Nathan left the interrogation room and nodded to the guards. He tried not to show any of the frustration that was churning inside of him, but it was hard.
The three T’hissis officers had been as stubborn as the T’hissis had a reputation to be, not volunteering any information other than their names and ranks. They wouldn’t reveal how they had known that the Confederation ships were in the area or why they’d come so far into Confederation space to attack in the first place. All in all, it hadn’t been a very productive questioning.
Nathan had been forced to leave the rest of the interrogation in the hands of Commander Patrick Haynes, the chief of security and Mary Pierce, the ships councillor as he’d been called away to another meeting. Not that he’d been particularly eager to stay and talk to the prisoners anyway.
He headed to the lift and asked for Deck two, closing his eyes and rubbing at them as the lift raced through the ship. As the lift doors opened, he exited and walked left down the corridor towards the situation room. As he approached, he smiled as he saw Beth leaving the meeting room.
“How are the T’hissis?” she asked.
Nathan grimaced, “Let’s just say that their manners are the same as always and they’re being as helpful as always! You’re more than welcome to go and take over. I’m pretty sure Patrick hasn’t killed any of them yet.”
She patted him on the arm as she walked into the lift, “I don’t think I’ll take you up on that offer, I’ve never liked being near Reptiloids.” She shuddered, “Something about that scaly skin gives me the creeps. Anyway, don’t keep Captain Walker waiting.”
Nathan shook his head as the lift doors closed and then he turned to the meeting room and entered.
The table was full with the Captains and first officers of the Bristol, Endeavour and Covington and also sitting at the table’s far end was Richard and a young woman who Nathan didn’t know.
Gordon looked up as Nathan sat down.
“How’s the T’hissis getting on? Any of them been killed yet?”
Nathan shook his head, tiredly, “Not yet, although they’re being about as forthcoming as normal. All we’re getting are names and ranks.”
Gordon smiled grimly, “Well, we have as long as it takes to get home to continue on them. As long as we don’t hurt them, we can ask them as many questions as we like. Once we get home though, we have to hand them back.” He grimaced, “Another of those wonderful rules from the Galactic Council.”
Commander Thomas of the Endeavour looked confused, “I never understood why we have to hand them back? Not that I’m complaining when it’s our service people being returned, but where did it all come from?”
“Apparently it’s another rule along the lines of the no helping anyone in wartime. It seems that whoever this mysterious race that bombed home worlds was also used to do nasty things to prisoners of war. The Galactic Council has decreed that anyone captured in battle has to be handed to them, so that they can run various tests to make sure that they’re alright, before handing them straight back to their fleet. Not so bad, as you say if they’re ours, but not much good if you’re just handing combat troops back to the enemy.”
“The T’hissis know that we’re just going to hand them back when we get back to Earth, so they’re not telling us anything. They also know that we can’t force them to say anything either.” Nathan muttered.
Gordon cleared his throat, “Anyway, that’s not why we’re here. Robert has some news about us getting home.”
Robert looked a little uncertain when all the heads turned to look at him, but he turned to the young woman sitting next to him and she squeezed his hand in support and he took a deep breath.
“Well, as you all know the Orion’s hyper engines are buggered.” He blushed, “Sorry, that just slipped out.”
Gordon laughed, “It’s alright Robert; just tell the other captains what you told me.”
“Well, we, errm, that is Melanie here and myself, have taken a look at the Covington. As Captain Donaldson knows, the Covington’s very badly damaged. She has barely enough life support to keep her remaining crew alive and her weapons are pretty much gone. However, her hyperspace engines are in full working order.”
Captain Donaldson raised an eyebrow, “I’m sorry, are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
“That depends on what you’re suggesting.” Robert asked carefully.
“Are you suggesting that we take the hyperspace engines out of the Covington and put them in the Orion?”
Robert shook his head, “Oh no, we couldn’t do that, not without a full repair yard. Anyway, the hyperspace engines in the Orion are an upgrade on anything in the rest of the fleet, so nothing any other ship has would fit.”
“Then what are you suggesting?” Gordon asked.
“Well, Melanie, I mean Lt Commander Halley and I have been looking at this and we think that it might be possible to use the hyperspace engines on the Covington to boost the Orion into Hyper.”
“Are you serious?” Captain Donaldson said. “I’m no expert on this, but surely you can’t do that?”
Melanie Halley spoke up for the first time, “Captain, I believe that we might be able to connect the two ships together and as long as the Orion is within the hyperspace vortex that the Covington creates then we should both be able to squeeze in. It’ll be tight, but we may just be able to do it.”
“What happens then?” Nathan asked, “Once we’re in Hyper, surely the stresses of that speed will tear the two ships apart?”
