SDF Nedesco Chapter 6: Gauntlet
"It's beautiful." Lisa purred in Ricks arms. The two officers were sitting together on a bench in the Prometheus observation lounge. The ship was still a few days out from Saturn. But the planet could be seen clearly, the rings glistened with refracted and reflected light.
"It would be more beautiful if the entire alien fleet wasn't hiding in the rings."
"True. But we should be able to cope with the worst of it with Roy's plan. I'm still not sure the fighters won't be picked up before we enter the ice fields. Still, launching from within the rings would be even more dangerous."
He kissed her neck lightly, "We will deal with anything that comes along, just as we have already. The captain is a good man, with good people helping him." He squeezed her gently,"He has had to write a whole new book for this ship, and has always made good calls."
She breathed a heavy sigh, then turned toward him,"I think he feels a great deal of guilt over ordering the fold maneuver that got us stranded out here. Now he's lumping this situation into the 'his fault' category."
"That just makes him a better person. He didn't have a choice about the fold, but if he hadn't done it we would all be dead. I am still wondering what happened to the rest of earth."
"I know. Given the time they waited to come after us and the firepower they have displayed, I would say the Earth suffered little extra damage."
"I wonder if we have seen what the aliens are really capable of? The general design of their ships matches ours, so they may have particle cannons as well. A fleet their size could have devastated an entire continent before they came after us."
"We won't even know until we get inside the orbit of Jupiter. The radio signals will still be too faint unless they use directional signals."
They turned to the window and sat in silence for another few minutes. Then he said,"Well, it's not even worth worrying about all that until we conquer this first hurdle."
ooo000OOO000ooo
Vermilion squadron was meeting for their last class until after they cleared the ringed planet. Dr. Lang was lecturing about visualizing the destination and letting the subconscious fill in the blanks. He had been refining the equations for boson jumping and had the pilots memorize them. The human mind preformed thousands of calculations with every step, judging exactly how many muscle cells to activate in dozens of parts of the body to maintain balance with only a single support.
"So you see, if you let your mind handle the details, you can jump to any point you can visualize. We are going to start spending a portion of each instruction period trying to test this theory."
The pilots all realized why they now had several very comfortable couches sitting behind their chairs. "For today we are going to try to jump from one couch to the one directly across from you. If you would please take your places."
The pilots sank into the conforming material and felt their muscles relax as the sub sonics began to work on doctor began to speak as they relaxed,"Now clear your minds and try to visualize yourself lying on the couch across from you."
Rick focused on clearing his mind, but no matter how he tried thoughts of his job and relationship kept flowing through his head like an unstoppable current. He decided to stop fighting it after five minutes and let his thoughts flow, occasionally trying to weave into the pattern the visualization of his target point.
A strange sound came from his left and his eyes shot open,"What was that?" He asked, expecting to see Max on the couch next to him. The space was empty and slowly being filled with the expanding foam. "Oh man, what a rush." The voice came from across the room and they all looked to see Max lying on his target couch. He looked fine except for the glazed over eyes.
"Are you okay, Max?" Rick asked.
"I think I just had my first drug trip, but without chemical intervention. It was like a brilliant flash of colors and then I was here. But it felt like nothing else I can describe."
"Better than sex?" Kaiko asked.
Max turned several shades of red in quick succession,"Well, I guess so. I really wouldn't know."
Kaiko blushed as well while the other two pilots giggled. The doctor was going crazy over his instruments as gigabytes of information was struggling to be processed.
Rick looked at his fellow male pilot,"So, how did you do it?"
"I was just thinking about everything i needed to do today. And then I thought about just getting up and walking over to the other couch when the doc wasn't looking. I thought it would be funny to see him go nuts until he looked at the video. The next thing I knew I was lying over here, feeling all tingly."
Clarissa started giggling again.
Rick looked at her,"McFee, would you like to share with the group?"
She suppressed her giggles and said,"I was just thinking you could call the effect a jump-gasm." She started giggling freely again and was soon followed by all the other pilots.
Dr. Lang walked over a moment later and frowned at the officers who were laughing like school kids. He cleared his throat,"Would you care to return to the task at hand."
Rick leaned back,"Sorry doc, we were discussing the effects on the pilot."
"Well, yes. That's what I came over here to find out about." He turned to Max,"So, Ensign Sterling. What did it feel like?"
"It was a series of really bright flashes. Multiple colors, but mainly really bright. There was a sound, but I really can't describe it."
The doctor pressed a button and the short reverberation played from the room speakers."Is this the sound?"
"Sort of, but it was more layered and seemed to be coming from everything, even me."
Lang noted this and then looked up,"Was that all?"
"No, sir. When I finished I felt all tingly and euphoric."
Rick spoke up,"The girls equated the experience to sex. Clarissa even suggested calling the physical aftereffect a jump-gasm."
Both the girls and Lang broke into giggles.
"Yes Lieutenant, I can see why you were laughing. But I still need to get one last piece of information. Ensign, what were you visualizing when you jumped?"
