Clicks later, their Drive cut in again, but now the destroyer's acceleration was diminished, and Brim had no trouble keeping Defiant's big disruptors within range. He drew closer and slid out to one side of the fleeing starship. From about eight hundred irals, Wellington sent a long burst into one of its Drive outlets. Pieces of crystal modulators flew out, along with a geyser of raw energy-and the ship began to stagger along a curving path.
Amid the maniacal thundering of the disruptors, Brim once gain scanned the void around him and checked the proximity indicator-all clear. Ahead, the Leaguer was visibly slowing, After taking another devastating salvo, one of her atmospheric radiators slowly deployed about halfway before grinding to a halt as radiation flames began to pour from the open doors. Brim could only imagine the fiery horror inside the other ship, which must by now have become a roaring furnace.
Suddenly, a hatch tumbled away into the wake, followed by two shimmering lifeglobes.
As the dying ship bunted out of control, the first 'globe soared free and was quickly swallowed up in the distant void. The second, however, was not so lucky. In the fraction of a click in which it followed the first, the Gorn-Hoff lurched drunkenly, catching the lifeglobe on the lip of its escape hatch. Instead of falling freely into the stricken ship's wake, it hammered along the riddled hull and smashed into the half-deployed atmospheric radiator where it exploded in a glittering fog of frozen atmosphere punctuated by at least twenty figures-arms and legs thrashing-that spun and whirled past Defiant's bridge like children's toys. One exploded in a red mist near the bow mooring-bollards; another bequeathed Brim the instantaneous memory of wide-eyed fear encased in a battle helmet before it collided with the Hyperscreens directly above his console and disintegrated into a frozen red smear overhead. The Carescrian would carry that terrified visage with him to the end of his life.
Now the enemy ship began to skid off course, presenting a broadside target to Wellington's disruptor crews as Brim pulled out to one side. This time, they fired at extremely close range, directly into the 'midships radiation fire that appeared to be centered in the heavy structures around the ship's primary energy retorts. Instantly, a tremendous explosion lighted the void. Debris flew everywhere. Brim could pick out individual pieces with stark clarity-like a complete control console that flashed by from somewhere, trailing at least fifty irals of cabling. For a moment, the ship's blown-out viewports gleamed like rows of fiery eyes. Then, everything erupted into a solid wall of flame-accompanied by tremendous shock waves of raw energy as her entire Drive system vented directly into space.
After that there was nothing, and Defiant found herself alone in the void-the convoy was now only a pattern of green tines in the starry darkness at least thirty c'lenyts ahead and to starboard. "Well done, Defiants," Collingswood shouted emotionally. "Well done!"
Brim grinned as he turned back toward the distant merchant ships-he knew Collingswood meant it.
Then, not a cycle afterward, COMCONVOY terminated the alert, and Defiant's tour as an independent was over for another three watches.
With a surge of almost physical relief, Brim turned the helm over to Jennings and Waldo, then joined Ursis in a jump seat at the rear of the bridge, too keyed up to leave the bridge just yet. "Bad," he said through clenched teeth.
The Bear nodded quietly. "Bad..." he repeated, shaking his great, furry head. No other words were required.
As Defiant returned to her position at the van of the division, the great wheel formations of starships were again stationary except for their forward velocity. Brim could now see the results of the last savage raid firsthand. Many of the merchantmen had sustained terrific damage. One had lost-at the very least-an entire Drive crystal in some hellish explosion that ripped open her port side from bridge to stem. Somehow, she was still keeping station, ploughing along on her remaining two crystals. Another in the next wheel had no bridge but was being steered from some alternate helm. Brim shook his head as Defiant passed. At close range, he could see that the blast had nearly cut the big ship in half. With her hull in that sort of condition, she'd have to be unloaded in orbit-if she made it to port at all. After that, they'd scrap her, and it was clear that she was almost brand new. He winced: everywhere he looked, he could see guttering Drive plumes, glowing radiation fires only just under N-ray control, hulls and decks shining with ice from leaking environmentals, and the garish blue of temporary pressure patches.
Ursis nodded soberly out the Hyperscreens toward the merchant ships, then turned to Brim. "Out there, Wilf Ansor," he brooded, "are the real heroes of this war. To fight from behind the disruptors of a warship is something anyone can do. One can always count on lucky shooting to save him from disaster-or heavy armor plate at the least. But to face a Gorn-Hoff with only the black void and a thin sheet of hullmetal separating you from those Schwanndor 137s-and then to stay in formation-that is the kind of bravery we Sodeskayans record in the Great Books."
Brim found himself speechless with emotion. He took a deep breath, ground his teeth, and nodded agreement. After that, the two comrades sat silently and stared into the dark void while Waldo completed their return to the cruising station.
Less than a day later, as Brim sipped a hurried goblet of meem in the wardroom with Fritz and Aram, a buzzer sounded quietly from the tabletop, and a message board over Grimsby's pantry began to flash: LTS. WILF BRIM AND NIKOLAI URSIS TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY. LTS. WILF BRIM AND NIKOLAI URSIS TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY....
Brim raised an eyebrow. "In case I don't come back," he said with a mock-serious look of apprehension, "you two know where to start looking." Then he hurried to the bridge. He beat Ursis by only a moment, and the two Blue Capes trooped onto the bridge at double time.
There, they found Collingswood and Calhoun sitting in the jump-seat area that often doubled as an ad-hoc conference room. Outside, Defiant was rapidly overhauling a huge star shoal that appeared to extend ahead all the way into infinity.
"Number One and I have a little challenge for you," Collingswood said without looking up from a display screen. "Sit down, quickly, both of you. There is precious little time to act."
Brim and Ursis quickly turned two seats around and seated themselves, frowning.
"Baxter," Collingswood continued, still engrossed in the display screen, "since this all started with you..."
"Aye, Captain," Calhoun said, sitting forward in his seat and frowning. He paused a moment as if gathering his thoughts, then looked first at Ursis and then at Brim. "Well, lads," he started, "just before the change in watch, we received a routine message concernin' S.S. Providential, a big Vergonian cargo liner in Convoy J18/7 that passed thro' this same area three days ago wi' a load o' antimatter power supplies." He looked at Ursis. "I imagine you understand how critical that cargo is to Haelic, don't you?"
Ursis nodded gravely.
"Thought so," Calhoun continued. "Well, the ship took three direct hits during ane o' the attacks and was soon burnin' out o' control amidships-in the machinery space between holds eight and nine." He peered ahead through the Hyperscreens and shook his head angrily. "Worthless civilians," he growled. "First thing off, they simply pulled her out o' the convoy, dampened the Drive, and then abandoned ship."
A deep chuckle rumbled from Ursis's chest. "Whether or not I approve of what they did," he said, "I certainly know why they did it. Were the ship in perfect condition, her cargo makes her a colossal flying bomb-with the radiation fire providing a surefire fuse."