We still had nothing we thought was likely to pose a threat showing on the sensors so I couldn’t see a burning need to rush the engine start. I told them my decision and asked them to immediately begin making preparations to begin warming the engines. I also told them I wanted the entire process monitored continuously in the hope we could catch any minor problems before they became major ones. As soon as I dismissed them, the crew rushed off to begin the start-up preparations.
When the main engines were warming, I split the repair crews so half of them could continue with the hull repairs they already had underway while most of the other half, those who weren’t monitoring the engine warm up, began to work on repairing the shields and weapons. I felt we really needed to repair them if we possibly could, I didn’t like the idea of us being unarmed and with no defensive measures in place. Shields in particular were important to give us some additional protection from any small debris that might be floating around in our path. We were quite short of ammunition particularly with the missile batteries but we did still have a reasonable amount for the rail guns. We only had four missiles left so we could not afford to stand toe to toe with an adversary. The energy weapons would be fine if we repaired the power feeders and control circuits because as long as they were technically good and we had power, we could fire them once the control and power circuits were adequately repaired. If we had any more problems with hostile forces, I decided we would be trying to run first and rely on the rail guns and lasers only if we couldn’t run away from a fight and found ourselves cornered.
The engines were warming for about half a day when we felt a thump and the ships fire alarms sounded. Thankfully, these alarms are part of the damage control systems so we were able to isolate the location of the problem very quickly. The area was quickly sealed off and flooded with a fire suppression gas, extinguishing the fire quickly. We quickly realised the engines were no longer warming so I gathered the crew I had for engine monitoring before going down to see how bad the damage was. On the way, I issued orders for all power to the engines to be isolated as close to the generating systems as could be managed. Then we worked our way along the feed till we opened a power supply control cabinet to find it pretty much destroyed. There was an undetected fault in the cabinet that only surfaced after the engines were fed power. The internals of the cabinet were completely fried. The stench of burnt insulation and plastics was almost overwhelming. As it turned out, all the power to the main engines passed through this one cabinet and the damage explained why the engines stopped warming. It seemed to me this trip was shaping up to be the trip from hell for FNS Destiny.
I turned to the engineering staff who were with me and asked, “Can we fix this problem?”
After a careful inspection of the damage and some discussion among themselves, they replied, “Yes Sir, it will take about two days we think. We will need to fabricate a new enclosure but most of the parts inside should either be in our spare parts inventory or if not, we may be able to fabricate new ones or cannibalize them from non-essential systems. We are not sure yet but we may even be able to repair some of the damaged parts in the cabinet as well.”
“OK”, I said, “this takes precedence over everything else. We need it to be able to bring the engines back on-line as soon as possible.”
With that, I turned and left them to begin the repairs. There was no point in me hovering over their shoulders while they worked, the job would not be completed any sooner if I did. Instead, I went back to the Captains office to think about ways we could improve our situation. Eventually, Ani, who was my conscience right then, reminded me it was time for me to go eat and then sleep. I didn’t argue as I was both physically and emotionally exhausted by then. I was fully aware there was nothing I could do to make things move any more quickly than they were already so I simply did what I was told.
The next morning, I awoke to some good news. The repair crews found the fault causing the shield loss and were also able to repair some of the point defence system. Thankfully, the shields turned out to only require a relatively simple repair which engineering were able to complete quickly so we now had some shields again. I was thankful for that as having no shields at all was pretty terrifying. Most people think space is vast and empty, and it is, but there is also a lot of debris floating around that can be deadly if an unshielded ship impacts it, especially at the speeds required for space travel. The shield fault hadn’t been found earlier simply because of the focus on propulsion and maneuvering. We did still have some weaknesses in the shields because of the number of shield nodes destroyed by the mine blasts. We couldn’t replace these nodes, at least not yet because we simply did not have enough spare to replace all the ones needing replacement. We also still had some big holes in the outer hull where shield nodes would normally be mounted so even if we’d had the shield nodes we didn’t have enough mounting locations for them yet, not till we’d repaired those holes.
Even so, this news cheered me quite a bit. Although it seemed we were still taking two steps forward and one step back, when I looked at it, we were clearly improving our situation, only a little more slowly than I would have preferred. The engineering staff were as good as their word, they were able to repair the damaged cabinet and bring the engines back on line in two days. I asked them to carefully retest everything before we restarted the engine warm up. This time, we had no further problems so two and a half days later we began to slowly bring the engines on-line. As the engines warmed, we started to gradually increase the thrust levels till we were able to bring the ship to a halt relative to the system star. We then started her moving back in the direction we wanted, back towards the desired jump point that would allow us to head towards Federation space. When we achieved that milestone, I once again stood most of the crew down for a full day, partly as a reward for a job well done and partly to give them a break so they could start fresh the next day.