"I was thinking about how funny it would be to see you scurrying around if I just walked over to this couch while you weren't looking."
The doctor grinned as he made notes,"Yes, I could see how that would be humorous. I'm so glad that you actually managed to jump though. This may be the first step to teaching others to jump. And the readings we got from your jump make me believe that we can amplify the effect to encompass a veritech. It may even be possible to jump the entire ship."
He finally stopped babbling as the sound from the earlier jump was repeated by two more simultaneous jumps. The two female members of the squadron vanished from their couches. Clarissa reappeared on the couch opposite her while Kaiko materialized curled up to Max.
"Let your mind wander, did you?" Clarissa asked.
Kaiko jumped and would have fallen to the floor had Max not caught her.
She blushed again,"Sorry, I was trying to repeat your lucky accident and my mind suddenly shifted to your couch in mid walk."
Lang was going crazy again as he cross-referenced the new data with that gathered earlier. He looked up after a moment,"Lieutenant Hunter, what are you waiting for?" Rick blinked for a moment, then realized what the doctor was talking about. He imagined himself moving across the room, but at the last moment other thoughts intruded. He vanished and did not reappear anywhere in the compartment.
ooo000OOO000ooo
The klaxon sounded all over the ship, followed by a voice,"Lieutenant Rick Hunter, please call Doctor Lang. All personnel, please report any information on the whereabouts of Lieutenant Rick Hunter."
Lisa was not as worried as she might have been if Rick had not appeared right in front of her station. He was currently looking a little sheepish as the alarm blared. The captain reached down to flip a switch which killed the alarm. He then picked up his phone and punched a code.
He waited for an answer,"Yes Doctor. I have him right here."
He paused while the scientist spoke,"I see." Pause. "Yes, that is impressive." Pause. "I'll send him down." Pause. "I'll expect a promising report." Pause. "Later than, Doctor." Hang up.
He looked at the wayward pilot,"Let me congratulate you on a successful jump, Lieutenant."
"Thank you sir."
"Now if you don't mind, Dr. Lang would like to have you back in the lab."
"Yes, sir." He looked at Lisa,"See you later." Rick closed his eyes and vanished.
ooo000OOO000ooo
That night Lisa was waiting for Rick in her quarters, having prepared dinner for the two of them. She heard the same strange noise that had accompanied both of Rick's prior jumps.
He looked a little dazed, so she moved over to him to steady him,"Are you Okay?"
"Yeah. The jump-gasm gets more manageable as you practice."
"Jump-Gasm?"
"Clarissa suggested the name after Max described his first time jump."
"It's kinda cute. But you said it gets more manageable?"
He straightened and wrapped his arms around her,"Sure, but the doc wants us to practice as much as possible to see if it can be overcome. We can't have combat pilots severally disoriented, even if they can gain the advantage of a perfect kill shot."
"I can see the need for such data, but does that mean you are going to be hopping all over the place?"
"Just whenever I go someplace alone. Until you can do this as well it would be slightly awkward to have me popping to the destination and making you walk the whole way."
"Are you sure anyone can do it?"
"I don't know about anyone, but people on the ship who can learn the equations can manage it. But it does take an ability to focus on your destination."
"Do you have the equations?"
He reached into the inside pocket of his uniform jacket and extracted a disk."Here's the copy that I used."
"Cool. I'll take a look after dinner."
With that they dished up the meal and enjoyed.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"All pilots, man your veritechs. All pilots, man your veritechs. This is not a drill. Operation Gauntlet will commence in fifteen minutes."
Vermilion Squadron appeared in their locker room within a second of each other. They were no longer affected by the effects of jump-gasm, due to their repeated use of the technique over the last twenty hours. Now they had to be sure not to jump while in their planes until the techs got the amplifiers installed. If the doc was right the new systems would allow a pilot to jump a veritech like it was an extension of their own body.
As the pilots changed into their flight suits Casandra asked,"So why are we the only ones actually under power for the start of this mission?"
Rick zipped his suit closed and replied,"Because were equipped with the heavier load out. So we will run interference. We start broadcasting on all the sensor channels and fly around so the enemy can't just shoot at the center of the jamming field. Also if any pods come into range we should be able to give them a run for their money. If we run into anything bigger we let the main gun handle it. And we are also running forward scout. Since the sensors will be running jamming we will need to report if there are any ships out in front."
Casandra grabbed her helmet off the rack,"But why is everyone else running silent behind the ship?"
"Because trying to launch them within the ice would be more dangerous. And if we need them they will be there. Otherwise they ride in the wake of the ship and we slip right through."
Kaiko decided to put in her two cents now,"And if we all throw out jamming the enemy will defiantly know where to concentrate their net. The captain is hoping that we can cause as few enemy arrays as possible to enter the jamming area, so they may not realize they are being jammed."
"Okay, I just feel like we're getting to play the worm on the sharp end of the hook."
Max spoke up now,"Um, that's because we are. If it goes pear shaped then we are going to get shot at."
"Man, did you have to point that part out?"
All of them turned to face the center of the room,"Okay people," Rick said,"We are out in seven. Let's go."
