12: MENTAL ANGUISH
It was business as usual for the longest time that I could remember. There were no ships shooting at us, no bombs in the streets. The Wojeks had their usual plate of regular crime to deal with, as the Rakdos were getting a little uppity. Now there's an infestation that could use a good extermination. The Gruul were simply annoying. Razia had spent the last week basically apologizing for the 'second biggest mistake of her life' and I was worn out. Happy, but worn out…
We also gained a new bunch of experienced crew. The Hammerfields had decided to auction the mana generator to the highest bidder. The winner was Teysa, but I still was astonished by how much she paid for it. With that money Ben decided to upgrade his ship, and if we were willing, join the Boros fleet, as they now had nothing better to do. So as far as I was concerned they could join up with us. When Razia agreed, we added a new ship to our fleet. Little did the Hammerfields know that we had anticipated their joining and when some angels found mates within their crew, they had truly integrated with the Boros angels!
It was cold, wet, and dreary where I was right now. But then again I was slogging through one of the few remaining natural swamps on Ravnica. Located south of the northern glaciers where the Izzet obtained most of Ravnica City's fresh water. WhatthehellwasIthinking?Ohyeah,thiswasEdana'sidea. One of her garrisons had reported strange events that they thought could only be a product of mana-less technology. The only things I considered worse was my two angels that were both cold and wet. Both Razia and Sara were drenched and afflicted by the black mana that the swamp produced. There was nothing that I could do about it except give hugs out freely. Their drenched wings and postures meant that anything I could say would probably get me slapped. This was, for us all, a miserable slog through the black mana swamps that were left of what was left of natural landscapes on this planet. But it was Razia's legion that was slogging through the swamp with us. The angelic presence was awe-inspiring to the local troops. We headed up the setting of camp, and settled in for the night. At least the sentries were equipped with phaser rifles, just in case.
The angels weren't used to camping out. This was an entirely new experience to them. The closest that they came to this was our time aboard the EnolaGay. But that was in a cabin with a bed!
"So why are we way out here again?" Razia asked as we ate breakfast with the troops.
"Edana thought that we should go in clandestine – like so we could see what is going on without alerting the natives," I replied. "The 'Helionis on standby, just I case we do find something."
"And she just had to pick you," Sara quipped.
"Of course, who knows mana-less technology the best?"
"Pense and John!" Both angels replied.
That brought out a snicker. "You're just saying that so you can get out of the cold and the rain. At least we are out of that swamp and in hill country. Besides it's a good experience for you."
"And how is that?" Sara asked. "Did you know that there are no swamps in Bant?"
"Exactly. You both need to experience what you put your legion through, and every so often a slog through a swamp tells you just how good you have it. Besides, that's what the heat setting on your phaser is for," I commented as I heated up some nearby rocks.
"I never thought of that!"
"Like I said, a slog through the swamp will do some good. Makes you think on your feet."
"Damn that 'thinking like a mortal'," Sara replied.
"Hey, it still looks like you two need some practice!"
""Well, of course," Razia responded. "It takes a bit to break twelve thousand years of thinking! Give me some time!"
I just hugged the pair of angels. "You're doing great. Remember, I was born thinking this way…"
SMACK. Razia wasn't being serious, so it was a light tap. "Your head is swelled enough!"
"Yeah, but am I right?"
SMACK, SMACK.
"OK, ok I give…"
We had struck camp and were moving into hills and meadows. It was still cold, but at least the rain had stopped. The gray overcast still left a chill that went to the bone. Two hours into our hike, and the point man disappears in a puff of photons. Everybody hits the dirt. I was crawling to the crest of the ridge where the legionnaire was shot. Just below the crest, I unhook the sight display and place it on the ground in front of me. Then I heft the rifle over the ridge to use it as a periscope. It worked. I found a heavy disruptor emplacement about 600 meters from the ridge. It was a matter of aim, and of course, a plasma grenade to wipe out the nest. But we were on alert from now on. Somebody was definitely 'out there' and we were approaching steadily. That meant that we needed to be careful, as they had posted sentries. Who they were and what they were doing was still unknown.
We finally reached a valley where there was an Orion salvage cruiser being modified. Who and what they were doing was beyond us, but they were doing something to the ship. We needed to get closer, but considering how far out they posted their sentries…
Then another legionnaire disappeared in a puff of photons as a beam of light shot into the sky. "Signal mine! Everyone FREEZE," I ordered. We all did. "We're in a minefield!" The Orion ship's crew did not want anyone approaching the ship.
