The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception (11 page)

Cat froze as the Chief Engineer addressed her as captain. She wanted to correct him but she knew that what the Bowman desperately needed in addition to a full month in a shipyard was in fact a captain.

"Cal, put me on ship wide intercoms"

"
Acknowledged
" the synthetic male voice of her AI responded. She noted that Cal had started using the bridge intercoms so that everyone could hear his responses.

"Attention crew, this is First Officer Catherine Kimbridge. The Bowman took a direct hit in an unprovoked attack by the alien race we know as the D'lralu. We escaped but not before losing eleven of our comrades... Including Captain Ramchandani. Effective immediately I am assuming command of the Bowman. Also effective immediately I am appointing Lt. Commander Ken Kirkland as acting First Officer. He will wear two hats as Chief of Engineering for the duration.

We were hit hard. We have bought ourselves at best a few hours before the enemy is upon us again. I need everyone working as hard as they can to get as many systems back online as fast as possible. Prioritize hyper drive, weapons and environmental in that order.

I need you focused people. I promise you there will be time for mourning later. That is all, Captain Kimbridge out."

Turning to face Ken, Cat asked "How long before we have hyper drive available?"

"Captain, the better question is 'Are we going to have hyper drive available?'" He shifted to the side as the medical crew started to carry the stabilized Lt. Cortez out of the room. "I need fifteen minutes to make an assessment and then I can get back with you."

"OK Ken, I trust you but I'm going to hold you to that fifteen minutes. I'm giving Cal free reign to travel through the ship's systems. It took him only a fraction of a second to get most of the bridge back up and running."

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"Right now trusting Cal seems the safer of available options. We need all the help we can get if we are going to be ready for Three of Nine"

Personal Log

June 4, 2112 - I took command of the USC Bowman today. It was not how I wanted to take command, but with the loss of Captain Ramchandani there was no choice. I've started to notice how my life changes drastically every time I encounter the D'lralu.

I've given the Heshe AI named Cal access to the ships systems. The speed at which he can work was the deciding factor. The D'lralu will be back in a few hours, and even with the Heshe's help I don't know that we will be ready. A hell of a first command.

Cat was sitting in the captain's ready room...
her ready room
- she mused, when Ken walked in with a stack of tablets which he proceeded to scatter on the tablet.

"Sorry for the mess Captain but the Bowman's AI is as shot up as the rest of the ship... I can't move data between any of the major systems because of network corruptions.
If you hadn't injected Cal into the net with his incredible noise filtering routines I doubt we'd have anything running right now."

"Ken, " Cat said softly "when we're alone...
please call me Cat... This chair... This chair is too big for me."

"Nonsense. You're exactly the captain we need right now... Captain... Cat."

"Thanks Ken... By the way... How is Rebecca?"

"She's hanging in there. Most of her friends on board were from environmental. They let her grow
an herb garden in hydroponics. She lost quite a few of them... It's hitting her hard."

Cat knew that a part of Ken, the husband and chaplain, wanted to be with his wife, but she also knew that his commitment to duty would keep him focused on the task at hand. As she had told the crew earlier, there would be time for
mourning later... If they survived, she added as an afterthought.

Cat waved towards the tablets. "How bad is it?"

Ken sighed... "It's not good. Most of the mains are blown... I can get active shielding online in a day or so but not any faster. The hyper drive is in good shape... as are the fusion generators but there is no way to get power from one to the other... The best we can do at this point is jump about half a click."

"So we can't run... Can we fight?"

"With what?" Ken asked. We don't have juice for the rail gun. We can launch torpedoes but given the amount of shielding those ships carry we’re not going to get far unless we use one of the 'SJ's... And without a working hyper drive we can't afford to use them"

Cat pointed to the various tablets on table. "You said we had a working hyper drive
but we could only shunt enough power to it to do a micro jump. It might be time to try the micro-jump routines we've been working on."

