Starship Engineer

From my captain's seat on the Fateweaver, I checked all the feeds tracking the Malevolent ship. It was hard to believe that just one ship was responsible for purging this entire galaxy. Yet we had failed to detect any deep space gravimetric disturbances to match from any of the deployed monitoring stations. Then again, we were only able to cover about 28% of the galactic volume. In another ninety years, our net would cover 96%--if we survived this. I admit, I had some hope we could avoid the fate of having our galaxy purged if we only had to contend with a single planet ship.

We were able to track the Malevolent ship as it approached the Judgement Day system. It had fallen for our trap, and now the question was if we could successfully close it. The Malevolent ship appeared much deeper in the system than we had predicted. It was only 250 million kilometers from the sun. It was already close enough for the Sun Diver to do its work.

But that was when things started going wrong. Our net in the system was massive but more toward the periphery, and the Malevolant ship was already inside our envelope. We couldn't call the Sun Diver until we were certain the ship couldn't escape the blast radius. On sensors, we immediately caught the bloom of ships leaving the Malevolant ship—it was launching its swarm. Hundreds of massive ships expanded from and raced across the system.

It made sense where it had exited sub-space. It was within easy range of the Goldilocks zone for planets to target the likely to support life. Hundreds of subspace disrupters were launched into the system as the ships started to burn to intercept the swarm. Would our disrupters be able to overcome whatever advanced technology the enemy had? We were also launching them incessantly, creating more and more ripples in an attempt to confuse the Malevolent.

The decision of when to call for the Sun Diver was not mine. That was a committee of Squirrel, Sylvan, and human astrophysicists. They were running probabilities from the data feeds to determine if the kill chance was over 80%, our threshold. The swarm ships reached our fleet, and the battle was joined. I watched the holo tank, and my detachment was ordered to support Desdemona's ninth battle group. My Fateweaver and four Matadors began the ninety-minute burn to enter the engagement range.

Desdemona's ships were doing surprisingly well against the swarm throughout the system. They were tough ships and handing out as well as they received, but the numbers would favor the Malevolents before too long. Hundreds of swarm ships focused on thirty of her battleships, while my group focused fire on one ship at a time. The subspace disruptions made it difficult to see the battle unfold, but after forty-seven minutes, Desdemona's thirty battleships were destroyed while damaging or destroying over one hundred of the swarm ships.

Her ships were superior if the engagement had been one-on-one, but numbers would favor the swarm in the end. I launched all Slipstream fighters to support two of Desdemona's ships limping away from the battle. It was probably a death sentence for every pilot because if we had to flee the subspace distortion envelope, they would never be able to dock in time. The swarm ships were returning to the Malevolent ship to rearm and refuel. The swarm had been cycling ships for hours.

I looked over the monitoring station feed, 38.8% chance of success if we launched the Sun Diver now. Over half of our ships were damaged or destroyed at this point between the two fleets. I could hear Desdemona's frustration on comms as we faced the inevitability of losing.

Kemji was frantically redeploying assets to keep the Malevolants boxed in. The planet ship seemed unconcerned with its losses and knew this was an obvious trap. It made no move to flee, which is probably why the percentage was so low. Most likely, it still thought it could enter subspace whenever it wanted and escape the supernova.

Tens of thousands of people were dying, and soon, we would have to gamble and launch the Sun Diver anyway. A message flashed red across my screen, drawing my attention to it. Dartanion's Fateweaver had just been disabled, as a third of the aft section had been blown off. My son's fate was sealed. He was not leaving the Judgement Day system.

Pain of the loss hit me. I brought up my four Matadors; Redemption, Zeus' Lightning, Thor's Hammer, Cyclops, and began to direct their fire, emptying their kinetic payloads as fast as possible. There was no point in saving anything. I needed to get as much vengeance as I could before my ship also fell to the swarm. It would not be long now.

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Rae'Ver watched with others in fascination at the battle unfolding just sixteen light hours away. They had been waiting for the alert to abandon ship as a skelton crew would guide the Sun Diver to its final destination, but the call never came as the battle raged.

