The Arwen Book one: Defender

by Timothy Callahan

  “Chief, we are under attack. You do what you have to do to get that accelerator out of my ship. I’m going to do what I can to protect the comet. Cook out.” She gave her order and turned the radio off. “Move the Arwen between the comet and the attacking ships. Kel, how many are we talking about?”

  “Looks like about twenty-five fighters and a large cruiser.”

  “Where did they get a cruiser?” Marjorie asked. “I’m going to want some answers when this is done.”

  The Arwen’s engines came to life with a roar. “Sir,” Kel said, “the ships appear to be concentrating on the comet. I’m sending you the images now.”

  The fighters darted around the comet, firing large missiles into a milky cloud of comet dust. Explosions erupted through the mist-like geysers of orange flame through a foggy night.

  “Captain, Ricter wants to talk to you.”

  “Put him on.”

  “Captain, what’s happening?” Even with all that was happening, his voice was very matter of fact and stilled.

  “We’re under attack. What’s going on over there?”

  “We’ve been hearing explosions. The ship doesn’t like what’s happening.”

  “I think I know what they’re planning. The comet hasn’t fully moved far enough way away. If they can stop it or break it, it will hit Regal and destroy it,” Kel said.

  “We have to stop them. Kel, arm missiles and fire.”

  The Arwen trembled as hundreds of missiles were launched from their housing, streaking up and over the comet. White tracer streamers trailed behind them. Missile and fighter danced for miles over, under, and around the Arwen.

  On the screen, Marjorie saw the cruiser and gasped at its size. It was at least as large as the Arwen and two times larger than the Jerrasic ship. Its smooth surface was reflecting the light from the sun. Its armor, slanted at different angles, shimmered: a telltale sign there was a force field surrounding the vessel. She could hardly believe the Plick, or anyone on Regal, would be able to build such a ship. It belched out an energy beam which was quickly absorbed by the Arwen’s shields. They buckled, but did not break.

  “Return fire!”

  High-powered energy particles burst from the sides of the Arwen and sliced into the cruiser. She saw sheets of metal fly off. “The shields aren’t as strong as ours. Blast them again.”

  “We can’t,” Kel said. “The chief overrode the recharging.”

  “Chief, why did you do that?”

  “We can’t fire again,” McFerren said. “The magnetic field is not going to hold if we recharge them. I’m sorry, we just can’t.”

  The Plick ship fired another energy blast at the shields. “Shield can’t take another blast like that!” Kel yelled, drops of sweat moistening his brow. “We have fighter activity above the ship.”

  Marjorie watched in horror as the surviving fighters fell into formation above the Arwen, one behind the other. It was the same formation they had used on their first attack. She counted at least fifteen, more than she would have liked, each diving full speed on a suicide run. “Brace yourselves!” Cook yelled.

  The first of the fighters crashed into the shields and exploded. The second destroyed the shield just as the third hit. One after another, the fighters exploded into huge balls of nuclear fueled fire as they plowed into the Arwen.

  The lights flickered while the ship shook. Marjorie felt each blow in her heart and gut. It sounded as if the ship were shrieking in pain as metal was torn from the skeleton.

  Smoke from the vents filled the bridge. Kel coughed. “We have casualties from all over the ship. The shields are down. Missile controls are down. We lost power to several dozen sections.”

  “Chief, what’s the status of the field?”

  “Collapsing!” he yelled in a panic. “I’m going to try and eject the accelerator now!”

  Kel ran up to Marjorie. “We can’t do that; we’re too close to the comet. If we eject it, there’s a good chance it’ll get caught in the chain reaction.”

  The Plick cruiser fired another volley of energy into the hull, ripping its side apart. Marjorie watched her recurring nightmare played out in front of her eyes as bodies flew out into the cruelty of space.

  Her mind reacted in a way she had never experienced before. She did not know what to do next. Fear gripped her heart and mind. One more blast from the Plick cruiser, and the Arwen would be no more. One more minute and the particle accelerator would destroy them as well. There was nothing left for her to do but say good-bye to her ship.

