by David Smith
Chief Belle held her hand up to tell the rest of the team to hold position while she and Running Deer edged forward, tricorders scanning and weapons at the ready.
The space was reminiscent of the Bridge aboard Tiger. A series of consoles were arranged to face a large view screen high up on the wall to their right. In the centre of the space a single chair was mounted on a large plinth.
Chief Belle and Running Deer edged into the compartment, but split up inside. The Chief started circling the compartment moving to her left, while Running Deer started moving to her right.
Suddenly, both of them froze.
‘Traps’ said Deer quietly.
‘I see ‘em’ replied the Chief.
‘DO. NOT. FIRE’ said Dave, slowly and deliberately, well aware of the Chiefs natural instinct to shoot first, shoot second . . . and keep shooting. ‘What are we dealing with?’
Running Deer was closer and answered ‘The console front and centre of the room has some kind of improvised explosive device, seems to be a very large charge.’
Chief Belle scanned the device too. ‘Yeah, that’s a big ‘un. I guess they figured on taking the whole compartment out if the Sha T’Al made it this far. I think . . . yep, it’s coded to DNA.’
With that, she stood up and calmly walked across the compartment and leaning forward she searched under the chair and console, eventually standing up with a large package of an unidentifiable plastic material and an electronic device that was clearly some kind of trigger mechanism.
The trigger was covered in flashing lights and the team instinctively backed away, until the Chief calmly pressed a few buttons, detached it from the plastic explosive and casually threw it to Running Deer. ‘We’re all good. So what are we looking for?’
Breathing out, Dave said ‘Clues. Anything that can tell us what’s happened here, and how much trouble we’re in.
O’Mara ducked down behind the console with Deng and between them they managed to bring the console to life.
O’Mara scurried around to the front of the console, sat down and began punching in commands. ‘Hmm, much higher levels of encryption than would seem sensible, but we should be able to get past most of that. Ah, here we go: I’ve found the Commandant’s log entries.’
She brought the log entries up on the consoles’ screen and they crowded around and watched as the Colonels face appeared. He was wearing full uniform although the rank insignia on his epaulettes were unfamiliar.
‘Commandant’s Log, Stardate eight-nine-six-eight point four. Today will be a turning point in the war. Our guard-ship, ISS Tiger, is being dispatched to undertake raids against the Tana in our Sha T’Al territories. They’ll be using secret weapons that will have devastating effects on the civilian population. If everything goes according to plan, this will cripple the Tana war effort.’
‘In the mean-time we’ve strengthened our defences and stock-piled stores for a ground offensive to retake the systems the Tana have invaded. Hole will be the lynch-pin of the Empires glorious victory! Long Live the Empire!’
The Colonel folded his clenched fist across his chest and then thrust it out straight opening his hand as he did, in a manner that recalled fascist salutes from the twentieth century.
Dave was mortified. What the hell had they just seen? The Empire? Attacks against civilian populations? ‘This isn’t good. Wherever we are, it’s definitely not Federation space.’
‘The worrying thing is that it’s all so casual’ ventured O’Mara. ‘He talks about using secret weapons against civilians as if that’s business as usual.’
Katrin Mengele was worried too. ‘The log implies that the use of weapons of mass destruction is an accepted practice. It would appear that the Empire he refers to has moral and social values diametrically opposed to our own.’
Chief Belle spoke up too, but her concern was different ‘Am I the only one that noticed he referred to ISS Tiger? Is it possible that there’s another version of our ship floating around somewhere?’
‘It could be coincidence’ said Dave, ‘A name like “Tiger” would be used by most human cultures.’
O’Mara shook her head ‘Too great a coincidence for my liking. There are hundreds and thousands of names for a ship, but to have a ship of the same name in the sector we occupied, guarding the system we’re based in? I’m guessing that’s a million to one shot.’
She tilted her head, clearly weighing up the possibilities. ‘If we assume it’s a dimensional shift problem and we have shifted a tiny little bit through a dimension we don’t understand, it would make sense if a little movement resulted in little changes to our perceived reality.’
