by Dietmar Wehr
Koenig interjected before Strucker could continue. “No! We have to go back to Sol right now and take on what’s left of the Tong fleet before they can call in reinforcements. With our ten gravity cannon, we should be—”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” yelled Strucker, his face turning red. “I just told you that I’m in command of this group. If we go back now and go toe-to-toe with the goddamned Tong, they’ll wipe this group out! They had super-heavies for Gods sakes, and there are at least nine of them left! Five light cruisers can’t defeat nine super-heavies!”
“Yes, we can, if we go in stealthy and slash at them with our gravity cannon!”
“One more fucking word out of you, Koenig, and I’ll relieve you of command, got it?”
Koenig swore out loud, not caring if Strucker heard him or not. “Hanson! Torriega! Nakatomi! Excalibur is pulling out and heading for Sol right now! Are you with me?” He didn’t wait for a reply. He cut off the video feed manually. Pausing for a few seconds to take a deep breath, he said, “Astro, I want a trajectory for the furthest star that the other Javelins can handle if they line up with us, and let’s get moving right now.”
As soon as Excalibur began to peel away from the base, the com AI spoke up. “Commander Strucker is demanding to speak with you, Commander.”
“Fuck him!” said Koenig. “No response. If any of the other COs want to talk, I’ll take those calls, but not Strucker. XO to the Bridge.” While he waited for Soriya to arrive, he had another thought. “Com, send a narrow beam text message to Senior Commander Carson and make sure Sting can’t intercept it. The message is as follows. ‘Koenig to Carson. I strongly urge you not to reveal the locations of the supply depots to Commander Strucker.’ ” As he spoke, he noticed that the tactical display was showing three green icons moving away from the base. The other Javelins were joining him. “I’m taking three other ships back to Sol to try to destroy the occupation fleet. Strucker seems to be gun shy, or maybe he’s just a coward. Either way, we’ll never get a better chance to give Earth some breathing room. If I don’t make it back, use your best judgement, and don’t let Strucker intimidate you. You may not be able to give him orders, but he for damn sure can’t give any to you. Wish me luck. End of message.’ ”
Soriya arrived, and Koenig told her what had just happened and what was now taking place. She surprised him by leaning over the open Command Pod and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“God bless you for having the courage to disobey those stupid orders. I support you wholeheartedly, but you do realize that you’ve just committed mutiny, right?”
Koenig shrugged. “If we win the battle and I get court-martialled for mutiny, I can walk away with my head held high. No regrets,” he said, shaking his head.
“Incoming call from Sting, Executive Officer Vasily.”
“The XO? This should be interesting. Put him on.” The display shifted to a slightly distorted image of a woman’s head. Excalibur was already far enough away that video transmissions were suffering from the doppler effect.
“Koenig! I’ve taken, ah, rather I’ve been given command of Sting. Our AIs were in communication with yours and those of the other ships. They convinced ours that supporting your attack was the correct thing to do. When Strucker saw that Sting was moving to follow you, he went berserk. The AIs called me and a couple of other officers to the Bridge where the AIs informed me that I was now in command and that they strongly recommended Sting join the rest of the group. We’re coming! If you slow down a bit, we can catch up.”
Koenig and Soriya exchanged looks. AIs had never done anything like that before. And while he was glad that Sting was willing to join in the attack, the unexpected show of independence of its AIs was a little bit unnerving.
“What about Strucker? Is he going to do something really stupid like try to sabotage Sting’s engines?” asked Koenig.
After a couple of seconds, Vasily laughed. “No. Commander Strucker seems to have, ah, slipped on something and broken his jaw as a result. He’s in Sick Bay now and under restraints too for some strange reason.”
Now it was Koenig’s and Soriya’s turn to laugh. “Well, I won’t inquire about the restraints. I’m sure you can handle your ship just fine, Commander. We’ll slow down until you catch up. We’re going to be making longer jumps than you’re used to. It’s one of the things we managed to learn how to do while we were gone. My Astro will explain it all to yours. You’re doing the right thing, Commander. Koenig out.”
The first jump took longer to set up than Koenig was used to. It was obvious the other COs were nervous about attempting a jump that long, in spite of the reassurances their astro AIs were giving them. Koenig had no qualms at all about Excalibur hitting the mark and was confident the other ships would make it okay too. Getting to Sol as fast as possible was paramount. For all anyone knew, there could be a second Tong fleet already on its way to relieve the first fleet so that damaged ships could return home for repairs. That possibility was a scary thought. Koenig was reasonably confident that five Javelins armed with gravity cannon could ambush nine enemy super-heavies, but if they found a much larger Tong fleet waiting for them, or if a bigger Tong fleet showed up later, then all bets would be off.
