The Solarian Celebration: Book 3 of the Alliance Conflict (19 page)

Kolvak couldn’t believe how the Alliance dominated the battle. He asked Colin, “I don’t remember this battle from the historical archives.  What battle was this and who was flying the Alliance fighters?”

Colin replied, “This was a training simulation.  There are two full squadrons of fighter pilots aboard.  We were able to assemble a third squadron using crew members.”

Kolvak said, “You were able to assemble a third squadron from crew members?”

Colin said, “Yes.  Although I think the appropriate term is reserves.  Anyway, the Third squadron consists of the 5 marines, 10 crew members from the second embarkation, Jim and Russ, the engineer named John, and finally the 2 crew members from the third embarkation.”

Kolvak asked, “So what was this?”

Colin responded, “Practice, basically.  First and second squadron typically train 5-6 hours a day.  Third squadron has other responsibilities, but still try to practice at least an hour a day.”

Shole asked, “Why?”

Colin responded, “Well, I suppose it is better to have a trained third squadron and not need it than to need a third squadron and not have it.”

Kolvak laughed and replied, “I cannot argue with that logic.”

………………..

Jim left the canteen after the celebration dinner for successfully replacing the secondary power generator and walked back to the bridge alone.  Well, the caribou in the main corridor bounded beside him.   Jim walked through the open doorway and into the bridge.  Russ was the only one there.  Jim accepted the salute and said, “Update.”

Russ replied, “The secondary power generator is back on-line.  The solenoids in the emergency pressurization system have finally been replaced.  All spare parts and stores have been loaded.  The main electrical trunk lines have been stress tested and passed.  All personnel, well except Admiral Solear, are present.”

Replacing the secondary power generator had been an arduous task.  The Advranki engineers had never been faced with swapping a power generator before – normally when the secondary generator is destroyed, the ship is scrapped.

Jim had suggested cutting a hole through three decks and replacing it exactly like they did the main generator.  He also suggested just leaving it broken.  Both suggestions were against regulations and were rejected by Kolvak.

Finally, everyone agreed on Becky’s daisy chain idea as a compromise.  They torch cut the secondary generator into pieces and carted it through the bridge, down the main corridor, and off the ship.  Then they hauled 6 spare transport sized power generators to the lower bridge, welded them in place, and connected them together in a daisy chain.

The contraption looked aesthetically unappealing, but worked.  The power rating was roughly equivalent to the old secondary power generator.  Kolvak even commented that the thing looked like it belonged on this ship.

Russ said, “The
Sunflower
has been officially declared ready to return to duty after only 14 days.”  Russ proudly pointed to the green light on the main panel for emphasis.

Jim said, “Impressive, I see we have finally been given the green light.”

The pilot said, “We have exited hyperspace and are now in the lane between Hiricula and Neto.  What is our next destination?”

Admiral Fruid’la responded, “Neto.  I am going to be stationed on Neto for the next 6 months, plus or minus.”

The pilot remained silent.  Fruid’la felt uncomfortable, so he continued talking, “When the NeXXt fleet is fully constructed I will transfer to Nirvana and begin the fleet training in earnest.”

“Won’t transferring that many beings at once to the new fleet get noticed by the Alliance?”

Fruid’la was slightly disappointed.  The pilot hadn’t responded to either the creative naming of the fleet or the imaginative name of the parking lot.  However, he had made a good point.

Fruid’la replied, “Yes.  We will have to be cautious and slowly redirect the troops to the secret location.”  If the pilot wasn’t going to use Nirvana, then Fruid’la wasn’t going to use parking lot.  He considered it a personal victory. 

Fruid’la continued, “We don’t know how many spies they have at Neto or Hiricula, so the crews will have to remain on the ships until we are ready to leave.”

The conversation completed, Fruid’la spent the next 6 hours wandering throughout the small corvette.  Well, he became rather bored with wandering after 20 minutes and returned to his quarters.  He then spent the remaining time working on a personnel transfer plan.

He was rather happy with it.  They should be able to redirect all of the new recruits, both Hiriculan and Neto, as well as the experienced officers and crew to the new fleet over the course of a month.  Further, based on his ingenious plan, the Alliance would never notice.

The pilot announced that they had exited hyperspace in Neto.  Fruid’la returned to the control room and began reviewing the passive scans of the Neto system.

Admiral Fruid’la was about to order the pilot to land at the space station.  However he realized that the pilot had already set a course for the space station and was already braking for final approach. 

They landed at the station, cleverly called Overwatch Station. It had been built and sent to the system about 200 years ago - shortly after Hiricula discovered Neto.  It wasn’t nearly as large as the Spindle Station, but it was designed to perform multiple purposes.

