“I believe the Commodore is waiting for you in the conference room.” The young woman said. “I am sure he will explain.”
The door to the station opened and Dalton could see two guards standing on either side of the entry. He assumed that had the woman not tapped in the correct sequence into the panel, the armed men would have rushed in to protect the station. The new paranoia aboard the station disturbed Captain Dalton. He had never known Chang to be so concerned with security. The past three months changed the former ship’s commander and made him sharper and a keener strategic thinker.
This section of the station was dedicated military operations. There were very few decorations on the walls and the carpeting was short and utilitarian. Dark blue uniforms and tan slacks moved along the corridors, nodding to the captains as they walked towards the central conference room. Dalton noticed guards posted at the access hatches.
“Yeoman,” asked Captain Nadeau. “Is the restaurant that serves Boeurf Bourguignon still open on level six-A? I have not had a decent meal in weeks.”
“The restaurant is on Level nine, sir.” The yeoman replied. “Section0G. They don’t open until seven and the reservation list is full for the next three months. I can ask Commodore Chang to see if he can get you in, but I doubt it will have much effect. The owner is very picky.”
Nadeau looked back to Dalton and nodded. The question had been a transparent attempt to probe the yeoman for knowledge but it succeeded in confirming that the station had not been taken over or captured. The confirmation relieved Dalton’s anxiety over the increased security but raised new concerns over the reasons. The added result of the question was to make Dalton hungry. He had also not eaten a restaurant quality meal in some time. He would have to tease Nadeau later regarding his obsession with food.
They continued until they came to the large door that led into the conference room. More guards were posted outside the large portal. Each man was armed with a large rifle. A felinoid officer was standing outside the door with another handheld scanner. He extended it to Dalton. The captain pressed his palm to the scanner and waited. After Nadeau repeated the procedure, the ensign tapped the device and waited. When the scanner emitted a series of beeps, the brown-furred officer turned to the door and palmed the access panel.
The doors were originally built to allow cargo into the holding bay. It slid aside along smooth tracks to admit the captains. The yeoman left them as they entered the room. The conference center was full with officers as Dalton and Nadeau walked past the doorframe. It slid shut behind them and Dalton could hear magnetic seals engage. He was met with handshakes and welcomes from the assembled crowd.
There was no one in the room; it seemed, below the rank of commander. Dalton had not seen so many ship Captains assembled since the invasion. He was ushered over to a table that held soft drinks and some pastries while being asked about his mission near Karisia. Zeus had been on patrol for close to two months now and he had not had much of a chance to meet the other ship commanders since rejoining the fleet. The realization that Chang had recalled all or most of the fleet struck Dalton as dangerous. If the Commodore had felt the need to have his subordinates gather like this, then something big must be in the works.
“Your attention, please,” the voice of Commodore Chang echoed over the crowd. “If I could have your attention, please. You may be seated at this time.”
The crowd calmed and the assembly turned to face the head of the room. A long table had been set up on the far wall where Chang was addressing the group. There were other tables set in rows for the captains. People began to drift back towards the seating areas with their drinks. Dalton looked to Nadeau as they walked to the nearest table. The two men were keeping a close eye on the crowd for any signs of suspicious activity.
“Thank you all for returning to Perigee and leaving your ships to come here on such short notice,” Chang began. “I assure you, the trip will be worth your trouble.”
The captains began to settle and a few shouted out last messages for their friends. Several of the ship commanders seemed to be glaring at Chang in anger. Dalton thought he recognized one as the captain of the Tonantzen, a supply ship that had once been part of his own carrier group. The man had been a thorn in Dalton’s side for years. He had always felt that the man had aspirations towards politics and had only been serving in the fleet to further a political agenda. Now it seemed that he looked down on his own commander as if Chang had destroyed his political career himself.
“Captains,” Chang began. “I want to reassure you that the reason for your return is serious and I will be expecting your full cooperation on these matters. If I may begin by introducing you to the fleet’s newest operative. Captain Connor Jakes.”
The crowd nearly leapt to its feet as the oily haired pirate captain stepped in from a nearby door. He was wearing his trademark white tunic and black vest with black trousers. He still needed a shave but his long hair had been tied back into a neat tail. Several of the captains nearly shouted their objection to the man’s presence.
“Commodore, Chang,” shouted the captain of Tonantzen. “With all due respect, sir, this man is a pirate and criminal. He does not belong…”
“He belongs where I say he belongs, Captain Loesser.” Chang responded. “Captain Jakes has been working as an operative for this Alliance for the last few months and I will not have his contributions diminished in any way. Do I make myself clear?”
There was a moment when it looked like Loesser was going to say something. The ship captain opened his mouth and then closed it under the hard glare of the commodore. Loesser sat back down without saying a word. Dalton watched the man for a moment longer and saw him look towards several other commanders nearby.
“If I can return to the matter at hand,” Chang continued. “Captain Jakes has been on assignment for the fleet and he has uncovered information vital to the success of our next mission.”
