Edward continued, “But we aren’t here to discuss politics. Today, we launch the first of a new Destroyer class. This is an indigenous design, most of it, built in Cambridge. These ships will bring us wealth, just as the Cobras and Taipans did. When FNS Harmon proves herself, I expect these ships to bring even more prosperity to our people while helping to secure the Federation against outside aggression.”
Everyone heard a dull rumble, and the floor shook, and many guests showed concern. Colin glanced in Stark’s direction to see his face glazed over, suggestive of implant Comms in progress. Seconds later, Stark smiled and nodded before walking to Colin.
Stark said, “The platform contained a bomb, Sir. We’d have carnage if we didn’t find and remove the explosives. The bay we’d left it in suffered minor damage.”
“By moving the explosive device, they kept everyone safe though. Tell me no one received injuries.”
“Nope, we locked the bay off and guarded it till we decided what to do. Their bomb must’ve been on a timer.”
Colin stepped up to the front of the audience and explained they shouldn’t let the rumble and shaking worry them. Henry shot Colin a quizzical look, then continued with the ceremony. Admiral Fraser handed Dimitri Molchaoff his orders to take command of FNS Harmon. The speeches by various politicians continued a while longer, then Teri christened the ship FNS Harmon. The great doors at the end of the slipway opened, and winches dragged FNS Harmon out into Space. During this time, the crew started each of the remaining reactors, one at a time.
After FNS Harmon was outside the bay, tugs grappled her and nudged her around to a Dock where they loaded supplies and completed final checks.
Maiden Voyage
Dimitri Molchaoff, the inaugural Captain of FNS Harmon, paced on his Bridge, eager to be underway. While impatient, Dimitri knew better than to hurry the crew. Ashly Cooper, Harmon’s XO suggested to Dimitri they should move to the Captain’s Ready-Room. Captain Molchaoff glanced at his XO then relented.
This Captain understood his XO’s intentions. Ashly wanted him off the Bridge. The crew needed peace to work. Dimitri nodded then moved to the Ready-Room, knowing they would discuss the upcoming cruise. They’d planned this journey to an extreme, but this was a new ship so checking the plans one more time wouldn’t hurt.
In the Ready-Room, Ashly asked, “Have you seen the Passive Sensor displays Captain?”
“I have Ash. Commodore Gordon’s pet Pirate designed our Sensor suite. What’s his name, Dave Bach?”
“Yes Sir, that is his name. You know, he saved our President’s life during the invasion. I have friends at the training-base. They tell me he’s an impressive young man. Mr. Bach is diligent and respectful. The only time he had trouble was when someone made inappropriate comments to his girlfriend. Even then, he didn’t start a brawl. He challenged two of them to the mats and beat the crap out of them with half the school watching.”
Dimitri said, “So he’s got street smarts too. Do you think we can recruit him for our crew?”
“I doubt it, Captain. He works for Commodore Gordon. The Commodore has built up a decent staff.”
“Ah yes, Commodore Gordon. An interesting man. I like him, he’s honest, brave and dedicated to Cambridge.”
“Yes Captain, he saved our bacon during the invasion.”
The door chime sounded as one of the Bridge crew reported they’d finished their checks. Dimitri smiled and pulled on his Captains mask, once again becoming the professional Captain, this team loved and respected.
With the Captain back in his command chair, the Bridge Officers waited for his first orders. He took his time, scanning the compartment to make sure everyone was ready.
When satisfied, Dimitri said, “Prepare to disengage from the Dock. Airlocks secure?”
“Airlocks closed and locked.”
“Disengage boarding tubes.”
“Boarding tubes disconnected and retracted.”
“Disconnect umbilicals.”
“Umbilicals disconnected Captain. FNS Harmon is under her own power and environmental management Sir.”
“Signal the Yard that we’re prepared to undock.”
Seconds later the return signal arrived.
“We’re cleared to undock Captain.”
“Unlock the docking clamps and retract.”
“Docking clamps released Captain. We’re floating free in Space Sir.”
