The Sakkara

by Donald Nicklas

  Captain Hek’Lok’s tranquility was disturbed by the sudden formation of a wormhole through which a small escort vessel came. Telemetry indicated that it was one of the vessels assigned to guard a science vessel and outpost in the Trill’Verda’Hok galaxy, where the humans were. As the captain watched the ship move through the system, he was informed that a message was incoming from the escort vessel. It was a long message and the captain listened intently. With each addition to the message, he became a bit more agitated. Apparently, the latest harvest of humans went badly. The ship sent in to collect them did not return. After a reasonable time with no contact, a second ship was sent in and this did not return. In both cases the wormholes, their drives created, closed. Something must have come through the wormhole before it closed but they can’t be sure. All they know is that suddenly they came under attack from an unseen enemy. They discovered the enemy was invisible when they managed to hit one of the ships firing on them. It broke apart and became visible long enough to be seen careening into one of the other escort vessels, with both destroyed. As the present ship moved away from the planet and charged its wormhole drive, some of the ships must have given chase, hitting it with some kind of projectile weapon. The enemy appeared to use projectiles along with an unknown weapon having rocket engines. Just before entering the wormhole, the escort saw smaller vessels appearing out of nowhere and heading to the science vessel. By that time, the vessel had been abandoned.

  Captain Hek’Lok thought over the communication. He would not have believed the strange tale if not for the obvious battle damage visible on the escort vessel as it came into closer view. He ordered the vessel to rendezvous with the cruiser and land in her landing bay. The cruiser was a huge vessel, which could easily accommodate other vessels the size of the escort. The vessel entered the hangar deck and its crew exited. By order of the captain, the commander of the escort vessel was summarily executed for running from the battle. That simply was not done. The crew was deemed to have followed orders, the second in command was elevated to commander, and the escort vessel was sent to a larger system with a space dock for repairs. The full transcript of what happened was sent through a wormhole to the sector commander and Captain Hek’Lok awaited his orders. He hoped he would be given a crack at this invisible enemy.

  The human’s galaxy was the closest galaxy to the Saltic home. It was a large, spiral galaxy, like the one in which the Saltic lived; it was going to be their first intergalactic conquest. They had started small a long time ago, trying to lure the human inhabitants out with a trap consisting of the wormhole drive programmed for one destination only. They checked this location for a long time before they finally saw a colony of humans who were trapped. When they went back to retrieve their drive, it and the moon it was on were gone. This was a drawback of unattended wormhole drives; they sometimes transported things other than ships that were moving into their path. Probably the wormhole had formed in the location the moon was revolving around its planet. As a result, it would have entered the wormhole. How long an object can be transported depends on its mass. Ships are no problem, but a moon is too heavy to clear the temporary wormhole before it closes. When that closure takes place, the moon drops wherever it is and can no longer be easily located. Initial scouting of the galaxy revealed the humans to the early Saltic explorers. They grabbed a few and tested their brains, after harvesting, and the results were off the charts as control nodes. The problem was the humans themselves. They were the most aggressive sentient species the Saltic had ever dealt with. They fought each other; they fought the non-sentient species around them. However, what was most troubling, when confronted with a mutual enemy, they put their animosities aside and banded together to fight. The Saltic were powerful in their technology, but the captain knew, there were never as many Saltic as there were humans. The Saltic had purposely kept their population small to keep it manageable since they feared that a larger population would result in internal strife. The captain had no concerns about fighting the humans, they would win but at what cost? Moreover, are the owners of the invisible ships, humans, or someone else? If the humans have invisibility, then the Saltic may want to pass on trying to conquer them. It is Captain Hek’Lok’s duty to find these invisible ships and discover their secret.

  It took what seemed an eternity until the answer he wanted came back from the sector commander. He was to proceed with caution and find out what was happening at the science outpost. A large amount of resources and treasure had already been spent setting up a permanent wormhole drive. If they lost it, they would be back to square one and have to start over. They had little choice, since they were in desperate need of more human brains. They were only good for a given time then they developed signs of deterioration. They needed constant renewal and the human colony they were using was not producing enough. There had been talk of taking the entire colony when the planetary wormhole drive was finally finished. Many ships, including the Ver’Tau were using brains from inferior species, for lack of human brains.

  “Navigation, plot a course to science base 387 in the Trill’Verda’Hok galaxy.”

  “Yes, captain. It will take one intergalactic and two galactic jumps.”

  “Begin charging.”

  “Charging now.”

  Theoretically, the wormhole drives could propel a ship up to 50 million light years, however it would take months of charging to bring the drive to that power and the wormhole would be unstable. That was why they used planetary wormhole drives for stability. The distance from the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way Galaxy was 2.4 million light years. To span that gap, the drive would need to be charged for three human days. Once in the galaxy, charge times would be much faster. When the initial charge was complete, the navigator activated the drive by putting in the destination coordinates. A wormhole formed in front of the ship and she passed through to the other galaxy. A few more days of charging and passing through wormholes and the cruiser arrived in the system containing the science outpost.

