Not as happy as this as I thought I'd be. Not quite sure why though.
Hopefully you shall enjoy it anyway. Went without prereaders too, which
might make it a little rough in some spots.
Vacation Days
Chapter 4
A Tenchi Muyo! Fic
This uses the OVA continuity.
Any and all C+C craved for. You can contact me at
sommer@3rdm.net
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Tenchi Muyo! materials
All of my stuff is now stored at:
http://angcobra.jumpfun.com/dbsommer.html
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Panic reigned on the bridge of the Rack N'Ruin as the various members of
the crew took up battle stations and prepared for the incoming vessel.
Funuyaki watched with a cool detachment that surprised even her as the crew
armed lasers, primed shields, and prepared as though they were going to be
in for the battle of their lives. Even the much vaunted captain of the
vessel seemed to be in shock at the sudden disruption in his so-called
perfect plan.
But perhaps the most amusing thing to Funuyaki was Malgaunt's reaction to
the whole situation. His jaw literally hung open as he stared in surprise
at the approaching Galaxy Police cruiser. She had always wondered how the
'master planner' would react when one of his plans fell through on him,
although even she had not expected his reaction to be this extreme. It made
her wonder how he had ever risen to his position in the first place. Surely
he had tasted defeat on any number of occasions and he had to have dealt
with it better than he was doing now. It would be interesting to see how he
recovered, in any case.
The recovery was quick in coming. Malgaunt took a deep, calming
breath -that seemed to do at least a little good- and bolted across the
bridge. He cut in front of the captain's chair, where Stargrave was still
staring in shock at the viewscreen, and made his way to the sensor station.
As he arrived, he stood directly behind the chair of a crewman handling the
sensor arrays. For a brief moment, Funuyaki thought he was going to pull
the man from the seat and take it himself, but patience seemed to win out
as he settled for staring over the younger man's shoulder and tried to get
a better look at the dull blue screen.
Funuyaki followed at a much more controlled pace, still amused by the whole
situation. She wasn't sure why that was. Realistically, she should have
been as concerned as the others; her neck was just as much on the line as
theirs. Perhaps it was something as simple as seeing the people that had
held the reigns of power over her getting jerked off their feet and falling
victim to the winds of fate. Perhaps she wanted to see them squirm a
little, just like she had for the last few hours, and see how they liked
it. Perhaps secretly she wanted to see them fail.
Or perhaps she had just stopped giving a damn about the whole thing.
She arrived at the console and stood next to Malgaunt, her shoulder
brushing against his as she inserted herself between her boss and the
younger crewman. She leaned closer and watched the sensor screen
intensely. If Malgaunt minded her intrusion, he gave no indication of it;
his full attention was still riveted to the screen as well.
All of the information flashing across the viewscreen was quickly
assimilated by Malgaunt. The Galaxy Police ship was still well outside both
the Rack N' Ruin and dreadnought's guns. Although at the rate it was
approaching, it wouldn't take long to close the distance. Not long at all.
"It's definitely a standard Galaxy Police cruiser," Yent Streen, the
officer at the sensor control, and with two Galaxy Police officers staring
over his shoulder, confirmed.
"I thought you said that computer virus would render every one of your
ships inoperative," Ariana said from her position next to Stargrave. The
cold glare she shot towards Malgaunt would have made her attitude towards
him known even if there had not been a tone of accusation in her voice. Her
hand slowly drifted over the butt of the modified laser pistol she kept in
the holster at her waist. Fractionally, Funuyaki's hand drifted to her
shoulder holster as well.
Malgaunt gave her little more than a contemptuous glance in return. "It
did," he turned his attention to Stargrave, "assuming the virus was
correctly manufactured."
Sa'bre reacted to the statement that was somehow both questioning and
accusatory at the same time. "I guarantee it was, assuming the information
on the computers anti-virus programs was accurate." Using his remarkable
oratory skills, he matched the tone of voice he had received from Malgaunt
perfectly.
Other crewmembers were less calm in the face of the approaching vessel. One
of them shouted that they ought to leave before the rest of the fleet got
there. The suggestion was immediately shared by the majority of the
crewmen. The noise level rose in direct conjunction with the rising tide of
panic, and threatened to take control of the situation.
"BE SILENT!" Malgaunt roared before Stargrave had a chance to get his crew
back under control. The crew fell silent before the order from the
unexpected quarter. Before they had a chance to recover from their
surprise, Malgaunt spoke to the Streen once again, loud enough to be heard
by the others. With a steady flow of information, Malgaunt hoped they would
stay quiet until he could come up with a plan that would get them out of
their unexpected predicament.
"Identify that ship. I want to know who he is." Malgaunt issued the order
as he would with any subordinate of the Galaxy Police.
"How?" Streen gave him a helpless look.
Despite the tension of the situation, Malgaunt found his command confidence
restored. Once again he adopted the role of a superior instructing an
incompetent officer. "Run its transponder signal through the decoding
equipment I gave your captain several months ago to help prevent you from
being captured. You did install it, didn't you?"
Streen gave an embarrassed look towards Malgaunt. He waited until the
program began running before he found the courage to say, "I forgot we had
it. It wasn't like we had to use it in all that time. No GP spaceship has
come close to crossing our paths."
"There's no time for excuses," Malgaunt said coolly, effectively ending any
further attempts by Streen to restore some of his dignity.
"What's going on?"
Funuyaki looked away from the screen and toward the main door to the
bridge. There was a hiss as the gunmetal gray door shut after disgorging
its passenger. Apparently the warning klaxon had served as a wake up call
for her fellow lieutenant. For Onita, the instant he saw Malgaunt and
Funuyaki, he made his way over to them. He arrived at their position and
stood looking over the other shoulder of Streen, just as the information on
the transponder signal came in.
