In low Earth orbit, Solar System
Tina was about to leave the bridge after passing its control to Dana Durning, intent on having a family supper, when Anwar Duharto, on duty at one of the sensors and communications workstations, spoke up.
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‘’Captain, I am now receiving a coded signal from a courier drone approaching us. It is a Navy drone and is flashing a high priority message status.’
Forgetting her family supper for a moment, Tina approached Duharto’s workstation and looked at the message being displayed on one of its screens.
‘’A flash priority message, ‘Captain’s Eyes Only’, addressed to me. Alright, Mister Duharto: switch on our approach beacon and open our drone arrival airlock.
Once that drone will be connected to our secure network, I will read its message from my command chair.’
‘’Understood, Captain.’
Returning to her command chair and sitting in it, Tina gave an apologetic smile to Dana Durning, her second-in-command, who occupied her own chair next to Tina’s chair.
‘’Sorry, Dana: you will have to endure me on the bridge for a few minutes more.’
‘’No problem, Tina. I wonder what that flash priority message could be. The last time we received one was when the Space Predators attacked Nordland.’
‘’Such messages rarely announce good news, effectively.’ recognized Tina.
Some 200 meters below the level of the bridge, the arriving courier drone entered the airlock dedicated to the handling of inbound drones, then was cycled through it before being guided down a long tunnel and cycling through a second airlock near the core section. Once through, it was moved via a series of small tractor beams to a special drone berth, where clamps secured it in place. Next, a robotic arm extended itself and opened an armored hatch on the surface of the egg-shaped drone, then plugged its data connector to the receptacle inside the drone, so that it could download whatever message was being carried by it. However, instead of initiating a data download, that contact triggered the matter converter warhead which had been hidden inside the fake Navy courier drone. That warhead then detonated with its full power of ninety megatons. The six-kilometer radius fireball from the matter-antimatter reaction, being actually much larger than the NOSTROMO itself, vaporized the huge cargo ship in microseconds, with few of its part surviving it to be projected around like hot pieces of shrapnel. The crew and passengers of the NOSTROMO never had the time to feel anything before being vaporized along with the ship.
On the LAS AMERICAS orbital terminal, situated some 2,000 kilometers away at about the same orbital altitude than the NOSTROMO, the searing white flash from the
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explosion and the expanding ball of energy following it was clearly seen by the Space traffic controllers on duty on its control tower. Many ships present in low and medium Earth orbits also were witnesses to the destruction of the NOSTROMO, including a Spacers League’s cruiser which was on its way for repairs to the Avalon Space Yards.
The captain of that cruiser could only look in horror at the huge, expanding ball of plasma some 940 kilometers away.
‘’My God! That was the NOSTROMO! MISTER WU, SOUND BATTLE
STATIONS! SOMETHING JUST BLEW UP THE NOSTROMO. LIEUTENANT
BARANGIDA, PREPARE A FLASH MESSAGE FOR THE ADMIRALTY ON
PROVIDENCE.’
Captain Hadley then sat back in his command chair, utterly crushed: the mightiest ship in the Spacers League fleet, a ship which had distinguished itself in numerous battles, had just been vaporized in low Earth orbit. Forgetting about any thoughts of repairs, Hadley frantically put his cruiser on combat-ready status, then looked at his sensors officer.
‘’Lieutenant Cherbinsky, can you see any sign of life pods having been able to leave the NOSTROMO before it exploded?’
The young officer sadly shook his head in answer.
‘’Nothing survived that explosion, sir. It looked like an internal explosion. Maybe one of its missiles detonated inside its magazine.’
‘’Maybe, but we can’t afford to speculate right now. Keep listening for any possible distress signal we could get. Pilot, turn us around and head for the site of that explosion.’’
‘’Aye, sir!’
14:18 (Universal Time)
Sunday, December 05, 2337
Bridge of the temporal command cutter AEGIS
Emerging in Space near the Sun, Solar System
‘’I confirm that we are back at our target date and time, SPIRIT.’ announced Christian Bale from its navigator’s station. ‘’I am receiving a clear signal from the radio beacons of the Solar System.’
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‘’Excellent!’ replied SPIRIT, who had accompanied the Project Tempus team on their latest mission. ‘’Let’s fly to Earth and join up with the NOSTROMO. I am sure that Tina will be anxious to watch the recordings we took from the few naval battles we watched.’
Before she could say more, William Windsor, who was manning the communications station, looked up from his instruments, concern on his face.
‘’I am receiving a Navy warning message broadcasted around the system in a continuous loop: the whole Solar System is presently under high alert condition.’
‘’What does it say exactly?’’ asked the pilot, Harrison Ford.
‘’Only that all ships approaching Earth are to be first inspected by a Navy ship.’
‘’I don’t like this. How far from Earth are we, Christian?’
‘’We are a bit less than five light minutes from Earth, SPIRIT: too far away to allow practical two-way communication.’
‘’Then, let’s effect a micro-jump to a high polar orbit above Earth. Once there, we will contact the NOSTROMO and see what is happening.’
‘’Got it! Calculating our jump... jumping now!’
The images on their holosphere screens changed to that showing Earth’s North Pole under them once they emerged from that micro-jump. It however took only a few seconds before they got a firm order from a nearby Navy corvette.
‘’Unidentified ship, this is the Navy corvette CHARYBDIS, identify yourself at once!’
