Hemon smiled, “Perhaps combat is where he will learn those things that will help us most. Like I once told the Pharaohs, making a spear is not the same thing as throwing one.”
“It would be a huge loss if he was killed.”
Everyone was silent and Dolly said, “Send the orders.”
Jeff nodded, “Yes, Sir.”
* * *
The Havana was on guard duty at the orbit of Neptune holding position at the edge of the solar system in normal space. Kenny looked up from his panel, “We’ve just been ordered to go into Sierra Space and see if we can find a ship with a specific frequency.”
Arvolo looked over his glasses and raised his eyebrows, “Exactly what type of ship gives off that particular frequency?”
“According to the file attached with the download, it’s a Blue Giant Scout Ship.” Kenny continued to read his panel and said, “It’s about three times our size and heavily armed. I’ve sent a picture to your console.”
Arvolo stared at the image and tilted his head, “That doesn’t sound good. Does the message tell us what to do if we happen to find one of those ships?”
Kenny continued reading and then looked up slowly, “They want us to pick a fight.”
Arvolo leaned back in his chair and put his hands on his large stomach, “They do.”
“Yes.”
“It’s surprising they’re selected us. They know I’m the peaceful sort?”
Kenny was taking a drink from his glass of water and sprayed it out of his nose and mouth.
“Hey, I am.”
Kenny shook his head and snorted, “You’re about as peaceful as a tiger that just had his backside sandpapered. You are constantly looking for a fight. I’ve had to stop you more times than I care to remember.”
Arvolo shrugged, “Just checking to see if you were paying attention. Our selection makes sense, sort of.”
Kenny snorted again, “Dropping into Sierra Space.”
Arvolo thought about Kenny’s assessment and decided he was only partly right. He didn’t look for a fight on Mondays or Fridays. That’s the days he set aside to recover from the fights he had over the weekend and to rest before the next ones.
“I’ve found four of those frequencies and one of them is pretty close.”
Arvolo sat up straight, “How close?”
“Less than four seconds in Sierra Space from our current position. It just entered normal space.”
“That could be outside the galaxy, how close?”
Kenny looked back at his display, “Fifty light years from Earth.”
“We need to pick one further away to draw them away from this area.
“There’s one five hundred light years away.”
Arvolo tilted his head down and looked through his eyebrows.
Kenny started shaking his head and said, “Switching my board to weapons. You have the ship. Force field and weapons are on line. How do you want to handle this?”
“Let’s be subtle; we’ll enter normal space and hit them with a fusion missile.”
“That’s pretty subtle for you. Are you sure we don’t need to kiss them first?”
“I’ll wait while you do the honors. But I want that missile fired before you get their communications number for a future rendezvous.”
“Why only one missile?”
“I’m sure Fleet wants to know what it’s going to take to handle those ships. We need to give them as much information as possible. If the missile doesn’t work, we’ll hit them with a beam. If that doesn’t work, we’ll use both. Make sure a record of this is being sent to Fleet.”
Kenny nodded and activated the channel, “Just what do you think that ship is going to be doing while we’re playing around with a mix of weapons?”
“Why, finishing their kiss with you. We’re jumping in three seconds. Pucker up.”
The Havana jumped into normal space next to the large ship and fired a fusion missile. It hit the three thousand foot long vessel and exploded before reaching the ship. Arvolo applied thrusters and dodged left as ten beams ripped through the space the Havana had just vacated.
Kenny looked at his display and said, “Three of those beams would have killed us at our current field strength.”
Arvolo jerked the Havana hard right and dodged six missiles homing in on them. “I guess you aren’t that great a kisser, Kenny. I think they expected more” The missiles turned abruptly and homed in on the Havana and hit it on the port side.
The force field flashed brilliant white and stopped the missiles. Arvolo went weightless and zoomed in on the blue colored ship and Kenny fired a beam. It was also stopped on the force field as Arvolo turned ninety degrees and accelerated away as ten beams failed to hit them. “No more Mister Nice Guy. You have full weapons release.”
“Just get me in close. See if you can draw another salvo of beams.”
