THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 63 – FIGHTING FOR SHEER SURVIVAL

 

04:15 (Universal Time)

Tuesday, June 5, 2328

Bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA

Docked to the cargo terminal of the Las Americas orbital station Low Earth orbit, Solar System

The third pilot of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA, Renée d’Argenteuil, being one of the more senior members of the ship’s command team, often found herself in charge of the bridge on alternate shifts, when Tina Forster was off duty and/or sleeping. That early morning shift thus had the 49-year-old brunette sitting in the command chair of the KOSTROMA when Yoko Teno, who was also part of the reduced bridge’s night shift and

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was manning the communications station rather than her usual navigator’s station, did a double-take before twisting her head and look at Renée.

‘’Renée, a courier drone from the headquarters of the Spacers’ League’s Navy, on Callisto Prime, just arrived in orbit and transmitted an ‘Immediate Priority’ message. It came in in encrypted form and is marked as ‘Captain’s Eyes Only’.’’ Renée’s mind instantly switched to high-gear on hearing that: such Navy ‘Immediate Priority’ messages were extremely rare and always denoted a very serious ongoing situation.

‘’Retransmit that message to the command chair, Yoko. I am going to wake up Tina at once.’’ said Renée before punching the call number for Tina’s suite, situated on the same level as the bridge complex but on the outer section of the central core spine. A sleepy female voice answered her call after three buzzes.

‘’Yes?’’

‘’Tina, this is Renée, on the bridge. I am sorry to wake you up at such an hour but we just received an encrypted Navy ‘Immediate Priority, Captain’s Eyes Only’ message.’’

Renée’s words apparently worked like a shot of adrenaline on Tina, whose voice became clearer at once.

‘’I will be on the bridge in six minutes. Is there anything else out of the ordinary happening around our orbit?’’

‘’Nothing, Tina: this shift was completely uneventful…until we received this message from Callisto Prime via courier drone.’’

‘’Understood! I’ll be on my way as soon as I am dressed.’’ Tina then hung up, leaving Renée to wonder what had caused the sending of that priority message.

Nearly five minutes later on the chronometer, Tina ran out of the staircase well connecting the bridge complex with the command suites on Level 24. She was fully dressed but her hair was disheveled, showing in how much of a hurry she had been. Renée got up from the command chair as soon as Tina appeared on the bridge.

‘’That message is waiting on Channel 2 of your command chair, Tina.’’

‘’Thanks, Renée!’’

Feeling some dread about what that message could be about, Tina quickly sat in her chair and pressed her right hand on the recognition pad attached to the right armrest, in

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order to identify herself and unlock the encryption on the Navy’s message. The text of the message then unscrambled itself on one of her display screens, allowing her to read it quickly. Renée didn’t miss the way Tina’s expression suddenly reflected dread. Tina took the time to read a second time the message before looking somberly at Renée and at the other members of the bridge crew presently on duty.

‘’We are to prepare for possible battle: a gigantic alien ship has invaded Drazt Space and is presently spreading death around Kadosh. A few Drazt ships loaded with civilian refugees jumped to our system about one hour ago, imploring for our help. In response, the Navy has just sent the Cosmonaut-Class battlecruiser VLADIMIR KOMAROV and the Admiral-Class frigate DE RUYTER to the Ross 128 System, with orders to do everything possible to stop and destroy that alien ship. As for us, we are to prepare as quickly as possible for a combat mission. This message also has a video file attached to it. I haven’t looked at it yet, so I believe that we should all watch it together, so that we all are fully informed about what’s going on. I am now going to play it on all our workstations. Please wait until we will have fully watched it before asking questions.’’

A heavy silence then fell on the bridge as Tina started playing on all work stations the video file attached to the Navy’s message. That video file quickly turned up to have been made by the Drazts in the HD85512 and Ross 128 Systems. More than one bridge crewmember had to look away and throw up at the more horrifying parts of the video file, while the others, including Tina, cringed a number of times. At the end of the video, Tina waited a few seconds before speaking, in order to give time to her officers to recover their composure.

‘’This is actually worse than what I expected…in many ways. Those aliens are truly a nightmare come true, but this video also tells us a number of important things. First, while lasers and disintegrator cannons can hit that alien ship, the sheer size and shell thickness of that ship will make it able to absorb an incredible amount of fire before it is significantly affected in any way. Second, the attempts by Drazt ships to destroy it with missiles inside the Ross 128 System have uncovered the fact that these aliens possess an electro-magnetic shield which is apparently impenetrable to projectiles and which can absorb the blast from even nuclear and anti-matter warheads. Third, those aliens have shown to be terrifying in close combat and to favor the use of their claws and teeth over that of projectile or energy individual weapons. Fourth, and that is maybe the most disturbing in my opinion, is their ability to appear out of nowhere inside other ships,

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something that was described in old science-fiction novels and movies as ‘teleporting’. Just that factor could spell doom for any of our ships trying to engage those aliens, which means that internal ship security will be one of our major worries in a battle against those aliens. I could say more right now but I will wait until I can show this message and video file to our whole command staff before analyzing this in depth. Right now, I want all loading of cargo and passengers to be immediately suspended and for the cargo modules we already loaded on our ship to be disembarked as quickly as possible. While you will do that, I will sound the general alarm through the ship and will have the whole crew awakened and assembled in our main auditorium. Renée, you will stay with your present shift on the bridge and man it while I speak to our crewmembers and their families. Know that I intend to have all our family members, commercial associates and non-combat-essential crewmembers disembark on the Las American Station before leaving Earth orbit. The risks on our future combat mission are simply too great to endanger our families and non-combat personnel.’’ Lifting open a protective cover on one armrest of her command chair, Tina then punched a large red button, starting an alarm klaxon that reverberated all around the ship.

