The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 7. An exciting, action-packed SpaceFed Series finale that also concludes the Garoden War.: ‘Military Gamble.’

by Gerry A. Saunders

  Captain Garret noted his science officer’s statement, just as Jefferson’s main particle beam cannons opened up with virtually continuous fire.

  Garret knew that if Jefferson’s screens had tangled with the two Garoden warships screens, then neither his ship nor theirs, would have been able to fire weapons without destroying each other.

  Meanwhile, Lieutenant Gort concentrated on keeping an eye on Anna’s weapons deployment and on checking their effectiveness.

  Ensign Blake called out a warning from his damage control monitoring station.

  “Hull temperature’s rising. Twenty seconds to critical.”

  Hearing this, Admiral Winton double checked his display and estimated that, in six seconds, the Jefferson would have already slid past them, and out into the less dangerous area of the Garoden’s formation.

  “Missiles, incoming,” Lieutenant Gort then yelled.

  Anna, knowing exactly where to fire, swung Jefferson’s side beams, destroying the Garoden’s missiles as they exited.

  Then his tactical AI resumed the desperate attempt to finish, or at the very least, to damage the first two Garoden ships.

  Although it had seemed forever before they finished passing through the gap. It had only been seconds of engagement time.

  The Jefferson had escaped virtually unscathed and was now safely out of range of the Garoden’s concentrated weapons fire. At which point, Winton ordered a larger stealth surveillance probe to be sent out to monitor the rest of his ship's passage, and ultimately, to find out what the Garoden’s reaction was, and establish what the Garodens were going to do, next.

  Fleet Admiral Winton could see the Revenge commence its passage through the gap, and was shocked at the ferocity of the fireball that surrounded her. He realized how lucky they had been, so far. But now, the Illustrious and Harbin were fast running out of time.

  Jefferson’s large warp engine engaged and generated its own wormhole, then the ship jumped to the Rendezvous point.

  The Battleship Revenge, rocked for a second, as Jefferson’s warp field rippled space directly in front of her. Before the Revenge, steady again could unleash its maximum firepower on the two Garoden ships, as she passed between them.

  Captain Tom Bridger was itching to use his Antimatter weapon against the enemy. But, there were no Garoden ships in his line of fire.

  In the meantime, the Revenge had passed through, and immediately jumped to the Rendezvous point, having suffered a few blown, but easily replaceable field emitters.

  Thanks to the repeated pounding by the Jefferson and Revenge, Argonaut’s passage was made easier, and she safely jumped for the Rendezvous point just a split second before the predicted second wave of Garoden Star Destroyer wormholes started to form.

  Illustrious’s Skipper Drive suddenly stopped.

  Unfortunately, however, her forward motion continued taking her on and into the Garoden fire. But at an ever-decreasing speed.

  Chapter 9

  WEPs two

  Illustrious’s Captain, Derrick Patterson, couldn’t believe his bad luck as his ship’s Skipper drive suddenly stopped. And his Tactical AI, Trish, shut down.

  Captain Patterson knew only too well what was going to happen next. The Garoden’s particle beams that were hitting Illustrious’s protective screen would have the effect of slowing her forward motion to a Stop. Giving the Garoden ships all the time they needed to destroy her.

  “Quick. Or we’re dead,” Patterson urged Lieutenant Jameson.

  His science officer scanned his tactical services, board.

  “Damage control’s already on it… thirty seconds.”

  “We’ll be dead in twenty,” Patterson snapped.

  Ensign Maria Lopez, Illustrious’s comms officer, then interjected. “Captain. Message from Captain Sota. No video.”

  “Ok, play it.”

  “Illustrious, Harbin will do all we can as we pass. But, I’m afraid, you are on our own... Good luck.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Lopez grumbled, more to herself than anyone else.

  Finally, the Battleship Harbin, with her primary particle beam weapons pounding the two Garoden ships, passed the Illustrious which had already visibly slowed down.

