Dreadnought Read Online Free PDF Page B

dignity of a military title.
    “Communication
standing by,” he responded. “Do you still wish to send on the light-speed bands
as well?”
    “Let’s
not leave any stones unturned,” Tarrel answered. “Broadcast your communication
now.”
    Pesca
had put together a rather competent first-contact communication, repeated in
every major language he knew, including some that were entirely mathematical in
nature and transmitted on both achronic and standard radio bands, as many as
the ship could handle. They did not expect an actual dialogue with the
Dreadnought, but any response might give them a fix on its location and
possibly reveal something about its nature. At least they would know where to
look.
    “We
already have a response,” Pesca announced only a few seconds after the
transition began. “One brief message on a single achronic band. Less powerful
than a Starwolf achronic carrier, but more distinct.”
    “What
about the message?” Tarrel asked impatiently.
    “The
computer can’t identify anything familiar about it.” “Any guesses?”
    Pesca
considered that briefly. “It is a machine code and very brief. I suspect that
we have just been hailed with a recognition code. If we respond properly, we
get to talk. If not, we get blown away. That suggests to me that the
Dreadnought is entirely machine-driven.”
    “Clever
boy,” Tarrel remarked to herself, thinking that Wally might just win back his
rank at this rate. “Do you have a direction on that signal?”
    “I’m
putting it up on the navigational grid now, Captain.” Tarrel glanced at the
navigational monitor, a large screen between the helm and navigator’s stations
just before her. To her alarm, the source Of that signal was nearly directly
behind and slightly above their own flight path. It was probably moving in to
intercept. Carthaginian was following the convoy. At this point, they were the
most tempting target.
    “Move
us quickly up through the convoy until we are leading,” she ordered
frantically. “I want a safe lead on those ships as quickly as we can get it.
Stand by the self-destructs.”
    “We
can’t detonate those ships while we’re anywhere within the convoy,” Chagin
reminded her.
    “Yes,
I know that. I just hope that we can get through before that thing takes out
too many of our ships.”
    She
did not add that, with the Carthaginian accelerating quickly through the
convoy, her powerful main drives would be giving out some very appealing
emissions. She considered the risk to be worthwhile. Indeed, they were almost
through the convoy before the first of the ships suddenly exploded.
    “Are
we clear?” she asked.
    “Give
me thirty seconds more and we should be able to ride out the shock wave without
damage,” Chagin reported.
    “Make
that forty seconds more,” the surveillance officer added. “We might not get a
reading if we’re too close, and we need the lead time to make a good
identification.”
    “I’ll
give you every second I can. Just stand ready.”
    A
second ship was taken out before the minimum time to safely detonate the
convoy. Captain Tarrel counted the seconds to herself, but the loss of a third
ship just short of the surveillance officer’s mark convinced her that it was
time to go. The delay in executing the order would take care of the rest, with
some to spare. If she lost too many ships, the plan would not work.
    Every
ship in the convoy exploded its generators from a forced overload at the same
moment, the combined blast enough to destroy a planet but spread over a fairly
large area of space. And the leading edge of that blast was coming right up
Carthaginian’s tail. Fortunately the battleship was already traveling nearly
fast enough to outrun even the flash, and she had begun moving to the very edge
of transition threshold since the order to detonate. She needed every second
she could get to stay ahead of the shock wave, which would be just as deadly to
her systems as the Dreadnought’s