Chapter 33: First Command

The banquet was about to start. Sif and I were the guests of honor of course. Egill came out of the round house and smiled. “Well it isn’t perfect but it turned out better than expected.”

Sif turned to look at him. “It is a bit frightening to be at the center of such a historic event that will most likely change our planets history.”

“That is a very astute observation, young lady.”

She made a gesture towards the banquet preparations. “At least they celebrate and don’t prepare for our execution. I wonder who is going to pay for all this. It’s going to be the biggest party our world has seen by the looks of it.”

Egill pointed his thumb at me.”He does. He is the hero, but no worry he can afford it, he added another clan to the Olafson holdings and thanks to his real Grandfather you will pretend to marry a very rich man.”

I wanted to say something but I suddenly had Tyr’s voice in my head. “Eric, someone is approaching our world with the intent to destroy it. I can do nothing out there. I can not affect what I have never seen.”

By the faces of Sif and Egill I knew they heard it too. I cursed. “I wish I had asked them to put the ISAH pods on the Poseidon after all, maybe we could do something then. “I was running towards the next flier and Egill’s voice said. “It is still space worthy it just can’t go superluminal!”

Sif and I reached the Poseidon, Astrid was already there and so was Elena. As we run up they said. “Tyr brought us here, he thought we might be able to help!”

“Sif can you fly as well as you can steer?”

“Better than most boys.”

“Well none of us was ever in space or operated a space ship but I guess space is just another ocean. Not that we stand much of a chance. Whatever is coming must be huge to destroy a planet!”

Astrid sat beside Sif and Elena took the seat of the Sonar and Sensor operator.

There was no time to lose and this time I did not care if someone saw us fly or not. “Sif get her into orbit as fast as you can!”

I was terrified, not so much about my own life but now being responsible for the lives of the girls and being the only one able to do something. I sat down in the Boat Commanders seat, and as I leaned back, I could not explain how but my doubts vanished. I realized I would be a star ship captain much sooner than I thought. Sif activated Arti-Grav and switched from propeller drive to thrusters. Two port-doors at the end of the ship opened that had not been used in over 500 years. It was the same with the Nuc-Gas fuel tanks that supplied the thrusters, but we were pushed deep in our seats, they worked just as they should and accelerated us much faster than I expected, but managed to press the words: “Computronic activate Inertia Absorbers. Switch to space operation.”

The pressure that had us almost black out was gone and the systems voice said. “Craft configured to space travel. Please be advised that life support functions are limited to seven hours.”

“Now I think we should be done by then, whatever it is we are going to do.” I said. “Tyr was not exactly specific as to what is approaching, from where it comes or how close it is.”

Sif turned.”He was never in space and does not know!”

The Poseidon broke through the last layers of the atmosphere and I was in space for the first time. When I saw the endless darkness, the brilliance of the stars I was sure I had chosen the right career path. I felt really home for the first time in my life.

Elena said. “The scanners work fine, well except the sonar of course, and the range seems very limited but I am detecting only one artificial object on a straight course towards Nilfeheim and if I am right this is only a space bus. Those are not armed.”

“Nothing else?”

“Not in range at east.”

“I wish we could hail the Bus and see if they had seen anything, but we do not have GalNet. “I mused aloud. “Could it be that maybe someone aboard was simply thinking about destroying Nilfeheim?”

Sif shrugged. “I don’t know but Tyr sounded very concerned. It is odd though, why would the space bus come on a Wednesday? Maybe we can call the space port and have them hail the Bus. The boats radio should be able to reach the Nilfeheim radio net, we are not that far out.”

“Good idea!”

I activated the Radio and switched to Emergency channel. “Poseidon calling Nilfeheim Radio Central this is an emergency call; please connect us to the Space Port authority.”

A voice came on. “One moment I am putting my PDD on the mike. I have them on now.” “Space Port, this is the Poseidon. We are detecting a Space Bus approaching Nilfeheim and wonder if you can contact the bus and ask if they had seen or detected any other craft approaching Nilfeheim.”

“There is no space bus scheduled until next week.” I could hear the man speaking to someone else and then he said.”We got the bus on our scanners and something that looks like a Submarine!” His voice rose a notch as if he couldn’t believe what he as saying.

“The Submarine that is us! We were warned that there is someone approaching the planet with hostile intentions. Can you contact the bus please?”

Before an answer came, Elena said. “The bus has changed direction it is heading towards us!”

“Spaceport here, the bus does not carry the correct transponder mark. It is not responding to our hails. It is not one of ours. I am informing Head quarters right now.

“Astrid activate shields and charge weapons. I think Tyr was right. They are up to no good!”

I looked at the magnified image of the space bus and tried to remember everything I could about these Leyland ships: 350 meters long, five decks, regular crew compliment of 4, Basic shields, Acceleration of 250 kilometers per second, Duranium skin and frame and no weapons. I had no idea how fast the Poseidon could accelerate but she was made of reinforced Ultronit, designed to reach the deepest regions of the oceans and punch through surface ice to surface. We had two faster than light energy Cannons and four sub roc / torpedo tubes. I was not sure if they would work in space and we had old but good Duo Dim Shields. At least I hoped they were good.

The Cargo Hold of the Space Bus opened and a cylindrical object appeared.

A bright beam from the Poseidon hit the device and it blew in an enormous explosion.

“What the...”

Sif turned.”Sorry I should have waited for your command, but that looked like a Planet Buster or something like that!”

“How do you know all these things?”

“You are not the only one who likes tech and space ships. I always wanted to know what boys know!”

“Let’s hope he doesn’t have any more of these! Our FTL’s are charging.”

It all seemed easier than I expected.

But then the Nose-cone of the space bus retracted and the stubby muzzles of two FTL’s appeared, we were hit with such force it threw me out of the seat and the lights flickered. I could smell the stinging smell of metal burning, I did not fall to the floor, I hit the ceiling and many things, were floating with me. We had lost Arti grav! The Computronic voice said with the same friendly voice: “Structural damage to Hull, Shields are no longer operational, weapons inoperable!”

I pushed myself of the ceiling, flailed back to the seat and pushed myself into it, and put on the safety straps. Sif and Astrid were still sitting in their seats, they had strapped themselves in before and I realized how important that was. Elena however floated in the small command center and she was not moving. I hoped she was just knocked out and said. “We are toast if he fires again! Let’s hope he needs to recharge as well. You don’t know if our Sub rocs work in space, Sif?”

“I think they use rocket motors and should work, but they are way too slow to hit anything at these distances. We would need to be real close.”