The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8)

by Gerry A. Saunders

“Good.”

  “Cheer-up then,” Frank tried to make light of it.

  “Huh. Have you got some of that hot chocolate?”

  “For you, yes. Sit down.” He tapped in the combination. Ten seconds later, it was ready, and they sat quietly sipping their drinks and looking deep into each other’s eyes.

  Chapter 18

  Trouble at Kepler.

  Commander Tripicac was becoming increasingly concerned that some of Marshal Trendor’s Battlecruisers were ‘testing the water. In that, they kept bringing two or three ships slowly past, and no more than a hundred metres away from Tarcan’s Battlecruisers.

  Unable to use the ships force-fields this close to the others, or to Crilla. Tripicac could do nothing. And knew it was just a matter of time before Trendor would increase his Battlecruisers to four or five.

  If Marshall Trendor got his ship’s timing right and tried the same with Aran’s group. Then he would be able to destroy more than half of the Senate’s loyal ships, in one go.

  Tripicac had no illusions about what could happen, as he remembered the Navy’s assassination of the Solveron delegation, which he knew was ordered by Space Marshal Trendor. Then, the subsequent retaliation by the Solverons, which lead to the death of his family, all of which was still raw in his mind.

  He knew the situation would worsen when Trendor’s buddy, Commander Ventar arrived. Trendor would have another twelve Battlecruisers and a battleship at his disposal.

  ‘That would be bad,’ he thought. ‘The Senate would be disposed of in no time, and a new dictator, Marshal Trendor, would reign and would continue slaughtering people who opposed him.’

  ‘This isn’t good,’ he thought. ‘I need to do something, but what? Then after applying his mind to the subject for some time, he decided that he would act.

  ‘After all; I have a good plan, at least, I believe it is.’

  But he couldn’t tell Tarcan or Arans what he was planning. Marshal Trendor’s men would be watching them for sure.

  Cazer had developed a new file scrambling system for him, which hadn’t yet been released to any other ship, and this gave him a slight advantage.

  So he ordered Cazer to issue the de-scrambler file to his five Battlecruisers.

  Then Tripicac issued an order to Arans and Tarcan telling them to swap their assignments around, starting tomorrow. This would ensure that both Commanders would contact him.

  True to expectations, both called.

  Arans look confused, “Why the change Tripicac?”

  “I just thought you needed a change of routine.”

  “Well, yes that would be nice. How long for?”

  Tripicac had to be careful. “A week would be good if you both agree.”

  “Fine with me.”

  “Excellent, I’ll send the authorization to you.”

  Arans hesitated, then said, “OK.”

  Tarcan’s call followed immediately. “I imagine that Arans has asked you why. Yes?”

  “Yes, and as I just told him, I thought you could both do with a change, that’s all.”

  “Sounds good, so when, time wise?”

  “Tomorrow. Arans and I thought a week.”

  “That’s OK with me,” Tarcan replied.

  “Good,” Tripicac said, trying to sound relaxed. “You’ll receive the authorisation in a while.”

  Tarcan was puzzled. ‘Not like Tripicac to worry about red tape,’ he thought, then said, “Ok,” and his image disappeared.

  ‘So far so good,’ Tripicac thought.

  “Trenma can you send the authorizations, and attach Cazer’s file.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  That done; he sat back, ready to put the final touches on his plan.

  The following day, Tripicac moved his ships into seemingly random positions along the same line as Arans ships. Then waited, patiently.

  One and a half hours had passed before Marshal Trendor’s ships arrived, four of them this time. They moved slowly in and alongside Arans ships, a mere hundred metres separating each row.

  “What are you playing at?” Arans bawled into the general Inter-ship broadcast comm’s.

  Tripicac waited for just the right moment. Timing was everything. He moved his ships swiftly out and alongside the Marshal’s four. Then flashed his ship’s ID to Arans, with a message that automatically opened Cazer’s file.

  Arans read the information, as did Tarcan, who was stationed close to the Starship construction facility, on the moon Tapin.

