"LUNAR: Tales From Crystal Tokyo"
LUNAR:
The Lost Episodes
By
Andy Beale
Volume
Twenty-One: Episode 2-14.15 "Close encounters of the most unpleasant
kind!"
Rated:
PG-13
In
orbit of Archird-2, Archird system, 6 February 2738
The
FSS ShadowDancer
ShadowDancer
ships log - Commander Damlanmo recording; Ship time 03/03/2524 - 05.24; Local
Time 06/02/2738 - 11:52 (+6.28)
Have just returned from our
rather eventful sortie to planet surface; I've attached the video and sensor
readings to this log, coded open access Alpha.
I have a horrible feeling that we have blundered into yet another war.
In the installation we have found 46 dead Terrans, and a number of live
and dead hostiles numbering 38. We have two survivors, both in a bad condition;
Susan and Jellessa are currently working on them in sickbay.
Yet again, our small, four-bed sickbay is nearly full again. Susaumen
should awaken around lunchtime, but I am going to keep her on light duties for a
while, if I can.
This whole situation now complicates my decisions as what to do next.
I was hoping that we would encounter a peaceful Terran civilization,
where we could go to Terra and wait until we popped back our own dimension, or
perhaps with their help make the journey to Draconi Sigma and see if the gateway
world was there. Now I feel we might want to patch the ship up the best we can
and head for Gateway straightway. Why?
Because I feel we are not up to dealing with another war at this moment;
but would we be flying to more trouble, or not?
Questions like this really make me wish I had been cast as a farmer.
End log.
ShadowDancer
Sick Bay; Ship time: 03/03/2524 - 05.16
"Jona, medical recording on," was Susan's first words as she
entered, pulling an anti-grav stretcher behind her.
"What do you want me to do with this guy?" asked Jellessa,
pulling the catatonic male behind her on a similar stretcher.
"To be honest, I haven't a clue.
Put him in some robes and into one of the beds, will you?
He's not in a critical condition; she needs the diagnosis suite
urgently," Susan said rapidly.
Quickly Susan pulled the stretcher behind a screen and inserted it onto a
zoned area on the floor. She headed
to the panel on the wall, and jabbed a couple of buttons.
"Begin diagnosis run," she ordered.
The woman's body floated off the stretcher, and Susan pulled it out of
the way. She floated there as
sensor sweeps were performed; Susan stood and watched the results on the panel.
After a few moments, the three medical AI's came to an agreement on a
diagnosis and treatment plan. Susan
rapidly read the plan and accepted it.
The front wall of a clear tank to one side of the suite slid down into
the floor, and a facemask with attached piping came down from the top of the
tank, hanging near the head of the skirted woman.
Susan reached over, grabbed hold of her left boot, and attempted to pull
it off.
It wouldn't move.
"Huhhh?" she blinked in astonishment.
Susan started looking over the boots and then the body suit.
"Jona," she asked the ship's computer. "Can you find any
seams or openings in the patient's clothing?"
"Negative," came the reply.
"How does she get into it, out of it, or go to the toilet,
then?" Susan wondered.
"Unknown," Jona replied.
"Guess we will have to cut it off, then!" Susan shrugged.
"Material of suit is made from a Terran spider silk derivative,
closely resembling silksteel; would advise a set of diamond or duralloy
cutters," Jona said briskly.
Grabbing some cutters from a drawer, Susan stood by the head of the
woman.
"Sorry about this," she whispered, and grabbed hold of the
large blue button in the middle of the black bow over her chest.
The bay was suddenly filled with a bright light.
Susan raised her right hand to shield her eyes.
As the light faded away, Jellessa came around the corner, the rifle in
hand.
"What happened?" Jellessa asked.
Susan blinked and looked at her patient, now dressed in a pair of gray
cycling shorts and a matching sports bra. In
Susan's right hand was a short wand, blue in color and highly decorated.
"Hurrrrhhhh!" was Susan's only comment.
"Any news?" asked Jellic, as he came in though the sick bay
door, carrying a small tray with a couple of mugs.
Susan's eyes lit up. "Coffee,
my savior." She ran over and
snatched her mug up. "Hadarean
coffee," she gushed, sniffing the brew.
"I know we only have a little left, but I thought we all deserved a
treat, especially when some of us are working in their sleep cycle." He smiled at her, and then turned towards the patients.
"What's the news?"
Susan waved her hand side to side. "Some
good, some bad! Good news is that
is they're both going live. But,
she is going to be in a better state than him."
Susan walked over to the man now strapped to the bed.
He had been cleaned up and put in a green medical robe. But his eyes were still fixed, staring at a point on the
ceiling.
"The straps are for his own protection; it's not unheard of for
people in this condition to hurt themselves if they have a fit of some type. As to what happened to him, the medical AI's said some sort
of mental trauma, combined with drug abuse."
Jellic raised a questioning eyebrow.
Susan walked over to a small table and lifted up the box they had found
him with.
"The vials in this box contain two sorts of drugs; one is a
hibernation inducing drug; not unlike our Hybo.
The Auto-doc is currently flushing this stuff out of his system. The other drug was a very strong stimulant, combination of
amphetamines, adrenal stimulates and serotonin suppressors."
Jellic nodded his head; even with his limited knowledge of human
biochemistry he knew this was bad news. "So,
he wanted to stay awake for some reason."
