“Five minutes until jump,” reported the ship’s Navigator, Lieutenant Brightenbauc.
“Ready the ship,” said Captain Hammer.
All around me, even on the flag bridge, everything was going smoothly. A glance at the panoramic view of the main bridge showed that everyone on Hammer’s bridge was doing their job as well.
Although I still wasn’t entirely used to having a ship with two fully functional bridges, so far between myself and the Captain we’d managed to make it work.
Of course that didn’t mean that I wasn’t keeping DuPont up here with me and in control of the ship. Let Hammer have Brightenbauc and control over the jump system; she was more likely to spot if he was doing something wrong than I would. But back in normal space I wanted to be able to speak directly to the ship’s pilot at need. Let the Captain communicate via two way holo-screen.
“Preparing to jump in ten…nine…eight…seven…” warned Brightenbauc.
“This is the Captain; all hand prepared to jump,” Captain Hammer warned.
There was a slight lurch and space twisted as it folded around us, and in the blink of an eye we were in another Star System. It truly was an amazing thing we did every time we jumped. It was just too bad I didn’t have time to properly savor it.
Already my stomach turned and my muscles clenched as I prepared myself for the battle of my life. Janeski had been one step ahead of me for too long and I wasn’t about to be caught off-guard again.
“Point Emergence,” reported the Navigator, sounding like he was officially on task and on top of his job. But while he might sound like he knew what he was doing, I had a screen dedicated just for him during jumps. He was still shaky as far as I was concerned and I was going to keep an eye on him. I smelled more cowardice than traitor on him, but cowardly men were known to do any wild thing under pressure.
“Extending baffling and lighting up the main engine,” said the Helmsman, Mr. DuPont, as familiar to me as the layout of what used to be the ship’s CIC and was now my flag bridge. Hearing his steady voice saying the same words I’d heard countless times, I relaxed fractionally. I could be certain that at least one person was doing their job and that he knew how to do it to my satisfaction.
“Step lively, bridge crew,” said Commander Happening, the ship’s First Officer, “we don’t relax until we’re out of the sump and have identified every contact in the system. Just because we’re back at Wolf-9, a nominally friendly base, doesn’t mean the Reclamationists couldn’t have arrived first.”
Heads nodded and shoulders stiffened as the men and women on both the flag bridge and battle bridge manned their consoles with renewed attention.
I was surprised; the First Officer had caught my attention this time. Until now he’d been something of a non-entity to me, the silent backup to Captain Hammer, but I would make a note of this and remember. I wasn’t the only one with concerns.
The main screen started to populate, but so far system appeared to be just as advertised: completely uninhabited by man or marauding space beast.
“Point Resistance?” asked Hammer, looking at the ship’s science officer.
“I read an estimated forty eight gravities of resistance, Captain,” grunted the Science Officer staring at his console with a serious expression.
“Where are my engine numbers,” Hammer demanded of the helmsman.
“Main Engine at 15% of maximum,” said DuPont, fingers flying over his console, “lighting up secondaries now.”
“Shields modulated for the gravity sump,” reported the man at shields, “shield generators continue to perform as expected despite battle repairs. We are ready for a slide, Captain.”
“Let’s get moving, Helmsman,” I urged even though I knew I should just sit back and let the ship’s Captain handle things.
“Engine output increased to 25% of maximum, Sir,” reported DuPont, “both secondaries coming up to 25% also in three seconds…three...two!...one!”
“Shield strength at 93%, and holding,” said the main Shield Operator, but when I glanced over at Longbottom I saw him frown.
“The repairs may be holding but for a jump that size, the book says we shouldn’t have fallen below 95%,” Captain Hammer said strictly. “As the flagship of this fleet I expect no lower than a 97% as soon as we’re repaired. We set the standard for everyone else. Do I make myself clear, Shields?”
The section leaders, both up on the flag bridge and down battle bridge, signaled their agreement as the ship gave the barest shudder.
“Exiting the sump now, Admiral,” reported Lieutenant Brightenbauc and just like that we were free.
“Good job, team,” I projected my voice so it could be easily heard all the way around the bridge and picked up for relay over to Hammer’s bridge. With all the new crew, both Confederation and Border Alliance volunteers, it was just as important as ever to foster the sort of team spirit that would help us survive the latest unholy mess we’d found ourselves in.
“Contact!” called out the Sensor Officer. “Multiple unidentified contacts both coming and going from the Starbase, Captain…and, Admiral,” said the Officer, adding me in at the last moment.
“Size, course and bearing,” said the Captain rapidly, “get me distances, Sensors!”
“I’m getting the IFF signal from the local defense squadron that Commodore LeGodat indicated was supposed be in the system, Sirs,” reported Lieutenant Steiner.
“Good work, Comm.,” I replied.
“Steiner,” Hammer echoed me with a nod.
“Battleships! Captain, the local reservist defense squadron is in close proximity to Wolf-9, however I’m reading one battleship between us and the Starbase and three more orbiting just out of range of the base defenses,” reported the Sensor Officer.
I suddenly went from tense to rigid.
“IFF signals of these new ships are unknown,” reported Steiner not half a beat later.