  “Captain!” Kel yelled. “Something is happening with the comet.”

  Marjorie looked as a stream of glowing particles erupted from the front of the comet. At first she didn’t know what it was. She watched in amazement as the small wormhole opened. The debris of the comet shifted and started to fuel the strangelets that had created the wormhole. Within seconds it was large enough to pass through. To her amazement it did.

  Suddenly she saw her way out. The comet was no longer close. “Chief, blow the particle accelerator now!”

  The crew braced themselves for the explosion. The Arwen shook like it never had before as the front cone detonated. Shrapnel etched ugly scars into the Arwen’s armor plating. Through the debris of the now exposed front of the Arwen, the particle accelerator tumbled into space, a trail of pipes, equipment, and glass followed closely behind.

  Gravity shifted as the plates tried to compensate for the high energy turn the Arwen had to make. The accelerator exploded, growing as bright as a sun for a split second as the strangelets ate it up. When the brightness cleared, nothing was left but a tiny wormhole that quickly evaporated.

  She had saved the Arwen from that death but only doomed it to another. The Plick ship lined up for one last blow on the naked, defenseless Arwen.

  The energy beam sliced another section of the hull. Marjorie braced herself for the moment when the beam would hit a vital section and cause an uncontrollable chain reaction that would blow the ship into nothingness.

  Something passed in front of the beam. Cook looked at her monitor to see the Rulla’s battle cruiser blocking the path of the blast. She did her best to contain the urge to cheer.

  ~*~

  “It was about time I get to kill someone,” Plooma said, sitting up in his chair as his battle cruiser bore down on the Plick ship. His shields were holding, barely. “Ready to fire energy beams. Aim for the engines.”

  A high-intensity energy beam smacked into the shields of the Plick cruiser and was absorbed. The beam focused on the Rulla’s ship paused for a second before firing again, stronger than before.

  Alarms of varying urgency blared away, but Plooma ignored them. “Prepare missiles. I want to take that shield down before we fire another energy blast.”

  The Plick cruiser turned broadside, exposing all its guns. Several flashes of multi-colored lights, each color represented a different energy signature. The impressive volley ripped the shields apart and exposed Plooma’s ship.

  He ordered his ship to maneuver next to the Plick’s cruiser. Hundreds of missiles launched from the side, streaking toward the enemy. The Plick’s anti-missile defense placed up a wall of rail gun ejected metal, hoping it would hit or disrupt the missiles. Some exploded, but not enough.

  The shield collapsed. Now both ships faced off, naked in the vacuum of space. Gunners from both ships fired everything they had into their enemies. The battle was fierce but short. Within minutes both combatants were blackened and battered.

  The Plick cruiser ignited its jets and moved away from the fight.

  Plooma’s ship launched another salvo of missiles. The cruiser returned fire. Another devastating set of explosions rocked both ships, crippling them in space. Both drifted aimlessly, dead husks.

  Rulla Plooma, his throat sore from breathing in the smoke which was quickly filling his bridge, leaned forward and grinned. He turned to one of his bridge crew. “What is our status?”

  “Sir, we’re adrift with n
o energy left for the weapons.”

  “Do we have any missiles left?”

  “No, sir. We launched the last in the final assault.”

  “What is their status?”

  “Dead like us, sir.”

  “Good. Send a message back to Regal and tell them we’ve got a Plick battle cruiser we need to destroy. Send a message to Captain Cook that we’ve done our job and thank her for helping us remove the threat of the comet. Begin repair work on the engines, our mission here is completed.”

  ~*~

  Ricter, Thomas, Ling, and Fran all sat inside the computer room watching as all the computers came to life at once.

  Ricter was the first feel the vibrations. “What is that?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s new,” Ling said, staring at messages as they quickly appeared and disappeared on the monitor. “I can’t tell you what it is, because those messages are flying by faster than I can translate. I can read some of it and can tell you that the comet is about to do something major.”

