“Yes,” replied Clarissa. “All science ships have an energy field and a few basic armaments. The ship was carrying both Federation and Alton scientists on board. They were supposed to catalogue this region of space and search for any inhabited planets.”
Jason was beginning to feel the science ship had run into something it wasn’t expecting and had perhaps fallen victim to foul play. “We’ll go to Condition One five minutes before hyperspace dropout. Elizabeth, contact Commander King on the Freemont and let him know.” The Freemont was one of four dreadnaughts in the escort fleet.
After a minute Elizabeth turned toward Jason. “Captain King wants to know what your plans are.”
“We’re going to drop out of hyperspace and do a search for the science vessel. We’ll stay at Condition One until we’re satisfied there is no danger.”
A look of alarm suddenly appeared on Clarissa’s face. “Jason, we may want to turn around. I’m picking up dozens of unidentified ships in the area where the science ship stopped communicating.” Clarissa was using the ship’s long-range sensors to scan the area.
Jason looked at Clarissa feeling confused. “We have four dreadnaughts and six battlecruisers with us, all of the latest design. Why should we turn back?”
Clarissa looked nervous. “I don’t understand how, but I think those vessels are Hocklyn warships.”
Jason’s eyes widened. “That’s impossible. The Hocklyns have no warships and what would they be doing way out here even if they did?”
“During the last days of the war it was rumored several members of the Hocklyn High Council disappeared. I now believe there’s a good possibility they fled to this region of space with a number of their warships. We don’t know what may be waiting for us.”
“Elizabeth, get Commander King on the comm. I need to talk to him.” Jason had no problem with asking the older commanding officer for advice.
-
For several minutes Jason and Commander King spoke. Jason finally decided to turn command of the small fleet over to King. The Liberator would also drop to the back of the fleet as a safety precaution. “I’m supposed to protect you,” explained King. “I can do that better if you’re at the rear of the fleet while I find out what we’re facing. I also want you to activate your stealth fields just prior to exiting hyperspace. If these are Hocklyns with a little luck they will never know you’re even there.”
Jason agreed to the plan and ordered Mitch to reduce the Liberator’s speed so they would fall back behind the other ships.
“You made the correct decision,” said Clarissa. “Commander King has considerable combat experience against the Eternals.”
“I know,” replied Jason. “The Liberator is designed to be a stealth scout vessel, not an attacking warship.”
“So what are we going to do?” asked Lieutenant Commander Bell.
Looking around Jason replied. “I want to take detailed scans of whatever is out there. The Federation will need them if they are indeed Hocklyns. Clair, I need you, Adel, and Sabion to find out as much as possible about this region of space. Use our long-range sensors if you need to.” The long-range sensors on the Liberator had a range of nearly fifty light years.
Suddenly red lights started flashing and alarms began sounding. “All hands go to Condition One,” said Braleseth from Tactical. “We may be entering a combat situation shortly. Standby for further information.”
Jason felt his pulse begin to race.
“Jason, keep us safe,” sent Clair. “Let Commander King handle this.”
“I will,” promised Jason. “I know I’m not yet qualified to command a fleet in any type of battle.” Jason was certain he could sense Clair feeling deeply concerned for him. There was also something else there but he couldn’t quite tell what it was. Whatever it was it felt very warm.
-
The four dreadnaughts and six battlecruisers dropped out of hyperspace. Immediately behind them, the stealthed scout did the same.
Commander King was on board the command dreadnaught Freemont. “Anything on our sensors?” King wanted to know if there was something threatening in the immediate area. As they were coming in the long-range sensors had shown a number of unknown ships near the target area.
“I’ve got the science ship,” reported Lieutenant Jorgensen. “It’s powered down and not moving.”
On the viewscreen, the science ship suddenly appeared.
“Damn thing’s been shot up,” said Lieutenant Commander Stewart. “It’s hull has been opened up in a number of areas. There are blast marks indicating energy weapons fire.”
