The Expanding Universe

by Craig Martelle

  At least that was what her gut was telling her as she looked at the data summarizing the litany of faults that had shown up in the fighters over the last half day. It had taken them that long to catch up with the final Kharakhan. That ship now lay in front of them. It would take time, but she was confident that they would succeed, even with her strike down to barely more than two squadrons, barely a quarter of what had flown out with her at the start of this attack. It would just take longer. "Move in. Let's take out this prick. We can't give the pilot time to reconfigure for landing!"

  The squadrons formed up in a loose pyramid -like formation behind her, jinking and weaving to give the enemy’s point defense fits. Their attack run wiped about a quarter of the shield layer from the ship before they swung off, scattering to reform outside of its point defense range. Ki'antha tapped a query into the computer, grimacing when the response flashed on her screen. Each or the Assault Transports had been modified along different lines. She turned her fighter off to form the point of the pyramid again, and her eyes widened as the Cyborg transport dropped it's shield while the fighters were outside of its point defense range. The massive swarm of diamond dust icons that appeared on her screen made her heart stutter, in disbelief and fear.

  There had to be over a thousand missiles in that launch. Heavy naval task forces would have had trouble matching it. If it had been aimed at her strike force, they would have been annihilated. Where the Cyborgs had aimed was worse. The colony ships. The unprotected Alliance ships were at extreme missile range, but they were still in range. There was no way that those laden ships would be able to avoid the offensive swarm. The relative momentum of the ships, attacker and attacked, would keep them in range no matter what they did. It would take tens of missiles to destroy each ship, but there were more than two hundred targeted at each one. Their light screens would do its best, but they had little hope of protecting the colony ships from that massive assault.

  Ki'antha analyzed the situation. She could improve the odds by taking out the ship the launch originated from. Doing calculations on the fly, she drew on the planes, manually disconnecting the lockout limiters on power to her shields and engines. Throwing the power first into her engines, then as her speed rapidly increased, twisting the power feed from the engines to the shield, she threw her beloved fighter at the enemy, She blacked out as it struck.

  Chapter 7

  Othan sighed as Ouranos-vouno slid into its terminal orbit. No one had spoken to Al'kena in the five days it had taken them to limp across the system, recovering what they could from the critically damaged colony ships. Moving towards the life-bearing planet of the system that had cost them so much. They had lost much of the infrastructure they would require to quickly bring the world up to the technological standards of the Alliance. Indeed, with the evidence that their understanding of physics was not accurate in this galaxy, they might not be able to bring the planet to a level of technological advancement for an extended time. But they wouldn't even have had a chance without the colonists that had survived in the undamaged sections of the colony ships. There was a problem with the heavily-irradiated external surfaces of the stasis pods, but those were built to withstand severe radiation leakage. Once they were decontaminated, the people inside them would be able to come out.

  Ki'antha had saved the mission's effort in her sacrificial strike. Othan knew that Al'kena was proud of her daughter's quick thinking actions. He also knew she grieved the loss of the last family member she had. It would take time to heal.

  "Fleetmaster, we are getting a clear transponder signal from the last missing fighter... in one of the major oceans below." That announcement from one of the scanner techs brought him up short. They had already sent drones down to survey the planet. It was habitable, and incredibly had both an indigenous sentient in early societal development and environments that would be suitable, even friendly, for each of the races on board the colony ship. However, they knew an object had struck the planet below in the last few days. It had been assumed it was debris from that final strike. That they were getting a transponder signal from the only 'unaccounted for' fighter, meant that they were getting a signal from Ki'antha's fighter.

