Lyta and Ivanova Part 5 of ---(WIP)
Rated PG-10 (Vocabulary)
********************************************************************* 2100 Babylon 5 time in Earthdome Back on Earth, General Leftcourt was awake in the intensive care unit of Earthdome hospital. A secured circuit had been hastily run when he was declared out of immediate danger. He was watching the latest incoming transmissions from Babylon 5. On the screen was the face of Captain Lochley, the station's present CO. "This is Babylon 5 to Earthdome, there is a massive Drakh fleet less that thirty minutes from our location. We believe that their intent is the destruction of Babylon 5. The EAS Ares under command of Captain Susan Ivanova has positioned itself in the expected path of the fleet. She and I believe her and her ship's destruction are inevitable; however, she is going to try to buy the station's survival with her and her crew’s lives. It is noted that had she followed orders and departed the area, she and her ship would be safe, leaving Babylon 5 completely undefended. She has chosen to not follow orders and to protect the station at all costs. If any of us survive, I intend to see that her efforts and those of her crew are not forgotten...." *********************************************************************** 2105 Babylon 5 time At that point jamming overwhelmed the signal. "General Lang. You were saying something about bringing Captain Ivanova before a general court martial for failure to obey orders?" managed Leftcourt in a weary voice. "We sent her confirmation orders, but she blatantly ignored them. No matter the out come, I will see her in front of a court martial." "I’m sure you will. Meanwhile, I’ll be court martialing you and your entire staff for putting Babylon 5 and the Ares in their present predicament. In fact, you’re under house arrest as of now General Lang." Looking at his aide, "Brad. See that arrest warrants are issued for General Lang's entire staff, down to the coffee boy. I want them in the brig. General Lang is to be escorted to his quarters and placed under guard. The charge is treason against the Earth Alliance and the Interstellar Alliance, and recklessly endangering EA and IA property, and the innocent lives of the quarter million persons presently onboard Babylon 5." General Lang was stunned at the pronouncement. He was angered at the security guard that had been summoned to arrest him. "You can't get away with this, Leftcourt!" "If Captain Ivanova and her crew don't survive, General Lang, You won't live long enough to stand trial." "Is that a threat?" "No. It’s a solemn promise. Now, get the stupid son of a bitch out of my sight." "You do know, this isn't going to be a popular move, general," commented his aide. "I know, Brad, but at my age and position, you can afford to ignore it." Thinking to himself, Leftcourt started smiling and a twinkle appeared in his eyes. "What's so funny, general?" asked Brad. "The next to last time Susan Ivanova shot her way out of a hopeless situation, we made her a captain. I guess if she pulls it off this time, we’ll have to make her a general." "With all due respect, I thought we were going to do that when she got back from this deployment?" "So we were. I suppose if she gets out of this alive, we’ll have to up the stakes. We'll let her shoot Lang and his lackeys." Brad gave Leftcourt the strangest look. *********************************************************************** 2140 Babylon 5 In her quarters, Lyta had expanded her mind and senses to be able to detect any change in the fabric of space that would signal the opening of jump points. What she had to do was simple; kill every living being aboard the ships of the Drakh fleet. She marshaled all the energy she could and waited. It was a very short wait. ********************************************************************** 2145 Babylon 5 In C&C Lochley stood beside Lt. Corwin and waited. On the displays were the beginnings of more jump points than Lochley or any of her crew had ever seen in one place at one time. On board Ares, Ivanova, saw the same type display, and muttered under her breath, "Looks just like when those damned advanced destroyers ambushed us." "Did you say something, captain?" asked a nearby console operator. "I said, I been there and done that. Target the jump point centers and open fire all systems." Using its four forward main batteries and all of her secondary batteries the Ares began to pour deadly energy into the jump points even before they were fully formed. The Drakh on the ships hit by the main battery fire, never knew what destroyed them. The Ares took out eight of the cruisers before they could transit to normal space, but many of the their accompanying fighters survived and automatically targeted Babylon 5 like very large missiles. The Ares began to pivot on its axis to bring her aft batteries into play. Onboard Susan had issued orders for engineering personal to bypass safeties on their reactors and give her maximum power for maneuvering and weapons systems. Knowing they were going to die anyway, the engineers didn't hesitate to answer the order. The Ares barely vibrated from the impact as she was hit by the first fighter, even though it exploded. The next six hits happened quickly and then began a series of continuous collisions with periodic explosions. ********************************************************************* In secondary command and control the XO was watching everything that was taking place outside the ship. The monitor and control consoles and displays mirrored the main CIC area. The main difference was the situation displays screens were slightly smaller. If CIC became too damaged to carry on, his station could continue the battle. There was a third smaller CIC and it was commanded by the operations officer. As he watched the ship's maneuvering he thought about the first time he had met Captain Ivanova about two years ago. It was in Earthforce headquarters in Earthdome and she was interviewing him for