Chapter 29

Destiny Group had been at J2 for just 45 hours when Rusty said, "Destiny Group, destination coordinates for J3 are set."

Joyce replied, "All ships confirming coordinate values."

"Destiny Group move to cruise formation."

"Aye. Aye," replied the seven ships. As they spoke the ships began to move to their cruise positions.

Once the ships were in formation the Star Fighters and Badb cruisers on security duty began returning to their ships. It was 15 minutes before departure before all the Star Fighters and Badb cruisers were on their parent ships and secured.

The status monitors on Dóchas showed their progress toward departure. On the bridge's monitor as each ship completed an item, the item on the detailed checklist turned green. There weren't any items showing red which would indicate either a problem or that the task was behind schedule. A few were yellow for a few moments before turning green.

At minus 1 minute Sarah said, "Departure timers in sync and counting.

Then as minus 10 seconds approached the countdown began with, "Initiating FTL 4 to J3 in 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1 ... Mark."

On completion of the countdown the image on the monitor switched to showing Destiny Group in relation to the objects around it as they began rapidly accelerating to FTL 4. As their speed increased the scale shifted to a proportionally larger one.

An hour after achieving FTL 4 Sarah said to the Command Staffs, "Does anyone have any issues?"

"We don't," replied Siobhan with the others quickly adding their concurrence.

Maureen added, "The freighters matched our movements from the time we left the defensive array to now with no manual override. We think our crews have done a superb job with the upgrades."

"We agree," replied everyone.

"We take it there weren't any maintenance issues at J2 as we didn't hear anything."

Evangline of Molly's Clan said, "All maintenance tasks went very smoothly. We replaced a few items that appeared to be marginal but that was due to normal wear. We were blessed to have Casidhe and Tiff leading the way on overhauling the freighters. They were a key part of that success."

"It was a team effort," replied both Casidhe and Tiff. "We see our ability to immediately share information as a key contributor to our crew's success. Our contribution was nothing more than managing priorities."

"Well that may be but your leadership was a significant contributor. We agree that our ability to immediately share information is a key aspect of our success."

Caitlyn of Keriann's Clan said, "Our experience with the maintenance items was very similar to Evangeline's, although I don't think we had as many replacements."

"Our experiences were similar," added Casidhe.

"It will be 24 clock cycles before we arrive at J3, so let's not start the manufacturing operations for a few days. This will give everyone a chance to relax."

"Agreed," replied everyone.

"Let's have our daily conference at 0900 beginning tomorrow."

"Suits us," replied Siobhan.

"We agree," replied the others.

The Órarduine were nearly half way to J3 on the third stage of their five stage trip. So far it had been very quiet compared to the previous stages. With their limited manufacturing operations in the freighters they were nearly back to the point of having at least a minimum level of all spare parts. Intelligence had spent virtually all the time on this leg sorting out the source of the debris clouds. Clarence of Irene's Clan had advised the Command Staffs that Intelligence had a preliminary conclusion on the debris clouds and wanted to present it to them when they had time.

Siobhan's Clan entered the conference room on Dóchas to find Sarah's Clan already there with Clarence and several others from Intelligence. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," replied those in the conference room.

"How was your trip?" asked Sally.

"It went very smoothly," replied Casidhe with a smile.

Earlier the Command Staffs on the other ships decided to teleport themselves to Dóchas for this presentation. This was done for several reasons. The main one was that if an emergency occurred, it was easier for them to return to their ships. Each Command Staff had asked their backups to take the helm while they attended the meeting. Sarah's Clan had designated a suite near the conference room as an arrival point. This allowed the other Command Staffs to arrive without disturbing anyone on Dóchas. The fact that some clans could physically project themselves to another location was known to most, if not all, Órarduine. However, when possible they preferred to make the actual departure and arrival as unobtrusively as possible.

Tiff added, "The others will be here in a few moments." Just as she finished speaking, Kathryn's Clan entered the conference room. As they were greeting everyone, the other Command Staffs began arriving in quick succession.

