Empty Casket Conspiracy (Terran Patrol Book 1)

by Lewis Dually

  “Yes. We only made a dozen and I think we used eight in the battle. I’ll take forty eight of them.”

  “Ok. I’ll transfer them over via shuttle when we arrive. Steller photography located the Krueg fleet. They spotted two ships that are about the size of the Constellation. We think those are the battle carriers Antwon told us about. There are also nine smaller Destroyers about the size of the Shasta.”

  “That’s not good. We were expecting half that number.” I said.

  Leland shifted in his seat and asked. “Who’s on the bridge with you?”

  I had known Leland long enough to read his expression and knew he had bad news. “Hold on, I’ll move to my ready room.” I transferred his call to my office and said. “What’s up?”

  “Dr. Shaw has not come out of his coma yet. There is concern that he suffered some slight brain damage. They have lowered his core temperature and will leave him under for one more day before trying to revive him.”

  “Ok. I appreciate your discretion with this and I’ll tell Walters in private. I was hoping to ask him a question but I guess it will keep.”

  “What question did you have for him?” Leland asked.

  My hand was feeling for the snuff can in my pocket and coming up empty. Finally I gave up and answered Leland.

  “I wanted to ask him if we had any Alien ships he might not have told us about. Our fight with the Krueg was pretty much a stale mate. I think we were using the same technology and I’m wondering just where we got it. They have the EMP gun and we have our new tungsten steel rounds. Everything else was an even match. I think the PDA may have some Krueg technology.”

  “Maybe the Krueg have our technology. Did you think about that?” Leland asked.

  “No. That never crossed my mind. I will think about it but I don’t see how they could. You better get underway. Sprite and Hill are waiting for a friendly looking ship to save them. Gale can give you their approximate location.”

  “I’m on it. See you in a few.” Leland said as I transferred him back to the bridge. I opened my drawer and retrieved my snuff and then called Walters in.

  She walked in and asked, “What’s wrong with Andrew?”

  “Who?”

  “Dr. Shaw, what’s wrong with him?”

  “I’m sorry. I should have known you were asking about him. I never knew his first name. He’s still in the coma and they think he might have suffered some slight brain damage. They are leaving him in the coma for another day to let his brain recover.”

  Walters sat in a chair and looked down at the floor for a moment. I couldn’t tell if she was crying or praying.

  After a bit she looked up and said. “We have two men lost in a shuttle, no engines and we’re being stalked by an Alien ship. I can deal with this later.” She stood up and said, “Anything else Sir?”

  “I hope not. Seems to me you have enough on your plate right now. Let’s go find Sprite and Hill.”

  Chaffy was waiting for me when we entered the bridge and said. “Sir, Owens is ready to test the drive rails.”

  “About time. Give me a ship wide channel.”

  Warren tapped the P-A switch and gave me a thumbs up.

  “Attention crew. This is the Skipper. We are about to restart our engines. When we do we will arrest our spin and orbital decay. We think there is a Krueg ship laying wait for our rescue party. When we stabilize our orbit they will know we are operational and will probably attack. All hands report to battle stations and prepare to kick some more Alien butt. We have three kills under our belt today, might as well make it four.”

  As I signed off I heard an audible cheer echo down the corridors and I cracked a faint smile as I appreciated just how great of a crew I had the pleasure to serve with.

  “How many tungsten steel rounds do we have left?” I asked Gale.

  “Four Sir.”

  “Ok. Tell him to proceed.” I sat down as Chaffey told the Chief to go ahead. First I felt the inertia dampeners kick on and the G-force we had been fighting for the past hour dissipated. Then I felt the nausea and swallowed hard trying to keep my innards in. Next the engines came to life and arrested our spin.

  “Oh boy.” I groaned as my head kept spinning when the ship stopped.

  “All systems online and functioning Sir.” Gale announced.

  “Are the sensors working?”

  “Yes Sir. Sensors are up and we’re ready to go get the boys.”

  “Well just hold your horses there a bit. What kind of readings are you getting on that spy out there on the horizon?”

  Warren and Gale poured over the sensor readings for a moment. “We’re not getting any readings Sir.”

