Battle for Time

by Gerry A Saunders

  “I was just pointing out that it might take longer for us to catch up with Searcher because they’ll have traveled faster through their wormhole, as they’ve got three drives against our two, that’s all,” Anton grumbled, miffed that they all seemed to have missed his point.

  “Anton’s right,” Gerry said, adding his support. “Anton’s doing great. He’s already factored in three-hundred light-year jumps. It’s just the length of time taken during transit… But, remember, we’ll only be stopping for about ten to fifteen minutes at each exit, for the warp cores to reset and for time to scan the area.”

  “And, Searcher was an exploration vessel, so she would have taken much longer at each exit,” Cindy commented.

  “True. So, taking everything into consideration, there shouldn’t be that much difference in timing between the two ships. Plus, I’m pretty sure Searcher would have made it to Sector 21, their target destination in the Beta quadrant. Which we now believe is the Varon’s home territory,” Anton added.

  “And that’s where we’ll end up,” Susanna remarked.

  “Yes, and I’m set to go,” Anton said, as his hands hovered over the Jump initiator pad.

  “Inertia seats now and prepare for warp,” he ordered.

  “Aye-aye, captain,” Frank jokingly said, as they took up their warp-entry inertia seat positions.

  During the first day of the four ship-day passage through the ship’s wormhole to the first exit, the mass of information that the Matrix had copied from Searcher’s handling station, was thoroughly scrutinized, revealing more useful information.

  From checking Searcher’s flight plan, once her survey had been completed, it looked as if she should have left a Hyper-link buoy at the site, before returning to the Galactic Central Intelligence and Tactical HQ on DPav4.

  In addition, the Searcher should have sent a separate hyper-linked message warning the Galactic intelligence about any perceived danger to Earth. in particular. But everyone now knew that it hadn’t happened.

  Then they noted another item which referred to the construction of five fast and compact extended range experimental attack ship versions of the Searcher… And so the flood of useful information kept coming...

  Nevertheless, the fact that the Timeship didn’t have any offensive weapons meant that they couldn’t try to intervene between the Searcher and the alien ship, which was most likely Varon, without the risk of being destroyed themselves.

  Everyone knew that the next twenty-eight days would be frustrating. With plenty of searching for the right points in time where they needed to make adjustments. The fact that there would be very little entertainment and virtually no exercise equipment meant that this would feel like a very long trip. So, It wasn’t long before the three couples began spending more time in their own cabins.

  Twenty-eight days later, after seven long jumps, the Timeship dropped into normal space, 1,960 light-years out from Sol.

  Then, a contact alarm sounded.

  Anton canceled the alarm and brought up a visual of the surrounding area on his main screen.

  “What have you got,” Gerry asked.

  “Well, the ship…, this one here, is the Searcher,” Anton said, pointing at the display… “And here, is her ID responder’s confirmation,” he explained.

  Searcher’s ID was now displayed on Anton’s tactical screen. It read,

  Galactic Empire exploration vessel Searcher. GE190S. Captain Barret, commanding.

  “Then, over there…, we can see what seems to be a wreck of a Varon ship,” Anton added, pointing to the twisted remains of a ship.

  “So, we know Searcher managed to destroy one ship,” Gerry commented. “But there doesn’t seem to have been a hyperlink confirmation transmission, as yet.”

  “Then we need to get their dedicated hyperlink encryption unit off the Searcher now. Because, from what we know, it can’t end well,” Anton stated.

  “Anton, can we get close enough to slow time down and get me aboard,” Charlotte asked.

  “I think so, but once we’re secured to Searcher’s airlock, I’m not sure if I can hold the time-stretch at zero.”

  “Then we’ll have to wing it. Oh, and make sure the crew members pics are uploaded to my wrist-pad,” Charlotte said and left to suit up.

  Anton went to stop her, but Cindy stopped him.

  “Okay. Frank, Susanna, and Cindy, you’d better juggle the predictor symbols to keep us on station,” Anton directed. As they took up their positions at the Predictor’s consoles, in readiness for Charlotte’s attempt to get on board the Searcher.

  Chapter 22

  Endless trouble

  Anton slowly moved the Timeship close enough to the Searcher to activate Time-stretch. While Frank, Susanna, and Cindy moved the colored symbols around to cover the white disc, as they tried to keep the Time-ship and Searcher in sync.

  The Timeship phased for a split second. And the Dumbbell time field generators groaned with power, as they started to expand time. Then the Searcher was next to them and locked in sync.

  So, Frank tried to see a couple of minutes ahead to help Charlotte, but the stretched time mode made that impossible.

  Meanwhile, Charlotte, now dressed in an armored stealth suit with two hand weapons clipped to it, stood ready and waiting for the transfer tube to form.

  “We have transfer tube seal,” Anton called out to Charlotte over her suit coms, as the force-field generated transfer tube, established itself.

  Then Anton released the temporal drone, and it immediately phased itself into subspace, then drifted through the tube, and the Searcher’s hull, unseen.

  Once inside the ship, the drone reverted to normal space and opened the Searcher’s airlock. With the transfer tube preventing Searcher’s air from escaping while the airlock remained open. Then the temporal drone partly phased back into sub-space and became invisible again.

