Battle for Time

by Gerry A Saunders

  “You’re not as advanced as I expected, Captic. In fact, you’re nasty and totally useless to me,” Frank coldly stated as he pressed both of his weapons firing studs.

  Captic’s mouth opened in disbelief as he saw two particle beams atomize most of his stomach, and send particles of carbonized blood and bone backward, in a red mist.

  Then, the Varon’s contorted and now lifeless body collapsed to the floor. And Frank couldn’t resist kicking it as he hurried past to get to Cindy.

  ‘Charlotte,’ Frank mentally called.

  ‘Yes, Frank… We’ve seen your action via the drone. But Cindy’s mind seems to be confused.’

  ‘OK, so Gerry and whoever else can be spared, need to come over here to check for anything that could bring another Varon ship to the rescue,’ Frank requested.

  ‘On it,’ Charlotte confirmed.’

  By now, Frank had reached Cindy.

  “Are you alright?” He asked her.

  Cindy looked up at him. “I’m not sure,” she painfully replied.

  Just then, Charlotte came back with a question.

  ‘Frank, Anton asked if there are any missing Varons?’

  ‘Yes. Apparently, they left in a shuttle and are somewhere on Earth. With any luck, they’ll never get off the planet in one piece, so they won’t be in a position to bother us.’

  ‘Well, Frank, it looks like we’ve gained a ship.’

  ‘Yes. And it's gonna stay ours,’ Frank assured her, then turned back to help Cindy.

  Frank quickly released the clamps around Cindy’s arms and legs while trying not to look at her blood-spattered and half-naked body.

  “Here, let me help you sit up,” he said.

  Cindy appeared to be studying him as he stood there with just his underpants on. Feeling slightly worried, Cindy felt for and found that she still had her panties on, then realized that she felt sore.

  “Did you…?” she started to ask Frank.

  “No. I may have a wandering eye, Cindy, but that’s all,” he answered, sounding a bit hurt. “Check my mind, and you’ll see that I haven’t taken advantage of you.”

  Frank, although still feeling hurt that she would even think such a thing, was nevertheless relieved that Cindy was recovering fast, as he sensed her searching his mind.

  Then she suddenly recoiled on sensing Frank’s recollection of her head and shoulders jerking.

  “Did that Varon screw me?”

  “I’m not sure what he was doing on top of you, Cindy,” Frank calmly stated. “But he seemed to be connecting something. Maybe the stasis chamber was only meant for one, and what he was doing was necessary to ensure both of you survived while in stasis.”

  She’s not convinced, Frank decided, as he felt Cindy back in his mind again, searching for what Frank really thought.

  “So, do you do believe he assaulted me?” she gasped in horror.

  “Not really, Cindy. I didn’t actually see him do anything to you,” Frank cautioned, while at the same time, trying to hide his real thoughts.

  Then he felt Cindy forcefully enter his mind again, probing deeper this time. He felt her revulsion, as she found Frank’s suppressed thoughts about the Varon.

  “The bastard really did screw me,” she snarled as she stood up. “Let’s get our suits and get rid of this shit.”

  However, Frank sensed that Cindy had already canceled out the Varon’s action, as being irrelevant, and wouldn’t mention it again.

  Chapter 7

  The Prize

  The Varon ship was now locked to the Time-ship, and over the past five days had been cleared of bodies and body fragments. All of which had been dumped in space, via the pressure waste disposal unit, and were now moving slowly away from both ships.

  Then, the necessary search of the Varon ship for any crew members that might have been missed on Frank’s first mental search was carried out, but none were found. However, Gerry and Frank found several independent operational stations throughout the ship. Which, on inspection, were deemed to be non-critical in the running of the vessel.

  Then, a large hangar bay capable of holding at least three shuttles was a welcome find. Although there was just one shuttle in the bay, it was nevertheless going to be helpful when they arrived at, wherever that might be.

