Vaughn Heppner: Star Fortress

“What?” Hawthorne said. “How did that happen?”

The message was over four hours old. Therefore, Cone hadn’t heard the question. She did tell them, however, that an amazing beam from the Sun had demolished the Highborn headquarters.

“A Sunbeam,” Hawthorne said. “That’s what we’ve been witnessing. What happened back in Inner Planets?”

“Sir!” said Blackstone. “Look! Is that a ship?”

Kursk was already bringing the object into sharper focus. It was oval, lifting from Triton’s disintegrating surface.

“It’s big,” she said, “bigger than our battleship.” She looked up in surprise. “These readings—I’ve never seen anything like them. Is it a weapon?”

Hawthorne opened his mouth to shout an order. Before he could utter any noise, four dark nodes appeared on the enemy ship. Then a strange flash occurred, and the ship disappeared, leaving the flash behind as it seemed to close in upon itself.

“What just happened?” Kursk whispered.

Hawthorne’s jaw sagged as a sharp pain lanced his chest. He groaned, mastering the pain as his long fingers played over controls. He brought up the video recording and played it in slow motion.

The four nodes, they were a swirling black color, seeming to suck light. Then the flash occurred as it cycled through a number of colors: red, green, purple, orange, blue and bright white at the end. The ship slipped through what seemed like a rent in space, and the hole closed behind it as the colors cycled down.

“This is new,” Hawthorne whispered.

“Did a cyborg ship escape?” Kursk asked.

“I’m more interested in finding out if a Web-Mind escaped,” Hawthorne said.

“I doubt we’ll ever know,” Blackstone said. “That was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Stranger than the Sunbeam?” asked Kursk.

“I can understand the Sunbeam,” Blackstone said. “What we just witnessed, I don’t want to hazard a guess as to what it was.”

“Was that a rip into hyperspace?” Hawthorne asked quietly.

“There are no warp drives or wormholes,” Kursk said.

“Not until now,” Hawthorne said. The pain in his chest was less than before, but it hurt every time his heart beat. Had they just fought the greatest war ever, only to have the enemy slip away to start everything over again from a different base? If that was a starship, with the Prime Web-Mind aboard…it meant the next cyborg attack might possibly come from another star system. He massaged his chest. This was more than he wanted to think about now. Sunbeams and starships…he wanted to go home to Earth.

Sunk in gloom, Hawthorne fell silent as Triton broke into sections, cut apart by the terrible ray.

The Prime knew a moment of rarified glee as its vessel winked out of existence above Triton and away from the annihilating ray.

In the huge ship, cyborgs stood at their stations, awaiting orders. The cargo-holds held massive amounts of equipment, all that was needed to begin again.

It was a risk I might never have taken. Now I own an experimental starship, a vessel to span the galaxy .

The glee turned to anger as the Prime realized it would have to start over.

I will rebuild elsewhere. Then I will return and cruelly subjugate those who thought to destroy my magnificence .

Quick calculations showed the Prime its strongholds in Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars could not survive the terrible Sunbeam. Perhaps if it gathered every surviving Lurker and used the starship—

No, I cannot risk losing this wonderful vessel. I own the only known starship. I will —

The Prime’s gloating was cut short as a lurch and alarms throughout the starship told of a reentry into normal space. It ran an accelerated analysis. Neptune’s nearness had upset the starship’s gravitational fields, which needed a precision bordering on the Sunbeam’s targeting systems.

Where am I? Have I reached another star system?

Cyborgs on the bridge poured their findings to the Prime. With a shock, the Prime realized it had only hopped a short distance. Then a louder alarm rang through the experimental starship.

Sub-Strategist Circe contemplated the meaning of the third Dictate. She sat in the Force-Leader’s chair in the control chamber. Unconsciously, she rubbed the black gem embedded in her forehead. With half-lidded eyes, she let her gaze rove over a statute of an ancient, naked Roman boxer with a broken nose. He—

Sirens blared, making her twist in her chair.

“Sub-Strategist!” the Erasmus’s weapons officer said. “An-an intruder has just appeared.”

“Explain your statement,” Circe said sharply.

“Look up at the screen,” the officer said.

She did. Long-range teleoptics showed a big ship. “Is that an SU battleship?” she asked.

“No. It’s bigger.”

“Where did it come from?” Circe asked.

“There was a flash, Sub-Strategist, and then it just appeared.”

“Attention!” Circe said, as she slapped an intercom button on her chair’s armrest. “Warm the lasers and target the enemy ship. It is a cyborg vessel, the most dangerous one in existence. We must attack it with extreme prejudice.”

“Are you sure it’s a cyborg vessel?” the weapons officer asked.

“Destroy it,” Circe said, “or we’re all doomed.” She had studied Chief Strategist Tan’s information about a Fuhl Event. The cyborgs must have finally ironed out the flaws and now used this ship to attack each fleet piecemeal. It was a brilliant strategy. The thought she had endured so much to fall prey to yet another secret cyborg project—

“Annihilate it!” Circe hissed. “Annihilate it before its beam or missiles destroy us.”

“Engage the Fuhl Mechanism!” the Prime messaged the cyborg crew. “We must leave this place.”

“We need time to adjust and recalibrate the black-hole pods, Prime,” a cyborg radioed its master.

“Then accelerate the ship away from those vessels!”

Several seconds later, the Prime experienced the building Gs as thrusters roared with life.

The Prime focused its sensors on the three meteor-ships. They were battered-looking.

Yes, they fought the Uranus cyborgs. By the ALL, I must survive .

Even as the Prime thought this, the three meteor-ships fired their primary lasers.

“Use the mechanism! Jump us out of here!”

“We need time, Prime.”

“Do it now or I will die!”

The lasers burned into the starship’s hull. Then the four nodes swirled with power. The Fuhl Mechanism started up, and the vessel began to crumple in upon itself. Its own gravitational forces destroyed the Solar System’s first experimental starship.

As the Prime Web-Mind of Neptune perished, torn apart by black-hole gravitational forces, Commissar Kursk tapped her communications screen. A face appeared on the module.

“It’s Marten Kluge,” Hawthorne said.

“Greetings,” Marten said. “I have just taken control of the Sun Station. I realize my time here may be short, so I have made some hard decisions. The first was the destruction of the Sun-Works Factory. I gave the Commandant the option to leave and head for Luna. He could not agree, so I destroyed the Factory before he could use it against me. I have just demolished Triton and I am about to target Luna and destroy the Highborn base there. In the days to come, I will target all cyborg concentrations of strength in each planetary system.”

Marten Kluge took a deep breath. “I have lived under many political systems, and I have found them all repugnant. Therefore, the Solar System is going to try a new way for a time—my way. Those who cannot agree to try it, I will target. My way is called freedom, giving people a choice.”