HAB 12 (Scrapyard Ship) (31 page)

“I don’t speak their language—oh, wait, I guess Lilly will help translate,” Perkins said.

“That’s right.” Jason hesitated, then continued, “Right now, we all have a death sentence hanging over our heads. In less than two weeks, we’ll all be dead, including my ex-wife and daughter, who aren’t even crewmembers. We need you to do this. Our very survival hinges on you being able to do this.”

“Yes, sir. I won’t let you down, Captain,” Perkins said.

Jason was being hailed.

“Go for Captain.”

“Captain, we’ll be entering Earth orbit within five minutes,” McBride said.

“On my way. Sound general quarters, battle stations.”

* * *

Jason and Perkins entered the bridge together. Ricket was there, as well as Orion on tactical.

A view of Earth filled the wrap-around display above. It change to a segmented view, with close ups of each of the three Caldurian ships at their various orbital coordinates.

“They certainly don’t look anything like
The Lilly
,” Jason commented. Smaller, the three vessels were stark white, and squatty looking like pugged-nosed bulldogs.

“They see us, Cap,” Orion said from tactical. “Their shields are up.”

“Distance?”

In a flash, one of the segmented displays changed, the Caldurian vessel gone.

“They’ve shifted away, sir.”

With the vessel reacquired, the same ship filled the display again. “Closest one is right on top of us at sixty-five miles out, sir.”

Jason put Lieutenant Miller and his fighter crew on standby. Figuring this was as good a place to make a stand as any, he was about to deploy.

“Incoming!” Orion shouted. “Six missiles—fusion-tipped, Cap. Ten seconds to contact.”

“Select and load fusion-tipped missiles, Gunny. Helm, shift us in three miles closer to their starboard side, do it now,” Jason commanded.

The Lilly
phase-shifted. “Fire missiles.”

“Missiles away, sir.”

“The two other vessels have shifted as well sir,” McBride said. “They’re now right along side the other one.”

Ricket said, “Obviously, they don’t have our three-mile phase-shift limitation or the need for prolonged recharging, Captain.”

The display changed; the Caldurian vessels all shifted at the same time and had surrounded
The Lilly
at less than ten miles out.

“Taking heavy plasma fire, Captain,” Orion yelled.

“Shields already down to fifty percent!” Perkins added.

The Lilly
was being thrown about. Those standing reached for something to grasp on to. Ricket fell to the floor, then Perkins.

“Deploy rail guns,” Jason commanded.

“Already on it, sir”

Jason felt the familiar vibration of
The Lilly
’s rail guns snapping into place beneath the hull.

“They’re shifting every second or two now, can’t get a lock on them.
The Lilly
’s taken over defenses.”

“Shields are completely gone!”

“We’re taking direct hits to our outer hull. They’re targeting our drives, Captain,” Orion said.

“Breech on Deck 1, we’re venting to space!” Perkins said, back on his feet and at his post.

Jason felt three plasma pulses hit the outer hull at the same time.

“Primary drive one is now offline. One more hit like that and we’re dead in space, Captain,” Perkins said, trying to stay calm.

Jason watched the display.
The Lilly’s
ability for continuous fire of their rail munitions was driving the enemy to shift back.

“Hull breech on one of the enemy ships! They’re starting to take damage.”

“They’re now four hundred miles to our starboard, sir. And the missile original salvo has re-acquired our location. Ten seconds to contact.”

“Shift us out of here, Helm!”

“Still waiting to recharge, sir.”

“Gunny, blow those missiles away,” Jason commanded.

“Aye, sir.”

The munitions made quick work of the incoming missiles.

“All incoming missiles destroyed, Captain,” Orion said.

“Why fire only six missiles?” Jason said, thinking aloud. “Either those ships don’t have the same JIT munitions as we do, or the Craing crew hasn’t figured out their ship’s capabilities yet.”

“They’ve phase-shifted again, sir. Two hundred miles from us and they’ve separated one hundred miles from each other. Incoming! Salvo of eighteen missiles. Six fusion-tipped missiles from each.”

