by Chris Burton
Automated damage control quickly contained the fire, but it was too late for the Malchian Pilot. His final act to take out as many Alpha personnel and Jump ships as possible had been a success.
* * * *
The battle was over and it was time to pick up the pieces. The main hanger bay had been devastated by the Arrow’s incursion. All but one of the standing Jump Ships had been destroyed and three crew lost their lives. The internal bulkheads suffered remedial damage and the Jump Ship access tubes were all blocked. Jake Carter took a few moments to compose himself as he viewed the devastation. He stood over the apparently lifeless body of the ships CAG, Lieutenant Obeya Temsouri. The medic team had already arrived and begun to assess her. The lead medic carried out her scans and observations before standing up and directing the orderly to stretcher Obeya to the medical center.
“Will she make it?”
“That’s debatable. She has massive head trauma and internal bleeding. If we can get her back to the center, we can stabilize her and then decide whether to operate, or freeze her. To be honest, that is a big ‘if’.”
Jake stared in disbelief as the orderly assisted the automated stretcher as it exited the hanger bay, while the medical team continued their attendance to the other injured crew. The CO had asked him to assist Obeya out, in the absence of other CAG qualified staff. It now looked as if he was the only one left.
Part Three
Chapter Forty-Three
An Ordinary Morning
It was blisteringly hot, even for an early September morning and Thomas Roslyn was grateful for the climate control. He took a brief stroll, earlier, but with temperatures pushing ninety-five degrees; it was too hot for him. He wondered briefly whether the climate change conference scheduled for next week would still go ahead, before he was brought quickly back to reality, when Major Carla Stevenson was ushered in by his aide, Kate.
“Ah Major Stevenson. Please take a seat. I presume Kate is dealing with refreshments.”
He waited as Carla took the center of three easy chairs adjacent to his sofa. He found sitting in a more relaxed environment, was conducive to productive meetings and it also meant he could appreciate her beauty. He wondered briefly whether it was worth asking her for dinner once they completed their meeting, but thought better of it when she realized that he was staring at her.
“Right. Down to business. How are your discussions progressing with The Kryl Queen?”
“They are not really discussions, Mister President. The queen treats me as a friend rather than a confident. There is not really any useful information coming through at present and yet I spend quite a lot of time with her.”
“Is this friendship reciprocated?”
“No. Well, of course I give her the impression it is. She is lonely. Nobody ever comes to see her unless they want something or they are reporting to her.”
“Do you feel sorry for her?”
“Yes. I know that sounds wrong. She is the enemy. But she is vulnerable and to an extent exploited by the current Kronan. She does not like Safrec.”
“Isn’t he her chosen one?”
“No. She detests him but he feels this is his divine right. Ironically now that Navalion and Morvalt are dead, she has found comfort with a non-Kronan; a Malchian commander named Sorgan. He is not around though.”
“Do we know where he is?”
“As far as I can tell, he is digging around ,looking for the Alpha Fleet?”
“Ah…okay. Well, I think you need to find out more about him and Safrec too. It sounds as if there may be two Kryl competing for her. How much do you think she knows about Alpha’s plans?”
“She is convinced there is an Alpha fleet out there and that we are developing a weapon. But that is as far as it goes. She keeps asking me for more; but only halfheartedly. As I said before, she is no longer probing my mind.”
“Why would that be? It makes no sense she should stop…unless of course she no longer can. Do you think you have developed some kind of block against her probing?”
“Honestly, no. It could be she no longer cares. Ultimately it is the Kronan’s job to obtain such information. I guess it’s possible she no longer can…but that implies some kind of condition. Maybe, she is suffering from the Kryl cancer.”
Carla paused before adding, “I will have to explore further.”
“Yes, you should, Carla. May I call you Carla? You need to see just how much she does know and look beneath the issues with Safrec and Sorgan.”
Roslyn paused himself before continuing. “Perhaps next time we could meet in less formal surroundings. My villa in Lugano is a delightful retreat and I would welcome the opportunity to show you around.”
Carla looked slightly taken aback, by what was clearly an advance by the President. She was not going to get dragged down that hole.
“I would prefer to keep these meetings strictly professional Mister President. I have a lot on at the moment and taking time out for leisure activities is not really a priority at the moment.”
Roslyn smiled. The young Australian was as diplomatic as ever; but it was quite clear the message she was trying to send. “Okay, Carla, lets stick to here for the time being. We will meet again in two weeks at the same time. At least call me Tom, though. We have known each other for a while now.”
Carla stood up and shook Roslyn’s hand. Without further comment, she left the presidential office.
Kate Jones entered moments after Major Stevenson had left.
“The leader of the opposition is here to see you. He was quite insistent.”
Roslyn sighed. He was expecting this. “Okay. Show him in.”
