It became clear to Jon that the Witiko’s initial shots had not been lucky but well-planned. They had known exactly where to hit, and now remained above the dreadnought where the belly boppers could not reach them.

  Unless the Stingrays decided to fly under the Excalibur, Jon could only use his heat-seeking sidewinders to defend his ship. The damned things could pinprick him with near impunity.

  Two of those sidewinders closed on targets, one for each Stingray. Brewer watched via telescopic cameras as his shots zeroed in on the powerful rear rockets of the alien fighters.

  Closer…closer…

  Both Stingrays ejected heat flares, completely fooling one missile but the second hit, causing a glancing blow to one of the attackers and damaging its hide.

  "One hit, one miss," Stanton offered the play by play. He did not bother to share with Lori that only four more sidewinders remained at her husband's disposal…

  …The aliens shot through a thin band of wispy cirrus clouds, hovered for a moment, then descended at faster and faster speed. The Excalibur continued its course at an altitude of nine thousand feet. Puffs of smoke trailed behind from wounds already inflicted.

  Chancellor D'Trayne personally commanded the lead fighter and used the plans provided by President Godfrey to ensure each strike counted. And while he still respected the power of The Empire's flagship, he felt confident in victory. His supply of missile-diverting flares remained high and as long as they did not wander underneath the dreadnought only the ship's Vulcan-style Gatling guns posed any threat. A threat this pass intended to eliminate.

  Sharp beams of concentrated energy and light shot from beneath the alien vessels and drew across the port side of the battleship. Like a scalpel, those beams cut into defensive batteries causing a series of secondary explosions as ammunition caches burst.

  More trails of smoke came from the Excalibur as the Stingrays turned their backs and ascended into the heavens once more…

  …On the bridge, more alarms rang and messages flashed across Jon's screens. He fired two more sidewinders but neither found their target.

  "Jon," Stanton stood just outside the brain's tube-like station of monitors, keyboards, and touch screens. "I think we've had it. Withdraw and maybe we'll get free of this."

  Brewer insisted, "No! We're getting close. That's why they're here. I'm not giving up."

  "Now, well, I admire your determination but there comes a time to live to fight another day. If we can get back to the shipyards I can fix her up."

  "Bull shit," Jon answered as he watched the alien craft reach their ceiling and-for a few precious seconds-pause. "When we head back it'll be the Philipan waiting for us and Hoth will shoot us down. We must push through."

  "We can't! Those fellows are carving us up like a Thanksgiving Turkey! They know exactly where to hit us!"

  The Stingrays descended again. This time Jon did not wait. He managed a clear lock on the one already damaged and launched his last two sidewinders.

  A volley of flares deceived the first missile, but the second hit square in the Stingray's face. The alien ship fell into a flat spin. Jon watched on monitors as aerodynamic stress tore it into three silver and black chunks. Fiery debris fell into the Atlantic.

  "Splash one!"

  Before the bridge crew could cheer this victory, the remaining enemy cut its beam across the hangar doors ripping it open like a can of sardines.

  "You're out of missiles, Captain," Stanton told Jon.

  With no heat-seekers remaining and the top side boppers out of action, the Excalibur no longer possessed the means to disable the remaining Stingray as long as it remained above the ship.

  "Pull us out," Stanton repeated. "You've done a good job. No, a great job. But you've only got the belly guns and I don't think the Chancellor is going to take a peek up our skirt."

  Jon stood on the platform at the center of the bridge surrounded by advanced combat technology yet he felt helpless, like a turtle flipped on its back.

  Obviously D'Trayne had inside information on the dreadnoughts. He found it incredibly aggravating that his mighty dream could be brought to its knees by such a relatively weak foe. He understood how Goliath must have felt. Or that turtle, on its back.

  Wait a second…

  …Another laser blast from the Witiko Stingray tore away Steel Plus plating along the starboard side. Then the enemy arched skyward seeking the shelter of altitude again, like a dive bomber completing one run and prepping for the next……Jon removed his head set and leaned out from his command center. "Brett." Stanton stepped close. "Brett. I want to tumble the grav generators." Stanton's face drew blank as if Jon spoke Japanese.

