Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 3 - New Shores (27 page)

Steve considered the information with some hope; if they could get into space shortly and it all came together they should still be able to flee to the colony. The consideration of the colony framed his next statement.

‘We cannot verify anything at the colony now so I am canvassing any further points that you can suggest? I did manage to get several quick instructions across to my ship to Douglas and Dan as they will be lieutenant governors until I arrive.’

Ian gave a hearty chuckle after a few moments, as he had been thinking of additional points and that he now politely offered.

‘Well Steve, you have good people with you, and the Maveen and the Traders should be of considerable assistance. Remember that the colony belongs to humanity and that you should preserve the best in our species whilst seeking to find your place in the scheme of things. We will have roughly the same process here, but we will be looking over our shoulders a lot more at the galactic races. Remember us and remember that hopefully one day our descendants will be together again.’

Steve paused as he considered the gravis of the situation, before he spoke again. He could also see that Captain Narindestat was now looking more relaxed.

‘We are mindful and proud of our heritage and will not forget Earth, but it is also an opportunity for a new start as several nations come together at the new colony. The colony will found other colonies as we explore back towards Earth. Sir, I think the Traders are ready to launch.’

Ian thought about Steve’s last statement with real pride as he hurried replied, for he truly felt that Earth had sent along many of their best people to the colony.

‘Well Steve, It sounds like you have the start of your opening address right there. Now in case we cannot speak in space good luck governor.’

Captain Narindestat now sat again in his command chair and looked at the shield status display with satisfaction, before he sternly addressed all the Maveen probes.

‘Now pay attention, I have my ships’ shields exactly how I want them. So if you want to leave here then confine your shields to just outside your hulls at very low power first. Then gradually extend your shields out at low power and when they clash pull back your shields, noting that large shields also slow the ship down. Only after the shields are stable should you increase power to them. Finally when I say to power your engines you must power your engines until I tell you to stop.’

The Trader captain still felt a degree of skepticism about how useful the chastised and silent Maveen ships would be in providing thrust based on the recent shield problems. He did his best to hide that concern, as he now looked at the updated status of the shields then grimaced at a navigation display for a moment. The captain then turned to Garendestat who had taken a seat at the navigation console.

‘Lieutenant, the ship is yours; please lift off from the island on the specified course.’

Steve and his mission team quickly found their way to the couches behind the command chair and nervously sat down. Garendestat looked his console to again verify the full launch status before warning the crew of takeoff and asking a brief question of Steve.

‘Garendestat to crew we are immediately launching the ship. Steve, how much G forces your race can tolerate?’

Samantha neatly fielded the question due to her medical background.

‘We are not wearing special suits so you need to keep it under 3 g’s, preferably under 2 g’s of acceleration.’

Garendestat gave a quick reply even as he triggered the short launch sequence.

‘No problem as we have inertial dampeners in any case.’

Steve just had time to ensure he was fully reclined in the large couch with Samantha before the thrusters fired and he felt the massive ship take off. He noted with surprise the sudden increase in weight before it slowly tapered down to a steady pressure.

Ian Ridge stood on Rat Island with the soldiers, and the few members of the mission team left behind and they all watched as the Trader ship took off from twenty kilometres away. The dozens of thrusters around the ship came to life and a cloud of steam erupted as their exhausts hit the water around Middle Island.

The massive ship slowly climbed several hundred metres in the air in an enormous roar of sound and flame, before it turned without banking and started to fly North East. Ian watched now through binoculars as the ship steadily gained acceleration and altitude, and as two tongues of flame now grew from the rear of the idling aero spike engines. After five minutes the ship had disappeared into the distance and Ian now turned to a nearby screen to watch what he could from elsewhere in the world.

                                                            ***

Chapter 13

Steve lay back in the couch and held hands with Samantha. They both watched the course the Illuria was taking on a map of Earth that now appeared on the main screen as they flew over the north-west of Australia. Nearby he see that Ian was now sharing a couch with Mei, and Sanjay and Helen occupied the last couch together. Helen gave Sanjay a gentle smile that he returned nervously.

All the humans now looked at the map, though they did not understand the rapidly changing numbers. Garendestat began calling the flight details out to the humans after several minutes as the ship continued to accelerate.

‘We are five thousand metres and we are travelling at twice the speed of sound. We will accelerate until we climb to twenty thousand metres and we can transition to hyper sonic flight.’

Steve knew that the details were also being transmitted back to Earth, for by prior arrangement the Traders were broadcasting the operations of their bridge back to several mainstream media stations. The massive Trader ship soon passed across eastern New Guinea as it headed on a curved course for the western Pacific, and the humans seated behind the command chair found they were enjoying the ride.

                                                            ***

Admiral Baredio looked at the latest reports from his cruisers as he sought a simple answer from his tactical officer.

‘Lieutenant, can we verify independently what we are seeing here?’

The Lieutenant had to the presence of mind to accord the admiral proper respect by looking up momentarily from his sensor data as he replied.

‘Sir, we cannot use active scans so I will not be in a position to verify this information for some time. There definitely appears to be two Maveen gate ships docked to pylons on the main Trader ship, I recommend extreme caution.’

The admiral noted the recommendation as he dryly spoke again.

‘Recommendation noted Lieutenant. I want four scout ships sent forward from the research fleet with us as they are faster. The rest of the fleet will reduce speed and we will not move closer than the orbit of their moon. Also have Omerio and Gindane brought to the bridge please.’