First and foremost, the station was the base for the Hiriculan Navy.  It housed a large military base, a training center, and a research and development center.  However, its most important feature was shipbuilding.  The station could flex in size and breadth to accommodate additional ship bays.  This made the exterior of the station look choppy and piecemeal, but so far the Neto hadn’t complained about the aesthetics.

The station also housed the Neto biological research and development division.  This division was devoted to the continued enhancement of the Neto race.  The division had originally been stationed on the planet, but after the uprising, it was relocated to the safety of the station.

Further, the station housed a merchant shipping division.  They handled the majority of civilian traffic as well as the import and export of goods.  That said, there wasn’t a great deal of merchandise exchanged between the two worlds.

Fruid’la exited the corvette; thankful to be rid of it after the cramped journey.  Admiral Plev’la, the head of research and development, and Admiral Doak’la, the head of Neto training and development were waiting for him.  Fruid’la could see by their stance and slightly raised ear-stalks that they must have read his report to the High Council.

Oh well, he thought, there is nothing that they can do about it.  He also wondered which admiral was in charge.  He figured that he should have known that, but for some reason the answer escaped him.  However, he found an effective way to get around the question.

He gave the traditional Hiriculan greeting and said, “Good afternoon gentle beings.  Effective immediately, I am assuming overall command of the Neto system.”  He paused for a breath and continued, “I have several ideas to improve Neto performance and also a few ideas to improve the performance of the command carrier.”

Admiral Plev’la replied, “I welcome your help.  Your experiences in battle certainly add validity to your recommendations.  With your valuable input I am certain that we can create a warship that won’t get blown into smithereens by a lone cruiser.”  The sarcastic delivery almost made the words unrecognizable.

Admiral Doak’la added, “I also welcome your input to the training of Neto pilots.  Hopefully, watching 177 of them get destroyed by a mere 40 Alliance fighters has given you some new insights.”  He lowered his ears in mock humility.

Fruid’la briefly wondered if Loid’pe needed any assistant sewage engineers on Solaria.  He could certainly think of two officers that he would like to assign to the task.  At the moment though, they were roughly his equals.  Soon though, that was going to change.  Soon.

They led Fruid’la on a short tour of the station; focusing on the construction of 5 new warships.  However, the only one that really caught his attention was the command carrier, or rather the hangar bay where the ship was going to be built.  The only thing presently in the bay was steel beams and hull plating.  Despite this, Fruid’la still insisted on taking a full tour through the area.

Fruid’la asked, “What is the estimated time to completion?

Plev’la replied, “Well, it depends upon your modifications.  If they don’t require massive design work, then the ship will be ready in 9 months.” 

Fruid’la asked, “And the rest of the NeXXt fleet?”  Fruid’la mentally capitalized and doubled to get XX when he spoke the name.”

Plev’la replied, “There are only 5 cruisers here.  They will be done in 6 months.  These are the last ships that this station is building in support of the new fleet.”

Fruid’la opened his communication pad and checked the status of the other warships being constructed at the other stations.  He did some mental mathematics.  The overwhelming majority of the ships would be done in the next 7 months. 

That meant that he could either wait another two months for his command carrier to be finished or begin training and maneuvers without it.  An extra two months of training would be helpful for the crews, but he would have to subsist by living on someone else’s battleship.  Decisions, decisions.

Fruid’la finished the tour and discussed with Plev’la the modifications that he wanted to make to the new command carrier.  First, he didn’t need it to be 4 times bigger than a battleship.  The carrier’s acceleration had been very sluggish and the ship handled rather poorly.  His new design was only 1.48 times as large.

Further, the huge ship had had twin ion cannons.  They were massively powerful and were the primary reason that the original ship had been that long.  Despite their power, they had essentially proven useless in battle.  Fruid’la had never even fired them.  His new design only had one much smaller ion cannon.  It was the exact size and specification of a normal battleship ion cannon.

The extra space was filled with missile launchers.  A typical battleship had 24 missile launchers, 12 on each side, that are fed missiles from a central storage area.  Fruid’la’s original command carrier had 36 missile launchers on each side, or 72 total.  They were fed by two separate storage areas.

His new design had two rows of 18 missile launchers on each side, keeping the total number of missiles that could be launched at 72.  Fruid’la had realized that the key to the
Sunflower’s
rapid rate of fire had to be distributed missile storage areas. 

He incorporated that concept into the design of the new ship.  He switched from 2 centralized storage units to 8 decentralized storage units.  Each storage unit was responsible for loading 9 missile launchers. 

