Space... well it's kind of a frontier...
Once dinner was cleared away the three Noonians, began to finish up the preparations for flight. Which mostly seemed to consist of putting everything loose away, finally Noon and Kirrin looked at their passengers, Noon ushered them towards the stairway that led up to the flight deck, “Safest place for you all is in your bunks with the shutters down
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“Five?” Noon said sharply.
“Five.” Confirmed Pat quietly “Attempting a pincer movement, how are they moving so fast?”
“I’m guessing they got the latest upgrades, why do I feel more and more like a fly in a web?” Noon asked quietly.
“Your calculations still going to work?” Pat asked.
*Five minutes to intercept, ten minutes to earliest jump point.* Thing reported.
“Nope, gonna need to rework them, you’re gonna have to fly.” Noon sighed and then let out a soft but fierce growl “Hsu? Daniel? Xiao? Has one of you played some spacefight computer games? Asteroids would be fine?”
Pat nodded at Noon and started to reset the controls for the laser, he was scrolling through a list of popular space games, ready to choose one. “What about if I made us disappear again?” he asked Noon
“Won’t work, to easy to see us by other means, and we need to moe in straight lines so it’s easy to figure out where we are and where we might be.” Noon drummed her fingers on the arm rests of her seat. “Well if I’m gonna have to recalculate anyways, no reason we can’t put on a bit more speed. Thing set up thrusters for a thirty second burst, and calculate trajectory with corrections. Make the trajectory away from Earth and as much at right angles to them as possible. Might as well let them waste as much fuel as possible before we move so we’ll fire off in two minutes.”
*Understood*
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"Woohooooo!" Dan laughed as if this was the best roller-coaster ride ever, even if for a split-second, his stomach wasn't quite so appreciative. However, he'd never something like that get in his way of having fun.
The vibrations from the engines and then the effect of the sudden freefall as they broke free of Earth's atmosphere had little effect on Xiao, who had been lying on the bunk while he waited for Hsu to join him.
All three of them listened in to the exchange from the flight deck, and while some of the terminology might not be familiar to them, they all had plenty of experience with attacks and ambushes to be able to follow.
"I can do a quite bit better than Asteroids." Danny was already leaving his bunk to head up to help. Like so many kids of his generation, he had grown up on video games.
Xiao was also standing up, grinning at the look on Hsu's face before he spoke up to the flight deck. "I'm not bad either." In fact, the only time he and Daniel had even got close to bonding wasn't over sparring but playing very competitive rounds of various video games. Hsu, the highly experienced warrior, who had never picked up a game controller in his life, was left sitting on his bunk to just listen in.
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Noon nodded to Daniel and Xiao as they arrived, she was in the process of switching out with Pat. “Both of you eh? Well one of you strap in to the co-pilots seat and t’other sits there.” She said pointing at a cushioned bench behind the main seats. “There’s a lapbelt but not much else. I’m not going to send one of you back to the bunk, two pairs of eyes will definitely be useful.”
Once the two were settled, Noon showed them how Pat had set up the controls, “Choose your game and the controls will mirror what you’re used to. Bear in mind the laser we have isn’t really a weapon, it’s designed to take out meteorites and other debris. But if you pick your targets right, Pat’s set it up so that the best targets will be green, you should be able to cause enough damage to slow them down. Our shields need to drop for the split second you fire, so you get one shot at a time. If they are firing our shields will stay up.”
*Thirty seconds to burn* Thing reported. Noon squeaked.
“Gotta go, I need to use the tank to plot our course.” She added as she swung over the railing, hooked onto the rope that ran the length of the centre section and slid down to the seating area. She quickly strapped herself in to one of the seats and waited for the burn.
*Folks it’s going to get shaky again, but the inertial dampeners should be able to keep up with this. Brace yourselves.* Thing announced in his usual cheery tones.
The forces as the engines fired off were felt throughout the ship, but as the ship was no longer battling against the full gravity of Earth it came across more as pressure gently pushing down in the direction of travel.
*Well that’s confused them.* Thing said sounding pleased with himself. *Folks you’ve got about a minute to get settled in.*
“Thanks Thing, Kirrin you’re on damage control, priority is the main hold. Keep a close eye on our other guests.” Noon added. Then she was quiet as she started calculating their new course, Thing split himself between the flight deck and Noon.
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With the timing that was needed, it was the better choice to have Xiao at the controls as he picked his controller to what suited him best. Lining up the first enemy ship, he had it right in his sights and fired off his first shot. It struck the vessel aft. With his quick reflexes the shield was only down for a second when he fired again, this time striking its engines before it could even react to the first shot.
As he took the shot, the younger man didn't even cheer, but true to so many years of training was focused on the next target. "Snow! Ten o'clock!" Dan was watching the monitor from behind and saw a ship approaching them fast, and Xiao turned the weaponized laser onto it. This time, however, he wasn't able to fire as the shields remained down.
Waiting in his bunk, with his usual patience, Hsu listened in to all the communication, sinking back just slightly as he felt the thrust of the engines.
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Xiao's first shot, was a glancing bow, taking out a tail fin but not doing much damage. His second though, was much more effective and the target ship dropped out of the chase, no longer able to follow.
Weapons from the second attack ship grazed across the force shields surrounding Noon's ship. The shield lit up and sparkled as it dissipated the energy from the weapon. the attacking ship realising it was having no effect peeled off and made way for the next ship.
The third ship was equipped with different weapons, it launched a small projectile at Noon's ship, which was a mistake as it left time for the shields on Noon's ship to raise and lower a couple of times before impact.
