Blockade

by Chris Hechtl

  That was an amusing diversion and quite possibly a lucrative one. The old guard or ancient guard haunted the catacombs and tombs well outside the cities. Several of the major groups had one or more sealed tomb with their best warriors in it. Or, at least that was how the story went.

  She could believe the stasis tube part; those were easy enough to get. Power though, that was a different story. And what were in the catacombs and tombs? They were grasping at straws.

  But, if it were true, they were at least not going after her son. She ordered her people to continue their vigilance. It wouldn't do for McAllen or one of his cronies to get the credit if there was something viable there after all. All she needed to do was to place her spies and forces carefully, watch, and wait.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  "Of course we can do it!" Doctor Nutell said, excited about the prospects of an active assignment for his project subjects. "Just how many are we talking about though? The second generation is years away from being fully certified."

  Admiral Post nodded. That was one major hurdle right there. "We need enough to man three shifts on a single ship. If you can swing enough to also swing a second ship, that's even better. How many do you have available now?"

  The doctor frowned as he accessed his notes. "Jane keeps track of things better than Staten does. I'd say I can scare up six." He frowned as he scanned the notes and then nodded. "Six yes."

  "Six? So we can man what, two ships? One person per shift? Four in a ship?" Admiral Post asked.

  "Plan on all six in one ship," Doctor Nutell said apologetically. The admiral frowned. "Sorry, but helming a ship at speed and in unknown space is a high-stress job. The rule of thumb is to limit them to a four-hour shift. If we have them run longer, we risk the safety of the ship."

  Admiral Post made a note of that.

  "Good to know. Can they do more than one shift in a twenty-four-hour period?"

  "Oh my, yes!" Doctor Nutell stated. "But they need special quarters."

  "I thought you were working on that?"

  "We were, but that's the second and third generation. I was working under the assumption we'd use members of the first class. Most are only being used as trainers now. Lacia wants to use a few for her experiments, but I've refused the request."

  "I wouldn't allow it either given that you most likely wouldn't get them back in one piece," Admiral Post muttered. "Okay, six it is, in one ship. I'll pass this on."

  Doctor Nutell scrunched his hands open and closed a few times.

  "I'll need a list of what they need. Everything. We need this to work, Doctor, so we'll make allowances," the admiral stated.

  "Understood. When?"

  "As soon as possible. We're launching this mission as soon as Purity and Enlightenment can finish turning over the equipment to outfit the ship. We can make any changes to life support for a cargo hold while we're at it. Stick a pool or aquarium or whatever in it," Admiral Post stated. "Get me the particulars by the end of today."

  "Yes, sir," the doctor said. He wasn't used to moving so fast, but he'd pull out all the stops to get it done. He didn't want to be the one they pointed to when they tried to explain to the emperor why they were late.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Doctor Lacie Mengla, minister of biosciences, looked up as Ilosovic Stayne, duke of Horus and chief magistrate of purity and enlightenment entered her office. His snow white uniform was quite imposing to some. She had enough experience with him to merely smile politely.

  "What can I do for you Ilosovic?" she asked.

  "I'm headed out to the lumberyard to get the staff there to come up with the best bioweapons to use with this project of the emperor's. Do you have any recommendations?"

  Lacie frowned thoughtfully. "Does anyone see this as a nonstarter?"

  He blinked at her owlishly then scowled.

  "What, no one?" she asked, eyeing him.

  "We're ready to play our part. If you have a problem with this, do speak up to his majesty about it."

  "Oh, I will when I have the time and opportunity." She smiled at his surprised expression. "Don't look so surprised. This is an asinine plan and the waste of a good ship and resources. Here's why," she said, holding out her right hand fingers outstretched. "One," she ticked her index finger with her left index finger pointing to it. "They have to get to a vulnerable target—not just through hyper but also in space. "Two, no single cruiser can carry enough bioweapons to hit the number of targets that are on the list." She indicated the second finger.

