The Solarian Celebration: Book 3 of the Alliance Conflict

by Jeff Sims

  A few months ago, Jack had discussed the matter at length with the Altian scientist Lorano. Lorano had been trapped on Earth during a research mission and had calculated a new hyperspace route that supposedly bypassed the debris. Further, Lorano had hidden the route by changing the last two numbers after confirming them in the navigational computer system.

  After the conversation, Jack tried to simulate the corrected route to Earth and found that it didn’t work. Lorano had more than likely made another adjustment to the route that he didn’t mention to Jack.

  Jack smiled. He knew that the Hiriculan Ambassador Bline would pay handsomely for this information, especially since he now possessed tangible evidence to support it.

  Chapter 3

  “They are coming through now Senators,” said Admiral Wertak.

  Admiral Wertak was the commander of the 18 ship Alliance fleet in Conron and was stationed on the battleship Sentry. The Conron fleet was sitting about 10 minutes from the Opron – Conron hyperspace lane.

  The Navy had increased the size of this fleet from 7 ships immediately after the battle of Influenla. Conron had suddenly gone from a backwater post to the front line of a military deterrent and Admiral Wertak was still adjusting to his fleet’s new role.

  The Sunflower was the first ship to appear. It exited from hyperspace with a speed of .12 light and immediately began slowing to rendezvous with the Conron fleet. Two minutes later the Dandelion appeared, followed two minutes later by the Guardian. The rest of the 14 ship fleet appeared over the course of the next 26 minutes.

  Frank and the other 7 Senators were sitting in a hastily assembled conference room in the entertainment area of the battleship Sentry. Frank walked over to the large monitor and looked at the scans and video camera feeds of the Sunflower. The report said that it had been damaged, but was able to continue. What he saw on the monitor left him speechless.

  The damage to the ship was extensive, beyond belief really. One-fourth of the hull was a different color and there were extensive weld seams running from the top of the ship to the bottom. The seams looked terrible, childish perhaps. The area surrounding the seam was discolored and looked burnt. Frank couldn’t imagine what happened to the ship or how it was still capable of flying through hyperspace.

  Frank looked over and saw that Senator Korno was standing beside him. He smiled in acknowledgement and said, “The ship looks terrible. I can’t imagine what made their hull change from gold to silver.”

  Korno pointed to the silver section of the hull and replied, “That section is Hiriculan steel. They use a slightly different allodizing process that makes their hull material that color.”

  Frank replied, “I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone welding in outer space, let alone metal from a Hiriculan ship.”

  Korno replied, “I cannot wait to hear this story.”

  There was a considerable debate concerning who should attend the debriefing. Solarian Senator Amanda Catmeows wanted all admirals, chiefs of staff, captains, and first officers to attend. Frank knew that this was a political ploy to expose the presence of humans, so he forced an actual Senate vote over the issue.

  Frank’s argument that the humans were still technically a secret carried the discussion. As a result, the invitation list was trimmed to Admiral Dolen, his chief of staff Olova, and Captain Solear. Admiral Wertak was also invited.

  Dolen began the report. He discussed how the fleet arrived in Influenla, chased away the Hiriculan frigate guarding the entrance to the hyperspace lane, and proceeded to the station. They determined that there were no military ships on the station. They tried to leave, but were trapped and forced to surrender.

  Frank looked over at Figur. Figur had somehow managed to stay quiet throughout the entire 10 minute presentation. He couldn’t remember the last time Figur had made it that long without interrupting. At any rate, he doubted Figur would make it through Solear’s report with a quip or two.

  Solear stepped to the temporary podium. He wasn’t technically at an official Senate meeting, but he started by saying “Respects gentle beings” anyway.

  Solear said, “The enemy knew our battle plan. They had a destroyer and a cruiser waiting for us at the exit of the Trilon hyperspace lane. They knew that the Sunflower, or at a minimum some Alliance cruiser, was going to go appear in Trilon. They also knew that the cruiser would be stripped of its fighters.”

