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

The Hiriculans had meant it as a gesture of goodwill since Solaria had recently awarded Hiricula a large construction project.  However, that deal was made before all of the other prisoners escaped.  Jack said, “Computer, repeat exactly what the Hiriculan said.”

…gjial lrjwei ngskla…

Jack supposed he deserved that.  He tried again, “Computer, stop playback.  Repeat what the Hiriculan said and translate it to Alliance Basic.”

…We would like to release the two Solarians.  They would be free to return to Solaria with you.  Further, there will be no stipulations placed upon their return…

Jack thought about the statement for a moment.  ‘They are free to return with me,’ not they must return with me.  Further, there are no stipulations.  Jack realized that he had enough information to make his decision. 

Ella managed to sleep the entire 7 hour journey through hyperspace.  Just before they reached Opron, Jack decided to wake her.  He wanted her fully alert and thinking clearly before having her (semi) private conversation with the
Sunflower
.  Hopefully, the extra time would allow her to get angry and say something interesting.

He walked into her room and gently shook her until she awoke.  Jack said, “You have been asleep for nearly 7 hours.  We will arrive in Opron soon.  You have just enough time to take a sonic shower and clean your uniform.”

The uniform was smart material and really didn’t need to be cleaned; but hey, Jack could be magnanimous with an offer he doubted Ella would take.  Jack retreated to the control room and waited for them to reach Opron.

Ella joined him in the control room just as they exited hyperspace.  Jack activated both the active and passive scanners. 

He looked over at her and smiled and said, “You look nice.”  He realized that the complement may be a little over the top so added, “And refreshed.  I think the rest did you some good.”

Ella nodded in agreement.

Jack said, “Before you went to bed, you mentioned that you aren’t going back.  How are you going to do that?  You are an officer in the Alliance Navy.  You have a two year commitment to complete.”

Ella yawned and replied, “I have 8 months of actual time served.  Then, I get 5 months of bonus time for hazardous duty such as participating in a battle or acting as a secret agent.  As you know, I served in the battle of Opron, the battle of Hepitila, the secret mission to the Spindle Station, the battle of Trilon, and finally the 3
rd
battle of Influenla.”

Jack did some quick math and realized that she had 33 months of service.  She certainly could retire if she chose.  However, something else in her statement seemed odd to him.  Jack asked, “How many total battles have there been between the Alliance and Hiricula?”

Ella replied, “Six.”

“You have been in 4 of the 6 battles.  That is amazing, if you think about it,” Jack replied.  “Remind me what happened during the first battle on Influenla.  I don’t remember hearing about that one.”

Ella: “The cruiser
Justice
exchanged a missile salvo with a Hiriculan cruiser.  No one was injured, but the
Justice
was forced to retreat.”

Jack said, “Okay.  Switching subjects, we need to discuss something before you contact the
Sunflower
.”

Ella gave him a distasteful look and responded, “What?”

Jack pulled the curtain back and revealed the two Solarian officers in hibernation.  Jack said, “Before the attack, the Hiriculans released these two officers to me with the stipulation that I freeze dry them and return them to Solaria.  I think it was a gesture of goodwill.”

Ella turned, looked at the stasis tubes, turned back and said, “So return them to Solaria.  Why are you telling me about it?”

Well, that wasn’t quite the response Jack was hoping for.  He had thought that Ella would immediately demand that they be released and sent back to the fleet.  That way he could tell the Hiriculans that he tried to deliver his cargo according to his contract, but was ordered to break it by the Alliance military.

Jack responded, “Perhaps you should mention them when you call the fleet in a few minutes.”

Ella responded, “I don’t want to call them.  I may as well just stay dead.”

Jack thought for a moment and said, “The news of your death will reach Solaria before we do.  You don’t want your friends and relatives needlessly grieving over you if you can prevent it, do you?”

Finally, that seemed to work.  Ella responded, “You are right, Jack.  I would like some privacy for the call though, if that’s okay.”

“No problem,” said Jack as soothingly as possible.  “You can use the workstation in the entertainment area.  It will meet the requirements nicely.”

The passive scanner beeped and Jack sent the results to the main monitor.  It drew a circle that represented the Opron system.  It placed the
Jackal
at the northeast corner, or at the 45 degree mark of the circle.  It then placed the Alliance fleet on the plot and indicated that it was 17 minutes ahead of them.

Ella said, “It appears that they increased their speed to .12 light and are planning to traverse the system in real time.”