his present position. *******************************************************"I have reviewed your service record, Commander Owens. There is an item or two I would like expanded upon," said Captain Susan Ivanova. "No problem, captain. Could I ask one question first?" Susan nodded assent. "What am I doing here? There are numerous other candidates and they don't have my negatives." "Well, Mr. Owens. I read the service records of two hundred candidates and picked those few I wanted to actually interview. As far as negatives, they are relative and determined by perspective. Now, it is my turn," responded Susan. "Tell me about the incident on the Farragut." "Not much to tell. I was the new XO on board. My predecessor was killed in an accident. Everything was going just fine until we were ordered to start attacking civilian non-combatant targets. It was supposed to be for terror effects. I explained to the skipper that I couldn't, in good faith, follow his orders in the matter, and requested to be relieved of my duties. I was, and I spent the rest of the war in confinement. I wouldn't mutiny, but I wouldn't willing kill innocent people. The war crimes tribunal exonerated me for my actions, or rather lack of actions. They left my rank intact, but I don't expect any promotions between now and eternity. I’ll retire next year as a commander, unless I screw something up. I hope that answers your question, Captain Ivanova." "Do you know what I did during that war commander? If I had been captured, I would have been shot. Instead, this is my second major command as an Earthforce captain. My first one got shot out from under me, quite literally. Don't you suppose, I have some pretty high negatives? About as high as they get, I should think." "Yes sir. It took a lot of courage and conviction to do what you and Captain Sheridan did." "Don't you think it took courage to tell your CO you couldn't, in good conscience, support him. He would have been within his rights at that time to have held a court martial and had you shot on the spot. You had to know that." "I hadn't thought of courage having anything to do with it." "Perspective, commander, perspective. It is everything." Owens had been floored when he learned she had selected him for her second in command. ******************************************************* The remainder of the time before commissioning had gone quickly. There was a mountain of details to take care of in getting the ship ready to go. Training...who, how much, which equipment and systems; overseeing final testing carried out by the contractors and a million others. It had seemed like the madhouse it was, until, one morning, standing on the command deck in CIC, Captain Ivanova said, "Helm, we are free of lines and cables. Take us out, ahead dead slow." Everywhere there was a monitor, it was displayed as the huge ship began to move ever so slowly. Shipyard workers and crew alike felt chills as it became obvious they were at last underway. On her bridge, Susan and the XO felt the same chills as the rest of the crew. "Now we test her until she breaks, Mr. Owens," said Susan. "Till she breaks, Captain?" "That's what I said. I take it you have never been on builder's trials, have you commander?" "No sir. This is the first time I’ve ever been part of a commissioning crew." "Then get ready for one hell of a ride. We’re going to test the Ares until she either passes all her certifications, or we will break her balls. Do you suppose, I should say his balls, since Ares is a male name?" "Whatever you want, captain." Over the last few months Owens had found himself really liking his new CO. She was hard as nails, but she had a softer side that she seldom let be seen, and when it was, it was a very short exposure. *********************************************************** "Tell me, Mr. Nagi," asked Captain Ivanova, "Have you ever actually overloaded one of these reactors to the extent that the meltdown safety cut in?" "These reactors don't meltdown, captain. They explode," answered Nagi, the chief test coordinator. "Yes, I know that, but have the final safeties ever been tested to the shutdown/explode point before, or are we dealing with theory?" insisted Ivanova. Nagi walked over to a middle aged man and tapped him on the shoulder. Getting his attention, he asked him something, then jerked his thumb in the direction of the captain. The fellow walked over to where Susan was standing. "Captain Ivanova. Mr. Nagi asked me your question. No. We have never done that. The safeties have been statically tested, but it has been considered too expensive and dangerous to do it for real on an operating reactor." "What’s your name and position?" asked Ivanova. "Stein, Captain, Joseph Stein. I prefer Joe, and I designed the reactor installation for this ship, after you pushed through your changes," answered Stein. "You didn't care for my changes." "Actually, it made my job somewhat easier. By locating some of them in other parts of the ship, you caused power runs to be shorter and reduced the possibility of an operator error messing up the whole system. It had good points and some not so good," responded Stein. "What were the negatives?" "Only one impacted ship's operations. Separating the reactors requires more operators as compared to the original setup," answered Stein. "Have either of you ever had to take a warship into combat?" Both shook their heads, no. "I have, and all the changes, I pushed through on the design of this ship, are intended to make it hard to kill and increase the chances the crew will come back alive. I hope I never have to test them for real." "What do you want from me, captain?" asked Stein. "What I want, Joe, is for you and your crew to recalibrate the cutout point for the safeties to give me a ten seconds warning before the reactors explode. That's time enough for a man to intervene and manually shut them down. Think you can do that for me?" "Yes sir. May I ask why?" "We’re going to test the safeties, Joe," replied Susan with a wicked