The day had started off like any other, up at six in the morning and breakfast at seven. Only today Nathan felt far more optimistic than he could remember since coming aboard. It might have been the time spent on the bridge the day before, where the simulations that he and Cameron had run seemed to have gone more smoothly than usual. He didn’t know if they were finally developing a working rapport, or if it was just that on the bridge, there were far more eyes on them.
But his good mood could also have been the result of a shorter than usual work day. Because of the inspection, the captain had given the entire crew the evening off, with none of the usual after dinner training or work teams that usually lasted right up until bedtime.
But most likely, Nathan’s, as well as everyone else’s better than usual moods were probably due to the knowledge that not only was today a ‘training free’ day, scuttlebutt had it that they were going to take the ship out for quick ‘lap around the block’, as the XO had referred to it. After weeks of intense training and late night work parties, the crew was itching to show what they could do.
Of course, every section chief had objected to the idea of starting the Aurora’s trials earlier than originally scheduled. There were still dozens of systems that were not completely installed. The galley, for example, still did not have functioning cold storage and the crew was still being fed by the mess halls down on Earth. More than half of the ships weaponry was still incomplete, her FTL fields were inoperative, as were the shields. But until the special projects team concluded their experiments and returned the emitters and the last two reactors to them, there was nothing that could be done about those systems.
But with the focus of the cruise being a test of the main propulsion system’s sub-light capabilities, the captain, as well as Admiral Yamori, were convinced that an eight hour trip around the system would be safe enough. And the Reliant, which was currently conducting training exercises within the inner system, could provide assistance if something were to go wrong.
So with the rumor being that they would depart just after lunch, Nathan had taken a chance and was sitting down to a larger than normal breakfast with Vladimir. They had been a little late in arriving, thanks to his roommate’s inability to get from quarters to the galley without stopping to strike up a conversation with at least one member of the opposite sex.
“I am so excited,” Vladimir exclaimed as he sat down to eat. “I will finally get to see the engines in action. No more simulations.”
“I second that last part,” Nathan agreed as he started eating.
“And the best part is, while we are underway, that woman will not be bothering me.”
“I hear ya.” It suddenly occurred to Nathan that the reason he was in such good spirits this morning was simply because he knew that today he would be free of the usual tension between himself and Cameron, which in itself had turned out to be mentally exhausting. While actually underway, the captain or XO would be giving the orders. And although Cameron still had no problem ‘offering alternatives’ to Nathan, he had no doubt that she would not be offering them in the presence of command staff.
“I really hope that we get the chance to bring the engines to full power today. I believe we can get to at least eighty percent light, maybe eighty-five.”
He watched in amazement as Vladimir shoveled food into his mouth. Nathan had been raised in a very proper family, where they had been taught to put down their eating utensils in between bites in order to ensure the slow, methodical chewing and swallowing of their food. Not that Nathan ate abnormally slow. He had abandoned such rituals out of necessity over the years. But Vladimir was shoveling the food in before he had swallowed the previous bite. And he was still able to talk relatively clearly while he was eating. Nathan had dined with Vladimir nearly every day for the last two weeks, and had yet to get used to his style of inhaling his meals.
“Are you in a hurry or something,” Nathan chuckled. “Why do you eat so fast? Slow down and enjoy your food.”
“I know, I know-is bad habit. I get this from old job. I worked my way through school on rescue squad. It was very busy station. When you got chance to eat, you ate quickly or not at all.”
“Now hear this!” the comm-system blared through the loudspeakers. “All hands report to stations and prepare to get underway. Repeat, all hands report to stations and prepare to get underway. Departure in 5 minutes. That is all.”
“You see,” Vladimir said, as he stuffed the last sausage into his mouth and then displayed his empty plate, comparing it to Nathan’s barely touched plate full of food. “Just like on the rescue squad!”
Nathan began shoveling food into his mouth as Vladimir left the table, his engorged mouth still chewing away. After shoveling in several heaping spoonfuls, Nathan doubted he could fit much more into his mouth, so he grabbed the four sausages from his plate and headed out of the galley in a hurry.
The bridge was bustling with activity as the crew prepared to get underway. Technicians were performing last minute checks on critical systems, and the communications officer was busily confirming the readiness of each department to get underway.
Captain Roberts sat in his command chair in the middle of the bridge, pretending to review some notes on the data pad that he carried with him everywhere. He very much liked having information at his fingertips, and as far as he was concerned it was the best piece of lost technology yet recovered from the Data Ark.
The captain was listening intently to the sounds of his bridge staff as they prepared for their first real voyage. It would be a brief journey, only about six hours round-trip, but for his crew of fresh graduates, or ‘kids’ as his XO liked to call them, it would be their first voyage and therefore always one to remember.
He could’ve waited until later in the day before setting out, giving them all a chance to mentally prepare before getting under way, but that would’ve been too easy. When faced with a short amount of time to train a new crew, it made sense to use every opportunity to test them. And this sudden call to set sail was the perfect chance to do just that. For how quickly one could drop what they were doing and jump into action was a good indicator of how they would perform under pressure. It was something that he had learned from his first captain more than twenty years ago.
In a way, he felt a little guilty, like he had cheated. Unlike the rest of the crew, he did have a chance to mentally prepare. Not that he needed it, but he did take the time to visit with his family by vid-comm this morning. He had been unable to reach either of his sons, who were both serving in the fleet and were unavailable. But he had spoken at length with his daughter and even gotten to speak with his grandchildren. He had shared breakfast with his wife, also by vid-comm, just like he had done every morning since he reported for duty on the Aurora over a month ago.
The captain looked up from his data pad, scanning the eleven stations located around the perimeter of the bridge. They were all manned and ready, with the notable exception of a helmsman, who still had not arrived, despite the fact that they were set to depart in under two minutes. He turned to face the tactical station located directly behind him, which was currently being manned by his XO. He had insisted on an experienced officer at tactical, and Fleet Command had agreed to transfer one from the Intrepid when she returned to port in another week. “Any sign of our helmsman?” the captain asked Commander Montero.
As if on cue, Nathan came charging onto the bridge at a fast walk, still chewing his breakfast. “Sorry Sir,” he apologized with a mouth full of sausage. “Got a late start,” he added as he passed by and took his seat at the helm, directly in front of and slightly to the right of the command chair.
“Wipe your hands before you touch that console, Lieutenant,” the captain warned, a touch of amusement in his voice.
“Yes Sir.”
Nathan quickly wiped his hands on his pant legs, casting a guilty expression toward Cameron who sat at the navigation console to his left. Cameron looked away, still not able to understand how he had been promoted over her.
“Now that we’re all here,” the captain said. “XO. Ship’s Status?”
“All departments have reported in, and all stations are manned and ready, Captain,” Commander Montero reported from the tactical station. “We’re ready to get under way, Sir.”
“Very well. Comm, contact the platform’s CIC and Fleet Command, let them know the Aurora is leaving port.”
“Yes Sir,” the comm officer acknowledged.
“Lieutenant Scott, check that all boarding ramps have been detached and retracted, and release all mooring clamps.”
Nathan checked the status display that sent a constant telemetry of mooring data from the Platform’s control systems. “All boarding ramps have been retracted and secured, releasing all mooring clamps.” Nathan pressed a button on his side console to release the mooring clamps that held the ship in place.
Outside, more than twenty clamps located on the end of long pneumatic arms simultaneously released their grip on the Aurora’s mooring points. The sudden release allowed the negatively pressured mooring arms to quickly pull away from the ship and back against the assembly platform.
Inside, there was a muffled clunk as the clamps released, and the ship seemed to dip slightly to port. It was only a slight sensation, one that might have gone unnoticed had they not seen the slight change in the ship’s angle in relation to the assembly frame that surrounded them through the main view screen.
“Ship is free floating, Sir.” Nathan immediately compensated for the slight change in attitude with his docking thrusters, tapping his joystick ever so slightly, bringing the ship back into perfect alignment.
“Very, well, Lieutenant. Take us out.”
“Thrusting forward.” Nathan applied gentle forward pressure on the joystick. He held the pressure for only a second, maybe less-just enough for the ship to start inching forward.
The Aurora began to slowly slide out of the long octagonal shaped truss work that had been her home since her construction had begun over two years ago. Every single work light was shining on her as she inched away from her berth.
The main view screen was a massive quarter-sphere display that encompassed the front third of the bridge. Starting at the floor and flowing up smoothly onto the ceiling, it gave the flight crew, the two most forward stations, and the Command Chair a one-hundred and eighty degree view laterally, and nearly as much vertically. It was as if you were sitting in a bubble atop the ship herself, looking out into space. Despite the knowledge that it was only a projection, and that they were sitting in one of the most protected compartments within the ship, one couldn’t help but feel exposed when surround by the amazing view.
