“Lieutenant on the Bridge,” called out Willard, looking beyond Daisy.
She turned in her seat. It was Alicia, wearing her woodland camo outfit. That was what everyone on the Bridge now wore, except for Jacob, who was dressed formally in his dress blues. The woman stood in the open doorway, her amber eyes looking to Jacob, her right hand lifted to her brow in a salute.
“Permission to enter the Bridge requested,” she said tightly.
Daisy’s holo that showed an overhead view of the Bridge had Jacob turn in his seat, stand up and salute her back. “Permission to enter granted. What brings you here, Lieutenant Branstead?”
The stocky Aussie marched quickly to the room’s center, her expression thoughtful. She stopped in front of Daisy and looked up. “Acting captain, I wish to be present here when the Lepanto exits Alcubierre space-time. Our emergence will be quickly detected by the base. Someone there will contact the ship. I wish to be present to lend my support to your report to the captain in charge of the base.”
Daisy’s feeling of worry eased. She knew Alicia supported Jacob as the ship’s new captain. The woman had made that clear during the discussion in the admiral’s conference room. Was something else going on? Now, anxiety filled her as she hoped the woman held good news for the man she had come to care for deeply.
Her holo showed Jacob sitting down and locking his straps. He looked down. “Your assistance and the assistance of Science Deck are always welcome. We have nine minutes. Is there anything you wish to share with me before we emerge?”
Alicia’s high-cheeked face grew a small smile. “There is. My discussions with every deck chief has resulted in them all agreeing with me that you should continue as the captain of the Lepanto. Only Lieutenant Commander Bannerjee declined to join our consensus view.”
In the holo, Jacob nodded. “And you wish to convey that news to the base captain?”
“I do.”
“Thank you.” Jacob sat back in his seat. He looked ahead. “Communications, open an All Ship vidcom line to the rest of the ship. Melody, establish a neutrino comlink with the other ships in the battle group.”
“All Ship comlink activated,” said Andrew from where he sat near the middle of the front row of function posts.
“Neutrino comlink established,” the AI said, her tone now sounding distracted to Daisy. What was it with this AI’s algorithms?
“All personnel, all ships, move your ship status to Alert Combat Ready. Put on your vacsuits, though the helmets may be left unsealed,” Jacob said in that command voice she was coming to appreciate. “Battle group captains, prepare your ships for enemy fire. It is possible the wasp aliens arrived here before us. As for the Star Navy base contact, I will speak to it on behalf of the battle group. Acknowledge.”
The lights went to blinking red as the speakers gave out a high-pitched siren, Acknowledgments came from every ship captain, including Mehta on the Salamis. She wondered just how loyal the man might be to Jacob. During the Alcubierre transit the man had responded to every signal from the Lepanto, and he had participated in Jacob’s all captains conference call to discuss ship repairs, fuel levels and recycling functions.
“All captains, upon emergence we will assume formation Alpha Hammerhead.”
Brief acknowledgements followed.
Daisy’s mind filled with an academy lesson on the formations that were official Star Navy combat arrangements. Hammerhead meant the battle group would form up in a series of lines, one after the other. The Battlestar, flanked by the two cruisers, would form the hammerhead. The three destroyers would form the middle line. The three frigates would bring up the rear as the third and last line. The last two lines would be tilted to give those ships a clear field of fire. It was a formation aimed at presenting maximum forward firepower. To her, it made sense due to the fact they would exit Alcubierre space-time with their nose aimed at the yellow sun of Kepler 10. The other battle group ships would materialize to either side of the Lepanto, since that was their formation upon departure from Kepler 22.
