The Ethos Effect

comparators verified that they were indeed on the fringes of Scandya system, with less than two hours of translation error, Van began to search the detector screens, wondering what he might find.
One scan and Van stiffened. Less than fifty emkay—out-system and “behind” them—was the EDI track of something bearing down on the Fergus.
“I have the conn!” Van triggered the emergency siren and diverted power from all nonvital systems into the photon nets, the drives, and shields, immediately turning the Fergus into the oncoming ship—a heavy cruiser of some sort with distorted EDI tracks. Or an EDI of some type he’d never seen.
Torps inbound! came from Weapons.
Van caught four on the net monitors and put full power into the shields, letting the photon nets fade. Standard shields were supposed to hold against three. Not against four, and certainly not the old shields of the Fergus.
“Desensitizing.”
All the screens and detectors went blank.
Even so, Van could feel the wash of energy against the shipnet. As it subsided, he opened the detectors, shifted power to the nets, and continued to build acceleration toward the unknown cruiser.
More torps!
Got them! There were two.
Van shifted power to the shields, but left enough for nets and screens to keep building speed and collecting hydrogen and dust—or before long he wouldn’t have any mass for the fusactor at the rate of power he was using.
Again, he waited until milliseconds before the expected impact before desensitizing, then shifted full power to the nets for a long moment. What he planned was a gamble, but the Fergus couldn’t stand too many more torp impacts against its weaker screens—certainly what the attacker was counting on.
The courses weren’t collision-based, but close enough for Van’s purposes, especially against a newer vessel, and the Fergus continued to accelerate outward, the photon nets growing and gathering hydrogen and other various bits of dust that would become reaction mass for the fusactor.
Any ID on bogey?
No, ser.
With less than a minute before CPA, Van watched and waited, feeling the sweat pouring from his forehead despite the chill in the cockpit.
Then, even as Weapons announced, Torps!, Van diverted full power to the nets, squeezing them forward and hurling dust and hydrogen at the oncoming cruiser. Nearly simultaneously, he released two torps, and then a second set of two, even as he slewed the Fergus across the path of the attacker, and then cut all power to everything and diverted all power to the shields, desensitizing the ship as well.
Eeeeeeee! The EMP bled in over the damped equipment, and the Fergus actually rocked for an instant.
Van smiled, coldly.
After another five hundred milliseconds, he extended the screens and detectors.
They revealed a hot and rapidly expanding ball of gas, and several irregular fragments of metal.
Comm…any indications of who that was?
No, ser. Didn’t match any profile. EDI could have been off-tuned rev. Shields were close to Keltyr…
Van opened the photon nets to let them rebuild mass, then swung the Fergus back in-system, slowly and sluggishly on what power and mass remained to the Fergus.
He scanned what lay inward. The EDI traces from in-system—well in-system—indicated a battle cruiser orbiting Gotland, next to a large orbital station, and the colors suggested strongly that the vessel was Revenant. A smaller EDI came in shortly, a Taran courier, probably the one with detailed orders from the CSO for the Fergus. There were two other light cruisers stationed where they could open fire on the Revenant cruiser, and the EDI traces suggested they were the Scandyan cruisers. The only other non-Scandyan vessel was a frigate—Argenti from what Van could tell—also orbiting Gotland.
There was no sign of the Collyns.
Van blotted his forehead and turned to Moran. “You have the conn, Lieutenant. Take her for now. Maintain half shields.”
“Yes, ser. I have it. Maintaining half shields.”
Van cleared his throat, then began to speak, also forming the message for the shipnet, for those linked there. “All hands. This is the commander. We just fought off an attack by an unknown cruiser, and we are entering the Scandyan system. Just before jump we received urgent orders to divert here, then proceed to Gotland, the fourth planet, where we are to receive more detailed orders. We are replacing the battle cruiser Collyns. Right now, that’s all I know, but we’ll keep you informed as we can. That is all.”
Weapons status? Van snapped across the shipnet to Lieutenant Mitchel.
Twenty-one torps left, ser.
Thanks, Weapons. Engineer?
Fusactor’s close to the heat limit, ser. Port rear quadrant shield is almost amber. Starboard converter is running at eighty.
Thanks.
“Ser?” asked Moran. “Who…was that a Rev ship? Or Argenti? And why did they come after us? It’s not like we’re trying to take over anyone else’s systems.”
“I don’t know, Lieutenant. None of the IDs match. The drive EDIs were altered—or they belong to a system we’ve never heard of, and the torp traces were so standard that it could have been anyone. And they didn’t bother to tell us who they were.”
“Ser…I’d heard of…what you did…”
“But how did I know how to do it?” Van laughed, harshly. “That’s what commanders are for. You learn your ship, what she can do, what she can’t. The Fergus doesn’t have shields like the newer cruisers, but the photon nets and the collectors were overengineered. That was because of the inefficiency of converters when she was built. They didn’t bother to change the nets when she was refitted ten years back. That’s why there’s an intake governor.”
“I’ve never seen anyone squeeze the nets that way.”
“Except for something like that, you don’t want to. We lost close to twenty percent of one converter and nearly overheated the fusactor. I’ll probably have to answer for that as well. But it was the only way…what I did was use all the matter in the nets to overload their shields. Shields don’t care whether what’s coming at them is gas and dust or a torp. The total mass load is what matters. Mass times velocity. I accelerated the mass in the nets, then let the torps punch through.” Van