“All clear,” Parker announced to a room of cheering men.
The Hawk had to admit, that the crew’s positive mood was infectious as he smiled the biggest smile he ever felt.
“Paybacks are hell!” Masters commented, slapping young Mister Collins on the back. Mike had to agree, he wouldn’t want to be Rutford or Weaver after the Austro government got their hands on them. It seemed only fitting, after all, someone had to be the fall guy and take the blame for this disaster. Who better than two of the men who had turned their backs to their duty, to their emperor, and to the human race!
The admiral was also smiling and shook his head in disbelief. “A little shade of General MacArthur at Corregidor there, Randolph, with that ‘We will return’ part,” he commented.
The admiral was referring to Douglas MacArthur’s “I Shall Return” proclamation, given when he was forced by the Japanese and Presidential order to flee from his command in the Philippines to Australia in 1942 at the outset of World War Two.
“Let’s just hope we are as successful as that old solider,” he replied, noticing that his friend had a thoughtful, contemplative look on his face.
Looking to his executive officer, the old captain knew it was now time. “Are we ready, Mister Richards?”
“Yes, sir, starboard and port bender drives are at full power and the hull has been polarized. We are ready to bend.”
The captain pivoted his chair to face the comm. position. “Please patch me through to the chief warrant in engineering.”
“Zimmerman here,” the Padre said, answering the call.
“Chief, we are about to initiate the bend; would you please say a benediction for us?” Hope requested, knowing that a prayer would calm the men’s fears, and that there was no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.
“It would be my pleasure,” the ordained minister replied, and started the Lord’s Prayer that was Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and how he taught the people to pray to his father. The prayer appears in the Bible in Matthew 6:9-13 and in Luke 11:2-4, and though a basic prayer, it was a cornerstone of the Padre’s beliefs.
“Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors;
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom
And the power and the glory,
Amen.”
The crew had joined in as the Padre’s voice was carried through the ship, and as one voice, they responded with “Amen.”
“Mister Dover, initiate bender sequence and take us in,” Captain Hope ordered, picking up his neglected coffee cup from its holder.
He was mildly surprised to find that the cup was still warm. Either his cup was made of a ceramic that was designed to retain heat, or his chair’s holder had a warming function. He was still marveling over that question when the ship entered the bend and disappeared.
Chapter Eight
In Einstein’s General Relativity Theory, it states that the curvature of space-time is directly determined by the distribution of matter and energy contained in it. Therefore, space curvature equals matter and energy.
If light bends in a gravitational field and matter produces a gravitational field, then matter can literally bend space. Anywhere, matter, like a star or planet, could be found, then a bend or well in gravity could also be located.
If space is curved, then a straight line is not inevitably the shortest distance between two points. A shorter course could be found by going through rather than around curved space. Just as if you’d fold a piece of paper and put a hole through it: folded, the two holes touch. Unfolded, they’d have a greater distance between them.
A trip through what people would call a wormhole or an opened gravity well wouldn’t take weeks or even days. Because the two sections of curved space are bent closer together, once you flew into it, you’d be instantly on the other side. No tunnel, no wormhole; in a traditional sense, just instant access to the other side of the universe in a blink of an eye. The problem with gravity wells and wormholes was that you needed one handy, like those around a heavy planetary body or star.
Another problem was that a ship would be crushed long before it got through the opening from the immense gravitational forces. The conventional design would have called for a ship to match the gravitational force trying to crush it by an equal force versus force ratio. The amount of energy required to do this was far beyond the output produced by any ship engine ever created, and would have to have virtually the power of a star to work.
The star-faring and onetime inquisitive and friendly Kazad, a people of diminutive dwarflike humanoids, had not only created the bender drives to curve space, but they also solved the gravitational force ratio. Instead of meeting force with equal to or greater force, they took a different approach.
What if, like a tree in a hurricane, instead of resisting the force of the winds, you bend with them? In many martial arts, this method is called turning, using the minimal amount of force to turn a greater amount without being crushed in the process. Leave it to the small and under-strengthened Kazad to realize that you didn’t need overwhelming force to win.
Electromagnetically polarizing the gravitational hull plating coupled with finding a fluctuation or the weakest spot in the well to enter would allow a ship to skip through the opening. Just like a stone on the surface of a pond or a mosquito through a net, they could pass through unharmed.
In the process of electrostatic repulsion like charges repel each other, thus a like charged gravitationally polarized hull wouldn’t be crushed but would shoot through. If you had bit down on a cherry pit, you might be able to crush it, but it is easier to just to spit it out.
In an instant, and with no time dilatation, no extensive wormhole, or faster-than-light travel, the ISS Star Wolf was simply spat through the bend and was across the universe. A collective sigh was heard on the bridge, followed by smiles and nervous chuckles. The ship had held together, and the repaired polarized hull plating had worked.
