The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict

by Jeff Sims

  Solear couldn’t initially think of anyone he knew personally on the station that would hail them. He then realized who it must be and said “Clowy, please put the call on the main monitor.”

  Ella’s face instantly appeared on the monitor and she smiled broadly and screamed, “Guess who got assigned to pilot the Sunflower!”

  Solear answered, “Welcome back. We should be arriving within the hour.”

  Ella responded, “Yes. I am monitoring your progress. The rest of the fleet has arrived from Advranki Prime and are proceeding to the Opron hyperspace lane. Admiral Dolen gave me our orders.”

  Solear said, “Please forward them to me. What is the quick summary?”

  Ella replied, “Basically, the Sunflower is going to get some provisions and then join the rest of the fleet. It is my understanding that we are going to travel with the fleet to the final destination, then break-off and perform a solo, rear-guard reconnaissance mission.”

  Lexxi responded, “Another solo mission. Why does everyone hate us?”

  The statement appeared to be rhetorical, so Ella continued, “Also, I met our new communications officer. He is…interesting.” Ella had left a slight pause between the two words.

  Clowy responded, “Interesting?”

  Ella said, “His Alliance standard name is Putat and he is from the high district of Advranki 2. He recently graduated from officer’s school.”

  Solear asked, “When did he graduate?”

  Ella replied, “Yesterday. Well technically the day before we left Advranki Prime, so in real time 4 days ago. He finished first in his class in bylaw elucidation.”

  Both Lexxi and Solear were surprised when Clowy said, “Wow! He must be pretty good. That was one of my least favorite classes.”

  Solear really didn’t want to, but he found himself asking anyway, “Remind me what that class was again? It has been a few years since I attended officers school,”

  Clowy replied, “It is a class where you read something and then try to explain what it says. They force you to read really boring documents like an Alliance fleet cruiser’s user manual and operating instructions. You also have to read tedious things like Alliance regulations and the Hiriculan treaty.”

  They docked against the station and Solear ordered every human to go to his/her quarters. Once the computer verified all humans were accounted for, he activated the force field over every door. Now that the humans were safely locked away, he lowered the main hangar bay force field and also the smaller force field guarding the bridge.

  Maintenance personnel from the supply depot boarded the ship and started loading cargo and spare parts from the station into the far corner of main hangar bay floor. Finally, they placed 30 new fighters in the hangar bay.

  The fighters were parked so closely together that there was barely room to walk between them. The entire bay was full. These 30 fighters couldn’t be launched or they would destroy the other vessels beside them. They would either have to be transferred to another vessel or manually tossed out of the cruiser one at a time.

  Ella and Putat boarded and walked to the bridge. If Putat noted the force fields, he didn’t comment on them. Ella thought it better to withhold the presence of humans from him until they were underway. She knew the captain would be mad at her if their newest bridge officer refused to board.

  Ella gave everyone a hug and sat down at the pilot station. Solear said, “When you are able, set course for the Conron – Opron hyperspace lane at best possible speed.”

  Ella replied, “Yes Captain” and quickly starting calculating a route for a micro jump around the outskirts of the system. The task was complicated by the dust cloud remaining from the ‘accidental’ planet collision a few months earlier.

  Captain Solear watched as Putat walked right past him without speaking to him or anyone else on the bridge. Solear continued to watch him for the next few minutes. Putat sat down at the communication officer station and promptly entered his orders into the station. The computer acknowledged his credentials and unlocked the terminal.

  Putat then reviewed any standing orders for the communication officer. He next reviewed the recent mission logs and all of the open maintenance orders. . Putat was doing exactly what the Advranki military had trained him to do. Enter the area without disturbing others and perform one’s duties.

  Solear became slightly upset, or perhaps peeved, by the perceived slight. Although Putat had done nothing wrong, Solear expected Putat to at least acknowledge him at some point. He realized that he actually liked his crew members to say hello as they entered.

