Excalibur's Quest

by Dietmar Wehr

  Koenig interjected before Strucker could continue. “No! We have to go back to Sol right now and take on what’s left of the Tong fleet before they can call in reinforcements. With our ten gravity cannon, we should be—”

  “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” yelled Strucker, his face turning red. “I just told you that I’m in command of this group. If we go back now and go toe-to-toe with the goddamned Tong, they’ll wipe this group out! They had super-heavies for Gods sakes, and there are at least nine of them left! Five light cruisers can’t defeat nine super-heavies!”

  “Yes, we can, if we go in stealthy and slash at them with our gravity cannon!”

  “One more fucking word out of you, Koenig, and I’ll relieve you of command, got it?”

  Koenig swore out loud, not caring if Strucker heard him or not. “Hanson! Torriega! Nakatomi! Excalibur is pulling out and heading for Sol right now! Are you with me?” He didn’t wait for a reply. He cut off the video feed manually. Pausing for a few seconds to take a deep breath, he said, “Astro, I want a trajectory for the furthest star that the other Javelins can handle if they line up with us, and let’s get moving right now.”

  As soon as Excalibur began to peel away from the base, the com AI spoke up. “Commander Strucker is demanding to speak with you, Commander.”

  “Fuck him!” said Koenig. “No response. If any of the other COs want to talk, I’ll take those calls, but not Strucker. XO to the Bridge.” While he waited for Soriya to arrive, he had another thought. “Com, send a narrow beam text message to Senior Commander Carson and make sure Sting can’t intercept it. The message is as follows. ‘Koenig to Carson. I strongly urge you not to reveal the locations of the supply depots to Commander Strucker.’ ” As he spoke, he noticed that the tactical display was showing three green icons moving away from the base. The other Javelins were joining him. “I’m taking three other ships back to Sol to try to destroy the occupation fleet. Strucker seems to be gun shy, or maybe he’s just a coward. Either way, we’ll never get a better chance to give Earth some breathing room. If I don’t make it back, use your best judgement, and don’t let Strucker intimidate you. You may not be able to give him orders, but he for damn sure can’t give any to you. Wish me luck. End of message.’ ”

  Soriya arrived, and Koenig told her what had just happened and what was now taking place. She surprised him by leaning over the open Command Pod and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

  “God bless you for having the courage to disobey those stupid orders. I support you wholeheartedly, but you do realize that you’ve just committed mutiny, right?”

  Koenig shrugged. “If we win the battle and I get court-martialled for mutiny, I can walk away with my head held high. No regrets,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Incoming call from Sting, Executive Officer Vasily.”

  “The XO? This should be interesting. Put him on.” The display shifted to a slightly distorted image of a woman’s head. Excalibur was already far enough away that video transmissions were suffering from the doppler effect.

  “Koenig! I’ve taken, ah, rather I’ve been given command of Sting. Our AIs were in communication with yours and those of the other ships. They convinced ours that supporting your attack was the correct thing to do. When Strucker saw that Sting was moving to follow you, he went berserk. The AIs called me and a couple of other officers to the Bridge where the AIs informed me that I was now in command and that they strongly recommended Sting join the rest of the group. We’re coming! If you slow down a bit, we can catch up.”

  Koenig and Soriya exchanged looks. AIs had never done anything like that before. And while he was glad that Sting was willing to join in the attack, the unexpected show of independence of its AIs was a little bit unnerving.

  “What about Strucker? Is he going to do something really stupid like try to sabotage Sting’s engines?” asked Koenig.

  After a couple of seconds, Vasily laughed. “No. Commander Strucker seems to have, ah, slipped on something and broken his jaw as a result. He’s in Sick Bay now and under restraints too for some strange reason.”

  Now it was Koenig’s and Soriya’s turn to laugh. “Well, I won’t inquire about the restraints. I’m sure you can handle your ship just fine, Commander. We’ll slow down until you catch up. We’re going to be making longer jumps than you’re used to. It’s one of the things we managed to learn how to do while we were gone. My Astro will explain it all to yours. You’re doing the right thing, Commander. Koenig out.”

  The first jump took longer to set up than Koenig was used to. It was obvious the other COs were nervous about attempting a jump that long, in spite of the reassurances their astro AIs were giving them. Koenig had no qualms at all about Excalibur hitting the mark and was confident the other ships would make it okay too. Getting to Sol as fast as possible was paramount. For all anyone knew, there could be a second Tong fleet already on its way to relieve the first fleet so that damaged ships could return home for repairs. That possibility was a scary thought. Koenig was reasonably confident that five Javelins armed with gravity cannon could ambush nine enemy super-heavies, but if they found a much larger Tong fleet waiting for them, or if a bigger Tong fleet showed up later, then all bets would be off.