“Weapons hot. Sensors, scan our immediate area again—I don’t want anything sneaking up on us,” said Hammer. My own eyes were locked on the main screen tracking any and all movement as I read and identified possible enemy contacts.
“Admiral, I just received hail from the nearest Battleship,” said Comm. Officer Steiner with excitement in her voice.
“What have we got?” I asked forcing myself back into calmness, or at least the appearance of it. I was back on the stage and I couldn’t afford a mistake.
Cocking her head and listening, Steiner’s sudden smile of relief was so sudden and surprising I almost fell out of my chair before she once again turned on her professional demeanor.
“Sir, he says he’s the Captain of the Agamemnon out of Aegis, come to join the Grand Fleet under Confederation Vice Admiral Jason Montagne in repelling the invaders of our Sector,” Steiner said.
I blinked. Aegis was one of the more militant Core Worlds in this sector, which meant that seeing them here wasn’t as surprising as the fact that they’d sent anything at all—let alone a fully-fledged battleship.
If you’d told me before this moment that the main worlds of this Sector would be willing to try and unify together to fight off the Reclamation Fleet before it was too late to do anything but whistle at the dark, I would have told you the odds were less than fifty percent. What’s more, if they did do so then it would have been at Central under the Sector Government’s direct leadership. This wasn’t only unexpected—it completely blew me away.
I nodded. “It’s great to hear we’re getting some reinforcements, people, but let’s not let our guard down just yet—not until after we hear from the Starbase,” I said calmly. And probably not even after that, I silently added, but there was no need to give voice to my suspicions on an open mike to both bridges. If the Core Worlds were here to help us, great; if they weren’t then we’d find out soon enough. But either way, having my own people acting suspiciously would kill any small chance we had of unifying yet another group of SDF warships into our fleet structure before it could e
ven start.
No, being suspicious was my job.
Everyone else needed to be the nice, relieved and happy fellow officers they would be expecting to see—either way this went.
When confirmation that both Aegis and Hart’s World had both sent Battleships—as well as squadrons of lighter warships—to join this ‘Grand Fleet’ they were expecting to come from Wolf-9, everyone around me was pleasantly surprised.
“This is excellent news, Admiral,” Captain Hammer said to me.
“Agreed,” I said, slowly nodding, “I can always use another squadron of battleships. Even if they aren’t used to working with each other yet, they will be soon enough.
Hammer nodded.
“Get all the information you can, Captain and signal the other members of…the ‘Grand Fleet,’ I guess it is now. I want a roll call, a ship’s count, and after you do that you are to notify them that I want every Admiral, Commodore, and ship commander to meet in our conference room upon our arrival at Wolf-9,” I said, thinking it was probably best to test just how committed these new members of our ‘Grand Fleet’ were.
If they came to the meeting then great, that would be an important first step. On the other hand, if they proved too fearful to come under the guns of the Starbase in a relatively unprotected shuttle then that would tell me something else entirely.
“Will do, Admiral Montagne,” said Hammer.
“Thank you, Captain,” I replied.
Yes, I was paranoid and still looking for the knife in the dark—the one aimed right at my unguarded back. But while I might be wrong this time, in my defense they really had tried to knife me before—in both the literal and figurative sense.
I needed to be on my guard.
Chapter Twenty-nine: General Conference for the Grand Fleet
In some ways it was fortunate that I hadn’t been placed in command of the Sector 23 Fleet. Since I hadn’t had to run the thing it had given me insights into how such a meeting was run, as well as the types of personalities that could be encountered at the top levels.
None of which was incredibly helpful right at this particular moment, but it did help me to keep my temper firmly in check as I was unable to tell myself this was some sort of special treatment reserved for the ‘Tyrant of Cold Space,’ Rather, it was the general sort of jockeying one must expect in these sorts of situations.
Down the table, an officer with hooded eyes looked to the side and one of the Battleship Captains from his Star System’s SDF stood up.
The younger officer—still early-to-middle aged from what I could tell—cleared his throat.
“After reviewing the battle tapes provided to us by the Vice Admiral, I would like to propose, on my own initiative, that this body consider moving the now-reinforced Grand Fleet out from Easy Haven,” said the Captain in no nonsense voice. “We should hunt down the remnants of the Fleet intending to attack Hart’s World,” he declared, and at this he nodded to both myself and the Commodore sent from Hart, “before they have time to unify with any other enemy fleets, or Task Forces, as they prefer to call them. The enemy is weakened; let us smite him while we can!”
Heads nodded around the table, mainly from the large number of fellow officers from the Aegis SDF that had arrived as our ‘reinforcements’.
Four Battleships, nine Cruisers and twenty Destroyers—that was the weight of reinforcements we had received from the combined efforts of Aegis and Hart. It was more than a drop in the bucket but, considering the numbers we were up against, it still wasn’t enough to take the enemy on head on.
“The enemy is long gone by almost two weeks now. When you combine our post-battle emergency repairs with our transit time here,” I said firmly, “the trail’s gone cold. And even if we did find them, they’d probably have already met up with another Task Force. Give it up for now. If and when we receive new information, I’ll reexamine it at that time.”
