Phantom chapter 3 (standard:science fiction, 1705 words) [3/5] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 12 2003	Views/Reads: 2690/1891	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Chapter 3

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prepare to fire simultaneously.” “Ready Captain,” came the response a 
moment later. “Good. Prepare a spread of three Novembers and take a 
forecast.” “Novembers ready Captain.” “Launch Novembers!” 

The three neutron torpedoes shot away and as they reached their target
destinations they detonated neutron warheads, the extreme radiation 
given out temporarily blinded EM sensors. As they detonated Archer 
ordered, “Fire all forward tubes!” The killer torpedoes raced away. The 
moment the neutron torpedoes had left the EH shield the enemy had 
started to react, but by then they were out of time. First the Reaper 
torpedoes hit the doomed battleship, their 200-kiloton warheads 
blasting craters in its flank. A moment later the slower Harbingers 
came into range. First an onboard rail-gun shot a sliver of anti-iron 
from the nose of the torpedo, this impacted the hull only a few 
hundredths of a second before the 400-kiloton fission warhead armed 
torpedo detonated on the now weakened armour. Their aim had been true, 
the anti-matter punched a hole in the outer armour and the Harbinger's 
warheads breached the auxiliary anti-matter bunker, containment was 
lost and the ship's own fuel completed its destruction. 

As soon as the torpedoes had been launched Archer had ordered Phantom to
hyperspace and the tiny ship was fleeing the scene at flank speed. 
“Portals detected Captain. Seven, no eight, ten, fifteen portals 
Captain!” shouted the sensor operator. “Depressurise and open all stern 
tubes, target the nearest hostile!” Phantom only had four stern tubes, 
two 122 cm and two 65 cm, but they would be enough to slow down a 
pursuer. Forty-five seconds later the first hostile came through its 
portal. It was 1 second behind and gaining, at flank speed Phantom gave 
out enough of a passive signature to be detected. “Helm, unshift all 
masses, all stop, drop into real space!” In the short time they were in 
hyperspace Phantom had moved some distance and when it dropped out of 
hyperspace there was nothing around her but interstellar dust. 
Nevertheless it was, in this condition, as invisible as it could be. 

The pursuer saw the faint target disappear and it too went into real
space, though it took longer. Although there was no way for the 
Megaeran frigate to know it, they were only 8000 metres from their 
prey. Soon afterwards more hunters joined the pack and active epdar 
pulses rang through the ether. The searching pulses moved around 
Phantom's EH without a murmur, but the hunters kept on searching, their 
quarry could not be allowed to escape. 

The holoscape showed at least a dozen hostiles milling around. It was
getting dangerous, there was every chance one of the hostiles would 
accidentally collide with Phantom and there was no question who would 
come off worse in that situation. Fortunately the hunters were being 
none too subtle with their etheric mass use, so passive epdar 
signatures were reasonably strong. 

This hunt could easily continue until Phantom exhausted her fuel and
became visible, there was nothing for it, “Helm, take us laterally 
starboard, manoeuvring thrusters only, twenty-five metres per second, 
rig for maximum efficiency.” If she was to preserve enough anti-matter 
for the journey home then Phantom could maintain EH for only another 
two hours. There were no enemies to starboard as yet and at that speed 
they could be 180 kilometres away and enter hyperspace before they had 
to deactivate the EH. 

On Phantom's port side, gas was released from numerous jets, providing a
gentle but inexorable sideways motion. If more gas was released then 
greater velocity was possible, but greater velocity and more gas both 
increased the chance of detection. Unnoticed by her enemies, the small 
ship edged her way toward freedom. Undetected by Phantom (due to the 
EH), the hunters had begun firing their EP cannon in all directions, 
hoping for a lucky hit. They weren't to know that the EH screened 
Phantom from such attacks. 

Two hours later Phantom activated her hyperdrive motivator and slipped
unnoticed into hyperspace. She had enough fuel left to accelerate to 
cruising speed and to get home (Disciple Station), but once home 
dropping into real space and shifting the masses to decelerate would 
completely exhaust her bunkers. 

Aboard ship emotion was high, feelings of relief, jubilation and also
curiosity. The torpedoes had impacted, that much was known, but the 
extent of the damage was not. Having gone to hyperspace almost 
immediately after their attack, the ultimate fate of the target was a 
mystery. In truth a more destructive blow would have been hard to 
strike. 

There are two practical methods of generating sufficient energy to power
a starship. The technologically superior Andurils used tritium fusion 
generators, but human and Megaeran ships were powered by 
matter/anti-matter intermix reactors. Both systems had their 
advantages. The Anduril method was less efficient and produced less 
power than an Intermix reactor of comparable size. In addition the 
heavy radiation shielding required to protect the crew from stray 
neutrons added mass to the ship. However, if well shielded, a tritium 
reactor is almost infinitely safer than anti-matter. The Megaerans 
considered the trade-off worthwhile and the humans had no choice, human 
scientists could make fusion reactors, but could not manufacture 
tritium or deuterium in sufficient quantities, (Neo Mir used helium-3 
fuelled fusion reactors, but these did not produce the sort of raw 
power required for a warship). 

The auxiliary antimatter bunkers on that class of Megaeran warship were
well armoured, but had been designed with Anduril weapons in mind. The 
Harbinger twofold warhead was, in a shield-open condition, ideal for 
exploiting the position of the bunkers. The blasted and irradiated 
remains of the battleship were in two major pieces, broken in two about 
a third of the way forward by the anti-matter explosion. 


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