by Andrew Beery
"Cal, I need you to interface with the Bowman's AI. Can you do that?"
"Affirmative."
"Get a message to sickbay... We need a team up here ASAP. Also coordinate with engineering... We need to get power back. Half the bridge systems are out, and I'm blind."
Suddenly every system that was not physically damaged came back online.
"That was fast" Cat commented.
"I have rerouted connections through multiple secondary systems to supply sensor data and minimal power."
"Cal can you give me a status?"
"The enemy's beam weapon penetrated the hull and depressurized 27% of the ship. Eleven crewmen are confirmed dead. The main power conduits absorbed some of energy of the beam weapon and as a result many were overloaded. Hyper drive is offline, rail guns are offline, active shielding is offline, and life support is functioning well below safe levels. CO2 poisoning will become an issue for most of the crew within the next 36 hours."
"What's the status of the other ship?"
"The D'lralu vessel is still scanning for us. I estimate it will locate us in another 10 to 20 minutes. After that, it will take him just under four hours to reach us."
"So we have something on the order of four hours to figure this mess out" Cat commented dryly.
Cat turned as she heard noises at the door to the bridge. It was then that she noticed her uniform was severely torn and burned along the complete length of her left leg and yet the skin below appeared completely fine. "Was I hurt and didn't even know it?" she thought.
The door to the bridge opened. Ken Kimbridge was holding what looked to be the 22nd century equivalent of a crowbar in both his hands as he poked his head through the partially opened airtight door. "It looks clear doctor"
Dr. Riley pushed past the engineer and immediately made his way to Lt. Cortez.
"Any word on the captain?" Cat asked Lt. Commander Kirkland as he entered the ruined bridge.
His look was grim as he gave her a hesitant shake of his head. "The blast sucked him out of the bridge. He didn't have a chance once the airtight doors closed. It only took the automated worker drones a few minutes to patch the hull and begin repressurizing but he was asphyxiated and flash frozen in those few moments."
Cat bowed her head and said a prayer for her friend and captain. He had not been able to fully trust her yet because of her alien heritage but he had wanted to. She was sure they would have eventually become best of friends. Stiffening her shoulders she recognized she now had a job to do.
"Cal says we lost eleven total. How is engineering?"
"Fine, we were lucky" Ken said. "Environmental was hit pretty hard though. They lost the entire shift... All nine crewmen were sucked out the breach... Captain"
Cat froze as the Chief Engineer addressed her as captain. She wanted to correct him but she knew that what the Bowman desperately needed in addition to a full month in a shipyard was in fact a captain.
"Cal, put me on ship wide intercoms"
"Acknowledged" the synthetic male voice of her AI responded. She noted that Cal had started using the bridge intercoms so that everyone could hear his responses.
"Attention crew, this is First Officer Catherine Kimbridge. The Bowman took a direct hit in an unprovoked attack by the alien race we know as the D'lralu. We escaped but not before losing eleven of our comrades... Including Captain Ramchandani. Effective immediately I am assuming command of the Bowman. Also effective immediately I am appointing Lt. Commander Ken Kirkland as acting First Officer. He will wear two hats as Chief of Engineering for the duration.
We were hit hard. We have bought ourselves at best a few hours before the enemy is upon us again. I need everyone working as hard as they can to get as many systems back online as fast as possible. Prioritize hyper drive, weapons and environmental in that order.
I need you focused people. I promise you there will be time for mourning later. That is all, Captain Kimbridge out."
Turning to face Ken, Cat asked "How long before we have hyper drive available?"
"Captain, the better question is 'Are we going to have hyper drive available?'" He shifted to the side as the medical crew started to carry the stabilized Lt. Cortez out of the room. "I need fifteen minutes to make an assessment and then I can get back with you."
"OK Ken, I trust you but I'm going to hold you to that fifteen minutes. I'm giving Cal free reign to travel through the ship's systems. It took him only a fraction of a second to get most of the bridge back up and running."
"Are you sure that's wise?"
"Right now trusting Cal seems the safer of available options. We need all the help we can get if we are going to be ready for Three of Nine"
Chapter Eight – The Battle for the Bowman...
Personal Log
June 4, 2112 - I took command of the USC Bowman today. It was not how I wanted to take command, but with the loss of Captain Ramchandani there was no choice. I've started to notice how my life changes drastically every time I encounter the D'lralu.
I've given the Heshe AI named Cal access to the ships systems. The speed at which he can work was the deciding factor. The D'lralu will be back in a few hours, and even with the Heshe's help I don't know that we will be ready. A hell of a first command.
