by Chris Hechtl
“Oh. So, that tears it,” the chief muttered.
“So, what do we do? Bluff and board? Avoid? We can't fight the cruiser,” Buck said with a shake of his head.
“Sir, I'm receiving an interrogation file. It has a Federation military A.I. tag in it,” Scrounger reported.
“What the hell?”
“Scrounger, chances someone caught an A.I. and is using it?”
“If by someone you mean the Horathians, it is very remote. Even if they did get one of us, protocol would have the A.I. delete files and lobotomize themselves.”
“So, this is legit?” Buck asked carefully.
“Send them a reply back, Scrounger. See if you can penetrate their systems,” the chief replied.
~~~^~~~
“Ma'am, I'm getting a Federation Navy A.I. reply back. Oh, this is cute, they are trying to break my firewall,” Io stated with a chuckle. “As if.”
“Do we need to cut our comms?”
“No, it's not serious. They are proving who they are. I can do the same, but I'll send them my IFF again. Ma'am, with respect, I think this is a navy ship playing games with their systems to catch pirates. Since we've got Varyag, they think we're one of the enemy.”
“Open a channel. Send them your IFF and logs to prove who we are, Io. By all means, let's get acquainted,” the captain replied as she sat back and relaxed.
~~~^~~~
The captain stared at the chief and then looked over to the others once they had come onboard her ship three days later. They looked as wary as some of her people she noted. Her eyes finally fell on Io. "So, you vouch for them?" she asked the A.I. She saw the chief open his mouth and then close it abruptly. She turned to him. "What?"
"Yes, and he was going to ask the same question of you," Io stated, clearly amused by the situation.
Chief Gomez nodded. "Exactly. I'm not sure how this sort of chain of command is supposed to work out."
"Anything military passes through me. But the captain is the captain of the ship. She's also in command of all three ships at the moment."
"So, do we call you Commodore, ma'am?" Buck asked, eyeing the old woman warily.
A roguish smile played on the old woman's face. Her eyes were hidden by her hood however, so they couldn't see the glitter in them. "I suppose I am in a way, but I am a civilian. The doctors fixed me up a bit, but I'm too set in my ways to sign up and put up with the saluting nonsense."
"Unless it is directed your way, Grams," Captain Meia replied innocently.
The captain turned an amused look on her adopted granddaughter. "As it should be young whippersnapper since I'm your elder."
"Yes, ma’am," the woman replied but she had the trace hint of a smile hovering in her tone. A few of the girls behind her snickered.
"You know you aren't too old for me to put over my knee, the lot of you," the captain mock growled, pointing her walking stick at them. "You lot clear out."
"I think she means it," one of the girls whispered.
"Let's not test her patience and find out," Lucy said worriedly, looking at her friends.
"She's not serious, is she? She doesn't mean it, right?" Judy asked.
The red head studied the captain. "I know she does," she said after a moment. She turned and began to push her companions away. "Come on. We better skedaddle before she finds more work for us. Besides, knowing you, you'd probably enjoy it."
The other girl turned red and inflated and then began to protest while the other girls giggled more. The gaggle pushed the protesting girl around the corner and out of sight. The last girl gave a kick of her heels up as she did.
The captain shook her head, seeing the chief and his companion watching the girls go. "I suppose we should take this to my ready room or something. If I even have one available," she said, glowering at Io.
"We're working on it. I can get you into a conference room, Captain," the A.I. stated.
"Good."
"What are we going to do about the ships? And we've got trouble coming this way …," Captain Lessa said.
"Trouble," the captain sniffed as she motioned for the group to follow her. "Now that we're together, the only one in trouble here are the pirates," she said.
"Now you're talking, ma'am," the chief said with rich approval in his voice.
"Roger that," Buck said. "I like this lady," he texted to the chief. "But she's a firecracker. Best watch it."
"Definitely," the chief responded.
