Horizons

by Donald B McFarlane

  Making their way onto the bridge of the ship, Keegan couldn’t help but notice how much colder it felt compared to the Epsilon. The walls of the bridge looked to be made of natural materials unlike the cold, sparse interior on the more modern warship. The other detail that jumped out at Keegan was the lack of terminal stations. The narrow bridge of the Epsilon had nine stations, while the bridge of The Rock had just five.

  Keegan had been warned that the current Ship Master was not the most popular in the fleet, which was a possible explanation for his banishment to command such a lowly unit as the 73rd.

  After the decor of the bridge, Keegan couldn’t stop thinking about how cold it was. In fact, it was freezing, and he even noticed that many members of the bridge crew appeared to be wearing uniforms that were much bulkier than ones he had seen previously.

  Any questions as to why the ship was so cold were answered the minute Keegan spotted the Ship Master, who had stood up from his command chair at the centre of the bridge and turned to see the approaching humans. The alien had a coat of thick black hair covering his body, and splotchy grey tufts of hair along his arms, and a large head that had two enormous eyes at the centre, and every time the creature blinked a hard membrane covered the eyes like shields.

  “Humans!” The Ship Master was also considerably taller than Keegan, probably almost eight feet tall he estimated.

  “Sir, thank you for having us aboard your ship.” Keegan replied as best he could in the presence of the towering black fur monster that was stood in front of him.

  “I am Ship Master Pullo Obo, and you are under my care while on The Rock.” The Killian looked around the bridge until he spotted a Floxian standing at a nearby terminal. “Soso!”

  The Floxian turned and quickly moved towards the Ship Master. “Take these humans to their quarters.” Obo bellowed.

  Lysa looked at Keegan and gave him a concerned look. If this was what it was going to be like for the next few days, she was starting to regret it.

  “Yes, Sir.” The Floxian started moving towards the hatch to exit the bridge without speaking to Keegan or Lysa. There was a very impersonal air that hung over the bridge.

  The Floxian led the two doctors down a broad and spacious corridor away from the bridge before stopping at a lift. The trio stood in silence, both humans shivering heavily. When the elevator doors opened, the trio entered and waited for the doors to shut.

  When they did, the Floxian looked at Keegan and smiled. “Sorry about that. The Ship Master has a few character flaws, even for a Killian.”

  Keegan let out a deep breath and shook his head. “I hope he’s not like that all the time.”

  “He is, but you get used to it. Killian's don’t like being around other species very often. They prefer their own kind, which is why they are the least represented species in the fleet.”

  Lysa set her bag down and rubbed her arms. She was still wearing her winter coat from Lasqueti, but it was actually colder on the ship. “Is he the reason it’s so cold?”

  “Yes. Killious is an ice world. We have some uniforms that might fit you.”

  The young officer smiled again. “Don’t worry, there are some amiable members of the ship's crew you’ll meet.”

  Keegan took a moment to examine the interior of the lift, which was just as decorative in detail as the bridge. Compared to the tight stairwells on the Epsilon, this ship was very luxurious.

  “Can you tell me why this ship is so ornately designed? The other two ships we’ve been on were much more functional in design.”

  “This ship is about 450 years old. It used to be part of the Sabiran Union before Sabir, and all the worlds under its control joined the Empire.” The Floxian touched the wall of the lift. “There are very few ships left like it in the galaxy, but it wouldn’t be my first choice to go into combat in, which is why it’s assigned to the 73rd.

  The lift stopped, and the trio emerged onto a wide hallway that ran the length of the ship. “This is the promenade. It allows you to move from one end of the ship to the other. The sleeping compartments are in the middle of the ship, while engineering and the bridge are located at the rear.” They started walking down the corridor. “The ship's design makes you go down, over, and then back up to get to various sections of the ship. Not very practical.”