They all nodded and vanished.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Vermilion lead, SDF-1. Report." Lisa's voice came over the radio.
"SDF-1, Vermilion lead. Just lots of ice. Haven't seen so much as a pod yet, but the field is pretty heavy out ahead. Permission to take Vermilion out ahead about two hundred clicks to have a look past the wall."
"Permission granted. Be careful Rick."
"We will Lisa. Vermilion out."
As the signal was cut Kaiko came over the inter-plane link,"That's so sweet."
"Can it Kaiko, we need to form up and see if the enemy is hiding out there."
The four veritechs pulled into a lose formation as they drifted and jinked through the ice field. After they cleared the main formation, the field thinned again and they found themselves looking at a large, green, torpedo shaped ship moving to punch through in the opposite direction.
It was one of the smallest class of ship they had cataloged, called a scout by the crew. As it began approaching the wall it accelerated even harder. Rick looked at his instruments and found a mass of noise coming from the enemy ship. 'Why would they be jamming too?' He asked himself. The answer came in the form of another ship pushing through the wake of the scout.
Rick sent a quick coded signal to the other planes and they banked to return to the ship.
Five minutes latter there was a large explosion as the scout ship was torn apart by the ice flow it had hit while moving far too fast. They all spread out to avoid as much of the debris as possible. They jinked and swerved as small pebbles tinked off the underside of their hulls.
Finally they were within range of the ship's comm system. Rick keyed onto the correct frequency and spoke,"SDF-1, Vermilion lead. Column of enemy ships moving on reverse course one five zero km ahead. They are jamming and using ships as battering rams to get through the heavy parts. Recommend you change course twenty degrees starboard and thrity degrees up."
The ship was taking a shortest distance course through the fields, hoping to come out on the inside of the rings and pull a slingshot in close to the planet. Minor adjustments were of no consequence, and turning into the planet would just put them in acceleration for a few more seconds.
"Roger Vermilion lead. SDF-1 adjusting course and setting ghost pair to maintain original course. Good work. Resume normal position."
"Confirmed SDF-1."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"What is that idiot doing?" Bretai bellowed.
All of the ships of Kyron's squadron were out of position. Missing was the word.
"It appears that he is heading for the source of the jamming field." Exidore answered.
"I will have him shot for this. He has abandoned his post. Retransmit the recall order and redeploy the second division to intercept that loose cannon." He grimaced, "He may have cost us the micronian ship. I will have his entire genetic line purged if that happens."
"Yes my lord."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"That fool micronian is coming right at us. Just as I planned." Kyron boasted from the command bubble of his ship.
"Yes my Lord. But we have lost three ships so far trying to force our way through the ice fields." His assistant said.
"They are a small price to pay for the glory of destroying that pestilence. They shall be a blight on the glorious history of the Zentradi no longer."
"Of course my lord." The aide bowed.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"How is it going Commander Hayes?" Captain Gloval asked.
"Since we went to emission control conditions we are picking up the jamming field from the enemy fleet. As far as we can tell they are still advancing on the two ghosts."
"What are the estimated damages from the ice wall that's currently tearing the enemy apart?"
Vanessa tapped a few keys on her console before reporting,"We seem to be steering into a different current, it should disperse the worst part of the field and help us avoid detection, sir."
"Very well, maintain course. Use short range burst transmission to instruct Vermilion squadron to scout ahead. Tell them to try to keep their signatures as small as possible."
"Aye, sir."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Lord Kyron, the fleet has broken through the ice wall. The lead ship is reporting no contact with the enemy ship."
"What! how is that possible?"
"It appears that they deployed two autonomous drones with heavy sensor packages. They must have changed course and went to low emissions."
"Find them. It can't be possible to hide a battleship."
"Sir. They could be anywhere."
"Launch all the pods and go to full power on the sensors. Bring the ships thirty degrees to port and prepare to fire all reflex cannons."
ooo000OOO000ooo
In orbit around the planet Saturn there is a massive field of ice surrounding the entire planet. While there are thin spots there is only one real gap.
In May 2009 a small, relatively speaking, section, about fifty kilometers across at the widest point, exploded. The primary substance that makes up the rings is water ice. There are several trace elements including carbon, free hydrogen and oxygen, and several metals. When hit with enough energy water will separate into it's component elements. This takes up a much greater space and so causes a mild expansion until it begins to cool on the edges. This caused the still forming gases to come under pressure and in the presence of a spark, or in this case a dozen particle cannons, to react with each other explosively.
The result of this was nine utterly destroyed Zentradi battle cruisers, two that were damaged beyond repair, and one that limped away while venting atmosphere from holes to big for the automatic sealing systems to handle. The few pods that had launched before the explosion were crushed when the shock wave sent them flying into large chunks of ice behind the formation.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Sir, we should be coming out of the outer ring any moment now." Lisa reported.
The ice had been thinning for the last five minutes and was now almost completely gone.
"Thank you. Prepare to bring the veritechs back on board and inform damage control teams to begin repairs on the outer hull."
