“There!” Vimsk cut in. “Larger section coming into view.”
“Ghaloksu, there’s your target,” Lakinda said. “Wait until enough of it is in range, then open fire.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ghaloksu said. “Ten more seconds should do it.”
Lakinda looked at the weapons officer’s tactical setup. He had the spectrum lasers split into groups, each group programmed to start at one of the section’s vertices and then sweep both directions along the fracture zones. By the time they’d finished with the nearest set of lines the far edge of the section should have rotated into range and be ready for the same treatment. If the zones were thin enough, the whole section should be free in five to ten seconds.
If the rock was thicker, they might still be at it when the Battle Dreadnought woke up to the danger and launched countermeasures.
Ghaloksu’s timing countdown was nearly there. “Stand by to fire,” Lakinda called. “Three, two, one.”
Through the viewport the lasers blazed out, their beams marked by slightly fuzzy glows where they ionized or vaporized the bits of gas and dust between the Grayshrike and the asteroid. The energy beams dug into the rocky surface, started their coordinated sweeps along the fracture zones—
And without warning the entire asteroid exploded, hurling shards of stone outward in all directions.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Full reverse!” Lakinda barked, flinching reflexively as several large fragments flew straight toward them. An instant later the spectacle was cut off as the viewport blast shields automatically slammed shut. There was a forward twitch of unbalanced deceleration as Wikivv threw power to the forward thrusters, trying to kill their forward momentum and send the ship backward.
But the Grayshrike was massive, and it had been moving at orbital speeds behind the asteroid, and there was simply too much inertia involved to come to a quick stop. As the compensators caught up and smoothed out the Grayshrike’s movement, the ship lurched with multiple impacts from high-speed pieces of the asteroid shell slamming into its bow and flank extensions.
“Orders?” Ghaloksu called out.
Lakinda focused on the sensor display. The asteroid’s internal framework had opened to full extension, a few bits of stone still clinging to the struts that had slammed outward and forced the shell apart. In the center of the framework, rotating faster now that it no longer had to contend with the shell’s extra mass, was the missile, its nose peeking out from the thick casing that was the launcher. “Launch spheres,” she ordered. “Wikivv, all ahead full—get us in close.”
“Launching spheres,” Ghaloksu said.
“Accelerating to close approach,” Wikivv added.
With the viewport still blocked by the blast shields, there was no direct view available. But between the sensor and tactical displays, the situation was more than clear.
Clear, and ominous. The framework hadn’t rotated completely around yet to line up the missile on the Grayshrike, which left the tighter lattice sections forming a barrier between the cruiser and the missile launcher. On top of that, the framework was still rotating. The combination of those two factors was going to make it extremely difficult for Ghaloksu to get even a single plasma sphere through any of the gaps intact.
But he was giving it his best shot. Lakinda watched tensely as sphere after sphere hit a lattice strut and exploded in a burst of ionic energy, or occasionally slipped through a gap only to miss the launcher and shoot across to explode on the framework’s other side. Peripherally, she saw that with the aliens’ ambush having failed, the Battle Dreadnought had opened fire on the Vigilant. The space between the two massive warships had erupted in laserfire and the thruster trails of missiles.
“Grayshrike, report,” Ar’alani’s taut voice came over the speaker.
Lakinda keyed her comm. “Enemy launcher open to attack,” she called back. “Engaging it with spheres.”
“Good. Make it fast.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lakinda said, frowning as the barrage of plasma spheres abruptly stopped. “Ghaloksu?”
“Launch window section of the lattice is coming up, ma’am,” Ghaloksu said. “I’m holding back until we have a clearer shot.”
Lakinda felt her stomach tighten. A clear shot at the launcher was all well and good … except that a clear sight line worked in both directions. If the launcher hadn’t been completely disabled, the missile could end up coming straight down the Grayshrike’s throat.
She took a quick look at the tactical data display. Despite the obstacles, Ghaloksu had managed to get three completely on-target impacts. Even if the launcher was still partially functional, that should be enough to at least slow it down. “Understood,” she told him. “Don’t miss.” The opening rotated into position—
And the Grayshrike’s entire forward plasma battery opened up, raining a fresh barrage of spheres at the launcher, their ion bursts creating a spectacular display of coronal fire as they spattered against the target. Lakinda watched the display, looking closely for any signs of activity. So far, nothing. “Vimsk?” she prompted
“I think we got it, ma’am,” Vimsk reported. “No electronic or electrical activity registering. It’s dead.”
“Or at least sleeping very soundly,” Apros added. “Captain, spheres are down to less than sixty percent.”
“Ghaloksu, belay sphere launches,” Lakinda ordered, looking at the display showing the distant battle. The Vigilant was still standing its ground, but if the flickers of explosions were any indication, the alien’s missiles were getting steadily closer before Ar’alani’s spectrum lasers could take them out. She keyed the comm—“Admiral, we’ve neutralized the missile launcher.”
“Good,” Ar’alani said. “Lock on a tractor beam and get over here.”
Lakinda frowned. She understood that Ar’alani wanted the launcher captured intact for study. But with the Vigilant going toe-to-toe with a Battle Dreadnought, the launcher didn’t seem like it should be the Grayshrike’s first priority. She keyed the mute—“Ghaloksu, how fast can you get the launcher free?” she asked.
“Not very, ma’am,” Ghaloksu said. “It’s tethered to the lattice with sixteen guy wires. The lasers should be able to cut them, but they’re so thin they’re going to be hard to hit. And of course, some of them are currently behind the launcher.”
“Understood,” Lakinda said, looking back at the battle. Ar’alani’s prize was just going to have to wait. “Wikivv, get us moving—full attack vector.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the pilot said, and there was another slightly uncompensated jerk as she angled the Grayshrike around the side of the lattice and threw full power to the thrusters.
“Keep us on the enemy’s portside flank,” Lakinda continued. “Better chance of sneaking up on it that way.”
“Even if they haven’t fixed the overall damage, they may still have replaced some of those sensors,” Apros pointed out. “Do you want to hit them with a sphere barrage first to knock out whatever’s there?”
“No, we’ll risk it,” Lakinda said, studying the tactical. The Battle Dreadnought was nose-on to the Vigilant, both ships attacking with their flank and shoulder weapons clusters. If the alien ship was still even partially blind on its port side, the Grayshrike should be able to get into attack range before it was spotted. “Even if the sensors are still gone, a sphere barrage will alert them that we’re coming.”