by Peter Grant
“Do you think most of our people will follow us there, sir?”
“I think so. We’ve recruited largely from the New Orkney Cluster, where all of us founders came from. Most of our people are fed up to the back teeth with the First Families there, and their corruption. If we offer them a fresh start on a brand-new planet, with free land and housing into the bargain, plus free shipping to move themselves and their families there, I think a lot of them will jump at it. There may be some who won’t, but we’ll recruit suitable people to replace them.”
“That’ll work, sir. It’ll also be good for the planet, right from the start. Everyone we’ve hired has been vetted six ways from Sunday, and they’re security-checked using a truth-tester every year or two. We won’t have any unknown quantities or shady characters to worry about.”
“Oh, they’re bound to pop up in due course. They’re part of the human condition, after all. Still, you’re right: we can minimize that problem in the beginning.” He stood up. “All right, pack your bags. I’ll send you detailed written orders this afternoon. You’ll head out tomorrow morning, with two security teams to keep you and the gold safe. Bring back the title deed to our new home!”
Frank Haldane was the next to arrive. “Is this it, sir?” he asked eagerly as he sat down.
“Yes, it is. Let’s go over your final op order.”
They spent an hour going over Frank’s plan of attack, drawn up in consultation with the senior officers of his frigate division. Cochrane asked many questions. Frank answered them all, and had a few queries of his own.
At last Cochrane sat back with a sigh. “I think you’ve covered all the bases, and allowed for every contingency we can think of. Are Bobcat and Jaguarundi reloaded?”
“Yes, sir.” The orbital dockyard had pulled the partly-expended missile pods from each ship, and replaced them with fully loaded units, while Bobcat’s remaining EMP warheads had been swapped for bomb-pumped lasers.
“What about Lynx and Margay? Are you satisfied they’re ready for this operation? They’ve only just finished working up.”
“They’re as ready as they can be without more experience, sir. We don’t have enough ships as it is, so we can’t do without them. I’ve moved a few of our senior NCO’s to them, to provide more experience and steadiness to their crews. That’s the best we can do at this stage.”
Cochrane shrugged. “You know what they say. Good judgment comes from experience, while experience comes from bad judgment. This operation will give them plenty of opportunities to gain experience!” Both men laughed, a little uncomfortably. The old saw was amusing, but also too accurate to be truly funny. “You’re right. We need them too much to leave them behind. We’ve given them the best officers and spacers we can find, and the best training we can provide. Now it’s up to them to prove themselves.”
“Yes, sir.” Frank sighed. “I still wish we had an arsenal ship with us, but the toys Rorqual left for us should make up for one. We’ve got all five of our frigates, plus two corvettes. That should be enough.”
“Yes, it should. I’d love to give you an arsenal ship, as originally planned, but Dave was right. We daren’t leave our primary bases at Constanta and Mycenae uncovered, in case the Brotherhood is planning an attack of their own. An arsenal ship plus two corvettes at each base should be enough to protect them until our forces return. Two more corvettes at Barjah will defend our ships there, plus the planet’s own defenses, of course. All our other warships, less those in dockyard hands, are going to be involved in our attacks.”
Cochrane stood, and held out his hand. “All right, Frank. You’ll depart tomorrow. I’ll send your final written orders this afternoon. God be with you.”
“And you, sir, and the others.” Frank shook his hand. “I’ll see you when we get back.”
Dave Cousins was the last to report, late that afternoon.
“How did the exercises go with the Qianjin corvettes?” Cochrane asked.
“Well, sir. They’re as good as we are, if not slightly better, because they have all the discipline and organization of a professional Fleet behind them. I think they’ll be able to operate alongside us with no trouble.”
“And they took your orders as Commodore of the attack force?”
“Yes, sir. There was no friction. As a matter of fact, I’m seriously considering making their Captain Liao the commander of our western task force. He’s that good.”
“I’m glad to hear it. It would certainly please Qianjin to have one of their senior officers offered a command slot like that. I’d wondered whether their ‘professional Navy’ officers would be comfortable taking orders from a security company Captain. I’m glad it’s working out.”
“Yes, sir.” Dave took a deep breath. “Is it a go, then, sir?”
“Yes, it’s a go. The next two destroyers will finish their builder’s trials at New Skyros in three weeks, and be added to the two already in detention. Their missile pods, plus reloads, are already aboard their depot ship. We can expect the Brotherhood to make their move almost immediately after that, because they want the ships as quickly as possible. I daresay they’ll be leaving their base to go get them soon after Frank departs from here.”
Dave grimaced. “It’d be a hell of a thing if he tried to creep into the New Skyros system at the same time, in the same place, that they do, sir.”
“Don’t even think that! I reckon we’ve made sufficient allowance for the timing that Frank should be in position before they arrive. If all goes well on the New Skyros side, they’ll be caught with their pants down. Your attack will hit their base even before they reach New Skyros, to give you plenty of time to deal with whatever you find before any survivors can get back there.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Frank, sir.”
“So will I. Are all your ships ready for action?”
“Yes, sir. We’re loading final stores today and tomorrow. We’ll head out tomorrow night.”
