The quiet hum of the reactor permeated every part of Lieutenant Commander Elliot Ross’ new quarters, and it was, he’d decided, almost certainly the most responsible for his inability to sleep. It probably wasn’t the only reason, after all, he hadn’t had a chance to talk to the techs about readjusting the environmental regulation system in his new room, nor was he entirely comfortable in the unfamiliar setting, but the constant, all pervading hum was undoubtedly the worst. He looked over at his bedside chrono, glowing a soft green in the darkness. 3:13, Terran Standard. His shift was supposed to begin in less than 4 hours, and he hadn’t gotten even a minute of sleep. Finally giving it up as a lost cause, Ross sat up in bed, reaching a hand over to the bedside table to flick on his glowpanel lamp. At that exact moment, a com beep sounded through the hum. ‘
Convenient’ he thought, ‘
But who in the hell is calling me at 3 AM?’. “Receive comm.” he said aloud.
“Good Morning, Commander” came the deep, gravely, but somewhat stressed voice of the vessels Captain, Adrian Mitchell, I’m sorry for disturbing you so early, but it seems we have a situation.”
Ross was instinctively looking at the speaker, even though he’d tried to break himself of the habit. “What sort of situation, sir?”
“I’d rather not say. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it myself. I’ve already called Commander Mabel; she’ll be joining us as well. Can I expect you in ten minutes?”
Ross sighed, hoping it was low enough for the comm’s audio dampener to filter it out. He hadn’t expected to get much sleep anyway. “I’ll be there sir.” He stood up beside the bed and shook the last of the fuzziness out of his mind, when the reality of the situation hit him. Captain Mitchell wasn’t the sort to call anyone at 3AM without a damn good reason. Whatever the ‘situation’ was, Ross was willing to bet it was important. Hurrying now, he began to dress
10 minutes later, Ross entered the briefing room, slightly puffed and mentally adding inconvenient location to the already fairly long list of faults demonstrated by his new quarters. At six hundred and fifty meters, Imperial class frigates like the Inferno weren’t deemed large enough to have a full internal transport system, and the three cars they did have were often in use. Having to walk over half a kilometre at 3 AM was not something Ross wished to become overly accustomed to. “Ah Commander, welcome.” Said Captain Mitchell as Ross entered, his voice still strained. “We were beginning to wonder if you were coming at all.”
Ross saluted crisply, “It’s my new quarters sir. They’re located right by engineering, with the techs.”
“Oh yes, you’ve been relocated. I apologize for that Commander, but we don’t have a lot of choice. We’ve received a message from Earth, they’re sending a transport to pick up the Utopians, but they’ll be with us for at least another 4 or 5 days, I’m afraid, and we need the larger officers rooms for the families.”
‘Utopians’ was the name given collectively to the passengers that the Inferno had picked up after responding to a distress call from the civilian vessel Utopia two days ago. They had suffered a reactor core breach after they’d been attacked by a group of pirates operating in the Vega system. The arrival of the Inferno had scared them away, but the Utopia was doomed. The ships crew, many of which were made up of several small families, had barely been able to evacuate to the Inferno before their ship had exploded. In fact, the damage to the Inferno’s primary transport pod was still being repaired. Accommodating these refugees on a military ship such as the Inferno had been a problem however, and several members of the crew had had their quarters temporarily relocated. “I understand sir.” Said Ross as he took a seat next to the ships second in command, Commander William Nightingale. “You said you had something to discuss with us?”
“Yes I do.” The captain leaned forward and rested his hands on the table. “Before I begin however, I need to inform you that what I say here must not leave this room. Is that clear?” They all nodded their assent, and Ross sat up a little straighter in his chair. Despite his bedside revelation, He had half expected some sort of briefing about shift changes because of the refugees, or something equally trivial. For the captain to begin as he had, however, implied something far more significant. Ross looked around the table, trying to gauge the reactions of the others. There were four others in the room besides himself, Mitchell and Nightingale, Lieutenant Commander Amy Mabel, the other squadron commander was sitting next to Commander James Stuart, the chief engineer. Next to him was Lieutenant Marc O’Neil, weapons and tactical officer, and finally a young woman Ross didn’t recognize, wearing the markings of a Lieutenant JG. Idly, he wondered what such a low ranking officer was doing at a meeting of senior ships personnel, but these questions were pushed to the back of his mind as the Captain began speaking again. Almost exactly one hour ago, Lieutenant Wesley over there was running a broad range sensor sweep when she detected an unusual vessel less than 5 kilometres from the Inferno itself. She can undoubtedly tell the story better than I can, so, Lieutenant?”
