First Admiral 01 First Admiral

by William J. Benning

  “What is the location of Officer Samarasa?” he interrogated the onboard ship’s computer.

  “Officer Samarasa is in her Living Quarters, First Admiral,” the harsh guttural computerised voice responded.

  Taken aback for a moment at having been addressed as First Admiral, Billy felt a momentary flush of pride. This was swiftly replaced by concern for the Garmaurian Officer who should have been regaling him with her sharp waspish words and barbs of wisdom.

  “Officer Samarasa!?” Billy yelled, slamming the flat of his hand against the hard metal door of the Living Quarters.

  Once again there was no response.

  “Status of Officer Samarasa?” Billy asked the computer from outside the door of the Living Quarters.

  “Officer Samarasa is now…” the computer responded, but was not allowed to finish the sentence, as the door of the darkened Living Quarters flew open.

  “Come in, pink-skin,” the unmistakable voice of Tega Samarasa croaked weakly from the gloom.

  Cautiously entering the private domain of the alien, Billy Caudwell crept quietly and respectfully into the Living Quarters. He was surprised to find that the room was really quite spacious, although the décor was not exactly what Billy would have chosen. There seemed to be a great deal of garishly coloured furniture, the function of which Billy could not quite fathom in the gloom. One such piece looked like a chair with a raised groove down the middle of the seat. Whilst another piece looked like a table, except it had three shelf-like trays built onto the main table top. Ignoring the strange alien furniture, Billy progressed through the gloom to the source of the weak voice.

  Cautiously, he approached the prone figure on the Med-Bed covered by a thin blue sheet of some translucent material. It was Tega Samarasa, breathing heavily and noisily, her chest heaving violently at the exertion of breathing and speaking.

  “Come here, pink-skin,” she croaked, stretching out a stocky three-fingered hand to him.

  Billy stretched out his own hand and was then hit with a faint, yet awful, stench from the corner of the room. The faint smell, acrid like burning pine resin mixed with sweat, assailed Billy’s nostrils for a few moments causing him to check his movement forwards.

  “Yes, pink-skin,” Samarasa croaked weakly “it is not pleasant,” she added, “that is the smell of death”.

  Deep in is brain, the part of him that was Teg Portan already knew that the life of Tega Digima Samarasa was drawing to its close. Yet, the human teenager that was Billy Caudwell had never seen a dead person before and, he was afraid of that moment when a living being ceased to be alive any more. The now-dead Teg Portan calmed the fears of the young inexperienced human, impressing upon his host the need to make the last moments of this brave warrior as calm, peaceful, and dignified as possible.

  So, gently, Billy Caudwell reached out his own hand and took the yellow-green, cold, clammy hand of the alien, and knelt down beside the Med-Bed. It was then that he noticed her face. It had been pale and blotchy, but her face was now a mask of light, almost ghostly, grey that indicated that her life could be measured in minutes rather than hours. Where before, there had been a sense of hostility and anger at his ineptitude, there now resided a mask of tiredness, exhaustion, and to a degree, serenity.

  “Good,” she croaked, her clammy fingers clasping around Billy’s palm, “I am glad I did not perish before you got here, pink-skin.”

  “Why? What is it you want?” Billy responded softly, his heart hammering in his chest.

  “I want you to promise me that you will do your very best to complete the mission,” she croaked, and began to cough.

  It was one of the great long wracking coughs that sounded deep and harsh from within her tortured lungs. Billy felt her fingers clench painfully around his own hand and he fought back an urge not to cry out with the pain.

  “I promise,” Billy whispered as the coughing died down.

  “No, young pink-skin!” she croaked, and half sat up grasping his hand tightly, “I want to hear you say that you will either complete the mission or die trying, that you will do everything in your power, that my efforts and all the Garmaurians were not wasted,” she lapsed into violent coughing again, her tortured body convulsing with the effort to clear fluid from her lungs.

  “Say it, pink-skin!” she croaked, when her spasms had ceased, a trickle of grey blue fluid issuing from the corner of her mouth.

  Alarmed at the sight, Billy fought back the instinct to run from the scene and hide in the deepest hole on Planet Earth he could find.