“All right. I wish I could be with you, truly I do! It’s painful to send out two task forces, and have to sit here keeping everything else on an even keel.”
“That’s the job of a Commander-in-Chief, sir. I guess that’s what you are, in Hawkwood’s frame of reference.”
“Sadly, you’re right.”
“If it’s any consolation, sir, I don’t think any of us could do your job. You juggle so many different balls at once, and keep so many different plans and activities on the go at the same time… it’s quite an achievement, sir.”
Cochrane grinned. “I’m glad you think so. If – no, when – you come back to report victory, I hope to be able to tell you about another of those balls, a very big one. If it bounces as I hope it will, it’ll mean a better and much more interesting future for all of us.”
“Oh?” Dave’s face and voice were eager. “How about a hint, sir?”
“You want a hint? All right. Think of white.”
“White, sir? The color?”
“Yes, that white.”
“Ah… that’s a hell of a mysterious hint, with all due respect, sir!”
“Well, you asked for it, didn’t you?”
They were both laughing as Dave said his goodbyes and headed back to his flagship.
That night, over supper, Cochrane confided his concerns to Hui. “It’s so damned hard to step back and let go! I keep worrying about whether they’ll do the right thing, and whether I should have gone with one or the other task force. It’s stupid, I know, but…”
She shook her head as she laid a hand lovingly on his. “It’s not stupid, darling. I suppose you’re doing what every other Fleet commander has done throughout human history. It’s all very well to pick the best subordinates you can, and let them prove themselves in smaller ways, then give them their heads; but you’ll never shake the feeling of personal responsibility. It goes with the territory.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“What have we heard from Neue Helvetica, if anything?”
“Nothing so far. I daresay Pal Sejdiu’s realized by now that something’s happened to Szipnij, because she won’t have arrived as scheduled. Whether he’s been able to avoid the Gesellschaft’s attentions, I can’t say, but I doubt it. They’ve got the scent of big money in their nostrils, and they’re going to follow it. I hope he makes it, if only for his wife’s sake.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then at least we were able to give them a last weekend together.”
“I… I suppose you’re right. We can’t do anything else, can we?”
“No. We’ve tried to provide him with emergency help there, if he needs it, and if he can reach it. More than that we can’t do. I hope he does contact them, because I’ve asked them to keep him out of reach until everything’s over. He’s too good at his job for us to risk him being active when the crunch comes, but I think he’s basically a decent man, serving a bad cause. I don’t think he deserves to die. Once all this is over, the situation will have changed, and he won’t be so much of a threat to us.”
“What if he survives, but the Brotherhood doesn’t? He was relying on their new planet to offer a place of safety to them all. What if it’s not available? What will he and his wife and son do?”
“I’ve got an idea about that, too, but let’s wait to see how things go down.”
“You can’t be thinking of them working for us, are you? We could never trust them.”
“No, it’s not that. Please forgive me, love, but I’d prefer to keep it under my hat for now. Ask me again if Pal survives, and if we win at New Skyros and at their base, and if the Big Three deal with the Brotherhood on Patos. If all that happens… we’ll see.”
23
Ramp-up
NEW SKYROS, HCS JAGUARUNDI
As the flotilla crept up to Pagoménos, the outermost planet in the New Skyros system, a deserted ball of ice far beyond the system boundary and outside space traffic routes, Frank heaved a long sigh. No other ships had shown up on their sensors. They’d made it here ahead of the Brotherhood ships they were expecting.
He turned to Commander Stroud. “All right, Sheena. Make the signal to the planet, then signal Belladonna to take up position, link to the mine controller satellite and prepare them for action. The other ships are to take up their prearranged positions.”
“Aye aye, sir,” she replied briskly. “Command to Communications. Send the pre-recorded signals to the planet and Belladonna, then go to tac net and give me the mike.”
“Communications to Command, aye aye, ma’am.” There was a brief pause as tight-beam signal dishes swiveled above the frigate’s spine and spat out their high-speed encrypted transmissions, then, “Tac net’s open, ma’am. You have the mike.”
“Thank you.” She picked up the microphone on her command console. “Jaguarundi to flotilla. Resupply from Porpoise, then assume attack formation and go to radio and emissions silence, except tight-beam via Belladonna, which will be our communications relay. Acknowledge. Over.”
Seven ships – four more frigates, two corvettes and a resupply fast freighter – rattled back their understanding and compliance over the encrypted, low-power, frequency-hopping local network.
“Jaguarundi to flotilla. Good luck to us all. Jaguarundi out.” She turned to Frank. “How long, do you think, sir?”
“Could be any time from now. We’ll just have to listen very, very carefully to hear them coming. Make sure we fill our tanks and storage compartments, and the other ships do the same. We may have a long wait, and we can’t resupply once we go to emissions silence.”
Moving at very low speed to avoid gravitic drive emissions that might be detected, the ships sent their small craft to replenish their supplies from the freighter, then spread out. The freighter Porpoise had been specially equipped for this mission with sensor arrays down her flanks, much larger and more sensitive than those used by the smaller warships – almost as large and as sensitive as those of a battleship. She took up a position to one side of Pagoménos. Her operators settled down to listen half a light day into out-system space, trying to detect any emissions of any nature whatsoever. Their sensors could detect even a relatively tiny gravitic drive unit, such as those aboard cutters or gigs, as well as broadband radio transmissions between ships in formation.
