by K. D. Mattis
“Good evening,” said a man at the podium. “I’m thrilled to be a part of tonight’s demonstration. Tonight is a night of celebration and innovation.”
The man droned on, and Asher couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his overenthusiastic arm waving. He kept looking directly at her. She tried to be polite, smiling and nodding, but she found it increasingly difficult as the speech continued. When she noticed everyone else clapping, she joined in, but she focused on the trucks setting up equipment in the desert.
A forklift drove a large piece of metal attached to a pallet before the audience.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is a piece of the hull of our enemy’s ship. Compared to the Explorer, the hull is much more resilient to attack.”
Standing, Asher approached the hull fragment. She ran her hands over the dark metal.
“Uh…” the man stammered with a laugh, “I assure you, Admiral, this is legitimate. It was recovered from the crash site in Brazil by your science team.” Addressing the audience, he continued. “Now, we know what our traditional railgun does to the hull, but for the sake of comparison, we’ll,” the man snickered and winked, “give it a shot.”
The forklift pulled away and drove out more than a mile away. Along with everyone else, Asher returned to her seat and pulled out hearing protection. Three pieces of metal from a railgun shot past the audience and rang out against the hull fragment. When the forklift returned to the audience, it returned a dented fragment and left it behind while it drove off.
“As you can see, the hull is dented and clearly damaged, but the railgun failed to cause any major damage. To do so, the railguns currently must hit key targets or hit the same spot on the hull multiple times. That’s easy enough to say, but it proves quite difficult in practice.”
The forklift returned with a new hull fragment and drove off to the same distance as before. A larger railgun fired off three rounds, and the fragment returned with three holes.
Asher couldn’t believe her eyes. She stood to inspect the hull once more. The holes were clean, as if they had been punched out by a tool. They still smoked from the force of the impact.
“With these newly developed railguns, penetration of the alien hull is not only possible with a single shot, but also is relatively easy.”
Turning to the man at the podium, Asher asked, “What’s the difference between the two weapons systems?”
“I’m glad you asked.”
Two trucks drove the weapons systems up on trailers.
“The newer system is obviously larger, and it uses more power, recharges more quickly, achieves substantially higher velocities, and can fire a variety of ammunition. It’s superior in almost every way.”
“Almost?” Asher asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“What are its weaknesses?”
“Well, it takes a few seconds longer to deploy, and the rails wear out faster.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Asher looked to her peers and nodded. “That’s good enough for me. I want the schematics and prototypes for testing, but there’s no question this is the way to go.”
“We aim to please. This is the result of countless hours of research and testing.”
“Good,” Asher said. “What else do you have?”
7
“Starting the simulation,” Commander Cole said.
“Very good.” Asher looked at her crew. She smiled. It wasn’t quite the same, but the simulator felt like home.
Ensign Daly of the diagnostics team nodded toward her as he compiled information at his console. “Sir, we have three Class One alien vessels bearing down on us.”
“Thank you. Gonzales, take us close.”
The weapons developer walked around the room and looked over everyone’s shoulder. When Asher cleared her throat, he turned to the monitors at the front of the room and pointed to the first alien ship.
“We have two missile classes we’d like you to try today. The first is simply a higher-yield, faster-running version of what you already have.”
“Holt, fire a volley of Alpha missiles at will.”
The Lieutenant Commander entered several commands to control targeting before hitting the fire button. At his order, six Alpha missiles launched, slamming into the side of the alien vessel. They left a clear mark on its hull.
“The second missile type is a little more precise,” said the developer. “If one of your crew would punch a hole in their hull, I’ll show you what I mean.”
Asher motioned to Ensign Tran. The officer utilized the new railgun system and punched three holes in the alien vessel’s hull. Holt followed up the shot by firing a Beta missile.
The missile silently screamed into space directly toward its target. At the last possible moment, it maneuvered slightly and slipped into the breach in the hull. The side of the vessel lit up in a glorious fireball.
Clapping, Asher looked at the developer once again. “What’s next?”
“Drones. The Explorer is great, as are the Guardian and Protector, but they suffer from a minor problem. When they’re in a tight spot, they can’t spread their fire. Our drone system solves that problem.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” Holt said, “but I don’t see the controls for any drones on my console. How do we control them?”
The developer tried to speak, but Asher cut him off. “They’ll be controlled from another part of the ship. They require a dedicated team.”
On the monitors, the bridge crew watched as six tiny vessels flew toward the alien ships. The drones didn’t look like much, barely skeletons of a fighter, but when they flew in formation, their weapons devastated their target. In seconds, they stopped firing and returned to the Explorer.
Lieutenant Card said, “I don’t understand. The ship wasn’t destroyed. Why are the drones returning?”
“It’s important to understand that, while they’re awesome at what they do, the drones are limited in capability due to size,” said the developer. “They go out, fire their load, but then they have to return to their support vessel.”
“All right,” Asher said. “What else?”
