by Gary Caplan
Kra’ag smiled, “Kir…it’s been a century since I battled with him personally.” He gave a vicious laugh. “Coming to this galaxy has been beneficial; first some Quellien, now Kir, and if the reports are correct, another deposit of Quellien crystals may be present.”
“Yes, things are not as dreary as I thought at first, either; we have a trade treaty with the Saldron who, being reptilian like we are, have agreed not to interfere with our present plans. In the end, we will have two co-rulers—the Varlon and the Saldron—and we need no others.”
“Yes, Mor’ag, and once I have the actual confirmation of Quellien, I will report the news to the Archon,” Kra’ag said. “Of course, it’s not best to let our allies know our true potential power. It is unfortunate for us that the Varlon dig in to the worlds they conquer and already have over one-quarter of this galaxy under their domain. Otherwise we would not need them as allies.”
“Yes, they would be too much trouble to get rid of,” Mor’ag replied.
“Now let me show you my plans,” Kra’ag said as Mor’ag moved closer to observe the imaging system and the supreme governor’s latest strategy.
* * *
As the Phoenix left hyperspace, a short whirling tunnel distortion connected the ship to normal space. Then the sub-light engines activated and propelled the Phoenix to the third planet and to the rendezvous coordinates. The Phoenix arrived along with a few other Alliance cruisers. The Aharri were already waiting and orbiting the planet as the Alliance task force moved toward orbit. Information came to acting Admiral Sheppard that the Aharri had organized their ships in accordance with the usual Alliance of Worlds’ task force organization and had divided into two groups of twelve ships each.
It had been several months since Sheppard had spoken with Captain Klein Harrolid, who had helped his remaining ships with a joint task force rescue mission at QB7. Harrolid had evidently been promoted and was in charge of the two task forces that the Aharri designated to join with the sixth fleet. Acting Commodore Sherman had planned to separate those ships and integrate them with four task forces within the sixth fleet. Sheppard agreed that some integration was necessary and was going to talk to Harrolid about those plans.
Communication signals from the Aharri arrived at the bridge of the Phoenix and the contained information was placed on visual imaging using one-quarter of the available view screen. There was a minimal pause as the Aharri data streams were received, translated, and integrated; then an image appeared of a vaguely humanoid life form. The Aharris’ skin was slightly bluish, they had smaller external ears than humans, and they followed the bilateral symmetry of a humanoid form.
“Greetings from the Aharri,” Harrolid said. The image view included part of his bridge and a few other Aharri.
“Fleet Captain Klein Harrolid, welcome to the sixth fleet,” Sheppard said. “I hope you don’t mind, but we may have to integrate your ships to fit into the Alliance task force groups.”
“Since we are joining you, I don’t see a problem,” said Harrolid. “However, I would like to help organize that.”
“That’s reasonable; we thought to divide your twenty-four ships into three or four groups and place them with different task forces within the sixth.”
“My officers and I can work with Fleet Captain Sherman on the details,” Harrolid replied. “I also have the honor of being one of our legates to the Alliance of Worlds.”
“In that case, as legate, if there are any integration issues, you can talk directly to me,” Sheppard said. “I am officially the highest Alliance of Worlds officer for the sixth fleet.”
“To mark this historic joint action,” Harrolid said, “I would like to invite you and your senior officers aboard my command cruiser for a commemorative meal and social gathering.”
“I would be happy to accept,” Sheppard replied, “hopefully soon, once we check the duty scheduling so that a gathering can be arranged. I will have Fleet Captain Sherman contact you shortly.”
“I look forward to our future meeting then,” Harrolid said. He nodded and hand saluted, to which Sheppard returned an Alliance salute. Then the view screen returned to a larger space view. Sheppard decided to arrange for Fleet Captain Harrolid’s command ship and four other Aharri ships to be integrated into an expanded Task Force One; the rest, Sherman and Harrolid could organize.
