The Carlson Chronicle Chapter 1
Chapter 8

12-Mar-2329

During the last year or so, with resources flowing into Center’s holds from the star-system Amy designated New Hope, Lorelei has kept her shipyards, HER yards, busy, turning out a new ‘Spee’ class every 14 hours. So far, they had 800 built, not counting Alex’s ship. Leo, along with Jett, Flow and Val, took command of the second ship of the class, following along with the name vein, calling their ship ‘Bismarck’, and with a crew of recently freed Gideons, began patroling the TE border with Alphenshore and Taucente, two of the most populous O.C. worlds.

After slaying the Three, despite deciding that now wasn’t the time for a family, Amy went off of Trike anyway, her claiming that even in war time, families carried on, regardless of a sudden unexpected bundle of joy. Alex relented, and they spent most of their time wrapped around each other, her not believing that he or anyone else could get her pregnant. Lots of big bubbles and quite a few huge balloons met their ends during these times, and despite her inability to grasp balloon inflation (Since Magi-Bubbles don’t pop, not when a mage is blowing them up at least), knowing when to stop blowing into a balloon has always been her Achilles heal.

So, as their ship drifted along the primary shipping lane between Alphenshore and Taucente, looking for prey, the two of them, plus Ericka and Mi-lu, were thoroughly pinned to the ceiling of their quarters on a single piece bubble. Alex pulled Ericka and Mi-lu closer, kissing Ericka’s cheek, reaching over and lightly scratching Amy’s behind. She coo’ed and blew harder into her room-filler.

“Captain! We got something up here!” Elisha called over the 1mc. Looking at his current predicament however, he realized that in order to get down and dressed, he’d have to pop Amy’s bubble, and that would cause everyone to get hurt, considering the height. Scratching her butt a little more, he leaned over and gave her cheek a kiss, pulling the wad of gum from her mouth and sealing it. She moaned sadly.

“Gotta go kid. Need to get off the bubble.” She nodded, casting a simple spell, causing most of the air in the bubble to simply go somewhere else, in this case, the cargo hold. They all sank almost to the floor, the bubble collapsing.

“Gee, that was fun!” Ericka said with a grin, pulling Amy then Alex into a hug. He hugged them both, grabbed his pants, and headed for the bridge. Mi-lu helped Amy clean up the bubble, and wound up pinned with the small mage back on the ceiling seconds after Alex and Ericka left.

“Magic?!” She asked Amy. Amy smiled, pulling the slender girl closer.

Walking onto the bridge, Ericka close behind, Alex looked at the screen. On it was his last command while a fighter pilot, the carrier ‘Kitty Hawk’. It, 6) Perry class escorts, and 4) Burkhalter class destroyers were under attack by a half dozen ‘Austrian’ class heavy cruisers and over 40 Commercants. The carrier’s fighters were deployed, but the Commercant’s were fitted with point defense cannons, Flak firing shotguns, and for every freighter that was taken out, the fighters were losing 3 to 5 of their own. The Kitty Hawk’s total compliment was 60 birds, and so far, Alex had watched 15 die. As he took his seat, Ericka taking Ops as Karen took over Tactical, two of the Austrians got a solid bead on the ‘Kitty Hawk’, launching over a dozen fusion torpedoes. The carrier’s point defense cannons blazed, but 4 torps got through, detonating all along the mighty ship’s starboard side. Before anyone could react, the ship’s magazines went up, destroying the carrier and over a dozen fighters that were too close a board.

“Shit! Ericka! Light up those ‘Austrians’! Karen, raise shields, full strength!”

“Aye big brother!”

“Target locked, firing!” Ericka shouted, triggering all 6 Reflex cannons at the closer of the two ‘Austrians’. The ship exploded violently, as Karen barrel-rolled them through the fireball, Alex triggering all 6 of their Gatling grazers into the ‘Austrian’ just aft of the fireball. The pulses of gamma ray energy literally cut the ship in half, the aft section exploding a few seconds later, propelling the forward section into one of the ’Burkhalter’s, that collision destroying both craft.

Two of the heavy cruisers turned their turrets toward the ‘Spee’, firing over 2 dozen disruptors at the light cruiser. Try as she may, Karen couldn’t steer away from all of it, their ship getting struck by 8 of the beams. Their shields however, absorbed all of it, transferring the energy into holding batteries within the Fold engine, recharging the drive.

“Sorry!” She cried out, as Ericka locked up the firing cruiser, and blasting it with their Reflex guns. It simply ceased to exist in a spray of metallic mist.

The last two cruisers and 5 or 6 remaining Commercants bugged out into hyper space, the surviving destroyers giving chase.

“Ericka, scan COM frequencies, see if anyone needs a pick up.” Alex ordered.

“Aye, scanning.”

“If anyone is out there, I could use a pick up. Skies pretty this time a year.” They heard over the COM. Alex started laughing.

“Triangulate that signal!” He ordered. He was smiling.

“Want to clue us in Alex?” Karen asked.

“Unless I missed too much since I left the service, that’s my old wingman, Robert ‘Bad Ass’ Austin.”

“Really!? He’s so cool! I read about the two of you in the Times.” Karen said, smiling. Ericka simply looked confused.

“Oooook.” She said, replaceing the source of the signal. Maneuvering the ship, she locked a tractor beam onto the cockpit section of a Cutlass fighter. Within seconds it was drug into the cargo bay.

“What the hell?” Badass said as a ship hove into view above him. It was catamaran in design with a central hull section. The hull, which was black as space all around him, with only a few blinking navigation lights, appeared seamless in it’s construction, as if it were grown.

