When the two reactors each showed 50% power the numbers on both began to climb. We were rewarded shortly thereafter with the alarm going silent. Even though it was only the four of us sitting together in this small space a cheer went up that I was sure could be heard back on Earth by my Great Uncle. The extra breaker and the spare reactor were both of his doing.
David Brenner had probably taken heat for sacrificing a capable Defender to give us the spare parts. He always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else with his planning and it was my plan to put his wisdom to good use.
I connected back into my chair, sat back and pushed the throttle to 190%. The remaining power was being diverted to the shield to protect us from that random bit of space debris that could instantly vaporize us. The trip counter readjusted from 37 to 19 days with us reaching 34 times the speed of light at our maximum. I turned back to look at Pop and he had an extra wide grin on his face at our accomplishment.
I then began to ask the others to analyze the remaining spare equipment we had been given to see if there were any other advantages we could gain. We had 19 days to put it to good use if any good use was possible. We all pored over the equipment lists and the holo-user manuals for anything that could possibly be done.
Less than an hour into our search the automated sleep inducer injected a concoction into our IV lines that quickly put us all to sleep. It would be another six hours before the team was once again hard at work.
Three days into our 19 day journey, Whip came up with a new idea. We gutted one of our active nukes, shortened it up to only use a BHD and pico-reactor and then added a second BHD ring on the back side. We would essentially have a flying drill that we could tell to seek out the enemy. It would just fly around for days drilling into and through whatever craft it caught and then exiting the other side.
The second BHD would absorb any weapons they fired at it as it moved away which we reasoned would make it virtually indestructible. With a pico-reactor it could fly non-stop for several days. Our hopes were for it to drill countless holes and cause untold damage.
We had a dozen spare BHD rings but decided that only using eight would tell us for certain if the weapon would be effective. Our spare parts were of immense value as we were far from home. The next 16 days were spent alternating between sleep and study with no new ideas coming to light. For me it was a difficult time as I had trouble understanding much of the technology at hand.
At our peak we achieved 3420.03577% light speed before the deceleration began. The plan was to fall below light speed early, drop three of our four drillers in their path and then silently slip by to the side of the passing fleet. If everything went according to plan the three Drillers would look like space debris until the fleet was upon them. They would then activate and begin seeking out targets.
I had an hourly alarm set that would remind me to once again try Paige on channel 1647. Every try yielded the same silence, but every try came with new hope. Even though our marriage was only weeks old, I missed Paige terribly.
Our final hours of deceleration were agonizingly quiet. Except for our fascination with the increasing views of the incoming fleet no one had anything to talk about. We studied the fleet as we approached before going silent. There were 18 of the eight kilometer long ships that we dubbed as Fighter Carriers.
Those were followed by 22 saucers ranging from one kilometer wide to ten kilometers wide. The saucers were designated as Destroyers for the one kilometer size, Cruisers for the four kilometer size and Battleships for the ten kilometer behemoths.
Destroyers numbered 14, Cruisers five and Battleships three. And then there was one last massive ship following the others. On our long distance sensors it measured nearly 40 km across.
We had little to match the firepower of this incoming fleet. We would do our reporting, but the news would arrive home behind us if we used standard communications. Our mission to gather intel and then return home as quickly as possible was now of the utmost importance.
We dropped out of light speed, lined up and then launched our Drillers. It was then on to silent mode. It would take 16 hours of drifting before we would be able to turn our sensors back on. Again, the wait was agonizing. We could not see outside. As we drifted by, our knowledge of the alien fleet remained as it had been from a distance.
I looked around the cabin at the others and they were all busily reading away at Defender manuals. I suspected that I probably had the most highly knowledgeable crew of the USAC. They had modified our ship while in flight and come up with what were hopefully ingenious weapons. Their drive and determination had taken us to more than 34 times light speed.
The 16 hours passed slowly by, but pass they did. When the counter hit zero I flipped on the BHD and Bigg brought up the sensors. We were a full light hour behind the fleet and the view was impressive. Other than the long thin Carriers the other ships were indeed all saucer shaped.
We matched their speed and decided to trail them for several hours. In the distance beyond them I could see our tiny sun from its nearly two light year distance. It was not quite as impressive as it was from Earth. The feeling I was left with was one of being vulnerable. The massive fleet had us way outgunned. I could not imagine how we would possibly defend against it with our limited abilities and resources. Earth was in trouble...
For three hours we tracked and recorded the mega fleet. For three hours we saw no sign of our BHD drillers. We wondered if they had somehow not activated because they were six hours overdue. We marked the supplies down as lost as we prepped for our voyage home. I punched in the way-points for our flight plan. I had the others do a quick check of my numbers before pushing the throttle to full.
Distance to Earth... 1.93866 light years or 18,313,289,748,000 kilometers. Peak speed would approach 42 times light speed before deceleration. We would be home in just over 20 days.
As we sped away from the main fleet I began thinking of what the next 20 days of boredom would be like. We were captive in the small vessel. We could stand, but there was really nowhere to move around. I asked Whip how it was that we were able to sit in the chairs for so long without feeling weary and sore. She dug into an electronic manual and soon had the answer.