The developer puffed out his chest and smiled. “Now, I know you’re going to like this one. You had problems with the nuclear weapon, right?”
Asher nodded.
“That’s not really a concern anymore with the improved yield of your torpedoes.”
Faced with blank stares from some of the crew, the man elaborated.
“You see, torpedoes have always been used as brute-force devices. Believe it or not, we’ve actually engineered the reaction to have capabilities comparable to a nuclear blast.”
Holt didn’t wait for the order before taking aim at the center vessel and firing one of the new torpedoes. When the weapon hit, it created an incredible flash. By the time the light faded, the ship sported a massive hole where its engines once sat.
“Now, I have to warn you,” said the developer. “These new torpedoes are very expensive and are much more difficult to produce. The quantities we can provide will be extremely limited, but they will be available.”
“I think we can deal with that. Get off the bridge. We need to run a proper simulation.”
Smiling, the man half walked and half skipped out of the room.
“Everyone,” Asher said, “let’s do this for real. Daly, reset the simulation.”
The three alien vessels reset on the monitors.
Daly looked to the admiral once more. “Sir, we have three alien vessels approaching.”
“Very good. Lieutenant Card, have they made any attempt to contact us?”
“Negative, sir.”
“I didn’t think so. Send them a warning to withdraw.”
“Sent, sir. No response.”
“Of course not. Helm, pull us off to their side. Make sure that we limit their availability to fire on us.”
“Done, Admiral.”
The Explorer shot forward.
“Enemy fire incoming,” Daly shouted.
“Noted,” Asher said. “Gonzales, take evasive action.”
The Explorer dipped and managed to avoid most of the alien attack, but it couldn’t avoid all of it. Three prongs of light bit into the Explorer.
“Sir, we have damage across large sections of the ship, but no breaches.”
Asher nodded. “Tactical, aim for their weapons system.”
A volley of railgun fire shot off. Every round hit, but they only managed to knock out two weapons ports.
“Comm, tell the drone fighters to draw fire from the third alien vessel.”
Lieutenant Card gave the order, and six drones lifted off from the Explorer. As they made their approach, they evaded fire well, but one was caught off guard and erupted in a ball of fire.
Under the control of Gonzalez, the Explorer twisted and maneuvered behind the first alien vessel.
Asher stood. “Fire Alpha missiles. I want their engines disabled.”
The tactical team worked quickly to fire off several rounds. The new missiles did their job, and the ship was disabled. Pulling around, the Explorer drew the attention of the second alien ship.
“Helm, shake them.”
Working her fingers as quickly as she could, Gonzales tried to pull away from the alien vessel, but it stayed right on her tail.
Six points of light lit up on the front of the alien vessel. A moment later, all six plowed into the back of the Explorer.
“Sir, we have multiple hull breaches,” Card shouted. “We’ve also suffered major damage to one of the primary thrusters.”
Gonzales did her best to shake the alien ship, but it wouldn’t let up.
“Tactical, punch a few holes in their nose,” Asher said.
Holt and Tran worked together to use the new railguns. The weapons system responded, but it did so sluggishly. When the volley fired off, it was to a devastating effect.
The front of the alien vessel crumpled under the force of the attack. When the Beta missiles followed the railguns, the front of the ship erupted in a fireball. The ship showed the familiar rings of its self-destruct sequence before blowing up.
Returning to the fight, the Explorer charged toward the remaining alien vessels. They charged their weapons. In open space, Asher’s ship had nowhere to hide.
“Fire two high-yield torpedoes,” Asher said.
The first ship, unable to maneuver, couldn’t avoid the attack and met its end. The second torpedo exploded but wasn’t as successful. With its weapons charged and aimed, the alien vessel opened fire. Six bolts of light slammed into the Explorer. Four cleaved right through the ship.
The lights in the simulation room turned on, and a mechanical voice announced, “Simulation complete. Status: failure. All Space Corps vessels are destroyed.”
The bridge crew of the Explorer turned their eyes to their commanding officer.
“Sir,” Gibbs asked, “why are you smiling? We still lost.”
Asher nodded. “Yes, we did, but we didn’t try to avoid their shots, and we were more aggressive than we should have been. We may have lost, but we did better than we could have hoped in the last battle.”
Lieutenant Card turned to the admiral with a solemn look on her face. “Sir, I have an emergency message for you.”
“The simulation’s over.”
“This isn’t part of the simulation.”
Throwing off her harness, Asher ran over to the wall and picked up a phone. As she listened, she whipped out her tablet and made several notes before running out of the room.
“Sir?” Gibbs asked as he ran after her. “What’s going on?”
Through quick breaths, Asher said, “The probe network picked up a signal. They don’t know what it’s from, but it’s headed our way.”
8
“Commander, we’re detecting the same anomaly as the probe network.”
“And?”
“The signal is comparable to the alien ships we’ve seen before, but it’s… different.”
“Different how?”
