The Archer's Paradox - The Travis Fletcher Chronicles Page 30

  “Good shooting.” Beadu Slecg exclaimed. The cruisers must have all hit their targets with their first salvos.

  “Sir,” his Second interrupted, “no one fired. They all disintegrated the moment they were in range.

  “Second salvo coming into range.”

  The second wave of torpedoes exploded releasing thousands of tiny transmitters which jammed the communications and tracking arrays of the battleships. Through the fog, twenty more torpedoes simultaneously activated their tracking and honed in on the closest targets. Meanwhile, on the flanks, hundreds of magnetic mines that had been released by the first wave began to strike their targets.

  Never underestimate your enemy. “Damage report!”

  “No direct hits to The Beorn but twenty cruisers report multiple hull breaches and damage to forward weapons arrays, as do five battleships.”

  “We are passing through the jamming field.” The forward scanners began to clear. In the melee, the enemy had closed the gap between them.

  “Fighters astern!” Out of the cloud of jamming devices flew groups of small craft. “Estimate more than three thousand!”

  “Defensive batteries!” The cry came too late as the fighters broke formation. Their tactic was immediately clear as they targeted the engines and weapon turrets of the ships and broke off before the defensive batteries could swivel to intercept. Belatedly the ships’ guns spoke and lurid green beams criss-crossed the void catching the stragglers, more by luck than judgment, their pilots still euphoric about their successful strike as their craft exploded and disintegrated around them.

  Twenty three of the smaller ships and three of the battleships were now wheeling slowly out of control. Reports were also coming in that another eleven cruisers and a battleship had been rendered impotent, their weapons systems damaged or destroyed totally. In addition, all the ships bringing up the rear had been annihilated by the surprise attack from behind as three thousand fighters swarmed over them. Vita Nyundo felt he should be mourning the dead pilots, but there was not time and neither could he congratulate the survivors. Their surprise had worn off and he hoped he had done enough to even the odds. At his command, a mixed salvo of torpedoes was released against the fleet before the Interstellar Explorer wheeled off, away from the largest ships but into the claws of the remaining cruisers which immediately changed course to intercept.

  From the opposite flank, the fighters attacked again, trying to pick off the worst damaged ships, but this time they were expected. The defensive fire from the flanking cruisers was murderous as the amateur pilots forgot the basic rules of combat flying: do not fly in a straight line and do not make predictable movements. The fighters were tiny, in comparison to the warships, and capable of impossible changes in direction and speed, but the warship’s gunners were well trained and the fighters’ stealth technology that had kept them masked at a distance was less effective in close quarters. By sheer weight of numbers, they managed to completely disable five of the attacking cruisers, but Vita Nyundo estimated about twenty five percent did not make it out of the engagement, over one thousand Xi Scorpii would not be going home, along with the countless hundreds on the Éðel ships, and it was not over yet. Vita Nyundo wept silently inside as he gave his next string of orders.

  Six cruisers were closing in on Vita Nyundo’s ship, assuming that he was making a run for it. As they closed to weapon’s range the Interstellar Explorer executed a manoeuvre that should have been impossible; pivoting on its centre of gravity, the great ship wheeled to face its pursuers. The centrifugal force at either end of the ship should have torn it apart and crushed the crew to a pulp, but Vita Nyundo hardly noticed as he watched the holographic display in front of him rotate. The main guns spoke and ejected plasma bolts at near the speed of light, which exploded over the closest cruiser before the crew had time to react. The bow disappeared in the maelstrom and secondary explosions ripped through the rest of the hull as systems overloaded and ripped themselves apart. The remaining ships peeled off, pursued by a salvo of type one torpedoes.

  Beadu Slecg was incandescent with rage. Over half his fleet, the pride of Níwlíc Éðel, was either crippled, disabled or destroyed. He himself was the veteran of five successful campaigns and yet he was being out manoeuvred and out gunned by a single rank amateur and a swarm of mosquitoes. In truth, the Níwlíc Éðel fleet had never been pitched against technologically superior forces since The Last War and most of the weapons and tactics that were used in that fateful war had either been lost in the evacuation of Éðel or forgotten over time as they relied on their conquered neighbours to feed and supply them.

