Invasion by Donald Nicklas

Author:Donald Nicklas [Nicklas, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7 - Munich

“Fifteen minutes to system insertion,” Tavia reported.

“Hatch, keep us invisible in the system,” Alaya ordered.

“Sss. Yes Captain,” Hatch responded and a few minutes later, as Tavia depolarized the slipstream sails, Hatch said, “Sss. Ship invisible.”

“Olivia, anything in the system?”

Olivia Slone concentrated on her sensor panel. “There are no ships in the system, it reads uninhabited.”

“Excellent, charge the wormhole drive for the jump to the Munich system.”

“Sss. Yes Captain, drive is charging. Charge time will be 15 human minutes,” Blue Scale reported.

The Slones always had to chuckle the way serpents reminded them that fleet time was in human time. It was true but sounded funny when spoken aloud. After the passage of the reported time, the serpent Blue Scale reported, “Sss. Wormhole drive is charged, Captain.”

“Blue set the drive to the coordinates for the Munich system and open the wormhole.”

“Sss. Yes, Captain.”

Blue pressed some buttons and whistled into the console and the ship was filled with a low hum. Within thirty seconds the space in front of the Mary Rose began to distort in a swirling pattern and a pale green wormhole began to form as a spiral in front of the ship. “Hatch, keep us invisible, Tavia take us in.”

Tavia moved the ship slowly forward. All aboard were medicate to prevent the effects of wormhole travel and they were used to the visual distortion that made it appear the ship was being stretched into the wormhole. The Mary Rose passed in and almost immediately was expelled into the Munich system.

“Blue, close the wormhole.”

“Sss. Yes Captain, the wormhole is closed and the drive is secured.”

“Olivia, give me a readout of this system.”

“Yes, Captain,” Olivia Slone said and again concentrated on her sensor board. “There are no ships in the system, but I am picking up telemetry from the seventh planet, which is an airless world. The telemetry indicates a settlement.”

“Blue, take us to the seventh planet,” Alaya ordered.

“Sss. Yes Captain. Transit time is 6 hours, 23 minutes human time.”

“Ok let’s keep a full watch all the way,” Alaya ordered. She then activated the ship wide intercom, “Captain Neumann to the bridge, please.”

A few minutes later, Captain Neumann entered the bridge. “Captain, we are in the Munich system and telemetry from the mining base is coming in and appears normal. Before we drop invisibility, I would like you to contact the base and make sure we are cleared to approach.”

“Gladly, Captain Slone.”

Alaya told Olivia to open a channel to the mining base in Brandenburger code. “Captain, when you are ready,” Olivia said.

“Commandant Schneider, this is Captain Neumann requesting permission to approach the mining base and requesting a landing slot.” He then asked, “How long is the lag?”

“Signal round trip is two hours ten minutes.”

“Then there is nothing to do but wait. I will return to the mess hall with the others,” Captain Neumann said as he left the bridge. The Slones could hear the relief in his voice that the colony had no signs of peril yet, but he still would feel better when they actually responded to the hail.

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