  I leaned back in my chair and looked at the viewer. “Magnify that as much as you can.”

  “It’s at full magnification now Sir.”

  Now what? I thought and then said. “Ok. Let’s go see what that is. One tenth speed.”

  “Aye aye Sir.” Chaffey said as he moved us forward to intercept the Krueg ship. Not having a sensor read on it made me nervous. We had no problem reading the other three ships so why was this one different? As we moved forward the lens effect created by Neptune’s atmosphere dissipated and the ship appeared to be smaller than we thought. Now I could see more detail and realized it was not one of the Krueg ships. This ship was white. No actually it was metallic, and round. It was a saucer!”

  Walters stepped up beside me. “Sir, could that be a Grey ship?”

  “Maybe. Shaw did say they used saucer shaped ships. It ain’t Krueg.”

  “Movement behind us Sir!” Warren called out. “There is a shuttle departing from the disabled Krueg Destroyer.”

  “Spin us around.” I ordered. Chaffey turned us hard to port as my brain seamed to spin two rotations inside my head.

  “Oh crap.” I blurted out. No doubt the bridge crew thought I was commenting about the Krueg but I was just trying not to hurl on Walters.

  “Two shuttles Sir. Exiting from their port side shuttle bay.”

  We watched as the two shuttles left the ship and made a beeline for deep space. Then about one mile from the disabled vessel a warp bubble began to form and the shuttles shot forward into the swirling mass of stars and disappeared.

  “Now that’s interesting.” I said aloud. “Their shuttles have warp engines. OH CRAP!” This time I WAS commenting about the Krueg. If I were the Krueg commander and I was abandoning ship to escape capture by a hostile force, I would scuttle the boat.

  “CHAFFEY! GET US OUT OF HERE, NOW!”

  Chaffey understood perfectly. He spun us around and punched it. Seconds later we passed by the saucer ship and they sprang into action falling in behind us as we circled the planet. The Krueg Destroyer went out of view behind Neptune’s bulging blue surface just as a fire ball erupted into the black edge of space. The blast was so large and bright that it momentarily lit up the dark side of Triton, Neptune’s largest moon.

  “Full stop Mr. Chaffey. Good work.”

  “Thank you Sir.” Chaffey replied.

  “Sir the Alien ship is pulling up beside us.” Warren informed me. “Port side at one mile Sir. She’s matching our speed and trajectory.”

  “Give me an open channel on all bands.” Warren punched in a few commands to link the subspace, AM and FM broadcasts together. Then he gave me a thumbs up and I keyed the mike.

  “Unidentified ship off our port side. This is the United Earth Space Cruiser Dawn Rising. Please identify yourself.”

  Thirty seconds passed and I started to repeat my call when Warren said. “I have a video signal coming in Sir.”

  The viewer switched to the message and shown a green screen with a message scrolling across in black letters.

  WE ARE THE SHEWN. WE MEAN YOU NO HARM. WE HAVE MONITORED YOUR BATTLE WITH THE KRUEG. WE WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR YOUR PROGRESS.

  “Sir they’re breaking off to port.” Warren reported.

  Then the view monitor switched back to the ship as it shot over the planet
’s southern poll and disappeared.

  “Well that was brief.” I said. “Turn us around and let’s see what’s left of the Destroyer.”

  There wasn’t much left. The blast had torn the ship to shreds and most of it was streaking through Neptune’s atmosphere leaving twenty mile long fire trails as the intense heat incinerated the remnants. There was no intel or weapons to be recovered now and that of course was the reason for the self-destruct.

  “What about the front section of the third ship.” I asked. “Where is it?”

  Gale and Warren studied the sensor readings but came up empty. “Well it didn’t just fly away. What was the last known trajectory?” I asked.

  Warren turned to me and said. “We don’t have a trajectory Sir. All systems were down when we lost track of it so we’re just guessing.”

  “Were any of the moons close by?” I asked.

  “Triton and Protee were passing each other.” Gale recalled. “With the gravity disturbance caused by Triton’s retrograde orbit it would have changed the course of anything drifting in the area.” She turned back to her station and adjusted the sensor sweep for a second and then said. “Got it Sir. 177 mark 24 at thirty-six hundred miles.”

