Vaughn Heppner: The Lost Starship

“From the Pan System,” Noonan said, “the battle group meant to go to the Larson and then into the Odin System to confront the New Men.”

She shook her head.

“We had moved fast, trying to leave as little evidence as possible of our passage. The admiral had decided to go to combat conditions once we attempted the jump from the Pan to the Larson System. That meant we hadn’t launched any nukes into the Pan System preceding our arrival from Aphrodite Five.”

Maddox ingested the information. Because starships and their crews were exceptionally vulnerable until they recovered from Jump Lag, standard combat procedure called for thermonuclear-armed drones to jump first. Simple timers ignited them on the other side. Thermonuclear blasts would clear any nearby enemy ships waiting to ambush them. The small lieutenant was saying the battle group had failed to take that standard conflict procedure.

“As it turned out,” Noonan said, “the New Men were waiting for us. They struck soon after we appeared. Our sensors were still down. Everything was, except for our shields. We had barely made it out of jump.

“I’d heard rumors that Admiral von Gunther had a picked crew of fast-recovering personnel. By what happened next, I believe it. He must have realized our peril sooner than anyone else did. Before his laser batteries could charge, he drove the Scharnhorst straight at the enemy. He must have known his vessel didn’t have a chance. Two of our heavy cruisers were already drifting hulks.”

Noonan frowned. “I don’t know what type of energy the New Men hit von Gunther with, but their beams burned through armor faster than I would have believed possible.”

“What about his shields?” Admiral Fletcher asked. He was a big man with a permanent scowl.

Noonan shook her head. “The enemy beams appeared to have cut right through von Gunther’s shields.”

The shock of the information broke the spell. Officers began whispering to each other.

“Attention!” Lord High Admiral Cook said in a commanding voice.

The room quickly grew quiet again.

Cook bowed his head to Noonan for her to continue.

She moistened her lips. “I don’t know how it all happened. We couldn’t record yet. I recall raising my head. The viewer had just come back online. I saw the Scharnhorst making its death ride. Von Gunther took his ship straight down their throats. The enemy beams scored direct hits on his armor. I saw it with my own eyes. The armor plates blackened as the beams bored into them. I remember scooting forward on my chair, wondering why von Gunther had failed to raise his shields. Then I saw the telltale shimmer, and I knew he had raised them. The enemy beams simply ignored the electromagnetic deflectors, hitting the Scharnhorst again and again.

“My people finally began stirring. I’ve always come out of Jump Lag quicker than others could.” Noonan shrugged. “I remember hearing von Gunther on the comm. He ordered us to retreat. He ordered us to race back to Earth and report on the New Men. He tried to say something else. I believe he had learned something important. Before he could finish his thought the Scharnhorst broke apart under the enemy beams.”

Maddox noted the widening eyes, the stir of those around him. Once more, Lieutenant Noonan’s tale had surprised everyone.

Admiral Fletcher spoke up. “How many ships did the New Men have?”

“Three, I believe,” Noonan said.

Instead of whispering, men and women began to talk aloud to each other. Three enemy ships had done this to the Scharnhorst ? By the swiftness of the battleship’s destruction, it should have been twenty.

“Silence in the hall!” Lord High Admiral Cook roared. “I will have silence in my hall.”

“I know what you’re wondering,” Noonan said. “How could three vessels do this so quickly to the Scharnhorst ? The Bismarck -class battleships have incredibly powerful shields. It would take four equally great craft pouring their lasers against a shield for at least fifteen minutes to begin to make it buckle. Even then, it should last another ten minutes. Afterward, the armor plating could take a hell of a pounding.”

She shook her head. “The enemy didn’t outnumber us. It was the opposite. We had far more vessels than they did. And they didn’t have monster craft, either. If I had to guess, each of their ships had the tonnage of a heavy cruiser. The Scharnhorst was bigger than each of her three tormenters. What’s more, by its ramming attack, the Scharnhorst had forced the New Men to concentrate on her. I think von Gunther would have smashed one of their vessels if he could have reached them.

“As the admiral’s flagship broke apart, our three surviving battleships began to unlimber their heavy lasers. The strike cruisers launched drones. Many of the destroyers together with the missile boats began flanking maneuvers. The New Men had hurt us, but we still had far more ships than they did. What’s more, von Gunther’s charge had given us time to recover from Jump Lag so that operating systems began coming online enough to begin fighting.

“I wanted to join the assault. The destruction of our ships enraged me. Yet, I had heard the admiral’s last orders. He had almost told us something critical. I believed that then, and I still do. Something crawled down my spine. It wasn’t fear of our destruction. It…”

Her mouth moved silently before she said, “I think I sensed the historic pregnancy of the moment. As the others began firing, I reversed course and began an emergency evacuation for the Laumer-Point. As we entered the jump, I watched the rest of the fleet—”

“You fled the battle,” Fletcher said, sounding surprised and outraged.

“Yes, sir,” Noonan said, flinching. “You can say it like that if you wish. I prefer to say that I followed Admiral von Gunther’s last orders. I did more than simply retreat. I also shouted orders for everyone to evacuate ship.”

Admiral Fletcher struck the table with his fist.

Noonan took a step back as everyone stared at her with disbelief. Maybe it was too much. She lowered her gaze.

“You may find this hard to believe,” she said.

Like the others around him, Maddox leaned toward her, as her voice had grown softer.

Noonan touched her chest. “In my heart, I felt the New Men would annihilate our battle group and come after us. What I had just seen—it terrified me. Their technology was far superior to ours. I felt a duty to return home and report that. It turned out I wasn’t the only one who obeyed Admiral von Gunther. One of the motherships along with a strike cruiser and four destroyers made it through. After they recovered from Jump Lag, the others began to race for the next Laumer-Point. It would take them a week of hard acceleration to reach it. As they began the journey, all hands aboard my escort ejected in the lifeboats. I’d left the ship on automated, setting it to follow the mothership.”

“This is gross cowardice in the face of the enemy,” Admiral Fletcher declared.

“No,” Noonan said, staring straight ahead. “I had a hunch. I believed the New Men would be coming. I took my lifeboat and raced behind a nearby asteroid. We barely made it. I began recording with passive sensors. This is what I discovered. Three enemy vessels of heavy cruiser size came through the jump point. It indicated to me that none of the enemy had sustained any damage from us. I learned something else, too. Their ships began functioning within thirty seconds of appearing in the new system.

“Jump Lag clearly didn’t distress them like it does us. Their sensors locked on the fleeing warships. The enemy beams fired within minutes of their arrival. It wasn’t a laser beam. My instrumentation was clear on that. The fleeing cruiser and destroyers turned around to fight. The mothership launched several squadrons of strikefighters and bombers. And that’s when things became weird.”