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17

Telco called in and reported that landings had occurred near three of the larger native settlements in the valley, but he couldn’t be sure what the size and scope of the invasion force was, or what the Earth Ark troops were doing with the people. Clement had his suspicions.

Once back in camp Clement ordered Yan to work with Mary to address the people and warn them of what would no doubt be an impending attack. Most of the natives in the camp just looked confused by what they were told. Explaining things the settlers had no concept of was proving difficult. After a few minutes of watching and observing and feeling useless, Clement took Nobli aside.

“Hassan, what’s the possibility of getting our drone up to surveil the Earth Ark forces? Find out what they’re up to?”

“Well, none at the moment, sir. We’ll have to get back to the ship and fire her auxiliary power unit up before we can activate the drone. And even then I’d recommend a high-altitude surveillance. It would lessen the chances that the drone would be picked up by the enemy. If they’re engaged in rounding these people up and putting them to work as slave labor, I doubt they’ll be paying much attention to the sky.”

“But they still know that we’re in the system somewhere, and they’ll be keeping an eye out for us. I want to get a technical team together ASAP and get back to the ship and warm her up. We may have to leave the planet at a moment’s notice. Take Adebayor, Mika, and Ivan with you; they could come in handy if we have to leave in a hurry. I’ll send the technical personnel back as well, and any natives that will heed our warning. Prepare some space for them in the cargo bay. We may have some passengers,” said Clement.

“Aye, sir.”

With that Clement went to find Yan and Mary. The conversations with the native people were difficult, as they simply had no understanding of what an attack from space was. They were a peaceful people, with no needs or wants, and the concept was just completely foreign to them. Telco’s last report indicated that three camps had been assaulted but further incursions seemed to have stopped for the moment. The Earth Ark crew appeared to be consolidating their positions before advancing, but Clement had little doubt that they would. He ordered Telco and Pomeroy to come back down from the Hill Place and prep the pontoon boat for an evacuation.

Within two hours most of the crew was gone on their way back to the Beauregard and only Mary seemed willing to go with them from the natives, and that seemed to be mostly related to her attachment to Yan. He ordered the last of his people to the pontoon boat, but told Yan to tell Mary to stay behind with her people. The native girl seemed disappointed, but she gave Yan a very sensual kiss goodbye and then made off for her camp.

Telco and Pomeroy arrived presently and with that they made for the pontoon boat and loaded up. They headed back to the ship as fast as the boat would go. Clement, for his part, could only be concerned about the native people he had left behind. They were complete innocents, and they would be no match for the Earth Ark troops, when and if they came.


Once back in camp at the Beauregard Clement ordered the boat to be abandoned, except for the engine, in case they returned and wanted to use it again. Telco wasn’t happy at leaving his innovation behind, but started working on removing the engine immediately.

Nobli got the APU working and refired the drone, sending it up to a high orbit, then set its course for a pass over the three settlements the Earth Ark forces had attacked. They waited for reconnaissance photos to be downloaded from the drone. Nobli handed him the first one and Clement placed it down on a light table. It was not promising.

The settlements had been completely destroyed, likely by Directed Energy Weapons from space by the pattern of the burn marks. There was a single fenced-in area that stood as a prison yard, and Clement estimated close to two thousand potential slave workers were inside the barriers.

“Preparing the prisoners for work camps,” said Clement. Nobli nodded.

Yan sighed. “Is this their destiny now?”

“Not if I can help it,” said Clement. “These areas here and here”—he pointed to a group of large equipment stacks—“they look like heavy-drilling equipment, possibly for oil and mining operations.”

“We know where they’re going to get their workforce,” said Nobli, irritated. “How do we stop them?”

“First, we get this ship powered up. Then we get her back in the air, and take it from there,” responded Clement. He looked to his engineer. “How long?”

Nobli checked his watch. “Forty-five minutes estimated to operational status, sir. But then I’d like to run readiness checks, especially on the, uh, weapons system,” he said.

“No time,” replied Clement. “Every second we’re on the ground our heat signature gives us away as an artificial object, a potential target. Get her up and running, and you have my release to cut any corners you like. While we’re on the ground here we’re sitting ducks.”

“Aye, sir,” said Nobli.

