by Ryk Brown
“New contacts!” the officer in charge of tracking reported. “Coming out from behind the moon. Jung frigates.”
“Oh, my God, they’ve taken out the LRGA,” Rear Admiral Duncan exclaimed, a look of shock on his face. He turned and looked at Admiral Galiardi. “How could they have known?”
“Goddamn it, Marty, we’ve always known there were spies among us!” Admiral Galiardi said. “I guess now we know it goes even deeper than we thought, possibly to this very room!”
“It could be anyone,” Rear Admiral Duncan admitted.
“Contact the Reliant. Tell her to go to full burn and wait until the Volkov arrives to reengage the enemy.”
“Yes, sir…” Rear Admiral Duncan was cut off mid-response by the squawk of an alarm horn. He looked at the massive tactical display map on the front wall of the Fleet command center. The icon representing the Reliant went from green to orange for a moment, then faded away completely. “The Reliant,” he mumbled. “She’s gone.”
Admiral Galiardi sighed, controlling his frustration at the sudden turn of events. “Contact the Volkov,” he ordered his communications officer. “Warn them they are going into battle alone. They must prevent those ships from reaching Earth.”
“Yes, Admiral,” the communications officer answered.
“What about the new contacts?” Rear Admiral Duncan asked.
“We’ll launch the Intrepid. She’ll have to deal with them on her own.” The admiral sighed again. “They knew exactly when and where to hit us—right when our patrols were too far out to rally together at the same time.” The admiral shook his head. “They knew everything about us. Everything.”
“It’s not over yet, Mike,” Rear Admiral Duncan told his old friend.
Admiral Michael Galiardi looked at his friend. “You’re damn right it’s not.”
* * *
“Incoming message from Fleet Command,” Lieutenant Chara reported from the Intrepid’s comm-center on the left side of the bridge.
Captain Christopoulos stepped closer to his comm officer’s station as he paced the bridge of the Intrepid. He peered over the comm officer’s shoulder to read the message. “Sound the word. All decks prepare to get under way. Notify the XO in combat.”
“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant answered.
“Helm,” the captain said, straightening back up. “How are we looking?”
“All systems are online,” Ensign Hunt answered. “Reactors are hot and ready for full power. We’re ready for departure, sir.”
“Very well,” the captain said as he moved to his command chair and sat down. “Comms, notify the OAP that we’re leaving immediately. Helm, retract all moorings and take us out when ready.”
“Aye, sir. Sounding mooring alarms.”
The starboard boarding tunnel that led from the Orbital Assembly Platform to the Intrepid’s port boarding hatch shook as personnel ran through the clear tube on their way to their ship.
“Move it! Move it!” the officer of the deck standing just inside the boarding hatch yelled to the people in the boarding tunnel. The last few men and women ran down the tunnel and into the ship, and the officer pressed the button to close the Intrepid’s main port boarding hatch.
The boarding tunnel connected to the Intrepid’s port side began to retract back toward the OAP’s core as the mooring clamps all around the Intrepid simultaneously released their grip on the Defender-class warship. The Intrepid began to move slowly forward, carefully inching her way out of the OAP’s surrounding framework that barely fit around the Intrepid’s massive hull.
“Approaching OAP framework threshold,” Ensign Hunt reported.
“As soon as we clear the OAP, increase our rate of acceleration,” Captain Christopoulos ordered. “I want to break orbit and go full burn for the moon as soon as possible. We’ve got four Jung frigates inbound from her far side, and I’d like to dispatch them before they get a clear shot at the Earth.”
“Yes, sir,” the young helmsman answered. “We’ll be clear to begin our burn in three minutes.”
“Flight, as soon as we clear port, I want to launch long-range interceptors to harass those frigates. I don’t want them thinking they can just waltz in at their leisure.”
“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Tonnes acknowledged.
“Combat, Captain,” Captain Christopoulos called over his comm-set.
“Captain, go for combat,” Commander Nasser answered over the comm-set from the Intrepid’s combat control center.
“Commander, establish a lock on those frigates as soon as you get a clear line of sight. We’ll start with conventional warheads, test their point-defense intercept capabilities. No use wasting nukes until we know the chances of them getting through the frigates’ defenses. If they are too good, we’ll move in close and slug it out. Intel says we have the advantage on armor, so we’ll use it if we have to.”
“Aye, sir,” the commander answered.
“Thirty seconds to burn,” Ensign Hunt reported from the helm.
Captain Christopoulos watched the main forward view screen as the OAP’s massive framework that surrounded his ship slipped past their view, falling away as they continued to drift forward across its threshold.
“We’ve cleared the threshold,” the helmsman reported. “Burn in fifteen seconds.”
“Put up the tactical map on the port view screen,” the captain ordered. “Maintain an up-to-date tactical feed from Fleet Command. I want to know the status of those last three Jung cruisers at all times, as we may have to deal with them as well.”
“Aye, sir,” the Intrepid’s new tactical officer answered, his voice shaky.
