Star Glory (Empire Series Book 1) Read online

  In the vidscreen the grayness of Alcubierre space-time disappeared. White star dots took form against the black void of deep space. A yellow star dot glowed in the middle of the image. The adjacent image of the Bridge showed everyone from First Shift, with the captain seated atop the command pedestal. Below him were XO Kumisov, Major Owanju and Doctor Bjorg. A silvery box sat on the floor next to Bjorg. It was the Empire translator device given me by Hatsepsit. The thing was tied into the ship comlink and Heidi, both by way of fiber optic cables and by direct wifi link. It was also connected to Jacob Wetstone’s Communications station. In short, the Bridge now had the ability to talk to any alien ship using one of several neutrino comlink frequencies given us by the Melanchon. Of course we also knew the Empire frequency, but we would never use that when talking to aliens. That would identify us as the galactic bad guys. And with only our ship and crew, we needed to be known as good guys. Or at least be known as very dangerous to any vessel that might attack us.

  “Captain!” called Chang from her Tactical station. “We’ve got moving neutrino emission sources in front of us and to the sides.”

  “How many?” asked Skorzeny.

  “Eighteen sources, sir.” Chang tapped her panel, then looked back to the captain. “They are scattered over the outer edge of this star’s magnetosphere. Which lies at 44 AU out. Closest ship is a half AU from us. Most distant is three AU.” She looked back to her panel. “Front sensor array says there are stationary neutrino sources in orbit above the system’s single world, which lies at 1.04 AU. That world is on our side of the system. Between the world and us are three asteroid belts, a Kuiper zone of comets and an outer Oort Cloud beyond us. Sir.”

  “What is their speed?”

  “Most are stationary. Uh, correction. The two nearest ships are now moving toward us at one-tenth psol. System graphic imagery going up.”

  Chang focused her attention on a holo that showed the system graphic. On it were the planet, asteroid belts, Kuiper and Oort Cloud zones. The magnetosphere edge was a dotted line. Sitting stationary were sixteen red dots. Two red dots were moving toward us, one from directly in front and one from our starboard side. Our single green dot was moving inward at one-tenth psol, which was our exit speed from Kepler 22. We were about to touch the outer edge of the magnetosphere. That imagery now joined the overhead view of the Bridge that showed on the nearby vidscreen. Was the captain going to turn the ship so we stayed outside the star’s magnetosphere? Would he order us to do a mini-jump to another part of the system’s edge?

  “Com, activate the neutrino frequency for the pirate base,” Skorzeny said, sitting ramrod straight in his seat.

  The captain wore a vacsuit with his helmet hinged back. Which was exactly how Chief O’Connor, PO Gambuchino and her Spacers, myself and everyone else on the ship were dressed. We were at Combat Ready status. My ears heard every breath taken by the people on Engineering Deck. My eyes saw everyone’s infrared glow brighten. Tense time it was.

  “Activated,” Wetstone said.

  The captain stared straight ahead at the front vidscreen, which lay beyond the view of the overhead videye

  “I am Captain Neil Skorzeny of the heavy cruiser Star Glory. We call ourselves humans. We are enemies of the Empire of Eternity. We wish to trade for supplies and weapons with you. Respond.”

  Nothing happened for several seconds.

  “Incoming neutrino signal!” cried Wetstone. “Going up on the front vidscreen. Also going out on All Ship vidfeed!”

  The bulkhead vidscreen grew an image in its middle, forcing to either side the overhead view of the Bridge and the system graphic image.

  Something that resembled a red lobster crossed with a centipede took shape. Four blue eyestalks moved above a mouth filled with chitin-teeth. Its two front arms rose. One arm ended in a giant claw with serrated edges. The other arm ended in stick-like fingers that were radial in arrangement, allowing any two of the six fingers to touch like a thumb and finger. Behind the bulbous head rose a plated body and tail, its dark red armor plates covered in yellow and black spots. Underneath its long, low body were dozens of tiny feet that resembled what millipedes and centipedes used for walking. Or scuttling. Or whatever those bug creatures did to move over the ground. The creature’s mouth opened. Inside was a green tongue. It made sounds.

