Star Man 2: Star Rise

by I. G. Roberts

  When everyone finally quietened down a few minutes later, the Academy Commandant stepped up to the lectern and stood beside the OC Command School. She stood aside to let him speak.

  He said, “Never before in the entire history of the Academy, have we awarded two gold medallions at the same ceremony. We discussed this for a long time before we made the decision to make this duel award today. In the end, these two both achieved a near perfect score in their evaluations. They managed to do that, while operating undercover, fighting a war of wits against traitors without any of our loyal staff knowing about it, and pulling a disparate group of Officers together to be the highest achieving class on record. We believe every one of you has a right to be proud of your achievements. These two, though, well, we’ve all heard their story, about how together, they brought FNS Destiny home. I think most people who haven’t seen them in action probably underestimate them, I know I did. Well, I am not afraid to admit my mistake. These two are very impressive indeed. I believe they will be pivotal in re-energizing the Federation Navy, perhaps even the Federation itself.”

  With that, he stood back, turned towards Colin and Anne, smiled, and began clapping. Once again, the room erupted in applause. When the applause died down, the students marched out, medallions glittering around their necks. Once they were outside, they were dismissed, and the congratulations and questions from their classmates began while they all made their way back to their quarters to replace their dress uniforms with their standard day fatigues. When Colin removed his dress uniform, he put on his full Commanders insignia then joined the others for the graduation party.

  Chapter 5

  When Colin and Anne arrived back in Cambridge, it was a very noisy welcome from friends and family, at least Anne’s family. They had the obligatory party where both Colin, and Anne were made to show off their gold medallions. At one point during the evening, both Siobhan and Carl told Colin they were taking command of two of the four Cobras that were now operational. They said to him a fifth and sixth were due to be launched in about a month, but Captains had already been earmarked for the remaining Cobras. Sonya pulled him aside with a sparkle in her eyes at one point. He started to wonder if she was about to begin flirting with him again but she quietly asked him to come with her into orbit the next morning. She would only tell him she needed his opinion on something. He of course agreed, and she said goodnight, gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek, then left to catch some ‘beauty sleep’ as she called it. Not long after Sonya left, Colin quietly slipped away as well because if he was going into orbit the next day, he wanted to be well rested. On his way to bed, he met Anne, who was heading towards her own bed as well. She told him Sonya asked her to come with them as well. She had no idea what it was about but thought it would most likely be an exciting day.

  The next day, Colin and Anne went to Commodore Nicholson’s Headquarters as ordered. When they arrived, they were immediately shown into her office where she began asking them about their experiences at the Academy. Sonya had read the reports about the way they’d managed to crack the spy ring at the Academy and asked them to elaborate on several points which they did. Finally, she stood and suggested they all go and put their ship suits on ready for the trip to orbit. When they were ready, dressed in the skin tight, form fitting ship-suits, Sonya led them to the ground car that would be transporting them to the Shuttle Station. She wouldn’t elaborate on why they were going into space that day though on a couple of occasions Colin thought he saw a bit of a sparkle in her eye, perhaps some amusement. Instead, she kept them talking all the way about the Academy, and what they’d learned. Finally, the Shuttle docked at the shipyard, where Commodore Nicholson led them to another airlock and cycled them through into a ship that Colin immediately recognized as a Cobra class. There were ten crew inside who came to attention as they entered and snapped off a salute which the three Officers all returned. By now his curiosity was piqued, he really couldn’t understand why they were here.

  Once the formalities of boarding the ship were completed, the honour guard dispersed while the Commodore led them to the Combat Control Centre (CCC) or Bridge, where she introduced herself to the duty watch and to the AI before inserting a memory core into the reader at the Captains Station. Once the light on the reader stopped blinking, indicating the AI had read the memory core, the Commodore told it to read the orders on the stick and broadcast them to the entire ship’s crew.

  After a second’s hesitation, the AI broadcast though the ships PA system in its clear, rich contralto voice, “To Commander Colin Gordon of the Federation Naval Service. You are to proceed to the Cambridge Naval Ship Yards where you shall board and take command of the Patrol Ship FNS Theseus. You will immediately take said ship on a six-hour cruise within Cambridge System to ascertain the ship's performance parameters before returning and docking at the shipyards. On completion of this first flight, you shall report directly to Commodore Sonya Nicholson, detailing any performance shortfalls or requirements for improvement. Signed Commodore Sonya Nicholson, Officer Commanding, Federation Naval Service, Cambridge.”

  Sonya looked at Colin with an amused expression on her face. He was completely flabbergasted by this piece of news, having no idea she’d planned this. Nobody ever expects to be given a command of such a new ship so quickly. Colin realized, he’d been earmarked as one of the Captains for the available Cobras. In the background, on the fringes of his awareness, he realized the duty crew on the CCC were all grinning, and unsuccessfully trying to hide it. Then Sonya asked the AI to read the second set of orders.

  Again, the AI broadcast to the entire ship, “To Lieutenant Anne Fraser of the Federation Naval Service. You are to proceed to the Cambridge Naval Ship Yards where you shall board the Patrol Ship FNS Theseus to take up your duties as the second Officer. You shall report to Commander Colin Gordon for the duration of his command of FNS Theseus or until you are transferred to other duties.”

