Chapter 40

Basil Snodgrass knew enough science to know that he was well out of his depth in any attempt to analyze the data they'd just collected on the 'white hole' that Leviathan had exploded into.

So he planned a quick trip to Mars Colony in Dimension 1, to drop off a copy of the data there for other scientists to look at, and possibly share with any experts on Earth they knew and trusted.

HMS Agamemnon was currently still in Dimension 439, from which they'd arranged the detonation of Leviathan through a portal to Dimension 438 where the monster was.

His typical approach had been to switch dimensions, then move. In this case, that'd mean entering Dimension 1 very near Earth, which gave that Earth a chance to discover that HMS Agamemnon was not really dead, as they'd pretended to be.

That was no good - you can really only fake your own death once. Folks will get too suspicious to ever believe it a second time if they discover the first.

So instead, Basil tried something new.

He used their inertial navigation gear to navigate, and the star drive to travel, within the empty void that was Dimension 439, to where Mars orbit would be if this was Dimension 1.

Then he opened a dimensional portal to Dimension 1.

Observing through the portal that it was safe - he hadn't mistaken and put it inside Jupiter or anything - he then took the battleship through the portal, arriving already in Mars orbit.

No radio greetings were exchanged with Mars Colony, since they remembered the battleship was playing dead, and radio waves would eventually get to Earth.

Instead Agamemnon opened a portal from Mars orbit down to Mars Colony.

Then happy greetings were exchanged in-person, as well as news updates, and, especially, copies of the data from the sensors that had watched the white hole explode.

Some scientists - Martian colonists who also knew science really well - expressed wistful desires for different ways he could have observed the explosion.

It was for that reason that he'd waited to go do the same detonation to the black hole in Dimension 437 that had been The Simurgh.

Black holes are navigation hazards.

White holes explode into the vast amounts of matter that will eventually become galaxies, after they settle down a bit.

So it was just being neat and tidy - in a sense - to go detonate that black hole.

They got details from the scientists concerning other ways they could measure and record a white hole detonation.

They also got warned not to try to go to Dimension 438 for a while, since it may be years, even decades, before the storm of energy from the detonation died down and made it safe, even several light-years away from the center of the detonation.

Then they said goodbye again and took the battleship back to Dimension 29, where Earth-Bet was, and where they had unfinished business.

But they didn't go directly. First they went to Dimension 439, and, there, used their star drive with inertial navigation to travel to where Earth-Bet would be once they swapped back to Dimension 29.

They did it for practice, and to prevent anyone hostile on Earth-Bet from learning the direction they'd come from, if they were watching.

That trip took just a second and then they emerged in Dimension 29, right where they'd hoped to be - in orbit above Earth-Bet.

They could then have flown down through the atmosphere, descending for 4 hours, or, they could try another dimension-swap; hopping into the empty Dimension 439 and using the star drive with inertial navigation to move fast, then hop back into the previous dimension, but in a different location therein.

Having practiced the technique twice, they felt comfortable in using it again.

So they did another dimension-swap, used the star drive to move 100 miles in a specific direction - which took so little time they had to set it in automatic timers - and then changed dimensions back to Dimension 29, arriving 10 feet above the ocean, 40 miles east of Brockton Bay, as planned.

They hadn't wanted to arrive partway into the ocean, with some of the ship underwater and some above, as is normal for a ship, since they weren't sure what complications may arise from crossing dimensions like that.

They used the ship's ability to fly, to gradually descend that ten feet.

Then they called Lisa, launched UAV's and otherwise got ready to film.

"Sprich mit Lisa..." Boz started, and got no farther.

"Boz honey! It's great to hear your voice. How did you know I was about to call you and say I was ready for the portal between Madison and Chicago?"

"I'm just psychic that way," he responded wryly.

They both laughed.

"So, let me see," she said, "first you wanted to talk about Leviathan... you defeated him - That's Great! But there's more... You want me to look over some recordings..."

Boz was, once again, amazed at how much Lisa could accurately infer from small things like a slight involuntary intake of breath and such.

But Lisa wasn't done yet. She continued,"... And you want my help in making more video recordings... recordings showing Leviathan being defeated so I can claim the reward! Why thank you Boz, that's so thoughtful. Send me a portal - I'll want to be there for this."

