Talcon Star City

by Gary Caplan

  After completing his personal log, Sheppard left his office and went down the corridor to the larger tactical planning and briefing room. It was not in use, so he walked over to a secured and shielded viewing portcullis, ordering the computer to lower the room illumination so he could view the stars. He could see part of the aft and starboard sections of the Phoenix as he looked outward, contemplating his plans.

  Like all Alliance of Worlds spaceships, the United Galactic Alliance starship Phoenix was a rhomboid-shaped spacecraft composed of reinforced trans-titanium alloy with multiple enclosed decks. As a Pegasus class battlecruiser, it was over sixteen hundred meters long and a third that at its widest area. There were comfortable crew quarters for over two thousand officers, mission specialists, and support crew. Phoenix had a very large main bridge, including an added task force command section, where Sheppard and Fleet Captain Sherman organized fleet and task force missions. Within the Phoenix there was also a secondary bridge, science and research decks, primary and secondary engineering control areas, and two separate hangar bays for the starfighter attack craft. There were even multipurpose areas for storage of the supplies and recreation areas for a prolonged journey over a few years.

  The sixth fleet, like the other forty-nine fleets in the Alliance of Worlds, had approximately two hundred, fifty capitol ships in its armada. The capitol ships were of several classes, from the largest Galaxy class dreadnaughts, spanning over five thousand meters, down to the smaller Waterway class lightcruisers, which were eight hundred meters long. In between were the Constellation class battlecarriers, which were close to the Galaxy class in size but had more starfighter craft. Next were the battlecruisers, and there were three major types: the Legendary class, the Oceania class, and the Pegasus class. These ships were named after legendary places or things, large planet-bound bodies of water, and flying creatures, respectively. The battlecruisers ranged in size from just over two thousand meters to over sixteen hundred meters in length. The next type, the Heroic class heavy cruisers, was named after heroic or notable citizens or ancient persons of the member worlds. Heroic class ships were usually twelve hundred meters long. The final class of capitol ships was the Waterway class, with ships named after notable waterways and rivers of the member worlds.

  Sheppard continued to look out the observation portcullis. He was dressed in his duty uniform, its embedded sensors sending occasional updates about his health to the medical surveillance database. Likely, now that looking at the stars calmed him, his blood pressure was slightly lower than it had been earlier. The duty uniform of the Alliance of Worlds was unisex and designed so that each section’s uniform jacket was represented by a unique color scheme. White represented line officers and command; blue was for the sciences section; a light green color was designated for the medical division; an orange-red was for the engineering and maintenance section, and yellow-gold was for operations, the general operation of the starship.

  Sheppard’s duty uniform jacket was the bone white of command; the duty shirt, like that of all sections, was dark gray, and the collar area displayed his rank. On his left shoulder was the insignia emblem for command of the sixth fleet. Others wore the emblem of the ship—in this case, the Phoenix. On the right shoulder was the small section patch to represent fleet officer. On his right breast he wore his identification badge, and on his left, the insignia symbol of the Alliance of Worlds. The commlink hand unit or an embedded interlink device could also be used to distinguish an individual by the information chip located in the uniform. The duty shirt showed the rank designation on the collar, and the jacket sleeves were broken by the section color and rank designation near the sleeves’ end. The jacket even had storage pockets. The ship’s duty trousers were charcoal gray, extending to above the ankle, and the duty boots were charcoal black

  Although Robert Sheppard was the acting admiral for the sixth fleet, his fleet command rank was granted as much because of his experience and skill as because of the relatively recent assassinations that occurred on Star One, the Alliance of Worlds Headquarters, which had resulted in the deaths of many senior fleet officers and ministry officials. Sheppard touched the two silvery constellation-like star clusters of an Alliance commodore attached to his uniform’s neck area, which he had received relatively recently, as he thought about his continuing mission to locate threats to the Alliance. He also thought about his recent added mission to make first contact with the other Talcon who had recently entered the Milky Way galaxy, having traveled in hyperspace from their own galaxy.

