Part of the bridge of the patrol cruiser CENTURION. (Concept art from the site of Nova Prime Spaceship Weapons)
CHAPTER 9 – TEACHING A LESSON TO A BULLY
15:56 (Universal Time)
Saturday, May 22, 2320
Command bridge of the patrol cruiser CENTURION
Sixty million kilometers away from Gliese 581c
‘’The spectroscopy readings of the star confirm it to be the red dwarf Gliese 581, Captain. We are now sixty million kilometers away from the third planet, upstream from its orbit.’’
‘’Excellent! Just where I wanted us to be on arrival.’’ Replied Miki Kondo, the captain of the Spacers League patrol cruiser CENTURION. While she didn’t say it out loud then, she was truly impressed by the accuracy of the Koomak Drive. This was only the third interstellar jump made by her cruiser since it had been refitted at the Avalon Space Yards, the first two jumps having occurred during a test run between Earth and the Proxima Centauri system. Those three jumps now averaged a distance error per jump of plus or minus three million kilometers per light year of travel, a truly negligible factor in terms of astronomical distances where interstellar travel was concerned. Doctor Koomak had certainly proved his genius by inventing his interstellar drive.
‘’Let’s stay in passive electronic mode for the moment, time to see what is around us.’’ Added Miki from her command chair. ‘’Pilot, continue towards the moon of the third planet on gravity sail propulsion only. Let’s not generate a drive flare that could be seen from all around us.’’
‘’Aye, Captain!’’
Next, Miki twisted her neck to look at Gerald Holmes, who was occupying a chair recently added into the bridge of the CENTURION, which was much smaller that the bridge of the KOSTROMA and was quite cramped in comparison.
‘’Hopefully, those Vorlaks will not have had time to hurt further their Hoshi prisoners held in their surface base.’’
‘’I am sure that Captain Forster would have acted at once at the least sign of the Vorlaks retaliating against their prisoners, Captain Kondo, and this with or without reinforcements.’’
Miki Kondo nodded her head at that: despite her young age, Tina Forster was already a quasi legend among the Spacers League, thanks to both her combat performance during the 2315 War and to the high moral standards she had displayed during and after the discovery of the Koorivar ship on Eris, when she had put her reputation and career at risk in order to follow her moral beliefs and keep her promises to the Koorivar. A warning from one of her sensors technicians then switched her attention.
‘’Captain, our thermal sensors are detecting a group of four drive flares that have just left the orbit of Gliese 581c and are going down towards the orbit of the moon Hyanesu.’’
‘’Do an analysis of those drive flares: tell me what kind of drive those ships are using.’’
‘’Yes Captain!’’
After less than two minutes, the sensors technician came back with more information.
‘’Captain, those flares are definitely from thermonuclear rockets. However, their spectral analysis and plasma ejection velocity show these drives to be rather inefficient. They would be comparable to the first thermonuclear drives developed on Earth around the year 2100. Also, they are using their main drives in order to cut down their stellar orbital velocity, using an economical Hohmann transfer orbit to align themselves onto an orbit around Hyanesu. Those ships thus probably have limited space endurance and little agility and also probably have no gravity propulsion system.’’
‘’That’s to my liking. What about any electronic emission from those ships?’’
Another sensors specialist answered that last question.
‘’We are detecting weak signals from medium range radars, Captain. Those radars are however unsuitable for detection distances beyond five million kilometers.’’
‘’Even better! Navigator, calculate a micro-jump inside this system, with reemergence on the illuminated side of Hyanesu, two million kilometers above the moon’s surface.’’
Gerald Holmes gave a worried look to Miki on hearing that.
‘’Has anyone effected such micro-jumps before, Captain Kondo?’’
‘’Yes! The prototype drone ship tested by the Avalon Space Yards tried a series of such jumps inside the Alpha Centauri system, with very good results. Doing a micro-jump now will bring us very close to Hyanesu, while the bulk of the moon will mask us from the enemy ships.’’
‘’Oh, I see!’’
‘’Micro-jump calculated and entered in the auto-pilot, Captain.’’ announced the navigator after half a minute.
‘’Then, effect micro-jump, NOW!’’
An orange maelstrom enveloped the cruiser for a fraction of a second, then the external views of space completely changed on the holographic display screens of the bridge. Gerald Holmes could now contemplate the side of Hyanesu which faced its star, with the third planet now hidden from direct view by its moon. A small white shape orbiting the moon near its northern pole then attracted his attention at the same time that a sensors specialists spoke up.
‘’The KOSTROMA is visible in the upper eastern quadrant of our screens, Captain.’’
