Nathan Scott stood on the balcony of his hotel in the nature reserve of Tunisia and sighed. He was fed up with his shore leave being cancelled at short notice.
Looking north out over the palm trees to the Mediterranean Sea, he listened to the lulling sound of the waves splashing gently against the sandy shore. The lights from the town further up the coast twinkled in the slowly cooling night air, seemingly trying to compete with the beautiful array of stars that glittered in the night’s sky.
In about thirty minutes a Confederation shuttle would be waiting for him outside the gates of the hotel, and he would be whisked away to the North African spaceport, where he would be shuttled into orbit to join his ship.
Looking up at the sky, he easily made out the lights of the orbital platform where the CFD Orion was waiting. It was the newest ship of the line, the first of the new Galileo class ships, with state of the art positronic computer systems, able to think for itself and adapt to unknown situations. The arguments had been long and hard about whether this system was safe, but in the end it had been decided to try it, but with a number of fail-safe options in place. Nathan had been assigned to be first officer on the Orion only a few weeks ago and he was still reading through the data specifications just hours before he was supposed to join her.
He had no idea why the launch date had been brought forward. The Orion was not supposed to be launched for another three weeks, but Nathan had received an urgent Vidcall from Admiral Johnstone about an hour ago, informing him that a shuttle was being dispatched and he was to report to the Orbital Platform at 0600 hours for debriefing.
Emily had not been pleased. Nathan smiled at the remembrance of the tortures that she was going to inflict on the Confed command, if she ever got her hands on them.
Turning from the balcony he walked back into the living room and paused to watch a television report on another ‘The New Way’ terrorist atrocity. This time they had blown up a prominent Galactic Council supporters car, killing hundreds in the process.
He shook his head in disgust and then walked through to the bedroom where his wife slept. She had fallen back to sleep after she had calmed down and was currently lying on her side facing the window where Nathan had been standing. Crouching down beside her, he leant over and gently kissed her forehead. She stirred but didn’t wake and Nathan made his way to the bathroom to wash and dress ready for departure.
He woke Emily before he left and kissed her goodbye. Tall and slim, she had always said that he looked good in uniform, and she fussed over him, straightening out things that didn’t need straightening and sorting with his blond hair, anything to delay the departure.
“Why are you always called away when we’re on holiday? Can’t they get someone else to take the ship out?” she asked, almost petulantly.
Nathan smiled, “That’s what happens when you marry a Confed officer. I’m at the beck and call of every admiral in the fleet. I don’t like it any more than you do, but I haven’t got any choice.”
Emily looked angry, “But why? There are plenty of first officers in the fleet. Not all of them can be on leave.”
“The Orion’s my ship. It’s a great honour to get picked for the flagship of the fleet, especially for someone as young as me. Look this is bound to just be the shakedown cruise brought forward a few weeks, so there will be no problems. You know how the top brass like to look good, so launching the Orion a couple of weeks before schedule will look really good on someone’s record. I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’ll request leave then. We can spend a few weeks together after the launch.”
Emily smiled and fussed over him again. “I’ll hold you to that. Just make sure you come back in one piece.” She frowned, “I’ve a bad feeling about this.”
Nathan chuckled, “You have a bad feeling every time I go out into space. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Stay here for the next week and I’ll be back before you know it.”
Giving her anpther kiss he picked up his datapad as he left the room and made his way down to the front desk. Holding his wrist over the chip scanner, Nathan waited while the necessary money for his stay and the rest of his wife’s stay was removed from his account. He then walked to the front doors and out into the still baking heat.
A young pilot was waiting outside of a small local area shuttle, and he saluted crisply as Nathan approached. Most local military ferry pilots were fourth year Cadets from the academies, getting their first real experience of flying. When they progressed to the later years, they were given more complicated jobs that required a little more skill. The Confederation had found this to be an effective way to give their young Pilots the experience to help them to improve quickly.
Taking his seat in the cramped rear compartment, Nathan turned on the datapad and continued reading where he had left off, with the specifications of the Orion as the small shuttle gently lifted from the ground with a whine of the anti-gravs.