"I imagine that the force field he was producing needed him to
remain awake to maintain it. Taking
one dose of this drug would be reasonably safe, and keep someone alert and awake
for 24 hours; the problem would be that after the initial dose, the
effectiveness would drop off sharply. A
third dose would be needed 18 hours after the second, a fourth after 12 hours,
and then every six hours for further doses.
Counting the vials, and seeing his blood work, I estimate he had taken
about six doses. Anything more than
three doses would carry a strong risk of brain damage, blood clotting, as well
as numerous other problems related to lack of sleep," Susan concluded.
"So this accounts for his condition?" Jellic asked.
"No, it doesn't. Something
else happened, as well, and I have not got a clue what," Susan sighed.
Jellic frowned. "I hate having unknowns."
He took a sip of his coffee.
"Tell me about it," she replied, taking a sip of hers.
Jellic looked again at the box. "What
about those two?" He pointed
to the two large vials at the back of the box.
"Enough sedative to kill an enraged Bacrus Worm; they had decided
not to be captured alive," Susan said.
He nodded. "What of the woman?"
"Her name is Naru Ichibashi, according to the bracelet around her
left wrist." Susan picked up a
small silver band out of a small dish. "Naru
Ichibashi - Sailor Macros the Quantum Senshi - Type O- No ango - Np Acog,"
she read from the surface. "There
seems to be some embedded circuitry on his as well, which I assume contains more
medical/personal data, but unless we can find a working reader over in the base,
we would have to kludge something, and that's going to take time."
"As for how she is..." Susan turned on a screen, and a display
came up of a human female form. "She's in the primary suspension tank at
the moment, having her blood purified and wound cleaned out.
The cloning tank is synthesizing some gut, blood, muscle, and skin tissue
to patch the holes. The only reason
she's alive now is the hybo, and the lack on bacteria on the planet."
Jellic scratched his chin. "How
long before we can talk to her?"
"Auto-doc says about 21 hours in the tank, then another 10-12 hours
for her to wake up," Susan said.
"Can we speed that up?" Jellic wondered.
"Not safely," Susan elaborated.
Jellic looked thoughtfully down at the collection of objects on the bench
top; he reached out, and picked up the blue decorated wand.
"And this is?" he asked.
"You saw the recording," Susan shrugged.
"Jona showed it to me while I was making coffee," Jellic
nodded.
Susan shrugged. "Best guess is it's a psionic resonator, or a focus
of some type."
Jellic looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Put it somewhere safe at the moment; I think I don't want our guest
being able to get her hands on it, without us knowing more about her."
"Being a little paranoid, aren't you?" Susan teased.
Jellic smiled. "No,
just being careful."
"Well then, here's to being careful," said Susan, as they
clinked their mugs together.
ShadowDancer
ships log - Commander Damlanmo recording;
Ship time 04/03/2524 - 18.20; Local Time 08/02/2738 - 00.48 (+6.28)
Surprisingly, today has
been a good day. Okay, it's still
raining, but other than that, it's not been bad at all.
To summarize...
Susaumen, after a few hours, and using information gathered from the
control room, managed to crack the encryption on the downlink sensor data from
the orbiting satellites. We cannot
control what they are looking at, but we can see the raw data being downloaded
to the base computer. Each
satellite has a FTL sensor range of about 12 light hours, so it gives us a good
idea of what is happening in this system, and practically in real-time; this
more than makes up for our own sensor blindness for being planetside. Susaumen and Jona have completed a translation matrix, which
is now in place. The side effect of
this work has been to gain an understanding of their FTL sensor systems, and to
some extent, communication systems. We
are making modifications to our own systems to detect their use, and are
modifying the sensor baffles to block their effectiveness.
Jon, Anternain, and the mechtech's have fabricated and installed a new
port sensor pylon, crafted from materials found in the large storage sheds
around the main dome. Sensor
construction is, however, moving at a slower place; although our apparent
technology levels are similar, our methods of achieving it are very different.
Jon summed it up so: "Great,
stuck in a universe with a bunch of crystal hanging, new age hippies."
It did take me a while and a couple of dictionaries to work out what he
had said; I can only hope that we don't have to start wearing kaftans.
Sensor construction is now in progress, with a mixture of local bits and
some of the remaining sensor systems out of the Bucephalus.
I wonder sometimes if there's going to be anything left of the shuttle pod when
we have finished with it.
Due to these technological differences, Jon has been unable to find the
parts to repair the damage to the main comms systems, leaving us with the radio
system and our old laser communicator. Jon
feels this is not such a problem; as far as he can tell our normal tachyon-wave
propagation FTL system is not used in this universe.
Sensor readings indicate some sort of hyperspace communication system;
although how this works we have no idea. Different
universe, different laws.
Jellessa has been searching the base for any clues we can find about
where we are, and what we are dealing with.
Unfortunately, all electronic data devices are locked out with the same
code as the main system. The only
two functioning padd's we have is one that acts as a newspaper, found in the
first building we explored; and a padd of erotic stories found in a box under a
bed. The newspaper is from 20th
November 2733, which puts it some 4 years out of date from the current
(estimated) local time. Reading the other padd leads me to believe that the
Terrans in this universe are just as sex addicted as our own, which is a fact
that amuses Jon and Susan no end.
Jellessa has found a number of paper books as well; she is processing
this literature information. Most
of them are storybooks; some are, however, of a technical nature. Jellessa comments to me that there is an interesting split in
the languages; a lot of the stories and documents are written in a
Japanese-English blend, with a smattering of other languages thrown in; while
all of the technical documents are written in English.
