Collective Hindsight (Book 2) - Aaron Rosenberg [18]
—and Rando’s last thought, as the solar flare engulfed his ship, was that perhaps Mudat had gotten the better assignment, after all.
* * *
“Nice shot, Corsi!”
Corsi nodded back and stepped away from the console. “Thank you, Commander.”
Just then Gomez’s combadge beeped, and they all heard Gold’s voice. “Gomez, report. What was the rumble we just felt?”
Sonya smiled and tapped her badge to respond. “Good news, Captain. We’ve eliminated the Androssi ship. Coast is clear.”
“Good. How did you do it?”
Sonya glanced over at Corsi, who was hefting her warp rifle again. “I asked Corsi for aid, sir. And she figured it out.”
Gold’s laugh came through clearly. “Well, leave it to her to think of a way to shoot somebody while holed up in a sun. So, are you going to tell me the rest, or are you going to make me lie awake trying to figure it out?”
Sonya gestured at Corsi, who shrugged and hit her own badge. “It was simple, Captain. This ship is built to absorb solar energy. We’re inside a sun. So we’re effectively invisible—their sensors would simply show solar activity while we were here. That meant we could move right up near the sun’s surface and they still couldn’t see us.”
“Okay, but that’s still a few miles from them. Even the guns Stevens rigged for this monster can’t reach that far.”
“No sir.” Corsi smiled. “But its main engine can. We turned around and used the engine as a giant rifle. The blast looked just like a solar flare—which it basically is—and had more than enough range to destroy their ship. And it all happened too fast for them to react, much less send any messages.”
“Nice work, Corsi. Now, Gomez, if we’re all done here, let’s take care of this ship once and for all. And I’d like to get the da Vinci back where we can see the stars, if you don’t mind.”
* * *
Shabalala glanced down at the command chair from the tactical station on the da Vinci bridge. “The Dancing Star has cleared the corona, Captain.”
“Opening cargo bay doors,” Haznedl added.
“Good.” Gold leaned forward. “Wong, take us out of this beast, please.”
“Yes, sir.”
The da Vinci’s engines fired up, and the ship moved out of the hold and back into space. Gold couldn’t help but sigh in relief. He wasn’t normally claustrophobic, but having his entire ship inside another ship, and that ship inside a sun, had been a bit much. Being back out among the stars, where he could see their lights twinkling against the darkness, made him feel a lot better.
He tapped the comm unit on his chair. “Gomez, do you read me?”
Sonya replied quickly. “Yes, Captain?”
“The da Vinci is clear. How are you and your team doing down there?”
“Almost done, sir. Another ten minutes or so.”
“Fine—let us know when you’re ready.”
Gold sat back and waited, and enjoyed the view. In what seemed like less than ten minutes—and, knowing this team, probably was—Gomez requested that she and her team be beamed up. Chief Poynter responded immediately, and reported to Gold a moment later that the full S.C.E. team was now back on board.
“Good. Mr. Wong, get us out of here, please. Set a course for Starbase 222.”
“Yes, sir.” And with that the da Vinci was moving again.
Chapter
7
“So it’s all taken care of?” Gold asked as they gathered around the conference table again. Pattie thought he looked relieved, and it occurred to her that, for a starship captain, being confined and unable to see the stars was particularly torturous.
“Done deal,” Fabian said, and the others nodded. “This time it won’t be coming back.”
Sonya explained further. “We disconnected the Dancing Star’s entire conductor array. All of the capacitors, the conduits, the crystals—everything. We couldn’t take the hull off, since we were still floating along the corona’s outer edge, but we did everything short of that.”
“Which means it cannot power up again,” Pattie added. “Then we vented all the energy in its cells, so the ship is now completely