New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1)

by Joshua Dalzelle

  Chapter 15

  “Director Wolfe?”

  “It’s just Jackson.” The answer came back with just a dusting of irritation. “What can I do for you?”

  “An unscheduled delivery just made dock,” the orderly said. “There was a data card in it addressed to you with no origin marker.”

  Jackson wordlessly held out his hand, not taking his eyes off his terminal monitor. The orderly put the package in his hand and turned to walk back out through the hatch.

  “Thank you,” Jackson said politely and set the packet on his desk. He assumed it was from his wife, Jillian Wolfe, formerly Jillian Davis. She was younger than him by a margin that raised some eyebrows, but not enough to make him seem like a lecherous old man. The fact he looked younger than his forty-nine years helped out a bit. She had been the OPS officer on his first command, the TCS Blue Jacket, and then had followed him over to the Ares. After serving with distinction as his executive officer once Celesta Wright had been given the Icarus, she had resigned her commission when he had retired after the war.

  He had begun to suspect that she had a harmless infatuation with him and was thus unprepared to learn just how deep her feelings went. At first he had been afraid that the intensity would wane once they were civilians, but, if anything, losing the distraction of the commander/subordinate dynamic to their relationship had made them equals in every aspect of their life and brought them closer together. In short order after his return to Earth they had started a family and were the proud parents of healthy, beautiful twins, a boy and a girl.

  Jillian was such a stabilizing force in his life that he wasn’t surprised when she’d simply begun packing when he came home and proposed that they re-enter service as contractors with the Prometheus Project. What did surprise him was that she had no desire to go back to work for him. She used her own connections to secure a position on Arcadia and before they’d even arrived at their new home she was scheduled for orientation at her new job. In a move that surprised Jackson even further, she’d also submitted the paperwork to change her last name from Davis to Wolfe, a practice that, while still common on Earth, was almost non-existent in most of the enclaves. She explained it as a purely business tactic: the name Davis was common and she had no particular attachment to it, but Wolfe opened doors and commanded a modicum of respect just by its association to Jackson’s exploits.

  “Hopefully the children are okay,” Jackson said as he popped open the courier package and shook the data card into his hand, frowning as he did. The handwriting wasn’t Jillian’s, but he did recognize whose it was and it wasn’t likely welcome news. He slipped the card into the slot and let his terminal read the contents.

  “Hey, Captain.” Pike’s face popped up on the screen. “You can relax, nothing horrible has happened since last we talked. Just flying around aimlessly looking for a secret shipyard … thanks for that, by the way. The reason I conned one of your planetside handlers into doing this for me is that I had a bit of an idea.

  “Contained on this data card are all the post-action reports from every interaction we’ve had with the Darshik. There are the obvious conclusions made by our analysts, but the petabytes of raw data from the Prowlers could take years to go through. There’s likely nothing there, but I figured your pet Vruahn AI might be able to chew through it quickly enough to make it useful.

  “You didn’t hear it from me, but the Fleet has mobilized the largest taskforce since the last battle of the Phage War and will be hitting the Darshik in two Ushin systems to push them back per the terms of the treaty. Although I shouldn’t, I’ll keep you up to date on what’s happening … it’s just the kind of guy I am. Pike out.”

  Jackson rolled his eyes and selected the after-action summary of Celesta’s first encounter in the Xi’an System. His frown deepened as he read what an Agent Uba had reported. It looked like she might have rushed down into the system with a bit too much reckless abandon, even if she had been correct that it had been an AU or ESA ploy. She’d accorded herself well after the initial shock wore off, but he thought she had learned a bit more caution from her time serving under him. He hoped she wasn’t becoming too enamored with her own reputation to the point that she felt untouchable.

  After having to grit his teeth and watch the Ares be destroyed completely in the Xi’an System, he concentrated on the overview of the Darshik ships and tactics. He was thoroughly unimpressed save for the “lance” they employed that looked to be some sort of directed plasma weapon and those tricky intrasystem “hops.” After going toe-to-toe with the Phage, this enemy looked to be more of an even match for the Terran fleet’s capabilities despite the fact they’d knocked Starfleet back on its heels a bit. The rest of the analysis looked like fairly standard fare and especially dry reading so he skipped it. Instead he pulled out a blank data card and began transferring the raw data from the encounters onto it, redacting any information that he thought might cause a bias.

  “Danilo, get in here,” he said into the intercom as his terminal beeped to tell him the process was done.

  “Yes?” Danilo asked as he appeared in the hatchway.

  “Take this down to the research team dealing with adaptive modeling and tell them I want it run through the Cube at their earliest convenience,” Jackson said, handing him the data card. “Tell them I want it to try and see if a predictive tactical model can be derived with the limited amount of information given.”

  “Is this real-world data?”

  “Yes, but don’t tell them that,” Jackson said. “I want an unbiased result.”

  “I’ll get right on it.” Danilo turned and hustled out of the office.

