by Jeff Sims
Solear said, “Computer.”
…Alliance naval regulation 55.59.6 states that an out-of-system jump must end with the warship’s energy reservoir fully charged…
Normally this wouldn’t be an issue since every other out of system jump is at least 6 hours long. However, the distance from Opron to Trilon is only 2 hours in hyperspace. In charging minutes, they would use 80 to activate the drive and recharge 120 during the journey. Again, this wouldn’t be a problem if their cells were fully charged.
However, they had just made two 8-minute long micro jumps to get to this position and the cells hadn’t had time to recharge. Since they were at 33% capacity (80 minutes), they would use their entire charge and drop to 0% at the beginning of the trip. They would arrive two hours later in Trilon with a 50% (120 minutes) charge.
Solear really wanted to order Ella to jump. However, he counted to 10, slowly and properly this time, and tried to understand what was troubling him. He quickly realized that he wanted to jump primarily because Putat was telling him not to do so.
Solear sighed and said, “Nice catch Putat. Thank you for that observation. Let’s see, we will be able to gain 40 minutes of charge in hyperspace. Ella, when the reservoir shows a charge of 200 minutes or 83% of capacity, jump.”
Ella waited the 1 hour and 20 minutes for the reservoir to recharge and pressed the jump button. Exactly two hours later they arrived. Ella announced, “Exiting hyper…”
That was all that she managed to say before a blast violently threw her out of her seat. Ella stood up and noted that her shoulder was aching badly. Solear and Lexxi were also checking themselves for injuries. Clowy was lying unmoving on the deck. The fall had knocked her unconscious.
Putat was safely strapped into his chair. He raised his lips and nose into a holier than thou grin that was almost a sneer and said, “Alliance regulation requires that bridge personnel wear their safety straps when exiting hyperspace.”
Solear figured that he had exited hyperspace 1,000 times or more in the course of his military career. This was certainly the first time that particular regulation would have been helpful. Solear shouted, “Everyone, back at your stations, strap in, and perform a status check. What just happened?”
Just as he finished saying the word ‘happened’ they felt a secondary boom rumble throughout the ship. Every control panel had at least one red light flashing and one appeared to have all of them flashing. The individual reports came in rapid fire.
“Shields are down.”
“Main power off-line.”
“Propulsion unit is okay, but down due to lack of power.”
“The ion cannon is fully charged, but cannot be fired because main power is off-line.”
Solear shakily stood and said, “Come on everyone, make some sense of this!”
Lexxi was the first to put a cohesive sentence together. She said, “Captain, we were hit by an ion cannon blast at almost point blank range. The beam was very precisely aimed, was about 55% power, and focused at the main power generator.”
Ella followed with, “The shields hadn’t fully been restored from the hyperspace jump. The beam hit us when our shields were at 90% capacity. The shot blasted through our shields and tore a massive hole in the side of the ship. We cannot jump to hyperspace or even move for that matter. The blast made the ship come to a full stop.”
Putat added, “Both active and passive sensors are down.”
Lexxi said, “The aftershock that felt like a second explosion was actually from inside the ship. The emergency pressure sensor module failed to activate and none of the doors closed. There is no air on any deck outside the bridge.”
Putat said, “We are getting hailed.”
Solear said, “Put it on the main monitor. Computer, please translate it to Alliance basic.”
…Estimate translation at 99.4% accuracy…
…Alliance warship, you are in violation of section 42.4.6, sub-paragraphs 1 - 4 of the treaty. You have 5 minutes to comply or you will be destroyed…
Clowy had woken up by this time. She asked, “Do you think that was our final warning, or do you think they will give us more warnings like last time?”
It was, Solear thought, a typical Clowy question. He responded, “Let’s find out. Computer, send the following message in Alliance basic.”
Solear responded, “Hiriculan vessel. I am sorry, but we cannot comply. The ‘warning’ shot destroyed our power generator. The emergency protocols failed and all decks have lost air. We are now sealed inside the bridge. If you want us to surrender, you are going to have to come to our ship and literally pry us out of the bridge.”
