by David Buck
Bill also hoped that other interesting changes they had made to the missiles would work out as well. He now looked at the flight data and noted that two Chinese missiles had already failed and they were destroyed as their trajectory just cleared the atmosphere. He then commented to his launch control team as updated telemetry showed the mass of Barus ships well out past the moon.
‘We are going to let the missiles coast their way out further into space. We only have to get the missiles between the Barus fleet and the Trader ship and that could take a few hours at least.’
An air force sergeant was monitoring the radar data of the missiles and was viewing the data sets for the Barus and the Traders via a telemetry computer. He looked up with satisfaction and spoke to the patiently waiting colonel.
‘Sir, we are awaiting an update, but my calculations show we actually will interpose between the Barus fleet and the Traders.’
The further trajectory data came in, and Bill and his team relaxed as the projected path of the missiles was close enough to make things interesting within about six hours.
***
Captain Narindestat had not wasted any time attempting to contact the Maveen Earth probe and instead he had firmly issued changed orders to his bridge crew.
‘Garendestat, increase the burn rate on the aero-spike engines to twenty percent above their rated thrust and we will not be maintaining a fuel reserve. Captain to sneak ship pilots, you will increase your thrust another ten percent across the board.’
Garendestat did not look up as he made several changes but he did reply.
‘Sir, I am lowering our trajectory and turning east to give us more time in the atmosphere as our fuel reserves of hydrogen are much higher than our oxygen reserves. When the reserves are at parity I take the ship into space and we can use the fusion drive engines to make the rendezvous.’
Captain Narindestat looked nervously at the drive readings for each of the sneak ships as he continued on again.
‘Just watch the shields as we go Garendestat, as we will be travelling twenty percent faster than our rated atmospheric launch speed. The course change will actually help us get to the rendezvous if the ship holds together in the meantime.’
Captain Narindestat then looked across at the lieutenant standing at the communications console and asked a brief question.
‘We are continuing to transmit our bridge conversations?’
The officer looked up momentarily as she replied.
‘Captain we are still transmitting, but the ionization of air around our shields means we are in a communications black out.’
Ian Mitchin nervously looked around at the rest of the mission team, who had fallen silent. The novelty of the launch had been replaced by uncertainly as the Traders had reverted to their own language and Garendestat had stopped translating for their benefit. Their concerns were ended when the metallic voice of the Maveen Earth probe broke into the actions of the Traders and the contemplations of the human mission team.
‘Captain Narindestat, we held our assistance until you fully committed your ship. We are ready to fire our engines shortly to clear the atmosphere. Each of our gate ships will provide two sneak ships worth of thrust for fifteen minutes. Advise me now if this is suitable.’
The Illuria continued to gain speed across the top of Earth’s atmosphere as Garendestat resumed calling off the speed.
‘Twelve kilometers per second and rapidly accelerating, we will go to fourteen kilometers per second before we turn out of the atmosphere Captain.’
Captain Narindestat had been feverishly entering the projected thrust of the Maveen ships into his calculations, and sat with satisfaction and relief as he replied to the Maveen.
‘Earth probe, my own calculations show fourteen minutes at the thrust you have mentioned then another three minutes at half thrust is optimum. Please proceed as instructed. I will contact you again later as I have a specific request of your ships.’
The captain looked at the thrust gauges with satisfaction as the added Maveen thrust came online. He had successfully resisted the urge to berate the Maveen as past experience had shown him that this was not productive. He waited patiently as Garendestat counted out again.
‘Fourteen kilometers per second and we are turning out of the atmosphere.’
Captain Narindestat now gave an additional instruction as he viewed the status of two of the sneak ship drives.
‘Sneak ships three and six need to reduce power to normal thrust immediately, and we will go to rocket mode on the aero spike engines at reduced thrust.’
The Illuria left the atmosphere and streaked past well below the antiquated international space station as it crossed into night-time over Central America. The ship now accelerated again as the additional power of the Maveen ships came fully online, and they flew around the other side of the planet from the Barus fleet and the human missiles.
Garendestat sat back at his console, adjusted his arm sling and relaxed for a moment, before he turned and favored the humans with a broad grin and gave them an update.
‘We are definitely on our way, but our fuel reserves on the Illuria are too low to attempt a landing, and that was what the Maveen probe was commenting on. The rendezvous is actually ahead of schedule at this stage.’
Captain Narindestat looked at additional telemetry data and he fixed Steve with a grateful look as he spoke.
‘Steve, your idea looks to have been implemented as over a hundred of your missiles are coasting west out from low orbit across the intercept path of the Barus fleet. They will have to think about that, and us, and the Maveen.’
Steve considered the news with relief as it appeared that the authorities on Earth were giving them full assistance to leave. However he felt that they still possibly might have missed something and he asked if any of his mission team recalled their briefings on the different vassal races and the edicts they obeyed.
