Chapter 18

Alarms sounded on Hechee's ship as five cruisers exited warp drive. The cruisers had been stationed in the outer part of the Worlco solar system. Their mission was to join fifty-nine Jimworl ships and destroy the Frezonee scout ship.

Hechee was prepared to run. He was certain that the Jimworl would commit a minimum of fifty ships in an attempt to destroy him. Five cruisers against Hechee was an even fight; but not fifty to one.

Hechee ordered, "Set course to the nearest cruiser." Hechee ordered his gunner to direct maximum phasor fire at the nearest enemy cruiser.

Hechee thought, "The Jimworl fleet will be here at any time. We cannot successfully battle the entire fleet. But I am going to do the maximum damage possible until the fleet shows up." The gunner began phasor fire while he was theoretically out of range of the cruiser; he had phasor energy to waste but no time to spare.

The Jimworl commander knew that Hechee had targeted him. He was paralyzed with uncertainty. His mission was to join fifty Jimworl cruisers in an attack on Hechee. The implication was that his commanders considered the Frezonee to be formidable opponents. Should he run?

He issued his orders, "We run! Set course directly away from the Frezonee, maximum impulse. I want random evasive maneuvers."

Hechee's ship laid down continuous phasor fire. The Jimworl ship was a difficult target. Both Hechee and the Jimworl ship were at maximum impulse power, about three light seconds apart; and Hechee was not getting any closer to his target.

Two Jimworl cruisers were targeting Hechee. Each ship fired phasor volleys every thirty seconds at Hechee.

Hechee asked his second in command for a battle assessment.

"Hechee, sir, two cruisers are in pursuit of our antimatter missiles. Two cruisers are chasing us and are about one light second behind us. We are not gaining on the fifth cruiser."

Hechee was taking no evasive action. His ship took some phasor fire from the two Jimworl. The phasor fire had little effect.

Hechee ordered, "We are going to target the cruisers chasing us. On my count of three, change course and change targets."

The maneuver caught the two cruisers unprepared. The cruisers broke pursuit and began evasive maneuvers. One cruiser was hit and blew apart.

Hechee gave pursuit to the second cruiser. Hechee's gunner fired continuous phasor blasts at the retreating Jimworl cruiser.

The Jimworl crew was terrified. They had never been in combat. They saw phasor blasts missing their ship, but interacting with the sparse oxygen in the Worlco atmosphere. The phasor blasts were an order of magnitude larger that any blasts they could generate. The Jimworl captain wondered, "How does that little ship generate so much energy?" He died after he completed that thought. His ship and crew were destroyed by five phasor blasts.

Hechee asked for a battle assessment.

"Sir, there is no sign of the main battle fleet. The two cruisers chasing our antimatter missiles are engaging them now. The fifth cruiser has left the area. I recommend that we recharge our antimatter stores and wait".

A Jimworl cruiser fired on one of Hechee's antimatter missiles and missed. "Let's get closer before we fire another salvo."

Fifty-five Jimworl cruisers entered warp drive with orders to fly to Worlco at maximum warp. They were late and their world was at risk. The fleet commander was a political appointee named Clinton. Clinton had no engineering training, no science training, and no military training. His second in command recommended that Clinton spread his ships over a light year area and then cruise to Worlco. His science advisers needed more time to identify the problem. His military advisers suggested that Clinton send the fleet in a single file.

Clinton was a sex maniac. He wanted to be among the first Jimworl colonists on earth. He wanted to do more than his share of the work to populate earth with little Jimworl. He thought, "I wanted this command so that I could lead the repopulation effort on earth. I now find myself commander of 'THE' battle fleet, and I have some kind of problem that I do not understand."

Jimworl ships were disintegrating around Clinton; he personally saw ten ships disintegrate. When the fleet came out of warp drive, they were spread over a ten light second area. Clinton ordered a head count. Forty ships remained of the original fifty-four ship fleet. Clinton was now two hours late.

Like a good politician, Clinton called for a strategy meeting.

An hour later, Clinton called the meeting to order. "Science advisers, do you have any idea what is happening?"

"We believe that there is some sort of interaction among the warp drives. But sir, we are guessing. We have no science that points to problems with multiple warp drives."

"Engineering, what do you have?"

Engineering answered, "Sir, we installed a network of sensors after we lost the first four ships. We have some data. We detected a disturbance in the warp field of two of the ships that we lost. The anomaly occurred ten milliseconds before the ships were lost. We put the chances of a warp drive interaction at eighty percent. We recommend spreading the fleet out over a large area or traveling in a stretched out single file."

"Military, what do you have?"

"Sir, we detected no hostile action. We agree that engineering is probably at fault." The speaker let that thought settle in the minds of everyone and continued, "We recommend that we travel in a single file. We recommend that we regroup in the outer Worlco solar system."

Clinton gave his orders. The fleet would travel at max warp to Worlco. His ships would leave at five minute intervals. They would rendezvous one light hour from Worlco.

The captain of the fifth Jimworl cruiser continued his retreat from the battle area.

The captain thought, "That one scout ship has the firepower of ten of our cruisers. My orders were to join with fifty ships and destroy this scout ship. There is no main battle fleet. The Frezonee must have destroyed the entire fleet. All is lost. The Frezonee will reduce our entire world to rubble."

The Jimworl captain ordered, "We run. Set course to the penal planet. We must protect our race."

Hechee and his crew watched the first antimatter warhead explode five hundred kilometers above the surface. It lit up the Worlco atmosphere. The blast did not affect life on the surface but it destroyed the Jimworl cruiser's control system. The cruiser would burn up in Worlco's atmosphere in the next twenty-four hours.

The nuclear warhead tipped missile continued on through the antimatter debris field.

The captain of the second Jimworl cruiser stopped his attack. He realized that they must stop the warhead. It would destroy millions of Jimworl if it reached the surface. His bridge crew awaited orders.

The captain quickly thought, "I need data." He faced his engineer, "Compute how much time we have to destroy the antimatter weapon before it reaches the surface." He next turned to his science officer, "How much separation do we need to survive the anti matter blast?" He then addressed his weapons officer, "Prepare a rocket to destroy the antimatter weapon." Lastly he ordered his pilot to plot a course directly away from Worlco.

His science officer and his engineer reported. The captain reviewed all the data and determined he could not get enough separation to destroy the antimatter warhead without destroying his ship. The captain paused. He considered the damage the warhead would cause if it detonated near the surface. He considered that if he allowed the antimatter warhead to continue to the surface, he might be the one to destroy the Frezonee scout ship. After much soul searching the captain decided that his duty was to destroy the warhead, to save Jimworl lives.

The captain ordered his weapons officer to fire phasor volleys at the Frezonee weapon. The weapons officer made eye contact with his captain. Seeing his captain's resolve, he glanced to the first officer.

The captain repeated his orders. The weapons officer refused the order. The first officer raised his phasor. He killed his captain.

The ship's bridge was a place of confused mayhem. A phasor battle ensued pitting the mutineers against loyalists. At the end of the fight, no mutineers were left alive. The lone loyalist survivor launched the missile.

Hechee addressed his science officer, "We are going to attack Worlco's cities until the Jimworl fleet shows themselves. How long should we wait to enter the atmosphere after our missiles detonate?"