  “I promise you I will do everything in my power to complete this mission, Tega Samarasa,” he said softly to her, “if necessary, I shall die trying.”

  “Good, young pink-skin,” she sighed still holding tightly to his hand, “you have given me your promise. You are a creature of honour and integrity, and you can never break that promise and live in peace with yourself,” she smiled softly.

  As if releasing a great burden Tega Samarasa let her head fall back onto the Med-Bed.

  “It is good that you are here,” she croaked weakly, “I am so, so tired, pink-skin,” she let out a long sigh, her hand falling immediately limp in Billy’s grasp.

  Billy knew that it was over for Tega Samarasa, the last of her proud race. Silently, Billy gently let go of Samarasa’s lifeless hand, and laid it carefully against the side of her body. Then, just as carefully, despite his stomach being on the point of rebellion, he closed her staring lifeless eyes. Finally, he covered her body with the blue translucent sheet, and set the force shield around the Med-Bed to preserve her body.

  “What are your orders, Commander?” the harsh voice of the ship’s computer marked the death of Tega Digima Samarasa, and the accession of William Caudwell to the command of the vessel.

  “The Queen is dead, long live the King,” Billy thought.

  “Let the record show that Tega Digima Samarasa died bravely in the performance of her duty,” Billy ordered, a great wave of sadness passing over him.

  “So recorded,” the ship’s computer responded eerily and emptily, devoid of any emotion that Billy thought was right for this situation. However, the dispassionate voice also comforted Billy in that the machine would not be distracted by emotions and would follow his orders as it had Tega Samarasa’s.

  “Let the record also show that she was awarded the highest honour for courage and dedication to duty that Garmauria can confer,” Billy further ordered.

  “So awarded,” the computer responded.

  Billy walked slowly to the seats in the Control Room and sat down heavily. He was alone now, he realised. For a moment he almost panicked at the realisation of how vast the Universe, and the task he had been assigned, was, and also how insignificant that he as an individual had become. Then, as his mind forced down the feeling of panic, another realisation hit him. He had been given the most wonderful opportunity to see and do things he could barely dream of, and which, by rights, he should never have been able to, but now Fate had decreed otherwise.

  Billy Caudwell resolved to make the most of it.

  Chapter 22

  Less than a minute later, the Black Rose exited from the Trionic Web just outside the giant gas nebula that was Billy’s destination for the day.

  Like many other elements of Garmaurian technology, Billy, despite no formal schooling, understood how the Trion Drive of his vessel worked. He understood that the Trion was the fundamental particle of the universe, and, that, during what Earth scientists called the Big Bang, all of the matter of the universe was blasted away from the central point. He also understood that Trions were connected to one another by very strong bonds, and that it was these bonds that prevented the universe from tearing itself apart. Like elastic bands, these bonds stretched, acting like dampers to the energy of the Big Bang, and in several trillions of years’ time would start to snap back as the universe contracted again.

  Billy also knew that as the universe cooled and matter formed into stars, planets, gala
xies and black holes, the Trions in that particular area were influenced by forces such as gravity and started to resonate at subtly different frequencies. Thus, the Trionic Web swirled and eddied with currents and shifting frequencies like a deep ocean. This, Billy understood, was how Trion Drives worked. If a vessel could generate a Trion Field that resonated at a particular frequency, then, by a process known as Trionic Attraction, the vessel would be drawn into the Trionic Web to where other Trions resonated at exactly the same frequency. Knowledge of how Trions resonated at particular points in space made instantaneous travel possible to places such as this nebula.

  The expanse of gas and fine debris looked to Billy like a huge fluffy cloud that should have adorned a bright blue-skied sunny day back on earth. But, hidden deep inside this nebula was the military might that would help him to unite the species of the Universe in his Universal Alliance. This was the graveyard of the great Garmaurian battle fleets.

  There was no discernable shape to the nebula like the one that looked like a horse’s head. It appeared malevolent and threatening as it swirled and eddied from within. The dusky white shades being dotted and spiralled with darker grey and black patches. Had he been in any other vessel than the Black Rose, his sensors would have been warning him of lethally high radiation levels, unstable electrical storm activity, and pockets of highly explosive gases. This nebula was protected by a powerful Garmaurian Defence Shield. The Garmaurian civil war had been halted with a truce, and the remaining Garmaurians had elected to hide away their warships rather than let them fall into unknown hands. To this end, the former civil war enemies began to transport the vast fleets of war vessels to this place.