The young pilot turned in his seat, “You’re Commander Scott aren’t you? Are you really going to the Orion? I’d like to be posted to the Orion when I graduate. It’s supposed to be the greatest ship ever made?”
Nathan smiled, had he been that enthusiastic when he was that young? Although not that long ago, it seemed like a lifetime after ten years in the service. “Yes Cadet. The Orion’s the biggest and the best according to all the reports.”
The cadet’s eyes widened, “I can’t wait to tell my mates that I had Nathan Scott in the back of my shuttle. We’ve heard all about you in the academy.”
Nathan smiled, still studying the datapad, “I’m surprised that my name’s allowed to be mentioned at the academy. I wasn’t exactly the ideal cadet.”
“We’ve heard lots of stories about your activities. Some of the other cadets are going for the low level flying record you set, although there are guards posted on the flyers and the park entrance now. What made you fly through the park in the first place?”
Chuckling, Nathan shrugged, “I'll admit that it wasn’t the cleverest idea I've ever had, but it’s amazing what’s done in the heat of the moment, especially when trying to impress a girl. Are you going for the record?”
The young cadet was practically bouncing up and down in his pilot’s seat, “Not yet, although I should be allowed to start using the flyers next year. I’ll be the youngest flyer pilot ever. I’ll be even younger than you were.”
Pursing his lips Nathan nodding his head, impressed, “What’s your name cadet? I’ll keep an eye out for you during the next few years. You never know we might be posted to the same ship.”
“My name’s Bonner, sir, Cadet Karl Bonner, sir. I’d be honoured to serve on the same ship as you, sir.”
Nathan couldn’t help but smile at Karl’s excitement. He’d been just the same when he was a cadet and had met Gordon Walker, arguably the greatest pilot the Confederation had ever had. Although Nathan himself had broken most of the records set by the great man.
“We’re arriving at the North African space port sir. I’ll take you to the shuttle to the Orbital platform.”
Nathan never ceased to be amazed at the wide variety of Spaceships that were docked at all the spaceports. Only able to travel short distances through Hyperspace, the huge blocky looking freighters generally carried cargoes between the star systems in the local sector. The even bigger inter-sector Freighters docked in orbit, as they would have consumed too much fuel to make planet fall. Cargo shuttles carried the bulk cargoes up to these ships.
Since the founding of the Confederation almost three hundred years before, it had expanded to encompass close to thirty planetary systems. The first exploratory ships had discovered many diverse races and life forms out in the galaxy, most of who had been friendly, initially at least. The huge inter-sector ships carried goods from all the sectors to wherever they were needed.
The passenger shuttles were docked on the far side of the spaceport from the cargo, and Nathan noticed lots of shuttles with the Orion logo loading up with what looked like military equipment. He frowned, something major must have happened for the Orion to be loading up like that, maybe this wasn’t just the shakedown cruise that he had first thought. He began to fidget as he got impatient to arrive at the shuttle.
Eventually the ferry landed and after wishing Karl good luck, Nathan hurried towards one of the passenger shuttles bound for the Orbital Platform.
Stopping at the door, he handed his Confed Military ID card to the guard on duty, and held out his wrist so the guard could scan it with a portable scanner, which beeped as it cleared Nathan for entry. He climbed aboard and sat in an empty seat towards the back of the passenger compartment. Reclining the seat back, he tried to relax and doze while he impatiently awaited the shuttle to depart.
Nathan felt the shuttle lurch as the powerful thrusters kicked in and the little ship began to rise. He kept his eyes closed and relaxed for as long as possible before he arrived at the Orbital Platform. He'd learnt a long time ago that it was a priceless gift to be able to get rest anywhere he could, as there were many times when it was impossible.
The journey to the Orbital Platform took a little over twenty minutes and as they approached, Nathan opened his eyes and looked out of the window. The dome shaped platform spun slowly in a geo-stationary orbit over Europe. It was deceptively small looking when viewed next to the earth, but the disk was almost ten miles tall and over five times that wide. Six great doors were evenly spaced around the edge of the platform through which vessels passed, looking tiny in comparison to the huge structure. The shuttle headed towards the top of the Orbital Platform and flew over tall structures protruding from the surface of the disk. This was where most of the workers, visitors and crews from the many ships that would be docked, lived during their time at the platform. It was in effect a city with buildings and tubes running around in between them for the traffic. In the centre of the city, the control tower rose high above the other buildings. The shuttle approached the tower and circled it until a smaller door appeared through which the shuttle passed and with a soft bump touched down on the landing platform.
