Well, i made some introduction stuff aswell, to build up this properly
.
I actually never wrote something like that in english, but well, i hope it is understandable.
»Status report!«, i said.
One of the my vasudan officers tapped on his console. »Only minor damage, but long range sensors are still offline.«, she replied.
»What happened?« was my next question, as i was very bewildered about the situation that took place a few moments ago. All of the sudden the GVD Cleo and the GTD Nova were attacked by a previously unencountered ancient Phaistos corvette. After the first shots, a subspace turbulence took place and jog around the Cleo. After this was done, nowhere the corvette or the Nova was to be seen.
»This is still under investigation. As it seems, we were attacked by an Ancient corvette. Like the same type the Cleo encountered four years ago.« was the only answer i get, which was not very satisfying, because i knew that already due to my own experiences with the Ancient corvette that was able to pull both the Cleo and the Nova into a shivan controlled nebula at the given time.
»And where is it, now? And where is the Nova?«, actually everything was so strange, the only thing i could think about were questions over questions.
»Unknown. This can not be determined right now.«, was again the not very helpful answer.
Well, the Nova was nowhere to be seen, but maybe it was in the same system, as this one was not a nebula that could hamper long rang communications. So there was hope, that i was able to get in contact with the Nova, maybe they had some more information already.
»Open task force communication channel.« i ordered. One of my officers nodded to me in response. »GVD Cleo to GTD Nova. Please respond!«, i asked... but the only thing i got as an answer was silence. »Rear Admiral Maximillian-Vasuda from the GVD Cleo is calling the GTD Nova. Please respond!«, i repeated this two times, but silence was still the only answer.
»Well... change to the general GTVA communication channel, then.«, i requested to my communication officer, who again only nodded to me. The vasudans were still not very talkative to a terran, even as i was their commanding officer. »This is the GVD Cleo from the 1st Crisis reaction force to all GTVA craft in communication range, please respond!«, i hailed into the communication channel, but the only response was silence.
»Rear Admiral, could it be possible that we are not longer in GTVA space, like the last time as we encountered such vessel?«, one of my officers asked, one of the only crew members, who survived this event four years ago.
»Maybe. But it is no nebula this time. And the last time the whole event was different. Also the Cleo was in the same system as the Nova.«, i answered, as i still remember it very well.
Because none of my officers was interested to reply anything, i asked »So, as it seems that aswell the Nova nor any other GTVA craft is in this system, i have to ask, where are we?«, even if i could swear, that i know the star constellation that was shown in the several outside cameras of this Apothess.
Once again, i only get silence in response, but as some vasudans tapped on their consoles, they were at least trying to determine the position of this ship.
After some moments that seem to be aeons, i got an answer for one of my questions finally. And this one was not really expected by myself.
»After we have checked the star constellations, we can seen from our position in comparsion to our database, we are actually certain, that we are at the edge of the Capella system.«, was the incredulous answer by the vasudans, were other ones on the bridge were murmering about in vasudan what i would translate to »impossible«, at least how far i was able to understand vasudan without any translator. As this was also the only response i was able to get as i looked absently into the stars.
»Does not look like a nebula that was caused by a supernova out there.«, i talk more to myself in totally disbelief. »What about the long range sensors? anything new?«, i asked as i remember, that they were offline right after the 'jump'.
The vasudan on the sensor control panel was about to begin »No, there are sti..-« as she changed her tone into an excited one. »They are online again. We have several contacts in the inner part of the system. I can not determine the types, but these are clearly terran and vasudan energy signatures!«.
That was indeed good news, even it was strange that there was no response to the hail to all GTVA ships.
»Why there was no response to our hail?«, i asked to the communication officer, who look onto its console. »Rear Admiral, it is strange, there is no GTVA subspace communication relay in this system.«
»This is very intersting. First an ancient corvette that shows up all of the sudden from subspace to attack us, now we are in a system that is identical to Capella with Terran and Vasudan ships and then, there is no GTVA?« I summarized the events of the last hour.