  Solear thought that in that aspect the humans were spoiling him. Having everyone in the area stop what they were doing when he entered the room and focus solely on him was a little unnerving, but at the very least they acknowledged him. Solear decided to give it some thought. There had to be a happy medium that all races could follow.

  Solear’s silent rant was interrupted by Putat. Putat said, “Captain, I was reviewing the communication and daily logs. They appear to be filed in a haphazard manner. According to navy regulation they are supposed to be filed by date and time. Your logs appeared to be filed by mood and hair style.”

  Clowy said, “Yes. I filed them by how I was feeling at the time and whether I was having a bad hair day. The logs are faster to find that way.”

  Putat responded, “That is the silliest…”

  Solear interrupted him by saying, “Putat, remember your diversity training. If Clowy had a more efficient method for filing logs, then you should respect that.”

  Putat said, “But, it is against regulation.”

  Solear said, “Well, you are communications officer and the logs are your responsibility. If they do not meet regulation, I suggest that you organize them properly.”

  Putat said, “Yes Captain.” He seemed hesitant to continue. Apparently he didn’t like getting an assignment. Finally, he continued, “In another issue, I was reviewing the maintenance logs. There are multiple irregularities, including unorthodox training simulations, extra people, and unusual wiring upgrades.”

  Solear replied, “Yes. I am aware of several of them. Not to worry.”

  Putat continued, “Further, the Conron Naval Supply Depot just loaded a huge batch of unnecessary equipment and spare parts onto the ship. We are grossly over operating budget. I will be forced to fill out an F-1000 deviation form and give a full accounting of the reason for the financial deviation.”

  Lexxi said in a rather sarcastic manner, “Wow, you are going to fill out an F-1000 deviation form on your first day on the job. You’re my hero.”

  Putat ignored the comment. He continued looking at Solear and said, “I request permission to personally investigate. Also, I note that the bridge has been sealed. This also is not standard operating procedure.”

  Solear thought for a moment and said, “Putat, permission to investigate is granted. However, before you go, run a scan on the crewmembers.”

  Putat tickled a few keys and said, “That’s odd. The crew is all the same species, but they don’t fit the Advranki profile; or Altian for that matter. Are they Solarians?”

  This comment made the 3 females start giggling and Ella said, “Not again.”

  Solear answered, “No.”

  Putat focused on a couple of scans. He said, “This particular being is 184 cm (6’1”) tall. So is this one. And a third is taller. Captain, I don’t understand, why are the scans showing giant beings?”

  Solear remarked, “I thought you were an expert at reading information and making informed conclusions. What does the data tell you?”

  Clowy must have finally understood the question because she said, “Oh. I know this one. The crew members are all humans.” She smiled broadly; clearly proud of herself.

  Solear glanced at her in disbelief for a brief moment and said, “Clowy is correct. There are 70 living, breathing humans on the other side of that bridge door.”

  Putat opened his mouth to ask a question and just
stood there. Eventually he asked, “So, humans are real. I had my doubts. What is keeping the humans from entering the bridge and eating us?”

  Solear responded, “There is a force field surrounding every main door on the ship, including the bridge. As you already noted, the bridge door has been sealed for battle. We tend to leave it sealed.”

  Lexxi said, “Even without the force field, it would take the humans a month to break through the triple hull plating and get into bridge.”

  Solear thought it sounded like Lexxi was trying to assure herself more than Putat. However, he was thankful for the back-up. Solear said, “These humans were tested and were specially selected. I am almost certain that they will not eat us.”

  Solear continued, “In addition, there are sleeping gas canisters located throughout the ship. If you find yourself caught, you can put them to sleep.” Solear showed Putat how to load the application on the communication pad and also showed him how to record his voice command for computer activation.

  Putat completed the task, then reviewed a regulation. When he found the section he was looking for, he said, “Having humans on board is clearly against fleet regulations. The regulation basically states that only races that join the Alliance are allowed to volunteer for naval service.” He turned his lips up in a snarky smile to show that he had won an argument.”

