Chapter 7

On side of the radar imaging there were different tables that told the estimated sizes of the bodies, speeds at which they were advancing, Directions of their movements etc. Closer the object, more accurate the information.

Suddenly the body stopped moving.

"They must have noticed us." Daniel thought. They seem to have technology on par with us.

"It has fired. A projectile is coming at us." Dana alarmed.

"The hell. Load the long-range nuclear missiles and anti-ballistic missiles. How much time till impact?" Daniel took the joystick in his hand and waited for Dana's response. He looked serious and resolved. Daniel was a prodigy. He had multiple PhDs in all fields of sciences. He was black belt in Jiu Jitsu and Judo. He was an experienced warfare strategist and technician. He had nerves of steel.

"3 minutes."

"Missiles have been loaded and are ready to fire.". dana informed.

Daniel aimed at the body on radar and presses fire button on his control. Ship felt a huge jolt and a new projectile appeared on his radar. The jolt was being felt because engines were off. It was the missile fire from Dana. Missile briskly advanced towards its target. These missiles were equipped with "3d Spatial Navigation and Positioning Systems." They would hit the enemy no matter where it moves. There was no way to avoid them except to intercept them enroute. He was waiting for enemy missile to come closer, so he could fire anti-ballistic missile. They had lower range.

"Two minutes till impact." Dana informed. Daniel was looking at the screen intently. Suddenly another dot appeared from nowhere near first enemy dot. Daniel was startled and leaned forward to have a closer look.

"Another body appeared." Dana put the stamp of confirmation.

"But how?" Daniel thought. But there was no one to answer and he had no time to ponder.

He aimed at second body and fired. Daniel was looking at radar image and suddenly enemy weapon/missile disappeared.

"What? What is happening?" He leaned closer and rubbed his eyes. That missile was gone.

"Is it some sort of stealth technology? But how? Are they this advanced?" He thought. He was worried about this situation. He did not want to make enemies with them. They could help him accomplish his mission.

"Dana! Activate self defense of the ship and automate the anti-ballistic missiles for any objects appearing within radius of 10 kilometers." Daniel instructed.

"Self-defense activated."

"SM-SNPS01 hit the target successfully. More enemies are appearing." Good and bad news at the same time. Daniel looked at the screen and it looked like there was a fleet appearing out of nowhere. He then saw projectiles moving towards Dana.

"The enemies are firing at us." Dana informed. With that space war started. Daniel fired missiles one after another at them and destroyed the whole fleet. While all their weapons disappeared at specific point in space. Enemy kept firing like crazy but no benefit. It was like when he played games. You can kill as many enemies as you can, but they cannot do nothing.

There were still some enemy ships left. Daniel locked the aim at one of them and pressed fire. Missile was fired with a jolt.

"Caution: Three missiles left." A robotic voice echoed in the room. It was unsettling for Daniel because there were still 8 to 10 ships on radar. Daniel took the aim at the biggest ships of all and fired the missiles. Game was over. Now he needed to wait until he reaches closer and he could utilize mid-range missiles.

"Dana! Start preparing Long range Missiles. We need to be prepared."

"Production is already underway." Dana ensured.

Daniel smiled and audibly breathed out and leaned back on lounger. He felt tired. He closed his eyes and relaxed a little.

All of a sudden, he sat up like he remembered something important and checked the left screen. There were two timers on. One was time to reach the enemy ships and other was time needed to repair the ship. Time to repair ship decreased to 93 minutes and remaining time to reach enemy ships increased to 90 minutes.

He was happily surprised. It must have happened due to all the missile firing. He checked the screen on his right, and he was correct. Speed of ship had reduced from 2,000 kilometers per hour to 800 kilometers per hour. Daniel could not be happier.

He could halt the ship at certain point from the enemy ships and wait until his weapons were ready. Now that he had found them, he was not in a hurry. He could take his time to prepare and then find and hunt them at his will.

Dana was sailing in the vastest, the grandest sea of stars. The sky was dark as always and there seems no chance of a daylight rising from the sky. Daniel got up from his seat and got closer to the window in his front. He was feeling eerie about the disappearance of the enemy missiles. They all disappeared at same spot; roughly 1,000 kilometers from enemy ships. Dana was getting closer to that spot every moment. They were roughly 220 kilometers away from the spot and would reach there in around 17 minutes.

The self-defense system of the ship was still active. Daniel had no intention of deactivating it until he had complete information on disappeared missiles.

"Dana! What is the status of repairs?" He wanted to devise some plan to slow down the ship and be able to halt and change the direction of the ship if anything were to go wrong. He had an alternate way to survive by himself but that would mean deserting Dana in space. The alternate option would be using "DANA Junior 1 (DJ-1)" or "DANA Junior 2 (DJ-2)"

DJ-1 and DJ-2 were two sub-spaceships, hangered on the third level. These were identical to Dana in shape, design, and facilities. However, each could support only five people. These ships were designed specifically for infiltration and targeted stealth attacks. These ships were equipped with latest stealth technology.