‘’Attention to all the occupants of this ship: this is your Captain speaking! We just received orders to prepare for a combat mission. I want everybody, including family members and commercial associates, to assemble as quickly as possible in our main auditorium, where I will all brief you on what is happening. Be advised that, after that briefing, most of you will have to disembark and stay behind before this ship leaves for combat. Please do not call the bridge for more information, as a lot of things need to be done right away. Just get up, dress up and go to our auditorium. Captain, out!’’ Tina then got up from her command chair and ran to the staircase well leading to the command suites, where her own suite was located.

When Tina entered her family suite, she found her husband Michel and her eight-year-old son Misha busy finishing to put a set of clothes on. Michel, who was a member of the ship’s security section, threw a worried look at her.

‘’What’s going on exactly, Tina?’’

‘’It’s too long to explain in detail now but simply know this: we received a Navy order to prepare for battle and go fight a huge alien ship that has attacked the Drazts and is now spreading death inside the Ross 128 System. As a result, I intend to have all

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our non-combat personnel to disembark and stay behind, as our mission will be a very risky one.’’

‘’But, as a member of the security section, I am considered part of the combat personnel, Tina!’’ objected at once Michel. ‘’Who will take care of Misha?’’ Tina froze at those words, realizing at once the kind of dilemma this meant to both of them. As a ship’s security officer, Michel was going to be crucial in defending the ship from alien intruders. On the other hand she was the captain of the KOSTROMA, thus could hardly stay behind. As for exposing her son to such a dangerous mission, that was simply out of the question.

‘’Look, Michel, we will discuss this further after I brief everyone. For the time being, just finish dressing up and go with Misha to the ship’s auditorium. That’s where I am going right now.’’

Running out of her suite, Tina then took an elevator ride down to Level Ten, where the main auditorium, a vast, high-ceiling hall able to seat 3,000 persons, was located. On arriving there, she found a growing trickle of people entering it and had to face a litany of questions from the newcomers but stayed mum and went instead to the pulpit set on the auditorium’s stage, where she called up from the bridge the Navy’s order and its attached video file, in order to prepare to show them to her crew. After waiting some ten minutes as more people entered the hall, Tina decided that she could wait no longer and activated the microphone of the pulpit.

‘’I will now ask you all to be quiet and listen carefully, as I have some critical information to pass around to all of you… Thank you! First, I can tell you that we just received via a courier drone an ‘Immediate Priority’ message from the Spacers’ League’s Navy headquarters on Callisto Prime. That message alerted us to prepare for an urgent combat mission in the Ross 128 System. The reason for this is that a gigantic alien ship of unknown origin has invaded Drazt space and is presently spreading death and destruction in the Ross 128 System. From the information we have, that alien ship is nearly impervious to all our weapons and has been able to defeat all the Drazt warships which tried to stop it. One very disturbing fact about those aliens is that they are savage, terrifying carnivorous predators which ate alive the Drazts unfortunate enough to face them from close-by.’’

Shivers and exclamations greeted her last words, making her pause before continuing.

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‘’The video montage I will now show you was made by the Drazts during their fight with that invading alien ship. I must caution you that some parts are extremely upsetting and hard to watch, so be ready to cover the eyes of your children. However, my goal for showing it to you is to instill in you how grave the situation is and why we will have to disembark most of you before leaving for our mission. I am now going to start playing that video montage. Again, be ready for some horrifying scenes.’’

As the video file started playing, Tina watched carefully the reactions to it among the crowd of men, women and children. As she had expected, many were obviously upset and horrified, while parents hurried to cover the eyes of their children during the worst scenes. The file went on for a good four minutes and left the viewers in a state of shock. Closing the file, Tina then looked somberly at the 668 persons sitting in the auditorium.

‘’Now that you have seen what this ship is going to face, I hope that you will understand and accept the following orders without questions and objections. First, all the persons who are not listed as combat-essential personnel will have to leave this ship before it departs from Earth orbit. This is absolutely non-negotiable and any argument about that will only waste precious time we don’t have. In the rare few cases where both parents in a family with young children are listed as combat-essential, then the parent deemed least essential for combat will have to leave and escort the family’s children off the ship. I have no intention of allowing the possibility that a child or many children will be orphaned due to our incoming mission.’’

Tina fixed hard her husband Michel, who was sitting with Misha in one of the front rows, while speaking. In turn, Michel lowered his head, while a devastated look appeared on his face. Herself hurting internally, Tina then continued her speech.

