The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict (12 page)

Each of these slots was actually inside the space station. This allowed technicians to build the entire ship inside the station without having to relocate it. It was extremely dangerous to work on the exterior of a ship in open space. One false move and a worker could pierce his suit and suffocate or drift off into space. For the most part, working in outer space was simply not done.

The shipyard contained an additional 10 open-space slots for ships that only needed internal work. The
Sunflower
docked at one of these open-space slots.

Ella confirmed a positive lock and shut-down the main and secondary power generator. The ship could pull all necessary energy from the shipyard. Everyone exited and Clowy and Ella had the ship to themselves. The ladies hadn’t left the bridge area since they boarded, so they decided to walk to the corridor that needed painted and see it personally.

Clowy said, “Wow, they just missed an entire corridor.” The corridor in question was just above the ion cannon. It ran basically the entire length of the ship, starting in engineering and ending at the fighter launch bays. Half of it was painted and half was not.”

Ella looked at it and said, “How do we paint it?”

Clowy answered, “I don’t know how to paint, do you?”

Ella answered, “I have a basic idea, but I never learned. However, I know someone who does?”

“Who,” Clowy asked?

Ella responded, “My father. He just finished a project in Advranki Prime and was going to come visit me. I bet he will paint the corridor for us!”

Clowy said, “Perfect.” That settled, the two officers went to check on the other projects.

Later that afternoon they were standing in the fighter bay. Ella’s father was arriving momentarily in a shuttle. Traffic control had decided that it would be easier for the shuttle to simply dock in the
Sunflower
versus the main shipyard. That way, the artist would be at his final destination versus having to be transported a second time. The transport landed without issue and Ella’s father, Fletcher, disembarked. Ella ran up and gave him a big hug.

After two rounds of introductions with Clowy – she didn’t quite grasp his name the first time; they led Fletcher Birdsong to the corridor in question. He looked it over and said, “I can make something with this.”

Fletcher began immediately. He enlisted Ella and Clowy and the three began painting. They started by painting reflective strips of white paint on the walls, floor, and ceiling; followed by opaque strips of black paint in the same areas. Then, they painted the entire floor, ceiling, and both walls with diffusive gray paint.

Fletcher then painted stick figure caribou on both sides of the wall. The caribou looked similar in detail to a cave painting. He painted several and spaced them out along the corridor, with each in a slightly different position. The ones on his right were facing one direction and the ones on his left were facing the other. He also painted birds on the top of the wall extending onto the ceiling.

Now, when someone walked in either direction down the corridor, the caribou on his left appeared to be running alongside. The caribou on the right could not be seen. He then finished the picture by painting a sun overhead and a field of sunflowers on the sides. He painted a stone pathway on the floor. The full effect was stunning. It literally appeared like one was walking through a plateau with caribou running alongside and sunflowers waving in the breeze. Fletcher titled this masterpiece
Caribou Running
.

The painting had taken a week to complete, but all three thought it was well worth it. Ella had enjoyed spending time with her father and getting to actively participate on one of his projects.

The shuttle came to collect Fletcher. He gave Ella a parting hug and presented his bill for the one of a kind corridor. Clowy gladly approved it. She noticed that the mural put her over the repair budget, but she was certain that no one would argue with the effect. The corridor was truly stunning.

After he left, Clowy said, “Computer, please contact Alliance shipyard control.”

…Contact with control established…

A voice said, “This is control, go ahead.”

Clowy said, “This is lieutenant Clowy, acting captain of the
Sunflower
. All repairs on the ship have been completed. What are our orders?”

The voice responded, “This is control, no ships are scheduled for that dock. You two are to go on leave for the next week. You are not allowed to leave the Advranki Prime system though.”

Clowy and Ella quickly packed and raced for the exit. They planned to do what all females who find themselves stuck on an alien planet for a week do – go shopping.

