The Short End: Broken Galaxy Book Four

by Phil Huddleston

  Probably has his feet up watching the battle on a monitor in his suite, with a glass of wine in his hand.

  I just hope I get that bastard in my sights someday.

  With a near-silent sigh that only Captain Bekerose heard, she let the thought go and re-focused her attention on the battle.

  Her commanders seemed to have things well in hand. This was the third raid in three months - they were getting plenty of practice.

  But the Ashkelon are getting plenty of practice too. They’re learning our formations, the exact limitations of our weapons, our fighter tactics - this is not good.

  Of course, the game worked both ways. Rita had sent two raids against Ridendo, chipping away at their defenses. One of the raids had even managed to get a destroyer inside their outer line of defense. The destroyer managed to fire a spread of missiles at their orbital docks. Although two missiles penetrated the point-defense systems on the docks, little damage was done. None of the cruisers or battlecruisers in Zukra’s docks appeared to have taken much damage.

  But the symbolic value of the attack had cheered the fleet. So far, Zukra had never managed to penetrate her outer line of defense and had not managed a single hit on any of her capital ships.

  But in the last few months Rita had lost two dozen fighters and one destroyer in Zukra’s raids. The war of attrition went against them - Zukra could build ships and fighters faster than Earth.

  And he knows it, that bastard.

  Rita heaved another near-silent sigh.

  If only the Dariama would send us some ships. Then we’d not be so outnumbered. Then we could stage a raid on Ridendo and cut him down to size before he builds enough ships to overpower us.

  In the holo, the Ashkelon fleet started to veer away, as Rita had known they would. They always did before coming into range of the capital ships. It was not in their best interest to provoke a full-scale battle with Rita’s fleet. Not yet - the two fleets were too evenly matched for their taste.

  They’ll wait until Garatella’s reinforcements come, and they finish out their shipbuilding and repairs. Then they’ll overpower us.

  Rita got up from her command chair and nodded at Rachel beside her.

  “Looks like they’re pulling off, Rachel. I’ll be in my day cabin if needed. I’ll leave the cleanup to you.”

  Rachel gulped and nodded. Three months ago she had been Assistant Tactical Officer on the destroyer Dragon. Now she had just been put in charge of an entire fleet.

  But Rachel knew this was Rita’s way - adding responsibility at every opportunity, training her younger officers, throwing them into the fray. There was no other choice. The number of capable officers available to Rita was tiny. Rita was forced to promote rapidly any officer who showed promise; then train them with brutal quickness and fill from below with new recruits - when she could pry them loose from Earth’s various military organizations. It was an ongoing and sometimes brutal dance with the powers of Earth to convince them to send her competent personnel.

  Was it only two years ago? When Earth had been revolving along its path around the Sun, fat, dumb and happy?

  In those halcyon days, Humans had no inkling of the huge leonine Ashkelon, or the small but efficient Nidarians and Taegu, or the bear-like Bagrami, or the eerily Human-like Dariama. The impact of being suddenly attacked by the Ashkelon had been a wake-up call for humanity - a shock that still reverberated through society two years later.

  Still trying to cope with a war not of their own making, and technology far beyond their level of engineering, Humans were struggling to come up to speed with the rest of the galaxy. And their growing pains were showing.

  Buckling down, Rachel leaned into her work of cleaning up after the raid. She had fighter pilots to rescue, damaged destroyers to help limp back to orbit, and the enemy fleet to monitor as they curved off to return to their bases at Ridendo.

  And a tablecloth to clean.

  Ashkelon System - Planet Deriko

  Merlin Fighter “Angel One”

  Slowly Jim came back to the Universe. He first felt the air of the vents blowing on him slightly, keeping the cockpit temperature stable. Then he heard the hum of the electronics, the soft whirring of the fans that kept the instruments cool. A thought penetrated…

  …I guess I’m still alive…

  He opened his eyes. The Merlin was cruising smoothly through space. The VR showed him on his way back to the Merkkessa, passing through the cruiser formation. Blinking, he tried to concentrate.

