by Gary Caplan
The Talcon Star City released another huge disruption wave toward the ships attacking it. The damage was taking its toll on the Varlon and Accad starships. The Jiyarr super-dreadnaught charged up its anti-particle cannon before the Phoenix could recharge its nova cannon. The Jiyarr ship fired again at the Star City, sectioning the energy into three pulsed beams, as the Star City’s defense screens were weakened. One beam was again intercepted by a few comet-shaped weapon projectiles. Another pulsed beam struck the Star City’s defense screens, eroding them and striking part of the beak where one of the huge disruptor arrays was located. The explosion was impressive, destroying a large area; however, the dampening field was still in effect and only part of the array was damaged. The third section of the antiparticle looked as if it would also strike one of the weapons sections, but a pulsed beam sent from the Zeloc reacted with the Jiyarr antiparticle blast well before it impacted the weakened Talcon defense screens. The subsequent shock wave then interfered with other weapons.
The Varlon were the first to begin a retreat into hyperspace, and then the Accadian ships jumped shortly thereafter.
“That was close,” Wilder said as he looked at damage reports. Some other Alliance of Worlds cruisers, including the Nautilus, that had originally tracked the Star City were moderately damaged and would probably need repairs at a docking facility. The Accad and Varlon had focused their weapons fire on the Star City and less on the Alliance ships. Otherwise, the twenty-five ships of the Alliance of Worlds’ combined task force would have been forced to retreat or eventually be destroyed.
The Talcon Star City had notably damaged the enemy ships; it had even blasted and eventually destroyed some of the attacking enemy ships, including a Varlon J class battle-cruiser, two Varlon L class heavy cruisers, and one Accadian Kadath dreadnaught, a Koredreth battlecruiser. By the time they left, sensors showed that virtually all the Varlon and Accad starships had taken moderate to severe levels of damage. Some of the Phoenix bridge crew looked at the tactical section of the view screen, while others accessed their interlinks to find more information. The worry was that those ships would return, as both the Varlon and the Accad had organo-metallic hulls that could regenerate and fabrication facilities to restore just about any ship component.
“Plot an orbital course around the Talcon Star City,” Wilder ordered. “Open hailing channels to the Star City.” As things had quieted some after the enemy fleets left, Renjir had begun trying to send a communication to the other Talcon likely within the Star City.
As the Phoenix approached the Star City, the tactical section of the view screen provided distance and size measurements. The Talcon Star City was like a world ship and was the size of a small planet or large moon that could travel through hyperspace. At six thousand four hundred kilometers, it was about the size of the planet Mars. The computer estimated the gravity onboard the Star City would be 0.8 that of Earth, or about 80 percent usual gravity for someone from Earth.
Sheppard returned to his office; he had a reinforced plasti-steel view portal in the conference section of his office. He looked out briefly at the nearby starship, the Nautilis, and sat down to review information about the status of the task force. There had still been no response from communication hails to the Star City.
Sheppard began listening to a little music to relax. As they approached the Star City, another instrumental version, “Orfeo Suite of Monteverdi,” began again as Sheppard’s classical favorites randomly played. The music was oddly appropriate; it reflected the grandeur of the vast Talcon station as part of the task force assumed an orbit around the planet-sized construct. Sheppard could see that a few of the Varlon plasma torpedoes had penetrated small sections of the surface. The Star City was so huge that the blast-damaged areas were like dimples or small craters on the hull. From the technical data that Sharon had recently sent him, he could see that the Talcon had hulls like the Varlon and Accad, and although organo-crystalline in nature, it would likely regenerate to a degree.
“Stable orbit established,” Darani reported.
“The only thing the Alliance of Worlds has that comes close to that in size are the Zal’ s constructed orbital planetary rings,” Ares said.
“That is only in the Zal’s two main star systems,” O’Brien said. “I got to visit one of those orbital planetary rings once on an engineering symposium.”
