“I’ve recorded a message in the Iron Fire computer memory; it should be on top of the list, encrypted.”
“I got it.”
“Send a probe to where our ships went. Somehow I don’t think we have time to swing by to pick them up and, since meeting Ryonna, I don’t think we should try to enlist the help of Droxia. This encrypted message tells them of our plans. Launch the probe and set a course for home at maximum speed.”
A few moments later, the Iron Fire entered hyperspace.
21
Daniel sprinted onto the bridge. The red alert had sounded only moments ago.
“What is it, Captain?”
“Long-range sensors have detected a huge fleet of ships.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“You and me both.”
“How many ships is it?” he asked.
“At least fifteen battleships and their escorts.”
Daniel froze. “That is quite the armada.”
“Have the smart mines been deployed?”
“Yes, but they might need to be moved depending on where the fleet ends their jump. Let’s hope they observe standard operating procedure and come out of hyperspace at the edge of the system. If they jump too close to Earth, we might not be able to use them.”
“What’s the status of the defense platforms? How many are operational?”
“Three are operational and a fourth could be rushed into operation within a few hours, but it likely won’t have shields.”
“Any news on Chase?”
The captain hung his head. “Nothing yet.”
“Let’s hope he doesn’t arrive too late and that he brings reinforcements with him…or this is going to be a short fight. How long until the enemy fleet arrives?”
“About five, maybe six hours.”
Daniel nodded. “Have you contacted the military readiness team on Earth?”
“Not yet, but I will do so shortly. There’s a good chance they’ll have to fend off attacks within the atmosphere. Fortunately, they have thousands of aircraft on stand-by.”
“But how many of those are actually using new weaponry?”
“Less than five percent.”
Daniel cursed. “That’s not going to cut it.”
“Daniel, it will have to.”
He nodded reluctantly. “What about the F-140s?”
“We’ve managed to have three squadrons ready, but it’s a gamble. We couldn’t equip them with much quadrinium; if this battle lasts more than a few hours, we’ll run out of fuel for the fighters and, a few hours after that, all other ships and defense systems.”
“We knew it would be tight energy wise. We’ll just have to make sure the fight is fast and decisive. What about reloading if Chase brings quadrinium back with him?”
“We have four cargo ships on the other side of the planet; they would act as refueling ships, but that’s going to be tricky in the middle of a battle.”
“Boy, so many parameters, so little margin for error.”
“There’s almost no margin for error, I’m afraid.”
“Has Research and Development on Earth managed to find some way to convert their weaponry with our technology? They’ve had access to our database for weeks now.”
“They’re working on it day and night, the leading minds on the planet and a few of our engineers, the ones we could spare anyway. Most of them were supervising the activation of the planetary defense satellites, the smart mines, and the F-140s as well.”
“So in short, no.”
“There just hasn’t been enough time. Are your squadrons ready?”
“As ready as they can be. We’ve analyzed all the tactical data from the last battle, and trained accordingly. We should be more efficient this time around.”
“We’ll need to be. Very well, Commander, good work.”
“Yes, Captain, I’m going to make my final briefing.”
“Try to find inspiring words; the men must be on edge.”
“Aren’t we all?”
In Research and Development Station 8, in Geneva, Switzerland, Chief Engineer Boralis came out of the conference room and joined his team, waiting on pins and needles to know what the last minute call was about.
The second he emerged, one of the engineers asked, “Sir, what’s the news?”
“A fleet of ships has been detected by the Destiny’s long-range sensors, about fifteen battleships and escorts.”
The men looked around at each other.
“Then we’re all dead.”
“I will have none of that, Frank!” the chief reprimanded.
“I’m sorry, sir…but what can we do against such firepower? And what if this is only the first wave? What if there are more ships?”
“We don’t know any of that, so let’s focus on what we do know. In about three hours, the Earth Alliance will be fighting for the survival of our race. So we at least have that much time. Where are we on Project Sixteen?”
“We have neither the materials nor the energy requirements to make it work. If we had more quadrinium, much more, then we could have it working in the next few days.”
“Days won’t cut it. This fight will, and must, last hours. What other projects are near to completion? Anyone?”
The men looked around but came up blank. “There’s just nothing, sir.”
“Where is Cedric?”
This was a meeting of their top minds, but the top mind was missing.
“We haven’t seen him in a couple of days,” Frank answered.
“What do you mean, you haven’t seen him?”
“He spends most of his time working from home.”
“On whose authority?” the chief demanded.
“I don’t know, sir. He usually joins us via video conference during meetings, but he hasn’t for two days now.”
The chief shook his head in exasperation. “Alright, Frank, go get him.”
“But...?”
“But what? By your own admission we have nothing to show for weeks of work, and nothing readily usable in the next three hours. So do you have anything better to do?”
“No, sir, I’ll bring him in.”
“Everyone else, keep working!” the chief yelled before he returned to his office and slammed the door behind him.