  “Angel, what happened?”

 

  Jim grunted.

  “I take it we outran the missiles?”

 

  “Angel, I hate a smart-ass. You could be replaced with a toaster oven. You know that, right?”

 

  Jim grinned foolishly. It felt good to be alive. But, he realized as his grin disappeared - he had badly violated protocol. It was strictly prohibited for a pilot to pursue the enemy outside of the zone of battle. It was also against protocol for a pilot to separate from his wingman in combat.

  And he should know. He had issued both protocols as part of Wing SOP.

  I guess I have to write myself up. And Rita will be pissed. She’ll be completely, thoroughly pissed off.

  Sol System - Earth

  United Nations Building - Beijing, China

  Captain Dewa Shigeto stared at the order from Admiral Elliott and thought about his future. And if he had one.

  The order from Elliott was clear.

  “Send a message to Admiral Rita Page at Deriko. Tell her the new battlecruiser Victory is completed and finishing her shakedown cruise. Tell Admiral Page to return to Earth immediately for consultation on the war with the U.N. and representatives of the major powers. Afterward she can take the Victory back to Ashkelon as her flagship.”

  Dewa was not privy to the secret meeting Elliot had recently concluded with the Chinese and the Russians. But he wasn’t blind, either. He was well aware of the hatred and contempt Elliott displayed toward Rita.

  This is crazy. This is some kind of ploy. He’s up to something, thought Shigeto.

  There is no way in hell Rita needs to come back to Earth for consultation. If anything, Elliott should go to her and try to learn something. And we should send the Victory to her immediately, not keep it here at Earth. That’s stupid!

  Shigeto sighed. He couldn’t disobey a direct order.

  Ingrid knew something like this was coming. That’s why she assigned me as Elliott’s aide. She wanted someone she could trust to keep her informed. She must be in on it to some degree.

  But I still have to follow orders.

  Shigeto tapped the order into his tablet and sent it out. He knew it would go first to the spacedock in orbit just west of Ecuador. From there, it would be relayed to the duty corvette currently serving as ansible relay to the fleet. And from there, it would arrive onboard the Merkkessa via ansible transmission in less than a minute.

  And from that point, thought Shigeto, Admiral Rita Page is toast. She’ll get on a corvette or a packet boat, zip back here to Earth. Elliott will have a welcoming committee to meet her at the dock. And that will be the end of Rita Page. After Elliott gets through with her, she’ll be lucky if she ever sees the inside of a spaceship again.

  Ashkelon System - Planet Deriko

  Battlecruiser Merkkessa

  The artificial sun peeked through the curtains of the artificial window in the Flag Cabin bedroom, sending one tiny ray of light into Commander Jim Carter’s eyes.

  It was enough. He had always been a light sleeper.

  He rolled over in bed, feeling for his wife in the dimness. He found her, facing away from him, and spooned into her, reaching around to cup a breas
t. He knew she was awake - he felt her hand come on top of his.

  “Fancy a bit of morning delight?” he asked.

  You never know. One of these days, she might be in the mood.

  But she wasn’t. “No thanks, babe,” Rita said. “The Nidarians are leaving at 0700. I want to watch them go. I’ve got to get up and get ready.”

  “Aye, aye, Admiral,” Jim said, hiding his disappointment.

  Their lovemaking was getting more and more infrequent these days. The pressure of her job - trying to save humanity - didn’t leave much time for personal matters.

  Jim tried to understand, but it wasn’t easy. He had asked her to make time for them - and she had agreed. But she hadn’t lived up to the bargain. And he didn’t want to add to her burden by bringing it up again.

  But he was lonely. He missed the old Rita, before she had become entangled in the web of planning and logistics that occupied her now from dawn to the wee hours, every day, all day long.

  The old Rita, who couldn’t get enough of him. The old Rita of two years ago. The old Rita who was long since gone.

