Galactic Alliance 3: Honor Thy Enemy (11 page)

The Captain glanced at his tactical display and said, “Coms, warn the battle group. See if you can link to their battlenet.”

The crew of the
Vaen Runach
never did figure out how they managed to escape death but somehow they eluded most of the Chroniech’s desperate attempts to blast them out of space. The Chroniech Captain eventually lost interest in Msul’s ship when the Omel battle group made its appearance. Two dreadnoughts, five battleships, five destroyers, and ten cruisers dropped out of stardrive 140,000 kilometers from the battleship. After some brief maneuvering the Alliance fleet approached the Chroniech ship.

“All ships ready to fire at your mark,” the communications operator on the lead Omel dreadnought reported.

“Weapons, you may fire as soon as all ships are within range,” the Captain ordered. “Do you have an analysis of those energy surges yet?”

“Acknowledged,” came the instant reply. “Distance to target 128,000 kilometers. The energy surges appear to be some sort of soliton-based weapon being charged. The Chroniech may have copied our sledgehammers.”

At a distance of 120 thousand kilometers the Chroniech battleship opened fire. Four dazzlingly bright spheres of raw power erupted from the ship and screamed through space at nearly a quarter light speed, each one targeting a different ship. One of these spheres struck the shield of an Omel dreadnought and, for an instant, seemed to stick to the shield’s immaterial surface like a pimple on a teenager’s face.

Overloaded at the point of impact, the shield failed locally and a blast of uncontrollable energy streamed through the breach. Armor literally exploded off the side of the dreadnought throwing white-hot glowing debris in all directions. Liquefied and gasified armor blasted its way into the ship’s interior creating a momentary inferno hotter than the surface of star. The superheated air created a pressure wave that buckled bulkheads and blew hatches off their hinges. The destructive effects of the blast dissipated as it worked its way further into the ship.

Although the dreadnought was not destroyed, it had been seriously damaged. A hole large enough to fly a shuttle through had been blasted into the side of the ship. The engineering and stardrive had been spared but a good portion of the ship had been rendered lifeless. The other three targets were less fortunate. Two destroyers and a heavy cruiser had been reduced to useless and mostly lifeless wrecks.

Before the stunned Commander could determine the extent of the damage wrought by the Chroniech’s first attack, four beams of death reached out and touched the shield of another Alliance battleship. Even though they were at the limits of their range, the four beams still delivered enough power to burn through the defender’s shield. Armor glowed, melted, then puffed out into space.

The Chroniech weapons were not only powerful, but accurate as well. The weapons burned an unerringly direct path into and then through the ship’s shield generator. Once the shield was down, the unimpeded weapons quickly rendered the battleship useless.

As the Chroniech turned their weapons on another target the remaining Alliance ships responded in unison. Dozens of sledgehammers and beams converged on the enemy ship. The Chroniech’s shield was unable to withstand the incredible amount of energy pouring into it. Several beams and nearly a dozen sledgehammers blew past the shield and impacted against the ship’s hull. Overwhelmed by superior numbers and firepower the Chroniech battleship ended its existence in a brilliant fusion explosion when an Omel missile detonated upon impact.

Moments before the battle had begun, Captain Msul had ordered his ship to retreat at maximum acceleration. Although the crew had survived, the
Vaen Runach
had taken a severe pounding. Huge holes had appeared in the once smooth armor and most of the ship was without air. Their task completed, the Alliance fleet stood down from battle stations, reported their success, and waited for further orders.

In the
Rin’Bak’s
fleet operations center Fleet Commander Chomach watched the progress of battle to eliminate the Chroniech ships that had infiltrated Alliance space. Over the course of the next hour and a half eleven Chroniech warships ranging from light cruisers to battleships were intercepted and destroyed. Each time a battle group engaged a Chroniech ship, Chomach’s fear of the future increased. When it was finally over, Chomach tallied the numbers and composed a very bleak report which was quickly transmitted to headquarters.

