Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids

by Dale C. Musser

  “Kerabac,” I said as I turned to him, “We have Gravity Mass scanners on the NEW ORLEANS, don’t we?”

  “Yes, sir, A’Lappe used the NEW ORLEANS to develop and test them; we were the first ships with them.”

  “Thank the stars for that,” I said. “I totally forgot to order them installed on the ships at Alle Bamma. Felenna, I apologize for the oversight. I assure you it was not deliberate.”

  “Tibby, with all that’s gone on since I met you; I’m amazed by all you do. I assure you I am not offended in anyway.”

  “Well that brings me to my next question,” I began,” do you think that the MIZBAGONA would be able to slip into enemy territory and be mistaken by the Brotherhood as still being one of their ships?”

  “Wow, that’s a tough question,” Felenna answered, “You’d be taking a huge gamble trying it. Perhaps if you had some of their recent security codes, you might be able to pull it off in one of the sectors with lax security and where they don’t see any action. It would be extremely risky. You would need to change the ship’s name to one that exists in their fleet. They would check it against their list in their computers. I’m positive the MIZBAGONA is in their list of ships now in the hands of the Federation. They'd attack it as soon as they discovered what ship it is.”

  As always, the meal Piebar had selected for us was exquisite. The poached garnac eggs were truly fantastic. The Ordean fungus soup was like nothing I had ever experienced before, with a mild taste similar to roasted tomatoes but lacking the acidity and with an after taste like roasted peanuts from Earth. The cordan kalbac was a real delicacy. I glanced down at Cantolla, who had brought Truath along to the dinner. I expected to see Cantolla gnawing on a bone, as she often ate ravenously when she was presented with tasty food, but I was surprised to see her eating slowly, though I could see she was trying hard to restrain herself from attacking the food. She saw me glance at her and she let out a small laugh and mouthed the words, “I’m trying.”

  Without any doubt, the highlight of the meal was the pumpkin pie with ice cream. The chefs had researched the files on the data cubes brought from Earth by the Mars colony and found the best recipes, which they followed religiously. With wheat and pumpkins grown from the seeds garnered from Earth's seed bank and milk from cattle cloned from DNA taken from Earth, they produced the finest dessert I’d ever eaten. Kala sat smiling and I devoured the first piece, asked Piebar if there was more and savored the second piece as I listened to the comments of my fellow diners at the table. When we finished dining, I asked Piebar to have the entire kitchen staff come out so I could personally thank them for the fine meal. I was stunned by how many people were in the kitchen staff, but I still thanked them all profusely for the meal they had prepared.

  We were starting to say our farewells for the evening when a message came in to Felenna from the MIZBAGONA. “Captain, our long-range scouts are picking up indication that there are ships hidden in the meteor mass. We've asked the NEW ORLEANS to confirm and their scanners indicate several dozen cloaked ships with the meteors. They are expected to reach the planet in about 12 hours.”

  Felenna looked at me questioningly. “Tell them we are on our way,” I said. I turned to Kerabac, “How many fighters do we have aboard the NEW ORLEANS?”

  “Forty at last count,” he said.

  “Get back to the ship and have them launch and stay cloaked; have them circle around behind the incoming meteors and ships,” I said. “Felenna you have four corvettes at Alle Bamma at the moment and about eighty fighters, I believe. Set them up like you simply intend to destroy the meteors and you are unaware of the ships. Kerabac, cloak the NEW ORLEANS; let’s not let the enemy know we are there.”

  I turned to Kala and said, “I think it best for you and the kids to stay here at the estate for the next few days.” Kala started to open her mouth to say something and changed her mind and nodded.

  “Kerabac, I’m heading back to the NEW ORLEANS with you,” I said.

  Once back aboard the NEW ORLEANS I accompanied Kerabac to the bridge. “Captain,” I said, “I want the area scanned at a range beyond that of the incoming ships. I don’t want any surprises, in the event there are more ships coming in. Furthermore, I want to know the sizes of those ships.”

  “From the preliminary report it looks like they have four corvettes and twenty troop transports in their convoy,” Kerabac reported.