Hope was a little surprised that the jovial and confident crew hadn’t broken out into a cheer. The stress for such a maneuver even in a perfect situation was sometimes great, and just surviving this first one was a blessing. “Thank you, Padre,” the old captain whispered.
“We are in Delta sector, Star-System 1387,” Martin reported from the navigation station.
Now the crew cheered even though none of them knew where they were, and the Hawk smiled.
“Welcome to the other side of the universe and Karduan space.”
That comment quickly sobered up the gleeful crew and they each scrambled to check their station’s systems.
“Full maser sweep, Mister Lewis,” Commander Richards ordered, not moving to any particular station, but standing on the far side of the captain’s chair. He wanted each man to do his job, without the feeling that he was hovering over him.
“The system is a bi-star system with an M class red star and an F class white star. There are five planets around the red star and six around the white star. Most of the planets are of a gaseous nature, and none of them are capable of sustaining life or class M planetary environments. There is a large thousand-mile cloud of meteors caught in a gravity Lagrange point between the two stars’ gravitational circumferences,” Hope announced before the computer, helm, or maser stations could report.
“The captain is correct, sir,” Lewis reported, the sound of surprise evident in his voice. Even as the maser operator reported his confirmation, a holo projection of the system appeared for everyone to see.
“How did you know?” Mike asked, looking to the center chair.
The crafty Hawk smiled before he answered. “When I was a commander and the capt
ain of the heavy cruiser Theseus, I took part in a hunt for a band of pirate ships operating beyond Confederation space. We set a trap and followed them here to their base.”
“This certainly seems like a dead system,” Dover remarked, looking to his sensor screen. “It does have a lot of semiprecious minerals lined in the atmospheres of the gaseous planets.”
“The gases themselves were also valuable, but nothing that can’t be found a lot closer to civilization,” Hope added. “At the far side of the asteroid field is a large, almost moon-sized asteroid; set a course for it and give us a wide berth from the red star. It is a flare star, and has a nasty habit of erupting now and then.”
While the helm plotted the new course, the first officer busily ordered the sections to report their status. Mister Rabb escorted Admiral Kirkland to guest quarters where he would be held. He insisted on taking his place in the brig with the other prisoners, but a frown from Hope ended his argument.
Watching the Austro officer leave, a thought passed through Mike’s mind.
“Planning on recruiting?”
Hope turned towards him and narrowed his brow considering, not the young officer’s question, but the officer himself.
“The Confederation could use a skilled officer like him, but it has to be his idea. The real question is: what you should be doing right now?” he commented, spurring the young man to get to work.
Looking around Mike saw that Gunny Masters had disappeared, and he was the only person on the bridge without a job. Crossing to the fire-control station, he leaned down to give a hand to the middy and chief working on it.
“Sir, I’m picking up a distress call on a civilian channel,” Chief Parker reported from the comm. station.
The Hawk raised an eyebrow in response. “There shouldn’t be anyone here. This system isn’t used by either side, and there is nothing here of any real value.”
“It’s a shuttle; I’m reading it in orbit around the second planet of the white star,” the maser station quickly reported. In a moment, a holo image of the shuttle appeared on the main projection screen.
The shuttle was an older long-range model capable of in-flight refueling and sustained operations. “It has been modified into a mining shuttle to gather and store gases from space.”
“Emergency, this is the mining shuttle Pay Dirt,” A weak and tired voice said over the open comm. line. “My rendezvous ship has failed to arrive to pick me up. It is five months overdue, and I am running out of food. I don’t know what happened to them, but if I don’t get help soon, I fear I’ll starve to death. Emergence this is the…”
The chief closed the comm. line. “Sir, it just repeats and has a time index of four and half years ago.”
The chief’s last sentence told the tale. The shuttle’s pilot was most definitely dead, and his mining shuttle was nothing more than a ghost ship.
Richards looked to the captain, who nodded, the two officers having a moment of shared understanding.
“Mister Collins, you and Gunny form a boarding party and see if there is anything onboard that shuttle we can use.”
“Aye, sir!” Mike sang back, glad to get away from the fire-control station and do something a little more exciting.
“Mister Collins,” Hope said as the young man rushed to escape the bridge.
“Sir?”
“Be careful, and no risks, please,” the old, fatherly commanding officer said without turning to face him.
Mike smiled like a teenage son being given the car keys for the first time. “Aye, sir!” and he was gone.
Ensign Michael Collins and Gunnery Sergeant Jack Masters chose to take four men with them. Mister Cappilo, who may have been needed for his engineering skills, and Mister Rabb, who volunteered as soon as he heard of the mission. Chief Bell and Mister Pendleton were also recruited because they just happened to be passing by as they headed to the fighter bay.
All of them would wear standard Confederation space suits. Each was armed with either a gauss pistol or a gyro 8mm automatic. They also took ship swords, an emergency power unit, and medical kits.