A minute later she walked through a portal into the command center, patted Boz on the shoulder as she passed by him, and went straight up to Ron, who was already wearing the Illusion Console headset.

Lisa and Ron spoke intently for a few minutes, while Boz made copies of their data and recordings of the white hole explosion.

Before Boz knew it, Lisa was sitting in a Replicated director's chair, facing Ron and Abe, as she shouted "Silence on the set. Lights. Camera. Action!"

As she said "lights", two A1J Skyraiders started dropping magnesium flares that could burn underwater and light up the nearby ocean as it was being filmed.

As she said "camera" several UAV's started taking and transmitting video.

As she said "action" the main screen in the command center started showing a sequence of selected bits from the recordings of the actual battle with Leviathan. These bits had been selected for Ron to emulate with the Illusion Console.

So, as the main screen showed a recording of Leviathan swimming along and deftly dodging a half-dozen torpedoes, one after another, Ron re-created a scene very much like that, using illusions out in the ocean beyond the battleship, where the UAV's could film them.

Ron's illusions left out the torpedoes, and instead had the hands and arms of Go-Jira, swimming along behind Leviathan and reaching out to grab him.

Half a dozen times, the illusionary Go-Jira reached out a hand to grab Leviathan, who dodged it deftly.

Then a particularly close near-miss caused Leviathan to porpoise - leaping entirely out of the water, to fly a short distance and then splash down again.

The main screen now showed the bit of the actual battle where Leviathan had done that. It also showed missiles and bombs, but Ron left those out of the illusion.

What he added to the illusion was Go-Jira porpoising right behind Leviathan, along the same path.

It was very dramatic to see the entire 350' length of Go-Jira - not counting the tail - emerge from the water, then arc back into it nearby, landing in the same spot where Leviathan had landed.

Next was another scene where Leviathan dodged and weaved, far more dramatically than before, with an illusionary Go-Jira repeatedly almost catching the illusionary Leviathan.

Then Leviathan porpoised again, but this time there was a brief delay before Go-Jira did likewise. And when Go-jira did porpoise, he did not emerge from the same spot that Leviathan had emerged from as before. No, this time Go-Jira emerged from the spot where Leviathan was about to land and re-enter the water.

So Go-Jira suddenly surged out of the ocean, toothy maw agape and on a collision course with the descending Leviathan.

Go-Jira's hands closed on Leviathan's body at the same time as Go-Jira's mouth closed on Leviathan's head, biting that off and sending blood everywhere.

A second bite bit Leviathan in half, with another spray of blood, just before Go-Jira dove back under the ocean's surface.

"Cut! Get ready to shoot it all again," Lisa yelled, then turned to Ron, "It was very dramatic and mostly what we need, but endbringers do not bleed. They've been damaged in many fights, but there's never any blood or gore. They are not biological, but some kind of dense crystalline thing."

They discussed it again, then 'did another take' - filming full-sized illusions playing out the dramatic death of Leviathan in the sea just beyond HMS Agamemnon.

It wasn't until after 'take 4' that Lisa was completely happy with it.

Then she made a call to one part of her organization telling them to prepare for a major expansion in sea-going shipping, and that a number of newly repaired vessels of various types were becoming available to them soon in Brockton Bay.

Beth had discussed with Lisa the status of those repairs in-between film takes two and three.

Lisa commented, "Those PRT bastards never did sound the enbringer siren like they're supposed to. They wanted you to die first. Well, now we can use that to our advantage and get a head-start on the resurgence of shipping across the world's oceans, now that Leviathan is dead."

Then she made another call to the part of her organization in Chicago, telling them to get ready for the portal between Madison Wisconsin and Chicago.

Beth had already told her they'd figured out a way to be within range in seconds, so it wouldn't take 7 hours flying time. Lisa included that timeline in her instructions.

As she was gathering her things - the recordings of the white hole explosion, and the recordings of Leviathan's doom, Boz approached her with a funny-looking pistol mostly obscured in a holster.

