He knew she was right of course, and that it was well past the time of grieving. Although, nothing would change his memories of Georgiana. Nevertheless, he had felt the pull of not only Lopez’s humor but the attractive and curvy body of this twenty-seven-year-old.
“I know you’re right, Lopez, but…,”
Lopez took his right hand and placed it on her breast.
“Not so terrible, is it?”
Stunned at her actions, he did nothing. But finally realized that for years, he had avoided any feelings towards the opposite sex. But, here and now, with Lopez, the urge was overtaking him in more ways than one.
Excellency Plank’s Garoden Star Destroyer, exited warp, with his crew still suffering from the loss of their companion brains. However, the crew was more than seventy percent in control of his ship’s actions, already.
Earlier, Plank’s strategy AI had sent the protocol order to all eighty-seven ships. Ordering them to jump, on his command, to a predetermined rendezvous point if things became too dangerous to stay and fight.
Science officer, Lieutenant Isko, then checked for any other Garoden warships, close by. But he decided it was hard to gauge just how many had jumped, or where, just yet. Having noted that that the ship’s sensors had only detected eleven ships so far. And, even these were spread out over nearly five million kilometers.
Captain Tisk, still waiting on Isko for the information on the rest of the ships, became impatient.
“Well, Isko?”
“They don’t seem to have followed protocol.”
“Captain, we have handshakes with forty-eight vessels,” Lieutenant Isko later confirmed. Having noted the final count from Plank’s command ship’s sensor grids, as the numbers filled his tactical display.
“It’s possible more ships are coming, some might have missed the rendezvous point,” Plank suggested, then thought that was unlikely.
Even though Plank knew that it had been correct, at the time, for them to order their ships to…, well, to basically retreat. Now, however, he was becoming more confident that his surviving ships would soon be able to turn the tables on the creatures.
But, he was still annoyed at his father for fleeing before the real battle had even started.
“We’ve lost all contact with the battle area,” Ensign Palvric informed Plank.
“As expected, Ensign Palvric. Try and contact Garoden command.”
“Yes Excellency,” his comms officer acknowledged.
In the meantime, the ships strategic AIs had been hurriedly working on a plan to suit the new conditions. Sometime later, Captain Tisk studied the revised strategy and the AI’s recommendations, then shared it with Plank’s own tactical station.
Plank, then reviewed the new plan which seemed sense to him, so he clicked his approval.
“Tisk?”
“Agreed, Excellency.”
Plank watched the plan taking shape as his ships began moving into the groups of four that should give them more firepower, and a better survival rate, than if they were fighting as individual ships.
All ships would have, by now, been sent another rendezvous point, the original Jump Three’s location, out from Garoden itself.
There, they’d have the back-up of the Third fleet that was still protecting the Garoden homeworld, and possibly, the Eighth fleet which was due there about now.
The AI’s idea of nuking their exit wormholes, so destroying the wormhole threads, would ensure that the alien ships couldn’t follow them. And, it would give Plank time to beef-up the Garoden’s defenses.
Plank knew, however, that some ships would be destroyed in fighting a rear-guard action that would enable the rest of his two fleets to be able to jump safely to location three.
Suddenly, wormholes started to form everywhere, sending contact warning alarms across everyone’s tactical displays.
Excellency Plank panicked for a few seconds. However, he knew it wouldn’t be so easy for these Alien creatures this time around.
Chapter 40
A wing and a….
Frank strained to hold back the effect of nausea, as Andromeda plunged into normal space, safely outside the battle coordinates that Andromeda had copied from Charlotte’s programming of the Neutron.
Frank ignored the usual stomach compression and giddiness, as a contact warning sounded and a red tag illuminated on his tactical screen.
“My sensor-grid register confirms the contact has Illustrious’s security code, Andromeda stated.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Frank said with relief.
“Illustrious has visible thruster damage. But, I’m running a full scan on her. If it’s safe, I’ll try to contact her,” Andromeda added.
Frank sat back and waited, well aware that Illustrious could have been boarded by the Garodens.
Illustrious’s bridge crew jumped into action as a contact alarm sounded, and a red tag illuminated on both the command and science officer Jameson’s tactical screens.
A wormhole had formed, and seconds later a ship exited, coming to a halt less than a thousand kilometers out from Illustrious’s bow.
The ship’s science officer, Lieutenant Jameson, immediately called Captain Paterson, via the ready room comms unit. Even though he knew the captain’s ready room slaved display would have been activated
“Urgent. Captain, to the bridge,” Jameson said.
Seconds later, Derrick, followed by Ensign Maria Lopez, returned to the Bridge, looking somewhat flustered.
“What have we got?” Derrick asked.
“A ship. Well, I’ll be…, Captain. It’s the Andromeda.” An astonished Jameson exclaimed.
“Sensor Grid register confirms that the ship’s security code matches the Andromeda.”
“Scan her, just in case,” Patterson ordered as he sat back in his command seat, and waited.
“Clear, Captain,” Lieutenant Jameson stated, a few moments later
“Captain. A Captain Richardson has made contact,” Lopez, now seated at her comms section, informed him.
