Henry Gallant Saga 2: Lieutenant Henry Gallant

by H. Peter Alesso

  LIEUTENANT HENRY GALLANT

  H. Peter Alesso

  LIEUTENANT HENRY GALLANT

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 H. Peter Alesso

  All rights reserved.

  hpeteralesso.com

  Edition 1.00

  ISBN-13: 978-1500726805

  ISBN-10: 150072680X

  DEDICATION

  A warrior fights with honor.

  Pride is his just reward.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1 Run

  Chapter 2 FTL

  Chapter 3 Run

  Chapter 4 Rival

  Chapter 5 Run

  Chapter 6 Ambush

  Chapter 7 No more Running

  Chapter 8 Hummingbird

  Chapter 9 Survivors

  Chapter 10 Is Anyone There?

  Chapter 11 Elysium

  Chapter 12 The Loyal Opposition

  Chapter 13 A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

  Chapter 14 The Deal

  Chapter 15 Brobdingnag

  Chapter 16 Mining

  Chapter 17 Dealmakers

  Chapter 18 Portrait

  Chapter 19 Mishap

  Chapter 20 Café

  Chapter 21 Casualties

  Chapter 22 GridScape

  Chapter 23 Aristotle

  Chapter 24 Probe

  Chapter 25 Faustian Bargain

  Chapter 26 Treaty

  Chapter 27 Prison

  Chapter 28 Cyber-assault

  Chapter 29 Alert

  Chapter 30 Stooge

  Chapter 31 Neumann

  Chapter 32 Behind the Curtain

  Chapter 33 Symmetry

  Chapter 34 Alaina

  Chapter 35 Dragor

  Chapter 36 Showdown

  Chapter 37 Duty

  Chapter 38 What You Want Most

  CHAPTER 1

  RUN

  Gallant ran—gasping for breath, heart pounding; the echo of his footsteps reverberated behind him.

  He hoped to reach the bridge, but hope is a fragile thing.

  Peering over his shoulder into the dark, he tripped on a protruding jagged beam, one of the ship’s many battle scars. As he crashed to the deck, the final glow of emergency lights sputtered out leaving only the pitch-black of power failure—his failure.

  He lay still and listened to the ship’s cries of pain; the incessant wheezing of atmosphere bleeding from the many tiny hull fissures, the repetitious groaning of metal from straining structures, and the crackling of electrical wires sparking against panels.

  Thoughts flashed past him.

  How long will the oxygen last?

  He was reluctant to guess.

  Where are they?

  The clamor of dogged footsteps drew closer even as he rasped for another breath.

  Trembling from exhaustion, he clawed at the bulkhead to pull himself up. His hemorrhaging leg made even standing brutally painful.

  Nevertheless, he ran.

  The bulkhead panels and compartment hatches were indistinguishable in the dimness. Vague phantoms lurked nearby even while his eyes adjusted to whatever glowing plasma blast embers flickered from the hull.

  As he twisted around a corner, he crashed his shoulder into a bulkhead. The impact knocked him back and spun him around. Reaching out with a bloody hand, he grasped the hatch handle leading into the Operation’s compartment. Going through the hatch, he pulled it shut behind him.

  He started to run then awkwardly fought his own momentum and stopped.

  Stupid! Stupid!

  Going back to the hatch, he hit the security locking mechanism.

  It wouldn’t stop a plasma blast, but it might slow them down, he thought. At least this compartment is airtight.

  Finally able to take a deep breath, he tried to clear his head of bombarding sensations. He should’ve been in battle armor, but he’d stayed too long in engineering trying to maintain power while the hull had been breached and the ship boarded.

  Now his uniform was scorched, revealing the plasma burns of seared flesh from his left shoulder down across his back to his right thigh. He had no idea where the rest of the crew was; many were probably dead. His comm pin was mute and the ship’s AI wasn’t responding. He had only a handgun, but so far he didn’t think they were tracking him specifically, merely penetrating into the ship to gain control.

