Milor!

by Thomas DePrima

  "Aye, Admiral," he said smiling.

  Jenetta smiled for the first time since the engagement had begun. Her look changed to one of concern before she said, "I hope this doesn't feel too awkward for you, Larry. I mean, having a former subordinate supervising the engagement might be difficult for some people."

  "Not at all, Jen. I'm glad that we've had this opportunity to work together again. And I'm elated that you were the one who developed the battle plan. I never would have thought to use a minefield entrapment the way that you did. I would have probably have just established a 'picket line' or gauntlet of ships, and then waded in when the Milori arrived. Perhaps I would have tried using some of the tactics that you developed for the Battle for Higgins. But the overwhelming size of that Milori force would have been too much. They would have crushed us to space dust. Your plan saved the day. We're damaged and bloody, but we're alive, thanks to you."

  "We were lucky."

  Gavin smiled again. "I've heard you use that expression before, to explain how you've triumphed over forces of superior strength and numbers. I think that Jenetta Carver makes her own luck, by always being two steps ahead of her opponents. And I'm not alone, or you wouldn't be wearing those stars on your shoulders. Do you remember our discussion about HQ's plans for you?"

  "Of course."

  "Well, after they review the battle plan and results, they may start looking for a way to get you to keep those stars. There isn't any required or recommended length of time in grade for promotions within the flag officer ranks."

  "But I'm only a brevetted Admiral."

  "The brevet status simply gives them a way to take it back without any formal procedure, but you're still a full admiral while you have it, with all the pay, privileges, and responsibilities of the rank. Now that you've accepted flag officer rank, they could permanently promote you to Rear Admiral, Upper, if they wish. All they need is approval from the GA Council. What's the chance that they wouldn't get that, given your history?"

  "What? They wouldn't."

  "Just be careful what you agree to, or how you refuse it, if you ever wish to get command of a battleship."

  "Admiral Holt wouldn't let them do that to me."

  "Admiral Holt isn't on the Admiralty Board, although he should be. They've wanted him there for a long time, but he's been fighting a battle to stay at Higgins. As bad as permanent assignment to a space station base is, it's still significantly better than being permanently stuck on Earth. He's refused a third star because it would mean leaving Higgins and returning to Earth. You're going to find that the politics in the service, as bad as they are for captains and commissioned officers are going to affect you tenfold as an admiral. You've been exempt until now, partly because we're out so far, but mostly because Stewart was still being developed as a base. Now that Stewart is commanded by an admiral, a lot of things are going to change."

  "Such as?"

  "You'll probably get a JAG admiral assigned to the base now, and a full level of senior officers to handle a lot of the functions that you've been doing. You'll see captains assigned to the Intelligence, Weapons & Research, Communications & Computing, Supply, Logistics, and Port Operations sections."

  "That won't be so bad. I've always been swamped with work."

  "You'll still be busy, but now you'll be spending more time with diplomats and the representatives of planets in your sectors. That means more state dinners and more involvement in planetary politics. The little fracas on Arrosa was just the beginning."

  Jenetta groaned. "I hope you're wrong."

  Gavin held up his hand, signaling a pause in the conversation as he listened to a message in his CT. He pressed his Space Command ring with his other hand. "All right. Proceed. Gavin out." Dropping his hand, he said, "Commander Cameron's people have stabilized the Prometheus and he's sending some engineers to lend assistance on the Geneva and Plantaganet."

  "Great, Larry. Things should be getting sorted out about now. If you have no objections, I'd like to make the conference room on this deck into my office, instead of continuing to use the office in my quarters. I'd prefer to be closer to the bridge."

  "Of course, Jen. You could use this office though."

  "No, you need your office space free. The conference room will be fine. I'll have Commander Ashraf get it set up."

  "Right. I'll take care of deactivating the mines."