  “So, it looks like they fully intend to retake and occupy Alle Bamma again,” I said, “I wonder why and at this time? They hardly need her now that they have the plant stock they need and are producing God Sweat elsewhere. There is no strategic advantage to having a base in this sector.”

  “Do you think it’s a diversion?” Kerabac asked.

  “I don’t know, more than likely it’s a revenge thing by Ming. He likes aiming his angst at me when things don’t go his way. Re-taking Alle Bamma would be a jewel in his crown in his mind.”

  “Surely he wouldn’t risk taking Alle Bamma for something as simple as that.”

  “I don’t know. I think he might. Has a crew been sent out to the MIZBAGONA and the other ships here to assist in installing the Gravity Mass Detectors?”

  “Sir, we are only able to install the detectors on the larger ships at this time. With smaller ships out waiting for the meteors, we can’t get to them now.”

  “By the stars, I should have thought of that. Call Felenna and have her recall the smaller ships two at a time and have the units installed and get them back out there as quickly as possible. I doubt we’ll have enough time to get to them all, but without those units our ships are sitting ducks for the Brotherhood cloaked ships.”

  “Maybe we can delay the Brotherhood by attacking with the ships from the NEW ORLEANS first from the rear,” Kerabac said. “We can take out their larger ships quickly and then starting a mop up of their smaller ships, which will probably try to flee.”

  “That’s a good idea, Kerabac,” I said as a sinking feeling settled over me. I was not thinking as sharply as I should and I was endangering my people because of it. “Send word to our fighters, when the enemy has made it halfway from where they are now to begin the attack. The ships from here at Alle Bamma are to focus on blowing up the meteors and leave the Brotherhood ships to fighters from the NEW ORLEANS.”

  “Yes, sir,” Kerabac said.

  I had been hoping that the ships attacking Alle Bamma were older ships of the Brotherhood and they would lack the detection gear recently developed by the Brotherhood for revealing our cloaked ships, but that turned out not to be the case, at least not for most of their ships. No sooner did the cloaked ships from the NEW ORLEANS start to circle around behind the advancing enemy fleet than the Brotherhood ships moved in among the meteors where they were more protected. As our ships approached the enemy didn’t wait to open fire and the battle was on.

  “Kerabac, take the NEW ORLEANS out there and start targeting Brotherhood ships. We have the advantage of the RMFF on this ship to protect us. Only a few of our fighters do at this time. Call A’Lappe and get him up here also,” I commanded.

  “Yes, sir,” Kerabac replied.

  A few minutes later, A’Lappe appeared on the bridge. “You sent for me, Admiral?”

  “Yes, A’Lappe, years ago you put together a nuclear warhead for me, how long would it take for you to put together another one?”

  “I still have materials from the last time, so it would probably only take me about an hour to assemble one, depending on how powerful you want it to be,” he said with some concern.

  “Powerful enough to blow up the ships clustered in that meteor field and most of the meteors with it,” I answered.

  A’Lappe moved over to one of the consoles on the bridge and took some readings, “I’m sorry, Tibby, but I can’t produce an explosion strong enough to do what you ask. Their ships are spread out too far and the meteor field too large; besides if you detonate the device inside the field, you will have meteor debris flying at high speeds
away from the blast, too fast for most ships to target. Many of your ships, and Alle Bamma’s surface, would sustain severe damage from the impacts.”

  “What if we detonate it in front of the meteor field; the meteors would be propelled back into the incoming ships?” I said.

  “Yes, yes, that could work. It would cause severe damage on the smaller ships, but their larger ships that have RMFF wouldn’t be hurt,” A’Lappe said.

  “Yes but the nuclear device will put out an electromagnetic pulse, won’t it? And as I remember it, the Brotherhood is cheap when it comes to shielding against EMPs. Remember, we used it against the Brotherhood when we captured one of their ships on our return from Earth years ago.

  “Hmm, yes, you potentially could do harm to a number of their ships that way. However, you also could damage your own ships as well, at least the ones under Felenna’s command here. All of them are old Brotherhood ships built by the Marquesan’s and they aren’t shielded for EMPs either.”

