With a grim look on his face Ray stared at the display in front of him. The wreckage of what clearly used to be a ship quietly drifted in space. He let his head rest in the palm of his right hand and let out an audible sigh.
“It might be a sensor error, but it is possible there is still someone alive in there.” Amy noted.
Ray looked up, “Please clarify.”
“The readings I’m getting are odd and it could indicate several different things, one of them being someone trying to deliberately conceal life signs from ship sensors.”
“Seems sort of pointless to try and hide your life signs if a sensor can just pick up this sort of behavior.” Ray remarked
“Most sensors will be able to pick this up, but normal ships don’t have an AI like myself to analyze them and come to this conclusion.”
“I stand corrected.” Ray admitted, “So how do we confirm your suspicion?”
“We’d have to take the part of the wreckage that is emitting the signals onboard.”
An in-space transfer of goods between ships was not a common occurrence and like most ships the Amy Dee was not equipped to handle this sort of action. Regular ships had escape pods and a docking entrance to connect to another ship. But only special purpose ships like salvage vehicles came equipped with a grappling claw for picking up large drifting objects in space. Still because Ray had spent his time studying the schematics of his new ship he quickly thought of a way. “Set the pilot to manual, depressurize the bottom storage room and open the bottom storage hatch. I’ll try and scoop up the part if you’re able to mark it on the radar.”
Amy did not confirm but immediately proceeded doing as she was instructed. Ray’s idea was to maneuver the ship above the wreckage and then pick up the part they were looking for by having it go through the storage hatch at the bottom of the ship. While this sort of operation was not unprecedented it required a lot of precision. If the velocity of the wreckage entering the storage bay was too high it could cause damage to the ship after bumping into the walls.
Ray took his time and adjusted the various engines to keep the ship as stable as possible. In complete concentration his eyes were focused on both the radar and the outside camera display as he tried to align the ship’s opening with the targeted part. With gentle touches to the panel he moved the ship in position. Because the objects were floating in space and not completely stationary there was also a timing component to this operation. He ignored the sounds of other parts hitting the ship’s exterior, the Amy Dee was after all built from a warship frame and its outer armor would not even be scratched by these sorts of light impacts. After he had moved the ship as close as possible to the part they were looking for he had it sit and wait. The wreckage drifted slowly as Ray waited for it to move into the perfect position. When after two minutes it finally did he had the ship move down ever so slowly while closing the storage hatch. With a loud bang of metal colliding with the interior of the ship it was confirmed that he had brought the targeted part onboard.
“Sensor readings are clear now; it appears that this is an unlaunched escape pod still attached to a part of the original ship. There are two people inside of it showing normal life signals.”
“I’ll go say hello. Keep the ship stationary for the time being.”
Storage bay A was the largest one on the ship and before the current capture it had been completely empty. When Ray entered he immediately noticed the chaos it had become. The ceiling was severely dented but Amy had assured him on his way that the ship had not been impacted. Other than the larger escape pod a lot of smaller broken ship parts had also floated inside with it. Since air and gravity had now been restored the floor was covered in tiny metal scraps and grey dirt like particles. Near the center of the rectangular room lay a four meter high cylindrical container attached to a dented but otherwise intact metal plate. The top of the cylinder was emitting a faint green light.
There were no windows on the escape pod but Ray managed to quickly locate what appeared to be the door. Before he could reach for it, it opened by itself. He heard a coughing sound as a male figure appeared from the opening. Behind it the smaller silhouette of a girl followed.
The man looked like he was in his early thirties and had short brown spiky hair. He was pale skinned and wore a dark brown checkered shirt and old earth style jeans. He was skinny and had bad posture with low hanging shoulders and his arms dangling weakly besides his body. His face showed a very anxious and worried expression and his eyes were cast downwards to the floor as if he was afraid to look straight ahead.
