by DJ Morand
This has to happen, she thought. Either we find a way through it, or we die … again.
Echo entered the crew locker room. As she undressed, she could not help but feel she was being watched. She attributed it to the cameras monitoring every movement across the compound.
Something is off, she thought.
Echo finished clothing herself in the flimsy simulation clothing and entered the sim room. As she entered Echo considered giving her team a small indication of the changes. She sat down in the sim pod and adjusted the view-screen to access commander notes.
Echo entered a short message for the crew as she sealed herself in the pod. She continued transcribing the information as she lay motionless. The pod interpreted her thoughts and allowed a brief message to display to her team members’ stations. Although they would not likely see it until they engaged their own training sim pods, she felt it was necessary.
‘Team,’ the note began. ‘There are some significant changes made to the simulations. I have adjusted the input and output settings. Additionally, we will be experiencing some variations in the simulation itself. I want each of you to be prepared for a vastly different simulation.’ Echo paused to collect her thoughts.
‘Please bear in mind this is an exercise in testing your adaptability. Out there in space, there is nothing we can be wholly prepared for. As such I am not giving you further explanation and I shall allow the simulation to reveal what challenges it will.’
She signed the note as Captain Echo Shade and closed the pod receiver. If that was not enough to engage their minds in the proper direction she did not know if they were going to survive within the confines of an actual space encounter.
* * * *
Six Remington did not care for the simulation pods, nor the clothing that went with them. He considered this as he dressed in the crew locker room. He always felt a bit too confined within the pod.
The military had been his entire life, and the pods felt out of place, lacking the realism of training he was used to. Master Chief Petty Officer Remington felt the computer had become predictable and it nettled him. He had made his observations known to the Fleet Admiral, but she dismissed him. She went a step further and directed him to his CO, Echo Shade.
Flakking hell, he thought. At this rate the EXOs will eat us alive.
He considered his complaints and he considered voicing them to Echo as he had been instructed. However, Six was still unsure of Echo. He was sure she was capable, but she was not the war hero that he signed on for.
Abel had known his father and had flown with him in what was Ares Remington’s last flight. He admired Captain Cain and it had been an honor to serve with him. However, he felt that Echo was untested. He was sure she had been sleeping with Abel, which unnerved him further. Six was not sure if that was jealously though.
Six figured he could tolerate Echo’s leadership, but only if she started to show some. Up until now, she had been more of a figurehead than a leader. At best, Six considered Captain Shade XO material - at best. An XO without a commanding officer was rarely up to snuff and if they were, they were usually the CO instead.
Six decided then that he needed to reign in his disdain for the Captain. It was not Echo and it was not the simulator, it was the combination of the two. Abel losing his commission only added insult to injury. Six Remington signed on to challenge EXOs and these simulations, Echo Shade's lack of strong leadership ability, and Abel’s decommission were souring him on the whole.
Six finished dressing in the thin veil of clothing. He did not care for the clothing any more than he did the simulator, but it was all a part of being an active crew member aboard TP-D. He could endure some irritants, even if he didn’t care to. Six entered the round room filled with the pods. He noted that Echo was already sealed in her pod. Six examined the Captain, her dark auburn hair lay in rivets around her pretty and round face. He ignored her female form and wondered what it would have looked like with Abel in there. He shook his head.
Six looked away and moved to his own simulation pod. The sim-pods were complex machines with highly advanced technology just short of artificial intelligence.
What if they had an AI? He thought, maybe they would present a greater challenge.
He dismissed the idea, he knew that the Fleet Admiral would never go for it, and Captain Shade was half-Quintarran, which meant she’d never go for an AI.
She did get nanite injections, didn’t she? The thought nagged at him.
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He had other things to worry about at present. It was rare that the Captain entered the sim-pods before her crew arrived. Echo had piqued his curiosity. As he climbed into his sim-pod Six heard the voice of Captain Shade begin playing over the speakers. As the chamber sealed, the remainder of the message played into his nanites and sounded much like his own sub-conscious, which he found slightly disturbing. He ignored his discomfort and listened to the entirety of the message, after which he was quite pleased.
Finally, a challenge! He thought.
* * * *
Echo marveled as the sim-pod merged with her nanites and subsequently her mind. The reality, virtual though it was, enveloped her and she was again standing at the helm aboard her won destroyer, the TP-D Justice. She knew, in part, that this was a temporary reality and she was really laying in a sim-pod back on Quintar IV, but her senses told her otherwise.
The sense of reality surged through her. She could smell the crisp electronic aura given off by the Transteel viewers, feel the textured captain’s chair, and see the vast expanse of space reaching out beyond the destroyer.
For a moment Echo worried. She and the crew had begun each simulation staring out over the vast space beyond Quintar IV. From practice and more than a bit of repetition, she knew that the EXOs would approach from her starboard flank and in less than sixty minutes she would see the EXO Prime’s flagship the Infinity. It would breach her field of vision blocking out the light from Quintar Prime. Shortly after the Vulture BAA-Cs would launch a full assault against her and the crew of the Justice.
