Warner laughed. He loved that look and he loved winding her up to get it. “She is a bit of a stunner. I’ve always been partial for that blond Swedish look.”
Rihan gave him a disapproving look. She knew he was goading her but she couldn’t help herself. “Dave, you’re spoken for and if I find you handling any other merchandise you’ll be history. Got it, Mister?”
Warner decided to ease off. He leaned over and ran his fingers through her hair. “I got it. This is the only merchandise I’ll be handling.” She looked intensely into his eyes. They kissed. When they parted she was beaming. He loved that look too.
“I see you’ve got yourself a new aide. He looks pretty buff” said Warner winding her up again.
“He’s just a boy. You don’t need to worry there. I want a real man” and she stole another kiss.
With his ego being flattered and kisses planted on him Dave Warner was a contented man. But Rihan burst that bubble pretty quickly. “Come on. You gotta go. I have work to do. Oh, what time are you getting in?”
“Even if we setup only one of the arrays we probably won’t get back till late. What about you?”
“Same!” and she gave a disappointed shrug of her shoulders.
He blew her a kiss and left.
Chapter 8. Klaster Belt 1500, 21 May.
Ella Apell had the watch and Warner was watching her control the ship as they approached Klaster 203, one of the larger asteroids on the fringe of the belt. It was only a fraction of the size of Klaster but it had a small gravity well. Warner had chosen it for that reason, because it was so far out and because it was large enough for a frigate to decloak undetected.
Ella gave instructions for the pilot to manoeuvre the ship to the far side. This was a tricky manoeuvre for the pilot, given the proximity of rocks in this sector. Normally space ships avoided high density belts like this but Warner wanted to see how Ella handled the instructions.
Ella was all focus. She knew that everyone on board was sizing her up and down right now, not just the Captain, which was nerve-wracking enough. She was looking at the central display with its 3D map of the belt. She had turned on the avoidance overlay, which placed a 3D buffer zone around each object. Superimposed over this was the ship and its intended path. She had to ensure that this didn’t get too close.
She was managing it well thought Warner. She didn’t ride the pilot. So she wasn’t a control freak like some. They didn’t last. She only queried him once as she saw the trajectory path go very close to one of the object’s buffer zones. The pilot was concentrating hard. Ella didn’t raise her voice or quicken the tempo. There was no hint of rebuke yet she conveyed that she was calling the shots. Warner liked that.
Ella gave instructions for the pilot to hold 30kms out and ordered the tech team in the warthog to launch and deploy the array, which they did. One hour later they were on their way back after the initial run up and test proved positive.
She handled all this with a steady and focussed manner. Warner noticed that most in the command centre were no longer watching her. That was a good sign. Her voice was now all they were listening for and this is how it should be.
After manoeuvring out of the thickest part of the belt they ran another test with the sensor.
“Interference on sensor channel 1” reported Ivan Kiralenko, who was supervising the sensor deployment and management. “Switching to channel 2”.
Ella came over to Kiralenko’s terminal and stood a little way off so as not to intimidate or get in his way. From there she could see his display with the various sensor spectrums. It was clear that they were getting significant interference across the board. Kiralenko was switching to the third channel. She let him proceed.
“Interference on all sensor channels” Ivan reported. “Running diagnostics. Running interference scanners.” A few seconds later he announced “Bingo. We have an external interference. It’s coming from the near side of Klaster 203.”
This had everyone’s attention now, especially Warner’s. It could just be some conglomerate of metals or radioactive substance that was doing the interference but Warner was alert to another more sinister possibility. He was about to take over, but thought better of it. He looked to Ella, who was looking to him. He simply sat back in his chair and nodded to her.
She appreciated the vote of confidence. “Pilot turn around and vector to within 30kms of the near side of K203. Tech team to Dock. Whisky 1 prepare for launch and deployment to nearside K203. Mr Kiralenko would you like to take a closer look?”
Ivan looked up to her and smiled. “I’m on my way” he said.