The computer played the Hiriculan’s response.
…Alliance vessel Sunflower, we are sending HAS units to board your ship. If you resist, you will be destroyed…
Lexxi said, “Well Clowy, there was you answer. Apparently that was our last warning.”
Solear couldn’t believe what had just happened. The humans had trained so hard for any eventuality or possible situation and they all just died without doing even a single thing. He wondered how everything had just gone so horribly wrong.
He remembered Ben in engineering frantically training to cross-wire the main junction to allow it to accept secondary power. He recalled watching the humans race to pull the trunk line from the main power core to the secondary in less than 5 minutes. He still heard the marines’ voices telling him they would be ready when needed.
Putat said, “What an unusual end to such a strange mission.”
Ella replied, “Yes. The enemy ships must have been waiting for us. Correction, I don’t think they knew specifically that the Sunflower was coming, but they certainly seemed to know that an Alliance warship was going to enter Trilon from Opron.”
Lexxi said, “Yes. It appears that they have decided to shoot first and question us at a later date.”
Putat replied, “What about the humans? As soon as the Hiriculans board the ship they will discover that we had humans on our crew. I don’t think the concept that they are temporary Solarian citizens will fool the Hiriculans.”
Solear had a brief moment of panic. He had temporarily forgotten that he was specifically ordered to prevent the Hiriculans from discovering that humans were aboard. In an earlier battle, he had been prepared to blow up the humans’ fighters to ensure the secret was kept. Theoretically, he should order the ship to self-destruct. However, the loss of main power had stripped that decision from him. He couldn’t blow up the Sunflower if he tried.
Solear suddenly remembered something else. All of the humans he had seen in the corridors had been wearing their long sleeve skin suits and the protective boots. All of them had the gloves attached to one side of their forearms and had the neatly folded, inflatable helmet on their backs. Little help all the preparation provided them.
No! He refused to believe that they all died. They were prepared. Perhaps a handful survived long enough to secure their gloves and helmet and were still alive. Perhaps more. Solear broke from his reverie and said, “We have been in an unwinnable situation before and won. We cannot give up until the end.”
Ella, Lexxi, and even Clowy nodded in agreement. Putat remained unconvinced.
Solear continued, “Lexxi, is it possible to scan the ship? I really need to know if any of our crew still alive? Putat, try opening a communication channel with anyone still alive on this ship. Then, activate the passive scanners and tell me what is going on outside.”
Putat was the first to reply. He said, “Captain, neither the active or passive scanners work in the event of a main power loss.”
Solear said, “That was a direct order. Activate the control panel and perform a passive scan of the area.” Solear realized that he had raised his voice and turned a shade darker green. He forced himself to relax and sit back down in his chair.
Putat grinned knowingly and said, “By your command Captain.” He activated the control panel and waited for a moment. He was about to say somethin
g, but stopped when he started getting a passive scan. Instead he said, “Passive scan is active. I am displaying it on the main monitor.”
The scan showed that they were sitting beside two Hiriculan warships. There was a destroyer directly in front of them and a cruiser to their right. There were also two shuttles inbound. Solear briefly thought about that human female who had wired that strange looking car battery in the sensor’s junction box. He silently thanked her.
Solear said, “Computer, what is the estimated time of arrival for the shuttles?”
…Time now plus 3 minutes 38 seconds…
Solear said, “Computer, start a 5 minute countdown and display it on the secondary monitor. The warships won’t fire on us until the shuttles land and the HAS soldiers are killed.”
Lexxi responded, “I cannot scan the inside of the ship. Internal sensors are linked to main power and are off-line.”
Putat replied, “Captain, the internal communications are also off-line. We cannot communicate with anyone inside the ship.”
Clowy said, “Don’t worry, I’m on it.” Clowy used her communication pad to complete an emergency work order request to repair communications and forwarded it to maintenance.
