by S. H. Jucha
Miko was New Terran, but Edouard hailed from the Confederation home world, Méridien, and it was the Méridiens who had produced the SADEs.
Then Miko added,
Miko admitted.
* * *
Tatia sat at a conference table with Alex; Julien; Mickey; Reiko Shimada, the Trident fleet’s vice admiral; and Franz Cohen, the fighter command rear admiral. Every senior naval position in the expedition’s fleet was filled by those who had experience fighting the Nua’ll and who best knew Alex’s methods.
The Confederation, Haraken, and New Terran worlds were sending their warships, fighters, supplies, and crews to fight with the Omnians. It was understood that Alex was leading the expedition, and everyone expected his people to be in charge. It was the way that Alex and Tatia preferred to operate, especially after the recent calamity.
The New Terran assembly had foisted Admiral Anthony Tripping on Tatia to command their three Tridents, when a small Omnian fleet hunted a Nua’ll sphere. Once cornered, the sphere had the opportunity to surrender but chose to detonate and take its foes with it. Unfortunately, Admiral Tripping, who was seeking glory, drove his warship toward the sphere, and the explosion ripped his Trident to shreds. Afterwards, Alex told the New Terran president, Harold Grumley, and the new Minister of Defense, Maria Gonzalez, that he would no longer accept New Terran senior commanders without Tatia vetting their capabilities.
President Grumley was certain Alex wouldn’t refuse the warships outright for the sake of having the inability to dismiss a senior commander, but Minister Gonzalez disabused him of that notion, pointedly telling him, “Alex doesn’t need us, Harold, we need him.”
Cordelia received the inventory carried by the incoming Haraken ships from Commodore Tanaka. She added the information to the city-ship’s extensive databases and sent Julien a link, knowing he was heading for a meeting with Alex and Tatia. Julien took a few ticks of time to review the list of materials, seeking items of interest for the meeting’s participants.
As Julien entered the conference room, he shared the link to the complete list with everyone and included his short synopsis in a separate file.
“Oh, goodies,” Mickey said, rubbing his hands in glee. “Look at this stuff. The Harakens must have raided some of the oldest warehouses.”
Alex eyed Tatia, who grinned in reply. “Well done,” he said to her. “Sheila must have felt like she was visiting the past.”
“What did you say to Admiral Reynard to convince her to give up all this material?” Mickey asked.
“We had a sisterly conversation,” Tatia replied, choosing to respond simply. She was feeling extremely self-satisfied. There were more things on the list than she had considered, but she could imagine Sheila and her reports reviewing Haraken inventories and surprising themselves with what had been stored.
“Alex, they’ve brought Daggers, minelettes, missiles, and Libran-X warheads,” Mickey enthused.
Tatia regarded Alex, waiting for his input. When he seemed to review the list for an inordinately long period, she glanced toward Julien to confirm what she suspected. The blood-crystal twins of Alex and Julien were communing, absorbed in an exchange via implant and kernel.
“Julien will work with Cordelia to transfer any ancillary equipment and supplies to the Freedom in preparation for the carriers’ refit,” Alex said, focusing on the meeting. “Mickey, we need to launch the carriers before we leave, of course, but I want the work on the Freedom’s rail-mounted beam weapons completed before the remaining fleets arrive.”
“Do we have a timeline on the arrival of the New Terran and Bellamonde fleets, Tatia?” Mickey asked.
Tatia linked to the ship’s controller and examined the expedition’s timeline. “We expect New Terra’s four Tridents in about eighteen days. The Confederation ships should arrive fifteen days after that,” she announced.
“We’ll stay focused on this ship’s armament installations, Alex, until the carriers arrive,” Mickey said. “The orbital platform crews can take charge of cleaning out the carriers. The major refit task is installing the extended reaction mass tanks on each carrier. Then, we have to load the banishers. I would estimate twenty days to complete the carriers and the Freedom,” Mickey replied. He eyed Julien and added, “I suppose your part will be completed within the first day after the carriers arrive.”
“Actually, Mickey, Cordelia began streaming the controller upgrades zero point seventy-five hours ago,” Julien replied. “However, due to the size of the upload and a desire to check the installations, it will take her several hours to complete the operation.”
Tatia grinned at Mickey and added, “And the Haraken fleet is still more than two days out.”
Not to be outdone in the exchange, Mickey retorted, “Well, that’s fine, Julien. Of course, this means you’ll be free to help my teams by getting your hands dirty when the carriers arrive.”
Julien assumed a proper and prim expression, clasping his hands lightly in front of him. A lace doily appeared on his head, projected by his holo-capable synth-skin, as he said, “I do so abhor manual labor.”
Tatia and Mickey burst into laughter over the idea of a SADE, who had many times a human’s strength and whose synth-skin could withstand a heavy strike, which would cut into human muscle, pretending to be a delicate entity.
Alex smiled at his friend. Julien and many others were doing their parts to lighten Omnians’ moods. The impending launch of the fleet might have swept a dark pall over those who would sail and those who would remain behind, if not for the efforts of these individuals.