Sammy and Kim at the back of the room went to work coordinating the inspection and patching of the ship. Lisa began organizing the squadrons into landing orders. Within fifteen minutes all the fighters were on board and the preliminary repair estimates were in.
Lisa sent the summaries to the Captain's terminal and spoke,"Sir we managed to suffer only minor impact damage to both the planes and the ship. The maintenance crews are estimating ten hours to get the veritechs fixed, but the damage teams say that we should be able to go again in five hours."
"Excellent. We seem to have suffered less damage than we feared. Have the damage control teams give the maintenance crews a hand after they finish with the hull. Let's see if we can give everyone at least four hours off before the next insertion."
"Aye sir."
ooo000OOO000ooo
The pilots of Vermilion squadron popped into their locker room with harrowed expressions on their faces.
Kaiko moaned as she shouldered out of her flight suit,"Man, how long was that boss?"
Rick groaned as he stood back up after pealing the suit off his legs,"Six hours. Give or take an eternity. I just wanna hit the showers and sleep until we hit the next insertion point."
"I second that." The three subordinates said in unison.
With that they walked into the squadron shower room.
Five minutes later Rick called out,"I'm out. See you in ten hours."
Two minutes later Clarissa declared her exit as well.
After five more minutes of letting the hot water wash away his aches, Max turned. Intent on announcing his imminent departure he was a little surprised to find Kaiko standing a foot away. While Max was not exactly tall, she was short enough to have to look up into his eyes. Max thought to himself,'Isn't this just SO anime school scene?'
She spoke first,"Max. I never got a chance to apologize for putting you on the spot with the whole jump thing."
He blushed lightly,"Ah, it's okay. You couldn't have known. And it's not your fault that I haven't."
She smiled gently at him,"About that. You're cute and all, not to mention pretty smart. So why haven't you?"
"You may have noticed I have some confidence issues?" She nodded. "Well, they get worse when I try to talk to a women."
"You seem to do pretty well with us."
"That's different. Here we're just talking about work. But I just can't seem to actually ask a girl out."
"Then let me help out." She stepped forward,"Would you like to go get some dinner?"
Max gulped,"You m-mean a date?"
She touched his cheek,"Yeah. I don't mean anything else but dinner. Then we can see how well it goes."
He took a deep breath,"Yeah. I'd like that."
ooo000OOO000ooo
The 'night shift' was usually as boring as it got on the bridge of the SDF-1. True the enemy could attack at any time. But with how few the enemy attacks had been, the night shift had never been on duty when they showed up.
Ensign Daphne Windsor had been a struggling college student before joining the RDF. Despite the usual jokes about blonds, she could handle most of the school work thrown at her. That had been the problem, she was constantly bored out of her skull by the way most of her teachers insisted on droning through the class period just to assign homework she had already done.
Coming from an upper-middle class family she could afford to stay for as long as she liked, but finally decided to quiet after getting a bachelors in electronics. To put it mildly her parents were less than thrilled when she joined the service, but her father at least had been willing to admit that it was her life to screw up as she saw fit.
In the RDF she had found her home. The constant bustle of academy life could be many things, but boring was never one of them. She had found a unknown talent for firearms and her previous education put he in good standing when it came time for M.O.S. training.
She graduated third out of a class of 635. When she had been given her choice of assignments she had picked the battle fortress. She had accepted the only open position and saw it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. After all, the SDF-1 was not the only deep range space vessel currently on the boards.
Then the aliens had attacked and she found what was supposed to be an exciting tour of the surrounding star systems turned out to be a long, boring ride home. So she had taken to reviewing the tech journals she had missed out on while at the academy.
She was running a diagnostic on the passive sensors with a text screen open just to the side when the first blip showed up. It was gone so fast that she had thought it just a diagnostic ghost, but then another came up. She canceled the running programs and rebooted the mains. The sensors showed all clear for a full five seconds. Then a small blip appeared, riding just barely within range on an erratic trajectory that would cause it to pass the SDF-1 from astern in roughly an hour. She repositioned one of the visual arrays to get a better look at it and was shocked at what she saw. She resolved the image as far as she could at this range and called the officer of the watch over.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"As you can see ma'am, the enemy vessel has suffered extensive damage. There is almost no indication of active sensors and there passives are probably sporting some pretty big holes as well. Odds are they haven't even picked us up yet and are just trying to get back to their staging area." Lieutenant Randal Petrovski reported.
Lisa had been mildly perturbed about being dragged out of her warm bed, but had to admit that this was a valid reason."Yes, I believe we may have an opportunity here. I will have to discuss it with the Captain." She said absent mindedly."Good work lieutenant, and you ensign."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Okay Vermilion, stay frosty. They may still have passives." Rick said as they approached the massive gash in the side of the enemy capital ship.
"Man, the things about twice the size of the Daedalus." Max observed over the channel.
"Yeah, and it's one of their mid-size cruisers. We've seen about thirty of them in the enemy fleet at one time." Casandra responded.