Almost immediately the Shuttle doors opened and the passengers began to file out. Being at the back, Nathan was one of the last to leave and he exited the shuttle to an almost empty landing bay. He followed the last of the passengers to the Check-in point and showing his ID card to the guard, passed through without any problems and walked out into the arrivals lounge. Waiting for him there, were three men in Confed uniforms. One of the men had iron grey hair and a craggy face, but his tall and ramrod straight posture and twinkling blue eyes belied his age. His smile was huge as he stepped forward and clapped Nathan on the shoulder.
“Nathan! I am glad to see you again. How long has it been now? Three years? When I heard that you were going to be my first officer, I had to be here to meet you.”
“Captain Walker!” Nathan placed his own hand on the older man’s shoulder, “It’s been far too long. How are you?”
“I’m very good thank you. You have no idea how happy I am at the prospect of getting back out into action again though; I’ve spent too much time sitting behind a desk."
He turned and indicted the two men standing behind him, "I’d like to introduce Lieutenant Chris Cox, our Helmsman, and Lieutenant Karl Evans, Weapons and tactical. Gentlemen, this is Commander Nathan Scott.”
The three men clasped hands and then Captain Walker turned to Chris and Karl, “I’ll meet you back on the Orion later. Nathan and I have a meeting to attend. If you hear anything from our elusive chief engineer, please let me know.”
“Will do sir,” Lieutenant Evans replied with a nod, “Captain, Commander.” He said as the two turned away, already deep in conversation.
Nathan and Gordon watched as the two Lieutenants walked away, and then the Captain turned to his first officer. “As you’re aware we’ve had to bring the launch date forward by three weeks. If you’ll come with me to the briefing room, we’re about to be told why.”
The two men walked through the control tower until they reached a section reserved for Confed personnel only. This section included the main bridge, living quarters for Confed personnel with no families on the station and meeting rooms.
They approached a large room full of people either standing or sitting on comfortable looking chairs talking in pairs of small groups. Some wore the grey of Confed staff, but most wore more colourful civilian clothing.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
There was long line of people waiting to go through the main security checkpoint, but Captain Walker strode to a different entrance where three Confed guards stood to attention at a set of security doors
After passing their ID cards and wrist chips through the main computer and receiving the all clear, the guards opened the doors and motioned the two officers through.
“Perks of being a Captain.” Gordon winked at Nathan, who was trying not to look at the glares that they were receiving from the people waiting in the long queue.
As they stepped through the security archway, that was checking for any concealed weaponry or explosives, there was a beep and the archway turned green for moment. Then they were in the Confederation part of the space station.
The plush carpets and homeliness of the outer sections of the platform were replaced by military grey and sturdy hard wearing carpets. They passed far fewer people as they walked through the military areas.
The door to the conference room was open as they approached and a cacophony of raised voices was heard from within. Nathan looked inquiringly at Gordon, who shrugged in response. The guards on the door saluted as the two officers approached and then entered.
A large wooden table dominated the centre of the room, with holographic projectors and keypads built into the top. Twenty chairs were arranged around the edge of the table, with about fifteen or so occupied by Confed officers of varying rank. All were talking at each other and trying to drown the others out. As the two officers entered, an Admiral with short grey hair and beard, who had up to this point been sat at the head of the table listening to the noise with a slight smile on his lips, stood up and instantly all the noise stopped. He started to speak with a quiet yet authoritarian voice.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” he began in a quiet yet commanding voice, “May I introduce Captain Walker and Commander Scott of the Orion. If you would all like to take your seats, I’ll explain why we’re here.”
After a few moments of shuffling as the assembled Confed personnel seated themselves, the Admiral began,
“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Admiral Johnstone. I’ve been instructed to update you on current developments. My apologies to the Orion and her crew, but events have transpired to force us to launch her three weeks early. If you will all look at your displays, I’ll show you what we know so far.”
