The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception (8 page)

"Medical emergency on the bridge!" Ramchandani yelled into his open
comlink.

"Riley here Sir... We've been hammered down here with the rough ride. Mostly broken bones. What's your situation?"

"Dr. Riley, this is Commander Kimbridge. Commander Ruck was thrown across the bridge. He has a laceration on his head as well as a subdural hematoma near the occipital lobe. He also has a broken right leg."

"I have a team on the way. What's his level of consciousness?"

"He's not responding to voice but he is responding to a trapezium squeeze."

"OK, there's a good chance we are dealing with a concussion of some type. Try to avoid moving him until the trauma unit can do a neurological assessment."

"Roger medical, Bridge out" Ramchandani said. "Commander Kimbridge, until the Commander is certified by medical to return to duty you are acting First Officer. Please coordinate with engineering and medical. I want a damage and injury assessment in my ready room in 15 minutes."

"Aye Captain" she replied while reluctantly turning the care of Commander Ruck over to the medical team that had just arrived.

***

The damage to the Bowman was minimal. There had been minor injuries to 37 crewman... The most severe by far was Commander Ruck. A passive MRI indicated a fractured skull. Medical had him in an induced coma to reduce brain swelling while he healed.

The programming for the inertial compensators was adjusted, and the captain had ordered a top down review of all systems to ensure another, similar incident was not waiting to happen the next time they got ready to use the hyper drive. Weapons systems were also tweaked as a result of the review.

The Bowman was primarily a ship of exploration but, given the massive amount of armament and shielding on the recovered D'lralu vessel, the powers-that-be had decided that Earth's first starships should have defensive systems built in.

In addition to reactive hull plating, the Bowman was able to generate a displacement field around itself that, in theory at least, should shunt energy weapons around the vessel. The inertial dampeners could be configured to transfer momentum from a colliding mass to the entire ship. This meant the impact energy required to 'hole' the ship would need to be enough to crush the entire ship at once.

The Bowman was also outfitted with a single center mounted rail gun and
four chemical reaction torpedo launchers. The torpedoes included low-yield nuclear payloads and small quantum fold generators. Unfortunately the hyper drive engines in the torpedoes were of limited use because the firing solutions still took too long to calculate for the torpedoes to be effectively used in a light speed engagement. Likely the next generation of missiles would have this capability removed until it could be perfected.

Cat oversaw the code changes that would
ensure these systems would remain online and ready to operate despite the changes to the hyper-field environment during a jump event. The hardest of these were the inertial and displacement components of the active shields.  The quantum fold necessary for the hyper drive simply was not compatible with these systems. The only solution was temporary shutdown of the shields prior to jumping.

After much discussion with the engineering team, as well as with the captain, the decision was made to develop a transition protocol governed by the Bowman's AI.
If the shields were up during a hyper drive jump they would be collapsed for 32 milliseconds prior to the jump event. This minimized the ship's exposure during an attack.

Finally
all the changes were ready and the ship was prepared for a second jump back to a position just outside of Earth orbit.

Captain Ramchandani opened a ship-wide channel. "Attention. This is the captain. We are about to engage the hyper drive for a second time. We believe the rough ride is behind us, but I want everybody and everything locked down before the jump. You have five minutes to get squared away. That is all. Captain out."

They waited for the promised five minutes and then the captain signaled Cat.

"Very good Commander. Make ready. Set course for just outside Earth orbit. Give me a verbal countdown and engage when ready."

"Aye, captain" Cat said. "Lt. Cortez, open a ship-wide channel. Helm, make ready. Set course and engage on my mark... All hands, prepare for hyper drive jump. Jump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Engage!"

This time there was just the slightest twinge of movement and the forward view screen was suddenly filled with the marbled greens and blues of Earth.
When it was clear that the jump had occurred without incident the bridge crew broke out in applause. Cat opened the ship-wide com channel and reported to the crew that the jump was complete.

Captain Ramchandani immediately had Orbital One send a high speed shuttle to meet the Bowman on its way into Earth orbit. It was essential to get Commander Ruck offloaded to the superior medical facilities of Orbital One.

Before the shuttle had even left the hanger with the injured commander on board, the Bowman was being hailed by USC Central Command. It seemed the deep space monitoring stations, deployed after the discovery of the D'lralu ship some 50 years ago, were reporting another alien incursion.

***

"Debu I need eyes out there as soon as possible" Admiral Faragon said from across the conference table in Captain Ramchandani's ready room. "Whoever this is, they are way past Pluto's orbit and coming in fast. Frankly it's a miracle we spotted them at all. They are accelerating at a steady 1.6 gravities, and are already traveling far faster than anything we've got."

