A Faded Star

by Michael Freeport

  “Sir, there's an alert of the proximity net. It looks like an unidentified energy reading.”

  Stokes looked over the data that Hanlon put on the master plot that dominated the front bulkhead of the bridge. “Very well, Miss Hanlon. Science station, give me an analysis of the energy source.”

  Halford Kri looked up from his console and reported, “Sir, it seems to be an unclassified disturbance on the sensor net. It appears to have come from a single point source and is highly energetic. Running analysis now.”

  Stokes looked the young lieutenant over for a moment while he worked at his console and then said, “Mister Kri would you care for the assistance of Miss Simmons?”

  Kri glanced at the Commodore and nodded sharply. Marli Simmons had repeatedly rebuffed Stokes' efforts to talk her into a year aboard the Rampart. Her input had been instrumental in the development of drone technology for the formerly Ebrim and now Lashmere navy. Stokes gave Simmons a nod, and the petite redhead walked over to where Kri was working. The pair began to interact quietly over his console.

  After several minutes had passed, Stokes had to resist the urge to tap his foot in impatience. “Is there an answer forthcoming?”

  Kri jumped and looked up at the waiting commodore. “Sorry, sir, but we have a bit of a disagreement on what this may be. There are a number of possible explanations, but until I see a more detailed sensor scan of the area where this reading came from, it is impossible to say for sure.”

  “Would you care to hazard a guess, Mister Kri?”

  "As I said, there are several possible causes for this energy reading. It could be a cometary collision between highly reactionary materials, or it could be some kind of solar reaction or..." he trailed off.

  "Or what, Mister Kri?" Stokes spoke into the growing tension filling the bridge. Kri turned and was about to speak, but Marli Simmons interrupted him.

  "Sir, if I may?" She said.

  Stokes nodded. "Go ahead, Miss Simmons."

  "Sir, I think what Lieutenant Kri is unwilling to say is that this may be a signature from a hyperlight jump. The theoretical physics behind this kind of system would probably leave an energy discharge like this at the destination point. We explored this kind of faster than light drive before we perfected the point to point drive system."

  Kri nodded slowly as he stood off to the side, looking over Simmons' shoulder. Stokes steepled his long fingers before his face and considered for a moment. "Very well. Miss Hanlon, what's your opinion?”

  “Well sir, whatever it is, it set off the early warning net. If it's a natural reaction, we should see what happened. If it's a ship, then we should definitely take a look.” Linis Hanlon responded. She paused for a second and then added, “I recommend we go to battle stations, sir. Just in case.”

  The Rampart had been designed during the Ebrim-Karn war that had ended five years before. Construction had been started before the war actually ended. The original intent of the ship with all of her highly advanced systems was to bring the war to a decisive end. Since the Karn surrendered before the Rampart could be commissioned into service, her functions had been upgraded. Ostensibly, the ship was now primarily for the purpose of exploration and scientific research much moreso than combat. Stokes knew better; the Rampart had been designed from the keel up as a predator. He made his decision. “Very well. Miss Hanlon, warm up the point to point drive and prepare to intercept at..." he paused as he tapped out a quick calculation on the arm of his command chair, "twenty-five thousand kilometers in system from the energy point. If we assume it's a ship, that should put us well outside weapons range when we arrive. Sound battle stations."

  "Aye, sir. Helm run calculations for point to point transit. Coordinates are now on display." Hanlon said crisply. She tapped a button on her console and the battle stations klaxon bellowed from every speaker on the ship. Pounding feet could be heard from the passageway running alongside the bridge as freshly roused personnel hurried from their bunks to the myriad assignments battle stations entailed. Hanlon then tapped out another command. The shipwide announcement circuit cracked to life. "Attention all hands, prepare for point to point transit in three hundred seconds." She put down the mic and turned to watch as the helm completed his calculations. "Begin countdown while I validate your readings, Helm."

  "Aye, ma'am," the young enlisted man said, carefully keeping his attention fixed on the large bank of displays arrayed before him. He began to input the coordinates for the point to point transit. After a moment, he turned and gave Hanlon a nod.

