Convergence
Captain Maris stood at the Command dais of her ship, fuming.
That damnable traitor, Shildy – she brooded – execution isn't a fitting punishment for her. Once I've caught them, I'll have her scrubbing sanitation ducts for a year... THEN have her executed. Simply shooting her is too merciful a punishment...
She looked up at the Tactical projection, her rage growing. "Legs," she shouted at the Engineering Officer on duty, "why haven't we caught up with them yet?"
"They entered Lightspeed first. Captain," came the reply, "We'll be this far behind them until they return to normal space."
But the Valkyrie is supposed to be the fastest ship in the fleet – thought Maris – yet the other ship was clearly faster... until it slowed to maintain this infuriating gap. The Enemy must have come up with a new wrinkle in Lightspeed travel – another reason why we need to capture that ship intact. "Increase power to the G-Cancellers," she ordered, "I want enough speed to overtake that ship!"
"But Captain!," gasped the Engineer in alarm, "The Cancellers don't WORK that way! If we apply more power, we'll just overload them and risk an implosion that could destroy the ship!"
"INCREASE POWER!", Maris screamed at her. "We can't let that ship get away!"
"Captain!" the sensor-operator gasped, "The – the ship... it's GONE!"
Maris looked at her, her confused expression hidden behind her visor. "What do you mean – 'gone'?"
"I don't understand it, Captain," she explained. "One second – the ship was there, tracking strong and steady. The next – it warped into normal space, and... the trace just vanished!"
"It warped out, you say?" Maris noted. Did they burn out THEIR G-Cancellers, trying to get away from us...? "How long until we reach its warp-out point?"
"One hundred and fifty militz."
"Belay my power order," she commanded. Maybe we can catch up to them, after all... "Perform a combat-readiness check on all systems. We will warp out at the their exit point, and scramble fighters to do a grid-search. Half of the ships will perform the search, the other half will monitor for Enemy incursion. Searching ships will fire to disable, not to destroy. The traitor will be arrested, but the spy will be executed upon sight!"
"Captain...?" the Engineer began to speak.
"We can learn what we need from the ship itself," Maris answered, anticipating the question. "We don't need the spy to tell us anything, but the traitor will be made to answer for her treachery. Now carry out my orders!"
"AYE, Captain!" the bridge crew cried out in unison.
"STATUS REPORT!" Drel bellowed, his voice echoing through the Command Chamber and causing his subordinates to jump. They could tell that he was growing impatient with this chase.
"Sir!" his Second Officer responded. "We have been maintaining our distance from the Solnoid ships – they are mere moments ahead of us. Their renegade ship appeared to be widening the gap, but then has been keeping it steady for the duration of their journey."
"Impossible!" Drell huffed, "Lightspeed has only ONE velocity – that ship should not be able to outpace us, any more than we can overtake the Solnoid fleet."
"Perhaps, sir," his Third Officer suggested, "they have come up with a new method of Lightspeed travel – one where speed is variable?"
Drel mulled over the possibility. If true, he thought, that is one more reason to capture the ship for ourselves. We cannot allow them to have the ability to outrun us in Lightspeed – that would give them a second tactical advantage!
"Course projection," Drel ordered. "Where are they going?"
"Sir!" his Second Officer replied, "There are no mapped systems along their route. They do not seem to be going anywhere – they appear to simply be running away."
That will not stop us – Drel pondered silently – such a prize cannot be allowed to escape. Even if it leaves the galaxy, we will pursue it until...
"SIR!" the Second Officer cried out, interrupting his train of thought. "The track of the renegade ship – it's... it's GONE!"
Drel turned his eye to the Second Officer, narrowing his focus into the closest duplicate of a glare his people could make. "What do you mean – gone?"
"Sir – the lead ship exited Lightspeed two militz ago. Then, the track just vanished. I don't understand."
"Could the ship have self-destructed?" Drel considered.
"Possibly, Sir – but why do it out here? Why not earlier, when we first engaged the Solnoids?"
"BECAUSE THE FRAGMENTS WILL SCATTER, FOOL!" Drel bellowed. "Valuable components will be more difficult to obtain, if they can be spread out before recovery parties can reach them!" He paused to collect his thoughts. "No matter," he finally said, "Ready the fleet for combat – half of our Drones are to engage the Solnoid fleet when we catch up with them, the other half will search for remnants of the destroyed ship. Orders are to destroy all support craft and fighters, but capture the Command Ship intact."
"Sir...?" the Third Officer asked, confused.
"That ship will undoubtedly have information – plans and specifications – contained within their computer memories," Drel explained. "Even if we recover nothing of the ship itself, we can pull what we need to build one ourselves directly from their own designs!"
"Yes, Sir!" both Officers replied simultaneously...
"Approaching transit point, Captain," the Navigator announced.
It's about time – Maris thought. "All right. Transit at your discretion."
"Aye, Captain," the Navigator responded. "Powering down G-Cancellers and exiting Lightspeed in 3... 2... 1... NOW!"
With the barest of shudders, the view from their windows changed from the bright streaks of Lightspeed to the deep black of normal space. "Combat Alert," Maris ordered. "All ships to launch immediately and begin search operations."