  The Varon ship’s bridge was relatively small against the Earth ships from Frank’s era. However, it had two Command chairs, and four consoles along one side. These had almost certainly been occupied by the Varon’s Science, Navigation, and Tactical officers. Frank also noted that the seats were all inertia damping.

  Directly in front of the command chairs, two sizeable virtual display projectors hung suspended from the ceiling. These would only be enabled when required.

  Gerry had found the Varon ship’s tracking and distress hyper-link systems and successfully disabled them. Then, he and Frank began checking how the ship’s navigation and warp systems operated.

  Thankfully, these were automatic systems. Once a destination had been entered, then the ship would carry out all the necessary computations and, surprisingly, operate with protocols and operational control functions that were similar to those on the Time-ship.

  Once the Varon ship’s food replicator had been reconfigured to supply human needs, and the accommodation was upgraded. Frank and Gerry decided that they had done enough to ensure that the Varon ship could sustain a human crew and could Jump to wherever they chose to go.

  However, with so much automation, Frank and Gerry found it challenging to see what the rest of the Varon ship’s crew actually did.

  Back on their Time ship. Everyone chose a synthesized meal from the food replicators. Afterward, the six of them relaxed as they sat around the sizeable holographic table in the Time ship’s communal lounge.

  “Do we all agree that we’re as ready as we’ll ever be to make a move,” Frank asked.

  “Well, almost. The Time ship’s ready. Her assistor power packs are fully charged. But, unfortunately, the timeline-matrix search has been unsuccessful so far,” Anton replied.

  “I still don’t see why we can’t create a temporary temporal-shaft right now,” Susanna stated.

  “You know why, Susanna,” Charlotte answered. “The time-shaft has to run parallel with the human timeline. Which, as you know, hasn’t been found yet.”

  “And, even though we’ve now got a stable power source for the time-crystal, Susanna. We haven’t got anywhere safe to locate it,” Gerry pointed out.

  “I would have thought that the where was obvious. Delta Pavonis’s planet DPav5,” Susanna forcefully stated, and most of them groaned.

  “OK. I know, Susanna has said this before. But she’s right to air it again. After all, DPav5 had an active spur to the time-shaft. And we were the last ones to use the spur,” Frank said, agreeing with Susanna.

  “I agree,” Cindy finally chipped in. “We should go to DPav5. We can leave the Varon ship and the crystal there, and no one will be the wiser. This way, the time-shaft will be established close to the original shaft.”

  “Good thinking. So, are we all agreed that we make DPav5 our Temporal Anchor,” Anton asked?

  Gerry looked a bit concerned at first. Then he changed his mind.

  “When you bear in mind that Tamar’s discs were programmed to set us down in 2330. It does seem sensible to activate the time-shaft on DPav5, then there shouldn’t be any conflict with the discs,” he said.

  “So. We’re all agreed. And once we’ve set our own Temporal Anchor, the discs will be irrelevant, anyway,” Anton added.

  “We’ll be able to see if Acarea is on DPav4,” Frank commented.

  “I think we should stay well away from DPav4,” Anton forcefully stated. “We don’t want to be detected or change things even more than they are already.”

  “Anton’s absolutely right. So, we’d better get going,” Charlotte urged.

  “Frank. I know that Gerry has linked Weapons and the Shield Generator to your command chair. But, are you an
d Susanna still okay with the Varon ship?” Gerry cautiously asked.

  “Yes. We’ve done all we can to make the ship suitable for humans to operate it. But we’d better jump first. We don’t want to be left behind if we have a problem.”

  “Okay, Frank,” Anton said. “Gerry, let’s say we give ourselves, say five hours to rest, then prepare to leave.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Susanna stated as she stood up and grabbed Frank’s hand. “Come on, I feel hot.”

  “Geeze. Not again.”

  With that, they all left for their cabins…, and...

  Chapter 8

  Miscalculation

  Six hours later, both ships were ready to start their transit to the Delta Pavonis star system, and their target planet DPav5.

