Chapter 6

“It’s a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one’s safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”

~ Alan Shepard

Sirius

“Con, C.I.C.” The 15 M.C. finally chirped to life after a few long minutes of silence after the jump. The young woman gave her report: “Passives read clear. We have a mining barge three light hours in starward that’s not registering properly on F.o.F. Sirius Station and Sopdet Stations are broadcasting normal signals. Sirius Bravo is currently seven A.U.s at bearing two-five-two, seventeen degree positive. Sirius Alpha is currently twenty A.U.s at bearing zero-one-two, thirteen degrees positive.”

Sirius, being a binary star system, did not have any planets more colossal than Pluto but had an abundance of asteroids floating around comprised of three belts within the system. Among those belts, fifteen exoplanets resided in them. Upon the discovery of the Sirius Hyper-buoy address, when the Orion buoy was discovered, Sirius became a prime destination for industrial traffic, and two huge industrialized stations were constructed. Sirius Station and Sopdet Station were among some of the oldest constructed stations in human history, both of them maintaining the older spin-style layout to support centrifuge gravity. Sirius Station was mainly an administrative hub that housed corporate offices, hotels, apartments, shops, dining, and entertainment, where Sopdet station housed the warehouses, freighter docks, processing facilities, and other industrial-type offices. Sopdet is approximately twenty-five times larger than Sirius Station and has a vast modular exterior. Originally built the same size and style as Sirius, it was modified over the 250 years of life it had enjoyed. The station has had fifteen major additions since its construction, adding on five warehouses, and three super-massive freighter docks to complement the seven centrifuge rotation discs.

The system was home to several hundred trillion tons of rare earth ores, including gold, platinum, and titanium. Since the discovery of the system, it has been dubbed the great gold rush of the cosmos. The system has become one of the most influential producers of metals in the Federation. Sirius was initially named by the Greeks but was also observed by the Egyptians around the same period. History has almost forgotten the Egyptian name for the star, but some scientists still attempt to rename Sirius B to honor the Egyptian god. Olympic Aerospace, who owns the two stations, decided to accept the old Egyptian mythology by naming their second industrial station after the Egyptian God, Sopdet.

“C.I.C., Con Aye,” John had replied over the 15M.C and promptly placed the mic back in its holster. “Helm set a course that takes us, oh, let’s say half an A.U. from Sirius Alpha. Give me a 15g burn until we reach point two of c and let her coast. Ops, start the thirty-six-hour countdown.” John stood up and grabbed the mic again, forgetting an order he should have said to save time. “C.I.C., Con. Go active.”

“Con, C.I.C. Aye. Going active”

“Ops, aye, setting the clock.”

“Helm, aye, setting course for zero-one-five, fifteen degrees positive, thrust set for all ahead flank until the velocity of point zero the speed of light is reached,” Charlene, Robert, and the young C.I.C. officer said in almost perfect unison.

The WarpStar had started to push its engines and inertia subsystems to their limit. Pushing thrust to fifteen times the gravitational pull of Earth, the ship propelled at the fastest acceleration they could go. At the same time, gravity and inertia systems were able to nullify the effects. Once the ship reached the relative safe velocity of 215,850,570 kilometers per hour, the main drive units would cease to fire, and the vessel would drift until they would brake to slow down. At point two, the speed of light, the sensors of the ship were able to compensate for the effects of relativity and still be able to predict targeting and light patterns. This included sending light and radiofrequency transmissions to wherever they needed to go. John did not intend to speed to the star as fast as he could, as he could smoothly accelerate the WarpStar to point nine nine the speed of light within a matter of a few hours. At those speeds, relativity would play a severe role in watching the surroundings of the system. John had wanted to make sure Sirius was operating smoothly.

“Charles, will you join me?” John asked as he motioned towards the rear hatch.

“Absolutely,” replied the ship’s executive officer as the man got up for his chair.

John looked over to the tactical station, at the ship’s chief of security, and third in the chain of command. She knew her job and was already walking towards the command island when John declared to the room loud enough for everyone to hear, “Lieutenant Watney has the Con.”

The two men traversed the command corridor up the stairs to the captain’s office, which boasted a beautiful forward and starboard view of the ship and environment just outside. The same translucent metals that outline the perimeter of the bridge served the perimeter of the office also. The panels were off, only displaying the light from the exterior of the ship. Sirius A was slowing, getting larger with each passing second.

“Please, sit down.” John grabbed the chair directly in front of his desk, hinting at a strictly business meeting rather than personal. “Coffee?” he asked, while getting himself a cup for the food dispenser.

“No, thank you, was never my thing,” Charles replied as he sat down.

“A sub commander that does not like coffee. What has this world come to?” John cracked a joke, which seemed to have produced a slight smile on the executive officer’s face. “So, commander, there is something we should talk about.”

“I do believe you are right, sir.”

“You are considerably older than I.” John went straight to the point, not holding anything back, hoping to prevent tension that indeed would have erupted at the wrong times. “You were placed here for a reason.”

