The Ocoda Chronicles Book 1 Paladin Read online

He looks at Qui Shi, who is wide-eyed, stating, "Caleb, your side is bleeding, should you be doing this?"

  Caleb says, "I’ll be fine, it will heal when the ship is repaired.” I hope.

  Qui Shi checks over the man Caleb has healed, and says, "Well, it seems your healing ability is working properly, he will be fine now. I’ll try and stabilize the other patient myself."

  Caleb, sternly asks, "Where is the other patient you need help with Doc?"

  Qui Shi reluctantly answers, "We have a lot of broken bones. We can handle that, but I have one here with severe spinal injuries, he may even be paralyzed. We have him stabilized. Perhaps we should wait for you to heal first. I would really prefer if you would wait Admiral."

  Caleb, sternly repeats himself, "Where is he?" She’s trying to protect me.

  Qui Shi frowns, bringing Caleb to the injured crewmember. He is sedated, and on a ventilator.

  Caleb leans over the patient, and once again begins to heal the crewman, a deep glow of blue engulf both as Caleb begins to collapse as the pain rips into him. Damn it, this hurts like hell. My healing ability is really taxed when the ship is damaged. He was in rougher shape than the first sailor was.

  Paladin responds telepathically, "Well, Cale, if I could feel pain directly as you do, I’m sure I could sympathize with you. However, I can’t, the ship is severely damaged, and you're pushing not only yourself, but the ship too."

  Caleb replies, "Ok friend, I get the message, I’ll slow it down a notch or two."

  He turns to Qui Shi, and says, "He was in pretty serious condition too Doctor, but he’ll be fine now, I’ll be heading to the engine room. Call me if there is anything else you need."

  Qui Shi says, "I have people down there Caleb, there are no serious injuries we can’t handle down there."

  "I know Doctor.” Caleb replies, "I am going to see if I can help get the hyperdrive online."

  Meanwhile, back on the Bridge, Colonel Jackson has his own problems.

  "Klaus!” Jackson yells, "Get us in there closer, I don’t want to give off any energy readings."

  Klaus replies, "Yes sir, closing within one hundred meters."

  Kitanna says, "Colonel, they're doing deep, detailed scans of the debris field,"

  Jackson cautiously asks, "What do you have for readings of the area?"

  Kitanna replies, "There is not much left sir, that blast virtually vaporized everything."

  Jackson says, "Keep light scans only on that Super Dreadnought. Get any and all the information on it that you can.” Come on Val get those engines up.

  Kitanna turns, and replies, "Yes Colonel."

  Jackson asks Cooley, "Lieutenant Cooley, that jammer thing we have can you use it to monitor their communications without being detected?"

  Cooley replies, "Only on ship to ship, Colonel, I would need much more power for anything long distance, which would definitely be detected. I will also need to hook it up directly to Paladin so it can be translated."

  Jackson says, “Get on it then.” Jackson then looks to Benton, who is standing next to Shi Reies and says, "Colonel, have your Marines report to damage control. See what they can do to help."

  Benton looks to Jackson in disbelief and asks, "Damage control sir? What the hell, we’re warriors, not the janitors."

  Colonel Jackson unamused looks at Benton. He just stares at the Lieutenant Colonel. Gabriel you had better not give me any flak on this.

  Benton sighs, then grabs his com and says, "Ok you jar heads, everyone report and assist the damage control teams now."

  Benton leaves the Bridge to assist his Marines saying to himself and anyone within earshot, "A friggin janitor, oh what the hell!"

  Back in the engine room. "Grab that power conduit before it makes contact with the deck plating!” Val yells. A deck hand quickly grabs the loose power conduit with a safety grappler. The engine room is in complete disheveled shape. Everything has been thrown from one end to the other.

  Caleb enters, asking, "Val, what’s the status?"

  Val replies, "Well, we’re in rough shape Cale. We took the brunt of the stress from the blast down here, and it knocked everything all over the place, but I should have everything up and running within the hour."

  Caleb replies, asking, "Val we may not have that long. What do you need to get it done sooner?"

  Val looks around, saying, "If I take some of the damage control teams off the other decks, I can get the hyperdrive up in thirty, maybe fifteen minutes."

