This Corner of the Universe

by Britt Ringel

  “Gabes, can you do without Rowe for a bit?” Vernay asked. “I have another injured man I need to get down here.”

  Spaceman Gables nodded her assent while working a sturdy-splint onto one of the engineer’s legs. “Yes, ma’am, there just aren’t that many injuries. It seems that either your compartment was missed and you lived or was hit and you didn’t.” She paused to consider the state of her own battle station and spoke quietly to no one in particular, “I guess I’m an exception to that.”

  Forty minutes later, Vernay entered the bridge. Heskan was on his commlink discussing Anelace’s broken heart with Lieutenant Jackamore as she walked to her station and waited for the conversation to end.

  “We just need life support and enough propulsion to run the compensators and to stop us, Brandon,” Heskan said as his eyes met with Vernay’s. “Once we’ve got that, let’s start working on getting containment fields up in the middle of Ana so we have breathable atmosphere in most of the ship.”

  “Yes, sir” came through the speaker in the command chair armrest. “What about repair priority?”

  Heskan paused for a moment and then sighed in resignation. “Don’t worry about it yet, Brandon. I think… well, I think Ana’s a write-off in her condition.” He closed the circuit and looked around the bridge. Sorry, old gal. You fought magnificently and you deserved better than this.

  “Sir?” Vernay asked softly.

  Heskan did his best to mask his pained expression as he looked over to Vernay.

  “Captain, both of my gunners are in medical with severe injuries. I can man one of the turrets if you want but I might be more useful helping with basic damage control.” Vernay continued, “I’m fully rated in DC and at the Academy, damage control was my officer trainee additional duty during Operation Vigilant Warrior.” VW was a month-long ship simulation at the Brevic Naval Academy that simulated shipboard operations for the graduating class.

  It made sense but Heskan had decided that he had been trapped on the bridge long enough. “No, Lieutenant, I need you here. I have to look at the damage and you’re now the acting first officer. Stay here and take the bridge. Call me immediately if something happens.”

  “Yes, Captain, I have the bridge,” Vernay answered.

  Heskan strode from the bridge as Vernay took her place in the captain’s chair. Before the bridge doors could close, he thought he heard Vernay’s voice lightly tease the two ensigns, something about looking sharp and making her coffee.

  Heskan intentionally took a path to Engineering that was out of his way. He wanted to see the worst hit parts of the ship. Starting with the upper deck, he carefully picked his way through the shattered AIPS room and DC-One station. Much of the ceilings of both compartments had caved in, leaving wide gaps that were open to space. Because the port hallway leading to the P-One and P-Two GP lasers was completely inaccessible, he toured the starboard side and found both turret control rooms had suffered moderate damage. He had to circle all the way back to the single, functional elevator near the bridge as the forward ladder had been crushed when the AIPS room went.

  While touring the upper deck, he realized the damage he had already seen would have put Anelace in a shipyard for months and that the worst was still to come on her lower deck. Auxiliary Control was likewise devastated, although this time it was the floor that bent upward and contorted, exposing open space through large gashes. Unlike AIPS, Heskan was confronted with the remains of the crewmembers who had manned this station. He reluctantly moved on after a fruitless search to find something suitable to cover his comrades’ bodies. Heskan greeted those in the medical bay and then quickly moved through the enlisted berths toward the bow. Debris stopped his progress before he could traverse the twenty-eight meter long corridor. Ahead of him were the mangled remains of the final enlisted berths and twisted metal of what was supposed to be the ship’s gym. Heskan peered through the tangled jumble to stare at only empty space where the rest of Anelace’s bow should have been. Shaking his head in disbelief, he retraced his route and headed aft.

  His last stop before going to Engineering, the shuttle bay, was thwarted just past navigation. Once again, debris blocked his path. He estimated that he could probably pick his way through but he did not need to further verify what he already had concluded: Anelace was a lost cause. In Engineering, he conferred with Chief Brown and Lieutenant Jackamore to ensure Anelace would remain habitable for the next few hours before his crew departed for Repulse. The men agreed that after life support and propulsion were completely stable, recovery of the dead had next priority. Crew evacuation would take place through the starboard main access portal and a casualty collection point for the fallen was assigned. Chief Brown immediately ordered his remaining operations crewmembers to begin the grim task of retrieving Anelace’s dead. Those not involved in that effort were tasked with “sanitizing” Anelace for abandonment. Computer drives with sensitive information were erased and her reactor core was prepared for its eventual overload. As Repulse approached, each crewmember would have twenty minutes to gather personal possessions before exiting the ship; most needed less time than that. Satisfied with the plan, Heskan returned to the bridge to wait.

  As the two Brevic ships closed on each other, communications became more practical. Durmont had surprised Heskan by sending just one additional message during the last ninety minutes, a message informing Heskan that Durmont had been promoted to lieutenant commander and to address him in future communiques indicating such. He had not sent repeated requests for status updates on Anelace or for an explanation of what had happened that left the corvette in such a dire state. The ships, just light-seconds apart now, had come to a relative rest next to each other. Although he dreaded the upcoming conversation with Durmont, Heskan knew there was no way around it. Take heart, Heskan, just a few more days of dealing with the arrogant, little bastard and you’ll be transferred to some planet-side desk job on the other side of the Republic. Heskan ordered his sensor officer to open up a channel to Repulse when she arrived and transfer it to his quarters. As he entered his quarters and sat at his desk, he thought of everything that had happened in the last six hours and realized how incredibly tired he was. All the stresses of battle and its aftermath had caught up to him. As he waited, he decided it would be nice to no longer be a starship commander; too much worrying, too much responsibility and too few benefits. Maybe he would be lucky and be posted to a planet without a dome where he could walk in the sun and fresh air after work… His eyes popped open in surprise as he realized that he had dozed off at his desk. He looked to his comm screen and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Durmont was still not present. A quick check of the chronometer revealed that he had been asleep for close to twenty minutes. I made him wait so I guess now he has to show me who’s the boss by making me wait, Heskan thought. It was another five minutes before the screen flickered and Lieutenant Commander Durmont’s face appeared. Judging by the background, Durmont was in his quarters this time.

  “What happened to my ship, Lieutenant?” he demanded without preamble.

  “We took heavy casualties during our engagements, Commander,” Heskan snapped back testily, “and we’re down to twenty-seven personnel, four of those are ambulatory wounded. I’ll let the crew know your first concern was their well-being, sir.”

  Durmont’s eyes widened in shock. “You’ve lost half your crew? Fighting just two pirate ships? Why did you make that suicide charge against the missile ship? You’ve got a lot to answer for, Mister Heskan, and the buck stops here!” Durmont pounded his desk with his index finger to drive his statement home.

  The buck stops here? Does that expression even fit this situation, Heskan absently wondered. He put his hand up in an effort to stop Durmont’s assault. “It was five ships, not two, and I think all your questions will be answered in detail by my full debriefing.” And, at the pending Board of Inquiry, I’ll have to deal with for losing a ship.

  “Suffice it to say,” Heskan continued, “the
re was a significant pirate presence in this system and I believe there’s still a functional pirate base somewhere in the asteroid field closest to the system’s star.”

  Durmont sat in silent contemplation as Heskan waited. Eventually, Heskan grew tired of the silence and asked, “Not that I’m complaining about Repulse’s sudden appearance but what are you doing here?”

  Durmont sat back and smiled the smile of a man with a secret. Again, he made Heskan wait while he was presumably lost in deep thought. The seconds passed until Heskan had finally had enough. My career is ruined so why am I playing this jerk’s mind games? He reached to switch off the channel but was stopped by Durmont’s answer.

  “We’re at war, Lieutenant.”

  This time, it was Heskan’s turn to look shocked. “What?”

  “The Hollaran Commonwealth didn’t back down at Anesidora and the whole thing blew up. Reports are conflicting over who fired first… each side claims it was the other, but our fleet sent to break the blockade was annihilated,” Durmont said sourly.

