Dark Echoes - Part 17

Getting anywhere near that monster was going to be harder than Aaen thought, watching the tactical highlight outlining the mother ship's hull rapidly fill the viewscreen. The ship started to shake like a 5.0 earthquake. The crew braced for stability as Odyssey drew nearer its destination. 

“What's causing that?” Aaen asked, leaning into his chair.

Jones did a scan, trying to find an explanation. “As best as I can figure, the power output over there is almost equivalent to the energy output of Earth’s sun!” She shouted over the turbulence, pointing at the viewscreen, “That ship is independently mobile because it’s cruising engines appear to be based on an electromagnetically-based propulsion system. The EM field is so massive and so intense that it distorts the space around it within a thousand kilometers! They must have to selectively power down different grid areas to enable ships to dock with it!”

“Hull integrity’s holding! But I wouldn’t recommend getting much closer! Hull pressure’s increasing rapidly!” Connors said.

“As soon as we are in range, phase us over there!” Aaen commanded.

“I think I can get you halfway between their bridge and what looks like a power subjunction!” Connors said, entering the commands and instructions into her computer.

“Away team: on me!” Aaen commanded, walking to the phase pad. The away team stood in formation. Aaen drew his particle sidearm as the hull shuddered.

“Five hundred kilometers!” Jones declared. “It’s now, or never!”

“Roger that!” Connors responded. “Away team: phase in progress!”

In seconds, the away team disappeared from Odyssey.

Smith looked at Connors amid another hull shudder.

Connors nodded, “Phase complete!”

“I’m working with the Valiant’s crew to help them get their ship operational. The Valiant’s powering up as we speak. In theory. .that ship can be operational within the hour, but we aren’t certain about its tactical or strategic capabilities, Commander!” Jorgensen declared.

Great. Smith thought, glaring at the mother ship in the viewscreen and thought, Let’s hope this works. If not. .we’re gonna need all the help we can get. We might need all the help we can get, anyway. 

*****

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Dark Echoes - Part 16

“Captain, can I have a word with you?” Smith asked Aaen discretely under his breath. Aaen turned and nodded. They stepped off the bridge next to the phase pad for deck 1.

“What’s up, Commander?” Aaen asked directly.

“What’s going on? Where are you taking the ship?”

Jones had started another sensor scan to try to find any other weaknesses in the mother ship. She reasoned if that thing comes back to life, we’re all screwed. There had to be a way to disable or destroy it! She looked over her shoulder while the scan commenced. She sensed curiosity from Wilson and Hayes. The communications array was still on what she decided was essentially a total radio-blackout.

Jones eyed the way just beyond the entrance to the bridge, whatever was being said, it had Smith puzzled.

Jones looked at Sandberg—they exchanged a look of confusion and concern. Sandberg reviewed the weapons’ status—Odyssey had one or two more full torpedo volleys left, and the particle weapons batteries were holding up okay. . .for the moment. How much longer would this thing still be able to put up any kind of a fight against that behemoth! Referring to the mother ship—

The ship’s Captain and First officer kept talking. . . Something was up.

Jones screen flashed thrice. The scan had finished, and not a moment too soon, she noted. She read the new sensor data as fast as comprehension permitted. . . Their power grid is almost 75 percent restored. . .“Oh, SHOOT!” She shouted under her breath. Aaen and Smith returned to their stations.

“What was that?” Smith asked.

“We need to go faster—much faster!” Jones declared in shock. 

No, Aaen disagreed. We can't keep running from this sucker. It's too fast, to over-powered, and too heavily armed for us to stay out of its weapons range. Aaen's gut told him they weren't going to outrun the mother ship, or the other two smaller ships, for that matter. . . He gasped. If this battle wasn’t going to be fought—much less won—with torpedoes and energy weapons against that thing, then there was probably only one other way they would be able to defend themselves. 

Aaen made a decision.

“Commander Smith, do whatever needs to be done to get the Valiant online, and operational. Away team, gear up! Get ready to load-out!” There was a eerie feeling sweeping through the bridge as Aaen commanded, “We’re going aboard the mother ship,” 

“Captain?” Smith asked abruptly. 