smile on her face. "Let me know when you’ve completed the job." With that she left the reactor room. "Do you think she might be a little nuts, Joe?" "No. Mr. Nagi. She’s not nuts. She’s a very good combat tactician. She wants to know exactly what the limits of her equipment are. I was involved with her showing us why she wanted the design changes. She may be a lot of things, but nuts isn't one of them." ************************************************************* They had been running tests of all kinds on every system on the ship for two weeks when Stein told Ivanova the recalibrations were completed. By then the crew had come to expect almost anything on short notice; however, the final few caught almost all of them by surprise. "This is the captain. We will begin some additional testing at 1300, which will cause the ship to be maneuvered violently. It is incumbent on you to make sure all your spaces are secure. Anyone injured because he didn't secure his space properly will be held accountable. Any damage, cause by failure to properly secure equipment or material, will be charged to the responsible party. It is now 0800. I won't accept excuses. Captain out." "You’re really going to do this, Captain Ivanova?" asked the XO, looking at her doubtfully. "Pat. We have to know what her or his limits are. In a fight, it could be the difference between living and dying, and my personal experiences tell me, the universe is a very dangerous place." Owens wanted to argue, but she was correct. It was 1230 and Mr. Nagi had joined the XO and CO on the command deck of CIC. "We are ready anytime you are Captain," commented Nagi. "Helm. Bring us to a full stop and hold our position with station keeping thrusters," ordered Ivanova. ********************************************************** On board the accompanying observation vessels, the bridge crews were surprised to see the Ares coming to a halt. The reactors were being powered down, too. Then they received incoming transmissions from its captain. "Intrepid, Moscva this is Ares. We are going to conduct additional acceleration and power tests combined with hard course changes. I want Intrepid to stay with us and make recordings and observations. Moscva, I want you to monitor and record from one thousand kilometers in front of us. We intend to start tests at 1300." The Moscva moved away increasing speed as she went. She would be on station in less that thirty minutes. ************************************************************ It was almost 1300 and the Intrepid bridge crew was monitoring the Ares, waiting to see what would happen. "She is powering up her reactors, captain," said a console operator. "Jesus Christ!" exclaimed another. "Look at her power curve!" His CO stepped over behind him and looked over his shoulder at his screen. "Make damned sure you have recordings of this. What are they trying to do? Blow her up?" "Captain. Her power readings are way past what we have monitored before." Another operator, commented, "Captain, she is moving away fast." On the visual display the huge ship was starting to accelerate. "Helm. Stay with her," commanded the captain. "Captain. At her present rate of acceleration, she will pass our maximum speed in less than five minutes." Another operator observed, "Sir. She is at one-hundred and fifty percent of her design maximum power. Their reactors must be ready to explode." One of the operators said, "She has exceeded our maximum speed, captain. We can't keep up with her." Ten minutes later from a position well back of the Ares, the Intrepid monitors watched as each of the Ares' reactors performed an emergency shutdown. They were startled when the ship executed a 180 degree turn on its vertical axis, powered up several reactors, and used her main engines to come to a very rapid stop. The captain commented to his bridge crew, "I saw it, but I don't believe it. I wouldn't have thought you could turn something that large that quickly, much less bring it to a stop." ******************************************************** 1300 On board the Ares. Susan looked over at the engineer manning the main propulsion control console station. "Lt.! I want maximum power and speed, now!" The man started pushing buttons and talking into the mouthpiece of his communications headset. There was a delay of almost two minutes, then the deck began a mild vibration which rapidly increased until it could shake a coffee cup off a table. The vibration continued at that level for almost five minutes as the ship accelerated. As the ship reached full acceleration the vibration diminished until it was no longer noticeable. One by one the reactors reached the maximum overload point, and the safeties tripped as designed and powered them down. "Helm. Reverse course, spin on our vertical axis," ordered Susan. The crew experienced a slight nauseous sensation for a few seconds as the ship executed the spin. In selected compartments, objects had been deliberately left loose and were video recorded to show the effects of spin when there was artificial gravity and no gravity. Susan felt it would reinforce the necessity to keep everything secured properly. ********************************************************* "Mr. Nagi, I want the data crystal recordings that were made during my little tests," said Susan. "Of course, captain." Later in Susan's underway cabin/office, Owens asked, "You have all the data crystals, captain. What are you planning to do with them?" "I’m classifying them and locking them up. We have shown what this ship can really do. I don't want that information in any computer files, or anyplace else that someone can access it. Would you keep it where it could be stolen so easily?" replied Susan. "No sir. I wouldn't. What about Mr. Nagi?" "No one has had a chance to review this data. I want our best computer man to make "duplicates" for Mr. Nagi and anyone else who needs them. Do I make myself clear?" "As glass, captain."******************************************************** END PART 5