The Exxar Chronicles: Book 01 - The Erayan

by Neal Jones

  "Yes, sir."

  ( 4 )

  Doctor Rosenberg splashed his face and then scrubbed it with a hand towel. He sighed as he returned to the barely controlled chaos of the ER. Like Gabriel, the CMO had been about to leave when the red alert klaxon sounded and the commodore's directives regarding battle preparation were relayed to all sections of the starbase via the PA system. Doctor Eppler was just coming on, and Rosenberg had already summoned Rayburne to cover the infirmary. Nurses and EMTs were scrambling to gather supplies to take the civilian emergency shelters, and like Zar, Rosenberg had summoned alpha and gamma shift personnel.

  Sam Eppler navigated the chaos to meet Rosenberg near the central admin station. "Trauma bays are secure, and our people upstairs are clearing as many beds as they can." He was referring to the hospital wings. "The most that Zar could spare for us was a couple squads. I thought we should keep one down here and send the other upstairs."

  "Yes." Rosenberg nodded as he watched Si'Kora hand out the color coded triage badges to the staff. For the first time in the ten days since Jennifer and Emalie had left Exxar-One, Ben felt nothing but relief. They were hundreds of light years away, and the doctor silently prayed that he would live to see them again.

  ( 5 )

  Ambassador Taelon Zar was in the middle of an early supper when the red alert siren blared, and the serving staff of Grax's began ushering the patrons to the nearest exits. Most of them were officers of beta shift, enjoying happy hour, and the DrayH'M could see that a couple were already inebriated to the point that they could barely walk. Their fellow soldiers escorted them out of the restaurant and the ambassador followed, though reluctantly, since she had only eaten half her chicken sandwich, and she was far from full since she had skipped lunch.

  The promenade was a swiftly moving river, babbling with the voices of fear, and the uniformed soldiers of Zar's security force were stones among the current, directing the civilians to emergency shelters or to quarters. Shopkeepers, employees and store owners were closing their businesses and joining the throng as it moved towards the designated PTLs. Zar moved against the current, gently forcing her way to the closest officer.

  "Lieutenant, where is the nearest emergency shelter?"

  "ES-16. Follow that group, ambassador. It's two decks below this one."

  "Thank you."

  A young woman, probably human but Zar wasn't sure, was whimpering as she clutched her infant to her chest. The ambassador put a comforting arm around her and gently steered her with the rest of the group towards the PTL.

  "It'll be all right," Zar murmured.

  The woman nodded, blinking back tears, as she allowed the DrayH'M to guide her into the PTL.

  ( 6 )

  "Hey! You just killed my guy!" Joshua Decev grabbed Tjase's game controller and hurled it across the living room.

  "Bastard!" Tjase got up to retrieve it. "Just for that, I'm erasing your player's stats!"

  "Try it, fuckface, and see what it gets you!"

  Ever since they'd been forced to play nice by their mothers, the two boys had been engaged in what any diplomat would recognize as a cold war. They weren't shooting at one another, but they weren't best friends either. The first few play dates had been nothing more than each boy retreating to separate corners in Josh's bedroom to play his own holo-game, and Tjase had ruined three of them by erasing all the players' databases so Josh was forced to start at level one.

  Then, after Commander Decev had left on her mission to investigate the artifact in the Ontaar system, the play dates had moved to Tjase's quarters, and he was downright selfish and mean with his holo-games and his computer. When Josh had had enough of being bullied, he cornered the other boy when Mrs. Kalverr was in the kitchen fixing lunch and threatened to beat him within an inch of his life. He also threw in some off color metaphors, as well as a few words that would have utterly ashamed Mariah, and Tjase had actually been intimidated to the point of submission. It also helped that Josh hit him hard in the left kidney, enough to leave a bruise, but Tjase didn't dare show it to his mother.

  That was last week, and, ever since, the pair had come to a sort of truce. They had settled for playing holo-games on the HT in the living room, and every so often Tjase's mom would step out to do errands and leave the boys to their own devices. On this particular afternoon, she had been gone for only a few minutes, and Tjase had just beat Josh in a round of Galaxy War III.