The sensor officer read the information out loud. "Its number is X71789.
Name: Yukinojo. Currently assigned to Detective First Class-"
"Mihoshi," the three Galaxy Police officers said in unison.
Again panic commandeered the bridge.
"I know her! She captured Wiperblade Jones and his whole ring of spacejack
thieves!"
"I heard she brought in 'Bloody Hands' Ciccone on her very first
assignment!"
"She single-handedly busted the entire Starblast Bandit Gang. I should
know. My brother was one of them!"
"I heard she's the best officer they got! If she's on the case, that must
mean the whole Galaxy Police force will be her any minute! We have to get
out of here!"
"BE SILENT!" Malgaunt roared again. Once everyone had quieted down, he took
control again. "All of that was in the past. Right now she's burned out and
useless." Technically that was only half true. Her performance rating had
dipped incredibly low in the last year, but she had recently brought in the
infamous Dr. Clay. However, rumor had it she had been assisted by Juraian
royalty and possibly other sources as well. Still, it wouldn't do to
unnerve the crew unnecessarily. "She was assigned to some backwater system
to keep her out of the way. She's no threat." He gave a dismissive gesture
to add to the point and calm the crew down. Or at least he hoped it would
calm them down. Panic would ruin everything, and the plan was already
starting to shown signs of strain. It would just be a matter of time before
he knew how much strain it suffered from.
"What about her backup?" Ariana asked, not believing Malgaunt's
reassurances for a second.
That was something to consider. Malgaunt looked back over Yent's shoulder
again. "Are there any more contacts?"
"No sir. But she is still getting closer." The crewman shifted nervously.
Mihoshi's reputation overrode anything Malgaunt could say to make him feel
any better. The sooner they got out of the system, the better.
"There is no backup," Funuyaki surprised everyone, herself included, by
taking control of the conversation.
"What makes you say that?" Sa'bre asked. He decided he had allowed things
to play out long enough and that it was long past time to interject himself
into the conversation.
"Because she's operating blind," Funuyaki said. She slipped into her
detective mode and began to analyze the evidence she had been presented
with, hoping to fit it into a recognizable pattern so that she could
anticipate what Mihoshi was going to do. "If she had known who we are, and
what we were doing out here, she would have called for back-up and would be
waiting for them rather than approaching us alone. But she didn't. She
charged right in, and now that she's this close to the stars' gravitational
fields, there's no way another ship would risk teleporting so close to her.
No, she's alone all right. I'm sure of it."
"Well done, lieutenant," Malgaunt said with a trace of pride. He had come
to a similar conclusion as well, though he wasn't quite as certain as
Funuyaki appeared. She was proving herself more valuable by the minute,
just as he had known she would. How could Sa'bre ever have doubted his
choice of subordinates for this expedition?
"Impossible," Sa'bre scoffed. "You can't seriously be suggesting that she's
coming closer so that she can take both of us on at the same time? The
dreadnought alone has thirty times the firepower of her ship. It's
suicide."
Stargrave studied each of the officer's faces closely, receiving the answer
even before Funuyaki said, "If there is any one person in the entire Galaxy
Police force that would ignore the odds and try to bring us in, it's
Mihoshi."
"Wait a minute." Malgaunt held up a hand as an errant thought occurred to
him. "I thought she had just been ordered on vacation."
"Yeah," Onita answered, feeling a little better about himself since he
finally had something to add to their current situation. "Right before I
went out to Centurex 4, to rendezvous with you and Lieutenant Funuyaki, we
had a party celebrating her being off duty for six months." Onita began to
shift nervously. "I was off duty when I was drinking, of course."
The man received a cold stare from Funuyaki; one that could have frozen
ice. "Believe me when I say that after what you did today, no one cares if
you were drinking on duty or not."
"She probably stumbled on to us," Malgaunt suggested. "While she was
traveling, she might have caught our profile right before we made our last
jump and followed us through hyperspace. You know how difficult hyperspace
communication is. She wouldn't be able to call for back-up."
"Impossible!" Fera snapped from the pilot's seat. "No one could have
followed us through hyperspace! Not with the way I fly!"
"Perhaps," Malgaunt conceded. There might be some difficult flying ahead.
The last thing he needed to do was agitate an already wild flying Katason.
"It doesn't really matter. The moment she enters the range of the
dreadnought's main guns, Officer Mihoshi's vacation will be extended
indefinitely. I just wish I knew why her ship wasn't disabled by the
virus."
"I told you not to take us off the predesignated routes. Now see what
you've gotten us into," Yukinojo complained.
"How was I to know we'd end up this far off the course?" Mihoshi asked.
"Besides, I was sure I plotted it correctly."
"Well you didn't. And now, thanks to you giving up our reserve long-range
antenna, we don't have any way of contacting headquarters and getting our
coordinates."
"Relax, Yukinojo," Tenchi said soothingly, hoping it would calm Yukinojo
down. It usually seemed to help whenever Ryouko or Aeka lost their tempers,
though. Sometimes, anyway. Okay, not often, but he had to try. Maybe he
would get lucky for once. "Mihoshi was only helping someone in trouble. She
had no way of knowing her own antenna would break down while in
hyperspace."
"I suppose you're right," Yukinojo relented, giving off a mechanical sigh
as he resigned himself to his fate.
"Besides, we're in luck. We can ask those two spaceships out there for
directions," she pointed to the ships on the viewscreen that were getting
larger by the moment. "Once we figure out where we are, it'll be easy to
get back on track. And this time I promise I won't take us off our course."
"Ah yes, about those ships," Yukinojo began hesitantly. "The only one I can
get a clear reading off of is that larger one. That smaller one is too near
to it and with the interference I'm getting from our close proximity to the
sun, I can't get an accurate reading until we get closer. Also, that large
one's design doesn't match any of the ship profiles stored in my memory,
though it's giving off a great deal of power. And neither of them is
transmitting their transponder signals."
