by George Deeb
“THIS IS A STAGE THREE ALERT! PROCEED IMMEDIATELY TO THE LOWER LEVEL SHELTER! THERE IS AN IMMINENT THREAT OF LOSS OF LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS!... THIS IS A STAGE THREE ALERT! PROCEED IMMEDIATELY TO THE LOWER LEVEL SHELTER! THERE IS AN IMMINENT...”
The message was repeated three times, followed by blaring of the horn alerts for thirty seconds, followed by a repeat of the verbal instructions.
The evacuation procedures were all covered and practiced during orientation, and no one had any hesitation once they realized it was happening for real and happening now. No matter how comfortable people got while working on the moon base, no one ever forgot the danger that existed just outside the walls. All it took was a look through the windows to see the desolation that waited for you. It even looked cold. Death waited outside the shell of the structure – cold, quick death – if you were lucky. There also existed the possibility of a slow death for those not so lucky.
“This is Kibbee. All defense personnel to stations. All defense personnel to stations. We are under attack. Guns to hot. Wait for my command to fire.”
Travellor was the only person remaining in the control tower when he heard Kibbee's command over the comm. It had taken less than five minutes for designated personnel to evacuate the upper structure. He wanted to be certain they were safe, and he knew how to confirm it. Only the Orysta's main computer could continuously monitor all personnel at all locations. The Orysta did this by monitoring the comm badges or wrist bands that were required to be worn by everyone. The Moon Base did not yet have that capability. He would have to get that corrected at the first opportunity.
“Orysta this is Travellor. Has the upper base structure been evacuated?” he said loudly before realizing the alarms had gone silent.
He watched outside as the ground randomly and silently exploded, leaving craters where the bombs had landed.
“All non-combatants have evacuated the upper structure of the moon base.” said a strange male voice. “Defense stations are being manned.”
“What... Who is this? Who's speaking?”
“This is Orysta.”
“Commander, this is Munen. We are under attack by dhrojja. They still do not know exactly where we are. They cannot detect us through the camouflage. Their strategy is to find us by bombing the area until something is hit and blows up. It won't take long for them to bomb the whole crater.”
“What do you suggest Grilik Munen?”
“Hold all fire until Orysta's guns activate. We will know when they are in range. If we attack at the same time we will hit them from all directions.”
“You've done this before.” said Travellor rhetorically. “Kibbee, did you copy the Grilik's instructions?”
“Affirmative Commander. All fire control personnel, this is Kibbee. Acquire your targets and fire when the Orysta opens up. I repeat. Acquire your targets and fire when the Orysta's guns go active.”
The surrounding area within the crater continued to randomly explode in no predictable pattern except for one thing – the explosions were moving closer to the moon base and the Orysta. Travellor was about to leave the control tower when he realized he wasn't in any more danger there than he would be in any other location.
He sat at the main control console and logged onto the computer. Username – Supreme Commander. 'No one would ever think I'd use that.' he thought. Password – 75T#k8Htt4!3. The moon base's computer network wasn't any where close to the sophistication of the Orysta's, but it served its purpose. Once logged on he activated the program only he and a couple of software engineers knew existed – TERMINAL SERVICES. It was an appropriately name program.
The Terminal Services program performed only one function. He touched the screen where a red 'ACTIVATE' button was displayed, and looked outside. The protective half-dome located outside at the center of the crater opened up to reveal the quad fifty caliber guns salvaged from an old B-52D model bomber, and modified by 361 technicians to operate in the vacuum of space. Travellor preferred to be able to shoot back when someone was shooting at him, and these were his personal guns.
The fire control system for the weapon had been updated with the latest cross-beam LIDAR and optical targeting system available. Even ships with stealth technology could be detected. The best update was that the information from the targeting systems was fed to both the Orysta's computer and the dedicated local computer. Orysta's computer would easily be able to track and predict target position with its tremendous processing power. With the speeds alien ships were capable of achieving this would be a necessity in some possible situations. If connection to the Orysta was lost the local computer took over. But the moon base was a static target on a relatively stationary solar body, and in the attempt to achieve greater accuracy these attacking ships would be moving at much slower speeds than what they were capable of. Still, it was nice to have the capability there.
He switched the system to manual, and swung the guns left, right, up, and down to verify the hydraulics were working. The system responded normally. He switched back to computer controlled tracking. His computer screen now displayed LIDAR target returns. The attackers were getting closer now. He could feel vibrations being conducted through the ground from the blasts outside. The sky that had shown only stars a few minutes ago now showed lights that grew larger by the second. The dhrojja ships were within gun range now, and getting closer. The bombing stopped, and Travellor suspected those ships were switching over to their guns for strafing attacks. In his peripheral vision he detected the Orysta's guns swiveling around and pointing upward. Her guns tips grew bright and slugs of electromagnetic energy were shot at the enemy. Then the base guns opened up and he joined them with his quad.
