Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 3 - Fleet Action (9 page)

Queen Angwene was bemused by Altarebe’s words and thought about how different later relations would be between the Sspol and her race if it actually worked. She prefaced her simple order with her own views on his request.

‘Well the academic life and your recent adventures have served you well Altarebe. We are all frustrated with doing nothing to defend either ourselves or the humans. Now everyone think warm peaceful thoughts towards space towards our allies.’

Silence returned to the deep southern ocean as the massive ancients put their powerful minds off into an unknown direction. In Earth orbit the Maveen probe detected the weak mental energy wave now coming from the southern ocean. Probe three could not read the emotion in the message and so he could not evaluate if the approaching Sspol would be reassured by it.

                                                                     ***

Emeria had now spent many long days over the last weeks at the Barus Research Institute and she had explored several different ideas during that time. So far the ideas had all ended in dead ends for her research and Emeria was at a loss on which research path to now take. The human researchers had already gone home and Emeria knew her mother in law Illuria was looking after the children for her this evening. The pace of their development was something the two Trader females were often talking about, and she now felt absolute amazement as realisation dawned on her as she considered the development of the offspring of other races.

Emeria activated another program and put up the time to maturity for all the races and the milestones along the way. For humans she had eight years to full sentience, twelve years as the onset of adult features, and twenty years until an adult human was arguably self sufficient. The Trader generations took considerably longer and Emeria knew the humans could pump out four or up to even six generations per Trader generation, yet Emeria knew that many thousands of years earlier the other races had become alarmed at the prolific reproductive rate of the Traders. Yet the humans could easily be more of a population problem for the other races than her Trader race had ever been.

Emeria looked at the development rates again for human children as she then accessed the explanation for this development as she understood it. She read the reference for several long minutes and knew that he had struck information vital to her research. The humans developed so fast because they already had their full neural cell counts for their brains at birth even if the pathways were not fully formed.

The Trader medical researcher had heard this facet mentioned many years in the past, but the significance had not been realised until now. To offset their short lives the humans packed a lot of learning and living in really fast. Emeria knew that most of the other galactic races developed secondary and tertiary brain grown as they aged and this meant that the maturity rates for their offspring was very much longer.

Acting on a hunch, Emeria accessed the history of the human race from the onset of the industrial age they had entered a few hundred years ago. She read avidly away and highlighted key areas for the report she would later provide to the Captain’s Table. Emeria also now felt a cold pit of fear in her stomach as she realised what her earlier revelation would mean for the future of the humans in the galaxy.

                                                                     ***

Admiral Mary Neilson had not allowed herself to be too worried about the allied ships now following the Jerecab armada to Earth. She was aware that in any other circumstances the presence of these ships would be seen as amazing; however she was faced with the pressing problem of the imminent attack on Earth. The Barus research fleet were off to one side of the armada just outside weapons range, and the Sspol trailed the armada but would rush forward occasionally to harass the trailing Jerecab frigates. At a much greater range she was aware of the Barus cruiser squadron now moving in past the orbit of Uranus. Mary also knew that Omerio would only arrive at a later stage with his cruisers, and the size of the solar system would also prevent an eleventh hour rescue, possibly by the Cephrit.

One of the junior lieutenants now called out urgently across the bridge, and Mary listened in astonishment as the Sspol addressed her ship.

‘We are the Sspol; we seek to protect the human race as they still are classified as a haven species; the other races here are tolerated as they have the same objective. The Jerecab are devious even for vassals; their presence here is an affront to all independent races. We are planning to attack your enemies at your moon; we will deploy North and South of your defensive orbit marked by your orbiting stations.

Honour and strength to our human friends; we commit all four ships.’

Mary was thinking furiously through the Sspol message and in moments she had written a suitable reply on one of her data tablets. She then stood and offered a bow of respect to the screen, as it was possible the Sspol could still see her, before she replied using the same syntax.

‘Greetings to the brave and noble Sspol; we welcome your assistance in defending our home world. The other races are also respected; despite being vassals or independents. We all want the Jerecab defeated in their attempt at mass murder of my race. Your deployment is agreed to by us; you will use your own discretion in attacking the Jerecab armada.’

Lieutenant Rick Gordon looked over as he now provided information that the admiral was only half listening to at this stage.

‘…so the Sspol still transmit both clauses as if they seek to reassure our other allies. Also one of their cruisers is now approaching the recent battle at Ceres.’

Mary seized upon something that Rick had said and she verified an earlier order with the rest of her bridge.

‘Do we still broadcast non aggression and allied status to all the other races?’

Mary received an answer in the affirmative, and so she modified one of her earlier orders after providing an explanation.

‘Only broadcast the allied clause to all the other races and we will now see what the Sspol will do. I suspect they are merely mirroring our own efforts to avoid any misunderstandings. Also they may be attempting to rescue survivors at Ceres.’

The broadcast was changed to an ally only clause and the admiral made a mental note to also check on the Sspol actions later. Mary now turned her attention to back to the detailed work of repairing several of her ships as she estimated that the Jerecab would attack within three hours.

                                                                     ***

Dave Edmonds was slipping and out of consciousness as the proximity alert sounded. He also realised that he had a splitting headache as he groggily tried to rouse himself to investigate. His eyes widened in surprise as he took in the massive silver sphere that was poised to engulf his ship. He glanced at his console and realised that even if he could obtain more power he could neither fight nor flee. Dave had a hobby to best use the long hours in space that involved knowing the old Trader databases backwards. So he quickly identified the alien ship as a Sspol cruiser after accessing the relevant records to verify the information.

The massive alien ship opened a large hatch, which flowed open like a liquid, before Dave’s own crippled ship reached it. The pilot ensured his remaining shields were activated, and he then tensed up for an impact, but there was only a small series of bumps as his ship scraped itself into the hold of the Sspol ship. The console flashed to advise him of a radio signal and Dave found himself speaking to his rescuers.

