Crineal Chronicles 1: In Hera's Service

by Raymond L Jennings

  “I don’t know how you do things on the Annihilator, General, but I can assure you that the pilots in the Devastator force don’t need a computer to help them make a jump,” the man sneered at him.

  Ahhh, Crineal thought, he must be Vice Admiral Arizankis, commander of the Devastator group. Crineal held on to his temper. “I’m sure they don’t, Sir, and I’m equally certain none of the other strike forces do either. But one early mis-jump and the rebels will be waiting for us all. So, to avoid any chance of a mishap, the jump will be computer controlled and the data package for the jump will be transmitted to all of the carriers just before we make that jump. They will then pass on that package to their own strike force.” He could feel Ken’Rathel seething beside him at the insult to the Annihilator’s crew. Crineal turned to Ken’Rathel. “Admiral, I’d also like to propose that we transfer all non-combat personnel to the auxiliaries whilst we have the shuttles making the crew rotations. I don’t see any need to have crew on board during a battle that can offer us no help and possibly cause hindrances whilst we are fighting.”

  Arizankis looked confused. “Non-combat personnel? We don’t carry any civilians on our ships, General. What the stars are you talking about?”

  “I was referring to the recreation staff, Sir. They are completely untrained for combat and could pose a problem in the middle of an attack. If we transfer them off beforehand, then it’s one less thing for our crews to worry about,” Crineal said patiently.

  A sly and nasty smile appeared on Arizankis’ slightly rotund face. “Oh I see. Why didn’t you say you were worried about your pet? I’d heard you’d got one of those now.” A few of the other officers looked at each other uncomfortably.

  Ken’Rathel fixed the vice admiral with an icy glare that matched the tone of his voice. “Vice Admiral Arizankis, you will apologize to General Crineal immediately. His concern for the crew members in this force is commendable and I wish other commanders shared that care about all of their people.”

  Arizankis face had gone bright red and the rest of the commanders around the table did not seem inclined to speak up for him. “I apologize to the general for my remarks,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

  Crineal nodded to the vice admiral. “Thank you, Sir. I know we are normally in situations where we don’t have the luxury to be able to move sections of the crew out of harm’s way; but in this case, I feel that all of the recreation staff, whether assistants or trained crew who are not rated for combat duties should be moved. This fight will not be easy and wasting lives unnecessarily seems to be imprudent.” He paused and looked around the table. “Are there any questions?”

  A silver-haired female admiral spoke up; he thought she was Admiral Sybilene of the Cataclysm. “Do we know how many small craft there are likely to be, General?”

  “No, Ma’am, I’m afraid not. Fleet Intel estimates a minimum of four to five wings but it could easily be double that, maybe more.” Crineal flashed her a little smile. “Our fighter pilots are just going to have to stick their heads into the lion’s mouth and count his teeth. I’m sure we’ll be bringing them back as souvenirs, though.” That remark caused some polite laughter. “Given that we’ll have twenty-four fighter wings and six bomber wings, I’m sure that our small craft will be able to hold their own unless the rest of the rebel fleet turns up,” Crineal assured them confidently. “I’ll be inviting all of your flight group commanders to a meeting first thing in the morning to properly brief them on their part of the fight. I’ll pass the meeting back to Admiral Ken’Rathel to let him brief you in more detail on how he wishes the capital ship forces to be used.”

  Ken’Rathel stood as Crineal sat and the admiral proceeded to give each of the strike force commanders their individual orders. Crineal listened attentively in case there were further questions and the remainder of the meeting went smoothly apart from a few more jibes from Arizankis. The conference broke up a few hours later and Crineal noticed as he was leaving that the silver-haired woman intended to stay behind after the others had left. He shrugged to himself and headed to his office to make the arrangements for tomorrow’s meeting.

  He finally arrived back at his quarters after a long day. The earlier meeting with the commanders had left him feeling a little less guilty about the probable demise of Vice Admiral Arizankis. Couldn’t happen to a nicer moron, he thought. His next job was going to make the day even less pleasant, he suspected, as Cyndora greeted him with a kiss.

  “Hey you. How did your meeting go?” she asked him whilst still keeping her arms around his neck.

  “Pretty good apart from one idiot.” He shrugged. “You can’t have everything.”

  “Well, you take a seat and I’ll fix dinner. What would you like?” Cyndora asked detaching herself from him.

  “Uh… surprise me from the presets.” Crineal gathered himself. “Cyndy? I’ve arranged for the recreation staff to be transferred to the auxiliaries before we make our next jump. We’ll be going into battle after that and leaving those ships behind with an escort. They’ll be safe from the fighting.”

  Cyndora brought over bowls of beef stew and crusty bread with butter to the table. “Sounds like a good idea to me. Very nice of you to think of them, Crin.” She gave him a warm, loving smile. “It’ll be good to know that Jay, Marsh and Xian will be out of harm’s way.” Cyndora dunked a chunk of bread into the soup and then munched on it happily.

  “All recreation staff, Cyndy. That includes you,” Crineal stated firmly.

