Dreadnought: Derik’s First Command

Copyright © 2022 by Wolfgang W. Ausserbauer.

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Rev. date: 07/07/2022

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MEET THE AUTHOR

DocWolf

FOREWORD

This is a science fiction story of a family of intergalactic explorers that are telepathic and endowed with supernatural powers. Derik takes command of a resurrected alien starship, the Dreadnought, and leads his small group of explorers to the Carina arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

He finds a surprise on board his ship that Vicky and Linda had left for him. However, the adventure lies in finding new civilizations and planets to colonize as they explore the Cerina arm.

INTERSTELLAR HOME FINDERS

DREADNOUGHT

https://docwolfpublishing.com

Derik’s First Command

Wolfgang W. Ausserbauer

9/23/2015

EXPLANATORY

This book is written for your enjoyment; any other interpretations are your own. The Author or Editor intends no malice. All characters are fictional and do not represent anyone living on the earth today.

I make this explanation because a reader would suppose that some characters resemble someone they may know without it.

The Author

HESPERIDES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Meet the Author

Dreadnought

Hesperides

Other books by DocWolf

CHAPTER 1

Derik’s first command

CHAPTER 2

Carina Arm

CHAPTER 3

Earth-Like?

CHAPTER 4

The River

CHAPTER 5

Site Two

CHAPTER 6

Space Pirates

CHAPTER 7

Mindy

CHAPTER 8

Visitors

CHAPTER 9

We cannot get there from here

CHAPTER 10

Food producing planet

CHAPTER 11

Eyewitnesses to piracy

CHAPTER 12

Reevaluation

CHAPTER 13

Pirate action

CHAPTER 14

Twins

CHAPTER 15

Crystal

CHAPTER 16

Chandra

CHAPTER 17

A visit to Chandra’s Castle

CHAPTER 18

Uninhabited

CHAPTER 19

A Time Away

CHAPTER 20

The sting from hell

CHAPTER 21

Almost Human

CHAPTER 22

Nothing much to do

CHAPTER 23

Giants

CHAPTER 24

Should we get involved?

CHAPTER 25

Getting involved

CHAPTER 26

Tests are conclusive

CHAPTER 27

Making a Rat squeal

CHAPTER 28

Considerations

CHAPTER 29

Is that you or your ghost

CHAPTER 30

Hitchhiker

CHAPTER 31

D4, we are leaving orbit!

CHAPTER 32

Boutique shopping

CHAPTER 33

Return to Dreadnought

CHAPTER 34

A visitor on board

CHAPTER 35

Mindy’s return

CHAPTER 36

King’s World

CHAPTER 37

Reprograming

CHAPTER 38

Turmoil

CHAPTER 39

Confrontation

CHAPTER 40

Ice Palace

CHAPTER 41

Birthday Party

CHAPTER 42

The Trog

CHAPTER 43

In and out of Med-Lab

CHAPTER 44

Castle guests

CHAPTER 45

Cloye’s abilities

CHAPTER 46

Dialog

CHAPTER 47

Space station

CHAPTER 48

Planetfall

CHAPTER 49

The search for Nadia’s origin

Additional Characters List

Dreadnought II

The search for Nadia’s home

OTHER BOOKS BY DOCWOLF

Available in online stores

Interstellar Home Finders,

Hugo Series

Hugo 1

Hugo 2

Hugo 3

Hugo 4

Hugo 5

Hugo 6

Dreadnought Series

Dreadnought I

Dreadnought II

Dreadnought III

Dreadnought IV

Dreadnought V

Dreadnought VI

Intrepid Series

The Reluctant Queen

The Little People

Winners and Losers

A Step Forward

A New Start

Ability Trials

The Adventurer Series

Captain Lowis Story

The Search for Tony

The Finding of Lucious

Finding Our Way

New Beginnings Romance Series

Stepping Out

Reflections of love

The Structure of Life

Writer Series

Writer

Writer II

Writer and the Novelist

The Galant painter

CHAPTER 1

Derik’s first command

Derik addresses DeDerik, his dragon, and the second in command on the new ship, the Dreadnought; Chandra, my Father, and Linda stuffed so many upgrades into this hull that I have no idea what this ship has all under its skin. Of course, that does not include the changes Doc already had made on my behalf.