It was a target rich environment, and Travellor picked a LIDAR signature in the middle of the pirate swarm and locked onto it. With the touch of his finger he triggered the quad. As they fired, the recoil shifted the guns' position as the hydraulics worked to pull them back on target – it was a continuously repeating cycle. Because of this constant slight change of the guns' position a cloud of deadly projectiles spewed from the barrel tips to cover a wider area, making the weapon much more deadly to a group of attackers than if the bullets all followed in the same track.
Some of the targets on his LIDAR screen appeared to diminish in size and brightness of the return. Some of them fell back behind the advancing group, and others just faded out completely. The reach of the bullets fired on the Moon was much farther than it would have been with the higher gravity and air resistance of the Earth, but there was one major restriction for the weapons modified for use here. On the screen of each weapon system's targeting display was drawn a circle. It was the seven second circle which marked the point where the internal timer would trigger the explosive that would blow up the bullet into a fine ceramic powder. Anything beyond that range was safe from the projectiles. Those bullets could travel a long way in seven seconds.
One of the remote gun emplacements was hit by enemy fire. There was a bright flash, and a puff of smoke which expanded outward for a short distance, then stopped and just hung over the site. There was no fire – there was no oxygen to feed it. That was it. It wasn't very impressive.
3
“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?” Washington yelled before Smith could.
They both watched Califas busily checking the data on his instrument console. Their own instruments showed a spike in thrust output and speed, but nothing to explain why. All three men were breathing heavily as their bodies tried to readjust physically and psychologically to their near death experience. The adrenaline that had been dumped into their blood had them moving jerkily and aggressively.
“This cannot be correct.” said Califas, with an almost nervous laughter.
Smith and Washington kept staring at him. Califas looked surprised and excited as he continued going through the data.
“Haha..., I... I cannot believe this.”
“Believe What?” asked Smith and Washington in unison.
; “Heh... you... you recreated history. OUR history!” Califas said, with a big smile on his face, as he looked at the others. When he got no reaction from the other two he continued.
“The Folly has gone FTL. You have broken the faster than light barrier. Hahaha. You will go down in your world's history. You will be famous. Oh..., ” he said realizing the implications, “I will go down in your world's history. I will be noted in the historical records of another universe!”
Silence followed for a while as Smith and Washington tried to assimilate this information.
“I'm no Eckelberry Cove,” said Smith, “but I know that this ship can't generate enough power to even get close to the speed of light.”
“That is true.” replied Califas. “Under normal circumstances it cannot.”
“Please explain, before I jump over there, shove my fist down your throat and pull it out of you.” said Washington, obviously still shaken up by the experience. He shook himself, and regained control of his nerves. “Sorry. Sorry. I... I'm still feeling the effects.”
“Yes. You are feeling more than you know. The effects are both physical and mental. Everyone reacts differently. I will explain as succinctly as I can. Space is full of high energy particles and energy waves that are emitted by many types of galactic and solar objects. Now look at this waveform of the Folly's thrust profile that I recorded.”
Smith and Washington stared at the display screen next to Califas. On it was a straight horizontal line that changed into an oscillating waveform, and then showed the waveform rising sharply in amplitude and level.
“This point just prior to the oscillation is where you engaged the ion drive. I am guessing as to what actually happened, but I base this on our own spaceflight history. Somehow the output streams of the two engines combined in a parasitic oscillation, the effect of which was to attract the high energy particles and waves. These particles were pulled to the Folly and traveled down the skin to the output streams where they combined with the existing output and increased the amount of thrust many times.”
“But... how many times could it possibly increase the thrust level. I understand that you guys do it regularly, but my understanding is limited. This ship was not designed to travel that fast. Shouldn't power levels that high have destroyed the ship?”
“That is where it gets complicated.” said Califas. “At a certain point after FTL the ship is no longer flying through space as an airplane flies through air particles. When that point is reached the surrounding 'bubble' of space travels with the ship, and is not flowing passed it. You can think of this as a protective layer of space that moves with you.”
“Do you do this every time?” asked Washington. “Do you go through this … this torture every time you travel in the Orysta?”
“We do not. The Orysta and all galactic class ships have systems that cancel the effect if accelerated properly.”
Washington tilted his head back against his seat and took a deep breath.
“I have to tell you, I thought we were dead. I had no doubt the ship was going to be torn apart and us along with it.”
“This is odd.” said Smith. “Must be something wrong with our gauges. This says we still have most of our fuel left.”
“That would seem to confirm my theory.” said Califas. “The ship's fuel was only being used to sustain the oscillation. The power for FTL travel came from the outside.”
