Captain John 1: A Galactic Coming of Age

by Krystyn Dean

  My reply was simply, “Its Admiral Anderson, Captain Velions and if we have need of your staff, I will call for them. Now please take your seat.” I believe Velions was going to argue and then thought better of it.

  I continued, “I would like to introduce all of you to the Reagans CAG, Commander Bradford Estrada”. Commander you have the floor. Brad introduced himself to the room and began to explain about the fighter groups on board the Reagan, when he was interrupted by Captain Velions.

  “Captain Anderson, why is your staff included in this meeting and ours is excluded? We have as much right to have our people here as you do?” I took a moment to control my anger, then said, “Captain Velions, my rank is Admiral, I earned that rank and I am entitled to the courtesy. I do not need to explain myself to you, however I will this one time. I am introducing you to some of the people who may very well be saving your ass so they can explain what it is they do. If you will sit and listen, I think You, and everyone else, may profit from this meeting.” In response Velions said. “Well! There is no reason to be rude”. To which I replied, “apparently, there is.” “Please continue Commander Estrada.”

  Brad explained what fighters and fighter bombers we had aboard the Reagan, how they were armed, and how he intended to deploy them, answered a few questions from the group of Captains and then turned to me and said. “Admiral, that finishes it up for me, do you need me for anything else?” I replied, “no commander, you are excused. We will be making a tour through your area, please have some of your people available to answer any questions about the fighters.” Brad replied “Aye Sir” and left the wardroom.

  I started my next introduction by saying, “my next speaker may come as a bit of a shock to you. His name is Diviak Y’shol, he is a member of the Rheagane species and a freedom fighter from Apsis Prime. Apsis Prime is one of the systems already under Eldirelian control. I have included a briefing paper explaining how we met Diviak Y’shol. Sergeant Y’shol will explain to you what a species that comes under Eldirelian control can expect. This should give you some perspective as to what our job will be out here.”

  “Diviak, would you please join us?” There was a soft inhalation when Diviak came out. He is, after all, large, green and very muscular. Diviak said, “Hello keptains, I am Diviak Y’shol. My people have been under the Eldirelians control for many yetons. We have fight these scums for all that time. Eldirelians take all, force us to work in mines, execute those who are too weak to work, exterminate all girl children and only feed those male children that show signs of being able to work in mines. They strip our world and when it is destroyed, they will leave us to die without resources.” “We fight, but we have too few people and equipment to carry the battle. They destroy, spoil and leave death in wake. We never give up fight, never. We die fighting.”

  There was a hush in the room, finally Captain Velions stood, and said, “it sounds like this is their fight, why are we getting involved. Since when does humanity need to be the Galaxy’s policeman?” I said, “Captain Velions, if we don’t come to the aid of those species who need our help now, who do you think will come to our aid when the Eldirelians come to the Solar system. Humanity is uniquely qualified for this job. Now whether those qualifications are a good thing or not is above my paygrade, but by God I for one refuse to stand idly by while these atrocities occur on my watch. If you, or any other officer here feels this is not his fight, speak up now, you will be released from the SOL/FED Navy and you will be on the next shuttle back to Earth.” The room became very quiet, but It was clear that most of the officers understood the reason we were involved, even if Velions didn’t.

  No one asked to return to Earth.

  Later, after a quick tour of the Reagan, all officers were returning to their own ships. I had lieutenant Jenson ask Captain Velions to come to my office before he left. A few minutes later there was a knock on the hatch. “Enter” I said. Captain Velions came through and slouched in front of my desk. I said, “it is customary, when a junior officer enters the office of a senior officer, for the junior officer come to attention. Or is that not the way things are done in the French Navy Captain Velions?” Velions said, “it is a matter of respect Captain Anderson, and I have no respect for an officer who lost his ship by running it into a freighter in the mid-Atlantic. I don’t understand why you were elevated to a greater rank when you were a failure as a captain in the U S Navy. Perhaps the fix was in as you Americans say? You see I know Admiral Harrison-Langham, and I know what happened at your hearing, so I have no reason to respect you or your rank, Captain.” I replied, “I see. So, you are a confidant of Admiral Harrison-Langham.” As I stood and came to attention I said, “Well Captain Velions let me introduce you to another Admiral I think you might recognize. Perhaps you will show him a little more respect.”

