Battle for Time

by Gerry A Saunders

  “Of course. Okay, the other one’s from a Group Captain Hendrix,” Anton stated, then read it out.

  “I have five long-range prototype attack ships in my group and should be with you in twelve days… Please send any situation updates to me using the Searcher’s hyperlink encryption unit. We will be monitoring it continuously… Message ends.”

  “Short and sweet,” Charlotte commented.

  “Okay, I’ve checked to see how much overshoot there is, from the thread ending to where we are now,” Gerry stated. “Looks like we’ve traveled 0.0125 Light minutes. That’s about two hundred and twenty-five Kilometers.”

  “Right. So, if we micro-jump back, a hundred thousand kilometers, we should be able to see the Varon ships,” Anton suggested.

  Anton set the micro-jump coordinates. Checked that everyone was safely seated, then tapped ‘Execute.’

  The Time ship warped space and created its wormhole, then surged forward, and was gone.

  Then, as soon as everyone’s bodies had recovered from the effects of entering the wormhole, the Time-ship exited warp. With everyone feeling the crushing sensation of exit, and of being a hundred and twenty-five thousand kilometers from where the Varons were expected to be.

  “It’s tough getting used to that,” Susanna remarked as she stood up and stretched herself, then joined everyone else in the cockpit area.

  A faint glint caught their eyes, through the cockpit window, as the yellowish light from a local star reflected off something big.

  “That has to be the Varons,” Gerry ventured.

  “Agreed… But we can’t get any closer in normal space without being seen… Frank, are you seeing anything ahead?”

  “Nothing that will affect us at the moment. Don’t worry, I’ll soon let you know if I do see anything.”

  Then Anton set the ship’s powerful televiewer and optics to zoom-in on the faint point of light.

  The scene on Anton’s main screen gradually swelled in size, and they saw that there were at least forty silvery colored Varon vessels in the area.

  “Geeze,” Gerry exclaimed.

  “Wow, that’s amazing,” Frank said as the enormity of the scene sank in.

  “Are those objects, out to the right, planets, Anton?” Susanna queried, as she pointed to two hazy looking objects.

  “Don’t know. Oh, yes, I see them. They could be planets. One seems to be much bigger than the other. I’ll do a composition analysis of the largest planet,” Anton replied as he micro-adjusted the ship’s televiewer and focused on the area that Susanna had indicated.

  After a few seconds, the results of the planet’s analysis scrolled down Anton’s secondary screen.

  “Well, the usual elements… some vegetation and water, but no life forms detected... H’m, this is strange, there’s a weird temporal distortion,” Anton commented as he checked the results.

  Anton then recorded the scene as he micro-adjusted the view to cover the whole area. That done, he edited the scene to emphasize the critical areas of importance.

  “We’ll attach this recording to our messages to Group Captain Hendrix, on the attack ships, and Admiral Fletcher at Galactic intelligence,” Anton decided.

  Gerry and Susanna started compiling a new message, to make it read as if it was the Searcher sending it. Within five minutes, the message and recording were ready to play, to get approval to send them via Searcher’s hyperlink encryption unit.

  “Okay, everyone, we’re ready to play them,” Susanna informed.

  ‘Galactic Empire exploration vessel Searcher. GE190S.

  Captain Barret, commanding. Code A800S20…

  We’ve managed to repair Searcher’s damage enough to follow one of the Varon ships to what appears to be two permanent starship construction facilities... We’ve also intercepted a garbled reference to Sol, that we are unable to record.

  I must emphasize, again, that this race presents a very high risk to Earth... Your attack squadron must hit the construction facilities and as many ships as possible… I have included a recording showing their base… As before, our present location and this Varon base’s location are hidden within this encrypted message.

  Captain Barret, commanding. Code A800S20.

  We’re under attack!

  “We’ve ended the message without a terminator,” Gerry pointed out.

  Anton ignored him and asked, “Does everyone agree that we send it?”

