Chapter 640

Ship’s Training Mission for the Miadax Crew

...”Helm,” the First Officer called out, “continue on our last heading. One-quarter impulse. “Let us see what that wormhole looks like.”

When Helm repeated the command, the First Officer turned to Science. “Science, maintain passive scanning only but look for anything even slightly out of what you consider to be the ordinary. We do not know whether that destroyer went through the wormhole, or for some reason, remained nearby. Is their base on this side of the wormhole, or on the other side? There was an energy surge, so logically, something went through the wormhole in one direction, or the other. Was it the destroyer entering the wormhole or was it another ship exiting here? Even if the destroyer went through, there might be weapon systems guarding this side of the wormhole. I plan to stop short and observe for a while. I have never been in a position in combat where I had too much information about the enemy, and I am certainly not in that position now,” he finished with a grim face.

Fifteen minutes later, and at maximum magnification, there was the faint shimmer of a wormhole just as the First Officer happened to notice the Science Officer tense up, but before he could say anything...

“Science, shields to maximum,” the First bellowed. “Guns, all weapons on line,” First snapped out even as he reached to bring the shields up himself.

“Shields to maximum,” Science repeated as he too reached to activate them, even as the Weapons Officer brought his systems up, but the AI, tied into every system, had already recognized the blip and brought the shields up a quarter of a second before any of them could.

“Weapons on line,” Guns said. Then a second later, “There at our three-o’clock low,” he bellowed just before they rocked from two blasts from something similar to the Hunter’s heavy laser/particle beam weapons. “I just happened to see a movement as it crossed between us and the shimmer of the wormhole.”

Helm, “evasive maneuver 3-A. Don’t let it hit that sector again. Communications?” First ordered.

Helm acknowledged even as the First kept giving orders.

“I sent the standard warning the second we saw the blip, Sir,” Communications said.

“Excellent,” First returned, before immediately turning to Guns. “Weapons Officer, let them know we do not appreciate being fired upon.”

The First Officer had barely gotten the sentence out of his mouth when every laser/particle beam weapon on that side of the ship lit the attacking pod up with multiple bursts. The defensive pod’s shields must not have been designed for that much incoming concentrated energy. Its power plant went in a brilliant blue/white flash even as energy began pouring into the Hunter from three other pods, but the Hunter had already rolled, exposing a different area that still had full shields.

First opened his mouth to give more orders, but Guns, supplemented by Communications, Navigation and Science with Helm to make their ship a harder target, were already doing what they were trained to do — successfully pour energy into the enemy. Orders now would only slow them down. Another platform exploded, and Helm rolled the Hunter again to protect the sector that had just been hit, which would give the shields time to build back there. Rather than trying to give orders to people who didn’t need the distraction, First activated a projectile weapon pod and began firing a stream of hypervelocity armor-piercing rounds while trying to hit the same spot Guns was hitting with the laser/particle beams.

“Overall shields down to 80%,” the AI announced a quarter of an hour later.

Helm had managed to continue to maneuver them until only one and sometimes two of the pods could fire on them at any given time while Guns seemed to have a knack for finding an opponent’s weakness. Without anyone ordering it done, Science, Communications and Navigation followed their training and kept the other pods busy while Guns and First concentrated on one pod to kill it. Orders and comments snapped back and forth as the Bridge Crew fought as a team. Almost before the First realized it, the pods were either vaporized or drifting piles of rubble. Only then did he think to wipe the sweat from his forehead. When he saw the Weapons Officer relax and take a long swallow of water, First realized how parched he was too. Amazed, he realized that the battle had been going on a little more than twenty-two minutes and change. During that time, the Hunter’s overall shield capacity had never dipped below 70% in any section while the ship continued to maintain power to the laser/particle beams as they killed the eight weapon pods.

While it was generally agreed that the projectile weapons were outdated and practically useless in a space battle, First had just proven that to be untrue — at least against a relatively near opponent that didn’t have inertial dampers which would allow much faster maneuvering.

