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  “Problem?” I asked.

  He nodded solemnly. “Early warning alarms. There are ships heading this way.”

  “How many? How fast?”

  “Our satellites are too primitive to measure either information. But what we do know is something in FTL is heading our way. We can safely assume that they’re Qhonox reinforcements.”

  “If they brought more than one ship this time, we’re in trouble…”

  He nodded. “I hope you have a plan, Bishop. Because we don’t have the firepower to fight.”

  “I’m powering up the colony ship as we speak. I figure we turn on the FTL drive and go wherever it was the other two colony ships went.”

  “That’s a bold plan. You think it’ll start?”

  “Most systems have been repaired decades ago. We’ve counteracted all the sabotage we’ve discovered. She looks like she’s ready.”

  “Well, that sounds like our best bet then. I wish you luck.”

  “Bishop out.”

  Andy closed the connection. “Well, that went rather well, I thought.”

  “It did. Time to call in some help.” Next, I opened the comm link to the Grey Wolf. “Steve, do you read?”

  “Loud and clear,” he responded a few minutes later. “What’s up?”

  “Please bring the Grey Wolf into real-time comms range. I’ve arranged a ceasefire with Captain Walters. He won’t bother you as long as you don’t do anything threatening.”

  “Uh, if you say so. I’ll plot an FTL jump and be there soon. I’ll be keeping my distance though.”

  “Understood. Be ready for company. Bishop out.”

  I closed my eyes and breathed deeply as I returned my attention to the ship. Keeping my mind in two places at once was monumentally difficult. It was like trying to take two tests at once, but if you messed up on your answers, everyone died. No pressure…

  For the next three hours, I jumped between the mental constructs and that of the physical world. It was tiring, but it got easier with every transfer. We were making great progress upgrading and restoring the vital systems of the ship.

  “Bishop, there is an incoming transmission from Captain Walters,” said Andy.

  I sighed. “Put it through…”

  “Bishop, do you copy?”

  “Kind of busy, what’s up?”

  “We are picking up that FTL signature on our local sensors. They’re definitely heading this way. It’s quite a big one. Probably multiple ships flying in formation.”

  “I guess that’s no surprise… How long?”

  “Maybe ten to fifteen minutes if we’re lucky.”

  “Understood. Buy us a little time, but make sure your ships are on board before we jump. I’m not planning to come back to get anyone.”

  “Get moving, Bishop. If we make it, then we make it. If not, you get those people to safety. Walters out.” Huh. What a guy. I think I’m starting to like him.

  Screams from the hallway caught my attention. I looked over at Andy and arched an eyebrow.

  He shrugged. “No clue. I’ll go see what’s happening. You keep doing your thing.”

  I continued preparing each system as I went down the list.

  After several moments, Andy came running back in. “There’s a militia fighting our own. They’re armored. We’re pinned down for the time being.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have time for this.” I reached for the ship-wide broadcast switch on my armrest. “This is Bishop,” I have repaired Colony Ship Two-Seven and am assuming temporary command. Currently, I am bringing all systems to full power. If you have an assigned duty station, now would be a good time to get to them. If you don’t, ask duty officers how you can help. Lift off is in T minus ten minutes. I don’t plan on being here when the Qhonox fleet arrives.”

  Annoyed, I cut the transmission and triggered the ship-wide alarm. The lights dimmed, turning red. Across the ship, the same warning echoed through every corridor in a deep booming voice. “Alert condition red. Battle stations.” The message repeated twice followed by warning klaxons.

  “That should get their attention.” I turned to the last system on the list. “Sami, the main weapons aren’t coming online. Can you see if there’s anything you can do?”

  “Main weapons? You realize it isn’t a warship, right?”

  “I know that. But it clearly says Weapons System - Main Battery. That sounds like something we could use.”

  “I do not see a system with that label on the network. Are you perhaps mistaken? You are human, after all…”

  Andy barked laughter as he moved to another console on the left side of the bridge. After a few key presses later, he looked up at me. “That better?”