  Everyone did. So, Anton initiated the Searcher’s hyperlink unit and sent the information to Captain Hendrix, and Admiral Fletcher, plus Colin Whitley.

  After the messages had been sent, Frank made a conscious effort to look further into his future. But couldn’t see an imminent threat.

  “It seems that the Varon’s are still oblivious to our presence. That is, for the next three minutes, at least.”

  “Well, that’s something. But if we stay here, we’ll be continuously looking over our shoulders for the next twelve days,” Cindy pointed out.

  “We don’t need to, Cindy. We’ve already created a spur from the Time-shaft’s exit location, at Earth Temporal Gateway 2324, to here. So, we can extend the spur twelve days Uptime.” Anton answered, addressing her worry.

  “But we’d have to move Downtime again, to match the Gateway, before we could re-enter the time shaft,” Gerry pointed out.

  “Naturally,” Susanna stated, giving Gerry a scornful look for stating the obvious.

  “Just make sure we exit phasing,” Charlotte cautioned Anton.

  “Of course,” Anton replied. “And I’ll make it eleven days just in case Captain Hendrix ships get here quicker than expected,” he added as he set the Time shift to Upward for eleven days.

  “Back to your seats,” Anton ordered. “We’re about to see the fruits of our endeavors.”

  Chapter 27

  One good day

  Group Captain Hendrix studied the Searcher’s remains, along with the other twisted wreck that was several kilometers away from the Searcher.

  “Dark-matter scoop is open,” the systems AI informed.

  “I can see that,” Hendrix snapped, annoyed by the AI continually distracting him by saying what he could already see on his own console.

  The Dark-matter scoop did precisely that. When open, it scooped or drew in dark matter. Then converted and stored it as energy in the ship’s power packs to enhance the ship’s power generator output when needed. However, dark matter wasn’t accessible when traveling through a wormhole.

  “What I don't get is why the Searcher’s wreck is here, yet their last communication was from a different location.”

  “Could be a trick, Captain,” science officer Brennon cautioned as he began an in-depth scan of Searcher’s remains.

  “I’m aware of that, Tom. But Searcher’s comms said they’d managed to destroy a silver ship, and we can see the wreck sitting over there. Yet they also said that Searcher went on to follow another ship, but that can’t be correct because we know that Searcher ended up here,” Hendrix stated.

  Brennon waited patiently for the AI to confirm that his ship’s scans and the analysis of the scans had been verified, before speaking. “Okay, Captain. There’s nothing to suggest it isn’t Searcher, and the other ship is certainly unknown to us,” he confirmed.

  “Then we’d better go on to the Varon’s, allegedly last location, Tom. And hope that this recording of the target ships is still valid,” Hendrix ordered.

  “Yes, Captain… Just think, a seven-minute jump, and we could be exiting into hell.”

  “Not with our new honey-cone babes,” Captain Hendrix replied, smiling slightly. Even though he had no idea of the capabilities of the Varon ships, he nevertheless had faith in the effectiveness of their honey-cone weapon pods.

  “Countdown initiated.”

  The ten-second warning sounded, and Hendrix gritted his teeth in anticipation of the usual feelings of warp entry.

  Anton eased the Timeship into the off-set location, eleven days Uptime. Th
en immediately shifted into subspace.

  Frank, looking into his future once again, had a brief glimpse of Hendrix ships, just as the Timeship entered Subspace. “They’ve arrived,” Frank reported as, just for a second, he saw both the present and future in cognitive double- vision.

  Then, Anton sent the temporal drone into normal space to carry out a 360 Degree spherical 3D scan. Once done, the drone phased back and into the Timeship.

  The resultant scan immediately formed on Anton’s main screen, along with information about the distance between Hendrix and the Varon’s ship clusters.

  “Let’s see, so Hendrix ships are… a hundred and twenty thousand kilometers from us, and static…While the Varon’s facilities and their ships are… four million kilometers from us,” Anton confirmed.

