by Dietmar Wehr
“Helm. Have you got a vector to bring the squadron to Vanquishers’ last position?”
“Yes, Admiral and it’s already been distributed to Chivalrous and Broadsword. We can initiate when you give the word.”
“The word is given,” said Hara.
It was 611 minutes later when her three battlecruisers were close enough to scan the wormhole and its vicinity with radar. There were no signs of any lifeboats which did not surprise Hara. Even if Lavrov had ordered the crew to abandon ship before the alien missile strike, it was unlikely that the lifeboats would have had enough time to get far enough away to survive the energies released by the blast that TacComp had measured. Part of her was disappointed that the alien ship was nowhere around, but the other part, the rational part was relieved. Ships with KE missiles should not be fighting ships with nuke missiles regardless of how big those ships might be. No matter how good her battlecruisers’ anti-missile defenses were, it would only take one enemy missile to slip through to blow a battlecruiser into small pieces of radioactive, melted wreckage. It was time to send a ship home with the news. As her three-ship force backed away from the wormhole, she ordered the cruiser Vanguard to head home with her report and ordered the other three heavy cruisers to rendezvous with her ships and with Conquistador. If an alien ship did come out of the wormhole again, at least she’d have a unified force if she decided to confront it. She dreaded having to make that decision. One alien ship against seven certainly sounded safe enough, but even if the alien was crippled, there was still the possibility that her squadron would take losses. As a further precaution against another alien incursion, she ordered the marker buoys at the other wormholes turned off. It wasn’t until all seven ships were in a tight formation that she allowed herself to relax.
Chapter Twenty
Hara had just entered her quarters in preparation for getting some sleep when the call came from the Flag Bridge.
“Hara here. What now?”
“Sorry to disturb you, Admiral.” She recognized her Com Officer’s voice. “We’ve just received the ID beacon signal of a Bravo drone that’s just emerged from the black hole wormhole. I wanted to get your authorization before sending a comlaser message ordering a download of any data that drone might be carrying.”
“Yes, send the download order. I’ll be back on the Flag Bridge in a few minutes. Hara out.” She put the jacket that she had taken off back on and stood for a moment with her eyes closed. She was tired and could tell she wasn’t thinking as clearly as she usually would, but she had to stay awake long enough to find out what information Mac’s drone carried and then decide what to do about it if anything.
When she got back to the Flag Bridge, Simonsen, her Fleet Helm Officer already had the answer to the question that she had decided to ask him.
“Admiral, assuming that Bravo is one of Captain Steele’s, its exit velocity is consistent with a transit time if Diamond K launched it minutes after arriving in the black hole system. I’ve also confirmed that with the timing of the attacking ship’s arrival, it and Captain Steele’s ship must have been transiting the wormhole at the same time.”
“Do we have any idea of how fast the attacking ship was moving when it re-entered the wormhole?” she asked.
“Approximate only, Admiral. TacComp’s best guess would give it a transit time of thirty-two hours.”
Hara felt relieved but did her best not to show it. Thirty-two hours would give Mac plenty of time to leave the black hole system or at least put some distance between the K and AG38 wormhole. At least she hoped he hadn’t just sat near the wormhole waiting for a response from her.
“Shouldn’t we be getting the drone’s data dump by now?” she asked.
“It’s coming in now, Admiral. It’s a text message,” said the Com Officer.
“On the main display, Isaac,” said Hara.
[Steele to Admiral Hara. No sign of derelict or any other vessel. Diamond K is proceeding to the Midi system to check if derelict was moved there by human salvagers. There is, of course, the other possibility of alien intervention. End of message.]
Hara’s relief that the K wasn’t holding position at the other end of the wormhole was short-lived. After checking Midi, he might get back just in time to run into the alien ship. She quickly stepped over to the Helm Station.
“Commander, I want NavComp to try to figure out where the attacking ship and Diamond K are right now, assuming that Captain Steele took her to Midi as fast as possible, then turned around and came back at a safe transit velocity.”
Simonsen nodded. “Yes, sir. I understand what you’re after, Admiral. I’ll have that for you in less than a minute.”
The answer turned out to be both bad and good news. The bad news was that both ships were within several hours of emerging into the black hole system at roughly the same time. The good news was that it just might be possible to send Mac a warning using the Bravo drone. That was the only way she could help. Sending a ship at a safe entry velocity would get there many hours too late. She gave the necessary orders and said a silent prayer to the Gods of War to help her friend.
Diamond K’s arrival back in the black hole system managed to be both disappointing and surprising at the same time. It was disappointing from the point of view that there were no other ships in the system which left the derelict’s disappearance still a mystery. The surprise was what was missing. The Bravo drone positioned as a marker buoy at the AG38 wormhole was no longer transmitting its ID signal. Steele doubted that it was a malfunction of some kind. It was far more likely that someone had destroyed the drone and he didn’t like where the logic of who that someone might be was leading him.
“Helm, hold position here.” Steele was about to say more when he heard the Com Officer’s surprised voice.
“Picking up an omnidirectional signal from the same Bravo drone that we sent to AG38, Captain. It’s on the display now.”
