He decided however, that the best course of action was to speak to Eldathar when he arrived back from his shore leave. With that, he left the confines of the command centre and headed back to the Liberty with more questions than answers.
Poring over the mission requirements, as well as accessing the stations primary computer archives from the terminal in his quarters, he wanted to be absolutely sure of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the Copernicus. He was also worried about Kathryn, he found that according to the ships logs she was indeed leading a small science team to the planets surface to check out some alien structure.
So, she was on the surface after all, at least she might still be alive. This alleviated Michael’s fears somewhat, although he knew he had to get her out of there, no doubt the ship that destroyed the Copernicus would quickly find the remains themselves. Things could get very ugly, very fast.
A couple of hours later, and the first of the shuttles containing his crew had just arrived. Commander Quinn Kinraid, the tall, goatee bearded, long haired, red headed first officer of the Liberty stepped out onto the hangar bay and stretched his arms wide, it had been a long journey. He was followed by his shorter, dark haired, clean shaven companion Johnson Logameier, the Liberties chief engineer.
“Well ‘tis is all fine an’ dandy now isn’t it.” Kinraid quipped in his customary deep Celtic twang.
Logameier simply nodded in agreement, the hangar bay they had been directed to was small and cramped, festooned with all manner of manned and un-manned repair vehicles, as well as a few smaller shuttles in various states of repair.
They had hitched a ride on the civilian deep space cruiser, la Rochelle transporting eager holidaymakers to the glorious sights of the crystal cities on the Solarian homeworld. Now that the war was over, and interstellar travel was relatively safe again, the crystal cities had become a popular holiday destination, much to the chagrin of overworked Solarian officials trying to manage the constant morass of shipping going to and from the immensely busy world.
The two men gradually made their way through the corridors and confines of the station, passing a long walkway that offered views out to the dockyard and the ships contained within. There, nestled between two Solarian cruisers was the Liberty, their home away from home, looking as dark, as brooding and as menacing as ever. Both men noticed the newly acquired ‘bumps’ that adorned the ships outer hull. Even though the old warhorse had changed slightly it was still the Liberty, still the most famous and instantly recognisable ship in the E.D. F fleet, and still like a friend to those who served aboard her.
Since the end of the Krenaran war, the E.D. F didn’t have much use for a former captured Krenaran stealth ship, turned into one of the most advanced and deadly ships in the fleet, though they still retained her services.
During the early stages of the re-building of the devastated outer colonies shortly after the war, her immense speed and hitting power had made her an excellent anti-pirate patrol ship, although over the past couple of years the navy slowly recouped their massive losses and gradually re-asserted control over E.O.C. A space again. As a result, pirate activity died down once more to pre-war levels. This unfortunately left the Liberty virtually surplus to requirements amongst the more multi-role ships of the navy nowadays.
The two men made their way aboard the berthed ship to stow their gear, as they had done a thousand times in the past.
“Smells just like home,” Johnson said as he stepped aboard.
Kinraid nodded in agreement, “That it does, that it does.”
The two officers headed to their separate quarters to change into their full naval uniforms, Logameier headed to engineering to check if things were okay down there, while Kinraid headed to Michael’s quarters to hear about this new emergency that had everyone flapping.
“Ah Quinn, welcome back, have a good time away?”
“Yeah thanks cap’n, although the crew are not appreciatin’ having ta’ hurry back like this, what’s goin’ on?”
“We have new orders Quinn, the Copernicus has been destroyed.”
“That’s little Kathryn’s ship!” Quinn said in alarm.
“I know.”
“When’s the briefin.’”
“As soon as everyone is back aboard.”
“Whatta’ you think cap’n?”
Michael hesitated for a moment, contemplating his answer, “I think we owe it to Kathryn to go in, find out what happened, and get those still on the surface out of there.”
“There ‘r’ people still on the surface?”
“Yes commander, and they don’t have much time, it will all be in the briefing.”
“I understand,” Kinraid nodded respectfully.
Michael rubbed his chin in thought, “my gut tells me this won’t be easy Quinn.”
“Is anythin’ we ever do easy cap’n,” Kinraid replied smiling.
“I guess not.”
Less than an hour later, a small Lincoln class supply ship dropped off the remainder of the Liberties crew, they all hurried aboard to get their equipment stowed and begin to make the ship ready for departure. Eldathar, the tall Solarian pilot, returning from his stay on the Solarian homeworld itself, was last to arrive. Kinraid had informed the crew there was to be an immediate briefing as soon as everyone was aboard.
They all assembled on the ships bridge, it was a tight squeeze, but the crew of forty one just about managed to fit into the oval shaped room.
“First of all, I’d like to apologise for making everyone rush back like this,” Michael began, “however this is a unique situation, if there was any other way, we wouldn’t have done it.”
The crew all silently nodded their understanding.
“Those of you who were with us during the Krenaran war will remember our former medical officer, Kathryn Jacobs. The ship she currently serves aboard was destroyed by a new unidentified enemy, resulting in the deaths of over two hundred naval personnel and scientists. The Copernicus itself is an unarmed survey vessel under the command of the research division; it was conducting a survey of the Auriga system. Although not everyone died, sixteen people are still trapped on the surface of Auriga III, including Kathryn in some unknown alien structure. The vessel that destroyed the Copernicus is still out there, and is still a threat. Here is all the information we currently have on it.”
Michael played a video feed containing the sensor data and the ships logs of the Copernicus through the shimmering holographic main viewer.
It showed the dark shape of the enemy ship closing with its prey, Michael studied the reactions of his crew intently as they watched; in particular Eldathar. The Solarian’s eyes widened in shock as he instantly recognised the alien vessel.
The crew witnessed the devastating impacts of the torpedoes, and the carnage wrought onboard, the smoke, fires, and lifeless broken bodies, and then the final coup de grace from those deadly laser lances, the video went black.
The crew stood in silence, not since the Krenaran war had they witnessed this kind of wanton destruction, and for many it brought back uncomfortable memories of that dark time.
“The E.D. F has initiated an alert level three, the highest alert level since the Krenaran war in response to this, so this is absolutely as real as it gets gentlemen. The Liberty is the only ship in the area fast enough to rescue the stranded science team. This is what we’ve trained for, what the Liberty is built for, we won’t let her down, and we won’t let those scientists down; for Kathryn!”
The whole crew echoed solemnly, “for Kathryn.”
“Dismissed.”
The crew all fell out and began to filter through to their familiar stations throughout the six decks of the one hundred and forty metre long ship.