The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict Read online

  Contents

  Main Characters

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chart of known hyperspace lanes

  The chart shows the hyperspace connections and relative distances. It does not necessarily show the physical location of the system in space. The shaded ovals contain a planet with intelligent life. Many more systems have been charted, but only the ones relevant to the story are shown.

  Main Characters

  Advranki

  Arean – First officer of the Sunflower

  Carank – Scientist. Originally weapons officer on Sunflower.

  Frank – Alliance Senate member

  Figur – Alliance Senate member

  Dolen – Admiral of the Advranki home fleet. Stationed on Guardian.

  Lexxi – Young weapons officer on Sunflower.

  Solear – Captain of the Sunflower

  Altain

  Clowy – Communications officer of the Sunflower

  Lorano – Brilliant scientist

  Korno – Alliance Senate member

  Human

  Amy Weisman – President of Victory Games

  Jim Donovan (Pinball) – Pilot, squadron commander

  Russ Brand (Rush) - Pilot

  Bill Blaze (Blaze) - Pilot

  Edward Williams (Ace) - Pilot

  Hiriculan

  Blifgot’ne (Bline) – Ambassador to the Alliance

  Fruid’la – Admiral in Hiriculan fleet. Stationed on battleship Avenger

  Loid’la – Navigations officer aboard the battleship Avenger

  Solarian

  Victor Bullpeep (Tyrano on Earth) – Captain of the mini – freighter Vista.

  Crista Bullpeep – Originally Cowbleat – Victor’s wife

  Ella Birdsong - Pilot of the Sunflower

  Fletcher Birdsong – Master painter and Ella’s father

  Jack Dogbarks – Captain of the mini-freighter Jackal.

  Prologue

  “Sineria, go to bed,” her mother pleaded.

  Sineria stared at her mother with her deep aqua eyes, stubbornly refusing to budge. She had just turned four and wanted to stay up later.

  “If you don’t get your sleep, a human will eat you,” responded mommy.

  She responded, “Humans aren’t real!”

  Her mother paused for a moment, and then said, “Yes, sweetie, humans are real. I saw one when I was a child. It tried to eat me when I wouldn’t go to bed on time.”

  “Huh-uh! You’re fibbing.” Sineria refused to be baited. Her gray skin had turned a shade redder and she pointed a finger at her mother.

  “Sweetie, don’t point. When you point at someone; that means your other fingers are pointing at you.”

  Best Wishes

  I want to thank my son for challenging me to write this book and helping me with difficult passages, my mother for her tireless proofreading, and my wife for allowing me the time to undertake this journey.

  I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  © 2015 by Jeff Sims

  All rights reserved. No part may be copied or reproduced in any manner or by any means without prior written permission by the author.

  Published by Book Baby

  ISBN: 9781483557380

  The Earth Conundrum is a work of fiction. All names, places, characters and events are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

  Chapter 1

  The captain of the Advranki cruiser Sunflower silently observed his bridge crew. They were trying to do their jobs, but he could tell they were nervous. The sight of enemy ships would do that.

  Sunflower is the newest ship in the Advranki Alliance fleet. It had been commissioned only two weeks earlier and was still on its maiden voyage. Fleet headquarters had decided to let the public name the ship. Every Advranki citizen had had the opportunity to log into a Websphere site and vote. They could choose one of four names: Pride, Relentless, Resolute, or Victory. The fact that the name Sunflower had won without actually being a valid choice had raised several questions about Websphere security, but the name had been publicly announced and stuck.

  The ship was beautiful, a masterpiece of engineering and art. Each panel was painstakingly crafted, each piece meticulously assembled. The ship had a rounded hull of seamless, interlocking hull plates. The design was practical for two purposes; it could withstand tremendous enemy fire and it could easily glide through hyperspace. The bonus was that the ship was aesthetically wonderful. It was a true pleasure to observe.

  Captain Solear had reservations about taking a brand new ship on a long cruise, but Sunflower had handled and performed perfectly since launch. The Captain knew he would eventually owe the ship’s designer and construction crew an apology. There hadn’t been a single problem thus far.

  “Captain, we have a problem,” said Carank.

  Carank, the weapons officer and a fellow Advranki, was easily the most intelligent crew member aboard the ship. He had recently graduated from weapons design school and would go to Fleet Research and Development when his training tour was over. It was Fleet’s policy that before one could design new systems; one had to have some experience operating current ones.

  “What’s wrong?” Solear asked.

  “There is an air leak in the emergency pressure sensor module,” Carank responded. This system measured the air pressure in every section of the ship. If one section was rapidly losing air pressure, it would send a signal to automatically seal that section of the ship. In the potential upcoming battle, if the cruiser was hit and that section did not seal, the entire ship would lose air.

  Carank continued, “This is a new design. The old system had air hoses that ran to the center section where their pressure was monitored. The new system uses distributed sensors in each section that send an air pressure signal to a central unit. The new design provides a much faster response, but it appears the solenoids in the control module can leak.”

