The Thunder of War (Thunder in the Heavens)

by Dietmar Wehr

  The Tyrell attack came precisely at the end of the predicted 45-hour interval. Eagleton was asleep in his quarters, and Harrow was conning the ship from her Command Station on the Bridge. She jumped in surprise when she heard Ashiana’s voice over the loudspeakers.

  “Ashiana to Bridge! The attack has begun! Command Center will be transmitting tactical data visually! I’m on my way to the Bridge now!”

  Harrow turned to the Communication Station. “Any incoming tactical data?”

  The Comm. Officer shook his head. “No tactical, but we’re getting visual data. Switching to main display!”

  Harrow looked up and saw what appeared to be a tactical representation of ships in space, but the symbols and text were all strange. This wasn’t what she’d been led to expect. Supposedly the Odina had figured out how to translate their tactical data into data that Pathfinder’s tactical computers could understand, but something had apparently gone wrong.

  She activated her chair mic. “Bridge to Ripley! Tyrell attack has commenced!”

  She heard Ripley’s voice after a half second delay. “On my way! Send the ship to Battle Stations, Cate!”

  Ashiana heard the call to Battle Stations as she ran to the Bridge. Did the humans not understand that their puny ship was in no danger from the Tyrell? The attacking Tyrell fleet was many millions of their kilometers away and would be destroyed before it got much closer to the Odina home world around which they were orbiting. There was actually no urgency for her to be on the Bridge, but she was curious to see how quickly her comrades finished off the Tyrell fleet, and she wanted to miss as little as possible.

  When she entered the Bridge, Ashiana saw that Cate was still sitting in the Command Station chair even though Commander Ripley was also on the Bridge. In fact, he was standing beside the Command Station. Was he allowing Cate to retain command of the ship? That would not be allowed on an Odina warship.

  As she shifted her gaze to the main display, Ripley turned to her and said, “What’s wrong with the tactical interface, Second Officer? We can’t make heads or tails of this image.”

  “It was decided at the last minute to transmit a visual image of the tactical display that my superiors are watching at the Operations Command Center right now. I can interpret the pertinent data for you.” As she spoke, she walked quickly around the Bridge to stand in front of the display. “These red circles are the six Tyrell super-ships. All the blue chevrons are Odina warships. As you know, our ships are a lot smaller than the Tyrell ships, and therefore our detection system will not pick up our ships if they’re beyond a certain distance. What that means is that as our ships get closer to the enemy fleet, they become less visible to us. They will not be transmitting any omnidirectional signals to avoid giving their position away to the enemy. Unfortunately, that means we won’t be able to see our ships when they’re close enough to the enemy to fire on them.” She paused before asking, “Any questions?”

  Ripley spoke first. “How fast are your ships moving now?”

  Ashiana checked the display before answering. “All of our ships that are visible are now moving at point six five of light, Commander.”

  “Can you tell us how many of your ships there are altogether?” asked Ripley.

  Ashiana hesitated. She’d been briefed on what she could share with the humans and what she couldn’t, and the current size of the Odina warfleet was not to be revealed. However, the tactical image did show a total for detected ships, and her superiors would have known that information would be visible to the humans when they made the decision to transmit that visual image. She decided to obfuscate the truth.

  “My information on current fleet size is too old to be reliable. The image behind me shows that thirty-four of our warships are still being detected. There are others that are no longer being detected, but I can’t say how many.” Ashiana was about to say more when she saw Cate lean forward and point to the display.

  “One of the blue chevrons just dissolved,” said Harrow.

  Ashiana took a deep breath. “One of our ships must have been hit by Tyrell kinetic energy shell fire. Our ships rely on speed, not armor, for defense.”

  “There goes another one,” said Ripley in a low voice. Ashiana moved over to the side in order to see the whole display just in time to see a third chevron break up. She kept her expression calm so as not to alarm the humans, but she hadn’t expected the Odina fleet to take losses this quickly. How were the Tyrell managing to hit ships travelling at maximum speed, and if they were targeting ships still in detection range, how many more of her ships were being destroyed that the planet-based detection system couldn’t see? She relaxed a little bit when one of the red circles started flashing. That meant a Tyrell ship had taken enough damage to be noticeable.

  “One enemy ship is now damaged,” she said.

  “But two more of your ships are gone,” said Harrow.

  Ashiana felt a surge of anger. Did these humans want the Tyrell to win? “Our simulations showed that we would take losses but would ultimately emerge victorious through overwhelming numerical superiority. Wait and see—“ She stopped talking when the image suddenly zoomed in to the enemy fleet. Three red circles were now flashing, and as she watched, one of the three broke up and dissolved. Her anger dissolved as well. “I think the momentum of battle is starting to shift in our favor.”

  Harrow heard her say that and hoped Ashiana was right. Less than five minutes later, it was obvious that she was. Odina losses had become less frequent, and when all remaining red circles were flashing, they started breaking up quickly. With the last red circle now gone, the battle was over. Harrow did a quick manual count of the remaining blue chevrons and came up with 25. She looked back at the display just in time to see the image zoom out to a very large tactical view of most of the star system. That image only lasted a few seconds before the Odina transmission stopped altogether, but it was there long enough for her to notice three, widely spaced green hexagons, the locations of which formed a perfect triangle.