Even though each Chroniech ship had been assaulted with an undeniably superior force, the enemy had shown their strength. Thirty-six Alliance spacecraft had been damaged beyond repair and now floated alone and lifeless in deep space. Another six ships, four of them dreadnoughts, would require several weeks in a shipyard to repair the damage that had been done.

It was blatantly obvious that the Chroniech had significantly improved both their offensive and defensive capabilities. And, if the Kyrra report of the Chroniech building a massive invasion fleet was correct, there would be a large number of these advanced ships for the Alliance to deal with. If the Chroniech ever managed to breach the Kyrra barrier and mount an all out attack the Alliance would be doomed.

An Act of Mercy

Three days had passed since the
Komodo Dragon
entered Chroniech space. Burning a hole through the aether at 11,121 times the velocity of light the
Dragon
had been steadily closing on their final destination which Stricklen had been shocked to learn was located not too far from the center of Chroniech controlled space.

Several times along the way they had made small course corrections to avoid contact with Chroniech ships and to keep their distance from the known deep space monitor stations which might be able to track their position. The location of hundreds of these stations had been part of the stellar cartography data provided by the Kyrra. Due to the fact that the stations were cloaked, the list was by no means complete.

Ken was sitting in the Captain’s command chair discussing the situation with Doug. The day before, Ken had asked permission to take part in the routine watch rotation. After discussing the issue with Councilor Warden and Commodore Scarboro, Captain Sheppard had granted permission. Ken had visited the councilor several times since their first encounter and his emotional stability had been steadily improving.

Elizabeth had actually suggested to Ken during their last session that he become part of the bridge rotation. This would give him a more defined purpose and keep his mind occupied on matters other than the death of his wife. The longer he could keep from dwelling on his loss the less painful the memory would become over time. He had just relieved Captain Sheppard so she could get some dinner and was still settling into the watch.

“I still don’t understand why they haven’t come after us,” Ken shook his head.

Doug sipped his seemingly ever-present coffee and replied, “Well, they didn’t have much luck fifteen years ago – why would they bother to try again? We’re far too fast for them. Besides, we have an advantage this time – we know where a lot of their deep space tracking stations are located. “

“They’re cloaked!” Ken argued. “The Kyrra couldn’t possibly have found them all. That fact was made clear in their transmission.”

“True. But the fact remains that we are able to outrun even their fastest ships. They won’t bother us unless we give them an opportunity.”

“It still bothers me,” Ken replied as he scanned a ship’s status report he had called up on his console. “They haven’t even tried. It’s as if they are thumbing their noses at us.”

Doug watched his friend in silence for a few moments. Ken seemed to be recovering quite nicely from his depression. Although he still preferred to remain in his stateroom most of the time he no longer avoided all contact with the crew. However, he was still not the person Doug had known fifteen years ago. He was worried about a relapse which was one reason why he was on the bridge now.

Unsatisfied with Doug’s silence Ken continued, “We are headed into the heart of their empire you know. And I’m sure they periodically move their tracking stations. They’re tracking us, perhaps not continuously, but they know we are here and the bastards aren’t doing anything about us. I don’t like it.”

Doug chugged the last of his coffee before replying, “Stop worrying Ken. The Kyrra know what they are doing. They would not have sent us into the middle of Chroniech space without having some sort of plan in mind.”

Ken huffed in disbelief. “The Kyrra are not known for their military tactics. I wouldn’t bet that… ”

“Contact dead ahead!” the science station loudly reported. “Distance 22 mega-klics, 3.1 minutes.”

The navigator quickly checked his own display and reported, “No course correction required. We will clear by 200 kilo-klics.”

This sort of thing happened once or twice a watch as the speeding ship encountered wandering chunks of rock large enough to threaten the integrity of the ship’s drive field. Smaller objects were of no concern because they did not possess a large enough gravitational field to interfere with the stardrive fields. While a ship under stardrive did not physically exist in normal space the drive fields did and those fields could be disrupted by disturbances in the space-time continuum.

Following standard procedure, the ship’s computer had initiated a detailed scan of the object. The science station glanced at the results then amended his report. “Captain, the object is not natural. It looks like the remains of a large ship.”

