Invasion

by Jerry Shepard

  "Granted, captain."

  "Sir, we just found out that the Xen lied to us in order to end the war. Then they held back and didn't tell us about this race called the Varak. What else aren't they telling us? I mean, if they lied before, why should we believe them now?

  "Good question. And one that has been going around my head for some time. At this point, we don't have much of a choice but to trust that they are telling the truth."

  "But what if these Varak are actually friends with the Xen and this is how they plan to conquer us? You gotta admit, the plan is brilliant. They sue for peace. Then integrate their people in with ours. And finally sow chaos while the other one attacks?"

  "All things I have considered, captain. I've come to the conclusion that the solutions to the question are all bad but in varying degrees. If they are allied with each other and this is their way to invade and kill us off, we're screwed anyway. We're too far gone now with them integrated into our society. So going to fight will cost us nothing. But if they are truly the enemy of the Xen, then our combined forces might be enough to send them back where they came from. Either way, the fight is going to cost thousands of lives. Maybe millions, or billions, if the Varak reach any of the large colonies in the core Alliance sectors."

  Roskan walked over to the command screen for the fleet and glanced at the readiness reports coming in. "And for the record, I don't like it any more than you do. But this shit sandwich is what's for dinner."

  "What if the crew on those ships are returnists? Bringing them to the Varak fleet might not be a good idea either. Is that wise?" asked the assistant.

  "It might not be, but we have no choice in the matter. If I had refused, then it would plant the seeds of distrust and the tensions would only grow between our people. I'm backed into a corner here," Roskan said. He stood up and walked to the window peering out from his room at the space station. He looked down on the flagship as workers continued to get the ship ready for departure.

  "Let's just hope that the Xen on those ships are not happy to see the Varak after all this time."

  END OF THE LINE

  Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Serrat System

  "Captain?" asked Gardozo, who was too busy rewiring parts of a panel to pop out to salute Noah. "What are you doing down here? Don't you have big uglies to fight?"

  "Yes, I do. But we bought ourselves some time in this belt. I need to know if we can get more power diverted to anything other than life support and the elevators," Noah said.

  "It can be done. But only if we close off life support for most of the ship," Gardozo said as he finished, then stood up and went to the holoscreen display of the ship.

  Gardozo pointed to the damaged sections of the ship and the sections still available to the crew. He then tapped a few sections to indicate the diversion of power. The figures on the right of the hologram indicated the amount of power that was reclaimed each time he turned off the life support.

  "What if we turn off these sections here?" Noah said as he pointed to them.

  "We don't get enough power to draw from," Gardozo said as he pressed those sections and the HUD came up red.

  "We need to protect the ship, keep us from dying, and provide some offensive firepower. Can you do it?"

  "I'll try," Gardozo said. He then spent the next two minutes performing different combinations of power management. When the HUD flashed green, Gardozo turned back to Noah.

  "So you see. If we turn off life support for these sections here, we can get enough power to power the shields, tracking, and to operate two rail guns. However, we will not have any power for the engines or any of the energy weapons," Gardozo explained.

  "Fine. How soon can you make these changes?"

  "We can do it in about fifteen minutes, Captain. But you're gonna need to get those people out of those sections, first."

  "You let me worry about that. I'll send a message to the crew. Once they have cleared out, you need to perform that switch immediately. Oh, and Rob?" Noah added.

  "Yes, Cap'n?"

  "I need the brig life support to remain. We have Xen crew in there. And since I can't tell good from bad right now, I'd just as soon save them all and then sort it out later."

  "No problem."

  "Also, once I give the order, every bit of juice that we just planned to divert to the shields and weapons, I want you to throw into the jump initiator and the engines. Understood?"

  "No problem, sir."

  "One last thing, Rob. The device in the lab that we are planning to hook into the ship's systems will undoubtably introduce a large surge in power to our circuitry. Do we have a way of metering that so that it won't blow us all up?"

