“The ship we fought against would blow right through those orbital defenses,” commented Hedon, recalling the energy weapons the Hocklyns had used against the light cruisers. “The only thing the orbital defenses might be good for is against their fighters and any missiles they might launch.”
“Several of our engineers and tacticians have suggested deploying larger satellites and missile platforms. We could place some Shrike missile platforms in orbit around the colonies. That might give their fleet pause to think before attacking one of our worlds.”
“Shrike missile platforms might work,” conceded Hedon nodding his head. “They have enough firepower to cause some damage. What worries me is the Hocklyn’s advantage in technology. Even in our brief encounter, it was obvious they had superior shields and weapons.”
“We know so little about the Hocklyn’s capabilities,” Admiral Kinseth spoke with a heavy frown. “You are to report to the StarStrike immediately. Your crew has been recalled, and you will be leaving the shipyard the day after tomorrow. I want your fleet to take up a defensive position in the New Providence System. The Victory is already en route and will be entering the shipyard’s main repair bay in the next day or so for updating. Your fleet will be augmented by four more destroyers as well as two more light cruisers. I am also assigning the Avenger to your fleet as well. Your fleet’s designation from now on will be First Fleet.”
“We will be ready, Admiral,” Hedon said, standing up. “The Hocklyns won’t get through us.”
“I pray that they don’t,” Admiral Kinseth said rising. He reached across his desk shook Hedon’s hand. “Our worlds are depending on the fleet, and we can’t let them down. I just hope that we’re wrong and the Hocklyns don’t attack.”
-
Hedon caught a shuttle back up to the massive orbiting shipyard above Tellus. The Tellus shipyard was the largest in the Federation. It held four self-contained construction bays capable of building new ships up to and including a 1,500-meter battle carrier. There were also eight repair bays and six additional docking ports for fleet ships. The shipyard stretched for kilometers. Hedon knew that the complete shipyard was nearly seven kilometers in length and three kilometers across. Nearly thirty thousand fleet personnel lived and worked in the shipyard every day.
As the shuttle approached the shipyard, he noticed that the StarStrike was docked to one of the anterior docking ports. His massive battle cruiser looked pristine and ready for battle. Even from here, he could see the armor looked darker where the new composite hull material had been added to strengthen the hull. He was surprised to see several full squadrons of Talon fighters on patrol around the shipyard. Hedon had a feeling that a heightened state of security had already been implemented at all the fleet’s facilities.
“We will be landing on the StarStrike shortly,” the pilot said, turning to look at Admiral Streth. The admiral was sitting directly behind the pilot in what would normally be the navigator’s position. This trip was so short that a navigator hadn’t been needed.
Hedon nodded his head and continued to study the massive shipyard. It gleamed brightly in the sunlight, and he could see a few of the station’s defensive batteries pointed out toward space. There was no doubt that the number of weapon batteries on the station would be increased substantially in the coming months. This shipyard would be Tellus’s main defense if the Hocklyns ever got this deep into the home system.
As he watched, the flight bay doors on the StarStrike slid open, and the shuttle banked toward it. The pilot was in communication with the flight operations officer in the flight bay. Moments later, the shuttle slid inside the large doors and landed in the cavernous bay.
“Good flight and landing Lieutenant,” Hedon spoke as he stood up.
“Thank you sir,” the pilot replied with a pleased smile. It wasn’t that often he got a thank you from an admiral.
Walking down the extended landing ramp, Hedon was met by Colonel Sheen. She had a relaxed look upon her face, and it was obvious to Hedon that her trip to see her parents had been well worth it. For that matter, his time off at his brother’s cabin had been a blessing. It had allowed him to put a lot of things in perspective as well as think about the best way to defend against a potential Hocklyn attack.
“Good to see you, sir,” Amanda said, pleased that the admiral was back on board the StarStrike. “We are ready to get underway as soon as you give the word.”
“How were your mom and dad?” Hedon asked. He had met Colonel Sheen’s father once at a fleet dinner.
“Great, sir,” Amanda replied, pleased that he had asked. “The trip home was just what I needed.”
“The entire crew got two weeks of R&R,” Hedon responded. “It may be the last we get for quite some time. Let’s go to the Command Center. We have a colony to defend.”
-
The StarStrike exited the blue-white vortex and was back once more in the New Providence System. They were instantly hailed by a light cruiser off their port bow. The cruiser was nearly two million kilometers away but had evidently been on high alert. This made Hedon smile. He knew that Admiral Flaxen was taking this threat extremely seriously.
“That was fast,” Colonel Sheen said, impressed as she looked at the plotting table, which showed the friendly green icon of the light cruiser.
“Once we reach New Providence, I plan on the two of us meeting with Admiral Flaxen. We need to discuss what needs to be done to strengthen this system’s defenses.”
The Victory arrived earlier today,” added Colonel Sheen, glancing at the admiral. “The Victory is already in one of the two construction bays beginning her refit.”
Hedon nodded. The battle carrier had arrived ahead of schedule. He wanted the battle carrier out of that construction bay as quickly as possible. “Contact Admiral Flaxen and tell him I would like to meet with him and his staff as soon as we’re docked.”
Colonel Sheen nodded and walked over to Communications. After talking briefly with Lieutenant Trask, the message was sent.
Hedon looked at the large central viewscreen on the front wall of the Command Center. It currently showed nothing but a sea of stars. For the moment, everything was peaceful. The civilian populations of the six inhabited human worlds of the Federation didn’t know what danger lay in their future. The president of the Federation was going to make a speech in two more days to describe the potential threat from the Hocklyns. At the same time, he would assure the public that everything possible was being done to ensure that their lives would continue uninterrupted.
