Countdown by John Walker (most life changing books TXT) 📕

I might be able to take out two battleships here if I’m clever. Sasha changed the view on his monitor to a tactical view of the system. A decent-sized asteroid field sat near the system’s edge not quite an hour away from their current position. Beyond that, there were no other useful obstructions in the area.

“Alter course,” Sasha said. “I’ve sent the coordinates to your station.”

Marston looked over his screen before turning. “Sir, that takes us directly in line with…”

“I’m aware of the heading, Mister Marston.” Sasha nodded. “Complete the order.”

“Aye, sir.”

Sasha watched the scanner intently, keeping an eye on their opponent. Follow the leader, you bastard. The enemy vessel didn’t immediately respond to their course change. He thought they might not… until a moment later, the leading ervas veered after them. Thank God. I won’t have long alone with you, but it might not matter.

“Sir,” Daisy said, “artificial gravity surged when we left hyperspace. It’s considered low priority because only one of the systems is down. There are five more backing it up. They’ll get to that when the hyperdrive is fixed. Next report, the engineers have entered the bow and I’m conducting a scan of the foreign object.”

“Good.” Sasha chewed his lip. If they can surge that thing to stop our weapons… this fighting nonsense might be a big mistake. He didn’t feel like he had a lot of choice. Not with all the problems plaguing the ship. I can handle two of them. I know I can. It’s a matter of making the fight advantageous. That’s all.

The Broken Light had a full contingency of fighters. Sasha didn’t want to deploy them if they might leave suddenly. If anything went wrong, if they needed to jump suddenly, then several men and women would be abandoned. He’d seen it happen before and promised himself he wouldn’t do it except as a last resort.

We’re not there yet.

“Full speed,” Sasha said. “Keep us ahead of that ship. That might cut down the time to the field to… forty-five minutes. Check?”

“Confirmed, sir,” Marston said, “nicely done, sir.”

“Thank you.” Sasha leaned back. Okay, time to relax until they get too close. As long as their friends don’t fix the engine, we should have plenty of time to wipe this one out then go for his buddy. This might well prove to be a demoralizing blow for the ervas. They’d already lost at least two ships. Two more would make a near total defeat for their little invasion force.

Sasha was certain they had plenty more but if he proved victorious, it wouldn’t matter. His side would know they could be defeated… and by an older ship, no less.

***

Trenik paced in his locked quarters, staring at the floor. He felt helpless there, angry, frustrated. The humans had promised to let him participate in their briefing. At the last moment, that had changed and he was relegated to waiting. Harcourt said even he wasn’t invited, though he certainly didn’t show himself.

I’m sure I’m being left out in the cold, but they need me. If they hope to talk peace, they can’t do it without my presence.

After their foray out to the edges of ervas space, he felt all the more certain his people were in for a huge surprise. The humans might’ve been easy to take out when Whitaker controlled them but unified? With three different forces at their disposal? His people knew how to fight but those odds seemed overwhelming to him.

He looked over the data they recovered from the buoy. It didn’t help as much as he promised. They didn’t have the entire fleet numbers however, it did contain the locations of several large colonies and the main homeworld of the ervas. That last bit made Trenik the most nervous.

If the humans decided to be cruel, they could jump straight there with bombs. His people held a decent force in reserve there though it likely wasn’t enough to fend off a full-scale invasion. They’ll be stupid if they do not do that. He wondered if they took his advice about the different types of buildings. Will they hit civilian targets?

Part of him believed they didn’t care about collateral damage. They wanted to preserve their own people. Why worry about the damage done to aliens? But if peace held any value to them at all, they needed to work with him… to ensure the ervas had a chance to surrender before their homes and industry went up in flames.

Something else he knew for certain… the ervas military was on the move. Even before Dora’s ship infiltrated their space, they had been massing a fleet for invasion. They were ready to take the plunge into the frontier, to annihilate the Gold Empire first then move on to the Confederacy.

After their assault on the border worlds, they felt confident in their chances. He knew that from before he’d been captured. Now they wanted to put their newfound courage into action… which meant taking an enormous risk. One that only a few commanders wanted to exercise caution over.

Their voices are currently the minority. Hopefully, the most zealous ones will get a good thrashing to bring them back to reality.

The door opened. Harcourt entered. “I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long. I hope you’ve been okay?”

“No one has come,” Trenik said. “I have had no word about what is going on. What have your people decided to do? How can I help them make the right decision so my people do not suffer unnecessarily?”

“I received a small part of the briefing,” Harcourt replied. “Right now, they’re massing their forces. Once they do… well, I guess they’re going into your space. They’re arguing about whether it’s a pre-emptive strike or reactionary one, but I don’t think that matters. The bottom line is that we’re about to be at