  “System enabled. Huh. I wonder why that’s not networked with the rest of the systems?”

  “Probably in case of a network failure or viral attack. Those were pretty popular in the old days. Less points of failure.”

  “How many rounds do we have?”

  “Six. But there’s a catch…”

  “Which is?”

  “Quantum rounds. Each has a micro FTL drive. So, when they detonate…”

  “...we’ll piss off the neighbors even more,” I finished.

  Andy nodded. “Gonna go check the corridor.”

  30

  “The crowd outside our door dispersed,” said Andy. “I guess they took the alarms pretty seriously.

  “All right then,” I said. “This is it. Sami. Are you ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be. This will either fail or succeed. In either case, it will be most spectacular.”

  He was right. There was no reason to wait. I reached out for all five fission reactors and triggered the chamber cascade sequence. I could feel the pulse of the fission reactions cascading in unison like a massive beating heart.

  The ship came back to life as vital power spread through every subsystem in the ship. Schematics lit up in my mind as I bore witness to the rebirth of a giant.

  System status messages started flashing across my perception. Life support, gravity plates, engines, FTL drive, the list went on. I began to lose focus, but I willed myself to remain in control.

  I watched in shock and horror as an entire fleet of ships dropped out of FTL all around us. Cutting beams and missile swarms abruptly filled the space between all the ships. Several colonial ships fell in the first few moments.

  A million strategies and scenarios flashed through my mind. Not one outcome was hopeful. “There isn’t enough time, is there?”

  Sami hesitated before answering. “No. I only see one potential action which would result in survival.”

  “The Grey Wolf?”

  “Yes. Ramming the freighter into their fleet as the FTL drive and main reactor overloaded would cause catastrophic damage.”

  I opened the comm link. “Steve, I need you to load as many supplies as you can onto the Strider and get to the colony ship. Hurry.”

  “What? Bishop, what the hell?”

  “No time, just do it. Don’t leave anything important behind. You won’t be going back.” I closed the connection and reached out to the Grey Wolf’s computer systems.

  Programming an overload was rather simple: disable all of the cooling systems and safeties and then crank the outputs to maximum.

  “Sami, I’ll need you to pilot the freighter. I’ll be too predictable if I’m multi-tasking.”

  “Understood. It will be done.”

  I turned my attention to the colony ship. Power thrummed through every system, ready to be given direction. I fired the engines. Stress sensors screamed at me as the hulking ship began to tear from the lunar surface. I fired the forward thrusters to attempt to lift the nose. It was slow going, but the ship started to pull away from the ground in an immense cloud of lunar dust and rocks.

  With a final lurch, the colony ship broke free of the moon’s death grip. As we gained altitude, two bloated objects hit the main window and slowly slid upward and over the top. They looked o
ddly familiar...

  “Andy, was that Winston and Benny bouncing off the window?” Andy grunted and said nothing. I did notice a twitch of a smile, however. “Huh… Remind me never to piss you off.” This time, he smirked.

  The comm crackled. Captain Walters’ voice, backed by static, echoed throughout the bridge. “Qhonox ships are taking notice of the colony ship! They’re boxing her in! Move to intercept. The colony ship must escape. Ram the bloody aliens if you have to.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” said Andy.

  “Bishop,” said Sami. “I suggest increasing Delta-V to maximum.”

  “Increase what?”

  “Punch the engines!” yelled Andy.

  Without hesitation, I maxed out the engines. The colony ship surged forward much quicker than I’d anticipated. And we were heading straight for the Qhonox ships as they spread out into formation.

  “Enemy lock-on detected,” said Sami. “Bringing point defense turrets online. I suggest evasive maneuvers.”

  The Qhonox unloaded so many missiles I didn’t bother to count them. The small point defense turrets didn’t need a lot of power on their own, but when they all fired, I could feel the reactors struggle just a little bit. There were hundreds of the things. And the missiles still came. I banked the colony ship and rolled, presenting more turrets to the missiles.