Within seconds, his cockpit was pulled into a small cargo bay, the doors closing, and the whole bay being bathed in white light. As the cockpit settled on the deck, he popped open the canopy, a pair of human women, one with curly blonde hair, the other with Asiatic features and long, straight black hair, were covering him with Kuritas. He rose slowly, stepping first onto the edge of his canopy guides, then hopping down to the deck. Turning as he heard a familiar voice, he couldn’t believe his eyes...

“Damn man, you are a sight for sore eyes!” Alex said, moving and giving his old friend a bear hug. Austin simply blinked in surprise.

“Oh my god! Alex?!” He said in shock, returning his friend’s hug.

“Where the hell am I? What is this ship?” He asked, breaking off the hug. Alex smiled.

“Welcome to the future. And to the end of Taucente’s nonsense.”

“Hey now, I’ll second that. Got any scotch on board? If not, I think my reserve bottle survived the fight.”

“Yeah, some good scotch is definitely the order of the day. At ease Misty, Mi-lu, Bad Ass here is as welcome as you two are. Come on, I’ll give you the fifty cent tour.” Alex said, leading his former wingman off, Misty and Mi-lu slinging their guns, and following them closely, just in case...

“Ok damn yas, I want some fockin’ answers! What the devil was that catamaran ship? Some secret cruiser Tiberius’ asshole friend Carlson is developing? Or did that bitch Saxon sell us down the river?” Eric Kinsman shouted at his inner circle. His exec, Kyle Danielsen, looked up from where he sat at the wardroom table.

“Boss, if I had to guess, after everything I’ve studied back on Center, the tech could come from there. I managed to sweet talk the A.I. that runs the place into letting me peek at their historical database. The weapons I saw are straight out of their archive. Something called a ‘Reflex’ cannon and a form of gamma ray laser. Way beyond even Carlson Dynamics.”

“Ok, who was it then? Why would Center be buildin’ ships to harass us? I thought we had a good relationship with her?” Kinsman asked.

“If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the son of Barnard. Alex I think his name is.”

“Bloody hell. Now we’ve got a family of ghosts to fight as well.”

“Wasn’t he supposed to go to Marrok? Be their ‘Chosen One’ or some such?” Kyle asked, finishing his scan of space all around them.

“If he was, he’s not anymore. Barnard’s ship was carved up for spare parts back on Earth in ’23. Too bad really, Barnard’s first girl was quite the cutie, if ya be likin’ kitty cat girls with mental powers. Nice tits on that one too.” Kinsman said with a grin.

“Ok, so where does that leave us? And Taucente for that matter?”

“If I had that answer, I’d be the bloody almighty.” Kinsman admitted, taking a long pull from his small flask, the amber fluid within burning his throat on the way down, he grimacing only slightly...

James read the report he was handed by his executive secretary. The loss of the ‘Kitty Hawk’ was a demoralizing blow to the people at C-D, primarily because they had built her. Even with Tri-Tach’s statement that they’d have 4 more ’Hammerfield’s by years end, the loss of a carrier would be hard to shake, and morale among the military was already at an all time low. The only bright spot, it appeared, was the intervention by an unknown third party, who had destroyed 4 of the O.C. cruisers and caused the rest to flee. Gun camera footage of the design stirred a vague memory in the elder Carlson, as he began searching through his son’s old closet of toys and games. Finding a book from a game called ‘Star Fleet Battles’, he found the ship that was shown in the footage. Tossing the book onto the table in his dining room, open to the page of the ship in question, all he could do was laugh.

“Alex, you crafty SoB. Sweet talked Lorelei into building you a new toy I see. Well then, I’ll leave the O.C.’s to you, since you seem to hate them more then I do.” He finished, taking a long pull of his now cold cup of coffee.

“Hate who more than you do?” Klaus asked, coming into the dining room at the end of James’ solo conversation. Seeing the book on the table, he turned it so he could see the design. He remembered watching Alex enjoy this game with a few of his friends back before he found Maggie. He even tried his hand at it when most of them were on holiday, and Alex was stuck at home alone. Ever the competent tactician and strategist however, Klaus’ best finish was a pyrric one, using the detonation of his ship to cripple young Alex’s.

“That ship right there beat the crap outta Eric Kinsman’s raider force. Too bad it didn’t get there before they wasted the ‘Kitty Hawk’ though.” James said, pointing to the turned open page.

“This ship you say?” Klaus said, turning to James. He slid the gun camera footage across the table to his butler of many years. Klaus’ eyebrows shot up, looking first at the photo then to the lineart diagram in the game manual.

“Amazing! You think Center is involved in this?”

“Center and my estranged son are forever linked Klaus. The A.I. that runs Center, she’s the daughter of Barnard and Claudia, and Alex’s kid sister.”

“Ahhh, that would explain this ship going from game theory to living reality.” He finished, pouring James a fresh cup of coffee and sliding the camera footage back across the table. Casting one last look at the image in the book, he chuckled softly.

James looked once more at the ship his son now commanded. A smile crept across the older man’s face. Closing the book, he thought about maybe trying to bury the hatchet with his son, and asking for his forgiveness. After feeling the death of the ‘Three’, he no longer sought out enemies, perceived or otherwise, and inwardly wondered if Alex had had his hand in that too. Looking at the cover of the book once more, the ship in question adorning said cover, he chuckled.

“The Wyn Pocket Battleship. How fitting my son. How fitting indeed...”