I suppose the builders of the defensive pods did not see the need for rapid maneuvering since they were defending a wormhole that would remain in one relative place.

Wow. I can hardly believe it. We tore those pods a new one, but ... it was almost too easy. My boards show that our shields did not allow even one pulse to get past to hit armor. Consequently, no personnel were injured, and we received no damage to the Hunter. With a smile, he looked around him. My Bridge crew is hyped up and still raring to go. Hmmm, Helm probably needs a commendation. He bounced this old frigate around as if she were a brand new hyper-skiff. He damn sure just proved how superb he is at his job, but then again, everyone on this bridge acted as if they were part of a perfectly functioning machine. I couldn’t have a better Bridge Crew, and my Engine Crew put me back in business after I abused the impulse engines. And damn it, they will promote me off this great ship and probably put my ass on some junker assigned to patrol the middle of nowhere. Of course, this is the middle of nowhere, too, but we got to show these scum what a Federation ship could do.

Then again, once we meet up with that new destroyer, I might not have to worry about being stuck as Captain of some scow somewhere. They’ll probably give me that promotion to Captain posthumously. Damn it, the Federation is going to waste this great ship by forcing her to fight something way above her class, but my crew will make sure that destroyer has battle scars — lots of battle scars.

With the defensive pods destroyed, the First actually had time to focus on the wormhole. He had only seen two in his life, and he had used one of them a half dozen times when he had been stationed in the Daumiersen sector on a much smaller ship. When I put in for a transfer to the Hunter, I never thought I would get it. How many years has it been now? Hmmm. Eight already. Time flies, I suppose. Now they want to promote me and probably put me on some piece of crap destined to patrol the backside of nowhere, and probably with a crew that does not know their asses from a hole in the deck.

Since that wormhole was only a day away from Command at warp 8, it provided a very needed reduction in travel time between the Daumiersen sector and Command, saving ten days — each way. Most of the wormholes we know about are two-way, but several are not. The probes that were sent through, what turned out to be one-way wormholes did not come back, although they were equipped with warp drives and should have been able to return. Either something destroyed the probes, or else the breakout point was so far away they ran out of energy before they could return.

The First sat staring at the images of the wrecked weapon pods. What is on the other end of this wormhole? When the Federation first started finding wormholes, no one knew whether they might break out into the middle of a star, another galaxy, or perhaps just another star system farther out on the rim? They sent out probes. Some came back through the wormhole, some came back under warp drive, and others did not come back at all. With the latter, the Federation put out warning buoys surrounding the wormhole to warn everyone to stay clear.

Wormholes are nearly instantaneous, but they vary in how they seem to operate. Some have a smooth transition. You enter one end, and within a few seconds, as far as the traveler is concerned, he/she comes out the other end. Although it seemed to the traveler to last a finite amount of time — a few seconds to a few minutes — scientists insist that no time elapsed while in transit. Another oddity about the wormholes is that the two-way wormholes can be used both ways simultaneously. You do not see, feel or hear any other vehicle as it passes you while in transit, nor do any instruments tried so far record the other ship. Maybe we are transmitted at different frequencies or something. Since there are a half dozen theories on how wormholes work, and none of them can be proven, one idea seems as good as the next.

No one knows how they were made, who made them or even if they might be a natural occurrence, but most scientists think they were built by the Master Race that we keep finding traces of — objects whose purposes we cannot even fathom, let alone make to operate. They have defied any test the human race has so far been able to devise. They just are — period, and they appear to be indestructible. The wormholes are the only thing from — presumably — the Master Race that we have been able to activate. But we know little about the wormholes other than they present themselves as giant shimmering disks in space, and there are several conflicting stories about how the first one was found — what ship found it and even which wormhole it was, but they have been around for a long time. So far, no instrument devised by man has given any reading from them at all, except for an enormous energy burst when they are activated. Their activation is triggered when anything moves into the shimmering that is the wormhole itself. There is an energy release, and whatever is inside the wormhole is transported. Then, the wormhole is ready to go again. The recharging, if there is any, must be instantaneous.

