Chapter 352

Selina and Diana's Mission

Time drifted on as they made their way through the outskirts of the debris field nearest the clear channel while heading away from the planetoid. "So far, the enemy appears not to have mined the channel," Selina commented as she began to relax.

The sentence was barely out of her mouth when the alarms went off.

"Shut off the noise," Diana snarled out as the flare of a drive showed on their rear screens. "And that is..." she asked the AI, unnecessarily.

"A mine under heavy acceleration," it responded even as she was speaking.

"Bring us into the clear channel and go to maximum speed," Selina said so quickly it sounded as if she and the AI were stacking their sentences.

"Initiating," the AI responded as their course changed and the debris began to blur past as the intelligent computer piloted them clear of the fringes, straightened out into the open path and went to maximum speed with the inertialess drive.

"Can we outrun it?" Diana asked the AI.

"Computing," it said, then after a few seconds. "I am still uncertain. The mine had to start from rest relative to the asteroids it was hiding behind. With our inertialess drive, we were able to go to maximum speed almost instantly, while it has yet to reach its maximum. Until it does, I can only estimate what its top velocity will be, and that will be a function of how much fuel it has on board to continue its acceleration. Normally, mines have a short run-time, but this is obviously a deep space mine, therefore anything I estimate at this point will only be conjecture since I am not familiar with this type of mine."

Selina hated to ask, but while trying to keep her voice normal, she inquired, "Is it nuclear?"

"Affirmative, Commander."

"Oh, shit," got past Diana's lips despite her having tried to clamp her mouth shut.

"How much acceleration?" Diana asked.

"Basically, one hundred gravities, although that is fluctuating somewhat. The mine's drive appears to be operating at absolute maximum. I also do not detect any evidence of inertial dampers – at least any that appear to be highly efficient."

"Assume that the mine can maintain one hundred gravities of acceleration indefinitely. How long to intercept?"

"Point to point, twenty one minutes and ten seconds, but I might remind you that with its payload, it does not have to intercept to annihilate us. However, the exact distance remains vague since I am unable to determine the size of the nuclear device it carries."

"Does it have other weapons?" Diana asked, dreading the obvious.

"I am unable to determine that at this distance, but I might remind you that the enemy has frequently equipped its mines with pulse lasers."

"Shit," Diana mumbled, "I forgot about that."

"Magnify the image," Selina ordered.

A small, jiggly image appeared on the rear screen, flanked by the flare of its drive.

"Crap, it looks like a small asteroid," Diana hissed out.

"Indeed, it is well camouflaged," Selina agreed. "And lying dormant, it would be hard to discover, but how did it detect us?" she asked the AI. Before it could answer, she went on, while glancing at her Second. "We were operating with an energy output beyond what our stealth could hide," she finished. Then with an additional frown, "I suppose this means that the base's security is now aware that we are present?"

The AI did not respond to Selina's question, immediately, rightly assuming it had been rhetorical. But after a moment, "It is logical to assume the mine has alerted the base," the AI agreed as Selina's look changed to a glare at her Second.

But Diana was not chastised in the least, and responded with, "Then there is no reason we can't warp out as soon as we are in a large enough empty space."

"We have violated our orders," Selina responded, her voice tight.

"I don't think it will matter in another half hour," Diana returned as she nodded to the countdown timer running in the top right corner of the main screen.

"Indeed, it might not," Selina said, trying to keep her voice calm. "If that mine catches us, secrecy will not matter, at least to us, but the aliens will surmise that we were the cause of the catastrophic event at their hidden base. This was supposed to remain an entirely secret mission to protect the new technology. Now they are aware that their enemy is leaving the area of their base. Should they find the device before it initiates..."

" ... then they are going to have one hell of a surprise. If it detects anything entering that crevice, it will initiate instantly," Diana responded. "Commander, I'm telling you they are all going to be dead."

"As we will be if that mine intercepts us," Selina returned as she pointed to the rear screen where the image of the mine was now slightly larger, although still under maximum magnification.

Time moved onward and the mine gained on them faster than they had hoped for. "Run out of fuel, you bastard," Diana snarled out.

"It is obviously a deep space mine," Selina responded logically. "It will have sufficient fuel to perhaps continue the chase across the system. And remember, it does not have to catch us, but merely come within range of its nuclear device."

"Screw this," Diana said, bringing her weapon console on line. "Let's give the bastard something else for its evil little mind to chew on."

"But we are out of effective..." Selina began as Diana narrowed the beam and fired a maximum pulse. A second later, the mine abruptly altered its course into a zigzag pattern.

Diana was grinning from ear to ear. "I might not be able to hurt it much at this distance, but it's using up more fuel to avoid my weapon."

Their AI dodged aside before Diana's comment was out of her mouth. "It has a pulse laser on board," the AI said, unnecessarily.

"Can our shields withstand a direct hit?" Selina asked.

"At this distance, affirmative, but each rapid hit will weaken them. It is better to avoid the laser, if possible."

"Firing on it may not have been the best idea," Selina commented.

"And let it sneak within range before we knew for sure if it had other weapons?" Diana asked/said. "Besides, it takes a lot less energy for an inertialess ship to dodge than it does for one without an inertialess drive."

"Go to evasive action plan 1..." Selina began.

