Soul of the Vautour

About 32 million Alurans did not survive the Supernova in
Tanmenus. Do not look for a system called Tanmenus in the
Archive's starmaps. Even if past generations did not erase
it intently from every map in the Archive, those maps have
originated in the Human homeworld, Earth. As such, if it was
not deleted, you would find Tanmenus under the human name of
Pavonis Beta. As I was saying, about 32 million Alurans were
killed in that calamity. It could have been much worse,
though. Much worse. When that red giant Tanmenus had for a
star started destabilizing and accelerated towards doom, we
were not prepared. Each and every scientific research
assured us that Tanmenus Prime had at least 500,000 years
left before going nova. We didn't have much time, my young
friend - It took but a month since the first ultra-strong
solar flare and all the way to the day of doom. Tanmenus was
largely populated planet. There were around 150 million
Alurans there. You raise a brow, my friend. How can 150
million Alurans be considered a large population, when
rumors of human worlds crawling with tens of billions of
humans have reached your ears, you ask. Do not forget, my
friend, that the Aluran race has never been as reproductive
as the humans. After all, that is exactly the reason to our
agreement with the Human summit of United Nations, a reason
which led to natural cross-breeding - Our hope to increase
Aluran fertility by incorporating human genes has indeed met
with some success before Tanmenus went nova but it would
take generations to truly see the swelling of Aluran ranks.
But leave it be. There were 150 million Alurans there and
about a couple of thousands of other sentients - mainly
diplomats from other friendly races. It didn't take long
after the first ultra-flare to realize what was going on.
Emergency Voidcomm messages went to any and all who would
listen and come to our aid. The first to arrive were Aluran
ships of course but soon after, every friendly race sent any
and all ships except the ones that were necessary for
guarding other worlds were immediately sent to help in the
evacuation of Tanmenus. Besides the Tasali Crusade, it was
the only time I saw fleets of Aluran, Tasali, ZOGian and
Human ships operate in such complete synchronization for a
unified goal. There were many types of civilian and military
ships there - freighters's storage cabins were hastily
modified with life support systems, carriers left their
fighters at starbases and used the hangers to crowd up more
people. Hell, the humans even managed to successfully divide
an oil tanker to four different 'floors' and load it with
around 15 thousand survivors. And of course, the last
valiant rescue vessel, descending towards the planet but a
few hours before the cataclysm, was the aging, obsolete
Battlecruiser - the Vautour. Ah yes. The French called the
ship after an ancient atmospheric fighter used before
humanity has even made it to it's homeworld's moon. When she
was built, their union of separate nations was still fresh
and instead of enjoying standard-issue designations of
standard-issue ships, each nation designed, produced and
finally christened its own ships to fly for the union. At
the time of her christening, the Vautour was the second
largest ship in the Human fleet. Equipped with ancient
gas-propellant system engines, projectile cannons and
primitive missiles, she was a huge, squat, ugly brute that
had absolutely nothing in common with later Gunship designs
such as the HSS 'Mobile Bay' class that would enter service
about ten years later. Of course, along its 47 years in
service the Vautour was modified and refitted a dozen times,
to keep her up to par with modern technology such as
Zogium-based Thrusters and Deflector shields but all in all
she remained one of the largest and by far the ugliest
ship in the fleet. Rumors spread in the human fleet that
being posted onboard the Vautour was done as punishment.
While nothing but a wild rumor at first, human Fleet Command
decided to use it for all it was worth. Troublesome officers
and soldiers would be sent for a 'Short tour of duty',
spending one or two months onboard the Vautour.
Surprisingly, sometimes after such a tour of duty, some
would actually request to stay onboard the Vautour. While
most of the roster being very fluid, the Vautour did collect
herself a strong core of men and women who actually
preferred serving onboard that ugly, uncomfortable dinosaur.
As I said, the Vautour was last ship to descend into the
planet. Being far away from any base when the distress calls
were issued it took half a month for the Vautour to reach
the Vela IX system, unload any unnecessary equipment and
then nearly as much to void into Tanmenus. In Vela, the
captain gave the crew a precise prediction of how dangerous
the rescue mission would be and how little time the Vautour
would have to fill up every available space with refugees.
He allowed any soldier or officer who did not wish to
volunteer to this possible suicide mission to remain on
Vela. Needless to say, the Vautour voided out of Vela with
not a man more than its core crew. They were steel-hard,
those crewmembers, hardened by years of service and valuable
due to their long experience and their intimate knowledge of
their aging ship. Each and every one of them has elected to
stay onboard the Vautour after a punishment tour. As I said,
by the time the Vautour voided-in, there were no more than
12 hours left before cataclysm. A human admiral who directed
the human efforts from a small frigate overpacked with
refugees forbade the Vautour from descending, stating that
it has absolutely no chance. But the crew - valiant and also
with a rich record of misconducts and small disobediences -
disobeyed his order and the Vautour descended into the
atmosphere.