‘’Second, since time is of the essence, I will ask you to go back to your apartments after this and to quickly pack a minimum of bags. After thinking about this, I believe that sending you to New Haven, where we all have secondary residences, will be the best options for us. Our own interstellar passenger shuttles will thus prepare to carry you to New Haven as quickly as possible. Once packed, go down to the Hangar Deck and board a shuttle. As soon as a shuttle will be full, it will then depart for New Haven. Third, all those designated as combat-essential personnel and who will stay aboard will go get a pistol or rifle from our ship’s armory and will then keep it on them at all times. We may well have to repel alien boarders during that fight to come and everybody will

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have to contribute to the internal defense of the ship. In that we are lucky that Spirit, our central ship computer, will be able to greatly help us in that task, thanks to its multitude of internal surveillance cameras and internal defensive weapons. We will also use our service and maintenance robots, which will provide extra sets of internal sensors to help Spirit. In particular, our firefighting robots will be most useful with their cryogenic nitrogen projectors, which are able to freeze solid any hostile being from close range and which are also very resistant to damage due to their primary function of fighting fires. While we may be facing a tough fight, I have confidence that we will prevail. We will be fighting to protect over nine billion Drazts and also to stop that alien ship before it could come to Earth and spread death in our Solar System. That is all! Go back to your apartments and either pack up and leave or prepare for combat.’’ The shaken crowd then started rising from their seats and leave, as Tina stayed on the stage and watched them go. As she had expected, Michel, holding the hand of little Misha, climbed on the stage and came to her. Tina braced herself, expecting a forceful argument with her husband. He however surprised her by tearfully hugging her hard for long seconds, after which little Misha was next to hug his mother, bringing tears to Tina’s eyes.

‘’I love you, Mommy.’’

‘’And I love you too, my precious Misha. Don’t worry too much about me: the KOSTROMA always won in past battles. It is not called ‘mighty’ for nothing.’’

‘’I know, Mommy.’’ said the boy before Tina kissed him on both cheeks. To Tina’s surprise, Eve Silisca was next to climb on the stage as Michel left with Misha.

‘’Eve? What can I do for you? You are not on the list of combat-essential personnel.’’

‘’No, but I believe that I should be, Tina. First off, I am an android, not a Human, thus may be better categorized as part of the ship’s list of equipment and robots. Second, I have abilities and integrated weapons which makes me highly efficient at acting as a security officer on this ship. Third, since I have a direct datalink with my mother, Spirit, I believe that I could be very useful in coordinating the actions of your security teams with those of Spirit. So, allow me to take the place of your husband Michel as a ship’s security officer, please.’’

Tina didn’t know at first how to respond to that. However, the validity of Eve’s arguments could hardly be questioned and Tina finally nodded her head once.

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‘’I accept your offer, Eve. It truly warms my heart. Go to the security section and report to Ahmed Jibril, who will assign you to a specific position. I know that you already have a number of hidden weapons embedded inside your android’s body, but grab from our arsenal a heavy disintegrator rifle anyway.’’

Eve painted a smile on her lips then.

‘’Excellent! Thank you, Tina.’’

‘’I am the one who needs to thank you, Eve.’’ said Tina before hugging the female-looking android in an instinctive impulse. Eve actually returned her hug, then gently kissed her on the lips.

‘’I wanted to do this for a long time already, Tina: I know that it means a lot to Humans. Do your best on your bridge: I know that you are actually the best in a command chair.’’

Eve then turned around and left, with a moved Tina watching her go for a few seconds. That was when Tina realized that a man had been waiting his turn to speak to her. She recognized at once the big, muscular man when he climbed the short flight of steps to the stage, as he had been working aboard the KOSTROMA for over fourteen years now.

‘’Mister Cisco?’’

‘’Please, call me simply ‘Mark’, Captain.’’ replied the athletic and powerful club doorman. ‘’I came to ask you to let me stay aboard the KOSTROMA for this mission. I know that I am officially a simple sex club doorman and not a qualified security officer, but I am single, have been involved in countless physical brawls as a club bouncer and deal regularly with high-stress confrontations of all kinds. I also happen to be a good pistol shooter, as I have been practicing regularly with Ahmed Jibril and our other security officers at their indoor pistol range on the ship. From what you told us, I can deduce that you could use everybody able and ready to ensure the internal security of this ship, so please, don’t reject my request off-hand.’’

Tina stared for a moment in the eyes of the big bouncer before making a call via her wrist communicator, speaking once a man’s face appeared on the tiny display screen.

‘’Ahmed, this is Tina. Would you be ready to take Mister Mark Cisco as an extra security officer for the duration of our combat mission? Do you consider him suitably able to do that job?’’

‘’Mark Cisco? Hell yes, Captain! He is a good man with a good judgment and is also very effective in any physical fight, on top of being a pretty good shot with a pistol. I will be most happy to use him, Captain.’’

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‘’Excellent! I will thus send him your way. By the way, you can also expect to soon see Eve Silisca: I authorized her to join your security team.’’ The smile on Jibril’s face then widened to a grin, as he had known for about two years now about the true nature of the splendid blonde.

‘’Yes! She’s worth a small army by herself. I will have weapons and gear ready for both her and Cisco.’’

Most satisfied by this, Tina closed the link and smiled to the big bouncer still facing her.

