Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth

by Dale C. Musser

  “By the stars,” I heard Stonbersa say, and I turned to see him standing near me. “I have never seen anyone that fast in all my years. How does she do that?”

  If we had been astounded by what Jenira had done thus far, what she did next totally mesmerized everyone. She retrieved both of her real swords and took one and tossed it high in the air in such a way that when it began to descend, the point of the blade was coming straight down, and she was standing under it. Just as it seemed the point was about to hit her head, Jenira spun her other sword so that it caught the falling blade in such a manner as to spin it in the air; in one swift move Jenira caught it by the hilt. Then in another flawless move, that was but a fraction of a second, she swung both swords back over her back, securing them in their scabbards. The place went wild with cheering and foot stomping and dozens of people rushed the stage to congratulate her on her performance.

  “Wow,” I exhaled. “That had me totally petrified for an instant. I’m not sure I approve of her taking such risks. How did she ever learn to become this proficient in such a short period of time?”

  “Maybe she is just naturally born gifted like that,” Kala answered. “Whatever the reasons, I’m impressed.”

  It was a few minutes later that a beaming Jenira fought her way through the crowd of people to join us.

  “How did you like it?” She signed. “Did you see me?”

  “Yes, I saw you, and you had me terrified with that last stunt. That was very dangerous.” I answered.

  “It’s not as difficult as it looks,” she signed, “I practiced it a lot with the dummy swords and had it down perfect before I ever tried it with the real ones.”

  “Well I think everyone here was deeply impressed,” Kala spoke up, “I don’t think anyone on the ship would dare to think of attacking you now.”

  “The stars forbid they should try,” Stonbersa said as he approached Jenira, smiling. “That was quite some show, young lady.” I think for a moment Jenira actually blushed, then she noted Padaran across the room surrounded by a few people and she quickly headed in his direction.

  “I must say in all honesty, Tibby, I have never seen anyone as skilled with swords as Jenira is.”

  I watched as Jenira approached Padaran and saw them both laughing and Jenira signing wildly away. The people around them both were congratulating them on their fantastic performances, but I also noted that Jenira seemed only to be interested in Padaran and paid little attention to others around her.

  “Are you thinking what I am thinking?” Kala asked me, and I turned to see her looking at Jenira and Padaran.

  “That Jenira is infatuated with Padaran?” I asked quite enough so no one else around us could hear.

  “It certainly looks that way. Even so, I can’t say I blame her, he’s turning into a rather handsome young man and has put on some muscle since he’s joined your crew. Tanden looked up to Padaran as a hero, and I’m sure some of that rubbed off on Jenira as well.” Kala said. “Do you think Padaran realizes her attraction?”

  I looked at Padaran as he talked to Jenira and others around, laughing and enjoying the company of them all. “I don’t think he does, at least not yet, but if Jenira stays true to her course and is as determined about him as she is about everything else, the boy is in big trouble.”

  Kala smirked, “I suspect you are right. This should be interesting to watch develop.”

  The next morning when I was having my usual session with Doctor Hughes, I noted he had his accommodations rearranged, painted, and different furnishing, and I admired it as we chatted. His fireplace now had a Victorian façade complete with a mantle and an antique ticking clock. We sat in two huge and very comfortable leather wing back chairs that were angled to face both each other and the fire place at the same time. Over the fireplace hung a painting of Sigmund Freud; I wondered if it was an original we picked up on Earth or a replicate generated from data in one of the memory cubes from the Mars colony. It gave me a nostalgic feeling, as it reminded me of Earth. I was just leaving the session when I received word that we had entered back into Federation space. On my first encounter with the Federation after leaving Earth, it had taken another five weeks to make it to Megelleon, but now with the improved Gravity Wave engines on the NEW ORLEANS, the trip would only take about two weeks. We were about a half day inside Federation space when I received a call from Kerabac on the bridge.

  “Tibby, we have a bunch of ships on our long-range scanners; it looks like a fleet of about 35 ships.”

  “Are we currently cloaked?” I asked.

  “We are, and the RMFF is active.” He responded.

  “I’m on my way to the bridge; if A’Lappe isn’t in the communication monitoring room, have him report there immediately and see if he can pick up any chatter between those ships.”

  “Will do, Tibby.”

  Using one of the transit tubes, I made it to the bridge in about two minutes. Two of my fully armed security team stood at the door and they stepped aside so I could enter the room.

  My eyes were immediately drawn to the big screen where a large fleet of ships slowly grew in scale on the screen.

  “The ships seem to just be parked here in space,” Kerabac said when he saw me.

  “Have we picked up any communication between the ships?”

  “Some, mostly mundane stuff about transfers and supplies; there hasn’t been anything significant, though.”

  “Next question-- are they Brotherhood ships?”

  “We ran a ship's comparison with using the computer to see if any of the ships conform to any we have encountered before and we’re getting hits that some of these ships were at Goo’Waddle and some with the fleet of ships we encountered when the Tottalax knocked us out the first time.” As he was speaking Commodore Stonbersa entered the bridge and Kerabac repeated what had transpired. When Kerabac finished, Stonbersa turned to me, “I’m sorry, Tibby, I was off-duty sleeping when Kerabac called to inform me of the contact with this fleet of ships. I came as quickly as I could.”

