Scimitar's Glory: A Swordships Odyssey Novel

by Dietmar Wehr

  “Affirmative,” said Koenig, with just a trace of an AI’s cadence.

  “Good. When TF71 is back together, we’ll go over to the battle area and see how much wreckage there is. If you got them all, then we have to find another way to rattle their cage before we head back. Since this is the first time the gravity cannons have been used this way, I want to see a full after-action report. I still can’t believe Excalibur passed six Tong warships within graser range and didn’t take any hits. In spite of your recklessness, I think this attack deserves some official recognition. I’m going to recommend you for a medal. Just don’t let it go to your head, okay?”

  “Okay,” said Koenig with a grin.

  When the task force carefully probed the area where the six Tong ships had been, it found lots of debris, with a couple of ships literally cut in half. TacComp estimated that there wasn’t enough debris to equal six ships, so at least one must have gotten away with the news. Dejanus was pleased. In one stroke, TF71 had accomplished the minimum objectives of its orders, and she could quite legitimately point the task force home now. This time, the quickest path going through Tong space via long jumps between giant stars did not seem at all daunting. That is, until they got to the last giant star in Tong space.

  Koenig woke up in shock as the Battle Stations tone sounded.

  “Bridge, this is Koenig! What’s happening?”

  “Replenisher has taken a graser hit! Source unknown!” Soriya’s voice sounded scared.

  “I’m coming to the Bridge!” Koenig didn’t bother putting on his uniform. This wouldn’t be the first time Soriya or the rest of the crew saw him wearing only his pajama pants. The deck beneath his bare feet was cold and when he shivered, he wondered if it was the cold or something else.

  The Bridge was noisier than he had ever heard it. The AIs were talking to either members of the crew or the other ships. The Command Pod was open. Soriya saw him and pointed to the main display. The image was a zoomed-in visual of the supply ship, which was bleeding air from a huge gash that ran almost the whole length of the ship. As Koenig watched, another gash opened up with a new fountain of air and several bodies of crew caught in the explosive decompression. He forced himself to look back at the XO.

  “Get to your Battle Station, XO!” He saw the look of horror on her face disappear as the sound of his voice shocked her back to focus on her duty. She quickly got up and ran for the exit while he sat down and buckled himself in.

  “Com! Tie me into any inter-ship com!”

  “—don’t know where the shots are coming from!”

  Koenig recognized the voice as belonging to Curtana’s CO.

  “Replenisher is code red,” said the tactical AI.

  Koenig groaned inwardly. Code red meant the ship was unable to maneuver or jump away.

  “We’re not leaving her behind!” That was Dejanus’s voice.

  Before he even was aware of it, Koenig heard his own voice. “We can’t save her or her crew without risking the whole task force! They need us back home, TFC! Give the order!”

  “Koenig’s right!” said Replenisher’s CO. “You can’t sa—”

  The voice cut off as Koenig was blinded by the main display, which suddenly showed Replenisher exploding with the brightness of a small sun. Even as Koenig closed his eyes to recover from the painful after-image, he heard Dejanus’s voice.

  “TFC to all Astros! Emergency evasion! Head for rally point C!”

  Koenig forced himself to relax. He no longer had to worry about issuing orders to Excalibur’s AIs. As Task Force Commander, Dejanus had just given all three astro AIs an order that superseded any order that he might give now. Rally point C was a hypothetical point in space of a specific distance and bearing from their current position. It was far enough away that whatever hostiles forces were in the vicinity should not be able to detect them. As each light cruiser veered off at max acceleration on random trajectories, they would eventually work their way back to the rally point.

  When it was clear that the immediate danger was over, Koenig felt nauseous from the adrenaline and fear. He was glad that the Command Pod was equipped to handle that kind of thing. If he did throw up, at least it wouldn’t be all over him. When his stomach had settled down enough that he knew it wasn’t going to heave, he informed the crew of what had happened.

  Chapter Fifteen:

  The mood of all three cruisers was somber as they found each other at the rally point. Dejanus ordered a video conference to be set up with all three COs, and Koenig noticed that she had a haunted look on her face. In spite of everything else she had accomplished, the loss of Replenisher would cast a long shadow over the mission. Koenig wondered if HQ would let her keep command of TF71. The fact that there was nothing she could have done in advance to prevent the attack wouldn’t matter. If the higher-ups wanted someone to blame, she would be it.

  “I’m glad to see that all of you made it here okay,” she said in an unusually low tone. “Did anyone detect anything prior to the attack? I want to know how the Tong were able to get close enough for graser fire without being seen.” A quick check of each ship’s tactical AI revealed no unknown ships detected visually, and since the task force was running in stealth mode, that meant no radar contacts either.

  “With a star system this fucking big, what are the odds of coming that close to an enemy ship?” asked Curtana’s CO.

  “Literally astronomical,” replied Durendal’s CO. Nobody laughed.