"Wonder what could have caused this much damage. Their supposed to be at least as tough as the SDF-1." Kaiko continued the conversation.
The four planes came into a guardian landing in what was once a hallway. It had been opened to space when the ship was damaged and sealed off about two-hundred meters away from the whole. Rick ran a quick low-power scan and moved to an open door. The compartment on the far side was completely depressurized but it could still be recognized as crew quarters.
"Max, see if you can get anything out of the computer."
"Aye, sir."
Rick took Kaiko with him to explore the rest of the corridor. Only three doors were on the hall and only one of them was closed. He walked to it and placed one hand against it while using the other to knock against it. The echo came at the right time but was more muffled then it should have been. The air on the other side was bleeding out slowly. Then there was a knock from the other side.
He jumped back and readied his cannon at the door as it opened, revealing a very dazed looking man the size of a battleoid. He staggered forward on the rush of air and grabbed hold of the veritech. Rick broke the hold and threw the huge alien toward the open end of the corridor.
"Watch out. Just let him go." He said as Kaiko did her best to meld with the wall.
He would never forget the look on the soldiers face as he realized it was totally hopeless. Then he was gone, his eyes loosing any sign of life.
Rick finished checking the room his would be assailant had emerged from, finding only a book and an alien rifle. He used the friction strap to tether the rifle to him and put the book in a storage compartment.
"Sir." Max said,"This is a total mess. Even if it were in English I don't think I could do much with it."
"Copy it to dead storage and we'll take it with us. Then get up here and open this blast door."
"On my way."
ooo000OOO000ooo
An hour later the squadron had worked it's way to a pressurized compartment. After closing the blast door behind them Max jacked into the computer system again.
Five minutes later he reported,"It seems to be a little cleaner here but the network is still a mess. I think I might be able to find something if we stick around here for a while."
"Just copy it. We need to keep moving." Rick said.
"Done." Max said five minutes later.
"Let's check out a few of these rooms. Keep on your toes."
They found more crew quarters, empty this time, and an armory. Half of the weapons were missing and the rest were scattered around as if a tornado had hit the room.
"Okay, sling your gun pods and grab the enemy weapons. We can use them or take them with us if we have to get out."
"Sir, are you sure we want to keep going. I mean we have the information we need, why don't we just head back?" Clarissa asked.
"Because we were told to see how many of the crew survived. The only crew we have found is the dead guy that went floating that way." He hooked a thumb of his mecha to point back the way they came. "We need to find anyone who is still alive and determine if they can see the ship or not."
"Sir, I think I found a ship's schematic. We appear to be just back of the forward auxiliary control." Max sent the image over with a line traced from their current position to a large room located in the center of the forward section.
"Do you think we can get what we need if we can take it?" Rick asked.
"If I can figure out the controls we may be able to vent the rest of the ship and pilot it along-side the SDF-1." Max said.
"I'll settle for this ship not being a threat. Let's move."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Yes, sir. I can confirm that all the sensors on this tub are off line. It looks like they got fried in a massive explosion kicked off by this ship's idiot commander."Rick reported to the Captain.
"You've done an excellent job Lieutenant. Can you get out of there with the information you have retrieved?" Gloval asked.
"Yes sir. We are only about a hundred meters from the nearest breach. But we have an opportunity here sir."
"Please explain."
"Vermilion three thinks he has found a way to depressurize the rest of the ship and take control of it from here."
"I think it would be better to let them report back in. It should cause enough confusion to let us slip through even easier. Get back here and take some time off before we enter the inner ring."
"Aye sir."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"My lord, Bretai. We are reading a ship coming this way." Exidore called from the bridge.
"Is it the enemy?"
"Unknown sir. We are not receiving an identifier signal, nor is it responding to hails."
"Launch a dozen pods to investigate the vessel. If it is the micronian ship we will launch all pods to try to take it."
"Yes my lord."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"KYRON you IDIOT!" Bretai bellowed at the shackled officer. "Not only did you not find the micronian ship, you managed to get your entire squadron blown up! Now I have to thin the rest of the fleet to cover your assigned sector. If that ship slips through you will pay for it." He looked at the guards, "Get this filth out of my sight."
"Yes sir." They came to attention and dragged the screaming former commander out of the bubble.
Exidore waited a short time for his commander to cool down before speaking,"My lord. How should we reorganize to compensate for this unexpected development?"
"Send the word to assume formation seventeen. That should cover the holes left by Kyron's incompetence while shifting to try to reacquire them. Move one tenth of the way around the planet to increase the chances of catching them on their way out."
"Right away, my lord"
"And prepare the necessary documents to send along with that upstart to inform Dolza of my recommendation for his punishment."
"Yes sir."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Sir, we have cleared the inner ring. There are no signs of the Zentradi out there." Lisa reported.
"Very well, bring all the fighters in and declare a three day holiday."
"Sir?"
"Sorry. After the repairs are done let as many people off for as long as we can spare them."
Lisa grinned,"Yes, sir. That will help with the tension level among the personnel."
"And your own, I'm sure Commander." The whole bridge crew giggled except Lisa who blushed deeply.