Mihoshi considered that. Like every other AI on the fleet, Yukinojo had
profiles on just about every ship in the galaxy. He was advanced enough
that even if it was a heavily modified ship, he still should have been able
to extrapolate what design it was. And then there was the problem with the
transponder signals. Technically, all ships were supposed transmit one that
would make them easy to identify when they came into contact with any other
ships. Usually the only people that didn't use them were individual
planetary military forces and Imperial ships during times of war.
Currently, the Jurai was at a state of peace, and there would have been no
reason for even one of their ships to have shut down its transponder
signal. Sometime smugglers would turn theirs off to keep their ships from
being identified, but usually they would rig up a fake code instead. "I
don't think they're smugglers. That really big ship that looks sort of like
a giant molehill is way too big to belong to any known criminal
organization. And its configuration isn't like any of the known planetary
governments either. This is really weird."
"What are you going to do?" Tenchi asked.
Mihoshi shrugged. "We'll keep getting closer and try to hail them so we can
get directions. We'll see what happens then."
A sweatdrop formed on Tenchi's forehead. "Ah, isn't that a bit risky if
they turn out to be bad guys?"
"I don't really think so," Mihoshi said, finding Tenchi's naivet� about how
things tended to work in space really amusing (though not in a
condescending way). She reminded herself that it wasn't his fault he lived
on a world that lacked serious space travel capabilities. She would have to
explain it to him, but in a nice way so he didn't feel foolish. "That
really large ship out there is of a new design and with a high power rating
that would rival a Juraian battleship. I can think of it being only one of
two things. It could be that it belongs to a whole new alien race we've
never met before and this is an example of their technology, or it might
have been built by a well to do planet or system. Now it's illegal for
anyone to manufacture a ship that powerful without the express consent of
the Throne, and if there was such an agreement, I would have heard about it
through my position with the Galaxy Police. That means they would have to
have built it in secret, probably so they could create a fleet that could
challenge the Jurai and overthrow the Empire while setting themselves up as
the new leaders. Now who would want to do something as terrible as that?
No. I'm pretty sure it belongs to a new race we've never met before."
"Ah, okay," Tenchi said hesitantly, trusting Mihoshi's judgment in space
matters, even if it was suspect at times. It was still more than he knew.
Although when she gave the latter reason, it made the hairs on the back of
his neck stand up, almost like a premonition or something.
"Maybe we should prepare for the latter, just in case." Yukinojo was
somewhat concerned. On one computerized AI chip, Mihoshi's reasoning
actually made a great deal of sense, even if she did seem to come to the
conclusion with only a minimal amount of information. His own priamry
neural net hadn't came up with those possibilities before Mihoshi did,
which was vexing itself; she had used her brain to formulate a hypothesis
faster than his own mechanical one could. On the other chip, her logic as
to choosing one of those high percentile possibilities did seem somewhat
suspect.
"Oh, you worry too much." Mihoshi went to the communications system and
began playing the universal greeting program the ship had been outfitted
with.
Yukinojo noted there was only one slight problem with that. "I've been
trying to hail them since we arrived in system, but they aren't
responding."
"Maybe the suns are somehow interfering with communications." Mihoshi
suggested. "We'll get closer and keep play the message over and over again.
Everything's going to be fine and we'll get back on track for our vacation
in no time. I'm sure of it."
The communications man fingered his headset as the message came in. "Sir."
He turned to look at Stargrave, who still wore a mask of concern. "Mihoshi
is hailing us."
Stargrave mistook the pause the man took to catch his breath as a sign that
he was through informing his captain. "I don't need to hear any orders to
turn ourselves in. Let her meet static."
Given how often the captain enjoyed being told he was wrong, and that he
was in a foul mood already, the officer decided not to correct the
misassumption. Besides, how were they supposed to respond to a universal
greeting anyway?
"The GP ship is hailing us," the communications man aboard the Yagdagron
dreadnought fingered his headset as the message came in.
Captain Yolleth considered that. She had been planning to simply blow the
ship into scrap and allow the remains to be vaporized by the sun. Perhaps
it would be better to hear her enemy's final words. "What does he have to
say?"
"Umm," the communications officer was at something of a loss. Realizing
there was no way he could explain it without sounding foolish, he decided
to just come out and say it. "He's just transmitting the standard universal
greeting, sir."
Yolleth's brow twitched slightly before she shot out of the captain's chair
and onto her feet and pointed an accusing finger at the ship on her
viewscreen. "How dare he mock us this way! Vaporize that ship! I want that
man dead, no matter the cost! Fire the main guns now!"
"Mihoshi!" Yukinojo cried out in alarm. He had altered the course of the
ship slightly so that the long range visual sensors could get an accurate
reading on the smaller ship that was hiding behind by the larger one. The
moment he got a precise reading of the unique vessel, he ran it through his
recognition programs until he came up with a match. "That smaller ship is
the Rack N' Ruin!"
Mihoshi gave a startled gasp. "Sa'bre Stargrave is the fourth most wanted
criminal in the galaxy! We have to warn the aliens he's dangerous."
She gave a quick jerk of the controls, a move that Yukinojo was about to
complain about as being far too rough for his delicate systems, when a huge
bolt of crimson energy emitted from one of the pointed projections on the
front of the dreadnought. The wide beam of energy lanced through space
right where the ship had been less than a second ago. Any slower and the
spacecraft would have been destroyed by the direct hit, shields or not.
Although in spite of Mihoshi's quick movement, the ship was struck a
glancing blow in the port engine by the outer edge of the beam. The
passengers felt the shot as the ship rocked and red lights flashed across
the control board.
