by PP Corcoran
“My Stephano gave this to me after the birth of our first son and I would like you to have it to remember Stephano by.”
Analisa accepted the gift as her eyes misted over. She went to reply but her voice had betrayed her. Instead she wrapped Rosetta in her arms as the tears began to run down her cheeks. The walk back to the ground car, which had taken her to the waiting shuttle, had been a blur. It was only as she stepped from the shuttle into the boat bay of Furious that she at last managed to return to her normal self and had immersed herself in rebuilding her badly battered command.
Analisa berated herself for her melancholy and with a newfound sense of purpose, tapped her wrist comm.
“Communications. Lieutenant Hom.”
“Lieutenant, track down my staff and let them know I want a briefing on fleet resources remaining in system and suggestions on how best to employ them. Tell them to be prepared to brief me at…” Analisa checked the time on her wrist comm. Damn! It was after midnight. “Zero eight hundred.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll get right on it.”
“Chavez clear.”
Her staff weren’t the only ones that would have a busy night as Analisa headed for her quarters and the mountain of paperwork that had been slowly building up as her command licked its wounds and regained its former strength.
#
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT – GENEVA – EARTH – SOL SYSTEM
The sun was beating down on a Geneva that was enjoying the last hot days of summer before the cooling autumn arrived. Rebecca Coston was enjoying the view of the sailboats on the lake when the intercom beeped for attention. Rebecca dragged herself away from the view and touched a control on her desk.
“Yes, Jim?”
“The delegation from the Benii Federation has arrived, Madam President”
The Commonwealth leadership and the delegation from Benii were due to meet later this afternoon. An early morning call from the foreign affairs liaison requesting a meeting alone with Rebecca on an urgent matter had caused a mild panic in the scheduler’s office, but the Benii request had been granted.
“Show them in please, Jim.”
As her office doors opened to admit the Benii, Rebecca stepped forward to greet them noticing that there was only the Benii lead delegate, Representative Hoolas, and High Commander Botac. The hairs on the back of Rebecca’s neck began to stand up. The Benii had only arrived yesterday and they had been greeted with a full state dinner attended by Rebecca, Prime Minister Bezled and Chairman Taarov. In Rebecca’s opinion, the evening had been a resounding success, although it was obvious that the Benii were still finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that the Commonwealth was a society based on gender equality.
Rebecca guided the two Benii over to a small area where some comfortable chairs were arranged around a low coffee table. On hearing of the short notice meeting, two members of the housekeeping staff had appeared and replaced the chairs which normally sat here with ones more suitable for the Benii’s elongated frames.
“So, how may I be of assistance, Representative Hoolas?”
Hoolas gave the High Commander a sideways glance before answering. “Madam President we are…eh… concerned over the sudden movement of so many of your warships. Is there something we should be made aware of?”
So that was it. The movement of First Fleet would have been hard to miss, especially when one of your visiting Benii admiral’s tour is cut short and they are virtually flung off the ship they were touring. Well, Aaron always said the truth is best in difficult situations.
“The Commonwealth has received a request to come to the assistance of the Empire of Alona. They have detected a large fleet of ships approaching their system and believe them to belong to the species we call the Others…”
“The Destroyers of Worlds are attacking Alona?” blurted out a shocked Hoolas.
“Unfortunately, the intelligence we have received leaves us in no doubt that it is in fact them.”
“But Alona is over 50,000 light years from here. From the briefings I have read, their ships are not equipped with engines that would allow them to cover such massive distances without taking inordinate amounts of time to do so,” interjected Botac.
Rebecca could only nod in agreement. “I admit that our military leaders are at a loss to explain their presence in Alona. We had believed that the Others were restricted to areas of the galaxy where we already had contact with them but it would appear that we were wrong in our assessments of the extent of their reach.”
Representative Hoolas quickly regained her composure. “It would be our understanding, Madam President, that the Commonwealth and Alona do not have a treaty which compels the Commonwealth to come to the aid of Alona if she is attacked.”
“That is correct, there is no formal treaty requiring us to intervene but, and the whole of the Commonwealth agrees on this point, there is a moral compulsion for us to prevent an attack which would undoubtedly end in the extinction of the Alonan race.”
Representative Hoolas leaned back in her over-sized seat and looked past Rebecca out over the still waters of Lake Geneva and thought how much it reminded her of her home, so far away, and wondered who would come to its aid if the Destroyers of Worlds were to darken its clear-blue skies. Standing, she reached out her hand in a gesture she had seen the humans do the night before. A slightly startled Rebecca took the proffered hand in hers, and slowly shook it.
“Thank you for your time, Madam President. I look forward to our discussions later.”
“My pleasure, Madam Representative, and I hope I have managed to lay your concerns to rest.”
“Indeed you have.”
As Hoolas and Botac left her office, Rebecca had the feeling that the Benii had reached an important decision in their relationship with the Commonwealth.
#
ALONA – MESSIER 54 – 50,000 LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH
First Fleet’s arrival in the Alonan system was met with a sense of relief from Grand Admiral Raga as he stood in the war room deep below the Imperial Palace. The situation board, which covered one entire wall of the subterranean room, had been split into two separate screens. On one half was the latest update from the Vaspar cruisers, which were taking it in turns to fold out to a position beyond the enemy’s weapons range to check on their progress. Against all hope, the Others had slowed their approach and were barely crawling through the outer reaches of the system. That provided no solace to any of the mining colonies that happened to lie in their path. Each had been reduced to radioactive dust by the passing enemy fleet.
The second screen showed the inner system with Alona and Geta slowly orbiting the star at the heart of the system. Alona’s orbit meant that it lay in an almost direct path between the enemy fleet and the star. Clustered around Alona were a few, too few, blue icons that represented the remaining Vaspar cruisers and the under-armed and under-powered ships of the Imperial Navy. But with the arrival of the Commonwealth fleet, the odds were turning in favor of Alona.
“Incoming signal from the Commonwealth flagship, sir. He has confirmed that he has orders to engage the enemy and is awaiting your permission to do so.”
Raga slapped one balled fist into his open palm as his body bent at the waist as if he could physically reach out and destroy the intruders by sheer force of will only.
“Permission granted.”
#
Ipres Garal leaned heavily on the rail surrounding the control deck of his flagship, The Creator’s Wrath. Garal had been forced to slow his approach to the heretics’ planet as the prey that he was here to destroy had failed to appear but now, now they had arrived and it was time to show these heretics the way of the Ehita and rip their beating hearts from their chests. He only hoped that the Creator blessed Tama Narath and his part of the Creator’s plan.
“Tactical. Activate the buoys!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
In Earth Space
BEYOND THE ORBIT OF PLUTO – SOL SYSTEM
&nb
sp; “Watch out for that tumbling motion, Johnny. If that thing hits the arm the wrong way, it’ll rip it right off and you can explain that one to the boss.”
Johnny Ciotti mumbled something under his breath that didn’t sound too complimentary, but his full concentration remained on the slowly tumbling Sherlock platform that he was currently trying to grab with the maintenance shuttle’s grapple arm. Forget the arm, he thought, that platform is the size of a small ground car and worth more than the entire three-man maintenance crew and the wreck of a shuttle they were aboard put together. What the hell is it doing so far out here anyway? We’re way beyond the surveillance shell. With a gentle nudge of the joystick, the grapple arm locked onto the platform and Johnny tossed his head back and smiled smugly at Fiona.
“And that will be a beer you owe me.”
The look Fiona gave him as she left for the maintenance bay told him he may be waiting a long time for that beer. Shaking his head despondently, Johnny got up from his chair to follow her.
Twenty minutes later, Fiona had the guidance package stripped down and was brandishing a circuit panel with a neat little round hole in it. “Well, there you have it, folks. Looks like a micro-meteorite hit. We should have a spare in the standard maintenance pack we’ll have this little puppy back up and working in no time.”
Johnny was running his finger down the fault list on his PAD and grimaced as his eyes lit on another fault report. “Hold your horses there, cowboy. Those desk jockeys at Central Command report an intermittent fault in the detection and identification system. Says here this thing is reporting sightings of a Saiph star drive every thirty days on the button and has been for six months now.” Johnny’s head shook in disgust. “So first they let this thing wonder off all the way out here then ignore another fault for six months. The area controller probably got sick of the same fault blinking on his screen so passed it to us to clear it.” Johnny picked up the screw gun and got to work on the panel covering the detection system. This may take longer than we thought.
For an hour, Johnny tried everything he knew to find a fault in the detection and identification system but he was damned if he could find one. Admitting defeat, he called Fiona over. “If there’s a fault in the detection system, I can’t find it. Maybe you’ll have better luck.”
Fiona swaggered toward him and Johnny braced himself for the sarcastic remarks he knew were coming when the hooting of the collision alarm nearly deafened him. Johnny made for the maintenance bay entrance at a dead run with Fiona hard on his heels. The shuttle wasn’t that big. An engineering space, a maintenance bay, and a small living area just behind the cockpit, so it took only seconds for Johnny to arrive in the cramped cockpit where the third member of the crew, Jiri Okoro, was frantically going through the engine start-up sequence with one hand while trying to plot a course back to Earth with the other.
Fiona slipped into the co-pilot’s seat and killed the collision alarm. “What’s going on, Jiri?”
Jiri never lifted his eyes from the controls. “Shut up, Fiona, I’m trying to concentrate!”
Fiona glanced over her shoulder, her eyebrows drawn together in a mix of worry and confusion. Johnny, who was still standing in the cockpit entranceway, put a hand on Jiri’s shoulder.
“Hey, Jiri. What’s got you so spooked?”
“Look at the proximity sensor, man!”
Johnny looked at the display on the center console and his heart stopped. Less than 200 kilometers from the tiny shuttle was the largest collection of ships he had ever seen. Johnny was still looking at the display in amazement as he landed on his rear end as Jiri fired up the engines and pushed the throttles through the fire walls to get the shuttle up to fold speed.