From his position at the helm, Nathan could easily see that every view port on their side of the assembly platform’s main structure was packed full of faces, all there to witness this historic moment. For them, it was the culmination of years of hard work and long hours, and they had every reason to be proud of their accomplishment as they watched her go.
“Message from Fleet Command, Sir,” the comm officer reported.
“Go ahead,” the captain answered, already anticipating the content of the message.
“Message reads, ‘Bon Voyage, and good luck to the crew of the Fleet’s newest vessel, the Aurora.’ End message.”
“Thank you, Ensign. Pass it on, ship-wide, please.”
Nathan continued to add velocity with each tap of the joystick, until they were moving out of the berth at a respectable rate. He didn’t want to seem to cautious or they might realize how nervous he actually was. For only a few short weeks ago, Nathan was about to serve as a third-string backup pilot on the oldest ship in the fleet. But now, by some twist of fate, he was the lead pilot of the newest and fastest ship the Earth had ever put into space. He had never aspired to such accomplishments. In fact, he had never been as patriotic as most of classmates. His only ambition had been to get away from his father and lead his own life. But now, after all he had been through over the last two weeks, he was starting to feel the same as everyone else. He was believing in something greater than himself.
Cameron watched as the opening to the end of the assembly berth passed them by, their bow breaking into open space high above the Earth. Despite her calm exterior, Cameron could feel her pulse racing with excitement at the sight of it all, despite the fact that it looked exactly the same as it had in the countless simulations they had run.
She too had joined the fleet to get away from her old life. And she had also lacked the patriotic feeling shared by most of her class. But ambition had never been something that she had lacked. For her, it was all consuming. It drove her day in and day out, and made her cold and competitive.
But she was okay with it, figuring that the sacrifice now while she was young would pay off later. She had no interest in becoming a baby-factory, like so many of her friends back home. She agreed with those that felt the Earth’s population was being refilled at an acceptable rate, making such efforts not only unnecessary, but unwise.
And so she had committed herself to a life in the fleet, hoping to make captain someday. It had required her to fore-go any romantic entanglements, not wanting to deal with the additional distractions. Not that she didn’t date on occasion. After all, a girl did have needs. But she had always been up front with anyone of interest, which probably explained why she had few second dates.
“Clear of the Platform, Sir,” Nathan announced. So far so good.
“Very well, take us to departure altitude and prepare a course for Jupiter.”
“Climbing to departure altitude,” Nathan acknowledged. Nathan fired up the main engines at only a few percent of their overall thrust capacity, in order to increase their velocity and climb to a higher orbit. A low, almost inaudible rumble began emanating from the stern of the ship as her massive engines began their low intensity burn.
“Calculating course for Jupiter,” Cameron reported. “Velocity, Sir?” she asked the captain.
The captain thought about it for a moment before responding, a smile coming across his face. “Flight’s discretion,” he offered.
Cameron and Nathan looked at each other. Nathan’s face was like a mischievous little boy who suddenly had a great idea. But Cameron’s was a look of concern, probably due to her helmsman’s expression.
“Within reason, of course,” the captain added.
Nathan silently mouthed the question half light to Cameron, who nodded grudging agreement.
“Recommend half-light, Sir,” Cameron advised. “At Jupiter’s current position, that will get us there in approximately eighty-seven minutes.”
“A bit much for our first time out,” the captain speculated as he shifted nervously in his seat. “But they did want us to test our new engines, so half-light it is. But do us all a favor and take it up slowly? Remember, we’ve got untested inertial dampeners and a ship full of newbies who don’t have their space-legs yet.”
“Yes Sir,” Nathan assured him. “I’ll bring her up nice and easy.”
“Departure altitude in one minute,” Cameron reported.
Captain Roberts pressed a button on the comm panel on the arm of his command chair to address the entire ship. “All hands, this is the captain, prepare for acceleration in one minute.” Without skipping a beat, the captain switched his comm to Engineering. “Chief? We’re going to take her up to half-light. I trust you’ll let us know if there are any problems down there?”
“Yes Sir, but I don’t anticipate any,” the Chief Engineer’s voice crackled over the comm.
Nathan could imagine the excited look on Vladimir’s face down in Engineering, as he programmed in a five minute acceleration curve that would get them to half the speed of light in just under fifteen minutes. It was a very slow rate of acceleration, considering what he knew the ship was designed to do. But the captain’s earlier point had been a valid one, which Nathan had not even considered.
“Departure altitude achieved, ready to break orbit,” Cameron announced.
“Very well, take us out of orbit, and make way for Jupiter, half-light, Lieutenant.”
Cameron pressed a button on her console that changed the ship’s condition to yellow.
Throughout the ship, the condition lights located along every corridor and every compartment suddenly changed from green to yellow as she announced the last acceleration warning to the crew. All at once, anyone standing immediately sat down and faced forward. If they weren’t able to sit, they stood leaning against a wall that faced aft. If they couldn’t do that, they grabbed onto something. The inertial dampeners were a new feature in Fleet vessels, and no one was quite sure how well they were going to work. And the last thing that new crewman wanted was to fall on their ass during their first acceleration.
“Breaking orbit,” Nathan announced as Cameron finished her ship-wide warning. He activated the acceleration sequence he had programmed moments ago, as he changed the ships heading. “On course for Jupiter, beginning acceleration sequence.”
All the bridge staff who were not facing forward suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned their seats towards the main view screen as the ship began to accelerate. The sliver of the Earth that had been decorating the bottom edge of the main view screen suddenly fell away from view as the ship pulled out of orbit and headed for Jupiter.
Nathan wasn’t sure if it was his gentle acceleration curve, or the new inertial dampeners, but the sensation was almost unnoticeable. In fact, it was even a bit disappointing, and he wondered how much the dampeners would help if he really had to punch it.
Fifteen minutes later they were traveling at half the speed of light, and Nathan had discontinued his burn. In about an hour, he would have to start a gradual deceleration burn so that they would settle into a comfortable orbit around Jupiter. Of course Cameron would let him know when and at what thrust to burn, but he was pretty sure that the rest of the crew would never feel a thing.
“Traveling at half-light, Captain. On course for Jupiter,” Nathan reported.
“Very well,” the captain answered as he rose from his chair. “XO, you’re with me,” he added as he headed for his ready room door at the aft end of the bridge. “You have the con, Lieutenant.”
Cameron rolled her eyes as she noticed the big toothy grin forming on Nathan’s face.
Deceleration on approach to Jupiter had gone as planned, thanks to Cameron’s precise navigational calculations. In only a few minutes, the Aurora would be captured by Jupiter’s gravity well and fall into a stable orbit high above her equator. The eighty-seven minute trip had been uneventful thus far, a welcome change for Nathan from the gut-wrenching simulations they had endured previously. It had made him realize that perhaps Vladimir had been correct, that all he had to do was to fly the ship wherever the captain told him. And that was fine with him.
He was just a bit surprised and more than curious when Doctor Karlsen and his daughter entered the bridge and went directly to the starboard auxiliary station. Located at the aft end of each side of the bridge just forward of the exits, these stations could be reprogrammed to act as monitoring and control stations for just about any of the ship’s systems.
“What are they doing here?” Nathan whispered to Cameron, as he tilted his head back towards the two Physicists. Cameron just shrugged her shoulders, indicating she had no idea.
Immediately, everything that Vladimir had ever said about the irritating blonde woman and the work they had been doing flashed through Nathan’s mind. If they were on board to test some top-secret project, then the far-side of Jupiter seemed a likely spot. He tried to hear what the two of them were talking about as they worked back in the corner, but they were speaking what Nathan assumed was Danish.
“Standby to end deceleration burn,” Cameron announced, drawing Nathan’s attention back to his job.
“Standing by.”
On Cameron’s command, he cut the main engines, ending the deceleration burn, the low rumble subsiding.
“Approach velocity and vector are perfect,” Cameron announced proudly, despite the fact that Nathan was the only one listening. “We should settle into orbit in four minutes.” Cameron switched her comm channel to hail the captain. “Navigation, Sir. Jupiter orbit in four minutes.”
“Very well, Ensign. Go ahead and pitch over. We’ll be there momentarily,” the captain instructed over the comm.
“Yes Sir,” she said, before ending the connection. “You’re clear to pitch over,” she told Nathan.
“Pitching over.”
Nathan pushed the joystick forward slightly, holding it there for several seconds. Although a smaller ship, the Aurora still had plenty of mass and it took more than just a small puff of attitude thrusters to get her to flip over in a timely fashion. The inertial dampening systems appeared to be doing their job, which allowed him to handle the massive ship more like a large fighter-bomber than a carrier vessel.
