“How long does it take to launch them if we come under attack?”
“About two minutes if we are at the ready.”
“Will that work Bennett?” asked Reeder.
“Not sure, why not have half of them launched and the other half in waiting” questioned Cerro.
“Let’s go with it” commanded Inman, “who are the pilots, are they trained military pilots or civilian?”
“About half and half” responded Cerro?
“Let’s get the most experienced pilots and weapons control officers launched before we come out of warp. If we run into aliens, I do not want to fire on anyone unless fired on first. However, if fired upon, I want to hit back hard, and I don’t want anyone waiting for permission. Just make sure everyone is aware we are not in the Wild West, we do not want to make any enemies, and in fact, we could use some friends out here.”
“Aye sir” responded Cerro.
“Let’s get to it.”
Reeder smiled at Inman as she walked out of the room and he caught her glance as he turned toward his computer to check for ETA updates.
“We are coming out of warp in two minutes sir” reported Newman.
“On my way.”
The tiny fleet dropped out of warp into a nightmare. It seemed the entire Silirc fleet met them and almost immediately began to fire on the Eagle. The battle ready shuttles immediately began to return fire using reproductions of the plasma weapons taken in the battle with the Silirc years earlier at the battle on M1.
The cruiser instantly fired the TRay’s at the closest Silirc ship, and it disappeared in an enormous flash along with three others targeted by the cruiser. The Silirc had been busy trying to pierce the shell protecting the asteroid without any luck. The Connie flashed the right code, and the shell generator brought down the shell which was immediately transferred the test results and the equipment off of the asteroid's surface.
“Sir there is more going on here than an attack against us. The Silirc are in a huge battle with another species, and it looks like they have the upper hand, many of their ships are in bad shape. I think we can help turn the tide against the Silirc if we can hammer them hard enough for them to back out.”
“Bo, Aaron, Cerro, hit them with as many TRay shots as you can, I want to inflict as much damage as possible as quickly as we can.”
Instead of a report on the comlink space started lighting up like a giant lightning storm as Bennett’s TRay’s took out at least twenty of the smaller ships within a few minutes.
Several enormous ships moved into view as the dust settled. A TRay shot hit the lead ship from the Eagle, and the front of the ship took the direct hit with a great deal of damage but kept coming toward them with all weapons trained on the cruiser.
“Cerro, how are you holding up” inquired Inman.
The comlink was silent.
“Aaron, can you see how the Eagle is faring?”
“She is getting hammered, but I do not see any hull damage.”
“I am going to run interference by moving up next to the lead ship and direct some heavy fire into the other two ships approaching from our starboard. Launch the rest of the fighters and have them attack the smaller ships. I want to make some friends with the guys the Silirc are pounding.”
The smaller ships were too fast for the Silirc ships to get a firing resolve on them with their larger weapons, so the smaller ships fired on the shuttle with smaller plasma lasers as they shot through their formations delivering devastating Tray blows to the entire Silirc fleet as the scurried through their ranks.
Two of the Shuttles were damaged and labored as they were escorted by two other shuttles back to the UB to assess the damage.
“Inman” Cerro reported, “sorry but we are a little busy, we are taking some hits, but the shells are holding. Bennett is getting some sensor readings showing we are losing shell integrity, most likely going to have to back off and let you take these lead ships on.”
“Bennett, train the TRay on the weapon systems and transfer them to the middle of the Silirc ship right as they cycle to fire” ordered Inman.
“Done” came the retort as the Silirc ship exploded from inside.
“Keep doing that to every ship that comes in range” ordered Inman.
Within ten minutes the Silirc ships started darting out of the area, a much lesser force beat the overwhelming force of the Silirc's.
“See if you can setup communication with our new friends and see if we can lend a hand” prompted Inman.
“Aye sir” responded Newman.
“We have a visual link open sir; it looks bad over there.”
“Bring a whiteboard and some markers up here on the double” commanded Inman.
Inman gestured to his new friend to retrieve a similar device so they might communicate.
The alien was humanoid in appearance without many defining features, bald with beady eyes, dark skin, and a flat nose. The leader gestured to a group of devices and made gestures to which Inman understood instantly.
“Newman, can you lock onto those devices and retrieve them” queried Inman.
“They are on the table behind you, sir.”
Inman took hold of one of the devices and turned to the screen where the alien motioned to Inman to open the channel by flipping the device through the middle. Instantly the device came alive. The Alien started talking into the device, only unknown sounds and unintelligible words came out. The alien motioned for Inman to speak, Inman got the point, and together they were programming the device. Inman picked up a technical manual sitting near him and started reading. As he was reading the alien started talking into the device again, more gibberish but now mixed with some words Inman could understand. Within five minutes the words began to form sentences and conversations were possible.