She is going to give us a little presentation on what she has learnt
after dinner.
Susan has mostly been watching her patients, both of which we now have
some background on. The male is
Tomomasa Shigenobu, who from what can tell is the base commander, and going by
some of the pictures found in his room, comes from Mars, or very similar planet. The woman is Naru Ichibashi, and appears to be some sort of
wandering expert on their communication systems. Tomomasa's condition remains unchanged; Susan has raised the
idea of putting him into an artificial coma, in an attempt go get his brain to
reset, but would prefer if we could to find a psi-healer.
Naru came out of the suspension tank four hours ago, and is currently in
a natural sleep, while the last of the drugs clear her system.
My own exploration turned up some interesting facts; the ship on the
landing pad was how our Blade-bugs and Alkon got on planet.
Seem the craft was intercepted in space and the crew killed; a surprise
attack was then mounted when it landed. The
craft itself is a cargo vessel; it seemed to be carrying stores and a range of
other equipment, as well as a shipment of fresh food.
The food is Terran in nature and contains a range of foodstuffs.
We are taking advantage of this fact, and are having a dinner of fresh
food for the first time in four months.
End log.
Ship
time 04/03/2524 - 20:32 - After dinner
The lights came up as the holo-tank faded; there was a slightly stunned
silence around the room as Jellessa said, "well, that's what I found."
Jellic shook his head as if to clear it. "So
let me get this straight," he said. "We
have an advanced civilization ruled by an immortal queen of the moon."
"And a king of the Earth," commented Susan, with a slightly
dazed look.
"Then we have these women, running around in short skirts, called
Sailor Senshi, and a bunch of wizards who protect the Queen and her court, as
well as their civilization," continued Jellic.
"Yes; look, I can only tell you want I have managed to translate,
and the source information is a bit limited," said Jellessa with a sheepish
look.
"But it is consistent, right?" asked Jon.
"Well, yes," she answered.
"We haven't entered the silly universe, have we?" asked
Susaumen.
"No, that's 0.2146742506433 Hz," replied Jona.
"What?" asked Jellic.
"0.2146742506433, reported by Captain Kancgora Jtoch and his/her
crew. A universe where the only physical matter was jelly.
They remained there for three months, interacting with jelly based life
forms, until their reversion."
Everyone looked at Jona; Jon reached down and pulled up two cans of beer.
One he tossed to Susan, and he opened up another can and took a long pull
from it.
"This sort of weirdness is to be expected when we come from a
universe where anything is possible," commented Jona.
"Well, that Senshi thing would explain Naru in the sick-bay,"
commented Susan, opening up her beer can.
Jellessa looked across at Jellic, who was sitting back in his chair, head
back, his eyes staring, unfocused, at the ceiling.
"What troubles you, my brother?" she queried.
Jellic blinked and brought his head back down.
"Let me level with you," he began. "After this afternoon's
activity, I was contemplating our next move; and to be honest, I am now leaning
heavily in the direction of leaving our two friends in sick-bay somewhere safe,
and heading for Draconi Sigma."
"Head for the gateway world, on our own, without any knowledge of
the local space. You've got to be
kidding us," was Anternain's reaction.
"That, and I would not be happy leaving those two behind anywhere at
the moment," Susan threw in.
"But do you all feel like being thrown into another war?" was
Jellic's quiet question. Silence
fell though the group.
"Do we have a lot of choice?" was Susan's comment. "We
have already interfered here. Perhaps
our fate is already sealed."
"Predestined stuff again, Susan?" commented Jon with a snort.
Jellic held up his hand to stop the breaking out of a very old argument.
"Let's
stop that there. Things keep happening to us, that's all.
If there is some reason for it, then no doubt we will find out sooner or
later."
A quiet bleeping came from Susan's wrist comm; Susan immediately stood
up. "She's waking up!"
she said, and headed out of the room; Jellic followed shortly afterwards.
The rest sat for a while, thinking, in silence.
Until Jon reached over and picked up the beer can Susan left behind.
"Waste not, want not!" he commented, knocking back the can.
I am waking up, she thought with some surprise.
Struggling with the weight of her eyelids, she looked across the dimly
lit room.
Peppermint green walls... huh... I have to be in a sickbay. This burst of humor woke awareness of her body.
She felt pleasantly numb and relaxed.
A contrast to what she felt before:
the burning, shearing pain of being blind-sided by a Slasher, the feeling
of her own insides in her hand. The
sound of her own heartbeat in her ears; words she heard but did not understand
at the time; a cold floor, bright lights, and then the feeling of floating in
womb again.
"Naru, are you all right? Can
you hear me?" came a voice from the outside.
It was a woman's voice, speaking English. Naru?
Naru? Naru!
That's me! Her mind
fought off the effects of some drugs; some awareness of self returned.
"Hai!" She forced
her eyes open again. Looking over
her was a dark-haired woman with green eyes and a friendly smile.
She felt hands on her head, turning her head sideways, and then a soft
hiss and a tingle in her neck.
"I have just given you a light neural stimulant," came the
voice again. "It will help
clear the fogginess from your mind. Can
you tell me your name, please?"
"Naru Ichibashi," she managed.
"When's your birthday?" the woman asked.
"April 12th," Naru muttered.
"And where were you born?" came the next question.
"Geneva maternity hospital," Naru answered.
