by Francis, Ron
Suzy smiled as she brought him his lunch. “Here you go, ordered from the best take-out place in the Royal City with the chef’s compliments.”
“Thanks,” he was hungry, even though he knew he would not be able to finish his lunch. He knew if it was half as good as it smelled it wouldn’t go to waste. "Hey, Suzy, can I ask you a question?” She nodded and he continued. “Why are you sequestered here on the ship? Why not go out and enjoy all that Hyperia has to offer. They love you here.”
“I just don’t want you to be alone,” she answered, but her eyes told a different story.
“What’s wrong, Suzy, I may be tired and sick but I’m not blind, what happened? Why are you afraid to leave the ship?”
“I’m not afraid to leave the ship,” she protested. She stopped as she realized he was right and told him all about what happened with Holt and how it had not only hurt her physically but now she couldn’t even bring herself to leave the ship without an escort. Jesse tried to comfort her, but she quickly tried to change the subject, so he let her, for now.
She still looked a little bit upset, so he added, “How about we just sit and talk for a while, not about me being sick, not about work, just talk, like we used to. I’d like that. I can get reports from everyone else when I wake up again later. Right now, I just want to talk to you.”
She smiled and patted his arm as she replied, “I’d really like that.” She was amazed that even in his condition he still cared about how she felt. She asked if he could see himself in a relationship with the Princess and he admitted that if he didn't have Kimi on his mind, he probably could. Maybe was more than he had ever thought possible when he first met the Princess. Suzy laughed at that, and then they talked about whatever came to mind until he drifted back off to sleep. She covered him with his blanket and walked to the other side of the med-bay. Maybe she could get Josiah to take her to a nice restaurant for dinner tonight.
______
Fleet Admiral Vantilas had just reported in, all battle groups were in position to launch a massive attack against Zenith. For the past several weeks, both sectors had been moving resources and troops, shoring up defenses and getting involved in border skirmishes. Hyperia had allowed all of this to take place while they were secretly planning a coordinated strike at Zenith that King Dominus hoped would end the war before it really even got started. As the King mulled over his plan, he received a transmission from Admiral Dyson.
“Admiral, it’s good to hear from you, I have not forgotten how you and your fleet saved my daughter. I’m on the line with Fleet Admiral Vantilas. Could I speak with you later?”
“I’ll be quick, Your Majesty,” she hated to break protocol, but the information she had just found out from Sergeant Rivada was too important to sit on. “I just received some valuable intelligence from sources loyal to Sergeant Rivada. If it checks out, Hyperia will need to know about it, Sire.”
The King was intrigued. “Please continue then, I’ll bring Vantilas in on it.”
“On the third moon of Tawoir is a huge Conglomerate shipyard currently building twenty-one destroyers. Intel suggests it has the capacity to build twenty-four simultaneously. It would serve your war effort very well to eliminate that target.”
“And you’re sure this information is accurate,” Vantilas asked, suddenly very interested in what she had to say.
“I believe it is, but that is not all. Further intel suggests massive fleet movements in the following twelve systems.” She sent the information to the screen and the King and Admiral looked it over.
“This is good to know, but what does it mean?” The King asked.
“I believe it means they are planning a massive strike on Hyperia. Each of these seven locations are within thirty-six hours of Hyperia. The other five locations are within five hours of Zenith, which means they are planning a defense against a large scale assault on their capital at the same time that they are planning to invade your capital. I know I am not privy to your battle plans, but it would seem to me that if enough ships are available to defend Hyperia while they think you are going to attack Zenith, you can take the shipyard and win two battles in one day. Then you begin taking out high value targets they cannot properly defend because the bulk of their remaining resources will be at Zenith.”
“She is correct, my King,” Vantilas agreed. “This shipyard is far bigger than anything we thought they had. Also, if we walk into a battle that big on Zenith while facing another battle of substantial size here on Hyperia, we will lose a large portion of our fleet resources and this becomes a very long war. Give me two days to check this information out, and if it is good, I say we go with Admiral Dyson's plan, Sire. We will still be within our window to go with our first plan if it does not check out.”