Rohan Mikoslavic entered and sat himself down on the sofa. The anguished look on his face suggested he was not in the mood for pleasantries.
“Please take a seat, Rohan.” Roslyn said sarcastically.
“I think you know why I am here, Tom. We cannot allow the Kryl to interfere in our politics. The people are looking for a change.”
“That assertion is not mandated by the people. There has been no election and you cannot say with any certainty that I would lose if there was.”
“You would and you know it and you would not stand anyway. Your two terms are nearly up.”
“Precisely. My term will come to and end in less than a year and by then this matter with the Kryl could well be over. In the mean time, what choice do we have to comply with Safrec?”
“We have every choice. You have told us more than once, that this will soon be over, but you won’t or can’t explain why. I know there is a contingency fleet and that they are seeking a way to destroy the Kryl. That is the only reason why we should apparently hold out and why we and the people accepted the HSL list for one final time. This will not be repeated, Thomas.”
“I can’t tell you more than I have already told you. If I told you why, that would put you in a difficult position. It is better this way. If I am removed from office, the agreement will cease and the Kryl armada will come marching in. They will indiscriminately kill each and every one of us.”
“I am beginning to believe this may be an idle threat. If we are supposed to be their food source, then why would they kill us all in one go? I think the odds are too heavily stacked against us. The agreement needs to be renegotiated—by someone who will stand up to the Kronan.”
“What happens if you are wrong? Could you live with yourself if the vast majority of our population are savaged?”
“No, of course not. That is not what is going to happen. I asked to meet with Safrec personally.”
“Has he agreed?”
“Not as yet. I am sure he will.”
“Why? You have no value to him. He does not recognize your authority and you have no democratic right…as yet.”
“We anticipated this. We suggested t
o meet with one of his subordinates in the first instance and that of course our proposals would follow the spirit of the Kryl/Earth agreement. They have no reason not to agree to this.”
“You figure that once the door is opened, you can find a way to the top. That is not the way the Kryl work. They will reject you out of hand as an irrelevance. You should drop this Rohan, before you and you party are made to look stupid.”
“You are just trying to protect your position. You must have been delighted when Safrec told you he wants you to stay in power. You could stretch this well beyond your elected term.”
“That is not true!” Roslyn was shouting now. He did not need this insignificant man, trying to damage the situation.”Perhaps if I were to clarify why we have to maintain the status quo, you might back off.”
The leader of the opposition smiled. “Okay, this is what I came for…tell me.”
Roslyn chuckled to himself. Was Milosevic’s stance bravado or was he serious about meeting with the Kryl.”No Rohan. I have made the position as clear as I need to. Make your approaches to the Kronan. They will be fruitless. You would be better served with politicizing in the background and making plans for when you do come to power. I am sure it will happen some day. Unless there is nothing further…”
Milosevic was angry now. “Don’t brush me aside as an irrelevance Roslyn. You are hanging onto power and I will remove you; one way or another.”
He stood up and stormed towards the door and was just about to exit when Roslyn spoke calmly.”If you are willing to discuss this matter rationally and without losing your temper; I believe the time may actually be right for me to disclose why we should maintain the agreement and my status as President.”
Ten minutes later, Roslyn completed his explanation of what he knew. Milosevic listened intently, but said little.
“Okay, Tom. I can understand why you would want to withhold this information. I guess your point is that I should not now stand before the Kronan, just in case he manages to enter my mind and extract Alpha’s battle strategy. How can you be so sure he has not already obtained this from you?”
“I can’t—at least not with any certainty. I know that he was probing my mind and I passed out. But, sense he was trying to frighten me, rather than extract information. I am not sure I would be able to hold him off again.”
“How many other people know?”
“In this administration…no one else knows the finite details. Major Carla Stevenson—who is as you know the Kryl Queen’s Alpha confidant—knows the background; but the Queen has stopped probing her mind now.”
“Because, she already has everything she can get?”
“No. I don’t think so. Carla is clever. She has learned to close her mind to the Kryl’s advances. The truth is, there is now nothing else we can do, but hold off and wait for Alpha to prepare their weapons and then return to Earth. We just have to hope this is sooner rather than later.”
“And in the meantime we just maintain the status quo. You remain as president unchallenged and we continue to comply with the Earth/Kryl agreement?”
“Yes, we just have to hope that they get here soon.”
Chapter Forty-Four
The Pantheon Rises
The repairs took nearly twelve weeks, but at last The Pantheon was ready.
The damaged bulkheads had been ripped out and replaced with new supporting Alchium Ferrite beams which were mined and cast from the moons natural resources. A long and laborious process but there was no alternative. The old titanium alloy struts were damaged beyond repair. The new bulkheads were heavier in mass, but more flexible under strain. It was not a perfect solution, but with plating, shielding and internal structures all now back in place, the Pantheon was once again a fully operational Alpha Battle Cruiser.
