Alutia Rising, Anniversary Edition (Alutia Rising Series, Book 1) (33 page)

She tilted the sphere towards the upper
right, causing the ferry shuttle to move in unison. The arrow
became a circle, which floated directly past the center of the
viewscreen only to vanish to the bottom left, turning back into an
arrow.

“You can do this Sasha,” she whispered,
angling the sphere back to the lower left. The shuttle responded
immediately, angling to the lower left as the arrow again became
the circular reticule and once again started moving past the center
of the viewscreen. At the same moment, she rotated the sphere to
the top right, trying to stop the shuttles from overshooting, but
caused the reticule to fly back to the bottom left to turn back
into an arrow. She grunted her frustration and tried again.

Her failed attempts at leveling the shuttle
mounted, making it undulate back and forth like a wave. Though with
each attempt, Sasha started to gain a feel for how the ferry
shuttle would react to the movements of the control sphere.
Gradually, the wave became smaller and smaller until finally, the
viewscreen steadied dead center on the circular reticule.

“Automated flight locked,” Vin confirmed as
the control sphere vanished. “Preparing for high-speed
acceleration, NSD field active, GM field steady, NSD Propulsion
coming online.” Vin continued.

“Wait! What about the crew, did they get out
safe?” Sasha asked as the adrenaline from trying to level the ferry
shuttle began to fade. Silence filled the cabin and she looked to
Tiana, seeing the color return to the young girls face, but fear
still present in her bloodshot eyes.

She was about to ask again, fearing the
worst, when an alarm sounded, the interior of the shuttle flashing
yellow as the shuttle began shaking violently from a gravitational
shockwave that could only have only been caused by the destruction
of the ABF Princess One. Her first gift from her parents...gone
forever.

Tears crept into her eyes, born of her
failure. She knew it was her fault. That in her ignorance she
allowed those who meant her harm into her inner sanctum. Before the
thoughts could take over, she pushed them aside...
this isn’t the
time.

“Emergency escape shuttle detached safely,
all crew and guards aboard. Propulsion damage has been reported and
high-speed travel is currently inadvisable. Knight Admiral Bhool
requests that we continue to the TSB Fleet Base and report their
location upon arrival for retrieval,” Sasha let her face fall into
her hands with a relieved sigh, while Regalia and Gil'Da screamed
in joy. The tears she'd been holding back finally broke free,
gushing down her cheeks as she climbed out of her seat into the
arms of Tiana, who returned her hug and tears.

“Entering high-speed flight, time to
destination, 11 hours, 91 minutes,” Vin's voice faded in the
cacophony of tears.

The third day of simulated combat ended as
uneventful as it began and Daniel once again stumbled back to his
quarters on the TSB Ero'Cia. The exercises and simulations seemed
endless as the fleet slowly made its way to their standby location
just outside Neptune's orbit.

Initially, the simulations appeared more like
readiness drills for an upcoming fleet battle, being centered
around the TSB fighting traditional NHA fleet formation that were
attempting to invade the Earth star system. But the last few
exercises had changed, concentrating on offensive battles against
ASU fleets, and support missions for NHA battle groups. Daniel
found it odd, and had again began to question his original belief
that this was a move to counter Sir Simwa allies, and not just a
regular exercise

Captain Aysi had returned shortly after the
first simulation a few days prior, and following a full
after-action debrief, started preparing the crew for additional
combat simulations that were planned during the command meeting. Of
course, Daniel wasn't left out of the fun, having spent hours being
lectured by the captain on what was expected of him as the primary
tactical officer, then spending his rare off-hour's reviewing known
EW markers. It'd been a long, stressful three days, and he was
ready for sleep.

He let his uniform fall to the floor before
the door slid shut and collapsed onto his bed, the sweet embrace of
sleep overtaking him the moment his eyes fell closed.

He awoke as the battle stations alarm blared,
seeming to emanate directly from his skull. A groan escaped his
lips as he rolled over, still feeling as if his head had just hit
the pillow, but found his chrono stating that two hours had indeed
passed. He stumbled to his feet and pulled on his wrinkly uniform
before exiting into the bustling corridor to make his way to the
bridge.

