by Ryk Brown
Nathan and Cameron exchanged concerned glances at the presence of the guards, ensure of what was happening.
“Captain on the bridge!” one of the marines guarding the port exit announced as Captain Roberts exited his ready room and entered the bridge. Although no one was expected to abandon their duties to stand and salute, all casual conversations ceased and everyone instantly became more alert and focused.
The captain entered the bridge with a more serious expression than usual. “XO, lock down the bridge,” he ordered as he passed by the tactical station and made his way forward to his command chair.
Commander Montero turned and motioned to the marines on the port exit, who immediately locked their hatch, the marines on the starboard exit following suit.
“Comm,” the XO said. “Lock out all internal communications except for tactical, the command chair, and those between the starboard auxiliary station and the shield generation compartments.”
“Yes Sir,” the communications officer answered.
“And take the deep space communications array off-line until further notice.”
“Yes Sir.” The communications officer acted quickly to fulfill the commander’s orders. “Deep space array is off-line, internal communications are locked out except for those specified, Sir.”
“Jupiter orbit achieved, Captain,” Nathan announced. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was sure it had something to do with their being in orbit over Jupiter. He glanced over at Cameron, who for the first time that he could remember, looked worried.
“May I have your attention,” the captain announced.
His look was stern, his demeanor serious, and it made Nathan wonder what had happened to suddenly change his persona so drastically over the last ninety minutes.
“What I’m about to tell you is classified as top-secret, need to know only, and all of you need to know. The rest of the crew, however, does not. At least not yet. Before I begin, I would like you all to know that neither myself, nor Commander Montero were aware of any of this until we opened an encrypted, position-locked file given to us by Admiral Yamori during yesterday’s inspection.”
Nathan and Cameron exchanged concerned glances at the captain’s opening statement, as did many others on the bridge.
“Eighteen months ago, the Centauri system was invaded by the Jung Dynasty. Centauri forces were quickly overwhelmed, resulting in a total loss of her entire defensive force. At that point we lost our source of intelligence in Centauri space, so we must assume that the entire system is now controlled by the Jung. That leaves Sol as the last free system in the core.”
A dead silence fell across the room, punctuated only by the occasional sounds of various systems giving faint tones to alert their users. Everyone in the room understood the gravity of the information. It was, after all, the reason most of them had joined the fleet in the first place.
For Nathan, it meant something more. He had spent endless hours arguing with his father about the importance of the fleet. And he had never been able to understand how his father, a man who had once believed whole heartedly in the existence of the fleet, could’ve suddenly changed his mind. And now, with what everyone feared the most coming to be, he could finally convince his father how unequivocally wrong he had been. And while this should’ve pleased him, none of it seemed to matter now.
“Fleet intelligence assessments predict that an invasion of Sol should be expected within a year, two at the most. The invasion of the Alpha Centauri system cost the Jung more than a few ships. And intel suggests that it will take them awhile to reinforce their forces enough to be able to mount an overwhelming invasion of Earth. As you know, the Jung rule with fear more than anything else. And overwhelming victory in any campaign is of paramount importance to them.
Questions began to pop into the minds of the bridge staff. What were they going to do? What about their families? They had all heard rumors about what the Jung did to those they ruled. And why they had left port so early, before they were even fully armed?
The captain expected such concerns from his crew, and intended on answering them as best he could. “We have been sent here, to the orbit of Jupiter, to test an experimental drive system that Fleet Command hopes will give us a significant tactical advantage over the Jung. If this prototype proves successful and we are able to install it into the rest of the ships in time, we might stand a real chance of saving the Earth.”
The captain now had everyone’s undivided attention, as their hope hung on his every word. “Doctors Karlsen and Sorenson from special projects are in charge of this test, so I will let them explain further.” The captain motioned to Doctor Karlsen to take over as he stepped aside.
The tall, heavyset, elderly man moved from the back of the room to stand on the command platform. Nathan had only heard of the man until now and had not even seen his face. Rumor had it that he had lived, ate and slept in the shield generator compartments over the last two weeks. And after seeing the tired look on the man’s face, Nathan believed the rumors to be true.
“Many years ago, during testing of a new, multi-layered energy shielding system, we accidentally discovered a new method of hyper-luminal space travel. This system is capable of relocating a vessel to a distant point in space, many light years away, in the blink of an eye.”
The Doctor’s Danish accent was heavy, making it difficult to understand, but the implications of what he was saying were quite clear to Nathan, as they were to everyone else, as evidenced by the murmurs of response to the unbelievable news.
“Are you saying we could jump back to Earth, instantly?” Nathan couldn’t help interrupting.
“Oh much farther than that, Lieutenant,” the elderly physicist assured him. “With this prototype, we can travel at least ten light years in a single transition event,” he proudly proclaimed.
That statement caused the room to become even noisier. “Settle down, people!” the captain ordered.
“The only limitations we currently have are power, of which enormous amounts are required, and of course the risk of navigational inaccuracies, even the slightest of which could have catastrophic results.”
