Space Corps - Explorer (Book 1) (7 page)

Chapter 13

Phoenix Rising

Ashley woke up to Commander Gibbs calling her name. A medic knelt by her side and shined a light into her eyes.

“What happened?”

“Sir, we saw the aliens approaching us. Then we saw the blast, but we hadn’t heard from you yet, so I had the Protector swing back by to make sure everything was all right. I’m glad we did. We were able to get the power kicked back on for the Explorer and Guardian.”

“That light… What was that light?”

Holt, who was working on checking all the consoles across the bridge, said, “It was an EMP bomb. Brilliant really. It would have left us dead in the water if our ship wasn’t shielded against it.”

“If we’re shielded against it, why did it knock out the power?”

“Because we weren’t prepared for a blast that strong,” Holt said. “We shielded the ship from EMP blasts that we’ve seen on Earth. Theirs was a bit stronger. Not strong enough to completely destroy our electrical systems, but enough to knock them offline.”

Ashley stood and pushed past Gibbs and the medic. “Reynolds, status report.”

“I’m almost done with it, sir.”

“Is there anything that’s going to keep us from pursuing the aliens?”

Reynolds sighed. “Well, that depends. Do we need a working engine to go after them?”

“You’re kidding me.”

“No, sir,” Reynolds said, shaking his head. “I wish I was, but I’m not. Our engines took quite a beating. I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong with them, but it’s something to do with the power flow.”

“Anything else go wrong?”

“No. Nothing that we can't fix, anyway. Their weapons pierced our hull in several places, but I already have crews working on patching up the holes. If we’re lucky, it’ll be done in just a couple hours.”

Gibbs saw the look of concern on the admiral’s face. He didn’t have much to say that might improve her mood, but he planned to do what he could.

“Admiral, I think you’ll be glad to know that the Guardian only suffered minor bumps and bruises.”

“Is it fully operational?”

“Yes, sir. I had it dock with the Explorer. I figured we could use all the manpower we had to complete repairs.”

“Agreed.” Ashley turned her attention to her communications officer. “Card, I need you to get Central Command on a link immediately.”

“Yes, Admiral.” A moment later, she continued, “It’s up, sir.”

A booming voice filled the command bridge over the intercom. “This is Charles Robinson of Central Command. What can I do for you today, Admiral?”

Ashley looked around her. Her crew, obviously exhausted, still had so much to do before the Explorer could be on its way. She ran her hands down the front of her uniform to brush out the wrinkles that formed during the attack.

When she regained her composure, Ashley responded. “Command, I trust you’ve already been informed that we were set to intercept the alien vessel?”

“Yes. Has the interception already happened?”

“Regrettably.”

“And what were the results?”

Ashley cleared a lump in her throat. “Not good, sir. The Explorer and the Guardian were knocked out by an Electromagnetic Pulse bomb. We’ve since recovered, but will have to repair the engine. If we can get that done, we’ll be able to continue pursuit.”

“And the status of the Protector?”

“The Protector was away at the time and came out of it without a problem. Commander Gibbs and the crew of the Protector managed to get the power on the Explorer and Guardian back up.”

“Is it safe to assume the alien vessel is still on its way to Earth?”

“Yes, sir. It looks that way.”

“Do we know the estimated time of arrival?”

Ashley looked toward her sensor team. One of the crewmen looked up after running through some data.

“We’re looking at two weeks if they maintain the speed and direction they used before.”

Robinson said, “If we’re looking at an ETA of two weeks, what are the odds that you’ll be able to beat them here?”

“I don’t know,” Ashley said. She tried to brush her hair out of her face, but it had no effect with it tied in a bun.

“Admiral, I’m going to lay everything on the line for you. We’ve spoken with the Chinese, Indian, and Russian space agencies. The fact is, even if we utilize all our resources and theirs, we don’t have the assets we would need to counter the alien threat.

“The Chinese lunar base does have some basic weapons. Their weapons are great for maintaining security, but it’s certainly not enough to hold off an alien attack.

“Admiral, I know you don’t want to hear this, but you and the Explorer are the only chance we have of pushing the aliens back. I don’t know how you’ll do it, but I need you to get the Explorer operational again and get it over here.”

