Noori System
“Normalization complete,” Hendy announced.
“We have contact with Scimitar, Rapier and Cutlass,” the comms officer advised. “All ships report a successful normalization and they’re charging their cryo-banks.”
“Let’s get started on that ourselves,” Oliv ordered. “Secure the path-drive and start cooling the cryo-banks.”
“Path-drive secure,” Meesh replied from the engineering station. “Coolant is flowing.”
Eth was glad he’d insisted on Meesh taking over the bridge engineering station. He’d practically dragged the young engineering warrant up here but it had to be done. Meesh’s second had to gain experience in a real fight and Meesh needed to spend more time on a bridge. He’d be leaving to warm Gleb’s seat on the Stiletto very soon and, if that went well enough...
Eth was going to need a new lieutenant to command the Tulwar when it was commissioned in a few weeks.
He was surprised to find that he didn’t like having to expand his forces so quickly. More often than not, when one of his Humans showed proficiency at one job, they found themselves promoted into a new one. He was constantly looking for chances to rotate his leaders around, giving them a smattering of new experience before moving them up.
His people, like the species itself, were in a constant sink-or-swim situation and it felt far too much like flirting with disaster. Flirting might work in the short term but, as time wore on, you ran an increasing chance of getting to first base.
He’d nearly wound up in bed with disaster after the reconnaissance at Heiropolis.
He’d made full use of his ability when reporting to Mishak. Ordinarily, he would stay out of his lord’s mind but he’d just made a fool of an incredibly powerful awilu and, though it couldn’t be traced back to Mishak, Sandrak would still know. His actions would not be without consequence.
“We were considering a full assault and seizure anyway, Lord,” he’d said, feeling Mishak’s uncertainty and anger. “When I realized what a liability that system really is, I figured we could show that to the rest of the empire and leave less of a fingerprint in the process; make it harder for your father to justify a direct retaliatory move.”
Mishak had sighed. “I would have sanctioned it,” he’d replied, stressing the ‘would’. “You could have come back with the suggestion.”
Not quite a slap on the wrist, but it had shown Eth that his lord gave occasional thought to the degree of freedom he allowed his Humans. Would he feel the same about a Quailu officer? He shook his head, waving off Oliv’s enquiring glance in response to the gesture.
No Quailu officer would operate under anything resembling the independence of Eth’s forces. He supposed it was an outgrowth of his economic raiding days. There had been a need for Mishak to profess ignorance of what his ‘renegade’ combat slaves had been up to.
Somehow, that had carried over to their present relationship. So far, it had worked out, but he knew he had to avoid pushing the limits too much and a part of that was realizing just how much freedom, ironically, he and his fellow former-slaves now enjoyed.
That freedom accentuated the misgivings he felt from his lord. It made Eth even more eager to get back out into the black, away from his lord’s court. Arriving in the Noori System was a welcome respite, even if Mishak would be following hard on Eth’s heels with the main force.
“Closing the interlock valves,” Meesh announced in a less-than-thrilled voice. “We are fully charged and ready for stealth.”
Eth glanced over. Meesh, despite the tone of his voice, was working on five different holos at once. He might be missing his engine room but at least he wasn’t letting that distract him from his job on the bridge. If anything, he was more focused than usual – probably an attempt to compensate.
It might help him when Eth forced him to accept a commission and take command of the Tulwar. He smiled, remembering when he’d been promoted by Mishak, who’d just promoted himself to elector status, and been given the cruiser he’d captured. Getting your own ship was a pretty effective way to help you get over the ‘good old days’.
“All three sister ships report ready for operations,” Comms said.
“Very well,” Eth replied. “Send the launch order and go to comms blackout. Captain, I’d be obliged if you’d take us in.”
“Aye, commander. Bring the emission management systems online.”
Meesh slid one of his screens to the center of his workspace, frowning at it for a second until an icon turned green. “EM systems are online, Captain. We are ready for stealth operations.”