Lisa anticipated him, as usual, saying, "You want to ask me to figure out something about that pistol, which you do not understand, right? Fine, we can do that while your people get the ship to Madison and open the portal from there to their new home city. I've already given the orders."

Boz looked around and, seeing that none of his people had yet moved to act on Lisa's orders, smiled. Then he said, "Abe, please take us to a point 20 miles above Madison Wisconsin, via a quick jaunt through Dimension 439 for speedy travel, then hover there within an obscuring mist cloud while Simon," he nodded to Simon, "sets up and maintains a teleportation portal from there to the Chicago railyards."

"Aye, aye, sir" sounded twice.

Lisa pretended not to notice, but seemed a little pouty.

Boz then took his funny-looking pistol out of its holster and started to say "What is..."

"A Scrooch Gun!" Lisa interrupted, taking it from him and looking over the inscrutable controls on its side. "Is it real? Awesome! You be Gidney and I'll be Cloyd."

The next thing Boz knew, Lisa had teleported across the room.

"This is great!" she exulted, brandishing the pistol, "Can I have one?"

Then she teleported again.

And everyone else in the room moved too.

And most of them were chuckling.

And Boz felt an unfamiliar weight on his head. Checking, he found a classic multi-colored jester's cap, complete with dangling bells, had been sitting on his head.

And around his hips, a pink tutu had been fastened over his pants.

Boz was not slow on the uptake. He said, "So it freezes a target in time?"

"Oh well, done, my dear Boz! Seriously, can I have one? I'll show you the controls either way. Mostly they are for setting how long the target stays in stasis, and there's a way to let them out early too. You can also set it so they can, or can't, be moved while in stasis - I mean picked up and carried somewhere, not posed: they can't be affected while in stasis except for their location. By the way, your crew are very loyal to you. They let me do the cap and the tutu because they thought you'd see the humor in that, but they put the limits there, which is why you didn't suddenly discover yourself in a life raft at sea with fake battleship wreckage around you suggesting that it sank. They pointed out - correctly - that that would have bothered you rather than amusing you. I'm hoping to build such loyalty in my organization too, but one thing at a time."

Simon spoke up, "While you were, ah, 'out', we arrived over Madison Wisconsin and opened a portal. People are already moving through it to Chicago."

"Thanks," Boz replied.

""We're keeping watch in case of attack!" Iggy added.

"Good idea," Boz replied, "especially on this crazy world. But we should be comparatively safe for now. Our cloud of obscuring mist will make us look like any other cloud, and it blocks radar and infrared, the sensors most often used at these ranges. Also, we're twenty miles up. That's over a hundred thousand feet. Most people can't see much more than a dot at the end of a contrail when they look up and see an airliner at 30000 feet. Airliners are big. We're a bit bigger, but a lot higher too. And we're not moving in such a way as to leave a contrail, so we're effectively invisible."

"This is all great," Lisa said, "But I really must be going soon - I've got a lot of things to do, what with getting your newly repaired ocean-going vessels back into service and otherwise taking advantage of Leviathan's demise, not to mention getting my new workers from Madison settled. But first I need to show you the controls for the Scrooch Gun, and mention to you something in your grandfather's notes that will be helpful."

"OK, and thanks."

"Right." Lisa continued, "Your ship's forcefield is currently defensive-only. It reduces each incoming attack by a certain amount. Quite a large amount - it can stop a tank shell cold, as you know. But your grandpa worked out a way to make it offensive too, so it can damage whatever it contacts."

"So, a cannon shell, missile, or cape that tries to move through it would get zapped somehow?" Boz asked.

"Exactly," Lisa agreed. "Your grandpa had it figured out, but not in place yet. I'm not sure if he had it built yet. We can know by checking the Forcefield Console, and seeing whether three specific electronic cards are there, and, if so, whether they have a row of three capacitors along the top edge. Just two capacitors means he didn't finish the upgrade yet. There's a lot more to the upgrade than capacitors, but that's the easiest bit to recognize."

They moved to that console and popped open a maintenance panel.

The three cards were not there.

"Maybe they're in his workshop," Boz suggested, and led Lisa there.

In just a few minutes, they found the three cards they were looking for, and they did indeed have three capacitors in a row along the top edge.