  CHAPTER 2

  BRIDGE OF

  THE PHOENIX

  On the bridge of the Phoenix, the crew monitored their stations, looked at astrometry data, and kept track of systems and ship operations. Fleet Captain Wilder was in charge of the day-to-day operations for the battlecruiser Phoenix as well as for oversight of Task Force One. Commodore Sheppard was his senior officer and, as an acting admiral, commanded the twenty task forces in the sixth fleet that were now patrolling the coreward part of both the Quellus and Mercan sectors.

  Wilder, like Sheppard, had similar beliefs about bridge crew. To avoid cultural problems in the nerve center of a starship and prevent environmental compatibility issues in crews with temperature, humidity, or atmosphere differences, only species with similar tolerances were usually on the bridge for a particular duty time. The bridge could alter atmosphere and temperature or pressure for the crew; however, if a given crew included individuals with a wide range of differences, the climate suitable for some could be far too hot or cold for others. Thus, duty times were organized to limit such problems.

  “We have been directed to pick up a Talcon officer from the group that helped Alliance explorer St. John,” Captain Wilder announced to the bridge crew. He looked over at the Helm officer. “Lieutenant Commander Darani, I have transmitted coordinates for the rendezvous point to your station; set course and then ready for maximum translight jump.” Lyra Darani was actually an adaptive nonhuman; she was a Quarlusian and was somewhat capable of shape shifting. She had been brought aboard the Phoenix at the request of Commodore Sheppard. Originally, while on Star One, she was in the form of a Kyz, one of the feline-like species and founding members of the Alliance of Worlds.

  “Aye, Sir,” replied Darani, “course set.” She looked at the first officer, who nodded to her to proceed. The hyperspace jump window that the Phoenix was generating showed briefly like a whirlpool of light just before they passed through. A short translation effect occurred, and they were traveling in hyperspace.

  “Are we in a hurry, Sir?” asked Commander York, the first officer of the Phoenix. York was sitting at his station using his interlink to read information. York, a human originally from Mars, was an excellent officer. He was not that far from promotion to the rank of captain. He had athletic, clean-cut, “farm-boy” good looks and dark brown hair.

  “I believe we probably are,” Wilder replied. Wilder sat down at his command console and absentmindedly combed his fingers through his short brown hair as he began to review several starship readiness reports on his terminal.

  “Yes, we are in kind of a hurry; we have an added mission to make first contact with more Talcon arriving in the Milky Way,” acting Commodore Brandon Sherman said. He was Sheppard’s fleet coordinating officer. He had just walked the relatively short distance from his station in the fleet operations command alcove section connected to the bridge and Sheppard’s office.

  “Don’t worry, I will make sure we get to our rendezvous on time,” Wilder added, looking at Sherman. “I’m guessing that Commodore Sheppard wants to greet the Talcon officer personally so that the Phoenix will get the honor of transport duty instead of another starship.”

  “That’s right, Captain” Sherman replied. “In any case, we will probably need an edge, as the Varlon might also be looking for a nonaggression treaty. The Talcon could sign a nonaggression treaty without knowing the sneaky way the Varlon operate and find themselves attacked when the Varlon
are ready. The Talcon emissary we will transport can inform the other Talcon about the Varlon and their Accadian allies.”

  “The Phoenix can cross the galaxy in just under a year,” said York. “Or it used to until we underwent that ‘alteration’ at QB7.” York paused, thinking back on how things had changed after the strange events that resulted in restoring everything in and around QB7. “Now, if all the velocity and maneuvering tests we have been doing are correct, Phoenix can cross the galaxy in six months.”

  “That means we should have no problem with the mission,” Lieutenant Commander Lee Sterling stated. He was working at his station. He was a blond-haired fellow with a Terran background and had traveled to or lived on several of Earth’s colonies.

  “Sir, we still don’t have a precise subsector location as to where the Talcon will exit hyperspace,” said senior security officer Lieutenant Commander Diana Ares, as she glanced up from her security systems checks. Diana Ares was a very attractive woman. She was athletically built, with short blonde hair, lightly tanned skin, and piercing blue eyes. In addition, she was a transhuman originally genetically engineered by a consortium of human and Tyrian scientists.