  The atmosphere on the bridge of the Beorn now seethed with mutiny and deep down he could not blame them. Never in the history of Níwlíc Éðel had a Fleet Commander been humiliated on the field of battle so quickly and completely. Never underestimate your opponent. He had done, but now it was time to turn the tide. Maybe they had superior technology, but they were still only one ship and a bunch of civilians. He saw the look on the face of his first officer as he approached the Commander’s station with his hand on his sidearm.

  “Time to finish this.” Beadu Slecg barked and whipped his own sidearm out and pointed it between the eyes of the First Officer. “Are you with me?” he asked dangerously.

  The First Officer backed away with his hands out to his sides and nodded.

  “Cruisers, remove those insects from my scanners.” he snarled, referring to the remaining fighters that were still harrying the fleet. It was time to put aside set pieces and let the smaller ships do what they did best; search and destroy. “Battleships, form on the Beorn.” The enemy ship was defending its home planet so it was not going to run far. They had superior speed and manoeuvrability but if he made a play to ignore him and make a run for Otoch it could force them to intervene. Then it would be his turn.

  Vita Nyundo saw the change in tactics. He ordered the fighters to withdraw and make a run for home but it was too late, the cruisers had boxed them in and were picking them off and any that did make it past the blockade ran into the rear guns of the warships bearing down on Otoch. He placed the Interstellar Explorer directly in the path of the advancing ships. If they were allowed to make it to Otoch they could bombard the City’s shield with nothing to stop them. He looked around the bridge and gave his orders. The ships moved towards each other, their forward weapons spitting death at each other as they came.

  By the time they passed each other, the Níwlíc Éðel fleet had lost three more ships to the relentless stream of plasma bolts. The front of the Interstellar Explorer had changed from its perfect mirror finish to matt black as less and less energy from the incoming fire was deflected and diverted. Vita Nyundo could feel the ship shudder under each impact. It would not be long before the hull was breeched. Passing between the fleet gave little respite as the fuselage was peppered with fire from the fleet’s defensive batteries, but the returning fire proved to be more than effective as it ripped one warship in half and the flagship was left with gaping holes along its flank.

  Vita Nyundo was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the remaining cruisers fell on him from all sides. Having decimated the last of the fighters, they had returned to support the battleships. The cruisers were starting to carve chunks out of the Interstellar Explorer but a burst of speed put him beyond their range for a few moments. Luckily, the vast majority of the ship was unoccupied, so casualties were light, but that was about to change. Vita Nyundo could feel it, and so could the crew. Their good fortune could not last now that their fight had become a toe to toe slugging match.

  The last of the torpedoes stopped the cruisers in their tracks but the Beorn, although badly damaged, was still heading for Otoch. Vita Nyundo set off in pursuit, but a lucky salvo from a disabled cruiser struck the rear quarter, penetrated the hull and disrupted one of the energy converters of the system drive, causing the ship to spin out of control. Sensing final victory, Beadu Slecg turned the Beorn around, returned to the stricken v
essel and ordered free fire into the spinning ship.

  Unable to run or fire back, Vita Nyundo could only wait for the inevitable as the helmsman struggled to gain a modicum of control. Slowly but surely, the ship’s rotation slowed but more and more systems were failing as the incoming fire blew huge chunks out of the once beautiful and sleek ship. The end was near, so he ordered all non-essential personnel into the life pods. Maybe the pods would make it back to Otoch and be rescued, but if they stayed on board they would surely die.

  The ship came to rest facing its foe.

