Chapter 3

Note: When the conversation is a telepathic exchange, it is indicated by italics font.

It was the morning of the 20^th day, 5^th month, 6^th year, when a group of 16 cruisers crossed the heliosphere boundary into Celia system. They were 2 lh (light hours) past the boundary when the Durale Task Group Commander began to relax. Their risk assessment during mission planning had indicated that this was the most difficult aspect of this mission. Even with their successful entry into the system he still had some concerns about the plans for the attack.

Several days earlier they had accelerated to 22,600 km/s on a vector that would bring them within 1 light hour of the Órarduine’s ships. Now that they were inside the heliosphere, they had adjusted their vector and then reduced or shut down all ship’s functions to a bare minimum. They knew from experience that by minimizing energy use it would be very hard for anyone to distinguish their presence from typical space rocks. Based on their intelligence this greatly increased their chances getting within range of the Órarduine ships without being detected, but made life very difficult for those on the ships. In this configuration communication between ships was limited to modulated laser.

Their initial plan was conceived by the Durale headquarters staff, and had them entering cloaked and at a higher velocity. When the Commander learnt that the Órarduine had detected cloaked Iridien Spec Ops ships he had decided to enter this way, even though it increased the time to reach their targets. Their path followed that of a large asteroid moving through the system. He thought that this gave them an advantage because there was significant number of smaller rocks following the asteroid. If the Órarduine’s automated detection system saw them, the response would likely be attributed to just another rock. However, their velocity was considerably higher than the rocks, so they had to shift their path very carefully to avoid them without significant emissions. In some respects it was a huge risk as some rocks had a mass significantly larger than their ships.

With their first hurdle behind them, the Durale Commander asked the other ships, “Have you detected any change in their activities?”

“No, sir,” replied each.

“Excellent. Maintain a constant watch on passive scanners. Monitor each other’s emissions and let them know what you find.”

“Yes, sir,” replied each one.

He then said to the Exec, “You have the bridge. Alert me if anything changes.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the Exec with a smile.

Seeing the smile he added, “Focus on our mission objectives, there won’t be any prisoners so there will be no fresh meat on the dining table.”

“Yes, sir. I understand sir, but it is a tantalizing thought, based on the images we’ve seen of them.”

The Commander left the bridge with a frown as he wondered how many other crew members were thinking the same thing. From his perspective, the probability of this attack successfully destroying all the Órarduine was very slim. Although he intended to rest, by the time he reached his quarters he decided to review their plan again.

If it hadn’t been for their agent in the Iridien section of the Alliance of Worlds headquarters, they wouldn’t know the location of these animals. Since their leaders learnt of the location so quickly after their disaster in Sol system, they saw it as an opportunity for revenge and relegated any perceived risks as being insignificant. He had been at their primary base when the loss of their ships accompanying the Alliance of World Task Group became known. Based on the sketchy details he was able to discover, it seemed to him that their Commander had made several errors. He thought that it would be very helpful to know more about these animals’ capabilities rather than relying on reports from their spies. When he read them he thought that someone was playing a trick on him by providing him with fictional data. Their reconnaissance probes had provided them with current information on the Órarduine’s ships position, along with their settlement location on the planet.

When they were 1 lh from their target they could begin the attack and be within missile range well before the animals realized that an attack was underway. Their plan called for them to launch all of their standard missiles. These would be followed by the nuclear armed missiles which had both proximity and time-delayed fusing. The goal was simply to explode them within, at most, a kilometer of the Órarduine ships, and over their settlement. By doing this the animals would die from either the explosion or the radiation exposure. Even if they survived, the multiple nuclear explosions would severely damage the biosphere, further hindering any attempt to settle the planet and their survival.

As he studied the images from his recon probes, he was again puzzled by the orientation of their spaceships as he couldn’t see any benefit in it. It was the same formation that intelligence indicated they had used in the other system. To him it opened several opportunities for a successful attack, which he planned to exploit. While his ships wouldn’t cloak until just before the attack, they would once they started toward their targets. He was certain that the Durale’s cloaking capability was much better than the Iridiens, which would allow them to get closer before their attack was discovered. If they were noticed before then, they had the IFF codes for Iridien Spec Ops ships. Using those should cause the Órarduine to hesitate, letting him get within optimum range before they could respond.