  Anton and Gerry, who were piloting the Time-ship, were secured in their inertia damping seats, and ready to depart.

  But they were waiting for Frank and Susanna, in the Varon ship, to signal their readiness to Jump to the Delta Pavonis star system.

  While Charlotte and Cindy had been tasked with keeping an eye on the Matrix and Control systems that were still searching for the elusive Timeline thread.

  “We're ready to go, Anton,” they heard Frank tell them over the ship’s comms.

  This surprised Anton and Gerry, as they’d been expecting a video link.

  “Okay, we’ll follow you one minute after you warp,” Anton confirmed.

  Then he turned to Gerry, and said, “We need to find out why that Varon video link failed to sync with us.”

  “Agreed. I don’t know about you, but I feel at a disadvantage not being able to see who I’m talking to.”

  “Okay. We’ll see you both at Delta Pavonis in sixteen hours,” Anton then informed Frank.

  “We’ll be there,” came Frank’s voice concluding the conversation.

  Both Frank and Susanna were secure in their inertia damping seats on the Varon ship’s bridge.

  “Ready?” Frank asked.

  “Yes, but if we don’t come out the other end, it’s been nice knowing you,” Susanna replied, smiling while trying to joke about it. But both knew this jump would be riskier than usual, with a different Astro system and on a virtually unknown ship.

  Frank smiled back at Susanna. He knew exactly what she meant.

  Then he activated the Jump sequence, and both braced themselves as the Varon ship suddenly warped space and created its wormhole, then surged forward into it.

  Frank and Susanna saw the familiar elongating of their surroundings, followed by the yanking sensation that made them feel as if their stomachs had been left behind. But calm quickly returned, and, thankfully, they found themselves still in one piece and traveling through the Varon ship’s wormhole, heading straight to Delta Pavonis, and DPav5.

  The Varon ship exited warp 23 million kilometers from the Delta Pavonis Star.

  Frank and Susanna quickly recovered from the uncomfortable effect of exiting a wormhole but were shocked at just how close they’d exited to the star itself.

  “Hull temperature critical in 45 minutes,” a voice warned, with the sound emanating from one of the unmanned consoles.

  “Get us away from here, Frank, before we boil.”

  “I’m on it, Sues. But it’ll take a moment to work out how to get us to DPav5.”

  “Well, if my memory serves me correctly. Mercury, at its closest, is only 46 million kilometers from the sun. And that’s damn hot… We’re even closer at 23 million kilometers from the star….” Susanna said and left it there.

  “I know, damn it… Got it,” Frank stated as the Astro-display locked onto DPav5.

  Almost instantly, the Varon ship warped space.

  “Torture,” Frank growled as the yanking sensation set their stomachs in turmoil again.

  Seconds later, and DPav5 loomed in front of them. They both studied it on the main screen and saw that the dim yellowish-orange light from the Delta Pavonis star was bathing the planet with a somewhat Martian color. And that neither of them could see any vegetation or water.

  “Uninhabitable and bloody cold,” Susanna grumbled, wishing they had stayed on Earth after all. “We should have gone to DPav4, we could have seen Bren and Acarea,” Susanna added, sounding a bit miffed.

  “They probably don’t exist in this timeline, Sues,” Frank pointed out as his Varon ship’s sensor grid scanned the area.

  “That’s ominous, our Time ship should have arrived before us, Frank. Especially since we made a detour.”

  Where are you Anton, Frank wondered, starting to worry about what was holding the Time ship up since it had only needed to make one jump, whereas they had had to make two jumps.

  Seconds later.

  “Wormhole forming,” the ship’s AI warned.

  “About time,” Susanna said with a sigh of relief.

  Then, a silver-colored cylindrical Varon ship slid out of the newly formed wormhole, about twelve kilometers away, startling Frank and Susanna.

  The ship rotated and aligned its forward weapon rods with Frank’s Varon ship.

