by PP Corcoran
Again Wilson consulted her PAD. “He should be here by 18:00 hours today, sir.”
“Good. I’m anxious to hear how he is progressing. I pray that we never need Chrysaor, but we have no idea what’s out there.” Vadis paused as his thoughts wondered amongst the stars.
“With the Admiral’s permission?” Wilson interrupted, hinting at her wish to leave the office.
“Yes of course, Elizabeth.” Wilson left Vadis alone with his thoughts.
CHAPTER SEVEN
First Encounter
TDF Henry Hudson - Orbit Planet II of 70 Ophiuchi
John Radford looked at the unimposing planet suspended in the Holo cube. By his survey's reckoning it was one third water, two thirds land. Most of the landmass was desert wasteland, the planet orbiting just that little bit too close to its sun.
On arrival in the star system, John had held the Henry Hudson at maximum range while his crew searched for any possible signs of energy sources in the system and deployed the communications buoy and courier drone to inform Charon Base of their safe arrival. When no artificial energy sources were detected, John had instructed Danioni to plot a spiral course, gradually bringing the Henry Hudson in system to the only planet within, what humans could consider to be, the life bearing zone. If the Saiph had meddled with the DNA of an already indigenous species and if they had gone for a similar type of planet to Earth, then John was betting this was the place. John frowned as he stared into the Holo cube. Too many ifs for his liking.
“Penny for them, John?” John looked to his right and there stood Major Murray, his Marine Contingent Commander.
“Jesus, Alec! Are you sure you’re not part ninja?”
Alec grinned. “No, just very sneaky.”
Even with the tension John couldn’t help but grin back.
“So what do we have, Commander?” John asked his XO. Talbot was closely studying the information fed to him by the ship’s computer and the dedicated biosciences section.
“Well, now that we’re in orbit and able to use our active sensors...” On arrival at the star system, John had stuck rigidly to Standard Operating Procedure and hung out system using only passive sensors until a threat assessment was completed. Better to be safe than sorry where the safety of the ship, the crew and Earth was involved.
“... Our initial ideas are firming up nicely. What life there is, is mostly located around the dense tropical rain forests, around the equator of the planet. There are no obvious signs of civilisation of any kind, no detectable power sources, and no clusters of artificial structures. Nothing in the way of pollution in the atmosphere to indicate industrialisation or contamination. The air is thinner than on Earth, by some eleven per cent, but still capable of supporting life, which does appear to be thriving. I would suggest that our next step is to send a survey party to collect some plant and animal samples for analysis and to check for any evidence of Saiph influence.”
John considered for a moment, “Agreed, XO. Prepare a survey team, full biohazard gear. Alec, provide a protection detail. No need to take chances.”
Both men chorused “Aye aye, Captain,” and left the bridge.
John took one more look around the bridge and stood to leave, “Lieutenant Danino, you have the bridge.”
“Aye aye, sir. I have the bridge.”
John made his way towards his cabin, thinking to himself that he could do with a few hours’ sleep before listening to Murray and Talbot’s plans for their planetary landing.
When the Battle Stations alarm began its steady wail throughout the ship and the computers automated voice called “Battle Stations, all hands to Battle Stations.”
John turned and ran back towards the bridge, scattering crewmen with his shout of “Make a hole!” as they too ran for their stations.
Striding through the bridge hatch, a scene of organised chaos greeted John. His crew swiftly and efficiently brought the ship to full readiness. “Report, Mr Danino, if you please.” John said in his calmest voice.
Without turning, the young lieutenant replied, “Sir, a few moments ago active sensors detected a neutrino surge from a point just beyond the system’s Kuiper Belt, approximately thirty five AUs from our current location. As per your standing orders, I immediately sounded Battle Stations and have moved the ship into the shadow of the planet. There is now no direct line of sight between ourselves and the location of the neutrino surge.”
John was assimilating this information when the XO and Alec Murray arrived on the bridge. Alec had his sidearm strapped to his leg – a pulsed energy projectile infrared laser pulse-emitting pistol, which would create a rapidly expanding plasma on contact with the target. The resulting sound, shock and electromagnetic waves stun the target and cause pain and temporary paralysis.
“Expecting boarders, Alec?”
Alec looked at him incredulously, “better to be prepared.”
“I bet you were a great Boy Scout,” murmured Talbot before moving off to his console.
“Sir,” Lt. Falconer at Tactical called. “All departments report at Battle Stations, all plasma cannon and Laser Area Denial weapons are online. Marines report armed and standing by to repel boarders. Engine Room reports ready to fold on your order.”
John turned to the XO. “Anything more on what caused the neutrino surge, Bill?”
Talbot was staring at his display and trying to make sense of the masses of information displayed there. “Sir, it would appear that Lieutenant Danino’s initial reaction was correct. If I’m reading this data correctly, there is some sort of vessel at the spot where he detected the neutrino surge.” All talk and movement on the bridge stopped as Talbot turned to look at his captain before continuing. “The Saiph ship database has made a tentative identification of the ship as one of the enemy they were fighting.”
