McFerren laughed, and Marjorie realized this was the first time she’d ever heard him laugh. It was nice to hear. “All right, Captain, we’ll get right on it.” He looked around and rubbed the bottom of his chin. “We’re going to have to cut the ventilation pipes and disconnect all but the most important wires. We can plant explosives on the cone to blow it open.” He looked around a bit more, his mind working feverishly to plan out the project.
~*~
“We must destroy it,” Rulla Plooma yelled. “We cannot let this ship destroy our planet.”
“I won’t,” Captain Cook said. “The comet will be moved. Even if we have to push it with the Arwen, we will move it.”
Plooma grinned, and Marjorie had the feeling he knew something. “I do not believe that this ship can do it. Captain, do you deny that there is something wrong with the Arwen?”
“What do you mean?” Marjorie asked, her eyes narrowing as if ready to fight.
“We know about the large magnetic field that your ship is powering, and we know that you don’t have much more time to keep the field up. So tell me, Captain, what aren’t you telling me?”
She looked over at Kel, whose face was impassive. Plooma had once again put her against a wall she couldn’t climb over. “We’re wasting time talking about the problems of the Arwen. I can assure you—”
“It’s my planet that will be destroyed, Captain!” Plooma yelled. “I do not have time for assurances, since I do not believe them. I have no doubt that you would try to move the comet, but I do not believe that you or your ship is able to do it.”
“You know that I’ll stop you from destroying it,” Marjorie said, “even if it costs me my ship; I will not let you destroy that comet unless we have no other choice.”
“Tell me how your ship has been crippled, Captain! Stop hiding vital information from me.”
Marjorie gritted her teeth. She had thought about telling him what had happened to her ship when she first entered the system but was afraid it would be a sign of weakness. Someone needed to offer the first handshake of trust if this race was going to join the alliance in the future. “As you know, when we first arrived we were attacked by the Plick.”
“Yes, we witnessed that attack.”
“One of them managed to get on board, and he rigged our particle accelerator to produce a strangelet. That magnetic field is up to prevent that strangelet from destroying the Arwen.”
Rulla Plooma listened and stroked his chin. “You can see now why I do not believe that the Arwen can do what you claim it can do.”
“This ship is one of the finest ships in our fleet. We will find a way to move that comet even if it’s the last thing the Arwen does.”
Now that he had the information he wanted, Plooma’s anger seemed to ebb away. Marjorie figured that it was just an act to see how she would react. “I understand you have faith in your ship, but I do not.”
“You will once you see what she can do. We should work together on this, and the two of us, my ship and your ship, can move the comet out of the way.”
“We don’t want to be your friend, Captain, but we will work with you to prevent our planet from being destroyed.”
“That’s all I can ask,” Marjorie said, then turned to Kel. “Tell me what we can do.”
“In the hours we have left, not too much,” Kel said. “If we charge the shields up to full power, which we can do now thanks to repairs, we can use them along with the Arwen’s engine to push the comet away.”
“How badly will that drain our power?” Captain Cook asked.
Kel’s face turned grim. “I would recommend doing it with a skeleton crew and to evacuate everyone else. We can do it, but it will probably be the last thing the Arwen does.”
“Captain, if I may,” Professor Ricter interrupted. “I don’t think we’ll need to do anything. I believe that the comet will move on its own once it sees that it’s in danger.”
“Do you have any proof of this, Professor?”
“Yes, I believe I do.” He stood and walked over to the large computer screen. “I’ve been studying the chart Thomas created. From what Thomas’s computer generation found, it shows that the comet went through three systems before arriving here. Knowing this, I took the simulation one step further and found the comet might have been in a similar situation when it passed through system 1102A. Now, granted, we haven’t explored that system too much, but we did survey it enough to know the orbits of the planets.”
“You know this for sure?” Marjorie asked.
“I would bet my reputation on it, Captain. I believe that if we do nothing, the comet will correct itself and move out of the way.”
“I do not believe we can do that,” Plooma said. “If you do nothing, I and my government will consider it an act of war and react accordingly.”
“Ricter, I need more.”
“I can’t give you more right now, Captain.”
“Then we’ll keep the original plan. Kel, charge the shields. Rulla, you are more than welcome to help us push the comet out of the way. Will you help us?”
Plooma nodded. “I will order my ship to charge the shields as well. Together we’ll move the comet.”
“You’re going to sacrifice the ship when I have a way to prevent that?” Ricter asked.
“I will sacrifice my ship to save a planet, yes. Professor, I understand you have your theory, but we don’t have time for theory right now. We need facts. You get me some facts and our plan will change.”
She wasn’t sure she liked the way he answered it. His normally loud, bombastic voice, answered quietly, almost calculatingly, “Okay, Captain, I’ll give you your proof.”
~*~
Ricter stormed into the engine room of the comet and walked up to Thomas, totally ignoring the others. “Thomas, you know how to fly a shuttle, correct?”
Thomas looked up from his computer. “I was a shuttle pilot before going to school, yes.”