Clement looked to Yan. “We may be in for a rough ride. I want the whole bridge crew ready in half an hour, Commander,” he said, returning to the formal use of her rank to indicate his seriousness with the situation.

“Understood, Captain,” she said, then hesitated. “Are you ever going to talk to me about the new weapon you have devised?”

Clement shook his head. “Not now, Commander,” he said, then walked away from her.

Thirty-two minutes later and the bridge crew was assembled with Yan at her station, Mika and Ivan at helm and navigation, and Ensign Adebayor at the engineering station. Clement took his command couch and called down on the com to Ensign Telco in the missile room.

“Prep conventional ordnance, Ensign,” he said. “But don’t load the launch tubes. I don’t want us going down with our belly full up with live warheads.”

“Understood, sir,” replied Telco. “Conventional missiles will be ready on your order, sir, but not until.”

Satisfied, Clement called down to his engineer to check on the drive and his new weapon.

“All drives are humming, sir. I can give you Xenon thrusters, the main Ion plasma drive, or the LEAP drive at your discretion, Captain. We can really go at any time now,” said Nobli.

“And the weapon?” said Clement, quietly.

“Same status as the engines, sir.”

“Confirmed, Engineer,” he said, then signed off. He hit the ship-wide com. “All stations, prepare for launch. I say again, prepare for launch. Be advised the ship may come under attack at any time. Be ready. That is all,” he stated. He turned to Yan. “Final report, Exec.”

“My board is green, Captain,” said Yan. Clement turned to Mika Ori at the helm.

“Take us up, Pilot,” he ordered.

“Aye, sir,” she replied, then started the launch process. She took the ship nearly straight up using the thrusters, then activated the Ion plasma once they cleared the atmosphere. Seven minutes later they were in a high orbit, nearly twenty-five hundred kilometers, where hopefully they’d be looking down on their enemies.

“Ensign Adebayor, your task is to find and identify the Earth Ark location,” Clement ordered. Adebayor acknowledged and began her scan. “Navigator, maintain high orbit over the planet. I want us to have the high ground in any conflict.”

“Aye, sir,” said Massif.

Mika Ori put the ship in motion, taking a longitudinal path that would put them over the slave encampments in sixteen minutes.

“Report, Ensign,” he demanded of Adebayor after a few minutes of silence.

“No indication of the Earth Ark in orbit over Bellus, sir. No trace gasses, no propellant expended. I can’t find anything, sir,” she said.

Clement looked to Yan.

“Has she moved on?”

“Possible,” Yan replied. “Leave just enough muscle here to do the job, then return to their initial objective.”

“Which was Alphus if I recall. But why? Bellus has everything, resource-wise, that they could want. Slave labor, water, ample food stocks, minerals, energy sources . . . Alphus is a rougher environment, with only a strip of land at the edges of the habitable zone fit for colonization.”

“Something else must have come up.”

“Like what?” He turned to Adebayor again. “Expand your search away from Bellus, Ensign. Find me that Ark ship.”

“Aye, sir,” Adebayor said, and started manipulating her displays. “Permission to use the radio telescope?”

“Granted,” he said. The ship moved on with silence among the bridge crew, all busy doing their duties. It was Yan who announced the first signs of trouble.

“Forward scans from the drone are picking up blips over the settlements, Captain. By displacement they look like the light attack clippers, and . . . ” she hesitated, “three larger displacement vessels in stationary orbits, Captain.”

“Let me see them,” Clement ordered. The tactical screen lit up with a description and cross section of the three unidentified vessels. They were about three times the size of the Beauregard, and they were emitting alarming radiation signals.

“Light cruisers by displacement, and they have nukes,” said Clement, a worried tone in his voice. “How many LACs, Yan?”

“Twenty clippers, sir. And three large transport ships.”

“Those will be for the ground troops for the initial occupation. Have they seen us yet?”

“No change in their status, sir,” reported Yan.

“Full stop, Mika. Recall the drone. What’s our distance to the flotilla?”

“Seven minutes, sir,” said Yan.

“Ensign Adebayor, anything on the Earth Ark?”

“Nothing yet, sir.”

“All right, they don’t know we’re here and so we have the advantage, for now.” He went to the com and called down to Nobli. “I need you in the galley, Engineer.” Nobli acknowledged. He followed that with a call down to Telco to join them. “Yan, Mika, to the galley please. Ivan, you and Adebayor maintain status here. Let me know immediately if anything changes.”

