Angels of Eternity Page 10

  This was a test run of the corvette with its new crew. They’d trained long and hard to learn how to operate the corvette and its weapon systems. The Widowmaker had four rotating laser cannons for most fights, but it carried twelve nuclear weapons with their own propulsion. Most space battles took place with the lasers used first and boarding an enemy ship as the final assault. The nuclear weapons were the choice of desperation since they had a nasty tendency to detonate too close to the ship that launched them. Whatever the evolution of the wasps, the empire found their adversaries did much the same thing when it came to weapons. It was always a matter of scale and precision. Death rays were the stuff of fairy tales.

  Since it was a test run, the Widowmaker was not sent too far into the frontier. The plan was for them to travel to a known point in a part of space used by the navy for maneuvers, then return. Shakti stood at the control deck and watched the generator in operation as Chimata activated the system. They were all in the command center since the entire contingent of war brides were needed to operate the corvette. It happened very quickly. They felt a sense of disorientation and the ship was at the rendezvous point.

  “Are we were the drive was supposed to take us?” Shakti called out to Tara who was in charge of the coordinates. She was floating over a chart of numbers when the corvette emerged in its new location.

  “Looks like were a bit off,” Tara returned. “About two million miles. We need to fix a few things before we do this again.”

  “How close can you get us back to our departure point?” Shakti asked her. “It does us no good to fold back and end up too far away from the Vindicator.”

  “I think we can safely get to two hundred thousand miles from where we the last time,” Tara called out to her. “That’s enough to make contact with the Vindicator and reach it in two days running on full ion power. We can go a little bit faster if we use the atomics.”

  “Shakti,” Kamala called out from her station, “we have another ship in our vicinity. It’s about fifty thousand miles away and moving in the direction of the rally point. I don’t like the look of it.”

  Shakti grabbed one of the handholds and pulled herself over the screen. Kamala stared at it for a while. On the screen, she could see a rendition of a small ship outfitted with short-range lasers. It moved fast and aggressive, but at least the ship had a human look to it. This couldn’t belong to the wasps.

  “So what do you think it is?” Durga asked her as she floated next to them both. “Doesn’t look like any kind of commercial ship. Is it sending out a call sign?”

  “I don’t see one,” Salina commented. She knew more languages than any other warbride, so Shakti put her in charge of communications.

  “They haven’t tried to make contact,” Salina continued. “Maybe they don’t know we’re here. It would explain the reason the ship is avoiding us.”

  “They know we’re here,” Shakti said back to her. “They have to know. We’re not that far from them and the generator created a huge hole in space for them to see. The radiation burst would let them know right away someone else was in the neighborhood.”

  “Do you want me to see if I can make contact?” Salina called to Shakti.

  She turned her purple eyes in Shakti’s direction and tried to control her zero gravity float while reading the spectrum near the ship. For a young woman of eighteen, she learned the communication systems of the corvette faster than anyone expected.

  “Don’t,” Shakti called back. “I don’t know who they are. It’s not a good idea to make contact until we know what we’re dealing with. See if you can send a beam to the Vindicator and tell them we’ve spotted a ship where there isn’t supposed to be one.”

  Salina nodded and returned to her screen. She punched out a code for a wave beam. It would fold itself back across space and deliver their message to the other corvette.

  “Are we operational on the forward cannons?” Shakti asked Lashmi. She had the fastest response time of any of the warbrides and it made sense to put her in charge of the lasers.

  “I’m powering them up,” Lashmi responded. “It shouldn’t take long, but they’re too far away to be any kind of immediate threat.”

  “Just keep them ready,” Shakti told her. They’d only test fired the lasers a few times and she didn’t feel confident in using them.

  The corvette moved slowly into positon and began to track the other craft. They couldn’t get a decent visual as it was moving in a different pattern than they anticipated. The new ship used a small planetoid to avoid detection and moved behind it, but the corvette turned in space and followed the path. The Widowmaker used the planetoid to block most of the radiation from the nearby star and try to pursue the new ship.

  “Did you get any kind of identification on it?” Shakti asked Durga, who was in the process of going through the files to see if it matched any known spacecraft entered into the logs of the empire. So far, she couldn’t find a thing. It appeared it was built from many existing ships. The unidentified ship used bits and pieces someone had merged together from scrap yards all over the galaxy. The amount of detail worked into it was quite impressive and the engines were giving the ship exceptional maneuverability as they tracked it across the event horizon.

  “I’m not finding a bit,” Durga told her. “Nothing at all coming up. This thing isn’t even listed on the role of commercial ships. I think it’s build from multiple wrecks somebody found.”

  “Who would build a space craft out of junk and arm it with lasers?” Shakti said to her second as she swung down to Durga. “It doesn’t make sensed unless we’ve encountered…”

  She stopped talking long enough to look at the other woman. They had the same idea. Both stared at each other in silent recognition and didn’t say a word.

  “We’ve got a wave beam coming in,” Salina yelled from her station. “Looks important. You want me to put it in the middle?”

  “Go ahead,” Shakti confirmed. “It sounds like something we all need to hear.” Salina made a few adjustments on her screen.

