DREADNOUGHT 2165 Read Online Free PDF Page B

ship Tipperary at the center, the rest of the NAV
projection was tinted red, expressing the OMNI-NAV's lack of
confidence in any information displayed regarding a region roughly
the size of the entire universe. Without a good starfix to locate
itself, Hardway 's
navigational computer always got confused during FTL
transit.
    Once Hardway rocketed through the veil of exotic
particles skating across the mouth of the terminus and reentered
normal space, the stars fixed themselves to the heavens again. "NAV
console is coming back on line," Dana said. "We're at Altair, close
to the third planet. We're fairly close to where they said we'd
be."
    "Captain Elogin has a new navigator
aboard Tipperary . He's a
specialist in Noodie hypermass equations," Cozen said. "Send
congratulations to the breaching ship. NAV, Lt. Sellis, what do you
see?"
    "Passive LiDAR calls the system clear so
far."
    "Look to the inner system," Cozen said.
"That's where the UN spybird saw it."
    Bolo leaned into his console as he
thumbed the comms for all Hardway air group squadrons. "All junks, all fighters, maintain
alert. Standby."
    "I see something." Dana pointed to a shadow
that hung in the NAV display like a specter. "There."
    In the glare of the system's massive
sun Hardway 's LiDAR had
trouble seeing it at first. For the initial seconds it appeared on
the display, it was only a ghost, a piece of darkness floating over
the bridge like a malevolent shadow. "It's not one of ours. It's
just over 5 million Ks out, hiding in Altair's glare," she said,
"like it was waiting for us to come through the
Transit."
    Cozen gripped the arms of the command chair.
"But is it the right ship?"
    "Estimated size," Dana said, "800
meters." Hardway 's computers
compiled all the scarce photons its arrays could observe over those
seconds and as it concatenated them, the alien vessel resolved into
a dark and familiar hull. They couldn't yet see the armored towers
that housed its particle beams, but already, they knew that ship.
One feature identified it beyond doubt. Coming out of the sun it
was hard to make out, but when it turned its port side to Hardway , it showed them
the skull.
    The 500-meter human skull had been drawn
with such willful disregard for actual human anatomy that anyone
who looked at it could tell it was drawn by aliens. It was a
caricature, wider than it was tall. The silvery paint smeared on
the hull had been vaporized in places and painted over again. It
was pockmarked with craters from point-blank detonations, but no
Earth bomb or gun had ever breached that armor.
    This alien ship had halted the Sirius
Offensive and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that if humans saw
the Squidies' Dreadnought coming, the only option for survival was
to run.
    "Active radar and LiDAR coming from
the alien. It's lighting us up," Lt. Bergano said from the console
behind Cozen. "It's looking us over." Twenty seconds after the
active pulses bounced off Hardway , they arrived back at the Dreadnought
and gave the enemy a clear view of the
Privateer attack carrier and the lumbering Charon with resolution down to the
millimeter.
    The Dreadnought turned slowly towards them
again until all they could see of it was the line of its
gun-studded bow. "It's coming for us," Cozen said. "Good."
    " Charon is s pitting out
gammas," Dana said. "Her reactors are sputtering. They're shutting
down. Her engines are dead now. The transport is
drifting."
    Dana had no idea whether or not the
Squidies understood, but Cozen spoke to Ram Devlin over an open
channel in case the aliens had acquired a proficiency in human
languages. " Hardway to Charon ... Interrogative: are you
experiencing engine failure?"
    "That is correct, Hardway . We are experiencing engine failure. It
will take hours to fix. Leave us. Save yourselves. Goodbye." Dana's
eyes rolled as she heard the transmission. Ram Devlin had turned
into a fine XO, but he was a lousy voice actor.
    "Your deaths will be avenged, Charon . God save your