"Parhelion! Emergency transport!" Razia ordered. Flashes and metallic screams appeared throughout this part of the valley as our ships transporters whisked us away before something worse could happen. I materialized aboard the 'Helion, to find Anezka behind the console, besides Astinus, one of our transporter operators. Something was peculiar about her…
"Anezka! Your wings are turning brown! Who's the lucky guy?" I asked.
Astinus gave Anezka an embrace. Figures,that'swhyshe'sinhere… "While you were away we decided to join the party. Can't let you have all the fun…"
"Well, it's about time," Razia stated as she stepped off of the transporter pad. "Astinus, Anezka is my trusted right hand, so you better treat her right!" Razia winked at him. Astinus knew that he had no choice, as Anezka could slap him silly just as fast as Razia or Sara could do to me.
On the bridge the view screen had an Orion salvage cruiser leaving orbit and heading to the rift. We never did find out what they were doing there…
All was quiet on the Ravnican front. The usual commercial traffic in and out, both to the orbital yards and Teysa's spaceport. Relar was still hanging out with the Dimir, but he was keeping surprisingly clear of us. That left me worried about what the Dimir and Golgari were up to…
But another quiet month goes by without a peep from Endara, Szadek, or Relar for that matter. In fact the biggest annoyance this month were the Simic with some of their experiments being let loose on the city.
Alarms were ringing through the ship. As I entered the bridge, on screen, was a new ship, firing on the planet. I did not recognize it though. "There is no match in the database," Sara stated from sciences. "That ship is truly unknown."
"But we still need to stop it," I stated. Regardlessofwhotheyare, I thought.
The 'Helion leapt off of the roof of Sunhome, and charged after the unknown ship. It was just another ship that needed killing.
We soon realized that this was an advanced generation ship. The first clue was when we approached; they broke off and headed towards the hyper wall at maximum impulse. As soon as they crossed it they went to warp factor 9.4.
We crossed the warp wall and I immediately ordered Wf 9.6. As soon as we leapt to that speed, the unknown piled on the lumes and matched our velocity. As soon as I ordered Wf 9.9, and our ship leapt forward, they still matched us. And they were frustratingly out of weapons range. There was nothing we could do but chase.
But there was still a nagging feeling that something was amiss. When they spotted us they left in exactly the straight-line course away from us. They made no attempt to reach the rift. That meant that either they originated in this universe, of something else was afoot.
Three days later and we were still stalemated. The unknown ship was still running at warp factor 9.9, and we were still just as far away as when we started this chase.
"I think we may have the engine advantage," Pense stated. Pense and John were at ops while my angels flanked my chair. "They are slowing down and coming about"
"Heat them up and raise shields," I ordered. Then I had this dream of flying through space without a ship or a spacesuit!
I woke up in a dimly lit room. The illumination seemed to emanate from the entire ceiling. The walls were gray, and a single set of pocket doors adorned the far wall. As I looked around there were a dozen medical beds, all filled with my crewmembers. The bed to my right held Toki, and a goblin was fussing over him. Ohgreat, I thought. We'reaboardthe 'Omen.Howdidwegethere?
Then the door opens and in walks Jace, Sara, and Razia. Razia comes over to my bed and gives me an extremely gentle hug. I try to take a deep breath, to realize that I can't! My lungs are on fire!
"You have lost about 80% of your lungs to the vacuum. You will have to get a new set cloned up," Razia responded. "Most of the un-bonded crew didn't make it…" Razia trailed off.
"Most?" I inquired.
"Well, Led was in a shuttle pod, prepping it. In fact, it was his beacon that led the 'Omento find us. Mogara was working in the bowels of the ship and tossed both goblins into the escape pod. Those three got out that way. Darien survived by a emergency life link with Elariel. Glaph got out by emergency life link as well."
But that still left what happened to the 'Helion.
"That unknown ship destroyed it. It took a single shot at it, and cut it in half," Razia stated. "Three people were in the beam's way."
I was in a funk. For the first time I had to reside over a funeral for the fallen Boros. Unfortunately the beam did find a few victims. We lost Rainisa, Thuu, and Sirael! But in total there were ten corpses in the shuttle bay of the 'Omen. It was my job to reside over their burial. The shuttle bay opened, I said my piece. And then the bodies were whisked towards Ravnica's star.