  "Start it again," the Murdohn ordered.

  "Naw, I'm bored with this," Josh said, tossing his controller aside. "Let's see what's on the movie channels."

  "Can't. My mom blocks those."

  "Pussy!" Josh snorted. "You haven't figured out how to get around it? It's so easy!"

  "Then you do it," Tjase challenged, not really believing the other boy, but a there was a definite note of hope in his tone.

  Josh walked to the wall screen and opened the central menu. He started inputting commands, and, within a few seconds, the taboo channels were unlocked, and he was perusing the lineup menu.

  Tjase was awed by the feat, but refused to admit it. "So what? I've seen most of those anyway."

  "Liar." Josh plopped back onto the couch, and selected one of the more mature movies.

  The rating said it contained sexuality, pervasive drug use and strong language, and that was good enough for the pair of preteen boys. But then the red alert siren began screaming, and the scene of a humanoid man firing his gun into a crowd of surly gangsters was pushed to one half of the screen. Lieutenant Greene appeared on the other half.

  "Attention all hands. We are now at red alert. All non-military personnel are to proceed immediately to quarters or the emergency shelters. Please follow all directives issued by uniformed officers, and stand by for further instruction. I repeat -"

  Tjase reached over and pressed a command on the remote that made Greene vanish. The movie returned to full screen mode, but Josh was no longer interested.

  "Shouldn't we go to an emergency shelter or something?" Unlike Tjase, Josh had spent all but the first two years of his life living back on Earth with his grandparents. This type of situation was foreign to him, and the fact that the siren continued to wail in the background somewhere, albeit at diminished volume, only escalated his fear.

  "Relax, idiot! You heard the lady. Stay in our quarters."

  "But the only reason they would make it red alert is because of an attack, right? It must be those raiders again!"

  "Chill out, skanknor! Geez, you're such a whiner!" Tjase grabbed the remote and changed the channel. "Let's see what else is on."

  "You're not scared at all?" Josh was incredulous. "Aren't you afraid of being blown up or something?"

  Tjase snorted a laugh. "You're really new at this, aren't you?" Josh nodded. "All right, look, here's how it goes. Yeah, there's some kind of crisis out there, and it might be an attack. If it is, the soldiers take care of it, and the whole thing lasts for, like, a couple hours, maybe less. After it's over, the red alert quits and everyone goes back to whatever they were doing before it all started. Happens all the time on a starship. Hey! You ever seen this one?"

  For the next few minutes, Josh forgot about red alert, battles and the Haal'Chai because the movie Tjase selected was even more adult in content than the one Josh had picked. The sex scene currently playing involved two male Orethians and a humanoid woman with three breasts and four eyes.

  ( 7 )

  Lieutenant Commander Garrett sighed as he pressed his thumb to yet another defense readiness report, and he looked up just in time to see Senior Chief Munn headed his way. The petty officer wore a scowl that gave his wide forehead more creases than a topographical map. But there was also a look in his eyes that Garrett recognized immediately, for it was one that he himself was doing his damndest to hide.

  "Sir, may I talk to you in private? For a minute?"

  "Yes, chief. My office."

  Once the door closed behind them, Garrett accepted the compad that Munn handed him. It d
idn't take him long to peruse the report, and he could see why the senior chief looked so afraid. Scratch that. He looked utterly terrified.

  "We can't win, sir. Not in this fight. My team and I have run every possible scenario through the simulators, and the end result is the same every time. The stardrive and offnet signatures of those ships out there are the same as the raiders that attacked us two months ago. And this time there's not a couple dozen raiders. There's probably at least a hundred, and fifteen warships on top of that!"

  "Two of those warships are actually scouts, Perry." Garrett's attempt at dark humor fell flat and he shrugged. "Until the commodore says we surrender, we fight with everything we've got." He glanced at the chrono display in the upper corner of his terminal screen. "We have thirty-two minutes to come up with options, senior chief. Let's make it happen."

  "Yes, sir."