“Link.”
“Hello, Derrick,” came a familiar voice, before Frank’s face appeared on Patterson’s display.
“Frank. It’s good to see you. Well, it’s bloody amazing really,” Patterson excitedly gasped.
“You too, Derrick.”
“We thought you were dead, Frank.”
“So, did I… What’s the battle situation?”
“Captain,” Ensign Lopez interrupted. “I’ve just received a rendezvous burst from the Caspian, she’s giving us a three hour intercept time.”
“Confirm that we will be ready. And tell the Caspian that the Andromeda might need their help as well.”
“On it Captain.”
Captain Patterson then turned his attention back to Frank.
“You asked about the war, Frank… Well, it seems to be going very well. Oh, and by the way, Admiral Winton thinks that you were responsible for taking out the Garoden companion brains. Which, by the way, has made all the difference… Except, you couldn’t have been in two places at once. Could you?”
“Well... It’s a long story, Derrick…Basically, Charlotte rescued me by reviving the Andromeda. And, plucked me and the Neutron from right under the Garoden’s noses. Then, she programmed the Neutron to kill the Garoden companion brains in the battle area, while I did the same to them at the Garoden’s homeworld.”
“Ah, so that’s why the Garodens transmissions didn’t make much sense, Frank.”
Frank didn’t reply, at first. But looked puzzled, as he listened to Andromeda in the background, while staring out at Derrick.
“Derrick, what’s happened to our fleets? How come Andromeda’s not picking them up?”
“It’s okay Frank. They’ve already jumped after the fleeing Garoden ships.”
“Oh, no. That’s not okay, Derrick, not good at all,” Frank said, his face taking on a worried look.
“They have the firepower, Captain Richardson,” Lieutenant James
on pointed out.
“Maybe. Nevertheless, when we left the Garoden home-world, Andromeda scanned the area before warping out and detected a full fleet of Garoden ships was already there.
Andromeda also thinks that she has detected another Garoden fleet arriving… If those fleets come out and join their fleeing ships, then the firepower, as you put it, will be the other way around,” Frank warned them.
“There’s no way we can warn our ships, Captain,” Ensign Lopez pointed out.
“Lopez is right, Captain,” Lieutenant Jameson agreed.
“Then let’s hope our fleet commanders don’t underestimate the Garodens and know when to end the chase,” Frank added.
Meanwhile, Derrick Patterson had noticed that Frank’s expression seemed to go blank occasionally. Then, he realized that Andromeda’s AI was continually talking to Frank through his implant.
“Derrick, do you remember when we helped Tripicac to return to Crilla?” Frank then asked him.
“Yes, when Andromeda managed to send an audio message through a wormhole thread.”
“Exactly, Derrick… I know we’ve only tried it once. Remember, when we used an experimental buoy with a Hyperlink generator on board.”
“Yes, and if my memory serves me correctly, you never got that buoy back,” Derrick replied.
“True. Nevertheless, Andromeda thinks that if we can find one of our fleet’s recent wormhole threads, then we can use an energy burst, and hyperlink a message to them, by syncing it with their threads exit point.”
“Ingenious, Frank.”
“So…, that’ll be the Lexington’s thread,” Lieutenant Jameson said, searching for its wormhole entry thread, which he knew had to be close-by.
Frank was surprised that Andromeda had already started to move towards the Lexington’s entry wormhole thread, even before Lieutenant Jameson had been able to send its location.
“Are you sure we can do this without the original Buoy we used to warn Tripicac?” Frank asked Andromeda.
“Yes, Frank… Positive.”
“But the message was in the Buoy last time.”
“True. But since we have no Buoy, then I’ll have to modulate the pulse so that Lexington’s sensor grid will interpret the ripples emanating from the thread. Is that clear, Frank?”
Frank didn’t understand Andromeda’s explanation, so he remained silent, but watched the progress of Andromeda’s search for Lexington’s warp thread on his secondary tactical display.
As Andromeda’s sophisticated sensor grid continued looking for that tell-tale spatial disturbance. The search was now causing Andromeda’s Skipper Drive to move her further and further away from Illustrious, in a series of short surges.
“Found it,” Andromeda finally stated as she turned slowly, using her maneuvering thrusts, to align her bow with the seemingly swirling two-centimetre diameter wormhole thread.
“What’s the message you want to send, Frank?”
“Do not jump after the Garodens again… Trap… It’s possible two fleets will join your quarry…Frank Richardson.”
Andromeda’s jump rings partially extended. Then, the focusing ring rotated to aim the pulse at the two-centimetre diameter target. Once locked, Andromeda generated an energy burst at the thread’s opening, which flared as the pulse disappeared into the opening, taking the hyperlinked message with it.
The pulse and message would exit the wormhole thread at the other end in a matter of minutes.
“OK, let’s get back to the Illustrious,” Frank ordered Andromeda, knowing that there was nothing else he could do except to see how Derrick was planning to replace his damaged thrusters.