  “What are those—” She stopped when the image disappeared. She looked at Ripley who nodded back at her. They had discussed what she was about to do. Turning her attention to Ashiana, who looked like she was about to leave the Bridge, Harrow said, “Why are your people withholding data collected from peripheral L-wave signals, Ashiana?”

  Ashiana stopped and gave Harrow a long stare before replying. “How did you learn of this?” she asked slowly.

  “So you CAN pick up L-wave signals that are not direct line-of-sight transmissions. Something must be deflecting part of the beam. Let me guess, the signals are intermittent, yes?” asked Harrow.

  Ashiana’s usual poker-faced expression now showed signs of alarm. “How did you learn of this?” she said in a demanding tone.

  “I didn’t know for sure. I suspected it was something like that. Just now, I saw three hexagonal icons situated at the edges of this star system in a perfect triangle pattern. That’s exactly what I’d expect to see for very large longitudinal receivers that are trying to triangulate anomalous signals. Even with that circumstantial evidence, I still wasn’t certain, so I posed the question as if I knew, and you confirmed it by your response.”

  Ashiana’s look of alarm now changed to one of shock at the realization that she had fallen for a bluff. She looked at the still blank main display and recovered her composure. She then looked at Ripley and said in a defeated voice, “I was ordered to keep that information from you even though I was in favor of telling you. I will explain to my superiors that you deduced the primary function of those three stations and how they work. With that information no longer secret, I can justify telling you what we’ve learned. The stations are of a size and sensitivity that allows them to pick up very faint longitudinal signals that our scientists theorize were deflected by clouds of ionized hydrogen that act like lenses. We have detected signals that appear to be coming from five different locations. Since the signals were deflected away from their original aimin
g point, there’s no way to determine the precise star systems where those signals originated.”

  “How do you know they’re Tyrell signals and not someone else’s?” asked Ripley.

  “We don’t know that for an absolute certainty; however, we do know that the Tyrell have the technology to send and receive L-wave signals from examination of the drone they dropped off. We also know that the Tyrell contacted the Sheepul after they contacted us. On the assumption that we are closer to the Tyrell empire than the Sheepul are, an estimated line of advance starting from the Sheepul system, and passing through our system here, points to the general area where the deflected and, yes, intermittent L-wave signals seem to be coming from.”

  Both Ripley and Harrow pondered the implications of that answer. Harrow looked again at the still blank display. L-wave signals travelled very fast, but they weren’t instantaneous. It would make sense for the victorious Tyrell fleet to send a signal back to their base to pass on the good news. The base would have a pretty good idea of when the fleet would have arrived, and based on past conquests, how long the battle would take. They’d add on the time it would take for the victory confirmation signal to reach them. If no signal were received by that time, would they send out a query?

  “Your tracking stations are waiting for the incoming query signal to try to pin down the system of origin, aren’t they, Ashiana?”

  “Very perceptive of you, Cate. Yes, an incoming L-wave signal in a direct line of sight beam would identify one of their occupied systems. We were then planning on sending ships to raid that system and perhaps intercept signals from other systems while we’re there. Given the higher than expected losses from this battle, that plan may not be executed.”

  “Why?” asked Ripley.

  Harrow answered before Ashiana could. “Because the loss of the first Tyrell fleet will almost certainly cause another and very likely larger fleet to arrive at some point. The Odina High Command will be reluctant to send a significant portion of the ships they have left and risk being attacked before those ships return. Isn’t that right, Ashiana?”

  Ashiana just nodded this time.

  Ripley seemed to make a sudden decision. He turned and stepped over to the Communications Station. “Comm., make sure our L-wave receiver is set for the highest possible signal gain. I want the source location of any signal, no matter how weak or short, to be captured. Got it?”

  “Got it, sir.”

  Turning to Ashiana, Ripley said, “If a probable location of an incoming signal is determined, and if your superiors decide not to divide up what’s left of your fleet, and if my superiors agree to this proposal, would a human commitment to send our ships to recon the source system be of sufficient value to the Odina that your people would agree to a military alliance and a sharing of technology?”

  Ashiana hesitated before answering. “Perhaps.”

  They had the answer three days later. During that time, both Pathfinder and the Odina tracking stations picked up a short L-wave signal that appeared to originate in a particular star system. Ripley send a long report back to Earth seeking approval for his offer of reconnaissance in return for some kind of agreement with the Odina that included technology sharing. Ashiana reported back to her superiors, and the decision of the Odina leadership was a flat ‘no’. Ripley reported that fact to Earth with a request for permission to do the recon mission anyway. Permission was granted. When Ashiana learned that Pathfinder was about to leave, she asked and received permission to stay on Pathfinder during the recon mission. That meant that she had to take her shuttle back down to the planet to replenish its stockpile of food. The Odina Orbital Traffic Control Center refused to allow Pathfinder to leave orbit until Ashiana’s replenished shuttle was able to return to the ship. Ripley allowed Ashiana access to the Bridge as Pathfinder broke out of orbit. The Odina officer was strangely quiet during the short interval before the ship entered hyper-space.

