David Schleifer
BattleCruiser: Prototype
A Starship beyond your dreams, a war beyond your imagination!
Welcome to the 4
th Millennium!
A Galaxy
on the brink of war . . .
A Commander
scarred from combat . . .
A Warship
Bound for legend . . .
It is a time of mighty Star-Empires. On the brink of war; resting on the edge of the abyss of death, a dying race known as the Drazakii emerges. With the threat of Jihad, a holy war, that will soon coat the stars in crimson blood, only the Earth Empire stands ready. Enter Commander Janice Anders Daria. Tested by fire and blood, she commands the Prototype warship, the Battlecruiser Pegasus. Protecting Earth on the verge of the dark times. In the tradition of Star Wars and Starship Troopers comes a new spectacular Science Fiction Military epic. The saga of one ship and its crew. The story of the Battlecruiser Pegasus.
David Schleifer was born in Queens, New York in 1962. He was educated and raised in Miami, Florida. He studied 18 years of Martial Arts under the Cuong Nhu system. He also was a practitioner of Kendo, Japanese sword fencing. Currently he is studying the art of Aikido under Weewow-Sensei at Gold Coast Aikikai. He also studied and researched both military and Navy tactics as well as Japanese History.
His writing career actually began in 1979 with the original concept draft of Battlecruiser. But after joining the Florida Romance Writers in 1987 did he really start to produce manuscripts. In 1991, David Schleifer received his Diploma for passing the Advance Novel Writing Workshop from the Writer's Digest School. David believes that writing is as much an art form as sketching or martial arts. Only by dedicating continuous determination will he be able to perfect his writing skills. Like any artist, he is never truly satisfied with his work, and so, he continues to produce newer manuscripts with the idea of advancing better with each new work.
Death of the Cordora.
Frigate Cordora
Combat Bridge
22:30 Starhours
Year 3742
The ear-shattering blast caused Captain Janice Daria to flinch. She threw up her arms to protect her face as pieces of the weapon's console flew about. The weapons' officer's body slammed to the floor, his blood spraying the wall and the exit door of the Bridge.
"Weapon's Status?" Daria snapped. She leaped from the Command Chair, glancing up at the red hulled Alien on the main viewscreen.
"Weapons' array is down," Hendricks shouted.
"Direct power, get the plasma torpedo launcher online," Daria yelled over the rumble of hits rolling off the deflectors.
"We only have one torpedo ready," Hendricks responded.
Daria sprinted to the smoldering weapon's console, keying the targeting array's keyboard. Only one indicator flickered to life. Daria slapped the targeting system.
"Going to manual lock," she said.
"He's coming around again."
Blinking sweat from her eyelids, Daria rolled the tracker over the image of the approaching alien warship.
"Status report?"
"Hull rupture on decks thirty-seven and forty-two," called Hendricks from his Nav-console.
"Deflector array is down to fifteen percent," added Fikes from the Helm-station.
"Medical team in route to the bridge, casualties at forty percent," Nigh said from the Comm-Ops station.
Daria turned and called, "bring up their power source. We have to knock out its reactors."
"Locking up the main power source." Hendricks turned and keyed in on his console.
Daria directed the oval target crosshairs over the main viewer and centered on the approaching alien warship. She felt a little chill as the Alien leveled its approach vector. The word 'locked' appeared beneath the alien warship.
"Confirming the target locked," said Hendricks.
Daria hesitated, looking up at the incoming Alien and wondering what the alien Captain was thinking. What was its hopes and fears? Daria turned to look at Hendricks and said, "Action!"
The Cordora lurched and the plasma torpedo appeared on the viewscreen. Daria saw it banking and turning, drawing small as it leaped for the enemy alien warship. She watched the Alien hit its thrusters to bank away. Too late! The plasma torpedo slammed into the middle of the starboard wing. The blood-red hull peeled back like a wounded animal's scar. Pieces flaked off as the plasma torpedo ripped deep inside. The Implosion pulled in the existing atmosphere, then the explosion to follow bubbled the hull of the Alien's starboard wing. Daria watched in mournful silence as the Alien started to tumble in space, pieces of material drifting out of the gaping hole. The hull ruptured and escaping gases pushed the Alien further off its original course.
"Energy displacement?" Daria asked. She saw Hendricks bend over his console while Lieutenant Fikes turned in his seat to look at the portside door. Medics came in to pick up Lieutenant Haiji, the weapon's officer. A pool of blood now lay there, around the body. The medics checked over the Weapon's officer. One of them turned to Daria and shook his head. Another casualty.
"Commander," Nigh called from his console on the opposite side of the bridge from Haiji's. The Communication's officer turned to say, "I'm picking up a distress beacon from the Alien. I think it's calling for help. Weak signal, and it is not a coded transmission."
"Any idea on their point of origin?" Daria asked.
"Negative, Captain," Nigh said. "The signal is omni-directional."
"Hendricks, turn us about," Daria said, "Prepare boarding parties on the starboard docking rings. Lieutenant Fikes, transfer Haiji's weapon's parameters to your console and give us a scan of the interior. I want to know how many lifeforms are on board."
"Aye-firmative, Captain," Fikes replied.
