Zero Plus eleven Hours

 

  “Unidentified vessel. This is the Defence craft Black Emerald of the Negentropy Alliance. Please identify yourself.” 

The small, sandy coloured object, which was still more than an AU distant, did not respond, but continued to decelerate towards the planetoid known as The Sufficiency of Syie. It carried no navigation lights, and would have been taken for an iron and sulphur rich asteroid if it were not for the characteristics of its flight. 

  “Defence Craft Black Emerald to the Protector of Syie. Your attention, please… We are instructed to examine all vessels which enter this area, for reasons that we are not at liberty to divulge. Are you aware of the identity of the approaching vessel, and do you have any means to make contact with it?” 

  “I greet ye, Black Emerald, but I am not minded to pass the day with ye, unwelcome guest and spy. The ship that comes hither is no concern of yours.” 

  “On the contrary, the approaching vessel is subject to the Arkab Prior Mutual Oort Cloud security agreement between the Mutual Progress Alliance and my masters. If you are able to contact this vessel please request it to respond, or we will be forced to take action against it.” 

  “This message ye will deliver yourself, perforce; I’ll not act as errant boy. Take heed- any unwarranted action will find a swift and terrible reply.”
As the Lord Protector sent this message, the approaching craft apparently disappeared from view.

  “Defence craft Black Emerald to Bailiff 49; we have a situation developing at Syie planetoid. An unidentified craft using advanced drive technology has been sighted approaching the area; it did not respond to signals, and the Deeper Covenanters would give us no information about it. The craft appears to have become aware of our presence and is now invisible to our electromagnetic detection equipment.” 
  “The fact that this vessel has become invisible is an illegal act and the vessel is therefore a legitimate target. It will no doubt have deviated from it’s former course- you had better commence random manoeuvring to avoid beam weapons, vircaptain.”
  “I have been performing standard defensive random manoeuvres since the object was sighted, my Lord Bailiff, and we are utilising our own electromagnetic stealth equipment to avoid detection.” 
  “Excellent. Now all we need to do is wait. Your proximity mines have been fully deployed, I expect?” 
  “Every cubic million kilometres, as per standard procedure.” 
  “Good. Ah, you see, there goes one now, seven light minutes away. Now we know where the vessel was seven minutes ago. If it continues to approach the uncertainty will be smaller, of course. Increase the concentration of proximity mines in that direction, please, vircaptain.”
  “Done.
  “Bailiff! I am concerned about anomalous activity on the surface of Syie planetoid. The mass-driver system seems to have been partially activated.” 

On the dirty grey snowball, between the nitrogen volcanoes, artificial great circles could be seen that covered the thousand kilometre ball in an even network. Several of these now were glowing in the infrared, as they warmed up prior to use. 

  “Interesting. A mass-driver assault. I wonder what the Deepers have got to throw at you. Let me speak to them.”
  “You are connected, Bailiff.”
  “Lord Protector, I hope you are not going to do anything rash – the Mutual Progress Alliance may tolerate your presence here, but be warned, any aggressive act will mean you are a legitimate target yourselves. You have no hope of escaping the full capacity of our defence systems.”

   “Perfidious villains!” cried the Lord Protector. Even in the voice only transmission his rage was obvious. “By attacking this innocent merchantman you have declared yourself our deepest foe. Prepare to depart this place, or be destroyed.”

   
  Flashing in a tangent from the mass-driver great circles, a number of almost invisible pellets flew toward the previous position of the Black Emerald. Due to their speed, the pellets arrived just a little behind the image of their launch. When they reached the former location of the Negentropist craft, they detonated in a wide pattern, white-hot starbursts indicating the nature of the weapon. 
  “Confirmed antimatter warheads,“ said the vircaptain dispassionately.
  “Unusual and deadly weapons for Covenanters- they must be very keen to defend this world. Take the Emerald away from this deadly planetoid- ”
  “Detecting well-targeted gamma ray lasers from the surface of the planetoid now, Bailiff. They must have detected our position using neutrinos from those warheads.”
  “Yes. It is impossible for any craft to remain undetected indefinitely if sought by a suitably comprehensive sensor array.  Your best defence is of course the light speed delay; they can never know exactly where you are. I suggest that you ensure that your course be as inventive as possible, to avoid these attacks. Detonate five percent of the proximity mines- we had best create some neutrino decoys to confuse their targeting system.”
  “Confirmed neutrino decoys…
  “Alert ! Multiple pellet launches from the planetoid, Bailiff; I am detecting offensive gamma beams from the unknown craft as well, probably using the original neutrino echoes as a targeting system. Withdrawing from this volume immediately.” 

