Time Storm

by Philip R Benge

  Divilio was in the second of the two war ships.

  “They only have class two Phasers, Aswan, This should be an easy victory.”

  Aboard the Exterminator, the commander ordered his Phaser to open fire again, unfortunately his ships sensors were not operating correctly and he did not see the two torpedoes coming towards him. The energy from his single powerful Phaser hit the first of the torpedoes micro seconds before it was due to make contact with his shields, the resulting blast caused a black out of the electrical circuits feeding his defence shields. This allowed the second torpedo to come through unopposed. It hit the bridge of the Exterminator causing a massive explosion that killed all of the starships bridge crew and severely damaged the hull of the ship.

  “Number One aim for her engines again, we will stop this ship from participating in this particular battle right now.” The twin beams of Phaser energy shot out, and this time with no defence shields to protect the Exterminator, her engines exploded, killing many of her crew and stopping her acceleration instantly. The ship slowly came to a halt, and because they were travelling comparatively slowly, having only just left the atmosphere of Orion, gravity soon made itself felt and slowly began to pull the ship back down towards the planet it had so recently left.

  Over on the Saviour her Commander, Captain Lawrence, had targeted the third of the four Heliot ships and ordered his weapons officer to take out the Phasers of the Heliot ship, the Degussa.

  The commander of the Degussa had seen how ineffectual the Phasers from the Earth ship were and had little to fear, for his defence shields had been upgraded. The twin beams from the Saviour crashed into the Degussa making the ship shudder under the impact, but the energy bolts didn`t get through the shields. Unfortunately during the upgrade one of the technicians had been feeling extremely tired from all the long hours put in by the few remaining technicians of the fleet, and so had inadvertently fitted one of the circuits incorrectly on the hyperspace engine. The jolt given it by the Phaser fire jolted it out of line, and even though the ship was not in hyperspace they were using the engines to power the defence shields. This caused an explosion that ripped through the ship destroying it in an instant and sending it remains careering down upon the fourth ship in line destroying it also.

  Divilio could not believe it, he had lost three of his ships to this pair of Earth cruisers, but even so, as the bow of the Vega came around to face the Revenge he cried with glee.

  “Aswan, when our Phasers come to bear on the first ship, fire on her.” The energy beam from his Phaser weapon struck powerfully against the Revenge`s engines, her defence shields already shaken had not been strong enough to stop the beams of vengeance that tore into her side. The power of the Revenge was turned off; the ship still moving forward, but it would soon yield to the gravity of Orion unless something was done very soon to help her survive the battle.

  On board the Saviour, Captain Lawrence gave his orders.

  “Number One, target the remaining alien vessel, fire our Phasers before he can finish the Revenge off.”

  Twin beams of energy soon reminded Divilio that there were two Earth cruisers up here. Captain Lawrence then ordered his crew to carry on with the attack.

  “Send away two torpedoes now, Number One. Keep her stern to us helmsman, we are far more manoeuvrable than she is, this day belongs to us.” On board the Vega, Divilio had also just realised that the sluggishness of the converted transport ships made them no match for a space cruiser, and so quickly he formulated a new plan.

  “Viranco put the ship into orbit around the planet and lock the controls. Quick Aswan set the auto destruct and then you follow after us. Come on Trajo, Rada and you too Viranco, we must get off the ship before we are destroyed with it, our strength now lies with our troops below.”

  The ship shuddered as the Phaser fire from the Saviour hit her again almost destroying her already buckled defence shields. Had Divilio had a space cruiser left he would have made short work of the Saviour, unfortunately what he had was a transport ship that handled like a pig.

  A small escape pod left the Vega to take her bridge crew away back to the planet far below them; the remaining crew never even knew that they were gone.