  "Send a rescue and recovery shuttle immediately. Do not call Al’kena until we've confirmed the status of the pilot. She doesn't need any false hope," Othan ordered. "They are to dock with Ouranos-vouno after we complete entry and landing." They were less than half the planetary day from entering the world’s atmosphere. Their landing would be in the other macro ocean, a third of the planet surface away from the transponder signal. It could take the recovery team of six hours or days to pinpoint and pick up the fighter. He didn't want to commit to potentially dangerous maneuvers as they landed Ouranos-vouno and anchored it to a location in that ocean. The flooding that would result from the storms and tsunamis after two such oceans impacts on that planet within days was regrettable but unavoidable. Unless the Jehed Traveler turned back up in the skies the solar system, they had no remaining ships that were capable of jump except Ouranos-vouno and Ouranos-vouno's jump engines were dead,

  It wasn't intended to be a landing ship but needs drive performance. With Ouranos-vouno’s heavy shields repaired and the limited thrust from the engines, it could land in an ocean without damage.

  Othan turned to the most recent report from the chief medical officer of the fleet. Decontaminating the recovered stasis pods from the colony pods would take years, at best. He was short-handed and, reading through the next section of this report, Othan agreed with the assessment that releasing Ouranos-vouno's colonists from stasis was ill-advised. Even waking enough people to expand his medical group was something he did not feel comfortable doing at this time. Not after he read the addendum. Every single person who had reported to sick bay since they had arrived at their new... home... was suffering from significant genetic and physical changes. The current leading theory was that Astral radiation was responsible and the stasis pods didn't protect against that.

  Finding a solution and determining how lethal or extreme the changes might be was crucial. Only then could they risk harm to those colonists, unless driven by other factors. If the changes weren't deadly, they would have to consider if waking the colonists in large groups was warranted. Especially with the needed tech base to support them without resorting to annexing portions of a continent compromised. Doing so on a primitive planet with sentient inhabitants was against Alliance ethos. Jove, the only survivor from the gate room meltdown, had already objected to doing so unless the situation was urgent. They weren't at that stage yet, and might not reach that for some time to come.

  * * *

  Al'kena sat in the medical wing, next to the bed holding her daughter. Against all hope logic and reason, Ki'antha had survived. Whether or not she would wake up was another question. Jove had come to visit, and he had told Al'kena, "Her spirit is still connected to her body, but it isn't within her body. It is wandering. All you can do is hope it finds a way home."

  "Can't you guide it? You are a master at traveling that plane, physically and in spirit!" she had asked him during his last visit in a bitter tone. Although she could touch the Astral, it only gave her the ability to form probability predictions. She had hoped to learn how to travel in at least a spirit form but had been unsuccessful. Without this capacity, she couldn't help her daughter.

  Jove looked grim as he turned to her, tears in his eyes. "I would if I could. I can no longer feel the astral plane. That last jump changed us all." A look of grief covered his face. "And not all of us for the better. Even the crews of the fleet ships, those who survived, are changed. But know this. If I could aid her, I would. And if I ever have a daughter of my own she will be yours also, in a way, as a gesture towards a debt I cannot repay." His shoulders slumped in defeat. He was not a man used to being helpless to aid a friend.

  "Thank you. The Valkyr have picked people they believe follow their philosophy to increase their numbers, you know. They have sworn that one of the
m will remain at watch over her when I must leave. It is a comfort that they view her as an icon of their ideals. Perhaps that way she lives on even in this near death."

  "It is good that you see the light in this dark time, student. You must leave here soon. Your talent is needed. Decisions that will affect the fleet, it's members, the sleeping colonists and the native sophonts of the planet stand before us. Your abilities will be needed like never before." He rose and held an arm out to her, "As you said, she will not be alone here."

  Blinking back tears, Al'kena nodded and accepted the offered arm. "You are right," she acknowledged, "in times like this our duty must be remembered." Rising to her feet she headed for the door. One of the Valkyr was just outside and entered the room as she left.

  More About Paul C. Middleton

  Paul C Middleton is a fan of history and philosophy. He is also a fan of science fiction, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy and any well written fiction he can get his hands on. He lives in rural Australia where he is caregiver for his partner, Veida, He is assisted in this task by their two wonderful nurse Beagles, Breena and Kerry.

  If you want to find more of his works you can find them here on Amazon at

  https://www.amazon.com/Paul-C.-Middleton/e/B01FM3QX6E