"I think that second idea of yours might have been the right one," Tenchi
said as he tried coming up with something to help Mihoshi, yet failed.
"I think you're right," Mihoshi reluctantly conceded as she charged up the
shields to full and began a pattern of evasive maneuvering to keep the
dreadnought's guns from correcting their earlier mistake.
"She evaded the blast!" Stargrave pounded his fist on the armrest of his
command chair. Somehow she had known to move a moment before the blast was
released. Given the shielding, suns, and distances involved, she couldn't
have known the dreadnought was going to shoot. It was impossible,
regardless of how it appeared.
"That isn't quite true, sir," Streen said as he looked over his readout.
"Her starboard engine was hit and she's leaking radiation. She's turned
away from us and is trying to escape, but the dreadnought is pursuing and
continuing to fire."
"Is she faster than us or the dreadnought?" Stargrave asked.
"No," Malgaunt answered before the officer could. "She's only at point six
five lightspeed, and she's had plenty of time to reach maximum velocity.
That shot to her engines must have slowed her down. She can't escape."
"Not that that's keeping her from trying," Funuyaki pointed out as she
watched Mihoshi's ship continue to evade the storm of crimson energy blasts
that came from the Yagdagron vessel. Somehow she was able to prevent taking
any more hits, despite the closing distance between her and the far more
powerful vessel.
At the pilot's controls, a pair of vertical pupils surrounded by green
irises grew larger as they watched the resplendent dance of death the blood
red ship of the Galaxy Police was performing. "Let's take her." Fera
increased speed and banked left, maneuvering the Rack N' Ruin clear of the
dreadnought's shadow and began pass with its swifter speed.
There was a twitch from the lump in coveralls. "Did I ever tell you about
the time I was part of a smuggling ring and we got caught right between a
Victory Class Star Destroyer and a Mon Cal Heavy War Cruiser? Boy, you
should have seen the exchange of turbolasers those two were throwing back
and forth, and the way the kept melting the armor plating we had-"
"No need to continue. I get the point." Stargrave directed his attention to
his pilot. "We're letting the Yagdagron handle this. Remain behind the
dreadnought. I want it between us and Mihoshi, just in case something
happens."
Fur bristled as Fera gained a wild look on her eyes that made her seem more
bestial and less intelligent. Without taking her eyes from the foreword
viewscreen, she half said, half snarled, "If she can fly while under that
kind of fire and keep from being hit, so can I. We can get rid of her
ourselves." There was a whine as the flow of power to the Rack N' Ruin's
engine increased and the ship picked up speed.
The Katasan did not have to turn around as she heard the familiar sound of
metal on leather come from behind her; there was no one on the crew who
would not recognize the sound of First Officer Ariana's sidearm being drawn
upon them.
"Just because you're my best pilot doesn't mean you're my only pilot.
Follow in the wake of the dreadnought." The panic Stargrave had shown upon
first discovering the 'Mihoshi Surprise' was now gone. He was the model of
control as he sat idly back in his chair, hand laying under his chin, while
his first mate -and primary enforcer- kept her modified handgun pointed at
Fera's back.
Knowing that Stargrave ultimately considered everyone but himself
expendable, and that he had a tendency to have people shot that placed his
life in jeopardy, Fera eased back on the controls and fell back into
position behind the dreadnought. She cursed her luck. How could the others
have so little faith in her and her abilities? Anything a Galaxy Police
detective could do, she could do better. And weaving through the storm of
concentrated laser fire would be such a rush that she had to restrain
herself from trying to follow Mihoshi's course in spite of the fact
Stargrave would see to it she was dead long before she reached her. The
detective was showing skills worthy of a Katasan herself.
That fact triggered a longing in Fera. It had been a long time since her
skills had been truly tested, outside of bringing the Rack N' Ruin out of
the Anomaly and into the docking bay of Tartarus at high speed. If only the
gods of light were willing, and the prey somehow escaped the dreadnought's
guns, then perhaps Fera could have the duel she so desperately wanted. She
kept her eyes riveted to the forward viewscreen as both her ship and the
dreadnought drew closer to Mihoshi's vessel.
Aboard the Yukinojo, chaos reigned even as it had on the Rack N' Ruin
earlier, although Mihoshi could cry harder than anyone on the other ship.
"All I wanted to do was ask for directions!" she wailed as she banked hard
to port, just missing another energy beam the size of the ship. There was
no real pattern to her dodging, which was one of the reasons why the
Yagdagron gunners, some of the best in their fleet, were failing to hit
her. There were no tendencies, no habits, in her weaving that would allow
them to anticipate where she dodged next. So they spent their time using
all of their skills, and rubbing their good luck charms, firing as the
dreadnought slowly gained on the smaller ship.
Tenchi held onto the chair that he had been formerly sitting in for dear
life. He had neglected to fasten his seat belt before the firing started,
and was now content to hang on while the ship was tossed back and forth.
The internal inertial compensators weren't coming close to keeping up with
all of the dodging and weaving that Mihoshi was doing. Given the number of
blasts that went past the viewscreen, Tenchi was just grateful they were
somehow still alive. "Can't we fire back?"
"My primary guns are in a fixed position in the front of the craft,"
Mihoshi continued wailing. "And my rear guns aren't anywhere near powerful
enough to even slow that big ship down. Besides, that would mean diverting
power from the engines to the laser systems, and we'd slow down even more."
An idea came to her in mid-spin. "Maybe we can skirt along the corona of
one of the suns. The heat and gravity will throw off their gunners' aims a
little bit and they'll have to divert power from engines to shields to keep
from having their armor melted off."
"We'll also have to divert power from our engines to our shields as well,"
Yukinojo pointed out, still trying to figure out on his own how to elude
their pursuers. The starboard engine was too badly damaged by the glancing
hit to be repaired without someone going outside and manually fixing it.
