Defiant (Lightship Chronicles) Read online

  “I actually sent Out three probes,” she started. “One for each moonlet. One is just debris, though the telemetry is indicative of relatively equal mass compared with the other two. By the relative dispersal of the debris field, my best guess is that it was destroyed during the Imperial Civil War, between three hundred and four hundred years ago. The other two are both unique in their ways. The second shows evidence of massive damage, is in a state of severe disrepair, and it has a low-density core and exposed structured buttresses that can only indicate artificiality. In short, it was probably once inhabited on the inside, with a central hyperdimensional light and power source, somewhat like a ‘Dyson sphere,’ I believe it was once called. There is no evidence that this moonlet is operational, except for a ring of cannon and missile batteries on its surface, which appears to be a recent addition.

  “The third one, however, is much more problematic. It appears to be fully operational, with its own internal hyperdimensional power source. It is also likely artificial in nature, with extensive regolith covering its surface protecting an internal metal superstructure. It shows evidence of crater pockmarking on the surface, but my scans indicate that it’s hollow inside and generating both warmth and an acceptable environment for human habitation,” she said.

  “Wait, you’re saying the thing is inhabited?” I asked.

  “I’m saying it could be, Captain. There is enough interior surface area and internal water to support a population as high as twenty thousand humans, according to my readings.”

  “Weaponry?” asked Maclintock.

  “None obvious externally, sir,” said Karina. “It has some sort of apparatus at its narrow end, but the purpose of this structure is not obvious, and there are no HD energy readings. There is a large depression that looks like a crater at the wide end, and a large amount of HD energy is emanating from that location.”

  “A ship like that, if it is a ship, could generate enough firepower that it wouldn’t need missiles or coil cannons or anything conventional,” Dobrina said.

  “Does it have propulsion?” asked Zander.

  “Uncertain,” replied Karina. “Overall, it has a massive HD signature, as I said, so propulsion, even for an object that big, is possible.”

  “I’d like another opinion, Captains. This discovery could change everything. Captain Cochrane, would you please bring Historian Serosian into this discussion?” Maclintock asked. Everyone looked uncomfortable at this, but I didn’t really have a choice. Serosian was on my ship because I thought he might be of help at some point. Now was that time.

  “Aye, Commodore,” I said, and I arranged to add Serosian’s image to the main display. He joined within two minutes.

  “Are you up-to-date with our tactical situation, Historian?” asked Maclintock. His tone was more distant than before his betrayal by his former confidant.

  “I am, Commodore. Though I have limited access to ships’ data, I don’t really need to see what we are facing. I already possess knowledge of the Corant system through my former Order’s technical histories,” Serosian said.

  “Then what is this thing?” asked the commodore.

  “This is undoubtedly Founder technology, captured and brought here to protect the Imperial capitol by the First Empire. Our most recent analysis more than two decades ago indicated that this device was in a state of stasis and had not been in use for hundreds of years at least,” he said.

  “Well, it’s active now,” I chimed in.

  “Please allow the Historian to finish,” said Maclintock tersely.

  “As I was saying, this device is a massive weapons platform—a superweapon, really—and also a living, breathing space habitat. It was designed to go anywhere and do virtually anything from military operations to planetary colonization. In fact, the Founders’ name for them in their language was ‘Colony Ship.’ We believe that at one time there were thousands of such vessels,” said Serosian.

  “What happened to them?” Dobrina asked.

  Serosian hesitated for a moment, then said, “We believe that hundreds of thousands such ships left with the Founders to go on their great pilgrimage . . . to wherever it is that they went,” he said.

  “How long ago?” I asked, always inquisitive.

  “At least two hundred millennia.”

  “None of that is relevant to our current tactical situation,” said Maclintock. “I’m more interested in how this thing can be combatted if necessary.”

  “I’m not sure that it can be, Commodore—at least not with conventional weapons,” Serosian said.

  “So no missiles, no atomic weapons, no coil cannons. What about our gravity weapons or the disintegration ray?” That was Dobrina, always looking for the best tactical angle.

  “Likely shielded against such weaponry.”

  “I’ve got a different question, Historian,” I said. “Who’s inside that Colony Ship? Are they living or robots?”

  Serosian shuffled through some papers out of our sight, then commented, “Judging from the data I have been given, I’d have to agree with the longscope officer’s report that it could hold a population of about twenty thousand humans. As to the rest . . . I can’t say.”

  “Could it hold a Lightship inside?” I asked. He looked at me from the display monitor.

  “Easily. Dozens, if they so desired.” I looked to Maclintock.

  “We have to destroy this thing,” I said. “The Union will never be safe as long as it’s around.”

  “I hear your concern, Captain Cochrane, but right now there’s no evidence this thing is an imminent threat to any Union planets,” he said.

  “Commodore, this technology is thousands of years more advanced than ours. If that Colony Ship is populated with military forces loyal to Prince Arin, which I suspect that it is, then they will eventually find a way to use it against us,” I said, pressing him.

  “I agree,” came Zander’s scratchy voice.

  “I do as well,” said Dobrina. The other captains started to look worried, suspecting they would be forced to give their opinions, too.

