Tegrese’s voice roused Nezdeh out of the momentary reverie that had arisen even as she continued to assess the data streams floating next to the holographic navplot. “New firing solutions are ready, Nezdeh. Using both phased array and on-board sensors, confidence of laser solution is absolute. Railgun targeting confidence is ninety-five percent, with mean point of impact variance of up to ten meters.”
“Continue to refine railgun targeting. Sehtrek, how long before the cannonballs are in range, presuming they are capable of six gees?”
“Uncertain. At their current rate of acceleration, the first one will be in our laser’s effective range in four minutes. Our railgun—”
“The railgun is useless against the cannonballs under these conditions. The flight time of our projectiles makes hits improbable until the enemy craft are much closer. Any sign of the other cannonballs?”
“None have appeared above the planetary horizon yet. We conjectured that they would be profiling themselves against open space by now.”
Nezdeh looked in the holotank, read the data. “And the one approaching us is only accelerating at four gees.” She shook her head. “Unpromising. If they were all closing at six gees, we would know they are not taking the time to measure our actions. Instead, the lead cannonball has slowed itself so that the others can accelerate and catch up while it observes us.” She drew in breath against the push of Lurker’s acceleration. “We must expect that the last two targets will come over the horizon together.” So much for defeating an amateurish enemy in detail. The lead cannonball is their sacrifice: they will use it to see how we fight, our capabilities, and our limits. And the latter two will rush in to take advantage of that knowledge by attempting to overwhelm our defenses. Ruthlessly efficient, for an ostensibly nonviolent species.
Tegrese’s voice was tight with resisting the four-gee compression. “First flight of railgun munitions are about to hit their shift-carrier. Targeting update: laser mean point of impact certain to the limits of sensor accuracy. Confidence of new railgun firing solution: ninety-eight percent with seven-meter MPI variance. Am I to keep all lasers on the primary target?”
Nezdeh nodded. “We have several minutes before the first cannonball can threaten us.” I think. “We must keep the Slaasriithi vessel powerless. To do that, we must concentrate our fire upon her.” Unfortunately, at this range, our lasers lack the coherence to inflict maximum damage, and if she manages to change course, our railgun may miss. “We shall cripple her now so that we may kill her later.”
“While hoping that the cannonballs don’t kill us in the meantime,” Tegrese murmured.
“True,” replied Nezdeh. “Now: fire all.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine. IN VARIOUS ORBITS BD +02 4076 TWO (“DISPARITY”)
Caine Riordan had just finished helping up the man who had fallen ahead of him in the darkness — Nasr Eid — when the world shook again. But much harder.
Riordan hit the far wall of the corridor like a rag doll slung across a room. He bounced off, the wind driven out of him, but was glad for the reflexes that brought up his left arm to cover his head and turned his fall into a crude roll. Finally, the long hours of intermittent martial arts practice were paying a muscle memory dividend.
As he rose, a sudden forward-suction draft pulled the air from behind him, the force against his back building swiftly toward hurricane intensity. Goddamn, explosive decompression up ahead? Nothing to grab on to, no way to—
The growing maelstrom diminished quickly, then stopped. His collarcom, still in his right hand, emitted a wind-chime and flutes tone. He tapped it. “Ambassador?”
Yiithrii’ah’aash’s connection was very poor. “Caine Riordan, can you hear my words?”
“Yes, but not well. Can you give me a sitrep — uh, a situation report?”
“I can, but it must be brief. I am using a personal communicator with low batteries.”
I doubt we have much time to talk, anyhow. “Ambassador, do you know who’s attacking us?”
“We have no sensors, and so cannot tell. You must board your ships and descend to the planet at once.”
“Already under way.”
“Excellent. Do not stop to draw supplies from your cargo module.”
“We’re not. Was it hit? Was that what caused the explosive decompression?”
“It was. Our extrusions have sealed the breach. But the module was not the attacker’s target. Its rotation simply brought it into the path of a beam locked upon the main spin-armature. You must evacuate at once; without power, we cannot stop the rotator arm. The damage and postexplosion vibrations will cause it to tear apart and fly away from the ship.”
Caine, panting, had been sprinting since he’d answered the page and now he could feel that the rotator arm was, in fact, wobbling: the irregular Coriolis effect made the deck swim unsteadily under his feet. “Ambassador, our corvette is still in hard-dock and the power is out. Will your biosystems resist our attempts to override your locks or clamps?”
“They will, but— Do any of your personnel have access to the samples of the new markers? If your crew coated themselves with those, that would allow you to—”
“Negative; all the samples are in the hab mod. They’d never make it there and back to the corvette in time.”
The bulkhead disappeared from under Caine’s trailing palm; an intersection. Damn it, which way—? Right! He scrabbled in the dark, found the right-hand bulkhead, ran onward, staggering as the deck undulated beneath his feet.
Yiithrii’ah’aash’s next suggestion was hurried. “I have sent a disabling command through the chemistry of the ship’s biota; it may or may not reach the correct docking ports. But use whatever means you must to break or blast yourself free.”
Yeah; that’s the plan. Caine heard what sounded like a flurry of gunshots up ahead. What the—? “Ambassador, is there any chance that you will be able to get your ship’s power back on-line?”
“Unknown. Hull breaches have restricted our access, and because our ships are far more self-repairing and self-monitoring than yours, our crew is much smaller.”
Although that’s not working out so well for you right now, is it? “Were the power plants hit or—?”
“It was sabotage, Captain.”
“But I assumed that no Slaasriithi would ever—”
“You are correct, Caine Riordan: we do not have traitors. It was one of your people, Dr. Danysh. We do not know how, but he entered the keel access tube and deployed a feedback device that caused cascading overloads. It did not disable our power plant, but has blocked all electrical current to the bow of the ship, including the bridge and its command circuitry. The engines shifted into standby mode the moment they were no longer under positive control. Now hurry; you have little time left. When you commence planetfall, inform me of—”
The channel crackled and died as Caine rounded the last bend, saw that the shuttle’s forward and dorsal boarding tubes were sealed. However, a dim light shone from the doglegged passageway that connected to the aft airlock nestled between its drives. He reattached his collarcom. “Bannor, do you read me?”