"Okay, that's good. My
name is Susan; I am going to be right here, and if you want anything, just call
me. Okay?"
"Okay," Naru said slowly.
Naru sank again into a pleasant haze, which slowly began to clear. Full awareness returned, as did the comforting chatter of her
mutant ability. For a few moments,
she listened to the chatter of radio, of various bits of local equipment, and
the faint sounds from far distant sources.
Then, a feeling crept over her. A
feeling of wrongness, something was wrong; stirrings of panic set in. Across the room, Susan and Jellic saw her heart rate and
hormone levels spike. Susan crossed
the room and captured her hand.
"Naru, what's the matter?" Susan asked, concerned.
With Susan grabbing her hand the feeling of wrongness intensified.
Naru's eyes widened as she looked at the woman.
She was not wearing an RSN uniform; it was a different deep blue with an
unfamiliar logo on the chest. Panic
set in.
"You shouldn't be here!" she cried, throwing off Susan's hand;
she attempted to sit up. Pain shot
up from her abdomen, from her wounds. Two
hands appeared on her shoulders, pushing her firmly back into the bed.
Naru blinked as she looked up into the face of the person.
The face was human, sort of. But
the eyes... yellow eyes, looking like the pet pygmy goat she had when she was
young. Not the eyes of a human.
"I quite agree with you," said the person, in a voice heavy
with alien overtones. "But we
are here, and we need your help."
ShadowDancer
ships log - Commander Damlanmo recording; Ship time 05/03/2524 - 08.52 –
Breakfast; Local Time: 09/02/2738 - 14.20 (+6.28)
One of these days, I am
going to try and get back to normal sleeping patterns. Yes, I know the textbooks
say we can stay awake and alert for 72 hours, but it doesn't mean we do it
happily.
The night has been somewhat productive despite my bitching.
Naru Ichibashi has awoken, and after quite a lot of
"discussion", has become at least outwardly convinced that we are not
agents for the enemy, although if it wasn't for her abdomen wound I would
imagine she would have run away several times last night. Trust, as one human
sage said, is earned, never given, and in that young lady's mind is rare
commodity. Seeing your friends and
workmates cut down like straw before the harvester can do that to a person.
Well, that, and Susan telling her she could not eat for another 24 hours.
The glues holding her insides together, and the nano-builders, need more
time before we start stressing the system.
I've noticed that humans, in many cases, are slaves to their stomachs.
When I left, Susan was showing her the recordings of our encounters on
the planet surface. This, I
imagine, will be somewhat traumatic, and my normal blunt method of dealing with
things is not what is required. I
hope we can bring her around; we desperately need an ally in this strange
universe. That, and we need local
knowledge to know what to do next.
End
log.
Naru flopped back into bed, as Susan gently wiped her mouth with a wipe.
"I warned you that it was not a pleasant sight," said Sue, with
a slight scolding tone in her voice.
Naru looked slightly wildly at Susan.
"You got them all? They're all dead?"
Susan smiled; she had heard such desperate questions before from other
soldiers on a dozen battle fields scatted across several hundred light years and
a universe away.
"Combat Borg Ram reported the last Blade-bug was brought down by
chain gun fire at 03:03 ship time, 9:29 local, two days ago," Susan
replied.
"And me and..." Naru trailed off.
"You and Tomomasa are the only ones we found alive, yes," Susan
confirmed.
Naru turned her head, and stared at the ceiling with the face that Susan
had long since classified as 'wanting to break down and cry, but not doing so, as
it would show weakness.'
"When did you know something was wrong?" was her stark
question.
"I think we suspected something was wrong the minute we pulled into
orbit, but we didn't know something was wrong until we encountered the body in
the garden," Susan mused.
"Poor Nicola," Naru whispered, still staring up at the ceiling.
"She was not a member of the Royal Star Navy; she was a civilian
contractor from North America, brought into help maintain the environmental
conditions on the base." A
single tear started its progress down her cheek.
"She and I were on the shuttle together; she was excited about being
off planet for the first time and the challenge of growing plants on this dark
and wet world."
Naru turned her head to look at Susan, the single tear now damping the
pillow. "What are you going to
do now?" she asked.
Susan was unsurprised by the sudden change, and answered calmly.
"It's very much up to Jellic; he was thinking about leaving you and
Tomomasa someplace safe and heading for Draconi Sigma and the Gateway."
Naru looked confused. "Draconi
Sigma, the Gateway?"
Susan frowned; this was not good news.
She rapidly organized her thoughts.
"The Gateway is a planet, which to the best of our knowledge, is a
dimensional nexus; and it seems to exist in all the universes that our people
have been to, and for those who are in the wrong dimension, it's a way home.
You fly to this planet and land on the 200 km square metal pad that sits
on the equator and wait. Perhaps
days, perhaps months, it can be very uncertain.
But one day you will move back into your own universe; at which point you
fly out of there or take one of the ships down on the planet that is from the
same universe as yourself. I take
it from your face that you don't know anything about this?"
Naru shook her head. "No,
never heard of it. But don't have
an active field rating for ship operations, so perhaps the knowledge is
restricted for some reason. Perhaps
Sailor Mercury will know, but it sounds more like Sailor Pluto's field."
Susan looked somewhat unhappy at that point; she opened her mouth to say
something, but was interrupted by a buzz from her wrist comm.
"They want me to pop up to the bridge.
Can I leave you with the library computer for a few minutes while I go
and talk to them?" Susan sighed.