  Figur interrupted right on queue. He asked, “Are you implying that we have a mole in our organization?”

  Solear responded, “No.” When everyone relaxed, Solear said, “I am not implying it; I am stating it clearly and plainly. Someone leaked the operational details of our mission. I have no suspects and am accusing no one, but the evidence overwhelmingly supports a leak.”

  Frank said, “We will address that later. Please, tell us what happened.”

  Senator Amanda interrupted before Solear could resume speaking. She said, “Captain, you are being very blunt. This is unlike you. Are the humans wearing off on you?”

  Solear simply replied, “Yes,” causing everyone in the room to nervously laugh.

  Figur said, “Please, continue.”

  Solear was tempted to say that he hadn’t started yet, but kept the comment to himself. Instead, he loaded a flashdrive cube into the main monitor and started the playback. The simulation started with Ella saying, “Now entering Trilon…” and everyone on the bridge getting thrown out of their chairs when the ship was hit by an ion cannon.

  Figur interrupted and said, “There should be a regulation or something requiring beings to wear their safety straps when they exit hyperspace.”

  Solear replied, “Excellent suggestion. Perhaps one of the Admirals present can create such a regulation. It certainly would have been helpful if it had been followed at that time.”

  All 8 senators looked at Admiral Dolen. Dolen took a note on his communication pad and said, “I will create the required regulation. Thank you Senator.”

  Solear continued the playback. The ion cannon blew a huge hole in the side of the Sunflower and destroyed the primary power generator. Next, the emergency pressure sensor module failed to activate and the entire ship lost air.

  Frank whispered to Korno, “Apparently he traded dead humans for the prisoners.”

  Senator Korno smiled and said, “Captain Solear. You ship was hit from nearly point blank range by an ion cannon. I am horrified by the damage it did and the lives you must have lost, but I am actually a little surprised that it didn’t do more damage.”

  Solear stopped the playback at this point and replied, “Their ion cannon was only at 55% power and our shields were at nearly full power. I believe that they purposely fired it at a low level because they wanted to take at least some of us prisoner. A full power blast would have severely damaged the ship.”

  Korno replied, “Judging from the scans, I would argue that it did.”

  After quite a few chuckles, Solear continued, “Only the bridge section still had air. The rest of the ship was exposed to space. The bridge crew was now effectively trapped inside the bridge. The Hiriculans sent 6 HAS units to pry us out.”

  Figur interrupted, “So, you had no power, couldn’t jump, and were boarded by 6 HAS units. How did you manage to stop that?”

  Solear continued, “The Humans, per existing regulation, were wearing their protective gear when we exited hyperspace and were hit by the ion cannon. Two died from the blast, but the rest were alive and unharmed.”

  Solear paused, but this time was not interrupted. He continued, “The Humans rerouted the trunk line from the primary to the secondary generator. This restored power to the shields, missile launchers, and the ion cannon.”

  Admiral Wertak spoke for the first time. He said, “That is a minimum four hour job in ideal circumstances. How long did it take your crew?”

  Solear responded, “Just under 5 minutes.”

  Wertak scoffed. Clearly, he didn’t believe it.

  Admiral Wertak said, �
�Five minutes. The amount of work required to reroute the trunk line to the secondary generator is tremendous. You have to drag the trunk line halfway across the ship, reset circuit breakers, and change the flow of electricity. The entire ship would have been completely dark, let alone in vacuum. How did they accomplish this in 5 minutes?”

  Solear was hesitant to say that the humans practiced simulations almost non-stop and that this was one of them. He also didn’t want to mention that they rewired part of the ship even before the attack and added several non-regulation components such as car batteries to the ship.

  He answered, “The Humans were aided by the fact that a significant portion of the ship was missing. It made moving the line much easier.”

  Solear continued the playback. Two transports left the Hiriculan destroyer and landed on the Sunflower. Exactly 5 minutes later the Sunflower’s power was restored. The Sunflower fired its ion cannon point blank at the Hiriculan destroyer. It took less than a hundredth of second to completely vaporize the enemy ship.