  The other man's voice and demeanor was as bleak as Garrett himself felt, but the chief engineer meant what he said. Gabriel was in command. It was the duty of every officer and soldier under him to fight with everything they had until Gabriel said otherwise. Anything else was dereliction of duty and treason.

  But none of that meant that Garrett wouldn't do his damndest to make sure that the commodore fully understood the odds of the upcoming battle. After the door closed behind Munn, the chief engineer turned to his terminal and began transmitting his final report to the command deck.

  ( 8 )

  Gabriel finished reading Garrett's summary, and as he laid the pad on the ops console, he turned to Saveck. "Major, please join me in my office. Commander Hiller, you have the deck."

  "Aye, sir."

  Once they were alone, Gabriel faced his first officer and he didn't try to hide his anxiety behind his typical calm veneer. "Major, what can you tell me about Serehl? I recognize his name, but I don't believe he ever commanded any campaigns during the war where I was stationed."

  Saveck was caught off guard, both by the request and the commodore's demeanor. Until now, he and Gabriel had remained at odds, playing out the same sort of cold war that Joshua and Tjase were engaged in, but the willingness of his commanding officer to allow himself to be so vulnerable in Saveck's presence confirmed a fact that neither of them was willing to admit aloud.

  For or better or worse, they were now on the same side.

  "Colonel Serehl is a man who knows how to command a battlefield and how to command loyalty from those serving under him. His campaigns during the war were among the most successful, and he has been awarded multiple medals of honor from the High Chancellor and the Military Council."

  Gabriel nodded, his expression turning from fear into a thoughtful frown.

  "I haven't served under him," Saveck continued, "but I have served with others who were once soldiers of Serehl's battalion. He is a worthy opponent, commodore, and several of his tactical strategies are legendary enough that they are now part of the curriculum at the war academy on homeworld. The soldiers on those ships out there will follow him into El'Sha'Lor if they have to." The major paused and his expression matched Gabriel's. "It doesn't surprise me that he would give his loyalty to the Haal'Chai, but I must give him credit for deceiving the Quorum and the Military Council so completely. With someone of his reputation, I doubt that they would have allowed him to remain in command of a battle group if they knew his true intentions."

  The commodore grunted his agreement as he walked to his desk and sat behind it. He activated his computer terminal and began punching in commands. He remembered a conversation that he and Bryson had once had, after the skirmish at Ashoss. The captain had remarked that he was grateful it hadn't been Serehl who had commanded the enemy battle group in that fight. When pressed for details, Bryson relayed to his first officer a firsthand report of the battle at Tinsaye. The odds had been against Serehl, but he had not only succeeded in obliterating a Murdohn fleet, but he had done it with only three dreadnoughts and two destroyers. Gabriel remained silent for a few more minutes as he perused the records that he had pulled from Exxar-One's database and then said, "If Serehl wanted to destroy us, he wouldn't have given us an opportunity to surrender. Nor would he have given us an hour to decide."

  Saveck nodded. "I was thinking the same. He wants more than just a massacre."

  Gabriel flipped through a couple more readouts and as he read, he tapped his chin with one finger. The initial glimmer of a strategy was forming in the back of his brain. "He wants a dogfight. And he wants to take this outpost as a prize, but I'd bet a year's pay that that wasn't his directive from Vi'Sar, assuming that it was Vi'Sar who ordered this attack."

  "You're thinking of accepting his offer." Saveck couldn't quite keep the surprise from his tone.

  The commodore didn't immediately reply. He was pulling and prodding with mental hands at the fragile threads of his plan, and then he smiled as the tapestry began to take real shape. "Yes, major, that's an excellent idea. For those like Serehl, it's hard not to succumb to the sin of pride. According to this" - he tapped the screen - "there was more than one battle that Colonel Serehl didn't win, and for someone like him, with a war record as stellar and as legendary as his, a few losses can be a real pain in the crimson ass." Gabriel's expression now turned cold. "He wants more than a fight. He wants revenge." The commodore stood and walked briskly around his desk to activate the wall screen. "Here's what we're going to do."