There were murmurs in the crowd as the officers wondered what the man had waiting for them. Dalton turned to see Captain Ortiz sitting at the end of the row. The two men smiled to each other. Dalton’s father and Ortiz had gone to the Academy together. Admiral Hathaway had tried to kill the captain and his crew two years ago when a radiation leak had altered his personality. Dalton had formed an uneasy friendship with the man ever since his return to the fleet.
“Captain Jakes,” Chang said. “You have the floor.”
Jakes stepped to the small podium and tapped a few keys on the data pad. An image appeared over the captains. It showed a field of stars and a small, purple planet. As Jakes tapped more keys, the image zoomed in on a silver station in orbit of the world. It appeared old and pitted with micrometeorite impacts, but intact.
“Now some of y’all may have seen this station before so I will make the introductions brief,” Jakes began. “This is the Al-Amein Technical Asset Management facility in orbit of Kettering Prime.”
Once again a smattering of voices bubbled up in the room. Dalton had heard of the Al-Amein facility when he was in the Academy before the invasion. The facility had existed in the early days of the Confederacy as a logistic and supply depot similar to Perigee station. As the Confederacy had expanded, the fleet began to retire its ships from active duty. When the ships had been stripped of any valuable equipment, they were sent to Al-Amein as a graveyard for old ships.
“Known far and wide as ‘The Boneyard’, Al-Amein had been nearly forgotten by almost everyone,” Jakes said. “Everyone forgot except for the scavengers that came out of the woodwork after the invasion.”
At the mention of the scavengers, the room erupted in chatter. The loose assembly of races that called themselves scavengers had been held at bay by the Confederate Fleet in the old days. With the Terran Confederacy gone, the creatures had scurried back into the open to steal whatever they could. The Alliance had fought a few battles against the scavengers for supplies but had stayed away from open warfare.
“I had the chance to fol
low a few scavenger ships after they tried to steal stuff from Karisia,” Jakes continued. “I can tell you I was just as surprised as anybody when they led me all the way back to Kettering. I ain’t even thought about that place in years.”
He tapped the pad and the image showed a ship entering the view. The ship was a patchwork of parts from all over the galaxy. Dalton thought he recognized part of an annular ring from a Terran passenger liner as well as parts from a Vadnean freighter and more. The scavengers seemed to have assembled their ships from anything they could steal. There were obvious plasma burns on one long hull plate and Dalton thought that the ship had seen fire recently. He decided to ask Jakes later if he knew anything about it.
The scavenger ship flew around the station and the camera followed. Franklin assumed that Jakes had been in his modified yacht, the Sweet Liberty and managed to sneak up on the scavengers. The view shifted around the station and onto a field of starship hulks. Dalton nearly stood with fascination as he saw what lay in the boneyard.
“Now maybe you folks can see that most of these ships ain’t even been touched yet,” Jakes said to the crowd. “I think maybe this guy has been hording his own personal stash parting out the loot when he needs to. I stayed out of his sights, but I did manage to get a look at a few of these beauties before I had to vamoose.”
The projection shifted again to show an old-style carrier from the early Confederacy. It lacked the twin hulls of Baal or Zeus but still possessed the air of strength that had been built into them. As the projection came around to the front of the ship, Dalton could just make out the rows of Falcon class fighters that still sat inside the launch bay. Apparently the Confederacy had decided that storing them inside the carriers would be more efficient than destroying them. Dalton marveled at the waste of the former government.
More murmurs swept through the crowd as the image again shifted to several Independence class battleships that floated serenely above the planet. The resemblance to Resolute was only on the surface, though, as the Alliance battleship had been refitted by the ingenious Elves several times. The presence of the battleships, however, was causing a stir among the captains around Loesser. Dalton wondered why these ships were so interesting to the supply ship captain.
“So, y’all see that we ain’t the only fleet in the galaxy just floatin’ around,” Jakes said. “These ships may have been left over from the golden days, but I bet our little friends could get these babies up and runnin’ in no time flat.”
The quiet whispers from the room started to rise in volume. The existence of the mothballed fleet had set fire to a fuse that swept through the captains. Chang stepped back to the podium to gain control of the situation. He spoke into a small amplifier at his collar to get the attention of the crowd.
“Thank you Captain Jakes.” Chang said. “If you will excuse the Captain, I need him on other urgent matters elsewhere.”
The captains began to sit back down. Dalton looked over to Ortiz who was staring at the floor. It was obvious that the man knew more about the plan than many other people in the room. Dalton wondered why Ortiz looked so scared.
“Thank you,” Chang continued once the crowd had settled. “I am forming several task forces that each of you and your ships will be assigned to. Our first priority is to secure these ships and begin the restoration. It will be vital to the success of the overall objective that the Alliance fleet acts as a single unit to carry out my orders.”
“Commodore,” said Captain Browning of the assault cruiser Mars. “You have mentioned an objective that we must all try to achieve. Are you going to let us in on what our final objective is?”
Chang looked back at the crowd. He had been promoted to organize a fleet in the defense of the survivors of humanity. Over the last year, he had taken on a much larger task that involved secrecy and politics. Calling all of the captains together signaled the start of the campaign that he had been planning for almost five years. He took a deep breath and spoke to his commanders.
“About two weeks ago, a scout ship was dispatched to the Terran system.” Chang said. “The pilot was able to get close enough to get the following images.”