  The message read, Terrorist Plot. Order Marshal Trendor’s ships to stop for inspection.

  Tripicac then yelled into the Inter-ship comm’s, as he saw that weapons were being powered up on the Marshal’s ships.

  He had been prepared for that. His particle-beam weapons were at maximum power. Then, as they fired, all hell let loose on Marshal Trendor’s ships.

  With no force-fields to protect them, they took the full brunt of his ships particle beam weapon’s fire.

  The particle beams flicked from both sides, straight into the Marshal’s four ships. Which, with nowhere to go, were now trapped between both Arans and Tripicac’s ships.

  Arans and Tripicac’s crews concentrated their fire on the vulnerable parts of Trendor’s Battlecruisers. Hull plates melted and boiled away, and systems controlling their weapons and drive all but disappeared during the ferocious attack.

  The attack was short but vicious, and within a couple of minutes, all four of the Marshal’s ships were disabled.

  Meanwhile, on receiving the information at Tapin, Tarcan’s ships immediately went into full force-field mode, there being no restriction on weapons fire out here in space.

  Then Tarcan swung his Battlecruisers round, to aim their Antimatter weapons at another small group of the Marshal’s ships.

  But here at Tapin, things were different. The Marshal’s ships, on realising the futility of acting against Tarcan’s ships immediately stood down.

  ‘What a waste,’ Tripicac thought. As he looked at the pictures of four of Marshal Trendor’s damaged Battlecruisers showing on his screen.

  ‘He knew there would be casualties. But it could have been a lot worse. All of their ships could have been smouldering wrecks.’

  Tripicac thought on, getting things into perspective. ‘He knew that Space Marshal Trendor would be okay. Trendor was a born survivor, and untouchable. A really dangerous man.

  But, it was good that though Trendor had started with twelve loyal ships. That number was now down to eight.

  However, in a couple of days when Commander Ventar returned, he would add another twelve Battlecruisers and one battleship. Making a total of twenty-one ships that are loyal to Trendor.

  That was bad. Then the odds would swing in Trendor’s favour again.’

  His thoughts were interrupted, as Senate Chairman Kasosko, called him.

  “Yes, Senator?”

  “Are you all OK Tripicac?”

  “Yes, we’re all good Chairman, but four of Marshal Trendor’s Battlecruisers aren’t. He was about to ambush both Arans and my ships, plus Tarcan’s ships.

  But even though we’ve put four of his ships out of commission. We can’t do a damned thing about Trendor.”

  “That’s unfortunate. I’m sure that as the new Battlecruisers are brought online, he’ll also try to commandeer them.” Kasosko replied.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Tripicac said.

  Then began to speak again “I, uh. What the.”

  “Tripicac. I, uh. Do nothing yet,” Kasosko muttered back.

  “What?”

  Chairman Kasosko had a hint of fear on his face, as he said.

  “I don’t know, but something told me to do nothing yet.”

  “I sensed it as well,” Tripicac voiced, shakily. “Then maybe we’re not on our own Chairman?”

  “Could it be your Humans?”

  “No. I don’t think so,” he thought a moment. “If they were coming, then it could be them. But no, I really don’t
think it’s them. But I can’t put my finger on it.”

  Kasosko suddenly changed, looking more invigorated, then asked.

  “Tripicac, why did the Solverons stop attacking our ships when they could have just as easily destroyed us? After all, we had hemmed ourselves in. Just asking for it.”

  “Something shocked them, Senator. I don’t know what, but whatever it was, it was a game-changer that’s for sure.”

  “I agree. So why did we both just sense something or someone say ‘do nothing yet,’ where did that come from?”

  “I really don’t know Chairman,” Tripicac was lost for words.

  ‘Why indeed?’ He thought. Then replied. “Well, the Humans have a transceiver implant that allows them to interact with each other and their ships,” he paused again, to think.

  “No. it can’t be that. We don’t have such a thing. Unless….”

  “What?” Kasosko asked.