Reaching down to the side of her seat, she grabbed the folded up vacsuit and flexible helmet, released her seat straps and donned her vacsuit. To her right Richard was doing the same. Willard had handed Alicia a vacsuit and the woman was donning hers. Behind them Carlos and Lori were putting on their vacsuits. Up front, everyone at the function stations was also donning a vacsuit. Soon enough they were all seated again and strapped in. She briefly wished the straps were not standard regs, but then her memory provided an academy video of a pig being smashed against the side wall of a spaceship as the ship’s inertial damper lost power during a sharp sideways thrust change. Inertial dampers rarely failed. And grav lifts almost never failed. But that history did not prevent the Star Navy from installing seat straps and adding access ramps to connect each ship deck in case grav lifts failed to operate. There were even old-style fire extinguishers bolted to hallway walls, despite the modern fire suppression systems built into each spaceship. She liked that kind of redundancy.
“Lieutenant, please occupy the seat I had installed beside CWO O’Connor,” Jacob said calmly. “You should be able to participate in my discussion with the base from that seat.”
“Thank you,” Alicia said and moved to sit in the seat.
Daisy had wondered why a new seat had been added to their central cluster when she’d arrived on the Bridge four hours earlier. Now she knew. But how had Jacob known Alicia would want to be present on the Bridge?
“XO, what is the status of our decks?” Jacob said.
Feeling her nerves drain away as normal routine took hold, she answered him. “Acting captain, all decks are secure. All pressure hatches are sealed. All deck control centers are occupied by deck chiefs and assistants. There are three crew residents in the Med Hall. All other personnel are awake, on duty and prepared to perform.”
“Good. Weapons, what is the status of our weapon stations?”
Ahead of her, Oliver looked to his holo. “The antimatter cannon has a full four shots in its magfield reservoir. All front and back CO2 lasers on both outrigger pods are energized and ready to fire. The proton lasers at spine, belly and both flanks are operational. The belly and spine plasma batteries are functional, though the belly unit may not hold up to sustained output,” he said, the excitement in his voice clear to Daisy. “All railgun launchers have full Smart Rock loads, and the eight stern silos are filled with missiles. Half of the missiles carry x-ray laser thermonukes while the other half carry multiple independently targeted and mobile thermonuke warheads set for three megaton yields. Sir.”
“Thank you,” Jacob said calmly. She could not believe how relaxed he sounded while hearing they possessed enough weaponry to destroy a small planet. “Engines, Power, Navigation, Gravity, Life Support, Communications, Science and Tactical, report your status.”
She sat and listened to the reports from the chief petty officers and chief warrant officers who operated the Bridge function posts.
“Two minutes,” called Louise from her nav post.
Daisy sat up straighter in her seat, all too aware that every action and every word by everyone on the Bridge was being recorded by the AI, and live transmitted to the other ships and to folks on the other decks. She had early on appreciated Jacob’s decision to provide live vidcom imagery of everything that happened on the Bridge. Later he had explained it was his way of building confidence in the Lepanto’s crew while also keeping them informed, rather than guessing and worrying. The crew had lost the senior officers they had served with for four years. That loss would unsettle any crew. Jacob’s move to command the Battlestar was surely a surprise to most crew. It had surprised her, and she was his friend. A member of the small group of people who he felt at ease with. Well, that open sharing policy was now about to get a new airing, this time with the captain in charge of the Star Navy base.
“Twelve seconds,” Louise said.
She looked ahead at the gray wallscreen and hoped the captain would
be reasonable. After all, they were survivors of Earth’s first encounter with aliens, an encounter that had quickly turned deadly. This captain, the base, the colonists and Earth needed to know what had happened. And hopefully, support Jacob as the Lepanto’s continuing captain.
“Transition completed.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Aarhant sat in his control center for Navigation Deck and watched the wallscreen that repeated every image from the Bridge. This openness policy of the whelp allowed him to see and hear everything that happened. And to make his own record of any mistake Renselaer made. He laid his right hand on his seat’s armrest, feeling the neutrino comlink activation stud. It was Star Navy regs for every deck’s control center to have neutrino communications independent of the Bridge neutrino comlink. The reg was there in case a part of the ship was disabled or lost power. He had used the comlink to talk to Mehta. Which had not helped his cause. His contacts with other deck chiefs had been rebuffed, thanks to Branstead’s active lobbying of the chiefs to support Renselaer. What blindness!