The holographic projectors flickered into life, and the Confed symbol appeared as a slowly rotating image above each one.
Admiral Johnstone looked around the room as he spoke, “Computer. Identify Admiral Joseph Johnstone, password Alpha nine six zero, voiceprint analysis confirm.”
The computer beeped and a voice announced, “Voiceprint confirmed Admiral Johnstone. Command?”
“Play data file Fearless zero zero four.”
The images changed to the CFD Fearless’ insignia and then a view of the Fearless’ bridge appeared.
The familiar looking bridge was a mess. Smoke and flames filled the air, and through the haze, many of the consoles were blackened and some were sparking, bodies were lying amidst the wreckage whilst a couple of shapes moved around between the working consoles. Then a blackened and burnt face moved into view. The quality of the recording was distorted so the watchers had to lean forward to hear properly.
“This is Captain Jones of the CFD Fearless to Confed command. We’re under attack by unknown forces. The Illustrious has been destroyed and we are taking heavy damage. We are unable to make a Hyperspace jump, something is stopping us from making the gateway. I’m sending all available data to you regarding our attackers.” Captain Jones took a deep breath as the bridge shook from another explosion, he closed his eyes briefly and then looked back at the camera, “I hope this helps in any future encounters, and makes our sacrifice worth it. CFD Fearless out.”
The screen flickered to an external view from the Fearless as the Confederation carrier faced a huge alien ship. There were gasps from the room as they comprehended the sheer scale of the other ship. Long, silver and rectangular, the ship flared slightly larger at the end that faced the Confed carrier, and and larger again at what were presumably engines at the other.
Green beams lanced from the enemy carrier and the camera shook with the impact as huge chunks of armour and superstructure were torn from the Confed ship. More beams lanced from the blisters on the surface of the alien ship and eventually the screen turned to static.
Then data from the Fearless’ last transmission began to scan down the screen; sizes, dimensions and scans of the weapons of the unknown ships. After this had finished the screens went blank and the computer voice announced the end of the file.
Admiral Johnstone broke the stunned silence. “As you can see we are in a serious situation. As far as we’re aware, these ships attacked without warning or provocation. They completely outgunned our carriers and fighters and we were, in so far as we are able to tell, unable to damage them in anyway.”
He paused and looked around the room, “I have the tech people analysing this data to see what we can learn, but I don’t hold much hope until we can discover more about whom they are and where they come from.”
A screen behind the Admiral showed a map of part of the confederation, he turned and pointed at a spot away from any labelled planets, “As you can see from the co-ordinates, the attack happened well within known Confed borders, our Hyperspace monitors should have picked up this ship, but they didn’t. I want to know why.”
The Admiral turned to Captain Walker, “I’m dispatching the Orion to the location of the battle to learn what you can. You’ll rendezvous with the Comet, Endeavour and Lincoln who are already there. They’re currently investigating and will update you on your arrival. Are there any questions?”
“I don’t recognise that ship.” Nathan didn’t recognise the admiral who had asked the question, but his arm patch indicated that he was a member of the home fleet. “It doesn’t match any configuration that the T’hissis uses. Have the Council of Races been asked if they recognise the ship?”
Another officer, a patch on his shoulder denoted that he was part of the intelligence bureau, nodded, a headband attached to his skull and cyber attachments covering his eyes, connected him to the hive mind of the agency, “We agree with the Admiral. The configuration of the ship is nothing even close to anything we have seen before. The T’hissis have always preferred more insect shapes, presumably based on their physiology. The Nadar have always used more smooth flatter ships.” There was the slightest of a hint of multiple voices when the agent spoke.
Admiral Johnstone nodded, “I’ve spoken to our diplomat in the Galactic Council and he says that none of the ships he’s seen match anything like this. Unfortunately, he is encountering a lot of obstacles when he attempts to speak to any of the council races regarding this ship.”
“What sort of obstacles?” another Admiral asked.
“Some of the ambassadors have been completely unwilling to even talk to him, but the rest have given cryptic denial that they know anything.” Admiral Johnstone shook his head in disgust, “We have no proof, but our diplomatic corps believes that more is known about this than they are willing to tell us.”