CHAPTER 13
ONBOARD
THE PHOENIX
Lieutenant Commander Lee Sterling, Phoenix’s second officer, had just finished briefing Commander York on the previous duty shift’s activities. York would later review the crew reports in more detail. York was fairly happy with this posting. As first officer, he got to command the Phoenix at times. Why, even Commodore Sheppard took a shift once a month to maintain his bridge command efficiency even though he was usually in command as acting Admiral for the sixth fleet. Sheppard had requested that his presence on the bridge not be announced when he moved to the bridge to observe. Yesterday, Sterling worked with Commodore Grey, who was the sixth fleet’s chief medical officer, since Grey occasionally took bridge command duty to maintain his bridge operations skills. Grey also did that monthly. He was one of the few physicians in the sixth fleet with command authorization, but he preferred to work in med bay.
The interesting composition of the bridge crew was organized by Captain Wilder and had been approved by Commodore Sheppard. Sterling knew both had predilections for maintaining compatible races or groups of humanoids on the bridge. Sterling learned that both men preferred to simply avoid unnecessary difficulties such as crewmembers having notable differences in temperature, atmospheric preference, or cultural differences in the nerve center of a starship.
Sterling looked around the bridge; Azurians and humans had moderate to high compatibility ratings on many issues. As a result, Lieutenant Pelori, an Azurian, was at the navigation station. Sterling looked at the back of Lieutenant Peri Pelori’s powder-blue neck and face and at her white hair as she finished briefing the navigation officer who was taking over monitoring the navigation for this duty shift. Even though the computer did most of the monitoring and course correction, a navigator’s presence was still required as manual back up for safety and other reasons. That was true for most of the bridge stations.
Sterling was also preparing part-time for the commander’s exam. He hoped to soon take this and, eventually, the captain’s tactical exam. However, today he had Kosho practice. After a short meal, Lee Sterling met Ares, Darani, Pelori, and a few other crewmembers for some Kosho practice. Crew used physical activities and sports to maintain their level of overall fitness.
Ares was going to partner up and practice with Sterling and Pelori today, so she and Sterling checked the trampoline and the placement of the mats. They also checked the water levels of the encircling pools of water. It was a practice game, and sometimes it was good to play against others not on one’s immediate team. Ares said it gave her perspective into how a potential opponent might play. They got prepared for the practice; Ares entered the locker room to change. Males and females shared the sports facility changing room and health spa, but there were several secluded changing rooms for observing cultural mores. Additionally, adjacent to the three main recreation centers onboard the Phoenix were holo-grid chambers. These chambers had readying rooms used to gear up for various simulated outdoor activities. The holo-grid chambers were a section of the recreation facility used for simulated entertainment or for various types of training or even combat simulation. Robots, androids, and holographic imagery were used to simulate the environmental situations.
Pelori was in good spirits and commented, “I’m glad they are still going to have the planetary Olympics.”
“Yes, indeed, in the middle of all the war problems, we still get together for sport,” Sterling said, as he left for his section of the changing area.
“I agree; the planetary Olympics are good for morale,” Ares said. “As we eventually head to Rhendal sector, free time will become scarce.” Pe
lori and Sterling nodded.
Lyra Darani sat down not far from the others. “I have heard reports of regional piracy in the Rhendal sector,” she said, as she changed into her sports clothes.
“There may be one or two nonaligned worlds taking advantage of the situation,” Pelori said, as she finished changing into her sport clothes and close-fitting comfort shorts.
“Yes, I heard some reports of the Meiosians possibly supporting that,” Ares said. Sterling looked glum, remembering the Meiosian wars his grandfather had told him about.
“That sounds like something the Meiosians might do,” Sterling said, as he, too, finished changing—although he was in an adjacent section to allow the females some privacy.
“All right, let’s get going; the other team is here,” Sterling said, checking his commlink.
