Chapter 7: Calm before a storm?

Tara sat in the captain's chair for the very first time, Bruce MacFergus standing by her side. She was nervous at having control of the huge Broadsword, but exhilarated at the same time. She was scanning around the bridge, taking in all of the activity and thinking about what she would do if the enemy appeared.

"Ok," said Bruce, "Prepare the ship for the next jump."

"Are you serious, captain? I don't have the experience for that!" Tara replied.

Bruce had read up on his trainee and knew that she was a veteran of many sea battles and had even been involved in hand to hand fighting with the Vikings. He had no doubts about her abilities as a captain, all she needed was the technical know-how about the ship and he knew she would excel.

"Cadet, I know that you have more battle experience than the rest of the crew on this ship put together. I also know you have the flair for commanding a ship - at sea is not that much different from in space, believe me. Now trust your instincts and make the jump please."

Tara gulped, but then quickly steadied herself.

"Mr Sigurdson, are the co-ordinates for the next jump keyed in?"

"Yes, sir. Co-ordinates keyed in and locked. We're ready to jump when you give the word," replied the Navigator.

"Very well. Attention all hands. We are about to make another jump, a jump that will take us to the Monocerous Ring, on the very edge of our galaxy. As before I would like everyone at battle stations please."

Tara flicked the comms switch to kill her ship-wide transmission, as the alarms started to sound on the bridge to signify the ship was on red-alert. She waited a few minutes to allow the crewmembers to reach their appointed battle stations and then turned to the Navigator.

"Okay, Mr Sigurdson. Prepare to jump on my mark please. Jump in three, two, one, mark!"

"Executing jump sequence, sir. Jump in progress."

Tara looked up at the huge plasma screen, but could only see distorted white light as they made the jump through space. She held her breath as the few seconds passed.

"Exiting jump, sir, in three, two, one. Jump completed."

"Mr Sigurdson, give me what you've got on any threats, any life forms and any habitable planets," Tara said.

"Nothing, nothing and nothing, sir. No identified threats, no life forms and no habitable planets within my sensors' range."

"Very well, Navigator. What have you got?"

"My readings show three large belts of planets, moons and dust, sir. They seem to be orbiting the Milky Way galaxy, but nothing is moving within our range."

"AI, please drop another drone and jump reactor. The same drill as before, cloaked and with communications set up," ordered Tara.

"As you wish, sir. Launching drone now. I'll run a full diagnostic on the equipment, sir."

"Thank you, AI. Mr Sigurdson, how long until the ship's jump reactor is re-charged?"

"One minute and ten seconds until it's ready to roll again, sir."

Bruce had been watching Tara throughout. He could see she was alive, alive at having the control of the ship. She was much more animated than she had been before and he recognised she was born to this. This was where the woman belonged. He smiled at her little hint at insecurity, it was only to be expected, but she had shaken it off far quicker than she had a right to. Her previous experiences, her natural confidence and her innate sense of being a commander had all taken over. She had performed flawlessly. Admittedly they hadn't really done anything that was difficult, but she just had it, it was obvious.

Scott pushed one of the buttons on his control panel. Admiral MacCulloch's face appeared on one of his screens almost immediately.

"Operations Room, can I help, your Grace?" he asked.

"I was wondering whether General MacKelvie had checked in yet, Admiral. I'm a little anxious to know how things have gone with our plans for the Chinese."

"He's not scheduled to check in for a little over thirty minutes, your Grace. Do you want me to raise him for you?"

"No, Admiral. He might be in the middle of something. I'm sure I can wait until his scheduled time. Patch him through to me when he does check in, would you?"

"Of course, your Grace."

The screen went blank and Scott stood and left his study. With half an hour to kill, he decided to check out his music room. He pressed the panel and the door slid open to allow entry. Walking into the room, he closed the door behind himself and looked around. He laughed when he spotted a set of bagpipes on a chair in one corner; there was no way he would ever be able to play those.

His eyes lit on an electric guitar sitting on a stand beside a stool. It had the looks of a classic Gibson SG, his favourite, but was subtly different. He crossed the room and sat on the stool, picking up the guitar. There was a pick stuck to the body and he noticed a small electronic 'bow' sitting on the floor too.

