Chapter 27

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

~Sun Tzu

‘Clang! Clang! Clang!’ Warning sirens sound off while the bridge lighting turned to red. “Fire in the aft Torpedo Bay,” John declared over the 1.M.C.

This was going on for hours. Enki watched, confused at first, as the crew seemed to run procedures for disasters that did not happen. The captain would later explain to him that these were “drills” he could not understand. Technology onboard Sumerian ships prevented “disasters.”

“C.I.C. reports ship on passive sensors, bearing two-seven-five, fire in engine three.” In a real battle, reports would either come from the ops station or directly from C.I.C. over the 18 M.C, but because this was a drill, John was relaying it as if they had.

Fires in space are just as deadly as ones that would occur on board a sea vessel or a submersible. Space is void of oxygen, so a spaceship must produce its own. The environmental systems provide a very healthy amount of the oxygen the crew needs to survive, which feeds a fire all the fuel it needs to thrive.

Once a fire ignites, it can spread across the entire deck in a matter of seconds, and in a few more minutes after that, it would engulf the whole ship. Every compartment had airtight bulkheads to seal off a compartment in the event of a fire. The best practice in the event of a fire was to evacuate the effected chamber as quickly as possible, seal off said compartment, have fire suppression teams on the other side on standby, and then vent the compartment into space. Depleting the oxygen in the compartment and venting all atmosphere instantly kills the fire. In the rare event that the ventilation systems fail, Fire Suppression teams were on standby to attempt to extinguish the fire by any means necessary. Every crewmember on board a starship was required to be trained in Fire Suppression.

“Environmental controls not responding for torpedo room, fire team go!” O'Connell said over the 1 M.C. As Captain Henderson was conducting the drill, Commander O’Connell would be in charge of the ship.

It was an exhausting three days for the crew as John rigorously put them through what some would call hell and high waters. The crew needed to train, and they needed to work together as a team to get ready for possible combat. Most of the crew had seen combat in previous postings, but none of them had been in combat together, or with the WarpStar herself. Not only did John need to know and understand the crew’s capabilities, he needed to understand the WarpStar herself.

After several long days of drilling, John gave the crew a rest as he sat in his office, reviewing reports. The door buzzer went off, interrupting John’s reviews. “Come in,” he said, putting his pad down while Enki entered the captain’s office.

“Ahh, Enki. Did you find your tour enjoyable?”

Enki was touring the ship and observing as the crew performed the drills, learning about how the Federation handled day-to-day operations onboard a starship.

“Yes, it was quite enlightening. I find it fascinating how you pretend a crisis is happening when nothing is actually going on.”

“We call it ‘drills,’ and we do it to train and prepare for worst-possible scenarios. It makes us ready to prevent a disaster if one would ever happen. Proper discipline and skills will save lives in a crisis.” John points to the chair in front of his desk, motioning for the Sumerian to have a seat.

“On Sumerian ships, we have automated systems to prevent disasters.”

“But what happens when those systems fail?”

Enki did not have an answer. He hesitated for a few seconds before adding, “I do not know. We have not had to fight in a battle in millions of your years….”

“Being a highly technological species who has not had to fight in a war for that long must be nice.”

“Perhaps, but our people were never fond of war. We prefer to remain neutral in all conflicts.”

“Just like Switzerland.”

“Uh, who?” Enki was confused, not knowing the full history of Earth.

“It’s a country on my planet; they stayed neutral in all major wars in our history.”

“I see,” the alien was generally curious, soaking the knowledge up to learn everything he could.

“But, how can you remain neutral if you are considered a member of the Alliance? Wouldn’t they call upon your military forces to fight their wars with them?”

“The Alliance knows our technological superiority. They fear a direct conflict with Sumeria. Our ships and weapons are powerful enough to eliminate any threat presented to us. They know they are unable to force us to do anything our people do not want to do. And we do not want any part in the killing of any beings.” Enki lied, and John caught it. The Sumerian was hiding something and not telling the Federation.

“Your interview with the Federation Senate did not tell us much. Why are you seeking an alliance with us if you won't reveal anything?” John’s tone started to get hostile, but he kept up a friendly demeanor. John wanted to get information out of him, but not create an enemy in the process. The Sumerian did not know what John did. Reviewing some of the data the unknown man had given him in Florida just before the attacks showed clear evidence a Sumerian was in contact with an unknown Federation General. John hated the orders given to him, to pander to the alien. Show him everything, even the top-secret classified FTL Drive.

