2142- In Orbit Around Pluto
Jack leaned against the bulkhead in his quarters and exhaled softly. He mentally replayed the battle against the Omegan ship, step by step, analyzing the decisions he had made, looking for what went right and what he needed to improve upon. His logical, rational mind told him what he already knew: the War Angel had been damned lucky to survive that fight.
None of them had considered how difficult it would be to slow the ship coming out of the tachyon drive. He had asked someone to play gunner who had no practice and no training with the equipment. A smart captain would have entered such an engagement with a backup plan and an escape route in place, just in case something went horribly wrong. “The entirety of my plan,” he realized, “was to keep shooting until we hit the target we were aiming for.”
“I had no idea how tough the ship would be to maneuver once we started taking hits,” he thought, and his pilot was barely qualified to fly. One word kept popping into his mind, over and over and over: “stupid.” He rubbed his temples. “Very, very stupid.”
And yet… as stupid as they had been, they won. The War Angel was now stocked with supplies that gave them a cushion. Time wasn’t on their side, but it also wasn’t hanging over their heads like a sword, either.
Suddenly, Jack slapped the wall above his head. “If we can beat a ship like that being stupid, then we can damn well take these bastards on by being smart!”
Richard connected the last two wires inside the open bulkhead and then dropped his pliers into his back pocket. His lips uttered a silent curse as he stared at the intricate machinery, and then he stepped to a comm. port and hailed the bridge.
“Bridge. F.A, here, Clover. What’s up?”
He cleared his throat. “I just polished up behind the panel where the… thing… was found. I think cannon three should be ready to go. Need’s to be tested, though.”
She suppressed a laugh. “I think I can shoot something for you, Clover. Hang on.” Richard could hear her bustling around the bridge. After a minute, her voice returned. “I’ve got a nice, small rock of some kind about a thousand kilometers off that side of the ship,” her voice echoed through the corridor. “Targeting…” she paused, “umm, you may want to step far away from the area you just fixed. Just to be sure.”
His eyes opened wide. “Uhh, yeah. Right.” He jogged away from the comm. and yelled his readiness.
“Five… four… three… two… firing!”
Outside, on the hull of the War Angel, cannon three sprang to life, firing a burst of energy through the blackness of space, striking a passing meteoroid with its righteous fury and reducing it to its component atoms.
“Direct hit!” Kate yelled. Richard began walking back to put the cover over the bulkhead, but as he did, a small burst of electricity and fire burst forth from the conduit. He grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and began spraying it over the burning circuitry controlling the cannon. Suddenly, the comm. sprang to life with a stream of profanity and anger that Kate would have guessed Richard incapable of even knowing.
“So, there’s a problem, then?” she asked gently.
The channel closed without him replying.
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