Captain Aysi and Executive Officer Geoff were
already at their posts when he arrived. The captain had the distant
expression of being “node locked”, so XO Geoff nodded a greeting as
he entered, his expression unreadable.

“Get to your station and switch to combat
mode, Lieutenant, the unlock codes should be waiting. Then check
your station link with battle group command and verify that your
array crews are ready.” Daniel froze while his mind registered what
he'd just heard, the last thread of drowsiness vanishing when he
did.

“Yes, sir,” he responded, running to his
station. His hands trembled as he touched the standby icon hovering
over the tactical stations PDU, causing the tactical display to
appear before him. He quickly entered the authorization code to go
to full combat mode, then queued a test link to battle group
command, receiving an immediate affirmative, his system was linked
and ready.

As he sent readiness queries to each of his
LPA crews, the rest of the bridge officers began arriving. Every
officer paused when they heard XO Geoff’s orders, before rushing,
white faced, to their stations.

Daniel cursed under his breath as he received
retransmit requests from most of his groggy weapon crews. They
seemed to be under the impression that the orders to go to full
combat readiness had been a mistake. He started keying his response
and confirmations, cursing again at his lackadaisical crews, when
XO Geoff, having overheard his muttered curses, moved to his side
and glanced over his shoulder. He leaned in and hit a few icons on
the three-dimensional input, causing a sub note to be added to his
message, signed XO. The confirmation requests ceased and reports of
full readiness began taking their place, except for point defense
LPA 20, which was failing to deploy. They returned an estimate of
30 minutes to full operation.

“Station status. Communications!” the captain
shouted, the bridge CID shifting from local space to the full star
system view.

“Online, Captain,” Lt.-Commander Xi reported
through the bridge’s closed communication channel, linked to the
combat PDU every bridge officer wore over their ear.

“Good, engineering?” The Captain decided to
use the com channel as well, giving up her attempt at yelling her
orders, which as every bridge officer knew, wouldn't last.

“NSD running at 102 percent, Captain. ESS
ready to deploy.” Lieutenant Pablo reported.

“Get that up to 105 percent, Lieutenant! You
never know when we'll need the extra power. Eyes!” As expected, the
captain started shouting again.

“Active and reading clean!” stated Lieutenant
Howe, the sensor operator.

“Superb, Ghost!” she turned to the EW
officer.

“All active and passive EW systems ready to
deploy, ma’am,” responded Lieutenant Zara.

“Fantastic! Helm!” Her voice kept getting
louder.

“Locked in, ma'am. Awaiting destination!”
Commander Rew'Da responded with an equally excited bellow.

“Excellent! Tactical!” she stared at Daniel,
eyes full of expectation.

“Point Defense LPA 20 is currently
inoperable...estimate 30 minutes for full readiness. All other
weapon systems report green.” He knew the response before she
voiced it, already keying the message to the responsible array
crew.

“I want it back online in 10!” the captain
bellowed. “Communications, open a channel to the crew,” then went
back to using the bridge’s closed com.

“Yes, Captain......patching you through now,”
responded the always composed Lt.-Commander Xi. Daniel felt his own
tension increase with every breath, his mind racing as he studied
the tactical display, still showing only the eight TSB battle
groups and roaming EW frigates. It was a formidable sight, but he
knew it was nothing in comparison to what they might be forced to
face.

“Attention crew of the TSB Ero'Cia. Today we
embark on a journey, a journey to execute our sacred duty. A fleet
of seven Hulk'Zif Battle Fleet battle groups, which shall be
referred to as the HZBF invasion fleet,
have
appeared at the edge of the Earth star system. We
have known for days of their presence, and have been watching
silently while we prepared, waiting for them to make their
move...that time has come.

“A skirmish has just been detected between an
HZBF patrol and a starship of the Alutia Duchy, who many of you may
have already heard, has been assigned responsibility over the
special protectorate of Earth,” she paused, glancing in Daniel's
direction. He stiffened, recalling his misspoken words on the
shuttle that had spread even to the ears of Captain Aysi,
“preliminary sensor reports indicate that the Alutia starship was
destroyed, and records indicate it was none other than the NHA
Shuttle ABF Princess One, the private starship of the Grand Duchess
Sasha Alutia, ruler of the Alutia Duchy and daughter of our king,”
a muffled gasp escaped from the far side of the bridge.

