Oceanus

By Philip R Benge

Alun Reece is now the captain of his own small freighter, but it is not freight that Admiral Michaelson wants him to carry, no, it is an industrialist whose son has been kidnapped and Alun has been contracted to find and rescue him. Unfortunately, this journey takes him outside of the Solar System and in to a series of adventures, both in space and under waves of the planet Oceanus, with the risk of death always present, for him, his crew and the people on Oceanus. It cumulated in a battle against two evil enemies, with the outcome loaded dangerously against him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip R Benge
• Release date: Feb 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463010037

Philip R Benge

Like most of the world, I had to work hard to pay my mortgage and all the other bills, which meant that I only had the time and the energy to write some short stories. I finally found the time and the energy to write some full length Science Fiction stories.

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Oceanus

A Story By

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

***************

Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Oceanus

Copyright Philip R Benge 2021

Copyright Art courtesy of NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author`s imagination and used fictitiously.

Oceanus

Contents

Prologue

Chapter one: Kidnapped

Chapter Two: Captain Alun Reece

Chapter Three: Oceanus

Chapter Four: The Airaloovik

Chapter Five: The Valhallans

Chapter Six: Cronus

Other Books by the Author

Prologue

The Titan civilisation was militant in its approach to life and it showed when it first came in to contact with the civilisation of Earth. It was in the middle of the 24th century, on Earth, and because the technology of Earth was ahead of its own and the space fleet of Earth was more powerful than their own fleet, the Titans allowed their feelings of anger and jealousy to fester and grow. They imagined that the planets colonised by Earth were greener, with plenty of water, minerals and all ready for immediate large-scale cultivation.

The Titans looked very similar to humans and so they were able to send agents to Earth to spy on the planet’s technological advances. The Titans did differ in their looks though, in some ways, the males had a narrow mane of hair that ran all the way down their backs, while the females had multicoloured cheeks that changed in the shade of the colour to match their emotions.

Finally, the Titans were presented with a way to alter the situation to their advantage and without resorting to battle, well not immediately. They learned about the most eminent of human scientists, Professor Reynard, and his research in to defence shields for use on moons, asteroids and especially on starships. These were to be stronger defence shields than used at the time and would be effective for a longer period against either powerful plasma bolts coming from a plasma cannon or small space rocks. They decided to kidnapped him and force him to work for them, he was to be brought to their home planet Titania, there his research would be completed and then their space fleet would be fitted out with the new defence shields. They could then go to war with their victory assured, giving them dominance in this part of the galaxy.

Chapter One

Kidnapped

The supply-ship, Sirius Star, was on its regular run between Earth and the space stations in the Sol solar system, it had a small crew of six men. This consisted of its captain, who was currently on the vessel’s small bridge, one junior officer in charge of the second watch and four other crewmen. One was the chief engineer, the other three men split their time between engineering, damage control and finally their cargo, two of these men assisting the captain during the loading and unloading of their cargo. The vessel had just passed the asteroid belt and was due at its next port of call, the Einstein space station, in just under six hours. It was one of four space stations either in orbit around the planet Jupiter, or one of its retinue of moons. It was a research station; however, the other three space stations were mainly concerned with mining the moons of Jupiter.

A small starship, the Centauri Express, was moving in the same direction as the supply-ship, but it was moving at a faster speed, and as it approached the supply ship, the bridge crew aboard the Centauri Express became very active. The vessel was in fact a Q-ship, it looked just like a small freighter but had the speed and armament of a fast attack vessel.

Aboard the supply-ship, its captain, Jules Dillon, was studying the approaching vessel with concern. He knew that it could not be a pirate vessel, such things this near to Earth were a thing of the distant past, however, he was concerned that if it came any nearer then it could collide with his own vessel, causing unknown amounts of damage and even deaths. He decided to call the approaching vessel, just in case their sensors were faulty and they had not seen his vessel.

This is the supply-ship Sirius Star calling the approaching cargo vessel on course for the planet Jupiter, please veer away, your vessel is on a collision course with this vessel.

He followed this message by sending the approaching vessel the precise position in space of the Sirius Star. When the Titan vessel did not respond to the call, Dillon’s anxiety grew and he prepared to alter the course of his vessel, should the errant vessel come any nearer to his own vessel. Aboard the Titan vessel its captain, Zaro Margolin, chose this moment to act.

Demi-Major, power up the electrical deactivation weapon, and target the supply-vessel. Captain Margolin ordered in his usual calm baritone voice.

Powering up the electrical deactivation weapon Captain and targeting the supply-vessel. Demi-Major Arcturus replied. His voice coming complete with his clipped accent that denoted his family’s rank back on the planet Titania, which was home to the Titan civilisation.

Their vessel was in fact part of the Titan space fleet, it had merely used the name Centauri Express, a now defunct space freighter of Earth, as cover. Ten seconds later Arcturus told his captain.

The weapon is fully charged Captain.

Activate the weapon as soon as we are in range Demi-Major.