“We're going to engage them from the inside, and out,”

*****

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Dark Echoes - Part 15

Is this gonna work? Aaen asked himself sharply, watching the mother ship's hull draw nearer in the main viewscreen. The mother ship is only partially without power, and the latest report from Jones indicated they were already able to begin repairing whatever damage the torpedoes had done to knock out what could-be. . . Shoot, Aaen gasped. .a ship that size is a fortress! There were so many ports on the outside of its hull. . . The closer they got, the number seemed to double by the second—

Jones reported their main power grid was already 25% operational, and that number was climbing, quickly.

“I fixed the main power grid!” Jorgensen declared, “There’s still a big hole in the hull. I’m working on repairing it!” The ship’s microscopic engineering drones were hard at work trying to fix that much. This was going to be a project, Jorgensen realized—the jagged protruding hull fragments were going to take some time to put back together so the engineering drones could finish the repairs by repairing the damage on the molecular level. This would ensure the hull was completely repaired, as though there was never damage to begin with. It would probably take that much to give them the best chance at winning—

Great, Smith thought to himself, eyeing the flowing sensor data on Jones’ computer—the mother ship’s power grid had jumped in functionality by another 10%. What could possibly be repairing that much of a ship so dogg    one fast? He asked himself, contemplating the next sensor scan—

“I’ve accessed their docking port controls. .I’m opening their docking bay doors. . . There is no guarantee that they won’t be able to intercept the computer connection to surprise us and take control of Odyssey, Cap,” Connors declared.

Aaen nodded. “Do what you can, Connors,”

“Aye, sir,”

The crew watched as the doors opened. At the same time, Valiant gradually floated back into the vacuum of space.

“Get the tow online!” Aaen commanded, gesturing over his shoulder, then wrote down a triple-sequence of numbers and handed them to Wilson over his right shoulder, “Wilson, standby for emergency evasive on this heading,” Wilson entered the numbers. Odyssey’s maneuvering thrusters fired to adjust the ship’s new heading.

“Tow attached!” Connors declared.

“Sandberg, standby torpedoes!” Aaen pointed, “Wilson! Best-speed!”

“Aye!”

There’s gotta be a way to get the Valiant online and combat-ready, Smith wondered. . . The look on Aaen’s face told him he was thinking the same thing. 

*****

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Dark Echoes - Part 14

“Confirmed! Target at two-clock-high, at a distance of one-thousand-kilometers!” Jones declared sharply, wide-eyed, pointing at the sensor icon.

Aaen faced the front of the bridge, “Lock torpedoes!”

Sandberg abruptly carried out the order, then roared, “TARGET ACQUIRED!” He hovered over the “FIRE” command button.

“Fire torpedoes two and three!” Smith commanded.

“AYE! TORPEDOES AWAY!” The torpedo launch alarm flooded through the bridge as Sandberg watched the warheads soar at the target in a nearly straight line.

“Evasive!” Smith commanded Wilson.

“Aye, executing emergency evasive maneuver ‘Alpha-Two-One’!” Wilson declared.

Two seconds later, Sandberg turned left, pumped his fist sharply and declared, “IMPACT! Target’s defensive matrix, tractor beam, and Translight drive are down!”

The crew cheered.

“They’re still coming around!” Jones added sharply.

Another loud alarm sounded. Jones turned left and shouted, “INCOMING HIGH-YIELD WARHEADS from HARD STARBOARD! Bogey’s inbound!” The red triangular icon was drawing closer by the second, and its speed was increasing. “IMPACT IN FIVE SECONDS!”

The alarm sounded again, this time twice as fast, “ANOTHER BOGEY’S FIRED! INCOMING FROM PORT!”

“Wilson!” Aaen commanded. Wilson understood the order and nodded sharply.

“I’M ON IT!” He executed another series of sharp maneuvers.

“We’re running out of main power! I’m going to have to switch us to secondary backup systems in five minutes if we keep this up!” Connors sharply declared to Smith.

“Understood!” Smith turned to Aaen.

“Two torpedoes have been dodged—there’s still one incoming!” Jones shouted.  Wilson clenched his jaws and growled under his breath, frantically maneuvering as sharply as thrusters would allow.

A thundering explosion knocked Odyssey on a sharp roll to port. The crew was thrown across the bridge in a violent stroke. The bridge lights flickered sharply, gradually dimming to near pitch-darkness. For ten seconds, the crew got their bearings and scaled back to their seats as the internal lights struggled to stay on. Wilson fired the starboard roll thrusters for nearly a full minute to bring Odyssey out of the rolling spin.

