NationStates Jolt Archive

NZS Iskanderov Class Musatov, Earth

Nikolai Chapurskaya kept tracking an electromagnetic disturbance. It could have been nothing, a fluctuation of any of the planet's magnetic field, piezoelectricity generated by fault movement, or even a leak in ship's own internal shielding, but he'd had been tracking it for the better part of a day, determined to figure out it's source. The starship's sensors were too sensitive to everything within the system to guess.

Nikolai is a scientist on the field, he'd tirelessly carried out his many tasks. He'd distributed his attention over dozens of different scanned targets at once, making assignments, ordering course corrections, plotting courses, monitoring performance.

When Leonid Kuznetsova had recruited him to pilot the prototype long range observation/early warning detection starship, fresh out of university, he'd been taken aback. He'd been trained as a design engineer, and had expected to work in the shipyards, or the colony construction team, or even elsewhere in the Valkonezh research complex. But he knew that there were staffing shortages in many departments and an excess of engineers. Everyone had to pitch in where they were most needed if the starship was to be completed.

A feminine voice came from the communications console, it was Andreeva. "Are you there, Nikolai?"

"Yes."

"Just to remind you that you'll work alone most of the time. I suggest bringing some good audio novels. There's an input on the console over here that you can route through. It will auto-mute the book when something important happens."

"Be still my beating heart; I can hardly wait for the excitement to start." He chuckled.

Then, he checked the screen again. What he saw shocked him.

"Andreeva..!"

#-#-#

NZS Snegurochka Class Nemtchinov

Andreeva steered the already damaged colony starship around some space debris just as it exploded from the impact of an energy weapon. It had been an uneventful trip back from a certain point between Earth and Mars where she'd been collecting scrap material from destroyed starships, until she'd picked up a hostile Khristatatan ship somewhere back. A few more kilometers and she would be safely in the Serene Union of Kaenei’s escorts. Now she couldn't seem to shake her deadly tormentor.

The Snegurochka class was unarmed, nearly defenseless. Speed and maneuverability was all she had, and the damaged engines provided that only under protest. She expected something critical in the drive to explode at any moment.

She zigged and zagged in what she hoped was an unpredictable pattern. Another beam barely missed the side of the starship, she shrugged for a moment. Too close.

Ahead, two large chunks of debris created a 'valley' between them. She had no choice but to go that way, even though it would make her a sitting duck while she passed through the cut. She kept the unit below its top speed until she was in the mouth of the opening, then hit the safety overrides and threw everything the starship had left into one burst of speed, sending the starship at a nearly unbearable speed headlong between the debris.

As she emerged on the other side of the cut, she heard one of the engines scream and die. In her rear-view screen, she could see the hostile right behind her, its turrets swinging into firing position.

Then it exploded, hit by a flanking group of the Serene Union of Kaenei's combat vessels, all at once. She slowed the damaged colony ship to a crawl to avoid causing further damage. She watched the starships on either side of her, scanning for other hostile targets.

She'd be fine now.

OOC:
Really, really sorry for getting you sort of involved, ADK. Seriously.

Siranna watched ahead with dispassion as the phase cannons of the Khandriayata class warship Di^Irinex emptied their charge, flaring bolts of orange yellow enveloping the attacking ADK starships with a curious cloud that expelled destruction a second later, tearing into their fragile hull and spilling precious and delicate innards to the cold vacuum of space.

"The Zvarinograd starship has sustained damage to its propulsion unit, but is otherwise operational."

Siranna nodded as her tactical controller gave his report, crossing back and seating herself in the moulding comfort of the command throne. Casting a glance around the darkened command chamber, she watched the dim red glow of battlestation tapers reflect of the plexiglass control interfaces.

[i]"Resume nominal operations." She uttered.

The ruddy crimson glow vanished, replaced by the slightly blue tinged normal lighting of standard operations, the tactical station powering down in its inactivity.

"Have all starships increase sublight speed to maximum. Maintain long ranger sensor analysis, and confirm our details with the Zvarinograd craft. Make all speed to Mars."

In their own impeccably logical way, the Serene^Union looked to this request at protection as a way to retain a semblence of the norm in a region striven and torn by war. By resuming such non descript and peaceful sideprojects, a shred of stability could, hopefully be returned.

If this was not to the case, phase cannons and consussive warheads would pave the way.

"Run the projection again. Increase the number of defensive lines by two." Andreeva hung her head in exhaustion. She had been playing with these scenarios for a while now, and the best case she could come up with was very bad indeed. As she watched the screen, 'blue' fleet was piercing through every 'red' line there is visible.

She sighed. "Form the lines into a semi-circular configuration one hundred kilometers in diameter. Run again."

The door to her quarters chimed. She ignored it as the blue lines indicating hostiles surrounded the defense grid. It held for a time, then filled in with blue, like running water filling a puddle.

The door chimed again. Perhaps if she ignored it, they'd go away. "Let's try something else. Let's try..." She couldn't think of anything. "What's the use?" She said it to no one in particular, or perhaps, only to herself.

Nothing she could come up with worked, and all of her scenarios required the use of a hypothetical nonlethal defense grid that they had no idea how to create, or even if it could be created immediately before other opportunists on the planet take advantage of the fact that they were indeed pacifist.

The door chimed again. Go away!

Then abruptly the entire door frame moved out from the wall and fell into the room, knocking over a stack of mineral sample boxes and a table covered with borrowed lab equipment.

Serge Vinnikov stood in the door, a power wrench in one hand, a hydraulic pry in the other. He looked at her. She looked back.

"That was dramatic," she finally said.

He said nothing, but he smirked.

She smirked back, and something inside her seemed to snap. She giggled, tried to quench it, but it only grew into a full-blown laugh. Suddenly a whole flood of emotions came at once as she thought of the people who'd died under her command, the horrible fate they all faced. She laughed, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

Embarrassed, she covered her face.

Serge stepped inside, dropped the tools on top of an untidy pile of papers and data-slips, and levered the door into its opening. It didn't quite seat properly, but it offered them a measure of privacy. He cleared off a chair and sat down on the other side of the console Andreeva was working on. He studied the display on the computer's top surface, and seemed to deduce what it meant.

"We've been called for the technology exchange..." he stopped himself, “...the telomerase research, short span life extension, immunities to age related diseases. I thought you'd like to know what we are giving away."

She shook her head. "I know where the labs are. I could have walked there myself."

"But you didn't. Andreeva, I haven't seen you in weeks."

She put a hand on the console. "I've been working."

He nodded, looked at the wrench, and snickered again.

"Never again. I promise."