  “Responding to Captain Neil Skorzeny, captain of the human heavy cruiser Star Glory. Who gave you the location of this base? And knowledge of this frequency?”

  “The Melanchon leader Hatsepsit gave me your location and frequency,” the captain said. “She said your base was willing to trade with any ship that opposes the Empire. We do. Will you trade with us?”

  Two eyestalks looked to one side. The other two eyestalks leaned forward. “The Melanchon were interesting beings. You are friends with them?”

  “We are.”

  The two side-looking eyestalks joined the other two in leaning forward. “My image device shows you heading into this system. Two raider ships are heading your way. Do you understand the terms of trading with this base?”

  The captain nodded quickly. “Yes. The Melanchon told me that any ship which arrives at this system must battle any attacking ship. If a ship survives to reach your base above this system’s world, you will trade with that ship. Otherwise, you will not.”

  Damn. That was a detail I had not heard from Hatsepsit or Madamedura. Clearly our captain had learned that. Along with the neutrino comlink frequency of the base.

  “Correct,” the lobster creature said. “We are raiders of the Empire. Each ship on the edge of this system is commanded independently. But all are committed to protecting this base. Let us see if you humans are worthy of trading with us.” There came a pause in its speech. “If you survive to dock with my orbital base, no ship will attack you. And you will be allowed to depart without pursuit. But if one of our protector ships can defeat you, well, you and your ship contents will belong to that ship.” The four eyestalks moved in a wave sideways. “After all, it is only by attacking the weaker that we raiders obtain what we have to trade. Be weak and be property. Survive and you may trade with us.”

  The captain grinned, showing his teeth. “We humans are very deadly. We killed two Empire ships when they attacked us. Perhaps your two raiders may wish to avoid that fate.”

  Two of the eyestalks looked sideways. “The death of any Empire vessel is always welcome. But there are many of them. Far more than there are raiders like us. Show us your deadliness. Then we will trade.”

  “What is your name?” the captain asked.

  The four eyestalks held still. The serrated mouth opened. “My cohort designator is Tik-long, of the species Nagal, formerly of the world Blue Waters. Closing frequency.”

  The lobster-centipede image vanished. Replacing it was a true space image from the ship’s electro-optical scope. In the scope image was a red dot with a yellow flame at one end. Whether it was the ship in front of us or the ship to starboard I did not know. But clearly it was the closest attacker. The captain leaned forward.

  “Tactical, what’s the range to the nearest alien ship?”

  “Sir, the nearest ship is one-fourth AU distant, moving toward us at one-tenth of lightspeed,” Chang said softly. “The starboard ship is one AU distant and moving toward us at the same speed. Both ships are at CBDR.”

  Which meant both raider ships were at Constant Bearing Decreasing Range. No matter what order the captain gave Astrogation, those two ships would maintain their intercept angle. Which was very much like what had happened with the Empire ships at Kepler 37. We had some time to prepare. Our speed of ten psol amounted to 66 million, 960,000 miles per hour. Which meant it took an hour and ten minutes to travel one AU. That was the time we had until the starboard ship intercepted us. The oncoming ship, though, we would see much sooner, since it was closing on us as we closed on it.

  “XO, suggestions?” Skorzeny said.

  “Let’s try our x-ray laser thermonukes. Their rang
e is 20,000 kilometers.” Kumisov tapped on her own control panel, then looked at a system graphic hologram that appeared before her. “When the ship ahead gets to 50 kay range, let our bow proton and CO2 lasers fire at them. The beams will die out at 10,000 klicks. That will cause the raider to think that is the max range of our directed energy weapons.” She smiled in the bulkhead vidscreen. “When they hit 20,000 klicks, we can fire our x-ray thermonuke warheads. The x-rays will pass through their ship hull and kill everyone onboard. Sir.”

  “Good tactic.” The captain looked forward. “Astrogation, put us on a vector track away from the starboard ship and toward the forward ship.” Skorzeny looked to a different area of the function stations that filled the front of the Bridge. “Weapons, put our lasers, missiles and railguns on Hot Ready status.”

  “Sir, new vector set,” called Louise Ibarra from Astrogation.

