Moon Wreck: Fleet Academy (The Slaver Wars)

by Raymond L. Weil

  Sitting down, she wondered if she should attempt to move the supplies from the other shuttle over into this one. If she did manage to rescue Jeremy, Kelsey, and their two friends, they might need them. Taking a deep breath, she leaned back in the pilot’s seat and thought it over. It might be dangerous, but they could really use those extra supplies. She had nearly eaten and drank the majority of the supplies that this shuttle had originally been stocked with.

  -

  Jeremy and Kevin were in their quarters when they completed the second jump. The ship shuddered and seemed to leap to one side knocking Kevin off of his bunk. At the same time, emergency alarms began sounding.

  “What the hell was that?” blurted Kevin, picking himself up off the floor and looking over at Jeremy.

  “Sounded like some type of explosion,” Jeremy said worriedly, rising to his feet and walking to the door. Checking it, he found it was still locked.

  “What do you think happened?”

  “The drive core overheated,” answered Jeremy, wondering how badly the ship was damaged. “The chief engineer was worried about that and has been trying to warn Maher what might happen if he didn’t reduce the distance of the FTL jumps. Maher has refused to listen to reason.”

  “Crap!” Kevin muttered, his eyes focusing on Jeremy, realizing the enormity of what this meant. “If the drive core is damaged, that means we’re stranded with no way home.”

  “I don’t think we were going home anyway,” replied Jeremy, returning to his bunk and sitting down. They were trapped in their quarters until someone unlocked the door.

  Kevin remained standing for a few moments longer and then sat down also. “Do you think the girls are okay?”

  “They should be,” Jeremy responded. “Their quarters are on this level, and we’re quite a ways from Engineering.”

  -

  In the Command Center, Major Maher was fuming. He could barely contain his rage. He had just finished speaking to the chief engineer; the drive core was irreparably damaged. Even after being threatened, the chief engineer had reported that they just didn’t have the parts to completely rebuild the drive core. Maher had demanded to talk to Ensign Bates, and Bates had reported the same. Whatever star system they had jumped into on this last jump was where they were going to remain.

  At least from the last report, the fires in Engineering were out and the sublight drive was still on line. Looking across the Command Center, Maher let out a sharp breath, and then his eyes focused on Lieutenant Nelson. There was no longer any point in keeping the lieutenant alive. If they couldn’t jump any more, then he was useless. Maher had only kept him alive for his navigation abilities. Nelson was also the only real threat that Maher had to his command. Once Nelson was eliminated, those members of the crew that were still against his plans to colonize another world would fall into line.

  “Guards, take Lieutenant Nelson back to his quarters,” Maher ordered, his eyes turning dark. He would order Nelson’s demise later, once things calmed back down.

  “Helm, take us in system toward the liquid water zone. If we’re stranded here, let’s hope there’s a world we can settle on.”

  The helm officer nodded and began turning the ship inward toward the central part of the system. Activating the sublight drive, he began accelerating the ship. The helm officer felt nervous as he could feel the ship vibrating slightly, and he even thought he could hear the hull groaning. The explosion in the drive core might have comprised the integrity of the ship’s hull.

  Maher flinched as he heard the groaning noise coming from the ship. If this system didn’t have a habitable world, then all of his careful planning and taking over of the New Horizon would have been for nothing.

  -

  The Hocklyn support cruiser Arkon was just finishing its scans of this new star system when a red icon suddenly appeared on one of the ship’s sensor screens. The sensor operator looked at it in surprise, and then turned to notify the First Leader.

  “First Leader, there is an unidentified spacecraft that has just jumped into the system.”

  First Leader Makill looked at the sensor operator in surprise. There should be no other Hocklyn ships in this area. “Is it one of ours?”

  “No, First Leader,” the sensor operator replied. “It is much smaller than one of our support cruisers.”

  “What is its current range?” Makill asked with growing curiosity. Could it be an exploration craft from a nearby star system? Perhaps honor was closer than they had thought.

  The sensor operator was quiet for a moment as he checked the information coming across his data screens. “Three hundred and sixty million kilometers. They have activated their sublight drive and are now moving in system.”

  Makill was quiet for a moment as he thought over his options. “Send a message to the Vengeance and inform them of what we have found. Inform First Leader Shrea that we will attempt contact in the guise of a trading vessel to see if we can learn of their point of origin.”

  “Yes, sir,” the com operator replied.

  Makill gazed thoughtfully at the main sensor screen and the red icon it was displaying. In their search of this region of space, three possible worlds had already been found to add to the empire. Two were rather primitive and had just begun their industrial age, another had already placed satellites in orbit and was experimenting with nuclear energy. Those three alone had already made this distant journey the fleet had taken worthwhile. If they could discover where this spacecraft had come from, everyone in the fleet might well receive an increase in their honor as well as their status within the empire.

  “Move us to within two hundred million kilometers of the unknown ship and follow it. If it is on an exploratory mission, it will be inbound toward the liquid water zone. We will make contact after they discover the fourth planet. It is marginally habitable, and they will undoubtedly enter its gravity well to study it in detail. That is when we will use a micro-jump and close the range.”

