Countdown by John Walker (feel good fiction books txt) 📗

freak. Rita sat on the bed. I’ll let him stew before accepting his offer. Then… well, I’ll save the rest of the galaxy from him. Even if that means I don’t make it out of there, Loch won’t survive the rest of the month. I promise.

Chapter 6

Sasha rubbed the back of his neck in a vain attempt to fend off a kink forming just beneath his skull. They’d been flying for a good forty minutes, drawing ever closer to the asteroid field. Of the two ervas ships pursuing them, the one with no damage drew nearer but remained just out of firing range.

“Sir,” Daisy said, “we’ve performed a full analysis of the device attached to the hull. It’s on a timer of some sort. Every one hundred twenty minutes, it would discharge. Even if we went into hyperspace right now, it would drag us out in less than an hour and a half. And… it’s also busting out a homing signal.”

“And it sends that signal through hyperspace?” Sasha asked.

“Affirmative. That part… I don’t understand. But it does paint a disturbing possibility. They may have communications while they’re in hyperspace.”

Wow.

“I see. Well, file that away.” Sasha paused as a half dozen rocks burned up on the shields.

We’re here.

He ran his own scan of the field then plotted a course through the field. This had been a tactic he’d used before against a Confed fighting force. Two destroyers had gone down during that fight.

“Marston,” Sasha sent a course to his console, “follow that precisely. Reduce speed by twenty-two percent.”

“Yes, sir.” Marston lowered engine power, changing course. “Committing… now.”

“Daisy,” Sasha turned to her, “get me three probes rigged for detonation. On my mark, drop them.” He kept an eye on the field density. The larger the rocks, the better. Those happened to be nearer the center. Their path forward took them through to the other side safely. Which wouldn’t be the case for the ervas vessel.

“They are following us,” Marston announced. “They’ve entered the field as well.”

“Be sure to follow that course precisely,” Sasha said. The shields lit up on the left. A proximity alarm went off. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll hear it a lot as we fly through here. Just maintain your focus. Daisy? Are my probes ready yet?”

“Affirmative.”

“Excellent, and the hyperdrive? How’re they doing on that?”

“Circuit boards have been swapped. Once the sensors came online, it proved out that the drive itself was not damaged. After flying for forty-five minutes, we’re just about charged. But until we get rid of that device…”

“I know,” Sasha interrupted. “We get pulled out and the damn thing gets damaged again.”

The ervas opened fire, main cannons blasting at the Broken Light. Defensive turrets cut into the rocks, clearing their pursuit course. The rocks weren’t big enough to be dangerous but that would all change momentarily. He fully intended to turn the field into a serious hazard, one good enough to even the odds even more.

“Where’s the second ship?”

“Fifteen minutes behind the first,” Daisy replied.

“Excellent.” I’ve got that much time to finish this fight… to buy some time for the Engineering team to cut our leash. The next few moments played out like a game of chicken. The first couple attacks were clean misses but they’d zero in soon. And when they did, they had a clear shot at the thrusters.

Dropping probes at the wrong time might well make the effort pointless. We’re nearly halfway through. This is probably as good a time as any.

“Deploy the probes,” Sasha said. “Standby to detonate on my mark.” The enemy vessel would take roughly five minutes to catch up to the stationary devices. They scored a solid hit as he contemplated the situation, one directly above and in the rear of their vessel. Shields held though it gave them a serious shake.

Do these idiots not even care about where I’ve led them? Are they asking the question of why? Or are they so arrogant that they’ve got us it doesn’t matter?

Sasha wondered about the self-preservation of the ervas on several occasions. Their various fights generally included them pulling off something inexplicable… contrary to rationality.

Maybe they don’t think about tricks.

“They’re performing some kind of deep scan,” Daisy said. “I believe they may be attempting to get a lock on us though for what purpose, I can’t say.”

“Does their ship match scans of other vessels like it?” Sasha asked. He believed it did. The silhouette he saw, all the data presented, suggested it was just another ervas battleship. If they had some new weapon, that information would help the rest of the fleet. “Get as much as you can.”

“I’m not seeing anything different,” Daisy replied. “It might be a new block. Oh crap!” They took a solid blow, this one to the thrusters. “Rear shields dropped to forty-five percent in one hit!”

“Did they use their standard cannons?”

“Negative, we are not experiencing the gradual decrease associated with their weapons.”

“Detonate the probes.” Sasha gripped his seat in anticipation. The next step after they did this would not be pretty for anyone involved. Taking advantage of the chaos always made for a serious threat. “Pop them.”

The explosions showed up on their scans. The proximity alert went insane, buzzing for all sides of the ship. “Shut the noise off!” Sasha called out. Asteroids burst in all directions behind them, their course altered wildly.

Scans showed the ervas ship blasting away at the debris, attempting to save themselves from collisions. There were simply too many. The path the Broken Light used was gone. Their course forward was also in jeopardy though they only had another couple minutes to clear it completely.

“Double shields on the starboard and port sides,” Sasha ordered. Once the HUD showed the power had been allocated, he pointed at Marston. “Turn us around to face the