Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation

by Dale C. Musser

  There was a long moment of silence before the Commodore’s voice returned; when it did it was strained and it was obvious that Stonbersa was overcome with emotion.

  “Tibby, I’m overwhelmed. I didn’t think I could ever do better than being Commodore of your personal fleet and I have been deeply honored serving as such, but to be a fleet admiral with the Federation! There haven’t been fleet admirals in nearly 500 years. Yes! Yes, I’ll accept.”

  “Good,” I answered, “I’ll provide you with more details and orders once I can get back aboard the NEW ORLEANS and we can sit down face to face. In the mean time you have your orders. Carry on.”

  It was a few hours later when Captain Dolaner contacted me. “Admiral, we are approaching Plosaxen. It looks like a battle is taking place with the HAPRIN firing at the planet and their shots being blocked by what we assume is the NEW ORLEANS, as it can’t be seen, but I can’t imagine what else could be blocking and returning fire at the HAPRIN. The HAPRIN also appears to be taking fire from a lot of smaller cloaked ships as well, but there is no evidence of any damage being done.”

  “Is there any sign of the Tottalax ship?”

  “Yes sir, it’s just a little ahead of us heading toward the HAPRIN.”

  “Damn it,” I muttered. “I had hoped to get there before them. I imagine as soon as they are in range they will try to knock out the crews on our attacking ships. I was hoping that we would have received some of the ear buds from the Brotherhood ships we captured at Goo’Waddle before we encountered the Tottalax again. If we had those, we’d be immune to their sleep weapon. At least, we have Nibarians aboard the NEW ORLEANS.

  “Is there any sign of the HAPRIN’s shields weakening?”

  “Not at this time sir.” Dolaner answered.

  “At the moment other than for the crew on the NEW ORLEANS, no one knows we are arriving. I think we should use our cloaked advantage to take a closer look at the Tottalax ship close up. The Tottalax don’t need any shielding because our weapons have no effect against their ships. Perhaps if we get a detailed look, we may see something that will give us a clue about their weapons or some weakness we can use against them. Captain Dolaner, I want you and the escort ships to join in the assault against the HAPRIN. Kala and I will fly under and around the Tottalax ship while remaining cloaked and record what we can of the ships' exterior. If we’re lucky we might find something that will give us some clue to a weakness.”

  “I must protest, Admiral,” Captain Dolaner replied. “Our job is to provide protection for you until you are safely aboard the NEW ORLEANS.”

  “Yes, but how can I get aboard the NEW ORLEANS as long as the HAPRIN is engaging them in battle? In order to accomplish your task, you need to add your fire power to that of the NEW ORLEANS and the other ships attacking the HAPRIN. Hopefully it will overload their fusion reactor enough to weaken their shields enough so some of the shots from the NEW ORLEANS can get through and do some damage. Otherwise, I will never be able to get aboard.”

  “I hardly believe that to be true, Admiral, are you making it an order that we attack the HAPRIN?” Dolaner asked nervously.

  I knew Dolaner was right, but at the same time I wanted to get the HAPRIN, and I wanted to discover as much about the Tottalax ship as possible. I could just have easily ordered one of the security ships with us to survey the Tottalax ship and I could have assisted the other ships by using the ALI in the attack against the HAPRIN. Fortunately Dolaner hadn’t thought of that, so I said, “Yes, Captain, that’s an order; you and the other escort ships join in the attack against the HAPRIN while I survey the Tottalax ship. Once we’ve made a close up visual record of the Tottalax ship, I will join up with you and the other escort ships in attacking the HAPRIN.”

  “Yes sir,” Dolaner responded, “Try not to take too long, Admiral.”

  Kala and I watched the three blips on the vid screen that represented the locations of the cloaked escort ships as they slowly arched away from the ALI and headed toward the HAPRIN.

  “Tib, do you think this is a wise move now instead of staying with the escort ships?” Kala asked.