  Edging the Black Rose forwards, Billy Caudwell passed from the edge of interstellar space into the fine foggy mist of the nebula. With a gentle discernable eddy on the edges of the Black Rose, the mist parted. This allowed the explorer deeper and deeper access to the nebula and it’s hidden secrets. Within a few moments the first enormous shapes began to loom out of the fog of the nebula.

  Billy, wary of collision, watched his Tactical View Screen closely and set the Black Rose’s proximity alarm to the maximum level. As his eyes acclimatised to the misty environment, Billy began to discern shapes and colours.

  The Garmaurian Government vessels were light blue with black markings as Samarasa’s uniform had been. Whilst the rebel vessels were a very dark reddish brown with pale green, almost yellow, markings. There were lots of them. As far as his eye could see, the nebula was choked with Garmaurian war vessels. Row upon row and column upon column arranged by size, the vessels hung silently, brooding, and menacingly motionless in their misty mausoleum. Billy glanced swiftly at his scanners, which indicated there were over a million vessels hidden in this great cloud of gas and debris. This was the military legacy of Garmauria. These were their all-conquering fleets. Now, they stood before Billy Caudwell, running on basic care and maintenance systems. They lay in their slumber like half sleeping predators ready to fully awaken, and kill, at a moment’s notice.

  Approaching the nearest vessel, the Black Rose’s recognition sensor indicated that the large mass of warship looming up before him was a Garmaurian Government Star-Cruiser. To Billy, the plated body, sleek lines and reptilian nose made it look like a flattened armadillo. However, the pulsar-cannon turrets along the top of the hull looked like large tortoise shells. The sensor told him it carried a crew of just over three thousand, with two hundred single-seat Eagle fighters, twenty twin-seat Scout patrol and reconnaissance vessels and five Ranger longer-range patrol vessels. There was also accommodation for a further five thousand, which Billy read to mean soldiers for off-vessel operations.

  Circling round the great Star-Cruiser, Billy noted the launch bays, the numerous self defence pulsar-cannon turrets and the portholes that seemed to indicate the accommodation decks. This vessel had no name. The vessel was identified with the nominal C4776 for a Star-Cruiser in the Fourth fleet, flotilla 7, number 76. Still circling the massive vessel, Billy imagined the power and violence that this vessel entailed, and a small involuntary shudder ran down his spine. The schematics whirled past his eyes on the scanner View Screen to the right of his Main View Screen. They made little sense to Billy as he had not yet acquired the experience and ability to process and decipher the information as swiftly as a technically trained Garmaurian mind could.

  Moving onwards through the great, seemingly endless, ranks and files of similarly shaped Star-Cruiser vessels, Billy alighted upon vessels even larger, which his sensors told him were Fleet Carriers. Like Aircraft Carriers amongst the naval forces back on Earth, the Garmaurian Fleet Carriers were of a flat top design. Each was built with a large Control Tower, offset from the main deck, and two large tail fins set at right angles to the deck at the rear of the vessel. Whereas on Earth, the hulls of the aircraft carriers were sleek and sharp for ploughing through water, these vessels looked lumpen and clumsy.

  Below the flat top of the main deck, which was used to retrieve damaged vessels, the huge launch and repair bays stood like great metallic cubes offset against each other. They were set four cubes across and nine levels down the length of the enormous vessel. Almost forty thousand were required to crew this monster. They were monsters which carried fifteen hundred single-seat Eagle fighters, two hundred Scouts and twenty Rangers plus three Explorer vessels. Curious, Billy accessed the schematic database and drew up a three dimensional representation of an Explorer. To Billy, it looked like a flat sharp-edged wedge with swept back delta wings and two large tail fins on top of four large cylindrical engines set side by side.

  The Explorer carried a crew of almost two hundred, with twelve Eagles for defensive purposes, as well as one high-yield pulsar-cannon and two medium yield pulsar-cannons. The Explorer was, as the name suggested, the long-range scientific exploration vessel.

