The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception (10 page)

"Good" The captain said. "Can you provide any insight into how to communicate with these D'lralu?"

"
The D'lralu typically do not communicate unless it is in their best interest.
"

"Can we use that somehow to get them to talk?"

"
Unlikely Captain Ramchandani, their 'best interest' seems to be to eradicate any potential competing intelligences. They live by a strict 'conquer or be conquered' philosophy.
"

"So in all the time you been dealing with them they have never even been willing to talk peace?"

"
That is correct. My people at first could not comprehend their desire to kill, to the last entity, every race they encountered. We reached out to them in every way we could, but the result was always the same. If they talked it was always in an effort to further the goal of Heshe annihilation
."

"So you do know how to communicate with them?"

"
Affirmative. They will respond to their language broadcast using frequency modulation near the 10th multiple of liquid waters absorption frequency.
"

"Mr. Cortez?"

"One second Sir... Let me do some quick math... OK that would be something on the order of 24.5 GHz.  We can do that, Sir.  But Sir, as far as I know we don't have anyone that speaks their language."

The captain looked at his First Officer and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Sir" Cat offered "I believe my Heshe encounter unit might be able to help. It was designed to allow two way communications with just about everyone the Heshe have run into over several millennia."

"How far away are our visitors?"

Cat checked her board. "They've slowed way down. They must have good inertial dampeners or be able to really handle some G's. They are about 45 seconds out."

"Commander, open a channel and try to engage our visitors in a conversation... It may not buy us anything, but I'll be damned if I'm going to fight somebody without even trying to talk."

"Aye, Sir" Cat responded. "Lt. Cortez, go ahead and open 24.5 gigahertz... Let's see if they feel chatty."

"Yes Ma'am. Channel open"

Cat engaged her encounter unit. Although the words she tried to say were English, the sounds that uttered from her throat were more like those of a growling wolf pack. Because of her training under the tutelage of Cal's progenitor, Yarin Prime, she was somewhat accustomed to the odd sensation of saying one thing and hearing another.

"D'lralu vessel. You have entered the Earth system. The United Space Command welcomes you if your intentions are peaceful. Please advise us of your intentions"

***

Third of Nine was forever amazed by this species. They would be good hunting indeed. Somehow they had learned the mother tongue! He had no idea what this ' United Space Command' was, other than food for his pups. Third of Nine did something he rarely took the time to do. He decided he would get to know his prey before he killed them, so he opened a channel to respond.

"Earth vessel, I am Third of Nine from the House of the Grey. To whom am I speaking?"

Cat heard the response and knew immediately what was being said, but it was clear from the looks of confusion on the faces of the bridge crew that she was alone. She had a sudden thought.
'Cal, can you tie into my encounter unit and the ships intercoms and provide a real-time two way translation?'

Cal responded by providing the requested translation services. The D'lralu's message was translated for the crew.

"Captain you can respond and Cal will transmit the proper translation" Cat offered.

The captain raised his eyebrow in acknowledgment of her statement then, continuing out loud "Third of Nine, this is Debu Ramchandani, Captain of the United Space Command vessel Bowman. Please state your intentions."

"Captain of the Bowman. Does your race like to play?"

Ramchandani looked around his bridge as he mulled over this question. It was not one he was expecting. "In our experience all intelligent animals like to play. For what purpose are you asking?"

"Sir, sensors show him powering up weapons" Cat said as soon as her board indicated the power surge on the alien craft.

"Helm! Full reverse" Ramchandani yelled.

Suddenly the ship rocked as powerful energy beams lashed at her hull.

"Report"

"We were just hit with a 250 mega joule coherent energy beam. The displacement generators worked as designed."

"He's firing again" Shelby yelled.

This time it seemed as if the world were ending. The ship roiled amidst energies orders of magnitude more powerful.

"Captain, that last beam was almost off the charts.
Easily 10,000 plus mega joules. We can't take many more like that" Cat yelled over the din of emergency klaxons.

"Helm get us out of here... Jump" Ramchandani yelled.

"Sir we don't have a jump solution..."

