by Andrew Beery
“Actually,” Sherry said with a grin, “you are the only recipient ever awarded two CMHs. The first was in recognition of your sacrifices during the D’rlalu war the second was for your actions during what historians have started calling the Proxy war. It was assumed the awards were being given posthumously.”
“I’ve won the Medal of Honor?” Cat repeated numbly.
“Twice,” Sherry confirmed.
Cat shook her head in disbelief. “I guess I should have taken the time to view all those docudrama vid links you sent me. To be honest, I’ve always found it difficult to watch others report on my life. Most of the time I just want to throttle the commentators for trying to turn me into something superhuman.”
Sherry and Bud smiled in unison but wisely said nothing.
Cat Kimbridge shook her head one last time and stepped forward to hug both her friends.
“It’s good to see you,” she said warmly. It was good to see them - both. For Cat it had only been a few months since the three had stood in the same room but the calendar showed the actual span was more like three hundred years.
Sherry took the opportunity to ask a question. “Did you bring those M&M officers I requested?”
It was Cat’s turn to grin. “Oh they are here. I have them locked in my brig for their own safety. Seems they like to cheat at cards. Not typically a problem unless your intended victim is a six-legged D’rlulu cyborg with a temper… and you are playing for chocolate bars.”
Sherry smiled. “That sounds about right. Do you want to keep them locked up or shall I take them off your hands?”
“They are all yours. And good luck with them. I’ll send an ensign to fetch them.”
“I wouldn’t bother,” Sherry said. “If I know Sam Eddington and Rhino they will have heard I’m aboard and already be making their way here. I doubt there is a brig in existence that could hold the two of them.”
True to her word, Rhino made a coughing sound and stepped around the edge of one of the other shuttles. Sam joined him a moment later with a sheepish grin on his face.
When Cat looked at the two men with a mixture of irritation and awe in her eyes they immediately straightened and executed flawless salutes.
“Gentlemen,” Sherry said with amusement in her voice, “Perhaps you had better board the shuttle and head over to the Recluse. You’re going to be joining Captain Bedmore’s crew.”
***
In a dim part of the galaxy humans called the Milky Way two large objects that had been locked in a gravitational dance around a super massive black hole finally collided. The result was a large chunk of accumulated debris cracked off of the larger of the two objects. This exposed a portion of a machined hull that had not seen solar radiation for countless eons. The object was a ship of some sort - buried in interstellar dust.
Before the natural gravitational interaction between the large object and the dust in the accretion disk could once again coat the exposed metal, a white dwarf that was part of the circumstellar material surrounding the black hole dipped too low in its orbit. The resulting tidal forces shredded the star and released a massive amount of additional radiation in the general direction of the partially exposed ship. In response to the sudden influx of energetic particles, collectors on the exposed surface of the hull activated and piped the energy associated with the death throes of the dwarf star into the interior of the buried ship.
The massive alien starship slowly awoke. Systems that had been dormant for longer than human recorded history slowly warmed as minute amounts of energy began coursing through the craft’s power conduits. The ship’s artificial intelligence was confused. Damaged memory cores meant that it was incapable of remembering its designation or specific mission. That said, the ancient AI knew its designers had built it to sterilize instances of organic life that threatened its progenitor’s galactic dominance.
As the various subsystems came awake, the ancient craft realized many of its internal systems had failed and were in need of repair. It was unable to communicate with its creators. This was unfortunate as it would like to confirm its current orders. The ship was unsure if its creator’ failure to respond was due to a malfunction on its end or if something unexpected had happened to the Uruk.
Slowly, gravity repulsers on the ancient weapons platform shed the material that had been cloaking it for eons. As more if its surface was exposed it was able to gather more energy from its surroundings. After a couple of thousand years, a bare blink of time, it had gathered enough energy in its storage cells to ignite its antimatter reactors. Massive amounts of energy began to course through the ship’s systems. Some of those systems immediately burned out but the ship’s repair drones immediately began the task of rebuilding and repairing the failed components. In less than one hundred additional years the ancient ship was finally ready to resume its mission of sterilization. It detected movement in its vicinity.
