by Dietmar Wehr
The Fleet now faced its biggest challenge in terms of the risks of making long jumps. The jump to SC4 would be the longest and riskiest of the entire shortcut path, and there were no intervening systems to break up the distance into smaller chunks. The line up for the jump lasted an incredible 12.3 hours. Koenig managed to stay on the Bridge for the entire process. The last hour passed by with no apparent improvement in trajectory needed by any of the ships. With Dejanus’s approval, Koenig crossed his fingers and gave the order to jump.
Reforger didn’t arrive. The loss of her crew was made even worse by the loss of the fleet’s food reserves. Koenig could tell that Dejanus was taking it hard. So did he, even though all the other COs agreed that he and Excalibur had gone the extra mile to get the trajectory as accurate as possible. Dejanus now had a haunted look on her face, but she drove the Fleet on, telling everyone that the jumps would get easier from here on.
By some miracle that Koenig didn’t understand, they hadn’t lost any more ships by the time the Fleet reached human space some 48 days later. The food situation was now critical, and Dejanus ordered the Fleet to head for the nearest human colony that had the capacity to resupply the fleet, even if only on a limited basis. That took another 14 days, and when 7th Fleet entered orbit over New Timbuktu, no-one on board had had anything to eat for two full days. Koenig was relieved that the colony hadn’t been attacked by the Tong. What news they had of the war was both out of date and bad.
Several major battles between Tong and TOSF fleets had taken place. Each time, the human ships had retreated under pressure from superior enemy forces. The last battle resulted in major loss of ships for the TOSF. Then the Tong fleets had apparently returned to Tong space. Koenig and Dejanus both thought that those fleets had been pulled back to guard against and hunt down 7th Fleet which, from the Tong point of view, would have been seen as a threat to their rear areas. Both agreed that once the Tong realized that 7th Fleet was no longer a threat, they would resume their push against the TOSF. Information on the Jab front was sketchy. All the colonists knew for certain was that the Jabs had established a beachhead on the human side of the Rift. Dejanus was anxious to get the Fleet to Earth, and as soon as each ship had enough food to get there, she gave the order to leave orbit.
Chapter Thirteen:
The trip to Earth took longer than normal due to the fact that damaged ships had to spend extra time lining up as precisely as possible. Even so, there had been several close calls when a ship barely avoided missing the target system’s gravity well altogether. All the ships, including Excalibur, needed basic maintenance in addition to repairs, and the Solar system was the only place where they could get it. Unlike the Jabs and Tong, TOSF senior officers and their civilian masters had decided against spreading out ship construction infrastructure among multiple star systems. The strategic weakness of having all ship construction and repair eggs in one basket now seemed a highly risky price to pay for the short-term savings in not having to transport materials and equipment among multiple systems. Koenig also realized that his and the other ships’ crews needed a rest. This was especially true for Dejanus, who seemed to look older and more weary every time there was a video conference.
The arrival at Sol was a relief to 7th Fleet crews and a huge surprise to the TOSF leadership due to the fact that Saratoga had not made it back. It was only when the Fleet was close enough for two-way communication that Dejanus and the other COs learned how bad the situation really was. Two-thirds of TOSF ships had been lost. The Jabs had, for reasons known only to them, halted their advance for months but now showed signs of getting ready to advance again, and it was feared that the Tong would also resume their push at any moment. The shipyards were full of damaged ships, but with the arrival of Corregidor and the other super-heavy cruiser, repair priorities were being re-evaluated. One shipyard was ordered to stop repairs on the heavy cruiser it was working on, in order to make room for Excalibur so that her two gravity cannons could be removed. One could be shipped to the GED research station and the other examined on Earth. Koenig’s protest to leave them on so that the ship could begin to use them in combat was ignored. However, his subsequent suggestion that an expedition be sent back into Arenian space to try to find and bring back more gravity cannons was quickly accepted. Somehow, the only other two light cruisers of the Javelin-class in existence had managed to avoid being destroyed or damaged. One was already in the system, and the other was due back soon from recon duty at the Jab front. They would join Excalibur on the Arenian expedition because Excalibur had already proven that gravity cannons could be retro-fitted to that class of ship and because the Javelin-class’s stealthy capabilities would make them excellent hit-and-run raiders when they were equipped with those weapons. Koenig and his crew were given two short weeks of R&R. By then Excalibur would have had the most urgent maintenance issues addressed, been restocked with as much food as could be crammed into her cargo holds and had new graser turrets installed, even though it was understood that they would be discarded if more gravity cannons could be found.
When the two weeks were up, the third Javelin-class light cruiser was back, and the expedition was ready to leave. The TOSF leadership showed how seriously they took this expedition by assigning two relatively new resupply ships to the expedition as well. Those ships carried enough food and other consumables to last the expedition for a whole year, along with technical equipment that would allow the weapons specialists to be able to install gravity cannons on all three cruisers if enough weapons could be acquired.
