by Jeff Sims
Jim repeated, “Preemptive strike?”
Solear said, “Yes. If the Hiriculans discover these scores, they will try to beat the Alliance to Earth and convince the humans to join their side.”
Jim asked, “And if they can’t convince us to join their side?”
Solear laughed and answered, “The Hiriculans can be pretty convincing. However, if for any reason they failed, they would ensure that neither side would use human pilots.”
Jim asked, “What would the Alliance do in response?”
Solear answered, “The Alliance will try to stop the Hiriculans at all possible costs. We would probably blockade Conron to keep them from going to Earth.”
Arean finished, “It will be the catalyst that started the war.”
Jim said, “So, if I understand you correctly, you need to find a way to change the battle to still show all of the facts, but minimize the impact of the fighters.”
Arean said, “And if possible, we need to make the battle seem more humane somehow. You may not realize this, but those two destroyers were the first and second Hiriculan ships that the Alliance has ever destroyed. I am sure that they are understandably upset.”
Jim said, “Show the video again.” Jim watched it patiently until the cruiser fired its missiles. At that point he said, “Stop video. Here is your answer.” He pointed to the screen and said, “Change the location of the two destroyers from 99.12.16 to 89.06.15 and give them an initial velocity of .08 light and a straight line course bound for 100.12.16.”
Jim stood and said, “Will that be all Captain?”
Solear looked at Arean, then back at Jim. Clearly the human thought that he had given them invaluable information, but Solear didn’t see how changing the destroyers’ location changed anything. Solear answered, “Not quite.”
Solear showed Jim the portion of the simulation that they were studying earlier. They watched as the green and red highlighted missiles struck and nearly destroyed the upper row of Hiriculan fighters. Solear asked, “How were you able to predict the enemy’s movement to such a high degree that you could fire unguided missiles and hit them?”
Jim said, “Simple really. We just guessed at the probable location of the fighters and fired missiles at that location. If the Hiriculans had acted differently, we would have missed completely.”
Solear’s response was interrupted by Ella entering the conference room. Solear said, “Thank you for the information. Ella, please escort Jim back to his quarters.”
Ella gave the Captain a look somewhere between despair and horror and said, “Okay.” She drew out the ‘ay’ quite a bit longer than necessary. She continued, “First though, I have some pertinent information for you.”
Solear said, “Yes.”
Ella continued, “The battleship just appeared on the scan. It is 7 hours and 28 minutes behind us.”
Solear said, “So, we have a 10 minute cushion. It isn’t as much as I had hoped for, but still better news than it could have been.”
Arean said, “They must have done the same math as us by now. Do the following scans show if the battleship returned to Netron?”
Ella said, “They exited hyperspace, waited 2 minutes, and jumped. I won’t know for some time whether they are pursuing or retreating.”
Solear said, “On your way through the bridge, tell Clowy to send a message to the Informer that a battleship has entered the system and is in pursuit.”
Arean said, “Based on the distance we have already traveled, that should cut an hour off the time for the Informer to gather the information. Computer, verify time savings.”
…The time savings would be 1 hour and 7 minutes…
Ella exited the conference room and waited for Jim to join her on the electro lift. For the first time she noticed how small and confining it was. Jim standing close to her made her very nervous. She felt like she was going to pee.
Fortunately, they exited the lift almost as quickly as they had entered. Jim took a few steps and waited for Ella to join him. Ella verified she had maintained control of her bladder and slowly, but surely walked up beside Jim. She turned to Clowy and said, “Clowy, please send a message to the Informer that a battleship has entered the system and is pursuing us?”
Clowy said, “What battleship?”
Ella responded, “Remember, the Hiriculan battleship that has been chasing us for the last three systems.”
Clowy responded, “Well yeah, what other battleship could it be. Wait, are you trying to tell me that battleship stopped chasing us and was replaced by a different one?”
Ella said, “No. I am trying to tell you to tell the Informer that the same battleship that has been chasing us previously is still chasing us.”
Clowy said, “Well, why didn’t you just say that.”
They exited the bridge and began walking down the main corridor toward the hangar. Ella noted that Jim was intentionally taking smaller steps to stay beside her. She supposed he was trying to be polite, but she would prefer if he would walk about 3 paces ahead of her.
She thought about ordering him to do so, but instead decided to try to make conversation. She said, “I did a little research on your earlier question. As far as I can tell our main body parts are similar, but there are subtle differences in our DNA.”
Jim responded, “So Lexxi was right, we could date, but not procreate?”
Ella thought for a moment about how best to respond. She doubted that this was a topic for polite hallway conversation. She said, “Changing subjects, do you like the caribou?”
Jim craned his neck down a bit and looked at her. It seemed to be an earnest question, so he answered, “It is fascinating. It is probably the neatest thing I have seen since ‘volunteering’ to serve on this ship.” He over-stressed the word volunteering.
Ella appeared not to notice the wordplay. She said, “My father painted it. He just finished painting a corridor on the battleship Guardian. He titled that one Birds Flying. The Alliance Navy is now considering hiring him to paint every ship in the fleet.”
