Ereshkigal’s War (Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Book 5), page 32
“Then do something about them, because their weapons are giving me a headache.”
“Working on it,” Penelope said. “There are a lot of ships.”
Foster snorted. “We’ve noticed.”
“Ugh!” Penelope hissed at her screens. Her Hashmedai side was showing and venting her frustrations. Penelope spun her chair around and faced the communication station. “Say, Odelea, dear, at what temperature did you say our guest was having problems with it?”
Odelea looked at Penelope. “Guest?”
“The Amphibian we picked up then returned to his home,” Penelope said. “What was sickbay’s temperature when Kostelecky was looking at my hand?”
“Umm, I believe it was 18 degrees Celsius?”
“Perfect.” Penelope spun back to her console and typed out a long line of commands. Half a minute later, all Bladeback ships ceased discharging their weapons.
A grin spread across Penelope’s face. “And, done!”
“Did they stop firing?” Foster asked.
“Looks like it,” Williams said, checking his computer. “Well, apart from a few ships over here, but the Amphibians from Qurialla are mopping them up. The Bladeback ships have gone dormant and are a drift.”
“What did you do?” Chang asked Penelope. “Lock the Bladebacks out of their ship’s functions?”
“Actually, I put them to sleep.”
The entire bridge crew glared at Penelope. “What?” Foster was confident everyone spoke at once.
“Hibernation to be exact.” Penelope spun her chair around to the team looking at her. She smiled at them in a conceited manner. “To my understanding, what drew the Amphibians and Bladebacks together was because their two races were amphibious in nature, right?”
Odelea nodded. “Right.”
“Our guest went into hibernation in sickbay because the temperature was too cold,” Penelope explained. With a shrug, she added. “I figured the Bladebacks would do the same if I tinkered with the environmental systems of their ships and lowered its internal temperatures well below 18 degrees.” She looked at the viewscreen and the Bladeback ships drifting through the battlefield. “And it would seem it worked.”
“Penelope may be correct in her assertions, Captain,” EVE said. “The Bladeback ships themselves have not been disabled by malicious hacking code. They are simply adrift as if the crew suddenly abandoned their posts.”
“EVE’s right,” Chang said, eyes focusing on the helm controls. “I just had to pull us away from a ship that was about to slam into us.”
On the tactical map, six Bladeback destroyers crashed into each other with an explosive result. Foster and the crew had to shield their eyes from the light that shone across the bridge’s seats, computers, and personnel. Penelope especially, her Hashmedai light-sensitive eyes hated the brightness. Only Odelea and Tolukei could glare directly at the light. Even then Tolukei squinted his four eyes. The viewscreen dimmed the light’s brightness two seconds later.
“Why would they abandon their posts because it got a little chilly?” Williams asked.
“There are many species on Earth that will enter hibernation because of a decrease in temperature,” EVE said.
“A natural biological function to tell them it’s time to hunker down for the winter,” Pierce chimed in.
EVE continued. “It would appear both the Amphibians and Bladebacks possess this evolutionary function, despite being self-aware spacefaring races.”
“Mother nature trained them well,” Williams said.
“All right, Penelope,” Foster said to her. “Pick a ship, any ship, and we’ll use it to ram Kur.”
Penelope returned to her station, operated its functions, then lifted an eyebrow at the holo screen that appeared. “Uh, about that, Foster . . .”
Foster facepalmed and sighed through it. There was always a problem. “What is it now?”
“I no longer have control of their ships,” Penelope said. “It would seem they installed countermeasures to remove my trojan horse apps.”
“But you lowered their thermostats,” Foster said.
“As they were purging my app from their systems,” Penelope said. “That’s why I was flustered earlier and put them into hibernation. There wasn’t enough time to do anything, only lower their ships’ temperatures as they wiped out my malware.”
“So just install another?” Pierce suggested.
The hacker shook her head. “Can’t, not without doing the song and dance we did the first time. Remember, this malware is simply a copy of the original one I had to install onto an enemy ship, then later spread through their network.”