The conversation between the Bailiff and the Vircaptain took place via the nanowormhole link, many thousands of times faster than human thought; the movements of the two craft and of the self-propelled proximity mines seemed glacier slow by comparison.

  “We are in an interesting position, although hardly a unique one. The Syie planetoid has vastly greater weaponry, but is a sitting target. We however, are too quick too be targeted easily, and must withdraw. The strategy in this case for us should be to attack the planetoid with all available ordnance, and place our trust in the proximity mines to deal with the unknown vessel. However, the planetoid contains precious data, and it is a venal sin to destroy information.”
  “There has been enough neutrino flux since we were attacked to produce some low resolution images of the interior of the planetoid. As you can see, Bailiff, they show that the habitats and databases are clustered twenty kilometres under the ice, encircling the equator of this object. We are unlikely to destroy any valuable information by removing the surface structures.”
  “Good work, Vircaptain. Destroy those great circles, please.”
  “Certainly, Bailiff.” 

  The small Negentropist proximity mines (that had been silently orbiting this remote planetoid in the deeps of space since shortly after the Emerald arrived) now began to move.  Each mine had a miniature displacement drive system, which allowed fantastic acceleration, and exploded when required in a single burst of energy; no explosive warhead was necessary. Some went toward the planetoid, and began to detonate on or around the huge metal tracks of the mass drivers. Several exploded near the planetoid’s own stock of unlaunched pellets, causing fantastically powerful explosions from the stored antimatter within. Soon the planetoid was covered in plasma and gaseous vapour in dramatic seething patterns.

  In the opposite direction the mines began to close in on the elusive and anonymous vessel. Coherent gamma ray beams of great power were detected from its approximate position- however the lightspeed gap was closing and the exploding mines appeared to begin to cause it superficial damage. 

  Once the last of the destructive pellets launched by the now-destroyed Deeper Covenant mass-drivers had detonated, the Black Emerald ceased its headlong flight, and steered an evasive, irregular course towards the intruder. The heavy beams from the mysterious vessel passed invisibly on all sides, as the lightspeed gap shortened and the aim became more accurate. Finally the Black Emerald began to target the intruder with it’s own offensive beam weapon, while constantly manoeuvring to attempt to avoid that of its foe.

  “There seems to be a pattern to its offensive fire- I am easily able to avoid the beams, even though I cannot know where they are going to target next. My lord Bailiff, it seems suspiciously easy.”
  “I suspect trickery. At all costs avoid the path of least resistance.”
  “I also suspect a ruse of an unknown nature. Alert! The outer hull sensors have detected a small number of particulate impacts.”
  “It is as I feared, the Judge be my witness! Vircaptain, you have been steered into an inert weapons swarm. Prepare to evacuate.”
  The tiny picotech weapons were already eating the hull of the Emerald.

  “Confirmed, Bailiff, but I am going to eliminate our adversary before I lose my ship, if you will allow it, my lord.”
  “There seems little hope of obtaining any useful information from such an unresponsive and implacable foe, therefore nothing of value will be lost. Continue.” 

  The vircaptain primed all the weapons on board to explode on impact, and set course for the presumed vicinity of the mysterious vessel at top speed, straight into the beam of the gamma ray laser. A second before the two ships came together, the outer hull of the Black Emerald was stripped into vapour. A hundredth of a second before impact the control routines of the Emerald ceased to function and all the energy of the displacement drive, the weaponry and the kinetic energy of the craft itself were converted into a single blast of radiation, which was joined by the blast from the opposing vessel as it disintegrated when it too encountered the shock wave. 

  “Well done, vircaptain- I have to tell you that I accept the responsibility for the loss of your ship – it seems I underestimated the serious nature of the opposition.” The Bailiff examined the former vircaptain of the Black Emerald for memetic viruses in the Prior A cybercosm,  in case any  infection had accompanied him when he transmitted his mind state just before impact.

  “Thank you, my Lord. It is very likely that the Covenanters survive beneath the planetoid’s surface, and may need assistance of various kinds.”
  “ The other Oort defence craft are on their way… I don’t think we will get much more trouble from the Protectorate of Syie, but it is highly likely that they are memetic victims themselves, dupes of a far greater power. Soon, it seems, we must bring this pantomime to a conclusion.”

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