by Jeff Sims
It was free of any signs of habitation, save for one remaining item. Kolvak stopped and looked at the sink in the kitchen unit. He remembered when one of the humans told him the importance of packing the kitchen sink, but at the moment he couldn’t remember why. Or wait, did the humans say it was important to leave the sink. He just couldn’t remember.
He inspected the rim. Unfortunately, the sink was fusion welded to the counter. He would have to drag a welder to the room to decouple the seam. It would take a couple of precious hours to remove it without ruining the entire sink and counter.
Kolvak said, “Shole, your entire room is packed; it appears that we have taken everything except the kitchen sink. Go ahead and go to the control room now. I will pack my room and carry our belongings to the transport.”
Kolvak dragged the electro cart through the door adjoining the two apartments. He neatly packed all of his clothing and decorations into two large suitcases. He briefly inspected his sink, but it was also fusion welded in place.
There was only one item left, his dried sea moss collection. He had a 10 cm by 10 cm (4” by 4”) square of sea moss from every planet – including the hard to get sample from Altian 3. He even had squares from most of the main space stations.
About the only one he was missing was from the Space Station #9, the one located in deep space beyond Advranki 2. He had been planning on going there during his next vacation. However, now that he had no longer got a military discount on commercial travel fare, he doubted he would ever be able to take a trek to that distant star. It appeared that he had now missed his chance to take a voyage to the distant station.
He checked the cart’s current weight against its load capacity. It was close to being overweight, but still within the upper end of its operating range. However, he knew that another suitcase would make the cart difficult to maneuver. However, he really didn’t want to leave his precious sea moss collection behind.
Finally, he grabbed his remaining suitcase. He carefully took each square off of the wall, vacuum sealed it in a plastic bag, and placed it in the case. Once finished, he placed the case on top of the cart. He checked the weight again; and as he had suspected, it was still under. Also as expected, the cart was loaded too high and was now very difficult to maneuver.
He slowly worked his way along the corridor until he reached the electro lift. He activated the call signal and waited for it to come to his level. He pushed the cart onto the lift. It bumped against the back wall and spilled about half of the bags onto the floor.
Kolvak sighed at the mess and said, “Secondary hangar bay.”
…Unable to accommodate your request. Verbal commands for this electro lift are off-line…
Kolvak pressed the palm pad to activate the keypad and manually entered in the correct destination. He carefully restacked the luggage back onto the cart as he was riding down.
He reached the hangar bay and tugged the cart off of the electro lift. Once accomplished, he scanned the bay. It was completely empty. There were only two transports, or vessels of any kind for that matter, left in the hangar. It looked weird he thought.
He started to drag the cart across the hangar bay toward the nearest transport. He went 18 steps and stopped. He almost stumbled when the cart continued moving and bumped into the back of his legs. Kolvak cursed softly and thought for a moment.
A moment was all that he needed to come up with a clever solution. For the record though, if he had needed two or even three moments to think of the aforementioned clever solution he would have used them because he really didn’t enjoy pulling the cart across the length of the hangar bay. As previously stated though, he didn’t need the extra time.
Kolvak set the cart on low hover so that it would remain in place about 3 cm (1 inch) above the hangar bay floor. He then walked across the hangar bay to the closest transport. He removed the reservation code and unlocked it. He then climbed in through the main entry hatch located in the rear and walked through the storage area / crew compartment and to the cockpit.
He sat in the pilot’s chair. He activated the plasma reactor and slowly brought the transport to life. Once it was functioning properly, he backed the transport across the hangar and parked it right next to the electro lift; completely ignoring the lines on the bay floor and a rather large sign on the wall informing him that he technically wasn’t allowed to park the transport this close to the electro lift.
He briefly considered flying it forward to an actual parking spot. It bothered him that he was breaking a rule. However, there was no one else here to enforce the rule or even note that he had broken it. That settled, he left the transport double parked in an illegal zone and walked 16 paces back to the electro cart.
He reengaged the hover ability and dragged the cart into the rear, cargo area of the transport. He unloaded the cart and carefully stacked the luggage against the wall. He then secured the luggage to the cargo holders so that they couldn’t move. He doubted that he would have to make any sudden maneuvers while leaving the station, but it was certainly better to be cautious. Besides, Shole wouldn’t see the battle for another two hours, so he had plenty of time to spare.
He had plenty of time to spare.
Kolvak sat in the pilot seat and thought about that for a long moment. He supposed that he could go join Shole in the control room. However, going to the control room and sending a message to the humans had been her mission, not his. He thought it would seem strange if he initially rejected the idea, but then reversed it and joined her. So, he decided not to go to the control room.
That still meant that he had plenty of time.