  Admiral Miller stepped into the room. And he was pissed. Velions came to attention and even saluted when he saw Admiral Miller. Admiral Miller said, “Captain Velions, I overheard every word you just said, and I am within about two seconds from having the Sergeant of the Guard put your arrogant ass under arrest and send you packing back to France. You are the sorriest excuse for a naval officer I have ever met and the only reason you are here at all is the French Navy couldn’t wait to get rid of you.

  You WILL address Admiral Anderson as Admiral, and sir. There is no other address that applies, and you WILL come to attention ANY time Admiral Anderson is in your presence. The only reason you have not been demoted to Commander and assigned to a garbage scow is because Admiral Anderson says he needs you on the Monserate. Rest assured, Admiral Anderson has my permission to bust you down to Lieutenant and find someone else to command your ship if he feels the need. And as far as Admiral Harrison-Langham is concerned, it is no surprise you would be one of his confidants. Birds of a feather will fly together.”

  “You are going to want to keep a very low profile captain. The worst thing in the Galaxy for you would be for me to get an unfavorable report on you. Now you WILL support Admiral Anderson and the military action we are going to be undertaking. And you WILL show the respect that Admiral Anderson has earned through sacrifices you will never understand. Because if you can’t I will make space available on my shuttle back to Earth in about two hours. I will have your answer now.”

  Velions said, “I am sorry for the misunderstanding Admiral Miller, of course I will comply with your wishes. And I understand the need for this fighting force sir.”

  Admiral Miller said, “Very well Captain Velions, but listen closely to what I am about to say to Admiral Anderson.” Admiral Miller turned to me and said, "Admiral Anderson, if Captain Velions fails to comply with any of your orders or the orders I have just given him in any way, you have my permission, hell, you are under orders to, strip him of all rank and put him in the brig for insubordination. I will deal with him when you return. Now is everyone clear on what was just said here?” “Yes, Sir,” both Velions and I said at the same time. Admiral Miller said, “you are dismissed Captain Velions, return to your ship.” Velions saluted and scurried away.

  Admiral Miller said, “John I am sorry to saddle you with that jackass, but we simply don’t have the people trained to replace him. If he gives you any trouble, you do exactly what I said. You aren’t going to have time for some prima donna who won’t follow orders”. I replied, “it’s alright Admiral, I’ll make it work.”

  Admiral Miller and I made our goodbyes and I went back to work. The admiral and I had decided that Apsis Prime should be our first target. Apsis Prime is the Home planet of Diviak Y’shol and his people the Rheaganese. The Rheaganese were in dire straits and if we couldn’t help them now the species might very well cease to exist. Our mandate was to prevent that very thing.

  I had also asked Commander McCreary, captain of the Corvette Venture to stay behind after the meeting. After Admiral Miller left, I asked Lieutenant Jenson to have McCreary step in. I had a mission in mind and I wanted one of my best for it.

>   Commander McCreary stepped in to my office and said, “Commander McCreary, reporting as ordered sir.” I said, “Relax Mac, have a seat. How is your crew? Are you liking the Venture OK?” He replied, “yes sir, I was able to bring some of my own people along, so we are working well together, and the Venture is sweet, power out the butt and Quick, oh so quick.” I said, “good that’s what I like to hear.”

  “Mac, I have a special mission for you. I need you to go to Apsis Prime. You would need to leave today if possible, I want you to make your final Jump into the Apsis Prime system at your best possible speed. Your arrival point should be far enough out to avoid notice, and then I want you to cold coast through the system.”

