The ship’s shields blazed white and the ship shook as the energy bolt exploded within fifty feet of the ship.
Debra checked the ship’s status readings. “Shields down to forty percent,” she cried in a surprised tone. “But we weren’t hit.”
“Don’t have to be,” called out Will as he shoved the control stick forward to try and get the ship out of range of the weapon. “There’s so much energy in that blast that even a near miss causes damage.”
“Another energy build up,” cried Debra.
Will began furiously flipping switches firing the reverse thrusters along with the forward and aft reaction control thrusters. Debra gave a scream of surprise as the sensation of falling backward and being pulled out of their seats hit the two of them all at once.
The ship slowed and flipped over backwards. As it did so, Will pushed the control stick forward pushing him and Debra into their seats as the ship accelerated in the opposite direction it’d been traveling. The sound of creaking metal shot through the ship and the shields flickered as another energy bolt exploded just aft of the ship.
“Shields down to ten percent,” reported Debra grimly. “Also minor damage to the engines.” She shook her head in disbelief.
Will looked up at the tactical display and saw Gwen’s ship had only moved off a short distance. He set course for her ship at maximum speed. “So you wanted a ringside seat, Gwen,” he muttered darkly. “Let’s see how you like it up close.”
“They’re preparing to fire again,” exclaimed Debra.
Will merely nodded and maintained his course towards Gwen’s ship, which had now turned and was moving towards them.
“Energy levels on the planet are returning to normal,” reported Debra.
“Figured Gwen would want to finish this herself,” explained Will with a bitter laugh. “Well, at least now that she thinks we’re at a disadvantage.”
“Three minutes to weapons range,” called Debra.
Will began weaving the ship is a random pattern. He placed his hand on the plasma blaster controls and the instant they were in range, he began firing. They did the same. Moving back and forth, Will was able to avoid being hit while several of his plasma blasts made contact with Gwen’s ship. However, its shields only suffered minor damage.
Will knew that with the frigate on its way they didn’t have time for a stalemate. He’d seen enough of Gwen’s partner’s flying to have an idea of how he’d react to different maneuvers. He was a good pilot, but clearly inexperienced. That gave Will an idea.
“Transferring shield power to thrusters,” he called out as he began flipping switches and the violet haze around the ship faded away. Will continued his approach to Gwen’s ship, his total concentration on evading the incoming fire.
The radio began to crackle. “Your shields are gone,” came Gwen’s voice from the radio. “Surrender while you can,” she continued. “I have no wish to destroy you, Will.” She paused for emphasis. “But I will.”
“Hold on,” cried Will as he fired the forward thrusters to push the ship’s nose down while transferring every bit of available power to the ship’s auxiliary thrusters. Will’s ship shot downward catching Gwen’s ship by surprise. As Will had expected, they sought to match his maneuver, but he spun the ship back upwards towards the underside of Gwen’s ship and resumed firing.
They tried to evade, but Will’s ship was moving too fast for them to react. Also there were fewer plasma blasters along that section of the ship, diminishing their return fire. Gwen’s ship accelerated to move away from Will, but that only allowed him to come up behind them and concentrate his fire on their engines. They attempted to evade, but Will stayed with them.
“Their shields are down to thirty percent,” called Debra. “Looks like damage to their engines as well.”
Will brought the shields back up as he continued firing on Gwen’s ship. The return fire was now intermittent as some of the aft blasters had suffered damage. The continual firing finally caused the shields on Gwen’s ship to collapse and one final blaster impact knocked out their engines.
Will moved his ship alongside Gwen’s and flipped on the radio. “It’s over, Gwen. Surrender and no harm will come to either of you.”
There was no answer. Will repeated his message.
Suddenly, an escape pod zoomed away from the ship and towards the planet. “Two people on board,” said Debra looking at the sensor display.
Will started firing up the engines to pursue them, but suddenly stopped and began typing. “If their computer uses the same encryption scheme that the invasion fleet used, we might be able to download the memory from their ship’s computer,” he explained. He continued typing and finally pressed a button. There were several beeps and a cascade of symbols began streaming across the viewscreen.
It’s working,” cried Debra. “The full memory transfer should take about fifteen minutes.”
Will looked up at the tactical display. “I doubt we’ll have that long. Once the escape pod’s out of range I expect the weapon on the planet will start firing again.” He began flipping switches. “As long as we’re in radio range the transfer will continue.”
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He rotated the control stick and the ship swung around and began moving away from the planet at maximum speed.
“There’s an energy build up on the planet,” declared Debra.
Will nodded and his muscles tightened as be prepared to evade the attack.
They’re firing,” cried Debra.
Will swung the ship hard to the right, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The energy bolt from the surface struck Gwen’s ship and it exploded in a blinding flash sending debris in all directions.
“Well, that’s the end of that,” sighed Debra.
Will smiled. “I think there’s a good chance we’ll get some good information. After all, why would they bother destroying Gwen’s ship?”
Debra continued to monitor the planet, but it appeared no further efforts were made to fire on them. Will set course out of the system away from the direction of the approaching frigate.
“I assume you’ve seen that weapon before,” said Debra.