  Jon repeated, "We talked about this. Back during the christening ceremony for the Excalibur. Me, you and Omar."

  Stanton squinted and muttered, "Tumble the grav generators? I think I remember us joking about that." "At the reception after the christening, you and Omar said it was possible. Omar sketched it out on a cocktail napkin." "We were drunk!" "You said it could work."

  "Jon, I know what you're thinking. But no, now, wait a second, there isn't any way even with it fully reversed that we'll hold our altitude. The generators just aren't made that way."

  "We'll fall, but not fast," Brewer insisted. "We can switch back as soon as I get a shot. Christ, Brett, there's no other way!"

  Jon stared at Brett Stanton with eyes allowing no room for discussion. Eyes that said they would either win the day or die trying. There would be no retreat. Brett ran a hand over the back of his neck as if massaging away an ache. "Okay, look, I have to time it right with our engineering guys downstairs. Give me a second." "You've got two seconds, Brett." As Stanton walked away from the command platform Lori asked him, "What is it Jon wants to do?" "He wants to commit suicide." The Captain's voice echoed through the mainly empty ship, "Set condition Red G. All sections, set condition Red G." Lori asked, "What does that mean? Condition Red G?"

  "It means everything has got to get strapped down right away. Clamps on the transports, patients in sick bay will get buckled up, and you'd better find something to hang on to, Mrs. Brewer, because your husband is about to do something this ship wasn't built to do."

  Stanton walked to the bridge's engineering interface console and activated an intercom to speak to his technicians several decks below near the underbelly of the ship. "Hey boys, I need you to do exactly what I say exactly when I tell you to do it. You're off by a split second, we're dead. Hell, if you're right on the money we might be dead any way."

  Lori stared at her husband who stood in the command platform plugged into the gizmos and gadgets that made the ship go. She saw a determined, stubborn expression on his face. She was proud of him again…

  …High overhead of the Excalibur, the remaining Witiko Stingray fell down through the clouds diving toward its gigantic opponent as if it were a bird of prey. Its talons-its main laser-charged. The ship shook with energy. And when the dreadnought filled the front windshield a bright and deadly beam of energy ripped across the Steel Plus hull, peeling away another layer and sending yet another plume of smoke and fire from the beast.

  Chancellor D'Trayne sat behind the helmsman and weapons officer strapped into a high backed chair with a smile beaming from his silver face.

  His pilot pulled the ship from its dive mere meters above the damaged human vessel. The hawk ascended skyward with impunity, knowing the enemy could mount no defense. It was only a matter of time before one of these strikes provided the fatal blow…

  …"Now! All stop! Starboard thrusters at maximum! Port side thrusters rotate one-hundred eight degrees and ignite! Stanton, tumble the generators!"

  Brett Stanton stood at the engineering console observing a display of the Excalibur' s position. He shouted desperate instructions to his engineering teams via the intercom: "Rotate the force projection 20 degrees…a little more…keep up with it…watch our belly…another five degrees…more…more…"

  Lori stood near the bridge entrance and felt her stomach flutter. Suddenly she felt lighter; or no, she felt as if her head was pulled in one direction, her feet another. She grabbed the edge of a console as she realized…realized…

  "The ship! It's turning!"…

  …The Empire's flagship stopped its forward progress and the massive vessel twisted in a slow-motion barrel roll; a maneuver seemingly impossible for something so large. The tower tipped and rolled over. The bottom side slowly became the top.

  Gravity knew no direction inside the Excalibur. Lori Brewer seemed to float first toward the floor above, then the ceiling below. She felt a wave of nausea in her belly as her equilibrium was stretched and pulled like taffy.

  She glanced toward Jon. He remained in the command module gripping side rails and focused on monitors. She heard Stanton cough then yell, "We're losing altitude! The generators can't output full power in this direction..!"