Command of the expedition was given to a much-rejuvenated Dejanus, whose field promotion to Senior Commander was confirmed as permanent, as was Koenig’s promotion to Commander. Excalibur would be the task force flagship, but Koenig would continue to be the ship’s CO.
The task force’s orders were fairly straightforward: head back to Arenian space as fast as possible, and then acquire by whatever means as many gravity cannons and as much other Arenian military technology as possible. If all three light cruisers were equipped with gravity cannon, Dejanus was authorized to take the task force into Tong territory with a goal of raiding Tong bases and colonies in order to entice the Tong to redeploy their forces defensively instead of moving back into TOSF space. If extra gravity cannons could be acquired, one of the resupply ships was to be sent back with them so that they could be used by other warships against the Jabs. If Arenian ships of any type could be found, the task force would have enough equipment to allow for remote control of those ships, and they were to be added to the task force. The GED station would be given extra resources and personnel to support the task force, if needed.
Koenig was actually glad to be back on the ship and anxious for the small fleet to leave. After consulting with him, Dejanus decided that Task Force 71 would head for Stone Alley as the jumping-off point in human space before heading down the G2 path of giant stars. By traveling along a jump that Excalibur was familiar with, the other four ships would be able to more finely calibrate their OAE by the time for the first long jump came up. That was the official reason. The unofficial reason was that Dejanus was hoping that TF71 might be able to catch some Tong ships by surprise if they happened to be snooping around that system where a TOSF station had been destroyed.
While light cruisers did not have a lot of missile tubes or magazine space for reloads, the two resupply ships carried plenty of anti-ship missiles that could be used to top up their inventories. The task force even carried a limited number of the missiles armed with the new Mark 15 bomb-pumped, stand-off warheads. Unlike the standard Mark 14 warheads, which only exploded on contact with the enemy ship, the Mark 15s were designed to detonate up to 3,000 kilometers away. The energy generated by the explosion would be focused by rods of special material that would fire high-energy bursts of x-rays powerful enough to smash through even the thickest hull armor. The TOSF was feverishly trying to produce as many of the new warheads as possible, but the truth was that none had been tested in actu
al combat, and no one knew for sure if they would be more effective than the Mark 14 version. Computer simulations suggested that blasting a hole through the enemy ship could cripple it if the x-ray beam hit the right spot, while a contact hit by a Mark 14 would vaporize enough of the ship to cripple it for sure. However, those same simulations also showed that more Mark 15 warheads were able to detonate compared to Mark 14 warheads penetrating the enemy’s anti-missile defenses. So, the trade-off was more hits with less damage on each versus less hits with more damage on each. Koenig’s assessment of the new warhead was that its main advantage was being able to confuse the enemy as to where a missile attack was coming from by being able to attack an enemy formation from literally any direction. Each light cruiser in the task force carried enough Mark 15 missiles for one volley of six missiles per ship. The rest of the missile inventory were Mark 14s. The resupply ships carried another 36 Mark 15 missiles as reloads.
The Stone Alley system was found to be completely devoid of enemy activity, much to Dejanus’s disappointment. Their next jump would move them along the same path taken by Excalibur coming from G2-24, the last blue giant star system in the G2 path. Getting there was also uneventful. Koenig was not really surprised by that. Those intervening star systems had nothing that either humans or Tong would be interested in, and the path that the Tong fleet had used to get to Stone Alley was a different one altogether. Excalibur’s astro AI was of the opinion that the G2 path was outside of Tong space. Nevertheless, Dejanus kept all five ships in stealthy mode with no running lights, no active scanning and maximum ECM for the cruisers. That made the cruisers so hard to detect that the resupply ships had to stay in a closer formation to be able to keep track of them.
The plan that Dejanus had come up with, in consultation with Koenig, was relatively straightforward in the initial stages of the mission. The F2 system had six ships when Excalibur visited it. Three ships were now gone, and the remaining three were Arenian freighters. The plan was to go there and equip them with relay units so that those freighters could be ordered to accompany the task force back to F1 where humans would turn over control of those freighters to the Arenians, hopefully in return for assistance on exploiting Arenian weapons technology and astrogational data, including the locations of other Arenian colonies or bases. If a source of gravity cannons that were relatively close to human space could be uncovered, the task force would go there, salvage what they could and head for Tong space. In the worst-case scenario, the task force could go all the way back to MR7 where there were lots of Arenian ships, but it would take a lot of time to get there and back.
The trip along the G2 path from G2-24 back to G2-10 took almost eight weeks, and the resupply ships had no trouble hitting gravity wells, even over those longer distances. Their OAEs were low to begin with due to their relatively recent construction, and they were able to match Excalibur’s very precise trajectory fairly closely. Koenig’s relationship with Dejanus settled down to something that was familiar, even though the actual command relationship was different. Unlike super-heavy cruisers such as Corregidor, light cruisers did not have a separate flag-bridge that a task force or fleet commander could use on a regular basis. As a result, Dejanus spent a lot of time on the Bridge but did not offer or ask to take duty shifts in the Command Pod. She and Koenig did resume their old habit of playing chess in the galley or his or her quarters on a regular basis. That meant that Koenig was playing less chess with Soriya, who did not seem to mind. Koenig was relieved that Dejanus seemed to have recovered from the stress of commanding 7th Fleet. Unlike 7th Fleet, TF71 had fewer ships and crew to worry about, ample food and other supplies, a definite mission and was not dependent on the actions of any other TOSF ship. Her orders gave her a lot of latitude on how to achieve her mission objectives.