  “Good work Gale.” I said. “If it changed their course then it probably changed the shuttles course. Raise the Shasta on the coms.”

  A few moments passed before Leland appeared on the viewer. “Hey Allen, I haven’t found them yet. Are you sure about their trajectory?”

  “Well actually we messed that up. Try the coordinates Gale is sending you. We’ll meet you there.”

  “Can do. See you in a bit.” Leland replied.

  Thirty minutes later we were recovering the turd and the Shasta had pulled alongside to transfer over the tungsten steel shells.

  “I was starting to worry.” Commander Sprite said as he stepped out of the shuttle. “We thought you forgot us.”

  “I almost did but I needed you to go search the Krueg wreck. You ready to go?”

  Sprite shrugged and said. “Ok but let me out of this monkey suit for a minute. Nature calls.”

  CHAPTER 14: Hero’s Welcome.

  The bow section of the Krueg ship had sustained minimal damage forward of hull break with most of the explosion contained between the fifth and sixth bulkheads. The EMP cannon was still mounted to the upper deck but the control unit attached to its breach was torn away and missing. After a two hour ordeal to arrest the ships spin the Marines and Seals boarded and started searching through the dark depths of the dead hulk. They broke up into three teams and we watched their progress on the large view monitors on our bridge and on the bridge of the Shasta.

  “How’s it look over there?” I asked into the coms.

  “Not much to see Sir.” Yukawa responded. “Anything that wasn’t bolted down was sucked out by the decompression.”

  As I watched their progress on the monitors I noticed the insides of this ship was total function with no frills. It reminded me of a World War II submarine. The walls and overhead runners were littered with exposed pipe and wiring conduits that allowed for easy access to the ship’s components. Not very pretty but functional. Everything was painted with the same drab grey favored by the Navy on our ocean fleet. Sprite’s team had reached a closed hatch and I could see Chief Hill peering through the door’s small window with his helmet lamps.

  “Body!” He called out. He stepped aside and Sprite looked in.

  “Dang it!” I heard him say. “I knew there were going to be lizards!”

  “What do you see in there?” I asked.

  “A dead Alien! It’s maybe six feet tall and has scales like a lizard or snake! It’s dark grey and has two light green stripes running vertical from both sides of the head down. Looks like four fingers with short thick claws on them. Judging by its boots I’d say it walks upright on two legs and it does not have a tail. It has a more or less humanoid shape. Can’t see the eyes just yet. Its dead I hope. I don’t think the room is pressurized so it probably is. We’ll make sure before we open the door.”

  “Any sign of venom-spitting fangs?” I asked.

  “Ha-ha, very funny.” Sprite chided me. “If you find it so interesting why don’t you come over and inspect its fangs yourself?”

  I made no reply but a wide grin was spreading across my face. Every commander has his own way of defusing tense situations. My particular tactic was humor. If you can get someone to laugh it will help calm their nerves. I didn’t think Sprite needed calming but I was watching the vital readings of his team and a few of them weren’t doing well. The same was true for the Marines and I could hear several of them chuckling at our conversation.

  Major Yukawa broke in on the coms. “Ok men. Joke time is over. Keep your eyes open and your mouths shut.”

  Chief Hill pulled out a multi spectrum laser scanner and placed it against the glass of the hatch window. By shining the laser into the atmosphere of the closed chamber and reading the color variation of the light spectrum he could determine the composition of the air.

  “I’m reading zero atmosphere in there Sir.” Hill reported. Then he stowed the laser and opened the hatch. I watched the monitor as Hill stepped in and a wash of white light from his helmet lamps pushed the darkness back. The Alien’s floating corpse emerged from the black as Hill approached and poked it with the barrel of his rifle.

  “Dead Sir.” He said.

  “Well da!” Sprite smirked.

  Sprite reached forward and opened the Alien’s eyes. They were black, just like the Croiddan.

  “Bag it and tag it.” I ordered. “The PDA wants a specimen so we’ll give them one.”

  Major Yukawa came on the air. “Commander, you better look at this.”

  I looked to the left monitor and watched as one of the Marines opened a hatch and stepped into what looked like the reactor room. There, in the center of the room, just as plain as the broken nose on my face, was our GUTM reactor. It was the exact same design.