  ( 9 )

  "He's got to be joking!" Lieutenant Navarr couldn't help herself as she listened to Commander Jacobson's report. He was relaying Gabriel's orders to the security teams assigned to promenade and the emergency shelters. All four levels were completely empty, and the three dozen officers were grouped on level one, in front of a clothing shop, listening with skepticism and bewilderment as Jacobson spelled out the details of the commodore's plan.

  "No, lieutenant, Commodore Gabriel is quite serious." He paused to make sure she knew how much he disliked being interrupted, and Navarr blushed.

  "Yes, of course, sir, I just ... never mind."

  The commander nodded and resumed his instruction. "As you relay this report to the other squads assigned to this section, make sure you stress the importance of keeping the civilians calm. They're not going to understand these orders, and there will be panic. Your job is to keep that panic under control. Is that clear?"

  A chorus of "Yes sir!" thundered back.

  "Fall out!"

  Navarr's squad had been assigned to ES-16, which was located two decks below the promenade, and as she followed her fellow soldiers into the PTL, Navarr felt a familiar knot in her stomach. First the undercover mission to Om'Nalu colony and now this. All in the space of seven weeks! It was exactly what she'd been hoping for, and it was simple matter to recall the training exercises from her covert tactical ops course at the academy. A small part of her was glad she wasn't squad leader, but she was going to volunteer to take point should the emergency shelter come under attack.

  As soon as the lift stopped and the doors opened, Lieutenant Chandler - the squad leader - walked out first. "Squad, fall in!" The fourteen officers obeyed, and Chandler checked his compad. "ES-16 has a hundred-and-thirty-six civilians, six medics and us. You heard Commander Jacobson. These people are going to be afraid, some are probably going to panic, and others are going to try and tell us how to do our jobs. When we go in there, we'll spread out in a standard cover formation, and I'll deliver the news. Each of you take a quadrant and keep the people in your section calm. Any questions?" There were none. "Fall out!"

  The four decks directly above below the promenade contained multiple large rooms that most often served as reception halls for any number of occasions. Each room was capable of holding a hundred and fifty people, and several of the emergency shelters were scattered among these rooms. ES-16 was in the same room where the reception for President Enkaro was held, just after the change of command ceremony five weeks earlier. Navarr was surprised to see Ambassador Zar among the crowd, and the security officer chose that section
as her quadrant. The DrayH'M was comforting a young woman, who was cradling a sleeping infant, and as Navarr approached them, both women glanced up in her direction.

  "Lieutenant," the mother asked, "what's happening? Why did the red alert quit?"

  "Lieutenant Chandler is going to explain," Navarr replied. She nodded to Zar. "Ambassador."

  Zar nodded back but her greeting was cut off by the raised voice of the squad leader.

  "Listen up, everyone! I need everyone's attention over here!" He waited a few moments for the murmured hum of various conversations to quiet, as hundreds of pairs of eyes turned his way. "First of all, I want you to be seated." He waited as small groups here and there followed his orders. "All of you." The rest obeyed, though it was clear from some of their expressions that they didn't like taking orders from soldiers, even in a crisis like this. Oh boy, Chandler thought. This is going to be harder than I expected. "Good. I know what all of you are thinking, and I know you're scared. For some of you, this is the first time you've been through a situation like this, and I wish that I could tell you we're all going to get through this just fine. Unfortunately, that's not always the case, and I don't believe in giving out false hope. What I can promise you is that my squad and myself are going to do everything in our power to protect and defend you. You have my word on that." He paused, slowly panning his gaze across the crowd, as he waited for his words to sink in. "I have an update on our situation from the command deck. Before I tell you what Commodore Gabriel has instructed me to, I want to make it clear that you need to trust us. If you panic, if you try to resist our protection, if you create more anxiety for those around you, it will not help the situation. Is that clear?" There were a few affirmative replies, but most of the crowd stayed silent, and many expressions turned even more anxious and fearful. "There is a good possibility that this station will be boarded by the Haal'Chai." A clamor of questions and protest began to swell but Chandler raised his voice to drown it. "If that happens, it is imperative that you remain here and you do exactly as we tell you. These emergency shelters were created for your protection, and the best thing you can do is to remain calm and follow our instructions. Is that clear?"