He then turned his attention to the attack on the planet. The missiles for that would be off-loaded prior to the attack. After being armed they would be given a small shove away from the ships in the general direction of the planet. Once armed their programming would cause them to head toward the planet just after the cruisers began their attack on the ships. The missiles initial vector would make it appear that they were headed toward the ships rather than the planet.

He yawned, and thought ‘time for some rest’. Looking at the clock he saw that it was now 264 hours until they would be in position to launch. He frowned, thinking of all the time that they would be waiting, watching and worrying. ‘Everyone is going to be very anxious by the time we begin preparing the missiles destined for the planet’, he thought, ‘all we need is one misstep and the surprise is gone’. As he lay down he chided himself for worrying. Before he closed his eyes he remembered that he needed to check with Astrogation to verify their vector.

On the bridge of Dóchas Sally said, “Maeve, you seem a little edgy today.”

“Yes, and I am not sure why. It is like I am anticipating an exciting event but don’t know what it is.”

“Well if you see or hear something that gives you a twitch, speak up, even if it is not a strong feeling.”

“Oh, I will.”

Joyce said, “It’s strange not having Sarah and Aoife here with us.”

“Yes it is,” replied Jill, “but I can feel them in our link.”

“Its strength doesn’t seem to have changed,” added Alison. “I thought it would.”

Judy said, “I agree. However, there is a lot we don’t understand about how our clan mind link is affected by distance-of-separation. We’ve gained some knowledge from the experiments by Molly’s and Jackie’s Clans and from those who went on the survey excursions. For some there appears to be differences while for others, they didn’t notice any difference. That could be because there is a difference in perspective since Molly’s and Jackie’s Clans were only looking at the effect of distance. The other aspects weren’t considered until we discussed it after they returned.”

“We hear you,” said Sarah and Aoife. “Your thoughts are clear but we know that you are quite a distance away.”

“Yea, like a little over 2 parsecs,” responded Joyce. “What’s cha been doing?”

“Looking over the data for those at An Clochán,” replied Aoife. “It is an interesting mix of people and circumstances.”

“How so?”

Before she could respond Lydia in Intelligence group said, “Command Staffs, our Sentinel ring has detected an anomaly. We want to set up a review with you, along with Security.”

“Aye,” replied the Command Staffs.

Rusty said, “Lydia, do you want to do this in person or by remote conference?”

“We would like some of you here as we think it will be easier. How about three hours from now as we are gathering more data? That would be 13:00 AT.”

“Fine,” replied the Command Staffs.

Aoife said, “Sounds like you are needed elsewhere.”

“We have some time before then,” replied Joyce. “Did you hear all of Judy’s comment?”

“Yes,” replied both.

Aoife said, “The situation we have now is a third variation. We are essentially sister clans and each clan is represented in the distant group. To Sarah and I, this seems the same as when we are physically together. Several of the others here are nodding that they agree with our perception.”

“So are you going to sit in on the meeting here?” asked Jill.

“I think some of us will,” responded Aoife. “We still have a lot of information to go over before we reach An Clochán.”

They chatted a bit more before Aoife said, “We need to get back to our task. You all take care.”

Those on Dóchas’ bridge said, “We will, and you all do the same.”

Janet said, “Judy, did that help your assessment?”

“I think so. I think I’ll talk to Connie and Betsy about tracking people’s perceptions more closely. A better understanding should help us with patients in the future. Now I need to go down to the clinic so I’ll see you in Intelligence in about 3 hours.”

“Okay.”

“Good morning,” said Lydia when she saw the Command Staff representatives entering. “We are going to use the conference room.”

“For an anomaly you seem to have asked quite a few to attend, and seem pretty relaxed about it,” said Terry with a smile.

“Well, it’s that large asteroid that will just miss Ananu’s atmosphere. Some of the debris in its wake is exhibiting some odd properties.”