The Aurora had been approaching Jupiter tail first, using her massive main engines to decelerate. Most interplanetary trips were made at less than ten percent of light, from which the ship’s braking thrusters were capable of slowing her down to orbital velocities. But since the purpose of their mission had been to test main propulsion, a more aggressive flight profile had seemed appropriate.
Now that the burn had completed, the ship was flipping end over, her nose coming up to point in the direction of the gas giant. Everyone on the bridge watched in amazement as the planet seemingly rose from under the deck into view. It stopped its ascent to settle in the center of the view screen as Nathan applied counter-thrust to stop their pitch-over. The planet quickly grew as they approached, until it filled the view screen’s bottom quarter from side to side. As it grew closer, they could see the bands of brown, red, and orange clouds as they rotated in opposing directions around the surface of the planet. No one on the bridge had ever seen any planet other than the Earth in this way until now, and it held them all transfixed.
Except, Nathan noticed, the two scientists still working away in the back corner. Either they had seen such things before, or their work was so all consuming that they didn’t even notice.
They did notice when Commander Montero returned to the bridge and stepped up to the tactical station. Two armed marines had followed him, taking positions on either side of the port exit. A moment later, another pair of marines took a similar post at the starboard exit.
Nathan and Cameron exchanged concerned glances at the presence of the guards, ensure of what was happening.
“Captain on the bridge!” one of the marines guarding the port exit announced as Captain Roberts exited his ready room and entered the bridge. Although no one was expected to abandon their duties to stand and salute, all casual conversations ceased and everyone instantly became more alert and focused.
The captain entered the bridge with a more serious expression than usual. “XO, lock down the bridge,” he ordered as he passed by the tactical station and made his way forward to his command chair.
Commander Montero turned and motioned to the marines on the port exit, who immediately locked their hatch, the marines on the starboard exit following suit.
“Comm,” the XO said. “Lock out all internal communications except for tactical, the command chair, and those between the starboard auxiliary station and the shield generation compartments.”
“Yes Sir,” the communications officer answered.
“And take the deep space communications array off-line until further notice.”
“Yes Sir.” The communications officer acted quickly to fulfill the commander’s orders. “Deep space array is off-line, internal communications are locked out except for those specified, Sir.”
“Jupiter orbit achieved, Captain,” Nathan announced. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was sure it had something to do with their being in orbit over Jupiter. He glanced over at Cameron, who for the first time that he could remember, looked worried.
“May I have your attention,” the captain announced.
His look was stern, his demeanor serious, and it made Nathan wonder what had happened to suddenly change his persona so drastically over the last ninety minutes.
“What I’m about to tell you is classified as top-secret, need to know only, and all of you need to know. The rest of the crew, however, does not. At least not yet. Before I begin, I would like you all to know that neither myself, nor Commander Montero were aware of any of this until we opened an encrypted, position-locked file given to us by Admiral Yamori during yesterday’s inspection.”
Nathan and Cameron exchanged concerned glances at the captain’s opening statement, as did many others on the bridge.
“Eighteen months ago, the Centauri system was invaded by the Jung Dynasty. Centauri forces were quickly overwhelmed, resulting in a total loss of her entire defensive force. At that point we lost our source of intelligence in Centauri space, so we must assume that the entire system is now controlled by the Jung. That leaves Sol as the last free system in the core.”
A dead silence fell across the room, punctuated only by the occasional sounds of various systems giving faint tones to alert their users. Everyone in the room understood the gravity of the information. It was, after all, the reason most of them had joined the fleet in the first place.
For Nathan, it meant something more. He had spent endless hours arguing with his father about the importance of the fleet. And he had never been able to understand how his father, a man who had once believed whole heartedly in the existence of the fleet, could’ve suddenly changed his mind. And now, with what everyone feared the most coming to be, he could finally convince his father how unequivocally wrong he had been. And while this should’ve pleased him, none of it seemed to matter now.
“Fleet intelligence assessments predict that an invasion of Sol should be expected within a year, two at the most. The invasion of the Alpha Centauri system cost the Jung more than a few ships. And intel suggests that it will take them awhile to reinforce their forces enough to be able to mount an overwhelming invasion of Earth. As you know, the Jung rule with fear more than anything else. And overwhelming victory in any campaign is of paramount importance to them.
Questions began to pop into the minds of the bridge staff. What were they going to do? What about their families? They had all heard rumors about what the Jung did to those they ruled. And why they had left port so early, before they were even fully armed?
The captain expected such concerns from his crew, and intended on answering them as best he could. “We have been sent here, to the orbit of Jupiter, to test an experimental drive system that Fleet Command hopes will give us a significant tactical advantage over the Jung. If this prototype proves successful and we are able to install it into the rest of the ships in time, we might stand a real chance of saving the Earth.”
The captain now had everyone’s undivided attention, as their hope hung on his every word. “Doctors Karlsen and Sorenson from special projects are in charge of this test, so I will let them explain further.” The captain motioned to Doctor Karlsen to take over as he stepped aside.
The tall, heavyset, elderly man moved from the back of the room to stand on the command platform. Nathan had only heard of the man until now and had not even seen his face. Rumor had it that he had lived, ate and slept in the shield generator compartments over the last two weeks. And after seeing the tired look on the man’s face, Nathan believed the rumors to be true.
“Many years ago, during testing of a new, multi-layered energy shielding system, we accidentally discovered a new method of hyper-luminal space travel. This system is capable of relocating a vessel to a distant point in space, many light years away, in the blink of an eye.”
The Doctor’s Danish accent was heavy, making it difficult to understand, but the implications of what he was saying were quite clear to Nathan, as they were to everyone else, as evidenced by the murmurs of response to the unbelievable news.
“Are you saying we could jump back to Earth, instantly?” Nathan couldn’t help interrupting.
“Oh much farther than that, Lieutenant,” the elderly physicist assured him. “With this prototype, we can travel at least ten light years in a single transition event,” he proudly proclaimed.
That statement caused the room to become even noisier. “Settle down, people!” the captain ordered.
“The only limitations we currently have are power, of which enormous amounts are required, and of course the risk of navigational inaccuracies, even the slightest of which could have catastrophic results.”
That got the captain’s attention. “What kind of results?”
The Doctor looked perplexed as he tried to come up with an example. He was a man accustomed to speaking with other physicists, and not with laymen.
“Well, there are so many. Space is not empty, you know. If your transition is not calculated exactly, you could end up appearing inside a planet, or a star-or even worse!”
Even worse? Nathan thought. What could be worse than jumping into a star? He looked over at Cameron. He was sure that she understood what the Doctor was talking about, as she had a far better understanding of the complexities of interstellar navigation.
“Thank you, Doctor,” the captain said, taking charge of the room once more. “As you can all imagine, the ability to travel great distances so quickly would provide an enormous tactical advantage. Our orders are to help the doctor and his team test this new system. Using Jupiter to mask the test from any observers on Earth, we will attempt to transition to a point just outside the Oort cloud, approximately one light year away. If successful, we will transition back to our orbit around Jupiter and then return to Earth, so that the good Doctor and his team may continue their work at what I expect will be an even more accelerated pace.”
The captain looked about the room once more, noticing the looks of shock, concern, and amazement on the faces of his young crew. “Now I know this seems like a big risk, and that you probably feel like Fleet Command is using us all like guinea pigs. And you’re probably right. But considering the severity of our situation, we’re going to have to take some additional risks if we hope to prevent an invasion of our world. And I don’t see this being any more risky than facing down a fleet of Jung warships. And you all knew that you might have to do that someday.” The captain looked around the room again. “Any questions?” He turned towards his flight crew, knowing full well that they would have a few.
“Sir,” Nathan said, “What do we have to do during this test?”
“Apparently nothing, Lieutenant,” the captain answered. “From what I’ve read in the briefing file, and correct me Doctor if I’m wrong, the ship’s velocity and course will remain unaffected by the transition event. So the direction and speed that we’re traveling at departure will be what we’re traveling upon arrival. Just be prepared to maneuver quickly should something suddenly be in our way,” he added with a wink.
The captain’s sense of humor was not serving to comfort his nervous crew, and he could tell. “Look, people. This will all be over in a few blinks. After that, you’ll all be in the history books and we’ll be on our way back to Earth. It doesn’t appear that the transition events will have any effect on the rest of the ship’s systems, so for most of you things will go on as normal. This entire test will take about thirty minutes, after which we’ll resume normal operations.”
