by C. R. Daems
"Nance, what is your status."
"A few scratches. Nothing serious. You and the Asp hogged all the cruisers. What's the condition of the Asp?"
"Barely operational. Forty-eight dead, nineteen wounded. I'm sending him back to Freeland. What about A1?"
"Momma seems to be out of babies, but I'll bet she's a nasty bitch on her own. She's making for the Wave."
"Can't let her leave. She's seen too much."
"Any ideas on how we stop her?"
"Maybe. It worked against the Raiders at Tamerland."
"If I remember correctly, you were awarded a Silver Star, but they didn't say why. A lot of speculation whether you deserved it. Want to share."
"Compute a skip to within one kilometer to the Port side of C1, and let me know the timing." I smiled imagining Nance's expression. Tamerland had been the first real application of Symath.
"Nadya, a five second skip."
"The Mnemosyne is a four second skip. You will skip on my count. I will skip one second later, so we'll arrive at the same time—the Eirene on the Port side and the Mnemosyne on the Starboard. If humans manned the ship, I'd say we would have ten seconds or more to unload on it. But robots are going to be much faster, and I suspect their automatic laser defense will be close to instantaneous. I think the Riss can target A1 in five seconds."
"Agreed. I'll bet the Raiders didn't enjoy that surprise party."
"No, too rowdy. Nance, we aren't going to get a second skip, so we have to hit them with everything we can this time. Skip for three seconds after you fire. Good hunting. Ten, nine, eight… three, two, one, jump." A second later, everyone became transparent for four seconds and A1 appeared—a metal monster—reaching out with fames of destruction.
"Nance, what's your condition?"
"Better than C1. It's lost power and their weapons appear down. I've several compartments to space, Sixteen dead, twelve wounded. Mama's a nasty bitch."
"At least for now it isn't going any place. Your Ghosts are in better shape than ours. Have them support two attack shuttles of Scorpions. Let see what we find. I'm going back to investigate what's left of the cruisers."
"Colonel Seng, prepare for boarding actions. We are going to investigate each of the disabled and destroyed cruisers."
"Yes, Captain." I felt inhuman ordering the Ghosts into action after the losses they had sustained—they had lost an additional two stopping the scout. But I had to make sure those cruisers couldn't be repaired and put back into action. We would have to grieve later.
* * *
Feeling I had to do something, I left the Bridge and made my way to the medical unit. Doctor Dayton's clothes were spotted with blood and she looked exhausted. When she saw me, she walked over.
"Are you hurt, Nadya?"
"Not physically. But I could use a good psychologist."
"If you find one, I'll join you." She turned and walked back into the unit. I left taking the stairs to level one where I found Commander Byer. He looked worse than Dayton.
"Captain Reese, there’s kaffa on the table." I noticed Squadron Leader Katlin rise as I entered. I waved her to sit.
"You were right, Captain. The Aliens had a scout ship in system. It began to leave when you and the Eirene had destroyed six of their cruisers. It was an easy kill with the new Ghosts. We were almost on top of it before it noticed us, but we still lost two. That damn laser defense is really nasty."
"Good job. We need to keep the Aliens in the dark for as long as we can. That will give us an immense advantage. Just like today. We had heavy losses, but what we learned can reduce our losses in our next engagement." I poured a cup a kaffa, and took a sip. "I'll be sending Scorpions to look at each cruiser and want fighter support while they're in transit."
"It's funny in a way. Last year supporting the Scorpions would've just been an assignment. This year I have friends on those shuttles. We'll see them safely across." I spent an hour discussing the damages to fighters, pilots, mechanics, and bays, before leaving for the Scorpions area.
"Captain Reese, Seng greeted me. Terril, who had been talking with him, nodded.
"Colonel Seng, what's your status?"
"I had eight killed and three wounded during the engagement. At the moment, twenty are helping with repairs. I can recall them if necessary."
"Recall enough for two attack shuttles. I want to look inside each cruiser. First to make sure the robots are … dead, and second, to see if there's any useful information left behind. Don't spend too much time looking, as I'm sure Admiral Wattson will send a team to collect what appears useful. The Ghosts will support your crossing. No suicide actions. If you encounter heavy resistance, withdraw, and we'll send a few missiles over instead."
* * *
It took most of a day to locate and examine each cruiser. Fortunately, the teams encountered no resistance, and no heat sensor activated lasers. The robots and computer system seemed to have been fried when the ship was no longer operational, except for one. We marked its location for later examination.
"Nance, how is it going?"
"A1 is the size of four or five Heavies. We may have been lucky. The ship has several hundred missiles in addition to hundreds of fifty and ninety centimeter lasers. If we had tried to take it on directly, the space gods only know what would have happened. As it was, we took a beating even with that hit-and-run tactic. And it looks like they had bays for up to twelve cruisers. There's a repair station next to each bay. No mess hall or work out area," she snorted, "but lots of computers. That maybe the reason those systems reacted so quickly. I think they have a computer for each bank of lasers, which means they were probably activated automatically. We're still searching the damn thing, it's like a deserted city—eerie."