  As Jenetta left the captain's briefing room, Lt. Commander Ashraf approached her. "Admiral, I've been able to establish direct communications with the eight ships that are still transmitting, and I have a more accurate picture of readiness than the original damage lists give."

  "Very good, Lori. We're going to set up the conference room on this deck for our office. Let's go there and you can fill me in."

  As they started to leave, a very stressed looking newsie, the one assigned to the Prometheus, said, "Excuse me, Admiral, is it okay to leave this spot now?"

  "Only if you're leaving the bridge. My people are too busy for questions right now."

  "Yes, ma'am, I am," he said, as he hurried towards the door to the corridor.

  "Probably going to change his shorts," Jenetta whispered to her aide.

  Okay, Lori, fill me in," Jenetta said as she sat down in the conference room.

  Looking at her notes, Ashraf began her report. "First, the battleships. The Chiron's condition is similar to the Prometheus.' It took several serious torpedo hits, lost four torpedo tubes and fifteen laser arrays, but the power systems are intact and the damaged sections have been cordoned off. It's holding atmosphere throughout most of the ship. Your sister is fine.

  "The Bellona, because its hull is an older design, is a little worse off, but it's stabilized now. They took multiple torpedo hits and those sections have been cordoned off. It's suffered about a thirty percent loss of weapons. Your sister Eliza suffered a concussion when she was thrown against a console on the bridge, but the chief medical examiner says that she'll be fine in a week.

  "The Thor is in slightly better condition than the Bellona, from both a weapons and hull condition standpoint, but the Sub-Light engines were damaged. It only has Light-Speed and thruster power at present.

  "The cruiser Plantaganet, being of the Kamakura class, has a stronger hull than older cruisers. Still, it suffered multiple torpedo hits in the direct engagement with the Milori ships that escaped from the cage trap, and is severely damaged. Engineers from the Prometheus have shuttled over to help them seal off the damaged areas and seal the holes from laser fire that were too large to self seal.

  "The Song, also Kamakura class, is in slightly better shape and expects that their own engineers will be able to handle sealing the ship, although they'll need assistance getting its temporal generator and Sub-Light engines repaired. It's limited to deuterium-thruster power only right now.

  "And lastly, the destroyers. The Ottawa is in the best shape because it missed the first pass along the trap. Its role in leading the Milori took it so far away that the Chiron was already underway by the time that it was able to drop its envelope, turn around with Sub-Light engines, and get back to join us. The damage occurred in the later battle with the Milori ships. It was struck twice by torpedoes, but will be able to handle its own repairs.

  "The St. Petersburg was badly damaged by torpedoes but it's stabilized now. The engines are functional and their engineers will soon be available to help other ships. Your brother, Commander William Carver, is fine. He wasn't injured.

  "The Geneva was very badly damaged by six torpedo hits. It's so bad that an accurate damage assessment isn't available yet. Engineers from the Prometheus have joined their people and are working to stabilize the ship.

  "That's the situation, Admiral."

  "Thank you, Lori. Advise all captains, that when their ships are stable, I want their engineering staffs to shuttle to the six ships that are out of communication and search for trapped survivors. The Marines on all ships will assist in the recovery once the engineers say that it's s
afe."

  "Aye, Admiral. I'll get on it right away."

  "After that's done, see if you can find out where they've stored the com unit that belongs on this table." Jenetta studied the table casually as she added absently, "It used to have one, and the connection is still here."

  "Aye, Admiral."

  It took half a day for the combined engineering staffs of the nine ships to stabilize their life support systems, but a few small teams of engineers were working with Marines to look for survivors on the six ships without communications long before then.

  Ashraf continually updated her status report with new information as she received it from the various teams, so she was ready when Jenetta asked for it.

  "Teams are working on four of the ships, Admiral. They've found survivors on every ship so far, but the losses are very high. In those sections where air supplies are low, we're transferring the survivors to the nearest ship with adequate supplies, which happens to be the Song. The Song is still in the middle of the battle area since its Sub-Light engines are still off-line."