"Captain..." the sensor-operator interrupted hesitantly.
"What is it, Eyes?" Maris said.
"There's... ummm... there's nothing here."
"What do you mean – 'nothing'?"
"Well – a destroyed ship would leave a field of debris. Even if the explosion was intense enough to reduce the ship to atoms, it would register as elevated matter concentrations – I'm reading nothing but normal interstellar-gas here. If there was a ship here, I can't find it."
Maris thought for a moment. "Could it have returned to Lightspeed?" she wondered.
"No, Ma'am," Eyes replied. "The energy discharge from a Jump would still register. As far as I can tell, nothing has happened in this sector for at least ten days."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Maris exclaimed, "We FOLLOWED the ship here! How could it not..."
"TRANSIT ALERT!" Eyes interrupted Maris with a shout. "Multiple craft exiting Lightspeed aft! Now reading six Paranoid battle cruisers approaching!"
"Damn!" Maris cursed under her breath. I should have expected them to follow us! They'll still want their spy back! "Deploy all fighters! Arm all missiles and phased-plasma cannons! Open fire as soon as they enter effective range! We have to..."
For a second time, her orders were interrupted – Maris steadied herself as the ship lurched backwards, throwing her towards her console. "What just happened?" she demanded.
"Captain!" answered the Navigator, "Our entire fleet has – STOPPED!"
Stopped? What? "Explain" she ordered.
"All motion has stopped," the Navigator told her. "All of our ships are totally immobilized."
A trap, Maris thought. I had no idea the Enemy had this capability. "Open fire immediately!" she shouted, "All fighters to launch now!"
No sooner had she finished issuing her order, when she received another shock. Every projected image before her vanished, and all lights extinguished. In the dark, she saw a display screen in front of her begin to show text and images, changing faster than she could identify.
"Our computers are being accessed!" cried the Engineer. "All of our tactical information is being siphoned off at a fantastic rate!"
"Can't we do anything about it?" Maris demanded.
"Not without destroying the ship – and THAT has been overridden as well!"
Helpless – Maris realized – helpless against whatever the Enemy is going to do to us... She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable attack...
She opened them in surprise, as a low hum told her that a projection was opening. She looked up at the image, and saw four Solnoids standing alongside the escaped captive – who was dressed in a sickening imitation of a Solnoid uniform.
She stood there, silent, as her rage grew...
"Ready for exit from Lightspeed, sir," Drel heard his subordinate announce. "Very well," he responded, "all ships to Combat-Alert Level Four – Drones, prepare to launch the moment transit is complete. Missiles and plasma bolts to target all Solnoid vessels."
"Yes, sir," came the reply. "Exiting in five seconds... exiting NOW!"
The ships returned to normal space in a brilliant burst of light, slowly approaching the Solnoid fleet.
"Something is wrong, sir," Drel's Second Officer told him.
"Explain," Drel demanded.
"Sir – the Solnoid fleet appears to be, well, inert. They are not moving, and their energy output is at bare-minimum levels."
"Is there any sign of their new ship?" he asked.
"None, sir."
"No matter," Drel said, giving the Paranoid equivalent of a sigh. "We will pull the information from their own computer banks. My targeting orders stand – the lead ship is to be disabled for boarding, not destroyed."
"Yes, sir," the Second Officer replied. "Entering effective range now."
"Open fire on my order – FI..."
Suddenly, all of the displays vanished, and the lights around them dimmed. "What's going on?" Drel demanded.
"Sir, I don't know," the Third Officer answered. "We seem to have lost power to engines and weapons – life-support is still functioning."
"How is that possible?" Drel wondered, his anger growing.
"I – I don't know, sir," replied the Second Officer. "But we are dead in space"
Unable to move, and unable to fight – Drel thought – Easy prey for whatever trap those damnable Solnoids have in store for us. "I don't care how you do it – get power to the weapons systems, NOW!"
The response he expected was interrupted by the appearance of a display projection, scrolling through data faster than Drel could keep up.
"SIR!" cried the Second Officer, "Our databanks are being accessed remotely! Ship status, Fleet operations, EVERYTHING!"
"HOW?" Drel screamed. "WHY?"
The scrolling stopped, and a new image popped onto the projection – four Solnoids, and something that resembled a Solnoid, but could not possibly have been one. Taller - with a heavier build, rougher complexion, and hair surrounding its mouth. It wore a poor resemblance of a Solnoid uniform, as if it were trying to pass itself off as one. From the projection, the thing's eyes seemed to stare directly at Drel.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded...
"Shildy, you TRAITOR!" Maris shrieked, glaring at the five people who filled her vision. "Not only have YOU betrayed the Solnoid race – you've enlisted OTHERS in your treachery!" She waved her arm at them, her pointed finger shaking with rage. "I'll have you ALL executed for this!"
The pony-tailed girl closed her eyes, tears visibly welling up. Shildy looked like she wanted to say something - but the non-Solnoid THING put his arm in front of her and smiled, stopping her instantly.
This enraged Maris even more – a Solnoid, taking orders from that thing? She opened her mouth.
She closed it when the thing spoke...