“Yes sir” she said, standing up. She began speaking in a firm, confident manner “We’d been in realspace for about an hour while the techs recalibrated the subspace motivators. I’d decided to run a series of narrow band sensor sweeps, just a Captain Mitchell said, when I detected a powered object well within our close zone, about 400 meters off our port bow. As per standard procedure I alerted Commander Stuart, who was in charge of the bridge at the time that there was a vessel within close-zone of the Inferno and that our normal near object sensors somehow hadn’t picked it up. Also following regulations, I began to tighten the sensor net around the object and gathered as much information as I could. I was just bringing the portside videosensors online when the object began to accelerate – rapidly. We tracked it hitting two hundred within 3 seconds of a standing start before we lost the lock, and the object disappeared. I’m sorry sir, I really am. I followed the regulations, but it seemed to know it was being scanned, and it was just too fast for me to keep up with it.”
Ross was fully alert now. Whatever this object was, it was obviously way beyond human engineering abilities. 0 to 200 in three seconds was all but unheard of, and the presence of the ship that close to the Inferno and yet still undetected had implications that Ross did not like to think about. While the near object sensors were far from perfect, they would never miss a powered object at such a close range. He looked up as Mitchell began to speak again. “No one’s blaming you for anything Lieutenant. If it hadn’t been for you, who knows how long it would have sat there.” He continued, but in a more general tone, addressing the entire room “We were able to get some limited data about the vessels size, shape and power output, even a bit of fuzzy video, but not enough to really constitute a full analysis.”
He pressed a button on the table, and the Green and Red Terran alliance symbol on the wall behind him disappeared, replaced by the familiar set-up of a vessel summary sheet. The picture they had was weak and poorly detailed – more a silhouette than an actual image, but it showed a vessel unlike anything Ross had ever encountered before. It was long for a fighter, at 14 meters, and also tall at 8, but very narrow, only about 3 meters. It had a roughly ovoid shape, and two large holes were cut in the top and bottom. 8 sharp spikes protruded from the rear of the vessel, and between each one was a small engine. Ross wasn’t even able to establish where the cockpit was, or even if it had a one. They were all studying the image when Mabel broke the silence. “No chance it’s Bantishi sir? Or even one of ours, a prototype or something?”
“As far as we can tell, it’s not Bantishi. The power signature we detected is unlike any Bantishi signature we’ve ever seen, and the design is entirely off. Plus no Bantashi craft could go that fast” The Bantashi were a race of intelligent insectoid creatures, the only other sentient and space faring culture that the Terran Alliance had encountered so far. They were physically larger than Terrans, and had multiple, jointed limbs and long manipulator claws. They were also highly intelligent, and their engineering skills were easily on par with those of the Terrans, in some fields even exceeding it. Their spacecraft however, were not quite of as high quality as the Terrans, and their propulsion and manoeuvring systems particularly lacked refinement.
“But one of ours, sir?”
The old man leaned back. “I hope not. I believe not. But the design is not so far removed from Terran roots that I’d discount it entirely.” He leaned back in his chair. “As I see it, the origin of this vessel is insignificant. All we need to know is that an unknown something was able to get that close to the Inferno without our noticing it, and that same something had engine output that puts everything we have to shame. We can’t assume it was for nefarious purposes, but even so, I’m now placing the ship on a quiet alert. I can’t officially tell anyone but my senior officers about this until my report from Earth is processed and I get a reply, but I want all of you to be ready in case something does happen. Am I clear?”
“Yes sir” The reply was quick and crisp, befitting the high quality military officers that served aboard the Inferno.
“Very well then. I know you’ll all want to get back to sleep, so you’re dismissed.” They got up to leave, though Mitchel did not leave his seat. “Commanders” he said, indicating Mabel and Ross as the rest filed out, “Stay awhile.” The two squadron leaders dutifully returned. “I’ll need the two of you to be on a particularly high alert over the next few weeks, and I’ll need you to keep your squads up too. Unfortunately, I can’t allow you to tell them the situation, but do your best to get the ready in case something happens”
“Do you expect something, sir?” asked Ross, curiously.
“I can’t be sure,” the captain replied, “It’s more a feeling than anything else, but I’ve been commanding a vessel of one type or another for fifteen years straight, and I know when my crew are in danger. That ship we saw was fighter sized, there’s bound to be more. Just be ready.”
They both saluted. “Yes sir Will there be anything else?”
“No, you can go back to bed. Sleep well.”
Obviously it's not finished (I've got the next page or two in my head, but I can't be screwed typing them (I've got to go to bed anyway, hockey tomorrow
)), but I'd sort of like feedback. I've got 90% of the universe worked out, FTL travel, weapons, races, government, stuff like that, though actual cap ship classes and shapes are fuzzy, and fighters even more so
. Just a feedback topic basically, this is my first serious crack at sci fi, though I've written a fair bit of fantasy (got a hopefully publishable Fantasy novel in the works
)
So, read and respond
.