  "Do you have an estimate of the casualty rate?"

  "So far it appears that we've lost about thirty percent of the total crew members on the four visited ships. That's only a very rough estimate."

  "And the condition of the ships?"

  "Multiple torpedo hits on the Beijing opened a hole that extends to the center of the ship. One frame section is so badly damaged that it's impossible to pass from the bow to the stern without an EVA suit. Engineers and Marines, entering from bow and stern airlocks, have found at least half the crew alive. All airtight doors were sealed, of course, before we met the enemy, and emergency bulkheads closed in various frame sections when pressure dropped. The Sub-Light engines appear to be intact, but it will take months to repair the hull damage. Their IDS communications equipment is down, but their engineers are trying to rig something and they should have basic RF communications soon.

  "The Asuncion appears to be the most heavily damaged of all our ships. The engineers believe that it may be beyond repair. It took multiple, serious torpedo hits and the loss of life appears to be as high as seventy percent. The bridge was totally destroyed. The crewmembers that were working in the most interior sections of the ship, such as the weapons control centers, or waiting it out in Secure rooms, make up the bulk of the survivors.

  "The Mentuhotep has been clobbered hard, but it's still better off than the Asuncion. The initial estimate is that about half the crew is missing or killed. The bow of the ship split wide open. Damage extends as far back as the bridge. The bridge crew, including most of the senior officers, is missing and presumed lost. The hull breached in several other areas as well. The Sub-Light engines appear serviceable though.

  "The Romanov isn't in much better condition, but much more of the crew, including the senior officers, survived. It'll take months of work to get the ship repaired.

  "It would be nice if we were closer to Stewart so that we could tow the ships back there for repair, but at thirty light-years, it's much too far without a fleet of space tugs. We'll have to remain here to do the work, or abandon the ships.

  "That's all we have so far, Admiral. The Buenos Aires and the Cairo haven't been boarded yet because the engineers wanted to visit the most heavily damaged ships first."

  "Okay, Lori. Thank you. I'll wait until we have a complete report on the space worthiness of each ship before I make any decisions about abandoning them, but it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere soon. We also can't simply leave over a hundred Milori warships here. This cleanup operation could take a year or more..."

  Jenetta stopped talking as Ashraf suddenly held up her hand and cupped her left ear. After a few seconds, she touched her ring and said, "Thank you. Ashraf out." Looking towards Jenetta she said, "The Prometheus com operator is picking up IDS radio signals coming from the Milori fleet."

  "Signals to us?"

  "Negative, Admiral. The signals are encrypted."

  Jenetta exhaled her breath loudly. "It appears that there are survivors. Well, that was to be expected. They're either trying to make contact with other survivors, calling for ships to come to their rescue, or sending a report back to the Empire. Perhaps all three."

  "I wouldn't be too worried about option one or three, but option two makes me nervous."

  "Yes, we don't know how many ships are in our space. For all we know, they could have another invasion force here, larger than the one we fought. And we're surely not going to trap them the way that we did the first group."

  "I wonder how close their nearest ships are."

  "That's the million credit question. We're going to have to keep a careful watch. Send messages to our observation ships. I was going to recall them to assist with the cleanup, but now we'll need them to keep an eye out for Milori reinforcements. Reposition them directly between us and the Elurra system, about a hundred billion kilometers out from our location, and close enough to each other that no one can sneak between them."

  "But with just six observation ships, we can only cover a small area of space. A Milori task force could be coming from a different direction. Maybe we should keep them in closer so they'll be more effective."

  "If we keep them too close, we won't have sufficient warning in time to react. Even at a hundred billion kilometers, we'll only have fifteen minutes warning."

  "Aye, Admiral."

  "We'll need two officers to take command of the Asuncion and Mentuhotep." Looking at the large monitor on the wall, Jenetta said, "Computer, among the survivors of the task force verified alive and well, who are the two most senior First Officers on the Promotion Selection List for Captain?"

