16:46 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Saturday, October 17, 4021
Command bridge of the MARCO POLO
Outer periphery of Alpha Centauri A
‘’Attention all hands! This is the Captain speaking! We are now entering the Alpha Centauri A System and are under the speed of light. We should arrive at the Kyoto Alpha Spaceport in about twenty hours. As discussed previously, the section heads will have to be ready on landing to present a complete inventory of their needs in order to replenish their supplies and equipment lists. That is all!’’
Henry Ferguson then closed his intercom line and contemplated on the giant display surface of the bridge sphere the brilliant yellow star that shone in the center of the screens. High and to the left of Alpha Centauri A, an orange ball marked the position of Alpha Centauri B, with Proxima Centauri showed as a small red dot at the bottom of the screens. After a few minutes, the voice of one of the sensors operators of the bridge took him out of his reveries.
‘’Sir, we have six ships on a fast intercept course towards us, coming from three different directions. They will be on top of us in two minutes.’’
A few seconds later, the bridge communications officer, Lieutenant Tousla, looked at Ferguson, apparently perplex.
‘’Commodore, we have just received a call asking us to identify ourselves. The tone was rather aggressive.’’
‘’Connect me to their channel, Lieutenant.’’ Grumbled Ferguson, who didn’t appreciate those kind of manners, especially when considering that the MARCO POLO’s arrival was supposed to be expected at this date on Kyoto Alpha. Henry Ferguson soon had the image of a young lieutenant on his chair’s left side screen. The young officer was looking at him in turn with apparent suspicion.
‘’This is Commodore Henry Ferguson, in command of the exploration cruiser MARCO POLO. We are arriving from Mirphak III and are planning to land at the Kyoto Alpha Spaceport, as per our flight plan authorized prior to our departure from Kyoto Alpha. What are the reasons for this aggressive reception, Lieutenant?’’
‘’I am sorry, Commodore, but the Alpha Centauri System is on defensive high alert and all approaching ships have to be intercepted and visually identified.’’
‘’Alpha Centauri, on the defensive? Against what?’’
Ferguson’s question seemed to irritate his interlocutor, who then answered in a decidedly harsh tone of voice.
‘’Against what? But, against the Morgs, of course! We have been at war for nearly two years now and you ask me such a question?’’
The bridge personnel of the MARCO POLO froze in stunned surprise at that before exclamations came out.
‘’SILENCE ON THE BRIDGE!’’ Shouted Ferguson, himself upset, before looking back at his side display screen.
‘’Lieutenant, we were never informed about that state of war. If you will let us pass, I fully intend to learn more about this once I have landed in Kyoto Alpha.’’
The young officer, now much less aggressive, lowered his tone of voice.
‘’Please excuse my lack of tact, Commodore. The two last years have been truly tragic ones for the Expansion and everybody in the system is on edge. You may proceed to Kyoto Alpha, over and out.’’
Once his side display screen was blank, Ferguson turned his head towards Tousla, his face hard.
‘’Lieutenant, contact the Admiralty in Kyoto Alpha. Get me someone on the line with whom I can speak without wasting my time.’’
Ferguson then switched on the ship-wide intercom and spoke in a firm voice.
‘’Attention all hands! This is the Captain speaking! A local patrol has just intercepted us and has informed us that the Expansion has been at war for nearly two years now with an alien race called the Morgs. I am hoping to know more about this soon, at which time I will publish a communiqué with the relevant information. For the time being, our original schedule on arrival at Kyoto Alpha is cancelled, while all shore leave is suspended until further notice. The ship will immediately go to Alert Level Orange, with our main batteries manned and ready. Captain, out!’’
A few seconds later, the general alarm tone for an orange threat level started sounding all across the ship, while 23 extra crewmembers arrived at a run in the next few minutes to man the weapons fire control stations on the bridge. The sixteen giant disintegrator guns that formed with 24 missile-launching tubes the main armament of the MARCO POLO deployed out of their protective barbettes around the equatorial bulge of the ship, their eighty meter-long tubes pointing in all directions. A tall woman in her forties with long black hair and wearing the ranks of a navy captain also came in and took the seat immediately to the right of Ferguson’s seat. Carla Montoya had been the second in command of the MARCO POLO since its entry into service and Ferguson knew her as an extremely competent officer. She however had a bit of a cold personality and had little patience or tolerance towards any negligence or delay by someone in executing her orders. While she was not very popular with the crew, Ferguson knew that he could count on her during difficult times.
Lieutenant Tousla approached Ferguson a few minutes later, his expression sober.
‘’Commodore, I just sent a message with your request for information and instructions to Kyoto Alpha. However, due to the distance, we cannot expect a response before at least six hours from now.’’
‘’I understand, Lieutenant. Thank you!’’
Ferguson then looked at his first officer.
‘’There is no point in the two of us staying on the bridge while waiting for a response from Kyoto Alpha. I will thus go to my day cabin to take some rest. Make sure in the meantime that the ship arrives as quickly as possible to Kyoto Alpha. Wake me up if anything serious happens.’’