“Oh, now you’re two timing them. You want me to get close and personal.”
“Not my type. You can have them.”
Arvolo flipped the ship and came back at a hundred and eighty degrees faster than physics allowed. He was thankful for the weightlessness of the Havana. He watched his sensors and saw the beam cannons on the surface of the large ship showing they were drawing power. He had mentally counted the time taken on the previous shots fired at them and he turned ninety degrees an instant before the twenty beams ripped by less than a hundred feet from the Havana’s force field. The force field brightened from the close miss and then disappeared as Kenny directed all three reactors into the main beam and fired immediately after he launched a fusion missile from close range. The beam tore through the Scout’s force field and the fusion missile struck and blew the three thousand foot long ship into fragments.
“Hey, that was a nice move. You may not be a good kisser but you can handle weapons. What now?”
“Get us out of here, RV. Multiple ships are jumping in.”
Arvolo turned the ship and accelerated away from the destroyed ship at light speed. “What do you see?”
“We have eight of those ships just appear at the site of the explosion. They are now giving chase.”
“Going into Sierra Space.”
The Havana dropped into Sierra Space but was immediately hit by the screen of a Scout that was waiting for them. They popped back into normal space and saw that the eight ships had split up with four of them jumping ahead of them through Sierra Space. Kenny looked at Arvolo and said, “We can’t escape. They have more than ten ships scattered in Sierra Space to force us back into normal space as soon as we try to escape.”
“Notify Fleet what’s happening and I’ll let them chase us for a while as Fleet decides what we should do.”
Arvolo changed direction and kept the eight ships chasing them at a distance. “Have they made a decision?”
“Not yet. It looks like we’re on our own.”
“Well, weapons master. What are we going to do?”
Kenny took a deep breath and said, “I’ve not used a program that I’ve designed because I’m uncertain about it working. It looks like we should give it a go.”
“That doesn’t sound good to me. What does it do?”
“I noticed that you have been able to estimate how long the beams on those ships fire after charging. Am I right?”
“Yes, I’ve noticed the interval.”
“Well, my software has that delay scanned in and will automatically switch the reactors from force field to beams when it determines that their beams are not firing. I’ve been able to determine the location of their reactors and if we can fly and take on their beams we can fire in the delay and hit the reactors. That should disable the ship. The program will automatically switch power between our force field and beams.”
Arvolo turned hard right and moved away from the second group of Scouts, “What about fusion missiles?”
“We won’t have time to use them. If my switching works like I’ve designed it, our force field will only be down a hundredth of a second as our beam is fired and will be right back up at full strength using both reactors. If we can disable several of their ships close together one fusion missile could blow them all up.”
“Can our force field handle that many hits?”
“Using both our reactors, it will for a short time. I’ll monitor the strength and when it gets to ten percent I’ll let you know so you can retreat for it to regain power.”
“How are you going to time the beams?”
“I won’t; my software will do it. I have the sensors slaved to the program and the weapons will operate with the readings.”
Arvolo looked at his display with the location of the eight pursuing scouts, “So what’s the best way to do this?”
“Lt. Anders, have you trialed this program you’re describing?”
Arvolo and Kenny jumped at the sudden announcement. Kenny looked at Arvolo and said, “Sir, We’re sending the feed of this fight to Fleet. It appears they are listening to our conversation.” He pressed his board and said, “No, sir, I have not.”
“You’re taking a mighty big risk with a five billion dollar starship.”
“The Blue Giant Scouts will eliminate that as a concern shortly if we don’t do something. Unless you have another idea, we have nothing to lose.”
“Is there no way for you to jump away?”
“Sir, this solar system is the size of a beach ball in Sierra Space. All the Scouts have to do is have a ship above and below it and we’ll be bumped right back into normal space before we can even start to escape. We are forced to fight it out here.”
“I’m considering sending ships to support you.”
“Sir, I don’t think that would be wise.”
“Why not?”
“I suspect that is exactly what they’re hoping we’ll do. If they can damage one of our ships and examine it they will be able to find our home world and determine our level of technology. I really believe reinforcements for them are very close by. They certainly out number us by the thousands.”