  “Well, there was a rumour going around at the time of the Solveron delegation’s assassination, that the Solveron’s could put images in your mind.”

  “Like, helping to explain things?”

  “I guess so. I’m sure they couldn’t read minds, but maybe they can suggest things…? That would be a good reason for Marshal Trendor to distrust them though wrongly I think.”

  “Then, could it be that the Solverons are trying to tell us what to do?”

  “No, Chairman. But I think someone is manipulating us to do things a particular way.”

  “If you’re right Tripicac, then we mustn’t do anything yet.”

  “Agreed. I’m sure the humans will be coming soon, now the wormhole has reopened. No. You are right. We must wait.”

  “So, then we’ll have all the players in one place?”

  “That is a big question. I’m sure the Humans are a significant factor in all of this. The key, perhaps.” Tripicac paused then said.

  “I don’t know, but I feel positive, about the whole thing.”

  Chapter 19

  Next stop, Oblivion.

  Andromeda waited for the captains’ images to light on Frank’s screen. Then switched over to the new optical laser beam communications system, which had been perfected by Hector’s scientists and was now installed on all ships.

  “The connection is secure Frank. Old technology, but excellent for this use.”

  “Good. OK gents, let’s hurry it along. Have we all got our techs linked in?”

  “Yes, we’re all listening, oh great one,” Hector joked.

  “Yeah-yeah,” he said, grinning at the expectancy he could see on his captains’ faces.

  “OK. Point one. Since none of us has ever gone through a natural wormhole before, my quantum theory scientists have told me, um…, I think you can explain it better than me Ned.”

  “Yes, very well,” Ned said. Then cleared his throat before speaking.

  “I’ll try to keep this simple,” he said smiling.

  “We believe that when a ship moves into the natural wormhole, the wormhole sucks it in and spits it out at the other end. The speed at which the ship enters the wormhole is irrelevant.

  Then, when it is coming out of the other end of the wormhole, the forces that sucked it in, will pull it back, trying to stop it from exiting. Which, in turn, will make the ship’s exit from the wormhole, manageable.”

  “Absolutely,” Hector agreed. “We go along with Ned’s theory, which I’ll try to explain in another way.

  Basically, the wormhole’s boundary ring acts like a catapult. The level of force that remains at the end of the catapult’s throw translates into the speed at which you will then transit through the wormhole. But when you come close to the end of the wormhole, the force that pushed you into the hole, will act in reverse, trying to pull you back out of it.

  However, we know there is zero drag in the wormholes we create, and assume it will be the same with this natural wormhole. Consequently, the transit rate should be constant from one end of the wormhole to the other,” Hector finished.

  “Well, there you go,” Frank said. “We learn something new every day. Right, next. What are we looking at star-wise Tim?”

  “Ok. I think you know most of this anyway. The Crillons star system Kepler is just under 600 light years away from us here at Zeta Reticuli, and it’s similar to our sun, in temperature and so on. We know that it has two planets. One of which is Kepler 22B, it’s in the habitable zone of the star and is probably an Earth-type planet.

  What we didn’t know, is that 22B has two moons. One of which, we’ve just found out, has a lot of dark ‘objects’ that could be large assembly plants. Interestingly, the same kind of objects seem to be on Planet 22B.

  Which leads us to believe the Crillon’s home planet is, in fact, Kepler 22B.”

  “How did you get such good results, Tim?”

  “Well, we usually look at events that happened 600 light years ago. But the drone we left here at Zeta was able to copy the Crillon mapping ship’s camera memory and transmitted the data back to us. Fortunately, for us, the camera’s core memory was wide-open when it was recording.”

  “That was a bit of luck Tim. Copy this info to all the ships, please.”

  “Will do.”

  “OK. Let’s move on” Frank said.

  “Now, let’s sort out our exit strategy and configuration. Right now, we don’t know whether we’ll have a battle or a reception committee on our hands.”

  “We should assume that it’ll be a battle,” Andromeda replied.

  “I agree with Andromeda,” Turpin’s captain, Harry Blacksmith interjected. Followed by a resounding, ‘Yes.’ from everyone else.

