Free TFS Navajo: The Terran Fleet Command Saga – Book 3 by Tori Harris

command to fire, the AI intentionally delayed the discharge of its energy weapons until its salvo of five plasma torpedoes had reached just over two-thirds of the distance to the target. With just two one-thousandths of a second remaining until impact, fully half of the destroyer’s readily available power was shunted to its energy weapons, delivering a maximum power discharge from the twenty-five beam emitter locations currently bearing on the targeted location. Just as it had done with its railgun turrets, Theseus’ AI took into account the locations of the emitters in play, allowing the individual beams to converge at the designated point of impact.
    With Badger 21 Flight remaining aft of their target, Theseus received continuous streams of data from several different locations, presenting its crew with a detailed assessment of the damage they had inflicted — even after the target’s drive section was no longer visible from their location. Real-time light and thermally enhanced imagery of the Baldev’s stern was immediately presented on the bridge view screen, with the effect on the target’s shields highlighted on the tactical assessment display. The results, while hardly catastrophic for the colossal battleship, were better than expected.
    “Captain, we took out several of the new shield emitters down the starboard side of Bravo 1’s drive section,” Lau reported. “The additional shielding is still in place, but it looks like we forced their AI to modify its configuration to compensate for the damage.”
    “C-Jumping,” Ensign Fisher reported as Theseus concluded her first attack run and altered course to avoid passing directly beneath the huge battleship. As his practiced hands quickly executed the required commands, a series of unfamiliar, but urgent-sounding warning tones issued from the Helm console. “Uh, sir …”
    Outside, with Theseus now at her closest approach, energy weapons fire burst forth from what looked like hundreds of locations across the entire starboard and ventral surfaces of the Baldev.
    “Fisher, emergency C-Jump!” Prescott yelled, the normally controlled tone of his voice deserting him entirely. In the background, the sound of the ship’s reactors and sublight engines also rose sharply as she attempted to fend off the massive torrent of incoming fire.
    “I’m trying, but I’m getting some kind of field integrity fault that I’ve never seen before … the C-Drive is offline, sir!” he replied in near panic.
    With little else any of them could do at the moment, the entire bridge crew held its collective breath, each person sending nervous glances in Fisher’s direction as they silently willed their ship to complete its C-Jump. For the next several seconds, his hands moved frantically across the surface of the Helm console as he continued his vain attempts to transition the ship while simultaneously executing a series of high-speed evasive maneuvers.
    “Bridge, Engineering,” Commander Logan’s voice boomed from the overhead speakers.
    “Prescott. Go, Commander!”
    “We are being bombarded by a focused gravitic beam with a waveform that looks a lot like what our inertial dampeners produce. It’s not enough to cause hull damage, but it’s more than sufficient to prevent our hyperdrive from creating a field that’s stable enough for a transition.”
    “I need options, Logan.”
    “For now, we just need to run!” his chief engineer replied in an uncharacteristically urgent tone. “We’re way too close to be able to count on our shields to protect us.”
    As if to underscore Logan’s point, Theseus shook violently with multiple impacts as several of the Baldev’s bolts of focused, orange-tinted energy managed to avoid being intercepted by the destroyer’s shields, instantly vaporizing sections of her outer hull armor.
    Without further prompting, Ensign Fisher selected a course indicated by the AI to minimize the potential for shield penetrations, then pushed the