Chapter Sixteen: Electro-Magnetic Candy!
"You want me to do what, Colonel?"
"I want you to hold Lt. Sun under arrest for ten microns for assaulting me, Sergeant."
"Ten microns?"
"You can count Sergeant, can't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, start counting and make it fast."
"One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten. Will that be all, Colonel?"
Still sporting a left black eye, Dex nodded his approval. "Thank you, Sergeant. Dismissed."
After the Sergeant left, Dex turned to Aeryn Sun who stood quietly at attention. "Now with all that out of the way, lets get back to work."
Aeryn stared at him, trying to keep her amazement to a minimum while confessing, "If this had been a Peacekeeper ship, I would have been executed for striking a superior officer."
"We don't put people to death Lieutenant, but we can toss them into the brig until they die of old age. I can still do that if you want me to?" He mused aloud.
"No, Colonel," she replied, ironic amusement in her voice.
"I might be a stickler for discipline and protocol, but I'm also a realist and we can't afford to have you thrown in the brig, especially since you're the one who saved this ship and all of us along with it. However…"
Dex stepped closer to Aeryn, whispering, "In my younger days, I was a boxer for five yahrens and the fleet champion for two, but I have never been knocked flat like that before. Just how strong are you?"
"No stronger than you or anyone else on this ship – I used a pantak jab."
"Pantak jab?"
"A punch that renders an opponent unconscious. It's effective against several alien species and I discovered long ago that it is especially effective on Humans."
This peaked Dex's interest, "After we get through this, could you teach me this pantak jab?"
"I might." Aeryn smiled, seeing an honest change in Dex's demeanour toward her. She might have finally earned the Pegasus First Officer's respect.
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"Attention, all hands. This is Commander Cain. We're about to implement a plan to stop the Cylon armada by using a Budong, which is a huge space going lifeform that literally devours ships as if they were candy. Unfortunately, to do make this happen, we have to use the Pegasus as bait to lure the Budong to the Cylons. As you can already guess, it will be dangerous, but we have overcome the impossible before and it won't be any different now. The Pegasus is a noble and proud ship, drawing her strength from each and everyone of you. Serve the Pegasus well and she will see us through another day. Standby for lightspeed jump. Damage control teams be ready. This will get rough before it's over."
Standing on the bridge command platform, Cain closed ship-wide communications and focused his eyes on the bridge's main viewing port, checking on the giant Budong they were trailing. He took one last look around the bridge before facing Aeryn Sun.
"Any final words of encouragement?" Cain softly asked her.
"Not after a speech like that," Aeryn said with a small smile.
Cain chuckled before facing forward again. "Let's bait ourselves a Budong. Full power to sensors, light them up."
The Pegasus' bow-mounted sensor arrays powered up and silently sprayed the space about the Budong with the force of an energized thunderclap. The reaction from the giant space beast was immediate. It turned, arching its massive body about to pursue the source of the massive energy waves bombarding it, seeking food.
"I think we have its attention," a wide-eyed Dex called out from the bridge floor as he watched the creature rapidly closing in on them for the second time.
"I second that," Cain agreed from the command platform above. "Helm, hard about!"
Aeryn felt the deck pitch while she watched the stars shifting in the forward view port as the Pegasus turned to flee from the charging Budong. The Pegasus continued to ping away with her sensors to keep the creature's interest and the chase was on.
Cain watched the pursuing Budong on an aft monitor camera. "Time before we reach the Cylon armada?"
"Five centars," Dex called up.
A bridge technician lifted his voice, warning, "It's gaining on us!"
"Flank speed, full ahead!" Cain ordered.
"I don't believe this." Dex checked another console, after observing the speed of the Budong. "It won't be enough. It will overtake us before we can reach the Cylons."
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In Main Engineering, the howling of the two working ion drives, the size of two football stadiums was now a scream. The vibration was beginning to make drinking mugs dance on console tops.
Chief Engineer Branwen paced slowly behind the line of chairs of her system operators, thirty in all. Her eyes were flowing from one console screen to the next.
"Main Engineering, this is the Bridge."
Branwen paused in her pacing and lifted one hand to her headset, pressing the earphone tight to cut the outside sound. "Main Engineering here."
"Chief," Cain's voice filtered through her headset, "the Budong is gaining on us and we need to keep ahead until we reach the Cylons. I need everything you've got. Right now!"
"You'll get it, Commander," Branwen answered before raising her voice. "Attention! We need to squeeze as much as we can out of the engines. Stand by to put them to the wall!"
