The Curanian Dominance: The Linda Eccles Series - Volume Three

by Robert Woodard

  Looking down at the Ciat’s commander, Plon stared at her for a moment. He wanted to know what she thought the objects were, but she offered no further information. She only stared up at him with her long, flowing hair draped across and over her shoulders. The more he studied her, the more he realized how ugly she truly was. He remembered Nage once commenting that he selected Jime because she would not be a distraction to those on the command deck. For the first time, he realized what he truly meant. She may be ugly, but she made for a great paring for a little pre-battle distraction. The silent words made him smirk.

  Returning his thoughts back to the ongoing battle, he gave her a heavy sigh, and asked, “And what have you determined them to be, Jime.”

  “I don’t know, Plon. Maybe they are remote rebounders being sent out to scout the area.”

  The guess by Jime seemed quite logical. If she was right, and his opponent was sending out devices to see what was happening all around him, like Plon was doing with his fast attacks, then they would quickly discover the second fleet that now made its way around the planet to spring the trap shut. Did it really matter?

  Staring at the tactical map, he failed to see what his opponent could do to prevent the other fleet from creating the intended havoc. His second fleet was going to come around the planet to strike directly into his opponent’s line of smaller ships. If his opponent sent those ships out to meet this incoming fleet, that would free Plon to send his first and second wave forward, while his third wave and the Ciat kept the opponent’s larger ships engaged. The beginning of the end for his opponent was rapidly heading this way, and Plon could almost feel sorry for the loss it would inflict on this proud species.

  “Maybe you’ll give up and I’ll get to meet you anyway,” Plon said as he looked out the top bubble at both of the large enemy ships. Aboard one of them, his opponent had to be found.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Captain, probe five is picking up another group of ships coming around from the backside of the planet!” the Tracking Specialist reported.

  “What’s the sector, specialist,” Roger said in a cool, calm voice.

  “K15, Captain,” the Specialist responded. His tone came down to match that of Roger’s.

  Philip admired how Roger had kept his demeanor neutral regardless of the seriousness of the situation. His ability to keep calm ensured that his bridge crew wouldn’t feel a need to panic, which could lead to mistakes. Philip could see that his belief that Roger was ready for promotion to Admiral was sound.

  Roger pressed an option on the command arm that overlaid the tactical display with crisscrossing gridlines. The faded-grey letter and number combinations could be clearly seen in each square. Finding K15, Philip could see it represented the right side of the back quarter of the planet and beyond.

  “Christ, Roger, they are going to drive right smack into the gunships and destroyers,” Philip said a bit louder than he intended.

  “Now may be a good time to recall those ships and get the crews transferred, Admiral,” Roger replied.

  Not taking the time to reply, Philip activated the comm. “To all ships from Admiral Litton, it’s time to move. Follow the pre-planned evacuation.”

  Roger got up quickly while ordering, “Nav, emergency maneuvers. Bring us around one-eighty to starboard. Make for the station. Keep your turn on the inside radios of the Poniard to avoid collision.”

  While Roger took charge of getting the Conviction in motion, Philip kept his eyes on tactical to see how his fleet maneuvered. The gunships already made their run for the backside of the station, and the destroyers were swinging in behind to ward off any pursuit.

  The area in front of where the gunships had been positioned now reflected an odd speckling on the tactical screen. At first, Philip was confused by it, but then he realized the gunships had fired their canisters of chaff to confuse the laser-guided weaponry of the alien ships. Nodding, Philip thought that was the perfect time to use it. They could now retreat without taking heavy fire and that chaff would protect the destroyers, too.

  Taking in the other ships, he could see the cruisers were pulling away in preparation for making their jump into warp. The Conviction lurched forward and began a sharp right swing to the right. Directly ahead, the Poniard did the same. Philip could see that the Curanians had yet to react to his ships pulling back from the encircled position. He felt thankful for that inaction that would only help him reposition to protect the gunships as their crews fled to the safety of the destroyers. The cruisers, the Conviction and the Poniard continued to pour murderous fire into the Curanian ships as they turned.

  Finally completing her turn, the Conviction now pushed toward the station with all the speed she could muster. On their left and slightly behind, the Poniard did the same. The Curanian ships turned in what appeared to be an attempt to keep broadside against a simple fleet maneuver rather than fully buying into his retreat. The sight gave him respect for the Curanian commander. Rather than buying into his retreat, his foe kept his ships in battle formation against any trick maneuver that Philip could have been planning. His caution would work in Philip’s favor this day, thankfully.

  By the time the Conviction and Poniard had completed their sweep around their opponent’s flank and took up guard positions between the Rapatine Station and the Curanian fleet, the gunships were already on the far side of the station with shuttles pulling alongside to dock. The destroyers were just reaching the backside of the station where they would take up guarding positions against any sudden appearance of ships coming around the left side of the planet.

  Laser light shot forward in a clear attempt to target the destroyers, but it was deflecting in all directions as it reflected off all the floating metal shards. Philip took note of this as it appeared quite effective at keeping his enemy fire at bay. He knew he needed to get that information back to Earth at the first opportunity, so they would be armed with that information and make good use of it.

