Drinking restrictions were removed for all but the watchers. I got to the bridge, relieving everyone who went to the mess together to get something in their systems, to numb the pain. My protection detail and I sat around the massive bridge of the Resilient. We watched the fleet at a pause, the drum of ships as they wrapped around each other and formed lines and bridges to the cold harshness of space.
Drones moved around that space as the yard formed and chunks of ships were turned from their trajectories and pulled toward the exposed refineries. Miners were attached to asteroids; their bunkers had been loaded up. Their shuttles were used for recovery the day before; today they remained grounded.
I looked to the dreadnought, which had returned to the air lock it had been attached to when it had been docked before the battle. It was relatively unscathed, unlike Hachiro, which was still badly damaged. Some sections had been exposed up to the fourth ring.
All of the rest of the ships showed the vicious damage of space warfare.
I looked at the beauty of all of the ships, at the technology and the achievements that had been made. Yet all of it had led to war.
What a waste. I focused my attention on the faces of those lost. “We’ll make the bastards pay—you have my word, brothers and sisters.” Silently, I cried as I looked at the faces. Emotion that I’d held back washed over me. It felt like a dam had burst. I smiled and laughed as tears streamed down my face. My protection detail left me to my grieving and I left them to theirs.
Time to Rebuild Again
Shrift and his brother looked at the yard as it came together like some three-dimensional puzzle.
They’d already made one dock and had corvettes coming through to get fixed up. The crews were working at an alarming pace to get the smaller ships done before the yard was big enough to accommodate the battle cruisers and dreadnoughts.
Since Parnmal, there hadn’t been such a large loss. Everyone was feeling the effects. The trainees were being returned slowly back to their training. The Free Fleet was bustling with repairs once again. Most people just put their heads down and worked. A few had gotten angry with the fact that they were repairing the very damage they’d fixed when they’d freed Earth. There was nothing to do but threaten to rotate them out for rest. Not many wanted to sit back and have time to think this close to their friends dying.
As Salchar had made the process for making Mechas a factory production back on Parnmal, Shrift was doing the same for the shipyard and the docks. He was realizing the difficulties that Salchar had gone through to change his fellow Kuruvians who’d been set in their cottage-like work groups.
Silly had been reluctant to move to the new system until Shrift had Resilient crunch the numbers. Then Silly jumped on board.
Shrift had specialty drones being built in all factories as the Kuruvians of the shipyard and dock got used to controlling multiple drones.
“Are you sure we can’t get the smaller ships up to full spec?” Silly asked. It had been his argument for the past few days.
“We need the heavies online. The smaller ships have limited use as scouts and have been largely replaced by fighters. They have limited use in battle. Salchar is actually thinking about removing the cruiser altogether. Which is why they are so low on the priority list.”
“Then what about the ‘modifications’ that Eddie wants to add to the dreadnought and battle cruiser’s armor?”
“We’ve got to focus on what we can fix and what not. We need to put down new hulls to incorporate all of the improvements we’ve come up with,” Shrift said as Silly sighed.
“You’ve changed, little bro.” Silly nodded appreciatively. “You’re no longer scatterbrained. You know what you want, and you get what needs to be done done. You remind me of Eddie. Father was smart getting you transferred to Uncle’s ship.”
“I’m nothing like Eddie!” Shrift admonished.
“Yeah, you are—now you are. It’s not a bad thing. You’ve grown up, bro.” Silly grinned. “I agree with what you, Eddie, and Salchar have said.”
Shrift’s eyes thinned and he poked a hand at him. “You mean your annoying me was all a test?”
“Yup.” Silly grinned, unrepentant.
“Why, you!” Shrift jumped on his brother, scraping his neck as Silly laughed uncontrollably.
“Stop it! It tickles!” Silly said as his smaller brother stopped him from getting his hands free while he used his manipulators to keep his brother in laughing immobility.
“Never!” Shrift said triumphantly. His brother rolled over somehow, getting on top of him. He felt his neck ridges begin to be scratched.
“No, stop it!” Shrift giggled, kicking his feet spasmodically as he tried to dislodge his brother.
“Never!” Silly repeated Shrift’s own words as the torture continued.
“What are you two slackers doin’?” a familiar Kuruvian’s voice said.
Both brothers jumped to their feet.
“Uh, just well...” Silly said.
Shrift looked to their uncle and his mentor. “We reached an agreement on the schedule for the dock and yard. We also have a tentative timetable lined out.”
“And ya sorted this out while tusslin’ on the floor?”
“The tousling was in an effort to get recompense for time wasted,” Shrift said as Silly scowled. A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth as Shrift had to stop himself from breaking out into a smile.
Eddie grinned as he walked between the two brothers. The old Kuruvian’s hands snagged them both by the necks and they squealed as they fell to the floor from being tickled. “Seems you two are just like your dad.”
Eddie grinned as the two rose.
“All right now, our clan isn’t the kind to sit around. Let’s see if we can’t speed that timetable up a little.” They looked to each other, a drive in their eyes as Eddie led the way to the docks.