That meant they weren't going to win the contest based on speed. The sun
maneuver would buy them a few extra minutes, but someone was going to have
to come up with another idea to save the day.
"It's all I can think of right now," Mihoshi blubbered as she headed for
the sun. "Oh, this is turning out to be the worst vacation I've ever had!"
"She's moving into the sun's corona," the pilot of the dreadnought told his
captain.
Yolleth responded with a snort. "He can't escape us that way. Divert power
to shield and continue pursuit."
"That maneuver is only going to buy her some time," Malgaunt informed
Stargrave, not that the captain needed the information. He had flown many
various sized vessels throughout his smuggling career. From one man snub
fighters to oversized cargo vessels hauling cars of hundred thousand ton
ore, he could fly them all almost as well as Fera and knew virtually every
flying tactic there was.
"The dreadnought's closing the distance more slowly now, sir," Yent said
again. "They should be able to bring their smaller guns to bear on Mihoshi
within the next five minutes." Instead of seven weapon clusters firing on
the same target, it would be up to twenty-five. Once that happened, Mihoshi
would be finished. No one could keep that level of firepower from
vaporizing their ship no matter how brilliant a pilot they were.
"We can still increase speed and catch up to her." Fera squinted her eyes
slightly at the increasing brightness of the approaching sun. The computer
compensated by dimming the viewscreen.
"Remain on our course," Stargrave was becoming weary of Fera's borderline
insubordination. Words would be exchanged when they returned to their base.
Discipline had to be maintained, after all.
"Sir," Yent shouted again. "She's launched missiles at the dreadnought."
Stargrave laughed at that. "Nice try, but Yolleth is too experienced to
fall for that one."
"What do you mean?"
Stargrave was surprised to see it was the usually quiet Onita who had asked
the question. Sa'bre deigned to answer the man, just in case some of his
crew were also confused. "It's a delaying tactic. Officer Mihoshi hopes to
force the Yagdagron to slow down by diverting power from their engines to
their anti-missile system. But now we're too close to the sun's corona for
the missiles to reach their target. The heat will cause them to detonate
before they get halfway there. It's an act of desperation."
>From his seat next to the secondary weapons system, Autolycus said, "They'd
make it if they were ray shielded."
"Don't be absurd." Stargrave gave a deep, boisterous laugh. "No one has
even manufactured ray shielded missiles in over a hundred years They're
slow, present large target profiles, their homing sensors are a joke-"
"Sir, the missiles are over three quarters of the way to the dreadnought!"
"-and they could withstand traveling through a sun's corona without
detonating." Autolycus finished.
Aboard the Yagdagron ship, the captain realized the same thing at the same
time and activated her ship's anti-missile system. The ray shielding on the
VX-100 Hammerhead missiles, which had been so instrumental in allowing them
to reach the dreadnought, began showing their well-known limitations.
Despite the late start the weapon system had in being activated, it began
tracking the older missiles easily and commenced shooting them down. Of the
initial volley of thirty Mihoshi had fired, twenty were destroyed outright.
Due to the fact the shields were becoming increasingly hard pressed by the
heat of the corona, they were weakened enough that instead of the standard
twenty-five VX-100 missiles it would have taken to even temporarily breach
the shields, only five were needed to bring them down. That was long enough
for the remaining missiles to get through and strike the dreadnought
itself.
Of the five that made it through: one hit towards the rear of the vessel,
the considerable overlapping armor plating of the hull taking the brunt of
the explosion so that only a third set of backup emergency engine shutdown
systems and the primary control to the cheese-whiz dispensers were
destroyed. The second missile tore through the outer hull towards the
middle of the ship, but did little else other than destroy all of the armor
plating and slightly damage the interior wall of one of the less traveled
maintenance corridors. The third one hit the opposite side of ship, not
even managing to breach the exterior armor. The fourth one directly struck
one of the primary long range weapon batteries, but not before it got off
one last shot.
As to the fifth, and last one, by some remarkable stroke of luck (both good
and bad, depending on which side one was on) hit in exactly the same spot
that missile number two had, meaning that none of the thick armor plating
that would have muted the detonation was there. The explosion went right
through and ripped through the vessel, billowing outward as it destroyed
corridors, meal dispensers, crewmen's quarters, crewmen, electrical wiring,
numerous back-up systems, and a host of other important equipment. With
each object the blast ran into, the remaining wave of force was lessened
until it reached the primary armory. The walls of it were thick, but there
was just enough energy left from the missile's explosion that it breached
one of the outer walls, making it just inside one of the armory's various
storage rooms.
According to the ship's designers, the room that was destroyed was supposed
to hold nothing more than a standard compliment of heavy particle beam
rifles, chain guns, and ion rifles for the space marines to be used in land
based operations, as well as the extra laser pistols that were to be issued
to all ship personnel in case they had to repel boarders. Nothing that
would have made any real difference had they been destroyed. However, due
to the fact that the mission was to take place far away from any Yagdagron
space colonies or outposts, and that if the Jurai had gotten wind of what
was being delivered to the Yagdagron they would have sent every ship they
could after the dreadnought, Captain Yolleth had made a special requisition
for twenty-five extra 'Ship Buster' missiles, the most powerful kind the
Yagdagron made. That would be enough additional firepower to knock out a
half dozen Jurai heavy cruisers and still have several to spare. It also
just so happened that since all of the primary missile bays in the armory
were already fully loaded, the extra missiles were being stored where there
was space, meaning in the outer armory room that Mihoshi's missile had just
enough power to penetrate.
And it had just enough energy left after that to set off one of the 'Ship
Buster' missiles that was closest to the wall that had just been breached.