  …The Stingray reached its attack height, slowed, and pivoted about to face down in preparation for another easy assault on the defenseless ship. And while the killing of the Excalibur would take many more such runs, D'Trayne found himself enjoying every strike, as if each wound he inflicted provided a small measure of satisfying revenge against those who had toppled his kingdom in California.

  The alien ship descended. Its laser charge. It cleared the thin veil of clouds.

  D'Trayne's smile faltered. Something appeared different about his prey. He saw a series of drum-like protrusions; he did not see the bridge or even the streams of smoke from the damage they had inflicted; he saw two glowing balls of light…

  …The belly boppers fired in a wide spread. Two massive globs of energy spat skyward, enveloping the Chancellor's ship and melting it to scrap in a flash. Secondary explosions went unseen within the blinding fury of the Excalibur's wrath.

  Yet even as it obliterated its foe, the fire from the great ship hastened its fall from the sky: the ocean grew closer and closer…

  …"Firing thrusters! Tumble those generators!" Jon yelled his commands but kept his eye on the altimeter. Seven thousand…Six thousand five hundred…Six thousand feet.

  The gravity field warped and spun again. Loose objects-from pens to clipboards to coffee mugs-fell and clattered. Crewmen vomited from the flexing gravitational field. Sparks flew, equipment tugged in ways never foreseen, wires stretched, and consoles felt stress in unexpected directions.

  Jon muttered, "C'mon…catch it…catch it."

  Stanton shouted at his technical teams.

  The ship slowly righted its position. The bridge swung to the top side once more. The massive anti-gravity generators returned to the bottom. Yet the Earth kept pulling.

  Five thousand feet…four thousand five hundred feet…four thousand feet…

  The horizon straightened. The anti-gravity generators fired at full repulsion power. A heavy jerk shook everything onboard the flagship as if they had fallen on top of an invisible wall. The drop of the ship slowed. Three thousand feet…two thousand seven hundred and fifty feet…two thousand five hundred feet…holding. Jon Brewer collapsed to one knee inside the command module. Gasps of relief echoed around the bridge. "Well," Stanton spoke for everyone. "I sure don’t want to do that again anytime soon.." — "So now what?"

  Lori asked a fair question. They managed to talk their way around the Chrysaor then fight their way through the Witiko's Stingrays with the added bonus of sending Chancellor D'Trayne to whatever deity his race worshipped. Now they moved across the Atlantic Ocean northeast of New Jersey with black smoke rising from wounds to the hull, most weapons systems out, and no way of knowing where to head next.

  Jon Brewer ignored his wife's question for the moment and leaned over Gordon Knox who slept quietly in one of the beds sprouting from a gray wall in sick bay. Other beds were also occupied, mainly by members of Stanton's technical crew who suffered falls and throws while executing Jon’s gambit.

  "How is Gordon?"

  Ashley sat at the foot of the bed where she had kept watch over the former Director of Intelligence since their arrival.

  "He's stable. Bleeding has stopped, the bullet still seems to be lodged in there but that won't change until surgery. For now, though, he looks like he's going to make it, but he probably won't walk again."

  "So what now?" Lori repeated.

  Ashley said, "Jon, we have to find JB. They took him somewhere."

  Lori spoke at the same time, "With this ship you have to be able to find where they took him. I mean, what is this thing good for?"

  The General raised his hand to silence the two and calmly relayed, "We're in pretty bad shape right now. We've got fires burning on some decks because we don't have damage control parties on board to fight them. The Witiko hit our engines, our defenses, and the structural integrity of the whole thing. We have no choice but to move slow."

  Lori asked, "But you followed the course of that ship or whatever the radars tracked before Trevor's assassination, right?"

  "Yes. But this is a crap shoot. We followed that lead because it's the only one we've got. It might be nothing."

  He saw Ashley's eyes widened and her lips tense.

  Jon added, "But we're going to start a detailed search of the area. We've got a bunch of trainee pilots as well as Hauser and Eagle One onboard. I'm going to send them out. They've got radar and we even have a few sonar buoys. We're going to get them going within the hour." Ashley relaxed as much as a mother with a missing child could relax. A nearby intercom rang and Woody Ross' voice called, "General Brewer, contact the bridge." Jon stepped to the wall mounted device, punched in an extension number, and answered, "Yeah Bear, what is it?" "We've got surface contacts. Three ships closing fast."

