Ryk Brown - Aurora CV-01

“Maybe, but we did come in behind them. If we’re lucky, they’re doing directional sweeps forward.”

Commander Montero grimaced suddenly as the information on his contact track changed. “No such luck, they’re changing course and accelerating. They’re headed our way.”

“Comm! Unlock all internal communications and sound battle stations! And get the deep space comm array back online! I wanna know if that Jung ship tries to send out a message!” The captain spun back around as the battle stations alarm sounded and the condition lights on the bridge changed to red, casting an eerie, faint red tinge on everything in the room.

“Helm, full speed ahead, bring her up to quarter-light fast! I wanna close to weapons range before she has a chance to take action!”

“Aye, full speed ahead, coming up to one-quarter light.” Nathan brought the ships main engines up to full power, instantly feeling the acceleration push him back in his seat despite the attempts by the inertial dampening systems to compensate.

All about the bridge, the crew struggled to maintain their balance as they worked under the force of sudden acceleration. Doctor Karlsen, who had been standing behind his daughter at the auxiliary station nearly fell over, but was caught by one of the marines guarding the starboard exit.

“Her shields are up, Captain!” the commander announced from tactical. “And she’s deploying her missile batteries!”

“ECO! Start jamming her, full frequency spread, don’t let her missiles lock onto us!” The captain turned back to tactical. “Load all forward torpedo bays and prepare to fire! Let me know when you have a solution.”

“Captain, she’s transmitting!” the comm officer reported. “Tight beam, aimed for Centauri space.”

“How long?” the captain asked.

“Three point five years, assuming nobody intercepts it along the way and relays!”

“I have a firing solution, Captain!” the commander reported. “Tubes two and four are ready to fire.”

“Fire two and four!” the captain ordered.

“But Sir,” the commander reminded, “they haven’t fired on us yet. They’ll see it as an act of aggression and use it as an excuse to…”

“…If they get away and FTL it back to Alpha Centauri, they’ll be invading us in months, Commander, not years!”

“Aye Sir, firing two and four,” the XO responded, feeling guilty for questioning his captain’s judgment.

Along the forward, starboard edge of the Aurora’s massive propulsion section, two small doors slid open to reveal a pair of tubes. A second later a torpedo leapt out of the uppermost tube, followed a moment later by a second from the lower. Riding on massive tails of white hot thrust, the torpedoes sped away at fifty percent the speed of light, helped by the fact that the Aurora herself was already at nearly a quarter light.

“Torpedoes away! She’s launching countermeasures!”

“They’re not stupid,” the captain observed.

“Velocity at one-quarter light,” Nathan reported. His head was spinning as he tried to keep track of everything that was going on. It was nothing like the simulations, which of course had seemed so real at the time. But now, there was so much more happening, so much more to think about, he couldn’t understand how the captain was able to keep track of it all so easily. Nathan tried to concentrate on just his job, and shut everything else out, but could not.

“They’ve launched missiles!” the commander reported. “Six inbound. ETA thirty seconds!”

“Are we jamming?!” the captain yelled.

“Yes Sir! On all frequencies!” the Electronic Countermeasures Officer reported.

“Torpedo impact in fifteen seconds!” the commander reported.

“Time to gun range?”

“One minute,” Cameron reported.

Nathan looked over at Cameron to his left. She was still so calm, with no hint of stress in her voice.

“Bring the rail guns online, point defense mode! Knock those incoming missiles down!”

“Rail guns coming online!”

Outside, at a dozen different locations about the forward half of the ship, doors slid open and rail gun turrets quickly popped up into place, spinning around to come to bear on the inbound missiles. Not more than a few seconds after they deployed, they opened up in auto-fire mode, sending point-defense rounds out along their launch rails in a bright sparkle of blue current that leapt from their rails. The rounds were designed to break apart into hundreds of smaller explosive charges that would spread out and detonate, creating a wall of explosive kinetic energy designed to obliterate the incoming ordnance before it could reach the ship.

“Second contact! Down range of the first!” the sensor operator announced! “Transferring track to tactical!”

The commander examined the second track, comparing it against the first to save time, a trick he had learned on his previous assignment. “Same type of ship, Captain. Torpedo impact in five seconds.”

“Helm! New course, bring us onto the second contact!”

Aye Sir!” Within seconds Cameron had fed him a new course as Nathan raised the nose of the ship slightly and to the right to head toward the second contact.”

“Torpedo impact!” the commander reported.

Everyone held their breath as they waited for the impact assessment.

“Contact One lost!” the commander announced happily. It was the Aurora’s first shot fired in anger, and it was also her first kill.

“Can you re-target the second torpedo?” the captain asked, hoping to send it after the second contact to save time and ordnance. After all, he only had so many torpedoes in the forward bay. The rest were still in storage down in the hangar deck.

“Negative, second torpedo was destroyed by their point defense turrets!” The commander glanced back down at his tactical display, realizing that two of the six missiles launched by the first patrol ship had made it past their defense screen and were about to strike the Aurora. “Incoming ordnance!”

The first missile struck the bow, slightly port of her centerline. They were not big missiles, but without any shielding, they were big enough to take out one of their rail gun emplacements. And with less than half of them operational, they needed every one.

The ship rocked from the explosion, which could be seen on the main view screen, the glare bathing the bridge in yellow-orange light that faded quickly. The second missile could be seen streaking overhead on the view screen, striking aft of the camera emplacements against the elevated drive section at the stern of the ship. The second explosion could not be seen from the bridge, but they could definitely feel it.

“Deep space comms are down!” the comm officer reported. “That last missile must’ve taken out the array!”

“The second contact is making a run for it, Captain!” the commander exclaimed.

“Get a solution for one and three on that contact!”

“She’s still out of range, Sir.”

“Ensign, how quickly can we get in range at full thrust?”

“Two minutes,” Cameron reported.

“Full power, Lieutenant!”

Nathan brought the main engines back up to full power, pushing everyone back in their seats once more. Only this time, they were expecting it and were better prepared for the sensation.

“Torpedo range in a minute forty,” Cameron reported calmly.

“Will we catch her before she can get up to light speed?” the captain asked the commander. Their FTL system was offline, since the emitter systems were being used by the special projects team.

“I guess we’ll see,” the commander shrugged.

It seemed like it took forever for them to close the gap. The little ship could outrun them, but the Aurora could accelerate faster. But without the emitters, she could not generate the field that negated her mass and allowed for the transition into FTL velocities.