Of course, the 'Ship Buster' that was set off had more than enough power to
detonate the remaining twenty-four missiles it was stored next to.
And then...
Underneath his white, expensive, genuine Yothblem gloves, his palms were
sweaty. His palms never sweat. "How many got through?" Malgaunt asked.
"Only five made it through to the Yagdagron ship before the shields were
restored," Malgaunt said, beating Streen once again. Streen made a mental
note to try to make it clear to Malgaunt what he thought of people that
interfered with his job. After everything was over and assuming Stargrave
wouldn't mind, of course.
"That won't be enough to even slow them down," Stargrave said as he relaxed
and sat back in his chair again. Once the dreadnought regained its speed,
it would run under the Galaxy Police ship. It was inevitable.
"Mihoshi's been hit!"
That caught Stargrave's attention. There was almost the sound
of....something in Fera's voice. Concern? It was hard to say, and would
bear looking into later. At the moment he had to be more concerned with
what it was his wild pilot was talking about. He turned his attention to
the viewscreen. Now that they had closed the distance to Mihoshi, her ship
was more than the blur it had been when they first entered the system. The
long range visual scanners now allowed the bright red vessel to be seen far
more easily, though it was still small to Stargrave's eyes. Yes, it did
appear that the ship was leaving a trail of smoke behind it now.
"Confirmed," Streen beat Malgaunt this time. "She's taken another hit from
the Yagdagron and is starting to slow down. I think she lost her starboard
engine completely as well. She's pulling out of the sun's corona and is
going to be out of its range in moments."
That didn't matter to Stargrave. He could now see that she was spiraling
out of control, and though there was a habitable -and bereft of intelligent
life- planet nearby, Mihoshi would never make it. If her ship didn't break
apart first, the dreadnought would blow her out of the stars.
"Sir! Energy spike coming from the Yagdagron ship!" Streen, said. Malgaunt
turned to look at Stargrave. The captain of the Rack N' Ruin scowled, for
he saw not concern, but the first vestiges of what might have been fear in
the former marshal's eyes.
"Show me the dreadnought," Sa'bre ordered. The viewscreen's picture shifted
from that of Yukinojo to the Yagdagron's starship. The giant, green armored
flying 'molehill' appeared just as it had before the missile attack, save
for trails of smoke emanating from one breach in the overlapping armor
plating on the starboard side. The smoke was already dissipating in the
absolute cold of space, and seemed to be stopping.
Then, near where the first hole had been, the metal bulged, forming what
appeared to be a boil underneath the surface of the vessel. The lump was a
strange sight to behold, even on the molehill looking ship. It was there
for a moment before it ruptured, spilling forth an odd mix of red and blue
fire into space, only to have it die off with nothing to burn. Debris too
had been shot out of the boil, and began to spill out into the void and
drifted off, soon to be caught by the nearby sun's gravity and incinerated
forever.
That wasn't the only one. Even as the fire from the first boil died off
three more lumps joined it, one right after another. Again they exploded
and belched forth red-blue fires. Then there was one that came from the
other side of the ship, even larger than the other four combined. All over
the ship the boils formed, but instead of the fires dying off from each
one, these later ones were sustained.
"Its shields are down and it's started to drift towards the sun!" the
sensor officer declared. Stargrave stared in shock at the impossible
display. It had only been hit with a handful of missiles. They couldn't
have done that sort of damage. It wasn't possible. It just wasn't possible.
And then the view of the slowly exploding ship changed as it drifted off
high and to the port and the stars appeared in its stead. Shock seized up
Stargrave's mind so that he didn't respond right away. The dreadnought was
entirely gone from the viewscreen before he shouted at Fera, "What do you
think you're doing?!"
Fera was half turned around in her seat when the explanation was delivered
for her from Streen yet again. "Massive energy spike from the dreadnought!
Ten times what was there before!"
Funuyaki quickly followed up the officer's declaration with, "The fusion
reactor on that thing is going to-"
The rest was cut off as a bright orange glow appeared at the right side of
the viewscreen and the ship found itself thrown as though a giant had
picked up and tossed it into the air. Many of the people not strapped in
found themselves thrown off their feet and hurled to the hard gray metal of
the deck.
Stargrave held onto his chair for dear life even as he saw Ariana fall to
her side and grab onto the back. The explosion had produced no sound, of
course, but its effects were not muted at all as the ship buffeted under
the shockwave produced by the dreadnought's death explosion. Stargrave
heard one of his crew shout, "Our shields are down! Repeat, our shields are
down!" somehow continuing to do his duties in spite of the clamor all
around him. Sa'bre made a note in the back of his mind to give Joffry a
bonus for keeping his head in such a chaotic situation.
For the briefest of seconds, the ship stopped shaking and began to settle
down, allowing Stargrave to buckle himself in. As he did so, he noticed
that Malgaunt and Onita had fallen near a couple of empty chairs next to
the sensor controls. They scrambled into them before the ship tossed them
around once more. Just as they finished buckling in, the ship was thrown
about even more viciously than it had the first time. Instead of the sound
of the Rack N' Ruin groaning as it had when it was hammered by the
shockwave, this time there was the sound of something solid striking the
outer hull of the vessel. Two more impacts, one right on top of the other
so that they sounded as one, echoed throughout the ship and terrified those
that realized it was debris from the much vaunted, and now destroyed,
Yagdagron vessel.
