Marphissa smiled herself and leaned back in her seat again, the very picture of poise on the outside. Inside, she felt fortunate that no one else aboard the heavy cruiser knew just how tiny were the odds of success.
But if Manticore was destroyed, she would go down fighting.
Chapter Seven
“We will be within range of the battle cruiser’s weapons in ten minutes,” the senior specialist on the bridge reported.
Marphissa waved an acknowledgment, her hand now encased in the glove of the survival suit she had donned in preparation for battle. Everyone else was wearing a suit as well. The suits were nothing like the heavy battle armor of soldiers, being just strong enough to protect a human from the dangers of space and minor physical hazards if the hull of the ship was pierced by enemy weapons. “Kapitan Diaz, is your ship at maximum combat readiness?”
“Yes, Kommodor,” Diaz replied. “All shields at maximum, all crew at combat stations, all weapons ready.”
“Good.” Marphissa took a long look at her display, trying to estimate when to act given all of the uncertainties that existed. “Order your senior software and systems specialist to transmit the snake software when we are five minutes from being within range of the weapons on Vengeance.”
“Yes, Kommodor.” Diaz passed on the order, then gestured toward his display. “This marker will indicate when the software has been transmitted. Senior Specialist Beltsios has set it to show red if the knock fails, yellow if its status is uncertain, and green when the tunneling worms send back a pulse indicating success. It will remain green as long as the malware is active aboard Vengeance.”
“Understood.” Marphissa reached out to wave an extended finger through her display. “Pivot Manticore to face Vengeance bow on.”
Diaz didn’t question that command. It was an expected move prior to combat. Thrusters fired, swinging the heavy cruiser’s bow up and over in a smooth arc until more thrusters fired to halt the swing. Manticore’s bow, carrying most of her weapons and her strongest shields, now faced the enemy even though the heavy cruiser’s velocity in the other direction had not changed. Vengeance had been overtaking Manticore from both behind and a bit above and to starboard, hanging off that flank of the heavy cruiser and growing steadily larger as the remaining distance between the two warships dwindled.
As she waited through the next minute, Marphissa wondered why, after all her time in space, it still felt odd for the ship she was on to be racing backward at such incredible velocity. As long as the ship was going forward, that felt all right. But backward? It didn’t feel right at all.
The symbol marking the status of the snake malware came to life, glowing yellow.
Marphissa kept moving her gaze from the deadly threat of Vengeance drawing ever closer to the malware marker that continued to stubbornly display a yellow hue. Was it darkening to red? No. Maybe. No.
“One minute until we are within range of the battle cruiser’s weapons,” the combat systems specialist announced with a voice that somehow remained steady.
“Kommodor?”
“Wait.”
Somewhere aboard Vengeance, a different sort of battle was being fought between weapons and defenses carefully crafted by humans from coded pulses of energy. The battle was taking place at an incredible pace as the snake software attacked and the battle cruiser’s software tried to parry and block in a fencing match at the speed of light.
“Kommodor,” Diaz said urgently, “thirty seconds before Vengeance can open fire on us.”
“Wait.” Was the color of the marker altering yet? No. Yes. Darkening? But which way?
Green.
“Kapitan! Brake Manticore’s velocity enough to quickly bring us directly astern of Vengeance, then pivot one hundred eighty degrees again and target his main propulsion!”
“Yes, Kommodor!”
Manticore’s main propulsion surged to life once more, slowing the ship this time and allowing Vengeance to overtake her more rapidly.
Marphissa could not help smiling fiercely as she thought of the scene that must be playing out aboard Vengeance. Imallye would have been preparing to give the order to unleash a devastating volley upon Manticore, only to see the heavy cruiser suddenly disappear from her display. Imallye would be screaming at her crew right now, demanding that they find out what had happened, demanding that they find out how their target had completely vanished, ordering them to—
Vengeance fired her forward-facing hell lances, a lattice of deadly particle beams that speared through space.
The salvo tore through the spot where Manticore would have been if she had not reduced her velocity, then subsequent shots from Vengeance began working their way through space farther ahead along that track.
“They think we’re trying to accelerate away from them while we’re hidden,” Diaz said with a laugh. He was wearing the same sort of ferocious grin as Marphissa.
Manticore’s main propulsion had cut off as Vengeance slid by off to starboard and slightly above the heavy cruiser like a huge shark sailing past a smaller cousin. Usually, space engagements took place at combined velocities so great that the actual combat occurred within a tiny fraction of a second when the opposing forces were within range of each other. But despite the great speed that both Vengeance and Manticore were traveling, they were going in nearly the same direction, making their relative speed as slow as that of two ground vehicles passing each other.
Diaz brought the heavy cruiser back around so she was once more facing the same direction as she was going, her bow facing toward the stern of the battle cruiser as it came into view at close range. “Main propulsion on full,” Diaz ordered. “We want time to put a lot of shots into his tail! All weapons, fire!”
Manticore unleashed a barrage from her own hell lances, launching missiles and, this close to her target, also firing the ball bearings called grapeshot. “Continuous fire!” Diaz called out. “Maintain attack!”
The battle cruiser’s stern had the weakest shields and the least armor because of the main propulsion units clustered there. The bow was always supposed to be pivoted to face an enemy. But that couldn’t be done when the enemy couldn’t be seen.
The hits registering on the stern of Vengeance were a clear sign of Manticore’s general location, however. Even though the battle cruiser did not yet have a precise target to engage, Vengeance ceased hurling hell lance shots into empty space, cut off main propulsion completely, and began firing thrusters to pivot around and face toward the attacks.
But as the battle cruiser’s bow began to swing up, the stern remained clearly in sight of Manticore. The heavy cruiser’s weapons impacted on Vengeance’s stern shields with brilliant flares of light that blazed and faded with every blow as the merciless barrage continued. Marphissa, checking the time, was startled to see that barely a minute had passed since Manticore opened fire. For those used to typical microsecond-long firing engagements, this one felt incredibly prolonged.
“Enemy shields are almost down,” the combat systems specialist reported.
“Their turn rate is increasing, but we’ll still be able to hit his stern for another two minutes before it swings out of our line of sight. How much longer do we have before Vengeance can see us again?” Diaz wondered, his eyes locked on his display to monitor the attack.