Stollar's Gambit

by Jason Borondy

  “Could this be the fate of the crew of the Moscow too?” McKnight asked. Jessica could tell the woman was a little panicked beneath her mask.

  “It is possible to assume the Moscow ran into the Neptunian’s too. However, without the buoy we won’t know for certain.”

  “Damn,” Sinclair started, “just think if your father didn’t succeed all those years ago, we would all be just like this.” He pointed to the body. “I think my appreciation for your father just grew ten-fold, ma’am.”

  “Thanks, XO. I am sure he would appreciate it, if he was here,” she responded. “Lieutenant Ray, I need any data you have now on our friend here. I need to report this ASAP. Understood?”

  “Aye, Captain. You will have it before you get to your ready room,” he replied.

  “Thanks.” She turned to the group. “As for everyone else, the information in this room stays in this room. The lab is to be sealed off from the rest of the crew. Only the group of us, plus the Doc are allowed in here.”

  “So, we are holding onto the body?” Sinclair asked.

  Jessica nodded her head. “Yes. Lieutenant Ray and Doc Gunter will continue their testing of the body. There are questions that we still need answers to. Once I am satisfied, then we will render the captain the proper burial he deserves. Any other questions?”

  Everyone either shook their head or stayed silent. “Okay. Everyone back to your stations.”

  Jessica stayed behind in the Lab with Lieutenant Ray and the body. It was quiet, except for the occasional beep coming from the lab equipment. She was processing this new information. The Invaders somehow forcing people into servitude, but how? From what she knew of Captain Magnuson, he wouldn’t just turn against his own people. The Invaders had to have some way of forcing people to do things against their will, which was a scary thought.

  “Ma’am?” Ray questioned from behind her. “Don’t worry, I will get you that report if that is what you are waiting on.”

  “Huh? Oh,” Jessica snapped out of thought. “No, I trust you, and excellent work by the way. I am just waiting for—” The lab’s door hissed open and Gunter stepped inside.

  “Did everyone leave?” he asked.

  “Lieutenant Ray, can you please give me and the doctor a moment?” she said, staring up at Gunter and folding her arms across her chest.

  “Aye, Captain,” Ray replied and stepped away from the table. The door to the lab hissed open as he walked out. After the door closed, the room fell silent for a moment.

  “How is Commander Magnuson?” she asked.

  “I gave him a sedative. He is resting right now,” he replied.

  “Good. Now, Lieutenant Commander,” Jessica began unmoving from her pose, “what made you think it was okay to call the entire senior staff to brief on this situation?”

  Gunter began to fidget a bit before answering. “I thought the information was too time sensitive to wait for it to filter down. Also, this is Commander Magnuson’s brother. He needed to know.”

  “I understand that, but I am the captain of this ship. The how and when this information is released is my decision, not yours!” she barked. “As for what Magnuson needed to know, we have protocol when dealing with deceased members.”

  “Captain, I think this situation is different, don’t you?” he said, pointing to the body.

  “No,” she said straight faced, anger still flowing. “The captain over there is still a member of the EDF, and disposition of his body still falls under regulations. All you did was cause unnecessary harm to our chief engineer. A chief engineer that I am going to need to rely heavily on in the future. Do you think he will snap back from this?”

  Fumbling, Gunter responded, “I am not sure, ma’am. He probably will, but how soon? I do not know.”

  “Precisely my problem,” she replied. “Your priority now, when you are not helping Lieutenant Ray, is to focus on getting Magnuson fit for duty.”

  “Aye, Captain,” he replied, staring at the ground.

  “Also, you and Commander Magnuson are on an information lock down. The only people allowed to know what is in this lab are the people that have already been briefed. Understood?” she ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied.

  “Good. Now continue your work with Lieutenant Ray. You both have given good results so far. I know both of you can crack the conversion question,” she said.