Putat said, “Captain, can we return to the comment about HAS soldiers being killed. Who or even how is that going to occur, if you don’t mind the question too terribly.”
Solear said, “I believe that many of the humans survived the initial blast and the corresponding loss of air pressure. When the HAS units arrive, the humans soldiers will kill them.”
Clowy said, “What soldiers?”
Solear wasn’t entirely sure whether she meant ‘what human soldiers’ or ‘what Hiriculan soldiers’, so he let the comment pass without response.
He said, “Putat, we have specially trained human fighters called marines aboard. Or, at least we did. They have weapons and armor that is specifically designed to combat HAS units. If any of them survived, they will fight and kill the Hiriculans boarding our ship.”
Solear hoped that Putat would be satisfied with the response. He really didn’t want to try to explain how a human wearing a lightly armored suit and carrying a giant sword was going to defeat a squad of HAS units.
Ella announced, “The two shuttles have landed.”
Lexxi said, “The HAS units are registering on our passive scanners because they are sending a continuous status signal back to their ship. There are a total of 8 enemy soldiers.”
Putat replied, “A Hiriculan destroyer typically only has 6 HAS units aboard. Why do you think they sent eight?”
Solear said, “More than likely the other two are pilots or engineers.”
Solear looked at the countdown clock on the secondary monitor. It showed 4 minutes and 22 seconds. He mentally told the marines to be patient. If they killed the soldiers too quickly, the Hiriculans would be able to retaliate before power had been restored.
He tried to be patient, but kept staring at the clock as it slowly ticked off seconds. He was infuriated that he didn’t have any solid information concerning the status of his crew. However, he took small consolation in the fact that if the Hiriculans suddenly started dying, then he would know that at least some of the humans were still alive.
Solear said, “Ella, can you aim the ion cannon?”
Ella looked at him oddly, but said, “No. We would need main power.”
Solear said, “Run a quick simulation and see if we could hit the ship directly in front of us with the cannon.”
Ella tapped a few keys. She replied, “Captain, the ship is sitting at a dead stop directly in front of us with its shields lowered. We cannot miss at this distance. Also, the damage to the enemy ship would be catastrophic. But, we cannot fire.”
Solear said, “Keep the firing screen up and stay ready to fire at a moment’s notice.” He continued, “Lexxi, do the same for the missiles. Target the cruiser to our right and be prepared to manually fire when ordered.”
Putat said smugly, “When?”
Solear thought of several responses and even considered switching to Advranki for a choice phrase. However, Solear decided not to respond. He had already said that he thought some of the humans had survived. He didn’t need to repeat himself.
He willed himself to be patient as he watched the timer slowly index second by second. 4:51, 4:52, 4:53, 4:54, 4:55. Each second seemed like it lasted a minute. With each passing second he was becoming less sure of himself. Did the all the humans die? The suspense was really bothering him.
4:56, 4:57, 4:58. What is time really? The chief engineer said they could do it in 5 minutes, but what if took 6? What if it took 3 hours as the regulation stated. Should he admit that all of these orders were just a misguided refusal to admit defeat?
No.
At 4:59 Ella yelled, “Main power back on line, shields are scrolling up.”
Solear yelled, “Fire ion cannon!”
Ella pressed the button and the entire ship rocked as it generated a massive blast. The ion beam traveled only a few hundred kilometers and struck the unshielded destroyer. The effect was astounding. The blast tore the destroyer apart centimeter by centimeter in one tremendous light wave.
The blast contacted the destroyer for less than hundredth of a second, but that fraction of a second created a horrific result. There was nothing left of the destroyer. It didn’t blow up or even disintegrate. It merely ceased to exist. One moment there was a ship and the next there was not. All that was left was a cloud of rapidly expanding dust particles.
Lexxi announced, “Nine missile launchers show armed and ready to fire. The tenth launcher is completely destroyed.”