  Aboard the Saviour the commander instructed his communications officer to send a message across to the alien starship. He was to order the alien vessel to surrender now, either that or they would destroy them. Before the message could be sent though, there was a massive explosion on the Heliot spacecraft. The explosion had been so powerful that there was nothing left of the Vega, and this power reached out to the closing Saviour and shook it like a rag doll leaving it badly damaged and in need of help.

  Captain Lawrence pulled himself up from the floor, shocked that the enemy vessel had decided to commit suicide rather than except defeat. All around him his bridge crew looked at their instruments to see how badly damaged the space cruiser was, departments throughout the ship were reporting damage and injuries to the first officer who was compiling a report for his captain.

  Not waiting for the report, Captain Lawrence quickly summed up the situation and came to a decision. “Helmsman, head over to the Revenge, maybe we can help each other.”

  The Saviour slowly limped across space to the Revenge, and with most of their systems down they didn`t even realise that the Indefatigable was approaching them from their stern.

  Kruger, on board the Indefatigable, ordered his weapon`s officer to fire upon the Saviour`s engines, seconds later a beam of energy impacted against the hull of the Saviour and destroyed its engines in a brilliant explosion of light. Kruger then watched as the Saviour was pulled by gravity towards the planet Orion, The Saviour was powerless to do anything, she could not even send a message back to Earth, for the Indefatigable was jamming all transmissions from this area of space. The Saviour began to burn up as she entered the atmosphere of Orion, and then she plunged down to her death.

  Richard Jameson on board the Revenge had felt the shock waves surge through the ship as the Phaser fire from the two Heliot ships made their presence known to all aboard her. Then there followed a short period of darkness when the main power went out, to be followed by the dim lighting given off by the emergency lighting. He could do nothing but sit and wait, locked inside his cabin as he was. What followed was a tense ten minutes while the chief engineer battled to give his captain enough power to save the ship. Finally, the engineer was able contact his captain to say that some power was about to be restored but it was too late.

  Kruger turned his attention to the Revenge, and he now ordered its destruction. Aboard the Revenge there was a series of tremendous crashes that cumulated in one terrific explosion. Richard Jameson, the inventor of the Time Machine was no more, next door to him Archbishop Nicholas Collingswood and the four ministers from the Government of Earth had been screaming to be released from their cabin, and in a way they were; the brave crew of the Revenge died fighting to the very last moment.

  In New Eden, President Michaels and the others had counted the four explosions in the sky above the planet, and seen the remains of the Heliot transports tear down through the atmosphere of Orion to burn up, then a fifth ship hurtled down to the disbelief of those watching and the gasps of pain. Their followed a tense period without any message from either of the ships from Earth when a colonist gasped and pointed up into the sky, there was the tell-tale sign of a sixth ship plunging down through the atmosphere, and then it too burned up, just as the other five ships before it had done.

  Brian Goddard looked up at the clear Orion skies and exclaimed. “My God, Richard Jameson must have been on one of those burning ships, I believe that maybe we weren`t supposed to mess about with time, maybe this is Time`s way of saying no.”

  Tracy Goddard looked up at her husband and agreed. “Maybe you are right Brian, that we shouldn`t have been experimenting with time, but maybe it is God that is talking to us, telling us to stop before any more people are killed by those who would want to control time.�
� Brian had forgotten for the moment that Tracy had converted to the Church of the Universe since coming to live on Orion, but whoever was right, he meant to find another line of science to look into.

  The other members of the scientific community on Orion were also shocked by what had happened in the heavens above them, and they too added their agreement to what Tracy had said.