  “Get all the information you can obtain using passive sensors. I need to know ship placement and type. I also need to get any information you can possibly get regarding surface troop deployment. Diviak Y’shol indicates that there aren’t that many Eldirelian personnel on planet, because of the Eldirelian threat from orbit, but I want to know for sure that has not changed.”

  “Diviak also gave me a directed narrow beam burst channel used by the resistance. Here are the coordinates for the antennae. Try it to see if you can make contact. There is no guarantee that it will still be usable. If you establish contact, give them the name, Diviak Y’shol and follow it up with the code words ‘La so ray teela mee latee’. If they accept the transmission they should reply ‘solasolatee teetee mee meesolaso so’. If you get anything else get the hell out of there. If they give the proper response, then get as much information as possible.”

  “I don’t need to tell you that this is a major risk. If the Eldirelians intercept the burst transmission, your mission could be compromised, but if we can get current information it could save a lot of lives.”

  “It goes without saying that if you must use your weapons to escape, do so, but that means your mission will have failed. We don’t want the Eldirelians to know where or when we are going to hit them.”

  “Rendezvous with the Carrier Group at these coordinates.” I handed him a microchip with all the pertinent information on it. “Mac, try to leave the formation as unobtrusively as possible, I don’t want to tell anyone what is going on until we are underway.” He replied, “Aye Sir, the Venture is ready to go, we can leave within two hours.”

  “Good luck Mac. Take care out there.”

  OK, it was done. My first time to order SOL/FED people in harm’s way. This is the difficult part of command and I know it will not get any easier. That is the way of war and I hate it. I still wonder if taking this command was a good idea. Maybe I am just not up for the responsibility.

  The next day, Dr. Andy Garrett and Commander Hiller asked for a few hours of my time. They wanted to talk about some of the improvements made to the Carrier group. I had been so busy with the officer reviews that I had neglected the progress of the weapon upgrades. It was now time for me to catch up.

  Dr. Garrett led off with information on new developments. Andy said, “Admiral, we have developed some upgrades to the shields.” “The new shields have been installed on all ships in the first Carrier group. They should do a good job with the Eldirelian laser plasma cannon. They won’t stand a constant or prolonged pounding, but they should give good protection if given a chance to regenerate.”

  “We have also developed a stealth shield system for our ships, it has been installed on all ships in the First Carrier Fleet. It is simple really, it is a variation of the field harmonics generated by the shield generators, so it was a quick and easy fix. There is a stealth control module mounted on the navigation console and the ship will enter stealth almost immediately when the control is activated. It is different from the stealth shield on the Eldirelian ships, in that you can have your weapons charged and ready to fire when you exit stealth mode. The Eldirelians have to wait to uncloak before they can arm their weapons because of the power demands.”

  Just like that, no grand announcements, no blaring horns, they just matter-of-factly gave our fleet two of the greatest defensive devices we could have, and it was just business as usual. I almost fell out of my chair. I said, “are all of my people up to speed on the stealth device?” Dr. Garrett said, “oh yes sir, they all think it’s great.” I thought to myself, think it is great? It is freaking outstanding.

  Dr. Garrett went on to say “we are also developing a new torpedo that is fast and carries a stealth shield. it should be ready sometime in the next three to five months. We are also developing our own version of the transporter system the Eldirelians use. No solid timetable on that one, but it has priority.” Dr. Garrett continued “Dr. Hiller can fill you in on some of the other weapon upgrades we have managed for the First Carrier Group.”

  Anne spoke up and said. “Admiral, we have upgraded the Mega laser systems to turrets that will rotate sixty degrees horizontally and thirty-five degrees vertically.” “This should give us the ability to concentrate our firepower without changing the position of the ship.”