"Do we know
who they are?"

"We know
who they are not. The Heshe have excellent control of their hyper drive technologies... They would never have jumped that far out and then accelerated in with conventional reaction drives. The best guess is we are dealing with a new race or the D'lralu... And obviously even if we did know who they were... we don't know what their goals are. The only time we ever met the D'lralu they fired on one of our ships."

"Understood Admiral. We can jump to where we calculate they will be, but keep in mind...
our maximum sustained acceleration tops out at just past 1.2G. They can out run us. Commander Kimbridge has been working on a micro jump protocol that would allow us to stay ahead of them but it carries with it its own set of risks... Our active shielding is virtually useless during jumps. Dozens of micro jumps a minute will only exasperate the problem."

The Admiral leaned forward placing his folded hands on the table. "
Debu, if it comes to it I need you to hightail it out of dodge. You're there to discover their intentions. If they talk, then I need you to try to communicate but if they take a potshot at you... That's information I need to know that as well."

"I understand Sir. How long do I have before you need the Bowman underway?"

"Frankly I need you gone already."

Captain Ramchandani checked his tablet. "My replacement First Officer is coming in from Mars. He won't be here for another 36 hours."

"My guidance is to make do with the personnel you already have. Earth may need those 36 hours later."

***

Cat was just coming out of the Bowman's gym when her comlink flagged a message from the captain. "Sir, Kimbridge here"

"Cat, I've just come out of a meeting with the Admiral. We are not going to be able to wait for Jason's replacement. Effective immediately you are my new First Officer."

Unsure of what to say Cat responded with a polite "Thank you, Sir!"

"We have an unknown incursion by an alien craft just outside of Pluto’s orbit. We’ve been ordered to investigate.

I want you to run the crew through a couple of weapons drills, and then join me and Commander Kirkland in my Ready room in sixty minutes."

"Aye, Sir"

“And Cat…”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Make sure the teams are ready for anything… I’ve got a bad feeling.”

Weapons, repair crews and navigation had all performed well during the drills, but, as Cat was well aware, when a person knew a drill was taking place they did not have to deal with the stress associated with ‘life and death’ situations.
With the captain’s permission she arranged a special simulation.

The ship would jump to Ganymede Station and take on more armaments. Cat’s plan was to introduce an unexpected attack seconds after the next jump. 
If the crew performed as well as during the previous drills she would be satisfied they were as prepared as they could be.

“Lt. Shelby, Standby to jump.”

"Aye, Ma'am" the petite southerner answered.

"On my mark... 5, 4,3,2,1... Engage!"

The crew experienced the same brief flutter they had experienced on the second jump. Cat signaled Lt. Commander Kirkland in engineering and at the same time triggered a prewritten routine in the Bowman's AI.

Immediately, the ship shuddered as the inertial dampers cycled on and off in quick succession.
At the same time the red alert klaxons kicked in and a handful on nonessential systems, like deck lighting and the occasional gravity plate, went offline.

Captain Ramchandani winked at Cat and signaled for Lt. Cortez to open a ship-wide channel. "All hands... Battle stations... Repeat... All hands, battle stations."

The Bowman's AI quickly rotated the ship while at the same time reducing the effectiveness of the inertial dampers by fifty percent. Cat had to grip the console in front of her station to keep her seat.

Amazingly it was over in forty-eight seconds.
That was how long it took for all stations to report ready. More impressively, the shields and weapons systems reported ready in under fifteen seconds... A full eight seconds faster than their previous best.

The captain came back on the comms. "Crew of the Bowman. Stand down. Well done. This was an unannounced drill
and I'm pleased to announce that by-in-large you did very well.  Department heads please submit an assessment of your individual areas by 0800 tomorrow to the First Officer. Again, well done. Ramchandani out."

Turning to his newly promoted First Officer "That goes for you
too Cat. A crew is only as good as its leaders and if this is any indication, then the Admiral was right to encourage me to promote from within."

"Thank you, Sir" Cat responded. "I'll get a team together to assist the armory at Ganymede station. I'd also like to borrow our Chief Engineer for a few hours if that is permissible?"

"Certainly... Care to share with your captain what you and Ken will be up to?"

Cat grinned mischievously... "Nothing good... I assure you Captain!"

***

Cat picked up Ken on the way to the Bowman's shuttle bay.

"Care to let me in on what we are up to?"

"We're going to make a
big bomb bigger"

"OK... I'll bite...
How much bigger?"

"Think
supernova"

Ken stopped walking and looked at her.

She put a hand on his shoulder to encourage him to continue walking. "Trust me... It doesn't sound nearly as crazy as it is."