“Of course not,” the holoimage said. “For over one hundred years, we watched the Swarm advance toward our star system. Their massed fleet came at sub-light speed, heading straight for us. In their arrogance, they made no attempt to hide their approach.”
“Wait a minute,” Maddox said. “Let me get this straight. The Swarm didn’t use tramlines?”
“What are these tramlines you keep speaking about?” the holoimage asked.
“They’re wormholes, the means we used to enter your star system. How do you think we got here?”
“I’ve had enough of your senseless chattering,” the holoimage said. “The enemy is energizing his weapons. Can it be his beams have a greater range than ours?”
Maddox crouched over his screen, watching the void. As he did, three rays of light speared from the three enemy starships. The captain stopped breathing. Would Victory’s deflector shields hold?
Yes! Before the lances of light touched Victory, a shimmering substance halted them. The three beams poured energy against the ancient vessel’s shield. The rays turned that area red. As the enemy continued to beam, the color darkened, and the area grew larger and larger as the shield attempted to dissipate the energy.
“This is unbelievable,” the holoimage said. “Their beam range astounds me. The Swarm possessed nothing like this. Neither did we possess such long-ranged weaponry.”
Maddox gritted his teeth and balled his fists tight. The New Men continued to beam Victory’s shield. The starship began to tremble. It didn’t come from the strain against the shield. Rather, the antimatter engines whined so Maddox could hear the sound from the bridge. The thrumming engines shook the panels.
“The star cruisers are slowing down,” the holoimage said. “No. I need to close the distance faster. If only I had use of my primary weapons. I would smash these gadflies then.”
“How much longer will it take until we’re in neutron beam range?” Maddox shouted.
“No!” the holoimage groaned. “This isn’t possible.”
Maddox saw it on his screen. A beam speared through the blackened shield. The ray sped for the ancient starship and boiled against hull plating. Armor grew red hot. The beam dug deeper, deeper— “I am overriding the safety precautions,” the holoimage said. “There. That should fix it.”
A fierce high-pitched whine grew louder. The entire bridge shook harder than ever. The holoimage became dimmer, his words harder to hear.
On the screen, the enemy ray no longer melted outer armor. The deflector shield was no longer black, either. It had turned back to a brown color, with the three hellish beams trying to batter it back down.
“In a few more minutes we’ll be in range,” the holoimage whispered.
With pent up frustration, Maddox struck a panel. The alien shield was obviously better than anything the Commonwealth of Planets had. With even that improved technology, the lost vessel would immeasurably help the Star Watch against the New Men. How could he get the starship home was the question.
With their heavy laser beams, Star Watch battleships could have already been hammering the enemy. This short-range alien neutron weapon— Maddox sat up, blinking rapidly. How daft do I have to be? The AI spoke about a star drive. He doesn’t mean wormholes either. Could the aliens have discovered a different way to go faster than light?
An explosion shook the room. The motion threw Maddox out of his seat to sprawl onto the deck. He looked up from his spot.
“Did the antimatter engines blow up?” he asked.
“This is incredible,” the holoimage whispered. “One of the neutron chargers exploded. I’ve taken interior damage. The shield—”
Maddox scrambled to his feet, rushing to the screen. On it, he witnessed three savage beams digging into the vessel’s hull armor. Victory’s deflector shield had disappeared. Pieces of starship melted away in great globular clumps.
“Do something!” Maddox shouted.
“Yes, I will attack now,” the holoimage said. “In dying, I will strike a fearful blow.”
A supercharged purple beam lanced out of the starship. It struck the nearest star cruiser. The alien beam boiled against the enemy screen. First, the shield turned red, then brown and then black. Afterward, the neutron beam speared against the cruiser.
“Yes!” Maddox shouted. “Yes. Yes.”
Star cruiser armor blew apart as the neutron beam dug into the enemy vessel. This was fantastic. The New Men weren’t invincible after all.
“I must attempt the hyper-drive,” the holoimage said. “Otherwise, the enemy will annihilate the greatest starship in history.”
For a terrible moment, intense vertigo overcame Maddox. His eyesight failed him. He heard roaring sounds. It felt as if he left his body and exotic colors swirled around him. Then everything became quiet. It felt as if he floated in space. The next second, the roaring in his ears and a brilliant flash caused his senses to overload. He felt himself thrashing on the deck and shouting incoherently. Then, every color seemed to fly inward toward him—and normalcy returned to the bridge. It left Maddox blinking and panting on the floor. With strangely rusted muscles, he turned to the holoimage.
“What happened?”
The holoimage had frozen. It said nothing.
Painfully, Maddox climbed to his feet and checked his screen. No beams burned into Victory. He saw the void with its distant stars, and something seemed very wrong. He frowned, trying to figure out what the something was. Then he realized that he no longer saw the red giant.
What does that mean?
Ah, Maddox noticed that he still saw the red nimbus. They were still in the alien star system. Yes, he noticed several wrecks. Yet the red light seemed to come from the wrong direction, from the opposite direction as before.
“It worked,” the holoimage said.
The captain whirled around. The thing was hardly visible, but it moved. “What worked?” Maddox asked.
“The hyper-drive was a success,” the holoimage said, “although extremely limited in range.”
“We jumped?”
“I suppose that is the correct way to describe it,” the holoimage whispered. “We were there, and now we’re here on the other side of the star. The others are hunting for us with their sensors. If they move to a new position so we’re no longer hidden by the star, they will no doubt find us soon enough.”
“Hyper-drive,” Maddox said. “You can jump without having to use a wormhole. Why, this is fantastic.”
“Why do you say so?” the holoimage asked.
“You can escape the New Men. Let’s go. Let’s jump to a different star system right now.”
“No,” the holoimage said. “You are incorrect in your assessment for several reasons. Firstly, I will not abandon my home system to these primitive invaders. Secondly, the hyper-drive was badly damaged in its limited use just now. Remember, I said it was experimental in nature. The star drive has become inoperative. Instead, I will use my last robot to effect what repairs I can to ship damage. Then I shall finish the fight with these arrogant whelps.”
“I hate to say this,” Maddox said, “but I don’t think you can defeat the three star cruisers with the weaponry you have at hand.”
“Perhaps not,” the holoimage admitted. “But I cannot conceive of a better way to cease existence than fighting for what I love.”
“But—” Maddox said.
“Prepare for the final encounter, Captain. Victory is heading back toward the star, seeing if we cannot surprise the enemy.”