"I was hoping that would happen, but wasn’t game to ask."
"Ask. First thing before we can trade is to find out if anything at all is compatible, or even if we can replace ours with theirs at all easily."
"Timeframe?"
"Arthur wants to be gone as soon as his repairs are complete. So tomorrow is a good bet."
"I'll get on it all."
He rose, threw me a rough two fingered salute, and hurried out.
Twenty Eight
The Keerah took the time to make sure their formation was as tight as possible.
The one input I’d had in the new battle plan, was suggesting we move the square to the other side of the jump point, so the Keerah would be pointing away from us this time. I was very aware I’d given away ship positions by sending that vid.
Proving they were a race of warriors who thought about how to fight a battle, the first thing the Keerah fleet did was fire missiles through the jump point. The nav map went solid with yellow dots, which all came through the jump point as a mass, about a second after firing. Jane had already fired mosquitoes in response, but we had a couple of seconds view of what the Keerah missiles did before the mozzies reached them.
"Good call," said Susan, after every missile died well away from us.
The Keerah missiles had gone for where our ships had been, so they had used the vid for targeting data. After not finding targets where they expected them, the missiles had turned towards us anyway, but none of them survived the turn process.
The first line of cruisers jumped in a second after Susan's comment, not giving me enough time to respond, but she had the first response already on the way. Each ship received the firepower of four of Hammer's titan turrets, and once again, the ships were destroyed less than a second after emergence. Which suggested they didn’t have computer control of weapons, because they failed to fire. Even the best ship crews took a second or two to press a button after a jump. To do it faster required either an AI, or a preprogrammed computer. And military minds, human at least, tended to not like losing the control.
Ten seconds later, the second line jumped, and met the same fate. The third line, being six destroyers, were ten seconds behind them, and each received the firepower of a single titan turret. Same result. The fourth line took the same with one exception.
The outside ship on Hammer's side of the box, took fire from Relentless, downing its shields, and a second later from Defiant, destroying the engines at the rear of the ship. It continued forward on inertia.
"Hold Custer," I ordered, pretty well just on instinct alone.
I'd only just got the words out, when the ship started firing missiles, began orienting turrets to fire back at us, and within five seconds, was firing at Defiant with its main guns. Definitely a well-trained crew.
Jane fired more mosquitos from Defiant, and was able to keep the explosions far enough away to not hurt her. But Miriam was not able to respond fast enough to slip out of the way of all the gun pulses coming at her. Her shields went down with only half a dozen hits, before she managed to juke the ship to not take any more. But several ragged holes were now in the hull of the combined ship, and I was alarmed to see they were near the bridge Miriam was using. Her image flickered for a moment, and returned showing her suit in full space suit mode, and connected to her chair's life support.
The next broadside hit Sceptre's shields as Jane moved us in front of Defiant.
"Cruiser and destroyer guns to fire on that ship," ordered Susan.
"Aim for the turrets," I added.
A barrage of smaller pulses converged all around the Keerah ship, its recharging shields failed again, and pulses began eating at the hull.
"Is that hull regenerating?" asked Bob, over the coms.
Jane zoomed in a cam to a section of the ship being constantly hit, and sure enough, after each pulse did a small amount of damage, it was almost immediately repaired.
"Get me some of that Jon, will you please?"
"Relentless and Dauntless, pursue and contain," I ordered.
Both ships immediately went to full speed, overtook the crippled ship very quickly and matched its speed, and started taking fire from it, while their own became more effective. Their shields held, but only because they were getting half the Keerah ship's fire each.
I spared a quick look at Hobbes. The tiger was sitting there with gritted teeth, arms folded tightly across his chest. Roo on the other hand was smirking. I cast a look at Syrinx, micro-nodded towards Roo, and she smacked him across the side of the face. He lost his smirk just in time for Hobbes to not see it. I had the impression the only reason Hobbes was not on his feet, was the seat belt holding him down.
"Will your people surrender?" I asked him.
"No. They will destroy the ship first."
"Any idea why they haven’t already?" asked Annabelle.
"Maybe they can't," suggested George.
"They have power," said Jane, "so overloading a power source is still possible."
I opened a channel to the Keerah ship.
"Keerah vessel, this is Admiral Hunter. We can destroy you whenever we wish, as you have already witnessed. Cease all hostilities and power down your ship. If you surrender, you will be treated as ambassadors for your people. I do not wish to destroy you, but if you keep firing at us, we will end this. You have thirty seconds to comply."
The channel closed, and the thirty seconds went by silently.
"Had to try," I said.
I looked at Jane.
"Airlocks?"
"Yes, but how about we try sending in mosquitoes through each one to take out the bulkheads I assume they have in place? If they won't surrender, and a live Keerah will try and destroy the ship if we board, let's go for minimum damage venting to space."
"And if they're in space suits?"
"Hit them with a mossy each."
Hobbes flinched. I looked over at him.
"Sorry mate. We need the ship. I'd rather take prisoners, but I also don’t want them blowing it up. Nor do I want them doing that if we dock a ship with them."