“You don’t want me in the war conference?” asked Ivan in his Russian accent. He seemed offended.

Clement had no time for his feelings. “This concerns the pilot, not the navigator, Ivan. I need you to stay on top of things here, and plot us an escape course, just in case things go wrong. I need my senior officers on one page,” he said.

“Understood, sir,” said Massif, reluctantly. Mika squeezed his arm as she slipped by, following Yan and Clement off the bridge and down the six steps to the galley deck.


Once they were all settled Clement started in immediately. “We’re facing three light cruisers that have about three times our total conventional weapons displacement each and an additional twenty light attack clippers. Combined, their flotilla probably has anywhere from eight to ten times our ordnance to deliver, plus those cruisers have nukes and we don’t. The transport ships probably have Directed Energy Weapons for ground support but I doubt they have missiles, so they’re immaterial to a space battle. The Earth Ark appears to have bugged out for the moment. I need a strategy, one that will work for this confrontation. What’s our conventional missile count, Ensign Telco?”

“We have forty-eight conventional missiles left, sir,” said Telco. “I don’t know if that’s enough to take out this flotilla.”

“It’s not,” said Clement flatly. He turned to his exec. “Opinion, Commander Yan?”

“It seems to me we have to deal with those cruisers first, then the LACs. The cruisers have tactical nukes, so getting them off the battlefield seems like our first priority.”

“Agreed. Engineer Nobli? Any ideas on how we make that happen?”

“The MAD weapon,” said Nobli. “It seems our only option.”

“A weapon we’ve never fired, and that we don’t even know if it will work?”

“You asked for my best option, Captain. I’ve just given it to you,” Nobli said, then adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses and looked away.

“What is the MAD weapon?” asked Mika.

Clement became pensive, but he answered anyway. There was a time for everything to be revealed, and it seemed this was it. “Matter Annihilation Device, MAD. Essentially a sort of universal death ray. It will annihilate matter at a molecular level. We end up channeling the energy from the LEAP drive reactor into a particle beam. There’s a shut-off valve that will end the stream, and we fire it through the old cobra cannon pipelines that have been treated with a carbon-nanotube coating. But essentially, it’s a line-of-sight weapon, and not suitable for tactical targeting. Kind of like swatting a wasp with a sledgehammer. If you hit it, the target is done. If you miss . . . ” He trailed off.

“Jesus Christ,” said Yan. “Did DeVore give you this thing?”

Clement shook his head. “No. Engineer Nobli worked out the specs and built the piping for it on the outward leg. Essentially, it’s a one-of-a-kind prototype, just like this ship.”

“And let me guess, it’s never been tested?” said Mika.

“Correct.”

“So if it misfires, or blows up . . . ”

“You can pretty much say goodbye to a large section of this solar system,” said Clement. “But I see it as the only possibility for our success in this scenario, Pilot.” He finished.

“Are you expecting me to target this weapon?” she asked.

Clement shook his head. “No Mika, I wouldn’t lay that responsibility on you. I will target the weapon. I only need you to fly us into the enemy formation. My hope is we only have to fire it once and we can hopefully get all three cruisers before they target us. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. But they will see us coming. With that much time it will be difficult to get the ship into a prime firing position,” she said.

“I understand that, Mika.” Clement turned back to his engineer. “We need the element of surprise, Hassan. We can’t get it using conventional means. That flotilla will cut us up before we get a chance to fire.”

“So you’re asking me if we can use ‘unconventional’ means?” Nobli asked.

Clement nodded. “Can we use the LEAP drive like we did before, to jump a short distance through normal space, and then appear right in front of our targets, convert the drive to the MAD weapon, and take out the three cruisers?”

“You’re insane,” said Nobli, dead serious. “It would be easier to find the Earth Ark and take it out than to do this to free a few thousand captives. The scale of the MAD weapon keeps us from close, tactical warfare. It’s a weapon of mass destruction, like using a sledgehammer for swatting wasps, as you said. You’re asking the impossible, Captain.”

“I do, Engineer,” replied Clement. “That’s why I brought you along. I expect a plan presented to me on the bridge in thirty minutes, and I want you all to stay here until you have it.” Then he stood and walked away, heading down to the technical labs.


