Chapter 20

As soon as North had signalled them about the approaching dragons, the base had gone to Tactical Alert, but preparations had already been made for a potential attack.

All civilians and non-essential personnel had been evacuated to the Emergency Bunker deep underground; phase cannons were now fully operational, but would still be kept on a minimal setting unless absolutely necessary; six shuttlepods had been readied to act as rudimentary fighter craft; and Commander McQueen had calibrated an electromagnetic pulse generator to a frequency that would ward off the dragons, which was now charging to the required power level, and had been mounted on one of the exterior balconies halfway up the tower.

Thorpe couldn't lead the field mission, but he was determined to prove his worth in defending the starbase.

He stood at the rear of Ops, hands on his hips, watching the sensor readout graphic on the main viewscreen as it depicted five red dots closing towards the blue square that represented Starbase 1.

"Hostiles' ETA: Four minutes," said the traffic control officer.

Thorpe crossed to McQueen at the science station. "Time til EMP?" he asked her.

She looked up at him with a wince. "Seven minutes."

He turned to the comm officer. "Tell the Hangar to scramble the fighters."

As his orders were relayed, Thorpe reflected on one of the responsibilities of command he did not relish: Sending men and women into a life-threatening situation. The shuttlepod pilots were all skilled and experienced, and if any one of them had declined to take part in his idea, he would have selected another without question or report. But every one of them had stepped up. They knew they would be buying the base valuable time, just as they knew they may not survive it.

Within seconds, the voice of the lead pilot came over the comm. "Base, this is Sierra One. Preparing to engage hostiles."

Thorpe looked up to see six blue dots approaching the red dots on the readout. "Acknowledged, Sierra One," he said. "Stay sharp, just keep them busy for us."

Six smaller screens appeared around the sensor graphic, each depicting the view from the hull-mounted cameras on the shuttlepods. Combined with the readout, it showed the 'pods rapidly outmanoeuvring the much larger creatures, flying circles around them while firing their plasma cannons.

The cannons didn't seem to do much beyond angering the beasts, but that at least kept their attentions on the 'pods instead of the base. Thorpe couldn't help think of flies bothering a lion.

The transmissions from the pilots were played over the comm.

"Sierra Two and Three, take Tango One."

"Tango Four is fast, can't get a hit."

"I'm on it, Sierra Six."

"That got 'im mad."

"Keep the chatter low, Sierra Four."

"Aim for the wings, they're weak points."

"Sierra Four, watch your six."

"I got it, I got it."

Thorpe watched as Shuttlepod 4, followed closely by a dragon, banked hard to starboard. The pursuing creature blindly attempted the same move, only to collide with another dragon. 'Pods 4 and 6 gave both creatures a taunting blast of plasma to add insult to injury.

"All craft, watch out, incoming blast!"

One of the creatures shot flame from its mouth, and Thorpe whipped around to look through the window into the Commodore's office. Out the external window, he could see the dragons, only about a kilometre away, and a streak of fire across the air.

The pilots' swift skills kept them all safe, thankfully. They continued, undeterred, but Thorpe moved over to McQueen again.

"Time?" he asked her.

"One minute," she replied.

"All 'pods return to Hangar," he said into his headset. "Repeat: All 'pods return to Hangar. EMP, one minute." They knew as well as he did that the shuttlepods, if caught in the pulse, would hit the ground like stones.

He now looked to Patel, who was manning the operations console rather than monitoring from Reactor Control. She was probably here because she didn't trust Thorpe with "her" base, but he had no time for petty arguments, so he had let her stay.

"Would polarising the tower plating protect us from fire?" he asked her.

"Not much," she said, "but the tower's fireproof anyway. Up to a certain degree…"

"Let's hope we don't have to find out by how much," he said, turning back to McQueen. "And you're sure that pulse is unidirectional?"

"Yes, Captain," McQueen replied. "It's aiming away from us; our systems will be unaffected."

Traffic control spoke up. "All six shuttlepods back in the Hangar, hostiles inbound."

"McQueen?" Thorpe said with urgency.

She nodded. "Ready."

"Fire!"

McQueen hit a control and her console readout confirmed the EMP generator had unleashed a blast, a fact also supported by the sensor graphic on the main screen showing a semi-circular wave emanating from the starbase towards the red dots.

Nothing happened.

The dragons kept coming.

"Report!" Thorpe shouted. It was more civil that what he wanted to ask.

"I… I don't understand," said McQueen. "It was at the right frequency and power, based on the scans of their internal anatomy."

"What about their external anatomy?" said Thorpe, clutching at straws. "Could they have some sort of defence?"

McQueen thought for a moment, then her eyes widened. "Of course! Their bioelectric field!"

"Commander?"

McQueen closed her eyes, trying to pare her thoughts into words. "The Vulcans reported that the planet is subject to occasional electromagnetic storms; the Draco's bioelectric field must be a natural defence against them, to stop all that hydrogen exploding!"

"Draco?" Thorpe said with a squint. He waved his hand as McQueen started to answer; he didn't have time. "Never mind. How does this help us?"

"I… I don't think it does, sir," said McQueen. "The EMP is useless."

Thorpe didn't waste a second upon learning this information. He turned on his heel to face the tactical officer. "Ready phase cannons."

"Sir," said tactical, "those bioelectric fields make it impossible to get a lock. It's going to have to be lucky shots."

Thorpe knew this from earlier, when he had manned the weapons himself during the first dragon attack. He had only been fortunate that the creature had stood still long enough for him.

"Do what you can, Lieutenant," he said.

"Hostiles on site," reported Patel.

Sure enough, on the viewscreen, the red dots were now clustered around the blue square. Smaller screens depicted the external camera feeds as well, and they showed the creatures flying around the tower, shooting flame at its base.

"External temperature increasing on Levels One through Twelve," McQueen said. "Seventy degrees and rising. Inside is safe so far though."

"Are those levels empty?" Thorpe asked.

"Yes, sir," said McQueen.

Thorpe breathed a sigh of relief. That was a small mercy. On the viewscreen, he watched as beams from the phase cannons lanced across the air, but the dragons moved too quickly. Then, one managed to hit, but the victory was short-lived. The injured creature recovered almost instantly, resuming its fiery assault.

He considered ordering the power of the cannons increased, so that any hits did more damage, but as a commander he had to consider the broader implications. North's warning had been brief; there was no telling what the diplomatic situation was. Severely harming, or killing, one of the dragons could cause much worse damage in the wider scheme.

"What about the freighter?" Patel said suddenly.

"What?" Thorpe was confused.

"The freighter, the Loch Lomond," Patel said. "The one leaking theta radiation."

"What about it?" said Thorpe, still no clearer on her intention.

"Well, would that interfere with these creatures?" she said. "Would it affect them like it affects us?"

"But it's such a low concentration," said Thorpe. "It would take weeks of exposure to harm us, and these things are much bigger and hardier."

"It effected our systems much quicker though," said Patel.

Thorpe shook his head at the comparison. "These aren't machines-"

"That's it!" McQueen jumped up. "The bioelectric fields! The theta radiation would weaken them, like any other electrical system. The EMP might work better then."

It was a wild idea, but it was worth trying. They had had to call off the freighter's decontamination because of the attack; it was still full of radiation. Thorpe pointed to Patel. "Access the Loch Lomond's prefix code again, open the drive plates."

He looked to McQueen. "Commander, ready the EMP for another burst."