“AI. Ship Wide,” the First Officer said. After the sirens’ alert, “Attention all hands. In a short while, we are likely to go into combat with a fairly new destroyer with thicker armor and more weapon systems than we have, but it does not mount the crew I have, and I think that makes all the difference. I want every Department Head to have his or her people double-check every system under their command. Check and double-check. We do not want to go into combat with a system that is ready to fail.

“My boards show everything functioning other than the starboard laser array that is still down and will be until we return to base. But, I do not want to depend on the boards, so please double-check all your systems to make certain we are ready for combat — possibly the most critical combat of our careers. Thanks to our Chief Engineer and his team, we now have a much more capable missile — twelve of them. Twelve enhanced DELTAs, and each pair of them should, theoretically, be capable of penetrating the destroyer’s armor to let in our version of hell. With the effort of all of us operating as a team — as we always do — we will end the pirate menace to the Union of the Axis once and for all. If any of you should find any system not functioning at optimum, please let your supervisor know ASAP so he or she can get the system repaired and brought back to one hundred percent efficiency. That is all.”

While the First worried about the wormhole and the Destroyer somewhere on the other side of it, the crew checked and double-checked everything they were responsible for, some showing their worry while others joked and pretended they weren’t concerned about the coming confrontation. An hour later, after some minor glitches had been taken care of, the Bridge was quiet as Department after Department flashed green on the Science Officer’s detailed boards as well as the First Officer’s.

“I wish that laser/particle beam array was functioning,” the Science Officer quietly said.

The First Officer sighed. “Yeah, me too, but we have twelve DELTAs, thanks to the genius we have for a Chief Engineer, and I fully expect them to go through that destroyer’s armor as if it were not even there.”

The Science Officer turned to the First officer. “Sir, the last department has reported in. All systems are at maximum efficiency, with the exception of that one laser array. The ship is as ready as she can be under the circumstances.”

“Very well.”

“Sir?” the young Weapons Officer said.

“What do you have, Guns?”

“Sir, as ordered, I have gone over the diagram of that Elois Class destroyer. Every description of the ship that I could find mentions that she is well built, and her designers had tried to correct every inadequacy of earlier models. Unfortunately for us, they seemed to have done an excellent job of correcting those previous weaknesses because I cannot find any. However, there is a possibility — however slight — and it is the same reason we lost our starboard laser/particle beam array during the battle with the pirates, although I think it was just a coincidence. Anyway, Sir, when the weapon pod containing the energy array moves past the Hunter’s main armor, the pod’s armor extends and covers as much of the array as possible — as you are undoubtedly aware. When the laser/particle beam fires, the small area at the business end of the projector is vulnerable for a brief time, but that is a very short period of time, indeed. Once the array is no longer in use or its energy banks are exhausted, it is brought back inside the hull where it is better protected. To make a long story short, there is a very short period of time when an energy pulse could get past the armor and the shields as the projector moves inside. A very narrow period of time, but our luck ran out on our starboard array, and a pulse got inside the hull just as the array dropped its firing armor and moved back inside.

“We frequently target an enemy’s energy arrays, but the intention is to damage or destroy the array, not try to get a pulse inside the ship, since chances of that happening are small, indeed. Usually, it is just not possible because the timing and accuracy of the shot have to be so precise, and with both ships moving and all that is going on, there are easier ways to do damage to the other ship. However, the destroyer’s extra armor and additional arrays outgun us. It is a desperate attempt, and one not likely to work, but I think it is the only way to get a pulse inside that thing’s armor, if our enhanced DELTAs do not work.”

The Weapons Officer stopped for a second to gauge his superior’s response. “Sir, to give our enhanced DELTAs a better chance, I think you should aim for a weapon pod. You just might hit at the right instant, and even if you do not, with the enhanced missiles, you are bound to take out the array, at least.”