Chapter 9
The three ships that Rugert designed for the Eastern Alliance were smaller than the three Western Alliance vessels. There had not been time to build ships of comparable size; the Eastern project had begun over a year after the Western project, so the East needed to make up for lost time.
Whereas each of the Western Alliance ships was equipped with several research laboratories staffed by dozens of scientists, the Eastern ships had no laboratories. Instead, all work on their ships was concentrated on the engines and weapons.
The Eastern ships had to be faster than the Western Alliance ships because the Western ships blasted off a month before the Eastern ships were completed, even though the East was building smaller ships.
Just a few days before the Eastern Alliance ships were scheduled to depart, the United States placed the captured Tragadomian cruiser into an orbiting patrol around the earth. Its mission was twofold: to help protect the planet from Tragadomian attack and to help protect the democratic nations from an Eastern Alliance attack in case their battleships doubled back for a surprise invasion.
The Eastern Alliance launched their three ships from the earth's surface. With their fusion engines, which were activated immediately, the relatively light ships had no difficulty breaking free of earth's gravity. The Eastern officers did not intend to waste time with safety procedures that had slowed down the Americans. General Stelko secretly feared that he would not be able to catch the Western Alliance ships before they reached Noelm, and he had done everything possible to hasten the departure date.
Stelko rode in the command ship, the Revolution. The two other battleships were named the Baltic and the Scimitar. For many weeks, the three battleships pressed their engines to the limit, constantly going at top speed, yet still they could not locate the Western Alliance vessels on their monitors. Stelko was certain that his battleships were traveling faster than the vessels of his enemies, but he also knew that the Americans were still millions of miles ahead of him.
One morning in the second month of their voyage, Stelko explained to his first officer the secret objective of their mission.
"We will destroy the three Western ships here in deep space. No one will ever know what happened to them. All radio transmissions will be jammed so that no distress call from the ships will ever reach earth.
"There would be a danger that some crew member of one of our battleships would defect to the West or tell what happened out here, but we are never returning to earth. Once the Western Alliance ships are obliterated, we'll crush the Tragadomians. Our battleships will remain in permanent orbit around Noelm. We will function as space stations. In a few years, transport ships carrying colonists from our member countries will begin arriving on a steady basis. We can help to shuttle the colonists down to the planet."
"What about the Noelmians?" the first officer asked.
"The Noelmians will be allowed to live on Noelm. They will be subject to our laws, of course. We won't bother them if they don't cause us trouble. Actually, I'll be glad to have them; the Noelmians can be quite useful to us. Just look at this tremendous battleship that they designed."
Four months after their departure from earth, Stelko was seated on the bridge of the Revolution, staring blankly at the viewing screen, which revealed the thousands of stars toward which they were racing.
"I have a blip on my scanner," the first officer informed Stelko. "It's a large object, moving at high speed."
"A comet?" Stelko suggested.
"No. It's much too fast for a comet."
Stelko rose from the captain's chair. "Is it traveling in the same direction that we are?"
"Yes," the first officer said.
Stelko clapped his hands. "It's one of the American ships! We've caught them!"
The crew on the bridge looked at Stelko, awaiting their orders.
"Sound battle stations!" Stelko commanded and, seconds later, the sirens blared throughout the battleship.
"We're closing in on the enemy ship," the first officer reported.
"Good," Stelko said.
Just seconds earlier, a blip appeared on the scanners of the Continental. Nigel Kersting, the English captain of the ship, looked with concern over the shoulder of the Spanish lieutenant, who detected the blip.
"The object is traveling faster than we are, so it must be another fusion-powered spacecraft," the Spanish lieutenant said.
"So it's either a Tragadomian cruiser or an Eastern Alliance battleship," Kersting said. "Either way, we're in trouble." He turned to the French communications officer. "Send a message to the Challenger and to the Emerald Warrior. Advise Captain Morley that a spacecraft with hostile intentions is closing in on us."
"The Eastern Alliance couldn't have caught us this soon, could they, Captain Kersting?" the Spanish lieutenant asked.
"I wouldn't have thought so, but it appears that they might have. That craft is coming from the direction of earth, and we're still too far from Noelm for any Tragadomian cruisers to be patrolling this area."
"I can't transmit the message to either the Challenger or the Emerald Warrior, sir," the French officer reported. "There's static on all transmission frequencies. I think that the approaching ship is jamming our communications."
Kersting frowned. "Advise all personnel to assume their battle stations. Prepare for evasive maneuvers."
"Two more blips just appeared on my monitor!" the Spanish officer exclaimed. "One in to our right, the other to our left! We're being trapped in a vise, sir!"
"Increase speed to full power!" Kersting declared. "We'll try to bolt out of the vise before it closes!"