“Your species is fairly young in the galactic world, my friend. I will not flood your young mind with information you cannot process so quickly. You will require time to learn the secrets of the universe.”

“So, you want to know how we can achieve this—” John waves his hands to the viewport behind him, displaying the rainbow assault just outside. “but you will not give us any information on anything at the moment?”

“We need to assess who you are as a people. You are still in conflict with yourselves. We only wish to make sure you are not a threat to the Galaxy as a whole before giving you information that may endanger the lives of everyone in the Galaxy.”

“You sound like the Legion.” John began to suspect that maybe the Legion was created by the Sumerians and, if that were the case, the Sumerian government should not be trusted.

“Ha!” The Sumerian let out a slight laugh for the first time. “Those rust machines pose no threat. They are all talk and no action.”

John was angry at that, remembering the tragedy of the F.C.S. Pegasus. “We have a ship with almost thirteen hundred souls lost who would disagree.”

‘Clang! Clang!’ The conversation between the two was interrupted by the 13 M.C.

“C.O., Conn. We are E.T.A. five minutes until F.T.L. release,” a young duty officer spoke on the Mic.

“Conn, C.O., aye,” John placed the microphone unit back into its holster on the desk, shutting down his terminal he stood and proceeded to the door. “Now, shall we see what is out there?” Enki nodded and continued to follow John to the bridge.

“E.T.A. two minutes,” the officer of the deck called out as John and the alien entered the command center of the ship.

“Excellent,” John replied, promptly heading to the captain’s island and picking up the mic unit while setting the transmitter knob to the 1 M.C. setting. “Attention, all hands, prepare for F.T.L exit. General quarters, all hands, battle stations! Set condition one throughout the ship!” John finished by pulling the red claxon lever next to his seat three times, setting off the Battle stations alert claxon on all major speakers all over the ship.

“FTL exit in ten….nine…” Lieutenant Carr began to count down with her hands on the appropriate levers, ready to pull the ship back into normal space. “Three…Two…. One..” With the final number, she pulled back on the F.T.L. speed lever just above her head, setting the throttle to zero. The view outside went from the brilliant rainbow and melted into a sea of white stars, with a planet quickly appearing from a marble to a vast giant celestial object just within view of the ship.

“F.T.L. exit successful, we are thirteen thousand kilometers from the twelfth planet.”

“Good work, L.T.” John praised his newly promoted helmswoman while he grabbed the Mic and set the knob to the 15 M.C position.

“Con, C.I.C.,” the Command Information Center beat John to the punch, and contacted him first. A testament to the training John had hammered into his crew. “Sir, the system is saturated with contacts. I am reading over fifteen thousand.”

“That’s odd.” John looked to his exec, “has there ever been that much traffic in the system before?”

“Not that I have heard,” Charles replied with a worried look on his face.

“C.I.C., Con. Do we have a reading on Orion yet?”

“Con, C.I.C., negative. The planet is blocking all signals from Orion. Suggest we clear the planet first.”

“Nav, plot a course to clear the planet.” John ordered the ship to clear view of the planet, to get some passive data from the light being reflected off Orion herself, and set the ship up for a quick F.T.L. jump to Orion’s moon, Merope. “Helm execute at ahead full when ready.”

“Nav, aye.”

“Helm, aye.”

It took the ship only a few moments to clear the planet, to finally collect passive data nineteen hours old from the planet they had come to investigate.

“Con, C.I.C. Receiving data from Orion, but it's garbled. I don’t understand it, sir; it appears distorted. Like there is a heavy magnetic field interfering.”

“It’s a trap!” Enki quickly interrupted.

“By whom?” O'Connell snapped, confused at the level of technology required to distort light.

“By the Alliance, captain, we must leave the system immediately.”

“No, if they are jamming us, I need to find out what they are doing.”

“I implore you to leave!” Enki was adamant, not letting go of the urgency.

“Nav, plot F.T.L. course to take us in high Merope orbit, with a clear view of Orion. Helm, execute short F.T.L. jump when ready.”