“Make it so, Admiral,” the King replied as the Admiral ended the transmission. He then looked at Admiral Dyson and said, “Once again I am in your debt, Admiral. Please, come by Hyperia soon."
"I will, Your Majesty, I am going to come by to see my daughter off in a couple of weeks. She has grown quite fond of Hyperia."
"You have raised an amazing daughter, Admiral, and Hyperia had grown quite fond of her as well. I must take my leave. I look forward to meeting you in person." The Admiral smiled as the transmission ended.
______
Admiral Vantilas had just received word that all of Admiral Dyson's information had been accurate. He excitedly commed the King to let him know, “My King, the information from Ginderbar was accurate; I believe we should enact the plan to destroy the shipyard and the fleet poised to attack Hyperia.”
“Excellent, please proceed, Admiral. Make sure that you and I are the only ones that know of our change of plans, though. Each battle group will receive a set of coded coordinates to jump to so there can be no opportunities for a spy to uncover our plans.”
“Very well, Your Majesty, it will be as you say. Admiral Vantilas, out.”
The Admiral excitedly prepared for battle. When the time came, he took half of the force he was going to use to attack Zenith and surprised the shipyard. Fifteen full battle groups, two hundred forty Hyperian vessels emerged at the Conglomerate shipyard to find it guarded by nearly ninety ships. Without warning, the Hyperian Valor opened up with all batteries and all of the other Hyperian vessels followed suit. Hard light of several colors shot out across hundreds of kilometers and splashed off Conglomerate shielding. The shielding didn’t hold out for long under the barrage and shields began to fail. With their fleet pinned against the moon of Tawoir and the shipyard, there was nowhere to go, so they had to fight what they knew was a losing battle. The Conglomerate destroyers launched all of their fighters only to be met by the Hyperian Predators. Hundreds of fighters collided in a furious light show. Fighters were blown into clouds of super-heated particles by other fighters that proceeded to fly head on through the cloud of their fallen opponent. Nearly finished destroyers were pounded into scrap because they did not yet have working shields or weapons. Gunships were vaporized by Hyperian Melee Cruisers and Conglomerate heavy cruisers tried to respond in kind. They were just too out-gunned. How had this happened? The military leadership was positive Hyperia didn’t even know of this base and that this attack was supposed to be happening on Zenith where a fleet large enough to crush the Hyperians waited. Their spy must have been compromised, which meant the attack on Hyperia was probably now in jeopardy as well. Thirty-one minutes after the battle began; the Conglomerate defense fleet was completely destroyed. Ninety ships and twenty-one destroyers under construction were gone just like that. Now the fleet surrounded the shipyard and completely destroyed it. Hyperia had lost only twenty-seven ships in the attack; it was a great victory for the Monarchy.
Admiral Vantilas sent a transmission to Hyperia to see how things were going there and the decision to have fifty battle groups defend it had turned out to be a wise one as thirty Conglomerate battle groups had attacked. If they had left only twenty groups there, they would have lost a great many shi
ps. The Conglomerate would never have been able to hold Hyperia had they won, but they could have done a great deal of damage. As it stood, Colonel Marcos’ suggestion to mount a dozen anti-ship plasma cannons on each of Hyperia’s three moons was yet another surprise the Conglomerate hadn’t planned for. Endeavor even took part in the opening stage of the battle, destroying a large portion of the Conglomerate fighters with some secret weapon it had on board. Four hundred eighty Conglomerate ships had attacked Hyperia and less than two hundred fled back to Zenith. Hyperia did lose eighty-three vessels, but that was a small price to pay to destroy more than two hundred eighty Conglomerate warships. Hyperia had achieved a great victory this day, and would now be free to destroy several important targets that were left insufficiently protected. Admiral Dyson's information and Colonel Marcos’ strategy had been able to give them a great advantage and save them from a long and costly conflict. Colonel Marcos helped orchestrate the defense from his hospital bed. He was starting to feel a little better, but nowhere near well enough to take part in the battle.
