Chapter 1: Alert

Deep below the surface in a long forgotten room electrons moved, photonic gates opened, and quantum processors played some dice with the universe. The ancient machine hovered at the brink of awareness...

[resuming ... base functions online ... sensors active ... scanning ... scanning ... negative ... sleep mode resuming... ]

Alarm klaxons screamed out an alert and the floor seemed to fall away from under the console chair. Tarra gulped as her stomach tried to escape out the wrong way.

"Didgi, silence that alarm and start repairs on the inertial dampers. That last maneuver leaked through badly," she said.

The alarm abruptly stopped. A deep clanging noise rung out from the decks far below the bridge.

"Don't you want to know what the alarm was for?" Didgi inquired.

"I know what it was for, we've lost atmosphere on decks five and six, FTL is out and one fourth of the aft shields are toast." Tarra growled as she pointed at the ship's status display. "Now stop bugging me with audibles unless one of the weapons systems or propulsion systems is failing." She glanced at the holo-table that showed the surrounding space around the Didgeridoo and made some quick calculations.

"Didgi, come around to heading 270, mark 5 towards this point. Give me full speed just shy of where the inertial dampers are leaking. Target their center shields with the anti-proton lance and fire when ready. Follow that with the plasma cannon at full repeat cycle until their shields are down then traverse aft." A bead of sweat formed on her brow as she gripped the arms of the support chair.

The conventional space drive did not create inherent velocity so it was possible for the ship to stop suddenly and change course immediately. The Didgeridoo spun on its axis and abruptly changed course on the new heading. The pursuing ship moved to intercept and closed the distance. Strong ship-based particle beams shot out from it just missing the Didgeridoo which changed course quickly to avoid the next salvo.

The AP lance stabbed out and the enemy ship's shields flared and died. Plasma bolts ripped across the intervening space from the Didgeridoo and started blasting holes in the ship's armor.

"I read a ship coming out of stealth just ahead. It looks pretty big," Didgi's voice interjected over the screen showing the weapon hits.

Tarra shot a look at the holo-table and her voice caught in her throat. The size indicator was larger than any she had seen. "That's a dreadnought class ship! Something that big can't have stealth shields that good. What the devil?" Tarra's anger caused the skin over her breasts to flash a bright livid yellow. Her chameleon chromatophores quickly changed color back to their normal light brown.

"Multiple missile launches detected, impact in 38 seconds. There are 256 inbound tracks identified. Countermeasures are active. They won't be enough Tarra," Didgi's voice remained calm.

"Understatement of the damn year," Tarra's voice cracked in her frustration and irritation. She watched the inbound missile tracks on the holo-table as many, but not enough, of them winked out as the Didgeridoo's anti-missile point defenses neutralized them.

Just before the tracks converged on the small form of the ship on the holo-table, it went blank. The bridge's status screens blinked once and all indicators went to normal.

Tarra sat back in the command chair, let out a breath and then spun around to glare at James. "Satisfied?" she asked, "Once again you found yet another way to kill me."