by Jeff Sims
Bline had said it in a very accusatory tone. Frank wondered who had leaked that information to him. He also thought that perhaps Bline was just guessing and wanted a reaction and a fierce denial. Frank looked at Korno and shook no with his head. Korno took the clue and stayed silent.
Frank suddenly realized that Bline was trying to determine whether the Alliance knew that there were Netos piloting the fighters in the earlier battle. Bline had asked the question hoping that Frank would respond in kind with a similar accusation.
Instead, Frank smiled and began lying. He said, “Ambassador Bline, surely you know that only Alliance members are allowed to serve in the military and that we only accept volunteers. Therefore, humans would not be allowed to serve until the planet was accepted into the Alliance.”
Bline responded, “And what of the secret mission?”
Frank responded, “The humans were discovered 300 years ago. To date, there have been exactly six missions there. This will be the seventh. The previous six reports were made public and this one will too. As I am sure you know, the planet is under quarantine to ensure everyone’s safety. The humans are the strongest, meanest, and easily the most violent species we have ever encountered. Further, I doubt they have enough brainpower to pilot a ship.”
Bline responded, “Then surely you wouldn’t mind if we send a representative to perform and independent evaluation. I am sure that this shouldn’t be a problem if your true intentions for the humans are as transparent as you imply.
Frank stood up and flashed his award winning smile7.
7Frank had literally won a smiling contest earlier in life. His prize was getting picture on a box of cereal, which he felt helped fuel his rise in politics.
Frank said, “Of course ambassador. We have absolutely nothing to hide. You may tell your government that they can send a mission to Earth whenever they are ready. There are a few stipulations though. First and most important, the ship cannot be bigger than a small corvette. Second it cannot have weapons aboard. Third, there can only be four crew members maximum, and fourth, the ship cannot land on Earth. Finally, an Alliance corvette will escort you. Are those terms agreeable?
Both Korno and Ambassador Bline looked stunned. Frank could tell that Bline had been posturing. Frank knew that the Hiriculans wanted the Alliance to deny them the right to visit Earth. Then, they could pull a legal stunt similar to the one that they used in Opron a few months earlier. They would use the Alliance rejection as an excuse to send an entire battle fleet to Earth and effectively take control of it. Now, with a reasonable, open invitation to visit Earth, that avenue was blocked. Frank thought to himself, another political victory.
Ambassador Bline said, “That should be acceptable. I must confer with my government. I am sure they will prepare a team as soon as possible. Thank you.” Bline hurried out of the Senator’s office.
Korno said, “Frank, we cannot let the Hiriculans go to Earth. They will discover that we truly are trying to recruit pilots. And, where do you think he got that piece of information? That was supposed to be a top secret meeting.”
Frank said, “I don’t think he knew for certain. I think he was just guessing. I think he was trying to bait us into a response.”
Korno said, “Response of what.”
Frank replied, “He wanted to know whether or not we knew that the Hiriculans are using Netos in their fighters. Remember, they blew up their fighters to keep that secret hidden.”
Korno said, “Now what do we do. Under no circumstances can they go to Earth.”
Frank said, “I know. I have a plan.” He paused for a moment. He would rather get his plan in motion and then tell Korno, but he realized that Korno was waiting for a response.
He said, “Computer, place a call to Captain Solear. Engage the privacy screen.”
…Calling now. Screen in place. Solear has answered…
Captain Solear looked into the viewer, saw Senator Frank and said, “What can I do for you Senator.”
Frank said, “Captain, there is no easy way to say this, so I will be blunt. The Hiriculans are planning on sending a battle fleet to Earth and effectively conquering it.”
Solear said, “Wow!” He stammered as if he was going to say something else, but eventually just stopped moving his mouth. Finally, he said, “What can I do for you?”
Frank said, “I want you to take an unmarked corvette to Conron and close the hyperspace lane to Earth.”
Solear asked, “How am I supposed to do that?”
Frank responded, “I don’t know, but I have the utmost confidence in your abilities. There is a corvette waiting at the ship yard. Take the Sunflower over there for an inspection or something, then quietly leave on the corvette. I will contact fleet headquarters and have secret orders drawn up for you.”
When Frank disconnected, Korno turned to him and said, “You are going to strand the Lorano and his crew on Earth, possibly forever.”
Frank said, “Yes Korno, we will. But I see no choice. We cannot in good conscience allow the Hiriculans to enslave humanity.
Korno replied, “Isn’t that a bit dramatic.”
Frank responded, “No, not really. We still don’t know exactly what they did to the Netos. I do know that we cannot allow them to have Earth. They would have effective control over two races. This is for the best.”
………………
Captain Solear broke contact with Senator Frank and immediately said, “Ella, set course for the shipyard. Clowy, open an all-hands channel.”
Clowy asked, “Do you want the channel open to everyone on the ship?”
Solear responded, “Yes, Clowy, everyone.”
Solear addressed everyone, “All-hands, this is the Captain speaking; the Sunflower has been approved for immediate repairs at the shipyard. They are going to replace the solenoids in the emergency pressure sensor module and make some other minor repairs and upgrades. Effectively immediately, all non-officers have two weeks of shore leave.”
