On to Tau Ceti

by David McCahan

  “Yes General. Whenever we stop at a position I can relay that to the Collective on the Basel ship and then we can cause havoc in that area closest to Columbia.”

  “Nav, take us to position 1.” Jeff called to Eva. A sequence had been mapped out to jump around in a seemingly random manner but in actuality making sure they covered the key areas to effect the damage to systems, drives and weaponry.

  “Yes Sir, initiating FTL now. Position 1 in ...... 3 .. 2 .. 1 .. mark.”

  Columbia was now above the Victorious and over what would be the bridge on most ships but considering the Basel ships were purpose built for battle and the command center was in the protected interior of the ship there was nothing of note here except for sensors and plasma conduits. Within seconds small explosions rippled across the top center of the ship. Columbia held position waiting for the Victorious to find them and begin to close the distance in their direction. Once they closed to within 40 million miles then Nav was given the green light for position 2. This progression kept up for the next hour until at last it was time to fall in behind them and begin to pull.

  “We are now directly astern of the Basel ship at 30 million miles and holding Sir.” Eva reported.

  “Engineering, Grav Focus now, let the mouse come to the cat.” Jeff gave Javier the green light to begin pulling on the Victorious.

  Suddenly Saoi sat bolt upright and grabbed Glory’s arm. In an instant she was aware of the warning coming from the Collective. “Engineering, belay that order, emergency push, wide spectrum! Urgent, push now!!”

  Jeff turned to his second in command in astonishment and before she could speak three large nuclear explosions in near space rocked the Columbia. Power and even artificial gravity flickered out and then emergency backup power kicked in and artificial gravity returned. Systems were restarting and alarms going off everywhere.

  “Sorry Jeff. The Collective said this ruthless SOB thought he had something up his sleeve and he managed to hide it even from them.” Glory explained and then continued “He evidently figured that we would disable the missile launch systems and not the missiles themselves so he set them up as mines and dropped a few every time he changed direction chasing us. We blundered into some when we dropped in directly behind the ship and our Grav Focus was sucking them right to us. The Collective picked it up in his mind just as we were locking on.”

  “General, the Victorious is backing to us by inertia and thrusters. It looks like they intend to attach to Columbia and board us. We are not enough to stop it now.” Saoi relayed the message from the Collective on the Basel ship.

  Jeff keyed his com to ship wide “Brace! Brace for impact. Prepare to repel boarders. All hands prepare to repel boarders.”

  Then turning to Glory “Where are they most likely to enter?”

  “Ships systems are not fully up yet but best guess is the cargo bays around D17.”

  “Captain Gerard?” Jeff opened a com link directly to the Marine Commander.

  “Gerard here Sir.

  “Adam, looks like we need your Marines around Cargo Bay D17. We don’t have exact locations yet but we’ll advise as we know more.”

  “Acknowledged General, we’re on it.”

  Baktul saw the explosions on his Tactical Plot. “Got you Phantom. Now meet the Basel Warriors and your death!!” He then addressed his crew around him “Pass the word, everyone into your armor, board the cursed ship, destroy them all and we’ll take our prize home in VICTORY!”

  The Victorious managed to get turned so that she impacted against Columbia sideways with enough force that the damage entangled the two ships together. The Basel used shape charges to quickly blow openings to enter Columbia. These were battle hardened warriors bent on conquer and conquest or death and they drastically outnumbered the Marines. There were only 1,250 Marines to start with and Columbia had left 500 at each outpost, so there were only 250 Marines left to meet the 5,000 Basel Confederation that was pouring onto Columbia now. About 2,000 were first tier Warriors with the best armor, training and weaponry. These were the biggest threat. Around 1,000 were the crew that operated the Victorious. Their armor was sturdy but not up to the standards of the warriors. The remaining were close to 2,000 females which had the sole purpose in Basel society of giving birth and raising their young. The female Basel had been brought along to populate their colony. They had no armor and only long knives but were throwing themselves headlong into battle.

