Henry Gallant Saga 2: Lieutenant Henry Gallant

by H. Peter Alesso

  Gallant would have sufficient room to stand and maneuver within the cockpit, albeit with discomfort. The remainder of the craft was occupied by engines, equipment, and supplies.

  He patiently worked the tiny craft as it strained to tow the larger shuttle. He watched the Hummingbird’s temperature start to climb from drawing ever greater measures of power and adjusted his speed until it declined back to acceptable limits. He tried to keep a constant acceleration to make their navigation problem as simple as possible.

  He used a neural sensor interface to control the craft. The neural interface opened the surrounding space to his mind’s examination. He controlled the tiny ship and began towing the Titan shuttle full of nuclear explosives toward its mother ship. Because the Hummingbird was so small and the shuttle was tethered so close, he counted on it being difficult for the Titans to distinguish exactly what objects were approaching.

  Eventually, the Titans made an effort to maneuver, indicating a sense of confusion as to why their craft was returning. Uncertain if their own crew was aboard, they trained their laser cannon at the Hummingbird and fired a warning shot.

  Gallant remained calm as he approached the calculated launch position given him by the AI. Finally, by letting the Hummingbird drop its tractor beam, he launched the nuclear-explosive-laden shuttle toward the destroyer.

  High-tailing it back to the safety of the Intrepid took all his coordination and concentration. Soon shots were coming his way and a near miss threatened to damage his Hummingbird.

  However, the Titans were too late—the shuttle was well on its way.

  Gallant worked feverishly trying to dodge laser beams while getting far enough away before the shuttle exploded.

  Caught by surprise, the Titan destroyer was unable to maneuver sufficiently far away and was severely damaged when the shuttle exploded.

  Once the shock waves passed him, Gallant was relieved to find he was still alive. He watched as the enemy retreated, limping away toward the outer reaches of the star system.

  Relieved at driving off the Titans destroyer, the Intrepid was still too badly damaged for extensive flight and therefore was unable to pursue its enemy. In any case, they lacked the firepower to finish the Titans off. Instead, the Intrepid limped into orbit over the only inhabitable planet in the system, Tau-Beta.

  When Gallant returned to the Intrepid, Neumann wore a scowl. “You let them get away.”

  Gallant matched Neumann’s scowl and looked around the Intrepid, thinking, How are we going recover from all this?

  CHAPTER 9

  SURVIVORS

  Despite being severely wounded, Gallant was one of the fortunate Intrepid survivors. Seven of twelve officers and seventy of 214 crewmembers were dead. Many more were wounded and required treatment in the ship’s severely damaged medical center.

  Under heavy analgesics, Gallant lay still on an operating table awaiting surgery while the ship’s doctor, Lieutenant Mendel, was desperately operating on Captain Cooper on the adjourning table.

  Gallant observed Mendel performing surgical repairs to the damaged organs of the shattered body. Oxygen conduits, blood tubes, and electrical wires were connected to a multitude of locations on the captain’s body—mouth, nose, veins, etc.,—allowing chemicals and nano-bots to be pumped throughout his blood and endocrine systems in an attempt to revitalize him and restore hope for his survival. The nano-bots traveled throughout his body conducting preprogrammed internal microsurgery and cell repairs. Electrical sensors were wired to his temple to control his brain functions, others to his heart and lungs. His complete body functions were transferred to the control of the ship’s medical AI. An AI avatar stood by Mendel and coached him through the complex surgery.

  The rest of the medical center was overflowing with the desperately injured. The few remaining med-techs available were frantically conducting triage and caring for the worst wounded. They injected stem cell rejuvenation fluids and conducted AI-supervised surgical repairs. Their efforts and the triage process were capable of healing much of the damaged flesh, including organs, such as the liver and kidneys.

  Eventually, a med-tech came to Gallant. “You won’t feel any pain. You can remain conscious and watch so long as you keep perfectly still, okay? You have first, second, and third degree burns over thirty per cent of your body, and you’ve lost a significant amount of blood, but your vital organs are intact and you will make a complete recovery using the rejuvenation bath after surgery. You should be up and around in four days and within a week, you should no longer suffer from chronic pain.”

  Gallant nodded and the med-tech, with the help of the AI, began operating on his wounds. He didn’t feel significant pain, but could feel the pressure of the physical actions against his body and he was fascinated as the med-tech peeled away his damaged skin. Then collagen and the new skin, grown from his stem cells, were grafted onto his body. Finally, the surface was bandaged.

  The med-tech smiled encouragingly. “It looks good. Though, if you had had genetic engineering enhancements, your stem cells would have produced a cleaner match.”

  Chief Howard came into medic bay while Gallant was receiving medical attention and wished him well, but mostly everyone was too busy looking after their own emergencies to pay more attention to him.

  Soon after surgery, Gallant ended up in the regeneration chamber for twenty-four hours of rejuvenation. Nearby chambers were soon filled with his shipmates in various states of recovery.

  When Gallant was released from the regeneration chamber, the first thing he asked was how the captain was doing.

  The solemn med-tech mumbled, “He didn’t make it.”