He knew why. Everyone watching knew why. This ship was their only hope of defeating the threat, and if it failed the Malevolants would sweep across the galaxy. He watched as three Sylvan city ships and their War Chariot escorts were enveloped in the swarm. Rae'Ver was detached, but seeing his people fighting valiantly while he watched from far away safely, struck a nerve. He didn't have nerves, so he was not really sure what this feeling was.

Minutes passed, and one of the city ships was destroyed, Rae'Ver anger grew. The Maveloants were just as powerful as their ancestors had passed down, their fear justified. Why were they not using the plan, the Sun Diver, that he had helped build? Rae'Ver feelings turned to disgust.

He marched to one of the escape ships and boarded, ignoring questions from his fellows. He hit the emergency launch, which quickly expelled him from the ship as the escape ships had all been prepped for launch when word came. In space, he ignored the hails and quickly entered the coordinates to bring his ship to an open area of space as close the Malevolant ship as possible. His tiny spacecraft should not register as a threat.

Alarms blared as he exited subspace moments later. The massive layering of subspace disrupters had caused problems, and he had already been pushing the limit. His host body fared about as good as the ship. Blood poured from orifices as Rae'Ver forced it to plot a collision course with the Malevolant ship. Thirty-nine minutes if he pushed the ship as hard as it would go.

As expected, nothing came to intercept his craft as he was too far from where the heavy fighting was occurring. At two million kilometers, the defenses of the planet ship began to fire at him. He just accelerated directly at the sphere, closing as fast as possible as his ship was incinerated. It was a merciful death for his host. Rae'Ver's consciousness used the vector to remain on target to the planet ship, which was thankfully stationary.

He felt the gravity take him as he reached his destination, and his incorporeal form lanced deep into the structure. He had just successfully boarded a Malevolant ship! Not that anyone would ever know or believe it. Now, he just needed to find the body of a Malevalont and use it to keep the ship from fleeing.

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The chaotic battle was starting to close, and we had lost. We had done much better against the swarm than I would have guessed, but our depleted ships were still falling like dominos. We had destroyed 15 percent of the swarm ships and damaged another 25 percent, but 60 percent were still functional and chewing up our fleet detachment one at a time. The planet sphere ship had remained completely untouched during the entire engagement.

We might have stood a chance if our combined fleet had been three times this size. No ships had come close to the massive planet sphere outside the single escape pod, and even that never got closer than 800,000 kilometers.

Desdemona's fleet was down to 20% combat effective, and all those ships were damaged. Dozens of ships were limping out of the envelope of subspace disruption in an attempt to escape. I checked the feed to see the chance of successfully catching the Malevolant, and it now read 19.2%. Whatever parameters they were using, our chances were going down.

I queried the feed, and the scientists were debating whether to send the Sun Diver or try to repeat the trap elsewhere! We had no ships, and the Malevolants were already aware of what we were trying to do! I stepped in and ordered it sent. Then, I ordered all ships to make haste out of the subspace disruption envelope. Maybe a few of us would survive.

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One-Seven-Nine-Six entered the system at optimal coordinates. It was the correct distance from the sun for this system, where life would most likely be supported and should have the heaviest traffic.

The subspace disruptions had been increasing exponentially within this system, so a large combat or massive industrial effort was taking place. It recalled the one system it had purged where the residents had been trying to build a shell completely around a star to capture all its energy. The undertaking was impressive for the lesser species.

Its sensors picked up no inhabited planet or industry of any kind. The large amount of spacecraft showing on sensors did not indicate any debris. It deployed purge ships to begin cleaning up the system

As the local ship moved toward its ship, he figured out what was going on. The ignorant species had lured him here to attack his ship. It was the only operation and not the first time it had happened. That meant they must have some superior weapon hidden somewhere. It started scanning the largest vessels, looking for a dangerous weapon.

The purge ships began to engage, and resistance was much higher than expected—and their ships were more advanced than forecasted. It had expected more energy-based weapons, like when he encountered the ship near the beacon. He tapped some keys to alter the shielding to kinetic deflectors during the manufacturing of new purge ships.