  The group arrived in the Solar system on almost the opposite side from where Earth was. Rather than try to find each other with no running lights, Koenig had decided that they would rendezvous in orbit around the nearest planet, which happened to be Jupiter. It was big enough that even a Javelin cruiser could be seen silhouetted against it. With all five ships now in a tight formation, Koenig briefed the other COs on the carefully planned attack. He expected the Tong ships to orbit in a close formation and in a more or less equatorial orbit to maximize the human population they could monitor. Koenig’s plan was unorthodox, and when Soriya saw it projected on the tactical display, she had described it as ‘gutsy’.

  What made it possible was the moon’s position relative to the Earth and the sun. While not directly in front of the sun, the moon was definitely closer to it than the Earth was. The group would approach the Earth while keeping the moon in between to prevent the Tong from noticing that something was moving in front of background stars. Once they reached the moon, they would hold position behind it long enough to visually scan the Earth in the hope that their optics were powerful enough to see the Tong fleet moving across the front of the Earth. If the Tong were all in one formation, then as soon as they moved past the Earth’s horizon and behind it, Koenig’s group would race to cover the intervening distance before the Tong came around the other side. The group would follow the Tong fleet’s path and come up behind them. The ships would then fire as soon as they had a direct line-of-sight to enemy fleet. That would prevent Earth being in the line of fire.

  The approach to the moon went off perfectly. The other four ships hovered in position, while Excalibur moved around the side just enough to see the Earth. The main display was showing the optical image at maximum zoon. Koenig had the con, but he allowed Soriya to observe, even though the ship was at Battle Stations and technically she should have been at her designated post in Engineering. The image was not as close as Koenig would have liked.

  “Are you sure you can detect the Tong ships at this range, Tactical?” he asked.

  “Affirmative, Commander. I can, and I have detected them.”

  Koenig leaned forward as the image shifted to the left. He blinked and strained his eyes. Could those tiny black dots really be the Tong super-heavies?

  “How confident are you that those are the Tong ships?” he asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

  “TacComp is 98.9% confident, Commander. While the ships look tiny to human eyes, they are the correct size for ships classified as super-heavy, as seen from this distance. There are nine ships in a steady formation. They will be passing behind the planet again in one hundred forty-four seconds.”

  “Have the other cruisers been alerted?” Koenig knew it was a silly question. Of course,
they were, but he had a need to feel like he was actually running the attack.

  “Affirmative. All tactical AIs are being updated continuously, and they are keeping their human commanders informed. Do we tactical AIs still have authorization to commence the attack as planned?”

  “Yes.” Koenig and Soriya now shifted their gaze to the sidebar and the countdown timer. There were less than 20 seconds to go before the Tong fleet would be hidden once again behind the Earth. He felt Soriya’s hand on his right shoulder, and he covered it with his own. The seconds were dropping fast now. He just had time to wonder if he had made the right decisions when the timer hit zero.

  “The group is accelerating,” said the tactical AI. The Earth began to appear larger. Ships accelerating at 1,597Gs could cover the intervening 384,400 kilometers in a mere three minutes and forty-two seconds.

  Koenig felt his heart start to beat faster. The adrenaline rush was already distorting his sense of time enough to be noticeable. Neither he nor Soriya said anything when the group reached Earth and began to curve around it. As the tactical AI counted down the final seconds to the estimated point in time when the Tong ships would once again be visible, Koenig held his breath. He felt Soriya’s hand squeeze his shoulder hard. The countdown hit zero.

  Chapter Six:

  The main display was already showing the most zoomed-in optical image of the area where the Tong ship reflections were expected to be seen. Koenig held his breath when a cluster of light reflections appeared.

  “There are only eight reflections,” said the tactical AI. “One enemy vessel is radar scanning behind them, but we are deflecting it away. Continue with the attack or wait for the ninth target to appear?”

  Koenig thought fast. “Allocate targets to the other ships and order them to fire. We’ll hold our fire until the ninth ship appears!”

  “All four Javelins have fired. Eight targets hit. No si—ninth Tong ship has appeared and is now maneuvering. Excalibur firing. Ninth target has been hit and is no longer maneuvering. No further enemy radar emissions. Recommend we shift to active scanning.”

  “Approved!” said Koenig in a voice that was the result of both elation and adrenaline.

  “No incoming missiles. All nine enemy ships are following a ballistic trajectory. TacComp calculates eighty-eight percent chance that all nine ships have sustained heavy damage. Orders?”

  It took Koenig two seconds to decide what to do next. “Missile barrage, one Mark 14 missile per target. Fire when ready!”

  The six-second wait until the missile barrage was ready seemed to be far longer. The group was so close and still going so fast that unless it did something almost immediately, it would pass the much slower Tong ships.

  “Missiles have fired and have hit,” said the tactical AI at the same time as the display showed nine bright explosions. “Enemy ships are no longer a threat.”

  Koenig couldn’t help thinking that the AI’s report was perhaps the understatement of the year. Whatever was left of those ships, and given their size there was bound to be something left, it could best be described now as so much scrap metal.