***
Henry finished the run through Hachiro first. As he waited for the others to finish up, he felt sadness at having lost Verlu. Their friendly banter that had happened every time they finished their run was now filled with silence...
Santos was in next, a bit of a forced grin on his face. “Damn, Henry, mind slowing down for the rest of us? We aren’t Mechas like you.”
Henry grinned slightly as Santos smiled. It was clear Santos was trying to cheer him up.
“Well, you’ll just have to learn how to be one,” Henry said as Santos shook his head, a grin still there. Santos had been in command of the trainees for the battle and had proved himself a great commander.
After Takahashi had attacked Salchar, Santos had taken over commandership of his Commandos. Santos had proved himself; Henry made him his left-hand man while Bok Soo was his right.
The others came in, Bok Soo trailing them all.
“Damn, you guys need to slow down,” Bok Soo huffed out as he struggled to catch his breath.
Henry knew that Bok Soo was probably the most physically fit out of everyone. Getting back the legs he hadn’t had for so long meant he spent all the time he could running.
Yet Bok Soo cared deeply for his people. He was willing to lose a few times if it meant he could get their minds off the recent battle.
“So, what’s new?”
“We’ve nearly gotten all of the trainees back to training,” Santos reported.
“Remember that they only have three weeks till they make their decision whether to stay or go home,” Henry said.
Everyone nodded. They needed Commandos badly, and after training, it would be another few months before those who selected to not only stay but to become Commandos would graduate.
Till then, there were only six thousand Commandos. When there should be close to eight times that number.
With the fleet in full repair mode, it also meant that Commandos were having less training time and were instead falling back on their secondary training. They were helping out the ships’ crews to get them operational and ready for anything else that might
come their way.
“As you know, Salchar is going to be going to Earth tomorrow. With him will be FengFang and Pandora. He will be going across the globe to see if he can get more trainees. We will also be getting a large number of personnel in a week. Monk confirmed today that he’d sent a carrier as well as some ships he’d taken from Cheerleader’s fleet for protection.
“I have passed on your personnel issues to Rick, who will divide the incoming forces up.” Henry caught Commander Tully’s eye. The woman looked as if she were out of her depth. Henry nodded to her slightly and she seemed to gain confidence, nodding back.
“Any other issues?”
There weren’t, so Henry looked to Bok Soo. “Looks like you’re buying again, foodie.”
Bok Soo took on an unhappy expression as others grinned. There was no laughter; the emotional loss was still too fresh.
Time to Face the Music
I had left command to the watch commanders as I worked beside the engineers to get the Resilient back to fighting condition. Now, however, I needed to get back to command instead of relaying it through my underlings. I walked into the conference room and found Silly, Shrift, Henry, and Rick. Krom and Shreesht leaned against the wall. The others in the room quieted as I sat down.
“Hello, Silly. Good to finally meet you in the flesh.”
Silly nodded. “Likewise, Commander.”
“So, how long have you been preparing to get rid of the Syndicate?” I asked.
Silly looked displeased “There had always been thoughts that the Defense Force was something different, but me and mine were kept in our home system building this monster until it was ready to move and us with it. Now that I know the truth, I wish we had done something when we were in our home system, not across three sectors.”
“That must’ve taken some time.”
“Damn right! Took us three years! Though, as we pulled old Nancy here through the stars, we learned more of the lies about the Planetary Defense Force.”
There were nods around the table.
“So, what are the plans of those who are leaving?” Rick asked.
“Most of those who wish to leave will want to go to Parnmal but for those who remain, which is standing at eighty-seven percent, we want to see Nancy up and running and get to work! We’re going to need more of everything, but we’re planning for the expansion of a dock or creating another to fix your Resilient and that other big sucker in one go instead of having to turn them to work both ends. Though, Eddie says we might have to expand even that soon, with plans for super dreadnoughts and even carriers.”
“What?” I asked as Shrift and Silly looked quite pleased with themselves.
“Well, it might take some time if our supply lines are bad and with our lack of workers. But I would say, in three months, we might be able to start expanding, adding in repairs, though it would take about nine months.”
“Don’t worry. I have plans for the supply line and workers.”
“We’ve come a long way from making plans in my armory, that’s for sure,” Shrift said.
“That we have, buddy,” I said as we smiled at each other.
The rest of the meeting was much of what it had been for the last few days. We were rebuilding and we had to figure out how to best spend our resources.
After it was complete, I excused myself. Krom and Shreesht ghosted me until I made it to the observation deck that faced Mars.
Thankfully, no one was there. I sat on one of the chairs and watched the brown marble of Mars turn below me.
“James, you can’t blame yourself,” Yasu said.
I sat there, not looking at her, lost in the beauty of the planet. They’ll never get to go down there, to go and see other beautiful planets like it. I gritted my teeth and the view blurred. I cleared what must’ve been some errant dust from my eyes.
“I can. I know we did the right thing, but it just saddens and scares me when so many die before they can see the end result of all of this. Though, sometimes I wonder if the end result is something they’ll want to see. Maybe they’re the lucky ones. We can’t hide from the fact that the Syndicate will be gunning for us. They were going to before, but now it’s unquestionable. We just took a shipyard and another station from them, not to mention a populated world they were using to fill their ranks.” I sighed, leaning forward so I could look at my wringing hands. “Even if we win, what will be the cost?”