Claudia stretched and retracted her seat, taking a step away from her console,"It is so nice to know what to call the enemy now. But that history book they recovered does have a way of making me scared."
Gloval rubbed the light stubble that had started growing on his face during the long watch,"I feel that they may have the same tendency at the ancient Egyptians. The pharaohs never recorded their defeats, making it look as though they were an undefeated power. The Zentradi may have not been defeated before, but odds are that they have had their heads handed to them on occasion."
"How can you be so sure sir?" Lisa asked.
"There is always a bigger fish out there. I'm just worried about weather the enemy of my enemy is my friend." He stood and extracted his pipe."Now if you will excuse me, my legs are starting to cramp from spending too much time in that chair."
"Yes sir."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"So should we pick up where we left off?" Kaiko asked.
"Sure. If you want." Max said.
They linked arms and walked slowly through the park. After five minutes Max decided to ask,"So how is it going so far?"
"Despite the long interruption it's going pretty good. Dinner was great, and the movie wasn't bad. Next time I get to choose though."
"Okay, but I didn't think it was that bad."
She giggled,"Maybe for a regular girl. But as a pilot I would have liked some action."
Max used his free hand to palm his face,"I should have gone with my first thought. But I figured you would like a chick flick."
"Other girls would, and you would have been making first base by the half way point. Just consider the tastes of your date when you choose the movie."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, but it can wait until after you kiss me."
"Are you sure?" He asked as his cerebrum went into overdrive trying to remember everything he had ever heard about kissing.
"Come here." She instructed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and planted her lips firmly against his. At first he was in a state of shock, then he relaxed and took her in his arms. For five minutes she melted against him, letting him control the pace while keeping him from holding at any point too long.
When they broke she went limp in his grasp,"Man, where did you learn to kiss like that?"
"First time, promise."
"If you say so, but you picked up some pointers somewhere."She straightened up and took his arm again.
"Well, I do read a lot. I decided to try something I read about back in high school."
She blushed,"Oh, grok me."
"If you insist." He said, swooping down on her for another kiss. Her gentle encouragement had left him feeling bold, that and the fact that he knew they shared the same interest in books. What he got was a big breath of air with a brilliant burst of polychromatic light.
He looked around for a moment and spotted her leaning against a nearby lamp post. As soon as he spotted her she jumped again, appearing on the rim of a fountain. She raised her arms and started walking slowly around the edge.
He grinned and started visualizing. They commenced playing a game of jump tag all over the park.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"So, that's it for the equations. Do you think you have that?" Rick asked.
"My head hurts." Lisa responded.
"That passes. But yeah it should be about a grade two."
"Grade three, bordering on a four. You said you went flying after each class?"
"You pushed yourself harder than the doc pushed us. I tried to warn you to take a break an hour ago."
"I know. Next time just drag me away from the terminal."
"Well, the next step is to try visualizing the jump. So i guess you could say that you're going to drag yourself away."
She rubbed her temple."So what do I have to do?"
"Clear your head and imagine yourself walking over and laying on the couch." As soon as he finished speaking she vanished. His head snapped around and he was relieved to see her lying on the couch.
She moaned,"Now I see why you call it a jumpgasm. That is an interesting way to cure a headache."
"Glad to see you're feeling better." He said as he sat on the couch next to her."It gets better the more you use it. But the first half dozen are pretty bad."
"Can we practice some more?"
Just as he was about to answer there was a chime from the door. She sat up and said,"Come in."
Max appeared before the door, a huge grin on his face. To his right appeared Clarissa and to his left Kaiko, who snaked her arm around Max's.
"Sorry to bother you sir's." He said a bit nervously."But we were wondering if the Lieutenant would like to join us for some jump practice?"
Rick grinned and looked at Lisa,"Does that answer your question?"
"What do you have in mind Ensign?"
"Ma'am. We've been, um, sorta playing jump tag."
Lisa could not imagine a grown man blushing that particular shade of red for any reason. She looked at her love,"Sounds fun."
The three junior officers broke into giddy grins and Clarissa asked,"Does that mean the Commander will be joining us?"
Lisa responded by teleporting from her reclined position to directly in front of the group. "I think we should definitely set some boundaries. This is a big ship."
Rick popped up next to her,"I think we can agree to keep it limited to the main park. That's open enough to allow us to spot each other and still provides cover."
Lisa smiled,"Agreed. And one more thing, we are off duty, so rank has nothing to do with it."
Clarissa grinned at this,"In that case." She reached out and tapped Lisa,"You're it." She disappeared, followed quickly by the other two.
"Why that little,"She started as Rick laughed,"Oh yeah."She tackled him."Now it's your turn, honey." She vanished.
Rick was still laughing when he locked the door and vanished, chasing up to the civilian level.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Perhaps, Lieutenant Commander, you can explain to me why four of my best pilots and my second in command were picked up by the MPs." The Captain looked like he could spit nails, obviously he had been awakened from a well deserved sleep.
"Sir, I take full responsibility. We were undergoing boson jumping practice when a minor misunderstanding escalated very quickly." Lisa said quickly.
