Chapter 2: The H.M.S. Beverly

I was on the return leg of a cargo run to some obscure star system when the distress call came in on the FTL communications system. I was totally alone on the Zeus because the two ladies I took on the outbound leg found male friends at the port on the planet and asked if they could stay. I can handle the return leg on Zeus myself, so I paid them off and let them go. This was not that unusual an occurrence, since long haul trips often are taken by people who are trying to forget someone or something. Then often discovered the grass really is greener on another planet, especially at a new colony. Over the period of time that the unloading of the ship takes, usually eighteen to twenty-four months due to primitive conditions, often the ladies find other men and relationships.

The ship’s communications system sounded the distress call alarm while I was playing Texas Hold’em Poker with several artificial ladies on the holodeck. This may sound strange, but it passed the time. Each artificial woman had a clear and rich personality and if you did not know better could easily be mistaken for a real person. The game was fair. If the women won, I had to buy them a special treat. If I won, I got to spank them in any way I wanted and have a roll in the hay later. Winning was quite enjoyable, and if you were losing you could always restart the program.

Like most ship captains, I never hesitated when it came to another ship in distress. The next time it could be me.

“Mother, freeze program and play distress message”, I said. The computer’s name for itself was “Mother.” In fact, every ship’s AI computer was named Mother. There was some historical reason for this.

Mother said (in a sexy female voice), “Yes Sir”, and the message started playing:

“Mayday!!! Mayday!!! This is an automated distress signal from the passenger liner H.M.S. Beverly, of the planet Delta Gamma Hydra 614-2, enroot to Beta Pi Gamma 302-3, requesting immediate assistance! The Beverly has had a major hyperdrive malfunction. Life support is minimal and failing. The ship is adrift in the Beta Meta Tau 232 star system. The ship’s drive systems have been destroyed and the ship is on a collision course with the star in the system. The computer estimates the ship will be destroyed in fifty minutes ten point two seconds.” I had to chuckle. The point two seconds were important only to a computer.

The recording continued, “Sensors indicate that the control section of the ship is catastrophically damaged and there are no life signs in that section. This automated signal was triggered because the ship’s crew is not responding to computer requests for direction and the ship is on a fatal trajectory that the ship’s computer cannot correct. Sensors indicate that there are at least four hundred passengers alive in the passenger compartments. We request immediate assistance from any ship in the area.” The ship then sent its sector and co-ordinates in the sector.

“Mayday!!!...”, the distress call went on, repeating itself.

“Mother, stop message replay, save simulation program, plot intercept course to the Beverly, and report time to intercept of the Beverly at flank speed.” For a change, I was winning big against all three women, so I saved the program and I immediately went to the bridge.

Mother replied, “Done. Done. Intercept course plotted, time to intercept thirty-one minutes, thirty-five seconds.”

“Mother, intercept the Beverly at flank speed, relay the distress message to the nearest FoM command center, tell them we are intercepting and request assistance.”

Mother replied, “Course changed as ordered. Message sent, sir.”

I heard the main engines increase output, as the ship changed course. In hyperspace stopping on a dime and changing course was not possible but the course change was almost instantaneous.

“Mother, send to the Beverly that we are on the way to assist. Please request more information from the Beverly.”

“Message sent, sir.”

“Mother, bring all rescue and docking systems on line.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Mother, bring all weapons and defense systems on line”, something was not right and I wanted to be prepared. Who knew, this could be a trap.

I immediately then proceeded to the bridge and started thinking of rescue scenarios. As I approached the bridge I asked, “Mother, any reply from the Beverly?”

“Sir, just the distress message, even on the computer-to-computer channels, it is a bit unusual. It could be that the computer has ship itself down to conserve energy.” Mother was nervous. She was looking for answers to questions unasked. She was programmed to protect the crew and the ship, but she would normally not report her guesses to me. The fact is that she had, over the years, saved my butt many times; by making me aware of situations I had no way of noticing.

“Mother, activate cargo deck 4 and configure it for trauma and rescue. Activation cargo decks 5 and 6 and configure them as passenger compartments.”

“Aye, sir.”

Earlier, when I heard that the ship was due to be incinerated in fifty minutes, I immediately thought the people on the Beverly were in big trouble. The area of space the Zeus was passing through was usually devoid of ship traffic; due to a high pirate presence. I was only going through it because I was empty and pirates were practical. I also knew that the Zeus had special capabilities. Still Zeus was the only ship within two weeks travel from where I was. The odds of someone being close enough to them to help were astronomically high. I was shocked to find I was about thirty minutes from the Beverly. We were out in the middle of nowhere, and it was pure luck that I was anywhere close to them.

As I entered the bridge, I asked Mother to display the Beverly’s specifications”

While in FTL transit, I checked the Beverly’s specifications, which were on record in my ship’s computer, like most ships. The Beverly was fifteen-hundred-person transport, with six thousand tons of cargo space. Zeus dwarfed the Beverly. Zeus had engine power to tow ships equal to its size with its tractor beam, at least for a short period of times. If nothing else, I’d be able to tow the Beverly out of danger. What the Beverly was doing out here though was anyone’s guess. Her destination was at least four months away at her best speed and she was six months away from her home planet. The Beverly’s position was clearly off her normal course. Weird things can happen with hyperdrive malfunctions. (Eventually the investigation into the loss of the Beverly, by the FoM, listed the reason for the location the Beverly as an unknown hyperspace phenomenon. There are a lot of those).

When we reached scanner range, I ordered Mother to scan the system and report any anomalies. There were lots of anomalies. The dimensions of the Beverly were all wrong. This was because there was a trail of debris fanning out on what I assumed to be Beverly’s course through the system. There were several major parts of Beverly scattered on that course. There were also residuals from a massive antimatter explosion.

When we closed into visual range of the Beverly, I could see the damage from way too long a distance. My eyes pretty much confirmed what the scanners where reporting. I was not looking at “The Beverly” but what was left of the Beverly. Her hyperspace drive was gone completely, along with her antimatter reactor, which under the circumstances was a good thing. There appeared to be a time shear fracture running the width of hull, where the keel was severed. The ship had been hit by something in hyperspace. Small impacts were not that uncommon, but whatever had hit the Beverly had been at least one hundred feet wide. The Beverly’s sub-light drive engine and ship’s control section was caved in and pancaked mess. Every compartment aft of the surviving passenger compartments was crushed down to the keel. What remained of the Beverly looked as if she was an ant and that someone had stepped on, on a concrete sidewalk, but missed the ant’s head. I could see the remnants of eight of the Beverly’s 12 passenger compartments were crushed. I also could see what I was sure was the control section and sub-light drive sections of the hull which were also crushed. There could be no survivors in any of those compartments. There were gasses, debris, human body parts, charged particles, plasma discharges everywhere. What served as the Beverly’s new aft end was pointed right at the star, and she was quickly closing on the star.