Chapter 13

Jenifer's orders were clear. "If the Jimworl cruiser fires on us, we will destroy her. We must prepare to fight a pair of cruisers and we cannot be distracted by anything."

Jennifer had refused Duffy's surrender; she wanted the cruiser reduced to rubble. Mary studied her scan display. She would pound the containment vessel with xenon plasma until it failed. Then she would fire phasor salvos at the ship.

Ninety seconds later, Duffy's cruiser exploded in a fireball, reduced to nothing more that a debris cloud.

The collective guilt pang lasted for thirty seconds.

Mary said to no one in particular, "That is what they plan for everyone on Earth. We have to survive and we have to prevail."

This battle was over; but there was a bigger one to fight. Jennifer hailed the outpost. "We were sent by Hectane from outpost Alpha1. We are sending you codes from Hectane to verify that we are friends."

Lieutenant Shan responded, "Standby, we are authenticating your transmission." After a pause Shan continued, "Hectane says that you are here to protect us from Jimworl traitors. But why did you destroy our cruiser, our only protection?"

Jennifer had little time to prepare for the traitors. She had little patience for the outpost commander. She answered Shan, "You have records of the transmissions we sent to your cruiser. The transmission was the same we sent to you a few moments ago. Your cruiser captain ignored our transmission and our hails. He fired on us. We fired back at him and destroyed him. Our intentions are to protect you from Jimworl traitors. Our transmission explains our motives. Two cruisers crewed by traitors will be here in less than two hours. We are going to destroy them. Will you help us?"

Shan replied, "Yes, of course. What do you need? We will do anything you ask." Shan was not a professional soldier. He was a plumber. He recognized power and Mars1 was powerful. She destroyed their cruiser with little effort. He would cooperate fully.

Jennifer was addressing the outpost in her natural, female voice. If the commander gave her any trouble, she would threaten to leave him to the traitors. "I need information. What defenses do you have? Do you have any shield capability? What weapons do you have? Can you stop a missile attack?"

Shan did not hesitate, "We have fixed shields. They are similar to our cruisers' shields. But they are not very effective against phasor attack. An aggressor can attack a small fixed area and defeat us. We have phasors but they are no match for the cruisers. We can handle almost any missile attack. We can destroy anything incoming with phasors. We lose that ability if the area is heavily clouded with smoke or debris."

Jennifer was pleased that Shan was demonstrating trust. Jennifer opened her com, "We watched the two cruisers destroy Alpha1. They gave no warning. They exited warp drive with their shields up and their weapons armed and ready. They moved into position and fired until they destroyed the cruiser. The outpost surrendered, but the surrender was ignored. The traitors destroyed over a thousand Jimworl with no provocation. You face traitors bent on your destruction. We will engage them with as much violence as we can muster. They may fire missiles that get by us. You must be wary. And do not shoot at us."

Jennifer ordered Mary to move Mars1 into position, "Charlie, give me as much electronic stealth as you can. After we engage them, forget the stealth. Mellissa, I want continuous scan. You watch and study all scan returns. Record everything. I want this battle to be maximum violence. Charlie, you manage our shields."

"We should have ten minutes warning before the Jimworl exit warp drive."

"Charlie, do you understand how our phasors defeat their shields so easily?" asked Mary.

Charlie feared Mary, but he wanted her respect. Now he hoped for her admiration, "Yes. Shields protect against electromagnetic energy and against matter. Shields counter phasors, which is electromagnetic energy, by either deflecting it with magnetic force or countering it with energy 180 degrees out of phase. We fire a pilot phasor and analyze the shield response. With this analysis, our fire control system computes which phasor frequencies will cause the most problems for the enemy shields. The fire control system then varies our phasor frequencies among all those troublesome frequencies. If we allow a wounded ship to survive, our enemy will know how to defeat our phasors. It will take them some time to build something, but they will eventually defeat our phasors."

"Charlie, can we do anything to hide what our phasors are doing? The outpost has many engineers." Mary studied Charlie's physical response.

Charlie mumbled, "Great question" and his face went blank. He was deep in thought.

Mellissa served lunch. It was one hour before show time.

Jennifer opened her com, "Lieutenant Shan!"

Shan came to his com. "Shan I want your scanners completely off-line. Bring your phasors and your shields to 100%. Wait until they exit warp drive. I want no interference from your scanners."

Shan replied, "You have my complete cooperation. It will be so."

Jennifer continued with her lunch, "That should keep our phasor weapons secret."

