Prelude to Extinction

by Andreas Karpf

  “None in depressurized compartments. None reported by other crew members.”

  Without looking at anyone, he got up and went to leave the bridge. “Computer, open the bridge bulkhead.”

  “I am unable to do so due to the pressure difference. The bridge is at zero point six five atmospheres; the hallway is at zero point nine five atmospheres.”

  “Damn it! Re-pressurize the damned bridge!”

  “Complying,” was the near monotone response.

  He listened impatiently to the hiss of air entering the bridge, and avoided looking back at anyone. It was taking too long. Trying to keep the edge out of his voice, he said, “Devon?”

  “Yes sir?”

  “Are there any there any other radar contacts?”

  “No. Just the one wave of debris.”

  “What about long range?”

  “Nothing sir. However, sensors did record some more orange flashes in the direction of that planet just before the debris hit.”

  “We can’t stay here,” he whispered to himself.

  “Sorry sir. Say again?”

  “Nothing. Are engines available?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Plot a courses to AGC alpha and beta. Give me ETAs to each. We’ll activate engines on my command.”

  “Beta too sir?” Palmer said

  “Yes,” Jack replied. “I want all options available.

  “Understood.”

  The computer interrupted, “Re-pressurization complete.” The door in front of Jack slid aside and he quickly exited the bridge with Palmer close behind. By the time he reached engineering, he found Nadya pulling furiously at the door to secondary engineering. Seeing him, she turned and shouted, “Jack, open the goddamned door and get Kurt out!”

  The desperation on her face told Jack there was nothing he could say that would be satisfactory. Palmer offered in a subdued voice, “Nadya, there’s zero atmosphere in there.”

  “Jack, please!” Nadya pleaded.

  Before he could answer, Devon’s voice came in over the intercom, “Captain, respond please.”

  Keeping his eyes on Nadya, he tapped his comm. unit and said, “Go ahead.”

  “I’ve got long range contacts like you suspected. They’re coming from the same direction as those other ships - still too far out to count how many. Velocity is about zero point one c but they’re accelerating hard.”

  “Jack?” Nadya said weakly, “I need ...” He put his hands on her shoulders and stopped her as he said softly, “I know.” Looking away from her, he continued, “Devon, time to intercept?”

  “Assuming they reach a max velocity of point six c like the others, about twenty-nine minutes.”

  “Damn it. What are the ETAs to the AGCs at full acceleration?”

  “Thirty-five minutes to Alpha, twenty-two minutes to Beta.”

  “Understood. Set course to Beta, start engines as soon as you’re ready.”

  “Beta?” Palmer protested.

  Ignoring him, Nadya said, “Jack, we need to get to Kurt!”

  Looking her carefully in the eye, he said, “Nadya, I’ve seen the damage report. We can’t go in there.”

  “No!” She shook her head and started to turn away, but quickly turned back. “We can’t just leave him.”

  “I’m sorry, but there’s ...”

  “Don’t give me the ‘there’s nothing we can do’ speech. You can do something. Do something!”

  It tore at him; he wanted to help, to comfort her, anything. But the truth was, he hated himself too for not being able to do anything.

  Devon’s voice came in over the intercom, “Prepare for acceleration in one minute.”

  “Jack, we can’t leave him there like this,” she pleaded. She started sobbing but quickly choked back the tears and just stared at him.

  “We can’t stay here. We’re in danger and have to move the ship. I promise, once we’re through this, we’ll get him. Right now, let’s get prepped for acceleration.”

  “No,” she replied.

  “You don’t understand.” Forcing a measured but firm tone to his voice, he said, “We just witnessed a battle between two groups of aliens that are God knows how much more advanced than us. We were struck by debris from one of their ships. Now there are more of them heading towards us.”

  Devon’s voice announced, “Acceleration in thirty seconds.”

  Jack continued, “We don’t know who’s the aggressor, or even if they’re both aggressive and just battling over this piece of turf. All I know is that we’re defenseless and cannot risk an encounter with them.

  Nadya just stared back silently, obviously overwhelmed.

  Palmer took advantage of the silence and said, “Captain, we can’t go through Beta - we don’t know where it goes.”

  “Palmer, you heard the ETAs. It’s simple math; we have no choice.”

  “So you just want to jump off a goddamned cliff and look for the ground later? You’re insane!”

  Jack spun around to see it was Don who had questioned him.

  He tapped his comm. unit and called to Devon, “Delay acceleration until my command.”

  “Understood.”

  Turning back to Don, he said, “You heard what I just said. We don’t know who these ... these aliens are. They’ll be here in twenty-five minutes now. It’s too big a risk to stay here and we won’t make it to Alpha in time. It’s that simple.”

  “But we don’t know what’s on the other side of that thing. You can’t just make decisions like this!”

  “You just don’t get it do you?” Jack shouted, not even trying to hide his anger. Releasing it almost felt good. “You never did! There is no choice. We’ve got a chance to survive through Beta, and nothing here. End of discussion!”

  He hit his comm. button and said, “Devon, engage engines in two minutes.”