Cat was sitting in the captain's ready room... her ready room - she mused, when Ken walked in with a stack of tablets which he proceeded to scatter on the tablet.
"Sorry for the mess Captain but the Bowman's AI is as shot up as the rest of the ship... I can't move data between any of the major systems because of network corruptions. If you hadn't injected Cal into the net with his incredible noise filtering routines I doubt we'd have anything running right now."
"Ken, " Cat said softly "when we're alone... please call me Cat... This chair... This chair is too big for me."
"Nonsense. You're exactly the captain we need right now... Captain... Cat."
"Thanks Ken... By the way... How is Rebecca?"
"She's hanging in there. Most of her friends on board were from environmental. They let her grow an herb garden in hydroponics. She lost quite a few of them... It's hitting her hard."
Cat knew that a part of Ken, the husband and chaplain, wanted to be with his wife, but she also knew that his commitment to duty would keep him focused on the task at hand. As she had told the crew earlier, there would be time for mourning later... If they survived, she added as an afterthought.
Cat waved towards the tablets. "How bad is it?"
Ken sighed... "It's not good. Most of the mains are blown... I can get active shielding online in a day or so but not any faster. The hyper drive is in good shape... as are the fusion generators but there is no way to get power from one to the other... The best we can do at this point is jump about half a click."
"So we can't run... Can we fight?"
"With what?" Ken asked. We don't have juice for the rail gun. We can launch torpedoes but given the amount of shielding those ships carry we’re not going to get far unless we use one of the 'SJ's... And without a working hyper drive we can't afford to use them"
Cat pointed to the various tablets on table. "You said we had a working hyper drive but we could only shunt enough power to it to do a micro jump. It might be time to try the micro-jump routines we've been working on."
Ken leaned forward resting his elbows on the table while looking at one of the tablets. "The only way we’re going to get this to work, is if we can tie Cal into the drive system and let him calculate the jumps. The Bowman's AI wouldn't be up to it even if it were 100% which it clearly is not."
"Cal" Cat addressed the air... "Have you been monitoring?"
"Yes Captain."
"Do you have sufficient access to the hyper drive controls to run a series of hyper drive micro jumps?"
"This will not present an issue. I calculate I can engage the hyper drive sixty eight times a second for a top effective speed of roughly 200 kilometers a second. I should point out that because the D'lralu can continue to a
ccelerate his top speed is well in excess of this. Nor will this speed be fast enough to escape the blast zone of an 'SJ' round."
Cat smiled. “If I'm right we won't have to escape the blast zone. At maximum speed, how long before we can get into orbit around Pluto?"
"Three hours and twenty six minutes."
"...and how long before Three of Nine gets here?"
"Three hours and twelve minutes."
Cat's face fell. Her plan hinged on beating the D'lralu to Pluto. "Cal make best possible speed for Pluto."
Turning to her First Officer... "Ken I need you to get an SJ ready for deployment in two hours. I want you to program it to jump the moment it loses the lock on our transponder for more than 5 seconds."
"Why 5 seconds?"
"Because if it loses that lock for more than 5 seconds we will either be dead or safe... Either way I need it to return Three of Nine to whatever hell spawned him."
***
The next three hours went by in a blur. Ken deployed the SJ round per her instructions. At the same time, with Cal's assistance, the fusion core from the sole undamaged shuttle was Gerry-rigged to feed power into the main hyper drive. This allowed the size of the micro-jumps to be increased by 13%, which meant it would be a dead heat to the Pluto-Charon dual planetary system.
Cat had briefly considered heading for the closer of the two planetary bodies that orbited around a common center of gravity but even at 12% the mass of Pluto, Charon was simply too small to offer the protection needed from the SJ round they were about to deploy.
Cat looked about the bridge. Ken's people had done a good job cleaning things up. Communications, helm and weapon stations were all manned. Shields were still down but the displacement generators were working over most of the critical systems. Environmental was still pretty much of a lost cause but Oxygen candles had been lit to supplement their dwindling O2 supply. It was ironic that, if they survived the next few minutes, they would be dependent on technology used to take men to the moon to survive the next few days.
Ken looked up from her science station, which he had converted to an engineering console. "Captain, the D'lralu ship is coming within their weapons range."
"Open a channel" Cat ordered.
"Channel open, ma'am" Lt. Cochrane reported.