Jason smiled. “Gunny, not including Earth, please, and with a ten percent margin either side, I want continuous deployment of rail munitions, all directions incremental at a five percent spread. Do the same with JIT fusion-tipped missiles—again, all directions, incremental at a five percent spread.”

Orion hesitated, then smiled, “Aye, sir.” The display came alive; blue targeting vectors filled space in all directions. Jason felt the vibration increase through the deck plating.

“The incoming eighteen missile salvo has been destroyed, sir. Our rail munitions are now connecting with the enemy; their shields are holding. Five seconds to missile contact.”

“Captain, they’ve phase-shifted away,” McBride said. “There they are, they’re three thousand miles out. Now they’ve phase-shifted again, looks like they’re hiding behind the Earth.”

“I figured they’d do that,” Jason said. “Orion, without interrupting our current deployment, I want three tracking fusion tips with phase-shift capabilities. You remember those, right?” Jason asked. “Allow only these three to deviate and cross over to the area behind Earth. Try not to blow up our planet in the process. Got that?”

“Aye, captain.” Orion turned and made the necessary entry selections at her console. “Firing three missiles.”

The virtual battle logistics came up on the display. Three red icons moved across space toward Earth, each staying just outside of the ten percent margin. The display changed perspective to show the three Caldurian vessels hiding behind the planet.

“They’re firing at the missiles, sir. Our missiles just phase-shifted,” Orion said.

Jason waited. First one, and then another of the Caldurian ships disappeared from view.

“Captain, two the Caldurian ships have been destroyed. The third has taken significant damage to their drives. And all are adrift in space.”

With fist pumping and high fives, the bridge exploded with cheers.

“Cease firing, Gunny,” Jason commanded.

“Helm, move us to within five hundred miles of that ship. Let’s see if they want some help. Open a channel to the Craing commander on board that ship.”

“Aye, sir. Channel open,” McBride said.

A Craing officer appeared. He was a captain, Jason surmised, evident by the gold medallion worn around his neck.

“I am Captain Reynolds of the Alliance vessel
The Lilly
. Who am I addressing?”

The small alien looked young and unprepared for this. “I am Captain Dolom.”

“Prepare to be boarded, Captain. If you comply with our directives, there will be no need for us to destroy your vessel.”

“I understand, Captain.”

Chapter 36

The Lilly
phase-shifted to the Chihuahuan desert, a little more than two miles from the United Planetary Alliance Outpost. Within moments, the shuttle phase-shifted from a mile below the surface into
The Lilly
’s flight deck.

Admiral Reynolds had made his way to the bridge. He was eager to speak with Jason; he wanted to discuss this countdown with the nano-tech devices. He could handle the prospect of dying for himself, but not his eight-year-old granddaughter. Orion smiled and welcomed the admiral onboard. The admiral nodded and stood beside the command chair. He hadn’t noticed the man sitting in it wasn’t Jason. In fact, it didn’t appear to be human.

“Welcome aboard, Admiral,” Perkins said.

Admiral Reynolds hesitated. The anemic bridge crew was obviously enjoying the surprise exhibited on his face.

“It’s me, Admiral. I’m Perkins.”

“Perkins?”

“Yes. It was a mishap with the MediPod.”

“Perkins, if I came out of the MediPod looking like—”

“Dad!” Jason entered the bridge, brow furrowed. He looked at Perkins, “Perkins, you’re relieved. Why don’t you grab some chow. Ignore the Admiral’s total lack of tact.”

“Aye, sir,” Perkins said with a forced smile, and left the bridge.

“Damn it! You couldn’t warn me?” the admiral asked.

That brought more chuckles. Jason, irritated, signaled his father to follow him. “Ricket is waiting for us in my ready room.”

* * *

Jason and the admiral entered the captain’s ready room. Ricket, along with Captain Dolom, was seated on the other side of the conference table.

Jason was still speaking to Billy via NanoCom, getting an update on securing the last remaining Caldurian ship.

“Cap, the ship’s a mess, drives section is gone and the stern is open to space. We’re moving the remaining crew into the shuttle.”

“Keep me up to date, Billy.”