He had used something similar to the bow in his own timeline and had managed to get a decent sound from the guitar, but he was a confirmed traditionalist so he opted for the pick, or plectrum.

Scott looked for the lead socket on the guitar and couldn't find one. He assumed the guitar was wireless and turned his attention to the amplifier and cabinet. These too were different, more high-tech. He strummed the guitar to check its tuning, expecting to have to work on it a little. To his surprise it was perfect and the sound that came from the amp was rich and heavily distorted, just as he liked it.

He ran through some exercises to loosen his fingers, as it had been some time since he had last played. Soon, he was thumping out some riffs, losing himself in the sound he was creating and thoroughly enjoying himself. Scott felt once more just how relaxing it was to simply play around on the axe and he just let himself go, shifting from tune to tune as the mood took him. His attention was grabbed by a red light flashing above the door to the music room and he guessed this was a way for someone outside to get him to realise he was wanted.

He put the guitar down and opened the door to find William standing there.

"Your Grace, General MacKelvie is trying to reach you. If you would go to the study you will be able to speak with him there," the android said.

Scott walked to the study and closed the door. He crossed to the control panel and pushed the receive button, immediately seeing Mac's head and shoulders appearing on one of the screens.

"It's good to see you're still all in one piece Mac. I hope my wife is in one piece too. How did it go?" he asked.

"Thanks, your Grace...

"Mac, how many times do I have to tell you? When we're alone it's Scott, please!"

"I'm sorry, your Grace, I mean Scott. Helfe is fine and she has performed really well. As to how things are going, probably better than we have the right to expect. I used the tactics we agreed, right out of Vietnam and our Chinese friends didn't know what hit them. I split the Special Forces troops into squads and assigned them to the various tunnels we knew were going to be used. It worked a charm Scott. Even as we speak, the Chinese are trudging back from whence they came, demoralised and questioning their leaders."

"Excellent, Mac. What about casualties?"

"Absolutely none on our side, Scott. Not that many Chinese dead either, just enough to add to the psychological impact in terms of the way they died and the other stuff we were hitting them with - you know the psych-warfare tapes."

"Well done! I plan on speaking to the Russian leaders later today to alert them to the threat that's been hanging over them. I expect to get some earache as they will be pissed-off we didn't inform them. They'll conveniently miss the fact that they couldn't defend themselves and instead complain about not being kept informed. I'm also a little concerned about how they will react to the news. The last thing we need is to overturn eleven hundred years of world peace just at the point the Earth is being attacked by aliens."

"It does sound ironic, doesn't it? I guess humans tend to act irrationally when they're under stress. The Russians might send up some hot air, Scott, but they've got nothing to throw at the Chinese, so I think you can quit worrying on that score," said Mac.

"I was thinking I might transport out to Russia tomorrow to meet with their leaders, how would you feel about joining me? I could certainly use at least one friendly face around," Scott said.

"Why not, I think things will be calm here for a little while. We dusted some of the Chinese with our magic pixy dust and I hope we can get a lead on who the leaders are from that. While we're waiting, a little diversion might be nice."

"Okay, I'll see you here tomorrow then. And Mac, thanks again. Good work, you can pass that on to your men too."

"Thanks, Scott. I'll see you tomorrow. Mac out."

The screen went blank once more and Scott rose to leave the room. When he opened the door he almost jumped out of his skin when he found William standing there, waiting patiently it seemed.

"I'm sorry I surprised you, your Grace. The computing engineers have finished commissioning the Artificial Intelligence for the house and I was wondering whether you wanted to personalise it?"

"What do you mean? Can I make the avatar/hologram look like whatever I want?" Scott asked.

"That and more, your Grace."

William bustled past Scott and crossed over to the control panel. He brought up a computer screen and typed some commands on the keyboard. Scott watched as a program of some description booted up and William began entering commands.

"Okay, your Grace, you're ready to go. Just work through each section one by one and save everything when you're finished. If you change your mind about anything you can always work back and change it, but once you save that's it."