The girl who trailed a bit behind had a light brown skin color and long curly brown hair. She looked younger, in her early or mid-twenties. The makeup she was wearing accentuated her dark blade eyelashes and deep green eyes. Her light red colored dress and golden tinted shoes made it look like she was dressed for an evening party, not for a space flight. Her face was also full of anxiety and worry, but Ray judged hers to be less so than the man in front of her.
After an awkward few seconds it was Ray who broke the silence. “You are my contact?” was the first thing he asked.
The man looked up towards Ray and hesitantly replied, “You are Ray Chelsea?”
Ray nodded, but did not say anything. The other man was visibly pressured by his silence. “My name is David, and I am indeed your contact.” There was a slight sign of relief in his voice when he said that, but it immediately made way for a sad and apologetic tone. “I’m so sorry for messing this up.”
“Tell me what happened.” Ray inquired further.
David let out a deep sigh, did not reply and looked like he was about to burst out in tears. Ray turned his towards the girl behind him. She looked back at him and Ray could see her think, like she was unsure of what to say or do.
“Can I… just have something to drink or maybe sit down.” she spoke with a very distressed voice.
Ray was caught off guard by the question and realized that he had been very inhospitable to these two people who had just experienced the loss of their ship for an unknown reason. While it was his habit to be careful around strangers, these people were clearly not trying to deceive or trick him. “Of course, my apologies.” He tried to speak as calming as possible. “Follow me upstairs, I’ll get you both something.”
He gestured towards the exit and slowly started walking there; he kept his gaze on the people behind him and ensured that they were following. With a slow pace Ray guided them up the stairs into the hallway and to the lounge room. It was the only carpeted room on the ship and had three large comfortable sofas. The main purpose of the room was for the crew to have a place to relax. While both of his guests sat down at the far ends of one sofa he filled two glasses with water from the machine near the right wall and carefully handed it over to them. He then took place on the sofa next to where they had sat down. This time he didn’t try to restart the conversation but instead patiently waited for them to calm down and initiate. Eventually it was David who took a deep breath and seemingly gathered the courage to speak.
“It’s all my fault.” he said apologetically.
“Take your time; tell me how things ended up like this.” Ray replied slowly.
“Before coming here to pick you up I was on a different assignment on Tartarus-1.” David took a pause after his first sentence. “But I was careless and… people found out who and where I was. I made it to my ship and managed to get approval for an emergency take off, assuming that this would be enough to get away. The ship has already been programmed to the rendezvous point so I just let it go there at maximum speed. But I don’t know how, I was followed. One ship appeared out of warp only minutes after we did. It was armed. We went to the escape pod but launching it would be meaningless as the other ship would simply shoot us down. I used an anti-sensor sheet to try and hide our life signals hoping that the enemy would leave. To be honest, the idea was to remove the sheet at the meeting time and hope that you would find us. At least that part of the plan worked out.”
Ray had several questions about this story, but for now he chose to accept it as it was. “What about her? Is she also part of the Free Men?” he asked, looking into the direction of the girl.
“No.” David sighed, “She got… caught up in all of this. Also my mistake for which I am terribly sorry. I was with her at a bar when I got ambushed. If I didn’t take her with me my pursuers would have taken her into questioning and probably killed her. I made the call to try and make her come with me.”
The girl was sitting on the other end of the sofa David was seated at. She was staring at the floor and looking lost, occasionally taking a sip from her water.
Ray rose from his seat and walked up to her, gently placing his right hand on her left shoulder. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Melanie.” The girl replied quietly.
“Melanie.” Ray said, and waited a few seconds as he tried to find the right words. “I can see that you are shaken, and that’s ok, any person would be. But you’re alive, and we’ll fix this mess you’ve gotten in for you ok? Trust me, things will be alright.” While Ray himself was not at ease with the situation he made sure his voice was still full of conviction when uttering these last words.
Ray backed away as Melanie nodded and seemed to calm down slightly.