  Jim rolled back flat and sighed as Rita got out of bed and started dressing.

  I’m in trouble.

  Jim knew himself. He had always had the ability to think clearly and objectively about his own emotions and feelings - and he knew what was going on.

  I’ve been a warrior for too long.

  Jim knew it was true. He had fought too many enemies for too long, without a break.

  For so many months, Rita had kept him grounded, her love keeping the demons at bay.

  But now he was without the attention of his wife. His PTSD was coming back with a vengeance. His nightmares had returned.

  He was burnt-out, riding on the edge. It wouldn’t take much to push him over. His near-suicidal actions in the raid yesterday had crystallized the problem in his mind.

  And if he couldn’t be with Rita, then…

  There was only one other thing that could settle his soul.

  “Hey, hon,” he called. Across the cabin, Rita turned, one foot half-way into her boot.

  “What?”

  “Can I have three weeks leave?”

  Rita finished pushing her foot into her boot, stamped on the floor with it, and turned to Jim in the dim light of the cabin, hands on hips.

  “What in God’s name do you need three weeks leave for?”

  “I need to go camping.”

  There was a long silence. Jim knew what Rita was doing - she was searching her memories. Actually, Jim’s old memories - part of her now, since the day of her creation. She would be thinking back, to the many times that Jim had camped - which would seem to her like her own memories, integrated into her consciousness.

  For the hundredth time since he had met Rita, Jim thought about it.

  I wonder what it’s like. To have two sets of memories. To be, in essence, two people in one body.

  He had asked her once. She had responded to him that he misunderstood - that she wasn’t two people in one body, just one person - with the memories of two others along for the ride. And she had informed him forcefully that she had no trouble keeping the two sets of memories separate and distinct from her own.

  I wonder if that’s really true.

  Rita nodded. “Yeah, OK. I see it. Go, get it out of your system. But do it quick - anything could happen with Zukra. And I wouldn’t want to leave you behind if we need to pull out of this system in a hurry. I guess you’ll go to Deriko?”

  Jim nodded in the dark, even though she probably couldn’t see it. “Yeah, I don’t have time to go back to Earth. So I’ll ask Tatiana to find me someplace wild and crazy on Deriko.”

  Rita picked her tunic off the back of a chair, slipped it on, walked over to the bed, leaned forward and kissed Jim lightly on the lips.

  “Then go get it done, before you kill yourself. I saw what you did yesterday. That was stupid. Actually I was going to ground you for it. But since you’re going to go work out your demons, I’ll put that on hold for now. But don’t think just because you’re my husband I won’t do it. If you ever do anything that stupid again, you’re off flight status. Capisci?”

  And with a swish, and without waiting for an answer, she was gone, out the door to her outer office.

  Jim touched his lips with his finger, the softness of her still there, his body and soul missing her presence already.

  “Capisci, baby,” he said quietly.

  ***

  Rita had told herself she wouldn’t watch the departure of the loyalist Nidarians; but in the event, she couldn’t resist. She strode to the Merkkessa’s Flag bridge and sat in her command chair as the time drew near.

  The bridge was quiet. It was early, ship time. Third Watch was in the last hour of their shift.

  On the front screen, she saw the planet Deriko below her. It looked like a larger version of Mars, although the atmosphere it carried provided plenty of weather. A large low-pressure system created a swirl of clouds in the far south. She could see an electrical storm up north, near the pole.

  But the small city of Misto Marta, on the equator just below and slightly in front of them, was clear. Rita knew the workers there would be rising from their beds, preparing for another day. Another day of supporting the fleet, preparing them to fight the Ashkelon again.

  And somewhere down there on that planet, her husband Jim wanted to go wild camping.

  Probably wants to go fight a near-bear with a pocketknife, she thought. That’s my Jim.

  Bekerose was not present; Rita wondered if he would come. This would be an especially sad and disturbing moment for him. Staying with his Human allies, when Garatella had declared Humans to be enemies, would make Bekerose a traitor to his homeland.