………………

Solear had explained their true mission on the shuttle ride to the corvette. Solear noted that Arean seemed much more excited about the prospect of blowing something up than attending the conference. Solear was too. He couldn’t remember the last time a hyperspace lane was intentionally destroyed. In fact, he couldn’t remember if a hyperspace lane had ever been intentionally closed.

Solear and Arean had transferred over to the corvette and entered the ship. They gave themselves a brief tour of the small ship. It was perfectly clean. The walls, floors, seats, ceilings, dining area, bedrooms, and even the wiring were spotless. The ship’s computer had been scrubbed as well. As far as Arean could tell, this would be the ship’s first mission.

The living area and engine room of a corvette is designed roughly like that of a mini-freighter. The corvette is much smaller though as it does not have forward holds. The ship basically ends at the control room. There are two small missile launchers in the small nose of the ship and a small assortment of offensive and defensive missiles.

Arean sat in the pilot’s chair and ran through the pre-flight checklist. He gained clearance from the space station and piloted the ship toward the hyperspace lane. They had been given priority clearance and a favorable route, so they would be ready to jump to Conron in just a few hours. Arean looked over to Solear and said, “What are you doing?”

Solear answered, “I am surfing the Websphere.”

Arean looked over Solear’s shoulder and chuckled when he saw the search criteria - ‘How do you destroy a hyperspace lane’. He said, “Did you find anything useful.”

Solear said, “Yes I did. See. Basically, we just have to create a new gravity source in the middle of the hyperspace lane or fill it with asteroids, or preferably both.”

“Great,” Arean said, “So, this should be no problem.” Arean received clearance from traffic control and hit the hyperspace button. They made the 8 hour jump to Conron and exited the hyperspace lane. Arean scanned the area and updated the shipboard clock.

Little had changed since the last time they had been in the system. The system still had 3 gas giants and a myriad of moons. The ship repair facility and space port were still there and the giant mining sphere was still running.

Arean asked, “Well, what do we do now?”

Solear said, “I have a plan. Set a course for the mining platform.”

They saved a day of real time space travel by making a micro jump to get closer to the mining laser. Most ships it size couldn’t make this jump, but the corvette’s small size and military grade hyperspace generator allowed it to safely jump closer to gravity systems.

The corvette was making final approach when they were hailed by the station. Solear said, “Computer, on viewer.”

The traffic control officer said, “State the purpose of your visit to the station.”

Solear answered, “Hello, I am captain Solear from the Alliance Navy and I have urgent business to discuss with the station commander.”

They landed at the space station. This station housed the roughly 4 million residents in this system, and was the headquarters for the mining operation. They were met at the dock by the station military commander. He hurried them directly to the offices of the mining colony.

They proceeded directly to the president’s office, where they were met by the president of the company and her mining director. All five were Advranki, so they spoke in their native language. Oddly enough though, the president introduced herself by using her Alliance name of Banolie and her mining director as Defaun. Arean and Solear followed suit by using their Alliance names in their introductions.

Solear started the conversation on a positive note. He said, “Hello all. Our latest intelligence tells us that the Hiriculans are going to send a battle fleet to Earth. We won’t let them take Earth without a fight. And if there is a fight, the Hiriculans will more than likely blow up this station. We cannot let that happen.”

Banolie asked, “Is the Alliance really going to commit a battle fleet to stop them?”

Solear answered, “No. We are going to close the hyperspace lane to Earth.”

Banolie asked, “How?”

Solear said, “Well, I need your help. The only way to close a hyperspace lane is to contaminate it with asteroids or introduce a new gravity source. I plan to do both. Defaun, how powerful are the mining lasers? Can they cut an entire moon in half?”

Defaun thought for a moment and said, “Yes, if we use four lasers at maximum power on a small moon we should be able to slice it nicely in half.”

Defaun and his team began running a series of simulations. Eventually, they found two moons that would work. Defaun called the five back into the president’s office and gave a presentation. He said, “We can do it, we think. The math is extremely complex, and we will only get one shot. Here is the plan. We are going to use the four laser drills to cut this moon in half.”