“Always too much,” Yasu said sadly. “Yet, we should not focus on the loss but the gain. Humans finally made it to the stars! We’re not slaves and if we survive, we can thrive. We’ve got technology that we don’t know the half of, mathematics that we can’t make heads or tails of, and medical science that will see us alive for our great-great-grandchildren.” She sat down beside me. “I wonder if people who went to war before us thought the same things and what their answers were.”
“Probably something similar.” I looked up at her frame by the horizon of Mars and the stars. Her hair fell delicately to one side over her shoulder, making a half veil. As her deep, dark, exotic coffee eyes looked at Mars, her face pinched in sadness. I looked at her thin yet strong arms and firm body against the battle suit she wore. I reached up, touching her chin as if it were made of delicate china, moving it with barely a motion. I raised my head to meet hers and closed my eyes. Our lips touched. No matter what the future brought, I would always have that one moment of pain, passion, nervousness, trust, fear, and love.
“You forgot one thing,” I said softly, as though if I talked too loudly the universe would disappear, not daring to move my hand as I looked into her eyes, a small smile on my face. “I gained you.”
“Who would’ve thought Mecha Tail’s and Samurai’s Revenge’s leaders would be doing this?” She pressed forward.
My arms found their way around her body as I embraced her, kissing her again until we pulled apart, sad smiles on our faces.
“Now you have a fleet to run. I’ll look after Hachiro and the fleet here. Earth is going to want to know what’s happening,” she said.
“Yes, find out from Zor what the Sarenmenti who have surrendered will be like. I want to know if I can use them or not. Then get the ships sorted. I want to—”
“Know which ones are operational. Which ones to send to Nancy filled with materials. To look into the damages caused to Hachiro. Maybe police the debris from the station and the ships that were destroyed around the sun to be melted down and used to rebuild the station and ships. Get the people and the Earth trainees to rest,” she said.
I smiled. “I’ll see you when this is all done.”
“You better.” Her eyes danced as she grinned, kissing me before I picked myself up and walked to the lift that would take me to Pandora, my ride back to Earth.
Commander Heston was waiting for me when I got off the lift.
“We have your quarters laid out for you and your protection detail.”
“Thank you, Commander. I know you’re busy so I’ll let you go. Where is the best place to talk to the world leaders? It’s about time I let my staffers have a break from their yelling.”
“Your room has the ability to connect directly to the communications systems,” Heston said.
“Thank you, Commander.” We saluted and he walked off, pulling a data pad as he went. I steeled myself as I walked to my room. The Pandora, being a third the size of the Resilient, didn’t need the transports that carried people across her. Instead, everything was done with old-fashioned legs.
I got to my room, taking a slurp of water as I put in my security codes. My terminal filled with communications requests from people across the world.
“You’re setting up to mine the Oort cloud. That is ours per your agreement, Gamer!” the South African representative said. Others began voicing their issues, growing in volume and incoherence.
“Do you want to get into a yelling match or hear what I’m doing?” My voice was tired and probably uncaring, but I was already stretched thin. Having peopl
e yell at me for no real reason was not something I wanted.
It took some time for them to calm down enough before I started talking. Now I know how a nursery teacher feels. I cleared my throat.
“As you will see in the agreement that you signed, the Free Fleet is basically its own nation-company, meaning that we can claim land like any other group. There is another stipulation of the amount of land, so there isn’t a monopoly. As for the Syndicate, well, they’ve been beaten once again.”
“You say that, but how do we know that’s true? It all happened behind Mars,” a prince of the UAE said.
“’Cause a lot of men and women died for you to think that,” I said, not pausing as I continued. “Now, I have with me the aid that was promised in order for Earth to get into space. After delivering this aid, the Free Fleet will continue to act according to the contract signed by Earth and rebuild our fleet. Now, are there any issues?” I feared my last statement as a wall of noise greeted me. I hunched my shoulders and set to listening to the gripes of the world leaders, most of them having nothing to do with the Free Fleet.
While they were talking, I received a message from the Intelligence Department of eminent importance. I opened it, finding a video on YouTube of myself coordinating the battle against the Syndicate, as well as shots from telescopes and sensors of the ongoing battle.
I paused my channel to the leaders as I connected to the commander of the Intelligence Department.
“How did someone get this?”
“We think that one of the reporters snuck into the trainee pool and placed cameras to record different things.”
“I want it vetted for anything that might make the Free Fleet vulnerable. Anything pertaining to military secrets needs to be stricken.”
“Already doing so, though it seems that whoever did this is extremely smart. They left out anything that might reveal secrets of the Free Fleet.”
I nodded, the gesture unseen by the commander. “Okay, get with Rick and have him find this person. I don’t want anything else leaking out. Have a communications blocker checking traffic while the search is underway. Talk to Resilient about that.”
Free Fleet Box Set 1 Page 70