‘’Excellent! Establish a tight directional laser link with it at once and call the KOSTROMA to tell its crew who we are.’’
‘’Aye, Captain!’’
The specialist, pointing first a highly directional laser communication dish towards the KOSTROMA, then spoke for a few seconds in his headset microphone before looking at Miki Kondo.
‘’Captain, Fleet Captain Forster wishes to speak with you. I am putting her on Line Two.’’
‘’Thank you, mister!’’ replied Miki before switching one of her display screen on the said channel, making the head and torso of a smiling Tina Forster appear on the screen.
‘’Aaah, Captain Kondo! It is truly nice to see you here and now with your fine cruiser. I see that Governor Robeson acted quickly with the data files I gave her.’’
‘’And it is a pleasure for me to be able to come assist you in a mission, Fleet Captain Forster. How is the situation in that Vorlak base and prison camp on the surface of Hyanesu?’’
The smile on Tina’s face then changed to a most sober look.
‘’That situation is already resolved, Captain Kondo. When the Vorlaks of the base started giving signs that they were about to massacre their prisoners and then evacuate on one of their cargo ships, I unleashed my Plan ‘B’ and destroyed their barracks, headquarters, hangars and guard towers with a combination of laser fire, heavy rail gun fire and missiles. The guard towers were in fact the first to go, vaporized by laser beams. The investigation team that was already on the surface of the moon then helped evacuate the Hoshi prisoners out of the camp and into our waiting shuttles. That happened some ten hours ago and the freed Hoshis have now been returned to their respective villages…at least to those villages still existing. Those who had no homes left were then accepted into other villages and hamlets. In return, our rescue operation has created a huge positive feeling towards us and the Koorivars and the various local Hoshi village elders have declared that they would welcome the resettling of Koorivar refugees on their moon, whenever we will find and retrieve the SHUNDAR and the SHANIZAR.’’
‘’That is all very good news, Fleet Captain, however I am afraid that I have to give you one piece of bad news: a formation of four Vorlak ships has left Gliese 581c and is now heading towards Hyanesu. These ships may still be simple cargo ships, but I would very much doubt so. My guess would be that they are combat ships sent to investigate what happened to their fleet around Hyanesu.’’
‘’I would concur with you on that, Captain Kondo. By the way, I suppose that you brought Mister Holmes and my shuttle with you?’’
‘’Correct! I also brought with me a directive from Governor Robeson: the Vorlaks are to be considered as a space-faring threat to other sentient beings and are to be quarantined to their own planet’s surface. Only non-lethal orbital satellites will be tolerated around Gliese 581c. This way, the inhabitants of Hyanesu and of Oceana will be able to live in peace, without having to fear Vorlak depredations.’’
‘’Excellent! Now, what do you say to us dealing with those four incoming Vorlak ships? We could catch them in a pincer while they are still in their deceleration phase, then give them a single ultimatum to withdraw. If they refuse to obey, then we will open fire.’’
‘’From what I heard and seen about those Vorlaks, even giving them a last chance via an ultimatum sounds very generous to me, Fleet Captain.’’
Tina sighed at those words while lowering her head for a moment.
‘’Captain Kondo, let’s just say that the 2315 War taught me not to collectively judge our enemies. Yes, those Vorlaks have up to now acted like monsters, but what tells you that they are all like this? Maybe the lower classes on the third planet are less cruel and aggressive than their military class and their leaders.’’
‘’Maybe, but could we gamble the future of the Hoshis and of the other species in this system on a mere assumption? If those four incoming ships turn out to be warships, then we should destroy them without further ado.’’
‘’Still, I would like to give them an ultimatum before opening fire, Captain.’’ replied Tina in a tone that indicated that this discussion was closed. ‘’You will go hide just behind the western terminator line and wait there in ambush while I will show myself to the Vorlaks at the eastern terminator to give to them my ultimatum. If you see them fire missiles at me, or if they continue towards Hyanesu, then open fire.’’
‘’Understood, Fleet Captain!’’ said Miki, hiding her skepticism about Forster’s choice of giving a chance to the enemy. She then shouted orders to her bridge crew.
‘’Pilot, head to the western terminator line and stop just short of it. Sound battle stations! Weapons Officer, have special munitions prepared for our heavy rail guns.’’
That last order got her a somber glance from Gerald Holmes, something she however didn’t notice due to the renewed activity around the bridge. On her own command bridge, Tina Forster first told her pilot, Frida Skarsgard, to rise from their present low orbit and fly towards the eastern terminator line of the moon, then spoke to her ship’s central computer.