  “I don’t see that it makes any difference. We can’t be seen by the Brotherhood on the HAPRIN or by the Tottalax. They have no idea we’re here, and I don’t think the HAPRIN will realize that the shots from the escort ships will be from my escort, either. They will simply assume they are cloaked ships from Plosaxen joining the fight. We’ve got a few minutes before the Tottalax fire up their sleep weapon, and I want us to get some close-up vid recordings of their ship before they do.”

  Kala strapped into the seat beside me as I veered off from our previous heading toward the NEW ORLEANS in the direction of the Tottalax ship. I knew the ship was large, but as we drew nearer I found myself being amazed at its size and design. It wasn’t as large as the HAPRIN, but it was closer in size to the NEW ORLEANS. The ship itself was a khaki green color with a very smooth appearing surface. The overall shape of the ship was sort of like two oval shaped bowls turned so the widest tops of the bowls were turned facing each other with a gap of about 500 meters between the two halves. Set back inside the bowl-like edges was a wall that ran around the periphery of the bowls. No windows or view ports could be seen anywhere, nor were any hatches or doors visible. “How do they get in and out of that thing?” I muttered.

  “I was just wondering the same thing,” Kala responded as her eyes panned the screen. We were still drawing closer to the ship and now were only about 1000 meters from hitting it if we didn’t avert our course.

  “There, Tib! What are those things?” Kala asked as she pointed toward the screen.

  As I looked, I noted a line of little bumps that appeared around the edges of the bowl-like rims. In the center of each bump, I could see what looked like a short pipe extending from the hull.

  “Do you think they are some sort of guns?” Kala asked.

  “As far as I know the Tottalax have never fired any sort of guns or weapons in battle with the Federation. My guess is that they have something to do with their sleep weapon.” I answered. While I was saying this I noted that the rods appeared to be slowly changing color and seemed to be lighting up in a white glow.”

  “Tib, are you seeing….”

  My head was splitting with pain. Somewhere a klaxon was blaring, and a voice was repeating… “Warning, impact in two minutes, course correction needed. Warning, impact in one minute and 45-seconds course correction needed. Warning, impact in one minute and 30-seconds course correction needed.” I opened my eyes and saw the surface of a planet rushing toward us at incredible speed. . “Warning, impact in one minute and 15-seconds course correction needed.” The voice blared out. I needed to do something, but what. The pain inside my head made thinking hard.

  “Warning, impact in one minute collision unavoidable, prepare for impact.”

  From somewhere deep inside of me, my instinct kicked in as adrenaline began flooding my system. I found my hands flying over the console trying to make course corrections.

  “Warning, impact in 45 seconds collision unavoidable, prepare for impact.”

  Instinct told me there was only one chance for surviving the crash, it would take a lot of luck but at the last second if I could pull the nose up and with the correct angle of impact, we might skid across the surface of the planet in a controlled crash that we might walk away from.

  “Warning, impact in 30 seconds collision unavoidable, prepare for impact. Crash impact in 25 seconds, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5," I initiated the controls to raise the nose of the ship and felt a sharp jerk forward and pressure against my face and chest as the repulsive gravity force of the personal inertia impact dampers hit me from the front and then blackness again.

  “Tibby you need to wake up,” I heard a soft voice saying. “You need to wake up now! It's time! We need you.” That voice, I knew that voice. Before me, an image slowly began to appear. It was the image of Lunnie. “Wake up Tibby, we need you now!”

  “Am I dead ag
ain?” I asked.

  “No, but we will be if you don’t wake up!” Lunnie said.

  “But you’re already dead! You were killed on the DUSTEN.”

  “Tibby, I don’t have time to explain now. You need to wake up or Reidecor and I will die and Kala might die also. We need you!”

  Something wasn’t right. Lunnie was dead. I’d seen her die, and Reidecor was dead also. He'd died trying to safe Lunnie. “Go away, you’re dead. Let me sleep.”

