Counter Strike by Doug Dandridge

Author:Doug Dandridge [Dandridge, Doug]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-08-19T04:00:00+00:00

SEVERIDE SYSTEM, SECTOR IV. DECEMBER 9TH, 1001.

“Prepare to match velocities and be boarded,” came the signal over the com.

Prestor Johnson looked at the com board as if whoever had sent that signal would magically appear over it. He linked with the com and ordered the signal to appear on visual, and the person who had sent the signal did appear over it, a youngish looking woman with the uniform of the Fleet, a busy bridge behind her.

Just my luck, he thought. Enigma, his thirty thousand ton personal yacht, had translated into the Severide system, home of a developing world on the edge of Sector IV space, bordering on Sector III. He had thought he would outrun any mention of himself to this system, which, as far as he knew, didn’t have a wormhole connection. Or any reason to have one.

And here he was, facing a one hundred and eighty thousand ton destroyer, actually within her beam weapon envelope. While it was an older vessel, the Naginata was definitely more than a match for his luxury ship, as technologically advanced as it was. And the holo showed four other ships closing on his location, all smaller than the destroyer. All capable of blowing his ship out of space.

“Acknowledge, Enigma,” said the woman on the holo, her transmission coming across three light seconds of space. “Acknowledge our transmission and your compliance, or we will open fire. All of our lasers and particle beams are locked on, and any attempt to jump into hyper or subspace will result in the destruction of your vessel.”

Prestor removed his hand from the control panel button he had just been about to push, the one that would have opened up the subspace portal. The destroyer would have picked up his graviton emissions almost instantaneously. It would have taken his ship almost five seconds to open the portal into subspace or hyper, and he would have taken two seconds of laser fire in that time period.

“I acknowledge, Naginata,” he said into the com. “I am ordering my ship to match velocities with you.”

“Don’t try anything, Enigma,” said the Captain of the destroyer. “As far as I can tell, you have done nothing to warrant the death penalty, or a mind wipe. And I would hate to have to execute you for no reason.”

But you would, you fascist, thought Johnson, as he watched the destroyer draw closer, both ships now communicating with each other and making sure they matched courses and velocities so that boarding could occur.

Ten minutes and some odd seconds later an assault shuttle left the hangar of the destroyer and flew the short distance between the ships. Enigma did not have a hangar that could handle the craft, so the shuttle linked to her by way of mating tube to one of the small vessel’s airlocks. As soon as the shuttle docked Prestor hit a panel on his com panel.

Try to stop that, he thought with a smile, as his com system broadcast all the information

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