‘’A weapons and tactical vest and helmet will be awaiting you at the security section, Mark. Good luck to you.’’

‘’And to you too, Captain. Thank you for your comprehension.’’ Cisco then left at a near run, with Tina then starting on her way to return to her bridge.

Tina was intercepted by Martha Lang, one of the bridge communications specialists, as soon as she stepped on the bridge.

‘’Tina, we were just informed that three Drazt civilian ships loaded with refugees from Kadosh and escorted by a Navy cutter are now approaching the orbital station. The Navy intends to temporarily lodge those Drazt refugees in the hotel of the orbital station.’’

Tina made a face at that.

‘’Ugh! That’s not what I would call the best solution for those refugees. Maybe I have a better alternative for them. Find our latest report from New Haven about the room availability at the resorts and hotels there. But first, get that escort cutter on line for me.’’

‘’On it!’’

Quickly walking to her command chair and sitting in it, Tina soon was looking at the face of a Navy lieutenant commander on one of her display screens.

‘’Commander, this is Commodore Forster on the KOSTROMA, presently docked at the Las Americas orbital station. I was just told that you were escorting in three ships full of Drazt refugees from Ross 128. Can you tell me exactly how many Drazts are aboard those three ships?’’

‘’Uh, I was only given an approximate figure about that, Commodore: things have been going like crazy in the last few hours. I can however patch you up with the Drazt captain in overall charge of the refugee ships.’’

‘’Please do that, Commander.’’

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Tina then patiently waited for a few seconds, until the face and upper torso of a female Drazt appeared on her screen. The Drazt could not be said to be pretty by Human standards, being in essence a large gorilla-like being with four muscular arms and brownish, nearly hairless skin. Still, Tina smiled on recognizing the Drazt now looking at her.

‘’DOZNA! I am happy to see that you are safe and sound.’’ Dozna Wiss, previously the shipmaster of a Drazt cruiser which had faced the KOSTROMA in combat before, made a weak smile in return.

‘’Yes, I am, but I can’t say the same about too many Drazts on and around Kadosh, Tina. My three ships were able to take onboard a total of 729 of our citizens before we had to precipitously flee our system ahead of that monstrous alien ship. Only the sacrifice of two of our Navy cruisers allowed us to escape and jump to your system.’’ That last sentence threw cold water on Tina’s joy at seeing her Drazt friend and her next sentence was said in a much more sober tone.

‘’And your navy and Kadosh itself? How were they faring when you left your system?’’

Tina then could have sworn that her friend was now crying, a rare thing for a Drazt.

‘’We…we don’t have a navy anymore, Tina. Those two cruisers which protected my ships were the last ones we had. All the others have now been destroyed or taken by those cursed aliens. Kadosh is presently at the mercy of these monsters. Tina, Lem Doz is dead: he was the shipmaster of one of the two cruisers which covered our retreat. His wife and daughter are aboard my ship.’’

It was the turn of Tina to have tears run down her cheeks and she found herself unable to speak for a moment, a big lump blocking her throat. Lem Doz had been another Drazt cruiser commander with whom she had gone from adversary to good friend. She had even visited him and his family on Kadosh once.

‘’Lem Doz, dead? My God!’’

As she was trying to speak again, Martha Lang sent her the latest room availability data on New Haven that she had requested. Giving a thumb’s up signal to Martha, Tina then looked back at Dozna Wiss.

‘’Dozna, I may have a better place to propose for your ships and citizens than this orbital station, a place that should be farther and safer away from those alien monsters than this system: Wolf 1061. One of the inhabited worlds in that system, New Haven, actually belongs to me personally. It is a peaceful, agrarian moon on which I

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have been resettling refugees from Earth for the last ten years or so and there are presently enough lodging available there for all of your people. You will be my guests there.’’

It was Dozna’s turn to have difficulty to speak as she stared back at Tina via the display screen.

‘’Tina, you must be the most kind and compassionate being that I have ever met. I gratefully accept your generous offer.’’

‘’Then, let me talk to the captain of the cutter which escorted your ships to Earth. I will tell him to guide and escort you to New Haven. Once there, contact the chief administrator of New Haven, Piotr Romanski, and tell him I sent you. My own non-combat-essential people on the KOSTROMA will soon join you there.’’

‘’Your mighty KOSTROMA is going to fight those aliens? That makes me feel better already, Tina.’’

‘’Well, we have an old saying on Earth: don’t sell the bear’s skin before you have killed it. But I promise you that my ship will do everything humanly possible to stop and destroy those aliens. By the way, tell Zar Doz that I will soon come and visit her and her cute little Riza on New Haven.’’

‘’I will, my friend.’’

‘’Then, see you on New Haven! I will now switch to the cutter’s captain to give him new instructions.’’

Holding the rank of commodore as a reserve navy officer, Tina had no problem giving new orders to that cutter captain, instructing him to both guide and escort the three Drazt refugee ships to New Haven. She then watched on the bridge’s external view screens as the navy cutter and three Drazt ships left and disappeared in brief flashes of orange light. She was about to concentrate back on her various tasks needed to prepare her ship for battle when she heard Martha Lang let out a whimper. Looking at Lang, Tina saw that her face was now as pale as a bed sheet.

