The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict Read Free

shorter and thinner than most, around 15 centimeters (6”) shorter than the average human female.
    Solarians were generally the exception to the pronunciation rule because their names were pronounceable by both the Altians and the Advranki. Therefore, Ella was her actual name, not a combination of letters.
    Since she looked busy, Captain Solear decided not to bother her. He then reconsidered and said, “Ella, can you tell me the weapons status?”
    After a moment’s hesitation, Ella replied, “The ion cannon is fully charged and all 10 missile bays report ready to fire. All 20 fighters are fueled and ready for launch.”
    The ion cannon is the ship’s primary offensive weapon. The weapon is huge – the muzzle runs from the stern to the stem of the ship. It fires a concentrated beam of light so powerful that one blast will destroy an enemy’s shields and knock out main power. A fully shielded ship would be rendered unprotected and unable to move. A partially shielded ship would be disintegrated.
    The main drawback to the cannon is that it requires a tremendous amount of energy to fire. Sunflower will only get one shot during this engagement because it takes four hours for the batteries to recharge. Further, the ion cannon shares energy reserves with the hyperspace drive. If the ion cannon is fired , Sunflower will be stranded in this system; unable to jump to hyperspace until the energy reserves are recharged.
    The information about the fighters should have come from the commander, but he had already exited the bridge. Solear was pleased that Ella had realized this and commented, “Thanks Ella, nice job including an update on the fighters. How are the shields?”
    The shields were at full strength. The Captain could easily see the status from his command chair. However, it was the most subtle way he could find to remind Ella that a shield status should be included in the weapon status.
    Ella replied, “98.8%.” The percentage was announced and understood as measure of strength; but it was also technically a measure of efficiency and an inverse measure of volume. The higher the percent of shield strength meant that the coverage envelope around the ship was smaller. A smaller envelope provided a better barrier against missile attack.
    The enemy reply came back in exactly 15 minutes and was not helpful. The enemy had stated that the Opron system was recently annexed by the Hiriculans and that the Hiriculan ambassador at Advranki Prime had filed all necessary paperwork. Therefore, this was Hiriculan space until the binding arbitration panel reviewed and ruled on the application. The fact that the paperwork violated the treaty and would be summarily rejected by the panel was omitted from the response.
    “The enemy is changing speed and bearing,” exclaimed Clowy.
    The Captain barked, “Computer, analysis.”
    …The enemy fleet is increasing to a speed of .05 light and is adjusting course. The ships will curve toward and then away from us on an elliptical plane. Time to intercept is 18 minutes…
    “The enemy has outmaneuvered us,” said Arean.
    “True,” said Captain Solear. “Options anyone?”
    The enemy’s curved flight path meant that they will shrink the missile engagement envelope to only a few seconds and will stay completely out of ion cannon range. Each group will only get one missile volley before the ships are out of effective, powered missile range. However, the Alliance fleet has to fire its missiles in the next few moments to hit the enemy ships while the enemy could wait another 4 minutes before firing. The log will show that the Alliance fired first and the Hiriculan fleet had no choice but to defend itself.
    Solear could order his fleet to begin chasing the enemy to increase the weapons engagement window and bring the ion cannons back into range. However, the enemy could simply increase speed as well. With the enemy’s initial velocity advantage, his fleet would not catch them. He decided not to