  "I'm sure they'll refine it as we go."

  "I'm not finished," she stated. "Three, the idea that we'll be giving our forces on Dead Drop, Garth, and elsewhere some relief by hitting the enemy is silly. First off, they are mixed forces; humans and other species won't be affected."

  His jaw worked.

  "Second, they almost have to have inoculated their military personnel against the threat."

  "How? When we just came up with it?"

  "Well, it is SOP to do so with any force. The same for their civilian populations," she stated flatly. "Second, no one knows what happened to that Fourth Fleet detachment that went to Tau with the Akion-4 program. Remember that one?"

  He blinked and then scowled. "There is no need to remind me; I'm not senile."

  "No, but those who forget that also forget that they were most likely encountered or even stopped by the Federation Navy. If they weren't stopped, they most likely will be seeing the effect of it in Tau if they have any sort of presence there."

  "All reports from Fourth Fleet confirm the detachment got off unmolested. Von Berk said they left ET clean long before the Feds showed up."

  "Yes but after they left, we have no clue what they ran into along the way to their ultimate destination," she pointed out.

  "You've made your points," he said.

  "Oh, I wasn't finished but those will do," she said, examining her hand and then setting it down flat on the desk. "I won't sign off on this. If it moves forward as I expect it to, expect an 'I told you so' if it blows up in your face as I'm expecting it to."

  "Are you finished?" he asked, one hand on the door knob.

  "One last point you might want to consider," she said, holding up a finger as she sat back.

  "And that is?"

  "The Federation takes a very dim view on war crimes like genocide. If they do win, you might want to keep that in mind."

  His face turned an interesting shade then instantly cooled. He opened the door and then left without a further word.

  Lacie shook her head and then went back to finding any evidence in her files. She had found a coder who had promised that he could write a script bot to clean out any electronic file, even shred any evidence, as long as she found every link and every backup copy.

  Which was turning out to be quite the chore and one she couldn't entrust to anyone else without letting them know what she was doing.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Mara turned her head slightly to look at the chocolate-skinned male human. Doctor Nutell ran the institute and seemed distracted. She wasn't sure if that was good or not.

  Ever since they'd cut back on her medication and conditioning, she'd started to feel her mind start to recover and even penetrate the fog. It wasn't easy but she'd managed it. She sometimes wondered if any of the others had done the same.

  "Do pay attention, dear," a matronly voice said at her elbow. She turned to see nurse Jane standing there. The stocky woman nodded her double chin to the sim.

  "Sorry, I was wondering what was going on with Doctor Nutell," she murmured, returning her full attention to the sim.

  "Oh, he's just excited but nervous about the new mission," Jane said breezily as she turned to watch a merman in a tank being escorted out and down the hall.

  "Where are they taking him? Is he in trouble?" one of the students asked.

  "No dear, he's going to fulfil his purpose. He's going on a ship to fly it," Jane said.

  Mara nodded and rested a bl
ue-skinned webbed hand on her swollen abdomen. "It's what we're here for," she murmured as her training dictated.

  "They left it late; they just finished the habitat. Hopefully, they got it right," Jane said. "We'll get the data later I suppose. Finish up," she said, motioning for them to finish the simulation.

  Mara nodded and motioned for her students to continue. "The next part is going to be tricky," she said as the nurse closed the door so they wouldn't be further distracted.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Doctor Milgram was not happy about the mission. He hated the idea of a rush job. He hated it even more that they had taken some of the subjects on what he was privately concerned was for all intense and purposes a suicide mission. Oh, a few people said it was at best a Hail Mary, but he put the odds at very low to nonexistent that they'd ever see those ships or subjects again.

  Which sucked. He'd finally gotten some good resolution images of a Picean brain and aural structure. If they weren't going to be around, he couldn't use them for further research.

  The good news was that all six subjects were not of the primary line. They were also all male; he and the staff had been adamant about that. Males were expendable and ultimately replaceable; females were not.