  The helm operator nodded and made the necessary adjustments to the Arkon’s course.

  -

  Major Maher gazed with jubilation at the main viewscreen. It was showing a world with traces of blue and green and some white clouds drifting in the atmosphere. Two of the scientists had been called to the Command Center to offer their evaluation of the world the New Horizon had found.

  After some careful examination of the sensor data, the senior of the two scientists turned to face Major Maher. His face looked relieved, but also concerned.

  “Well, speak up,” demanded Maher impatient to find out about this new world. This world would be their future home there was no other choice. The chief engineer had made it very plain that the drive core could not be repaired.

  “The planet is marginally habitable,” the older man replied cautiously.

  “What do you mean, marginally?” Maher demanded, his eyes cutting sharply into the scientist. “Can we live there or not?”

  “We can live there,” the scientist replied. “From the sensor readings, the areas in the equatorial regions of the planet are habitable, but if you move away from those regions the planet becomes very inhospitable to human life.”

  “How’s that?” Maher asked, not liking the sound of this. “How large is this area that is habitable?”

  “We will have to wait until we can use the close in scanners, but we estimate there is an area five-hundred kilometers across that extends completely around the planet that is easily habitable for human life. You can go out an additional five-hundred kilometers north or south of that and humans could probably survive. Outside of that and the temperature extremes would make survival extremely doubtful.”

  “What about water?” Maher demanded. He knew they needed plentiful amounts to water to establish a colony. “Are there sufficient supplies of fresh water?”

  “In the equatorial regions, yes,” responded the scientist, glancing back at some of the data on one of the sensor screens. “There are even several small oceans.”
<
br />   Maher nodded, satisfied with the answer. The equatorial region would work just fine. It would allow sufficient room for future growth and someday allow them to leave this world and find one more suitable.

  “Take us into the planet’s gravity well,” Maher ordered the helm officer, satisfied that they had finally reached their destination. “Let’s go look at our new world.”

  Maher watched over the next few hours as the New Horizon entered the planet’s gravity well. “Does the planet have any moons?” he asked as the planet grew larger on the main viewscreen.

  “One small one around three hundred kilometers in diameter,” the scientist replied as he studied the data coming in on the short-range scanners.

  “Sir, I have an unidentified contact showing up on the long-range sensors,” the sensor operator suddenly reported. “It’s a spaceship, and it just jumped in. It’s less than two million kilometers away from us.”

  “Admiral Strong,” Maher grated in sudden anger, seeing his plans crashing down in front of him. “How the hell did he find us?”

  “It’s not an Earth ship,” the sensor operator replied uneasily. “It’s too large.”

  “How big is it?” demanded Maher, striding over to the sensor screen and shoving one of the scientists out of the way. He wanted to see this for himself.

  “It’s at least eight hundred meters,” replied the sensor operator nervously. “It’s also wedge shaped. Earth never built anything like that.”

  “Put us into orbit around the planet,” Maher ordered the helm officer as he weighed his options. Encountering an alien ship had never been in his plans. With the drive core damaged and this far into the planet’s gravity well, they couldn’t flee even if they wanted to. They would have to wait and see what the alien wanted.

  For the next four hours, Maher watched as the alien ship drew nearer. That it had detected the New Horizon’s presence was obvious.

  “Put it up on the main viewscreen,” Maher ordered when he deemed the alien was close enough so they could get a good look at it.

  On the main viewscreen, the large wedge shaped ship appeared. Even from this distance, it was obvious that the alien ship was heavily armed. Maher leaned back in the command chair with deep concern on his face. What did the alien want? He knew the only real choice he had was to wait and see if they attempted to make contact. The New Horizon was unarmed and couldn’t attempt to escape with the drive core damaged. Maher felt frustrated at this new development, letting out a deep breath, he continued to watch the viewscreen as the alien ship continued to come closer.

  -

  Inside the shuttle in the flight bay, Katie was gazing fearfully at the viewscreen on the instrument panel. She had it set to show the same view as the main viewscreen in the Command Center. From her talks with Ariel, she knew whose ship that was. It was a Hocklyn support cruiser, and it had found the New Horizon. Katie knew this was a disaster. If the Hocklyns took over the New Horizon, they would find the coordinates to Earth.

  From what Ariel had revealed to Katie, she knew it would be several centuries yet before Earth and the Federation survivors were ready to face the Hocklyns. She had to do something. She knew she had no other choice. She had to launch her rescue attempt now to free Jeremy and Kelsey. Maybe one of them would know what to do.

  Reaching forward, she pressed several icons on her small computer, which was sitting on a console next to her. Instantly several programs she had designed were transmitted into the New Horizon’s computer core. It was time to go and get Jeremy.

  Chapter Twelve

  Major Maher was standing in the Command Center watching the main viewscreen pensively. The alien ship was about to enter the planet’s gravity well and was still on a direct course for the New Horizon. The short-range scanners had given additional information on the alien. It was 800 meters long with its widest width at 250 meters. It was even more heavily armed than had been originally thought, with numerous weapon turrets and what looked like missile launching tubes embedded in the hull.