That got the captain’s attention. “What kind of results?”
The Doctor looked perplexed as he tried to come up with an example. He was a man accustomed to speaking with other physicists, and not with laymen.
“Well, there are so many. Space is not empty, you know. If your transition is not calculated exactly, you could end up appearing inside a planet, or a star-or even worse!”
Even worse? Nathan thought. What could be worse than jumping into a star? He looked over at Cameron. He was sure that she understood what the Doctor was talking about, as she had a far better understanding of the complexities of interstellar navigation.
“Thank you, Doctor,” the captain said, taking charge of the room once more. “As you can all imagine, the ability to travel great distances so quickly would provide an enormous tactical advantage. Our orders are to help the doctor and his team test this new system. Using Jupiter to mask the test from any observers on Earth, we will attempt to transition to a point just outside the Oort cloud, approximately one light year away. If successful, we will transition back to our orbit around Jupiter and then return to Earth, so that the good Doctor and his team may continue their work at what I expect will be an even more accelerated pace.”
The captain looked about the room once more, noticing the looks of shock, concern, and amazement on the faces of his young crew. “Now I know this seems like a big risk, and that you probably feel like Fleet Command is using us all like guinea pigs. And you’re probably right. But considering the severity of our situation, we’re going to have to take some additional risks if we hope to prevent an invasion of our world. And I don’t see this being any more risky than facing down a fleet of Jung warships. And you all knew that you might have to do that someday.” The captain looked around the room again. “Any questions?” He turned towards his flight crew,
knowing full well that they would have a few.
“Sir,” Nathan said, “What do we have to do during this test?”
“Apparently nothing, Lieutenant,” the captain answered. “From what I’ve read in the briefing file, and correct me Doctor if I’m wrong, the ship’s velocity and course will remain unaffected by the transition event. So the direction and speed that we’re traveling at departure will be what we’re traveling upon arrival. Just be prepared to maneuver quickly should something suddenly be in our way,” he added with a wink.
The captain’s sense of humor was not serving to comfort his nervous crew, and he could tell. “Look, people. This will all be over in a few blinks. After that, you’ll all be in the history books and we’ll be on our way back to Earth. It doesn’t appear that the transition events will have any effect on the rest of the ship’s systems, so for most of you things will go on as normal. This entire test will take about thirty minutes, after which we’ll resume normal operations.”
The captain scanned the faces of his crew, trying to make eye contact with each of them. “Now I have to remind you that this is highly classified, and you are not to discuss it with anyone, not even with each other. Needless to say that if the Jung ever learned of this technology, they would attack immediately, destroying everything and everyone that stood between them and this technology. It is undoubtedly the biggest genie to be let out of its bottle since the invention of the hydrogen bomb.” He paused one last time to let his words sink in and take their desired effect. “Now double check all systems and stand ready. The test will begin just after we enter comm blackout with Earth as we pass behind Jupiter.”
Nathan knew the captain was right. Spaceflight as they knew it, along with everything it provided, was about to change drastically.
“Five minutes to the far side of the planet, Sir,” Cameron reported.
“Lieutenant,” the captain said, “when we come out of the transition, if you see anything in our path, don’t wait for anyone to tell you to take evasive action. Understood?”
“Yes Sir,” Nathan answered. Now he was starting to think Vladimir had been wrong.
“Ensign Taylor,” the faster you can get a fix on our location after the transition, the happier I’ll be.”
“Yes Sir.”
“XO, bring the ship to yellow alert, please.”
“Yellow Alert, Yes sir.” The commander changed the ships readiness status to yellow, again changing all the light bars throughout the ship and sounding the condition change alert. “All hands, Yellow Alert! Set ship’s to condition to yellow!” the commander announced ship-wide.
All over the ship, the crew rushed to make sure that everything was properly stowed away, every system was checked and ready, all non-essential systems were shut down, and all bulkhead hatches were closed.
A few minutes later, the last of the green condition lights on his tactical display changed to yellow. “Ship is set at condition yellow, Sir,” Commander Montero reported.
“Very well. Time to threshold?”
“One minute, Sir,” Cameron responded.
Down in Engineering, Vladimir was getting nervous. The two reactors used by the special projects team had been running at one hundred percent for over four hours, long before he had come on duty, and he did not understand how they were using so much power. No one had informed him of what was about to happen, but he knew that the moment of truth for the special projects team was at hand. He only hoped it didn’t result in damage to his reactors.
“Crossing threshold, Sir,” Cameron reported. “We are now on the far side of Jupiter from the Earth.”
“Doctor Karlsen,” the captain announced. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Doctor Karlsen watched over his daughter’s shoulder as she worked the console at the auxiliary station, making comments to her in Danish as she worked.
“Transition systems are ready,” she announced. “Energy banks at forty percent capacity.”
“Is that enough?” the captain asked.
