Going nuclear

[lawfulneutralmage]

@Mikiesboy, @CassieQ, I promised I would go nuclear:

Quote

A siren blared, and I snapped awake bound to my backpack in zero-g. Georgie's voice sounded over the loudspeakers. "Battle stations! Battle stations! This is not a drill." The siren continued blaring and the announcement was repeated.

"Vittu!" I felt reminded of my military days. As quickly as the weightless environment allowed, I escaped my backpack and donned the utility belt. There was no time to try getting into the overall. I drifted out of my cabin in nothing but briefs holding on to the cleverly placed handle bars. Under gravity, these handle bars looked odd to anyone moving about, but under zero-g these were the only way of moving anywhere.

I left my cabin and saw two of the others hastening out of their cabins. I thought Karol and Jolanta, but couldn't be sure. I had to move the other way, towards the ladder to the bridge. Some well trained moves later, I was floating up the ladder shaft.
 
When I arrived at the bridge, Georgie was strapping herself into a command chair. "Tell me, where did they come from?"
 
Matti must have been on port watch. I could not see out steward but heard his voice. "They suddenly appeared. It must be some form of stealth technology. Charlie is still analyzing."
 
I got myself to the third command chair and strapped myself in. "Pilot at station." I took the cable and inserted it into the interface behind my left ear.
 
Charlie had prepared. I found myself immediately in battle mode. The AI had the unknown vessel highlighted in the virtual reality with course vector and critical parameters indicated. Perceiving with the Amanuensis's sensors, I saw the asteroid station in front of us clearly. We were still in perfect sync with the asteroid's movements. It had taken me ages to get that position right.
 
From afar approached a boogie. I focused on it. The limited civilian sensors felt like seeing into the distance with a set of inappropriate glasses, the view didn't sharpen. Nothing I could do about it.
 
I heard the AI's voice in my mind. "I am sorry, Connor. This is the best I can do."
 
More urgent was to check the current status of the Amanuensis. Karol and his gang were starting up the reactor. Thanks to Georgie's insistence, they had it kept at a higher readiness rate than the usual port standby. I'd be able to accelerate soon if it became necessary. Georgie had control over our weapons and was powering them up. On this vessel, the weapons were the commander's privilege.
 
Till I had power, there wasn't much I was able to do. My focus was again on the incoming vessel. Interesting. I activated the communication with the bridge crew. "It's not bigger than a class three, and it's definitely stealth tech."
 
"Are they doing anything?" Matti's voice was strange to hear in my head.
 
"Nope. They aren't under propulsion, but they're broadcasting. Is that how you detected them in the first place?"
 
"Yes. They appeared out of nowhere."
 
Georgie was expressing my thoughts. "Any idea what they're broadcasting?"
 
Charlie summarized, "They are demanding the ambassador to surrender and to hand over the package."
 
Vittu! We were right in a conspiracy. The asteroid station contacted us via a tight laser beam, undetectable by the incoming vessel, and Georgie was doing the talking.
 
This did not bode well. I had a bad feeling about this. "Charlie, plot a jump to wherever we can get with our current capacitator load in direction of the core."
 
The AI did not question my instruction, and I was grateful. I could feel how most of the AI's processing power was directed to the task I had given it. I'd never experienced an AI working on the limits of its capacity. In the virtual reality of the direct neural link, it felt as if there was a weight on my chest, and my movements were sluggish.
 
It was as if nothing happened for a while. Then, the ambassador's small shuttle emerged from asteroid station's dock. A couple of seconds later, a bright flash was visible from the boogie.
 
I concentrated on the flash. "They have fired a missile. ETA ..." I checked the calculation. "Four minutes." Something was off. "The boogie is retreating."
 
Suddenly, it dawned on me. "It's a nuke!" I moved instinctively. My nerve impulses were interpreted by the AI to fire up the maneuvering jets to get the Amanuensis to turn around.
 
I heard Georgie's voice in my head. "Connor! What the fuck?"
 
Why was everything so slow to explain to those not a direct neural link? "A lone missile whose size could not carry a conventional payload big enough to destroy the asteroid station. Them retreating in preparation to escape the blast effects. It's a nuke, commander! We need to get out of here!"
 
Charlie's voice entered my thoughts and was audible to the bridge crew. "I concur. I calculate the probability this being a nuclear strike to be eighty-six percent. Estimated yield two hundred kilo-tons."
 
I started moving. The Amanuensis's main engines fired up. So slow!
 
Charlie interpreted my every thought. "I am sorry, Connor. I am giving you all the Amanuensis has."
 
"I know, Charlie. Let's run!"
 
It felt as if Charlie and I were willing the freighter to accelerate. We achieved one-g, then a minute later two-g and another thirty seconds later three-g. Charlie projected the earliest and most likely center points for the nuclear explosion and the estimated resulting blast radius. in eithr case, I was enveloped in the yellow cloud. We wouldn't make it.
 
It dawned on Georgie too. "We can't escape the blast."
 
"No," I said in my head, being sure the bridge crew would hear it on the loudspeakers. "Our only chance is a black jump." No sane pilot would suggest a jump from within a zone where the forces of gravity weren't nullified to a destination for which there were no updated star charts available.
 
She knew. Every spacer knew. "Are you nuts?"
 
"Better nuts than fried. The jump has a five percent chance of going wrong. The nuke has a much higher chance of frying us."
 
Although I hadn't waited for her to agree, at the point when I fired the maneuvering jets to turn us around again, she agreed, "Ok, jump when ready!"
 
To jump we had to float still. Having turned the freighter around again, the previous acceleration was now deceleration. It would be tight. Very tight.
 
There wasn't much else to do than to wait, to compare the decreasing counter for the incoming missile's distance with the decreasing counter for our speed. Was this the time when religious people prayed?
 
Georgie remembered her military training well. "Charlie, radiation alarm, please. Shut down all external sensors and close all shutters. We don't want to get fried."
 
I felt the computer complying. The virtual reality went dark.
 
Just before our speed reached zero, I commanded, "Charlie, initiate jump sequence."
 
"We have not yet come to a stop, Connor."
 
"Do it!" The capacitators had a lack of three seconds between issuing the command to actually starting to build the warp field.
 
I felt the vessel's energy release like my own. Every nerve in my body fired. Suddenly, a sun appeared in front of me! I felt the radiation burst hitting our vessel. It was as if my skin was on fire. I screamed. The optical sensors were enough to see the growing fireball coming at me fast! The warp field was closed when the fireball hit us. My world went black.

Somehow, I now wish I would be the first author here using a nuke...

Edited May 6, 2025 by lawfulneutralmage

[CassieQ]

This is legit amazing

[lawfulneutralmage]

Many thanks! **blush**

[chris191070]

That is awesome 👌 

[lawfulneutralmage]

I will turn crimson... thx!

[Mikiesboy]

25 minutes ago, lawfulneutralmage said:

I will turn crimson... thx!

My crimson pen is waiting...  ✏️

[Wayne Gray]

Great teaser you've got there.

Now that you've teased ... where's the rest?

[ReaderPaul]

Yep/  Great start.  When is the official story post?

[lawfulneutralmage]

Still in the making. SciFi is difficult. It needs so many logic checks...

The piece above has three errors already.

Edited May 7, 2025 by lawfulneutralmage