Twenty seconds of excruciating silence passed before the nose of the Denzee hammerhead came into view. Trish squeezed the trigger, firing three hypervelocity pellets a second. Six pellets mangled a forward cannon and the surrounding shielding before the power breaker flipped off, taking the Bangor into darkness.
Trish asked, “Why aren't they shooting?”
As she flipped the breaker on, Tawn said, “They have a prize. They'll be wanting to know who we are and how we took control of this ship.”
“Can't we shoot the rail cannon again?”
Harris replied, “Might be our only choice. We can't allow them to take us. We know too much.”
An image of Alex popped into existence above Farker. “Greetings, Harris and Tawn. I've been monitoring your situation. It seems dire.”
Harris chuckled. “You here to gloat? Doesn't seem like you.”
“On the contrary. I'm here to deliver a message of hope.”
“Hope? Hope for what?”
Trish said, “We have a wormhole opening. It's... one of our new freighters.”
A comm came in from Sharvie. “Finally! We caught the rat trying to hack us. He's been taken care of. I hope the help I sent is enough.”
A second comm came in. “Gruberg, Freely, we'll see if we can give you a bit of space.”
“Colonel?” Harris asked.
“Miss Withrow said you might need some help. I've brought the newly commissioned freighter, the Hailstorm. Major! Bring those cannons online! Full auto!”
Harris shook his head. “The tungsten won't penetrate their shielding, Colonel. We're just throwing punches.”
“Then we'll throw punches.”
Tawn stepped forward. “Colonel, have your gunners aim for ports or vents. And stay away from the front of that beast. We don't know if that big gun is still functional or not.”
The Hailstorm slid in for a broadside exchange with the Denzee warship. Plasma bolts pounded the freighter's shields as a half dozen autofed rail cannons opened up. The Hailstorm rumbled inside as plasma bolts impacted its shields, jerking its occupants up, down, and side to side. External plating buckled in spots, but held.
Plating punched heavily inward on the Denzee claw-hammer without breaching hull integrity... until a door blew from a small docking bay. As each cannon passed, their aim was altered to take advantage of the opening. Smoke billowed. Flames burst out and quickly extinguished. Debris littered the space surrounding the great ship.
The colonel barked an order. “Bring us around! And target that damage!”
As the Hailstorm spun, slowed, and reversed course, the behemoth warship began to move. A second volley of plasma bolts saw two sections of the freighter's hull give way. The bulkheads behind held firm. The newly commissioned ship returned rail cannon fire into the damaged Denzee bay, widening the hole. Decks and interior bulkheads shattered and failed with the second pass.
The colonel yelled, “Take us around!”
The upstart freighter spun and pursued as the Denzee ship continued to pick up speed. Five minutes into the chase, the Hailstorm broke away, its speed not capable of matching the much faster vessel.
“Harris gave a look of relief. “Thank you, Colonel. We were had.”
“You need personnel to clear that ship?”
“No, sir,” said Trish. “No bio signs on here but our own.”
Tawn said, “We could use a crew though, Colonel. A few of us are a bit beat up from shrapnel.”
“Bring them over, Miss Freely. We have a medic aboard... and supplies. I'll send a crew back and we'll see if we can bring her home.”
Harris said, “I'd like to take her to Midelon first, Colonel. You take her home and the DDI will sweep her away. We won't have learned anything for ourselves.”
“We learned this barge can hold her own against their plasma weapons. That in itself is good news.”
“We found a weak point and were able to exploit it. If they have any kind of intelligence they'll be looking to cover that vulnerability.”
“As will we.”
“Yes, but what you didn't witness was having to fight that main gun. I've seen it go five bulkheads deep into the nose of an Earther destroyer. It would do equal damage to that freighter, if not more. We must have gotten in a few lucky shots to disable it just before you arrived. I'm certain those defenses will be enhanced for our next encounter.”
The Bangor moved into the small docking bay of the Hailstorm. Their medic was waiting to assist the injured.
Tawn gestured toward Harris. “Go get that shoulder looked at.”
“It's fine. Just bruised.”
Tawn shrugged. “Your body. If it was me, I'd be worried about needing to fight again tomorrow. I'd want to be at the top of my game.”
