by Jeff Sims
The capacitors were located above the ion cannon, very near the top of the ship. Colin could reach up and touch the roof if he so desired. For the record, he didn’t. They started by inspecting main power diverter. It was still in place exactly where it was supposed to be and both the primary and secondary trunk lines were still attached.
It would only take a flick of a switch to change from primary to secondary power. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what they were there to do. They needed both of them to operate simultaneously, not one or the other. Colin pointed at the diverter. John opened it and disconnected the secondary trunk line.
Colin began tracing the trunk line after the diverter switch. He found that a meter down it went into a huge junction box. He opened the box and found a step-down transformer. This transformer took the power from the trunk line and distributed it evenly among all of the capacitors in the reservoir.
Colin said, “Switch the diverter to secondary power.”
John switched it and replied, “Secondary active, or technically inactive.”
Colin had to hurry. Jim wouldn’t appreciate it if they spent a significant amount of time not charging any of the capacitors. There was an odd number of capacitors, so he pulled one less than half of the circuit breakers out of the box. He lowered the output to 50% and signaled for John to flip the switch back to the primary generator.
Colin brought up the engineering application on his communication pad and selected the power distribution system. He set the maximum output to 50 percent. He motioned to John to switch the diverter back to main power.
Colin said, “John, you monitor heat output, I will adjust load.”
It would have been very helpful to have a full engineering station located here. Clearly though, the designers hadn’t anticipated anyone doing any engineering at this juncture so they didn’t put one in. Colin had to settle for the few control that were available to him on his communicator.
He adjusted the flow to 60% and said, “John, how does it look.”
John replied, “The system is stable. The heat output is well within normal operating tolerance.”
Colin adjusted to 70%, then 80%, then 85%, then 90. John said, “The capacitance temperature is rising. It just exceeded normal operating temperature.”
Colin scaled it back down to 85%. John watched it for about 20 seconds and said, “Temperature has stabilized at about 2 degrees below the upper threshold of normal operating conditions.” Another 30 seconds later he added, “Temperature is stable.”
Since the main trunk line was now only powering half of the capacitors, a flow of 50% represented full power. Therefore, 35% over represented a 70% add on increase in charging for half of the capacitors. In other words, for one minute of charging time, those capacitors were essentially gaining 1.7 minutes of charge.
Colin wired the circuit breakers into the new junction box that they had brought with them. John pulled the secondary trunk line about a meter (3’) and attached it to the new junction box.
Colin opened his communication pad to send a message just as Becky was sending her communication. He responded, “The capacitors are ready. Becky, when you turn on the secondary generators, set them to 85% of the primary.”
Ben raced down the caribou corridor to his familiar spot at the main junction box. He had performed the drill of bypassing sub-junctions 963.22.14 and .15 and rewiring the main junction box to accommodate the reversed flow necessary to allow the secondary generator to charge the capacitors more times than he could remember.
Ben had performed the task in the dark, in a smart suit, and even in zero-G. He even did it once when Captain, well Admiral Solear now, watched. He knew that he could easily swap the components in under 4 minutes. Unfortunately, this time the task didn’t require speed or muscle memory. It required creative thinking.
Ben studied the problem for a couple of minutes. The designers in their infinite wisdom had never imagined a scenario where someone would want to charge the capacitors faster than the specified amount. The problem wasn’t raw power, it was the means to allow it flow safely through the ship.
For instance, they could get more power from the main generator simply by lowering the shields or turning off life support. However, the main junction box limited the flow to the reservoir. Therefore, if they lowered the shields they still wouldn’t be able to send more electricity to the individual capacitors.
Ben studied the problem. In the 15 minutes he had allotted for this task he wasn’t going to be able to resolve this issue. He needed much larger circuit breakers and more than likely electronic interference shielding for the other circuits like the scanners.
Ben looked at the junction box and thought ‘Who the hell designed such a messed up system’? He withheld vocalizing the comment and instead said, “What major ship function don’t we need?”
The circuit that controlled the sensors wasn’t strong enough. Neither was life support. The shield circuits were a candidate, but they were needed. The ion cannon lines were more than powerful enough to carry the load, but they were extremely complicated. There was only one solution. Well, technically there were two individual solutions that comprised the one main solution.
Ben contacted the bridge and said, “Captain, in order to increase the power to the capacitors, we either have to turn off the starboard missile launchers or deactivate the fighter elevator.”
Jim replied, “Kill the missile launchers.”
Ben moved down to sub panel 963.22.24 and rewired it as fast as he possibly could. He finished shortly after Becky and Colin. He responded, “The wiring is complete. You can activate the secondary generator.”
Becky reactivated each power generator and set the maximum energy flow to 85%. Each person stayed at their spot and watched for a minute to make sure that nothing was amiss. Finally, Colin declared the wiring a success. Ben and John returned to engineering since their missile launcher was now inactive. Colin and Becky returned to the bridge.
