Galactic Defenders- Endurance

by Michael Mishoe

  ​“I do. Come with me, Captain.” Captain Syvon walked to the ramp and entered the Thunderfox, with Captain Whitefield following behind him.

  ​Once the captains had boarded the ship, Commander Ton immediately began giving orders to the officers who had rallied by the entrance to the Thunderfox. The few officers of the Ocean-Walker who weren’t wounded guided the officers to where repairs were needed most, and other officers led medical teams from the Thunderfox down to the lower levels of the Ocean-Walker where the injured crew were located. Olo assisted the engineering crews, since he had a fair amount of engineering training, as they began repairs on the Ocean-Walker’s jet engines, an essential part of the ship to repair if they were to make the rendezvous with time to spare, until twenty minutes later, Commander Ton approached him.

  ​“Are you Lieutenant Oakland, officer?”

  ​“Yes, Commander, that’s me,” Olo replied as he crawled out from under the engine assembly and wiped the oil off his hands and onto his pant legs.

  ​“Captain Syvon informed me that he wants to talk to you aboard the Thunderfox. I suggest you meet him right away. I will have an officer escort you to him.”

  ​“All right. I’ll make my way over there now.” Olo started to walk away, but Commander Ton stopped him.

  ​“Lieutenant, I don’t know much about you, but from what I observed earlier, it’s obvious there is a great deal of some tension between you and Mr. Davidson. Do what you can to minimize it. Understood?”

  ​“Understood, sir. Believe me, I’ll stay away from him as much as possible.”

  ​“Good. I’ll let you get to Captain Syvon.” Ton walked away as he called an officer over to lead Olo to Captain Syvon and Whitefield in the Thunderfox. Olo hoped that the captain didn’t have more bad news, but with the luck Earth’s had since the war started, it probably was.

  Date: July 9, 2132.

  Location: Aboard the crashed alien ship, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

  ​“All systems are ready. Standing by to begin power core reactivation sequence.” Jack still remained in the engineering center on the alien ship, where he and several dozen other Recon Drones had been for the last eight hours working on the power core of the ship. In addition to the drones that had worked in the engineering center, the other drones had traveled through the ship and repaired and/or replaced the necessary components that needed to be operational to reactivate the power core. Though the repairs had taken longer than Jack had expected, it allowed the crew in the Atlanta to dive deeper into the data from the alien’s computer, and better understand the ship’s functions. Though they also attempted to learn about the aliens and their plans for Earth, they had gathered little knowledge, other than they were a species known as the Ribiyar, as much of those files were heavily encrypted, and the computer was unable to decipher them as it wasn’t yet fully operational.

  ​Over the comm, Chief Lexton responded, “All right, Jack. From what the computer tells us, we are as ready as we’ll ever be to reactivate the core. Initiate power core startup sequence… now.” Jack gave the commands to the computer, and the system immediately began to reactivate the power core. After almost a minute of waiting, Jack was blinded when the power core reactivated and shined as bright as a star. Energy bolts surged outwards from the spherical center of the core and onto the two rings that surrounded it. From the rings, the energy pulsed into power conduits that were in the walls near the core, feeding power into the other systems of the ship. After a minute, the light from the core dimmed enough for Jack to see again. All around him, the room began to lighten up again as all the consoles in the room reactivated, and the lights in the engineering center ignited, casting the room in a bright silver light.

  ​Jack accessed the computer console in front of him, the data now being translated into English. The display showed that all of the systems on the ship were slowly reactivating as power continued to work its way through the ship, and, to his great relief, the Omega Virus was fully active and integrated in the computer’s operating systems, giving them full control of the alien vessel. Jack quickly began instructing the computer to hide the ship to keep the aliens from detecting its presence at the bottom of the ocean.

  ​Computer, activate any equipment that will prevent the aliens that created the ship to detect it.

  ​Acknowledged. Activating senor displacement protocols.

  ​Deactivating homing beacon.

