by D. J. Holmes
Sub Lieutenant Jennings was at his side in a matter of seconds. “Are you alright Lieutenant?” she asked.
“Yes, I think so,” Mallory said through gritted teeth. “It’s just a flesh wound. A damn painful one I might say though.”
As Jennings helped him to his feet he let out another groan but he tried to ignore the pain and carry on. “Get these doors open. I bet Major Johnston is itching to get into action.”
Mallory wasn’t surprised to see the Major already standing on the other side of the doors when they opened. “We heard some shooting outside the door,” he offered as an explanation for his presence.
“Do you have any weapons?” Mallory asked through gritted teeth.
“No, Ferguson has locked us out of all our equipment,” Johnston answered.
“Well you can take these guard’s plasma rifles and our stunners. You’ll be better with them than us.” Mallory said, handing over his weapon to a nearby marine. “The Captain has tasked us with retaking engineering. From there we can shut off power to the rest of the ship. He is hoping it won’t come to that though. The Captain is making his way to the bridge now to confront Ferguson and end this farce.”
“Ok,” Johnston said. “Mind if I take over?”
“Sure,” Mallory said. “Though I have an idea about engineering. Some of the men in there are from Chester, they are loyal to me. I think I can convince them to change sides. If they will put down their arms there shouldn’t be too many of Ferguson’s men left to put up a fight.”
“And what made you change sides?” Johnston asked coldly.
“I was always on the Captain’s side,” Mallory said. “How do you think he got out of the brig? I needed to play the mutineer to get Ferguson’s trust that’s all.”
“Right,” Johnston said, quickly changing his tone, “smart thinking.”
“Follow me,” he said loud enough for the rest of the group to hear, “I’m taking point.”
On their way to engineering they encountered two patrols but Johnston quickly dispatched them with his plasma rifle. All four crew members went down with plasma bolts to their legs. Mallory winced when he saw the burns on some of them, guessing his side would look similar. Still, he gritted his teeth and carried on through the pain.
When they got to engineering the access door they were at wouldn’t open. Mallory told everyone else to stand out of sight and keyed the intercom. “Mallory to engineering. Open up, I’m here for an inspection.”
“Hold on a minute Sir,” a voice replied.
Thirty seconds later the door slid open. Mallory headed through, closely followed by a number of marines.
Engineering was a massive room. The ceiling was more than forty feet high and the room was filled with all kinds of pipes and conduits that diverted energy from the fusion reactors to the various sections of the ship. He purposefully strode into the middle of the room, trying not to limp from the spreading pain in his side. The marines behind him spread out around the outer edges, taking up positions where they would have clear fields of fire.
“My fellow men of Chester,” Mallory called out loud enough for all the crew in engineering to hear him. “I know most of you joined this mutiny on my say so, either because you trusted me or because you owed me something. Well I’m here to tell you I only did so to win Ferguson’s trust, not because I believed in his concerns. I’m here to return control of the ship to the Captain. If you throw down your weapons now there will be no consequences for you.”
“What are you doing?” an Ensign loyal to Ferguson shouted as he raised his COM unit in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other.
Before he could get off a call the bridge, Johnston hit him with a plasma bolt in the chest, killing him instantly. “We have you surrounded,” Johnston called. “This is your last chance.”
The mutineers threw down their weapons. Marines appeared from nowhere to snap them up for themselves and herd the mutineers into a large group in the center of the room.
Satisfied that the crew wouldn’t put up any more resistance Mallory sunk to his knees. The pain was becoming unbearable. Within seconds both Jennings and Jil’lal were at his side.
“You’re not ok Sir,” Jennings said as she pulled back the burned sections of his uniform. “We need to get the Lieutenant to sickbay,” she shouted to Major Johnston when she saw the extent of his burns.
“Ok, you take him,” Johnston said. “I’ll send two marines with you as an escort.”
“I’m coming too,” Jil’lal said as she helped Mallory to his feet.
*
James, Julius and Becket had released over forty of Endeavour’s crew and sent them to make a nuisance of themselves across the ship and release everyone else. Now they had made it to the bridge. Thankfully, Ferguson hadn’t got around to blocking out James’ command codes and as he tried the main doors they acknowledged his orders to open.
“Here we go,” James said, “try not to damage the bridge but whatever happens, I want Ferguson in custody.”
When the doors opened Becket rushed in at full speed. She spotted one of the bridge crew holding a plasma rifle. Before he even knew that someone was attacking the bridge she had dispatched him with a single shot to the chest. Two more of the mutineers manning the bridge tried to bring up their weapons but Becket shot one of them and leveled her weapon on the other. “Don’t,” she said. “It’s over.”