  Hanlon ran the calculations again and turned to address Stokes. "Point to point jump calculations validated, Commodore. The countdown is now at one hundred thirty seconds.” She paused and glanced over the displays on her console. “Ship reports ready for jump." Hanlon reported and turned to watch the main plot again.

  "Very well, Miss Hanlon. Jump as calculated," Stokes said into the slow building whine of the point to point drive coming online, its massive energy capacitors charging up for the burst of gravitational energy required to make the drive function. The seconds ticked by in near silence as the bridge crew went about their tasks quietly, anticipating the coming faster than light transit.

  Aden Patho worked quickly and methodically at his console, recovering all of the combat drones before the countdown reached zero. Finally, he was able to report, "All drones recovered, Commodore."

  "Very well, Mister Patho." Stokes watched as the last few seconds ticked off of the display. "Jump ship, Miss Hanlon."

  "Jump ship, aye. Helm, jump ship."

  "Jump ship, aye." the helm pushed the jump lever forward until it clicked loudly into the socket. There was a sudden lurching feeling and a momentary loss of equilibrium as the ship maneuvered through the toroid shaped deformation in space-time that the point to point drive created. The main plot flickered and jumped as it updated the Rampart's position.

  "Jump complete, sir. All systems report normal." Hanlon turned away from her status display and looked at the main plot. "Put short range scan on the main plot, Hal."

  Halford Kri tapped at his console. "Short range scan is up now, ma'am. Looks like an unclassified energy source. Probably a ship."

  "Definitely a ship," Simmons said just as he finished. Kri snapped his head around to look at her sharply. Her return gaze was impassive. "Sir, if I may,” she paused, gazing under arched eyebrows at Stokes. At his nod, she continued. “The energy distribution from the unclassified source is clearly a gravity slope sublight drive. This is basically the same type of system we use aboard the Rampart."

  "Mister Kri, do you concur with Miss Simmons assessment?" Stokes watched the pair as they spoke quietly for a long moment.

  "Sir, I think she is probably right. The system must be a lot more efficient than the one we use. There is no energy wake we can detect." Kri said, his tone making it clear he was unhappy with having to make such a definitive statement.

  "Very well, Mister Kri." Stokes weighed his next words for a moment. “Could it be a Karn ship? Maybe something left over from the war?”

  A sudden silence enveloped the bridge, everyone carefully did not look at Aden Patho, the only Karn present.

  Hanlon shook her head slowly. Her smooth contralto voice interrupted the pregnant silence that had sprung up. “Sir, even if one of their ships had survived, none of them ventured out this far into the system. The first generation point to point drives they were using had a range of only a couple of light hours and the systems they used didn't create an energy discharge like the one that set off the proximity net.” She twitched her shoulders dismissively. “No, I think it must be something else, sir.”

  She looked over the sensor data being fed to her console. “Optics should have it in range soon, given our closure rate. We will know for sure then, whatever it is.”

  Stokes nodded and said, “Very well. Although I am not dismissing the remote possibility this is some long lost Karn vessel, let's presume that the ship is of non-Lashmere origin.
Mister Patho, prepare two drones for launch. Give them full recon packages with defensive secondaries."

  Patho didn't turn from his console, his hands already flashing across the controls as he responded, "Aye, sir. Drones are being repackaged. Launch in eighty seconds." Something deep within him tugged and twisted at the possibility it may be a lost ship full of his countrymen; a part of him he had never thought existed. He clenched his jaw silently and willed that part of himself to be silent.

  "Very well." Hanlon turned to Kri and Simmons. "You two, make sure you keep data logging and get as much as you can. If this isn't a wayward Karn ship, I want any insight you can get into whatever this is. Make sure you scan to see if they are readying weapons or emitting any kind of energy."

  Kri flashed a wry grin at the executive officer. "You got it, ma'am. Anything else we can get you?"