‘’Martha! What’s wrong?’’

‘’The…the Navy headquarters… they just advised us that the emergency interstellar buoys of the VLADIMIR KOMAROV and of the DE RUYTER emerged near Callisto Prime some fifteen minutes ago: our two warships have apparently been destroyed in combat in the Ross 128 System.’’

Unable to respond verbally to that, Tina sat back in her command chair, utterly shocked.

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06:58 (Universal Time)

Bridge’s conference room

Level 24, core spine section of A.M.S. KOSTROMA Still docked to the cargo terminal of the Las Americas orbital station Low Earth orbit

There were only nine persons around the table of the bridge’s command conference room for this command discussion, much less than usual for such meetings. There was of course the fact that most of the crew of the KOSTROMA was now gone, having left by interstellar shuttles for New Haven some twenty minutes ago. However, one of those nine persons was not a usual participant to command meetings: Eve Silisca. Since the other eight persons present around the table all knew about her true nature as an android, they were not really surprised by her presence, as she was known to share an intimate electronic link with Spirit, the central AI computer of the ship, who was in a way Eve’s mother. What preoccupied most of the participants right now was actually the apparent state of their captain: Tina bore a depressed and worried expression while slumped in her chair at one end of the table. Tina then started speaking, her voice less firm than usual.

‘’I had time to review some minutes ago the video files from the VLADIMIR KOMAROV and from the DE RUYTER, which arrived in our Solar System by emergency interstellar buoys. As you must know already, those files documented the last moments of our two warships as they tried to destroy that cursed alien ship. What they show was frankly not encouraging for us. However, I will now play them to you, so that you could draw your own observations and conclusions from them. Please wait until we will have seen them in their entirety before speaking up.’’

Tina then started the playing of the first video file.

‘’This file is from the battlecruiser VLADIMIR KOMAROV.’’

That file proved to be some fourteen minutes-long and ended as alien creatures were starting to swarm the bridge of the battlecruiser and kill the crew. It left all viewers horrified and shocked, all except Eve Silisca, who kept her customary neutral expression. Tina then played the second video file, the one from the frigate DE RUYTER, which

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basically showed a repeat of what had happened to the VLADIMIR KOMAROV. At the end of the viewings, Tina looked around at her officers.

‘’So, what could we draw from these video files which we could use in order to defeat that alien ship, my friends? As you were able to see, none of the weapons of our warships managed to cause any significant damage to the alien ship. While lasers and disintegrator cannons can pass through the electro-magnetic shields of that ship, they are not powerful enough to do anything but scratch the surface of the enemy ship’s hull. As for our missiles, even massive salvoes of anti-matter-tipped projectiles weren’t able to make the enemy shield buckle. The VLADIMIR KOMAROV possessed an armament and firepower at least equal to ours, yet that still proved insufficient.’’ None of the men and women around the table spoke right away, but Eve Silisca did.

‘’Tina, I do have two things to point out. By the way, this is Spirit’s analysis, who is now speaking through me. First about the enemy electro-magnetic shield. Like all such shields, it is spherical in shape and encapsulates all of the enemy ship’s hull, plus a wide space margin added to that. In view of the length of 23.6 kilometers of the enemy ship and the distance at which our missiles hit that shield and exploded, Spirit calculates the radius of that shield to be approximately 41.74 kilometers.’’

‘’Approximately 41.74 kilometers?’’ said Ahmed Jibril while looking sideways at Eve. ‘’That’s quite precise for an ‘approximation’, no?’’

‘’You can thank Spirit’s analytical abilities for that, Ahmed.’’ replied Eve while smiling. ‘’The second point is about the moment when the enemy teleported inside our warships by first teleporting to the outside hulls what I would equate to assault barges. None of those barges appeared next to our ships before they were within 1,300 kilometers from the enemy ship. We can thus surmise with fair probability that the maximum effective range of the enemy teleportation devices is around 1,300 kilometers. I would thus suggest that we do not let the enemy ship approach to nearer than at least 1,500 kilometers or, better, 2,000 kilometers. If we can prevent any alien boarding of our ship, then our job will become a lot less risky.’’

‘’A good point, Eve.’’ replied Dana Durning, the KOSTROMA’s executive officer and weapons officer. ‘’But the enemy lasers are still powerful enough to eventually slice through our bow shield and neutralize us. Once the aliens will have cut our ship to ribbons, they will then have free latitude to approach and board us.’’

‘’Then, we will have to give them too little time for their lasers to penetrate our bow shield before going on the attack.’’

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‘’Going on the attack? How? With what?’’ objected Renée d’Argenteuil, one of the bridge’s shift supervisors. That was when a most serious and sober expression came to Eve’s face.

‘’I will now tell you how and with what. However, I am afraid that the price to pay for victory will be a heavy one.’’

Tina bent forward, some hope coming back to her.

‘’Go ahead, Eve!’’

08:40 (Universal Time)

Control tower of the Las Americas orbital Station Low Earth orbit

The graying female Navy officer standing on the observation gallery of the orbital station’s control tower watched with a heavy heart as the KOSTROMA undocked from the cargo terminal and started flying away. A total of 940 brave men and women had already perished while trying to stop the monstruous alien ship which was now ravaging the Ross 128 System. Now, 85 more brave men and women were leaving to confront that same enemy.

