He shook his head. It happened on every ship with an SI but he never understood it. An SI did not need to physically interface the controls but most would pretend to anyway. It seemed less efficient to him. The holographic surroundings of the Avatar Chamber, including the avatar, were made interactive by various technics to manipulate the senses involving lasers, acoustics, antigravity and neural oscillation manipulation. Those coupled with the standard holographic technologies allowed for an immersive and believable experience. There would be an occasional however rare, flicker in the fields that would give away its true nature.
“So far, all of the simulations I have run have ended the same as all of the others we have executed in the past. A Juggernaut is far more than a match for me,” Solaria said with an exasperated tone.
“We have to get creative. What if I take the Raptor out and sneak up behind them and try to take out the engines or weapons. Run simulation.”
“Loading program,” the avatar said as she tapped on the panel.
The image in the table changed to this fictional scenario. It showed the Telarian ship following the Solaria while a Raptor slipped out of the shuttle bay. “Their sensors just picked up the shuttle bay door opening. Assuming from this point that does not change their reaction, the scenario will continue,” she said. The small stealth fighter approached and circled around behind the enemy ship and fired at the sublight engines. Several shots are fired by the smaller vessel before the enemy ship returns fire destroying it. Shortly after, it catches the Solaria and destroys it as well. This scenario runs several times with slight variation in speed, target and firing position. All of which have little or no effect, the smaller ship cannot penetrate the larger’s shields.
“In all scenarios Commander, neither the Raptor nor I can penetrate the Juggernaut’s shields before taking critical damage. We simply do not have the firepower available,” Solaria informed him.
“There are always options. The trouble is figuring out a solution before having to notify next of kin. It’s a puzzle to figure out for sure, but there is a way to come out of this alive without surrendering. We simply haven’t figured it out.”
He believed anything was possible using science, math and the sheer will of spirit. Each scenario had variables. Variables could be quantified and problems solved with equations. Even when those failed, he had learned during his years in the Special Forces, individuals with a will to survive improvised, adapted and overcome even in the most desperate of circumstances.
“Time is running out Commander. Unless you come up with something brilliant in the next four minutes it’s over. And even if I wanted to bypass the jump drives to hot shot for the captain I have come to realize that the primary is damaged and the control interface panel will need to be replaced. I have informed engineering but the repair cannot be completed in time. The other drive requires using the star but it is destabilized temporarily preventing its safe use and I will not override that protocol on experimental platforms,” Solaria replied.
He stared at the display in front of him studying the movements of both ships contemplating how to get out of this one. Then it came to him.
“Solaria. I have an idea. Tell the captain to change course,” he said as he tapped on the interface panel.” Send him these coordinates with instructions to activate our program when they are in weapons range. We have time to run a few quick test scenarios before they catch us.”
***
The captain had received his commander’s instructions. It seemed farfetched but it might just be the break they needed, it would be the only hope they had.
“Ensign. Plot a course to the center of the star. Tell engineering to give me every gram of power they have in those engines. Burn them out if need be.”
As the captain gave orders to his crew Commander Connor returned to the bridge.
“And inform Mr. Lokae to put what’s left in solar shields. It’s going to get hot in here.”
“Captain. Engineering reports engines at 150% but they say it won’t last long, they are even burning maneuvering thrusters. It will buy us an additional minute or so,” the ensign said.
Fortunately for the Solaria the course they took away from the alien ship was skirting the sun or this plan wouldn’t have worked at all. That minute detail would be their saving grace. Commander Connor’s plan was to activate the solar drive on a timer and eject the experimental test module in the path of the oncoming enemy ship perfectly in line with the star and at the same time shut down the sublight engines. As the drive activated it would jump the ship behind them and it would have no effect on the Solaria. The trick was to take at least one hit before ejecting the module with the interchangeable test drive. If they simply ejected it they might destroy it. If the enemy assumed they had done damage to the ship and it was debris it was highly unlikely the Juggernauts automated collision avoidance countermeasures would fire upon it before activation. It would be a hard hit for the ship and her crew.
“Thirty seconds until weapons range,” Ensign Latorre informed the captain. “Program set. I hope this works.”
“Me too,” replied the captain.
Heat flared off the Solaria’s corona shielding. As the behemoth Juggernaut closed the distance it powered weapons and opened fire. The hit struck Solaria just ahead of the interchangeable pod and behind the bridge so hard she veered sideways. Her engines died and a huge piece of the ship flew away, all according to plan.
As the debris flew into the path of the Juggernaut the solar drive activated in a flash of brilliant light. The Juggernaut was travelling too fast to avoid it and the massive destroyer vanished into the fiery vortex descending into the star.