[Hara to Mac. Treat any vessel you encounter as hostile until proven otherwise. Vanquisher destroyed by nuclear-tipped missiles from alien ship. Estimate its arrival there approximately 89 minutes after arrival of this Bravo drone. Alien entry velocity could not be pinpointed precisely. Avoid combat if possible. End of message.]
Steele tried to ignore the curses from Bridge personnel. He understood how they felt but dealing emotionally with the loss of his friend, Captain Lavrov, and Vanquisher’s crew would have to wait until later. What concerned him right now was why the long-range system wasn’t showing that Bravo drone. Then it came to him. In order to get the warning back as quickly as possible, the Admiral has sent the drone back at a high wormhole entry velocity. When the drone arrived in this system, it was traveling too fast to avoid being pulled into the black hole. That had already happened minutes ago while the warning message was spreading out across the system at light speed. Diamond K had arrived at just the right time to catch that message. Knowing how far away the other wormhole was and how long it would take a light-speed message to get here, it would be easy to figure out when the estimated 89 minutes would be up. He instructed Ortega to make the calculation and also figure out if Diamond K had enough time to reach and enter the AG38 wormhole before the alien vessel arrived.
“That eighty-nine-minute interval will be up in just under seventy-two minutes, and if we head for the AG38 wormhole right now, we might be able to get there by then, Skipper, but it’ll be close and with the estimate’s margin for error…” It wasn’t necessary for the HO to finish the sentence. Steele understood the implication. If the estimate were too long, the alien would emerge just in time to rake Diamond K with laser fire as it approached the wormhole, but the reverse was also true. Steele knew he had to make that decision fast. His intuition was telling him to try it.
“Max acceleration for the AG38 wormhole right now, Helm.” Ortega opened his mouth to point out that without the buoy marker, they only had an approximate idea of where the AG38 wormhole was now, but Steele beat him to it. “We’ll refine our trajec
tory once we can use the Midi buoy as a triangulation bearing and when we get close enough, our instruments will show us where the wormhole is. And speaking of the Midi buoy, I want it to be instructed to shut down sixty-seconds after we enter the AG38 wormhole. No sense leaving breadcrumbs for the alien ship to follow back to human space.” Steele turned to Chilton.
“XO, just in case that alien ship gets here first, I want us to be able to hit it with everything we’ve got including the four missile boat lasers. Find out if we can program their autopilots to stay in formation with us and automatically fire on anything that their radars pick up in the vicinity of the AG38 wormhole.”
The XO nodded enthusiastically. “I’m on it, Skipper.”
When he had gone, Steele turned to Ortega. “Helm, we have seven Bravo drones left. Program six for a wormhole survey that will cover the entire system. The drones are to keep surveying in stealth mode until they receive the recall order. If and when we come back here, I want to know how many wormholes there are and where they are. We’ll keep number seven in case we need it for something else.”
When all six drones and all four missile boats had been launched, Steele ordered the ship to Battle Stations. Everything was ready as the 89-minute timer now had only 60 seconds left. The ship’s lasers were charged and programmed to fire at any object radar picked up. With less than a minute to go, Steele checked to make sure his Command Chair’s restraint harness was locked and tight. He and everyone else on the ship had their pressure suits and helmets on. As the timer passed the 30-second mark, the tactical display sounded the two-tone signal, and a blood-red icon appeared directly ahead of the ship.
TARGET ACQUIRED! FIRING!” screamed Sanchez. “MULTIPLE HITS! WE MIGHT GET ONE MORE VOLLEY BEFORE ENTRY!” Steele shifted his gaze back to the wormhole entry timer. Less than 10 seconds to go! He felt a sickening vibration through his chair as damage alarms went off. The enemy had managed to fire at and hit his ship. The systems’ status board now looked like a Christmas tree with multiple yellow and red lights and only a few still green lights.
“WE’RE IN!” shouted Ortega.
Steele took a deep breath. They were in the wormhole and safe now, but that didn’t mean he could relax. “How badly did they hurt us?” he asked in what he hoped was a calm voice.
“Damage reports still coming in, Captain. I’ll have my report for you in a minute or so,” said the Engineering Officer.
Steele unstrapped himself, took off his helmet, and went over to the Tactical Station. “Tell me what happened exactly during those last few seconds, TO.”
Sanchez was still breathing fast from the excitement as he took his helmet off. “Well, Skipper, we got the first shots off including the boats. I’d have to check their TacComps when we emerge to know how many of their first shots hit, but all three of ours did. The enemy fired back with six seconds left before wormhole entry. I think we got hit by two lasers. The K managed to fire again before entry, but it looks like only one laser was still operable by then. I can’t tell you how many boats entered the wormhole. As you know, external sensors are useless inside a wormhole. As soon as we emerge out the other end, I can give you that information.”
Steele checked the ETA to emergence into the AG38 system. “Which will be in another six hundred ten seconds. This has to be the fastest wormhole transit we’ve ever made.” He nearly lost his balance as the deck heaved unexpectedly. “Turbulent too.”
“The autopilot can’t adjust our path fast enough at this speed to avoid the turbulence we’ve mapped, Skipper,” said Ortega. The deck heaved again.
