The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception (2 page)

The small craft was slowly making its way to the fourth planet. It was using a crude ion plasma drive that would literally take days to accomplish what Yarin's quantum fold drive could accomplish in milliseconds. Still, this was a first for this young race. The technology being demonstrated would make practical the exploitation and exploration of the human solar system.
This, in turn, would produce a paradigm shift in how humans viewed themselves and their universe. Their rate of technological growth would soon outpace anything the human species had to date accomplished. But would it be enough?

***

Cat Kimbridge put down her fork. Dinner was a flash frozen smoked salmon steak with a light horseradish sauce and German potato salad from a famous national chain restaurant called "Teddy Peters." She sipped her glass of lightly sweet white wine. This was day six, and she was right on target for Mars orbital insertion - hence the celebration.

Soon they would be in orbit
, and the sensation of acceleration induced gravity would cease. One of the interesting innovations in the Arizona was a fully gimbaled living space that automatically rotated with acceleration to provide a consistent up and down experience for the crew. It wasn't artificial gravity, but it was the next best thing.

"Ben, Status report"

"All systems nominal. Orbital insertion in approximately 18.4 minutes"

"Report fuel status"

"Primaries are at 71%. Emergency reserves are at 98.3%"

Cat sat up straighter in her seat. 98.3 was not the number she had been expecting. "Explain the delta between the emergency reserves now and mission start"

"Certainly. At 18:42 on December 4, 2067 the port reserve tank was hit with a micro-meteor that breached the tank for 68 seconds until the nanite fiber mesh could seal the hole."

"And why didn't you report this?"

"I just did commander"

"Correction. Why didn't you report it at the time of the incident?"

"I was following your previous orders. Report only what is unusual. A loss of fuel due to micro-meteor impact occurs in 3.2% of voyages between Earth and Mars and is..."

"...
therefore not unusual" Cat continued. "Ben, new orders. Please report anything that impacts the operational readiness of this ship by more than a percent in a time frame that is atypical." Cat was so used to thinking of Ben as an intelligence in his own right that she occasionally forgot how incredibly literal AIs tended to be.

"Command accepted. Shall I also report anomalous reading occurring outside the ship?"

"Absolutely"

"Very good. I wish to report an anomalous reading outside the ship"

"Specify"

"Two spacecraft
are approaching at point two C."

"What... Nothing we have can go that fast!" Cat screamed as she dashed for the bridge of her small ship.

"Thus the anomalous nature of this event" Ben continued in his monotone voice.

Cat sat in her command chair and brought up her holographic interface with a wave of her hand. "Ben, isolate the sector the two anomalous craft
are vectoring in from and display on my board."

"Not possible. Targets are vectoring in from multiple directions"

"Fine!" Cat yelled. "Use the Arizona as the center point and show both approach vectors. Label the targets one and two based on the first to reach us"

"Understood, parameters accepted. Plotting multiple vectors now."

"Give me a time frame. How long before they get here?"

"Assuming neither craft changes velocity or vector, craft one will be in our vicinity in 3 minutes and 26 seconds. The second craft is adjusting its speed to arrive at exactly the same time."

It was the longest three and a half minutes in Cat's 30 year life. She had Ben try to hail the two craft, but there was no way to know if their communication technologies were in any way compatible. Neither craft responded to her attempts.

"Ben, prepare a message
buoy. Attach a complete log and sensor track from our friends out there. On my mark, send it off best possible speed for Lunar One."

"Buoy ready. Launching for Lunar One on your mark."

When the approaching craft were 5 seconds out Cat gave the order to launch.

"Craft One is altering course and speed..."

A sudden brilliant flash lit up the holographic matrix in front of Cat. "Ben report... What was that?"

"The message
buoy was destroyed by a tightly focused 10 mega joule coherent energy beam emitted from a dorsal array on the first craft"

***

   Yarin watched the D'lralu scout ship destroy the small probe the Earth craft had ejected moments before. He wasn't sure what he was going to do. The D'lralu had not been expected to encounter Humanity for another hundred years or so. A scout ship showing up now meant humanity had far less time than the Heshe had anticipated. If the D'lralu scout kept to standard procedures it would disable the human craft and then dissect both it and its crew to learn as much as it could; prior to reporting the find to its home command. Once that report was made... Humanity was doomed.

***

"Ben, abort orbital insertion. Emergency acceleration... Get Phobos between us and that ship!"