“Now that you activated the trojan, they knew which ships were infected and deleted the virus,” Williams said.
“If we’re doing this, then we’ll have to board one of their ships,” Penelope said. “Once onboard, I can forcibly reinstall my trojan . . . a different version so that their countermeasures wouldn’t react to it instantly.”
“Then let’s head out now.” Foster stood from the captain’s chair and strode to the bridge’s exit. “Dom, you have the conn.”
“Wait.” Williams reached his left hand out to Foster. “Why are you going with Penelope?”
Foster spun back to him. “Who is gonna accompany Penelope? Chevallier’s team isn’t here. That leaves me, Chang, and Tolukei as the only personnel with relevant combat experience.”
“Well, there is EVE too,” Williams said.
“Indeed, Captain,” EVE said, stepping forward, hands behind her back. “If you would like, I can load a combat program into my mobile platform to assist you.”
Foster liked the idea. She smiled at the android while folding her arms. “Living up to the V in EVE, versatile. All right, Tolukei, EVE, and Penelope, meet me in the armory. We have a Bladeback battleship to infiltrate.”
40 PEIUN
Rezeki’s Rage
Far Edge of Unnamed Red Giant System
October 3, 2124, 01:23 SST (Sol Standard Time)
After six months of sublight travel, The Rezeki’s Rage entered a nearby system brightened by the glow of an enormous red giant while its crew finished repairs. Behind, the Draconian ship maintained its pursuit. It was hunting them. And it was not a natural position for Hashmedai to be in; the Hashmedai were supposed to be the predators. The crew of the Rezeki’s Rage had to be the ones on the hunt.
Peiun activated his HNI and looked at the system his ship had passed into. He searched for a means to flip the script and turn the lone Draconian bioship into his prey.
A three-dimensional holographic map of the system appeared before him. He saw the system’s edge where the Rezeki’s Rage entered and the location where the chasing Draconian ship was expected to arrive. At the system’s center was a red giant star that had long consumed its orbiting planets. The system was devoid of any life. Peiun assumed any habitable worlds that might have existed were long dead when the star expanded into its red giant phase.
After eyeing the map closer, he discovered several asteroids and gas giants littering the system. He enjoyed the sight of gas giants; they always provided the best cover from the Draconians’ FTL weaponry. Peiun pushed the data to the helm.
“Nadevina, bring us to this location here, just behind this gas giant,” he said.
She complied and inputted a quick command into her console. “Yes, Captain.”
The Rezeki’s Rage changed course and propelled to the gas giant Peiun found at maximum sublight speeds.
“The Draconian ship is adjusting course to pursue us,” Alesyna reported, breaking out of her ESP trance. “Hmm, it is moving faster as well.”
“As expected,” Peiun said. “It seems to have been picking up the pace in the past three days. How current is this map?”
“What you see is from my ESP,” Alesyna said. “A real-time look at the system.”
He pointed at a tumbling rock drifting close to their destination. “So this asteroid here will be near the gas giant when we arrive?”
A pause came as Alesyna shut her eyes and focused. She opened them a moment later and revealed the answer. “Yes, it is not moving very fast.”
Hours had passed and the bioship had only attempted to fire its tachyon beam once. Much like the last time the bioship tried to strike the Rezeki’s Rage, Alesyna’s ESP sensed the incoming beam and offered the helm a new path to take that would see the Rezeki’s Rage escape from the weapon’s discharge. The bioship needed to be much closer to the Rezeki’s Rage for its FTL weapons to strike it without the crew having enough time to see it coming and dodge.
The Rezeki’s Rage exited its long sublight journey. In a flash, the frigate appeared and drifted toward the massive planet covered with swirls of gray and white clouds ahead of the cluster of stars illuminating Omega Centauri. Peiun eyed the holographic map of the system again as Nadevina positioned them so close to the gas giant that its massive size blocked the Rezeki’s Rage from the Draconians’ sensors and FTL weapons. The move also blocked the glow of the red giant from sight.
The enemy vessel drew nearer, its position on the projection a red pulsing dot moving closer to the gas giant. And then it stopped.