The captain turned to his new tactical officer. “First tour, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant admitted nervously.
“What’s your name, son?”
“Eckert, sir. Lieutenant Andrew Eckert.”
“You’ll do fine, Lieutenant Eckert,” the captain told him, trying to boost the young officer’s confidence. “This tactical situation is pretty straightforward: four frigates coming over the moon and three cruisers about an hour out from Earth. The frigates shouldn’t be a problem, and by the time we finish them off and turn toward those three cruisers, the Volkov will already be on them. We’ll just be backing her up, and three Jung cruisers are no match for two Defender-class warships, now are they, son?”
“Yes, sir. I mean, no, sir, they’re not.”
“Just keep your eyes and ears open, and shout out anything you see that you don’t think I’m aware of. That’s why you’re here.”
“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant answered.
Captain Christopoulos could tell by the sound of the lieutenant’s voice that his words of encouragement had done little to boost the young man’s confidence, but he also knew that a few minutes of combat would help him get going.
* * *
“Orders from Fleet, sir!” the Orbital Assembly Platform’s communications officer reported. “All unassigned fleet personnel still on the OAP are to report to the Celestia for duty immediately.”
The officer of the watch looked at the comm officer. “They’re going to take her out?”
“I don’t know, sir,” the comm officer admitted. “The orders just say to send them to her, sir.”
“Very well,” the officer of the watch said. “Pass the word to all decks. Repeat the message every few minutes until the Celestia either departs or Fleet tells us otherwise.”
“Yes, sir.”
CHAPTER SIX
High above the Earth, a flash of light appeared against the background of distant stars. A moment later, another flash appeared, and then another. Within seconds, a dozen flashes had appeared. Each flash streaked forward slightly as it appeared, revealing an object that rapidly grew larger as they
approached high orbit over the planet.
“Admiral!” the lead tracking officer called. “New contacts! Twelve Jung ships just appeared in high Earth orbit, opposite side from the OAP!”
“Twelve?” the admiral exclaimed. “What type of ships?”
“Four heavy cruisers, four frigates, and four ships that we have never seen before,” the tracking officer exclaimed. “They’re massive, not as large as the battle platforms, but much bigger than…” The commander stopped mid-sentence. He turned to face the admiral, a look of disbelief on his face. “I think it’s an invasion force, Admiral.”
“Why didn’t we see them approach?” the admiral asked, irritation in his voice.
“They must have just come out of FTL, sir,” the tracking officer surmised.
“Their FTLs are not that accurate,” Rear Admiral Duncan insisted.
“Apparently they are,” the admiral commented, his irritation turning to frustration. “Despite what our intelligence showed.”
“None of our extra-solar sources reported Jung ships coming out of FTL this close to a planet,” Rear Admiral Novikoff, the commander of Fleet intelligence, defended. “In fact, every witnessed transition has occurred farther out, like those cruisers.”
“Well, now we know otherwise,” the admiral mumbled.
“New contacts are separating,” the tracking officer reported. “They’re splitting off into four groups. Three ships per group, sir: the big one, a cruiser, and a gunboat.”
“What are they doing?” Rear Admiral Duncan wondered.
“They’re going to spread out, surround the planet,” the admiral said. “If I were invading a world, that’s what I’d do: hit everything at once from all around the globe.”
“We should contact the Intrepid,” Rear Admiral Duncan said. “She is still closer to the Earth than the moon. She can turn around and attack the new contacts.”
“Eight warships?” the admiral said. “She could handle the gunboats fine, but the four cruisers as well? No, the Intrepid has to protect the OAP until the Celestia can make her escape, and those frigates coming from the moon will have a clear line of fire in minutes.”
“But sir, those ships…”
“We’ll have to deal with them from the surface,” the admiral said, cutting off his friend. “Have our guns and missiles engage the cruisers and gunboats. Launch our fighters and order them to attack the transports. With so much firepower as escorts, I suspect they have little in the way of their own defenses.”
“Will that be enough?” Rear Admiral Duncan wondered.
“Probably not,” Admiral Galiardi admitted. “But maybe we can slow them down a bit until we can get one of our ships in position.”
“And if they start sending down troops?” Rear Admiral Duncan asked.
“Pass the word to all nations to expect incoming forces. Each nation’s military will have to deal with whatever Jung forces invade their territories. Their command centers will coordinate through us so we can keep all nations apprised of the global situation as it changes.” Admiral Galiardi looked at Rear Admiral Duncan. All hope appeared to have left his friend’s face. “We knew it would come to this, Marty. We knew it all along. We just didn’t want to admit it.”
* * *
“She’s not there!” Kyle exclaimed as he looked out his window on the shuttle.
“What?” Devyn said in disbelief. “What do you mean, ‘She’s not there’?”
“Bay number one is empty!” Kyle answered. “She was in bay number one. I’m sure of it!”
“Maybe they just moved her out,” Tilly said as he leaned in closer to Kyle to see for himself.