***
After four hours Admiral Baredio was now stuck in a quandary, as his tactical team had evaluated the threat of the missiles and arrived at a succinct conclusion. If they stayed put they would be fine, but if they attempted to intercept the Trader ship, now around the far side of the human planet and accelerating away, then the human missiles came into play. The situation was not lost on Omerio who carefully commented to Gindane.
‘We are forced into engaging the human missiles or backing down, and risking the missiles can only be a zero sum game if they destroy one of our ships.’
The admiral asked for the human news channel to be turned off, before he turned to Gindane and voiced some of his frustrations.
‘Your own reports indicate that the human weapons are not true deep space intercept weapons yet they continue on into space at high speed and they will be a hindrance when we meet with the Trader ship.’
Gindane was ready for the question, and politely made her point before she gave an answer.
‘Sir, the humans are unpredictable and innovative, and they are defending their own interests by assisting the Traders and Maveen to flee. I can see their perspective too well from my research. The Traders and Maveen have added technology and a new colony respectively, while we are still the aloof race that caused them so much misery earlier. As for the weapons I surmise they just are using a sole nuclear warhead in the kilotons range instead of a multiple warheads they usually operate.’
Admiral Baredio looked thoughtfully at Gindane and Omerio, as he went through in his mind the ramifications of what they had learnt before he replied.
‘I cannot believe they altered so many missiles in such a short amount of time. They must have deleted the reentry vehicles to allow the speed and range increase. I consider that even a small nuclear warhead is still dangerous even to a cruiser if they arrive in a series. This is such a dirty way to do battle and no galactic race would go to war in this manner.’
The admiral then fixed the both of them a firm smile as he turned to his navigation officer and asked for alternatives.
The navigation officer offered a couple of suggestions, though Gindane thought he studied her own ship’s reports on the missiles nervously.
‘Admiral we could go north and south out of the rotational plane for the planet and the northern approach gives us the best intercept. Unfortunately both the Trader main ship and the human missiles are across our direct path to their hyper drive module. Note that the missiles performance characteristics are unknown from a maneuvering standpoint and we could be intercepted. The other alternative is to go around the far side of the Moon, but that will take too long as we will arrive after they have docked with the drive module according to my calculations.’
The admiral wasted no time as he gave a series of orders.
‘We will change our trajectory north and attempt to stay as far outside the line of missiles as we can. All ships are to ready missile defenders and implement radiation precautions.’
The Barus fleet followed the line of the moon’s orbit as they moved north and in towards the merging course lines of the Trader ship and the hyper drive module. By tacit agreement, none of the Barus on the bridge of the flagship commented on the series of red dots on the tactical display that was now moving on an intercept course with them.
***
Captain Narindestat was speaking with Lieutenant Damofestat and gave concise instructions about the operations of the drive module.
‘Lieutenant, you are not to undock any of your own sneak ships without my express orders. Now if the Barus fleet changes course then this is what I want you to do …’
After several more minutes of conversation the call was ended and the captain now spoke to the communications officer again.
‘Please resume our live coverage down to the humans, but do not directly explain why we broke off our transmissions. We need to keep the Barus admiral in the dark. Also Steve will attempt to talk to the Barus.’
Steve was handed a microphone and in minutes his message was heading out to the Barus fleet.
‘Captain Steve Greene onboard the Trader ship to the Barus Admiral. I am the new Governor of the Barede colony and I insist that you break off your attack on the Trader ship and leave our solar system. We are prepared to use force to defend our interests, and our interests are best served by permitting the Traders deliver me and my mission team to our new colony.’
Steve repeated the message several times, but he received no response before he shared a long look with Captain Narindestat. The captain just shrugged, and now looking at the current course of the Illuria he commented for the benefit of the humans.
‘The Maveen are now certainly helping our cause and I have been able to reduce power on two of our sneak ships that were showing signs of drive failure. This will be something else for the crew to fix when we arrive at the colony. The presence of the missiles can only help us as the Barus have to cross their trajectory to perform an intercept on us. However I could do with additional information on the missiles themselves if possible.’
Ian Mitchin fielded the question as it related to his previous employment in the US air force, and in moments the Trader captain had made a series of conclusions after Ian eagerly answered his questions.
***
James Mudbury was walking around the edge of the clearing with Rachael to stretch his legs when the SAS sergeant walked up to them with the update he was half dreading. However his dread was unfounded as the trooper gave him a reassuring smile before he spoke.
‘James, apparently the last three ships have just arrived, and the gateway had almost immediately closed earlier than expected after several more Maveen ships had flown through. You will not be going back to Earth after all.’
James then hugged his sister and his fiancée with relief, with Rachael’s mother quietly smiling as she stood to one side in support of them. The attempt to take him and the three women back to Earth had been abandoned, even as they readied the helicopter and packed their two tents after the early torrential rain had stopped. The civilian helicopter pilot now walked up to James and gave him a warm handshake of congratulations before he gave a good natured instruction.