William Windsor exchanged looks with the other members of the crew present on the small bridge before answering that call.
‘’CHARYBDIS, this is the command cutter AEGIS, from the A.M.S. NOSTROMO.
We have just returned from a mission to another system and are planning to join up and enter the NOSTROMO. Can you tell us why the Solar System is under high alert condition, over?’
From harsh, the voice from the corvette softened noticeably.
‘’AEGIS, know that the NOSTROMO was completely destroyed by a huge internal explosion two days ago, while in low Earth orbit. There were no survivors.’
Despite all being androids who supposedly couldn’t feel emotions, that piece of news struck hard the members of the team. On her part, SPIRIT closed her eyes for a
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moment, while tears came out and rolled onto her cheeks. She however quickly regained control of herself and activated her own radio link.
‘’CHARYBDIS, from the AEGIS, can you tell us more about that? Is there an investigation being done to find the cause of this catastrophe?’
‘’Little is known, apart from the fact that the NOSTROMO suddenly disappeared in a huge plasma ball some six kilometers in radius and was instantly vaporized. That explosion was observed at 17:31 on Friday, December 03. The cruiser YORKTOWN is presently in orbit near the site of the explosion and is directing the investigation about that tragedy.’
‘’Thank you, CHARYBDIS. Please advise the YORKTOWN that we will be joining it and that we will then visit it to get more information about what happened to the NOSTROMO.’
‘’I will pass the word, AEGIS. Please accept our most sincere condolences for your loss.’
‘’Thank you, CHARYBDIS. AEGIS, out!’
SPIRIT then cut her link and looked at the crew of the cutter.
‘’A fireball some six kilometers in radius... That sounds like the explosion of one of our missiles, set at its maximum power.’
‘’So, could it really be an accidental explosion inside one of NOSTROMO’s missile magazines?’ asked Maria Sharapova, their weapons officer. ‘’I personally doubt that very much: there were multiple safeguards and procedures aboard the NOSTROMO
to prevent just that kind of accidental explosion.’
‘’I think so as well, Maria.’ replied SPIRIT. ‘’I smell a rat in this. Once on the YORKTOWN, I intend to find out if there is any other information or data available which could provide us with a clue. Then, we will see if we could do something about this.
Harrison, let’s fly to the NOSTROMO’s last orbit.’
‘’On our way, SPIRIT.’
It actually took them only some fourteen minutes before the cutter docked itself at one of the side docking ports of the cruiser YORKTOWN. Once the airlock was declared pressurized and secure, SPIRIT, accompanied by Maria Sharapova, entered the cruiser, to be greeted in a large locker room by a Navy commander and two armed marines.
The Navy man immediately excused himself to SPIRIT when she entered the compartment.
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‘’Please excuse the presence of my two marines, miss, but we are presently on the strictest security protocols available. I am Commander Sven Anderson, second-in-command of the YORKTOWN.’
‘’And I am SPIRIT, the android avatar of the central AI computer of the NOSTROMO. This is Officer Maria Sharapova, the weapons officer of our cutter. What can you tell us about what happened to our mother ship?’
‘’Uh, not here, miss. Some of the information we have is classified Top Secret and is very sensitive. Let me guide you to our conference room, where you will be able to review what we know up to now. May I first present my most sincere condolences to you for the loss of the NOSTROMO?’
‘’Thank you for your consideration, Commander Anderson. We will take the time to grieve later. We are ready to follow you.’
‘’Then, this way, please.’
The trip to the ship’s conference room was actually fairly short, it being on the same deck as the docking port they had used. There, SPIRIT was presented to Captain Jerry Hadley, who shook hands with SPIRIT and Maria before inviting them to sit down at the long table.
‘’May I first ask you to prove your identity, so that I could verify that you possess the necessary security clearance for the information I have?’
‘’No problem, Captain Hadley.’’ replied SPIRIT, who then opened a silent electronic link with the ship’s main computer, imitated in this by Maria Sharapova.
Hadley watched them with curiosity as he realized that he was now facing two androids.
However, his own AI computer quickly reassured him about them.
‘’Miss SPIRIT and Miss Maria Sharapova positively identified and confirmed to hold Top Secret level clearances, Captain. May I download directly to SPIRIT’s and Sharapova’s databanks the dossier we have accumulated concerning the destruction of the NOSTROMO? This could save a lot of precious time.’
‘’I agree. Proceed!’
Both SPIRIT and Maria stayed immobile and expressionless for a few seconds, time for the gigabytes of data stored in the investigation file to be downloaded directly to their electronic brains. At the end of it, SPIRIT looked soberly at Anderson while getting up from her chair, imitated by Maria.
‘’I now know enough for me to act, Captain. Thank you for helping us.’
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‘’Wait! That’s it? You don’t need to see more or to discuss with me what we know?’
‘’What your computer gave us is plenty, Captain Anderson. We will now return to our cutter and be on our way.’
‘’To where? To do what?’ asked the Navy man, taken off balance by the shortness of their visit. SPIRIT gave him a solemn look in response.
‘’To save the NOSTROMO and all the people we love.’
Returning to the AEGIS, the two female androids went back to sit in their work seats on the small bridge of the cutter, where SPIRIT gave curt orders to its crew.
‘’Harrison, detach us from the YORKTOWN, then fly us towards the Sun.
Christian, calculate a jump to the coordinates I am going to give you now.’
17:24 (Universal Time)
Friday, December 03, 2337