  “What if after we launch the nuclear armed torpedo, we have all her ships quickly fly to the opposite side of Alle Bamma and use the planet to shield the pulse?”

  “You’d need to fire the missile from a long way out and you’d be cutting it very close trying to get all her ships behind the planet in time. Even so, you might have several of your ships that get knocked out of action.”

  “But it wouldn’t matter at that point,"" I added, “because by then most of the Brotherhood ships will be inoperative and I’m betting the ones that aren’t will be fleeing the area.”

  “All right, give me one hour and I’ll have your torpedo ready,” A’Lappe said as he turned and exited the bridge.

  “Tibby, how are you going to pull this off?” Kerabac asked, “You ordered me to the far side of the enemy, which means we can’t fire the torpedo, or we’ll be sending debris flying at Alle Bamma. All our fighters are out, which means we can’t load the torpedo on another ship to launch it.”

  “Yes, but we still have a Cantolla Gate; we can move the device through to the MIZBAGONA and they can launch it from the planet's orbit,” I said with a smile. Maybe I wasn’t losing it after all, I thought.

  “Good idea, sir,” Kerabac said.

  While the clock ticked away as A’Lappe assembled the nuclear device, my ships continued to take a pounding as they tried to hit the Brotherhood’s larger ships. My fighters were armed with the new “slow RMFF-penetrating” torpedoes, but the proliferation of meteors around the ships made it hard to target them and score a hit. Only about one in three torpedoes fired found their marks and even then the damage wasn’t dramatic enough to take the ships out of action. I was losing more ships than the Brotherhood was losing; I wished I'd ordered the installation of the new smaller RMFF shields for these ships sooner; as it was less than half the fighters had them. Finally, word came from A’Lappe that the device was ready. He had a team of his lab assistants load the warhead on a cart and moved it to the Cantolla Gate connected to the MIZBAGONA, to my surprise, A’Lappe who never liked to leave the NEW ORLEANS, went through the gate with the warhead to see to its installation in the torpedo on the MIZBEGONA.

  “Admiral,” Verona, the communications officer on the NEW ORLEANS interrupted, “I have an emergency call coming in for you from Marranalis on the MAXETTE.”

  “Put him through,” I said, wondering what emergency could be taking place at this time.

  Marranalis appeared on the screen, “Admiral. I've received word from Admirals Stonbersa and Kophious that there are two large contingents of Brotherhood ships entering Sectors 2 and 3. Stonbersa is moving ships to intercept and Kophious is standing ground and grouping his ships to stand off an invasion. Both Admirals are seeking your advice.

  “Damn, why now?” I asked no one. “All right, give me a minute and I’ll transfer back to the MAXETTE and pull things up on the 3D holograph for me to look at; I'm on my way.” I turned to Kerabac, “You’re in command here; you know what to do?”

  “Yes, sir, I believe so.”

  “Good luck, Captain,” I said as I turned and departed the bridge. This was not turning out to be a good day.

  As soon as I arrived at the War Room on the MAXETTE, I instructed Marranalis to pull all the data from the NEW ORLEANS and the MIZBAGONA into the 3D model as well as the data from Admiral Stonbersa in Sector 2 and Admiral Kophious in Sector 3. Due to the immense size of the universe, the information only displayed as small pinpoints of light in the model. In order to be able to see them, Marranalis had to brighten the images to an intense level while dimming the stars and nebulas; even then they were but the merest pinpoints of light. Looking at the three areas of attacks in the model told me nothing, other than that they were separated by great distances. However, when I directed Marranalis to adjust the image so it showed only the two attacks in Sectors 2 and 3, a pattern of strategic advantages became clear in these areas if the Brotherhood could take them. So what was the reason for the attack on Alle Bamma? None of the Federations ships were being distracted from their normal duties in Sectors 2 and 3, so it couldn’t have been their intent use Alle Bamma as a distraction. Besides, their loss of ships in battle wouldn’t be justified to take Alle Bamma. For that matter, the number of ships assaulting Alle Bamma at the moment didn’t seem to justify the attack. What was I missing?

  My thoughts were interrupted by Marranalis, “Sir, Captain Kerabac is requesting to speak to you.”

