Chroniech!

by Doug Farren

  "Because there are five separate interdependent adjustments to make, the process will require a fair amount of time. The analyzer must determine what effect each adjustment has had on the other parameters in order to keep the entire drive in alignment."

  "I can't make any sense of these readings," Ken said motioning to the display. "Just how much of an adjustment are we talking about?"

  "This stardrive is an order of magnitude more complex than your best drive system. The field coil alignments must be absolutely precise to an accuracy of at least two angstroms. The frequencies and phase relationship of the field emitters must be controllable to within one part in four trillion. Each time one parameter is adjusted it affects the alignment of the other four."

  "I think I understand," Ken replied. "I'm not trying to rush you, but I will feel a lot better when this thing is operational again."

  "Believe me skipper," Skip replied wiping a bit of grease off his hands, "I don't feel very good about having our only means of defense lying in peaces while we float dead in space in the middle of enemy territory. But, I'm not going to rush the reassembly either because that could prove to be a lethal mistake."

  They stood in silence for a few moments watching the numbers dance on the face of the analyzer readout. "You must be very anxious to get back to your own people and away from us primitives," Stricklen said to Norgoola.

  Ken still had a hard time reading Kyrra facial expressions, but he thought he noticed a look of surprise on Norgoola's face. "You are mistaken," Norgoola said after a moments reflection. "We have learned much about your people since our release from stasis. I have come to respect your race although there are many aspects about you I still do not understand.”

  "You live in a hostile environment, yet the Alliance is proof that peace between vastly different cultures can be obtained. Your race is not primitive. It is only not as advanced as ours."

  Motioning toward the disassembled stardrive, Norgoola continued, "This stardrive is far more advanced than any I have ever seen before. It was built by my people long after I had entered stasis. I understand it only because it is based on principles which I am very familiar with.”

  "My people have been learning and advancing for thousands of years while I and the others with me have remained in stasis. We are glad we are returning to our own people, but we are also apprehensive because we may not understand them when we are reunited. We feel very much alone."

  Stricklen looked at the Kyrra with a new sense of understanding. These five individuals were from a people far more advanced than his own yet, because they had been in stasis, the tables had been turned on them and their own people were now far more advanced than they were before they had entered stasis. They did not fit in with anyone and were truly alone. Stricklen suddenly felt very sorry for them.

  Ken returned to the bridge where he impatiently waited for the word that the stardrive had been repaired. As each minute went by, he kept thinking that the next would bring the bad news that a Chroniech attack force was vectoring in.

  Despite his fears, the sensitive instruments of the Komodo Dragon showed that space remained clear of enemy ships. This provided a small measure of comfort but Ken realized it was a false sense of comfort that the crew felt.

  Because of the setting of dog-zebra, the active long-range detectors had been shutdown - the Dragon was effectively blind. Although this made it harder to detect his ship, it also prevented them from detecting anything beyond what could be detected with the passive instruments - like a blind man relying on his sense of touch, a very short-range sensory device.

  Eventually, the chief engineer reported that all repairs had been completed and the stardrive was again operational. With a loud sigh of relief Stricklen ordered, "Engineering, secure from dog-zebra and commence power up of all systems."

  The crew rushed to comply with the order and fifteen minutes later engineering reported that the ship was once again ready to resume course.

  "Helm, engage stardrive and resume course," Stricklen ordered. "Stand-down from battle stations."

  Ken could not believe their luck. They had been dead in space for eight hours and not one Chroniech ship had come within detector range. He turned the watch over to a junior officer and went to his stateroom to relax for the evening.

  About an hour later, Stricklen decided he wanted a snack and headed for the mess hall. As he stepped out of his stateroom he felt a sickening lurch. His vision blurred for a split second and a wave of dizziness swept over him. He tried to reach out and hold onto the bulkhead for support but instead he fell forward.

  On the way down, his head impacted the edge of a cabinet and he started to black out. As he struggled to regain consciousness he thought he heard the alarm klaxon sounding the call to battle stations. Something had caused them to suddenly drop out of stardrive very quickly.

  Someone pulled Stricklen to his feet and shouted his name. He was barely aware of a voice in his head — it was the bridge trying to contact him through his earpiece. A face floated into his blurred tunnel vision and again shouted his name. The thick fog surrounding Ken's brain slowly lifted and he recognized the face as that of the ship's supply clerk.

  Shaking his head, Stricklen finally managed to clear his vision and his mind. "What happened?" he asked, his words slurring a bit.

  "I don't know sir. We dropped out of stardrive and went to battle stations. The bridge has been trying to get your attention for the last couple of minutes. You're bleeding, let me take you to sick bay."

  Stricklen pressed his hand against his head where it hurt the most. When he pulled it away and looked at it, he saw that it was covered in blood. The entire right side of his head behind his ear was sticky. Wiping his hand on his pants he firmly said, "No! I'm fine now — thanks." Stricklen shrugged off the last bit of disorientation and took off at a run toward the bridge.

