Origins (4 page)

“In the end it was no one’s fault, and it was everyone’s fault.  The Novi were merely exploring the galaxy when they happened upon the Alpha and forever altered their perception of the galaxy.  The Alpha simply tried to protect themselves and become as technologically advanced as their competitor.  Both had ample opportunity to communicate and make peace with the other.  Neither side availed themselves of the opportunities that came and went. 

“The Alpha time line was fractured forever,” Hastelloy concluded.  “A once peaceful people transformed into a ruthless war machine bent on conquest.  The tragic result was war on a scale never seen before in the galaxy.

“This is where my personal story begins.  I’ve been alive for over 10,000 years.  I have spent that entire lifetime at war with the Alpha.”

With that last statement Dr. Holmes felt the need to interrupt and clarify a few things.  “So the method you and the Alpha use to travel great distances is space folding?  Could you describe that process for me please?”

Hastelloy seemed to welcome the break from his story and looked thoroughly satisfied that Dr. Holmes was engrossed enough in the story to ask clarifying questions.  “The technique is very complex, but the concept is quite simple.  You can take any two points in space, no matter how far apart and fold them together.  When these two points in space touch an event horizon is created and you can go through it, instantly moving to the new location.  It’s just like opening your office door and stepping through to the other side, but instead of moving to the next room, the space fold moves you to another point in space entirely.”

“Wow,” Jeffrey responded privately thinking how nice it would be to space fold to work rather than dealing with the construction delayed traffic each day.  “One other point I’d like to clarify is how you’re able to live so long?  Part of your story indicates the Novi species has a limited life span, while another section paints a story of an almost infinite life span.  Can you reconcile the differences for me?”

Dr. Holmes watched Hastelloy’s reaction very closely.  Pointing out this major inconsistency was the first challenge to the believability of his story.   The patient paused for a moment as the corners of his eyes and mouth ruffled ever so slightly.  He was mentally chastising himself for letting his story telling get away from him and now was struggling to find a way to bring it back together. 

Dr. Holmes, for his part, simply waited patiently for the reply and to find another hole to poke in the tale.  The hardened facial expressions eased and Hastelloy slowly leaned forward in his chair to deliver his response. 

“I can see where your confusion lies.  Prior to the Nexus, the typical life span of a Novi was about 200 earth years.  That all changed nearly 12,000 years ago when the Nexus was developed.”

“And what is this Nexus?” Jeffrey asked.

“Like all living things, the Novi feared the one certainty life brings with it - death.  The only difference is the Novi advanced enough technologically to do something about that former certainty. 

“About 2,000 years before my birth, a device was invented to capture an individual’s life force upon death and transfer that life force into another form.  Not just any form, but a cloned body that could be shaped into anything desired.  The only requirement is the individual needs to be within range of the device when their body dies.  That range is about 10,000 miles.  That may seem like a lot since it encompasses this entire planet, but it’s actually a very limited range when you’re moving about in space.”

Jeffrey could only sit and marvel at the creativity.  Not only did the concept of this Nexus device explain how he could have personally been alive for thousands of years to take part in all of human history.  It also explained how he and his crewmen could live on earth and pass themselves off as human beings.  They simply instructed this Nexus device to generate a body that looked human since it was utterly preposterous to believe that two species evolving on separate planets in separate parts of the galaxy could look anything like one another.

Hastelloy’s delusion was elegantly crafted and well reasoned, which unfortunately made Jeffrey’s job to cure him that much harder.  “That makes perfect sense to me now, thank you.  You mentioned a battle with the Alpha left you stranded on this planet, would you care to pick up your story from there?”

“My dear Dr. Holmes, I would be delighted,” Hastelloy replied.

“
We’re coming into
position behind Admiral Tridget’s command ship, Captain.”

“Thank you, Ensign Valnor,” Hastelloy acknowledged, “Maintain this distance and follow their lead.”

The captain looked up from the display built into his command chair to admire the image shown on the main viewer.  The new Thorin class battle cruiser lay larger than life in front of him.  The mammoth vessel was every bit as impressive as he’d hoped.  Hastelloy could plainly see the designers incorporated numerous aspects of his suggestions into the final product.  The ship was five miles long, two miles wide and only one hundred yards tall at its thickest point.  The vessel looked as if an elongated diamond had been squished flat leaving four shallow sloping sides that met in the middle facing up and an identical configuration facing down.  With the exception of the ion engines located at the center of each side panel, every square foot of the hull bristled with weaponry: wave blasters, ion cannons, fusion torpedo launchers, and pulls concussion launchers.  Every aspect of the ship screamed ‘go away or you’re going to get hurt.’  It was magnificent.

The only sound on the tiny, oval shaped command bridge of the Lazarus was the soft hum of the ion engines coursing through the ship as everyone sat mesmerized by the image in front of them.  Everyone except the brash young helmsman that is. 

