The First Sign of Resistance
One of the quaint ideas of the Twentieth Century futurists was a sort of Solar Federation. Perhaps we'll have one someday. For now not a single Inner World has a world government. Even the United Earth Government has plenty of rogue states, isolationists and petty war lords. It is much the same with Mars and both planets have allies or at least snitches and agents on the other.
Space Ship Thera was lifting from the Martian city state of Hellas when the Arctic Polar Lords decided to rattle their swords and they sent an attack saucer to intercept Thera and force her down.
The saucer had powerful R-Ray propulsion and could out accelerate the Thera at least when it had a whole planet to use for reaction mass. Thera could have resorted to her thrusters and might have gotten away but the saucer gained altitude and charged her weapons and then the sword rattling turned into a gunfight.
The saucer started it, that's clear, trying to overpower the Thera's R-Ray and possibly overload it. The Martians are still better at R-Ray hijinks than Earth Men. This was an interdiction saucer, designed to focus a powerful R-Ray from a ground installation. As the Thera was putting out energy into its R-field to raise the ship, this saucer manipulated the field and short circuited it. That power had to go somewhere.
On board Thera alarms were going off as the R-Ray was abruptly blocked and the generator was getting power shunted into it and hence into the ship's accumulator banks. The Captain probably should have ordered the generator shut down immediately. Then the Thera would simply drop as her R-field slowly lost energy (assuming the saucer was agreeable). He might have fired rockets and done a launch the hard way, despite the saucer being directly above and played chicken. But he delayed a second too long.
The generator was about to blow. The Chief Engineer dumped power into the emergency system, which had never been tested in the field. The emergency system was a number of resistors placed next to or near power cells between the inner and outer hulls in armored boxes. Dumping power into one would indeed make the resistor explode but it was in an armored box and covered by a thin panel designed to explode outward with minimal damage to the ship's systems.
As it was three resistors exploded with a huge amount of noise, smoke, plasma discharge, and lightning flashes. Many crew members thought the Thera had taken a direct hit. The saucer moved laterally and began a downward spiral to let its captain watch the Earth ship unravel from a safe distance.
As the saucer came into the starboard turret's field of fire the Thera unloaded three missiles into, it all direct hits, and the saucer became more of an atmospheric anomaly than an airworthy craft.
Thera had one casualty, an engineer who was killed by a short circuit while attempting repairs. The saucer was a complete loss as reported by the City of Hellas in glowing terms. The Martians touted this as a triumph of their superior technology and said their saucer was lost to Earth treachery, opening fire on their vessel after surrendering. Privately they were amazed at Space Fleet damage control procedures, which saved a 'mortally stricken' vessel.
The Hellans were happy to see their hated foes, the Polar Lords, get their ears pinned back by the upstart Earth men.
The Thera's crew all received commendations, the slain crew member was buried with high honors, and the Captain was awarded the Gold Star; which he insisted be awarded to 'the egghead who came up with that gadget'.
Space Ship Thera was lifting from the Martian city state of Hellas when the Arctic Polar Lords decided to rattle their swords and they sent an attack saucer to intercept Thera and force her down.
The saucer had powerful R-Ray propulsion and could out accelerate the Thera at least when it had a whole planet to use for reaction mass. Thera could have resorted to her thrusters and might have gotten away but the saucer gained altitude and charged her weapons and then the sword rattling turned into a gunfight.
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| Martan Interdiction Saucer froma scan by ESS Thera. |
The saucer started it, that's clear, trying to overpower the Thera's R-Ray and possibly overload it. The Martians are still better at R-Ray hijinks than Earth Men. This was an interdiction saucer, designed to focus a powerful R-Ray from a ground installation. As the Thera was putting out energy into its R-field to raise the ship, this saucer manipulated the field and short circuited it. That power had to go somewhere.
On board Thera alarms were going off as the R-Ray was abruptly blocked and the generator was getting power shunted into it and hence into the ship's accumulator banks. The Captain probably should have ordered the generator shut down immediately. Then the Thera would simply drop as her R-field slowly lost energy (assuming the saucer was agreeable). He might have fired rockets and done a launch the hard way, despite the saucer being directly above and played chicken. But he delayed a second too long.
The generator was about to blow. The Chief Engineer dumped power into the emergency system, which had never been tested in the field. The emergency system was a number of resistors placed next to or near power cells between the inner and outer hulls in armored boxes. Dumping power into one would indeed make the resistor explode but it was in an armored box and covered by a thin panel designed to explode outward with minimal damage to the ship's systems.
As it was three resistors exploded with a huge amount of noise, smoke, plasma discharge, and lightning flashes. Many crew members thought the Thera had taken a direct hit. The saucer moved laterally and began a downward spiral to let its captain watch the Earth ship unravel from a safe distance.
As the saucer came into the starboard turret's field of fire the Thera unloaded three missiles into, it all direct hits, and the saucer became more of an atmospheric anomaly than an airworthy craft.
Thera had one casualty, an engineer who was killed by a short circuit while attempting repairs. The saucer was a complete loss as reported by the City of Hellas in glowing terms. The Martians touted this as a triumph of their superior technology and said their saucer was lost to Earth treachery, opening fire on their vessel after surrendering. Privately they were amazed at Space Fleet damage control procedures, which saved a 'mortally stricken' vessel.
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| The Thera on returning to Earth for repairs. |
The Thera's crew all received commendations, the slain crew member was buried with high honors, and the Captain was awarded the Gold Star; which he insisted be awarded to 'the egghead who came up with that gadget'.
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