by Dietmar Wehr
“I got it, Tyler. Can I ask why you’re letting me take on this mission when Javelin’s CO has more experience as a CO?”
“I don’t know her nearly as well as I know you. You’re level-headed and won’t make impulsive decisions. Maybe she is too, but the point is that I don’t know whether or not she is. That doesn’t mean Excalibur will be assigned to all recon missions like this. That wouldn’t be fair to you and your crew, but this first one is yours. Get moving as soon as you can. You’ll know where to find us when you get back. Good luck, Wolfe.” Her image dissolved as the com channel was broken.
Koenig quickly headed for the Bridge. After making a short announcement to the crew, the ship began to maneuver around the system’s sun to get to the side where it could take aim for the next jump. Astro had already designated the three consecutive target systems as Delta1, 2 and 3. Delta3 was the source of the anomalous signals. The jump to Delta1 was short and routine, lasting less than a day. Passive scanning of the Delta1 system showed no EM transmissions or habitable planets. The jump to Delta2 was longer than Koenig was used to. The star at the center of Delta2 was a larger than average red sun that wasn’t quite big enough to be categorized as a giant. Its larger than normal gravity well compensated for the longer jump distance, but Koenig made sure that the ship was lined up about as accurately as it was possible to measure before giving the go ahead to jump. That jump took almost 54 hours.
When the ship emerged back into normal space, Koenig was gratified to see that they hadn’t drifted away from the star’s center by a large amount. As jump accuracy went, it was almost a bullseye. The ship was still at a safe distance from the sun as she began passive scanning. Koenig was surprised to learn that the anomalous signal that they had detected in Delta1 was no longer there in Delta2. That didn’t bode well for finding a technologically advanced planet, but it also didn’t preclude jumping to Delta3, which entailed a shorter distance jump but with a smaller target star.
Once again, Koenig ordered the astro AI to take its time lining up for the jump. The jump was successful. But even after taking extra time to scan it and the surrounding systems, there was no sign of any intelligently-produced signals or life-bearing planets. Koenig even went so far as to order Excalibur to survey the far side of the sun to make sure that they hadn’t missed anything hiding behind it. Koenig was disappointed but also relieved. What he feared most of all about finding another technologically advanced race was somehow screwing things up. He was sure that Dejanus wouldn’t have felt that way after her years of experience as a CO. He gave the order to head back to the Fleet. When the ship arrived in the star system, that Astro was now calling MR3 to define it as the third system in the milk run, it headed for the largest of the gas giant planets, where Dejanus had already decided the Fleet would wait. As soon as the ship was close enough for visual communications, he recorded a visual message with a verbal report on what Excalibur had found and then had it transmitted.
When Excalibur was back in formation, word came down from the flagship that the Fleet would be moving on to get ready for the jump to MR4.
The first really scary jump along the milk run path came up when the Fleet arrived at MR6. MR7 was almost 10 light years away, and it contained a typical and not large, yellow sun, about the same size as Earth’s sun and far smaller than the blue giant at Alpha9 that involved a jump of roughly half the same distance. Dejanus called a video conference with all COs.
“I’m sorry if I had to wake some of you in the middle of your sleep cycles, but we don’t have the luxury of taking our time when it comes to these fleet-wide conferences,” said Dejanus. “This next jump to MR7 is going to be risky, and before we attempt it, we’re going to try to minimize the risk of a miss. There are three systems one relatively-short jump away from the MR path. I’ll be designating three ships to take a quick look at them to see if there are any life-supporting planets as well as to take very careful astrogational measurements of the MR7 star from those other angles. That data will then be used by Javelin to make a preliminary recon jump to MR7. Assuming that Javelin makes it there okay, it will then be able to determine the precise location of the MR7 star and the exact trajectory needed to jump there from MR6. When Javelin gets back here, we’ll take our time lining up the fleet for the next jump. For your information, this is the second most risky jump of the entire milk run path. If we can cross this gap successfully without losing anyone, then we should be able to keep doing it all the way home. I’d like the COs of Leyte, Savo and Truk to stay on the line. The rest of you may disconnect.”
Koenig was glad that Excalibur wasn’t making the recon jump. Having missed one target gravity well and been lucky enough to hit another by sheer chance, tempting fate again was not an appealing prospect. He knew that sooner or later Excalibur would have to try it, but he was in no hurry to do so.
While the three light cruisers went out, looked around and came back, almost three days passed, and the waiting between jumps was already beginning to affect morale. With 82 more jumps to go, the frustration of waiting around for days at a time was making people irritable and edgy.
The three ships returned with good astrogational data but no signs of life-bearing planets. Javelin took her sweet time collating the data and lining up for the jump. It would be at least another week before the Fleet could expect her to arrive back. When 170 hours had passed with no sign of Javelin, Koenig started to worry. He stayed on the Bridge long after his duty shift was over, even having food and coffee sent up from the galley.