That was a nice touch thought Warner. She had won over Ivan already.
“Oh and Mr Kiralenko do not disturb or disrupt anything that you find down there.”
“Understood.”
And that showed she was awake to the same possibility. Very good thought Warner.
Twenty minutes later, Kiralenko was directing his suit camera at the source of the interference. It definitely was not natural. Something had made it. Not human, nor Gelk but some other intelligent life form. “Are you getting these?” asked Ivan.
“Roger that” said Ella. “How close are you?”
“About a hundred metres. I thought it best not to go any closer till we know if it can detect us. I’ve got one of the team to start a little experiment.”
“What do you have in mind?” asked Ella.
“It’s very sophisticated. We start throwing rocks towards it and see if the wavelengths change on its emissions.”
“Yes, state of the art I see” quipped Ella.
“Here goes” said Ivan. “No change at 80….Not sure if that’s 60m but pretty close. Anyway no change either. We’re going to move closer.”
“Roger.”
“Alright conducting state of the art test three at 40m….No change….and at 20m….No change. Moving in.”
“Be careful Kiralenko. Check for mines.”
“Roger. Checking. Looks clean. Moving to 20m.”
“Testing for 10….No change. Moving to 10.”
“Can you zoom in from there?” asked Ella. “It’s certainly different from our stuff. What do you make of that dome on top?”
“Probably some form of radar or it could be a spectrum analyser. We’d need to pull it apart to find out or have one of their salesmen give a presentation” quipped Ivan.
“No calling cards there?” joined in Ella.
“’Fraid not. But I’d like to run some scans from here. Don’t worry they won’t interfere or disturb the device.”
“OK, go ahead.”
Warner came over to Ella and quietly said to her “Well done XO. Get the team back here within the hour. We need to relay what we’ve found here to Fleet HQ asap.”
Chapter 9. Shangri La 2100, 21 May.
Warner and Rihan climbed the stairs to their suite. They were both tired. They had eaten separately, Warner on board the Hermes and Rihan at her desk. “Spa?” said Rihan.
“Sounds great” said Warner.
Ten minutes later they were lying in the spa, the jets pummelling their limbs and the bubbles frothing over their bodies. Rihan was massaging Warner’s foot. He was loving it. “Oh I almost forgot. We found an alien sensor this afternoon.”
“You what?” said Rihan. “Now you tell me?”
“Hey, don’t stop!”
Rihan continued her massaging. “Where? What did it look like? Do you reckon it’s been there long? Did you bring it back? Oh, no you wouldn’t do that. So what did you do?”
Warner just pretended he was asleep. Finally, Rihan leaned forward and started rubbing his thigh toward his groin. That got his attention. “OK, OK. We went out to K203 and set up our sensor array. On the way back when we tested it we got interference. It was traced back to the near side and Ivan and the tech team went down and discovered this alien device. Nothing like we would make and not Gelk tech either.”
“So we have to assume that they know about our build up
here?”
“Yeh, I’d say so. It’s a bit hard to miss a base force in orbit.”
“So they could decide that the gig is up and come sooner than any announced summit?”
“Yes that’s a distinct possibility. I was thinking about this on the way back this evening. If they are based say two weeks away, then they could be here in two weeks, a whole week before the second summit and when we were originally planning to be ready.”
“But they may be even closer. We didn’t detect any ship setting up that sensor of theirs. They must have a much better cloaking tech than we have. If so, they could be a lot closer than we think.”
“Maybe, but I doubt they could mask a warp jump by a large force and we know that we can detect these out to two weeks jump distance.”
“But what if they also can warp faster? Then they could be further away beyond our detectors, jump in fast and by the time we pick them up and guestimate their arrival they’re here.”