He found Lieutenant Pomeroy in the sick bay.

“You didn’t invite me to your little soiree,” she said.

“It’s a small room,” he snapped back, deflecting her fake hurt feelings.

“I have something important to share with you,” she said.

“Is it about the upcoming battle?”

“No . . . ” She hesitated. “Not exactly.”

He held up his hand. “Then it can wait. I know I’ve asked you for a lot of things that are out of your usual range of skills on this mission—”

“You have,” she said, cutting in. He looked at her. She was plain-faced, rail thin and lean, with her dark hair pulled tightly back into a ponytail. She wasn’t the kind of woman to be trifled with, he decided.

“What I need from you now is an estimate of how many of the natives might be killed if we take out that flotilla. There could be hundreds of troops on the ground already, based on the size of those transport ships. And if they decide they are vulnerable to attack from above . . . ”

“Would they slaughter their captives? Unlikely, in my opinion. That’s their workforce. But if they think we’re going to attack them from the high ground, they could panic, depending on how well trained and disciplined they are,” she said.

“From what I’ve seen I’m going to assume they are disciplined, experienced troops.”

“Then I would say, don’t threaten them. Take out the flotilla but leave them alone.”

“Let them keep the captives?”

She nodded. “For now, yes, sir. The units on the ground we observed from the Hill Place looked fairly sophisticated, with equipment and armored vehicles. I say leave them alone, then make your way to deal with the Earth Ark, and whatever that problem may entail.”

“And come back to free the natives later?”

She looked pensive. “If we survive the encounter with the Earth Ark, yes, sir.”

Clement nodded. “I suppose it’s irrelevant to ask how ill prepared we might be for a mass-casualty event?”

“Not irrelevant, sir, but the answer is clearly that we aren’t. Anything much more than weapons burns or a skinned knee is going to be beyond our medical scope,” she replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Understood. One more question. Those transport ships, they have no heavy armaments but they do have DEW weapons.”

“‘DEW’ weapons, sir?” she asked, inquisitive.

“Directed Energy Weapons. To be used from space on a specific target. Do you think you and Ensign Telco could take the shuttle over and use that kind of weapon to free the settlers? Take down the fence lines and such? At least give them a chance to escape?” Clement asked.

“We can surely try sir, if those transports are empty.”

“I’m willing to bet at least one of them is, Lieutenant. Draw up a contingency plan. We may need to use it, and read in Telco on the mission specs.”

“Aye, sir.”

Clement nodded again and started to walk away when Pomeroy grabbed him by the arm. He turned back to her.

“Lieutenant?”

“That ‘something important’ I mentioned before?”

Clement exhaled heavily but nodded for her to continue.

“I’m no biologist, and certainly not a DNA specialist of any kind, but I do have an abnormal finding about the settlers that I think you should know about, sir,” Pomeroy said.

“The science can wait,” he said, and started to turn away again.

She stopped him a second time. “Not this science, sir,” she said. He gave her his full attention now, sensing this was important. “I ran a DNA test on Mary while we were on the planet, sir. It was an exact match for a DNA sample I pulled from a settler burial mound, from a bone on one of the lowest layers. Just out of interest, I ran a carbon dating test on the ancient bone fragment, sir. The test was anomalous, so I ran it two more times.”

“How anomalous?”

“Sir, the date came back the same on all three tests. The bone fragment was aged at over four hundred years.”

Clement’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand. Four hundred years is an impossible number. There were no colonization missions from Earth until a couple of centuries ago,” he said.

“So we assumed. Sir, I’m no expert, but even I can see that these people were designed for this planet, by someone.”

Clement did some quick math in his head. “So either someone on Earth had FTL technology far earlier than has been let on, or some unknown power back in the day had extensive knowledge of this system and sent pre-designed people here on a generation ship.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s something we’ll have to ponder on another day, Lieutenant. Right now I have bigger problems, like three nuclear-armed cruisers orbiting the planet,” finished Clement, and then he was gone.

“Yes, sir,” said Pomeroy to Clement’s retreating back.


Clement was back on the bridge a minute later, waiting on the attack strategy from his team. He took in a deep breath, thinking about the information he had just received from Pomeroy, but it couldn’t change his resolve. It was an issue for another day.

