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Gracias's plot stayed on the main screen; but the display in front of her gave her visual again,
and she saw the alien ship approaching like a bright metal projectile the Galaxy had flung to
knock Aster's Hope out of the heavens. Suddenly frantic, as if she believed the other ship were
actually going to crush her, she started firing.
Beams of light shot at the alien from every laser port the comp could bring to bear.
Though the ship was huge, the beams focused on a single section: Temple was trying to maximize
their impact. When they hit the force-disruption field, light suddenly blared all across the
spectrum, sending up a rainbow of coruscation.
"Negative," Gracias reported as Aster's Hope wrenched into her first evasion shift. '"No effect."
Her weight rammed against the restraints, the skin of her cheeks pulling, Temple punched the
weapons com into continuous fire, then concentrated on holding up her head so that she could watch
the visual.
As her lasers turned the alien ship's shields into a fireworks display, another bright red shaft
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of force came as straight as a spear at Aster's Hope.
Again, the screen lost visual.
But this time Gracias was ready. He got scanner plots onto the screen while visual was out of use.
Temple could see her laser fire like an equation on a graph connecting Aster's Hope and the
unliving ship. Every few seconds, a line came back the other way an ion beam as accurate as if
Aster's Hope were stationary. "Any effect yet?" she gasped at Gracias as another evasion shift
kicked her to the other side of her seat. "We're hitting them hard. It's got to have an effect."
"Negative," he repeated. "That shield disperses force almost as fast as it comes in. Doesn't
weaken."
Then the attacker went past. In seconds, it would be out of reach of Temple's laser cannon.
"Cancel evasion," she snapped, keying her com out of continuous fire. "Go after them. As fast as
we can. Give me a chance to aim a torpedo."
"Right," he responded. And a second later G-stress slammed at her as all the ship's thrusters went
on full power, roaring for acceleration.
Aster's Hope steadied on the alien's course and did her best to match its speed.
"Now," Temple muttered, "Now. Before they start to torn." Her hands quick on the weapons board,
she primed a whole barrage of hydrogen torpedoes. Then she pulled in course coordinates from the
comp. "Go." With the flat of her hand on all the launch buttons at once, she fired.
The comp automatically blinked the c-vector shield to let the torpedoes out. Fired from a scarce
moving as fast as Aster's Hope was, they attained .95c almost immediately and went after the other
ship.
Gracias didn't wait for Temple's instructions. He reversed thrust, decelerating Aster's Hope again
to stay as far as possible from the blast when the torpedoes hit.
If they hit. The scanner plot on the main screen showed that the alien was starting to turn.
"Come on," she breached. Unconsciously, she pounded her fists on the arms of her seat. "Come on.
Hit that bastard. Hit."
"Impact," he said as all the blips on the scanner came together.
At that instant, visual cleared. They saw a hot white ball explode like a balloon of energy
rupturing in all directions at once.
Then both visual and scan went haywire for a few long seconds. The detonation of that many
hydrogen torpedoes at once filled all the space around Aster's Hope with chaos: energy emissions
on every frequency; supercharged particles phasing in and out of existence as they screamed away
from the point of explosion.
"Hit him," Gracias murmured.
Temple gripped the arms of her seat, stared at the garbage on the screens. "What do you think? Can
they stand up to that?"
He didn't shrug. He looked like he didn't have that much energy left. "Wouldn't hurt us."
"Can't you clear the screens? We've got to see."
"The comp's doing it." Then, a second later: "Here it comes."
The screens wiped themselves clear, and a new scanner plot mapped the phosphors in front of him.
It showed the alien turning hard, coming back toward Aster's Hope.
The readout was negative. No damage.
"Oh, God," she sighed. "I don't believe it." All the strength seemed to run out of her body. She
sagged against her restraints. "Now what do we do?"
He went on staring at the screens for a long moment while the attacking ship completed its turn.
Then he said, "Don't know. Try for collision again?"
When she didn't say anything, he gave the problem to the comp, told it to wait until the last
possible instant considering Aster's Hope's poor maneuverability and then thrust the ship into the
alien's path. After that, he keyed his board onto automatic and leaned back in his restraints. To
her surprise, he yawned hugely.
"Need sleep," he mumbled thickly. "Be glad when this shift's over."
Surprise and fear made her acid. "You're not thinking very clearly, Gracias." She needed him, but [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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