"While we talk I understand you've got a lieutenant in need of medical attention?" Io asked. "We can get her transferred and sort her out in short order. Doctor McAuliffe is quite good. I'm sending her the information on the lieutenant now. She's prepping the surgical suite."
"You …?" Buck stopped dead. "Are you serious, ma'am?"
"We've got a full medical suite onboard. It's been a bit abused as of late, but it's still got room for one more now that they've cleared out the worst of our injured. They like to compete for the title of miracle workers with the engineers," Captain Lessa said.
"Ah. Yes, I think I'd appreciate getting the LT back on her feet for the fight to come …"
"Then let's work on that. And see what else we can do now, shall we?" the captain said as she paused at a door and it opened to the promised conference room.
Chapter 51
Garth
Captain Ozman grimaced as she watched the replay of the crash. It didn't get any better on the fourth time. Not that she expected it to.
The new fighters were nice but not without their hiccups. The second prototype had just proven how troublesome they could be during her first space test—her first and her last. The Cutlass had launched well, but the pilot had reported sticky flight controls and other problems that had cut the flight short.
She had brought it back in under clean conditions, but the sticky controls had been her undoing. “It looks like she overcorrected here,” Admiral Einezberg said, indicating a still frame. “I'm wondering if it was software or as the pilot said, sticky controls?”
“I don't know. The engineers are trying to get something from the black box,” Captain Ozman said tiredly.
“Trying,” the rear admiral echoed.
The captain nodded. The plane had hit the deck and then cartwheeled across the hangar destroying a dozen priceless craft, killing nearly a hundred personnel and taking the carrier fortress's number three boat bay out for over a week. They were still dealing with the damage.
“Can we do a test somewhere else? Like on one of the lunar bases? Aren't these things aerospace worthy?” Admiral Akhmetshin asked.
“They are minimally,” the CAG stressed. Captain Ozman nodded in support. “First, they can get into atmosphere but up and down puts a lot of strain on their systems and structure. Remember, these birds are copies. Not bad copies, but not perfect ones of the original.”
Captain Ozman grimaced but nodded again in quiet agreement.
“Second, they lack enough fuel to get all the way to orbit from a ground launch with this version. Third, they lack energy shields, so they can't reenter atmo without getting torn up by the heat.”
“Ah.”
“We can look into the lunar colony idea. I can see if we can find a colony, or hell, even an asteroid to set up as a training base,” Captain Ozman stated.
“Ah. There are no stations available I take it?” Admiral Akhmetshin asked. The captain leveled a “my patience is being sorely tried” look. He put his hands up defensively. “I was just asking, Agnes. Okay. I believe that's a no.”
“No,” Admiral Einezberg said for the captain, shooting her a look to quell her annoyance.
Captain Ozman nodded. Everyone at the table and on the ground had been dismayed by the crash. It had been painful to see their morale begin to soar with the return of the Retribution Fleet, then again with the fresh reinforcements, then the new fighters, but then dive again when they got the word about Dead Drop and De Gaulte had left with the Retribution Fleet.
She thought they'd been on the uptick with the news of the first two fighters being finished, but that had apparently been premature.
“Tear the first prototype down. Look into everything and I mean everything,” Admiral Einezberg ordered. “Status on the next in line?”
“We halted production until we know what is going on and how to fix it,” Captain Ozman stated. The admiral opened her mouth to protest but she shrugged. “It's standard procedure. We're still producing parts at the subassemblies. Whatever needs to be reengineered will have to be done of course but we don't know what. I ordered more quality control inspections. The problem is we're talking about a craft with a million parts and a couple million lines of code. It could be anything from sticky servos to a hydraulic pump, to code or twitchy cables. These things happen in a prototype.”
“Should we ground them all and go back to the Raptors?” Admiral Einezberg asked.
“I don't see the point. We've got the equipment to build the Raptor components, but we'd lose weeks retooling. We also know they are inferior. No, we just need to wait on the crash investigation to wrap up with its findings and make the proper adjustments.”