“And it’s not what we were told,” O’Connell finished John’s statement. “I know they placed me here in hopes of disrupting you. I am almost half your age, have been in the military longer, technically have more command experience than you do. Plus, I have experience in stealth operations, which this ship was built for.” John was speechless for a brief time; he had not expected the man to be so open about the apparent topic. “Yeah, I know. They didn’t tell me, but I’m not stupid. It’s ok, sir, there won’t be any unnecessary conflict from me. I’m not here for bullshit. I’m here to learn.”

“And what is it that I can teach you?” John took a sip of his coffee, watching his new executive closely.

“I may have command experience and stealth experience, but I don’t know much about space travel. If I am to command a ship of my own someday, I need to learn everything I can. And I hope to learn that from you, sir.”

“That’s fair, thank you for your honesty, commander!”

“No need to thank me, sir. I’m here to serve, not be a pawn in a political game.”

Their meeting only lasted a few moments, shorter than John had expected. Something was refreshing about having a commanding officer who was entirely honest with him. He had hoped that Charles would continue that behavior, even when at times John was making the wrong decision. He took his sizeable unfinished cup of coffee on tour around the ship, inspecting the newly minted piece of Federation hardware, and taking in the sights of the ship.

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He had just passed the crews galley; the smell of freshly cooked burgers filled the corridors directly in front of him. He had paused for a moment, debating on whether to stop in and join the crew for a quick meal. The officers wardroom was set aside for the senior staff, but John always felt it was an excellent morale booster for the command staff to join the crew every so often. His stomach was aching from the smell; he hadn’t eaten since the departure dinner last night on Utopia-Planitia. He threw his empty coffee mug into the ship’s recycler to dispose of it and headed towards the smell of heaven. Unfortunately, his datapad interrupted his bliss with a chirp, which John chose to ignore. Just as he got to the galley entrance, the 1.M.C came to life. “Captain Henderson to the Bridge.” Charles’ voice disrupted the moment of bliss John had planned.

‘Well, shit,’ the captain thought, just outside the source of the fantastic smell. As he spun on his heels to head back to the lift, the universe heard his suffering.

“Sir!” a chief petty officer snapped to attention and provided a quick salute with his off-hand, as he held a tray of over a dozen burgers of various forms.

“At ease, chief!” John returned the salute and started to head towards the lift.

“Sir, I heard you just got called to the bridge. If you are hungry, you are welcome to as many of these as you wish.”

“Thank you, chief, but it’s quite all right. I don’t want to take from the mouths of our crew.”

“No worries, sir, I was just taking these down to the labs. Thought I would feed some of our scientists. I can go back in and grab a few more for them; they can wait.”

“Chief,” John said with excitement, his stomach now taking over the emotional center of his brain. “I have no clue what the Navy would do without chiefs.”

“The Navy wouldn’t exist, sir. We would be a bunch of overqualified Marines.”

John let out a deep laugh as he grabbed two cheeseburgers from the Chief’s tray. “Carry on,” the two saluted each other again as they went their separate ways.

The cheese, beef, and onions on the burger made John’s mouth water after each bite. Not taking the time to grab even a snack in almost twenty hours can play a hefty toll on one’s well being. He was finishing the last bite of his burger as he walked in to the bridge after being summoned. “Sitrep!” he called out, attempting to sound out the words with the remaining cheeseburger in his mouth.

“Sir, C.I.C. has gotten hits back from the sensors.” Charles stood up and gave the report that needed the Captain’s attention. “Those mining ships that didn’t register are Chinese.”

“Seriously? What are they doing here?” John asked. “Any republic military ships?”

“Negative, sir, it’s just the mining barge and a rockhopper.”

John glanced over at his ex-o. “Traveling light, and bold for the Chinese?” Charles only nodded in reply. “Well, let’s give them something to be scared of. Nav, plot an intercept course, and send it to the helm.”

The commanding officer started handing out orders without consulting his staff. “Helm, upon receipt of coordinates, immediately execute all ahead flank.” Both the Nav station and Charlene acknowledged and executed the orders. At the same time, the WarpStar hummed and vibrated slightly as her drive units came to life, pushing the destroyer at fifteen g’s of the thrust towards the Chinese miners.

“We’re not going to attack them, are we?” Charles bent towards John and asked in a lowered voice, so only the two of them could hear. “They are civilians, you know.”

With a smile on his face, John replied so the entire bridge could hear, more for official records than morale booster. “No,” he couldn’t resist a laugh. “We are just going to scare the shit out of them before they jump for safety. Or, we are going to spring a Republic trap.” The realization of the possibility of the trap had dawned on John mid-sentence, and his joking demeanor quickly turned serious. “C.I.C. Con.,” he spoke into the mic, as he realized a solution to the problem he had suddenly thought of, and another way to inject fear in the civilians. “Go active, heavy ping all sensors. Light up the sky.”

