“Mr. Taylor, could you please identify the star that is highlighted on the forward display?”
“Yes, Sir,” JT replied, playing with the alien controls in front of him. “The closest match I get between that star and cataloged stellar objects is CoRoT-9, a star in the constellation Serpens nearly 1,500 light years from Earth. It has at least one Jupiter sized planet, first observed in 2008. We are about 15 AU out, roughly 2 light-hours.”
“Sir, that’s two and a quarter billion kilometers,” said Sandy. “There are no alter-space transfer points this far from that star, we are in open space. How did we get here?”
“Sandy’s right, Captain,” added Bobby. “We didn’t get here through alter-space, and according to Doppler shift measurements from that star’s light we are headed toward it at 10,000 km/sec—that’s 3% of the speed of light!”
“According to the information the ship’s AI downloaded into my brain, we were transported by an annular singularity created by the ship’s drives,” Jack explained to his stunned crew.
“That is correct, Captain,” the AI verbalized. “Such singularities are constructed to link two locations in 3-space. By passing through the singularity, the ship can move from one location to the other without having to travel through the intervening span of normal spacetime. Passage is not quite instantaneous, but when crossing interstellar distances transit time is negligible.”
“We passed through a circular black hole?” JT said, voice laced with skepticism. “That starry doughnut thing?”
“We passed through a worm-hole!” said Mizuki, excitedly bouncing up and down in her seat.
“That is so wicked!” said Bobby.
“Yes, it was the only option to escape the erupting degenerate matter object at the heart of the starship graveyard. Obviously, our escape was successful.”
“That is good news, M’tak,” rumbled Bear. “But how do we get home?”
“There is both good news and bad news regarding returning to your system of origin: First, the 3-space gravitonic drives are finally operational, so we can maneuver in normal space; Second, since we were accelerated coming out of the singularity we will arrive at the star ahead of us in roughly 62.5 hours.”
“Fine, and what’s the bad news?”
“The generation of the annular singularity used most of our available antimatter, we are below a 10% reserve. We no longer have sufficient fuel to use the singularity drive. To get home we must use the star we are approaching to help decelerate the ship. Then we shall have to find an alter-space transfer point to a system likely to have a supply of antimatter we can appropriate.”
“What you are saying,” said the Captain, “is that we are almost out of gas and looking for a refueling station.”
“An apt analogy, Captain.”
“And when we find someone with antimatter,” added Bear with a gleam in his eye, “we either need to talk them into giving us some, or take it away from them.”
“That is a fair assessment of our options,” replied the imperturbable AI.
“I guess that makes it official,” said Chief Morgan, “now we really are Captain Jack’s space buccaneers.”
“Arrr, ye be right about that, matey,” said Hitch, with a huge grin on his face. Ahead of the ship the feeble glow of CoRoT-9 beckoned.
Epilogue
Bridge, Peggy Sue, Solar System Emergence
A little under six hours after departing Alpha Canis Majoris, the Peggy Sue emerged from alter-space with the normal shower of particles and gamma rays. They were less than an AU out from the Sun, with Earth standing an AU to its star’s right. Gretchen felt a subtle change in the atmosphere on the bridge, as though entering the Sun’s familiar space drained the tension from the crew.
She felt her own spirits rise, the same feeling she used to have when sighting a familiar landmark on the way into home port. Knowing that everyone on board wanted to see the familiar blue marble, Gretchen called out to Elena at the navigation station: “Dr. Piscopia, could you please find Earth with the large scope and put it on the forward display. I think we would all enjoy a view of home.”
“Yes, Captain,” she answered, manipulation the controls that aimed the ship’s 2.2 meter reflector. Eclipsing the Sun’s bright visage as seen through the ship’s transparent bow, a half-lit blue and white planet appeared. “Earth looks abnormally cloudy for some reason.” Elena said in a puzzled voice.
As they gazed at the planet’s disk a flash appeared close to the limb. This was followed by a bright, outward bulge in the cloud cover. “Now that’s right peculiar,” said Billy Ray from the helm.
“You are right, that looked like an impact,” Elena said. “As though a comet or large asteroid struck somewhere in the northern hemisphere.”
The image of Earth turned to a rainbow of false colors as Elena manipulated the telescope’s imaging filters. Applying digital enhancement, it was possible to strip away the clouds and see infrared radiation from the full globe, including the quarter crescent cloaked in darkness. The outlines of continents could just be made out, but in at least two locations their familiar shapes were smudged by bright splotches. Roughly circular and hundreds of kilometers wide, the splotches grew fainter with distance from their centers.
“No…” Elena said softly.
“Captain, I’m picking up a drive signature,” reported Jo Jo Medina.
“Can you get a fix on it?” asked Gretchen. “Perhaps it is one of the new frigates, or a small cutter.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I don’t think it is one of ours. The vessel is about 250,000 kilometers above the ecliptic and half a million klicks beyond Earth. Whatever it is, its drive is large and rather inefficient. It is closer to the alien probe ship profile than to one of our drives.”