  "Funny you should mention that, captain. One of the more curious bits of Xen technology that was added before we left is a kind of energy bypass. Kind of like how hydroelectric dams have water bypass to prevent too much build up behind the dam. This thing literally ejects the energy into space."

  "Okay, when I give the word, you need to crank that up as well. Understood?"

  "Loud and clear, captain!"

  ***

  "Captain, the Varak fleet is now actively checking each cloud and asteroid field in the system. They are hunting us," Ensign Torrance said.

  "Thank you Ensign. Carry on."

  Noah anxiously waited for the reports to come back that indicated that the crew had vacated the sections of the ship to be taken off of life support. He sat patiently while each section reported in. But with each passing minute the Varak were getting closer to the Oort cloud. Once he received the last report that the areas were clear, he messaged Gardozo to proceed.

  "Let's roll chief. I need those weapons systems back on-line!" he said.

  "No problem, captain. I'll have them back on-line in no time!"

  Noah turned to his XO. "Well, First Officer Rig'nak, what odds do you give us for survival?"

  "I do not like to determine probability regarding my life. I will say that I am not confident in our survival," he said.

  Rig'nak noticed that Noah's wound was still seeping blood into the side of his uniform. "Captain, you should have that checked by the medic before we go any further."

  "No time," Noah winced. "We have a Varak battle fleet to kill. But thanks for your concern."

  "Captain, four contacts bearing Two, Six, Eight are approaching our position. They will be on us soon," Ensign Torrance said.

  "Noted in the log, ensign. Thank you."

  Noah opened a channel to the entire ship and addressed his crew.

  "To the brave crew members of the UAF Dreadnought Titan, this is your captain speaking. I wanted to let you all know that I could not be more proud of a crew than I am of all of you, and of what you have done. You have been, by far, the most professional crew that I have had the pleasure to serve as Captain. As you know, the ship has experienced extensive damage that has ensured that we have very limited power. I have diverted power to the shields and to two railguns. If the Varak are destroy us, we can at least take as many of the bastards with us as possible. Good luck and Godspeed!"

  Noah closed the transmission and watched as the Varak ships grew ever closer not yet seeing them even though the Titan had to be in range of their scanners. At that moment, he was thankful that the large asteroid field had bounced away signals from outside but not inside.

  Noah turned to his First Officer and saluted him. "I want to thank you for being one of the best First Officers I've ever had. It's been an honor to fight alongside you Rig'nak," he said.

  Rig'nak chuckled. "The honor was mine Captain Jameson. You are a capable, determined, and yet unconventional and surprising leader. And I am most especially honored that you have started calling me by my name. You honor not only me, but thousands of years of my lineage."

  "Captain, the enemy frigate has us in visual. They are firing on us!" came the call from Ensign Torrance. The shields in the holoscreen indicated direct hits from the enemy's energy weapons and O'Malley started to give
the feedback on how much of the shields were left.

  Noah yelled. "Fire at will!"

  The railguns barked their projectiles at the enemy frigate. In less than a minute, most of the shots found their mark.

  "Captain, five direct hits on the frigate. The first two projectiles overloaded the enemy shields. The other three found their mark. She's turning towards us," said Ensign Torrance.

  "Sir, two more frigates just entered the cloud and opened fire on us," came the call from the tracking station.

  "Fire at will, all targets!" Noah said.

  Noah watched as the two new ships altered course to avoid the ship headed towards them. It allowed the Titan to fire directly into their broadside. The result was predictable as the railguns did their deadly work.

  "Captain, multiple projectiles impacted the two new bogeys. Both the ships are severely damaged," said the tracking officer. At the very moment, the visual of one of the ships showed it splitting into two halves, atmosphere venting into space. "Sir. We only have the one ship to worry about now."

  "And its coming right at us," O'Malley said as he looked down at his screen and swore. "Goddamnit, our shields are down again!"