“What do you suppose they’re doing?” Uemsu asked.
Peiun folded his hands and studied the tactical hologram. “Likely wondering what our next move is.”
“Shall we continue moving?” Nadevina suggested. “I can keep spinning us around the gas giant.”
“No, we are Hashmedai,” Peiun said. “We are not prey who hides from the hunter.”
“We’re also facing an enemy with technology far more advanced than us . . .” Alesyna said drily.
“And I intend to turn the enemy into the hunted and send a message to the rest of their kind.”
On the hologram, the red dot moved again. He tracked the movement of the enemy ship, noting how close to the gas giant it was moving.
“They are positioning themselves above the northern pole,” Alesyna said.
“Once it clears the north pole, it will spot us,” Nadevina said.
“Bring us to the southern pole,” Peiun said and sat back.
As the Draconian ship rose above the gas giant’s northern hemisphere then soared toward its north pole, the Rezeki’s Rage moved away from its orbit near its equator and drifted above the south pole. The Draconian ship cleared the northern pole and began scanning what it couldn’t scan behind the gas giant. All it saw was the space where the Rezeki’s Rage used to be.
“The enemy has stopped moving,” Alesyna said.
A second later, what Alesyna’s ESP sensed appeared on the tactical hologram. The Draconian bioship stopped just before the gas giant’s equator.
“It clearly knows it lost sight of us,” Uemsu said. “We could strike it now in an ambush, Captain.”
The thought was tempting. Very tempting. Adding to that, the pathogen that infected the ship still affected it. The bioship still moved through space sluggishly, and Peiun was certain its ability to spin and acquire a target was also slow. But would the Rezeki’s Rage’s weapons be enough? What they needed was a decapitating strike. Ill bioship or not, the Rezeki’s Rage’s plasma cannons would cripple the enemy vessel but not neutralize it. Such an act would take several minutes of continuous fire. That would be more than enough time for the Draconians to launch a counterattack.
As weak as the bioship was, if it fired tachyon beams when the Rezeki’s Rage entered effective weapons range, it would be impossible for the Rezeki’s Rage to evade. The Rezeki’s Rage would have to focus on never being in range of enemy weapons, limiting their ability to neutralize them as quickly as possible. Peiun needed a quick kill and searched for a means to deliver it.
He found something that might work. “Helm, bring us behind this asteroid using this flight path.”
Peiun manipulated the hologram, then pushed a copy to Nadevina via HNI. With the new course suggestion at her console, Nadevina sent the Rezeki’s Rage on its journey and left the cover of the gas giant. The Imperial frigate drifted behind a rugged rock in space, its size no larger than a small mountain.
“You realize the size of this asteroid will not properly shield us from detection, Captain,” Alesyna said.
“I am well aware of that.” Peiun eyed a copy of his tactical hologram then ran a simulation and posed a question. What would happen if the Rezeki’s Rage were to destroy the asteroid from their position? Thousands of lines representing small rocks in the wake of the asteroid’s destruction projected outward, many of them reaching high speeds and passing the curvature of the gas giant. Peiun liked what he saw. “Weapons, target these highlighted regions of the asteroid, full energy.”
Uemsu operated his workstation. “Yes, Captain.”
He watched the red dot on the hologram move to the opposite end of the gas giant. Perfect. The Draconian bioship was resuming its search for them.
“Nadevina, jump us to these coordinates after we fire, then wait for my instructions.”
“Understood.”
“Plasma cannons ready, Captain.”
“Fire.”
The Rezeki’s Rage unleashed salvo after salvo of plasma into the asteroid, cracking it apart and destroying it. Peiun ordered another barrage and watched as the explosion broke the rock apart and sent it hurdling toward the edge of the gas giant. The fragments followed his simulation’s calculated predictions with 89.9333% accuracy. Good enough.
With that done, the Rezeki’s Rage accelerated to the gas giant. On one side of the colossal world were rocks hurdling toward its gravity well. On the other side was the Rezeki’s Rage moving around its curvature, followed by the haunting sight of a living organic ship coming over the horizon.