______
After another several days in bed, Jesse was getting restless. He decided to get up and go for a walk around the ship. Endeavor, it turned out, was too big for him to navigate his way completely around. He decided to stop and take a break in the landing bay when Suzy caught up to him with a hover chair ready. She put him in the chair as she began to lecture him about doing too much too soon. The lecture lasted all the way back to med-bay. "Seriously, Jess, you need to get some rest. If the infection returns, the Hyperian doctor said you'll die. Obviously, no one wants to see that happen," Suzy concluded.
After another five weeks in bed, Jesse finally felt like he was back to normal, he had just finished a ninety minute light workout as he began the process of regaining his strength and stamina. Just like with Reece, Suzy had the med-bots working his muscles so he wouldn’t have far to go when he did get out of bed. Unlike Reece, he had to wait for his body to give him all of his strength back. They had been back on Hyperia for almost three months and while his crew had been able to do quite a bit of exploration in the Sector, he hadn't seen any of it. He and Collin were also close to solving the FTL drive dilemma. As his strength increased, he had more time to devote to the problem. He was feeling pretty good, so he decided to go watch the training in the landing bay. Kimi was training Bessa right then, so he decided to take a break from the FTL drives and go watch them.
______
Kimi spun into a side kick that missed high. She then dropped to the ground and went for the leg sweep. Bessa jumped the leg sweep and went on the offensive, right hook, left jab, front kick and a roundhouse. Kimi blocked them all but was judging the form and the strength, and Bessa was getting better at both. The Qualoosh seemed to be both athletic and agile, traits which went well with martial arts. Jesse walked into the landing bay and pulled up a chair to watch the two women sparring. Kimi looked up and acknowledged him with a smile as Bessa landed a jab to her stomach. The punch took them both by surprise as Bessa broke into a huge grin.
"I cannot believe it, I finally got you. You always tell me never to get distracted, and you got distracted."
Kimi just smiled and responded with a straight face, “Now that I know how good you are, I’m going to have to be harder on you.”
Bessa momentarily looked apprehensive until Kimi added, “I’m really proud of you; you saw that your opponent was distracted and you struck, a good warrior always takes advantage of distractions. Now, if you wouldn't mind going to practice on the heavy bag while I talk to Jesse."
Bessa gave her a smile and made her way over to the heavy bag as Kimi turned to him and asked “How are you feeling?”
“I’m getting stronger every day. I’m almost back to full strength. I still have a ways to go on my stamina, though. This has been really tough on me, you know how much I hate being laid up and it's been the better part of three months. At least I can train again, but even that is going slow because I just wear out so quickly. I am finally going to be leaving the ship tomorrow," he added with a smile. "Suzy has a restaurant she really wants to go to and I can't wait to not have to stare at these walls."
"I am so glad you have recovered, Jesse," she smiled. "And I am glad that we are back to normal. I just want you to be careful and not do too much, too soon. You'll eventually get it all back, and I know you are not always the most patient man, but you need to be for this. Your health is too important.
"You're right, Kimi, and thanks. I think I'm going to head back to my quarters now; I don't want to wear myself out. Have fun training Bessa." He waved to Bessa, smiled at Kimi and left the landing bay.
“I will have fun," she replied. "Jesse, can you call up to Josiah to bring me an energy supplement, I skipped lunch today.”
“Sure, no problem,” He said as an idea hit him. “I gotta go, I think I’ve figured it out,” he yelled excitedly as he began to run out of the landing bay.
“What was that all about?” Bessa asked.
“I'm not sure, but I do not think he’s going to get me that energy supplement. Come on, enough for today, time to hit the showers.” Kimi smiled at seeing her friend back on his feet, once again wondering if the window she closed could ever be re-opened.