The captain scanned the faces of his crew, trying to make eye contact with each of them. “Now I have to remind you that this is highly classified, and you are not to discuss it with anyone, not even with each other. Needless to say that if the Jung ever learned of this technology, they would attack immediately, destroying everything and everyone that stood between them and this technology. It is undoubtedly the biggest genie to be let out of its bottle since the invention of the hydrogen bomb.” He paused one last time to let his words sink in and take their desired effect. “Now double check all systems and stand ready. The test will begin just after we enter comm blackout with Earth as we pass behind Jupiter.”
Nathan knew the captain was right. Spaceflight as they knew it, along with everything it provided, was about to change drastically.
“Five minutes to the far side of the planet, Sir,” Cameron reported.
“Lieutenant,” the captain said, “when we come out of the transition, if you see anything in our path, don’t wait for anyone to tell you to take evasive action. Understood?”
“Yes Sir,” Nathan answered. Now he was starting to think Vladimir had been wrong.
“Ensign Taylor,” the faster you can get a fix on our location after the transition, the happier I’ll be.”
“Yes Sir.”
“XO, bring the ship to yellow alert, please.”
“Yellow Alert, Yes sir.” The commander changed the ships readiness status to yellow, again changing all the light bars throughout the ship and sounding the condition change alert. “All hands, Yellow Alert! Set ship’s to condition to yellow!” the commander announced ship-wide.
All over the ship, the crew rushed to make sure that everything was properly stowed away, every system was checked and ready, all non-essential systems were shut down, and all bulkhead hatches were closed.
A few minutes later, the last of the green condition lights on his tactical display changed to yellow. “Ship is set at condition yellow, Sir,” Commander Montero reported.
“Very well. Time to threshold?”
“One minute, Sir,” Cameron responded.
Down in Engineering, Vladimir was getting nervous. The two reactors used by the special projects team had been running at one hundred percent for over four hours, long before he had come on duty, and he did not understand how they were using so much power. No one had informed him of what was about to happen, but he knew that the moment of truth for the special projects team was at hand. He only hoped it didn’t result in damage to his reactors.
“Crossing threshold, Sir,” Cameron reported. “We are now on the far side of Jupiter from the Earth.”
“Doctor Karlsen,” the captain announced. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Doctor Karlsen watched over his daughter’s shoulder as she worked the console at the auxiliary station, making comments to her in Danish as she worked.
“Transition systems are ready,” she announced. “Energy banks at forty percent capacity.”
“Is that enough?” the captain asked.
“More than enough for transitions both there and back, Captain,” she answered calmly, trying to hide her annoyance at the question during so critical a time.
“You think we’ll feel anything,” Nathan whispered to Cameron, but got no response.
“Transition parameters locked into auto-sequencer, the system is ready for initiation.”
Doctor Sorenson looked at the captain, who was looking back at her over his shoulder. It was a polite gesture, as it was his ship to command.
“Let her rip,” he ordered.
“Initiating transition in five…”
Despite the fact that they had been told there would be no sensation, and no change in ship’s velocity momentum, everyone on the bridge turned their chairs to face forward.
“Four…”
The captain wondered what his wife was doing at the moment.
“Three…”
Nathan rested both hands on his console, as if to brace himself.
“Two…”
For some reason, Cameron did the same.
“One…”
Nathan held his breath.
“Initiating…”
Outside of the ship, a pale blue wave of light washed out from shield emitters that were scattered strategically about the hull of the ship. In a split second, the bluish light grew into a glowing ball that encompassed the entire ship. Suddenly, the light turned white as it fell back into the ship, erasing her from view. It all happened in an instant. One moment the Aurora was orbiting Jupiter, and the next she was gone.
Inside the bridge, the main view screen showed the blue-white flash, flooding the entire bridge with a ghostly flash of light. It was like being caught unexpectedly by a really bright camera flash, causing spots in front of the eyes of all those unfortunate enough to be looking forward during the event.
“Transition complete,” Doctor Sorenson announced. “Verifying position.”
Despite the big blue-white blotch floating in his field of vision, Nathan frantically scanned the view screen for any signs of obstacles directly in their path.
“Position?” the captain asked.
“We are exactly two meters off our projected arrival point,” Doctor Sorenson announced. “The transition was successful,” she added with pride.
A man who cared little for emotional outbursts, in such professional situation, Doctor Karlsen simply put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder and gave it a loving squeeze. She knew that coming from him, in their current setting, it carried far more meaning than anyone around them could understand. Inside, they were both beaming with pride as the culmination of ten years of work on what had started out as an energy shield project, was about to change the course of humanity.
“She’s right, Sir,” Cameron assured the captain. “We’re at the designated position, on the outer edge of the Oort cloud.
“My God,” the captain exclaimed. “Sensor contacts?”
“The board shows clear, Captain,” Commander Montero reported.
“Sensors may be inaccurate, Sir,” the officer operating the long range sensor station advised. “I suggest we run a full diagnostic to make sure that they were not affected by the transition.”
“I know I was,” Nathan mumbled, still blinking repeatedly as he tried to make the big blue splotches leave his field of vision.
“Very, well. Get on it,” the captain ordered as he turned to face Doctor Karlsen. “Congratulations, Doctors. You may have just saved the Earth,” he added with a smile.
“Contact!” the sensor operator announced. “Just came on the screen, transferring plot to tactical!”
Nathan felt a cold shiver pass over him.
“I’ve got it, Captain,” the commander announced from the tactical station. “Running ID check against the intel database.”
“Helm,” the captain began in a low and controlled tone. “Slow and easy, turn into the contact’s bearing. And keep your thrust low to avoid detection.”
“Aye, Sir,” Nathan responded. “Coming to port, slow and easy, minimal thrust.”
“I’ve got a probable match,” the commander reported. “Jung patrol ship, smaller than us, lightly armored, missiles, rail guns and shields-no energy weapons. Not much fire-power really.”
“Maybe, but in our current state, without any shields and limited fire-power of our own? I’d say we’re evenly matched,” the captain observed. The commander nodded in agreement.
“We’re pointed toward the contact, Sir,” Nathan reported.
“Very well.” The captain turned his attention back to the commander. “Have they spotted us?”
“Not sure. But if we flashed outside like we did inside, our arrival would’ve been kind of hard to miss, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but we did come in behind them. If we’re lucky, they’re doing directional sweeps forward.”
Commander Montero grimaced suddenly as the information on his contact track changed. “No such luck, they’re changing course and accelerating. They’re headed our way.”
“Comm! Unlock all internal communications and sound battle stations! And get the deep space comm array back online! I wanna know if that Jung ship tries to send out a message!” The captain spun back around as the battle stations alarm sounded and the condition lights on the bridge changed to red, casting an eerie, faint red tinge on everything in the room.
“Helm, full speed ahead, bring her up to quarter-light fast! I wanna close to weapons range before she has a chance to take action!”
“Aye, full speed ahead, coming up to one-quarter light.” Nathan brought the ships main engines up to full power, instantly feeling the acceleration push him back in his seat despite the attempts by the inertial dampening systems to compensate.
All about the bridge, the crew struggled to maintain their balance as they worked under the force of sudden acceleration. Doctor Karlsen, who had been standing behind his daughter at the auxiliary station nearly fell over, but was caught by one of the marines guarding the starboard exit.
“Her shields are up, Captain!” the commander announced from tactical. “And she’s deploying her missile batteries!”
“ECO! Start jamming her, full frequency spread, don’t let her missiles lock onto us!” The captain turned back to tactical. “Load all forward torpedo bays and prepare to fire! Let me know when you have a solution.”
“Captain, she’s transmitting!” the comm officer reported. “Tight beam, aimed for Centauri space.”
“How long?” the captain asked.
“Three point five years, assuming nobody intercepts it along the way and relays!”
“I have a firing solution, Captain!” the commander reported. “Tubes two and four are ready to fire.”
“Fire two and four!” the captain ordered.
“But Sir,” the commander reminded, “they haven’t fired on us yet. They’ll see it as an act of aggression and use it as an excuse to…”
“…If they get away and FTL it back to Alpha Centauri, they’ll be invading us in months, Commander, not years!”
“Aye Sir, firing two and four,” the XO responded, feeling guilty for questioning his captain’s judgment.
Along the forward, starboard edge of the Aurora’s massive propulsion section, two small doors slid open to reveal a pair of tubes. A second later a torpedo leapt out of the uppermost tube, followed a moment later by a second from the lower. Riding on massive tails of white hot thrust, the torpedoes sped away at fifty percent the speed of light, helped by the fact that the Aurora herself was already at nearly a quarter light.
“Torpedoes away! She’s launching countermeasures!”
“They’re not stupid,” the captain observed.
“Velocity at one-quarter light,” Nathan reported. His head was spinning as he tried to keep track of everything that was going on. It was nothing like the simulations, which of course had seemed so real at the time. But now, there was so much more happening, so much more to think about, he couldn’t understand how the captain was able to keep track of it all so easily. Nathan tried to concentrate on just his job, and shut everything else out, but could not.
