Seeds of Destiny by Thomas A. Easton

Author:Thomas A. Easton [Easton, Thomas A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: science fiction
ISBN: 9781587151248
Google: U4DFD3fD204C
Amazon: 1587151243
Goodreads: 3033581
Publisher: Ace
Published: 1994-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

When Ali Catrone lifted her head from the screens and indicators of her drive room station, her eyes looked haunted. Her lips were a grim line, her brows drawn together above dark shadows, her gestures abrupt and jerky.

Marcus Aurelius Hrecker felt no more cheerful than she. Yet both kept their attention on the displays before them, their fingers moving jerkily to keep the flow of power to the Bonami’s weapons systems flowing smoothly and the ship itself poised for immediate liftoff if the tide of battle should somehow turn.

Though “battle” was hardly the right term. The destruction that raged outside the ship was almost wholly one-sided. Human missiles rained down while the coons scrambled and fled and died like the denizens of a Martian city cracked open by a quake. There was no resistance in the valley other than a few brave fools with rifles and shoulder-mounted missile launchers, a single platoon of useless tanks, finally a first squadron of military jets. Elsewhere the story might be different.

They were the only two in the drive room. She was here because the drives were her responsibility, he because his only ship-based experience was on the shifter board. The rest of the drive crew were at weapons stations, scanning the skies and ground for attackers and selecting targets both for defensive particle beams and for offensive missiles.

The demand for power fluctuated from moment to moment, soaring when the ship’s particle beams were fired. They could destroy an incoming missile in milliseconds or attack nearby ground forces. They could be used on distant targets only in space, where there was no air to ionize and absorb the beam.

The ship boomed and rocked and trembled as the Engineers’ own weapons shook the ground on which it sat. It rang when shrapnel flew from exploded buildings and vehicles and struck its skin. Yet no alarms rang or hooted to signal penetration of the hull. The Bonami and all her sister ships had been well built.

Hrecker wished he were a religious man, for then he could pray. But that wish did not distract his attention from the shifter board. He smoothed response curves and adjusted controls, struggling to keep the probability field confined within the ship, within the field. If it swelled too much, he knew, it might encourage a missile to strike more squarely or find the hull’s weakest point. It might even permit a missile to tunnel through the hull. Either way, the results would be catastrophic.

He also made sure the basic underpinning of the ship’s power generator functioned efficiently and reliably. Ali Catrone controlled power levels and was prepared to shunt every terajoule to the drives themselves the moment Captain Quigg demanded flight.

Tamiko was in the main control room, in constant touch with General Lyapunov and the other aides and captains, coordinating the attack on the coon civilization.

Did she too wish she could pray? He stole a glance at Catrone. She did, he thought. At least, there was a tiny cross held snug against the hollow of her throat by a slender chain.

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