  As they walked along the quiet passage, Keegan had his head on a swivel and was soaking in the amazing details that reminded him of the grand warships that would have once belonged to the Spanish gold fleets. They were pure class, and The Rock felt like a throwback to a more civilised time, a time before the war.

  11

  The next day broke crisp and clear over Lasqueti. Joe and Rhea had finished their morning jog and were planning on spending the morning at the PCS and monitor the departure of the recovery ship, which was going to jump back to the Etelainen at exactly noon, they were just waiting on the ice they had collected from Europa to be purified.

  Joe’s primary task of the day was arranging a visit for the First Lady to the PCS, something that had not yet been made public, and Joe was doubtful that the President was going to volunteer the information too freely. Some people around the world were still having a hard time grasping the arrival of extra-terrestrials, and when the scientific community released the list of requirements set out by the Alliance for membership, he was sure it was going to raise an uproar.

  Reaching the beach, Joe couldn’t help but notice how normal everything had started to become. The rapport that had been developed with Ranix and his crew had transitioned well to the Alliance Contact Group, so far, and Joe felt, regardless of how the rest of the world felt, that they were indeed on the right track.

  Once inside the ship, Joe made he was to the hover platform that took him to the area they had had their first encounter with the ACG. The area had been set up with a variety of monitors, data stations, and communications systems that allowed the VLT to contact whomever they needed at any time.

  Doctor Ji-woon was always one of the first to arrive in the morning, and today was no exception. He had had a large leather chair brought down from Rhea’s parent's house, and sat himself down every day for hours with a datapad and soaked up as much knowledge as he could. If he ever had questions, he’d direct them to a member of the ACG, and if they couldn’t assist him, they’d find a specialist on the ship that could.

  Doctor Chan, on the other hand, had recently made her concerns known that she needed something big for her media coverage to happen soon. Her logic that things weren’t exciting enough perplexed some members of the team, but she had made a bit of a scene the previous morning when she wasn’t allowed to board one of the ships in orbit. While Joe sympathised with her, the commander of the 73rd had refused to allow camera teams aboard his ship or any of the ships in the squadron.

  The other member of the VLT that was Earth-side was Rhea, and she was happy to do the exact same thing as Charles Ji-woon and sit around reading every day for hours on end.

  Luckily for Joe, it was scheduled to be a fascinating day with something right up his alley.

  “Major, good morning.” Dinalis was already waiting for Joe and had with him a Light Sentinel. “This is going to be your instructor today.”

  Joe looked at the robot, then back to Dinalis. “Excellent.”

  Dinalis looked at the machine, “Instruction on personal armour, and light weapons for now.”

  “Understood.” The response came quickly and without a hint of an attempt to sound like a biologic.

  Joe gave Dinalis a nod and followed the machine as it headed for the lift platform.

  The previous evening he had asked the Sentinel Commander if he could get some basic instruction on whatever weapons systems the ship had for its organic crew members, and while it might have technically violated Alliance protocol by allowing access to weapons technology, an exception had been made.

  While he had actually never seen any armour or weapon systems carried by the members of the Epsilon, he was fair
ly sure that they existed, and he was keen to get his hands on them.

  12

  By the time lunch for Keegan and Lysa rolled around on their first full day on The Rock of Cromarden, the pair felt that if they could avoid the gaze of Pullo Obo, then they would enjoy a bounty of discovery, and experience with the other members of the crew who were proving as welcoming as the personnel of the Epsilon had.

  For reasons unknown, the recovery ship had delayed their jump until one in the afternoon, Pacific Coast time, with some members of the crew speculating that the ship was having difficulties purifying the ice it had taken from Europa.

  Regardless of the reason for the delay, Pullo Obo had agreed, at the request of Doctor Beck, to take The Rock out a sector of space in between Jupiter and Saturn now referred to as Blue Sector to watch the jump.

  “There she is, Beck.” Obo was sat firmly in his command chair looking out of the front view screen of the ship. “You won’t see much when she jumps.” Obo checked a display screen on his chair. “60 seconds.”