#
“I’m sorry, Tama Narath, I failed to detect the small ship on our exit from fold space and now it has escaped.”
Narath placed a reassuring hand on the young warrior’s shoulder. “Do not worry yourself, it was the Creator’s will. Now let us turn to the task at hand. Order the ships carrying the remaining buoys to fold to their targets immediately. Once they are away I want you to send the activation signal to the buoys already in place. The final stages of the Ehita are upon us.”
#
EARTH ORBIT – SOL SYSTEM
Aboard the Furious, the battle station’s alarm shrieked throughout the ship and Analisa Chavez left the remains of her late lunch sitting as she raced for the flag bridge, hurriedly securing her uniform blouse as she did so. As she raced along the corridor heading for the elevator she passed crew members running for their posts. On reaching the elevator, she punched in her override code and the elevator took her directly to the flag bridge. The marine on duty was already opening the bulkhead door as she exited the elevator and she slowed her headlong run as she entered the bridge and stopped in front of the tactical holo cube which filled the center of the bridge.
“Speak to me, people!”
“Admiral, five minutes ago, a maintenance shuttle that had been out beyond the surveillance shell arrived within the inner marker, screaming it had observed an unidentified fleet emerge from fold space. I was about to order one of the Havoc destroyers to head that way to investigate when three bogeys appeared out of fold space and began engaging any ship in range. Before the Viper defense platforms could fire, the bogeys had destroyed at least one freighter and damaged two others. Damage reports are still coming in and I expect more casualties. Central Command went weapons-free on the Vipers who successfully engaged the bogeys and all three are reported destroyed.”
Analisa’s brain was running at top speed as the holo cube icons representing every Commonwealth ship in Earth orbit were rapidly changing color from the yellow of a ship in orbit to blue as each ship in turn reported ready at battle stations.
“Do we have any idea who they were?”
“Computer made an initial identification but it didn’t make sense to me so I have it running again.”
Analisa tore her eyes away from the holo cube and zeroed in on the tactical officer. “What do you mean, it didn’t make sense?”
The poor lieutenant wilted under her glare as his reply came out in a stutter. “The… the computer initially called the bogeys Buzzards, but that couldn’t have been right, the Others don’t have gravity drives.”
Analisa knew the lieutenant was right. The Others used an alcubierre drive to travel the vast distances involved in interstellar travel. Only the Commonwealth and now Alona had gravity drive technology. Well, the Others have it now too, thought Analisa. And if they do, we have a lot less time to get organized than I thought we did. All our defense plans called for home fleet to fold out to wherever the enemy fleet had been detected and fight a long-range battle with gravity drive missiles, but if the enemy have the ability to use fold space to jump in behind us, we can’t afford to leave Earth uncovered, especially with Home Fleet out in Alona. Time to call the cavalry.
“Communications. Fleet signal. Activate Case Purple. The fleet will adopt defensive positions supported by the fixed orbital defense platforms. Let’s get communication drones away to all Commonwealth naval bases, requesting they immediately dispatch ships to our aid. Tactical, get with Central Command, we need to ensure we coordinate our fire with the platforms.”
A chorus of aye-ayes came from her staff as they got to work. Analisa forced herself to relax a little. Her communications drones would reach every fleet base within a few minutes and shortly thereafter she knew that every Commonwealth commander would move heaven and earth to get to her aid as quickly as they could. Case Purple was her worst-case scenario where she would augment the firepower of the fleet using the orbital defense platforms and the fixed defenses on the planet below. She couldn’t hold forever but she could hold long enough for help to arrive and that was long enough.
“Admiral. The drones. They’re all reporting drive failures.”
Analisa felt her heart skip a beat. “What? All of them? That’s impossible!”
#
&nbs
p; “The buoys have been activated, Tama Narath. The heretics can no longer use their gravity drives to escape the Creator’s vengeance.”
Narath’s face contorted into what passed for a satisfied smile, his near-translucent skin wrinkling as his mouth opened and showed sharp pointed teeth. The Creator’s plan is revealing itself as promised. Praise the Creator. The new drive systems the Creator had revealed to the chosen people had been retrofitted into the ships of the people and they had built the buoys that had been seeded so patiently over the last year in the systems controlled by the heretics. No vessel equipped with the heretics’ gravity drive could operate within the disruption field generated by the buoys, the last of which had been emplaced by the three ships which had so selflessly sacrificed themselves in the face of the heretics’ planetary defenses. By his calculations, it would take five days for his fleet to reach the planet the heretics of this system called home. It was a pity the buoys’ disruption fields affected his own ships’ drive as well as that of the heretics, but it was no matter. Narath intended to advance on the planet, mopping up any outpost the heretics may have established in this system. Then he would cleanse their world in nuclear fire. Deactivate the buoys and move onto the next world of the heretics. The one they called Janus. The path of the Ehita was long but Aseena awaited him.