"Chief, all mains and auxiliaries are already at one hundred percent output," one of the engineers called back, warning worriedly. "We're pushing redline limit all across the boards."
Branwen leaned in between two of the engineers' seats. "Some damn fool paints a line on a gauge and you think it means something. Weyer, kill the drive regulator program and set it to manual. Haeuser, check your diagnostic charts and watch closely, we're about to channel more juice to the engines. Time to see what this old boy can do."
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On the bridge, the Helm officer smiled as he reported, "Speed is increasing, commander. Engines running at one hundred and three percent, one hundred and four, one hundred and five."
With its engines straining, the Pegasus was just barely staying ahead of the Budong. Watching quietly, Aeryn was relieved they weren't going to be swallowed immediately, but now they face an equally difficult task as they closed on the Cylon fleet.
"Cylon armada directly ahead," Dex called out.
Aeryn raised her head to look at an overhead monitor. The Cylons were just coming into range of their sensors. She still couldn't believe the size of the enemy fleet.
"Sensor beams!" A crewman warned aloud. "The Cylons have detected us!"
Aeryn closed her eyes for a moment and thought about her life and the choices she had made. She had many regrets and was haunted by the things she had done during her time as a Peacekeeper, but she could do little to change any of that. The few shining moments she had were in meeting John Crichton and her time on Moya. She wouldn't change that for anything. She was also grateful to have her ever-growing circle of friends and comrades in arms.
The warrior part of her would be content if she were to die here, to go down in battle on a warship. Too bad she wasn't firing a weapon. However, her heart was another matter and she refused to simply die here. She wanted to fight, never giving up until she was reunited with John Crichton once more.
"Battlestations," she heard Cain order next to her. "Positive shields! Energize defence fields and turbo batteries. Helm, take us in! Right down the middle."
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The Cylon armada was on course to join the attack on the Scarran Empire. Their movement had gone completely unopposed during their journey through this newly discovered region of space.
But suddenly, their sensors detected a rapidly approaching ship coming up from behind.
Scrutinizing the sensor readings, the Cylon in command determined it to be a lone battlestar. Their data logs identified it as the Colonial warship, 'Pegasus'. The Cylon fleet commander reacted in predictable fashion and ordered three baseships to drop behind and intercept the battlestar. Three baseships would be more than enough to deal with the Human vessel.
Wait…
Their sensors were now detecting something else following the Colonial warship.
Scanning…
Scanning…
An enormous space-going lifeform was also approaching the fleet…
The Cylons needed more data to determine if this creature was a threat to the fleet, but until then they would focus on stopping the battlestar first.
The three baseships moved directly into the battlestar's path, expecting a fight. Much to their surprise, the battlestar didn't slow down.
The baseships opened fire as the Pegasus came into range, but the Colonials didn't return fire. The Humans powered through the hail of weapon fire and pushed by, ignoring them completely.
The Humans must be trying a suicide run on the fleet, the Cylon commander thought. Destroy them! Launch fighters and destroy the battlestar! Wait… the spacing-going lifeform is now approaching our three baseships…
What happened next was nearly beyond the abilities of the Cylon's electronic brain to process. They watched as the giant space creature roared up to the three Cylon warships, opened it's huge mouth and swallowed the ships whole with room to spare!
The Cylons had never encountered such a creature in space before, at least nothing like this on such a size or scale. What they were able to determine, which was fairly obvious, was that the creature was a bigger threat to the fleet than one lone battlestar.
All ships! the fleet Cylon commander ordered. Focus your weapons on the approaching space-going lifeform, ignore the Colonial ship, it is a minor priority until the creature is neutralized!
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Dex continued to watch a nearby monitor on the bridge floor and he couldn't believe it. "The Cylons are ignoring us completely, and directing everything they have at the Budong."
"That might change in a moment," Cain said. "Helm, take us into the heart of that armada."
The Pegasus surged forward, neither stopping nor slowing as it approached the Cylon fleet. The Cylon baseships and escort vessels opened fire, not at the speeding battlestar, but at the Budong charging in behind the Colonial warship. The Cylons deployed their ships in defensive formation.
For the Budong, the vast Cylon armada was nothing but a table filled with electro-magnetic candy, neatly displayed like a nice banquet.
The Cylons first opened up with their pulsar cannons, striking the Budong, but the blasts barely scratched through its one-mile thick armored hide. The Budong rushed forward like a shark about to fest on a school of fish.