  "Noted, lieutenant," Noah said.

  Ensign Torrance spoke up. "Captain the last Varak ship continues to bear down on us, I think she intends to ram."

  "Concentrate all firepower on that ship!" yelled Noah.

  "We are tearing it up, but it's still coming," came the reply. "It will impact us in one minute."

  Noah watched as the ship bearing down on them fired shot after shot. One of the shots struck perilously close to the bridge and caused an explosion when it hit a helium tank. The shockwave of that explosion sent Rig'nak flying across the bridge.

  "Helm, plot a course to the next system. We will be jumping without help from the jump gate."

  "A blind jump? That's suicide!" said one of the Ensigns.

  "Yeah, so is staying here!" Noah retorted.

  Noah opened up the communications to Engineering. "Gardozo...Liana...do you read?"

  Both of them answered affirmative. "Go ahead captain!"

  "Good. Rob, I need you to divert all power from the shields and weapons systems to the jump initiator and the engines."

  "Done, captain," Gardozo replied.

  Noah could feel the repeated bangs and explosions on the ship's hull now that the Titan was defenseless.

  "Liana, are you ready?"

  "Yes, Captain, say the word and we will connect the artifact."

  "On my mark. Three...Two...One...Mark."

  Nothing.

  There was no change that Noah could see.

  "Enemy frigate will ram us in thirty seconds, captain!" Ensign Torrance yelled.

  Noah ignored the warning. "Liana, did you connect it?" he asked as the Titan continued to take a pounding.

  "Yes, we connected it and...wait. Its glowing. I think it's..."

  Noah could not hear Liana in that moment. He heard an ear splitting sound while the room spun around. The whole bridge went fuzzy on him as tried to keep his eyes open to see what was happening. He watched the holoscreen and the image of the enemy ship almost ramming them, was replaced with serene, empty space.

  The lights returned and all screens in the bridge were now functional.

  "Damage Report! How badly did they ram us?" Noah asked.

  O'Malley took a look at his screen. "They didn't, Noah."

  "But that's not possible. They were practically on us and we had not made the jump. Where is that ship?"

  "Captain! The Varak fleet is gone!" exclaimed Ensign Torrance.

  "What do you mean, gone?" Noah asked.

  "I mean, it's not there. I am not detecting the signature of any ship in this system. We appear to now be alone."

  "That can't be! They could not have all jumped out of the system like that!"

  Noah looked down and saw Rig'nak trying to stand. His lower leg was twisted and bent in an unnatural angle. "Someone get Rig'nak to the medical bay!"

  O'Malley's face was ashen as he looked up from his screen. "Noah, we are no longer in the Serrat system."

  "Well, if we're not in the same system, what system are we in?" Noah asked.

  "I do not know, Captain. We seem to be in an uncharted area of space," came the response from Ensign Torrance.

  Noah looked out the viewscreen and down at the data on the panels at his chair. He muttered again. "Where the hell are we?"

  Rig'nak looked at the viewscreen and gasped. Tracing a cluster of bright stars, he pointed to the symbol that he and every Xen wore on their uniforms. It was the same shape as the constellation on the screen.

  A NEW THREAT?

  Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Sol System

  Roskan looked up from his datapad. The 4th had made the jump to the Serrat system behind the other two fleets. He was anticipating that he would arrive and be part of the cleanup efforts after the fight. He had missed going into battle. His day job as 2nd in command of the entire Alliance Fleet bored the shit out of him. But he still had to ensure that he didn't take too many chances given his rank. So it was perfect that he and his 4th fleet were to arrive after the 5th and 9th fleets. Still, he was envious of the admirals commanding those fleets. They would be getting action against a real foe. Something that he hadn't gotten to do in a long time.

  "Admiral?"

  Roskan swiveled his chair and returned the ensign's salute. "What is it ensign?" Roskan could see that the young man was uncomfortable.

  "Admiral, the 5th and 9th fleets are two hours out of the Serrat system."