“Have there been any reports of more attacks by this ship?” Gordon asked.
“No, not that we’re aware of. It could be that no one else has managed to get a report back to us; we’re still trying to contact all our deep space ships. We may not have as big a sphere of influence as some other council members, but we do have five planets.” Admiral Johnstone took a deep breath, “What I’m going to tell you now is something that no one outside of the Confederation council knows. This is above top secret, but I believe that you need to know to be best able to combat this threat.”
Looking around the room, the Admiral lock eyes with everyone there, one after the other, “Most of you will know the first part of this, but I need to reiterate for those of you who don’t, and it will help explain the later part.”
He smiled grimly, “I may get into trouble to disclosing this, but it will help.”
Pausing to gather his thoughts, he then ran his hands through his grey hair as he began, “As you know we stumbled across the Nadar about two hundred years ago, back in twenty eighty three. We didn’t have the best of ships, our technology was pathetic compared to the Nadar, but one of their ships had been attacked by another race and our explorer ship helped them to get back to Earth to repair. Since this act of kindness was so unexpected from us, they had been monitoring us for hundreds of years and believed that we were a warlike race that needed careful watching; they decided to help us by trading and helping us to upgrade our technology. Basically we jumped almost five hundred years of tech level in a matter of years. This allowed us to explore further and better arm our ships against any external threat. This external threat came about fifty years after the Nadar gave us first contact. The T’hissis appears and attacked one of our mining colonies. Apparently the T’hissis had decided that they wanted that planet and they tried to take it away. We didn’t have the ships or the manpower to fight that war and we were losing badly, but we managed to get a small fleet of ships through to their home world. When we threatened to bomb their home world if they didn’t surrender we were in for a nasty shock. About a thousand ships suddenly hypered in to the system and locked all weapons onto our ships. It was only the quick thinking of the highest ranking surviving officer that stopped them all being blown into atoms. After a while of negotiations it turned out that no one had bombed any races home world in over three thousand years. We’ve never been able to find out what happened back then, but it seems like there was once a race that posed so much of a threat that they had to be wiped out by bombing their worlds. It was at this time that we learned about the Council of Races. It turned out that both the Nadar and the T’hissis were members of the Council and the war with us had been allowed to happen. Apparently one of the fundamental laws that govern the Council is that if one race declared war on another, no one is able to join in on either side. Again this harks back to the war thousands of years ago. Whatever this race was, it took the combined power of all the races to combat it. No one wanted that kind of genocide happening again. It took years of negotiation and bargaining but we were finally allowed to become partners in the council. We’re not full members; apparently they want to make sure that we aren’t as war like as they believed. Us threatening to bomb the T’hissis home world probably didn’t help matters. However we have a seat on the council, we have no vote, but we are able to offer our opinions and thoughts. This has helped us to develop and we are slowly, I believe, turning their minds to allowing us full membership. We have asked at the Council, but no one is offering any help with this new threat. They have all categorically denied any knowledge of the alien ships and no one will tell us if they’ve been attacked.”
There was silence around the table for a few minutes while everyone digested what they’d just been told and then Admiral Johnstone smiled grimly, “Now you see what we’re up against, I’m counting on you all to find out what is going on. Good luck people. Dismissed.”
As the group stood and left the room, the admiral called Gordon and Nathan over to him. “I do mean good luck. We’ve no idea what we’re facing here, whether it was an isolated incident or a prelude to something more. What I didn’t mention to the rest of them is that there was a survivor from the battle, a Talon pilot by the name of Lt. Elizabeth Fletcher. I believe you know her Nathan?”
“Yes Admiral. She was a year below me at the academy. We knew each other quite well.”
“Well you’re going to need to work closely with her again to discover what’s happening. My best wishes go with you. Find out what’s happening, but if those ships appear again, retreat. Even the Orion’s no match for these ships, her weapons have been significantly upgraded but we’re not sure if they’ll be any more use than the Illustrious or the Defiant’s.” The admiral clapped both men on the shoulder and nodded for them to go.