“Enemy contact!” Nadevina cried out.
Peiun grinned. “I know.”
She spun back to face him. “Orders?”
“Increase speed and keep moving. Evasive maneuvers.”
The Rezeki’s Rage flew directly into beams of inescapable tachyons, causing havoc on their purple flickering overshields. The tactical projection fluctuated and randomly skipped in and out of sight. Alesyna’s mind was growing weak while trying to prevent the psionic overshields from collapsing. The Rezeki’s Rage dipped under the enemy ship then pushed past it while twisting around the gas giant.
Peiun eyed the hologram, wincing. “Alesyna?”
“Sorry, I need to focus on strengthening the overshields,” she said.
They had to work with what Alesyna had last sensed and sensor scans. Peiun did not know if the Draconians turned to pursue them, now that the Rezeki’s Rage had moved to an orbit that once again blocked sensor scans.
“Do I alter course, Captain?” Nadevina asked.
“No, stay the course.” He shoved the hologram aside. “Give me an aft view on the forward viewscreen.”
The viewscreen changed and displayed what the Rezeki’s Rage’s rear cameras saw, the gas giant shrinking as they moved away from it. The Draconian ship appeared from the side of the sphere and followed the path of the Rezeki’s Rage.
The bioship had a clear shot at them and took it. White beams moving faster than the speed of light slammed into the Rezeki’s Rage from behind, sending rippling waves of purple light across the psionic overshields. Each shot that landed made Alesyna groan and clench the sides of the psionic workstation to steady her balance. It was like the Draconians were hurting her and not the ship.
“I can’t maintain the overshields much longer!” Alesyna said.
“You won’t need to worry about it in five seconds,” Peiun calmly replied.
“Why?”
The Draconian ship cleared the gas giant’s orbit to keep pace with the Rezeki’s Rage, only for soaring shrapnel that was once the asteroid to shred gashes into it. It stopped firing and floated in the void, taking a shot or five by lingering meteorites goring holes through the fleshy hull.
Alesyna cocked a smile. “Very nice, Captain.”
“Alesyna, drop the overshields for now,” Peiun said. “Get me up-to-date ESP scans of the area ASAP.”
The tactical hologram appeared with updated information, sourced from Alesyna’s mind. A warning flashed in the top left corner, indicating that the overshields were inactive and that the Rezeki’s Rage’s primary shields were the ship’s only line of defense. Peiun looked at the status of the enemy ship torn up by the rocks. It was still whole, just bleeding and drifting. He wasn’t convinced that they had killed it, but at the same time it was no longer a threat.
It was time to put it out of its misery—
“Captain!”
Four red blips flashed on the hologram. Additional Draconian ships had entered the system, and the Rezeki’s Rage was right in the open for their sensors to ping them.
“Perhaps that’s why that ship had stopped so much,” Peiun said, grimacing. “It was communicating with its comrades.”
“Have they spotted us?” Uemsu asked.
Alesyna shook her head. “It doesn’t seem like it.”
“Confirmed. They aren’t showing up on our sensors yet,” Nadevina said, eyeing her screens floating before her. “If we can’t scan them, they can’t scan us.”
“Yet,” Peiun corrected her. “We’re looking at a one-hour communication delay.”
He looked closer at the red dots. Four ships entered the system from separate locations, likely because they had spread out beforehand. It didn’t matter which side of the gas giant the Rezeki’s Rage hid behind. One of the ships was bound to scan it when they closed the distance. Moving to another planetary body would yield the same results.
“Take us into the upper atmosphere,” Peiun ordered.
Nadevina gasped. “Are you sure that’s wise?”
“No, as this vessel was never intended for atmospheric flight,” Peiun said. “However, Nadevina, you proved you could operate this ship in a planet’s atmosphere. Keep the MRF active and the Rezeki’s Rage below as many clouds as possible.”
The Rezeki’s Rage dipped into the gas giant’s gravity well and plunged through a world made of clouds. The decks rumbled during the voyage through the cloud world.