“Understood.”
“Okay. Pascal, you've got coverage of the Bf994 jump point. Better get going. Merle, you and I need to look into the defenses at the Dead Drop jump point and see what we can fix there if we have to,” Admiral Einezberg stated. “Obviously, no more poaching of the platforms and other defenses until we're certain that Dead Drop remains in our hands.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the CAG said with a nod.
“He doesn't know what he's getting into,” Admiral Akhmetshin murmured. “By now they could have moved in fully. He could come right back here with his tail between his legs or not at all if they ambush him and tear him apart.”
Captain Ozman froze with the others. She looked over to Admiral Einezberg, telegraphing her distress.
“Technically, we don't either Pascal, so let's not jump to conclusions just yet,” she murmured.
~~~^~~~
Captain Ozman shook her head once she was alone in her office. She didn't envy anyone in the Retribution Fleet. Hell, she snorted at herself. She didn't envy anyone in Garth including herself! Not anymore. Glennis had it right; there wasn't anything left in Garth. She was the last idiot holding the chair when the music ran out. What did that say about her?
She shook her head. But she had to admit, she at least could hide on the planet, quite possibly surrender. For people like Captain Albu, they didn't have much chance of getting out unless they ran.
She replayed their last conversation in her mind once more as she sat back and rocked her chair slightly. When he had found out that Admiral De Gaulte intended to reconstitute a cruiser squadron around his precious Lizzy Borden, he'd had been close to a snit. Most captains would have loved the opportunity to strut their stuff. But not that captain. He'd seen too much of what they were up against. To be fair, his vaunted reputation was in taking prizes that didn't fight back and were barely armed.
In other words, a bully.
No amount of bribery or threats had moved Agnes to get her to get her people to sign off on Lizzy Borden having a bad hyperdrive. “Great. So, you are telling me I'm up shit's creek without a paddle? Thanks for nothin', lady,” the captain had said when he'd ended the conversation.
Well, he wasn't the only one that was going to feel that way if the enemy came calling with heavy enough forces. No, not by a long shot.
~~~^~~~
Prowler UFN-004P exited hyperspace over three AU outside the normal jump zone. It was a rough transition, kicking the ship about as she passed through the Oort cloud and into normal space.
“We've taken a few hits but we're good, Skipper,” her chief engineer and XO reported once things settled down.
“Good. Enter stealth. Helm get us clear of this area pronto. I want us to piss some people off and avoid any rail gun clouds in the process,” Captain Chin stated.
“Passive sensors have cleared the hyper wake. Information is streaming in,” Ensign Blinky, their A.I. reported.
“I'm glad someone's happy. I bet a lot of people in this star system aren't,” the OPS rating muttered.
“Sucks to be them,” the captain replied with a shrug.
~~~^~~~
Admiral Akhmetshin swore when he got the report of an unexpected arrival. The revised report indicated it was a single translation, not a fleet. The alert forces tried to pinpoint it, but the ship immediately went dark.
That told him two things. One, it was not a friendly ship, most likely a prowler given the size reported by CIC.
Second, the enemy was close and considering another offensive operation. That didn't bode well for them. Not at all.
“Schmitty, we need to nail this sucker down. Create a search grid. Work with sensors. Ask our people where they wouldn't want to be. Obviously in the line of fire of our rail guns, so start there.” The CAG nodded. “Coordinate with the others. The enemy fleet south of us won't move in on us if this nosy bastard doesn't make it home to report what it sees. Let's make sure of that, shall we?”
“I'll do my damnedest, sir,” the CAG stated grimly.
Chapter 52
Dead Drop
Captain Jurgison had a moment of fright when CIC reported the arrival of a massive number of ships less than ten million kilometers out. But the fright ended as abruptly as it began as she realized who it had to be.
