“Ninety minutes from a Commonwealth-held system, Adrian,” Kyle said quietly.
“Right. So I’m immobilizing your shoulder,” Cunningham said bluntly, pulling an uncomfortable looking clamshell cast out from a cupboard.
“Hold very still.”
29
Deep Space outside Alizon System
03:50 January 14, 2736 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
DSC-078 Avalon, Bridge
Solace was waiting for Kyle when he returned to the bridge. His exec looked tense, as if ready to spring into action or escape some kind of trap. When she saw him, some of that tension released – only for her face to freeze up when she saw the shoulder brace.
“Are you okay?” she demanded.
“I’ll be fine,” he told her, carefully loud enough for the rest of the bridge crew to hear him. “Adrian was just being very pointed about the fact I shouldn’t move my shoulder.”
“Sorry I couldn’t check in on you,” Solace said quietly, so the rest of the bridge crew couldn’t hear her. “Someone had to be on the bridge.”
“Agreed. You did the right thing,” he reassured her, though the thought that she had wanted to check on him gave him a warm feeling he carefully did not examine closely.
“I’ll need you down in Secondary Control,” he continued. “We have no idea what’s going to happen in Alizon, and I want to be sure someone I can trust is in position to take command.”
Solace nodded, stepping out of the command chair.
“Are we expecting it to be that bad?” she asked softly. She was closer to him than usual, and something to do with almost dying made him more aware of that he expected.
“More than anything, every attack our assassin has launched has been more and more blatant,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t put it past our spy to manage to somehow blow up the bridge in the middle of a battle. No matter what, Mira – I want our people safe, and I want the mission complete.”
“Understood,” Solace replied crisply, stepping back as if she realized she’d done something wrong. “I’ll plan to not be needed then, sir,” she continued with a wink.
“If I find footstools and fruity drinks in Secondary Control later, there will be hell to pay,” he told her loudly, startling chuckles from several members of the bridge crew. “Be on your way, Commander. We’re running low on time.”
He traded salutes with his XO and dropped into the command chair. The shoulder brace didn’t, quite, hurt – but he was pretty sure Cunningham had dug up the most uncomfortable way possible to immobilize his injured limb.
“Admiral,” he greeted Tobin as he linked into the flag deck. “I have us emerging from Alcubierre in ten minutes. Any updates?”
“Negative, Captain, we proceed as planned,” the Vice Admiral replied. “Are you all right?”
“I’ve never been stabbed before,” Kyle observed. “Blown up, yes. Irradiated basically to death, yes. Stabbed is a new one. I’ll live.”
The big man on the other end of the channel shook his head.
“Someday, Captain, your sense of humor is going to be what kills you.”
“I look forward to it, sir,” he replied. “If my sense of humor kills me, our assassin friend and the Commonwealth have failed.
“We will arrive in Alizon roughly two hours prior to our ETA for Triumphant,” Kyle continued. “If everything goes well, they won’t even know we’re there until it’s too late.”
“It’s always possible they’ve dropped a probe on the other side of the gas giant to stop someone doing just this, sir,” Pendez warned from her station.
The Alizon system had an absolutely giant, barely sub-stellar, gas giant in its outer system. The massive planet had swept everything outside the third planet’s orbit into its own orbit and Trojans, which had left the second planet – the habitable one – almost completely lacking in the normal array of impact craters.
It also meant that emerging with the gas giant between Avalon and Alizon gave them a decent chance of evading detection. It also, unfortunately, meant they would have almost a full light hour to fly. Triumphant would arrive two hours after them, but it would take Avalon a full twelve to make a zero distance, zero velocity rendezvous with the planet.
Of course, one of the best ways to avoid detection in space was to hide your acceleration in the signature of something large and highly energetic – like a barely sub-stellar gas giant.
“We’ll have to see,” Kyle warned Tobin. “This could be very sneaky – or we could end up looking very silly.
“Either way, we’ll know if the Commonwealth’s force in Alizon is more than we can handle long before we’re past our final point of no return.”
Emergence.
One moment, all of Avalon’s screens and implant feeds were showing either the strange, super blue- and red-shifted view of the inside of her warp bubble or a computer simulation of the world around them.
The next, the screens were rapidly updated with the reality outside. Alizon IV filled the main screen, its surrounding cloud of collected debris a navigation hazard. Radiation pulsed out from the gas giant, rendering any attempt to see directly past it hopeless.
“Scanning for artificial objects,” Anderson announced immediately. “I’m not seeing anything. No probes, no sensor stations – if there’s anything out here that has picked us up, it’s being damned sneaky.”
Which was, Kyle reflected, entirely possible. Active sensors weren’t needed to pick up an Alcubierre emergence, and no sensor in the world could detect the quantum entanglement link that allowed a Q-Com to work at any significant distance. Alizon IV’s debris field would do handily for hiding a passive-only probe.
“We’ll deal with that if it’s the case,” he said calmly. “Commander Pendez, set your course. Coordinate with Commander Anderson and watch your angles – we need to keep the gas giant behind us at all times.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied, with exaggerated patience. “I’ll also make sure there’s fuel in the engines before I fire them, and that the mass manipulators are on.”