When they were alone, Mike gave Rufo one of the Browning gauss pistols they had taken from the Austro security men. His young friend beamed with pride and excitement like a child on Christmas morning. Martin had already gotten the one that Weaver had owned, which had produced some envy from his friends.
Collins still had two others that he and Hutton had acquired, not counting the weapons that the police had and the small arsenal that the Karduan security people were carrying. Inspection of those weapons had waited until they were safe and would still have to wait until they had a breather.
He planned on giving one of the two-security officer’s Browning pistols to Alister and the other one to Commander Richards. All of his friends would then have a Browning Star-Master gauss pistol, and he had to admit that the commander deserved one. The man had really shown his true strength, and any doubts about him were now gone.
The boarding party met at the fighter hangar bay in the bowels of the ship. Cappilo was already there doing a systems check of the Carronade, their armed and EM grav-powered landing shuttle. The Gunny was busy checking everyone’s space suits and weapons. A leaky suit or a malfunctioning communication link was the last thing that they needed.
The weapons inspection was to make sure every man’s weapons were operational, on safe, and loaded. An accidental discharge from a carelessly handled weapon was definitely something that could and would be avoided.
Mike watched the inspection, and it reminded him of a mother getting her children ready to play in the snow. In some ways that was true, Gunny Masters was old enough to be his grandfather, and space was way colder than winter.
Looking to the three star fighters, he noticed something strange. His fighter looked the same, but the second fighter -- the one that he had started to work on long ago -- looked as if it was finished. He hadn’t been down to the bay since just after being included in the crew’s conspiracy to steal the ship.
The third fighter now looked to be completely stripped of all of its parts with just a few remaining pieces and old plating lying on the floor around its bare frame.
He walked over to the second fighter to get a good look. As he got closer, he was called to from the armored grav shuttle’s public announcement system. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Cappilo called from the cockpit of the shuttle.
“It could use a coat of paint!” Mike called back and waved, returning his smile with one of his own. That, of course, explained it. Over the last month, Rufo must have worked on it when he should have been sleeping. The second fighter looked space-worthy if a little worn.
“Let’s go, sir,” Masters yelled from the armored crafts door.
Running over to the door, he saw that the Gunny was trying to frown, but only managed to smile. “Late, as usual,” he commented.
“Patience, Gunny, patience,” he said, walking the last few meters to the open door. Entering the shuttle, he moved to the copilot’s seat as Cappilo signaled the bridge that they were ready to leave. Activating the Carronade’s electromagnetic anti-grav engines, the shuttle hovered just off of the floor and moved towards the bay doors; there, it set down to wait in what was fondly called a cattle chute. The chute closed around the shuttle so that the area inside could be decompressed without decompressing the entire bay.
It would then catapult them out the chute by giving them an electromagnetic push to get them clear of the ship. There were two chutes normally used, but if an emergency arose, the main doors could be opened and the entire bay could be emptied quickly.
The flight to the Pay Dirt mining shuttle was uneventful, and the Gunny repeated the game plan until everyone knew their jobs and was tired of his harping. After matching airlocks, Mike and the Gunny would enter the ship to assess its status.
Once they determined that it was safe, Chief Bell and Mister Pendleton would come over to help restart the shuttle’s systems. From there, they
would search for anything they could use and await further instructions from the captain.
The shuttle was in a geostationary orbit over the gaseous atmosphere of the second planet. It was locked in a stable non-deteriorating orbit, which would have lasted indefinitely. Matching orbits was not a problem, and soon the two shuttles paralleled each other with their airlocks connected through an extended corridor.
Rufo started to transfer power to the much larger mining shuttle, but a green light on his console indicated that the Pay Dirt’s power array was already at full strength.
Slapping his friend on the back and giving him a thumbs-up, Mike left the cockpit and met the Gunny, who was again waiting for him by the Carronade’s airlock.
“Not a word,” the ensign warned with a grin. Checking their suit’s functions one last time, they each indicated that everything was okay and decompressed the airlock. Once the lock was clear, they open the outer door and grabbed a cable along the side of the corridor. Using it like a rope, they pulled themselves across the weightless span to the mining shuttle’s airlock. Depressing the airlock, they entered, sealed the door, and then re-pressurized the lock.
Stepping into the shuttle, they were surprised to find the corridor lighted. The ship’s power having automatically came on as they entered the ship. The long-range shuttle was about twice the size of the transport shuttle they had stolen from the repair dock. Most of its space was fusion engines, exterior scoops, and storage tanks.
Gunny looked down at his left arm’s built-in environmental scanner. “Temperature and air read as normal, but let’s keep sealed.”
“Bridge,” Mike said, pointing to their left.
The corridor was short and they quickly found themselves outside of the bridge’s sealed door. Pressing the open pad, the door slid to the side and into its wall housing. Looking into the bridge, they found the place clean and unremarkable. The bridge was twice as large as it should have been.
The Log of the Gray Wolf (Star Wolf Squadron Book 1) Page 15