However, our first transitional jump will be to the outer side of the Carina arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. That will be a little over a kiloparsec from Crystal and towards the galactic core.

I have already given the coordinates to D4; that is the new crystalline computer Chandra installed into the Dreadnought for me. The D4 is as powerful as Doc and Chandra herself; they were not cheap on the upgrades for this refurbished ship. The entire hull is refitted with smart metal and programmed by D4, into a three-layered construction, with a passageway between the layers for maintenance. I am trying to impress you with DeDerik that we are in the safest spaceship that my Father and Chandra could construct. However, I am quite confident that glitches will come up with so many innovations that they through into this hull. The Dreadnought does not even resemble the old ship they extracted from the silo from the echinoderm planet.

I am familiar with what was done to this ship Derik; Doc gave me a complete download of all the innovations and functions before departing from Crystal-Eaton space. D4 has a list of everything incorporated into the ship; it might be worth taking a few minutes in the learning library before we run into one of those glitches you mentioned. Some of the innovations are so new that Doc had to review them several times before fully understanding their function. The hull has over a thousand configurations. I still do not fully understand how D4 can change the configuration of the hull and not affect the inner structure or function of the Dreadnought.

I will go to my ready room and let D4 give me a rundown on the essential functions; maybe he can shed some light on your concerns. In the meantime, we will be cruising out of the system for a few more hours before we attempt a transitional jump. I am always concerned about jumping a large ship like this due to the large vacuum in space it leaves behind.

D4 is DeDerik feeling well; his voice sounds somehow strained to me as if his vocal cords have pulled tighter.

I cannot say that I have Derik. However, this is a first for him, being the first officer on a starship, and the transformation to a Felis may have something to do with it.

I will give you the manifest of the Dreadnought first; then, you can select what you would like more detailed information. Like hull configuration, I listened while you and DeDerik were discussing the matter.

Sitting behind his desk and looking at the large wall screen, Derik asks, Split the monitor screen, with the manifest list on the right and the explanation on the left. I can see now how this will take some time to work through. How many items are on the manifest list?

Over ten-thousand if you count the specialty nuts and bolts. Remember, you started with an alien spaceship. Their tooling was set up on a base five numbering system, and their meter was five centimeters longer than the one your Father brought from earth. Every fitting had to be specially cut; that is why so many Sandys worked on this ship. The good news is that Chandra let you keep half the Sandys that were sent out. We, therefore, have a better crew of worker androids than Hugo.

D4 cut the manifest down to the essentials pertaining to the safety of the ship; I do not need to know where every nut and bolt goes right now. Just give me a general overview of everything we have.

I see we have a fully staffed med-lab aboard; I guess Linda must have thought I might get sick or injured; it has her seal on the installation order. Do you know anything about that, DeDerik?

No Captain; however, Vicky installed it herself to ensure it was all in working order. She even had a crystalline mainframe installed for the copy of Doctor Simon and Sandy as his avatar. The avatar will maintain the entire med-lab facility. Linda even brought in four multifunctional recovery tanks that can grow or re-grow a single cell body. That is why they took blood samples from us when we came back on board the ship.

I was wondering about that; another concern was how long you could hold the Felis form?

From twelve to twenty-four hours or until I go to sleep. That is why I have a state suite converted for my sleep chamber. It would not do well to sleep as a Felis in a small room and transform into my dragon form before I awoke. Furthermore, two transformed dragons into Felis, in a Felis-sized bed-chamber, transform back into their dragon form during the heat of passion. Not a pleasant thought if you follow my drift.

D4, do you monitor all of my thoughts or just my telepathic conversations?