" ... B," Diana inserted, changing from the A that Selina was going to say. At Selina's frown, the Second went quickly on. "Respectfully, Commander, we have already discussed this."

Selina sighed, "Evasive action plan 1-B. Initiate," she told the AI, then to Diana, "I know. I am too logical and the mine's AI will soon anticipate my plan."

"Maneuvering under plan 1-B, initiated," the AI answered as the little ship began its dance.

A few minutes later, the AI announced, "Near miss to starboard." Then a couple of minutes later, "Much wider miss, this time to starboard again." A few more attempts and the mine stopped firing for the moment.

Diana sat watching for a pattern in the mine's movement, then fired four pulses in a block pattern. After a short lag, the image of the mine flared in the rear screen. "Got your ass," Diana crowed.

"But you did not damage it..."

"But I might have damaged its communication array," Diana returned. "If I have, then the base will probably think it has exploded and annihilated us."

Selina sat watching the screen before answering. "Doubtful that they would detect the explosion at this distance with all the debris shielding the bomb flare, and they would, of course know that. They might well expect the mine to have annihilated us when they cannot contact it."

"And ... we get to harass the bastard a bit," Diana said as she fired off another bracket of pulses, again scoring a hit. "The bastard is easily predictable. If our laser had a little more power, I could end this now."

Then, "How long until the mine is within range?" Diana asked the AI.

"If you are referring to the detonation of its nuclear device, again, I must know the destructive power of the device..."

"Guess," Diana snarled.

The AI hesitated. "By assuming past mine technology the aliens have used, and therefore also assuming approximately half the mine's size is taken up by its propulsion system and the energy required to sustain that system for twice the length of time it has now been operating, I would estimate it would have to be within ten miles of our craft for the hard gamma radiation to override our shields and, uh ... affect the two of you. With that assumption in mind, my estimation of intercept is slightly more than seventeen minutes if the mine does not run out of fuel before then. But, I warn you, this mine is far from identical to the alien mines in my database, therefore, there could be variances I have not considered."

"Well, I did tell you to guess," Diana responded as she fired off another group of pulses that narrowly missed the mine, causing it to veer violently from its course.

"It could be within range before our device initializes," Selina remarked as if to herself.

"Find us an area free of this friggin' asteroid crap so we can warp out," Diana demanded of the AI.

"I cannot detect a place large enough at the moment," the AI protested.

"Then up our drive by ten percent and let's outrun the mine," Diana responded, reasonably.

"Might I remind you that we are currently operating at maximum," the AI answered as if talking to a child. "Increasing the power beyond specification limits might well have catastrophic results.

Diana turned away from her lasers long enough to glare at the AI's visual pickup. "Are you telling me that the engineers who designed this vessel didn't build in a desperation factor – a fudge factor? Increase the power to our drive by ten percent."

"I apologize, Second. That order must come from the commander of the vessel."

"I..." Selina began.

But Diana interrupted. "I was told that the developers had to be on the check ride of any vessel they helped to develop. Granted, I've only met a couple of the development gurus, but the ones I did meet didn't impress me as being foolishly brave, and that is an understatement. The check ride would have been at one hundred percent power for much of the test run. You can bet the eggheads would have put in a ten percent fudge factor to cover their asses – at a minimum."

Selina sat thinking for a moment before, "Increase power to our drive by ten percent over maximum."

"Affirmative, Commander," the AI responded even as they heard the sound of the drive change.

Out the corner of her eye, Diana saw Selina cringe, before she quickly regained her composure.

After two full minutes of silence, punctuated only by the new high-pitched whine of the drive and Diana's muttering as she harassed the deep-space mine, Selina addressed the AI. "Is the mine still gaining?"

There was another long pause, before the AI answered with, "It too has increased power to its drive, but ... the drive appears to be fluctuating badly. However, the distance between us is no longer decreasing, but ... the distance is not increasing, either."

The deadly race continued as the countdown for the device neared. "Ten seconds," Selina announced even as Diana sent yet another well aimed blast of laser fire toward the persistent mine. "Die, you bastard," the Queen snarled.

" ... five, four, three, two, one... time," the AI announced. Since they were several light minutes away, there was a delay until the visuals from the pickets began coming in, and with the visuals came a jolt as the result of the increased gravity due to the experimental gravity mine having initiated. It was a good thing the women had left a string of the pickets, because they were being destroyed as well as the planetoid and the fleet. They watched as the back of the mile-long dreadnought broke, the giant ship folding in half before it, along with its escorts, fell toward the dark nothingness the planetoid had become.

"Our speed has slowed by thirty percent and is continuing to decrease," the AI announced.

"What about the mine?" Diana snarled out even as she hit the mine again and again with her weapons.

"It..." but the AI hesitated when the rear screen blanked for a second as the nuclear device detonated. Their shields flared, but held.

"Was that my weapon fire, desperation, an overloaded drive, or did the sudden gravity affect the mine in some way?" Diana asked the AI.

"I ... do not have sufficient data, but ... the gravity mine's effect has far outlasted the time estimated by the engineers," it offered.

"No, shit," Diana whispered. Then to Selina, "I told you that engineer was worried. Now if we can just find a place free of enough debris in the next few minutes..."

"I am searching," the AI quickly answered. "And our speed is down by another ten percent and is continuing to decrease."