I'd had the notion of BigMother slapping a grav sled down on the hull, and extending shields around the ship. This would suppress the Keerah emitters, but leave BigMother vulnerable to an explosion within her shields.
"Open a channel again," said Hobbes.
Jane did so for him.
"Why throw your lives away for nothing?" he asked in his own language, with Tanith's magic translating it for my ears. "The humans have a Trixone ship, with its power systems, weapons, and shield emitters intact. They have the debris from the rest of your fleet, which will give them regenerative hull technology. They are far more adaptive than any other enemy you've faced before, and far in advance of every other human society so far encountered. Surrender your ship, and your lives are guaranteed safe. And you can act as ambassadors for our people, to broker a peace."
He paused, waiting for a response, but didn’t get one.
"You scored a few hits on the weakest ship here, but killed no-one. At your best, you are not damaging the ships keeping pace with you. You cannot escape. You can only die pointlessly, and the humans will take our technology anyway. It is more than likely all our key systems are still intact within the wreckage behind you, and believe me when I say, these humans collect everything from a battle site, and even damaged systems will give them technology breakthroughs. There is nothing to save here, only your lives, and they can kill you without doing major damage to the ship. Surrender, and save yourselves. You will not be harmed. And at some time in the future, you may be allowed to return home."
He sounded sincere, but I doubted he'd made his case. Even if they did go home, they'd be considered traitors, if I understood warrior societies at all.
We waited, but this time the channel stayed open.
"Movement," said Jane, and our attention went back to the navmap.
The scout destroyers were back again.
Twenty Nine
"The scouts a
re back in the next system," I said deliberately, knowing the channel was still open. "Who gives me odds the Ralnor will be jumping a fleet in next door in the next few minutes?"
The Keerah ship stopped firing.
"Cease fire," ordered Susan, and all fire from our side stopped.
The shields on the damaged ship remained down, although the damaged hull continued to regenerate.
The channel became a visual one, and the main screen now showed a CCC like bridge, one black and orange tiger front and center, with others apparently doing damage control. There was smoke in the air, and the look of our rear end damage having reached further than I thought.
The tiger looked around my bridge, and his eyes settled on Hobbes, flickered to Roo for a moment with surprise showing on his face, and settled back on his fellow tiger.
"I do not know you. You are ruling class, but not from this end of the empire. Who are you? And why do you collaborate with enemies?"
Hobbes rattled off what sounded like a name and family details.
"You lie. That blood line died out centuries ago." Hobbes snarled, but otherwise stayed silent. "And yet, I do not know you, and I should at least know your face. I will demand an explanation."
"You don’t need to demand an explanation," I said, his face turning to me, looking like he didn’t like being interrupted by inferiors. "An explanation will be given freely. Although, you may not believe it. Are you surrendering?"
"You are admiral here? Even I know human facial characteristics, and it is much more likely the older one next to you commands."
"I'm a General," said Annabelle. "Admiral Hunter has five stars to my two. And young as he is, his tactics kicked your collective arses."
A low growl came from several of the tigers in the background. But I ignored them.
"I'm serious about not wanting a war with your people," I said. "And given you already have a two way war going now, why court a third front?"
The tiger laughed.
"How does one jump point constitute a front?"
"It does if I decide to push you back into your own space. And consider this. Why have we appeared here now? How did we get here? Why have you never found the space we now occupy? What tech do we have available which can turn one jump point into a war front?"
"You raise good points. And I concede you may be bluffing. But if this jump point remained hidden for so long until you jumped in and revealed it, I cannot deny there could be others we have never found. And I must also admit, your stations are impressive in size, if somewhat boring and under-gunned. But the number of missile launchers visible is enough to give me pause without taking into account your ships."
Susan was grinning, and when I checked, I found Hammer was back looking like the same box Sceptre looked like. And as he said, they looked like stations with impressive numbers of missile launchers around the thin sides.
"Will you surrender?"
"I formerly surrender what remains of my ship to you."
Which meant his crew were probably trying to destroy everything they could. It couldn’t be helped.
"Captain, your surrender is accepted. Your ship will be towed to one of our stations, where troops will escort you to holding cells, pending negotiations about your status. You will be treated in accordance with your own behavior. Act in good faith, and this can work to your advantage. Act badly, and my troops will have to put you down. It is up to you."
"I would request a meeting with you and this traitor as soon as possible."
"Soon. Before I leave this bridge, I want to see what the Ralnor do next."
He spat. It was very cat like, and Angel reacted by all her fur standing on end, rising to stand in an attack stance.
The tiger looked at her in amusement, and then his face darkened.
"You make subservient pets out of our cousins? How can I trust you?"
He stopped when the humans on my bridge all started laughing. Angel let her fur settle, turned, jumped across to my lap, and stood on her back paws so she could put her face in front of mine.
"MIAOW!"
"Yes sweetie, the nasty tiger insulted you, but it's not a good enough reason for blowing him away."
