Coming Home (Free Fleet Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Good. I want the generators running. Nav, plot our next route.”

  “Clear out to one AU,” Qurv the sensor commander said, a slight Sarenmenti lisp making him sound liked a snake rather than the clicking and grunting most Sarenmenti sounded like without a translator.

  “Charging wormhole generators; five hours until we're ready,” Wilma said.

  “Go-”

  “I'm getting radio signals emanating from a planet,” Kyle said, cutting off Bregend's response.

  “Log it. Qurv, launch a sensor buoy and a stealth information collector.”

  No one said anything, they didn't have time to sightsee. There was still a lot of distance to cover till they got to PC.

  ***

  Cheerleader tapped her fingers as Prancer came back into the system where she and half of her fleet were waiting. Durfna, Prancer's sister corvette, followed a minute after.

  “They're within time check; all clear,” Jorvut grunted. He was one of the first generation of Chaleelian Free Fleet personnel. Cheerleader had lost her old sensor commander to the training halls that took Chaleelians, Avarians, and anyone that wanted to be trained in something other than the trade they were forced into by the Syndicate.

  “Very well,” Cheerleader said in a light tone, belying the boredom she felt.

  While she had been in command of the fleet that looked to explore the systems surrounding Parnmal, it was time consuming work with eight systems within wormhole range and only one of them not leading to another system while the others had up to four.

  “Speed is level,” Jorvut said after a few seconds of checking.

  Cheerleader had figured out a method of using the jump sensors which got information FTL. With the first few jumps she'd found that each wormhole exit was changed in signature by the speed they entered the wormhole's horizon.

  Thus, if a ship was in a system, gathered all the incoming light from the sun and other star systems, and jumped back with over five minutes between ships—meant that the system was safe in the immediate vicinity. Any other time and it was not. Then speed was used to highlight how many systems were within wormhole jump. Faster than normal, over three, slow—no systems, normal—up to three.

  Which meant that the system that the two ships were in was immediately clear and had up to three systems.

  “Send the Destroyer Hakara, Cruisers Damnation and Throw, as well as Corvette's Speedy and Borva,” Cheerleader said as her combined arms commander sent the orders to the ships, which moved away from Cheerleader towards the incoming corvettes.

  “Werv, you've got command. I'm off,” she said as her shift ended.

  Werv took her seat as she walked out to the mess and grabbed some food.

  “Hey there Onur, Jesse, Simiah,” Cheerleader said to the people at the table she sat down at. They were from all areas of the ship, but they all had joined the gaming club, which was one of the most popular clubs in Cheerleader's fleet.

  “We got the new maps finally,” Simiah said, one of the few Kuruvians that had picked to be female.

  Cheerleader grinned. It had taken months, being sent by Salchar when he freed Earth.

  “Good, we can get to work on setting up another Mecha Assault Cup.” Her grin became serious as she looked at them.

  “Now, we better win here, there is a reputation that I have to uphold. I am from Mecha Tail. Losing is not an option!” she said as her teammates grinned. “I'm being serious here!” She felt the corners of her mouth betrayed her with their small attempts to form into a smile.

  “I don't think I've met a bunch of people that look less serious, well, other than Monk and Salchar,” Onur said as Cheerleader's mouth split into a grin.

  “You haven't seen us when we've had Soju after a championship. I swear that Salchar has never drank alcohol in his life. Great for guiding us home, stumbling as we do.”

  “I heard about your drinking escapades with the Commandos,” Jesse said.

  Cheerleader's face turned a light shade of green. “Calling that drinking would be a compliment. It was a fight to keep gasoline down,” Cheerleader said to their unrelenting grins as she looked at her food. “Just had to bring it up as I'm having dinner,” she looked at the meal, looking mildly disgusted.

  “We heard tales of your vault like stomach from that night.” Jesse grinned knowingly as Cheerleader shrugged and dug into her food.

  “Doesn't look you're having that bad of a time,” Simiah said as Cheerleader looked up, clearing her throat.