  Colin wondered why Anne was only the second Officer, but he could see she didn’t care. She was in a command track billet, and they both knew, she had the talent, and the drive to work her way into a more senior position quickly. Commodore Nicholson then suggested the three of them should proceed to his office before suggesting he request the First Officer join them there. He asked the AI to page the First Officer to his office as the three of them made their way there. They hadn’t been in the office long when the door chimed, indicating someone requesting entry.

  Colin keyed the switch for the door and a young man, perhaps 28 years old entered, braced to attention, saluted and said, “Lieutenant Samuel Harland reporting as ordered Sir.”

  Colin returned his salute, then told him to relax, noticing a little amusement dancing in Anne’s eyes while he did so. Colin could see there was a little work before him, getting this Officer to unwind a little. Anne could help him with that. When Colin glanced in Anne’s direction, there was an almost imperceptible nod, she knew what Colin needed and was happy to help. The four Officers settled into the comfortable chairs that were set to one side of the office and Sonya started explaining what was needed from them. Sonya told Colin that Sam was to be prepared for command of a ship of his own. Sonya said Colin should advise her when he thought Sam was ready, but she wanted him taught how Colin’s original tactical thinking worked. She explained to Samuel that Colin didn’t always follow conventional Doctrine when fighting a ship, but usually, he ran rings around opponents who were following standard Navy Doctrine. She explained this new class of ship needed a new Doctrine so it could be used to the best possible advantage, especially in the uncertain times they were living in.

  She then turned towards Colin, laughed, and said, “You know, this ship’s name is your fault. You christened her Theseus during the Exercises before you went to the Academy. All this class of ship, at least the ones owned by Cambridge, are supposed to have the names of Norse gods. The AI in this ship decided she liked the name, and she refuses to accept any other.”

  Af
ter she’d said her piece, she suggested they take Theseus ‘out for a spin’ as ordered and informed them she would be coming along for the ride. The four Officers all proceeded to the CCC where Colin started the process of undocking the ship and carefully moved her far enough away on conventional thrusters to be able to safely engage the primary drive. This was greatly simplified by the capabilities of the ships AI, which was itself, called Theseus. Colin decided to undertake a speed run, to begin with, followed by a little target practice with their Lasers then finally a Micro-Jump back to a location relatively close to the shipyard. As they eased away from the yard, Colin asked the AI to report the weapons status. Theseus said they had a full load-out of missiles with all magazines fully stocked and all tubes ready for loading, all Rail-Gun magazines were also full. Once they were far enough away from the yard, Colin ordered the Shields bought on-line, and when it was safe, they began accelerating away. He ordered the navigation personnel to plot a course that would loop them around the system star and head them towards the asteroid belt. From time to time, the Navy would designate a section of the belt off-limits to miners, and then they would use the asteroids in that region for target practice. This tended to break some of the targeted asteroids up, making them more manageable for the miners to harvest later. It was a win-win because the Navy got an area they could safely use to shoot at something and hone the skills of the crews, while the miners eventually got access to minerals that were significantly cheaper for them to collect.

  Theseus moved out, away from the planet Cambridge, with Colin gradually increasing the acceleration, checking for anomalies as they went, soon they’d reached a velocity of 0.6C, and the rate of acceleration began to drop off slightly as relativistic effects began to impact the ability of the ship to maintain acceleration. Theseus was handling like a dream, her performance marginally better than predicted by the designers. Several hours later, they reached the designated part of the asteroid field and took the time to check the calibration of their targeting Sensors. They found they needed to make a few minor adjustments but in general, the ship performed as advertised. They’d only just unleashed a spread of missiles at a giant asteroid when an FTL transmission came in from Cambridge Station telling them a distress signal was being broadcast from out near the Jump-Point and requesting they go out to investigate. Colin wanted to try the ships Micro-Jump capability anyway. He ordered the self-destructs on the weapons they had fired to be activated. When that task was completed, they took the time to move the ship a safe distance away from the asteroid field while Colin selected a point where they should emerge. It needed to be far enough away from the distress signal that he would have an opportunity to deal with any surprises, but close enough for him to be able to render aid promptly if the need arose. Colin ordered navigation to select a safe starting point for their Jump, and then plot the Micro-Jump itself while he headed Theseus towards the point of departure.

  When they reached the correct location, Colin initiated the Micro-Jump out to a site about 250 thousand kilometres from the last known location of the distress call. Just before the Jump, he called the ship to Alert One but with Shields on auto. When they re-appeared in real space, the Shields automatically activated, Point-Defense came on-line, and they began scanning the region of space they were in. It wasn’t long before they identified a Freighter with some significant holes in the hull, damage that looked a lot like it was caused by weapons fire, moving away from the Jump-Point. Colin requested Sam, his First Officer, to be the point of contact, and that he shouldn’t mention Colin’s name at all. Both Sam and Sonya gave him a quizzical look at this order, but neither questioned it. When the ship went to alert one, Anne went to her duty station in the secondary Combat Control Centre (CCC), located nearly thirty metres aft of the CCC, and protected by two armoured bulkheads. Finally, Sam managed to establish contact with the Captain of the Freighter to find out what happened, and what assistance they needed. The ships name was SSF Hazgeed. She was attacked by Pirates just before entering Jump in the previous system sustaining a fair amount of damage in the process. He called for help on Jump emergence because he was concerned the Pirates might follow him through to finish what they’d started. Sam told him FNS Theseus would be pleased to escort him to safety. They let the Freighter pass then fell into a loose formation aft of her and slightly above, though they did a little weaving about to make sure nothing suspicious was going on over there, or behind them.

