Starfarer's Dream (Kinsella Universe Book 4)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  “I thought I would come and look and see for myself.”

  “Why would a junior officer, even a lieutenant, excite your curiosity?”

  “The lieutenant was to be decorated. I was curious about her as a person.” His eyes focused on the crowd. “We face a very difficult time. A time where, quite literally, the entire human race is at risk. It is going to take the effort of every man, woman and a lot of people who could be called children to keep our species from extinction. A hundred percent effort. Or more.” He gestured at Lieutenant Wolf. “Lieutenant Wolf’s effort has been perhaps a thousand percent -- or more.”

  “Which decorations was the lieutenant to receive, Admiral?”

  “Since the war started, we’ve been revising the rules and regulations regarding awards. We’ve created the Federation Star. That’s for the highest bravery and utmost service to humanity. Turbine Jensen got the first and second of those. What he’s done for us is mind-boggling. Without him, we would be looking at certain extinction. The two recommendations for Lieutenant Wolf to be awarded the Star have been disallowed by the Fleet.

  “In addition to the Federation Star, we added another medal, called the ‘Battle Star’ given to those people who participate in battle against our enemies and survive. Another award is the Federation Victory Medal, given to those who participate directly in the destruction of an enemy capital ship.

  “Turbine Jensen has the first twice and scads of the others. I have a much more modest number of the latter two.

  “Lieutenant Wolf is, so sorry, not eligible for the Federation Star. When she began her cruise, she was a civilian and even now her status is irregular. That was what this trip was about.” He grinned slightly and Amanda felt fear again -- his expression was wolfish. “I hope someone has seen fit to make certain the lieutenant’s records were properly evaluated.”

  “I saw to it myself.” It was a chorus: both the gunnery sergeant and the colonel spoke at once.

  “Lieutenant Wolf was one of four survivors at Agincourt where they escaped and evaded the attack there. They were picked up by Fleet Auxiliary Starfarer’s Dream. Dream traveled to Gandalf to warn them of the attack. They arrived too late. Dream was engaged by two alien cruiser class vessels at Gandalf, cruisers that had been escorting another, much larger vessel. Again the lieutenant’s ship escaped and evaded.

  “Dream next went to Tannenbaum and warned them. While they were in-system, the aliens attacked with five ships. One left in pursuit of a Fleet ship, two were destroyed by Starfarer’s Dream. The remaining aliens fled.”

  “The aliens pursued a Fleet ship? Under High Fan?” Amanda’s father’s voice was sudden, urgent, harsh and piercing. Not at all in the manner he’d spoken up until then.

  “That is correct, Dr. Cross. The Java went to fans and one of the aliens appeared to follow. Java shaped orbit for Coventry and the Fleet Class One base there. The alien did not appear there; Java survived.”

  “So, perhaps not.”

  “No, Java wasn’t the first. Java’s captain had read Dream’s summary report and acted accordingly.” The byplay was close to boring the spectators, but certainly her father wasn’t bored, Amanda thought. In fact, she was seeing him in ways today she’d never seen him before. Maybe she should go on trial for her life more often!

  “And what did Starfarer’s Dream do at Tannenbaum?” her father asked.

  “As I said, five ships attacked Tannenbaum. One left after Java, Dream destroyed two of the attackers, and the remaining two alien ships fled the field. Starfarer’s Dream then docked with an orbital habitat and removed more than four thousand women and children to safety.”

  Amanda saw her father straighten in his chair. “Four thousand? What kind of auxiliary might Starfarer’s Dream be?”

  “An FTL heavy hauler. Dream took to fans for New Helgoland and dropped her passengers there. As they were leaving, New Helgoland was attacked. Starfarer’s Dream destroyed one alien ship vectoring to attack a habitat with fifty-eight thousand inhabitants, successfully defending it. Then she went to the aid of Poughkeepsie and Catskill, two Fleet cruisers attacking two alien ships. One of the aliens killed Poughkeepsie; the Catskill killed one of the aliens. The second alien severely damaged Catskill and was in turn destroyed by Starfarer’s Dream.