  They were all going in one ship to increase the chances of success. That was good and bad, redundancy on one ship but no redundant second ship. They also had to set up their own habitat of shallow one-meter deep pools for them and then tap into the ship's systems to connect them up to run the helm of the ship. The normal helm team would handle the job in sublight. Food and proper medical care were a concern. They also needed to be insulated from the crew to maintain the proper submissive mental state.

  He shook himself. He wasn't sure why he was dithering about it; after all, it wasn't the first group to leave. They'd sent two other groups off on ships too, both to Sigma sector. No doubt this group would do their best.

  After all, that's what he'd programed them for.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Elvira shook her head as she dealt with another sick-out. "Look, I get it, you aren't happy. But this isn't helping the situation."

  "I'm telling you we've got some illness, and we're dealing with it."

  "Get squared away. Soon," she growled.

  She frowned as she cut the connection. She wasn't ready to report him. He was reporting in and he was good people. He was also doing a little telecommute from home. He needed to step up though, she wasn't sure how many more excuses she could take. She turned and eeped in surprise at the sight of Catherine standing in her doorway. "You scared me!"

  "Then you need to work on your situational awareness," Catherine said firmly. She cocked her head. "Sick-out?"

  "Am I late? Sorry …," Elvira got up and got her jacket.

  "Hang on a minute, back it up. Sick-out?"

  "Oh, it's just …," Elvira shrugged. "It's nothing, but there isn't a lot I can do about it."

  "What is it?"

  Elvira squirmed a bit and then bit her lip.

  "Come on, you can tell me," Catherine wheedled. "Of course, I could tickle it out of you," she said, curling her fingers.

  "You do and I'll retaliate," Elvira growled, curling her own fingers.

  "Not if I pull rank," Catherine said mockingly.

  "You would too," Elvira said, deflating a bit. She straightened. "Okay, it's the Retribution Fleet. Some of the families got word from them and they are freaked. And others are pissed that their families were singled out and members were executed."

  "The De Gaulte family?"

  "That's just one," Elvira said. Catherine wrinkled her nose in confusion. "You don't know, do you?"

  "Not if you don't tell me," Catherine said.

  Elvira studied her and then shook her head. "De Gaulte's entire staff and every ship captain was executed."

  Catherine stilled. Pure mayhem flashed through her angry eyes. "I see."

  "The Herod family took it hard. So did a lot of others."

  Catherine nodded once. "I should imagine. Jeremy was a good officer."

  "And his family is not happy. His mother is taking it hard, and his brother," she indicated the phone, "is dealing with her and his own problems. I know there are a lot of resignations going on. A lot of people are pissed." She winced when she realized she'd admitted that out loud and who she'd admitted it too. "Sorry," she muttered.

  "It's okay," Catherine said. Elvira gave her a relieved but slightly dubious look. "You, not the situation. What you are telling me isn't your fault so I won't torture the messenger," Catherine teased. She hugged Elvira for a moment. Wheels turned in her mind. She could extort this, using it as leverage if she properly handled it. She could also use it to blame some of her more overt activities if necessary.

  "Depends on what sort of torture you had in mind," Elvira teased back with a squeeze. "And I could always turn the tables," she whispered in Catherine's ear before giving it a kiss.

  "Not while we're on duty. Since this is supposed to be a working lunch, we'll have to play by the rules. But later …," Catherine pretended to wash her hands. "When I've got you in my clutches …"

  Elvira giggled as they walked out of her office.

  Chapter 20

  Finagle

  Captain Jed Misipeka used a long finger to ream out his ear. He really should do a good grooming; he deserved that much. He scanned the plot and then sniffed.

  Winterspell was the lead ship in the Finagle picket. He had a full CruRon, eight heavy cruisers. They were one jump away from the enemy's home star system and help was several jumps away.