  Chapter Sixteen

  June 27th the Year 2494

  Mr Burrow`s Bad Habits

  The sun had just risen and yesterday`s events were behind the people of New Eden. There was of course the problem of how to deal with the Heliot troopers, but as of yet they hadn`t moved from their encampment on the other side of the mountains. They could be clearly seen by the new satellite, launched by the poor Revenge before it met its sad end. President Michaels was still in New Eden but looking very pale now. He had tried unsuccessfully to contact the space fleet of Earth late yesterday and report what had happened, and to request a further space cruiser together with sufficient troops to deal with the Heliot soldiers. He also wanted to report the sad loss of four ministers plus the Archbishop aboard the space cruisers Revenge and Saviour, savagely destroyed in a battle against the Heliot fleet, which thankfully was destroyed in turn by the space cruisers of Earth. He couldn`t though because of some sort of interference, maybe the effects of the battle in space was causing it, although he had never heard of it stopping a sub space message being sent before. No, Michaels thought there is only one way that he had heard of it happening, and that was when someone was jamming your signals.

  Tyler meanwhile had been putting on some new clothes; Colonel Bragg had taken him to the marine`s storeroom where he found a trooper`s uniform that fitted Tyler perfectly, and the uniform was certainly better than the rags that Tyler had worn into the town. The only problem was his new shoes, well marine`s boots, and they pinched just a bit. He had been forced to leave his shoes behind at the place where they had entered the underground river; he now promised himself that he would collect them sometime, as they were quite comfortable. He now looked presentable, and not like the figure of a tramp that he had represented just minutes before.

  It was still very early when Bishop John Sinclair convened a town council meeting to discuss the situation, and as soon as everyone was settled down he started the meeting.

  Back in orbit above Orion the Indefatigable knew it had about six days to complete what would take it only a matter of hours to do. However, his spy down on the planet informed him of the council meeting, so Captain Kruger decided to use this meeting to reveal his presence, and he contacted New Eden to give them his ultimatum.

  “People of Orion I am the commander of a space cruiser currently in orbit about your beautiful planet, I am sure that if you train your telescopes up into the heavens you will soon have me in your sights. Now for my reason for calling you, I wish to send a small cargo vessel down to your fair town, and I am notifying you in advance. Why, you might ask, well it is because I want to ask you to assist the crew of the cargo vessel to load aboard it the Time Machine that is currently awaiting transportation off your beautiful little planet. The cargo vessel will then return to my ship and you will be left unharmed. Should you disobey these instructions then New Eden and then the rest of the planet will be systematically destroyed. As a bonus, if you agree to these demands, my ship will aim its Phasers at the alien army already moving towards New Eden. If you are not convinced of the threat the aliens pose, then I suggest you study these latest pictures that I am sending down to you via your own satellite. You have thirty minutes to respond.”

  The message had come over the town`s communications system which was in the room next to where the meeting was being held. The town council were already in a state of panic after hearing about the Heliot troopers from Tyler and his friends. However, when they saw the pictures of the Heliot troops now beginning to move en-masse towards New Eden, they were plainly terrified about what the near future held in store for them. Following the threats from above them, they decided that they had no option but to yield to the pirates` demands, the only person who disagreed was President Michaels.

  “You can never agree with the demands of pirates, and the twenty nine tough marines that are currently on Orion, led by the good Colonel Bragg, will safe guard the interests of law and order.”

  “How do they prevent the ship up there from reducing the planet to rubble and then simply coming down here and taking what they want?” Sinclair asked, pointing up towards the sky.

  “They will not risk destroying the very thing that they want; they are simply trying to scare you into obeying their demands.” President Michaels argued.

  “Well they have scared me, and I am sure that they will also scare the rest of the people of New Eden, especially when they hear about the twin threats to our safety.” Sinclair stated. More and more of the colonists of the town were coming into the council chamber following reports of the Heliot army moving towards them, and they were all in agreement with the Bishop`s views and many of them said so, bluntly. Another voice now entered into the argument regarding the safety of Orion and its people. Tyler had been standing at the rear of the room and had chosen this moment to intervene in the discussions.

  “They state that they will stop the alien army in its tracks, and as it consists of around one thousand highly trained killing machines, those same killing machines that your satellite shows so plainly, I for one believe that you should accept their offer. I have seen them from close up, and your few marines do not stand a chance up defending the people of this town against them. I would also stress that they are even now only forty miles away and getting closer by the second, I would say that agreeing with the pirate, at least for the moment, makes sense.”