The projection shifted once again to show the familiar shadow of Luna hovering over the human home world. There was a gasp as the planet came into the light. Instead of the beautiful blue and green of a healthy planet, Earth now looked dead. The atmosphere was choked with a thick cloud of dust that turned the living world into a cold reflection of itself. The visible portions of the seas appeared like ripples of liquid steel. Surrounding the planet was an array of insectoid ships. The crowed grew increasingly more restless. Chang stepped back up to the podium.
“Before he got away, the pilot was able to intercept video messages being broadcast from Ch’Tauk relays around the planet.” Chang explained. “I will not show the images at this time but you will all receive copies. I want to warn you that what is being done on our planet is savage. I will leave it to you to decide if you want to show it to your crews.
“Embedded in the transmissions was something that surprised us all. Being broadcast on an ultra-low frequency was a single array of numbers and symbols. The coded transmission was an aboriginal language from Earth. If anyone but our own Kama Yu had found it, they probably would have overlooked it as a signal aberration. She recognized the language and was able to decode the signal. There are survivors on Earth and they are asking for help.”
The assembly erupted into shouts and cheers. Captain Loesser sat quietly at glared at Chang. Dalton could see that the man was not convinced of anything he was hearing. Most of the others were shouting questions at Chang who calmly waited for the din to subside. After several minutes, the crowd began to sit and wait for Chang to continue. The man seemed to be made of stone as he ignored all question being thrown at him.
“Your mission,” he began “is to distract the enemy as we prepare for our final objective.”
“And what is that, Commodore?” Dalton shouted.
“We are going home, Captain Dalton.” Chang said. “We are going to retake Earth.”
12
Kettering Prime
The Kettering system had been chosen as a storage lot for decommissioned ships due to the minimal asteroid activity. The Kettering sun was a cool red star that had grown stable over the millennia and produced minimal amounts of solar wind. Kettering Prime was the only planet in the system that supported any form of life. The remainder of the system was rocky planetoids in distant orbits.
The Asset Management Facility built in orbit of Mars and towed into position a century ago. It had been built on similar lines to Perigee but without the size or architectural flair. The central stalk was shorter and turned a dull gray due to atmospheric dust from the planet below. The petals that made Perigee an attractive and functional space station were shorter and stunted on the boneyard station.
Further out from Kettering’s star was a collection of artifacts from the earlier days of the Confederation. Ships in configurations that were far more function than form floated in slow orbits around the planet. Stationed at a point far enough away from the planet, their orbits had remained stable throughout the years. Infrequent clouds of dust and debris pitted some of the hulls but no major damage had been done. These ships were built to withstand punishment from plasma cannons and M-space conversion with minimal shielding.
Nearer to the Kettering star, an exit point opened. Hidden from view by the swollen star’s corona, the Alliance carrier Zeus made for an imposing explosion of fire. After shedding the halo of energy that accompanied real-space conversion, the carrier slowed to a stop on the far side of the planet. The ship began a slow approach to Kettering, keeping close to the planet’s magnetic pole to hide its signature. After a few minutes, several more jump points opened and the carrier was joined by the pirate vessel Sweet Liberty and the heavy assault cruiser Mars.
As each ship took up positions in the pole, the Sweet Liberty accelerated to a spot where it would be
able to scan the boneyard in relative safety. The area seemed abandoned with exception to the three Alliance ships. After several minutes of scanning, the Zeus moved forward to join the much smaller yacht. On the bridge of the vessels, there was silence as each member of the crew performed their delicate tasks with efficiency.
“Commander Bach,” Captain Dalton asked. “Can you give me a tactical report on the boneyard?”
“Aye, Captain,” Bach replied, walking up the ramp to the Captain’s command deck. “I have prepared an analysis of the scavenger’s possible defenses based on past experiences. They will use the ships here as cover thinking that we won’t fire on our own.”
“They would be right about that,” Dalton said, taking the data pad from the woman’s hands. “Commodore Chang ordered us to retrieve as many of these ships as possible. Blowing them up to run off a few scavengers seems excessive to me.”
Bach pursed her lips at her captain as he examined the report. She had poured over tactical data to give a predicative analysis to the man based on past experiences. If Captain Jakes’ report was right the Alliance had spent far too many assets into position for this operation. She preferred to underestimate the scavengers and prepare for the worst. Her report had assumed that the scavengers were far better prepared for the eminent attack than Jakes had seen.
“Commander,” Dalton asked, stopping the data stream on the pad. “Why do you have the scavengers flying frigates? The Alliance has never encountered anything larger than an old-style corvette. I think you may have over done this report a bit.”
“Captain, with all due respect, the scavengers may have converted one of the derelict ships into a viable battle platform,” Bach replied. “It is reasonable to assume that they want to defend their prizes from other scavengers or worse.”
Dalton nodded to the woman. She had been in charge of the ship’s computer network before the loss of the original command staff during the invasion. Her tendencies ran towards stream of data thinking with multiple outcomes being calculated at once. He also knew that in a fight, she was one of the fiercest warriors he had ever known.
Resolute Uprising (The War for Terra) Page 10