‘’Spirit, I will need your talents in communication to compose for me a number of visual messages using pictograms. Here are the messages I want to send…’’
Tina waited until the four Vorlak ships, which were plainly visible due to their drive flares, were some 100,000 kilometers away from Hyanesu before starting to emit her first pictographic message, which warned the Vorlaks to turn away and return to their planet on pain of destruction. Either because they were too obtuse to understand the message or because they wanted to close further the range in order to fire their missiles at the KOSTROMA, the four ships continued on their trajectory, ignoring her message. Tina then sent a second message once the Vorlaks were down to a distance of 80,000 kilometers, repeating her warning in an even more blunt fashion. Tina’s patience ran out when the Vorlaks kept approaching, getting within 70,000 kilometers of her ship.
‘’That’s it! I have had it with them! Transmit to the CENTURION: fire at will! Renée, make our lasers dance on those ships!’’
Renée d’Argenteuil, one of the more senior officers of the KOSTROMA and one who often took Tina’s command seat when she was resting, occupied the weapons station at the time and, having already entered a fire plan in her fire control computer, opened a red cover on her command console and pressed the big red button inside.
‘’Opening laser fire now!’’
Four 1.2 gigawatt laser beams, invisible and silent in the void of space, cut across the black emptiness in less than a quarter of a second, each beam targeted at one of the four Vorlak ships. The invisible beams, measuring some forty centimeters in diameter after their 70,000 kilometer-long travel, created an explosion of sparks when they hit the aluminum alloy hulls of the Vorlak battleships, which were not built to fly inside the atmosphere of a planet or moon. Burning through the hulls nearly instantly, the laser beams then danced around inside the ships, melting bulkheads, cutting wires, cables and pipes and opening compartment after compartment to the vacuum of space, creating explosive decompressions which sucked the Vorlak occupants through the jagged hull openings, ripping them apart in the process. The Vorlaks, still being outside of the maximum range of their own missiles, could only endure that treatment for the time being, hoping to soon be able to fire their missiles. They never got that chance, as a huge nuclear fireball suddenly detonated in a blinding flash within 700 meters of the lead Vorlak battleship. That fireball then rapidly expanded to a radius of over fifty kilometers, engulfing and vaporizing the whole ship in an instant. Before the three other battleships, already heavily damaged by the KOSTROMA’s laser fire, could react to that, they were vaporized in quick succession by three more nuclear fireballs, which left behind only expanding clouds of plasma and thermal radiations.
The flashes from the four nuclear explosions left Tina Forster’s aghast in her command chair, like the rest of her bridge crew. Seeing that the expanding clouds of plasma would eventually hit her ship, she gave an urgent order to her pilot.
‘’FRIDA, MOVE US SIDEWAYS AWAY FROM THOSE EXPANDING PLASMA CLOUDS!’’
As Frida Skarsgard obeyed her and pushed their gravity sails to the maximum, making the giant cargo ship jump sideways with an acceleration of 3.2 Gs, Tina opened a communication link to the CENTURION and gave a hard look at the image of Miki Kondo.
‘’Captain Kondo, since when do Spacers League ships carry nuclear weapons?’’
‘’Those were not nuclear weapons, Fleet Captain Forster: they were heavy rail gun shells equipped with anti-matter devices triggered via proximity fuses. Governor Robeson expressly agreed to their use against space-faring threats.’’
‘’Anti-matter weapons? But, I thought that we banned their production in 2317.’’
‘’Correct, but we didn’t know at the time that we would be able to travel to other star systems any time soon…if ever. Now that we do, Governor Robeson, with the accord of the other leaders of the Spacers League, decided that we needed to have such weapons ready in our arsenal, in case an invading alien race would show up in our Solar System.’’
While she still felt that such a decision was wrong, Tina didn’t protest further about it: the politicians had decided on this and now there was no way to turn this around. God knew how many more of those anti-matter warheads were in service right now with Spacers League Navy ships. Feeling some bitterness about it, she still conceded that Captain Kondo had acted within her mandate and had destroyed legitimate targets.
‘’Very well, Captain Kondo. I will now ask you to stay in Hyanesu’s orbit, in order to protect the moon while I go do an orbital reconnaissance of the third planet and make sure that no other attack fleet is being prepared by the Vorlak.’’
‘’Be careful, Fleet Captain: the Vorlaks could possess orbital defense stations. Remember the ISF orbital fortresses we had to destroy in the 2315 War.’’
‘’Oh, I remember them well enough, Captain Kondo. I will be careful. Before I leave for the third planet, could you send back to me my shuttle, along with Mister Holmes?’’
‘’I certainly can do that, Fleet Captain. Kondo out!’’