“Thank-you, engineering,” Oliv replied. “Hendy, take us to our assigned position, three-quarters pitch.”
“Taking us in at three-quarters,” Hendy confirmed.
The central holo suddenly populated with the initial data but it firmed up quickly. At three-quarters pitch, they were out of the dense gas of the local giant almost before Hendy had finished confirming his orders.
The ship, as previously decided, was turned sideways to maximize how much of the hull was capturing light from their target zone around Noori Prime. Given the local star’s current position, they were actually giving the EM system a break, running nose-on to the star and flank-on to the planet.
When the pitch drives could shape their field of effect in any desired direction, the actual orientation of the hull had no effect on their direction of travel. They’d only been traveling bow-on out of habit.
“Looks like a lot of ships,” Oliv commented quietly.
“Not so many that we can’t make them regret coming here,” Eth said calmly. “Send the sector-assignments to our sister ships, narrow-beam only.”
“Do you think it’ll come to a fight?”
Eth nodded, eyes still on the display. “Taking this system is the first step to making a new link between the two halves of Sandrak’s holdings. He’s been shown how vulnerable he is at Heiropolis, so he’s not just stirring up trouble here. He’s sent these fellows for a critical purpose. They won’t be backing down.”
She sucked at something stuck in her teeth. “I suppose there won’t be any time to seize ships from the enemy, this time.”
“Definitely not!” He took a deep breath. “This is going to be a straight-up fur-ball! Our lord may be hoping to play the diplomat in this confrontation but there’s not much use for the velvet glove today. It’s all about the iron fist. He’ll take off the gloves; just you wait and see.”
“Halfway there,” Hendy said.
Eth glanced up at the voice pickups on the ceiling. “Foot up Your Ass, what’s your status?”
“Strapped in and spooled up, Commander,” Chief Warrant Carol replied.
She was one of the few who’d resisted a transfer and commission, and Eth was glad she had. With all the turmoil in his ranks, it was a comfort having her in charge of the scouting program. Still, he was considering rolling the new scorpion-class corvettes into that program and he’d be needing a full lieutenant running the training program at the very least. It was far more likely that he’d have to find a way to move her up to lieutenant commander as fast as was decently possible.
She had the drive and force of personality to accomplish whatever task she took on. With the influx of Bau’s new weapons, she’d corralled Noa into a re-design of the small scout-ships. They were slightly longer now and widened to accommodate twenty of the new missiles. A further twenty warheads were racked in the cramped walkway between the missile banks – a tribute to Meesh’s minefield adventures in the Battle of Arbella.
All the warheads were coated with the same carbon nano-tubules that made the Human ships so hard to detect.
And Eth had no doubt they’d be using every weapon at their disposal today because this was shaping up to be a desperate fight.
“No defenders visible,” tactical said. “Massive debris field consistent with an overwhelming victory for the aggressors. Planetary surface appears to be intact. No evidence of ground opera
tions so far.”
“So we’re too late for Noori’s defenders,” Eth said, a cold feeling coming across him. “We stop them here. Cut their momentum while there are still two systems between them and their goal. We’ve exposed the weakness of Heiropolis; we will not be responsible for letting them end that weakness.”
Hendy raised a hand to the throttle controls. “Approaching target area now. Reversing pitch. Bringing her about to put our dorsal surface toward the enemy.”
“Tactical, stand by to launch weapons.” Oliv turned to the velocity indicator and watched it drop down to zero. “Deploy missiles.”
“Deploy missiles, aye, Captain.”
“Foot up Your Ass, you have the green light. Deploy your weapons and get back ASAP.”
“We’ll be back before you know it,” Carol’s voice crackled from the ceiling. “Hull secure. We’re separating.”
Oliv brought up an enlargement of the exterior view of the ship. The Foot up Your Ass was invisible but for a section of the hull where they’d programmed a permanent docking collar. The one Achilles heel of the stealth coating was entry and exit points. Rather than coat them every time, the Humans had elected to create coated hatch covers that would rotate over the uncoated sections.
