Chroniech! (25 page)

"Given what we have seen so far," Scarboro interrupted, "I would say that any Hess weapons technology would give us an edge against the Chroniech."

"Provided we could build it in time," Mulgany added quietly.

Sorbith continued before any other comments could be made. "He's right - just because the Hess is giving us this technology does not mean we will have an instant advantage over the Chroniech. It will take us time to develop the abilities and expertise to build these new devices. The communications device alone will require a considerable enhancement in our ability to produce super-fine control fields and ultra-super-high frequency resonators. It's going to be a race between our ability to use what the Hess will give us and the Chroniech's ability to wipe us out."

"What do they want in return," someone asked.

"It!" someone else corrected. "What does IT want?"

"We are to try to reunite the Kyrra with their people," Sorbith replied. "To do this, we will supply the Hess with a ship which it will then modify. The major portion of the modification will be the replacement of our stardrive with its own. The Hess stardrive, like ours, is an integrated package consisting of a power reactor and a closely coupled energy conversion system.”

"Their drive system is unique in that it not only produces the stardrive fields, but it also generated the primary defense screen for their ship. When the Hess arrived here, the stardrive reactor became the main power reactor for the entire facility."

Sorbith started slowly walking as he talked. "Since we will be taking the Hess' primary power source, a replacement will be needed. The Alliance does not possess a reactor of sufficient power to be used as a replacement. The only other power source of sufficient capacity available is the reactor for the stasis chamber. This reactor will be modified slightly and it will become the new main power reactor for the Hess."

"But that would leave them defenseless," Captain Mulgany pointed out. "We're not just taking their stardrive, but their defense shield as well."

"Good point," Sorbith replied. "And one that the Hess has already addressed. It has started construction of a replacement shield generator. It will not be as efficient as the original but it will provide a means of defense. The only thing we need to supply at this moment is a ship."

Sorbith had been slowly making his way toward Stricklen. He stopped in front of the captain and looked at him for a moment before continuing. "Captain Stricklen, by the authority vested in me as a peacekeeper I hereby confiscate your ship in order to carry out the wishes of the Alliance Grand Council as expeditiously as possible."

Stricklen's mouth flopped open but the shock of that statement was so severe he was at a complete loss of words. Before he could say anything, Sorbith continued, "I would have preferred to use the General Patton, but she has not only been too severely damaged but the Hess said it's too big to accommodate their stardrive.”

"To increase our chance of survival on this trip we will need a warship. The troop transport which Almaranus is sending does not carry enough firepower for this mission. I also want to get underway with as little delay as possible so I have been forced to commandeer the only other available warship in the area — yours.”

"A good portion of your crew will be transferred to the GP in order to make room for the spare parts and supplies that will be transferred from the transport when it arrives. Several of the Dragon's weapon pods will be removed and replaced with Hess weaponry. The stardrive will be replaced with the Hess stardrive.”

"Since its stardrive requires more detailed information concerning the state of the space-time field around the ship, the navigational system of the Komodo Dragon will also be enhanced and upgraded by the Hess. Your main computer will be re-programmed to allow it to properly control the new system."

Ken found his voice and asked the obvious question, "Who will be taking my place as captain?"

"Nobody. You will remain in command of the Dragon. I am simply confiscating the ship and all its contents, including the crew."

Inside, Stricklen was relieved. But he still had many concerns, "And who is going to do all this? How long will it take?"

Returning to his seat, Sorbith replied, "The Hess is building a small army of robots which will perform the work under the supervision of the Hess central processor. We never realized it, but the Hess has a complete manufacturing complex buried beneath the planetary surface. It actually mines metals from the planet's mantel.”

"This complex was used to build the probes which the Hess sent out to scan all surrounding space. Now it will be used to modify your ship. Think of it captain — by the time the Hess is through with the Komodo Dragon it will be the most powerful and the fastest ship in the Alliance."