The scanning team worked quickly but didn’t have an answer. Commander Hale rushed over to look at their consoles. His brow furrowed as his eyes moved up and down the various screens. He wanted to see something helpful, but couldn’t. In disgust, he pushed off the metal desk and into the air.
While his body floated freely through the filtered air of Ambassador Station, he tensed his muscles as if he believed doing so would increase his speed. He knew better, but it was the only way to cope with his nerves.
Several lights flashed on the communication officer’s console. He grabbed the receiver and listened carefully.
“Sir, it’s the admiral.”
“Of course, it is,” said Hale.
With a final stroke through the air, the commander’s feet touched down, and he grabbed the receiver at his console.
“This is Commander Hale, Ambassador Station. Go ahead.”
For several minutes, the commander focused only on the phone. As he hung up the receiver, he began issuing commands.
“Tactical, charge all railguns and order the missile launchers prepped and loaded.”
Six men sitting around an oblong table snapped their attention to their consoles. A seventh, the senior officer, nodded toward Hale. “Yes, sir. Do we know what we’re expecting?”
“No. Be prepared for anything. Comm, tell the reserve crew of the Protector we need them in the air.”
The flurry of activity in the Combat Information Center continued for several minutes before the commander’s receiver began screaming for attention.
“This is Hale, go ahead.”
A panicked voice on the other end of the line expressed several concerns.
“I understand,” said Hale. “The Protector may not be fully repaired, but it’s the only ship up here worthy of flight.” When the man on the other end of the line protested again, Hale continued, “You’re welcome to take this up with Central Command once you’re in the air. You have your orders.”
Lieutenant Commander Kim secured his helmet. With several strong pushes off the walls, he made his way down the corridors of the Ambassador. When he came to the airlock, he entered a code on a keypad, hit a large flashing button, and made his way into the Protector.
Making his way to the command chair, the lieutenant commander dismissed the engineers who were still hard at work on repairs.
“Stevens,” Kim said to the last man in the room.
“Yes, sir?”
“What’s the status of the repairs?”
Several other men made their way into the room and began booting up their consoles and activating various systems.
“It’s hard to say, sir.”
Kim narrowed his eyes. “Give me the condensed version.”
“Well, all primary systems should be operational, but we haven’t had any time to test them yet.”
“But they should work?” Kim asked.
“They should, but I can’t guarantee anything. Keep your suit’s environmental controls on at all times. It’s not worth the risk to take them off. We have patches over the hull breaches, but they’re just that: patches. I wouldn’t trust them to stand up in battle.”
With the remaining crew onboard, Kim entered commands into his console to power on the remaining systems. “What about power and weapons systems?”
The engineer shook his head and pointed to the diagnostics station. “You’ll know more than I do once everything’s turned on. You have a reserve amount of ammunition, but nothing more. Loading the batteries was low on our list of priorities. Power should hold for everything you might need, but I’d avoid staying out for longer than necessary.”
“Understood. Dismissed.”
The engineer rushed off the ship. When the airlock slammed closed behind him, he placed a hand on the door and bowed his head. Frustrated, he threw a fist at the door and knocked himself back slightly through the air. Despite all his crew’s efforts, he knew the ship wasn’
t ready for combat.
Standing, the ensign usually responsible for reviewing sensor information moved over to the diagnostics console. “Lieutenant Commander, are we clear to begin departure checks?”
Kim nodded as he reviewed readings from various systems at the command station.
The ensign began to run down the list. “Ship power?”
“Active. Reading twenty percent of capacity,” responded one of the crew.
“Engines?”
“Spinning up the Ion Pulse Drive and thrusters. Thrusters will be available in roughly forty seconds. The IPD will be available in less than two minutes.”
“Life support?”
“Active, but oxygen levels are more than ten percent below acceptable levels.”
“Short-range communications?”
“Active”
“Long-range?”
“Unknown. The transceiver is powered up, but we’re not receiving any feedback.”
“That’s enough. We don’t have time for the full list. How are our weapons looking?”
The tactical officer began charging systems as he reviewed ammunition levels.
“They’re not good, sir. It’s better than nothing, but just barely.”
Shaking his head, Kim said, “It’ll have to do.” He glanced over to the airlock. Confirming a green light above the door, he turned to his pilot. “Helm, lead us out. Keep us at minimal thruster power until we hit five hundred meters from the docking ring.”
The USSC Protector drifted away from Ambassador Station, gently pushed by an array of small thrusters. As it crossed the lieutenant commander’s requested threshold, the pilot sought out additional instructions.
“Helm, lead us out to a general patrol pattern,” said Lieutenant Commander Kim.
With the Protector clear of the station, the commanding officer found himself with idle time as they waited for a threat they couldn’t see. He couldn’t resist the urge. Pulling up the personnel files of the Protector, he looked under the category of Commanding Officer. The entry displayed Commander Gibbs’s information. After reviewing the commander’s commendations, he couldn’t help but look around the ship.