She nodded to herself, clearly seeing the logic of this line of thought. ‘Yeah that makes perfect sense. If this is a parallel universe, I would expect it to be amazingly similar to our own.’
She’d looked around and wasn’t convinced that everyone was following her. ‘Ok, think of it this way. You’re stood looking out at a landscape. You move one meter to the side, and it looks the same, but there are subtle differences caused by your change in perspective. I reckon that’s what we’re looking at here, but we’ve moved a meter in a dimension we can’t actually see.’
‘But it’s not subtle changes, is it?’ argued Dave. ‘We’ve come from what we regard as the most enlightened culture in known space to . . . well . . . a place where humans are just a bunch of fascist bastards. How could that happen?’
O’Mara shook her head. ‘Would it really take that much? The weather is a bit better in the English Channel in 1940 and Hitler invades England and wins the second world war. John Kennedy backs down in 1962 and two years later the Russians nuke every American missile silo from Cuba. Temujin doesn’t survive a poisoning incident as a child and Ghengis Khan never exists to create the Mongol Empire. Small things, huge consequences.’
Everyone fell silent and O’Mara turned back to the console and flicked through the list of log entries, picking out one that was dated just five weeks previously. The Colonel appeared again and although it was clearly him, he was sporting an almost piratical eye-patch, and the area around it bore some horrific looking scar tissue.
‘Commandant’s Log, Stardate nine-zero-six-zero point four. The cursed Sha T’Al launched another raid today, destroying several of the out-lying automated mining facilities before bombarding Hole again. The defences held up well until the Sha T’Al managed to hit the last of the main targeting sensor arrays. After that we were forced to use manual controls, which proved ineffective.’
‘I’ve appealed again for reinforcements, but Command have refused. They’re diverted all resources to Sector 193 to crush the rebellion before focusing on the damned Sha T’Al. I’m told Captain LaCroix has instructions to protect the Imperial forces at the assembly point until they’re ready to strike, so we can’t even depend on protection from our own guard-ship!’
‘We’re in crisis and morale is plummeting. There have been cases of looting, and I’ve executed seven citizens so far to try and keep order. We’ll hold out here as long as possible, but if LaCroix doesn’t bring ISS Tiger back soon, there’ll be nothing left to guard.’
As the log entry ended, the team stood in silence. Dave was as stunned as everyone at what he’d seen. ‘So humans are not only fascist bastards, they’re loser fascist bastards. I guess that’s a good thing.’
O’Mara flicked through more log entries, and located the very last one, dated two weeks later. This time, a Marine Lieutenant appeared.
‘Commandant’s Log, Stardate nine-zero-seven-four point three. The Sha T’Al raided again this morning. With the Western hemisphere defences still off line, we’re sitting ducks. The bombardment destroyed much of the repair facility, and collapsed the tunnels from grid two-two-four-eight to two-six-five-five. That’s completely buried our main food stores.’
‘We managed to rig one civilian ship in orbit to explode when a Sha T’Al frigate attempted to board her. We had to sacrifice her crew to make the trap wo
rk, but it was a small price to pay for destroying an enemy warship.’
‘Three of the Sha T’Al managed to escape and we captured them as their escape pods touched down. We interrogated them, but they knew nothing of military value. We continued the interrogation anyway, and transmitted some of it to let the damned aliens know what they’re up against. One of the alien scum lasted nearly a full hour in the agoniser booth before dying.’
‘Commandant Sanders attempted to cross the surface to operate the western hemisphere defences manually, but his team was caught in the open by a passing Sha T’Al cruiser. There were no survivors.’
‘I’ve assumed command and instituted rationing, and a repair program, but our position is now untenable. We can’t hold out any longer. I’m loading the remaining citizens into transports and shipping them out. My team will stay behind to attempt to set up automated defences, but without Tiger, our resistance here is finished.
But we will not give up!! We will prevail against the odds and I will continue to broadcast the early works of President Stallone, founder of the Terran Empire as a reminder of what humanity is to the accursed aliens. This will be my last log entry. Long Live the Empire!’
