Chapter 524

Deep Space – The Alien Ship

The primary bridge crew was on duty as the Captain walked onto the bridge. The First Officer moved from the command seat to his own.

“We need to talk,” the First Officer said as soon as the Captain was seated and had a cup of stim in hand. The Captain glared at the First and grunted.

“I know what is wrong with the warp engines. If you will hold your temper and listen for a few sub-cycles, I will explain what I have found.”

The Captain glared at him while making a derisive sound. “Why should I believe anything you say? Despite your constant insistence that you do not, I know that you want my position. The only problem for you is that you will be executed by the High Command if you kill me to obtain it.”

The First Officer sighed. “All right. Have it your way, but the fact remains that I have found what is preventing the warp coils from operating properly. Are you willing to listen, or have you decided to sit out here in the middle of nowhere and rot for the rest of our lives?”

“Words. Nothing but words, but the warp engine is not operating.”

“And it will never be operating unless – for one time – you listen to me.”

The Captain cast a glance toward the forward screen, but just sat staring at the stars, not commenting.

Well, the First thought, at least he is not yelling obscenities. If nothing else, it is quieter in here.

“I know that you do not believe it, but I am not your enemy.” At the Captain’s grunt, accompanied by a glare, the First went on. “Something has been interfering with the warp coils. The Chief Engineer” (another grunt from the Captain) “and his crew have searched the engine room for anything that might be interfering, but they have found nothing. And ... they have searched diligently. Whether you believe it or not, the Chief is a genius when it comes to warp engines. There is nothing wrong with it except it needs a little more tuning as we increase speed. But ... something interferes, if not just as we start, then at some point, and that interval has been drastically shortened, lately. The last time, the Chief barely managed to shut down before the warp coils self-destructed, just like they did the first time.”

“That idiot does not know what he is doing. If we had a capable engineer, this would never have happened in the first place,” the Captain bellowed. “And, even if it had, a competent engineer would have had the coils rebuilt long before now,” he added.

“Except that the Paladin Commander is trying to destroy the Chief’s credibility by bringing the scout’s warp engine to idle when the Chief brings us to warp. The last time the Commander or his technician did it, he let it run too long and almost destroyed the ship.”

The Captain locked eyes with the First, but managed to hold his voice down to something slightly below a bellow. “You are as insane as my so-called Chief Engineer. That is beyond ridiculous. Two warp drives cannot exist in close proximity. If their fields overlap, both will self-destruct. Every ranking technical officer down to the least of the bridge officers knows that. It would be suicide to...”

“Exactly what the Chief Engineer said when he realized what was going on, and... the reason he refuses to bring our engine to warp again until the situation with the other warp engine no longer exists. At first, it seems that the competing engine was turned on for a very short period of time. Certainly long enough to destroy the tuning in the ship’s engine, but there was no immediate danger of the coils self-destructing.

“Look,” the First continued, exasperatedly, “I know you hate me, but think for a sub-cycle. Whether you believe it or not, makes no difference. The Chief is brilliant. He says there is no possibility that anything in the engine room is causing this. Stop and think. What other thing could interact with a warp engine? It has to be another warp engine, and ... the only one aboard other than the main engine, is the one on the experimental scout. Now, who else would gain from your killing or relieving the Chief Engineer? And to tell you the truth, we thought that you might be having the other engine started, but that would be counterproductive to conquering this Earth. You cannot become rich limping along for countless multi-cycles, or as the situation is now, just sitting here.”

The First Officer saw the expression on the Captain’s face change as he realized that the First just might have something. Forgetting to be pissed, the Captain asked, “But to what purpose? If this ... someone wanted to blow up the ship, there are easier ways, though possibly less destructive in the end,” he admitted. “If the warp coils failed under sufficient load, the ship would...”

“Be scattered over a vast distance and probably even more than one dimension, according to the Chief. Now, do you see how close we came to total annihilation when several of our coils self-destructed the first time?”

The Captain was shaking his head. “It cannot be. Should there be a saboteur on board, he would be killed, too.”

“But what if he is just trying to cause enough of a problem that you wind up replacing the Chief Engineer? That would make him look good upon review, and you, uh, less so. And ... if he could manipulate me into killing you, he and his crew could take over the ship and seemingly be justified in doing so. He would be Captain and inherit the riches of this Earth, and we would both be dead.”

“So, you are saying that the Paladin Commander is behind all this?”

“Well, to be fair, I am not certain that he had anything to do with the original warp engine mishap, but I certainly think he is the reason for what is going on now.”

“That is the real reason you activated the corridor defenses?”

“Yes, however ... he has activated the flight deck’s boarding defense as well.”

The Captain didn’t respond, but just sat thinking without even cursing, amazing everyone on the bridge.

“Are you certain of this?” he asked, his voice at a normal volume for once.

