Chapter 8: Death Dive

Sensibly holding his pace down to a brisk walk, Rand followed the others out into the corridor. He headed for the nearby man hoist, rather than the stairs, keeping in mind Berniss's caution that he wasn't supposed to strain himself this soon. As he waited for those ahead of him to catch the man hoist's moving platforms, he scanned the space around Skryben.

It was better than he'd feared, in some ways, but worse in others. Only one Vortigen craft was close by. Much closer, and it might have been endangered by the splash of their re entry, but at least it was nearly at rest in relation to them. Even as he watched, Skryben swung about, and Rand had to brace himself against the ship's rotational forces.

"ACCELERATION WARNING! PREPARE FOR MAXIMUM ACCELERATION IN TEN SECONDS FROM... MARK!"

Rand felt heavier, then heavier still, as Skryben piled on the power. Her internal gravity tripled, going from 0.65 to two standard gravities in less than thirty seconds. The Vortigen craft's maximum acceleration was almost exactly the same as Skryben's, but the distance between the two vessels was slowly decreasing.

'... enemy craft will be within combat range in twenty four minutes and fifteen seconds from... Mark!... next jump will be twenty seven minutes and forty five seconds from... Mark!... '

'... and the next nearest?... ' Rand thought a question...

'... next closest ship will be within range, thirty one minutes and thirty seconds from... Mark!... '

He slid into his seat, his presence acknowledged by the green 'ready' light on his console, just as Captain Jeryth spoke over Skryben's communicators:

"THE NEAREST VORTIGEN SHIP WILL BE WITHIN RANGE IN EXACTLY TWENTY ONE MINUTES FROM... MARK!"

"Third Officer Korsun." Captain Jeryth's voice was as calm as though this was the most routine of training exercises. An unexpected trace of sarcasm showed only in his choice of words. "What do the latest Academy textbooks have to suggest for our next move in this kind of a situation?"

Rand was already scanning nearby space. They must have stumbled into a whole nest of the enemy. There were ships all about them! The nearest craft looked to be about the size of Skryben, a suspicion that was strengthened by the fact that its maximum acceleration was about the same as their own. A second seemed to be about the same size and power as the first, but it was farther away, and in another part of the celestial sphere. Even farther away, in almost every direction, more than two dozen ships were heading their way, with more appearing on the screens every second as Skryben's ranging pulses filled all of space around them. This was certainly no place for a lone ship of the Imperial Fleet!

"After we destroy the first ship," 'After', not 'if'. Rand rapped a knuckle against his console, while in his mind the childhood phrase, 'knock on plastic', echoed. "We should jump as soon as we reach full potential. There is a red dwarf sun about one and three quarters light years to spinward of us. If we can reach its vicinity before the Vortigen catch up to us, we can make a maximum power jump from as close to it as we dare to approach. If our approach vector is correct, our pursuers won't be able to get a precise fix on our line of departure. By the time they do catch up to us, we should have enough of a lead on them so that they won't be able to track us."

"You've been taught the dangers of jumping either to or from a point too close to a sun?"

"Yes, sir. 'Too close a proximity to a stellar mass can place intolerable strains on any physical structure.' Page 193, paragraph six of the Navigator's Manual. If we angle our approach vector to place us into a hyperbolic orbit, any ship, to follow us at all closely, will have to jump from where we would have been if we hadn't already jumped. They'll have to jump from a point that is even closer to the star than the one we choose."

"Can you plot a jump that will bring us out at the proper distance from that star?"

"No, sir. I don't know its exact distance. All that I can do is guess, and hope that I'm right. Better to come out too far away than too close. At the worst, we can make a micro jump."

"That close to a star? Very risky, but all right, if you think that you can do it."

Rand was painfully conscious of Captain Jeryth's amused scrutiny as he worked out the vectors for their next jump. At a distance of almost two light years, there was no way for their instruments to measure the precise location of the dim red star. He could only hope that it was somewhere near the center of the main sequence. He was using its brightness as his guide to its absolute magnitude, hence its actual brightness.

If it was larger than he thought, and farther away, they would land short of their goal. If it was dimmer, they could land well beyond it. If he guessed too close, they might even come out right in its lap! He didn't even know its proper motion! Which way was it moving? How fast? He only knew about where it had been, one year and nine months ago when the light Skryben saw had left its surface. Pulling the most logical figures for its present location out of thinnest vacuum, he set up his jump vectors.

'... enemy craft will be within combat range in five minutes and fifteen seconds from... Mark!... next jump will be nine minutes and forty five seconds from... Mark!... '

"CONTACT WITH ENEMY CRAFT IN FIVE MINUTES FROM... MARK! WE WILL JUMP IN NINE MINUTES AND THIRTY SECONDS FROM... MARK!"

"First Officer Tshegh?"

"All weapons systems ready, sir. Four torpedoes armed and ready. All turrets ready to fire."

"Pilot Yurtloss? You have the jump vectors from Third Officer Korsun?"

"Course and jump vectors set, sir." Rand hadn't seen Yurtloss take over the pilot's console from his co pilot, but he sat there as though he'd never been away from his post.