It was not happy with the effectiveness of its purge ships. These species had been left alone for too long and had developed harmful technologies. It was good that it had arrived when it did to slow and eliminate them. He would have to deploy a sensor net.

The battle was coming to a close after hours. One-nine-seven-six detected a tiny craft attempting to make a run against its ship. In case it was a threat, he quickly destroyed the incoming vessel and returned to work. Soon, the ships would start fleeing the system, and his purge ships would have to pursue them. It rotated the freshly assembled ships for this task. The disruptions the species had deployed were only 9% effective in stopping his own ships from entering subspace.

Perhaps it should assign two purge ships to each fleeing ship?

He finally broke their will, and the ships were vectoring away, trying to flee the system and enter subspace. He considered causing a subspace ripple to prevent ships from entering but decided against it as it would also affect his ship.

A blip on his scans was flashing. A new, large ship was entering the system in seconds. He scanned the ship in subspace and became confused and then concerned. Were they planning to initiate a sunburst? Could he intercept it? No. He keyed his own subspace to charge and was also detaining his purge ships to scatter into subspace.

As he started to issue the orders, his appendages wouldn't move, and vocalizations suddenly wouldn't. Confused, he tried his neural link to the ship, but the connection was overrun. Some type of technology virus? Impossible. No ship got within 800,000 kilometers. Maybe the prisoners he took from the beacon? If it was true, he actually admired the depth of the trap.

It soon parsed out what was going on. An entity in subspace was trying to coopt his functions. The inferior creature would not succeed in the end, but it would prevent him long enough for the ship to impact the sun.

It watched as the large ship exited subspace moving at a fraction of the speed of light. He would have liked to do the kinetic calculations to see if they were going to succeed, but it was still fighting for control of its own body.

The impact on the star was brilliant. A plume of plasma shot out hundreds of millions of kilometers in seconds. Did it? Yes, the sun's core destabilized in seconds and expanded. The rate of expansion was impressive, and One-Nine-Seven-Six thought it a fitting end as the star expanded and enveloped his planet-sized ship. He didn't even have time to send a message to the HUB.

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As we fled the system with the Sun Diver set to arrive in seconds, the Cerberus, a Matodar, entered subspace successfully. So, not all of us would be fated to die in Judgement Day today. Then, to everyone's horror, or maybe expectations, a swarm ship followed the Cerberus into space on the same vector.

The swarm ship had been deep inside the subspace disruption field that we had maintained throughout the battle. That meant the Malevolant world ship could leave as well. Two of Desdemona's ships entered subspace, and two more swarm ships followed in pursuit. They were going to hunt us down one ship at a time.

The Fateweaver, Siren's Call, entered subspace, and we didn't see a corresponding swarm ship follow. Sensors confirmed no swarm ship followed. The Sun Diver exited subspace on a collision course with the sun. Its hull had cracked and was splitting but it was just the mass we needed.

I watched, fascinated, as the Malevoant sphere did not move. I was expecting it to enter subspace at any second. I received the all-clear from navigation that we could enter subspace on my command. I released the Matadors, Cyclops and Redemption to enter subsapce. Zeus' Lightning and Thor's Hammer had been damaged too badly to enter subspace. I wanted to watch the final impact.

The Sun Diver did its job, and the impact was exceptional. A probe transited the data to us as a massive plume erupted from the impact. The sun followed by expanding rapidly and approaching the planet-sized ship. Was it not going to jump? Why not? Hundreds of the swarm ships were consumed in the expanding sun, and then the Malevolant ship was caught in the wave, and we could see it tearing apart before disappearing below the surface.

Navigation nervously reminded me we had seventy seconds before meeting the same fate. I gave the command, and we entered subspace. We had won, but it seemed improbable.

As the Fateweaver made its way back to the Bradbury system, I came up with a plan. We needed to make sure the Malevolants never returned. Perhaps we could combat another World Ship, but two, three, four?

That meant controlling the subspace travel and policing the entire galaxy so as not to attach their attention. We would not be like the quadrupeds and hide or try to obfuscate the beacons. It was a monumental task for the Arcadian Collective and one we would undertake alone.

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