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Jessica regained her composure and departed the Lab. She gave her science officer a nod indicating he was good to go back inside. Jessica hated admonishing her crew. It was one of the bad aspects of command, but if she didn’t correct the behavior, the crew could unravel. She let out a breath as she walked down the hall. Now it was time to drop another bomb on EDF Command.

  31

  EDS Hornet

  Jump Point One Grand Isle System

  David could feel his eyes burning with exhaustion. He looked at his watch; it was 23:57 ship time. He had pulled an eight-hour escort mission. After that, Jasmine thought it would be good to do a couple more hours of simulation time. You know, to get close to her personal seat time record. Now he was beat, but they got an all hands reporting order to the briefing room. He found his seat and slumped down into it.

  He felt his seat rattle as Jasmine sat in her chair next to him. He turned his head to look at her, and she flashed him a brief smile. She seemed to have way too much energy for this late in the evening.

  “How do you still have energy?” David asked, eyebrow raised.

  “Coffee. Once I got notified about the all hands. I grabbed a cup.” She held up a metal mug.

  “You wouldn’t happen to have another cup hiding over there?” he asked.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Have you not learned anything?”

  He sighed. “Yes. Always pay attention. But what does that have to do with the briefing?”

  She leaned in. “If the CAG calls this late of a meeting, it means we are going to be pulling an all-nighter. Which means you need to load up on your caffeine of choice.” She turned back forward and took another sip from the mug.

  “Noted.”

  “Room. Attention!” a voice yelled from the door. The entire room shot up out of their seats standing at attention.

  “As you were” was said, but not by the CAG. As David sat back in his seat, he noticed Rear Admiral Petrov, the commanding officer of the 8th Battle Group, take the podium. Behind him was Captain Amari, commanding officer of the Hornet, and Commander Hennessy. This had to be serious if all the command was here.

  The admiral looked over the group of pilots. When he finally looked over to David’s side, it felt like his brown eyes seemed to pierce through his soul. The admiral let out a cough before he spoke in a Russian accent. “Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know earlier today, we had an unidentified starship intrude into the Grand Isle System. At the time, we couldn’t conclude who it was, but with the new intelligence that has come in today, we can say for certain the Invaders are back.”

  David could hear whispers from the pilots throughout the room. Petrov put his hand up to quiet them down. Then he pointed at someone behind David. “Yes, pilot?” he asked.

  David heard someone stand up behind him. “Sir, how reliable is the intelligence? Couldn’t be some raiders?” Mouse asked.

  “I understand your willingness to question the intel. After all, we haven’t seen any sign of the Invaders for over twenty years,” he replied. Then he pressed a button on the podium, and the room lights dimmed, and David heard Mouse sit back in his seat. The screen blinked on, and David could make out gasps come from the other pilots including Jasmine.

  On the screen was an image of an Invader ship. Identical in size and shape to the ship that appeared in the Sol system years ago. He wasn’t born yet, but it was an incident that was very close to his family. Plus, it was in every history book he had as a kid.

  “As you can see clearly in this image, taken from the Little Rock, they are back. This image
was taken from Planet M051, before it jumped out of the system,” the admiral stated, using a hand to point at the screen.

  A wave of panic hit David. He hadn’t heard from Haley. Was she okay? Why hadn’t Jessica contacted him on an update? He had to suppress the urge to jump out of seat and run to a Comm station and contact her.

  “Calm down,” Jasmine whispered. At that moment he realized he was putting a death grip on his armrests. He took a breath and relaxed his grip.

  Petrov continued. “Camp Chapman took serious damage in an attack. There were survivors, and what they have reported so far is frightening, but that is not our focus. Right now, we need to prepare for an attack on Grand Isle. To that end Fleet Command has dispatched reinforcements by the way of the 17th Battle Group. The Ranger and her ships will be arriving in the next couple of hours along with the Oppenheimer. Captain Amari will present the details of the current plan.” Petrov turned to the man of Saudi decent.