  ​“Jack to Atlanta. The repairs have successfully reactivated the ship’s power core, and the vessel is slowly returning to an operational state. The computer has successfully deactivated the homing device on the alien vessel, and the ship has engaged its equipment to keep the ship hidden from the aliens. We should be safe from them, for now.”

  ​“Great work, Jack,” Captain Rickman responded. “Do we have control of the ships flight systems yet?” Jack accessed the computer and checked.

  ​“We have control of the engines, but they are not yet online. Systems on the ship are still reactivating. From what the computer has told me, it also appears that the ship’s course can only be plotted on the bridge. By the time I arrive there, power should be mostly restored.”

  ​“All right. I want you to get to the bridge as quick as you can and fly the ship to the Atlanta as soon as the ship is ready to take off. Keep some of your drones down here to keep the engineering center in working order. You may want to give the computer control of them so it can direct them to what needs to be done.”

  ​“Understood. I’ll get to it right away.” Jack gave the computer control of the deployed Recon Drones and then departed the engineering center. Using the map of the ship that he had downloaded from the computer, he quickly made his way to a lift, an elevator-like vehicle, located a few corridors away from the engineering center, and instructed the lift to take him as close to the bridge as it could. The lift was ovular in shape, and had two curved, rectangular doors, one that functioned as the lifts door, which split open and slid across the interior of the lift, and another that also split open and swung outward into the corridor, which sealed the entrance once the lift had left the area. The interior of the lift, like the rest of the ship he had encountered, was colored silver, and several displays were mounted on the wall that showed status reports of various ship systems. The lift also had a big amount of space in its interior, with enough room to fit almost a dozen people.

  ​As the lift moved towards its destination, it traveled both horizontally and vertically as the vehicle traversed the massive passage system within the ship. The computer moved other lifts out of Jack’s path throughout the journey to give them the most direct route to the bridge. Finally, the lift stopped and the door opened on deck thirteen, the level the bridge was located. The bridge was located almost halfway between the front and the middle of the ship, so if the vessel was ever rammed, the bridge would be safer from harm than it would be it if was directly in the front of the ship. While Jack walked down the corridors, the lighting panels in the upside-down V support structures randomly powered up and began to produce silvery light through the corridor, leaving the hallway being unevenly lit in areas. After walking for a few minutes, Jack finally made it to where the bridge was located. The entrance to the bridge was triangular and contained a similarly triangular metal plate within it. When Jack approached the entrance, a small orange light appeared on the top point of the door, and a scanning beam shined over Jack.

  ​After several seconds, the beam completed its examination and deactivated, and the door split into three smaller triangles, each section sliding into the wall. Jack entered the bridge, and was astonished by its size. The interior of the bridge was three levels high, and its length was over fifty yards long. The floor was partially made of a glass like material, so Jack could see all three levels, and he appeared to be on the middle level of the bridge. Unlike the rest of the ship, the materials that comprised the bridge had a golden-like color, replacing the silver color that seemed to cover all th
e other materials in the ship. Green and orange light was produced by lighting panels fixed onto the walls and support structures, and the glass-like flooring allowed all the lights in the room to work in tandem with each other, making the bridge a beautiful and mystical sight to behold.

  ​ Jack saw a cluster of consoles near the center of the bridge, a large, upside-down pyramid with serval holographic displays of the alien ship’s systems dotted along its surface, surrounded by several other normal sized, upside-down triangular consoles, and jogged over to them. As he approached, a large hologram burst to life above the giant central console, displaying a model of the ship, and it was then that he saw the complete design of the ship. The vessel had an ovular design overall, and had a large, long wing that was placed on both sides of the ship. Surrounding the middle portion of the hull were two large ovular gaps in the vessel’s construction, and in them lay several large cylindrical structures that ran the distance of the gap, which were used to store a vast amount of alien fighter craft.

