The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace

by Wilson, T. D.

  Wanting to put some distance between himself and McCracken, Hood walked over to Lieutenant Wells at her station. “Lieutenant, anything on that strange signal?”

  “No, sir,” she said with disappointment. “It was weak and seemed to be targeted at the cruiser. We only picked up a remnant of it from the Marines and their shuttle.”

  Hood added it to a growing long list of concerns. If the signal didn’t come from the wrecked cruiser, then where?

  Chapter Fourteen

  EDF Armstrong

  Deep Space Route to Cygni

  Wednesday, January 22

  Earth Year 2155

  Six Hours Since Third Jump

  “Captain’s Personal Log, Wednesday January 22, 2155. I just finished my operational status briefing. Despite our nearly disastrous incident, I’ve been extremely impressed with the professionalism of this new—and by my account—very young crew. There have been a few system malfunctions over the past few days, but each has been handled expertly and without permanent damage or spillover to other systems.

  Admiral Tramp assured me that he and Admiral Grant supported my decision to investigate the wrecked Cilik’ti cruiser and its ultimate destruction. I am sure Mr. McCracken will still be grumbling for days, but there was no good result from the situation. Only an ideal one and experience has taught me well that there is broad stroke between the ideal and reality.

  I’ve finally had the chance to review Lieutenant Greywalker’s security assessment, and she definitely comes as advertised. Her report is remarkably thorough and includes insights on various potential threats and crew personalities, including my own. I never thought of myself as a lion silently waiting for the cage door to open, but I am open to understand her conclusions on that one. Her level of detail is exhaustive and frankly, I am surprised she was able to find the time to review and correlate all her findings. She has to sleep sometime doesn’t she?

  Her observations before our last jump put the crew’s anxiety levels as higher than I would have expected, but completely understandable. We are farther out from Proxima than any other EDF ship has traveled since the war. Coupled with our most recent events, I too, find myself still a little on edge.

  Anyway, I can’t let myself dwell on the possibility of an enemy attack in deep space. If it happens, I am confident we will be ready. Instead, I have looked more closely at the final jumps of our mission. We have three more full range jumps to reach Cygni, and I am continuing our practice of charging our space-fold batteries to full power in case of emergencies.

  The next to last jump looks to be near a rogue asteroid field. According to EDF stellar records, the field may have occurred due to a planetary collision with a comet in the Cygni system, and the impact pushed the debris out of the system. After reviewing the projected flight path of the Magellan, there was a specific course plotted to circumvent the field and provide a clear drop point for their hyper beacon.

  Before our last jump, the use of the beacons as remote scanners has been extremely effective. As an added precaution, I will instruct Lieutenant Aldridge to widen the scan range and look for threats from the asteroids. If the Cilik’ti want to hit us, that is where I would strike.

  I keep thinking about the Magellan’s crew and what we’ll find. As each jump brings us closer, my prayers for their continued safety have increased, and my hope remains strong. I still keep playing the scenarios of meeting my uncle again over and over again in my mind. Will he even recognize me? What do I tell him? How do I explain all that’s happened since they left? Will they understand that I may have to evacuate them from a threat they have never seen?

  But then again, what if he didn’t survive?

  Right now it’s too much to think about. The crew...”

  Hood turned off the recording as his terminal flashed with an incoming communication. He pressed a button on his terminal to open the channel. “This is Hood.”

  Lieutenant Aldridge appeared on the screen. “Sorry to bother you, Captain, but I felt this was important.”

  Waiving off her concern, Hood replied, “It’s alright, Lieutenant. What’s on your mind?”

  “Well sir, Mr. McCraken stopped by my station a little while ago. You know the usual chit-chat about systems, and how they compared to my previous assignments. It was normal, but he caught me at lunch and was inquiring about members of the crew and their specialties. I just shut him down there and left, but he’s been asking around other areas, sir. It’s almost like he’s recruiting for something,” Aldridge explained. “I thought it best to let you know firsthand before it became a bigger problem.”

