by Jeff Sims
Jim cancelled the ship wide message and contacted Ben directly. He asked, “Are you in position at the main junction panel and ready?”
Ben replied, “Yes.”
Jim asked, “How long do you need to switch the circuits from the fighter elevator to the missile launchers?”
Ben replied, “Two minutes, maybe a little less.”
Jim really wanted to answer ‘well, you have one minute’. However, that type of response always seemed rather mean to him so instead he answered, “Get it done as quickly as possible, but take enough time to ensure that the work is done properly.”
Jim had simply told Kip that he wanted one marine, one engineer, and one pilot to go on the mission to the fort. He hadn’t specified any names, though John was the obvious choice of engineer since he was the only one that was qualified to pilot a transport. He briefly wondered whether Ace had volunteered to pilot the transport or had been ordered.
Jim broke that connection and contacted Paul Smith. He simply asked, “Are you ready?”
Paul replied, “Yes. I am suited up in the power armor and ready to go. Ace is driving the transport. We are going to launch immediately after the fighters. John said that he is ready to look for giant space balls.”
“Hyper balls,” John corrected from the cockpit of the transport.
Jim said, “Thank you Mister…” Jim froze. He couldn’t remember John’s last name to save his life. Apparently turning 31 came with senior moments. Jim said, “John, what’s your last name again?”
John replied, “Connor.”
Jim said, “Good luck. Your mission is critical and must succeed if we are to have any hope of stopping the Hiriculans from conquering Earth.”
John answered, “I understand. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves.”
Jim contacted Gus and asked, “Is everyone ready?”
Gus replied, “Yes, First squadron is ready to launch. The bottom row has been moved out onto the deck since there are only two fighters in it. Since Ace volunteered to fly the transport, I loaned his wingman to Alpha squadron to replace Paul.”
Jim checked the tertiary monitor. It read 15:10. They were mere seconds from reentry. Jim contacted Kip and asked, “Is everyone ready?”
Kip replied, “Alpha squadron is ready to go. The launch barrier is in place.”
Jim watched as the clocked ticked to 15:00, then 14:59, 14:58 and finally 14:57.
Russ said, “The jump was successful. We are at the entryway to the hyperspace lane. We are 1,750,000 kilometers from the left fort. At our current speed of 0.05 light we will be there in 2 minutes.”
Jim opened a ship-wide channel and said, “Launch fighters.”
Two fighters from First squadron blasted out immediately. They were followed shortly afterward by four on the left and four on the right. The elevator indexed up one row and another four moved into place against the launch barrier on the other side of the launch bay.
Twenty-four seconds later those eight fighters launched. Exactly 24 seconds later another eight fighters blasted out into space and was repeated 24 seconds later with another launch of eight fighters. They had been in real space for a total of 72 seconds and had managed to launch an impressive total of 34 fighters.
Jim contacted Ben and said, “Okay, all of the fighters in the elevators are away.”
Jim got out of the captain’s chair and walked over to the weapons console. He sat down heavily and accidently made the chair tip backwards and squeak loudly.
Russ looked over and said, “Don’t do that.”
Russ said, “All three Hiriculan vessels just appeared. They are 4.5 light seconds behind us. They are firing missiles and starting to launch fighters.”
Jim said, “Port side, begin launching shield buster missiles.”
Jim programmed the missile launchers to fire every 25 seconds. His output was limited to a pathetic 10 missiles every minute or 30 missiles in 3 minutes. The three enemy ships combined could launch 44 missiles every 3 minutes. He desperately hoped that Ben would finish rerouting the secondary power conduit quickly. At this range the missiles had a flight time of 24 seconds.
Jim check the active scanners. The three enemy ships appeared on the monitor. They had the same initial velocity as the Sunflower when they exited hyperspace, but now they were starting to accelerate.
Jim looked up at the tertiary monitor. It showed 13:44. Jim checked the scan and noted that the transport had launched. The Sunflower was only 550,000 kilometers from the left fort. It would take the transport 4 minutes to reach the fort.
Their fighters were only outnumbered 38 to 68 and it was quite possible that the opposing pilots may be Neto instead of Hiriculan. Either way, they should be able to easily win the looming fighter battle and then be able to attack the capital ships.
Jim watched as the 38 fighters formed into a single row and raced toward the on-coming missiles. He hated that he had to show the Hiriculans how quickly that humans could launch fighters.
Further, in a couple of minutes he would have to show the Hiriculans just about every other advantage that humans possessed; specifically their skill at piloting, their ability to shoot down on-coming missiles, and finally their ability to destroy capital ships with only a few missiles by programming them to follow a homing beacon.
He reminded himself that the value of their prize was worth far more than exposing their abilities. Who knows, maybe the exposure will make the Hiriculans reconsider their view of the human race.
Russ said, “We just passed between the two forts. We are starting to circle the left fort. The enemy ships are following. They are gaining on us and will overtake us in less than a minute.”
Jim responded, “Understood.”
There was very little that they could do about that at the moment. If they sped up it would make it much harder to land the fighters and the transport. If they remained at their current rate of speed the missile distances will fall to point blank range and their fighters would no longer have to opportunity to shoot them before they hit the ship.