Julius was already at the feet of one of the dead mutineers, picking up his weapon and scanning the rest of the bridge for any more troublemakers. “Everyone else stay where they are,” she said.
James ignored everything around him and walked to the middle of the bridge to where Ferguson was standing looking at the main holo display “I can’t believe they did it. They did it, they really did it, I can’t believe they did it,” he mumbled over and over to himself.
James was horrified when he paused to see what Ferguson was looking at. The holo display was showing one of the Kulrean worlds. Endeavour’s sensor scans of the planet when they had first arrived in the system had estimated that there were over forty large cities on the planet. Now they all burned. Mushroom clouds were rushing into the air over each city and mountains of debris were raining down onto the planet as what was left of the giant orbital structures was sucked into the planet’s gravity. It looked like the Overlord’s fleet had destroyed everything the Kulreans had built. There was complete devastation. The loss of life was far beyond anything James could imagine.
“I can’t believe it,” Ferguson said again, pulling James’ attention back to the bridge. In that instant James had a moment of compassion for the man. He had genuinely thought he was doing the right thing. Now the destruction had broken him. Deep down Ferguson must have come to realize the Admiralty would never approve of someone who ran away and let a hostile fleet do this to a defenseless planet.
Pushing down his compassion, James approached Ferguson and lifted the butt of his rifle. For a split second there was a flash of recognition on Ferguson’s face as James came into view but it was gone as soon as James brought the rifle butt down on Ferguson’s forehead. He hit the deck unconscious.
“Take him to the brig,” James ordered. “And get these traitors out of here.”
He spun and made his way to his command chair. With a few quick commands he released the remaining crew then opened a COM channel to engineering.
“Chief?” he asked.
A few seconds later Driscoll replied, “this is the Chief. We have regained control of engineering Captain. Everything seems to be in working order. I assume you are back in control of the bridge?”
“Yes Chief, Ferguson is no longer a problem,” James said. “How soon can you give us full power to the engines? I think we’re going to have to hurry.” James didn’t know where the Overlord’s fleet was but he knew they would be up to no good.
“Ferguson had the reactors powered down,” Driscoll began. “It will take me at least ten minutes to warm them up but once I get t
hem started you can get Endeavour under way.”
“Ok, get on it Chief. Inform me as soon as we are ready to get moving,” James requested. “Send Mallory and the Sub Lieutenants to the bridge if you don’t need them anymore.”
“They’re already on their way Sir,” Driscoll said. “All of them but Mallory that is. He took a plasma bolt to his side, Jil’lal and Jennings are taking him to sickbay now. I don’t think his injuries are life threatening so he should be fine.”
“Thank you Chief,” James said, closing the COM channel.
Ten minutes later he was satisfied that he was now fully in control of his ship. Major Johnston and his marines had regained access to their equipment and they were now apprehending the last of the mutineers.
When the Major contacted him to inform him the last of them were caught, James ordered the Major to release any of them who were willing to man their battlestations. The Major protested but did as he was ordered. James opened a ship wide COM channel.
“All crew members, this is the Captain speaking,” he began. “I am now in complete control of Endeavour. I’m afraid we have no time to spare. The Overlord’s fleet has already attacked and destroyed one of the Kulrean’s worlds. We need to act now. I’m ordering everyone to their battlestations. I’m sending the live feeds of what the Overlord’s fleet has done to every command terminal on the ship. You need to see for yourselves what we are fighting against. I don’t know what we can do to help but if we can do anything to prevent this from happening again then we need to act.
“I’m also releasing all the non-senior officers who were involved in the mutiny. Endeavour s going to need every crew member she has in the next few hours.
“For those of you who did mutiny, if you do your duty now I promise it will go a long way towards alleviating any consequences you might face in the future. To the rest of you, fight well. This day could have repercussions that ripple through the coming centuries. We cannot let another race simply be wiped out.”
Just as he finished speaking the first of the Sub Lieutenants entered the bridge and took their seats alongside Becket and Julius. “I want a full scan of the system with our active sensors. It will give away our position but we need to know what’s happening out there.”
“Aye Sir,” Malik said from the sensor command terminal.
“Julius, I want you to get to the auxiliary bridge. If anything happens to me do your best to help the Kulreans,” James ordered.
“Yes Sir,” Julius said. “I won’t let you down.”
A couple of minutes later Lieutenant Mallory walked in. “What are you doing here Lieutenant? Aren’t you supposed to be in sickbay?” James asked.
“I was there. The doctor gave me some pain meds and I checked myself out. I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Mallory said.
“Then take your seat beside me,” James said, “It’s a pleasure to have you along for the ride. I’m just waiting on a system wide scan to see what’s going on.”
