tesk’l, her comms officer said. The Aposa had a med tech working on her. Both arms were obviously broken, with one an ugly compound break. She winced continuously as she continued to do her duty using her pinplants. “It looks to me like the target is either the shipyard, or the parking zone.”

  “But no warships or combat assets are there,” Evie said.

  Elizabeth’s eyes got wide. “No conventional assets.” She gestured to Tesk’l. “I know you’re hurt, but can you focus a telescope there? If they’re working.”

  “Sure,” Tesk’l said, her fur glistening from sweat. She closed her eyes, and the big Tri-V changed to show a swinging view. It stabilized and began to zoom in quickly, making Elizabeth dizzy. “Coming up in a second.”

  The shipyards with their manufactories came into view, as did a series of asteroids the Hussars used as moorings for ships under construction or needing repairs. Several also served as temporary warehouses for construction stores. Elizabeth knew what had been there. Seven incomplete warships in various stages of construction, the Hippogriff—which was being repaired after an earlier action—and one more ship.

  “Hippogriff is missing,” Evie noted.

  Elizabeth nodded, then pointed. “Tesk’l, can you focus on grid 5-A?” The view moved and zoomed a little more. A ship which looked a lot like an Egleesius was under power, its fusion torches burning as it moved away from the mooring area.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Evie asked.

  “Yes,” Elizabeth said. “It’s the Keesius. The other one almost destroyed Capital Planet.”

  On the Tri-V, the doomsday ship continued to accelerate.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Fifteen

  CIC, EMS Revenge, New Warsaw System

  “They didn’t destroy the dreadnought,” Captain Gallagher noted, “but at least they damaged it some.”

  Nigel raised an eyebrow at the ship’s captain. “Will it be enough?”

  Freeman started to shake his head but stopped. “I don’t know,” he said after a second. “The ship’s damaged, but it looks like the crew—and the ship—has still got plenty of fight in them. I’ll get you as close as I can…but it’s got a lot of active defenses on it you’re going to have to get through.”

  “Do what you can,” Nigel said with a shrug. “That’s all I can ask of you.” He looked at the Tri-V a moment. “Looks like the War Pony’s at least holding up with us.”

  “Aye, the War Pony’s hanging in there like a champ,” Gallagher said.

  The Horde’s transport was an older model and had seen plenty of use, Nigel knew. Walker had told him before they’d left that it might be a struggle for them to keep up. It was only lightly armed and shielded, and it had never been meant to be taken into combat like this. Walker and the Horde troopers with him had all of Nigel’s respect for being willing to ride it into battle.

  Nigel nodded. “Well, with both the Horde and us launching pods, hopefully at least some of us will make it through.”

  “What the hell’s that?” the sensor tech exclaimed.

  “What is it, O’Neill?” the CO asked.

  “Sir, we just got overflown by what looks like almost twenty little ships!”

  “Ours or theirs?” the CO asked, tension in his voice.

  “Ours…I think,” O’Neill replied. “Looks like they’re setting up for a run on the dreadnought, but they weren’t part of the plan.”

  “See if you can get hold of them.”

  “Got ‘em,” said the comms tech after a moment.

  “This is Ferret One,” a voice Nigel recognized as Thorb’s said. “We will make a hole for you. Tell Walker no one goes to the light alone.”

  The CO nodded. “You better get to your pod, Colonel,” he said. “We’re almost there, and even if they’re able to knock down some of the defenses, things may get…rough.”

  * * *

  Zhest Squadron, New Warsaw System

  Peskall smiled, his tiny sharp teeth glinting in the cockpit fluid. “Come around, bearing 1-7 mark 1-1-4,” he said.

  “The dreadnought?” Bruxo asked.

  “Yes,” Peskall answered.

  “Oh, this is awesome,” Buzz cackled.

  “Nobody lives forever,” Dapple said.

  “Only fourteen of us left,” Wisp reminded them.

  “Plenty more Zhest,” Peskall said.

  “Just nobody to fly them,” Neagle noted.

  Peskall grunted and watched the squadron, in Akee, come about at 85 Gs, then push their drives to their top speed of 200 Gs.

  “Yesssss!” Lyra screamed in exultation.

  “After so long, we get to fight!” Zeeta agreed.

  “Too bad it isn’t the adversary,” Jocko lamented.

  “Bite your tongue,” Burro said.

  “He’s right,” Shiroi said. “The last thing we want is that.”

  “Is it?” Wisp asked. “We’ve all heard what Seldia and Splunk have said.”

  “K’apo are crazy,” Sadoo said.

  “And Splunk?” Peskall asked. Silence greeted them all.

  “I’m down to forty-four percent fuel,” Stryker noted. “A few of us have more, but I think I’m the lowest.”

  “I’d like to know where the dreadnought came from,” Skye said.

  “They’re trying to find that out on Earth,” Peskall told them. “Sly told me just before we launched.”

  “There were twenty-eight of us then,” Shiroi said. “Only fourteen now.”

  “Enough,” Peskall said, and worked his comms. It wasn’t easy to interface with the Humans’ pathetic system. They used so many frequencies and systems, it was amazing they could manage to coordinate any kind of fleet action. He chose a series of freque
ncies the Humans were using to coordinate their command. Their squadron of Zhest would be in range within a few minutes.

  * * *

  CIC, Prime Base, New Warsaw System

  “Commander?” Comms called. “I have…”

  “What is it?” Aleksandra asked. She hadn’t taken her eyes away from the Tri-V showing Major Kratlik’s force of 100 assault shuttles accelerating toward the dreadnought and its escorts. In minutes they’d be within enemy range.

  “They say they’re a squadron of Zhest; whatever that is.”

  Aleksandra scowled at the comms tech. The last thing she needed right then was craziness.

  “The pilot identifies as Peskal and says Sly told you to expect him? He also provided their coordinates.”

  The Tri-V flashed a sector of the battlefield showing a series of unspecific targets. The computer was struggling to identify how many or even their precise course. The comms tech lifted a hand. “Hold a second, I have Captain Wolfsong of Sir Barton.”

  “Go ahead, Captain Wolfsong,” Aleksandra said. “Situation update?”

  “We’ve defeated the enemy fleet out here,” Wolfsong said. “But we’ve suffered more than fifty percent losses, including the Alicorn.” There were gasps from around the CIC and Aleksandra sighed. “Two of the Egleesius are also out of action, and all are experiencing system failures. Something happened; I can’t explain it.”

  “Do you know anything about these ships called Zhest?” she asked.

  “We called them Lightships. They headed in your direction.”

  “Thanks, we needed confirmation.” She turned to the comms officer. “Put them through.”

  “Human commander? We were expecting the one named Kowalczy.”

  “He’s gone,” Aleksandra said.