Talon woke up on his own, while the Psamtik was still in subspace. He checked the time on his watch and was surprised to see that he had only slept four hours. He had a strange feeling that something was out of place. He slipped out of his room and headed to the hanger, planning to look over his fighter to make sure it was in tip-top shape. As he passed the transport bay, he saw something very odd. There were three soldiers wearing the GTVA's Special Operations Unit patches, carrying large, round objects to a transport. SOU soldiers answered only to the highest levels of command. So why were they here, moving objects about? As Talon looked closer at the objects, he saw that they were heat sinks. Heat sinks were used on warships to dissipate heat from the firing of their beam cannons. Most warships had a set of main heat sinks, and larger ones, like the Psamtik and the Colossus, also had emergency heat sinks in case of failure. The heat sinks that the soldiers were carrying were heavily overused and could not even support the heat from the beam cannons charging up! One of the soldiers spoke.
SOU Soldier 1: "Do you have all the used heat sinks loaded up?"
SOU Soldier 2: "Yeah."
SOU Soldier 3: "I set the shuttle to automatically compensate for maneuvers in subspace."
SOU Soldier 1: "When you get to the Colossus, submit entry override 1665, and the heat sink access will open. Jettison the emergency heat sinks from the Colossus and put in the damaged ones."
SOU Soldier 3: "Roger."
SOU soldier 1: "You will get the signal on channel 964.77. Rebroadcast it as soon as you get it."
SOU Soldier 3: "Got it."
The three soldiers got in the transport and took off, leaving the bay. Talon was confused. Why would they put bad heat sinks in the Colossus? Why would command tell them to do that? And what was all that business about channel 964.77? Talon had a feeling that he would find out soon.
Talon did not get any more sleep that night. He kept wondering what was going on. He went to his fighter and waited for a scramble order. There would be no briefing, and the Psamtik would deploy its fighters as soon as it reached the Knossos device. After about twenty minutes everyone was in their fighters, waiting for the Psamtik to revert to real space. He set his computer to record all transmissions on channel 964.77 which he had found out was an obscure channel that piggybacked regular transmissions, perfect for covert operations. He had to know what was going on. He returned to waiting to revert to realspace. Finally he did, and he launched out of the fighter bay. He saw the Lysander, but the Het-Ka was nowhere to be found. Then Talon scanned the debris field around the Knossos and found pieces of a typhoon destroyer. He cursed. The Het-Ka must have been destroyed. He heard the Colossus query the Lysander.
GTVA Colossus: "Lysander, did we lose the Het-Ka?"
Lysander: "A rebel corvette came out of subspace right on top of it. It didn't have a chance."
Command: "Colossus, Psamtik, we have the NTD Relentless, an Orion-class destroyer, coming in for the Knossos. It is the flagship of Rear Admiral Koth, one of Bosch's commanders. It must not get past the Knossos!"
Psamtik: "Roger."
The Relentless chose that moment to come out of subspace. It was an old destroyer, probably over forty years old. But it was still a big threat, and it had new weapons. As soon as it came out of subspace, a signal was recorded on channel 964.77. It came from command and bounced off a transport that was hovering outside the Psamtik and then to the Relentless. Talon realized that the transport it bounced of was the same he had seen the SOU soldiers use. It was a text transmission only. He looked at it. "Heading 026, 274, speed 15." He frowned in puzzlement. Why did command transmit course data? He asked the computer to show the path of the Relentless if it followed the given course. When he saw the answer, a chill ran down his spine. It would ram the Colossus main heat sinks. It wouldn't destroy the Colossus, but it would force it to switch over to emergency heat sinks. Normally that would be only an inconvenience, but the emergency heat sinks had been replaced with ruined heat sinks. Unfortunately, Talon could do nothing but watch and see what happened. The Colossus opened a channel to the Relentless.
GTVA Colossus: "Admiral Koth, power down and surrender."
Admiral Koth: "Negative Colossus. I will not surrender my ship. Even if I have to go to hell with you, this monstrosity will be destroyed."
Psamtik: "The Relentless has set a collision course with the Colossus."
Talon groaned. For reasons unknown, command was collaborating with the NTF. But why would they tell the relentless to ram at 15 speed? That was not enough speed to destroy the Colossus. He figured that it was to make Koth think he would destroy the Colossus, even though he would just be damaging it. But he still had no idea what command was trying to accomplish.
The Colossus started firing on the Relentless, aiming for the engines, trying to stop it.
GTVA Colossus: "Don't be absurd Koth! You're sacrificing ten thousand lives for nothing!"
Admiral Koth: "'Your cynicism appalls me colossus. I have ten thousand crew willing to die for neo-terra. The tyranny of your regime is finished! Admiral Koth out."
GTVA Colossus: "Evacuating forward decks four hundred through twelve hundred. Auxiliary bridge stand by. All hands, brace for impact!"
The Relentless hit the Colossus, pushing its head up. It flattened itself onto the Colossus' bow, and then exploded, rocking it with the force of the explosion. Talon showed the Colossus at 78 hull integrity, but its main heat sinks were down.
GTVA Colossus: "We have sustained moderate damage and few casualties. We have lost out main heat sinks, switching to emergency sinks.
Talon opened a private line to command.
Alpha 1: "Command, what did you just do?"
Command: "What do you mean?"
Alpha 1: "I received that transmission. That was treason!"
Command: "Lieutenant Star. If you speak of this subject on anything but a secure line to us, you will be fired upon."
At that moment the Iceni came out of subspace about 900 yards from the Knossos, right next to the Colossus.
GTVA Colossus: "The Iceni is in system. Opening fire!"
The Colossus turrets started to glow green with energy, but the excess heat, having no way of dispersing, overloaded. The unfocused beams ran across the turrets, vaporizing them instantly.
GTVA Colossus: "Catastrophic failure of emergency heat sinks! Heavy casualties in the gunnery stations!"
Talon watched helplessly as the Iceni activated its subspace drive and jumped past the Knossos, heading into the nebula.
Command: "The Iceni has made it past the jump node. All fighters, return to your ships. Alpha 1, we will debrief you aboard the Psamtik. Come to room 461 as soon as you dock."
Without replying, Talon docked at the Psamtik and walked to the private debriefing room.
When he got to the debriefing room, he was greatly surprised to see Admiral Petrarch himself sitting in a chair behind a desk. He motioned for Talon to sit down. He spoke.
"Lieutenant Star, what you are going to hear is classified top secret. What is said in here is not to come out of this room. Admiral Bosch has devolved a project called ETAC, or Extra Terrestrial Assisted Communication. It is designed to carry messages into a range of hearing that neither the Vasudans nor us have. In short, it is designed to communicate with the Shivans, something that we have never been able to do. Fleet Command received orders to make sure that ETAC is used, hopefully to make peace with the Shivans. We were aware that the Shivans were returning about a month before it was released to the fleet. Fleet command got overzealous, pulling blockades, and ultimately overstepped their bounds with the sabotage of the Colossus. The officers that participated in that event will be striped of their position in the GTVA and will face charges for treason. In any event, Bosch will have the opportunity to try ETAC. Whether it will work is another matter. The Colossus can not fire its beam cannons, but it still has the rest of its weapons. Bosch will be pursed into the nebula, and the Shivans will be dealt with. Good day." After the debriefing, Talon watched as combined elements of the fleet jumped into subspace, through the Knossos and into the nebula, in pursuit of Admiral Bosch.