Solear was pleased that 9 launchers were still active. Based on the size of the gaping hole in the side of the ship, Solear had guessed that the entire bank of launchers would be down. He turned to Lexxi and said, “Rotate the ship on a 1 minute interval. Fire missiles on a least time intercept to the enemy cruiser. Continue firing until I say stop.”
Lexxi depressed the fire button and fired 5 offensive missiles. She waited 30 seconds and fired another 4 missiles. She repeated 30 seconds later with 5 missiles, then again 30 seconds later with another 4 missiles.
After the 5th time, Lexxi had to switch fingers because the one she was using was getting tired. She inspected it for damage and noted that if they lived, she would have to file the nail and repaint it. Fortunately, she only had to fire one additional time.
An offensive missile had a top speed of .23 light. It was launched at an initial velocity of .005 light and reached its top speed after 45 seconds. A missile had 120 seconds of burn time before it went ballistic.
The first volley of 5 missiles crossed the 4,000 kilometer distance separating the two ships in just under two seconds. They reached a final velocity of .015 light at impact. This distance was too short to aim or even have the missiles make a course correction. The best they could do was aim the missiles in the general vicinity of the cruiser.
As a result, the missiles impacted all along the enemy ship. This battle lacked the surgical precision of the fighter strike from their last battle. It appeared more like two heavyweight fighters punching each other wherever they could.
The distance was too short for defensive missiles to have any effect. The only protection either ship would have was defensive lasers, shields, and the heavily armored hull. The enemy cruiser clearly had an advantage in hull strength, but the Sunflower had an overwhelming advantage in missile fire rate.
In the first moment of the battle, the enemy ship fired 10 missiles and the Sunflower launched 5. Over the course of the next two minutes, the Sunflower was able to fire an additional 4 times, giving it a 23 to 10 missile advantage.
The enemy missiles connected with Sunflower. At this short distance, even a miss felt like a hit. The ship rocked as the first wave of 5 missiles hit it. Fortunately, the enemy cruiser also had to aim along the entire length of the Sunflower, so no area was hit more than once. Four seconds later the rem
aining 5 missiles impacted and again were scattered along the hull.
Ella announced, “The defensive lasers stopped 2 of the missiles. The 8 remaining missiles impacted all along the hull. Our shields are down, there are impact wounds all along the hull, there may be more structural damage, and the secondary power is spiking uncontrollably.”
Solear nodded in acknowledgement and said, “Keep firing.”
Putat took advantage of the momentary lull in conversation and said, “Captain, all 8 Hiriculan units are down. Their life-signs have been extinguished.”
At the two minute mark Ella announced, “The enemy’s shields are down across the entire ship. There are multiple areas exposed to space. They are leaking something from the main power generator.”
Solear was about to order the bombardment to cease just as Lexxi pressed the fire button for the 6th time at the 2:30 minute mark. The bridge crew watched as the final set of missiles exploded in the open areas and tore the ship into pieces. Their main power reactor suffered a massive chain reaction and violently exploded.
The enemy cruiser appeared to temporarily implode, then rapidly explode into a massive dust cloud. The force of the explosion rocked the Sunflower and pushed it nearly a 1,000 kilometers away from its current positon. Dust and small debris from the destroyed ship pelted the Sunflower’s hull, adding to the damage.
Lexxi said, “Are you happy now? I just broke nail.”
Solear was about to answer, but Clowy unfastened her restraints, grabbed her nail kit, and rushed over to Lexxi. She began by furiously removing the polish; then filed the nail down and rounded it even again.
She applied a base coat and placed Lexxi’s nail in a portable ultra-violet inductance system. The polish dried almost immediately. She then applied the final coat and repeated the ultra-violet light drying. Lexxi held her finger up for inspection.
Solear started to comment about the nail crisis being avoided, but Lexxi cut him off by saying, “Don’t talk to me right now!”
Solear instead said, “Computer, why did the cruiser so thoroughly explode?”