  “We replaced the medium lasers with the new Laser Plasma Pulse cannons. These cannons have a short cooldown delay and can be fired every six seconds. As you know, the LPP cannon is a combination laser and plasma weapon. The laser forms a sort of cannon barrel or tunnel to the target, this accelerates and concentrates the plasma burst for maximum damage at the contact point. This is a hybrid of the cannon you encountered with the Eldirelians.” “However, ours recovers much faster. Our LPP’s can be charged and fired in about half the time the ones the Eldirelians use. The LPP’s are also mounted in turrets.”

  “On the Cruisers, there are Four of the Mega Laser Turret systems mounted forward with six LPP cannons mounted in turrets facing forward and four more LPP cannons mounted in turrets facing aft. All ten LPP cannons are capable of being aimed through a sixty-five-degree arc for maximum coverage. The Mega Laser turrets can narrow their focus from a small area to a wider more diffuse pattern. The narrow-concentrated beam would be hell on shields, and the wider area could more easily take out multiple firing stations at once. All turrets also have individual shields in addition to the normal ship shields. Turrets are a little more exposed than the other weapons.”

  “There are four magnetic rail cannons facing forward. There are six torpedo tubes forward and four more aft. The Missile launch bays remain the same, capable of launching up to twenty missiles at a time. The missile selection has changed, the only missiles available for now are the Fast Strike missiles, the standard missiles were to slow and were not effective.”

  “All ships carry mini magnetic rail guns in remote turrets for point defense.”

  “The Carriers carry everything the cruisers carry plus an additional four side mounted LPP cannon turrets working through seventy degrees’ horizontal and one hundred and forty-five degrees vertically to cover the longer length of the carriers.”

  “The destroyers have been upgraded as well, they still have the two mega lasers forward, but we replaced the medium laser with four LPP turrets forward and two more aft. The destroyers have four forward facing torpedo tubes and two aft, they also have four medium rail guns for longer range offensive requirements. Each destroyer carries three launch bays capable of firing up to a total of twelve missiles at a time.”

  “The Corvettes now carry six LPP turrets forward with two more aft, they also have two medium rail guns and of course the mini magnetic rail gun turrets for missile defense. They also have one torpedo tube.”

  “All ships now carry double level shielding with rotating and alternating frequencies. The shielding upgrade is an important part of the defense system and should give our ships at least eighty percent more shielding capacity.”

  “We have developed a mine that uses the warhead from our FTL missiles. Simply put you can dump them in an area and arm them remotely. Anything metallic that comes in to its area will attract it, it explodes on contact. It is slow moving so it more easily avoids the attention of sensors. Even if the ship has shields up it c
an cause a great deal of damage. They are small and your supply ships will carry enough to saturate four areas 60 kilometers’ square. They are easily duplicated and your factory ship is programmed to turn them out. Just supply the required elements.

  And that completes the list of upgrades.”

  “There is another matter that we feel is important. Admiral, we believe that the technology the Eldirelians use is not actually theirs. We believe they are being supplied by someone else. We have no idea who or why, but the Egolari engineers agree that the Eldirelians should not be capable of this level of technology.”

  The idea that the Eldirelians are getting help from another advanced race is interesting, but not particularly surprising. Humanity would not be capable of this level of technology without the help of the Federation. We just need to keep our eyes open for any hints as to who that species might be.

  I had Jenson ask Qobrun to join me in my ready room. When he arrived, I said, “Qobrun, the SOL/FED council and Admiral Miller have recommended to me that we ask you to come aboard as my Science Officer. You would be given the rank of Lieutenant Commander and you would be a member of my staff. How do you feel about that?” Qobrun replied, “More importantly Admiral, how do You feel about that?” I replied, “Qobrun, I think having you join us would fill a void on my staff. As a species, Humans are so new to space we don’t even know what to be afraid of. You and the Krayari can be an asset that could very well tip the balance in our favor.”

  “That is all probably true Admiral, but the important question is do you trust someone you have only met? Trust and confidence in your staff and crew are paramount. I would very much like to join the crew of the Ronald Reagan, however I will only do so if you feel you can trust me. And please understand, I will always tell you what I believe to be true. Even if it is at odds with your own opinion.”