Stanton walked to the bridge's engineering interface console and activated an intercom to speak to his technicians several decks below near the underbelly of the ship. "Hey boys, I need you to do exactly what I say exactly when I tell you to do it. You're off by a split second, we're dead. Hell, if you're right on the money we might be dead any way."
Lori stared at her husband who stood in the command platform plugged into the gizmos and gadgets that made the ship go. She saw a determined, stubborn expression on his face. She was proud of him again…
…High overhead of the Excalibur, the remaining Witiko Stingray fell down through the clouds diving toward its gigantic opponent as if it were a bird of prey. Its talons-its main laser-charged. The ship shook with energy. And when the dreadnought filled the front windshield a bright and deadly beam of energy ripped across the Steel Plus hull, peeling away another layer and sending yet another plume of smoke and fire from the beast.
Chancellor D'Trayne sat behind the helmsman and weapons officer strapped into a high backed chair with a smile beaming from his silver face.
His pilot pulled the ship from its dive mere meters above the damaged human vessel. The hawk ascended skyward with impunity, knowing the enemy could mount no defense. It was only a matter of time before one of these strikes provided the fatal blow…
…"Now! All stop! Starboard thrusters at maximum! Port side thrusters rotate one-hundred eight degrees and ignite! Stanton, tumble the generators!"
Brett Stanton stood at the engineering console observing a display of the Excalibur' s position. He shouted desperate instructions to his engineering teams via the intercom: "Rotate the force projection 20 degrees…a little more…keep up with it…watch our belly…another five degrees…more…more…"
Lori stood near the bridge entrance and felt her stomach flutter. Suddenly she felt lighter; or no, she felt as if her head was pulled in one direction, her feet another. She grabbed the edge of a console as she realized…realized…
"The ship! It's turning!"…
…The Empire's flagship stopped its forward progress and the massive vessel twisted in a slow-motion barrel roll; a maneuver seemingly impossible for something so large. The tower tipped and rolled over. The bottom side slowly became the top.
Gravity knew no direction inside the Excalibur. Lori Brewer seemed to float first toward the floor above, then the ceiling below. She felt a wave of nausea in her belly as her equilibrium was stretched and pulled like taffy.
She glanced toward Jon. He remained in the command module gripping side rails and focused on monitors. She heard Stanton cough then yell, "We're losing altitude! The generators can't output full power in this direction..!"
…The Stingray reached its attack height, slowed, and pivoted about to face down in preparation for another easy assault on the defenseless ship. And while the killing of the Excalibur would take many more such runs, D'Trayne found himself enjoying every strike, as if each wound he inflicted provided a small measure of satisfying revenge against those who had toppled his kingdom in California.
The alien ship descended. Its laser charge. It cleared the thin veil of clouds.
D'Trayne's smile faltered. Something appeared different about his prey. He saw a series of drum-like protrusions; he did not see the bridge or even the streams of smoke from the damage they had inflicted; he saw two glowing balls of light…
…The belly boppers fired in a wide spread. Two massive globs of energy spat skyward, enveloping the Chancellor's ship and melting it to scrap in a flash. Secondary explosions went unseen within the blinding fury of the Excalibur's wrath.
Yet even as it obliterated its foe, the fire from the great ship hastened its fall from the sky: the ocean grew closer and closer…
…"Firing thrusters! Tumble those generators!" Jon yelled his commands but kept his eye on the altimeter. Seven thousand…Six thousand five hundred…Six thousand feet.
The gravity field warped and spun again. Loose objects-from pens to clipboards to coffee mugs-fell and clattered. Crewmen vomited from the flexing gravitational field. Sparks flew, equipment tugged in ways never foreseen, wires stretched, and consoles felt stress in unexpected directions.
Jon muttered, "C'mon…catch it…catch it."
Stanton shouted at his technical teams.
The ship slowly righted its position. The bridge swung to the top side once more. The massive anti-gravity generators returned to the bottom. Yet the Earth kept pulling.
Five thousand feet…four thousand five hundred feet…four thousand feet…
The horizon straightened. The anti-gravity generators fired at full repulsion power. A heavy jerk shook everything onboard the flagship as if they had fallen on top of an invisible wall. The drop of the ship slowed. Three thousand feet…two thousand seven hundred and fifty feet…two thousand five hundred feet…holding. Jon Brewer collapsed to one knee inside the command module. Gasps of relief echoed around the bridge. "Well," Stanton spoke for everyone. "I sure don’t want to do that again anytime soon.." — "So now what?"
Lori asked a fair question. They managed to talk their way around the Chrysaor then fight their way through the Witiko's Stingrays with the added bonus of sending Chancellor D'Trayne to whatever deity his race worshipped. Now they moved across the Atlantic Ocean northeast of New Jersey with black smoke rising from wounds to the hull, most weapons systems out, and no way of knowing where to head next.
Jon Brewer ignored his wife's question for the moment and leaned over Gordon Knox who slept quietly in one of the beds sprouting from a gray wall in sick bay. Other beds were also occupied, mainly by members of Stanton's technical crew who suffered falls and throws while executing Jon’s gambit.
"How is Gordon?"
Ashley sat at the foot of the bed where she had kept watch over the former Director of Intelligence since their arrival.
"He's stable. Bleeding has stopped, the bullet still seems to be lodged in there but that won't change until surgery. For now, though, he looks like he's going to make it, but he probably won't walk again."
"So what now?" Lori repeated.
Ashley said, "Jon, we have to find JB. They took him somewhere."
Lori spoke at the same time, "With this ship you have to be able to find where they took him. I mean, what is this thing good for?"
The General raised his hand to silence the two and calmly relayed, "We're in pretty bad shape right now. We've got fires burning on some decks because we don't have damage control parties on board to fight them. The Witiko hit our engines, our defenses, and the structural integrity of the whole thing. We have no choice but to move slow."
Lori asked, "But you followed the course of that ship or whatever the radars tracked before Trevor's assassination, right?"
"Yes. But this is a crap shoot. We followed that lead because it's the only one we've got. It might be nothing."
He saw Ashley's eyes widened and her lips tense.
Jon added, "But we're going to start a detailed search of the area. We've got a bunch of trainee pilots as well as Hauser and Eagle One onboard. I'm going to send them out. They've got radar and we even have a few sonar buoys. We're going to get them going within the hour." Ashley relaxed as much as a mother with a missing child could relax. A nearby intercom rang and Woody Ross' voice called, "General Brewer, contact the bridge." Jon stepped to the wall mounted device, punched in an extension number, and answered, "Yeah Bear, what is it?" "We've got surface contacts. Three ships closing fast."
The General felt an instinctive shiver along his spine. He knew the Excalibur was in no condition to fight another battle. However, the very fact that these contacts were detected meant they were not Witiko ships.
"Hang on, General," Ross added. "I've got identification. They're subs. Barracudas. Ours. Three of them closing on the surface."