  The Collective were doing everything they could to stop the Basel before entering Columbia. The main weapon the Warriors carried was a rifle that was essentially a small electromagnetic rail gun to launch explosive tipped projectiles at over 5,000 feet per second with a 120 round per minute rate of fire. The Collective found these could be overloaded and suddenly the Warriors found their weapons exploding and setting off all the explosive rounds. 2,000 Warriors became less than 500 very quickly and the remaining dropped their rifles before they died as well. They drew long knives and continued.

  Captain Gerard and his Marines met the Basel as they entered plus the Collective were impeding their advance by hurling objects at them but they kept coming. The Basel crew were armored but no match for the Marine weapons and were cut down as they entered the cargo bay. The Basel females climbed over the bodies of the crew but were similarly cut down. The Marines were still outnumbered 2 to 1 but met them as the Warriors entered the cargo bay.

  Suddenly there was a new element in the battle. The robotic dogs and cats from all over the ship were alerted to the danger as the ship’s systems came fully back online. They were swift, strong and deadly as far as the Basel Warriors were concerned. Adam Gerard was locked in hand to hand combat with a Basel Warrior and suddenly a blonde blur hit the warrior in his abdomen and he landed fifty feet across the hanger bay with the dog on top of him attacking as he landed.

  A new Basel Warrior stepped on to the deck, proud and larger than the rest. His armor was more elaborate and Adam couldn’t tell whether the red was paint or the blood of his victims. A crate flew across the bay at him but he ducked and knocked it aside. Adam was impressed, strong but nimble with a keen sense of his surroundings. This one would be tough to defeat. At the same time the Basel High Commander noticed much the same of Adam Gerard and walked straight towards him. Adam raised his weapon and fired a burst into Baktul. His armor deflected the explosive rounds with hardly a scratch and he kept coming. “So an old fashion knock down drag out fight it is then.” Adam pulled his long blade again, similar in weight and length to a machete, and waited for the warrior to advance.

  The two locked in mortal combat, blocking each other’s blows, thrusting and parrying with long blades. The big warrior was backing Adam across the bay and tiring him out. The powered armor gave Adam a fighting chance but he was struggling. Suddenly he thought of moves from an ancient eastern combat discipline. The next time Baktul advanced he blocked his thrust, grabbed the arm while rolling away and pulling the warrior towards him and over him. The result was a very surprised Basel Warrior caught off balance, somersaulting over the Marine Captain and landing on his back. Before he could recover Adam completed his roll and shoved his blade between two plates of armor into his chest and then again into his neck to end the life of the High Commander.

  Between the Marines, the Collective and the robotic companions the Basel Warriors hardly made it out of the cargo bays but the carnage was horrendous. There were human casualties as well. The list included 75 Marines killed in combat and 48 human crew that either perished when the Victorious crashed or that armed themselves and fought alongside the Marines as some of the Basel made it outside of the bays.

  Index

  Chapter 14 - Others

  It took two weeks to separate the Victorious from the Columbia. During that time the Columbia crew explored the Basel Flag ship and removed anything resembling a data core for further study. Anything they could learn about the Basel and their technology might prove useful. Eight of the bays were too damaged to make use
able at this time but were able to be repaired enough to pressurize at least. There were four bays that were left open to space and would be dealt with later.

  The shuttles cleared the area of the missiles that were laid out with proximity sensors as mines. In order to get close the shuttles hit the missile with a directed EMP and then grabbed it with a tow cable and pulled them well away from the ships. Once Columbia was able to get underway they would nuke the whole batch with a spread of missiles from Columbia’s shuttles.