  The head of a prefect formed in the middle of the command center. It was in response to the request Shakti had sent earlier about the new ship. The head began to speak slowly.

  “This is the imperial war college in response to the corvette Widowmaker request for information on an unidentified ship near their location. Your message was forwarded to us from the Vindicator. We have a positive identification on the new ship. It is a pirate craft operating near the Sonus Cluster. You are ordered to engage and neutralize it. The pirates are causing too much trouble and have forced us to devote valuable resources against them. We need those forces to fight the wasps. You are authorized to use whatever you have to neutralize the ship.”

  “I think that means take them out,” Kamala shouted from her station.

  “How do the lasers appear?” Shakti asked her cannon operator.

  “We have full power,” Lashmi told her. “They’re still too far away to use them. You’ll have to bring that pirate ship closer in range before we can take care of it.

  “Are you going to give them the option to surrender?” It was Bravi. Shakti could see her nostrils flare in excitement.

  “Of course,” she told them. “I think it’s standard procedure. We have a torpedo we can use?”

  “Twelve,” Lashmi yelled as her hands flew across the screen. “You want me to fire a warning shot?”

  “Use one of the smaller warheads,” she informed her. “I want them to know we’re in pursuit and give it a chance to yield. We may have to board this one, keep it in mind.”

  “I was hoping you would say that,” Kamala commented from her post. Shakti watched the other warbrides grin in anticipation.

  Lashmi found the torpedo she wanted to use. It was loaded and ready in the front chambers attached to the habitat part of the Widowmaker. The forward chambers did not spin like the rest of the living area. They needed to be stationary to send its deadly cargo forward. The torpedo hold was a
small part of the ship and was anchored to the front shields.

  Since the torpedo was independently operated, it could be deployed from any direction. Once fired, it would find its way to the target. She punched in the coordinates so that it would detonate a good distance in front of the pirate ship and let them they were serious.

  “You ready?” Lashmi asked her.

  Shakti took a deep breath. “Yes.”

  She made a final entry and pushed a button. “Torpedo away!” Lashmi yelled, as they watched the bright light of the propulsion unit flare in the distance from the corvette.

  Seconds later, it found its course and began to move in the direction of the pirate ship. There was silence as the image of the torpedo appeared in relation to its target on the holographic display in the middle of the command center.

  The pirate ship tried to avoid the torpedo and made a rapid shift at the last minute, but the torpedo followed it. Just as the pirates emerged from the shadow of the planetoid, the torpedo flew past it and continued on its way. The pirates turned their ship, as if they felt it had missed, and began going in a new direction.

  It was at that minute the torpedo detonated.

  The horizon over the pirates’ ship was flooded with light and radiation from the expanding cloud of plasma where the torpedo was located. It was an instantons transfer of matter to energy, and the flash would have blinded anyone who looked without protective shielding. The warbrides watched from inside the command center and observed the transmitted image of the bright cloud expand in front of the pirates. Now it was gone and the light with it, but they had sent a warning: yield or else.

  The torpedo was packed with enough matter to act as a disruptive cloud when it exploded. In space, a nuclear blast was useless unless it made contact with its target. The empire found a workaround this problem centuries ago by lining the torpedo with enough material so it didn’t have to make a direct hit. This turned it into a nuclear grenade.

  “Can you send a message to the pirates they’ll receive?” Shakti asked Salina.

  “I can try,” she told her. “I assume they listen in on the standard channels. Go ahead and talk.”

  “Attention ship without a designation,” Shakti spoke. “This is the Imperial Corvette Widowmaker. You are ordered to yield or the next torpedo will not explode in front of you. Stand by for boarding.” She felt the message was good enough for what it needed to do.

  They waited for a response. After five minutes, Shakti was on the verge of telling Lashmi to arm another nuclear torpedo. Suddenly, the response came.

  “Here it is,” Salina told her. “It’s in standard; do you want me to broadcast it to everyone? There is no image with it.”

  “Send it through on the audio,” Shakti told her. Everyone needs to hear the response.”

  “Greetings, imperial slaves,” the very masculine voice said to her. “We have no intention of yielding to your Great Whoremaster Emperor. You may try to fire more torpedoes but we know what you are using and are prepared to defend ourselves. Go ahead and try to stop us from leaving this sector!”

  “They want to play rough,” Durga commented to her. “What do we do?”

  “I want to take the ship,” Shakti responded. “They think we can be taunted into doing something stupid. It’s not going to happen. We’ll take the pirate ship and make it a present to our husband.”

  “We’re going to board it?” Tara asked her. She could see the glee in her and everyone else’s eyes.

  “I don’t see another way to do it,” Shakti replied. “Everyone into their suit armor, this won’t be like fighting the wasps.”

  In minutes, the warbrides had their taken the armor out of the lockers and were putting it on. It might be hours before they could make contact with the pirate ship, but they had to be ready. Shakti had her suit armor on first and went down the line making sure every other warbride was ready to go into action when needed. The weapons were already mounted to the wall embossed with name of each person who used them.