“Come with me.” He grabbed Thomas by his arm and dragged him out of the engine room. “I need you to help me get proof for the captain this comet will move if it senses a threat.”
“How do you expect us to do that?” Thomas asked. “And what makes you think it’ll move?”
“Your simulation was the key. I think that it’s been in this situation before, and it moved. I think it’ll do it again if it thinks it’s going to collide with a large enough object.”
“What does this have to do with a shuttle?” Thomas asked.
“You get the shuttle off the comet and I’ll tell you.”
Thomas looked back where he knew Fran and Ling were. He wanted to head back there and talk to them to see what they thought. He knew, deep inside, they wouldn’t want him to go. Maybe it was time to make his own choice. Besides, getting on Ricter’s good side would be a welcome change to what he was used to. “All right, let’s go.”
Ricter patted Thomas on the back and the two sprinted down the hallway toward where the shuttle was docked. “What is your plan?” Thomas asked.
“One thing at a time, Thomas. One thing at a time.”
After a short sprint, the two climbed some ladders and ran through hallways until they arrived at the small hole that had originally been drilled. “Do you think anyone is on board?” Thomas asked.
“I doubt it. It’s not like they expect someone to steal it. Come on, let’s go.”
They climbed another ladder into the shuttle and found it empty. Thomas ran to the front. “Wow, this looks a lot different than when I flew.”
“Do you think you can fly it?”
Thomas didn’t want to disappoint Professor Ricter. It might have been his only chance to really impress the old man. “Yes, I think I can. Strap yourself in. I’m going to start the engines and close the hatch.”
~*~
“Captain, did you authorize the shuttle to leave the comet?” her communications officer asked.
“No, why?”
“I noticed the shuttle taking off
. I’ve tried to contact it, but I haven’t had any luck.”
“Get me Commander Lipton.” Cook sat up in her chair and watched the image on her monitor. The shuttle had cleared the debris field heading toward the front of the comet.
“Commander Lipton here.”
“Kel, did you authorize a shuttle launch?”
“No, why?”
“The shuttle just launched, and we can’t get in touch with it. Find out who on your team has that shuttle and get back to me.”
“Sir, the pilot is contacting us,” the communications officer said.
Marjorie looked at her communication screen to see a face she didn’t expect. “Thomas, what are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, but Professor Ricter insisted I come along.”
Thomas pushed the camera over to a very smug looking Professor Ricter. “Captain, you needed proof, and I’m going to give you proof.”
“Ricter, what are you planning?” Marjorie felt the anger building in her chest as she anticipated the professor’s answer.
“Just watch your monitors and tell me what you see.”
“Is there any way we can stop them?” Marjorie asked on her secure channel to Kel.
“I assume you don’t want to destroy them,” Kel replied. He sounded almost amused by the situation.
“It would be nice, but no, I don’t want to do that.”
“We can override the controls. Unless Thomas knows how to turn that off. I don’t know if he does. Maybe we should see what he has planned.”
Marjorie thought for a moment and leaned back in her chair. She sighed loudly. “Do you really think that would be the best thing?”
“The best thing? No. Do I think that if we stop the professor he will try something else to make his point? Yes.”
Marjorie stared at the screen that held the picture of the retreating shuttle. She couldn’t have the professor disobey a direct order. Yet Kel was correct. If she stopped him this time, he would just try again.
The two sides of the argument flip-flopped in her mind, and she struggled to find the right answer.
“Captain,” the communications officer said with a nervous twitter in his voice, “Rulla Plooma would like to talk to you.”
This day just keeps getting longer and longer, Cook thought before saying, “Okay, put him through.”
Plooma’s scowling face appeared. “Captain, I get back to my ship and I’m informed that a shuttle has taken off without you alerting us. If not for my desire to be friendly, I would have had it destroyed.”
“Our professor has decided to perform an unauthorized experiment.”
“I see. Is there any way we can help? I can send a small crew over to capture the shuttle if you’d like.”
The thought of Professor Ricter being a prisoner of the Rulla was more appealing than she wanted to admit. Even though she was tempted, she knew it would be a bad idea. “No, thank you, Rulla. I’ve decided to let the professor conduct his experiment. If it doesn’t work, there will be no harm done. If I need your help, I’ll ask for it. Cook out.” She turned to her communications officer. “Tell the professor he’s free to carry out his experiment, but I will want to have a serious word with him when he returns.”
~*~
“All right, Thomas, turn the shuttle around. We should be far enough away.”
Thomas banked the shuttle to face the comet. It was much larger than he’d thought. He knew the readings made it the size of a very small moon, roughly the same size of Charon, Pluto’s icy moon, but seeing something that large up close and seeing it as a bunch of numbers were two different things.
“All right, activate shields,” Ricter said. “How far can we extent them?”
“As far as power lets us.”
“Can we make them as large as the comet itself?”
“The larger we make it, the thinner it’ll be.”
“I just want it large enough for the comet to think it’s a threat. I’m banking on that massive computer we found to be intelligent.”