  Frank couldn’t believe what he saw. The ship didn’t explode or break-up. It just literally ceased to exist. One second it was there, the next it was just space dust. He said, “I assume that shot was full power.”

  Solear responded, “Yes. Plus, the Hiriculan ship had inexplicably lowered its shields.”

  Korno said, “So, you fired an ion cannon at full power and at point blank range on an unshielded ship with no warning?”

  Solear didn’t like how this was going. If the senators found that distasteful, they probably weren’t going to like the rest of the report. Solear responded, “Yes.”

  He continued the playback. The Sunflower traded missiles with the remaining Hiriculan cruiser. The Hiriculan cruiser fired one volley of 10 missiles. The Sunflower fired a volley of either 4 or 5 missiles every 30 seconds.

  After 2 ½ minutes, the Sunflower had out-shot the enemy 23 missiles to 10. The enemy cruiser was damaged and leaking polonium from the reactor. It was clearly out of the fight. However, exactly 30 seconds later the Sunflower fired another volley. These missiles struck in open areas and the enemy ship violently exploded.

  Figur said, “Why did it explode so completely?”

  Solear responded, “The last volley was ship buster missiles. They hit the exposed reactor and caused a massive chain reaction.”

  Senator Amanda responded, “The enemy ship was clearly damaged and could no longer fight. Why not stop and let them surrender?”

  Solear had been concerned about this question for some time. Every answer he could give would make his sound like a remorseless killer. He finally responded, “Taking prisoners was technically in violation of my orders.”

  Frank was the first to understand Solear’s statement. He said, “Yes. We are all aware that you were specifically ordered not to reveal the presence of the Humans. Still though, this isn’t how civilized cultures conduct warfare.”

  Solear felt his anger rising. He really wanted to yell and storm out. He forced himself to count to 10. He responded, “You filled my ship with the biggest, strongest, and without question the most violent race in the known universe. You wanted to know how Humans respond in a crisis, well now you know. They blow things up.”

  Frank cringed at the response. He gave his ‘let’s try again smile’ and switched subjects. He asked, “How did you manage to fire so many missiles?”

  Solear responded, “The Humans stored extra missiles beside the launchers. Then they picked them up and manually put them into the missile launchers.”

  Admiral Wertak said, “That is against regulation. You are only permitted to store missiles beside the launchers in certain conditions. A hit could have ignited the missiles and destroyed the ship.”

  Frank responded, “I doubt they would have noticed another huge hole in the ship.” He again garnered some polite chuckles.

  “Those missiles weigh 90 kg (200 lbs) each. Are you telling me that the Humans manually lifted them?” Figur asked.

  Solear: “Yes. Apparently, they can do it with ease.”

  Frank asked, “What happened to the 6 HAS units?”

  Solear responded, “The Humans killed them.”

  Frank responded with just a little sarcasm in his voice, “The Humans killed 6 HAS units. How did they accomplish that?”

  Solear responded, “They have their own powered suits and there are 5 Humans on board that are specially trained to use them.”

  This statement was technically the truth, but was intentionally misleading. Solear supposed that he didn’t need to admit that he authorized the scientist Lorano create the suits for the express purpose of killing HAS soldiers.

  Figur asked, “So you had an armored battle on the ship. That must have lasted hours.”

  Solear responded, “The 5 Humans killed the 6 HAS units in less than 12 seconds.”

  Everyone started murmuring words of disbelief. Admiral Dolen approached the podium and said, “I can confirm the statement. I personally watched these specialized units, called MPS units or marines, kill 6 HAS units at the Spindle Station in under 10 seconds. It was horrific to watch.”

  Frank said, “Can you expand upon the word horrific?”

  Dolen said, “The humans stuck long pieces of metal, apparently called swords, straight into the HAS units. The sword sliced through the shield, through the armor, and impaled the being inside. The Hiriculans died by rapidly bleeding to death. It was gruesome to watch.”

