Steele's Demon Star

by Dietmar Wehr

  “They have to have a new long-range detection system, Admiral,” said Molitor, “They’re far enough apart that data from recon drones would have reached one of them before the other by at least a minute. Their reaction time should have reflected that, but it doesn’t.”

  “That makes sense, but I don’t understand where they’re going,” said Scheer. He turned to his FHO. “Has NavComp figured out what they’re up to?”

  “There is a possibility that they’re heading for the wormhole that’s being monitored by their cruiser Vanquisher, Admiral. Those three ships already have too much velocity to cut across this side of the sun, but if they make a high-speed flyby around the other side, they can still get to Vanquisher before we can. The single ship has a clear path to there.”

  “Show me the trajectory that would get us to that wormhole the quickest,” ordered Scheer. A new, dotted line appeared that curved around the sun. Scheer looked at it closely to try to understand the tactical nuances involved. His curve and Hara’s flyby path were sufficiently different that there was no chance of bringing her three ships within missile range along the way. Her projected path curved down slightly from above while his curved up slightly from below. Before he could say anything, Molitor cleared his threat. Scheer looked at him with a questioning expression.

  “If we follow this projected path, we’ll lose passive coverage from most of our Black Knights,” said Molitor. “Given how badly we outnumber Admiral Hara’s command, does it really matter if we take some time to either recover our drones or let them move closer to that wormhole to make sure there are no other surprises, Admiral?”

  Scheer’s eyes opened wide at the mention of other surprises. The possibility that Admiral Hara might have other stealthy ships situated somewhere in the system that were very likely on their way to the rendezvous too was something that he hadn’t considered.

  “If we let the Knights get closer first, then we can stay on this side of this sun and maybe keep Admiral Hara guessing as to our next move,” said Scheer. Molitor nodded. Scheer turned to his FTO to issue the new drone orders.

  Hara heard the status change ping and whispered, “What’s he doing now?” It wasn’t immediately obvious what Sierra2 or Sierra3, as the two-ship group was now designated, were doing except that they were now decelerating and changing vectors. Hara looked at Roark. He gave an apologetic shrug.

  “My best guess is that Sierra3 is rejoining Sierra2 and that Sierra2 will eventually head for the black hole wormhole. If they can detect us, they’ve probably figured out that’s where we’re headed, Admiral.”

  Hara turned back to the display and imagined how it would look to Sierra2’s Commander when her seven ships were holding position at that wormhole. What would I do in his place? I’d stand off at maximum radar range and bombard the enemy’s ships with missiles until they begged to surrender or were destroyed. How do I prevent that while continuing to wait for Mac’s ship? She thought about that for a while and then smiled. Yes. That just might work.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Steele was finished drafting his report to Admiral DeChastelain when he heard the buzzer of an internal call.

  “Steele here.”

  “It’s Sanchez, Skipper. Could you come to the Bridge? There’s something that I think you need to see.”

  Steele hesitated before answering. The ship was in the wormhole on its way back to AG38. What could there possibly be that he needed to see?

  “Is it something external, Lieutenant?”

  “No, sir. It’s something that the Bravo drone’s external opticals picked up. It saw something orbiting the black hole that shouldn’t be there.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  When he entered the Bridge, he noticed that the main display was showing a starfield instead of the usual psychedelic pattern of colors that surrounded a ship moving through a wormhole. Sanchez was looking at him as he stood beside the Helm Station. Ortega had the Helm duty and was also looking at Steele.

  “Okay, Lieutenant, show me what shouldn’t be orbiting that black hole,” said Steele.

  “Yes, Skipper,” said Sanchez. He turned to Ortega and nodded.

  The starfield reformed itself and at first, Steele couldn’t tell what he was supposed to be seeing, but as he looked closer, he could see something small and dark moving across the star-filled background.

  “Okay. What is it?” he asked.

  Sanchez and Ortega looked at each other before turning to him. “We think it’s a ship, Skipper.”

  Steele was stunned but was more than a bit skeptical. “Why is it a ship and not a planetoid or something natural?” He was looking at Sanchez, but it was Ortega who answered that question.

  “AstroComp has calculated the odds of a natural object being drawn into a stable orbit around a black hole at over a hundred billion to one, Captain. That’s one reason. The other reason is its shape. I’ll reset the image with maximum zoom and computer enhancement.”

  The dark object became much larger with a computer-generated outline that filled in the gaps where the black background was behind the object. The shape was long, narrow with straight lines and sharp corners. It did look like a ship, although not one that was familiar to Steele and that implied it was not a human ship. He was reluctant to accept that conclusion.

  “It could be a rocky fragment of something larger that broke up. I’ve seen asteroids that have straight lines and jagged edges.”

  “Wait until you see this, Captain. I’m resuming playback.”

  The object started moving against the background stars, and as Steele continued to watch, there was a tiny flash of yellow light from one part of it. The image froze again.