"Continue, please."
She could swear the corner of his mouth was twitching, but weather it was in anger or amusement was unclear."The Ensigns had been practicing in the park and had come to ask the Lieutenant to join them. As I had just finished my first jump I decided to join them."
"So you were boson jumping around the park for practice, in the middle of the night?"
"Yes, sir. After about half an hour Ensign Sterling was, um, 'It', sir. And he and Ensign McFee had an accidental encounter. He inadvertently touched her in an inappropriate way and was attempting to apologize when she took a swing at him. He managed to dodge and jumped away." Lisa was very red from having to explain a school yard tussle between grown officers.
"So let me get this straight. You were playing jump tag when Sterling accidentally groped McFee and she reacted without thinking. Is that about right?"
"Yes sir. She then went to chasing him and eventually was able to catch him. They were struggling when we showed up and in the process of trying to separate them we got tangled up. That's how the MPs found us."
Gloval could no longer help himself. He started laughing. The five personnel on the other side of his desk stood in shock to see their commanding offices almost roll out of his chair. He finally recovered enough to say,"I can see how this might appear to the Military Police, but just so long as it is over then I think we can let it go as a learning experience."
He turned stern faced to Max,"Sterling, you will apologize to your teammate and try to be more careful in the future." Next to Clarissa,"McFee, you will apologize to Sterling and try to realize that sometimes accidents do happen. Dismissed."
They all came to attention and walked out of the room.
Once outside the redhead turned to Max and said,"Sorry about this, I do know it was an accident. I just know how you and Kaiko have been getting on and I overreacted."
"It's okay, I'm sure I would have reacted the same in that kind of situation." He replied.
Lisa chose this moment to break in,"I think that we settled it on the way over here. So why don't you go get a drink and get some rest. After all that jumping I think I need a good shower and some time alone with my man. Later." She turned and vanished.
Rick gave his goodbyes and then vanished as well. Leaving the three Ensigns to figure where they were going.
ooo000OOO000ooo
It had been seventeen hours since the SDF-1 had broken through the inner ice ring of Saturn. The progress had restored the spirit of that had bled away due to the long stretches of getting through the rings. The long break had finally given everyone a chance to rest, refreshing their energy levels to levels in excess of any previous point.
Lisa had put the new found energy and enthusiasm to good use planning for the next leg of their journey. "Sir, I think we should head for Mars directly from here. The abandoned base may have supplies that we can use."
She did not tell him the real reason for the course change because she had not yet admitted it to herself. She loved Rick with most of her heart, but there was still a part that could not let go of Karl. The intellectual side of her knew that no one could have survived all this time, but her heart refused to listen to reason.
"Won't that require an almost immediate turn away from Saturn and a massive amount of thrust?" The captain observed.
"Yes, sir."Roy said,"We will have to accelerate until we exit the rings."
"What about the dangers of high velocity collisions?"
Lisa took this part,"We go to rapid fire on the main gun as soon as we enter the ice field. This should serve the dual purpose of clearing any threats from our path while also making it impossible to follow us. We set the destination field to be a cylinder around the ship. We estimate that this will produce an almost solid wall around us."
"What about being detected by the Zentradi?"
"We let them find us. If they try to chase us then they hit the wall, or if they get out in front, that's what the the main gun is for." Roy said.
"What about power? Using the main gun takes a huge amount of energy."
"We have found that using the main gun makes the boson transfer interface more efficient. I have been dying for an opportunity to try this."Doctor Lang was getting excited."We should be able to project exactly what the effects of continuous use should be."
The captain turned to Lisa,"Decided to gang up on me?"
"Not exactly sir. We just happened to agree that this is a good plan."
The Captain threw up his hands,"Okay, make it so."
ooo000OOO000ooo
Henry Gloval had expected the trip out of the rings to be over in no more than fifteen minutes. The reflex furnace should have gone into emergency shutdown after ten minutes of this pace. He was sure the enemy would be on them in five. Neither had happened after over an hour of blasting their way through the ice.
The reactor had been taken down to normal operational levels by the time it should have been scramming. Then engineering had reported that the furnace was being taken down again. It was currently running at fifty percent just to keep from overloading the capacitors.
"We are about to clear the inner ring sir" Lisa called from her station.
"Launch a probe to get a peek of the other side."
"Aye sir." The report came through a moment later,"Sir, we are picking up three scout class ships in our direct path. They appear to be facing away from us."
"It's time for a blitzkrieg. Bring the engines to ten percent above maximum and launch the fighters from the aft bays."
"Yes sir." All five stations called back.
Lisa hit the 'ship wide' switch,"All pilots man your veritechs. This is not a drill. Prepare to execute screening operations against Zentradi forces."
ooo000OOO000ooo
The planes started launching the moment the orders came through, some of the pilots just waiting for the call.
Roy Fokker came over the radio,"Okay boys, you heard the lady. We need to keep the enemy off our flanks while the ship clears the gap. Good hunting."