Lost in thought, Ashley said, “I understand, sir, but even if we get the Explorer over there, we couldn’t win our first encounter, so how can we win our second?”

“I don’t know, Admiral, but we have faith in you. Failure is simply not an option. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal. Admiral Sorrells out.”

With that, Ashley walked off the bridge. She said nothing to anyone as she left, but a flock of people followed her. As she walked, she removed the coat of her uniform and passed it to one of the crewmen behind her.

Always wearing the uniform, she often forgot about the coldness of the ship. Ashley never minded it before, but with the chill making the hairs on her arms stand on end, she felt too exposed.

Leaving the bow of the ship, Ashley and her staff made their way to engineering. Using every square inch of the engineering section to its maximum potential left little room to walk around. The taller men behind Ashley ducked in the narrow halls.

When she reached the main engineering room, Ashley hardly noticed the stares of her crew. Most of the ship’s engineers very seldom saw the admiral. Knowing she personally designed the engine they worked on throughout the day, they couldn’t help but look at her with a bit of awe.

“Tools,” Ashley said to the nearest engineer. A one-word request may have sounded harsh, but her tone was much softer.

Taken back by the sudden request, the young man quickly took off his tool belt and handed it to the admiral.

“Thank you.”

Stopping at the main control panel for the ship’s primary engines, Ashley began punching in a series of commands. When done, power no longer flowed through the engine. Now safe to work in, Ashley removed a panel from the wall, and crawled into a maintenance shaft of the engine.

With Chief Engineer Reynolds close behind her, Ashley crawled through the shaft. Though a tight squeeze, the lack of gravity made it easy to zip around. Several times, she turned and almost lost Reynolds. He spent many long hours working in the maintenance shafts. He knew them well and would never feel lost within them, but felt strained trying to keep up with the admiral. Despite not seeing the engines since they departed Earth, Ashley seemed to remember her way around the engine like her childhood home.

At last, Ashley reached the power regulation site. At first glance, everything appeared to be just fine. All the status lights on the equipment shined green up until the very last one. The last status light was completely off.

Reynolds looked at the light, then at the admiral. “Sir, that means the power isn’t being fed directly into the conversion chamber.”

She knew he was just trying to be helpful, but Ashley couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that her chief engineer tried to tell her about an engine she designed from the ground up.

Ashley removed another panel. From behind the panel, she pulled a glowing cylinder attached to a long tube. When she removed the cylinder from the tube, it stopped glowing.

Working quickly, Ashley began to inspect the piece of equipment. Seeing no flaws on the outside, she twisted it and the cylinder came apart at the center. One side was hollow, but allowed the power to pass into the conversion chamber to combine with something else to create thrust for the ship. The other side of the cylinder showed a tube, an impressive group of wires, and four clear spikes.

With no flaws in the tube, and no issues with the wires, Ashley looked closely at the four spikes. At first, they appeared to be in good working order.

“Tom, I’m not seeing one in this tool belt. Do you have a set of calipers on you?”

“No, sir.”

Reynolds thought for a second, then pushed off the floor and floated down the narrow shaft. When he returned, he had a set of calipers in his hand.

“Sorry, Admiral. I almost forgot we have a few tool stations in here.”

Ashley mouthed the words ‘thank you’ as she grabbed the calipers from Reynolds. Immediately, she used them to measure the distance each of the spikes sat above their base. Three were exactly one-sixteenth of an inch from the base where the power injected. The fourth was slightly off at only one-thirty-second.

Using a pair of soft pliers, Ashley moved the spike until it was at exactly the same distance as the other three. When it was in place, she carefully tightened it back down. After finishing, she set about putting the power injector assembly back in place.

“Is that it, Admiral?”

The final light in the sequence answered Reynolds’ question when it turned green.

Ashley smiled. “For this part, yeah, that’s it.”

“How did that get loose to begin with?”

“Well, as much as I hate to admit it, it looks like I didn’t use a strong enough brace. I figured that, because the Explorer shouldn’t ever experience heavy gravity, the bracing didn’t need to be too bulky.”

“And you didn’t count on an alien attack, did you?”

“No, no I didn’t.”

“At least we know for the next engine,” Reynolds said.