“Do you think this new software will work?”
“It’s the wiring harness that makes it work. The only way to find out is to turn it on and allow Captain Arvolo to do his magic.”
Jeff looked around the table and no one said anything. Jeff keyed his board and said, “Godspeed Sailors.”
Arvolo sighed and took the Havana vertical as eight missiles passed under them, “Let me ask you again; how do we do this?”
“The best possible solution is for you to get in among several ships and allow them to fire at us. If a break in the action happens, even for a micro second, we’ll fire back. I’ll announce the power remaining in the force field and you run when it’s down to ten percent.”
Arvolo looked at his display and said, “I hope you continue to hold your number one ranking. Fire it up. Let me know when the system is on line.”
Arvolo turned ninety degrees and ten missiles couldn’t make the turn with the Havana and sped by over them.
“The system is now in control of my board. The ship is yours.”
Arvolo smiled, “Hold on to your hat.” He hit reverse thrusters and the Havana came to a sudden stop. The four scouts chasing it came roaring up and fired their beams as they blew past. Arvolo hit rear thrusters and the Havana rushed forward into their formation. Two intense, narrow beams fired from the Havana’s hull and two of the Scouts suffered explosions and stopped dead in space. The other two ships fired again at the Havana and Arvolo heard Kenny in the back of his mind, “70 percent, 50 percent, 25 percent, 15 percent….”
When Kenny reached fifteen percent, the Havana fired at the other two ships and they suffered explosions in their reactors and stopped dead in space. Kenny launched a fusion missile at each of the pair of dead ships and they were blown into fragments which scattered from the center of the explosions. “Four in the box; four to go.”
“I’m not so sure it’s going to be just four, RV. Power is back at eighty percent.”
Arvolo looked at his display and saw the second group of four ships slow down in their pursuit. “What do you think they’re doing?”
“They just saw you kill four of their ships. I’m not sure they’ve made the connection between us hitting them between beam volleys but I’m reasonably certain they aren’t going to take us on alone.”
Arvolo looked back at his monitor and said, “You’re a better kisser than I thought.”
“Why is that?”
“It appears a lot of them have shown up for the opportunity. Better refresh your lipstick.”
Kenny hit a button on his console and said, “Admiral Garcia, I’m sending you all the information on the system I designed. It’s in a download attached to this message.”
“What’s wrong, Anders.”
“More than six thousand Blue Giant Scouts have just jumped into the system. I don’t think they appreciated the destruction of their ships.”
Kenny watched Arvolo do things over the next thirty minutes that were absolutely amazing. They were totally defensive and were being herded into a corner. What could they do?
“It’s a shame we can’t get into Sierra Space. This is probably all the ships they have in this area.”
Kenny said, “Yes it is…holy cow!”
“What?”
“We don’t have long, head towards the orbit of the last planet in this system. See if you can work your way through those ships between you and that orbit.”
“What are you going to do?”
“See who’s faster,”
Arvolo rolled the ship and cork screwed through more than a thousand ships. After ten minutes he said, “We’re four hundred thousand miles from that orbit. Whatever you’re going to do, you need to do it now.”
Kenny dropped the Havana into Sierra Space and ejected a fusion missile set for two second detonation just before the scout hanging there bumped the Havana back into normal space. “Go to light speed and jump into Sierra Space at that orbit.”
Arvolo went to full weightless and hit full thrusters. The Havana blew by the ships surrounding it and rushed towards the outer planet’s orbit. The ships chasing it tried to jump into Sierra Space to get ahead of the fleeing ship and found it was blocked by a huge energy blast that had disrupted the area around the solar system. They went to full speed but nothing can go faster than light in normal space and the Havana had a lead. Three seconds after going to light speed the Havana entered Sierra Space and jumped away. By the time the scouts arrived there was no trail to follow.
* * *
Kenny was looking at his board and Arvolo took a deep breath, “That was a great plan. You have to be Cuban.” Arvolo watched Kenny punching his board, “What are you doing?”