“This world has been devastated by an attack from an evil that calls itself the Nikardun Destiny,” the alien said, still in that same severe tone. “We were begged by the survivors to stand guard and protect them, lest the Nikardun or other scavengers take advantage of their weakness and plunder the few remaining scraps.”
Lakinda frowned. Unless he was lying—which was certainly possible—then there were still some people alive down there. The question would be whether there were enough of them to persuade the Magys not to go through with her mass suicide plan.
But that would be Thrawn’s problem. Lakinda’s current problem was sitting rather closer to hand.
“An interesting coincidence,” Ar’alani told the alien. “As it happens, we’re here for the same reason. Perhaps we can join forces.”
“We were begged for help by the survivors.”
“Yes, I heard you,” Ar’alani said. “Can you give me the name of your contact on the planet?”
There was a sound that sounded like tearing metal. “Do you think me a fool?” the alien demanded. “I will not offer useful information to an intruder.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ar’alani said. “We were invited by the Magys. You may have heard of her.”
“What is a Magys?” the alien sneered. “A small local dignitary? My mandate arises from the planetary leaders themselves.”
“Their names?”
“I do not need to offer you any defense for my presence.”
“Their names?” Ar’alani repeated.
“Captain, the asteroid is rotating,” Vimsk spoke up. “Very slowly, but the changes in reflection from the surface stone are unmistakable.”
Getting into position to target the Grayshrike? “Ghaloksu, I need a way to disable that thing,” she said, muting the conversation between the Vigilant and the alien commander. “How do we do that?”
“I’m not sure we can, ma’am,” the weapons officer said hesitantly. “Not until the shell is open.”
“So let’s figure out how to open it,” Lakinda said. “What do we know?”
“The shards the Vigilant found at the Nikardun base didn’t have any scoring or residue,” Ghaloksu said. “That suggests the shell wasn’t blown off explosively but rather via mechanical means. The bits of metal dug into the shards suggests a spherical isokinetic framework, initially contracted under pressure around the launcher. When the pressure’s released, the framework expands violently outward, with prongs or struts attached to it pushing against the sections of the shell and shoving them apart.”
“You can see the fracture zone lines on the surface where the breakage will happen,” Vimsk added. She touched a key, and an overlay appeared across the asteroid’s sensor display image. “They’re too regular to be anything but deliberate.”
Lakinda scowled. She’d assumed the shell would be blown by shaped charges scattered around the surface, charges they could either prematurely detonate with lasers or disable with plasma spheres. But if the entire mechanism was deep inside the shell, there was probably no way to get at it from the outside. “What about command transmissions?” she asked. “Someone ordered the asteroid to rotate, and someone has to order the shell to splinter and the missile to launch. Can we jam the signals or disable the receiver?”
“We could if we knew where the receiver was,” Ghaloksu said. “Problem is, we don’t.”
“Actually, with something this size, they’ll probably have multiple receivers,” Shrent put in. “Scattered around the surface so that there would be one in range no matter what the asteroid’s position or angle was.”
And there was no way they could saturate the entire surface with plasma spheres. Even if they had enough fluid, they didn’t have enough time. “All right,” Lakinda said, gazing at the fracture line map. Vimsk was right—they were extremely regular, forming rough hexagons on the surface.
She felt her eyes narrow. Rough, small hexagons. “Ghaloksu, are those sections big enough to fire a missile through? If not, there must be an area where they’re bigger.”
“Which would mark the spot where the internal framework is more open,” Ghaloksu said, nodding. “In which case, we’ll know when it’s nearly in firing position.”
“Vimsk?” Lakinda asked.
“Setting up a search pattern now, ma’am,” the sensor officer confirmed.
“Good,” Lakinda said. “Make it fast.”
“Once we find it, what do we do?” Apros asked.
“For starters, we don’t let it get fully lined up on us,” Lakinda said, thinking quickly. Part of Ar’alani’s plan had been for Lakinda to find a way to disable and capture the hidden weapon while the Vigilant kept the larger warship busy. But she’d also made it clear that if Lakinda had to destroy the asteroid to protect her ship, she shouldn’t hesitate to do so.
Unless …
“Ghaloksu, ready all weapons,” she said. “I’m going to want lasers, breachers, and spheres, in that order. Vimsk, let me know as soon as you see something that looks like one of your larger shell sections coming around toward us. Wikivv, get ready to fire full reverse thrusters.”
There was a brief chorus of confirmations from the other officers. “As soon as one of the larger sections comes into view, we’re going to try to laser it open,” Lakinda continued. “Once we’ve got access to the inside, we’ll send in breachers to burn through a section of the isokinetic framework, hopefully messing up the expansion mechanism, followed by spheres to shut down the missile launcher’s electronics. If we do everything fast enough—” she glanced at the tactical, confirming that the Vigilant and alien warship were still squared off against each other “—and if Ar’alani can keep their attention on her, we may be able to disable it before they realize what we’ve done.”
“Worth a try,” Apros agreed. “At which point, we’ll have to hope we can take down the Battle Dreadnought before they can destroy it like they did the gunboats our last time around.”
“They won’t get a chance this time,” Lakinda told him, “because as soon as we’ve disabled it we’ll circle to the other side and take out any missiles they try to throw at it.”
Apros’s forehead creased slightly. “Sounds a little risky.”
“The admiral wants the asteroid missile,” Lakinda said. “I intend to get it for her. Any questions?”
His lip twitched, but he shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
“Then get over to Ghaloksu,” she said, nodding toward the weapons station. “He’ll be busy coordinating the attack and may need an extra set of hands.”
“Yes, ma’am.” With a nod, Apros crossed to the weapons console.
“Vimsk?” Lakinda prompted.
“Still scanning, ma’am,” the sensor officer said, leaning close to her displays. “The sections are still running the same size.”
“Captain, I think the battle’s about to start,” Shrent spoke up from the comm station.
Lakinda keyed the comm back on: “—or we will have no option but to do whatever is necessary to drive you from this system,” the alien was saying.
“Everyone look sharp,” Lakinda called. “The launch area must be coming up—they wouldn’t want to open hostilities with the Vigilant unless they were ready to take us out. Shrent, did the alien say anything useful when I wasn’t listening?”
“There were one or two things, ma’am,” Shrent said, his voice a little strained. “With all due respect, I don’t think this is the time—”