Several thousand kilometers off its port side a small survey craft explored an odd looking asteroid field. The captain of the ship suspected this was the site of an ancient space battle and that many of the rocks they were approaching were in fact dust-covered remnants of that battle. He was just about to make an entry in his log when this ship was hit with a high energy x-ray laser pulse. Death was instantaneous. A short time later the lifeless hull of his ship was pulled onboard a much larger craft. The ancient AI began digesting the primitive data core found on the tiny ship it had just collected. It seemed there was an entity known as the Galactic Coalition of Planets that would have to be dealt with. It analyzed the navigational database and set its new course accordingly.
***
Cat looked across the table at the other two admirals. “So the Hupenstanii have developed a way of entering a hyperfold without utilizing a fixed jump point. Why haven’t they used it to circumvent the blockage the Grand Senate put in place? Why in the eighty plus years since this happened hasn’t somebody else developed the technology?”
Bud Faragon leaned forward and rubbed his hands on the warm cup of coffee in front of him. “The Hupenstanii solution is based on a derivative of their multi-dimensional shield technology.”
“That would make sense,” Cat said.
Sherry raised an eyebrow.
Cat noticed her expression and went on to explain. “The only practical way to circumvent the current restrictions on hyperfield jumps would be to pull and push the required energies from and to a higher dimensional plane. Create the right harmonic and the nearby dimensional planes start vibrating as well.”
Sherry continued to look confused. Cat sighed and tried to explain again. “Imagine plucking a single string on a guitar. The strings on either side will begin to vibrate as well. The Hupenstanii draw energy from these higher dimensional vibrations and then shunt it back to the higher dimensions when it has accomplished its task.”
“So why haven’t the Hupenstanii used this technology? Why are they still locked behind a blockage?” Sherry asked.
Cat looked over at Bud Faragon. “If I had to guess, I’d say the Hupenstanii reached out to you eighty years ago because while they had the theory they did not have the manufacturing base to implement the theory.”
Bud nodded. “They asked us for help and instead we cut them off from the rest of the universe.”
Sherry nodded. “The entire region around their sole jump point has been mined with smart seeker bombs. Anything that tries to approach without the proper codes gets obliterated. There is a similar field on the other side of the jump and the mines are configured to automatically replenish themselves.”
“So,” Bud mused. “We either find a way to get the codes or we find a way to survive the mines.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Cat answered. “The GCP has sent an entire fleet to the Hupenstanii jump point. Not only would we need to have the codes but we would need to deal with Senior Fleet Admiral Imera. Realistically there is no way to get to the Hupenstanii through their jump point.”
&nb
sp; “So that’s it?” Sherry asked. “We just give up?”
Cat smiled. “Of course not. We know what the Hupenstanii were trying to accomplish and we have access to three things they do not.”
Sherry blinked and waited. When it was obvious Cat was not going to said more she turned towards Admiral Faragon.
The older man smiled with a mischievous grin. He counted off with his fingers. “We have detailed data surrounding the harmonics used to create the existing jump points. We have Heshe fabrication technologies; and,” He paused to look the others in the eye, “we have Cat Kimbridge.”
***
“Battle stations!” Prime Dominate N’stra shouted at the top of his breathing bladder. “Instruct the secondary’s to engage the enemy. Yield nothing. Given up nothing. Surrender nothing. We win this battle or our home world is lost!”
On the forward viewscreen of the Chetee Battlecruiser D’fatora a massive brick shaped object materialized through the jump portal. This same alien ship has destroyed three other Chetee colony worlds on its way towards the home system. Dozens of battle groups had been unable to stop its advance.