Jim said, “Increase speed to .11 light. We will just circle around the left fort a few of times and catch up with the transport on the third or fourth lap.”
Jim continued watching the scanner. He watched both forts rapidly rotate a few degrees and stop just as suddenly. He detected the build-up and discharge of an enormous amount of energy. Jim said, “Russ, something crazy is happening on the forts.”
The two forts fired the moment the three enemy ships passed between them. Fourteen massive ion cannons simultaneously fired from the two forts. The light beams crossed the intervening distance in two seconds. The massive beams blanketed the entire area around the enemy ships.
The beams were set to a relatively low intensity to cover that much area, but they were still massively strong by comparison to any normal ship and any normal ion cannon. The beams eradicated everything in their path.
The enemy cruiser was struck dead center by one of the beams. Its shields shimmied for less than a microsecond (.00013 of a second to be exact) and then collapsed. The ion cannon blast then simply made the ship vanish. There was nothing left of it – not even space dust.
One destroyer was caught between two blasts. The first hit it from the bottom up and the second hit from the top down. The destroyer fared no better than the cruiser. It disappeared from the sky. The final destroyer was hit square in the nose by a beam and for a brief instant the rear of the ship continued forward. However, the shields collapsed and the entire destroyer was vaporized.
Two beams eliminated all 44 on-coming enemy missiles. Two other beams destroyed the 22 fighters that had already launched. One fighter was way out of position and managed to survive – sort of anyway. The beam disintegrated the entire back half of the fighter.
The pilot survived initially, but the blast threw him completely free from his fighter. He was still traveling at almost .07 light and began spinning end over end. He continued spinning as he slowly f
lew out of the system. At his trajectory and speed he would reach Solaria in 433 years.
The right fort fired a far, far smaller ion cannon blast and vaporized the lone pilot and the remaining half of his fighter. Solaria now wouldn’t have to worry about an unexpected guest arriving in a few centuries.
Jim checked the scanner and saw that they had a clear board. They had at least 90 minutes until any enemy ships could arrive- 120 minutes for the light of the battle to reach the station and then 30 minutes for more Hiriculan ships to jump to their location.
However, there was a possibility that the Hiriculans could figure out their ships were missing sooner or that reinforcements had already been sent. Either way, he really didn’t want to stay in the system any longer than he absolutely had to.
Jim said, “Russ, it appears that the fort protected us. Do you have any idea why?”
Russ shook his head no and said, “Computer, do you know why the fort saved us?”
…Establishing contact, querying, the forts’ primary function is to prevent unauthorized ships from entering the hyperspace lane and jumping to Earth…
“Well,” Jim stated. “I suppose that was lucky.”
Jim saw that he was being hailed and answered it. Ben said, “The missile launchers are ready to fire. It only took me 1 minute and 48 seconds.”
Jim responded, “Ben, put it back the way it was. We need the fighter elevators operational as soon as possible.”
If Ben had a response he didn’t vocalize it.
Jim said, “Russ, slow down to .002 light. Let’s go ahead and complete one full circle of the fort and then basically stay in front of the fort’s hangar bay while we wait for the transports.”
Jim opened an all hands channel that included the fighters. He said, “The forts destroyed the enemy ships. We are now clear. Alpha squadron, begin landing at your leisure. First squadron, you may begin landing in a couple of minutes when the elevator is functioning.
Jim checked the countdown clock. It showed 8:58.
Colin and Becky entered the bridge. Colin said, “Computer, reset the countdown clock to 72 minutes and 0 seconds.”
Jim whirled around to protest. Just as he was about to speak, he realized what Colin was doing. Even though the Hiriculans had been defeated, they were definitely still watching them. At this point there was no need to show the enemy that they could charge their reservoir faster than the accepted naval standard.
Besides, he doubted that any more Hiriculan vessels would show up anytime soon.
…………………….
Paul was dressed, for lack of a better word, in his powered armor. He was standing right outside the doorway leading from the rear cargo compartment to the front pilot seating area. His electromagnetic locks on his boots were activated; pinning him to the floor. His hands were also locked on both sides of the doorway. He was staring through the open doorway at John and Ace.
Paul said, “Ace, is the rumor true? Did you have to volunteer for this mission because you lost a head-to-head simulation against Kip Armstrong?”
Ace raised his hand up to the roof of the transport and touched the control to close the door. He held it there for a moment.
Paul said, “C’mon, what happened. Don’t shut me out.”
Ace replied, “It wasn’t head-to-head. It was two-on-two. And yes, I lost the bet. However, I lost it on purpose because I wanted to go on this mission. This is where the action is going to be.”
Paul figured it was a half-truth. Perhaps Ace had convinced himself that he really wanted to fly a transport to pick up some big balls instead of engaging in a dogfight. Paul reminded himself that this wasn’t the first time that Ace had flown a transport through a battle zone.
During the battle at the Spindle Station, Ace ditched his fighter and flew an entire bridge crew away from the station and to the safety of the battleship Guardian. Paul had been on that shuttle as well in much the same position – magnetically sealed to one of the walls.