  “It’s not a problem, Commodore, I have faith in both you and Captain Kerabac to handle any situations the NEW ORLEANS encounters,” then turning back to Kerabac I asked, “Is there any sign of the Tottalax?”

  “None so far, we’ve been scanning the area but their ship is not showing anywhere in our sensor range.” Kerabac looked at one of the panels by his side and added, “A’Lappe is now in the communication monitoring center,” as he opened a link displaying A’Lappe in his command chair and the others at their consoles. I noted Kerabac activate the communication link so that we could hear what was being said in the center.

  “A’Lappe, scan as many channels as you can and let me know if anything is said as to why these ships are gathered here and what their intents are.”

  “I’m on it, Tibby. It looks like there are about tewlve active channels open between the ships at the moment. It will take a few minutes to monitor them all for content.”

  “Where is Marranalis? I asked. “Was he notified of this?"

  “Not yet,” Kerabac stated. “I contacted you and the Commodore and then A’Lappe as you requested, and you arrived before I could contact him.”

  “Contact him and have him join us here on the bridge.”

  When Marranalis arrived on the bridge, Kerabac quickly apprised him of the situation. When he finished, I spoke up. “Do you think there is any ways we can get aboard one of the Brotherhood ships with a few men?”

  “Here in space?” Marranalis said with an incredulous tone.

  “Well, yes. I don’t think they would be expecting it. If we could get some men aboard one of the ships while cloaked, we might be able to find out how they are capable to withstand the Tottalax weapon when it’s used, and maybe we can learn how they communicate with them.”

  “Tibby that would be the most dangerous mission we ever undertook. It would be easier to capture an entire ship than to sneak aboard and try and stealthily find and steal technology and then g
et it back aboard the NEW ORLEANS undetected.”

  “Okay then, how do we steal a ship?” I asked.

  “You’re serous? You actually want to try to capture a ship here surrounded by all these other ships? As soon as they find out we were aboard, the other ships would blow us up. They would kill their own men before letting you get away with one of their ships.”

  “Maybe not,” I said, “if we pick one of the smaller ships in their fleet, one on the outer rim of their cluster, like that one there,” I said pointing to the screen. “If we put the NEW ORLEANS between them and the rest of their fleet, cloaked, and got aboard their ship and took it over, even if they fired at it, the RMFF of the NEW ORLEANS would deflect their shots. If we have the NEW ORLEANS turned so our hangar bay is on the same side as that ship, we can move the ship over into the NEW ORLEANS hangar and be gone.”

  “Just how are you going to do that without dropping the shields?” Kerabac asked.

  “You’re right,” I said. “I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe you could stay cloaked and we could align the ship with our hatch before we board it, and then drop the shields rapidly for a short minute while we move their ship hastily inside.”

  “Tibby, I don’t think that would work,” Stonbersa said. “As soon as you attack inside that ship they will alarm their fleet, and once the Brotherhood realizes the NEW ORLEANS is here blocking their shots, they will quickly start moving their ships in order to get a clean shot.”

  “What if we provide them with a distraction?” I asked.

  “What do you have in mind?” the Commodore asked.

  “We launch the RUWALLIE BEDAN and some of our Mirage Fighters and have them stay cloaked; as soon as we have boarded the Brotherhood ship, we'll have our ships begin attacking the Brotherhood fleet from the other side. They will be distracted in that direction and our men can quickly disable the ship we've targeted. We’ll uncloak for a few seconds, just long enough to move the ship into our hangar, and then start blasting away at the other Brotherhood ships with the NEW ORLEANS. Knowing the Brotherhood, they will begin fleeing immediately; they don’t hang around to fight cloaked ships.”

  “That sounds like it might work,” the Commodore said. “However, it’s going to be dangerous.”

  “Well, Marranalis, do you think you can do it? Your team will have to spacewalk, cloaked, over there and get aboard to disable them.” I inquired. “We can get over there, but getting in undetected is going to be hard. As soon as we begin to enter the airlock, it’s going to set off an alarm on the bridge and they will know they have intruders. At the very least, they'll think it a malfunctioning airlock and send someone to check it out; either way we will be detected.”

  “A’Lappe, can you hear this discussion in here?” I asked him as he was still in the monitoring center.

  “Yes Tibby I have been following what you are saying.”

  “Okay, you remember how we disabled the Brotherhood ship on Alle Bamma with a Magnetic Impulse weapon?”

  “Yes but if you are thinking about trying that same stunt here, you must realize it only works if the device is inside the reactor compartment, and you won’t be able to get it inside.”

  “I wasn't thinking about getting it inside. What if it is right at the airlock, would the pulse be strong enough to knock out the sensor on the door if it was exactly on the other side the door?”

