Ezra's First

Part 6

"How would you react in their shoes?" He asked aloud.

"What do you mean?" Daniel responded.

"They wouldn't expect us to be here right?"

"Probably not."

"So if we made our presence felt, wouldn't that give you pause for thought?"

"Yes, I guess it would, maybe make me wonder if I really knew where my enemy actually was."

"So maybe that's what we can do, maybe they'll slow down if they feel their confidence in Earths ships reach needed to be reevaluated."

"I guess if we waited until they had passed over head and then boosted to the jump point and left the system, that would give them enough concern."

"Yes that would most certainly work, we'll have the speed advantage and any fire we potentially attract most likely wouldn't do any serious damage."

Most likely, Ezra made note of those words.

"I'll start the calculations." Ezra sat back down at his console and began plotting the ideal scenario.

Daniel, to his left, seemed to be burying himself in another problem, muttering to himself, until he eventually got up and left the room.

"I just need to check something." He announced.

Ezra didn't have time to really question what he was up to, provided he came back soon enough.

Daniel returned eight minutes later brandishing a spanner.

"What if we attacked them as we passed under them, we wouldn't do heaps of damage but if we could do enough to force them to stop and perform repairs, it would add even more time to their journey."

"That wouldn't work, our tubes are bow facing, even our anti missile technology would pick them off automatically, unless we were so close we could lick their paint job to which yes the missiles would hit, but we would be quickly killed."

"Hmmmm.... What if our torpedoes were already in position and we were also at the safe distance needed to jump out of the system?"

Ezra considered it for a moment and rolled his hands in Daniels direction to prompt him to carry on.

"We only have twenty-eight missiles on board, we could bundle them together in packs of 4 and jettison them into their flight path like mines. When the time is right we can remotely activate them and run for our lives, it'll catch them unaware and give us a bigger window to escape."

"Run some simulations on what is worth hitting, I don't want to waste missiles scratching paint and leaving us with nothing to defend ourselves with?"

"Sure." Daniel returned to his console.

Ezra returned to calculating their escape trajectory including their possible systems to jump to should they be pursued. He tried to find the ones with small jump loops and potential for gravity assists. Two of the systems they needed to pass through contained warnings about potential issues that could impact optimal jump conditions, normally that just meant something with a strong gravitational impact could interfere with the jump point and they would have to travel further out of the system to jump. That didn't bother him, this ship was very quick and he was determined to outrun anyone chasing them and to still beat the fleet back.

Twenty minutes later Daniel had finished his simulations.

"Right I've got an option."

"What can we hit?"