  “You're right, Simiah, we should do it as a team next time.” Cheerleader's grin promised sinister things.

  “Uhh, I think I'm needed back in Commando territory,” Jesse said.

  “Yeah, I think the chief needed us back in the gunnery,” Simiah said as they rushed to stand up.

  “We'll play next friday!” Cheerleader said as they rushed to deposit their trays on the return belt. Cheerleader sat at her table, eating her dinner in peace. She grinned slightly at her friends reactions as she opened her data pad and the manga and comic books James had sent with his maps and other electronic entertainment items.

  “Ah, you know me too well, James,” She said as she read. Now, just get me doing something interesting instead of scanning systems!

  Chapter A Rushed Departure.

  “Shuttle's coming in,” Rick said as I stood.

  “Well, I best go greet them.”

  Rick grinned like an idiot as I went by. He knew what I was probably getting myself in to.

  The shuttle came in quickly but under control as Resilient took over and guided it onto the shuttle bay. My transport dropped me off and I looked over the bay.

  Keith Edwards was a wispy looking accountant of a man, wearing a business suit complete with a briefcase, glasses, and furiously typing on his touch pad.

  I went down to meet the man who was glancing around the room. As I got closer, he held out his bag in one hand towards me.

  “Take this to my quarters. I will be on the bridge,” he said dismissively.

  I stopped myself from sighing as Krom grunted. The noise making it clear he was about to separate something from the man's body.

  Edwards looked up to Krom.

  “Remember to muzzle your pets too,” he said with disdain as he looked to me.

  “Well, are you going to take it or leave me, the evaluator of the Free Fleet, keep a hold of it?” The threat was clear as I gave Calerd a head tilt.

  “Very good, you’re learning, James,” he said as the shuttle bay was becoming ominously quiet.

  “Bag,” Calerd said, ripping it from Keith and mangling the handle.

  “I’ll have you know, that bag cost me two thousand dollars, and I will see to it personally that you pay for it,” he said into his touch pad as he made a note.

  The Sarenmenti made an unpleasant noise as he chucked it to a Commando half the shuttle bay away.

  “Find him a room,” Claerd said. The Commando who caught it nodded before moving off.

  “Commandos,” I said in a warning tone. They continued to move as I turned and headed back towards the bridge. I'd had enough of the man already. He'd better learn to shut his mouth or someone will give him a short trip out of an airlock.

  “You’ll be fitted for battle suits and Mechas for your own protection. Shreesht, deal with it.” I heard a noise of annoyance as I lost one member of my protection detail and he indicated for Keith to follow him.

  “I don’t think that will be at all necessary. I have a change of clothes in my briefcase,” Keith said as he continued to look around the shuttle bay and make notes.

  “This is space, not some resort...” Shreesht began as I walked through blast doors into the ship and onto a transport that would take me to the bridge.

  ***

  “Thanks gents,” I said as I pulled my hair back from my face into a fierce pony tail as I entered the main bridge.

  Rick stepped out of my seat and into his own, pulling his work from one to another.
>
  I settled into the familiar seat, putting my helmet on a rack beside it as my computer rolled out my preset screen and began filling it with information I’d be interested in.

  I sat back in my chair for a second as I felt the humming of the war machine beneath me. Even though I couldn’t see the other ships of the fleet I could feel the power I commanded, the power to destroy star systems, to rip asteroids apart as if they were piñatas. I felt a thin grin spread across my face. I looked at the numbers I’d already seen dozens of times by now. It was certain death for my fleet I knew on a level.

  But with my ships in their condition, personnel levels, and armament readiness would make one hell of a dent. Hell, I was looking to make the biggest damned dent I could. My best bet was that Parnmal would survive. My Fleet would see to that. If I was gone, the command structure was strong enough that Monk or Cheerleader could take over, and Cheerleader had her own Fleet which was off some where to keep Parnmal and the rest going, as well as the ships we’d seeded in Earth, AIH and Chaleel. The Free Fleet would recuperate even if me and my fleet wasn’t there.

