Voyage of the Hayden (The Adventures of Christopher Slone Book 1)

by Donald Nicklas

  Alaya thought she detected a slight smile at that last order. Not that she objected. They turned someone she knew into a ship’s computer and for all she knew her other scouts suffered the same fate. As head of the Sinclair scouting service, she viewed all the scouts as her responsibility. She and Dane were dismissed and headed down to the shuttle bay were they found a large container being loaded onto the Hayden shuttle. Slone greeted them and reported he had notified the Hayden and all was ready for the additional troops. They would be staying with the other marines, but in their own section, as requested. The container was locked and would be transferred to Alaya’s scout ship, which had been refitted and the minor hull damage from the methane breathers repaired. Alaya loved her scout ship. It was top of the line and had some advances in stealth technology that were not even available to the military. It was ideal for traveling through rival corporation systems and keeping track of their activities. On paper, all of the corporations were at peace and there had not been a corporate war for a long time, but there were always border skirmishes over mining rights.

  The shuttle was loaded and all of the Special Forces were aboard. Slone and Alaya sat in the bridge. They both loved to pilot small ships and took every opportunity. Slone let Alaya fly the ship off her father’s dreadnought. She guided the shuttle expertly towards the Hayden hangar bay. As they approached the ship, he admired her lines. She was sleek and glistened in the reflected light of Purgatory’s star. Her battle damage was repaired and only a keen eye could see the patches. After landing, Alaya and Dane saw to the transfer of the cargo pod from the shuttle to the scout ship. All of the new marines were billeted and their equipment was stowed away. They spent their down time training, and Slone had to admire their dedication. Two days later, Slone went up to the bridge and received reports from all departments; the Hayden was ready to depart.

  “Navigation, how long to the Bickle slipstream?”

  “Six hours from this point in orbit,” the navigator reported. Since planets were constantly changing position due to their orbits around stars and the slipstreams stayed fixed, the time to cross systems varied constantly.

  “Notify Purgatory and the fleet that we are leaving orbit.”

  “System notification has gone out; Purgatory and the flagship wish us safe passage.”

  “Acknowledge and take us out of orbit.”

  “Aye, sir.

  “Set general quarters and take us to the slipstream.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The Hayden glided silently out of orbit as the main engines fired. She accelerated to her top speed in-system and then the engines cut out and her momentum in a frictionless space carried her to her target. Dane saw to his troops, since they did not have an official post for general quarters, they stayed in the hangar bay. After an uneventful six hours and 5 minutes, they reached the slipstream and deployed the sails.

  “Sails deployed sir, ready to polarize.”

  “Polarize the sails.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The navigator polarized the sails and the Hayden leapt into faster than light travel. After a few minutes, the navigator glanced at some readouts and reported, “We have reached a maximum speed of 1.75 light years per hour. Time to system is 11 hours, 20 minutes.”

  “Secure from general quarters. Set ship to cruising status. Tell the crew to get some rest.”

  “Aye sir. All decks, secure from general quarters,” Sparks stated into the ship wide communications.”

  Slone left the bridge and went to his cabin, after indicating a staff meeting in one hour. When the time for the meeting arrived, he went to the conference room and saw that all of the department heads were already at the table. Alaya was there as well as Dane. Slone introduced Dane to the group and then told them the real purpose of their mission. To their credit, no one expressed any objections; they all wanted another shot at the methane breathers. He then turned the floor over to Alaya, since she was the only one present to have ever traversed a wormhole, twice.

  “Let me get right to the point,” she began. “Once we enter the wormhole we will travel 2.4 million light years in a few seconds.” She let this concept sink in. This same group of officers had heard her story before, but up to this point, it had all been, just a story. Now it sank in that they would be passing through the wormhole and that was a reality check. The level of concentration in the room was increased by a factor of ten. “When we exit the wormhole, we will be on the rim of the Andromeda galaxy, in a system, which, for lack of a better name, we call Andromeda. The methane breathers are from a methane moon revolving around the third gas giant in the system. It is our mission for, Dane, his marines, and I to land on that moon and retrieve an item from one of our lost scout vessels. The Hayden will get us into orbit for the descent and protect us from space dangers, while we’re on the surface.” Again, Alaya allowed time for this new information to sink in before she continued. “The main reason for this meeting is to acquaint everyone here with how it will feel to travel through the wormhole. I will not claim to be an expert by any means, but I have been through it twice now and I suspect that is twice more than anyone else here.”

  Slone liked the way Alaya carried herself when she was in teaching mode. In fact, he had to admit he pretty much liked everything about Alaya. She had handled herself well during the battle of Purgatory and she was skilled in all manner of subjects relating to her profession. She may be the daughter of one of the richest men in the galaxy, but she was not a spoiled brat. As he watched her standing at the head of the table, he felt a stirring in himself he had not felt before regarding another human being. There had been women in his life but none of them caused the feelings he now had. Could this be what it felt like to be in love? He didn’t know. What he did know is no one ever made him feel the way he did when he saw Alaya. However, there was a mission to do and no time to deal with personal issues. If they made it home, he would see if the feelings are still there.