“Captain Wilder, transmat station two has received Vice Admiral Garfield,” Commander York said. “He is on his way toward the bridge deck.”
“Acknowledged, Mr. York,” Wilder replied. “Lieutenant Benth, notify Commodore Sheppard that Vice Admiral Garfield is aboard the Phoenix.”
“While we are in orbit, let’s try to get some better scans. I noticed some earlier ones were not entirely clear,” Wilder said.
“Yes, Sir,” Commander Andor said. He seemed to want to continue to work intensely.
“Sir, I think the Varlon might have damaged a relatively nearby COMNET hyperspace communications array,” Lieutenant Commander Sterling, the second officer said, while looking at Captain Wilder.
“That’s typical Varlon tactics,” Wilder said. “However, thanks to Dr. Grey and Lieutenant Corwin’s previous work, we now have a procedure to help the semi-organic device repair. Send a ship to initiate the repairs.” The Estrians’ trans-galactic hyperspace communication system, which the Alliance of Worlds called the COMNET, was highly advanced in organo-crystalline technology even by Varlon standards. The system had encryption coding that evolved and recognized approved users, and the device might have emergency protocols if disrupted. The Estrians no longer used the system, since it was outdated for them, but they had granted its use to the Alliance of Worlds.
The ships in the expanded task force took up orbits that were more distant from the Talcon Star City than the Phoenix was. Renjir continued to try to access information using his personal ship’s communication device, but he was not very successful and received odd communication interrupts.
Sheppard was looking out his view port when Garfield walked in, smiling, into his office. He was still in his white-and-black ambassadorial, robe, showing his Karratin house and rank. He moved to look out the view port alongside Sheppard.
“I’m glad you arrived in time to help,” Sheppard said. “That Jiyarr ship was starting to make its presence felt.”
“I’m happy to lend help as needed,” Garfield replied. “As the senior scientific officer in the sixth fleet, I should also be able to help with the present problem.”
“The Accad and Varlon seemed to be busy with the Star City and were not paying us too much attention,” Sheppard said. “At least for now.”
“Yes, I noticed,” Garfield replied, “I was able to use Star Knight disciplines to confuse the Accad on the bridge of the Jiyarr Kadjiah-class ship,” Garfield said, “even though their ship warned them that telepathic and telekinetic effects were breaching their Psi defenses. As a result, they had problems targeting; I also had them seeing mental figments. In addition, I affected the command crew in one of the Varlon H class ships that was relatively close by.”
“I wondered why the ship seemed to be slow in firing. I should have guessed you would use some advanced disciplines,” Sheppard said. “My range and strength are not at your level, or I might have tried something as well.”
Garfield nodded. “I also noticed with remote sensing and Zeloc’s ship sensors that many of the starships’ organic hulls were excoriated from the massive metallic comet projectile weapons the Talcon Star City used. Most of the ships seemed quite shaken, and some were punctured.”
“I would guess that even organic hulls can be harpooned by the right material,” Sheppard said, smiling. “Luckily for us, they did not have a large enough fleet to deal with the combined threat.” Sheppard moved to his desk and closed a report. He motioned for his former mentor to take a seat.
Just before Garfield arrived, Sheppard had finished a brief report. As the door to the command alcove was open, he calle
d to his fleet liaison officer. “Brandon, I have already sent you my acting fleet admiral’s report; add your report, and send the coded report to Admirals Peregrine and Braddock in Rhendal sector; relay it via another COMNET, if possible,” Sheppard said.
“With the local COMNET link down, it will probably take a week to get to them using our encrypted ship-to-ship hyperspace relay,” Fleet Captain Sherman said from his command alcove workstation. “Oh, and we are still trying to determine a way to access a docking area—or dare I say ‘land’ on the Star City.”
Sheppard nodded. “Very well, keep me informed,” he said, as he glanced back at his friend Garfield and then out at the vast looming Star City.