My God! John thought. They are still out here? But have they seen us? “XO, download all data to two of the drones and get them off. Make sure their initial flight path takes them away in the shadow of the planet and they fold before they come out of the shadow. I want at least three folds per drone before returning to Earth.”
Talbot nodded his head in understanding: John intended the drones to make multiple folds in case whoever was on the unknown vessel was able to track their initial flight path.
“Okay, people,” John addressed the bridge crew. “If this vessel does belong to the enemy of the Saiph, I see it as our first priority to alert the Admiralty to their existence, hence the drones. Second priority is to gather as much information as possible on this potential threat. To that end,” John turned to the navigator, “Navigator plot me a course away from the planet which will keep us in its shadow as long as possible, putting us above the elliptical plane. When we clear the planet’s shadow I want the ship rigged for silent running; I want us to be a hole in space. Understood?” John looked around the bridge and a series of nods from his officers greeted him. “Good, then let’s get to it people and let’s find out who’s out there!”
#
TDF Henry Hudson - 20 AUs above the Elliptical Plane of 70 Ophiuchi
Capt. John Radford sat at the head of the table in the small briefing room on board the TDF Henry Hudson. For the past five days, the Henry Hudson had been pretending to be a hole in space as it ever so slowly climbed above the elliptical plane of 70 Ophiuchi in an attempt to get a good look at the unknown vessel that had appeared in a burst of neutrinos near the system’s Kuiper Belt.
The past few days had been tense for the whole crew.
Had they been observed as they left the shadow of Planet II? Had the two message drones that John launched on their multi-fold flight to warn Earth been detected?
At least the passive sensors of the Henry Hudson had shown no obvious reaction by the unknown vessel to either the presence of his ship or the departing drones. So that was a good sign, wasn’t it? John looked around the table at the gathered heads of department and cleared his throat to get their attention.
“Okay, p
eople. What do we know? XO if you could bring us up to speed.”
“Yes, sir,” Cmdr. Talbot began. “It would appear that Bogey One, as we’re calling the unidentified ship, is making steady progress in system. Not moving swiftly and we are occasionally detecting strong electromagnetic activity. We suspect that this is some sort of detector sweep that appears to be concentrated on the elliptical plane rather than above it. We believe that our chameleon system is so far obscuring our existence from Bogey One. It has made no moves to intercept us after one of these sweeps. Either that or it’s not interested in us.” That elicited a smile from a few people gathered at the table. “According to Lieutenant Danino, Bogey One’s course should take it to Planet II. I agree that that appears to be its most likely destination, as you can see on the display.”
The Holo cube in the centre of the briefing table showed a schematic of the 70 Ophiuchi system with the tracks of the course of both the Henry Hudson and Bogey One.
“We have been able to gather quite a lot of useful information by using only our passive sensors. We would estimate the ship to be around seventeen hundred meters long and some four hundred meters at the beam, weighing in at around 220,000 tonnes.”
“That’s a big beast, bigger than anything Earth has built to date,” remarked Falconer.
“Correct, Lieutenant,” said John. “Please continue, XO.”
“Sir, one of the most interesting things, though, is that we believe we have discovered Bogey One’s source of propulsion.”
John sat up straighter at that one. “Really, XO?”
“Yes, sir. If the Chief Engineer would explain.” Talbot motioned toward Lt. Cmdr. George Taylor and sat down as the Henry Hudson’s chief engineer stood up.
“Ladies and gentlemen, without turning your poor command brains to mush…” That got a small laugh from the assembled bridge officers. The friendly, and sometimes not so friendly, rivalry between the command line officers and engineering and science officers was a well-known fact – had been since before man had entered space. It stretched back as far as the wet navies. From the view of the command line, they saw themselves as the decision makers while the engineers and scientists were there to make things work. On the other hand, the engineers and scientists saw the command line as, to be polite, stuffy, strutting marionettes who thought they ruled from Mount Olympus. Deep down, both lines knew that they could not do their jobs without the other to rely upon; so the friendly rivalry persisted and the work was done.
Once the laughter died down, the chief engineer continued. “Sir, it would appear that Bogey One is employing a form of Alcubierre Drive. By contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, this results in effective faster-than-light travel. That would explain the neutrino effect as they slowed to below the speed of light. I know that researchers at Haslett Research Station were seriously considering it before the discovery of the Gravity Drive but I don’t know how far they got. Whoever this Bogey One is, they seem to have perfected it. I would say that for travelling in system, as they are now, that the drive can also use the Mach Effect and be used as an impulse engine to move them around at sub-light speeds. What I find concerning is that that would give them a speed advantage at sub-light speeds over ourselves; but on the other hand, our Gravity Drive allows us almost instantaneous travel between the stars while they have to travel at some multiple of the speed of light to get between the stars.” John thought that one over for a minute before asking,
“So, Bogey One, in your opinion, would have a tactical speed advantage while we have a strategic one?”
“Yes, sir. That would be my take on it.”
“Okay thanks, Chief,” replied John. “XO, anything else?”