Jack replied, “At that speed it will take the fleet 2.7 days to reach the Opron - Conron hyperspace lane.”

Ella asked, “And us?”

Jack replied, “The mini-freighter is fully loaded and has a commercial drive.  The best we can maintain is .06 light.”

Ella finished for him, “Meaning that it will take us just over 4 days if we follow them.”

Jack started to plot a course to micro-jump around the outskirts of the system, but Ella forced him out of the way and completed it.  She said, “That is much better.  We can make a series of three jumps around the Opron system.  We will be able to reach the Opron – Conron hyperspace lane in 2.8 days.”

Jack said, “Ella, go make the call.  We will jump as soon as you finish.”

Ella walked into the entertainment area and sat at Jack’s workstation.  She activated the privacy screen and instructed the computer not to record the conversation.  Since there was a 2 minute and 33 second delay, she recorded a message instead of trying to establish contact.  She actually preferred the delay because she had plenty of time to compose her thoughts before speaking.

She said, “Hello
Sunflower
.  This is Ella Birdsong.  My AAU was damaged and I was knocked unconscious.  The hangar explosion woke me up and I was able to escape before the Hiriculan reinforcements arrived.”

Ella stopped there.  She really didn’t want to say any more.  However, she took Jack’s advice and added, “There are two other Solarian officers aboard, Robert Eaglefly and Anna Foxprowl.  The Hiriculans released them to Jack Dogbarks as an apparent gesture of goodwill with the orders to return them to Solaria.  I am officially retiring from the Alliance Navy when we reach Conron.”

She left Jack’s quarters and returned to the control room.  She verified the coordinates were correctly entered into the hyperspace navigation system and ran a simulation.  She pressed the button to jump without waiting for a response to her message.

Jack saw what she was about to do and blocked her by putting his hand over the hyperspace button.  He said, “Ella, you know that we have to wait for the response.  It is important, if only for closure.  Besides, it has already been 3 minutes.  I think you can wait another couple of minutes for a response.”

Jack gently, but firmly guided her back to the workstation.  He verified that she was sitting and waiting and said, “I will leave you to it.”

A minute later Ella received a reply.  Solear, Lexxi, Clowy, and even Putat crowded around the monitor.  Clowy was visibly crying and smiling at the same time. 

Solear said, “Ella, we are all thrilled that you are alive.  The marines want you to know they feel terrible that they left you behind and that it wasn’t their decision to do so.  Congratulations on your planned retirement.  You should know that both Clowy and Lexxi are also retiring.  Please join us for a ceremony when we reach Conron.  The crew will be thrilled to see you one last time.”

The sentiment made Ella tear up slightly.  She replied, “Thank you.  I will rendezvous with you in Conron.”

She returned to the control room and said, “Jack, if it isn’t too much trouble, I would like to rendezvous with the
Sunflower
for a few minutes when we reach Conron.”

Jack responded, “I will be happy to accompany you.”

Ella shook her head and said, “No.  This is something that I have to do alone.”

Jack thought, in other words there is something amiss aboard the
Sunflower
.  Jack retreated back into his quarters and started searching his room.  After a couple of minutes he found a flashdrive cube that contained with six human movies from Earth. 

These movies were the big guns in his arsenal and this was the first time that he had broken them out.  Each movie was a romantic love story about a down-on-her-luck human female who somehow became a princess.  Jack personally could not stand these movies, but he knew that they should entertain Ella for hours.

Jack returned to the control room and said, “You’ve had such an emotional day; you should relax and take your mind off of the battle for a little while.”

Ella replied, “I don’t think I can.”

Jack smiled politely and handed the flashdrive cube to Ella.  He said, “Here are some Human movies that I forgot I had.  Let’s go watch them on the monitor in your bedroom.  I think you will like these.”

“I have had enough of Humans for a while,” Ella responded.

Odd response, thought Jack.  She didn’t say human movies, she said humans.  He was more certain than before that there must be a group of human marines on the
Sunflower
.  He really wanted to review the data from the computer request and listen to Ella’s message.

Jack replied, “Trust me, I think you will really like these.”

He led her back into her bedroom, inserted the cube into the corresponding slot on the monitor, and started one of the movies.  He struggled, but managed to watch the first scene with her.  Well, he was basically watching her, not the movie.  As soon as he was certain that she would watch it to completion, he left and returned to his workstation.

Jack reviewed Ella’s conversation.  She hadn’t revealed much.  The return response wasn’t enlightening either.  Even the beings on the ship called the rescuers marines.  Perhaps they had simply added the word to their vocabulary.