  Finally, with the most critical emergency repairs completed General Fitsimmons called for senior staff to meet in the Commander’s Conference Room. As he entered the room everyone stood to attention “As you were, everyone take your seats please. Well our worst nightmare almost became reality if not for the heroism and expertise of our crew and especially our Marines. We’ve once again paid a price in blood and I for one will be forever in their debt. Captain Gerard you and your Marines met the enemy head on and 75 paid the ultimate price. We also lost 48 crew members with many of those taking on the Basel without armor and in similar circumstances I don’t know if I could show that same courage in the face of certain death. Of course we will have a ceremony to honor those who made that ultimate sacrifice as well as our highest awards for all those involved in that battle.” Jeff paused a moment as he fought back the choke in his throat and the tears welling in his eyes as he thought of those who died because he once again cut things too close.

  Adam took the opportunity of the pause to comment. “General, as you know this is not my first experience in combat and believe me I feel it and take it personally anytime someone under my command dies. I question what I could have done differently that may have saved their lives and blame myself for their death. I believe that is a trait of a first rate commander and something we see in you. Sir we are all honored to serve under your command. This mission was just, we have rescued an entire world from certain genocide and sent a message back to the invaders home world that will hopefully make them rethink conquest in this area of space. If I could go back in time and do this all over again I would sign up again in an instant and don’t know of anything I would change or anything we could do differently.”

  Everyone in the room in unison said “Hear Hear!”

  Jeff was taken aback and just stood there for a few seconds. Wiping a tear from his eye he sat and finally spoke “Adam I think if I added up all the words you’ve spoken since this mission started that speech there probably would have equaled that total. From the bottom of my heart though I thank you.”

  Adam just nodded in acknowledgement.

  “Our strong silent Marine is back.” Jeff laughed and then returned to business “Ok Medical update please.”

  Rhonda scrolled through her notes and then looked up “Yes Sir, well you’ve already summarized our casualties and so on to our wounded. The Basel were very efficient killing machines and so didn’t leave many alive once they engaged with someone. We had nine that were hurt in the ship collision and of those five have returned to duty and the other four are making good progress. There were seven injured during battle with the Basel. Two of them lost an arm and one lost a leg below the knee. We normally progress to artificial limbs but the Collective believe that they can influence their bodies to regrow those limbs. Early signs look promising but there is a long way to go. The other four suffered cuts and puncture wounds from Basel long knives. Again we can thank the Collective for saving those lives. They closed arteries and wounds to keep them from bleeding out until medical help could get to them. All are healing well.”

  “I shudder to think how we might have pulled this off at all without the Collective. Again please pass along our gratitude.” Jeff said looking towards Saoi.

  “General the feeling goes both ways. If not for you ‘noisy’ humans we would still be living our boring lives and the Basel Confederation would still be in the Delta Pavonis solar system.” Saoi gave a nod of appreciation.

  Jeff then turned his attention to Javier “Engineering, ship’s status if you would please.”

  “Yes Sir, the missile mines that the Basel dropped for us were meant to temporarily disable Columbia rather than destroy us since the nuclear warheads were configured as EMP devices. Looks like they intended to board and take over the Columbia. Luckily Colonel Callaghan got the alarm from the Collective when they realized the trap existed and we had a chance to reverse the Grav Focus to ‘push’ for a couple seconds and moved the bombs further away and deflect the blast some. It took our systems down for a few minutes but at least they were able to reboot and alert the robotic companions, which also were able to be back online after a couple minutes. From what I understand from our Marine contingent they helped turn the tide of battle.”

  “You should have seen the expression on one I was losing to when one of our Golden Retrievers blasted him in the stomach at full speed.” Adam added.

  “Looks like our companions to the rescue again. Lieutenant Whitcraft, kudos to your department again, and by the way I still haven’t gotten my puppy yet. Who does someone have to know around here to get some service?” Jeff declared in mock anger.

  Jonathan held up a finger and looked over his shoulder “Maggie would you get Missy please?”