“Thank you from the Indo Republic; we are in your debt exclaimed the alien. My name is Commander Roco, may I have your name please.”
“I am commander Inman from the United States of America” replied Inman.
Inman could not believe how clumsy his statement felt. It was more like “we are the people who stole the orbiter from the United States of America.”
“How did you end up at this position and how did the Silirc find you?” Inman queried.
“We were investigating the sudden arrival of this asteroid our sensors detected in the area we were traversing on our way home. Something with this mass suggested it would be a spacecraft” Roco explained. “It appears you have had contact with the Silirc before.”
“Unfortunately we have. We were in orbit around a planet when the Silirc came out of warp and started firing, no communication what so ever. We were able to fend the Silirc off at the time and then depart but not before capturing two of the Silirc crewman. The battle cost us many lives and forced us to take a more aggressive role in defending ourselves.”
“When we dropped out of hyperspace they were already here trying to penetrate the force field around the asteroid” Roco explained.
“Yes they were trying to get to our technology; this asteroid has test equipment being used to complete the development of some of our systems. We have already retrieved it, and we are planning to put this asteroid in tow when we depart unless you have some objections, replied Inman. First I would like to know if we can be of assistance to you in recovering from the attack.”
“I am afraid there are many dead and wounded in every ship in our fleet, we have never had the need to defend ourselves against such a violent enemy. The attack has caught us unprepared, it has cost us dearly” explained Roco.
“You say you have two of their crew with you now?”
“Yes, it has been several years since the battle with them. The two have some liberties on our ship now. They will not, or cannot, reveal their origins. They often do talk of their leader; in fact, it is more worship than admiration.”
“Commander Inman we would like to invite you and your crew to join us in the celebration of life as we bury ou
r dead. There is a planet or should I say paradise near here we call Dulang, it is not inhabited, but we have a base on the planet which you are welcome to enjoy with us.”
“I am concerned the Silirc will return and even with both of our fleets we will have difficulty fighting off their entire fleet. There are thousands if not millions of Silirc ships, and many of them are the heavily defended battle cruisers you saw attacking us head on. It was the quick response of our crew to turn their weapons against them, or we would have been forced to leave you as they were beginning to bring down our defenses.”
“No need to worry commander, the planet is cloaked, and this planet is the reason we were in the area. Please follow us as we enter orbit, your people and your ships will be safe.”
“We accept” replied Inman.
Dulang
Battle damage reports were minimal considering the extent of the attack. Two members of the shuttle crew had some burns but would be fine by the time the medical staff finished with them.
The Eagle took the brunt of the attack and Cerro, and his crews earned honors on Dulang for the heroism they showed in the face of a superior force. While in orbit the Eagle entered space dock in the UB where the hull was being repaired and reinforced in places where the attack helped identify weaknesses.
The heavy enemy fire had rocked the Connie. The ship had never been designed to go into battle and even with the tough external titanium hull and the protection of the shell generator; her frail internal structure took heavy damage in each attack.
The Silirc targeted Connie’s primary biosphere and breached the shell which weakened and gave way for a short amount of time before Bennett’s team could reinforce it with another shell. It was enough to start fires and force the evacuation before the fire depression system kicked in making a huge mess. It would take months to get things back to normal.
The executive team now consisted of Will Inman, Bo Stockman, Leo Bennett, Evelyn Reeder, Aaron Logan and John Cerro. Will had become very tight with Bo, and the relationship provided many opportunities for Will to spend time with him and his wife, Terry. The friendship also provided opportunities for Will to spend time with Terry’s sister Evelyn Reeder.
Evelyn was growing weary of a relationship in which there was an obvious attraction but never any progress. She had been ok for years as Will was preoccupied with protecting and growing the fleet, but enough was enough. He was going to have to step up to the plate, or she was going to start looking elsewhere.
“Women are mysterious creatures,” thought Inman, “they defy logic, Evelyn is impossible to understand and impossible to avoid thinking of, and there is some crazy power she has over me; I want to be near her, touch her, get romantically involved and even protect her. But most of all I want to share this experience, this great adventure with her. I have to find the right place and time to announce my intentions!”
Dulang is just beautiful. Like M1 this planet has wonderful vistas, a mild climate, and abundant wildlife. Unlike M1 many of the animals on this planet are carnivores, like wildlife on Earth.
“Executive team” Inman calls out on his comlink, “meet me in the conference room before departing for Dulang please.”
