He signaled to the communications officer that he was finished. “Have that announcement broadcast on all internal comm channels,” he ordered. “And send it by hypercast with the appropriate codes inserted, so that Governor Ragark knows Karga has carried out his final duty to the Empire.”
Tes, my Lord.“
Largka contemplated his tactical monitor, content in the knowledge that his death, and the deaths of these valiant warriors, would not be in vain.
Bridge, TCS Juneau
Near Vaku VII, Vaku System
1400 hours (CST)
“God damn it, that bastard’s changing course and powering up his maneuver drives!”
Tereshkova called up the tactical plot and quickly confirmed Iindstrom s report. The Kilrathi supercarrier was changing vector, all right…and the projected course would bring them straight in to an intercept with the Juneau.
“You don’t suppose the Cats are coming alongside so we can extend our shields around them, do you?” someone said behind her. “Maybe their comm system’s down and they can’t accept the surrender offer.”
As if in response energy pulsed from the carrier’s forward turret. “If that’s a surrender, I’m a Cat pacifist,” Lindstrom said. The cruiser’s screens handled the incoming fire, but Tereshkova could see that the shield reserves were getting weaker by the minute.
“What about the maneuver drives?” she asked. “Any progress getting them back?”
“Negative, skipper,” Lindstrom told her. “Graham says half the section’s fused together back there. We’re not stepping out of the way on this one.”
“Estimated time to course intersect?”
“Five minutes, Captain,” the helmsman reported crisply. He might have been commenting on the weather back home.
“We can’t blow them up…we can’t get the hell out of the way.” Tereshkova met Lindstrom’s eyes. “Ever see any statistics on the survival prospects of a cruiser getting rammed by a supercarrier?”
He shrugged. “Not that I remember,” he said with a sour, gallows humor smile. “And I doubt it would matter much if we could survive a collision. If that Cat over there realizes that his people are going to cop it from this weird brown dwarf’s radiation anyway, he’s liable to order the destruct systems armed. That way he gets us even if we don’t collide. Probably takes out any last-minute lifepods we dump, too.”
“Options?” Tereshkova knew what they were, but she had to hear Lindstrom confirm them. When the safety of her crew was at stake, she wouldn’t overlook any possibilities.
“We sit here and fry,” he said. “Or we pray for a miracle with the weapons or the drives…and fry if we don’t happen to get it.“ He paused. ”Or we sound Abandon Ship. lifepods can handle the radiation for a little while, and if we deploy our shuttles now they should be able to round up most of the crew and get them to a safe distance before the dosages become critical. There’ll be casualties. A lot of them. And long-term survival’s another thing entirely.“
“There’s a habitable moon in this system. That’s something.”
“And a flock of Kilrathi, too. The fighters that were cut off from their hangar deck, and that escort that withdrew. They could still be a threat.”
“They’re a possible problem.” She jabbed a finger at the tactical display. “That’s a threat.” She sighed. “Sound Abandon Ship, Mr. Lindstrom. And download the navigation data on that moon to all the shuttle computers. Better make it fast-that Cat’s not going to juggle his schedule just to let us finish the job.”
“Aye aye, skipper,” Lindstrom said. “Permission to take the bridge during the evacuation?”
“Denied,” she said harshly. “You get to your lifepod. The captain’s supposed to go down with the ship. I’ll ride herd on the old girl while the crew gets clear.”
She turned away from Lindstrom and studied the monitor again, unwilling to let him see the emotion in her eyes.
Slowly, ponderously, the two blips on the screen that represented the Terran cruiser and the Kilrathi carrier began to move toward one another, and there was nothing Captain Tereshkova could do to stop it.
Flag Bridge, KIS Karga
Orbiting Vaku System
1413 hours (CST)
“Lifepods. The apes are escaping in lifepods.”
Largka heard the anger in Khirgh’s voice and wondered at the intelligence officer’s blind hatred. Why did so many Kilrathi-Thrakhath’s followers in particular-nurse such enmity for the Terrans? They were brave fighters, tenacious in battle even when the odds were against them. Hadn’t the hero Karga himself won glory for honoring a brave but outmatched warrior who had challenged him in battle? Perhaps if the Empire had accorded a status higher than that of prey to the humans the war would not have stretched on so long.
“Let them,” Largka said calmly. “They can burn slowly in the radiation of the brown dwarf, or quickly in the explosion of the Karga. Even if they escape, they will be marooned on the habitable moon, and some of our warriors are still there. We have achieved our purpose, regardless.”
“At a high cost, Admiral,” Khirgh commented.
“You would have preferred to evacuate with the Cadre?” That was a sneer. There were no political repercussions left for Largka now, no more need to pretend to support the Emperor, or Thrakhath, or their toadies.
“I know my duty,” Khirgh snarled. “But you cannot deny the cost of this exercise.”
“If your precious Prince had planned something more worthwhile than a mere raid to be avenged for what the humans on Landreich did at the Battle of Earth, if he had given us sound objectives and the forces we needed to achieve them, rather than sending us out with blunted fangs, this ‘exercise’ might have had a better outcome. But instead Thrakhath has thrown away this squadron as he has thrown away so many other warriors and ships, for nothing but his own vanity. One day it may be that he will throw away the Empire itself. And perhaps my sister’s son will still be alive to claim the throne as the last surviving member of the branch of the Imperial hrai worthy of holding it.”
“Treason!” Khirgh surged toward Largka, claws extending. “The Prince was right about your treacherous ambitions!”
Largka rose from his command chair, drawing his ceremonial dagger. His thrust met Khirgh’s rush, and blood pumped from the intelligence officer’s slit throat. Khirgh’s claws grasped ineffectually at Largka’s chest before Thrakhath’s agent sagged to the deck. The admiral studied the body for a long moment, but there was no savor to the kill.
“Lord Admiral,” one of the bridge crew said, voice a little unsteady after witnessing the short but savage clash between the two officers. “Lord Admiral, the cruiser’s shields are failing!”
He jerked his attention to the monitor. Minimum sensors had been restored, and they could read the wild fluctuations in the energy levels powering the cruiser’s defensive grid. A rapid string of energy pulses from Karga’s forward batteries played across the Terran ship’s bow, and suddenly the sensor readings showed the shields entirely down.
The next barrage tore through the Confederation ship like claws through soft flesh. On the main viewscreen he could see the rippling series of explosions as every system overloaded at once and the cruiser came apart.
So…there would be no collision, no need to count on the self-destruct system to ensure the Terran ship’s destruction. Karga’s foe was already dead.
But the countdown to destruction would go on. His ship and crew were already dead as well, thanks to the shield failure and the radiation sleeting through the hull. Best to deny Karga to those who might find him drifting out here, derelict, a prize to be claimed and dishonored.