  Hood’s door chime to his quarters chirped, and a voice called from the hallway. “Captain Hood! Do you have a moment? I would like to talk with you.” The voice clearly belonged to Henry McCraken.

  Hood turned back to his console. “It seems our cricket is now chirping at my door. Don’t worry, Lieutenant, I’ll take care of our pest problem.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Aldridge whispered as she closed the comm channel.

  Hood sat back in chair and put on his best look of respectful contempt. “Come in, Mr. McCraken.”

  As the door slid open, McCraken stepped in confidently. Hood noticed he was dressed slightly out of style for the Epherium executive. His typical business suit was replaced with dress slacks and non-descript short sleeve shirt with a sweater vest, but his sly smile was intact. “Good afternoon, Captain. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to see me.”

  Hood sat forward in his chair. “Yes, Henry, my schedule is busy, so let’s get to it.”

  “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Cygni and our mission. I was going to bring this up in our meeting we were to have today, but I’ve talked to a few people and I think—”

  Hood put up his hand and interrupted him. “I know, I’ve heard.” McCraken tilted his head slightly in confusion. “It’s a big ship, Henry, but not that big. Word gets around.”

  McCraken seemed slight taken aback by Hood’s revelation. He tried to speak again but Hood beat him to it.

  “Let’s look at what you just said, shall we. First of all, this is not our mission. This is the EDF’s and the Armstrong’s mission. You, as a representative of Epherium, are an observer and an observer only.” Hood gestured for McCraken to pull up a chair. “I thought I made that clear when you came on board,” Hood nearly shouted. “Secondly, as an observer, you and your staff were duly informed that they were not to interfere or hinder my crew during your time on board. I’ve already received a list of complaints and that doesn’t make me happy.”

  McCraken finally found a chair and sat down. “Captain, I am truly sorry if I or my staff have caused any undo harm or hindrance to any of your crew. It was clearly not my intention.”

  Hood silenced him with another annoyed look. “Just tell me what you want. If it’s information you wanted, I should have been consulted first. It would have saved you the hassle.”

  McCraken nodded his head in capitulation. “Understood, Captain. What was I trying to gauge from members of the crew were their thoughts on the planet. As you know, Epherium has a great deal of capital invested in these colony ships, and the promise of what we might find.” He sat back and assumed a more casual conversational pose as he crossed his legs. “I was merely hoping to determine skill sets among the crew that could help benefit my team and Earth’s best interests in evaluating the planet’s potential.”

  Hood shook his head in disbelief. “Henry, I’ve known most of the top level Epherium execs for several years, but you, you still continue to amaze me. There are over five thousand people on that planet whose lives may be at risk, and all you can think of is turning a profit?” Hood stood. “What kind of ethics does Epherium stress these days? I figured you were heartless, but when exactly did you sell your soul?”

  “Please Captain, calm down,” McCr
aken pleaded. “Of course our first concerns are the colonists and their safety. We are simply looking at the possible future, if the planet and our people are safe. If that is the case, we need to be ready to identify all the ways this new planet can alleviate our needs back home.” McCraken stood and slowly walked to the sink on the wall of Hood’s quarters. As he poured a glass of water, he turned back to where Hood was standing. “I know you get the same reports I’ve received of the unrest back home. Who can tell what we might find? New resources, new species of animals or plants, or a variety of other discoveries that could offer new possibilities for our people may well be out there.”

  Hood snorted and crossed his arms. “So what do you need?”

  “I propose that once you determine that the planet and the colonists are safe, you assign a team from your crew to assist us in surveys, both on the surface and via the orbital satellites your ship will deploy.” McCraken walked over to Hood and put his water on his desk. “Look, the technology to gather the data we need about the planet on the Magellan is ancient compared to what we have today. The Magellan’s crew will be spending weeks on overland missions alone just to do scans. We can cut it down to a fraction of the time, and that will help the higher ups back home decide who would most benefit. That is, if they chose to come out here.”

