Chapter 89: The Sa’arm Counter

For the next three hours Zulu, Ipanema and Corsica crossed the asteroid field. Ensign Thornton watched for Sa’arm ships. Surprisingly, the few ships we noticed stayed away from our small formation. We did sense at least one larger ship making its way through the asteroid field, but it stayed more than thirty light seconds away. It appeared to be scanning some of the asteroids.

“I can’t believe we made it this far,” Captain Prescott said to me as we discussed a small course correction that Zulu was making. “I was sure the Sa’arm would turn up in numbers.”

“I’m sure they are here,” I said as I watched Admiral Redmill’s trio of corvettes dart through the asteroid field. “And that worries me. Our sensors can’t see past the asteroid field with any accuracy. If they are on the outside of that field, they can trap us.”

“They can even if they aren’t,” Captain Prescott said. “Or at least they can trap Zulu. That ship is slow on the helm and doesn’t have any defenses worth noting.”

“If we abandon our mission I think Admiral Redmill will court martial us immediately,” I said worriedly.

Captain Prescott’s only reply was to snort. I looked over at Ensign Munfree, but she just shrugged. “It’s quiet.”

I went back to watching the tracking displays. We were still looking at two more hours of travel to get Zulu into attack range. Ensign White had actually started rotating the missile crews, giving each crew ten minutes to grab a bite to eat while we waited for the Sa’arm to react.

“Contact!” Ensign Thornton shouted. I looked up and she was frantically adjusting the controls at the tracking station. “We have three formations. No its five. No, fuck, there are six formations. The smallest has seven ships.”

“You’re talking more than forty ships,” I said carefully as I looked down at my tracking display.

“It’s closer to sixty,” Ensign Thornton said. “Two emerged near where we arrived. Fortunately Kanturk Castle had already jumped out. Three more are closing on the Castle class ships.”

I could see that one group had emerged out from behind the first planet in the system. They were ahead and to our starboard side as Zulu continued to head directly at the second planet in the system.

“How big is the one in front of us?” I asked.

“Eight corvette size ships, or what we believe is the Sa’arm equivalent, since their ships are larger. They are in a circle around one that has to be their equivalent of a cruiser,” Ensign Thornton said.

“Give me a full missile spread,” I said. “Let Ipanema know. And get Zulu to increase thrust to maximum.”

“You aren’t in command,” Ensign Munfree pointed out.

“There is no way we can take on any two clusters of ships we are seeing,” I said. “I’m not sure we can even if Ipanema joins in to help. So either Zulu moves faster, or we’ll likely be forced to abandon her when the Sa’arm attack.”

“Captain, I have a message from Admiral Redmill,” Ensign Munfree called out.

“Message?” I asked.

“They’re almost a light minute behind us now,” Ensign Munfree replied. “So we can’t talk in real time with the comm systems we have. He wants us to break off and come to his aid.”

I looked at the tracking display. The other clusters of Sa’arm ships Jessica had reported were just right at the edge of the display’s borders, but I could immediately see the problem.

“Does he want Zulu to make an attack run still?” I asked.

“He doesn’t say, but his orders implied that only Corsica was supposed to turn back,” Ensign Munfree replied. “Wait ... I’m receiving a second transmission.”

I looked over at Blaine. “Let me know if Zulu accelerates. She’s been coasting at about seventy-five percent of her max.”

“Admiral Redmill is demanding that we respond,” Ensign Munfree said.

“Tracking, how soon will those three formations of Sa’arm ships overrun Admiral Redmill?” I asked.

“Hard to say. The distance makes estimating acceleration difficult. But they’ll get there long before we can, even at full acceleration,” Jessica said.

“How about the force off our starboard bow. How soon can they cut us off from our target?” I asked.

“Zulu accelerating to max,” Blaine said. “We can keep up, but we’re running the engines at ninety percent.

“Make sure you vary the acceleration. Don’t be afraid to end up ahead or behind Zulu slightly. We don’t want the Sa’arm to be able to predict where we’ll be,” I reminded Blaine.

“The Sa’arm ships ahead of us will be in firing range about ten minutes before we reach Zulu’s attack range on the planet,” Jessica said.

“Comms, start a recording,” I said firmly.

“Open,” Ensign Munfree said a moment later.

I looked out at the viewscreens that showed Corsica moving ahead of Zulu as we advanced on the planet that was our target. At the same time I took a deep breath and started speaking. “Admiral, our original orders were to get Zulu into attack range of the Sa’arm colony on the second planet of this system. There are Sa’arm ships ahead of us that will be in firing range of Zulu ten minutes before she can fire on the planet. If we break off, that part of the mission will fail. I’d also like to note that there are three formations of Sa’arm ships that will overrun your position long before we can reach you. There is no way for us to relieve you.”

“You want me to send that?” Ensign Munfree asked as I waved my hand to cut off the recording.

“Send it,” I said firmly.

“Sending,” Ensign Munfree commented. Timidity and fear tinged her words.

“Mark?” Jessica started to ask and then the ship was tossed violently.

“What the fuck!” Kelsey shouted. “Where did that come from?”

“Tracking! Find me what just hit us. Helm, evasive maneuvers!” I ordered.

“Captain, this is engineering,” Ensign Daniels voice called out. “We just took a hit near the starboard engine. My crews have it stabilized, but we need to back off thrust for a moment.”

“How long?” I asked.

“We need five minutes at no more than fifty percent thrust,” Ensign Daniels replied calmly.