Chapter nineteen:
Daniel sighed, of all places why did High Command have to send him to sector fourteen? And of all ships to be assigned to work with, why did it have to be Commander Sandra’s ship? He had worked so hard to earn the rank of Commander. And although the ship he was assigned to command was a much smaller battleship than Sandra’s ship, he was still quite pleased with the assignment. By becoming a Commander at age thirty-four he was the second youngest Commander in history, only Sandra was younger than he was. It had only been ten years but he felt far older than being forty-four.
Daniel sighed again; he didn’t have a problem being assigned to work under Sandra’s command. What he didn’t care for was he would have to deal with Nathan again. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the details from his mother about what Nathan did that upset her so much! He had known as a child that something had broken her heart but he didn’t know what. It had taken some research to find out that they had known each other and when he did he wanted to kill him for leading her on like that. Daniel also wanted to slap his mother silly for still caring about a scumbag like Nathan. But she had asked him to please leave him alone and Daniel reluctantly agreed to do as she asked.
Daniel had been required to serve under Nathan when he was required to gather information from Earth. He had tried to pry information out of him but Nathan simply didn’t answer any of his questions or threats. And now he would have to work with him as his ship had been assigned to work with Sandra until further notice. Daniel had originally been assigned to the fleet prepared for the invasion of Earth, but with the recent increase in activity by the resistance group High Command had postponed the invasion in favor of using the extra resources to track down and crush the resistance cells that had been showing up.
He had agreed with the decision as he felt it was foolish to proceed with an invasion when there had been such an increase in activity. It would be unwise to invest so much time in taking over Earth if there was a possibility of problems deep within the Empire. It took time to take over a world and implement all the changes necessary to ensure they would be unable to break free. It was part of what made them so successful. They always made sure things were deeply in place before moving on to another world.
He would never understand why people felt that underdeveloped worlds should be left alone. It wasn’t like they even had the intelligence his people did, and most of them were like Earth, short life spans and riddled with all sorts of health issues as they lacked the ability to use genetics to reproduce. High Command had tried to use enhanced learning to make aliens more useful, but so few of them were actually able to absorb the knowledge. You didn’t try to make your dog smart! You took care of it and taught it how to be useful!
Admittedly aliens from other worlds weren’t dogs, but take Earth for example, they were so absorbed in thinking they were better than others that quite a few of them fought with each other on a regular basis! Their reasons for war were supremely petty! They fought over absolutely everything! Religion, race, money, power and land were only a few of the things they fought and killed over. At least as a citizen, even if you were required to work, every one had shelter, food and entertainment provided, and the law applied to everyone! And if you worked hard and proved yourself capable you had the opportunity to move your way up by serving in the military, unlike some of the Earth’s societies who never allowed you to advance because of class, gender and other reasons like religion. That would be like telling Sandra she couldn’t command a ship because she was a woman! He couldn’t even imagine telling her she couldn’t do something just because of something stupid like that!
Daniel turned his attention back to the present, he would be arriving in sector fourteen three days before Commander Sandra’s ship. According to High Command they were to search for a suspected resistance base on one of the worlds here. Unlike Earth this system had no planets capable of supporting life. Which is probably what would have attracted the resistance to use such a location in the first place. There were no shipping lines or regular space travel through this area. His first order of business would be to set up communication relay transmitters. He didn’t really need them but Sandra had forwarded a report regarding a new scanning technology developed by Nathan and an Earthling. Although setting them up would only take a few hours Daniel liked to be prepared. Even if there was a base here, the resistance simply didn’t have any ships capable of taking on a battleship, even a smaller one like his. Unless they had somehow managed to get their hands on one, battleships were just to expensive and time consuming to build. It would be extremely difficult to hide the fact that you were building one.
A beeping noise from the computer alerted Daniel that they were about to drop out of hyperspace. Thirty seconds later the ship shuddered as the computer automatically shut down the hyper drive system. Daniel sat back and watched as his crew started performing the basic and simple scans to make sure everything was all right. A split second later the computer automatically took over and maneuvered the ship hard to the right. Daniel nearly fell out of his chair as the sudden force from the maneuver threw him sideways.
“What just happened?” He demanded.
“Checking sir,” his second in command said. She switched the view of the main screen to show a small ship that they had barely avoided colliding with, a few seconds later the computer gave her an answer. “The computer identifies it as a ship know to be in use by the resistance!”
Daniel smiled. So High Command had been correct about a base being in this sector. “Engage tractor beams! I want that ship!” He ordered. His second in command didn’t even take the time to reply. Her fingers flew over the controls as she activated the tractor beam catching the resistance ship.
Daniel continued, “Disable their engines, fire the lasers at half power!” The ships gunner took aim and fired, scoring direct hits to the engine room. Daniel could see explosions rocking the tiny ship. Then the ship began to emit a white glow. Daniel didn’t even bother to issue the order, as he knew what they were doing. He switched the energy shields protecting the ship so that all power went to the front shields. A split second later the ship detonated, rocking his ship violently. This time he was thrown from his chair to slam painfully into the control console next to his second in command. He felt something give in his chest and a horribly sharp pain quickly followed. He managed to get up and go back and sit down in his chair overlooking the bridge. All over the bridge his officers were picking themselves back up and helping a few that had been knocked unconscious when they had been tossed around.
“What’s our status Kim?” He asked.
Kim got back up in her seat as well and started checking the system. It took her a few minutes to get the information. “Front shields have been reduced to ten percent. Our main engines are offline, and interplanetary communications are offline as well. Two crewmembers in the forward bay have been killed as the sudden shock of the explosion punched a hole in the storage room they were in. Emergency bulkheads in that area have engaged protecting the rest of the ship. A number of other areas are seriously damaged and are being evacuated until the integrity of the ship in each area can be tested. Bulkheads associated with those areas are being manually activated in case the hull buckles. I’ve also run a few scans with the short range scanners that are still working and other than the one ship there doesn’t appear to be any others.” She replied.
“Are you injured?” He asked.
“Other than some bruises I seem to be okay Commander,” She paused and then continued. “You should be more worried about yourself sir.”
Daniel looked down to see what she was referring too. His entire right side where he had hit the console was covered in blood. “I see, then I will leave things to you while I go visit the doctor.” He said. Daniel tried to get up but found he was too dizzy. The Ensign standing next to his chair helped him stand and supported him while he walked to the lift doors. Daniel turned to Kim and said, “Be sure to inform me the moment the interplanetary communications are restored, they are to take top priority as we need to inform Commander Sandra and High Command about what happened here.”
Kim nodded her head and said, “Understood Commander.”
Daniel turned and with the Ensign supporting him entered the lift. He winced when it started moving as it sent ripples of pain through his side. He sighed, as he hated visiting the sick bay. The sooner he was treated the sooner he could return to his duties.
