The First Nova I See Tonight by Jason Kilgore (the false prince .txt) 📕

a series of coordinates and pressed a button. A pleasant, double-note tone sounded through the ship, notifying the crew that it was proceeding, then he slowly pulled on a lever.

This was Dirken's favorite part. It was the action that made him fall in love with space in his early youth, a foundling with tattered clothes and dirty hands who had sneaked into the cabin of his refugee ship and experienced, for the first time, a gravity jump, or "gravjump," from one part of space to another.

From deep in the ship came a low roar as a vastly powerful Jacobian gravwell generator in the guts of the craft initiated a nano Einstein-Rosen bridge — a tiny black hole or "gravity well" — which warped space around them and the gravwell panels on the outside of the ship.

He turned his eyes to the windows and watched as the wide vista of stars seemed to accelerate their twinkle. The stars on the periphery of the view appeared to move slowly away, but if he looked directly at them, it was the other stars that seemed to move. A split second later, they all puckered into the middle of his view, then exploded back outward again in a brilliant rainbow flash. When the flash ended, new stars appeared. And off to the right, a fantastic nebula resplendent in clouds of blue and red. There wasn't so much as a tremor as the ship folded through space to its new location.

"Sir!" shouted a sensors lieutenant. "Multiple contacts off both port and starboard."

It wasn't unusual for ships to congregate near jump points, but something about the lieutenant's voice told Dirken something was off.

First Mate Prasad commanded, "Identify."

The lieutenant replied, "Two brigantines, a corvette, and a swarm of small contacts from each of the brigs, sir. None of the ships have identifier transponders; they're running dark." Then another crewman added, "Their specs conform to vessels associated with pirates."

"Battle stations," Captain Chen said. "Spin up the gravwell engines as soon as possible."

An alarm rang through the corridors on the ship-wide intercom. Dirken knew the crew would be running either to battle stations or interior safe rooms and readying the medical bay for casualties.

In the bridge, the various officers exchanged looks of alarm, eyes wide, but they kept their mouths shut. Up in the command deck, the Captain and her commanding officers kept a steely gaze.

"Focus on the small contacts and identify," Prasad said.

"Fleas, sir!" came the response a moment later. "Approximately two hundred of them. Other contacts closing."

Fleas. Dirken knew very well what they were up against, as surely as the Captain and First Mate would know. Small attack drones, each only as large as a serving platter, equipped with simple propulsion and either cutting lasers or tiny bombs. Some were automated, some were remote controlled, but they served only one real purpose in a situation like this: a swarm of hundreds or even thousands would descend upon the critical outer parts of a ship and cut them to ribbons, disabling the ship, or cutting holes in the hull to depressurize. Only flak cannons or EMP burst emitters were effective against a swarm.

"Shut the blast screens and open fire!" the Captain shouted, and a metal shield came down over the bridge windows.

Dirken didn't wait around any longer. He stepped back to the supply room. The yeoman, wide-eyed, seemed lost. "Sir, maybe you should…." Dirken ignored him and entered the room, closing the door behind him.

"What's going on?" Yiorgos asked. He'd shut off his Netfolding projection.

"It's an attack. Two brigs and a corvette just launched fleas."

"Mafia?"

"Not their style. Probably pirates."

"Against a destroyer?! Which pirates? Coros the Dark? Or do you think it's the Ursan, Dn'tors?"

Dirken scratched at the stubble on his chin. "Too close to Earth for Coros. And last I heard, Dn'tors had the weeping pox. No, I think this may be the Gleeza twins, or perhaps the pirate known as the 'Bloodhawk.' Word on Mars was that he's in this region, but I don't know much about him."

"Never heard of him," Yiorgos said. "But whoever it is, they've got balls. Even if they succeed, they'll have the whole Silver Fleet hunting them down. I doubt there's much cargo aboard. They must want the weapons tech."

Dirken heard plasma cannons discharging from a distant part of the ship. Then hundreds of ominous bangs rang out as fleas made contact with the hull.

"Clearly they're desperate for something," Dirken replied.

He wondered, What the hell could be so important that it would warrant attacking a United Worlds destroyer?

They looked at each other then both turned their eyes to the safebox.

CHAPTER THREE

SPACE PIRATES

"Stay with the safebox," Dirken said as he armed his blaster and checked the charges. He stepped out of the room. The blond yeoman reached out. "Sir, you should stay in the…."

Dirken waved him off. "Shut it, pipsqueak," he said without looking back, and left him behind.

Dirken peered around the corner at the bridge. The command center was alive with organized action.

"Rear Array 2 immobilized!" shouted one weapons specialist.

"Brigantine One now 1.2 kilometers and closing," said a sensor technician.

"Hull perforation on Engineering Deck 3," said an engineer. The holographic display beside her showed the destroyer in blue miniature glowing light with red splotches across its hull and a blinking red area on the back of the third deck.

"An armed shuttlecraft has detached from the corvette," said a navigator, looking up at a holo display that showed each of the four ships and a smaller vessel breaking away from one of the larger ones. "It could be a boarding party."

Other readouts were projected in the air over each action station, and viewscreens on every side of the room showed schematics and navigation charts.

"Status on gravwell spin-up?" Captain Chen shouted.

"Fifteen minutes."

"Notify UW command that we have been attacked and that we need back up."

"Aye, Captain!"

Just then the ship was rocked by an explosion, momentarily disrupting the gravity flooring. Dirken felt his body lift from the floor ever