I went to the observation lounge. I wanted to be wallowing in my sorrows for a while. Somebody got one of my angels! That would not do, but what could I do about it. Unfortunately Sirael was beyond my ability to bring her back! So I didn't want some pathetic platitude; I would just … weep.
After a while the doors opened. I scarcely noticed it. Then I found myself in an embrace by Arediel, and Elariel.
"Sirael was lucky! She got the chance to ride among the stars with the Boros angels! We all were lucky that you rescued us from slavery!" Both angels stated.
"But I'm the captain! It's my responsibility to bring everyone back to Sunhome!…"
Razia had entered the observation lounge. Both she and Sara had ambushed me. "There will be no more of that!" My two angels stated in unison. They dragged me back to our quarters, aboard the Fantom.
I awoke to my two angels and their hugs. They were waiting for me to wake up. I'm still 'breathing' through our life links, and will be for another month. My angels were being extra careful…
But it still didn't help. I was back in Pivlic's tavern, this time trying to crawl into a barrel of bumbat. I was being pretty successful at it too. I was sure that my ability to stand and walk was pretty impaired. And also, my vision was beginning to tunnel out. I didn't notice the brown coming in from the edges until Razia's wings almost engulfed me. But I did notice when she wrapped her arms around me.
"We will have no more of that. Sara waits in our quarters. You need to get over this, and that's that," Razia commanded.
Razia had used thatvoice. And sometimes resistance is futile! I was pretty sure that I was being carried to my quarters. They were on board the Fantom, where I set our flag, temporarily. We had a new mission. It was to hunt down the remaining pieces of the 'Helion2 and to try to figure out what happened to it.
So I sobered up, but was running on automatic. We headed out into Ravnica's universe and started our search. It didn't take long to find the two halves of our ship. The starboard portion held the antimatter pods and 8 of 10 had detonated. The port half was more serviceable, but we still didn't know what happened to it.
When we completed our analysis, we were stymied. The only thing that could cut our ship in half was an impossible beam!
""It's a grazer, " I said to no one in particular.
"A grazer?" Razia startled me as she had entered the lab without my knowing.
"Yes. A coherent graviton beam," I replied. And no the spelling is correct, as a graser is a gamma ray laser. "But it's impossible!" Gravitons have a quadripole effect, making a coherent beam impossible!
"Well, obviously it isn't impossible as I'm looking at the two halves of the Parhelion2, sliced in half by that beam," Razia stated.
"Yes, there's that," I mentioned.
I was back in Pivlic's tavern, still tryng to crawl into a barrel of bumbat. I was still in my funk when I noticed someone had sat besides me at the bar. It was Relar.
"Listen, I know that we will probably not be friends, but can we at least come to a truce?"
"Sure, why not?" I sarcastically replied.
"No really," Relar responded. "I have come to the conclusion that your entire motivation was to protect your angels. Now I don't fathom that reasoning, but I can at least come to respect it. You seem to have become this universe's angel protector…"
"Believe it or not it's actually a childhood thing," I replied.
"Strangely enough that makes some kind of sense. But I may be able to help you on your current predicament." Relar put a data chip down on the bar. "This may not solve all your troubles but it will help…"
"Well … Thank you," I replied. I shook his held out hand.
"I guess the correct response would be, your welcome." With that Relar left the bar.
I woke up with both my angels wrapped around me. I didn't know how I got here. They were awaiting my return to consciousness, and I appreciated their patience and 'faith' in me. But now I had work to do. We had to build another flagship for the Boros, and to test weather Relar's tech was a lie or not.
My angels didn't know what I was up to. But until the prototype was built that was fine with me. I wanted to keep this as secret as possible. I simply didn't know if Relar was playing with us.
One month later and the converted shuttle was ready. Time to test it!
Razia entered the bridge just as the shuttle activated its multi-phasic shields. Now it looked like a steel armadillo. "So that's what you were up to this past month."
"Yes, and considering the source, I didn't want to get anybody's hopes up," I replied.
"And the source is?"
"Our old friend Relar," I answered, to Razia's shock.
"You have got to be … fucking kidding." Razia pulled the quote from the movie. "But then, that's why you worked in secret, isn't it?"
"Yes. I didn't know if we were being played. This test will determine that. John, you may commence firing," I ordered.