  Bonnie Anderson’s dog then got up from her spot behind Bonnie and walked over to the door, which slid open when it sensed her approach. Maggie stopped in the doorway and gave a sharp bark and then with tail wagging walked back to her spot and set back down. A coal black version of Maggie walked into the room and over beside General Fitsimmons and sat there looking up at him. He looked from the ‘dog’ to Jonathan, back to the dog then Glory then back to the dog. Finally, he tapped his lap and Missy hopped up and sat there tail wagging as Jeff then slowly ran his hand from head to tail down her back. “Ok, so how does a reincarnation of a pet from my childhood appear to be sitting on my lap?”

  “Jeff I felt so sorry that things, totally beyond my control by the way, but things kept getting in the way of a dog for you so I asked a friend back home to talk to your mother and she gave us some details to go on and Jonathan recreated your memory. Surprise?” Glory said while hoping he liked his surprise.

  Jeff stroked Missy for a moment and then said “Well happy birthday to me. Thank you all. Um, Javier you were saying?”

  “Yes Sir the bombs did not do much physical damage to the internal systems and all Fusion plants and Grave Drives are operational. Ion drives are also fully operational. We’ve repaired the damaged sensors and two drives nodes that took the brunt of the blast. Again those are operational. We have eight cargo bays that were damaged but we have been able to seal and pressurize them. The outer bay doors are not operational. We’ll need several weeks to print new ones and put them in place. The four bays that took the brunt of the Victorious will likely need to wait until we have access to an orbital fabrication plant. The small crushers we placed at Atlantis or Eden will work or we could leave them as is until we get back to the shipyards on Earth. Other than that Columbia is fully operational and awaits your orders Sir.” Javier completed his report.

  “I think we’ll make the repairs to the eight bays while in orbit above Delta Pavonis 4 and then leave the decision about the other four to CentCom. They might want the data cores from the Victorious ASAP. Speaking of the data cores, Colonel any update on cracking their data?” Jeff asked Glory.

  Yes Sir, as you know their encryption was not hard to crack. They never figured anyone would be able to board their ship and so physical security was not high on their list. Their language is a bit more challenging but we are making progress. Math is math but we need to crack their language before we can understand their programming code and then understand their data. We’ve sent some excerpts back to Earth but we’ll need to get the cores back to Earth for them to study.”

  “I would imagine that we’ll be heading directly to Earth from here instead of stopping at Eden or Atlantis along the way. For now, I can think of at least 3000 personn
el on this ship that would really like to get to Delta Pavonis 4, can’t we come up with a better name than that? Pav4 might be used for an abbreviation but what do the Others call it?” Jeff asked

  “General they call it ‘Home’.” Saoi deadpanned.

  After the laughter settled down Jeff continued “Ok, so we’ll have to listen on that for another time. While we do that though I think it time we got underway to Pav4 and complete this rescue mission. Let’s get to our stations, message updates to ships status and get underway.”

  The transit into the Delta Pav system was routine and finally Columbia entered geostationary orbit above the 4th planet of the system (Pav4 has now stuck as the short name) with parking directions relayed through the Collective. Jeff decided to set aside protocols for this one occasion and was leaving the ship along with Glory and Saoi, although he did at least give in to Adam Garard’s request that they take separate shuttles. Adam and Rhonda rode on the shuttle with Jeff while Saoi and Glory were in another. The remaining space in the shuttles, along with 22 other shuttles, are occupied by members of the Collective that are going to settle here permanently.

  “General, I still don’t like that we did not hold to protocol regarding disease screening. I know the Collective did it but I still would feel better had we verified the results.” Rhonda was commenting as the shuttle lifted off and descended to the planet surface below.

  “I know Rhonda but the Collective know us ‘at the smallest’ and they were correct back on Eden. I think we’re safe to rely on them here.” Jeff replied.

  “I know you’re right but I feel like I haven’t done my job. Ok, I’ll let it go but if you get sick from some exotic infection I can’t promise to not just leave you behind.”