Alpha Fleet (Rebel Fleet Series Book 3)

by B. V. Larson

  “Barging in again? It’s only been a few minutes!”

  “That’s right. I want you to charge the capacitors again. We’ll jump out again as soon as possible.”

  “Really? Did you think that up all by yourself?”

  I squinted at him. “What are you talking about?”

  He worked a console, and the power systems began to hum with a rising pitch.

  “I’m doing it, I’m doing it—I just don’t think it will work.”

  “What won’t work?”

  “Come now, Captain. It’s obvious you’re panicking. You think we’re being followed, and—”

  “Lael confirmed it. She told me our doom is on our trail. Furthermore, it’s her doing.”

  Abrams nodded appreciatively. “Impressive bit of work on her part. But in any case, if you think jumping out before this ‘doom’ of hers arrives… I’m telling you it’s pointless.”

  “And I’m asking you why?”

  “Because they’ll scan the system the moment they arrive. They’ll see no evidence of our presence and then become curious…”

  “About Earth?”

  “Of course. Why would our ship come to this system? Why would it pause so briefly, then flitter away again?”

  “You think they’ll investigate?”

  “I would—wouldn’t you?”

  I thought about it. Whatever this doom was, if they were Imperials or Nomads… they’d want to know why we’d stopped at Earth. And if we left our world behind, she’d be defenseless.

  “Damn…” I said.

  Abrams gave me a smug smile. He lifted a finger to the panels, and raised his eyebrows high. “Should I kill the power-recharge?”

  “No,” I said firmly. “Keep charging. I’m going to contact Earth for orders.”

  Exiting, I moved back up to the bridge. Normally, I would have tried to slip away without checking in with Space Command—but this was too big, I’d never get away with it. Besides, I didn’t know what to do. I thought I’d let them share in the good news.

  I spent the next twenty frustrating minutes making my report to Admiral Vega and some of his flunkies. They didn’t seem to grasp the urgency of the situation.

  “So…” Vega said. “You think you might have been tailed back to Earth?”

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “Hmm… since you first reported this, Blake, about fifteen minutes ago, we’ve run it past all our techs. They don’t think it’s possible.”

  Closing my eyes to keep from cursing, I tried to speak in a civil fashion. “We believe the threat is real, sir. What are your orders? Should I try to lead them away, or should I stand my ground here?”

  “Lead them…? You mean run from your phantom force? You only just got back, Blake.”

  “That’s true, sir. But I’m hoping that if they come to Earth and everything looks quiet, they’ll keep following me, rather than attacking our homeworld.”

  “Attacking our homeworld? What else did you do out there in space, Blake? I think I’m going to need a full report.”

  “Admiral, there’s no time—”

  Vega crossed his arms, and his face took on a stubborn expression.

  “We’ll make time. All our sensors show that local space is empty. If you jump again, you might be gone for months. Every member of the brass down here wants a full report—and possibly, they’ll want blood as well.”

  “Yes sir,” I said, “we’ll stand here and wait.”

  “Wait for what?”

  “For whoever is following us to show up.”

  “You’ll do no such thing. Bring Devilfish home. We need to work on her—and we’d like to interrogate Captain Lael as well.”

  “Returning to Earth orbit then…” I said, full of misgivings. “Blake out.”

  That was it. I ordered Abrams to stop charging the coils for another jump. I had Dalton fly us toward Earth, but we didn’t move at top speed.

  My foot-dragging didn’t go unnoticed. Within a half-hour, Vega contacted me again and ordered me to come home at flank speed.

  Relaying the order, I felt sick. We’d reach home orbit in less than an hour.

  Accordingly, I took up my seat on the bridge and sweated it out. Most of my crew was overjoyed. Our home stars and planets were quite a sight for sore eyes. I got the impression many of them had done the math and assumed we’d never see home again.

  “Samson,” I said sternly as I checked his console over. “Our shields are at half-strength—why is that?”

