Tales of the Intrepid: Ch. 2

The unexpected happens as the Intrepid prepares to launch their first mission.

Chapter 2

15MAR58: I've discovered that I don't like space flight anymore. Why did I ever decide to become a Phantom? I would've been plenty happy as an Army Ranger and never leaving Earth. F**k the final frontier. It can suck a big fat one. I like my boots on solid ground, thank you very much. I didn't realize I'd be more afraid of getting sucked into the cold vacuum of space than being shot at. I could handle space flight just fine if I'm just going from one place to another, but sitting around doing nothing while the ship shoots missiles at another ship makes me nervous as s**t. We're engaged in combat, and I can't help. All I can do is contemplate all the bad decisions I've made in my life and hope that we don't get a hole blown in our hull by the Chinese. If I'm going to die, I want to die by a bullet to the face, not freezing to death in the void. Half of me wants them to try and board our ship just so I can shoot a m**********r and calm my nerves. Jesus Christ. Maybe I'll get used to it. I have to get used to it. Who knows how long this war is going to last.

*  *  *

Deep space, en route to Gliese 581 system, Time 1600z, 2 November 2270 C.E.

 

Jack sat quietly in his special chair on the Bridge as he watched Ops pace back and forth on the Conn. All the department heads took turns standing watch as the Officer of the Deck, and it was her turn this afternoon. She had just qualified a few weeks ago, so she understandably felt nervous about performing the upcoming maneuver. Unfortunately Jack was still learning the ropes of being an XO, so he would be of no use to her.

“Officer of the Deck, approaching the Gliese 581 system, ma'am,” the Navigator said from her plot behind Jack. “ETA one-five minutes.”

“Very well, Navigator. Chief of the Watch, to Maneuvering, reverse the superluminal drive for gravity braking,” Ops ordered as she stopped to stare at the data coming in on the main screen.

“To Maneuvering, reverse the superluminal drive for gravity braking, aye ma'am,” repeated the Chief from his station on Jack's left. He thumbed the button on the mouthpiece of his headset, “Maneuvering, Bridge, reverse direction on the superluminal transit drive. Prepare to commence gravity braking on my mark.” The Chief of the Watch paused for a moment, waiting for an acknowledgement and reply from Maneuvering. He turned to Ops, "Superluminal transit drive ready for gravity braking, ma'am."

“Chief of the Watch, sound the rapid deceleration alarm,” she replied as she quickly sat down in her chair on the Conn and strapped herself in.

“Sound the rapid deceleration alarm, aye ma'am,” the Chief swiveled back to his console and grabbed the handset labeled 1MC. “Rig ship for rapid deceleration,” he announced and reached over to pull the alarm. A klaxon blared and the Chief repeated, “Rig ship for rapid deceleration. Gravity braking will commence in two minutes. All hands find nearest safety seats and strap in.”

"Captain on the Bridge!" a voice shouted from behind Jack. He turned in his chair to see Captain Maxwell casually saunter up to his chair on the other side of the Conn and strap in.

"Don't mind me, Ops. You're doing great," the Captain said reassuringly. He must've seen how nervous she was.

Jack went back to watching the Bridge's main screen as the Intrepid approached their destination. At first he couldn’t see anything, but the small red pinprick of light in the center of the screen slowly grew in size. So captivated by the speed at which they approached the star, he was startled when his seat rotated around to face the rear of the bridge. Jack quickly pulled his harness over his head and fastened it to the base of the seat between his legs like a roller coaster. When the padded device was secure, it squeezed inward and fitted itself to the form of his torso holding him snug.

“Maneuvering, Bridge,” the Chief of the Watch called once the two minutes had expired, “Begin gravity brake sequence on my mark. In three… two… one… mark!”

The ship shook violently as the gravitational field that was previously pulling the ship at such tremendous speeds was reversed to initiate the power braking. Jack's weight was thrown into the back of his seat and he tightly gripped the handles of his harness as the g-forces exerted during the power braking exceeded ten times the normal force of Earth’s gravity. Despite his seat facing backwards to lessen the effect of the deceleration, his chest still felt as if it would cave in at any moment. A split second later, the harness’ regulation system kicked in and the forces Jack felt were but a fraction of what they were just a moment ago. The ten-minute deceleration felt like hours, but it was necessary because of the incredible speed at which the ship had been traveling.

When the power braking stopped, Jack's harness released itself and his seat swiveled back around. He gazed out the main view port again at the small red dwarf star. What appeared to be a small green and blue ball sat near the right side of the view port. In reality, the planet Gliese 581G was a little less than four times the size of the Earth. So much space for such a small amount of people. Humanity’s first extrasolar colony, just two years old, only had about ten thousand Americans. Jack found it hard to fathom how they must feel being so isolated from everything else. It was another historic milestone in space for America. Why? Because they were the only ones that had the ability to get there.

It came as no small surprise, however, that someone would try to sabotage the effort. When the Intrepid left the solar system, Jack had learned that the Arabian Nationalist Army planted a spy in the lab facility that was home to the Gravity Well drive. The spy was able to hack into the lab’s computer mainframe and steal all the data relevant to the superluminal transit drive. The terrorist organization built their own version of the drive and frankenstein-ed it onto a small cargo ship, which they then sent to the colony on Gliese 581G under orders to hold it ransom six months before. Their demands were for the American Federation to give the Arabs back their land and their freedom. If the Federation did not comply, the ANA had brought several thermonuclear warheads with them and would annihilate the colony.

Jack finally understood why it was so important for the Intrepid to be rushed out of the spaceyard so early and make best speed for the American colony. Secrecy, speed, and efficiency was of the utmost importance. Not only did they risk the whole colony being nuked, but if the enemy's propaganda had succeeded in turning the whole colony against the Federation they could be looking at a full blown rebellion.

"Gravity braking sequence complete, Maneuvering, Bridge, aye," the Chief of the Watch held a hand to his ear as he acknowledged the report from Maneuvering. He turned towards the Conn, “Officer of the Deck, ma'am, the superluminal transit drive is secured."

“Very well, Chief of the Watch. Navigator, report ship's speed and ETA to Gliese 581G.” Ops ordered.

“Cruising at ten thousand kilometers per hour. Approximately nine-zero minutes, ma'am,” the Navigator replied. She added after a pause, "Ship's course is aligned with the orbital plane."

“Excellent. I'll take it from here, Ms. Monroe. Have a seat," Captain Nicholas Maxwell stood up from his seat and strolled over to Ops on the Conn. He announced to the Bridge, "I have the Conn!"

"Aye, sir," Ops said in relief as she sat down in her chair relinquishing her control of the ship to the Captain. "The Captain has the Conn. The Operations Officer retains the Deck."

"Alright gentlemen and ladies, this is it," Maxwell started a quick pep talk to the Bridge crew. "You've all done great so far, but we're just getting started. The real test is coming up. Make me proud."

His wide shoulders and bristly, black stubble from the long he spent preparing for the mission made him seem more like a lumberjack than one of the most decorated of the Navy’s elite personnel. He walked over to Jack and firmly clasped a meaty hand on his shoulder. It stung a little.

“Remember, Foster, we need to hit them fast. Snuff out the insurgency before they know what hit ‘em,” he said quietly. "We shouldn't need your boys today, but I want them standing by just in case."

Jack stood up and turned to face the Captain as he released his shoulder. “Do you expect much resistance, sir?”

“It all depends on if they know we’re coming,” he answered. “We have to be prepared for anything once we breach the atmosphere.”

“Yes, sir,” Jack nodded. "The Phantoms are always ready for action."

"Excellent. Radio, Captain, hail our planet side contact,” the Captain ordered as he turned to face the rear door to the Bridge where the Radio Room was.

“Captain, Radio, aye. Contact has been hailed, sir. Awaiting response,” came the reply over the loudspeaker on the Bridge.

A few moments later, a man’s face appeared in the top left corner of the main screen. He was a spy from the Federation’s Agency Nine inserted into the colony to keep tabs on its citizens before the insurrection even began. His hair was unkempt and his eyes heavy, like he had just woken up. Just like the Captain, dark stubble covered his jaw as if he hadn’t shaved in a few days. Jack involuntarily checked his watched, but quickly realized that zulu time on Earth meant nothing on Gliese 581G. A day there was approximately fifteen hours, so sleep schedules of the inhabitants tended to be different from those on Earth.

“Greetings Captain!” the false sense of enthusiasm in his voice was disheartening. “You’re early. I wasn’t expecting you for at least three more days.”

“High speed space travel can be unpredictable,” Captain Maxwell replied walking up the front of the Conn.

“So I see," the agent's voice was flat.

“How is the situation planet side now? What kind of resistance should we expect?” Maxwell asked.

“Heavy," the agent yawned. "The ANA is practically running the place now. They control the capitol as well as the Vanguard space dock and several other major objectives. If you had waited another week or two you'd be looking at an open rebellion.”

Maxwell cursed under his breath before responding, “What would you suggest is our best course of action?”

“Recapture the Vanguard," the man said. "It’s heavily defended, but it will give you a foothold. Controlling the orbital dock will give you some flexibility and an alternate point of extraction if things get too hot down below. Then guerilla tactics on the surface. The enemy outnumbers you significantly, but their training is minimal. Should be a simple 'cut off the head of the snake' kind of deal.”

"What about the nukes?" Jack asked standing next to the Captain.

"The colony is too close to being under their complete control," the agent explained. "They won't risk blowing the nukes just yet. They'll wait until their backed into a corner, which gives you an opportunity to seize control of the warheads. They still have them in the cargo ship they arrived in. It's heavily guarded though, so be careful. I'll upload the coordinates to you."

“Understood,” the Captain said, clearly displeased. It wasn't the worst case scenario, but it wasn't ideal either. “Thank you for the update. We'll contact you again in about an hour or so. We should be ready to launch our invasion by then.  Maxwell out.”

The agent gave a brief nod and the screen went black.  The Captain turned around and walked back to his chair. He grabbed his mic and paused thoughtfully with it up to his mouth for a minute going over what he needed to say in his head. Finally he and switched it to 1MC and thumbed the button, “General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands, man battlestations strike. Spin up missiles one through six. All Marine strike teams to starboard umbilicals now. This is the Captain. This is not a drill.”

Jack quickly followed the Captain. He handed Jack the mic and he repeated the Captain's order. “This is the XO,” he added. “This is not a drill.”

Sailors scrambled about the bridge to get to their assigned battlestations as the repeating gong of the general alarm echoed throughout the ship.

“Navigator, all ahead full, steer course zero-two-zero, zero bubble,” Captain Maxwell calmly ordered.

“All ahead full, steer course zero-two-zero, zero bubble, aye, sir,” she replied. She went over to the young Seaman at the ship’s helm, repeated the order to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. The Helmsman then deftly tapped the bearings in on his monitor to rotate the ship towards the space dock and checked the inclinometer to verify they were still at zero degrees relative to the orbital plane. She reached forward and turned the Engine Order Telegraph to A-Full and watched the little red needle follow the black needle she had just repositioned. “Maneuvering acknowledges all ahead full, sir.”

Moments later, the Intrepid suddenly listed to starboard and Jack frantically searched for something to hold onto. He fell into Captain Maxwell, who was holding onto a pipe in the overhead. Jack caught the Captain's eye and they quickly scrambled to get back to their seats and buckle in.

“Report!” Max shouted.

“We’re drifting off course, sir,” Vicki replied. “Speed to starboard is two-three-zero kilometers per hour and accelerating rapidly. Forward velocity slowing.”

“Maneuvering, Captain, report status of the Gravity Well,” the Captain fumbled with his mic switching it to 7MC, a direct loudspeaker to control center of the engine room, no longer bothering with the redundant orders through the Chief of the Watch. He needed answers fast.

“Captain, Maneuvering, all systems are green, no irregularities.  Superluminal transit drive is offline. Routing power to starboard evasive thrusters to compensate.” Came the reply over the 7MC speaker on the Bridge.

“Starboard acceleration is slowing, sir,” Vicki announced, “but something is still pulling us with about eight gees. Speed to starboard is now one-three hundred kilometers per hour and rising. Forward deceleration continuing.”

“Bridge, Sensors,” a voice crackled from another loudspeaker, “Anomaly detected approximately twenty thousand kilometers to starboard, bearing one-one-seven. Unknown size, speed, and classification.”

Jack felt the ship begin to vibrate in his seat. He looked to his right, Captain Maxwell's knuckles were visibly white as he clenched his harness. “Sensors, Captain, find out what that thing is!”

“Captain, sir, collision with anomaly in three minutes at current rate of acceleration,” came another update from Vicki.

“Face us away from that thing, all ahead flank, now!”

“Aye, sir.”

Jack was almost thrown over the right arm of his chair as the ship quickly rotated around. A loud rumble started as the Intrepid’s engines were pushed to full power. He pulled up his tablet and linked to the aft cameras. Dead center on the screen was a strange swirling ball. Tendrils of what looked like light meandered out from the center and flapped around like whips. It was a myriad of colors; red, blue, green, ever changing and mixing. It grew in size much faster than it should have, as if it was accelerating towards us while pulling on the ship.

“Captain, take a look at this,” Jack shouted above the noise of the engines.  He tapped open a link to Maxwell’s tablet and transferred the video.

“What the hell is that?” the Captain mumbled. He grabbed his mic again, “Maneuvering, Captain, perform an emergency rapid startup of the secondary reactor and take the operational mode switch to Battleshort! I need maximum power, everything you can get me.”

A moment later, Maneuvering made their response, “Captain, Maneuvering, the secondary reactor is critical. Battleshort mode is active. Automatic protective features for both reactors are bypassed. Recommended maximum op-lim to avoid core damage is one-five-zero percent, sir.”

“Very well, Maneuvering, cross-connect propulsion lines from both reactors in parallel and push the main engines to maximum thrust.”

“Captain, Maneuvering, aye sir.”

Jack took a deep breath as he felt himself being pulled into the back of his chair from the additional thrust. Sweat began to trickle down his forehead and he wiped it away with his sleeve. The groan of stressed steel echoed throughout the ship. The Intrepid began shaking violently. Not only did they have to worry about the anomaly behind them sucking the ship in, but the Captain was risking complete core meltdown on both reactors. Jack had once discussed the theoretical math with the Eng, so he did some quick calculations on his tablet. What the Captain was doing would bring both reactors to over one hundred eighty percent in just over five minutes. Fuel cell failure would occur at one-sixty, and core meltdown would begin at one-seventy-five. If the core started melting, they wouldn’t be able to scram the reactors and shut them down. So even if the Intrepid escaped the anomaly's gravitational influence they would still be in a world of trouble.

“Captain, ship’s speed is eight hundred kilometers per hour and slowing!” Vicki exclaimed with a smile. “Escape velocity achievable in nine minutes.”

“Captain, what are you doing?” Jack asked over the din of reports and alarms as various systems started to fail.

“Buying us time!” Max shouted back.

“Bridge, Maneuvering,” the 7MC was barely audible over the roar of the engines. “Reactor power is at one-two-five percent on the main reactor, one-two-two percent on the secondary reactor. Recommend reducing propulsion demand to stay below op-lim.”

“Time for what?” Jack knew it was wrong to question the Captain in front of the crew, but this was no ordinary situation. “Both reactors will meltdown before we can get to escape velocity.”

“I know. The crew can still get off the ship in that time,” the Captain replied as he thumbed his mic back to 1MC, “All hands, abandon ship, abandon�"”

But the Captain was cut off as the swirling ball of light suddenly emitted a bright flash. The shaking slowed to a stop and the ship went dead. The feeling of weightlessness came over Jack as the artificial gravity died. Anything not strapped to the deck floated up into the air. The emergency lights flickered momentarily, but did not stay lit and shut off within seconds. It was pitch black, but he heard the Captain fumbling for the mic that dropped out of his hands.

“Captain,” Jack said quietly, “that flash must have been an EMP blast. All our electronics are most likely dead.”

Max clicked the mic once, twice, and again, with no luck. The Bridge went silent for what seemed like hours, and then the Captain finally spoke up, “Alright, it looks like we have no choice. Everyone stay seated and calm and hope for the best. The lifeboats need electricity to fire, so they’ll be of no use.”

Staying calm would be difficult. An electromagnetic pulse was the worst fate for a space faring vessel. It made the ship a sitting duck, disabling power to everything, the engines, navigation, communications, and worst of all, life support. If they weren’t killed by the anomaly, the crew would die within a day from asphyxiation without power to the life support systems. Without propulsion, the Intrepid's acceleration into the anomaly would continue again with no way to counteract it. There was nothing they could do.

The vibrations picked up again, but not from the ship's engines. They quickly intensified until Jack thought the ship would shake itself apart.

“Everyone strap in and brace for impact,” the Captain ordered, still trying to keep his voice calm.

Within moments, a bright white light overwhelmed Jack's vision that quickly dimmed and the ship shook so violently that anyone not strapped in would have been thrown to the floor, ceiling, or walls. The sound of straining metal echoed in the bridge.

As the shuddering slowed, the bridge filled with a red glow. The emergency power system started to reactivate all the necessary systems, and the Intrepid slowly came back to life. If that blast had been an EMP, the ship would still be in darkness. Many questions began to surface in Jack's mind, but he squelched them and focused on the situation at hand.

“Chief of the Watch, I need a damage report,” the Captain ordered.

After the announcement went out, Jack listened closely as each department reported in. Other than supplies strewn about from the trembling, there seemed to be no major damage to the ship, internal and external. Both reactors had scrammed and would take a few minutes for the engineering crew to perform a fast recovery on the main, but that was the worst of it. The navigation software was online, but was not registering the ship's position, and the AI core was hibernating while the ship was on battery power. There was no sign of Gliese 581 or the planets surrounding it. The star charts were showing up blank, which could only mean one thing: the Intrepid was in uncharted territory. That anomaly had to have been some sort of wormhole, teleporting the ship to some unknown location. Jack wondered how many of humanity's top physicists would have paid fortunes to experience what they just had.

“Radio, Captain, try to hail our contact,” Captain Maxwell ordered.

A few seconds passed and a response came, “Captain, Radio, nothing but static, sir. No response on all frequencies.”

Maxwell pinched the bridge of his nose and thought for a second. “Get our main screen up. Let’s see where we are.”

The video screen in the front of the Bridge fizzled to life and showed the void of space like a large black piece of paper with small holes punched in it.

“Rotate the camera,” Maxwell said.

As the view turned, a large orange planet came into view. It dominated the screen as the camera turned fully aft. They were a little too close for Jack's comfort. He wondered if their sensors were malfunctioning.

“Proximity is ten thousand kilometers, sir,” Vicki exclaimed. Her eyes wide as she glanced over the numbers. “Ship's speed is three hundred thousand kilometers per hour. Impact in approximately two minutes. How did that not come up on our sensors?”

“Bridge, Maneuvering, the main reactor is critical and self sustaining. All main engines are spun up and ready to fire. Recommended op-lim is nine-zero percent,” announced a voice over the 7MC.

