Chapter 20

In preparing for battle, I have always found plans to be useless, but planning is indispensable.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

It was quite an impressive ship, thought John as he wandered the immense silvery grey corridors of the Independence. He had never been aboard a Juggernaut before. Except for the crew, the construction crew, a few pilots here and there, and a few senators and other political leaders, only a small fraction of humans has ever been aboard one. ‘This truly is a sight to see,’ John thought. With only five Juggernauts ever built, and all five still currently in service, they are humanity’s single most exceptional engineering and architectural achievement. The ships are so colossal; they are one of the few structures that are required to be constructed in space. Although the WarpStar was constructed in the Utopia Planitia Shipyards above Mars, the ship itself could have been built in one of the many Earth or Mars-based Shipyards then launched into space under her own power once construction was completed. Juggernauts, however, are so enormous no landmass could spare the room. The Independence herself is roughly the size of North America.

“Sir,” a WarpStar junior officer saluted John as he was admiring the vast ship, breaking his daze. “Corporal,” replied John as he saluted back.

John held his salute as Admiral Briggs walked straight towards him, stopping and returning his salute.

“John,” Briggs dropped his formal greeting and started walking. “Walk with me,” Briggs said, confusing John, as he was unable to determine if this was a friendly request or an order from a superior officer. It did not matter to John; he had much respect for the navy rear admiral. He tagged alongside Briggs while admiring the beauty of the metal beast of a ship.

“This is one impressive ship you got here, sir,” John humbly spoke.

Without even replying and stopping dead in his tracks, Admiral Briggs changed the subject before it was started.

“What the hell was that?”

“Sir?” John replied, confusion washing over him as the admiral stunned him.

“First, we don’t hear from you for weeks. Orion Colony reports you have not reported in. We go on a seven-week wild goose chase, find this strange planet, where we lost two of our Valkyrie pilots, then we get attacked out of the blue by two unknown hostiles, who just so happen to know where our shield generators are, and lose the Hope. Then you come out of nowhere, on the eleventh hour, to save the day?”

A sense of dread and sadness came over John, upon hearing the news of the Hope being lost.

“Sir, it is a long story, one that I would prefer to tell during debriefing.”

John still had no idea what transpired, what caused the crash, who created the cascade failure that brought them out of F.T.L. The admiral wanted answers, the kind of solutions John was unable to provide at that moment.

“It doesn’t matter right now. Your new orders came in.” Briggs handed a datapad to John.

“Sir? Wouldn’t orders come from your office?” The unusual orders appeared to come from a much higher office than the First Fleet, where the WarpStar is assigned.

“Good luck.” Briggs saluted as he continued his journey to the bridge.

John returned the salute and continued his walk towards a corridor filled with offices; he approached one of them, marked ‘Temporary Office for C.A.P. or Above.’ John punched in his access code and entered the office, a secured space for anyone with the rank of captain or above.

‘Why is this classified?’ John thought as he read the orders. ‘Report to Earth first possible moment?’ He knew what that meant; the WarpStar needed to embark now and head to Earth. They would be there within a matter of minutes once they engaged their Hyperdrive, it would take longer for the crew to get back to the WarpStar and prep the ship than it would travel to Earth. Since the WarpStar was under repairs for over four weeks, her Hyperdrive was fully primed and ready to jump.

John called out to the Ships Artificial Intelligence, Jarred.

“How may I help you, Captain Henderson?” the oddly human voice replied.

Artificial Intelligence has been talked about, tinkered with, attempted, and even feared since the early twentieth century. It only has come to light as an actual technological achievement in the last five years. Having a permanent A.I. on a ship, as helpful and useful as it is, is currently a rarity, as they are rather expensive to install and take a significant amount of processing power. In exception to cost, putting an A.I. on a Juggernaut is not a problem at all. With their immense size and power generation capabilities, the issue is nonexistent. Juggernauts can handle a gigantic artificial brain with ease. John wished, no he had hoped, an A.I. could be installed into WarpStar. Betsy would be a perfect fit for the agile Destroyer. He was able to program Betsy so efficiently she needed a minimal amount of processing power to run efficiently. However, it currently was not compatible with most systems onboard Federation starships, which is a problem John intended to fix.

“Can you please notify the crew of the WarpStar to report to duty stations immediately and prepare for departure?” John asked the Independence’s A.I.

“Certainty, captain, the notification has been sent. Have a nice day!”

This A.I. is too polite, John thought. He was used to the sassy, independent-minded A.I. ‘Betsy-Ross,’ which he had programmed himself.

After only a few minutes of navigating the intricate corridors of the Independence, John found himself back on the WarpStar. A welcoming sight, he thought, the luxurious military feel of the WarpStar was home to him now, a much-needed relief from the clunky, industrial feel of a naval ship.

“All hands ready for orders, sir,” Charles spoke as the captain approached the command chair and sat down.

“Excellent, Charles, let’s start release procedure and get underway.”

“Aye, sir,” Charles O’Connell replied.

The executive officer gave a few commands to the crew, commanding the ship to release its umbilical tether to the Independence, severing power, data, and supply connections as well as the walkway from the gigantic ship. Within a few minutes, the WarpStar had maneuvered away from the floating country and traveled far enough away to make the jump into Hyperspace safely.

“We have reached safe distance,” Ensign Carr reported

“Alright, start jump procedures, establish communication to the Earth Bouy, and prepare for Hyperspace Jump.”

The crew was surprised at the sudden order from their commanding officer. With the recent events that transpired, at the very least they were expecting escort duty to the Independence as she repaired and got ready for her return jump. The crew wanted to explore and learn the mysteries of the unknown world and Enki, the first alien humanity had encountered!

“Connection established, ready for jump,” Ensign Carr reported.

“Jump.” With one word, reality shifted. In the center of the F.W.S Independence, a small, blue-green dot appeared, tiny, the size of a marble. Within seconds it expanded, taking over the view, pushing the megalithic Juggernaut entirely out of reality. Within two seconds, the four-thousand-mile ship had vanished, in her place lay an even more impressive sight—the celestial object known as Earth. With one command, one word, several lines of code, several buttons pushed, The WarpStar and her crew had traveled 7.7 light years. In two seconds, they were home!