The group arrived in the Solar system on almost the opposite side from where Earth was. Rather than try to find each other with no running lights, Koenig had decided that they would rendezvous in orbit around the nearest planet, which happened to be Jupiter. It was big enough that even a Javelin cruiser could be seen silhouetted against it. With all five ships now in a tight formation, Koenig briefed the other COs on the carefully planned attack. He expected the Tong ships to orbit in a close formation and in a more or less equatorial orbit to maximize the human population they could monitor. Koenig’s plan was unorthodox, and when Soriya saw it projected on the tactical display, she had described it as ‘gutsy’.
What made it possible was the moon’s position relative to the Earth and the sun. While not directly in front of the sun, the moon was definitely closer to it than the Earth was. The group would approach the Earth while keeping the moon in between to prevent the Tong from noticing that something was moving in front of background stars. Once they reached the moon, they would hold position behind it long enough to visually scan the Earth in the hope that their optics were powerful enough to see the Tong fleet moving across the front of the Earth. If the Tong were all in one formation, then as soon as they moved past the Earth’s horizon and behind it, Koenig’s group would race to cover the intervening distance before the Tong came around the other side. The group would follow the Tong fleet’s path and come up behind them. The ships would then fire as soon as they had a direct line-of-sight to enemy fleet. That would prevent Earth being in the line of fire.
The approach to the moon went off perfectly. The other four ships hovered in position, while Excalibur moved around the side just enough to see the Earth. The main display was showing the optical image at maximum zoon. Koenig had the con, but he allowed Soriya to observe, even though the ship was at Battle Stations and technically she should have been at her designated post in Engineering. The image was not as close as Koenig would have liked.
“Are you sure you can detect the Tong ships at this range, Tactical?” he asked.
“Affirmative, Commander. I can, and I have detected them.”
Koenig leaned forward as the image shifted to the left. He blinked and strained his eyes. Could those tiny black dots really be the Tong super-heavies?
“How confident are you that those are the Tong ships?” he asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
“TacComp is 98.9% confident, Commander. While the ships look tiny to human eyes, they are the correct size for ships classified as super-heavy, as seen from this distance. There are nine ships in a steady formation. They will be passing behind the planet again in one hundred forty-four seconds.”
“Have the other cruisers been alerted?” Koenig knew it was a silly question. Of course,
they were, but he had a need to feel like he was actually running the attack.
“Affirmative. All tactical AIs are being updated continuously, and they are keeping their human commanders informed. Do we tactical AIs still have authorization to commence the attack as planned?”
“Yes.” Koenig and Soriya now shifted their gaze to the sidebar and the countdown timer. There were less than 20 seconds to go before the Tong fleet would be hidden once again behind the Earth. He felt Soriya’s hand on his right shoulder, and he covered it with his own. The seconds were dropping fast now. He just had time to wonder if he had made the right decisions when the timer hit zero.
“The group is accelerating,” said the tactical AI. The Earth began to appear larger. Ships accelerating at 1,597Gs could cover the intervening 384,400 kilometers in a mere three minutes and forty-two seconds.
Koenig felt his heart start to beat faster. The adrenaline rush was already distorting his sense of time enough to be noticeable. Neither he nor Soriya said anything when the group reached Earth and began to curve around it. As the tactical AI counted down the final seconds to the estimated point in time when the Tong ships would once again be visible, Koenig held his breath. He felt Soriya’s hand squeeze his shoulder hard. The countdown hit zero.
Author’s Comments:
If you enjoyed this first book in the Swordships Odyssey series, please take a couple of minutes to post a review. They really do help in generating future sales and I appreciate any advice or suggestions on how to become a better writer. The second book in the series, Excalibur’s Quest, can be pre-ordered now by clicking on this link. The publication date has been set for the end of April but if the book is ready sooner, I’ll move the publication date up. I’m also pleased that Tom Edwards has agreed to do the covers for this new series. You can get updates on my latest books and occasionally a special offer by signing up for my mailing list here. If you’re new to my books, please check out the list at the top. There are two free ebooks, The Synchronicity War Part 1 and Rumors of Glory. You’ll also find the first short story in a dark and gritty series entitled The Tattooed Angel. It’s intended for adults only.
Long Live Space Opera!
D.A.W.
Table of Contents
Other books by the author (many of these books are also available as audiobooks):
Cast of Characters (and rank as they first appear):
Glossary of Terms:
List of Ships:
Background information on the Swordships Odyssey universe:
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Chapter Six:
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Fourteen:
Chapter Fifteen:
Chapter Sixteen:
Chapter Seventeen:
Chapter Eighteen:
Appendix A (What the Heck are Gravity Cannon?):
Preview Chapters:
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Author’s Comments:
