The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (32 page)

Clowy checked again and said, “Maybe. Wait, now we have another alert, and another.”

Solear looked around the room for any insight. They were completely alone in this system, the odds of another Alliance ship appearing to save them were beyond astronomical. Further, they had loaned all of their fighters to another ship. In summary, there was nothing here that could have activated the alert.

Clowy said, “I am detecting transponder codes on the scanner. They are Alliance fighters.”

Putat yelled, “From where?”

Clowy checked again and said, “There are now 10 Alliance fighters. Their transponders show they are from the
Sunflower
.”

Clowy started crying, but quickly wiped her eyes and added, “They are forming into a ½ squadron and are flying toward the enemy fighters.” She paused to dab again and continued, “They are forming into a wedge. It looks they are going to try to a clear a path straight through the middle of the enemy fighter formation.”

Putat had regained his normal speaking voice. He said, “That is not possible. We don’t have any pilots on board.”

Solear ignored the comment for the moment and said, “Lexxi, what is the status of the missile launchers?”

Lexxi said, “I have a green board, well, except for number 10. The 9 launchers show ready to fire.”

Clowy said, “Our, apparently, fighters have succeeded in surprising the enemy fighters and forcing them to scramble. We have a clear lane and are not under immediate attack.”

Solear said, “Ella, do we have enough reserve power to create an external hyperspace field?”

Ella checked and said, “Yes, barely. It will drain all reserve power though.”

Solear responded, “Lower the shields and create a hyperspace window at location 142.68.”

Putat was about to shout something but Solear put up his hand indicating to him to stop.

Ella responded, “The hyperspace window is steady at 600 kilometers off our left side.”

Solear looked at his monitor and said, “Lexxi, program the missiles to align themselves for a straight line course through the hyperspace window and directly to the enemy cruiser. Fire when ready.”

Lexxi programmed the complex trajectory and fired the missiles. The first 5 missiles sped directly through the hyperspace window. The 4 missiles fired from the starboard side had a slightly longer trajectory because they had to circle the
Sunflower
. They followed the port side volley into hyperspace four seconds later.

Solear said, “Lexxi, load the left side with 5 shield busters and the right with 4 ship busters and fire when ready.”

The first missile volley entered hyperspace and traveled for four-tenths of a second. The gravity produced by the enemy cruiser’s shields forced them back out of hyperspace and the first five missiles exploded against the middle of the ship’s hull.

Exactly 4 seconds later the remaining 4 missiles exited hyperspace and hit the exact same spot. The kinetic energy of the missiles was far lower than normal because the missiles had only accelerated for a few seconds before impact. However, it was enough.

Putat said, “Captain, all 9 missiles scored direct hits. Their hull has been penetrated. They can no longer jump, at least for the moment.”

Solear asked, “For the moment?”

Putat answered, “The damage doesn’t look severe. They may be able to repair it.”

Ella said, “The enemy ship is starting to move.”

Solear said, “Computer, can they escape?”

…Our missiles will be able to reach the enemy cruiser if they are fired in the next 48 seconds…

Fourteen seconds had passed since the last missile volley. If the humans could reload on the 1 minute mark, then they should have 2 seconds to spare. Solear stood up and began to pace. He was on his fifth lap when Lexxi said, “Missiles ready, launching.”

Solear said, “Computer, time from last fire.”

…56 seconds…

The 9 missiles went through the hyperspace field and began chasing the enemy cruiser. The cruiser banked hard to the right and launched defensive missiles. The defensive missiles and anti-missile fire stopped 6 of them, but one shield buster hit the already damaged area and opened it a little wider. Then a ship buster missile went through the opening and exploded. It was followed closely by a second and final ship buster missile.

The back-to-back explosions ripped a huge hole in the middle of the ship from the inside-out. The hole stretched from nearly the top to the bottom and was about ½ of the entire width of the ship.

The enemy cruiser then tried to make a course adjustment and the front section, including the bridge, jerked mightily and was torn from the back half. The front section continued to spiral away in space while the rear section slowly came to a stop.