“They’ve launched missiles!” the commander reported. “Six inbound. ETA thirty seconds!”
“Are we jamming?!” the captain yelled.
“Yes Sir! On all frequencies!” the Electronic Countermeasures Officer reported.
“Torpedo impact in fifteen seconds!” the commander reported.
“Time to gun range?”
“One minute,” Cameron reported.
Nathan looked over at Cameron to his left. She was still so calm, with no hint of stress in her voice.
“Bring the rail guns online, point defense mode! Knock those incoming missiles down!”
“Rail guns coming online!”
Outside, at a dozen different locations about the forward half of the ship, doors slid open and rail gun turrets quickly popped up into place, spinning around to come to bear on the inbound missiles. Not more than a few seconds after they deployed, they opened up in auto-fire mode, sending point-defense rounds out along their launch rails in a bright sparkle of blue current that leapt from their rails. The rounds were designed to break apart into hundreds of smaller explosive charges that would spread out and detonate, creating a wall of explosive kinetic energy designed to obliterate the incoming ordnance before it could reach the ship.
“Second contact! Down range of the first!” the sensor operator announced! “Transferring track to tactical!”
The commander examined the second track, comparing it against the first to save time, a trick he had learned on his previous assignment. “Same type of ship, Captain. Torpedo impact in five seconds.”
“Helm! New course, bring us onto the second contact!”
Aye Sir!” Within seconds Cameron had fed him a new course as Nathan raised the nose of the ship slightly and to the right to head toward the second contact.”
“Torpedo impact!” the commander reported.
Everyone held their breath as they waited for the impact assessment.
“Contact One lost!” the commander announced happily. It was the Aurora’s first shot fired in anger, and it was also her first kill.
“Can you re-target the second torpedo?” the captain asked, hoping to send it after the second contact to save time and ordnance. After all, he only had so many torpedoes in the forward bay. The rest were still in storage down in the hangar deck.
“Negative, second torpedo was destroyed by their point defense turrets!” The commander glanced back down at his tactical display, realizing that two of the six missiles launched by the first patrol ship had made it past their defense screen and were about to strike the Aurora. “Incoming ordnance!”
The first missile struck the bow, slightly port of her centerline. They were not big missiles, but without any shielding, they were big enough to take out one of their rail gun emplacements. And with less than half of them operational, they needed every one.
The ship rocked from the explosion, which could be seen on the main view screen, the glare bathing the bridge in yellow-orange light that faded quickly. The second missile could be seen streaking overhead on the view screen, striking aft of the camera emplacements against the elevated drive section at the stern of the ship. The second explosion could not be seen from the bridge, but they could definitely feel it.
“Deep space comms are down!” the comm officer reported. “That last missile must’ve taken out the array!”
“The second contact is making a run for it, Captain!” the commander exclaimed.
“Get a solution for one and three on that contact!”
“She’s still out of range, Sir.”
“Ensign, how quickly can we get in range at full thrust?”
“Two minutes,” Cameron reported.
“Full power, Lieutenant!”
Nathan brought the main engines back up to full power, pushing everyone back in their seats once more. Only this time, they were expecting it and were better prepared for the sensation.
“Torpedo range in a minute forty,” Cameron reported calmly.
“Will we catch her before she can get up to light speed?” the captain asked the commander. Their FTL system was offline, since the emitter systems were being used by the special projects team.
“I guess we’ll see,” the commander shrugged.
It seemed like it took forever for them to close the gap. The little ship could outrun them, but the Aurora could accelerate faster. But without the emitters, she could not generate the field that negated her mass and allowed for the transition into FTL velocities.
“We’re passing through the first contact’s debris field,” the sensor officer announced. All along the ship, the sounds of debris striking the hull could be heard as pieces of the destroyed enemy ship of varying sizes struck the exterior of the ship. Most of it sounded like rain, although a few were loud enough to cause Nathan to flinch once or twice.
“Torpedo range in sixty seconds,” Cameron reported.
“Firing solutions locked and ready,” the commander announced.
“She’s got an antimatter reactor on board, Captain!” the sensor officer reported.
“A patrol ship with an antimatter reactor?” the captain asked the commander. “You ever hear of that?”
“No, Sir. But our intel on their ships is still limited.”
“I wonder what else she’s got?” The captain thought for a moment. “Can you re-target the torpedoes to take out her engines without destroying her?”
“I can try, but I’m not making any promises.” The commander looked his captain in the eyes, as if reading his mind. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“She might have some tech we don’t know about yet.”
“Re-targeting,” the commander announced, not waiting for the order.
In the Special Operations section just forward of the Aurora’s flight deck, Jessica and her teammates sat waiting for something to do. They were all highly trained in the art of specialized combat and covert operations, and they could handle just about anything. But during a yellow alert, all they could do was sit in their ready room and wait.
Being assigned to the Aurora was about the last thing that Jessica had wanted upon graduation. She had hoped to get assigned to a deep cover intelligence gathering team that would be smuggled onto one of the core-system worlds occupied by the Jung, in order to collect intelligence to forward back to Earth. Such assignments were the dream of every spec-ops officer, since due to the difficulty of getting info back to Earth, they were authorized to take whatever actions they felt necessary to protect the interests of their homeworld. It was a life of excitement and danger, where your fate was in your own hands, and not the hands of some brass hat sitting behind a desk somewhere back on Earth.
But instead, she had been assigned here. She understood why every ship needed its own spec-ops team. And this ship, with its FTL capabilities, at least had the ability to get her somewhere interesting. So in that sense, it was better than getting assigned to one of the older sub-light ships.
When battle stations had been called, she had been sure it was a drill, despite the fact that it had not been announced as such. Even when the ship started maneuvering hard and accelerating sporadically, she still had her doubts. But then they heard, and felt, torpedoes being fired. And then the constant pounding of the rail gun cannons as they laid down point defense flak. While they might fire the cannons in a drill, there was no way they were going to waste a couple of torpedoes. Those things were like small space ships, and were armed with small tactical nukes.
But the final evidence had been the explosions, the first of which struck very close, above and forward of them, knocking them out of their seats. A few minutes after that, two more torpedoes were launched. Either they were fighting multiple ships, or one really big one. But in the orbit of Jupiter? It just didn’t make any sense.
But after the last batch of torpedoes had been launched, it had suddenly gotten quiet. The main engines, which had been running at full thrust, had also quieted. And she was sure that she felt deceleration-sometimes it was hard to tell with the inertial dampeners in play.
Suddenly the room turned red and the action alarm squawked a single blast. The master chief in charge of the unit picked up the comm handset and took the call.
“Spec-Ops,” he announced. The master chief listened intently for a few moments. “Yes Sir!” The master chief hung up the handset and turned to face his people. “Alright! Listen up! Suit up for an EVA boarding action! Two insertion teams, four elements in each team! You move out in ten minutes!”
“Holy shit!” Jessica exclaimed. Maybe this ain’t such a bad assignment after all!
“Her main drive is definitely wiped out,” the commander proclaimed. We nailed her square in the ass with both shots. Just about blew her tail off.”
“What are you seeing over there?” the captain asked his sensor officer.
“She looks pretty dark, sir. I’m pretty sure she’s running on emergency power. Her shields and weapons are down, but her antimatter reactor is still online. She’s probably blown her power distribution system.”
The captain turned to his comm officer. “Any signals coming out of her?”
“No Sir, not a peep. But I’ve only got the local array to work with, so I’m not a hundred percent sure about that. If they used a tight-beam, I doubt I’d see it.”
“Could she be playing possum, luring us into a trap?” This time his question was directed back to Commander Montero.
“It is possible, but doubtful. She’s pretty busted up. Most of her aft section is open to space.”
“He’s right sir,” the sensor operator added. “In fact, the only pressurized compartments I’m seeing are engineering and her Bridge. Pretty much everything else is in vacuum.”
The captain thought about it for a moment. His first instinct was to stand off and pulverize her with his eleven remaining rail guns. But there was a good chance that there was some valuable intelligence on that ship, maybe even some technology that might come in useful. No one had ever captured a Jung ship before.
“It is a risk,” the captain admitted to his XO. “But I think it’s worth it.” He looked to his second in command for confirmation.
“Agreed,” the commander said.
“Very well.” The captain sat back down in his command chair. “Take us in, Lieutenant. Slow and easy. Roll us over and park us directly above her topsides, roof-to-roof. Since we don’t have any shuttles, they’ll have to do this the hard way.”
“Yes Sir,” Nathan answered as he began rolling the ship. They had already decelerated and had been slowly coasting towards the disabled ship for the last few minutes.