…………………….
Jim checked the countdown clock for probably the 60th time in the last minute. Colin and Becky had been gone from the bridge for over 10 minutes now. He really wanted to contact them and ask for an update, but he knew that they probably didn’t need him bothering them.
Besides, the task must have been a little more difficult than Colin anticipated. He made the decision to give the engineers another 5 minutes before requesting an update.
There was only a two second communication delay between the Sunflower and the three ships chasing it. Therefore, Jim was rather surprised that the Hiriculans had not yet responded to his quip about not being in the Alliance anymore. He mentally envisioned Hiriculan lawyers arguing about an appropriate response.
The response finally arrived thirteen minutes later. Jim saw that the countdown clock now read 65:08.
…You attacked and destroyed a naval vessel. You have therefore been classified as an enemy combatant…
Russ commented, “This seems promising. Captain, let me try one.”
Jim waved okay, so Russ said, “Computer, translate and send this – Does the new Federation have any stated enemies or even an article of confederation defining what or who an enemy combatant is?”
Jim laughed and said, “Hopefully that will keep them thinking for a while.”
Russ commented, “Well, at least they aren’t firing missiles at us.”
Ben called and asked what system he should shut off. Jim wanted to yell ‘none of them’, but refrained. He thought for a moment and decided that it was better to be able to launch his fighters than his missiles. He responded back allowing Ben to shut down the missiles.
Jim was getting more impatient by the minute. At the 60:00 minute mark they still hadn’t heard from either the engineers or the Hiriculans. Just as he was grabbing his communication pad Becky entered the bridge from the electro lift and Colin from the main doorway.
Colin said, “We are now charging using both generators. We had an unanticipat
ed issue with the diverter and had to hardwire four of the five secondary generators into the system. We can correct the problem the next time we dock…”
Colin smiled and corrected himself, “We can fix the issue when we reach Earth. We are now charging at 170 percent of maximum sustainable power.”
Jim responded, “That doesn’t make sense. I thought you couldn’t go above 100%.”
Colin replied, “For every minute that passes, the capacitors are now receiving 1.7 minutes of charge.”
The Hiriculan response arrived at time 55:52.
…A definition of an enemy combatant has now been established. You have once again been deemed an enemy combatant…
Jim said, “They get an ‘A’ for effort I suppose. Computer, translate and send this – You can’t arbitrarily create a new definition of an enemy combatant and then back classify us. We would have acted differently had the definition been in place during our initial encounter.”
This delay was nearly as long as the previous two. Almost ten minutes later they received a response.
…Your ship entered the neutral zone and fired first. That makes you an enemy combatant by both the old and new definitions. Further, you should have assumed that the old definition was still in effect if you truly believed that the Alliance was still an entity. Recall that you ignored our initial hail. That would have been the appropriate time to clarify any misunderstanding…
Jim responded immediately, “Computer translate and send – You fired first. Our ship was rocked by hundreds of missiles exploding around us. We were severely shaken. We were simply defending ourselves from what we thought was an unprovoked attack.”
This time the response only took four minutes. The countdown clock read 40:22.
…That doesn’t count…
Jim replied, “Computer, translate and send the following. Allow the command to be shortened to CT send this. CT send this – Yes it does.”
There was a significant delay this time. Almost fifteen minutes passed before they received a response.
…The definition of an enemy combatant has been appended to include flying through Interstellar League space in a former Alliance warship without first receiving express written permission…
Jim said, “CT send this – May we have written permission to fly through this system.”
The response took only a few seconds. The countdown clock just passed 25:00.
…No. Permission has to be granted prior to flying through the system and certainly must be established before destroying a cruiser...
Jim said, “CT send this – Clearly we are the aggrieved party here. It is unacceptable for you to simply create arbitrary rules. I demand a full hearing in front of the new Senate.”
Russ announced, “We now have enough energy to jump into hyperspace. However, to reach the station in one jump we will have to turn back to our original heading.”
The response took another 8 minutes. The clock read 17:42.
…If you stop immediately and surrender you will be afforded a hearing when the new Senate is elected and convenes…
Russ said, “Well played Hiriculans.”
Jim agreed, “Well that could have gone better.”
Colin nodded in agreement and said, “I guess that’s why they pay us to shoot first and not really ask any questions.”
In some ways Jim would have preferred firing missiles to verbally sparring with someone who was literally writing the rules as they went. It reminded him of the old saying, ‘Cheaters never win and winners never cheat. But if you cheat and win, you are hard to beat’.
However, he supposed that in the end losing a battle of words was preferable to winning a battle of missiles. His pride may be hurt a little, but his ship was still intact and ready to fight.
Jim looked up at the countdown clock. It showed 15:05. He knew that the Hiriculans knew exactly how long it took to recharge an energy reservoir for a jump into hyperspace. Therefore, he suspected that they would act before he had the opportunity to jump.