  “Why?” the Captain questioned.

  “It looks like they tried to save money by using an existing solenoid instead of designing a new one. This solenoid is normally closed and is designed to only work for a few seconds at a time, but in the emergency pressure system it is normally open. As a result of the constant functioning, it is leaking intermittently.”

  “Can you fix it?” the Captain asked.

  Carank looked down at his green hands. It was clear to Solear that he was about to report bad news. Carank responded, “No, we don’t have the correct parts in inventory. I can take it apart and re-grease it though.”

  “Will that make it stop leaking?” the Captain asked.

  Carank answered, “Yes, well, sort of. Greasing the solenoids is a temporary solution at best. However, it should make them stop leaking for week, maybe two.”

  Captain Solear asked, “How long will it take?”

  Carank replied, “Twenty minutes top. I won’t have to leave the bridge.”

  The bridge consisted of four levels; the bottom housed sensitive equipment and the backup generator, the next housed the bridge crew’s livin
g quarters, the third was the main control room, and the top level was the captain’s quarters and conference room. Carank meant that he would have to go to the lowest section of the bridge, but would not have to leave the bridge section itself.

  “Okay, go,” the Captain said.

  As Carank was exiting bridge, the Captain’s focus returned to the oncoming enemy ships. The enemy should have been in system long enough by now for Sunflower’s sensors to have determined the size of the enemy force.

  Sunflower was sitting in the Orpon system. Opron had a sun, two large gas giant planets, and precious little else. However, Opron was strategically important because it sat at the junction of two major hyperspace lanes. One of the lanes led to enemy’s home world and the other led back to the Advranki Prime, Sunflower’s home system.

  “Update,” Solear said while looking at Clowy, his tactical officer.

  She asked, “What?”

  Solear counted quickly to 10. He may have skipped a couple of numbers because he quickly responded, “I would like an update.”

  “On what?” Clowy asked.

  “Um, the enemy,” the Captain barked with a distinct edge to his voice.

  “Captain Solear,” she replied, “No change. They are inside the hyperspace limit and proceeding on a straight line vector towards us. Estimated time to weapons range is three hours.” The tactical officer quickly added, “Well, unless they slow down – in which case enemy contact will take longer.” She then began to cry.

  Captain Solear intently studied Clowy for a moment. She had stopped crying as quickly as she had started. She wiped her remaining tears from her huge eyes on a tissue and retuned to studying the plot.

  Fleet headquarters had decreed that a representative from all three Alliance species must be on every ship. The Sunflower was one of the first ships to implement this regulation. Clowy was their representative from the planet Altian.

  Clowy was competent enough he supposed, but her frequent emotional outbursts were often difficult to fathom. He was silently glad that he had never served aboard an Altian vessel. He couldn’t imagine a ship filled with beings who constantly became emotional. He made yet another mental note to speak softly and evenly when addressing her. He didn’t want to attend a second training session on race diversity from Fleet headquarters.

  “Captain,” Clowy gushed with typical Altian excitement. “I now have a clear picture of the enemy fleet. They have one destroyer flanked by two cruisers. The enemy ships are slowing to attack speed.”

  The captain barked, “Computer, analysis.”

  …The enemy fleet is in attack formation Delta and will reach ideal battle distance in 3.8 hours with a speed of .03 light. The destroyer is a model D160, meaning that it only carries 20 fighters versus the newer model D161 that has a capacity of 24. This model destroyer has type 2 ion cannon and eight missile launchers per side. The two flanking cruisers are standard issue C20’s…

  The captain did some quick mental math. His fleet, well taskforce really, of three cruisers, Justice, Protector, and Sunflower carried 20 fighters each. So, he and his opponent were evenly matched at 60 fighters; provided he could convince all of the pilots to launch.

  Missiles would be a problem however. The enemy armada could launch 40 missiles every 3 minutes – 8 per side from the destroyer and 6 per side from each cruiser. The Alliance cruisers only had 5 launchers per side and therefore could only launch 30 missiles in the same timeframe. So, he mused, if the battle lasted longer than 12 minutes, they would be at a deadly 50 missile disadvantage.

  The Alliance fleet had a distinct advantage with the ion cannons though. They could fire three shots while their opponent could only fire one. Of course, that shot would be twice as powerful. A direct hit from the destroyer’s ion cannon would blow a hole in the side of the ship. The bridge would be fine because it is in the center of the ship and is independently shielded and armored, but the crew stationed in engineering and the missile bays could be exposed to space. And if the emergency pressure system failed, the results would be catastrophic.

  “Clowy,” the captain said evenly, “Signal Protector and Justice and have them move to attack pattern Gamma.” This pattern would spread the Alliance ships far enough apart that the enemy destroyer could only hit one of the three ships with the ion cannon, but they will still be close enough to coordinate missile defense.