Navigation already had the course plotted and sent over to the Helm. Charlene just powered down the sub light engines and engaged the F.T.L. drive. For a quick few seconds, the beautiful light shined all the colors of the spectrum in a dance of the last joy anyone on the bridge would ever get to see. After the dance of colors melted back to a speck of white stars, the real world emerged and showed everyone the horror of reality. John instantly collapsed to his knees. After a few seconds, he was finally able to muster, “Nooo!!!!”

The sight before everyone on the bridge was dismal. Showing on the viewport was Orion, Merope, and its numerous orbital space stations, satellites, and other structures. Or, what was left of them. Along with the thriving and prosperous Federation planet, there were an undetermined number of alien ships orbiting Orion and Merope. The enemy ships were obliterating everything in sight. Weapons fire from multiple ships bombarded every station in orbit. There was nothing left but floating debris, weapons themselves flying around at speeds that man could only dream of without help.

The real tragedy was on Orion herself. Most of the alien ships currently assaulting the system were attacking the planet. Orbiting Orion were hundreds of gigantic spaceships, firing large beams of energy on the planet. Each beam would hit a spot on the planet and instantly vaporize everything within an 800-mile radius. Any structure, built from any known material and alloy, would be instantly transformed into atoms. The ground beneath would liquefy up to a quarter-mile deep. What was once a luscious blue and green tropical world was now a giant ball of liquid magma orbiting the star Orion. Seven trillion lives resided either on the planet, her moon, or the various space stations orbiting. This would go down in history as the Orion Massacre. It was the single most devastating terrorist attack or act of aggression in human history.

Everyone on the bridge was forced, almost slapped, back to reality by the 15 M.C. squawking loudly than ever.

“Con!!, C.I.C!!” Ensign Smedley practically shouted at the top of her lungs, terror emanating from her voice. “Sir! All contacts have gone active! We are being bombarded on all frequencies. Multiple contacts on multiple vectors closing fast!”

It was like a massive cold wave hit John in the face. This was no time to mourn over the deaths of trillions; this was a time to save his crew.

“Nav, plot course to fastest zero grave point, and make calculations for F.T.L. Jump,” the captain shouted as he picked up the overhead Mic and pressed the button for the 15 M.C.

“C.I.C., Con. Acknowledge report. Designate targets to closest possible threat and report to Ops.”

Zero Grav Point, or Z.G.P for short, or Zero Gravity Point officially, is a theoretical point in space where there is no gravitational influence minus the minor gravitational force from the star. This theoretical point was developed and hypothesized by F.T.L.’s creator, Dr. Anders Søviknes. It was thought that for a ship to enter subspace successfully and safely, it cannot be under any gravitational strain. This was only a theory, and an untested one. John had thought prudent not to go disproving the theory in the situation they were currently in.

“Sir,” the navigations officer yelled out. “Closest Z.G.P is two hundred seventy-five thousand kilometers out on bearing zero-eight-five!”

“Send coordinates to helm,” the captain replied, “Helm, upon receiving of new heading, set course and engage, all ahead flank!”

Lieutenant Carr acknowledged the order and performed her duty as she was expected to do, but she was the most nervous of them all. She’d been in conflict before. Alongside her captain, they both have seen war. But nothing on this scale. The few skirmishes they had with small Republic forces, or the few pirates here and there, were nothing compared to this. What they were facing right now was the brink of all-out war from major superpowers of the Galaxy. The Federation was facing a foe, a superpower, they did not even know existed.

“Sir,” Lt. Jackson reported, as if almost on cue, since he was the next one in John’s mind to issue an order to. “I am unable to establish a link to the Hyperspace network. All communications are down. We cannot initiate a Hyperspace jump!” Almost everyone on the bridge came close to shitting themselves when the report came in.

“Understood,” John yelled. ‘Well, shit’ was the only thing that went through his mind. Ignoring the excellent work his friend and operations officer had done, John needed to figure a way out of the situation. Enki was right, and John had flat out ignored him in front of everyone, choosing to believe his own gut feelings about Enki and not the alien’s intelligence.

“Engineering, Con,” John said into the Mic on the 25 M.C. “Remove safeties on all engines, I need maximum possible thrust for as long as possible.”