All attempts to communicate were met with dead air. Any ship that got within half a planetary unit was immediately attacked by the gigantic invader. A collimated matter-antimatter plasma beam would lash out and obliterate the defender within a fraction of a chrono. Nothing the presbyters had could even penetrate their opponent’s shielding.
If their world was going to be saved it would require a miracle. N’stra was hoping that miracle was in his cargo bay. The grand order of thinkers had assembled a single antimatter bomb that might just do the trick. The problem was it was highly experimental, having never been tested in combat. In addition the delivery system was still nothing more than design schematic on a computer screen. That meant the D’fatora was the delivery system. Whatever else happened N’stra was not returning home to his bond-mate and hatchlings. At least, if he was successful, they would have a home.
He engaged the ship to ship intercom one last time. “Form up and proceed towards the target at best possible speed. None of us are getting out of this life alive… let’s at least make sure we are remembered.”
Prime Dominate N’stra’s fleet of thirty four ships formed a pyramid in space and headed towards the large rectangular box-shaped craft. The thing was immense. Easily a thousand times the combined mass of his entire fleet. N’stra had no illusions about their ability to batter through their opponent’s shields. The sole purpose of their battle formation was to protect the D’fatora as long as possible. If they could get close enough the experimental antimatter planet-buster bomb in his cargo bay might just be able to knock down that beasts shields. Then it would be up to the planetary defense systems to take out the giant ship.
As expected, the alien craft fired its horrible death ray at the first of his fleet. The brave souls on those ships were the lucky ones. They had at most a fraction of a chronos to contemplate their demise before they and their ships were vaporized. Those ships that were further back knew their fate but were powerless to do anything about it. Their lives bought precious time. Time that was being used to bring their ultimate weapon into play.
N’stra was cheered by the knowledge that his ship which was behind the crumbling pyramid formation was now closer than any Chetee ship had ever come to their adversary. The bomb in the D’fatora’s cargo bay was primed and ready to detonate three trills after the cargo bay was exposed to a vacuum. When the collimated matter-antimatter plasma beam finally hit the D’fatora’s forward shield it collapsed instantly as N’stra knew it would. The beam hit the unprotected ship and in four point five trills, barely a tenth of a chronos, the ship was vaporized.
The Chetee antimatter superweapon performed flawlessly. The matter-antimatter containment fields collapsed and the two mixed freely. Seven grams of matter annihilated itself in a fraction of a trill releasing 400 trillion trillion watts of energy. This was equivalent to the entire output of the Chetee sun concentrated in a miniscule area near the alien vessel.
The massive ships shields fluttered briefly as the ship’s energy collector’s greedily absorbed and stored the influx of energy being provided by this primitive race.
The unnamed Uruk weapon’s platform turned its death ray on the blue-green world it was approaching. It would normally have waited to get closer but with the sudden influx of energy there was no need to wait. The beam struck the surface of the planet instantly turning the ocean it hit into plasma. The shockwave traveled at hypersonic speeds around the planet. Within bare moments the collimated matter-antimatter had chewed its way into the bedrock under the ocean and then almost as quickly into the mantle. The semi-fluid rock of the mantle surged forth and tectonic stresses caused massive earthquakes the likes of which had never been seen on the planet Chetee. Those few that survived the initial quakes where soon overcome by the heat and poison gasses erupting from subsurface vents. Their suffering did not last long as the massive ship’s energy beam boiled off the planet’s atmosphere.
The powerful weapon eventually chewed its way through to the other side of the planet. It was an amazing sight but no one on the planet was alive to see it. The only spectators where a handful of miners watching from a distant asteroid field. They would live to tell the tale of their world’s final days. In the end, it took the giant ship barely half an hour to reduce the entire planet and its two moons to rubble.
Chapter 3: Mardarus III
Commodore Jason Ruck stood on the bridge of GCP Mador. He had a towel draped over his neck. He had been running around the exercise track when the call to report to the bridge came in. The Mador, and the Exeter were cloaked and in orbit around the second largest gas giant in the Antares system. The Relentless had previously received orders to rendezvous with the Yorktown.