  “And of course, Epherium would want some sort of consulting fee for providing this information to those interested parties,” Hood said.

  McCraken drank the water in one long gulp. “Oh, come on, Captain. Let’s not get into the nitty gritty, but yes, I could see that Epherium could provide a valuable service to anyone interested.”

  Hood sat back down and rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment. He knew McCraken’s intentions, while a bit crass, did have some merit. “Alright, if indeed we find the colonists safe and there are no immediate threats, I will assign a small group to work with you, but I want assura—”

  Hood’s terminal beeped with a priority message. “One moment,” he said as he opened the channel.

  Commander Sanchez was standing next to Aldridge at the Tactical station on the bridge. “Captain, our long range sensors have picked up a contact, just at the edge of our range.”

  Concern flooded Hood’s mind and he could feel the hairs beginning to stand on his neck, but he didn’t let it show as he responded, “Any ID or signature?”

  “No, sir. Whatever it is, it’s small. We can’t get a reading on it. I ordered a course correction to close and identify, but she’s shadowing us and maintaining distance,” Sanchez explained.

  “Sound General Quarters and scramble two squadrons of fighters to close and identify. I’m on my way to the Command Deck. Hood out.” Hood switched off his terminal and headed for the door, as he looked over at a now very concerned McCraken, “Sorry Henry, but this will have to wait. We will continue this discussion later. For now, I suggest you return to your quarters.”

  “Will do, Captain. Thank you for providing me your opinion. I do value it,” McCraken answered and as they both left, Sanchez’s voice could be heard over the Armstrong’s communication system calling the ship’s crew to their battle stations.

  * * *

  As Hood entered the Command Deck, Sanchez was already waiting for him. “What’s the situation?” Hood asked, as they walked to the Command Station.

  “The contact is still shadowing, but our fighters are closing,” Sanchez stated. He checked the monitors again. “Estimated four minutes to visual range.”

  Hood watched the tactical display from his station. As the fighters continued to close in on the contact, time seemed to slow down to a veritable crawl, and Hood could sense the tension at many of the stations on the Command Deck was high.

  Aldridge continued her countdown to contact as the squadrons approached. As she reached the one minute mark, the contact dropped from the sensor grid.

  “Blast!” Hood yelled and quickly looked back at the Tactical Station for Aldridge. “Do the fighters have a visual?”

  Aldridge immediately contacted one of the squadron leaders. After a few moments, she looked up and shook her head. “Negative, sir. Contact has bugged out.”

  “Have the fighters do a sweep of the last known location and return,” Hood told Sanchez before turning back to Aldridge. “How fast can we get an analysis on all sensor readings? We need to know what we are dealing with.”

  “My team is uploading it now. We should have something in about fifteen,” she responded without even looking from her terminal.

  Hood shook his head and sat down. Sanchez joined him. “This is a different play for the Cilik’ti. Bait and run isn’t their style.”

  “I agree. If you see them they’re going to hit you. They may strike from hidden positions, but they never run off,” Sanchez said.

  Hood typed some commands on his terminal, and the scenario they had just encountered replayed on the screen. He watched it through twice before turning it off and sitting back in his chair. “At that range, one of their recon ships would have easily had us in sensor range and could remain hidden.” Or send a directed signal to that wrecked cruiser, he thought to himself. He looked back at Aldridge again. “Any gravimetric disturbances or other faint energy spikes in the area?”

  Aldridge scanned her station quickly. “Negative, sir. No space-fold events or energy spikes detected. If she’s out there, she went silent.”

  Hood opened a comm channel from his terminal. “Mr. Whitaker!”

  “No, no...it goes over here...yes there,” could be heard over the channel from a slightly frazzled Whitaker.

  “Excuse me?” Hood asked.