“Con, engineering. I can give you 20g thrust for three minutes. After that, I have to shut it down,” Chief Donovan reported.

Those are all the ideas John had at the moment. Run. Turn tail and get out of there. It was not a thought he enjoyed thinking about. He had just witnessed genocide, and all he could do was run! He wanted to fight, and he wanted to kill every single one of those ‘things’ that did this. But he knew that not only he couldn’t, but it would not be the right call. His top priorities were the lives of every crewmember. Getting the WarpStar and the men to safety was the only concern.

“Enki!” John turned to the alien visitor, who was just watching in horror on the bridge the events that were unfolding.

“I cannot believe this!” Enki’s reply was forced, the Sumerian was still in shock.

“What is this?” John urged him.

“They are the creations of a race of superior beings known as the Anunnaki. What you are seeing is a coalition of multiple species that were created by the them. They call themselves ‘The Alliance’ and they firmly believe they are the chosen ones to rule the Galaxy. We have to warn the Sumerian Council.”

John wanted to deck the alien admiral on the side of his elongated face for failing to give this intel to anyone before, but was interrupted by the 18 M.C.

“Con!!, C.I.C, new contacts just appeared out of nowhere, bearing zero-zero-five, dead ahead, classifications unknown, size various from frigates to cruisers. They have gone active, initiating weapons lock on us now.”

The alien ships had somehow managed to get ahead of the WarpStar, cutting off her route to get out of the effective distance of the disruption field.

“Engineering, Con,” John quickly said.

“Donovan here,” answered the chief engineer.

“Jeff, can you simulate a micro-jump similar to how the Legion have?” The idea came quickly in John’s mind. He theorized the possibilities but was unsure how it would work under the current disruption field in the system.

“Maybe... no….wait,” Donovan was quickly crunching the numbers on the fly. “Yes, maybe if I calibrate the Hyperdrive for a quick random jump, but it will burn out the drive, it was not meant for short bursts.”

“Understood, make it happen,” ordered the captain while putting down the Mic.

“Sir, contacts coming in fast, thirty-two thousand kilometers,” Jackson reported.

“Understood,” John shouted as he sat down in his chair, “Helm, steady as she goes. All ahead, Flank, Char, you know what I’m going after.”

All Lieutenant Carr could do was nod in understanding; without looking away from her H.U.D. she knew exactly what her captain, her friend, wanted to do. The best pilot in the Federation was putting her skills to the ultimate test right now. Ahead of her, and the WarpStar, were at least half a dozen ships that wanted to obliterate them. The ships were spread out in a manner that made going straight through impossible.

“Sir, they have engaged us, shall we return fire?” Lt. Cmdr Heidi Watney yelled out as a few volleys hit the WarpStar, shaking the ship and crew.

“Negative, hold course,” the captain replied. Everyone was looking at John with deep fear and concern. Everyone except Charlene. For the first time since she almost destroyed the ship, she felt confident and in control.

The Alliance ships were getting closer and closer with each passing second. John had to be careful, and he had to time his maneuver just right. Too soon, the ship would not get far enough to jump out. Too late, and the Alliance ships could have a chance in dealing with some major damage.

The time had come. John calculated and finally gave the order. Traveling at nearly thirty-two hundred meters per second, the WarpStar had ample momentum to finish the jump. As the order was given, Charlene entered the execute command on her console as quickly as she could. The WarpStar had jumped one hundred kilometers away from where they were, but they were too late. John might have ordered the command too late, or Charlene’s millisecond delay in executing the command could have done it. It didn’t matter. Just as the WarpStar was making the jump, an Alliance light cruiser managed to get a lucky shot in. One volley of pure multiphasic energy hit WarpStar’s fourth engine, located on the far port side of the ship. The shot caused considerable damage to the engine and a rotation on the X-axis, forcing the ship to spin out of control.

“Report!” Charles yelled over the chaos of various exploding power conduits and equipment shorting out on the bridge. The forward displays couldn’t communicate with the sensors. They fizzled a bit and finally failed. The view screens in front of the bridge were powered off, and the normal glass windows all around the perimeter of the bridge were now visible. Space around them was spinning in wild and random directions.

