We lifted off on the eighth day after our arrival and assumed the left wing of our three-ship squadron. As before, there was no practice by the squadron of battle stations or testing of the weapons. Aboard my ship, I had my crew do dry runs to battle stations without firing. At least, I did that much to help my crew.
The squadron commander, Captain Jingle, couldn’t have been more aptly named. Everywhere we went, we jingled, so to speak. The fool couldn’t stop using the communications to keep the squadron in tight with each other, instead of keeping our presence hidden. We were met at the border by an enemy squadron of ten ships. I evaluated the situation, ordered my pilot to charge full speed ahead, and gave battle stations as we cleared the rest of our squadron. Almost immediately, Captain Jingle was on the communications channel expressing his anger and outrage at my insubordination, ordering me to return to formation.
“Cut the communications off. I don’t want to hear him blather anymore. Anyone disagree?” I asked as I looked around at my bridge personnel.
No one made a comment, but there were a few smiles while the vibrations from our own weapons were being felt throughout the ship as the pilot performed evasive maneuvers to keep us from being hit. Somehow we managed to punch through the enemy squadron taking out one of them as we passed by. Then we swept in on their rear to T-shoot several more of them. Meanwhile, I looked at the sensor array and saw what was happening to the other two ships of the squadron. They were holding their precious formation and trying to maneuver as a team while just about getting their collective asses shot off. Worse yet, they were only being attacked by two of the original ten enemy warships. The rest of them were in pursuit of us as I expected they would be.
I ordered, “Communications, advise Headquarters that we have left the squadron facing two enemy ships and are drawing off the other seven enemy ships away from them. Then cut communications again.”
The communications officer went about her duties and then nodded when she finished.
I then said, “Navigation, set course for the enemy home world. They’re overdue for a visit.”
Then there was cheering as the bridge crew realized that I wasn’t ducking out on a fight. They knew then that I was looking for a fight.
I said over the intercom, “Gunners, resume normal battle instructions. Good hunting and good shooting!”
We weren’t in the clear yet, but the enemy ships behind us still had some catching up to do. We had damaged some of them already, but not enough to keep them out of the fight. The only advantage we had was that they were still trying to catch up with us. They wouldn’t be able to do more than broadcast our position since we were too far ahead for them to fire on us. That left me with a dilemma. I couldn’t attack the planet with seven ships behind me and an unknown number of ships in front of me. That would be a trap we would be unlikely to escape. To attack the planet successfully, we would have to either fight off the pursuit or lose them. I preferred to fight, especially since we had additional firepower.
Then I saw the solution looming up ahead on our sensor screen. “What’s that?” I asked.
Jean said, “Asteroid or comet. I’ll know when we get closer.”
I replied, “Good, Jean, steer for the asteroid or comet, pull in behind it, and do an emergency stop. Gunners, be prepared for a full stop. You’ll have lots of targets flashing by pretty soon.”
“You really want a full stop?” she asked.
I answered, “A relative stop in relation to it. I want the enemy to lose us with their sensors and visual sight behind that object. When they pass, I want you to turn to starboard and hit full speed again as quickly as possible so that we can shoot them in the ass.”
She nodded as I smiled at her to try to convey to her that I had full confidence in her instead of calling for Frank to come on duty. I felt he had done a good job of training our pilots to be just as good as him. Sooner or later, I had to let the other pilots have my confidence.
It was a close call when Jean slid us by the asteroid. She threw the engines into reverse to bring us to almost a full relative stop behind the asteroid before the enemy ships flashed by. Our guns shot them as they passed all around us. Their own forward speed carried them on by to where their own gunners were unable to return fire as we surprised them. Then Jean was putting us back into motion and taking us to starboard so that one side of our ship faced the enemies’ engines before they got out of range. I was able to see two of them rupture from direct hits on the engines. By the time the enemy squadron was able to turn to chase after us again, we were again at full speed while there were only four of them.
“What now, sir?” asked Jean. “Back to the enemy planet?”
“In time. We still have four aliens to shake off first. I don’t want us caught between two large forces when we go in. You got any ideas?” I asked.
“Yes, you ever tack an old sailing ship?” she asked.
I said, “No, but I think I know what you intend to do, so do it. Gunners, get ready for a new maneuver.”
Jean turned the ship and the four aliens turned with us, only they didn’t see our speed change since the turn masked it. They suddenly overshot. Then Jean pulled in behind them for a second time as our gunners raked the engines of the four alien ships. Two were put out of commission right then while a third was heavily damaged, though still in operation. The fourth managed to evade our shots while Jean tacked the other way and then gathered speed again. We came in behind them again. Our gunners shot at the targets again. The heavily damaged ship ruptured into space. The remaining ship was damaged severely so that it had no engines. Only its weapons were keeping us away for the moment. Jean calmly let the enemy ship move away, slipped our ship back in behind him, and our gunners finished him off.
“Good work, Jean!” I exclaimed.
She said, “Well, I thought it was going to work out differently. I guess this isn’t the same as sailing.”
I replied, “Don’t worry about it. You made it turn out fine. Now resume course to their planet. We have a social call to make.”
“Yes sir!” she said enthusiastically.
We were able to avoid other enemy ships, circle the enemy planet by a wide berth, and then begin our attack from the opposite direction. That was enough to offset the lack of surprise that our attack lost when the enemy squadron broadcast our intentions. We took out one of the circling warships that protected the planet. Then we dove down into the atmosphere to fire quickly at a couple of ground installations before coming up under another enemy warship. We blasted it while it was still looking for us amidst all the ground clutter that its sensors were picking up. Then we used their planet to give a slingshot effect on our ship’s speed and jetted out between two other enemy warships, watching one of them hit the other because they were so intent on hitting us. Other warships then started chasing after us.
“We’ve got five, no six after us, Captain.”
“Is that all? I’m insulted,” I said in a tone of false dramatics that picked up a lot of laughter from the personnel on the bridge. “Okay, let’s lead them on a chase. Maybe they’ll trip over each other.” There was some more laughter as our people knew now that we were better than the aliens. All we had to do was hope the Navy could get the rest of its act together.
Our ship sped outward with the six warships chasing after us just out of range.