"Do you need any help?"
"No, it'll just take time to examine each compartment."
"Send over your dead and wounded. I'm going to rendezvous with the Asp. They were beaten up badly, so I'm sending them back to Freeland. We'll stay until they send relief."
* * *
I took a shuttle over to the Asp, while the dead and wounded were being transferred. On approached the extent of the damage was obvious from the gaping holes and blistered metal. It surprised me the Asp remained operational enough to enter the Wave.
"Welcome aboard, Captain Reese. That was one monster of a ship. I couldn't believe now it kept spitting cruisers. They're small but faster than the Asp, reloaded faster, and had better ECM. I thought mother was going to lose her oldest, if not her favorite son. But I guess she's going to have to endure me a bit longer." He gave that roguish laugh I could imagine coming from the famous pirate, Blackbeard, of earth's ancient history.
"Da'Maass, You're the hero of Fools Landing. You knew th
e danger when you fired on the Aliens ship."
"I trusted my dybbuk to save me." He laughed long and hard, "And she did."
"Let's get you home safely. When you enter Freeland space … "
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Facing reality
"Admiral, the Puma is reporting the Asp has exited the Wave. It's decelerating and broadcasting it has Scorpions security aboard and carrying dead and wounded from the engagement at Fools Landing. And has an action report from Captain Reese. The Puma is at Battle Stations, awaiting instructions," Captain Dannatt said with the hint of a smile.
"Tell that … Captain Lambert to turn off his weapons, and escort the Asp to the Golden Eagle. That's all we need is for some over-zealous Captain or XO to fire on the Asp to create a major incident with untold repercussions. Half the fleet is jumpy and the other half either doesn't like the Riss or the Treaty. And almost everyone outraged that we armed the Asp." Wattson shook his head. "It’s a pressure cooker and won't take much for it to explode."
"Yes, sir. Anything else?" Dannatt asked.
"Yes, alert medical we have incoming wounded, and contact Admirals Stenberg and Zann. I would think they would like to be present when Da'Maass arrives."
"Yes, sir." Dannatt cut the connection. Wattson could understand what Reese has been going through the past two years. It's a miracle the she held it all together.
* * *
Wattson had food brought into the conference room, thinking it was going to be a long day. Zann arrived first.
"Help yourself to something, Zann," Wattson said as she entered, and waited until she had collected her food and drink. "What do you think about the Asp returning alone?"
"Hard to tell, there could be a lot of reasons. I do know if the Asp had been destroyed when it returned, there would have been major consequences on Freeland."
"Not to mention repercussions on Eden for killing wounded personnel, and it would have further widen the division between the navy and the army for killing the Scorpion security guards," Stenberg said as he closed the door behind him.
"That's what scares me. Gardner and Yumas may be the most prejudiced and outspoken, but they are not alone in their opinions. This alliance has already produced major benefits that could easily unravel. And what will happen when the JPU and UFN join us. Without these alliances, I believe we're going to lose. I can feel it in my bones." Wattson picked up his wine glass and stared at the inside like it had tealeaves and the answer.
"I agree. The problem is, while Reese has worked wonders here, her decisions tend to make everyone nervous—including us."
"I know. That's what makes Plimson such a great Secretary of Defense. He has trusted his instincts and understood the risks were worth the potential benefits." Wattson said. "If it weren't for him, we would still be chasing the Raiders, wouldn't have Symath, Riss cruisers, or the technology they created." A knock at the door interrupted Wattson.
"Sir, there is a Captain Da'Maass here."
"Show him in," Wattson said, standing as Da'Maass walked in. Wattson couldn't help but smile at the man and his … gypsy-like clothes. "Welcome, Captain Da'Maass. You know Admirals Stenberg and Zann?"
"Yes. Gentlemen." He gave a bow with the sweep of his arm across his body. Then walked over to the table and filled a glass full of wine, finished it, and poured another. "Excuse me, but it's been a long journey with dead and wounded." He sat and removed a small disk from his pocket, and slid it across the table to Wattson. The Admiral picked it up and slid it into his SID, then projected it onto the rooms monitor. Captain Reese appeared.
"Captain Da'Maass has earned our respect and gratitude for his sacrifice on our behalf. When we entered Fools Landing …
For the next two hours, they questioned Da'Maass, but his direct knowledge was limited to his encounter with the cruisers, his general discussion with Reese prior to leaving Fools Landing, and with the wounded on the way back to Freeland. Afterward he was taken to the medical unit to be examined and to check on his wounded crew.
"We need to send this information back to Plimson but not by Comstat. This isn't the kind of information we want leaked to the public," Stenberg said, turning the disk in his hand. "And we have to find a way to convince our senior personnel that the threat is real, and we will not survive alone."
