VORTEX - rough draft beginning

[Floyd Looney]

Events in this story take place immediately after those in Nightmares of Command




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Vortex

The hustle and bustle of the main hangar hardly registered with Tara Simmons, thoughtlessly stepping over power cables and avoiding running into anything. She was too busy staring up at the ship that would be hers to command, the last warship that humans still retained. The alien Scree didn't know about it, deep in the bowels of this desert world, Domascus.

It was not the largest vessel she had seen but it was quite impressive nontheless. The most striking thing about it was the large potrusion underneath and forward. They told her it was called the MGRAG, powered by the same engines as the propulsion system. Indeed this was their secret weapon, making this ship, the Vortex, the last hope for humanity.

More than two hundred people would be under her command, their lives would depend on her decisions and some of them would probably die. She had no illusions. All of these people at the underground base would likely be dead within hours of liftoff, but they knew their deaths would mean hope for their species.

Just that morning swarms of tens of thousands of Scree vessels had invaded ten solar systems colonized by humans and wiped out ships and space stations where they were found. The resistance had few ships and likely put up barely a token opposition. It was only a matter of hours before Domascus was also targeted.

She had to climb a ladder the old fashion way to get into the bowels of the vessel, she would take a little tour on the way to the bridge. Preparations for launch were in full swing, a hint of panic and desperation palpable in the men and women moving quickly passed her in the corridors.

Tara wanted to at least meet the bridge crew before they took off, she knew there was not a lot of time left. The Engine Room was nearest and she was soon interrupting the Chief Engineer Ivan Kursky, who turned and acted rudely for a moment before recognizing her rank.

“I'm sorry Commander!” He apologized “My name is Ivan Kursky, I am the Chief Engineer on this ship. I must apologize for being rude but I am a very busy man right now.” With that he walks toward a man who had dropped some equipment and gave him a tongue lashing. Tara decided the Chief had likely forgotten she was even there and hastily got out of the way.

Doctor Mark L Rubenstein was the Chief Medical Officer in the Medical Center, a couple of decks up from Engineering. He was not nearly as brusque as the harried Engineering Chief but he was also a busy man. He was pleasant enough, the nurses and others seemed calm and not nervous around him, always a good sign in a doctor.

She marked him off the mental list. She still needed to meet the Chief Navigator, Weapons Officer, Ops Officer and the civilian scientist who had designed and built the Mega-Gravitational Arc Generator, also known as the Vortex. It was what made the ship special and she wanted to meet this man, the only civilian aboard.

The next lift took her to the bridge.


The first thing she noticed was the large main viewer, blank at the moment. On either side of this were smaller display viewers giving information about ship systems and the surrounding space. She saw the Ops station to her right, at the back of the Command Deck, or bridge as many still called it. There was a young blonde woman with a ponytail at that station, she was the first to notice as Tara entered.

“Commander on the Bridge” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. The Navigator and Weapons officers both looked up from their readouts and displays. Then they too stood and saluted their new Commander. She had no doubt that they all knew who she was and that they probably hated her for it.

LieutenantMicheal James Johnson, Navigator. Previously served aboard the Executive Vessel of the Interstellar Trade Delegation. He was rated a very good pilot, but had started his career as a shuttlepod pilot.

Lieutenant Alair Lynn Walsmith, Ops officer. She had come from a wealthy family but had followed her own dreams and had not been in communication with home for more than six years.

Lieutenant Benjamin Austin, Weapons Officer. Had served in the Interstellar Marine Expeditionary Force, had flown missions in the War of Garator.

She also wanted to meet Lieutenant Commander John Barnes, who would mostly command the ship while she slept. She did not want to talk to the ship Psychologist, she had enough of them for a lifetime.

Lt Walsmith sounded alarmed “Commander, we are receiving a message from Admiral Huskins”

“Let's hear it”

“Commander. Scree vessels have entered the solar system. I am ordering you to liftoff immediately and to get out of here. Go to a solar system on the other side of the galaxy if you have to, you must learn about the MGRAG and what it can do.” he told her.

“We can fight” Commander Simmons started to say but her cut her off.

“You will obey an order, Commander! Your job is not defending this planet, it is getting to safety until you figure out what to do with the Vortex. Is that clear?” He demanded.

“Yes sir” She answered. Then the Admiral cut off after saying “May God be with you, because no-one else is”.

“Lt Walsmith”

“Yes Commander?”

“Alert all section chiefs to prepare for immediate liftoff!”

