Deep Space
Uhlek Badlands
Thryn Frigate Jussru

Captain Rssa braced himself like he meant it: “Hard right, full reverssse starboard engine, 90 degree down angle on the bow planesss!” he ordered. Jussru twisted and jerked sharply downward in a sickening tribute to vertigo, and nearly every critical system tripped its bridge warning lights. A young operator, in a punching match with seasickness, retched on his console and wiped the mess to the deck in the dim light.

Still a half step ahead of the horde pursuing him, Rssa gave another order that righted his ship in time for the bridge crew to watch a spread of plasma glide overhead. That bought the battered Jussru roughly seven seconds. “All ahead flank—tactical, where iss the Human ship?”

ISS Negelle

“Shut it down, Bellix!” shouted Lieutenant Commander Jattino. He slammed down the comm box and ran the numbers through his brain. One engine wasn’t going to generate escape velocity, not by half. “Damn it! Target lead vessel, lasers, fire upon solution,” ordered Negelle’s second officer.

The first officer, Commander Gallryss—in command in place of his slain captain—was thinking a few moves ahead of the game while Jattino kept the present loosely under control. He keyed his tactical data pad and leaned hard left as Negelle yawed hard to starboard. The Thrynn frigate was just behind Negelle, gnashing and jerking like a shark in a cloud of seal blood, except she was the prey, not the relentless predator.

Gallryss swore under his breath. There was nothing to work with. He was gambler, and he knew how to push a pair of fives to the razor edge of the game, but all he had was the Jack of Clubs. So maybe that frigate has Mr. Jack Hearts…

Thrynn FrigateJussru

“They’re using an Uhl,” said Colonel Venn’Bk for the second time. In his sweat-drenched concentration, Rssa hadn’t caught it the first time.

“What do you mean they’re—“ Rssa was drowned out as Jussru rocked under the explosive waves of a near miss from a missile. “Damn it, adjust to port, they’ll have have us keyed—give me a damage report,” he roared. Six seconds lingered endlessly as the operations officer tallied the report. Rssa breathed in shaky relief as it came up clean, then shot a look to Venn’Bk. “They can’t be using an Uhl—”

“Of course they can’t!” snapped Venn’Bk, unaccustomed to being questioned. “But they are—perhaps one of the juvenile variety reported from the Noah Six colonial region. If we wish to survive this encounter, we must deduce a weakness that will expose it to destruction. Take away their Uhlek and we can deal with a lone G’Nunk ship—or at least the Humans can with their raw firepower.” It hadn’t occurred to Venn’Bk that a Thrynn might be commanding the Arthenean vessel.

“Captain, the Human vessel is hailing,” said the communications operator in the upper ring above Rssa.

“Open the channel,” said the captain. It took thirty seconds to explain that the G’Nunk had enslaved the Uhlek using an Uhl.

ISS Negelle

“Copy that, Jussru, wait one,” said Commander Gallryss, hitting the equivalent of a mute button on his utility console. He knew from weeks of observing the G’Nunk and Uhlek that the former had somehow harnessed the latter. He and Captain Puller had figured the G’Nunk had come up with some kind of drug or viral implant. A captured Uhl was unthinkable. “They’re kidding, right?”

“Helm! Down two five—and watch the trims!” shouted Jattino. He shifted mental gears and spun around to answer the boss. “Hell if I know—crocs might be trying to double cross us, but what’d they have to gain? I say we play ball.” Negelle dipped sharply down and then shot two kilometers to starboard along the horizontal plane. Lieutenant Commander Jattino turned back to his display to dream up another miracle.

“Jussru, Gallryss—what do you have in mind?” A moment’s pause preceded the crackling response from the Confederate frigate.

“Probability of success is nowhere greater than with a direct attack on the G’Nunk ship—it is the heart of the threat,” offered Rssa from Jussru’s dark bridge. Gallryss quickly translated the theory into a working plan and explained it to the Thrynn on Jussru and his own bridge crew in a few sentences.

“All right, on my mark we come about one eight zero and make a direct run for the G’Nunk ship,” said Negelle’s captain. “We’ll push ninety percent of shielding to the bow and you trail in behind us as closely as you can—we’ll unleash everything at point blank and then break off,” he finished. Rssa agreed. “Good. Come about on my mark. Three…two…one…mark.”

Thrynn FrigateJussru

Jussru whipped around, pulling closely into ISS Negelle’s wake and Colonel Venn’Bk pushed himself back into his chair in spite of himself. He had tasted danger, yes, but the kind that seasoned the traffic of espionage, not the acrid, adrenaline-spiked variety native to high seas combat. Both ships ran their engines to full power, set on a path for the G’Nunk warship and its Uhlek swarm. Remarkable, he thought. Here we pair again with the Humans, back to back in this dance of death with the ancient slave-sentries...

Both ships shot toward the marauding Regepple, weaving recklessly through the picket of Uhlek ships. All three loosed weapons at the same instant: Negelle her plasma; Jussru her lasers; and Regepple her missiles. In the next second, lithe Jussru pulled violently up and away from the incoming missiles.

“Break now!” hissed Rssa, watching helplessly as the slightly slower Negelle broke off her collision course with Regepple. But there wasn’t enough time in a single second.

ISS Negelle

“Rebalance shields, all power on the engines,” ordered commander Jattino, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. Negelle had managed a graze burst on the G’Nunk ship, but Regepple was still seaworthy, and she’d loosed a pair of missiles. One tracked off into space, unable to acquire the agile Thrynn frigate, but the other was locked onto Negelle’s thinly shielded stern quarter.

“Warpath terminal!” broadcast Warrant Ensign Kanavus as the missile closed in. There was no dodging this one. ”Impact now-now-now!” The exploding missile generated enough force to shatter Negelle’s two engine wells, blowing them off into space and sending Negelle herself careening out of control away from Regepple. The bridge rocked mercilessly in the absence of inertial dampening and blacked out for several seconds before the auxiliaries kicked in.

“Damage report!” shouted Commander Gallryss in the flickering light and billowing smoke. “God damn it—give me a damage report!”

“Sir, Ops is dead!” hollered Kanavus, struggling to the operations console to get an idea of the damage. His eyes went wide when he saw the wreckage. “Sir, we’re dead in space—everything aft of airlock twenty-two is gone. All primary systems are killed—“

“Gall, give the order! She’s finished,” shouted Lieutenant Commander Jattino over the rumble of the disintegrating caravel. Gallryss turned away for a long second, then smacked his comm box.

“All hands, this is the captain—abandon ship…”

Thrynn FrigateJussru

Rssa watched in horror as the Arthenean ship flew apart under the explosive power of the G’Nunk missile. “Track for escape craft,” he ordered, hardly believing anything had survived the ship’s catastrophic destruction. Our own survival is hardly probable…

“Captain—“ The communications officer was cut off as Jussru bucked from the shockwave produced by Negelle’s demise. “Captain, we have incoming message traffic.” Rssa winced. He wasn’t about to waste a breath on the G’Nunk. “It’s an Arthenean signal…”

Rssa paused, mostly in disbelief. “Indeed.”

“Thrynn Frigate, this is Commander Biggs Hilsfar of the Interstel Superphotonic Starship Belfast Windfall. We’re inbound and spun up on your situation—repeat inbound. Come about to eight-five-five mark two-seven—we can steal about three minutes.”

Rssa was in a mood to cooperate with the Artheneans. He turned to the helmsman. “Execute.”
----------
Next: “X-Ray”