The Pegasus barrelled past a dozen Cylon destroyers as the warships continued to fire at the Budong. The machines' ships tried to hold the line just as the giant space creature scooped the destroyers into its colossal mouth, swallowing them whole.
Dex was nearly transfixed as he watched the carnage on a rear monitor as the Budong barely paused before turning its attention to a row of firing baseships. Their powerful pulsar cannons were hardly stinging the creature. It surged forward with unbelievable speed, devouring an entire baseship in a single bite, then another, and another, and another…
For a moment, Dex wanted to stop, watch and cheer as the Budong gave the Cylons what they deserved, but they still had a mission to accomplish. They couldn't depend on the Budong to stop the Cylon fleet by itself.
The bridge suddenly rocked as a pulsar blast struck them. The Cylons were finally taking notice of the battlestar as it penetrated deeper within their fleet.
"Where are those tankers?" Dex called out.
"We're scanning, sir, but the Cylons are jamming our sensors," one crewmember answered. "Trying to locate them by visual scanning."
The Pegasus was again violently rocked by another blast, then another.
"Return fire, Commander?" a bridge officer called up.
"No," Cain ordered. "All weapon stations, do NOT return fire. We're only taking a few pot shots. The Cylons are concentrating on the Budong and we're a low priority unless we give them a reason to think otherwise. Hold your fire until we locate the tankers."
On nearly every monitor, the crew searched for a visual on the Cylon tankers. Aeryn looked up to several monitors above her and Cain. It was nearly impossible to pick out a handful of tankers amongst all those ships.
The Pegasus shuddered again from another hit.
"Come on, someone," Cain breathed out as precious time ticked by. "Find those tankers. We can't stay in here forever!"
Aeryn's eyes strained, searching from one monitor to another. This was, as Crichton would say, like finding a needle in a haystack. What a ridiculous saying! Why anyone would waste that much time to find…
"THERE!"
Commander Cain turned away from the monitor he was concentrating on to see Aeryn jab her finger towards monitor nine.
"Cylon tankers, right there!" The dark-haired Sebacean shouted. "In the centre of that screen."
Cain looked but saw nothing but several tiny outlines of ships, which could be anything from this range, but he knew better than to simply ignore what Aeryn Sun had to say.
"Zoom in on that area, full magnification!"
The image shifted and zeroed in on the group of ships. Right there in the centre of the monitor were the tankers they were hunting for. Cain smiled at the sight of their targets and gently gripped Aeryn's shoulder in gratitude.
"Good eyes," he whispered before ordering, "Helm, set an intercept course! All weapon stations, standby to engage targets."
By now, the Cylon fleet was in a state of near chaos. The machines moved more and more ships to try and kill the Budong as the moon-sized creature continued to gulp their warships down a mouthful at a time.
Even as the machines tried to reorganize into an effective fighting force, the Pegasus attempted to take advantage of the situation, but the battlestar didn't go unnoticed. The Cylons were beginning to understand the Colonials' intentions, as the Pegasus got closer to the tankers.
"Commander, six Cylon destroyers closing in! One is moving in fast off our starboard side."
Cain looked at the monitors, seeing the smaller disc-shaped Cylon warship maneuvering up, moving almost on a parallel to their course, trying to protect the tankers and buy time for the other five destroyers to get within range.
Cain glared at the image of that warship. They hadn't come this far to be stopped now.
"Helm, evasive action, but hold course as best you can. Get us within reach of those tankers! Starboard gunners, target that destroyer and open fire as it comes to bear!"
Running alongside each other, almost matching course and speed, the destroyer and the battlestar started a lethal exchange of heavy weapon fire.
Aeryn could feel the Pegasus taking the hits from the Cylon pulsar cannons. The first faint scent of burning plastic and hot metal began to seep through the bridge ventilators.
From the damage control stations, DC officers started calling up the warning lights appearing on their station boards.
"I'm showing hits and penetrations through our starboard primary and secondary hulls."
"Confirmed! I'm registering skin penetration to Beta Launch Bay and a high temperature warning light!"
"Fire! Fire in Beta Launch Bay! Emergency teams are responding!"
The Pegasus wasn't passively accepting the attack. She was paying back in kind as her starboard turbo batteries blazed a steady stream of pulse laser fire.
The two ships thundered along side-by-side, exchanging broadsides like two Napoleonic ships of old Earth. They were trading a nearly equal amount of fire, but the Colonial ship had almost three times the hull mass with which to absorb it. The battlestar was being hurt, but the destroyer was being torn apart.