  “That object is slowly rotating around its long axis,” said Ortega. “What we just witnessed was a momentary reflection of light when that object’s hull was angled in the precise way to send the reflected light back to the drone. The drone’s opticals are capable of spectral analysis. The spectral data show’s metal alloys, not rock, Captain. It’s a ship.”

  “My God,” whispered Steele. He thought for a moment then said. “Let me guess what you’re about to tell me next. The spectral data doesn’t match any known hull data for human ships.”

  This time Sanchez answered. “That’s correct, Skipper. It’s similar. We’re not talking about some completely unknown metal but nobody that we know of builds ships with that combination of metal alloys.”

  The implications of this were starting to trickle down into Steele’s awareness. No active alien race had been discovered so far in human space exploration. Extremely ancient and by all accounts, primitive alien ruins had been found on a planet but nothing technological. A race that could build FTL ships was also a race that could be a potential threat to all of humanity. If they could detect wormholes, which seemed likely, then they could find wormhole connections that take them right into the heart of human space. The K had discovered a wormhole leading to another super-giant star that was already in their database from another wormhole leading to the New Troy super-giant. That meant another path to the black hole that was not near the Kingdom of Socorro. That was the big news, or at least had been the big news he was going to report to the HRCN. This discovery had now become more significant news.

  “Did the Bravo detect any signs that this ship became aware of either the drone’s presence or the K’s?” asked Steele.

  “No, Skipper,” said Sanchez. “That’s what’s so peculiar about this alien ship, aside from the fact that it is an alien ship, that is. As far as we can tell, it didn’t maneuver at all. It kept a constant velocity, and the bearing was consistent with a ballistic orbit around the black hole. Ortega and I are wondering if it might be a derelict.”

  “But how could that be?” asked Steele. “If they got to that system by wormhole, then why wouldn’t they be able to leave the same way?”

  Ortega answered that question. “We can think of two possibilities, both of which are admittedly remote. It could be cr
ippled from combat damage, or they may have accidentally stumbled across a wormhole that brought them to the black hole and weren’t able to find it again due to the lack of in-system reference points. Essentially they got lost.”

  “Combat damage. Christ! That’s all we need. Not one but two alien races fighting each other within one wormhole connection of human space,” said Steele. “But if it’s the other explanation, then this ship could have been orbiting the black hole for a long time. If the crew ran out of food and died, that would explain why the ship didn’t appear to notice us.”

  Both Sanchez and Ortega nodded but said nothing. Steele remembered that the ship was close to emerging into the AG38 system and checked the countdown timer. Slightly less than 55 minutes to go. He considered going back to his quarters and drastically rewriting his report but decided to stay on the Bridge. The report could wait.

  Scheer nodded his approval as the tactical display updated with Black Knight data. Sending one of the drones in a wide arc behind the location where the heavy cruiser Vanquisher had been sitting for so long, had told him precisely what Admiral Hara was up to. His fleet was now within radar range, and yet the radar was not showing anything at all, but the drone’s opticals were showing the silhouettes of seven ships outlined against the blue super-giant. It was obvious what Hara had done. By moving her ships behind the wormhole, she was using it to hide her squadron from his radar, probably hoping to ambush whatever ships he chose to leave behind while he secured the rest of the system’s wormholes. A very clever strategy that would have worked had he not used his drones so effectively. Firing missiles at her ships now were pointless. They would just fall into the wormhole and disappear. It also meant they couldn’t fire missiles at his ships either. That left only one option. Close to point blank laser range and fire at them as soon as the wormhole was no longer in the way. He was just about to give the necessary orders when the holographic display pinged, and a red icon appeared near where Vanquisher had been. But this ship was not Vanquisher or a heavy cruiser or a battlecruiser. Its transponder ID identified it as the Diamond K which wasn’t in his ship’s database.

  “It’s a wormhole exploration ship,” ventured Johansen. “And it’s just emerged from the wormhole!”

  Scheer couldn’t believe his luck. He looked over at Molitor whose expression was also one of pleasant surprise. If they could capture that ship more or less intact and vacuum every bit of data from its computers, that would be a nice windfall to present to the King! But first things first.

  “Where the hell is everyone?” said a clearly annoyed Steele. Vanquisher was nowhere in sight, and there were no transponder IDs anywhere else in the system. Even the wormhole marker buoys were silent. Had Hara withdrawn all the ships and left the K behind? He couldn’t see her doing that without a damn good reason.

  “Incoming comlaser!” said a suddenly excited Com Officer. “It’s coming from the other side of the wormhole, and it’s from Relentless!” The officer switched the incoming audio message to the Bridge’s loudspeakers. The transmission had been distorted by passing through the wormhole, but it was understandable.

  “Mac, this is Admiral Hara. There are twel...SN battlecruisers approaching your position. They have too much overtake for the…mond K to get away by acceler... Your only chan…is to go back through…wormhole and stay there until I…d a ship to get you. If you don’t hea…om me in a week, use FTL to get…to Caledonia. Over.”

