Stollar's Gambit

by Jason Borondy

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,places and incidents either are a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 Jason Borondy

  All rights reserved.

  Prologue

  4 December 2150

  USS Roosevelt

  Outside orbit of Neptune

  “Good luck, Daddy,” said the little girl on the screen with short brown hair, hazel eyes, and a smile that could light up a room.

  “Thank you, Jessica, but we are mainly here just to watch,” the man replied.

  “I know, Daddy, but you need luck too,” Jessica said.

  “Okay, very well. Thank you, dear. Is your sister around?”

  The girl turned from the screen to look and screamed, “Haley! Dad wants to talk to you.”

  He took a quick sip of coffee as he waited. Jessica turned back to the camera. “She doesn’t want to talk to you right now,” she shrugged.

  “Captain Stollar to the bridge!” a voice said over the loudspeaker.

  He looked into the screen to Jessica. “Honey, it is almost time. I have to go. You can watch the transmission live soon. Tell your mom and sister I love them.”

  “OK, love you, Dad.” She replied with a smile.

  He reached up on the console and pressed the button to end the transmission. The screen went black. Captain Stollar got up from his chair and started to walk away but then remembered to go back and grab his coffee. Then he exited his quarters and walked down the hall to the bridge.

  Two Marines snapped to attention as he walked onto the bridge. “Captain on the Bridge!” A female voice echoed out.

  “Thanks, Commander Adams,” he replied as he took his station at the center of the bridge.

  Commander Adams proceeded to her station beside him. He looked around the bridge. Everyone was at their posts and looked wide-eyed and ready.

  “Chief, please bring up the Magellan on the main screen,” he ordered.

  “Aye, Captain,” the chief replied. The chief, an older man in what looked to be in his mid-40’s, turned to his console and pressed some buttons on the keypad. In an instant, the front view screen came to life and on it was the large hulking body of USS Magellan.

  The ship had a one-of-a-kind design—it had two next generation Fusion Ion drives attached to the sides of the main body. Struts extended on its dorsal side attaching to a large rectangular structure that ran the length of the ship.

  Flanking the Magellan were two other ships, the Russian Destroyer Tributs to the Port and the Chinese Destroyer Shenyang to the Starboard. Both ships were similar in design—a single long body with a singular Fusion Ion drive out the back. Four rail gun turrets could be seen on the dorsal and ventral sides of the ships. Captain Stollar looked down at the countdown timer under the main view screen. It read T minus 10 minutes.

  “Helm, it is time for us to back off. Begin breaking burn,” he stated, looking at the young lieutenant in front of him. “Comms, make sure the Tributs and Shenyang follow suit.”

  “Aye, Sir,” the young men echoed.

  Adams leaned over to Stollar and said, “I still can’t believe we had to have them tag along with us.”

  “Well with a project this big and expensive, all countries involved demanded it, especially after the epic failure of the Warp Drive project twenty years ago.” Then he pressed the button at his terminal to open the ship-wide comm system. “All hands prepare for breaking burn.”

  “I know, Captain,” Adams continued, “but the unmanned version of the Displacement Drive worked. Why now? What’s so important about this?”

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged, “maybe because there are people on board from each country.” He could feel the G forces build as the ship began to slow down rapidly. On the screen the Magellan continued to move forward and away from the Roosevelt. He also noticed that both the Russian and Chinese vessels began their breaking burns. After a few moments, all three destroyers came to a stop. The Magellan continued to thrust forward. It was now several hundred kilometers away from the escort ships. They were now outside of the minimal safe distance.

  At T minus eight minutes, the Magellan began its breaking burn and came to a complete stop a few minutes later.

  The Magellan was well ahead of them when it began to slow to a stop.

  “Sir, the Magellan is beginning its broadcast.” Commander Adams stated.

  Captain Stollar turned to the commander, “Put it on split screen, and begin rolling our cameras, we want to make sure everything is documented properly.”

  The transmission on the main view screen split in half; on the right side was the exterior view of the Magellan and on the left the interior of the bridge of the ship came on. They were ordered to drop small exterior camera drones to get different angles broadcasted back to Earth and its colonies. They were dropped at different intervals to get different views of the event.

  On the left screen, Captain Stevens of the Magellan came into view. Captain Stollar knew this was probably speech time.

  “Captain,” a voice came from his left side towards the science station where Lieutenant Commander Smith manned.

  “Yes, Commander,” he turned and replied slightly annoyed.

  “I am picking up a huge gravitational displacement 200 kilometers to the port,” Commander Smith stated with a puzzled look on her face.

  “What?” he questioned.

  At that moment a ship appeared 200 kilometers to the port of the Roosevelt.

  “Contact! Unknown vessel 200 kilometers to port,” the tactical officer yelled out.

  “Put it on screen now, Lieutenant,” Stollar ordered.

  The screen switched from the split screen to one view from the port side of the Roosevelt. The screen instantly filled with the image of the unknown ship. The vessel was massive, easily dwarfing any of the other ships. It was a silver, block-shaped ship with what looked like a bright white rectangular door in the center of it. Flanking each side of the door were large spheres. Below the main fuselage hung four mechanical arms. A conical drive section jutted out the back of the ship along with two more spheres.

