by Jeff Sims
Another said, “Wow, the exterior seams are invisible. The quality of work is phenomenal. This ship looks like it could actually fly into outer space.”
A third laughed and said, “Well, they have to do something with all of the money they are making from the video game.”
Ace walked to the Sunflower’s exterior passageway. He noted that it was already open and the gangway was down. He walked up the gangway and to the bridge.
Jim spoke loudly so that everyone could hear him. Most weren’t that far from him, but the hangar was huge and sound didn’t carry very well inside it. He said, “The simulation will start as soon as everyone is aboard. Please line-up in single file in front of the main gangway. You will enter the ship based on your crewmember designation. Pilots first, then engineers, then crewmembers, and finally marines.”
The members of Alpha Squadron quickly made their way to the front of the line. The marines had little difficulty finding the end of the line. The middle, however, had developed a problem. Russ was standing there and shouted, “Jim, come back here, we have a problem.”
Jim walked back and met Russ. Russ pointed to the 4 engineers and said, “We are an engineer short. Further, these 10 aren’t sure what role they are supposed to have.”
Jim addressed the 10 in question. He asked, “What roles have you done before?”
One stepped forward and said, “Well, I have performed all roles. I can fly a fighter, calibrate the reactors in engineering, perform most required maintenance, fight like a marine in a boarding party, and I have even tried the officers’ roles.”
Jim responded, “So you are a jack-of-all trades and a master of none?”
The man chuckled at the joke and responded “Yes” and the other 9 behind him nodded their heads.
Jim said, “Well, as you can see we already have a full complement of pilots and marines, so those roles are out. We also have engineers. I think you 10 are best suited for crewmembers for now.”
Everyone walked up the gangway and entered the main hangar. The pilots followed Blaze straight toward where the fighters were stored. All others turned left and headed down the caribou corridor. The engineers followed Jim, the crewmembers dispersed into various parts of maintenance, and the marines followed Russ to the lower section.
The remaining members of the Lost squadron hurriedly loaded everyone’s bags onto the Sunflower. They left the bags in a giant pile on the floor of the hangar. As soon as the last bag was loaded, Jim signaled Lorano.
Lorano activated the control to open the large hangar doors. He then switched the Sunflower to blimp mode. Lorano said, “Ace, you are cleared for take-off. Activate the power generator and take us to the moon.”
Ace replied, “Shouldn’t acting Captain Clowy give the command?”
Lorano replied, “She is feeling a little nippy at the moment, but she should be returning to the bridge shortly.”
Ace replied, “Running check. The ion generator is already on-line and ready to go. Now leaving for confirmed coordinates that will take us past the moon and to a point away from all gravity signatures.”
Ace eased the cruiser out of the hangar and up through the atmosphere. Again, Lorano noted how smooth and crisp the ship responded when Ace was flying. When they reached the moon, Lorano sent the activation code to Victor’s mini-freighter to return to Earth.
Carank checked the stasis pod one final time, then reached out and hit the reanimation button. A few minutes later, Clowy revived and the pod door opened. Carank unfastened the chest strap. Clowy stepped out and stumbled. Carank caught her and gently set her back on her feet.
Carank said, “Everything worked perfectly. Thank you for participating in the test.”
Clowy yawned and asked, “Did the test work okay? Am I still alive?”
Carank: “Perfectly. How long did you feel like you slept?”
Clowy: “Slept. Only a few minutes.”
Carank replied, “Switching subjects, I have great news. The ship carrying the replacement human crew just docked and transferred the new human crew to us. We are ready to jump back to Waylon as soon as you are ready to go to the bridge and give the command.”
……………………..
Colin O’Neal woke with a terrible headache. He nearly rolled off of the bed, but caught himself just in time. He looked around the room. He had played enough simulations to recognize that he was in the infirmary of an Alliance cruiser.
He slid his feet down carefully off of the bed and stood up. He must have stood too fast because his legs felt rubbery and he almost fell. He braced his arms on the bed and tried to shake the wooziness out of his system. Eventually, he was able to stand.
Colin couldn’t remember where he was or what he was doing. His last memory was starting a really unusual simulation. He thought that perhaps he was still in the simulation – maybe he got hurt or something. Colin realized that he heard voices in the corridor and stiffly stumbled out the door and into the caribou corridor.
Colin nearly ran into the group as he exited. Fortunately, one of the other players caught him and eased him into an open area. The man said, “Hello, my name is Jim Donovan, who are you?”
“Colin, Colin O’Neal.”
One of the other engineers said, “I don’t remember seeing him before. I don’t think he was on any of the busses.
Jim nodded his head in agreement and said, “I don’t recall seeing you earlier. Who are you, or more importantly at this moment, what do you do and why are you here?”
Colin waved his arm and said, “Way too many questions. I am the chief engineer at a nuclear power facility in Sandusky, Ohio.”
Jim asked, “Did you recently change jobs, perhaps a new one with really high pay, great benefits, but at a secret location?”
Colin responded, “Yeah. I remember. Some recruiter called me and offered me a job. She seemed kind of pushy, so I declined her job offer. Then she got really mad and started yelling at me. She said that she was going to come my house, shoot me with a stun gun, and drag me to the new job.”