  Looking back at Palmer and Don, he continued, “Get to your seats and get strapped in. Or hell, just stand here, I really don’t care.”

  He turned to Nadya, who was sitting on the floor, and put his hand out. “Come with me.” She followed him passively as he led her to her quarters. “Get strapped in. After we’re through this, I want you to see Helena.”

  “I’m not injured. There’s no need to see a doctor,” she said calmly.

  Jack could see that she was using every ounce of her strength to retain her composure. He said, “Still, I think ...”

  “I’m OK Jack. I just need to be alone right now.”

  “I understand. I’m still going to ask her to check in on you, OK?”

  “Whatever you want. I’ll either be here or down by propulsion,” she answered and quickly closed her door.”

  Chapter 24 – July 26, 2124; 16:30:00

  Jack stared at the engineering console as the ship’s acceleration pressed him firmly into his seat. That, however was in the back of his mind. Devon’s latest update told him they were still on track to reach the AGC before the alien ships caught up with them. That too, was little consolation – his mind simply kept focusing on Kurt. The image of Nadya pleading with him was inescapable. What if he hadn’t turned the ship broadside? The question tore at him. Intellectually he knew there were no ‘what ifs.’ Events couldn’t be undone, and besides, his strategy was text-book. But, none of that mattered; his feelings dominated his mind and he didn’t have the strength to resist. It just hurt.

  He tried again to force his eyes back to the screen, but the graph staring back at him held no more meaning than some random jagged line. All he could think about was the fact that he was sitting in Kurt’s seat. There was no choice about that either: without Nadya, Kurt and Claire, there was no one else qualified to run engineering. Palmer, of course was more than capable of running the bridge in his absence; Jack just felt a need to oversee everything. He strained against his emotions to keep his eyes on the console, and after a few more moments, a pattern finally emerged. The engine output seemed to level off, but there was still a strange series of smal
l spikes and dips in the thrust. It had been ten minutes since Devon engaged the engines and the readings should have stabilized by now. He tried running through the possible causes, but there was too much going on. The potential threat of the approaching alien contacts demanded his attention. Instinct told him to head to the bridge and work directly with Devon. At least Devon had been dutifully updating him on their status. He worked again to focus his attention back on the screen: the power levels did finally seem to be stabilizing.

  His relief was short-lived, though as a small vibration ran through the ship. The display showed two new spikes, but the output levels quickly drifted back to normal.

  “Computer,” he called.

  “Yes Captain?”

  Can you correlate this data with any other anomalies in the IPV’s systems?”

  “There are two possible correlations. One is a zero-point-seven percent drop in engine output. The other is a two-degree rise in the main power line temperature. The temperature is still well within limits.”

  “Is it dropping back down?”

  “No, but it is stable at the new temperature.”

  It didn’t make sense. “What about the spikes from two minutes ago?”

  “There was similar behavior. A short drop in engine output followed by a corresponding rise in power line temperature.”

  There was a connection, but he couldn’t see it. He had the urge to call Nadya, but resisted. She needed time. Another, smaller vibration briefly shook the ship. It was accompanied by a similar spike on his screen. He had no choice now and activated to comm. channel to her quarters. “Nadya,” he called politely.

  There was no response. Despite his need to act, he waited a few seconds before activating the channel again, “Nadya, I don’t want to bother you, but…”

  “I’m here Jack.”

  He turned quickly to see her entering the room and climbing an embedded access ladder.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she said politely.

  “No…no, it’s OK. What are you doing here?”

  “I came as soon as I felt those vibrations. I couldn’t just sit there.”

  “I know. Take a look at this,” he said as he transferred the readouts to the console next to him. She quickly took a seat and studied the data; her hands raced across the keyboard, activating a series of diagnostic screens. “Power spikes, drops in thrust...,” she said to herself.

  “I had the computer look for correlations with other anomalies. There appear to be corresponding increases in power feed temperature,” Jack offered.

  She stared at the screen for barely a second longer before saying, “Shit, this is bad.”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “Here, look at this.” She displayed two graphs, one above the other. The top line was relatively flat, except for a few prominent downward spikes. The lower one was looked perfectly constant and stable.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “The top trace is the power flow form the reactor to the engines. The bottom one is the temperature of the superconductive cable. You’ll see that the temperature scale shows a max of 40 degrees C. That’s the upper safety limit for operation.”

  “Yes, I understand. It looks like we’re well within that.”

  “Yes, but watch now when I magnify the trace. We’ll look at it on a scale of tenths of a degree.”

  Jack saw it immediately. What had appeared to be a flat, stable line, was actually slowly increasing.

  Nadya continued, “It’s so small and within safety limits that the computer didn’t flag it for us. The problem is, I don’t think it’s increasing linearly.”

  “Computer,” she said, “fit the temperature records using an exponential curve.” A red curve perfectly overlaid the temperature history, and then continued rising more quickly as it moved forward in time. “Change scale and show time of cable failure.” The graph zoomed out and showed the red curve rising sharply upward, reaching the forty-degree level at the seven-minute mark.

  “Seven minutes to failure,” Nadya said calmly.

  “But what’s causing this?” Jack asked.