He was still fuming a few minutes later when he received a video transmission on his personal computer. It was from an engineer from the Destiny who was now working in Station 4, in Greece.
“What can I do for you, Adonis?” he answered quickly.
“Chief, we may have something, but we need your best computer guy.”
The chief exhaled deeply. “He’s not in the office.”
Adonis paused. “Get him, then.”
“That’s already being taken care of. What do you have?”
“I know it’s going to sound farfetched but, since it was clear my team wasn’t coming up with anything of use, for the last few weeks I’ve been looking at inventions throughout Earth’s history.”
“And?”
“Well, I’m thinking about teleportation…”
“Teleportation?”
“Yeah, only one problem, a big one.”
The chief couldn’t help but laugh. “Just one? Enlighten me.”
“We need immense computing capabilities.”
“I thought the Destiny had a super-computer that put our puny computers to shame.”
“Pete, you know I don’t enjoy sarcasm.”
“Sorry, I just meant, isn’t the Destiny’s computer powerful enough?”
“Actually, not by a long shot. Not only is the computation power required for this absolutely astronomical, but we also lack sufficient storage.”
“I didn’t know we’d even approached teleportation on Earth; how did you come up with that?”
“Well there’s been research about teleporting a photon, an electron, and an atom, but some of the latest theories about quantum entanglement got me thinking. If we could interface this theory and ap
ply it to the material generation we use to achieve in our food synthesizers, I think we could theoretically teleport objects.”
“And that helps us how?”
“Well, if we could beam a nuke directly inside an enemy ship, I think that would give us a distinctive advantage, don’t you?”
The chief blinked in surprise and then smiled. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
There was a pause on the other line. “Do I have to answer? Or was that rhetorical?”
“It was. Sorry.” The chief chuckled. “But the enemy fleet will be here in under three hours; can it be achieved in such little time?”
“Not a chance, but I’m hoping in under six or seven if all the other stations drop everything and pool their resources to work on this. There’s only one problem…”
“The power and storage and the need for my geeky yet not-on-task computer genius?”
“Besides all that… Let’s say we manage to find the computing and storage needs. What if we teleport a nuke into one of our own ships; or worse, what if it detonates in our own atmosphere upon trying? I mean, for something that huge, we need weeks of testing.”
The chief shook his head. “Weeks we don’t have. You know what, let’s just throw caution to the wind. Let’s try to send a couple of toasters up in space; if they all arrive whole, we can try a nuke next.”
“Yeah, a toaster grills bread, a nuke kills millions.”
“And I thought you didn’t enjoy sarcasm. Okay then, a battery-powered one with toast grilling while teleporting.”
Adonis hesitated. “That’s actually less dumb than it sounds; it would allow us to monitor the energy levels and see if it can survive the process.”
“I was joking…”
“Yeah I gathered that, but weirdly enough I think it can give us some idea of whether or not this is remotely doable.”
“Believe me, it isn’t. But what do we have to lose?”
“Exactly. Call me back as soon as your guy is here.”
“Will do.”
The communication terminated, and the chief shook his head.
“Teleportation… This is as crazy as it gets.”
Back on the Iron Fire, Chase was resting with his head on Sarah’s lap.
“We still have five hours to reach Earth, and then all hell breaks loose.”
“Did you manage to contact the Destiny?” she asked.
“No, they’re either out of range or something is interfering with our signal.”
“And you don’t find that strange?”
“I do, but there are a few plausible explanations. We’re passing really close to a red dwarf right now… Or maybe they had to prioritize energy consumption.”
“I don’t think Captain Saroudis would sacrifice communications.”
Chase paused. “No, neither do I.”
“So what else can it be?”
“It could be jamming.”
“But that would mean…”
“Yes, that the battle has either begun, or that the fleet is near enough Earth to start actively jamming.”
“Could they jam us all the way up here?”
He thought about it for a moment. “They don’t know where we are, but they do know where they’re going. Maybe they...” All at once, he sat bolt upright.
Sarah leaned back in alarm. “What?”
“Crap!”
“What it is, Chase?”
“Maybe they’ve sent a faster ship in advance to jam communications around Earth.”
“Wouldn’t the Destiny have detected that?”
“I don’t know. We don’t know everything about the technological capabilities of the Zarlack ships. Heck, we don’t know if it’s gonna be Zarlacks or the damn Emperor himself coming to Earth. Or both.”
“The Emperor?”
“No, I guess not. But somehow I doubt they’ll send a simple commander this time around. I mean, if my first fleet had disappeared and I was hunting my enemy, I would make damn sure the next time I met them, I would come with a much larger armada.”
“That’s a scary thought.”
“I know. Let’s hope they don’t think like me.”
“But in case they do?”
“…Then this is going to be the most devastating battle ever.”
Before Sarah could answer, the red alert sounded. There was a buzz and the speaker clicked on.