He laughed aloud.
“All right, I deserved that,” he admitted. “We don’t sneak very often in a twenty million ton starship – I’m a little out of practice.”
Kyle leaned back in his command chair, allowing the information on the status of his ship to flow through him as Pendez expertly maneuvered Avalon into the orbit that would take her around Alizon IV without being seen.
“We’ll clear the debris cloud in forty-five minutes,” she announced. “We will be ballistic at that point in time and for about forty-five minutes after that, then we should be able to bring the drive up at flank acceleration without being detected.”
Nodding silently, Kyle continued to review the status reports from throughout the ship. Everything was reporting fully ready for battle. Positron capacitors were charged to feed the positron lances. The warheads for the starfighter missiles had been charged, and the missiles themselves loaded carefully onto the starfighters. The special capacitors setup to rapid-charge the warheads of the carrier’s own capital ship missiles were fully loaded, and the missiles themselves were in position to be charged and fired.
It was good to see, but also left him feeling nervous. They had a Commonwealth agent of some kind aboard – one who’d tried to assassinate both him and Michael – but that agent didn’t seem to have carried out any other kind of sabotage.
Almost regardless of what Triumphant was doing here, they were going to attack Alizon at this point. If there was ever a moment for a saboteur to strike, it was today.
But all he could do was wait. Barsamian was carrying out her investigation even as Avalon shaped her course deep into the enemy held system.
Waiting was all he could do for today’s battle as well. With stealth at least the initial priority, he’d ordered no probes or starfighters launched until they were much closer. The smaller craft’s engines were less likely to be detected than Avalon’s, but this stunt was risk
y enough as it was.
The engines cut out, and the big carrier continued her motion now, her course a fast orbit that would bring them around Alizon IV without going too deep into the debris cloud. Unlike the positron lances her electromagnetic deflectors were built to defeat, very little of the debris had any kind of magnetic charge.
Normally, they’d clear their path through this kind of field with lasers and light positron lances, reducing the larger debris to dust and pebbles the ship’s massive ferro-ceramic armor could absorb. This was also very detectable, not quite as bad as the engines but close.
He felt his ship shudder as the first of the debris crashed into her armor. They’d run the numbers. They weren’t going deep enough to hit densities that would cause serious damage, but their speed made even small particles dangerous.
It was going to be a bumpy ride.
05:00 January 14, 2736 ESMDT
DSC-078 Avalon, Flag Deck
Dimitri watched his implant feed carefully as Avalon swung around the planet, carefully reviewing each piece of information about the system as it came available. He’d also carefully used his authorization codes to setup a heavily secured connection funneling all of the sensor data back to the Alliance.
His codes should suffice to keep the spy from getting any value of the connection, and the Alliance needed to see everything they could about Alizon. If, for whatever reason, Avalon wasn’t able to secure the system while dealing with Richardson, the intel she gathered could still allow the Alliance to make plans.
If nothing else, Avalon’s presence would draw Commonwealth forces to Alizon, and weaken the defenses at more valuable targets.
Alizon I was visible before its habitable sister. A close-in, star-scorched chunk of rock with no value except for some esoteric science studies, its only recognizable feature was a small science station inhabited by the kind of people for whom unusual rock formations were fascinating.
Apparently, the Commonwealth found said geologists no more worthy of attention than Avalon’s Vice Admiral did, as the station was still there and didn’t even have a guardian fighter squadron or other watchdog.
The habitable planet, Alizon itself, was inevitably more protected. As it came into view, everyone on both the flag deck and the bridge focused on what the sensors showed, even if it was an hour out of date.
It looked like the vast majority, if not all, of the civilian orbital infrastructure had survived. There were notable gaps in the orbital tracks, though – places where civilian platforms had been shifted by tugs to clear them out of the path of debris from the orbital battle stations that hadn’t survived.
Alizon had a single medium-sized moon, and like most planets with a single significantly size moon, its LaGrange points were clusters of high orbit activity. One of the points had been cleared of civilian stations, however. Instead, a series of recognizable prefabricated Commonwealth platforms occupied the space.
Studying the Commonwealth base, Dimitri realized either he’d underestimated what Snapes had meant by ‘a number of orbital platforms’ or that the Terrans had dramatically expanded their presence since the last Alliance Intelligence sweep of the system.
There were easily eighty or ninety platforms, the smallest a disk a hundred meters across, the largest a series of linked modules and girders almost two kilometers long. Not only were there definitely fighter launch platforms in the mix – two of the Commonwealth’s ten ship squadrons were flying a close security patrol – the Terrans had brought in and assembled a complete capital ship repair dock.
“I think that answers the question of what they’re setting up here,” he observed, loudly enough to be sure Snapes, Roberts and Solace all heard him. “That’s a forward repair and logistics base. A cool couple hundred billion Terran dollars.”
“Commander Snapes,” Solace addressed the Intelligence Officer. “I’m seeing at least two squadrons worth of fighters flying escort, but the warbook doesn’t have enough data to pick out the launch platforms. Before we send Vice Commodore Stanford’s starfighters in, can you tell the size of the hornet’s nest?”