  “Fire!” The forward pulse cannons spat and the front of the Beorn melted, destroying its offensive weaponry. “Fire!” More plasma bolts struck the exposed internal structure. Again and again as more metal and bodies were ejected into the cold of space. There was no remorse, no feelings of compassion for the people dying at his commands. “Fire!” he had lost friends and family this day just so the remnants of the Xi Scorpii could carry on. His sister and closest friend had both been in the fighter squadrons that had defended him so valiantly. “Fire!” he had to make sure that there was a clear path for the escape pods to get back to Otoch. “Fire!”

  On the stricken Beorn, panic had set in as the ship disintegrated around them. They had lost weapons and engines. Fleet Commander Beadu Slecg sat in his chair with a glassy stare on his face. At least he would never have to face an enquiry into this disaster. There would not even be anyone to accuse him of anything. That thought pricked something in the back of his mind.

  “Communications! Can you raise the Eardgeard Cwellend?”

  “What?” the Communications Officer was halfway out of his mind. Níwlíc Éðel ships did not carry escape pods because they were considered defeatist and took up room that could be used for weapons or ordnance, so there was nowhere to run. “Are you mad?” he shouted insolently. “We need to retreat!” A green beam cracked over Beadu Slecg’s shoulder hitting the Communications Officer full in the face.

  The First Officer calmly stepped round the Commander’s dais, sidearm in hand and removed the dead man’s headset before he had slumped to the deck. “The Eardgeard Cwellend?” he asked calmly. “One moment Sir.” he adjusted some controls and looked up. “Yes, Sir. They have been trying to get through. Their communications were taken out in the first wave.”

  “Put their Commander through to me.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “This is Comm…” A familiar voice crackled over Beadu Slecg’s headset.

  “Annihilate them.”

  A further salvo slammed into the wreck of the Beorn splitting the fuselage in two and finally breaching the sanctuary of the Command and Control Centre hidden in the depths of the ship. A satisfied thought crossed Beadu Slecg’s mind as his body was sucked out into the cold vacuum of space.

  Chapter 17

  Travis opened his eyes but he could not remember falling asleep. His eyes took a moment to focus while memories of the previous day came flooding back: the pain of being poisoned, the excitement of the escape, the anticipation of going home, the horror and death of the massacre of his potential saviours and the wonder of flying round Xnuk Ek’’s Mindscape. He was lying on his back on a very comfortable bed. The muted colours and light told him he was no longer in the White Room and neither was he in Xnuk Ek’’s Mindscape. His thoughts crystallised round her name and his mind snapped into sharp focus.

  “Star!” he exclaimed, sitting bolt upright.

  “It is good to see you again, Travis Fletcher.” The familiar and welcome voice sounded close to his left ear, just out of his eye line.

  Travis spun round in surprise to see Xnuk Ek’ lounging in a comfortable looking chair with a smile that could melt an iceberg across her face. Her complexion was the healthy, South American tan he remembered, her eyes sparkled like two bright stars and her smile threatened to out shine the sun. She flowed to her feet in a single fluid motion and stood by his side.

  Travis opened and closed his mouth a couple times before his thoughts and voice coalesced into a single purpose. “It’s good to see you too.” he acknowledged finally, surprised to see her looking so well. “Wha…wha...what happened?” he stammered. “Where am I?”

  “Do you not remember?” she asked, her smile fading and a worried frown skittering across her brow.

  Travis shook the cobwebs out of his head and cast his mind back. He remembered finding the badly injured Xnuk Ek’ in her own Mindscape, then…nothing. He shook his head. “No,” he admitted, “my mind’s a complete blank.”

  “Will you let me help you?” she asked.

  “Help me what?” he asked.

  “To remember.” she replied. “It is important.” she insisted earnestly.

  Travis nodded his head. “Ok.” There was something different about her. There was still none of the aloof arrogance of the woman he first met, but neither was she the broken and beaten shell of a person he had met in the wasteland. There was a passion for life about her that was certainly missing from their last encounter and something else he could not put his finger on. Being nearly killed can do that to you, he mused to himself. He felt a silent click in his head as if someone had turned a light or a power socket on.