  The computer said, "The most senior First Officers are Commander Allen Hollingshead, of the GSC Battleship Bellona, and Commander William Carver of the GSC Destroyer St. Petersburg."

  "Computer, voice off. Lori, notify Allen to assume command of the Asuncion, and have Billy take command of the Mentuhotep."

  "Right away, Admiral."

  Ashraf sat down in front of the com unit and began issuing orders in Jenetta's name while Jenetta studied the latest damage reports. The total of confirmed dead was approaching one-thousand three-hundred and the total missing was over two-thousand. Jenetta saw the images of known officers, NCOs, and crewmembers in her mind as the list scrolled up.

  * * *

  Chapter Seventeen

  ~ February 15th, 2277 ~

  Twenty-four hours after the engagement, search parties had scoured every ship in the task force for dead and wounded, and engineers had prepared a basic report on the status of each ship. The Buenos Aires and the Cairo were the last to be searched, and have their condition evaluated. Each had lost a substantial part of their crew, and the ships were so badly damaged that they would be of little use in a fight, and not even able to travel at faster than light speeds without months of repair work.

  The number of confirmed dead had reached four thousand eight hundred forty-six, with the missing and presumed lost currently standing at three hundred eighteen. A recovery effort, devoted to finding bodies floating in space around the engagement area, had been undertaken before they could drift too far away, but the task was onerous. They found more Milori bodies than Terran bodies. Enemy bodies were being stored in cargo containers pending final disposition.

  Ships lacking the ability to move under their own power were towed to the area where the Prometheus had stopped after the engagement, and the ships with functional life support systems were linking up via airlock. Normally, Space Command ships aligned themselves side by side, but because of the damage, all ships with usable airlocks in the bow were using those to connect to a bow airlock on another ship facing in the opposite direction. This arrangement made the outside surfaces of the ships more accessible to bots and repair crews, while also leaving flight bay entrances accessible. To anyone outside, the arrangement looked like something a child would create in their sandbox, and a shuttle pilot could easily get confused if v
isually searching for his or her ship in the blackness of space. The Mentuhotep linked up using stern airlocks because its bow airlocks had been destroyed.

  A very weary Admiral Carver sat down at the com unit in the conference room and prepared a report for Admiral Moore at Space Command. She had procrastinated as long as she could, telling herself that she wanted as much information as possible before sending the report that she knew was anxiously awaited at Supreme Headquarters.

  "Priority-One message to Richard E. Moore, Admiral of the Fleet, Space Command Supreme Headquarters, from Jenetta A. Carver, Rear Admiral, Lower Half, Base Commander of Stewart Space Command Base, aboard the GSC Battleship Prometheus. Begin message.

  "Hello Admiral. It's been twenty-four hours since the engagement and we've stabilized our situation. Most of our engineers are getting some much needed rest now that shipboard life support emergencies have been dealt with. We'll resume repair activities when they return to duty. We continue to search space around the engagement area and collect the bodies of Space Command personnel and Milori invaders.

  "We've picked up radio communication activity from some of the ships in the destroyed enemy fleet but we've been too busy with other problems to investigate. The messages are encrypted, so we know that they aren't trying to contact us. There has been no movement of any of the Milori ships since the engagement ended but we continue to watch them vigilantly. In the next few days, we'll begin a ship by ship assessment of the destroyed fleet as we look for survivors and ascertain that the Milori ships pose no further threat.

  "I'm awaiting an updated ETA list of the ships redirected to Stewart so that I can reroute some to our location. It appears obvious that we'll be here for some time. The repair and cleanup effort will be massive, and we'll need additional supplies and equipment from Stewart. I've radioed instructions to Captain Donovan to send every available space tug to this location.

  "I'm appending a confirmed list of casualties to this message. I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of each of our deceased comrades. All fought with commendable bravery against an invading force of overwhelmingly superior numbers.