The first chance to exercise that latitude came when TF71 arrived at G2-10. Going further along the G2 path to G2-9, G2-8 and then to G7 essentially would have meant taking the long way around. There was a shortcut that would get them back to F2 a few days faster. Excalibur hadn’t used it because they hadn’t known about the exploded star at G8 until they arrived at G7. The shortcut would bypass G8, G7 and G6.
Koenig was tense as TF71 arrived at F2. He wasn’t sure why he felt that way since the Arenian colony in F2 was dead, and no sign of Tong activity had been detected before nor was it expected now. He wondered if his tension was actually excitement at the prospect of doing something for a change after eight weeks of boredom. It didn’t take long to bring all five ships back together and into formation. Under Dejanus’s direction, the formation took a circular vector that approached the colony planet from the outer edge of the system. The two support ships, Replenisher and Redeemer, hung back because they were less stealthy and would be more easily detected if there were hostile ships orbiting the planet. Visual scanning detected three sources of reflected sunlight that seemed to be orbiting the planet in a leisurely way.
“Those have to be the three freighters Excalibur left behind,” said Koenig.” He and Dejanus were standing beside the Command Pod where Soriya had the duty shift.
Dejanus nodded. “Very likely, but I’m not going to assume anything. Com, I want a tight-beam channel to Curtana and Durendal. TFC to Curtana Actual and Durendal Actual. All three cruisers will approach the planet at low velocity until an ID of those three ships can be made. Remain at a heightened state of alert. Out. Com, advise Replenisher and Redeemer to bring their ships to zero velocity and wait until they get the all clear. Okay, Astro, let’s go in nice and slow.”
The three orbiting ships did turn out to be the freighters left behind, and a visual scan of the surface showed no change from Excalibur’s previous visit. Dejanus ordered the two support ships to rejoin the formation now in orbit, and technicians were soon busy gaining entry into the Arenian freighters in order to install the same kind of relay devices used before. When they were finished, the relay devices passed their tests, TF71 set out for F1, a journey composed of 12 jumps that would take another 34 days. As the task force got closer to F1, Dejanus made sure all five ships understood the need for alertness. The possibility of encountering more of the unknown hostile aliens was assumed to be increasing. Koenig was concerned that they might encounter those two wing ships that very likely had made it back to F1, and if TF71 did encounter them, there was no guarantee that their reaction would be non-hostile. As it turned out, the approach to the F1 star system was uneventful. Koenig was certain that those two wing ships were still in F1, and TF71 was about to find out.
When Excalibur, along with the rest of the task force, emerged into the F1 star system, Koenig was conning the ship from the Command Pod. Dejanus was standing nearby, as was Soriya.
“We have line-of-sight with the Arenian home world,” said Astro.
“No EM transmissions detected on any frequency,” said the com AI.
“Let’s see if our relay devices are still operative. Transmit a command to get a status report from them,” ordered Dejanus.
“We received a reply signal that was cut off after less than a second,” said the com AI after several minutes. “Unable to determine the source of the signal.”
“Then let’s try to contact the locals. Com, send our ship ID. Tell them that we sent the wing ships back and request contact with whoever’s in charge. TFC to all ships. Excalibur will approach the planet by itself. The rest of TF71 will orbit at one mega-klick altitude. Turn on your running lights so that the locals will know we’re not trying to hide from them. Out.”
Excalibur did not get any signals from the planet until it was within a hundred thousand kilometers. Koenig was not surprised given that the Arenians were probably using the portable communications equipment that had been traded for food. That equipment had a limited range. From the content of the signals, it appeared that the survivors of the plague and the alien attack were starting to come together in an effort to rebuild their civilization while they still remembered how to do it. That process was only just get
ting started. With the collapse of the technology that underpinned their society, all forms of travel other than on foot or by ground vehicles had disappeared, and many tens of thousands of survivors in remote areas were scattered around the planet.
As soon as the humans confirmed that they had returned on a peaceful mission, the two wing ships appeared almost out of nowhere several thousand kilometers above Excalibur.
“How did they get so close without being detected?” asked an alarmed Dejanus.
“TacComp is unable to give any kind of explanation with high confidence. However, the theory that appears to explain all the known data is that the wing ships were there all along but avoided visual detection by making the skin of their hulls emit light that matched the background sky behind them,” said the tactical AI. “Now that we know where to look, analysis of the visual data of the same location before they became visible appears to show a slight distortion of background light.”
