by Dietmar Wehr
Koenig thought for a few seconds before replying. “I may not need time if I can ask a question or two now.”
The CSO leaned back in his chair. “Ask your questions.”
“Is there a high probability of another Tong attack before the new super-heavy is ready?”
“If by high you mean greater than 50%, the consensus among the planning staff is yes. Next question.”
“Would I be correct in thinking of this FTL tech mission as more of a longer-term Hail Mary play versus the shorter-term impact of getting the super-heavy into the field?”
“I can see an argument being made for that point of view. Even if we got our hands on the FTL technology relatively quickly, deploying it might take time. Is there another question?”
“Not a question, no, sir. I do want to say that I wonder if Excalibur could be more useful in the short run in helping keep the Tong at bay long enough for the super-heavy to become operational.”
The CSO took his time responding. “I think I would feel the same way if I were in your shoes, Commander. I’m going to interpret your comments to mean that all other things being equal, you would prefer not to take on this mission. Is that correct?”
Koenig was reluctant to say yes, but the fact was that he didn’t really want to be away when the next Tong attack came. “Affirmative, sir.”
“Well, that puts me in an potentially awkward spot, Commander. With Curtana likely to be gone for weeks, maybe months, that just leaves Durendal and Commander Nakatomi. It wouldn’t be fair to give you the option and not give him the same option. If he declines the mission, then where does that leave us?”
Koenig mentally nodded. He should have expected that comeback. His own sense of duty was now telling him that he no longer had any choice.
“If Commander Nakatomi declines the mission, then Excalibur will take it, sir.”
“I’m relieved to hear that, Commander. We’ll know one way or another within 24 hours. You’re dismissed.”
When Koenig told Dejanus about the meeting, she surprised him with her response. “I hope Nakatomi turns it down, Wolfe. If the Tong attack while the mission is still going and we can’t stop them, then I think humanity’s chances of surviving this war are greater if you are the one left standing versus Nakatomi. He’s a competent CO, but you have superior strategic insights. Losing you in the next battle would be a worse outcome than losing Nakatomi.”
“I’m surprised by that, Tyler. It wasn’t all that long ago when you thought I was too impulsive.”
Dejanus nodded. “You are impulsive, and that’s exactly what saved us at Tau Ceti. Nakatomi isn’t impulsive enough! Not in these circumstances anyway, but it’ll be a tough mission. You’ll never be sure if your decisions are correct, and at some point, if you don’t find them, you’ll have to decide how much longer you keep searching. No one expects you to search until your food supplies run out, but whenever you make the decision to return, there’ll always be that nagging question: what if I had kept looking a little bit longer? If you end up going, try to get the CSO to give you firm orders concerning when to call off the search.”
“Good advice. I’ll try, but he may not make it that easy for me.”
Eight hours later, Koenig got the word by personal messenger from the CSO. Nakatomi had turned down the mission. Excalibur would be receiving official orders soon. The ship was being resupplied, and the crew recalled from leave.
When Koenig received his orders, there was nothing in them about time limits. He contacted the CSO’s Office and requested a meeting which was granted.
“What’s on your mind, Commander?” asked the CSO. Once again Koenig was not invited to sit down.
“I’d like to request some guidance as to how long Excalibur should keep searching if it can’t find these aliens, sir.”
“I wish I could give you that guidance, Commander, but I can’t. I don’t know how long of a search is enough. Clearly you would have to call off the search when you have just enough food left to get home, but it could be the better part of a year before you get to that point. No one here expects your ship to stay out that long, so you’ll have to make a judgement call if you get to the point where you’ve exhausted all leads, if there are any, and you’re already far beyond where the Arenians had explored. For what it’s worth, that’s about all the guidance I can give you, and it’ll have to remain verbal. I won’t put it in writing because it’s just too ambiguous. Your orders were phrased in such as way as to give you the maximum amount of flexibility. Any attempt to define a time limit would only impinge on that flexibility. You can take Excalibur anywhere you think will prove fruitful. This is a suggestion, not an order, and you’re free to disregard it, but paying another visit to the Arenian home world might just result in more data. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific than that. Was there anything else?”
“No, sir. Thank you, sir.”
As Koenig left the CSO’s office, he was disappointed at not getting a firm or even a general time limit, but looking for more data from the Arenian home world was something he hadn’t thought of yet, and now that it had been brought up, it was the obvious first step. There wasn’t enough time left to meet with Dejanus again before leaving orbit, so he left her a detailed message, including his hope that she would make it through any Tong attack.
When Excalibur was ready to leave orbit, he told Soriya to take the Command Pod and tell the astro AI to head for F1 by the quickest and most direct route. As the ship broke out of orbit and accelerated away, the com AI reported an incoming message from TOSF HQ
CSO TO EXCALIBUR ACTUAL. ON BEHALF OF ALL FLAG OFFICERS, I WISH YOU GOOD LUCK AND GOOD HUNTING. END OF MESSAGE.
