environment during a jump event. The hardest of these were the inertial and displacement components of the active shields. The quantum fold necessary for the hyper drive simply was not compatible with these systems. The only solution was temporary shutdown of the shields prior to jumping.
After much discussion with the engineering team, as well as with the captain, the decision was made to develop a transition protocol governed by the Bowman's AI. If the shields were up during a hyper drive jump they would be collapsed for 32 milliseconds prior to the jump event. This minimized the ship's exposure during an attack.
Finally all the changes were ready and the ship was prepared for a second jump back to a position just outside of Earth orbit.
Captain Ramchandani opened a ship-wide channel. "Attention. This is the captain. We are about to engage the hyper drive for a second time. We believe the rough ride is behind us, but I want everybody and everything locked down before the jump. You have five minutes to get squared away. That is all. Captain out."
They waited for the promised five minutes and then the captain signaled Cat.
"Very good Commander. Make ready. Set course for just outside Earth orbit. Give me a verbal countdown and engage when ready."
"Aye, captain" Cat said. "Lt. Cortez, open a ship-wide channel. Helm, make ready. Set course and engage on my mark... All hands, prepare for hyper drive jump. Jump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Engage!"
This time there was just the slightest twinge of movement and the forward view screen was suddenly filled with the marbled greens and blues of Earth. When it was clear that the jump had occurred without incident the bridge crew broke out in applause. Cat opened the ship-wide com channel and reported to the crew that the jump was complete.
Captain Ramchandani immediately had Orbital One send a high speed shuttle to meet the Bowman on its way into Earth orbit. It was essential to get Commander Ruck offloaded to the superior medical facilities of Orbital One.
Before the shuttle had even left the hanger with the injured commander on board, the Bowman was being hailed by USC Central Command. It seemed the deep space monitoring stations, deployed after the discovery of the D'lralu ship some 50 years ago, were reporting another alien incursion.
***
"Debu I need eyes out there as soon as possible" Admiral Faragon said from across the conference table in Captain Ramchandani's ready room. "Whoever this is, they are way past Pluto's orbit and coming in fast. Frankly it's a miracle we spotted them at all. They are accelerating at a steady 1.6 gravities, and are already traveling far faster than anything we've got."
"Do we know who they are?"
"We know who they are not. The Heshe have excellent control of their hyper drive technologies... They would never have jumped that far out and then accelerated in with conventional reaction drives. The best guess is we are dealing with a new race or the D'lralu... And obviously even if we did know who they were... we don't know what their goals are. The only time we ever met the D'lralu they fired on one of our ships."
"Understood Admiral. We can jump to where we calculate they will be, but keep in mind... our maximum sustained acceleration tops out at just past 1.2G. They can out run us. Commander Kimbridge has been working on a micro jump protocol that would allow us to stay ahead of them but it carries with it its own set of risks... Our active shielding is virtually useless during jumps. Dozens of micro jumps a minute will only exasperate the problem."
The Admiral leaned forward placing his folded hands on the table. " Debu, if it comes to it I need you to hightail it out of dodge. You're there to discover their intentions. If they talk, then I need you to try to communicate but if they take a potshot at you... That's information I need to know that as well."
"I understand Sir. How long
After much discussion with the engineering team, as well as with the captain, the decision was made to develop a transition protocol governed by the Bowman's AI. If the shields were up during a hyper drive jump they would be collapsed for 32 milliseconds prior to the jump event. This minimized the ship's exposure during an attack.
Finally all the changes were ready and the ship was prepared for a second jump back to a position just outside of Earth orbit.
Captain Ramchandani opened a ship-wide channel. "Attention. This is the captain. We are about to engage the hyper drive for a second time. We believe the rough ride is behind us, but I want everybody and everything locked down before the jump. You have five minutes to get squared away. That is all. Captain out."
They waited for the promised five minutes and then the captain signaled Cat.
"Very good Commander. Make ready. Set course for just outside Earth orbit. Give me a verbal countdown and engage when ready."
"Aye, captain" Cat said. "Lt. Cortez, open a ship-wide channel. Helm, make ready. Set course and engage on my mark... All hands, prepare for hyper drive jump. Jump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Engage!"
This time there was just the slightest twinge of movement and the forward view screen was suddenly filled with the marbled greens and blues of Earth. When it was clear that the jump had occurred without incident the bridge crew broke out in applause. Cat opened the ship-wide com channel and reported to the crew that the jump was complete.
Captain Ramchandani immediately had Orbital One send a high speed shuttle to meet the Bowman on its way into Earth orbit. It was essential to get Commander Ruck offloaded to the superior medical facilities of Orbital One.
Before the shuttle had even left the hanger with the injured commander on board, the Bowman was being hailed by USC Central Command. It seemed the deep space monitoring stations, deployed after the discovery of the D'lralu ship some 50 years ago, were reporting another alien incursion.
***
"Debu I need eyes out there as soon as possible" Admiral Faragon said from across the conference table in Captain Ramchandani's ready room. "Whoever this is, they are way past Pluto's orbit and coming in fast. Frankly it's a miracle we spotted them at all. They are accelerating at a steady 1.6 gravities, and are already traveling far faster than anything we've got."
"Do we know who they are?"
"We know who they are not. The Heshe have excellent control of their hyper drive technologies... They would never have jumped that far out and then accelerated in with conventional reaction drives. The best guess is we are dealing with a new race or the D'lralu... And obviously even if we did know who they were... we don't know what their goals are. The only time we ever met the D'lralu they fired on one of our ships."
"Understood Admiral. We can jump to where we calculate they will be, but keep in mind... our maximum sustained acceleration tops out at just past 1.2G. They can out run us. Commander Kimbridge has been working on a micro jump protocol that would allow us to stay ahead of them but it carries with it its own set of risks... Our active shielding is virtually useless during jumps. Dozens of micro jumps a minute will only exasperate the problem."
The Admiral leaned forward placing his folded hands on the table. " Debu, if it comes to it I need you to hightail it out of dodge. You're there to discover their intentions. If they talk, then I need you to try to communicate but if they take a potshot at you... That's information I need to know that as well."
"I understand Sir. How long
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