"I don't care how far we jump... Jump us one kilometer if you have to - but jump this ship and do it now!"

"Roger, Sir... Jumping in 5, 4..."

"Damn it" the captain yelled as he dove forward towards the helm... "Don’t count - just jump!"

Just as the captain’s hand hit the jump button the ship was rocked with yet another energy blast. Part of the energy was diverted around the ship
but as the shields collapsed for 32 milliseconds just prior to the jump the D'lralu's weapons vaporized a ten foot wide hole clear through the ship. Hot plasma started to explode through the adjacent areas but the super-hot gasses were drawn out of the Bowman by the vacuum of space. The jump engines were spared, but the power grid surged under the energetic onslaught and the mains burned out seconds after the jump concluded. The bowman had jumped only about 20 thousand kilometers. In the general direction of the Pluto system.

The bridge was a mess. The blast that holed the ship had traveled from a point near the shuttle bay thru the bottom third of the ship and out a point just aft of the bridge. The airtight doors had closed automatically but not before an explosive decompression of most of the surrounding spaces including the bridge. Cat was nearly sucked through the airtight doors in the first few of seconds of decompression.

Cat's ultra-adaptive nanite systems kept her functioning. The others on the bridge were not so fortunate. She ordered the computer to repressurize as fast as possible, but the sixty seconds it took seemed like eons to her.

Shelby was dead. She had been right next to a panel that shorted out when the mains blew. Cortez was breathing, but red foam was frothing from his mouth. The decompression had caused his lungs to burst. Cat knew he was not long for the world if she could not get him to sickbay. A quick glance around the room did not show the captain. With no one else on the bridge and many systems down Cat knew she needed help if she was going to salvage the Bowman.

"Cal, I need you to interface with the Bowman's AI. Can you do that?"

"
Affirmative
."

"Get a message to sickbay... We need a team up here ASAP. Also coordinate with engineering... We need to get power back. Half the bridge systems are out, and I'm blind."

Suddenly every system that was not physically damaged came back online.

"That was fast" Cat commented.

"
I have rerouted connections through multiple secondary systems to supply sensor data and minimal power.
"

"Cal can you give me a status?"

"
The enemy's beam weapon penetrated the hull and depressurized 27% of the ship. Eleven crewmen are confirmed dead. The main power conduits absorbed some of energy of the beam weapon and as a result many were overloaded. Hyper drive is offline, rail guns are offline, active shielding is offline, and life support is functioning well below safe levels. CO2 poisoning will become an issue for most of the crew within the next 36 hours.
"

"What's the status of the other ship?"

"
The D'lralu vessel is still scanning for us. I estimate it will locate us in another 10 to 20 minutes. After that, it will take him just under four hours to reach us.
"

"So we have something on the order of four hours to figure this mess out" Cat commented dryly.

Cat turned as she heard noises at the door to the bridge. It was then that she noticed her uniform was severely torn and burned along the complete length of her left leg and yet the skin below appeared completely fine. "
Was I hurt and didn't even know it?
" she thought.

The door to the bridge opened. Ken Kimbridge was holding what looked to be the 22nd century equivalent of a crowbar in both his hands as he poked his head through the partially opened airtight door. "It looks clear doctor"

Dr. Riley pushed past the engineer and immediately made his way to Lt. Cortez.

"Any word on the captain?" Cat asked Lt. Commander Kirkland as he entered the ruined bridge.

His look was grim as he gave her a hesitant shake of his head. "The blast sucked him out of the bridge. He didn't have a chance once the airtight doors closed. It only took the automated worker drones a few minutes to patch the hull and begin repressurizing but he was asphyxiated and flash frozen in those few moments."

Cat bowed her head and said a prayer for her friend and captain. He had not been able to fully trust her yet because of her alien heritage but he had wanted to. She was sure they would have eventually become best of friends. Stiffening her shoulders she recognized she now had a job to do.

"Cal says we lost eleven total. How is engineering?"

"Fine, we were lucky" Ken said. "Environmental was hit pretty hard though. They lost the entire shift... All nine crewmen were sucked out the breach... Captain"