Jim shook his head and thought about Crista. He said, “Well, it appears that she did exactly that.” The other engineers nodded in agreement. Jim continued, “Since you are here, it would be a shame not to participate. You are standing in an Alliance cruiser.”
Colin asked, “What is objective of the simulation?”
Jim said, “The details of the mission haven’t been revealed to us yet.”
Colin looked for his cell phone. It was missing, so he said, “What time is it?”
Jim: “11:00 am.”
“What day then?” Colin asked.
Jim: “June 4th, why?”
Colin: “My last memory was from the evening of May 19th. If today is really June 4th, then I have no memory of the last 16 days.”
Jim realized that Crista had indeed gone to his house, stunned him, and kept him asleep in the stasis chamber for the last 16 days. He realized three things. First, the aliens must have really wanted this guy on the mission to go to that much trouble to obtain him. Second, he needed to get Colin and the other engineers positively engaged rather quickly. And third, the stasis chambers work.
Jim gently, but firmly pushed Colin the few remaining steps into engineering. The other four engineers eagerly followed them. Jim said, “Everyone man a console. I want a status check on every major system.”
The four scattered to stations and Jim politely led Colin to the remaining station. Jim started slowly typing in commands to check the plasma reactor. Colin, either through instinct or impatience took over and quickly started entering commands.
Becky Matthews, the engineer at the center console, brushed her hair out of her face and said, “This is interesting. There is a level 3 force field protecting the door to the bridge.”
Colin brought up the display on his monitor and verified. He said, “Is that our mission? Do we have to break through the force field and rescue the bridge crew?”
All of the engineers
looked at Jim. Jim replied, “I don’t think so.”
Becky said, “Look at this. Navigation and power are being controlled by the bridge.”
Colin replied, “Yes, that makes sense. They are supposed to control those.”
Becky said, “Yes. I know that. What I mean is that we are completely locked out. We can check the status of the systems, but we can’t change anything.”
Colin replied, “Maybe the simulation really is to open the bridge then. Let’s go look.”
Colin walked out of engineering and down the main corridor. He stared in fascination as the caribou hopped along beside him. Colin started to realize other aspects of the ship, primarily the exquisite craftsmanship and the attention to detail.
They reached the bridge and Colin reached out to try the door. Jim said, “Careful.”
Colin looked back at Jim and then looked closely at the door. He noticed the occasional shivers of red. He carefully reached out and touched the force field with his open palm. He ran his hand up and down the field and let out a whistle. The other engineers then touched the force field.
Colin looked at Jim and said, “You knew that that was a real force field.”
Jim: “Yes.”
Colin: “What’s on the other side of the field?”
Jim: “The bridge.”
The response elicited a few chuckles. Colin narrowed his eyes and said, “Do you know what is on the other side of this force field? And please don’t say the bridge again.”
Jim replied, “Then your question really is what is the force field guarding.”
Jim looked at each person one at a time and continued, “I think you are now starting to realize the true answer to that question. Let’s go back to engineering. There are a few things I need to show you.”
When they had returned, Jim said, “Bring up the schematics for the ion cannon on your workstation.”
Colin laughed at the joke, but when he saw that Jim wasn’t smiling, he dutifully queried it. He gasped. The other 4 engineers could have simply opened the diagram themselves, but chose instead to crowd around Colin’s monitor.
Jim said, “Now try the plasma reactor core and the hyperspace drive.”
Colin brought up the schematics for each system, glanced at each component for a moment, then moved on to the next component. After reviewing the schematics for the hyperspace drive, Colin said, “All of the schematics are there, and they all look legitimate.”
Colin walked over to the power generator and began inspecting it with sudden fascination. Jim ignored him for the moment and said, “Becky, bring up our current location.”
Becky said, “We are somewhere in the outer section of our solar system.”
Jim was about to respond, but at that exact moment the hyperspace drive began to hum. It was very low noise and probably wouldn’t have been detected if the engineering section hadn’t been completely silent.
After a few moments, the hum stopped. Becky said, “The navigation system says we are no longer in our solar system and the energy reserves show a 33% drop.”
Colin finished his initial inspection. He said, “We are on a real Alliance cruiser. We actually just jumped into hyperspace. The force field is keeping us from entering the bridge because it is probably filled with aliens.”
There was no need to answer that statement.
Instead, Jim said, “You need to get organized and get to work. You each need to choose a system and become an expert. Also, don’t forget you have to maintain the drives on the fighters. One of you needs to step up and organize the crew’s maintenance activities. If and when the Hiriculans attack, we need to be ready.”
The transition from simulation to reality was much, much smoother for the marines and other active military members. They had already been given orders that they were going on a secret mission and would have minimal contact with the outside world.
So, they were already mentally prepared for something truly unexpected. Being told that they were on an alien spaceship and hurtling through space didn’t seem to upset them at all. The only thing that did seem to bother them was not being allowed to bring their weapons.