Klaxons rang out across Solaria as the power distribution system overloaded in a brilliant explosion blowing a hole in the hull sucking the air out of several breached compartments. It was the power node located just aft of the bridge. The bridge was an effectively designed space. It held structural integrity but several panels overloaded and exploded, one of which was next to the captain. He was thrown to the floor and Sean was beside him in a flash.
“Rick. Are you ok?”
“It worked,” Latorre exclaimed. “The Juggernaut is gone.”
The captain’s head lolled around and he opened his eyes towards Connor’s voice. The commander could see blood pouring from his neck and pieces of glass in his face. Sean applied pressure to the wound on his neck.
“Did we make it?”
“Yes sir. Solaria is still here and the enemy ship is gone. We did it.”
“No, you did it,” he replied weakly. “You saved them.”
He saved all but one.
The captain died in his arms as he screamed for medical crews that were already on their way. Solaria had dispatched them to the bridge immediately following the explosions. Events shape our lives in ways we never understand. This would be one of those life changing events for Captain Sean Connor.
***
After almost twenty-one years of conflict between the United Orion Star Systems and the Telarian Sovereignty both sides agreed to end the war. A treaty was signed, but the Telarians would not join the Union. A demilitarized zone was established, disputed territories apportioned and both sides assigned ships to patrol the region.
By this time Captain Connor was in command of a Thunderbird class dreadnought named the Voltari. It was the most recent in a long line of warships designed to fight the Telarians. The aft section enshrouded the fusion power plant, engines and other vital systems inside its heavily armored hull. Crew quarters were in a long section housed between the protruding barrels of two high yield energy weapons. The bridge sat just above the crew compartments in the aft of the ship. Multiple size coilgun batteries were positioned around the hull.
The ship as a whole would have flown in space without the smooth, elegant flowing exterior hull and out swept wings but they allowed for atmospheric flight. Even then it wasn’t truly meant to fly, more or less glide on reentry. Launch from
a planetary surface required tremendous fuel stores and required a refuel once in orbit so the whole function was typically used in home systems or for emergency landings.
The message to stand down all military action against the Telarian Sovereignty came as the Voltari was patrolling along the Union border with the Telarians. He had spent his entire adult life fighting them, hating them, and living in a constant state of anger. He felt confused about peace.
The Telarians had attacked the Union outpost where he lived as a child, they killed his mother and father, only Sean and his sister survived the bombardment. The captain of the ship that rescued them adopted the siblings and raised them. His sister died years later during the attack on their adopted fathers transport ship. Reports would say it was a case of mistaken identity by the Telarians. He didn’t care, it didn’t change his loss or his guilt of not being there. He joined the Union to have a chance of revenge against an enemy who had taken so much from him. Then he met Kara, his Bvaltari princess. She changed him, she showed him a better way and gave him a reason to find a new path. When he lost her he held them responsible as well and refocused his life to killing them all. So he applied for the Razors, the most deadly of the Union Special Forces. Sean found the training and operations fulfilling, killing his enemy was second nature. Many emotions had overtaken him in these last few months but he was sure about one thing, it wasn’t relief he was feeling. What would a warrior do with no war? He found himself unsure of his future and himself for the first time in years.
The Voltari had not been recalled, she was instructed to stay on patrol. Quite months had gone by since the treaty was signed, not a single incident. The crew was getting restless and needed some down time. The Voltari was just a few days away from returning home when it happened.
“Sir. Sensors have detected a starship, it has crossed the border from the DMZ and appears to be on an intercept course. I do not detect a transponder signal and it does not match any known Telarian configuration,” Ensign Deas informed the captain.
“Time to intercept Mr. Deas?” the captain asked.
“Four minutes sir,” the ensign said.
“Maintain current heading Ensign pretend we don’t see them,” the captain responded. “Sotaki. Open a secure channel to command, inform them of our situation and ask for instructions.”
Under the treaty any aggression from either side could plunge them back into war. While he did not like the Telarians he would not deviate from his orders, he would not fire first.
“Sir. I have a response from command. They say do not engage,” Lieutenant Sotaki said.
“Ask command what are we to do if we are engaged,” the captain said turning to Lieutenant Sotaki.
The lieutenant pushed a few buttons, adjusted his earpiece and asked the question of command.
“Retreat sir. If fired upon we are to retreat and relay the situation back to command.”
Connor was angry at this point, “Here we go. Maintain course and speed.”
The assumed Telarian ship closed to weapons range. It vanished from the external display. Captain Connor was not familiar with any kind of cloaking technology however Telarians preferred to circle around behind a ship and try to take out its sublight engines. Once it couldn’t run or maneuver it was easy prey. The Voltari was designed with heavily armored engines buried in the hull to defend against such an attack. He would not raise shields.