  Keegan and Lysa were standing on either side of his command chair, both scribbling notes as fast as they could jot them down.

  “At this point, the Ship Master will have sealed all outer hatches and bay doors. The ships weapons systems will be put into a standby mode in case of contact at the jump destination. Once he is satisfied, the jump coordinates will be slaved into the ships jump drive, and once all systems are showing a proper function, the command to jump will be given. Once the command is given, depending on the type of ship, there will be a five to ten second countdown, during which time the jump cannot be aborted unless the AI detects a safety fault, but at that point, with the jump drive spinning up, it’d be very unwise to attempt to halt the jump.” Obo rechecked his datapad. “Any second now.” He looked to one of the control stations to his front. “Magnify.”

  The action was quickly carried out, and an enlarged image of the recovery ship appeared on the screen. “When they jump, you should see a.”

  Obo was cut off by one of the bridge crew. “Sir! I am detecting multiple jumps in Gold Sector!”

  Keegan and Lysa both saw the blue flash as the recovery ship disappeared, only to quickly redirect their attention to the bridge member that had shouted the warning.

  “Verify!” Obo boomed at the young officer.

  “Destroyer RG29 has confirmed and is engaging the enemy now.” There was a brief pause. “Sir, RG29 is no longer transmitting.”

  “How many ships did they report?”

  “Mixed fleet of ten. Confirmed as Coalition.”

  Obo redirected his attention back to the front of the bridge, and his pilot. “Master Star Pilot, set a course for Terra, maximum speed.”

  Obo stood up from his command chair and tapped his wrist communicator. “Battle Cell to the command room.” Obo looked at the startled humans. “If you want some good notes, follow me.”

  Keegan swallowed hard, and looked at Lysa, and shrugged. “What else are we going to do?”

  She smiled nervously back at him, and then followed his lead off the bridge into an adjoining room behind Obo.

  The room they entered was by far the most advanced chamber they had been into so far on the ship. It had eight console positions around the chamber and a large circular table in the centre.

  Obo was already standing on the far side of the table and had activated a holographic display that was showing the Sol System hovering above the table. As Keegan and Lysa filed in, they took up a position close to the door they just passed through as nine additional crew members entered the room. Eight of those members took positions at the consuls, while the remaining member took up a position next to Obo.

  “Show current location of all forces in the system, friendly or otherwise.”

  Keegan watched as six green dots appeared hovering among the planets of the system. Seconds later ten red dots appeared. It took Keegan a moment to orient himself to the map, but once he had grasped it, he knew the tactical situation, and it wasn’t promising.

  Both The Rock and one of the destroyers assigned to the 73rd appeared well out of position to give assistance immediately. Two destroyers were very close to Earth, while the Light Carrier was close enough to offer support.

  It appeared to Keegan that the cruiser, the Pride of Floxis was already turning into the Coalition force and was preparing to engage them before they were in range of Earth.

  “I need comms established with the PCS, and I need comms to Reach Command now!” Obo barked. The large black, fur-clad Ship Master slammed his fist onto the table. “Inform the bridge to initiate a jump to a position on the blind side of Mars from the hostile fleet. We’ll try to catch them in a crossfire.”

  “All communications are down, system-wide.” There was a pause before more bad news was delivered. “Systems are reporting that there is a jump denial system in operation. Enemy forces have a Jump Gate.” The crew member looked at Obo. “They must have a Keeper.”

  Keegan took another look at the 3D displayed. The enemy force had jumped in next to Mars, where they quickly dispatched one of the 73rds destroyers, and now appeared to be moving on a course towards Earth.

  “Inform the bridge to go to maximum speed now. We need to get to Terra before this fight is over!”

  Looking at one of the crew members that was seated nearest where he was standing, Keegan knelt down and whispered, “What can that cruiser do?”

  The crew member, a Floxian looked at Keegan with a blank expression on his face. “Nothing.”

