Free Aces by Craig Alanson Page B

the
star didn ’ t cook one side of the ship. If anyone on Ace ’ s bridge had been looking, they would have seen that a bay door
on the medical ship ’ s port side was open. Now, that was
odd, if any of Nightengale ’ s
crew were going outside, they should have notified any nearby ships. The open
door rotated toward Ace , and, for the briefest moment, a pair of
red-colored tubes were visible inside the airlock, then something shot out of
one tube.
    The missile was
launched by a magnetic pulse, invisible to any human observer. Once the missile
reached a safe 500 meters from Nightengale , its
solid rocket motor ignited, and the missile altered course. The launch was
undetected, and the missile itself was unseen, until it had crossed half the
distance to the freighter. On Ace ’ s bridge, the
collision alarm sounded, triggered by the low-powered radar which constantly swept
the space around the ship.
    Seth barely had
time to check the radar, and see with shock that the source of the alarm was an
object traveling at high speed from the medical ship, when the missile struck
the freighter, right at the junction tube which connected the saucer-shaped
command section to the rest of the ship. The missile penetrated the thin outer
skin of the tube, then the low-power warhead exploded.
    The blast ripped
through the junction tube, tearing it completely apart, and also cut through
the three structural frames which connected the command section to the rest of
the ship. The command section was wrenched free with the shrieking, groaning
sound of tearing metal and composites and separated from the rest of the ship,
spinning end over end, out of control.
    On the bridge
there was pandemonium. Seth was the only person strapped into a seat, everyone
else was flung around from the force of the explosion. The artificial gravity
cut off immediately, along with the lights.  Joy was fortunate to be knocked
first against the flat bridge doors, then fall forward into Schroeder, who was
rebounding off the back off Seth ’ s chair. Gina and Vassily
hit the ceiling. Everyone was shouting, no one was listening.

CHAPTER 6
                          
    The dim emergency
lighting snapped on, then a few consoles came back to life, navigation first,
followed by communications. Captain Schroeder, bleeding from a cut on his head,
managed to get a grasp on a handhold. “Is everyone all right?” He shouted out.
    Seth ’ s brain felt like it had been on a rollercoaster ride. He
blinked, his vision was functional. “I ’ m OK, Hans.” He
responded, for the moment forgetting shipboard formality. Seth unbuckled from
his seat, and pushed off to grab Vasilly around the waist, then pull the engineer
down to his duty station and strap him loosely into his own seat. Vasilly had a
deep scar across his right temple, blood was welling up. His eyes were barely
open, and glassy, staring without seeing. He moaned in pain. “Vasilly ’ s alive, he took a knock on the head, I think he ’ s
unconscious.”
    Gina cried out
from the far corner of the bridge, she was still floating in the air. “I think
I broke my arm.” Her voice was shaky from the pain. Her left forearm was at an
odd angle, she cradled it with her right hand.
     Joy
coughed, and spit blood from a cut on her lip. She had also bashed her nose at
some point, and it too was bleeding. Fingers and toes were moving. “I ’ m fine here. What happened? My bComm isn't connecting to the
ship computer.”
    “ I
don’ t know what happened yet, my bComm is down also. Ms. Sanchez, can
you help Gina? Seth, make sure Vasilly won ’ t float around,
then get back to your station, we need to figure out what our status is.”
Schroeder pulled himself along the handholds, trying to get to a viewport which
looked aft. He stopped to speak over the intercom.
    Joy, moving on
adrenaline, held onto a railing with one hand, and reached up to get hold of
Gina ’ s pantsleg with the other. Gently,