The Depths of Time by Roger MacBride Allen

pattern. Laser fire in five. Four. Three. Two. One. Fire. ” Even at the speed of light, the laser blasts would take long seconds to reach their targets. If the targeting computers had done their jobs right, the Upholder would have moved enough between rail and laser fire to keep the two shots from interfering with each other. The laser fire ought to strike first, with the rail pellets sweeping in right behind it.
    The bridge lights flickered, almost imperceptibly, as the last of the laser-cannon volley drained the main power systems. That there was any noticeable power dropoff at all was a warning to Koffield as to how close to depleted their systems were. If the power levels dropped too low, there wouldn ’ t even be enough to start the regeneration systems and reenergize the power cells.
    But none of that mattered. What they had to do now was stay alive through the next few minutes.
    “ Interceptors closing, projecting three-way simultaneous impact on Upholder,” detection called.
    “ Weapons! ” Koffield called. “ Confirm. Are all shots away? ”
    “ Aye sir! ”    .
    “ Very well. Evasive! Random heading, max acceleration. Now, now, now. ”
    The ship surged again, heeling over to bear almost directly toward the singularity. Koffield swore. He should have known not to call for a random heading, given the sort of luck they had been having. They would have to break off acceleration very soon indeed if they wanted to avoid following the example that Ships Two, Three, and Four had set. “ Conn! New heading, any heading that ’ s minimum ninety degrees away from the singularity! ”
    The ship lurched drunkenly and swung about again.
    “ Interceptors still closing on where we were! ” the detection officer announced. “ No changes in course or velocity. Mutual impact in ten seconds. ”
    That impact was going to throw a hell of a lot of debris around. Maybe that was the plan, to kill Upholder with the shrapnel from a three-way impact. But there was damned little he could do about it. He didn ’ t have enough power to spend it on the shields, even if they had been functional.
    “ Detection! ” Koffield called. “ Time-on-target info! ”
    “ Interceptor impact in five seconds. Laser fire to primary target in eight, rail to prime in nine. ”
    “ Interceptors impact! ” the weapons officer called, though there was no need to do so. Every screen on the bridge lit up with the violence of the three-pronged crash. If much of the blast debris caught the Upholder, and caught her just right, it would be the end of things, and no doubt.
    But there was nothing he could do about it, so he did what he could instead and slammed down the send key on the first confirm command to kill Nexus D.
    “ Laser-fire shots, rail-fire shots, clean miss on primary target! ”
    Koffield hadn ’ t had enough faith in the shots to feel much disappointment. “ Any chance of hits on the secondary? ” he asked.
    “ We ’ ll know in twenty seconds, sir. ”
    “ Do you have anything left for a second shot? ”
    “ Insufficient power stored for a laser shot. We have rail pellets and maybe enough accumulator power for one more volley. And we ’ ve got a marginal firing solution in thirty seconds on previous primary target. ”
    “ Then let ’ s not waste it. Shoot when you can, ”
    “ Aye sir. ”
    What the devil was taking the nexus control Artlnt so long? Maybe the damn thing finally had up and quit on him this—
    “ Sir! Detecting impacts on secondary target! Four, five, strikes. She ’ s tumbling off course! ”
    A cheer went up from the bridge.
    “ Good shooting, Weapons! Now.do it again! ”
    “ Aye sir. Setting up for final firing pass, sir. Stand by. ”
    Final firing pass. That was true enough, and sobering enough. Even if they scored another hit, and thus managed to kill or cripple two of the intruders, there was still one out there.
    Koffield studied the repeater boards, and spotted something the detection