  “At this point, Starfarer’s Dream had an engine room fire that was burning in vacuum, all of her weapons systems were down and she’d lost a fan. Starfarer’s Dream docked with Catskill regardless, taking twenty-eight survivors off, leaving nearly five hundred of their crewmates dead, behind. During that rescue, the surviving Fleet ships in system engaged the remaining aliens. Another Fleet ship was destroyed, destroying the last alien before it could flee the battlefield.

  “Lieutenant Wolf has been awarded four Battle Stars and four Victory medals and was to be awarded the Legion of Merit in Atlanta by the President of the Federation. Turbine Jensen has fewer Battle Stars, but more Victory medals. Lieutenant Wolf’s captain and Lieutenant Wolf herself are the third and fourth most decorated officers, since the commencement of hostilities.”

  There was silence in the room as the extent of the young woman’s record soaked in.

  The colonel spoke up, “And in case anyone hasn’t paid attention, Admiral Saito is the missing number here, number two in awards since the war began.”

  Amanda however was staring at the girl her own age in wonder; how had she done it? What had she done? It seemed like there was something missing.

  Colonel Levi spoke. “Admiral Saito, you ordered your people not to use weapons against the students.”

  “That is correct; a mistake on my part.”

  “I think not,” the colonel stated. “You had three Marines with you, two of them bodyguards. I believe, sir, that they acquitted themselves as well as anyone could do in a riot. But, consider what would have happened if you’d ordered them to use their weapons: those are Marines, Admiral -- they follow orders. They would have. There is no telling, simply no telling at all, how many would have been killed. And had there been any killing -- well, we’d not be have been able to stop with a foolish liar and pond scum.”

  “Admiral Saito,” Dr. Cross spoke, “I don’t think the two of us will ever be friends. Today I was in no hurry to see how many people we could kill, although, Lord knows, technically it is deserved. But it wouldn’t be proper justice. Even Captain Martii, at the last second, looking over the sights of his weapon, decided not to fire into the crowd attacking he and his men. There are none of us, Admiral, eager to see how many dead of our own species we can pile up. You made the only rational choice, as I see it.”

  “Concur!” the gunnery sergeant said firmly.

  “I also concur,” Colonel Levi added. “Mr. Bickford, do you have any better understanding at this point in time of the gravity of your son’s offense?”

  “All I see is a bunch of Fleet suits clinging together, getting their way, covering up their mistakes and the hell what it costs the rest of us.”

  It had been a day of eye openers for Amanda; her father’s last speech had been the largest eye-opener of all. There were more surprises in store.

  Her father spoke patiently, his “teacher to student” mode. “Admiral Saito would be quite justified in crowing to me about ‘I told you so.’ I disagreed with him about the warlike preparations the Fleet made; I thought them unnecessary. The admiral’s most common rejoinder was that perhaps because we were ready, that made the preparations unnecessary and that if we weren’t ready, then maybe we’d be too late. I thought the argument specious. What threat?

  “Well, we can all see the threat now; even boneheads like myself. And Mr. Bickford, if the Fleet was not standing between us and our enemies, we’d all be dead. All of us.

  “I’d much rather negotiate than make war. Several times we have documented attempts to establish contact with our attackers. We don’t even know if they heard us; there was no sign of recognition, none.

  “Sir, right now you are standing
on the edge of the same abyss your son slipped over. Continue down the path you’ve taken in the last few moments and you will utter sedition and treason in a judicial forum where we will, perforce, have to take notice. And as in the case of your son, sir, you will leave us little choice as to how to proceed.

  “You, sir, are free to go abroad, outside this room, even in this room, as soon as Colonel Levi adjourns the Board. Tell the tale of your son. Ask for inquiries. You may appeal your son’s sentence -- you will have time. We, sir, are prepared for that. We are human, as are all of us. As yet, no Special Board has been reversed but it is possible. Please note, sir, that if we are reversed, then there will be another Special Board convened for us and our deliberations evaluated. We could be shot if we overstepped our authority.” Amanda’s father’s smile was wintry. “Marines, sir, are very careful about the limits of their authority; I’m glad I have two of them for company on this panel.