It was 189 hours after Javelin had jumped away when Dejanus called Koenig on an audio-only channel. Koenig had been asleep, but he quickly became alert. This was the call that he’d begun to expect. If Javelin was declared overdue and missing, another light cruiser would have to make the attempt, and Excalibur was the only other light cruiser with a low enough OAE to have a chance of pulling it off.
“Did I wake you, Wolfe?” asked Dejanus in an almost contrite voice.
“Yes, but that doesn’t matter. I’m going to guess that you’re declaring Javelin missing in action and that you want Excalibur to jump to MR7.”
“Yes, Javelin should have been back 24 hours ago if she got there okay and immediately turned around to come back. The return trip would have been less risky because Javelin’s AstroComp would have known exactly where MR6 was, so a missing ship has to mean that they missed MR7’s gravity well. You have all the data that she did. Take all the time you need to analyze it and line up. Let me know when you’re close to jumping. Flag out.”
Koenig took her at her word about taking his time. The Fleet was already in the right quadrant of MR6 in preparation for the next jump, and Excalibur accelerated at a modest pace as it attempted to line up for the jump as precisely as possible. The longer the ship moved along its current trajectory, the more visible any deviation from the hypothetical trajectory became. In theory, if the ship continued on in normal space for days or even weeks, the OAE could be virtually eliminated, but the lack of ample food supplies precluded that kind of approach. With less than 90 seconds left on the jump countdown clock, Koenig was startled by a text message that appeared across the large screen in his Command Pod.
JAVELIN HAS RETURNED. ABORT JUMP AND RETURN TO FLEET FORMATION. AFC
Koenig’s relief at not having to attempt the jump was so intense that he felt light-headed for a few seconds. With the jump aborted, Excalibur decelerated in as tight a curve as possible. There was already enough distance between it and the Fleet that two-way communication would be long and awkward because of the time each signal would take to get to its destination. But Koenig could listen in on the CO conference that Dejanus set up once she had received Javelin CO’s complete report.
“As you all know by now, Javelin is back, and her delay was caused by a preliminary investigation of an astonishing discovery. There is a life-bearing planet in the liquid-water zone of that system’s star. The planet appears from long range to be very Earth-like. It also a
ppears to be home to a space-faring race that existed there long ago. There are no signs of life now, no EM transmissions or energy signatures. Javelin did discover a large concentration of objects orbiting the planet. At least some of them appear to be ships. Again, no transmissions of any kind from the ships were detected, nor was there any maneuvering observed. Javelin conducted its reconnaissance using passive sensors only, so we can’t be sure that the planet and the ships are abandoned, but we’re going to find out. We now have the precise location of the MR7 star, and that will boost jump probability considerably. When Javelin returns to the formation, it will be the lead ship for this next jump. All other ships will align their own trajectory with Javelin’s, adjusting for their own OAEs. The habitable planet is now on the far side of where we’ll enter that system. After arriving, we will make a careful approach of the planet and attempt to make contact in case there are still living beings on the planet or on those ships. If there are, and if we can find a basis for communication, we’ll see if there’s any way they can help us with food supplies, astrogational data, etc. If there’s no one left alive there, then we’ll survey the planet for compatible food sources, and check out the derelicts to see if anything can be salvaged. I expect this will take some time, but it may save us more time later. Javelin’s report will be copied to each of you. We’ll conference again before we jump. That’s all for now.”
When the electronic copy of the report arrived, Koenig read it quickly. Javelin had detected over 100 distinct and separate sunlight reflection sources from objects orbiting the planet in a relatively close but haphazard formation. From the brightness of the reflections, the objects were either very shiny or very large. Javelin’s TacComp estimated that several of the objects could be twice as large as the super-heavy cruisers in the Fleet. Koenig didn’t know whether to be excited or scared by that news, but he found his hands trembling just the same.
Excalibur returned to the formation at about the same time as Javelin. By now the rest of the fleet had adjusted their place in the formation to take into account their own specific OAEs, which weren’t just a measure of deviation between the optical and physical trajectories but also included a specific direction of the deviation. That meant that Corregidor, for example, which had an OAE tendency to miss the target star’s center by veering off to the right, would adjust its trajectory so that there was a very tiny bias to the left compared to Javelin’s And since both ships would diverge from each other during the line up run, there had to be room to avoid collisions, not only pre-jump but post-jump as well. All ships were therefore staggered in the formation so that no two ships had any chance of dropping back into normal space in the exact same location.