“XO, let’s keep all guns trained on her, just in case.”
“Already done, Sir.”
The two boarding teams walked out onto the flight deck. Wearing armored combat EVA suits, each of them carried a small close-quarters weapon attached with quick-connect fittings to the chest plates of their suits. The flight deck’s gravity plating was only one quarter of Earth norm, so carrying their transfer packs out across the deck onto the open landing apron was easy.
Jessica looked up as she stepped onto the apron. Directly above her was the crippled Jung patrol ship. It was only about half as big as the Aurora. It was badly damaged and she could see several openings in her hull through which they could probably gain access. But her rail gun turrets still looked operable, which made Jessica a little nervous.
“This is so fuckin’ cool!” her partner, Ensign Enrique Mendez exclaimed.
“You can say that again,” she agreed. Jessica knelt down and secured a heavy transfer line to the deck, setting the carefully coiled cable neatly down next to her.
“I sure don’t remember this scenario in training, huh Jess?”
“Me neither.”
“Cut the chatter,” her team leader ordered. “Mount up and let’s get this show on the road. We go across as one, then split up after we reach the target vessel. Alpha goes forward and Bravo goes aft.”
Each group lined up in pairs. One of them held the transfer pack in front of them, the other latched onto the first one’s back. With a blast of the maneuvering jets in the transfer pack, each pair lifted off the landing apron of the Aurora and began their ascent to the roof of the Jung ship. It was slow going, as they didn’t want to slam into the other ship at breakneck speeds.
Jessica and Enrique were the last to leave. Enrique operated the transfer pack, with Jessica attached to his back-one hand on her weapon with it pointed straight ahead, and the other hand on the free end of the transfer line she had attached to the deck. The transfer packs had just enough thrust to get them over to the enemy ship, so the transfer line would be their only way back to the Aurora.
Jessica kept her eyes forward, looking for any signs of a hostile threat as they coasted toward the Jung ship. It was a rather ugly looking vessel, dirty and not well maintained she thought. It looked more like what she thought a space pirates’ ship might look like, if such a thing actually existed.
“Approaching the vessel now, Sir,” the report came over the comm.
The main screen was displaying the view from a camera built into the top of the Aurora just forward of her flight deck. It gave them a clear view of the boarding team as they made their way across the void between the two ships.
Nathan was amazed as he watched the spec-ops teams floating across in pairs, not understanding how anyone could do something like that, let alone want to do it. Spec-ops had a reputation back on Earth. ‘Anything, anytime, anywhere.’ Apparently they had meant it.
“Any change in that ship’s status?” the captain asked.
“No sir,” the sensor operator assured him. “She’s still at minimal power.”
The inside of the Jung ship was dark, with only dim emergency lighting in operation. There appeared to be only a single battery powered light in each section, which seemed hardly enough for the job. It seemed a little odd to Jessica, since you could read in the emergency lighting in the Aurora.
Jessica’s team had gone aft toward engineering, while Alpha team headed forward to capture the bridge. There was no gravity functioning on board, although she could tell by the design of the ship and the floating debris that the ship was equipped with artificial gravity, it just wasn’t working right now.
As they floated through the corridors, the closest thing they found to a crew were dead bodies floating about. But there were very few of them, and Jessica surmised that the sudden decompression probably sucked many of the ship’s crew out into space. That was fine with her, as it meant fewer Jungs with guns.
They were forced to use the maneuvering jets built-into their suits, as there was little to grab onto and the deck didn’t seem to have enough metal in it to use the magnets built into their boots. Jessica tried to use her hands when she could, hoping to save as much of her limited suit thrusters as possible in case she needed them later.
Luckily it had not been far from their entry point to the engineering section of the smaller ship, and a few minutes later they reached the access hatch to engineering.
“We’re taking fire!” came a voice over her comm-set. “Repeat, Alpha team is taking fire!”
Jessica looked to her team leader for orders.
“You know the rules, Nash,” he warned. “They have their job, we have ours.”
She watched as her partner placed the demo charges on the hatch, taking a safe position just around the corner. After he finished placing the charges, he moved around the corner with her before reporting.
“Charges are set LT.”
“Blow it.”
“Fire in the hole,” he announced.
There was a flash of light, but no sound since they were in a vacuum. Hundreds of pieces of metal shrapnel flew past them. After waiting a moment, Enrique peaked his head around the corner to take a look. The corridor was full of smoke, but there was light shining through the smoke which he was sure was coming from the open hatchway into Engineering.
“We’ve got a hole,” Enrique reported.
The team leader and his partner took up positions on either side of the door. They each had to keep one hand on the hatch ring in order to keep from floating freely in the zero gravity of the hallway.
The lieutenant took a small marker stick from his utility pouch and tossed it through the hatch. As it floated across the threshold, it suddenly dropped to the floor.
“There’s gravity in there,” he reported. He pulled out his fiber optic camera and carefully snaked the lens around the edge of the hatch to look inside. On the far side of the room, he could see a man in a pressure suit, frantically doing something at a control console. He couldn’t see a weapon on him.
“I’ve got one bad guy, in a pressure suit, doing something at a console on the left. I can’t tell if he’s armed.”
Suddenly, his partner stuck his weapon through the hatchway and opened fire. Immediately, two blue-white blasts of energy were fired at the hatch from inside. The first one bounced off the wall inside, but the second one came through the hatch, catching the over enthusiastic ensign in the shoulder, instantly burning a hole through his armor, suit, and shoulder. He screamed in pain as the upper half of his suit suddenly depressurized, killing him a moment later.
“Shit!” the lieutenant screamed. “Mendez! Nash! Get ready! I’m tossin’ flash-bangs in five!
Jessica and Enrique took up positions across the corridor from the hatch, ready to push against the opposite wall to propel themselves through the hatchway and into the room. A moment later, the lieutenant tossed a flash-bang grenade into the defended compartment. The grenade flashed silently on the other side of the wall, lighting up the corridor for a brief moment. Enrique launched himself off the wall, flying across the weightless hallway and into the next room. As he flew across the threshold, the artificial gravity in the compartment pulled him down harder than expected, knocking his weapon from his hand.
More blasts of blue-white light sprayed across the room, one grazing his left thigh.
Jessica had launched herself only a moment later, flying deeper into the compartment and landing just past Enrique, spraying fire in the direction of the enemy. The lieutenant jumped through the hatchway next, landing on his feet and scurrying along the wall toward the now silent enemy. He moved swiftly around the console and found the enemy lying on the floor, bullet wounds riddling his torso and face.
“Clear!” the lieutenant announced.
Jessica scrambled back to Enrique, quickly pulling out an emergency wound dressing.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, dropping your weapon like that!” she scolded. “You weren’t supposed to get shot, dumbass!”
“Sorry, Jess,” he apologized, wincing through the pain. “I didn’t know you cared.”
“I don’t,” she corrected, as she applied the bandage. “I just don’t wanna have to break in a new dumbass,” she added with a grin.
“How is he?” the lieutenant inquired from behind the console.
“He’ll live!” Jessica responded. “Lucky for you these suits are compartmentalized. Otherwise you would’ve decompressed and you’d be dead by now.”
She quickly wrapped over the top of the bandage with a sealing wrap, and then pressed some buttons on his wrist mounted suit control to re-pressurize the damaged section of his suit. “You lost a lot of your air through that hole. You’d better head back now.”
Jessica helped Enrique to his feet and got him through the hatchway back into the corridor where he could float in zero-gravity. “Use your suit jets and haul ass back to the ship!” She gave him a shove down the corridor to get him on his way. A second later his maneuvering jets fired and he picked up speed and finally disappeared around the corner.
Jessica leaned back into the engineering compartment and made her way over to the lieutenant. He was pushing buttons and looking at displays, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Shit! This is all in Jung!” he complained, obviously frustrated. “Do you read Jung?”
“Nobody reads Jung, LT!” she defended. “Hell, I didn’t even know they had their own language!”
There were several indicators on a section of the console that looked like it controlled the antimatter reactor. They were blinking red and their indicators were rising.
“I don’t like this,” Jessica grumbled. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Captain, I’m not picking up any bio-signals from Alpha team,” the XO reported, “and there’s no more comm-chatter.”
“Aurora, Bravo Leader! We’ve got a problem!”
“Go ahead, Bravo,” the commander answered. As the acting tactical officer, it was his job to manage the boarding action.
“Aurora, it looks like they’ve initiated an overload of their antimatter reactor! I’m not sure! It’s all in Jung! But I’m pretty sure it’s gonna blow in 5 minutes!”
“Pull them out, now!” the captain ordered.
“Bravo, fall back! Repeat! Fall back! Return to the ship!”
“Copy that!”
“How long will it take us to get to minimum safe distance at full thrust?” the captain demanded.