Presently the team returned to the bridge with their attack plan. They gathered at Yan’s station. Clement motioned for Ivan Massif to join them. It was Nobli who started the presentation.

“Based on our previous short jump, by using a .000086 second microburst from the LEAP drive we can move the ship approximately twenty thousand kilometers from our current location to another position in space. The navigator, however, will have to keep us on the same plane of the ecliptic relative to the planet, or we could end up passing through the enemy vessels, which would be very bad for obvious reasons. We need clear space on a specific plane to make the maneuver. I will be able to program the LEAP drive burst to occur on your command, through the MAD application on your console. I’ll need about five minutes to complete that update,” Nobli stated.

Clement turned to his navigator. “Ivan, can you do this?”

Massif nodded. “Aye, sir. I can plot and lock our course so that we are clear of the enemy flotilla when we make our move.” Clement acknowledged that with a nod in return and then Mika Ori took over the briefing.

“We’ll need to move the ship within their range of vision so they can see us and start to make their move. If they come at us with the clippers first then our maneuver will place us behind the cruisers, which should give us clear shots at them. However, if they lead with the cruisers and then we pop up behind them, we’ll have to fight our way through all the clippers, and that could take away our advantage of surprise and leave us exposed to their nukes. So no matter how it plays out, we’ll have to be nimble, quick, and decisive,” she said.

“Agreed. We only have one shot at this, people, let’s make it work to our advantage. One more thing, I’ve ordered Lieutenant Pomeroy and Middie Telco on a separate mission with the shuttle, once the shooting stops, to take over one of their transports. They appear to have DEW weapons on board and I’m betting at least one of them is empty based on the number of troops we observed on the ground. I’m proposing that we take one of the transports and then use the DEW weapons to free the natives and at least give them a chance to escape captivity. Once we finish this operation we’ll be off to hunt the Earth Ark, and the natives will be on their own,” said Clement.

“Natives? You mean settlers?” quizzed Yan.

Clement gave her a brief glance of disapproval, indicating he didn’t want to pursue this course of conversation. “I want to give them a fighting chance, Commander, until, or if, we can return,” he said. She noted his change of tone on the subject. Clement called to the only other person on the bridge.

“Ensign Adebayor, please report on the Earth Ark,” he ordered.

Adebayor turned to the group. “No physical sighting as of yet, sir. But I have picked up trace elements of their drive emissions. They appear to be heading outward from the inner system, on a course toward the third inhabitable world, Camus. I’d say they have half a day’s head start on us, sir,” she said.

“Thank you, Ensign, keep tracking until you find her.” Adebayor acknowledged and returned to her scanning console. Clement turned his attention back to his tactical group.

“All the more reason we need to start moving this plan along. Can we be ready in fifteen minutes?”

“I can,” said Nobli. The others nodded assent.

“Very well, so ordered.” Clement looked up at the ship’s clock and used the console controls to set the timer. “Fifteen minutes from my mark . . . mark.” He turned to Ori. “Mika, I want you to take us toward the flotilla, but take us slowly. We want plenty of time for them to see us and then reveal their strategy, clear?”

“Clear, sir,” she replied, then the group broke up to their stations.

The waiting was interminable for Clement. Yan left the bridge and then returned after coordinating the shuttle mission with Pomeroy and Telco. Nobli took almost the full fifteen minutes to program the LEAP drive jump app. Clement then changed his mind and had Nobli load it onto Massif’s console.

“I’ll just give the order, Ivan. I want you to carry it out,” he said. It was a change of heart, but the local LEAP jumps were the navigator’s job anyway. Firing the MAD weapon, however, was a larger moral choice and one he wanted to reserve for himself.

As the clock ran out on their prep Clement gave the order to Mika Ori to move the ship closer to the flotilla, following Massif’s pre-designated course.

“Slow but sure, Mika,” he said.

“Estimate three minutes until they spot us, sir,” she replied.

“Keep a clear pathway for us to jump, Pilot,” he reiterated.

“As you say, sir,” she said with a wry smile, noting her captain’s obvious nervousness at the situation.

The flotilla quickly picked up on their movements and started breaking into attack formations. The light attack clippers formed into three groups, each group protecting one of the cruisers. Two of the groups, containing seven clippers each, broke off and began accelerating toward the Beauregard, while a third group with six clippers held back near the transports, no doubt protecting the command cruiser of the flotilla.