Meanwhile, down in the seating area Noon worked feverishly to plot a new route, she decided not to worry about home, but was concentrating on setting her trap, just in case they were followed. She could worry about home on the next leg of their journey.
"Thing, do you concur?" she asked throwing her calculations onto the table for him to read, even in the middle of a battle she knew that missing out the double checks was never a good plan.
There was a split second pause, and Noon wasn't sure if Thing was taking his time assessing her plan, a bad thing, or he was busy assisting on the flight deck. That there was any pause at all worried her.
*Works for me, you coming up or you going to work it from there?* he asked her.
The ship jolted as the shields absorbed weapons fire and Noon hung on to the back of the sofa she was sitting on.
"From here, I've got the interface, set the tank up for flight controls and stand ready to switch to me. How close are our attackers Pat?"
"One down, One just firing, hold tight..." and the ship shook violently as the projectile weapon hit them. "Ok, one closing in, three forming up behind us, attempting some kind of formation, if they all hit us at once the shields will hold but will be weakened. Can you get us away before they can fire?" Pat asked.
"I guess I'll have to, taking control now. Hold tight, we need to make a uhm slight course correction." Noon said as she pressed the metal band into her temples and settled back in her seat.
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Hearing that the remaining fighters were closing in, he had little choice but to remain where he was, even if he did want to see what their exact situation was, but given more 'course corrections' were going into effect and the probability of more enemy fire finding them, he didn't fancy being thrown half way across the room.
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"Only those three left Noonie, hurry." he called out.
Noon muttered something rude but not clear enough for anyone to understand and then the ship began to roll. Only those with a view of the screens would know this, Hsu and Kirrin safe in their bunks were saved from the stomach churning view. As it rolled it began to shift it's heading and then the main thrusters fired and Noon's ship shot off on a heading 45 degrees to the left and up. The three ships behind, carried on straight for a few seconds and then they too rolled and followed Noon's ship.
Noon let out a sigh of relief as she watched, "Hyperspace in ten seconds, I hope you've all got your towels. Fraid we're going to have some hitchhikers along for the ride." she reported to her fellow passengers. "Let's hope they understand the futility of firing weapons in hyperspace, I've given us some elbow room just in case they try it."
Half an hour later, Noon was disconnecting herself from the ship and called down "Hsu? You want to come join us on the flight deck?" then she called up to Kirrin "It's safe to move Kirrin, go check the cargo. Pat you have the con."
Noon walked up the stairs to the flight deck and grinned at Xiao and Daniel, "Not bad, considering what you had to work with. Thank you. How would you like to see the inside of a hyperspace bubble?" she pointed up the stairs to the Crow's Nest.
Noon was stood up in the Crow's nest with her three guests and was staring out towards the back of her ship and talking to Thing. "Just use the passive sensors and bounce them back, you should be able to start to build up a picture of how many and how far back they are. I'm guessing it was all three, they were close enough to get caught. All we need is an idea of their leading edge for the drop."
She pointed into the distance and the shadow of one of the attacking ships could be seen sometimes it appeared far behind them and sometimes much closer. "It's an optical illusion, everything stays in the same place within the bubble, we can't move towards them or they towards us. But the image, for want of a better word, bounces about, the same is happening for them."
"What's more interesting is what do you all see? For each person the images around the ships will be different, no-one's figured out why yet but some scientists think it's to do with the way the energies react with the optical nerve. Personally I see rainbows, and swirls of colours. Richard," she grinned at Hsu "He only ever sees black and white streaks."
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As predicted, Hsu had no idea what Noon had meant about towels. Why the hell was she talking about towels? And Daniel's laugh did nothing to make him feel he was anywhere near getting the joke. Not that that was anything new.
Not knowing what was going on and not having received an all-clear from Noon yet, Hsu spent the next half hour growing increasingly impatient and frustrated that nothing seemed to be happening. At one point, he had enough of just sitting and stood up from his bunk and began to pace the small space like a caged lion, back and forth. By the time Noon invited him up to the flight deck, it was a wonder he hadn't worn a hole in the floor.
"About time," he growled as he made his way up. "I would hate to think you had forgotten me." It was not said with even a pinch of amusement.
Joining the others, he climbed with them up to the Crow's Nest and stood by Xiao as they looked out to where Noon was pointing at the attack ships. They really did seem to be moving around. Dan was smiling as he looked out, seeing similiarly to Noon a myriad of colours swirling about. Hsu could also see colours, but darker and the swirls reminded him of a Van Gogh painting but with sharp streaks jutting through in places. Only Xiao had a similar experience to her description of Richard's with black and white, although he saw them more as waves. Perhaps the lack of colour in his view was more to do with the fact he was undead.
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For everyone else that half hour seemed long but for Noon and Thing it was a hive of activity as they checked and double checked calculations, kept an eye on the ships that had piggy backed the bubble with them and watched the ship's systems. Finally Noon was satisfied that the other ships were seasoned enough space travellers to know not to do anything stupid in the bubble and she released herself from the interface, slowly becoming aware of her surroundings again.
At Hsu's comment Noon looked back at him and shook her head "Just busy, was more focussed on my ship and those other ships. Does anyone ever forget about you?" she asked half joking half serious.
After a few moments had passed in the Crow's nest Noon nodded "Well I think we're settled in for the next week then. Can't lose them till we reach a patch of deadspace so might as well get used to life in space. Please treat this like home, help yourself to food and drink, no question is a stupid question and feel free to use the facilities." she shrugged her shoulders, "Not a lot else I can say really, welcome to space travel."
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