The Lost Fleet: Galactic Search, page 20
“This planet may have been attacked just like the last one,” suggested Commander Grissim. “The use of nuclear weapons suggests this planet may have had a much larger population base.”
“Plot a microjump to just outside the gravity well of the planet,” ordered Kathryn. Finding another potentially devastated planet sent icy chills down her back. “Take us back to Condition One and prepare a squadron of fighters and bombers for deployment.”
“What about the defense globes?” asked Commander Grissim. She felt more comfortable with the defense globes out as it provided an additional layer of protection for the ship.
“Deploy ten of them once we've completed the jump,” Kathryn ordered. This time she planned to stay outside the gravity well of the planet. “Lieutenant Strong, plot an emergency jump to one of the nearer star systems in case we have to run.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Kelsey replied as she got busy on her navigation computer.
“Ready to jump,” reported Colonel Leon.
“Initiate jump,” ordered Commander Grissim as her eyes focused on the large viewscreen.
The ship entered the vortex and then shortly after dropped back into normal space. The viewscreen instantly cleared, showing a planet which once might have looked like Earth or Tellus. Now it was dark and foreboding. The vegetation on the surface was dead, the oceans had an unhealthy brownish tinge, and the few clouds that were visible didn’t seem capable of delivering any beneficial rainfall.
“Radiation is forty times above the norm,” reported Clarissa as she suddenly reappeared next to the admiral. “Scans indicate this was a heavily populated planet and the building architecture is very similar to what we saw on the last planet.”
“This was their home world then,” suggested Commander Grissim as she stepped closer to the viewscreen. The screen had been adjusted to show a closer view of the planet. Craters and large burned areas were indications of large nuclear strikes.
“Launching defense globes,” reported Colonel Leon as she listened to Major Arcles, who was in the flight control center for the flight bays.
“Who would do something like this?” asked Anne, shaking her head in disgust.
“The same race that destroyed the other planet,” Clarissa answered as she adjusted several of the ship’s sensors to take detailed scans of the devastated cities. “I’m detecting movement in some of the ruined cities. It matches that of the robot crabs we encountered previously.”
“How long ago did this happen?” asked Kathryn. There was no way she was going to risk sending down a mission to this planet’s surface. With the high radiation and the presence of scavenger robots, it was too risky.
“Two to three hundred years ago based on the decay rate of the radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere,” Clarissa responded. “If we had a sample of the air, we could determine to within just a few years as to the time of the actual attack.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Andram said as he walked into the Command Center. He had been working with Mikow on the robot down in the computer lab. “There might also have been a biological attack as well, and there is the possibility that any surviving microbes could have been dangerously mutated by their long term exposure to radiation.”
Kathryn nodded. She was confident the quarantine procedures they had in place for dealing with dangerous organisms would allow them to conduct the air sample, but she really didn’t see the point.
“Picking up a lot of satellites in orbit,” Captain Reynolds called out as the tactical screen continued to put up more icons. “There’s also some debris that indicates a large space station was once present.”
“What about ships?” asked Petra. “If they had a colony they’re bound to have had a few starships as well.”
“None detected,” Reynolds replied. “Of course their ships could be part of the wreckage the sensors are detecting. There seems to be quite a bit of it.”
“I don’t think we’re going to find anything useful here,” Commander Grissim said as she turned to face the admiral. “What happened here was a long time ago.”
“I agree,” Kathryn said. “Lieutenant Strong do you have those emergency jump coordinates plotted? I don’t think we want to stay around here too long.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Kelsey replied. “There’s a small white dwarf system eight light years away that should be safe to jump to.”
“We’ll take an hour to finish scanning the planet and then we’ll leave.” Kathryn gazed with a sick feeling at the viewscreen, knowing hundreds of millions of intelligent beings had been ruthlessly annihilated on the planet below.
-
“Detailed scans have been completed,” Clarissa reported fifty minutes later.
“Commander Grissim, I think it’s time to leave this star system,” Kathryn said. “Land the defense globes and stand by to initiate our jump.”
A few minutes later, Colonel Leon turned toward the admiral. “Defense globes are in the flight bay and have been secured.”
“Stand by to jump,” Grissim ordered as she turned to face the Helm. “Set the coordinates and let’s get out of here.”
“Coordinates set,” replied Lieutenant Styles.
“Initiate jump on my command,” ordered Commander Grissim as she stood with her hands clasped behind her back. “Jump!”
“Jumping,” spoke the Helm officer as a blue-white vortex formed in front of the Distant Horizon.
Moments later, they were safely back in hyperspace. Kathryn was beginning to wonder just what type of galaxy they'd jumped into. Both of the first two systems with planets in the liquid water zone had held dead civilizations. What else awaited them in this galaxy?
-
Eight minutes later, The Distant Horizon exited the vortex and found itself in the outer reaches of the white dwarf system. The star was slightly smaller than Earth but with nearly the mass of Earth’s sun. It was also much dimmer.
“Stealth field activated,” reported Clarissa.