Again Talbot stood. “Yes, sir. Having had some time to think over what the Chief thinks propels Bogey One, it brings us to another tactical point – which I think will have a bearing on our future options. That of Bogey One’s power output and its threat envelope.”
John was beginning to see where the XO was going with this, the sort of power required for an Alcubierre Drive could also power a formidable weapons package. The Henry Hudson was severely out gunned.
“If I could ask Lieutenant Falconer to carry on the briefing, sir?” John nodded his assent and Falconer took the floor.
“Sir. This new information, as the XO has pointed out, certainly gives me pause to think, when I consider the sort of reach and strength of any power-generated weaponry that Bogey One may employ against us. I don’t think it would be much of a reach to say that they could defeat our ablative hull armour without a second thought and, as they out mass us by some fourteen to one, I’m willing to bet they can take a lot more hits than we can.”
John looked around as the faces around the table went very solemn as the realization of what they truly faced if it turned out Bogey One became aggressive towards them. John turned his attention back to Falconer as she continued.
“On the bright side though, sir, as the XO said, it would appear that our chameleon system is worth its weight in gold. I would advise, however, that we get no closer than our current distance to Bogey One. If they get a sniff of us and come looking, I can’t guarantee that we can avoid their sensors.”
Now that was food for thought. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Now, last, but by no means least, could you give us a quick supply run down, Alfred, please?”
The diminutive German stood up. “As of zero eight hundred this morning we have sufficient perishable supplies for another fifteen days of operations. At our current level. This would increase to twenty-two days if we employed rationing with immediate effect.” There was a general groan from around the table at the thought of reducing the fresh food and replacing it with ration packs, and worse still reducing showering time. Everyone loved a nice long hot shower.
Kessler continued as if he had not heard the complaints. “Our tactical ordinance is at full strength. No ordinance, to date, has been expended; our spares for critical systems are still at ninety per cent. This is no doubt due to the exceptional maintenance performed by the Chief’s crews rather than my own department’s foresight as to system requirements.” John cast a quick glance at the Chief who was doing a very good impression of a kettle about to boil. People forgot that Kessler had a very sarcastic side and for a mere Lieutenant to take the hand out of the ship’s third in command took some serious balls; but it still made John laugh. He could only imagine how the Chief would extract his revenge,
“Thank you, Lieutenant.” John looked around the table. “Thank you all for your hard work to date, and please pass that on to your various departments. I shan’t hold you back any longer. XO and Major Murray, join me in my quarters immediately after this. That is all.” All around the table echoed “Aye aye, sir,” as John stood and left, heading for his quarters.
John sat behind his desk with Talbot and Murray sat in the only two remaining seats in the cramped quarters. This was John’s inner circle. He had confidence in these two men and knew that they would give him good council. “Well, Bill. Options?”
Without a second thought Talbot said, “We break contact with Bogey One while we still remain undetected. Dog log through a couple of Folds to ensure that no one is tailing us, and head home with the information that whatever destroyed the Saiph is still out here. Albeit we have only seen one ship, we have no idea if he has any friends out there we don’t know about that could arrive right on top of us.”
John had had the same thoughts but wanted to explore his options. He looked over at his Marine CO. “Alec?”
Alec looked from John to Talbot and back again. “To give you a good balance, I think I’ll have to play Devil’s Advocate here. If we continue to shadow Bogey One in system we can confirm that their final destination in this system is in fact Planet II. It would also give us the opportunity to possibly observe their modus operandi when it comes to landing on planets and maybe even give us a visual of what they look like.” Alec looked at Talbot and could tell he did
not like the idea one bit, but Alec’s job here was to give his captain options, and that was what he was doing. There was a long pause as John weighed up both options.
Head home and tell them the news that the enemy of the Saiph still lived.
Stay and take the chance that the Henry Hudson would remain undetected and be able to give an invaluable insight into the operations of whomever Bogey One belonged to. Well, he supposed, this is why I get the centre seat. John made his decision and stood up. As he did, so did Talbot and Alec. “I don’t like it but for once I think I’ll have to go with the Devil’s alternative. The information that we could glean would be invaluable if we end up having to face these people in a slugging match. Bill?”
“Sir?”
“I want fifty per cent of the crew stood to at all times. We need to be ready to fight or flee at the drop of a hat. The remaining fifty per cent go on enforced rest. Tell the Chief no routine maintenance is to be carried out and tell Alfred to institute rationing forthwith.”
Talbot nodded his understanding. “Understood, Captain.”
“That goes for you too, Bill. Either you or I are in the centre seat every minute. Bogey One’s tactical speed advantage means we cannot afford any critical delay in making a command decision. If you see something developing, use your own judgment –– do not wait for my confirmation. You know I have complete faith in your judgment.”
“Thank you, sir,”
“Alec.”
“Sir?” replied the marine.
“Same goes for yourself. I want your marines armed and dangerous in every critical section, ready to fight or offer assistance as and when.”
Alec gave that smartarse grin of his. “At your command, my liege.”