  “It doesn’t matter. We don’t have the weapons to take it on anyway,” said Maclintock.

  “Defiant does,” I said. Maclintock looked at me, head tilted just a bit.

  “Explain,” he said. I sat back in my chair.

  “Before we left Candle for the Sandosa mission, the Historian Order upgraded our weapons. All of our Lightships now have these same upgrades, save for one: the torsion beam,” I said.

  “What’s a torsion beam?” asked the commodore.

  “A weapon that can accelerate any magnetic core to a speed that will rip the host object apart. Anything that has a magnetic core is vulnerable. A ship. A planet. A Colony Ship. Defiant used this weapon to destroy the moon Drava in the Skondar system when we rescued Impulse II and needed to take out the automaton factory there,” I said.

  “And why didn’t you report this to me?” demanded Maclintock.

  “Because there simply hasn’t been time, sir. This weapon was approved by Admiral Wesley, and I informed him that we had used it, but no more details. That was all that was in my orders, sir, that I had to report its use to the Admiralty. The simple fact is that this weapon is available. And I believe Defiant should use it against that Colony Ship.”

  Maclintock looked to Serosian for an opinion. “Can this torsion beam be effective against the Colony Ship?” he asked. Serosian hesitated.

  “It’s possible,” he said. “If certain random factors play out in our favor.”

  “You mean if we get lucky,” chimed in Zander. The Historian nodded.

  “If we get lucky.”

  Maclintock took a long time thinking about what to say next. Finally he said, “Our mission here was to take out the enemy fleet. We have them on their heels now, and we are going to finish that job.” He looked directly at me. “Pe
rmission to attack the moonlet or Colony Ship or whatever the hell it is denied for now. We will focus on trying to draw the enemy ships out and away from both Corant and that weapon, and then we will fight as one fleet under my command. Is that understood?” We all acknowledged, although mine came last. “Battle plans will be uploaded to your tactical AIs within fifteen minutes. We move inward in twenty. And I will accept no disobedience on this,” he said as a warning, most likely to me.

  “How will we get them to come out and meet us without drawing us into range of those big beasties?” asked Zander.

  “We’ll have to find a way, Lucius, although I admit I don’t quite know how. Hopefully the tactical AIs will come up with something,” said Maclintock.

  “Perhaps they won’t have to, sir.” The voice belonged to Karina. “Longwave scan just indicated the enemy fleet has regrouped, and they’re heading back our way, sir,” she reported.

  “All the better,” said Maclintock.

  “They could be trying to draw us into range of that thing’s weaponry,” I warned. Maclintock was unmoved.

  “Carry out the battle plans as ordered, Captains,” he said. “That is all.” With that he cut the com line and the captains vanished one by one from the displays. I shut mine down and walked across the short hallway to my bridge, where I was greeted by both Karina and Lena Babayan.

  “Orders, sir?” asked Babayan.

  “Prep the tactical AI to receive new orders from Starbound, XO,” I said, then turned to Karina. “Make the torsion beam available on my console, Lieutenant.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said and started to go back to her station. My hand on her arm stopped her.

  “But be prepared to break off from the fleet on my orders,” I said to them both. The two women exchanged glances, both fully knowing what I was asking of them.

  “At your orders, sir,” said Babayan. Karina acknowledged with a nod.

  And then they were off, and I looked at my empty command chair, hoping this wouldn’t be the last time I sat in it.

  Battle tactics were loaded into our tactical AI, and we were moving inward toward Corant again at precisely twenty minutes on the dot. It would take forty-one minutes for our two fleets to converge near Corant and the Colony Ship at what seemed a safe distance. But then almost everything seemed safe until you faced the unknown.

  At nineteen minutes into our run we began our deceleration to the battlefield, a field of asteroids that gravity had smashed into a ring of rocks eight hundred thousand kilometers from Corant itself. It seemed unlikely that the Colony Ship could hit us from there, as our anti-graviton plasma, also a Founder weapon, only had a range of a hundred thousand clicks max.

  It was also clear that the enemy ships—I hesitated to think of them as “First Empire” ships anymore—were bound for this area as their preferred ground, since they had begun decelerating while vectoring toward it before we did. No matter. I was convinced we could handle anything this archaic fleet threw at us.

  After much debate, at the five-minute mark I called down and ordered the guard detail to bring Serosian to the bridge. I was taking a risk, but he could be of use in battle against an unknown, especially a Founder unknown.

  Heads turned when he entered the bridge under guard. I swiveled to look at him but did not stand to greet him.

  “Mr. Serosian, will you help us in this battle from the Historian’s station?” I asked him directly.

  “I will,” came his simple reply. I motioned him to his console.

  “Please, then,” I said, “but do understand that these guards will be present. At the first sign of treachery, you will be summarily executed.”

  “Understood, Captain. But there will be no treachery from me. You have my word.”

  “For whatever that’s worth,” said Babayan, who had come up to stand next to me.

  “Many of the crew feel the same, Historian. I’ll leave it to you to prove them wrong,” I said. All eyes on the bridge had turned to watch the exchange.