‘Okay we will help the army pack up and then I will fly all of you back to the main landing site. We should be back well before dark and I understand that the main camp will be very busy moving out west tomorrow.’
The five now relieved civilians helped the troopers pack their camp and within an hour the two helicopters were flying across the native bush of the colony on the long trip back to the landing site.
***
Chapter 14
Phoebe Roberts had taken her team by helicopters further out of the landing site south east towards a range of semi arid hills they had identified by UAV surveys. As they flew across the hills Phoebe decided that the day was starting out really well. Her sister Susan had been verified as being aboard HMAS Sydney, one the last three ships through, and in an amazing public relations coup the young family of the stranded sound man had also made it to the colony.
Phoebe looked at the terrain of the hills and made an assessment that the semi arid tag of the area was relative. The palms and other foliage present were certainly greener and larger than many semi arid parts of Australia back on Earth. In moments the pilot had put down the lead helicopter in a level clearing and several soldiers raced in pairs to setup a perimeter. Phoebe strode across to an interesting and very large palm tree at the edge of the clearings. She removed a knife from her belt before starting by habit her commentary to her research assistants, as she removed pieces of the palm tree.
‘This is an oil palm that is unusually large, appears to be common in this area and seems to be from an extinct genus once found in South East Asia. The fruits appear to be commercially acceptable, and if I can section it well, yes, appears to contain heavier plant oil than usually seen in oil palms. We should take samples for the industrial chemists before we move on.’
The team of biologists continued their work, and afterwards moved further into the palms and dense scrub as the oil palm samples were taken to the helicopters.
***
Will Ellis led another long range scouting mission, this time consisting mainly of geologists, with the three helicopters flying north east towards a persistent series of clouds that appeared to stay fixed on the horizon. The two meteorologists also invited were perplexed as they could see no mountain ranges around which the cloud could gather.
The three helicopters had landed near the top of a small hill in a clearing and the guards were deployed by habit. The geologists started sweating immediately as the area was very warm for some reason and they could here a roaring noise from over the ridge. Will led a team consisting of the meteorologists and geologists to the top of the ridge and they all quietly stopped and looked down the far side of the ridge in awe. He turned to another geologist, Mick Taupoe, and now shouted to make himself heard.
‘The whole valley as far as I can tell is one huge geothermal pocket and it must be something to do with the relative youth of the planet.’
Mick trained a set of binoculars down the valley and he waited until the geysers fell silent for a moment, before he replied in his distinctive kiwi accent.
‘The pocket extends all the way up the valley for many kilometres from what I can tell, and it dwarfs any geothermal spots back in New Zealand on Earth. We may have found ourselves an important source of energy.’
Will in the meantime had trained his binoculars around the surrounding hills and he spotted items of interest as he spoke again.
‘We will unship the magnetometer and fly a grid on those northern hills, as they are distinctly banded in red and grey and may hold iron ore. I also want the streams assayed below us for any alluvial metals.’
The geology team separated out into different working teams, always under guard from the watchful troopers, and they began to explore their latest location.
***
Troop Commander Gavin Lewis had been in several long distance radio conversations with other landin
g site commanders. He had highlighted the instructions that had been relayed across from the acting lieutenant governors offshore on the Aurora Discovery. The specifics of the three key instructions had been carefully thought out and Gavin appreciated the logic that went on to formulate the plans.
The first key instruction was to adhere absolutely to any instructions from the Maveen in minimizing damage to the colonies ecosystem. The second key instruction was that use of vehicles was heavily curtailed unless engaged in scouting or productive work as the fossil fuel situation could get very restrictive quickly. The third key instruction was that the differing landing sites could not move into enclaves based nationalities as the colonies were scattered across the broad western side of one continent that straddled the planet’s equator.
Gavin looked at the map as he remembered a conversation that he had been part of earlier this morning. The Russian and Chinese commanders were adamant that they would move their landing sites to rejoin their fellow countrymen several hundred kilometers away across thick bush and deep rivers. He had been very direct about his own plans to both Colonel Joseph Mendeleev and General Robert Chiang, and had experienced initial resistance as he had hammered away at a series of important points.
‘Joseph, Robert, you know that both of your two landing sites are now each at opposite ends of the continent and it would take years to drive roads the length of the west coast continent, even if we all started making roads tomorrow. Now we do not have enough fuel and resources to do make those roads and plant our first crops before the fuel status gets very interesting. Note most of the central landing sites have more fuel than either of you.’
Gavin had listened silently with diminishing interest as both men had ranted for several minutes before finally calming down, and he considered Colonel Mendeleev to be particularly upset. He knew that the best he could do was to supply information on how he and some of the other commanders were operating their own sites.