Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" Read Online Free

broadcast that signal.”
    “Actually, you would have to jump behind it first,” Abby interjected. “You can’t see an object traveling faster than light when it is coming toward you. The object would arrive before its light, until the very last second that is. By that time it would be too late. Once it passes you, it would already be traveling faster than the stop signal, so you would then have to jump ahead of it in order to transmit a stop signal.”
    “But once it passes us, we could see it,” Nathan said, seeking clarification.
    “Yes. Its light would be red-shifted, of course, but we would see it.”
    “So we find it, calculate its exact course and speed, then jump just ahead of it. Then we transmit the stop signal so we can target it and kill it.” Nathan looked at everyone in the room, expecting them to be as excited about the idea as he was. “It could work, right?”
    “Theoretically, yes,” Abby conceded.
    “You’re talking about a really small target traveling extremely fast,” Jessica warned. “I don’t think the rail guns could track it accurately enough.”
    “Can we tell it to slow down?”
    “Once the drone drops out of FTL, it will automatically reduce its subluminal velocity by at least ten percent in order to facilitate signal exchange. If it had to reduce its velocity much more than that, it would expend too much energy during re-acceleration and would be unable to decelerate once it arrived at its final destination,” Ensign Willard explained.
    “Shoot at it head on,” Abby suggested.
    “What?” Jessica asked.
    “If you take your shot from head on, the target’s only motion is toward you, which means it’s essentially no longer a moving target.”
    “Oh yes it is,” Jessica objected. “It’s moving toward you at ninety percent the speed of light!”
    “You just have to be ready to move out of the way in case you miss,” Abby told them.
    “Problem is, at that velocity, there wouldn’t be enough time to fire and maneuver out of its path,” Nathan explained. “And the accuracy of our rail guns drops significantly as the range to target increases, so firing from behind won’t work either. Besides, we don’t have any ammo for them. We’d get about a two second burst, which would only be a few hundred rounds, and we’d have to fire blind.”
    “We could use my interceptor,” Tug suggested. “It has energy weapons, it is more maneuverable, and it is faster. Also, as the interceptor uses energy weapons, I could fire continuously without fear of running out of ammunition. It would just be a matter of slipping into position behind the drone just after it passes by and opening fire.”
    “You would only have a limited window of opportunity, Captain,” Ensign Willard warned. “The drone will automatically return to FTL and continue on at top speed after five minutes.”
    “So,” Nathan stated, “we’ve got five minutes to hit a drone the size of a bus, traveling at nearly the speed of light, with a laser cannon mounted on an interceptor.” Nathan shrugged his shoulders. “Piece of cake. Question is: is it worth the risk?”
    “What risk?” Jessica wondered. “It’s not like the drone will be shooting back at us.”
    “Three spacecraft traveling at near relativistic speeds, all within close proximity to each other,” Nathan said. “Trust me, there’s risk.”
    “Destroying the drone would keep the Ta’Akar from becoming aware that anything is amiss in the Darvano system,” Ensign Willard pointed out. “It could provide you with weeks or even months of additional time in which to prepare a defense.”
    “We will need the help of the Corinairans,” Tug reminded him.
    “Leave that to me,” Nathan assured him. “They love me down there.”
    “As you wish, Captain.”
    “Does anyone else have any immediate concerns to discuss?” Nathan looked around the table. “Very well. Doctor Sorenson, I will need to meet with you later. I have some questions