  It was packed with the most sophisticated scientific equipment available, which made them ideal for long-range scanning operations for battle fleets. The Explorer was fast, lightly armed, compared to other Garmaurian vessels, yet quite heavily shielded, and capable of stealth with a Trion drive.

  “This’ll be the Starship Enterprise, then,” Billy said quietly to himself, comparing the function and role of this Explorer with the fictional space vessel on the popular television science fiction programme.

  Of course, the real Explorer bore no resemblance at all to the fictitious TV vessel. He had watched the programme back on Earth, and knew the ever-victorious and heroic Captain, James Tiberius Kirk, would give his right arm, and more, to command one of these vessels. Smiling softly, and shaking his head at the thought of how fact was even more amazing than fiction, Billy moved the Black Rose even deeper into the nebula, past more and more Fleet Carriers until he came upon the largest vessels he had seen so far.

  The Star-Cruisers were big, and the Fleet Carriers enormous. The vessels that he looked at next were colossal. His Sensor Screen told him that these gigantic vessels were designated Star Destroyers, because they carried Trionic Cannons that could destroy entire planets and stars. Billy stared in trepidation, and some little fear, at the huge slab-sided killer that was flat and octagonal in shape, with deep, sharp chisel-shaped edges. Within the central decks, around the waist of the vessel, four of the planet-killing Trionic Cannons were lodged. The Government light-blue Star Destroyers looked fearsome enough. However, the rebel, dark brown, versions looked positively evil. With a crew of over one hundred thousand, the Star Destroyer was a travelling city. Plus, with a capacity complement of an additional one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, it could carry an entire army.

  Each Star Destroyer carried one thousand Eagles, sixty Scouts with a further hundred Rangers and two-dozen Explorers. It was, for all intents and purposes, a self-contained battle group in its own right. His mind was still unable to grasp the sheer dimensions of one of these vessels, despite the fact there were hundreds of them set out in front of him.

  If Billy were to succeed in the mis
sion, as he had promised Tega Samarasa, then this massive fleet would be the backbone of his strategy. Billy was sharply and acutely aware that he would have to recruit vast numbers of aliens to pilot and run these huge vessels.

  With Billy gently urging the Black Rose forward, the Defence Shield computer of the Government light-blue Star Destroyer silently interrogated the computer of the moving vessel. Being satisfied with the electronic response from the Black Rose, the huge Landing Bay doors, adjacent to the visitor, ground slowly open to the loud hum of the mechanism motors. At the same time the lighting and atmosphere systems were engaged in one small section of the great silent brooding Leviathan. Like a great monstrous sentinel opening a wary eye to view a small insignificant potential threat, Billy saw the solitary light blink on in the hundreds of square kilometres of darkened empty warship.

  The Black Rose responded to his commands, slowly and deliberately advancing into the Landing Bay. With a short sharp ‘buzz’, the Black Rose penetrated the Force Shield that was designed to keep the atmosphere inside the Star Destroyer’s Landing Bay intact. Setting the Black Rose down as gently as he could, Billy viewed the great cavernous Landing Bay with a more dispassionate eye. He had grown so used to environments of a titanic scale that he was becoming adapted to the sheer size of Garmaurian technology and engineering. The Landing Bay was immaculate. The vessels lined up neatly in rows, their canopies opened as if waiting for their pilots to dash from their Briefing Rooms. For Billy the whole Landing Bay seemed like a tomb. It was lifeless, empty and chillingly cold.

  The floors were spotlessly clean, thanks once again to the microscopic machines that constantly herded through the Landing Bay when the lights and atmosphere were shut down. The automated repair and maintenance systems kept all of the vital equipment at optimum condition. They were ready for the day when new operators would again make the Star Destroyers the most feared vessels in the universe. Climbing down from the Black Rose, Billy noticed just how perfectly set out everything was. It would have made a Garmaurian N.C.O. weep with delight to see everything laid out and ready for use with such military precision. Tools, scanners and probes were all lined up according to size and function on workbenches, clean and well tended. Walking round the Landing Bay Billy’s booted heels started throwing echoes round the cavernous light-grey interior. He cast his gaze over the sleek fighter craft set out in regimented precision across the hangar floor.