Starship Engineer

The Sun Diver Project had taken up all my time. It was a rough shell of a massive ship, and we were focused on just the engines and adding the correct amount of mass to ensure it would finish off the Malevolent ship when it crashed into the sun in the Judgement Day system.

We had so many cargo transports coming and going into the Bradbury system the system patrol craft had trouble logging, scanning, and inspecting cargo. At first, we tried to keep all the non-Arcadian crews off planets and space stations but ultimately failed when we had some fifteen transports arriving every hour and needed to get the raw materials to the furnaces and fabricators as quickly as possible. Inspections were sometimes forgone completely, while other times, we queued up suspicious vessels, delaying their cargo transfer for weeks.

The timetable needed to be met at any cost, though. With every new beacon that had been reactivated, our sense of urgency pushed us harder. The Arcadian Collective was essentially on its own to complete the Sun Diver. We received vast raw resources from the Human Federation, but that was all the support we got for the shielding technology we returned to them. The Alien Alliance was still hoping for a diplomatic solution.

Nova and Venus were in charge of the Arcadian Shadow, our intelligence network, and they had their hands full around the Sun Diver construction. Their mind-reading ability had progressed far enough that identifying spies and saboteurs was a daily occurrence. These individuals came from human stock as well as a myriad of other alien races. The spies were not as bad as the sabbatours; they just wanted to steal the technology. The saboteurs wanted to slow the project or even prevent it from ever being completed.

Seeing the massive Sun Diver ship finally break from its scaffolding and head toward the outer system was a relief, only one week past the seven-month self-imposed deadline. It would take two months for a shakedown cruise on its way to the Judgement Day System, which was all the vessel was going to get. Two Sylvan city ships flanked the Sun Diver as it made its way. The Sun Diver was as large as the two Sylvan city ships combined.

Although it looked impressive from the outside, it was just a blunt instrument with mass concentrated in the bow and frame. We just needed it to hold together long enough for its one important skip jump through subspace. The scale of the mission to implode a star was still difficult to fathom. You never really understood a star's size until you got close to it. I had dozens of scouting reports from the Judgement Day system and watched the mock-ups of the impact in VR.

We were essentially throwing a pebble into a pond and hoping to vaporize that pond, relying on the kinetic energy of traveling at 60% of the speed of light. I watched the holo tank as the Sun Diver successfully transitioned to subspace. The two Slyvan ships soon followed. They would serve as the escort. There was a lot of cheering in the room, but I knew the next step of the Steller Plan was not going to be without casualties.

Admiral Dartanion, my son, would be one of five Fateweaver/Matador fleets sent to Judgement Day to attract and then hold the Malevolent ship in place while the Sun Diver made its run at the sun. We were unsure if the fleets would have to remain in the system while the sun imploded. The Malevolent ship would most likely put up subspace disruptions and prevent anyone from fleeing.

My son would not be alone as almost every ship in the Arcadian Collective was leaving the Bradbury system and our patrol routes to form up at the Judgement Day system. Even my ship, the Fateweaver, was going, and I was going to captain it. I would remain in the Bradbury system until the twentieth beacon was reactivated, giving me plenty of time to rendevous for the confrontation with the Malevolents.

That day came much sooner than I would have liked. I took the Fateweaver and four new Matadors: the Redemption, Thor's Hammer, Cyclops, and Zeus' Lightning to form a long-distance attack element. We had switched over most of our heavy weapons and missiles to kinetic focused, which was determined to be the most effective against the Malevolent swarm ships.

We would likely not be retreating from this mission. It was probable it was going to be my final resting place. On the holo tank display, I could see dozens of our ships moving through subspace, pretending to be moving cargo from other systems but focused clearly on the Judgement Day system. The Malevolent World Ship should finish with the twenty-second beacon soon and move on to the final one. It had followed the pattern unerringly.

I was not responsible for the strategy to hold the Malevolent ship in place. My detachment was just to act in support and flee to subspace if the opportunity arose. We had been in the system for four days, and the reactivation of the twenty-second beacon was two days past due. It had been very periodic, so we began to worry. My thoughts were the Alien Alliance had finally caught up to them, and maybe they were talking. Unlikely, but perhaps possible.