He performed the same fascist salute as the Colonel before the screen went blank.
The away team stood silently, still staring at the blank screen.
‘Hold on,’ said Chief Belle ‘I ain’t no historian, but I didn’t think that Stallone guy was a president?’
O’Mara tapped a query into her pad, and added, ‘No, he was a big star in the entertainment field, but never entered any kind of political arena. Possibly because no-one could understand what he was saying.’
‘In my understanding of twentieth century politics, that shouldn’t have been a problem?’ asked Dave. ‘And surely being able to recite from a script that bears no resemblance to reality would be a useful skill for a politician?’
‘Possibly,’ shrugged O’Mara ‘and maybe that’s the point of divergence between this reality and what we know as reality.’
‘Either way it looks like we’re losing the war’ suggested Chief Belle.
Dave straightened up and turned to face Chief Belle. ‘It’s not “we” Chief. I don’t know what the hell’s happened here, but “we” aren’t part of the Empire and never will be. Whatever the Empire is, it’s not the Federation and I don’t think we can stay here. We have to find a way to get back to our own space, or time, or whatever, and we need to do it yesterday.’
--------------------
They found other information, but virtually everything was encrypted. O’Mara did her best, but didn’t have the equipment necessary for such things and soon admitted defeat.
The team gathered the memory cores of the main computer and transported back to Tiger.
As soon as they got back to the ship, Dave called Commander Romanov in Engineering. ‘Commander, we’ve recovered some memory cores from the Operations Room of Hole, but it’s all heavily encrypted. I need you to put a couple of your best software people on it. Co-opt staff from Science if necessary, but make sure that unlocking the memory cores is absolutely your number one priority. Can you spare Park and Ensign ARSE to work on that?’
‘Um. Park can work on it but Ensign ARSE is off-line at the moment. Has been for a couple of days now’ replied the Engineer, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
Dave instantly realised here was more to this. ‘What have you done Olga?’ he prompted.
‘Nothing!! Well. Not intentionally’ she said evasively.
Dave kept the link open and waited patiently for an explanation.
‘It was just a throwaway comment because he was being totally useless. I’m sorry, I just said it without thinking. He’s been locked in a sub-routine for two days now analysing what changes he’d need to make to his chassis to be able to carry out my instruction.’
Romanov shrugged. ‘I’ll put Ottershaw on it with Park. I’ll grab Garcia too’
‘Thank you, Commander’ sighed Dave. ‘Get them to update me on progress every other hour, Hollins out.’
Dave was still struggling out of his environmental suit when the Red Alert Klaxon sounded. He immediately called ASBeau on the Bridge: ‘Hollins here. What’s happening?’
‘Glad you’re back Commander. We have company’.
Chapter 2
A minute later, Dave was on the Bridge, still wearing the larger part of an environmental suit. ‘What have we got, ASBeau?’
ASBeau immediately stood up to vacate the Captain’s chair and headed back towards the tactical console, relieving Lieutenant Janus.
‘We’re reading big sub-space distortions heading directly towards us, on a heading that indicates they’re from deeper in Sha T’Al space’ he said as he sat down in his more usual position.
Dave pressed a button on the arm of the chair to pull up the tactical display on the main view-screen. He shrugged off the rest of the environmental suit before sitting in the chair, by which time the computer had managed to assemble all data of use for the tactical screen.
There were a number of disturbances still several light minutes away from Hole, but it wasn’t clear how many ships the disturbances equated to. What was clear was that the incoming vessels were heading directly towards Hole, and more importantly, Tiger.
Dave had no idea what their intentions were, but the devastation they’d seen wrought on Hole (even before Chief Belle’s hissy-fit) suggested they weren’t planning to drop in for tea, cakes and polite conversation. ‘Comms, have they transmitted any signals yet?’
Lieutenant Shearer checked her console and shook her beautifully coiffured head. ‘Naw sir. They seem t’be observin’ radia silens, like.’
