The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict

Contents

Best Wishes

I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks to everyone that helped me with this book.

© 2015 by Jeff Sims

All rights reserved. No part may be copied or reproduced in any manner or by any means without prior written permission by the author.

Published by Book Baby

ISBN: 978-1-6822281-3-5

The Spindle Station is a work of fiction. All names, places, characters, and events are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. For more information, visit
www.allianceconflict.com

Cover art by Tim Phillips

For more information, contact:
[email protected]

Chart of known hyperspace lanes

The chart shows the hyperspace connections and relative distances. It does not necessarily show the physical location of the system in space. The shaded ovals contain a planet with intelligent life. Many more systems have been charted, but only the ones relevant to the story are shown.

Time Chart for hyperspace lanes

Main Characters

Prologue

“Captain Hone, we are now entering the Influenla system,” said Nikol.

Hone said, “Start both active and passive scanners. We need to know what the Hiriculans are doing way out here.”

Nikol started the scan. After a moment she said, “Scan shows that the Hiriculans put a brand new space station near the edge of this system. It is roughly 12 minutes from here at .05 light.”

Hone replied, “Niko, set course for the space station .03 light. Let’s just go say hello, shall we.”

Nikol, the pilot of the Advranki cruiser
Justice
, adjusted course and speed. The
Justice
was approaching the station when they were hailed by the Hiriculan cruiser
Intolerant
.

The Hiriculan spoke in his native language. Hone said, “Computer, translate message.”

…Reverse course immediately. This is a civilian station. According to the treaty Alliance warships are not allowed here…

Hone was not deterred. He said, “Nikol, plot a course around the cruiser. This is a neutral system. Let’s see if they try to stop us.”

Nikol made the course change. They proceeded on the new course for a moment when Nikol announced, “The Hiriculan cruiser is firing missiles.”

The missile travel time was currently 4 minutes. Hone said, “Fire 10 shield buster missiles, then 10 defensive missiles. Continue on our present course.”

Four minutes later Nikol announced, “Our defensive missiles only stopped 8 of the in-coming missiles.”

Captain Hone sent a ship wide communication, “All hands brace for impact.”

Two shield buster missiles impacted the
Justice
. The impact almost caused Captain Hone to fall out of his seat. He said, “Nikol, what is the status of our offensive missiles?”

Nikol replied, “The Hiriculan cruiser has stopped all 10 of our offensive missiles. Also, we are being hailed again.”

…Retreat immediately or the next volley will damage your ship.”

Captain Hone realized that he couldn’t win this battle. The Hiriculan cruiser apparently had a significant advantage in missile technology.

Hone said, “Nikol set course for the Influenla – Opron hyperspace lane.”

Chapter 1

Lorano’s communicator buzzed yet again. This was the 3
^rd
time in the last hour he had received a hail from the hangar bay. Lorano sighed in despair and answered it.

“Lorano, we need your help on the assembly line. The electronic boards are not passing the final test,” said Jim Donovan.

Lorano heard another voice in the background say, “I think it is the pressure transducer. The pressure tube isn’t aligning properly between the housing and the board.” He heard a third voice say, “No, it is definitely the solenoid connection. I think we should be soldering the joint instead of relying on a press fit.”

Lorano started to answer and realized that the humans had already broken the connection. He would have preferred to stay in the control room and try to fix the issue via the com panel, but he realized that he would have to personally go down there.

Carank said, “Well, the humans are starting to re-design the gravity missiles. That doesn’t sound good.”

Lorano placed his palm on the weapons cabinet and said a password to unlock it. He took a beam weapon from the cabinet and handed it to Carank. He took a second and tucked it under his shirt. Carank saved his latest project on his work station, grabbed the weapon and stood up. Lorano said, “Let’s go.”

They walked carefully around the large piles of equipment that were waiting to be installed and exited the control room. This equipment would be used to track the missiles once they were fired into hyperspace. The priority at the moment though was properly assembling the missiles that would be used to chart hyperspace.

Lorano contacted the
Sunflower
and said, “We are going to the landing bay and interacting with the humans. Please have Lexxi monitor us.”

Lexxi responded directly by screaming “Aaaahhh!” She continued, “Do you think I have nothing to do but sit around and monitor you? Just squirt mustard on your head and go in there.”

Lexxi put her giant headphones over her ears and broke the connection without waiting for a response. Realistically though, she really didn’t have anything better to do.

Lorano laughed at her thinly veiled joke and said to the closed communicator, “You are welcome to join us and bring the condiments.”

The
Sunflower
was on a little-known mission. It wasn’t exactly a secret mission, but very few beings knew where the ship was or what it was doing. The ship had been assigned to assist scientists Lorano and Carank in their search for Old Solaria.

The
Sunflower
had been stripped of all crew members save Captain Solear, his first officer Clowy, weapons officer Lexxi, and 20 human fighter pilots. The remaining crew members and recently promoted Captain Arean had transferred to a new cruiser called the
Dandelion
. Ella Birdsong, the pilot, had remained on the supply depot in Conron.

This was technically against an Alliance regulation requiring a minimum of 30 beings to be on board before starting a mission. However, Captain Solear had secret orders that allowed him to temporarily break the regulation.

The planet Solaria was not the home world of the Solarians. They had been forced to abandon their home world approximately 4 millennia ago when it was struck by a severe band of cosmic radiation. The system’s general location had been recorded by the evacuees, but the exact location and name of the planet was lost. The Solarian council had ceremoniously named their home world Old Solaria.

When the Solarians joined the Alliance, they requested that the Alliance Navy try to find their original home world. The Alliance Navy had been searching for the planet on and off for the last two decades. To date though, the search had been fruitless.

However, the outlook had recently changed when Lorano invented a new way to chart hyperspace lanes and search for cosmic bodies. The new method was far, far cheaper and quicker the previous method.