The length of the Cylon destroyer's circular hull split open like petals of a blossoming flower, before spewing a giant golden-red fireball. The Pegasus' bridge decks shuddered slightly when the battlestar pushed by the dying destroyer as secondary explosions shredded the remainder of its hull, pelting the Pegasus with large pieces of wreckage.
Watching the spectacular death of the Cylon destroyer, Aeryn recalled the day she had first allowed Crichton to use a patch of asteroids for target practice from the co-pilot seat of her Prowler. The excited Human had shouted a strange phrase every time he blasted the rocks with her Prowler's pulse cannons.
With her eyes still focused on the monitor of the dying destroyer, Aeryn smiled and whispered the phrase quietly, which now felt strangely appropriate. "Yeah! Free game!"
Puzzled, Cain glanced towards Aeryn, but had little time to consider her strange words for they were fast approaching the tankers. The other Cylon destroyers were too far to have any impact in stopping them. The tanker fleet was trying to scatter, but the slow moving ships were far too sluggish for any attempt at escaping from the charging battlestar.
"Coming up on the tankers, Commander!"
"Turbo batteries, engage targets at will! Arm solonite missiles for independent proximity homing. We don't have time for remote guiding! Salvo-fire, empty all tubes as you get a lock!"
On the overhead monitors with the Cylon tankers, Aeryn watched several of them glow a bright yellow as the batteries of the Pegasus ripped through their light armored hulls. The blasts penetrated and struck the fully loaded fuel containers inside, detonating them in brilliant explosions.
Every tanker within reach of the Pegasus' batteries was systematically destroyed, fifteen in all. For the few tankers remaining, the battlestar let loose with her solonite missiles. The missiles streaked outward, finding the last six tankers and they, too, were quickly engulfed in flame.
"There go the last ones, Commander," Dex reported with deep satisfaction, even as he stared worriedly at a second monitor. "And here 'they' come."
Five Cylon destroyers were closing in on the Pegasus from all directions and, just behind them, scores of Cylon Raiders approached. It was going to take a small miracle for the battlestar to survive this. Aeryn longed for her Prowler, sick of merely watching, yearning to do something.
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Elsewhere, the Budong still continued its path of destruction through the Cylon armada, devouring ship after ship. The commandship of the Cylon fleet, a D-class baseship measuring nearly five kilometers in diameter and flanked by six other smaller baseships, moved forward to challenge the creature. The Cylons hoped that the D-class' huge pulsar cannons would be able to kill it.
The Budong closed in to continue feasting on the electro-magnetic candy. All seven Cylon warships opened up in one massive barrage, aiming for its head and neck. The concentrated firepower that would have ripped an entire battlestar apart, barely made the Budong blink before it pounced on the baseships. With its maw opened wide, the moon-sized creature swallowed the huge D-class ship along with the two baseships flanking it on either side.
It was at that moment that the surviving Cylon fleet commanders saw the hopelessness of the battle. They had lost nearly a third of their fleet to this 'space hazard' and still they had no idea how to stop it. With little choice, they ordered a retreat.
"What?" Dex stared at the monitor in disbelief. "The destroyers and fighters have suddenly turned away from us!"
From the command platform, Cain smiled. "The entire fleet is running from the Budong and I think we'd better do the same. Helm, plot us a course out of here. Flank speed, ahead full!"
The Cylons ignored the fleeing battlestar. Their effort was to save themselves and whatever remained of their once mighty armada, which was now being destroyed, eaten piece by piece. However, the Budong wouldn't permit them to escape so easily and continued to chase them down, its intent to consume as many ships as it could.
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The Pegasus made its escape in the confusion, heading for deep space while monitoring the dire situation for the Cylons on long range scans. The surviving armada tried to split into different directions to guarantee a few could escape.
Aeryn kept her eyes on the sensor monitors, watching each small green blip that represented a Cylon ship disappear as it fell victim to the hungry Budong. Some Cylons were escaping, but it would be a long while before the machines could recover from the devastating loss.
She smiled at the Human victory over their enemy, knowing that the Uncharted Territories were safe for the time being, even if it meant the Scarrans shared in it, too.
Now out of danger, Commander Cain moved next to Aeryn, saying softly, "I guess now is as good a time as any to say congratulations."
Puzzled, Aeryn turned towards him. "For what?"
"I didn't have the right moment to say this, but our doctor gave me the last of his medical reports a while ago on your condition."
Aeryn's eyes narrowed. Why couldn't Humans just get to the point? "What condition?"
"You know you're pregnant, right?"