  Caleb, confident says, "Then do it.” Come on Val, I know you can do this.

  "Cale I have some more bad news," Val says, "About twelve of the emitters are damaged. I will need to take them down to repair them."

  Caleb, concerned asks, "What about the cloak?" Damn, if we lose our cloak we’re all done for.

  Val frowns, saying, "Well, I can extend the cloak from the other emitters, but we will be much easier to see by their sensors should they scan our area."

  Onatof says, "We built a replacement emitter just in case this occurred. We will use it by installing it in place of one of the damaged emitters then we will take the emitter into engineering and repair it, continuing the process until all twelve have been replaced."

  Caleb asks, "How long should the entire process take?"

  Val looks to Onatof and Bach, then turns to Caleb and says, "Depending on the amount of damage each took, we could be talking a few days at most."

  Bach says, "T-Challa sensors are based on three-thousand-year-old X’ena technology. They are not very sophisticated compared to Paladins. If we cut all non-essential power, and limit movement on the ship we should be able to succeed."

  Caleb says, "I guess Carla will have a very quiet birthday party. Start repairs on the emitters the moment we have hyperdrive back online."

  Caleb returns to the Bridge, in just a few minutes, "Colonel, inform the crew we will be running silent for the next few days, and absolutely no unnecessary movement until further notice."

  Jackson concerned asks, "What is going on Cale?” Please have good news.

  "We should have hyperdrive up in a few minutes, but we have a dozen damaged emitters." Caleb pauses, as he reflects, "It's going to take a few days during which time we could be detected if we make too much commotion."

  Jackson sighs, saying to himself, "That’s not good news."

  Twenty-two minutes later, Val calls over the com, "Hyperdrive is operational. We're going to start removing the first of the emitters."

  Jackson says to Klaus, "Be ready to go to hyperspace, match speed, and course with the Super Dreadnought."

  Several minutes later, Kitanna reports, "They're moving back into formation."

  Cooley says, "Sorry Colonel, I still haven’t been able to get their communication device to pick up any transmissions yet."

  Another nine minutes pass when Kitanna says, "I’m picking up increased power readings in their engines. They should be going into hyperspace any moment."

  Klaus states, "Matching speed and velocity."

  All four ships move into hyperspace. Klaus maintains an exceptional close distance to the Super Dreadnought.

  White amazed walks up to Klaus and asks, "Very good flying Klaus, are you ok doing this?"

  Klaus smiles and says, "When I was in the German Navy Commander, I would keep my submarine right between the screws of a mega ship, masking our location. I could do it for hours, this is very similar."

  "And how long do you think you can do this for?” White curiously asks, “I feel it will be a lot longer than a few hours."

  Klaus replies, "No need to worry Commander, once I get into position I lock the controls, and even you can fly Paladin. I only need to make minor adjustments when we exit and enter hyperspace."

  White impressed, asks, "How is it someone as young as you, gained so much skill at handling big ships like this?"

  Klaus replies, "Well sir, when I was old enough to walk my father took me to work with him, he was a harbor pilot in Germany, and by
my twelfth birthday, I was already docking mega ships, while my father watched on. I was noticed by many a Captain who witnessed how easily I could control their ships, and needless to say, all those captains sent letters of recommendation to the German naval academy, after which, I graduated top of my class, and was promoted up through the ranks very quickly."

  White smiles, "So you’re a child prodigy, how old are you anyways?"

  Klaus lowers his head, saying, "Well sir, I don’t like to discuss it, but I just turned twenty-four last week."

  White laughs, saying, "Ok Klaus, I hate birthdays too. Good job though, good job."

  Anders overhearing Klaus asks, "Hey kid, why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?"

  Klaus replies, "I didn’t picture you coming out holding my cake and singing happy birthday Commander. Besides, I didn’t want to make a big deal about it."

  Anders smiles and says, "Ok kid, point taken."

  Val calls up on the com, "We are replacing the first emitter it will take one hour to complete the process. I highly recommend all non-essential equipment, and movement should be stopped during the hour."

  Jackson replies over the com, "ATTENTION ALL CREW. WE WILL OPERATE RUN SILENT PROTOCOL UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE."