  “Hmm. It just might, let me check some calculations.” I observed as A'Lappe quickly moved his fingers across the screen on his control console before replying. “There’s about an 85% chance it will be strong enough to knock out the sensor, and will probably impact some other components inside as well. You might have to manually open the door afterwards as well, as it may incapacitate the door controls.”

  “That’s not good, Marranalis; how long will it take to manually open the door?”

  “Maybe 30 seconds,” he responded, “But Tibby, no one can be near the device when it goes off, or they will be fried by the magnetic impulse at that range.”

  “I was thinking about having the device attached by a drone while we’re all still aboard the NEW ORLEANS with the shields up; the RMFF will protect us from the impulse. Then we drop the shield and our team, while still cloaked, fly over and quickly enter the ship.”

  “You’re still running a risk. As soon as that impulse device detonates, every ship here will sense it, and they will all be on high alert. On the Brotherhood ship they will have their people looking to see what happened, as you will have knocked out a lot of sensitive components, possibly the ones we'll need to maneuver the ship inside the NEW ORLEANS."

  “Okay, anyone have any ideas as to how we disable their crew so we can board the ship?” I asked.

  “Tibby,” A’Lappe spoke up, “if you leave our cloak and the RMFF up and fire a thin laser at the control room, it will burn a hole completely through the ship. Everyone on the bridge will immediately be rendered unconscious and will die in a minute from the loss of air. With the bridge crew dead you can pretty much activate the airlock and board unopposed. If you’re lucky, the main door from the bridge may be open, in which case you will depressurize most the ship in just minutes, and they all will be unconscious by the time you enter. If you time it so your attack on the fleet occurs only seconds before you attack this ship, none of them will notice, as there will be so much laser fire going on from the other side they will not see what you are doing.”

  “That sounds like it has possibilities,” Marranalis said.

  “I agree,” the Commodore said.

  “Good--then let’s make it happen. Our team won’t need to pressurize the ship as we will all be in space suits, and we’ll be getting it into the NEW ORLEANS as quick as possible. I’m only hoping that we don’t have to kill everyone aboard; we need someone to question about the Tottalax device and about how they communicate.

  “A’Lappe, are you picking up anything of interest?” I asked.

  A’Lappe replied. “There was one person complaining about how long they have been sitting here and wanting to know how soon the Tottalax ship they are supposed to meet up with will arrive. It sounds like they were supposed to join up with them a few days ago, but then got a message that the Tottalax would be delayed a few days, with no explanation provided.”

  “That’s a good reason for us to move quickly; we don’t have any defense against that sleep weapon they have. Do you think it’s the same Tottalax ship we saw earlier?”

  “Up until a few months ago the Tottalax were practically unknown. I doubt that they suddenly have that many ships appearing in the Federation, so the odds of it being the same ship are highly probable.” A’Lappe replied.

  “I wonder if their attack on Earth has anything to do with my being from Earth?”

  “I doubt it, Tibby, their initial attack on Earth was before they joined up with the Brotherhood and would have occurred after, or at least very close to, the time that you arrived in the Federation. I suspect it’s a coincidence; even if, it is an extremely improbable one”

  “Right, I keep forgetting about relativity and the route and time I took getting here.” I answered. I sighed and then said, “We know what we have to do now, it’s best we not waste any time; we must complete this before the Tottalax ship arrives and re-joins this fleet.”

  “A’Lappe, send a message to both the Admiral and to Wabussie telling them of the situation here and our intentions. Make sure they have our coordinates in case the Brotherhood gets away so they can try to anticipate where they might show up next.”

  I had the NEW ORLEANS remain cloaked while we sent Mirage Fighters out to engage the fleet. This required us dropping the RMFF, but since we were unknown and unseen by the Brotherhood, the risk was minimal. Next we maneuvered as close to the enemy ship as we possibly could, with our hangar bay side presented to the ship, so it would be easy to speedily space walk over and board the enemy ship. Spacewalk isn’t exactly right, as it connotes a slow process in my mind; it would be more like jetti
ng over hurriedly, and by using small rockets in our suits, slow down and stop before we impacted the ship. All of this was controlled by small computers inside our space suits designed for this type of operation. I would be leading the boarding party on the Brotherhood ship, much against the wishes of the Commodore, Kerabac, Marranalis and Kala, but I was determined to do it, and they all finally relented. Marranalis would be going with me on the boarding team as my second in command. When we received the signal that all the Mirage Fighters were in place, the Commodore gave the order for the fighters to open fire on the Brotherhood ships on the far side of the fleet from us. Once they had opened fire, the Commodore had the NEW ORLEANS open fire on the bridge of the ship next to us.

  Our RMFF had been reengaged before the shot was fired, so the amplifying effect of the shield blew a hole clean through the bridge section. Instantly Stonbersa had the RMFF shield dropped and we began maneuvering over toward the enemy ship’s airlock. It only took Marranalis a few seconds to get the door open. There was no sound of the alarm, but I could see alarm lights flashing inside indicating that the airlock had been engaged and also that there had been a loss of air pressure in the ship.

  “It looks like we knocked out the sound system for the alarm,” I said to Marranalis over the suit com system.