Then the bridge section broke free from the front of ship. Solear said, “Computer, record the course and speed of the enemy bridge section. Send out a buoy to mark the location. Please show its path on the monitor.”

…Course and speed recorded. Buoy now marks the location. The course is now displayed on the monitor and the speed is .04 light with a degradation rate of .000275. The general direction is toward Dunron, but the section will miss by approximately 1 million kilometers…

Lexxi asked, “Captain, why are you so interested in the bridge section?”

Solear replied, “Well, the bridge crew is more than likely still alive. They should be able to enter their cryogenic stasis chambers. Eventually, someone may be able to rescue them.”

Lexxi replied, “How long will it take them to reach Dunron?”

Solear said, “A fair guess would be about 1.6 million years. The stasis chambers can theoretically keep them alive indefinitely. However, at absolute minimum power, the secondary generator will only last for 150 years before it loses power and de-thaws them.”

Solear plopped down in the captain’s chair and put his hands over his eyes. He hadn’t said what was really bothering him. Now that the euphoria of battle (or whatever it was that he had felt) had worn off, Solear felt suddenly sad and hollow.

Yes, the Hiriculans had fired first and without warning or provocation. However, in retrospect, their ion cannon shot wasn’t at full power. Further, they had given Solear multiple chances to surrender. Instead, he had fought. He had ordered the ship to fire and ultimately destroy 3 ships and a killed a total of 152 beings.

Solear said it again. For all intents and purposes, he had just ordered the murder of 152 Hiriculans. Well, only 147 because the 5 Hiriculans on that rapidly disappearing bridge section were probably still alive. Technically, the total number was 167 if one included the 20 enemy pilots in the total, though Solear hadn’t actually killed those beings.

Still though, he reasoned the number didn’t matter. This time it was different than their previous battle in Influenla. This time he couldn’t hide behind a misunderstanding with the human pilots or blame their aggressiveness for this outcome. No, this time he had decided to fight and was directly responsible for his enemies’ deaths.

Solear could have ordered the ship to surrender. Certainly any other captain in the Alliance Navy would have done so. Solear tried to justify his actions that he was just acting in accordance with his secret orders to protect the identity of the humans, but he was having trouble believing himself.

That was why the survivors in the bridge section were so important to him. By letting the officers live and giving the Hiriculans the opportunity to find them, he was in some small way atoning for his actions.

Lexxi brought the captain out of his brooding by saying, “Captain, two of our fighters are targeting the bridge section. The first just fired 3 shield buster missiles. The second fighter just launched one ship buster.”

Solear said, “How long?”

No one immediately responded, so the computer said,

…Based on current trajectories, the missiles will impact in 4.5 minutes…

Solear said, “Are the external cameras still working?”

Putat responded, “Yes Captain.” Putat correctly guessed the captain’s next question because he said, “I am displaying the feed on the main monitor.”

Solear watched helplessly as the missiles slowly tracked down the bridge section. Exactly 4.54 minutes later the first set of missiles exploded against the shields and opened the hull to space.

Two seconds later a ship buster missile entered the hole and exploded next to the secondary power generator. The resulting explosion was slightly different than the others they had recently seen.

The force of the explosion was temporarily held in by the shields. As a result, the explosion created a linear wave that traveled up, then back down. The effect was similar to putting strawberries in a blender. The bridge section was literally pulverized

Solear shook his head and tried to brush his feelings aside. There was still work to do. He could bemoan his decisions later. Solear said, “Computer, erase the record of the enemy bridge section’s course and speed and destroy the navigational beacon.”

Putat said, “I ran a diagnostic on the communication system. It appears that the main communication hub is damaged. There may be enough spare parts to fix it, but the parts are in maintenance.”

The communication equipment is located on the bottom floor of the bridge section, next to the secondary power core. Since the bridge was on emergency lockdown, there was no way to obtain the necessary parts to even attempt repairing it.