Five minutes passed, before Andromeda came to a halt, half a kilometer off Illustrious’s port side.
“Pretty nifty,” Frank heard Derrick say before his face appeared on Frank’s primary display.
“Well, we’ve done what we can, Derrick… I see from Andromeda’s scan that you have thruster damage.”
“Not a problem, Frank. The Caspian will be here in just under three hours.”
“Caspian?”
“You wouldn’t know her. The Caspian is a supply, come repair ship,” Derrick informed Frank.
“We are heading back to Earth after repairs and resupply of new warp crystals, Captain Richardson,” Lieutenant Jameson added.
“Exactly. Just where I want to go,” Frank said. “Home.”
Chapter 41
Battle weary
The enemy ships were everywhere. But, Excellency Plank knew that his fleet's crews were coping well without their companion brains, and would take pride in taking a few of these alien ships down with them.
However, seven of his ships had volunteered to stay and fight a rear-guard action, until the rest of his two fleets had jumped to join up with the third fleet. And possibly with the eighth fleet by then. Plank was confident now that all these ships would be more than enough to reverse the battle’s outcome.
Plank also felt pleased, sensing that his crews were starting to perform better without their companion brains. It was true, the companion brains were good at carrying out orders, he thought. But, not when it came to tweaking the ship’s systems.
Perhaps, the Companion’s dogmatic way of only doing what they were told to do meant that, in their eyes, the fact that the Molecular cohesion-disruption weapons seemed to be becoming less efficient, did not concern them. When, in reality, they should instead have been trying to see why they had lost their effectiveness and then corrected the problem.
Plank looked at his tactical display and was gratified to see one group of four Garoden ships move away from a lifeless looking coppery colored ship. Then, as he watched, the ship’s reactors exploded turning it into a twisted metal skeleton that slowly tumbled on through space.
Nevertheless, Plank could see the futility of their ships remaining, here. These aliens seemed to fight in such a violent manner, and in a seemingly illogical way. Even so, Plank decided, they still appeared to be winning.
Did they have the benefit of some telepathic advantage, on those gold colored ships? Plank wondered.
No, he thought. I would have felt any attempt to mentally adjust my mind. Although that didn’t prove anything, Plank then concluded.
Unfortunately, his original thought that there was someone else in the mix that might be more dangerous in the long term, than this particular bunch of aliens, was becoming more viable.
Excellency Plank quickly gripped his command chair armrests as his ship suddenly shook violently.
“One of those blue Globe ships,” Lieutenant Isko yelled the warning while trying to alter the phase of their ship’s protective shield in a desperate attempt to keep the attacker at bay.
Plank looked on his ship’s main tactical screen and could see his ship’s protective screen seemingly boil as the blue globe gradually progressed through their shield’s outer boundary.
So, this is how it’s going to end, Plank thought to himself, unable to believe that his life was really going to end like this.
The blue globe ship’s outer shield flared suddenly, as another Garoden warship fired everything it had at the Globe ship.
Particle beam cannons tried to punch a hole in the ship’s protective screen. Then, two nukes, fired from the Garoden warship, hit the same spot and the globe ship exploded in a ferocious ball of fire. This, flung Plank’s ship clear, with it then being pushed violently along by the nuke’s shockwave.
Captain Tisk and his AI pilot, struggled for almost two minutes to recover the ship from its unstable motion.
Plank felt as if some being had smiled on him, as his vessel finally stabilized. Then, looking at the tactical screen, he saw the remains of the blue globe ship, venting debris. One less enemy ship to bother us, he thought to himself.
“That was lucky, Excellency,” Captain Tisk said, amazed that they were still alive.
Hearing Tisk say this, made Plank realize that they were indeed fortunate to have survived this time.<
br />
However, this incident had just proved to him that, the longer his fleets stayed here to fight, the more ships he would lose.
No, Plank decided. It was evident, they must jump to the rendezvous point, now. Then issued the order.
Some of Plank’s ships, under their tactical AIs directions, had already starting to Jump for the next rendezvous point, that was Jump Three out from Garoden.
When they arrived at Jump three’s site. All ships would immediately nuke their exit wormhole threads, to ensure that it wouldn’t be easy for the enemy ships to follow them,
Nevertheless, Plank knew that it would be only a matter of time before these aliens found them again, and the location of the Garoden homeworld.
Plank’s AI, gave a jump time of 23 seconds before he and his ship would be safe.
Can’t come soon enough, Plank thought to himself.
The Battleship Revenge’s protective screen rippled as two Garoden ships pounded her with Particle beam cannons, and attempted to hit her with the occasional missile that never reached the target.
“Shields, sixty-three percent, Captain,” Science Officer White warned.
“Where the hell’s Harbin?” Captain Tom Bridger growled.
“Four seconds, right of the target,” came the voice of the Chinese Captain, Sota, over the comms.
“About bloody time. Swing us up the left,” Bridger instructed the AI pilot.
The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 7. An exciting, action-packed SpaceFed Series finale that also concludes the Garoden War.: ‘Military Gamble.’ Page 17
