Planet Wrecker

-83-

Asteroid E continued to accelerate out of the asteroid-pack. In the control room of the first dome, Marten watched Nadia at her sensor board.

Osadar stepped away from her station to stand beside Marten. Despite the fusion-generated power blasting out of the crater-sized exhaust-port, the G-forces were slight. The asteroid’s mass saw to that.

“Logically, we are in danger,” Osadar said.

“From the Highborn or the cyborgs?” asked Marten.

“…Both,” said Osadar.

“We don’t have the people or the hardware to take another asteroid,” Marten said. “But we might be able to hold onto the one we have. What do you think is going to happen next?”

“The most logical move,” Osadar said. “The cyborgs will beam our dome, destroying our controls and possibly disabling our fusion core.”

“Maybe,” said Marten. He was still thinking about the Grand Admiral. The Highborn frightened him. There was something grimly effective about Cassius. The Highborn possessed a driving force that had managed to radiate through the communications.

“As a Web-Mind,” Osadar said, “I would beam this asteroid into submission.”

“Marten,” Nadia said. Her voice was thick with worry. “The cyborgs are beaming—”

Marten shoulders tightened. Was he about to die? Was Osadar correct?

“—The cyborgs are beaming the Doom Stars,” Nadia finished saying.

Marten hurried to Nadia’s board. The captured asteroids, the five, accelerated at a gentle angle away from the tight formation of the remaining twelve. That had exposed the inner asteroids, making them the rearmost ones now. The debris-fields acted as shields for some of them. From other asteroids with a line-of-sight shot, it seemed as if a hundred lasers lanced out, striking the lead Doom Star, the Julius Caesar. The vast warship was ahead of the other two by one thousand kilometers. It used a debris-field as a shield from four asteroids, boring in toward the others like a sonic drill. Marten knew why. The Julius Caesar wanted to launch its shuttles from close range.

“Where its shielding cloud?” asked Marten. He didn’t know why Cassius had refrained from normal space-combat procedures.

“The battle is over,” Osadar said in gloom. “The Doom Star lacks even the slightest particle shield, and it has inexplicably forgotten to spray any gels or crystals. How could the Highborn be so reckless as to charge the asteroids like that?”

“Look,” Nadia said. “The Highborn are striking back.” She adjusted her controls. “The wattage expended by the ultra-laser—it’s amazing.”

For the next thirty seconds, Marten, Osadar and Nadia watched the cyborgs pour concentrated laser-fire against the Julius Caesar. Impossibly, the outer armor held. It should have already melted in spots.

“What’s going on?” Marten finally asked.

Osadar’s head swiveled with cyborg speed. “Run an analysis please.”

“On what?” a bewildered Nadia asked.

“On the composition of the Julius Caesar’s outer plating,” Osadar said.

Nadia’s fingers clicked on her board. She frowned at the readings and finally looked up. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t?” asked Marten.

“The plating…it’s like collapsed star matter,” Nadia said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”