Commander King stared at the eight hundred meter vessel. It seemed to be powerless with no signs of life. “Have we tried communicating with it?”
“Yes, sir,” replied the communications officer. “There has been no reply.”
“Take us in closer,” ordered Commander King. “Prep a shuttle to go over to the ship. We will need to search it compartment by compartment for survivors. We also need to download its primary computer files to find out exactly what happened here.”
Commander King felt extremely uneasy. That science vessel had very powerful energy shields. Whoever had attacked it must have had some very advanced ships. Ships the Hocklyns should not have.
-
The Freemont moved to within a few kilometers of the science vessel and launched a shuttle loaded with Marines and a few combat robots. King was not taking any chances in case this was a trap. The shuttle managed to enter the stricken vessel through an open hatch.
“We’re inside,” reported Sergeant Stehr. “We’re going to begin our search.”
For several minutes the searchers found nothing and then Sergeant Stehr’s shaken voice came over the comm. “There was a firefight on board. We’ve found a few bodies and numerous signs of resistance. The corridors are full of indications of weapons fire.”
Commander King took a deep breath. Even science ships had a team of Marines on board as a safety precaution. “Get to the Command Center and see what’s there. It’s a priority that we recover the information on the ship’s computers.”
“What do you think happened here?” asked Lieutenant Commander Stewart.
“Clarissa claims it may have been the Hocklyns.”
“Hocklyns!” exclaimed Stewart, her face turning pale. “They don’t have any warships. Our patrols in their space have made sure of that.”
Commander King shook his head. “The area we’re in now was once part of their empire. Clarissa thinks some of the Hocklyn High Council members might have escaped to this region at the end of the war. If they did they most likely brought a considerable number of warships with them.”
“If that’s true, why haven’t we heard about them before now?”
“The Borzon,” explained King. “They took over this area so we stayed away. They must have worked out some kind of deal with these Hocklyns so they would not be discovered.”
“Contacts!” called out Lieutenant Jorgenson. “I have twenty vessels dropping out of hyperspace just outside of combat range. Definitely Hocklyn.”
King shook his head. “It was a trap. They waited until we had a rescue team inside the science vessel.”
“Commander,” said Jorgenson in a stunned voice. “There’s an AI warsphere with them.”
King’s eyes widened. “I thought we had destroyed all of those.” King was now worried. His ships could probably handle the Hocklyn vessels but the AI warsphere was something else entirely. “Tell our people on the science ship to pull out. We may have to leave shortly.”
-
Jason stared in shock at the wedge shaped Hocklyn warships and the massive AI warsphere. “Where did that thing come from?”
“I recommend we withdraw immediately,” said Clarissa. “The AIs are too dangerous to mess with.”
“Mathew, scan all of those Hocklyn ships as well as the AI sphere. I want to know everything we can find out about them.”
“Jason, you promised,”
reminded Clair.
Jason nodded. “Mitch, take us twenty thousand kilometers above our fleet and hang slightly back. I want us to be out of the way of any weapons fire. If there are more Hocklyns in this region our scans could be very important.”
“There are,” confirmed Clarissa. “Since I’ve been able to better scan the Hocklyn ships and the AI warsphere I’ve been using our long-range sensors to search the nearby star systems. I’m detecting at least a thousand Hocklyn warships and possibly ten or twelve more AI warspheres. There may be more outside our sensor range.”
“This isn’t good,” said Mathew with a worried look in his eyes. “Those Hocklyn ships have antimatter power plants. The same for the AI warsphere. They’re not going to be easy to take down.”
“They’ve advanced,” said Clarissa. “They didn’t have antimatter power at the end of the war.”
“We have a weapons advantage with our dark matter missiles and some of our other Originator weapons,” pointed out Colonel Wilde. “Commander King should be able to take out this group of Hocklyn warships as well as the AI warsphere.”
Jason nodded. “Make sure we record everything. This is important.”