  “As you say, Captain,” Serosian said, then took his station and powered it up with a sweep of his hand.

  “Two minutes to the battlefield, Captain,” called Karina.

  “Let’s do this,” I said, turning back to my tactical display. The battle AI had recommended we return to our first strategy, using the disintegration plasma followed by frequency-busting missiles, atomic torpedoes, and then finishing the dreadnoughts with the gravity-imploder weapon. I approved the tactics and forwarded the “go” sign to Lena Babayan at the weapons console. We reached initial attack range for the disintegration plasma, one hundred thousand kilometers, ten seconds later.

  “Pick out a dreadnought and engage the enemy,” I said, then switched on the intership com line. “All Wasps are free to engage enemy HuKs and drones at your discretion,” I said across the line. On the tactical board, our ships began to break formation. Our Wasps accelerated toward their targets while Babayan had George Layton move to an optimal range of about eighty thousand kilometers from the closest dreadnought. All of the other Lightship battle groups did the same. Resolution and Dobrina were the first to make contact with the enemy, then Starbound, Vanguard, and Fearless, whose captain, Dietar Von Zimmerman, was showing signs he would become an aggressive combat officer.

  I watched as our first volley from the disintegration plasma hit our targeted dreadnought. She listed and shimmied in space, then seemed to right herself and continued closing on us. A few seconds later the missile/atomic torpedo combination volley hit her a second time. She replied with a volley of her own missiles, which we shook off of our Hoagland Field as inconsequential.

  “Gravity imploder ready, sir,” called Babayan from her station. I took up my console and prepped the weapon, then fired once it was charged without hesitating. Knowing the dreadnoughts were automated and not manned had freed me of any thoughts about destroying the massive machines. I watched as the gravity plasma probed out into the black of space, seeking out its target. It enveloped the dreadnought, which began to list in a familiar pattern.

  Then something odd happened.

  The expected shower of sparks and collapse of her superstructure didn’t occur. Instead, she righted herself a second time and continued closing on us, firing her own frequency-busting missiles and atomic torpedoes. They hit us hard, the tiny pinpricks of atomic energy our weakened field allowed through impacting against our hull. We shook and rattled, but I was in denial.

  This was not happening.

  “Historian, why didn’t the gravity imploder destroy the dreadnought?”

  “Unknown, except . . .”

  I turned toward him when he didn’t finish. “Except what?”

  “It appears that the Colony Ship is extending some kind of additional defensive field around the enemy dreadnoughts—in fact, the entire enemy fleet,” he said calmly.

  “What’s the nature of the field?”

  “Unknown, as I said, but it has some properties of an accelerated particle field. It’s not that our weapons don’t work, Captain, it’s that the field is nullifying their effect by rapidly changing the makeup of the space around the dreadnoughts on a microcosmic level. In short, it’s dissipating our weapons’ energy, most likely into another dimension.”

  “Ten thousand kilometers, sir. We’re within coil cannon range,” reported Babayan. I checked the status of the other Lightships. None was making progress against the dreadnoughts, and the range to the edge of that newly detected particle field was closing with every second.

  “Mr. Layton, back us away,” I said evenly. We needed more time to assess this change to the battlefield. “XO, send out a call to all ships on the open fleet line. Recommend we retreat to our previous position as rapidly as possible due to the particle field the Colony Ship is projecting. Mr. Longer, get me up to half light on the HD impellers as quickly as you can.”

  There
was a round of “Aye, sir”s to my orders as I sat back in my command chair. A second later Maclintock chimed in on my private com line.

  “What are you detecting, Defiant?” he demanded.

  “There appears to be some sort of accelerated particle field defending the enemy fleet, sir, emanating from that Colony Ship. Highly recommend we return to our auxiliaries and regroup,” I said.

  “And where does the information about this field come from, Captain?” I turned to look behind me.

  “From Historian Serosian, sir,” I said. There was a pause on the other end of the line.

  “Do you trust him?” I looked at Serosian again. He was busily engaged in analysis of the situation.

  “I don’t think we have any choice, sir. We’re not getting to any of their ships, sir,” I said. As if on cue, one of our Wasps matched up with Valiant exploded spectacularly on the tactical display. “Recommend you give the retreat order now, sir.”

  “Agreed,” said Maclintock and cut me off. A second later he was on the open fleet line ordering a full retreat to our previous coordinates. I watched as the entire fleet broke off their attacks and started accelerating away from the battlefield. I was so intent on the fleet maneuvers that I missed the most important event of all.

  “Captain!” called Karina from her longscope station, alarm in her voice. “The Colony Ship, sir! It’s moving!”

  I turned back to the tactical display. The monstrosity was moving all right, accelerating far more rapidly than we could or than anything of its size should have been able to.

  Straight for Defiant.

  The next few seconds were full of orders and acknowledgments flying through the air on the bridge. Everything was chaos, and it was my job to bring it into some kind of order.

  “All personnel, stations!” I ordered. “Take your positions and cut the chatter. Longscope, distance to the Colony Ship?”

  “Six hundred thousand kilometers and closing, sir,” Karina said.

  “But how damn fast?” I asked roughly. She looked frightened but quickly had my answer.