“What...”
Artemis’s words drained away as the pyrotechnic display began to shrink with fantastic speed. In minutes, the magnetic storm drained away, leaving the giant ship alone in the stellar darkness.
“I am a fool,” Kris said. She manipulated her panel, beginning a heavy scan of the distant object.
“Look over there,” Artemis said. She pointed at the very edge of the screen.
Kris didn’t look up. She was too busy reading her sensors. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing?”
“Neither can I,” Artemis said.
Something in the pilot’s voice caused Kris to look up. At the edge of the main screen was a mass of Wahhabi warships. The commander directed her sensors at them.
The vast majority of warships were Scimitar-class vessels, oblong craft with extremely long-ranged lasers. The Wahhabi Navy preferred distance battles, using speed to keep their opponents from closing. The Scimitar-class ships were a cross in size between Star Watch cruisers and destroyers.
“I’m picking up a message,” Kris said.
On the screen, the space scene disappeared. In its place, a sheik-superior appeared. He was a dark-skinned man wearing a red turban with a large diamond in the center.
“You are in Wahhabi home space,” the sheik-superior said. “You must decelerate and accept court representatives aboard your ship.”
“Is he speaking to us?” Artemis asked.
Kris was surprised the pilot asked something so obviously wrong. The monster vessel and the Wahhabi Home Fleet were billions of kilometers away in the inner system. That meant what Osprey’s sensors picked up had already taken place hours ago.
The Wahhabi commander had spoken to the giant ship.
“Your silence means we will have to attack,” the sheik-superior said. “Therefore, I urge you to answer before we are forced to initiate hostilities and destroy your vessel.”
No one aboard the teardrop-shaped ship answered.
“What’s happening in space?” Artemis asked.
Kris switched scenes so the sheik-superior vanished. Billions of kilometers away from Osprey, lasers flashed from the Scimitar-class raiders. The beams speared over one hundred thousand kilometers to hit the giant ship’s hull.
“Doesn’t it have a shield?” Artemis asked.
“The sensors show neutroium armor.”
“Meaning what?”
“The neutrons are packed side-by-side. That makes the armor incredibly dense and heavy.”
Artemis frowned. “That sounds impossible. Neutrons like that could only be in the middle of a neutron star. The armor should be highly unstable.”
“With our present science, you’re right,” Kris said. “Yet that’s what my sensors are showing: pure neutroium.”
“This is bad,” Artemis said. “The Wahhabi Home Fleet primarily uses lasers. I doubt even heavy lasers will have enough time to penetrate the neutroium.”
“Yes,” Kris said. “I imagine that’s going to be a problem for them.”
As they watched, the Wahhabis increased velocity, the fleet racing at the monster vessel. So far, the teardrop-shaped ship continued straight for Al Salam.
Kris understood the sheik-superior’s reasoning. A laser dissipated energy the farther it beamed. So, the closer a laser beamed, the stronger it was. Yet, could even close-range laser fire do anything to neutroium armor? It looked as if the sheik-superior meant to find out.
The Wahhabis had a reason for trusting in their combat lasers. Kris happened to know that Star Watch Intelligence sent their best espionage agents to Wahhabi space. The Muslim scientists constructed better lasers than anyone else. The Wahhabi Navy had better heavy-mount lasers than Star Watch did and could fire more accurately over extreme distances. Star Watch wanted the superior technology for their warships. Unfortunately, the Wahhabi secret service was also among the best.
“Decelerate,” Kris ordered Artemis. “Turn us around as fast as you can.”
“We’re leaving the star system?” Artemis asked.
“Do you think the Wahhabis can beat that ship?” Kris asked.
“Maybe.”
“No,” Kris said. “That ship has more mass than the entire Wahhabi Navy combined, maybe more mass than the entire Wahhabi Navy and Merchant Marine.”
“Then—”
“What do you think happened to Al Gaza to turn the Plutonic planet into a radioactive globe? The ship must have burned the iceoid. We have to tell High Command about this.”
“Shouldn’t we see what happens first?” Artemis asked.
Kris thought about that. It was a reasonable idea. Yet how could the Wahhabis beat that vessel? “We’ll decide once we’re near the Laumer-Point.”
The pilot glanced at Guderian, likely understanding the point. It would be wise to get ready to flee.
“Yes, Commander,” Artemis said. “You’d better inform the crew. We’re going to practice some hard maneuvering.”
In the outer New Arabia System, the Patrol frigate decelerated at emergency speeds. As Osprey did so, the neutroium-hulled super-vessel remained on course for the desert planet of Al Salam.
Time ticked away as the Wahhabis closed the distance to the invader. In an hour, Osprey was ready to reenter the Laumer-Point.
“What do you say, Commander?” Artemis asked. “Do we leave New Arabia?”
“Not just yet,” Kris said. High Command would want battle data.
“I didn’t think we would,” Artemis said. “You want to see what happens when that thing attacks just as much as I do.” Patrol officers were notoriously curious people.
Kris was too fixated on the screen and her sensors to respond. The big ship never swung around to face the Wahhabis gaining on it. Remorselessly, the monster vessel approached Al Salam. The teardrop-shaped vessel didn’t travel quickly. Rather, it moved at a leisurely pace like a space whale.
From their distant vantage point on the fringe of the outer system, Kris and Artemis watched the Wahhabi lasers beam from sixty-five thousand kilometers away. Over one hundred raider beams splashed against the neutroium hull.
Kris recorded the wattage hitting the alien armor. The power expenditure staggered her. There was a reason few people messed with the Wahhabis.
The sheik-superior didn’t use the same tactics a Star Watch admiral would have. The Wahhabis were raiders by nature, using wolf-pack tactics. Hit-and-run was their favored maneuver. Today, they hit, heading closer and closer to their adversary. Wahhabi ships didn’t have heavy hull armor. They relied on shields, speed and their long-ranged lasers. Those beams grew hotter, pouring vicious energy against the giant craft.
With this tactic and those lasers, the Wahhabi Home Fleet would have done well against a Star Watch Fleet. Against the neutroium-hulled monster—
“I’m recording some slight scorching to the alien hull,” Kris said. “I hadn’t expected the lasers to do anything against that armor.”
“The ship is ignoring them,” Artemis said. “I can hardly believe this.”
“Oh-oh, you may have spoken too soon.”
The vessel turned on its axis even as it made a slow motion swing toward the Wahhabis.
What kind of technology is allowing that spin move? Kris wondered.
At that moment, the Patrol commander got a better idea of the alien-ness of the craft. It possessed a monstrous orifice five kilometers in diameter. No weapon Kris had ever heard about had a firing orifice like that.
Her sensors went red as a massive beam speared out of the vessel. The energy in the beam was incredible. It destroyed the feeble Wahhabi electromagnetic shields. It burned through the hulls as if they were tinfoil and exploded raider after raider. Kris would never have believed such a thing possible before witnessing it herself.
The single beaming ended. The alien craft did not bother to shoot again. Instead, it began to turn back toward Al Salam.