“Fine. I'll have it looked over. Colonel, when your crew is ready over there, let's jump to a neutral spot. From there we'll take the Denzee ship with us. I'll bring your crew back once we're settled.”
“So no visit for me to the mystery planet?”
“Not yet. Until I'm given the OK, I won't be allowing any other piloted ships in there. We'll be dropping this rattle short of the planet. We can pick it up on our own from there.”
The Denzee ship was moved to Midelon and the colonel's crew returned. Two days later, Harris walked the bridge deck as the massive ship sat on the grass beside their encampment. Trish and Farker walked by his side.
“Alex, have you given their systems a full analysis?”
“I have. I would expect that the vulnerabilities taken advantage of by Miss Withrow's team have been secured. They were intricate finds, but identifiable once an attack happened.”
“You find any more we might make use of?”
“Several, but they do not open the systems to the level of access achieved in this last attack. I would qualify them as minor exploits. More nuisance than detriment.”
Harris asked, “Anything else of note or interest?”
“Yes.”
Harris chuckled. “Well, would you please tell them to me?”
“Their drive systems are considerably advanced. They are able to achieve speeds above 60 percent light-speed. Substantially faster than our own systems.”
Harris nodded. “That's impressive. Is it something we can replicate?”
“I believe we can. The major difference is in the containment vessel surrounding the drive. In our systems, 72 percent of the magnetic field is absorbed by shielding. In the Denzee drive, 98 percent of the field is utilized as it is reflected by the containment structure. That single difference, in theory, accounts for 87 percent of the speed advantage they possess.”
Trish said, “So we can increase our efficiency by adding this wonder shielding? What is it?”
“An alloy. I will forward the material list to your comm. While we do not have the means to produce this here, it could be done on Domicile.”
Harris asked, “You find anything else of value?”
“Yes.”
Harris shook his head. “Tell us please.”
“The exterior shielding, also an alloy, would add 22 percent to the 'hardness' of our hulls. The emitter tips of their plasma weapons are 14 percent more efficient. And their environmental systems recycle air at only a quarter of the power use of ours.”
“How about things like computers or inertial dampeners?”
“Both of ours appear to be superior. I do have one other item that I believe you will find interesting.”
“Go on.”
“The ion inhibitor boxes we use to add protection to our hulls, they can be adjusted, with a minor software modification, to better inhibit the effects of the Denzee plasma weapons. This one update may add as much as 30 percent to our plasma shielding.”
“That's huge, Alex. When can we have this adjustment? Or I guess I should say, give it to us.”
“I'm forwarding the update and the installation instructions to Trish.”
Harris nodded. “Good. That will at least give us something. You have the designs of our new freighters. I'd like you to enhance those designs with these updates. Let me know when those are ready and we'll forward them to Mr. Morgan.”
“I'll let you know, Harris.”
“Wait, one last thing. You said the hull plating on this ship is harder than ours. Is there any way for us to strip some of it off here to add to the Bangor?”
“One moment while I perform an analysis... yes. The cutting and welding equipment in Trish's shop should be sufficient. I will forward what I consider to be the best plating to remove, along with instructions for its installation on the Bangor. I would caution, however, that you will be losing much of your stealth capability. If you'd like, I can work up a design to regain most, if not all of that, but I suspect it will require a visit to a manufacturing facility.”
“Do that, Alex. And thanks.”
Harris turned to Trish. “When he sends you that plating, let's get to work and get it stripped. I want to turn this over to the colonel and the DDI as soon as possible.”
“How long before all these bodies start to smell?”
Harris replied, “Not an issue. So long as we keep the temperature in here below freezing, they'll keep until we turn it over. The DDI can then clean it up if they want.”
Trish looked down at her comm bracelet. “I have incoming data from Alex. I'll get Gandy and the tools Alex suggests and get started.”
Five hours passed before Trish came to see a resting Harris. “The shoulder feel any better?”
“Not really.”
“We have the plating removed. If you want to deliver the ship to the colonel, it's ready to go.”
Harris nodded. “You sure you have everything you need? Once we give this over we won't be seeing it again.”
“I took what Alex recommended, plus another 20 percent. We should be good.”
“You have an estimate of how long it will take to weld that on?”
Trish nodded. “Three days, according to Alex.”