  “Scanners, report.”

  The sensor tech looked closely at his screens. “Captain, we are not picking up any emissions from the science base. It is as if it was not there.”

  “Are there any ships in the system?”

  “Sir, when we first entered the system we picked up telemetry from something near the gas giant in the system.”

  “That is still a good distance away. Keep monitoring it. Helm, take us to the base location.”

  Both stations acknowledged and the cruiser began to move towards the fourth planet. The transit was unremarkable and they did not detect the invisible ships that were moving in towards them. Aboard the Mary Rose, the crew was carefully monitoring the progress of the ship. The humans would have been surprised to know that the Saltic classified their big ship as a cruiser, since a similar ship swallowed the cruiser SS Hayden a decade ago. The Saltic ship dwarfed the battleship NR Tempestas, though she could not take it aboard as she did the Hayden. Alaya ordered her scout ship to make a full circle around the Saltic vessel, first in the lateral plane and then in the upper and lower plane. This resulted in a three dimensional picture of the ship. Passive scans also gave some indication of the interior. Active scanning would have revealed the presence of the invisible ship. After the scans were finished, the Mary Rose returned to the Tempestas and Alaya and Tavia went to the conference room to a meeting of the bridge crew and the primary centurions of the legion.

  When all were settled around the conference table, Slone stood up and asked that the scans of the enemy ship be projected just above the table. A hologram of the Saltic vessel appeared before the group. Slone then began the conference. “This is what we are up against. Until we can finally figure out how the wormhole drive works, we will have to deal with this vessel. Those of you, who saw the harvester ship in the Andromeda galaxy in action, feel free to add to anything I say.”

  Those who had been part of the Andromeda 7 nodded their heads, as Slone continued. “Since the harvester sh
ip we encountered in the Andromeda galaxy never fired her weapons on the Hayden, we only saw its forward energy weapons used, when she fired on the methane breather’s ships. As I recall, there were multiple energy bolts fired, and they seemed to come from six locations on the front of the ship. Does that seem about right?”

  “Captain, we do have the video log of the Hayden and the Dragon’s Claw, which should show them.”

  “I must be getting tired. I totally forgot that. Let’s have a look at it.”

  They reviewed the video log of the encounter in the Andromeda galaxy. Slone couldn’t help but thinking the events seemed like a lifetime ago, but they were only a decade in the past. Under magnification of the feed from the Hayden, they could clearly see that the bolts came from small, hemispherical structures with some kind of lens system. There were six of them on the front of the harvester ship. Slone then ordered the hologram of the present enemy ship to replace the video log. They could clearly see the structures on the front of the ship. Extrapolating the appearance of the energy weapons onto structures on the sides and back of the ship, they could clearly make out that there were six forward and six aft energy weapons with eight on each side. The Tempestas cannons outnumbered the energy weapons of the enemy, but the energy weapons could fire at a vastly faster rate than the cannons of the Romani. The scanners aboard the Mary Rose had been calibrated to sense the presence of Saltic aboard the harvester. What they showed made clear that the ship they encountered before was manned by a skeleton crew. The ship they faced now contained thousands of Saltic individuals. If it came to a boarding action, it was going to be a tough fight. Slone also had no idea how well his armor would hold up to the enemy ship’s weapons. This battle would be a defining moment that would determine if human technology could stand up to Saltic technology.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a tough fight with no hope of rescue or reinforcement. That is not the case with our enemy. Even if we prevail, there will always be more of them as there are less of us after each encounter. We must destroy this enemy and find a way out of here. Our only hope will be the wormhole drive. I want top priority placed on making it work. For now, we will remain invisible and stay at least 100,000 kilometers away from the Saltic ship. Let’s see what they do. If we’re lucky, they will see that their base is gone and leave the system. If they stay, we will have to fight them, since any attempt to use the wormhole drive while they are here will lead them back to human space. We know from experience that once the wormhole is open, any ship can traverse it until it is closed. What we can’t be sure of is if a disabled ship can determine where the destination of the wormhole is when it is open. That is why we must destroy the enemy ship, if it stays, before we open any wormhole to our destination.”

  All agreed and the meeting broke up. A large group was now working on the wormhole drive, and the Saltic captives were helping in the hope of returning home some day. Slone felt it wise not to tell them they were remaining prisoners of the Romani, no matter where the ship ended up. Slone and the bridge crew returned to their stations and kept a constant vigil on the movements of the Saltic vessel.

  Aboard the cruiser Ver’Tau, there was concern. They had now been in the system for some time and still no telemetry from the science base. Soon they would know why, as the fourth planet was only a short time away. To add to the worry, the unidentified telemetry they picked up when first entering the system, was now gone with no indication of where it went or where it came from. Captain Hek’Lok was disturbed in his thoughts when his sensor tech suddenly said, “Captain, I am picking up a large crater where the science base is supposed to be.”