“I guess we do. There is one more thing we need to do while we’re down here.”

Reynolds would have asked what they needed to do, but Ashley already rushed down the shaft to another area. She stopped in front of a small door that she opened by allowing the computer to scan her right hand and eye.  

Beyond the door sat a room that Ashley and her partner could stand in. Across the wall were many levers. As Ashley reached for a red lever, Reynolds put his hands up to stop her.

“Admiral, I’m sorry, but isn’t touching any of these levers dangerous?”

As Reynolds relaxed, Ashley smiled and pulled the lever down.

“Yes, it is, but right now it’s more important for us to be fast than safe. Now I need you to run a few tests and make sure we can get on our way. I’ll meet you on the bridge when you’re ready.”

Chapter 14

The Chase

Reynolds entered the command bridge. With a nod to Ashley, he took his seat.

Ashley sat in her chair at the center of the bridge. She tried to ignore it, but she could feel that all eyes in the room looked to her. She knew that everyone looked to her for a solution. While she had one, she wasn’t certain it would work.

“Lieutenant Card?”

“Yes, Admiral?”

“Send a message to Central Command. Tell them we’re on the way. As soon as you send it, I want you to shut off the transceiver. You are to accept no transmissions and you are not to send any out. Do I make myself clear?”

Card looked back toward the admiral. Her words seemed so certain, but her hands shook ever so slightly at her side.

“Yes, sir. I’m sending the message now.”

A moment later, Card turned back to the Admiral and nodded.

“It’s done.”

“Fantastic. Harris, I want you to set a course directly in line with the alien vessel’s trail. I don’t want you to move from their path at all.”

Lieutenant Harris made his fingers dance over his console. Gonzales looked over at him and watched in awe as her training officer made the ship bend to his will.

“Reynolds,” Ashley began, “is engineering prepared to activate the main engine?”

“I’m requesting final confirmation, sir. Yes, it looks like we’re good to go.”

“Have them start gearing it up. As soon as it’s ready, I want them to let us know.”

The Explorer filled with a hushed whining sound. Soon, a slight trembling joined the noise. Most of the crew found their way to their harnesses without waiting for an order. They didn’t know what might happen, but they prepared for the worst.

The whining erupted into a scream. All of the crew in the engineering portion of the ship couldn’t help but cover their ears.

“Admiral?” Gonzales asked.

“It’s fine, Ensign.”

As quickly as it started, the screaming and whining left the vessel. Instead, the steady but comforting pulsing of the engine replaced the noise.

Reynolds said, “Admiral, engineering is giving the go-ahead. We’re cleared to leave.”

Ashley nodded. “Harris, lead us out. Accelerate slowly.”

Lieutenant Harris pulled a lever at his side causing the ship to jerk forward. Once more, the sound from the engine increased in volume.

“Admiral, we’re coming up on ten percent.”

“Keep accelerating.”

The more Harris pulled the lever, the more he sweated. He knew Ashley and Reynolds personally repaired the engine. No one was more qualified to do so, but he couldn’t shake his fear that something wasn’t quite right.

“Admiral, we’re coming up on fifty percent.”

“Keep accelerating.”

As Harris began pouring sweat, Gonzales couldn’t help but do the same. She never saw the pilot of the Explorer look so nervous. If he had something to fear, she knew she did as well.

“Admiral,” Harris said, his panic showing through his voice, “we’re coming up on eighty percent of maximum safe speed.”

“Keep accelerating.”

After drying his hands off on his uniform, Harris obeyed the order. As the ship came up to full speed, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Admiral,” the tension in Harris’ voice almost gone, “we’re now up to one hundred percent of maximum safe speed.”

“Keep accelerating.”

The pilot couldn’t believe what he heard.

“I’m sorry, Admiral, but did I not make myself clear? We’re at one hundred percent of maximum safe speed.”

“Harris, I heard you the first time. Now, keep accelerating.”

As a military man, Harris wasn’t in the habit of questioning orders. However, as he reached for the lever to keep accelerating, he found it difficult to do so.

Gonzales whispered to Harris, “She disabled the safety on the engine, didn’t she?”

Harris nodded.