I try to leave your private thought to yourself, Captain; they become overwhelming even for me; I can, however, make an effort if you like to keep a record.

That is ok, D4; I was just wondering how deep our connective link was. -- The manifest list shows we have quite an array of offensive weaponry aboard this Dreadnought. Did my Father think we were going to war?

You know your Father; if one is good, three is even better.

Chandra must have imparted that thought about him to you. However, the manifest records that after I asked Father for a consignment of smart-metal, which I got from Kar Khanwn, Chandra went back and sequestered three times as much. So, now, according to the manifest, we have four times as much smart metal as the Dreadnought requires. That is how you can have over a thousand different hull configurations without affecting the inner structure of the ship. -- DeDerik, were you listening?

Yes, Captain, I understand now how so many different hull configurations are possible. He does not use the internal structural metal for hull reconfiguration.

D4 does not say here on the manifest where the extra metal is stored.

There is no particular storage consignment for the smart-metal because it is all part of the nosecone of the Dreadnought and only comes into play during hull reconfiguration or if we run into an asteroid shower at sub-light speeds. It is the best static barrier against subatomic particles Chandra has ever found. That is also why the vaults that house the crystalline mainframes are now made of that same metal. They are formed from the indestructible metal, from Linda’s planet, into atomic-sized octagonal shields that overlap like dragon’s scales. With several layers of this crystalline skin, not even a quark fired from a laser cannon can penetrate through the layers.

D4, can I have a private telepathic channel with you?

Yes, DeDerik, everyone has a private telepathic channel with me unless you open the channel for the ship’s company.

No, you misunderstood D4. It is me, Cloye; I do not want the Captain to know about me until I join my body once it is fully grown and comes out of the regeneration tank. I thought Linda explained the situation to you when she had the tanks delivered with the med-lab.

She just said that one of the tanks had an ongoing project, which Doctor Simon was conducting privately, and that De Derik had an ethereal rider. May I presume you are the ethereal rider, Cloye?

Yes, D4; however, the Captain is not to know that I am here until the time is right. My body is being grown from one of Linda’s donated cells, in one of those tanks, which Vicky installed, with the med-lab. It takes some time to grow a body from a single cell, and I will not join it for at least six months. I just wanted you to know that I am here and will be part of the crew when the time comes.

What is in the other three regeneration units?

Two tanks are empty, and the third holds one of Hesperides eggs in stasis for me. Linda wanted to make sure I had a dragon of my own so that the problem that occurred with Olga would not happen to me. For reference D4, check Doc’s data file, Hugo 6, Olga’s pregnancy. All the family biologicals require a dragon to reproduce. You will also find the food supplements for the dragons in the med-lab’s medical supplies. Finally, you had better go through Doc’s records, Hugo one through six, to better understand why Derik was given this ship. He will have to become acquainted with many abilities, some of which he will develop before I join my new body, which probably slipped Doc’s and Linda’s minds. Furthermore, he only scored seventh during the abilities games, and they only tested him on the basics.

The Captain was an engineer in the drive development laboratory on Eaton from the time he was cloned from Erik and Eaton was established. His abilities development was stunted because he channeled his mind into developing the new drives and singularity power plants that are in use now and power this ship. I have been watching him for a long time, D4. I am pointing this out because you will have to deal with developing these new abilities before I help him. He was one of the first two cloned from a single cell.

I wondered why he was so hard to read at times; his mind is much regimented and does not allow a free scanning. Even being linked does not give me access to all of his memories. Everything in his mind is compartmentalized or walled off. -- Get yourself ready, Cloye, for the transitional jump. We will be jumping just as soon as I can finish organizing the additional Sandy androids we have aboard. It would not do, breaking or damaging one during our first transition. --

TRANSITION TO THE CARINA ARM IN TWO MINUTES.

Thank you for the warning, D4. Can I work on the manifest during the transition? On the other hand, do I need to climb into an acceleration tank?