  The trip into Cambridge Station would’ve been a slow and tedious one, not least because three of the four most senior Officers on the ship didn’t have a change of clothes. They did draw a ship suit each from the store and cleaned themselves up before donning the fresh clothing before the old clothing began to smell. This outing was only supposed to last six hours so while the ship had nearly full magazines, she didn’t have a full food larder, and her water tanks were almost empty. They stayed on station for ten hours, crawling in towards the station, till a pair of Taipans arrived to relieve them. As soon as they handed over to the Taipans, they ramped up their acceleration, heading back towards the shipyard. On the way, Colin noticed a worried look on Sonya’s face.

  When he asked Sonya, what was wrong, she said, “The Peschal Alliance are actually becoming bold. As far as I’m aware, they’ve never made an attack in that system before. Colin, I was planning to let you have another day on the planet before sending you out. Now, I would like you to pair up with Thor and go do an aggressive patrol into that system, have a look see if anyone is there who we don’t like. You will have twenty-four hours to get ready. In the meantime, I will have your things sent up to you. I hope you don’t mind the change of plans. I’m going to give you tactical command for this mission, I don’t think Carl will care, you’ve demonstrated an ability to use these ships to the best advantage.”

  Colin replied, “Very well Commodore, I’ll take the two ships out and see what I can stir up next door. If I may ask, you mentioned Carl, is he in command on Thor? He didn’t tell me the name of his ship.”

  Sonya said, “Yes he is. Please, if you find yourself badly outnumbered, run for home, I’m planning to station two Taipans just behind the Jump-Point, so if you are pursued through there, they’ll be positioned to give you some backup.”

  Colin nodded, then went looking for Anne to tell her what he needed. She immediately began filling in the paperwork to requisition the supplies they would need for the upcoming mission. Meanwhile, Commodore Nicholson was also busy, sending Carl his orders and bringing FNS Freyja and FNS Tyr on-line to patrol Cambridge System while Theseus and Thor were away. This gave them five active Taipans, two active Cobras, and two capital ships to protect the entire system while Theseus and Thor were away. It wasn’t really enough, but it was all they had available. She also sent a Courier Boat to sit behind the Jump-Point with the two Taipans that would be stationed there. If things became untenable here in Cambridge, the Courier could Jump to the next system, a ten-hour Jump and try to bring Theseus and Thor back to help. In the end, FNS Theseus’ first six-hour cruise took twenty-three hours. By the time they’d docked, supplies were beginning to stack up ready for loading. Thankfully, the supply staff knew the order supplies needed to be loaded, so they sent the supplies in the correct order. No time was wasted rearranging things before they were loaded. On the way back, Colin ordered Lieutenant Harland to go and sleep, he told him he’d oversee the ship as soon as they neared the dock.

  Colin decided they should try to rest a little as soon as they arrived back and then he and Sam would sit down with Carl and his First Officer to plan the mission. In the meantime, Colin suggested to Sonya that perhaps they should consider designing a replenishment ship that would be suitable for the Cobras. He thought such a ship should be large enough to be able to keep two Cobras supplied for sufficiently long to double their time on patrol. It needed to be fast enough to keep up with them, and have the same Shield strength and armour but would only have enough Point-Defense to give it a limited self-d
efence capability in the case of an ambush or some event of that nature. He thought a useful attribute would be if the Cobras could dock to it via their cargo locks and then the supplies could be transferred relatively rapidly.

  They arrived back at the station where they were given a priority docking assignment. As soon as they docked, Commodore Nicholson left for her Headquarters while the necessary supplies began rolling on. Colin asked Carl if they could meet for mission planning eight hours from then and went to catch a little sleep. Colin would’ve liked to have a bit more time with this crew before going on a vital mission but understood the necessity for going out there so soon. They just couldn’t afford to wait too long. When Carl turned up at the airlock with his First Officer, they quickly went into the navigation compartment to bring the necessary charts up and started planning the operation. They worked at the planning right up till it was time for the two ships to depart for the Jump-Point. They left thirty minutes sooner than expected, then did a short Micro-Jump to eat up some of the time it would’ve otherwise taken to reach the Jump-Point. They calculated the Micro-Jump so the Jump-Drives would be fully recharged by the time they needed to leave the system. Everything went like clockwork, and the two Cobras entered Jump nearly two hours ahead of the schedule Sonya had set them. They then had ten hours of peace till they re-emerged in the destination system. Colin made his XO take a few hours for rest and stood most of the crew down until one hour before Jump emergence.