‘Attention human pilot, we will provide you with an Earth atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen. We later will provide you with pure water upon request. You will specify the temperature of these items at your atmospheric pressure. Due to the vast biological differences between our races we are unable to supply you with any food or medical treatment.’

Dave noted the direct nature of the aliens and ensured he offered a grateful response as he verified the limited life support readings on his own console. He also had the presence of mind to ensure that the Sspol understood what he would need by providing a simple explanation of atmospheric pressure.

‘Greetings to the noble race of Sspol; I give you my thanks for saving my life. Our true atmosphere pressure is one in five more than the current pressure in my damaged cockpit. The ideal atmosphere temperature for me is the lowest one in five over the liquid range of water at our true atmospheric pressure. The ideal water temperature is the lowest one in ten over the same liquid range of water.’

The Sspol had remained silent for several minutes before they had replied.

‘We are delighted to have rescued you. We have monitored your world for thousands of years; but our own calculations were for higher temperatures at greater pressures. We will modify our offerings to you and they will be supplied shortly.’

Dave was relieved by this revelation as he knew his own supplies were failing fast, but it would never do to be accidently killed by a simple misunderstanding. He powered down his wrecked ship to conserve the remaining generators and waited patiently for limited help to arrive.

                                                                     ***

Greppun had been sent down to the assorted tanks next to the hold containing the damaged ship with instructions to organise a breathable atmosphere for the rescued human. He had been selected due to his nimble mind and nature, plus he was the youngest son of a famed engineer. He paused in his work for a moment to think of his recently deceased father, before he called up a series of calculations on a nearby wall panel. The captain interrupted his calculations as he sought to calculate flow times after adjusting the pressure valves right back.

‘Cadet Greppun, you seem to be taking your time in providing aid to the human; is there problem in the conversions we supplied to you?’

Greppun merely offered a simple explanation by way of reply.

‘Captain we also have to allow for phase changes and this is important as none of our smaller containers will hold liquid water without refreezing the contents. We will first have to coat the surfaces of the hold in water ice before we add the Earth atmosphere; this is to prevent damage to the hold by the free oxygen.’

The captain had readily seen his point and had then contacted the human again. After several minutes he was back with further information.

‘I have told the human that you will coat the hold with ice as he calls it. He has also supplied us with a ‘bucket’ made out of ceramic alloy that will withstand large temperature ranges.’

Greppun first swam of to enter the hold to fetch the human bucket next to the wrecked ship. He carefully handled the rapidly cooling object, and once he left the hold he passed a series of measuring scanners over it for several minutes. He placed the bucket next to the jury rigged water tank and quickly filled it with a seething mixture of liquid water just above freezing. As liquid water was a molten solvent that could easily kill the young Sspol, he used a remote arm to place the bucket into a nearby hot box so it would not freeze. Greppun then swam inside a full spacesuit before he went off to spray ice inside the hold.

                                                                     ***

Dave Edmonds had again verified that the atmosphere around his damaged ship was a frigid high pressure mix of hydrogen with a little helium and ammonia. He had earlier found a ceramic bucket used in one of the mines to smelt metal, and he had left it outside after taking a very quick walk to place it on the deck. His space suit had signalled imminent failure as soon as he opened the air lock. So he had only taken five quick steps in the dense smog before he placed the bucket down to quickly re-enter the airlock.

Dave was trying to get warm again as he noticed that the bucket had already vanished. After several more minutes a large dense blue cloud swam past his ship clad in a space suit shaped like a long sea shell, and Dave got his first look at a member of the Sspol race. He watched as the alien quickly sheaved the surfaces of the cargo hold in ice by using a long boom to spray water that froze in moments.

The Sspol soon finished his task, and Dave could then hear pump noises as the alien atmosphere was pumped elsewhere inside the great ship. A series of soft jolts ran through the wrecked mining ship, and Dave watched in relief as the atmosphere and temperature in the hold slowly changed to Earth-like levels. Dave then noticed that his bucket had since been returned and that it was full of fresh water.

                                                                     ***

Chapter 5

Mary Neilson straightened the sleeves on her clean tunic as she walked back onto the bridge of the Exeter. She had left the bridge earlier to freshen up after encouraging several of her lieutenants to do the same. A lieutenant called the customary ‘admiral on the bridge’, but Mary merely instructed her crew to remain watching their consoles. She glanced at the timer in the corner of the view screen as it counted down the final thirty minutes until the Jerecab armada arrived.

Lieutenant Rick Gordon now raced onto the bridge looking apologetic, but Mary just gave him a polite nod as he went past to his console. After a short pause, Mary called out an order to the communications officer.

‘Please connect me with all ships in our formation, including the defence stations and our forces on the moon. Ensure that the message is unencrypted so that our allies and the Jerecab can listen in as well.’

The admiral waited for several minutes as all the ships were brought into the message. She steeled herself for only a moment before she made her address to the defenders.

‘Today is a vital day in our survival as we defend ourselves and our home world. At stake is our very right to exist. All of you are aware that the rest of humanity is depending on us to defend them. We have chosen to fight here at the moon as it gives us our best chance at victory, and the Jerecab cannot decline the battle due to tactical reasons. Now the Jerecab are commanded by a rogue admiral and they break their own edicts in attacking us here in our home system. All of you have seen the repeated threats by the Jerecab to murder our race, so there is no compromise with what is at stake today. For the Jerecab today will find out how much of a mistake they have made in attacking us. They find out how truly dangerous a cornered human can be when attacked and they will be defeated. As a matter of protocol I will make a final request for the Jerecab admiral to take his ships and leave our system, however I expect we already know the answer.’