  “What? Oh… very well. Put him on the screen.”

  “Admiral,” Kerabac began as soon as his image appeared on the screen, “The nuclear device you had us launch has detonated as it reached the edge of the meteor field. As you anticipated, the meteors were thrust back from the blast, causing extensive damage to the enemy fleet; at least half their smaller ships were damaged or destroyed. The smaller ships that have survived and are operable are turning and fleeing, while the bigger ships that had RMFF shielding are firing on their own disabled ships and destroying them. Sir, I don’t believe they want any of their ships falling into our hands.”

  “See if you can’t isolate one or two of those ships before they are all destroyed. If we can get our hands on one with their new engines, or their cloaking detection gear, it will be a huge help to us. Have our ships with the slow shield-piercing torpedoes target and take on the larger remaining Brotherhood ships, try to take one of those if you can as well.”

  “Yes, sir, one bad bit of news, sir. Many of Felenna’s fighters weren’t able to get behind the planet soon enough to avoid the EMP from the blast. She has a lot of disabled ships floating out there.”

  “Tell Felenna to use her remaining ships to assist those; they are pretty much useless against the Brotherhood ships at the moment anyway. Damn it, it’s my fault for not thinking to make sure she was getting all the ship upgrades,” I muttered. I wondered how many lives were lost because of my failure.

  “Having some problems, Admiral?” I heard a voice behind me say. I turned to see Admirals Regeny and Wabussie along with Admiral Slater entering the War Room.

  “More than enough, would you like a few of them; I have plenty to share,” I said.

  Regeny laughed, “I suspect the best we’ll be able to do is supply moral support and maybe some information. You’re our battle planner. What’s the status anyway?”

  “I’m fighting the war on three fronts, Admiral. I don’t’ know if you heard or not, but there’s a battle going on at Alle Bamma at the moment as well. The Brotherhood is attacking there now using a swarm of meteors and a fleet of ships,” I said.

  “By the stars, I’d not heard about that! Is that Captain Felenna of yours holding them off?” Regeny asked.

  “Felenna and Kerabac with the NEW ORLEANS,” I responded, “We got word a few days ago there was a meteor swarm headed toward the planet and I sent the NEW ORLEANS to help destroy them before they reached Alle Bamma; we only discovered later there were Brotherhood ships hiding in that swarm.

  “How’s that battle going?” Rege
ny asked.

  “I think we’ve won; we sent out a nuke and detonated it at the head of the swarm. Half their ships were damaged or destroyed by the meteors blasted back at them. The ships with RMFF capability survived but now have to face off with my ships that are equipped the RMFF penetrating torpedoes. Last word I received is that the Brotherhood is in full retreat.

  “But I’m confused by this all. It doesn’t make any sense, the Brotherhood attacking there and at Sectors 2 and 3 at the same time. My first thought is that one of them is a diversion, but that doesn’t make sense either, as casualties for the Brotherhood don’t seem to justify the gains.”

  “Perhaps not,” Wabussie interjected, “but it would fit in with some new information we’ve received in the past two days. Our spies are picking up intelligence that Ming and Roritat are having differences in terms of how to run the war and have divided up forces. The two have different goals they are pursuing. Word is that Ming has the greater control at the moment and is in charge of most of the drug production and distribution, which is where the Brotherhood gets a large percentage of their money. Roritat needs funds and regaining Alle Bamma would provide him with the materials he needs for drugs and getting more money.”

  So they’re fighting? Good maybe they will destroy each other and save us the trouble,” I said.

  “I’m afraid they are not fighting each other. They just want things done differently. Our intelligence indicates the two have agreed to operate separately but toward the same common goal, taking over the Federation.”

  “So do you have any intelligence about what they are up to in Sectors 2 and 3?” I asked.

  “They have their eyes set on Sector 2; we are sure of that. For reasons we haven’t figured out they see Sector 2 as being critical to their plans.”

  “So their activity in Sector 3 is to draw some of us off there?”

  “Maybe, but we can’t be sure,” Wabussie replied.

  “Slater, what are your thoughts?” I asked looking at him.