  Heskan felt his stomach drop. That fleet was supposed to be an indestructible show of Brevic superiority. “How many ships?”

  Durmont shook his head. “The task force was five heavily reinforced squadrons: thirty-four total ships.”

  Heskan stared at Durmont in disbelief. Thirty-four ships? That’s over twenty percent of Second Fleet! “Squadron compositions?” he asked in a muted voice.

  Durmont rattled off the casualty list from memory. “Two dreadnaughts, two command cruisers, two heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, twelve destroyers and ten frigates.”

  Heskan’s head lowered as he absorbed the news. All lost, including their crew. What, maybe eighteen thousand people? Still coming to terms with the loss of so many lives, he asked again, “So why is Repulse here, sir?”

  “For you,” Durmont said simply. “Effective immediately, you will turn over command of Anelace to your first officer and accompany me to Anthe where you will assume command of BRS Kite and be attached to CortDiv Two which in turn will be part of my CortRon. We’ll be providing escort for our new carrier group centered on Avenger, in Expeditionary Task Group Three point one.”

  Heskan’s head jerked up. “What? The carriers are up and running?” Space carrier aviation was in its infancy and all the problems associated with carrier combat operations including fighter launch and recovery at speeds over .1c were still being solved.

  Durmont nodded, “Yes, Lieutenant. The Hollies had operational carriers at Anesidora and they were a nasty surprise. Everything is being rushed through at Titan and Lysithea to hopefully give us parity.” He shrugged, “I have no idea if New London will have fighter pilots ready for them.”

  Another thought popped into Heskan’s head. “Sir, what about the inquiry?” It was standard procedure for any captain who lost his command to stand before a Board of Inquiry regardless of circumstances.

  “I have my orders to take you to Anthe and that’s what I’m going to do, Lieutenant. We’ll send word of the incident here but if everything is as you say it is, I suspect the inquiry will be cursory and you’ll be cleared for command before we reach Kite.”

  Durmont slowed his speech down as if he were explaining to a small child. “There simply isn’t time for anything else, Lieutenant. Second Fleet has already fought a second, major engagement with the Hollies and the last we heard, a third task force was heading into battle in a few weeks.”

  War in space was brutally efficient. Even the largest battles fought were frequently won or lost within a matter of hours and results were usually decisive, with one side holding the system and the other side routed and desperately limping toward the nearest tunnel point to escape. Depending on how the upcoming battles went, it was highly possible that by the time Task Group 3.1 assembled, it could be conducting the desperate defense of a Brevic provincial system in the Republic’s western territory.

  “As it is,” Durmont continued, “the yards at Anthe are rushing the completion of the two Buckler-class escorts under construction. Kite will be functional but fresh from the yard and without any trials. Even her crew will be a skeletal pish-posh of ratings stripped from other ships in the squadron.” Durmont’s expression turned into a sneer and he continued, “As your squadron commander, I’m telling you now that I won’t accept these as excuses for substandard performance. I expect you to have your ship at peak efficiency by the time we reach the western border.”

  On the standard Brevic Republic star charts, the coreward direction of the chart always was at the top and the rimward portion at the bottom. The term “coreward” became increasingly replaced with “north” over time and “rimward” was colloquially substituted with “south.” Consequently, the spinward and trailing directions of the map often got the “east” and “west” labels. With the Hollaran Commonwealth situated to the trailing side of Brevic stellar cartography, the volatile boundary of the disputed zone was often called the “Western Border.”

  Durmont waved his hand in the air dismissively. “I still need to inspect your ship but from what I’ve seen, you are authorized to scuttle her once we’ve transferred your surviving crew to Repulse along with the ship’s complete holo-log of the action you fought.”