  Getting his thoughts back onto what needed to be done, Philip activated the comm to set up a direct link with the station where a small detachment of demolition experts from his marine division awaited orders. “This is Admiral Litton, set the demolition charges for thirty-minute delay and evacuate per plan.”

  Looking at the large Curanian ship, Philip would have loved to stick around to see how they would respond to the fireworks that were going to go off in thirty minutes, but he planned on having his fleet a few million kilometers away by that time.

  As much as the loss of Rapatine was going to hurt, he was going to deny the Curanians any ability to make use of it. The pre-set charges would blow the station to pieces. The controller for the charges not only tied to the charges on the station, but also to the charges in the buildings on the planet. They would all go up together. Even the gunships had charges in place so they could be blown up once they were safely evacuated.

  As a precaution, Philip already had the archives and data stores on the station wiped clean, along with those on the planet. The backup data from the archives had been loaded on a ship that was now safely docked back on Earth. Maybe he couldn’t save Rapatine, but he made sure that all the proprietary data from the companies that had resided here remained intact.

  ◆◆◆

  At first, Plon wasn’t sure he believed his opponent was truly giving up the fight. When the big ships repositioned in front of the floating station, he thought they had repositioned to meet both fleets head-on. It looked like a valiant last stand for a proud species. However, their true intention became clear when the screening ships began jumping into stage-two. In had become evident that the large ships were only buying time for the others.

  He was even more impressed with the strange and ingenious use of small pieces of metal that proved more than effective in defeating his ability to fire upon the smaller ships when they retreated. He ordered his ships to drive forward to get through that interference, but he suspected it would not be in time to keep them from jumping o
ut to safety somewhere.

  The use of that strange material made him wonder why the other ships hadn’t had it too. It seemed like an effective way to create havoc with his ships’ ability to fire upon them. Plon could see how he would have used it if he had been in their position. Fire his weapons, shoot out the metal to prevent return fire, and then fire another volley. He could have repeated that over and over again to inflect maximum damage with minimal return fire. Nodding to himself, he felt thankful they had not done it that way, for he didn’t see any easy solution around that strategy. Between the strange, but effective, material the small ships had used, and the apparent retreat by his foe, he became confused as to why they were running away.

  “Why would you abandon your home? Wouldn’t you want to stay here and defend it to the very end?” Plon asked himself as he stared at his tactical view.

  Something didn’t seem right. Plon would never have given up defending his home planet, so why would these creatures? They put up such a valiant defense. Why give up while you still have a sizable fleet? There has to be a logical reason for it. What am I missing?

  “Plon, the fleet awaits your orders.”

  Plon looked down at Jime, and then ignored her. He felt like he would be playing into the strategy of his opponent if he tried to finish them off. He was sure they were going to stand their ground until all the other ships were away, and then they would depart, too. Plon failed to see any gain to be made by trying to inflict further damage to them that would result in more damage to him. He also feared they might have those same metal chunks to fire out in front of them, to allow them to fire at him while he would be unable to inflict serious damage back onto them.

  “No, my friend, you will not get to do that. I’ll let you slip away to fight another day.”

  He would let them go and then send a fast attack to track them down again. This would give him time to repair his damage and reorganize for another planned attack.

  “Control to all ships, stand down. We’ll let them go for now.”

  ◆◆◆

  “All shuttles have been retrieved, Admiral,” Roger reported as he came back to one the command chairs to sit.

  Philip looked at the countdown on tactical. “Okay, we have twelve minutes before the charges ignite on the station. It’s time to get the hell out of here.”

  “XO, notify the Poniard they are free to make for the rendezvous point,” Roger ordered.

  “I can’t understand why they stayed back,” Philip said while rocking his head up to indicate the portals where the other ships were seen in the distance.

  “It doesn’t make sense to me either. Something has them holding back,” Roger responded.

  “I don’t like it, Roger. They’re up to something. I can feel it.”

  “Perhaps it’s to reorganize their fleet and set up for another run when they track us down again.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Philip responded. “We’ll have an even nastier surprise for them next time.”

  “We did learn one thing, though. That chaff sure did its job in protecting the gunships and destroyers.”

  “Once we get to the rendezvous site ourselves, we’ll have to get an update to Ron on how effective it proved to be.”

  “If every ship had had that in sufficient numbers, we could have played havoc with their fleet and probably won the day,” Roger said.

  In the live viewer, Philip watched the Curanian ships as his two battle cruisers raced away from the station. Reaching a predetermined location, he watched the alien ships as they seemed to push far into the distance, and then they simply dissolved before his eyes as the Conviction shot into warp.

  Thirty-nine minutes later, the Conviction dropped into normal space alongside the Poniard. The other ships were sitting on each side of the entry point. Much deeper into the system, Philip could see another group of ships huddle together. They were clearly his support ships, and he was thankful to have them here to begin fixing what damage they could. The sight of them lifted his dejected spirit of being kicked out of Rapatine. Even though he knew he couldn’t hold the Curanians off, it still hurt to retreat in the face of the enemy. Shaking the sting off, he knew it was time to get his fleet ready for the next battle that was sure to follow.