Will nodded. “Yes, I destroyed that weapon on Zulon Three. Their scientists had come up with a way to generate a concentrated plasma projectile weapon with enough power to totally obliterate any ship it hits.” Will adjusted their course slightly. “However, what made it even more effective was that it was designed to explode if it missed its target to insure it caused damage.”
“Well it certainly worked as advertised,” observed Debra in a somber tone.
“Almost too well,” answered Will as he looked over the status of the ship’s systems. “Shields are at ten percent and the engine suffered some damage, but otherwise we came through okay.” He looked over at Debra. “Were you able to get any sensor readings from the surface?
Debra started typing. “Yes, just before they started firing on us.” An image of a massive industrial complex appeared on the viewscreen. In the center was a large building with a long flashing tube extending upward from its roof. “Sensors detected over a hundred people.”
Will gave a low whistle. “That’s even larger than the shipyards on Mars.”
“It’s not a shipyard,” noted Debra. “There’s no ships under construction or even any ships on the landing field.”
He gave her a puzzled look. “So what are they building there?”
She was quiet for a moment. “Well, considering they originally planned to bring the jerlinium here, I’d say whatever Gwen scanned while she was with you.”
Will thought about all the different weapon systems he’d destroyed over the last couple of years. If Grandle was able to equip Earth’s fleet with them, no world could stand against him.”
He tilted the control stick. “We have to go back,” he said in a determined voice. “That facility has to be destroyed.”
Debra just stared at him for a moment and finally nodded. “I still hate when you’re right. I’ll start going through the data we got from Gwen’s ship and see if there’s anything we can use.”
Knowing the frigate they’d encountered would have reached the system by now, Will adjusted their course to enter the system with its sun between them and the fourth planet. “See if there’s a moon on one the inner planets we could land on,” asked Will as they made their way into the system.”
Debra checked the sensor display. “Only the first and third planets are on this side of the system’s sun,” she reported. “The first planet doesn’t have any moons, but the third planet has two small moons. They’re likely just captured asteroids, but it looks like we could land on them.”
“Good,” said Will as they set course for the third planet. The planet was nearly half as close to the system’s sun as the fourth planet and the exterior temperature of the ship rose as they approached it. Will activated the shields to protect not only from the heat, but also the ionized particles flowing outward from the sun. There were occasional flashes as they impacted the shields. The third planet was covered in thick clouds which masked the hellish conditions on the surface. “Several hundred degrees on the surface,” noted Debra as they drew near.
Reaching one of the moons, Will entered orbit around it and searched for a suitable landing location on the side opposite the sun. It wasn’t easy as the moon was covered with protruding rocks and craters. However, he finally found a suitable location and brought the ship down.
Will unstrapped himself and started down the ladder. “Keep going through the data from Gwen’s computer while I see what I can do with the shields.”
“Right.”
Debra got back to work. Up to this point, most of what she’d found came from the ship’s navigation records. Although the ship had made trips to multiple systems, the majority of its trips were from Earth to Audril and back. However, she saw nothing in that which would help them. She continued searching.
Meanwhile, Will was down in the shield control room trying to scavenge enough parts to get the shields back above ten percent. They’d been repaired so many times now that the replacement components had been nearly exhausted. So Will set about trying to convert multiple burnt out components into a single working one. He was only partially successful. Finally having done all he could, he began the long climb back up to the control room.
“How’d it go?” asked Debra as he climbed into the control room. There was an undercurrent of excitement in her voice.
“Got the shields back up to fifty percent, but that’s it for shield repairs,” he said in a grim tone. Then he noticed the smile on her face. “You found something?”
“I think so,” she answered in a hopeful tone. “Gwen made multiple trips here over the last few weeks. My guess is that she was bringing messages from Grandle and returning with status reports.”
A surge of excitement went through Will. “Did you find any of Grandle’s messages?”
Debra shook her head. “Couldn’t find anything. However, I was able to find some of the status reports.” She smiled. “It seems that when Gwen scanned that weapon on Zulon Three, she missed part of the power system. They figured out how to get it to work, but it’s not entire stable and it puts out a lot of radiation. Because of that they had to locate it in the mountains about ten miles away.”
Will’s eyes lit up. “Any information on its defenses?”
“Because of the radiation the power station is fully automated. However, the status reports do indicate it’s heavily shielded. Not sure if the ship’s blasters could penetrate the shielding.”
Will leaned back, his brow wrinkling as he considered the information. “Do we know the radiation levels?”
“No.”
“What about their sensors? How close can we get without being detected?”
“Nothing on that either.”
Will shook his head. “Okay, it might be easier this way. What do we know?”
“Unfortunately,” replied Debra leaning her head back, “I’ve already told you everything I’ve been able to find. There might be something else in the data, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
Will stroked his chin and looked up at the ceiling. “So we have no idea if we can reach the power station undetected or even if our space suits can handle the radiation inside it.”
“Right,” answered Debra with a hint of a smile.
“So are you ready for a challenge?” he asked with a burst of enthusiasm.
“I’m always ready,” replied Debra sitting up and starting to strap herself into her seat.
Will strapped himself in and started flipping switches. As he flipped the last one, he looked over at Debra and smiled before announcing, “Initiating ignition sequence.” The ship’s engines fired and they lifted off from the moon.