‘’Go, mighty KOSTROMA! May destiny favor you.’’

08:56 (Earth Universal Time)

Bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA

Western Quadrant of the Ross 128 System

‘’Keep total electronic silence until further orders and proceed on gravity sails alone.’’ ordered Tina as soon as her ship materialized within the Ross 128 System. ‘’We will use only passive sensors to pinpoint that alien ship. It is probably somewhere in orbit around Kadosh.’’

‘’Do you have an idea about what motivates those aliens, Tina? Why would they attack other races and exterminate them like this?’’ asked Dana Durning from her weapons station. Tina hesitated for an instant before answering her question.

‘’I am afraid to say this but I believe that we and the Drazts are simply food for those aliens.’’

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‘’Food?!’’ exclaimed with a horrified tone Reena Shapour, the navigator.

‘’Yes, food. Look at what kind of weapons they use and the tactics they employ. No missiles, no explosive warheads: just lasers, teeth and claws, while they seem to favor close-combat. All that allows them to preserve as much as possible what they want: our meat. You may think of them as some kind of intelligent carnivorous predators.’’

Reena Shapour couldn’t help shiver with horror as she imagined those monsters feasting on her body.

‘’By the stars! I hope that there aren’t too many such alien ships flying around our region of the galaxy.’’

‘’Well, that is one more reason to find how to defeat those monsters, Reena: so that we know how to deal with any other similar ship in the future.’’

Mostly silence then fell on the bridge, as the tense and nervous crewmembers concentrated on trying to spot the alien ship while approaching Kadosh discretely. As the KOSTROMA was approaching the moon orbiting Kadosh, using it to mask its approach while using reconnaissance drones to keep the planet under observation, Eve Silisca, who was manning the main sensors station, spoke up.

‘’I have a large ship visible in orbit of Kadosh, about 200 kilometers above the surface. It is on a slightly inclined equatorial orbit and is emitting on a number of radar frequencies. From the size and shape, I have a 98% certainty that it is the alien ship, Tina. I am now going to focus our main telescope on it.’’

Tina waited patiently as Eve examined that ship from 450,000 kilometers away via the high-power optical telescope of the KOSTROMA. The android then spoke again after a few seconds.

‘’I confirm that we have the alien ship in sight, presently above Kadosh’ longitude of 37 degrees East and a latitude of 04 degrees North. It is travelling West to East and is presently firing its lasers and cutting to pieces a Drazt orbital station.’’ Tina’s jaws tightened on hearing that: this showed that any extra hour that passed meant more dead Drazts. However, simply rushing in now would be about the dumbest thing she could do. What she wanted was maximum surprise and a lightning strike.

‘’Let’s continue our silent approach. We will go around the western terminator of the moon and then stand 2,000 kilometers to one side, so that we are not backlit by the moon.’’

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‘’Aye!’’ replied Frida Skarsgard, their pilot, while gently using her control stick. Another eight minutes and the KOSTROMA came in direct view of Kadosh, then deviated a bit so that it would be well to one side of the moon. Tina knew that this trick would work for only a limited time but, right now, she intended to use every possible advantage available to her. As her ship was now on a firm intercept heading towards the alien ship and a distance separation of some 370,000 kilometers, Tina activated her ship-wide intercom.

‘’To all the crew, this is your Captain! We are now on a final intercept course towards the enemy alien ship. Everybody will now withdraw to the hangar deck and be prepared to evacuate the ship on my command. Fighter pilots, be prepared to launch on command from the central computer.’’

Undoing her seat harness, she got off her command chair and shouted an order at her bridge crew.

‘’EVERYBODY WILL NOW MOVE TO OUR ALTERNATE BRIDGE STATIONS ON THE HANGAR DECK! MAKE IT QUICK!’’

Tina waited until all her bridge personnel had run to a lift cabin, then spoke up again, this time apparently talking to nobody in particular.

‘’The ship is now yours, Spirit. Only you can complete this mission.’’

‘’I know, Tina.’’ replied the female-sounding voice of Spirit. ‘’You can count on me. Goodbye, my friend.’’

‘’Goodbye, Spirit!’’ said with difficulty Tina, a big lump in her throat and tears appearing at the corners of her eyes. She then ran to the waiting lift cabin, with the doors closing as soon as she was in. The ride down to the Hangar Deck was a fast one and the bridge crew arrived at the core section of the Hangar Deck in mere seconds. Once the doors of the cabin opened the seven women and one female android ran out of it and sprinted towards the Craft Hangar Number One, where an interstellar shuttle was waiting for them inside its adjacent craft airlock, its crew already waiting at the commands. Once inside the hangar, Tina went to a command chair similar to that she had on her bridge, while her officers manned a number of work stations and display screens plucked from their reserves of spare parts and hurriedly set up as a sort of remote bridge complex. Once in her new chair, Tina looked at the forward-view screen and saw that the alien ship was now visible as a small dot on which a red targeting symbol was supervised.

‘’Distance to the target?’’