  “Uh… to divert power to our engines, sir.”

  “We’re not in a safe-zone. Put them back up to one hundred percent. That goes for all our defensive systems—and Chang, I want you to ping away like we’re hunting phase-ships.”

  “Speaking of which, sir,” he said. “Our companion vessel is still following us like a puppy. What are we going to do about Lael’s ship?”

  It was a touchy question. Lael had admitted to treachery. I had no orders to destroy her ship and crew—but then again, I hadn’t asked Vega about that.

  “Maintain course,” I said. “I’ll contact Earth again.”

  For some reason, it took several minutes to get through to Vega. When I finally did, he was frowning at me.

  “What’s wrong, Admiral?” I asked.

  “You haven’t seen it? Maybe we have more local probes out there in the right position—anyway, you were right after all.”

  My blood chilled. “Right about what, sir?”

  “About someone following your Imperial friends.”

  “Their ship is a captured prize, sir. Not an ally.”

  “Clearly, you’re right. Two rifts opened up behind you. They’re both spilling out ships.”

  “Chang!” I said, whirling around to look at him.

  He looked up from his console. His face told me the story. He’d detected the enemy in our wake now, too.

  “How many ships, Admiral?” I asked.

  “We’re still counting… twenty at least. Maybe thirty now.”

  “Configuration?”

  “They’re Rebel Kher—not Imperials. A mix of light cruisers and light carriers. Nothing else so far.”

  “That would seem quite sufficient.”

  “Yeah… We’re pretty much screwed…”

  “What are my orders, Admiral?”

  He didn’t answer right away. “You’re to maintain course. We’re going to try to talk to them. It might be Fex and his promised armada, or it might be someone else. About our earlier discussion, Blake—I don’t want you to feel bad about leading them here. It’s too late for feelings. I need your head in this game.”

  “What about Devilfish’s two sister ships?”

  “We cannibalized critical components as you might recall. We might be able to get them underway, but they won’t be fully operational. You’re the only serious ship we have in local space.”

  “I understand, Admiral. Devilfish will not let you down. We’ll fight to the death.”

  “As will we all, Captain Blake. Vega out.”

  He signed off, and I felt fully sick now.

  There was no getting around this fight, I had that feeling. They were coming out of the rift still, but they weren’t approaching. They were setting up an attack formation.

  The worst part was we were trying to communicate, but they weren’t answering. We pinged, hailed, made formal statements and demands—but every message was met with dead air in response.

  =53=

  Once they’d gotten organized they rolled forward in a silent wedge-shaped formation.

  “They’re taking their sweet time about it,” Dalton complained.

  “They’ve got all the time in the universe,” I said. “Target count, Chang?”

  “Thirty-one ships, Captain. Eight carriers and twenty-three light cruisers.”

  “Do they match Fex’s ship designs?”

  He hesitated. “I’ve been going over that with the AI. We’re pretty far out—but I’d say tha
t they do not, sir. Wrong silhouette. Wrong electro-magnetic signature. Even spectral analysis of their exhaust plumes is a failed match.”

  “Okay, so this isn’t Fex’s Armada.”

  Commander Hagen cleared his throat, and I looked at him expectantly.

  “Begging your pardon, sir,” he said, “but we don’t know what Fex meant by his ‘armada’ in the first place. It could be this is some kind of auxiliary or allied force.”

  “Hmmm,” I said, “that might explain the quiet treatment. Fex likes to talk—not all Kher do. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say they’re acting like predators instead of primates.”

  “Is that significant, sir?”

  I glanced at him. “Not really… not when there are thirty of them. The point is that a hungry bear who finds a camper with a broken leg probably wouldn’t talk much either. He’d move in very intently, thinking of nothing other than the coming meal.”

  “You paint quite a picture, sir.”

  I stopped talking, as I realized I was psyching out my own crewmen. They hardly needed defeatist talk out of their captain when they were facing hopeless odds to begin with.