                                                            ***

Captain Narindestat considered the launch status with satisfaction as the lifting thrusters had operated successfully well beyond their stated performance specifications before being shut down. The Illuria now flew on her powerful aero spike engines as the drives on the sneak ships continued to provide additional thrust. The ship continued accelerating as it flew out over the Pacific Ocean and he now gave orders to transition to hyper sonic flight.

‘Extend the leading edge shields forward and trailing shields aft to lower our wing form factor. Then ramp up the engines and sneak ships in sixty seconds. I want a status on the compressed fuel tanks and if they drop to fifteen percent capacity we will have to abort and land again.’

Ian Mitchin decided on a question as he continued to watch the main screen.

‘Captain, I understand the ship mass will drop appreciatively as the shielded tanks empty their compressed contents. Is there a break even point in acceleration well before the fifteen percent capacity due to the mass loss?’

The captain appreciated the intellect behind the question even as he gave a reply as simple as he could make it.

‘Usually we have enough fuel reserves to easily leave a terrestrial planet. However your planet is quite massive for a home world and the escape velocity is ten percent higher than most other home worlds. The extra escape velocity is important after losing two sneak ships and we have reduced margins for error. We also need to catch the drive module as quickly as possible. I estimate we will have about twenty percent fuel capacity as we leave and that is low enough for me.’

Narindestat stopped speaking as Garendestat now spoke again.

‘We are at twenty thousand meters and five times the speed of sound and I am triggering the flight transition now.’

The bridge became a hive of quiet activity as reports across the ship were called in as the ship now accelerated heavily. The Illuria dove down at a slight angle as the transition had momentarily robbed the wings of lift, a fact that Ian quietly explained to the others.

‘They are committed at transition from atmospheric to hypersonic flight with less lift by using the relevant shields to alter wing dynamics. If they do it right they get to escape velocity of above eleven kilometers per second over several minutes.’

Garendestat slowly brought the nose of the ship up and now counted out their speed slowly in kilometers per second every minute, starting with two kilometers per second.

‘Two kilometers per second and all is green, thrust is at one hundred and ten percent on the sneak ships.’

Captain Narindestat calmly looked around the bridge as he keyed a message to the Maveen probes.

‘Captain to Maveen gate ships, please power your engines to twenty percent immediately as we need a speed reserve in case we lose an engine.’

Garendestat paid full attention to his sensors as the Illuria continued her journey towards space.

‘Three kilometers per second and fuel reserves are at sixty percent. I am starting the turn on the escape vector.’

Captain Narindestat now looked around the bridge with rising concern, as the thrust from the Maveen probes had not materialized.

‘Maveen Earth Probe, please respond as your ships need to add your thrust to our launch efforts.’

The Trader captain repeated twice more his urgent requests and silence from the Maveen probes only greeted his efforts.

                                                            ***

Colonel Bill Ackerton wiped the side of his head out of stress and fatigue before he again looked over the missile status reports. Since the earlier unsuccessful missile attack on the lone Barus ship he had led his team in concerted around the clock effort for nearly a fortnight. While the world had been engrossed in the deal with the aliens that had yielded technology and a new colony, his team had quietly modified further missiles.

In addition, his team had been expanded to include teams of air force and NASA engineers who were working on missiles not in silos. Bill had even talked on two occasions to his counterparts in Russia and China, as they coordinated their efforts. He was quietly optimistic this time as the mission parameters had been changed to allow the possibility of success. This time humanity was again attacking the Barus aliens, and they were going to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at them. The launch director for the pad based missiles walked briskly over to the colonel and saluted.

‘Sir, we need two hours to fix the last glitch at Vandenberg on the final missile, and as I think it is terminal anyway we will not launch the missile.’

Bill replied without conveying any signs of apprehension.

‘Lieutenant that will be fine and you may remove the missile from the mission roster.’

Bill looked at both the traditional wall clock and the frozen electronic counter in launch control room briefly before he spoke again.

‘We are holding at T minus three minutes, and we pass our all green status to the Russians and the Chinese.’

The electronic counter began counting down to zero again and Bill now stood and placed himself over behind the launch controller’s desk. Outwardly he was calm, but inwardly he was as nervous as he had ever been. The colonel knew his team were taking a big leap into the unknown by launching another attack.

                                                            ***

Omerio trailed Gindane as they followed the ensign and rapidly made their way to the bridge of the fleet flagship. As they entered the bridge they both kept silent and gave Admiral Baredio a respectful bow, which he carefully returned. Without preamble the admiral spoke.

‘You will both later stay behind my command chair and remain silent unless I speak to you when we contact the Traders to ask their surrender. For your information we detected the launch of the Trader ship several minutes earlier, and they are passing behind the planet from us so the intercept will take longer. But before we go into any more specifics, first I want the details of any further information you may have identified from your additional research.’

Omerio looked at Gindane before he replied, as by agreement between them if it was a military issue then Omerio was to speak.

‘Admiral, our further reviews of the reports have indicated that the situation is complex and we could inadvertently breech the edicts in a serious manner. For example Earth is a haven world that attacked Gindane’s destroyer, yet the three attacking nations apparently do not speak for their entire race.’

Admiral Baredio stifled a snort of outrage as he evaluated the nuances of Omerio’s opinion. He considered that the unpredictability of the new race could be a concern even if their weapons technology posed no risk to his fleet. He voiced his sentiments to the two younger Barus with an admonishment.

‘They are unpredictable, but I can see no sense in them attacking us again, as they must know they cannot destroy any of our ships. I consider any further attacks to invite a massive response from my fleet.’