  “Tibby, we’re not dead but we soon will be if you don’t wake up and help…” while Lunnie was talking, I observed that she was starting to change shape, getting smaller and smaller. “You need to wake up Tibby, it’s time. You need to help Kala, and Reidecor, and me.” Lunnie was quite small now and appeared to be a four-year-old girl and getting smaller. “Please wake up and help us daddy!”

  Daddy? Daddy! Kala, the babies . Suddenly, my eyes shot open. I was aching everywhere as I tried to get out of my chair, and I turned looking at Kala in the chair next to me. She appeared to be unconscious. I noted a pool of liquid on the floor beneath her chair. It was all starting to fit together now. The impact must have caused Kala to go into labor. Her water had broken and the babies… the babies were about to be born.

  “Kala, wake up? I called. “Please, Kala wake up.”

  I shook Kala’s shoulder, but she didn’t respond. “Kala, the babies are coming? We need to get you into the med unit.”

  The ALI had a small med unit, nothing like the ones on the patrol ships or the larger ships, but a small med unit that swung out of the wall in the main accommodation and could treat most medical emergencies.

  “Kala,” I said as I felt on her neck looking for a pulse, “You’ve got to wake up. Lunnie and Reidecor are coming!”

  Kala moaned and slowly began trying to turn her head.

  “That’s it Kala, wake up. The babies are coming.” I said.

  Kala moaned again, “Babies? What happened? Where are we?”

  “Come on, get up! Do you think you can stand and walk?” I asked as I quickly checked her over looking for injuries.

  “I think so! What happened? Why am I all wet?”

  “Kala, we need to get you to the med unit. The babies are coming. The crash has started you in labor early.”

  “Crash?” Kala mumbled, “babies?”

  “That’s it Kala, let me help you,” I said as Kala slowly began to rise out of her seat with my assistance.

  “What’s that smell?” Kala asked, and for the first time, I noticed the acrid smell of burnt electrical components in the air.

  “I’m not sure,” I said, “possibly some parts that shorted out in the crash.”

  “What crash? Where are we? Did we get shot down?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered. “I’ve not had time to find out, right now we need to get you to the med unit.” We were only steps away from the door to our cabin when suddenly Kala stiffened and screamed.

  “Ohhh,” she moaned as the first contraction hit her.

  “Don’t hold your breath, “I told her. You need to breathe. Remember the training vid that Doctor Danjuma had us watch on child birth?”

  Kala’s face was contorted in pain, and she began to pant… “Oh Tibby, I didn’t think it would be like this.”

  “Neither did I,” I answered as I kicked the cabin door open and helped Kala onto the bed. I opened the panel to the med unit, and it swung out over the bed, nearly hitting Kala in the head, and for the first time since I woke I noted the ship was not sitting evenly on the planet surface and that the room was slanted to one side.

  “Let’s hope the med unit is working,” I said and then realized that perhaps I should not have said that.

  “It’s not working?” Kala asked, her first contraction now having passed.

  “I don’t know yet,” I answered, and I looked for the switch to activate it. “It should work. I seem to recall that it has its own back-up power supply that’s good for several days if the ships power is lost.”

  “We must have ship’s power,” Kala said. “The lights are still on.”

  “Yes but they could be on the emergency back-up. I'll need to check later,” as I was saying this the lights on the med unit began to flicker, and the vid screen on the unit began to light up.

  “Place sensor pad over the patient," the mechanical voice of the med unit instructed.

  I did as the machine asked as Kala settled back on the bed.

  “Patient is in child birth labor.” The machine stated flatly. “Patient appears to have undergone non-threatening physical trauma and is in near state of shock. Administering medications to assist in delivery and in restorative life functions.”

  “Fetuses appear to be several weeks premature but healthy. Administering medication to help with fetus lung and heart functions. Time until birth estimated to be 1 hour and 18 minutes. Contraction starting to commence,” the voice continued as Kala stiffened and began panting again as moisture off her face, as she was starting to perspire. I ultimately got a towel from the bathroom and gently wiped her brow.”

  “Tibby, you’re going to need to deliver the babies,” Kala blurted out as she stared me in the eyes, “I don’t want that machine delivering our babies. I want the first hands that touch them to be those of their father.”