"Very good. Tshegh, you may fire as soon as the enemy craft is within range. Yurtloss, you will jump as soon after that as the capacitors are fully charged."

There was silence on the bridge, broken only by the distant roar of Skryben's engines pouring power into her triple banks of capacitors. The tension built, wringing Rand's nerves tighter and tighter. On the aft screen, the Vortigen ship grew larger, moving closer and closer to the invisible line that marked Skryben's extreme weapons range. No use sending off the torpedoes early, the enemy's beams would only blow them apart before they did any damage. All that they could do was wait... And wait...

Tshegh's gaze bored into the screen of his console. When to fire? When to fire? Too early, and his weapons would do little or no damage, and the enemy would be able to strike back at will. Too late, and the enemy would have already done its damage. The seconds stretched out like hours. Waiting... Waiting...

This was where their rapport with Skryben could give them a slight advantage. They knew, instantly, every datum brought in by her scanners. Not yet. Not yet! Waiting...

"FIRE!"

The Vortigen ship responded, but too late. Not by more than a fraction of a second, but that was enough of an edge for this kind of warfare! A quiver through Skryben's structure told of the departure of her missiles, and the lights of the bridge dimmed as her turrets fired their deadly beams of quasi material radiation.

Time stretched out for Rand, and he could see the torpedoes crawling slowly toward their target. Enemy beams reached out, trying vainly to swat the missiles out of existence. Other beams struck at Skryben, glancing from her shields at crazy angles. Vortigen torpedoes erupted from the flanks of the enemy craft, only to be flicked out of existence by Skryben's alert gunners.

She didn't escape entirely unscathed, that would have been too much to ask for, but whatever prayers had been offered up to Mother Galaxy didn't go completely unheard. Rand could feel the searing touch of Vortigen beams, leaking through Skryben's shields. A torpedo let go, scant hundreds of meters from her flank. The enemy...

Skryben shouted her triumph! Vortigen shields failed, as the beams from her turrets centered on their target. Torpedoes, arriving tiny fractions of a second later, found little left to destroy. The Vortigen's capacitors must have been fully charged, the energy crammed into them escaping in a wild pyrotechnic display.

Time slowed even farther as his mind merged more closely with Skryben's. Even as the fireball expanded, its jagged lightnings licking out toward their screens, Rand sent a fiercely driven thought.

'... Captain! Jump now! It'll muddy our trace... '

'... you're sure? Power? All vectors set?... '

His thought was affirmation enough. In his mind, the indicator registered enough power to take them where they had to go, with almost nothing to spare. The fringes of the explosion from the Vortigen craft washed against their screens. Another fraction of a second, and the shock wave would rock Skryben, deflecting her from her precisely computed heading. If it hadn't already. Skryben jumped...

"Jump completed." Nye Yurtloss looked dazed, as well he might. He hadn't pressed the switch that sent them leaping across the light years. Skryben had responded to Captain Jeryth's mental command, not to the pilot's console.

"Jump completed," Rand reported, his voice once more under control. "Coordinates logged into data banks."

'... where are we? How close is the star?... '

Skryben's sensors were busy. There was nothing nearby, not even a stray asteroid. Farther away, the dim red star glowed against the night, its sullen radiance filling the infra red spectrum. It was behind them, no telling how far. Rand set up coordinates for a jump at right angles to it.

"Third Officer Korsun, report!"

"Inertial guidance tracking. Capacitors one sixty fourth charged. Ready for ranging jump."

"First shift Pilot Yurtloss, report!"

"Ship heading steady. Ready for jump."

"Do it!"

"Jump completed."

"Jump completed," he reported. "Coordinates logged into data banks."

The sun was little more than a point of sullen light, still pouring out its torrent of visible and sub visible radiance. Rand compared the present view with the one taken before they jumped, giving a stereoscopic view of the star against its starry background. Skryben carefully measured angles, calculating distance from the stereoscopic displacement.

'... how far?... '

'... seventeen light minutes, and thirty seconds, plus or minus twelve light seconds... mass of sun, 0.057 solar masses... ' The play of question and answer between the minds of Rand and Skryben was almost too fast to follow.

'... minimum safe distance for jump?... '

'... one point two five light minutes... plus or minus seven light seconds... '

'... distance covered from start, 30 minutes at 2 standard gravities?... '

'... zero point one zero eight light seconds... '

"We need to jump directly toward the sun, a micro jump of sixteen light minutes," Rand reported, setting up the jump vectors even as he spoke. "That will give us a margin of fifteen light seconds, against an uncertainty of nineteen light seconds. We should jump as soon as we have enough power."

'... forty five seconds from... Mark!... '

"Third Officer Korsun, report!"

"Inertial guidance tracking. Capacitors charging. Ready for jump."

"Pilot Yurtloss, report!"

"Ship heading steady. Ready for jump."

"Do it!"

"Jump completed." This time it was the Pilot's finger on the switch that had initiated the jump.

"Jump completed," Rand echoed. "Coordinates logged into data banks."

"Position?"

Once more the scanning, the fast and accurate measurements. There was still no sign of debris orbiting this sun, but they could be well out of its plane of rotation. Even as Captain Jeryth framed the words, Skryben computed the answer.