Stricklen glanced at the long-range tactical display then said, “Helm, slow us down and bring us in a little closer. Science, give me a deep scan.”

“What are you doing Ken?” Doug asked suddenly concerned. “We have a time schedule to meet. Stopping to look at a wreck in the middle of enemy territory might not be a good idea.”

“Accidents happen,” Ken replied, “and ships are lost for no apparent reason. If that,” pointing toward the icon that had appeared on the tactical display, “is a Chroniech warship we have an opportunity to possibly gain some vital intelligence concerning their technology. Isn’t that worth a few hours delay?”

Doug looked at the numbers appearing on the science station’s screens then over to the long-range tactical screen and finally at his wrist chronometer. “Very well,” he reluctantly replied looking into his empty coffee cup. “I will inform the Captain. Besides, I need another cup of coffee.”

Stricklen turned to the helm and ordered, “Bring us as close as you can then drop to normal.”

On his way out the hatch Doug turned around and said, “Be careful Ken. This might be coincidence or it could be a Chroniech trap.”

As if in response, Ken turned his attention to the tactical station. “Mr. Corder, keep an eye on our long-range screens and let me know if you see anything suspicious.”

The
Dragon
dropped into normal space 20,000 kilometers from the ship and spent a few minutes maneuvering to match velocities with it. Three probes were launched to begin a detailed scan of the wreckage.

The normal-space sensors, being able to discern more detail than the longer-range FTL-based sensors, quickly confirmed the fact that they had indeed happened upon the wreckage of what had once been a large spaceship.

“I wonder why she didn’t self-destruct,” Captain Sheppard remarked a moment after she entered the bridge with Doug trailing behind. Both were carrying cups of coffee. Doug's, as always, was in a tall cup filled only half full to prevent it from sloshing out while he carried it while Sheppard's was in an insulated mug with a cover.

Stricklen started to get up but sat back down as Sheppard motioned for him to remain in the command chair. All Chroniech warships the Alliance had ever encountered had self-destructed when their ship’s computer had detected they were no longer able to defend themselves in battle. It was one reason so little information concerning Chroniech technology was available.

“I don’t think this is, or rather was, a warship,” Chief Petty Officer Gunther at the science station replied. “If this had been a warship we would be picking up multiple radiation sources from the fusion reactor cores used to power the weapons. So far, we’ve only found evidence of only three – far too few for a warship.”

“Any idea what took her out or how long ago it happened?” Stricklen asked.

“I don’t know what did it, but it happened fairly recently,” Chief Gunther replied. “I’ve calculated the trajectory of the largest pieces and, based upon their relative velocities, whatever damaged this ship did so within the last several hours. If I had to guess, I would say that it started in engineering. The ship has split into… hold on a minute.”

The science operator turned his attention to his control console for a moment then looked back up at Stricklen with a surprised look on his face. “There may be survivors in the wreckage sir. I’m picking up some very faint EM readings from inside three of the largest pieces.”

“Crap!” Doug exclaimed while looking back at the long range tactical display. “We can’t pick up their transmissions which means they may very well be telling someone we are here.”

“Doubtful,” Chief Gunther said. “Their transmitters are based on transdimensional technology and that requires a tremendous amount of power. What I’m picking up looks more like small portable power units. Nothing over a few kilowatts.”

Captain Sheppard moved toward the command chair motioning for Ken to vacate it. “Helm, bring us to a halt. Science, move the probes in closer. Tactical, sound battle stations.”

Ken reluctantly relinquished his seat and walked over to stand next to the science station. As the alarm klaxon sounded and the ship came to battle readiness Ken bent down and asked, “Can you determine how many people are inside?”

“I can bring one of the probes in closer,” Mr. Gunther replied as he entered several commands into his console. “The IR sensors should be able to detect individuals at close range.”

Captain Sheppard had settled into the command seat and reconfigured the screens to her liking. After ensuring that the ship was battle ready she turned to Doug and said, “What do you think Commodore – a trap?”