-
The Hocklyns and the AI warsphere began advancing on the Originator vessels. It was obvious they had never encountered an Originator ship before or they would have been more cautious.
“Contact the Hocklyns and inform them to pull back,” ordered Commander King. “Tactical, target the leading Hocklyn vessels with our gravitonic cannons. Don’t fire any dark matter weapons unless I order it.” King wanted to keep those a secret for the time being.
“Message sent, no reply,” reported Communications.
“Looks as if we have to do this the hard way,” commented Lieutenant Commander Stewart.
“Detecting power surges in the Hocklyn fleet,” reported Lieutenant Jorgensen. “They’re getting ready to fire.”
Suddenly energy beam fire erupted from the approaching Hocklyns, slamming into the energy shields of the Originator ships.
“Return fire!” ordered Commander King.
Almost instantly two of the Hocklyn warships began to come apart as gravitonic cannon fire began to rip them open.
“They’re firing sublight missiles!”
King looked at the tactical display and his face paled. They weren’t firing one or two per ship. They were firing nearly a hundred!
“How the hell are they doing that?”
Before anyone could reply hundreds of antimatter missiles slammed into the fleet. The battlecruiser Altar exploded as its shield was quickly overloaded. The dreadnaught Lisbon blew apart as it shield was knocked down and a dozen missiles exploded against her hull.
“Switch to dark matter missiles!” King knew he had to end this quickly or he risked losing all of his warships.
On the tactical display, he saw two more of his battlecruisers vanish as the massive number of antimatter missiles the Hocklyns were firing overloaded their energy screens.
From the surviving Originator ships dark matter missiles launched. The missiles traveled much faster than the Hocklyn missiles and their explosive power was far greater than the Hocklyn antimatter missiles. First one and then two of the approaching Hocklyn vessels were blown apart.
Commander King watched with satisfaction as the dark matter missiles devastated the Hocklyn fleet. The only ship which seemed unaffected was the AI warsphere. Even though its energy screen had been hit by over a dozen missiles, their screen was still up.
“Surviving Hocklyn vessels and the warsphere are pulling back,” reported Lieutenant Jorgensen.
“Our rescue team is leaving the science vessel,” added Lieutenant Commander Stewart.
Commander King nodded. “Let’s get out of here. Contact the Liberator and order them to make the transition into hyperspace. As soon as we have confirmation we’ll do the same. Tactical, put an antimatter missile into the science vessel. We don’t want the Hocklyns or the AIs to have any access to its technology.” Unfortunately, King knew it might already be too late. The Hocklyns and particularly the AIs might have already gotten everything they wanted off the ship.
Moments later the science vessel vanished in an antimatter fireball.
“Liberator has made the transition into hyperspace. They’re setting a course for New Tellus.”
“We’re doing the same,” said Commander King. “Helm, take us into hyperspace.”
A few minutes later all of the Originator vessels had vanished.
-
On the AI warsphere, several AIs had been monitoring the battle on the ship’s sensors.
“These vessels are definitely Human but of an unknown type,” reported one of the AIs at the science console. “Those last missiles were dark matter.”
The command AI turned to face the science AI. “It will be necessary to increase the power of our antimatter weapons to offset their advantage with this new weapon. Let us return to the Hocklyns’ new home world and begin rearming our warships. The Humans will be back.”
Moments later the remaining Hocklyn warships and the AI warsphere made the transition into hyperspace. There was no doubt a new war with the Federation would soon erupt. The AIs were determined that this time the result of that war would be far different from the previous one.
Chapter Three
The Liberator and her escorts dropped out of hyperspace in the New Tellus System. As soon as they docked at New Tellus Station Jason, Commander King, and Clarissa were summoned to a meeting with Fleet Admiral Braedon Crown, General Wilcox, General Smith, and Senator Brown.
“They’re worried,” said Clarissa as they walked through the corridors toward the conference room. “The war with the AIs and the Hocklyns was a near thing. We just barely beat the AIs at the galactic center and we lost a lot of good people in that battle including Fleet Admiral Johnson.”