“Okay, move us away from the Yard, lowest power setting, reaction thrusters only.”
The 1000-metre-long ship eased away from her birth on the shipyard’s docking arm. When she was ten kilometres from the Yard, the Helmsman engaged the primary drive on its lowest setting. FNS Harmon accelerated away from the Yard on her first heading.
They planned to test each function, one at a time. Early drive settings were to be low to make sure the drives performed as expected. After each test, technicians analyzed the data before proceeding to the next stage.
These procedures continued for the next five days as they built up to higher accelerations. Throughout the cruise, the expanded Engineering staff tested and measured thousands of parameters on dozens of systems. They checked environmental and life support, Sensors, weapons, the AI’s, navigation, helm, and propulsion multiple times. They experienced a few minor glitches with propulsion but nothing they could find. As with any test, you must try a high-power run. The Engineering staff worked through the data one last time before giving the Captain a go for the test.
Dimitri said, “Navigation, plot a course that will take us past the mines on Cana. Let’s increase the acceleration to maximum over an hour. Watch everything we can. Let’s see how this ship performs when she’s stressed.”
Navigation passed the data to the helm, and they began the build-up to the high-power run. Earlier runs hadn’t taken the drives past sixty percent of her design greatest acceleration, so they had to run her up to at least one hundred percent. When they reached the maximum, they intended to maintain it for an hour then ease off and head back to Cambridge to analyze the data they gathered during the voyage.
The ships acceleration eased up to sixty percent without a problem, so they took it to seventy percent. The ship still performed without issue, so they increased the drive to eighty percent. That’s when a loud bang reverberated throughout the ship. All but emergency lighting extinguished, artificial gravity failed, and air circulation cut out. Even instruments and displays on the Bridge went dark.
FNS Harmon coasted, dead in Space with no power. She’d suffered a cascading failure in the power systems.
FNS Harmon
When the ship lost power, pandemonium broke out on the Bridge.
Dimitri bellowed, “Quieten down, panic will not save us. We must stay calm. You are better, act like professionals. Someone, contact Engineering. Find out what happened.”
In Engineering, Claude Shar worked hard to discover the source of the problem. Because the ship had lost gravity, it took longer for his Engineering staff to work their way through the ship. The apparent cause of the power loss, a cascading failure in the power systems with a resulting total reactor shutdown. The Engineering team needed to find the cause of the failure before they tried to fix the ship.
Claude heard one of the portable communicators beeping and answered it. The Bridge team needed cause of the power loss. Claude had no way to answer yet. He reported that he was working on locating the reason. The Bridge Officer accepted the explanation, but Shar expected them to bother him again for information soon.
Because of the ship’s size, it took hours to find the problem. Somebody’s failure to follow the design compounded the issue. Several hours later, they found the blowout. The Yard took shortcuts and routed multiple Main power feeders through a single small compartment. One of the primary power feeders blew out and took the rest with it. The bad news was that they didn’t have enough materials to repair the ship well enough to bring primary propulsion back online.
Back in the Cambridge
Orbitals, Naval Operations monitored FNS Harmon’s progress and saw her disappear from Sensors. This caused much consternation because she was the most advanced warship the Federation possessed, and they couldn’t afford to lose her. They tried to contact her using the FTL Comms system without success. After dithering for thirty minutes, they dispatched a pair of Cobras to search along the last known track.
Shar considered their options. FNS Harmon hurtled through Space on a ballistic trajectory with no way to make it home in any meaningful time frame. Worse, even is Naval Operations dispatched a tug, Cambridge didn’t have one capable of matching speeds with FNS Harmon.
Claude needed to explain the available options to Captain Molchaoff and his senior staff. With no power, they only had the standalone Comms system. Chief Engineer Shar started the call.
When Dimitri came online, Claude said, “We’ve found the reason we lost power, Captain. Somebody didn’t follow the design Yard and routed the primary power feeds through a single small compartment. One blew out and took the others with it.”
The Captain was silent for a moment before he swore. After he calmed, he asked, “Options?”