That meant the upgrade was built, just never installed.

Then Lisa spent a few minutes helping Boz update the schematics for the Forcefield Console, so that repair robots could repair it to the upgraded standard. In fact, they could complete the update now too, by installing the cards properly.

She also showed Boz how to use the Scrooch Gun, in return for which she got a Replicated copy for herself, along with the warning that if anyone tried to disassemble it, it would dismiss itself.

By that time, the people from Madison had finished moving through their portal to Chicago, meaning they could make a new portal to take Lisa to Chicago too.

This they did, and she went through, wishing them good luck, and taking her recordings and Scrooch Gun with her.

HMS Agamemnon, having no further business above Madison, then did a quick hop through Dimension 439 to move quickly where they wanted to go, then returned to Brockton Bay in Dimension 29.

There they flew down the 10 feet to sit in the sea as ships normally do.

They also dropped their obscuring mist, and generally got back to what they'd previously been doing.

In less than 2 minutes, they'd zapped another bad guy from orbit - via the laser on an orbiting shuttlecraft.

Not long afterwards, they were again banishing other bad guys to other dimensions, to locations depending depending on their crimes.

And they were sending Duplicates of Old Codgers in Replicated Dragonsuits off to patrol various cities around the world, looking for trouble.

They also started the repair robots working on upgrading their Forcefield Console.

And Boz got someone to explain to him who Gidney and Cloyd were, learning thereby that Grandpa had, at some point, watched, and apparently liked, the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon.

-0-0-0-

Victor was excited - it was time for revenge on that stupid battleship.

The tanks that battleship had sent across Brockton Bay had cost Victor a lot when his attempt to ambush them had failed.

He was still a lieutenant in his gang - The Empire - but was, shall we say, 'not in good standing'.

Kaiser had almost killed him.

But Victor - or rather, his super-powered skill set - was too useful to throw away.

So he'd been allowed to live and keep serving to try to make up the damage his failed ambush had caused to The Empire.

Then later, Victor's suggestion for a way to finally get rid of Lung by having Purity hit him with a full-power blast, had worked. Lung hadn't been seen nor heard of since that blast reduced him to a black goo, which apparently had just evaporated soon after.

So now Victor was in command of an Empire force again - not because he was back in favor, but because his skills were needed. For now, that would do.

He was in charge of Operational Group 3, which consisted of a Ratte model E, a Ratte model F, and a Monster model E. Op Group 3's target was no less than Washington DC, which was prestigious enough that they were to travel at less than top speed, to give Kaiser a chance to catch up and take command.

Officially, they were going slow to be more fuel efficient and to give the local populace time to see their power, hear about their cause, and join up.

But Victor knew those were really secondary to the real reason - Kaiser wanted command, and the glory he expected it would bring.

Kaiser was in Op Group 1, a single Ratte model E, which had first gone to Brockton Bay and secured the base of their support, smashing all opposition there.

And having support there had already made a difference. Friendly people in that town had just contacted The Empire to let them know that stupid battleship was back in the bay.

So all three Op Groups were stopping and preparing to attack it.

Doing so would require the use of their extended range shells - the ones with rocket assistance, so they were taking a moment to load those.

In fact, they were loading the really special rounds. While they had regular armor-piercing rocket-assisted extended range shells, they also had a few of those which were also guided and coated with a radar-absorbing coating.

So the first couple of salvos at the battleship would be guided and stealthed, as well as range-extended.

This opportunity came at a good time for Victor, since he could finish reloading his nebelwerfer rocket launcher at the same time. And even better, the reload - just brought to him by truck, flying along quickly with the telekinetic help of the cape Rune - consisted of extended range rockets meant for the initial bombardment of Washington DC area targets. Those rockets would have no trouble reaching the battleship, just over 100 miles away from Op Group 3, who were just passing the town of Hartford Connecticut, after defeating some local PRT and capes there.

But while rockets would be helpful, and 11-inch guns could technically penetrate that much armor at this range, using extended-range AP shells, their best hope lay in the 800mm - almost 31.5 inches! - Schwerer Gustav guns mounted in the two Monsters.

Those threw shells which weighed no less than 7 tons - 14000 pounds.