  Chapter Four:

  With the ship at Battle Stations, the atmosphere on the Bridge was tense. Chatter was being conducted in low voices or even whispers. Ripley had command, and Eagleton was the Acting Tactical Officer. Ashiana was on the Bridge standing behind Ripley’s chair. Harrow was at her Battle Stations post supervising Damage Control from down in Engineering. The ship was about to drop out of hyper-space at the outskirts of the star system that had been designated as Alpha1. It was the closest star system that was aligned with the path of the detected L-wave transmission, but it wasn’t the only system. If Alpha1 turned out to be empty, Pathfinder would move on to the next likely system. In any case, Ripley was determined to play it safe. Pathfinder would take a long look at the layout of this system’s planets and try to determine which planet, if any, was being used by the Tyrell. Once they had that figured out, Pathfinder would move closer until the occupied planet was at the ship’s extreme detection range. If any Tyrell super-ships were being built or maintained there, the detection system would see them because of their massive size, and in theory, Pathfinder was small enough to evade detection from the Tyrell sensors at the same range.

  The drop out of hyper-space went smoothly, and it quickly became clear that there were no ships within detection range. Ripley would have been surprised if there had been this far out from this system’s sun, but he believed in playing it safe by being at Battle Stations just in case. With word of the all clear, he ordered the ship to stand down from Battle Stations. The astrogation officers were now busy trying to find where all the planets were. From past experience, Ripley knew that could take a while, which was fine with him. He wasn’t in any real hurry. He felt Ashiana’s presence as she stepped up to stand beside him.

  She leaned over and spoke in a low voice. “Are you not concerned by the fact that your virtually unarmed ship is risking battle with Tyrell super-ships, Commander Ripley?” While he pondered how to respond to her question, he couldn’t help but notice her scent. It wasn’t the first time he’d detected it, but the other times had all been fleeting. He found the scent to be exotic enough that he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. Whatever the case, it certainly was distracting.

  “Ah, no, I’m not that concerned actually. At the first sign that we’ve been detected, we’ll go to maximum speed and, if necessary, re-enter hyper-space.” He saw her look over at the Astrogation Station.

  “Our astrogation systems would have found all of the planets in this system by now,” she said. “I’m not impressed by your ship’s technology, but I am impressed by the bravery of its crew and Ship Commander.”

  “I’m glad something about us impresses you, Second Officer Ashiana,” said Ripley. When she pulled away and stepped back, he knew the conversation was over for now. The scent went with her, much to his relief. When nothing happened and not much headway had been made by the Astrogators, Ashiana left the Bridge in obvious disgust. Ripley could tell that his Astrogation Officers were taking offence at that, but it didn’t bother him. Compared to the ships that he had served on in the past, Pathfinder was a huge improvement. A minute or two after Ashiana left the Bridge, Ripley heard the Communications Officer’s excited voice.

  “Incoming L-wave signal, Commander! I’m putting the signal through my comm. filters.”

  “Did you get a fix on the source?” asked Ripley.

  “Yessir!”

  “Okay, throw it up on the main display please.”

  The tactical image of the star system within detection range changed to a much larger scale representation of space within several hundred light years. One star was flashing green with a solid yellow line extending outward from it. Along that line were several red dots that were star systems close enough to the path of the L-wave beam to possibly be the point of origin. Ripley nodded. He had suspected that pinpointing other Tyrell-occupied star systems was not going to be easy. Just as with Alpha1, any one of those red dots could be the source of this signal, and it didn’t even have to be coming from a planet. The signal could just as easily be coming from a Tyrell
ship that was in one of those systems for some reason.

  “Are you getting anything out of your filters, Comm.?” asked Ripley.

  “Ah…not sure, sir. One of the filters is generating something that sounds like speech, but it could also just be meaningless noise. None of the other filters are generating anything that looks like communication.”

  Ripley got up from his station and went over to the Comm. Station. “Let’s hear that meaningless noise,” he said in a low voice.

  The sound he heard could be speech, but it was just as likely arbitrary sounds generated by the speech filter from random digital impulses. At this point they couldn’t even be sure the signal was being replayed at the correct speed. He patted the Comm. Officer on the shoulder.

  “Keep at it. You know what to do with this.”

  The Comm. Officer sighed. “Yessir.”

  They had made progress by the time Ripley’s four-hour duty shift on the Bridge was over. Six planets had been identified. One of them was within the star’s liquid water zone, and the ship’s EM receivers were picking up faint signals on a variety of frequencies from that planet. Ripley elected to wait until his next duty shift before moving to within range of the Tyrell-type detection system. He’d been awake now for 16 hours and decided it was better to move the ship closer when he was rested and alert. Unfortunately, Ashiana wasn’t prepared to wait that long. When she learned of the inhabited planet, she insisted on calling Ripley in the middle of his sleep cycle.