  “Not again,” Frank grumbled as he looked at the Varon ship showing on his command chair’s tactical screen. But was relieved to see that the newcomer’s protective shields hadn’t been raised yet.

  Susanna sensed the new Varon ship as it started to scan their ship, then make contact as it slowly moved closer.

  “They don’t know if we’re hostile yet, Frank,” Susanna whispered.

  “Only a few more seconds, Sues, and I’ll have a lock on it,” Frank assured her, as he accessed the fire control system on his command chair.

  “You will send confirmation of your ship’s ID to me now, then I will talk to High Sear Captic,” a Varon sounding voice coldly ordered, over their ship’s comms system.

  Frank ignored him.

  “Got it,” Frank said, and almost cheered as the ‘weapons lock’ icon on his display lit, confirming it was locked onto the Varon vessel.

  “Fire,” Frank ordered.

  “This ship cannot fire on another Varon vessel,” Frank’s ship’s AI informed.

  Frank cursed, then selected the manual override that Gerry had fortuitously programmed in.

  “Now fire,” he growled as he pressed the firing button on his command chair.

  His ship shuddered as its main particle-beam cannon released a devastating salvo that slammed into the target Varon ship, carving huge chunks of metal from the front left-hand side.

  Frank quickly re-adjusted the targeting crosshairs to line up with the ship’s central opening, which lay between the weapons rods.

  “Frank, suited Varons are coming out,” Susanna warned.

  “I see them,” Frank confirmed as he adjusted the particle beam’s dispersion angle and waited until he was sure that the Varons were all within the particle beam kill-zone.

  He felt sick about having to kill so many Varons. But they were all heading his way, and Anton’s Time ship would be arriving any time now, so Frank reluctantly pressed the firing button again, and the wide particle beam plowed through the Varons, burning then ripping them apart in a burst of energy. Until he could only see a cloud of red mist swirling where the Varons had been a second earlier.

  With this red mist rapidly dispersing, leaving an inert and dead Varon ship, just six kilometers away.

  Chapter 9

  Sub-Space Spy

  A short time later, Frank saw their Time ship appear two-hundred meters off his Varon ship’s port bow.

  ‘That was lucky, Frank,’ came Charlotte’s mental contact, before the ship-to-ship link established.

  ‘Yes, I thought Sues, and I reacted exceptionally well,’ he replied. Knowing that, with their Time ship having limited weapons, it had been vital to destroy the other Varon ship before their Timeship arrived.

  “We need to move Anton. The damaged Varon ship still has some forward momentum,” Susanna urged as the ship-to-ship link established.

  Then both ships moved out of the Varon ship’s
path as it slowly drifted on towards DPav5 and its final resting place on the planet’s surface.

  Once out of danger, both ships linked, and Susanna and Frank rejoined the Time-Ship.

  “We need to devise a workable plan to get us to where we need to be,” Anton urged as soon as all six came together again in the Timeship’s communal lounge.

  “Agreed. But can we eat some decent food, first?” Susanna pleaded. “Varon food isn’t the same as ours.”

  “Sorry,” Anton apologized. “Food first then.”

  Within minutes, they had all dialed up their food from the replicators then settled down to eat.

  “Yum, that smells like real food to me,” Susanna stated.

  “Yep, and I didn’t know how hungry I was,” Gerry added.

  Once the meal was over, and the empty plates and utensils had been placed in the replicator’s lower container. They each got a drink and went to the communal lounge for the inevitable discussion.

  Charlotte was the first to speak. “Gerry, why did you order Ronin to scan your Varon disc?” She asked.

  “I have no idea, apart from a nagging suspicion that the discs seemed too small for what they were supposed to achieve.”

  “So, your original thought that the Varon Discs might be the solid side of something just out of phase could be valid, then,” Frank suggested.”

  “Yes, and don’t forget that I raised the possibility that the discs themselves might be a link between the Varons and our 2300 timeline,” Charlotte reminded them.