Chronicles of Athena Lee (2 page)

The cruiser and its escorts moved slowly through the sector. The mapping data from the previous survey was holding true, so far anyway. As his ships approached the asteroid belt Captain Carver began to tense up. The area they were approaching was where the battle took place. Many spacers called this area the 'Graveyard of the Lost.'

Captain Carver was in his Ready Room working when he heard his name being called. “Captain to the bridge, Captain to the bridge.” He dropped what he was working on and hurried out of the room.

'Report!” The Captain shouted as he entered the room.

“Sir, we are picking up an anomaly ahead of us inside the asteroid belt. Sensors show that is is highly metallic.”

They disturbed him for this? “Ensign, that should be the battle site. The wreckage from two fleets is there.

“Sir, we don't think the fleets are what we are picking up. Sensors detected active weapons in he area.”

That brought the captain up short. “Weapons? That is a bit strange, there could be ships with trace amounts of power.” He turned to the XO. “Bring the ship to a state of readiness, just in case. Communications, have the destroyer escort scout ahead and look for those traces with active sensors.”

The two escorts moved ahead of the cruiser at twice it's speed, sensors active and scanning ahead.

The XO turned to his captain. “Sir, the destroyers say they have found something.”

“XO, transfer their scans to the main screen. Lets take a look.

The whole bridge was in shock. “What the hell is that thing!”

Chapter 3

15 years ago

The three basic things that they teach at the Academy when it comes to survival is: food, water, and shelter. I added a fourth to that, air. I need air and life support and I need it now.

This ship carries both a shuttle and a small runabout, they should be in the hanger bay. The trouble was getting to, the hanger bay with all of this wreckage in the way.

Either ship can save my life. They both have life support systems.

The main hatch from engineering used to be in front of me. There is now a very large hole there. I guess that I was luck that hole didn't bisect the ship and kill me.

“The next time that someone offers to show you around the ship, let them you idiot.”

Talking to yourself is a sure sign of going insane.

I had only been on the ship for less than a month. I thought I was this big bad engineer and didn’t need directions. Hindsight just sucks!

It seemed like I crawled through wreckage for hours, before I found the C.I.C. room. Using the computers I found the ship schematics. I wasted another hour navigating through the access duct that crisscrossed the ship.

Finally reaching the hanger bay my air supply has almost empty. I was down to 30 minutes of life. Scrambling across some bent and twisted bulkhead supports, I spotted a nearby fire locker. Inside I found several air cartridges. I had more air, for now.

Thank to space gods! Both ships were in the hanger bay. Only the runabout was of any use. A large section of bulkhead had fallen and had crushed the shuttle flat.

Clearing some fallen equipment away I opened the hatch and crawled into the runabout. It was a small matter to engage life support. Finally having air to breathe was a miracle. I took off my skin suit and helmet. Three days with a suit on can make you a bit rank.

The runabout would be able to get me to the construction site. The station we had been building had plenty of supplies. One problem was that the runabout could not leave the system. No interstellar drive on something this small. I could use impulse speed, but that would take around 50 years to get home. Unless I could find something on one of the ships, it looked like I was stuck in this sector!

The asteroid station had air. The long term supplies were in storage pods waiting to be used so I had my food, water, shelter an air covered. I had helped to build this base so I knew were everything was on board it. One huge problem, damn it. No communications. They had been scheduled to be installed later this week. The parts and sections of the system were now spread throughout the nebula. The ship they were on had been totally destroyed in the nuclear explosion that claimed the fleet.

Several huge construction drones sat piled near the entrance. Those may be useful, I thought to myself. The Tesla had a pretty good engineering and technical library. If it had survived I may have something to pass the time.

I opened the door to the base and looked around. I got settled and went to work. I was an engineer. Lets go engineer something!

Chapter 4

Present Day: Aboard the EOM Prosperous

The entire bridge crew was in shock at pictures sent by the destoyer’s showed a battle station on the screen.

Clearly built from an asteroid, the station was menacing looking with jagged edges and apparent spikes. Closer inspection showed it to be a crazy-quilt of wrecked ships and scap metal.

“Communications, contact Captain Buckley on the Redcoat. Have him close with that ‘station’ and scan it. Also contact Captain Richards,on the Jethro Gibbs. Tell him to scan the surrounding area. I’m worried about hidden ships or weapons.”

“Captain! The Redcoat reports they have been scanned by the station. Weapons guidance beams are locking on to them.”

Captain Carver turned to the communication ensign. “Tell Buckley not to provoke that station!”

“Sir, we have a signal coming in. It’s from the station.”

“Put it on screen.” The captain turned to look at the main screen.

The visual screen lit up to show a short, attractive blond woman with slight Asian features. She was wearing an obsolete Pan-Pacific Navy uniform with ensign rank showing.

