ALICE Explorer: Book 6 of the AL:ICE series, page 8
Heather was one of Jake’s early recruits. Her seniority and breadth of experience gave her a lock on the medical sciences slot once she expressed an interest. Hannah was a SAS sergeant and more of a mystery to James as she had some “need to know” items in her personnel file that aligned suspiciously with Gunnery Sergeant Samantha Watts, another of his crew. Both had flown together before and came with glowing recommendations from General Thomas, and so were no brainers at crew selection time.
“Sir, we have dropped out of FTL due to a gravity well. Looks to be another solar system,” Lieutenant Alice Jenkins, the ship’s navigator, confirmed. Alice had been the captain of her own ship, destroyer D-9, but when the spot opened on Magellan, she applied to be Captain. Selected instead for a future Captain’s slot, she was asked to be Erisey’s second in command. Alice offered to go as an astronavigation specialist rather than a copilot, and with Erisey, had selected the rest of the ship’s complement.
The last two chosen to round out the seven slots in the crew were troopers from General Thomas’s own special forces cavalry. Joe and Abby were a couple and both troop leaders, a billet that carried a sergeant’s rank even though the troops were intentionally small units with a simple command structure. With two hovercycles in the Magellan’s cargo bay and their primary function as ground exploration, the pair were more than well suited for the role. In addition, they traded shifts at the weapons/tactical sensor station on the bridge.
Since departing Space Station Beta, this was the third time in a week, they encountered a gravity well of sufficient strength to require them to drop out of FTL. The routine was always the same. The first thing they did was drop a communications repeater pointed at both Alpha and Beta stations to extend the communications network as well as the previous communications drop.
Traveling at the speed of light, the connection might take one or one hundred years for the links to sync up, but once it did, they would have a way to communicate from that day forward. Every point from then on would attempt to access the other known points in space on the human side. The goal was to keep their network separate from the NeHaw using Alpha and Beta as gateway routers between the networks.
Next, they would begin a survey of the solar system that had inhibited the FTL drives with its gravity well and blocked their progress. They would record the star or stars and the number of planets, doing a thorough enough survey to determine any likely inhabited worlds. If nothing of great interest was uncovered, they would close-up shop and point Magellan in another direction potentially more interesting than the last.
“We are on, people,” Erisey announced as the team headed to their stations in the nose of the ship and begin working.
He had hardly needed to speak as Heather and Abby were already en route to begin their sensor sweeps. Heather’s Life Sciences sensor array was focused on finding any signs of known life, with a very loose definition of what life might be.
Abby was working with the tactical sensors at the ship’s weapons station, trying to identify any signal or emission that could be construed to be unnatural or artificially occurring. Her station also controlled the ship’s guns, missiles, and energy weapons should anything dangerous appear. There was a second position at the rear of the ship, a sort of rear gunner’s station that allowed two people to fight the ship at the same time were they ever attacked. Since she and Joe alternated at the tactical station for these events, James assumed it was her turn in the rotation.
Even though the primary mission of Magellan was scientific, Joe and Abby had signed on as the more militaristic part of the crew. Their primary responsibilities were to operate the ship’s tactical and weapons stations. They were also considered mandatory for every landing team as security for the more scientific members when on the ground. With Sam and Hannah as experienced combat personnel James felt they had more than enough shooters on board should thing go badly on a ground mission.
Taking the Pilot’s seat, James began sorting through all the preliminary results routed to his display as each of the primaries continued their work. In the back of his mind, he knew Annie would be doing the same as the others, but at speeds he could not begin to fathom. Having never served on an ALICE ship before, he constantly had to remind himself of the 8th invisible crewmember with likely the most to offer.
It was his impression the AL tended to wait for the other crewmembers to report before offering her own information, so James thought he might try and mix things up a bit.
“Annie, Luv. Anything of interest?” he asked casually.
“I was waiting for Heather’s confirmation, but I do believe there is life on the 2nd planet from the star,” she said timidly.
“You jest?” Erisey said excitedly.
“No, she’s right. I am getting faint and sporadic life signs. The distributions make no sense, however,” Heather analyzed.
“Tech scans are also all over the map as well as a considerable amount of orbital debris,” Abby commented, clearly perplexed by what she was seeing.
“Any guess as to why?” James Erisey asked openly.
“If I had to speculate, I would suggest we are seeing scattered survivors of an annihilation attack,” Annie said somberly.
----*----
Alaska ALICE Facility
Magellan had hardly been gone a week, and already Jake was fretting about its fate. It was the nagging thought that the ship was unable to call home that weighed on him. Besides the fact that the vessel contained an all-star crew, literally what he considered the best of their best, they were also his friends.
Unlike any other vessel in the Earth fleet, Magellan would never have an opportunity to tie into the vast NeHaw communications web that serviced known space. Magellan was in uncharted waters out beyond NeHaw known space. At best, should the ship run into trouble, they would find out years later once the communications relays, they were to drop, all synced up. At worst, they would disappear into the pages of history, a mystery to be solved by some later generation, maybe.