  Amari replaced Petrov at the podium, and the admiral took a position next to the CAG. The captain entered in commands in the podium and the screen changed from the image of the ship to a computer graphic of the Grand Isle system. Icons appeared for the ships in the Battle Group. In the center was the icon of the Hornet. Flanking the Hornet, icons appeared for the light combat vessels, the Fort Worth and the Omaha. Then in front of the Hornet were the missile frigates, Grafton and Aquitaine. They were running parallel to each other but were dispersed wider than the LCVs. In front of them were the destroyers, Talisman and Levchenko. They were about two kilometers ahead of the rest of the ships. The two were formed up parallel to each other. Smaller dots began to populate in the space between the destroyers and the Hornet. David knew what those were, Fighters. “The SF-19’s and SA-12’s will stage in-between the destroyers and frigates. The 12’s will be loaded with Saber anti-ship missiles.”

  “Sabers!” David thought to himself. They are bringing out the big guns. Sabers were tactical nukes. Not as powerful as what most starships used, but with a 500-kiloton yield they still packed quite a punch. He guessed their job was to cover the Avengers as they launched their payloads.

  “As you can see, we will have the group deployed in a modified defensive formation. We will be using the LCV’s heavy complement of PDS’s to produce a large defensive area around the Hornet, with the frigates not too far in front and the destroyers taking point. The fighters will stage for possible fighter defense and/or missile runs at the target,” Amari said, then pressed another button.

  This time the image zoomed out and the lunar debris field appeared as a graphic. The Ranger’s battle group appeared as icons on the screen. David noticed that the Cincinnati was displayed as high above the Ranger, but the Little Rock was not on the screen. The rest of the battle group was in a similar position to the 8th. The image zoomed out and a representation of the lunar debris appeared on the screen. Close to the field was in icon for the Oppenheimer and next to it was the Little Rock. Amari looked up from the podium. “As we speak, we are moving in position to take advantage of the debris field.” The Ranger Battle group icons moved close to the images of floating rocks. “The 17th along with the Oppenheimer will use the edge of the debris field to fool the Invaders’ sensors. Hopefully they will only think one group is here.”

  He paused for a moment to grab a glass of water and took a sip. An icon of representing the Invader ship appeared on the screen.

  “The plan is to lure the target down into the well, making sure it can’t jump away,” he said. The Invader icon moved in close to both Battle Groups. “Once they cross the threshold, all four missile frigates will deploy a barrage of nukes. Our best guess is that the force of twenty 30-megaton warheads will cause their shields to collapse. Then the Ranger can follow up using a Jupiter missile to take it out.” The icon winked out.

  Amari pointed to someone to the far right of David. He turned and an older blond female pilot stood up to speak. “Sir, two questions. One, how certain are we that they will jump back here? Two, what happens if this plan doesn’t work?”

  “Good questions,” Amari began. “One, we don’t know for sure they will come back here, but we are the only habitable world in 150 light years. So, we are playing the odds.”

  “And two?” She asked.

  “Plan B,” he replied.

  32

  EDS Little Rock

  Orbit Planet M051

  BEEP! BEEP! Jessica leaped from her bed to the desk. She sat down in her seat, tapped a key on the keyboard and the screen came to life. The sudden introduction of light made her eyes hurt. She rubbed them to try to get them to adjust quickly. The computer beeped again. She entered her security code. The symbol for the EDS Ranger appeared on her screen. Then it changed to the face of an older man. To Jessica, he appeared in his late fifties. He had gray hair and a neatly trimmed gray beard. His blue eyes stared at her.

  “Did I catch you at a bad time, Commander?” the man asked with a smile.

  “Just a little bit, Admiral. What can I do for you, sir?” she replied. Rear Admiral Winters was the commander of the 17th Battle Group.

  “I will be direct. The Little Rock is needed in the Grand Isle system. We have good intel that it is going to be the next target of that Invader ship you spotted over 51. I will be transmitting all pertinent information for our defense plan to you after this conversation,” he replied.