The Revolution fired its laser cannons twice, one shot passing above the Continental, the second shot just under the helm. Stelko and his weapons officer quickly adjusted their calculations for additional shots.
As it increased speed, the Continental began evasive maneuvers, weaving up and down, right and left. The ship successfully dodged two more laser cannon blasts from the Revolution.
Kersting was desperately trying to catch up with the Challenger, which flew in the middle position of the linear formation assumed by the three Western Alliance ships. Flying far ahead of the other two ships, the Emerald Warrior served as the advance scout who would give warning of Tragadomian cruisers.
Although the Baltic and the Scimitar were still out of firing range, they were steadily closing in on the Continental. Kersting knew that he had to catch the Challenger before these two additional Eastern battleships got much closer; there was no way that his ship could dodge cannon fire from three battleships.
After seven misses, the Revolution at last scored a hit. A laser cannon blast burned away the outer wall of the Continental's engine, causing the European ship to lose power rapidly.
Kersting realized that he no longer had any chance of getting close enough to the Challenger so that his companion ship would be able to detect the Eastern vessels on its scanners. The Challenger would fly on, unaware of what was happening far behind it. The Continental had to stand and fight alone.
"Turn hard to starboard!" Kersting ordered the helmsman.
Just as the Continental veered right, a cannon blast from the Revolution passed through the space that had been occupied by the Continental a second earlier. The European ship headed directly toward the Scimitar, which had been coming in at full-speed.
The captain of the Scimitar was startled by this change in course of his target, which suddenly loomed up directly in front of his battleship.
The Continental fired a cannon blast into the main body of the Scimitar. The laser beam tore through the side of the Scimitar and seared into the cafeteria. Fifteen crewmen in the cafeteria died of burns and asphyxiation. The computer quickly sealed off that section of the battleship.
Before the Continental could fire again at its attacker, the Revolution and the Baltic closed in on the Europeans. These two Eastern battleships fired a half-dozen volleys into the damaged European ship, blowing the spacecraft to pieces.
Meanwhile, aboard the Challenger, the communications officer was trying in vain to contact the Continental.
The communications officer turned to the captain. "It's no use, sir. There's still too much static."
Robert Phillips, the captain of the Challenger, frowned. "I don't like this situation. The Continental has fallen too far behind us. They could be in trouble."
"Perhaps Captain Kersting has reduced their speed in order to rest his engines," the first officer suggested. "He'd want the engines to be in battle-ready condition when he enters Noelmian territory."
Phillips smiled. "Are you recommending in a subtle manner that we should do likewise, Lieutenant Commander?"
The first officer returned the smile. "Not at all, sir. We're traveling at a comfortable speed that won't overtax our engines."
"Well, let's slow down anyway," Phillips said. "I want to give the Continental time to catch up."
"Sir, I can't reach the Emerald Warrior either," the communications officer said. "We're going to fall far behind them if we slow down."
"Yes, we will, but I hope that the Emerald Warrior will slow down to wait for us once we fall out of range of their scanners."
"We've cut our speed in half, sir," the first officer reported.
"Fine," Phillips said. "Keep slowing down gradually until the Continental reappears on our scanners. If there's no sign of them in a few minutes, I'm going to have us reverse directions and go back to look for them. I don't like becoming separated from the Emerald Warrior by such a vast distance, but the Emerald Warrior has more firepower than the Continental and is more capable of standing alone in battle. The Continental would need our aid more than the Emerald Warrior."
Rugert stormed onto the bridge of the Revolution. As he moved angrily toward Stelko, he was restrained by two security guards.
"You accursed liar!" Rugert shouted at Stelko.
"What is the problem, Mr. Rugert?" Stelko asked calmly.
"You destroyed one of the Western Alliance ships! You told me that your battleships would help the Western Alliance fight the Tragadomians!"
"We had to destroy their ship," Stelko said. "The Continental fired a cannon blast into the Scimitar. The blast damaged the ship and killed many members of its crew. We were merely saving the Scimitar from being completely destroyed. My guess is that the Continental mistook the Scimitar for a Tragadomian vessel and opened fire. It's unfortunate that the Continental had to be destroyed, but we didn't have any choice."
Rugert shook his head. "I believed your lies before, but I won't be foolish enough to believe them again."
"I'm not lying to you," Stelko insisted. He knew that Rugert's engineering expertise could still prove useful on this mission; Stelko wanted to do his best not to alienate the man completely. "We can still help the remaining two American ships fight the Tragadomians. Once we establish communications with the Americans, there should be no further problems. And let me assure you that there were no Noelmians on the Continental. My intelligence reports said that all the Noelmians are flying on the Emerald Warrior."
"Do you think that I only care about Noelmians?" Rugert shouted.
Rugert broke free from the security guards and began smashing controls on the instrument panels. The creator wanted to destroy his creation.
