by Kal Spriggs
He saw his officers nod in response. “So,” he said, “the most probable course of action is for us to leave one of our destroyers here, to secure the technology transfer, while the other makes a least-time course for the United Colonies.”
“Sir,” Commander Xan said, “a least-time course would take us through systems controlled by the Centauri Confederation.”
Daniel nodded, “I'm aware of that. Odds are, whoever we send could transit in the outer system and then jump out from there.”
“I don't think we have the supplies for that length of trip, sir,” Commander Xan said. “If we went for the shortest route, we'd have to stop in the Volaterra system, which is contested.”
Daniel grimaced at that thought. The Volaterra system had been a part of the Nova Roma Empire. It and the Lavinium system had remained free in the face of the Chxor Empire's attack on human space. They'd suffered some sort of military coup and declared their allegiance to Marius Giovanni... who had apparently declared his allegiance to the Centauri Confederation.
The whole situation was rather muddled, especially since Marius Giovanni was Emperor Lucius Giovanni's father... and the father to Ensign Giovanni as well. Daniel had been there for the revelation of not just one but two Marius Giovanni's... one of who worked for Shadow Lord Imperious. No one really understood what was going on there and it gave Daniel a headache just thinking about it.
Word from both the Volaterra and Lavinium systems was that they regretted their deal with the Centauri Confederation, but President Spiridon wasn't the type to let anything go once he got his hands on it. The Centauri Fleet had extensive patrols in both systems and they'd threatened to shoot any United Colonies Fleet vessels on sight.
“We'll have to examine routes,” Daniel said. One or other of the destroyers could strip down their crew to extend their range, but that would leave them understrength if they ran into a fight. The route that they had taken on the way here had gone through the Ghornath Prime system and it had taken them nearly ninety days in shadow space with another three weeks added for resupplying fuel for the transports. And we can't go back that way, there's an enemy fleet operating somewhere near there.
If Commander Xan is thinking of the route I think she's thinking of, he thought, it would be sixty days in shadow space. In theory, neither destroyer would need to resupply, but that would put them dangerously low on supplies towards the end of their journey. And they would be pushing their ship and systems extremely hard after an already long voyage.
That worried him more than supplies. Getting the message back to the Emperor would rely on a single ship making a long-distance, high-speed run. Neither destroyer mounted a ship's ansible. If something went wrong, if some system broke and they couldn't fix it... they would have no way to get help.
“Like I said, we'll need to discuss possible return routes,” Daniel said. “Of higher priority is ensuring the security of the technology transfer.” He looked at Lieutenant Commander Voronkov, “How is that going?”
“We haven't really begun,” he confessed. “I can talk with the engineers aboard the transports, but last I'd heard, they were still organizing things and getting ready to unpack.”
“Well,” Daniel said, “we'll need to get them moving. I'll talk with our ambassador, we need to push the Shogunate to move fast with this.” He smirked, “Not that I expect them to complain about that.”
Since the Shogun's diplomats had been pushing hard for them to get here, he wouldn't be surprised if the Shogun was happy enough to get their engineers and equipment unloaded as soon as possible. “After everything is unloaded, I want those transports ready to head back,” Daniel said. “But I don't expect them to actually leave unless the system comes under attack. He sighed, “If that's the case, the destroyer we leave here will escort them out of the system and back to United Colonies space as quickly as possible”
“What about our people we're leaving to train the Shogun's people?” Commander Gantry asked. He didn't look too happy about the idea of running.
“If there's time, evacuate them as well,” Daniel said. “If not... well, the Shogun has promised their protection and I'm sure the last thing he wants to do is lose the people who will help his nation modernize.”
“Okay,” Daniel nodded, “We've got some priorities. Everyone has some planning points and I'll get to work on the bones of an order for the squadron.” His smile turned a bit grim as he realized that his first independent squadron command was about to be broken up on his own orders. “Get to work, people.”