“We have some intelligence that isn’t solid enough for the warbook,” Snapes replied. Two of the platforms highlighted in green. An even dozen more highlighted in yellow. “The green are definitely launch platforms, roughly equivalent to one of our Wings – five of their ten ship squadrons.
“The yellow might be launch platforms or have squadron bays,” she admitted. “I can’t be certain – but I’d guess we’re looking at about twenty squadrons – two hundred fighters, as the Commonwealth organizes them.”
“Regardless of the launch platforms, I’m betting there’s at least one more factor in play,” Roberts added cheerfully. “That dock may be empty right now, but I doubt the Terrans left her undefended. As the Admiral pointed out, that’s a lot of money’s worth of supplies and prefabs. My guess is there’s a starship hiding on the light side of Alizon’s moon – if they’re between the moon and the planet, we wouldn’t see her unless we dropped a probe right into orbit.”
“That… makes sense,” Sanchez admitted, and Tobin smiled to himself at her strained tone.
“I’m not going to stop you dropping whatever drones you want, Captain,” he told Roberts. “Avalon’s your ship. Let’s just make damn sure Triumphant doesn’t make it out of here.”
“Right now I’m enjoying the unusual feeling of sneaking up on someone in space,” Avalon’s Captain replied brightly. “Once Triumphant arrives in an hour or so, I may reconsider. But for now, let’s play it nice and safe.”
“Do you even know the meaning of the word, safe?” Sanchez demanded, and Tobin’s smile faded.
“Right now, Senior Fleet Commander,” Roberts said levelly, “‘Safe’ means I’m presuming there’s enough force hiding behind that moon to destroy Avalon, and I don’t want to attract their attention until I know I can take out Triumphant. Safe enough for you?”
30
Alizon System
06:30 January 14, 2736 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time
DSC-078 Avalon, Bridge
“There she is,” Anderson announced into the anticipatory quiet of Avalon’s bridge as Triumphant appeared on the screens.
The image was most of an hour old, Triumphant having emerged on a very different approach track than Avalon. The Commonwealth battleship wasn’t trying to hide from the logistics depot, after all.
The big carrier’s own approach seemed to be going unnoticed. It was hard to be absolutely certain, though, as the light from their drive activation was still fifteen minutes from the base – and it would be another hour still after that before Avalon saw their reaction.
“What’s your assessment of her approach?” Kyle asked his Tactical Officer. “That’s a bit closer in than I expected.”
Anderson paused to think for a second, highlighting the battleship on the feed going to the entire bridge crew and dropping vector data in on it.
“She didn’t exactly thread the needle,” the Commander replied after a moment. “Came in a few minutes late, carved half an hour off of her approach. It’s risky, but not too dangerous… but it’s an assault profile, sir, not a friendly system arrival profile.
“And look,” he flashed the vector data, “she’s going in fast – two hundred and thirty gravities. Resolutes are only rated for two hundred, so either they upgraded her engines and manipulators at some point, or she’s burning fuel like water.”
“So she’s not planning on showing up for hugs and kisses,” Kyle observed. “What’s the Marine complement of a ship like that?”
“Depends on the mission,” Anderson replied. “Their default is a single eight hundred man battalion, but they can carry a full regiment – and since she was escorting an assault group…”
“Richardson probably has over two thousand Commonwealth Marines aboard.” Kyle regarded the layout of the system calmly. “With, if I remember their table of equipment correctly, at least four or five companies of battl
e armor and enough heavy weapons to make the security detachment of, say, a medium-sized forward logistics base, piss their pants.”
“Would they follow his orders to assault the depot?” Solace asked from Secondary Control.
Kyle shook his head, glancing at the link to the flag deck.
“Commander Snapes?”
“I’m… not sure, sir,” the Intelligence Officer admitted. “But it looks like he and his Marine commander go a long way back. And, well… if he isn’t going to surrender to Commonwealth authority, his Marines can either turn on him, or continue following orders.”
“So one way or another, Captain Richardson plans on getting his resupply,” Tobin rumbled. “That seems like it will provide us a useful opportunity.”
“What’s Triumphant’s ETA?” Kyle asked Anderson.
“If they’re planning on resupplying, they’ll be heading for a zero-zero intercept,” the younger man replied, “I make it just over five hours.”
“And we’re still nine and a half out, correct?” the Captain turned to Pendez.
“Yes, sir.”
“Richardson can cause a lot of trouble in four hours, and still manage to evade anything except long-range missile fire,” Kyle told Tobin quietly. “I wouldn’t expect our missile salvos to penetrate a battleship’s defenses, either.”
“What about our starfighters?” the Admiral asked.
“If we launched right now, they’ll get there before Triumphant,” Kyle replied. “The catch is that to keep their safety zones clear, a full fighter launch needs to take up a lot more space than Avalon does. It’s not a question of if they’ll be detected, but when.”
“We can’t let Richardson escape,” Tobin told him firmly. “I won’t tell you how to fight your ship, Captain, but that is the mission.”
Avalon Trilogy: Castle Federation Books 1-3: Includes Space Carrier Avalon, Stellar Fox, and Battle Group Avalon Page 53