Let us be safe on this first transition, Captain, and make yourself comfortable in your acceleration tank. That manifest will wait; we have a long journey. Besides, I can send the manifest to your tank viewer. So, -- DeDerik to your stateroom and transform into your dragon for this first transitional jump.

Stations crew and report.

All stations are crewed and ready for the transitional jump, the lead android in the Captain’s chair reports.

Transitioning.

Was there a malfunction D4? Did I feel no movement or a transitional shift?

No, Derik, we have completed the jump. If you look at the viewer, it will confirm we are at our new location. We did not even experience a time shift. However, looking back at the stars in our arm of the galaxy, they look as they did thirty years ago. It takes the light from our arm’s stars that long to get here. I will have to take those readings into consideration when we return.

D4, just a thought, if we jumped back now, would we get their thirty years before we left?

No Derik, because the light was already in motion coming here when we left, and time would seem to compress on our return trip. As the stars in this arm are thirty years older than what we saw from our side.

D4, did I ever mention that the fluid in these acceleration tanks leaves a bad taste in my mouth? Derik coughs as he expels the remaining fluid from his lungs.

These deficiencies cannot be remedied. Your biologicals have such fragile bodies, and the tanks are one method to preserve them during high acceleration. Maybe you could teach yourself to put your body into a stasis field as the dragons do.

D4, he cannot transform into a dragon yet; I explained that the Captain’s abilities were stunted.

Sorry Cloye, it slipped my mind.

What was that, Derik asks. I keep on hearing undirected voices in my head.

It was nothing, Captain; it was just an errant thought that slipped; it is sometimes difficult to keep the directed android conversations from slipping out to your telepathic channel.

CHAPTER 2

Carina Arm

Did you sleep well, DeDerik? We are at the outer portion of Carina’s arm and are adjacent to the earth’s sun. DeDerik hears as he walks onto the bridge.

Thank you, D4, for inquiring, transforming, and transitioning saps the energy out of even a young dragon like me. I find a sustaining meal and a couple of hours’ rest quite restoring.

Since I have you on a private channel DeDerik, how do I tell whom I am speaking to, you or Cloye?

I have a masculine voice, whereas Cloye has a feminine voice, does that help, even though they both emanate from the same body.

I have emulated DeDerik’s voice patterns to hide my existence from the Captain.

It is not so much the body that the telepathic voice comes from that distinguishes the person, but the frequency and modulation of the voice patterns. You and Cloye sound the same to me.

I am sure you can deal with the duality for a little bit of time longer, D4, while my body is growing in the med-lab’s multipurpose regeneration tank.

The Captain will be on the bridge shortly. He is just getting out of the acceleration tank. It always takes some time for biologicals to clear the tank fluid out of their lungs.

By the way, minutes after our arrival, the doorway to the Crystal system activated. We had a couple of visitors. Linda and Vicky came through and went straight to the med lab. After another couple of minutes came back through without saying a word. I have no idea what that was all about and refrained from asking because they have the highest clearance aboard any ship.

Captain on the bridge, D4 announces.

Did I hear D4 correctly; we had two of the highest-ranking Queens aboard the Dreadnought. Furthermore, you did not make a general announcement.

Yes, Captain, I am aware protocol calls for a general announcement whenever a high-ranking official comes aboard; however, no one was present. To whom to announce to, as you were in the acceleration tank and DeDerik was still in stasis.

What were they doing here?

As I was just telling DeDerik, they did not say they went directly to the med-lab and spoke to Doctor Simon. I felt it was not my prerogative to question two high-ranking Queens.

I will check with Doctor Simon; however, in the future, you question anyone that comes aboard my ship no matter their rank or station. My family is not exempt.

As Wayne steps through the doorway onto the Dreadnought, Derik says, Hi, Dad, what brings you out here?

I brought you a security update for your computer; Vicky and Linda walked onto your bridge without being challenged. They thought it strange not being acknowledged when even a house computer would challenge anyone