  Captain Walters’ cruiser, flanked by two destroyers, angled in to intercept the Qhonox fleet. A beam of pure red shot out from the lead ship and cross-cut one of Walters’ escorts. I watched, horrified, as four pieces of destroyer hull slowly floated away from each other.

  Captain Walters’ cruiser suddenly streaked forward several kilometers. The destroyer’s reactors and FTL drive went critical. Lightning exploded out from the individual pieces, blooming into a massive explosion of blue and purple plasma. The shockwave hit the other ship, shredding it to pieces. Moments later, it too exploded. The energy from the explosion hit the colony ship and angled the nose back toward the moon.

  “I’m losing altitude!” I yelled. “The blast is pushing us down.”

  “Increasing thruster output,” said Sami.

  The rest of the fleet FTL jumped between us and the alien fleet. I watched the real battle begin.

  “Where’s Walters’ ship?”

  “Unknown,” said Sami.

  “Andy, target the ships on the ends. Try to get them to cluster up. As soon as you have a lock, fire two missiles.” Andy nodded as I struggled to bring the colony ship back under control. I fired the main engines again, aiming for the moon.

  One of the Qhonox escorts was impaled by a brilliant golden spear of energy from bow to stern. A violet beam of energy engulfed the ship a moment later. There was no explosion. Pieces simply disintegrated. The alien fleet scattered.

  “What are you doing, Bishop?” It was Steve. I looked out the window to see the Grey Wolf and Walters’ ship bearing down on the enemy. The Strider streaked toward the colony ship under maximum thrust. “Stop fooling around, and kill them already!”

  Walters fired again, engulfing another escort ship. The fleet turned their attention on his ship. Swarms of missiles streaked out toward him. Before impact, Walters performed another micro FTL jump, surging forward and past the missiles. They re-targeted and locked onto the colony ship.

  I managed to get the colony ship aimed in the right direction and let loose with the point defense turrets on manual control. All the while, the Grey Wolf closed in on the lead ship, turrets blazing. Walters fired yet again, grazing the lead ship and jumped a third time.

  “Locked on,” said Andy. “Firing quantum missiles.”

  I reached out to the Grey Wolf’s computer systems. It’s now or never… I triggered the cascade failure sequence in the reactors. “Walters,” I transmitted fleet-wide. “Get your ships back here. We’re leaving…”

  Twin streaks of yellow seared my retinas as I watched them fly off toward their targets. About halfway to their intended targets, enormous amounts of energy gathered at the tips of the missiles. Then they vanished. Two supernovas exploded at the edges of the alien fleet. Several ships were obliterated or severely damaged. The rest of the fleet was pushed or veered away from the explosions.

  Sami expertly piloted the Grey Wolf as it dodged round after round of enemy fire. The ship accelerated, bearing down on the lead ship. The Qhonox, sensing the challenge, engaged their engines as well.

  Andy laughed. “They’re going to play chicken with the freighter? What’s with these aliens?”

  “I hope they don’t flinch,” I said. “I have one hell of a surprise planned for them…”

  “Ships reporting in. Most of them are already inside. The rest will be in momentarily,” said Andy.

  “Good. I don’t want to be here when they realize what’s happening. By the way, Andy, fire another missile. Target the lead ship. I want it to hit a few seconds after the Grey Wolf hits.”

  Andy smiled. “You got it.”

  The lead ship fired braking thrusters, slowing, changed course, and fired its engines—straight for us.

  “What’re they doing?” asked Captain Walters as he ran onto the bridge. He was panting and out of breath.

  “Hey, Walters. Um, it looks like they figured out what I was up to.”

  “Bishop,” said Sami. “Two more ships are joining the lead ship. The rest are focusing on the Grey Wolf. There is not enough time to get all of the ships within the blast zone.”

  “Take out as many as you can.”