Jack reviewed the computer’s response to Ella’s unwitting query.  These results, however, were intriguing.  The computer sent the name, rank, function, and origin number of everyone currently aboard.  It also gave the date when each crew member was stationed on the ship.  Jack parsed the origin numbers by race – the list included three Advranki, one Altian, and 64 Solarians.

Jack was stunned at the last number.  He now realized how the Navy had kept the presence of the humans a secret.  They had given them Solarian visas.  He doubted there were 64 Solarians in the entire Alliance Navy. 

Further, their names were clearly human, not Solarian.  Jack now understood why Ella wasn’t initially curious about humans.  According to the ship’s logs, she was on board when the first 20 pilots entered.  She must have interacted with them before their secret mission to the Spindle Station.

The list showed that the humans filled the roles of fighter pilots, engineers, and maintenance crew members.  It also showed 5 members with the designation of marine.

Jack theorized that the Alliance Navy probably kidnapped a group of humans and were testing them to determine what roles they could perform.  He assumed that the 64 on the
Sunflower
were only ones the Alliance had because the hyperspace lane was closed.

Wait a minute.

Jack double checked the dates of the humans’ embarkation.  Clearly there were two groups, one of 20 and one of 50.  Both dates were later than the hyperspace lane’s closure date.  One was shortly after the closure and closely corresponded to Lorano’s trip to Earth. 

However, the second date was months later.  That meant that someone had been to Earth well after the Conron – Earth hyperspace lane was corrupted.

A few months ago, Jack had discussed the matter at length with the Altian scientist Lorano.  Lorano had been trapped on Earth during a research mission and had calculated a new hyperspace route that supposedly bypassed the debris.  Further, Lorano had hidden the route by changing the last two numbers after confirming them in the navigational computer system.

After the conversation, Jack tried to simulate the corrected route to Earth and found that it didn’t work.  Lorano had more than likely made another adjustment to the route that he didn’t mention to Jack.

Jack smiled.  He knew that the Hiriculan Ambassador Bline would pay handsomely for this information, especially since he now possessed tangible evidence to support it.

“They are coming through now Senators,” said Admiral Wertak.

Admiral Wertak was the commander of the 18 ship Alliance fleet in Conron and was stationed on the battleship
Sentry
.  The Conron fleet was sitting about 10 minutes from the Opron – Conron hyperspace lane. 

The Navy had increased the size of this fleet from 7 ships immediately after the battle of Influenla.  Conron had suddenly gone from a backwater post to the front line of a military deterrent and Admiral Wertak was still adjusting to his fleet’s new role.

The
Sunflower
was the first ship to appear.  It exited from hyperspace with a speed of .12 light and immediately began slowing to rendezvous with the Conron fleet.  Two minutes later the
Dandelion
appeared, followed two minutes later by the
Guardian
.  The rest of the 14 ship fleet appeared over the course of the next 26 minutes.

Frank and the other 7 Senators were sitting in a hastily assembled conference room in the entertainment area of the battleship
Sentry
.  Frank walked over to the large monitor and looked at the scans and video camera feeds of the
Sunflower
.  The report said that it had been damaged, but was able to continue.  What he saw on the monitor left him speechless.

The damage to the ship was extensive, beyond belief really.  One-fourth of the hull was a different color and there were extensive weld seams running from the top of the ship to the bottom.  The seams looked terrible, childish perhaps.  The area surrounding the seam was discolored and looked burnt.  Frank couldn’t imagine what happened to the ship or how it was still capable of flying through hyperspace.

Frank looked over and saw that Senator Korno was standing beside him.  He smiled in acknowledgement and said, “The ship looks terrible.  I can’t imagine what made their hull change from gold to silver.”

Korno pointed to the silver section of the hull and replied, “That section is Hiriculan steel.  They use a slightly different allodizing process that makes their hull material that color.”

Frank replied, “I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone welding in outer space, let alone metal from a Hiriculan ship.”

Korno replied, “I cannot wait to hear this story.”

There was a considerable debate concerning who should attend the debriefing.  Solarian Senator Amanda Catmeows wanted all admirals, chiefs of staff, captains, and first officers to attend.  Frank knew that this was a political ploy to expose the presence of humans, so he forced an actual Senate vote over the issue.

Frank’s argument that the humans were still technically a secret carried the discussion.  As a result, the invitation list was trimmed to Admiral Dolen, his chief of staff Olova, and Captain Solear.  Admiral Wertak was also invited.