The doily disappeared, and Julien leaned onto the table. “I do have a surprise for this group,” he announced, with a smile. “Something I left off my summary.”
“I like surprises,” Tatia enthused, “so long as they’re nonmilitary.”
Julien received a link from Alex to an item in the extended list, which was stored on the ship’s controller. It pointed to the subject at hand. Julien smiled to himself. It was so like his friend to apply the power of his twin implants to pursue the entire inventory, while the group planned.
“The carriers are loaded with a complement of travelers,” Julien stated.
“Yes,” Tatia said, clapping her hands loudly together. “Now that’s what I call a good surprise.”
“President Lechaux and her partner, Tomas, managed to get the Haraken Assembly to throw in two complements of fighters. I can’t believe that,” Mickey said dubiously, eyeing Julien. “I know they had to supply the Tridents, as part of the agreement, and the carriers were going to be parked, if not stripped.”
“These come courtesy of the local directors of the Haraken Central Exchange,” Julien said proudly. He was a member of the Exchange, which handled the banking transactions for the entire Haraken system.
“Clarify that statement, Julien,” Tatia requested. “Did the Exchange pay for these travelers?”
“Negative, Admiral, these are personal gifts from the Haraken-based directors,” Julien replied.
“The banking business is good,” Tatia mumbled. “A traveler isn’t cheap.”
“Personally, I thi
nk what the directors did was make a declaration that they intend to protect their business,” Mickey piped up. “If the entities cross the wall and wipe out our planets, there goes every credit transaction.”
-2-
Carriers
Alex and Julien had hatched the plan for the carriers at Haraken, when they visited the observatory platform and spoke with Jupiter, a SADE, who was originally known as Theodosius. He helped the Omnians discover the extensive penetration of alien probes across a wide swath of the galaxy.
The problem for the Omnians was that there wasn’t time or resources to wander the stars eliminating a probe at each system. That’s when Alex and Julien hatched their plan: Outfit the carriers to perform automated sweeps. The ships’ controllers would be programmed with the probes’ present locations and sent in opposite directions, circling out from Omnia. Armed with autopiloted fighters to protect the carrier, the ship would launch a banisher to destroy a probe at each system. If the ship’s reaction mass ran low or other problems developed, the carrier was programmed to return to Omnia.
No one was under the false impression that the carriers could quickly eliminate the probes. The planting of the alien devices had taken place over tens of thousands of years. A probe had even reached the faraway system of Earth. No, the plan was to give notice to the entities behind the wall that the sentients on this side were choosing to fight rather than surrender or run away.
The carriers, which had served the budding Haraken world so well, had outlived their usefulness. A carrier had no defense once it launched its complement of fighters at the enemy. The Omnians had designed the Trident to operate as their primary warship. The vessel was many times more powerful than a fighter and could carry four travelers.
After a bit of squabbling, Terese Lechaux, the Haraken president, convinced the Haraken Assembly to sell the carriers to Omnia Ships, Alex’s company, which would use the carriers to prosecute the alien probes. The deal was one Alex couldn’t resist, and he had grinned as he authorized the transfer of two credits from his account to the Haraken Assembly.
In preparation for the expedition’s launch, Tatia hadn’t the time to visit Haraken and peruse the naval storage warehouses for what she could use. She had relied on Sheila Reynard, the Haraken fleet admiral. The two women had flown together with Alex from day one, when the Rêveur, newly repaired, had sailed from New Terra for Méridien.
Instead, Tatia’s time had been absorbed playing war games at Bellamonde, to help the Méridiens sharpen their skills. It’d resulted in the loss of a good many recruits, but those who remained were far better trained commanders, captains, and crew.
The conversation with Sheila hadn’t gone as simply as Tatia had intimated to Alex, Mickey, and Julien. When Tatia had requested the Daggers, the original fighters used at Libre, Sheila had replied, “Tatia, those are ancient. They haven’t been flown in ages.”
“Understood, Sheila, then you won’t want them. Ship them,” Tatia had politely but firmly requested.
Realizing Tatia’s mindset, Sheila sought to match it, saying, “Well, if you’re going that far. I have a good number of minelette pallets stored somewhere. The SADEs will know where.”
“Great, ship those too,” Tatia replied. “How about the nanites we used at Sol against the enemy ships, Sheila? Do you have a significant amount of those?”
“Probably, Tatia, but you recall that they’re specific to the metal they contact. Are you thinking that you’re going to get that close?”
“I hope not, but I anticipate that we’ll be fighting a war of running encounters. No telling who we’ll be up against and what we’ll need. Most important, there’ll be no time to run home.”
“What do you mean who?” Sheila asked.
“Renée is telling me that Alex is wearing that worried expression in the morning. You know, the one he gets when he’s trying to puzzle out what the odd images mean,” Tatia explained.
“The dreams, right?” Sheila asked.
“Yeah, those,” Tatia replied. Few individuals knew that Renée de Guirnon, Alex’s partner, was so intimately connected to the man that she could receive Alex’s dreams while the two of them slept. More than once, Renée had helped Alex interpret his dreams. He couldn’t recall them, but her implant had a record of the strange, fleeting images.
