When they had returned to their quarters, they had spent the next two hours walking various corridors to the other two emergency stations they were supposed to report to depending on ship’s time. Once the two of them were satisfied that they were ready for the next surprise drill, they had both taken a quick shower and then collapsed onto their bunks.
“Are you ready for our shift in the Command Center?” Kevin asked from where he was sitting at the desk, studying some information he had been looking up on the computer screen.
Jeremy sat up and looked over at Kevin. “Has to be better than last night.”
“You can say that again,” replied Kevin, nodding his head in agreement. “I thought I was in good shape, but running up those flights of stairs changed my mind about that. I didn’t realize this ship had so many stairs!”
“Might be a good idea for us to set up a regular exercise routine,” Jeremy suggested. He liked to work out anyway, and the ship did have a good weight room.
“I wonder how the girls made out in the drill?”
“I haven’t talked to either of them today,” Jeremy replied. He had tried to contact them once earlier, but neither had answered the com line in their quarters. Jeremy lay back down and shut his eyes. “I’m going to get a few more minutes of sleep. It’s going to be a long shift tonight.”
-
Jeremy and Kevin entered the Command Center fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. Lieutenant Nelson was sitting at the center command console. He nodded his head toward them.
“Cadet Lieutenant Strong, you will work with Ensign Roberts at the sensor and scanner console. A good commander needs to know the capabilities of his ship and what might be coming his way. There are several shuttles coming up from Earth tonight going to the academy with the summer recruits. Ensign Roberts will show you how to use the scanner and sensors to track the incoming shuttles.”
“Yes, sir,” responded Jeremy, walking over to the scanner and sensor console where Ensign Roberts was waiting.
He was familiar with how the equipment worked from his studies at the academy, but this would be the first time he had tracked an actual shuttle. He also wondered if Katie was on board one of those shuttles coming up with the summer recruits. There was a good possibility she was since classes were due to begin in just a few more days at the academy. He just hoped his parents were ready for the young teenager. Jeremy was just glad he was on the New Horizon and wouldn’t have to deal with her.
“Ensign Walters, I want you over at the environmental controls. The main computer has been acting up, and we’re currently running on the backup. See if you can find out what’s wrong.” Nelson didn’t mention that the computer had been intentionally disabled to see if Walters could find the problem. The problem should occupy him for several hours, assuming he could eventually figure it out.
Kevin walked over to the indicated console and sat down. In just a few moments, he was running a diagnostic program to see if it would reveal what the problem was. Kevin knew this might take a while.
-
“So you’re Admiral Strong’s son,” commented Ensign Roberts, motioning for Jeremy to take a seat next to him. “He’s done an amazing job with the academy and the Avenger Project.”
“It’s been his life,” replied Jeremy, looking at the two large screens that were on the console. The one on the left was the short-range scanner screen, and the one on the right was for the long-range sensors.
“I hope I can meet him someday,” Roberts continued as he pressed several buttons and turned a dial on the large console.
Instantly the two screens came on. Jeremy had studied how the sensor and scanner screens worked as had all the cadets that were in officer’s training. They were required to become familiar with all the operating systems in a ship.
“What do you know about the ship’s main sensors?” asked Roberts, wanting to know how much Jeremy had learned at the academy.
“The main sensors have a range of nearly one hundred million kilometers,” Jeremy replied. “They are extremely sensitive and can detect planets, asteroids, comets, and other ships that are within that range.”
“How detailed are they?” Roberts continued. Roberts knew that the academy instructors were extremely thorough. He was just trying to see how much Jeremy had learned from them.
“Not very,” replied Jeremy, looking at the two screens. “For detailed information we need to use the scanners. They are good up to two hundred thousand kilometers and can give detailed information on anything larger than one hundred meters. Of course, the closer you can get the more detailed the scans become.”
“Excellent,” spoke Roberts, nodding his head in approval. At least Jeremy had paid attention in class. “Now let’s see if we can spot those two shuttles.” Roberts gestured toward the scanner screen and began adjusting it to focus more on Earth.
Lieutenant Nelson watched, satisfied that Jeremy at least knew his stuff. He seemed to be following what Ensign Roberts was doing without a problem. Every once in a while he would ask Roberts a question and Roberts would go back and explain some fine point about the ship’s scanners again. Nelson hoped the young man was just as well versed in the other duty stations in the Command Center. Turning his attention back to the schedule for the night shift, Nelson saw that more supplies had arrived during the day and were supposed to be inventoried. He sent several crewmembers to check them and to make sure they had been stowed correctly.
He was under strict orders from Commander Tellson to double-check everything since Admiral Strong had mentioned the rumors going around down on Earth. Nelson had a hard time imagining there being any kind of legitimate threat against the New Horizon. He strongly suspected it was just a few locals letting off steam at the money being spent in lunar orbit instead of on more welfare programs.
-
Katie was in one of the shuttles that were just climbing out of Earth’s thick protective atmosphere. She felt excited about returning to the Moon. For the next three months, she would be a student at the Fleet Academy studying computers. This was something she had dreamed about, now it was actually going to happen. She noticed several people were staring at her, probably wondering why such a young girl was on the shuttle without adult supervision. She smiled politely at them and nodded.