“Robert,” Ashley said to her long-time friend, “if there was ever a time for you to trust me, this is it. If you don’t, the aliens are going to beat us to Earth. If they do that, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Harris placed his hand on the lever, but it shook too much and wouldn’t listen to him.

“Robert, I need you to trust me.”

Whipping his hand back, Harris caused the ship to hurtle forward. He watched in awe as the ship climbed above the safe speed limit. Never before had he felt such fear. Never before had he felt such excitement.

Once again, Robert Harris set a human speed record.

An excited crewman from the scanning team couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Admiral, the alien ship is directly ahead of us.”

Ashley woke from a light nap in her chair.

“They’re ahead of us? How far?”

“They’re still a ways. We can’t get a visual on them yet, but they’re showing up on the edge of our scanners.”

Looking at the front of the bridge, Ashley saw Ensign Gonzales. She worked by herself to pilot the ship while Harris took a much needed break to get some sleep.

Ashley walked up to the current pilot. A wreck, the poor woman couldn’t keep her hair away from her face. Her knuckles gripped so tightly at the controls they turned a cold white.

“Ensign, a light hand at the controls works just as well as a strong one.”

When she looked at her hands, Gonzales immediately became aware of her mistake and loosened her grip.

“Much better. Now, Ensign, I need to know. Are you capable of flying this ship alone, or do I need to get Harris down here?”

“Yes, sir, I can handle the Explorer.” Her confidence grew as Gonzales continued, “Lieutenant Harris taught me everything I need to know.”

“Good,” Ashley said as she made her way back to her seat, “because I need a steady hand at the wheel. First, ramp the engines down.”

The pilot did as ordered. The background noise that everyone on the ship became accustomed to grew silent. With nothing to slow them down, the Explorer continued at the same speed as before.

“Now, as we approach the alien vessel, I need you to get directly behind it.”

“Sir, not to question you, but isn’t that dangerous?”

Ashley nodded. “It is if the pilot isn’t incredibly careful. You’ll need to allow yourself to get close enough to them that there’s no chance they could detect you, but not so close that our hull gets damaged by their engines.”

Letting out a sigh, Gonzales said, “It won’t be easy, sir, but I know I can do it.”

Ensign Tran of the tactical team looked up from his console.

“Admiral, why would we get so close to them when we already know they’re a lot stronger than we are?”

“Ensign, have you ever served in a submarine?”

“No, sir. I served on a destroyer.”

“Well, there’s a tactic used on subs. It’s called riding the baffles. It’s where one submarine rides so closely in the wake of another sub that their scanners can’t pick them up. With any luck, the aliens won’t be able to see our energy signature as long as we stay close.”

Over the next few hours, the Explorer kept inching closer to the alien vessel. Soon, they were mere yards behind them.

“Would you look at that?” said Lieutenant Commander Holt. “It would be so easy to shoot a few missiles at them from here. We’d probably have them destroyed before they could even get turned around.”

Ashley stifled a laugh.

“Easy there, cowboy. Don’t forget that the last time we faced off against them, they almost destroyed us.”

After hearing the Explorer was less than an hour away from having Earth within visual range, Ashley ordered all hands to battle stations. Every member of the crew knew what that meant, and every member of the crew intended to be as prepared as possible.

In the engineering section of the ship, the crew rushed about, checking all the equipment. If something wasn’t in perfect working order, they did all they could to take care of it.

In the medical bay, the medics prepared to take care of any injuries the crew might incur during battle. Crewmen stuffed bags with gear to make the medics mobile so they could move from patient to patient.

In cargo bay two, the remaining crew of the Martian lander received supplies to help brace themselves. Instead of fearing another encounter with the aliens, they looked forward to it. If the Explorer could take on the alien vessel and win, they wanted to see it.

In the armory posts, crewmen busied themselves loading missiles and torpedoes in the launch tubes. They left no chance of the crew letting tactical go without enough weapons to face the enemy ship.

On the bridge, the staff checked over all the consoles. Once they checked everything, they checked it again. Under the watchful eye of the admiral, they weren’t going to leave any room for error.

Harris, back at his post on the bridge, turned to the Admiral and gave the announcement everyone waited for.

“Admiral, we’re within range of Earth.”