They could feel the engines coming online, they could almost hear the micro vibrations. The main viewer came alive showing the ground crews running for safety. They would likely die when the Scree attacked, they would not be able to miss the Vortex taking off.


“Hangar doors open, liftoff when ready” Ops announced. She didn't see any hangar doors on the viewer, of course, these doors are right above us.

“Lt Johnson, get us out of here” she ordered, getting a grip on the arm rests.

The ship shook as it rose off the ground of the subterranean hangar, slowly at first but soon the navigator had them rocketing into space. “Outlying satellites indicate Scree fleet is just a few minutes away” the Ops officer announced.

Tara Simmons looked at the tiny monitor by her left hand, sensors in the outer solar system were blinking off, leaving parts of space unmonitored. Thats how we know where they are, she told herself.

“Lt Austin, power up the plasma lasers and prep a couple of torpedoes” she ordered.

“Aye Commander. Weapons are ready and hot”

“Lt Johnson, how long before we are ready to initiate the vortex sequence?”

“1.1 million miles, about four minutes” he answered.

“They will be here by then” said the Ops officer.

“Lets make it three and a half minutes Mr Johnson, that should put enough distance between us and the planet”

“Yes Commander”

Then Ops sounded alarmed. “The base has been attacked. Their first raiders must have come around the star without being detected. I don't know if they've seen us yet”

“Warm up the MGRAG” she said. The little monitor by her right hand showed the power to the device had gone from 5%, idle, to more than 88% in less than thirty seconds. It was quickly reaching the critical point where the sequence would happen whether they were ready or not.

“Set in the destination as the Speicher System” She ordered.

“We are far enough from the planet for initiation” Lt Johnson announced.

“Enemy fighters will arrive within forty seconds” Ops informed them.

“Initiate vortex sequence” Tara Simmons commanded, “now”

The stars in front of the ship began wavering, shimmering. Tara Simmons stood up and watched the screen. Slowly she saw stars move aside as a part of space-time was wrenched apart. A gap irised open right there in front of her ship, she could see the star of the destination system and then a world.

“Enemy raider ships attacking, raising aft shields” Ops announced.

“Enter the vortex” she commanded

The Scree fighters followed the vessel into the aperture, they did not realize their mistake until their retreat became impossible. The vortex had closed behind them, they had traveled more than 39 light-years in a matter of moments.

Lt. Austin made short work of the small alien craft with plasma lasers.

“Commander the carrier frequency from the base was cut off before we entered the vortex, I don't think it exists any longer” Ops said.

Tara sank back into the Command Chair absorbing the impact and implications of the vortex device, thinking about how it could be used. Strategy, tactics and all that she had learned in Fleet School and all she had learned aboard the Pegasus started coming back to her.

Maybe this war isn't as lost as she had thought.

[Attero Dominatus]

Very good! The Skree are like the Virulent in my novel, except the Virulent only make limited use of fighters and use their big ships in vast numbers.

[Floyd Looney]

The Scree/Skree look like troll dolls!!

[Attero Dominatus]

Doh! I cannot believe I spelled their name wrong.

The Virulent are four-armed, four legged creatures with a chitinous exo-skeleton. Probably not terribly original, but coming up with an alien is hard!

Anyway, I like this story and hope you write more.

[Floyd Looney]

I will try. Today or tomorrow.

[Floyd Looney]

well, things happen..

[Floyd Looney]

Tara took a short tour of her ship and met with her department heads in their own environment. The crew morale was as well as could be considering the circumstances.

If it weren't so sad it'd be funny that she found herself in charge of the "last best hope for mankind". Like some kind of bad movie but this time it was true.

She called a team of engineers and science officers to her breifing room near the bridge. They looked determined and she knew they were competent.

"I want to send probes through the vortex to scout Scree activity, I want to find the planets they are weakest in. The ones they feel aren't worth the effort" she told them.

"If they aren't a threat to the Scree, how helpful will they be for us?" asked Junior Science officer Kasey Jackson. It was a good question of course.

"First we need to practice. Second, any defeat of the Scree is a good thing. It will be good for morale at any rate" she added.

So the probes were sent out as the vortex was opened and closed and re-oriented and opened again for them to be launched through. Later they were cycled through again so they could read the telemetry from the probes.

Most of this took place during the second shift while she slept, while Lt. Commander John Barnes commanded the bridge.

Meanwhile she had a fitful sleep. The nightmares came again. The dead were calling out for her. They wanted something from her. They wanted her blood to satiate their own deaths. She had as good as killed them, those crewmen of the PEGASUS.