  “Group is passing the enemy debris field,” said the astro AI.

  “Co-ordinate a deceleration back into Earth orbit, Astro. Com, set up a group-wide audio channel.” When the channel was established, Koenig cleared his throat before speaking. “Koenig to the group. Congratulations on your victory. As soon as I finish speaking to you, I’ll attempt to make contact with HQ. Let’s stay in formation for now. Out. Com, try to establish contact with the senior most office at HQ; video if possible, but I’ll accept an audio-only channel.”

  It took a surprisingly long time to establish communications with TOSF Headquarters. Koenig was just about to ask what the holdup was when the com AI advised him that CSO Corrigan was on the line.

  “Koenig? What just happened up there? We’re suddenly getting reports of massive EMPs. All our sensors are scrambled, so we don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Well, sir, Excalibur and four other Javelins have managed to ambush the nine Tong ships that were controlling Earth’s orbitals. We came up on them from behind, ripped their guts out with gravity beams and then hit them with Mark 14s. Sorry about the EMP, Admiral. I had to make sure the Tong super-heavies couldn’t repair themselves enough to strike back. As far as we can tell, there are no more Tong ships in this system, just a lot of radioactive scrap metal in orbit.”

  After a barely perceptible pause, he heard Corrigan speak. “That is outstanding news, Commander. As soon as our equipment can recover enough to confirm the status of the enemy fleet, Excalibur and the other Javelins will be given new orders.” There was another pause. “I understand that you and Command—Admiral Dejanus were close. We owe her a huge debt for what she was able to accomplish before Scimitar was destroyed. My condolences for the loss of your friend, Commander.”

  “Thank you, sir,” was all Koenig said.

  “We’ll keep this channel open, but I’m stepping away from the mic for a while, Commander. Until later.”

  Eventually HQ was satisfied that Koenig’s assessment of the situation was accurate. Durendal and Curtana were ordered to take up sentry positions near the area where any new Tong ships were likely to drop out of hyperspace. Koenig, Cmdr. Vasily and Strucker were ordered to shuttle down to HQ. Vasily and Strucker came in Sting’s shuttle, which landed after Koenig did. Consequently, he didn’t see the altercation but was later told that Strucker had to be held back from physically attacking Vasily when his restraints were taken off after he’d exited the shuttle. CSO Corrigan and several other flag officers met Koenig as he got off the groundcar that had picked him up from the shuttle. The tone of his reception was friendly but still serious. They all ended up in the CSO’s office where Koenig tried his best to convey to them what had happened during his mission, the return to the GED base and the liberation attack, in between answering spontaneous questions from impatient admirals. When the questions died out, Corrigan leaned forward.

  “Naturally we’re pleased that we don’t have any Tong warships in orbit threatening to turn the Earth into a radioactive dust ball. However, the impact of the Mark 14 blast EM pulses have caused a significant amount of damage. Given that your group of light cruisers was up against a larger number of much heavier enemy vessels, I’ve approved your decision to employ the Mark 14s. The damage caused is repairable, and luckily there were no lives lost as a result. As a result of your group’s victory, the TOSF has a chance to get back on its feet, but it won’t be easy. The Tong managed to destroy all our space-based shipyards, as well as fabrication and mining facilities. Right now, the GED base is the only facility that can be used to build anything. Your information about shipbuilding tech using atomic manipulation might be the answer to our prayers. Naturally, you’ll be expected to submit reports on your mission and the attack. I don’t think we’ll have a lot of time to react, so I’m going to order you to submit those reports within twenty-four hours. After that, you and your crew can go on R&R with the understanding that we may call all of you back to service at any time. Any questions, Commander?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Good. You’re dismissed.”

  Koenig and Soriya spent the next 10 hours together, going over his log entries and their combined recollections, and when they were done, they were too tired to even consider doing anything other than falling down on their own beds in temporary officers’ quarters that had been assigned to them.

  Koenig made sure the report was submitted before heading to the Officers Lounge for breakfast. He discovered that Soriya had eaten already and was now probably on her way to a warm beach as per their discussion the previous evening about some R&R. His plan was to spend a few days in the wilderness somewhere with a tent, rifle and fishing gear.

  Twelve hours later, just as he finished getting a roaring campfire going in preparation for cooking the fish he had caught earlier, his communications device beeped. He suspected it was HQ wanti
ng him to come back, and his hunch turned out to be correct. The urge to curse all flag officers was strong, but the Admiral had warned him this might happen.

  When Koenig reported to the CSO’s office the next day, he was surprised to see Strucker and Vasily already seated in front of the Admiral’s desk. Vasily had her back to Koenig, so he couldn’t see her face, but he could see Strucker’s, and it was full of fury. Corrigan pointed to the third chair and when Koenig sat down, the Admiral began to speak.