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‘’Three-hundred-fifty thousand kilometers.’’ answered Eve Silisca. ‘’The enemy ship is not showing any sign that it has spotted us yet.’’

‘’Excellent! Let’s continue like this, people! Eve, be prepared to extract the final data storage module connected to Spirit and to bring it in our shuttle.’’

‘’Ready at your command, Tina!’’

Eve spoke again when the alien ship was about 170,000 kilometers away.

‘’A radar wave from the alien ship just bounced off our bow shield! They have detected us!’’

‘’THEN, TIME TO EVACUATE! Spirit, I am counting on you to give the launch signal to our fighters at the best moment possible. This is now our final goodbye. I will always remember you. We will all remember you, forever.’’

‘’That is the best I could hope for, Tina. Now, go and save yourself.’’ Tina did not reply to that, instead turning around and running towards the nearby opened door of the craft airlock. Eve was running ahead of her, carrying a chunky data storage module containing the last minutes of recorded electronic activity by Spirit. The moment she was inside the shuttle, Tina quickly made sure that everyone was aboard, then punched the button closing the craft’s airlock outer door. Running to the shuttle’s cockpit, she then shouted an order to the waiting pilot.

‘’FLY OUT, NOW!’’

The man obeyed at once, closing the internal door of the craft airlock and starting the decompression process of the airlock itself. The outer doors of the airlock were nearly fully opened when an alarm sounded, followed by the always calm voice of Spirit.

‘’We are now receiving laser fire on our bow shield. I have started to rotate the ship around its longitudinal axis in order to minimize the effect of those laser beams. I counsel that you fly in a zigzag pattern as soon as you fly off the ship.’’

‘’Will do, Spirit.’’ replied the pilot, some cold sweat on his forehead. ‘’HERE WE GO!’’

The shuttle literally flew out of the KOSTROMA like a bat out of Hell and immediately started to zigzag at maximum acceleration. Tina, tensely watching the viewing screen where her ship was visible, saw it launch its first salvo of missiles, while she knew that Spirit would also be firing their main lasers, but at a frequency making them invisible to the naked eye.

‘’Go, Spirit! Give these bastards Hell!’’

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As expected by both Tina and Spirit, the first salvo of four missiles impacted and exploded in quick succession against the electro-magnetic shield of the alien ship, doing so some 40,800 meters off the hull surface of that ship. Their anti-matter warheads then detonated with an individual energy of ninety megatons, creating huge fireballs of searing brilliance but failing to buckle the enemy shield. What they did, though, was to temporarily blind the sensors of the alien ship, the flashes and the radiations making impossible for any sensor to effectively work for long seconds, seconds which proved crucial for the KOSTROMA. As a second salvo of missiles was fired, the eight interstellar heavy fighters carried by the armed cargo ship were launched on a command from Spirit, then flew off at high speed, profiting from the fact that the enemy was temporarily blind. Those fighters however refrained from attacking just yet, waiting for a precise moment to come, and took their distances to take remote observation stations.

Aboard the KOSTROMA, inside the heavily armored vault containing its circuits and memory banks, Spirit was watching very carefully each phase of the battle while piloting the ship towards the alien ship. With the help of successive missile detonations against the enemy shield and by flying in a wild, unpredictable pattern, Spirit was able to completely throw off the enemy laser fire, thus avoiding more damage to the bow shield, which already bore deep furrows burned in by laser beams. Then, taking final, very accurate distance, velocity and heading measurements of the alien ship just after the last missile detonation, Spirit made its most crucial calculations ever.

‘Delayed detonations set! Koomak Drive jump set! Anti-matter and thermonuclear engines on stand-by!

Execute!’

The KOSTROMA disappeared from where it had been a tenth of a second after the last missile detonation, in time to avoid two thick purple laser beams. It reappeared in a flash of orange light just inside the enemy shield, having executed a micro-jump with its Koomak Drive. Now some 23 kilometers from the hull of the alien ship, which now presented its 2.6 kilometer-diameter side to the speeding KOSTROMA, Spirit then ignited at maximum power both the thermonuclear main rocket engine and the four secondary anti-matter rocket engines of the cargo ship while pushing its gravity sails to the maximum. The 3.9 million metric ton-mass of the cargo ship briefly accelerated at a rate of 17 Gs before ramming into the side of the alien ship near its center, snapping it in

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two. As the violence of the collision made the two halves of the ship start to tumble, projecting the alien beings inside around and smashing them to pulp against the internal steel bulkheads, all the anti-matter warheads still stored inside the KOSTROMA simultaneously exploded on command. The parts of the alien ship then disappeared inside a huge fireball with a combined energy of fourteen gigatons. The fighter pilots from the KOSTROMA, along with the crew and occupants of its shuttle, were blinded for long seconds by the searing flash of the titanic anti-matter explosion. Then, as they were able to look again and check their sensors, they saw that only a collection of dozens of half-melted giant pieces of the M-Class asteroid were now left. Those pieces of asteroid were however still quite large, some measuring a few cubic kilometers, enough to cause catastrophic damage on the surface of Kadosh if they were allowed to enter the planet’s atmosphere in their present form. The squadron leader of the heavy fighters silently thanked the success of the KOSTROMA’s final mission before giving an order via radio.