  “Pictures, I want hundreds of pictures. Every piece, every surface, every corner. I want everything.” I ordered.

  “Yes Sir.” Yukawa replied.

  Glancing at the right monitor I watched the second platoon on the top deck busy detaching what was left of the EMP cannon. Then I looked back to the reactor room monitor. The flashes from the high resolution cameras were lighting up the room like a disco theater. They continued documenting the reactor for several minutes until Yukawa called, “Commander, we have two more bodies in here.”

  “Let me see.” I replied.

  Yukawa held his camera up and pointed it behind a coils chamber shield. The two Aliens had strapped themselves to the shield support brackets but without pressure suits to protect them from the zero atmosphere it was a useless effort.

  “Why would they do that?” Walters asked.

  “They were trying not to get sucked out into space.” Leland replied over the Shasta’s coms channel.

  “But without pressure suits they were going to die anyway. Why strap yourself down when you know it won’t save you.”

  Major Yukawa’s voice came over the coms channel. “I’d say they panicked. They just felt the decompression and did what they could. I haven’t seen any pressure suits stowed anywhere so they might not have had access to any.”

  Sprite broke into the conversation. “Sir, I think we found the sick bay.”

  Looking back at the center monitor I watched as the Seal team moved into a medical ward where four tables were mounted along one wall with various types of medical hardware attached to them. Two refrigerators were positioned next to those but the glass fronts had blown out along with their contents when the ship decompressed. A computer console was mounted on the wall beside the refrigerators and I could see a single green light shining on its control panel.

  “This thing still has power.” Hill announced. “It must have a battery backup.”

  “Can you detach it from the wall?” I asked.

  Hill bent down an
d shined his light under it. “Yes Sir. It’s bolted to the bulkhead and there are two wires going from it to the wall. I can cut the bolts with a mini saw. They’re not very big.”

  “Good.” I said. “Do that and keep the bolts so we can run metallurgy tests on them. Try not to short the wires if they have power on them. That thing could be a treasure trove of information.”

  Two hours later the teams were bringing back their booty. After going through a decontamination chamber to kill any viruses or nasty bugs, they climbed out of their pressure suits and headed for debriefing. The computer console and the EMP cannon were stowed in our cargo hold. The Alien was placed in a sealed metal casket and stored in one of Dr. Hirsch’s cold boxes and I sent a subspace radio call to U E One and was pleased to get a response.

  The communications officer greeted me. “United Earth One here Sir. What can I do for you Commander Paul?”

  “I need to speak with Admiral Albright. Have you figured out how to patch these new radios down to Houston?”

  “No need Sir. The Admiral is here on the station. I’ll get him for you.”

  Albright must have been waiting for my call because he came on the viewer instantly.

  “Paul. How are things going out there?”

  “Good Sir. We have recovered part of an EMP cannon and a computer console from the sick bay of the Krueg wreck. We also have one Alien body on ice for the PDA. We made a full sweep of the bow section and have video and still images of everything. Their reactor is an exact duplicate of ours Sir.”

  “Excellent!” Albright proclaimed. “Just damned excellent. I have new orders for you. Transfer the Seal team to the Shasta and then get that stuff back here ASAP. Bring the Croiddan with you. We want to meet them.”

  “Yes Sir. See you in an hour.” I replied.

  Heading back to U E One wasn’t my first choice. I wanted to visit the Croiddan outpost but orders were orders so I sent the Marines and Sprite’s team to Leland and we warp jumped for home.

  Coming out of a warp bubble was always a gamble because we had no way of seeing what might be in our path on the other end. Exiting in deep space was relatively safe but there was still a one in a billion chance of hitting another ship or some bit of space debris. You never really knew what would be waiting for you. Coming out of warp near a planet or close to a station was much more risky. Until now the protocol for near Earth warp exit was to exit one hundred thousand miles out and proceed under normal power. Now, with the subspace coms functioning, we could simply ask U E One flight control for a clear vector and come in much closer. And much closer it was. Chaffey brought us out of warp six miles from the stations upper promenade and we cruised right up to the top space docks.