Silent, listening, waiting, they prepared their ambush.
NEW SKYROS SPACE STATION
Captain Kokinos’ intercom crackled. “Lieutenant Demetriou here, sir, in Communications. We’ve just received a personal signal addressed to you. It’s only one word, ‘Marathon’. It came from the direction of Pagoménos, but the sending station did not identify itself.”
The Captain smiled. “Thank you, Lieutenant. I was expecting it. Alert all watches that there may be more one-word signals for me. Any that arrive are to be relayed to me at once, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. If I’m out in space, forward them to my ship, top priority, encrypted.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
He selected another switch on the intercom panel, and pressed it. A voice replied, “Security, Commander Papadopoulos.”
“Commander, this is the Captain. It looks like things are going to go hot any time now. How many spacers are waiting in the transit lodge?”
“Seventy-three so far, sir. They came in aboard two ships over the past week. Their senior man said they’re waiting for the ferry from Agios, to meet up with some more spacers, then they’ll all ship out together.”
“All right. When they gear up to move, we can expect things to get interesting. Are our extra personnel aboard each ship in detention?”
“Yes, sir. We’ve quadrupled the guard, which is now mostly spacers, enough to form a passage crew. They’ve all been trained by Metaxas Shipyards, so they know how to operate the ships. The anchor watches on board were surprised and suspicious, but we told them the extra people were reservists on their annual call-up. We have nothing else for them to do, so we’re running out their call-up by using them for guard duty. They seemed to accept that.” He chuckled. “At any rate, they sympathized with the new guards for having bureaucrats who screwed them around like that.”
“It’s a convincing excuse. Well done, Commander. What about radio transmissions? We don’t want them contacting, or being contacted by, our temporary guests.”
“No, sir. We’ve insisted that the communications consoles on all detained ships must be staffed by our guards, not the anchor watch crews, and any and all communications must go through us. I think we can keep a lid on that, sir.”
“Good man! Carry on.”
Finally, he called his aide. “Advise Velos that I’ll be coming aboard tonight. They’re to prepare the visiting officer’s cabin for me. Tell them under no circumstances to announce my intentions or my presence. As far as anyone knows, I’m busy planetside. You’ll relay all messages to me as soon as you get them.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
As he rose from his desk, Captain Kokinos was smiling. The next few days promised to be very interesting… and, hopefully, extremely profitable, both for the System Patrol Service as a whole and for him personally.
Three days later, a self-identified Bosun in the space station’s transient quarters received a call from Orbital Control. “Bosun, you asked to be informed when the ferry from Agios entered the system. Hydra has just signaled her arrival at the system boundary. She’ll enter orbit at about nineteen tonight.”
“Thank you, OrbCon. We’re expecting a few dozen of our mates aboard her. I’ll get things organized.”
He called an orbital services company. “Our remaining spacers will be here tonight. I want those five personnel shuttles to be ready by nineteen. We’ll head out to our ship within an hour or two after that, as soon as they’re all aboard.”
“Yes, Bosun. Ah… you know it’ll be a lot cheaper if you hire one or two shuttles, and they make a few trips each? It costs a lot more to have our people staff five of them. That’ll keep them up into the small hours, a
nd we have to pay them overtime. That gets expensive, for us and you.”
“That’s all right. We’d rather complete the movement as quickly as possible.”
“OK, Bosun. It’s your money, after all.”
The Bosun spent the next few hours passing the word to his fellow spacers in the transient quarters. “Be ready at nineteen in the docking bay foyer, with your gear packed. As soon as the others join us, we’ll be dividing into crews and heading out. Tonight’s the night!”
HCS JAGUARUNDI
A little later that morning, Frank was woken in his cabin by an intercom call. “Communications here, sir. Two signals. Captain Kokinos signals that he expects action this night. Tight-beam signal from Belladonna says that weak gravitic drive signals have been detected on bearing two-eight-zero degrees. Porpoise is moving to get cross-bearings.”
He felt a thrill of anticipation run through his veins. “Thank you, Comms. Inform Commander Stroud of Captain Kokinos’ message, please.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
He lay back in his bunk, envisioning the ship’s positions in his mind. The freighter had been five thousand kilometers to starboard of Pagoménos. She’d cross over, moving about fifteen thousand kilometers laterally, and obtain cross-bearings on the emissions from the other side of the planet. She’d move very slowly, of course, under minimum power, so as to make no detectable emissions herself. Allowing for time and distance, she should be able to establish an approximate range to the unknown emissions within the next couple of hours.
They’re almost certainly Brotherhood ships, braking to reach this planet at relative zero velocity, and in its radar shadow, he thought. If we’re right, they’ll most likely arrive here at this time tomorrow morning, by which time the destroyers should be on their way to meet them. They’ll expect to detect their drive emissions, or possibly get a signal giving their time of arrival for refueling and resupply. I hope Captain Kokinos has thought of that.