  It was time to start thinking. After a full minute of watching what truly did look like our doom on the scopes, I came up with something.

  I contacted my security people. “Get me the brig commander.”

  A moment later, I ordered Lael to be brought up to the bridge. She arrived soon thereafter with two men half-carrying her.

  Sullenly, she looked around the group. Mia bared her teeth for a moment, and Lael chuckled.

  “You brought that absurd creature from Ral with you?” she asked. “They must make better slaves for humans than they do on Imperial worlds.”

  “You’re the slave now,” Mia hissed back at her. “Who is standing in bonds on this deck, and who is free?”

  “And who is shortly going to be dead?” Lael demanded in return.

  “Ladies, ladies,” I said, “settle down. We’re all as good as dead. No one will survive this onslaught. Just look at them. They won’t even answer my calls.”

  “Of course not,” Lael said, “they’ve traced my vessel. They know you brought it here. They will not hesitate to destroy you.”

  “I must hand it to you, Lael,” I said. “You did a wonderful job tricking me into rescuing your vessel. I never would have known what you were up to if you hadn’t admitted to leaving a trail behind to get the rebels to follow.”

  “That’s right, fool,” Lael said, but then she stopped. She frowned at me. “Just a moment, you figured that out on your own. What are you trying to pull, Blake?”

  I made a desperate cutting motion to Chang. He stabbed a button on his console.

  “Did you get that?” I asked him

  “All of it, sir.”

  “You haven’t transmitted any of it yet, have you?”

  “No sir. You said to wait for your go-ahead.”

  Lael followed this interchange with growing concern. She made a wild cry as realization dawned on her, and she tried to lunge at me. The guards caught her arms, but her foot came up and grazed my hair.

  “That’s good enough, take her below,” I ordered.

  The guards removed her as she howled about my devious ape-nature and how none of my plans would work.

  “This force is only the spearhead,” she insisted. “The armada is still coming!”

  I waited until she was dragged out, then I turned to Chang. “Edit out those last few seconds, then send it to them on every frequency we can, in the clear.”

  “On it, Captain. Let’s pray they listen.”

  “What’s going on?” Mia demanded.

  “I’m engaging in a little old-fashioned primate trickery.”

  “Oh…” she said, looking disgusted. “Can’t we just fight them?”

  “We’d be blown from the sky, girl.”

  “Yeah… too bad. It would have been glorious.”

  “Well, don’t worry,” Dalton said. “They’re still approaching in lock-step.”

  It was true, they were. They didn’t reply to my messages, or the video.

  “Keep sending it,” I said.

  “They’re not acknowledging anything, Captain.”

  My lips were a tight line of stress. It was hard to think clearly, but I had to try.

  “How long until they reach Earth?”

  “Less than an hour, sir.”

  “Okay,” I said, taking in a deep breath. “We have no choice. We’re going to eject the Imperial phase-ship from our shielded area. Dalton—plot out a rapid maneuver to that effect.”

  “Working on it…” he said, punching at his console. “Ready to let her rip, Captain.” He grinned at me. I think that he, alone among my crewmen, knew what I was going to do next.

  “All right,” I said, “Mia? This is your lucky day. I want you to target that phase-ship the second she’s no longer hugging our belly. You’re going to destroy her. No mercy, no hesitancy—do not disable, destroy. Do you have that?”

  Mia grinned, and her big eyes lit up. She looked excited, and I thought I heard a tiny purr of joy escape her.

  “Finally!” she said, turning to her console joyfully. “We should drag that Imperial bitch back up here and make her watch.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” I said. “Dalton?”

  “Course programmed in.”

  “Mia?”

  “Opening gun ports now.”

  “Okay… Execute on my command… Execute!”

  Our ship rolled over and away from the Imperial vessel. For a few seconds, they didn’t react, but then they began to shimmer.

  “They brought up their shields!” Commander Hagen said. “They’re slowing, Captain… looks like they’re planning to fire into our stern point-blank.”

