Chapter 13: Spectators at a Bull Fight

Just then the AI started to sound an alert. "We have ship entry jump points forming."

"One or two," James shouted as he stood up, carefully lifting me up and setting me down as he did.

"Three," the AI stated. "One is along the vector leading to Borneo. The other two ships jumped from within Sa'arm controlled space."

My master barely paused. "Tyson, Linus, to the gun controls. I'll take laser one, gunners, get to the laser chambers and suit up. Tam, Tif, get to the command center and get us information."

Everyone was immediately in motion. James was one of the first out. Janice and I dashed after him. Behind, I could hear Yvette giving additional orders.

I caught up with James at the airlock leading to the laser room. Tyson followed us in. "Well, I guess we're now getting some excitement," he said.

My master said nothing, only nodded as the door to laser one opened. We all dashed inside, Janice and I sprinting to the armor rack to pull out my master's battle armor. He sprinted to the armoring chair as Tyson began cycling the weapon.

"I've got tracking fully up," Tamara said. "The Confed ship isn't a corvette, the jump pattern isn't right. Probably a battlecruiser."

"What about the other ships?" James asked as Janice tossed the armor undergarments at him.

"I don't recognize the patterns at all," Tamara said. "I don't think they are hive spheres, but they are bigger than the scout we saw when we were first visited. They will emerge in ten. The Confed ship in about four."

My master had removed his regular garments and was slipping the armor undergarments on. The pants went on smoothly, but the stiff shoulders of the shirt were giving him trouble. I was going to alert Janice when Kitty and Cleo dashed in. They rushed up to James and started pulling the armor down.

"Fred's already getting his armor on," Kitty said. "We saw Brad and Debby rushing this way. They said they will get into armor as reserve."

"Good," James said, as the finally got the shirt settled. He stood up and accepted the first armor plates.

The next few minutes passed in a series of grunts and groans as Janice, Kitty, Cleo and I brought over pieces of armor and helped James put them on. We worked at a frantic pace, but I had no idea how fast until I carried over the helmet.

"I've got a clear signal from the Confed ship," Tiffany shouted. "It's Freya."

Tyson whistled. "Wait, a Goddess Class arrived here with working communications?"

James and Tyson both laughed. My master was activating the seal test on the armor. So far everything had gone smoothly. In the corner of my eye I could see Kitty and Cleo collapse at the front of the armor rack, gasping for breath.

"Good communications, and reporting no damage," Tiffany said. "Commander Tanya Walker reports that she jumped here after a raid at Wolf three-six-seven. She took the ship a bit too deep into the system."

"So she could have fought her way out, or jumped here," James said with a nod. The seal test display had come up all green and he was now relaxing in the chair, his helmet on his lap.

"Exactly," Tiffany responded. "She was going to ask for one day of rest for her crew, but..."

"I have a good scan on the Sa'arm vessels. The Confed calls them Volturnus class. They outmass Freya by quite a bit," Tamara said.

"Don't worry," a new voice called out. It was silky, feminine and confident. "My einherjar will take care of them."

"Your what?" Tiffany called out over the comm.

The response was a laugh. It was a silky, feminine and smoky laugh full of amusement. "I have forty feisty fighters sitting in hamster balls running around the surface of my ship. In myth Freya led the valkyries in choosing valiant warriors to take to Valhalla. Those warriors joined the einherjar. I figured my gun crews deserved the name."

"Damn, I have to meet the owner of that voice," Tyson said quietly. Cleo stomped over to him and smacked him on the arm. He swept her onto his lap as he continued to check the laser function.

"Freya is turning to engage the Sa'arm ships," Tamara called out.

"Tyson, how's the laser looking?" James asked.

"All green and ready to fire," Tyson said. "I've ghosted the main tracking to see where the Sa'arm are. Right now they are still too far for a reasonable shot. We need to allow them to come closer before we send the lasers up."

"I concur with that assessment," Linus said. "You might manage to hit them from this distance, but even if you did, damage would be minimal."