For context, the mighty battleship Tirpitz had, in world war two, been defeated by British Tall Boy bombs, which weighed only 6 tons each.

And Tirpitz had been three times the size of the annoying battleship currently in Brockton Bay. No doubt Tirpitz had been several times as tough in every way as well - it had taken a truly amazing amount of punishment before it went down. Yet, despite it's toughness, at least one Tall Boy bomb had penetrated completely through it, in through the top and out through the bottom.

Now they would find out how much punishment this small battleship took to kill.

The Rattes would even fire their secondary armament: the 150mm - 5.9 inch - guns. Judging by historical accounts, those could not bother the more heavily armored parts of a battleship, but there were places on the superstructure where they could make a difference.

At very minimum, they could destroy things like radar dishes and radio antennae.

Such minor damage would not win the fight by itself, but could contribute to a win by other forces.

The Empire was lucky that the PRT at Concord had not sent in other forces to support them there - no more than what they did send, that is.

What they sent had caused a lot of minor damage to Op Group 2, composed, just like Victor's force, of a Ratte E, a Ratte F, and a Monster. They'd been sent to capture the weapons depot at Concord before taking Boston, but they had met a surprising level of resistance.

They'd weathered three airstrikes - only taking damage from the first, and then an artillery barrage which had taken out some of the minor turrets and actually hit two weakspots, causing some internal damage.

That could be repaired - actually, it was mostly already repaired, due to some capes with the right super-powers - but it had left them briefly vulnerable.

And it shouldn't have happened - The Empire had paid off people at that base to arrange it's fall without a fight.

But not only had it fought, it had also successfully denied any captured weapons to The Empire.

Sure, they'd captured a large number of artillery pieces, but they were useless - not one breech-block had been found, and without that the guns were so much scrap metal.

Further, there was no ammunition of any sort there to be captured nor any fuel either.

And worse, there were no tanks - the PRT had 50 there but had managed to scatter them to the four winds and hide them well enough to not be found in the amount of time Op Group 2 could afford to spend on that. For all Op Group 2 knew, the 50 tanks had never stopped fleeing and were still getting further away. So they didn't spend long looking for them.

Worst yet, it had been anticipated that local people would see the mighty Empire forces, hear about their cause and join up. Instead, more and more locals were shooting at Op Group 2 as they passed. A growing number even followed it, sniping all the way.

Their sniping wasn't achieving anything except for keeping the Empire troops inside their Landkreusers, which was inconvenient sometimes. But the sniping spoke eloquent volumes about the local populations' unwillingness to join The Empire.

In a way, Victor was glad that Op Group 2 had so many setbacks, since it made his previous failed ambush look less bad in comparison.

It had also given him a little time to tinker. He wasn't a Tinker type of cape, but he had high levels of all kinds of skills, including that of an electrician.

And he'd seen that his Lightning-gun capacitors could have been wired more efficiently, so that energy could be transferred among them.

As they'd been built, each of the 6 lightning guns co-axial to his defensive lasers had it's own capacitor, good for a single shot.

But with little more than a few short lengths of cable, Victor had set his up to share that power, so it could all go to one lightning gun if that was the only one that bore on a target. Or half the energy could each go to two lightning guns, and so forth. This wouldn't let them do one massive shot, but rather repeated shots - up to six total, spread out however they wanted before having to recharge.

Victor had made the change to his Landkreusers, mostly while they were on the move. And he'd also called it in so Op Groups 1 and 2 could make the change as well.

Victor didn't know if they'd actually done the work. He wasn't in charge of them and they had other things to work on as well.

Then Victor's ruminations were interrupted as Kaiser's voice came over the radio. Kaiser asked if all Landkreusers were ready, then, hearing that they were, started a countdown to firing.

Despite the 3 forces being widely separated, they would all fire at the same time.

That was a mistake, in Victor's eyes. It would be better for all the shells to arrive at once, but with the Op Groups in different places, as well as with the different gun velocities, the shells would arrive a few at a time if fired all at once.

Op Group 3's 5.9 inch shells had to fly 101 miles to their target, and would take 207 seconds to do so.