Clowy said, “Why don’t you activate the secondary by-pass router? Sometimes it gets jammed and creates a feedback loop that disables it.”

Putat pressed the button to activate the emergency back-up communication system. Nothing happened. Putat earnestly replied, “That was a great suggestion, but it doesn’t seem to be the issue this time.”

Lexxi said, “It’s too bad we don’t have a manual system to communicate with the humans.”

Putat was suddenly curious. He asked, “What do you mean?”

Lexxi replied, “Well, it would be nice if we could simply bang words on the wall, have the humans understand them, and then bang back a reply.” She picked up her earphones and lightly banged them on her monitor. She said, “For instance, the letter ‘A’ could be one tap or perhaps one short tap followed by a longer tap. Each letter could be a combination of short and long taps.”

Lexxi banged out a few pretend letters for effect. Putat said, “That could a viable system Lexxi, but I doubt the humans would ever understand it.”

“Proximity alert.” This time Putat said it. With the communications equipment down, he had switched his monitor to active scanners.

Solear spun around and said, “The enemy fighters?”

Putat shook his head no. He waited another few seconds and said, “Active scan shows it is an Alliance shuttle. Correction, we there are two shuttles. One is headed directly for the remaining section of the enemy cruiser and the other is headed toward where the pilots ejected from their fighters.”

Solear said, “Do we have a status on the fighter battle?”

Putat, Lexxi, and Clowy each tried to decipher the results of the fighter battle. After a couple of minutes, Lexxi said, “I believe that all enemy fighters have been destroyed and that all of our remaining fighters have successfully docked.”

Solear looked around the room for verification. Both Clowy and Putat nodded their heads in agreement. Solear said, “Set a course for the enemy cruiser, .002 light.”

The ship lurched unsteadily and shook uncontrollably as Ella engaged the sub-light engines. It felt like something important broke or fell off, but after that the ship stopped shaking and started moving. Ella said, “Increasing to .002 light. Our power level has dropped from 50% to 40%, but is remaining steady at 40%.”

Solear asked, “Will we make it to the enemy cruiser?”

Ella checked and said, “Yes. The target is at a full stop. We will be able to accelerate to .002 light and coast the rest of the way there. We will be there in 76 minutes.”

After 70 minutes Solear said, “Ella, when we arrive, veer the ship into a right turn if possible. I want to stop beside what is now the bow of the cruiser. That way we will have a little warning if they decide to fire a missile or re-engage the sub-light drives.”

Ella made the course correction and said, “The ship is turning to the new course, but slower than normal.”

A few minutes later Ella announced, “The ship is stationary, just off of the bow of the remaining half of the enemy cruiser.” She then asked, “What now?”

Solear answered, “I am guessing that the humans went to investigate the enemy ship. However, it will do them little good since we are stuck in this system for the foreseeable future. The only thing we can do now is wait.”

Chapter 15

Colin O’Neal was having a bad day. It had started out okay, a light breakfast followed by a jog on the exercise machine. Then they had had a farewell party for the pilots. Colin had secretly hoped that Jim Donovan’s wing would be permanently assigned to the
Dandelion
so that he could be in charge, but that had not been the case. Well, Colin was in charge at the moment, for what little good it had done him.

Most of the people were in a poor mood after the pilots left. It was partly the loss of friends, but more the feeling that the other ships were going on a cool adventure and the
Sunflower
was stuck investigating some backwater system.

Then they exited hyperspace in Trilon and all hell broke loose. They had been sucker punched by Hiriculans who must have been waiting to booby trap some unsuspecting ship. The ion blast had killed two crew members instantly. Their bodies were disintegrated along with a significant portion of the crew’s sleeping quarters.

Colin thought again how fortunate they were to only lose two people. In an attempt to lighten the mood, Colin had forced everyone in engineering to go to the caribou corridor and have a dance contest. Ben was being schooled by a caribou when the enemy cannon struck. If they had been in engineering at the time, they would have died.