As soon as Javelin took up her position as the lead ship, the Fleet accelerated to jump velocity and then continued on for several more hours until every CO was satisfied with his or her ship’s jump alignment. When the countdown clock hit zero, the Fleet jumped. As soon as Excalibur was in hyperspace, Koenig turned the ship over to the Soriya, the XO, and staggered back to his quarters, mentally exhausted by the previous 18 hours of almost constant duty on the Bridge. He let himself fall face down on his bed and was instantly asleep.
Chapter Five:
Once again, Koenig’s hands were trembling when the jump duration countdown approached zero. He wasn’t worried about Excalibur missing the gravity well. With her already low OAE and Javelin’s updated astrogational data, the chances of her missing were reassuringly slim, but some of the other ships might not be so lucky. What made matters worse was that if some ships ended up widely scattered, it might take hours after emerging into MR7 space for them to know many ships had made it. Dejanus had given orders that Corregidor would be the rally point and that all ships should turn on their running lights as soon as they emerged. As the counter hit zero, Koenig thought he felt that ever so subtle bump that he sometimes felt as the ship crossed the threshold between hyperspace and normal space. The funny thing was that sometimes he felt nothing at all—it didn’t seem to matter what the jump distance was—but this time he felt it, or at least he thought he did. The instruments confirmed that the ship really was in the MR7 star system, and the final deviation from pointing at the star’s center was actually quite small, all things considered.
“Okay, Astro, begin decel, and turn on our running lights,” said Koenig.
Sensors started detecting other ships almost right away. One of them was Javelin. As per standard procedure, everyone stayed where they were until the flagship was identified, which happened after about 21 minutes. By the time Excalibur rejoined the Flagship, all 18 ships had been detected. The Fleet had made the jump without losing anyone. It took another 89 minutes for the entire formation to come together again. Dejanus had already figured out their next move and disseminated it in another video conference call.
“To simplify the geometry of what we’re planning to do, I’m going to use the clock analogy. If the fleet is now at the six o’clock position, with the sun in the middle, then the habitable planet and the orbiting fleet is at the one o’clock position. Seventeen of our ships will therefore swing around the sun in a clockwise direction and come up to the planet with the sun at our backs. That will make us harder to detect if the planet is still inhabited. The eighteenth ship, Excalibur, will circle the sun from the other direction and come at the planet from its opposite side. Excalibur’s faceted hull design and color is made for remaining undetected against the black background of space, and it therefore makes no sense to have her silhouetted against the sun. I want you, Commander Koenig, to get within two light-seconds of the planet and then send a contact signal. If you get a reply, relay it to me, and I’ll give you further instructions at that point. If you don’t get a reply, you’re authorized to get closer and to use active scanning at your discretion. If you get a reaction from those ships that appears to be hostile, you’re to disengage if possible. Under no circumstances are you to fire first, but you are authorized to defend yourself if attacked.”
The rest of the briefing concerned other ships, and Koenig listened with one ear while he reviewed what he had to do.
The wide swing around the sun took Excalibur almost eight hours to make. She was now decelerating towards the habitable planet with the sun off to the right by about 30 degrees. That enabled her to send a tight-beam signal to the fleet without it being intercepted. And because she knew where to look, her opticals were able to see the tiny black dots that were the ships of the fleet, silhouetted against the sun.
With a two light-second range coming up fast, Koenig was able to get a good look at the planet. It was almost entirely blue from water, with white cloud cover. The only land he could see clearly were what must have been small islands. It appeared to be habitable insofar as the right temperature range and atmosphere was concerned. The ship’s velocity had dropped to a mere 10 kps when it reached the designated two light-second point. The contact signal was a simple mathematical progression of prime numbers, sent on a succession of frequencies that covered a wide chunk of the radio spectrum. It took less than three minutes to send the message on all frequencies. The com AI was now listening to all those frequencies. When ten minutes of silence had passed, Koenig was willing to conclude that there was no one on the planet or on those ships still able to hear the signals, but he wanted to be sure.
“Send the signals again, Com,” he ordered. Another 10 minutes passed with the same negative results. “Okay, send this message to the Fleet. Contact signals have been sent twice with no response after ten minutes each time. I’m now going to commence active scanning. Koenig.”
“Active scanning has commenced, CO,” said the tactical AI.
Koenig waited until TacComp had enough data from the scans to generate a tactical display. Excalibur was represented by a green triangle currently pointed at the planet, which was shown as a blue circle. A yellow triangle with the number 111 inside represented the orbiting cluster of objects/ships. The sidebar showed that none of the 111 obj
ects were maneuvering.
Koenig was wondering how long to wait before notifying Dejanus when he heard the Bridge doors slid open and saw his XO enter.
“Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping now, XO?” asked Koenig.
“Yes, but who can sleep at a time like this?” she answered. “Okay if I stay on the Bridge and observe?”
“Actually, I could use some advice. Radar is saying that nothing is happening over there. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no one home. It could mean they’re asleep. How long is long enough as far as waiting is concerned?”