CHAPTER 8
PREPARATION IN
RHENDAL SECTOR
Onboard the Constellation-class battlecarrier H’jum’pta, Fleet Admiral Peregrine looked over preparations for the upcoming series of skirmishes to retake the closer systems in the Rhendal sector. He was one of the best tacticians in the Alliance of Worlds and was in charge of the recapture missions. Over the past year, the Varlon had occupied or forcefully taken a few hundred resource-rich star systems in the Rhendal sector. The Varlon maintained only smaller strike forces or occupation fleets to guard the more strategic star systems they acquired. A few of the systems were tactically significant.
To retake the Rhendal sector would require essentially one-third of the Alliance of Worlds fleet. That meant reorganization, since about one-quarter of the fleet usually defended the Varlon border. Previously, the Varlon was only on the edge of the Rhendal sector; now they had fleets scattered across the entire sector. They had also established supply lines and occupation, colonization, or mining activities. Peregrine was not a grand admiral who worked mostly from the Alliance headquarters in Star One. Rather, he was a fleet admiral, and he preferred to be closer to the battle skirmish lines.
While in his office on the H’jum’pta, Peregrine looked over the report sent by Vice Admiral Garfield’s sentient ship on a hyper-carrier channel that had not been jammed by the Varlon. The report contained a copy of acting Fleet Admiral Sheppard’s report of what had recently happened. Peregrine twitched his beak as he reviewed the use of the weapons fire from the powerful Jiyarr ship. It was good that the casualties on the Alliance side were not significantly high and most of the starships were intact. He nodded while looking at the data stream running on his interlink to his visual cortex. The Talcon Star City was impressive, and the avian Talcon people were at least somewhat similar to his own avian species.
The Talcon were more advanced than the Alliance of Worlds, and the Star City was able to generate vast amounts of energy and channel that into disruptive plasma waves as a weapon. The weapons combination used by the Star City, including the plasma wave, one type of launched torpedoes with an explosive antimatter device and a tracking motor, and comet-shaped missiles were effective. He hoped Sheppard was successful, as having the Talcon as Allies would be good for the present war effort.
Nearly one-third of the Alliance of Worlds’ fleet was being assembled; the rest was defending the primary planets in case the Varlon or their new allies, the Accad, decided to strike behind lines. There were still starships on various essential standard missions, and some borders still needed to be patrolled, especially near the Saldron, the Ceyloom, and the Meiosian territories. Peregrine was presently organizing the second wave of assaults to retake the Rhendal sector with the fleet admirals of the second, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh fleets, along with his third fleet. Eventually, the sixth fleet would become involved, as well. Additionally, now the first fleet, with a large contingent of upgraded “swift” starcruisers under Grand Admiral Pendragon, was preparing to join the armada that Peregrine was organizing. This effort required all planners in the field, such as Pendragon, to react directly to the battles to recover colonies. They had to proceed cautiously but quickly before the Varlon began to “dig in,” since that would make retaking the planets the Varlon had recently secured almost impossible without high casualties.
The only other good news was that the race that worked with Commodore Sheppard at QB7 against the Varlon, known as the Aharri, would be sending a fleet. The legation branch had recently received an Aharri ambassador and subsequently secured an affiliation treaty with the Aharri. Evidently, the Aharri had lost a few star systems in the coreward section of Rhendal sector, and some star systems in the sector beyond that had also been taken from them. The Aharri believed they now had a common goal with the Alliance of Worlds—to defeat the Varlon and the Accad—so they gathered a war fleet and would join the Alliance fleets in several subsectors of Rhendal. The affiliation treaty would allow the Aharri ships to be repaired at Alliance of Worlds facilities and allow official interaction with crews and exchange or rotate officers among ships. That type of treaty would also include a general trade component for goods and services exchanged.