“Yes Captain, none are ideal, but I have options. We can repair the power system enough to bring low power thrusters online. That will allow us to slow ourselves although it will take days to change our velocity enough. The ship can slow enough for a tug to catch the ship. We’ll bring a reactor back online so we can have lights and gravity. We must start power conservation measures because the repaired power feeders cannot handle a full load.”
“I understand, Claude. Do what you can. We need the Comms system online when possible but slowing us must take priority.”
“I’ll start my people working now, Sir.”
“Good, Claude, keep me informed of your progress.”
“Yes, Captain.”
The Cobras jumped to the last known location of FNS Harmon. The ship wasn’t there. They spent half an hour scanning local Space with active Sensors checking for nearby debris, then prepared to jump further ahead. The search lasted for over a day before they found FNS Harmon. She appeared intact but coasted along at 0.6c. They tried making contact without success, then contacted Operations to report they’d found FNS Harmon.
FNS Harmon’s crew were unaware had company. Even if they knew, they didn’t have a way to contact the ships that ran beside them. In Engineering, the staff isolated the damaged part of the power feeders and then run a parallel feeder around the damaged section.
The new feeder wasn’t heavy enough to power every ship systems, but it allowed them to communicate with the outside world and decelerate. FNS Harmon’s Engineers continued working on restoring power to critical parts of the ship.
Back at the planet Cambridge, crews loaded two tugs onto one of the two remaining Destroyers from the reserve fleet. The Destroyer could transport them to FNS Harmon’s location much faster than possible under their own power.
On FNS Harmon, the Engineers finished the by-pass and started one reactor to give the limited power they required. On the Bridge, Dimitri Molchaoff waited, radiating impatience.
Hours later, consoles lit up as the reactor came online. Claude Shar contacted Dimitri to explain the limitations. Dimitri understood the limitations, so he instructed his Helmsman on what to do and sat back to let his crew do their jobs.
This ship had Alcubierre drives to move it through Space and even maneuver, but during certain phases of flight, the helm used reaction thrusters. The reaction thrusters were all they had available for this job, so they used them to slow the ship.
The Cobras noticed the thrusters light up and reported this back to Operations. A short while later, the communications and sensor systems were available on FNS Harmon, so Dimitri reported their status. The report caused a mixture of relief and consternation back at the Yard.
Several days later, with FNS Harmon’s reaction mass exhausted, the Destroyer carrying the tugs caught up with them and unloaded its cargo. The tugs maneuvered into position, latched onto the ship and moved her back to the Yard.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
FIRST BLOOD
Cambridge Shipyard
When FNS Harmon returned to the Shipyard, Colin boarded her with David Salomon. Ashly Cooper kept his Captain occupied until Colin and David finished inspecting the damage. The mistakes embarrassed the Yard Foreman. By the time they completed the inspection. His workers hadn’t followed the design. This could’ve been a disaster. They might have lost the entire ship and crew.
Colin had a way of making his point. He didn’t yell at Salomon or his staff, but everyone knew without a doubt he was pissed. None who experienced Commodore Gordon’s ire ever wanted to repeat the experience. Yard staff entered FNS Harmon to undertake repairs made sure it was perfect. They rerouted the power feeders to follow the design and replaced the damaged sections. They had learned a valuable lesson here, and they knew it.
Elsewhere in the Shipyard, Colin stood on an observation platform watching as the workers added equipment to the second Harmon class Destroyer. After FNS Harmon’s problems, he took a more hands-on approach. The same people assembled this ship as FNS Harmon. They’d taken the same shortcuts and introduced the same weaknesses in both ships.
Colin said nothing to these workers. He went to the Yard Management complaining loudly. This produced an immediate and satisfying effect. Yard Management called the guilty where they had to endure the consequences of their actions. Yard Management sent them to repair the damage to FNS Harmon and told them to expect to stay on board during the next cruise.
They worked hard to make sure everything was perfect because being stranded on a dead ship was nobody’s idea of fun. Worse, they had to contend with both Commodore Gordon and Captain Molchaoff while there.
