Lalande
© 2021 by Walter Reimer


Thumbnail art by  rabbi-tom


“Subcaptain g’Raf.” Captain k’Jen’s voice echoed slightly inside her combat armor’s helmet. Varan adjusted the audio slightly.

“Sir.” Her eyes never left the tactical display at her position in the secondary command center.

The Kith went into a roll and translated along its negative z-axis, describing a corkscrew path in the display. “The Terran ship is disabled. Prepare a boarding – “

The display registered a huge flare of energy and the Imperial cruiser moved away.

“Disregard,” the kam said dryly. “Weaponeer, attack pattern J-4, nearest Terran ship.”

The Confederate forces in the Lalande System comprised, according to Intelligence, two divisions of older ships as part of the Terran fleet reserves. Against this, one division of the Imperial Fleet had outphased just outside the local sun’s heliopause in order to provoke a response by the Terrans. The Kith was part of this formation.

One division of Terran ships had outphased outside the Kashlanin tactical envelope, and the fleet commander had challenged the Imperial ships to surrender, an act that amused the Kashlanin admiral and simultaneously made her suspicious.

A message had been sent before the Imperial ships advanced to attack, with Kith and the other light cruisers forming the screening vessels. Varan had taken her post in secondary command as the Pilot handed control to the Weaponeer, who immediately took evasive action when the Terran ships filled the volume of space with antishield missiles.

“Attack pattern K-6,” k’Jen snapped as the ship shuddered from multiple strikes. “Damage?”

“Ventral shield to forty-two percent, minor damage to the hull, two injured,” Varan reported as the data streamed across her repeater screens. She glanced at the tactical display again and her eyes narrowed, her feline pupils dilating. “Gartabin – “ The ship shuddered “ – the flagship is updating the main display. We have multiple hyperspace wakes.”

“Terran,” the Sensor Officer added.

“Understood,” k’Jen replied. “Attack pattern G-10. Weaponeer, this course,” and a bright line appeared in the display.

“Two Terran destroyers, outphasing,” the Weaponeer warned, and the artigrav fluctuated. “Evading, launching missiles.” A pause. “Leading destroyer’s shields are down.”

“Raking fire.”

“Firing.” The smaller Terran ship split in half, its engines propelling their part of the ship for some distance on a haphazard course before exploding. The other half started windmilling about, shredding pieces of itself while the Kith began moving away as quickly as possible.

“Signal from the Admiral,” Communications said. “Reinforcements are – “

“COLLISION ALERT!”

“EVASIVE!” K’Jen shouted.

The entire cruiser jerked sideways and up as a fragment of Terran destroyer collided with it, the ship shuddering as alarms blared and the artigrav cut off completely. Varan stared at the sheer number of alarms – hull stress, structural shear, hull breach – and cut through the gabble of competing voices in her intercom. “Stay calm! Main command?” she asked.

“No contact,” Communications said. “Computer’s transferred command functions here.” They would do that only if all contact was lost with the primary command center.

“Damage control parties deployed,” the Duty Officer said.

“Do we still have communications?” The officer gestured affirmatively, and Varan said, “Advise the flagship that we are damaged and disengaging. Coordinate with Damage Control and give them our condition. Weapons, status?”

“Primaries at thirty percent, secondaries same. Shields are down around affected area, hyperfield emitters out as well . . . “ He listened for a moment. “Engines are undamaged, hull breached, we’ve got reports coming into the Infirmary . . . the collision penetrated five decks – and main command is partially destroyed.” The kam glanced away from the tactical display to look at Varan. “Kusagi, Gartabin i’?”

The word hit the vir like a slap to the face, followed by a hollow, sinking sensation in her being.

Yezhef k’Jen was – Dead? Injured? Trapped? - along with how many others.

She was the captain of the Kith now.

Varan was suddenly aware that shlani were looking at her, waiting for orders.

Her orders.

She took a deep breath, her training asserting itself. “Shield status.”

“Seventy percent,” Weapons replied. “The damaged area is affecting coherence.”

“Can the hull take a defensive tumble?”

“Nothing too drastic, Ma’am.”

“Tron muta’. Move us out of the battle area, but be watchful. Communications, anything from the flagship?”

“Yes, Ma’am. They want to know if we’re able to inphase.”

“Tell them no. We will have to effect repairs.” Varan saw that Imperial reinforcements had arrived, and the Terran forces were withdrawing to defensive positions within the Lalande System itself. Imperial losses . . .

Aka, there’d be time for that later.

She forced herself to focus on immediate demands as a repair ship signaled that they were entering the area. As soon as possible, the Kith would head back to Wangguan, and possibly transferred all the way back to This Far.

In the back of her mind, Varan knew that she would definitely not be looking forward to the casualty reports.

“Surgeon-mistress, Captain.”

Sooner than expected. She had an experienced crew.

Varan braced herself. “Go ahead.”

“Preliminary casualties are forty-six dead or missing, sixty-two injured.”

“’Missing?’”

“Damage control is still looking. No suit transponders were located outside the ship.”

“Thank you, Viyēakh. Duty Officer, keep me informed of the damage control progress. Weapons, any pursuit?”

“No, Ma’am.”

“Signal from the repair ship,” Communications said. “They will remove the object that hit us and repair the hyperfield.”

‘Object?’ “Exterior view, my repeater, please.” There was no sense in replacing the tactical display; half-crippled as it was, the Kith still needed to fight, if only to protect itself. She looked down, and her ears went straight up.

A jagged piece of the Terran destroyer’s hull stuck out of the ship (her ship, now) like a broken dagger blade, the penetration site ringed by hoarfrost where atmosphere had vented. The frost was sublimating away in the cold vacuum.

There was a possibility that some of the missing were only trapped in damaged sections; the entire crew had been suited up.

Still, nearly half the crew were injured, missing or dead.