  The marine guard must have heard him coming because he was holding the door open for him as he rounded the corner. Stricklen burst onto the bridge amidst utter chaos. "Out!" he commanded the junior officer who was occupying his chair. The officer looked up and seeing who it was immediately exited the command chair. He started to say something about the captain's injury but was waved off.

  Stricklen's gaze quickly swept the entire control room while he was in the process of sitting down. His fingers flew over the command keys bringing up several screens of ship status.

  A gravity mine had somehow been placed in their path. Its intense gravitational field had caused them to drop out of stardrive. The gravity mine had already been destroyed but the damage had been done. Stricklen knew it would take engineering a few minutes to stabilize the drive. Suddenly dropping out of stardrive was very hard on the sensitive components of the drive unit. Until then, they were vulnerable — and everybody knew that where there were gravity mines, there were warships.

  "Multiple drive wakes detected!" came the expected report. "Nearest contact will arrive in just over one minute. Signature is Chroniech."

  Piecing all the information together Stricklen quickly figured out what had happened. His conclusions were remarkably accurate. The Chroniech had apparently known that they had dropped out of stardrive and expected them to eventually resume their course. Since no ships had been detected Ken guessed the Chroniech had been deploying stealth probes all along their possible trajectory and it had been one of these probes that had found them.

  Because the long range sensors had been taken off line the Dragon had not detected the probes. The probes, in turn, had also reported the fact back to the Chroniech that no long-range sensor fields had been detected.

  Instead of attacking (which would have been disastrous for the Dragon since she had been without a defense shield during the repairs) the Chroniech had decided to lay a trap along their course. The Chroniech had no idea why the Dragon had stopped but they feared the incredible firepower it possessed. So, they had devised a plan that gave them time to gather their forces.

  Duri
ng his review of the various ships in the area the council leader had come across a freighter carrying military supplies. This particular freighter was loaded with thousands of gravity mines. The freighter quickly became a mine layer laying mines along a huge volume of space along the possible route the cruiser was expected to take.

  They had done so at a distance beyond the Dragon's ability to detect the drive wakes of the ships gathering for the trap. Stricklen had been caught off-guard and he was not pleased with himself.

  The tactical display showed at least eight incoming ships. The descriptors next to the enemy ships showed that they would be dealing with some pretty powerful warcraft. The first ship, a heavy cruiser, dropped out of stardrive dangerously close to them and immediately opened fire. The Kyrra-powered defense shield easily deflected the energy beams and was not seriously challenged.

  The Komodo Dragon, however, did not remain silent. Two beams of energy leapt out from the Dragon's guns and struck the Chroniech's defense screen. The screen briefly deflected the attack but was no match for the Hess-built weapons. The enemy ship was soon speared clear through and exploded in a blinding flash.

  Two more warships dropped out of stardrive and engaged. One of these was a huge battleship of a type which had not yet been seen by the Alliance. As the Dragon targeted the smaller vessel three more ships appeared and added their firepower to that of the other two. Once again, the two particle beam cannons opened fire and a second Chroniech ship was soon reduced to junk.

  "Looks like they're trying to englobe us," Doug reported from CIC. Ken's tactical display showed the Chroniech ships moving in a random pattern around his ship. As he tried to make sense of what they were doing a third ship was destroyed and two more appeared. As the new arrivals added their firepower to that of the others the Dragon's defense screen began to show signs of being heavily loaded.

  "Sledgehammers are charged — targeting the largest ship with all weapons — target locked — firing!"

  Four bright balls of sparkling energy sped through space and struck the battleship's defense screen. At the same time, the Dragon's entire arsenal of projected energy weapons struck at the same location. The result was completely unexpected.

  The enemy defense screen wavered and fought in vain to prevent the destructive beams from passing through. The energy of the sledgehammers were expended in breaking down the battleship's screen but the rest of the weapons made it through and touched bare metal. Instead of punching a hole in the ship, an enormous cloud of vapor was blasted into space.

  At first, Ken did not know what had happened. Then realization dawned on him. "The battleship is encased in some sort of ablative coating," Ken told the XO. "It boils away and dissipates the energy from our weapons. We'll have to burn our way through it."

  "We have another problem sir," the XO responded. "We have detected hundreds of very small objects being dumped into space by the attackers. We just ran a detailed scan of one of these objects. They're fusion bombs and we're surrounded by them."

  "Helm! Maximum drive — get us away from this area!" he ordered.

  The Komodo Dragon had barely begun to move when all of the surrounding fusion bombs detonated. Several panels showed red warning lights and Stricklen's command console lit up with warning indicators. Their defense shield, as powerful as it was, had been partially breached. Ken listened to the damage reports as they flooded in.

  "Fusion reactor one and four are off-line — Hull breach on deck six amidships — Sledgehammer three damaged — High radiation warning on all decks forward of frame 58 — Communications array damaged — sub-light engine off-line."