  As his assistant left, Jackson had to remind himself that he was a project administrator now, not a Fleet officer. He would pump the data through his system and give the results back to the person who had requested it … he wouldn’t add his own comments or concerns, nor would he make any recommendations. All of that was someone else’s job now. Despite his own internal admonishments, he couldn’t refocus on what he had been doing before Pike’s packet showed up, and his right leg bounced up and down with a nervous energy as his thoughts kept drifting back to the Fleet gearing up for its first major engagement since he’d retired.

  ****

  If Celesta thought her crew was getting impatient waiting for the rest of the taskforce to show up, it was nothing compared to waiting for the go-order. All the ships had been replenished, orders disseminated, and tactics agreed upon. The only thing left to do was get the operation started. She had just started her watch on the bridge and had barely settled into her chair when Lieutenant Ellison called to her.

  “Captain Lee from the New York is sending a personal channel request for you, Captain,” her com officer said. “Would you like it at your station, ma’am?”

  “Send it to my office.” Celesta stood back up. “Ensign Accari, you have the bridge.”

  “I have the bridge, aye,” Accari said distractedly from the OPS station. Celesta backtracked to her office and logged back into her terminal just as the channel request icon lit up.

  “Captain Lee,” she nodded when the video resolved. The New York was flying six thousand kilometers astern of the Icarus so the video quality was flawless with zero lag. “What can I do for you?”

  “Captain Wright,” Lee said. “I’ve received unofficial word that Admiral Wilton will be ordering a movement soon. But … that’s not why I wanted to talk to you before we got underway.”

  “Oh?” Celesta asked carefully.

  “I wanted to apologize, ma’am, for my behavior when you met us at the dock on the Platform.” Lee seemed to squirm in his seat. “Regardless of what scuttlebutt I’d picked up about being replaced, I had no call for such unprofessional behavior. I’ve been an admirer of yours since the Battle of Nuovo Patria.”

  “No apologies needed for dirty looks, Captain.” Celesta had to try hard not to smile. “If only that were the worst thing that was hurled my way from other officers. I k
now you were given the New York as a provisionary spot during CENTCOM’s restructuring, but if you’re a captain that’s worth a damn you’ll want a chance to fight for your seat. The Brooklands was a major player in the war … I think you’ve earned a right to prove yourself.”

  Lee opened his mouth to say something and then just nodded his head. “Thank you, Captain,” he said after a momentary pause. “I just wanted to clear the air before we broke orbit. Thank you. New York out.” The channel closed and Celesta leaned back to contemplate the odd exchange.

  Captain Lee had been the CO of the TCS Brooklands during the war, a Seventh Fleet heavy missile cruiser. He’d been involved in many battles and had performed his task with a sort of calm efficiency, but when CENTCOM had tried to put him on the bridge of the Icarus when her first CO was relieved for cause Captain Wolfe had declared Lee unfit for destroyer duty. Instead, he’d pushed hard to have his XO, Commander Wright, named as the interim CO of the Icarus and, in the spirit of expediency, CENTCOM gave ground.

  It was only natural that when Lee found himself on the bridge of a battleship that he would harbor resentment when, once again, it looked like Celesta Wright was going to swoop in and take it regardless that it was always meant to be a temporary posting. She didn’t doubt that Lee would do his job to the best of his ability aboard the New York. What did worry her was that the lingering doubt of being told he wasn’t cut out to be a destroyer captain due to a lack of boldness or decisiveness might lead him to overcompensate, to make rash decisions that put the mission and his ship at risk.

  With a mental shrug she forced the issue from her mind. Her responsibility was to her mission, the Icarus, and Ninth Squadron. In that order. She didn’t have the luxury of worrying about what was happening on the bridge of a Fourth Fleet battleship that wasn’t even going to be in her formation once the operation started. Captain Lee was left in place on the ship by Admiral Pitt and she’d have to trust that he knew what he was doing.

  “All hands to duty stations, all hands to duty stations,” Ensign Accari’s voice came over the intercom. “Prepare for ship’s movement.” A moment later her office intercom pinged, as did her com link.

  “Captain Wright, please report to the bridge.”

  “Finally.” Celesta stood and smoothed out her utility top.

  They had received their official move order and since the Ninth was to jump in first, and were the fastest ships in the fleet, Celesta was given clearance to climb up to departure altitude first and come onto course for the jump point. She elected to fly the course on her main engines, not wanting to risk the RDS flaking out and not needing it since the other two ships, the Atlas and the Hyperion, didn’t have the drive refit.

  Once the formation had swung around Juwel and reached escape velocity the three destroyers peeled off onto their new course and away from the rest of the taskforce.

  “Confirming new course, ma’am,” the chief at Nav said. “We’re where we need to be.”

  “Very well.” Celesta stood up. “Helm! All ahead full. OPS, inform Engineering to prepare the warp drive for deployment.”

  “Ahead full, aye,” the helmsman said, the deck vibrating as the main engines were run up to full power. They were still weeks away from any actual fighting, but the crew was razor-sharp as the ship was now on her way to meet the enemy. Most were still stinging from the slap they’d received in the Xi’an System and were looking forward to moving on the Darshik with a full battlegroup in tow.

  “Icarus is at transition velocity, ma’am,” Ensign Accari called out.