  Val and his crew remove the emitter from inside an access service corridor directly below it, cautiously lowering it into the ship using an anti-grav unit to suspend both. During the next twenty minutes, they disconnect the power conduits from the damaged unit while they attach them to the new emitter.

  Elsewhere, Onatof, and Bach, monitor the cloaking field, redistributing the power field to the other emitters to maintain the cloak as best they can. During the hour, the eleven other damaged emitters show increased stress, and signs of possible breakdown.

  "Val!” Onatof says alerted, "We have two emitters about to fail! We can’t maintain the field much longer."

  Jackson listening to the com says, "Anders, ready all the torpedoes. Klaus, prepare to take us to maximum speed."

  Jackson turns to speak with Caleb, but notices he is gone. Where the hell did he... Ahhh never mind, he probably knew before we did.

  Caleb races down to the emitter being repaired. There he sees Val, and his crew, rushing to finish the repairs. Ok, I have all this ability; I gotta be able to do something to help.

  "Val!” Caleb yells, asking, "What can I do to help?"

  Val yells back, "We need to push this back up through the access port quickly!"

  Caleb quickly grabs the huge emitter, and lifts it straight up. He begins to hover upward, pushing the heavy emitter into place. The moment it connects the emitter seals into place, and activates.

  Onatof says to Val, "Emitters online and working at one hundred percent, the rest of the emitters are back to normal for now, but we can’t do this again with those other two emitters. They can’t handle the power surge again."

  Val, thinking quickly looks at Caleb, asking, "How fast can you heal yourself Cale?"

  Caleb smirks answering, "On the ship almost instantly, off the ship, not so much, why?" Val I know you got something crazy going on in that head of yours.

  Val, deep in thought says, "Well the energy that traverses through the emitters would kill an ordinary man instantly. I’m thinking you might be able to repair the other emitter while it’s operational. I could explain what you need to do, as you are doing it."

  Caleb says, "Well, I’ll have to go on deck while the ship is in hyperspace, which can be pretty dangerous in itself Val, I’m better off going solo. You can watch from my helmets holocam."

  Paladin says, "I will have to increase the power output of the cloaking field’s deflector shield to protect you Caleb while you’re out on deck, and I can’t guarantee how long I can maintain it. The emitters are in rough shape, and should I lose containment, you will be lost in hyperspace, which would drop us out of hyperspace immediately. We could be hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, and you yourself may risk being detected by the T-Challa."

  Caleb smiles, "Piece of cake, I’ll go suit up.” Damn, I forgot about my injuries from the ship’s earlier damage. This is gonna hurt like another mule kick in the gut.

  Paladin responds telepathically, "Cale you should survive, the energy that powers me is lethal but you will survive. However, the ship is still damaged, and the pain will be intense."

  Caleb replies, "So it’s gonna hurt like hell Paladin."

  Paladin responds, "Yes, but I’m guessing you like it."

  Caleb smiles, "learning sarcasm I see.”

  Caleb goes down to the airlock, and suits up, within a few minutes he moves out of the airlock and to the first of the two most severely damaged emitters saying. "Ok Val, I’m turning on the holocam, I have the parts you gave me."

  Val concerned replies, "Be careful brother, this is very dangerous. I’m sorry for even thinking about it now."

  Paladin says, "Caleb, I have increased the cloaking fields deflector shields around the emitter. However, I can’t tell you how long I can maintain it."

  Jackson then comes over the com, "Caleb you know what happens if you’re off this ship." Damn foolish man, but I’m learning if it’s stupid and crazy then it has your name all over it.

  Caleb answers, "Yes Colonel, you should have White in Templar on standby, just in case." Cause if I screw this up, oh, boy.

  Jackson frustrated asks, "You sure you’ll be ok out there?” Like he cares.

  Caleb replies, "The cloaking field has a minor deflector built into to its design Colonel. It’s to prevent micro meteors and the like from impacting Paladin. However, it is not designed to maintain an atmosphere, or deflect weapons fire. Paladin is beefing it up as best he can, I should be fine.” I hope.