Connors lifted her hair back over her head as she examined her screen, looking at the tow, then biting her lower lip out of frustration. “Commander!. .We just lost the tow. The Valiant’s adrift. We’ve also lost our Translight drive,” she gasped out of frustration and fatigue.

“We’ve only got half of sublight capability, Captain,” Wilson reported.

“Main power’s struggling. We’ve got three minutes left before I have to switch to secondary backup power systems,” Connors interjected.

Aaen frustratingly gasped, “Understood,” Jones noted the smaller bogeys were hovering around the Valiant like a hawk getting ready to go for the kill on a mouse.

A sensor alert sounded. Smith looked at Jones as she declared, “Detecting a large anomaly at extreme-long-range, closing fast! The anomaly’s energy signature is distinctly different than the other two sensor contacts. . . The anomaly’s getting closer!” Jones declared.

“Could be a ship,” Smith suggested to Aaen. Aaen looked at Wilson and gave his next order, “Continue evasive maneuvers,” he turned around, “Connors, put everything we’ve got left into the stealth system,”

She nodded acknowledgment.

Jones noted new short-range sensor data: local space is somehow being distorted as the anomaly rapidly enters the area. The anomaly stopped three hundred meters above and five-hundred-thousand kilometers away from Odyssey’s port bow.

The front of the bridge filled with gasps of shock and expressions of terrified awe. Jones leaned back to see the large anomaly: it’s the massive 'mother ship' Odyssey encountered before! The 'mother ship' is actively scanning for Odyssey. The scan’s reverberating static hums flooded the bridge. The entire crew got goosebumps.

Connors noted the stealth field is struggling to hide Odyssey.

Another alarm, this time from Connor’s station. She abruptly declared, “The stealth field is failing on the aft quarter!”

“That mother ship is towing-in the Valiant!” Jones announced.

The crew members on the front of the bridge watched the Valiant consumed by the mother ship through a docking port on its ventral-forward quarter, like a massive stingray opening its mouth to ingest its prey.

“Commander!” Connors called.

Smith approached her station, “What is it?” he asked directly.

“I’ve managed to break into that mother ship's central computer mainframe and access its classified command code database. I’ve downloaded the mother ships remote command override codes.”

Sandberg turned in his seat, “Captain, I suggest sending a few high-yield torpedo warheads aboard the mother ship and one of the smaller ships. We still have enough power to remotely detonate them if we wanted to. I think we could disable the larger ship and one of the smaller ships.”

Aaen looked at Smith. He nodded agreement.

“Do it,” Aaen commanded sharply.

Connors worked on decoding the classified command codes. Wilson armed the high-yield torpedoes. Low mechanical grumbles filled the bridge for three seconds as the torpedoes were loaded in the queue.

“The distorted space is affecting the main power grids on our ship and the other three ships,” Jones reported. Aaen recognized this effect as familiar.

“Commander, I suggest we hack into the larger ship's main computer and ordering the ship to be shut down so we can recover the Valiant,” Connors said.

“I agree, sir,” Smith affirmed to Aaen.

Aaen nodded at Smith.

“Whatever we do, we need to do it quickly!” Jones said, “With the weakened stealth field grid, they’re focusing their scans in our direction!”

“Adjusting power levels to compensate! Should by us a minute or so!” Connors said.

“It’s working!” Jones announced. But for how long?

“The torpedoes are armed and programmed!” Sandberg declared.

“We-need-to hurry!” Jones said.

Connors noted Odyssey’s stealth system is still struggling because of hull damage sustained.

Jones observed the smaller ships are now gradually bearing down on Odyssey.

“We’re in!” Connors declared.

“Deploy torpedoes!” Aaen commanded. “Torpedo detonations at Jones’ command!”

“Aye!” Connors acknowledged. She phased the torpedoes to their destinations, then sent the main power shutdown command to the larger ship. Sandberg hovered over the remote detonation command.

Jones watched the sensor data for the larger ship: it was already beginning to shut down. Its external lights flickered into darkness.

“NOW!”

Sandberg detonated the torpedoes. The crew watched multiple violent fireballs shoot from the second smaller ship as the targeted smaller ship drifted of its ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis’. The bridge crew cheered at the sight.