“Captain to the bridge, immediately!”
“Now what?” Chase jumped up from the bed and started running, Sarah a few steps behind him. It took them less than thirty seconds to reach the bridge.
“What is it, Sergeant?” he asked quickly.
“Sensors are picking up very high levels of energy.”
“What kind of energy?”
“Weapons fire, Alliance and Droxian signatures.”
“Dammit!” Chase cursed. “How far?”
“About half an hour in hyperspace if we turn back now.”
“Can we establish communications?”
“Trying now, sir.”
The view screen on the bridge sprang to life, but the image was garbled. Nevertheless, Chase recognized one of the pilots he sent on the mission near Droxian space.
“Lieutenant Chafkis, report!”
“We have good and bad news, sir.”
“Good news first.”
“A few hours after you left, we found a few Alliance vessels. We’re on board now.”
Chase was almost afraid to ask. “And the bad?”
“Just before we found them, they’d been forced to enter Droxian space to avoid an Obsidian patrol getting close, and now we’re being hunted down for trespassing on their territory.”
“Tactical report.”
“We have four ships, the Axxis, the Euphoreon, the Oblivion, and the Far Beyond.”
“The Far Beyond? Really? I thought she was destroyed.”
“No she wasn’t, but she will be if we can’t shake this fleet of eight Droxian battleships that just engaged us.”
“Have you tried to negotiate a cease fire?”
“Tried and failed. The Droxians really don’t like ships crossing their borders.”
“DAMMIT!”
“Captain, your orders?”
“Can’t you lose them in hyperspace?”
“We’ve tried it several times; we’ve played hide and seek for the better part of a day now, but they just flanked us.”
“Alright, we need to secure the Far Beyond and the Axxis. They’re the biggest and some of the most advanced ships the Alliance has. Which ship are you on now?”
“The Oblivion.”
“Then you’re not going to like my orders.”
“Give them to me anyway, Captain.”
“Evacuate as many people as you can from the Oblivion, run interference with as many fighters as you can deploy, and make sure you carve a path for the other three ships to escape into hyperspace. Then try to get as much distance as you can from the Oblivion, and self-destruct it by overloading the quadrinium chambers.”
“Captain, the Oblivion carries this fleet’s stock of quadrinium. Don’t we need to save it?” the lieutenant asked.
“We’ve secured quadrinium as well, so it’s less critical. How much quadrinium is in the cargo bay?”
“A little short of two tons.”
“Well that could be a good thing. I hate to squander it, but it will make one hell of a bang and might be the very distraction you need to save the other ships.”
“Yes, sir. Captain Greilas would like to talk with you.”
“Put her on.”
“Captain Greilas on the line.”
“Captain, I’m sorry but I don’t see any other alternative. Can you program your ship’s computer to autopilot and self-destruct?”
“We could, but I will stay with my ship.”
“Captain, there’s really no need.”
“Yes there is, Captain Athanatos. What if the automatic self-destruct gets damaged during evacuation?”
“Then we could lose all the ships.”
Chase pounded his armrest. “Damn those Droxians!”
“It’s not their fault. We did enter the outer edge of their territory, but we didn’t think we would be detected. We needed a place for repairs; we fought many battles in the last few weeks. This battlegroup initially had ten battleships.”
“I understand.”
“I’ll stay onboard to make sure I take as many Droxian battleships with me as I can.”
“Roger that, Captain Greilas. Good luck.”
“Likewise. Greilas out!”
“Lieutenant, leave with the rest of the crew. Enter hyperspace as soon as you can and tax the drives as much as you can. You must try to catch up with us before we reach Earth.”
“Affirmative, Captain, see you soon.”
“Athanatos out.”
Sarah looked at Chase silently, not knowing what to say to him.
“This had better work,” he murmured as he leaned back in his chair.
“Are those ships superior to the Destiny?”
“Oh yeah, they’re top of the line. The Far Beyond is a war machine on its own. It could be the key to winning the next battle. But she couldn’t take out that many Droxian ships without seriously crippling herself, or worse.”
“That’s a tough tactical decision you just made.”
“I didn’t have any choice. I just hope most of the crew can get on the other ships.”
“Will they?”
Chase’s face clouded over. “I wish I could say yes, but trying to evacuate in the middle of a battle…? Many of them will perish.”
“But don’t you take the risk of the Droxians seeing through this plan? If they see shuttles leaving the ship?”
“I know Greilas; she’s a skilled tactician. She’ll simulate damage; it will look like they’re trying to abandon ship. I just hope the other ships can get enough distance; a two-ton quadrinium explosion could very well destroy half a system.”
“Are there any habitable planets there?”
“Sergeant?” Chase inquired.
“No, sir, they’re near a Class D solar system. No sentient life-forms reported in the database, however the fifth planet could support underground life.”
“The explosion could be killing an underground civilization?” Sarah asked in horror.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 29