  “Mia…?”

  She worked her gun, swiveling it around to get it lined up. Our ship’s main weapon wasn’t meant to be used at such close range.

  “I can’t get them into my field of fire!” she said.

  “Dalton, come around broadside for a sweep. Mia, we’re going to have to use our secondaries. All batteries, fire at will on the phase-ship.”

  The gunnery crews were awake, at least. They opened fire about one second after I gave the go-ahead. The computer painted lavender lines on the displays, showing where our beams were lancing out by the dozens to stencil the smaller enemy ship.

  Then, the Imperial returned fire. We bucked, caught amidships.

  “Flank shields down,” Samson read out. “Minor hull damage. No decks breached.”

  “Dalton, the secondaries aren’t doing it,” I said. “Bring around the bow to give the mains a shot.”

  The phase-ship knew exactly what we were doing. I’d half-expected to see her vanish—but she didn’t. She fought on.

  “Damn you…” Dalton muttered as he swung past the phase-ship. He was trying again to get the center line of our ship lined up with the enemy vessel. “The pilot knows his shit, Captain. He’s cutting angles on me…”

  “Got it!” Mia shouted, and she released a powerful shell point-blank. Our main guns spoke, and at this range, there was no missing.

  The phase-ship exploded in a gush of released energy and gasses. Particulate matter splattered us a moment later, sparkling all over our shields.

  “I nailed them!” Mia said gleefully.

  I looked at her, and I saw how flushed she was with excitement. Her species lived for the hunt.

  =54=

  It didn’t bother Mia at all that the Imperial crew she’d just slaughtered had followed us for days. They’d depended on us to save them from the gravity-drones, then to transport them among the stars. After all that, what had we done? We killed them all in a surprise attack.

  Thinking about the situation did bother me, but I harshly suppressed my natural feelings of guilt. They weren’t innocent beings. I’d been forced to do it to save Earth.

  “You destroyed them…” Hagen said. He looked shocked.
“Can I ask why, Captain?”

  “I had to,” I said, watching Dalton swing Devilfish back around to face the closing line of Rebel Kher ships. “They have to believe Lael tricked us. They can’t think for a moment that Earth is on the Imperial side.”

  Hagen nodded slowly, but he still looked stunned.

  “Life is cheap in space,” he observed. “Just staying alive in our little steel cans of warmth and air is hard enough under the best of circumstances. I guess that lesson is sinking in today. You people from the original crew—you must have seen a lot in your first voyages.”

  “We did,” Samson said.

  “Chang?” I said. “Hook me up with the approaching fleet. Tell them I wish to discuss terms of surrender.”

  Everyone looked at me, and I shrugged in return. “Nothing else has gotten their attention. What have we got to lose?”

  Disgruntled, they turned back to their stations.

  “Captain…? They’ve opened the channel. But it’s audio only—and no one is talking on the other end.”

  “So they want to listen to what I have to say, but they don’t care to identify themselves? Fine.”

  I used my sym to tap into the feed and sucked in a deep breath.

  “Fellow Rebels,” I began, “this is Captain Leo Blake, commanding Devilfish. We’ve discovered the Imperials we captured have tricked us. We’ve destroyed their ship. Please respond.”

  There was a long moment of quiet. I began to think that they were going to keep stonewalling us—but they finally spoke up.

  “Captain Blake, we don’t believe you. No being can fool a primate like you.”

  I shifted in my seat, trying to think. It took several seconds, but I soon came up with an angle.

  “It wasn’t the Imperials who tricked us—not originally. We were manipulated by the Nomads. An agent of theirs, Godwin, came to Earth and promised us an alliance against the Imperials. He gave us gifts, such as the engine that allows this starship to open a rift. It was he who led us down this path to destruction.”

  “You are indeed about to be destroyed,” the voice said. “Your continuous spouting of fantastical tales won’t save you. We know you brought the Imperial ship with you willingly after they performed the worst of crimes against our world.”