“More than enough for transitions both there and back, Captain,” she answered calmly, trying to hide her annoyance at the question during so critical a time.
“You think we’ll feel anything,” Nathan whispered to Cameron, but got no response.
“Transition parameters locked into auto-sequencer, the system is ready for initiation.”
Doctor Sorenson looked at the captain, who was looking back at her over his shoulder. It was a polite gesture, as it was his ship to command.
“Let her rip,” he ordered.
“Initiating transition in five…”
Despite the fact that they had been told there would be no sensation, and no change in ship’s velocity momentum, everyone on the bridge turned their chairs to face forward.
“Four…”
The captain wondered what his wife was doing at the moment.
“Three…”
Nathan rested both hands on his console, as if to brace himself.
“Two…”
For some reason, Cameron did the same.
“One…”
Nathan held his breath.
“Initiating…”
Outside of the ship, a pale blue wave of light washed out from shield emitters that were scattered strategically about the hull of the ship. In a split second, the bluish light grew into a glowing ball that encompassed the entire ship. Suddenly, the light turned white as it fell back into the ship, erasing her from view. It all happened in an instant. One moment the Aurora was orbiting Jupiter, and the next she was gone.
Inside the bridge, the main view screen showed the blue-white flash, flooding the entire bridge with a ghostly flash of light. It was like being caught unexpectedly by a really bright camera flash, causing spots in front of the eyes of all those unfortunate enough to be looking forward during the event.
“Transition complete,” Doctor Sorenson announced. “Verifying position.”
Despite the big blue-white blotch floating in his field of vision, Nathan frantically scanned the view screen for any signs of obstacles directly in their path.
“Position?” the captain asked.
“We are exactly two meters off our projected arrival point,” Doctor Sorenson announced. “The transition was successful,” she added with pride.
A man who cared little for emotional outbursts, in such professional situation, Doctor Karlsen simply put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder and gave it a loving squeeze. She knew that coming from him, in their current setting, it carried far more meaning than anyone around them could understand. Inside, they were both beaming with pride as the culmination of ten years of work on what had started out as an energy shield project, was about to change the course of humanity.
“She’s right, Sir,” Cameron assured the captain. “We’re at the designated position, on the outer edge of the Oort cloud.
“My God,” the captain exclaimed. “Sensor contacts?”
“The board shows clear, Captain,” Commander Montero reported.
“Sensors may be inaccurate, Sir,” the officer operating the long range sensor station advised. “I suggest we run a full diagnostic to make sure that they were not affected by the transition.”
“I know I was,” Nathan mumbled, still blinking repeatedly as he tried to make the big blue splotches leave his field of vision.
“Very, well. Get on it,” the captain ordered as he turned to face Doctor Karlsen. “Congratulations, Doctors. You may have just saved the Earth,” he added with a smile.
“Contact!” the sensor operator announced. “Just came on the screen, transferring plot to tactical!”
Nathan felt a cold shiver pass over him.
“I’ve got it, Captain,” the commander announced from the tactical station. “Running ID check against the intel database.”
“Helm,” the captain began in a low and controlled tone. “Slow and easy, turn into the contact’s bearing. And keep your thrust low to avoid detection.”
“Aye, Sir,” Nathan responded. “Coming to port, slow and easy, minimal thrust.”
“I’ve got a probable match,” the commander reported. “Jung patrol ship, smaller than us, lightly armored, missiles, rail guns and shields-no energy weapons. Not much fire-power really.”
“Maybe, but in our current state, without any shields and limited fire-power of our own? I’d say we’re evenly matched,” the captain observed. The commander nodded in agreement.
“We’re pointed toward the contact, Sir,” Nathan reported.
“Very well.” The captain turned his attention back to the commander. “Have they spotted us?”
“Not sure. But if we flashed outside like we did inside, our arrival would’ve been kind of hard to miss, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but we did come in behind them. If we’re lucky, they’re doing directional sweeps forward.”
Commander Montero grimaced suddenly as the information on his contact track changed. “No such luck, they’re changing course and accelerating. They’re headed our way.”
“Comm! Unlock all internal communications and sound battle stations! And get the deep space comm array back online! I wanna know if that Jung ship tries to send out a message!” The captain spun back around as the battle stations alarm sounded and the condition lights on the bridge changed to red, casting an eerie, faint red tinge on everything in the room.
“Helm, full speed ahead, bring her up to quarter-light fast! I wanna close to weapons range before she has a chance to take action!”
“Aye, full speed ahead, coming up to one-quarter light.” Nathan brought the ships main engines up to full power, instantly feeling the acceleration push him back in his seat despite the attempts by the inertial dampening systems to compensate.
All about the bridge, the crew struggled to maintain their balance as they worked under the force of sudden acceleration. Doctor Karlsen, who had been standing behind his daughter at the auxiliary station nearly fell over, but was caught by one of the marines guarding the starboard exit.
“Her shields are up, Captain!” the commander announced from tactical. “And she’s deploying her missile batteries!”