  “That just goes to show you that shit happens sometimes,” said Dejanus. “We can’t take anything for granted, so let’s take what happened to Replenisher to heart, and let’s learn from it. Back to my original question. How were they able to get that close without being seen? We know that the Tong were working on stealthy ships. My guess is that we ran across their equivalent of our own Javelin-class light cruiser. If their ship has the same kind of flat-faceted hull design made up of light and radar absorbing materials, then they could have pulled this off. They continued firing at Replenisher even though visual inspection would have told them that the first shot did a lot of damage. That tells me that they didn’t see us. If they thought Replenisher was alone, then continuing to fire on her would make sense. All of you will be expected to write AA reports even though there’s not much you can say, but do it anyway. It’s my report that will be the important one from HQ’s point of view. In the meantime, we continue on. Wolfe, Excalibur will take the lead as usual. That’s all for now. Out.”

  With the next jump taking the task force back into human explored space, TF71 made quick time back to Earth using long jumps between well-surveyed giant stars. Just as Koenig expected, Dejanus was heavily criticized for losing Replenisher, but she wasn’t relieved of command immediately. While the task force had been away, Redeemer had arrived, and its load of gravity cannons were being retrofitted to whatever warships happened to be in the Solar system at the time, but progress was slow. The flat sections of the Javelin-class light cruiser made it relatively easy to attach the cannon that were mounted on flat bases, but all the other classes of warships had curved hulls. Figuring out if it was possible to mount the cannon so that they were held firmly in place without having to do major structural modifications was the big question.

  The Jabs still hadn’t resumed their forward advance, and it now looked as though they would be satisfied with holding on to their beachhead on the human side of the Rift, thereby controlling access to the string of systems that allowed ships to cross the Rift. The Tong, on the other hand, were not holding back. Attacks were happening on a sporadic basis. TF71’s raid on MR66 looked like it might have made some impact on the frequency of those attacks, but the frontier of human colonies and TOSF bases was slowly being pushed back. The Arenian hull camouflage technology was eagerly accepted, but retrofitting any of the Javelin-class ships would have to wait until the technology was tested on prototypes.

  In the meantime, TF71 would be disbanded so that each ship could be tasked for indepen
dent missions. Dejanus was ‘temporarily’ assigned to a staff position. She told Koenig privately that she expected it to end up being a permanent reassignment. Durendal was ordered to conduct reconnaissance missions in Jab-controlled systems along the Rift. Curtana was ordered to stand down for some R&R so that she’d be ready to pick up the slack when the other two needed to stand down, and Excalibur was ordered to lead a supply ship to the GED base and then to the Nimitz base, using long jumps.

  Splitting up the task force did not seem like a good idea to Koenig. While he understood the need for reconnaissance, there were other ships that could do that, even if they weren’t quite as stealthy as Excalibur and her sisters. Having three very stealthy ships armed with gravity cannon, a technology that the Tong most likely didn’t have or even know much about, made a task force a very powerful raiding force that could push the Tong back on the defensive and take the initiative away from them. The TOSF needed time to repair damaged ships and exploit the new gravity cannons and hull camouflage technologies.

  Before all three cruisers went their separate ways, he managed to find the opportunity to have a private discussion with Nakatomi and Torriega, the COs of Durendal and Curtana, over a beer in the Senior Officer’s Lounge at HQ. Durendal’s CO was in the process of dissecting the operational logic of splitting up the task force when Koenig interjected to pitch his idea.

  “Listen, I hear whispers from the strategic planning pukes that the planning computers are predicting our complete defeat within six months. With the lack of FTL communication, HQ may not know of any setbacks until it’s too late to do anything about them. That’s why I think the three of us should have our own plans. If Command Authority breaks down and there’s no one left giving orders, and if your ships are still combatworthy, get to the GED base. We’ll use that as an emergency rally point. Whoever’s there first, wait a reasonable time for the other two. We’re stronger if we’re together. A three-ship task force, composed of stealthy ships armed with gravity cannon, just might be able to reverse the defeat if we can apply the right kind of pressure at the right time in the right place, okay?”

  “Okay,” said Nakatomi, “but who’ll lead that task force if HQ hasn’t assigned a senior officer?”

  Before Koenig could respond, Torriega did. “Koenig should be the TFC. He’s the one who’s thinking ahead and proposing this idea. You and I hadn’t thought that far. If it comes to a vote. I’ll vote for him.”

  “Hanson thought that over for a few seconds before nodding. “I guess I could live with that. Okay, Koenig, if everything comes crashing down, Durendal will head for the GED base, assuming we’re still able to.”

  With that precaution in place, Koenig felt better about leaving Earth on a solo mission. The supply ship that Excalibur was leading happened to be Redeemer again. The trip to the GED base system, using longer than normal jumps that Redeemer could handle, took less than a week. Koenig was surprised to see a TOSF ship inside the asteroid’s construction bay being repaired. Angela Carson was still the Station Manager, and she explained the new situation to him over a video call.

  “The TOSF has temporarily taken control of this base, so you and I have the same bosses now, Commander Koenig. We don’t just do research here any more. We now also have the capability to repair combat damage, and with every new shipment of equipment and supplies, our capability increases. A few more of these supply runs and this base might just be able to build a new ship from scratch, although it would have to be a relatively small one.”