  “All Weapons stations moving to Hot Ready status,” muttered Bill Yamamoto.

  The captain touched his right armrest. “Chief O’Connor, fire up our thrusters. Give me flank speed in forty seconds.”

  I saw my boss’s thick shoulders tense. “Sir, thruster containment fields going up. DT pellets injecting. Fusion implosions are nearing max plasma density. Exhausting!”

  My feet felt the deck vibrating from the pumps that moved frozen deuterium and tritium pellets from our fuel bunkers down past the Engineering Deck and into the fusion chambers of our three thrusters. Those were the domain of the chief. My domain was the antimatter we used for our afterburner push.

  “Sir!” called Chang. “Both the starboard and forward ships have increased speed to 15 psol! They have whatever the Empire ships have that allows them to move so fast.”

  Double damn. I looked away from the vidscreen to the nine tubes surrounding my station. The rainbow shimmer was uniform and stable. Soon the captain would—

  “Engineering, move us out at flank-plus speed,” Skorzeny said calmly.

  “PO Stewart, activate the antimatter flow.”

  I slapped my touchscreen. “Antimatter is flowing down all tubes, Chief O’Connor.”

  The deck floor vibration increased as the negative antimatter hit the positive fusion plasma formed by the laser-generated combining of deuterium and tritium isotopes. A digital readout on my panel slowly rose from 10 psol to 10.4, 10.6, 10.9 and finally eleven psol.

  “Chief, we are moving at maximum flank-plus thrust,” I said.

  “Chief,” called Gambuchino. “Our fusion reactor is feeding ninety terawatts power to each thruster. Similar full power flows going out to Weapons stations, Environmental and to our gravity plates.”

  “Captain,” the chief said calmly. “We are moving at flank-plus speed. Our reactor is feeding extra power to Weapons and other stations. Sir.”

  “Sir!” called Chang. “The forward ship is within 100,000 kilometers of us and closing fast!”

  I glanced at the bulkhead vidscreen. The electro-optical image of the raider ship now showed a box with long tubes on either side that spat yellow flame. Domes were spotted here and there. Likely they were laser or directed energy beamer nodules. Would these aliens use free electron or hydrogen fluoride lasers against us? Both laser types were slated for the next generation of heavy cruisers. Course, once we returned home, EarthGov might add gamma ray lasers to the offensive mountings on our combat ships. But home lay in the future. I hoped.

  “All Ship! Go to General Quarters! Seal your helmets!” Skorzeny said loudly.

  The overhead lights went to blinking red. Three loud horn hoots sounded. My seat straps tightened. I pulled my clear globular helmet over my head and down until it locked into the vacsuit’s neckring. Then I looked up and aside at the rainbow shimmer of the AM tubes. As before the fields were showing perfect shimmer. Liters of antimatter now flowed down to join the yellow-orange plasmas of our three thrusters. My ship was moving as fast as it could. A new vibration told me the Astro woman had begun sideways jinking to make harder any targeting of the ship by lightspeed weapons. A glance at the nearby bulkhead vidscreen showed the red raider ship was now at 35,000 klicks out.

  “Weapons, eject four x-ray thermonuke missiles,” the captain said softly. “Target them at the oncoming raider ship. Wait for my word on detonation of their warheads. And also launch Hunter-Killer mines to our starboard and rear. Feed them the rad emission signature of the starboard enemy ship.”

  “Launching mines and missiles,” Yamamoto said quickly. “Mines are loaded with enemy emission signature. Our four stern silos have ejected their missiles. At five warheads per missile, that makes twenty x-ray laser warheads available to hit the target. Sir.”

  “Tactical, advise me on range to enemy ship ahead.”

  “Range is now at 25,000 klicks, sir.”

  The captain stared intently at the front wallscreen. “Weapons, fire our bow proton and CO2 lasers.”

  “Firing both lasers,” Yamamoto said as he tapped his control panel.

  In the electro-optical scope image I saw two beams reach out. One was red for the proton beam. The other was the green from the CO2 laser. The beams flickered out at 10,000 kilometers. The red box and tubes raider ship stopped its sideways jinking, which it had been doing ever since coming within 100,000 kilometers. Clearly it thought our weapons range was just 10,000 kay.