  Hanlon just shook her head and said nothing to the gentle retort. Of course, Kri and Simmons would already be working as hard as possible to get whatever they could. Kri's inexperience was showing. Everyone else on the bridge may not be aware that they needed as much information as possible, especially the enlisted men who were quietly performing their tasks, confident in the abilities of their officers to lead them through danger in complete safety.

  Patho turned to look at Commodore Stokes and said, “Sir, if I may... If that is a Karn ship, wouldn't it be possible to offer them the opportunity to come in peacefully?”

  Stokes did not hesitate before giving his answer; he had been considering that exact point. “Mister Patho, if that is a lost Karn ship, the condition they are in when any hostilities end is entirely up to them. Nothing the Karn Navy had when the war ended could stand toe to toe with Rampart, and I will not destroy a helpless ship. On the other hand, I will not allow them to damage Rampart or threaten the well being of this crew.”

  Patho nodded slightly. “Thank you, sir. That is about as much as anyone could wish for.” As Patho finished speaking, the tension level on the bridge dropped noticeably.

  Hanlon watched the exchange between the tactical officer and the commanding officer silently. She wondered, not for the first time, how wise it had been to accept Karn officers and civilian applicants into the Lashmere Naval Academy. The war had ended so recently that many of the old animosities still ran quite close to the surface. Hanlon gazed at Patho's back, watching the man work at his station. She glanced at her console, readouts breaking her reverie. “Sir, Optics range in ten seconds." Hanlon said and turned to Stokes. "Shall I put it on the main plot?"

  "Please do, Exec. Put up the tactical overlay as well. Sensor data feed on the secondary plot."

  Hanlon tapped out the commands and then said, "Aye sir. The main plot is updated." The plot snapped to show a small, indistinct shape, flanked by tactical information and sensor readouts on either side. "Looks like a pretty small ship, sir."

  "So it does, Miss Hanlon. Sensors, what kind of size are we talking about here?"

  Kri looked across the bridge at Stokes and said, "Can't be more than thirty meters long and roughly seven or eight meters across. Significantly less than one percent our mass, sir."

  “No chance this could be of Karn origin, Miss Hanlon?”

  “I can't see how, sir. The Karn used ship designs like our own. This ship doesn't conform to any known construction techniques. Not in this star system at least.”

  Stokes nodded. "Mister Patho, launch drones as ordered. Prepare a full combat drone launch just in case. Package combat launch for the standard offensive and defensive mix. Set secondary weapons for defensive intercept. Power up the main gun for offensive mid range engagement."

  Patho whirled in his station chair, engaging the defensive and offensive on-board weapons that studded the hull of the Rampart. "All weapons stations report ready, Sir." The breath he hadn't realized he had been holding escaped, and a knot that had formed in his stomach loosened, only to be replaced by a sense of loss. Something about a surviving ship of the Karn Navy had appealed to him.

  "Very well, Mister Patho. Maintain weapons hold unless fired upon. Sensors, are you getting any emissions from that ship that might represent an attempt at communication?"

  Kri turned from his station and looked levelly at Commodore Stokes. "Sir, this thing has a very low emissions signature. The only reason we know it's here is because of the energy discharge that it created when it arrived in system." He paused for a moment and looked over at Simmons, who nodded at him before he continued. "Sir we think the alien ship may have a problem, though. Optics resolution isn't quite there yet, but the gravity slope drive he is using appears to be slightly out of sync with the vector the ship is actually on. This probably means that his sublight drive system is damaged, or at least very poorly maintained."

  "Very well, Mister Kri. Keep me informed, and if you can make out any damage to the hull with optics, bring it up to the main plot immediately. Distance to target, Mister Patho."

  "Coming into long engagement range now, sir. Ten k-clicks out.”

  "Are we in comm range, yet?" Stokes looked over at Halford Kri, who gave him a nod. "Good, encode for transmission the following: Alien vessel, this is the Lashmere Space Navy Ship Rampart. You have entered our sovereign space without permission. Please state your intentions. Mister Kri include our language code and mathematical progression with the transmission."