A chill ran down Gretchen’s spine. “Course and velocity, Mr. Medina?”
“Captain, this thing is really moving. It looks to be traveling straight out from Earth at nearly 840 km/sec!” Jo Jo replied.
“That is fast and close, it must have done a flyby of the planet,” said Gretchen.
“Are you saying that we have an alien starship here in our home system?” asked Ludmilla. Ludmilla had joined the crew on the bridge for emergence, partly to show that she was doing fine despite Jack’s absence and partly because she, like everyone else on board, longed to see Earth again.
“It’s looking that way, Doctor,” Gretchen said with a grim face. “Dr. Piscopia, please try to get a visual fix on the vessel.”
Behind and to starboard from the captain’s chair, Elena sat facing the controls for the ship’s observation equipment. She was within easy earshot of the Captain, yet the Italian astronomer did not respond to Gretchen’s command.
“Dr. Piscopia?” queried Captain Curtis, swiveling in her chair so she could look at the navigator’s station. Elena was sitting stiffly, hands clenched on the lower control board, saying over and over, “
Sono andati, sono andati tutti
.”
“Dr. Piscopia. Elena! what’s wrong?” Asked the Captain, concern rising in her voice. “Dr. Tropsha, what is wrong with Elena?”
Ludmilla rose from the observation chair she was sitting in and went to check on her friend. Over her shoulder she called to the Captain, “She seems to be in shock. She just keeps saying “they are gone, they are all gone” over and over.”
Turning to Elena, Ludmilla asked the astronomer in mostly understandable Italian, “Elena, who is gone. Tell us who is gone?”
Elena looked up at Ludmilla, eyes red with tears streaking her cheeks, and said, “Venice, Padua, the University—they are all gone. All of my colleagues, my friends, my neighbors.”
“What do you mean, Elena?” asked Ludmilla.
“There is an impact crater where Venice used to be…” Her voice trailed off as she buried her face in her hands, sobs wracking her body. Ludmilla put her arms around her stricken friend and tried to comfort her. Looking back at Gretchen she asked, “What does she mean, impact crater?”
“It would appear that, in our absence, Earth has come under attack,” replied a grim faced Captain Curtis, rising from the captain’s chair. “That passing boggy must have hit our planet with an artificial meteor storm—using very large meteors. The type that cause extinction events.”
“That would make sense,” added Billy Ray, “the course vector is consistent with having done an alter-space transit from Beta Comae, then coming in over the Sun and making a high-speed pass at Earth.”
While Ludmilla was dealing with Elena, Billy Ray remotely took control of the large scope, slaving it to the sensor track provided by Chief Engineer Medina. There on the screen was a small, stick like structure with a bloated head. “I believe that there is the ship that dropped the rocks on home. At this range and magnification, that bastard’s got to be five kilometers long.”
“Are we sure that there is just one ship?” asked the Captain, regaining her mental balance.
“Yes, Ma’am,” answered Jo Jo, “I’m only showing a single drive signature.”
“Plot an intersect course, Captain?” asked Bill Ray, in a dead calm voice, the same calm voice used by fighter pilots and gunslingers.
Gretchen stood there for a second, next to the captain’s chair. In her mind emotion vied with logic and instinct with duty. Finally she cleared her throat and said: “No, Mr. Vincent. Make our course to rendezvous with the Moon in minimum time.”
“Aye aye, Ma’am,” said the helmsman, disappointment in his voice. Billy Ray and Nigel exchanged glances.
They think I don’t have the balls to go after that big bastard?
Gretchen thought angrily, noting the reaction of the bridge crew.
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to overhaul that ship and blow her to hell, but that will have to wait. Jack always warned me that being captain was neither simple nor easy. Damn it, he never had to explain his decisions—but then, he’s Captain Jack.
Captain Curtis opened 1MC, the ship’s public announcement intercom: “Attention all hands, this is Captain Curtis. It would appear that Earth has fallen under attack by an alien ship that is even now heading toward the outer reaches of the solar system. To pursue the attacker would mean a long chase—and, unfortunately, we have nothing to hit them with when we catch them. Our magazines were emptied fighting off the last batch of hostiles.
“The damage of the attack has already been done, and given the size and velocity of the attacker, it looks like they are going to swing wide, out into the Kuiper belt, before making another pass. But that will take time—weeks, maybe months—so we have time to do things right.
“Our first duty is to get to Earth, to our base on the Moon, and deliver our information, civilian passengers and the Ambassador. We will ensure our base of operations is secure, pick up replacement crew for those left with Captain Sutton and refill Peggy Sue’s magazines. Then, with the help of some of the PT boats,” she said, with a feral gleam in her green eyes, “then we will go hunting.”
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