  “As long as you can get us to this Talcon ‘world ship’ safely and in time, you have done as much as a crew can,” Sherman said, as he turned to go back to the feet operations section, which was essentially a very large alcove with fleet operations interface work stations partially partitioned off to the side of the main bridge. “The rest is not as easily planned.”

  Wilder nodded and smiled. “Once we obtain more precise information regarding where we believe we can find the Talcon,” he said, “astrogation and science sections can work together to give us even more accurate course data.” He looked over at Commander Andor and Commander Taylor. Andor was the task force’s coordinating science officer as well as a member of Class 3000 series artificial intelligence. Andor had silvery skin and appeared generally human. Commodore Sheppard had personally selected him as part of the crew. Sharon Taylor had more recently joined the crew. Alliance forces under Commodore Sheppard had rescued her from QB7, where she was working with a research team before the Varlon arrived. She was blue-eyed with long, sandy blonde hair that she wore up during duty hours, and she just happened to be very pretty as well as brilliant. She looked back at Captain Wilder and smiled. Wilder nodded back in his formal captain’s demeanor.

  Although Fleet Captain Sherman had arranged her transfer, Wilder knew, because he had learned to read people, that she and Commodore Sheppard liked each other. Because of her people skills, she was Task Force One’s scientific liaison officer. Technically, her scientific supervisor was Vice Admiral Garfield, who was the sixth fleet’s science officer, and he had more degrees than Wilder wanted to think about; however, Garfield was presently on Karratin Hegemony business.

  * * *

  Returning to his office, Sheppard looked at the encrypted data that Admiral Pendragon had provided about the hyperspace locations and decided it was time to forward the data to Sherman and copy it to Commander Zachary, the senior helm officer, and to facilitate course calculations. Sheppard had an advanced degree in astrophysics and knew how to navigate, so he was curious to have a brief look at the data.

  Sheppard left his office to go out onto the bridge, something he still liked to do when heading out on a new mission. Previously, he had ordered that his presence not be announced when entering the bridge, since unnecessary announcements disrupted the flow of things on an active bridge. He liked to observe the crew at work. Watching a busy bridge with different species interacting in an orderly manner instilled confidence in him. The bridge was a large, oval structure, with its largest diameter at sixty meters. There were three access points: one was a turbo-lift directly to the bridge from the lower decks, and the other two were from areas of deck one.

  Commodore Sheppard entered the bridge from his command office, walking through the area that had been set up as the task force’s command alcove, where task force or fleet operations and communications with other ships would be organized. There were three stations in the alcove: one for operations and logistics, one for intra-task force and fleet communication, and one for a tactical command station at which he or Fleet Captain Sherman occasionally took a duty turn but which was normally operated by one of the senior task force tactical officers.

  Thinking about his own recent duty, he realized this would be a command for which he would not be responsible for day-to-day operations of the ship as he was previously on the Endeavor as a fleet captain. Sheppard still had an occasional desire to more actively command, but he suppressed his urge to ask status questions of the bridge officers. The bridge of the Phoenix had several occupied stations situated across an arc of the forward part of the main bridge facing the main operational view screen. The bridge was split-level, with an upper deck that occupied about three-quarters of the circumference of the bridge. That upper area consisted of ancillary stations, such as life support, environmental, and weapons control. The ancillary stations all had officers operating them, checking systems, or verifying control status.

  The lower and more central section of the bridge had the navigators’ array, which consisted of a circular, three-dimensional display area where the on-duty navigators worked; there was a helm and astro-navigation control station to the port side of the bridge. There were two command stations—one for the captain, close to the aft portion of the lower deck of the bridge, and the other for the first officer. Each senior officer had duties as well as information to check, crew to oversee, and reports to process.