  “Captain, enemy is now at 20,000 kay range” Chang said sharply.

  Over the All Ship vidfeed, I heard him take a deep breath. “Weapons, transmit tri-axis location of enemy ship to the x-ray laser warheads. Then detonate them.”

  In my mind a picture formed of one of those warheads. I had studied them at Great Lakes. Inside each missile cone were five one-megaton thermonuke warheads. Surrounding each warhead casing were ten metal-rich crystalline rods. They were called the gain medium. In short, in the nanoseconds just after a thermonuke detonates, it emits high energy photons. Those photons would hit each rod, which would convert them to x-rays that shot out along the long axis of each rod. Wherever a rod was pointed, a coherent beam of x-rays would travel. And because each beam was highly coherent with very little dispersion, the range of each rod was 20,000 kilometers. With four missiles launched that contained five warheads each, with each warhead surrounded by ten rods, the detonation of all four missiles would generate 200 x-ray laser beams. In theory, those beams could be independently targeted against a cloud of incoming enemy missiles launched above Earth’s atmosphere. That had been the objective of the Project Excalibur tests carried out by America more than a century ago. Now, if all eighteen raider ships were within 20,000 kays of the Star Glory, our x-ray laser beams could target every one of those ships. Instead, with just one ship in range, that ship would be on the receiving end of 200 x-ray laser beams.

  “Detonating!” called Yamamoto.

  I watched the bulkhead vidscreen and its electro-optical image. Heidi was tied into this scope image. Which was how there now appeared 200 white lines reaching out from us to hit the red box and tubes of the raider ship. Since x-rays were invisible unless passing through air or a radiograph plate, the AI had overlaid the white beam lines.

  “Hits!” cried Yamamoto. “All 200 hit the enemy!”

  “So they did,” the captain murmured. “Tactical, what was the range to the raider ship when it was hit?”

  “Range was 18,910 kilometers,” Chang said.

  “XO,” the captain said, looking down to his left. “What is your estimate of penetration depth for those beams?”

  Kumisov leaned forward, her long black hair shiny under the Bridge lights. “Sir, if the raider hull is similar to our armor hull of steel, titanium, chrome and lead, the beams will penetrate all interior spaces. The hull would have to be made of a meter of lead, or three meters of solid rock, in order to partially block penetration. We will know in a few minutes if anyone is still alive there.”

  “So we will,” the captain murmured. “Astrogation, move us starboard by 200 kilometers. Maintain current heading.”

  “Sh
ifting course starboard,” Ibarra said.

  In the vidscreen the yellow flare of the raider ship’s thrusters vanished. It continued moving toward us at 15 psol. That was its inertial momentum, which would not change until it hit a comet, an asteroid or some other ship sent in a boarding party. But its orientation did not change to match our sideways move.

  “Sir, raider ship has gone unpowered,” Chang said softly. “Its vector track is unchanged.”

  “One down, one still pursuing,” the captain said slowly. “Weapons, launch four missiles to our starboard. Set their track on an intercept vector to the incoming raider ship. Then disperse each missile’s warheads.”

  Yamamoto touched his control panel. “Missiles launched. Silos clear.” He tapped it again. “Missile vectors are adjusted toward the incoming track of the raider. Nose cones have released warheads. Sir.”

  That put twenty warheads each loaded with ten x-ray lasing rods between us and the incoming enemy ship. Which the system graphic image now showed was still twelve million kilometers away. It would intercept us in less than fifteen minutes. The captain spoke.

  “Com, activate the pirate base neutrino frequency.”

  “Frequency activated,” Wetstone said hurriedly.

  “Raider ship that is pursuing the heavy cruiser Star Glory. Be warned. We have ejected the same weapon that just now killed all beings inside the raider ship that was closest to us,” the captain said casually, almost as if he were discussing a Friday night poker game. “Even if your lasers manage to kill parts of this weapon, you will not find all parts of it. The surviving part will irradiate your ship with x-rays. If you wish to die, continue on your current vector track. Closing frequency.”