“So that’s the new ship?” Valnor exclaimed with disappointment dripping from every syllable.  “I mean sure it brings a lot of fire power to the fight but that things got to maneuver like a fly stuck in honey, and they may as well paint a big bulls eye on those massive side panels.  What enemy ship could miss hitting that?  Who got drunk and drew up that design?  They must have been hitting the sauce for a couple weeks before giving it a go.”

Hastelloy slowly turned the relatively oversized head attached to his three foot tall body to look over at his first officer.  The man’s hairless white head rotated toward the captain until his rounded triangle shaped face dominated by two oversized black eyes met his.  The grin on Commander Gallono’s thin lips kept on growing and nearly passed the flat ears on either side of his head.  Clearly he couldn’t have been more amused had Valnor stepped on a garden rake to make the handle whip up and smack the young man in the face.  Gallono raised a hairless eyebrow as if to ask his captain, ‘should I give him some salt for that foot he just stuck in his mouth or would you care to do the honors?’  After serving with Gallono for over a thousand years, Hastelloy knew better than to give him the lead on this occasion.

“So helmsman, you believe the ship presents a large target to the enemy?” Captain Hastelloy asked rhetorically in a stern tone that only a seasoned officer of the fleet could project.  “That would depend on your perspective wouldn’t it, since combat in space takes place on three axes not just one.  It’s true the vessel presents a broad target on one axis, but it presents an almost non-existent target for the remaining two.  This is achieved while the Thorin is still able to fire its abundant array of weaponry in any direction.  As to your question about maneuverability, I challenge you to look at the monitor again and this time I want you to assume the designers did know what they were doing.  Give me your analytical assessment please.”

Valnor swallowed hard to dislodge the lump that had formed in his throat over the last couple seconds.  The entire crew was watching him now.  In addition to the captain and commander, Tomal was now looking up from his free standing engineering station that stood just behind the Captain on his left side.  Even Tonwen, the science officer, was listening to see what happened next from his station positioned behind the Captain’s right side. 

After looking at the ship displayed on the forward wall of the cramped bridge for a few seconds Valnor summoned the courage to deliver his thoughts.  “Each of the eight sides has its own ion engine.  This would allow the helmsman to rotate the ship at a moments notice in any direction to constantly present the narrow profile to the enemy while still being able to fire its full complement of weaponry at the attacking ship.  How did I miss that before?  It’s brilliant.”

Hastelloy continued the lesson, “You missed it because you instantly closed your mind to other possibilities.  You jumped to a conclusion and formed all of your logical arguments around that initial assumption.  You’d do well to evaluate a situation objectively throughout your reasoning process.  That way you’ll be free to see the whole picture.”

“I see your point, Captain,” Valnor conceded.  “May I ask how you were able to so quickly assess the advantages the Thorin is able to utilize?”

Gallono could stay silent no longer.  With a chuckle he finally spoke up, “Valnor, over the next few years while serving under Captain Hastelloy you’ll see countless instances of his keen mind at work.  I assure you this is not one of them.

“The Captain was the lead battlefield consultant on the design team for the Thorin class battle cruiser,” Gallono continued.  “All the ship’s features you just described were incorporated into the design as a direct result of the Captain’s knowledge gained while commanding the fifth fleet for the last 100 years.  There’s no more experienced combat officer in the armed services than the man who sits in that chair.  Didn’t you read up on your commanding officer before joining the crew?

“I came here right out of the academy.  I finished my last exam one day, got married the next, and the day after that I was on board and busy learning
the ship.  Regrettably I didn’t get around to reviewing the crew profiles,” Valnor conceded. 

The helmsman’s bald head sank into his chest, and the rest of his body followed the example and slid lower into the chair.  If it could have, Hastelloy was certain the young man’s body would have melted into the ventilation grate in the floor to leave the embarrassing moment behind.  He decided to let the kid off the hook. 

“Personally, I prefer my helmsman spend all his time learning how to fly my ship than having his nose buried in my biography.  A captain, on the other hand, should know his crewmen forward and back.  On that note, congratulations on the child you and your wife are expecting Valnor.  Fatherhood will suit you.”

“Thank you, Captain, and I appreciate you throwing me a life line by changing the subject, but I am curious about something.   You were the admiral in charge of the fifth fleet for 100 years, have seen more combat than any other Novan alive, and you were instrumental in designing the command ship out there.   Why are you now in command of this basically unarmed Collector class ship and not aboard the Thorin leading the entire fleet?”

Hastelloy fought back the urge to scream at the top of his lungs, ‘because some weak stomached politician decided to put the screws to me, and he succeeded thanks to the other cowardly politicians who run the council.’ But no, playing the victim role didn’t suit Hastelloy.  What’s more, it would not do for his crew to hear their commander challenging the wisdom and integrity of the council.  An openly disgruntled commander soon finds himself surrounded by an insubordinate and unmotivated crew.  The greater good was served by Hastelloy playing his part as a noble statesman who felt privileged to serve. 

