Crusade chapter 7 (standard:science fiction, 2006 words) [7/11] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 11 2003	Views/Reads: 2581/1865	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
chapter 7

Klaxons sounded around the ship signalling battle stations and in
Carver's quarters Alecto activated the lights and appeared on his 
vid-screen, “Captain,... Captain! Wake up, epdar has a freighter convoy 
at 44 light minutes!” “Christ, what time is it?” “0317, Captain.” said 
Alecto as Carver pulled on a uniform and dashed through the door. This 
was the third convoy since the fleet had split up, they were almost out 
of Megaeran space 

“What've we got,” he demanded as he entered the bridge. “Hard to tell
Captain. Six or seven juggernaught class freighters and at least three 
destroyers.” came the watch officer's reply. Carver sat down in his 
chair and flipped up the small vid-screen attached to one of the arms, 
he touched the screen and brought up a communiqué from Kerray-win; it 
was Captain Tennit's battle plan, he wanted Crusader to distract and 
destroy the escort whilst Kerray-win and Broadsword dealt with the 
convoy. Carver was a little disappointed. This was the third convoy in 
nine days, valuable to the war effort it may be destroying freighters, 
but it was not an effective use of a battleship or two cruisers. “Helm, 
prepare to exit hyperspace, minus 15 seconds.” Carver watched the 
counter tick down, “Give fighters amber light, green on my signal.” 
Ahead the visual sensors showed an exit portal opening, it was 
Broadsword's, and their own opened a moment later. He heard the 
helmsman say, “Real-space in 4...3...2...1, real-space attained.” As 
soon as he heard this Carver gave his orders. “All papa turrets target 
the closest escort and open fire, torpedoes hold.” 

Destroyers carry no fighters and neither do freighters but even if they
had there would be little purpose, no torpedoes would be used in order 
to conserve the remaining supply. Already the first escort was listing 
under the barrage of energy, a destroyer simply couldn't deal with that 
kind of punishment, she wasn't even returning fire; obviously her 
Captain had ordered the weapons capacitors redirected into the ailing 
shields, her first and only salvo of torpedoes had been wiped out by 
the Anduril fighters. “Escorts are retreating Sir,” came the epdar 
officer, “Sir, so are all but one of the freighters, it's on an 
intercept course.” Strange thought Carver, then suddenly it dawned on 
him, “Signal the fleet, retreat, retreat. Helm hyperspace now!” 

His signal was in fact unnecessary to Captain Adams who had realised,
like Carver, that it was a trap but unfortunately Captain Tennit had 
not; he was not human, he was alien in body and mind and his thoughts 
were alien; something which immediately said ‘trap' to two human 
Captains said something else to him - the rest of the convoy retreated 
but one stayed, seemingly unable rather than unwilling to run. He 
ignored the signal, believing it to be in error. Crusader and 
Broadsword entered hyperspace only just in time, as Tennit's final shot 
hit the freighter it lost power. The Megaerans, it seemed, had 
developed a way of reversing the normal artificial gravity net, 
creating an anti-gravity field: as the freighter lost power this field 
collapsed releasing its deadly cargo, a fully formed micro-singularity, 
everything within 6 light seconds (1.16 million miles) was consumed, 
including Kerray-win. 

The appearance of the singularity and the destruction of Kerray-win was
sadly reported by the epdar officer and subsequently broadcast around 
the ship. 

“That was meant for us you know, Alecto,” said Carver later, whilst
writing his report, “why didn't that stupid grey bastard listen to me? 
There were over three thousand beings on that ship and now the whole 
thing's the size of a marble!” “Actually Captain, the size would be 
considerably less than....” “Thank you Alecto.” “But there is a 
positive side. You must agree that it's better to lose 3112 Andurils 
aboard a cruiser than 4280 Humans aboard a battleship.” “Alecto, I am 
not looking for mercenary reasoning right now and anyway, you would say 
that it's in your genes to value Human life above Anduril.” 

Three days later. “Captains personal log: whether it is by luck or some
device of the enemy is unclear to me, but we have reached the Anduril 
border. For the moment the border remains well defended and I doubt we 
will be pursued but I am worried about the enemy's newfound ability to 
transport black holes. On the subject of black holes, I remember in my 
undergraduate years reading something about an experimental particle 
accelerator on Long Island called the relativistic heavy ion collider; 
apparently the device had to be shut down over fears that it would 


Click here to read the rest of this story (117 more lines)