  Gallant’s face fell. He said nothing. He had no words to express his personal grief.

  Then he felt a moment of concern for how the Intrepid would fare under Neumann’s leadership.

  ***

  After he was released from sick bay, Gallant went to his tiny two-by-three-by-four meter quarters which he had shared with Paulson and Stahl.

  They wouldn’t be returning.

  He stared down at his shoes and the burnt deck beneath them; he sat on what was left of his bunk in the shattered remains of his three-man stateroom. The cabin was sparely furnished, revealing a traditional stark military room. A desk rested in one well-lit corner. The cubicle also included a tiny storage locker for each man to store his clothes and personal belongings. Three storage lockers had been under the bottom bunk bed and contained what personal property had escaped destruction. The rest of their personal effects were mostly distributed trash, strewn on the deck. The crumpled bunk beds were a heap of unrecognizable twisted metal. Along one wall was the closet containing uniforms. He managed to find one remaining disheveled but useable uniform he could wear.

  He combed through the wreckage, but what remained of their personal items was unrecognizable. He bumped into a lump of melted material. He puzzled over it for a second and then closed his mind; he would rather not know what it had once been. The only area to escape incineration was the single utility sink in the corner of the room.

  He picked up a few surviving remembrances—wreckage of shattered lives—an image stick with enough memory to hold millions of selected pictures, a personal jewelry pin which belonged to Stahl, and Paulson’s UPSA class ring.

  “Their family will want these,” he muttered, and he continued to gather what he could, aware family members would eventually ask about them.

  He would have to find other accommodations, but first he needed to get cleaned up and feel refreshed. He decided to take a quick shower under icy water for the prescribed thirty-second allotment. Pleased the water flowed when he stood under the faucet; he recoiled as the cold permeated his flesh. A twenty-second antiseptic cleaner and a ten-second rinse followed. He felt better after his shower.

  He stood before the mirror while he shaved. His reflection showed a familiar face—one with a steely fortitude.

  ***

  Burial in space was always an intense
emotional experience, even when it didn’t include the death of the ship’s captain. Traditional space burials followed rituals from ancient burials at sea—which had been a practice for centuries, with the body of the dead sewn in a shroud. For in-space disposition, each body was suited in a pressure suit, covered with the UP ensign, and placed in a capsule.

  The ship’s general intercom heralded, “All hands prepare to honor the dead.”

  Neumann presided as acting captain over the solemn ceremony. All able-bodied crewmen assembled mid-ship at the hanger deck and saluted while the anthem played. Only the officer of the watch and the bare minimum watch standers remained at their stations.

  Rows of flag-covered bodies lined the entire length of the corridor. Every hat was off; every head was bowed; they listened to the words of their new commanding officer as he spoke the funeral service. Then individuals came forward and spoke their peace, offered religious passages, or military readings, all seeking closure.

  Gallant stood at attention with his shipmates. His eyes lingered over the flag-draped body of William Craig.

  Chief Howard stood next to him and said quietly, “He was a fine young man.” Then turning away, he added, “Sometimes the loss is more than I can bear.”

  Gallant nodded.

  Yes.

  The bodies were draped with the UP flag and their cap and insignia were displayed. The seventy-seven bodies were arranged to be individually carried to the discharge port and placed in a capsule for launch.

  Upon completion of taps, the honor guard saluted. The chief master-at-arms presented the UP ensign to the commanding officer.

  “We commit their bodies to the vacuum of space, to journey forever more. May they find a peace in death they didn’t in life,” said Neumann.

  One by one, the bodies were ejected into space.

  Gallant brought his hand to his eye to salute each fallen shipmate. He couldn’t find any better way to show his admiration. However, when the captain was released, somehow it felt too final, too conclusive to drop the salute. He waited for a long minute until he steeled himself, then as sharply as he brought up his hand, he snapped it down.

  The ceremony finally over, men from all over the ship, got on with the job of saving the Intrepid.

  ***

  “Mr. Gallant, it’s good to see you returning to duty,” said Chief Howard standing behind the port reactor compartment shield wall. “I’ve been supervising the ship’s recovery and repairs while waiting for you to return from stasis.”

  “Thanks, Chief. I’ve been straining at the bit to get back to engineering. Doc Mendel was hard to convince, but I’m ready to return to work. He had me jumping through hoops and I mean it literally. He has me on a part-time schedule for the time being,” said Gallant.

  Howard nodded his approval.

  For several minutes Howard walked beside Gallant sporting a frown, as they went through the engineering spaces looking over the compartment’s damage.

  They looked around, but couldn’t find any of the familiar military spit and polish present a few days earlier. Everywhere around them was destruction and debris.

  The Intrepid was still alive with bustling activities, however. Atmosphere venting from metal ducts provided fresh air while a multitude of machines produced a steady drone, as the air conditioners fought the heat buildup. Men were working and discussing their problems. Progress was slow, but steady.

  “I guess I should get started by reviewing our operational status,” said Gallant with a questioning inflection.