Tara woke early and showered quickly. She put on the uniform she didn't think she deserved to wear and made her way to the bridge. Some of the first shift bridge crew were already relieving what they thought of as the "night shift".

John Barnes allowed her to take the Command chair and then came back to her with a datapad. "There is a planet, called Vargas, that is a pretty new colony. It seems that some of the Scree ships have actually made landfall, they have nothing in orbit though, at this time".

Tara had fallen for that before. She had landed the PEGASUS without waiting for any other ships to cover them from space. Nearly everyone had died when the space fighters swooped in while they were on foot. Tara shook it off.

"We can shuttle down a small team" she said "Find the colonists and help organize them, arm them, help them fight".

"I can lead the team" Lt. Commander Barnes offered "I have already put down suggestions for who should be included".

"Thank you, but I think you should stay aboard." she said. "We have Marines aboard who can do the job I think. Get Captain Susan Molinari to my breifing room".

"Oh and that scientist guy wants to meet you as soon as possible as well" he added. She rolled her eyes, "I guess I should get that over with. I haven't been to that part of the ship yet anyway".

Barnes nodded and tapped something onto his datapad. Then she suggested he get to sleep.

"Aye Aye" he said and was off into the lift.

Captan Molinari of the Marines was not a huge, muscular, manly woman that Tara had expected. She was quite normal in size and almost as normal in her manners. She did notice that Alair Lynn Walsmith at Ops and Molinari exchanged glances.

Whatever that meant.

Tara shrugged it off and followed Molinari into the breifing room.

"I assume you've been told that colony Vargas is our first stop?" Tara asked as she sat at the head of the table.

"Yes, Commander. I have a map of the colony from the computer but I also know that if trouble started, the colonists would have evacuated to a cave complex in this mountain" she pointed at the map now displayed on the table top.

"I see"

"It's a natural bunker. It might even explain why the Scree have landed there. It is a small colony and it could easily become another Scree world" she explained.

"My thinking exactly" Tara said "But the Scree have sent so few ships and their all on the ground. It doesn't look like a top priority does it?"

"Maybe they don't think it requires any more resources" Molinari said "After all, they are now patrolling a hundred human star systems. They know we can't send reinforcements. Even if they know about us, they know we are just one ship and they can't find us".

"Unless we want them to" Tara added. It was something she had been thinking about. It was for later though. Vargas was the first thing on the list. "How many men will you take?"

"I have twenty and I'll take them all" Molinari said. Tara wasn't going to suggest otherwise. "I'll make contact with the colonists and help them learn how to fight a guerilla war against the Scree".

"And you learned that in Marine School?" Tara asked.

"Yes, I did as a matter of fact" the Marine smiled breifly.

"Get your men and gear ready then Captain, dismissed"

Soon Tara was back on the bridge. Nothing was happening yet so she decided to find this scientist. The man who had developed the MGRAG which might yet save humanity.

She was expecting someone in their sixties or seventies but Dr. Philip Weinstein was barely forty. He didn't look like the bookish cliche of the vids either.

"Very nice to meet you Commander" he said and took her hand gently.

"Doctor" she said but he cut her off by shaking his head.

"Purely honorary actually. I am actually self-taught, this machine came more from imagination than from education" he said waving his hand at the device that dominated forward engineering, rising several decks high.

"The MGRAG is very impressive" she said, and meant it.

"Yes, the idea of punching holes through space instead of just bending space with traditional warp is quite a step" he admitted "We still aren't sure of the details, its new enough that it barely qualifies as experimental. We learn more every time we use it".

A short tour was all that was required because his job was more to monitor the machine than maintain it. It hadn't broken down or anything yet and his assistants could probably take care of that.

"I need to get back to the bridge" she said "Its been a pleasure meeting you, Philip".

He took her hand again and kissed it. "The pleasure is all mine".

On the way back to the bridge she kicked herself. She had enjoyed his company far too much. Tara kept thinking about him though right up until the lift door opened and she walked onto the bridge.

"Walsmith, sound alarm. Battlestations. Prepare to open the vortex to the Vargas system. We're at war people!".

The klaxon sounded and the bridge got very busy.

[Floyd Looney]

The space in front of the ship shimmered and a hole irised open. You could see through it like a window and then the Vortex moved forward through it. Then just like that they had traveled more than 59 light-years.

"We are detecting nothing in orbit around Vargas III" said Alair Lynn Walsmith from Ops. "The Marine shuttles are ready to launch when we are in orbit".

