Chapter 22
A few hours into my reading and thoughtful musing, Gali stepped through the door to my personal cabin. "Kara?" I glance over. "Did they find anything?" The young Iridian woman shakes her head. "No, I just wanted to talk." I nod towards an empty seat to my left and across from me.
Galinae blinks as I gesture to the seat with a head nod, as she takes a seat, she notices that her new friend's hand is occupied by a glass of wine and she has a book nearby. She smiles "reading and drinking again?"
I smiled at her unflatteringly obvious jab. Giving a trademark self-deprecative smirk. "How I spend my free time is none of your business, Galinae." Galinae swallows "I.. uh…" after some fidgeting, Galinae gathers up the courage to ask "can you teach me how to shoot sometime?"
I blink twice at Gali, confused "eh? You dont know how to shoot?" Gali shakes her head "I don't. But.." the Iridian girl shifts again. "I would love to have a good teacher show me." she smiles at me sweetly.
After pinching the bridge of my nose in exasperation, I watch the Iridian girl a moment, tilting my head. "Are you sure you want to learn, Gali?" I smile thinly and she nods vigorously at me. "I do! I want to be more help on the ground, but.. I need practice." she blushes in embarrassment at her admission.
I sigh thoughtfully. It may be useful to have someone besides B'Nan who can fight, but there are risks - Gali is a total amateur. All it takes it one mistake and it will cost her life or mine. However, if she turns out to be effective after some guidance..
"Alright, fine. Be up early tomorrow morning." I sigh. Gali means well, but she has no idea what she is doing. This will be a bit vexing. I spend the rest of my time reading with this in the back of my mind.
***
I spend the next two hours in the CIC poring over data from the drone in geosynschronous low-orbit over the mountain ranges of Eridan-V Beta (the second moon of the fifth planet). The Iridians named the moon after some obscure goddess which even after my lessons in the Iridian dialect I still can not pronounce correctly.
It seems they have an extensive underground facility away from the surface compound. I smirk at this new finding. It seems they were using the surface compound as a convenient decoy and as a trap for unknowing assailants.
A clever trap for certain, but useless now that I had discovered their play. The compound was rigged with booby traps and cleverly placed entry and exit nooks. Which made the central courtyard a killing field. Several of the structures had entrances which were rigged with explosives and there were laser tripwires in hallways rigged to grenades in place of traditional fuzing.
I push off of the CIC holo-table and walk towards the elevator. Upon entering, I speak "Deck 2." the doors shut and the chime of the computer feedback cheerfully replies "Deck 2, Aye captain." After a short ride on the elevator lift I exit the lift to deck 2. I step out of the elevator on my way, taking a short Walk to the foremost part of the ship.
Inside this space, I found a hatch that leads down to the third deck's fore weapons maintenence bay access. After descending the ladder I find myself in a room with a fifteen meter long barrel pointed directly at me.
I pause to appreciate the massive weapon's muzzle before I step to the side and walk down a catwalk alongside a the 15 meter long barrel that ended in a large housing with several components bolted onto it, including cryogenic storage tanks for cooling and a large bank of capacitors.
Nestled inside all this machinery was a sphere, midnight black with an exterior blanketed with thickly layed graphene fibers for insulation. Several wire bundles branched out in pairs to connect to terminals within the blanket of graphene and there were also small tubals for coolant, perhaps liquid helium, to cool off whatever was contained inside that sphere.
B'Nan's voice booms to my left. "BEHOLD! The S.S. Void Star's main set of fearsome canines! The Hawking Pulsewave cannon!" I blink, underwhelmed. "this is the weapon?" I croak and B'Nan cackles.
"yes. This is a Hawking Pulsewave cannon. Quite large actually. They can be built smaller but do not let its' size fool you! This weapon can annihilate an entire half side of a planet or bore a hole to the core of one!" He smirks. Apparently the Gravidan -loves- his weapons.
I smirk, an idea forming in my head "prepare it for use." B'Nan balks "you cant possibly-" I interrupt him "oh I can and I will!" I walk past him and up to the third deck's lift to head to the bridge, B'Nan dogging me the entire way.
"You can not just blow a hole in the surface of a moon, Kara!" he protests as I walk through the CIC. I stop suddenly and he almost trips over himself. I turn to level a deadpanned look at him and in the snarkiest voice i could manage, I reply. "Watch me."
B'Nan gawks at me "you do realize there are several regulatory treaties against this!" I dont divert my gaze and I reply to his warning "I know, and I do not care. We are not the military." I head up the steps to the bridge after this and sit in the captain's chair "Helm, if you would.. Set a course for geostationary orbit of Eridan-V Beta at the coordinates marked."
I fold a leg over my opposite thigh, kicking my leg out and up higher than usual in my confidence as Helmsman Farham takes us to firing position. "Once we are there, I want the drone feeding us visual data of the strike, B'Nan. I also want to collect data on the magnitude and destructive power of our main weapon."
It stands to reason that knowing our limitations will help us with future engagements, so I decided to use the opportunity not only as a first time use but as a way to gather data on our weapons systems. The torpedoes worked flawlessly on cruisers and quite possibly were more than a match for an unsuspecting battleship, but the main energy weapons were going to be the dealbreaker.
As S.S. Void Star moves into it's geosynchronous orbit and the dull roar of the maneuvering thrusters firing rumbles in the hull, I talk to B'Nan at the weapons station "Guns, talk to me. What's our current firing calculations?"
"Target point Alpha is at ground level, approximately. Firing coordinates, point Alpha at niner hours, one-five minutes and niner seconds east, Four hours, two-six minutes and four-eight seconds North. Altitude is seven-four-niner-two decimal five-Niner-three-six meters above sea level. Fire Control computer processing calculations."
I nod "Helm, let guns take over." The helmsman takes a moment to respond, clearly reluctant to let someone else fly, but he relents "Conn, transferring control to Weps. Helm aye." Farnham's fingers slide a few controls on his lower-left display and slides a control interface over to the weps station.
I smile, the crew is naturally working together seamlessly. "Guns, status?" B'Nan takes a moment to read his fire control display "Conn, Weps. Targeting solution is at five seven percent and climbing. ETA 10 seconds." I nod in acknowledgement.
"Helm, tint the bridge." Helmsman Farham reads back "Tint the bridge, helm aye." Farham slides a haptic UI slider on his armchair display projection and the bridge canopy display for the exterior visual data dims.. The planet's light side visible in front of us; Like a great big Bullseye downrange.
I sigh, watching the view a moment. Pondering silently to myself at the potential destruction we were about to convert into.. Destruction. "Guns, status on our targeting solution?" I glance to the weapons station "Conn, Weps. Solution is ready, awaiting the order to fire."