  “Travel through the wormhole is extremely disorienting,” Alaya continued. “When we went through, the first feeling was that of time slowing. Things looked like they were bending and the first time we thought the ship was coming apart but it didn’t and when we shot out the other side, most of us were flat on the deck vomiting. I am going to ask you all to have your crew abstain from food and drink for three hours before contact with the wormhole. I am not sure how it will be with the size of our vessel, but the ones the aliens brought through made it, and I assume they were intending to go back. The key after exiting the wormhole will be to regain control of the ship as soon as possible. We have no way of knowing what the aliens are doing on the other side and we have to assume they are ready to repel invaders. Our small scout ships were not viewed as a threat; that will not be the case with a star cruiser. Any questions?”

  The chief engineer was the first to raise a hand and question the strain on the ships as they went through the wormhole. He was constantly worrying about the buckled bulkhead just forward of engineering. Alaya assured him that the perceived bending of the ship was just an illusion of the wormhole and did not actually happen. Before the meeting broke up, the chief medical officer was asked to give a report on the alien he had been dissecting. Slone gave him the floor and all listened with rapt attention.

  Commander DeFleur rose and began to speak. “I have been continuing my studies on the alien body we had from the dreadnought and I am able to draw some conclusions. We all know they breathe methane as an atmosphere and not oxygen, but the methane is more than a gas to them, it is also their source of nourishment along with silica from rocks. They use the methane and the silica to make body mass. They are not made of cells but rather have a crystalline structure. I haven’t found anything in them that could be called DNA or anything like it. I have no idea how they reproduce and as far as I can tell, their bodies are solid with no evidence of circulation, though there are identifiable organs separated by spaces filled with methane. That’s their weakness. If we can crack op
en their outer casing and get both oxygen and flame inside, they should explode with the ignition of the methane.”

  Dane was the first to speak up. “Then if I understand you correctly, the thermite charges you have been using will be greatly enhanced if we attach a small oxygen cylinder to them?”

  “I’m no engineer, but if that can be done I think it will make the thermite grenades we have been using much more effective.”

  “An excellent observation, doctor,” Dane said and Slone agreed. Stravinsky immediately set his people on modifying the thermite grenades. The meeting broke up and all went to their cabins to get some rest as the Hayden sailed towards Bickle’s star and her destiny.

  Chapter 5 - The Methane Moon

  The Hayden arrived at Bickle’s star to find a cruiser and two destroyers near the wormhole. They stood guard to protect against future incursions. They knew to expect the Hayden and the proper recognition codes were exchanged. The Hayden began her system traverse towards the wormhole. After a journey of seven and a half hours, the Hayden stood before the slipstream that Alaya indicated was actually the entrance to the wormhole.

  “All engines stop,” Slone ordered. The Hayden came to a stop at the edge of the system. The other ships had held back and remained closer to the Purgatory slipstream. “Sparks, put me through ship wide.”

  “Aye, sir.” The communications tech pushed a button and Slone was on over the entire vessel.

  “Attention all hands. We are about to embark on a journey that only one person before has returned from. This has been a need-to-know mission and now is the time that you should know what lies ahead. We are going to take the war to the home of our enemy.” Slone could hear some cheering through the ship and knew that the crew was with him. Now for the difficult part, telling them they are leaving their galaxy. “We are standing in front of what appears to be a slipstream, but this only covers a wormhole. Our enemy is on the other side of the wormhole in the Andromeda galaxy. We are about to make history and bring the Hayden across 2.4 million light-years to another galaxy. I know what you are all thinking, ‘how can this be possible.’ The vessel we rescued in this system earlier and the vessels we fought here and around Purgatory are proof that it can be done. There will be disorientation and some feeling of nausea going through. You have all been asked to refrain from eating for the last three hours to decrease the effects. I have been informed that there will be some visual distortion of the ship interior, but it is a visual effect only and does not represent any actual strain on the hull. It will only take a few seconds to traverse the wormhole and I have no idea what we will find on the other side, so all hands must be ready for anything. Good luck to us all. Sound general quarters.”

  The klaxon went off throughout the ship, bringing all hands to their battle stations. Slone waited until all parts of the ship reported ready and the backup bridge crew was at the CIC.

  “Navigator, take us in. Ahead slow.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  The Hayden covered the last 5000 kilometers to the wormhole in a few minutes and then they were at the point where normally the sails would be deployed. Before Slone could ask Alaya, who was standing next to him, what do they do now, a large, dark green vortex opened in front of them as if out of nowhere. Slone could feel as the Hayden was pulled towards the vortex and knew instinctively, there was nothing they could do about it. The vortex began to distort and Slone thought he could see the metal of the ship become elastic and start to pull towards the center of the vortex. He could feel the nausea building in him, and saw some of the bridge crew holding their heads in their hands. He was suddenly aware of a loud screeching in his ears and pressure in his head that caused him to cradle his head in his hands. He could feel a blackout beginning to overwhelm him and then he passed out. When he came to, he had no knowledge of how much time had elapsed, but he did feel something hard and cold against his right side. As he opened his eyes, he sensed a receding pain in his head and it was hard to see the light flooding the bridge without squinting. As more senses returned, he realized he was lying on the floor of the bridge in front of the captain’s chair. He got up slowly and one of the marines came over and helped him into his seat. He remembered thinking ‘does nothing bother these guys’? As he looked around, he saw some of the bridge crew at their stations while others were also picking themselves off the floor. He looked to his left and saw Alaya standing there and holding onto the side of the captain’s chair, looking as if she had just had a wonderful ride at an amusement planet. He raised an eyebrow in her direction as if to ask why she was not affected. Alaya knew exactly what he was thinking.