He turned his attention towards David again. “So the FPA goes as far as to track and kill people connected to the Last Free Men?” he asked.
The corners on David’s mouth pulled down even further, “No, this concerns a private matter.”
Before he could probe any further into the situation Amy made an announcement. “Ray you need to come to the bridge, an unidentified ship is heading straight for us.”
His eyes widened and he could feel his heartbeat increasing in his chest. “On my way.” Ray immediately headed for the door and started running towards the bridge. His two guests looked at each other for a moment, before Melanie rose from her seat and followed him. Not wanting to be left alone David followed her example.
On the bridge Amy had already loaded the radar images and ship data onto the main display which was now being projected at the front. The silhouette of a small ship was constructed out of echo and sensor data and estimated models and specifications were being shown next to it.
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“It’s not sending out an ID, but I’ve matched the sensor readings against what I have in my database.” Amy explained the data. “It looks to be an Earth Sphere military light fighter unit.”
“Earth Sphere?” Ray asked in surprise as he inspected the data. As soon as he took a closer look at the silhouette he spotted the triangular shape and sharp aggressive corners, knowing full well that these were very common on smaller Earth ships.
“I might be wrong on the class and specifications but there are no known FPA ships emitting this type of fusion particles.” Amy confirmed.
“That’s… that’s the ship that attacked us!” David shouted as he looked at the display while walking onto the bridge.
“Fuck.” Ray cursed but he kept calm and seemed unaffected.
He focused his attention on the screen in front of him. While he was already confident in the answer he still asked his AI for advice. “Amy, analysis, can we fight them?”
“Yes. Ship strength is about equal; my weapons should be able to damage that ship. However our engines are not warmed up so we will not be able to maneuver effectively.”
“Start warming up the engines and start moving towards them immediately. How much time do we have?”
“Six minutes until firing range.”
A buzzing sound accompanied by a loud humming sound indicated that Amy had started the emergency engine warm-up. While modern ship engines could go exceptionally fast they had the disadvantage of having relatively slow acceleration. A ship that was already in motion like the one approaching could much easier make quick turns and maneuver as all of its engines were already running at full capacity.
Ship combat was mainly determined by three factors, weapons, maneuverability and ship armor. Different models of ships had different balances between these factors.
Weapons themselves had three main classes. The most common one being laser based which fired either a constant beam or burst of energy. Their big advantage was that as long as the ship could power them they had unlimited ammunition. On the downside it was hard to hit small ships with these as they could easily dodge the attacks. They were also not always effective against larger vehicles either as special armor plating was constantly being researched and updated to handle laser based weapons. It was a contact struggle between increasing the power of the laser batteries and finding new armor technology to resist their impact. Missile based weapons were also very common. They were particularly effective against small crafts as they could lock onto targets making dodging maneuvers ineffective against them. To counter them most ships came equipped with interceptor cannons to destroy the missiles before they could reach their destination. But perhaps the largest problems with missile based weapons was their costs. These were complicated devices with onboard computers and tracking technology, sometimes even with code to dodge or misguide the interceptors designed to destroy them. Since the war between Earth Sphere and the Free Planet Alliance had been going on for decennia both sides had become reluctant to use their remaining stock, simply because it would cost too much to replace it. The final class of weapon was referred to as cannon based weapons. There were rare and heavy weapons capable of mass destruction only ever seen on heavy destroyer class warships. The most common one was the gravity cannon which would fire a round which on detonation created an artificial gravity point. Ships without a sufficiently powerful engine would be dragged into the center and if fired into a cluster of ships they would collide with each other causing massive damage. Even ships with strong engines would be affected, complicating the already difficult navigation process for these ships even more and thus making them more vulnerable to get hit by other weapons.
The Amy Dee only had two laser banks of each two cannons, one mounted on each wing and two sets of interceptors. Based on his knowledge and the size of the incoming ship Ray felt confident that it also only carried laser based weapons.