“
Identify yourselves or be destroyed!
”

Captain Carver caught the eye of the ensign. “
Communications, send this please.” Carver straighten up. “This is Captain Carver of the Empire of Humanity ship Prosperous. I am in command of this patrol. Who are you?”

The ensign cocked her head to one side.
“My name is Ensign Athena Lee of the Pan-Pacific League navy. Who or what is the Empire of Humanity? Are you allies with the Anglican Alliance?”

“Ensign? The PPL and the AA have been gone for 15 years. They don’t exist anymore. It is only the Empire now. Who are you really? Who built this station?
” Finding out who built that station was important.

The blond ensign looked angry. “
This is my station, I built it. I don’t believe you, Captain!
”

Not sure what to say the Captain was silent for a moment.

“So, what are you saying? Your empire just conquered everyone? Or are you trying to trick me? Is that what you are doing? Is it?
“ The ensign was getting more and more erratic.

“Ensign after the battle that was fought, here, in this system. The peacemakers sat down and hammered out an accord. That accord is what founded our Empire. The war has been over for you a long time
.” The Captain replied.

“
I’m afraid that I don’t believe you Captain. The PPL that I belong to would not do something like that. They would not just give up! I don’t respond well to tricks. Do not come any closer. Tell that sneaky destroyer to stop trying to flank the station. The area that it is sneaking through is filled with unexploded ordinance and junk. It is a huge minefield.”

Captain Carver whirled to his right. “Communications contact the Redcoat. Tell Captain Buckley to hold his position!”

On board the Redcoat, Captain Ringo Buckley was thinking about his future. He was envisioning himself riding to the rescue destroying the enemy. Ringo came from a family of warriors. There had been a Buckley fighting in every remembered conflict. In the was war a Buckley had fought on both sides.

When Ringo had gotten this assignment he had thought that HIS chance for fame and glory was never to be. A survey mission? No aliens to kill or hostages to free with something like that. Now finding a rogue station was like gold. This was his chance to have is name in the history books. His chance for personal glory. Hopefully that rogue station was full of pirates or terrorists.

Buckley had stretched his orders to the limit. He had closed with the station and had scanned it. Now he thought to flank it. He thought that if he could get into a better striking position he could lead the attack! Fame and glory awaited.

“Sir, have you been monitoring the broadcasts from that station?” The sound of hi XO’s voice woke him from his day dream. Seeing that it was just the XO, Buckley ignored him and ordered flank speed from navigation.

“Uh, Sir, we were just told there was a minefield out here in this area.” The XO was frantic. “Sir, haven’t you been paying attention?”

Captain Buckley turned and looked his XO in the eye. “You are of course aware of the standing orders that forbid line troops from obeying orders from the enemy, aren’t you? We have orders to scout and scan the area. Until I hear otherwise that is what we will do!” Pointing to the rear of the station. “ I choose over there it scout.”

“CAPTAIN!” The navigation lieutenant was screaming. “We are being tracked by multiple sources. Tracking….tracking…Alert! Multiple-in-bounds! I am tracking fifty, that is five zero in bound tracks. Suggest evasive action.”

With the tactical officer screaming at him too, the captain simply froze. Shaking his head to clear it he ordered evasive maneuvers. “Get us out of here!”

“Damn you, Captain,” cried the XO. “Your arrogance has killed us!”

The light destroyer was hit with over 50 antimatter torpedoes and other surrounding munitions as it entered the active minefield. The Redcoat exploded in a bright flash of light.

Another Buckley had entered the history books.

Chapter5

The past, 10 years ago

Athena was bored.

The last time she was this bored she had built a space station! Thinking back five years ago she wondered why she did it.

The asteroid base had been easy to finish setting up. It had a small hydroponics lab that was super easy to put together.

“I need something to do, and I really need to stop talking to myself. Before I know it inanimate objects will be talking back!”

I suited up and went to the hanger bay. Using the runabout I made my way back to the Tesla. The ship still a mess inside. Very carefully, I picked my way in and around the wreckage. The room that contained the technical library had been damaged but no any of the media inside.

Engineers like hard copy records. Nothing is left to chance in case a ship loses power.

Talking to myself again, “how do I get all this back to the asteroid?”

Staring at the piles and boxes of books I pondered that question. A light lit over my head. The Tesla, like many of the other support ships used piloted drones for a variety of jobs. I had seen quite a few of those drones as I explored the ship. The next day my boredom was gone and I had boxes of books to devour.

Having my own library was great. I spent the next couple of weeks boning up on how space stations were built and maintenance procedures for bases. The tech manuals that I found on weapon systems were very interesting. All this reading made me think of something I had missed. The floating debris of two fleets surrounded me. The enemy ships along with others from my fleet might have information that I could use.

Exploration time.

First things first.

PPL ships first. Exploring ‘my’ fleet was both heart breaking and informative. Our ships had been support not battle wagons. After the explosion there really was not much left. I did find a few broken or damaged drones. Lots of drifting supplies in fancy shipping containers.