Robert nodded, “Yes Commander, very probably. We’d have to jettison the Covington at the exact moment we enter Hyper, or we’ll all be ripped apart. However, if we have the co-ordinates in the Orion’s navigation then we don’t actually need the Hyperspace engines to actually travel through Hyper. We would emerge into NSpace exactly as we’d normally do.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Has anything like this ever been tried before?” Gordon asked.
Robert shook his head, “No sir. This is all theory at the moment. It probably should work; in fact it definitely should work. The Hyperspace vortex is really just a tunnel into Hyper so anything can use it; it’s just that we’ve never tried to take two things through at once before. In theory one ship could create the vortex and another ship could use it, but we haven’t found a way to project the vortex away from the ship yet.”
“A simple no would have sufficed!” Gordon laughed. “If you both think this is going to work then I can’t see why we shouldn’t do it, but at the end of the day its Captain Donaldson’s ship that we’d be sacrificing. What do you think?”
“If it had been anyone else who’d suggested it, I’d never go along with the plan, but I’ve worked with Melanie for a long time now, and I know she wouldn’t suggest something if she didn’t genuinely think it would work. I’ll hate losing the Covington, she’s been a good ship, but we wouldn’t make the journey home anyway, we don’t have enough life support, so we’d all be better of travelling in a ship that can make it I suppose.”
***
It took nearly a day and a half to get the Covington coupled up to the Orion. The two ships were nestled as close as possible together, which in itself was an amazing piece of piloting, and then cables were run from the Covington’s engine room to the Orion’s through holes carefully cut in the hulls of both ships. Richard and Lizzie then tied the two engines together so that effectively Orion would use the Covington’s engines rather than its own.
Most of the Covington's crew transferred to the Bristol and the Endeavour and even with the casualties from all three ships, they soon filled up, so that the rest of them had to transfer to the Orion and be crammed in wherever space could be found. That they fitted at all was a sad reminder for everyone of how many personnel had been killed. Nearly a third of the Orion’s crew had been killed in the battle with the alien ship.
Once everything was ready Gordon sat in his chair on the bridge of the Flagship. Nathan had given up his seat to Captain Donaldson so he stood at the back of the bridge next to Melanie Halley and the Engineering bridge console.
He smiled encouragingly at her as she looked rather nervous.
“We’re going to be fine.” He said.
“Commander, there are so many things that we could have got wrong.” Melanie muttered.
“I’ve complete trust in what you and Richard have worked out.” Nathan muttered back.
Gordon pressed the comms on his chair, “Richard, are we ready down there?”
Richard was in the Orion’s main engineering and he sounded far calmer than he could possibly have been. “Yes sir, we’re all ready down here. I’m tied into to Melanie’s console so she’ll have control of the engines from there. Whenever you’re ready to go, just say the word.”
Gordon took a deep breath, “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. Take us into Hyper.”
Melanie pressed a sequence of buttons on her console and Orion started a short countdown. “Hyperspace in 5-4-3-2-1.”
Chris activated the hyperspace sequence on his navigation console, and there was a barely registered sense of dislocation as the Covington’s engines fired and hurled the two ships into hyperspace. Then all hell broke loose.
Nathan hung onto the console as the Orion shook and shuddered and creaks and groans sounded from the hull.
Richard’s voice was steady however as he spoke through the comms, “Karl, I’m disconnecting the couplings to the Covington now. On my mark release the tractors, 3-2-1 release now.”
Karl pressed a button and the Orion lurched as the tractors released the Covington. Then he pressed another button and reversed the polarity of the tractors and used them to push the other ship away.
Instantly the Orion stabilised and everyone took the breath that they’d been holding.
“Status of the Covington?” Gordon asked.
Sam checked the sensors, “Amazingly, she’s still in one piece Captain. Her engines are still firing however, so she’ll pull away from us. She’ll not come out of Hyperspace though as there’s no one to shut the engines down again, so she’ll just drift forever.”
Gordon turned to Captain Donaldson, “Thank you Captain. Without your ship we’d not be here.”
“Goodbye Covington.” Captain Donaldson muttered, “I was her Captain for five years. She was a good ship. She deserved better than to be stuck in hyperspace for ever.”
Gordon nodded, “She did indeed.”
“If it makes you feel any better, she may still come out of Hyper when her fuel runs out and her engines auto shut down.” Melanie said.
Captain Donaldson turned to smile at her chief engineer, “Thanks Melanie. That does make me feel a little better. How long until her fuel runs out?”
“The Covington recently had a refit and she was fitted with a new fuel core. It will probably last close to a thousand years. Of course, by then the Covington will be rather far away, but at least she’ll see a part of the universe that we’ve never seen before.”
“How long until we reach NSpace, Chris?” Gordon asked the helmsman.
Chris consulted his display, “At this velocity, about three days.”
“In that case, I would suggest that we all get on with whatever repairs we can achieve, and get plenty of rest. We all deserve it after the last couple of days.”