In just another few hours, she would be back on the Moon. One of the first things she wanted to do was speak with Ariel. In the few months Katie had been away from the Moon, she had come up with hundreds of questions she wanted to ask the AI. Looking out the viewport next to her, she noticed they were finally out of the Earth’s protective atmosphere. Space had turned darker, with a sprinkling of stars. She reached into her backpack and took out her small handheld computer. Turning it on, she was soon engrossed in working on her newest program.
Several times the flight attendant came by to check on Katie. Katie had a strong suspicion that her mother had told the woman to keep a close eye on her. She smiled at the flight attendant and nodded her head in acknowledgment.
“Is there anything you need, dear?” the flight attendant asked.
“Water would be nice,” Katie replied in her most polite voice.
The flight attendant nodded and soon returned with a bottle of slightly chilled water. “If you need anything else, just let me know.”
“Thank you,” Katie replied with a sweet smile. She watched as the flight attendant left. Katie shook her head and went back to working on her computer.
An hour later, the flight attendant picked up a microphone and began addressing the passengers. “We will be passing close by the spacedock shortly. The New Horizon is still docked to the station and you should be able to see two really bright points of light.”
Katie turned her attention to outside the shuttle. In a few minutes, she saw two bright points of light that steadily grew brighter. She knew the light was from reflected sunlight. She let out a deep sigh of regret. Jeremy was on the New Horizon, and she wouldn’t get to see him while she was on th
e Moon for the summer. That was her biggest disappointment. Then her light green eyes brightened. Perhaps she could talk Lisa or even Jason into taking her on a tour of the spacedock. Surely if they were on the spacedock, Jeremy would be allowed to come and see them. Maybe she could even talk one of them into showing her the New Horizon!
Katie watched as the shuttle quickly neared the Moon and began its descent toward the crater that held the Avenger and the academy. Looking out the viewport, she could see the rough and desolate lunar terrain passing by below them. The ground was dark and gray and covered with multiple impact craters. Without an atmosphere, the Moon had nothing to protect it from occasional meteor strikes. Katie knew there were bunkers beneath the academy buildings where the students could take refuge if a potential meteor strike were detected.
The shuttle reached the crater and landed inside a large flight bay that had been built over to one side of the crater. Over a dozen Raven class shuttles were parked inside. The hatch on the shuttle slid open, and the ramp was extended so the passengers could depart.
“You may now disembark the shuttle,” the flight attendant informed everyone with a friendly smile. “If you are not sure where to go, you need to report to the new arrivals station. You will see signs posted outside directing you.”
Katie stood up and grabbed her backpack. Walking down the ramp, she saw Lisa waiting for her with a friendly smile on her face.
“Hello Katie,” Lisa said. “I hope you’re ready to spend the summer here on the Moon.”
“More than you can know,” Katie responded with a big grin.
Ariel was waiting, and Katie could hardly wait to get checked into her dorm room so she could speak to her. She had a special program she had written on her handheld computer that should give her instant access to Ariel if she was close enough to a main computer terminal.
“Where’s Jason?” asked Katie, looking around. She had expected Jason to be here to greet her along with Lisa.
“Jason had somewhere he had to go,” replied Lisa, evenly. She couldn’t tell Katie that Jason had left to go to Ceres to discuss the upcoming reconnaissance mission into Hocklyn space.
-
Jason watched from behind the pilot’s seat as they neared Ceres. Since their original mission to the asteroid twenty-four years ago, a lot had changed. The number of defense platforms orbiting Ceres had doubled. Two Federation light cruisers were also patrolling farther out. Both cruisers had limited stealth shielding so as not to be accidentally picked up on the sensors of Earth’s four interplanetary exploration cruisers. The two cruisers only showed up dimly on the short-range scanners, but Jason knew they were there.
From Ceres, the entire solar system was monitored. If anything unknown showed up on the sensors, the two cruisers could be sent instantly to investigate. The Hocklyns must not learn of Earth until far in the future. If more warships were required, there were two Conqueror class battle cruisers available as well as two fleet battle carriers if needed. All four were in the massive ship bays inside Ceres with partial crews on board.
“We are cleared to land,” the copilot commented as he listened to instructions from Ceres base.
Approaching the asteroid two large hatches slid back, revealing a cavernous flight bay. Even as they landed, they saw four space fighters take off to conduct a routine patrol of the asteroid field around the base.
“Security is tighter than ever,” the pilot commented, watching the fighters enviously. He wondered what it would be like to fly one of them.
The pilot normally made the run between the Moon and Ceres once a week. The shuttle he was flying did have an FTL drive installed, and they had used a micro-jump to reduce the flying time between Earth and Ceres to slightly less than four hours. Those four hours were the time the shuttle spent clearing the Earth and Moon’s gravity well.
“We have a lot going on right now,” commented Jason, knowing the reason for the increased security.
In the last few years, the Federation survivors on Ceres had been working hard about what to do if there were a Hocklyn incursion before the Earth was ready. Ceres and the ships hidden within were the solar system's first line of defense. It would be years before Earth had an armed space fleet of her own powerful enough to resist an invasion.