“That’s not what we planned for,” said Clement. “Time to rethink our strategy.”

“Instructions, sir?” asked Ori.

He pondered the situation for a moment, then came to a quick decision. “Pick the nearest subgroup that maintains our line of sight for the LEAP jump and make for them.” He hit the com button to the missile room. “Ensign Telco, load all missile tubes.”

“Missile tubes loading, aye, sir,” came the response.

Clement waited while the tubes loaded up and his board went to green, one by one, then switched his attention to the tactical display as Mika maneuvered the ship closer to the nearest battle group.

“How long—” he started.

“Thirty seconds to firing range of our missiles,” interrupted Ori, all business. The clippers were now placing themselves between the Beauregard and the first enemy cruiser. Clement decided to put the hammer down early. He looked down at his console again. All green on the missile tubes. He glanced over at Mika, who was watching her range clock countdown to under five seconds. When the clock hit zero Clement used his console to fire the missiles, then he turned to Ori.

“Accelerate us toward that cruiser, Mika. I want us inside the detonation range of their nukes so they can’t use them without destroying themselves.”

“That range would be about twenty kilometers, sir,” said Mika, manipulating her controls at the captain’s order. Clement felt the tug of gravity as the ship accelerated at a rapid rate toward the cruiser and its tiny flotilla. The clippers scattered as the Beauregard’s missiles homed in on them. The first missiles detonated and destroyed two of the clippers. Three more scattered and avoided direct hits but still took damage from the collective blasts. The last pair of clippers ran from the scene, circling back to protect their cruiser.

“Take us right at the cruiser Mika,” said Clement. “Accelerate to 1.5 gs.” He hit the com to contact Telco again. “Have you got my missiles reloaded, Ensign?” he asked.

“Aye, sir,” replied Telco. “You may fire at will.”

Clement turned to Yan. “Target the cruiser with all six missiles, Commander,” he ordered.

“Aye, sir,” she acknowledged with a grave look on her face.

Clement turned quickly back to Mika Ori at the navigation console. “Distance to the cruiser,” he demanded.

“Twelve hundred kilometers,” she replied.

“How long—”

“Three minutes twenty seconds to optimal range,” she replied.

“That’s a lot of time to prep and fire a nuke,” Yan commented.

Clement turned back to his executive officer. “Then let’s give them something else to deal with,” he said. “Firing all missiles.”

Yan nodded in reply. “Missiles away, sir,” she said.

Clement watched on his tactical screen as the six missiles left the Beauregard’s launch bay, heading directly for the cruiser. They would arrive at their target much sooner than the Beauregard could.

The Beauregard screamed past the five damaged and destroyed clippers, still accelerating and closing on the main cruiser. The second cruiser group was in turn closing on the Beauregard but was still out of their effective missile range. The two functional clippers from the first cruiser’s flotilla desperately attempted to get between the Beauregard’s missiles and their cruiser. They fired Directed Energy Weapons and antimissile torpedoes into the path of the oncoming ordnance, but it was too little and too late. One of the clippers got caught in the detection path of one of the Beauregard’s oncoming missiles and it veered off, attracted by the clipper’s engine heat signature. The resulting explosion was spectacular. This caused the Earth cruiser to change course away from the debris field of the clipper. She also had to decelerate, which only put her more and more into the Beauregard’s sights.

Two more of the Beauregard’s missiles veered off and struck the last undamaged clipper defending the Earth cruiser, totally destroying her. The cruiser was now hopelessly out of position, her midships exposed to the Beauregard’s final three conventional missiles. They hit her broadside and she went up in a sparkling explosion as her interior compartments were exposed to the vacuum of space, venting both oxygen and fuel, not to mention her personnel. She was at least crippled; at worst she was doomed and spinning now down toward the atmosphere of Bellus. But she still had an unfired nuclear missile and that made her a danger, especially to the settlers below.

“Bring us about, Pilot,” said Clement. “Pursuit course.”

“Sir?” asked Mika, questioning.

“She has an unfired nuke, Pilot, and we have to take her out before she hits the planet,” he explained.

Mika acknowledged without a word and started the process of turning the ship toward the falling cruiser.

“Sir,” warned Massif. “That will take us out of range for our LEAP jump.”