“As sure as I can be about the interference from the scout’s engine. The Paladin Commander’s exact strategy, well, I am guessing there, of course. But what other reason could he have other than taking over the ship? Should I kill you, he would be justified in killing me, even starting a revolt to accomplish it. He has the manpower to do it with all the pilots and crews under his command – if we are not prepared. However, that particular aspect of his plan was defeated when I initialized the defenses for the bridge, engine room and the female’s quarters. But ... as long as he has control over that scout, we are not going anywhere. Apparently, he does not fully understand just how effective the scout’s warp engine is in disabling our main engines. He is leaving the scout’s engine on far too long. The Chief Engineer is adamant that we must remain shut down for fear of total destruction.”

“This better not be some elaborate plan to...”

“Captain, it is not. I am, of course, assuming some things, but overall, this has to be generally what is going on.”

“But ... we are stuck here until this impasse is behind us?”

“If we cannot reason with him, and I seriously doubt that could happen, then that seems to be the reality of the situation.”

The Captain said nothing, but just sat staring toward the front screen for a time before finally turning back to his First Officer. With a sigh, he took a sip of his now quite cold stim and frowned, but almost before he could say anything, the Bridge steward handed him another full cup.

As the steward turned away, the First just had to say, “You could have thanked him. I, and the rest of the bridge crew, do.”

“When have I ever ... Damn you, as I have said many times, you are too lax with the crew. Serving the bridge crew, and especially me, is his job. He is too damn dumb to hold any other position.”

The First could see the anger in the Steward’s eyes, but he returned to his place without showing any other emotion.

Returning to the subject, “I will kill the bastard,” (interpreted), the Captain mumbled as he sat back in the command chair. “We have searched all this time before finding a viable planet, then an incompetent Chief Engineer allows our warp engines to self-destruct, and on top of that, the Paladin Commander just has to try for a coup...”

“And what has your blaming the Chief gotten you so far?” the First snarled. “Nothing,” he added, “save a hostile crew and an arrogant Commander who is trying to take over without risking his neck to do it. I think the pertinent thing is to figure out a way to stop him from initializing the scout’s engine so we can finally get to this Earth. Once the Commander’s attacks are dealt with, the Chief will have the engine tuned at each successive speed increment, and we will be to this Earth in short order.”

“That is what I have been trying to do for the last multi-cycle,” the Captain snarled. “Now you tell me the engine is really repaired and all this is the Paladin Commander’s fault.”

“You could always go talk to him,” the First suggested.

“And get myself killed if what you say is true,” the Captain grunted out. “Then you could order the Commander killed and take over as Captain. And... the high command would probably give you a reward,” he snarled.

They were quiet for some time as they sipped their stim. “My badge will allow me access to the area despite the corridor defenses, and, of course, I have the command codes that would allow me to turn those defenses off completely,” the Captain finally said.

“And my badge will allow me like access,” the First said. “And... if we succeed, disarm and space the Commander and half the paladin crew, leaving us without a viable Paladin fleet, then what if this Earth has defenses we do not know about?” the First Officer reasoned.

The Captain frowned. “Impossible. They have only low orbit satellites for communication and surveillance of other nations. Only a few satellites have equipment that study the stars. From what the ship tells me from its examination of their databases, they have probably been to their moon only a couple of times. But the Paladins, as we all know, strike terror into the lives of a planet’s inhabitants as they destroy whatever target they wish. We have never lost more than a small percentage of them during the subjection of a world. With our bombardment and their assaults, no race has ever withstood our attacks for any length of time. This Earth will be no different.”

“But, we are still almost four light years away. I am uncomfortable with assumptions made from data from such a distance. We have never met a race as technologically advanced as we are, but our blatant assumption that we are always superior is going to get us into trouble sooner or later. It is a basic tactical error to underestimate the enemy’s capabilities, and make no mistake, they will be our enemy once we start bombarding their cities. These ... Earth people are aggressive and obsessed with war. It is on their news practically every day. There seems to be countless wars going on there all the time. Granted, they do not have a viable space fleet, but they certainly have weapons capable of damaging or destroying our Paladins, and if they can get to us, the ‘hydrogen bombs’ as they refer to them, might well be a formidable weapon against us.”

“But they cannot reach us in high orbit with their silly little rockets,” the Captain insisted.

“We do not think they can, but assumptions in war can be dangerous.”

“Why are you afraid of this race?” the Captain snarled. “If I had known that my First Officer would be such a coward...” But his comment ground to a halt as the First tapped his sidearm.

“How many have I killed so far on this trip, Captain? Yet none of them stood to fight me in a fair fight. They all tried to kill me from ambush.”

“This is not a match between two...”

“No, it is not,” the First interrupted to say. “This will be a race fighting for its own survival, and this particular race has a bomb that might well destroy our shields and our ship to go with them. All I am saying is it would be stupid to underestimate them. I think we should take some time to observe them from high orbit before we announce our presence with an attack by our Paladins. Take time to define our targets and strike their bases in a coordinated manner.”