UNEXPECTED EVENTS
We now had most of the maneuvering thrusters, main engines, sensors, some limited shields and some limited point defence on-line. I decided we should take our time traveling back towards the jump point in order to avoid stressing the main engines, at least till after we’d had a chance to monitor them for a while. I wanted to make sure there were no developing issues in the main engines, and to give the repair crews as much time as possible to complete as many of the outstanding repairs on the ship as possible in the available time. Among other things, I wanted to try to bring the remainder of the repairable point defence lasers on-line and repair all the main weapons if at all possible as well as repair as much of the hull damage as we could manage. I had no illusions that we would be able to repair everything as we had neither the spare parts nor the material for the fabricators to be able to do so. The engineering staff had already told me, FNS Destiny would require an extensive refit before she would be ready to embark on another cruise and that was assuming the Federation didn’t simply scrap her.
We still had no idea what exactly had happened to the pirate ship from our most recent battle because we completely lost sight of her for some time after we lost our sensors. When the sensors were eventually bought back on-line, we were able to locate her but still didn’t know what state she was in other than she seemed to be dead in the water. At this stage, we were still too far away to tell much more than the fact she was still there waiting. We could only go back towards the jump point in the hope she was too badly damaged to stop us and nothing else capable of blocking our escape from this system had arrived there before us.
As the days passed, the ship and the crew fell into a rhythm, a rhythm where the crew would work, eat sleep then start the cycle all over again. Some of the urgency, and the pressure we’d been under was now gone, simply because we were mobile again. Slowly, the repair crews found the reasons leading to the failures of each of the remaining disabled systems. As they found each damaged part, they repaired or replaced it, gradually reducing the number of issues causing failures. In some cases, t
he damage was too extensive and the available spares too limited for us to be able to bring back one hundred percent functionality to a system but we did as much as we could with what we had available. In parallel to that, the hull repairs also progressed slowly.
While we didn’t have enough materials to be able to fabricate the parts necessary to complete all of the necessary repairs, we were able to close up two of the four hull rifts caused by the most recent series of mines when they exploded during the ship to ship battle. We were also able to replace many of the damaged structural members for the other two. We were still short of shield nodes as we’d used about half of the available spares when we repaired the damage from the first mine blast, the one we’d experienced when we originally entered the system. Unfortunately, we were unable to fabricate new ones. Instead, as mounting points became available, we fitted our remaining spares to try to strengthen the shields to the maximum extent possible.
Finally, three weeks and five days after we first started warming the main engines, we came close enough to the jump point to be able to carry out detailed scans of the area. As the scans continued, the map of the area built up and our awareness of what was going on in the system began to gradually improve. Thankfully, we were able to repair the limited damage to the jump engines by then and when we tested them they showed as being serviceable. At least now, once we reached the jump point, we knew we would be able to leave this accursed system. I ordered the navigation staff to begin work on a route back into Federation space, with some alternatives so we would have options if we ran into more pirates along the way. As we approached the jump point, I ordered our sensors operator to go to full active scanning. I did this for two reasons, the first being to see if there were any mines still drifting about, I wanted to know about them before we hit one. The second was so we could see if the pirate ship was at all active. About ten minutes later, the sensors operator told me he had some returns, some matching mines, some matching escape pods. A while later, he confirmed to me that the pirate ship appeared to be almost dead in space.
I asked, “Almost dead in space?”
“Yes Sir, there are some very faint energy signatures but nothing strong enough to allow them to start the drives or fire a weapon, at least not without us knowing about it well before they could shoot at us.”
I thought to myself, “We couldn’t be that lucky could we?” I told the operator to keep an eye on the ship but we needed to keep clear of the mines.
As we came closer, I ordered all the available energy weapons bought on-line before proceeding to methodically clear all the mines we could find. Unfortunately, a few of the mines were quite close to escape pods so some of the pods were destroyed at the same time. When the nearness of these mines to the escape pods was first reported to me, I agonised for several hours, trying to think of a way of rescuing anyone who may be trapped in the pods. In the end, I decided we should not worry too much about the people in those pods simply because I didn’t want to risk any of my crew for the very pirates who’d placed the mines. Of course, I was assuming the pods only contained pirates but right then, I had no way of knowing any different, not for sure.
As we continued to draw closer, the sensor operators were able to better quantify the amount of power available on the other ship. They confirmed to me there was only enough power for some limited life support and even that didn’t seem to be stable, but that was about all. The sensor operators also confirmed they would be able to give me more than enough warning if the pirates power levels began to rise indicating an attempt to power up weapons or engines. Now we needed to decide what steps we should take next. Should we pick up the pods, board the ship looking for survivors, or should we keep going, heading for the Federation? Even though my opinion of the pirates was in general, a poor one, I struggled with the idea of leaving these people stranded in space with no hope of rescue.