Clement was nonplussed. “Then you’ll have to recalculate from our expected intercept position for the cruiser, Ivan.” Massif nodded, even though he was clearly unhappy. Clement knew his people and how well they did their jobs, even if they complained about it.

The ship and the crew strained against the new g-forces in play to intercept the falling cruiser. After two minutes Ori got the ship in line to fire and the acceleration rate reduced back to 1 g.

“In range to fire, Captain,” said Ori. “But we’re dangerously close to her detonation range.”

Clement said nothing to that as his tactical screen showed him the same info. He called down to Ensign Telco. “Load one missile, Ensign. Once she’s fired I want you to reload all the tubes, all six of them, understood?”

“Yes, sir,” said Telco. “Your missile will be ready to fire in ten seconds.”

Clement turned back to Yan again. “Target her remaining fuel, Commander, or what you think may be her missile bays. Prepare to fire on my command.”

Yan acknowledged as Clement watched the tactical screen, waiting for the green light from Telco. Once he got it he didn’t hesitate for a second, but took command.

“Firing!” he said. The missile was away, screaming toward the crippled cruiser.

“Get us out of here, Pilot!” ordered Clement.

The ship veered away at high acceleration again, pulling almost three gs, bearing loosely on the course that Navigator Massif had laid out for her. Clement switched the tactical screen to reverse angle as he watched the Beauregard’s missile close on the Earth cruiser. The resulting explosion totally destroyed the cruiser and a secondary explosion, a nuclear fireball, consumed everything within twenty kilometers around the cruiser, including one of the damaged clippers that was trying to rally back to its mother ship. The remaining two damaged clippers ran from the field of battle as quickly as they could. Once the Beauregard was back on Massif’s preferred course Clement ordered Ori to decelerate the ship. The second incoming battle group was still a good ten thousand kilometers out, but closing. The command cruiser was still a quarter of the way around the circumference of Bellus, out of range for the moment, so they thought.

After demanding status from his crew and getting the reports, Clement moved on to the next phase of his plan. They gathered around Yan’s console and he brought in Nobli and Telco through the com.

“We have eighteen minutes before that second battlegroup can engage us. Our goal, though, is to take out the command cruiser, and she’s nineteen thousand klicks from us. This is where we have to use the LEAP drive to get us behind the Earth command cruiser battlegroup. If we have to fight that second battle group I don’t think their commander will allow us to use the same tactics on them as we used on the first group. The element of surprise that the LEAP drive gives us is essential. If this doesn’t work, I don’t see any way we can fight off two Earth cruiser battlegroups, especially with nukes, at the same time. Now, are we all convinced that this plan can work?” he said. Clement looked first to Massif.

“We have a pathway to a location behind the command cruiser group, sir, using the LEAP drive,” he said, looking up to the ship’s clock. “And by my mark we have about eight minutes to execute that maneuver.”

“Can we be ready in eight minutes, Hassan?” said Clement through the com.

“We’re ready now,” replied Nobli. “Ensign Tsu has the drive warm and ready.”

Clement nodded. “We’ll bring the ship to full stop,” Clement said to Ori. She nodded. “Ensign Telco,” he said through the com, “I want my full complement of six missiles ready to fire on my command once we complete the LEAP jump.”

“Ready now, sir, as you ordered,” said Telco.

Finally, he turned to Yan. “You’ll fire the missiles on my order, Commander. Make sure we target the command cruiser’s critical systems.”

“Aye, sir,” said Yan.

Clement looked down to his watch. “We go in three minutes,” he said, “and may the gods of the multiverse be with us.”

Clement ordered everyone on the bridge crew to strap in for the leap. Lieutenant Ori brought the ship to full stop. Commander Yan dutifully reported on the closing speed of the second cruiser group. Clement glanced at his watch, ignoring the ship’s clock out of habit, noting there was less than twenty seconds until the LEAP jump, so the second Earth cruiser group wouldn’t be able to get within firing range of his ship. He noted the green lights on his board from both Ensign Telco and engineer Nobli. “You have command of my ship, Navigator,” he said to Massif.

Massif went on the ship-wide com and counted down from ten. At zero, the universe shifted again.