There was the tremendous sound of space tree reinforced wood and multiple
layers of metal being torn asunder from the rear of the vessel as the ship
lurched forward again. Stargrave felt Ariana lose her hold from the
colossal, multiple impacts the ship suffered. His hand lashed out and he
got a firm grasp of her white shirt. At first, it took all of his own wiry
strength to simply hold onto her, the force of the shaking was that
powerful. Something shot past him on the left and even as he struggled to
bring Ariana closer, he looked out of the corner of his eye to see what it
was. Shoney Sylkes, his primary weapons officer, was the bundle that had
been thrown out of his seat and sent sailing across the bridge. His
impromptu flight was arrested for a moment as his head struck the metal
corner of the pilot's station, right next Fera. Stargrave could almost have
sworn he heard the snap of Sylkes neck as his body went limp and continued
forward to strike the lower portion of the viewscreen before bouncing off.
An errant memory of Stargrave's childhood came forth as he realized Sylkes
reminded him of the little rag doll that a girl he had grown up with used
to carry. Sa'bre couldn't remember her name. All he could see clearly was
that she was usual dirty and had a fondness for tossing the doll up in the
air. Sylkes was like that. All limp and tossed around the bridge. He even
had the same hair color as the doll: red.
His burden shifted around in his grasp. At last Ariana regained enough of
her balance that she could grab onto the seat's restraints as she helped
Stargrave haul her into his grip where she would be safe. Or at least
reasonably safe from being hurled about the bridge.
A higher pitched shriek caught Stargrave's attention. He turned to see that
it was Lieutenant Funuyaki who had screamed. It had been a high pitched
noise that he had not thought the woman capable of, she seemed tougher than
that. She was now in the grasp of her fellow lieutenant, Onita. The large
man was far more powerful than Stargrave and easily hauled Funuyaki into
his protective grasp, holding her in a similar position to the one Sa'bre
now had Ariana in.
Off to Stargrave's right, he heard another scream from someone that he
failed to recognize, but it no longer mattered. He turned his attention
away from the chaos on the bridge and focused it on who was currently the
most important person in his life: his pilot. Fera now held his, as well as
everyone else on the ship, lives in her hands. Even from behind, Stargrave
was able to see her fur standing on end and the muscles under that tawny
blue-gray stretching taunt as she struggled to control the Rack N' Ruin on
its runaway course.
"We've lost part of the rear portion of the ship!" Fera growled as another
piece of debris stuck the Rack N' Ruin, although the noise it produced was
nowhere near as loud as any of the other impacts the ship had suffered.
Another growl rose from the bottom of her throat as Fera fought bravely
with the steering controls, intent on pulling the nose of the ship up -up
being relative to the nearby sun that they were heading into. It could have
been worse. If she not sensed what the dreadnought was going to do and
pulled away before receiving instructions to do so, they would never have
pulled far enough away in time to survive. But it might have been too
little, too late anyway. The pieces of debris had finished what the
shockwave had started. The hull was breached in multiple places, she only
had one of the six engines on line, and something BAD had happened to the
systems that controlled the steering. She had at the most ten percent
control over the ship's direction. The ship she had piloted for the last
six months, the ship upon which she had learned ever nuance, creak, and
idiosyncrasy of how it handled and exactly what it was capable of, was
being shredded into tiny pieces and flung across the stars.
It was all really quite exciting.
Luckily for the others, and herself, Fera had memorized the approximate
distances and directions of all of the known celestial bodies in the
system. During their wait for the Yagdagron she had looked over and
familiarized herself with the local star charts and knew that the closest
world to the twin suns was habitable, nearby, and there was an outside
chance the ship would hold together long enough to make it all the way to
there. All Fera needed to do was get the ship pointed in the right
direction, keep it that way, hope that enough of the exterior hull was
intact for them to survive orbital reentry, and find a nice soft place to
land lest everyone die in a crash.
A combination of the shields being out and the close proximity of one of
the stars raised the temperature on the ship steadily, and if it continued
at the rate it was going, dangerously, Fera noted. But that was assuming
they didn't plunge into the star altogether first. As she struggled with
the sluggish controls, Fera made a couple of silent prayers to Jajagua,
greatest of the Katasan gods and the patron deity of worthy deaths. Her
first prayer was to survive the landing and fly the spaceways with only her
wits and skills once more. Her second was that if she was to die, to let it
be a spectacular death worthy of granting her elevation to the highest
station. Heading into the afterlife via an orbital crash landing with
little in the way of control would surely be a worthy way to earn her
passage into paradise.
Miraculously, one of the steering systems came back online and she regained
enough control to get the shuddering ship out of the sun's gravitational
field. It was a hard struggle that caused Fera's arm muscles to ache in a
matter of moments and sweat to pour from her, matting her fur down and
making her swear at the other Stargrave and the other races that made her
wear clothing at unnecessary times. They would pay for it later when she
began to produce the foul odor that came with excessive Katasan sweat.
Assuming they survived whatever landing she could come up with.
As the ship pulled away from the sun, Fera saw enough of the stars for her
to regain their celestial bearing. Quickly, her mind plotted a course to
the nearby planet and hoped that they could get to it before falling apart,
and perhaps walk away from alive. She hoped the starcharts were accurate
about the planet being habitable as Fera found she was going to have to
test the accuracy of that claim and headed for the planet that had been
simply numbered GH3449.
"We're losing engine control too! If the steering goes out, we're
finished!" Mihoshi's hands danced over the command console of her ship as
she tried desperately to regain some measure of control over her badly
damaged vessel.
They had almost made it too. The missile salvo Mihoshi had launched gained
results that would have left the worst oddsmaker shaking in his boots, but
it had not come without a price. The long range weapon battery that had
been destroyed by Mihoshi's fourth missile had managed to fire one last
time before the explosion destroyed it. The lance of energy, one out of
hundreds fired at Mihoshi, succeeded where all of the others had failed. It
was not a direct hit -that would have destroyed the vessel completely-
rather it hit the starboard engine and carried on through to shred a few
feet of the left side of the Galaxy Police spacecraft. Neither the already
taxed shields nor the layer of armor that composed the outer hull were
enough to resist the beam as it sliced cleanly through both, gutting the
ship and sending a steady stream of gray smoke to trail into the vacuum of
space as it spun out of control.