  "Aye, sir. Transmitting now." Kri glanced again at Simmons. She appeared to be smiling at him. Stokes made a mental note to review bridge protocol with Kri once this crisis was over. His thoughts were interrupted by a new perimeter alert from the early warning net surrounding the Lashmere system.

  "Sir!" Kri said, “Energy discharge. Massive energy discharge. Bearing zero-three-two by zero-one-eight. Looks like another faster than light arrival discharge. Range thirty-three k-clicks."

  Stokes kept his surprise from showing only with effort. "Alright, Mister Kri. Let's take a look. Split the main plot to display both target areas."

  "Aye, sir. Sir, incoming transmission from the alien ship. Text only. It reads as follows. Rampart, am need help, mechanical broken." Kri paused, apparently puzzled by what it said next. "Sir, it says, ah..." Kri trailed off.

  "Go ahead, Mister Kri. I won't hold you responsible for poor translation."

  Kri bobbed his head in assent. "Sir, it says Rampart must assist in removal of my bad following things."

  Stokes looked over at Kri. "Good enough, I think we can presume that this second energy discharge is someone following the first ship. Let's designate the new energy source a potential hostile. I don't want us getting pulled in to some kind of conflict. Miss Hanlon, take over comms. We will need instructions from command regarding this situation. Begin with a sitrep and request instructions. Include that we are assuming that the second energy source is another ship, probably hostile to the first." Without pausing, he turned to Simmons and Kri. "Mister Kri, I want you concentrating on the first ship, Designate it alpha. Miss Simmons, I want you to begin an analysis of the second energy source. Presuming it is a ship, designate it Beta."

  Hanlon, Kri, and Simmons let out near identical aye-sirs in unison. Stokes felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing the bridge crew responding so well to the situation. As they began working on their tasks, Stokes turned to Aden. "Mister Patho, repackage our combat drones into three groups. One third of them close combat intercept. Take the other two thirds and break them into defensive formations to augment our on-board interceptor batteries. Vector them to intercept both alpha and beta. Update our defensive fire pattern for multiple engagement envelopes."

  "Sir, I recommend using the salvo firing patterns for multi-target engagements. They have a higher effective intercept rate when the computer can't track individual incoming shots."

  "So, what you're saying is that we are going to take some hits, Mister Patho?" Stokes watched as an uncomfortable look spread across the tactical officer's face. "Don't worry. I agree with your assessment of the situation. Reset for salvo fire. But be
ready to switch back to single fire if it looks like the intercept computer can handle the volume of incoming fire. I don't want our brand new flagship to get any holes in it."

  Patho visibly relaxed before returning to his panel to implement the new firing orders. "New defensive fire parameters input. I have the single fire package on standby. Drones launching." The thrumming of launching drones filled the bridge for the second time that day.

  "Good. How does beta look, Miss Simmons?"

  "Sir, looks like two ships. At least as large as Rampart. Vectors appear to have diverged. One is on intercept for alpha, and the other is on its way here. To us."

  "Very well, Miss Simmons. If alpha was going to attack, it would have by now. Update target designation to beta one and beta two. Mister Patho reorient all secondary weapons for defensive and offensive fire on beta two. Helm, come about to bring the main gun to bear on beta two. Miss Hanlon, transmit the following to beta one: This is the Lashmere Navy Ship Rampart. You have entered sovereign Lashmere space. Please state your intentions. As before, include our language code and mathematical progression with the transmission.”

  Hanlon nodded to her console, not even bothering to look up from her work and said, “Transmitting now, sir.”

  Marli Simmons said, “Sir I am getting a strange energy reading from beta one. I don't think it's a weapon, but I'm not sure what it is.”

  “Let's take a look, Miss Simmons. Secondary plot.”

  Simmons updated the display and pointed out the energy reading she was concerned about. “It's just there, sir,” she pointed, “The “F” shaped energy wave that appears to have a hook at the bottom. The energy distribution looks highly directional. The only reason we can see it is it must be directed specifically at us.”

  “Could it be some sort of sensor system?”

  “That's one possibility. The other thought I had is it may be some kind of communication signal, but without knowing the base carrier wave, I'm not sure how to decode the information.”