  “Thank you, Ensign,” Celesta said calmly, but made no call to the helm to throttle the engines back. The Icarus was topped off with propellant and having more velocity than needed when initiating a warp transition was never a bad thing. She watched as her ship raced up to .15c before calling for a throttle back.

  “Helm, zero thrust,” she ordered. “Utilize engine power as needed to maintain current velocity.”

  “Engines answering zero thrust, aye,” the helmsman said. “Steady as she goes, on course for combat jump point Tango.”

  “Mr. Accari?” Celesta asked.

  “Jump point is twenty-nine hours away at current velocity,” Accari said, correctly guessing which information his captain wanted.

  “Commander Barrett, at jump minus ten hours I want the warp drive deployed and a full system test done,” Celesta said to her XO. “Between now and then I want readiness drills by all departments including Engineering. Maintain normal watch schedules for now, but I want the nervous energy on this ship put to good use.”

  “Aye aye, ma’am,” Barrett said crisply.

  “Carry on,” Celesta said, walking off the bridge and pointing to Barrett to let him know he had the watch. Her crew was still the same combat-hardened group they were before they met the Darshik in the Xi’an System, but the incident had stung them as the whole affair could only be called a loss for the Terran team despite the Icarus destroying two enemy ships. She intended to make sure they didn’t have a lot of time to reflect on that during the long warp flight, and there was no point in waiting for the time it would take to traverse the Juwel System to start.

  She was looking forward to redeeming herself after Xi’an, but she carried a healthy respect for her enemy into the fray. Their ability to jump around within a system and transport whole starships away wasn’t something to be taken lightly, but she’d be damned if she tiptoed onto their turf and skulked around the edges, afraid to be noticed. It was high time these assholes learned just who in the hell they were messing with.

  Chapter 16

  “Transition complete, verify position,” Accari called out.

  “Position verified!” the nav specialist called out. “We’re less than five hundred kilometers from our target jump point, just inside the heliopause of Tango System.”

  “OPS, stow the warp drive and inform Engineering I want the RDS online immediately,” Celesta ordered. “Helm, use our transition velocity and maneuvering thrusters to clear the area. I want the mains ready to take over for the RDS without pause, so have the plasma pressure at full operational level. Tactical!”

  “Passive sensors already scanning, ma’am,” Adler said. “Thermal imagers verify enemy presence down in the system. I’ll update as the data resolves.”

  “Set condition 2SS,” Celesta said, adjusting the readiness level of her ship. The crew had already been at general quarters before they’d transitioned in. “Coms, inform Flight OPS that we’ll be launching our drones as soon as we have confirmation the Atlas and Hyperion have arrived.”

  “Aye, ma’am,” Ellison said.

  “Transition flash!” Adler said.

  “That’s the Hyperion,” Ellison said. “They pinged us with a com laser the instant they arrived.”

  “Captain Walton is quick on the draw,” Barrett said as he watched his terminal.

  After the initial excitement there was nothing else to do until the Atlas showed up but watch the passive sensors to make sure a Darshik patrol didn’t stumble across them.

  “Settle down, everyone,” Celesta said. “We can’t do anything until the rest of the formation shows up.” Maddeningly, it was another nine hours before the Atlas popped into the system. Celesta did the math in her head and realized the next formation in the taskforce was still another twenty-one hours away at the earliest. She was just about to have her first watch stand down for a four-hour break before beginning the operation to make sure they were fresh, but the Darshik apparently had other plans.

  “Contact!” Adler exclaimed again, drawing an annoyed look from Barrett. Celesta also would have preferred a more measured, calm demeanor from her tactical officer.

  “What do you have, Lieutenant Commander?” Barrett asked in exasperation after Adler failed to elaborate on what she’d seen on the sensor display.

  “Unknown thermal contact moving on a crossing course ahead of us.” Adler composed herself. “Putting it on the main. Computer estimates di
stance at just over four hundred thousand kilometers and increasing.”

  “Looks like one of the random patrols we’re to be looking out for,” Celesta said as the magnified and enhanced thermal picture depicted what looked like three starships running on their main engines coasting through the system. “They don’t appear to be trying to hide, and they’re not turning out to meet us.”

  “It looks like they’re lined up in a single column; all their attack formations so far have been phalanx or stacked,” Barrett said. “I agree, Captain, this looks like a patrol that missed our transition. I think we need to operate under the assumption they’ve spotted us and reported our position, however. I’d hate for them to slide by just for their buddies to jump in on top of us.”

  “I think we’re going to modify the plan a bit.” Celesta sat back down as she watched the range between her ships and the enemy increasing at a steady rate. “Helm, do I have engine power?”

  “Yes, ma’am! RDS is active and ready.”

  “Tactical, bracket those ships and begin feeding telemetry to the Shrikes; one missile per target and stand by for my order to go active,” Celesta said. “Look alive, people! We’re going to jump on this target of opportunity and then we’ll move back to our original plan. Coms! Send a message to our other ships via tight-beam laser that when they see our Link go active that’s the signal to begin the operation as planned.”