After the group had exchanged greetings Lydia said, “We’ve asked all of you here to review the data on the rocks following asteroid AXL1925. The asteroid will not come any closer to Ananu’s orbit than 100,000 km. This will occur in 230 hours, or a little less than 8 days, when it passes the planet. We are projecting that to happen shortly before we come out from behind the planet. Currently this places our formation no closer to it than 200,000 km, which can change.

“One oddity is the rocks following it. Amongst the debris are some significantly larger than our cruisers. It is for this reason that we have been monitoring them very closely. Fortunately this trail of debris comes no closer to us than AXL1925 does and is 15 degrees above Ananu’s ecliptic plane. A more recently discovered oddity is a distinct variation in the velocity of the rocks. Until yesterday we thought that the asteroid and those following it had a velocity of around 0.8 Sublight Factor. Since then the Sentinel ring data shows the presence of several objects among the debris moving at 8 Sublight Factor.

“Our first thought was that our Iridien Spec Ops friends were testing our sensors by entering the system with minimal systems operating. Recent spectra data indicates the objects as being refined metals with a composition similar to Iridien ships. Another interesting aspect is that they are in 4 groups of 4, and each has the same relative arrangement.

Rusty said, “Based on what you’ve described, it sounds like we have intruders.”

“That is our conclusion,” responded Shannon. “However, we thought we ought to go over the data together.”

Caitlyn of Keriann’s Clan said, “Engineering is considering harvesting some rocks when they get a little closer. As you’ve noted, some of them are fairly large so changing their vector and velocity will be quite a challenge.”

“Before we get into that,” interjected Danny of Shannon’s Clan, “let’s go a little deeper into what we know.”

Shannon added, “To us the question comes down to confirming what these high velocity objects are. If they are space ships, who are they, and what are their intentions?”

In reviewing the data it was noted that the Sentinel satellites had not detected any fast moving objects behind the asteroid until a few days after the asteroid’s tail passed through the heliosphere boundary.

When they had finished their review Molly said, “How close will this group of rocks come to us? Wait, that is not what I meant. Presuming the high velocity objects are ships, when would they be in position to launch an attack?”

“I am not sure what that distance would be, but presuming no changes in vector or velocity, they will be within 30 lm of us in 204 hours,” replied Shannon.

“If a surprise attack was launched from that point, it would be very difficult to respond effectively,” said Sally.

Katia of Kathryn’s Clan said, “Caitlyn indicated earlier that Engineering was interested in the rocks but that their size made them difficult to handle. So why not use them for target practice? Wouldn’t that reduce both their size and velocity?”

“Likely,” responded Claudette. “What did you have in mind?”

“Presuming the objects are manned ships, if we began breaking up rocks well out in front of them, for harvesting, it should draw their attention. It will also increase the number of rocks they have to dodge. To go along with the new debris we could release recon probes to check them out. Hopefully they wouldn’t realize our intent.”

Conan of Siobhan’s Clan said, “We would want to confront them before they are 2 lh from us. If I calculated correctly, this would be in about 5 days.”

“To summarize,” said Rusty, “Caitlyn will get with Engineering’s mining group and Sabrina to identify suitable targets. She will work with the other FOC’s to coordinate flights to begin breaking up rocks. After that has been underway for a few hours, Security will send recon probes, along with several teams actively monitoring them, to check out the unusual rocks.”

“As far as I am concerned,” added Maeve, “they are hostile intruders.”

Clarence said, “Okay, we will have two cruisers well within range ready to engage them at a moment’s notice.”

“Locked and loaded,” responded Maeve firmly. Her firmness caused several of her clan to smile.

Tiff started to speak but Joyce said, “I think Maeve’s found the reason she’s been edgy the last couple of days.” Her comment caused several raised eyebrows.

Clarence said, “Maybe four would be a better choice.”

“Everyone agree?” asked Rusty.

“Yes,” replied the group.

“Lydia, Shannon, Danny, nice work,” said Maeve.

Shannon said with a smile, “Thanks, I’ll pass your comment on to the rest of the group. We may even have some more tidbits by the time we get back from lunch.”

“Wow, is it that time already?”

It was a little over a day later that the Exec on the Durale ship said, “Commander, all ships are reporting that their sensors are showing an increase in the number of rocks in front of us.”

“Explain.”

