Chapter 564

Deep Space – The Alien Ship

The Second Officer turned to his superior. “Sir, you do not need to be part of this. You are too important to risk.”

A frown crossed the First’s face. “I appreciate the compliment and your concern, but I will be part of it. If things go badly, I want to be there. My weapon might be needed. Besides, I think the Commander is going to be too busy to pay much attention to his flight deck – if things go as planned.”

Turning back to his Science Officer, “This all hinges on your ability to do as we planned. Do you have any concerns?”

“Many of them,” he returned, “since we cannot practice, but I have checked and rechecked my procedures. At worst, we should know if the main part of our plans work in time to warn you.” I hope, he added mentally.

“The Captain?”

“His sleep will continue until I send the antidote into his quarters,” the Third Officer responded. “Maybe the asshole will awaken with a headache.”

“I hope it is a very bad one,” the Navigator inserted deadpan.

The First Officer chuckled. “I will not comment, other than to say that we all wish his sleep could be a permanent one.

“Anything else?” When there was no response, “Suit up then,” the First ordered.

A short time later, the four officers moved into the secondary corridor that ended at the flight deck. Although no one mentioned it, the demise of the four that had tried to sneak past the corridor defenses and wound up as atoms was foremost on all their minds. When the Second Officer closed the hatch, they all tended to cringe, despite the First having entered the new code to have the weapons stand down.

A little later at the exit hatch, “If we are approached by anyone, do not fire unless you absolutely have to. I hope to be in and out before they suspect anything.” After receiving visual acknowledgments, he cracked the hatch and stood for a moment with his suit’s sound receptors at maximum. When he saw or heard no one, he waved the others through as he watched the time count down on his readout. When they heard the one faint click on their communicators, they all grabbed handholds near the hatch, and the First reset the corridor defenses. Abruptly, they were weightless and in total darkness.

Each could see a faint outline of the others’ suits, and hopefully, no one on the flight deck would be wearing a spacesuit with the capabilities activated to notice them. The First could imagine the terror that the Paladin crew must feel while suddenly floating in the darkness of the vast expanse of the flight deck. He had chosen the shift where only a skeleton crew should be awake. Those that were active and in reasonably-sized chambers had only to wait until the microgravity would eventually allow them to come in contact with something they could hang onto. Even then, full gravity was normal for the ship, and a crewmember usually experienced weightlessness only if he were unlucky enough to draw inspection duty outside the hull.

The Science Officer had performed his duty well – even the emergency lights failed to come on. It was absolutely black inside the whole flight deck, its machine shops, offices, crew quarters, and the row upon row of Paladins and other craft stored there – as per procedure, all of them were anchored securely in place. But shortly, a few of the crew found portable lights to help orient themselves. Still, there were only a few wobbling lights showing. When you are suddenly floating about in total darkness, it’s difficult to find anything as small as a portable light since you don’t even know which way is up.

Silently, the four were trying to look everywhere at once while continuing to scan with their suits’ gear. The tiny thrusters on the suits made little noise in the vast expanse of the flight deck as the group moved quickly across, eventually coming to rest at the hatch of the scout that was anchored between two of the much larger Paladins.

The First and Third officers remained outside while the Second Officer and the Third from the other shift entered the craft, and as silently as they could, brought the small ship to life. By then, the Paladin Commander and his crews were beginning to organize themselves and respond to the emergency, for that’s what they assumed it was. But ... there was no communication with the bridge, or anywhere else, for that matter. Most, including the Commander, thought it was just an equipment failure or a circuit overload, expecting that repair teams were starting to sort themselves out and begin to attack the problem somewhere in the giant ship.

Startling everyone, the lights and gravity flicked on for an instant before immediately going back off again. That caused some bruises and shouted warnings as Paladin repair crews searching for the problem and floating some distance off the deck, suddenly found themselves falling before the gravity went off again. But ... momentum still ruled. Fortunately, they were experienced personnel and most were expecting the gravity to return at some point, so they weren’t suspended very far above the deck. Still, if you happened to be floating at shoulder height above the deck and gravity came on suddenly, even for an instant, you found yourself slammed into the deck in whatever orientation you happened to be in. That made all of them considerably more careful, and from the return of gravity, even for that instant, most assumed that a repair crew under orders from the bridge, was already working on the problem.

The lighting and gravity flipped on and off twice more. Most were now virtually certain that some major circuit had been overloaded and the relays were kicking out each time the gravity was engaged, but they hoped that the fault would be found and corrected – eventually. After the first instance of the gravity coming on for an instant, the Commander ordered his crews to remain anchored to something while they waited for repairs to be completed and things to return to normal.