  There was also a station for the task force liaison officer on the starboard side of the captain’s station and command area. Near the navigation control station was the starfighter command section; this was situated to the starboard side of the captain’s area and behind the main navigation display area. Engineering, security, science, and medical also had data and operations stations on the upper bridge section. As he walked part of the bridge, Sheppard smiled and nodded a hello to Commander Taylor, who was at the science operations station coordinating scientific information between task force starships and helping update the navigators on meteors and solar winds or, presently, on hyperspace conditions.

  Sheppard decided to make an announcement. “May I have your attention?” Sheppard requested. The bridge quieted down. “As you may have heard, we have been diverted by orders from Star One to locate and make further contact with a civilization called the Talcon. They are headed toward the Milky Way, and even now one of their immense colony ships that has been designated a Star City has probably crossed over the edge of our galaxy, heading to some point within. The Talcon that the Alliance explorer Commodore St. John encountered in the nearby Magellanic galaxy are also colonists from the Talcon home galaxy. The Talcon emissaries that came in two ships with St. John evidently left their home region long before this recent group. The Talcon we have talked with called the ships that are coming here Star Cites.” Sheppard paused and looked around. “I have looked at the information, and they are similar to ‘world ships.’ They are even larger than the Varlon’s space installations but much smaller than the Betellian’s multiworld or ‘Dyson spheres.’

  “Headquarters believes the Accad and the Varlon will mobilize to strike the Talcon Star City as it comes out of hyperspace, before their shields and defense fields fully activate and they are most vulnerable. We will be rendezvousing with Commodore St. John onboard the Indefatigable in a few days. One of the Talcon who returned with St. John’s mission to the Magellanic Cloud galaxy will be coming onboard the Phoenix to join us as an officer and a legate or ambassador for his people.” Sheppard paused and looked around the bridge.

  “Sir, we will make whoever that officer is feel welcome aboard the Phoenix,” Wilder said.

  “Sir, I verified that we have staff working on coordinating the hyperspace location information that the Star One astrogation section collected,” Sherman added.

  “Good
, I will be happier once we have a better idea of where to set an intercept course,” Sheppard said. “Oh, later today, establish communication with the Indefatigable to verify the rendezvous time and their translight progress,” Sheppard continued, looking at Wilder.

  “Aye, Sir,” Wilder responded, as Sheppard nodded and left the bridge to head back to his fleet-planning duties. Sheppard sighed as he moved into the fleet operations area and toward the task force locator display; he still liked to give orders on the bridge.

  CHAPTER 3

  THE CREW AND

  THE AFTERMATH OF

  WHAT HAPPENED AT

  QUELLUS

  The Phoenix was about to leave hyperspace near the spatial coordinates for the rendezvous for the transfer of the Talcon representative. Fleet Captain Grey and Commander Zachary were about to leave the bridge their duty shifts completed. Grey occasionally did a command shift to maintain bridge skills, and Zachary, as senior helmsman, would occasionally work as first officer. Zachary was originally from Earth’s Centauri colony. He had blue-green eyes and dark brown hair peppered with some white. Commodore Sheppard had arrived before the end of the duty shift change and was still talking quietly with his friend Doctor Grey, who was finishing his officer log. Grey was a few years older than Sheppard and had silvering dark brown hair. Captain Wilder arrived just after Commander York; the first officer had already taken the Conn from Grey. The Conn was a space navy term referring to the starflight controller’s station.

  There were two twelve-hour duty or work shifts and three eight-hour shifts staggered so that the different shifts overlapped. This allowed different crews to overlap and become more familiar working with each other. It was Sheppard’s policy to allow some overlap to allow crew sections to become familiar with one another’s abilities and strengths. Commodore Sheppard tended to work with alternating groups and eventually got to know all of the bridge crew, since even he took a rare occasional turn at the Conn—even though he did not have to do so as the acting admiral. Wilder also worked more often than not in the Captain’s office, since his duty occasionally had him working remotely with a few other less senior captains in his task group. Technically, he was the fleet captain for Task Force One and oversaw eleven ships in addition to the Phoenix.