»Did you have checked all other frequencies?«, i asked him. He tapped again on his console and got an surprised looked. »Yes, i am receiving messages on non standard frequencies. They are encrypted, but they have an encryption that was used even before the foundation of the GTVA.«
»I think nothing should surprise us. Please tapping us in. I am interested what they are talking about.«, i ordered. But only to hear untranslated vasudan messages i was not able to understand, so i ask if it is possible to activate the translator for them.
»... seem to have new fighters. They seem comparable to our Horus interceptors. PVD Girga, we are under attack, we request assistance.«, i heard an excited vasudan pilot, who seems to call for help. Was this a battle between Vasudans and Shivans? »Understood Amenemhat wing. Cleopatra wing accepted to help you, jump to their position, now. We are transmitting you their coordinates as we speak. With Cleopatra's help, you should not have problems to destroy these new chimp fighters.«, the as-it-seems commander of the vasudans returned. »Understood, we are jumping out to the received coordinates.«, the pilot responded and after he ordered his wingmates to jump out to the given coordinates the communication channel went dead with a rush only.
»Well... do anyone of you know a ship called PVD Girga? Why PVD at all? And do they mean terrans with chimps actually?«, i was very wondered about what i have just heard.
The sensor officer seems to be cowed, but finally she speaks up. »Sorry Rear Admiral. Chimp is indeed comparable to your 'zod' term for our species. It is still used by some vasudans, who dislike the terrans as an insult, but it was commonly used during the war between our species.« she explained. But she was not finished after she had take a breath, i used to understand the meaning of her words. »About the PVD Girga, i can not explain, what is happening here, but the Girga was a Typhon class destroyer that was one of the first vasudan capital ships that were destroyed by the SSD Lucifer during the Great War. And it was stationed in the Capella system by this time. My father was stationed on this ship and survived, but was killed in the uprising on the PVD Tanis a few days later, which retrieved the Girga survivors, but then defected as one of the first ships to the Hammer of Light.«
I actually could not believe, what she told me right in front of the others.
»You tell me, that we have just heard a communication message from a ship that was destroyed over fifty years ago?«, i asked her in skepticism. And the only thing she could do, was to nod to my question.
I thought about her words. But it was too early to jump right to conclusions. So i ordered to send a scouting wing that should observe the terran and vasudan ships from a safe distance to get more information about them. So i arranged a meeting with the chief scientist on board the Cleo to talk with him about any data the scouting wing might be collect.
Some hours later i am sitting in my chair in my quarters with the information from the scouting wing in my hands. The vasudan scientist seemed insecure after he looked into the information, too.
»Well, Professor. So far this are all data we have. Our scouting wing was able to record a skirmish between a wing of Anubis and Apollos fighters. Not only both ship classes were not used since the formation of the GTVA, aswell both sides did not have any shields and the enery spectrum readings confirm, that both fired with lasers, that were in use at the end of the terran vasudan war, only. Additionally we have a confirmed communication messages from a vasudan capital ship that was destroyed by the Lucifer fifty years ago. And at last, it is confirmed, that we are in the Capella system. So, your conclusions?«, i summarized all information and ask my chief scientist. Unfortunately the Apothess class was never developed for research operations and so have only a small laboratory and a small scientist stuff.
»Rear Admiral. I and my collegues are not sure, how that this is possible. But there is only one logic conclusion so far and that is, that we are indeed in the Capella system... in the year 2335 of your terran calendar.«, he answered. And this was one of the worst answers i wanted to hear. But after i looked into his face. »But you have a theory, at least?«, i asked.
»Well, within the research community we are still estranged about the question what the Shivans tried to archive with the Capella Supernova. The public opinion that was released by the GTVA is, that the Sathanas fleet created some kind of Mega Subspace Node, that was only active shorty before a Sun goes Supernova. It was might be used to make a subspace jump not over hundreds but over thousands or even millions of light years instead. As we know, that subspace is faster than light travel, one minor theory within our community however is, that the Sathanas fleet was able to travel through time with the supernova subspace field instead.«, he explained, even it seems that he did not accept the minor opion by himself.