“Ensign, your question implies that serving on board a collector ship attached to a battle fleet is an undesirable assignment,” Hastelloy said with the utmost conviction.  “On the contrary, I envy you for having this opportunity so early in your career.  The duty of a collector ship is to monitor the battle, and maneuver within Nexus range of any and every ship about to be destroyed.  When a thousand ships are engaged in a space battle taking place over millions of square miles, it’s virtually impossible to get within the 10,000 mile range of every vessel in danger, yet that is what’s expected of us.

“In order to perform this duty the collector ship’s crew must anticipate the dangers before they happen, not after events begin to unfold and it is too late to act.  This seeming ability to predict the future requires a keen mind to interpret the tactics and tendencies of our fleet commanders as well as the enemy leaders.  You’ll learn more about the art of space warfare in a single battle on this ship than most officers in the fleet will acquire in their entire career.”

Hastelloy sat in his command chair passively looking at the helmsman trying to determine if the impressionable young ensign bought what he just heard.  In the back of his mind he hoped Gallono had the good sense to remain quiet.  Alas, he did not.

“That’s all well and good, Captain, but you left out the part about achieving the greatest victory our people ever scored against the Alpha and then being handed a demotion by the council for your trouble,” Gallono stated bitterly.

Hastelloy calmly looked over at Gallono, clearly conveying his disappointment.  It was too late though.  The story had already begun and at this point the other bridge officers didn’t even bother pretending they were doing anything other than listening to the tale.

“The tragedy unfolded like this,” Gallono continued.   “The fifth fleet was skirmishing with the enemy’s beta sector fleet for weeks.  We only had 800 ships while the Alpha had over 3,000 operating in the sector.  Admiral Hastelloy correctly reasoned the Alpha were not falling for any of our false attacks to try and lure them out of position because our collector ship was not a part of the attack group.  The enemy understood all too well the directive from the council.  They knew no combat was to be initiated without a collector ship and the Nexus being near by to gather the crew of any destroyed ships.  Knowing this, if the Alpha commanders didn’t detect a collector ship they simply ignored the threat and reinforced themselves where they correctly anticipated our main attack would come.

“Admiral Hastelloy made the bold choice to send the collector ship and 50 escort vessels off in one direction with orders to make a hell of a lot of noise,” Gallono continued.  “While that was going on the rest of the fleet rushed their shipyards in the Beta system.  We caught them completely by surprise and with their fleet divided.  Before the Alpha knew what hit them, we destroyed over 1,000 vessels while only losing ten Hastati class cruisers before the collector ship could make the space fold back to the main attack group. 

“From there we proceeded to completely annihilate the rest of their Beta sector fleet, obliterate their ship yard and achieved the real prize of freeing species Beta from the enemy’s control and ending their enslavement. 

“In the end we destroyed over 2,900 Alpha ships while only losing 300 from our fleet.  And let me restate that only ten of those vessels were lost while the collector ship was out of position.  The crews of the other 290 ships were gathered by the Nexus and transferred to new forms without incident.”

Valnor slowly shifted his gaze from Gallono to the captain.  “I learned about the liberation of species Beta in the academy but how it was accomplished was never really addressed.  Why weren't you paraded through the great hall and hailed as a hero on every news publication in the Republic?  A victory of that scale against those odds is the stuff of legend.”

“I like the way he thinks, Captain; I would’ve preferred a hero’s welcome to the real events that followed,” Gallono stated dryly.  “As it turns out a very prominent council member’s son was on board one of the ten ships lost in the early fighting. 

“There were no parties or a hero’s welcome for admiral Hastelloy.  Instead there were inquisitions and a court martial hearing into the admiral’s ‘misconduct.’ All of this of course was instigated by some bureaucrat playing armchair warrior from the safety of the council chamber on Novus.  If that coward had gotten everything he wanted, Hastelloy would have faced a firing squad.  Instead we’re here serving in the same fleet Hastelloy used to command under an admiral he once instructed at the academy.”

Hastelloy had to put a stop to Gallono’s tirade.   Every cell in his body wanted to stand up and applaud his sentiment, and as always, he was touched by Gallono’s fierce loyalty to him.  However, order had to be maintained on the ship.

“Enough Gallono, you over dramatize things as usual,” Hastelloy stated sternly.  “First of all, I disobeyed a directive from the Council to never initiate an engagement without a collector ship present.  That alone is enough to warrant a court martial; regardless of the outcome.  It was not my place to disobey the council’s well thought out and long debated policies.” 

Hastelloy had to fight back the urge to vomit after uttering his last statement.  “Secondly, by the council’s good graces they chose only to strip me of my admiralty.  To help me better learn the value a collector ship provides a fleet, they granted me the command of this vessel.  Thirdly, you insisted on being reassigned to this position under my command so you forfeit any right to complain about your lot in life.” 

An alert came up on his view screen mid sentence. “And fourth, Admiral Tridget just sent out a warning that multiple space fold horizons have been detected.  We need to prepare for combat.”