Now, Captain Dimitri Molchaoff strode along the passage toward his command. The failure in his ship’s power feeders left him in a foul mood. Although the repairs neared completion, his mood hadn’t improved. He was there now because Commodore Gordon had summoned him. To have someone, anyone summon him didn’t improve Dimitri’s mood one bit.
Dimitri arrived at FNS Harmon’s boarding tube to find Commodore Gordon waiting. Colin’s presence pulled Dimitri up short. Captain Molchaoff was angry enough to tear someone’s throat out but attacking this man was stupid with his security detachment nearby.
Colin said, “You’re looking pissed Dimitri. Let me assure you, I gave the people who built this ship a good reaming over your problems. They are adamant everything is correct now. I explained that if something happened to the ship and we’re lost with the crew, they’d enjoy the experience too. They’re coming with you, as am I.”
Colin’s statement blew the anger out like a candle flame in the wind. Dimitri stared at the Commodore for a minute before he burst out laughing. Colin had a way of conveying his point.
Dimitri said, “You’re coming on my ship?”
“Yes, Dimitri, I’m coming. I stayed clear last time because she’s yours. I worried about crowding you. This time, I’ll crowd the Techs. They won’t take any more shortcuts with me hovering over their shoulders.”
“How are these Techs taking being drafted?”
“They’re not too happy, but tough. It wouldn’t have happened if they’d done the job right the first time. I think the Management here is feeling the pain too.”
“Come, Colin, let’s go to my Ready-Room and discuss this further.”
Bridge, Star Queen
Hassha Vanso turned to his mate as she steered the Freighter toward Cambridge.
“We should be in orbit around Cambridge in two days Dima. We’re due downtime. Perhaps we can head planet side.”
“Ha, as if we’ll have time for this Hassha. Time is money, we must turn around as fast as possible. I pray we find a suitable cargo here.”
“I can dream, can’t I. What if we must wait to load our outgoing freight?”
“Still no time to disappear. What if they’ve loaded S
tar Queen, and she’s ready for departure?”
Hassha drew in a sharp breath. He watched the Star Queen’s Nav Sensors when two unidentified ships appeared forward and to either side of his Freighter.
Hassha exclaimed, “What’s this? Whose are those? They don’t look like the Patrol-Boats the humans have. Dima, prepare a message for the System Defence. Data burst only. Tell them we have unidentified suspicious ships nearby. They haven’t contacted us yet. Don’t send the message till I tell you.”
Hassha was considering what to do next when Star Queen bucked, and warning lights lit on the consoles.
Without thinking, he asked, “What was that?”
Dima replied, “How would I know? Whatever happened, we’re venting atmosphere from the port aft hold.”
The ship’s Comms unit lit up with an incoming message. The message was text only.
It read, “Shut down the engines now or die. Do not communicate with anyone. Unlock the forward starboard Air-Lock at once.”
Hassha paled as he said, “Dima, you must hide. I will send a distress message, but I need you safe. Shut down the engines then go. I’ll unlock the Air- Lock.”
“And what of my needs Hassha?”
Hassha sighed in exasperation as he replied, “Dima, don’t argue. I want the crew to hide, I will too.”
Dima opened her mouth to argue but realized her mate was right. She only made it harder for him by delaying. She left the helm running to her hiding place. With the Pirate activity over recent years, Freighter crews had prepared places where the hoped to stay undetected. Star Queen’s crew had arranged their own places to hide.
After Dima left, Hassha transmitted his message the unlocked the Air-Lock as ordered. Nobody would receive the message for hours, then whoever responded had to travel here. This wasn’t ideal for Star Queen, or the people on her.
Instructions completed, he turned to go to his own hiding spot. Hassha never made it from the Bridge. While Hassha focused on the message, the Pirates made a covert entry to the ship. Two Pirates charged onto the Bridge, knocking him to the floor.
Star Strike: Book 3 of the Star Man Series Page 22