  I looked to Rick who looked up at me, sensing my stare as he reflected my half-crazed grin. We both knew all that they could do to us was kill us. It was comforting in an odd way to know that death awaited us all, and that it was not something to be feared. It was something to make the best use of and be prepared that eventually it all comes for us.

  “Ben, are we all set?” I asked my navigation, the Kuruvian turning and grinning to me.

  “Yes, Commander.”

  “Combined, Helm, and Nav, get us out of Nancy and into formation Romeo Foxtrot Alpha Three.”

  The bridge came alive as commanders began talking in business tones and Milra my helmswoman proceeded to undock from Nancy.

  “Releasing clamps and moving free of Nancy's supports.” She paused as she confirmed that. “Powering main engines.” A few minutes later.

  “We'll be free in twenty seconds. Following Nav's plot.”

  “Very well,” I said as I saw a smile appear on Milra's face.

  Now I just have to wait till we get there, I thought as I continued to look over my fleet and see what else it needed as my two dreadnoughts, three battle cruisers, one destroyer, four cruisers, and fifteen corvettes came into formation.

  And hope that my crazy assed plan works.

  It would be four days until we made it to the jump point and then off to Chaleel, AIH, and finally Parnmal.

  “Sensors, pass me the latest readings for AIH.”

  I saw the map populate my screen and I threw it up on my personal hologram so it floated above my head and in front of me as I rotated it around.

  “Nav, could you give me a best time plot through AIH.” It took a few minutes but it appeared as I saw where the fleet would pass through.

  “Engineering,” I said to my computer and it connected me to Eddie.

  “Commander?” he asked, sounding tired already.

  “How are the power plants?”

  “Purring like kittens, sir!” Eddie said, his voice seemed to regain some energy and pride.

  “Good going there, chief, now we’ll be able to pummel these bastards.”

  “Yes, sir, we will do that. I have my people suiting up to install the remaining guns we have in our hold. The Resilient still won’t be near her prime.” The sadness crept in again.

  “But she’ll plow on as she’s always done,” I said.

  “That she shall!” he said, pride evident through his chest.

  “Good luck.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  I cut the channel and I began running some simulations to see if my crazy idea would work. About an hour later I sat back and stretched. “Rick, conference room.”

  He looked at me quizzically. The watch officer took my chair as we moved to the room.

  I threw a hologram into the middle of the table.

  “The hell is that?” Rick asked as he took a seat.

  “Armor,” I said as I had the hologram show it’s schematics.

  He looked up at me. “Damn.” Rick whistled as he sat back in his chair. “That’s some armor. Good thing we made fusion plants replacement the top priority.”

  “Yes, and timing is going to be hell.”

  “Yes, plus, getting some the right size would be a pain,” he said, grinning. He was clearly already sold on the idea.

  “I’m working on a sensor algorithm for that.”

  He looked in my eyes. “So, one last charge.”

  “Yes, right down their damn throats.” My Avarian changes appeared and I growled; Krom growled with me, his eyes dark. Where as a normal human would have been scared, Rick grinned like a wolf with us

  “Well, sir, I don’t think Eddie will like it, but I have one alteration.”

  “Oh?” I asked as Rick expanded the hologram and modified it. “Oh,” I said, nodding appreciatively as Rick grinned like the proverbial cat with the canary.

  After a few more hours we emerged.

  “Alright, take a break. I’ll run the shop for a few hours. Go check on our people,” I said to Rick as he gave a two finger salute before wandering off.

  I sat back in my chair as I looked over the goings on of my Fleet. We continued to near the jump point while I worked on my side project.

  I figured I’d tell Eddie when we were in AIH so he had less time to throw a fit over the idea.

  I looked over reports from Henry on the readiness of the Commandos. They were even eager, though this wasn’t out of blood lust or war mongering, just a sense of duty to their friends, family, and people they knew on Parnmal station.