  “Yes, Captain. How can I help you?” Whitaker replied quickly.

  “Well if you’re not too busy down there, can you give me an update on jump battery status? We may need to leave soon.”

  “We just jumped a few hours ago, didn’t we, Captain?”

  Hood sighed. “Thanks for stating the obvious, Mr. Whitaker, but we have a situation. How soon can we be at full charge?”

  “Ah, there it is,” Whitaker blurted out. “Found my spectrometer. Yes, the batteries, uhmmm... We have enough for one jump now, but it would leave the reserves very low. Not much for a second or even a fight with our shield. Can you give me a few hours?”

  “I’ll give you as long as we can, but put the main drive on standby, just in case,” Hood said as he looked back at his flashing terminal.

  “Will do, Captain. You give the call, we’ll be ready,” Whitaker replied smartly. As Hood closed the channel, he heard Whitaker yell, “Not there, I said over there—Are you deaf, man?”

  Hood forced back the urge to laugh, but managed a quick smile at his XO as he stood and headed to the Tactical Station. Aldridge was staring intently at her terminal as Hood walked up beside her. “I saw your message, what do you have?”

  Aldridge continued to type at her terminal and a vague 3D image of a ship came into view. “All we have is a very sketchy silhouette. We barely got a reading at all, but this is all we can make of it.”

  “Can the computer match it to any known Cilik’ti vessels?” Hood asked and started to examine the ship closely, hoping to discover some clue to its identity.

  Aldridge opened a new window on her terminal and started a separate analysis application. She executed a new data load, launched the analyzer and waited for the routine to complete.

  “What’s this, Lieutenant?” Hood asked as he pointed to the screen.

  “It’s a custom app I put together for analyzing Cilik’ti vessels and armaments. I programmed it to look for certain distinctive profiles that are not present in the current EDF analyzer database. It took me almost a year to compile it, and this is the first live target I’ve had to use it on,” she explained.

  “Where did you get the data?”

  “A little here and there. Mo
st came from data captures of engagements in the last few months of the war.” Aldridge grabbed her data pad and handed it to Hood who started to review her notes on the application. “I started with a premise of peeling an onion, sir. I took a look at the different scanner wavelengths our ships use and was able to gain some good information on the different energy signatures from their vessels. Our current analyzer looks at design, physical characteristics, primary energy source, etc. But you know as well as I do that some of those can be masked.”

  Aldridge’s terminal beeped as the first application completed, and once again, indicating the same for her own app. Hood looked over her shoulder. “Talk to me, Lieutenant. What do you have?”

  Aldridge scanned the data from both applications. In disgust, she let out a frustrated groan. “The EDF analyzer cannot find anything in its database to identify it.”

  “What about yours?”

  “That’s what’s strange. I can definitely see that the ship has some version of a pidium-enhanced power core, but there are no definable signatures for weapons or other systems. But I can tell you one thing,” Aldridge said with a slightly positive uptick.

  “What’s that?”

  “Whatever ship that is, it’s definitely not a Cilik’ti vessel.”

  Hood looked at his Tactical Officer in silent disbelief. “How can you be sure?”

  Aldridge waited for her analyzer as it cycled through the report of each signature and pointed to one of the power system. “You see that there? Cilik’ti space-fold drives are de-coupled from their primary core and have a separate generator just for that system. It also provides them some redundancy in case of a primary core failure. They can do it because their cores are far more efficient and compact than our own. Our designs are much larger, and we use the space-fold drives as channels for larger power feeds to provide stability. Not to mention we need the constant power feed to our drives to prevent brownouts on cold startups.” She zoomed in on the ship signature and changed the view to a different scan. “See this scan on the Gamma High Band? This vessel uses a single power core and even though it’s trying to run silent, you can still see a higher energy spike for a feed to its space-fold drive. A design like this would be a tremendous backward leap for the Cilik’ti.”