  “But, sir, I warn you in advance against trying to take the line that we are corrupt, trying to protect our own. Sir, I’ll tell you true: a week ago a Special Board met and ordered the execution of two admirals: one Fleet and one Port, for failing to engage. The Special Board authorized the military governor going out to assume command of the affected area to execute not only those two officers but such others of their staffs as he feels deserve it. That officer has the authority to execute nearly a hundred officers, Port and Fleet.”

  Amanda’s father spoke for a last time. “Special Boards have ordered the execution of more military than civilians. They have ordered punishment for more military than civilians. Military officers will always face more serious consequences as a result of these Boards.”

  The policeman leaned close to Bickford’s father, whispered long and urgently into his ear. Amanda could see the man’s eyes boring into the panel trying his son. It was easy to see when he reached a final decision.

  311

  Starfarer’s Dream

  Chapter 12 -- Aftermath

  I

  Much later Amanda Cross was at home, standing in her familiar living room, looking out the living room window, over the lights of Phoenix. Her father came and stood beside her. “Not the best day we’ve ever had,” he told her.

  Amanda turned to him. “I’ve never felt more scared. I’ve never felt more alive.” She shook her head in confusion. “Too much for a single day!”

  “You did well.” Her father seemed embarrassed.

  “I was raised by you and Mom. What would you expect?”

  He laughed. Amanda could feel the tension ebb from her father. Most of it.

  “Your mother has yet to hear of this; her email and voice mail report that she is ‘on vacation’ and ‘unavailable until further notice’.” He chuckled. “Nothing disturbs the French on vacation during August.”

  They were silent. Outside, in the distance the lights of the city flickered and burned, as millions of people went about their affairs. Amanda glanced at her father, lost in his own thoughts, staring outside.

  “Can I ask you a question?” her voice was soft.

  “Anything, Amanda. This was...” he paused, shook his head, words failing him. “Quite a day.”

  “They called her the Laser Lady. No one explained that; they explained almost everything else. Someone would mention it and then the subject would change.”

  Her father continued to stare at the lights for a long time. Amanda could tell it wasn’t because he was ignoring her. Finally he spoke.

  “Willow Wolf is the oldest daughter of a couple that owned a cargo tug out at Agincourt. She found a treasure rock; if none of this had happened she would have made her family rich. The Fleet would have leased it for a base. They were docked on it, finishing the survey, engines off, when the aliens attacked Agincourt.

  “I have no idea if I could have done what they did. Two hundred million people were killed when the aliens destroyed the Agincourt system. The urge to do something, anything, no matter how futile, must have been overpowering. Yet, they did nothing. That was the only rational choice -- merely the most impossibly difficult. To sit there, doing nothing, and watch all of those people die...” He shook his head.

  He made an odd, urgent gesture. “Some might call it cowardice, but it was the same ‘cowardice’ that Jensen displayed at Gandalf. There is a time to stand, fight and die; there is a time to gut it out and fight, no matter what the cost. There is a time to turn and run, to flee to fight another day with the promise of victory some other time. And there is a time where you simply hunker down and let it pass over you... Most of us would make the wrong decision in any of these circumstances.

  “So Willow Wolf and her family were still alive when Starfarer’s Dream dropped in-system.” He shook his head in obvious wonder. “That is another ship, another captain, who will go down in history. They picked up the lieutenant, her father, mother and younger sister. And then they went to Gandalf.”

  Her father’s face was bleak, cold. “A cargo ship, with the logistics tail for a new Fleet base. At Gandalf they were attacked and pursued. At Gandalf Starfarer’s Dream was an unarmed cargo ship. Little more than three weeks later they were at Tannenbaum and had a weapon. And Lieutenant Wolf had been inducted into the Fleet as an ensign and the Marines aboard her ship had given her the nickname ‘Laser Lady’ between the two points. Officially, the reason is classified.”