Daria's first action as acting Captain nearly ended in disaster. She knew by the status display that her ship had several gaping holes, casualties reached nearly fifty percent and the Cordora would need a full refit. Daria felt the thrusters fire and she watched the stars shift around. She remembered graduating at the top of her class at the Academy in tactics, but she felt outmatched at the ruthlessness of the alien ship's attack. Right now, as her ship cantered around on the bank, she saw the distant pieces of the four Transport Convoy ships drifting about. When the Cordora first arrived, she saw the blood red Alien carving up the four Transports with a disruptor weapon. The Alien immediately banked around and attacked the Cordora. No warning and no quarter were given. Daria had a fight on her hands in seconds. Three minutes later, the result of the battle now drifted on the main viewer.
"Captain," Fikes called. "I'm getting a power source reading on the Alien."
"Hendricks?" Daria turned to face the most experience of her Bridge crew.
"Got it," Hendricks called, "I'm not sure what to make of this."
"Excuse me, Nigh," Daria said, moving across the Bridge to the Comm station, "Transfer it here, Hendricks."
Nigh moved aside, allowing Daria to look at his console. A silhouette of the alien ship appeared on the console's display. The Photo-scan revealed some of the inner workings of the alien warship. Two pulsing lights indicating the reactors. One of those pulsing lights flared brighter and brighter. Daria scanned the readout to see the energy spike.
"Damn," Daria snapped. "Back us out--."
"But, Captain, we are on final for docking--." Fikes began.
"Back us OUT!" Daria yelled, turning away. The instantaneous flare behind her illuminated the bridge with its pure light despite the viewer's filters. They all turned as Daria whirled about to face their destiny.
The Alien self-destructed. But the awesome explosion didn't dissipate with distance. Instead the perpetual explosion grew with both power and force. It grew massively at them with such force that Daria felt the chill rising up her spine. The shock ring grew, massively!
"Get us out of here," Daria snapped.
Hendricks keyed in a response as Fikes stood to work his controls.
"Power spike," Hendricks called as the reverse thrusters rumbled through the deck, "It's off the scale. I have a power here that is beyond anything ever recorded."
"We've come about," Fikes called.
Daria saw that the Cordora turned ninety degrees in its heading.
"Full thrusters, ahead."
"We don't have full--."
"Then give us what we do have, NOW!" She found herself shouting.
"Thrusting now," Fikes pushed on the T-grip controls. The Cordora began to move once again.
"Distance?" Daria called.
"Too late!" Hendricks said.
The shock wave slammed into the Cordora. Daria felt herself grow lighter as her ship shifted. The celestial plotting screen that made up the back half of the Combat Bridge shattered and glass shards flew about. She saw Fikes slamming head first into his console. Daria toppled to the ground, her arms lashing out to grab hold of anything to keep her from being tossed. She saw Hendricks thrown from his seat when his restraints snapped. A sickening crack echoed as Hendricks hit the ceiling, his neck snapping in two. Daria's legs slammed hard against the deck.
Her left arm felt wrenched, but she held her grip on the command chair. The ship groaned and the computer's voice called for attention.
". . . Warning, reactor scram alert. Starboard cooling system has malfunction. You have thirty seconds to reach minimal safe distance before implosion. Repeat. . . Warning, reactor scram alert. Starboard cooling system has malfunction. . ."
Pulling herself up from the chair, Daria looked at the display. If the reactor imploded, then her ship dies. She felt the touch of death caressing her soul as her eyes desperately sought out a way to escape. She spotted Hendricks's console. The engineering control systems were there. Daria's left leg wouldn't work, but she knew she had to get to the controls.
". . .You have fifteen seconds to reach minimal safe distance. . .," the computer began counting.
Daria leaped, as hard and as far as she can. She grunted as she hit the console hard. Daria threw her left arm over the console and display to anchor herself as she worked the controls with her right hand.
". . .You now have ten seconds to reach minimal safe distance. . ."
Daria keyed up the rear engineering sub-wing of her ship. She tapped in a request, activating the explosive firing bolts. The console shifted, bringing up the touch-sensitive trigger for the explosive bolts.
". . .You now have five seconds to reach minimal safe distance. . ."
Daria reached for the switch and keyed it. She twisted to see the wall display behind Lieutenant Nigh as he struggled to his knees. The small display showed the explosive bolts blowing, and the rear Sub-wing with the engines ejecting from the Cordora's mainframe. Multiple explosions rocked through the Cordora, and Daria gripped the console tightly with her left arm. Then an ear-shattering explosion and intense pain ripped through Daria. She turned to see in surreal slowness as Hendricks's console shattered around her left arm. Bits and pieces of glass shards, plastics and other flaming material belched upwards. Daria's left arm disappeared within the middle of the explosion. She found herself falling back away, no longer secured by her left arm. As the fiery explosion dissipated, Daria looked in horror. Her left arm's flesh ended just below the elbow. All that remained was charred brittle bone of her left forearm. She reached up with her right hand, gripping her left elbow as a tingling sensation began. Daria saw the bones of her left hand still gripping the console. Then the tingling became jabs of pain. Pain that intensified into a blinding rage. The noise that echoed in her ears shook her right down to the soul of her own being. She then identified that noise as her own screams. She vaguely remembered Lieutenant Nigh supporting her, screaming into his mouthpiece for the medics. Daria's world darkened in torturous pain and anguish.