Ken leaned forward resting his elbows on the table while looking at one of the tablets. "The only way we’re going to get this to work, is if we can tie Cal into the drive system and let him calculate the jumps. The Bowman's AI wouldn't be up to it even if it were 100% which it clearly is not."

"Cal" Cat addressed the air... "Have you been monitoring?"

"
Yes Captain.
"

"Do you have sufficient access to the hyper drive controls to run a series of hyper drive micro jumps?"

"
This will not present an issue. I calculate I can engage the hyper drive sixty eight times a second for a top effective speed of roughly 200 kilometers a second. I should point out that because the D'lralu can continue to accelerate his top speed is well in excess of this. Nor will this speed be fast enough to escape the blast zone of an 'SJ' round.
"

Cat smiled. “If I'm right we won't have to escape the blast zone. At maximum speed, how long before we can get into orbit around Pluto?"

"
Three hours and twenty six minutes.
"

"...
and how long before Three of Nine gets here?"

"
Three hours and twelve minutes.
"

Cat's face fell. Her plan hinged on beating the D'lralu to Pluto. "Cal
make best possible speed for Pluto."

Turning to her First Officer... "Ken I need you to get an SJ ready for deployment in two hours. I want you to program it to jump the moment it loses the lock on our transponder for more than 5 seconds."

"Why 5 seconds?"

"Because if it loses that lock for more than 5 seconds we will either be dead or safe... Either way I need it to return Three of Nine to whatever hell spawned him."

***

The next three hours went by in a blur. Ken deployed the SJ round per her instructions. At the same time, with Cal's assistance, the fusion core from the sole undamaged shuttle was
Gerry-rigged to feed power into the main hyper drive. This allowed the size of the micro-jumps to be increased by 13%, which meant it would be a dead heat to the Pluto-Charon dual planetary system.

Cat had briefly considered heading for the closer of the two planetary bodies that orbited around a common center of gravity but even at 12% the mass of Pluto, Charon was simply too small to offer the protection needed from the SJ round they were about to deploy.

Cat looked about the bridge. Ken's people had done a good job cleaning things up. Communications, helm and weapon stations were all manned. Shields were still down but the displacement generators were working over most of the critical systems. Environmental was still pretty much of a lost cause but Oxygen candles had been lit to supplement their dwindling O2 supply. It was ironic that, if they survived the next few minutes, they would be dependent on technology used to take men to the moon to survive the next few days.

Ken looked up from her science station, which he had converted to an engineering console. "Captain, the D'lralu ship is coming within their weapons range."

"Open a channel" Cat ordered.

"Channel open, ma'am" Lt. Cochrane reported.

"This is the USC Bowman calling the D'lralu vessel. Please respond" Cat waited a few moments to see if Three of Nine would answer. When nothing came back she added a taunt. "Come on Three of Nine... I thought you wanted to play."

"This is Three of Nine... What game do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking of a little 'hide and seek'" Cat answered.

"I'm unfamiliar with this game. How does one play it?"

"Captain, I'm showing a surge in his weapons systems" Ken said in a low voice.

"It’s a very simple game used by our warriors to establish their worthiness...
Are you worthy?"

"Your game has rules I assume?"
the D'lralu asked.

"Of
course... You wait for ten seconds. I hide behind this little planet. Then you try to find me before I find you."

"And if I win?"

"It's not important... You won't win..." Cat signaled Cochrane to cut the signal.

"Cal this is
very important... Exactly four seconds before we pass behind Pluto I need you to cut our transponder signal... The instant we get behind Pluto cut the hyper drive and give us everything you have in shields and stabilization thrusters."

"
Acknowledged, Captain. Would you like me to calculate the odds of success?
" 

"Absolutely not!"

***

The D'lralu ship saw the Earth vessel slip behind the large planetoid. As Three of Nine prepared to pursue, his sensors detected a hyper drive wake appearing behind him by only a few thousand kilometers. It was too small to be a manned ship so perhaps it was an automated message
buoy, similar to the one he had sent to his pack mates on the home world several hours ago.