Deathstalker 02 - Deathstalker Rebellion

to blowing the alien ship apart rather than letting it escape, that ship is dead."
    "Understood," said Frost. "You'd have made a good Investigator, Captain."
    "Thanks a whole bunch," said Silence. "Cross, where is it?"
    "It's coming," said Cross. "Should be in visual range any time now."
    "Red Alert," said Silence. "All shields up, everyone to their battle stations.
    Power up all weapons and tie in fire-control systems. Cross, download our log so far, along with any other useful information concerning the aliens and what happened at Gehenna Base, and launch the files in an emergency buoy. If anything should happen to us, the information can be retrieved later by whoever survives this mess."

    "It's coming," said Cross. "I have it in my sensors. Its speed is incredible."
    "Put it on the viewscreen," said Silence.
    The scene on the viewscreen changed to show the great glowing curve of Golgotha, and the darkness and the stars beyond. One of the stars was moving rapidly toward them, jumping in size as Cross increased magnification. The alien ship finally sprang into view, and Silence leaned forward in his command chair. The alien craft appeared to be a huge hull of sickly white webbing, tied and tangled together. It reminded Silence of a wasp's nest or a cocoon. Insect imagery. The ball had no details of shape or structure and no identifiable technology.
    "How big is it?" Silence said finally.
    "About two miles in diameter," said Cross. "I'm listening on all channels, but I'm not picking up anything from the alien craft."
    "Sensors indicate mainly organic material," said Frost. "Presumably protected by some kind of force shield, but the few energy readings I'm picking up make no sense at all. No identifiable drive, or weapons, or… anything, really."
    "Try talking to them," said Stelmach. "Maybe we can negotiate."
    "Unlikely," said Frost. "Even the best computer translators take months to produce a working language. Besides, I'd say they've already made their intentions clear."
    "Damn right," said Silence. "I don't negotiate with butchers. Anything else on the sensors?"
    "Getting some high-energy readings as we get closer, nothing familiar. Wait a minute. Something's happening. The energy readings are building…"
    Flaring energy leapt out from the alien ship, crossing the intervening miles in a moment, and crackled across the Dauntless's force shields. It seethed and hissed all over the shields, testing, searching for weak spots. Alarms went off
    all over the Dauntless as slowly, inexorably, the crackling energy tore through the force shields, seeped through the outer hull, and burst into the ship's interior. Blazing light leapt out of workstations on that side of the ship, incinerating crew members where they stood. More alarms sounded every minute, and fires burned unattended in a chaos of screams and shouted orders. Emergency systems were bypassed, and the energy spread.
    "Evacuate that section!" said Silence. "Get out as many as you can, and then isolate the section and seal it off. Set up a series of force shields in the corridors. See if you can slow it down at least. Frost, talk to me. What is that stuff? What is it doing to my ship?"
    "Sensors indicate pure energy, Captain," said Frost calmly. "But it also has definite physical properties. Possibly some form of plasma energy in suspension, but don't quote me. It's ignoring everything we throw at it. And if these readings are to be believed, the energy has begun to infiltrate our instrumentation in that section, subverting it and taking it over."
    "We just lost sectors H through K," said Cross. "They're no longer responding to central control, or auxiliary backups. Life-support systems are shutting down in those sectors."
    "Is everyone out?" said Silence.
    "Most of them," said Cross. "Those that didn't get out won't last long."
    "Evacuate the adjoining sectors," said Silence. "Seal them off with as many interior force shields as we can generate. Any injured are to get themselves to the Infirmary. Everyone else is to stay at their posts. Investigator, any recommendations?"
    "Our shields won't hold back the energy for long, Captain. Defensive measures
    are strictly temporary. This would seem to indicate the need to take the offensive. If the alien ship has any force shields, my sensors can't find them.
    It's looking more and more like our best bet is to hit them with everything we've got and see what happens."
    "I was hoping we'd have something else we could try