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I was on my bridge a day later when Sensors turned and noted an unidentified subspace signature. It was not large enough to be a planet-sized ship, but the design was unfamiliar. Then dozens more appeared until six hundred and nine battleships were on sensors at the edge of the system. Four times our combat strength by estimations from tactical. Their hull material was advanced enough to block our gravimetric sensors. Were these allies of the Malevolants? Their fleet size and apparent technology were enough to wipe us out. All our work was going to be wasted and the Malevolants would go unchecked.

Admiral Kenji of the Arcadian Collective forwarded me a communication request. Kenji was the tactical leader and responsible for commanding our forces. I answered it, and someone who I thought I would never see again was on screen. Desdemona didn't look like she had aged a day since I had last seen her over a decade ago. We stared at each other for a long time, my anger growing as I recalled her betrayal.

Desdemona felt the tension about to boil, so she introduced herself as the Hulvan Queen. My blank expression and flaring nostrils had her explain. She had founded a colony with a few Sylvan ships, and they grew hundreds of thousands of hybrid human/Sylvan children and matured them rapidly in order to crew their fleet to fight the Malevolents.

I had some fleet envy but told her presence was not required. She then laid into me, saying she had enough spies in the Bradbury system to know our plan and the likelihood of failure. So she had come to make sure the plan succeeded. Her supreme confidence irritated me, and she had built such an impressive fleet while I had built a quarter of its strength.

But we could use her. Desdemona immediately wanted command of the operation, but I firmly indicated Kenji was in charge. The Squirrel Admiral had earned the right and was our best multi-ship engagement specialist.

Desdemona twisted the knife further as she shared the capabilities of her ships. It was clear she had agents in place and had been stealing technology from the Arcadian Collective ever since she had left. My daughters had caught hundreds of spies, but we never suspected the infiltration had been so deep. My guess was Desdemona had a loyal following in my Navy that was feeding her.

At this point, it didn't matter, and the important thing was we now had a sizable fleet that could possibly contend with the World Ship when it arrived. We spent days positioning the ships in the system as the Admirals and Queen communicated. Nineteen days into our wait, a deep space probe detected a planet-sized mass coming toward us. We had forty-two hours before the Malevolants reached Judgement Day.

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One-Nine-Seven-Six was working on clearing the twentieth beacon. How could this have happened to all twenty-three beacons in this galaxy without the HUB knowing? This obfuscation of the transmission meant lower technology civilizations did not receive the warnings. The question was, did it matter? The HUB refused to alter its mission other than the standard directive to eliminate those civilizations that operated in the forbidden subspace bands.

After clearing the space around the first beacon, One-Nine-Seven-Six had captured all two hundred and seven beings on the beacon's surface. He interrogated them in his spare time. A few had died as he had trouble with creating sustainable habitats. He never really invested in holding various species on his ship like others in his position.

The prisoners were surprisingly compliant. He learned the astro-political status of the region of space they came from. The technology leaps from civilizations that had escaped the last Purge of this galaxy. It was always inevitable that inhabitable galaxies gave rise to advanced civilizations that were tempted to defy the messages.

He looked at his screens, and the density of the subspace disruptions was starting to increase rapidly in a small region of space. He decided to abandon the task of reactivating the beacons for a time and confront the species causing the disturbance. Maybe now that the beacons have reactivated, they might be compliant and allow themselves to be Purged, knowing the damage they had caused. He finished with the beacon and set a new course.

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Rae'Ver had possessed an engineer on the Sun Diver since he had arrived in Bradbury. He was not concerned about possibly being killed. He could always force his consciousness into subspace until he found a new host.

He was more curious to see if the human's plan could succeed. The Malevolants, from his shared knowledge with other First Citizens, were unbeatable. That was why he had fought so hard for the new technology on board the Void Phoenix. Technology he had never been able to claim.

Just in case everything went hell, he had a nearby escape craft, one of two hundred such craft on the Sun Diver. Didn't everyone understand that this was a one-way trip? He guessed giving them hope of survival kept them motivated.

He was eating a meal alone when word was passed amongst the crew. The Malevolent ship was inbound. In just hours, the plan was to begin. Rae'Ver looked on amused as the human and Squirrel engineers raced about. There was nothing they could affect now. There fate was in the hands of others.

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