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.“How could the Vlax have managed a breakthrough in optics? They have twice our effective range.”“How long until we can shoot back?” asked Droad.Beauchamp stared at him for a moment.“You’re not even surprised, are you?”“Of course I am.”“No, no.You think these are your crazy aliens and their super-science.When you faced them, they never came at you with a fleet, did they?”“No sir.”“Then why aren’t you surprised?”“Commodore,” said Droad slowly.He looked at the man.He could see a very different look in his eye now.The man was scared.Good, thought Droad.That’s the only way we have a chance.“Okay, I’ll tell you what I’m thinking.I didn’t expect this, exactly.I expected something.I’m not even sure whether we are fighting the Vlax or aliens or something else entirely.But neither the Vlax nor the Skaintz are in the habit of throwing away fleets.They had to have a way of killing our ships.It makes perfect sense if they outrange us.What difference will our numbers make if we can’t get close enough to fire a shot before they burn us out of the sky?”Beauchamp chewed on his thumb.“Let’s work on this together then.We’ll run some numbers, as I’m sure they are doing down at Nexus.Combined, the enemy and our fleet are moving toward one another at a rate of about fifty klicks a second.At that speed, it will take our ships over two hours to get close enough to fire back.”“What kind of defensive measures do they have?”“We have the usual, chaff, aerogels, reflective surfaces.We can spin the super structures, like a twirling umbrella.But nothing solid.The vessels don’t have any mass shields.Just their hulls.Nothing that can stop thirty incoming beams.That’s what they’ll do, you know.Whoever they are.They will all fire on one of our ships until its dust, then go to the next.”Several of the bridge crew, eyes round, listened closely.They were no more sure what to do than were their commanders.“Can we recall them?” asked Droad gently.“Negative.They are moving too fast.They rushed out there, to meet the enemy and destroy them before they got in close.We figured we had the advantage.Ships don’t just pivot, you know.”“Yes, of course they can’t.I’ve spent the last two years coming into the Kale system decelerating.You would think I would know what it takes to turn around in space.They are committed to this battle, then.”“There’s nothing anyone can do but fight it out.By the time either side reduced their speed significantly, they’ll be on top of each other.Like two bullets fired on a collision course.There is no turning back.”“What will they do?”The Commodore squirmed in his command chair.“They’ll probably speed up.The faster they get into range the sooner they can fire back.”“Sir,” said the com officer.Everyone looked at him.“We have vid feed now.”The big domed roof of the bridge lit up like an old-fashioned holographic planetarium.Two groups of tiny flares moved toward one another in the ocean of nothingness between Neu Schweitz and asteroid belt Alpha.“Zoom us in on their fleet,” ordered Beauchamp.The enemy line grew into a line of almond-shapes.They were metal rooks—but something was strange about them.“What the hell is all that crap on their hulls?” asked Beauchamp aloud.Droad took a step toward the raised foredeck, then another.He climbed a set of steel stairs and reached up.The image wavered at his touch.He squinted at the substance covering the rook ships.The ships looked, indeed, like almonds.Not just in shape, but in texture.There were faint traceries, like veins, growing over the vessels.“These ships have a living covering of some kind.”“Your aliens?”Droad shook his head.“Could be.We never really got the chance to see how they operated in space.”“How the hell could they come here with a fleet? Answer me that, Droad.How did they field a fleet of crusted-over rooks so quickly?”“They are nothing if not fast, tactically and strategically.If I had to guess, I would say they took over the Vlax habitats some time ago and built up this fleet with hybrid technologies.And, yes, the more I think about it, the more certain I am that they are the same aliens that struck Garm.Their tech is largely organic in nature.”“Besides,” mused Beauchamp, “what are the odds we’ve run into another race of hostile aliens in just a few years?”“The question is, what are we going to do about it?” asked Droad.“Do? We’re going to watch the battle.We’ll watch good men die while our hearts pound and our stomachs churn.And will get this ship ready for fighting as fast as possible.Does that make you happy, Droad?”“No sir.Not really.Honestly, I wish I had been wrong.Totally wrong.”The alien ships came on.They fired in focused bursts now, targeting single ships as Beauchamp had predicted.After about an hour, the two groups of ships were close enough for the enemy lasers to be deadly.The first human patrol ship burnt up and flashed into nothingness.The reactor had ruptured.“How long?”“Our ships will be in range for some revenge in less than an hour now.”Droad shook his head.“Tell them to fire every missile they have.”Beauchamp snorted.“Missiles? If they fire them this far out they won’t hit the enemy until hours after this is over.”“Better than getting them destroyed.”“Well, I’m not in charge of this battle,” said the Commodore.Droad walked over to the com officer.He contacted Brigadier Druzman and relayed his suggestion.Nodding, he headed back to the center of the bridge.“Well, what did he say.”“They’ve already fired them.All of them.”Beauchamp stared at him.“Do you know what that means?”“I can guess.Nexus Command has calculated that none of the patrol ships are going to make it into laser range with the enemy.”They watched over the next hour as ship after ship blew up.#Nicu was sick of his spacesuit.He had been sick of his old one, but things had gone beyond the point of endurance with this new one [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]