The Ocoda Chronicles Book 1 Paladin Read online

  Bach levitates over Caleb, creating many tentacle like appendages, which he uses to touch Caleb. The room lights go dark, and then return brighter, as Caleb’s body hovers with Bach.

  After some three minutes pass, Caleb’s body lowers back to the anti-grav stretcher.

  Bach then speaks telepathically to everyone, "I will need a genetically compatible human to transplant Paladin into. I can repair Paladin during the transfer, which will only take a brief moment, but I can’t repair Caleb. Not while Paladin is still a part of him."

  White asks, "Can you use me?"

  Bach hastily creates a tentacle of energy. It shoots across the room where it touches White ever so gently, and then vanishes.

  "No." Bach replies, "The subject must be a relative, brother or a sister, or a…"

  "Daughter?” Qui Shi shocked interrupts.

  In an instant Bach creates a tentacle that reaches in the blink of an eye to Carla’s head, it touches her before she can react, then just as quickly, it vanishes.

  Bach says, "She is compatible, although she is very young, Paladin will be able to operate within her. However, she will not be able to access all the powers Caleb has."

  White overwhelmed asks, "Will the Paladin ship operate with her, like it did with Caleb?"

  Bach replies, "Yes, Paladin, as you call him should be able operate the ship with her."

  Shi Reies asks, "How long will Paladin have to stay in Carla?"

  Bach replies, "I will not know until I remove Paladin to see the extent of the damage to Caleb."

  Qui Shi now very concerned asks, "Caleb could feel pain when Paladin was damaged, will she feel that same pain?"

  Bach replies, "I believe she will. They will be able to share everything."

  Qui Shi says, "No! I can’t allow it. She has been through too much."

  Onatof asks, "Is there no alternative?"

  Bach replies, "Paladin is genetically coded to Caleb’s D.N.A., so unless there is another family member present. Then there is no alternative."

  Just then over the com, "Commander White respond!" It is Colonel Jackson.

  White responds, "Go ahead, Colonel."

  "Commander.” Jackson replies, "We are running out of time. Parts of the ship are reverting into the USS Massachusetts. Val is reporting that the power core is beginning to shut down, and if that happens we are all done."

  Benton then looks over at Qui Shi, and says, "If I could take her place Doc, I would, but she is the only one who can do this. Don’t make me force this decision Doc. It’s hard enough now."

  Qui Shi leans over to talk to Carla, asking, "Carla, do you want to help your dad? It might hurt."

  Carla shakes her head yes, and she runs to her father.

  Bach creates two tentacles of energy and touches both of them. Then there is a bright blue light, which emits from all three of them. The process takes no more than two minutes.

  Bach then speaks, "I have repaired the altered programming in Paladin. It does appear that the X’ena’s feared that you might use the device for evil or self-destructive purposes, so after you defeated the T-Challa, Paladin as you call him had a fail-safe to break down. However, it seems they didn’t realize the fragile nature of the human body. Let alone that you would try and use Paladin to save my people."

  Carla jumps around laughing like a child of her age should. She smiles, and laughs like none have ever seen her do in the many months she has been onboard.

  Shi Reies surprised, asks, "Is the little one ok? Never have I seen her react like this."

  Bach replies, "I can read her mind as easily as I can read yours. She is quite well, Commander Shi Reies. Paladin has restored her mind, and blocked the painful memories of her trauma. She has been returned to the innocence that she once had, long before the T-Challa attack. However, she still will not speak. Something is blocking even Paladin‘s ability to see into that part of her mind. All he can do is block that pain from her mind."

  Qui Shi goes to Caleb and starts to check his vitals.

  Panicked, she yells, "He isn’t breathing! He doesn’t have a pulse!"

  Bach quickly touches Caleb, and he begins to breathe again, as his pulse returns.

  Then Bach says, "The damage is very extensive. How he survived so long in such a state is utterly amazing. We will need to place his body in this chamber immediately and for some time it appears. This chamber will repair his body."

  White anxious asks, "How long will it take before you can restore Paladin back into him sir? We kinda have a huge T-Challa armada chasing after us."