“Everybody put their helmets back on,” ordered Steele. No sooner had he got his helmet on and locked when something hit the ship hard enough to throw him against the back wall of the Bridge. The impact broke his right forearm, and the head concussion threatened to make him black out. He heard someone screaming in pain, and then everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-one
Hara was just about to leave the Flag Bridge to head back to her quarters when she heard the tone that indicated a status change. As she looked at the holographic display, a flashing yellow icon appeared next to the wormhole. Flashing meant that TacComp wasn’t sure if the object was a ship or not. She looked at her FTO.
“Something big just emerged from the wormhole. Correction! Multiple objects have just emerged with one much bigger than the others. They’re not maneuvering, but they have a high velocity, and it looks like…yes, they’re all tumbling, Admiral. No transponder ID or any EM emissions. TacComp is picking up signs of atmospheric venting from the larger object. It’s reclassified it as a ship, possibly damaged.”
My God that has to be the Diamond K. “Order the Task Force to Condition Two. Captain Forstchen, I want Relentless to match trajectory and velocity with that large ship. Have your search and rescue teams standing by.”
“Admiral! The wormhole!” There was shock in the FHO’s voice. Hara looked at the display and understood the officer’s reaction. The wormhole leading to the black hole system was now gone!
“How is that possible?” asked Hara in a disbelieving tone.
“I don’t know, Admiral,” said the FHO. “There’s no record of that ever happening before. I’ve got AstroComp working on it but so far nothing.”
The maneuver she had ordered took twenty-one agonizing minutes to accomplish. When Relentless was close enough to get a good look, Hara was shocked by what she saw. Diamond K’s rear was caved in as if God had smashed it with his fist. Pieces of the ship had been knocked loose, but at least the atmospheric venting had stopped. The S&R shuttles somehow managed to dock with the slowly tumbling vessel, and the teams were able to get inside. Their news was grim. Almost everyone aboard her was injured, a few severely and two were dead. Captain Steele was alive but unconscious. Relentless’ Medical Bay was packed with wounded by the time Hara felt the situation was safe enough for her to leave the Flag Bridge.
“Captain Steele is still unconscious. His right arm is broken but no internal injuries. He should be coming out of it soon, Admiral. Please excuse me. Other patients need my attention,” said the Chief Medical Officer when Hara had inquired about Mac. She left orders to be notified when Captain Steele regained consciousness.
Steele woke up with a splitting headache and a painful right arm that he couldn’t move for some reason. He couldn’t tell where he was, but he was sure it wasn’t the K’s Bridge. A man in an HRCN medical uniform walked by, noticed that he was awake and came over to stand beside Steele’s bed.
“You’re awake now. That’s good, Captain. You’re aboard Relentless. Admiral Hara will want to be notified that you’re back. I’ll call her to let her know. Just relax. Are you in pain?” Steele told him about the headache and arm. “Your arm’s broken, and you have a concussion. I’ll give you something for the pain.” That something was an injection that started working almost immediately. Hara arrived soon after and she was holding a data tablet.
“It’s good to see you awake, Mac,” said Hara in a quiet voice.
“It’s good to be back. How long was I out for?”
“Almost an hour. Can you tell me what happened up to the point you blacked out?” He told her about receiving her warning, the gamble of trying to get to the wormhole first, the last second battle and then being hit by something extremely powerful.
“How’s the ship?” he asked. Instead of answering, she held up the data tablet so that he could see it. It showed the Diamond K with a good view of the crushed rear.
“She can’t be repaired, Mac,” said Hara finally. “Even if we could somehow get her to a shipyard, it would cost more to rebuild her than she’s worth. I’ve arranged to have her computers downloaded, and when that’s done, we’ll let her fall into the super-giant along with what’s left of the four missile boats that came through with you. Can you confirm that they were unmanned?”
“Yes, Admiral. They were operating on autopilot. I’m sorry I got your ship wrecked.”
She smiled. “Don’t worry about the ship from the financial point of view, Mac. I think I mentioned that the contract with the Navy says they have to reimburse the Company for all damages. I don’t think they’ll object too much after they see the tactical data on that alien ship. By the way, we think we know what hit the ship inside the wormhole. TacComp and AstroComp have come up with a theory that seems to fit. The alien ship must have fired a missile, that was armed with a nuclear warhead set to explode at a certain point, into the wormhole. The massive energy release could have been enough to destabilize the wormhole, causing it to collapse as well as almost crushing the K. That would explain why our sensors saw the wormhole disappear completely. We’re now seeing signs that it’s in the process of reforming. How long that will take before it’s safe to use again, no one knows. If my Task Force had any drones, I’d send them through to find out, but we don’t. I’ve already sent another ship back to base to inform the CSO about what’s happened with a recommendation that another Task Force be sent to monitor the Midi wormhole in AG47 and maybe even the black hole wormhole in Midi itself. I’ve also requested that we get some Bravo drones shipped here asap. Come to think of it; I’ve made a lot of recommendations. I’ll show them to you when you’re up and around again which the CMO says will be soon.” She paused and looked away for a few seconds before turning back to Steele.