“Surely this is only a small group,” said Jason. “The Federation has control over most of their empire.”
“I don’t know,” replied Clarissa. “I detected well over one thousand Hocklyn warships with my scans. There are many more I could have missed. They are also much more advanced than the Hocklyn ships we fought against in the war.”
They reached the conference room and went inside where the others were waiting. After a quick round of greetings everyone sat down.
“Clarissa,” said Fleet Admiral Crown. “You’ve fought against the Hocklyns and the AIs in the past. What is your assessment of the situation?”
Clarissa stood up; she preferred standing when speaking. “These Hocklyn vessels had antimatter power plants as well as advanced antimatter weapons. They also had some method of ripple firing their missiles. Some of their larger vessels were launching nearly one hundred in just a few seconds. That’s what allowed them to destroy some of our escorts.”
“We lost a dreadnaught and three battlecruisers,” said Commander King. “Even Originator shields will fail if hit with that many antimatter warheads.”
“It’s worse then that,” continued Clarissa. “There was one AI warsphere with the Hocklyns which attacked us and I detected at least ten more in some of the systems between our location and Borzon space.”
“Is it safe to say the AIs are controlling these Hocklyns?” asked General Wilcox.
Clarissa shook her head. “I don’t know. With one thousand warships the Hocklyns could throw off any AI control. Instead, I believe they may be working together. This may be the last of the surviving AI warspheres and in order to survive they may have agreed to an alliance with these Hocklyn renegades.”
Fleet Admiral Crown didn’t like what he was hearing. “If we attack these Hocklyns, what can we expect?”
Clarissa turned her deep blue eyes toward the fleet admiral. “They would have learned many lessons from our war with them. Their planets will be heavily fortified, there will be massive orbital defenses, and their fleets will use this ripple firing of their antimatter missiles to take out our most
powerful warships.”
“Do you have any suggestions?”
“Yes, send in some stealth scout craft and search that entire section of space. We need to know if they only have a thousand or so warships or if they have ten thousand. We also need to find out if there are any more AI warspheres I didn’t detect.”
Fleet Admiral Crown nodded his agreement. “I’ll send in some scout ships immediately. Now that they know we’ve discovered them it’s hard telling what they may do. I also want all shipping and science ships to stay away from that region. Senator Brown, I need to address the Federation Council as soon as possible to brief them on this development.”
“I’ll make the arrangements,” replied Brown. “After all that’s happened in the last few years they’re not going to like hearing we may have to go to war again.”
“We can’t allow these Hocklyns to continue to expand. If they were to free the other Hocklyn worlds we could find ourselves in a very precarious situation rather quickly,” said General Wilcox.
-
For the next several hours they discussed the battle the escort fleet fought against the Hocklyns. Videos of the combat as well as the sensor readings of the surrounding space were gone over. Clarissa, Commander King, and Jason all three gave their opinions of what needed to be done.
Finally Senator Brown nodded. “I think I’ve seen enough. I’ll need some of this to send to President Treadway as well as to present to the council. Fleet Admiral, I suspect they’re going to have a lot of questions for you.”
Crown nodded. “We’re not going to rush into this. However, as a precaution I’m going to place one of our fleets closer to that region of space to act as a reactionary force if it’s needed.”
“A wise precaution,” said Clarissa. “We know in the past both the Hocklyns and the AIs have bombarded the surface of many planets to reduce their populations to more manageable levels. We don’t want that happening again.”
Fleet Admiral Crown looked over at Jason and smiled. “I spoke to Fleet Admiral Tolsen earlier today. You’re to return to the hub with the Liberator and your escorts immediately. It seems they’ve successfully tested a space drive on a drone which made it into the Creevak universe and returned. The drone spotted the battlestation and it’s still intact and operational. A rescue mission is already being planned.”
Explorations- the Lost Page 3