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

  Frank complimented his service and wished him well in the upcoming world elections. These elections weren’t for a couple of years yet, but Frank supposed it was never too early to look ahead.

  Frank said, “Perhaps one day you may represent Advranki Prime in the Alliance Senate when I retire.” Frank meant it as both a compliment and a warning. Steadily rise and you have my support, challenge me and you will get squashed.

  Colok responded, “Frank, I need a favor.”

  Everybody needs something, Frank thought. He also thought that it was odd that Colok would come out and bluntly ask for a favor. Normally, there was a long process of compliments and little gestures. It was rather odd for him to ask outright like this.

  Frank used his sympathetic smile and said, “What can I do for you?”

  Colok said, “My daughter wants some military experience on her resume.”

  Frank responded as politely as possible, “Then perhaps she should join the military.”

  Colok chuckled and said, “Well yes. It’s just that she has a busy schedule and doesn’t really have time to complete basic training and officer’s school.”

  Frank said, “Okaaay.” He drew out the ‘a’ for a long moment. There must be more to the request.

  Colok said, “Well, I was hoping that she could just skip the required 6 months of basic training and officer’s school. Perhaps she could be assigned on a ship and get the training as she goes. I am sure that some ship could make an accommodation.”

  Frank said, “You know what. I know the perfect opportunity. Have her report immediately to the Sunflower as the weapon’s officer.”

  Colok said, “Will it be safe?”

  Frank said, “I can’t guarantee that. It is a military ship after all. The Sunflower is due to leave on a long mission that will take it far away from the Alliance. I can’t think of a better place for her.”

  In point of fact, Frank could think of several places that would be better for her; like staying at home, or not getting on a ship that would soon be filled with humans and headed for a potential enemy stronghold. Frank couldn’t believe it though; he had just solved two more problems at the same time. Today has been a great day he thought.

  ………………

  Looking back on it, Captain Solear now realized that Senator Frank had probably planned this the entire time. He should have realized that the human pilots would be assigned to his ship because he was one of the few people in the military who knew about the secret project. Oh well, he thought, if there was any silver lining to the mission it was that Lorano wouldn’t be going with him this time.

  He called Arean to his personal conference room and told him about the secret mission. Arean took it rather well considering everything. At a minimum, he managed not to puke.

  Arean said for the fifth time, “Let me understand this, I am going to responsible to evaluate the human pilots. More importantly, I will be their commanding officer.”

  Solear smiled and said, “Well, just rely on your diversity training. You still have time for a quick refresher if you feel it will help.”

  Arean’s expression made it clear that he thought neither suggestion was helpful. He said, “What are we going to do? We can’t have them walk freely around the ship. We can seal the bridge, but how will we protect the maintenance and engineering crews?”

  Solear answered, “Victor said the humans probably won’t attack and eat anyone.”

  Arean said, “Are you willing to risk that. Even if you believe that, I doubt we could convince the crew of it.”

  Solear said, “Computer, display the ship’s layout on the monitor.”

  …Displaying now…

  Arean pointed and said, “We could weld this door shut, trapping them in the fighter bay.”

  Solear answered, “How would the maintenance crew service the ship?”

  Arean said, “Well, what can we do? Computer, perform an analysis.”

  …Analyzing. There is a 94.2% chance of keeping humans separated if you set up force fields at every major junction…

  Solear added, “Further, we could move the crew quarters for the pilots from the centralized area to the recreation area in the front of the ship. We could also set up a second galley and washroom for them there.”

  Arean said, “I like it. That way we would only need two force fields. The first would be between the main corridor and the hangar bay and the second would be between the hangar bay and the human living quarters.”

  Solear said, “One further thing. We could stage canisters of sleeping gas around all the areas of the ship and add a monitor station to the bridge. If one or more of them gets out we can simply put them to sleep.

  Arean said, “We should also put force fields at every hallway that leads off from the main corridor.

  Solear asked, “Why?”

  Arean answered, “Well, that way if they get into the main corridor, individual crew members can dive into a room and activate a force field behind them. Or, if a human enters a room, they can close the field behind them.”

  Solear answered, “Smart, let’s begin immediately.” They made a list of all of the items they would need to construct the force fields, sleeping area, washroom, galley, and the sleeping gas containment area.. When they completed the list, they left the conference room and headed back to the main bridge area. Clowy and Ella were there.

  Captain Solear said, “Ella, please place an emergency requisition for everything on the list. Say that it has been authorized by the Alliance Senate.” This command probably should have gone to Clowy, but the Captain wasn’t in the mood for delays.

  Solear said, “Clowy, open a channel to everyone on the ship.” He had given up repeating himself.

  Clowy opened the channel without incident and Solear said, “All hands, please meet in the hangar bay.” He signaled for Clowy to close it again.

  After Ella completed her task, the four bridge officers headed for the fighter bay. When everyone had assembled, Arean addressed the crew. He said, “Pilots, as a result of your victorious battle against the Hiriculans, you have each earned a cylinder.”

  Arean distributed the cylinders (Alliance version of a medal) one-at-a-time and Solear followed and personally thanked each pilot for his service. Arean said, “As a result, the entire wing has been assigned to the Guardian.”