  “Like what?” Thomas asked.

  “I bet it’s going into wormhole space,” Fran said. “We know it can, and we know it’ll do all it can to survive. We haven’t seen anything to indicate it has any weapons. What else could it do?”

  “If it goes into wormhole space,” Thomas said, “what will happen to us? Will anyone be able to rescue us?”

  “I doubt it,” Ricter replied. He tried to project an aura of calm. That’s what Captain Cook would do when in a crisis, and it seemed to be the best way to keep his young coworkers calm. “We need to head to the shuttle as fast as we can. Get the rest of the crew. We won’t have much time.”

  Ricter and Thomas ran into the hallway and toward the shuttle while Fran and Ling ran to the engine room to alert the others. Ricter wasn’t too concerned with leaving, as he decided that if he couldn’t get off he would stay and make this his life work. He felt confident someone else would find the comet one day, and when they did he could do them a great service in whatever information he could give them. “Thomas, you go and get the shuttle ready. I know a few people who were left in the hibernation room. I’ll tell them to get up here.”

  Lights inside the hallway dimmed to a twilight level. The floor vibrated and hummed as the massive particle accelerator jumped to life. There was no countdown clock, no warning when they would fall into the wormhole. He even doubted he would know until he looked at the computer to confirm it.

  He saw several of the Arwen crew running toward him and stopped. “Go to the shuttle, I’ll meet you there.”

  Without questions they obeyed. Ricter watched them turn the corner and disappear. He knew those were the people he wanted to rescue from the hibernation chamber and there was no reason for him to stay anymore. He couldn’t ignore the idea of living on this comet, studying it. Pulling out his communicator, he said, “Thomas, take off without me. Do not respond. I’ve turned the communicator off.” And with that he turned the communicator off and set it onto the ground.

  ~*~

  Thomas couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Professor Ricter turned his radio off. He could run out and go after the professor, even stay on the comet with him, or he could pilot the shuttle off the comet and rescue everyone else.

  The more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn’t have any choice to make.

  Fran and Ling sprinted in, followed by the five other crew members left on board. “Where’s the professor?” Fran asked.

  “He wants to stay,” Thomas answered. “Come on, we need to get out of here before the comet enters the wormhole.”

  “Too late,” Ling said, pointing out the window. Her eyesight must have been amazing, because all he could see was a whitewash from the comet debris as it passed over top of the shuttle. Then he saw what she did, nothing but total blackness.

  “No,” Thomas said, “we must have just entered. We still have a chance if we can get to the entry point before it closes. Hang on folks. We’re going in hot.”

  Thomas lifted the shuttle off of the surface of the comet and into the total emptiness of wormhole space. It was a total blackness unlike anything he’d seen before. Even space, as dark as it was, still had millions of points of light that one could look at. In wormhole space, there was nothingness stretching on forever.

  Thomas flew behind the comet, its debris causing the shuttle engines to sputter but not shut down. He didn’t know where the hole would be if it were out there. The best place to look would be behind the comet where it had entered.

  Once out of the whitewash from the debris field, he scanned in front of him hoping to find something—anything!—that would tell him where to go.

  “Look!” Fran yelled and pointed.

  Thomas saw what she was pointing to. One very small, and quickly fading, point of light not in front of him but above him. It seemed so far away that Thomas wondered if they would make it. Only one chance, he thought and ignited the shuttle’s engines to full power.

  The shuttle lurched forward toward the pinhole of light. That’s all it seemed to be, a tiny point of light. As he got closer, he could see that it was a hole in space which was slowly shrinking.

  What would happen if only part of the shuttle could fit through? The edges of the hole were made of strangelets, and the shuttle—and everyone in it—would vaporize if one of those strangelets were to touch it. The only comfort he got from a death like that was it would be quick. No suffering.

  He squinted as he approached. Soon it filled his entire view, and he knew there was no turning back. He decided to close his eyes and hope for the best.