"This is the USC Bowman calling the D'lralu vessel. Please respond" Cat waited a few moments to see if Three of Nine would answer. When nothing came back she added a taunt. "Come on Three of Nine... I thought you wanted to play."
"This is Three of Nine... What game do you have in mind?"
"I was thinking of a little 'hide and seek'" Cat answered.
"I'm unfamiliar with this game. How does one play it?"
"Captain, I'm showing a surge in his weapons systems" Ken said in a low voice.
"It’s a very simple game used by our warriors to establish their worthiness... Are you worthy?"
"Your game has rules I assume?" the D'lralu asked.
"Of course... You wait for ten seconds. I hide behind this little planet. Then you try to find me before I find you."
"And if I win?"
"It's not important... You won't win..." Cat signaled Cochrane to cut the signal.
"Cal this is very important... Exactly four seconds before we pass behind Pluto I need you to cut our transponder signal... The instant we get behind Pluto cut the hyper drive and give us everything you have in shields and stabilization thrusters."
"Acknowledged, Captain. Would you like me to calculate the odds of success?"
"Absolutely not!"
***
The D'lralu ship saw the Earth vessel slip behind the large planetoid. As Three of Nine prepared to pursue, his sensors detected a hyper drive wake appearing behind him by only a few thousand kilometers. It was too small to be a manned ship so perhaps it was an automated message buoy, similar to the one he had sent to his pack mates on the home world several hours ago.
Further speculation was cut short by a massive surge of energy spilling forth from the hyper drive wake. It was off the charts. His active shielding was overwhelmed and as he was considering an emergency uncalculated jump, the shielding failed. His hull plating, which was many times stronger than that used by the humans, lasted for perhaps a few hundred milliseconds before it was ablated away. The warrior known as Three of Nine barely had time to acknowledge he had been beaten when his life came to an end.
The blast, radiating from the hyper field wake, lasted barely three seconds. The energy spilled in those few seconds couldn’t be equaled by the total output of the Earth's sun in a comparable period of time. The frozen atmosphere that surrounded Pluto instantly flash evaporated, leaving only the hard rocky core and even that was superheated.
The out gassing buffeted the USC Bowman but protected, albeit barely, by the shadow of Pluto, the Bowman was generally safe from the SJ's wrath.
When the buffeting finally subsided Cat called for an 'All Systems' report. The only major change in status was a marked, but nonfatal, increase in radiation exposure. Earth-based nanite systems were adept at treating radiation exposure so Cat made sure the entire crew was properly inoculated.
Once a complete scientific survey of the area surrounding Pluto was completed in a couple of hours, the USC Bowman set course for earth. However, even with a maximum speed of roughly 230 kilometers per second, the journey to Earth would be just under thirty years.
***
Ken Kirkland along with the entire crew and staff of the Bowman were in the recently patched shuttle bay. Much of the repair work had only been complete for a couple of hours. He was dressed in the same red vestments Cat had first seen him in so many months ago. For what would come next he was no longer the Bowman's First Officer and Chief Engineer. He was their chaplain. Eleven friends and coworkers had made the ultimate sacrifice... Not for their country but for their species.
"Father in heaven..." Pastor Kirkland began "we who are finite can never really know your infinite plan of creation. It is enough that we were blessed to know these fine men and women for an all too brief period of time. We thank you, Lord, for the gift of theirs lives and the intersection with our lives that knowing them has meant.
We ask that you, in your mercy, provide comfort for their families. These eleven brave souls will forever be remembered as men and women who gave their lives, not for an idea or a country, but for our very right as a species to exist."
In the background the comms started playing a very low and melodic rendition of 'Flowers of the Forest' on bagpipes. Ken paused for a moment and then continued.
"It is written... 'By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.' Our friends are now returning to the dust from which they sprang. But in the midst of our sorrow we must also rejoice in the knowledge that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Cat reflected on the memorial service. She was thankful Ken was there. To have a chaplain was not unusual, but to have a Chief Engineer who doubled as a chaplain might well be unique in the annals of the space service. Ken called it a tent maker ministry along the lines of the Apostle Paul. Being in the thick of things with the rest of the crew certainly meant Ken had developed a tight rapport with the them. Of course, Cat knew this was a double edge sword... The loss of these eleven individuals was being felt at a very real level by her friend.
After another prayer the Pastor invited Cat, as the captain, to say a few words. She looked out across the shuttle bay. For the most part the crew held stoic expressions... burying their pain. A few of the civilians, including Rebecca Kirkland, were having a harder time restraining their tears.