All the department heads were reporting the situation as expected. Lieutenant Carr reported the ship spin and the result of the blast. Lieutenant Jackson reported several Alliance ships that were closer than thirty-three kilometers, and commander Watney reported on the various weapons lock and ordnance solutions the enemy ships had on them.

Several warning sounds were going off at once as Charlene attempted to stabilize the ship. “Hard ordnance incoming! It's radioactive!” shouted Heidi. Radioactive ordinance usually meant nuclear torpedoes.

“All hands, brace for impact!!!!” John shouted through the 1 M.C. But it was too late. The torpedo detonated less than a few hundred meters from the hull of the ship, sending a vast shockwave that dealt severe damage. Inertia stabilizers could not keep up, crew members and various equipment were thrown in all directions while lights flickered on and off. Power conduits were exploding all over the ship.

John stood up, grabbing ahold of the center console. All main lighting on the bridge was gone, emergency lighting was fading in and out. The only light was coming from the various sparks and fires surrounding the consoles—even the consoles themselves were fading on and off, unable to hold power from the main power grid.

“Is everyone alright?” John asked as the rest of the bridge crew got back on their feet and to their stations. John helped Enki to his feet as Heidi remarked, “Sir, look!” She pointed at the forward viewports and everyone watched in awe as the stars and celestial bodies that were spinning wildly out of control started to slow and stabilize.

“Report!” Henderson barked to Charlene.

“I …I…I don’t know, sir,” she stuttered as she attempted to get any information out of her station. “The helm is not responding. It's not the ship doing this.”

“It’s a grapple field!” Enki pointed out as the crew started to see a faint purple glow emitting from the visible parts of the hull.

As the ship stabilized, the crew watched as an enormous ship started to come into view. As the ship drew closer, bay doors began to open in the front. Approaching WarpStar, it looked like a shark coming in to swallow its prey.

“That’s an Alliance escort carrier,” Enki pointed out. “They intend to capture us, extract information. Captain, they will not stop until they have the location of Earth, and then they will kill every last one of us!”

John knew he only had one option. His gut kept screaming the only possible solution, but he would not listen. “I need options, people!”

“Helm is offline, not responsive,” Carr reported.

“Main fusion core is offline. Antimatter reactor is reporting critical condition, engineering is attempting manual shutdown,” Robert reported in.

“Main power grid is down, all energy weapon systems are non-responsive. Main railgun systems are jammed, kinetic ordinance systems are down!” Heidi reported in.

Conduits continued to explode all around John on the bridge as he watched the shark’s mouth get wider and wider. As John closed his eyes for a brief second, he visualized his life. He was playing as a kid barefoot in the forest with Robert and their friends. Then he and Robert were tinkering in his mother's garage. ‘Mom,’ he thought, thinking of the last thing he said to her. ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself, Mom, it’s time to retire!’ The chief of medicine at New York Mercy works too hard, tirelessly trying to fill a void left from her military husband and son.

John opened his eyes and darted to the Helm Station, and yanked Charlene out.

“Char, listen to me very carefully!” he looked deeply into her eyes, determined. All she could reply with was a look of fear. “Go as fast as you can and take Betsy. You need to get to Betsy!”

“What? What for!” Charlene replied with a mixture of confusion and horror.

“Betsy has an experimental Hyperdrive. It’s classified level five so no one could know. It should work, it should get you to Earth! But you have to go now!!”

“What? No!!” she cried out, not wanting to leave John’s side. “I can't, she’s your ship, you have to do it!”

“I can't. There's something I have to do here, you have to go now!!” John shouted.

Charlene began to cry; she couldn’t take the stress of the situation, and John wanted her to leave. “I can't, John. I mean, sir.”

Sparks flew all around them, explosions constantly rattled the bridge, but John only saw Charlene Carr, the only woman he'd ever loved, standing in front of him, in tears. John grabbed her closer and kissed her deeply. They held each other tight, lips locked in the most passionate kiss either of them had ever had, literal sparks erupting all around them.

As John broke the kiss and stared into her eyes once more, she knew what John was planning. Tears flooded her eyes uncontrollably. John would never jeopardize his career in that manner. She knew she had to go. “I love you!” she finally mustered as she left his side, and ran towards the lift.