  "Good. Is that all?" asked Roskan.

  "No sir. We are no longer receiving transmissions from the Caldara system." The ensign clearly started to look sick the more he talked.

  "Okay, so the comm systems are down. They are on the other side of the galaxy. Not a big deal," Roskan said.

  "No sir. The comm systems check out. Fleet Intelligence did a test and the signal runs to the system and back with no interruptions. Any communications issues are within that system and the colonies in that system have gone dark for the last eight hours," the ensign said.

  "Okay. Keep monitoring the situation in Caldara. Let's try to contact my friend Larry Harnstat. He's on Caldara V," Roskan said.

  "Aye, Admiral. Will do."

  Roskan thought it was ominous that they were facing an alien invasion in the Serrat system just as the communications from the Caldera system ceased. He knew it wasn't normal as comms ran every second of every day to all systems in Alliance space. The sheer amount of financial, weather-related, military, and personal communications that needed to be shared, could not just simply stop all at once for millions of people. He summoned his XO to follow him to his quarters. Once there, he let him know his misgivings.

  "Tom, I think we need to send a fleet to check out the Caldara system. They have gone dark," Roskan said.

  "Admiral, I doubt that the president will agree to send out any more fleets when we already have three en route to the Serrat system."

  Roskan knew that he was right. And that analysis was one reason he had him as the XO on his ship. It was too much for the Alliance High Command to deal with all at once. He had ordered the three fleets to engage the Varak in order to ensure victory but also to get as many of the young crew members a taste of battle. But ordering any more would potentially leave the core Alliance sectors undefended. There was no way that President Markand would agree to more fleets being sent on something that may turn out to be a wild goose chase.

  "Okay. Then this. Let's find four ships to send as a task force to check out the system," Roskan said.

  "Aye, Admiral. I'm pretty sure we can convince them to send that much."

  "Alright. Keep me posted on what that that task force finds out."

  Roskan had learned a long time ago to listen to his gut. And his gut was telling him something was wrong. But right now he couldn't order the 4th to the Caldera system without a damned good
reason.

  LOST

  Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Unknown

  Noah looked up from his medical bed and noticed that Rig'nak was sitting in a chair beside him. Noah sat up halfway, but the pain in his side was too intense and he laid back down.

  "He is awake, Doctor Sarduun," Rig'nak said.

  Liana walked over to check on Noah as the medic approached his bed. The medic first checked the readout of the medical holoscreen and then checked him visually.

  "So...you almost died," the medic said cheerfully as she examined him.

  "We all did," Noah laughed.

  "No, you idiot," Liana laughed. "She means after we got away from the Varak. You don't remember it, but you passed out from blood loss right there in your precious chair."

  "Well, am I better now, Doc?" Noah joked.

  "Yes, but the doctors here say you need to stay in bed for a few weeks," she countered.

  "Well, if both me and Rig'nak are here, that means O'Malley is running things? Uh oh," Noah joked.

  "The medic has already set and healed Rig'nak's broken bone in his leg. He's able to return to duty," Liana said.

  "Outstanding, we will be in good hands with Rig'nak," Noah said. "So, how soon can we set a course for Earth?"

  O'Malley entered the room at that precise moment. "We can't…Noah," he said.

  "What do you mean, we can't? Just spool up the engines and let's set a course for the nearest jump gate."

  "Yeah...that's a no there, mate," O'Malley said. He pointed a finger at Liana as he sat down on the end of Noah's bed and explained the situation. "Your doctor here, sent us to a completely different galaxy."

  Liana stood up. "I did not. It was the artifact!"

  "Correction," O'Malley said. "It was the artifact...that the doctor here…wanted to bring back to Earth...that has now shot us further away from home, than any human has ever gone. That's some fucking irony right there."

  "Doctor, didn't you tell me that there were navigational charts that you obtained from the nav cores?" Noah asked.