As predicted the unidentified ship reappeared behind them and discharged some sort of weapon. Bright green balls of energy surged from its cannons and struck the aft of the Voltari. Inside the ship alarms exploded in a frenzy of warnings.
“Captain. We are getting some strange sensor reading from that weapons fire,” Ensign Deas sounded alarmed.
“Raise shields. Return fire,” the captain had a calm demeanor in his words, he didn’t understand the weight of the situation yet.
Another salvo from the enemy ship rippled across the hull, its green energy crackled an
“Captain! Those weapons are disrupting the hulls molecular structure. We have hull breaches all across the aft section of the ship,” Ensign Deas said with escalating fear in his voice! “We need to get out of here! Structural integrity in aft sections is down to twenty-four percent!”
“Hot shot, get us out of here Dax!” Captain Connor said.
As the space in front of the ship distorted the presumed Telarian craft took a parting shot as the Voltari was pulled through the distortion of its jump window. The Voltari rocketed out the other side of the gravity distortion to safety as it closed behind them.
“What the hell was that?” Daxton pondered to no one in particular as he decelerated.
***
It had taken three days to get back to the nearest stardock. During the trip Captain Connor had spent most of that time pouring over sensor logs with Voltari trying to discover exactly what the Telarian ship had used to cause such destruction on their hull.
Once the energy hit a target it disrupted its molecular structure and weakened it creating hull breaches as it buckled. Connor decided he could duplicate the effects but his top priority was finding a way to protect a ship from its devastating effects. Testing showed the hull had degraded so much they could only make three more jumps before structural failure destroyed the ship. Any more than that and they risked being a debris cloud exiting the jump window, not ideal he thought. They had to make special modifications to the drive to get more distance with each jump. That meant long times building power between jumps. For those few days it was minimal power, with not much more than life support available. Each successive jump weakened the structure more, the creaking and popping of structural components could be heard throughout the ship during each transit. The Voltari was going to need a serious overhaul, if he wasn’t decommissioned.
The Voltari was making its final approach preparing to dock when the captain was informed that the newly elected President of the Union had requested to speak with him. He would have to make the week-long trip to the core systems to meet with him personally.
He had stood in front of the council before, as had all ship captains during the review process before being given command of a starship, but he had never personally met a president. He had been field promoted to captain when his captain died aboard the Solaria but when he took command of the Voltari he had to make an appearance for review.
He wasn’t sure what to make of the president wanting a face to face meeting with him. He had excelled in his field but he did not consider himself a great starship captain. Maybe this incident had landed him in hot water somehow, but he followed orders, he never fired a shot and retreated. It may have not been by choice but they didn’t know that.
Sean packed his belongings. He realized he didn’t own much. Uniforms mostly, the sleek tight fitting battle dress that was standard to each crew member. He had a hologlobe rescued from the shattered remains of his family home. It contained pictures of his mom, dad and sister from better times. He didn’t look at it often because he could never hold back the tears.
He also had been allowed to keep Willow, his Raptor fighter. While not quite standard procedure, Admiral Perry had pulled some strings. He wasn’t sure what would happen to her and that bothered him.
Sean knew he had issues. Besides his crew, the only attachments he had were constructs. He was confident in his abilities sometimes but he doubted his decisions just as much. Whenever he had down time he reminisced and that wasn’t good so he buried himself in his work. Being a starship captain provided more than enough distraction.
Sean felt as if he had failed the ship in some way. He knew with the extensive hull damage he would likely be decommissioned. This last year on Voltari had been enjoyable for him as he became friends with the ships avatar. The architect was obviously a brilliant and interesting man.
Developing avatars for the ships really drew the crew into caring for the ship like it was a part of the crew. Indeed they were. He missed his conversations with Sola
ria as he would miss his with Voltari.
He had one last order of business to attend to before disembarking for the probably the last time, he had to say goodbye to a friend, Voltari. He stood in front of the Avatar Chamber unsure of what to say. Voltari although not human was modeled after one with all the thoughts and emotions of his creator and chances were that the ship would be decommissioned. When that happened the computers were shut down essentially terminating their existence. His friend would die. All of his knowledge and all of his own experiences past his creation where he grew in a different direction would be lost. They used to play chess together and talk for hours on end about unified field theory, ship construction and other such subjects of interest to both men. Sean would have been a ship architect as well had he not be reassigned by the war.
He placed his hand on the panel and typed his code into the opposite panel. The door slid open and his friend was standing in the center of the room.
Voltari’s visage was that of an older, distinguished gentleman about fifty-five years of age. His hair and goatee were streaked with gray and he had piercing blue gray eyes.
Relentless: Book One of the Union Warship Saga Page 3