Dejanus happened to be in the HQ Operations Center when Excalibur accelerated out of orbit. She watched the huge multi-story display that showed the actual telescopic image of the ship next to the tactical view of Excalibur’s green icon moving away. She said a silent prayer for her friend and the crew of that ship. Even as she said that prayer, she had a nagging feeling that she would not see Wolfe Koenig again.
Chapter Eighteen:
It was just over three months later when Dejanus stepped down from the shuttle onto Scimitar’s hangar bay deck as the loudspeaker made the announcement.
“SCIMITAR ARRIVING.”
In front of her were the officers, NCOs and technical crew of her new command. The officers she knew already. She had hand picked all of them. The rest of the crew had been chosen by TOSF’s Bureau of Personnel. Her Executive Officer stepped forward to greet her with a smile on her face.
“Welcome aboard Scimitar, Commander.”
Dejanus returned the smile. “Thank you, Jean. I’ve been aboard before as an observer; it’s nice to be here now as her CO.” She turned to look at the other officers. “Thank you for greeting me. Some of you already know me and some don’t, but that will change quickly. This is a new ship, but I intend to get to know every member of the crew as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that may not be as quickly as I would like. For reasons known only to themselves, the Tong have not come back yet, but they will, and when they do, this ship will be the backbone of the fleet that stops them. So, that means we’re going to be very busy, starting right now. You can expect lots of drills and lots of pressure to get better at what you do, and this includes everyone, not just the officers. I’m going to push hard because we may not have time to do this the easy way, and I’m letting all of you know right now that if I think you can’t rise to the level of performance that I need, I’ll cut you loose and find someone who can. That’s all for now. Jean, I want you to stay. The rest of you are dismissed.” She waited until no one else was within earshot of her and the XO.
“Intel is convinced the Tong will attack very soon. We have to get this ship worked up to at least a minimal operational level fast, Jean. I’ll need an hour to get settled into my quarters. While I’m doing that, I’d like you to start planning drills for our shakedown cruise. When I’m ready, I’ll call
you and we can go over them in my quarters. Any questions?”
Jean Tulagi shook her head. “Not about the drills, no. I was just wondering if there was any word about Excalibur.”
“No, nothing. God, I thought they’d be back by now.”
When Dejanus reached her surprisingly spacious quarters, she looked around carefully, wondering how she managed to end up commanding the newest, biggest and most powerful super-heavy cruiser the TOSF had ever fielded. The HQ grapevine, which usually was fairly accurate, had not given her any hint that she would get the Scimitar. Right up until she’d been called into the CSO’s office and told of her appointment as the new CO, she’d had the impression that she wasn’t even on the shortlist for this command. What rumors there were all said that a handful of the more politically savvy Senior Commanders were lobbying for this plum assignment. Scimitar would become the Fleet flagship due to its size, power and hull design, which was similar to the Javelin-class of light cruisers. It had the latest ECM suite, and if the Tong could be kept at bay long enough, she could be retrofitted with the same kind of hull camouflage technology that the Arenians used on their wing ships. That technology hadn’t been ready in time to be installed during the construction phase, and the TOSF leadership had decided, wisely in her opinion, that getting the ship out of the shipyard quickly without the camouflage was better than having it still in the shipyard when the Tong attacked. Even without the camouflage, Scimitar was still a formidable warship that should be able to get close enough to enemy formations, without being detected, to rip them to pieces with her six beefed up gravity cannon. And if the battle turned out to be a long-range missile duel, she could pack quite a punch there too.
The Fleet needed more like her, but there wasn’t enough time to build ships that big anymore. In a move that some saw as evidence of desperation, the TOSF had cancelled other big ship construction and shifted those resources over to building more Javelin-class light cruisers. Dejanus could see both sides of that argument. Excalibur had proven more than once that a stealthy, fast ship, if used properly, could be very effective, and because the shipyards had experience in building Javelin-class cruisers, they had already climbed the usual learning curve associated with new designs. The Javelins massed about 26% of the Scimitar-class super-heavy cruiser but could be built in less than 20% of the time. Two more had already been built, with half a dozen more scheduled to come into service in the next six months.
The other side of the argument was just as compelling. Yes, the Javelin’s could be built faster, but in terms of endurance, they couldn’t stay in the field as long as a Scimitar, and in terms of missile power, you needed six Javelins to carry the same number of missiles as one Scimitar. If the TOSF had stuck to its original construction schedule of building more Scimitars, the Fleet would have had a heavier missile capability by the time the second Scimitar became operational versus the new Javelins it would get in the same amount of time.
She got settled in quickly, then called her XO. Tulagi seemed to be quite competent, and the discussion went quickly. When Dejanus was satisfied with the XO’s plans, the two of them chatted a bit more.
“Any rumors on who will assume command of 7th Fleet?” asked Tulagi.
“The name I’m hearing most often is Steiner,” said Dejanus.
