第107页
Fred had no intention of engaging in ship-to-ship combat. He was no captain. He'd be out of his depth if this were a UNSC ship with controls he could understand, and astrogation, tactics, and weapon systems he was familiar with. On Bloodied Spirit, he couldn't begin to fathom how to fight. Running was the only realistic option.
"Working on a solution," Will said. He glanced back and forth between the printed crib sheet of translated symbols and the Covenant mathematics that flashed before him.
"Time on target calculated," Linda announced. "Ready to fire plasma."
"Just buy us time," Fred told her. "We're not moving to engage."
"Covenant frigate now in weapons range," Linda said. "Plasma lines heating. They've fired!"
On the central viewer twin crimson lances streaked from the ship and arced toward them. Circles snapped on the tips of these lines, which then twisted into three-dimensional spheres.
The holographic perspective pulled back and showed the frigate, the plasma, and their ship in their relative positions. The translucent spheres centered on the plasma shots and overlapped Bloodied Spirit.
"I think those spheres are steering solutions," Linda said. "They indicate how far they can direct the plasma blots. They have us."
"Back us off," Fred told Will.
"Okay…" Will searched the controls. He grabbed an orange arrow and twisted it aft. "Answering full reverse," he said.
"It won't be enough," Linda said.
Linda placed both hands on her controls, and a new pair of spheres appeared in the field of stars. "That's our firing solution," she whispered, and her voice cooled to that detached liquid-nitrogen temperature that Fred had come to identify with her Zen no-mind state.
Fred consulted his console. "Thirteen seconds until plasma impact," he said, and his hands gripped the edges of his console.
"Slipspace vector calculated," Will said, "Capacitors charging… in twenty-three seconds."
Linda made tiny adjustments over her controls, and flicked her fingers forward. "Plasma away," she said.
The bridge lights dimmed. The main hologram showed Bloodied Spirit as its lateral lines flared and plasma detached and accelerated away, but not toward the enemy frigate, rather toward the rapidly approaching plasma bolts.
Steering spheres appeared on Linda's plasma lines. Her hands twisted and turned.
The plasma oscillated back and forth in response.
The enemy lines started to move as well.
Fred understood what she was trying to do: fight fire with fire. But at these velocities hitting one plasma beam with another was like shooting a bullet out of the air.
Linda's trancelike motions slowed.
The plasma bolts raced toward one another. The enemy's plasma veered out of the way
Linda brought her hands together in a blur—both of Bloodied Spirit's bolts spiraled about the enemy's line of fire, tighter and faster, and connected.
Three lines smeared into a blob and jets erupted across the dark of space, fading to a haze of red.