  Rita knew it had been a hard decision for Bekerose. He was an intensely loyal officer - with his loyalties split between his homeland and his beloved warship, he had agonized over the decision. In the end, he had elected to stay with the Merkkessa, along with several thousand other Nidarians who decided to stick with the Human fleet.

  Of necessity, Rita had provided a destroyer to the remainder, the loyalist group returning to Nidaria in fear of Garatella’s wrath. The destroyer was the smallest ship that could carry them all home. Even then, they would be packed in like sardines for the 25 days it would take them to get back to their home planet.

  She had given them the destroyer most damaged from the last battle with the Ashkelon. They had patched up the propulsion and life support systems and stripped the gamma lance and all missiles out of the ship. She’d be damned if she’d give a ship with functioning weapons back to High Councilor Garatella.

  In the holo, she could see the beat-up destroyer several hundred klicks in front of her. It was preparing to depart orbit; its engine ports began to glow in the infrared, showing they were spooling up.

  On the Merkkessa’s bridge, the hum of electronics and the occasional low voice of the crew at their consoles created a familiar and comforting background to Rita’s thoughts. Shipboard life was practically the only thing Rita had ever known. A thought crossed her mind, one that came to her almost every day of her life.

  This is my home. This will always be home.

  To her right side, the hatch opened, and Captain Bekerose came on the bridge. He glanced at her, smiled, made a quick and abbreviated tour of the duty staff at their consoles, then returned to stand beside the slightly elevated Flag bridge, one hand on the railing.

  “A sad day,” he said, gesturing to the holo.

  Rita nodded. “It is.”

  There was a silence between them, a comfortable one. They had served together now for nearly a year. What had once been an adversarial relationship had changed over the months, had morphed into a strong friendship in the heat of battle.

  “What was the final count?” asked Rita after a while.

  “Sixty-two,” responded Bekerose. “A hard blow to our crew rosters.”

  “But the right thing to do,” s
poke Rita. “I can’t ask anyone to fight against their own kind. If they don’t agree with our cause, then they need to go home.”

  “True,” Bekerose agreed. “But I wish they would’ve stayed a bit longer. This couldn’t come at a worse time. It will take another two months to get Human replacements from Earth and integrate them into the Fleet.”

  “And we don’t have two months,” Rita said bitterly. “Zukra’s shipyards are repairing his Home Fleet and building new ships as fast as he can whip his workers. No doubt Garatella is doing the same at Nidaria. And we know there’s still one Ashkelon expeditionary detachment deployed at the Asdif system. I’m sure they’ve converted those ships to the new fast drives and the gamma lance. That means that remote fleet could arrive back here to reinforce Zukra any day now.”

  Bekerose nodded grimly. “And the Dariama at Dekanna?”

  Rita sighed. “Admiral Sobong is still adamant she won’t send us any help. They’re building ships as fast as the Ashkelon, but she intends to keep them all at Dekanna. She’s not willing to risk them here with us.”

  Bekerose scratched his almost non-existent nose. “What a crappy deal. We gave Sobong the plans for the fast drives and the gamma lance and sent Captain Ziollo and our two best fighter pilots to train them. And for this, she stiffs us? What a …what’s the English?…bitch!”

  Rita smiled at Bekerose mixing English curse words into his Nidarian.

  “Well, Captain, I guess we should try to look at it from her viewpoint. Sobong doesn’t think we can beat the Ashkelon here in their home system. And she knows the Ashkelon will be coming for her as soon as they finish with us. So, as much as it hurts me to say it, I do understand her. I might even do the same thing if I were in her shoes.”

  In the holo, the destroyer began to move, breaking orbit. In a few seconds, it picked up speed and headed away from Deriko toward the outer system. Minutes later, it passed the near-planet speed limit and accelerated to 300g. And then it was gone, moving at several million kph out toward the mass limit, 14.5 AU from the star, where it would sink out and take up its course toward Nidaria, 813 light years distant.