“Hello, Captain Shade. I am DINA, Dynamic Intelligent Network Assistant.” A petite, but pretty, holographic image of a woman appeared in the Transteel viewer.
“How can I assist?” she intoned in a melodic voice.
Echo assumed the AI Fleet Admiral Clark had given her would be one of the newer models, DINA was nearly thirty years old and glitchy.
Oh well, she thought, better the devil you know.
“Hello, DINA. Command Authorization CES1-TP-D Justice. This is Captain Echo Shade, let’s begin the simulation.” Echo said.
“Command Authorization acknowledged. Beginning Starfire simulation Alpha-2.” DINA replied in her irritatingly assonant voice.
Shortly after, the scene in front of the destroyer changed. A massive white-blue star stole the entire view. A small grin played across Echo’s lips. She sat in the captain’s chair and waited for the remainder of her crew to arrive. Six Remington appeared as she sat, he did not catch her smiling.
* * * *
“Engage the gravity dampeners!” Echo cried.
The entire ship was being pulled towards the massive star and the crew could feel the heat of it, which meant that environmental controls were not faring well. The navigation had locked up and forced them into the star’s gravity well. They had been struggling for the better part of an hour to escape it.
“Six! Grav dampeners!” She called into the comms.
The response was a sort of hazy static, before the ragged voice of Six Remington replied, “Captain, I am trying!” frustration bleeding through his normally stoic façade, “sorry Captain, the engines are already at capacity, the rear thrust is simply not adequate, they have more lift than they need.” Six complained.
Echo knew that Abel had been right months ago when he brought up the concerns to Fleet Admiral Clark. Now she was seeing first-hand the folly in not considering others’ opinions. The Fleet Admiral had a b
ad habit of believing she was always in the right.
Odd, she thought. So does Abel.
Alarms began to blare loudly as the heat in the rear sections of the ship began to reach critical levels.
Chief Petty Officer Astra Martinez was the next to reply through the Writcom, “Captain …” she began, “we can use the lift to bring us up out of the equatorial gravity of the star. It should lessen just enough for the rear thrusters to--” she was cut off by the sound of an explosion.
“Astra!? Six!?” Captain Shade yelled at her Writcom. There was no response save for the same eerie static. The crew could feel their momentum cease and slowly the ship was dragged toward the star.
* * * *
Six Remington stared in horror at the dead body of Astra Martinez. The computer simulations never left bodies after a crew member was killed.
This is too real, he thought. Too frightening.
Her vacant stare pierced his resolve. The speakers were filled with deafening static and sparking bits of light flickered in Astra’s lifeless eyes. Six knew there were several fires around him. All of engineering seemed to be burning. He froze, a sort of panic and grief settling in and crashing around him.
It is not supposed to be this way, he thought in a panic.
Something continued to crawl in his mind. It was a sound, something in the background amidst the noise of the static.
The command center! The thought ignited in his mind.
He heard the static through a cacophony of other sounds, fire, automated extinguishers, and what he thought was the hull seal alarm. He did not know if it was indicating that the seal was breached or it was merely damaged.
“As-Six!? Ca-- rea-- repor--” Six knew it was the Captain’s voice, but something was wrong with the Writcom. He lifted his wrist and scanned the wreckage. He was surprised that comms were holding up at all. Something in Six’s mind changed then. He was not testing a simulator or being tested anymore. He was aboard the Justice and his engineering partner was dead. The Captain and the rest of the crew were depending on him.
Six grabbed a plasma welder and went to work on a large piece of shrapnel, which he assumed was part of the ceiling. Six Remington checked his nanite signal and noted they were not reading any type of radiation. That told him two things, the shields were still holding keeping the star’s flares from poisoning the crew; second the reactor was not breached. It was these two realizations that put the comms to his highest priority.
The plasma cutter made slow progress, but he held it steady and sliced through the metal debris. After several moments of what felt like hours he was able to pull the metal away. His heart sank. The comms terminal was torn wide open. The wires were ripped and sparking.
He grabbed another tool from his belt, a wire cutter and fuser. Being careful not to shock himself he managed to bypass the main conduit and route comms through a secondary conduit. He thought it was from the cleansing rooms.
Showers are the least of our concerns, Six thought. Infection or illness were the last of his worries at present, let the doctor figure them out. He sealed the wiring and sound began to filter through his Writcom. He could finally hear the Captain’s voice. It was beautiful.
He could tell her voice was tinged with panic and oddly sorrow, it was only then that he realized this might be more real than he had originally thought. However, he couldn’t remember when, or if, they had launched.
“Master Chief!? Six? Astra? Can you read me? It is getting pretty flakking hot up here.”
He fumbled with his Writcom, “Captain Shade, this is Engineering. Master Chief Petty Officer Remington reporting.”
“Remington!? God man, are you alright!? What the flak is going on down there?” Echo said.
“I’m alright Captain, it is a flakking mess down here. Most systems appear to be online, comms are routed through detox, so I wouldn’t use any of the units up there. As far as I can tell shields are holding. It is hot next to an actual star.” He tried to be glib.