“Con, C.I.C., aye,” the young officer replied. Jolts of energy in the form of radar waves, lidar pulses, x-ray waves, graviton particles jet out from the ship at the speed of light, traversing every square inch of the space around the ship in a near unlimited range. The moment any of these waves or particles would hit an object, it would bounce back in a manner the ship’s sensors would be able to recognize and interpret. If any ships were hiding anywhere near the WarpStar, they would know about it. Going active has a drawback; each pulse of energy sent out can be traced to its origin. Any ship would know where the WarpStar was with one hundred percent accuracy before the WarpStar would know about it.

For several hours, the ship accelerated towards the Chinese mining crew, painting them with every sort of sensor equipment they could, even initiating target locks on them. They would not fire on the civilians, but this was a time of war. The Republic would not hesitate to destroy civilian targets that were in their way, and they have in the past. Some Federation ships would do so even, but John was a man of integrity. He firmly believed civilians were innocent in the entire war. This was a conflict between governments and the armed forces of those governments. Regular people who are in the way should not be harmed no matter what. It would not stop him, however, from harassing them when possible and disrupting their operations. Civilian or not, their work is directly aiding the war effort. They may be innocent humans from one point of view, but they could not be allowed to assist the enemy with resources to build more weapons of war.

It didn’t take long for the civilians to pack up and leave the area. Once the light from the hyperspace entry point reached the Chinese, they went into overtime to pack up and burned their hyperspace engines to jump out of there. The WarpStar didn’t notice the evacuation until three hours after they started chasing after them. The WarpStar’s active sensors just barely reached them before they ran out of the system. Only the presence of a Federation ship was enough to scare them off. John had noted it in the mission logs, ready to transmit back to Naval command the first opportunity they could. It was only seven months since Olympic Aerospace had their mining crew cracking the same rock, with the Avenger as an escort, and seven months since the last sighting of The Legion in the area. Sirius and Sopdet stations remained untouched from the alien robotic threat for some reason, and that left military strategists baffled every time they tried to crack the code. John was wondering about that rock. What was so unique that an Earth corporation would want a military escort for some miners, then a Russian republic corporation attempt to mine the same rock, without an escort?

Another mystery for the think tanks back at Naval command. John sipped his coffee, staring outside the viewport in his office, the giant blue glow of Sirius Alpha just slightly away from the ship. They had reached their desired orbit around the sun while they waited for the mission clock to strike zero. Fifteen minutes remained on the clock, and John felt it was time to advance the plan. They had been in this system long enough, the excitement of firing up the F.T.L. drive for the very first time in a working starship flowed through his veins, and his lack of sleep would not get in the way of the historical event to come. Staying awake for the entire thirty-four hours they were in the system was not a smart choice on his part, but the pure power of adrenaline kept the melatonin at bay.

“Sit-Rep,” John declared as he walked on the bridge, coffee in hand, steam flowing from the top, intoxicating the room with the aroma.

Charles, the officer of the deck at the time, replied, “All systems green, no anomalies. Clock reads less than five minutes until the mission go.” The executive officer stood up from the command chair on the command island, and proceeded to his own on the opposite side, next to the captain’s chair, releasing the con to the captain.

“Great work. Helm, change heading to zero-six-five, zero degrees drift all ahead flank.”

“Changing course to zero-six-five, zero degrees. All ahead, flank aye, sir.” Charlene punched the throttle as far as it would go down, with the speed indicator knob set to 15g. She carefully moved the flight yolk slightly to the right without turning it, pushing electric signals to the port bow thrusters, pushing the bow of the ship somewhat to the right. She enjoyed using the manual helm, even in a calm non-combat situation. She easily could have punched the desired course and speed into the helm controls, and the computer would have automatically adjusted the track and speed of the ship for her, but nothing beat the feel of the flight controls in her hands. The power of directly controlling the mighty ship exhilarated her.

The Captain added to his order : “Ensign, get us to point two of c, then cut thrust.”

“Sir, that will add an extra three minutes to the mission clock at current acceleration rates.”

“Understood, ensign, execute order.”

“Helm aye.”

“Priming our exit speed?” Charles asked, with a fresh cup of tea fresh from the dispenser.

“Yup. We have no idea what’s going to be there. When was the last intel dump from Bernard’s?” The two command officers huddled around the center counter of the island, punching commands in to display the most recent intelligence gathered from Bernard’s Star, their current expected destination.

“Looks like three years ago.” O’Connell scratched his beard, a sense of unease flooded him after looking up the briefing.

“Yeah, just what I thought. We could be jumping right into a Russian trap.”

“But why? There’s nothing out there? It’s a dead system.”

“Call it, playing the caution card.”

“Alright, I can give you that.” The two finally sat down on their chairs, waiting for the next call, and it came sooner than expected.

“Helm answering point zero two of c, neutral thrust,” Charlene reported.

John beamed a broad smile and looked over to his exec. “It’s showtime!” All Charles could do was nod while sipping his tea. “Nav, initiate handshake with Bernard’s buoy, and engage jump when ready.”

After a few moments, the stars changed the landscape once again. Only a trained eye would notice the constellations changing; others would just see the faint white dots of the past disappear and reappear in an unrecognizable pattern.