Unity

Chapter 22

"Direct all fighters to take a defensive stance around the Unity." I ordered. "Gunners, provide support fire as necessary." The enemy fighters were about half the size of ours, but despite their advantage in size, they were outclassed by our pilots.

"Sir, all hostile ships destroyed," reported Lt. John Young. Lt. Young was a tall blond, blue eyed American. He was second shift's navigations officer.

"Have the fighters sweep the wreckage," I commanded. "Make sure there are no surprises waiting for us."

"Admiral, there is a large fleet leaving the second planet in this system and they are headed our way," reported Lt. Sanchez.

"How long until they get here?" I asked.

"At current speeds, about an hour," she answered.

"Communications, open a fleet wide channel for me. I want everyone to hear what I'm about to say," I ordered. I took a minute to consider what I was going to say as I opened the line. "Attention all personnel, this morning we were attacked by Chaos fighters. They launched missiles at us, and the destruction of the missiles resulted in our engines transporting us to an unknown area. Shortly after arrival, we were met by an alien vessel. We were instructed to have Admiral Jones meet the other ship's commander to have a peaceful discussion. They deceived us, and Admiral Jones is dead."

I paused for a moment to let the news sink in. "We retaliated against the enemy craft and avenged Admiral Jones' death, but now it appears that a large fleet is headed towards our position from one of the nearby planets. I'm not sure how this is going to play out, but if it results in a fight, we will show them that they messed with the wrong fleet. All ships, prepare to fight." I ended the transmission.

The satisfaction of avenging Jen and Admiral Jones quickly left and was replaced by an empty feeling. I looked around the bridge. Everyone here had known Jen and Admiral Jones well and I could feel the pain they were going through. I got their attention and said, "This is where the loss is felt the hardest. We were all close to those we have just lost." I almost lost my composure. I had to take a steadying breath before continuing. "They have now been avenged. Our job now is to make sure that we don't lose any more friends. Wait until the enemy fleet is about twenty minutes away before launching our fleet. Let's give them a little surprise."

I walked over to the communications station. "Lt. Sanchez, I want you to help me prepare a message for the incoming fleet. Inform them that we were fired upon first, and defended ourselves. We don't want to start another fight. Let's see if we can still end this peacefully." With the message sent, there was nothing we could do but wait. Once the incoming fleet was twenty minutes away, our ships began launching. It still impressed me how quickly such a large fleet could organize. I'm sure that the incoming vessels were even more impressed.

"Sir, enemy ships are slowing down," reported Lt. Young.

"Tell our ships not to engage until I give the order," I commanded.

Lt. Sanchez said, "Sir, I think we have an incoming message. It'll take me a few minutes to decode."

"Isn't it in the same format as the last ship?" I asked.

"The last ship transmitted using the same method we used to transmit. It made receiving and decoding it easier." She replied.

"Let me know when you have something," I said.

Several minutes later Lt. Sanchez said, "I think I got it sir. It's not in any language I have ever seen. Without some sort of reference, there is no way we can translate this."

Just then, somebody walked onto the bridge. He was older with salt and pepper hair. He stood about my height. He walked over and introduced himself. "Dr. Thompson," he said with a heavy British accent.