Seconds later and Arcturus pressed the computer touch-screen monitor in front of him and a soft hum was heard on the bridge of the Titan vessel. A stream of electricity shot from the weapon, the EDW, the stream of electricity carried something extra, computer controlled nano particles. The stream appearing to be almost alive as it surged across the relatively small gap. When it reached the supply-ship, it pushed past the light force field designed to keep micro meteorites at bay, rippled along the vessel’s hull, completely covering it and knocking out the vessel’s sensors, communications array and exterior cameras. It also followed the wires from the hardware down through the hull of the supply ship and in to the electrical circuitry room, blowing the fuses that linked the hardware to the vessel’s power supply. Then the sound of it stopped, for the Titans had only sent a small burst of electricity across, just enough to suit their current requirements.

Aboard the Sirius Star, the crackle of electricity permutated through the twin hull of the vessel and in to the living space within. Hearing it, Captain Dillon first felt anxious, but this turned to fear when an alarm on the bridge told him that their sensors had ceased to work, that they were travelling blind. He pressed the alarm app on his computer monitor and a computerised voice was heard all over the ship.

Emergency, emergency, will all crew members report to their damage control stations.

This loud message was repeated constantly and it got everybody’s attention, finally, the constant noise got too much for Dillon and he turned it off. Dillon now called his chief engineer on the intercom; he was answered immediately as his engineer had been about to call him.

Chief, whatever caused that crackling noise, it just took out our sensors, Dillon said and then added. And Chief, a vessel was closing upon our position fast, unless you can explain our loss of sensors, it is possible that we are under attack.

It sounded much like electricity Captain, maybe that is all it is, a short somewhere. As for the possibility of pirates Captain, that is ridiculous, they would not dare to operate this close to Earth.

Whatever the cause Chief, we must finish with our engine and hold our position, for to proceed blind risks our lives and those of anyone unlucky enough to be in our way. Dillon replied just a little put out at his engineer’s repudiation of his own statement.

You’re right Captain, I will power down our engine and then look in to the problem of our sensors.

The junior engineer had just rushed in to the engine room and asked anxiously what was the trouble and when told, he waited for the Chief to tell what was required of him. On the small bridge, the junior bridge officer also reported for duty, while the other two crewmen called the bridge on the intercom and requested information about what was happening. Dillon let his junior officer answer the call, he had decided to leave the bridge in the care of his junior officer who had already brough the Sirius Star to a halt using their retro-rockets and thrusters. He walked past the galley, the emergency airlock, the small clinic and along to the engineering department to help his two engineers to restore the downed systems before their technical problems worsened.

Aboard the alien vessel, Margolin brought his vessel alongside the Sirius Star and sent across a docking tube. It attached itself softly around the vessel’s emergency airlock situated aft of the vessels bridge and galley, the sound going almost unnoticed by the captain and chief engineer who had other things to think about, it was ignored by the remainder of the crew. An armed boarding party numbering twenty crew members prepared to move across the narrow gap between the two airlocks, an air of excitement ran through them, not one of fear, for their victim was but an unarmed merchantman. Arcturus led the party across to the supply ship’s airlock, once there he opened it, two minutes later and they were standing within the upper deck passageway within the Sirius Star. Arcturus looked across at one of his junior officers and then at a sergeant.

You know your orders men, the hold and engineering are your targets, but watch out for any crewmen out of place, they may well be looking to repair the electrical faults that we caused.

Understood, Demi-Major. They replied together and then moved off towards their target areas and the Sirius Star crew who were unaware of the danger that they would soon be facing.

The first team led by Sergeant Baal had meant to check the crew’s quarters and then the main hold, but they came face to face with two unsuspecting crew members on the steps leading up from the vessel’s accommodation area. The two crewmen had been walking up to their damage control stations, the bridge, where they would await orders. On seeing the Titans and assuming that they were pirates, they froze instantly and were incapable of even uttering a single word or movement. Baal had three of his team march them up to the emergency airlock while he and the other three members of his team continued their search for any other members of the crew within this area of the vessel.

The second team, led by Lieutenant Reaux, found the two ship’s engineers, plus the captain, in the electrical circuitry room, they were repairing components that had been fused by the EDW, saving the Titans time, for they would need to repair the damage done by their weapon before the supply vessel would be able to continue on its way to the space station. The two engineers and the captain looked up in surprise, then fear entered their hearts, which faded when they were not immediately killed. They too were taken back to the main airlock by three of the Titans while Reaux led the remainder of his team towards the bridge in case they were needed.

Arcturus had led five crew members along to the small bridge, they had burst in on the junior officer who was blissfully unaware of any immediate danger, even though an alarm light was flashing that indicated that the exterior door of the main airlock had been opened, followed by the interior door. Arcturus, mistook him for the captain.

Captain, you are our prisoner, if you do not resist then you will soon be set free and your ship returned to you, for we only need to borrow it for a short time.

The junior officer did not correct his captor, he was too busy looking at the five plasma pistols pointing his way. He realised that he had no option other than to yield to his captors, which he quickly did. However, he did wonder just what sort of pirates they were who would promise to return a vessel once they had captured it.

With the vessel in his hands, Arcturus had the crew taken aboard the Centauri Express and locked