  “Let me help you with the helmet,” Shakti said to Durga who had a problem getting hers to seal properly. Shakti found the seal point and pushed down on it and it locked in place. She went down the row and made certain everyone else was ready. It was much different suiting up in zero-g than in a gravity field. In fifteen minutes, everyone was ready and their monitors glowed green.

  Shakti could observe the vitals on everyone in the display panel inside her helmet. They were all doing fine and she checked to make certain everyone had enough power for the assault on the pirate ship, should it come to that. They were closing fast and the pirate ship knew it.

  The pirate clans were the terror of known space going back a thousand year. No one knew where they originated. It was rumored they were part of a group of rebel planets who used their opposition to the empire to loot and pillage. Every few years, the emperor would send out his forces to clean them out of their hidden lairs. They were scattered across a dozen planets. But they would regroup and come back. All they needed was the time to regroup . It was a terrible cycle, but, other than total war, it was the only recourse the empire had at its disposal.

  They couldn’t understand why this one ship was in the same spot the corvette ended up after they folded space. Shakti couldn’t believe humans would betray their own species, so she doubted they worked with the wasps. Other than the humans found on board the wasp brood ship, no one had ever found any evidence they cooperated with humans. If the pirates were colluding with the wasps, it would be something the war college would need to know. Too bad for the pirates if this was the case as the empire would declare a hunting season on all known pirate clans.

  The corvette continued to gain on the pirate ship. They pulled in closer. Neither ship was anywhere near the planetoid, but Shakti didn’t think the pirates would attempt to fold space and escape. It would make them vulnerable to any weapon fire from the corvette and the pirates knew it. She expected they planned some kind of trick maneuver as the Widowmaker came into range. The pirate ship loomed big on the display Shakti had projected into the middle of the command center. They could see the various commercial ships which were merged together to make the one used by the pirates.

  What she couldn’t understand is how they came by the laser cannons. And right now, those were turning in the warbrides' direction. Shakti knew it was possible to exterminate the pirate ship with a torpedo, but she still wanted to take it intact. The pirates might be able to avoid or destroy one or two torpedoes, but not all eleven of them. A combined nuclear blast of three or more warheads at this range would vaporize them. However, the empire would learn nothing about who piloted it or if they were working in concert with the wasps.

  “She’s in laser cannon range,” Lashmi called out. “Tell me the word and I’ll start carving her up.”

  “Not yet,” Shakti commented.

  She observed the display as their objective came close. There it was, a portal from the outside, located half way up the main body of the pirate ship. All they had to do was lock it in with theirs and the warbrides would be inside the pirate ship in seconds.

  It was easy and she didn’t like easy. Easy implied a path someone had considered a thousand times before. Shakti rubbed her hand over the short hair she still allowed to grow on her head and thought a few minutes. They could destroy the pirates’ weapon systems, but to what effect?

  “Target on their laser assembly,” Shakti told Lashmi.

  She watched as the light from the screen bounced off the brown face of her co-wife and sister warbride. In seconds, Lashmi had found what she wanted and made a calculation. She punched in some figures and the pirate ship’s lasers appeared in a bubble in the middle of the command center. There was a series of flashes, the enemy ship’s weapon system burst into a myriad of dots, and the lasers of the corvette tore them apart. The pirate ship lacked any torpedoes and was vulnerable.

  “Bring us around to the port on the side,” Shakti called out to Chimata, who s
tood watch over the guidance of the corvette. “Once we’re in range, take us in. I don’t care how it’s done; just make sure we’re secure to this pirate ship. Get us a bridge around the port and we’ll take it from the other side. Bravi, do you still have some demolition charges.”

  “I have enough to blow the hatch on our side, if you wanted to know,” she transmitted from her helmet. They were all on the same scrambled network.

  “Bring what you need along,” Shakti told her. “Chimata, can you operate the lock from our side of the docking bay?”

  “I’ll set it on automatic. The Widowmaker can do most of the connection work on its own. I may have to finesse some things, but shouldn’t be any trouble.”

  “Good,” Shakti commented. “Everyone ready?” She turned to the other warbrides and saw them with their weapons and shields. An affirmation was transmitted back to her from each of them.

  “Okay,” Shakti responded, “let’s head to the dock.”

  “You don’t want to do this with a shuttle?” Durga asked Shakti.

  “This way is faster,” Shakti replied. Durga could see the intent look in her face.

  She led the way, grabbing handgrips until they were in the spinning section of the corvette. Once inside the simulated gravity area, they ran to the docking bay. In minutes, they were inside the port. It was meant as an antechamber for any exterior work on the corvette. Shakti turned to Chimata, who was easy to recognize even in her suit armor.

  “Are we about to dock?” Shakti asked her. She had the display up in her helmet, but it wasn’t easy to see.

  “Five minutes,” Chimata told her from the information in her display. “The Widowmaker is doing a good job getting into position. We should feel something in a few seconds and….”

  There was the sound of metal on metal as the two portions of the ships locked into position. The rotational part of the corvette had mated with its opposite on the pirate ship. There was a slight bump inside the bay as they felt the collision between the two.

  “Open the docking bay doors,” Shakti ordered Durga.