Chapter 20

Our cruise to Lagrange 3 lasted for about a day. Upon arrival, I enter the bridge and B'Nan,who is at the left side station beside the helm, pipes up "Captain on the bridge!" I look to the helm with Mister Farham in the seat. "Helm, all stop." There is a reply "Conn, all stop, helm aye."

"Report, any ship traffic?" B'Nan hums "Weps reports zero contacts within 10k, conn." I sigh softly in thought. No traffic is not uncommon out here, "keep me posted. Helm, plot a course for Lagrange four." Farham started tapping buttons after I finished my order. "Lagrange four, Helm aye." I glance to a new crew member of ours, apparently they were asleep when we left - an Iridian woman. "Report."

The woman jumped, she seemed skittish and was prone to being startled. "Conn! S-s-s-sensors reports all clear! S-sensors aye!" I sigh again in exasperation. "Helm, all ahead standard."

"All ahead standard, helm aye!" came the reply from the helm station. I watch the black void of space on the roof of the bridge, which gave us a second-to-none view of the exterior of the ship. I ponder as I wait for something to happen. Watching my displays which had a sensor scope on it as well as the ships' control readout.

The Iridian sensors officer eventually reports on new contacts. "C-conn! Sensors reports two contacts bearing zero two five, Five Niner at 30k!" I watch the 3-dimensional passive sensor display as two lines form from the center dot, which is my ship. The lines represent bearings of contacts. Both at the bearing given. "Monitor contacts, designate Sierras 1 and 2." sensors replies to my orders with "T-Track contacts Sierra 1 and 2. S-Sensors aye!" I look to the weapons station "Guns, get me a solution on the two contacts and ready tubes 4 and 2."

"Ready tubes 4 and 2, weapons aye." I look to the sensors officer "Contact updates!" she squeaks at my curt tone "S-Sierra one is moving away from Sierra 2 towards the outer solar system!" I hrm.. And the two tracks on my display show two blips moving at different speeds. Sierra two trailing behind sierra 1. Sensors updates me again "Conn! Update on sierra 1.. Classified by emissions as Gravidan capital ship. Sierra 2 is classified as Iridian frigate!"

I lift an eyebrow and exchange a glance with B'Nan. "Any idea what is going on?" he shakes his head "no idea. Perhaps it would be best if we tailed the Iridian?" I purse my lips "First we destroy the Gravidan cruiser."

B'Nan nods "Tubes 2 and 4 are loaded." he glances to his display "I took the liberty of using the CHT-40 torpedoes." I smirk at the Gravidan smugly. "Excellent. Prepare to fire when we get within effective range."

******

Captain K'vanne was quite happy with the mission, she was tired of patrol duty in the core worlds, so a request from the Gravidan intelligence service for a trip to the outer areas of the Eta-Eridani system was just what she needed to break up the monotony.

Except she was unsettled that there were no ships in the system. No Iridian houses had patrols on their sensors except for their allies. This concerned her greatly. She had informed the sensors officer to notify her if that changed.

Her com chimes "Captain, we just had a sensor ghost off our starboard side, you might want to come to the bridge" her first officer. Of Course! It was now that something happens, but sensor ghosting was a major problem with the newer sensors suites on her ship, the G.E.C. Falknyr. "I am on my way to the bridge" she growled that out in annoyance.

K'vanne drags her body out of bed and gets to the bridge expediently, not even stopping to put on her commander's jacket. Upon reaching the bridge the sensors officer and her first officer waved her over.

"What? I was about to fall asleep!" the first officer looks to the sensors officer "well, ma'am. I do not know how to explain this, the ghosting was there for but a split second and then it just disappeared. Faster that I would have seen ti on my scope. The sensors signals processing software picked it up and stretched it out temporally on the display for me to see. Or I would not have picked it up."

K'vanne lifts a brow "A possible stealth ship?" the officer nods "it is likely captain."

[back with the S.S.R. Void Star's bridge…]

I purse my lips. "Targeting solution confirmed!" called B'Nan "ready to fire on your mark!" pausing a moment, I reflect on the decision to fire. "Shoot tube 1 and 4!"

"Shoot tube 1 and 4, aye sir!" we hear the sound of compressed air rushing out of the tubes as compressed CO2 ejects the torpedoes a safe distance from the ship, the torpedo tube doors shutting after the split-second it takes to launch in order to maintain the ship's stealth.

******

The torpedoes release with a 2 second interval between them and then the Torpedos fire their booster engines, and orient themselves on the target, followed by the activation of their Grav-drive engines to accelerate rapidly to about five percent of the speed of light.

At this point, the Gravidan sensors officer picks up the Torpedoes too late with the burn of their booster engines before they hurtle into an intercept course with the Gravidan cruiser. "Captain! Two incoming torpedoes bearing one eight five, zero four one! They are above and behind us!"

Captain K'Vanne's face turns an interesting shade of darker blue from the usual purple skin Gravidans have. "Evasive action!" the bridge crew start to panic as the sensors officer responds "too late! Brace for-"

It only takes 2 seconds for the torpedoes to arrive. These weapons break apart into several small fragments, submunitions. Still hurtling at the Gravdan cruiser at 5 percent of the speed of light, then impact the ship like the shrapnel from a shaped charge warhead. Slamming into the cruiser and creating large holes in the hull, one or two finding their way to main engineering deep in the bowels of the cruiser, destroying one of the two fusion reactors and its cooling loop along with the other reactor's cooling loop. The second reactor is sent into a spiral of feedback-loop heating with no cooling of the core, the heat simply escaping into the air of main engineering and creating a blast furnace inside the hull, which melts the hull as it cuts into two. The front half of the ship's lights go out as the power cuts. Leaving the crew within stranded with only an hour or two of breathable atmosphere at best.

The rear of the vessel suffers a catastrophic explosion of it's main torpedo magazines at the impact of the second torpedo's submunitions, annihilating the back half section of the ship and throwing debris in all directions, some of which hit the front half section of the now stricken ship.

[Back with the S.S.R. Void Star's bridge]

I gawk at the sensor readings as we had just watched the infra-red signature of the ship go out, then flare. Which means an explosion. Assuming most of the atmosphere just bled off into space, most of the crew was either ejected by explosive decompression into the vacuum of space, or trapped on board with only a few hours of breathable oxygen aboard.

The Iridian sensors officer confirms the destruction of the Gravidan cruiser. "Conn, Sensors reports distortions and thermal signature indicating an explosion. The contact's thermal signature has gone cold. Target destroyed."

I nod "So it is. Helm, trail that Iridian frigate."