  “Airlock open,” Anton informed everyone.

  Charlotte, protected by her body-worn fully armored Stealth suit, then passed through the open airlock and into the Searcher without mishap.

  As she went down the connecting corridor, Charlotte came across a female crew member who had obviously been running down the hallway when the ship entered the stretched-time bubble. The woman appeared to have stopped in mid-stride, then Charlotte realized she wasn’t quite stationary.

  Charlotte looked at the woman’s name tag. It read, Yeoman Pinars.

  “Damn it, Anton, can’t you slow Time down any more than this,” Charlotte almost pleaded.

  “No,” came Anton’s reply through her suit’s comms. “And it’ll get worse the longer we have to hold it here.”

  “But this woman’s moving.”

  “I can’t help it, Charlotte.”

  Charlotte checked her wrist pad to make sure of her location, then moved quickly along the corridor to the Bridge, with the invisible phasable drone following close behind.

  “Charlotte, three wormholes,” Anton warned her over the comms. Then, “Three Varon warships have exited, eleven kilometers out… Now one of the ships has moved to check the Varon wreck.”

  “Keep the updates coming Anton,” she returned. Even though she knew that the Varon ships were outside the stretched time-bubble, right now. And also knew they would soon do whatever they had initially done to the Searcher, but with her in it this time.

  Within moments, Charlotte reached the bridge door. Then she heard a thunderous noise suddenly rattle through the Searcher’s hull, stunning her for a couple of seconds.

  “What was that, Anton?”

  “The Varons seem to have managed to disrupt the Searcher’s warp pulse.”

  Then Charlotte realized that the Searcher had also lost power. Even so, she knew it was vital that she got onto the Bridge.

  ‘Drone. One, zero one, to me, she ordered.’

  And the phasable drone nudged into her.

  ‘Open that door,’ Charlotte ordered.

  Within seconds, the bridge door op
ened, and Charlotte stepped through and onto the Bridge, closing the door behind her.

  Then, looking around, Charlotte realized that the bridge’s crew members were moving more than Yeoman Pinars had been when she left her.

  “Charlotte…Varon armored suits coming your way. Move it,” Anton warned, his voice rattling in her ear.

  “I’m on the bridge. But I think the crew has set Self-Destruct. And I haven’t found the damn hyperlink encryption unit yet.”

  Charlotte heard the sound of slowly approaching footsteps, and was dismayed when they stopped just outside the Bridge door, but she struggled to keep it together. She sensed Anton was also struggling to keep the stretched-time stable and feared that Time was running out for her.

  Then Charlotte swore with relief as she found the special hyperlink encryption unit, quickly unplugged it, and turned around, just as a flash followed by a loud bang, blew the bridge door off its hinges and sent it crashing to the floor, with all of it happening in slow-motion.

  Charlotte realized that if she didn’t get off this ship pronto, the Varons, would either see her because the time-stretch was failing, or the vessel would blow with her in it.

  She tried to get out of the bridge and back to the airlock. But found it difficult as the criss-cross particle beam fire was increasing, and every time a beam hit her, she felt its sting in spite of the protection of her stealth suit.

  Just then, Charlotte thought she recognized Searcher’s Captain Barret from one of the crew’s pics she had with her, as the man put his hands up in the air in surrender. But she didn’t hang around to see the outcome, and by the time she’d managed to evade the two fully armored Varons and reached the now doorless bridge entry. The bridge itself was just a slowly swirling red inferno as blood from the crew's bodies spewed around.

  The particle beam fire continued as she left the bridge and ran down the corridor as fast as she could to the open air-lock.

  “Charlotte. We reckon there are just forty seconds before Searcher detonates,” Anton’s panicky voice said, urging her on.

  “Don’t waste time telling me. As soon as I’m in, just get us as far away from the Searcher as you can,” she ordered.

  The transfer tube collapsed behind Charlotte as she propelled herself through it and into the lock, then painfully bumped into the inner door of the Timeship’s airlock.

  Even before the outer airlock door had closed completely, she felt the Timeship rapidly withdrawing from the Searcher.

  Charlotte mentally counted the seconds as she rolled through the secondary airlock door, which closed behind her. Leaving her flat on her back with her heart beating madly, as the phasing drone solidified and floated next to her.

  Charlotte closed her eyes as she struggled to get her breath back. She knew that if they weren’t far enough away from the Searcher when it self-destructed, then everyone was still gonna be toast.

  Chapter 23

  A Message Home

  Anton’s hands were literally shaking with his apprehension about what might happen next.

  He knew the Timeship couldn’t phase into the safety of Subspace, until the time-stretched bubble around them had entirely collapsed, and felt helpless, knowing that, that moment was frustratingly close. And there was nothing he could do about it.

  He also knew that the Searcher would explode any second now. And, at this distance from her, the Timeship might well be damaged beyond their limited repair capabilities.

  “Phasing,” Anton warned as the color of the control console’s bubble lights changed to green, and radiation-blast shields rose up and sealed the windows.