Amy's Clan was the last to arrive. "Wow," said Amy, "we didn't expect to see everyone today."

Brigid of Keriann's Clan said, "It is good to be with everyone again. Amy, we thought this presentation was worth the effort to be here. This is probably one of the most discussed topics since we left J2."

"Since everyone is here," said Sarah, "Clarence, would you begin?"

"Sure. With me for this presentation are several people from our combined Intelligence Group. We believe everyone is acquainted so I will skip introductions, provided everyone is comfortable with that approach." He paused to see if there was any response then continued, "First, this is a presentation of our analysis at this point in time. There may be some changes before finalizing it but we don't think they will be significant. We have tried several solutions to explain the data we gathered at J2.

"Our conclusions were reached using two different logic paths. The paths are not totally independent as they have common data; they just differ in how the data is organized.

"The best fit explanation is that the debris clouds are the result of weapon testing. It is not clear what type of weapon. It was not a nuclear weapon as there aren't any abnormal or elevated radiation levels present. Reconstruction shows that three of the clouds were good size asteroids before they exploded. What appears as the fourth cloud is believed to be two clouds resulting from successive explosions. Following the idea of two successive explosions the best fit we have for these debris clouds is: The fourth cloud is the remains of a weapons platform. The fifth cloud is the remains of the space ship controlling the weapons platform. We say 'probably' because none of the debris for the fourth and fifth clouds appears to contain any naturally occurring rocks.

"Based on the shape of the clouds and the drift of the surroundings, these events took place at least 100 years ago, and it could be twice that. Any questions before we walk through the data?"

"For there not to be any remnants of the platform or ship, the explosion must have been very hot," said Rusty.

"That is our general belief. Several have suggested that if we had done a composition analysis on the fourth or fifth cloud, it would have strengthened our conclusions. We do have spectral analysis and the surface composition of the debris in the fourth and fifth clouds and they are different from the other three clouds."

With that Clarence and the rest of the Intelligence Group reviewed key points in the data. This was followed by showing how it was determined that three clouds were asteroids, and why the other two clouds were not. They then presented an alternative conclusion; that clouds four and five were simply successive explosions of the space ship which contained the weapon.

Clarence returned to the podium as the presentation finished. "Okay. There you have it. Are there any questions?"

"So the difference in conclusions relates to whether cloud 4 is a single cloud, or two?" queried Tiff.

"Yes."

"Clarence," said Keriann, "we think the Intelligence staff has done an outstanding job of putting this puzzle together, even though we realize there may be other solutions." With that the group began applauding.

When the applause ended Chester of Keriann's Clan said, "Was there any discussion about what type of weapon they were testing?"

"Something that would heat the core of the rock to the point that it would vaporize, leading to an explosion."

"That would take an enormous amount of power," replied Conan.

"Yes, it would. One of the rocks was considerably larger than the others. It is not too difficult to imagine successive tests, with the large rock being the last."

"If we go back to Earth's science fiction movies, this weapon reminds me of one in the "Star Wars" series. I think it was referred to as a 'death star'."

"Our weapons engineers have discussed this. They think such a weapon is feasible, but likely very dangerous to operate. This is primarily because of the high energy required and the probable need for a long firing time."

"Clarence," said Sarah, "from our perspective the analysis seems to be a very good fit for the data we collected. We have no problem with showing this as it is to the whole family."

"We'd like the whole family to see this because of the analysis techniques used," said Oriel of Keriann's Clan. "This analysis is a good example of confirming your first analysis with a different approach."

Molly said, "We don't have any questions now, but will likely have some after we think about it for a while."

"We will look forward to hearing your questions."

Just then the chimes sounded signaling that it was an hour until dinner. Joyce said, "Clarence you timed the presentation just right. Is everyone going to have dinner here?"

"We would like to," replied Siobhan, "but we think we should return to Phoenix."

"We agree," said Molly with the Command Staffs from the other ships nodding in agreement.

