Read Lens of Time for Free Online Page B

the intruder now!” The orange ships backed away from the second ship that had been breached by the small white craft until they were a hundred miles away. “Charge your weapons.”
    “Are you going to fire on my ship?”
    “I am and you are going to drop your force field when I order. We will target the vessel inside your screen. We will then start rescue operations for your survivors. I trust you understand the necessity of this.”
    “I do. We will move all crew members to the ends of the ship. The intruder is maintaining an orbit around the middle.”
    • • •
    Loree looked at her scanners and said, “What are they doing? This ship has ceased firing at us.” Loree looked at her long range scanner and said, “The remaining ships are charging their weapons.” She looked up at Mikal and said, “Should I launch another missile.”
    “No!”
    “Why not?”
    “No time, I’ll tell you later.” Mikal flew out of the force field and yelled, “run, run, run.”
    The Jump drive computer heard the command and the small ship jumped away.
    The Operator yelled, “Hold your fire; go after that ship and destroy it.”
    The Captain of the ship that was about to be fired on collapsed in his chair and wondered why the small ship had not fired a missile at his vessel. He glanced at his scanner and saw the remaining ships had disappeared giving chase to the small white ship. He hit the panel in front of him and said, “Return to your stations and power up all weapons.”
    The Operator watched the remaining ship come back online and then turned his attention to the chase. It wondered why the small ship had not killed the second ship and why it had allowed the escape pods to escape; it could have very easily killed both. He looked at the coordinates of the small ship’s jump and then saw the second set come in. The ship was jumping towards the radiation stream. It hesitated and then ordered half the ships to continue their pursuit. The small ship disappeared and thirteen ships followed it into the stream. Ten of them were quickly destroyed when they emerged into the center of the violent blast coming out of the giant black hole. Three battleships were able to see the small ship’s route through null space and accelerated after it, making sure they avoided the center of the raging storm of radiation emanating from the monstrous black hole.
    • • •
    RV hit the general frequency, “I expect one of our attack craft to jump to this location. You will withhold firing your weapons on the first ship to enter normal space. If it’s not our ship, open fire immediately; if it is our attack craft you will instantly fire at any ship that enters normal space behind it. Do not hesitate, fire immediately at the breakout points.”
    Cyanna looked at RV and said, “Should we take this risk?”
    “If I were piloting that ship, what would you be doing?” Cyanna stared at him and he said, “If you’d do it for me, you should do it for them. You know the talent in that ship.”
    Cyanna continued to stare and then smiled. She turned back to her board and moved the sensor monitor to the main display. They waited. RV wondered if Mikal and Loree had already been killed but then the sensors alarmed as the small white ship broke into normal space.
    • • •
    Mikal watched as normal space appeared and he slammed his hand on the drive control button shutting it down. Loree screamed, “What are you doing?” Mikal hit the gravity control making the ship weightless and hit the thrusters. He grabbed the flight controls and turned the ship violently to the left and right as it flew through the fifty thousand ships of the 8 th Fleet. Immediately behind them three orange colored battleships emerged into normal space and they were immediately fired on by fifty thousand ultrabeams targeted at their points of entry. The three ships blew up in huge explosions but not before the third orange ship to emerge fired at three Union battleships. The