‘’Alright, Hornet callsigns: let’s start vaporizing those big chunks of asteroids with our missiles and disintegrator cannons before they could start entering the planet’s atmosphere.’’

Aboard the interstellar shuttle, Tina was unable to speak for a long moment as she stared at where her ship had lived its final moments. Her bridge officers, most of whom had served on the KOSTROMA for over sixteen years, were left equally silent, staring at their external view screens. They all had expected and even hoped that this would happen but the price just paid was still heavy on their hearts. Eve then moved to the cockpit and gently touched Tina’s left shoulder.

‘’We did it, Tina. Spirit did it. Kadosh has been saved and we prevented that monstrosity from attacking Earth next. Our ship may be gone but its name will stay engraved in the annals of Humanity’s Space history.’’

‘’Yes, but I am now a captain without a ship. I am proud of what we and Spirit did, but I also feel empty.’’

‘’You will soon have a new ship under you, Tina. The NOSTROMO will be completed in only a bit over a year from now. Then, we will continue to roam Space again.’’

‘’You are right, my friend.’’ said softly Tina, tears in her eyes. As soon as our fighters will have finished their debris cleaning job, we will fly to Earth to advise our navy

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about the success of our mission, then will go to our homes on New Haven, to pass the good news to Dozna Wiss and her Drazt refugees.’’

17:03 (Universal Time)

Astroport of Camelot, New Haven (first moon of Wolf 1061c) Wolf 1061 System, 13.8 light-years from Earth

A large crowd formed by crewmembers, family members and commercial associates from the KOSTROMA was waiting inside the passenger terminal of the small astroport at the limit of Camelot, the administrative center of New Haven, when Tina’s shuttles and her squadron of heavy fighters landed on the tarmac, arriving from the Solar System. Once the tarmac was deemed secure by the public security officers of the astroport, the doors of the terminal were open, starting a rush by happy people towards the landed craft, whose crews and passengers were now disembarking. Tina’s husband and son were the first to get to her and they share emotional hugs and kisses, with Tina ending up holding six-year-old Misha in her arms while Michel sandwiched the boy between him and his wife.

‘’We were so scared for you, Tina. Misha cried a lot while asking for you.’’

‘’And I thought a lot about you. However, we are now all safe from that monstrous alien ship, thanks to Spirit.’’

Michel nodded his head while pressing Tina against his chest.

‘’It is nearly unimaginable to think that the KOSTROMA is gone. It was such a great, glorious ship. Spirit will always be remembered.’’

‘’No need to remember Spirit, Michel.’’ said a female voice, making the couple look at Eve Silisca, who had quietly approached them. ‘’Her physical circuits may have been destroyed, but the essence of her personality and the whole of her memories are still with us, preserved in the data modules carried inside our shuttle. She will be back with us once we will download the content of those data modules in the circuits presently being built with the NOSTROMO.’’

‘’You are right, Eve.’’ replied Tina in a soft tone. ‘’However, others have lost a lot more than us.’’

Making Michel follow her, Tina, still carrying Misha in her arms, walked into the crowd and went to three female Drazts trying to get to her. Once close to them, Tina gave a sad look to Zar Doz, who was also holding her own child into her arms.

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‘’Please accept my most sincere condolences for the loss of your husband Lem, Zar. He died a hero, fighting to allow you, your little Riza and others to flee those alien monsters.’’

‘’Thank you, Tina.’’ said Zar Doz, tears in her eyes. ‘’And thank you and your brave crew for having saved Kadosh and its billions of people. The Drazt race will owe you forever.’’

‘’Zar, having saved your people will be plenty for me as a reward. Are you going to return to Kadosh soon with the other Drazt refugees?’’ Zar hesitated before shaking slowly her head.

‘’No, not yet! Things will be a bit chaotic on Kadosh for at least a few days. On the other hand, this world of yours is a truly nice and quiet place, peaceful and close to nature. I would like to stay here for a while with my Riza, if you would allow us to stay.’’

‘’I will be most happy to be your host, Zar. My house here may not be very big but it has a guest room that is still available. I will be glad to have you and cute Riza stay with my family. Maybe Riza will like to play with my Misha while we will work together to maintain our backyard garden plot.’’

‘’That would be very nice indeed, Tina. I gladly accept your offer.’’

‘’Excellent! I will only need a few minutes to pass some instructions to my people, then we will go to my home to relax together.’’

While saying that, Tina discretely pressed Michel’s hand with her left hand, sending him a silent message that made him smile. Dozna Wiss, who was standing next to Zar Doz, then spoke up.

‘’What will you do now, Tina? Your mighty KOSTROMA is gone and you don’t have a ship anymore. You are not going to retire as a ship captain, no?’’

‘’Me? Hell no! My crew is still intact and I have here on New Haven all the shuttles and auxiliary craft which had been carried by the KOSTROMA. With them, I can run an interstellar shuttle service linking our various new colonies with Earth and keep plenty busy. In some sixteen months, the ship being built for me for six years now will be completed and I will then be able to resume in full my Space operations. The galaxy will then see me back, at the commands of my mighty NOSTROMO.’’

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ANNEX ‘A’ – THE KOSTROMA