But Op Group 2's 5.9 inch shells only had to fly 62 miles to their target, which would take them 127 seconds, with Op Group 1's 5.9 inch shells arriving 20 seconds earlier than that..

That spread that salvo over 100 seconds, with the faster 800mm shells, and the much faster 11 inch shells arriving earlier yet, making the whole salvo last 112 seconds during which time a few shells would arrive, then a few more, then a few more, with a short delay between each group.

Then the different reload speeds would further spread out the bombardment.

Victor had even quoted General Heinz Guderian, saying "Boot them, don't spatter them."

Kaiser had not cared, until Victor had pointed out that Kaiser's 11 inch shells, having to travel 52 miles to the target, would take almost 95 seconds to get there, while his 5.9 inch shells would take almost 107 seconds to fly the same distance, due to their lower velocity, and that would give the enemy twelve seconds of warning - an unnecessary warning.

With that pointed out, Kaiser had altered the plan a little - his own 5.9 inch guns would fire 12 seconds earlier than his 11-inch guns, so they'd arrive at the target at the same time.

Yet the other groups still couldn't fire until Kaiser did, by his emphatic order.

But the time for arguing was past, the signal arrived saying Kaiser had fired.

Within seconds, Victor's force had fired too.

-0-0-0-

The routine in the command center of HMS Agamemnon was suddenly shattered, as Colonel Harry, at the Gravity Control Console, yelled "Incoming!"

Those who were standing, quickly grabbed something to hold on to.

Those who were seated fumbled for their rarely-used seatbelts and fastened them if they could.

All others found themselves knocked to the floor moments later, as three massive impacts and two smaller ones shook the ship.

Boz had already had his seatbelt on - it was habit - and so instead had spent the time giving orders. As soon as Harry had given the warning, Boz had started yelling instructions, as terse as he could make them, to make them quick, "Abe: dodge. Ron: deflect. Iggy too. Harry: gravity shield above..."

He got cut off by another set of massive explosions - 6 this time - impacting the ship, 18 seconds after the first set.

Four more comparatively minor impacts had come in the meantime.

Red lights were flashing, showing the ship was taking damage.

Boz changed his mind, remembering that the best defense was to not be there, "Iggy: dim 439. Abe, take us there."

Two more of the smaller impacts hit as he spoke.

Colonel Harry started, "I've got a partial..."

Then a massive screech interrupted him and the ship shook again.

"...partial cover above us with sideways gravity," Colonel Harry finished. "It made that last, absolutely huge, shot just clip a deck corner instead of going right through us."

Boz didn't ask what was going on. He knew that the moment any of them figured that out, they'd volunteer the information.

Instead he busied himself trying to figure that out, and take what measures he could.

He'd first tried to turn on their antimissile defenses, only to find that they were already on, but had seen nothing to shoot.

That had led him to checking their radar, which said it was working, yet showed nothing that could explain the attacks.

Then he'd checked their infrared sensors - the second type of information their anti-air defenses primarily relied upon.

It showed nothing...

No, it showed nothing hot, like incoming missiles, rockets, or even aircraft engines would be. But it did show several small, slightly cold, spots arcing down at them from above on what looked like a ballistic trajectory.

Two such spots of cold had arced down and hit the ship just before Harry had last spoken.

That corresponded with the last two minor impacts.

Those impacts knocked out the ship's infrared sensors, ending Boz's progress with them.

His hands switched to bringing up the Detect Hostile Intent sensors, while his mind processed what he knew so far.

He knew that you could freeze milk at 30,000 feet - troops had made ice cream in WWII by sending along containers of milk attached to fighters going up to that altitude.

And for an artillery shell to reach that altitude on the way to his ship, it was coming from very far.

Boz informed the room as soon as he'd figured out that much, "It's artillery many miles to the west and south. They don't show up on radar and infrared is out"

Then a dozen more of the smaller impacts occurred in rapid succession.

More red lights, indication damage, lit up.

While looking at that screen, Boz could see the ship had started moving. On reflection, he could see that it had been a mistake to sit motionless. While the ship could travel quickly, and was reasonably agile while moving, it was not quick to get moving in the first place.