  “What?? Oh no, I’m staying right here,” she said heatedly.

  “No, no you’re not. And in this case I’m not going to make an exception for you. I want you to take whatever you think you’ll need. Make-up, chocolate, your old purse. Any little goodies you can stuff into the new purse I’m going to find you to carry it all in and you’re going to join your friends and wait safely until the fighting is over,” he said adamantly.

  Fear seeped into Cyndora as she realized that Crineal was trying to set her up in case he didn’t survive. “Crin, stop that. I’m not going to need anything because you’ll be coming back.”

  He gave her a warm smile. “Of course I am. But I always try and plan for everything. There will be another round of meetings tomorrow and then the following day you’ll join the others and be transferred late in the evening. Our last jumps will be late that night. You’ll be away from me for no more than a day.” His partner didn’t look reassured.

  “Please, Crin? Let me stay?” she asked tearfully.

  “How am I going to coordinate a battle if I’m worried about you here on the Annihilator?” Crineal reached over to stroke her cheek. “I’ll be fine and I’ll do much better knowing you are safe.”

  Cyndora pushed her bowl to one side and moved over to sit on his lap and hold him. Crineal cuddled her as she sobbed into his shoulder and the bowls of stew sat on the table getting cold.

  The following morning saw Crineal in the pilots’ conference room waiting for the flight group commanders to arrive. The previous evening had seen a lot of crying from Cyndora and even more reassurance from Crineal until she finally fell into a restless sleep. He had no doubt that this evening was going to be more of the same. Eventually all of the officers arrived and he began the briefing.

  “Good morning, everyone. I hope you’ve all been given at least a preliminary idea of what we’re going to be doing?” Nods responded to this from everyone at the table. “Then you’ll all know that in the coming operation our main task is to provide fighter cover for both the bombers and the capital ships. A second, but no less important, task will be to chase down any transports trying to escape. Our scout squadrons are going to form a picket line to alert us of any attempts to flee. So, first off, I want you all to detail two flights from one cruiser from each strike force to remain behind with the auxiliaries to act as cover, and also one flight from your scout squadron, too. The remaining flights from the cruisers will act as a back stop to the main wings and stick near the str
ike forces to tackle anything that slips past us. Not that I expect that to happen, but let’s not take chances. We’ll slot in behind the opening bombardment and take out any rebel fighters we can find. I want everyone to detail one squadron to go after any bombers that are there as well. It’s unlikely we’ll be able to stop them from launching a first salvo, but I’d rather not let them get off more than one. Once all the fighters and bombers are gone, look for targets of opportunity, but don’t get stupid. Stay away from the big ships and watch for any transports. Once the mobile space forces are dealt with we’ll escort our marine assault craft in before going back to policing the area. Fleet Intel says we’ll be facing at least four to five wings, but could be double or even triple that. Even so, we’ll outnumber them heavily. That’s the core of it. Questions?”

  Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be many and the meeting wrapped up quickly. Colonel Barazon stayed behind after the others had left. Crineal smiled at her. “Colonel, how’s life aboard the Cataclysm?

  “Pretty good, Sir. Admiral Sybilene is a good commander and the pilots are doing fine. I don’t suppose I could steal Major Strieger from you, could I, Sir? I could use her to hone the squadrons to a fine edge.” The gaunt-faced Colonel gave him a hopeful look.

  Crineal chuckled. “Sorry, Bara. Strieger’s all mine. You find your own second to do that. Is that what you stopped to ask me?” he looked at her curiously.

  “Actually, no, Sir. Admiral Sybilene has been feeding me some leading questions about the recent crew transfers. Mainly she seems to want to know where I heard the rumor from. I’ve stalled her and said I wasn’t going to break any confidences, but I thought you ought to know.”

  He grimaced. “Damn. I didn’t mean to put you in a bad spot with your admiral. I’m sorry about that.”

  Barazon waved his apology away. “It’s fine, General, Sir. I’m sure you’re not telling your admiral who your source is either. Besides, I’m glad that I was able to get rid of some of my problem pilots, so I’m not complaining. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

  “I appreciate it, Bara. Why don’t we get together after the battle and I’ll buy you dinner to make up for the trouble I’ve caused you?” Crineal offered.

  The colonel smiled at him. “Deal, Sir. I look forward to it,” and with that she saluted and left the conference room leaving Crineal to wonder how much Sybilene and Ken’Rathel had managed to piece together.

  He spent the afternoon giving the same briefing to his own squadron leaders and thankfully the meetings seemed to be getting easier. His evening, however, was harder, with another round of pleading to stay from Cyndora. This was followed by more crying and then cuddling up in bed together whilst giving her all the love and comfort he could.