  Gerry zoomed in on one of Hendrix ships and was surprised to see honey-cone weapons pods around its hull.

  “Look at those weapon’s pods… They have to be the prototypes of Ronin’s pods,” Gerry exclaimed.

  “Seems so,” Anton agreed, leaning over to see them on Gerry’s display.

  “Should we try to help Hendrix?” Gerry then queried.

  “No. We haven’t got any weapons, so we’d just cause confusion, and for what,” Anton firmly stated.

  “Even so, we need to leave Subspace and find somewhere safe to monitor and report what happens here,” Frank urged.

  “What about the large planet? That should be safe, and it would hopefully be out of the Varon’s sensor range,” Charlotte ventured.

  “Good idea. I don’t think we’ll have to wait long,” Anton said as he set the coordinates for a micro-jump, using the location data obtained from the drone’s scan to ensure exit close to the largest planet’s terminator region.

  “Seats,” he ordered.

  When everyone was in their Inertia damping seats, Anton brought the Timeship out of subspace and initiated the micro-jump.

  Seconds later, the Timeship exited its jump two-thousand kilometers from the large planet’s surface, and in its lee.

  “Good targeting, Anton,” Gerry said, congratulating him.

  “Systems are more accurate than in your day, Gerry.”

  “Rub it in, why don’t you,” Gerry grumbled, feeling he’d been insulted.

  “Stay seated, everyone,” Anton ordered, ignoring Gerry’s reply.

  Frank suddenly felt something temporal, which was starting to affect his ability to see into his future.

  “Anton. Be careful when we move to see the Varon ships. I’m sensing a temporal disturbance,” Frank warned.

  “So, that’s probably why there’s no life other than vegetation,” Cindy suggested.

  “Of course, sentient beings wouldn’t survive continuous temporal swings,” Susanna helpfully pointed out, and Cindy nodded agreement.

  “You’re right, Frank, I was just going to move us into position. But I can already feel a difference in how the ship is responding,” Anton stated, ignoring Susanna’s comment.

  Frank had a weird feeling that there was a tie between this anomaly, and the reddish colored Lens he’d seen on the wall in Tamar’s Varon ship, way back in time.

  “Anton, it’s important that we find the source of this temporal anomaly before we leave,” Frank warned.

  “Anton glanced at him and nodded, then carried on adjusting the Timeship’s position, to try to see the Varon’s ships, and their facilities.

  All of a sudden. Frank felt giddy, as his precognitive double-vision registered a flash in space, and he mentally saw a wreck on the surface of the large planet. With both events, no more than four minutes into his future. But there wasn’t anything else of relevance. However, Frank was convinced that these two events had a temporal link, so they had to act right now.

  “Anton, I’ve sensed an increase in temporal disturbance and a wreck on the planet’s surface. We must get down to check it out. But you must leave a drone here to record what’s going on… Now, Anton. Now,” Frank forcefully ordered.

  Anton glanced at Charlotte.

  “Do it, Anton,” she urged.

  So, he quickly set the secondary matrix to locate the wreck and the source of the temporal disturbance that was worrying Frank. A slight pause, then their coordinates popped up on Anton’s tactical screen. Anton set the required micro-jump and hit the jump command tab.

  Group Captain Hendrix surveyed the real-time placement of the Varon ships and their two construction facilities, in plan format, courtesy of the earlier pre-programmed launch of two surveillance drones, that were now providing ranging data to his large tactical holo-sphere.

  He could see that the starship construction facilities were the primary target. So, they would have to be hit on the first pass and hit hard if they were going to be able to guarantee that the last ship’s sub-light Solar missile would also hit the target.

  From his own tactical readout, Hendrix could see that the Varon ships were in rows of five, and their energy emissions indicated that their warp cores and protective screens were in sleep mode.