  Steele snapped his fingers to get the Com Officer’s attention.

  “Ready to record, Captain,”

  “Admiral Hara, this is Captain Steele and boy do I have news for you…”

  Scheer watched hungrily as his fleet accelerated towards the Diamond K’s position. She wasn’t scanning with radar for some reason, and that was fine with him. If she tried to run, he’d order missile fire but preferred to get within laser range so that she could be disabled without causing excessive damage. The display pinged again, and he stared in disbelief as the red icon disappeared.

  “They didn’t turn their transponder off, Admiral,” said Johansen. If they had done that, it would have stopped instantly, but what we’ve picked up is a rapid and extreme Doppler effect lasting a second and a half. That ship just re-entered the wormhole.”

  “They detected our radar and panicked,” said Molitor.

  Scheer chuckled as he imagined the Diamond K’s Captain realizing that 12 unknown ships were bearing down on him. “Understandable, I guess. After we take care of Admiral Hara’s squadron, I may send a ship through the wormhole after him. What’s our stat—” He stopped in mid-word as the display pinged again and all seven remaining red icons also disappeared. Scheer turned quickly to look at Johansen.

  “The drone has lost visual sighting of all seven ships, Admiral, and they didn’t accelerate away. I’m looking at the transmitted recording now. They must have entered the wormhole too.” Before Scheer could respond, Molitor jumped up from his station with an excited expression on his face.

  “Admiral! We’ve got them now! They can’t have built up a lot of velocity when they entered that wormhole! That means it’ll take them a long time to emerge from the other side! If we take the entire fleet into the wormhole at a much higher velocity, we’ll get to the other side first, and we’ll ambush them when they emerge!”

  Scheer looked at his Flag Helm Officer for confirmation and saw him nod. “Very well. We’ll continue acceleration. Let’s make sure we hit the wormhole bullseye, FHO.”

  “Yes, SIR!” said the now equally excited officer.

  Hara was standing beside the Flag Helm Station when Relentless and the rest of her squadron emerged from the wormhole into the black hole system. Her seven ships immediately began to shift acceleration into reverse. A green icon with the Diamond K’s ID appeared on the display as did a smaller icon representing the Bravo drone that Mac had left behind as a marker buoy. She held her breath for a few seconds until it became evident that there were no RSN battlecruisers anywhere in the system.

  “Incoming visual channel from Diamond K,” said the Flag Com Officer. Mac’s grinning face appeared on the main display.

  “Hello, Admiral Hara. Welcome to my black hole.” Steele laughed and Hara joined him.

  “Have you named it after yourself, Mac?”

  “No, but that’s an intriguing thought. I have good news. The Bravo drone I left behind recorded the emergence of 12 large ships approximately thirteen and a third hours ago. They were moving at high speed, and the drone tracked their plunge into the black hole. NavComp confirmed that there was no way they could have decelerated fast enough to avoid the point of no return. By the way, Admiral, does the long-range detection system pick up that orbiting derelict?”

  Hara checked the tactical display. “As a matter of fact, it does. I also see the other Bravo drone you left as a buoy at the wormhole leading indirectly back to AG47. Congratulations on that discovery.” She paused. “Someone’s going to have to investigate that derelict. The K is the obvious choice. Now that those battlecruisers are gone, I should take some ships back to AG38. Are you up for checking out that alien ship, Mac?”

  “I was hoping to get that chance, Admiral, but I’m going to need one of your ships with long-range detection gear to find it. Can you spare one?”

  “Yes, I think I can do that. You can have Vanquisher. When you’re finished your investigation, send her back to AG38 while you go back to Caledonia via the alternate route. That way you can brief DeChastelain on what happened here so that I don’t need to deplete my squadron even more by sending another cruiser back.”

  “I’d be happy to do that. Maybe my crew will get some decent R&R as a reward too. If you want to minimize transit time going back to AG38, I suggest that your ships move further away from the black hole and approach the wormhole from behind.”

  “Very good, Mac. I wish I were going with you to look at that ship. Somehow you get all the fun.” They both laughed. When the conversation was over, Steele made
sure that Relentless had all the data his people had gathered during their month-long survey of this system including the locations of the three other wormholes the ship and the roving drone had detected. By agreement with the Admiral, Steele kept the Diamond K nearby until her squadron was safely on their way back to AG38. Vanquisher then took the lead to where her long-range system said the derelict was.

  Getting close to it wasn’t a problem but staying close was. The alien derelict was a lot smaller than the Diamond K and was even smaller than Vanquisher. It’s relatively small mass, and distance from the black hole meant it was traveling slower than what either Vanquisher or Diamond K would have needed to maintain a stable orbit just with their own momentum. If they tried to match velocities without using their EG drives, the black hole would have pulled their more massive hulls down. But using their EG drives to offset some of the black hole’s pull would require that both ships stand off from the derelict by almost a hundred kilometers in order not to disturb the derelict’s orbit.