"Yes, fine," Naru smiled.
"I think you guys are all right, you know," she continued,
surprising herself.
"Thank you. I still
doubt our collective sanity sometimes," grinned Susan.
"Doesn't everybody?" Naru answered with a smile.
"What's the excitement?" asked Susan as she came onto the
bridge.
Anternain and Jellic were already there, studying the readings; Jona
stood at the back of the bridge in her alcove.
"Jellic, how many hours of sleep have you had?" Susan asked.
"About 4 in the past 60 hours or so; I would have had more but Jona
wanted me to see the data feed from the orbiting satellites.
Another starship has appeared near Archird 4," answered Jellic.
"That's the system's large gas giant; what they doing?" Susan
wanted to know.
"Skimming for fuel is the best we can tell," answered Anternain.
“But it might be doing something else.”
"Question is, friend or foe?" Jellic said.
"I have assembled enough data for a ship overview," announced
Jona, walking out of the alcove, and standing by the central holo-display as it
lit up. It showed a rather blocky
looking black ship with a nary a nod towards streamlining.
"Well, their aesthetics suck," was Anternain's comment.
Data overlays appeared and Jona continued speaking.
"The ship is partly organic and partly technological in
construction, much like an Ecluck-Esspien starship. It's 271 meters long, and there
are 341 life forms on board, type unknown.
N-space maneuvering is accomplished by a large unknown drive, with
secondary thrusters for roll, pitch and yaw.
There is no sign of a grav drive. There
are two large internal masses; one is power plant, size and type unknown, but
certainly in the terawatt range. The
second internal mass seems to be some sort of FTL system, type and nature
unknown. Weaponry seems to consist
of several beam weapons, type unknown, but probably an EM weapon of some sort.
Mounted forward seems to be some sort of missile launcher, firing down an
accelerator tunnel. Hull shows some
reinforcement but little extra battle armor; shield generators of some type are
active, but their type and capabilities are unknown at this time."
"Does it match with the technology we have found at the base?"
asked Jellic.
"Match level is 12.45%. I
would assume that ship is not from the civilization found on this planet,"
Jona reported.
"Friend or foe?" Jellic wondered.
"Unknown," Jona replied.
Susan spoke. "Foe."
Jellic turned to her. "Another
feeling, Susan?" he said; he learned long ago to listen to Susan's
feelings, because 99 times out 100 they were correct.
"Can we find out somehow?"
"We could fly up, and say hello, and see if they start shooting at
us," was Anternain's reply.
"A workable idea, if a little stupid," was Jellic's response.
"Is Naru awake at the moment?"
"Yes, she was looking at our library computer when I left her. We had a rather useful conversation before I came up here,
which I will fill you in on later," Susan answered.
Jellic looked at Susan, then nodded, trusting her judgment.
"Can we trust her?"
"Yes, I think so," Susan replied.
Jellic nodded. "Okay.
Jona, transfer information feed to sickbay; time for a little
meeting."
"It's a modified Dark Kingdom destroyer," was Naru's stark
reply, as she went slightly pale. "Ships
that size normally don't have Negatorpedo launchers, but this one does.
They're the people responsible for the things we call Slashers, and you call
Blade-bugs... and that thing you called an Alkon."
"The bad guys?" Jellic asked.
"Yes," Naru confirmed.
"Crap. What's their
likely response if they find us?" asked Susan.
"Blow you into small bits," said Naru matter-of-factly.
"Shows a fairly simple way of thinking to solve a problem, if
nothing else," commented Jellic. "Can
you give us a clue on what they might want?"
Naru's face screwed up slightly, as if debating what to say next. "As well as a research base, we did serve as a listening
post for this sector; part of Sailor Mercury's outer detection ring.
So I would imagine they want to control what information is getting back
to Luna."
"I get it; so, if you want to send in an attack force, you do so in
a way that they are seen only at the last minute."
Jellic then thought for a moment. "But,
they killed everyone on this base; wouldn't that raise suspicion?"
"No," was Naru's answer. "The
Dark Kingdom is very good at bioengineering; they have a range of creatures that we call
Infiltrators, that can assume
the forms of your people."
"So kill the people, replace them with your own; then you have a
friendly base embedded within enemy territory.
Clever. Nasty, but
clever," Jellic mused.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Susan.
"'What do we do?'" said Jellic with a smile. "We do what
all people do in difficult situations; we hold a meeting!"
"Why did we have to hold the meeting here?" said Jon, hopping
on to the countertop in the sickbay.
"I don't want Naru moving around unnecessary," explained Susan.
Jellic turned on the overhead holo display.
"Trouble." One word, so many connotations; faces changed.
Jellic briefed everyone on what was happening; he ended with a final
question. "What do we want to
do?"
"Run for it, or fight, you mean," Jon snorted.
Naru tried to rise from her bed; Susan pushed her back down.
"We know you want to fight."
"What's our chances?" asked Anternain.
"To be honest, I cannot say. Weapon
systems seem comparable; we probably have an edge on speed, but they are twice
as big as us, and have a lot more crew; so their ability to absorb damage is
much greater. The sensible thing to do would be to leave, and head out, hoping
we can get help quickly before they take advantage of the base."
"Jellic, when did we ever do the sensible thing?" asked
Jellessa.
"I think there was that one time...?" he stopped.
"But, then I woke up. Let's
have a vote, people: fight, or
flight?"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
Jellic paused for a moment. "Never
could turn down a challenge; fight it is. Jona, go to Defcon-3; we have a battle
to plan."