  Gallant tried to run once more, but his legs were unwilling. Leaning against the bulkhead, like a dead weight, he slid slowly down to the deck.

  Unable to go farther, he sat dripping blood and trembling as the potent grip of shock grabbed hold. The harrowing pain of his burnt flesh, swept over him.

  Hope and fear alike abandoned him, leaving only an undeniable truth; without immediate medical treatment, he wouldn’t survive.

  I’m done.

  Closing his eyes, he fought against the pain and the black vertigo of despair. He took a deep breath and called upon the last of his inner resolve and resilience . . .

  No! I won’t give up.

  Exhaling and opening his eyes, he caught sight of a nearly invisible luminescent glow of a Red Cross symbol, offering him a glimmer of hope. He stretched his arm toward the cabinet.

  “Argh.”

  He heard a cry of agony and only belatedly realized it had escaped his own lips as he strained to pull away twisted metal from the door to a medical cabinet. Reaching inside, he grabbed a damaged medi-pack.

  Painstakingly, he used the meager emergency provisions to stop the bleeding and to infuse blood plasma. His limited mobility prevented him from reaching awkward areas, but he managed to insert an analgesic hypodermic into his raw blistered flesh. Next, he crudely bandaged his suffering body.

  He relaxed momentarily as the medication coursed through his veins working to stifle the worst effects of shock and blood loss. His parched throat demanded . . .

  Water.

  He looked at more cabinets, but was unable to make out their markings in the dark. Stretching his fingers, he opened the nearest one, groping for something familiar inside.

  No.

  He opened the next.

  No.

  And another.

  Yes. He snatched a half-buried survival kit. Greedily he drank and even managed to take a few bites of an energy bar.

  A surge of adrenaline helped him shift his position to sit more comfortably as his mind came into sharper focus.

  As he examined his surroundings in the faint light, he spotted an interface station. He was about to reach up and patch into the ship’s AI to get an update on the ship’s defensive posture when he was disturbed by the dismal clangor of footsteps.

  He held his breath. Are they coming this way?

  CHAPTER 2

  FTL

  FOUR DAYS EARLIER . . .

  The cold midnight black of space was indifferent to the warp distortion of the United Planets’ Intrepid on its maiden voyage to Tau Ceti. Exotic dark matter fueled the ship’s warp drive to create a space-time distortion bubble around the ship. Even while exceeding the speed of light, everything within the bubble appeared normal, including the perception of time.

  One of Earth’s nearest cosmic neighbors, Tau Ceti is a yellow dwarf star at about 11.5 light-years distance. The star’s brilliant radiance beckoned the Intrepid deeper into its gravity-well, while the ship’s forward view port allowed the bridge crew to witness its inner fusion turmoil, converting over six hundred million tons of hydrogen to helium each second.

  Officer of the Deck, Lieutenant Henry G
allant, stood at the center of the Intrepid's bridge. Tall and athletically built, he seemed perfectly at ease as the focus of attention. His symmetrical facial features and square jaw made him appear forthright and earnest. His steely gray eyes might have deemed him overly intense, but in a curious way; a single careless curl of brown hair drifting across his forehead hinted at a youthful exuberance which combined with his good-natured smile left a reassuring impression.

  In stark contrast to the vast emptiness outside the ship, inside the Intrepid, the dozen members of the bridge crew were crowded into a circular hi-tech equipment-packed bridge with three inner concentric circles. The innermost circle was around the command chair with its virtual support screens. It was normally occupied by the commanding officer, but the OOD was currently sitting there. The next circle was the command and control, and weapons stations, while the outermost ring consisted of sensor, navigation, and communication consoles.

  One hundred and eighty degrees of the bridge’s circumference was occupied by a front wall displaying a high resolution view screen showing the star system ahead of them.

  From their demeanor and casual posture, the team gave the air of routine—nothing remarkable going on here. Yet there remained eagerness in the faces of the men nearest Gallant, causing him to savor the moment before issuing the next series of orders. The crew was so well coached on the ship’s evolutions they could predict his exact words.