Beth, at the sonar console, spoke up, "Got 'em. they whistle as they fly." and the main display lit up, showing a dense pattern of incoming shells above them.

Six of the bigger shells were about to hit, and as Boz watched, he saw one of them suddenly disappear into a Dimensional Shunt. Apparently after Iggy had set up their own portal, he had left that open while also setting his console into deflection mode.

Another of the six, now five, shells in the next group changed directions and went harmlessly out to sea, as Ron deflected it.

Then the four shells remaining in that group hit, and the ship again shook to the massive impacts, with more red lights showing even more damage, some of it more serious than they'd taken before.

The damage wasn't severe, but they could not take this forever.

Boz tried to multi-task, switching his attention between the damage reports, and the hostile intent sensors, trying to be aware of anything urgent, while still trying to find out what he could about what was attacking them.

Colonel Harry announced, "OK, I've got sideways gravity at 10g covering the center half of the ship, and I think it's adjusted for best effect. Now searching for the source of the shells."

Weedy, at the Detect Chemicals Console said, "I've got trails of cordite propellant stretching back to two sources - one 52 miles southwest of the bay, and one further west and 62 miles away in total."

"Sonar confirms that," Beth said. And the main display now showed some red X's in roughly the right spots.

A dozen of the smaller shells arrived next, but only 5 hit the ship - 2 near the bow and 3 near the stern. The rest hit Harry's sideways-gravity field and flew harmlessly past them.

The ship's motion was more noticeable now, plus they'd begin tilting and sinking, for which Boz could see no explanation on the damage display.

Abe spoke up, "I'm tilting to increase the angle they hit at, so more will skip off without damaging us. And I'm beginning to submerge, since water above us will act as extra armor."

Big Tom said, "I've got repair robots at the damage sites, with more on the way. Trying to seal the breaches before we get submerged, but at worst the watertight compartments will limit how much water can get in."

Simon, at a gunnery console, to which he'd routed a visual sensor exclaimed, "Gotcha!" And, on the main screen, one of the red x's indicating an enemy force was replaced with a small image of 3 unusual tanks.

The secondary screen on the left wall then showed a much bigger image of the same thing.

Boz gasped as he looked at what folks had said was impossible - the Landkreuser P.1000 Ratte, in company with a Landkreuser P.1500 Monster with some design alterations, and another Ratte with two smaller turrets instead of one big triple turret.

Simon gleefully called, "Missiles away!"

Then, a moment later, "Torpedoes away!"

Boz grinned as he remembered that the ship's torpedoes could fly like missiles, and in addition were really really stealthy.

He could feel the ship moving forward faster now.

The other red X on the main screen had now been replaced by a small image of a single Ratte, with a much bigger version of that displayed on the screen forming the right-hand wall of the room.

Then another dozen small shells arrived, 6 of which hit the battleship fore and aft while they other 6, in the middle, got flung sideways by ten gravities and flew harmlessly past the ship.

"We lost sonar." Beth called.

Simon called, "main guns loading. Railguns locked on the loner and firing."

Then 6 more of the bigger shells - Boz remembered the Ratte was supposed to mount 11 inch guns, and these were probably from such - arrived.

As before, one got deflected by Ron, and another got deflected by Iggy using Dimensional Shunt.

This time, two more got flung sideways by Harry's gravity field above them.

And the last two hit HMS Agamemnon hard.

Once again the ship shook with the impacts and rang like a giant smacking a bell.

Then, four seconds later, the ship finished moving through Iggy's portal to Dimension 439.

As the portal closed behind them, Boz looked at the clock on his screen again.

Only 48 seconds had elapsed since the first shells had hit them.

Just then, the repair robots at the Forcefield Console finished their work.

The ship's forcefield came on as the robots moved off to go repair other things.

-0-0-0-

Back in Brockton Bay, it appeared that the battleship had sunk - first listing to one side, then disappearing beneath the waves amid clouds of smoke, and explosions, after taking several obvious hits.

For a couple minutes afterwards, shells of various sizes, which were already in the air, continued to arrive and splash into the ocean around where the battleship had been.

Finally, a barrage of 144 rockets arrived and splashed into the same area.

Then all was quiet.