  As the Timeship started to phase, Searcher exploded in a ball of fire, causing a shock wave that hurled large sections of her hull, and other debris, outward like missiles through space.

  “Shockwave,” Gerry warned,

  Charlotte had only just got up off the floor when the shockwave hit the Timeship, causing the ship to yaw violently, and she yelled out in pain when she hit the floor again.

  While the Timeship, pounded by the debris, was carried along for nearly 20 kilometers before it managed to enter the safety of Subspace.

  “Christ, that was damn close,” Gerry gasped, his head still ringing from the sound of the debris pounding the hull.

  Everyone was shocked at how close they’d come to total disaster, and the realization that they would have to rerun a full system check once they were out of Subspace.

  “How long can we stay in Subspace, Anton,” Frank asked, thinking about how much power was needed from the ship’s reserves to hold the Timeship in place.

  “Four hours ten minutes,” Anton replied after checking the power drain rate. “Hopefully, we’ll only be here for thirty minutes. Then we can use the phasing drone to see if the Varons have gone.”

  “Okay, we can live with that…” Frank replied.

  “Where’s Charlotte?” Cindy suddenly asked. Worried that she might have been caught up in the blast.

  “I’m here,” Charlotte stated as she collapsed her full body armor suit, then placed the Searcher’s special hyperlink encryption unit on the table before sitting down.

  “Good work, Charlotte,” Anton congratulated.

  “Can we take a break and get something to eat. Preferably a bloody Varon,” Gerry then ventured.

  That seemed to raise everyone’s spirits, and they went off to get something from the food vendor, which was still working, luckily.

  Thirty minutes later, the temporal drone slowly phased back into normal space and carried out a 360 Degree 3D spherical scan of the surrounding area. Then phased back inside the Timeship, which was still in subspace.

  Straight away, the drone’s 3D area scans displayed on Anton’s main screen. “That’s a relief,” Anton said, as he saw that the only things visible on the scans were the remains of the Searcher and the first Varon vessel.

  “We’re coming out,” Anton warned as he reversed the ship’s holding power, and the Timeship reverted to normal space. Then the cockpit windows shields dropped, and the light from the stars shone through.

  Anton immediately carried out a full global scan while the ship’s repair systems stated to run a full diagnostic on its hull.

  “No other ships. So, we are alone,” Anton thankfully stated after in-depth scrutiny.

  “Well, not quite,” Cindy said, pointing to a small object well away from the local area.

  Anton zoomed the ship’s optics in to see what the object was.

  “Missed that one,” he said as the image of some sort of monitor buoy filled his main screen.

  “It must be a Varon intruder sensor. The searcher must have knocked it when it exited,” Frank ventured.

  “Yea, and look at the dent in it,” Susanna pointed out.

  “Why didn’t the Varons repair it, or just change it for another working unit,” Gerry queried… “Unless, of course, it’s still working?”

  “Then we can’t leave it in an operational state, in case we succeed in getting Earth to attack the Varons,” Charlotte added.

  “Hang on, we’ve still got to locate the Varon’s construction facilities, first,” Cindy reminded them.

  “Of course,” Anton replied. then noting that the ship's repair diagnostics report had also been clear, was pleased.

  “Are you sure this Timeship doesn’t have any weapons, Anton?” Frank asked.

  “Yes,” Anton replied.

  “Well, that’s bad news… So, can you get us to within a hundred meters of this intruder sensor and open one of our airlocks without us losing air?”

  “Of course. We have force-fields, and gravity lifts, on all airlocks as standard, Frank.”

  “Okay, then get the midship airlock lined up with the intruder sensor,” Frank ordered and hurried off to get one of the large particle beam weapons that he’d used in downing the Earth’s military fighter plane.

  Frank picked up his weapon and held it, ready to fire. Then stood watching the scene outside, via the medium
-sized display to one side of the midship airlock, as he waited for Anton to open it.

  The intruder sensor seemingly expanded in size as the Timeship got closer to it. Then the ship stopped, but it was still too far out for Frank’s particle beam to destroy the sensor.

  “Damn,” Frank cursed. “Anton, what’s the holdup?” He asked.

  “Just a minute, Frank. I’m checking that there aren’t any nasties waiting for us.”

  “Understood.”

  Seconds later, the Timeship slid forward and came to a halt a hundred meters from the sensor. Both the inner and outer doors of the airlock opened, and Frank could see his target in detail.

  He felt the tingle of a low power forcefield, as he walked through the lock and stood just inside the ship’s outer forcefield that was now preventing the ship’s air from escaping.

  Frank mentally looked into his future… but saw nothing. So, he selected the weapon’s maximum power setting, took aim, and fired.

  The Varon’s intruder sensor rocked for a moment as Frank’s beam hit it. Then it sparked, started to collapse inward, then expanded. Before finishing with a flash as the explosion blew it apart.

  Frank smiled to himself as he turned and left the airlock, which automatically closed behind him. However, he knew that this intruder sensor could have already transmitted a message to the Varons, informing them there was another ship in the area.

  Frank put the weapon in its locker then went back to join the others. “We need to get going,” he said, stating the obvious.