Small ships such as the incoming fighter were lightweight, small in size and therefore easy to maneuver. While their top speeds were far inferior to ships with larger engines they could accelerate much faster and make far sharper turns. These parameters however meant that these ships could not carry a lot of weapons and would not be reinforced with heavy armor making them very vulnerable when hit. Ray estimated that his ship could endure a hit or two, but his main concern would be hitting his opponent while having limited engine power.
Ray stood still and thought for a moment before running over and sitting down in the main pilot’s chair. Taking only a few seconds he pressed a few buttons and two red lights flashed across the bridge.
“Why did you just fire at them? Our weapons wouldn’t even damage them from distance.” Amy asked in surprise.
Ray didn’t immediately reply as his gaze was fixated on the radar display, carefully observing the approaching ship. Its coordinates changed slightly to the right as it easily moved out of the way.
“They don’t know that.” Ray answered. “This ship is some bizarrely modified FPA cruiser; they have no idea what we’re carrying.”
Both David and Melanie felt out of place and watched the interactions in silence.
“Can we make the Delta maneuver I programmed earlier?” Ray asked.
Amy needed a few seconds to calculate, “Not without manually readjusting the engines, they won’t be powered up in time”
Ray’s face looked grim but his thoughts were interrupted. “I can do that.” Melanie suddenly spoke.
Ray looked at her in surprise. David started “But you’re a…” Melanie interrupted him, “a final years engineering student with specialization in engines.” she completed the sentence.
“Go for it.” The situation was unexpected and he did not know how much trust he could place in her but Ray knew he had to decide quickly. “We’ll give you instructions. The engine room is at the other end of the ship, go right or left it doesn’t matter, keep going straight ahead, there is only one door at the end.”
“Right!” Melanie confirmed and ran out of the bridge.
“So we are actually going to fight?” David asked worriedly.
“Better take a seat somewhere and put on your seatbelt, things will get rough in a few minutes” Ray answered indirectly.
Without confirming that David was actually following his instructions he refocused his attention on the displays in front of him. Him shooting at the incoming ship had barely slowed it down. Time continued to tick away but he knew that oftentimes it was these details that mattered.
When the radar showed the enemy ship starting to make a turn the right Ray immediately took action and steered the Amy Dee to the left. “Melanie are you ready?” he asked.
Melanie’s voice sounded from the speaker in front of him, “I’m in position, found the controls, what do I need to do?” she asked.
“Increase power on engines one and three; lower it on the other two as much as possible. And hold on to something, we’re going to make a turn far sharper than this ship was designed for.”
With only a few seconds of delay Ray pulled the main control stick sharply right causing the ship to turn on its side. Despite the ship’s interior and gravity systems being designed to reduce the pressure it was still heavy on untrained individuals. David’s face looked like that of a sick child on a rollercoaster as he put his upper body down on the console in front of him while his hands desperately tried to find something to hold on to. Everyone could feel the ship starting to be pulled upwards as the two hundred meters long vehicle started to make a turn at a velocity surpassing the speed of sound.
Despite the ship now being on its side and turning sharply Ray remained calm and focused. He carefully observed the status of the engines and the movement of the enemy ship. His left hand remained steady on the control stick as his right hand rapidly danced across various displays. Diagrams, radar images and other information cycled in front of his eyes, all having to be interpreted in an instant.
“Enemy ship is firing!” Amy warned.
Ray’s evasive maneuvers caused the ship to do a full roll as it spinned away from the incoming enemy fire, dodging it successfully. He made the ship do several more erratic looking movements to avoid the next volleys of laser shots coming towards them. In the process he also tried to widen the distance between the ships again.
“We need more power on engine three.” Ray instructed.
“I’m working on it!” Melanie yelled from the engine room. The sound of something opening followed by a scream from Melanie could be heard from the speaker.
“What’s going on? Are you ok?” Ray asked.