  New sensations and emotions flowed into his brain as if a tap had been turned on. He was flying. He recognised the buildings below from the last time he was in Xnuk Ek’’s Mindscape, but this time it was different. This time he had no control of where he went. This time he was just a spectator. Below him he could see another figure, unaware that he was not alone. The camera dropped down so that Travis was above and behind. He recognised the figure as himself. Fascinated, he watched himself as he banked left and right looking for Xnuk Ek’, with no idea that he was being spied on from above by himself. He could feel his own emotions and hear his own thoughts as the earlier version of himself searched for the injured alien. He saw himself bank left and make a graceful landing next to a prostrate body on the roof of the most central structure in the city. The camera circled round so that he could see both their faces. He could feel Xnuk Ek’’s joy and relief at seeing him again, but she was impossibly weak and hardly able to open her eyes. He had not noticed just how bad she was last time, but there again he was not in the best shape himself either.

  He remembered how it ended now. She had just asked for his help.

  “Anything.” he replied. “What can I do?”

  Xnuk Ek’ just smiled and reached up to touch Travis on the cheek. He closed his eyes and collapsed to one side. She rolled him onto his back and lay beside him with her head on his shoulder and a hand on his chest. “Sleep now and I will see you soon.”

  The vision faded and he was back in the room. Travis looked up with a raft of questions on his lips but she held up a hand to forestall him. “The White Room needs human energy to augment the healing process. I would have died in that tank if you had not agreed to help.” she explained, anticipating his questions accurately.

  Travis nodded to himself as he remembered his time in a healing tank. “So, that’s what you meant.” he remembered the doctor woman in his Mindscape. So, that was why she was there; sharing her strength.

  “And using her abilities to repair neural pathways and your nervous system.” her spontaneous answer to his unspoken musings startled him. “The healing tanks can only do so much by themselves.”

  “But I was nearly done in myself.” he protested out loud.

  “You are stronger than you know.” Xnuk Ek’ replied. “And I only took enough to help me, then put you into a deep sleep to help you recover.”

  “How long…?”

  “About four days.” she interrupted. “About a day longer than me.”

  “Is that all!” Travis was surprised. “But you…”

  “My shield dispersed most of the energy before it collapsed completely. I was very lucky, unlike…”

  “But still,” he protested, “I spent weeks in that thing on my way here.”

  “The ship had no information o
n you; it had to learn as you healed.” she replied in explanation, although it made no sense to Travis.

  He changed the subject. “So how did I get here? And where is here?”

  “I made sure you stayed unconscious so you could recover properly and I brought you here. I thought it better than leaving you on the floor of the White Room.” she paused for a moment before adding, “And so I could watch you sleep.”

  “Watch me sleep!” Travis backed away on the bed from her. He found the thought of someone watching him sleeping slightly creepy.

  “Please do not be angry with me, Travis Fletcher.” she pleaded, suddenly aware that her candour may have put their fragile friendship in jeopardy. “I used to watch Lak’in when we were together. It is said that the face of a sleeper can reveal the true person inside.” she paused for a moment cocked her head coyly. “Also, you have not yet learned to shield your mind during sleep.”

  Travis bit his tongue this time. He knew how dangerous it was to accuse a Xi Scorpii of prying into someone’s thoughts. Instead he said “You could see my dreams?” But he put an edge to his voice to show he disapproved. “I don’t remember dreaming at all.”

  “Not your dreams, but I saw what you were, I saw what you have become and I saw what you could be.” she finished, with a serious inflection to her voice emphasising the last statement.

  Travis remembered the old doctor’s final remarks to him before Xnuk Ek’ came for him and he felt as if there should have been an ‘unless’ at the end of that sentence. “And…?” he was not sure what to say as his thoughts collided with each other in his head and he was not in the mood for more cryptic crap. She looked away to hide her face, obviously avoiding a direct answer.