Once the link was closed, Tina stayed silent for a moment in her command chair while digesting the revelations from Captain Kondo. She had done everything in 2317 to prevent the Koorivar anti-matter technology from becoming known and used by Humans, in order to prevent their eventual misuse. To be honest, she had then been the first to have this technology adapted to her ship, once the Koomak Drive had been invented and the Koorivars had asked her to go search among the stars for their two other evacuation ships. That had however been done with the full consent of the Koorivars themselves, with the sole purpose of preparing her ship for an interstellar search and rescue mission. Between that and putting in service anti-matter weapons, there was quite a huge gap. Finally chasing away her bitterness, Tina looked at Dana Durning, her navigator.
‘’Dana, plot a course to the third planet. Once there, we will do an extensive mapping and reconnaissance coverage of the planet from medium level orbit. We will also tally the number and types of space installations the Vorlaks possess in orbit. However, wait until our shuttle and Mister Holmes are back aboard before leaving the moon’s orbit.’’
‘’Understood, Tina!’’
‘’Then, I will go rest a bit in my day cabin, until the return of our shuttle. Renée, you have the bridge.’’
‘’Aye, Tina!’’
20:24 (Universal Time)
Vorlak Imperial Palace
Vorona, capital city of the Shumesh Empire
Planet Gliese 581c (Shumesh)
‘’Your Majesty, I am afraid that I have some bad news.’’
Emperor Shumesh III, sitting on his throne, gave his Fleet Grand Admiral an angry look on hearing those words. He however didn’t jump off his throne and simply said one word.
‘’Speak!’’
‘’Your Majesty, our four battleships have been destroyed, probably by the same unknown ship which destroyed our Second Fleet earlier. Our ships signaled spotting that alien ship around the moon, then retransmitted to our fleet headquarters an alien message that was basically a warning for us to stay away from the moon. Shortly after that, four large nuclear explosions were seen in space, above the moon, with our four ships stopping to communicate after those blasts. We still can’t get any response from our ships and they thus should be considered destroyed, Your Majesty.’’
The emperor, who was even more powerful physically than the average Vorlak, slammed a raging fist on the armrest of his throne.
‘’HOW COULD ONE SINGLE SHIP DEFEAT OUR FOUR MOST POWERFUL SHIPS?’’
Grand Admiral Kanos repressed his fear as best he could: bringing bad news to the Emperor was a good way to end up dead afterwards. He however decided to tell Shumesh III the simple truth, as telling lies would only make things worse for him once the Emperor would see through those lies.
‘’Your Majesty, we believe that this alien ship may be of the same origin as the one that we chased away from our moon some 2,900 rotations ago. However, the present one is much bigger than the one seen in the past. In fact, its mass was largely superior to the combined mass of our four battleships and the ease with which it destroyed our ships indicates that its weapons are superior to our own weapons.’’
‘’Could it have come from the fourth planet, Gorosh?’’
‘’That is possible but unlikely, Your Majesty. Before this day, no sign of a space capable civilization was ever seen on Gorosh. In fact the near total lack of emerged lands on Gorosh directly militates against the development of a technically advanced race there. Many of our scientist now agree that this alien ship may have come from another star system, something that would denote by itself a clear technological superiority by those aliens over our own science.’’
‘’Humph! And what do we know about those aliens? Do we have pictures of them?’’
‘’We do have a picture of what we presume to be their ship captain. The aliens used it as part of pictographic messages sent to our ships to tell them to turn back. Here is the picture in question, Your Majesty.’’
Taking the viewing pad offered by Kanos, Shumesh III examined it for a moment with genuine curiosity.
‘’Hum, a rather frail looking being in my opinion. It must come from a low gravity planet, something that would indeed disqualify Gorosh as being the home planet of these aliens. The next question I have is why? Why attack our ships around our moon?’’
‘’Our best guess is that it came to try to find what happened to the alien shuttle that was destroyed on the moon 2,900 rotations ago, Your Majesty. Finding the debris of that shuttle may have caused this alien ship captain to seek revenge on us.’’
‘’That would make sense, as I would have done the same in his place. But why then telling us to stay away from our moon? Why taking the time to send warnings to our ships before destroying them?’’
Grand Admiral Kanos then hesitated for a moment, as what he was about to see was assured of infuriating the Emperor.
‘’Your Majesty, the only reason I could think of to explain that is if those aliens intend to colonize and occupy our moon.’’
As Kanos had expected, the Emperor became instantly enraged at his words.