"Before we go," said Maureen, "Clarence, when did you plan on presenting this to the family?"

"We haven't. I think a week from now would be fine. There are a few places in the presentation that we need to go over again."

"Okay. Let's plan on it being presented 15 clock cycles from now."

"We can do that. Actually, I think all of us will be glad to have this off the table so we can go back to preparations for Celia system."

Together the Command Staffs said, "You all did an excellent job with analyzing the data. Please be sure that everyone knows how pleased we are with the work."

"We will," replied Clarence along with his staff.

"See you later," said Siobhan's Clan as they left the room.

It wasn't long until it was just Amy's and Sarah's Clan in the conference room.

Erica said, "I thought Aine and the others would be here."

"They had something to do today," said Aoife, "so we didn't remind them."

"Let's freshen up, then we will meet you for dinner."

"Great."

In preparation for arriving at J3, Sarah's Clan made a dream walk there some 36 hours prior to their arrival. They invited two of their older children to join them. They were surprised to find Aine and Creidne waiting for them when they emerged from the dream walk. Aine and Creidne listened as Sarah's Clan reviewed their observations of J3.

Destiny Group exited smoothly from FTL at J3. There was a sense of achievement as the whole trip from J2 had gone very smoothly. They were now a little over half way to Celia System. The Badb cruisers and Star Fighters were deployed as soon as they were in normal space. The ships were preparing to move to their defensive array formation when Maeve said, "We are receiving a distress signal. The message is on channel 5210."

"Put it on the monitor," said Sally.

"No video. Sending voice to speaker and text to monitor."

Sarah's Clan listened to the request for assistance as they watched the text scroll across the monitor. After a few moments Aoife said, "That sounds and reads like Monque mixed with Standard." Almost immediately the characters changed to form comprehensible words.

As they watched the screen Rusty said, "FOC, patch me through to all our cruisers."

Almost instantly Sabrina responded with, "Patch enabled."

"Cruiser Commanders, we are receiving a distress signal on Channel 5 2 1 0. Fix location of the source." Rusty's command caused the cruisers to change their position to bring the distress call signal to maximum strength. Once orientated for maximum signal strength, each cruiser moved away from Destiny Group in a different direction while maintaining a lock on the signal. Before they could move very far away the signal began to break up before fading away.

"The data stream we are receiving confirms that the ship is a Monque civilian passenger ship," said Aoife. "They have a total propulsion power failure. The ship is currently drifting with a stable orientation. Internal power is functioning."

"Navigation," said Sarah, "has the probable position coordinates for the signal source."

"Command Staffs," said Sarah's Clan, "propose we turn toward distress call while we gather more information."

"How did you plan on getting more information?" asked Chester of Keriann's Clan.

"By sending several Badb-2 & Badb Cruisers, each with a flight of Star Fighters."

"Agreed," replied everyone.

"Navigation is showing their probable position as about 4 hours from us at Sub Light Factor 7. Let's send our scout group to arrive in 30 minutes, while we continue at 8 SLF. With this approach we will be closer by the time we know the situation. If our assistance is still needed, we will have more flexibility in how and where we arrive. If it is not needed, we can just curtail our move."

"Why so cautious?" inquired Kathryn.

"Very few in the universe know of our existence," replied Sally. "We shouldn't assume that word has gotten around the Alliance of Worlds about us and our relationship with them. Even though we do have recognition codes that we can use, we should be cautious in using them. More importantly, this could be a trap for unwary travelers, much like the highwaymen of olden days. Also, it could be a shock to those requesting help, as from outward appearances our group of ships is a major battle group."

"Good points. We thought that was your reasoning, but wanted to be sure."

"Dóchas FOC," said Rusty, "organize a reconnaissance group to check-out the area where the distress call originated. We should send at least 5 Badb cruisers, with a flight of Star Fighters accompanying each cruiser."

"Aye, aye. Will execute Operations Plan RC 0 5 with 5 teams. Departure in 10."