Hobbes exploded into laughter, got a grip, and rattled off some fast talk in his own language, which I think included 'cats treat humans like slaves.'
The tiger looked impressed for a moment, watched Angel settle on my lap, and looked back at me.
"I think I need to talk to this sweetie of yours myself." The laughter intensified. "But for now, you may attach your tow. There are cable attachments on the forward hull for this purpose."
"Thank you captain, but they will not be required. I'll see you soon. Hunter out."
The channel closed.
"Boss?"
"Yes George?"
"Do we board?"
"No. Tow to Redoubt, let Janet use tugs to dock the ship however it can be, and have all teams meet them at the airlock. Jack?"
"Sir?"
"Be ready for anything, but react only. I'd prefer they feel like guests in protective custody, rather than prisoners. But don’t take risks."
"Noted."
"Janet?"
"My Lord?"
"Cells for our guests please. Provide what they need to be comfortable, but be alert for escape attempts. Use security droids in their normal state for guards. And at the airlock, be ready to immobilize any tiger who gets frisky."
"Yes my Lord."
We watched as Custer towed the Keerah ship back to Redoubt. Tugs docked the ship, while Custer herself docked, and the teams deployed. The tigers came out in single file, some walking upright, and some walking on all fours, all looking hungry, or was that angry, and were escorted off without any trouble. When the ship was empty, Jack took team six through it looking for anyone hiding away, and found no-one. Once they were back on the station, the airlock closed, the tugs pulled the ship away, and without being told, George took the ship under tow again. I looked at Syrinx, she nodded, a rift appeared, and Custer vanished through it.
Before George could get back, Jane spoke again.
"Ralnor fleet jumping in."
Thirty
The Ralnor fleet kept coming and coming.
And they did have battleships. Not our size, but Ralnor sized ones, and from the specs the sensors could get, they were a third longer than my battleship length, and much chunkier. Not up to Redoubt weight, but much bigger than even my two dreadnoughts.
But after one hundred and eight ships had jumped in, their intentions became obvious.
"Phew," said Susan. "I was getting worried."
I looked at Hobbes and Roo.
"Looks like they had an offensive planned already."
Both looked concerned, but neither commented.
The Ralnor had obviously had a plan in place, and modified it as soon as the plants had attacked us. Their fleet divided up into three, and set off for all three jump points. In the middle of each well-ordered fleet, was two battleships.
The Keerah scout had vanished shortly after the first missiles were fired at it. So I wasn’t sure if they knew what was coming at them. The plants had not sent any ships in since their attack on us, and once again, I had no idea if they knew what was coming at them or not. I'm not sure why it bothered me they might not know.
The Ralnor strategy was pretty clear. Let everyone expend themselves fighting us, and then hit everyone at the same time.
Coming at us were thirty six ships, including two battleships, sixteen cruisers, and eighteen destroyers. The first two lines comprised destroyer, cruiser, battleship, cruiser, destroyer. The next lines had a cruiser instead of the battleship, and the last line was six destroyers.
We had plenty of time, and once again, I set Susan to thinking out a tactical plan. In the meantime, the salvage droids were already out there gathering up all the Keerah debris, although for once they were being picky about what they took first, Jane directing them to those chunks which contained somethi
ng looking more or less intact. These included some turrets, and what looked like half an engine room. After they took these through the still open rift to Haven, the rest started their normal collection of everything down to the dust level. When the droid had collected a huge mass out of all proportion to its size, but within the size limit of the rift, it went through to deliver the mess to a point not far from the shipyards, and right next to where the plant mess was.
I stood everyone down, and ordered Miriam to deliver Defiant to Bob for repairs, and then report to my office. Next I called in Lacey.
He arrived in his personal Excalibur, presumably making a point about what he preferred to be flying. By the time he docked, and took a travel car to the bridge, I was waiting for him in my ready room. He seated himself across the desk from me, not looking happy.
"You're not happy," I said, stating the obvious to get things started.
"Is that obvious?"
"Pretty much, yes."
"Did you expect anything different when you downgraded me from one carrier to a smaller one?"
"Not really. But it is temporary. What do you want to do?"
"Steal one of Arthur's fighters, and disassemble it."
"Pick door B."
"Okay, then I’d prefer to be on the shipyard working with the teams looking at shielding and guns upgrades."
"Isn’t that a waste of your talents?"
"Using fighters as turrets is a waste of all the pilot's talents. You know we do have a number of them with actual mechanical and design skills?" I hadn't known. "Since fighters can't launch, why not let those who are capable of designing a new fighter get on with trying to, using whatever the AI's and techs can leech out of the plant ships and debris? At the least we may be able to upgrade the privateers enough to be useful."
"Has it occurred to you fighters just may not be practical where we are now? Only Arthur seems to have them."
He looked aghast. And I couldn’t blame him either.
"I refuse to accept that until someone proves it."
"Good. Collect those who you think can help, have them turn their ships over to Jane, and go see what you can do. But Lacey?"
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