Quintus stared at the screen. “Whoever these new contacts are, they are on a direct course for the nebula—or they are on a direct course for us.”
“I concur, either one or both know we are here or they are headed for the nebula as a pure coincidence,” the tactical officer said.
“And I do not believe in such.”
“Should we send a message to the Lord Praetor?”
“No,” he approached and leaned in. “Continue to monitor and maintain emission silence.”
Quintus resumed his virtual reality gazing.
****
By some twist of misfortune, Lieutenant Alvarez found himself alone for two days with no company other than Max—so he found himself alone with no company. The strange man was useless around the ship. He had mainly kept to himself reading some paper book. Unbelievably, the man’s entire family over the past few centuries had passed on a dislike for digital devices—or maybe the doctor just preferred to be different.
The time alone was beneficial, however. Alvarez had really made headway in the last few hours and discovered something that was sure to concern Aaron. Not only would it present more unanswered questions. It would stimulate a memory which his friend seemed quite content to bury—the loss of Trident.
After Phoenix’s recent skirmish with the Border Worlds destroyers, he’d resumed his efforts to unlock the remaining systems. Now, Alvarez located the source of the power fluctuations. A powerful system the designers called a kinetic barrier. Apparently a large amount of ship’s power was reserved for the power hungry system, leaving the rest of the ship’s systems to squabble over the remainder. Some minor repairs to a damaged and obscure power coupling, and the system’s self-diagnostics determined it would no longer pose a danger to the ship. The system diagnostics returned green. Why hadn’t the Fleet’s engineers corrected it sooner? The repairs were uncomplicated and a third-rate technician could have made them. That discovery peaked his curiosity. Had it been done on purpose? The damage to the power coupling didn’t resemble what he’d expect from a serious overload. Why would anyone sabotage a prototype ship?
He sighed. A puzzle for another time.
Interestingly enough, as if sensing some breakthrough Max had accompanied him during this last systems check. Perhaps the doctor brought good luck. Alvarez’s personnel device beeped. He’d interfaced it with the ship’s systems. Notwithstanding modern automation, one person couldn’t single handedly man a starship. Let alone a prototype.
Max shut his book and looked up. It was the first time in two days he’d shown interest in anything.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Ship’s sensors are detecting two approaching ships. One is Hammerhead and the other unknown. Power signature doesn’t read like a military ship though. Hammerhead is gaining on it, but it won’t over take by the time they reach the nebula.”
“What do we do?”
“What else? We help catch the Commander’s quarry. We’ll start vectoring for an intercept; we won’t overtake the other vessel before it breaches the nebula boundary, however.”
“Shouldn’t we signal Aaron? Let them know help is on the way?”
Alvarez shook his head. “If we signal him or he signals us, it could reveal our position to anyone looking. That’s why he hasn’t yet. He’ll know where we are, and that we’re likely to be right where he needs us. I’m going up to the bridge to monitor things. I’m pretty much finished what I was doing.”
To his surprise, Max closed the book and followed him to the bridge. The power issues might no longer be a concern, however, those power fluctuations revealed an uncomfortable reality about the ship. He’d seen those fluctuations before.
He and Max entered the bridge, and the latter took his assumed place in the seat reserved for the ship’s Executive Officer. Alvarez moved to the ops station and searched the primary systems. He had no theories on the possible sabotage, but if he was right about the resulting power fluctuations, then it wouldn’t take long to confirm his other suspicion about the ship.
He browsed through the weapons systems interface, scrolling through them—torpedoes, railguns, ah! Missiles. Then he saw it, he wished he hadn’t. Aaron would probably say something about curiosity killing some kind of furry pet or some other old unfunny joke.
Life sure seemed simpler when he was just an ops officer.
****
Almost two hours passed since their quarry entered the emission nebula and Hammerhead drifted beyond the fringes. Just as Aaron was about to order them to break away and head for the pre-determined rendezvous with Phoenix, Lee announced a startling discovery.
“Commander,” he said. “I’m picking up an anomalous reading. Medium range, source is inside the Nebula, can’t fully zero in on it from this distance. I believe it’s an emission from our quarry we could use to track it.”
X-1501-D was a large gas giant, and as old as it was large. The nebula gasses surrounding it stretched for three A.U. outwards. Initially he hadn’t wanted to risk entry, not knowing enough about the situation to speculate what they might encounter inside the nebula.
Aaron linked his station into the data and turned to face Lee over to his left. “What’s anomalous about it, Lee?”
“Vee would have worked this out sooner but I had the computer running a deep analysis of our long range scans. It flagged the reading. As you know, it normally just consists of a bunch of gasses. But there’s also a faint trace of deuterium.”
Flaps looked up. “What’s anomalous about that?”
“It shouldn’t be there,” Aaron said, turning to Flaps on his right. “Flaps, take us to within ten million kilometers of the source. Adjust course and zero in as detection becomes more apparent. Full power on short-range scan.”
As Hammerhead approached the nebula, it would be in a better position to localize the source of the deuterium despite the interference from within the nebula. The interior of a nebula was an unpredictable place, sudden energy discharges, electrical storms, and pockets of volatile plasma. Not a nice place to be, nor risk to take—no matter how slight—without good reasons.
In addition to advanced reflective polarized armor, Phoenix and her support ships came equipped with a full military-grade sensor suite. Sensors were just the common term applied to a range of diverse detection equipment meant to interpret a vast range of phenomena. Hence, the operator would know which piece of specialized equipment would be required to study a particular set of phenomena. In this case, the spectrometer was appropriate.
Human ingenuity was something to marvel. They’d created equipment to detect and analyze just about anything they were aware of and phenomena they probably weren’t. From proximity to motion, all kinds of imaging, photon, and optical sensors. Quantum sensors, radar, LIDAR, phased arrays, magnetic and pressure sensors. The list was exhaustive.
“Commander, I recommend an easy .3 c, cut engines and drift in there on momentum,” Miroslav said.
“Very well, Ensign,” Aaron nodded his approval. They didn’t want to disturb any volatile pockets of plasma and the speed would give them more flexibility to maneuver. Now to the tactical situation.
“Lee. Your thoughts please.”
Lee gestured wildly with his hands. “Just some speculation, Commander. That’s refined deuterium we’ve detected. I know that for sure. Far more refined than even the Fleet used before. I think that’s the most important thing here. This nebula was never found to contain pockets of hydrogen, there shouldn’t be any trace of deuterium in here. We’ll have to get much closer than ten million kilometers inside that thing to get clearer readings, localize the source and track it.”