The Island of Hope Read Online Free PDF Page B

unequaled.
    A man might have dismissed the target which appeared in the sights of the last functioning spherical radar as worthless. This still-alive lump of flesh huddling on a metallic fragment of a turret could only make you feel sorry for it. But for the cruiser's automatic systems this was the enemy. Its computer had no idea of mercy nor worth. It was programmed to continue the war.
    The gun's micro switches searched for some undamaged control circuits. The exact aiming electromagnets were out of order, as were the servomotors, and that was why the vacuum gun barrel shook convulsively, struggling to aim. In the silence of space the electronic breech-block chambered the first shell, and some intermittent flashes of gun-fire illuminated for the last time the cruiser's hull. The fifth shell in the charger got stuck, but the target was already for ninety percent destroyed: the attacking battle compartment was holed, and a powerful jet of gas was gushing out of it. The reaction force pulled the compartment away from the cruiser in the direction of the spherical conglomeration of damaged spaceships.
    Whether the man piloting the module was hit remained unknown to the computer, but it didn’t' care: the tiny figure at the end of the safety tether had little chance of survival.
    Inside the dying spacecraft, a memory crystal logged in another victory chalked up by the cruiser North over an enemy ship.

3.
     
    "H ugh, let's clear out of here!" Nomad snapped, turning away from the external monitors.
    Ernie Hugo looked in surprise at his partner. "Since when have you been afraid of the dead, Nom?"
    Silently, Nomad rolled with his seat to the reserve panel and flipped some switches, then reached out for his cup of coffee.
    "I swear by the Procus snake-eaters, they damaged our property, and we have the right to take our own back!" Hugo spat out. "What the hell are you afraid of?"
    The coffee proved to be too hot. Having taken a gulp, Nomad burned his mouth and snorted angrily, choking. He replaced the cup and peered moodily at the 3-D survey screen where one could see, in the inky abyss of space, a gigantic swirling octopus glowing with every hue of red.
    This nuclear cesspit was located exactly where the planetoid used to be. Now it was gone and so was their stash.
    The planet had been annihilated, which was plainly stated by the onboard computer, thousands of metal fragments orbiting whatever was left of it.
    One of the monitors kept ID'ing spaceships as they floated into the onboard video sensors' field of view.
    "Ernie, you see what this means?"
    Hugo made a face supposed to indicate naïve bewilderment, but Nomad wasn't interested in their habitual banter. The eyes of this space vagrant betrayed some genuine fear.
    "That's a Galactic War, Hugh," he said in a low voice.
    "Yeah right! Why are you panicking?" Ernie lost his temper. "What's wrong with you? Yeah, sure I can see perfectly well that this heap of scrap metal stinks of radiation to high heaven and back. So what? We have the necessary protection, decontaminating agents, remotely controlled robots! You just look at this!" he pointed a finger at a monitor identifying the contour and characteristics of yet another damaged spacecraft. "An Earth battle cruiser! Our tub is falling to pieces, the reactors are exhausted, but this..." he rolled his eyes. "In just a month we'll have ourselves one hell of a ship!" Ernie took another glance at his partner and added, without any irony this time: "You know, Nom, people only get what they deserve. If everybody worked as we do to earn their daily bread, they would have no time to exchange punches!"
    Nomad shook his head but didn't reply: the onboard computer beat him to it. Their ship's transmitter kept changing frequencies automatically; and at that particular moment, it had reached the wavelength of 21 centimeters.
    A voice filled the chartroom, "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!"
    Hugo keyed in some commands. The onboard radars took the