  Everyone gave a cheer and a small round of applause. The Guardian was a beautiful battleship. It was the heart of the fleet guarding Advranki Prime and housed Admiral Dolen and his staff. Pilots were given this assignment as recognition for years of service or, in this case, exemplary service. The assignment to the battleship generally lasted for only a few months and was considered a great honor.

  Arean said, “Gentleman, pack your belongings. A shuttle will be coming for you in a few moments. Again, congratulations.”

  One pilot asked, “Aren’t we taking our fighters with us. This was the normal procedure for transferring from one ship to another. It was not the process for the Guardian, however.

  Arean answered, “No, you will get brand new fighters when you get aboard Guardian.”

  The pilots left on the shuttle and captain Solear again called everyone to the hangar bay. He addressed the remaining crew members, “All we have just been assigned to a top secret mission. We are leaving as soon as some additional cargo is delivered and traffic control gives us a flight path. I will give you more details once we jump to Conron.”

  Shuttles began arriving over the course of the next few hours and dropping cargo. Shortly after one of them left, a crewmember appeared on the bridge next to a young Advranki woman dressed in revealing clothing. The crewman said, “Captain, she arrived on the recent shuttle and asked for you.” Solear thanked and dismissed him.

  The young woman strolled in, threw her bag on the floor, and plopped into the nearest seat. It happened to be the captain’s chair. She propped he feet up on the main console and started checking her fingernails. Solear noted that they already looked
perfect and really didn’t need additional work.

  Solear thought that she was probably between 17 to 19 years old and was fairly attractive. It looked like she had had some cosmetic work around her nose. Her lips and eyes were lined with gold. However, her most striking feature was her skin. It was a very light green, possibly the lightest he had seen. He wondered if it had been chemically lightened.

  Solear said, “Excuse me miss, but that is my seat. Please take the empty seat over there at the weapon’s console.”

  She replied, “I do what I want, I’m an Advranki citizen.”

  She then took giant earphones out of her bag and put them over her ears. They covered hear ears completely and did not let in any sound. It was clear she didn’t want to be disturbed. She returned to her nails.

  Clowy asked, “Is that our new weapon’s officer?”

  Solear said, “I think so.” He thought back to his conversation with Frank. He had clearly stated that he needed another person to meet the minimum personnel requirement. He had questioned whether officers were in short supply. But, had he actually requested a weapons officer? He couldn’t recall exactly. When Frank had responded that he would find someone, he didn’t specify that it would be a fully trained military officer, or really even anyone from the military. Solear made a mental note to perform better in conversations like that one.

  Solear approached her and gently removed the earphones. He said, “Hello, I am Solear, the captain, this is Ella, the pilot, Clowy, the communications officer, and Arean, the commander. What is your name?”

  The girl made a giant huffing sound and gave her Advranki name of Lexocougti Illenoutee. Then she said in Advranki, “Why are you speaking in Alliance basic?”

  Solear responded in Alliance basic, “So that all crewmembers can understand you. Also, Alliance basic is the official language of the Navy.

  To her credit, she responded in perfect Alliance basic, “My Alliance name is Lexxi, with two ‘x’s and no ending ‘e’.”

  Solear said, “That spelling is unusual. Shouldn’t it have been spelled L-e-x-i-e?”

  She replied, “I can spell it any way I want to spell it.”

  Solear smiled and said, “Well, I suppose you can.”

  Ella fortunately interrupted the conversation. She said, “All supplies are loaded and we have priority clearance from traffic control. We are ready leave.”

  Solear nodded and Ella began guiding Sunflower toward the Advranki Prime – Conron hyperspace lane. With the priority clearance they would be ready to jump in 3 hours - versus the 14 hours it had taken the Vista to navigate to the same location.

  Solear thought about the weapons officer position. The role was possibly the most difficult of the three lieutenant roles (navigation, communications, and weapons). The primary responsibility was to guide the duties of the maintenance crew. This included creating work schedules, prioritizing maintenance tasks, ordering spare parts, and keeping the fighters and the ship in perfect shape. During battle, the weapons officer is responsible for firing the missiles.

  Navigation was more straightforward. The primary duty was to pilot the ship, both in real time travel and hyperspace. They had a simulator on board for practice, so it was feasible that they could teach Lexxi how to fly and how to calculate hyperspace coordinates. The secondary duty was to supervise the engineering crew. Engineering ensured that the power generator, secondary generator, hyperspace drive, shields, ion cannon, and the fighter’s plasma reactors were functioning properly.

  Communications officer was the easiest of the three roles. This officer literally handled all of the ship’s communications including incoming and outgoing mail and filing all necessary paperwork. All other miscellaneous roles were usually handled by this officer as well. They could probably quickly train Lexxi to perform at least some parts of this role, but Solear had doubts that Clowy could learn the weapon’s officer duties.

  This left him with a quandary. They could continue doing what they had been doing for the last four months, e.g. Solear was personally handling the supervision of maintenance and Arean was manning the weapons console when required. Hopefully, they find some role that Lexxi could perform and possibly more important, was willing to perform.

