Escape Velocity

"There's a football sim on at eighteen-hundred… you gonna be there?" Lt. Alexander, the watch officer, said and hung new postings on the board. Alexander was from Coventry, England.

"Depends on who's playing, sir."

"Lufthansa at DC United for control of the Atlantic Conference." Alexander said. Miller sipped at his cup and nodded.

"Sounds good," Miller said. "Save me a seat in front of the big screen and put fifty on DC United, would you sir?"

"Right."

Miller offers a coffee-cup salute and moved back towards his station, cringing when he donned his headset again, the irritating alert tone was peeping.

"Why does this always happen on my watch?" He said quietly to himself as he lowered the volume and checked his display. A solo contact had tripped the same sensor buoys that 5 Kreigsmarine had, then another, then two more, then a dozen more. As he watched, the display continued to fill. Other sensor buoys were being triggered now as the contacts closed on the station. The computer logged over two hundred signals.

"Watch officer to station twelve. Watch officer to station twelve." Miller called hoarsely into his boom-mike, his mouth very dry, his heart stuttering in his chest as each scanner sweep traced more contacts. He gulped down insta-caff and runs the SARS. The analysis came back as "Unknown Parameters/Signal Unidentified."

"What have you got, Miller?" Alexander said as he arrived at Miller's shoulder.

"I don't know, sir. I… I just don't know. Look at all… there's so…" Miller said and let his voice trail off in disbelief. The number of contacts has risen to three-hundred. Alexander gasped as he examined the display.

"What are those?"

"The SARS couldn't tell, sir. Whatever they are, they're closing on the station at fifty k.p.s."

"That's not Task Force Romeo is it?" Alexander said hesitantly. Miller, fixed on the screen, shook his head and pointed out a second, much smaller group of signals approaching the station from the opposite side.

"No sir, that's Task Force Romeo," Miller said and began a second check for errors. "We registered a power spike and then these just came out of nowhere."

"Could they be sensor echoes?" Alexander said. "The EuroCons are supposed to have a jammer that creates sensor echos like that."

"Maybe, but I don't think that these are sensor echoes, sir." Miller said, then started in his chair as the alarm went off again. The feed from one sensor buoy was lost, then the whole outer-line went down. The last data packet they received indicated that the buoys had been vaporized, heated by some force to temperatures exceeding that of a star. The power spikes recorded before demise registered energy levels far above those suitable for weapons use.

"Red alert." Alexander called and punched a code into the tele-com next to Miller's console. The klaxon began sounding a second later.

"Admiral Rivera."

"This is operations control, sir. We have a situation." Alexander said as Miller switched to the feed from the station radar. The only signals displayed were those from friendly vessels. The battleship USS Republic had been on stand-by alert and was already moving away from her mooring.

"What the hell is going on down there?"

"We're tracking upwards of three-hundred contacts, sir, and we just lost the outer DEWS line. Confidence is high." Alexander said, his anxiousness making him trip over words.

"Contact," Miller called out loudly. "Signal characteristics consistent with Eurocon type-twenty ECM array. Positive match… ninety-four percent."

"Damn them. I'll be right down. How much time do we have?" Admiral Rivera said from his office above them and rose from his chair.

"Ninety minutes, sir," Alexander said. "They're heading straight for us. The last active sweep taken before they started jamming logged plus three hundred returns."

"Battle stations," Riviera said as the main lights went out. The ones that were on started flashing red. "Sortie the fleet."

"Sir, what about Task Group Romeo?" Alexander said and let his eyes drop to the icons for the approaching supply convoy. "If we shut down the beacon…"

"Shut down the beacon, Lieutenant. Full alert," The station commander interrupted him. "And make contact with Task Group Romeo immediately. They'll have to be diverted. Packet all available data and get it on a drone for Earth."

"Sir, USS Republic reporting in… they underway and moving to the rendezvous point," Another operator called. "They request instructions."

"Set rendezvous point at defense platform Alpha and start getting the guns warmed up," Riviera said and wiped away the single bead of sweat that moved out of his hairline. "Remove safety interlocks from all torpedoes. Noone is to engage until my signal... all commands respond."

"Courier away, sir."

***