Chapter 281: (The Confederacy) (1/2)
The It Tastes Sweet had been rebuilt from the partially destroyed ship that had made a desperate run through hyperspace with multiple hull breaches. Chrome warsteel glittered across the ship's hull, strong lights to make it glimmer in space, six heavy jumpspace engines with a primary and secondary jump core. Upgraded particle shields, debris shields, and battle-screens. The weaponry it had never carried had been replaced with modern 'civilian' grade weapons so that the ship would never be unarmed in a hostile universe again. It boasted a primary medical as well as secondary and emergency now, one of the cargo holds having been converted. The computers were twice as fast, they now had eVI hash creches attached to provide assistance.
Nakteti had to admit she loved it. There was no trace of the violent Precursor attack that had resulted in her meeting an Immortal, the First and Last of his kind, and making it all the way to TerraSol.
She stood on the bridge next to her command couch, one hand on the back of the armored crash cradle, and watched as her crew, reformed after the hideous losses they had taken, took the Sweet out of the docking cradle and slowly moved it out.
”Time to Terra?” Nakteti asked. Normally it would have taken two to three days to travel the roughly forty-five million miles with her old sublight drive but her new one had a good cruising speed. The 'speed limit' inside TerraSol was limited to different orbital bands, so she wasn't quite sure.
”Six hours, Captain,” her pilot, Lektat, said. He had originally been a navigator and assistant pilot back when they'd been attacked, but his performance under Precursor attack had been the main reason they had survived.
”Course set, Captain. Sol Stellar Control has verified our flight plan, including emergency protocols,” her navigator, Ulamanti said. Another one of the crew who had survived the desperate flight from the Precursor machine. She had lost a leg, but the Terrans had replaced it with a cloned on grown from Ulamanti's very own DNA. Ulamanti had elected to keep a thick scar all the way around her leg, visible through her fur, as a reminder of her luck in surviving.
”As soon as Anvil Central give us clearance, engage the main engines,” Nakteti ordered. ”We'll be back to Terra by dinner.”
It made Nakteti shake her head. She knew they could do it faster, but there was so much traffic around Sol that her ship had been required to file a flight plan.
”You all right?” Major Carnight asked Nakteti, watching her hold onto the back of her seat with the lower pair of her four hands, her 'gripping hands'. His eyes had been red for the last few weeks and Nakteti knew he had spent almost double his normal amount of time in the gym.
Nakteti nodded, smiling. ”It is good to have the Sweet rebuilt. I cannot wait to show my mother my beautiful Sweet.”
Major Carnight tapped his fingers on the thigh of his armored vac-suit. ”I think your mother will appreciate it.”
”Pfft, she'll appreciate the holodeck even more,” she snorted.
Her mother, Matron Sangbre, had rapidly become a fan of Terran movies, a thing that seemed to wasteful for the Unified Civilized Council races to bother with. Her whole crew had learned to enjoy them and Nakteti had to admit they were a wonderful invention.
Nakteti moved over and settled into her crash couch, feeling the restraints auto-lock in. It was designed for her four armed body, with seven points of attachment to the center buckle. The cushioning of the armored captain's seat adjusted to her quickly.
Six hours between two major planets, she thought, shaking her head again. And this is intra-system 'safe' speeds for a high traffic area.
”Anvil Central, Captain. They say we can light our engines and wish us a safe journey,” Ulamanti said.
”Engage,” Nakteti said. She tensed slightly, knowing the engines had been tested after being built by the Hate Anvils of Mars, but this was the big test. She clutched her command stick tightly with all four hands as Lektat counted down.
”Engines engaged, increasing power to 8%,” Lektat stated.
There was no sense of change.
”Is it working?” Nakteti asked. ”I don't feel anything.”
”We're accellerating quite rapidly,” Ulamanti said.
”Captain Nakteti?” came over her link. It was Taltek, their drive engineer.
”Yes, Taltek?” Nakteti said.
”Jump drive is online. Checks came back green across the board. Primary and backup jumpcores are all within tolerances,” the engineer said. ”Our sublight drives are all well within tolerances and easy kicking.”
”How's the FIDO working out?” Nakteti asked.
”Just fine. He's over there sniffing around one of the new drives, checking for particle leakages. Engineering out,” the link closed.
Nakteti had followed advice and purchased a FIDO, a cybernetic assistant and companion, an intelligent canine brain attached to a robotic body. They excelled at search and rescue, crew relaxation, and helping with engineering.