  The General felt an instinctive shiver along his spine. He knew the Excalibur was in no condition to fight another battle. However, the very fact that these contacts were detected meant they were not Witiko ships.

  "Hang on, General," Ross added. "I've got identification. They're subs. Barracudas. Ours. Three of them closing on the surface."

  "Probably coastal patrols sent out to spy on us."

  "General," Ross' voice blurted over the intercom. "I'm receiving an incoming message. For you. From one of the subs." Another warning, no doubt. Another threat. "Pipe it down here, Bear." "Yes, sir."

  An audible click on the intercom confirmed a change in lines. A second later, a sturdy voice radioed, "…calling the Excalibur. Acknowledge."

  Jon transmitted, "This is General Brewer of the Excalibur. Identify yourself."

  The voice on the other end paused for a moment and then said, "General Brewer? Jon? This is Captain Farway. It's been a while."

  A smile picked at the corners of Jon’s mouth.

  "Farway? Captain? What are you doing on a Barracuda? I thought you were attached to the Newport News."

  The friendly voice answered, "I am. Out here doing a training mission for a bunch of cherries and next thing you know the Secretary of Defense sends me on a goose chase after you. Said you been up to no good, he did."

  When Jon Brewer had traveled to retrieve the runes from the Arctic Circle, Captain Farway-a pre-Armageddon naval veteran-and the Newport News submarine provided a ride.

  "I hope none of those newbies are claustrophobic," Brewer teased in recalling Farway's warning when Jon had ventured onto a sub for the first time in his life.

  A soft chuckle in the Captain's voice suggested he remembered the reference.

  Jon Brewer went on, "You're not the first our Defense Secretary has sent our way. We just tangled with a couple of Witiko bastards."

  "I copy that. General, listen, I'm a fair judge of character and after spending far too much time with you under the waves a few years ago, I got the feeling you were a standup guy. If it was just me here…well, I'd be more than happy to find a little elasticity in those orders. But Jon, I've got three boatloads of kids here. I'm not going to let them get caught up in all this." "I understand, Captain." "So I'm going to follow my orders to the letter. I'm going to keep an eye on you." Brewer thought it over and finally said, "Okay then, Captain. Happy to have you along for the ride." — Woody Ross stood on the platform in the center of the bridge, his eyes moving from display to display, his fingertips issuing orders and commands although far too few crewmembers were onboard to carry out those orders.

  One hour after having made contact with the submarines and three hours since disposing of the Witiko attackers, smoke still poured from various wounds across the Excalibur. With so few men onboard, it would take many more hours-maybe days-to stop the bleeding. However, nearly all of the problems were contained, allowing him to turn his attention to more pressing matters.

  "Flight two, clear for takeoff," the brain ordered.

  He watched via monitors as another pair of Eagle transports jetted off the stern launching pads, cut through swirls of smoke, and went off in search of that phantom radar trail.

  27. Incubation

  JB watched the sun slip toward the horizon, sinking as fast as his hopes. A chilling ocean breeze carried sprays of salt water across the boy and his father as they lay on what might be mistaken for a nearly flat island of rocks floating in the middle of the sea.

  They had climbed through cramped tunnels and dark corridors, all the while protected by JB's control of the base's systems. Trevor could only stumble a few steps at a time, preferring to crawl like a beast and he never responded directly to the shouts and pleas of his desperate son.

  Eventually Jorgie found some kind of service corridor running parallel to an aircraft hangar. There JB witnessed the deranged Missionary stumble into one of the featureless blob-like flyers The Order used for transport. He tried to kill the evil being with the tentacles in the bay that existed to load and unload cargo, but the ship escaped and flew off to the east.

  A short time later JB managed to open a thick-skinned hatch and drag his dad to the surface, leaving behind the dungeon-like Hell hole where the mechanisms of the facility continued to rend and kill any remaining followers of Voggoth.