“Hmmm” wondered Warner. “You’re right. Shit. If they can warp twice as fast as we can then they could be here in less than a week. My God! We’ll be on our own then for….far too long.” Warner started to get out of the spa but Rihan held onto his foot.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I have to get a signal to the Commodore in Niku fast. He needs to hurry the Alliance on with the Wasp Group and then a signal to Fleet to have them start deploying the Enterprise and Arc Royal Groups.”
But Rihan held on. She stuck her foot into his lap. “My turn I believe. I think it can wait ten minutes.”
Warner looked at her but could see she wasn’t going to budge. He slumped back and grabbed her foot. Then he bit her big toe lightly, dropped her foot, crawled over on top of her and whispered into her ear “We’d better be quick then!”
An hour later Pious was not a happy-chappie when Reina knocked on his cabin aboard the Washington. He had left specific instructions not to be disturbed, so this had better be important. Reina Suzuki though was not going to disappoint her new Captain. She persuaded Pious to read the message. It explained the situation, Warner’s assessment of likely enemy intentions and the need for the Wasp Group to move up fast. After a minute’s thought, Pious responded “Please signal Captain Warner that I will raise the matter with Packer tomorrow. Oh, and Commander, I expect to finish tomorrow earlier than planned. Make sure you are ready to return to Klaster as soon as I am back on board.”
“Certainly Sir.” Reina noted the concern on the Commodore’s face. They were heading back to danger.
Shortly afterwards Herb Debeck was receiving instructions from Warner to leave the setup of the new radar on Alpha Phi to the Alliance personnel and return pronto. Warner hadn’t given any explanation but he sensed it was serious. The atmosphere overall was getting more deadly. Danger was imminent and Herb knew it. He could feel it in his bones.
In a day’s time Warner knew that Admiral Phil Yomoto would be reading his signal. If the Fleet Board concurred, then he too would be cutting short arrangements across the Fleet. Commanders of dozens of ships from numerous planets would be getting new orders, leave would be cancelled, maintenance deferred, provisions taken on and ships readied for battle and all would know that something big was underway.
Warner crawled into bed, careful not to disturb his sleeping partner. He rolled onto his back, looked out into the window on the universe and asked his Guru for the courage he would soon need, the clarity of mind he needed now and the flow of grace that had yet to stop.
Chapter 10. Shangri La 0700, 22 May.
Warner had risen early and had already meditated. There was so much to do and he knew exactly what. He smiled across the kitchen table at Rihan.
She was still yawning in her robe. “How do you do that?” she asked.
“What?”
“Look so….alert. It’s indecent you know.”
“Ah you’re just jealous. You should try meditating, seriously.”
“I’d give it a go if I didn’t have to lose half an hour’s sleep.”
“Half an hour’s meditation is worth an hour’s sleep.”
“Sure. I just reckon you’re one of those hyperactive types.”
“Well only in the spa” and he gave her a cheeky smile.
“How’d you go last night? What did the Commodore say?”
“He’ll be asking for the Wasp deployment to be sped up and getting back here pronto. Same with the Sydney. As soon as they get back I’ll start deploying CAP (Combat Air Patrol with one frigate aloft all the time. Won’t know for sure about Fleet HQ for another two days.”
“I’d better light a fire under the deployments of those batteries. I’m going to deploy half along the ridge near the Pulton 1 main entrance and the other half around the facility.”
“Good idea. Just make sure that Hussain ties their arcs in for mutual support.”
“Shit. He’s going to be pretty exposed up top. Isn’t he?”
“Yeh, but there’s nothing for it in the short term. It’ll take some effort to setup a remote command centre for them down in the mine complex, although you might be able to piggy back on the mine systems.”
“Another good idea. You’re really full of them this morning. Aren’t you?” and she gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’ve got to get ready.”
While he waited for Rihan he hailed “Ella?”
“Yes Sir. Good morning.”
“Yes it is. But it’s going to be a busy one. Get the Hermes ready for launch in one hour. Ask Ivan to make ready two more sensor arrays. We’ll be deploying them today and doing a sweep of the belt for other enemy sensors.”
“Roger that.”
