by Andrew Beery
"What can I say to make a difference?" Cat asked the crowd. "What can anyone say? These eleven men and women, including our captain, lost their lives in a senseless act of aggression by a race bend on the destruction of any intelligent life other than their own.
Does it make sense... No. Is it fair... No. Most importantly it does not change who they were and who we are. You and I are humanity's best chance for a future. Analysis of transmissions and the activities of the D'lralu ship prior to our final engagement seems to indicate it sent a message into hyperspace. We can only assume it was to their home world."
There was a general muttering in the crowd as they digested the implications behind this revelation.
"We must expect..." Cat continued "that the D'lralu will return, only this time in force. Our fallen comrades may have died in this first battle for our collective futures, but they died that we might fight on... That their loved ones might live another day... That their species might claim the very right to exist in this universe."
Cat paused for a moment to look each and every one of them in the eye. "Our obligation to them and to our future is to fight on... and to win. I expect the best out of each of you. We are crippled. Our air supply is limited and we are decades from home if we cannot repair this ship's drive and environmental systems. I need each of you, regardless of your military or civilian background, to reach deep within yourselves for that last measure of strength... Find a way to do more with less... Get this ship fixed so we can get home and get about the business of saving Earth. May God bless each of you... Now go and do great things... That is all."
Chapter Nine – The Journey Home...
Cat was enjoying a Rubin sandwich in the main mess with a tablet held in her hand, reviewing status reports, when a tentative cough sounded next to her. She had been so engrossed in the depressing details of the report that she had failed to notice the person next to her... It was Rebecca Ann Kirkland.
"Hey Becky... I'm sorry I didn't see you there."
"Captain... “The stocky brunette started to say.
"Please..." Cat pleaded, "I had the same discussion with your husband... Please call me by my name"
Rebecca smiled, "Of course Cat. I wanted to talk with you about Environmental."
Cat waved the report in her hand. "I'm reading about it now... It doesn't look promising."
"I had an idea that might help."
"I'm listening"
"As I understand it, our biggest immediate problem is CO2 scrubbing, followed by O2 generation. The plumbing systems that fed the hydroponics as, well as most of the biomaterial were destroyed or lost in the attack. I think I know how we can replace both." When Cat began to ask how, Becky held up her hand to interrupt her question so she could finish. Cat smiled at the civilian's cavalier, if accidental, disregard for protocol.
"We have massive military grade storage bladders..." Becky continued. "They hold something like 16 million gallons of water. If we set one, or two if they will fit, in the shuttle bay we can fill them with some of that special bioengineered algae from environmental. If we inject some of our heat sterilized septic refuse in with the algae... it should act as a fertilizer. We can then bubble our air supply through the bags... The Algae should convert the CO2 to O2... We can run the result through filters to remove any contaminant gases..."
"Like sulfur," Cat laughed.
"Like sulfur," Becky agreed.
"It could work. It would not be nearly as efficient as the capillary exchange system it's replacing, but that would be made up for by sheer volume..." Cat mused.
"And the bioengineered algae is specifically designed to eat anything and grow quickly... It would take a few days to get up to speed but I've done the math, and in theory it should be able to handle the load before we run out of O2 candles... Especially if we can get two of the bladders up and running."
"I like it... How is it you know so much about environmental?"
Becky winked at Cat with a smile... "I earned my doctorate in environmental sciences before going to culinary school... I even played with the idea of a career in Space Command but ah... Well you might have noticed I like to eat a little too well."
Cat laughed as she triggered her comlink... "Ken?"
"Yes Cat?" came the near instantaneous response from her First Officer/Chief Engineer.
"I'm promoting your wife... Effective immediately she is Chief of Environmental with an effective rank of First Lieutenant. She is going to be stopping by in a few minutes, as soon the quartermaster fits her for a uniform... She is working on a priority one project. See to it she gets all the manpower and material support she needs. Everything else is secondary."
"Already on it... Captain, she briefed me before coming to you. The Bladders are in the shuttle bay... Ready to be filled on your orders... And I'm assuming you're giving them."
"That I am" Cat said with a grin. She keyed off her comlink before turning to the other woman with a mischievous grin "You're out of uniform, Lieutenant."
"Yes, Ma'am!" The new head of Environmental said as she saluted. Cat shook her head... They were going to have to work on that whole military protocol thing.
***
With Becky's leadership, the environmental team, which had been struggling after being decimated by Three of Nine's attack, finally managed to address the Bowman's most pressing environmental problems.