  With his eyes shut, the only way Thomas knew he had made it through unharmed was when he heard the cheers from Fran and Ling. He opened his eyes to see real space, real stars, and a very real Arwen. He smiled, proud of his accomplishment.

  Someone spun his chair around and before he could react he felt that person was kissing him long and hard on the lips. When the kiss was finished, he saw Ling pull away from him. “Thank you,” she said, then leaned in and kissed him again.

  ~*~

  Kel jogged around the bridge checking everything he could. The room filled with thick, white smoke and threatened to choke everyone. The fires, still raging out of control, threatened to destroy the ship.

  “I want those fires under control!” Marjorie yelled.

  “We’re trying,” Kel replied. “I think we’re going to have to do an emergency hull breach to vent the fires into space.”

  “Do it,” Marjorie replied. The lights on the bridge dimmed and without warning, Marjorie felt herself become lighter. Gravity was failing. “Chief, what’s going on?”

  “The power grid is down,” he shouted. “Emergency power is running low. I had to use some of it to keep the magnetic field around the strangelet when we went to red alert.”

  “How long until we have full power?”

  “At this stage, a while. Once we get the fires under control, I can start working on repairing the generators, but not before then.”

  “Kel.” Marjorie turned the chief off and looked at her second in command. He was in complete control of a situation which was whirling out of control. “Give me an ETA for the emergency breach.”

  “The firefighters are evacuating the areas. Captain, we’ve taken some casualties in fighting the fire.”

  “We’ll worry about that once we get this situation under control.”

  The Arwen trembled once more as a massive explosion ripped a hole in its side. In the near weightlessness of the bridge, everyone not strapped down tumbled like bees inside a shaking soda can.

  Kel’s head slammed into wall with a loud thud. His body fell limp and slowly drifted to the ground. Marjorie jumped out of her chair and bounced lightly over to her fallen officer. She feared the worse as she turned him over. Blood dripped out of a large gash on his forehead. He moaned loudly and opened his eyes. “Hello, Captain, what’s going on?” he asked. His speech slurred and his eyes had a long
, faraway look to them. It was a concussion. He was useless at the moment.

  “Kel, don’t move.” She took his hand and placed it on the open wound. “Just keep pressing. We need to stop the bleeding.”

  “Is that an order?”

  “Yes, it is.” Marjorie looked around at the chaos of the bridge. Kel wasn’t the only one hurt. First things first, worry about the Arwen’s survival, then worry about her first officer.

  “All right, those not hurt get back to your posts now. We’re going to do an emergency hull breach. Commander Lipton has been hurt, so I’ll give the direct order.”

  The bridge crew jumped up at the command and sat in their chairs, strapping themselves to the chairs in case of another unexpected explosion.

  “Brace yourselves!” Marjorie yelled, tightly grabbing onto her chair. “All right, emergency breach now!”

  Tightly sealed vents on the hull slid open, exposing the corridors to space. Air, smoke, fire, and anything else not bolted down blew into space.

  “Seal them,” Marjorie ordered. The smoke on the bridge cleared quickly.

  The vents closed. The air was thinner and much colder than it had been. “Give me a report.”

  “All fires are under control. No reports of injuries from the emergency breach, but we’re still checking.”

  “Good. Someone get a medic up here to help Kel.” She pressed a button on her computer. “Chief, what’s going on with the power?”

  “We’ll have things up and running in no time, Captain. Now that the fires are out we can get to the damaged sections.”

  “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Keep me informed.”

  “Captain, the shuttle from the comet is asking permission to land.”

  She sat up and smiled. They made it out. “Give him permission. I’ll go down and meet them.”

  She lightly bounced out the door.

  The hallways were a mess of hanging wires, sooty walls, and fire-foam-soaked floors. It would take a very long time to make her fit to serve again. Marjorie wondered if it would even be worth it.

  She knew it was her time to retire. She had a standing offer at a promotion, but she’d never thought she would want it. This mission had pushed her, and her crew, to the limit. Was it worth it anymore?