  Standing back up, Keegan took a step back and bumped into the compartment wall, banging his head. Rubbing his head, he looked at Lysa, who appeared to be trying to digest the situation as it unfolded around them. Leaning towards this Danish colleague, he put his arm around her shoulder and gave a light squeeze.

  13

  Joe knew something was wrong when his weapons training session was cut short when the robot training him sprinted out of the ships small weapons range. Still wearing the suit of armour that had been found to fit him, much to his surprise, he set the rifle he was practising with down and jogged after the machine.

  As he reached the main hall, Joe tumbled forward onto his front, and lightly smacked his forehead onto the hard floor. Shaking his head, he propped himself up and slowly got to his feet. The grey armour, with green accents, was still taking some time for him to get used to. Regaining his focus, he made his way to the lift and took it up to the observation deck where Sector Prefect Dinalis was with the bulk of his team and Doctor Ji-Woon and Sarah Chan.

  “What’s going on?” Joe asked, almost out of breath.

  Dinalis looked at Joe and waved him over to the conference table. “It appears a Coalition force has entered the system and has already engaged elements of the 73rd, and it looks like the situation is not in our favour.”

  Joe moved to the table and looked at a birds-eye view of the system that was displayed on the table. The image showed the current alignment of the planets around the sun, and the suspected position of the Coalition ships, and the friendly forces, which to Joe looked spread out, and not in a position to mount a focused defence.

  “Have you called for reinforcements?”

  “No. The enemy is blocking all communications. We can’t communicate with our forces in the system or command.” Dinalis looked down at the display, “This does not look good.”

  Joe looked at the images of the red dots moving towards Earth, then at the five green dots that we manoeuvring to a position in between the enemy fleet and Earth. The one green dot that caught his attention was the one that moving away from the sun on a collision course with the enemy formation.

  “What’s this ship off by itself?”

  Dinalis tapped on the screen, bringing up the ships details. “The Spirit of Floxis.”

  Joe looked at the details, which were in Universal. “Specs?”

  “Cruiser.” Dinalis’s eyes opened wide as he looked at the information on display. “It h
as half the last year students from the fleet Academy on board.” Dinalis turned from the table and walked to the edge of the platform before looking up into the open air of the main compartment and let out a yell towards the heavens. “How could they have been so stupid?”

  “Students?” Joe asked.

  Dinalis turned around at looked at his counterpart. “They always put last year students aboard ships during breaks in their studies at the Academy. Why they chose to send them here, I don’t know.” He looked down at the floor. “They’re all going to die.”

  14

  “Position?”

  “Sir, Terra is 170 million kilometres to our stern, the enemy formation is directly ahead at 100 million.”

  Ship Master Hovarex nodded. The old Floxian had not expected to find himself in his current predicament. A month ago he had been teaching at the fleet academy and hadn’t thought much of this posting when offered The Pride of Floxis for the short on-hands cruise with half of the last year class. Only the Master Star Pilot, Master Engineer and Master Doctor were full-time members of the fleet.

  “Thank you, Cadet.” Hovarex looked to his right. “Weapons?”

  “All systems online. Ion cannons charged. Ummm.” There was a pause. “I think the missile batteries are ready, Sir.”

  “Take your time. Focus.” Hovarex looked back to the front of the bridge. “Master Star Pilot, status?”

  “Ready.” The old pilot had been at the helm of The Pride for almost a decade. His competency was never in doubt.

  “Thank you. Weapons?”

  “Missile batteries.” The cadet was cut off.

  “From the top, please.” Hovarex looked the young female cadet and smiled. “Try and relax.” Hovarex stood up from his chair and looked around the bridge before hitting the ship-wide communications system.

  “Cadets! THIS is your final exam. Focus on the training you have received at the Academy, and you give this ship the best chance of success. We are going head to head with ten Coalition ships. This is where legends are born. Now is the time for your finest performances. I have faith in all of you.” He cut the channel and looked at the weapons station. “Now.”