Her Royal Madness

Her Royal Madness Part 24

Realizing that his cannon was active, Henry fired a shot at the ship behind us. His aim was dead on but the other ship moved out of the way. That sort of thing was going to make our job a lot harder.  

"Hey, what's going on?" he said. "My fire button doesn't work anymore. You didn't tell us we only get one shot." 

"No Henry, you've got about five thousand shots each. You just have to be patient between shots. These are magnetic cannons. After each shot you need to wait a couple of seconds while it reloads and the voltage builds up again. See, there you go. Nice shot." 

"Don't you think that was kind of an important detail to tell us? What else aren't you telling us? What are we shooting at them - pixie dust?" 

"Ha ha. They're explosive shells, filled with antimatter. The antimatter is contained in a force field with a steel casing." 

"And then it reacts rather violently with whatever normal matter it comes in contact with, right? Blows up real good, don't it? Okay, I got it. Single shots, no rapid fire, exploding shells. No problem. I only wish there were more of them to make this interesting." 

Martin and Nicholas each fired off a shot with the same result. At least we wouldn't be going quietly without a fight.  

There wasn't anything more I could do to help them. I took control of the last two cannons directly with my mind. Juna could concentrate on several independent tasks at the same time but I was still learning to do that. Pointing two cannons and firing at different targets required my full attention. I picked out two other ships and fired single shots, alternating between cannons. I wasn't very close, but I did get their attention. 

The other ships were getting closer and our aim was improving with practice. We might have a chance of surviving after all. 

Of course the fact that they were getting closer also meant that we were now in their range. Four of the ships shot at us at the same time. 

I focused on the first shell streaking towards us. I tried to aim both of my cannons at it. It was almost impossible for a computer guided cannon to hit another shell with a single shot, but I had to try all on my own. 

Something wasn't right. The cannons stopped moving. I concentrated harder. Still no reaction. Or was there? Wait a minute. Number one did seem a fraction closer to the target. Of course! Everything was working fine. It was just in slow motion. 

I willed the cannons to move faster. I begged them to move faster. I pleaded with them to move faster. The shots were getting closer and my cannons were still painfully slow. I didn't have time for this. If I could only find the detonator on the enemy shells. There had to be something. The shells are designed to blow up when they hit a solid object. The trigger must be there somewhere. Found it! 

KA-BOOM!! 

Okay, okay, I know. There wasn't any ka-boom. Not in the vacuum of space. But there was a really bright flash. And there was a ka-boom inside my head. 

I shifted my attention to the next shell, and exploded it too. That one was a lot closer. I wasn't about to give up, but I couldn't do this all by myself. I needed help. What was Juna doing - having a nap? 

Oh yeah, I forgot. That thing with the time slowing down. My thoughts were racing a lot faster than anything could move. But there it was. The ship jumped to the side, to avoid one shell while, at the same time, spinning end over end to avoid the next one. 

Even though we seemed to be moving slowly, I could still feel the violent accelerations as we constantly changed course. My stomach didn't like this much more than the weightlessness. But at least I had some time to force everything down before it came up.