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The Phinon ship was under full thrust, and Bob was closing from above. He
remembered the Phinon ship out in the Oort cloud that had self-destructed. Of
course, that one had spent itself and didn't have any bigger fish to fry,
either.
Bob fired. The Phinon's shields lit up, glowing brightly, an incandescent
pearl, her color climbing up the spectrum. Then catastrophic failure and a
most satisfying explosion.
"Nothing left bigger than a marble," Bob radioed to the High Command.
* * *
"They're acting differently than they did at Jupiter," Dykstra said,
concerned. "But they didn't meet any opposition there. The ship Bob just
destroyed was under drive. Let's hope there aren't too many more surprises
from them this late in the game."
"We don't understand the Phinons as well as we thought we did, do we?" Sammi
commented. She had wearied of pacing and Dykstra had summoned another chair
for her so she could sit beside him as they watched the unfolding final Phinon
encounters on the screen. She pointed at the screen. "Looks like Bob is close
to catching up with the second one now. But when are we going to do
something?"
Rick came over. "Arie still hasn't heard anything from the remaining three
ships. But all the other ones really are fleeing, including a bunch of those
we infected. Looks like we scared the hell out of them," he told them. He
looked over the rail. "I see they have guys at the battle console now. Won't
be long and they'll go after the lead Earth-bound ship."
This wouldn't be easy. The ground batteries of the High Command were both
particle beam weapons and
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lasers. The particle beams could lance out at nearly the speed of light, but
not quite. To have both the lasers and the PBWs hit the swiftly moving target
at the same instant from a distance of almost a light-
second required a degree of coordination seldom attempted. Nothing the Belt
had ever thrown at Luna had required both beams to hit the same target
simultaneously. The High Command wanted to kill the ship with one shot. They
didn't want to risk needing two.
"They're preparing to fire," Rick said, and then all three just watched the
screen, again. The war with the
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Phinons was in the hands of others now.
A white and a green line appeared on the screen, the white, representing the
particle beams, beginning a split second sooner. In one second the two beams
converged on the red blip that was the Phinon ship, following it. A few
seconds later the tracking data returned and the screen reported the Phinon
ship destroyed.
A cheer went up from below.
"That's another one killed!" Rick exclaimed. "All right!"
"But what are those three new little red spots?" Sammi asked. The spots were
diverging, but still heading for Earth.
"Oh, shit."
The chatter from the floor brought them the bad news.
"Three bombs survived our attack," Dykstra said. "And these bombs are
shielded. We didn't see that at
Jupiter, either."
"What do we do now?" Sammi asked, watching the screen in horror.
"They're doing it," Rick said in resignation. "They're aiming our beams at the
Moon-bound ship."
There was nothing anyone could do to prevent the Earth from still getting a
taste of the destruction the
Phinons had intended.
Nothing at all.
* * *
This geometry sucks!
Bob thought as he checked the scanner display. He, too, could see the bombs
released by the destroyed ship, but there was no way he could intercept them.
Dammit!
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He continued his pursuit of the second ship, again closing rapidly. The
Hyperlight II
was nearly two light-seconds from Earth. At her velocity, the Phinon ship
would cover that distance in about three minutes. The Moon-bound Phinon was
about the same distance from her target. Bob knew that the High
Command would be redirecting its firepower at that one, now.
"Ready to fire on target two," Bob radioed to the High Command.
Just a little closer. Just like last time.
A beam shot out from the Phinon ship. Bob could see it as it destroyed the
sparse dust of interplanetary vacuum.
All the way down to the High Command.
What the hell?
"What the hell!" he yelled. "Tracking center, what the hell just got hit!"
In the several second interval before the reply, Bob let loose with his own
weapons. But this ship fought back with all the fury it had left in it.
After it dropped its bombs.
"Oh, God dammit! Bastard! Shit!" Bob screamed to the space outside his bubble
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