“No contacts!” called out Captain Reynolds as his sensors began to reach out across the star system. After a couple of minutes passed, he spoke again. “I’m detecting two planets, both on the far side of the star.”
“Secure from Condition One,” ordered Commander Grissim. Anne then turned toward the admiral. “How long are we going to stay here?”
“Until we know more about what’s going on in this galaxy,” answered Kathryn, leaning back in her chair. “Once Mikow has determined who programmed those scavenger robots at least we may know who’s going around destroying planets.”
“We should know shortly,” Clarissa said her deep blue eyes focusing on the admiral. “Mikow has accessed the robot’s CPU and is in the process of transferring its programming files to one of the computers in the lab. I helped her to set up a decryption program that should allow us to translate the files into something that’s understandable.”
“Commander Grissim, put out a CSP and twenty of the defense globes, we may be here for awhile.” Kathryn didn’t want to take any chances. It was a hard learned lesson from the war with the Hocklyns and the AIs.
“Yes, Admiral,” Anne replied as she activated her mini-com to pass on the orders.
-
Major Arcles was in Raven One as it exited the flight bay of the Distant Horizon. Four other Talon fighters had already taken off and assumed their normal patrol routes. Karl wanted to do a quick inspection just to remind his pilots that he could still check on them, even out in space. He also missed not getting to fly as much as he once did. Being CAG had its benefits, but it also had its drawbacks.
The last four years had been interesting and there was a time he and Lacy had actually considered leaving the fleet and getting married. However, when word of the construction of the Distant Horizon had leaked out Karl had pulled some strings to get Lacy and he assigned to the massive starship. They'd agreed to put their relationship on hold until after the mission returned home.
He flew along the side of the ship marveling at its structure and the firepower he knew it held. It was a shame they didn’t have something like this during the war. Turning to his left he quickly flew out to one of the patrols and after doing a close flyby, he continued to check on the other. On his small sensor screen, he could see the twenty defense globes deployed around the ship. Currently, the globes were two thousand kilometers out and slowly orbiting the Distant Horizon. No one was sure how effective these would be in combat, but in trials they'd been devastating. If the ion cannon worked as it had in the tests, the globes could take down an enemy’s energy screen or at least knock a sizable hole in it and then fire their particle beam turrets through the opening, causing horrendous damage. The entire purpose of the ion cannon was to compromise defensive energy screens.
As Karl finished his inspection, he flew by the bow of the ship. He could plainly see its four large power beam cannons, which were powered by one of the ship’s Fusion Five Reactors. The reactor was a new development of the Altons and generated four times the energy of previous fusion reactors. The new power beams were now just as deadly as a particle beam. However, there were also two huge particle beam cannons jutting out slightly from the bow. Karl knew the two beam weapons had an effective range of 20,000 to 25,000 kilometers.
He adjusted his course and flew over the upper hull of the massive ship. The ship had 24 power beam turrets around the hull set in concentric rings. There were also 48 energy gun turrets, 96 defensive laser batteries, and 48 60mm twin railgun turrets. In addition, the ship had 36 missile tubes that could launch anything from a Hunter interceptor to a 100-megaton sublight antimatter missile.
Turning, he took the fighter beneath the ship to come into alignment with one of the two flight bays. Inside the bays were sixty Talon fighters and forty Anlon bombers. While the Distant Horizon was supposed to be primarily an exploration ship, it could become a deadly killing machine if the need arose.
-
“We have the information from the scavenger robot,” Mikow announced as she burst into the Command Center. For an Alton, she was showing an unusual amount of excitement. “It was the Simulins!”
At this announcement, Kathryn felt her shoulders droop. She had hoped the aliens who had adjusted the AIs’ Codex were long gone.
“What did you find out?”
“The robots keep files on any organic life form they kill while on a planet,” Mikow reported. “From what we've been able to deduce, the Simulins move in and destroy the indigenous population or as much of it as they can. Once a major portion of the population has been eliminated, the scavenger robots are dumped on the planet to finish off any inhabitants who might have escaped the initial bombardment. Evidently, the Simulins don’t return to pick up the scavengers. They’re left on the planet until they wear out and cease functioning. The robots have enough rudimentary technical skills to remove appendages and legs from nonfunctioning scavengers and use them to replace damaged or missing ones on the robots that are still functioning.”
“How long can these things survive on a planet?” asked Kathryn. She was beginning to wonder if any planet in this galaxy would be safe to set foot on.
“Hundreds of years,” Mikow answered. “They get their power from sunlight and most of the time they are inactive unless they detect an organic life form.”
“So no more landings on planets that have been attacked,” spoke Commander Grissim. “How widespread do you think these Simulins are, Admiral?”
“There’s no way to know,” answered Kathryn, as she thought over their next move. “There’s a good chance we’ll encounter them on our way to the Avenger and the missing fleets. The bigger question is, what has Admiral Strong done to stay away from the Simulins?”
“What about the AIs that came through?” asked Colonel Leon. Petra knew hundreds of AI ships had made the transit along with the Avenger and the other fleets.
“We won’t know until we get there,” Kathryn said. The AIs were another question she had been worrying about.
