“Good boy,” Nathan commended Josh. “You’re getting inside his turn.”
“Contact is reducing speed, trying to tighten his turn.”
“Stay with him, Josh. How’s the target’s shields, Kaylah?” Nathan asked.
“No change sir, still at one point five kilometers.”
“Set your distance from target to one kilometer, Abby.”
“One kilometer, aye.”
Nathan smiled slightly, noticing that Abby was beginning to sound more like a bridge officer each day.
“He’s launching missiles again,” Jessica reported from tactical. “Four more. Still no nukes.”
“Time to impact?”
“Four minutes. Looks like he can only launch them forward. They’ll take a little longer to reach us. They have to make their turn first.”
“That’s okay,” Nathan said. “In one minute, we won’t be on his tail any longer.”
“Contact is reversing his turn!” Jessica reported.
“Come back to starboard, Josh. Keep pointed slightly off his starboard side.”
“Yes, sir,” Josh answered as he reversed his turn to starboard.
“Abby?” Nathan asked, wondering if she was ready to jump.
“Ten more seconds,” she pleaded. “I had to update for his turn.”
“Don’t bother with a countdown, Abby. The word jumping will do.”
Abby watched as the progress bar on the transition plot calculations screen passed through ninety-six percent, ninety-seven, ninety-eight. Come on, she thought. The progress bar showed complete and the screen displayed the phrase Transition Plot Locked. “Jumping!” she announced as she hit the button.
The bridge again filled with the flash of the jump.
“Jump complete!” Abby announced, a wave of relief washing over her.
“He’s reversed his turn again!” Jessica yelled from tactical.
Nathan looked at the main view screen. They had jumped to a position only slightly astern of the Yamaro and just off her port side. They were considerably closer than one kilometer, and were only a few meters below the enemy warship at best. “Pitch down! Hard to port! Fire all guns!”
“Oh shit,” Josh mumbled as he pushed the Aurora’s nose down sharply, diving underneath the Yamaro as she moved over them from right to left. As soon as he knew they weren’t going to smash into the enemy ship’s underside, he leveled off his pitch maneuver and turned hard to port to try and match the Yamaro’s turn.
Nathan looked up at the portion of the view screen that was directly overhead. As the Yamaro passed within a few meters of them, he was pretty sure that if he understood their language, he could’ve read the lettering on one of the access panels on her external hull.
“A bit more roll, Josh,” Jessica called out, not bothering to waste time going through Nathan. “I need a better angle to get the starboard guns on him.”
Josh also didn’t wait for Nathan, rolling the Aurora slightly more to port in response to Jessica’s request.
Their speeds almost equal, the Aurora eased ahead of the Yamaro ever so slightly. “Watch your speed, Josh. Let’s try to keep our guns on him as long as possible.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Abby, tell me you’re already plotting an escape jump.”
“From the moment I said jump complete,” she assured him.
“When the time comes, we’re going to break to starboard and run,” Nathan announced for the benefit of both Josh and Abby.
They all watched the upper portion of the main view screen as their rail guns ripped apart the underside of the Yamaro. As close as they still were, pieces flying off the enemy’s underside occasionally struck the Aurora as well.
“He’s turning tighter than us,” Jessica reported. “He’s starting to pull away. Range fifty meters and increasing.”
“Stay with him, Josh,” Nathan ordered.
“I’m trying.”
“Why isn’t he firing back at us?” Nathan asked Tug. They had already had their guns on them for over ten seconds, more than three times as long as on their first pass.
“His guns can’t target anything this close. They never expected a ship to be able to get inside their shields.”
“What about his fighters?”
“He can’t launch them while he’s maneuvering. It’s too dangerous. Besides, as long as you can still go to your maximum sub-light velocity, or jump, his fighters won’t be able to catch you. He needs to slow you down first.”
“And we won’t stay in one place long enough for him to hit us.”
“Correct.”
For a moment, Nathan felt that he was doing pretty good. But only for a moment.
Suddenly, the Yamaro began losing speed, and she quickly disappeared from the view screens as the warship slid behind them.
“Target is braking hard!” Jessica reported.
Nathan stood suddenly from his command chair. “You’re over-shooting-”
“Firing braking thrusters,” Josh reported.
“Range to contact, one kilometer!”
“Shit, she’s moving away too fast,” Nathan declared. “Helm hard to starboard, full speed ahead! Abby, emergency jump as soon as you’re ready!”
“Range to contact, one point five kilometers!” Jessica updated.
The ship began to vibrate and hum, with several systems shorting out and throwing sparks.
“We’re passing out of his shield bubble, sir!” Kaylah added.
The Aurora began to shake violently as the Yamaro’s main gun batteries began to pound their hull.
“Josh, zero thrust, pitch over and show them our belly!”
Feeling guilty for having let the enemy ship slip away from them, Josh followed orders without hesitation, even though he didn’t really understand why.
“I can’t get any guns on him at this angle,” Jessica warned.
“I can’t afford to show him our tail,” Nathan protested. “If he takes out main propulsion, we won’t stand a chance.”
“Jumping!” Abby yelled. Nathan felt a wave of relief wash over him as the room filled with the light from the jump. The sounds of the explosions that had been rocking the ship were suddenly gone, leaving only the sounds of comm-chatter and condition alarms from the various consoles.
“Jump complete,” she reported a moment later.
“Damage report,” Nathan ordered.
“Lost three of the four aft rail guns. And engineering reports the number four main drive thrust port is damaged and offline. Maximum sub-light velocity is now estimated at half light.” Jessica looked up from her console. “Other than that, mostly just outer hull damage.”
“A few of the aft emitters aren’t answering, Captain,” Abby added. “But since we did successfully jump, they are either working but not reporting, or nearby emitters were able to compensate.”
“But we can still jump, right?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” she answered, “and we still have more than eighty percent charge.”
“What’s our position?”
“About one light minute out,” Jessica reported. The Yamaro is at our eight o’clock.
“Josh, take the main drive to one percent thrust and come about, slow and easy.”
“One percent thrust, coming about.”
“Kaylah, his shields?”
“Give me a minute, sir. I’ve gotta wait for the light to catch up.”
“Medical, bridge,” Nathan called over the comms.
“Medical,” the voice answered.
“This is the captain. How is Commander Taylor doing?”
“She’s in surgery now, Captain. Would you like me to check on her condition for you?”
Nathan could hear the sounds of chaos in the background. Although they had only taken a few injuries thus far, Medical had already been overflowing with patients.
“No, thank you. Please let us know when there is news.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nathan clicked off the comm.
“She’ll be all right,” Jessica softly assured him.
“Yeah.”
“Captain,” Kaylah called, “the enemy ship has pulled in their shields. They’re at one hundred meters now, and contoured to his basic hull shape.”
“We can’t jump inside of that,” Nathan said. “That’s way too close.”
“True,” Tug agreed. “But it’s also too close for him to launch his fighters.”