  After a few hours, I wandered my way to the sparring rooms of the Commandos and I went through a few rounds with the men and women there. It felt good to be down where the meat met the metal. These people were different from everyone, even most of the other people of the fleet. They were the ones that would see death coming and charge it down a corridor in another warship. Their humor wasn’t kind and neither were they, but there was a kind of camaraderie that couldn’t be explained, that linked all of them together and would make them die for the one to the left or right of them, even if they didn’t know them much.

  I divided my attention between roaming the ship and seeing my people to checking on the condition of my other ships.

  Time passed quickly and I found myself on the bridge as the wormhole generators hummed. They started their now reduced six hour charging cycle. Helm and navigation were already inter-linked across the fleet and with one another.

  My personal comms chirruped with a private channel.

  “Commander Salchar, this is Chief Brusk. I found a Mr. Edwards looking around my weapon mounts.”

  “Send him my way with a pair of guards,” I said as I wondered what happened to the last pair.

  “With pleasure, sir,” he said, cutting the channel and I opened a private channel with Mr. Edwards’ guards. Their vitals were fine as I accessed their mecha readouts.

  “How is the prisoner?”

  “Been in his room for the past five hours, Commander. We were aiming on getting him when we made jump.”

  “Could you check on him?”

  “Yes, sir.” A few moments later. “Sir, it seems that he’s escaped. We’ll search him down.” The Commandos voice was harsh.

  “It’s okay, Commando, come to the bridge. We’ve got Mr. Edwards in our custody again. I just wanted to see how he got out.”

  “I will take full responsibility.”

  “It’s not your fault, Commando, you didn’t know what you were dealing with before hand. Now you do. Report to me soon.”

  “On our way, sir.”

  I'm just not going to get a break with this guy. Edwards had treated me and mine as we were a doormat, essentially. He had been found trying to get into every area we told him not to be in. He raged about the food, and then complained that we weren't feeding him when he didn't accept it.

  The man had no regard fo
r anyone but himself. He couldn't care less what we thought of him, and he only saw our attempts to stop him getting into secure areas as some kind of impingement on his rights, which he still quoted from the United States. After trying to reason with the man, I'd given up and given him guards. Guards which he'd learned to dupe.

  I turned to Dave.

  “Seems that Mr. Edwards slipped his room and got onto the gun deck.”

  Dave's face turned sour, an expression I had rarely seen.

  “We're going to have to put that guy in the brig for his own good,” Dave said and I nodded.

  “We'll see what information he's gathering then we'll decide.”

  Calerd and Dave tensed behind my seat as Edwards was guided in front of me with two gun monkeys in their specialty gun crew Mechas.

  Edwards straightened his back, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently as he stood in front of me, still wearing a suit instead of the battle suit provided to him.

  “Are we wasting your time, Mr. Edwards?” I said lightly, but there was no missing the iron in my voice.

  “Yes, I was sent here to evaluate this ship and this fleet; not to be pulled around this ship at your whim, like some kind of warlord.”

  “What gives you the authority?”

  “The United States and the entirety of planet Earth,” he said defiantly.

  “You see, I don’t hear anything about me or one of my subordinates allowing you to do that. Calerd, if you had someone walking around your base, trying to take the plans of your nuclear weapons, what would you do?” I asked, my eyes not leaving Edwards.

  “Restrain them, place them in complete isolation, and then send them off to be interrogated and their information spilled.”

  “I thought as much,” I said as I raised an eyebrow to Edwards.

  “You want to compare rail guns to a nuclear bomb?” Edwards asked, his face showing how ridiculous he thought it was.

  “Are you an idiot?” Marleen asked, voicing my thoughts from her place at tactical. Her helmet was off, her head recessed in the armored shoulders that held the exoskeleton.

  “Comparing them to a nuclear device-” Edwards said, as if talking to a three year old and getting clearly angry by the reddish tint his face was taking on.