  ​Reaching the central console, Jack laid his hands on one of the smaller interfaces that surrounded it and activated the energy-connector system on his hands. His hands produced small energy bolts that leapt off his hand and onto the surface of the device, and a link to the computer was formed within moments. Once the connection was made, he was informed by the computer that the ship’s systems were eighty-three percent operational and would soon be completely restored, and that the engines were now operational and on stand-by.

  ​“Captain Rickman. The computer informs me that the engines are online and standing by to activate. Have the crew get the Atlanta ready for its ascendance. If all goes well, I will be there shortly to free the vessel.”

  ​“Understood, Jack. We’ll have the ship ready for you when you get here. Good luck.”

  ​As Jack activated the launch sequence, he also instructed the computer to seal off any areas of the ship that had been compromised during the crash, and the hatch that Jack had used when he had first entered the ship, so the ship wasn’t flooded and receive any further damage.

  ​Computer, initiate launch protocols and prepare to activate main engines. Set course for contact in sensor grid 942-719.

  ​Processing… Task accepted.

  ​Loading fuel cells into engine cores #1 through #8.

  ​Activating launch thrusters now.

  ​Jack braced himself as he felt the ship rumble below him as the thrusters on the bottom of the ship activated and began to slowly lift off the ocean floor. The ship’s progress was somewhat impaired because of the amount of sand covering the hull of the ship, and because several rock formations had piled onto the surface of the ship as well.

  ​Attention: Stress on hull has increased by 32%.

  ​Warning: Hull breaches in structural grid 768-782.

  ​Emergency bulkheads deployed: Sealing compromised sections now.

  ​“Come on, come on,” Jack muttered to himself. He took action and gave the computer new commands.

  ​Computer, use the ship’s weapon systems to clear the rocks off the surface of the vessel.

  ​Tactical systems activating; Routing power to wing-platforms.

  ​Targeting Module Online.

  ​Scanning… Specified targets detected and marked for destruction.

  ​Engaging targets now.

  ​Jack used the visual sensors on the outside of the ship to watch as energy cannons along the ship’s right wing activated. The base of the cannons was spherical, and the weapon had three long emitters that fired the energy. From the base sphere, the three emitters were placed equally along the side of it, and they spiraled off the sphere to form a single point where they all stood by each other. A surge of white energy pulsed through the emitters, the light shining through the structure, and raced to the adjoining point of the three devices. The white energy from the three emitters shot outwards towards the rocks and debris covering the ship. Accompanied by the other weapons on the wing, enough solid material was blasted apart to allow the safe ascendance of the alien ship.

  ​Engine fueling complete: Propulsion system activation has begun.

  ​On the holographic display, the visual sensor showed the rear of the ship, and Jack saw the ships eight engines erupt to light as a blue fire burned in the reactor coils. Once the ship was a good distance off the ground, Jack put the alien vessel at a small fraction of its maximum speed, and the ship sped through the water to the Atlanta. In the front of the bridge, a holographic screen activated, showing a dark view of the ocean zooming by under the ship. Jack activated the ships forward light emitters, and the screen lit up considerably, now showing a clear, visible ocean floor.

  ​“Jack, how are we going to transport the Atlanta?” Captain Rickman asked. “With the damage she’s taken, I don’t know if she can manage a journey through the ocean on her own power.”

  ​“I plan to dock the Atlanta with the alien ship’s hangar bay. Though the facilities are configured for their fighters, according to what I have learned from the computer, the docking equipment should be able to manage the Atlanta’s larger frame. If my calculations are correct, we will be able to fit the ship in it with room to spare.” Jack then saw the Korean ship appear on the alien ship’s video screen, and he felt the alien vessel automatically slow down and stop right above it. “I am launching the ship’s towing cables now. I recommend you have the crew hold on to something. The Atlanta may be shaken up a bit when the Korean ship is removed from on top of its hull.”

  ​“Understood. All hands, brace for impact!” Though the alien ship didn’t have a high-tech tractor beam system, the ship did possess long metal grappling cables with claw-like grapplers at the end. Twenty tow-cables fired from the bottom of the alien vessel, latching onto different parts of the Korean ship. So many cables were being used because the entire ship needed to be pulled off intact so sections of the ship didn’t break off while pulling it off the Atlanta.