  Solear waited for a moment for comments. There were none. He continued, “There was a third Hiriculan ship in the system, another cruiser. This one was on the other side of the system when we arrived. It saw the light of the battle and micro jumped to our location. We had a 4 hour window between battles.”

  Chief Olova asked, “Captain, your ship was basically dead. Primary power was gone, secondary power was failing, no air, nothing. Why did you keep fighting?”

  Solear responded, “Just before we lost communications, I told the Humans that another enemy ship was approaching and asked if they wanted to surrender.”

  “And,” Frank said.

  Solear: “The Humans said ‘Give em hell’ and started cheering.”

  Frank: “Computer what does that Earth colloquialism mean.”

  …86.4% Kill your enemies and desecrate their bodies such that their souls cannot reach eternal salvation…

  Figur replied, “That seems rather egregious. Is that truly what the Humans meant?”

  Solear: “Yes. That is exactly what they meant.”

  Dolen thought about the trail of blood and mangled bodies the marines left during the rescue mission. He recalled how he couldn’t tell where one body started and another ended. He responded a moment after Captain Solear with, “Yes it is. That is exactly what they meant and during the battle that is exactly what they did.”

  No one responded, so Solear took advantage of the sudden silence and continued the playback. The enemy fighters flew directly to the Sunflower. They were still far away from the ship when they prepared for an attack run on the Alliance cruiser.

  Figur said, “They are flying toward the Sunflower like they don’t have a care in the galaxy.”

  Frank looked at Solear and replied, “Which led you to make the assertion that the enemy knew you weren’t carrying a fighter wing. How did you manage to survive this attack?”

  Solear continued the simulation. Ten fighters left the Sunflower and scattered the in-coming enemy fighters. Now with a clear path, the Sunflower fired 9 missiles. The missiles hit the enemy ship and broke it in half.

  He had carefully edited this part of the simulation to remove all evidence of the missiles being launched through hyperspace. That was one trick he intended to keep to himself. Plus, he would probably be court-martialed on the spot if he were to show it.

  Figur asked, “Where did you manage to find 10 additional pilots, and fighters for that matter?”

  Solear responded, “The fighters were spares. There just happened to be 10 addition
al Humans on board that could fly a fighter. As you can see, we lost 4 of 10, but the Humans killed all 20 enemy fighters.”

  Figur said, “So, if I understand you correctly, even your random crew members are a significant magnitude better than Hiriculan pilots.”

  Frank said, “So it appears. Next question, how did you repair the ship?”

  The simulation then showed a time elapsed sequence of the humans repairing the ship. He skipped the part where the marines cleared the enemy ship.

  Figur said, “That is…” and stopped. He paused for a moment to collect himself and said, “Deep space welding is extremely dangerous. Plus, I don’t recognize that particular welding technique.”

  Solear responded, “It is called electron beam welding and is frequently used on Earth. After the ship was repaired, we went to Opron, collected the two squadrons of Human fighters waiting for us there, and jumped to Influenla to rescue the Alliance prisoners.”

  Frank: “You’re kidding. You actually jumped in that. Multiple times.”

  Solear: “It is structurally sound despite its outward appearance.

  Senator Korno must have been the only one listening. He said, “Wait, you said rescue. Are you telling us that you flew that ship into Influenla and attacked the Hiriculans?”

  Solear said, “The Humans have a credo – no being left behind. They refused to go back to Conron. They said that they would rather die fighting to free the prisoners than live with the knowledge that they did nothing.”

  Frank: “Seriously?”

  Solear: “The Humans would not be deterred. I doubt they would have followed an order to return to Conron.”

  Solear played the second simulation. This time the senators sat in stunned silence as a squadron of fighters was launched into hyperspace. Then a meteoroid destroyed the Hiriculan’s defensive asteroid. Next, the squadron exited hyperspace and destroyed a frigate in a single pass.

  This was followed by a massive fighter battle. Then the Sunflower exchanged missiles with a command carrier at a frenetic pace and eventually destroyed it. Finally, all of the Alliance ships left the station and jumped to hyperspace.