Being the captain of the fastest space ship in the fleet was both a blessing and a curse to Lieutenant Commander Karen Baxter of the UNRV Dillingham.
The blessing was that if anything went wrong with this upcoming contact the Dillingham could easily outrun them, granted the Dillingham couldn’t travel faster than light like those starships from the Dicon Galactic Empire or the Fodani Collective but traveling at sub-light speeds in normal space the Dillingham and her four Road Class Research Vessels sister ships could outrun any known starships. The curse was that every time someone new came by to enter the Sol system it fell upon the Dillingham to be the first to greet them, trouble is newcomers tended to cause trouble or have trouble follow them and Karen didn’t know which category this new contact will fall under.
Still that wasn’t her main concern at the moment. She had concerns about this mission but who doesn’t but still there were sort of strange things happening days before leaving Earth. One of which is all of the 108 Fodani on Earth and even those serving as observers on other United Nations Space Fleet ships left on a Dicon transport vessel that suddenly came to Earth with it’s cargo holds empty, which is pretty strange since they normally come in fully loaded dropping off those items that are considered as worthless to the other Dicon worlds but to the people of Earth it was something new to prance around with. Also the Dicon and Fodani as a rule don’t interact with one another unless something needed to be done together, which was kind of rare or argue passionally their point of view about any subject, which was often the case. Another thing was the removal of the tanks containing the intruder control gas that is used should the vessel fall under enemy hands and lastly the lack of information about this new contact.
Since it’s founding six years ago the United Nations Space Fleet wasn’t your typical paramilitary organization, the terms “Top Secret” or the “Need to Know” isn’t in their operation manuals. Even then going on a mission one was always briefed on what to expect, even if the information is sketchy, they was always the rumors or guesses that was gleamed from Earth’s legends or the stories told by the Dicon Empire or the Fodani but this mission had no briefing and a simple order “Just bring it in with the least amount of resistance.”
“Outer marker D9 detects 40 starships of various sizes and shapes none of which confirm to known types,” said Lieutenant Lisa Silva “and they are not responding to the standard greeting message that the marker is putting out.”
“Thanks Lisa,” said Karen “is D9 still broadcasting?”
“It still is, both in standard radio and in tachyon pulse.” replied Lisa.
“Times to intercept?” asked Karen
“At present speeds target fleet should reach D9 in 15 minutes, 2 weeks to Earth.” replied Lisa.
“Assuming no change in velocity between us and the target fleet, 24 hours, putting us about 1.5 AU from Saturn.” added Ensign Lori Rachelo.
“Update from D9 Captain,” said Lisa “3 more ships detected, much smaller and they seemed to be launched from one those starships already detected, still no response on the standard greeting messages that D9 is putting out.”
“Shall I increase velocity to intercept Captain?” asked Ensign Kathy Okumura.
“No Kathy, keep our present speed and heading,” replied Karen “if the unknown is hostile I don’t intend to shorten the life of this ship and crew.”
“What if they are not hostile?” asked Kathy.
“When is the last time you used a fleet of 40 starships to survey a star system?” counted Karen.
“Maybe it’s convoy of freighters,” replied Kathy.
“In that case waiting a few hours won’t hurt things,” said Karen “any other ships detected by the outer markers?”
“Checking,” said Lisa “outer markers D7, D8 and D10 confirm detection of initial target of 40 starships, no confirmation of the 3 additional small ships. Outer marker D2 has Cougar 2 on station. Outer marker C5 has Cougar 3 and us. Outer marker B2 has squadron 5 on station and B6 has squadron 3 and 4 on station. No status on squadron 1 and 2. No outgoing messages on tachyon pulse and no change in fleet alert status.”
“Thanks Lisa” said Karen.
“Strange odds for this outing” remarked Lieutenant Carolyn Oshiro.
“I know,” replied Karen “what I don’t get is why the Woodlawn is acting like our wingman here. This is something we don’t do normally.”
“Cramping your style eh Karen?” asked Carolyn.
“Yeah,” replied Karen “when I run away the last thing I want to do is run into one of our ships or worse yet leave one behind. The Dole I can understand why she is out there, but not the Woodlawn. Say Carolyn did Ty’hill or Dar give any indication as to why they left?”
“No they didn’t,” replied Carolyn “what about Dale?”
“They didn’t talk to Dale either, which is even stranger still since they tend to pour their hearts to the good doctor.”
“So what’s your woman’s intuition saying now Karen?” asked Carolyn.
“Right now, “ replied Karen “I don’t know, just by the numbers we are outgunned, two sublight RV’s versus 40 starships of unknown types, with the only thing we can do is use harsh language against them or do some fancy flying. If we fail, then six ships with weapons blazing plus another two ships attempting to making combat hard for the other side.”
“We have been in tighter spots before Karen,” said Carolyn “remember the Watari, they fielded 75 starships against us and we beat them.”
“Yeah I do Carolyn,” said Karen “and the reason why we beat them was that they had a really easy Achilles heal that we found out before they crossed the asteroid belt. So unless your long range scanners can detect something similar with these guys we are just going to let them make the first move and hopefully it would be something nice.”
“Captain!” yelled Lisa “Outer marker D9 just went silent!”