  Caleb approaches the emitter. He looks up and sees the gigantic ship of the T-Challa above him as he moves towards the emitter. He then focuses his attention on the shield emitter seeing the energy crackling around all around it.

  Val overly concerned says, "Cale! This unit looks to be in really bad shape. Those energy discharges can kill a normal man instantly, are you sure you can handle it?”

  Val says to Bach and Onatof, "Damn, I didn’t know it would be like that, this is far too dangerous."

  Caleb says, "Nag, nag, nag, I always knew it was a family trait.” If Emily were here, she would kick my ass for saying that.

  Caleb reaches the emitter, cautiously putting his hands on the service panel, the energy course through his suit, and shorts out all the electronics in it instantly, including the holocam. He stands back for a moment. Damn that has one hell of a kick.

  Val yells, "NO!"

  Bach says to Val, "Val he has the panel open, I can see what he sees, and he is fine. The energy has just shorted out the suits electronics. I will guide him through the repair."

  Caleb says to Bach, "Ok, I can see the four conduits that are ripped apart. I’m removing the first one."

  Bach says, "That’s a lot of energy Caleb, it will be painful."

  Caleb grits his teeth as the energy burns his body, destroying his suit. He rips out the first torn conduit, and puts in the replacement conduit. This hurts like hell. Damn did I really volunteer for this. Hey Caleb hold a million gigawatts of energy in your hands, am I really this stupid?

  Bach curious, asks, "Caleb, did you want me to hear that?"

  Caleb replies, "Ahhh, no, not really, just thinking to myself how stupid I’m being right now."

  Paladin announces, "Caleb the shield has no atmosphere you only have a few minutes before your oxygen is depleted."

  Caleb, realizing time is short grabs the last three torn conduits. He pulls them all out at once. The energy is extremely painful, but Caleb carries on. He pushes past the pain and races to install all three conduits, as his oxygen begins to rapidly run out. Gotta do this fast, losing my breath.

  Caleb pushes the last one into place, and closes the service hatch on the emitter. Gasping for air, he staggers to reach the airlock. Caleb then steps back, collapsi
ng on the deck, just mere feet from the airlock.

  Bach then telepathically tells everyone, "Caleb is unconscious, he has completed the repairs, but he will need someone to bring him in."

  Paladin says, "The cloaking field is holding within acceptable tolerances for now, he has successfully repaired the emitter. I can now hold the cloak for some time."

  Benton quickly races up on the airlock to get Caleb. He reaches out and catches his safety line, hastily pulling him back to the airlock.

  Benton jokingly states, "Damn, look at the big Filipino fish I caught today. Ok, come to papa, Caleb." He quickly pulls Caleb into the airlock, and closes the airlock hatch behind him.

  "Emergency atmosphere.” Paladin announces as Paladin floods the airlock with oxygen.

  Caleb coughs as he stands weakly, his body glows blue for a few moments, as he exit’s the airlock. He stands completely naked, with only his safety harness intact. His space suit was destroyed. He quickly shakes off the effects of the past few minutes, and grabs a jumpsuit hanging on the airlock rack. I really gotta stop doing stupid things like this. I’m not a superhero, just a dumb ass.

  Val rushes in as Caleb looks for shoes to put on, "Cale you crazy fool, are you ok?"

  Caleb looks at Val’s shoes and says, "Hey, it was your idea. Hmm, Val you’re a size twelve still?"

  Val laughs. "You’re ok, thank you god."

  Over the next twenty-five days that pass, all the repairs to the emitters are completed as well as the rest of Paladin, and a very special and very quiet birthday party is held for the Little Flower. Ships daily functions carry on without any incidents and Caleb’s wounds heal, as the ship is fully repaired.

  On that twenty-fifth day, Caleb, Kitanna, and Klaus, are on the Bridge, along with secondary support personnel covering for the primary crew, who are resting.

  "Ask him you crazy women.” Klaus says to Kitanna.

  Kitanna turns to Klaus, saying, "I told you no Klaus, now stop it."

  Caleb, hearing them talk telepathically asks Paladin, "What are they talking about?"

  Paladin replies telepathically, "Kitanna father suffers from an advanced form of Alzheimer’s. Klaus has been telling her to ask you for months if you can heal him when we return."