He hoped she wouldn’t ask about Astra, it was something he was pushing back. He couldn’t deal with the emotion of losing a teammate right now.
“Good. How’s Astra?” the Captain asked.
“Gone.” It was all he could manage. His throat felt dry and his emotions raw.
This isn’t a sim, he thought.
“Gone. Okay,” she said.
Six figured she either understood, or heard the tone in his voice - which was telling enough.
“Do what you can to get us more thrust. That star is still drawing us in,” Echo ordered
“Captain …” he hesitated. “The propulsion is offline.”
“Do what you can Master Chief,” the finality in her tone left little doubt of what she expected. He appreciated it.
Maybe she is fit for this post, Six thought.
“Aye Captain,” He said as he switched off the connection through the Writcom.
Six left the jury rig in place in the event the Captain needed to contact him again. He would do his duty. Six Remington, chief engineer aboard the Justice scratched his head, it felt wet and he noted he was probably concussed.
Pull it together mate, he thought, we have a ship to save… we? He ignored the antagonistic voice in his head and put himself to work.
Overall, Six was surprised. Life support, shields, and weapons were still online, but what they needed most was offline - propulsion. He ran a diagnostic check on all systems and noted that a flare from the star had temporarily blown through the shields and fused the entire rear engine compartment. He read the schematic readout on the diagnostics.
If he didn’t manage to get them moving away from the star they would be vaporized. He stared for several minutes as he attempted another jury rig to the starboard and port laser canons. He knew they were the only pivotal canons on the ship.
It was a risky maneuver, but he remembered the story Abel had told him about how he had saved Echo’s life. Captain Shade had been particularly nonplussed about the entire story. He remembered the time fondly, it was a better time.
Six activated his Writcom again, “Captain, is Lieutenant Boulson available?”
“This is Boulson, go ahead,” came the quick reply from Andrew Boulson.
“Andrew, we need a full fire on the port and starboard lasers as sustained as you can. I need it simultaneously,” Six said.
“What are you thinking Six?” Captain Shade cut in.
“Propulsion is fried ma’am. We’re not going anywhere on our own power, at least not from the rear thrusters. I want to use laser ablation against the rear side of the ship to blast us out of here,” Six explained hurriedly.
“Laser ablation!? Are you mad?” Echo asked.
“No ma’am. I want to live and I want the crew to live.” Six replied.
“Flak it, that means no shields, we’d burn!” Echo did not sound panicked, merely concerned and if Six was reading her right, he thought she sounded intrigued. ““Do it, how precise does this have to be?”
“Milliseconds, fractions of.” He said, growing a bit concerned with his own plan. “I don’t know that we can do it.”
“I didn’t ask for conjecture Six,” Echo snapped, then was silent for a moment. The comm channel was still open, but she was not talking to Six now, ““DINA?” Six could hear a confirming voice, melodic and perfect. He gasped.
“Yes Captain? How may I assist?” DINA said.
“Can you fire the port and starboard canons within …” she paused and addressed Six, “How close Six?”
“Best estimate I can get is .00125 milliseconds.” Six gave his estimate.
“Can you fire the port and starboard lasers within .00125 milliseconds of disabling the aft shields?” Echo asked DINA.
“The calculation is off by .00000033, but yes, I can do that.” DINA replied. “I will need Captain’s authorization.”
“Flakking do it DINA.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Six!? Do you have the canons a
i--” The Captain was too late, the command center, engineering, and the rest of the ship suddenly felt like the hottest day in the Sahara and then some, but the ship rocketed out of the star’s pull.
11: ATLAS
Quintar IV - EFNF Alpha Base: Spaceport
2973 ESD - Saturday, May 22nd 23:00 hours
Abel had been slaving over the reconstruction of the Atlas. He decided to designate it ATLAS as well as name it so. He was not really sure it was the same class as the Kodiak. It was still a gunship, but the designation did not really fit. The Ultra-capacitor Radiographic Strategic Assault (URSA) designation was unique to the Kodiak. The Atlas was different.
He was still utilizing an Ultra-capacitor, but instead of using radiographic sensors he was using light and laser arrays instead. He thought about trying to incorporate the LIDAR system in the designation, but he couldn’t make it fit with ATLAS. With the addition of a few extra assault canons and a secondary cluster of anti-matter ship to ship missiles he essentially changed the ship from strategic assault to a blunt force assault vehicle. The ATLAS class fit his personality better.
Aurora Rigel and the few Vald she had with her, supplied him with the materials he needed and even pitched in with some of the labor. The Vald were quite secretive. Despite their insectile features, Abel found he didn’t mind their company. The lithe multi-limbed beings blended with their background.
Their elusiveness is not what enamored him, it was the respect they had for him. Given the Vald’s advanced technical abilities and vast resources, they could have been condescending. Abel almost felt like he was among friends. The feeling seized him and he fought hard to scrutinize it. He was not one to trust easily before all that he had experienced. He was less so now. His amicable feeling towards an alien race whom had kept themselves hidden for the better part of twenty years seriously unnerved him.