Dolen began the report.  He discussed how the fleet arrived in Influenla, chased away the Hiriculan frigate guarding the entrance to the hyperspace lane, and proceeded to the station.  They determined that there were no military ships on the station.  They tried to leave, but were trapped and forced to surrender.

Frank looked over at Figur.  Figur had somehow managed to stay quiet throughout the entire 10 minute presentation.  He couldn’t remember the last time Figur had made it that long without interrupting.  At any rate, he doubted Figur would make it through Solear’s report with a quip or two.

Solear stepped to the temporary podium.  He wasn’t technically at an official Senate meeting, but he started by saying “Respects gentle beings” anyway.

Solear said, “The enemy knew our battle plan.  They had a destroyer and a cruiser waiting for us at the exit of the Trilon hyperspace lane.  They knew that the
Sunflower
, or at a minimum some Alliance cruiser, was going to go appear in Trilon.  They also knew that the cruiser would be stripped of its fighters.”

Figur interrupted right on queue.  He asked, “Are you implying that we have a mole in our organization?”

Solear responded, “No.”  When everyone relaxed, Solear said, “I am not implying it; I am stating it clearly and plainly.  Someone leaked the operational details of our mission.  I have no suspects and am accusing no one, but the evidence overwhelmingly supports a leak.”

Frank said, “We will address that later.  Please, tell us what happened.”

Senator Amanda interrupted before Solear could resume speaking.  She said, “Captain, you are being very blunt.  This is unlike you.  Are the humans wearing off on you?”

Solear simply replied, “Yes,” causing everyone in the room to nervously laugh.

Figur said, “Please, continue.”

Solear was tempted to say that he hadn’t started yet, but kept the comment to himself.  Instead, he loaded a flashdrive cube into the main monitor and started the playback.  The simulation started with Ella saying, “Now entering Trilon…” and everyone on the bridge getting thrown out of their chairs when the ship was hit by an ion cannon.

Figur interrupted and said, “There should be a regulation or something requiring beings to wear their safety straps when they exit hyperspace.”

Solear replied, “Excellent suggestion.  Perhaps one of the Admirals present can create such a regulation.  It certainly would have been helpful if it had been followed at that time.”

All 8 senators looked at Admiral Dolen.  Dolen took a note on his communication pad and said, “I will create the required regulation.  Thank you Senator.”

Solear continued the playback.  The ion cannon blew a huge hole in the side of the
Sunflower
and destroyed the primary power generator.  Next, the emergency pressure sensor module failed to activate and the entire ship lost air.

Frank whispered to Korno, “Apparently he traded dead humans for the prisoners.”

Senator Korno smiled and said, “Captain Solear.  You ship was hit from nearly point blank range by an ion cannon.  I am horrified by the damage it did and the lives you must have lost, but I am actually a little surprised that it didn’t do more damage.”

Solear stopped the playback at this point and replied, “Their ion cannon was only at 55% power and our shields were at nearly full power.  I believe that they purposely fired it at a low level because they wanted to take at least some of us prisoner.  A full power blast would have severely damaged the ship.”

Korno replied, “Judging from the scans, I would argue that it did.”

After quite a few chuckles, Solear continued, “Only the bridge section still had air.  The rest of the ship was exposed to space.  The bridge crew was now effectively trapped inside the bridge.  The Hiriculans sent 6 HAS units to pry us out.”

Figur interrupted, “So, you had no power, couldn’t jump, and were boarded by 6 HAS units.  How did you manage to stop that?”

Solear continued, “The Humans, per existing regulation, were wearing their protective gear when we exited hyperspace and were hit by the ion cannon.  Two died from the blast, but the rest were alive and unharmed.”

Solear paused, but this time was not interrupted.  He continued, “The Humans rerouted the trunk line from the primary to the secondary generator.  This restored power to the shields, missile launchers, and the ion cannon.”

Admiral Wertak spoke for the first time.  He said, “That is a minimum four hour job in ideal circumstances.  How long did it take your crew?”

Solear responded, “Just under 5 minutes.”

Wertak scoffed.  Clearly, he didn’t believe it.

Admiral Wertak said, “Five minutes.  The amount of work required to reroute the trunk line to the secondary generator is tremendous.  You have to drag the trunk line halfway across the ship, reset circuit breakers, and change the flow of electricity.  The entire ship would have been completely dark, let alone in vacuum.  How did they accomplish this in 5 minutes?”