Well, he was ready to send his own signal to the captain in charge of the base. Whomever the man might be, surely he would listen to a lieutenant commander calling from a combat-damaged starship!
The wallscreen image that showed the view from the rear of the Bridge now showed the people as they put on their vacsuits. Something he had ordered his people to do ten minutes earlier. More waiting followed. Then the front wallscreen on the Bridge lost its gray portrayal of Alcubierre space-time.
At last!
♦ ♦ ♦
Jacob blinked as the wallscreen went from gray to deep black. The white streak of the Milky Way stretched over one corner of the image, while the yellow star of Kepler 10 was centered in the middle of the screen. Hundreds of white, red, yellow and blue dots filled the space between the two. His holo with the cross-section of the Lepanto’s decks showed Green normal. The right front holo with its true space image repeated what the front screen showed. The upper left holo held multiple sensor images that reflected multi-spectral input from the ship’s sensor arrays. The left side holo was the situational holo that showed an overhead plan view of the star system, its seven planets, and their nine ships at their arrival point in the cometary belt of Kepler 10. Two AU inward was planet seven, a Pluto clone with several small moons. The sight of the other eight ships showing Green normal status was a relief.
“All ships, eject Smart Rocks on sideways vectors,” he said, recalling his plan to leave an intelligent minefield for the enemy. “Let’s leave the wasps a bothersome calling card!”
The destroyers and cruisers acknowledged his order. As did Oliver at Weapons.
“Incoming neutrino comlink from the Star Navy base,” called out Andrew from Communications.
He sat more upright and looked straight ahead. “Display signal on the front wallscreen.”
The image of an Asian male ensign wearing his Service Khaki uniform now appeared to the left of the yellow star. He sat at a table in a room filled with flatscreens, radar and lidar arrays and three control panels. He sat before one of them. The man looked surprised.
“Battlestar Lepanto, your arrival and that of your battle group is a surprise,” the man said with a Minnesota accent. “We thought you were at Kepler 22 and headed further out to find more colony stars.” The man looked aside, then frowned. “My neutrino emissions screen reports only nine ships in your group. You left Earth with ten ships. And where is Captain Miglotti? Are you a deck officer filling in for him and his XO?”
“I am Acting Captain Jacob Renselaer,” he said quickly. “Captain Miglotti, Executive Officer Anderson and Rear Admiral Johanson are all dead. Killed by wasp-like aliens who proposed a First Contact meeting on the fourth planet of Kepler 22. We lost a frigate in two space battles with the aliens. Get your captain now! The alien enemy could arrive at any time!”
Shock filled the man’s face. “Uh, why, damn!” He looked down and tapped something. “Captain O’Sullivan, report to the Com room now! Immediately! Emergency!”
“Heading your way, Mikoto, and it damn well better be an emergency!”
Jacob thought the captain’s voice had a hint of Irish to it. Which meant he could hail from Ireland, or from the northeast of America, perhaps Boston. Whatever. He tapped a control patch on his right armrest.
“Ensign Mikoto, I’m sending you a four minute video of the site where our senior officers for this ship, and our other ships, were all killed. Set it up to display once your captain arrives.”
The slim man blinked black eyes, then looked relieved to have something to do. “Got your transmission. Setting it up on our side wall display. Uh, did this come from someone at the meeting?”
“No! No one was left alive. It’s a Cloud Skimmer image.”
Before the base comlink man could say more, in rushed the tall form of a Navy captain. He was Anglo, had some gray streaks in his short hair and wore brown Service Khakis that looked rumpled. Had the man been in his quarters, resting? He looked at Jacob.
“Who are you? And what are doing on the Bridge of the Lepanto?”