  The captain left his recliner and glided over to the sensor station. “Let me see the readouts.”

  “We are close enough for a magnified image now.”

  “Let me see it.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  The sensor tech put the image up on a screen that occupied the forward area of the bridge. The Saltic Bridge did not have any windows. All visuals were indirect from camera feeds. On the positive side, this meant no weak spots from transparent materials. On the negative side, if the cameras were taken out in battle, the bridge was blind. As the image appeared on the screen, the entire bridge crew could see the horror of it all. The science outpost was gone and in its place, there was a large crater.

  “Is that an impact crater?” the captain asked.

  “We are too far to tell, sir, but I doubt it. There is no evidence of ejected material in the surrounding area. We would see this with an impact.”

  “Helm, when we arrive, put us in a synchronous orbit above the base.”

  “Yes, sir,” The helmsman responded and just under a human hour later, the Saltic ship was in a stationary orbit above the location of the science base. All eyestalks were glued onto the image of the lost base. There was no evidence of life but they could now see some residual of the base consisting of partially melted, bent metal frames once belonging to the geodesic domes.

  “What could have done this? A catastrophic failure or was it the ‘invisible’ vessel the escort ship encountered?” The captain was not yet certain that he believed in invisible ships. “Prepare an away team to check for survivors.”

  Aboard the Tempestas, the bridge crew watched the movements of the Saltic under maximum magnification. As Slone watched the activities at the planet, a call came in from Diana Gardner. “Captain, we have it. We know how the drive works and we think we can get us home.”

  “That is good news. But the Saltic wormhole is still open for them to use and we can’t go anywhere if that ship stays here.”

  “Understood. The Saltic prisoners were a help but we still did not understand how their coordinate system worked. It was when we finally realized their mathematics was on a base 5 numerical system that we cracked the code. We can’t do a thing with the drive until we charge it and that will tip off the Saltic ship. They will detect the energy surge.”

  “Then we have to do what is necessary and fight them,” Slone said, reluctantly. As he watched the activity in orbit, Slone could see the Saltic ship launching smaller craft, which headed to the surface.

  Aboard the Saltic cruiser, Captain Hek’Lok ordered two shuttles down to the surface to investigate the damage. So far, everything was very confusing. If the invisible ship was human, then they must have a very destructive weapon. This was cause for worry. As the captain was watching the images from the cameras on the shuttles, the primary shuttle crew made contact. “Captain, we are detecting a large amount of radiation. I think this was a radiation event.”

  Captain Hek’Lok thought for a moment, “Could it have been related to the reactors of the base?”

  “We can’t get close enough to be sure, but there was a massive blast of some kind. Permission to return, captain. It’s too hot down here and we can’t leave the shuttles.”

  “Permission granted. Check into sickbay when you return.”

  The shuttles returned to base but not until they used a robotic probe to gather a sample of some debris from the destroyed colony. They would analyze it and see what caused the damage. They were about to find out before they were able to do any analysis.

  “Captain,” the sensor tech suddenly said, “There is a large ship appearing beyond our orbit.”

  Suddenly the cruiser was rocked by a massive number of explosions. “What was that, Captain Hek’Lok shouted at his sensor tech.”

  However, this time the weapon’s tech reported, “Weapon’s fire from the ship. Request permission to return fire.”

  “Permission granted. Call the ship to battle.” An alarm went off throughout the ship that would have sounded like a low rumble to human ears but was loud and irritating to Saltic auditory organs. The crew of the Saltic cruiser ran to their battle stations and the fight for survival was about to begin.

  Aboard the Tempestas, Slone knew now what they had to do. If only they had learned how to use the wormhole drive before the enemy arrived. Well no
matter, they had to play the cards as dealt. “Helm, take us into weapons range of the enemy.”

  “Yes, captain,” Paul McMann responded.

  The battleship increased her speed as the gap closed to the orbiting ship. “Sound general quarters.” Immediately the klaxon sounded throughout the ship with the computer calling the crew to general quarters. The crew of the Mary Rose boarded their ship, as did the serpents assigned to the nineteen remaining serpent ships. The captains of all the ships had been at the meeting held to examine the weapon’s placements of the enemy ship. “Open the battle channel,” Slone ordered. Tom Gardner indicated the channel was open. “Attention serpent and scout ships. Launch invisible and concentrate all fire to disarm the enemy. Launch now and report when all are clear.”

  The ships on the flight deck went invisible and launched immediately. When the last one was clear of the battleship, Slone ordered the flight deck armor shield up. As soon as the flight deck was sealed, Slone ordered the bridge armor up and the tactical projection was placed on the front of the bridge bubble. Slone could see the location of his ship and the location of the enemy. Hister had also projected the approximate location of the invisible ships onto the tactical screen. They were moving away from the battle ship so as not to get between its cannons and the enemy. “Load ship-killer missiles into all missile tubes.”