  Solear said, “Clowy, can you take Lexxi down to the officer’s quarters and get her settled into a spare room. Then, get her dressed into an appropriate uniform. Afterward, we can begin her training.”

  Clowy led Lexxi down to the officer’s quarters. She was about to give Lexxi a grand tour of the area when she noticed that Lexxi had donned her headphones again. She led Lexxi to an empty room, tapped her to get her attention and said, “This is your room. Please come back up to the bridge area when you have completed unpacking. There are uniforms in the closet.”

  The uniforms were smart fabric. They could stretch and contract nearly three sizes and the fabric was able to regulate the temperature of the wearer. If the person was cold, the uniform would trap body heat. If the person was hot, the fabric would breathe and allow cooling. The uniform was two pieces, a pair of pants and a shirt that fit together seamlessly when worn.

  The secondary function of the outfit was to protect the wearer from decompression and loss of oxygen on the ship. The outfit, combined with gloves, boots, and a helmet, was essentially a light weight version of a space suit. The helmet contained compressed air canisters and could provide 20 minutes of air. There were special plug-ins spaced throughout the ship that crewmembers could plug into that would provide air to the suit. So, it was feasible that a fully suited, plugged-in crewmember could survive indefinitely in a decompressed section.

  Oddly enough though, the gloves, helmet, and boots were uncomfortable, so they were seldom if ever worn. Also, for further comfort, there was a short sleeve version of the shirt. The short sleeve option could not protect against atmosphere loss, but it was really comfortable so the tradeoff was well worth it. The crew called them skin suits.

  Lexxi sat on the bed and opened her bag. She proceeded to dump the entire contents of the bag into the middle of the floor. She made no further effort to organize anything and put her headphones back on. Clowy went to the closet and laid out an appropriately sized uniform. Clowy said as pleasantly as possible, “Please get dressed and I will show you the rest of the bridge.”

  Lexxi responded with a rude hand gesture. She then kicked the uniform on the floor next to the pile, grabbed her communication pad, and began intently studying it.

  Clowy returned to the main bridge. Captain Solear asked, “How did it go?”

  Clowy responded, “How did what go?”

  Solear said, “The tour; how did the tour go?”

  Clowy answered, “I think Lexxi may need a little extra time to unpack.”

  Ella said, “We have arrived at the entryway to the hyperspace corridor. The coordinates to Conron have been entered and confirmed. The simulation shows green and the hyperspace generator is ready. We have clearance from traffic control to leave.”

  Solear said, “Proceed.”

  Ella pressed the hyperspace button and the Sunflower effortlessly transitioned into hyperspace and started the 8 hour journey to Conron. Ella verified the countdown clock was correct and set the ship in autopilot. It was possible to steer in hyperspace, but it was very, very dangerous because a sudden change in direction could shear the ship apart.

  Captain Solear said “Clowy, all-hands.” When she established the connection Solear said, “This is the Captain. We have been assigned to not one, but two secret missions. Please meet me in the hangar bay.”

  The officers left the bridge and walked down the main hallway toward the hangar. Captain Solear watched the caribou running beside them and the sunflowers waving in the breeze. He had been yelled at by Admiral Dolen for going way over budget on his repairs. Solear had given the Admiral a tour of the corridor and Dolen had eventually agreed that the effect was stunning. Ella had told him that shortly after the tour, Admiral Dolen had contacted her father, Fletch
er Birdsong, and requested he paint Guardian’s main corridor.

  Solear scanned all of the faces gathered. The three officers were standing in front as they had entered the bay with him. He then counted the crewmembers and confirmed all were present. All 25 were Advranki: 18 males and 7 females. He spotted Lexxi standing in beside the other Advranki females. He hoped they would be a good influence for her.

  Captain Solear said, “Please, sit down and get comfortable.” Most sat on the deck floor. He continued, “Now, this is not a joke, so try not to panic. First, we are going to Conron to replace our fighter pilots with a new wing. The 20 new pilots are real, living, breathing humans from Earth.”

  Solear stopped talking and observed the bridge crew. One of the crewmembers still standing almost fell and had to be caught by the two standing next to her. Nearly everyone reacted with shock and grumblings about not wanting to be someone’s dinner.

  Solear waved his hands to quiet them down. When there was near silence, one crewmember asked, “How are we going to protect ourselves? The humans will kill us if they get a chance.”

  Another yelled, “Whose idea was this?

  And yet another said, “Humans aren’t even in the Alliance. How are they allowed to join the Navy?”

  Solear waved his hands for silence again. When he could speak he said, “I believe that the humans are going to be given temporary Solarian citizen status.”

  Someone else said, “No one is going to believe they are Solarians.”

  Solear said, “Well, no. They are just going to be given citizen status so that they can join the Navy. We aren’t going to try to fool anyone into believing that they are Solarians.”

  The first crewmember that spoke repeated his question, “What about our safety?”

  Solear answered, “We are going to construct force fields at every junction of the main corridor. We are also going to move the pilots’ quarters, washroom, and galley to the entertainment area. This way the humans will never need to leave the front of the cruiser.”

  One of the engineers asked, “Okay, but how are we going to enter the hangar to work on the fighters or unload a transport?”