“Did you hear what I said?” Jessie asked as the two lay in bed in her private quarters, a shared space whenever Jake was in Alaska.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about the Magellan. What did you say?”
“I was asking about baby names. I am overdue as it is. Seven says the baby is just stubborn like his father,” she said with a smile.
The pair had learned early on that they were having another boy, but for some reason, Jessie had been delaying picking a name until after he was born. She insisted it was bad luck, and Jake had learned long ago never to argue with a pregnant woman. It was because of the pending birth that Jake had set up shop in Alaska after the Magellan departure from Lanai.
“I thought you wanted to wait to pick a name?” he replied honestly.
“I do, but I want you to tell me you have one or two in mind for when he comes,” Jessie explained as she snuggled up against him.
Pregnant as she was, they had been able to find a position she tolerated as they lay together.
“Did you ask Ryan about his little brother?” Jake asked in reply, not wanting to admit he hadn’t been dwelling on the subject with everything else going on.
Ryan had come to Hawaii to be with the family while Jessie had stayed in Alaska, her condition too far along for the trip. Jake had promised he would be there for the birth as he had done for all his children, and that was good enough for her. Besides being so pregnant, the last thing she wanted was the heat and to lay in the sun.
“Yes, he doesn’t care so long as it’s not another sister,” she said with a laugh.
“Sounds about right,” Jake agreed.
“Oh, did I tell you Hellen called?” Jessie offered.
Hellen was Nigel’s wife and Jake’s in-law by virtue of their daughter Gemma’s marriage to his grandson Jacob. Somewhat of a challenge to Jake at the beginning as her adherence to class distinction was strong, he had eventually found a way to get her to open her views.
One of the ways he had achieved the transference was the love of art she professed.
“She wants to start searching North Africa for art recovery,” Jessie explained.
Working closely with Jessie, an amateur historian herself, the pair had organized an effort to systematically scour the planet to save as much of human history for future generations. Early efforts were focused on easy local targets in the US and Europe, with fragile or delicate works the top priority.
“You are not going to North Africa,” Jake admonished.
“No, no. She will run things from there. I just need to handle cataloging and storage at this end,” Jessie replied.
“I wonder who they have running security,” Jake asked aloud, not unhappy Jessie had forgotten their conversation about baby names.
----*----
Magellan, In Uncharted Space
The trip in from the edge of the solar system to the second planet in the uncharted system was just over sixteen hours’ time on repulser power. During that period, the exploration team spent every waking moment analyzing the planet, collecting both visual images and scanning data, and discussing the possible meanings of everything they found.
In all this effort, Annie was praised as an invaluable asset, for she never rested and could work on cross-correlating the information while the others slept. Unlike her AL sisters, Annie was not in constant contact with the rest of her kind, a circumstance not unconsidered prior to her awakening. Unlike Kola and ALICE-3, who shared the isolation experience while in FTL, they would reconnect to the vast NeHaw communications network once slowed to under light speed. Annie wouldn’t hear from her sisters again until they returned to Human space or the communications relays they dropped everywhere finally synced up. Whichever came first.
For that reason, the cube that housed all that Annie required additionally contained a vast storage array holding as much of humankind's history and relevant NeHaw information as they could cram into the space. While only a tiny fraction of the entire acquired content on Earth, it was still more information than Annie could sift through in a human lifetime. Additionally, the ship itself held even more referential information in its data banks that was intended to aid in the mission. It was all there for both her reference and her companionship, allowing her to educate herself in times when human interaction was at a lull or unavailable.
Now was one of those times when the crew had exhausted themselves with the extended workday, and only Captain Erisey sat quietly in the Pilot’s seat reviewing the collective efforts of his crew. Hardly a blink of an eye old even in the estimation of her human companions, Annie still felt a certain motherly protectiveness to each and every one of the crew. Even the captain was hers to assist if it meant only listening to what he had to say, which is what inspired her to speak.
“Are you troubled, Captain?” Annie asked quietly in an effort not to wake those in their bunks at the rear of the ship.
“To my core, dear girl,” he replied as he closed his eyes for a moment before continuing.
“You and I are of a like mind that whomever these beings are ahead of us, they have been recently ravaged most savagely. I am possibly projecting my own concerns and thus keep council to only you, but I fear these readings represent the fate of the Earth if we don’t remove that threat the invaders represent. Did we chase the Phasers away only to have them land here?” He asked aloud.
“More analysis is required, but I do believe the orbital damage is consistent with what we saw on earth,” Annie replied.
She was referencing the remains before them of what the crew believed were pieces of spaceships, still orbiting the planet, but in fragments as if they had been sliced by a huge knife. Sam compared the damage the Phaser energy lances did to the Human and NeHaw losses and found many similarities.
“My own Revenge is recovering from the same abuse,” Erisey commented, referring to his last command.
