She usually did not like them, preferring the darkly handsome Groombridgers or her own breed, but he had a certain charm. He was her subordinate, but when you were stationed on an overgrown rock for weeks at a time, everyone begins to look good. What else was there to do on your off time? But she would have to think about him a little more before she decided if she was going to sleep with him during this rotation.
Jamie suddenly frowned as he worked through the sensor readings.
"Listen, you are not nearly as good looking as you think you are," Olivia said.
"I have multiple Tangos. Inbound our position."
Olivia's smirk suddenly disappeared.
"That is not funny," she said.
The blue and green of the sensors screens illuminated Jamie's face; he did not look like he was kidding. Olivia turned and glanced at her screens. It was filled with incoming, unidentified spacecraft spilling out of a wormhole portal. She reached for the verification system on her screen. When she touched the screen the three-dimensional display in front of her blinked once rebooting then displayed the same number of incoming targets.
" Ta ma de !" Olivia said. "Who the cao are they?"
"I thought they were an unscheduled trading convoy or Task Force 7 returning early but they did not come through the Indi wormhole."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the position and readings, it's not the wormhole - it is almost A.U. away from Indi."
Olivia looked closely at the screen and saw he was right. She had missed it in her surprise at the size and number of ships.
"Are we looking at a Krasnikov tube?" Jamie asked.
"A constructed wormhole? That is a hypothetical construct. I've only heard of them being built in a laboratory but they could only sustain the structure for a few seconds. Nobody has been able to construct one of any size, much less one that could provide a portal large enough for a military fleet."
"Well these guys either constructed something like that or they are appearing out of nowhere. Who are these guys?"
Jamie frantically worked his sensors as he tried to obtain details of the incoming targets.
"I've never seen a target this big. There are two now that are at least twice the size of a battleship. What could they be?"
"I don't know but designate the first as 3456 and the second as 2348."
"Check."
Jamie touched each on his screen and typed in the numbers that correlated to their relative positions to M51. More and more ships continued to pour out of the new wormhole. Close to a hundred vessels suddenly appeared out of nowhere in what appeared to be a fleet attack formation. This had to be an inbound attack fleet, but who and from where? More and larger craft continued to emerge from the new portal; ship after ship in perfect military formation. This was an attack. They had to be headed for the fleet anchorage on Rift.
Olivia glanced at the display. She was going to have to send a warning to Fleet Headquarters. She could not believe what she was seeing. Never had she imagined she would send an attack warning. She had never really considered that they might someday be attacked. It was beyond her imagination in spite of all her training. She reached for the console that would allow her to warn the Fleet Headquarters of the impending attack.
"Jamie, run the numbers of their present course and speed and give me an approximate ETA for their arrival at Rift."
As Jamie ran the numbers , Olivia decided to estimate the types of vessels using size and positions of Confederation ships in a Task Force. It looked like more than twenty destroyers, at least eight battleships and then those two big targets, but what was puzzling were all of the other vessels that were tucked in behind the screening warships. She could not even guess at what those might have been.
That is when the door behind her burst open. Maeka , another of the technicians at the station stood silently in the doorway. Olivia, startled, spun around away from her displays. Maeka and
Jamie suddenly frowned as he worked through the sensor readings.
"Listen, you are not nearly as good looking as you think you are," Olivia said.
"I have multiple Tangos. Inbound our position."
Olivia's smirk suddenly disappeared.
"That is not funny," she said.
The blue and green of the sensors screens illuminated Jamie's face; he did not look like he was kidding. Olivia turned and glanced at her screens. It was filled with incoming, unidentified spacecraft spilling out of a wormhole portal. She reached for the verification system on her screen. When she touched the screen the three-dimensional display in front of her blinked once rebooting then displayed the same number of incoming targets.
" Ta ma de !" Olivia said. "Who the cao are they?"
"I thought they were an unscheduled trading convoy or Task Force 7 returning early but they did not come through the Indi wormhole."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the position and readings, it's not the wormhole - it is almost A.U. away from Indi."
Olivia looked closely at the screen and saw he was right. She had missed it in her surprise at the size and number of ships.
"Are we looking at a Krasnikov tube?" Jamie asked.
"A constructed wormhole? That is a hypothetical construct. I've only heard of them being built in a laboratory but they could only sustain the structure for a few seconds. Nobody has been able to construct one of any size, much less one that could provide a portal large enough for a military fleet."
"Well these guys either constructed something like that or they are appearing out of nowhere. Who are these guys?"
Jamie frantically worked his sensors as he tried to obtain details of the incoming targets.
"I've never seen a target this big. There are two now that are at least twice the size of a battleship. What could they be?"
"I don't know but designate the first as 3456 and the second as 2348."
"Check."
Jamie touched each on his screen and typed in the numbers that correlated to their relative positions to M51. More and more ships continued to pour out of the new wormhole. Close to a hundred vessels suddenly appeared out of nowhere in what appeared to be a fleet attack formation. This had to be an inbound attack fleet, but who and from where? More and larger craft continued to emerge from the new portal; ship after ship in perfect military formation. This was an attack. They had to be headed for the fleet anchorage on Rift.
Olivia glanced at the display. She was going to have to send a warning to Fleet Headquarters. She could not believe what she was seeing. Never had she imagined she would send an attack warning. She had never really considered that they might someday be attacked. It was beyond her imagination in spite of all her training. She reached for the console that would allow her to warn the Fleet Headquarters of the impending attack.
"Jamie, run the numbers of their present course and speed and give me an approximate ETA for their arrival at Rift."
As Jamie ran the numbers , Olivia decided to estimate the types of vessels using size and positions of Confederation ships in a Task Force. It looked like more than twenty destroyers, at least eight battleships and then those two big targets, but what was puzzling were all of the other vessels that were tucked in behind the screening warships. She could not even guess at what those might have been.
That is when the door behind her burst open. Maeka , another of the technicians at the station stood silently in the doorway. Olivia, startled, spun around away from her displays. Maeka and
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