Chapter 10
Space Battle
On the bridge of the Emerald Warrior, Morley stood waiting for the transmission from Phillips. After twenty seconds of silence, Morley glanced over at his communication officer."Have the Eastern Alliance ships begun jamming the frequency that we were using?""No, sir. The channel is still open. I don't know why Captain Phillips has not responded.""Captain Morley, the Challenger has disappeared from our scanners," First Officer Troy Roarke reported.Morley became extremely concerned. "Could the Challenger have been destroyed by enemy cannon fire?" "Not likely, sir," Roarke said. "Our scanners would have detected the laser beams. The Eastern ships haven't fired on the Challenger for several minutes. It would seem that the Challenger has taken evasive maneuvers. Captain Phillips probably thought that the Eastern ships were getting too close, so he had his ship bolt sharply to port. That took the Challenger out of range of our scanners."Morley was skeptical. "I think that Bob Phillips would have informed us before making such a drastic change in course. He knows that it's important for our two ships to remain together in order to fight the Eastern Alliance." "Perhaps the Challenger's disappearance had something to do with the voice that came across our sound system," Landen said. "My guess would be that the Tragadomians somehow broadcast that message to us. They might have captured or destroyed the Challenger."Morley nodded. "I'm afraid that they destroyed her."The disappearance of the Challenger caused confusion on the bridge of the Revolution."How could the Challenger simply vanish from our sensors?" Stelko shouted at his first officer. "None of our battleships destroyed it. No Tragadomian cruisers have yet appeared, so they didn't destroy it. What happened to it? Does the Challenger have a cloaking device on board that makes their ship invisible to our sensors?""I doubt it, sir," the first officer said. "Rugert and his engineers never mentioned the existence of such a device.""Well, do you have any theories about what happened to the Challenger?" Stelko asked the man."I'd say that the Challenger overloaded its fusion engines by going at top speed for so long. A nuclear implosion vaporized the ship.""That's possible," Stelko agreed.A security guard came running onto the bridge. "Captain Stelko?" he called out breathlessly.Stelko turned his attention to the guard. "What do you want?""The Noelmian, Rugert, and his engineers have escaped from the brig! They overpowered the guards who were watching them!"Stelko was furious. "I want every soldier on this ship searching for those engineers! They must be captured!" "It's too late, sir," the guard said. "The Noelmians seized one of the shuttlecraft. They took off a minute ago."Stelko cursed for several seconds, then said,"I don't have time to worry about Rugert and his engineers now. First I have a battle to win. Let's sink the Emerald Warrior. Advise the Baltic to adjust their course toward the new target.""We're almost to Noelm, General," the first officer mentioned. "We'll be encountering Tragadomian cruisers soon.""I haven't forgotten the Tragadomians," Stelko said. "Their proximity makes it all the more vital that we destroy the Emerald Warrior as soon as possible; I don't want to fight the Tragadomians and the Americans simultaneously." Morley watched the steady approach of the Revolution and the Baltic, which had slowed in order to allow the Revolution to pass."It appears that Stelko wants the kill to himself," Morley remarked to Landen. "He must have ordered the Baltic to back off so that his battleship could have the first shot at us.""That could be a fatal mistake for Stelko," Landen said. "Increase speed slightly so that the Revolution thinks that we are running from them," Morley ordered the helmsman. "When they have almost caught us, shut down engines completely, and open fire."For thirty seconds, the chase continued with the Revolution closing relentlessly on the Emerald Warrior. Stelko had told his weapons officer to fire in five more seconds. Then, without warning, the Emerald Warrior slowed drastically.Stelko cringed as he looked at his monitor. It reminded him of the time that the driver of a car in front of his own had slammed on his brakes, causing Stelko's car to crash into the rear of the other car. No time to stop.The Emerald Warrior fired all of its cannons at maximum strength. Stelko had grabbed the controls away from his helmsman and tried to bank his battleship out of the line of fire, but he was not quite fast enough. As a result of Stelko's efforts, some of the cannon blasts did miss the Revolution; however, many laser beams burned into the core of the battleship's weapons systems. Most of its laser cannons were obliterated.Stelko and the others on the bridge were thrown to the floor by the force of the blasts. The damaged battleship spun wildly for several seconds, but the computer quickly reestablished control."Return fire!" Stelko shouted at the weapons officer as the man climbed back into his chair on the bridge. "Impossible, sir. All weapons systems are down.""Get us out of here!" Stelko told the helmsman. "We have no weapons, and the Emerald Warrior could attack again at any moment!" He turned to the communications officer. "Inform the Baltic that we are breaking away to the other side of this solar system in order to make repairs. The Baltic is thus assigned the task of destroying the Emerald Warrior. It should then wait for us to finish repairing our weapons systems before proceeding against Noelm."Because its engines had suffered only minimal damage, the Revolution was able to achieve high speeds as it bolted away from the battle scene.The Baltic took up the chase. Just moments after receiving their orders from Stelko, the crew on the Baltic bridge watched a light green sphere appear on their viewscreen. Two smaller, darker spheres orbited the first. "Noelm and its moons," the Baltic captain said. "We're here at last.""I still can't locate the Emerald Warrior on my scanners," the first officer said worriedly. "We lost all trace of her immediately after her encounter with the Revolution.""The Emerald Warrior has vanished just like the Challenger," the navigator remarked."The ship is around here somewhere," the captain said as he