The momentary disorientation followed, but Clement soon regained his bearings and demanded reports. Yan updated the tactical screen and it showed them just what they wanted to see. They were approximately seventy-five hundred kilometers behind the command cruiser tactical group, who were facing away from them, or rather, were facing toward where they had been only a few short seconds ago.

“Accelerate the ship, Pilot. I want that cruiser in range before they know where we are.”

“Two minutes at 3.5 gs, Captain,” Ori said.

“Acceptable,” replied Clement, “but I want an escape course executed as soon as our missiles are away.”

“Already plotted by the navigator and locked into my console,” said Ori with a snarky smile to her captain as she hit the acceleration boost. Clement was pressed hard into his command couch. “One minute fifty-four seconds to firing range.”

Clement’s foot tapped the deck nervously as he watched their progress. “Do they see us yet?” he asked Yan at the 1:30 mark.

“Uncertain . . . wait. The six light attack clippers are starting to scramble. I’d say they’ve seen us, sir.”

“Status of the command cruiser?” he asked.

“She’s trying to accelerate away from us. But not very fast by our standards,” said Yan.

“Mika—”

“Going to 3.75 g, sir,” she said, interrupting him. Clement felt the press of weight on his chest, sinking him farther into his couch. He waited as long as his patience would let before asking for an update.

“Time to firing range, Pilot?”

“Forty-three seconds, sir, unless she’s got some surprise we don’t know about yet.”

Clement leaned back deeper into his couch, praying there were no surprises.

Right on time (according to Ori’s calculations) they reached missile-firing range. The command cruiser’s evasive maneuvers had only gained them a few seconds as the Beauregard closed. The clippers, while more nimble than the cruiser, were still trying to turn and face the Beauregard. For all intents and purposes, it looked to Clement like he had them dead to rights. But he knew the battlefield could be a cruel mistress . . .

“Sir!” It was Yan, obviously alarmed.

“Commander?” demanded Clement.

“There’s no nuke signature on that command cruiser, sir. She must have—”

“Offloaded the nuke to one of her clippers!” finished Clement. “Mika—”

“Moving us away from the battlefield, sir. Nuke detected on one of the clippers! She’s closing!”

“How far?”

“Three thousand klicks and closing fast! Forty-eight seconds to contact!”

“Missiles?”

“Not at this range and speed, Captain,” said Yan. “They’re too close. Our missiles will never even start pinging.”

Clement turned anxiously to his navigator. “Ivan, can we jump again?”

“Nothing calculated, sir. It would take at least three minutes for me to plot anything safe.”

“What about unsafe?”

“At this range, we’d likely end up inside Bellus, sir.”

“Time, Pilot?”

“Thirty-one seconds until we’ll be in the destructive range of their nuke, Captain,” said Ori.

Clement reached down to his com. “Nobli, prepare the MAD weapon,” he said, not waiting for a reply. Then he flipped to another channel. “Ensign Telco, are my missile tubes loaded?”

“Aye, sir,” came Telco’s voice through the com line.

Clement cut the line and turned to his XO. “Commander Yan, target the command cruiser with a full volley of conventional missiles, and fire,” he ordered.

She looked confused. “But sir, the nuke—”

“Follow my orders, Commander!” he roared.

She did. “Missiles away,” Yan said.

“Time,” demanded the captain.

“Eighteen seconds!” said Ori.

Clement looked down at the MAD weapon icon. It was all green and ready to fire. He looked up to his tactical screen, which showed the clippers coming straight at the Beauregard in a tight delta formation, almost like an arrowhead. Suicide run, he thought. He tracked and locked on them, and didn’t hesitate.

He fired the MAD weapon.

Blinding white light seared out of the Beauregard, disintegrating the clipper formation in an instant. The beam kept going, out to a range where Ensign Adebayor could no longer track it, dissipating slightly as it left their tracking range. It would eventually be harmless, but for the purposes of space combat, its range was virtually unlimited.

They all watched in silence as the 6 conventional missiles the Beauregard had launched struck the command cruiser, exploding hard against its hull. The ship quickly nosedived into the atmosphere of Bellus, fatally crippled, and began burning up. The last cruiser and clipper flotilla was now retreating from the battlefield at close to three gravities.

Clement ordered Telco and Pomeroy to take the shuttle to one of the transports to carry out their mission. Then he left the bridge, heading for his cabin, and locking the door behind him.


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Framed