***
“Man,” Ensign Scott Yamahito muttered, “we just got here, I didn't even go down to the planet and now the word is that we're headed out.”
“There's always another day,” Alannis said as gently as she could manage. A lot of important things had changed over the past few hours. Somehow she couldn't manage much sympathy for Scott's cultural journey.
“Yeah, I know,” Scott said. “Still, who knows when I'll get another chance, right?” He shook his head, “At least we're not aboard the Regent, I heard they're stacking supplies in for a least-time voyage.”
“Oh, they selected the Regent?” Alannis asked. From what Commander Xan had said, she would have expected her ship the Crossbow to be chosen.
“Yeah,” Ashtar Shan said. “Ed Medica told me that he just got back from helping to inspect both ships. Crossbow has some minor engine wear, not enough to be a risk in normal operations, but running at full capacity on a least-time course might stress it too much.”
“Huh,” Alannis said. She hoped that the dour Commander Gantry was up for the journey.
“So...” Scott leaned forward, “since you've been privy to all the big meetings, care to tell us what this is all about?”
Alannis shrugged, “I don't think I can.”
“Aw, come on,” Scott said. “There's rumors flying all over the ship. Apparently the Captain swore the bridge crew to secrecy. All anyone knows is that the Regent is about to leave for Faraday, that the Captain ordered the ansible secured, and that we're loading supplies to depart within the next few days.”
Alannis's eyebrows went up, “The Captain ordered the ansible secured?”
She wasn't surprised by that, so much as surprised the news had leaked. Still, she didn't know what the response back at home would be when they lost contact. Had the Captain sent a final message, she wondered, or had he worried that it would give this whole thing away?
“Oh, yeah,” Scott nodded, “Lieutenant Busch was bitching about it earlier this morning. Half the crew heard her and I guess the last shuttle to the surface had about fifteen people with messages to send home to their families...”
“The XO stopped them all,” Ashtar said. “He said that no one is to send messages via the planetary ansible station.” Ashtar looked over Scott's shoulder and her face paled a bit. Alannis looked up and saw that the XO had walked in their direction.
“Oh, yeah,” Scott nodded, “And I heard he blistered Lieutenant Busch real good, too.”
“Ensign Yamahito,” Commander Bowder said sharply, “apparently the lot of you have too much time on your hands that you can afford to gossip like schoolchildren. Report to your section heads immediately.”
Crap, Alannis thought, I really need to convince Scott to keep his dumb mouth shut.
***
Chapter V
Gebranyr System
Neutral Space
November 11, 2407
The UCS Constellation emerged from shadow space with her sensors sweeping for threats and all weapons systems fully armed and operational. “Status?” Captain Daniel Beeson asked.
“No hostile contacts,” Lieutenant Cassat said after a long moment. “There's quite a bit of debris, no signs of life pods or distress signals.”
Daniel's felt his stomach twist a bit at that. While it was unlikely that any survivors could have held out long enough for their arrival, their transponders and distress beacons should have remained active. Their
absense suggested that this mysterious foe, whoever it was, had fired on the survivors.
Daniel opened a channel to Burbeg's vessel, “Strike Leader Burbeg, are you showing any signs of hostiles?”
“No, our scopes are clear,” Burbeg said. “If we have time, we would like to recover equipment and supplies from some of the wreckage and search for any survivors.”
Daniel hesitated. If their unknown enemies had left any kind of traps or scouts, they might be better off avoiding the debris. At the same time, he couldn't deny Burbeg the opportunity to search for survivors. While there were no distress signals, there might still be some survivors within inner compartments. It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that someone had survived.
All the same, both ships could maintain emissions control. With Burbeg's ship, that included shutting down systems to lower the overall power signature, which while it wasn't particularly stealthy, it did make it look like a smaller vessel unless someone looked close. “Do it,” Daniel said, “we'll maintain exterior scanning and keep an eye out.”
***
“Captain,” Lee Andros grunted, “we've got a couple ships coming in.”