  After a last briefing for his own squadron the next day he escorted Cyndora to the waiting shuttles where the rest of the recreation staff were boarding. He’d found her another purse that almost qualified as a bag and made sure he’d filled it with chocolate bars and some accessories. He noticed she was also wearing the earrings he’d given her for that first dinner party. As they entered the shuttle bay, Cyndora spotted Jaydea, Marshalla and Xianing and gave them a little wave. Jaydea waved back and it caught the attention of a guard. He looked as if he was about to shout at her but then saw who had entered the area and snapped to attention. Crineal walked Cyndy over to join her friends where they were waiting to board. He noted that the shuttle was actually a personnel shuttle rather than a cargo shuttle, such as the one he’d seen her arrive on. He hoped that indicated that someone on board was starting to take the hint that the assistants were people, too. They arrived at where the three assistants were standing.

  “Sir? This is Jaydea, Marshalla and Xianing. My friends from the dorm,” Cyndora introduced them to him. All three were standing at an assistant’s attention with their breasts firmly thrust forward and trying not to stare at him.

  Crineal acknowledged them with a half bow. “At ease, ladies, it’s good to meet you after hearing so much about you all.” He watched as they relaxed a little. “Hopefully you won’t be away from the Annihilator for long, but Cyndy has some treats that you can all share.” He looked over at all the assistants who were trying their best not to watch him and decided that he should say something. He raised his voice so they could all hear him. “I apologize for uprooting you all from your dorm. I assure you that it’s only temporary in order to keep you all safe whilst this ship goes into battle.” He paused to find the right words. “This may sound stupid given how you came here, but nevertheless, I just wanted to say thank you for the work you put in. I’m guessing no one else will say it, but I thought someone needed to. Thank you all.” He turned back to find Xianing and Marshalla looking at him with stunned expressions.

  The oriental-looking woman spoke up. “General? Sir? I’ve been an assistant for seven years now and no one has ever said thank you to me before. We should be thanking you, too, Sir. Things have been so much better for us since you started looking after Cyndy.” Crineal could see she was nearly in tears.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve stood by far too long. I’ll try and make sure that your rights are protected and enforced from now on.” He saw that the lines of assistants were starting to board the shuttles. Crineal turned to Cyndora and kissed her deeply, not caring who saw. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Cyndora looked at him with tearful eyes. “You’d better be here when I get back,” she said huskily.

  “I’ll be here.” Crineal turned to the officer in charge of the assistants. “Look after them, Lieutenant.”

  The young man stood stiffly at attention. “Yes, Sir, General. You have my word.” Crineal nodded and gave Cyndora a last wave as she boarded the shuttle before turning and leaving the bay. The task force made its penultimate jump two hours later.

  Crineal’s quarters seemed horribly empty to him that evening and the bed felt awfully large. His night was restless and he was glad when the alarm buzzer went. Crineal skipped his exercise routine and just made breakfast before putting on his flight suit and making his way to the bridge. Crineal greeted Captain Aldar and Admiral Ken’Rathel and set about transmitting the jump data packages to the other carriers. He sent Devastator’s package first. That way when something went wrong it would be seen that they had had lots of time to potentially mess around with it. With that task complete, he turned to Admiral Ken’Rathel.

  “Jump data sent, Sir. Jumps are programmed for ninety minutes time. With your permission, I’ll go and make sure all our small craft are in place.”

  “Permission granted, General, and good luck out there.” Ken’Rathel returned Crineal’s salute and watched his lead pilot exit the bridge.

  Crineal headed down to Bay Alpha Ten and to his waiting fighter. As he entered the bay, the crew chief working on his Hunter saw him and saluted.

  “Good morning, Sir. She’s all ready for you,” Tech Chief Walyar said as Crineal approached.

  He returned the salute. “Thank you, Chief. I’ll try not to scratch the paint work today.” Crineal gave him a grin and climbed the steps to the cockpit putting on his helmet as he did so. He could see the other three fighters of his group already warming up their engines as he settled himself into his flight couch and did the pre-flight checks. With those completed Crineal sealed the canopy of his Hunter, cocooning himself inside and powered up the engines. Their steady hum assured him that all was well and he lifted off to lead his flight out of the bay. Saphya, Perl and Linthea followed him and took up their assigned flight positions as they made their way to join the other squadrons that were allocated in the wings below the carrier. As far as Crineal knew, this was the largest force assembled for decades outside of ceremonial duties. One hundred twenty-five capital ships and over three thousand small craft, he thought. The rebels wouldn’t lack for targets today. He keyed his comm.

  “All units, this is Zeus.” Today he had an extra designation as task force coordinator. “All craft report in through your chains o
f command. Olympus Control, please confirm when all units are ready.” His own flight leaders, squadron leaders and wing leaders reported in to him and he dutifully reported their readiness to the Annihilator. Ten minutes later his comm activated.

  “This is Olympus Control,” Admiral Ken’Rathel’s calm and steady voice came through, “All ships confirmed ready. Time to jump ten minutes, repeat one zero minutes.”

  As the time ticked down, the comm chatter was non-existent in his own squadron. Everyone knew that the first fifteen minutes after the jump were going to be sheer hell and the pilots were mentally preparing themselves. The time on Crineal’s display ticked down to fifty eight seconds and as it did so the Devastator’s strike force on the far left of the formation disappeared.