Aeryn eyes widened in shock. No, she hadn't known. How could that be? She hadn't been with anyone in cycles, except… "John."
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Kwenn dreamed.
For her all of her admittedly short adult life, she had lived on the Scarran homeworld. It was the very symbol of the their vast industrial might. Giant production complexes covered most of the planet, each one the size of a small country, running day and night, supporting the continuing growth of the empire.
Such growth came at a price. Their industry, hundreds of cycles before, had poisoned their sky and oceans and drained their world of its natural resources. They had to mine others' worlds to feed their industrial needs. Their leaders, and even most Scarrans, didn't care about the cost to the worlds they took possession of. The Scarrans had to be strong militarily to rule, they were the future. Not the Sebaceans, not the Hynerians or the Nebari, but the Scarrans.
Nothing would grow on the poisonous surface on their world now. From high orbit, everything was brown and grey, metal and concrete. The only thing that covered the surface of her homeworld now was their vast cities and industrial plants. The lethal brown atmosphere surrounding their world was so toxic that only Scarrans and some lower lifeforms could survive outside without the aid of a respirator.
Growing up on their planet, she had actually believed that was what life on other worlds was like.
That changed when she became old enough to enlist in their military and join a recon team exploring other worlds for useable resources.
There, part of that team, Kwenn had first set foot on Croust Five. From orbit, it was a huge blue and green orb, colours she'd never seen before.
Upon their ship landing, she walked about its grassy fields and picked her first leaf from a tree. The air smelled different, clean. She could see metras in all directions through the unpolluted atmosphere and study the mountain range off in the distance, covered with white matter that she would later discover was called snow.
Standing there, surrounded by wonder, she had heard a shriek overhead. Alarmed, she had raised her weapon only to see a small winged creature soaring harmlessly over her.
She had lowered her weapon and simply watched before wandering around through the alien terrain for arns. For all the Scarrans schools had taught her to be a warrior and a good citizen of the empire, she realized that she truly knew so little about the universe. From that very first time, she had desired to learn more…
"Hey?"
Kwenn opened her eyes.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She raised her head and saw the Nebari female named Chiana kneeling cautiously next to her. The Human called Sheba was inspecting the door to their cell, listening for sounds beyond their room.
"I was dreaming," Kwenn said, watching the Nebari's eyes closely. "Has your eye sight returned?"
There was noticeable relief in the Nebari girl's voice. "Ya, my eyesight is all cleared up. How's your wound?"
"It's healing." Kwenn didn't mention how much pain she was in. For now she could block most of it.
"What you were dreaming about?" Chiana inquired carefully.
"A world I visited long ago, with green fields, clean water and abundance of small, wondrous little lifeforms." Kwenn permitted herself to smile. "I saw my first bird on that planet and picked a leaf off a tree."
Chiana stared at Kwenn, never imagining that a Scarran would dream of anything but war or conquest. She touched her on the arm, smiling. "Maybe if we get out of here, you can visit that world again."
"That won't be possible," Kwenn confessed regretfully. "That was fifteen cycles ago. My people stripped that world of all useful resources. I saw the end result – there's nothing left but a hollow rock in space."
"I'm sorry."
"Me, too."
Listening to the door, Sheba suddenly stepped back, warning, "I hear someone approaching."
The door opened and two armed Charrids walked into their cell, three more standing just outside in the corridor.
"We have come for the Nebari," a Charrid Lieutenant stated.
Sheba glanced back at Chiana and saw the terrified look on her face before placing herself out in front, challenging the Charrids.
"I don't think so!"
The two Charrids raised their rifles and the lieutenant threatened the Human. "Stand aside, female, or your fate will be painful for you."
Nervous, Chiana watched as Sheba clenched her fist in anger. The Colonial didn't take kindly to threats, but the Nebari feared for her friend.
"Sheba, don't! I'll go with them."
"Don't move, Chiana!" Sheba shouted back, her eyes never leaving the Charrids facing her. Something deep down told her that if Chiana went with them, she would never see her Nebari friend again. That wasn't going to happen, not without a fight!
When Chiana tried to stand, Kwenn grabbed the Nebari by the arm, stopping her.
"Help me up," the Scarran said calmly.
Surprised, Chiana obeyed and struggled to help lift the large Scarran to her feet.
The two Charrids almost backed away when the tall Scarran female regained her footing and limped over to stand side by side with the Colonial.
"The Nebari is under my protection," Kwenn growled before gesturing to Sheba. "And so is this fellow warrior. If you harm either of them, then be prepared to face me as well!"
TBC…