I agonised over the issue for over an hour before coming to the conclusion we really needed to pick up any remaining escape pods after we finished clearing the minefield. I also decided that after we cleared the escape pods, we should send a team over to the pirate ship to investigate and look for survivors there. I felt the need for a second opinion before committing so I called Ani and Shasi in so I could talk to them about our options. I’d come to trust these two and by now they were well enough to be able take charge of a mission over to the pirate ship. We examined our options before they agreed that after destroying the mines, we should give priority to picking up the escape pods first before investigating the ship. We decided on retrieving the escape pods first simply because they were very small, consequently they only had room for very limited life support and supplies. Shasi also told me the pirates would often fail to properly maintain the safety equipment on their ships in order to save money or simply because they were unable to obtain the necessary parts. It seemed more than one pirate ship was defeated when a single, relatively minor hull breach caused the ship to lose atmosphere after the inner pressure hatches failed to seal properly.
Once I’d made my decision, I ordered all the existing pirate prisoners locked in their quarters for security reasons before making sure that if they should break out, they could be immediately stunned. This was nothing more than a precaution because as far as I could see we’d knocked all the fight out of them when we defeated and captured them. In the weeks since then, we’d accumulated strong evidence they were already beginning to identify strongly with our crew. On several occasions, one of our crew escaped injury only because one of the prisoners intervened at the right time to stop an accident happening. I made sure we kept records of these incidents so the Federation authorities could take them into account when they were given responsibility for our prisoners after we reached a friendly port. I hoped some of these prisoners would be shown leniency because of what they’d done to help our crew.
The shuttle was launched to begin retrieving the escape pods one at a time. While it headed for the first pod, we evacuated a hold and set up a short tube so we could check each pod in turn without a need to re-air and evacuate the entire hold each time we had a new pod in place. This had the added advantage, for us at least, that if someone on board a pod fired a weapon through the door, they risked killing themselves when they damaged the tube. Damage to the tube would result in depressurisation of both the pod and the connected tube, the pod occupants would then be trying to breath vacuum. If that happened there would be no need to subdue them. I also had two fully armoured Troopers who had room to stand, one on each side of the hatch out of the direct line of fire when it was opened. The plan was for the Troopers to plug into a communications jack just outside the pod’s hatch and to relay instructions to any occupants inside the pods. As each pod was cleared we would be able push it into a corner of the hold, either till we ran out of room or we decided what to do with it.
The first pod was bought to the hold and as soon as it was in place, the Troopers rigged the access tube. When they connected to the communications jack, it was quickly apparent the occupants had no fight left in them. They had been in the pod for about six weeks and were out of just about everything, food, water, even air. They were malnourished, low on oxygen and severely dehydrated. When the hatch opened, the three of them meekly exited before allowing themselves to be arrested by the Troopers. They were then marched off to the medical bay where they were sedated till we could interrogate them and decide where we should put them.
The other prisoners had already told us there were a few captives on the ship plus some others like themselves who were not given much choice on whether or not to work for the pirates. We didn’t really want to give our new guests too much of a difficult time yet, not till we had an idea of who they were and whether they were crew or prisoners of the pirates. I decided I would use some of our existing prisoners to identify as many of the others as we could. I wanted our existing prisoners to tell them how insane I could be if someone did the wrong thing, to send a clear message that bad behaviour wou
ld not be tolerated but good behaviour would be rewarded. I wanted them to be told how well they were treated if they behaved and were cooperative.
Unfortunately, the next four pods had only bodies in them or were completely empty. After each of these pods were emptied, I had it thoroughly searched for any nasty surprises that may have been left behind by the occupants. The fifth pod had a single person inside. As soon as the hatch was opened, the idiot started shooting. None of my crew were hurt, all the shots missing them but he did manage to puncture the pressure tube which promptly depressurized both itself and the pod, quickly killing the occupant. I had no problem with him committing suicide by stupidity, it left us with one less troublemaker to deal with. I ordered the Troopers to toss his body out through the open hatch to so we didn’t waste space storing it. After the body was disposed of, they searched the pod looking for any nasty surprises before storing it and repairing the tube.
Once again, the next pod was empty for some reason and once again, I had it thoroughly searched before it was stored out of the way. The following two pods had four people in each of them, again, these people would not have lasted much longer if we hadn’t rescued them. Once again, neither of these two groups had any fight left in them. They were placid and did exactly as we told them without argument or complaint. The ninth pod was again empty and was searched. The tenth and final escape pod we were able to recover had six bodies inside. I checked with the bridge to see if anything was happening with the pirate ship. They told me there had not been any activity at all.
I decided the ship could wait for a short time till we had a chance to sort out what to do with the eleven live people we’d rescued from the pods. I needed to know how many Troopers would be available to board the pirate ship because I expected that I need to send as may Troopers as possible to the pirate ship in order to ensure success of the operation. At the same time, we needed to make sure our existing prisoners did not see an opportunity to try and overwhelm the rest of us. I began by having all the new people we rescued checked over by our medical staff who immediately started a program to get them eating again.
Star Man 1: Star Bourne Page 27