"Stand by to engage," Calhoun warned in an eager voice.
Brim stole a glance aft at Defiant's great wide Drive plume curving gracefully away into the distance. She could match speed and firepower with any NF-110 or Gorn-Hoff. For a moment, he thought of Collingswood's remarks and wondered how the Leaguers felt now that they were on the defensive end of things.
"All crews, energize your disruptors."
"What do you reckon they'll do with those battleships?" Aram asked, nodding through the forward Hyperscreens toward the huge outlines of capital ships now clearly discernible against the Drive plumes of the transports. Their ponderous main batteries were still parked in the fore-and-aft positions.
Defiant bumped around a space hole, and Brim found himself busy with the controls for a moment. Then he frowned, watching the forward turret index off toward the incoming escorts.
"My guess is that the big boys are watching Onrad's battlecruisers coming in from astern,"
he said presently, "they'll expect the Gorn-Hoffs to take care of smaller fish like ourselves and the destroyers." He grinned and glanced across at the young A'zurnian. "At least, that's what I hope they'll do," he added with a chuckle. "Those rustbuckets may be old, but they do have big disruptors!"
"Light cruisers: take independent action against escorts," Brim heard Collingswood order. "That frees Defiant, too, Cal," she added. "I'm finished with my reporting."
"Did you hear that, young Brim?" Calhoun asked.
"Aye, sir," Brim answered, "independent action." With that, he eased Defiant's helm to port apex and skewed course toward the approaching escorts.
Suddenly, a tense voice shouted from his situation display. "Look out!
Torpedoes-bearing yellow!"
Brim put the helm hard over and shoved Defiant's nose to nadir just as a spread of three torpedoes flashed overhead, missing the bridge by no more man thirty irals before they disappeared off to starboard. "Where in thraggling xaxt?..." he started, but he was cut off by a second warning,, shouted this time from directly behind him on the bridge.
"Bender at Purple plus ten!"
Brim spotted the ugly little ship at the same time, closing in slowly from port. Evidently, she had just now entered Defiant's N-ray coverage zone. In the background, he could hear the calm voices of Wellington's disruptor crews calling out a litany of bearings. Even as they spoke, the single forward 152 indexed around, dipped, then slowly elevated and steadied. A cycle later, it hurled out a stunning bolt of green brilliance that shattered the darkness and blanked the stars themselves, jerking the deck and filling him with a wild exultation.
"Great Universe!" someone gasped. Wellington's crew had scored a direct hit with a single shot. Instantly, the bender disappeared in a shattering burst of wild flame and energy, literally dissolving from 'midships outward until she was totally engulfed in a bright, roiling puffball that altogether consumed itself in a few cycles-except for two sparkling comets that receded quickly into the distance: the heavy structures of her power chambers.
Brim glanced down at his hands. Surprisingly, they weren't even shaking.
"Bearing Blue and up 200," one of the disruptor chiefs ordered, "distance 4100...." The forward disruptor indexed back to starboard and began to line up on the incoming escorts.
"Shoot!" This time, it fired in concert with the main batteries aft for a full salvo. The bridge deck kicked violently under Brim's feet and cvcesse' containers rattled from consoles all over the bridge. When the clouds of sparkling radiation dissipated outside, Brim altered course a little to make the Shooting easier, then cleared space around him. Nothing. At least nothing he could see....
Defiant thudded past the well of another space note, then steadied again on course.
"Shoot!"
Brim swiveled to visually clear the space around them.
"Hey, look!" a woman's voice squealed. "We hit another one of the bastards! Good show, Dora!"
"That'll do for 'im!"
"Yeah. Good shooting, Dora!"
Brim glanced over at the ravaged Gorn-Hoff, afire in three places 'midships and beginning to fall off to starboard nadir, clearly out of control. The curved armor coating over her deckhouse had been peeled back like a cheap food container exposing most of the ship's interior to space. He could almost feel the enemy Helmsman's desperation as one by one his controls failed.
"That fixed the bloody zukeed!" someone shouted exuberantly. The enemy ship continued steadily on a straight course for a few more cycles, then began to roll to the right until its decks were nearly vertical to Defiant's, Suddenly, its back broke in a cloud of sparks and debris; moments later, the blasted wreck separated into two fragments and fell rapidly away aft.
"Benders again, for the love of Voot-LOOK OUT!" someone else yelled out in a voice shrill from stark terror.
Brim whirled in his seat in time to spy two of the ugly little ships as they slipped inside N-ray range. His eyes focused only clicks before Defiant's bridge jumped violently with incredible concussion and noise. Gravity pulsed from a massive energy release, throwing him violently against his restraining harness. At the same instant, the aft Hyperscreens shattered and cabin pressure dropped with the force of a powerful explosion. Suddenly, a white-hot hullmetal splinter whirled through the back of his seat and melted a large area in the upper arm of his battle suit. Caught off guard, he bellowed in pain as the shard burned through his flesh, then smashed against an instrument panel in a shower of sparks and fell smoking to the deck at his feet. For a moment, he caught sight of blood streaming from the blackened, smoking rip in his suit. Then his battle suit sealed itself-and his arm-in a second avalanche of pain and torment. Grinding his teeth, he forced himself to focus on the controls again. Somebody was screaming in the background-more like a wild animal than anything else. He forced that from his mind as he struggled with the controls.
"Damage Control..." he heard Calhoun demand, "report!"
"Disruptor bit just abaft the bridge," someone answered above a cacophony of pleas for medical teams on the voice circuits-and the wild-animal screaming that continued as an insane background. "Radiation fires in electrical compartments five and sixteen.
Companionway nineteen from COMM house blocked...."
Defiant's 155s lashed out twice as she passed the bender-both times they missed by a c'lenyt. Grimly, Brim banked around to close the range, but the little ship was more maneuverable, easily turning inside him and out of N-ray range. He was still trying to ignore the screaming when it stopped abruptly, abandoning the voice band to absolute silence for a few moments until the confusion began again. In the next moments, he checked on Aram-who was clearly unscathed-then glanced around the bridge. Aft, everything was covered by glittering Hyperscreen shards. The whole rear of the bridge was now open to space and a confused Hyperlight starscape beyond. Loose equipment rolled free in the aisles, and two massive canopy supports had smashed across a number of consoles. Here and there, stretcher bearers and damage-control teams picked their way through the glowing wreckage. Yet Defiant's controls appeared to be unaffected-and no change registered on her LightSpeed meters. He switched his intraship display to Ursis.
The Bear looked up grimly, then nodded and touched his forefinger to his thumb in the universal sign of satisfaction.
"Casualty report!" Calhoun ordered behind him.
"One moment, Commander,'' a voice answered. Then presently: "Fifteen starmen trapped in COMM compartment seventeen and destroyed by radiation..."