  Howard shook his head, “Operational? Not much. We’re working around the clock to restore what we can, but … honestly… the ship is a mess. The men—those fit for duty—are exhausted. The XO has been driving everyone hard. I …, I mean Captain Neumann,” said Howard referring to his new commanding officer as captain for the first time.

  Howard explained the entire propulsion plant was defunct. The crew was reporting numerous defects and major failures throughout the engineering spaces.

  Gallant began to evaluate the sublight and FTL engines.

  The Higgs containment field, required to maintain dark matter at negative temperatures and pressures, had ruptured, releasing their entire supply of dark matter.

  The sublight fusion engine consisted of simple antimatter fusion reactors using an ordinary plasma containment field to drive the ship during normal planetary travel. The antimatter engines normally shot antiprotons into the nucleus of deuterium atoms, which caused a release of energy under the fusion process. However, even a small number of antiproton reactions could start a chain reaction which would otherwise have required a much larger mass of deuterium and tritium to sustain. With antimatter catalyzed reactions, only one gram of heavy hydrogen was required along with a microscopic amount of antiprotons. However, the antiprotons had to be kept isolated in plasma bottles surrounded by powerful superconducting magnetic coils.

  The antimatter plasma containment field had also ruptured, thereby requiring more antimatter as well.

  Howard said, “The fusion reactors are badly damaged; one critically so. The faster-than-light drive was also seriously damaged. A new inventory of exotic dark matter has to be acquired, or else we’re not going any place.”

  After their brief physical inspection, Gallant went into the engineering control room located in the middle of the upper level of the engineering compartment. He pulled on his man-machine neuron interface headgear. This allowed him direct access to the ship’s Artificial Intelligence or (AI), nicknamed GridScape. The dozens of tiny silicon probes touched his scalp at key points, sensitively picking up wave patterns emanating from his thoughts and using the AI to translate his thoughts into physical commands for operating the engineering machinery and reactors. The physical controls were still available, but only as a backup.

  Controlling machines with thoughts is faster, he reflected.

  Gallant was uniquely qualified to be engineer on the Intrepid because of his exceptional neural abilities. Despite being a Natural, non-genetically engineered, his performance had been proven to be far superior to officers who were specifically engineered to use the neural interface. His exceptional talents were also his burden of responsibility.

  Genetically enhanced officers, like Neumann, were altered to have the hormones and enzymes necessary for this operation, while he was uniquely born with them. In the past Gallant had been able to successfully interface with the neuron headgear, but he had not been able to maintain a high intensity of concentration for sustained periods. Now, however, he had developed far beyond the abilities of officers like Neumann.

  Using the interface, he felt the engineering plant open up to him. He could visualize reactor controls and equipment. He spatially oriented himself then felt the controls for regulating reactor control rods and hydraulic valves and pumps. By merely visualizing the operations, he could manipulate instruments.

  Mentally, he visualized the pneumatic-hydraulic plasma discharge valve for the starboard antimatter engines. There he cast the light onto the automatic control setting and checked it was in the closed position. The green status light indicated the automatic closure feature was operating normally as well.

  Chief Howard had done a splendid job in getting things started, but there was so much more to do.

  “I guess we should start with setting up a rotating work schedule and set repair priorities,” said Gallant.

  Methodically, he went through the status of the rest of the equipment and began going over a general repair schedule including validation tests. The list of tasks to be accomplished seemed endless. He set up a long-term personnel work schedule identifying key expertise requirements. He concentrated and visualized the ship, its controls, and the system failures, as one image. He then tuned his senses to see the path to recovery. Developing a sense of harmony between controls and performance, he created a solution in his mind’s eye. Hours passed while he worked diligently evaluating the various system failures and devising possible workou
ts. As he figured out the failure modes for each piece of equipment, he submitted his solution to the AI for evaluation. He used his mental image to evaluate the virtual information data feeds.

  The AI reported, “Damage in port and starboard engines—control panel and main electrical panel fused—atmospheric supplies contaminated—rupture of the antimatter plasma containment field—other casualties involving additional equipment beginning to register.”

  He began to assess the damage and evaluate remedial corrective actions. Without hesitation he changed settings on the engines, stopped the environmental equipment, and altered control settings on internal power.

  Gallant continued to work on unraveling the casualties in men and machines. At first, the AI rejected everything he proposed, but slowly, he was able to develop a plan to partially restore the ship’s life-support capability and then established a repair plan to allow minimal power for essential items. Despite his fatigue, he submitted his final renovation concept to the AI. It approved the path to restore life-support and the minimal power supply.

  His mind wrung out from wrestling the computer, Gallant walked through the engineering spaces and watched as engineering personnel performed repairs.

  Soon robotic arms and trollies moved equipment and machinery into position for removal or replacement with AI and human guidance. UP hadn’t been able to develop robots or intelligent computers, to operate independently, but the AI systems could understand human language and solve many problems. People still argued about how smart computers were, but nevertheless they were helpful and obedient.

  Howard reviewed the progress on the virtual readout screens. “I’ll see the captain about approving the long term plan and get people working accordingly. However, you should be aware with so much equipment out of action we’re practically flying blind over this planet. Captain Neumann is going to want to get power to the sensor array and communication stations as a high priority.”