Captain Arvad Sang grimaced as he glanced at his sensor display. “Two cruisers? No identity on either of them? What in the hell am I paying you for, Lee?” Arvad spat on the deck in disgust.
“Captain,” Lee whined, “they don't match profiles in the system, maybe they're more Ghornath ships.”
“Maybe,” Arvad grunted. Certainly he wouldn't mind. He and his salvage teams had come across the wreckage of the battle two weeks ago and they'd had a pretty great haul of salvage. While there'd been a few holdout survivors, he and his men had handled them easily enough. After all, this wasn't the first time his crew had salvaged after a battle.
First time we seen this much good stuff left behind, though, he thought absently, normally we don't see spoils like this unless it was us getting first pick when we blasted them in the first place.
Arvad dialed up his squadron commander. A moment later, the skinny, tattooed man leered out of his screen. “Dammit, Gahring, put some clothes on, I don't want to see your pecker hanging out like that.”
“Aw, come on, Arvad, you know you like it,” Gahring giggled. “So, boss, we got some ships inbound?”
“Yeah,” Arvad said, still avoiding looking at his nominal subordinate. The weirdo came from some kind of back-ass colony where they encouraged debauchery like that. Not that Arvad really cared, he liked debauchery himself, just not while he was on the job... and not with other men. Haul like this and I can buy some good looking women, he thought idly.
“Two cruisers, looks like,” Arvad said. “Maybe a salvage team from the original owners, or it might be from the folks that blew these babies up. Either way, I don't want your crews to give them time to fire back. Hit them fast, hit them hard, and my ships will move in to finish them off.”
“Yes, sir!” Gahring gave a mocking salute as he waggled his penis. I really hate him, Arvad thought as he cut the link. Perhaps it would be best if he waited a bit to launch his follow-on attack. That way he could replace Gahring without complaint. Plus we wouldn't have to pay him his share of the loot, Arvad thought with a small smile.
His gaze flitted around the bridge crew as he estimated how they'd react. Most of them came from the same hard-scrabble background as him. Since they'd all be headed back to Gamma Serpentis and Copley's Sapphire Colony would get his share of their loot anyway, most of them wouldn't complain about fewer ways to split their profits.
“Be ready to bring our drives and weapons online,” Arvad said. “I want to bring them up as soon as Gahring's squadrons finish their attacks.” He saw several nasty grins appear on faces throughout his bridge crew as they considered that. If they had really wanted to support Gahring and his attack boats, they would have brought those systems online as soon as he began his attack runs. The delay would be time that he and his crews would be engaged with the enemy and taking the brunt of any damage from this fight.
Two cruisers would be a tough fight for his crew under normal circumstances, but he had all this convenient debris to hide behind, so he was fairly confident of his chances. Even if they were more Ghornath ships, they shouldn't have time to ready themselves for a real fight. Now, he thought, lets see how complacent these people are... come to papa.
***
“Captain,” Lieutenant Cassat said, “we're picking up a number of anomalies.”
“Anomalies?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Cassat transferred him the sensor data and then pointed at several objects hidden within the debris cloud. “We've detected two dozen light craft, bigger than fighters but smaller than standard gunboats. They look like shuttles that have been converted for use as combat craft. We wouldn't have seen them at all, except we dropped a probe into the debris field to search for survivors.”
“Huh,” Daniel said. “They don't match Strike Leader Burbeg's sensor data?”
“No sir,” Lieutenant Cassat said. “And once we knew they were there, we started looking for other ships. We found these five additional vessels, here,” he highlighted five other objects and his estimates about their size and armament. Two of them were heavily modified Defiance-class destroyers. The light warships were an older class of warship built in the Colonial Republic, though few of them were used by the Colonial Republic Fleet anymore.
The other three were even more heavily modified civilian vessels. One had probably once been a Foster-class freighter, but at some time the cargo bays had been cut out and replaced with missile racks. The other two were unrecognizable, with bits and pieces of different ships tacked together.
“Pirates?” Commander Bowder asked.