The disembodied hatch slid out of sight. “They’re on their own,” Oliv said quietly.
“And, yet, they’re in far less danger than our enemy,” Eth said.
With four scorpions and the scouts that each carried, they were able to box in the enemy formation, at least one ship on each side of a very large cube. It would take very little time to deploy an all-around crossfire – one that could destroy the whole enemy fleet in a matter of heartbeats.
“Missiles should be in place by now,” the weapons officer said.
One of the problems posed by a stealthy missile became apparent when using them in this kind of standby mode. If you wanted them to move to dispersed locations in order to avoid their impact direction giving your position away, you had to trust that they’d reached their pre-programmed loitering assignments.
“Captain, I’d appreciate if you could initiate the signal-pair now.”
“”Aye, commander.” Oliv nodded to the communications officer.
A space in front of Eth began to shimmer and then settled back almost to normalcy. He had to wait for several seconds until Mishak stepped into view.
“What are we looking at, commander?” the young noble asked.
Eth dragged a copy of his own tactical holo and tossed it into Mishak’s projection. “Sixty-three cruisers, one hundred twenty-two frigates and one super-heavy cruiser. I’m pretty sure we have at least two electors sitting here and they’ve already wiped out the local defenses. Looks like they’ll be conducting a few hours of repair work before moving on to the next phase.”
“It would seem my father is serious about negating the bottleneck at Heiropolis, though the timing might indicate that he’d decided on this before our raid at Heiropolis,” Mishak said mildly. “He’s not an easy one to keep ahead of.” He let out an exaggerated sigh.
“I’m not looking forward to his annual Solstice Address this year!” He leaned toward Eth. “You have his forces bracketed?”
“Our side is deployed, the other ships should be done and their shuttles docked by the time you drop out of path, lord.”
Eth’s holographic lord seemed to think for a moment, staring down at the deck. He finally looked up. “We’ll launch into path right now. We’ll reconnect when we arrive.”
With a gesture, Mishak disappeared.
“Normalization complete,” the helm reported.
“Initiate the signal pair,” Fleet Captain Rimush ordered. “Fleet status?”
“All call-signs present and in formation,” the tactical officer confirmed.
“We’re being hailed,” comms announced.
“Answer the hail and have them stand by.”
It was usually best to establish the pecking order first and whoever was in charge of the hostile forces probably had something suitably dominant to say. Best to open the channel right away but make him wait. Mishak nearly laughed when he realized it was one of his father’s favorite tactics.
Eth shimmered back into view and he gave a rotating hand gesture, silently assuring that all of the weapons were placed and the ships had recovered their scouts. The ships had probably recovered their scouts, that is. Given the need for stealth, they were relying on each other to get their jobs done, rather than blanket the area with signals.
“Open the channel and project it here.” Mishak gestured to Eth’s right.
A richly armored Quailu appeared in front of him. He was looking to his own left but turned when he heard the channel-opening chime. He got his mouth halfway open before Mishak spoke.
“Apsu? What in three levels of torment are you doing here?” he demanded angrily, leaning forward ever so slightly, the very picture of controlled anger. “You’d better have a damned good reason!”
Apsu seemed on the verge of taking a step back but then he steeled himself. “I might ask the same of you!” he replied stridently.
Mishak drew himself up, rearing his head back slightly to accentuate his ironic surprise. “That’s your response?” he demanded quickly before Apsu could think of anything else to say. “You’re just going to repeat everything I say, are you?” He chopped his hand across his front, indicating irrevocable action.
“It’s a bad business, Apsu,” he said darkly. “Thousands killed, Noorian sovereignty infringed and no cassus belli registered at Throne-World…” He trailed off, deliberately leaving Apsu an opening after placing him firmly on the defensive.
“It may be a bad business,” Apsu conceded, “but it is no business of yours!”