There were a few new variations of Kosho; however, the team sport was a blend of sports games not only from Earth but also from other member worlds. As was typical with Kosho matches, they began and ended with a bow to the opponents. Some matches even had Oriental-sounding, pentatonic music played on ethnic instruments. The team version had at least six players on a team. They had to place a hand-sized ball into a foot-wide ring on opposing sides of the Kosho court.
The team game of Kosho was played in an arena with usually two and sometimes three trampolines, depending on area style. There were also two pools set in the floor— six-foot-by-eight-foot tanks of water—adjacent to the trampolines. The tanks were bordered on one side by a wall with an angled ledge and handrail. The ends of the sports arena also had half-circle water tanks that were located near the scoring ring. It was two points for getting the ball through the ring. When not in use, the tanks could be sealed, as during a starship’s acceleration or deceleration procedure. The room also had effectively three-quarters of standard gravity. Each team’s goalkeeper wore protective headgear as well as a boxing glove on one hand and a lighter padded glove on the other to catch or throw the ball.
While moving freely in three dimensions, team members attempted to score by throwing the ball through the ring, and they could also knock, push, or throw each other into the water pools if they were carrying the ball. Within the context of the social organization, the popular game provided a way for many of the crewmembers of the Phoenix to work off their frustrations and their aggressive energies in a relatively safe and controlled setting.
Several initial rounds had been played as they passed the ball and dodged or jumped from trampoline to trampoline, trying to intercept or capture the ball while avoiding the pool. Lyra Darani bounce-passed the ball to Ares. Now Ares had the ball; she had only been splashed, and the water tightened her sports shirt around her athletic body. She jumped on the trampoline and over the pool past the opposing guard. She blocked another player as she landed and rolled on the mat, the ball never touching the ground, as she got up and shouldered another opponent, a Tyrian, into the water. She surged up and forward toward the goal area and blocked a strike by the opposing team’s goalkeeper, a human from Tokyo on Earth. Sterling covered her by helping block another person. She then dodged past and hurled the ball through the ring.
A few spectators who had gathered cheered when Ares scored; the applause was brief, as the other team had the ball now. Pelori was blocking and stopped the other team’s leader from scoring, but he passed the ball to his teammate, and they moved past Pelori. Darani jumped on the trampoline to pass the pool, landed with a roll, and then blocked the opposing shooter interfering with the accuracy of his shot. The ball missed and was picked up by Ensign Hays, who was their goalkeeper.
The ball was intercepted halfway down as Nigel Wu, an opposing crew playing guard position, bumped Sterling into the pool. Wu took the ball and carried it back down to Hays, who only partially blocked it again. Hays was unable to grab it to pass it to Sterling, who was open. Ares rushed to defend and used the trampoline to bounce forward; she rolled and landed in position—an impressive physical feat—but she was not in position to capture the rebound. Wu’s teammate bounced it back to him, and he scored as Hays fell into the pool trying to block the shot. The referee computer called halftime, and each team took a break. Ares and Darani dried off from the pool splash made by their goalkeeper, Hays, as he fell in.
* * *
Sheppard was in his office and had been talking with his friend, Commodore Brandon Avery, who was going to be promoted soon. Now that the Androsynth and shape-shifter assassins who were targeting senior officers, ministers, and various critical buildings at Star One had been captured, Avery decided it was safe to accept a promotion; he had only put it off for a year. He was three years ahead in the fourth year class at the academy, but he and Sheppard had become friends then.
Sheppard said, “It’s good you’re taking the promotion to vice admiral, Brandon.”
“Yeah, in a few weeks it will be official,” Avery replied. “Like you, I passed the task force operations and tactics exams for the rank of fleet captain and the fleet operations exams for commodore.”
“Those were tough tests. Life was easier back in the academy days,” Sheppard said, continuing their earlier reminiscing, “although there was a lot of coursework to learn, and I spent I lot of time reading and taking simulation tests.”
The red alert alarm sounded behind Commodore Avery, who looked worried for a moment and then accessed his interlink.”