Wesley Smith had advised his senior staff earlier this morning. They would launch at 1800 hours, but would carry out three days of intensive testing before setting out for the Styros Cluster. They would be late of course, but they could still make the party, whatever form that might take. He did still have some concerns. The Alchium Ferrite beams were technically able to take the strain of high velocity travel, but they were unproven. There were examples aplenty of various compound alloys which were deigned to be the next thing in spacecraft construction, only to fall at the last hurdle during high velocity stress testing. Hypothetically, yes, the Alchium beams should work; but what if they didn’t? The Pantheon could fall at the first hurdle and all this would have been for nothing.
Smiths thought process was interrupted by his new first officer and recently promoted Commander Higgins. Higgins was young and inexperienced, but the most able and best qualified of his compatriots, coming now from only limited resources. He also showed tenacity and was respected by his peers.
“All diagnostics confirmed. We are ready. We could launch early.”
“Can I see the diagnostic synopsis?”
Higgins pulled the report onto the desktop display and Smith spent the next few minutes studying the figures in silence.
“Okay, these are acceptable. We must be certain about stress tolerances, shield harmonics, and stellar drive polarity. Run a further suite of tests on these. Make sure we simulate both high velocity and battle conditions for all three. Also, we need verification on the state of readiness for the remaining Jump Ships, their pilots, weapons and plasma banks, the PBA, and the Teutonic missile bays. I know you have done this Philip, but we are going to be on our own out there. For all we know, the Kryl may still have a plan to finish us off. Let’s use the next two hours wisely, a few more hours won’t hurt us. We need to be certain.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Higgins left the ready room without further comment and Smith returned to his thought process. Twelve weeks marooned on a desert moon, light years from the nearest colonized star systems had been hard to endure and it would be good to finally get underway. He was left with a nagging feeling that the Styros Cluster was the wrong destination. Earth was much nearer and if an invasion was imminent…Earth would be the best place to be.
At 1800 hours precisely, the ground thrusters engaged and the one hundred thousand tonne Battle Cruiser was forced into the air. At two hundred meters, the thrusters moved from vertical to horizontal and the Pantheon moved forward and upward. Slowly at first but quickly gathering momentum, as it fought against the moons shallow but dense atmosphere. The storms had abated over the last few weeks allowing for a greater window of opportunity, but the take off and departure from the moons atmosphere was still a very significant challenge.
Finally she broke free from the clutches of the moon. The Pantheon released into free space under her own power for the first time in over three months. It felt good and the bridge crew briefly showed their appreciation.
Wesley Smith brought the crew back to reality.
“She feels heavy…and noisy. Before we celebrate too much, let’s remember we put this tin can together and not a refit team. Make our speed two hundred thousand kilometers per hour and run stress tests. Engineering…get someone down to the bulkheads. I don’t like these noises.”
“I think we have just got used to the quiet, Wesley.”
“Something isn’t right. Number One…do we have the stress test results yet.”
Commander Higgins just engaged his palmcorder.
“The figures aren’t looking as good as we might have hoped.”
“So, let’s have them. What’s the headline stress figure?”
“1.45.”
“At only two hundred thousand kilometers per hour?”
“Yes.”
Smith put his head to hand briefly before squeezing his nose, squinting and then sighing.”Then there is little point us activating the stellar drive. The beams will crack instantly. Okay. Helm…put us into high orbit around the desert moon. Let’s see
what the chief has to say.”
Half an hour later, the chief completed his assessment of the ships bow. The CO wouldn’t like what he found.
“There is a bubble in the left-hand supporting strut in each of these vectors. The Alchium Ferrite is super heating and then liquefying when significant strain is placed on each beam. The bubbles are created when they start to cool down.”
“So, the stress tolerance test is irrelevant. The actual mass of the beams dictates their cohesive properties. Will they take high velocity?”
The chief looked down at his schematics and shook his head. “SD1 or maybe 2. The danger is they could hollow out completely and then just fold in on themselves. The ship would just bend in half at too high a speed.”
“Why did we not spot this before we chose the Alchium Ferrite? Surely we assessed the chemical and physical properties…”
“Of course…but it is very difficult to simulate high temperature and pressure at the same time. As always there is a bit of guess work.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“We work within what we have got, by minimizing speed. There is no alternative in this region and it would take weeks again to mine and prepare new beams, even if we could find a replacement source.”
“Then we will have to change our intended destination.”
Wesley Smith opened a ship-wide comms.portal.
“This is Commander Smith. We are changing our course to Earth. We will complete our testing within forty-eight hours and then get under way. Thank you.”
The CO looked at his first officer and his Chief Engineer. Neither said anything and both realized their commander needed time to reflect further, leaving Smith on his own in the ready room.
We are not out of this by a long way, he thought. If we make it home it will be a miracle and who knows what we will find there.