  Solear said, “They received temporary visas from the Solarian government as refugees or something. They technically volunteered as Solarian citizens.”

  Putat frowned and replied, “That sounds like a loophole. Returning to the work orders and maintenance. What should we do about it?”

  Solear said, “I’ve found that letting the humans do whatever they want seems to be the best course of action. However, in this case I agree that investigation is required. The humans have never accosted me, so I will go. Would you like to join me?”

  Putat declined. Walking around a ship filled with humans did not seem like a solid career move to him.

  Solear gave the command to unlock the bridge. He waited as the huge, curved door unlocked and slowly rotated on its hinges toward him. The door then slid smoothly and silently along the inside of the bridge wall until doorway was revealed. Solear then deactivated the force field and walked down the empty caribou corridor to the hangar bay.

  Solear saw a flurry of activity as what appeared to be all of the humans were scrambling to move equipment from the bay to apparently any open corner that could be used as a storage location.

  Solear spotted Colin standing with a clipboard next to one of the larger piles of equipment. He made it 80% of the way there before being spotted and saluted. After acknowledging, Solear approached and verified that it was indeed Colin.

  Solear said, “I briefly reviewed the manifest. We seem to have taken an inordinate amount of supplies and spare parts. Believe it or not, our ship’s spare parts inventory is now way over budget. We are going to have to file a deviation form explaining why we need what appears to be a spare of everything.”

  Colin didn’t answer immediately. He paused to direct several humans to take a rather large item below deck.

  Solear took the pause to continue, “I am especially concerned with the fighters. I understand the need for the extra 20, because the second set of fighters and pilots are transferring to a different ship when we arrive in Opron. However, I don’t understand why we need 10 additional fighters.”

  Colin turned to the captain and waved his hands expansively. He said, “Captain, unfortunately the answer to the additional fighters and the spare parts question is the same. You have a good crew here, but we don’t really understand how anything works. If something breaks, we can’t fix it. All that we can really do is replace bad components with good ones.

  Solear said, “And the fighters?”

  Colin replied, “Especially the fighters. I mean, we can understand the manual and can in many cases diagnose what is wrong, but in the end if a fighter returns heavily damaged we will more than likely have to replace it.”

  Solear returned to the bridge and locked it again. Solear explained to Putat the reason for the extra inventory and spare parts. Putat replied, “Perhaps we can say the reason for the deviation is inexperienced crew.”

  Ella interrupted the conversation to say, “We have reached the Conron – Opron hyperspace lane and have received clearance and coordinates from traffic control. The coordinates have been verified.”

  Solear said, “Jump” and the Sunflower began the 8 hour journey to Opron.

  Chapter 13

  “Admiral Dolen,” said the Admiral’s chief of staff.

  Dolen replied, “Yes Chief.”

  The chief’s name was Olkonaviolali Olkonaviolali. It was rather uncommon for Advranki to have the same first and last name, but for some reason the practice was popular at the satellite where he was raised. The Alliance basic combination for his name was Olova, but he hated the sound of it. As a result, everyone simply called him Chief.

  Chief: “Admiral, all ships have successfully made the hyperspace jump to Opron. I am now receiving the initial passive scan of the system.

  “Anything of interest?” asked Dolen.

  Chief: “No. The scan shows the Opron system is completely clear. There are no Alliance or Hiriculan vessels of any make or model in the system. I am giving the order to redeploy the pilots now.”

  Dolen: “Give me the quick summary.”

  Chief: “As you know, at the moment the fleet consists of 2 battleships, 4 destroyers, and 10 cruisers. We also have one repair / supply vessel; bringing the total number of ships in the fleet to 17. However, the cruiser Sunflower is going to proceed independently to Trilon and the cruiser Sentinel is going to remain in Opron as a rearguard.”

  Dolen: “Yes, yes, I know. I meant give me the summary about the fighters.”