“Freg, some long-range type of Varlon hyperspace torpedoes are heading for Star One,” Avery said. He accessed the external sensor data and viewed a tactical image of the approaching torpedoes. As a courtesy, he linked that to Sheppard across the active hyperspace link.
Sheppard stood up, about ready to tell Wilder to set an emergency course to Star One. “They must have established launching bases closer and within the critical range,” Sheppard said.
Avery examined the tactical display. “Our point defense stations surrounding Star One are having difficulty targeting the chameleon-cloaked torpedoes—but don’t worry, the shields and auxiliary screens are up.” Sheppard could see a fluctuation of the lights in Avery’s office representing power transfers.
Sheppard said, “More than half of the sixth fleet is headed or will be headed to Rhendal soon to join with the other fleets into an armada to repel the Varlon from Rhendal.”
“Another one got through the point defense cannons; a little tremor there,” Avery said. “I think we are going to have to brace for some impacts from this long-range barrage.”
“Be safe. I will talk with you later,” Sheppard said.
“Acknowledged, Robert. I’d better get moving. I have to organize security and coordinate with damage control.” The communication ended, and Sheppard wondered about the implication of the new threat to Star One.
CHAPTER 14
NEW
DEVELOPMENTS
Sheppard had received information and a request from his Star Knight order to assist in a planned attack against one of the Varlon’s new long-range torpedo-launching facilities. Another facility had come online and was sending barrages toward various civilizations, not just the Alliance of Worlds. The closer range of these new facilities meant that the interceptor ships had less time to locate Varlon hyperspace torpedoes with chameleon system countermeasures. Even though they had long distances to travel, usually at least one chameleon-cloaked Varlon torpedo got through and struck some planet, causing panic before planetary point defense or anti-torpedo interceptors could hunt for them. The Alliance used intermittent charged particle fields to detect the incoming torpedo trails; however, that relied on likely trajectory paths and was like tossing sand grains out into space and waiting for something to disturb the particles. Now that the launching facilities were closer, there was less time to intercept the incoming chameleon-field-defended torpedoes, and a few grams of antimatter left a large crater.
Now with duties in Quellus Sector wrapping up, Sheppard could arrange to go to the Rhendal sector. He had requested to go on a special mission but sti
ll had to hear back from his superiors. Sheppard had finished arranging task force mission assignments with his fleet coordinating officer, Commodore Sherman. He had already had his weekly virtual interlink meeting with the other commodores commanding task forces in the sixth fleet. It was then that he got a hyperspace contact from Grand Admiral Pendragon. Sheppard had inquired earlier if Pendragon could speak with him. The imager created a virtual Pendragon in the commodore’s office as the interlink channel was established.
“I hope you’re having a better day than I am,” Pendragon said.
“Things have quieted down, Sir, since we have been patrolling,” Sheppard said. “Only the one Varlon patrol appeared and was intercepted by some of my task forces headed into Quellus Sector.”
“Well, that is reasonable stress. I have been coordinating with other grand admirals to obtain enough ships for a swift mobile strike fleet to go into Rhendal sector,” Pendragon said. “Not only that, but Defense Minister Orlond has placed me as one of three advisors available to the Rhyn for their upcoming offensive.”
“So you will eventually be leading the reorganized first fleet to Rhendal sector,” Sheppard said.
“Yes, Robert, I will be eventually. That is why I need to assemble some of the faster ships to provide reserve support for Admiral Peregrine’s offensive.”
“It’s good to know I won’t be the only one to get there after Peregrine starts the main Alliance offensive,” Sheppard said.
“It will be at least another week before I leave for Rhendal sector,” Pendragon said. “Even with swift ships traveling in hyperspace effectively near 200,000c, it’s going to take another two weeks to get to the battle front.”
“Sir, my ‘order’ of Star Knights has requested my aid,” Sheppard said. Pendragon raised an eyebrow. “The action will be to deal with one of the Varlon’s new long-range, torpedo-launching facilities,” Sheppard explained.