  Theirs had not been the only ship damaged, however. As soon as the sensors had recovered from the overload, Stricklen saw that three of the Chroniech ships had been destroyed by their own bombs. Unaffected by all this activity, the Dragon's combat computer targeted one of the remaining ships and opened fire. The smaller ship ceased to exist with a single shot. All available weapons were then turned on the battleship. For two minutes the two ships battled it out. The superior firepower of the Komodo Dragon eventually resulted in the destruction of the last remaining enemy ship.

  Stricklen quickly assessed their situation. Punching a button on his console he said, "CIC this is the captain — are there any more incoming?"

  After a seconds delay the response came back. "Yes sir. Picking up at least nine more drive wakes from multiple vectors. First contact in three minutes."

  Stricklen pressed another button and said, "Engineering — I need the stardrive back on-line in under two minutes or we're dead."

  "Working on it sir!" a winded voice responded. "Give us another thirty seconds to reset the matrix field generator and clear up some power grid problems."

  Confident in his engineering staff, Stricklen did not bother them when the thirty seconds went by with no word. At the forty second mark, the helm reported that the stardrive was available. Stricklen glanced at the tactical display, chose a course which would take them away from all incoming ships, and ordered the Komodo Dragon to exit the area at maximum speed. Within seconds, the Dragon was accelerating away from the Chroniech ships and out of danger.

  It took three days to complete all the repairs they were capable of making while underway. Part of the ship remained at a vacuum because of a massive rupture in the Dragon's armor plating which was beyond the ability of the crew to repair while underway. Luckily, nothing vital had been seriously damaged.

  Unfortunately, four of the crew had been killed and six others injured as a result of their encounter. Stricklen had immediately taken steps to prevent a re-occurrence of what had happened. He ordered the helm to change their course by at least five degrees in a random direction every three hours as long as their general heading was generally in the right direction.

  For the next month and a half the Komodo Dragon zigzagged its way through Chroniech space. On only six occasions did the crew pick up the drive-wakes of Chroniech ships. Small course corrections allowed them to avoid contact. The newly aligned stardrive functioned flawlessly during the entire trip. Eventually, Stricklen was satisfied they had finally left Chroniech space far enough behind them and gave the order to set course for their actual destination.

  Their first target was the planet which the Kyrra had been terraforming. Stricklen felt that since the terraforming project would still be going on, the Kyrra would be there to monitor its progress. This planet was the best place to begin their search and had the highest probability of allowing them to make contact with the Kyrra.

  20 - The Search

  "Entering the target system," the helm announced.

  "Full scan," Ken ordered. After a few seconds, the tactical viewer began to display some information about the star system they were now entering. A total of seven planets had been located, all in a pretty much standard orbital configuration. According to the information obtained from the Hess, the Kyrra had been terraforming the third planet. The star appeared to be a very stable main sequence star near the middle of its expected life.

  "Let's see the third planet," Stricklen said after looking at the data on the rest of the system for awhile.

  The viewscreen shifted and displayed the image of a small world. From this distance, it appeared much like a bluish ball with small white dots at two ends. "We are still too far away to get any detailed readings at this time," the science station officer announced.

  Several hours later, the Komodo Dragon was in a tight orbit around the planet. Several probes had been cruising through the atmosphere and others had been taking soil samples.

  "The planet has obviously been terraformed," Sharon Carter, the ship's science officer addressed the small group that had gathered in the ship's conference room. "There are shallow impact craters where water-bearing asteroids or comets have impacted. This has resulted in the formation of several large bodies of water. However, it appears as if they abandoned the project at least a thousand years ago.

  "The atmosphere currentl
y consists of a combination of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen which is not yet capable of supporting oxygen dependent life. Several varieties of oxygen producing microbes have been found that have been slowly converting the atmosphere into what we currently see. These microbes could never have originated here and must have been part of the terraforming process. There are no higher life forms."

  "Are you sure it's abandoned?" Scarboro asked. "It looks like the atmosphere is coming along just fine. Perhaps they are just waiting."

  "At this point in the terraforming process," El'Narra, one of the Kyrra biologists said, "plant life should have been introduced into the ecological structure. This would have sped up the atmospheric conversion and laid the groundwork for the introduction of more advanced life at a later date. As it sits now, the planet will stabilize in another four or five thousand years but no life higher than a microbe will exist. For some reason, my people have abandoned this terraforming project."

  "Any clues as to where they may have gone? Did they leave any monitoring stations behind?" Ken asked.

  "No to both questions," Sharon replied. "We can see the results of their work but there is no evidence as to who started this process or where they are now."

  "That's strike one," Stricklen said with finality. "Where to next?"

  "I would suggest the storage planetoid," Norgoola finally said. "I have been there several times and therefore I am familiar with it. There should be some indication as to what happened to our people in the planetoid's monitoring system."

  After glancing around the room and seeing approving nods Stricklen announced, "It's settled then. We will set course for the stasis storage planetoid."

  As the meeting broke up and the attendees filed out of the room Stricklen took one last look at the aborted terraforming project. This could have been their new home, he thought. Why did the Kyrra abandon it? Shaking his head, Stricklen left the conference room and headed for the bridge to give the helm their new destination.