Russ led the marines to one of the lower maintenance holds. In it contained the two Alliance Armored Units (AAUs), ten Mobile Powered Suits (MPS), giant swords, and twelve unmarked military crates. The marines rushed over and began inspecting the suits.
One said, “I recognize the AAU’s from the video game, but I don’t remember seeing these before.”
Russ said, “They are called Mobile Powered Suits, or MPS for short. They are specifically designed for humans and they favor speed over defensive shielding.”
All of the marines started putting on the armor. After the changes Lorano made to the sealing structure, getting into the suit was now relatively easy and much quicker than before. The marines finished putting on the suits and started running and jumping around the maintenance area. They were clumsy at first, but after a few laps they were able to run, jump, turn, and stop with ease.
One marine asked, “So, where are our offensive weapons?”
Russ pointed at the giant swords sitting beside the military crates. The marines each grabbed a weapon and started swinging it around in a circle. Within minutes they were having sword fights. Finally, they seemed to have worn out their initial enthusiasm and noticed the military crates sitting in the corner.
The marine walked over the box and asked Russ if he could open it. Russ nodded okay and the marine used the suit’s enhanced strength to easily lift the top off of the crate. He looked down into the box and practically cried for joy.
He yelled, “Yes. You got us a crate of Dillion M134D Gatling guns.” He recited the guns specifications, “It is a six barreled, electrically driven machine gun that fires 7.62mm rounds at a rate of 3,000 shots per minute. It is the most accurate machine gun ever built.”
Russ said, “The sword is your primary weapon. However, we are going to weld a Gatling gun to the outside of the non-sword arm. The gun will be loaded with one clip of 3,000 bullets. Further, there should be enough room on the back for two additional clips.”
The marines opened a second crate and found a wonderful assortment of hand grenades, c4, detonators, night vision goggles, and other military paraphernalia. There were no rifles or pistols though.
Blaze led Kip, Gus, Rubie and the other members of Alpha squadron across the hangar and to the elevator where the fighters were stored. Blaze realized that the effect wouldn’t be as dramatic as when he had first boarded and seen the fighters lined in neat rows on the hangar floor.
However, he knew how he could increase the drama a little. He walked to the control for the fighter elevator and had it rise two rows. Blaze heard the rush of excitement as the other pilots started to realize that they were looking at real fighters.
Kip was standing closest to Blaze. Kip said, “Those are real fighters, we are on an actual Alliance warship, and I bet you are going to tell me the aliens are real too.
Blaze smiled and said, “Why don’t you guys climb in and try it out. You can run a simulation from inside the fighters.”
Kip hustled to the fighters. He climbed up the ladder to the highest level and chose the nearest fighter. He immediately noted that it belonged to Jim Donovan. Kip didn’t care at the moment. He climbed in and activated the controls.
Blaze followed Kip up the ladder and showed him how to start a simulation. Kip quickly familiarized himself with the controls and noted that flying the fighter appeared to be exactly like flying the simulator. Since he had a moment until the rest of his squadron entered their fighters, Kip decided to try to contact the bridge. He opened a channel and waited.
A moment later an alien appeared on screen. To be exact, it was an Altian. The Altian looked familiar, but Kip figured that all Alitans looked the same. The Altian said, “Yes human, what do you want?”
Kip was slightly taken aback by the Altain’s appearance. He really hadn’t expected anyone to answer, so
he hadn’t prepared a question. He said the only thing he could think of “Request permission to launch.”
The alien looked at him strangely and said, “Request denied, the hangar bay doors are closed because we are in hyperspace. If you tried to launch now you would destroy yourself and this ship.” The alien broke contact without waiting for a response.
Kip smiled. They were on an actual Alliance cruiser. That was all the confirmation he needed.
Chapter 10
Ella called to Jack, “Come to the cockpit, we are about to exit hyperspace.”
Jack hadn’t exactly been avoiding Ella the last couple of days, he had just been really busy in his quarters finding anything else to do other than spend time with her. Jack walked into the control room and sat in the seat next to her. He smiled inwardly because he knew the journey was now halfway over.
They transitioned back into real space in the Conron system and Jack said, “Computer, run a passive scan, let’s see if anything has changed since we left.”
…Scan complete. Very little has changed. You have an urgent communication waiting for your attention from Senator Frank. It is marked both super-secret and ultra-urgent. Also, traffic control is hailing you…
As predicted, their report about the Spindle Station had beaten them back from Influenla. It was, however, somewhat unusual that there was a formal response waiting for them. Jack replied, “Tell traffic control to delay a minute. Play coded message.”
…Jack, Ella congratulations on your successful mission. If it isn’t too much of an imposition, I would greatly appreciate it if you could swing by Advranki Prime on your way back to Solaria…
Jack thought that it was a huge imposition. One simply doesn’t simply swing thousands of light years out of one’s way just to have a conversation. The report must have seriously upset the Senate. Good, he thought, maybe now they will understand his true importance and compensate him adequately.
He considered asking for additional hazard pay for having to entertain Ella. However, he doubted he could get it past the Alliance travel expense auditor. The auditor seemed to take a perverse joy in declining every possible expense.