Nakteti smiled at the fact that Hlenkut, the ship's doctor and another survivor of the initial attack, had ensured she had two 'six packs' of purrbois, which were feline brains connected to a cybernetic body, for disaster and stress relief.
Nakteti opened her mouth to ask how the sensors were working when Ulmanti suddenly sat straight up, dropping her gripping stick. She reached out and slapped a big red button. The lights went red and an alarm started to wail as the ship went to Action Stations.
”Message from Sol System Astro Control!” Ulmanti barked out. ”All ships bulletin!”
”What is it?” Nakteti said, feeling her gut clench.
Precursors? Here? Or the Mar-gite are back? she wondered.
”Go immediately to superluminal drive! Follow emergency plan Omaha,” Ulamanti said. ”Running astrogation now!”
Nakteti frowned. ”Omaha? I don't remember filing a plan Omaha.”
Nakteti heard a sharp intake of breath and looked at Major Carnight.
The big Terran Space Force officer had gone pale, one hand dropping to his pistol on his hip. ”TerraSol is being invaded by enemy forces in strength,” his voice sounded sick.
”Course locked!” Lektat said. ”Ma'am, hyperdrive or jumpdrive?”
Nakteti looked at Major Carnight.
”Hyperspace,” the big Terran said, his voice sounding shocked.
”Running hyperjump solutions,” Ulamanti said.
”Sol Astro Control is ordering all ships to go to lightspeed ASAP,” Ulamanti said.
”Going to lightspeed as soon as you get the computations finished,” Nakteti said.
”My God,” one of her bridge crew said softly, looking at his control panel. It was Laminati, who was a former point defense gunner who's main task had been popping any asteroids too big for the shields to handle. He looked up, his hands clenched tightly on the bar in front of his panel. ”My targeting system crashed after it counted over a million point sources heading in system.”
”Computations fini-” Ulamanti said.
”Engaging hyperdrive!” Lektat snapped.
Everything stopped. Froze. Nakteti felt like she could see outside of herself, like her view swooped around her own body as everything stopped. Even the lights froze, sparkling in her vision.
The fractured second broke and the ship hummed as the hyperdrive carried the ship through a dimension that the speed of light was a thousands of times higher.
”We're in hyperspace, Captain,” Ulamanti said softly.
”Engineering here, Captain,” Taltek said.
”Go ahead, Taltek,” Nakteti said.
”Any particular reason we're running an unscheduled test on the hyperdrive?” he asked, his voice cold with barely repressed anger.
”Sol System Astro Control ordered all ships out of the system,” Nakteti answered.
”What? Why?” the engineer asked.
”They were under attack. Before we jumped to hyperspace Laminati said his board crashed at over a million incoming ships,” Nakteti said. ”My apologies for not warning you.”
Taltek gave a harsh bark of laughter. ”I think we'll all survive, Captain. The hyperdrive is working just fine, FIDO is happy with it. How long will we be in hyperspace?”
”Ulamanti, how long are we to remain in hyperdrive?” Nakteti asked.
Ulamanti checked the Case Omaha file that had been transmitted to her from Sol System Astro Control. ”Twelve hours or until forced to drop out.”
Nakteti relayed the information.
”We'll be two hundred light years out by that time,” Taltek said. ”All right, we'll keep an eye on things down here.”
”Major Carnight?” Laminati asked.
”Yes?” The Major's voice was cold, remote.
”Why didn't we stay to fight? We have weapons,” Laminati said. ”We have a three barrel near C velocity cannon now.”
”Don't take this wrong, but you have civilian armaments and shielding. What's about to happen could kill you just being in the region,” Major Carnight said. ”Terran Defense Force will tear apart space-time to defend Terra.”
Laminati thought about how helpless he'd been when the Precursor attacked, and how one ship had taken on that massive robotic vessel and apparently won.
”But I thank you for your desire to help defend TerraSol,” Major Carnight said. He closed his eyes and took a deep heaving breath. ”Believe me, I want to go back in, guns blazing, with every fiber of my being, but my first responsibility is to you and this ship's crew.”
”And we than you for that, Major,” Nakteti said, settling back in her captain's crash couch. She waved at the assistant gunnery cradle. ”Why don't you take a seat. It's going to be a while before we stop and figure out what's going on.”
Major Carnight nodded, moving over and sitting down. Again, Nakteti noted those burning red eyes and the slight facial tic.