Jim said, “Wow! That is awesome.”
Ella had no idea why she had told Jim that. The information was useless to him. They were now crossing the hangar, so Ella asked, “How are you humans fitting in?”
Jim replied, “I don’t understand why everyone is scared of us. Why does everyone keep themselves forcibly separated from us?”
Ella replied, “Quite frankly you scare them.”
Jim simply asked, “Why?”
Ella replied, “Earth was discovered 300 years ago. We have been periodically monitoring the planet since then. Humans over time have become villains in horror movies and bed-time stories. When I was a young girl my parents would say, go to bed or a human will eat you.”
Jim said, “That sounds terrible. We typically don’t eat other people.”
Ella shrugged and said, “Well, that is why they are scared of you.”
They walked the next few paces in silence. Jim said, “Okay, I can understand their fear of the entire human race, but why fear us as individuals? We haven’t tried to hurt anyone on the ship.”
Ella replied, “Good point. When you first came aboard, I was scared to be anywhere near you. Now, I am not nearly as scared. It will take time for people to align reality with their preconceived notions I suppose.”
She ushered Jim back into the pilots’ quarters and returned to the bridge.
……………………………….
Adrmiral Fruid’la seemed to be in a constant state of frustration. They had set a perfect net to stop the cruiser in Netron, but had been foiled a second time. The cruiser had appeared in the wrong location and had disappeared again. Loid’la had taken a calculated risk and set course to Opron in the belief they had somehow circumnavigated the Netron system.
They were exiting hyperspace now in the Opron system. Admiral Fruid’la hoped they would have some good news. He said, “Loid’la, I need an update, are they in the system?”
Loid’la said, “Activating the passive scan now.” The bridge crew waited in silence for what seemed an eternity until the scan had completed.
Loid’la smiled triumphantly and displayed the scan on the main monitor. He said, “They’re here. I am setting a micro jump on a least time course through the system.” Loid’la raced through the calculations. He didn’t bother to double check his work or run a simulation. He engaged the jump engines.
Admiral Fruid’la said, “Nice work on calculating our new course so quickly. Will we be able to catch them?”
Loid’la smiled at the compliment. It was one of the few he had received during the last few days. He reviewed his numbers and said, “We are going to be 4 minutes behind them. They will reach the hyperspace lane to Conron. We will not be able to catch them.”
Admiral Fruid’la replied, “Is there anything we can do to gain more time?”
Loid’la said, “Not really Admiral. The Sunflower is only going .15 light. They are tracking our progress as well. If they notice that we are gaining on them, they will accelerate to .16 light and beat us by several hours.”
Admiral Fruid’la said dejectedly, “Well, continue the present course. Perhaps we can at least engage them in conversation before they jump to Conron.”
……………………………….
Ella checked the scans for the Hiriculan battleship. She finally obtained an answer and returned to the Captain’s conference room. Fortunately, Arean and Solear were still there.
Ella said, “Sorry to interrupt, but I have confirmation that the battleship is indeed chasing us. They took a route just slightly faster than the one the computer predicted. Their estimated time of arrival has not changed. It appears at this point that we will still beat them by 7 minutes.”
Solear said, “Thank you. Please keep me informed, especially if they gain any more time. Tell engineering to be prepared to go to .16 light.”
If they increased their speed from .15 light to .16 light they could cut well over 4 hours off of their trip. However, this speed would put undue pressure on the power generator and the ion drives. Solear did not want to risk having a drive failure if he could help it.
Ella said, “The Informer has received our message. It just turned and jumped to Conron.”
Solear asked, “How much of a head start does it have.”
Ella responded, “The Informer will arrive in Conron 62 hours before us, or just over 2 ½ days.”
Solear mentally reviewed the defensive situation at Conron. There was a small fleet consisting of 1 battleship, 2 destroyers, and 4 cruisers stationed just outside the hyper limit roughly at the mid-point between the mining station and the Conron – Advraki hyperspace lane.
Solear said, “Good. That means there will be an Alliance fleet waiting for us when we exit Conron.”
When Ella left Arean said, “We have discussed it thoroughly. I don’t understand why the human gave us the information and seemed to think it solved everything.”
Solear said, “I have an idea. Computer, run the simulation of the battle, but place the destroyers in the location that the human indicated.”
…Analyzing. Showing enhanced video now…
They watched the simulation. This time the destroyers didn’t launch their fighters immediately because they were too far away. Instead they charged their ion cannons.
Arean said, “Input the items that we cannot change, for instance the launch of the missiles and the launch of the fighters. Then continue the simulation.”
They watched the simulation continue. This time though it appeared as if the Sunflower fired the missiles at the mysterious object and the destroyers flew directly into their path. Arean suddenly realized that they could significantly change the look of the battle.
He said, “Captain, let me work on this.” Arean continued to input variables and make minor modifications. He tried several things including having the Alliance fighters attack the destroyers, having the fighters withdraw before attacking, and having them both attack and withdraw.