At the same time Lt. Kirk, from engineering, with help from the android named Bob and her AI Cal, managed to bring the ship's full array of sensors and shields back online. This was no small feat, which required an EVA by Bob with Cal riding along as a secondary AI. The two manually recalibrated the external arrays... Doing in a few hours what would have taken a space dock a full week. Cat was duly impressed.
Meanwhile she and Ken addressed communications. They rigged a hyper drive missile with a radio transmitter and recorder. Cal quickly programmed the missile for a jump to near earth orbit. Instructions were included so that the missile could be rapidly shuttled via hyper-jumps between Earth and the Bowman. The result was a nearly 40AU communications link with a two second latency.
This allowed Cat to easily brief the Admiralty on the situation with the Bowman, and the impending threat to humanity. Admirals Faragon, Chelsea and McMullen were video linked with the Bowman.
“Admiral, Sir…” Cat began as she addressed a question McMullen had asked repeatedly over the last twenty minutes of their conversation. “I don’t believe Captain Ramchandani made any tactical mistakes. The attack was unprovoked and sudden. The simple fact is - their ships have bigger guns. “
When Admiral McMullen started to speak, Admiral Faragon cut him off with a raised hand… “Barney, she’s answered that question six ways from Sunday… for heaven’s sake let’s move on. Captain, you’ve faced the D'lralu on three separate occasions now. Do you have any recommendations to share?”
“Yes, Sir. I have several. First, we need to change the programming on our hyper drives… they should not engage if the shields are actively repelling enemy fire… this is what caused the Bowman to take a hit… the shields lowered for 32 milliseconds at the worst possible time. Second, we should prioritize the computer system upgrades that the Heshe provided. Our one technological advantage seems to be that we can jump faster than they can. This means we can micro jump and jump closer to our targets. If I had to guess I’d say their computers are not as good as ours.”
“What about weapons?” Admiral Chelsea asked.
“No question, we need to look at ramping up our capabilities in that arena. The SJ rounds worked, but they are only going to be good in deep space… We couldn’t think about using them inside our solar system. I know Pluto really isn’t much of a planet but we darn near destroyed it anyway.”
McMullen piped in another quick question… “And what stops them from using an SJ round on Earth?”
“That’s part of the briefing I sent, Sir. I recommend we build and deploy a hyper drive dampening field around Earth, M
ars and Jupiter, as well as any other base we may establish in time.”
“And who will foot the bill for all of this?” McMullen quipped.
“Sir, that’s beyond my pay grade… all I know is, if we don’t build up both our defensive and offensive capabilities overnight, there won’t be anybody left to send the bill to.”
“Catherine, we need you back here as soon as possible” Faragon said.
“Sir, that may be a bit problematic we got busted up pretty bad. I’ve got plenty of power but no way to get it to my hyper drive engines.”
“I understand… that’s why I asked the Avenger to jump to your location. She will offload a replacement repair crew and maintenance supplies. The Bowman will be repaired by them on her way back to Earth. You and your crew will catch a ride back to Earth on the Avenger.”
“Understood, Sir. How long before we can expect them?”
“Captain Ruck told me to send his regards and he will be there in about fifteen hours. In the meantime Captain… you and your crew get some rest… you have earned it. Well done.”
“Thank you, Sir” Cat answered.
***
True to his word the Avenger appeared 30 kilometers off their starboard bow. Cal executed a precision micro jump which put them within 100 feet of each other.
"Look at the size of that ship!" Ken said from his engineering station on the bridge. The Avenger was easily a third larger than the Bowman. Cat could see the general outline matched the Bowman, but there was a secondary teardrop near the bulbous end. The interesting thing was, it appeared that this secondary structure was incomplete. Whole sections of the plating was missing.
"What do you suppose that structure is in back there?" Ken asked.
Cat thought about it for a moment before answering. "If I had to guess I'd say it's a new type of shielding. The big problem with our current shield is you have to drop it in order to jump. I suspect the new math Cal shared with us has allowed someone to figure out how to build a hyper field within a hyper field."
"That makes no sense" Ken said. "The minute the inner shell jumps, the outer shell would collapse."
Cat looked at him... Waiting to see if he would connect the dots.
"Oh... the ship is gone so the shielding is kind ‘a redundant" Ken said sheepishly.
Cat turned back towards the view screen... "Lt. Cochrane, hail the Avenger, please"
"Yes, ma'am... I have the Avenger online" the lieutenant answered quickly.
