The lead attacking ship burst into flames and was flung out of the formation. The all-or-nothing attack worked and the link between the three ships was broken. The two remaining ships, however, continued to fire slow and steady pulses with their beam weapons.
“Forward shields down to thirty-four percent, Commander,” EVE said. “Adjusting aft, port, and starboard shields to compensate.”
EVE’s reports and actions helped to put Williams’ mind at ease. The bridge wasn’t heavily staffed as helm control was tasked with navigation, guidance, and weapons. EVE was filling the role of multiple officers while her hologram stood next to Williams with her hands behind her back as if nothing was happening.
“Tolukei? What’s your status?” Williams transmitted to him.
“I’m under attack,” Tolukei replied, the sounds of explosions and weapons fire in the background.
Williams gritted his teeth. The longer they stayed put, the closer to death they got. True, they had enough firepower to do damage to the hostile ships, but it took an all-out assault to severely damage one. Keyword, damage, they didn’t destroy it.
“Tolukei, return to the Carl Sagan,” Williams said reluctantly.
Puzzled, Collins asked. “Commander?”
Williams pointed to the image of the ship that had left the battle to travel to the surface. It was returning to orbit and probably was going to enter that multi-energy-exchange attack again with the other two. They could attack, kick, and scream all they wanted but there was a high chance the Carl Sagan could receive critical damage during the next assault.
“We’re getting our asses kicked. We can’t do this. Not without psionic support,” Williams conceded.
Bright light briefly lit up the bridge as Tolukei reappeared from his teleport and returned to his post, gravity gripping onto Williams’ body once again. It was perfect timing, for the three alien ships took up a similar formation again, and began to exchange power between one another and release another continuous beam of white hot energy onto the Carl Sagan, blue waves of energy danced across the failing forward shields.
“Shields are dropping rapidly,” EVE reported. “It would appear the ship from the surface is more powerful than the others.”
Williams winced. “OK same deal; target the lead ship with everything—”
“More ships about to enter the sector,” Tolukei interjected.
Williams spun the captain’s chair around to face him. “How many?”
“Three hundred eighty-four,” Tolukei said. “ETA three minutes.”
“Well . . . shit.”
Three ships combining their firepower had the power to destroy them in minutes. Three hundred plus, there wouldn’t be much of a wreckage left in the aftermath of that battle. Williams looked about and saw the faces of everyone on the bridge, they were likely processing the grim facts that he just did.
Escape was their only option.
If Rebecca was still alive, she was on her own, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to change that.
“Get us outta here now,” Williams said.
Collins began to input an escape course into his helm controls, and asked, “What about the Captain?”
“We got thousands of colonists that just wanted to build a new home,” Williams said. “Take us out of the system, now.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Tolukei. Overshields on our aft section.”
The Carl Sagan pulled away from the planet as its shield flickered rapidly from the onslaught of the aliens’ weapons. Once clear it slipped away into a sub light speed jump while a psionic barrier was cast on the rear of the ship thanks to Tolukei’s powerful gifts. The three attacking weren’t finished with the Carl Sagan and began to chase them and briskly discharge their beam weapons. The Carl Sagan traveled at half the speed of light, the alien’s traveled faster than light, it took a whole five seconds for them to catch up. The alien ships came about and faced the Carl Sagan head-on where its shields were the weakest and didn’t have the protection of the psionic barrier.
“Oh, come on!” Williams yelled, clenching his fists.
The alien’s attacks were swift and shattered what remained of the Carl Sagan’s forward shields. Tolukei didn’t have enough time to compensate and cast a new overshield.
The bridge was exposed to direct fire and its crew felt the consequences of that. An explosion erupted and started small fires. Collins tried to force the Carl Sagan to swerve to the side to minimize what damage was coming to them. Another hit landed, forcing Williams to shield his face from the sparks and wiring that fell from the ceiling, while damaged pipes released white mist, or was it smoke? There was too much happening at once for Williams to have a solid idea.
A third explosion erupted, and it sent Collins flying backward as his terminal was turned into smoldering hunks of cables and shattered computer parts. Collins landed on the ground back first, his face covered in blood, his breathing shallow, and parts of his uniform ablaze.
Williams got up from his chair to check on the fallen helmsman. “Medic!”
“I have notified sickbay, they are on their way,” EVE said.
Williams looked at the windshield which thankfully was still in one piece, cracked in some sections, but holding together. He considered taking the helm as there was officially nobody in control of the ship. The flames and inoperative computer systems however made him think twice.
Williams faced EVE’s hologram. “Can you get us out of here?”
She nodded. “As you wish, Commander.”
EVE remotely took over all navigational control of the Carl Sagan and accomplished multiple evasive maneuvers that were preprogrammed into her AI for combat situations. With the Captain missing, their helmsman down, and the bridge slowly burning, the Carl Sagan was at the mercy of its AI and psionic.
“Tolukei, extend the overshield to cover the whole ship,” Williams said as he dragged Collins’ body closer to the exit of the bridge. “These guys are too damn fast.”
“I can do more than that.” Tolukei left his post and stepped closer to the windshield amidst the burning computers and flames. He looked at the three attacking ships strangely, as if he sensed something important, something they might have overlooked. They did. “These ships do not have mind shields.”
Mind shields were a programmable damping field installed on all ships to prevent enemy psionics from teleporting aboard, and or using their psionic power effectively. Radiance programmed their mind shields to block all Hashmedai psionics and vice versa. If the aliens before them had no mind shields, then the Carl Sagan had just gained the advantage they were looking for.
Tolukei moved his hands as if he were swatting a fly. As he did that, one of the alien ships was flung out of sight like an invisible hand picked it up and threw it away.
“Keep us still for one moment,” Tolukei said.
EVE brought the Carl Sagan to a stop. The three alien ships began to regroup and enter their deadly tri-attack formation. Tolukei’s mind reached out to the ships and forced them to move and slam into one another with his telekinetic powers. A bright explosion followed and reduced the imposing vessels into hulks of twisted metal that continued to fluctuate with tiny bolts of power.
“All targets destroyed,” Tolukei said.
“What about the other three hundred plus?” Williams asked him.
“They are still en route.”
“Let’s get out of here, maybe our show of power will make them think twice.”
EVE resumed their escape course and guided the Carl Sagan out of the Sirius B system. Both Tolukei and EVE confirmed sometime later they were not being pursued by the other three hundred plus ships behind. Williams sighed in relief then took his seat back on the captain’s chair as his mind began to calm down from the ordeal.