  I watched as three of the ships fired multiple clusters of swarm missiles. The point defense turrets opened fire, mowing most of them down. I saw the two brilliant blue streaks fly right through the formation of missiles.

  “The turrets are occupied with the swarm missiles. Brace for impact,” said Sami.

  The sensors reported the missiles slamming into the side of the ship, impaling it. I expected a massive explosion, but nothing happened.

  “Sami, were they duds?” I asked.

  “Negative. No payload detected.”

  “That seemed pointless…” said Captain Walters.

  “Perhaps,” said Sami. “The Grey Wolf has reached its target. Triggering reverse cascade.”

  The bridge filled with brilliant white light as the reactors and FTL drive of the Grey Wolf detonated. Even with the glass polarizing, I had to close and shield my eyes. The deck plating rocked as the blast slammed into the side of the ship. According to the sensors, the lights had dimmed ship-wide.

  I focused my mind on the sensors. The blast had severely damaged several ships and destroyed five. The lead ship and its escorts had escaped the explosion.

  “If any time’s a good time to run, this would be it,” said Captain Walters.

  “Good idea. I’d guess they’re pretty pissed right now.” I reached out to the twin FTL cores. Their frequencies were perfectly synchronized. With a final thought, I released their pent-up energy. The stars stretched into lines outside the window as we instantly accelerated to the speed of light, leaving the alien threat behind us.

  “Walters, about those missiles that his us…” said Andy.

  “Yeah?”

  “They weren’t pointless. Those missiles were meant to get lodged in our hull. They’re tracking us.”

  I turned to Andy. “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “Each missile is broadcasting our coordinates every few seconds on an ultra-wide frequency band. Every Qhonox ship in a three-light-year radius knows exactly where we are.”

  31

  “Well, shit.” I sighed.

  “It did seem rather easy,” said Sami.

  “That wasn’t easy,” I said. “Though, now that I think about it, they could have finished us off…”

  Andy grunted. “Maybe they’re hoping we’ll lead them to wherever we are planning on going?”

  “Cut the engines,” said Captain Walters. “We’ll send ships out to remove the tracking devices.”

  I hesitated. “Are we sure? I
t’s going to take time to recharge the drives. I’m guessing they’re chasing us instead of waiting around for us to get out of range.”

  “How long will it take to recharge the drives?”

  “Sami?”

  “Approximately three hours.”

  “Three hours?” asked Andy. “We’ve only been in FTL for a little while. Why so long?”

  “The initial acceleration requires a massive amount of invested power. Once at light speed, the power consumption is quite minimal.”

  “Well?” I asked. “Still want me to cut the engines?”

  Captain Walters nodded. “Under no circumstances can they discover where we are heading. Both for the safety of the colony and the safety of whoever’s doorstep we land on. The other colony ships are out there. I’d rather not lead the enemy to them.” He paused, scratching his stubble. “We’ll drop out, remove the trackers, fight them if we have to, then alter our course to throw them off.”

  I smiled. “Make an extra jump?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, that should throw them off in the event they can track our FTL trajectory.”

  “All right then,” I said. “Cutting FTL drives. Don’t dawdle.”

  “I’m an enlisted officer. I don’t dawdle.”

  Andy laughed. “Okay, Mr. Enlisted Officer. Let’s get a move on.”

  I reached out to the FTL drives and cycled them from output to recharging. Everything lurched as the ship decelerated rapidly. I fired the main engines to keep us moving. “We’re out of FTL and under sublight power. Get your men moving, Captain Walters.”

  He fired off a quick salute and turned to his console. Several key presses later and he began barking orders into the comm. I watched in amazement as ships swarmed out to cut out the tracking devices. As soon as they were clear of the hangar, the military ships followed them out and began a loose patrol around the colony ship.

  “Andy, load two more quantum missiles. I don’t want to get caught with my pants down.” Andy nodded and did as I asked.

  Captain Walters arched an eyebrow. “You’re going to use more of those things? Is that smart?”

  “They already know where we are, right? What’s the difference?”