The rest of the bridge crew stood in awe. They had not known how their captain felt about their pilot. But John just stood there, watching out the window, watching as the white whale kept getting larger and larger. Just seconds after Charlene left the bridge, he turned around and headed to the 1 M.C on the center console, activating it.

“Attention, all hands.” John began to speak over the 1 M.C as Charlene ran through broken conduits, power relays, massive breaches in the bulkheads, and injured or dead crew members. She needed to get to the little fighter as fast as she could.

“Let me begin to say,” John continued. “It has been an absolute honor to serve with each and every one of you. Never in my entire career have I served with a finer crew than I have here. This is no doubt the best crew in the Navy! You have my guarantee that each and every one of you, after today, will be remembered as heroes!”

John put down the Mic and looked at his bridge crew, tears flowing steadily. “I’m sorry, I have failed you all,” he said as he picked up a red key from his captain's chair. As he looked up, he saw every member of the bridge crew in full attention, saluting their captain.

“Sir, I believe I speak for everyone here when I say,” chimed in Charles, “you have not failed us. It has been an honor serving under you.”

Returning the salute to his crew, he gave the nod to his X-O, who knew what needed to be done. They both headed to opposite sides of the bridge and inserted red key into their stations on each side. On the third nod, they both turned the key.

“Warning!” chimed the computer in a very broken robotic voice. “Auto De De De De De struct sequence act act act act ivated. Please pro pro pro pro vide F.F.F.F.F.F.F.F.F.F.F.F.F.F. inal comm.M.M.M.M.M.M.M..M.and code.”

Charlene heard the battered computer voice as she entered the cockpit of Betsy, tears continuing to flow. She knew she would never see the love of her life again.

“Good morning, Ensign Carr,” Betsy chimed as Charlene activated the fighter, unaware of her recent promotion. “I see you are not doing well.”

“Not now, Betsy,” snapped Charlene, wiping as much of her fluids off her face as she could. She needed to concentrate now. “Startup engines A.S.A.P. and get that door open. We need to leave.”

“As you command,” Betsy replied, doing exactly as she ordered.

John had his eyes closed again, thinking of all the moments he could have had with Charlene. Thoughts of his childhood ran wildly in his head as Heidi’s voice interrupted him.

“Sir, there she goes!” Everyone watched Charlene fly past the bridge and whip to the outer barrier of the disruption field.

‘Come on. Come on. Come on!!’ everyone was shouting in their heads as they watched, when they noticed multiple fighters and frigates dart after her full force, firing with everything they had. Charlene was the best pilot in the Navy. This was her ultimate test. She darted every shot, evaded every pulse beam blast, and managed to elude every plasma bolt fired at her.

“We now have established a link to the Hyperspace network. Communicating with Earth Hyper-buoy Control,” chimed in Betsy. “Connection established and locked. We are now ready for Hyperspace.” Charlene punched in the execute button, and she began to see Earth appear before her eyes in a small, very distant shape far ahead of her.

“Come on, go, Carr, go go go!!” John shouted at the viewport as he saw the tail signs of her Hyperdrive spinning up. Just as the fighter made the final flux, tearing a hole through space to send her to her destination, a plasma shot from one of the Alliance frigates landed a direct hit to Betsy, setting off an immense explosion.

“Nooooooooooooaaaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!!!” John shouted, falling to the floor in utter rage. It is not appropriate for a commanding officer to show emotion while on duty, no matter the situation. But this was not just any situation. This may have just been the beginning of the downfall of humans. A force so powerful, they eliminated a colony with a population of seven trillion without much resistance, so powerful they came in and swept the system into molten goo with the push of a button. Now, humanity’s only hope to warn Earth was just vaporized right in front of his eyes. He was deeply in love with the young pilot, that was true. But his love was irrelevant next to the knowledge humans may be taking their last breaths.

As John stood up, the entire view of the viewports ahead was engulfed within the whale. The ship had stopped, and various umbilical cords were attaching themselves to the ship. John closed his eyes and whispered, “I’m sorry.” Then shouted, “Command Alpha Six Niner Charlie. Execute full range.”

Captain John Henderson just gave the command to execute full, non-safe explosion—self-destruct. The explosion would not be contained. A colossal shockwave from the Antimatter reactor would destroy everything within one hundred thousand kilometers.