The Captain glanced at the Aegis Admiral with the hooded eyes, who made a small hand gesture, causing the Captain’s jaw to clench.
“While I don’t doubt the information you have about multiple enemy fleets invading this Sector, our duty as SDF officers is to defend the various worlds of this Sector. I would say the information you’ve provided about these other three Task Forces only increases the need to act!” the Captain said stridently. “If we can draw the attention of the enemy fleet, even at some small disadvantage to ourselves, then we must do so in order to protect our worlds while the significant firepower represented by our ships are not there to protect them!”
“The Aegis SDF is free to do as it must, and if that means you feel the need to leave Easy Haven then that’s your call. Like the MSP, the Grand Fleet is and will remain an ‘at will’ organization. Except during battle, the various contingents are free to come and go,” I said, and then leaned forward in my chair speaking to the Aegis Captain but looking right into the hooded eyes of the Aegis Admiral. “That said, the Grand Fleet has one leader—and I am he. We will be staying here for now seeing as over half of the Grand Fleet was damaged during our last engagement and many ships are in need of critical repairs.”
“I must protest,” declared the Aegis Captain.
“Hart stands fully behind the Vice Admiral,” said the Commodore from Hart.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” I said with a nod toward the Commodore.
The Aegis Captain narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. I narrowed my own eyes at him and the Admiral from Aegis lifted his hand, silencing his Captain.
“Perhaps the first thing we need to do is settle any questions regarding the chain of command,” said the other man, speaking for the first time.
I released a cutting smile. Here it came: the play for power and the try against my interests.
“Both the Sector Government and the Confederation charter clearly place me in command of the defense of this Sector of the Spine,” I said without rancor, “if that’s what you’re asking.”
If this man thought I was about to let someone else take command of my forces—inside my own Sector, no less—he could take his toys and go home.
“Oh, no, I am not disputing your command over the…joint defense effort, Tyran-, I mean Vice Admiral, of course,” the Aegis Admiral said, one corner of his mouth lifting slightly but his eyes as emotionless as ever. “However, there is always the question of what to do if you fall or are rendered temporarily unable to perform your duties as fleet commander due to damage or comm. breakdown. So discussing your eventual second in command seems in order if the enemy is as powerful as you claim.”
“Admiral…Silverback, isn’t it?” I said, my eyes boring into those of the other Admiral. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of you before this day. Even so, I believe such questions to be premature at best.”
“Not all of us perform feats worthy of appearing multiple times on Cosmic News primetime broadcasts,” Silverback said with a self-effacing gesture that did nothing to disguise the dig for what it really was.
I continued to produce the patented, pleasant, royal non-smile and gazed back at Admiral Silverback unrepentantly. He was going to have to do more than make sly insinuations about my supposed crimes—crimes which were pinned on me in the court of public opinion solely so that the Sector Government could create a scapegoat for everything that had gone wrong.
“If we’re done with this topic, I’d like to switch over to—” I said only to be cut off.
“We need a clear chain of command; this is a war, not a police action. Casualties are…inevitable,” said the Aegis Admiral with heavy emphasis on the last word.
I flipped out a finger and started counting. “First, I will direct you to a review of Article 9, Sub-section 209 of the Confederation Charter; that should answer your question as to the proper procedure should I fall in battle. Second, discussion of my replacement seems premature since I’m not planning to go anywhere until after our ships have had a chance to effect repairs here at the Wolf-9 repair slips—which could t
ake a week or two. Third, unless Hart and Aegis are the only worlds intending to send reinforcements then I would think the appropriate thing to do is table the discussion until we have more representatives here,” I said, easily counting off my points one by one. Personally, I hoped he did a lot of reading of the Confederation Charter because the document stated that in the case of the death of the senior Confederation representative, my replacement would be my second in command—again, another Confederation officer.
“The Confederation Charter is an outdated document which no longer reflects the political reality on the ground,” Admiral Silverback riposted, clearly either familiar with what the chain of command would be if we used the Charter as our guide, or too wise and canny to allow me to frame the argument.
I lifted an eyebrow. “You’re trying to tell the Confederation Admiral this Sector placed in command of its defense that the Charter which requires him to serve, protect, and defend your worlds is an outdated document which he should no longer follow?” I asked mildly.
Silverback huffed, leaned back in his chair and folded his arms.
“When the Empire pulled out, they took the Confederation with them; we’ve been abandoned,” scoffed the commander of the third Aegis battleship. “And if that’s not a violation of your precious Charter then I don’t know what is.”
“I don’t recall abandoning this Sector. In fact, quite the opposite,” I said and then my smile turned into a lopsided grin, “I’m surprised you didn’t already notice, as Admiral Silverback just mentioned—it’s been all over the news.”
“Touché, Vice Admiral,” Silverback said.
“Now, if we can attempt to focus on more practical considerations—such as repairs, supplies, and what reinforcements we can expect from the other worlds of this Sector—I would appreciate it,” I said.
The top Aegis brass and the Hart commodore exchanged looks.
Admiral's War Part One Page 20
