The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (27 page)

Dolen: “Give me the quick summary.”

Chief: “As you know, at the moment the fleet consists of 2 battleships, 4 destroyers, and 10 cruisers. We also have one repair / supply vessel; bringing the total number of ships in the fleet to 17. However, the cruiser
Sunflower
is going to proceed independently to Trilon and the cruiser
Sentinel
is going to remain in Opron as a rearguard.”

Dolen: “Yes, yes, I know. I meant give me the summary about the fighters.”

Dolen and Olova were standing on the upper bridge aboard the flag battleship
Guardian
. A battleship bridge has 5 levels. Like a cruiser or a destroyer, the first 4 are the same – equipment room, officers’ quarters, main bridge and captain’s quarters / conference room. The fifth, or upper level on a battleship is reserved for admiralty.

This level consists of the admiral’s quarters, quarters for his 3 staff members, a galley, a small conference room, and a secondary bridge. This bridge could be used to pilot the battleship in an emergency, but its primary purpose was to gather information and communicate with the other ships.

Olova displayed the configuration and current location of the 17 ships on the main monitor. He circled three ships on the plot and said, “Each cruiser currently has 20 pilots aboard. The three exceptions are the
Sunflower
which currently has 40 pilots and the
Dandelion
and the
Vigilance
which currently have no pilots.”

Chief continued, “The plan is to transfer all 40 pilots from the
Sunflower
, 20 permanently to the
Dandelion
and 20 temporarily to the
Vigilance
.”

Dolen asked, “Okay, I understand why the
Dandelion
doesn’t have any fighters. Why doesn’t the
Vigilance
have any?”

Chief: “I really don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. The cruiser should have a fighter wing, but does not. Computer, do you know why the
Vigilance
is sans fighters?”

…Accessing, One of the pilots was sick, so the entire fighter wing stayed behind. It was decided by fleet headquarters that group unity and harmony was more important than simply reassigning one pilot as a temporary replacement…

Chief: “Besides, it really doesn’t matter. The
Sunflower
doesn’t need any fighters. They are going to jump to Trilon, perform a scan, then jump back to Opron. They have the same battle plan regardless of what they find.”

Olova sent the commands to the various ships. He said, “We are now beginning transfer. It should take approximately 2 hours to get every fighter safely stored on the correct ship. The first fighter should be tossed out of the
Sunflower
in 20 minutes”

Dolen appeared lost in thought for a moment and suddenly asked in a screaming, panicked voice, “
Sunflower
?”

Chief replied, “Yes. They are currently carrying 40 fighters. The extra fighters are sitting on the main hangar floor. They will literally have to toss them overboard before engaging the fighters’ engines. Otherwise, the thrust will incinerate the ships remaining on the hangar floor.”

Dolen waved his hand impatiently and said, “I understand. I meant, why is that ship part of the fleet? I seem to recall that it was on a special mission in Waylon or something.”

Chief: “When you returned from the briefing with the Alliance Senators, you stated that the
Sunflower
should be an integral part of this mission. That was the only ship that you mentioned by name. I sent the recall notice to the cruiser the moment you mentioned it. Why, is it relevant?”

Dolen: “Yes it is. I remember now. Senator Frank specifically mentioned that I should use that ship for the independent search of Trilon.”

Admiral Dolen remembered exactly who or rather what the pilots from the
Sunflower
were - humans. He briefly wondered if Senator Frank had intentionally made the request just so he could see Dolen fail. Dolen didn’t picture Senator Frank as evil or underhanded. Perhaps they were just victims of some cosmic irony.

The existence of humans in the Alliance Navy was still technically a secret. Only Captain Solear of the
Sunflower
and Captain Arean of the
Dandelion
and their crews were authorized to know that human pilots even existed. Even his chief of staff was unaware that
Sunflower’s
pilots were humans.

Therefore, he would be violating orders if he allowed the human pilots to land on the
Vigilance
. Plus, there would be a revolt or at a minimum a panic when the humans crawled out of their cockpits and said hello to an unsuspecting crew. He could imagine the chaos that would ensue. It could even threaten the mission.