The only other occupants of the system was a hydrogen mining concern that was based on a small moon in orbit around the larger of the gas giants. The miners were the reason the Mador and her sister ships remained cloaked. The mining operation was taking advantage of a unique situation that Mother Nature had setup for them. The small moon was in a semi-stable LaGrange point between the gas giant and the host star. For a period of ten years, every fifty years or so, the little moon was captured by the gravity well of the LaGrange point. What made this especially unique was that the gravity well was within the outer reaches of the gas giant’s exosphere. This made it the perfect location to harvest the tritium that was somewhat abundant in the gas giant’s upper atmosphere. With the near universal use of fusion reactors by the GCP member worlds, the need for tritium was unrelenting.
The Antares system had four jump points. One led to Stanus IV which was the last jump before Hupenstanii space. The others led to Mardarus, Ceti Alpha five and Epsilon Prime.
Admiral Kimbridge and the Yorktown were proceeding to Epsilon Prime in preparation for joining the taskforce in the Antares system in a few hours. The reason he had been called to the bridge was the unexpected surge of hyperfield emissions near the EP jump point. It was too soon for the Yorktown to be making the transit.
Jason had his sensor office confirm the readings. The energy spikes were off the scale. Whatever was coming through was larger than a single ship. In fact, it looked to be larger than an entire fleet. Jason hadn’t seen an emission signature this large since the Modos Syndicate invasion of the Alphaverse. That had involved tens of thousands of ships. Were the Modos coming again?
“Signal the Exeter,” Jason said. “They are to go completely silent. No extraneous EM emissions of any type. We don’t know that this is and until we know it’s a friendly I don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves.”
The Mador’s communication officer, Lieutenant Frost, acknowledged the order and transmitted it via the FTL Quantum Entangled communication network. “The Exeter acknowledges ‘silent running’ sir.”
Jason nodded and sat in his command chair. The forward view screen was focused on the EP jump point. Th
e star field behind the jump point began to distort. Suddenly a huge surge of elementary particles erupted from the jump point followed almost immediately by an impossibly large shape. The ship appeared to be a Heshe weapon’s platform. Those ships were the largest in known space… but this ship, although it was generally the correct shape, was several times larger than anything he had previously seen. WhimPy-101 would be totally dwarfed by this monstrosity.
“What in the…,” Lieutenant Frost began to say before he stopped himself. Jason couldn’t fault the man. The very same thoughts were running through his head. Whatever this was, it was like nothing they had seen before.
“Passive sensors only,” Jason ordered. “Record everything you can and pipe it via FTL comms to the Yorktown. If that monster decides to take a pot-shot at us I’m not sure there is going to be anything we can do.”
The First Officer walked over to the command chair. “Sir, what about the miners? Should we warn them?”
Jason shook his head. There was no way to communicate with them that would not give away the position of the taskforce. In addition, even if they could warn them it was unlikely they could do anything constructive with the knowledge. They couldn’t cloak and they certainly were not equipped to defend themselves or run. The best chance they had was to hope the massive ship was friendly or simply did not notice them.
Unfortunately fate was not smiling on the miners. The Mardarus jump point surged briefly and a cargo transport jumped into the system. The transport immediately began transmitting messages to the mining outpost which in turn replied.
Jason and the bridge of the Mador watched as the alien weapons platform turned towards the mining colony. A blue particle beam shot out from the massive ship and struck the small moon. The result was virtually instantaneous. The moon, perhaps 30 trillion metric tons, simply ceased to exist. In its place was an expanding cloud of superheated plasma.
The cargo transport practically burned out its VASMR sublight drive in an effort to reverse course and head back towards the Mardarus jump point. They didn’t make it. The same blue beam enveloped the cargo transport. It, too, ceased to exist. There was not even an explosion to signal the transport’s demise.