The squadrons formed up and trailed the SDF-1 as it cleared the last remnant of the ice. The next shot caught the three Zentradi ships by surprise and eliminated one before they knew what hit them. The other two went to full power on their engines to get out of the line of fire. The Earth vessel screamed between them on it's run away course into the outer ring.
As the shock wore off, the Zentradi commanders launched pods as fast as they could to go after the escaping enemy. They were met by the full strength of the veritech screen. As the pods would launch they would find themselves the target of a full wing of veritechs each. The rest hung back and watched for the next wave. As they finished off their targets they took a pass at the launch ports and resumed their positions in the waiting committee.
Finally the enemy got organized and launched hundreds of pods at once. Roy came over the general freq,"Okay, enough of this small groups. Two minutes until the ship hits the next wall. Get 'em."
The carefully organized flights quickly dissolved into two plane fur balls as pairs of pilots started taking on dozens of pods. Pods exploded in scores as veritechs were taken out in ones and twos.
"Vermilion One, Vermilion Three." Kaiko came over the squadron freq,"I'm hit. Main thrusters off line. I'm bugging out."
"Vermilion Three, One. Roger."Rick responded,"Four, cover her Max."
"Four, roger." The pair peeled off and headed for the landing bays, Three sluggishly turning on auxiliary maneuvering jets.
"SDF-1, Vermilion lead. Three and four heading in, three no longer combat effective." Rick transmitted over the command freq.
"Confirmed Vermilion, integrate with Skull and hold them off for another thirty."
"Roger control."
Thirty seconds later the veritechs, down by six, turned and started the dangerous process of heading back to base. The pods quickly regrouped and pursued, but were unprepared for the missiles that had been dropped by the retreating planes. The unspent munitions had been released on a time delayed fuse to activate their proximity fuses. Individual pods started popping as the missiles detonated. This was enough of a shock to allow the veritech squadrons to land just before the ship shot into the newly created ice tunnel.
The two capital ships tried to pursue but found the way blocked by a reflex mine that cut them off as they were reporting the vector of the target.
ooo000OOO000ooo
"My lord. We have a partial vector on the micronian vessel." Exidore relayed the information.
"Why is it partial?"
"It appears patrol seventeen was destroyed before they could finish the transmission."
"Enough. It looks like the enemy has decided to stop hiding. Order the fleet to fold to their probable exit point at the soonest possible moment."
"Yes, my lord."
"You're a slippery one." He said to his opponent."If only you were Zentradi, then I wouldn't have to kill you."
ooo000OOO000ooo
"Sir, I think the enemy knows where we are going. So what's the next move?" Lisa asked.
"We are going to use brute force to blast through the last wall. We will see the majority of the Zentradi fleet as we exit. To deal with them we are going to fire three reflex warheads in a triangular pattern to screen our passage. We will be moving so fast that both sides will only get one shot."
"What if the enemy shoots first?"
"They won't."Gloval said with more conviction than he felt."Everything they have done so far suggests that they want the ship intact. I am counting on the fact that we have not become more trouble than we are worth to them."
"I hope you're right sir."
"At least we still have hope."
ooo000OOO000ooo
There was a massive bubbling on the edge of the ring of Saturn. Waiting a short distance from that anomaly were three dozen Zentradi capitol ships with thousands of pods deployed into a dispersed pattern. The arrangement was intended to keep the fleet from taking too many losses from any single attack.
What they hadn't factored in was their target's will to escape. As the disturbance opened a huge swarm of missiles exited, followed a half second later by the ship. Three of those missiles were special, the highest yield reality flux warheads that the ship boasted. When the two sub critical masses of protoculture were combined and activated, reality itself would convulse in a massive release of energy. The only thing that humanity had seen to rival the power of such warheads was a nuclear blast.
As the three reflex missiles reached their destination, they detonated, taking with them twenty of the Zentradi ships and leaving half the pods either vaporized or disabled. The remaining ships hung their in stunned inaction as the SDF-1 shot toward them and it's freedom.
Bretai and Exidore went to work trying to put their gaping net back together in a vain attempt to accomplish the mission.
The sixteen remaining ships sluggishly began moving to intercept the fleeing foe, but differences in velocity gave the micronian vessel an excellent chance of escaping.
Suddenly one of the Zentradi commanders opened up with his main cannon, missing the SDF-1 due to failure to lead and striking a friendly ship dead center. The resulting explosion damaged another ship's maneuvering capability and sent shrapnel flying into three more.
"Attention all captains,"Bretai's voice came over the radio,"Do not use primary weapons. That ship is to be captured, not destroyed."
The distance was continuing to open between the jumbled mass of ships and the lone vessel, with no sign of slowing. Finally Bretai was forced to concede that his opponent had gotten the better of him again. "All ships, break off pursuit. Form the squadron and prepare for fold."
He called over a general transmission freq,"This round goes to you micronian, but the game is far from over."
ooo000OOO000ooo
At last Chapter six. Sorry for the long wait, but it should get better now.
Thanks to my wife for proofing this for me.
P. S. New fic coming soon.