  ​Jack activated the thrusters on the bottom of the alien vessel, and the ship immediately began to fly upward. He felt the ship below him abruptly stop as the tow cables tightened and kept the alien vessel in place as the Korean ship stubbornly clutched to the ocean floor, refusing to move off the Atlanta. After a few moments, the alien ship successfully yanked the Korean ship off the ocean floor. Once high enough from the Atlanta, Jack directed the alien ship a good distance away from the sub, and released the Korean ship, which quickly plummeted down below, and allowed it to rest on the bottom of the ocean once more.

  ​“You did it, Jack! Give us a moment, and we’ll get the Atlanta high enough from the ocean floor to dock with the ship. Stand by.” Jack steered the alien ship back to the Atlanta and magnified the video feed on the display so he could observe the sub’s progress. The sub had activated its ascension systems, pushing water from its storage tanks and filling them with air, but even after all of the tanks were full of air, the sub still lacked the necessarily force to free itself from beneath the rock formations that surrounded it.

  ​“Stand by, Captain Rickman. I am targeting the rocks around the Atlanta. I recommend you hold on to something.” Jack decreased the intensity of the energy cannons, so he wouldn’t critically damage the Atlanta by accident, and fired at the rocks that had fallen on the sub when the Korean ship had been moved, and the rock formations surrounding the Atlanta. After a minute, the ship stopped firing. Jack couldn’t get a clear visual because of the dust cloud created from the rocks. Suddenly, the Atlanta burst through the dust cloud, and quickly continued to travel closer towards the surface of the water above. Jack began to move the alien vessel toward the Atlanta, but the ship continued to rise, which prevented him from docking with the sub.

  ​“Captain Rickman, you need to slow your ascent so you can dock with the alien ship.”

  ​“I’m afraid we’re unable to do so, Jack.” Captain Rickman responded, his voice slightly distorted with the Atlanta’s shaking as it flew upward. “The air tubes are stuck c
losed. We can’t get any water into them to slow us down. It also appears that our propellers were broken off when we landed on the surface, we can’t even move anywhere. Jack, you need to get us, before the Atlanta reaches the top of the ocean.” It was then that he realized how much danger the Atlanta was in. If the sub surfaced the ocean with any Ribiyar ships around, it would be an easy target for them to take out.

  ​“I am coming, Captain Rickman. I will attempt to position the alien ship so you will fly into the hanger.”

  ​“Can you do that, Jack? I mean, can you do it without impacting with the Atlanta?” His voice was even more distorted now, an effect of the sub rising even faster to the surface.

  ​“In the time we have, there’s only one way to find out.” Jack rapidly gave the commands to the ship’s computer, and activated the ship’s auto pilot to allow the computer to make the complex and precise flight maneuvers needed in this situation.

  ​Task Accepted. Autonomous flight systems engaged.

  ​Commencing flight maneuvers required to intercept target.

  ​Jack was thrown across the bridge as the ship rapidly accelerated in a very short time. Jack slammed against a wall, making a body sized dent in the metal plating, and was held in place on the wall from the momentum of the maneuvers the ship was performing. Though his physical connection with the computer had been lost, he maintained contact through his transmitting and receiving equipment.

  ​Attention: One thousand rez until target reaches Liquid surface.

  ​Jack didn’t know what a rez was, but from how fast the vessels were going he knew they wouldn’t have much time to spare if this worked. From the data he was receiving, and from the visuals on the display, he saw on the screen that the alien ship had sped past the Atlanta and was moving itself above the sub. The ship then positioned itself so that the Atlanta would rise up to one of the docking lanes on the alien vessel. Jack had instructed the computer to place the Atlanta in the row on the left gap in the ship and the rightmost docking lane in that section, next to the main hull of the ship, so the sub would have the best cover possible if the alien ship was attacked.