  “I’m not sure, but the most obvious thing would be damage to the main power feed – they’re made of room-temp superconductors. Their crystalline structure is what lets them carry all of that power. A single crack from the one of those impacts before would disrupt that structure and give it some resistance. Once you send a few hundred-thousand volts across it, it’d heat up real fast. That heat would instantly bring the rest of the cable above the critical temperature, causing a complete loss of superconductivity. At that point it’d short out across any of the near-by metal components and burn the whole thing up.”

  “Can we buy any time?”

  “I don’t know how. It’s simple physics. We need to carry that high current load to run the ion engines. The only things that can do it are the superconducting cables. When they go, the whole thing’ll go.”

  Jack quickly activated the comm., “Devon, how long until transit through Beta?”

  His pilot replied immediately, “Twelve minutes.”

  They needed five more minutes than the cable could give them. He looked up at Nadya and said, “What if we cut power through this cable by some fraction, say twenty-five percent?”

  “That would reduce the stress on it ...” She typed at her console for a moment and continued, “It should hold for fifteen minutes.”

  He called back to the bridge, “Devon, recalculate our ETA if the port engine bank is reduced by twenty-five percent.”

  There was a pause before Devon answered, “I’d have to cut back on the starboard bank as well to maintain balanced thrust ... it’ll be close. That’ll push us out to fifteen minutes. We’ll be only three minutes ahead of them.”

  He didn’t like the answer, but there was no choice. “Throttle both back now.”

  “Understood.”

  The hum of the engines dropped noticeably as he felt the pressure holding him in his seat ebb as well.

  “Where’s the cable?” Jack asked. “Maybe we can inspect the damage ourselves and do something.”

  “It’s in…secondary engineering.” She started typing but suddenly stopped and just stared straight ahead. Jack didn’t know what to say, and could only watch as she forced herself to take a deep breath, visibly shake her head and say, “That’s the only access point. It was probably damaged when we were hit before.”

  Jack found himself grasping at straws as he asked, “Can we re-route the power through another cable?”

  Nadya didn’t reply and continued staring at her screen. He gave her a few seconds before calmly saying, “Nadya, I know it’s hard, but I need you here right now. Can we…”

  “Jack, I’m paying attention,” she said with an edge. She pointed to her screen and continued, “But we’ve got a problem. Look over here – the temperature increase is accelerating – the reduced current isn’t helping enough. We’re going to lose engines sooner.”

  “How much time do we have now?”

  “Maybe five or six minutes at most. The problem is we can’t just let the cable burn out. It’ll wreck the whole system. I’ll have to shut them down at the last second and hope we don’t do too much damage.”

  “What about re-routing…”

  “We can’t do that,” Nadya quickly shot back. “We don’t have the time or the cabling.”

  “That’s not what I was thinking,” Jack replied. “The damage is affecting the port side of the three engine banks, right”

  “Yes.”

  “What if we disable the safeties, drop power to the port and starboard banks further to keep them going and make it up by running the central bank well above max. – maybe at one-hundred-fifty percent. It should be able to withstand that for a few minutes.”

  “Maybe…” Nadya said thoughtfully. She turned quickly and pointed at a mass of circuitry in the far side of the engineering room. “You’d have to manually lock the breaker int
o place so that the increased current doesn’t trip it.”

  “I’m on it,” he said as he got up from his seat and started climbing an access ladder. “Tell me what to do.”

  “OK, it’s pretty simple; but you’re going to need to move fast – I’m showing that we only have a couple minutes left on this cable.”

  As he climbed, he tapped his comm. unit and said, “Devon, what’s our status?”

  “We’re five minutes out from the AGC.”

  He reached the circuits and Nadya called out, “Open the gray box to your right. There’ll be three large switches inside. Tell me when you’re ready and I’ll cut power for a few seconds so that you can throw the middle one. Use the hook by the side to lock it into place.”

  “Devon,” Jack called, “did you catch that?”

  “Yes. You’re going to shut down power for a few seconds.”

  The box cover opened quickly and he found himself staring at three large, rubber-handled levers. “I’m ready,” he called out.

  “Thread the hook through the holes at the base of the switch. Ready… cutting power now,” Nadya said.

  Instantly, jack found himself floating away from the box. He grabbed the center lever, looped his feet around a ladder-rung for leverage and pushed it forward, lining up the holes. It took two tries to keep it in place and insert the hook. “It’s done,” he called to Nadya.

  “Jack grab on firmly, I’m restarting the engines.”

  Jack did as told; but instead of the smooth hum of power flowing through the engines, there was a sharp, deafening crack. The acrid smell of ozone followed, confirming what his gut instantly told him – something blew out.

  “Goddammit!” Nadya shouted. “The center grid power cable blew anyway.”

  “Do we have anything?” Jack called out.

  “Give me a sec…

  “Captain.” It was Palmer’s voice over the comm.

  Not waiting for the obvious question, Jack replied, “We’ve lost engine power. Stand by.”

  “Understood.”

  Jack pushed his way back over to Nadya who was typing furiously at her terminal. He needed an update, but dare not interrupt her. Barely thirty more seconds passed before Devon called,