______
Cassie and Lenk left the spaceport by speeder and were on their way to meet with some of Chawanas’ most notable politicians. Adding Chawanas to their alliance would really be a boon because they were an unaligned alien race. That was important for a couple reasons. First, the human planets of the alliance wanted to make sure the entire galaxy knew they had no problems with other species. The second and more practical reason was that every alien planet that aligned with them wasn't aligned against them. To that end, Cassie and Lenk exited their speeder and made their way into the meeting hall. They were greeted by two politicians when suddenly, several Farannsian warriors attacked.
"What's going on, Councilor?" Cassie yelled as she and Lenk pulled the politicians to cover. The four guards assigned to the meeting were already out cold.
"I do not know," came the frightened reply.
"We are betrayed," Lenk stated as he took down two of the warriors.
"This is not gonna end well," Cassie surmised. "There's just too many of them." She took down her second warrior and then slumped over as she was hit."
"Captain Reed!" Lenk yelled as one of the politicians checked her pulse.
"She is alive, apparently, they are using stun weapons. Whoever their target is, they must want them alive."
"I'm not playing by those rules," Lenk replied as he took down two more warriors. Suddenly, a big Farannsian warrior came at him from behind. Lenk turned just in time to parry an overhand strike from a staff. He kicked the warrior in the midsection, which staggered him a bit, but as he pressed his advantage, the warrior hit him in the face with the staff. Lenk staggered, but refused to go down as he dispatched two more warriors that had joined the fight. He turned to face the big warrior and was greeted by another strike of the warrior’s staff. He fell, and seven or eight warriors began beating him until he was no longer conscious. The big warrior stepped forward and pinned a message to his chest as his men picked up Cassie's unconscious body.
The big warrior stepped over Lenk's body and approached the two politicians. He handed one of them an envelope and said, "Garrinoras thanks you for your service."
"Tell him it was our honor, Yartan," The politician replied. They all turned and walked away, leaving Lenk unconscious in the street.
Several minutes later, Wennagal and Sandstorm arrived on the scene because Cassie missed her check-in and saw Lenk's beaten and bloody body. As they gently secured him for transport, Wennagal read the note and whispered, "Oh no, Garrinoras has Cassie."
______
“Collin, I think I’ve got it. We’ve been stumped because we are trying to figure a way to fit the Conglomerate FTL drives into our FTL drive housing. We haven’t been able to make it work because we cannot
come up with a way to hook up the power. We don’t have anything compatible. We can hook the navigation computer up no problem, though. So, we build a free standing housing for the drive and wire it into navigation. The drive comes with a built-in cooling system, so we don’t have to worry about that either. That solves two of the three problems.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t address the biggest one,” Collin interrupted in frustration.
“That’s because we’re not going to address it.” Collin looked confused as Jesse continued. “You told me these drives can run off any power supply as long as it’s strong enough. How about if we hook it up to the power supply for the portable shield generator. That should be plenty powerful enough, and we have several of them.”
Collin hadn’t thought of that, it just might work. He broke into a smile and said, “Man, it’s good to have you back. It will still take some doing, but I think we can manage it.”
“I haven’t had time to work out any of the details, I’ve only just thought of it, but I think if we use a power coupling, we should be able to jury rig or build something pretty efficient.”
“Let’s do it,” Collin boomed as he excitedly made his way to storage to look for the coupling.
A couple hours later, they had the coupling hooked up to the power supply and they looked at the valve they needed to connect to and decided they still needed an adapter. But this would be an easy one to build, and the Science Center was still open to them. Jesse spent the better part of the next day drawing up the specifications they would need for the adapter, and when he had finished, he handed them to Collin.
“I can probably build this in a day or two. After we know it works, I’ll build several more just in case we need them. We don’t want to be stranded in the void between galaxies and not have use of our extra drives.”