Ella said, “We have a confirmed docking slot. I am making the final steering adjustments now. We will dock in ten minutes.”
Clowy asked, “Do officers get shore leave?”
Captain Solear replied, “Normally, you would. Unfortunately, Arean and I have to attend a two week conference on identifying, creating, and sustaining effective leaders.”
Arean made an audible gurgle sound something like “uugghh.”
Ella did some quick mental math and said, “That means that only Clowy and I will be left on the ship.”
Both Clowy and Ella were lieutenants of equal rank. Clowy had been in the service for a year longer than Ella, so as a result the Altian technically outranked the Solarian.
Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it. Captain Solear said, “Clowy, you will be in charge while Arean and I are gone.” There, he said it.
He continued, “The repair crews have already been scheduled. Please ensure that all required work is completed. Also, the primary access corridor from the launch bay to crew quarters was not painted. Please have it painted.” He decided to try a new tactic, “Clowy, do you have any questions?”
Clowy smiled and appeared close to crying. Her large blue eyes had moistened around the edges and her gray skin had visibly reddened. She said, “No questions Captain. It won’t be a problem.”
Ella guided the Sunflower safely into the pre-assigned slot in the Alliance military ship yard. The shipyard was huge. It was the largest man-made structures in the known galaxy. It had five slots for the construction of new ships and 10 slots for repair and overhaul.
Each of these slots was actually inside the space station. This allowed technicians to build the entire ship inside the station without having to relocate it. It was extremely dangerous to work on the exterior of a ship in open space. One false move and a worker could pierce his suit and suffocate or drift off into space. For the most part, working in outer space was simply not done.
The shipyard contained an additional 10 op
en-space slots for ships that only needed internal work. The Sunflower docked at one of these open-space slots.
Ella confirmed a positive lock and shut-down the main and secondary power generator. The ship could pull all necessary energy from the shipyard. Everyone exited and Clowy and Ella had the ship to themselves. The ladies hadn’t left the bridge area since they boarded, so they decided to walk to the corridor that needed painted and see it personally.
Clowy said, “Wow, they just missed an entire corridor.” The corridor in question was just above the ion cannon. It ran basically the entire length of the ship, starting in engineering and ending at the fighter launch bays. Half of it was painted and half was not.”
Ella looked at it and said, “How do we paint it?”
Clowy answered, “I don’t know how to paint, do you?”
Ella answered, “I have a basic idea, but I never learned. However, I know someone who does?”
“Who,” Clowy asked?
Ella responded, “My father. He just finished a project in Advranki Prime and was going to come visit me. I bet he will paint the corridor for us!”
Clowy said, “Perfect.” That settled, the two officers went to check on the other projects.
Later that afternoon they were standing in the fighter bay. Ella’s father was arriving momentarily in a shuttle. Traffic control had decided that it would be easier for the shuttle to simply dock in the Sunflower versus the main shipyard. That way, the artist would be at his final destination versus having to be transported a second time. The transport landed without issue and Ella’s father, Fletcher, disembarked. Ella ran up and gave him a big hug.
After two rounds of introductions with Clowy – she didn’t quite grasp his name the first time; they led Fletcher Birdsong to the corridor in question. He looked it over and said, “I can make something with this.”
Fletcher began immediately. He enlisted Ella and Clowy and the three began painting. They started by painting reflective strips of white paint on the walls, floor, and ceiling; followed by opaque strips of black paint in the same areas. Then, they painted the entire floor, ceiling, and both walls with diffusive gray paint.
Fletcher then painted stick figure caribou on both sides of the wall. The caribou looked similar in detail to a cave painting. He painted several and spaced them out along the corridor, with each in a slightly different position. The ones on his right were facing one direction and the ones on his left were facing the other. He also painted birds on the top of the wall extending onto the ceiling.
Now, when someone walked in either direction down the corridor, the caribou on his left appeared to be running alongside. The caribou on the right could not be seen. He then finished the picture by painting a sun overhead and a field of sunflowers on the sides. He painted a stone pathway on the floor. The full effect was stunning. It literally appeared like one was walking through a plateau with caribou running alongside and sunflowers waving in the breeze. Fletcher titled this masterpiece Caribou Running.
The painting had taken a week to complete, but all three thought it was well worth it. Ella had enjoyed spending time with her father and getting to actively participate on one of his projects.
The shuttle came to collect Fletcher. He gave Ella a parting hug and presented his bill for the one of a kind corridor. Clowy gladly approved it. She noticed that the mural put her over the repair budget, but she was certain that no one would argue with the effect. The corridor was truly stunning.
After he left, Clowy said, “Computer, please contact Alliance shipyard control.”
…Contact with control established…
A voice said, “This is control, go ahead.”
Clowy said, “This is lieutenant Clowy, acting captain of the Sunflower. All repairs on the ship have been completed. What are our orders?”
The voice responded, “This is control, no ships are scheduled for that dock. You two are to go on leave for the next week. You are not allowed to leave the Advranki Prime system though.”