ShadowDancer
ships log - Commander Damlanmo recording; Ship time 05/03/2524 - 12.05; Local
Time 08/02/2738 - 18.33 (+6.28); *** Defcon - 3 ***
We are ready.
Jon and the Mechtechs have finished loading the ship, and we are locking
down the ship. The hostile has now completed its skimming and is moving
towards this planet. It will arrive
in three hours. If it maintains its
current course, the planet's rotation will move the base and us into sensor
shadow, and when we are in that situation we will lift and proceed with our
attack plan. We are using a modified Delta stealth attack plan, which should
give us the best chance of successful attack, or at least be in a good position
to make a run for it.
Jon has managed to replace the port sensor pylon, but our sensor
efficiency is still down; the best speed we will be able to do is 0.5 distort. Discussion with Naru and Susan has led me, reluctantly, to
make the trip to Terra. My other
option now seems uncertain with the information I have, currently.
We will deal with what we find, when we get there.
First we have to get through this fight.
Our current battle plan is this: when
in orbit, missile auto loaders will load two Shield Burster missiles and our
last NAX ground attack torpedo. The
NAX has been pre-programmed to destroy the surface base; if we fail, the enemy
will still be denied their prize. All
weapon systems all check out fine and Jellessa and Jon have replaced the missing
point defense turret. Everything is
ready; now, all we can do is wait.
End
log.
For takeoff, the rain had stopped. The
ShadowDancer rose slightly into the air as the landing gear retracted
into the ship's body. The nose of
the ship rose up, so that ship now stood up like an old fashioned rocket.
"Go orbital insertion," came Jellic's command.
The ShadowDancer then shot into the sky at 11 m/s/s.
Naru watched the take off on a monitor in sickbay as Susan walked up to
her, with a spare shipsuit over her arm.
"Naru, would you like to come up the bridge and watch the fun from
there?" she asked, offering the suit to her.
"What's this?" Naru wanted to know.
"It's a ship suit; this one should be your size," Susan
answered.
"I notice you wear them all the time; why?" Naru asked.
"Safety. These are
vacuum suits; they have a helmet and gloves built in, and have about 10 minutes
of oxygen built in; and connections to normal personal life support systems. In combat we wear these, and helmets, to stop us banging our
heads if the gravity goes out," Susan explained.
"I hate to say this, but that seems sensible," Naru nodded.
Susan smiled. "Do you
want to come up and join the fun, then?"
"Why not," Naru said, and added mentally, if I am going to
die I want to see it happening.
With Susan's help, Naru dressed slowly; once finished, Naru sat in a
chair while Susan checked Tomomasa.
"How is he?" asked Naru.
"Unchanged, is the best I can say.
He needs to get professional healing as soon as we can.
If it's any consolation, the sickbay has its own power and life support
systems, as well as 20cm of armor encasing it.
It's designed to give complete life support even if the is ship breaking
up around it. We have recovered
people from broken up ships in such modules," Susan said.
"And not from others," was Naru's comment.
"That too," said Susan, her face darkening with memories; with
a shrug, she shook off such thoughts, turned, and removed something from a
cabinet.
"Here, you might need this," Susan said, dropping into Naru's
hand the blue and gold wand. Naru
looked up at Susan with surprise. "Look, Naru, we know you are some sort of
psion, or bio-weapon, and that is key to it.
When all is said and done, we might need your firepower if we are
boarded, or we have to board. Now,
let's get up to the bridge; my coffee is going cold."
When Naru and Susan walked slowly onto the bridge, Naru was struck by the
differences between the bridge of a GM ship and this one.
People were sitting around in a circle; most of them were sitting looking
inwards, towards a large, circular holo-display.
The only one that was different was Anternain, who was facing outwards,
and looking though a large viewing window.
The holodisplay was lit, showing the planet, themselves, and the
approaching ship.
"Naru," said Jellic with a smile.
"Glad you could join us. Take
a seat at the engineering station, will you?"
Susan led her over to the vacant seat, helped her strap in to the chair,
and strapped her helmet on. Susan
pointed out the small PLSS under the seat that could be removed and linked into
her ship suit, as well as a survival pack for her to grab in an emergency.
Susan then showed her the controls for sensors and other systems she had
access to, and where the rapid access tube to the escape pod was; finally, she
then took her own seat.
"Naru," said Jellic, catching her attention.
"We are strangers here; if you have any ideas, no matter how small,
or see us doing something wrong, scream. We
would all like to see tomorrow."
At that point, a small amber light came on, and a new trajectory track
appeared on the holo-display.
"Okay, people, let's have a situation report," said Jellic.
An image of Jon appeared to the left of the main display, from his
position in engineering.
"Tactical?" asked Jellic.
"Hostile is still moving on course for intercept with the planet in
one hour, 52 minutes. Speed and
course unchanged; they are running active scans from their position but are
getting little return; planet's atmosphere and current location of base are
causing considerable interference. I
have logged three hails to the planet surface, but all were encrypted.
Autoloaders have now loaded two shield bursters, and a NAX torpedo;
Susaumen has loaded and programmed two Wild Weasels for EW ops," reported
Jellessa.
"Engineering?" Jellic asked next.
"All systems check out fine, primary fusion reactor is operating
normally, second reactor is on hot standby.
All shields and weapon systems come back green. Main drive is available
on normal 5-second countdown. Stealth
systems are ready for use," said Jon.