  “If Redeemer is carrying technical data on hull camouflage technology, I highly recommend that your research people devote as much time to that as they can spare. If we can somehow retrofit our three Javelin-class cruisers with that tech, we can become the Tong’s worst nightmare. By the way, Angela, in a worst-case scenario, this base might become the operating base for a guerilla force of Javelin-class light cruisers. You should keep that possibility in mind and try to prepare for it. How soon can your people finish unloading your supplies from Redeemer?”

  “Soon enough. Don’t get any ideas about giving me orders, Commander. I’ve been told exactly who I have to take orders from, and your name isn’t on the list.”

  Koenig laughed. “Relax, Angela. I didn’t intend to try to give you orders. I was just curious is all.” The rest of the conversation was less tense. Considering how much cargo was to be offloaded, her people managed to do it quickly. Nine hours after arriving, Excalibur and Redeemer pulled away and headed for the Nimitz base.

  The base was gone. In its place was another glass-lined, radioactive pit. Analysis of the radiation levels suggested that the attack had happened over a month ago, and yet Earth didn’t know. Koenig now had to decide what Excalibur would do next given that his orders were based on the assumption that the ship would use the Nimitz base as its base of operations for making a series of recon jumps to gauge Tong activites. Without the base to keep the ship supplied and to act as a relay for any intel that Excalibur gathered, those recon jumps no longer made much operational sense.

  What did make operational sense was conducting some recon while on the way back to Earth to see how deep the Tong had gotten this time. Koenig cut Redeemer loose to head back to Earth on her own more direct route. The nearest colony was Gold Horizon. It was closer to Earth than Nimitz base, but getting there would result in a shift laterally as well as further in. Koenig picked it because it was a short jump away from a red giant that Excalibur could reach with just two long jumps.

  Koenig made sure he was on the Bridge when Excalibur emerged from hyperspace. Almost immediately he heard a report from the com AI.

  “The Colony is sending a distress call. They’re under attack from missiles. Missile defense is holding but just barely.”

  Koenig looked at the sidebar data. The planet was 13.2 light minutes away. That signal had been sent just over 13 minutes ago. Even at maximum acceleration, it would take Excalibur over an hour to get there. There was no doubt in his mind that the battle would be over by the time Excalibur arrived, but maybe, just maybe, she could catch some of the attackers before they moved on.

  “Astro, max accel for a least-time course to the Colony. The ship will go to Battle Stations.”

  As the ship moved closer, they continued to listen to the pleas for help, which stopped so suddenly that it made Koenig twitch in surprise. On an impulse, he checked the data on the Gold Horizon Colony. Latest data showed over 100,000 colonists. If the Tong had obliterated a colony of that size, it would be a major escalation compared to the previous attacks on bases that held a few hundred people at most. That told him that one of two things were going on with the Tong. Either they felt supremely confident of winning with little or no chance of retaliation by the TOSF, or they were getting desperate. Somehow, he didn’t think they were getting desperate.

  There were no transmissions of any kind the rest of the way in. Excalibur flew past the planet at high speed but was able to tell from long range visual that the Colony itself had been nuked. The mushroom cloud was still rising. There was no sign of any ships.

  “Astro, show me what possible Tong targets lie between this system and Earth.” The main display switched to a star map. He was relieved to see that the GED base was far enough to one side not to be the obvious next target, assuming the Tong knew about it, which Koenig suspected they did not. There was only one location on a more or less direct path to Earth that held any strategic interest for an aggressor. It was the colony at Tau Ceti, and there were over 2 million colonists there.

  “Can we get to Earth and then to Tau Ceti before the Tong reach there, Astro?”

  “Affirmative, but only if the Tong take a conventional path of short jumps.”

  Koenig shrugged. “No choice. I’m thinking that the Tong have a fleet, and we can’t fight them off with one ship, but by going to Earth first, we may be able to get to the Colony with enough ships to do just that. Head for Earth asap. Stand down from Battle Stations. XO to the Bridge.”
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  When Soriya arrived, he told her what had happened to the Colony. He then told her to take over conning the ship and waited for her to get settled in the Command Pod. She looked at the star map and then at him with a questioning look.

  “I think Tau Ceti is the Tong’s next target,” he said in a low voice. “This feels like they’re making the big lunge for Earth and any colony along the way. I could be wrong, but I don’t want to take any chances. We’re heading for Earth as fast as we can get there to warn them and organize a task force to send to Tau Ceti. I have a bad feeling about this, XO. What happens at Tau Ceti in the next couple of weeks could decide the whole damn war.”

  “We’ll just have to do the best we can and hope it’ll be enough,” she said.

  He nodded and gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder before heading for the exit.

  As soon as Excalibur dropped into the Solar system, Koenig sent a report to HQ with his recommendation that an ad hoc fleet be assembled with whatever was available and sent to Tau Ceti. The reply, which came back while the ship was still accelerating towards Earth, left Koenig unsatisfied. He read it again just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.