It took her a few seconds but Melanie answered, “I’m ok, I opened the inner maintenance hatch to remove some of the limiters. You should have more power on the engine now, it should be safe to use like this for about a minute.”
Ray’s display confirmed Melanie’s work and he took a deep breath as he prepared his next movements.
“Amy, handle the fire controls. Turn the laser banks forty degrees to the left and fire around the x twenty and y twenty coordinates, I’ll leave the exact timing up to you.”
The ship was now shaking heavily and a high pitched shrieking noise could be heard coming from the engines. All sorts of yellow colored warning messages scrolled by on the main display but Ray ignored them, the Amy Dee still felt stable to him. Despite the noises and the endless stream of information on the displays there was a sort of tranquility on the bridge. AI and ship captain didn’t say another word as Ray kept the ship flying in an as smooth as possible trajectory. David anxiously stared at the display, feeling lost in the chaos of the ever changing text. He felt overwhelmed by everything that had happened and everything that was still happening. But when his gaze turned to the front of the ship, to the man in the pilot chair who sat there in full concentration not showing any emotion on his face, David felt a sense of awe and for a moment he could forget his fear and he felt hope that he might still survive this day.
Two bursts of red lights flashed across the bridge. Two more followed quickly after. Ray narrowed his eyes and held his breath as he watched the display.
“Target has been completely destroyed.” Amy spoke the relieving words.
Ray slowed down the ship and sank back in his chair. His left hand finally let go of the control stick as he took a moment to calm down. He then turned his chair around to take a look at David who was still staring at the screen. The two didn’t speak and instead let the silence further calm down the atmosphere. Melanie came walking in, her left arm looked burnt and while there was a trace of pain on her face it was mostly relief which was visible.
“You… you did it.” she said like she had troubles believing it herself.
Ray nodded and smiled encouragingly “You did well Melanie.”
A faint smile appeared on her face as Ray acknowledged her contribution to the victory.
“What happened to your arm?”
“The maintenance hatches are not designed to be opened while the engine is under heavy load. But I couldn’t think of another way. The inner plating of the engines gets very hot. ” Melanie answered.
Ray felt a sense of unexpected admiration for the girl. He got up from his chair. “We should get that treated; there is a med bay on the ship.”
She just nodded and took a step back into the hallway as she waited for Ray to lead the way. David followed them in silence.
The medical room looked like a small doctor’s office with the necessary test and treatment equipment and some shelves with commonly used medication. Unfortunately Ray’s medical knowledge was extremely limited so he was relegated to reading the packaging instructions to try and find which box contains something to treat burns.
As he was focused on finding something usable David took a box from the shelves, “Use this, it’s a healing bandage for all sorts of flesh wounds and injuries. I’ll help you put it on.”
David carefully opened the package and took out a short white bandage from it. It looked very ordinary but he seemed confident in his action so Ray and Melanie did not interrupt his actions.
Skillfully he winded the bandage around Melanie’s arm until the burned part was completely covered. “Just leave it on until tomorrow. The burns should be gone by then.” he stated.
“Thank you.” Melanie said.
“You’re a doctor?” Ray asked with interest.
“Not really. I’m a researcher in the field of extraterrestrial medicine, but these studies involved a lot of general medical knowledge, so I know my way around shelves like these.” David answered.
After a short moment of silence Ray instructed Amy to move the ship outside of sensor range for the rendezvous point in case any other ships appeared. He then turned towards his guests again, “Let’s head back to the lounge, I think we still have some things we need to discuss.”
David nodded in confirmation. Melanie said nothing, but her mood visibly went down again. Ray led the way, in his head he heard the words of the bizarre fortune teller he saw on Atlas five, “It will chase you to the end of the universe.” He felt discomfort encountering an Earth Sphere ship all the way out here. He didn’t know what David had done to make them come all the way out here. While he wanted to dismiss the thought, he felt that maybe they had come for him instead.