John started off with a standard phaser on low power, but enough to take out a shuttle. The shields shrugged off the blast like it was a pesky insect. "Going to full power," John mentioned. One blast later and the shuttle still looked untouched.
"Go with phaser cannon." No affect either. That shield just stopped a type 3 cannon blast cold!
"Now I'm officially impressed!" Razia stated. "And that's just a large shuttlecraft…"
"Time to pull out the stops." I ordered, "Put a spread of torpedoes into her!"
John fired ten torpedoes at the shuttle. There was nothing there when the explosion cleared. "Looks like that did it," John mentioned.
"Not so fast," Sara stated from the sciences console. "Found it. You just blasted it into the depths if this star system. Here it is." Sara put the view up on the main screen.
"Let's chase it down," I ordered. "I have one last thing to throw at it." As we closed I hit the intercom. "Torpedo room, load the new torpedo."
"What new torpedo?" All the bridge crew asked in unison.
"Well, with those multi-phasic shields also came new multi-phasic torpedoes. And the Romulans can't use either technology since it isn't compatible with a quantum singularity power source. I don't think Relar knew just what he handed me."
"We're entering range, now," John informed.
"Then fire," I ordered. We spat out a single torpedo, which raced down the target. This time there was nothing left after the explosion. "By the way, the Helion3 is being built with this new technology."
"The Helion3?" Sara asked.
"Yes, I shortened the name, since he'd shorten it anyway. Damn humans…" Razia winked at me, so I knew she wasn't being serious. But she did shorten the name for me. The new ship was still based on the Courageous class, and retained the decks of the 'Helion2. But with the increased firepower, and outsized warp core and nacelles, she was almost 50% longer and 30% wider than her predecessor. The Helion3 would carry two phaser cannon as well as a pair of aft firing torpedo launchers. Her crew would be 180.
It was another quiet two months before the Helion3 was ready for her shakedown cruise. The first week was spent in orbit, ironing out all the bugs from everything but the propulsion units. Then it was time to light up the drives. The following three days were testing out the impulse engines. Then the time came for the warp drive tests. Of all the systems the warp drive worked flawlessly. By the end of the day we had worked up to warp factor 9.9, and held that speed overnight.
I awoke to both of my angels, and the sound of the warp drive humming along nicely. When we reached the bridge John, Pense and Nergat were already there. We were still traveling at warp 18. As soon as I sat down in my chair, Pense asked, "What generation is this warp drive? The nacelles should be showing a lot more strain."
"Stock generation 9. That's the best surviving tech in the galaxy. I just took a page out of the Orion playbook. Both the warp core and the nacelles are out-sized." I ordered, "Go to warp 22."
"Warp factor 9.94 aye sir." Was there a bit of nervousness in Nergat's voice? The ship increased speed.
"That's full output on the warp core," Pense stated. "Nacelles showing sings of strain, typical of a max speed run."
"Then divert impulse reactors 1 & 2 to the warp drive, and go to 9.96." That got everyone on the bridge to look at me. "I need to see what she can do!"
Nergat turned back to his console. "Here goes! … Engines at over-max speed – warp factor 9.96."
Pense chimed in, "Engines showing strain, but not that bad for being 6 warp factors above design specs."
"Well, that's flat out boys and girls. Warp 26. Over 41 thousand lumes! And we still have power from impulse reactors 3 & 4."
"Just how many impulse reactors does this thing have?" Razia questioned.
"Four, and they are fully interlocked," Pense replied. "And this time around our antimatter pods are ground rated!"
"All right, you can back off to 9.9, and head for our weapons testing system," I ordered.
I woke up again to both my angels. They were still wrapped around me … and both were sleeping! Razia was surprised to wake up to find me watching her and Sara sleep. It could just have been the bemused look on my face. "Tired are we?" I had to ask.
"Yes strangely enough," Razia answered. "It's as if we were in your mana-less universe."
"Hmpf. Let me think about that one for a bit."
We got ready and went to the bridge. John was there, but Pense wasn't at his side. She should have been.
"Where is Pense anyway? Something wrong with the engines?" I asked.
"No, she's still in our quarters, still sleeping. I will urge her to see Dr. Toki when she gets here."
"Hold that thought. What's our ETA to our range system?" I asked.
"40 minutes," Nergat answered. Those 40 minutes seemed to drag on.
As soon as we crossed the warp wall I hit the intercom. "Allan, I need you to beam up some mana crystals and scan them. Sara will guide you in." Sara took the cue and went over to the sciences console. A couple of minutes later and she relayed coordinates to Allan.