Ace had been ordered to fly the transport that time. This time he had volunteered. Paul figured the truth probably lay somewhere in between. Perhaps Ace had really thrown the simulation for the chance to pilot a transport through a battle again.
Paul noted that Ace’s finger was still on the button so he decided to change the subject. He asked, “How much longer until we land?”
Ace lowered his hand and replied, “Four minutes.”
John said, “Ace, two enemy fighters just broke from the pack and are flying toward us. They will reach us before we reach the meteoroid’s hangar bay.
Ace didn’t react to the news, partly because the flight computer had already whispered the information to him and partly because he was calm and collect beyond belief. His Zen mood wasn’t surprising though since he was wearing the pilot cap and flying the transport in manual mode.
John announced, “Both asteroids just fired their ion cannons. All enemy fighters and capital ships have been destroyed, including the two fighters that were targeting us.”
Paul asked, “Were we hit?”
John studied the scan for a brief moment, but Ace answered faster. He calmly said, “No. The cannon blasts just targeted the Hiriculan vessels. Our fighters are turning around and preparing to land on the Sunflower.”
“Do we know why the forts destroyed the Hiriculans?” Paul asked.
John replied, “I don’t know. I contacted the ship. Nobody there knows either. Their best theory is the forts either love Humans or hate Hiriculans or something.”
They completed the remaining two minute flight in relative silence. No one had any information to add to the discussion and the cruiser offered no more theories about what had just happened. Ace slowed the transport down to near zero as he approached the fort’s force field.
This particular force field, or light barrier, separated the fort’s hangar bay from outer space. It kept the atmosphere inside the hangar bay from floating into outer space. Correspondingly, the force field was semi-permeable.
When a ship passed through the barrier, the field formed around it and kept air from leaking out. The light barrier could also harden and act as a force field to keep things out. It could also keep ships in, but there was a failsafe to allow any ship to leave in the event of an emergency. It was among the more remarkable scientific inventions that the Advranki had made.
Ace flew the transport through the light barrier and into the hangar. He spun the transport end-to-end in a supremely graceful maneuver and landed it without even the slightest bump. The front was now pointed toward the light barrier and the rear toward the interior of the hangar.
Paul unlocked himself and walked two quick paces to the rear door. He unhooked his Gatling gun and attached it just below his left forearm. He then pressed the control to open the rear door. He took three deep breaths and jumped out of the back just as the door opened.
Intel suggested… No, Paul really did not want to call intelligence. Everyone simply assumed that the automated station would be abandoned, but no one really knew. The station was too dense to scan. It could be empty or filled with hundreds of Hiriculans or some other threat they hadn’t anticipated.
Paul activated the Gatling gun and the barrel started spinning so fast that it looked red hot. Paul spun through a full arc and spotted three beings. They spotted him at the same time and jumped face first to the ground.
Paul managed to hold his fire. They didn’t look like Hiriculans and certainly didn’t react in an aggressive manner. A second later one of the said in Alliance basic, “Don’t shoot you idiot.”
Paul lowered his forearm and the Gatling gun with it. He turned the barrel off. The beings didn’t look familiar at first, but the comment certainly did. Paul completed a full 360 degree sweep of the immediate area and looked back at the three beings laying on the ground.
By that time both John and Ace had exited the transport and were standing next to him. John said, “Lorano, Carank, is that you?”
All three
aliens stood up. Lorano made a great show of huffing and swiping imaginary dust particles off of his outfit. Lorano said, “Hello Humans. This is Victor Bullpeep. What are you doing here?”
Ace, Paul, and John said in near unison, “We’ve met.”
John said, “We just stopped by to obtain some equipment. Then we are headed to Earth.”
Carank said, “I take it you found the secret hyperspace lane to Earth.”
John replied, “Yes, we were able to track the trajectories of the 6,000 missiles and deduce the general area. We then fired some missiles of our own and found the Waylon – Earth hyperspace lane.”
Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, Paul removed his helmet. He asked, “What are you three doing here?”
Carank said, “Six actually. There are three others on the mini-freighter – Crista, Clowy, and Lexxi. I think that some of you have met some of them.”
Lorano continued, “We fled from Solaria when the Hiriculans invaded because we didn’t want to expose the secret route to Earth.”
The reasons for this course of action certainly seemed clear to Lorano when they were in hiding on Solaria. Now though, the reasons for abandoning civilization in favor of the Humans and the planet Earth seemed rather unclear.
Carank said, “We are on our way to Earth. We are going to help you fight the Hiriculans.”
Victor asked, “You mentioned equipment earlier. What are you looking for?”
John replied, “Kolvak and Shole, two Advranki engineers previously stationed on the Conron Naval Supply Depot supposedly hid some hyper bubbles in a transport somewhere on this station. Maybe you know them?”
Lorano suddenly realized the importance of his statement. There was absolutely no way that the humans could build hyperspace bubbles with their existing technology. It would take them years, decades even, to develop a stable process for their manufacture.
Carank replied, “I have never met either being, but I am glad that they helped you. Having a ready supply of hyper bubbles will be very helpful.”