  Bach quickly goes to the wall of the room and touches it, as a holomap of the solar system appears. The holomap encompasses the entire room.

  Bach shocked replies, "You don’t have enough time. They will be here in less than an hour, and his internal damage will take at least five days to heal."

  White’s mouth drops open in total disbelief, as he quickly grabs his com and says, "Colonel, sir."

  Jackson replies, "Go ahead Commander, just make it good news."

  White says, "Sir, we had to transfer Paladin to the little girl. Caleb is out of commission for now sir. The alien X’ena called Bach has helped us and repaired the Paladin programming. He believes that Carla can repower Paladin, and sir, according to his scans the T-Challa are less than an hour away."

  The com is silent for almost a minute, when finally, Jackson replies, "Commander, we will discuss your command decisions later, for now just get Paladin back here! We are starting to lose the ship."

  White looks to Qui Shi, stating, "Doc, you, and Onatof stay with the Marines, Benton, and Shi Reies, you’re with me. We need to get back to the ship now, before we don’t have a ship."

  The men rush back to the shaft. Shi Reies holds a very playful Carla. Thankfully, with the lower gravity, they quickly climb back to the top racing back to Cavalier. White spools up Cavalier as the ship is quickly lifted back up to the hangar above.

  Ten minutes later, they land back in Paladins hangar. The moment Cavalier touches down the ship comes back to life.

  Paladin comes over the com, "Paladin systems rebooting, time to restoration fifteen minutes."

  Jackson stands, as the Bridge crew cheers. "Paladin?” Jackson yells over the elated crew, asking, "What is our status?"

  Paladin responds in a very cheerful voice, "Hello Colonel, I’ve uncloaked, and have begun repowering most systems. We will be fully operational in fourteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds."

  Kitanna looks over to Anders and says, "Is it me, or does Paladin seem very happy?"

  Anders frowning says, "Yeah, almost like a kid going out to play."

  Kitanna shocked quickly turns to Jackson reporting, "Colonel! The T-Challa fleet, I can see them on the scope now, they’re four Dreadnought class ships, twenty Heavy class cruiser, and six Medium cruisers. They're starting to flank this system, and they’re heavily scanning the moon and us. I am sure they have detected the X'ena's base."

  "Klaus!” Jackson orders, "Get us out of here, take us into extreme range of their fleet, and keep us there. Anders, don’t wait for my orders, you fire the second you get a lock.” Jackson looks to Cooley and asks, "Lieutenant Cooley, do you have the jammer device working?"

  Cooley smiles, and says, "Yes sir, it should jam all their short range communications, but not until they enter the solar system."

  A few minutes later, White and Shi Reies arrive on the Bridge with Carla, who is happily skipping and laughing. Her actions shock most of the crew, who have never seen her smile, let alone laugh ever since she came aboard.

  "Commander!” Jackson yells, asking, "What the hell happened down there?"

  White replies, "Well, sir, it’s like this. We found this Bach person, and the only way to save Caleb and Paladin was, well was too… Was too put Paladin into Carla sir… It has something to do with her genetic code matching Caleb‘s, it gets kind of confusing from that point on sir."

  Jackson angrily asks, "What happens if this
ship is damaged? Does the little girl suffer the pain as Caleb did?"

  White replies, "Sir, Bach wasn’t sure how long Paladin was going to need to stay in her, but yes sir, Bach believes she will, and before you ask. No, sir, there was no alternative."

  Jackson slams his fist down, and says, "Ok White, we’ll talk later, Paladin I want to know what you know right now."

  Paladin responds in a scolded voice, "Yes Colonel… I’m sorry…. What do you want to know?"

  Jackson raises his eyebrow and asks, "What’s wrong with you? What is the effect of the melding with Carla?" Damn, he is even more childlike than before.

  Paladin replies, "Colonel, the ship will respond as it always has, although it is very confusing to deal with the mind of a small child. Nevertheless, I don’t know of any negative effects of our melding as of yet, as of now, there is a seventy percent chance Carla will feel pain if the ship is damaged."

  Jackson sighs as he sits down, as he looks at Carla. He stands back up frustrated, saying, "Klaus, I’m counting on you to keep us out of their weapons range. Anders, don’t waste your time on my orders to fire, you fire everything we have at anything that gets across your firing arc.” This is going to be hard enough to deal with.