  That was Gallant’s perception as he stood at attention, careful to display a neutral facial expression while anticipating the coming maneuver.

  He turned his attention on the youngest member of the team—the twenty-year-old helmsman—only one year younger than Gallant.

  “We’ve reached the system threshold, sir,” reported the helmsman, as if prodding the OOD to end the FTL flight. Within the star system they would be limited to sublight drive to avoid passing through a consequential field of matter; a planet, a large asteroid, or even worse, the star itself, which would bring their voyage to a swift and fatal conclusion.

  “Very well, prepare to exit warp,” said Gallant. On the ship-wide communication system, he announced, “All stations, standby to collapse warp bubble. Standby to collapse warp bubble.”

  Turning to Chief Howard, he said, “Chief of the Watch, sound three blasts of the drive alarm.”

  Chief Howard complied and the racket the alarm made ensured the whole crew knew what event was about to transpire.

  “Helm, collapse warp bubble,” ordered Gallant, ostensibly monitoring the virtual screens surrounding him, but in actuality, his attention was keenly focused on the actions of the helmsman, cautiously checking every movement to ensure exact performance—waiting, watching.

  “Aye, aye, sir,” responded Second Class Petty Officer William Craig. Short and wiry, with a ruddy complexion, he was young for a second class PO, but his outstanding performance and Chief Howard’s recommendation had spurred his advancement. Using a methodical touch on the controls, he listened to the AI’s prompting and made subtle adjustments. He watched as the three dimensional image projected on a virtual screen showed the warp bubble as it writhed and gyrated in response to his manipulations.

  The Intrepid dropped smoothly out of warp. The subtle changes to the surrounding space-time fabric were inconspicuous to the crew; nevertheless Gallant detected a subtle difference to the ship’s rhythmic vibrations beneath his feet.

  The intricate operation complete, Craig reported, “Warp bubble collapsed, sir.”

  The bridge crew’s placid response to the event, prompted Gallant to strike a similar blasé pose.

  “Ahead standard,” he said.

  “Aye, aye, sir,” said Craig, registering the signal on the AI display, which alerted engineering to start the sublight antimatter fusion reactors. As the reactors went critical, the ship ejected minute particles that produced only a tiny amount of acceleration, nevertheless the thrust compounded over time and the ship was soon propelled by the fusion engines.

  “Nicely done, Helm,” commented Gallant a few seconds later when the ship was operating on fusion drive.

  “Thank you, sir,” said the petty officer, unable to suppress a prideful nuance in his voice. He was one of the most popular young men on the ship. His bubbly personality and gregarious nature made him welcome, wherever he went. Even now, while on duty, he exhibited a contagious joyful excitement.

  Gallant was pleased with the maneuver, but as the ship’s Engineering Officer, he would withhold final judgment until he conducted a thorough series of tests to review data and garner more details on the performance of both propulsion systems. After probing the Faster-Than-Light, FTL, frontier, busy evaluation days were ahead.

  He waited expectantly for the keen observations and appraisal of his captain, but Dan Cooper made no historic comment.

  Instead, Cooper sat relaxed, leaning against the bulkhead, quietly chatting with the ship’s senior chief.

  “What do you think, Chief Howard?” he asked.

  “Oh, she’s shiny and new, I’ll give you that, sir, but I’ll take old Repulse any day of the week. They don’t make ships like her anymore.”

  The captain chuckled. “I was asking about the FTL performance.”

  “Well, I’ll wait until my engineering gang finishes tweaking and fiddling before making my official report, but my first impression is, she’s”—the chief paused and looked over the bridge with a sweeping glance then finished begrudgingly—“okay.”

  “That’s good enough for me, Chief,” concluded the captain, giving him a good-natured slap on the back.