"Emergency acceleration engaged"

Cat felt herself pushed back in her chair as the Arizona reached for her peak acceleration of 1.2 gravities. Older chemical rockets could achieve much greater accelerations, but the Arizona has been designed for efficiency and not acceleration.

"How long before we are shielded by Phobos?"

"Current projections indicate we will not be able to accelerate fast enough to successfully hide before the approaching spacecraft intercep..."

Cat was thrown out of her seat as a blinding flash enveloped the bridge. The flash was accompanied by a thunderclap and the sound of twisting metal. A shower of sparks filled the space between Cat and the main console.

"Ben, report! What just happened?"

There was no response. Her AI was offline. Scrambling to reach the backup overrides she threw the breaker and brought emergency power systems up. Twenty seconds later Ben reported he was back online.

"There has been a hull breach near the aft thrusters. The VASIMR drive is inop. Chemical thrusters are online but will be insufficient to return to Earth orbit."

"Can we repair the drive?" Cat asked although she suspected she knew the answer.

"Negative. The primary drive was fused by a 250 mega joule coherent energy beam."

"250 mega joule? How is
it we are still alive?"

"I would speculate that the operator of craft one simply wished to disable us."

"Well they've succeeded" Cat mused quietly. "I wonder what they want?"

"Unknown Commander"

"Ben, can you bring up any sort of display... I'm blind here"

"Holographic systems are offline
, but I can bring up a flat panel display."

"Good boy... Give me a split view... I want both crafts displayed."

The main view screen flickered to life. The ruddy red of Mars appeared as a small colored marble in a field of jet black.

"Isolate the alien craft and highlight"

A yellow icon with a little "1" appeared in the upper right corner of the screen. A second icon with a "2" appended to it appeared in the lower middle section of the screen.

"Commander, craft one is emitting an energy signature similar to what it emitted just prior to firing on us and the
buoy earlier. I suspect it is about to fire again."

"Quick, fire the maneuvering thrusters... Put us into as fast a spin as you can... We can't out run them
, but perhaps we can spread enough of their blast around that our meteor shielding can protect us."

At about the same time the AI engaged the thrusters, the first alien craft fired. Fortunately it was nowhere near the 250 mega joule blast that had disabled her engines... But it was enough.
Had she not been spinning, the shot would had breached her hull somewhere near environmental.

Cat struggled to hold her seat as the Arizona spun wildly in her attempt to dissipate the energies being fired at her by the other craft. Suddenly the emergency klaxons
, that had started the moment the ship had begun taking fire, ceased.

Ben automatically fired reverse thrusters to stop the rotation.

"What happened? Why did they stop firing at us?"

The AI responded "The second ship intervened... Analysis would seem to indicate it instantaneously trans-located to a position just in front of the attacking ship and physically collided with it. The first ship has been destroyed. The second ship is in a rapidly decaying orbit... It does not seem to be under
power."

They sacrificed themselves to save us
Cat mused. "Ben, do we have enough chemical thruster left to maneuver under them and push them into a stable orbit?"

"Unknown. That calculation would require
knowledge of their mass."

"Get us in
position... Speculate if their craft masses similar to ours for a given size... Will we have enough fuel?"

"Within the parameters specified there is a 19% chance we will have enough fuel."

"19% it is... As fast as you can maneuver us into position... Attempt to improve their orbit"

The deck shook wildly as the two craft touched. Acceleration became negligible and so Cat began to float away from the flooring deck.

"Ben, report! Are making a difference?"

"Affirmative commander. The alien craft seems to be 43% the anticipated mass. There is now a 72% chance we will have sufficient fuel for their vessel to achieve a stable orbit."

"Wonderful... What about us?"

"The Arizona is considerably heaver that the alien vessel. We will not achieve a stable orbit. Calculations indicate we will impact near Olympus Mons in 36 minutes."

Cat listened to Ben's cold and analytical assessment of their pending demise. In some ways, she envied his detachment. But Death was not an option she was willing to entertain.

"If we ejected the LFTR power cores and VASIMR drive unit would our mass be sufficiently reduced to achieve orbit?"

"Yes, however, the nanite mesh that repaired the port reserve tank failed during the engagement with the aggressive alien. Fuel reserves are now at 43%. There is no longer sufficient fuel to both save the remaining alien and this vessel."

"Nuts..." Cat said under her breath. "Ben, new orders. Continuously calculate the orbital status of the vessel we are assisting. The moment it is in a likely stable orbit disengage thrust and attempt a controlled reentry into Mars. Eject the cores and main drive now."