“Go ahead and get moving on that. Tawn and I will be taking the rattle to the Retreat.”
Harris opened a comm to Sharvie. “How you doing up there?”
“We have twenty ships under various stages of hack right now. Some we fully control and others we are working toward. The rattle ships continue to assault Barrier. We've sent eight of them to the ground as fireballs, but more are coming.”
“No troops on the ground there yet?”
“No. And the warships that were there have gone back to Rumanta. Possibly an attempt to protect that colony. We're keeping the pressure up there too, but they're slowly regaining control.”
“And you're all set for food and such?”
“I'm good for another week, thanks.”
Harris rounded up Tawn. He piloted the shuttle with Farker as she insisted on flying the Denzee ship. Ninety minutes later they were parked in orbit over the Retreat with a comm open to the surface.
The colonel said, “I'll notify my contacts at the DDI. Once they're on their way, I'd suggest you scat as soon as they show on your nav display.”
Harris nodded. “Will do, Colonel. The Denzee ship is complete except for a small section of plating. I'm sending you an analysis we performed on it that outlines a number of enhancements we could make to our own fleet, giving us a better edge in a standard fight. We don't have anything that will stand up to the main weapon on their warship. I'm sending what data we have along on that as well.”
The colonel replied, “If they don't pull the warrants they have out for you and your crew, I'll be shocked. Between this and the data I just turned over from the Hailstorm, they'll be far ahead of the game, without having risked a single agent or ship.”
“Having those warrants lifted would be nice, but I wouldn't trust them to not still grab any of us for questioning. We have Midelon, and they want to know what's there. How is the Hailstorm, by the way?”
“Extensive hull damage. Lost two or our rail cannons. Mr. Morgan has it back in the dock at the moment. He says two weeks should bring her back to 95 percent, with the remainder being cosmetic. I told him not to put any effort behind repairing the paint job.”
“What about production of the other two?”
“Three weeks and both will be ready for flight testing.”
Harris nodded. “Can't be soon enough. Any thoughts on producing more?”
The colonel shrugged. “I think that all has to do with the monies available. Bannis told me they're running close to a hundred million credits each. He's put a large part of his personal fortune into this.
“Although... I might have a solution. Instead of the DDI, if I turn this ship and the information you have given over to Mr. Morgan, he might be able to generate enough contract work through upgrades to more than cover his costs. I would imagine the fleet admirals would be keen to have what you've brought us today.”
“Excellent idea. In fact, I believe I'll open a comm to him right now and give him the news personally.”
The colonel nodded. “Please do.”
An image of Bannis Morgan showed on the display. “Mr. Gruberg, Miss Freely, the colonel filled me in on your latest exploits. I'm told you have a Denzee ship in your custody?”
“We do. I have it here at the Retreat, waiting for you.”
“For me?”
“I was just discussing with the colonel. We've conducted a quick analysis of the ship's drive, shielding, and systems. I have a number of design updates to offer, not only for our freighters, but for you to submit for contract updates to the Domicile fleet. Enhanced shielding, weapons, and a drive that can propel a ship to 60 percent light-speed. I don't see how they could refuse. Especially given the current threat.”
Bannis sighed. “The DDI is fully aware of the threat. Our politicians have buried their heads in the sand and don't want to hear about it. That's partly because the New Earth emperor insists they have the Denzee under control.”
Harris shook his head. “The Barrier colony is under assault right now. We've managed to run some interference, including grabbing this ship, but that time is coming to an end. And the Earthers don't have anything that can stop the Denzee warships.”
“Then why not ask for our help?”
“The emperor still has his mind set on conquering us all. If he can beat back the Denzee while building up his own fleet, he would be unstoppable should he come after us next.”
“I see. Send me what you have and let the Denzee ship sit. I'll have a crew out there to move it.”
Harris winced. “There is one thing. Your people will find about five hundred dead Denzee splattered all over the inside of the ship. We have the inside temp set at below freezing, but the mess is still there.”
Bannis returned his own grimace. “We'll take care of it, Mr. Gruberg.”
“Oh, and I'm sure the Hailstorm repairs are a significant cost. Let the colonel know we'll reimburse whatever that cost is. Along with the updates we’re sending you.”
“Will do.”
The comm was closed, the data sent, and the Gooch returned to Midelon.