The reclamation suits that we all wore were equipped with thousands of small electrodes. Tiny high voltage shocks were constantly being applied to our bodies in patterns that would keep our muscles healthy. It was another of David Brenner and his team's ingenious creations. Whip noted that the manual stated that test subjects actually saw muscle gain over the course of a week while the suits were active.
I began to picture myself scooping Paige up off the ground with my bulging biceps before carrying her through the door to my quarters and laying her onto my anti-grav mattress. It didn't take long before my daydream was interrupted. It was Pop remarking that with our use of two reactors we would be cutting it close on our fuel supply on our trip home.
According to his calculations we would be down to 2.5% supply when we arrived. And that calculation had a plus or minus 3% accuracy. The last thing we needed was to run out of Sodium before reaching home. Space was a cold dark place.
Our flight path took us around the alien fleet and then straight back towards our tiny sun. For just over ten days we accelerated to just under 43 times light speed. We studied or played solitaire for 16 hours before another six hours of sleep was imposed upon us. That cycle was to be repeated daily for the duration of our flight.
Pop made power adjustments to turn off the ships lighting and consoles during periods of sleep. The savings were miniscule but with our potential fuel shortage every bit helped. On the thirteenth day Pop's calculations had our fuel supply showing us with 0.04% remaining upon arrival with a plus or minus 1% accuracy. We had about a 50 / 50 chance of running out of fuel.
He tagged our worst case as leaving us stranded just outside the heliosphere. The black void of space would not be our friend. I asked if there were any other systems that could be shut down. Eig
ht minutes later the reclamation system was powered off and we each disconnected ourselves from our chairs.
We would be traveling the final week of our mission without food. The reactors on-board had the ability to produce small quantities of water. For seven days we would be sipping the water orally in an attempt to stay hydrated. Man could go without food for weeks but not without water. The shutdown of the reclamation system increased our numbers to 0.34% raising our chances to 70 / 30.
The last seven days were spent in silence with our consoles and the interior lighting off. The dim light that remained in the cabin was being emitted from several equipment LEDs. Two flashing green LEDs were my friends.
At the start of day 20 we dropped through light speed and entered the heliosphere. Pop quickly powered down the second reactor in a final attempt at conservation of our remaining Sodium. Its tiny amount of remaining fuel was diverted to the first reactor's feed.
As we passed Jupiter Pop's console lit up with a flashing ominous warning. We were out of fuel for the BHD leaving us with two hours of active skin and cabin oxygen scrubbers. I began broadcasting on our standard communications channels. We needed help. Our speed remained at more than 200,000 kilometers per hour but we had no steering.
Our current course would take us just past the Moon, but that was still three hours away. By that time we would be completely out of power... and oxygen. Thirty minutes passed before we got a response from command. Ten minutes after that the warble of channel 1647 chimed in on my audio implant.
It was Paige and they had two rescue ships on the way. The rescue Defenders would have to match our speed and then one of them would have to swing its rear door around to ours. A Sodium transfer would have to made in open space while traveling at the 200,000 kilometers per hour. The transfer would be done by tossing a small package of Sodium from the rear door of one craft to a waiting Astronaut at the rear door of the other.
Bigg volunteered for the duty. Defender A1 with its freckled red-haired pilot soon came alongside us. A quick maneuver placed the rear of A1 within 12 meters of the back of our craft. This would be our first chance to test out the new reclamation suit helmets. It was not something I looked forward to. Before depressurizing I did a full dump of our main fleet data to Battle Command.
With the active skin disabled and the cabin depressurized we had about 15 minutes to make the transfer, stop the reactor, reload the feed and finally to do a restart. With the reactor and active skin down we were vulnerable to space debris. Any strike would easily penetrate our aluminum hull bringing our journey to an end. We moved as quickly as possible to make the exchange.
With both rear doors open the Defensive specialist for A1 tossed a packet about the size of a baseball to a waiting Bigg. He had it on the first catch and quickly turned it over to Pop. The A1 crewman then sent over a line attached to a winch. Big connected himself to the line and was pulled to safety in the other craft.
The line then came back for Whip and within minutes she was aboard A1. I had volunteered to stay with my ship and fly Pop home when the power was restored. I was disobeying a direct order to go, but I was not going to leave Pop alone. Defender A1 quickly closed their rear door and reactivated their skin and BHD.
With our rear door closed and with five minutes of air remaining Pop struggled to reload the reactor feed. I asked if the second reactor was a viable alternative to which I was told a resounding no. The light on my wrist pad began to blink yellow as our oxygen levels dropped to under a minutes worth. We continued to zoom along at 200,000 kilometers per hour as we moved just inside the Asteroid Belt.
With seconds to spare Pop let out a yell as his final reload attempt bore fruit. We had one shot at a reactor restart. Our ships battery held just enough power to spark the fusion reaction. Pop held up crossed fingers as he pressed the flashing red holo-button on the reactor console. Seconds passed with no indication of success.