"Allan to bridge," came over the intercom. "Sara missed. This crystal is not emitting any mana."
Sara shook her head. "You have the right stone. There are four more like it at the following coordinates."
The sound of a transport in the background … "These crystals are also dead."
"All right, hang on to them. Geo-lab," I ordered.
"Geo-lab here," came the reply.
"I need you to rescan all of our mana-crystals."
A moment later came the reply. "All of our crystals do not appear to be emitting mana anymore."
"All right retrieve the rocks from transporter room 2 and hang on to them. Security!" I ordered.
"Security, Tony here."
"Intruder alert! We have someone or some thing on board with a mana suppressor," I explained.
"Getting my team ready. Will report back when we have results," Tony replied.
Half an hour later and the intercom beeps. It's Tony. "Captain, I think you should come down to cargo bay 4."
"On my way," I said as I got out of my chair. "John has the con."
Both my angels accompanied me to the cargo bay. Bay 4 contains among other things all of our spare torpedo casings. I like having spares, just in case. Neatly stacked in rows, ten high. So why was there a stack of four right at the end?
"Take a look at this thing," Tony suggested.
On first glance it looked exactly like a short stack of torpedoes. Only when you walked up to it could you hear it crackling and humming. I pulled my communicator badge and casually tossed it on top of the device. It landed nicely and nothing untoward happened.
"Transporter room," I called into the intercom.
"Allan here."
"I want you to lock on to the device my communicator badge is on and beam it into deep space," I ordered. There was a flash and a metallic scream and the device was elsewhere. "Bridge! I want you to destroy the device we just beamed out."
A moment later there was the hum of a phaser. "Device destroyed," John replied.
Then over the intercom: "Geo-lab to Fleet Captain Michael. Those crystals are back emitting mana energy."
"Good. Problem solved," I replied. To Tony I said, "I think you can stand down your detail."
"Actually I want to finish the sweep of the entire ship. There might be more things lying around that aren't on the manifest or plans!"
"All right then. That's why you are my security chief!" The angels and I headed back to the bridge
Sara stated, "I bet we would have noticed it earlier if Stephen hadn't got his lung transplant done."
Razia replied, as if I wasn't there, "Yes, but our life link does work in the mana-less universe."
"But we would have noticed his lungs weren't healing."
"That's true."
"Did I become invisible all of a sudden?" I had to ask.
"Feeling left out?" Razia asked.
"YES."
Smooch! "Feel better now?"
"Sort of," I replied as I turned to Sara. I ended up in a double angel hug.
"Now I feel better!"
We stopped by our quarters to pick up another comm. badge, and to fabricate its spare. Then back to the bridge we went.
John gave up the center seat and returned to the helm.
"Tony is sweeping the whole ship for things that shouldn't be here. Somebody had access to this ship either during construction or replenishing," I commented.
"That's definitely not good. I'd also get the engineering team to go over the hardware and software for signs of tampering," John replied.
"Good idea. Have 'em start in the weapons systems. Our gunnery exercise is on hold until they report back," I stated.
It was well into the late afternoon before the engineering team gave the weapons systems and shield systems the A-OK. As soon as the impulse engines get checked our exercise was on. The team can check out the warp drive during the exercise, as we were in–system inside the hyper limit. The clusters of asteroids and planet's rings that we were going to use as targets would be ranged at impulse speeds.
The mock attack run had commenced. "Bring up the multi-phasic shields and torpedoes," I ordered.
"What about the phasers?" John asked.
"They won't penetrate the multi-phasic shields in either direction. When we're turtled up, we're down to torpedoes," I mentioned.
Not like it mattered. Our attack run was under a minute. As soon as wer were in the midst of our targets we fired full spreads from both our fore and aft torpedo launchers. Two-dozen torpedoes screamed out the fore, and another two-dozen the aft. Seconds later and 48 asteroids were turned into expanding balls of plasma.
"I think that should do a sufficient number on anybody in our way. Provided those shields can stop that grazer. But in any case if it shows up again I want the entire crew life-linked," I stated.
"That might not help in all cases," John mentioned.
"No, but it's better than nothing."
A week after we got back to Sunhome one of the outer garrisons reported in. Razia and I are called to the guild mages chambers. Razia was there when I arrived and briefed me.
"Wanna bet our Orion is back?" I asked.