One guard pulled his pistol to fire at Rugert, but Stelko stopped the guard. The general took the pistol, rushed over to Rugert, and struck the Noelmian on the head, knocking Rugert unconscious.
"Keep this man and all the other Noelmians locked in the brig," Stelko ordered the guards as they removed Rugert from the bridge.
"I have another blip on my scanner!" the first officer called out. "It's the same size as the Continental, but traveling at a much slower speed. We're going to pass it in two seconds!"
"Lock the laser cannons onto the target!" Stelko shouted. "Fire when ready!"
"Too late, sir," the weapons officer said. "We've passed the ship and are out of range."
"Loop around, come back toward it, and open fire!" Stelko ordered.
The Challenger picked up the Revolution on its scanners as the Eastern Alliance battleship came streaking past them.
"That blip that went across the screen could have been the Continental," the first officer speculated. "It might have inadvertently passed us when they resumed normal speed."
"I don't think so," Phillips said. "I only saw the blip for a moment, but it appeared too small to be the Continental."
"But it was too large to be a Tragadomian cruiser," the first officer said.
"It could be an Eastern Alliance battleship," Phillips said. "That would account for the interference on our communication frequencies; they are jamming our communication." Phillips went over to the helmsman. "Bank hard to port and resume normal speed. If that was an Eastern battleship, it might be doubling back for an attack. We won't be where they expect us to be, though."
As the Challenger bolted away from the Revolution, another blip appeared on the Challenger's scanners. The Baltic was coming toward them.
"A second battleship!" Phillips exclaimed. "They probably destroyed the Continental and are coming after us now! Let's try to outrun them! Increase speed to full power and return on a course directly toward Noelm."
The evasive maneuver executed by the Challenger had caused the Revolution to lose the Western Alliance ship. However, now the Baltic sent a communication beam to the Revolution, informing it of the Challenger's new position.
The Revolution once again readjusted its course and joined the Baltic in pursuit of the Challenger. Lagging far behind, the damaged Scimitar flew at half-speed while workers completed their repairs.
For an hour, the chase continued. Stelko was surprised that the Challenger was able to achieve such tremendous speed. Phillips, too, did not realize that his ship had such great potential. Only now, when the Challenger was pressed to its limit, did it become apparent what the spacecraft could do.
Nevertheless, the Eastern battleships were still faster. During the hour-long chase, they gradually came closer to the Challenger, but they were not able to get within firing range. Stelko attempted several wild cannon shots that never reached their target; the power of the laser beams dissipated before they reached the Challenger.
"We're getting close to Noelm, sir," the navigator told Phillips. "At our present speed, the estimated time of arrival is twenty minutes."
"Which means that soon we'll have to contend with Tragadomian cruisers as well as Russian battleships," Phillips said in exasperation.
"Good news, sir!" the first officer reported. "The Emerald Warrior just appeared on our monitors! We've caught up with them! They're running on a course parallel to our own."
"Great!" Phillips exclaimed. "We'll need their help in this battle. Can we establish communication with them?"
"Most frequencies are still being jammed, but I think that I've found a clear channel, sir," the communications officer said. "I suspect that its the one that the enemy is using for communicating between its ships. They're using a digital code to beam their messages on this channel."
"Have the Eastern Alliance transmissions been recorded?" Phillips asked.
"Yes, sir," the first officer said.
"Fine. Play the recordings into our computers. Let's try to break that code. I'd like to know what they are planning."
"I have the Emerald Warrior on the clear channel, Captain," the communications officer said. "I'll scramble transmission so that the enemy won't be able to listen to your conversation."
Just as Phillips began to speak into the microphone, a deep voice came booming through the sound systems of both the Challenger and the Emerald Warrior.
"Return from whence you came!" the voice commanded. "You have entered forbidden space! Leave immediately or be destroyed! Is your master not content with his earthly domain? Does he seek to take mine from me? I will not allow it! I will kill his minions if they enter my realm!"
The crews of the two ships were bewildered by the mysterious voice. Phillips looked over at his first officer, who shrugged to indicate that he had no ideas about the origin of the voice.
"What was the source of that transmission?" Phillips asked the communications officer.
"I don't know, sir. It didn't seem to come across any of our frequencies."
"Could it have been an Eastern trick to get us to turn around?" the first officer suggested.
"Perhaps," Phillips said doubtfully. "In any case, inform the Emerald Warrior that we believe the Continental has been destroyed by the Eastern Alliance battleships which are pursuing us. Tell Captain Morley that I wish to speak with him."
The communications officer conveyed the message to the Emerald Warrior, then told Phillips, "I have Captain Morley on this frequency, sir."
Phillips never got the opportunity to discuss the situation with Morley. When Phillips started to speak, an invisible force crushed the Challenger like an eggshell. All aboard were killed.