‘’WHAT? THOSE IMPUDENT ALIENS WOULD COME, DESTROY OUR SHIPS AND THEN ESTABLISH OUTPOSTS AND SETTLEMENTS ON THE MOON OF OUR OWN PLANET? NEVER! WHAT DO YOU HAVE LEFT IN YOUR FLEET THAT COULD CHASE THAT ALIEN SHIP AWAY OR DESTROY IT, ADMIRAL KANOS?’’
‘’Chase it away? Nothing unfortunately, Your Majesty. However, our long range nuclear missiles can easily reach our moon. We could fire them in a massive salvo that would be able to bracket the whole moon. With luck, that should have good chances of destroying that alien ship. Even if they don’t, then our moon would become unlivable for those aliens and they would be forced to leave our system afterwards. Better for us to lose the use of our moon than to let an alien race take possession of it, Your Majesty.’’
Shumesh III needed only a short moment to think about that before he nodded his head.
‘’I totally agree with that. If we can’t have it, then nobody will have it. Prepare at once a missile firing plan and present it to me when it will be ready to be executed. Go!’’
22:58 (Universal Time)
Command bridge of the KOSTROMA
Halfway between Hyanesu and Gliese 581c
Tina, having taken some time with her toddler son, had stepped on her bridge only a few minutes ago when Amin Jamilian stiffened in his chair and shouted a warning.
‘’CAPTAIN, WE ARE DETECTING THE LAUNCH OF HUNDREDS OF OBJECTS FROM THE THIRD PLANET. THOSE OBJECTS HAVE JUST CLEARED THE PLANET’S ATMOSPHERE AND ARE NOW ACCELERATING AT A HIGH RATE TOWARDS HYANESU.’’
Tina, who had studied extensively the history of modern wars on Earth in order to then prepare herself for the incoming 2315 War against the Terran Federation, didn’t take long to understand what was happening and visibly paled.
‘’My god! A missile strike! How many of those objects can you count, Mister Jamilian?’’
‘’Our sensors are detecting a total of 827 of them, Captain.’’
‘’Are they nuclear-tipped?’’
‘’One moment, please… Yes! There are definite radiation signatures for plutonium masses coming from them. They are not the signatures of nuclear rocket engines, Captain.’’
‘’Jesus! Over eight hundred nuclear-tipped missiles heading for Hyanesu? They would be the death of the entire moon if we don’t stop them. Spirit, you alone can manage fast enough the kind of massive fire control calculations we would need for our lasers to destroy all of those missiles before they could reach Hyanesu. Can I count on you for this?’’
‘’Of course, Tina! Starting fire plan calculations now!’’ replied the artificial intelligence super-computer. With that off her mind, Tina’s next move was to call the CENTURION.
‘’CENTURION, this is the KOSTROMA. Urgent message, over!’’
An operator on the patrol cruiser responded at once to her.
‘’This is the CENTURION. Go ahead, KOSTROMA.’’
‘’CENTURION, this is Fleet Captain Forster. We have detected the launch of 827 nuclear-tipped missiles from the third planet. They are now heading at high acceleration towards Hyanesu. My KOSTROMA will do its best to intercept those missiles, but we may get swamped, with some of the missiles breaking through. I need you to take a second line intercept position and stop the missiles that may filter through me, over.’’
The voice on the radio then changed to that of Captain Kondo.
‘’I am moving the CENTURION into intercept position now, Fleet Captain. CENTURION out!’’
Feeling better now, Tina punched her intercom button, setting it on ‘ship-wide announcement’.
‘’Attention all hands! Attention all hands! This is your Captain. Battle stations! Battle stations! All non-essential personnel and passengers are to put on their emergency vacuum suits and wait in their quarters or close to the nearest escape pods. Engineering control: we will need the maximum electrical power possible for our lasers and our rail guns. All airtight doors and hatches are to be closed immediately. All the ship’s sections will switch to local power generation and local life support systems, while the common ventilation shafts will be shut tight. Power on and disperse all our damage control and firefighting robots. Those measures will stand until further notice. Captain out!’’
She had just finished giving her address when Amin Jamilian spoke up.
‘’Our laser batteries have started to fire, Captain.’’
‘’Good! Keep your eyes out for any extra missile launches from the third planet, Mister Jamilian.’’
‘’Aye, Captain!’’
Then, Tina found herself with nothing to do but observe and wait, leaving her crew and Spirit to do their job. She had learned a long time ago that a micro-managing captain only ended hurting his or her crew performance, especially during an emergency. Calling up a tactical situation display on one of the screens attached to the armrests of her command chair, she watched anxiously as the KOSTROMA’s laser fire, directed by Spirit, started taking out missile after missile. Wh