“I’m uncertain,” Gary admitted. “There’s so much disruption, even to gravimetric sensors, that it’s hard to tell if any of them survived, or if they escaped. They could open up hundreds of wormholes and we couldn’t be sure of picking them up, not now.”
Andrew nodded. Once, years ago, he had read a semi-serious article suggesting that humans would learn to ignite gas giants to provide their moons with a star. Jupiter’s moons could be made habitable with a little effort and hard work, provided that they got a new source of heat. The early days of the Space Age had been full of all kinds of fantastic schemes, which couldn’t be used even now, for fear of attracting the Killers. Now, if the new star remained stable, perhaps one of those schemes could be put into practice.
“I’m not sure that the new star is remotely stable,” Gary said, when Andrew commented on his thoughts. “The fission effect is burning up its mass at an astonishing rate. If it doesn’t stabilise soon, it’ll burn itself out and probably turn into a dead star, or something along the same lines.”
“With a lot of dead Killers,” Andrew said, slowly. The destruction had proved beyond all doubt that the Killers had infested that planet, and perhaps the other gas giants in the system. It was time to complete the mission. It was tempting to declare an end to the mission and leave the star alone, but they were committed now. “Send an update along the secure channel to the Admiral, and then take us in towards the star.”
“Aye, sir,” David said. The starship tilted slightly and raced towards the system primary. The gravity waves emitting from the gas giant hadn’t had any effect on the local star, although Andrew hadn’t expected that they would. Nothing short of a supernova bomb or a black hole would affect the primary; even a Killer starship would vaporise if it dived right into the star. There were all kinds of schemes for using warp fields to survive within the star’s atmosphere, but Andrew doubted that they would work in the long run. A single power failure and the entire complex would vaporise. No one would even know what had happened…
“We have a contact,” Gary snapped. “I have one Killer starship on a direct intercept course.”
“Evasive action,” Andrew ordered, watching the new icon gaining on them rapidly. It looked… angry. There had never been a sense of any emotion from the Killers before, but now… he suspected that the Killers had simply never been hurt so badly before. “David, confirm; how long until we reach the best firing position?”
“Seven minutes,” David reported. “We can be there instantly with the Anderson Drive.”
“Perhaps not,” Gary said. “The gravity waves from the dying planet are making it much harder to calculate jumps. The Killer starship will be in firing range… ah.”
The Killer starship fired a single burst of white fire. It raced towards the Lightning at two hundred times the speed of light and barely missed as David took evasive action.
“Now, it seems,” Gary said, with gallows humour. “It seems that we underestimated the range on their weapons.”
Andrew had a more pertinent question. “How the hell do they project that energy faster than light?”
“Unknown,” Gary said, “but I think they’re mad. I’ve got two more Killer starships on intercept vectors.”
“Keep taking evasive action,” Andrew ordered, as the Killer starships drew closer. They seemed to have no problems pacing the Lightning, even threatening overrun her, but they seemed to be almost… fearful, as if they didn’t want to get too close. It was the only thing that saved the starship from certain destruction. If the Killers had closed to point-blank range, they could have picked her off or even rammed her with ease. “Gary?”
“Two minutes to best firing range,” Gary said. He paused. “Sir, the Killers might intercept the missile.”
“True,” Andrew agreed. He’d planned to flee the moment the missile was launched — no one in their right mind would want to be close to a supernova — but Gary was right. They would have to run cover for the missile, even at the risk of their lives. “Load torpedo bays, charge weapons.”
“Weapons online, sir,” Gary said. He didn’t question the order aloud, but Andrew knew that he was questioning the wisdom of that decision. Their weapons wouldn’t even scratch the Killer hull. “Targets locked.”
“Fire a full spread of noisemakers just before you fire the supernova bomb,” Andrew ordered. “Stand by…”
The star grew larger in the display, a ball of nuclear fire beaming out light and life to the entire star system. Without the Killers, perhaps it would have shone on an empire of humanity. Instead, Andrew had come to slay it for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. The Killer starships were holding their course, keeping their distance…
“Fire,” Andrew ordered.
“Noisemakers away,” Gary confirmed. “Supernova bomb armed, primed… and away.”
“Take us back towards them,” Andrew snapped. “Helm, take us right down their fucking throats.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” David said. The Lightning heeled rapidly and turned around to face the Killers. A moment later, David triggered the warp drive and the starship raced towards the massive ships. “One minute to close approach.”
“Keep taking evasive action,” Andrew snapped. “Gary, open fire with warp missiles. Make them think we’re trying to take them out with a Cochrane Twist.”
The starship shuddered as it unleashed another spread of missiles. Andrew watched as the missiles closed the distance within seconds, the Killers still firing their mysterious weapons… and then they locked onto the missiles instead. The warp missiles, coming in on a predictable trajectory, were picked off one by one before they could reach their targets.
“They’re reacting to us,” Andrew breathed. No one was sure if a Cochrane Twist was even possible against Killer starships moving at FTL speeds, using their own FTL drive, but the Killers seemed to believe it was possible. Who knew? They might even have been right. They presumably knew their drive better than the humans knew theirs. “They’re reacting to us…”
The two starships closed rapidly and then they were past the Killer starship, racing out into interstellar space. “Fire the remaining noisemakers,” Andrew ordered, tightly. If they could delay the Killers long enough to keep them near the star, the supernova would shake their confidence forever. “What’s happening to the star?”
“I’m picking up massive gravity waves,” David reported, as the Killer starships turned slowly to continue the pursuit. They hadn’t realised that the star was about to explode. “I think she’s about to blow!”
“Get us out of here,” Andrew snapped. There was no more time to waste. “Now!”
Although Andrew and his crew were unaware of it, the second supernova bomb was actually based on early warp drive technology, which compressed space to allow FTL travel. Wrapped inside a warp bubble that provided protection against the heat and fury of the outraged star, the missile sank ever deeper into the photosphere, sucking in and compressing material as it fell. Instead of causing a rapid fission reaction, the missile was compressing more and more mass into the warp bubble, disrupting the star’s fusion reaction. The reaction rapidly destabilised and raced out of control. The missile eventually lost power and vaporised in the heat of the star, but it was too late. The supernova reaction was underway.