The biggest problem right now was a shortage of manpower. The population of Ceres was only 146,000. That just wasn’t enough people to man all the ships. There was one battle cruiser and one battle carrier that were fully manned, but they were both in the New Tellus system. Hopefully, in a few more years, the academy on the Moon would start to furnish a big part of those badly needed crews. Plans were already being made to quadruple the size of the classes as well as increasing the size of the academy. It would be necessary so the new colony ships could be crewed.
For today, Jason had a meeting scheduled with Admiral Anlon to discuss the upcoming reconnaissance mission. Jason also wanted to see the new Monarch Two heavy cruiser. This was a completely new warship built by the Federation survivors in one of the large construction bays inside Ceres. Supposedly, the ship included a lot of new technical advancements, both in weapons and in its drive systems.
The pilot carefully maneuvered the shuttle inside the flight bay and landed it smoothly on the indicated landing pad. As he shut off the engine, he noticed a small group of people walking toward the shuttle. The welcoming committee, he assumed. The pilot knew that Admiral Strong didn’t come out to Ceres very often. His busy schedule back on the Moon didn’t allow it.
Stepping out of the shuttle, Jason smiled upon seeing Admiral Anlon and a younger woman with an air of authority about her. Looking closer, Jason saw she was a brunette with beautiful blue eyes. He didn’t recognize her and was not sure who she was.
“Hello, Admiral,” spoke Anlon, offering his hand. Then he turned to introduce the woman standing next to him. “This is Colonel Amanda Sheen, former executive officer of the StarStrike.”
“Colonel Sheen,” spoke Jason, nodding in recognition as he realized who this was. “I have heard a lot about you from Ariel on the Avenger.”
“Ariel,” spoke Colonel Sheen, recalling the AI. She had already spoken to Clarissa here on Ceres. It was hard to believe that both the AIs had managed to survive. She shivered slightly. Amanda didn’t think she had fully gotten over being in cryosleep all of these years. Then, indicating the tall dark haired man standing next to her, she continued. “This is Major Richard Andrews, my husband.”
Jason shook Richard’s hand. He knew from the reports that Admiral Anlon had sent him that both Colonel Sheen and Major Andrews were intimately acquainted with the former worlds of the Federation. He knew that Colonel Sheen had spent a lot of time on Aquaria where her parents had lived, and Major Andrews had worked on the large shipyard above New Providence.
“I understand you have a new ship to show me,” Jason said anxious to see the new warship. “Why don’t we head over to the construction bay and we can discuss the mission as we tour it?”
“Good idea,” Admiral Anlon commented. “I think you will be impressed by our new design. It’s far more advanced than anything we have ever built before.”
“I hope so,” Colonel Sheen commented as they left the flight bay. “We will need every advantage possible if we’re going deep into Hocklyn space to see what they have been up to for the last one hundred years.”
“I still can’t believe we’ve been asleep that long,” commented Major Andrews, looking over at Amanda. There were only sixty-eight people who had chosen to go into cryosleep. When they had the time, Richard wanted to see what had happened to some of those that had chosen to live their lives out on Ceres.
The small group walked through the base, then took a recently installed transit tube to the construction bays. Once they arrived, Admiral Anlon led them through several connecting corridors until they stepped out onto a large platform that overlooked one of the bays.
“This is the Monarch Two heavy cruiser WarStorm,” Admiral Anlon s
poke with pride in his voice. “She is 900 meters long, 220 meters high and 210 meters wide.”
“That’s bigger than a normal Monarch heavy cruiser,” commented Colonel Sheen, gazing at the large ship that rested in the construction bay. The composite armor on the hull was a dark gray, nearly black. Everything about the ship looked new.
“She’s also much more powerful,” continued Admiral Anlon, gesturing toward the front of the ship. “She has four primary lasers in the bow. The new lasers are four times more powerful than the old ones.”
“Four times!” Major Andrews spoke, his face showing surprise. “How did you do that?” He had spent a lot of time with Amanda discussing the specifications for the large lasers that had been installed on the shipyard above New Providence. He knew that power for lasers was always an issue.
“You must remember that our fleet had never fought a war when we encountered the Hocklyns,” Admiral Anlon explained. “We had never had the need for stronger and more capable weapons. Any type of energy weapon, including lasers, is an energy hog. We have a small fusion reactor that serves no other purpose than to power those lasers. These lasers are also a completely new design from the older ones. We also have plans for a future energy beam weapon to replace the lasers. But we have a number of technical issues that need to be solved before we can build one.”
“Energy weapons,” Colonel Sheen spoke, her eyes turning dark. “The Hocklyns have a type of energy beam weapon. It was much more powerful than our lasers.”
“There’s something that’s always confused me,” spoke Jason, gazing at the new ship and wondering how long it would be before Earth could build something like this. If they stayed on their current schedule, he knew it would be nearly another one hundred years. “Why aren’t the Hocklyn ships more advanced? With all the worlds they have conquered, you would think they would have assimilated some of that technology.”
Moon Wreck: Fleet Academy (The Slaver Wars) Page 8