Alpha One: The Kronan Read Free Page B

cannon filter and then fire off two or three short plasma cannon bursts. If there is something there, that will make it visible.”
    The isotope field would change the physical properties of the plasma cannon bursts. If they hit a shield or cloaked system, the outline of that shield would show up on an isotope reader.
    “Firing now.”
    The effect was instant. The Kryl cruiser and the three empty Alpha vessels were gathered together under a clear space umbrella. A Kryl shield system, which pulled the visible effects of the surrounding space into a cover, disguising the actual view of the ships. The Kryl Ship dropped its shields immediately and fired three long bursts of plasma fire each hitting different sections of the Mauritius fuselage. The shields held.
    “Shields to maximum and return fire, with everything we’ve got. I want that ship disabled, not destroyed.” Buchanan was in his element and soon, the Kryl vessel would be there his for the taking.

    * * * *

    Shen Knui was concerned. She could see that far from winning the battle, theMauritius was in trouble. The Kryl vessel continued to bombard the Alpha ship with plasma fire and nothing penetrated the obviously adaptable Kryl shields. After forty-five minutes of battle, three quarters of the Mauritius’ Teutonic missiles, together with twenty-five Rapiers and eight Sabre Jump Ships and their crew were lost.
We are losing this battle and Buchanan does not see it.
The damage is irreversible and we are about to go down.
    It was time to act but not in defense of the ship or its crew. She had to save herself to transmit the battle and Kryl ship analysis to Alpha command. This is not a selfish act
, she reasoned.
Any transmission sent now would be blocked by the Kryl ship.
    She could not download the analysis from here. She needed to find an access-portal away from the bridge, download and then head to a Jump Ship bay as soon as possible.
She must act quickly and decisively. She had to act now.

    * * * *

    Buchanan had not noticed his first officer’s departure from the command bridge. Far too much was going on and even he acknowledged after nearly an hour of fighting: their position was hopeless. Neither he nor is crew, noticed the unauthorized download of critical ships data or the launch of one of the three Sabre’s from the forward launch bay. They were too occupied with saving the ship, but it was too late. The shields had failed completely and each plasma burst pummeling the fuselage weakened the ship’s internal structure. It was only a matter of time, before a bulkhead failed. The question was, which one?
    Less than a minute later the ship split into three sections, each cascading into the other, before the whole mass exploded and the Mauritius and her eight hundred crew were no more.

    * * * *

    Shen Knui knew she was safe. She downloaded the information and boarded the Sabre five minutes earlier. Opting for the forward launch bay rather than the aft; this gave her a critical timing advantage, allowing her to get clear of the fracas before either the Kryl ship or Commander Buchanan could do anything to prevent her escape. She had already jumped to stellar speed, when the Mauritius disintegrated.
    Her first objective was to obtain safe comm. link distance, which at current velocity, she would achieve within twenty minutes.
    Something was not right though. The Sabre felt sluggish and a glance at her stellar drive monitor on her visor display revealed why. She had obviously taken a hit or two and the central SD conduit, where the accelerant channeled through to the drive mechanism was badly damaged. The Sabre was venting fluid ever since the stellar drive engaged, which meant two things. One, the drive would shortly fail, with the possibility of a core implosion: result instant death and two, the fluid trail would leave a pathway, for the Kryl ship to follow as clear as a woodland trail of bread crumbs. Probable result: instant death. She had no choice but