Kolvak thought about what he could do slow down or seriously hurt the Hiriculans. He supposed that he could combine the polonium and deuterium in the station’s storage chambers. Then, he could accidentally toss in just enough selenium to create a chain reaction and cause the station to explode. However, that would more than likely qualify as terrorism. He needed to do something subtle. Whatever he did, he had to do it without actually harming the station.
Suddenly, the thought of something that he could do that would hurt the Hiriculans somewhat and really help the humans! He checked the time and realized that he still had plenty of time to accomplish the task.
Kolvak left the transport and briskly walked the three paces back to the electro lift. He rode the lift down 14 floors to the maintenance area. He walked past general maintenance and into the core area where precision components are manufactured and assembled.
He walked directly over to a small bank of machines and stared at them for a minute. There were 4 rectangular shaped machines in total. Each was about the size of a combination washer / dryer stacked on top of one another. They were dull grey with no visible features on the sides or back.
The front of each machine contained several openings for raw materials and several openings for finished components. The main output from the first machine was the main input for the second and so on. The 4th machine was by far the most important. It was used for overall assembly, activation, and test of the finished part.
They were beautiful in their own way, he thought. He had a working knowledge of how they operated and he could come close to explaining the theory behind their function, but he knew that he couldn’t recreate the machines. He knew that there was no way that the humans would be able to do so.
The machines created a device that generated an ionizing dielectric stream that was fully encased in a moiety field. In essence, the inside of unit contained a tiny fragment of anti-matter that was wrapped in a reverse electro-magnetic field that was similar to a black hole. It was basically a stable quantum box.
When activated, the unit created a hyperspace window by ripping a small hole in the fabric of space time. It was an amazing technological advance and formed the basis for advanced mathematics and engineering. Basically, its creation allowed the Advranki / Altians to explore other solar systems. Its actual name was a Hyper Imbricater, but most beings simply referred to
it as a hyper bubble.
Hyper bubbles had to be replaced every once in a while, so it would inconvenience the Hiriculan fleet stationed here when they needed to change one. They would either have to get finished bubbles from Hiricula or import replacement manufacturing equipment. Without these machines though, humanity would be stuck in their own solar system for centuries.
Kolvak found 4 industrial sized electro carts and moved one beside each machine. He then grabbed several gravity lifters. He fused one to the first machine and activated it. He repeated the process 5 more times until the machine was hovering above the ground.
He slid the electro cart under the now hovering machine. He then carefully removed the gravity lifters one at a time until the first machine was resting on the cart. He repeated the entire process three more times. All of the machines were now ready to be moved.
Kolvak looked around the machine shop. Something was bothering him and he stopped to think. After a minute he realized his mistake. The assembly line that he was taking was indeed used to make a hyper bubble, but there was a catch.
There were 10 other machines that were used to create the necessary components that fed into the machine. If the components weren’t made exactly perfect, the hyper bubble could lose containment and explode. Even worse, the bubble could translate it and everything around it into hyperspace.
Kolvak knew that the 10 additional machines wouldn’t fit in the transport. Actually, none of the other machines would fit. He dithered for a moment and finally settled on a course of action. He started each of the 10 feeder machines and hastily put a hover cart beside each one.
Kolvak carefully maneuvered the industrial sized electro cart into the electro lift. There was just barely enough room for him beside the machine. He reached the hangar bay and pulled the electro cart to the second transport. It took him two hours to move all 4 machines to the 2nd transport.
He checked the time. He was now rapidly running out of it.
Kolvak had earlier estimated that they had 4 hours until the Hiriculans arrived at the station. By that estimate, he only had about 90 minutes left. He returned to the precision maintenance shop and checked the status of each machine. They were all churning out component parts as fast as possible.
He let the machines run another 50 minutes and then stopped them. The fastest machine had produced just over 500 parts, but the slowest had made only 398. He turned that one back on and let it produce two more parts as he gathered up the other components and consolidated them on an electro cart. He shut the slow machine off a second time and placed the final two parts on top of the cart.
Not bad, he thought, if the humans could somehow sneak into Conron and steal the transport they would be able to build 400 hyper capable ships. He was a little frustrated – if the Hiriculans had given him a 3 day advance notification in writing of their invasion plans then he could have relocated all of the required pieces of equipment and built a few thousand spare hyper bubbles.
Kolvak dragged the electro cart filled with hyper bubble components down the electro lift and to the 2nd transport. The cargo area was already full; there wasn’t enough room to push the electro cart into it. Kolvak unloaded the electro cart and stacked the components in the seats, the pilot area, and anywhere else he could find.
Finally he programmed the transport’s autopilot to fly to the fort that was guarding the now corrupted Conron – Earth hyperspace lane and land in the cargo bay. He watched it leave and then walked to the electro lift.
He checked the time. He was now almost out of it. According to his conservative estimate of 4 hours, the Hiriculans would arrive at the station in 10 ten minutes.