Chapter 28 - Reality
Our Scientists have made great leaps in their ability to produce extremely realistic holo entertainment suites. Individuals have been known to seal themselves off in their own self-contained fantasy worlds for years, yet in the end no one can truly escape reality.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
10th August 2466 AD, HMS Endeavour, Kulthar System.
“Situation report,” James asked Malik once he felt he had given the Sub Lieutenant enough time to analyze the sensor data.
“There are almost no signs of life left on Kulpath,” Malik reported. “I think the attack was another attempt by the Vestarians to test the waters. Their main battle fleet is now on a direct course for Kulthar itself. The Kulrean capital planet is on the other side of the system’s star so they will reach their target in five hours.”
“How many ships do they have left?” James asked.
“Eighty four cruisers and ninety five frigates, the same number we left behind after we hit them when they were refueling.”
“Damn,” Mallory said, “it looks like the Kulreans really don’t have any weapons.”
“I guess not,” James said. “And what is happening over Kulthar?”
“It looks like all hell has broken loose,” Malik said. “There are literally thousands of ships flying around the planet. From this range it’s hard to make anything more than that out. Even some of the larger stations that were in orbit look like they are trying to accelerate away, though I don’t think they will be able to get very far in five hours.”
James took several minutes to study the holo display. The entire system looked like an ant nest he had disturbed as a child. Ships were scurrying about in every direction, seemingly without any kind of order. He imagined the entire social order of the Kulrean civilization was breaking apart for they had nothing in place to handle such an attack. Ants, James said to himself, they have their own way to defend themselves don’t they? Even against bigger and more powerful opponents. It might just work!
“Chief,” James called over a COM channel, “do you have the reactors up and running yet?”
“Yes Sir,” Driscoll answered, “I have just begun feeding power to the engines. You should be free to maneuver now.”
“Navigation, plot us a course to Kulthar. Take us around the opposite end of the star to the Overlord’s fleet. As soon as you have the power for it, take us up to eighty percent of our top speed.”
“Yes Sir,” Jennings said.
“How long will that take us to get there?” James asked.
“We can be in orbit around Kulthar in two hours,” Jennings answered after plotting the course.
Good, James thought, maybe that will give us enough time to convince them. Thankfully Endeavour’s sub light impulse drives were far more powerful than whatever technology the Overlord’s fleet used and they had a significant acceleration and top speed advantage. “Engage the engines,” he commanded.
“I think the Overlord’s fleet has spotted us,” Malik said twenty minutes later. “There are about thirty ships breaking off their main formation.”
“So I see,” James said. “It looks like they are trying to intercept us before we reach the system’s star. Jennings wait until they have reversed their velocity in relation to the main fleet then bring us up to our full speed.”
“You don’t want to engage them?” Mallory asked
“No, I think that is what their commander wants. If we engage those ships they might be able to destroy us, certainly we will take some heavy damage. Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet will be free to attack Kulthar.
“We can simply go to our max speed and zip past them. The Vestarian commander will then have to decide if he wants to leave these ships behind or slow his main fleet to allow these ships catch up.”
“You wanted the enemy commander to send some ships after us? That’s why you started off going slower than we could,” Mallory asked.
“Yes,” James said, “I bet after our attack on the resupply ships the enemy commander is very concerned about us. Probably more scared than he needs to be. We can use that.”
Ten minutes later Jennings boosted Endeavour up to her top speed. The thirty alien ships trying to intercept her initially boosted their own speed by a marginal amount. Yet it soon became clear they wouldn’t be able to stop Endeavour from swinging around the star in front of their main battle fleet. Giving up, they reversed their course and fell in behind the main battle fleet, though now they were almost an hour behind.
“That evens the odds a little,” James said, happy that they had won a minor victory.
*
“Contact Kulthar,” James said when they were close enough that two way communication would be manageable.
“Captain Somerville,” Hallock said when his face appeared on the holo display five minutes later. “I’m afraid you have been proven correct. Kulpath burns, that war fleet killed over a billion of our people.”
“You have my deepest sympath
ies,” James said. “I had hoped the Vestarian fleet had only come to conquer your people, not exterminate them. I am here to offer my help again. We may yet still save some of your people.”
“We are evacuating the system now,” Hallock said. “I’m trying to get as many of my people out of here as possible. We will not resort to violence however. We have already talked about this. My people may be dying all around me but if we try to save ourselves by killing others then we will already have lost who we are.”
“You may not have to resort to violence,” James said and proceeded to outline his plan to Hallock.
“Absolutely not,” Hallock said. “What you are purposing is as close to Kulreans killing as makes no difference.”