  Dolen and Olova were standing on the upper bridge aboard the flag battleship Guardian. A battleship bridge has 5 levels. Like a cruiser or a destroyer, the first 4 are the same – equipment room, officers’ quarters, main bridge and captain’s quarters / conference room. The fifth, or upper level on a battleship is reserved for admiralty.

  This level consists of the admiral’s quarters, quarters for his 3 staff members, a galley, a small conference room, and a secondary bridge. This bridge could be used to pilot the battleship in an emergency, but its primary purpose was to gather information and communicate with the other ships.

  Olova displayed the configuration and current location of the 17 ships on the main monitor. He circled three ships on the plot and said, “Each cruiser currently has 20 pilots aboard. The three exceptions are the Sunflower which currently has 40 pilots and the Dandelion and the Vigilance which currently have no pilots.”

  Chief continued, “The plan is to transfer all 40 pilots from the Sunflower, 20 permanently to the Dandelion and 20 temporarily to the Vigilance.”

  Dolen asked, “Okay, I understand why the Dandelion doesn’t have any fighters. Why doesn’t the Vigilance have any?”

  Chief: “I really don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. The cruiser should have a fighter wing, but does not. Computer, do you know why the Vigilance is sans fighters?”

  …Accessing, One of the pilots was sick, so the entire fighter wing stayed behind. It was decided by fleet headquarters that group unity and harmony was more important than simply reassigning one pilot as a temporary replacement…

  Chief: “Besides, it really doesn’t matter. The Sunflower doesn’t need any fighters. They are going to jump to Trilon, perform a scan, then jump back to Opron. They have the same battle plan regardless of what they find.”

  Olova sent the commands to the various ships. He said, “We are now beginning transfer. It should take approximately 2 hours to get every fighter safely stored on the correct ship. The first fighter should be tossed out of the Sunflower in 20 minutes”

  Dolen appeared lost in thought for a moment and suddenly asked in a screaming, panicked voice, “Sunflower?”


  Chief replied, “Yes. They are currently carrying 40 fighters. The extra fighters are sitting on the main hangar floor. They will literally have to toss them overboard before engaging the fighters’ engines. Otherwise, the thrust will incinerate the ships remaining on the hangar floor.”

  Dolen waved his hand impatiently and said, “I understand. I meant, why is that ship part of the fleet? I seem to recall that it was on a special mission in Waylon or something.”

  Chief: “When you returned from the briefing with the Alliance Senators, you stated that the Sunflower should be an integral part of this mission. That was the only ship that you mentioned by name. I sent the recall notice to the cruiser the moment you mentioned it. Why, is it relevant?”

  Dolen: “Yes it is. I remember now. Senator Frank specifically mentioned that I should use that ship for the independent search of Trilon.”

  Admiral Dolen remembered exactly who or rather what the pilots from the Sunflower were - humans. He briefly wondered if Senator Frank had intentionally made the request just so he could see Dolen fail. Dolen didn’t picture Senator Frank as evil or underhanded. Perhaps they were just victims of some cosmic irony.

  The existence of humans in the Alliance Navy was still technically a secret. Only Captain Solear of the Sunflower and Captain Arean of the Dandelion and their crews were authorized to know that human pilots even existed. Even his chief of staff was unaware that Sunflower’s pilots were humans.

  Therefore, he would be violating orders if he allowed the human pilots to land on the Vigilance. Plus, there would be a revolt or at a minimum a panic when the humans crawled out of their cockpits and said hello to an unsuspecting crew. He could imagine the chaos that would ensue. It could even threaten the mission.

  Dolen realized that he would now have to pick between two very bad options. If he used the human pilots, he would be violating a standing order. More importantly though, the entire fleet would know that humans existed and were serving in the Alliance Navy.

  Further, the Hiriculans would discover the secret if any of the human fighters were killed. The Alliance would be caught in a lie and any positive bargaining power they had obtained from the Hiriculan transgression at the Spindle Station would quickly be lost. However, if he didn’t use the humans, they would lose their overwhelming fighter advantage.