Aaen looked around the bridge for a moment—the shape of Odyssey’s first of two decks had seemingly been elongated and had become sleeker. . . The bridge computers were more angled where they were previously vertical, and the user interfaces. And the lights—and even the crew’s uniforms had changed, and the chairs, the deck. . . Aaen started wondering if his ship had somehow been transformed—? The rest of the crew was struggling to navigate their computer station controls. Aaen silently shared their curiosity—where the heck are we? What happened to my ship? he asked himself.
“—Contact is slowing,”
Aaen silently insisted that he had to see this, he was overwhelmed with curiosity about what in the heck was going on. “On-screen!” he commanded, standing behind his chair (whose design he determined had also undergone some kind of radical transformation), eyeing the viewscreen—there was a bright gold star about the size of a dime in the distance in the upper-left-hand corner of the viewscreen, and pitch black everywhere else. . . And then the light shined dully a colossal darkly-colored mass in the upper-right-hand corner, centering in the viewscreen as it drew closer. WHAT-THE-HECK-IS-THAT? Aaen asked in silence, wide-eyed, watching the object gradually decelerate until it was still in near-center of the viewscreen.
“Sensor contact has stopped approximately ten-thousand-kilometers off our starboard bow,”
“Can you get any kind of reading on that object?” Aaen asked directly.
“Beyond what I’ve already mentioned, I’m detecting. . .” she winced at her screen, “Holy-cow. There’s gotta be about two or three-hundred-thousand smaller objects inside—I can’t even begin to guess how many life signs might be over there,” If there are any at all!—JEEZ, it’s huge! What is it?
Aaen asked himself the same question, looking at the contact in the viewscreen.
An alarm sounded, moving through the bridge like an engulfing wave. Aaen wasn’t sure what this alarm meant until the front-left-most computer station flashed thrice.
“We just got a new long-range-message!”
“From—?” Aaen asked.
She looked over her shoulder in shock. “I think it’s from that massive ship out there!” she turned back to her station, “It’s barely coded. . .” she winced at her screen for a second, and then quickly sat upright. “ It says, ‘Docking Bay one. Stand by.’ ”
Aaen’s gut jumped into his throat as he noted the feeling of minute vibrations in the floor.
“I can’t navigate or maneuver! We have no helm control!” the pilot declared loudly in a panic.
“These readings are unreal! I can’t tell if we’re being pulled by some kind of—“
Aaen raised his hands to his sides as though to gesture the crew to stay calm. “Don’t worry about whatever’s causing the ship to move for now.” Aaen watched as the massive New Horizon quickly grew larger in the viewscreen. In seconds, the star disappeared behind New Horizon as Odyssey was engulfed by New Horizon’s shadow. There was a slight forward-moving sensation as Odyssey seemed to be pulled toward a tiny, suddenly-visible square opening in the side of the hull. The opening grew larger, rapidly, as the floor of their destination settled in the bottom of the viewscreen. . . Odyssey was moving into the center of one of numerous four-piece yellow rectangular painted spaces in dark grey environment reinforced with countless tall, black metal bulkheads.
“Tactical, make sure shields are down.”
“Aye!” The order was carried out with expert precision in two or three seconds.
—THUD
More alarms—two, subtle attention-getters; they seemed to be working in harmony, Aaen reasoned, indicating docking clamps of some kind were rising to keep Odyssey in its intended place, for now, Aaen guessed.
The pilot read new information appearing on their computer screen, and snapped, “I’m detecting oxygen and gravity in the docking bay, captain!”
“I’m detecting life signs outside!” declared the Sensors officer. “Looks like a small crowd is forming and approaching.”
Aaen eyed the uniformed personnel entering the bay from what looked like the bay’s primary entrance. He noted some of the contacts were armed, but they didn’t look like they were getting ready to start shooting at the ship. One of the contacts’ faces looked really familiar. . . Aaen decided his next order was obvious. He turned to the Operations officer, “Lower the cargo ramp.”
“Captain?”
“Do it.”
“But they’re armed, whoever they are!”
“Do it.”
With a heavy, doubtful gasp, Aaen’s order was carried out. Another alarm sounded—this one only lasted five seconds.
“Everyone on me! Computer! Lockdown bridge stations—” he stated his command authorization code, and then the computer screens turned black and red with highlighted large-print text telling any would-be intruder there would be no starship theft today on this captain’s watch.
Aaen had a funny gut feeling as he led the rest of his crew to a small section of deck two and then down the cargo ramp as they could hear the sound of boots marching in precision formation, a formation that Aaen’s gut told him was coming either to greet them in a military or political fashion, or to take them away. He suspected the former as the Odyssey crew came about and stood in a slightly loose circle with Aaen in front.