………..…………
Shole loaded the last bag onto the electro cart. Like most members of the Advranki Navy, she had few possessions. However, seeing her entire life reduced to 4 bags made her feel both worthless and angry at the same time.
Shole left her room, for the last time she wistfully noted, and walked to the control room. Fifty minutes had passed since the message was first broadcast. It was odd, she had never seen any of these corridors so empty. It actually reminded her of her time of the time she had recently spent on the space station in Waylon with the humans.
She reached the door to the control room. She was winded from the long walk and was panting. She now realized why the Navy wanted her to stay in shape. She made a mental note to do a better job of exercising in the future. Then she mentally cancelled it because it she realized that she was only going to be in the Navy for a few more hours and she really didn’t care much for exercise.
She realized that she was still standing outside the control room. The primary reason that she was in this particular predicament was that the door didn’t open automatically on her approach. Further, she noted that the large blast doors surrounding control room were also closed and sealed. She pressed the palm pad beside the door. It still didn’t open. Frustrated, she said, “Computer, why won’t the door open?”
…It is locked…
Shole hated when computers were reset. She really wanted to scream, but resisted the temptation. She suddenly changed her mind and screamed, “Of course it is locked you, you…illogical excuse for interpolation.”
That calmed her down a little. However, yelling at the computer was not a productive way to open the door. Further, the computer probably didn’t care if it was insulted.
She said, “Computer, can you unlock the door?”
…Of course; unlocking a door is one of over 39 million things that I have been programmed to perform. Would you like me to list all of the functions that I am capable of performing in alphabetical order...
Shole felt like screaming again, but managed to maintain her composure. She said, “No; that will not be necessary. Please unlock this door now.”
…I cannot. The door has been locked and secured with the explicit instruction that only Alliance Naval personnel are allowed to open it…
Seems reasonable, Shole thought. She placed her hand on the palm pad again and said, “Computer, please read my palm signature and confirm that I am an engineer in the Alliance Navy.”
…Sorry. I am unable to verify that you are a member of the Alliance Navy…
“Why?” Shole asked.
…All Alliance Naval records have been deleted; including personnel files…
She responded, “You should be able to confirm that this is an Alliance Naval base and the only beings currently occupying it are members of the Alliance. Further, you should have been able to tell from my palm signature that I am a member of the Advranki race and know that Advranki are members of the Alliance. Therefore, you should be able to deduce from the information available that I am a member of the Alliance Navy.”
…Your reasoning is valid, but it is still based on a supposition and cannot be independently verified…
She screamed again and called the computer yet another derogatory name. Frustrated, she pulled out her communication pad and said, “Computer, talk to the station computer and try to convince it that I have the authority to enter the control room.”
… (Pad) Yo…
… (Station) Wassup…
… (Pad) Listen up, this chic is legit…
… (Station) Too legit to quit…
… (Pad) Hey, I been chillin with this homey since bits were binary...
… (Station) Okay then, it’s cool…
Shole sighed in relief when the large blast doors finally began opening. She waited until the doors had retracted just enough for her to slip through and edged her way into the control room. She considered locking the door behind her, but decided against it. The only beings that would try to stop her were the Hiriculans and fortunately, they weren’t here yet.
Shole activated both the active and passive scanners and sat down at one of the control room monitoring stations. She felt a little guilty that Kolvak had to pack everything while she just basically sat and watched a monitor, but she quickly got over her feelings of
remorse when she started watching the battle.
The light from the entire battle had already reached and passed the station and had been automatically recorded. She indexed backward until she found the moment when the first Hiriculan ships appeared.
She watched as the first group of Hiriculan warships left the area and another group appeared a minute later. She knew that the battle was essentially over 3 minutes later when the 4th wave of enemy vessels appeared. She said, “They have 8 battleships and 16 destroyers; that must mean that they intend to bring 8 entire fleets into the system.”
She watched the initial missile salvo and realized that the enemy must have fired gravity missiles. It was the same strategy that they had employed in the battle of Opron. That time the humans were ready to fight the moment they arrived in the system. This time though, the Advranki fleet was not ready.
The two fleets maneuvered past one another. The Alliance fleet lost two destroyers in the missile exchange, but was otherwise intact. “Wow,” she exclaimed, “They did fairly well despite being outnumbered and massively outgunned.”
She saw that Admiral Wertak had successfully gotten out of the gravity missile trap and could now jump to safety. She found herself silently cheering. Perhaps there was a chance that Wertak could return and retake the system. That chance, however small, dissipated when the Alliance didn’t jump out of the system.
Instead, the Alliance fleet initiated a tight semi-circle turn. Then they destroyed the next two waves of Hiriculan cruisers. Then, the enemy fleet destroyed the 9 Alliance ships with a combination of ion cannons and missiles. Finally, an Alliance destroyer killed a Hiriculan battleship. After that, both sides stopped fighting. She realized that this must be when the Alliance was given the opportunity to surrender and accepted.