The reactor then began to emit a small glow that just as suddenly faded. Several agonizing seconds passed before the glow returned and began to slowly build. Within less than a minute the reactor began to power up. I struggled to breath as I looked down at my wrist pad. My oxygen timer read -2.03m.
Pop hit a restart of the cabin systems and seconds later the cabin began to pressurize. When a green light appeared on the cabin oxygen readout I reached up and flipped the latches on my helmet. The stale air of my suit re-breather was soon replaced with fresh clean cabin air. I took in a long deep breath. We had made it home.
Chapter 12
Two hours after the reactor restart we were landing at Regents Field. Once down in the chamber we were taken to separate rooms where Techs removed our reclamation suits and hosed us down. The stench was horrifying. After the hose-down we were left to take showers. I took note of the fact that I had again lost weight. The reclamation suit and not having eaten for a week had worked wonders.
Strange thing about wearing the suit. You did not get hungry. I suspected they had some chemical fix in the IV to suppress those urges, but we had not been hooked up to the IV for a week. I dressed in a clean but now very baggy uniform and was then escorted into a debriefing. The recordings of the advance carrier and the full fleet had everyone in awe.
Just as we had entered the briefing room a team of Techs had come in hooking our IV ports to portable feeding units. We would be receiving the nutrition we had given up during our final weeks flight home.
I wondered how we could take on such an enemy with our meager defenses? Would Earth fall to these robotic ships? To a foe that we had yet to actually see? As voices in the room began to rise General Buck put his hammer fist down hard on the table. It drew everyone's instant attention.
He ordered each of the groups to start evaluating the data. Once they had a handle on what was coming he wanted action plans as to what we might do to try to stop them. Again he banged his fist on the conference table and the senior staff scrambled to begin their work. When the room had cleared he approached my team.
He wanted the details on how we had managed to destroy one of the carriers. I told him of our tactics and how I thought we had been a bit lucky with an attack not being expected. I did not think we would be that lucky again. A thousand fighters would be upon us in about two months and we had 78 Defenders ready for our defense.
The General then let us in on a contingency plan that had been in the works since the large fleet had been detected. Shell companies had been setup to design, plan and build factories overseas that would produce parts to be assembled here. He expected those plants to be fully operational in a matter of days. On our end we had another set of shell companies that were setup to assemble parts of the Defenders into larger sub-assemblies.
There were also two other chambers identical to this one with the first pilots expected from them in the next two weeks. By the time the alien carrier reached us we would have nearly 300 Defenders with their crews at the ready.
It was hardly a match for a thousand alien fighters. But, there was a second tier to the defensive strategy. Starting in another week we would be launching two rockets a day that would each be carrying four coil gun satellites. That would give us almost 500 coil guns encircling the earth. And then there was tier three.
After a briefing by the President and his Secretary of State we would be deploying three times the ground based coil guns at every major city around the globe. They were to be manned by each nation.
It was a technology we did not give up lightly, but it was the only way we could possibly protect the Earth's inhabitants. When the other major nations were briefed fully on what was possibly coming they were at first angry. With the gift of the coil gun technology they became very cooperative.
We had to all work together if we wanted to survive. At that very moment they were each receiving an updated briefing on what would be upon us in two months. General Buck had briefed the President personally telling him that a world wide effort was the only chance we had.
More than
4,000 heavy ground based coil guns would be in operation within that two month period. And with the size of the approaching full fleet behind them, he expected cooperation to only grow.
I told the general about our attempt to ambush the main fleet with our drillers. When asked for specifics of how it went I had to tell him that we did not know. We were not sure what had happened as there was no evidence that they had actually gone active before we left.
After a long discussion about the alien fleet the General dismissed us. We were given the remainder of the day to relax and rest. Bigg asked Whip to go with him to visit his son. Pop immediately made his way to the officer's lounge for a beer. I headed directly to Paige's lab.
I made channel 1647 private and talked with Paige as I walked. When I entered the lab I was met by a teary eyed wife who was ever so happy to see me. It was a feeling that I would surely not forget for the rest of my life. I wrapped my arms around her for a long embrace. I then knew what it was like for every sailor, soldier and airman who had ever had duty away from home. The welcome back made it all worthwhile.
We talked small talk for a bit before I asked what had happened to the QE comm link. She said that when we passed through light speed the link was broken. She had tried for hours to determine why and after a full day of effort had finally given up and determined that it was lost. She had removed the implant to run tests and had left it there in the lab.
She tried several times since to contact me but she guessed it was when we had again passed through light speed on our way to the main fleet. In my absence she had managed to create a second grouping of entangled particles. With one more she would be able to make another QE comm pairing enabling a second channel in another implant.
General Buck had given me permission to relieve Paige from duty for the remainder of the day. With my command we headed quickly to my cabin. Once inside I shed my baggy clothes and was greeted with an impressed smile. I scooped Paige up with my firm arms and laid her gently on the anti-grav mattress. For the remainder of the day we were in our own little private world.
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