  “What can I say, captain. It gets easier when you know what to expect. No one can tell you how you will react but once you have been through it, the wormhole passage seems to improve.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.” He then turned to the crew stations and said, “Tell all departments to report in. Navigation, what’s our status?”

  “Tactical is clear, sir. There are no other vessels in the system. Navigation shows, almost beyond belief, we are on the edge of the Andromeda galaxy and 2.4 million light-years from Bickle’s star.”

  “Calculate a course to the seventh moon of the third planet.”

  “Yes, sir. System traverse time will be fifteen hours, twenty-seven minutes.”

  “Very well. Set condition yellow throughout the ship. I want a staff meeting two hours before orbital insertion.”

  “Aye, sir. I will notify the department heads.” Sparks stated and went about making the announcements.

  Before Slone could leave the bridge, the navigator interrupted his thoughts. “Captain, something doesn’t make sense in our readings. If we are dealing with a starship capable race, there should be some type of electronic signatures coming from them somewhere in this system. Our tactical shows nothing out there. How can this place have originated the ships that attacked us?”

  “An interesting point. Unless the laws of physics are different in this galaxy, and I suspect that’s not the case, there should be something out there. Using a human brain for command and control is far beyond what we can do, so perhaps they have found a way to mask their transmissions. I want tactical fully manned throughout the traverse. Use off shift personnel if needed.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Slone took some time to make rounds of the ship to see how she weathered her trip through the wormhole. He was pleased to see there was no damage of any kind. He ended his inspection with a return to the ready room, where he found Alaya waiting for him. She was dressed in casual clothing, having shed her scout uniform. She was wearing a short, skintight dress that accentuated every aspect of her body and exposed her long and perfect legs. Despite himself, he always found it hard to pull his eyes away from her and she knew it. No matter that both sexes were equal in the universe of the 32nd century, nature still won out when it came to personal relationships. When life on earth was obliterated in the 22nd century by the last World War, it became necessary for the remnants of humanity to work together to survive. As they expanded and moved outward, women held the power, since there were fewer of them and, they were needed for reproduction and thus controlled the fate of humankind. When cloning and artificial wombs were developed, men again tried to diminish the role of women in the affairs of humankind, but the women resisted and the gender war was fought in the 24th century. It was a non-contest, since the women were in charge of the cloning tanks and artificial wombs, which needed their eggs and the men’s sperm. After a few skirmishes and some ruffled feathers, peace once again reigned and both sexes were equal. As the space born seeds of humankind continued to grow, all of the energy was put into the development of the corporations that now controlled human destiny. Alaya Sinclair was a product of the most powerful of the corporate families. No matter how much she may attract Slone’s desires, for him she was untouchable.

  “Captain, I wanted to talk with you. Is there a place we could talk privately?”

  “Thi
s is a combat vessel, I’m afraid there is little privacy aboard. We could speak in my quarters; at least they are off limits for all staff without a good reason to be there.”

  “Excellent, Captain Slone, please lead the way.”

  Slone lead Alaya into the living room of his quarters directly from the ready room. This way no one could see who was entering his living space. He called Ensign Jones and told her he was not to be disturbed unless it was an emergency. He offered a chair and some refreshment to Alaya and sat across from her, in an easy chair, drink in hand.

  “Ok, Ms. Sinclair”, he caught himself, “I mean Alaya. We’re as alone as we are going to be aboard this ship. What did you want to discuss?”

  “I wanted to discuss Dane and my father. I’m at a loss as to why Dane is here. Father won’t tell me anything and Dane is the head of his personal bodyguard. I have rarely seen him leave my father’s side and yet, here he is with us in another galaxy. Something is off about this. Your marines and Major Sardac are extremely competent. Our battle at Purgatory showed as much. We really don’t need Dane and his troops. They’re keeping themselves aloof from the other marines and I just can’t shake the feeling that they have their own agenda. Just be careful how you interact with them Captain.”

  “Thanks for the warning. I'm not sure what they can do way out here. Since you wanted to meet in private, let me ask you what we should expect when we get to the methane moon.”

  Slone already had an idea from the story Alaya told after her rescue. He was not sure if he wanted to see if the story changed any or if he was using the question as an excuse to keep her in his quarters. He soon came to realize he had never quite felt about a woman the way he felt about Alaya Sinclair. During the refit they had seen little of each other but during the final days of preparation for this mission, they had worked closely getting everything ready to battle the methane breathers if that became necessary. Now he just wanted to prolong any contact he had with her, knowing that at the end of this mission, he would probably never see her again. As she began to speak, he found himself mesmerized by her quiet, silky voice. A trait he had noticed since their first meeting.