Dolen realized that he would now have to pick between two very bad options. If he used the human pilots, he would be violating a standing order. More importantly though, the entire fleet would know that humans existed and were serving in the Alliance Navy.

Further, the Hiriculans would discover the secret if any of the human fighters were killed. The Alliance would be caught in a lie and any positive bargaining power they had obtained from the Hiriculan transgression at the Spindle Station would quickly be lost. However, if he didn’t use the humans, they would lose their overwhelming fighter advantage.

Dolen said, “Belay those orders. I am going to the conference room for a moment to think.”

Dolen left the bridge and walked across the hallway into the conference room. This was his favorite room by far and he spent the majority of his time here. He sat in his favorite chair at the head of the table, took a deep breath, and rubbed the inlaid wood that rimmed the table

On the far wall was a large viewer that slowly scrolled through a myriad of famous pictures from Advranki’s three inhabited planets. It was currently showing the sun glimmering off of the sea moss beds in Advranki Prime. He watched the scene for a few minutes. The room’s beauty and tranquility temporarily relaxed him.

His mind clear, Dolen said, “Computer, display the fleet on the conference table.”

…The fleet is now displayed in 3D on the primary table monitor…

Dolen reviewed each ship present. Since the fleet had been hastily assembled at Advranki Prime, it was exclusively Advranki ships and almost all of them were from the Advranki Prime home fleet. The crews were also overwhelmingly Advranki. There were only two Altians and two Solarians participating in the mission.

Dolen swiped his hand across the table, rearranging the units as best he could. He said aloud to no one in particular, “The best option would be to leave the fighters on the
Sunflower
and have it stay in Opron to perform the rearguard duty. Then I could send the
Vigilance
to investigate Trilon. Simple.”

Dolen thought about the new plan for a moment, but sadly rejected it. Senator Frank had specifically suggested that the
Sunflower
go to investigate Trilon. He had even given valid reasoning that the
Sunflower
worked very well on independent missions. After all, the
Sunflower
was the most decorated ship in the fleet and had succeeded against nearly impossible odds.

Dolen rearranged the ships a second time and came up with a plan that wasn’t as good as the first, but he supposed would work. He said, “Computer, contact Commander, correction Captain, Arean aboard the
Dandelion
on a private channel.

A moment later Dolen saw Arean’s face on his communication pad. Arean spoke first and said, “Admiral, to what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”

Dolen said, “You’ve worked with humans. Can you trust them?”

Arean answered, “To a point I suppose. This crew transferred directly from the Sunflower. We certainly have experience dealing with them. Besides, we have put force fields throughout the ship. The crew is confident we can control the humans and I personally feel that the humans are better pilots than Advranki. Why do you ask?”

Dolen: “Unfortunately, I am going to have to delay the transfer of human pilots to your ship until after the mission is completed.”

Arean simply asked, “Why?”

Dolen: “We cannot let the Hiriculans find out that we have human pilots. If we take the humans to Influenla, the Hiriculans will scan our ships and possibly find them. Therefore, I am going to hide them as best that I can.”

Arean said, “Then I request that you leave the
Dandelion
in Opron to perform the rearguard duties. We should be inconspicuous here.”

Dolen said, “No. I have decided to keep all of the ships in the fleet together. There is no reason to leave a ship in Opron. I have decided that the humans will ride on the repair ship instead. The repair ship will remain beside the hyperspace gate and will jump back to Opron if anything untoward happens to the fleet.”

Arean answered “Understood” and broke the connection. Dolen thought that Arean looked like he wanted to protest further, but did not.

The decision made, Admiral Dolen walked back onto the flag bridge and said, “Chief, tell the crew of the repair ship
Exemplar
to lock themselves in the control room.”

Chief: “Did you say lock themselves in the control room?”

Dolen: “Yes. Just have them lock the control room section of the ship so that no one can enter. If some of the members have an issue with the order then they can come to the flagship
Guardian
.”