"How long?" Ken repeated.

"Baring any unforeseen problems, the Hess claims that it can make the modifications to your ship in about twenty days. Work will begin in about fifteen hours, which is when the null-gravity work zone will be completed on the planet's surface. Construction is already underway. As soon as it is ready, the Dragon will make planetfall."

A planetary landing? With a heavy-cruiser? Ken's thoughts raced. The Komodo Dragon had been built in space and massed over 215 thousand tons. She had never been designed to rest on a planetary surface. Structurally, the Dragon could probably take it, especially since it was designed to take a considerable amount of acceleration stress, but the ship had no landing pads and was not configured to support itself within a gravitational field. Stricklen feared that landing the Dragon was a very bad idea. He said as much to Sorbith.

"Ken," Sorbith replied in a soothing voice. "I know you are concerned, but the Hess knows what it is doing. The descent will be under its control and it has assured me the landing can be made safely. They are building a special null-gravity dock which has been specifically designed to hold your ship. Trust it."

Stricklen's unconvincing look went unnoticed as Sorbith turned his attention to the rest of the group. "We need to get down to business. The Hess has been standing by for our signal. Through a link which will be established with the Patton's main computer, the Hess will present its plans to modify the Dragon. We will work with it to ensure its plans will not impact any of the ship's functions. I will leave the determination of the new crew compliment up to Captain Stricklen."

Not long afterwards, the Hess established the link and presented its plans to the group using the conference room's main monitor and holographic projector. Soon, Stricklen forgot his concerns as he concentrated on the task at hand.

When the meeting was finally over, Stricklen had a good feel for what the Hess would be doing to his ship. He was also very glad that he could still refer to the Dragon as his ship. It would have been a devastating blow to him if he had been removed from command.

15 - Tholtaran Advance

Ken and Doug decided to grab a quick bite to eat in the General Patton's officers mess before heading back to their own ship. Due to all the repair work that was ongoing they were the only ones there. Captain Mulgany had declined the offer to join them.

The two officers discussed all they had to do in order to prepare the ship for a planetary landing. Considering the facilities that the Hess would be providing it turned out to be much less than originally anticipated. They quickly finished and headed back to the shuttle bay.

Captain Mulgany suddenly appeared around a corner seemingly in a big hurry. Slightly out of breath, he paused long enough to speak to the two officers. "The juggernaut is on the move. Its about to cross the line beyond which the Hess have promised to take action. You're more than welcome to observe from the bridge."

Without waiting for a reply, the captain continued on his way at a pace just short of a run. Stricklen quickly followed with Doug tagging along.

A computer enhanced visual of the approaching juggernaut was displayed on the main screen when the trio burst through the door of the bridge. An officer was seated in the command chair. Upon seeing his captain, he relinquished the chair and said, "The juggernaut has stopped just short of the line. The image on the main viewer is being transmitted from a probe currently located about 220 kilometers from the Tholtaran fleet. No actions have been taken by either side."

"Range and status?"

"Range, one hundred and ten thousand kilometers with all weapon systems fully powered," the officer replied. "We have shifted orbit and put the bulk of the planet between us and the Tholtaran fleet."

"What a monster!" Doug remarked. Seen by itself, without a frame of reference, the juggernaut's size could not be determined. Doug's comment was made when a Tholtaran assault cruiser drifted into view. The assault cruiser measured roughly 975 meters in length. Compared against the backdrop of the juggernaut, it looked like a small, fat stick.

"Picking up another drive-wake," someone reported. "Very small, distance zero point seven lights, traveling at high speed, possibly a probe. Wake signature analysis in progress."

Eight brilliant points of light appeared on the surface of the juggernaut. "They're charging sledgehammers!" the weapon's officer reported. Stricklen knew the sledgehammers of the juggernaut were hundreds of times more powerful than those carried aboard the Komodo Dragon.