In the back of her mind, she was beginning to fear that between the AIs and the Simulins, the Avenger and her fleets might not have made it. She felt an icy chill run down her back at the thought of being alone in the Simulin galaxy. She recalled even Fleet Admiral Streth had been uncertain if Admiral Strong and his fleets had survived once they reached this galaxy.
“Take us to Condition Three,” Kathryn ordered. “We’ll stay here for twenty-four hours and then start jumping toward where we think Admiral Strong is. Clarissa and Lieutenant Strong, I want two sets of coordinates always ready; one for our destination and an emergency set in case we jump into a dangerous situation and need to withdraw immediately. How long a jump can we make safely?”
“It depends on the star density,” Kelsey answered as she thought over what the admiral had asked. “As we enter areas of this galaxy where there are more stars our jumps may become shorter as we’re not familiar where gas clouds and even small nebulas may be. Our sensors are good for ten light years; I’m not sure I would recommend a jump any longer than that.”
“I concur,” Andram said. “This galaxy is not well mapped and coming too close to a dust cloud, nebula, or even a heavy area of gas could cause us to fall out of hyperspace.”
“I would recommend we map the space in front of us after each jump,” Clarissa suggested. She was standing next to the admiral with her hands on her shapely hips. “We have mapping equipment on board and Humans and Altons who are well qualified to use it. If we allow sufficient time between jumps, we could map the space out for twenty or twenty-five light years ahead of us and make longer jumps.”
“I’ll take that into consideration,” Kathryn said. “For now, I think everyone needs to get some rest. We have a long trip ahead of us.” Kathryn knew she wanted to get some sleep; if they ran into trouble she wanted to be completely alert.
-
Rear Admiral Kathryn Barnes gazed pensively at the swirling deep purple colors on the main viewscreen. She was tempted to have it turned off because it was a constant reminder of what was ahead of them. They were a little over eleven thousand light years from Admiral Strong’s supposed location. At ten light years per jump, that was eleven hundred transits into hyperspace. No one needed to tell her that would be a lot of wear and tear on the hyperspace drive. Fortunately, the new drive the Distant Horizon was equipped with needed very little cool down time unlike the older drives. They could make a jump after just thirty minutes, but she had lengthened the time between jumps to two hours so Astrometrics could spend more time mapping out future jump points.
“It’s been three days and there've been no signs of other space going races,” commented Commander Grissim. “I think we need to increase the length of our hyperspace jumps. At our current pace, it will take us over one hundred days to reach our destination.”
Kathryn let out a deep breath. The Distant Horizon was capable of making jumps of one hundred and twenty light years. “You may be right,” she replied, standing up and walking over to stand behind Kelsey as she eyed the massive viewscreen.
“Andram, would longer jumps be safe?”
Andram was sitting at Navigation next to Kelsey. “I spoke to the scientists who are busy mapping the galaxy between us and our eventual destination,” he said after a moment. “They feel confident that we can increase our jumps to fifty light years with relative safety.”
“Our long-range sensors can also detect vessels in hyperspace,” Clarissa reminded them. She knew the Avenger had those same advanced sensors. “We should know ahead of time if the system we’re jumping into has operational spacecraft.”
Kathryn folded her arms across her chest as she thought over her options. From what Fleet Admiral Streth had told her, there was no doubt that speed was of the utmost importance. She needed to find Admiral Strong and his fleets as soon as possible. Without their construction capability, the Distant Horizon might not ever be able to return home.
“Let’s do it,” she ordered. “All jumps henceforth will be fifty light years. Kelsey, I want two emergency sets of jump coordinates. Each should be at least ten light years from our target set of coordinates. If we run into trouble, I want options.”
“I think it’s the right decision,” commented Commander Grissim. She was also getting tired of staring at the swirling dark purple colors of hyperspace.
-
For another day, the Distant Horizon jumped. Each time they dropped out of hyperspace, they scanned the space around them and the scientists in astrometrics worked frantically mapping the Triangulum Galaxy in front of the ship.
“Three and a half weeks and we’ll be there,” Clarissa said over the private com channel she maintained with Kelsey and Katie.
“Three and a half weeks still sounds like a long time,” Katie moaned. “It’s been over four years; I just want to know Kevin is all right.”
“I’m sure they’re all fine,” Clarissa assured her. “Ariel would never let anything happen to any of them.”
“We’ve waited four years; we can wait three and a half weeks,” Kelsey said as she entered another set of emergency jump coordinates into the main navigation computer.
Kelsey expected Clarissa to reply but she was strangely silent. “Clarissa is there a problem?”
“Possibly,” Clarissa said with a touch of worry in her youthful voice. “The long-range sensors are showing the system we’re getting ready to enter has a large number of spacecraft operating in it. I’ve also detected a number of hyperspace events.”
“You better inform the admiral,” Kelsey said, growing worried.
“Admiral Barnes,” Clarissa spoke as she strode quickly over to the command console. “The long-range sensors are detecting spacecraft in our target system.”
“How many?” Kathryn asked her eyes widening with concern. She knew it was bound to happen eventually. She just wished it had been later.
