Aaron nodded. “Our proximity will be dictated by safety. Any signs the armor isn’t up to the task and we turn around. Our polarization doesn’t have the power reserves to draw on like Phoenix.”
“Aye, sir, understood.”
The sensors projected their interpretation of the exotic swirling nebula gases on the holo-viewer. A hypnotic display.
“We’re doing this by the book,” Aaron said. “Polarize the armor. Secure Hammerhead for entry.” The others must have been feeling something similar. They too were looking at the display with wide eyes.
Polarizing the armor plating would strengthen the molecular bonding of the armor material and deflect high-energy strikes which the nebula might discharge incidentally. It would also protect the ship against directed energy weapons such as military strength lasers. Though the polarization was subject to attrition once contacted by extreme heat sources.
The small strike craft only had one micro-fabricator. She wasn’t designed as a long-range combat vessel, but rather one capable of defending itself long enough to escape when deployed on a scout mission. With only one full magazine of tungsten ammunition Hammerhead wouldn’t be firing long barrages of sustained railgun fire.
All systems were ready. They were ready.
“Take us in.”
“Aye, sir,” Flaps responded.
The deck rumbled as Flaps pushed the engines. On the holo-viewer the rainbow display of swirling nebula gasses embraced the ship. It was almost a calming effect. Two minutes later Phoenix cleared the effective boundary where they would no longer be visible to elements outside the nebula. Aaron barely propped on the edge of his seat.
“Lee, anything further?”
Lee shook his head. His eyes never left his instruments as he spoke. “Not quite, Commander.”
“Define not quite, Lee. As in nothing further at all, or a little but you still haven’t pinpointed the source?”
“The latter mostly. I’m doing the best I can. I’m feeding a search pattern into the computer now. We can move through those areas first. Either I’m getting a ghost reading or the source has split in two. It’s somewhere within one of our search grids,” he highlighted it on the main holo-viewer. “Unless there’re two different sources. Those discharges are nasty. We could spring a leak if one hits us. We should peep around the corners from here on.”
The tactical officer’s words lingered in the air, and he hadn’t even realized the ominous implications of what he’d said. The nebula was the least of their problems.
Aaron pounded a fist on his seat. Why hadn’t he seen this?
He could just kick himself. “Ensign, full reverse! Bring us around. Take us out of the nebula, maximum acceleration once we’re clear.”
Another minute and the evasive maneuver may have been too late.
If the helmsman wanted to protest the sudden change in orders, he didn’t show it. Hearing his commander’s hard tone, he complied nearly immediately. Good on him.
“What’s changed, Commander?” Flaps asked.
“I don’t know it changed, but rather always was. That courier isn’t trying to evade us in here, it may be a rendezvous. Another vessel is definitely inside with us. We’ll dock with Phoenix and prepare for anything. A nebula discharge must have struck the other ship. They’ve definitely been in here a while and have a damaged a fuel cell. They—whoever they are—must be leaking deuterium and by now have detected our entry. Lee, deploy PDCs.”
Miroslav suddenly pulled tighter on his restraints. “I probably was better off not knowing.”
“PDCs deployed, Commander,” Lee reported.
Whoever they were, they hadn’t chosen to hide in a nebula because they wanted to send mutual greetings of peace and long life. Aaron laughed inside at the ridiculous idea.
The deck lurched slightly. The curtains were drawn the show had begun.
Flaps shouted. “Explosion above us, sir! Point defense cannons took out some kind of missile. Reading traces of matter/antimatter.”
That had been close. The nebula interference scrambling the sensors would wreak havoc with the detection of hostile ordnance. But it proved adequate for now. But how much closer would they get?
“Flaps. Ahead flank! Get us out of here, we’re blind.”
“Sir, that’ll likely cause some damage to the engines,” Flaps called back.
“And unknown weapons fire will likely cause certain death,” Aaron answered. “Punch it, Ensign.”
The Ensign shoved the control forward to signal the ship its pilot demanded full power to engines. The patrol craft obeyed, and each of them slammed against the seats as the inertia compensators lagged slightly behind. The ship bucked and lurched as it vectored through nearby electrical and plasma discharges.
“Nearing the nebula boundary!” Flaps yelped.
A quick look showed they had just two minutes to go before exiting the embrace of the nebula. Sometimes, two minutes could feel like two days.
The vibration increased throughout the ship. They weren’t using headsets in this small space. It hadn’t been necessary. And none of them had put on any, so they resorted to shouting to project above the chaos.
Lee reported. “Commander! Huge power signature detected—directly astern! Not detecting any signs of damage to it, no deuterium leaks, it can’t be what we detected earlier.”
Aaron gripped his armrests. “Regardless, whoever it is definitely doesn’t like us, or the fact we won at hide and seek.”
“Energy spikes from the contact! He’s firing lasers!”
One minute until the effective boundary of the nebula. The deck lurched—harder this time.
“Direct hit astern. He’s almost on top of us, Commander, we can’t evade at this range!” Flaps said.
A laser fired from less than one light-second would strike instantaneously. How such a huge contact got so close without them detecting it was more what Aaron wished to know now.
Thunderous booms echoed inside the cabin. More laser strikes. The armor had been compromised. Laser effectiveness rose exponentially the longer the beam sustained contact with a target, heating up its surface and incinerating it.
“Polarization is weakening, those lasers are powerful! Twenty seconds to boundary.”
A collective breath was held by all and blown out when they emerged with the patrol craft intact.
Flaps was looking at him. “What do we do, sir?”
Only one thing to do.
“We fight—and run.” Undoubtedly, that confused the young Ensign. How does one fight and run is what he was probably wondering.
Well, he was about to find out. The unfortunate reality, however, like other smaller warships, the most potent of Hammerhead’s armaments were forward firing.
“Cut acceleration, bring the bow around one eighty. We’ll coast away with our fists up. Time to punch back. Lee, arm torpedo warheads, full railgun spread on my mark. Maximum firing rate, empty the magazine. Before we fire, Ensign, I want you to execute delta nine strike pattern.”
“Delta nine, aye,” Flaps said.
“Warheads armed, railguns primed, firing solution locked in,” Lee acknowledged.
Aaron watched the tactical display. He focused on Hammerhead’s and the contact’s speed, and its projected distance from Hammerhead when the latter moved beyond the nebula boundary. Barring any sudden deceleration on the contact’s end, which was unlikely given how intent it seemed on scattering their atoms across the void—he knew exactly when the contact would emerge. Until it did, its sensors were likely just as scrambled as theirs when breaching the boundary of the nebula, where there was a large concentration of radiation.