  Then space distorted directly in front of Harbin, and she jumped to safety.

  Through Illustrious’s bridge window, the crew could see that their closing rate was slowing with every passing second and that the Garoden particle beams were becoming harder to repel as they flared against Illustrious’s protective shield.

  Then, Lieutenant Jameson had a brain wave.

  “The incoming weapon’s fire is reducing, Captain. And our Jump engine is still online, why don’t we Jump?”

  “OK, but it’s risky. We’d be warping right in between those Garoden ships.”

  “That’s right, Captain… But, we are slowing down. Therefore, we’ll have a bit more time,” Lieutenant Jameson stated.

  “Yes, Lieutenant. But surely you realize that, unlike their ships, when we extend our jump rings, our protective screen density will reduce, then we’ll be more vulnerable to the Garoden’s fire.”

  “We’ll have to take that chance Captain,” Jameson calmly replied.

  “Those two ships are weakening, Captain,” Lieutenant Carn warned.

  “Captain, Weapon’s fire grid registers Garoden shield degradation. Some of the ships field emitters are failing… and both ships are also suffering from central structure damage,” Lieutenant Carn advised.

  “Our warp field would probably break them in two,” Jameson added.

  “Whatever you’re going to do Captain, it had better be quick… the hull coolant is about to boil,” Ensign Demetrof from Damage Control warned, interrupting Jameson.

  “So, are we,” Ensign Lopez grumbled again, as she undid the top three buttons of her shirt, to try to cool down.

  Illustrious’ Captain Patterson, hadn’t realized how beautiful and curvy this twenty-seven-year-old Ensign was.

  He had put his current lack of interest in women down to the fact that he still missed his wife, Georgiana. His wife had passed away a long time ago when the Starship Hawk had been destroyed by the Crillons. He couldn’t forgive the Crillons for their action, but he had to live with it.

  However, Patterson was forty-three, now. And Lopez, having unwittingly given him a tantalizing glimpse of her breasts, had made him realize what he was missing in his life.

  Until now, none of the crew had noticed the internal temperature rise, even though warnings were flashing on their monitors.

  “Captain, internal temp’s rising,” his science officer prompted.

  “Uh..., Right. Jump to R2 now, Lieutenant. But, we might have rubbish pulled in with us. So, we’ll jump to the Rendezvous R1 point when we’re sure it’s safe.”

  “Weapons grids are drying up, Captain,” Lieutenant Carn warned.

  Illustrious was now in between the two forward Garoden Star Destroyers as her Jump rings extended.

  Warp-field creation and wormhole formation then occurred simultaneously, as Illustrious established her warp field.

  Then, suddenly, each of the two leading Garoden warships shuddered, as both were hit by a torrent of fire that distracted their targeting for a critical few seconds.

  As Illustrious drifted into its wormhole, Captain Patterson thought he saw beams of energy penetrating the Garodens protective screen.

  Then, Illustrious was gone. With Captain Patterson and his crew, all experiencing a slight feeling of giddiness, followed by a sensation of being split in half, with one-half still with the Garoden battle.

  Everything seemed to stretch, under the immense power. Then, suddenly, nothing. Patterson felt as if he was stationary. Then, the other part of his body caught up, and he knew they were safely traveling in the wormhole.

  No-one spoke for several minutes while the cooling system slowly restored the ship’s temperature to its correct level.

  Ensign Lopez suddenly realized that the warp entry s
tress had undone her shirt even more. And, that everyone on the bridge was staring at her partially exposed firm rounded breasts. Lopez’s face reddened when she realized just how much she was exposing, then shrugged, thinking they’re old enough to have seen much more, anyway.

  “My-my,” she quietly said, looking at them with a touch of devilment sounding in her voice. Brought her hands slowly up, and moved them in an erotic manner. Then gave the men a wink before doing her shirt up again.