“Or scavengers,” Daniel said. “Out here on the edge of human space, the two are pretty synonomous.” He grimaced, “Almost two decades ago a group not too different from this attacked Faraday. My father commanded the force that drove them off. They resort to piracy, salvaging, slavery... they'll trade in any goods and the only way to get them to deal fairly is at the barrel of a gun.”
“Well,” Commander Bowder said, “these ones certainly don't seem friendly.”
“No,” Daniel smiled, “they don't. Which means we don't need to play friendly either. And seeing as they're about to attack us, I think we should prepare to teach them a bit of a lesson.” Daniel activated the ship's intercom, “All personnel, battle stations.” He forwarded the sensor data to Burbeg’s vessel as well as his intended course of action.
“Their ships may not look like much, sir,” his XO cautioned, “but there are a lot of them.”
“True enough,” Daniel said. He nodded at the display that showed Burbeg's battlecruiser, the Goronto. “But don't forget, we have support too.”
“Sir,” Commander Bowder still looked unhappy, but that was his job as XO, to think of the worst case.
“We'll engage with energy weapons,” Daniel said. “We don't have many reloads for the Mark Vs shipkillers or the new Moljnirs, so I'd like to save those for when we really need them.” He looked over at Lieutenant Commander Douglass, “Initial priority will be defense against those small craft and elimination of their launch platforms.” Missiles would be the largest threat, he figured, so he'd rather remove the enemy's ability to threaten his ship with long range missile fire. Worse case, he knew the Constellation could outrun any of those ships out there.
“We'll close the distance until they attack, but I want all systems at full readiness,” Daniel said. He would confer with Burbeg in a moment, but he felt confident that the Ghornath commander would go along with his plan. He looked at his XO, “Commander Bowder, I'd like you at auxiliary control.”
“Sir,” Commander Bowder nodded. “Should I have Ensign Shan prep her Marines for boarding ops?”
“Good idea,” Daniel said. He didn't plan to leave much left of the enemy ships, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be a need. “Have them prep and have the shu
ttle pilots ready.”
“Sir,” Commander Bowder hurried off the bridge and Daniel sat back in his command chair. They would be within missile range soon and at their present course, the enemy craft would launch their attack soon after that. Not long at all, he thought, but the rest of their lives.
***
“Coming in fat and happy,” Arvad grunted. He felt more nervous than he should about all this. Probably because he hadn't ever tried to take on a real military ship before. There'd been a couple of Chxor cruisers that one time, but they'd been so pathetically armed they didn't really count.
He'd fought other scavengers before. Those fights were all about hitting hard and then running away if that wasn't enough. The problem was, he didn't know if he could outrun these ships. Maybe his destroyers if they pushed the engines past their safeties, but these two cruisers were already pulling near his maximum accelerations. He didn't know whether that was because they were rushing to rescue survivors or if this was just a leisurely pace for them.
Not that they'd find any survivors, he thought. He'd ordered the surviving Ghornath spaced. Under other circumstances he would have kept some for sale as slaves, but Ghornath were notoriously hard to control. And besides, the salvage haul was big enough off this that he didn't care to go through the trouble of dealing with prisoners.
He squinted as he noticed the two ships draw closer to each other. If he didn't know better, he would have thought it looked like they shifted into a formation of sorts. That was absurd, though. If they even suspected his ships were here, they should break off. Backed by Garhing's assault boats, his fleet would be more than anyone would want to engage with just two cruisers. Unless I'm missing something...
“Lee,” Arvad snapped, “get me a visual of those ships.”
“Captain...” Lee whined, “we'll need to launch a probe for that.”
Arvad hesitated. Probes were expensive. Besides that, the enemy ships might see the probe and even if they didn't, there was enough debris and would soon be weapons flying about. He may lose the probe. Besides that, Gahring would launch his attack in a matter of minutes, was the risk worth cutting a little bit of time off what Gahring would see? On the other hand, he thought, better the probe than my life. “Do it.”