The formation stopped seven feet from the crew. Four of the formation stood on the outside corners, and they were armed—with some kind of compact, sleek-looking rifle whose design had Aaen and the rest of the crew dumbfounded. Aaen quickly scanned the formation in his peripherals, briefly glancing at their gear—their armor, the looks on their faces, as he looked at the male officer at front of the formation. Aaen recognized that face, whereas the formation’s accompaniment was new to him. Aaen had met this person before. . . He stood at six-foot-one, Caucasian, short brownish-blonde hair, and was obviously built for the military role Aaen had an easy time believing he had as his job. Aaen could feel a swelling of enthusiastic curiosity in the back of his mind as the officer made direct eye contact with Aaen and then said, “You can all stand at ease. You’re among friends, here,”
Aaen was overwhelmed with enthusiastic curiosity as he asked, “Where exactly is ‘here’?”
“Don’t you recognize it, Captain?” he looked at the rest of the Odyssey crew and then said, “You are on board the USSC New Horizon. Welcome to Union Space,” anticipating the crew’s next question, he said, “My name is Major Daniel Storm. Come with me. We have a situation.”
In what seemed like seconds, the Odyssey crew were shown through a very dense maze of corridors to the fanciest conference room they had ever seen: tall darkly colored fake leather chairs arranged around a long oval-shaped table. “Take a seat,” Major Storm commanded.
The Odyssey crew took the seats at the foot of the table, whereas Major Storm and five other junior-ranking officers and staff sat opposite with Daniel at the head of the table. Aaen had a gut feeling this meeting was going to be brief, and that his crew was going to be back on the bridge of his ship before long. He was seated nearly directly opposite of Daniel.
“We know you all have questions. There will be time to answer them soon. Right now, there’s been some activity along our border,” Aaen and his first officer were already suspicious of what they were going to be told next, “we detected multiple contacts inbound to this location. They are not answering our hails, so we suspect they are—” the lights flickered slightly. Major Storm touched a small area on the table with a finger. The point where his finger made contact with the table lit up noticeably. “Storm to bridge, report,”
“They’re here, sir. You better get up here.”
In a seeming blink of an eye, Major Storm snapped. “Captain, you and your crew need to get back to your ship. We’ll send you further instructions and coordinate our efforts. Good luck.”
“What’s going on?” Aaen asked directly.
Major Storm stopped in place and looked directly at Aaen with a look that made Aaen’s spine chill. “You and your crew are about to meet one of the neighbors. Get back to your ship, get back into space,” And with that, Major Storm gestured for the armed guards to follow him. They were gone in seconds through twin doors that seemed to disappear and reappear to enable passage.
Aaen led his crew back to the ship and then ignored the prelaunch procedures. He unlocked the bridge computer stations, then the cargo ramp was raised, almost at the same time. Aaen was pleased with this first crew. “Get us into space!” Aaen commanded the Pilot. The Pilot flew the ship like a pro—the thrusters fired without fail. In seconds, Odyssey came hard-about and soared forward at sublight speed.
“Starboard eighty degrees. Bring us alongside New Horizon,” Aaen commanded.
“Aye!”
In the seeming blink of an eye, six or seven dots appeared ahead, Aaen guessed, as the dots were approaching fast in a formation that seemed to be changing formation constantly, moving around each other. Aaen didn’t see a pattern to their movements, or maybe that was the point? He asked himself in silence, leaning forward in his chair. The crew was becoming accustomed to their new computer control interfaces. Aaen decided it was time to see what this ship can do! He glared at the contacts in the viewscreen and then sat upright.
“New Horizon is signaling to take offensive formation Alpha-One,” the Communications officer declared.
“Do it!” Aaen commanded. His order was carried out quickly.
“Those other ships that are approaching are coming in weapons-hot!” Sensors officer declared.
“Red alert!” Aaen commanded.
The First Officer sharply changed a control setting on his control panel. The bridge turned a sharp shade of red, accompanied by a five-second alarm. Even the crew’s computer stations changed color.
“We’re being scanned!” Sensors officer declared.
“Shields up!” The First Officer commanded.
“We don’t have shields!” Tactical Officer replied.
Aaen snapped, “WHAT?”
“They’ll be in weapon range in sixty seconds!”
“We’ve got something else that looks like it might do something similar, but the system’s configuration looks like the system’s designed to do more than absorb and deflect weapon fire,”
“Activate it!”
“Aye!”
“Fifteen seconds to weapon range!”
“Arm all weapons!” The First Officer commanded.
Another alarm signaled one or more of the approaching ships had established a weapon lock on Odyssey. Aaen glared at the viewscreen as he silently told himself, today is not the day this ship will be—
“They’re in range!”
“—Weapons armed!”
“LOCK-ON!” Aaen commanded.
A subtle two-second sound swept through the bridge indicating the order had been followed near-instantly.