Shan thought, "She has something to hide, some secret weapon. If she saves my ass, she can keep her secret. I would love to meet this female captain." Shan thought about the humans on his outpost; "Humans are ugly."

An hour passed.

Mary asked Jennifer, "Do you think the Jimworl have human captives on this outpost?"

Was Mars1 protecting Jimworl scientists who were experimenting on humans? No one wanted to consider this. But everyone had thought about it.

Mary continued, "Shan is a lieutenant. He has probably eaten human flesh."

Everyone turned to Mary. Mellissa spoke and summed up the situation succinctly, "Mary, these Jimworl aliens are not worth a shit. They are bugs. But we are fighting a war and all war is political. We are fighting alongside Shan because circumstances require it."

Mellissa sighed and studied her scanner results. She continued, "I would prefer that we press the Jimworl to release their human captives. When we leave, the Jimworl scientists will still be alive. We will, every day, have some regret."

Jennifer responded forcefully, "We are at war. We are going to violently and PERMANENTLY kill sentient beings. Those beings are going to try to kill us. I will regret nothing I do here today. Do not get emotional about this. Our lives depend on our focus."

Mary smiled, "You have the right soldier on weapons. I will have no reservations when I destroy the cruisers." Mary looked at Charlie to gauge his reaction.

Another hour passed.

Charlie was still working on some engineering problem.

Mary laughed and looked at Charlie, "Is pay being credited to my bank account while we wander around the universe?"

Charlie ignored her.

Mellissa asked, "What do you have planned? Are you going to buy a Corvette? Do maybe a hundred and twenty miles per hour? Buy a cat?"

Jennifer joined the banter, "I was going to purchase a private place in Montana. Get a hunting rifle and hunt elk."

"I had a boob job lined up," and Mary looked at Charlie.

Charlie dropped his engineering work, "Mary, I had very high selection criteria for everyone on this spaceship. I had high expectations of professionalism. I studied the qualifications of the last twenty-five finalists. I wanted people who I could depend on. Do you know why the four of you were chosen?"

Mary wasn't certain how to answer this question. She wondered, "Was this a serious question?"

No one said anything. Charlie looked at Mary but said no more. He fought hard to maintain a serious facial expression.

Then sensors detected the heat signature of a cruiser.

Jennifer hailed Shan, "We detect incoming spaceships. Hail them as you would a friendly ship. I want to be certain that they are foe."

Mary increased reactor output and charged capacitors, readying them for phasor fire. She brought shields up to one hundred percent. And they waited.

The captain of the lead cruiser was Wolsin. Wolsin hailed the second cruiser, "Let's assume that this outpost command does not know our mission. I will tell them that we are here to relieve them. Maybe we can get in range for the kill without alerting them."

Wolsin exited warp drive with his shields up but his phasors off line.

He was disappointed. The cruiser was out of sight. But his plan was solid.

He hailed the outpost, "I am captain Wolsin, and we have orders to relieve half of the garrison and three hundred of the scientists and technicians. Where is your cruiser?"

Shan did not bother to check his calendar; he knew no relief was scheduled.

Shan put his shields up and began charging his phasors. He hailed Wolsin, "Transmit the identities of those you are to relieve. I will inform them.

Wolsin was irritated. Shan was behaving like he did not trust Wolsin.

Wolsin hailed the outpost, "Why do you have your shields up and your phasors armed? Did you lose your cruiser?"

Wolsin considered the situation. He had the advantage of two cruisers to one cruiser. Since he might have to fight her later if he allowed her to live, it would be good to rid the universe of a government cruiser. But his primary mission was to destroy all the outposts and all loyal scientists. He would play the game a little longer.

"The crew relief manifest will be sent as soon as we correct a computer glitch. Where is your cruiser protection?" asked Wolsin.

Wolsin's first officer sounded the alert. "Captain, scanners report a debris field consistent with a destroyed cruiser."

"Arm phasors; arm missiles."

Both cruisers began arming their phasor banks. It would take fifteen more seconds to full charge. The second cruiser detected an unknown vessel going to full impulse at a distance of four light seconds from the Jimworl cruisers. Wolsin, thinking that this was the missing outpost warship, prepared to target it but his second cruiser was between them. He had no shot.

Mary fired her probe phasor. Eight seconds later her fire control system was computing how to defeat the shields. Eleven seconds after she fired her probe phasor, Mary unleashed a phasor barrage at the closest cruiser. Then she rolled Mars1 and fired her port side phasors.