  “Battle stations!” Stollar ordered.

  “Battle stations, battle stations,” he could hear Commander Adams echoing his order over the ship wide comm

  The large steel door to the bridge closed and sealed. The bridge in the center of the ship and was encapsulated in titanium for protection. This gave the bridge crew the maximum amount of protection.

  “Tactical, spin up Harpoon missiles, rail cannons, and get a firing solution on the unknown vessel,” Stollar said staring directly at Lieutenant Rice.

  Stollar turned to Lieutenant Commander Smith, “What am I looking at?”

  Looking at her monitor she replied, “I don’t know. Our scans are coming in as inconclusive. All I am getting is a reading that something is there, but nothing else. No conclusive life signs, nothing.”

  “I can tell you one thing, it’s not ours,” Lieutenant Rice blurted out.

  “No shit, Lieutenant!” Stollar replied. “Comms, try to open a channel with our uninvited guest,” he continued.

  “Aye, sir,” the young technician replied.

  Stollar did not like this at all. “Could one of the other countries have developed this in secret?” He thought, “No, this looked way too advanced for anything Earth could build. Plus, to build a vehicle this large would not go unnoticed.”

  “Comms, anything?” He asked.

  “Nothing, sir.”

  “Try to contact the Tributs and the Shenyang, see what they have to say about this,” he ordered

  “Aye, sir,�
�� he replied and turned back to his console.

  “Captain,” Lieutenant Rice called out.

  Stollar turned, “Yes, Lieutenant?”

  Rice pointed to his monitor. “The ship is moving, and it looks like it is on an intercept course with the Magellan!”

  Stollar looked down at his terminal and pressed the button to the left of the screen. It switched his screen to view what tactical was seeing. He noticed the giant vessel slowly changing course to go chase the Magellan.

  “Comms, get me the Magellan now!” Stollar yelled.

  The young technician didn’t even respond he just quickly punched in the keys on his panel. It sent out a ping and then a ping came back in response from the Magellan.

  The comms tech turned and said, “The Magellan is ready to receive.”

  “On my terminal,” Stollar stated. He picked up a headset and placed it over his head so only he could communicate with Magellan. He keyed in his terminal and Captain Stevens face came on the screen. Before he could get a word out there was a flash on main screen. He looked up and there was explosion on the surface of the unknown vessel. Stollar hit mute on his com.

  “What was that?” he asked out.

  “Looks like the Tributs has started firing at the vessel, sir,” Lieutenant Rice replied.

  “Damn it,” Stollar thought. He didn’t want this thing to become a shooting match. Now that it has, we must get the Magellan clear. He hit the button to unmute his line to the Magellan.

  “Stevens, you need to get clear. It looks like things have taken a turn for the worse,” he said looking down at his monitor.

  “How do we escape that?” Stevens replied.

  “You have that multi-billion-dollar engine attached to that boat. Use it!” he stated angrily.

  Stevens face was in shock. Stollar was sure the captain was not used to being snapped at that way in a long time, but sometimes it had to be done.

  “Okay,” Stevens replied and pointed to something or someone off screen. Then the screen went to black.

  Stollar looked down at his terminal. He keyed in on the terminal and switched to view the data coming into the tactical station. He could see on the screen the Russian Destroyer still pounding away at the intruder with its missiles. He scanned the data to notice the alien ship was not taking any damage.

  “Helm, bring us to about one kilometer along the port side of the Magellan. Keep us parallel between the Magellan and the intruder,” he ordered.

  “Aye, sir,” the helmsman replied.

  “But, sir, that is very close to the safe distance protocols,” Adams chimed in.

  “I know XO, but we don’t really have a choice now. We need to establish a defensive position between us and the Magellan. Helm, go,” Stollar ordered. A second later he could feel the ship start to move forward.

  “Tactical, keep a firing solution with the rail cannons targeting the unknown ship,” he followed on. In his mind though he was thinking about what good the rail cannons would do, if the Tributs’ anti-ship missiles were having no effect.

  Captain Stollar’s gaze moved to the main view screen. He noticed on the alien ship that the sphere closest to the Russian destroyer began to rotate. A crimson light began to emit from a single point on the sphere.

  There was no beam of light to avoid. The Tributs’ engine section just erupted in an orange ball of plasma and the ship broke apart. The vacuum of space soon extinguished the fire and would claim the lives of the crew. Stollar could see body after body of Russian crew members that were sucked into the void. The pieces that were left of the Tributs drifted off into space.

  The bridge of the Roosevelt was silent. The whole crew was in shock from what they just saw. A destroyer class starship was dispatched in an instant. Commander Smith broke the silence. “Captain, the Magellan’s Displacement drive is engaging.”

  “Tactical, keep an eye on the intruder. Ops, put the Magellan on screen,” he commanded.

  The main screen switched to a view of the Magellan. The ship was slightly off. It seemed like the space around the ship was distorted. Stollar thought it looked like someone put the ship in a liquid bubble. Then the Magellan vanished without a trace.