With everyone aboard the scout, the Second Officer eased in the docking thrusters just enough to float the small craft toward a Paladin ejection port. The port, designed for battle, used its stored emergency power to open as they neared, the atmosphere shield shimmering faintly against the background of starlight. The scout nudged through, and the port closed.

Despite knowing that the ship’s guns should not be able to fire at its own craft, the Second, according to plan, kept the scout almost within kissing distance of the giant vessel’s hull as he slowly maneuvered while carefully staying clear of the weapon clusters – just in case. A nerve-racking eternity later, they locked the little craft magnetically to the mother ship near the personnel hatch that they had planned to use.

After again using their suits’ thrusters, they maneuvered the short distance to the port and entered the airlock. A moment later, the first clicked his communicator three times. Shortly, a computer-generated voice warned the flight deck personnel that the gravity would return, but this time, it came on very gradually, which gave the crews time to orient themselves as they gently settled toward the deck.

It took the Chief Engineer and two of his subs only a few sub-cycles to replace the warp controls they had previously removed from the scout.

The scout was designed for a two-person crew plus four scientists, should the Captain decide to send the craft to study a nearby planet. The First Officer used some of the additional space to give the two going on the mission extra food in stasis containers in addition to the standard loadout of survival rations and gear. To say that they were pleased was an understatement.

Once the scout was clear of the giant vessel, the Second Officer taxed the acceleration dampers of his vessel as he accelerated away at near maximum, fearing that the Commander would send a Paladin after them. Moments later, they were far enough away, and the Second immediately went to warp. Since the Paladins were not equipped with warp drives, any that might have launched in pursuit of the scout would be out of luck. It turned out that his caution was wasted effort because none of the flight crew even knew that the scout craft was gone. It was two shifts later before any of the Commander’s people noticed that the scout was missing from its niche among all the much-larger Paladins.

Three Light Minutes Away Aboard The Earth Scout Ship

The alarm blared as Joe Martin called for the AI to shut it off. Olivia White, who was deeply asleep, rolled out of the bunk, swung by a stanchion, and hurtled toward her command seat, which wasn’t far since the tiny scout was cramped indeed.

More than one person had claimed that the small crafts were constructed around life support, engines, fuel and other equipment without thought to the two people who had to live in it for extended periods of time.

Not taking the time to orient herself properly, White swung into her seat nude. As her delectable ass passed Martin’s face, he had an up-close, though fleeting view of her pussy. Since it was so close, he tried to kiss it, but wound up with a knee in his ear for his troubles, accompanied by a squeak from White.

Before she could respond, Martin was reporting to her. “No indication out of the ordinary until a small craft launched from the alien ship like the little ship’s ass was on fire. Five seconds later, it warped out. Whoever is in command of that thing was in one hell of a hurry. And before you ask, I was not asleep.”

“I didn’t say you were, Baby,” she responded as she ordered the AI to replay the incident. A moment later, she agreed with Martin. “The craft was obviously launched from the other side of the ship relative to us. With it so small compared to that monster ship, there was no way to see it, even if it had been on this side before launch, which it seemed not to be. We’re just too far away for any detail. And, I agree with you. The pilot seemed to be very anxious, indeed, to get far enough away to warp out.”

They looked at each other before saying in unison, “Fuck!”

“Do we launch a message torp and remain here watching the ship, or send a torp and follow the little ship?”

“What do you think?” White asked her partner.

“You’re the boss this trip,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, I know that, but I want your opinion, Smartass.”

With a chuckle, he responded, “Our primary duty has always been to watch and report on the alien ship. I suggest that we send a torp and continue to keep tabs on the ship.”

“Agreed. AI, is number one message torp up to date with our latest data?” she asked.

“Affirmative.”

“Then add this addendum,” she said as she told what had happened and asked if Martin wanted to add anything. When he agreed with her summation of what had happened and said he had nothing to add, she gave the command to launch the torp.

“What do you suppose that little ship was all about?” she asked her partner while nodding to the screens before them.

“I wish I knew. Maybe they’re headed home to report their engine problems.”

“Maybe,” White said while drawing out the word. “But that thing didn’t appear to

be much bigger than our scout. What if that’s exactly what it is?”

“And it’s headed to Earth?” Martin quietly asked/said.

“Well, the alien ship has certainly been traveling in the general direction of Earth, and they’re obviously having engine problems. Earth is the only habitable planet in this whole area according to Ship, so logically that would be where the little vessel – scout if you please – is also headed.”

“I know it’s a long shot, but do you suppose that scout has been launched to ask for help? Before you shoot me down, think about it. The aliens obviously know they’re being watched. Just think about how many times they have searched the area around their ship. There’s no other explanation for it other than they know something is out here watching them.”

“But help?” White wondered aloud. “I think we both know that’s a long shot, but there’s the other more obvious reason: they’re sending the vessel to spy on Earth and her defenses.”