Dave rubbed his chin. They were a sitting duck here in orbit, and although he didn’t know what they were facing yet, they were clearly out-numbered. Most importantly, if they were Sha T’Al ships he didn’t want them to assume that Tiger was a ‘Terran Empire’ vessel.
‘Ok, team, I think discretion is the better part of valour. Crash, get us up to a solar orbit, we might need some room to manoeuvre. Lieutenant Shearer, transmit standard friendship messages, and make sure all of them identify us as a Federation ship. ASBeau, make sure all weapons and shields are prepped, but do not raise shields.’
Dolplop was still tracking the incoming vessels. ‘The unidentified vessels are slowing, but are still in warp-drive. ETA at Hole orbit is approximately two minutes. The signature of the disturbances match known values for Sha T’Al built warp-drive engines.’
So it really was the Sha T’Al who were attacking Hole. ‘Sha T’Al ships, eh? ASBeau do we have any intelligence?’
Tiger’s Tactical Officer had been studying the incoming data and hadn’t caught the gist of Dave’s question. ‘Well, some of the Science team and engineers are pretty smart, but on the whole I’d have to say no, sir. We’re probably waaaay below the Fleet’s average. You’d probably increase the crew’s average IQ if we replaced half of them with haggis.’
Dave shook his head. ‘I was referring to technical data on Sha T’Al ships, not the crew’s mental capacity?’
‘OH!! Right! Got it!’ said ASBeau as if he wasn’t the only person on the Bridge who’d misunderstood the question. ‘They’re on a par with us in all major respects, sir. Latest data suggests they may have better agility thanks to advances they’ve made in warp-field theory, but at the same time, their ships are lightly armed as they’re geared for self-defence only.’
Dave watched the red dots on the tactical display coming closer and closer. ‘How’re we doing Crash? ‘
‘We’ve reached escape velocity, sir and are still accelerating. Dolplop has plotted a solar orbit that will make us difficult to intercept if they drop out of warp close to Hole.’
‘Still naw comms at al, sir’ added Shearer.
The tactical display changed suddenly, and the red dots began to sprout small triangles as the vessels dropped out of warp and the computers tactical soft
ware began recognize the ships.
Dolplop’s tendrils twitched, displaying his agitation as more and more vessels became apparent. ‘The unidentified vessels have dropped out of warp and are decelerating hard. They are too far away from Hole to begin an attack.’
O’Mara was observing from the Science Station. ‘I would guess they’ve picked up our friendship messages but aren’t sure how to react. I suppose it’s been a while since anyone has tried to engage them in polite conversation.’
Shearer was still watching Sha T’Al comms frequencies ‘Ah think she’s rite, sir. Getting loodsa encrypted signels on Sha T’Al frequencies now. They’re havin a rite nattah.’
Dolplop was still watching the ships closely. ‘We now have four ships of approximately heavy-cruiser dimensions, and eight vessels of smaller dimensions, First Officer.’
ASBeau was watching the situation closely too. ‘They’re all scanning with every sensor they have and at every frequency they can manage, sir. I don’t think they can see us at all. Those LOAVEs are turning out to be quite an asset.’
‘Let’s hope they don’t take that as some kind of trick. Any response to our messages yet Comms?’ asked Dave.
‘Naw sir, jest moor encrypted stuff . . . ‘
ASBeau interrupted her. ‘I’m seeing a response sir, they’re splitting up . . . ‘ He took control of the display on the view-screen and zoomed in on the fleet of Sha T’Al ships. The four larger ships continued on course towards Hole, but adjusted their course to take a very high orbit. The smaller ships spread out, accelerating hard and heading into solar orbits.
Dave realized they were doing pretty much the same as he’d have done. They were receiving signals from an unidentified source in what they regarded as a war zone, so they were taking no chances. They couldn’t detect Tiger using their sensors so they were sending the smaller vessels to try and triangulate the source of the transmissions. They may not have displayed a military mentality as overtly as the Tana had, but they clearly weren’t stupid.