  Amanda saw the expression on his face -- sort of laughter. “Technically, what happened between Gandalf and Tannenbaum is classified; speculation is a serious breech of security.” He snorted. “The aliens attacked Starfarer’s Dream, one on one. I am told that had they ever gone two to one, the ship would have been toast. One weapon with a six minute reload.

  “At New Helgoland, Willow Wolf had improved that reload to three minutes.” Again, his laugh was bitter. “Any of those modifications, had I commanded, would have never been permitted. I would never have dreamed of enlisting the help of a person such as Lieutenant Wolf, nor would I have permitted the use of Fleet Marines in shipboard modifications. Good God! Fleet Marines! Installing cutting edge weapons!

  “I am, and I know it, rigid and rule-based. I don’t like to take chances; hell, I don’t take chances.

  “At Tenebra, Saito ordered us in. Just like that. I told him, so sorry, I have a wife and a five year old daughter. We went in anyway, over my objections.”

  Her father was silent again for a moment. “I have no idea what it’s like when someone is shooting at you. I do know what it is like when tens of thousands of chunks of rock are coming at you. We went into Tenebra the last time, seconds after the asteroid hit, to pull out the last few hundred people left behind. I was wrong to protest then and I’m wrong now about someone like Willow Wolf.

  “Fleet’s mission is more than preserving lives: it is to preserve the peace. I never gave the second part of the Fleet’s mission any credence at all and not nearly enough to the first, because if you lose the peace, you’ve lost everything. Now, in the last few months, we’ve lost more lives than any of us can contemplate rationally.” He gestured eastwards.

  “Tonight, the Federation Council and President Van de Veere are trying to work out what we have to do to save ourselves. Orders that they give threaten millions and billions of lives. They could threaten the entire human race. A mistake could end all of us; small mistakes can end millions, perhaps billions of lives. Even if everything they do is perfect, it could mean the end of us.

  “I ducked that responsibility, Amanda. I turned my back on it, because my vision of what should be wasn’t reality, or even close to reality.”

  For several minutes the two of them stood silent in front of the vista before them.

  “That long tall, drink of a girl today...” Amanda’s father had the far-away look again, “reminds us, those whose duty is supposed to be taking care of the rest of humanity, what it is we are about. As Admiral Saito never managed to convey to me, as no one ever made so very clear before. Until today.

  “Ou
r individual duty is more than just our relationship to the Fleet or even the Federation. It is our duty to our fellow beings. That young woman is steeped in that; that’s been her only thought and concern since the shooting started.

  “I’m going back,” his voice was soft. “I have to go back... I owe so much...”

  “I’m going too,” Amanda told him.

  “A few months ago, I would have put every obstacle I could in your path,” he informed her. “Today, I know myself for the fool that I am. What happens will happen. I will try to be part of the solution, not an obstacle to it.”

  II

  Johnny Montezuma was back in plenty of time for the watchkeeping exam that afternoon. The same three ensigns were already present, when he arrived, as they had been before, but none of the other four lieutenants.

  He felt intimidated because the Fleet captain from the morning was present again and it seemed like she was staring at him, expecting him to do something stupid.

  At ten minutes of the hour, the four officers from earlier appeared, and as before, took their seats.

  A few moments later the door opened again. Whatever Johnny had expected, the result was different. A Marine gunnery sergeant stood there. “Fleet!” he called in his best parade ground voice, “Ten hut!”

  Everyone in the room snapped to attention, even the Fleet captain administering the exam.

  Moments later a Marine corporal came through the door, his weapon in his hands, the barrel tracking over those present, as if looking for targets. His lips moved soundlessly to Johnny’s ears and a moment later another full lieutenant entered. She too did as the last four had done -- she walked to the nearest desk and sat down and looked up at the Fleet captain.

  The Fleet captain also didn’t behave like Johnny would have expected. Instead of being angry, she stood at attention herself and bowed her head the barest degree to the lieutenant. “Lieutenant Wolf, my very great honor.”