Cameron punched in a string of calculations at lightning speed. “Estimate eight minutes, sir.”
“What are you doing?” Jessica said. “You heard him, we’ve gotta go!”
“I think I can buy you some time!” the lieutenant explained. “When I press this button, it makes the temp on the reactor drop a few degrees! It won’t stop it, but I might be able to buy the Aurora a few more minutes to get clear.”
“Are you crazy? You’ll be vaporized!”
“At least I won’t feel anything,” he joked.
She looked at him through his visor, the fear evident on his face as he repeatedly pressed the button in a losing battle to delay the inevitable.
“Move it, Ensign!” he ordered.
“LT!”
“Look, it may not be enough even if I do stay!” He looked at her sternly. “Go Jess, please?” he begged.
She took a hesitant step backwards, paused, and snapped a salute before turning and running, diving head first through hatchway and into the weightless corridor where her momentum carried her rapidly down the hall.
“How much longer until we can get outta here?” the captain asked.
“Two of them are on the transfer line now,” the commander answered. “But one of them is still in the engineering compartment.
“What the hell? Get him out of there!”
“Bravo Leader! You’ve got one still on board! Sit Rep!” the commander ordered. A moment passed before the XO repeated the hail. “Bravo Leader, Aurora! Do you copy!”
“Aurora! Ensign Nash! The lieutenant has probably switched off his comm-set!”
Nathan turned his head suddenly, realizing that it was Jessica out there. It wasn’t that he had any particular emotional attachment to her, at least not the he was consciously aware of. But he actually knew someone who was out there, putting their life on the line right now, and that sensation was new to him.
“Nash, Aurora! Explain!” the commander ordered
“He stayed behind! He’s manually stalling the overload! He’s trying to buy us a few more minutes! He probably went dark so we couldn’t talk him out of it!”
Commander Montero looked at the captain, who had a blank look in his eyes. This new crew might be fresh out of the academy and inexperienced, but they were not lacking in courage.
“Understood,” the commander transmitted solemnly. “ETA to Aurora?”
“Two minutes, Sir!”
“Copy.”
Jessica continued pulling herself along the cable, hand over hand, as she made her way back to the ship. She was nearly halfway there when she looked up and saw Enrique settling in on the Aurora’s landing apron next to the base of the transfer line.
“Shake a leg, Jess!” he called over the comm-set. “We ain’t got all day, you know!”
“Quit your bitchin’ I’m coming!”
Suddenly, Enrique’s eye widened as he noticed movement on the surface of the Jung ship.
“Jess! One of the turrets!”
“Captain!” the sensor officer called out. “The Jung ship, Sir! She’s got one of her gun turrets back online!”
“What? I thought she had no power?” the captain barked.
“I don’t know how sir, but she’s got a turret swinging over to take aim at the landing apron,” the sensor officer explained urgently. “More turrets coming online as well! Two, Three, Four…, they’re all coming to life!”
Rail gun rounds flew all around Jessica as she rapidly ascended the transfer line, pulling herself towards the ship as fast as her hands could move. Out of the corner of her visor she could see multiple flashes as more of the Jung cannons began to open fire on the Aurora, sending chunks of the hull flying in all directions.
“Oh shit!” she exclaimed.
A split second later, the Aurora’s cannons opened up on the Jung ship. Enrique watched in awe as the upper hull of the Jung ship was torn apart by the Aurora’s rail gun fire.
“Detach the line!” she called out to Enrique. “Let’s get the fuck outta here!”
Without hesitation, Enrique did as his partner asked. He reached down to the base of the transfer line where it connected to the deck. Opening up a small panel in the side of the connection collar, he pushed the button in and held it down.
At the far end of the cable, where it connected to the Jung ship, the line released its connection and began to float away freely.
“Transfer line disconnected!” he announced.
“Aurora, Nash! The line is free! Get us outta here!”
“Nash! Aurora! Are you secure!”
“I’m secure, damn it! Now go!”
“Aurora, Mendez! She’s still on the line, about fifty meters away!”
“Goddamn it! Just go!” she demanded. “I’ll make it!”
“Take us out,” the captain ordered. “But not too fast yet, we don’t want her slamming against the hull.”
Nathan started with the docking thrusters only, burning them for a few seconds as he tried to imagine Jessica, out there in the vacuum of space as she clung onto the transfer line while it swung her down toward the hull of the ship. He knew that no matter how slow he went, she was still going to hit hard.
“Commander!” Nathan yelled, suddenly having an idea. “Tell her to call out just before she impacts the hull! A couple meters, maybe!”
The commander didn’t bother to ask Nathan why, figuring it wouldn’t hurt.
“Good thinking, Nathan,” the captain said. He already knew what his helmsman was up to.
“Nash, Aurora! Call out a few meters before you hit the hull!”
Out on the landing apron, Enrique was protected against the motion of the ship by her inertial dampeners. But out on the end of the transfer line, Jessica was not. And it was all she could do to just hang on. With her legs wrapped tightly around the line to help keep her from sliding farther down it, there was no way she would be able to continue her ascent until after she hit the hull. That is, if she survived the impact.
As she dangled around on the line, spinning back and forth, she could see the impacts of the Jung rail gun fire on the hull of the ship. It was an ugly thing to witness, but the damage didn’t appear too serious. She was sure that the Jung were firing blindly out of desperation and not really aiming strategically.
As the Aurora continued to accelerate, she could tell that she was getting closer to the hull as her body weight on the line resulted in a lazy arc towards the ship. By her best guess, she was going to hit about fifty meters aft of the landing apron. But the apron itself was at least ten meters higher than the hull behind her, and it was an overhang to which there was no way up. Even if she did survive the impact, how was she going to get back into the ship? Even with the inertial dampeners, she doubted she could climb around on the outside of the ship during full acceleration.
As she spun around again, she was able to see something near the spot she thought she was going to land. Something round. A hatch!
“Aurora, Nash! Is that a hatch I see just aft of the landing apron?”
“Affirmative! We’re on it!”
Within seconds, the spec ops master chief was running through the corridors of the Aurora, on his way to the airlock just aft of the landing apron.
“Time to overload?” the captain asked.
“Unknown,” the commander said. “Based on the lieutenant’s original report, it should’ve already happened.”
“I guess whatever he’s doing is working,”
“Captain, we’re starting to show them our hind quarters. Without shields, if we take too many hits on the stern we might lose main propulsion,” the commander warned.
“Helm come slowly to starboard, try not to show them our ass too much.”
“Yes Sir.”
The ship started to roll to starboard slightly, as she started a slow right turn. Jessica’s descent arc started to slide to port slightly, which by her estimates would make her land even closer to the airlock hatch. Damn, Nathan. I underestimated you.
Inside the ship, the spec ops master chief arrived at the airlock and began depressurizing the chamber.
“Three meters!” Jessica called out over comms.
Without being ordered, Nathan pitched the tail of the ship down slightly to reduce Jessica’s rate of closure thereby lessening her impact velocity. It wasn’t much, but he desperately hoped it would help.
Jessica’s eyes widened as she rapidly fell towards the ship. But then, suddenly, her rate of closure changed, slowing considerably. She realized the ship was pitching her tail down, and she knew that Nathan was trying as best he could to give her a soft landing.
But it could’ve been softer, for she hit hard, knocking the air out of her lungs. She rebounded from the deck, floating back up slightly, but the ships acceleration forced her back down, striking a second time. As she rolled over onto her side, the hatch, located not more than a meter away, suddenly opened. I may have to give you another quickie, Nathan, she thought, as she struggled to get through the airlock hatch.
“Bridge! Airlock fourteen! Nash is in!”
“All ahead full!” the captain ordered.
Nathan immediately brought the mains up to full power, feeling the acceleration as it pushed him back into his chair. Those dampeners are pretty damned good, he thought.
“How long until we get clear?” the captain asked again.
“Five minutes, Sir,” Cameron responded.
Nathan wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard a touch of fear in her voice. Perhaps she’s human after all?
The rail gun fire continued to rock the ship, diminishing as their distance from the enemy increased. The captain’s mind was racing furiously, searching for options. If he put a torpedo into her, it might stop the overload. But it might also kill the brave lieutenant that was sacrificing himself to buy them some time. And it also might trigger the overload even sooner. If he had his FTL fields, he could probably accelerate past light speed and get clear, but all the emitters were being used by the special projects team. That’s when the idea struck him.
“Doctor Karlsen!” the captain said, spinning around. “Can we make another jump?”
“You cannot simply snap your fingers and jump as you say,” he argued. “It takes time to recharge the energy banks…”
“…How much time?”