  Tyler had been following the proceedings, and he had come to the conclusion that only the complete annihilation of the Heliot army would safe guard the people of Orion. For Tyler, the proposed murder of one thousand souls was a bitter pill to have to swallow. However, he also realised that anything less than that would mean that the innocent population of the planet would suffer a fate last seen on Earth when Nazi Germany was at the height of its power, with the Orionists being cast in the part of the Jewish people.

  “You sir, are not even a citizen of this planet, and if you are too believed, not even of this time period.” President Michaels scoffed. “In fact how do we know that you are not in league with the pirates, acting as a fifth columnist down here to fan the fears of the people of New Eden?”

  The citizens now eyed Tyler with suspicion, easily swayed the towns people were now afraid that Tyler was a pirate, sent by down to Orion from the space ship in orbit above them. They slowly edged away from him, one amongst them mumbling that he had thought that Tyler`s strange story was a bit farfetched, and that he had never believed it.

  “I may not be a citizen of New Eden, but neither am I in league with the pirates, and I do know common sense when I hear it, and anyway just because you agree to their demands for the moment, it doesn`t mean you cannot use the time earned to work out a better plan.” Tyler replied and his reasoning had the effect of returning to him the support of most of the scared colonists.

  “I heard that you were planning to run out on New Eden, Mr Burrows, why don`t you do just that.” Colonel Bragg asked.

  “You heard wrong Colonel, Appolon is keen to get back to his village to ensure that his family is safe, something I am sure these people here can sympathise with.” Once again Tyler carried the town`s people with him; they were now not so sure where his sympathies lay.

  “But with the alien army approaching New Eden and soon to be knocking on its doors, I figured you needed as many able bodied men here to help you to protect the town and its people, even more so now with the pirates up above threatening to destroy the town.” Tyler replied.

  “I am sure we are grateful for whatever aid that you can provide to the people of New Eden.” President Michaels said in a more conciliatory tone.

  �
��I am also sure that everyone now agrees that my decision to remove the Time Machine to a safer location has been proved right by events. For we have in orbit above the planet what we must assume is the ship that landed the androids that attacked the science complex, and caused the time storm that the brave Mr Burrows was himself caught up in. This storm must have also brought the Heliots to Orion.” President Michaels said. He was feeling his way, a little unsure as to how to proceed, and this allowed Tyler to step in.

  “There appears to be one way out of our predicament.” Tyler suggested. “Let us send the Time Machine up to the pirates, but without any of the sophisticated parts that actually make it work, these we can destroy so that the Time Machine can never be used again.” Tyler`s words brought agreement from many of the towns` people.

  “An admiral suggestion Mr Burrows, but I don`t know if we have the time to do as you suggest.” President Michaels replied, for although he didn`t want the pirates to have the machine he didn`t want it lost to him forever either.

  “It will only take a matter of moments, Mr President, as we had already isolated the parts that Tyler mentioned.” Brian Goddard said. He had just come into the room to join in the discussion.

  The radio on Colonel Bragg`s uniform sprang to life and when he answered it he found that it was the space pirate.

  “Unfortunately Mr President I have been listening in on your discussions and I must now demand an instant Yes or a No! I will commence firing on New Eden in exactly thirty seconds time. ” Captain Kruger demanded. “And Mr President, I hope that you don`t pick up any of Mr Burrows bad habits, they could be painful, and you now have only ten seconds left.” Kruger warned.

  “Captain, this is Bishop Sinclair, head of the planetary council, and you have a definite yes, Captain, yes, we agree to all your terms, all we ask in return is that you stop the alien forces that are at this minute moving towards our town, as you promised to do.” Bishop Sinclair burst out before President Michaels was given the chance to plunge New Eden into a disastrous situation.