»Are you kidding me?«, i answered in the lose of formality, because i could not believe what i have just heard. »I do not believe the time travel theory by myself. Even if it could be possible, the fact, that we are still alive contradicts this theory. If the shivans can travel into the past, they would had simply killed us already. But also we know, that the Ancients did knew much more about subspace than we do, even with all the data we have collected from Altair IV and the Gamma Draconis portal. We know that some of their ships are still active today, maybe they are actually ships that have travelled 8000 years into the future to survive the end of their race? We actually never considered that so far, as the only Ancient ship, we were able to investigate closer, never show such devices. But because we made some kind of time travel in every subspace jump, at least time travel into the future can not be excluded totally. But it does not explain how we have ended up in the past, however.«, he is explaining in a long monologue that was very confusing for me. But i am the commanding officer of this ship and have to make decisions.
»Okay, Professor. Because the data is as it is, i have to expect, that we are really in 2335 right now. So the only question for me is, how i can bring this ship back into 2387? Without to wait for fifty-two years of course?«, i asked him. To my surprise he has an answer already, even it was not an answer that was very helpful right now. »The only answer i have so far is, that we have to find the ancient corvette, because it is most likely that it can cause the other way, too.«
»I think, you know, that this is like the search for the needle in a haystack. Even if i knew the system where this ship is right now, we only have very few options here. Even with the knowledge what will happen, we can not warn anyone about the Shivans and although i would love to kill the Lucifer right at the moment it arrives in our space to save both Vasuda Prime and Earth, this would have catastrophic consequences for the history we know.«, i explain my thoughts about this situation. The only thing the scientist was able to say was »Of course. We do not know what will happen if we intervene. We will try to analyze the data of the ancient corvette before it dragged us here. Maybe we are able to find something, what make it possible to detect this ship.«. After that, i sent him out of my quarters, what was a very unfamiliar for all vasudans which had a personal talk with me, because this quarter was full of personal items, which is very unlikely for Vasudans.
After the scientist left, i weighed the available options.
Because it was not possible to determine the exact date, it was not possible to predict when the Shivans will appear. It was risky to stay in Capella, as the shivans with their advanced sensor technology could be able to target the Cleo even it would stay at the edge of the system. To jump to Vega would be even more risky, because it was a front line system in the terran vasudan war with heavy military traffic and so the Cleo could be detected at the Capella node in Vega. Epsilon Pegasi however would mean less risk, because it was nearly unpopulated during the Great War as far as i know. Epsilon Pegasi was an interesting destination, because it offers several jump nodes to other systems and even the possibility to get into Sirius undetected through the former NTF systems.
Also i know, that there is an Ancient storage in the Deneb System, which could contain some data Aken Bosch did not retrieve for the database of the NTF Iceni. But even before the Shivans' Arrival Deneb was a hotspot of war activities. It would be impossible to get there without a detection. Well, the Cleo could fight through Sirius and Deneb guns blazing and kill every terran and vasudan on its way, like the Shivans did before they were confirmed. As far i remember, the Shivans were able to be called 'phantom ships' in the early days of the great war, because they did not leave any survivors to report them. But before i consider that, there is also a safe system reachable from Capella that was discovered a few months ago at the most: Gamma Draconis. And in Gamma Draconis there lies the subspace portal. Maybe it is worth a look? Maybe there are still some information, the GTVA was not able to collect in 2367 which could be helpful to return in our time. Even if there is nothing to find, it would take only a few days at least before i could reconsider for the other options, so i open the ship communication to the bridge.
»
Helm, set a course to the coordinates of the Knossos portal in Gamma Draconis and keep distance to all known vessels.« i said and i get a confirmation and i feel a light hum of the ship engine that were accelerating.
This flight would take a few hours. Time enough to prepare a command briefing for the GVD Cleo's crew to inform them about our situation.