Chief replied “Okay,” but the word sounded perfunctory.

Dolen: “Next have the 40 pilots transfer from the
Sunflower
to the
Exemplar
. The
Vigilance
will accompany us on our mission.”

Chief: “That still leaves 2 cruisers without fighters. What if we need them?”

Dolen: “Each battleship has 80 fighters, the two destroyers have 20 each, and the 9 cruisers have 140 between them. That means that this fleet has a total of 340 fighters. I doubt having 380 will make any difference to the outcome of the mission.”

The chief sighed, but issued the new set of orders. He announced a few minutes later, “The fighters are now transferring to the
Exemplar
. The crewmembers have agreed to stay on the ship and barricade themselves.”

Dolen said, “There is no reason to wait for the pilots to transfer. Order the fleet to increase speed .08 light and jump to Influenla. When the pilots have successfully transferred to the
Exemplar
, it is to follow us to Opron.”

Dolen then said, “Chief, the jump from Opron to Influenla is 7 hours, correct?”

Chief nodded affirmatively.

Dolen: “Tell the staff to take a break for the next 6 and ½ hours. I imagine we won’t get a chance to rest once we arrive.”

Time is relative; especially when one is dealing with a 10 to 1 time dilation when jumping through hyperspace. For the beings aboard the main fleet, 7 hours had passed. For the traffic control beacon sitting in isolation beside Opron hyperspace corridor, 70 hours (3 days) had passed. For the crew of the
Sunflower
, 14 hours had passed.

Roughly 20 minutes before the scheduled exit time, Dolen left his quarters and moved to the flag bridge. He contacted his 3 staff members and had them report as well. He wanted everyone to be alert and ready for rapid action the moment they arrived.

Twenty minutes later the Alliance armada exited hyperspace in Influenla. Admiral Dolen said, “Let’s go team, I need a passive scan now. Also, start the active scan.”

Chief replied, “We have a momentary pause while or sensors recalibrate from being in hyperspace.” After a minute, Chief said, “Okay, we are now getting preliminary information.”

Chief displayed the initial passive scan on the main monitor. The passive scan showed exactly what they expected, their best case scenario. There was a lone frigate providing traffic control for two outbound freighters. The freighters continued on their path past the Alliance fleet, but the frigate began accelerating hard away from both the space station and the Alliance fleet.

Chief announced, “The frigate has seen us and is changing course away from the station. It was a little better situated than we expected.”

The communications officer said, “I am detecting a series of communication flares. The frigate has alerted the station that we are here.”

Dolen said, “Give me a best time plot on the frigate.”

The communications officer said, “Sorry Admiral, the fleet cannot catch the frigate unless we change direction away from the station.”

Dolen replied, “Computer, analysis.”

…The fleet has emerged from hyperspace at .07 light and is already braking hard to reach the station at zero velocity. The enemy frigate was patrolling in a standard oval pattern at .01 light. Its flight path was perpendicular to ours, allowing it to increase its distance relative to the station. The frigate increasing speed to at least .03 light…

Chief summarized for the computer, “Meaning that we can either chase the frigate or proceed directly to the station.”

Dolen: “How long until we reach the station?”

Chief: “Admiral, recall that in this system the exit to the hyperspace lane is very close to the system’s gravity. We have now been in system for 4 minutes. At our current rate, we will pass the edge of the gravity in 2 minutes, pass the large asteroid in 11, and reach the station in 12 minutes.

Dolen: “I think the frigate wants us to chase it versus going directly to the station. That will buy the Hiriculan fleet enough time to launch from the station. Besides, there is nowhere for it to go.”

Chief responded, “Why don’t we have 4 cruisers break off from the main fleet and independently pursue the frigate. That way the main fleet can continue to the station.”

Dolen: “No. Inform the other captains to let the frigate go. We will proceed as a battle group to the station without delay.”

The flotilla decelerated over the next few minutes and came to a full stop between the large asteroid and the front of the station. The station was located approximately 900,000 kilometers from the asteroid.