  Outwardly the captain seemed unconcerned and it crossed Gallant’s mind that behind this man’s calm exterior, and dignified composure, was an underlying alertness conjoined with an abiding trust in his crew, such that, he felt prepared for any emergency. A methodical man, Cooper expected precision and discipline to be a natural consequence of his crew’s training. Despite being brawny and self-assured, Captain Cooper was surprisingly unassuming. Clean-shaven with well-groomed wavy black hair, square shoulders, and a ruggedly handsome face, the captain was approachable. His good-natured, loud, infectious laugh was frequently heard throughout the bridge whenever someone ventured a quick joke.

  Gallant took a moment to survey the state-of-the-art bridge with its veteran crew, from among the best the fleet had to offer, especially picked for this mission. From their relaxed, casual appearance, they might have seemed slack, yet their eyes showed the keen resolve of a skilled meticulous team. They had each endured considerable privation and many challenges to reach their position.

  It was natural enough to consider his career and what opportunities might await. He let his fingers touch his lieutenant bars as reassurance. They reminded him of his own struggles in the service. Fighting alien threats had been secondary to the concerns most senior officers expressed about his fitness since he had entered the Space Academy.

  His reflections were interrupted when the astrogator reported, “Sir, we’re twenty light-minutes from Tau Ceti. There are five planets visible. The nearest to Tau Ceti is designated Tau-Alpha and has an orbital radius of thirty-nine million kilometers. Spectral analysis shows it’s a composite of a carbonaceous, silicate, and metal-rich rock covering a barren volcanic mantle.”

  The planet’s radio-telescope image offered Gallant interesting views.

  “No moons,” commented the senior chief, distracted from his conversation with the captain. Chief Benjamin Howard was a highly decorated veteran. His uniform’s well-creased trousers and mirror-glossed shoes reflected his pride of service while his significant physical musculature belied his thinning gray hair.

  “The second planet, designated Tau-Beta, has a 121 million kilometer orbit. It’s a warm-water planet, Earth-type in size and character, sir,” continued the astrogator.

  “With one large moon,” contributed Chief Howard.

  “Very well,” acknowledged Gallant, his curiosity roused.

  “The next two planets are
gas giants with no moons. There is a small asteroid field followed by the last planet with a 311 million kilometer orbit. It’s a gas giant composed of hydrogen and helium with numerous volcanic methane moons, sir.”

  At last, Captain Cooper stirred and moved to the astrogator’s station to examine the findings.

  The semicircular bridge’s efficient layout with the captain’s chair in the center allowed for numerous AI and virtual screen resources. The entire bridge was buzzing with watch personnel conducting analyses, but everyone moved aside when the captain moved.

  A variety of different active and passive sensor arrays supplied real-time data to supplement known astrophysics stats, which together plotted the planets’ orbits and looked for any contacts to compute their course and speed. The sensing equipment included seven different types of active radars and four passive telescopes as part of operations. Every contact tracked had a specific emission signature they could identify. The spectrum of the Intrepid’s emissions, electromagnetic, Fermion, and dark matter, on the other hand, was strictly controlled to prevent others from detecting and tracking them.

  Gallant leaned toward the captain and quietly suggested, “I recommend we investigate the Earth-type planet, sir.”

  The captain nodded and said, “Agreed. Officer of the Deck set course for Tau-Beta.”

  “Aye, aye, sir,” acknowledged Gallant and soon the fusion engines reached their top speed of 0.002c. He calculated their flight path and reported, “We’ll reach Tau-Beta in about one hundred hours, sir.”

  “Very well. I think I’d like to deploy a probe to investigate the moons of the last gas giant.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  Gallant touched a few tabs on the virtual control screen sliding open the massive drone hanger hatch in the midsection of the ship. He called up the AI settings for plot control and touched the destination spot on the screen while adjusting the final coordinates. He looked at the captain. At his nod, Gallant pressed the Launch tab. Deep Space Probe 16 left the Intrepid and the eighteen-meter-long-projectile journeyed toward the largest moon around the fifth planet.