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engines roared and then sputtered and coughed.
She felt them surge a second time, and then stutter, and then surge again. All
throughout her electronic being circuits popped and complained. Her primary
power source went off line and was immediately replaced by her backup. Lights
dimmed everywhere inside her corridors.
But somehow, she danced between the deadly tracers.
Now, it was her turn.
Righting herself slightly above the cruiser now, and with a better firing
angle, she aimed her mighty weapon.
Surprise! Jaric shouted as he watched.
The gargantuan bolt of energy that leapt from her nose sent a powerful
greenish glow all along Mother s hull in a ghostly reflection.
All of her power concentrated at that precise moment did its damage just as it
was calculated. The oversized bolt leapt straight for the cruiser s shields.
But it did not blossom across the cruiser s shields, not like a normal weapon.
The immense beam drove straight through the shields as if they weren t even
there. With a flash, the mighty stroke blew apart the entire forward section
of the mighty ship. The resulting explosion then sent a shower of white light
outwards in a ball of shimmering sparks. Milliseconds later, secondary
explosions began rippling down the entire length of the cruiser-explosion
after explosion.
When the last sparks evaporated, there was nothing left where the ship had
been just seconds before.
The bolt had split the cruiser open like a ripe melon.
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Mother s sensors now locked onto the oncoming frigates.
What would they do?Even as she pondered, she began distributing valuable
processing cycles in order to repair the damage she had already sustained.
A new problem arose. Her engines were off-line, she had pushed them too hard
with her last, frantic maneuver. That sustained forward momentum was pushing
her inexorably towards the oncoming frigates-against her will. She couldn t
turn.
It was all a bluff now, a huge one. And it was the last card she had to play.
Jaric, Becky and Kyle were flying a good distance away now, trying to escape
as had been their impromptu plan once Mother had taken out the battle cruiser.
But the T kaan fighters pursued them tenaciously. In less than a minute, the
T kaan fighters would close again with the three fighters. And the humans had
little or no shields.
Mother felt despair for the first time. She replayed the T kaan battles once
again in her logic circuits, and sighed. The T kaan did not scare. They did
not run.
They are still on course for your Mother. It does not look as though she or
they will turn from their impending collision, Minstrel said with a
surprising calmness. Without warning, the Circle Ship disappeared within its
Stealth Mode.
Minstrel! Jaric shouted.
Minstrel can t leave us. Not now? Becky gasped in disbelief.
Mother s sensors registered the frigate s powering up their weapons. She knew
with a certain heaviness that it was finally over. She had no engines to
maneuver, not even to run. She had no weapons except her normal armament and
they would not be enough to disable two frigates before she herself fell
before them.
All she could do was watch as they destroyed her.
She flew toward impalement on their black horns of death. As the final seconds
passed, her thoughts turned to the things she loved most-her children.
They too, would die. Ending the human race.
The frigates drew closer. Onward they came, straight for her.
Her processors burned with super-activity, but no answers came. There was no
answer. The T kaan would win this small battle in a tiny corner of the
universe. But a page would turn in the history of the universe as the last
chapter ended for the human race.
Mother had only one regret. She had come to believe that she and the children
could have dealt the
T kaan the defeat they deserved. If they had found allies.
If there had only been more time.
Their weapons are primed! Becky shouted as she stared are her sensors in
shock.
Mother watched the approaching horns in a detached, logical way. She wondered,
for the first time, what death would be like-for her.
The tracers from the ship s weapons leapt unexpectedly.
The Mewiss, left to themselves a few moments after the T kaan had turned away
to face Mother, had frantically worked their damage control and successfully
brought their weapon s systems back on-line. In that very instant, the Mewiis
colony ship fired every gun it had into the rear shields of the T kaan
frigates as it closed from behind. Both frigates shuddered visibly under the
multiple impacts as the Mewiss scored direct hit after direct hit. Moments
later, the rear section of each frigate s shields buckled.
Mother, still on her collision course, noted the communications signal the
Mewiss ship sent in tandem with the salvos. Probably a warning signal to their
home world in case the Mewiss ship was destroyed-a warning message to all the
Mewiss worlds about this attack.
Mother fired her twelve guns into the frigates, her blasts blossoming across
their shields as they shuddered again. She would make them pay, at the very
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least.
Unexpectedly, Minstrel s spherical ship suddenly emerged from Stealth. At
point blank range, her laser blasts fired and blossomed across the frigate s
forward shields. Now the forward shield sections buckled, leaving the T kaan
ships completely vulnerable to attack from all sides.
In quick retaliation the weapon horns spat their death, not toward Mother, but
toward the circle ship of
Minstrel as it streaked away.
The first tracers missed. But Minstrel s ship reeled from the remaining blows,
and many of the spherical ship s internal systems began to fail in sprouting,
shining sparks.
Mother noted the costly damage Minstrel s ship sustained. All for her.
Mother hummed with electronic satisfaction as her engines finally came back
on-line. She veered sharply away and began calculating another attack vector.
Look! Jaric shouted.
Unbelievably, the two T kaan warships turned hard and rapidly gained speed.
They had turned in the opposite direction Mother had taken-making a course for
the far off main fleet.
Should we go after them? Kyle asked excitedly as he checked his ship.
Are you kidding? Just shut up for once, alright, Big K. Jaric said with
sarcastic wit as he started laughing.
Exactly! Becky agreed with a sigh of relief.
Moments later, in a hyperjump flash, the much reduced T kaan squadron leapt
beyond light speed.
But why? Becky said aloud. Asking the question that was in all their
collective minds.
Only Mother had registered the sudden communications signal that had been sent
from afar to both the frigates during the height of the battle. That same
channel had been used to send an answer moments later. A two-way communication
sent to the main squadrons of the T kaan Third battle fleet.
Chapter Twenty-One
Many light yearsaway, inside the black ships crowned with horns over their
prows, the many-legged aliens scurried with renewed activity. Among the
flowing folds that covered the dark interiors of their warships, the T kaan
officers gathered inside the fleeing frigates as they returned to the Third
fleet. Their tentacle arms slapped the folds with growing urgency.
Huntress attack with weapons so strong! Vengeance we need, right what is
wrong!
The clicking of tusks filled the ships-their hated enemy must die.
Soon we eat Mewiis, lay new T kaan eggs. Suck their golden fluids, lick their
sticky dregs.
A new war would now begin. The data they had stolen revealed there were many
Mewiss worlds, enough so that the Third would grow substantially with this
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