“I’ll be there in 30 minutes.”
Chapter 11. Hermes 1600, 22 May.
They had deployed the other two sensors and were on their way back to K203. Warner wanted to check on the one they setup yesterday and to take a look at the alien sensor. Parinya dropped Warner, Kiralenko and one of his tech team onto the asteroid. They approached the alien sensor system.
“It’s over there Sir” said Ivan.
“It’s pretty small isn’t it?”
“Compared to ours it is.”
On board the Hermes Sgt Crystal Wong’s attention was grabbed by the warped in detector alarm on her terminal. “Inbound warp detected. Range 3,000 Bearing 242 by 36. Not friendly, repeat not friendly.”
It was the latter which paralysed everyone in the command centre.
“What is it?” cried out Ella.
“Unknown type. Small ship. Active radar sweep detected.”
“Assume hostile” called out Ella. “Whisky 1. Assumed hostile detected 3,000 km away. Advise Sunray we are engaging.”
“Runners 1, 2 and 3 launched from bogey 1.”
“Missiles engage runners 1,2 and 3, Default 2 for 1. Main batteries 1 and 2 engage bogey 1. Missiles engage bogey 1.”
The main batteries started firing almost immediately. Then came “missiles away.”
In the meantime Parinya hailed Warner and relayed the message. Warner knew that his team down on the deck was vulnerable, but had probably not been detected. His options were to stay put and wait out the encounter or to bug out now. Bugging out now would probably mean detection and at this short range that probably meant death. So he opted to stay put.
“Whisky 1 go active cloak and stay put. Do not engage” ordered Warner.
“Affirmative.”
Warner now had to sit tight and pray his new XO could deal with the enemy. To Ivan, Warner said “Looks like your sophisticated avoidance measures yesterday didn’t pay off.”
“No, looks that way. Maybe they had some smarts that delayed the warning transmission or they have some completely new way of communicating. If it’s the former, then this ship could not have been that far away. The message has got back to them and they have got here in just over 25 hours. Normal comms to our closest planet, Alpha Phi, are going to take a few hours.”
“Yes you’re
right.” Warner was trying to juggle the factors in his mind while at the same time worrying about the battle raging above.
“Bogey 1 powering up for warp” reported Crystal from her terminal in the command centre.
Ella knew they would have less than a minute to stop them.
“Runners 4 to 7 from bogey 1, targeting our missiles 7 and 8” chimed in Crystal. Runners 1, 2 and 3 destroyed.”
Ella was praying that her missiles 7 and 8 could strike before the bogey warped. It should only be a matter of seconds.
“Missile 7 destroyed. 8’s a hit” cried out Crystal.
“Yes!” stamped Ella.
“Bogey’s warped away.”
“Damm” said Ella. But she was pleased to have stung them nonetheless. “Well done Sgt Wong. Well done everyone. Whisky 1 patch through to Sunray?”
“This is Sunray.”
“Sir we scored one missile hit against what we think was an enemy scouting corvette. It warped away and we are unharmed.”
A relieved Warner replied “Very good. I think it’s time we pulled in this enemy sensor. We’ll RTB as soon as that’s done.”
“Roger Sir.”
An hour later Warner walked into the command centre of the Hermes. All there looked pleased. That was a good sign. Ella briefed him on the engagement. He asked for a full analysis of the data they had received on the enemy ship. That was being prepared.
“Did we detect any communications from the enemy ship? “ asked Warner.
“Yes Sir, a brief transmission, undecipherable.”
“Any reports from our sensors about the likely location the enemy warped from and to?”
“Yes. But it doesn’t make any sense. It looks like both the ‘to’ and ‘from’ warp vectors run through the Dordallous cloud.”
“Just because we may think it suicide to attempt such a warp doesn’t mean it’s impossible for them.”
“No Sir.”
“If we assume they can and project that vector what systems or objects lie along it?”
The Awakening: Book 1 of Warner's World Page 24