“To sail the stars once more, I am sure,” Annie replied with compassion.
With that, both dropped into silence.
----*----
Hong Kong
Bo was in attendance as the German exchange troops deplaned at the Hong Kong Island airfield. A significantly smaller force than the one he had shipped off, it hardly mattered as the number of his own troops still present and at his disposal far exceeded the current demand. It was the psychological impact of these foreigners that he was relying on to shake things up here with his own people.
“Welcome,” Bo declared once the men had been organized in a likeness of a formation.
While retaining a crude semblance of a military unit, Bo had been reminded that these men were all self-trained and not part of a larger military unit as so many of the other participants had been. British SAS, American Marines, and his own Chinese Army had some continuity to their historical roots over the generations.
He had also been informed these men were all less than 2 generations in tradition as their grandfathers had happened upon a military storehouse where they were able to provision, train and restore some form of order to their lives.
He had also been advised that they were a suspicious lot and would expect to call home on a regular basis to confirm those they left behind were being adequately cared for. That role had been assigned to a SAS troop out of London. SAS to Germany, Chinese to North Africa, and Germans to China all in the effort to make the troops develop a more global perspective in their work.
“Danke, you have work for us?” The leader of the Germans asked as he stepped forward.
Bo was impressed that the man had presence enough to at least salute before he spoke.
“Yes, I do. You men and women have been selected to begin a new program of community outreach. Historically my people have had poor relationships with some of the communities that we are going to approach. As such, it was thought that you would be better received in the initial stages. I believe the Americans call this a Hearts and Minds campaign.”
Chapter 8
Magellan, In Uncharted Space
“All stop,” Captain Erisey instructed Hannah, his copilot, as the Magellan closed in on the 2nd planet in the solar system.
At this point, everyone was at their stations on the bridge or at life sciences and engineering just behind where the bridge became two levels. Before them, all the expansive bridge windows were filled by the planet and several large pieces of space debris, all seemingly motionless in space. Once a blue water planet, not terribly unlike earth, now with more browns and with hardly any greens to be found, it seemed to project a sobering effect on the Magellan crew.
The solar system held four planets total, but the other three were either gas giants like Jupiter or a fried rocky surface in the case of the planet closest to the sun. None held the slightest indication of occupancy, and even the two with moons held no unnatural structure or debris on the orbiting spheres. The planet before them had no moon.
“I propose we should work our way from the outside in. Any objections?” He asked, referring to the analytical approach.
“Good, so who can tell me about that large chunk of a spaceship,” he asked after a silent acknowledgment from the rest of the crew, referring to a considerable chunk of space debris.
“No signs of life, but there is still an active power source aboard,” Joe replied as it was his turn at tactical.
“Agreed,” came Heather’s confirmation on life signs.
“Ship’s design is of unknown origin, suggesting its native to the planet. An assumption, to be sure, but not unreasonable. The identifiable weaponry suggests it’s of a military nature and should be confirmed as a non-threat before we attempt to pass it on our way to the surface,” Annie explained.
“Agreed. Can we locate a place to dock?” James asked.
“Negative, scans suggest the ship is open to space and has no natural internal atmosphere,” Joe confirmed as the team continued to scan the derelict.
“Perhaps we could pull up next to that hull breach and EVA across?” Sam asked as she highlighted a considerable opening in the ship’s hull.
“Hannah, you and Abby are the odd man out, as it were. Are you two open to a stroll in space?” James asked lightly as he and Hannah could both conn the ship, but only one was needed.
There were several trains of thought on having the Captain lead boarding and ground parties. Some liked to lead from the front, sharing the crew danger in the process. It had been James’s opinion that the captain needed to remain in a position where he could direct all his resources, and that was hard to do inside an alien ship and away from his people.
Remaining as a pilot on Magellan permitted him that ability.
“Thought you would never ask, Sir,” Hannah replied after a nod from Abby.
Unassigned on the bridge now as Joe had tactical, Abby was first to access the storage lockers, with Hannah slipping from the copilot’s seat and joining her in the rear. As the pair changed into their spacesuits, James took the conn and carefully guided Magellan until she was within a few meters of the hull breach in the alien craft.
“This thing is significantly larger this close up,” Alice noted as the side of the alien ship loomed huge in the bridge windows.
With James, Alice, and Joe in the cockpit proper and Heather at life sciences just outside the two-tiered bridge, Sam left the engineering workstation across from Heather to go assist Abby and Hannah. She had waited until the Captain moved the ship into position in case she was needed.
“Weapon’s check,” Sam announced before either of the women put their helmets on, inspecting each weapon before handing them back to their owners.
Both carried a standard 10mm holstered sidearm that was found to be just as effective in the vacuum of space as on Earth, easily handled in their gloved hands. The pressed powder charge generated its own oxidizer required to burn in the vacuum of space. However, the uncompensated recoil would have a negative impact on the shooter as well.