  “Okay, Roger, let’s get a damage report from all ships. I want to see how badly we got hurt,” Philip said.

  “XO, get a message out to all ships to report their status,” Roger ordered. He then looked back at Philip, and said, “We already know we lost one destroyer and two cruisers, not to mention our gunships we left behind.”

  “We hurt them, Roger,” Philip said with little satisfaction. “Unfortunately, that second fleet of theirs will shore up their losses while we have no reserves to draw from. We got damn lucky in spotting that other fleet in time to get out of there. That was good thinking on your part to recommend getting probes looking around.”

  “Well, Admiral, I like to think I earned my pay today,” Roger responded.

  “Perhaps that and more because they damn near caught me with my pants down.” Philip slapped the armrest with his left hand in frustration. The loud slap caused some of the bridge crew to turn to see what was happening.

  “I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it, Admiral. You accomplished exactly what you set out to do. You gave them a black eye and then got out of there in one piece. Now, if they follow us here, they are going to have a whole new mess on their hands.”

  “I suppose,” Philip responded. He wasn’t really in the forgiving mood to let himself off the hook that fast. Shifting thoughts, he opened a comm channel. “This is the Admiral. All ships to form into defensive position. It’s time to execute the second phase of the plan. Notify me at once if you need further direction.”

  Roger’s XO came forward in preparation for orders to move the ship. Roger looked up at him, and said, “You heard the order, XO.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The tactical display showed a fleet on the move. In a well-practiced maneuver, all the ships moved further into the system before swinging to place the surviving destroyers into a picket line between the drop area and the other ships. The Conviction and Poniard moved broadside behind the pickets with the remaining cruisers taking up position on each side.

  “Damage reports coming in now, Captain,” The XO said. “I am putting it on overhead.”

  Philip scanned the screen where each ship was listed along with their damages. Shaking his head, Philip said, “They hit us hard, Roger. All but one destroyer is showing moderate hull damage, and two have at least one turret out. The cruisers didn’t fare much better. They're all reporting shield generator stress that will require a day to overhaul. Turret damage has them down to 40% battle efficiency.”

  “The good news is that the Conviction and Poniard are still 90% operational,” Roger said. “We have four shield generators needed service ourselves, and the Poniard notes they have three.”

  “I guess it could be worse,” Philip said.

  Roger stared out the forward view ports. “At least you had the foresight to send the support ships here a couple of days ago. If we can get the time, we can get back into battle strength rather quickly. Replacing our damaged plasma cannons would get our fire power up to full strength. Overhauling the generators would get us to close to 100%”

  “Yes, but only if they give us the time.” Philip let his voice trail off as he stared at the tactical display. He half expected to see the Curanian fleet dropping right into the middle of everything to begin punishing his ships anew. At least this time he would not have to run. He had a nasty surprise for them.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “What can you tell me about that ship, Peggy?” Admiral Ron Ackerman asked.

  Peggy, who sat next to her boss, Julian, in Ron’s office, said, “Unfortunately, we do not know much more than we did before we obtained it. Its composite does not match anything from our periodic table of elements. Its propulsion is still a mystery, and in my communica
tion with the ship’s interface, I cannot get much helpful information. It either does not contain the data that would help us resolve this ship’s mystery, or it is programmed not to relay that information.”

  “I read the report from Commander Palmer,” Ron said. “She noted that the Auspicious could not pick up any readings from the ship at all. According to her report, they didn’t even know you were there until they had visual confirmation. How do you explain that?”

  “We did our own test on the ship’s hull. No matter what we tried to bounce off the surface, it was simply absorbed. We even pointed a laser light at it. The beam could be seen running from the laser to the hull, but we might as well have been trying to shoot it through a black hole. No laser light showed on the hull itself. Our theory is that the external hull absorbs whenever touches it—light or otherwise. Whether it bleeds it off somehow, or fuses it into its own chemistry, I cannot say. We cannot even take anything apart because we cannot figure out how anything is attached. It is like the entire ship was created from one giant mold, and I am talking everything.”

  “Peggy’s right, Ron,” Julian said. “The design of this ship is so far beyond us it would be like a caveman trying to decipher how a radio worked. We don’t even know where to start. The last thing we want to do is risk damaging the technology by diving into something we don’t understand. It would help if we had a basic core composite to start from and worked our way up from there. However, the characteristic of the technology this alien culture uses defies the very basics of human science. Even the propulsion system is nothing we have ever experienced before. It makes us nervous even thinking about trying to take it apart. We don’t want another Europe disaster on our hands if that thing blew up on us. We have no idea what it’s made of, runs on or anything in how it works. It would be like letting a child run amuck inside an old nuclear reactor.”

  “So, you’re telling me it was a huge waste of time bringing this ship back to Earth, and we will probably lose the Rapatine colony for nothing!”