''Descent speed: 13,000 Clicks, Altitude: 150,000 feet''
reported Ship Navigator Rigsby.
''Heat-Deflector Shield active and steady'' reported
Tactical Officer Rajhami. It was a very important matter
indeed. The Vautour was built before ZOGian force-field
technology was fully integrated into human voidships and the
Deflector/Heat-Deflector shields were a late addition to the
French battleship. Once, while in descent into the newly
colonized Procyon IV, the Heat-Deflector Shield failed and
only the decaying original heat-resistant coating saved the
Vautour from incineration.
''Time to landing?'' asked Captain Benjamin Pirx.
''17 minutes, sir'' said Rigsby.
''Proceed,'' said Pirx.

Ten minutes later, their destination was already in
telescope-range. Pirx, Rajhami and practically every crew
member not on immediate duty were watching the screens. The
spaceport was packed with masses of blue-skinned Alurans and
outside, spanning a radius of nearly ten clicks, has turned
virtually overnight to a huge city of tents and encampments.

''I smell troubles captain,'' said Gunnery officer Parker.
The black-haired woman's steel eyes looked worried,
distraught.
''You mean?'' said Captain Pirx, even though he knew exactly
what she meant.
''I mean, sir, that with the bloody sun going nova in just a
few hours, those poor bastards would be clawing and killing
for a niche in the ship, even if it means they'd be forced
to crawl straight into the Time-warp Facilitator itself and
risk Degenerate-matter exposure. Can the shields deflect
them?''.
''Of course they can, Parker,'' barked Rajhami, ''but how
are we going to get people inside the ship with the shields
on?''
''Listen, Raj!'' Parker growled, ''I know that just like you
but they may become so desperate as to attack the ship just
'cause they ain't got no place on it. Sort of 'If I die, why
should I care if you live?' sort of thing''.
''Both of you calm down,'' ordered the captain, ''we have
assurances from port authorities that everything's under
control. Since the port personnel and whatever Guardia
forces are down there have all volunteered to stay behind
even as the last ship takes off, I suppose they will take
care of things for us. Now lets all get to the entrance.
Landing is in one minute. We'll group them in the loading
bay. Each group of fifty will be assigned a crew member to
show them to their places. After escorting a group, each
crewmember is to return to the loading bay to get another
group. We're not moving from here until every inch of free
space is packed with an inch of blue skin. No. Two inches of
blue skin. Clear?''.
A choir of 'Yes sir' acknowledgements followed as the crew
of the Vautour followed the captain towards the loading bay.


As the loading bay's door slowly opened, the crew watched
for signs of trouble. Surprisingly, there were no Guardia
forces to wall between the ship and the masses. At first,
the humans expected the desperate masses to charge the ship
like a mighty tidal wave. But to their surprise, the masses
of doomed Alurans, only hours away from their inevitable
death, watched the ship solemnly, nearly stoically.  Nobody
moved. Nobody raised a hand, called out or anything.
Instead, they settled in a column, and went forth, one by
one, in a perfect, stoic, orderly march. Even as death
approached them, the Alurans of Tanmenus kept to their
cultured behavior. One by one they climbed the broad
gangway, grouping at the crew's instructions, following
obediently. Pirx watched the other Alurans who stood
outside, simply watching their friends climbing into safety.
No one rushed, no one tried to push or bribe or cheat
himself a place in the never ending column. Even at the face
of imminent death, the Alurans remained loyal to their
cultural heritage.

The ship was near full when the first sign of the final
meltdown was detected. Tanmenus prime released a dozen of
its Ultra-flares in mere seconds. Following a month of
bombardment in those super-sized solar flares, the first few
blinding several hundreds of thousands of Alurans, the
habitants of Tanmenus knew better than to even glance
upwards. The human crew was instructed to keep their eyes
low and all ships in space had hastily installed shutters on
all windows. But the mass of Ultra-flares forced everyone
into a feat of hysteric communications. The conclusion was
quite clear: Tanmenus Prime was going to go nova really
soon. Frantic messages were sent practically everywhere,
first and foremost to the Comm post onboard the Vautour's
bridge.

''Captain,'' Rajhami called out, ''we received an urgent
message from Fleet Command onboard the HSS Niven. The Star's
going critical. We are ordered to evac! Now!''.
''How far is the star from here?'' asked Captain Pirx.
''14.5 Light minutes, sir'' said nav-officer Rigsby,
anticipating his captain's next command ''Worst case
scenario, we'll have a warning of about an hour before the
shockwave turns this planet to cosmic dust''.
''Well,'' Pirx considered this, ''continue loading
passengers''.
''Sir,'' Rajhami insisted, ''with all due respect-''
''Enough!'' snapped Pirx, ''as long as we have room, we're
not leaving. That is an order!''.
''Yes sir'' Rajhami stretched to attention, saluted and
finally sighed. ''requesting permission to make prelaunch
procedures though, sir,'' he said.
''Do it,'' nodded Pirx.
''And our reply to their order?'' asked Rajhami.
''Tell them to stick it,'' said Pirx, ''in a diplomatic
manner''.