  “So, I take it we are abandoning our investigation of the find?” she asked, still trying to shake the cobwebs out of her head.

  Winters nodded. “For now. We will pick it back up once the threat is eliminated. To that end, you are authorized to use wartime jump protocols to get here as fast as you can. Unfortunately, you will have to enter the system using the secondary jump point. With us not knowing when the enemy will show up, we need to keep the primary clear. The reasons why will be clear when you review the plan.”

  “Aye, sir,” she replied.

  “I will see you soon, Commander. Winters out,” he said. The screen changed to the Ranger’s symbol then the screen went black. A message appeared in the corner of her screen telling her she had a new email. She guessed it as the information Winters mentioned. She was disappointed that they were not going to find out what caused the Invaders to come to this planet, but duty calls.

  She pressed a button to open a line to the bridge. “Yes, Captain?” an unfamiliar voice said over the speaker, and Jessica made a mental note that she needed to get to know third watch.

  “I need you to wake up first watch and have them meet me on the ridge in--” she paused to look at the time on the screen. “Fifteen minutes.”

  “Aye, Captain.” The comm tech replied. Then the line cut off with a beep.

  Jessica took a moment before she got out of her chair. She looked at the clock again. It read 0217 hours. She hoped fifteen minutes was enough to get ready and make coffee.

  The fifteen minutes flew by and now Jessica was standing at her station in the middle of the bridge, coffee in hand. She waited as first watch filed into the bridge. Everyone took the place by their station standing next to third watch personnel. Sinclair was the last person to take his station. She surveyed the crew everyone, except third watch, seemed bleary-eyed. She placed her mug in its holder before she spoke.

  “We just got new orders. Fleet Command has good intel that the Invader ship is going to hit Grand Isle. They have tasked the 17th to be part of its defense,” she said, noticing surprised looks from some of the younger crew members.

  “Our orders are to proceed immediately to the Grand Isle system.” She turned to Kai. “Ensign Hunter, we have been given authorization for wartime jump protocols. I want you to plot a course that will get us there quickly without blowing out the Displacement drive. Got it?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she said, nodding as she replied.

  “I know this is kind of a shock to everyone, but after what we have seen these past few days, this was almost a certainty,” Jessica started. “To that end, I want
everyone rested and prepared. That means everyone on first watch minus Ensign Hunter, back to your bunks and get some rest. Normal shift schedule will remain.”

  Jessica turned to Kai. “Ensign Hunter, how long will it take you to plot the jump course?”

  Kai took a quick look at the clock below the front view screen and turned back to Jessica. “About thirty minutes.”

  “Excellent. Once you’re done, get back to your room for some rest. You have permission to report thirty minutes late,” Jessica responded. She then turned to Sinclair. “XO, I need make sure our current status is passed down to the rest of the crew.”

  He nodded.

  “One final thing, we are going into a battle situation and the build up to it can cause stress for everyone. If you require spiritual services or medical care, coordinate with your section leaders to get with Chaplin Ryan or the Doc. Understood?” she said.

  She took one final look around the bridge, “Okay everyone, you have your orders, let’s get to it.”

  33

  EDS Hornet

  Grand Isle System

  “I am okay, little brother,” Haley said with a smile. Her image was displaying on the screen “But I can’t give a whole lot of details right now.”

  David sighed, “Well at least you are doing good. I wish Jessica would’ve called and let me know before now.”

  “You know how she can be, especially now that she has her own ship.” She turned to look around. “I mean things are pretty fast paced around here right now.”

  “I understand, just a little disappointed. Speaking of fast paced, do you know how much longer it will take for you all to get here?” he asked.

  Haley looked down at her watch then looked back at the screen. “This next jump should get us into the system. That is if what Jessica told me was true. You don’t get a lot of information being stuck in the med bay.”