  “You should all be ashamed of yourselves,” she snapped while smiling at them. Thinking, it felt good to add a little, well, distraction in the current situation.

  Lieutenant Jameson was the first to turn his attention back to the crisis at hand.

  “Captain, that must have been our two WEPs hitting the Garoden ships.”

  “My thoughts exactly, Lieutenant.”

  Ensign Demetrof, from damage control, came through on the ship’s comm link.

  “Captain, we’ve replaced the Skipper drive’s initiator module. Simulation is OK, so we’re back on-line again. But, Tech is still having trouble in rebooting the Ship’s main AI.”

  “Well, at least we’ll have maneuverability… Lieutenant, how long before we exit at R2,” he then asked.

  “Five minutes thirty-two seconds is as close as I can calculate with the AI’s power level.”

  “Right. Lieutenant, Carn?”

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “I want our wormhole thread destroyed as soon as we’ve Exited, and moved out of the way.”

  “Yes, sir” Carn replied and immediately set the sequence for a Nuke missile launch.

  “Done, Captain.”

  “Good…Try and relax for a while, everyone. We’ll need to be on our toes when we exit.”

  Excellency Plank watched with horror as the crippled Alien ship suddenly warped space and opened a wormhole, right between his two forward ships.

  Then he watched as the two Star Destroyers seemed to split in the center, from the continuous onslaught that had caused gaps in their protective screens.

  The ferocity and effectiveness of two other, small, and very odd-looking ships that were also attacking his two ships, stunned Plank.

  Plank saw the Alien ship disappear into its own wormhole. But its warp field pulled at the two damaged Garoden ships, dragging them towards the wormhole’s mouth.

  Then the rear warp core section of one of his damaged ships plunged into the wormhole’s entrance. But, with the section being too large to go in any further, it seemed to hang for a moment, until it was compressed in size. Then finally, it was sucked into the wormhole’s mouth.

  While the remains of the two ships could be seen bumping together, then drifting towards the opening.

  “Move back,” Plank almost screamed as the wormhole’s mouth seemed to buckle, and change shape. He knew without a doubt that the Garoden ship’s doomed warp core would blow.

  As he continued watching, he saw the wormhole suddenly flare from the warp-core explosion within. Then, ripple angrily with nuclear vortexes, and flashes of light flaring out from small rifts around the wormhole itself, and further out in space.

  For a radius of one light year, Space itself seemed to buckle under the force of the detonation’s pressure wave within the wormhole, then it tore outward bending the fabric of space and time.

  Seconds later, Excellency Plank received his fleet’s status update. Captain Tisk studied the report, with Plank.

  “Minor damage, but only to our ship, and Z199,” Tisk commented.”

  “Plus, two of our finest ships destroyed,” Plank snapped.

  “Obviously.” Tisk sarcastically replied. But, Plank ignored his remark, putting Captain Tisk’s offensive manner down to their loss.

  “Lieutenant Ecoric, destroy that planet. Now,” Plank ordered.

  “Yes, Excellency,” Ecoric replied, and set the necessary action in motion by bringing up two more Star Destroyers from further back.

  Moments later, under Plank’s order, the destruction of Sol 2’s terrestrial planet commenced.

  Excellency Plank continued watching his ships attack. Until, just five minutes later, the Alien’s homeworld erupted, as deep penetration missiles blew the planet apart.

  However, Plank felt uneasy. “Something doesn't add up Captain,” Plank stated.

  Lieutenant Isko, joined in. “Perhaps it’s the lack of resistance, Excellency?”

  “Yes. I think we’ve been duped, Sir?” Captain Tisk stated. Having guessed what Plank was thinking.

  “That’s exactly what I think,” Excellency Plank agreed”

  Chapter 10

  Garoden Star Destroyer, Z187

  The Time ship from Delta’s Temporal Anchor 2725, was almost transparent now, as its solidity fluctuated, while it once again eased itself towards the predicted location, at the crucial millisecond in the timeline.