“They are indicating that the distribution of debris that we are threading our way though is changing. The number of objects is increasing, but the number of large objects appears to be decreasing. The vectors and velocities of the new objects differ from those we’ve been dodging so far.”

“Are we detecting any of their ships?”

“Yes. There seem to be quite a few, quite a distance in front of us. They seem to go back and forth from that point to the L5 position of the closest moon.”

“Well that seems to be a good indication that they don’t know we are here.”

“Propulsion is concerned. They aren’t sure we will have enough auxiliary power to continue dodging the denser debris field until we reach the attack point. Sensors are indicating that some debris is coming toward us, which means...”

“I know what it means,” snapped the Commander. “Tell all ships to optimize position to minimize contact with debris with minimum power use. Remind them that moving outside the debris zone will very likely result in being detected.”

“Aye, aye, Sir.”

“Based on what we are seeing, they have apparently found some valuable minerals in the rocks.”

“That makes sense but why increase the number of rocks?”

“Breaking up the rocks reduces the effort required to move them to where they want them. If they are using explosives, then the velocity difference between us and some rocks has increased but the mass is lower. So the number of collisions will likely increase, but with a smaller mass less damage occurs with each impact. However, this could be worse than hitting a large rock. Their activity could also alter the density of the debris, in fact it probably has.”

“I am not familiar with space mining.”

“They have two issues to solve. The mass needs to be reduced to one they can handle. Then the velocity needs to be reduced, and the reduction depends on where you are moving it to. So the vector needs to be changed as well. While it can be very profitable, it is more dangerous than ... well, what we are doing.”

“I’d rather be flying a fighter in a fight than dodging these rocks.”

“Let me know of any more changes or odd events.”

“Aye.”

It was 3 days after learning of the intruders that Shannon said, “Command Staffs, we have identified the intruders. Do you have a few moments to hear a summary?”

“Yes.”

“They are definitely Durale. Their ships are very similar in appearance to those we know the Iridien Spec Ops use. Using that as a baseline, we believe that they are operating on auxiliary power. There isn’t any detectable RF so they are likely using modulated laser for communications. Each ship has eight missiles mounted externally, and based on their emissions they have nuclear warheads. Their course is unchanged although spacing has changed since the harvesting began. All the details are in the network folder.”

Brandan asked, “How certain are we that they are Durale?”

“Very certain, since we were able to intercept some of their communications.”

“What are you projecting as their strategy and target?”

“Their target is our ships and the settlement. We don’t know much about their combat techniques, so predicting strategy is difficult. Their path brings them close enough to attack either our ships or the planet. If it was us on their flight path we could easily reach a position that would give virtually no warning before we launched an attack. In fact the launch point is optimal for both the planet and our formation.”

Rusty said, “Briana, how close are you to confronting them?”

“We basically need an hour’s notice in order to initiate our plan. Once we start it will take about the same length of time before contact is made.”

“Okay. I believe we are in agreement. Initiate plan.”

“Aye,” replied the Command Staffs.

Terry said, “Sabrina, execute defense plan A4.”

“Aye. Star Fighter loads are primarily imploders.”

“Star, sound Readiness Level 2. Advise the crew to be careful as we don’t want to tip our hand.”

“Aye.”

On the lead Durale cruiser a little over an hour later a crewman said, “Sir, we now show two groups of ships approaching. One is 15 degrees up and 20 degrees to port. The other is 10 degrees down and 20 degrees to starboard. 22 minutes ‘till they are in range.”

A crewman at the weapons console said, “Their weapon’s control is active and probing us.”

The Commander said, “All ships, activate systems. Initiate IFF transponder.”

Communications said, “Sir, they are attempting to contact us. I have the communication’s protocol if you wish to acknowledge.”

“What is it?”

“Standard.”

“Open the link.”

“Yes, Sir.”

When it formed they heard Cathan say, “Your IFF codes are invalid. Identify yourselves visually and verbally.”

“Our codes are valid,” responded the Commander. “Now, get out of our way.”

“Reduce your velocity to null and prepare to be boarded.”

“Because of your harvesting there is too much debris to do that.”

“Then rise at 10 degrees for 5 minutes then reduce velocity to null.”