  “Good, we all agree. Now, our exit strategy. Hector, I want your view on something before we start.”

  “Go on.”

  “We know that the modified drones were successful in creating the small wormholes that terminated inside the Solveron ships. We also know that the Solveron ships are huge, round, and slow moving. Correct?”

  “Absolutely, go on.”

  “So, the drones obviously had plenty of time to generate the wormholes and then lob the Nukes into the Solveron ships through the wormholes. Right?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “So, could we do the same to a Crillon stationary Battlecruiser? Let’s say up to ten kilometres away from a drone?”

  “I think so. But we’d have to tweak the range, and be more accurate than at present. Just a minute, please,” Hector said and talked to someone else nearby.

  “Yes, we're sure it could be done, and we could modify a few more drones in the time we have before we exit.”

  “Good. Then it all seems do-able, Hector.”

  “But, Frank. Here’s the problem. How do we tell the drone which ship to go after, especially if there are several ships close together?”

  “H’m…, yes, I agree with you that trying to identify the target could be a problem,” Frank said. Then paused for a moment, thinking.

  “Tim. Can Astro tag them like you did at Delta Pavonis?”

  “Yes. We used a high-powered laser flash to leave the charge on their hulls at Pavonis. So we could do the same again; then we can follow that particular ship.”

  “Excellent. Andromeda will give you the co-ordinates when and if we decide that we need a particular ship tagged for the drones.”

  “OK, then we can give Hector the target’s ID as soon as we’ve tagged it.”

  “Is that acceptable to you, Hector?”

  “Yes, that’s all we’d need.”

  “Tim, get a sample ID over before we jump. Hector’s engineer needs to know what to look for when targeting a drone.”

  “Will do.”

  “OK. Configuration next. The diameter of the wormhole naturally determines how we transit it.

  So, Andromeda will take the lead, followed by Derringer and Turpin, side by side, and no more than 500 metres apart.

  Then Argonaut on its own, followed by Illustrious and Repulse, side-by-side, and
the same distance apart again.

  Leave about a kilometre between each group, and when we exit the wormhole, we’ll form the usual box shape.”

  “And the drones, Frank?” Tony asked.

  “This is an unknown. Maybe we should have four drones close to the ships; two of them standard design, and two of them modified. Any comments?”

  They all shook their heads, no.

  “All right. Andromeda will sync a matrix so that we’re all in one block. Right, that’s everything. Ten minutes to exit jump time then.

  Good luck, and see you all at the other end.”

  Frank tapped Susanna’s icon, and the image of her face filled his screen.

  “Hello, darling,” she said, with a broad smile lighting her face. “Missed you,” she added. Then said, I’ll hazard a guess that we’re not going to see each other for a few hours?”

  “No, unfortunately. I miss you; I just wanted to gaze at your face, Sues,” he said, grinning.

  “Gaze all you like, fella.”

  “Only a couple of hours, then once we’re travelling I’ll be with you.”

  “Wow. That should give us two full weeks together,” she said. Gave him a wink, and broke the contact.

  By the time, the two-minute warning sounded all the ships were lined up as planned and were ready to use their Skippa sub-light drives to enter the natural wormhole.

  Frank swung his viewing camera round to look behind the Andromeda and saw Derringer and Turpin side by side, then the bulk of the Argonaut, followed by a glimpse of the other two ships.

  ‘Most impressive,’ he thought.

  Then he saw the shimmers of the four drones’, who were nestling close to Derringer and Turpin.

  His countdown chronometer ticked away the seconds, tick tock, tick tock.

  The ten-second warning sounded in all crew’s transceivers. Then Frank felt Andromeda move forward, in minute steps as the Skippa sub drive came into operation.

  He suddenly felt as if he’d left part of himself behind, almost as if he was surging past a catapult’s arms under immense power. Then, for a moment, nothing. It felt as if he was stationary. Then the rest of his body caught up and he knew they were in the wormhole, and in transit.