  Platos knew this action should be an exact copy of their previous operation with a Solveron ship. Once again, he studied the Temporal grid display that was currently showing the temporal intersection point as it moved slowly towards the center. Symbols scrolled down both sides of his screen, in a continuous sequence, while six of his Temporal Technicians, sitting in a line in front of their own consoles, moved symbols around on their screens, as they sought to achieve the critical intersection.

  “We are fast approaching the temporal intersection point for the Garoden destroyer, Z187,” Second Predictor Anon calmly announced.

  “Sequence going live… Now,” he stated.

  “Temporal Drone programmed and ready,” technician, Robert, confirmed.

  “Time fringe… Now,” Acron warned.

  The ship phased, for a split second, as its Dumbell time field generators, groaning with power, started to expand time. The Predictors continued fine-tuning for a Temporal Match.

  A match that would, for one hour of ships-time, be just a blink of an eye to the Garodens. And in which, in that one second of Garoden time, the transfer operation would be completed.

  With, all of it being achieved without the Garodens realizing what had just happened.

  Suddenly, the Garoden ship was next to them and locked into sync time.

  “Temporal Drone is on the ship,” Robert confirmed.

  “Sync’s touchy, but still locked. One hour tops,” the pilot confirmed.

  “That is sufficient,” Platos assured the pilot.

  “Your predictors, are the ones that have to keep us time-synced, Platos,” Pilot Acron cautioned.

  “Yes. But, it’s not easy holding sync with this ship.”

  “The Temporal Drone is at the airlock… The seal is in place… Lock opening,” Flight Technician Robert reported, reading out the Drone’s progress.

  “I need your operator ready, Platos,” Acron warned.

  “She will be.”

  “Transit bridge, in…, eleven seconds.”

  Then, Delta’s female operator stepped forward wearing a special stealth suit that would cover her completely, when activated.

  “Transit Bridge secure, and open,” Robert confirmed.

  Platos handed the female operative two blue and glowing Orbs.

  “Be careful to keep them inside the suit’s stealth field,” he ordered.

  “I will,” the operator, sounding bored, replied. She knew that Platos was going to tell her how and what she had to do again, anyway.

  “Remember, you must place an Orb against each of the two power conduits. One will follow the ship’s time, and the other will trigger the detonations, at precisely the correct point, while the Garoden ship is still within its wormhole.

  The Garoden ship must be forced to drop out of warp at exactly the point we’ve predicted. It must be completely intact. But, without weapons, protective shield power, and without any other military opposition.

  “Yes, Platos. And, don’t worry. I will sort the opposition,” the operator firmly answered.

  “Well, make sure you do, girl.”

  “D
on’t fuss.”

  “Come, miss,” Robert urged.

  “We’ll be there to pick you up Cindy,” Platos said as she started to cross the transit bridge to the Garoden Warship.

  “You’d better,” she called back over her shoulder.

  Five minutes later, Cindy’s ‘Clear’ signal was picked up by Robert.

  “We’re good to leave, Platos,” Robert informed him.

  “Then let’s get away from here. Pilot, phase us out,” Platos then ordered.

  “I assume that the second Garoden ship will just get lost without the tracker to guide it. Is that correct?”

  “Absolutely, Robert. Absolutely.”

  The Time-Ship’s Dumbell generators groaned as they commenced their time-stretch reversal correction. Then their time shift task.

  Chapter 11

  The Gift

  Captain Derrick Patterson saw the wormhole in front of them and noted that its color was changing, becoming slightly whiter. His stomach suddenly felt as if it had shot out through the front of the Illustrious. Then without warning, they were in normal space, and Patterson’s stomach settled down. While Illustrious came to a sudden, and violent halt.

  The speed of their tactical display’s update surprised Patterson as the Ship’s AI, Trish, came back online.

  “R2… Transit duration, five minutes thirty-five seconds,” Trish informed him.