“How far did we travel?” asked Washington.
“I will see if I can determine that.” said Califas, as various star charts popped up on his screen. He looked up and pointed. “See that large body over there.”
“That oddly shaped – what is it, a moon without a planet?”
“That is known in your database as asteroid Vesta. It is considered by your people to be a small terrestrial planet because of its size and makeup. We have traveled over ninety-seven million five hundred thousand larn. That is over one hundred and fifty-six million miles.”
“Holy sh...”
“The shuttle!” interjected Washington. “They must be wondering what happened to us.” He touched the comm button and spoke. “Shuttle one, this is the Folly. Over.” When there was no response he repeated his message.
“If we have traveled FTL, which I am certain we have, shuttle one will not receive your message for some time. Your communications system emits signals that only travel at light speed. It will take approximately fifteen minutes before they hear you – if they hear you.”
4
“Just background noise.” said Mersuul. “It is as if all signals are being blocked.”
“Could there be something between us and the base?” asked del Rio. “An asteroid or something large?”
“It is not likely.” said Plessa. “It would have to be traveling on a path directly in line with this shuttle and the base to continually block out the signal. Something else is causing this problem.”
“You said we could contact them on the shuttle's comm system.” said del Rio. “It's only the base's frequencies that are being blocked.”
“That would violate IGT law.” said Plessa. “You know that.”
“Yes, I know. I also know that our people have disappeared and we need to begin a search as soon as possible. Remember – it was an immediate search that saved my life. You were both there when it happened.”
Her reminder triggered memories in the other two that made them uncomfortable, and brought back the feelings and thoughts they experienced then.
“It ...would not be violating law if we contacted the Orysta instead of the base, to give them a report of our status.” said Mersuul. “If anyone under Commander Travellor's command was there to hear our report it would not be a violation.”
“That is correct,” replied Plessa, “it would not be a violation. Do it.”
Mersuul initiated the transmission. Then she tried again.
“What is the problem?” asked Plessa.
“All communications are being blocked. It must be being done intentionally. I have tried all frequencies. Something is wrong. This would only happen if...”
“Place the shuttle on course for the moon.” Plessa said anxiously. “Maximum speed. Secure yourself in your seat Delores. You will feel this again.”
“What's the problem?” asked del Rio as she sat back into her seat. “Why can't you raise the Orysta?”
The sudden intense acceleration of the shuttle pushed all of them back into the seats. The shuttle systems to negate these forces under normal circumstances were not completely effective at maximum acceleration. Del Rio remembered that the Folly had no such compensation, and wondered what the people in that ship must have felt. It was several seconds before she stopped feeling the effects on her body, after the shuttle's speed had stabilized. She asked again why they couldn't contact the Orysta.
“There is only one logical reason.” answered Mersuul. “The base is under attack.”
“Attack? By who?” asked del Rio. “There isn't anyone on Earth capable of doing that.”
“Dhrojja!” said Plessa. “Pirates!”
“Pirates? As in 'pirates'? In space? Why would they attack us? We don't have any... OH! Crystal-flow!”
“Yes. They want the crystal-flow – and anything else they can take.”
Del Rio though about this for a while, and wondered if the base's defenses were good enough to fight them off.
“What kind of weapons do they have?”
“They likely have energy pulse guns, as well as exothermic bombs similar to Earth's.”
“And our guns – can they take out their ships? Will they be effective?”
“Very effective.” replied Mersuul. “The dhrojja will not be expecting projectile weapons. It is likely they do not know the moon base is there. It is probably the Orysta they are looking for.”
“The Orysta has been there for years. What brought them there now?”
“I do not know.” said Mersuul and Plessa at the same time.
“Are the w
eapons on this shuttle working?”
“Yes. We have one forward mounted energy pulse gun and one top mounted turret gun.” said Mersuul as she turned to look at del Rio. “This shuttle was not meant to engage in battle. Those weapons are mainly for defense.”
Del Rio felt confused and angry. The base was possibly being attacked, and the Folly's crew were lost in space without any way to know where they might be. She felt slightly sick, but after a few seconds that feeling began to resolve into anger.
“What can I do?” she asked.
5
They had made a major mistake – understandably. The remaining sixty-two dhrojja ships adjusted course and headed for the location of the Orysta's glowing guns. They knew the mining ship was the only ship out here that was big enough to defend itself, which was partially correct. They assumed there was no other threat to them, which was wrong. It was Kibbee who first noticed their change in attack pattern, and he understood what had happened. He immediately came over the comm and ordered all base guns to hold fire and wait for his command. It took only a seconds for the dhrojja ships to get much closer together while also getting well within the fire zone of the bases guns.