‘’Understood, Commodore!’’
Ferguson then got up from his command chair and left the bridge to go to his day cabin, situated just below the bridge complex. Montoya looked up and to the rear, towards the ship’s pilot, whose seat was situated half a level up from her seat.
‘’Lieutenant, program and execute a high performance approach trajectory to Kyoto Alpha. I want us to be there as quickly as possible. If Space Control objects to that, then put me on line with them.’’
‘’With pleasure, Captain!’’ Replied the pilot, too happy to be able to do what regulations normally forbade.
Seven hours later, Henry Ferguson came back on the bridge, rested and having taken the time to eat something, and sent in turn Montoya to go take some rest. Three hours after that, Lieutenant Tousla sent him electronically a message that he quickly read up and down before carefully re-reading it. It was a short message from Admiralty Headquarters in Kyoto Alpha, the capital of the fourth planet of the system.
TO: H.S.S. MARCO POLO, ATTENTION OF COMMODORE HENRY FERGUSON.
FROM: ADMIRAL AKIRO NINTSU, COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF ALPHA CENTAURI SECTOR.
SUBJECT: MISSION ORDER 082904.
‘’My god! This is even worse than I have imagined.’’ Said Ferguson to himself. Working the buttons of his intercom panel, he then started distributing a series of brief, concise orders to his principal officers.
‘’Pilot, program a high performance flight profile to Alpha Centauri A-IV. I want to be at the Kyoto Alpha spaceport as quickly as possible. You can chuck the navigation rules book out an airlock if that can help. Lieutenant Tousla, start emitting immediately in continuous a priority right of navigation signal, and this until we land on Kyoto Alpha. If anyone objects, tell them to shut up and get out of the way. Chief-Surgeon Perrier! We will soon have to help in the evacuation of the population of Alpha Centauri A-IV. Activate and man the cryogenic sleep cells section and be ready to fill it in a hurry. Quartermaster! Be ready to load in our holds as much equipment and supplies as you can. We will take off from Kyoto Alpha in overload condition if need be. Ensure that no space is wasted inside our holds and be ready to get rid of any empty containers aboard right after landing. Personnel Services Officer! You will have to be ready on landing to lodge the maximum number of people possible in our ship’s quarters. Reorganize the quarters attributed presently to the crew and have them double and triple up in order to free more space for refugees. Also, fit our communal lounges as sleeping quarters. However, do not use any of our storage compartments: we are going to fill them to capacity with equipment and supplies on landing. Coordinate your moves with the Quartermaster and ship security. Security Officer! Start planning the control measures needed for the safe and orderly embarkation of a minimum of ten million civilian refugees, along with a massive quantity of materiel. Plan as well for the possibility that panicky crowds could try to force their way on the ship. Your soldiers will have to be ready for everything, including the possibility of having to fire on rioters. To all the section heads: there will be an emergency command meeting in the bridge conference room in three hours. We will then discuss in detail the emergency evacuation of Alpha Centauri A-IV. That is all for the moment.’’
Once finished with his announcements, Ferguson sat back in his command chair and looked on the screens at the small blue dot that was Alpha Centauri A-IV. A feeling of despair filled him as he thought of the hours to come. Even if the MARCO POLO managed to fill its quarters and its holds to capacity and then leave for Earth, this would still save only a very small portion of the population of the planet, which counted over two billion inhabitants. The Alpha Centauri System had been the first extra-solar system ever to be colonized by Humans, and this nearly seventeen centuries ago, with the would-be colonists using sub-light ships powered by thermonuclear rocket engines that took a full 180 years to get to Alpha Centauri. The colonists, a mix of Scandinavians and Asians, had then developed on their own on the two habitable planets of the system, A-IV and B-III, for nearly a millennium before the invention of the molecular propulsion system had made possible frequent physical contacts with Earth. By then, the Centaurians, as they were called on Earth, had thoroughly mixed their ethnic Scandinavian and Asian genes and had adapted to the particular conditions of their new homes, making them a distinct new race in the Human family. Now, if he could go by the nearly panicky reaction of the Admiralty to that Morg threat, that race was now in danger of being exterminated. An exclamation from one of sensors operators on the bridge then took him out of his gloomy thoughts.
‘’Holy…! Look at that line of battleships in Quadrant 2! I have never seen so many of them in one place, even during fleet exercises.’’
Looking in the direction pointed by the operator, Ferguson then saw a group of 72 gigantic battleships hurrying towards the Northeast sector of the system. Each of those battleships had a diameter of 1,200 meters and were over 1,700 meter-long from bow to stern. They were also armed with disintegrator batteries that made the guns of the MARCO POLO look like toys in comparison. That group of 72 battleships represented a sum of firepower nearly impossible to describe. Yet, the Admiralty was sufficiently worried by the Morgs to have ordered the MARCO POLO to urgently evacuate all the civilians it could take. Ferguson couldn’t help feel renewed dread then.