Unlike the Rack N' Ruin, Mihoshi had never lost total control of the ship,
but rather had the systems go out one by one as fires spread and the
automatic extinguishers failed to deal with the blaze. A screen on a wall
to Mihoshi's left showed a schematic of the ship and up to the moment
reports on what systems were failing. Red identified which systems were
off-line and where. Red had gone from about ten percent of the tail section
at the start of the fight, to about fifty-five percent and continuing to
rise.
"There's an A-class planet with a breathable atmosphere nearby!" Yukinojo
shouted, yet stayed calm. Emergency precautions built into the computer
ensured that some of the higher emotional functions of Yukinojo were shut
down as the ship took increasing amounts damage. Even advanced AI's
sometimes fused their neural nets when faced with probable destruction, and
the Galaxy Police had programmed their ships' computers accordingly.
"I'm not sure if we can make it, but I'm going to try!" Mihoshi tried
recalling what to do in an emergency such as this, but even when she was at
the academy the simulators never ran a scenario that took this amount of
damage into account. She just improvised as she simultaneously tried to
maintain control, keep the remaining systems on line, head towards the
planet Yukinojo had indicated, and cry. At least the last was not difficult
for her to do.
Tenchi felt frustrated as he watched Mihoshi trying to keep the ship intact
and save both their lives. He wanted to help, but there was nothing he
could. He had no idea of how the ship actually ran, how to repair systems,
or even to console Mihoshi. Their lives were in danger and for the first
time in recent memory, he found himself completely helpless. There was a
chance that if the ship broke up, he might be able to summon the light hawk
wings and save both himself and Mihoshi, just like he had during the Dr.
Clay incident. But the things were unreliable and if they failed, as the
light hawk wings might very well do, then he and Mihoshi were dead.
Ultimately, their lives were in her hands.
The two terminally damaged ships approached the planet from different
trajectories, not that either crew had the time to keep an eye on what
happened to their potential enemies. Parts of the Rack N' Ruin continued to
fall off as the ship finally entered the atmosphere, leaving a trail of
black wood and metal in its wake. Yukinojo held together better, but
continued to have its systems fail as control of the ship became
increasingly difficult.
On board the Rack N' Ruin, Stargrave maintained his hold on Ariana as he
looked at the diagnostic read out on his control pad. Luckily, that program
was still running, and could still run a diagnostic on what parts of the
ship remained. He saw that hull integrity in everything behind the forward
command bridge was compromised. Unless someone had had the foresight to
carry a space suit with them, they were dead. Only the survivors on the
bridge remained of his crew, and he felt a momentary pang of remorse at
losing thirty-seven...no, thirty-eight counting the now dead Sylkes, of his
most useful men. It was momentary only because Sa'bre's own life was still
in danger and he could lose the rest of his crew as well.
"Temperature rising!" someone shouted as the red glow of orbital reentry
encapsulated the viewscreen ahead. Even with all of the special alloys and
materials that lined the forward command bridge, without shields it was
conceivably Stargrave would burn up before ever reaching the planet. Still,
one did not stay in the smuggling business as long as he had and not try to
anticipate everything that could go wrong.
When Sa'bre had first gotten his hands on the Rack N' Ruin, he modified it
as heavily as he could. The forward bridge was lined with adamantine
alloys, not as powerful as true adamantine but still able to withstand a
direct hit from a heavy anti-ship cannon and remain intact. As an
additional precaution, he also built in a reserve micro-fusion system, in
case something had happened to the primary power system, or the rest of the
ship fell to pieces. Running on minimum power, it could give life support
for up to a week. At maximum output, it could activate the shields for
close to five minutes, or so the technicians that designed the system told
him.
Stargrave released his left hand from Ariana's shirt and opened the special
keypad built into the left armpad of his seat. He pushed several buttons,
routing power into the shields and hoping the five million credits he had
invested in the system hadn't been wasted.
The red glow surrounding the viewscreen disappeared as the shields came on
line. Fera found it easier to control the ship; the shields helped to
minimize the buffeting of the orbital reentry. Praying once again that the
primary viewscreen remained functional, she hit the button that activated
the landing rockets. The ship slowed down marginally as the only still
functioning rocket ignited.
Fera picked out what she hoped was a relatively flat plain and used every
ounce of skill she had to bring the Rack N' Ruin down as she shouted,
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" and took the ship on its final descent.
"Sh...sh...shields are d...d...down to ten perc...cent!"
"R...r...right!" Tenchi shouted as tried to hold his voice steady. The ship
was bucking so violently that both his and Mihoshi's teeth were almost
vibrating out of their mouths. The forward viewscreen showed what appeared
with to be a semi-flat plain that Tenchi hoped would provide a landing that
both he and Mihoshi could walk away from. The landing gear was broken and
only half of the reentry rockets still functioned. Unfortunately, they were
all on the same side, which made controlling the landing nearly impossible.
The planetary map was up just long enough for Mihoshi to pick what she
thought would be an only high risk landing area instead of an impossible
one. Using every ounce of flying skill she possessed, she managed to bring
the increasingly difficult ship into the proper landing trajectory and
cried out how she had never landed under conditions this bad before, but at
least she was used to the actual crashing and was pretty confident they had
an over fifty percent chance of survival.
Just as they were a mile above the planet, the steering controls gave
completely and the ship went out of control, continuing its downward
descent. Just as the ship was about to hit, Tenchi's life flashed before
his eyes. In all of the things he had said, in all of the things he had
done in his all too brief life, he was left with one burning thought that
stood out from the others.
"Gee. I guess I really was being wishy-washy in not trying to choose one of
the girls."
And then the world went dark.