Jim said, “Russ, what’s the status on the second jump.”
Russ replied, “We need another 32 minutes.”
Jim said, “I have an idea to buy us some time. I want to begin slowly slowing down from .16 light to .06 light.”
Jim said, “CT send this – Perhaps it is overreaching of us to demand a senate hearing since Humans have been excluded from this new Federation. However, we would welcome the opportunity to have you escort us to the Conron Naval Depot and Shipyard where we can discuss the situation with local leadership and hopefully find a potential solution that benefits everyone.”
The Sunflower began rapidly slowing down at a gradual pace. One could assume that they were therefore gradually slowing down at a rapid pace, but that was simply not the case. At any rate, the cruiser spent the next 13 minutes slowing down at the aforementioned rate.
The 3 enemy ships rapidly closed the 4 minute gap between them and the Sunflower. They then matched the cruiser’s course and speed. One ship was on each side of the Sunflower and one was directly behind it.
Jim watched the countdown clock approach two minutes. He ordered it to reset at 19 minutes and continue counting down from there. Jim figured the two minute mark was perfect.
It was far enough away from 80 minute charging time bogey that the Hiriculans shouldn’t be able to anticipate and stop the maneuver. Correspondingly, with some luck it was close enough to the 80 minute mark that it the Hiriculans shouldn’t suspect the Sunflower was charging at a significantly faster rate than it should be.
Jim said, “CT send this on a 20 second delay– Unfortunately, other commitments do not allow us to stop and converse at this time. We are changing direction and are headed out of the system on a least time vector. We trust that this is an adequate solution to the issue.”
Jim said, “Adjust back to our original course and micro jump to the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane.”
The Sunflower swooped down and away from the other three ships. The moment the ship was on the correct course it jumped into hyperspace.
Chapter 18
Admiral Valod’la looked over the most recent activity report for the Conron system. The engineers had thoroughly reviewed the damaged Alliance destroyer and determined that it could not be repaired. He sighed and signed the order to decommission it. Perhaps they could use some of the spare parts.
Speaking of spare parts, Valod’la had been surprised that there were no hyper bubbles in inventory and the machines required to produce them were missing. He sent a message to Hiricula for some spare bubbles and replacement manufacturing equipment.
Valod’la’s battleship Penetrator was currently parked beside the Conron Naval Station next to the cruiser Intimidator and the aforementioned doomed former Alliance destroyer. All three ships were currently unmanned. The two supply ships were also parked at the station.
Upon victory, Valod’la transferred his command and all associated personnel to the Conron Naval Station. It was fairly well located in the center of the system and made an excellent base of operation.
It had taken a few hours to convince the computer to unlock the doors to the control room, but after that the station was fit for use. It had taken another couple of hours to convince it to change the name of the station from the Conron Supply Depot and Shipyard to the Conron Naval Station.
He has also transferred all remaining extra personnel from the ships to the station. However, due to the absolute pounding his fleet received when they conquered Conron, there were precious few extra personnel left and far fewer than the High Council had planned.
As long as nothing else terrible happened he should be able to maintain the status quo until the 15 ship fleet returned from Waylon. Further, he should be able to redeploy them to plug all of the gaps in his defenses.
He would eventually have to ask for replacement resources, but he hoped to delay that request as long as possible. With luck, he could wait until after the invasion was completed
and the High Council was focused on something else.
Sierr’aa said, “Admiral, we just received a hyperspace communication from the armada guarding the Conron – Uselon hyperspace lane.”
“Play it,” Valod’la stated.
“Admiral, Captain Laon’la speaking from the destroyer Demolisher. A few minutes ago the Alliance warship Sunflower entered the system. We surrounded it and prevented it from jumping back to hyperspace, but it violently broke containment and is loose in the system. Two destroyers and a cruiser are chasing it. The battleship is still guarding the hyperspace lane.”
Valod’la shouted, “Where is it going?” A moment later he realized that only four of the five ships in the blockade had been mentioned. He shouted, “What is the second cruiser doing?”
There was a two pronged approach to that answer. The first was to send a hyperspace communication back to the battleship and ask them for updated telemetry and a status report. The second was to check the passive scan to see whether it had updated yet and the enemy’s course could be determined.
Savan’aa replied, “I am starting an active scan now and updating the passive scans. However, we are 30 light minutes from that particular hyperspace lane so we won’t see the light from the battle for a while.”
Sierr’aa replied, “I have contacted the Demolisher and asked Captain Laon’la for them to send hyper communication updates every 5 minutes.”
Valod’la said, “The Sunflower. That was the ship responsible for the vicious attack on the Spindle Station. Admiral Solear, the captain of the ship during the attack, is wanted for war crimes. Hopefully, he is on board.”
Savan’aa responded, “That is extremely unlikely. Based upon our exit interviews with the retired naval members in this system I am almost certain that Admiral Solear retired and is living peacefully on Advranki-2.”