“Any resolution yet?” Sheila asked.
“Not yet. Renée tells me that she thinks Alex is seeing more than one. She believes they’re mixing, which is making unraveling them rather difficult.”
“You’re assembling the greatest fleet of warships that humans have ever created in this part of the galaxy, Tatia. Why do I feel like it’s not enough?” Sheila lamented.
“We’ll have to go with what we have, Sheila. According to Alex, we have to divide and confuse the aliens,” Tatia replied and laughed.
As Julien predicted, the controllers of the carriers and the travelers received their updates before the huge ships crossed the orbit of the gas giant, where Darius had planned to ambush the fleet.
Now, the No Retreat and the Last Stand, two venerable Haraken ships, were stationed near the Freedom. Platform crews emptied bay after bay of equipment to store aboard the city-ship.
Renée, Mickey, and a group of support personnel toured the carriers. Renée and her people were searching for usable items from the meal rooms, such as food stocks, and the cabins. However, the carriers had been in disuse for so long that they quickly abandoned their search. Mickey and his team fared no better. Items that might have been functionally of value were outmoded.
“Hard to believe that the contents of these ships no longer have any use to us,” Renée opined to Mickey. They occupied a pair of seats on a traveler returning to the Freedom.
“It’s been three decades, Renée,” Mickey replied.
“And the Rêveur, which is in service to this day, is more than 130 years old,” Renée riposted.
“No fair, you’re counting the decades that it was adrift,” Mickey argued. “Besides, that ship was entirely overhauled.”
“And you did a fine job on that,” Renée replied, patting the engineer’s hand.
The Rêveur’s repair had swept Mickey into a world of incredible advanced technology, and he’d joined Alex’s team to return the passenger liner to the Confederation. And, if truth be told, a lively Méridien woman, by the name of Pia, had intrigued him.
“It comes down to warships versus passenger ship, Renée. The stronger our enemies, the more modern and more powerful ships we have to build,” Mickey replied. The engineer in him loved to create new designs, but he understood Renée’s lament.
Mickey’s teams installed the new tanks aboard the carriers and filled them with reaction mass. It was estimated they’d allow the carriers to travel between the stars for ten or more years. In contrast, the banishers, which were loaded into bays, would probably be consumed in six or seven years. There were a number of conditions, such as for resupply or repair, under which the carriers would return to Omnia. And, it remained to be seen if one or both carriers encountered circumstances that spelled their doom, such as inadvertently crossing the path of a Nua’ll sphere or meeting an aggressive spacefaring species.
Two days earlier than Mickey’s estimate of completion, Alex and a large group gathered on the Freedom’s massive bridge to witness the launch of the carriers.
Julien initiated the controllers’ hunt and destroy programs. In short order, systems were checked and confirmed online, travelers and banishers were contacted and confirmed ready, and sensor feedback was determined to be fully functional.
Aboard each carrier were hundreds of banishers invented by Mickey Brandon and his engineering team. The Sardi-Tallen platform had been busy constructing the small maneuverable devices, which would destroy the alien probes that monitored systems for the Nua’ll and reported the progress of sentient races.
Not a single human or SADE would live aboard the carriers. The SADEs, Julien, Cordelia, Z, and Miranda, had progr
ammed the carriers to follow courses in ever-widening circles to prosecute the probes. Their initial forays would focus on the worlds of Omnia, Haraken, and New Terra before proceeding to explore the systems surrounding the Confederation colonies.
When Julien received the controllers’ signals that they were ready to initiate their extensive programming, he announced, “The carriers are ready.”
“Send them, Julien,” Alex said.
With their hunt-and-destroy programs initiated, the controllers accessed their list of probes gleaned from the Haraken observatory platform. Each carrier had half the list, which would send them spiraling in opposite directions. The nearest probe locations to Omnia were retrieved, courses were calculated, and engines were brought online.
When ready, the controllers communicated their departures from the system to the Omnian orbital platform and powerful engines were fired. Slowly, at first, and then more rapidly, the ships worked their way through orbital traffic and headed across the ecliptic.
* * *
“Wow, that was incredible,” Captain Bertram Hardingsgale said to Maria Gonzalez, the New Terran Minister of Defense. They were on the bridge of the Rover, a passenger ship.
“What?” Maria asked sluggishly.
Maria was one of the unfortunate individuals who did not handle transiting well. The Rover, in the company of four NT Tridents, had made the Omnian system about 0.65 hours ago.
“I was referring to witnessing a huge ship exit the Omnian system,” Bertram said. “I’ve never been this close to a vessel when it made a transit. It was a fantastic sight.”
Maria glanced at Oliver, her confidant and a SADE, for more information. “It was the Last Stand, Minister. The Omnians have sent this carrier and its sister ship, the No Retreat, to eliminate probes.”
“That will take the crews their entire lifetimes,” Bertram said, aghast at the concept. “Are they expecting to return and trade out after a certain length of service?”