Thomas pressed a few icons on a computer screen. Ricter felt the hair on his skin rise a bit, and the engine hum was replaced with a slightly higher pitched murmur. “Do you think it’ll be smart enough to know that we’re a shuttle, not a planet?”
“My hope is this they don’t want to destroy any life that isn’t trying to destroy them. They fled a horrible war, and I don’t think they’ll want to harm anyone else because of it. The computer might just see a ship in front of them and move, but I don’t want to take the chance that we’re too small and we’ll be missed. Now, if we had the Arwen—”
Thomas laughed. “Sir, even if did get the Arwen, I’d have no idea how to fly it.”
Professor Ricter laughed as he patted Thomas on the back. The comet loomed large as it approached the shuttle.
There was only one person Ricter would admit he might be wrong to and that was himself. He felt his chest tighten and his hands, normally steady and calm, shake. The comet still bore down on them without any signs of moving. In a voice too calm for his current mental condition, he asked, “Thomas, are the shields extended as far as they can get?”
“Any bigger and they’ll dissipate. You’re not worried, are you?”
“No, not at all. I just thought that it would start to move by now. But we don’t know what it’s capable of doing, so we’ll just sit tight.”
Ricter kept looking for something to indicate the comet was turning but couldn’t see anything. Then Thomas tapped him on the shoulder. “Professor, look, we’re seeing more of the tail than before.”
He was right; the tail now drifting ever so gently behind the comet. “Yes, I see that. It’s beautiful.”
“No, sir, look. We can see the tail. When we first arrived, all we saw was the head. Our point of view is changing, and if that’s happening, and I’m not moving the shuttle . . .”
How could I be so stupid! “Yes, of course, it’s moving!” Professor Ricter said excited. “It’s moving! I never had any doubt. I just didn’t think it would move so gently away. Well done, Thomas, well done.” He patted Thomas on the back several times, each time harder than the last.
***
Kel ran into the control room just in time to see the engineers jump back from the computer, startled. “What happened?” Kel asked.
“I’m not sure. We were just checking on something when all of a sudden the computer turned on. Nothing we did would have done that.”
“Captain, we have some action over here. What’s the comet doing?”
“Sensors are showing nothing. Wait, hold on.” There was a long pause. The computer screen blinked to life and showed the shuttle; something in the alien language marked it with a box. Calculations scrolled across the bottom of the screen, and Kel felt gravity under him shift. “What’s going on, Captain? It feels like the ship is moving.”
“We think it is. I’m contacting Professor Ricter to see what he sees.”
Kel couldn’t help but smile when Marjorie clicked off. For all his bravado, the professor seemed to be right. He just saved not only Regal but the comet as well. Maybe he’d finally get the recognition he was looking for.
“Kel, this is Captain Cook. From what we can tell, the comet is moving out of the way of the shuttle.”
“I can tell you from here, Captain, that things are happening. What are we going to do now?”
“Nothing,” Cook said. “I think that the professor has proven his point. The comet will move out of the way of Regal.”
“So we’re done here?” Kel asked.
“No, now we have to figure out how to save the Arwen. I still want you and the others to stay over there and see what else you can find.”
Chapter Twelve
Marjorie sat on the bridge with a smile on her face. The comet had been steadily moving over the last few hours, and it looked as if it would clear the planet by a comfortable margin.
Professor Ricter made his way back to the comet and was doing some last mi
nute downloading of files. She still wasn’t sure how she would write his actions up in her report. He disobeyed an order but in doing so saved her some valuable time in figuring out how to save her ship. She ordered all the escape pods ready to be launched at any moment and tried her best to get all non-essential personnel off just in case things didn’t go right. She trusted the chief’s plan, but anything could go wrong.
Kel stood next to her and placed his hand on the chair. “Well, things are looking good.”
“You did a wonderful job. You’re going to get a huge recommendation when we get back.”
“How long do you think that’s going to be?” Kel asked.
“I ordered the beacon sent when we realized the comet was going to miss the planet. I wanted to let the Ulliam know what we found; see what they want to do with the comet. The professor has placed a request to stay on the comet and not return with us.”
“You’re not going to let him do that, are you?”
“No, no,” Marjorie said with a chuckle. “It’s really up to the Ulliam to decide if he can go with them or not.”
“Do you think they’ll let him?”
“I don’t—”
“Captain,” her sensor operator interrupted, “I’m reading multiple wormholes.”
Marjorie looked over at Kel. “From where?”
Now panic gripped the sensor operator’s voice. “Sir, multiple contacts heading in an attack formation!”
“The Plick,” Marjorie said. “Red alert, arm missiles, charge energy beams.”
The lights changed to red, and a loud siren screamed for attention. Kel jumped into combat mode and ran to the stations, making sure everyone was up to speed on what was going on.
“Captain, Chief McFerren wants to talk to you. It’s urgent.”
Without waiting for permission, the chief yelled, “Captain, at red alert with the energy weapons charged, we won’t have more than a few minutes of power. I don’t have enough time; we have to power down.”
The Arwen Book one: Defender Page 10