Still standing, Jason brought his attention back to matters at hand. Looking across at the small alien, he removed his sidearm, sat and slammed the weapon down with far more force than even he had anticipated. “I need to know what, specifically, you were looking for below the surface of our planet. Tell me one lie and I’ll shoot you, right now, between the eyes. Do you understand?”

The Craing officer squirmed in his seat. He looked surprised by Jason’s fury.

“I will tell you the truth,” the Craing officer said. The Lilly A.I. translated as he spoke. “Our directive was simple, to find the
Source
.” Seeing Jason’s irritation rise, the Craing officer continued. “Recently on my home planet of Terplin, all three of the vessels, the ones you call Caldurian, became active. This caused a great commotion. The hulls of these ships had never been breeched. Made of a strange and exotic substance, it was considered impregnable. Over time, the Craing lost interest in them. The ships were secured in an underground vault. Only recently, the ships came alive. Hatchways were released. Access was permitted. The artificial intelligence was fully functional. Over the course of several weeks, we learned of the ship’s unique and highly advanced capabilities, many of which were in line with the stories we’d heard of your vessel—this one.” Captain Dolom nervously looked around the table, looking for an indication to continue.

“I’ll tell you when to stop. Keep going,” Jason said.

“Advanced capabilities continued to be found. Medical devices with the ability to heal, even bring individuals back to life. Eventually, we learned of Caldurians using wormholes to traverse the universe. There is nothing more important to the Craing than this capability.”

“Probably even more, now that your Loop has been destroyed,” the admiral said.

Captain Dolom looked somewhat perplexed at that, but continued, “Specifics to how this capability worked were vague. Wormholes and the bending of space was not new to us. But wormholes that could materialize on demand, take us anywhere, at any time … that was unimaginable. We learned that it wasn’t a function of the Caldurian vessels themselves, so much as an external power emanating from one specific location within the universe. The information was not self-evident and was hard to decipher. But we learned the
Source
would be found here on your planet, four miles below ground. It would be protected by an indigenous people. We learned utilizing the
Source
without compliance or interaction with the indigenous ones would be futile.”

Jason had been watching the Craing alien. He had started to slur his words. His hands were shaking.

“What’s wrong with you?” Jason asked. “Do you need some water?”

Captain Dolom shook his head.

Ricket looked closer at the Craing sitting next to him. “Did you use medical devices aboard the ship? Did you have devices implanted in your head?”

He nodded. Then swayed in his seat. Tears filled the young officer’s eyes. He looked to Ricket as a child would a parent.

“Help me, please.”

He died in his seat. Ricket leaned over and felt for a pulse. Then prodded and probed his limp body.

“Evidently, his nano-device just extinguished itself.”

The room went quiet. Jason was being hailed.

“Go for Captain.”

Billy was out of breath, and something else. He sounded scared. “Captain, the remaining Craing prisoners from the Caldurian ship—they’ve all keeled over dead. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen. They’re all dead.”

Jason sat back in his chair and looked at the lifeless body of the Craing officer.

To be continued…

Thank you for reading HAB 12. If you enjoyed this book and would like to see the series continue, please leave a review on Amazon.com. To be notified of the soon to be released next Scrapyard Ship book,
Space Vengeance
, contact [email protected]
,
Subject Line:
Space Vengeance List
.

Acknowledgments

I'd like to thank my wonderful wife, Kim, for (again) providing the loving and supportive space for me to write this book. Thank you to my amazing editors, Lura Lee Genz , Rachel Weaver and Mia Manns-the many hours invested are so very much appreciated. A big thank you also goes to Ryan Knope, for the cool CAD designs of The Lilly, and to Lura Fischer and Drusilla Tieben for their continued support; it really means a lot to me. I'd also like to thank the book's subject matter experts, and others who supported, contributed, and reviewed this book, including James Fischer, Sue Parr, Eric Sundius, and David Brock. They selflessly gave their time to this project. I'd also like to thank the fans of this ongoing saga. I read every one of your many encouraging emails.

Copyright © 2013 by Mark Wayne McGinnis

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