James nodded. Just then the silky voice broke through. "Einherjar, it's time to earn our pay again. Aesir team, you get target one, Vanir, you have target two. Thanes help as you can. Jarls are on defense."

There was silence for a moment. Then we could hear soft chatter in the background. I tried to make it out, but Tiffany interrupted it. "James, we can hear Freya's tactical frequency. Do you want me to route that through the loudspeakers?"

"It will be like listening to every player on a football field," James said with a groan. "Do it anyway. We might get an idea of what we need to do."

"Medical is up," Shawna said, cutting in.

"Teleport room is functional," Terrence said. "Please note that Freya is too far for me to perform a teleport draw. They'd have to have power for me to grab anyone."

"You won't need it," the silky voice commented. "Now I don't know who does what on your little planet, but please only chatter if it's part of the fight. The Einherjar need the channel."

"Understood," Tiffany said. "James, I've sent a pulse to Borneo to alert them. No response so far."

"Keep me posted. I'm on standby at laser one."

I was going to say more, but Debby burst in followed by her concubine Orlando. He walked over to the armor rack, but then paused, confused, so Janice and I began to help him. We concentrated on that for the next few minutes.

"The Volturnus ships are launching missiles at Freya," Tyson reported. "Long range, but even at this range I count at least sixty missile traces."

Just then the speaker started squawking loudly.

"Jarl Three, you've got port side high. Four and Seven back up Three. Two, take port low, Six will support. Eight you have starboard high."

"All Thanes cluster at the bow, I want a wall of particle beams when the missiles first are in range."

"Aesir, target one is breaking to port, probably going to try to set up a broadside. I want it to glow as soon as we can range on it."

"ECM activating in three ... two ... one..."

"ECM burst. Twenty missiles have lost lock, repeat two zero have lost lock."

"Fire as soon as a missile is in range, we only have time for four shots before they hit us."

Activity in the laser room paused. We looked over at Tyson who counted missiles on his small tracking screen, counting off each one destroyed. He got down to ten and then sighed and sat back. "They just got all ten at once. Sixty missiles and not one got through."

"And Freya is a new ship," James said. "I think she's got to be on her first or second patrol."

I wanted to ask more, but Tyson sat up again. "More missiles from target two, looks like twenty this time. Target one has been closing, they should be in range of Freya's weapons in thirty seconds.

The speaker continued to squawk a constant litany of comments.

"Jarls! The missiles are headed for the starboard stern, get over there fast!"

"We have reaction cannon firing from target one!"

"Aesir! Fire at will! We need to stop those cannons!"

"Helm, come starboard thirty degrees, close the gap with target two! Este, your guns won't stop reaction shells. We need to take out both targets fast!"

"On it! Vanir, target two is still out of range, join the Aesir and take out target one!"

James looked over at Tyson. "Can we help at all?"

Tyson shook his head. "They are still just outside the orbit of Kali!"

"Kali?" I heard Fred call out over the private channel used in the laser rooms. "They are that far out. Could they have been trying a stealthy entry to the system?"

"Nope," Tyson said. "They would have to have been quite a bit further out. As it is, they did manage to find a vector that we didn't have covered with our system defenses."

Everyone sat quietly again. The confusion of voices calmed for just a moment, but as I slid over to whisper to Janice, the voices from the speaker rose in pitch again.

"Lucy! Este! Thane one just took a hit!"

"Amy! Aesir three, respond!"

"Vanir two and four just went red! Looks like a shell hit directly between them!"

"We have damage at the rear elevator!"

"I've lost power! Grid integrity at port seven is down to fifteen percent!"

"Hit on target one! Vector change suggests massive decompression!"

"Target two just increased speed. She'll be in range in five seconds!"

"Commander, we only have Jarls two, seven and nine on the starboard side at the moment. It won't be enough."

The last comment generated a chorus of responses. All signaling that they were breaking off from target one to range on target two. I looked over at Tyson, but he was shaking his head.