Chapter 50
“They’re launching!” Dawson said. “Don’t lose them!”
“Don’t worry, Agent Dawson, we won’t. Lt. Commander Bowman, you are to recall the Marines and make for orbit. We’ll rendezvous with you at the following coordinates,” the Captain ordered, directing the Nav officer send the coordinates. “Mr. Harding, we are moving to pursue.”
“Understood. I’m following,” Damon replied over the comlink with The Golden Rule.
The Powel powered up and began to sweep around the planet following the small ship that was accelerating ever faster to get behind the moon. The ship with the trio aboard looked like a normal launch class vessel except that it had an extra section behind the main one that looked like a bulb, giving the entire ship a wasp like appearance. It was strange because the launch class ship design hadn’t changed much in the last hundred years. Because of their high altitude they were able to see the small ship extend four liquid metal radiators from its bulbous abdomen section.
There was a flare on the Powel’s Infra-Red sensor, and then the trio’s ship cut its antimatter rocket and accelerated away at fifteen g’s. The meaning of this event was not lost on Dawson, even considering his limited background in space travel. A ship simply didn’t do that. The entire crew on the bridge sat stupefied, staring at the visuals of the ship departing at a rapid acceleration but missing the large rocket plume that always accompanied that kind of maneuver.
“What the hell is going on, Agent Dawson?” the Captain exclaimed. “Nav, try to figure out their course. We won’t be able to follow for a few minutes.
“I don’t know what’s going on. It looks like Storm 6.7 has some tricks up his sleeve that we never anticipated. Follow them, now,” Dawson ordered.
“We need to rendezvous with the launch, which we will do in two minutes. But we have a bigger problem, Agent Dawson,” the Captain reminded.
“What?” Dawson asked.
“We don’t have enough fuel to follow them and return. Who knows how far they’re going? We may run out half way and not be able to slow down. We have to refuel before we can follow,” she stated simply.
“We don’t have time,” Dawson said, frustrated.
“Captain, Agent Dawson, please take hold of yourselves,” Damon Harding ordered them both over the comlink.
“Captain, The Golden Rule is in the same position as your ship. I propose that you follow the ship at your best possible speed. I will refuel The Golden Rule and follow you at half your acceleration. Then we will be able to refuel you when you reach your destination so you can make a return, even if it is slow. You will try to expend as little fuel as possible, using as much antimatter as you need to maintain maximum acceleration and minimum propellant usage. Follow them.”
“That’s endangering my ship, Mr. Harding,” the Captain protested. “I don’t care who you are. We’ll do the best we can, but as soon as we use half our remaining propellant, I stop acceleration.”
“Have it your way, Captain, but if you fail to catch our quarry, this mission will be your last,” Damon got in.
“Fine,” the Captain said and signaled the com officer to cut the comlink. She turned to Dawson. “I hope you’re not as extreme as your handler over there.”
“Don’t forget, Captain, I’m on board also and if we can’t stop, that’s my problem too. I don’t want to be drifting in space forever either,” Dawson said. “But we need to do everything we can to stop them, especially considering that they have some kind of unknown technology that science says is impossible.”
They picked up the launch a minute later. Then once they all were in their extreme acceleration locations, the ship began to burn a very antimatter rich mixture that used far more than usual, but which in turn required far less propellant. The Captain had explained to Dawson after the confrontation with Damon that if they burned this hot for more than thirty hours, the reaction chamber was likely to crack from the heat, and then they’d be dead in space with no way to slow down. Dawson hoped it wouldn’t go that far.