"Avenger, this the Bowman... Any chance we can hitch a ride?"
"Bowman, this is Avenger actual. That was quite a jump you just made... What you may lack in distance, you sure as hell make up for in precision. You'll have to share with me how you did that."
"It helps to have an alien AI that likes to show off. Great to hear your voice again, Jason"
"Yours too, Cat... I'm going to shuttle over a maintenance crew to start the turn over... I understand your shuttle bay may not be available."
"That's correct, I would recommend docking with the aft airlock... Those corridors have the best access to the damaged areas of the ship."
"Very good, aft it is. Can I invite you to join me in the Captain's mess after the shuttle is done with their transfer? We have some things to discuss."
***
Cat watched the scarred and burned hull of Bowman recede in the window as the shuttle headed toward the pristine Avenger. She couldn't help but think she would never see the Bowman again as her captain. Before she realized it, the shuttle was reorienting itself to land in the Avenger's landing bay.
A young ensign met her at the Avenger's shuttle bay.
"Permission to come on board" Cat asked as per protocol.
"Permission granted, Captain" the ensign relied while offering her a crisp salute.
The Bowman was only a month or so older than the Avenger and yet she seem years older because of her scars... only some of which touched her paint. The layout, once they got into the ship proper, was virtually identical to the Bowman, and Cat was quickly regaining her sense of orientation.
The ensign delivered her to the captain's mess, and then informed her that the captain would be there shortly. As he saluted, and turned to leave the room the door swished open, and the newly promoted Captain Ruck entered the room.
"Thank you, ensign... That will be all" he said without preamble.
Cat looked at the former First Officer of the Bowman. Captain's pips served him well. He had a commanding presence which had attracted her the first time she had met him. He smiled at her, and she felt her heart melt. He waved to a seat and invited her to sit.
"It is good to see you, Cat. I understand you were the first to help me after the Bowman's initial jump."
"I was the closest, but I'm sure anybody on that bridge would have help if they had been closest."
"Probably true... Still, I'm glad it was you," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "However, dinner will be here soon, and I didn't call you over to talk about the Bowman." He touched a control on the table.
"Ben, bring up the Admiral's message for Captain Kimbridge."
"Message ready Captain" the Avenger's AI responded.
Cat looked at Captain Ruck suspiciously. "Your ship's AI is named 'Ben'?"
Jason chuckled. It was a warm and deep sound which Cat found captivating.
"That's right... It would have a special meaning for you... I forgot. I suspect there are more AIs named 'Ben' than just about any other name out there. The AI on your former ship, the Arizona, is credited as quite the hero in AI circles, because of the incredible job it did trying to save your life."
"Ah..." Cat mouthed silently. She still did not associate the maiden voyage of her VASIMR ship with anything worthy of fame, and yet history uttered her name in the same breath as Neil Armstrong, John Glenn and even Yuri Gagarin.
Watching her take in the reality of her fame, only endeared this beautiful and yet humble woman to Jason all the more. "Shall we see what Admiral Faragon has to say to us?"
"Please," Cat nodded.
Captain Ruck hit the playback button on the virtual screen in front of them.
"Greetings Captains Ruck and Kimbridge. Cat, as you may have guessed at this point, the Admiralty board has approved your permanent appointment as captain, effective the date you took command of the Bowman. That said, we are giving command of the Bowman to someone else"
Cat's heart sank. She was pleased to receive the permanent promotion, but at the same time it was hollow without a ship to command.
As if anticipating her disappointment the image of the Admiral smiled before continuing. "Don't worry, Cat. You were born for space, and you are one of the best out-of-the-box thinkers we have. We need you more than ever, out there leading the battle for the defense of Earth."
The Admiral smiled again. "I have a different ship I want you on. As Jason is aware and as I am sure you suspect... The world has mobilized its war machine in a level of effort never seen before. We are building bigger and better ships as fast as we can. Things which were only on the drawing boards a few years ago, are now moving forward at light speed... In no small part, because of the understanding of High-field dynamics which your AI shared with us."
The Admiral paused and folded his hands on a table that neither Cat nor Jason could see.
"If you will excuse my bluntness... The biggest and baddest of the new ships is the USC Yorktown. She has four times the displacement of the Avenger class ships, and is the first to employ our new Heshe enhanced computer systems and AI. She will be my flagship. Cat, I need my most experienced officer... At least as regards the D'lralu... On that ship. If you accept the posting... the Yorktown will be yours."