"Navigation?" Jellic asked.
"Course is laid in and waiting for activation, optimum time for
attack run is in 450 seconds," Anternain answered.
"Susan, do we have any other means of cover to reach the
target?" Jellic asked.
"If you're looking for an asteroid to hide behind, like we have done
before, you're out of luck. We only
have a couple of growlers in near space. We
are going to have to float around on our backs," Susan replied.
Jellic paused for a moment. "Okay,
go on Anternain's mark. Jona,
Defcon-2."
Naru looked up at the android standing next to her; she knew it was
literally only a puppet for the main computer, but everyone here treated it much
like any one else. It looked down
at her and smiled in a very human way. "Do
you have a question?" it asked.
"Well, yes, if you can spare the time," Naru said softly.
"No problem; part of my duties is to give out information and assist
members of the crew," Jona replied.
"Can I be honest? I did
not understand a lot of what was just said, and I wonder if you could fill me in
on the plan?" Naru requested.
"Certainly," she said, stopping as if composing her thoughts.
Whoever programmed this was very good, thought Naru.
"The ShadowDancer is what is termed as a Strike Missile
Cruiser, or SMC; it is designed to fly into a target very quickly, launch an
overwhelming volley of missiles and torpedoes, and get away just as quickly.
Normally we operate as a pack of five, usually with ten Black
Lightning-class fighters providing close fire support.
So, normal tactics for dealing with the hostile would be for us to come
in over the North pole of the planet, at full speed, and let loose a whole
battery load of weapons at the close range," Jona said.
"Unfortunately, at this time, we have very few missiles and
torpedoes in the armory, so our normal hit and run tactics will not work.
We are proposing to use stealth tactics; using sensor baffles and the
sensor absorbing effects of the upper layer of ablative armor, we drift up as
close as we can and then sprint in, use the shield bursters to bring down or put
a hole in the shields, and then use the laserlances and anti-matter particle
accelerator to disable or destroy the other ship.
If that does not happen, we will make a run for it, drop our load of
mines in the incoming ship's path, and try to lead them away from here."
Naru blinked; the tactics they were using were, to her ears,
unconventional. But, as she thought about it, this ship was smaller than even a
GM destroyer so different tactics were needed.
"Well, they did not teach us those tactics in starship combat
classes," Naru muttered. “Of
course, we don't need them, except maybe as a scout ship's CO,” she added. “We’re usually quite well equipped to deal with DK
starships.”
"Federation space combat, and to some extent planetside combat, is
based around the 'Adaptive Doctrine', which put a high emphasis on flexible
forces, and the initiative of local commanders to adapt to the local conditions.
It is based on the work of Shrtiral Karn, which is in the ship's library
if you wish to read it," Jona replied.
"Orbital maneuver program running," said Anternain. "Raising blast shields." His seat and controls now
turned around, facing into the holo-display, as large metal and ceramic plates
came over the bridge windows.
"Now, what happens?" asked Naru.
Jellic turned to face her. "We
do what we all hate doing; we wait and hope our luck holds."
It is strange, Naru thought.
It's like out of those old war movies my father liked to watch, when
the submarines were hiding from surface ships, how quiet everyone is.
The only noises were the faint hum of controls, and the sound of the air
being moved around by the life support system.
Naru again relaxed, listening in her mind to the now faint radio chatter,
and the regular burst of the destroyer's active sensors scanning the surrounding
space.
"Five minutes to intercept point," came Jellessa's voice,
sounding almost blasphemous in the silence. The quiet settled again; Naru
settled back to listening. Moments later, she sensed something; the rhythm she
had felt for some time changed.
"Something's happening aboard the cruiser," she said.
"Confirmed," said Susaumen. "They have stopped intensive
scanning of the planet's surface, and are now doing an intensive all round
scan."
"Standby," said Jellic.
They waited. Suddenly, Naru
felt an overwhelming burst of active sensors.
"Radiation threshold exceeded!
They've seen us!" cried Susaumen.
"Defcon-1!" was Jellic's command, as his fingers flew over the
control panel in front of him. The
bridge exploded into life. A slight
shudder was felt.
"Wild Weasels away!" called Susaumen.
"Roll and yaw program running," reported Anternain.
"Sensor baffles off, fusion reactors ramping to full power,"
Jon reported from Engineering.
"Laserlances in battle configuration, extreme range firing in 15
seconds," Jellessa said briskly.
"Maneuver program complete; presenting minimal profile to hostile;
grav drive is at full power; we are accelerating at 24 m/s/s," Anternain
said.
"Reactors at full power, shield layers one and two are up, layers
three and four beginning power cycle," Jon said.
"Hostile is turning, bringing main weaponry to bear.
They're attempting target lock," called out Jellessa.
"Accelerator to standby status; requires more power to begin
charging."
"Confirmed, Jon give us main drives," Jellic ordered.
"Main drive, in 5," Jon counted out.
"Detecting an energy spike in hostile!" called Susan.
"4!"
Slight shudder was felt in the ship.
"A secondary battery has fired on us," reported Susan.
"3!"
"Weapon is combination of graviton and EM energy," Susan said.
"2!"
"Absorbed by shield layers one and two," Susan continued.
"1!"
"No major damage," concluded Susan.
"Detonation!" Jon exclaimed.