"We will reach standard orbit in 7 minutes, Commander" said the Navigator Lt. Michael James Johnson.

"I hope all weapons are at the ready" she told them.

Lt. Benjamin Austin looked around at her with a grin. Of course the weapons were prepped and ready.

As soon as they reached orbit the shuttles were ejected from their holds by hydraulic rams. In unison they turned and began to descend toward the surface. As part of the plan they would make no contact with the Vortex until they made contact with the locals.

....

Captain Susan Molinari was surprised that not a single anti-aircraft laser had been fired in their direction from the Scree positions south and east of the colony. The shuttles were landed to the west and as close as they could get to the mountain itself.

The back of the shuttles lowered down and they exited wearing full exo-armor and loaded for bear. They fanned out to cover all the angles as they left the shuttles behind. The shuttles exterior began to micmic the surrounding flora to blend in, after they cooled down they would even fool some wide-band sensors.

They soon reached a small clearing and were going to go around when they saw something with their helmet scans. Humans were moving through the underbrush and would not have been detectable without the latest scanners.

"Terran Alliance, Marines!" Captain Molinari yelled "We've come to help you fight the Scree!".

The human figures in their scanners had stopped moving. Then slowly they stood up and peeked over the foilage. The humans were armed with phase plasma rifles but as she entered the clearing she realized that these were... children.

"Where are the other colonists?" Captain Molinari asked them.

The children looked at each other, one shrugged and the other answered the question. "The caves" he said.

"Who is in charge?"

"Dena is in charge now." said the other child. Susan looked closer without the scanner. This one was a girl, she was about ten. Who gave them phase rifles? What were they doing out of the caves?

"Where are your parents?" She asked both of them. Again they looked at each other.

"They're all dead. All of the adults are dead. Fighting the Scree, Ma'am" said the girl. The boy didn't seem to want to talk anymore. Or maybe he was trying not to cry.

"All dead?"

The girl held up the rifle. "We are fighting the Scree now. They haven't broken through the mine array yet. They will though, it's only a matter of time."

"We're here to help" She told them "We can get you off the planet".

"We're not leaving" the boy spoke up "This is our planet, they can't have it!"

Captain Molinari figured this was a good time to contact the ship and fill them in.

"This is Molinari to Vortex"

"Go ahead. Report" came the voice in her ear.

"We have made contact with the locals Commander. The adults are all dead. The children have kept fighting, they might not agree to leave. I am going to try and talk with the leader of this, um, army. Her name is Dena" she told the ship.

After a short time of silence she heard "You do what you think is best Captain Molinari. We'll support you the best we can".

....

Tara Simmons didn't like the sound of murmuring aboard her bridge but it was pretty understandable this time.

"Children?" Lt. Austin whispered "An army of children?"

"We should evacuate them" Lt. Johnson said in return "They're just kids".

Alair Lynn Walsmith behind the Commander at the Ops station spoke up. "Commander, I am picking up a warp signal. I think we're about to have company".

"Weapons ready. Static shields are up" Lt. Austin informed them.

"Should we leave standard orbit, Commander?" Lt. Johnson asked.

"Take us toward the direction of the warp signature" Commander Simmons ordered. She wasn't about to let the Scree get a drop on the Marines and children down below.

"It's a Scree mother ship" Alair Lynn Walsmith said moments before the ship emerged from warp. It looked like it was exiting black fog on their center viewscreen. The other two viewscreens readout vital stats of the Vortex.

"Sound red alert again" She said, although they technically had never left that status.

"They should see us in a second" Lt. Austin said quietly.

"Ready all weapons"

"Ready" he responded.

"Something is happening. I think it's about to launch a fighter swarm" Walsmith said.

"Open fire" Tara ordered.

Plasma wave guns, sub-light torpedoes with anti-matter warheads began firing over and over. The Scree fighters were barely leaving their holding bays before exploding from the onslaught.

"Activate the MGRAG, open a vortex" she ordered. This manuever was pre-planned. The vortex opened up right on the other side of the Scree mothership.

"Evasive action" she ordered. The Vortex turned hard and speeded away before the blinding heat and radiation from a star could destroy their ship. The Scree mothership was breaking up and melting before the aperture closed leaving a broken, melted husk.

[Attero Dominatus]

It is good, especially her regrets over the past and the budding romance between her and Weinstein.

[Floyd Looney]

Tara Simmons gets nothing but heartache. I'm barely getting started. heh