Clowy and Ella quickly packed and raced for the exit. They planned to do what all females who find themselves stuck on an alien planet for a week do – go shopping.
………………
Solear had explained their true mission on the shuttle ride to the corvette. Solear noted that Arean seemed much more excited about the prospect of blowing something up than attending the conference. Solear was too. He couldn’t remember the last time a hyperspace lane was intentionally destroyed. In fact, he couldn’t remember if a hyperspace lane had ever been intentionally closed.
Solear and Arean had transferred over to the corvette and entered the ship. They gave themselves a brief tour of the small ship. It was perfectly clean. The walls, floors, seats, ceilings, dining area, bedrooms, and even the wiring were spotless. The ship’s computer had been scrubbed as well. As far as Arean could tell, this would be the ship’s first mission.
The living area and engine room of a corvette is designed roughly like that of a mini-freighter. The corvette is much smaller though as it does not have forward holds. The ship basically ends at the control room. There are two small missile launchers in the small nose of the ship and a small assortment of offensive and defensive missiles.
Arean sat in the pilot’s chair and ran through the pre-flight checklist. He gained clearance from the space station and piloted the ship toward the hyperspace lane. They had been given priority clearance and a favorable route, so they would be ready to jump to Conron in just a few hours. Arean looked over to Solear and said, “What are you doing?”
Solear answered, “I am surfing the Websphere.”
Arean looked over Solear’s shoulder and chuckled when he saw the search criteria - ‘How do you destroy a hyperspace lane’. He said, “Did you find anything useful.”
Solear said, “Yes I did. See. Basically, we just have to create a new gravity source in the middle of the hyperspace lane or fill it with asteroids, or preferably both.”
“Great,” Arean said, “So, this should be no problem.” Arean received clearance from traffic control and hit the hyperspace button. They made the 8 hour jump to Conron and exited the hyperspace lane. Arean scanned the area and updated the shipboard clock.
Little had changed since the last time they had been in the system. The system still had 3 gas giants and a myriad of moons. The ship repair facility and space port were still there and the giant mining sphere was still running.
Arean asked, “Well, what do we do now?”
Solear said, “I have a plan. Set a course for the mining platform.”
They saved a day of real time space travel by making a micro jump to get closer to the mining laser. Most ships it size couldn’t make this jump, but the corvette’s small size and military grade hyperspace generator allowed it to safely jump closer to gravity systems.
The corvette was making final approach when they were hailed by the station. Solear said, “Computer, on viewer.”
The traffic control officer said, “State the purpose of your visit to the station.”
Solear answered, “Hello, I am captain Solear from the Alliance Navy and I have urgent business to discuss with the station commander.”
They landed at the space station. This station housed the roughly 4 million residents in this system, and was the headquarters for the mining operation. They were met at the dock by the station military commander. He hurried them directly to the offices of the mining colony.
They proceeded directly to the president’s office, where they were met by the president of the company and her mining director. All five were Advranki, so they spoke in their native language. Oddly enough though, the president introduced herself by using her Alliance name of Banolie and her mining director as Defaun. Arean and Solear followed suit by using their Alliance names in their introductions.
Solear started the conversation on a positive note. He said, “Hello all. Our latest intelligence tells us that the Hiriculans are going to send a battle fleet to Earth.
We won’t let them take Earth without a fight. And if there is a fight, the Hiriculans will more than likely blow up this station. We cannot let that happen.”
Banolie asked, “Is the Alliance really going to commit a battle fleet to stop them?”
Solear answered, “No. We are going to close the hyperspace lane to Earth.”
Banolie asked, “How?”
Solear said, “Well, I need your help. The only way to close a hyperspace lane is to contaminate it with asteroids or introduce a new gravity source. I plan to do both. Defaun, how powerful are the mining lasers? Can they cut an entire moon in half?”
Defaun thought for a moment and said, “Yes, if we use four lasers at maximum power on a small moon we should be able to slice it nicely in half.”
Defaun and his team began running a series of simulations. Eventually, they found two moons that would work. Defaun called the five back into the president’s office and gave a presentation. He said, “We can do it, we think. The math is extremely complex, and we will only get one shot. Here is the plan. We are going to use the four laser drills to cut this moon in half.”
He pointed to a small moon on the chart and continued, “When this moon is halved, its orbit will degenerate as such.” He highlighted its projected path. He continued, “This half will spin into the gas giant and this half will hit this other small moon.”
He identified a second, smaller moon on the chart. He concluded, “The impact of the first moon will cause the second moon to spin away on a new trajectory in the path of the hyperspace lane.” He showed the new path of the small moon. It went directly between the two forts guarding Earth and into the hyperspace lane. Everyone cheered. It wasn’t every day that they got to destroy a moon and create a comet.
It took a day to position the mining lasers and wait for the moons to be in the correct orbital location. Defaun ordered the lasers to start. The giant lasers turned on full blast. They normally just grazed the surface. Now, they were gouging a huge trench through the moon. The view of the dust cloud was incredible. They kept zapping the planetoid for several hours until right on schedule, the moon broke in half.