Being the type of weapon which it was, the sledgehammer required a few moments to build to full charge. Each vortex was held in the grip of powerful magnetic fields as it was charged with energetic particles. After receiving a full charge, the vortex would be launched toward its doomed target at nearly one-quarter the speed of light. Running the numbers quickly through his head, Stricklen realized the bolt from the weapon would take almost four seconds to reach their position.

"Drive wake analysis of the incoming is complete," CIC reported. "It is consistent with a Chroniech reconnaissance probe."

"That's all we need right now," Mulgany remarked.

For six long seconds the sledgehammers built up power. Each point of light appeared brighter than a welder's arc. Then, as one, the weapons were fired. Stricklen watched them approach as if in slow motion. Each glowing ball seemed to crackle and spit excess energy into space as it flew toward the Hess base.

Suddenly, all eight points of light stopped moving. Held in space by an invisible force, the solitons which made up the sledgehammer's energy containment bottle slowly lost their integrity and the deadly balls of energy simply snuffed themselves out in brilliant flashes of light and radiation.

The juggernaut responded with a volley of hundreds of missiles and at least twenty energy weapons. The energy cannons of the juggernaut were more powerful than many planetary based weapons. Each one was backed by the full output of a five gigawatt fusion reactor. Even at this extreme range, the juggernaut's energy cannons could seriously tax the shield of all but the largest Alliance warship.

Stricklen watched in amazement as the power of those titanic weapons was harmlessly deflected as they clawed at the Hess defense shield. One by one the missiles were quickly intercepted with precisely directed energy beams. They detonated in silent points of thermonuclear powered light. Apparently infuriated with their inability to inflict damage, the entire Tholtaran battle fleet accelerated forward with all available weapons blazing away.

The Hess had promised to take appropriate retaliatory action. They did. Brighter than a thousand suns, a brilliant beam of light reached out and struck the defense shield of the juggernaut. Amazingly, the shield held off the attack. The power contained within that single beam must have been horrendous because the shield was flaming with deflected energy.

A juggernaut's shield was unique. Because of the ship's size a single shield generator would have been immense and would have required more power than the juggernaut's reactors could have supplied. After years of research the Tholtaran's had perfected the only multi-faceted shield in existence.

Spread out over the surface of the gigantic vessel were small blisters each one containing a reactor and a shield generator. These specially designed shield generators were built to interfere with each other so that instead of creating a multitude of spherical shields a series of hemispherical shields where created.

The shield design gave the juggernaut a unique appearance. In operation, a defense shield appears as a silvery, perfectly spherical, surface. The juggernaut's unique shield design caused it to appear as if it had been surrounded by reflective bubble-wrap. The design also gave the juggernaut an unexpected advantage no other ship in the Alliance possessed. If an enemy managed to penetrate a shield and subsequently destroyed one of the shield generators, the surrounding generators could be adjusted to compensate for the one that had been lost.

As Ken watched, the glaring rod of energy seemed to thicken. The shield failed allowing the deadly beam to strike the unprotected skin of the juggernaut. Like a surgeon with a laser scalpel, the Hess carved out huge chunks of the most powerful ship the Alliance had ever built. After an incredible, heart stopping 45 seconds, the beam finally winked into nothingness.

Stricklen could not believe his eyes. The juggernaut had been neatly carved into three pieces. The rest of the Tholtaran battle fleet quickly retreated. The bridge was absolutely silent. Doug looked down to find he had been gripping the arm of the chair in front of him so hard his fingers were white. Relaxing his grip, he looked at Ken.

Stricklen looked back and let out blast of air he had been unconsciously holding. "I'm glad they're on our side," somebody muttered under their breath. So complete was the silence that it was heard throughout the bridge as if it had been shouted.

The communications watch noticed something on his panel and turned to investigate. After a moment he reported, "Message from the Hess. They have contacted the Tholtaran fleet and informed them that one ship will be allowed to return to recover any survivors."