Jacob repeated what he had told the com ensign. “Captain, when we arrived at Kepler 22 we were contacted by aliens. They sent a vid signal proposing a meeting on planet four. Captain Miglotti, XO Anderson and Rear Admiral Johanson went down to the meeting site. So did the captains and XOs of the battle group’s ships. They died there.” He waved a hand. “The video on your wall shows what was left of the meeting site. A smoking pit with their shuttles half melted by a lightning like weapon strike by these wasp aliens,” he said quickly as the man’s brown eyes looked at Jacob, down to Daisy, then over to Richard and Alicia, then back to him. “I was the sole remaining ensign on Command Deck. I was personal assistant to the admiral. When my XO Lieutenant Stewart contacted me about the loss of tablet communications with our officers, I came to the Bridge to find out what had happened. Since it appeared hostile action might have caused the loss of communications, I ordered the ship’s AI to allow the launch of a Cloud Skimmer. That required a change in the ship’s status. By luck I was aware of the ship status change code. I entered it and took the admiral’s seat, hoping to see the signal loss was due to a simple thunderstorm. As you can see from the short video I’ve transmitted, it was not.”
The man had turned away while Jacob spoke and was watching the video on a screen out of view of the com imagery. He took a deep breath, looked down at a tablet he held in his hands, then looked back to Jacob. His expression was intense. “It’s clear the battle group officers died at that location. My tablet lists all personnel on the Lepanto. You are listed as an ensign freshly graduated from the academy. How the hell did you come to be in command?”
“Necessity,” Jacob said quickly, staring at the man as the memory of the Britain’s ghosts filled a part of his mind. “Someone had to act to find out what had happened. There were no other Command Deck officers present in the ship. I acted. After our skimmer got to the site, the alien ships left geosync and came our way in what appeared to be an attack formation. I ordered the other ships to locate their ship status change code. Acting captains came into control of those ships.” He tapped the transmit button once more. “I’m sending you a list of the acting captains for every ship in the battle group. With their help, we repelled the first attack from the enemy, destroying three enemy ships. As we moved away from the planet, heading for the magnetosphere, we were attacked again. We lost the frigate Britain. The enemy lost three more ships. Since then, the enemy followed us out to the system’s edge. I ordered the group to make vector for Kepler 10 as I did not want the wasp aliens to know the vector direction to Earth. Your system and your base were closest to Kepler 22.”
O’Sullivan frowned. “Why didn’t you ask the aliens to stop? Or ask why the officers were killed? Surely no intelligent species attacks for zero reason.”
Below him Alicia stood up. “Captain O’Sullivan, I am Lieutenant Alicia Branstead, chief of Science Dec
k. I can answer that question. The aliens are wasp-like people. My assistants believe they communicate by pheromones. Our radio and lidar broadcasts to them failed to gain a reply. The only true communication we’ve had from them were a series of cartoon videos that they initiated in order to get our people down to planet four. Jacob?”
He tapped the send patch. “I’m transmitting our cartoon videos now.”
O’Sullivan looked aside again. He squinted. Then looked back. “So they told your officers to meet them. Then you sent a video suggesting they go back to planet four while the battle group went outward. They replied with this last video cartoon that told you to meet them on the planet. You didn’t. Lieutenant Branstead, why are you not sitting in the Lepanto’s command seat?”
“Because I believe former Ensign Renselaer is the best person to be in command of the Lepanto and of our battle group,” she said quickly. “He had the foresight to change the ship status code. He had the initiative to send the Cloud Skimmer to give us facts. He ordered the group into a battle formation that withstood the aliens’ first attack. He figured out a way for the Lepanto to escape from the black hole weapon of the aliens.” She paused. “And he ordered the Lepanto and the two cruisers to move to block deadly enemy beam fire on our frigates. Without his combat judgment in both battles, we would have lost half the battle group. As it is, the aliens lost six ships to our single ship loss. For your information, every deck chief on the Lepanto except for one now supports Mr. Renselaer continuing as acting captain of our ship and as leader of the battle group.”
The com ensign, who was seated as O’Sullivan stood over him, spoke. “There is an incoming neutrino signal from a Lieutenant Commander Bannerjee, chief of the Lepanto’s Navigation Deck. Sir, do you wish to view it?”
StarFight 1: Battlestar Page 23