Tulagi made a face. “Steiner? That asshole? He’s lucky they let him keep Valley Forge after what he tried to pull at Nimitz Base with Excalibur. I don’t know why they took 7th Fleet away from you. You’ve proven your fleet command ability.”
Dejanus smiled and shook her head. “That’s nice of you to say, but the CSO had every right to relieve me of command of 7th Fleet. If it hadn’t been for Wolfe Koenig’s quick thinking, part of that Tong force would have slipped past 7th and hit Earth. I slipped up there, and I’ll be the first to admit it. As for Steiner, well, I can think of worse officers than him. Speaking of 7th Fleet, remind me what ships are in orbit now?”
Tulagi spent a few seconds organizing her thoughts. “In addition to Scimitar, the other super-heavies are Corregidor and Coral Sea. Heavy cruisers include Valley Forge, Kursk, Ardennes, Dogger Bank, Leyte Gulf, Barent’s Sea and Yorktown. Light cruisers are Curtana, Tizona and Stinger. Thirteen ships in all.”
Dejanus nodded. “Thirteen ships, of which only four are stealthy. The other nine might as well have flashing neon signs on their hulls saying, ‘Here we are!’” After a pause, she sighed. “Okay, let’s hope we’ll have enough ships to stop the next attack. I’m actually surprised that the Tong haven’t attacked by now. If they can add new ships faster than we can…” She left the sentence unfinished. The meeting ended on a somber note.
It was two days later when a priority tone took the CSO’s attention away from the report he’d been reading. It was a call from the Ops Center.
“Yes, what’s happening?” he asked.
“Ops Center, Duty Officer Lee, sir. We’ve just received a message from Durendal. She just arrived in-system. Shall I read it or send it to you, sir?”
“Go ahead and read it, Lieutenant.”
“Durendal to Ops Center. Large number of Tong ships detected at Point Abel. Thirty-four confirmed hulls but intermittent visual contact with more. All sighting data to follow. End of message.”
The CSO closed his eyes and sighed. This was it. The Tong were attacking in overwhelming force, just as he had feared. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Notify me when TacComp has analyzed the sighting data—no, wait. I’ll come to the Ops Center right now.”
TacComp had finished its analysis by the time Corrigan got to the Ops Center with its massive multi-story display. Point Abel was along the shortest path between Tong space and the Solar system. Durendal had taken long jumps to get back as soon as possible. If the Tong fleet continued along the short-jump path, it would arrive in this system as early as 55 hours from now. He quickly checked the sidebar data on the position of ships that were somewhere else. None of them could be brought back that quickly. 7th Fleet would have to make due with what it had on hand. It still didn’t have a Fleet Commander, and the CSO was conscious of the growing chorus of grumbling about him having delayed the decision for so long. Steiner was at the top of his short list, but he wasn’t convinced that Steiner was the best candidate, and that was especially true if facing much superior odds. He decided he could still take some time to make the choice. In an emergency, Dejanus could assume fleet command again. He wondered if he was subconsciously waiting until there was an emergency in order to rationalize giving Dejanus the nod. She had fleet combat experience which Steiner and the others did not. None of the other fleet commanders in previous battles had survived. He was loath to admit it, but the TOSF had lost many of its best commanders. If only Dejanus hadn’t slipped up at Tau Ceti. The question that he couldn’t answer was whether her oversight was indicative of her overall tactical abilities or was merely a one-time mistake that could have happened even to the best tactician? If it was the later, he would give her 7th Fleet without a moment’s hesitation, but if it was the former, then someone else should get the assignment. He decided to defer the decision for 12 more hours and sleep on it.
Tulagi pondered the chess board. Even with the lower computational setting, the tactical AI was still being a pain in the neck! She made up her mind on her next move.
“Queen to—” She was interrupted by the AI’s voice and the emergency triple ping from the tactical display.
“Receiving Amber alert. Tong ships have entered the system. 7th Fleet to go to Battle stations. Incoming call from the CSO for Commander Dejanus.”
“Oh, God,” whispered Tulagi as she watched a flurry of red icons appear on the display. She waited, knowing that the com AI was already transferring the call to Dejanus’s quarters. As the number of red icons kept increasing, she started to shiver in fear.
Dejanus woke to the shockingly loud call signal. This was obviously no ordinary call. “Dejanus here. Go ahead.”
“CSO here, Commander. We are in deep shit
. A massive Tong fleet has somehow managed to get here way ahead of when they normally should have been able to do it. TacComp guesses they managed to make long jumps between several giants. Anyway, the how doesn’t matter now. We’ve…I’ve been caught with my pants down. 7th Fleet is out of position and hasn’t been assigned a Fleet Commander. I’m rectifying that mistake right now. For better or worse, I’m handing you this clusterfuck. There’s no time to get anyone else up to the flagship. Take charge of 7th Fleet and maneuver as you see fit. You’re heavily outnumbered and caught off guard, so no one is expecting miracles from you, but you have to try all the same. Good luck, Fleet Commander. HQ out.”