Razia whispered in my ear, "Only if you win I have to make love to you, and if I win you have to make love to me…"
I grinned at that. "I like your betting style."
"Knew you would!"
Arcus interrupted us. "The garrison is reporting in. They have a team in the field. Apparently they encountered guard posts and a minefield. They are backing off."
"Déjà vu?"
"Déjà what?" Razia asked.
"An old Earth term when you think you were someplace before or did something again, but can't place your finger on it."
"OK, interesting. But we'd better get back to the Helion3. Let's see if we can catch this Orion," Razia ordered.
By the time we reached the bridge the Orion was breaking orbit and running towards the rift.
"Don't bother chasing after him. Besides if he doesn't make the rift and is working with the alien, we might not be able to lure them in," I ordered.
"You actually want to fight them again?" John asked.
"Yes," Razia interjected. "I meant it when I said I want to wring their necks."
It was only 15 days later when the alien ship showed up again. This time we saw the rift form, and then the ship flying through.
"Heat 'em up," I ordered. The bridge crew was powering up the ship. "Lets cloak before liftoff."
The invisible Helion3 soared into the dark. "Intercept course laid in," Sara stated. Razia had relieved the crewmember at tactical. She planned on pulling the trigger herself.
Ten minutes later we were in weapons range. "Swing around and come at him from the rear. Arm the MP torpedoes," I ordered Razia. Fingers flew across the tactical board.
We slid in silently behind them, apparently not noticed. The strange ship continued on to Ravnica. I ordered, "Flip shields to MP mode now and lock on torpedoes … fire!"
Razia pressed the firing stud and two-dozen torpedoes raced for their target. They caught the alien ship in mid turn, and turned it into vapour.
"Well, it looks like they aren't that invincible when they can't use their grazer," I commented.
"Good. Let's see them send another ship, and we'll blast it straight to Mars!" Razia replied. "…And yes, that's a quote from HuntforRedOctober!"
A week later and another strange ship enters Ravnican space. This time it jumped in elsewhere and crossed the hyper wall. We had plenty of time to take up the Helion3 and cloak. We were going to pass by them and get in behind again. They changed course as if they were actually tracking us.
"Turtle up," I ordered. "We are about to test those new shields against their grazer."
I grabbed my skin-suit helmet and put it on. All of the mortals except Nergat were donning helmets and gloves. Both my angels had an arm around me and were staying close, and there was a monster at sciences. Maya transformed into a creature that could take the vacuum of space. She preferred that to a confining helmet.
"Do those multi-phasic torpedoes come in cruise mode?" Nergat asked from tactical.
"Not yet unfortunately," I answered. "And the extra internal space needed means their range is only 750 000." Photon and quantum torpedoes have a range of just under a million. "So cruise mode, when it comes, is only going to be 3 million." And we had no clue as to the range of the grazer.
Closing with the alien ship head on was a little intimidating. If those new shields don't stop the grazer the survivors will have to build the Helion4…
"Range 1.5 million and closing," John announced from ops. He and Pense were together on ops while Brent was on engineering. Our two Mek-Tacs could also take a vacuum and be just fine.
Turns out that it was a moot point. They fired their grazer at 900 000 km and the multi-phasic shields shrugged it off as it did all the phaser blasts. Net damage: zero. In 150 000 more km of closing they were about to get an unpleasant surprise…
"Arm a single torpedo please," I ordered.
"You're going to find out exactly what it takes to take them down now that their grazer is negated, aren't you," Nergat replied.
"You bet-"
"And we are going to enjoy every minute of it!" Razia interjected. She removed my helmet. "You won't need this after all." Then she gave me a big smooch.
The first torpedo slammed through their shields (if they had any) and did substantial damage.
"I think a spread of five should do the trick," Maya stated from sciences. She had changed back to her normal form. Our resident shape shifter usually only does that when she is messing with Tony's head.
"Spread of five?" Nergat asked, more of Razia than me.
"Go for it," Razia answered. She was willing to take them out fast. Razia's sense of justice usually included instant scorching of the guilty.
Sure enough another 5 torpedoes reduced the alien ship to wreckage. We returned to Sunhome.
Two more months passed by without a sighting of either the Orion or the alien. We were testing out the multi-phasic systems for some of our other ships. In two more months all of our fleet would be refitted, including the old Fantom and Fury. The technological kick in the teeth we received would not happen again.