“I disagree,” Mishak countered. “We have always been a friend to the Noorians and, as a prince of the empire, do I not have a duty to protect those who cannot protect themselves? It would seem, noble cousin, that you’ve forgotten that duty.”
“And it would seem,” Apsu said dryly, “that you’ve missed your true calling. I’m sure you would have made a passable priest, given how much you love sermons.”
“Then let’s talk plainly,” Mishak said reasonably, bowing politely as Tashmitum arrived on the bridge. He held out his left elbow and she linked arms with him. “We know why you’ve come here. You’re trying to give my father a second link between the two halves of his… holdings.”
Mishak had nearly said kingdom but he didn’t want to be the one to start normalizing the concept. “We know you’re doing this because my father knows everything that the Meleke Corporation knows about your slave populations. He can destroy you on a whim.”
He was almost certain he’d noticed a few micro-gestures of alarm but it was still hard to be certain. He wished he still had Oliv around but then immediately felt guilty for his wife, who was standing next to him, sensing that guilt. He’d just have to muddle through without Oliv’s help, which was also a good way to stop thinking about her.
Whatever had passed across Apsu’s features, it was gone now. “So you know why I’m here,” he scoffed. “That changes nothing.”
“It changes the equations behind the leverage my father holds. I also possess the same information and I’ll use it to stop you.”
“And destroy half the economies of the empire?” Apsu laughed in Mishak’s face, long enough to make the insult plain. “Your father needs no votes, young Mishak, but you do! There’s no way you’d do it and it’s not just about votes. You’re a decent fellow and a good leader but you don’t have your father’s ruthless streak.
“If I defy your father, I’ll face horrifying retribution!” Apsu said, emphasising each word separately. “So, instead, I’ll defy you.”
Mishak’s fists clenched. He could feel the anger on the bridge, the indignation from Tashmitum and it fed his own. He saw this for what it was – Sandrak was laughing at him. He might be using Apsu as a proxy but it was Sandrak.
&nb
sp; It was always Sandrak.
No more! “Do you want to see what happens when you defy me?” he asked Apsu. “I will show you. In fact…” He glanced at Eth to make sure he was still listening. “… I’ll even do you the courtesy of leaving you alive so you can fully appreciate what you’ve brought down on your head today.”
And now the nonsensical orders would begin. He was angrier than he’d ever been in his entire life but he still remembered the need to provide a plausible explanation for what was about to happen.
“Confirm status of the signal-pair,” he ordered.
“Signal-pair is active on our end, lord.”
“Very well. Queue burst-message to read ‘Destroy all hostile ships minus flagship of Lord Apsu. Deploy link-drone and execute evolution from current location. Launch weapons through burst-portals only.”
The link-drone comment was intended to cover the use of a message drone from the Scorpion. It would be used to issue targeting orders to the cloud of stealthy missiles that waited in the darkness.
“Message queued and ready to send lord.”
“Send it now.”
Mishak looked up at the lights, which had dimmed considerably. Whoever had thought of that, it was a nice touch, giving the impression that the Dibbarra was suddenly expending a massive amount of energy.
“We managed to get a confirmation this time,” the comms officer said, sounding mildly surprised. He looked up at Mishak. “That automated response from their side really makes a difference.”
Apsu watched Mishak’s piece of theater with growing alarm. Memnon had lost ships to this young awilu and there was still no consensus as to how it had been done.
All the cryptic talk referencing ‘their location’, ‘burst-portals’ and ‘their side’ was starting to worry him. Ilgi had claimed they’d attacked his flagship through some kind of trans-dimensional portal and, while he was undoubtedly a fool, no other explanations had been offered.
The entire bridge had been listening and they’d heard all the same rumors that Apsu had. The fear was building, threatening to take control of his mind. “What the devils are you doing?” he demanded of Mishak, his voice far more skittish than he’d hoped.
Humans Page 17