  So far, they'd done well; they'd picked off fifteen enemy singletons and the convoy of twenty-three three months prior. That was quite the haul; he'd been forced to send back the CEV Sicily with her support ship and the two destroyers as escort for the group. The CEV had been down to fumes on her fuel and needed to resupply. He wasn't sure what the best speed of the prize ships were, most likely pretty damn slow which meant the group would be arriving in New Horizon in another month or two.

  They were racking up quite the score, something he was proud of. A couple couriers from Horath had gotten past them though, no doubt they'd bring someone in Sigma word of warning. That sucked. After that last one, he'd consolidated his CruRon and instituted a policy of running silent near the Bd2r3 jump point. That was where most of the traffic seemed to be coming from, coming from Sigma not so often to it.

  Twice since the Sicily flotilla had left, he'd been forced to leave a convoy alone. They'd had escorts and his Rules of Engagement orders were not to engage warships that matched his mass or to engage if any ship in a convoy was expected to get away. That had sucked. They hadn't gotten a sniff of his ships though. His command had been exposed to the planet two weeks ago though when a courier had escaped while broadcasting like mad. No matter how much his people had tried, they hadn't been able to jam the SOS alerting the planet.

  Which sucked.

  It felt odd to be the pirate, to be on the flip side. It was fun to be the predator but the terror in some of the civilian faces had kept him up at night. Some of his people too from the scuttlebutt that he'd heard.

  He had gotten some of his crew back after they'd been brought up from dropping off their prize ships in New Horizon. Not all though, he was still one-third down on his manning table. Engineering was doing half extra shifts.

  He frowned and then stroked his face as he considered what to do. He really should go do a workout, maybe stroll through the ship or failing that get caught up on paperwork. The XO and A.I. would love that.

  He snorted. Who was he kidding? He hated paperwork. He was famous for hating paperwork with what he described as a passion.

  He was still idly considering what to do with his time when CIC announced an alert for an incoming enemy ship. "Whoops, apparently boredom's over," he muttered as he headed to the bridge.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Rear Admiral Kuresh Quartermain tucked his hands behind his back as he looked
out at the star system plot. Beyond it was the main view screen that was currently showing the local plot.

  It would still be several minutes before they got everything sorted out. That was fine with him.

  His flagship Decapitator and her division mate Star Raveger were in the middle of the formation of twelve ships. He should have had more, but the Admiralty wanted his command to be lean and mean.

  He sniffed. That just meant the four battle cruisers, four heavy cruisers, and four light cruisers would have to live off the land as much as possible. That wasn't hard to do if you were pirates, but it could and probably would slow them down. Especially when they had to ramp up for some of the longer stretches of jumps after Konahagakure.

  He wondered if it had been wise to give up his command of Second Squadron. He'd only just gotten the command after handing over the reins of Star Raveger. When they'd formed up the mission, he'd volunteered expecting to be able to take his entire squadron, not half of it. He shook his head.

  Beggars can't be choosers apparently. He'd been given a tight command and an almost impossible mission. They hadn't even given him any couriers, which had sucked. But if he played his cards right, it should push the enemy back and buy his people some time.

  "We're picking up something," CIC reported. He turned. "Definitely several somethings. It looks like neutrino scatter along with ion trails."

  "A recent convoy?"

  "No. The neutrinos are current. Someone is out there, near the Bd2r3 jump point," the sensor tech stated. "We're too far out to get a better read though, sir," she said in frustration.

  "Do your best," the admiral growled.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  "They've got us," the XO warned a shift later.

  "You think so do you?" Captain Misipeka asked.

  "Oh yeah, sir, most definitely. We've got a lot of interest in our direction. The ships are coming in our direction," the XO stated.

  "Concur, sir," the JTO stated.

  "Concur as well," the TACO stated. "CIC puts it at four battle cruisers—two of them Kurama class, two Derfflinger class. There are four heavy cruisers and four light cruisers in the mix."