Luis moved his head about the small window next to his seat, trying every angle in a hope of spotting the Intrepid. “I don’t see her anywhere.”
“Hey!” Devyn called out to the shuttle’s crew chief. “Ask the pilot where the Intrepid went!”
The crew chief touched his comm-set button on his helmet to communicate with the shuttle’s flight crew.
“They can’t be too far out yet, can they?” Kyle asked.
“Are you kidding?” Luis said. Sometimes his friend’s lack of knowledge about spaceflight amazed him. “We left an hour ago. They could be halfway to Mars by now.”
“The Intrepid left port ten minutes ago,” the crew chief told them. “She’s headed for the moon.”
“Can we catch up to her?” Devyn asked.
The crew chief shook his head. “We don’t have the fuel.”
“Shit!” Kyle cursed in frustration.
“Can we get more fuel at the OAP and then go after her?” Devyn suggested.
“No can do,” the crew chief explained. “OAP says that all unassigned personnel are to report to the Celestia immediately.”
“The Celestia isn’t finished,” Luis exclaimed. “Can she even fly?”
“We’re assigned to the Intrepid,” Devyn told the crew chief, “all four of us.” She looked behind her as several more passengers raised their hands as well to indicate that they, too, were assigned to the Intrepid.
“Sorry, sir,” the crew chief told her, “not anymore.”
* * *
“Numerous new contacts!” Fleet Command’s tracking officer reported. “All four battle groups are launching smaller ships.”
“Type and count, Commander,” the admiral reminded him.
“Several different types,” the tracking officer reported as he listened to the chatter from the tracking stations over his comm-set and sorted out the details as they were reported to him. “Fighters, bombers, landing craft… We count at least fifty ships and rising.”
“All national defense command centers are linked in with us, Admiral,” Rear Admiral Duncan reported. “You now effectively command all Earth forces from all nations: land, sea, air, and space.”
Admiral Galiardi took a deep breath. He knew that such a command was possible, as he had been the primary architect of Earth’s defense strategy. Even so, the sudden increase in responsibility was daunting. He looked at his friend. “Are all your people in place, Marty?”
“Yes, sir,” Rear Admiral Duncan assured him. “You tell me what you want to happen, and my people will figure out which national asset is best suited for the task and activate it.”
The admiral let out a long, slow breath. “Very well. Are all our surface-to-orbit defenses ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
“All surface-to-orbit rail guns, open fire on the cruisers and gunboats. Lock all surface-to-orbit missiles on the troop carriers. Launch one wave and reassess.”
“Yes, sir,” Rear Admiral Duncan acknowledged. He turned away and starting giving orders to his subordinates over his comm-set in order to turn the admiral’s orders into actions.
Admiral Galiardi looked at the tactical display on the wall. There were now hundreds of red icons of various shapes and sizes spreading out from the twelve original contacts that had appeared above their world only ten minutes ago. The enemy had come in at just the right moment and from several different angles. This was not an invasion of overwhelming force as they had witnessed in the Alpha Centauri system. This was a well-planned, multi-pronged attack designed to achieve maximum results with minimum forces. He almost laughed at the thought, as the efforts of the Jung, while tactically impressive, were unnecessary. They could have come in all at once at the same point, and they would not have had the firepower to stop them. By splitting their forces in such ways, they were actually making themselves somewhat weaker. They were giving the people of Earth a fighting chance. He was sure, however, that it was not their intent.
* * *
Yanni sat on the long bench seat next to the EDF troops in the shuttle as it approached the Orbital Assembly Platform. He dared not look out the window behind him, as
he had never been in an airplane, let alone a spacecraft. The moment they had achieved orbit and weightlessness had set in, he thought his lunch was going to come back up for all to see. Instead, he stared at the stack of data core cases secured in the middle of the compartment, reminding himself how important his assignment was in the grand scheme of his world. He was to ensure the safety of all the world’s pre-plague knowledge and history, or at least make sure it was handled in such a way that it was not damaged during its transport.
The inside of the shuttle suddenly darkened, as if a dark cloud had passed overhead, blocking out the light of the sun. His eyes widened as he looked about.
“We’re landing at the OAP,” the shuttle’s crew chief said to him as he floated past, noticing the fear in Yanni’s face.
Yanni closed his eyes, finding it unsettling to see someone floating about in such an unnatural fashion. Without warning, there was a loud clunk that rocked the shuttle. Yanni almost yelled out in fear, but noticed that no one else aboard the shuttle seemed concerned. He felt a wave of gravity sweep back over him, his hair settling back down onto his head and his pant legs hanging straight once more. He had read that the artificial gravity produced on spaceships was not fully that of Earth and wondered exactly what percentage of normal gravity he was feeling at the moment. It seemed light to him.
“Careful when you get up, kid,” the crew chief told him, this time walking past. “The gravity is lighter up here. Get up too fast, and you’ll jump up and hit your head on the ceiling.”