He tried many other combinations over the course of the next two days. Eventually, he created a more plausible (or perhaps palatable) version of the battle. He even took a portion of Jim’s advice and added a few close-ups of the bridge crew. Lexxi proved to be the best actress. She was able to look shocked and horrified. Obviously, Clowy was able to cry on demand.
He stored each iteration on a flashdrive cube. By the time he had finished there were nearly three dozen littered across the table. Arean watched the whole simulation one final time and was convinced it would fool anyone. It was perfect, he thought.
Arean invited the bridge crew to the conference room to watch the corrected simulation. He even fetched Jim to participate in the screening. The conference table had 8 chairs, 3 on each side and 1 on each end.
Captain Solear was sitting in the chair on one end and the chair on the other end could not be used because it blocked the monitor. Jim was sitting to the immediate right of the Captain and Arean was sitting to the immediate left of the Captain on the other side of the table. Arean’s side of the table was closest to the electro lift.
The seating became complicated when Clowy, Ella, and Lexxi entered the conference room and caused a spontaneous game of musical chairs. All three raced for the two chairs beside Arean. Lexxi, younger and faster than the other two, secured the spot beside Arean. Clowy then grabbed the final chair on that side of the table.
This left Ella with a decision. She could take the chair farthest from the human, but she knew that they would tease her for avoiding the human. She could take the chair beside the human, but then they would tease her for liking the human. She inwardly sighed and finally sat down in the chair beside Jim. If she was going to be teased either way, she may as well not appear rude.
At this point Jim began struggling with his chair. It was far too low and put his knees in an awkward position. He reached under both sides looking, finally stood up and looked underneath it. He flopped back down in the chair and said, “How do you raise or lower the chairs?”
Ella pointed to a control under the right arm. Jim found it and raised it up as high as it would go. Jim then lowered it back down a little. However, he realized that he had lowered it too much, so he raised it back up a little.
Solear said, “Now that we are all seated and comfortable, let’s watch the simulation.”
The team watched the new simulation. Solear said, “From now on, this version is what really happened. Are there any questions or final modifications?” The question was met with silence, so Solear said, “Let’s go around the room starting with Arean?”
Arean, “No further comments. Jim, thanks for your help.”
Clowy, “What happened to the first fighter battle?”
Solear said, “Nothing, it never occurred.”
Lexxi, “Wow! I thought my father liked to stretch the truth.”
Solear said, “We aren’t stretching or enhancing the truth. We are substituting one complete reality for a new reality. We aren’t lying, we are just changing reality as we know it.”
It wasn’t her turn, but Clowy said, “What?”
Solear ignored the question and pointed at Ella. Ella said, “No comments.”
Jim stood up, placed his hands on the table, and leaned over toward Arean. He asked, “Commander, did you get the right number of kills assigned to each fighter?”
Arean was taken aback by the human’s sudden movement. He resisted the urge to roll backward in his chair and said, “Yes. The number of kills for each fighter is assigned correctly. This squadron is now the most highly decorated in Alliance history with 18 pilots having multiple kills.”
Jim sat back down. He said, “Thank you. I have one request. May I show the original version to the other pilots before it is deleted? I think they will appreciate it.”
Solear said, “Yes you may.”
Solear concluded, “Everyone, from now on, this is what happened. Understood?” Solear waited un
til each person at the table gave verbal agreement.
Solear then said, “Computer place the original version on my personal com pad. Leave a copy in memory until Jim shows it to his crew. Modify all communications, weapons, and fighter logs to match. Effective immediately, this alternate version is now the master.”
Jim was returned to the hangar. Maintenance had completed all tasks on the fighters and had returned them back to the pilots. Everyone else returned to the bridge.
Ella said, “The Hiriculan battleship has made its final jump. I am now estimating only a 4 minute lead.”
Solear said, “Increase speed to .16 light for the final 4 hours of our journey. That should add 15 minutes to our window.”
Ella made the speed adjustment and said, “Confirmed, we are now 19 minutes ahead of the battleship.”
……………………………….
Jim Donovan walked back to the crew quarters and gathered everyone. They sat and watched the simulation, whooping and hollering at each spectacular move or explosion.
After the original simulation ended, Jim said, “I have a few updates. First, the Alliance has a naming convention for fighter kills. One kill is accomplished, two kills is adroit, and three kills is master.”
Someone said, “Maybe we should suggest new names for them. Those seem lousy.” Everyone chuckled at the comment.
Jim went around the room and officially announced each person’s name and number of kills. Ace and Blaze were teased mercilessly when it was confirmed that they didn’t get credit for the destroyer; meaning that the top two pilots only had one kill each.
When the good-natured teasing subsided, Jim continued, “As some of you may have already guessed, our performance was far better than theirs.”
Ace quickly asked, “How much?”
Jim responded, “Double, maybe triple. The other Alliance pilots do not have the ability the fly in manual mode. This appears to be a uniquely human ability.”
Blaze must have added something to something else and arrived at a summation, for he said, “Does that mean that humans are the only pilots to have destroyed the Hiriculan cruiser in the simulation?”