Solear was hesitant to say that the humans practiced simulations almost non-stop and that this was one of them.  He also didn’t want to mention that they rewired part of the ship even before the attack and added several non-regulation components such as car batteries to the ship.

He answered, “The Humans were aided by the fact that a significant portion of the ship was missing.  It made moving the line much easier.”

Solear continued the playback.  Two transports left the Hiriculan destroyer and landed on the
Sunflower
.  Exactly 5 minutes later the
Sunflower’s
power was restored.  The
Sunflower
fired its ion cannon point blank at the Hiriculan destroyer.  It took less than a hundredth of second to completely vaporize the enemy ship.

Frank couldn’t believe what he saw.  The ship didn’t explode or break-up.  It just literally ceased to exist.  One second it was there, the next it was just space dust.  He said, “I assume that shot was full power.”

Solear responded, “Yes.  Plus, the Hiriculan ship had inexplicably lowered its shields.”

Korno said, “So, you fired an ion cannon at full power and at point blank range on an unshielded ship with no warning?”

Solear didn’t like how this was going.  If the senators found that distasteful, they probably weren’t going to like the rest of the report.  Solear responded, “Yes.”

He continued the playback.  The
Sunflower
traded missiles with the remaining Hiriculan cruiser.  The Hiriculan cruiser fired one volley of 10 missiles.  The Sunflower fired a volley of either 4 or 5 missiles every 30 seconds. 

After 2 ½ minutes, the
Sunflower
had out-shot the enemy 23 missiles to 10.  The enemy cruiser was damaged and leaking polonium from the reactor.  It was clearly out of the fight.  However, exactly 30 seconds later the
Sunflower
fired another volley.  These missiles struck in open areas and the enemy ship violently exploded.

Figur said, “Why did it explode so completely?”

Solear responded, “The last volley was ship buster missiles.  They hit the exposed reactor and caused a massive chain reaction.”

Senator Amanda responded, “The enemy ship was clearly damaged and could no longer fight.  Why not stop and let them surrender?”

Solear had been concerned about this question for some time.  Every answer he could give would make his sound like a remorseless killer.  He finally responded, “Taking prisoners was technically in violation of my orders.”

Frank was the first to understand Solear’s statement.  He said, “Yes.  We are all aware that you were specifically ordered not to reveal the presence of the Humans.  Still though, this isn’t how civilized cultures conduct warfare.”

Solear felt his anger rising.  He really wanted to yell and storm out.  He forced himself to count to 10.  He responded, “You filled my ship with the biggest, strongest, and without question the most violent race in the known universe. You wanted to know how Humans respond in a crisis, well now you know.  They blow things up.”

Frank cringed at the response.  He gave his ‘let’s try again smile’ and switched subjects.  He asked, “How did you manage to fire so many missiles?”

Solear responded, “The Humans stored extra missiles beside the launchers.  Then they picked them up and manually put them into the missile launchers.”

Admiral Wertak said, “That is against regulation.  You are only permitted to store missiles beside the launchers in certain conditions.  A hit could have ignited the missiles and destroyed the ship.”

Frank responded, “I doubt they would have noticed another huge hole in the ship.”  He again garnered some polite chuckles.

“Those missiles weigh 90 kg (200 lbs) each.  Are you telling me that the Humans manually lifted them?” Figur asked.

Solear: “Yes.  Apparently, they can do it with ease.”

Frank asked, “What happened to the 6 HAS units?”

Solear responded, “The Humans killed them.”

Frank responded with just a little sarcasm in his voice, “The Humans killed 6 HAS units.  How did they accomplish that?”

Solear responded, “They have their own powered suits and there are 5 Humans on board that are specially trained to use them.” 

This statement was technically the truth, but was intentionally misleading.  Solear supposed that he didn’t need to admit that he authorized the scientist Lorano create the suits for the express purpose of killing HAS soldiers.

Figur asked, “So you had an armored battle on the ship.  That must have lasted hours.”

Solear responded, “The 5 Humans killed the 6 HAS units in less than 12 seconds.”

Everyone started murmuring words of disbelief.  Admiral Dolen approached the podium and said, “I can confirm the statement.  I personally watched these specialized units, called MPS units or marines, kill 6 HAS units at the Spindle Station in under 10 seconds.  It was horrific to watch.”

Frank said, “Can you expand upon the word horrific?”

Dolen said, “The humans stuck long pieces of metal, apparently called swords, straight into the HAS units.  The sword sliced through the shield, through the armor, and impaled the being inside.  The Hiriculans died by rapidly bleeding to death.  It was gruesome to watch.”