Struggling to keep his eyes open and stay alert, Marcus rocked forward in his chair reaching for his coffee. He should have spent the day sleeping like he usually did but Gwen had asked him to spend it with her. No sane human male would turn down the chance to spend time with a young woman like Gwen. She was smoking hot, full of energy, and the epitome of adventurous. She had booked a shuttle to Cerebus VI’s surface for the two of them and taken him to eat at Rancheros, one of the premier burger spots on the planet. The joint was located in her hometown where she had grown up, so after their meal, she had dragged him to go skinny-dipping in a swimming hole near her old home. One thing led to another and well… Marcus was surprised he was still conscious at all if the truth be told.
Orbital Defense Platform Alpha didn’t have much of a crew or a bridge to speak of. Most of its space was devoted to the massive array of armaments the platform boasted. Its living quarters were even smaller than its bridge and rather cramped, Spartan rooms. Regulations required a permanent onboard crew of four with a rotating staff of up to six additional crew members who stayed aboard from a couple of days to a few weeks at a time depending on their specialty and their rank. Marcus was one of the permanent crewmembers, so getting the day off for Gwen hadn’t been easy. He had to move heaven and earth to do so, but it had been oh so worth it.
The chronometer on his station read 2:44 AM. That meant he had another four hours and sixteen minutes until the day crew showed up to relieve him of duty. Since this was the slow season, he was the only person on the bridge tonight and time was dragging by like sap dripping from a tree in winter. He fiddled with the bridge’s environmental controls lowering the temperature in hopes that the cold would help him stay awake since his coffee wasn’t doing its job. He sighed and turned his thoughts to Gwen again and the curves of her body beneath the water. A smile stretched across his lips at the memory so fresh in his mind.
Most Orbital Defense Platform Alpha’s systems were automated. They handled most ordinary occurrences on their own only alerting the human personnel if system traffic got heavy or something anomalous happened. Marcus almost spat out the mouthful of coffee he had been in the process of swallowing as he saw the red lights flashing on the console in front of him. He jerked himself upright in his chair, sitting down his coffee with so roughly that he nearly broke his favorite mug.
Something was up. The red lights meant that there was an unscheduled jump point opening in the Cerebus system. Marcus’s fingers danced hurriedly over the keys on his console, pulling up the data he needed to confirm that jump point was truly unscheduled and not merely the arrival of an inbound ship that had gotten lost in the shuffle of orders and paperwork. Whoever was entering the system, they weren’t on any of the lists. There weren’t even any listed ships that looked to be capable of arriving this early. Sometimes ships did enter the Cerebus system earlier than planned, but those were rare events.
Marcus was in a panic as he called up the data on the jump point itself. It was massive. Inside the Cerebus system, there were Cerebus VI’s three shipyards, the largest of which was the Endeavor, the ring of six defense platforms in orbit around the planet, and currently two patrol ships, both of which were far away from where the jump point was forming. The jump point was several times larger than the Endeavor which was utterly insane. The sprawling mass of the Endeavor contained not only the central heart of the shipyard but the extending structures that contained five Explorer class ships under construction. According to Marcus’s data, the jump point was large enough to fit three shipyards the Endeavor’s size into it easily with space to spare. He blinked as that information sunk in and quickly rechecked it. The data was spot on and correct.
Stabbing the button that activated Defense Platform Alpha’s emergency klaxons, Marcus knew that this was all way beyond him. He needed Commander Threshal on the bridge as soon as possible. The bridge’s lighting shifted from its normal sharp, brightness to a dim red as the platform went into alert status. The alarm klaxons blared throughout it. Marcus shut off the ones on the bridge and refocused his attention on the forming jump point calling up a visual of it. It looked like a giant purple tear in space blocking the view of the stars behind it. So far, nothing had emerged from it.
Marcus heard the lift doors swish open behind him as Commander Threshal and her first officer, Mikal, strode onto the bridge.
“Report!” Threshal snapped at him.
“Ma’am, unscheduled jump point has formed in Sector Beta. It’s massive. Unlike anything I have ever seen before. So far nothing has emerged from it but…” Marcus stammered.
“Have you tried hailing any vessels that might be on the other side of the jump point?” Mikal cut in.
“Not yet, sir,” Marcus said. pretending that he had thought of that himself, “I was just about to do so when you arrived.”
“Do it now,” Commander Threshal ordered.
“Sending standard jump point entry message, all languages and frequencies,” Marcus told her as he worked.
After a second, he added, “No reply, ma’am.”
“The weapons powered up as soon as the platform went to alert status,” Mikal commented. “Let’s hope we don’t need them.”
“Are we the only ones seeing this?” Commander Threshal asked.
“I don’t see how we could be,” Mikal answered before Marcus responded as he stared at the visual of the jump point Marcus had on the bridge’s main screen. “Everyone in system has to be detecting that thing by now. Marcus wasn’t kidding when he said it was massive.” Mikal gave Marcus a nod.
“Defense Platforms Gamma and Obsilon have also gone to alert status, ma’am,” Marcus confirmed. “Our two patrol vessels in system have also altered course to approach the jump point. The Hagel should reach it first given their respective positions. ETA in five.”
“Alert the folks planet-side about what’s happening up here, Marcus,” Commander Threshal told him.
“Yes, ma’am.” Marcus fought the urge to salute. He wasn’t used to the platform’s commander showing up to stand beside his station during the nightshift.
“Nothing we can do now but wait for whoever is out there to show their selves,” Mikal said.
“Something tells me that we won’t be waiting long.” Commander Threshal continued to watch the forward screen as energy crackled around the edges of the warp point.
“Ships coming through!” Marcus reported.
Several formations of what appeared to be small destroyers emerged from the warp point. Each formation included three ships, one in the center with the other two flanking it. It was clear that the ships were military in nature and not just the normal civilian freighters that traveled into the Cerebus system.
“What are those?” Mikal muttered. “I’ve never seen anything like them.”