  Klaus hastily takes Paladin out of orbit, heading towards the approaching fleet at flank sublight speed.

  Eleven minutes later, Jackson says, "Cooley, activate the jammer now, let’s take every advantage we can get."

  Cooley activates the jammer. Moments later, the incoming fleet stops.

  Kitanna, surprised, says, "Colonel, they seem confused, their ships are not in any formation."

  Jackson hopeful yells, "Don’t wait for an invitation Klaus, get us in there now!"

  Klaus moves the ship into extreme weapons range, setting up for a broad firing arc.

  Anders locks onto four Heavy cruisers at the edge of his weapons range.

  He fires all nine Heavy, and twelve Medium plasma cannons. With twenty torpedoes set for maximum yield at the four closest Heavy cruisers. The cruisers scramble in all directions, but without communications and being so close several hit each other, causing moderate damage.

  However, for the four Heavy cruisers Anders targeted. They have no chance.

  Unaware yet of Paladins extended range, the T-Challa shields are devastated as the plasma charges rip through them.

  Anders has since learned to group his shots from the previous battles. He has increased his proficiency in destroying the T-Challa ships by locking onto the weaker sections of their shields, and with Paladins Heavy plasma charges, he can disable them much quicker. This allows for Paladins remaining Medium plasma charges easy targets to finish off.

  The four Heavies explode. However, the T-Challa fleet easily shoots down the entire torpedo volley, due to the great distance.

  The T-Challa are now in total panic. They move erratically trying to get out of weapons range, still colliding into each other.

  Unable to communicate, the ships cannot coordinate any formation, or effective counter attack.

  Anders grins, as he takes aim at three more Heavy cruisers, and one Dreadnought, currently at the edge of their range. He fires all the plasma cannons and twelve torpedoes, focusing all the Heavy plasma cannons on the three Heavies. He connects with all three Heavies. They lose shields, and take moderate damage. However, when the twelve Medium plasma cannons rip into the damaged Heavies hulls it destroys one, and cripple the other two Heavies, and of the twelve torpedoes fired at the Dreadnought, only four hit damaging its shields.

  Anders yells, "This is like shooting ducks in a barrel!"

  Kitanna says to Anders, "Glad you're having fun Scott, but it’s almost impossible to keep track of all of them."

  Anders locks all weapons on the same Dreadnought, and fires again. All weapons focused on it, as the Dreadnought tries to maneuver out of the way of the plasma charges, but its immense size makes it too difficult. The Dreadnought is hit brutally hard, as all the plasma charges hit their mark as targeted. Because of the Dreadnoughts extreme maneuver, it is unable to shoot down a single torpedo. The Dreadnought splits apart in a massive explosion. Debris scatters across the battlefield.

  Kitanna says, "We have ships moving in all directions trying to get out of our range, it’s hard to track them. They’re moving too erratically."

  "Wait!” Kitanna suddenly yells, "We have two more Dreadnoughts moving at us at flank speed. Their range is very close to ours!"

  Jackson disappointed yells, "Lieutenant Cohen, I told you to keep your attention on all those ships!” Damn it girl, you’re better than that.

  Kitanna replies, "Sorry Colonel, they’re just too many. I won’t let it happen again, sir."

  Anders turns the guns on the first of the approaching Dreadnoughts, firing all guns at the ship.

  The Dreadnought turns hard, but it is far too large to move fast enough as all Paladins guns hit dead on, followed by twelve torpedoes. The Dreadnought loses shields and takes heavy damage. However, it just keeps moving, blocking Anders ability to lock on to the second Dreadnought, which follows closely behind.

  Jackson, noticing the tactic, yells, "Anders, that Dreadnought is sacrificing itself to allow the other to fire on us!"

  Anders irritated replies, "I can see that, sir."

  Anders then locks onto the damaged Dreadnought, and is easily able to destroy it. However, the second Dreadnought is now able to get into weapons range. It fires with its longest ranged weapons.