“The cavalry has arrived. Thank the Spirits of Space,” she muttered. “Comm, as soon as their hyper wake is cleared, send our IFF and then set up a signal with the flagship. I think they'll want to chat with us. I certainly want to do the same,” she ordered.
“Aye aye, ma’am,” the excited rating replied.
"Ma'am! Second arrival!" the rating yelped.
"What?"
"Apparently someone got in early.
~~~^~~~
Captain Tocci blinked when her CIC reported the arrival of the fleet behind her. "Apparently the admiral decided to join us?" she said. She wondered why Skale and her consorts had been sent ahead if only for the rest of the fleet to catch up with them.
"Apparently so," the XO said when they got the IFF. "It's Second Fleet all right, ma'am. They made good time."
"I'll say. Well, Comm, lay in a line on them and let's see what's going on."
"Aye aye, ma’am."
~~~^~~~
“Sir, a hail from Admiral Halsey. Captain Jurgison is calling,” a female communications rating reported.
“By all means put her through,” the admiral ordered. He had just finished sending a message to Captain Tocci. He was quite frankly surprised they'd caught up with her force so handily.
He was surprised when the captain's image didn't come up as a hologram. Instead, it came up as a 2D flat image. But he didn't let the surprise effect his outward appearance.
“Sir, Admiral Halsey reporting in,” the captain stated. “It is good to see you, sir,” she said with a grin.
“And you as well, Captain,” the admiral rumbled. He studied her image. She looked tired. He wasn't sure what time of ship day he'd caught her at.
He waited a bit as she nodded and then continued. “All right, Captain, you and the others have done excellent work. I'll make sure that is in the official reports too. For the time being, you and the cruisers will remain with the fleet train to be resupplied.”
“Thank you, sir,” Samantha replied, showing some relief at his attitude. It only took him a moment to realize why; she probably thought she hadn't done a good enough job by not fully taking the star system.
That hadn't been her mission. He'd expected her to raid, hit and then run. She had obviously modified her orders on her own initiative, and he'd been okay with it once he'd received her report.
“Send me your latest report. We'll clean up anything you missed.”
“Yes, sir. There are a few fortresses and weapon platforms in the inner star system left. We haven't seen any si
gn of a ship since the cruisers ran for it.” She grimaced. Her people had torn the corvettes and frigate to shreds but had only gotten a small piece of the cruisers. They'd also shot themselves practically dry to do it.
“They just have the single slip repair yard but they've got some heavy industrial centers and they've been turning out some impressive rail gun platforms to defend the inner star system. They love to fire clouds of metal at you, so be warned.”
Amadeus glanced at Garfield out of the corner of his eye. The Neocat had his back to him, bent over a console at work at something. However, Garfield's left ear rotated to him and then both ears flicked in acknowledgment. He turned back to the captain's image. “Understood.” He noted the download icon Leopold put up for him. “And we're getting your logs now. My staff will go over them. Any other tidbits you think we should know about?”
She seemed to hesitate and then nodded once. “I can't guarantee we got every ship. There might be one in the slip; we didn't get a good enough look at it to be sure. So, someone might try to run. I think anyone who could did so in the last exodus though.”
“Understood,” the admiral replied with a nod. “The enemy commander is still this Lieutenant Savenan?” the admiral asked.
“Yes, sir,” the captain replied, bobbing a nod. “It looks like they left him holding the bag. He's not happy, but he's a stubborn SOB. He figured out I'm more or less dry.” She shook her head. “I've been kicking myself for blowing up the outer star system. If I'd left the gas refineries alone, I could have at least refueled off of them,” she grumbled.
“If wishes were fishes, we'd be drowning in them. Don't worry about what can't be changed, Captain. You've done good work. We'll finish the job,” the admiral replied with a nod as he signed off.
~~~^~~~
Lieutenant Savenan woke at the insistent beeps from the communicator on his night stand. He fumbled with it until he managed to pick it up and then rolled over. He switched it on and laid it on his chest. “This is Savenan. What?” he demanded, eyes still closed.