Based on his simulation, the command carrier’s missile launchers could now be reloaded in 90 seconds.  Now, instead of firing 72 missiles in the standard 3 minute window, he could now fire an unprecedented 144 missiles. 

Further, the independent sections with the large firewall between them was maintained.  This ship could withstand an unbelievable amount of damage and still be able to fight.  He smiled; if he ever faced the
Sunflower
again there would be a different outcome.

Prev’la was impressed with the proposed modifications.  Apparently getting defeated by the Alliance multiple times had taught Fruid’la something.  Will wonders never cease, he thought.

Prev’la said, “The new battleship won’t take nearly as long as I initially estimated.  I believe that we can deliver it in 7 months.”

Fruid’la did a few mental calculations.  If the station could meet that build schedule, then the delay between the completion of this ship and the last remaining one just dropped from 60 days to 5.  That made his decision much, much easier.

…………………

The klaxons started blaring throughout the ship.  Everyone started running somewhere.  He didn’t know where to go and certainly didn’t feel like running.  However, he was in the middle of the caribou corridor and was about to get trampled.

Kolvak said, “Shole, follow me” and leapt through the nearest door.

He verified that the immediate room was empty.  They turned and watched a bunch of humans race down the corridor.  The humans were running at full speed and passed them very quickly.  He was reminded of how big and strong and fast they were.  At that speed if one of them accidentally bumped into him he feared he would break an arm or worse, get squished like a bug.

Shole brought him back to reality by saying, “The area is clear for now.  Let’s go to the bridge.”

They stepped out and saw Colin O’Neal.  He was running, but slowed down to a brisk walk.  He waved for them to follow him.  Colin power walked past the bridge and to the main hangar bay.  Kolvak and Shole ran to try to keep up with him.

Kolvak yelled, “This is the third drill today.  What’s the point of having so many drills?”

Colin didn’t slow down.  He turned his head back toward Kolvak and replied, “The drills are necessary so that we will be ready if we have to fight.”

Kolvak didn’t respond, primarily because he was concentrating on running and didn’t feel like yelling a response.  He was racing a caribou and was losing. 

He turned to Shole and lowered his voice, “This is pointless!  Don’t the Humans understand that there will be hours between the time the enemy is sighted and an actual battle occurs?”

Shole nodded in agreement and responded, “Yes, we could stop for lunch, take a nap, have dinner, and crawl to our posts and we would still have time to spare.  Humanity’s desire to rush is unnerving.”

Colin waited for the aliens, oops the Alliance engineers, to catch up and they entered the hangar together.  Colin pointed to the wall and said, “Stand against the wall here and stay safe.”

Shole said, “Stay safe, that is a really odd thing to …” She stopped talking in mid-sentence as she saw what the humans were doing.  The two Advranki took Colin’s advice and stood beside the wall and watched the commotion.

Colin left the Alliance engineers and ran toward the opposite end of the hangar.  He was the last one to arrive.  He felt the need to apologize and said, “Sorry, I was with the al… Advranki engineers.”

Colin made a mental note to watch his language, especially around the other crewmembers.  He needed to lead by example.  For some reason though, he seemed to have the word alien on his mind today.

Colin took his spot on the line and started pushing part of the launch barrier.  After their last battle, the crew realized that they needed a better method to launch the second wing of fighters than manually pushing them out the side of the hangar bay.

The cruiser was supposed to house only 20 fighters.  It contained an elevator system that kept the flight deck clear when the fighters weren’t in use and provided a safe and efficient way to launch them when needed.  However, if they tried to launch fighters directly from the main hangar deck, the thrust from the first fighter would incinerate the rest of the squadron.

At the moment though, there were two wings of fighters housed on the
Sunflower
– the First squadron and Alpha squadron.  Technically, there were three squadrons if one counted the reserve or Third squadron.

There had been a lot of debate about what to call this particular squadron.  Eventually, Jim Donovan had everyone to vote on the name.  The top three choices had been Beta squadron, Second squadron, and Chaos squadron.  No one knew how Third squadron won.

Colin and the other human engineers devised a method to assist with the launch.  They took 18 large steel plates and connected a base and 4 wheels to each one.  Then, they fastened them together with pin and hinge mechanism on the top and bottom. 

Like a door, each plate could bend in one direction relative to the other plate.  This allowed them to fold the unit into a relatively small area for ease of storage.  At the moment though, they were unfurling the contraption.  It looked an accordion stretching out.

They stretched the plates into a straight line and pulled them taught.  Once they were in place, one team released the quick pull levers to let each steel plate drop through its base and settle on the hangar floor.  A second team locked the wheels.  A third team placed an angular support behind the six plates in the middle of the hangar.  Finally, the fourth team fastened the plate to the side of the hangar wall.