At the back of the ship, the two silent engines erupted into life; the
fusion of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen burst forth, pushing ship forward suddenly,
and quickly, towards its target. Inside
the bridge, people were pushed into heir seats, and the gravitational
compensators attempted to counter the sudden burst in acceleration.
"Main drive is alive and stable; acceleration has climbed to 102
m/s/s; grav drive now in maneuver mode. MHD
generators running," Jon reported.
"Laserlance range," said Jellessa.
"Open fire," Jellic immediately replied.
"Wild Weasels in range; beginning ops," said Susaumen.
The two silently running missiles came to life, actively jamming the
hostile's sensors and radio communications, and attempting to hack into the
hostile's computer system to confuse, or crash, their systems.
"Accelerator charging," Jellessa said.
"Beginning hazing," reported Susaumen.
The laserlance fire was impacting the destroyer's shields, causing purple
arcs to flash; in response the enemy's main weapon batteries opened up, but they
missed the ShadowDancer completely.
"They're firing at ghosts; they are attempting to work out which of
them is us," reported Susaumen. "Wild
Weasels report they are having no luck in finding a way into their computer
system. Hazing is effective; their
sensor systems seem unable to compensate."
Jellessa saw an energy spike. "Torpedoes!" she called. Five flashes emerged from the front of the destroyer.
"Point defense is firing!"
Four of the five crackling black torpedoes exploded harmlessly; the final
one exploded close by, the shock wave impacting against the ShadowDancer's
shields. The ship rocked from the
impact.
"Warhead type unknown; energy signature shows negative energy,
destruct force 12 weapon, layer one at 96%, layer two at 76%; layers 3 and 4
unaffected. They seem to be
attempting proximity detonations," Susan said after a second.
"Target all laserlance fire on and around the torpedo exit point; if
there's a weak spot in its shields, that's where it is," said Jellic.
Jellic's orders produced near immediate results; two more orbs emerged
from the front of the cruiser, which point defense detonated some distance from
the ship; and then, an explosive flash came from the front of the ship.
"YES!" cried Susan. "Laserlance
fire has detonated a torpedo, just after exit from the launcher.
Torpedo launcher is down, they have damage to hull and two primary beam
weapons. Hostile's shield
efficiency is down 17%."
The ShadowDancer came charging towards the destroyer, as if to ram
it; suddenly, it pulled up; two streaks of light came away from it, as it
rolled, turning upwards.
"No detectable point defense, impact in 3... 2... 1... now!"
Jellessa said.
Two streaks hit the cruiser with a brilliant white flash.
"Bursters are effective; sections of shields are down, they're
rolling, attempting to keep the damaged shields away from our fire," was
Jellessa's assessment.
"Susaumen, do we have firing solution?" asked Jellic.
"We have; the program is in flight computer," Susaumen replied.
"Run it!" ordered Jellic.
"Jump and firing is now automatic," announced Anternain.
The ShadowDancer spiraled up, as the destroyer attempted to bring
its beam weapons to bear. At a
point pre-determined by Jona, the STATUS drive fully engaged.
For a brief second, the ShadowDancer seemed to exist in two
places. The ship jumped behind and
below the destroyer, directly in front of the shield hole created by the shield
bursters. From below the nose, ten
bolts emerged; jacketed streams of anti-hydrogen traveling at close to the speed
of light. The first one blew away
the final remnants of the shields; the other nine hit solidly in a line down the
destroyer, blossoming in violent roses of blue-red flame and debris.
The final bolt caused an explosion to emerge out of the other side of the
destroyer in a brilliant flash. The
ShadowDancer flew over the port side, forward and rear laserlances
flaring as they carved large holes in the destroyer's hull.
"Total shield failure!" came Jellessa's voice, as her fingers
designated targets on the destroyer as fast as she could.
"I read fluctuations in the power grid, weapon systems are
off-line," Susaumen reported. "I
am reading secondary explosions." As
if to illustrate her comment, a filament of plasma... and what looked like
blackish blood, burst from the middle of the destroyer, spewing off into space. "I
am also reading what appears to be a cascade failure in their power plant."
"Jellessa, cease fire. Anternain,
get us away from here. I have a
feeling we are a bit to close for comfort," Jellic said.
The ShadowDancer rolled around and flew away.
The enemy starship's main reactor breached, sending core reactants into the
innards of the ship; which blew out chunks of hull along the starship's body
until it hit the main weapons relays. The
ship blew apart in a brilliant flash of light, ichor, and debris.
"Survivors?" asked Jellic.
Susaumen shook her head.
"The whole ship had very few safety features, as far as I can
tell," commented Jona. "Damage
control was largely nonexistent. Once
we hit something critical, there was little they could do about it."
"Any chance we can get any sort of information out of this
mess?" asked Jellic.
Susaumen and Jellessa shook their heads.
Naru sat, looking at the main display, watching the expanding ball of gas
and debris with a look of satisfaction on her face.
"We did good, then?" asked Susan.
Naru nodded.
"Okay people, I think we have done all we can here.
Once we have recovered the Wild Weasels, Anternain, lift us to 100
diam's. Let's head for Terra, and
see what we find. Hopefully, we
have done good deeds here; let's go and see if we will be rewarded or
punished," Jellic concluded.
Shortly afterwards, the ShadowDancer flew away from the grave of
the enemy ship, and into the darkness of space.
"Goodbye, Unfruchtbar; you will not be missed," was Jon's
comment, as he watched the STATUS drive come to life; and the ship jumped into
FTL travel.
To
be continued...