Daniel, on the other hand, couldn’t help but
grin, knowing if the Princess Sasha had indeed died in the attack,
the king would not allow Duke Zehman go unpunished, perhaps
deploying his enormous King's Fleet to their aid. But that left the
question of the emperor, who was notorious for showing up with his
own fleets to remove offending nobles before any major civil wars
could breakout. Minor skirmishes happened all the time, and if
history held true, this battle would probably only show up as a
small blip on the emperor's radar. Unless, of course, the king
became involved and Duke Zehman, along with his allies, decided to
resist...then the emperor might take the situation a bit more
seriously.

An unknown icon blinked on the bottom right
of Daniel's tactical display. Curious, he selected it, and the view
of local space displayed at his station warped into an expanded
view of the entire star system, which was fed directly by the Earth
star system’s sensor net. Daniel glanced at Lieutenant Howe, who
was grinning as he fed the sensor data to all the bridge
officers.

The Earth star system contained one of the
more complex sensor nets in the universe and could reportedly pick
up matter as small as a meter that passed through its massive
reach. The sensor platforms were located at 50 million km
intervals, throughout the entire star system, and used ripple space
technology in conjunction with miniature SJS Gate transmitters, to
track and report all movement.

Ripple space technology was based on the
inherent properties of the recondite universe that created a type
of ripple when matter moved within the standard universe, similar
to how water rippled as boats passed over its surface. The sensor
platforms punched a hole into the recondite universe, identical to
the first step in SJS Gate creation, and placed an active probe
within, allowing the reading and deciphering of the ripples. Once
an object was located, more powerful, conventional scanners pummel
the object, searching for gravity fluctuations, electrical signals,
material composition, and any other identifying features. This data
was then instantaneously transmitted to a central hub, through the
use of miniature SJS Gate transmitters built into each platform,
which analyzed the signals and returned the results to TSB
command.

Currently, he could see the eight TSB battle
groups, shown as medium sized blue dots, on the upper left side of
the display, just outside Neptune's elliptical orbit. Seven much
larger red dots, that could only be the HZBF invasion fleet,
flanked at distance by two additional medium blue dots, could be
seen about a million kilometers outside the official boundary of
the star system, a third of the way around the elliptical. A solid
red line projected the enemy fleets current trajectory,
intersecting a small cross which Daniel figured was the location of
the destroyed shuttle. After closer inspection he could make out
tiny blue dots, TSB scout frigates, circling the large red dots of
the HZBF at a little over five million kilometers. They were
probably on station to keep eyes on the HZBF movements and report
any activity, while staying out of weapons range...
makes
sense
, he thought. A few additional TSB scout frigates could be
seen a short distance from the blinking cross, within an hour
flight time.

Where are the HZBF starships,
he
wondered, finding the sight odd. No red dots could be seen anywhere
close to the destroyed shuttle,
so how had the shuttle actually
been destroyed?
He scratched his head as a blue dotted line
appeared, showing fleet commands planned course to move directly
across the star system, to a point between the orbits of Neptune
and Uranus, placing them in a better position to intercept the HZBF
invasion fleet. Daniel released the image, bringing his mind back
to the bridge to hear the last of the captain's speech.

“..and may you all fight for the glory of the
TSB!” A round of cheers went up and Daniel joined in, with little
actual enthusiasm.

“Helm, set course parallel to Mars One!”
Daniel didn't hear the response, still lost in his thoughts. “Fleet
countdown for high-speed travel initialized. One minute to
high-speed acceleration. NSD field and propulsion is active and
stable!” The helm started the countdown and the TSB Ero'Cia joined
the rest of the fleet as they accelerated at 500 kps
²
to
a safe in-system cruising speed of 150,000 kps. The captain
canceled battle stations, since the high-speed flight would last
almost 20 Earth hours, and ordered everyone to rest, eat, and enjoy
themselves. Daniel planned on doing all those things, catching a
glimpse of a cute crewman delivering something to the bridge. He
grinned, dirty thoughts filling his mind...he was definitely
planning to enjoy the next 20 hours.