Peregrine looked at the main tactical display in the situation room of the battle center he had set up on the H’jum’pta and accessed data through his interlink. He placed icons for assembling Alliance of Worlds fleets, the Aharri contingent, and some Hegemony or Betellian ships that indicated they would work with the Alliance. Evidently, now that long-range hyperspace torpedoes from the Rhendal sector could target actual Hegemony worlds and one of the Betellian world spheres, the more advanced civilizations would now work with the Alliance of Worlds against their common enemy. Peregrine made a short whistle sound thorough his beak that was more of a sigh. He realized now that general anxiety would become more prominent as the actual battles commenced.
CHAPTER 9
ENTER THE
STAR CITY
The Phoenix moved closer to one of the three massive, beak-like structures of the Star City. The maw of the beak area could swallow the Phoenix a thousand times over. Renjir had sent a request for docking access but had gotten no response. Nearby, the metallo-crystalline surface had been damaged where the Accadian antimatter pulse weapon had penetrated the defense screens, obliterating an entire section of the hull.
There were some energy pulses from the Star City, and it was determined that possibly one Accadian assault craft made it to the surface of the Star City intact. Alliance star-fighters sent to investigate were transmitted a warning to depart or be destroyed. As the Phoenix approached, it was the only ship not sent warnings. It was believed that Renjir’s presence on the Phoenix allowed its safe passage. There were several intense scans of the Phoenix as it passed into what was beyond the beak area. Inside, tractor beams nudged the Phoenix toward a series of adaptable gravitic clamps for a secured docking berth.
A Talcon ship that was headed out passed the Phoenix and grabbed a loose piece of debris and placed it inside its hull, continuing into space. It was followed by several others.
“They are automated tug and recycling ships,” Renjir said, “likely collecting the pieces of the mass-driven weapons and detached hull fragments for recycling.”
“I am not scanning any escort or security ships approaching us,” Ares stated.
“Yes, I find it odd, too; there should be some form of escort, and we have not been officially greeted,” Ambassador Renjir said. “I made a request earlier that I believe will allow us access to the inner docking area, but I have still not received any confirmation.” The Talcon ambassador continued to use a tablet communication device to access data and transmit from his ship in the Phoenix’s starfighter docks.
The crew watched from the bridge as they moved into the docking area. The view screen showed multiple rows of several huge pylons with the hinting glow of force fields between them. Beyond was another series of rows. There were docking facilities outside the pylons and force fields in the space the Phoenix now crossed. They could see some ships, two clearly larger than the Phoenix, in the docks. They were arranged around the interior of the beak area. The automated docking system drew the Phoenix deeper past the two successive rows of structural pylons.
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Commodore Sheppard watched through his small viewing portal and also on his office view screen as the Phoenix passed between the second set of pylons. He looked at his mentor, Garfield, who was looking with great interest out the port as well.
“I meant to ask about the Rhyn,” Sheppard said. “Was the meeting successful?”
“I think it was,” Garfield replied. “The Rhyn have developed some interesting methods to deal with the Varlon.”
“Are these original methods or similar to Hegemony methods?” Sheppard asked.
“The Rhyn use large drone ships, even larger than the H class. Those drone carriers separate into partially expendable sections, allowing strategic assaults. Their ships also release mines, and in addition, they use extensive fixed minefields as regional barriers.”
“That is a different approach; at least they have the constructive technology to build colossal ships. So, do we have a treaty with them then?” Sheppard asked.
“I think Ambassador Alotar and his staff will be completing the details of an affiliation or perhaps an alliance treaty with the Rhyn,” Garfield replied, “so I am confident some treaty will be arranged.”
Sheppard nodded as he marveled at the view of the interior section of the vast Star City.
They continued to look on as the Phoenix passed the next set of pylons and came to another docking area filled with Talcon starships. The automatic docking system guided and nudged the Phoenix toward one of the few open berths in the docking facility.
Sheppard said, “I think I may need to go on this contact mission personally, since I am the commanding officer for the sixth fleet, and I hope you will join me.”