“Navigator, all ahead flank," Maxwell shouted. "Slow us down as much as possible. Chief of the Watch, sound the collision alarm!”

“Sound the collision alarm, aye sir!” sirens blared again as the Chief pulled the alarm lever and snatched his 1MC handset from the bulkhead. “Rig ship for impact!”

Muffled pops could be heard from the hull after the announcement.  Jack linked his tablet to the port and starboard cameras and saw small pods being ejected from the ship.  The crew was escaping in the lifeboats.  After hearing the Captain's earlier announcement to abandon ship, he didn’t blame them.

“The ship is decelerating, sir,” Vicki said as she wiped sweat from her brow. “Impact in eight-zero seconds. We don't have enough thrust to negate our current speed and the planet’s gravitational field.”

The Captain mumbled a curse. “Maneuvering, Captain, activate the Gravity Well,” he ordered.  There was no time to deal with formalities anymore.  The Chief of the Watch was now out of a job.

“Captain…” Jack started.

“You got any better ideas, XO?” The Captain snapped, then paused, waiting for an answer.

Activating the Gravity Well that close to a planet was dangerous. Nobody knew what would happen if the drive were to be activated that close to another major gravitational field. The two fields might have extremely adverse effects on each other and potentially pull the planet out of orbit, or alter the rotation, completely devastating any life that possibly lived on it. But there was no other choice. It was either that or lose the ship and crew in a high-speed crash.

“No, sir,” Jack backed down, realizing it was their only real option at that point.

“Captain, Maneuvering, Gravity Well coming online. Rapid acceleration in one-five seconds.”

There wasn’t enough time. The Well might slow the ship down significantly, but it would still crash. Moments later, the ship lurched and Jack was forced into the back of his seat as the drive kicked in.

The main view screen was still pointed at the planet. It filled the screen now and geographical features started to appear. Patches of blue and green appeared, strange alien flora, and mountains rose into view. The colors, especially the orange soil, were like nothing anyone had ever seen before.

“Impact in four-five seconds. Current acceleration is still insufficient to reach escape velocity. Impact estimated at four hundred kilometers per hour. We might survive that, sir.”

The Captain grabbed his mic once again and thumbed 1MC, “All hands, brace for shock!”

Jack stared at the view screen, captivated by the landscape. Suddenly the view was blurred by streaks of blue and yellow. Fire! That meant there was oxygen in the atmosphere of the planet.  Whether there were other gasses that were potentially poisonous, preventing the air from being breathable, was a completely different story.

Jack broke his trance and glanced around the Bridge. Everyone was sweating and fidgeting under the anxiety. The crash was imminent, and there was no denying the fact that it frightened everyone. He suddenly felt an urge to hold onto Vicki to make sure she was safe. He wanted to get out of his chair and run over to her, shield her from whatever danger might be coming with his own body. He forgot about everything else as he looked at her.

A loud explosion interrupted his thoughts and Jack was pressed against the back of his seat by a crushing force. The lights flickered wildly and a section of the railing to the lower section of the bridge buckled, broke free from the floor and tumbled backwards towards him. Before he could react, the pipe connected with his right shoulder. He heard bone crunch and felt an immense pain as it punctured his skin. He turned to look at the pipe stuck in his should and a second piece broke loose and smashed into the side of his head. The blow bent the support of Jack's chair and forced it backwards so he was lying on his back. The combination of pain from his shoulder, a possible concussion, and the rush of blood to his head disoriented him, and his vision blurred.

The pitch and volume of the screaming klaxons fell, and the lights faded to darkness as consciousness passed from Jack. Though there was a possibility to survive the crash, it was very unlikely. His parting thought before everything went black was how kind God was to let him pass unconsciously, because then he wouldn't have to watch her die.

Author's Note

This was my old chapter 1, now its my new chapter 2. All backstory and character introductions from this chapter were moved to chapter 1 and the gaps closed in as best I could. Please leave comments on the flow of my action sequences and if any of the Navy speak is too confusing to follow.