Inman caught Evelyn on her way to the conference room “do you have a second” as he tugged on her arm to pull her into a quite hallway. “This is very clumsy; I do not know how, umm, would you like to, no” Will rambled “how about dinner with me tonight?”
“Is Will Inman asking me out?” Reeder asked herself. “Are we going to discuss official business?” Evelyn queried.
“No, not at all, I was wondering if we could be alone for dinner.”
Evelyn was not going to let him off of the hook, “what do you want to see me about, am I in some trouble?”
Now Will could see by the coy expression on her face she was teasing him, “I thought we would have a romantic dinner . . . over a set of blueprints for the new ship Bo wants to build” Will told her with a smirk?
“It took you all these years to ask” Evelyn interrogated him, “why have you been waiting, I was ready to give up on you,” she said as she reached up and gave him a peck on the lips.
A bolt of lightning shot through Will as he lost control, grabbed her in a bear hug of a kiss which she responded softly.
“I have been waiting a long time for this,” he told Evelyn.
“It makes it all the more interesting” Evelyn retorted, “and you are a good kisser” she teased.
“Everyone is waiting, let’s get down there.”
Will took her hand as they entered the main gangway leading to the conference room.
As Will and Evelyn entered the conference room holding hands, everyone stood up startled and at once started clapping.
“It is about time you two” Bo exclaimed.
“What were you waiting for?” came the taunting.
“Ok, ok, let’s get to it. On the planet, it will be just the executive team until we are sure we can trust Roco and his team. I want us all wearing the body armor. Cerro, what weapons can we take on the planet with us?”
“The handheld TRay’s are ready, but they will only displace. So when you fire it at something or someone, it will just move the target trans-dimensionally to somewhere else.”
“How far will it move them, and where will it move them to?”
“About a mile is all we can get out of them right now. The TRay will transfer the target on a parallel plain and into something that is not a solid mass. So the systems will do no harm.”
“Perfect” lamented Inman “I want everyone on the team armed with one. If threatened, you are to contact the other members of the team over comlink and Trans out of here individually without hesitation. Aaron, make sure all ships are on high alert and ready to warp out of here on short notice.
“One more thing, we cannot allow any of this technology to fall into anyone else’s hands. All of our portable technology has built-in self-destruct we can set off remotely, with a big bang if necessary” Cerro cautioned, “if someone wants to touch you they can, they can also disarm you if you are not expecting it. You can set the body armor for no intrusion but it will disintegrate anything coming within just over your arm's length if you have it setup like that, so if you are disarmed just Trans out and we will destroy the device from here.”
“Why are you so apprehensive?” Bennett asked Inman.
“We don’t have any reason to distrust Roco. However, we need to have cautious protocols when we are around species about which we know nothing. I do not want to lose anyone or see anyone hurt. No more recurrences of what I allowed to happen at M1.”
“I hope you are not blaming yourself for that Will,” Bo said, “no one could have predicted what happened, in fact, it was your quick thinking in a tough spot which saved us all.”
Evelyn squeezed his hand as she looked up at him in admiration. “It takes a real man to admit a mistake and take responsibility,” she thought.
Will Inman did not realize he was still holding Evelyn’s hand, “how cool is this, holding her hand feels so natural, so right!” he thought.
Dinner for two
Indo engineers had built a very nice station on Dulang. It was built on the ground in a clearing within a beautiful forest of glistening trees, the leaves reflected light in all directions, appearing as crystals hanging from the branches.
The luncheon with Roco and his entourage went quite well, the translator devices the Indo Commander had given them work flawlessly. However they were not stand-alone devices, they required the presence of a nearby computer.
“Is it safe to take a little walk and explore the area?” Inman queried.
“Yes, it is. However you should carry a sidearm, is one of the devices on your waist a weapon?”
“Yes, we are all armed.”
Inman was shocked he had so easily given up their tactical advantage. He asked the question in such a disarming way.
“I would like to have discussions with you a
nd your team about how we might cooperate when you return.”
“I look forward to it! Let’s meet back here in four hours?”
“Yes, four hours will work very well.”
The translator devices were starting to pick up the nuances in Roco’s diction. His words now had a slithering to them, yes came out as yezzz. His voice was starting to have a reptilian slithering to it which made Inman and his team nervous. However, the Indo hospitality and the appreciation they were showing was undeniably friendly.
Inman and his team were led out onto a courtyard and given directions to points of interest they could walk to or use one of the transporters provided by the Indo guards.
Battle Group Titan: Beyond Warp ((Battle Group Titan Series Vol 1)) Page 8