"You're right," Wattson said. When he laughed, Stenberg and Zann gave him a look of concerned. The current situation didn't have a funny side. Wattson put up his hand. "Sorry, I had this vision of Reese's next request. I wondered if I, we, have the insight Plimson has.
"Everyone is going to be interested in what happened at Fools Landing. Call a meeting for early tomorrow."
* * *
The room was quiet when Wattson, Stenberg, and Zann entered.
"Attention," Bradshaw shouted.
"At ease. By now you know the Asp returned from Fools Landing with dead and wounded. Everyone was justified in being concerned when the Asp entered Freeland space alone. Concern as to the condition of the Mnemosyne and Eirene, to the cost of the engagement, but not that the Asp was anything but a returning ship of the task force. The Asp took no action that could be considered a threat."
"Sir they're the enemy—"
"A strange enemy, Captain Umphrey, considering we wouldn't have the Riss cruisers, the advanced technology built into those cruisers, or the ability to upgrade your cruisers and fighters for years." Wattson said and stopped to survey the room. "Before I show you Captain Reese's report, I'd like to conduct a small exercise. We'll take an hour's break to eat and relax. During that time, I want each to consider what you would recommend for a totally SAS task force to Fools Hope to investigate their quarantine: number and type of ships and your deployment."
"What happened at Fools Landing?"
"I know what Captain Reese did. I like to know what you would do. Besides Fools Hope may not be the same a Fools Landing, although their names are similar."
After Wattson finished, the Captains wandered the room stopping to talk and collected in small group. Eventually, everyone returned to the table and made notes on his or her SID.
"All right, who would like to start? Since it was obvious to everyone the Riss had encounter more than one lone cruiser, the majority of Captains solutions were a variation on the configuration and deployment used at Zigzag: three to four Lights, one Heavy, and one or two Hunters. Only Captain McKnight was significantly different. He decided on six Lights, two Hunters, and a Heavy. Wattson suspected that without their doubts about what happened at Fools Landing, everyone's solution would have been thirty percent lighter.
"Good. Let's use Captain McKnight's estimate, since his is the largest. Explain how you would deploy your task force, Captain."
"I'd bring all the ships in at one time in case they had ships at the Wave exit. Given nothing happened, I'd send two Lights and a Hunter ahead to within five light-seconds of the planet, the Heavy and two lights ten light-seconds out, and the last two Lights and a Hunter another five light-seconds out."
"A reasonable size task force and deployment, considering what we know from Zigzag. At the war college, I probably would have given you a four out of five. Before Fools Landing, I would have again given you a four out of five. Today, I'd give myself a failing grade. Based on what Reese encountered, the task force would have been destroyed, either by the existing forces or the reinforcements the scout ship would have brought.
"Without the decoy and Captain Da'Maass's quick thinking and bravery, which brought the Aliens' ship out of passive mode, the Aliens could have picked the best time for an attack and probably destroyed half the fleet. The remaining Aliens cruisers with their kamikaze fighters would easily have defeated the remaining ships. Even if they failed, the scout you failed to account for would have brought reinforcements. But even without the reinforcements, you could not have stopped the Aliens' mother ship from leaving with a detailed assessment of our capabilities.
"Why the exercise and why embarrass you? It's to show
non-believers that without the Riss alliance and Freeland's support, we, the SAS, are going to lose this war. And the Aliens are going to confine us to our planets forever. Even if we could win with the UFN and JPU, I suspect our militaries would be decimated." Without a further word, Wattson nodded to Bradshaw, who activated Reese's reports on the four monitors around the room.
Afterward the room was silent.
“I do not ask you to like the idea of a human accepting a parasite into their body, or the like the idea of working with a Riss, especially if she is in charge, or to forget the suffering the clans have caused. But consider this: Kill Reese and we lose the cooperation of the Riss and Symath, which gives us the ability to skip within a kilometer of an Aliens' mother ship. A ship we couldn't have destroyed with several heavies. And we lose the Riss cruisers, which only the Riss can operate. Destroy the Asp, after its contribution at Fools Landing, and we lose the cooperation of Freeland and the upgrades that only they can provide. Could we force the Riss to cooperate? I doubt it. Could we force Freeland to provide the upgrades? Yes, but would you trust the upgrades and missiles they would produce as slave labor?
“If you and those you lead do not actively support the alliances we are making, you're aiding and abetting the Aliens and jeopardizing your life, the lives of your comrades, and the future of the human race.
“The Aliens intend to push us into the dark ages. Imagine a planet without planes. Not spacecraft. Planes. Imagine an exploding population on each planet and the wars over land and dwindling natural resources. There will be no relief, because we cannot expand outward. If you cannot see that the SAS cannot win this war alone—go home. I do not want to see you die, and the hundreds you command will be better off without you."
To be continued.
NOVELS BY C.R. DAEMS & J.R. TOMLIN
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