  His thoughts were interrupted as numerous emergency alarms suddenly began sounding on the damage control console. He hurried quickly over to it swearing under his breath. Was the entire damn ship falling apart? What was going on now? Glancing at the console, he felt an icy chill across his back. Red warning lights were blinking on showing ongoing damage in various compartments. There were numerous uncontrolled fires breaking out in the forward area of the ship on three separate levels.

  He instantly tapped his mini-com trying to contact those areas to see how bad the fires were. Fires on board a spaceship were bad. They ate through a ship’s limited oxygen supply quickly. He wondered if there had been some type of electrical overload from the damage to the drive core that could have caused all of this. All he received on his mini-com was silence.

  “What’s wrong with the damn mini-coms?” he roared, looking over at Communications. They had to get a handle on those fires and quickly.

  “They’re down in the forward sections, sir,” the communications officer reported as she pressed various buttons on her console, and then tapped in additional commands on her computer. “I can’t get them to come up.”

  “Crap!” uttered Maher, feeling frustrated. The drive core, the damn alien ship, and now this! What else could go wrong? He went back to his command console and jabbed his finger down on a button, activating the ship wide address system. “All personnel, report to your emergency stations. Damage control teams are to report to,” he paused and checked on a location near the worst of the fires, “Level ten, section fourteen. We have several fires burning that are in danger of getting out of control and causing serious damage to the ship. Get them out quickly!”

  Sitting down, he gazed frustratingly at the viewscreen. The alien ship was still approaching, and Maher had a feeling, as heavily armed as that ship was, that nothing good was going to come out of this first contact.

  -

  Jeremy and Kevin were staring at each other with deep concern listening to the ship alarms that had just started blaring. There was something seriously wrong with the ship, and then they heard Major Maher ordering everyone to their emergency stations and all damage control teams to the front of the ship to combat some spreading fires.

  “What’s happened now?” uttered Kevin, growing extremely worried.

  They were trapped in their quarters, and if the fires spread to this part of the ship, they couldn’t get out. He didn’t know what they could do. Suddenly the door to their quarters slid open and a young girl he had never seen before was standing there with a frightened and hopeful look upon her face. She had long blonde hair and captivating green eyes.

  “Who are you?” Kevin asked, stunned by this apparition. She didn’t look as if she could be much over sixteen.

  “Katie!” cried Jeremy, recognizing who was standing there and rushing over to the door in confusion. Where had she come from?

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” spoke Katie, looking intensely at Jeremy. “Those fires don’t exist. They’re part of a computer program I put into the New Horizon’s systems. We need to get to the flight bay and leave in one of the shuttles. We’re orbiting a planet that is habitable.”

  Jeremy nodded. He had a million questions to ask Katie, but he recognized that now was not the time, explanations could come later. He didn’t know where Katie had come from, but this might be their best opportunity to escape. “We need to get Kelsey and Angela.”

  “No problem,” replied Katie, looking down the corridor and making sure no one was in sight. “We need to hurry.”

  Jeremy and Kevin quickly led Katie to the girl’s quarters, and they watched amazed as Katie hooked up a wire from the small computer she was carrying to a port on the control panel next to the door. The door instantly slid open, and the girls came hurrying out.

  “Katie!” Kelsey spoke in a stunned voice, seeing the young teenager standing there. “Where did you come from?”

  “I don’t have time to
explain now,” replied Katie, knowing they needed to hurry. “There is an alien ship about to rendezvous with the New Horizon. We have to go now!”

  “An alien ship?” Kelsey said, her face turning pale. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that one of her worst fears was about to be realized. “What does it look like?”

  Katie looked at Kelsey, wondering why she was asking such a question. “It’s wedge shape and heavily armed.”

  “A Hocklyn support cruiser!” Kelsey said with fear showing in her eyes.

  “Yes,” replied Katie, gazing in surprise at Kelsey. “How did you know?”

  “How close is it?” Kelsey demanded, her eyes drilling into Katie’s eyes.

  “It’s just now entering the planet’s gravity well,” Katie replied.

  “We need to find Lieutenant Nelson,” Kelsey said, looking decisively at the others. “We can’t let the New Horizon fall into Hocklyn hands.”

  “Who are these Hocklyns?’” asked Jeremy, feeling confused. What was going on here?

  Katie looked at Kelsey with dawning comprehension. There was only one way Kelsey could know about the Hocklyns. “You’re from Ceres aren’t you?”

  Kelsey was silent for a second, looking at Katie. Who had Katie learned all of this from? “Yes,” she replied without hesitation. “And so is Lieutenant Nelson. He will know what to do.”

  “Nelson’s quarters are this way,” spoke Jeremy, growing more confused by the minute. What did Kelsey mean when she said she was from Ceres? Ceres was an asteroid.

  “We need to hurry,” Kelsey said in a deadly serious voice. “I will explain everything later.”