“The smaller ship is crippled beyond recovery! I’m detecting escape pods launching from it! Moderate damage to the larger ship!” Jones announced. The crew continued cheering. “the larger ship is adrift! I’ve located the Valiant! We’re gonna have to get a lot closer if we’re going to have a chance to recover it!”

With that, Aaen snapped, “Wilson, take us to extreme-close-range of the mother ship.”

He nodded acknowledgment.

“Connors, standby to remotely jettison the Valiant into space so we can recover it. Wilson, standby to take the ship to the best possible speed.”

“I doubt we’re going to have enough power for that, Captain!” Connors said directly. “We’ve got sixty seconds of main power left. I’ve started the secondary power backup system startup sequence so power to the ship isn’t interrupted,”

“Very good,” Aaen said.

But how long will we last on secondary backup power? Connors wondered in silence, her heart nearly beat out of her chest with anxiety as she watched the main power gauge continue to decline. 

*****

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Dark Echoes - Part 13

Maybe-this-could-work! Smith told himself, reading the sensor data rapidly, then looked at Jones; Jones nodded wide-eyed. Aaen noticed in his right peripheral the look on Smith’s face. He had seen that look before and understood more than anyone what it meant—especially as a commanding officer. Aaen’s interest was modestly piqued as he looked at Jones. She looked back at him with a concerned look, then back at Smith. “If we adjust the torpedoes’ targeting sensors, we can target them. What’s better? We can fire with the stealth system activated,” Jones looked at Connors. Running the numbers on the proposition took ten seconds—she nodded. “The catch is—“ Jones paused, “they can triangulate where we’re at based on the torpedoes’ trajectory, so we’d have to execute evasive maneuvers before they can score a direct hit. Their targeting systems look more advanced than ours—a lot more. I think they could probably get a good weapon bearing on us within three to five seconds.” That left a taste. “The biggest problem is, because of the effects of wherever the heck we’re at on the targeting systems, the targeting sensors are likely going to have a questionable lock. We’ll be firing pretty much `on analog. At best, we’ll be able to fire the torpedo in a given direction, then hope it hits something hard and detonates.”

Smith looked at Wilson. Wilson was already looking over his shoulder and nodding almost exhaustedly, “I think I can do it,” Jeez!—He gasped. . I hope Sandberg can hit those bozos. He checked the ship’s chronometer on his computer—it was almost 24:00 hours. Cheese.

Dang it, Sandberg looked left and shouted, “I-need-a-target!” He was eager to end this but hoped it wouldn’t have to end in ships exploding into blinding, violent fireballs. Then the thought crossed his mind. . What if those smaller ships were drones? Another jolt of rolling thunder rocked the bridge to port. The crew braced for stability.

“They’re still firing blind!” Jones declared. “No weapon lock!”

Sandberg adjusted the settings on Odyssey’s targeting sensors to target the weapon systems, “Jones, find me a target—big or small. Just find me a target,” Take out their weapons, the drones might. . .well, who knows . . . .

Jones executed a scan. . .THERE! “POSSIBLE TARGET at two o’clock high transferring targeting coordinates to the tactical station!”

Sandberg nodded sharply, “TARGET ACQUIRED! Torpedoes locked!”

“FIRE torpedo number one!” Aaen commanded sharply, clenching his jaws and slamming his fist into his armrest.

Sandberg switched the torpedo to detonate on proximity, then declared, “Torpedo away!” An alarm sounded as a bright white oval-shaped warhead shot from the starboard launcher, rapidly dimming into the darkness.

Smith snapped, “Precautionary: emergency evasive!”

“Aye!” Wilson acknowledged, immediately changing Odyssey’s speed and heading; one-quarter sublight, coming hard to port, adjusting pitch to Z-minus-two-hundred-meters. The torpedo passed out of the viewscreen in less than a second.

“Torpedo is on-target!” Sandberg declared, glaring at his screen, watching the small green triangular icon soar at the large, blurry distortion that seemed to shift from left to right at an upward angle on his screen—then vanished. A second later, the triangle turned into a burst of fragmented digital confetti and flame.

The crew members at front of the bridge turned to Sandberg, who clenched his fists in frustration, turning his head subtly, “Negative impact!” DANG IT!. . A ‘lucky shot’ would have been to disable the target. . . Wait—he squinted at his screen—what was that flicker effect in the second targeting quadrant?

*****

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