  “But I'm not sterile,” I said in dismay.

  “Of course you aren’t or we wouldn’t be having these babies!” Kala said through a grin. Her words shocked me, and it took a second for me to realize that even in her labor Kala was joking with me.

  “Okay, you got me on that one. However, my hands aren’t sterile, and I don’t want to get any germs on the babies.” I answered.

  “Tibby, you can sterilize your hands using the med unit. Just place your hands in that hole in the middle of the machine, and they will be sterilized.”

  I did as Kala asked and noted a bluish light come on and reflect off the surfaces around the opening.

  “Tibby, what happened? Where are we and how did we get here?”

  “I don’t know Kala. When I woke up, the ship was warning that we were about to crash. I took a chance and tried to bring the nose of the ship up at the last second, so we would skid across the surface in hopes of less damage and injuries, and then I blacked out again. When I woke up, we were on the ground, your water had broken, and you had begun labor. That’s all I know.”

  “Ship’s computer, this is Kalana. Damage report.”

  “Ship has sustained substantial damage. Flight systems are inoperable. Fusion reactor is damaged and operating at only 5% capacity. Weapons system is inoperable. Life-support systems operable, communication system functional on emergency channel only. Emergency beacon activated prior to crash, beacon still functioning.”

  “Ship, this is Tibby, can you tell us what planet we have crashed on?”

  “You are in sector J-2398 on the planet named Desolation in orbit around the star DZ-665708.”

  “DZ!” Kala blurted. That means it’s a star which experiences periodic large and dangerous solar flares, like the one that destroyed Astamagota. Ship, when was the last major solar flare that impacted this planet?”

  “Last solar flare to impact the planet was 43 years ago.” The ship replied.

  “And how often do major solar flares occur here?” Kala asked just as the med unit voice chimed in with “Contraction starting to commence.”

  Kala began panting again as her body stiffened and the ship’s computer droned. “Major solar flares occur every 40 to 48 years.”

  “Oh great,” Kala grunted out between clenched teeth. We landed right in the middle of solar flare season.”

  “Won’t the ship’s hull protect us from the radiation?” I asked. There was a pause while Kala panted before answering. “It should, but we don’t know how intense the flares are or how much radiation they emit, nor do we know how much heat it will pour out on the planet when it does. It might be strong enough to melt the hull for all we know.”
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  “I seemed to have noted some vegetation on the vid screen before we crashed. If there is vegetation, the heat can’t be that much or everything on the planet would be vitrified and there would be no plant life.” I said.

  “I hope you are right Tibby.”

  “Ship, how far are we from the planet Plosaxen?”

  “The ship is 95.4 standard light-years from the planet Plosaxen,” the ship's computer stated.

  “And how close are we to the nearest Federation planet?”

  “We are 8.8 standard light-years from the Federation planet Crontos of the AG-93745 star system.”

  “But how? How did we get so far from Plosaxen and the battle?” I blurted out.

  “Question not understood.” The computer droned.

  “Ship, how long has it been since we departed from the space around Plosaxen?”

  “Four days, 19 hours and 27 minutes.” The ship replied.

  “Four days!” Have we been unconscious all that time? I asked.

  “You were unconscious until one hour and 23 minutes ago at which time you regained consciousness and changed course direction resulting in crashing with the planet surface.” The ship answered.

  “What caused us to lose consciousness prior to us leaving the area of the planet Plosaxen?”

  “Unknown.” The ship answered.

  “The last thing I remember,” Kala began, “we were looking at some projections on the Tottalax ship, and they started to glow.”

  “Ship, can you tell me what happened after we lost consciousness at Plosaxen?”

  “You initiated the Gravity Wave drive as you lost consciousness, the ship impacted a glancing blow against the nearest ship as it accelerated away from Plosaxen.”

  I didn’t remember engaging the Gravity Wave system, but it was possible my hand may have brushed the control as I blacked out.

  The ship said. “Contraction starting to commence.”