  “Protector and Justice are in position,” Ella reported.

  The enemy ships had continued on the same path over the last 2 hours and were now in near real-time communications range. The captain was expecting a message at any…

  “Incoming message,” Clowy said smiling.

  Captain Solear was senior to the captains of the other two cruisers and was therefore acting commander of the taskforce. It was his decision whether to fight or flee. More pressing though, it was his responsibility to respond to the incoming message.

  “Put it on speaker and pipe it to the other two captains.” Captain Solear replied. He immediately regretted the decision when the bridge was blasted with an incomprehensible language. He was certain that the enemy commander knew the Alliance basic language and had intentionally not used it – probably as a sign of superiority that he no longer had to follow Alliance fleet communication protocols.

  “Computer, translate message,” Arean, the first officer said. He had just returned to the bridge with the weapons officer and beat the captain to the command.

  …Estimate translation at 99.4% accuracy…

  …Alliance vessels, you are in violation of section 41.8.19, sub-paragraph 14 of the treaty that was signed and ratified by both the Alliance and the Hiriculans. Retreat immediately or be destroyed…

  “Computer, remind me what sub-paragraph 14 of that section 41 something is?” Captain Solear asked.

  …Treaty section 41.8.19, sub-paragraph 14 states that when Alliance vessels are traveling through Hiriculan space, they must lower shields, close missile bays, and identify themselves and their destination. They must then wait for confirmation and an escort before continuing…

  Clowy said, “We aren’t in Hiriculan space, we are in the Opron system

  The captain thought of multiple responses to her comment. The most obvious was “duh” to the less obvious but equally effective “well, duh.” He rejected each one for fear of another emotional outburst and finally settled on, “Clowy, search for the current territorial status of the Orpon system.”

  Arean added, “Computer, the Opron system should considered neutral territory, has there been any updates to the treaty with respect to this system?”

  Solear received both responses at the same time – …no… and “neutral.”

  “Clowy,” the Captain said, “Record and send the following message. Hiriculan fleet, we are in neutral space; the section of the treaty that you quoted does not apply. Please redirect your vessels away from your current intercept path and proceed elsewhere.”

  “To whom should I send the message?” Clowy asked.

  Breathe, sigh, breathe, no yelling. The captain counted fully to 10 this time and responded, “If you can identify the enemy ship that originally sent the message, then send the response to that one. If not, then send it to the destroyer.” He thought the instruction was fairly clear, but he tensed and waited for the follow-up question. Fortunately, it didn’t come.

  “Captain, message sent.” Clowy waited a precious moment and added somewhat nervously, “Also, we have received a priority hail from our engineering section.”

  The captain wondered why, if it was a priority hail, that Clowy hadn’t simply answered it. He looked at her face. Her dark gray eyes that took up nearly a quarter of her face were unreadable, but her gray skin looked flushed. It might be his imagination, but she appeared to be trembling ever so slightly. Either way, it was clear that she didn’t want to answer that hail. Then, he suddenly remembered who was hailing and knew that he didn’t want to answer either.

  “Carank, answer the incoming pr
iority request,” ordered the captain.

  Carank responded, “Captain, the message is garbled. There must be something wrong with our communications gear. I have taken the system off-line while the computer performs a full diagnostic check. It will be back on-line in just under 15 minutes. We can still send messages, but we won’t be able to receive them.

  Well played, thought the captain. Fifteen minutes is about the amount of time it will take for his message to reach the opposing fleet, them to craft a response, and the response to travel back to the ship.

  He thought briefly about Lorano, the person everyone was working so hard to avoid. Lorano was a chief design research specialist at fleet headquarters and had been responsible for overseeing the construction of Sunflower. He was aboard for its maiden flight to ensure that everything was functioning properly. The Altian was brilliant, one of the top minds of his generation, but was very, very difficult to deal with. He had a propensity for belittling and a knack for annoying. Even Carank, the closest to Lorano’s intellectual equal in the taskforce, had not wanted to talk to him.

  Captain Solear said, “Commander.”

  “Yes Captain,” Arean replied instantly.

  Arean, the first officer, was also an Advranki. Unlike the other bridge crew members who had joined the staff when the Sunflower was launched, Arean had been with the Captain for over two years. Since the first officer was also the commander of the wing of 20 fighters aboard, Captain Solear often referred to Arean as Commander.

  Fleet policy required that every being be able to speak to each other in a common language. Fleet linguists had developed a language that all species, including their enemy, could speak. Although the computer could translate between the languages almost instantaneously, Fleet psychologists felt it was better for beings to interact directly. This included the pronunciation of being’s names.

  For instance, Arean’s given name was Audarreai Redkavinaini. Like nearly all Fleet personnel though, his name had been shortened to a combination of letters that all three species could easily pronounce. His particular combination was Arean. The first officer had insisted though that it be pronounced air-e’-an instead of the universally accepted A-rean.