He pointed to a small moon on the chart and continued, “When this moon is halved, its orbit will degenerate as such.” He highlighted its projected path. He continued, “This half will spin into the gas giant and this half will hit this other small moon.”

He identified a second, smaller moon on the chart. He concluded, “The impact of the first moon will cause the second moon to spin away on a new trajectory in the path of the hyperspace lane.” He showed the new path of the small moon. It went directly between the two forts guarding Earth and into the hyperspace lane. Everyone cheered. It wasn’t every day that they got to destroy a moon and create a comet.

It took a day to position the mining lasers and wait for the moons to be in the correct orbital location. Defaun ordered the lasers to start. The giant lasers turned on full blast. They normally just grazed the surface. Now, they were gouging a huge trench through the moon. The view of the dust cloud was incredible. They kept zapping the planetoid for several hours until right on schedule, the moon broke in half.

The half-moon struck the smaller moon and bounced it out of orbit. The technicians checked its trajectory. It was a perfect hit and put the newly formed comet squarely on its targeted path. In just over two days the comet would pass through the defensive forts and be bound for Earth.

Banolie exclaimed, “I can’t believe that actually worked!”

Solear thanked Banolie and her team profusely. He and Arean returned to their corvette. Solear said, “Set a course for the defensive forts at speed .3 light. Engage.”

It was too dangerous to make a micro jump with all of the cosmic debris formed by the splitting moon and its resultant collision, so they had to travel to the comet on impulse power. Fortunately, the corvette was the fastest ship in the Alliance fleet, so they would quickly overtake the asteroid at that speed.

As the corvette was coming to a stop near the Earth defensive forts, it was hailed by the station.

…Unregistered ship, you are not cleared to pass. Please reverse course. If you approach any further, you will be vaporized for your safety…

Solear sent his credentials and assured the forts that the cruiser will not be traveling to Earth in the near future. Solear said, “Commander, calculate a hyperspace course to Earth and run a simulation. Arean programmed the jump and said, “The simulation says there is a 42% percent chance of failure. Wow! That is already extremely high.”

Solear said, “Let’s see if we can get it a little higher. What is the cause?”

Arean answered, “There appears to be a source of gravity approximately 10 hours into the jump. It is destabilizing the hyperspace lane.”

Solear said, “Perfect.” He then paged the guardian asteroids. He asked, “Can you generate a hyperspace field.”

…Yes, I am able to generate a field and jump if required…

Solear said, “Traffic control computer, please rotate your forts 180 degrees and create a hyper field approximately 500 meters in front of you. Then target the gravitational anomaly and fire 5 ion cannons at it.

…Calculating. 91.3% chance this shot will increase the gravity produced by this anomaly versus eliminate it…

Solear said, “Fire.”

The forts rapidly spun 180 degrees on their axis to face the hyper lane. This rapid spin feature had been designed by Lorano. He had placed plasma jets around the exterior of the forts. This feature allowed the forts to track any ship on any trajectory in mere moments. There was a small drawback to the design though. In order to get an accurate shot, the forts had to spend about 4 minutes stabilizing themselves at the new coordinates.

The forts stabilized, then generated a massive hyperspace field and fired the 5 required shots at the unknown gravity source.

…Shots fired. Result of the shot will be known in approximately 1.35 days…

Solear said, “Now, fire your ion cannons in a grid to cover the entire approach to Earth. How many shots will be required?”

…Calculating. It will take 64 shots to cover the entire lane…

Solear said, “Fire at will.”

The two forts began firing. It would take a few hours to complete because each ion cannon would have to fire four times and recharge. Technically, the plasma from the ion cannons would clear the hyperspace path of debris. It will slowly dissipate over the course of the next century as it hits space dust and eventually loses cohesion. The plasma should make it about a tenth of the distance to Earth before disappearing.

However, a nice, clean path will be of little comfort to anyone attempting to use this hyperspace lane. The ion pulse does produce gravity, but very little. Therefore, it will be extremely difficult to detect. As a result, unshielded ships in hyperspace will fly directly through the plasma burst and be instantly destroyed.