Within Tanmenus Prime, chain-reactions started nearly a
month before were now coming to their critical stage.
Farseeing telescopes onboard the orbiting ships recorded
numerous flares, explosions and then, suddenly, complete
inactivity. After about ten seconds of this sudden
inactivity, the whole planet erupted, burning every optical
fiber turned towards it. Tanmenus Prime went supernova.

Even before the loss of their telescopes, ships around
Tanmenus knew that this was it. All but one - the highly
advanced human science vessel HSS Pratchet - instantly
turned and sped out of orbit, warning the planet, the fleets
and the universe in general that it's time to get the hell
out. Pratchet remained in outer-orbit, where it will wait,
learn, record and analyze what was going on up until
quarter-an-hour before the shockwave reached the planet. It
was a rare chance to study this stellar phenomenon and
nobody wanted to miss it. Even as the Pratchet would speed
up and void away to safety, two unmanned live-transmitting
probes would remain behind, studying up to the moment the
shockwave would reach and destroy them.

The last warning sent the Vautour's crew into a frenzy of
loading. They called out orders, forcing the Alurans to
advance faster up the gangway. The ship was really packed by
then. At Vela IX, all four escape pods were moved and hasty
seals attached to free more room. Now all four niches were
packed. The armory and magazine were full as well -
shell-packs unloaded to leave more room, leaving the ship
with nothing to reload its guns and launchers in case of an
attack. The command bridge itself was packed full and on
every bunk lay four or five Alurans, preferring the
temporary discomfort of laying one atop the other in order
to free just a wee bit more space.
''Sir!'' called Rajhami, ''the star's gone nova! We have to
take off now''.
''No!'' cried Pirx, ''we can still pack another dozen or
so!''.
''Sir,'' Gunnery officer Parker caught the captain's arm,
''it doesn't matter any more, sir! If we don't take off now,
then those dozen more and all the Alurans on board are
doomed too''.
Pirx looked at her, looked outside, at the desperate eyes of
hundreds of thousands of Alurans and then back at her.
''Attention Vautour,'' the Comm rang, ''this is Port Manager
and colony-leader in-chief Pandoni. Take off. Save the ones
you've got. We appreciate your efforts here, Vautour. Thank
you. From the bottom of our hearts. Now GO!''
Captain Pirx took one last glance at the masses of doomed
Alurans. He turned back and shouted, ''Close the Loading
bay! Nav! Take us out of here! Now!''.

Ascent from a planet is always slower than descending into
it. For something as big and heavy as the Vautour, even
Zogium thrusters could do little to speed up the process of
breaking free from the planet's gravity. She pulled free of
the atmosphere just in time to see the HSS Pratchet wheeling
around and voiding away.
''We don't have much time,'' called Rajhami, ''the shockwave
is at telescope range! I'm switching to main screen''.
On the main screen, the horrendous footage of the advancing
shockwave - mere minutes away - was visible as a slight
disruption in space, outlined by bits of dust. The crew
stared, horrified, at the cosmic tidal wave, big enough to
shatter planets and powerful enough to grind them into
molecules of dust.
''Nav!'' cried captain Pirx, ''set coordinates to...
whatever star-system you can find! This thing is coming
really fast!''.
''I'll do my best sir!'' replied Rigsby, ''but there seems
to be a problem! Sir! The ripples are making it hard on the
computer to locate our exact location. Without that, any
calculation is no more than a guess and any voiding can
easily send us through to the end of the galaxy, to Earth,
to ZOG or to a point in time-space when no sentient race
exists''.
''You have to try!'' said Pirx, ''come on Jim! Try!''.
''Failure!'' said Rigsby. He typed some orders and
''Failure!''.
''Come on!'' said captain Pirx.
''The bloody computer can't make it. It tries but the
distortion is too big for it'' said Rigsby.
''One minute to shockwave impact!'' cried Rajhami.
''Come on,'' said Pirx, his tone turning to the universe at
general, ''come on Vautour! You got us through that mess
with the Gashian fleet! You got us through the bloody
crusade! You got us through that bombardment around Zeta
Persei! You can do it, girl!''
''45 seconds to impact''.
''Come on Vautour. Get us out of here baby''.
''Wait, I think it got it!''
''Yes! I knew you can do it girl!''
''30 seconds to impact!''.
''Current location calculated and verified!''
''Take us out of here, Vautour. Any place is better!''.
''Triangulation complete. Picking destination in
time-space!''.
''Do it! Do it!''.
''15 seconds!''
''Come on Vautour, do it!''.
''10 seconds''
''Location calculated!''
''8 seconds!''
''Triangulating!''
''...5...''
''Do it girl!''
''...4...''
''Triangulation successful''
''...3...''
''Now, do it now!''
''...2...''
''Let's go!''
''...1''

The shockwave washed over the planet, eradicating everything
in its path. The valiant efforts saved approximately 118
million Alurans before the planet was destroyed. However,
Neither Earth or ZOG, Tasalus or Alura One, nobody has
ever seen the valiant Vautour, a ship who's core crew were
stern, valiant, unbreakable humans, who truly believed that
their ship possessed a soul.


Ehud Gat, Friday, April 22nd - Monday, April 25, 2005