  Klaus pushes the inertial dampers to their limits, as he moves Paladin hard astern, and at flank speed. Of the forty plasma charges fired by the Dreadnought, most dissipate, having reached their range limit. However, seven make contact.

  Paladin announces, "Shields down to eighty-five percent."

  Anders incensed, locks onto the Dreadnought returning fire with six Heavy and twelve Medium plasma charges, followed by fourteen torpedoes at maximum yield. They hit their mark, damaging the Dreadnought. Its shields gone and several decks ripped open to space, even with half her guns disabled, the Dreadnought still charges ahead at flank speed.

  Kitanna then calls out, "They're scattering. We have fourteen ships heading to the moon, sir, one Dreadnought, six Medium cruisers and seven Heavy cruisers. We still have that damaged Dreadnought coming right at us. Its forward weapons are fully charged."

  Anders aims all weapons on the approaching Dreadnought.

  Kitanna yells again, "We have three more Heavies now moving astern. They will be in their range in thirty seconds."

  The three Heavy cruisers start to circle behind Paladin, but Anders locks onto them with the aft Heavy and six Medium plasma cannons, and aft torpedoes.

  Anders fires in all directions, targeting the Dreadnought and the Heavies simultaneously. He launches his frontal assault against the Dreadnought, which surprisingly jumps into hyperspace, avoiding the plasma charges and torpedoes.

  However, the three Heavy cruisers that were trying to circle to Paladins stern are not so lucky. They are all hit by a full volley of Heavy and Medium plasma charges as well as six torpedoes, suffering heavy damage.

  Klaus shocked stands up and yells, "Where the hell did it go?"

  Paladin responds, "The damaged Dreadnought made a small hyperjump, it is currently on the far side of the solar system. It is an extremely risky maneuver, which is not often used by the T-Challa. This Dreadnought will more than likely jump back in just a moment."

  Jackson annoyed, yells out, "Klaus! Get us after those ships heading to the moon now."

  Klaus brings the ship around, as Anders locks onto the three damaged Heavies on Paladins stern, he finishes the Heavies off easily placing his shots at their energy core, a moment later, they explode. Anders slams his fist on his control panel and yells in joy. "Hell Yeah!"

  Klaus turns the ship, and moves at flank speed towards the ships heading to the moon. The first ship they reach is the slower Dreadnought. Anders locks on all guns, and prepares to fire, when Kitanna
yells out, "We have an incoming ship from hyperspace, and it’s that other Dreadnought."

  Paladin, who is still is dealing with the blending of a child, says, "I told ya so, but no one wants to listen to me."

  Jackson eyes go wide hearing the childish response from Paladin. Ok, this is an issue.

  The Dreadnought appears right behind Paladin, as all its remaining weapons are fully charged. The Dreadnought immediately fires at Paladin.

  Klaus maneuvers Paladin hard to port, swinging the ship harder than ever before, almost one hundred eighty degrees, now facing the incoming Dreadnought. Unfortunately, several shots hit Paladin.

  The mighty Paladin Battleship shudders at the impact.

  Paladin calls out, "Shields down to sixty-one percent."

  Kitanna Yells, "The other Dreadnought is turning, and they're charging weapons."

  Jackson smiles, stating, "They think they have us, Mr. Anders. Please show them the error of their ways."

  Anders grins from ear to ear, as he fires all of Paladins guns and torpedoes at the already damaged Dreadnought. At such a close range, the Dreadnought has no chance to avoid the plasma charges, its shields already down from the previous attack thus allowing for maximum effect. A direct impact of the six Heavy and twelve Medium plasma charges, followed by twelve torpedoes, all hit the Dreadnought dead on. The Dreadnought explodes. Unfortunately, the shock wave from such close proximity does damage to Paladin’s shields.

  Paladin calls out, "Shields are down to fifty-eight percent."

  The other Dreadnought now in weapons range fires. Klaus has no chance to maneuver having to hold Paladin steady for Anders to destroy the first Dreadnought. The Dreadnoughts plasma charges hit Paladin hard, rocking the ship to its very core.

  Paladin announces, "Shields are down to four percent. We have lost shield emitters on six sections, minor damage to the hull, the hull is intact though, no breaches."