  As the captain of Anelace, Heskan technically did not need Durmont’s permission but decided not to argue the point. He also did not miss the slight emphasis on the word “surviving.” It was still Brevic tradition that Anelace’s honored dead would be with her when she died. He nodded in understanding, trying hard not to resent the casualness of Durmont’s words. “What will happen to my crew?” he asked. He desperately wanted them on his new command. They had bonded immensely over the past months and had their esprit de corps tempered in the battles over the past hours.

  Durmont shrugged, “We can arrange for a transport to meet us in Narvi and then I suppose they’ll be given new assignments.”

  I have to phrase this carefully or he’ll never go for it. “It’s a shame we can’t roll them into the pending crew of Kite. It would mean less strain for the other ships in the squadron,” Heskan mused. “Of course, it’d be a gutsy decision to make that call if Headquarters hasn’t already approved it.” Trying not to oversell his idea, he trailed off, “However, it’s not like they aren’t available now that Anelace is lost…”

  Durmont’s eyebrows arched upward. “You’d want them despite what happened here?”

  Heskan started to answer but then stopped, confused by the question. Why the hell wouldn’t I want my crew with me? Then the realization hit him like an iridium round. Of course! If the positions were reversed, he’d blame his crew for the loss of the ship. He still doesn’t understand what we accomplished here and not knowing the full story, he’d be looking for scapegoats. Heskan nodded gravely and tried to sound as if he were making a great sacrifice. “If it serves the best interests of the Fleet, sir.”

  Durmont dipped his head in approval but his voice still held condescension. “I’m proud of you, son. Of course I’ll do my best to make sure your record stays as unblemished as possible over this nasty business. Naturally, with Derringer, HQ might begin to believe they see a trend of misfortune following you.”

  Heskan bit his lip hard. Had to get that dig in there, didn’t you?

  Durmont continued, “We’ll finish up with Anelace and once you come aboard Repulse we have work to do. Some of my CortRon will rendezvous with us at Anthe and the rest at Titan. I want you to look over the organization chart of the squadron. Commander Durmont, out.”

  Chapter 24

  “Should be any second now,” Jackamore said as the group watched the view screen from one of Repulse’s briefing rooms.

  “She sure was a sturdy gal,” Truesworth reminisced. “I can’t believe how bad she looks right now.”

  Heskan cleared his throat. “Every ship faces her end. Ana got the honor of facing it while protecting the lives of civilians.”

  “And her crew,” Vernay added somberly.


  A brilliant flash on the view screen illuminated the room as Anelace transformed into a ball of white light. The light died quickly and all that remained were hundreds of thousands of pieces pushing outward in an ever-expanding field of fragments.

  Goodbye, Ana, and thank you for protecting us. May Mike Riedel captain you in the afterlife. His eyes lingered on the view and then he turned his attention to the men and women seated around the conference table.

  “What’s going to happen to the RALF, sir?” Selvaggio asked as she subtly tried to wipe her eyes.

  “Mr. Timofei said they had secured it as best they could before coming over to Repulse. He thinks Renard is going to be unhappy they were ordered to leave it but he assured me that he’d make it clear Anelace saved the station and their lives.” Heskan looked back to the screen. “Ultimately, Renard will probably have to pay some escorts-for-hire to accompany one of their tugs back here to pull the RALF out.”

  Truesworth spoke up next. “But won’t any remaining pirates board the RALF when we leave?”

  Heskan shrugged helplessly. “It’s possible but even if they manage to gain access, they won’t find anything of value. Anything that was deemed potentially helpful to a pirate presence here was launched into Skathi Three’s gravity well.”

  “And they won’t be getting away, Jack,” Vernay added. “Skathi is closed to all traffic and Commander Durmont’s already said he’ll recommend that the next Narvi station commander place a corvette at the Skathi tunnel point to catch anyone diving out from that system. And there’s nothing in the Skoll system or beyond.”

  Heskan nodded his agreement. “They’re trapped here without supplies. General consensus is they’ll probably beg Renard for passage back to Narvi when their tug returns, if they’re still alive.” It‘s worse than being trapped on a lifeboat in the middle of an ocean, Heskan thought. Then again, they deserve it.