“At least one hour for every light year traveled,” the Doctor explained. “But there are other considerations…”
“There is enough energy currently in the banks for a transition back to Earth, Captain,” Doctor Sorenson interrupted. Public speaking was not her father’s strength, nor was seeing the big picture quickly. For all his brilliance in physics, he tended to have tunnel vision in such matters. “But it takes time to calculate a transition sequence…”
“…How long?”
“Too long, I’m afraid,” she admitted.
“What about Earth? Didn’t you already have a sequence programmed to return to Earth?”
“Yes, but we’re not even headed in the right direction. And we’re already a considerable distance from our original departure point. I would have to recalculate…”
The captain was getting tired of all the details. He just wanted to know if he could use the Jump Drive to get away. “Ensign, how long would it take to get back to our original arrival point?”
“Maybe three minutes,” Cameron estimated. “But that’s only if we take a direct route, which would take us back into their weapons range.”
“Doctor, what would happen if we jumped using the sequence calculated for a return to Earth on our present course?”
Doctor Karlsen was flabbergasted, and began babbling in Danish at his daughter. His daughter just ignored him, focusing her attention on the captain, as she knew he was just trying to get them out of an impossible situation.
“Honestly, I do not know,” she admitted. “The safety protocols may not even accept the execute command, since the ship’s heading does not match the…”
“…Can you override the safety protocols?”
“Yes, but…”
“…Do it!” he commanded.
“Captain, this is not a good idea,” Doctor Karlsen protested.
Doctor Sorenson spoke to her father in Danish, trying to calm him down as she frantically tried to override the safety protocols.
“Captain!” the sensor operator exclaimed. “Their reactor’s about to go!”
“Doctor?” the captain urged. “We’re running outta time!”
“There she goes!” the sensor operator cried out.
“Now Doctor! JUMP!”
Doctor Sorenson tapped a few more keys before hitting the execute button.
“Initiating Transition Sequence!” she announced.
The ship was struck hard by the shock wave of the antimatter explosion as it disappeared in a bright flash of blue-white light.
“Transition complete!” Doctor Sorenson announced, obvious relief in her voice.
Nathan lowered his hand from his eyes. This time, he had shielded his face from the bright flash of the jump as it was carried into the bridge by the forward view screen. As he looked over to Cameron, he could see that she had done the same. He looked to his right and saw the sensor operator picking himself up off the floor.
“Status!” the captain bellowed.
Nathan looked over his console, checking that everything was in order. He looked over at Cameron, who nodded that her systems were fine as well.
“Helm is oper…”
“…Contacts!” the sensor operator yelled out. “Multiple contacts, all around us! Transferring tracks to tactical!”
“What the hell? Where are we?” the captain asked.
The ship suddenly began taking fire, with massive explosions rocking the ship violently. The force of the ordnance was far more severe than what they had experienced earlier with the two Jung patrol ships.
There was the smell of something burning, like an electrical fire, and Nathan could hear the sound of short circuits coming from behind him.
“Return fire, all batteries!” the captain ordered.
“Which ship do we shoot at, sir?” the commander asked.
“Target the biggest one that’s shooting at us!” the captain ordered. “At least until we figure out who the hell we’re fighting!”
“All the fire is coming from the biggest contact, sir!”
“Then that’s your target, Commander.”
“She’s huge, Captain,” the commander exclaimed. “Gotta be twice the size of our Defender class ships!”
“What? The Jung don’t have anything that big!”
“We’ll never take her out with rail guns, sir. Suggest we give her a full spread of torpedoes!”
“Helm! Hard to starboard! Bring us to bear on the biggest ship!”
Nathan quickly turned the ship hard to starboard until the biggest enemy ship came into the middle of his screen. They were coming in on the enemy ship’s port side, and would have a perfect shot with their torpedoes.
“Get a solution, tubes one through four, and prepare to fire!” the captain ordered.
“Sir, those smaller ships, the multi-colored ones,” Nathan said. “They’re fighting the big one just like us!”
“What the hell did we jump into?” the captain muttered.
Seeing the Aurora turn into her, the larger ship immediately trained all her guns on her new attacker, ignoring the smaller vessels.
“She’s trying to stop us short!” the commander yelled as the ship shook even more from the intense barrage of enemy rounds.
All about the bridge, circuits were shorting out, pieces were falling off the walls and panels, even a beam fell across the port exit, killing one of the Marine guards that had still been standing his post. Nathan found himself flinching repeatedly as rounds streaked towards them on the view screen, barely missing the cameras before striking nearby.
“Firing solution locked!” the XO announced.
“Fire all forward tubes!”
On either side of the Aurora’s leading upper edge of the main propulsion section, doors again slid open to reveal the torpedo launch tubes. Nearly simultaneously, four torpedoes shot out, their thrust plumes burning brightly behind them as they streaked towards their targets.
“One through four away!” the XO announced. “At this range, those nukes are gonna shake us good, Captain.”
“I know,” the captain mumbled.
“Missiles!” the sensor operator called out. “Eight inbound, transferring tracks to tactical!”
“Damn!” the captain swore to himself. “Are we jamming!” he barked, angry at himself for not giving the command earlier.
“I started jamming the moment the new contacts were announced, sir!” the ECO answered, proud of himself for having taken the initiative when he knew his captain had been too busy to remember.
“Good boy!”
“Switching rail guns to point defense mode,” the commander announced from tactical.
There were only eight rail gun batteries left, as three more had been taken out by enemy fire since they had arrived in this unknown region of space. They stopped firing for a moment, while they switched ammo feeds and began firing point defense rounds instead of the standard explosive penetration rounds they usually fired.
“It’s not going to be enough, Sir,” the commander warned.
“Time to impact?”
“Twenty seconds.”
“How long before our torpedoes hit?”
“Ten seconds.”
The captain spun around to face the forward screen, just in time to see the first torpedo detonate, blowing a hole in the massive ship, the image of which by now nearly filled their entire screen. A split second later, there were two more explosions, just aft of the first one, causing multiple secondary explosions.
“Yes!” the captain exclaimed.
“Incoming ordnance!” the commander exclaimed.
Five of the eight missiles made it past the Aurora’s point defense fire. The first one struck the nose at an oblique angle and bounced off without exploding, sending it right up towards the view screen camera causing everyone on the bridge to duck instinctively. The second missile impacted the starboard side of the bow, blowing away a portion of their primary hull. The third and fourth missiles both struck on the underside of the bow, which was more heavily reinforced. And the fifth missile struck the starboard side, just below the shield generation compartment.
Nathan wasn’t sure which, but between the detonations of the missiles and the shock wave from the nuclear detonations of their own torpedoes, they had gotten the living hell knocked out of them.
“The enemy ship is no longer maneuvering sir! But she can still shoot!”
“Pull us up, Lieutenant!” the captain ordered. “Show them our belly as we pass! It’s the strongest part of the hull!”
Nathan pulled the control yoke back, but the ship wasn’t changing course. He quickly double checked his console, only to find that he had lost all control. “Captain! The helm’s not responding!”
“Doctor! Can we jump again?” the captain asked, desperately.
“Not possible! The system is offline!” Doctor Sorenson reported.
“Emergency braking thrusters!” the captain ordered. “Sound Collision Alert!”
Nathan fired the emergency braking thrusters, relief pouring over him that at least they still worked.
On the sides of the bow, emergency braking thrusters fired, burning at full power as they tried to slow the ship. But she was traveling way too fast for them to have much of an effect, as they were designed to be used in docking emergencies, and not at combat velocities.
Throughout the ship, the collision alarm sounded, followed by the computerized voice, “Collision Alert, Collision Alert.”
“Evacuate the forward Sections!” the captain ordered.
Nathan’s eyes ran wildly across his console, looking for something that worked, anything that he could use to steer the ship and avoid a head first dive into the enemy ship’s port side. But there was nothing. The only other functioning system was the docking thrusters, which would not generate enough thrust to turn away in time.
He looked up at the main view screen. The image of the burning enemy ship filled the entire screen now. She had stopped firing, as they were now so close that most of her batteries couldn’t get a decent angle to continue pounding them. There were three holes in her side. One, where the first torpedo detonated, and a second, larger one just aft of the first, probably where the second and third torpedoes had done their damage. The third hole was much smaller, and was back towards the aft end of the ship. It looked like a penetration of some sort.
Nathan looked at the middle hole, the larger one. It looked like they were going to strike just forward of it. Suddenly, he had an idea.
“Time to impact?” the captain asked.
“Five seconds,” the XO answered.
Nathan grabbed the joystick for the docking thrusters and pushed it hard to starboard. It wasn’t much, but the bow inched over just slightly, redirecting them towards the hole.
The captain saw what Nathan was doing and smiled as he put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. He knew he had picked the right man for the job.