  Even so, Hendrix knew that on his own ships return run, the Varon ships would have already realized they were under attack and would have powered up, thus posing a threat to his ships. He was also concerned that, as yet, they hadn’t detected any Varon security weapon’s platforms, that he would have thought would be essential to protect the construction facilities. Which was decidedly odd for such an obviously high-risk target.

  “Have we managed to tag everything yet, Brennon,” Captain Hendrix asked his Science officer.

  “Some of their ships aren’t accessible for us to tag, Captain. Even so, our ships weapon’s pods AI controllers have decided to attack the Varon ships. But only after both of the Varon’s facilities have been destroyed,” Brennon answered.

  “In fact, it looks as if we’ll need all our pods fire-power to suppress any weapons fire coming from the Varon’s huge starship construction facilities, and to enable us to inflict severe damage on them before our last ship releases a sub-light Solar missile right into their weakened facilities,” Brennon added.

  Hendrix knew that his five ships firepower was limited, and it would be dangerous to try to attack so many ships, at once, even though they would be there, just waiting to be hit.

  So, he decided that his return run would be well away from the Varon’s starship construction facilities, which would hopefully have been destroyed by then.

  His ships would then pass up, and between the first two rows of the Varon starships. With his ships attacking the Varons on both sides as they passed, using their left and right-hand turrets.

  Hendrix was well aware that it wouldn’t take long for the Varon ships to become a real threat, and that his group would then have to jump for the safety of Assembly Point One, to survive.

  “Then let’s get on with it. Set staggered line-astern attack formation. Right side,” Hendrix ordered.

  “Weapons?”

  “All hot, Captain,” weapon’s officer Carter replied.

  Captain Hendrix flicked the inter-ship comms tab to On.

  “Good luck, everyone. Keep IC open and monitor the attack AI’s decisions. Remember, once the construction facilities are down, hit as many ships as you can before jumping to AP1.”

  Then Hendrix turned back to speak to Brennon while making sure Manta, his tactical AI, was close-by.

  “Initiate,” Hendrix ordered Brennon.

  With that, all five ships sub-light Skipper Drives energized, and they surged forward, line-astern and straight into battle.

  Chapter 28

  Blood and Thunder

  Captain Hendrix ship curved inward along the open side of the first Varon starship construction facility in line-astern attack formation.

  “Tail. Look out for any weapons platform activity,” he yelled as his own lead ship rapidly approached its optimum firing point.

  “Seven clicks,” the voice of the weapon’s AI rattled in his ear.

  “Scoop closing… Screens
to the max, skipper. Drive, hot,” science officer Brennon confirmed.

  Hendrix and the rest of his ship’s crews held their breath, expecting a hail of fire to come from the first Varon facility at any second now.

  “Optimum passing speed… Marked,” the tactical AI stated as Hendrix ship opened up with high power particle-beam cannon fire.

  Straight away, return fire from the first Varon facility hit the protective screen of Hendrix lead ship, sending sheets of boiling energy swirling around it.

  “So, they are protected after all,” Hendrix muttered, as all five of his ships came under a heavy and sustained particle beam attack.

  Even though the new honey-cone weapon’s turrets came into their own by targeting several enemy weapon sources at a time, the swirling sheet of fire around their own protective screens reduced the effectiveness of Hendrix ships particle beam onslaught.

  “We need to move closer, captain if we are too…”

  Hendrix didn’t wait for the rest of his science officer, Brennon’s suggestion.

  “Four and five, we’re way too far past the first target, so get in as close as possible and launch your ship’s Solar missiles, then get out of there, fast,” Hendrix bellowed into the ‘all-ships’ secure comms link.

  Straightaway, ships four and five acknowledged their Group captain’s order, even though it meant that their chances of survival, had just plummeted to almost zero.

  As Hendrix ship passed out of range of the first facility’s weapons fire, he could see his two rear-end ships curving in and towards the facility to launch their Solar missiles.

  He felt sick on seeing that both ships were quickly lost from sight within a sphere of angrily boiling weapons fire, as sheets of flame and raw energy crackled around them.