  A temporary feeling of relief came over the captain and then Lieutenant Rice yelled out with an emphatic “Yes!”

  “Calm down, Lieutenant, this is not over,” the captain stated giving the young crewman a stern look.

  Another alarm blurted out in the bridge, and the captain knew what this meant. The Chinese vessel had armed its nukes. He looked down at his terminal the Shenyang maneuvered over the Roosevelt by two kilometers and was now facing the alien craft. It looked like they were getting ready to fire on the craft with at least one—maybe two—10 Megaton missiles.

  “Damn fools,” he thought, but they had to try something since the anti-ship missiles had no effect. “Maybe a nuke could at least scratch the paint.”

  “Lieutenant Rice, prep two Thunderbolt missiles and target the intruder,” he ordered.

  “Aye, sir,” the tactical officer replied with a solemn look.

  “Sir, don’t you think that two more nukes will be overkill?” Commander Rice added.

  “No, we just need to be ready in case the Chinese don’t get it off in time,” he replied.

  Stollar looked down at his terminal in time to see one missile launch from the Chinese vessel. He quickly pressed down on his ship-wide com button. “Crew! Brace for nuclear detonation!” he yelled into the mic.

  Watching on the screen he saw the small missile streak out towards the large vessel, then a white flash washed out the screen for a second. The shock wave hit the Roosevelt a few seconds later. The force of the shock wave knocked the ship to its side. Crew members not fastened into seats were sent flying. Some of those seated smacked their faces into their terminals.

  “Helm, get us up right and turn us towards the blast!” the captain ordered, “XO, status.”

  Commander Adams quickly regained her bearings and looked over her console.

  “We have some damage on decks two and three but nothing serious,” she replied.

  “And our guest?” Stollar asked.

  “On screen, sir,” she said.

  The main view screen switched to the show the enemy vessel still intact. No damage was apparent. Captain Stollar couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “What the...” Stollar started.

  “Captain, the intruder is powering up weapons again!” Rice interrupted.

  “Who is the target?” He asked.

  “The Shenyang,” Rice responded.

  “Comms, get me the Shenyang, now!”

  A ping came over to the captain’s Terminal. He reached down to open a channel, but all he got was static. Stollar looked up to the main screen. The Chinese vessel was slowly coming apart. The front of the vessel seemed to just melt under the assault of the alien vessel’s weapon. Explosions began to erupt across the ship as munitions and other unstable elements on the ship released their energy as the ship came apart.

  A feeling of helplessness seemed to come over them. “How do you defeat an enemy with this vastly superior technology?” Stollar thought. Nukes and anti-ship missiles didn’t work, and if they don’t work, rail cannons definitely wouldn’t. Running wasn’t going to work. The vessel seemed to have advanced propulsion to include what appears to be a working Displacement drive. It would take weeks for the Roosevelt to even make it back to Earth. The only thing he could think of is maybe ramming the other vessel, but they could easily destroy them before the Roosevelt could even come close.

  “Sir, incoming!” Lieutenant Rice yelled.

  Before Stollar could give a command, the ship violently fishtailed as if there were an impact on the rear quarter of the ship. Control panels all over the bridge exploded. The lights went out. Smoke filled the bridge. The captain could smell ozone from burning electrical panels.

  The emergency lights came on a second or so later. The bridge was dim. Stollar looke
d around the bridge. The XO was slouched in her chair. He unbuckled from his chair and raced over to Commander Adams’ station. He shook her to check for responsiveness.

  “Adams, are you okay? He asked.

  No response. He moved her head up and pulled back a mat of red hair to check her injuries. She had glass and electrical debris all over her face, including her eyes. He figured that a piece of broken terminal must have shot through her skull.

  Stollar surveyed the rest of the bridge. The helmsman was sprawled out over his console apparently sharing the same fate as Commander Adams. Other personnel had various levels of injuries. He saw the Marines in the back of the bridge helping each other to their feet. Their gear seemed to protect them.

  “I need a status report. Why are we not dead?” Stollar commanded. He knew that if the same weapon that the intruder used on the Kiev and Shenyang was fired, they would have been dead by now.

  “Sir, main power is out. We have no engines, or weapons. Just basic life support and some other minor systems,” the ops officer reported.

  The captain returned to his station. His terminal was not a total loss. He keyed in on his terminal to get a diagnostic of the ship. The whole ship seemed to light up as some form of red or yellow on the display. He knew it would be awhile for them to get the engines up and running. If they could get them running at all. Then he felt the ship move.

  “Ops, how are we moving?” he asked.

  “From what data we can get it appears that we are being pulled somehow,” the ops officer replied.

  Stollar thought for a minute. He remembered that the alien ship had massive arms. Maybe they were towing them close enough to get a grip. That might be the only weakness they could exploit.

  “Tactical, status of weapons?” he asked.

  Holding a bandage over his head and looking at his panel, the young tactical officer responded, “Fried, sir.”

  “What about the nukes?” Stollar asked.

  “Still in the tubes, but the firing mechanism doesn’t work,” Rice stated.

  “Ops, can you tell how close we are to the enemy vessel?” he inquired.