Chapter 26
The meteors hadn’t reached the colony yet. From what the sensors calculated, the first one wouldn’t hit Sirius Five for another two hours. That gave the battle group two hours to try and evacuate fifty thousand colonists.
Spot spent most of his time communicating with the transports from all the ships of the battle group and with the colony. He hadn’t gotten a chance to do more than wave at Marshy before she went down to the hangar. He wished he could be there with her, to try and keep her safe, but his place was here, on the bridge.
“How many do we have so far?” Admiral Barker asked.
“Ten thousand on board and another five thousand en route.”
The admiral nodded but didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to; they could both do the math well enough. There was no chance they would be able to extract everyone before the meteors started coming down.
Admiral Barker looked over at Spot. “We’re going to have to buy them some time. Commander, take the helm and plot an intercept course. Lieutenant Bulldog, ready weapons and shields and put the ship on red alert.”
To accommodate the admiral’s hoverchair, Dr. Ruff had installed a magnetic lock in front of the captain’s chair to keep the chair from being thrown around as the ship moved. The admiral activated the lock as Spot settled into the helm station—Marshy’s station. He took a deep breath and then plotted the intercept course.
Shooting at the asteroids was a risky gambit. It might buy the colony some time. Or they might wind up creating more deadly projectiles to create even more damage. It would depend on how accurate Jake’s shooting was and on the trajectories of the asteroids.
It didn’t take the Batpooh long to near the asteroids. Just five minutes at full sublight speed and they were in position. Spot brought the ship around to the port side so that more of their weapons could track the asteroids. “We’re in position, sir.”
“Open fire.”
Spot didn’t look back, but he could hear a nervous tremor in the admiral’s voice. He was probably remembering the last time they had gone into a meteor shower to try and save a colony. That had left him crippled and nearly destroyed the Batpooh. What would happen this time?
On the viewscreen, Spot watched the first asteroid disappear in an explosion of concentrated blue light. The few pieces that remained weren’t large enough to pose any danger to Sirius Five. If Jake could keep that shooting up, they might be able to hold out long enough. Except there were going to be a lot more asteroids a lot closer together.
Jake had just destroyed a second one when a burst of red energy came out through the cloud of debris. The Batpooh rocked as this energy burst hit its shields. The debris from the asteroid cleared and Spot saw what had hit them.
A Cat warship streaked through the debris cloud, its weapons glowing red. A second one appeared from behind another asteroid, followed by a third, and then a fourth. There was an entire Cat battle group hidden in the asteroid field!
#
“Commander, pull us back,” Admiral Barker ordered. “Ensign Mutt, tell the battle group to form a defensive perimeter. We can’t allow them to hit the transports.”
“What about the transports, sir?” Spot asked as he began pulling the Batpooh back towards the rest of the BPS ships.
“Are any of the other planets in this system habitable?”
Spot didn’t need to call up the report on the system; he had memorized it on the way here. “The fourth moon of the planet is barren but its atmosphere can support dogs.”
“Then we’ll divert the transports there for now. We can pick up the colonists later.” The admiral left it unsaid that if the battle group was destroyed there would be no need to worry about it.
The Batpooh took a few minor hits as it backed away from the meteors, but as soon as it was clear, the Cats ceased firing. “They aren’t leaving the meteors, sir.”
“They’re using those rocks for cover,” the admiral said. “They know we’ll have to fight them in there eventually. Keep moving us back to rejoin the battle group.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Cat ships disappeared again, using their cloaking devices to hide amongst the asteroids. They must have some skilled pilots to manage such precise flying. How many of them were in there? Enough to wipe out the battle group? With the help of the asteroids, they might not need that many ships.
The Batpooh rejoined the rest of the battle group. Spot watched the viewscreen for any sign of the Cats, but there was nothing. He motioned for Marshy’s replacement to retake the station while Spot went back to check the sensors. There was nothing unusual coming from the asteroids, nothing they could home in on. They would just have to wait for the enemy to attack.
Spot went over to Dash’s station. “Can you bring up Lieutenant Ruff’s transport for me?”
“Sure thing, cuz.” Dash punched a few buttons and then Marshy’s face was on the screen.
“We’ve got a bit of a situation, Lieutenant,” Spot said.
“I heard you want us to reroute the civilians. What’s going on?”
“The Cats are here. In the asteroids.”
“Oh. That will make things tougher.” Despite her nonchalant words, Spot saw the worry in her eyes.
“We might not have much time, so make sure you cram as many in every transport as possible. Throw out anything you don’t need to make extra room.”
“I understand. I’ll pass the word along.”
“Thanks. And good luck.”
“You too.” As the transmission ended, Spot wished he could have said more to her, but he couldn’t, not now. They had a job to do.
#
By the time the first asteroids neared the planet, thirty thousand had been evacuated either to the battle group or the barren moon. The rest were going down to underground shelters in case one of the asteroids slipped through. That seemed like a distinct possibility with the Cats hiding in the asteroids as well.
“I want all ships to lay down a concentrated barrage on the asteroid field. Maybe we can coax them out of hiding,” Admiral Barker said.
Spot was back at the helm as the battle group opened fire. The concentrated fire of the dozen ships took out at least three asteroids. Whether they destroyed any Cat ships he couldn’t tell. It did have the desired effect of convincing the Cats to leave their hiding places. They uncloaked all around the battle group. Spot counted at least fifteen of them.
Directly in front of the Batpooh the stars shimmered for a moment. He watched in awe as another Cat warship appeared. This one was twice as big as the others, larger than the Batpooh by half. Ports all over the ship began opening, revealing cannons and racks of missiles.
“Focus on that flagship,” Admiral Barker said, but it was too late.
The flagship’s weapons opened fire. The sheer number of laser cannons was enough to blind Spot. He whimpered and put a paw to his face as the Batpooh shook from the impacts. He slapped blindly at the controls to ease the Batpooh back, away from a second barrage. Not that it would matter. They couldn’t run and abandon the colonists.
“Return fire!” Admiral Barker shouted.
Spot’s vision cleared enough that he could see the Batpooh’s counterattack, which seemed feeble by comparison. The shields of the Cat flagship absorbed the laser blasts; the ship itself absorbed no damage.
“Admiral, we’re being hailed by the enemy flagship,” Dash said.
“Put them on.”
It didn’t come as a surprise to Spot when Duke Draco’s face came onto the screen, his mouth curled in a sneer. He was the one who had tried to frame and execute Buster for attempting to murder Princess Whiskers. “Where is Captain Bulldog?” Draco asked.
“I am Admiral Bob Barker. I am in command here.”
“Not for much longer. You have taken something from us. Now we will take something from you. Your pathetic colony will be destroyed either by the asteroids or our weapons after we finish with you. The choice is up to you.”
“We will not allow you to destroy our colony. This is an act of war—”
“You declared war on us first by kittennapping Princess Whiskers!”
“We didn’t abduct her. She came here of her own free will.”
“Return her and I will consider sparing your lives.”
“What about the colony?”
“They will die so that your leaders may learn an important lesson. We are not to be trifled with.”
“In that case, no deal.” Admiral Barker turned and signaled for Dash to end the transmission. “Continue firing. We’re going to hold out here as long as we can. Ensign Mutt, any word from Command on reinforcements?”
“Nothing for at least a day, sir.”
The admiral said nothing. There was nothing to say at that point. No help was coming, not soon enough to be of any use for them. “Move the battle group into protective orbit over the colony. We’ll hold them as long as we can. Dog save us all.”
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