watched Noelm and its moons grow larger in the viewscreen. "I suspect that the captain of the Emerald Warrior is playing hide-and-go-seek with us.""Something just ducked behind the second moon," the helmsman reported. "It only stayed on our scanners for a few seconds.""The Emerald Warrior?" the captain asked anxiously."I don't think so. The scanners seemed to indicate a smaller craft.""The Emerald Warrior must be somewhere in this region. That blip on your monitor must have been either the Emerald Warrior or a Tragadomian vessel. Let's loop around to the other side of that moon and take a look." He turned to the weapons officer. "Be ready to fire lasers at my command. Hit them with full force.""Yes, sir," the weapons officer responded."All right. Let's go get them."At that command the Baltic passed between the two moons. The crew expected to catch their enemies unawares.The captain looked with amazement at the viewscreen. "It's only a shuttlecraft! Where is the Emerald Warrior?" The next moment the captain realized how he had been tricked, but it was too late. The Emerald Warrior, which had been hiding behind the other moon, came soaring over the top of that moon and swooped down on the Baltic like a hawk on its prey.The lasers tore into the Baltic's engine and knocked the battleship into a spin."Main engines are destroyed!" the chief engineer shouted into the intercom. "We only have auxiliary power. I recommend that we surrender.""Never!" the captain bellowed. "Auxiliary power is sufficient. We're never returning to earth anyway, so we don't need much speed.""The Emerald Warrior is closing in," the helmsman said."Emerald Warrior demands immediate surrender," the communications officer reported."I'll give them a reply to their demands!" the captain exclaimed. "Fire!"The beams from the Baltic missed the charging Emerald Warrior that then returned fire from pointblank range. The laser beams, which had been locked onto the Baltic's weapon banks, obliterated the weapon banks and tore the battleship in half.With all the oxygen escaping from the remains of the Baltic, in less than two minutes the entire Baltic crew suffocated in the utter vacuum of space.Five minutes later the Scimitar, which had returned to normal speed, located the Emerald Warrior on its scanners. The Western Alliance ship had gone into orbit around Noelm. "Prepare to attack," the captain of the Scimitar told his crew through the speaker system.Even though the Scimitar had been forced to linger behind while the crew completed repairs, the battleship had been close enough to receive communication from its two comrades. The crew of the Scimitar knew that the Emerald Warrior had destroyed the Baltic and damaged the Revolution. "Captain," the navigator said, "we're slightly off course. Our present path will take us directly into Noelm, not toward the Emerald Warrior.""Adjust the course," the captain ordered."I'm trying, sir," the helmsman replied. "The controls don't seem to be responding correctly."The first officer went over to the helmsman's station and tried the controls."He's right, Captain; the controls are not operating properly. A strong electromagnetic beam is pulling us toward Noelm.""How could the Tragadomians have a beam that powerful?""I don't know, sir," the first officer responded. "It appears that the Tragadomians have made significant technological advances since the Noelmians escaped." "Increase power to engines," the captain ordered the engineer over the intercom."We're already at full power, sir," the engineer said."We're also still being pulled toward that planet!" the captain shouted. "We need to break loose!""If I deactivate all weapons systems, I might be able to get some more power for the engines," the engineer suggested. "Then do it!" the captain barked.A voice came from behind the captain. "What this ship needs is a competent captain. This incompetent bungler is going to get us all killed."Infuriated, the captain spun around to face his antagonist, who appeared to him to be a private."How dare you speak about me like that?" the captain yelled. "I won't tolerate such insubordination!" "What's wrong, Captain?" the first officer asked."This soldier insulted me!" the captain shouted. "I don't understand to whom you are referring, sir," the first officer said."Can't you see this man?" The captain looked back at the figure still standing by him.He watched in horror as the figure pulled a pistol from a side holster."I'm taking over this ship!" the figure said to the captain.Without hesitation, the captain drew his own pistol and fired twice at the figure. There was an electrical explosion as the bullets struck the communications console. Crew members on the bridge cried out in shock. The captain looked around in bewilderment for his antagonist, who had vanished. The first officer pressed the button on the intercom. "Security. Come to the bridge immediately. The captain has become disoriented.""Mutiny!" the captain shrieked. "Now I understand! This is a Western Alliance plot to take over this ship!" The communications officer interrupted. "The chief engineer reports that the engines are overloading! They could explode!""Tell him to keep us at full power!" the captain ordered. "The ship will be burned to a crisp if we are pulled into that planet's atmosphere! The engineer underestimates the durability of our engines! Fusion engines have never exploded!""No!" the first officer said. "Shut down the engines at once! The captain is delirious! I'm taking charge of this ship!" His right hand moved cautiously toward his holster. "You'll never make it, you miserable traitor," the captain said, observing that the first officer was reaching for a gun.Just as two security guards came rushing onto the bridge, the captain fatally shot the first officer. The captain then killed one security guard before being downed by a barrage of shots from the other guard's automatic rifle. Some of the bullets struck the command console, causing additional electrical explosions."We have a red alert from the engine room!" the communications officer exclaimed. "An explosion is imminent!""Shut down! Shut down!" the navigator screamed into the intercom.It was too late, though. The overworked engines could no longer control the fusion reaction. A nuclear explosion vaporized the battleship.