The viewscreen lit up with multiple bolts of weapon fire that looked like the fire was hitting the bottom of the viewscreen. The floor subtly shuttered for a seeming instant.
The Tactical Officer snapped, “Direct hits! No damage to shields or the hull.”
“I’m detecting a sharp power spike in the main power grid!” Operations officer declared. “Putting more power in the engine systems and weapons,”
“Come hard about!” Aaen commanded, noting the approaching ships were at least three times the size of Odyssey. Aaen guessed they were some kind of fighter craft.
As Odyssey maneuvered a blinding blast of light shot through the bottom-right corner of the viewscreen to the corner opposite; the residual light whited-out the viewscreen for several seconds as a large fireball and smoldering jagged metallic debris scattered in every direction.
“HOLY-CRAP!” Sensors officer yelled, their sensor screen abuzz with data and animation revealing what had just happened. “New Horizon just pulverized that ship! I count six more!”
“Pilot, pick one and follow it!” Aaen commanded.
“Tactical, standby to fire whatever particle weapons we have,” the First Officer quipped.
“Yes, SIR!”
Seconds later, a target appeared in the viewscreen, maneuvering as though who or whatever was on board or otherwise in control of the craft realized Odyssey was right behind them.
“The other five ships are focusing on New Horizon! New Horizon is engaging!”
“—I have weapon lock!”
“Stay on that ship, Pilot!” The First Officer commanded.
“Sucker can maneuver!” he said in frustration, struggling to keep his objective in the view screen amid a flurry of tight and abrupt maneuvers.
“Shot-ready!”
Aaen made a fist and snapped. “FIRE!”
In what seemed like an instant, rapid blue strobe pulses of light filled the view screen as bright bursts of lightning tore through the target—exploding into a large, brilliant fireball. Odyssey flew through the fireball and then the pilot sharply brought the ship about on a direct heading back to New Horizon.
“They’ve been busy engaging the remaining ships. There are three left,”
Aaen watched as one of those ships was torn apart by some kind of beam-like weapon Aaen didn’t recognize. There was metallic debris spreading between Odyssey and New Horizon. New Horizon didn’t appear to be struggling to maintain its position; Odyssey was closing on it, fast, Aaen grinned.
“Intercept the craft on the left,” Aaen’s gut told him New Horizon was going to handle the craft on the right.
Several expert maneuvers by Odyssey’s pilot put the left craft in the center of the viewscreen. New Horizon disappeared in the bottom-right-hand-corner of the viewscreen in seconds as the left craft broke off and accelerated. Several bright energy bursts shot from a weapon mounted on the target’s aft side. The floor vibrated subtly for a second, and then the Tactical Officer declared, “Minimal damage,” whatever the system was that was protecting the hull, it was also absorbing the incoming weapon fire. He anticipated Aaen was going to want to know how that was possible, and he realized he was going to have a heck of a time trying to explain how that worked—“Target in-range!”
“They’re getting away!” the Pilot declared, pulling a hard vertical U-turn to maintain pursuit.
Odyssey was headed straight for New Horizon. Aaen and the First Officer noted New Horizon hadn’t taken any visible damage. Aaen started wondering what was going on and reasoned his curiosity would be satisfied soon. He was going to make sure of that.
“Weapons locked! SHOT-READY!”
“The target has locked weapons onto New Horizon!”
“ALL WEAPONS: FIRE!”
A violent maelstrom of precision directed fire abruptly exploded the target into a massive fireball; burning metallic debris violently scattered in every direction.
“Sensors?” Aaen asked abruptly.
“I’m only detecting New Horizon!”
“We got ‘em! Good work, crew!” the First Officer cheered. The bridge filled with clapping, cheering, and exchanges of double-handed high-five celebration.
An alarm passed through the bridge indicating a new message had been received, “New Horizon is signaling for us to dock with them in docking bay one,”
“I think it’s time to get some answers, captain,” the First Officer said.
Aaen nodded as he sat upright in his chair, “I was thinking the same thing. Stand down from red alert. Lower shields and stand down weapons. Pilot: begin docking maneuver.”
“Aye, sir,” he brought Odyssey over New Horizon’s dorsal side, came about and then gradually rested Odyssey back in the space on the deck where New Horizon had originally placed them. He engaged the docking clamps as Aaen turned around and gestured for the Operations officer to lower the ramp. After the Sensors officer confirmed an oxygen and gravity atmosphere outside, Aaen led the crew back outside where a security team led the crew back to the briefing room as the docking bay doors closed behind them. Major Storm and other ranking officers were already seated where they had been before; the printed materials in front of them indicated they were going to discuss one or more important situational details. Once Aaen and crew took their seats, Major Storm made direct eye contact with every member of the Odyssey crew. The time had come to answer some questions and provide some due explanations. The crew’s curiosity had been piqued.
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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