-
Far off in distant space, the Hocklyn Slave Empire was already starting to marshal its forces. In a small, nondescript solar system, a massive fleet military base was the gathering point for the planned attack against this new space faring race that had recently been discovered. Already the word had been spread that a new glorious war of conquest would soon be launched. It would take several months for word of the new war to spread across the thousands of light years of the massive slave empire.
First Leader Regith was standing rigidly at attention in front of Fleet Commodore Anglert. This was his fourth day of intense questioning about the loss of the support cruiser Daedem.
“From the reports sent from the Daedem, I still don’t see how those two human cruisers could destroy our ship,” the commodore spoke in a most displeased voice.
“The Daedem was not destroyed by the humans,” Regith replied in a respectful tone. “The ship was destroyed by its own self -destruct charges.”
“So it seems,” responded the commodore, taping his light green breastplate armor with the tip of one of his fingers. His eyes grew into slits as he gazed at First Leader Regith. “What threat could have caused First Leader Grethen to activate those charges and destroy his ship?”
“That is unknown,” Regith replied in a steady voice. “His ship was destroyed immediately after he sent the information on the location of four of the human colony worlds. He was going to attempt to disable the t
wo human warships and board them. He felt their computers would hold additional information about their military forces. Also, by capturing the ships, we could learn more about their technology.”
“A mystery indeed,” Commodore Anglert spoke in an unsatisfied voice. “Evidently he failed in his attempt to disable the two human cruisers and had to destroy his own ship.”
The commodore didn’t like the fact that they had stumbled across a highly advanced civilization. Their lords and masters would expect the Hocklyns to neutralize this potential threat and bring these human worlds into the empire as soon as possible. There would be much glory and wealth for a few fortunate individuals. For others, there might be death. Most of the civilizations they came across were weak and easy conquests.
“You have done well bringing back this valuable information to the empire,” Anglert spoke in his rasping voice. “Your family will be amply rewarded after the human worlds are brought into the empire. Return to your ship until I have need of you again.”
After Regith left, Commodore Anglert walked over to the large reinforced glass window that looked out over the world they had constructed their fleet base upon. Outside snow and ice fell, and the wind howled. This was not a world that was hospitable to life. Even their reptilian species could only move about outside in environmental suits. It was not uncommon for the simple laborers to die from the dismal conditions upon the planet’s surface. Many of those laborers were slaves from conquered planets. Anglert felt no pity for them. They were replaceable. There were hundreds of billions of slaves in the empire.
For several minutes, Commodore Anglert gazed outside. He knew it would take several months to gather the fleet, and then more information would have to be gathered about these humans. Most importantly, where was their home world located? By studying the location of the four colonies they knew about, it should be possible to narrow the search parameters considerably. Idly, Commodore Anglert wondered if he should command the attack fleets. Four new worlds or more brought into the empire could bring tremendous wealth and prestige to his family for generations.
-
On board the massive shipyard that orbited New Providence, Admiral Streth and Colonel Sheen were meeting with Admiral Flaxen and his staff. Everyone was aware of the current situation. Now was the time to make plans for the future defense of the system.
“The Hocklyns currently only know about our light cruisers,” Colonel Sheen spoke to the assembled group. “It might be to our advantage to keep our heavy cruisers and battle carriers a secret for as long as possible.”
“That might be difficult,” Admiral Flaxen spoke his eyes narrowing slightly. “It won’t be easy to hide warships of their size. We also don’t know what the Hocklyn’s sensor range is.”
“We need to look at anything that might give us an advantage,” Admiral Streth spoke. “For the time being, we will assume that their sensor range is similar to ours. What kind of additional defenses can the shipyard be equipped with?”
“Ever since we heard about the possible Hocklyn threat, we have been running computer simulations on how best to defend the shipyard,” chief engineer Strickland replied. He had been on Admiral Flaxen’s staff for two years now.
“We have been using Ariel on the Avenger and Clarissa on the Vindication to help,” Admiral Flaxen added.
“Have the AIs been useful?” Admiral Streth asked curiously. It had never occurred to him to use the two AIs in such a manner.
“We currently have eighteen defensive turrets on the station and four Shrike missile pods,” Strickland continued. “Ariel and Clarissa have given us plans that include increasing the defensive turrets to ninety-six, adding twenty-four secondary offensive turrets, and twelve Shrike missile pods.”
“That’s a big increase in firepower,” Colonel Sheen said, amazed that the AIs had come up with those suggestions. The AIs continued to surprise her. She was beginning to think they might be more useful in this current situation than the StarStrike’s own computer.
“Not only that,” Admiral Flaxen spoke, arching his eyebrow. “They have suggested putting a ring of defensive platforms around the station. These would include an additional four Shrike missile platforms, twenty purely defensive platforms, and sixteen medium offensive rail gun platforms.”
“What about fighters?” Admiral Streth asked. The shipyard’s Talon fighters could be extremely useful in a fleet engagement. The fighters could be equipped with two medium missiles to be used against enemy capital ships.
“We can base ten full squadrons on the shipyard,” Admiral Flaxen informed Admiral Streth. “If we have time, we may be able to build two more flight bays on the aft side of the station that could hold an additional six squadrons.”
Admiral Streth nodded; everything so far sounded extremely good. He also had a few ideas of his own he wanted to run across Admiral Flaxen and his staff. This was going to be a long meeting.
-
After the meeting, Amanda was walking through the shipyard. Major Andrews had volunteered to show her around. Amanda had been on the shipyard several times, but had never had the opportunity to see much of it. Richard Andrews was a tall dark headed man with rich brown eyes. He was also Admiral Flaxen’s chief of staff.
“How long have you been on the station?” Amanda asked as they walked along a corridor that led to one of the repair bays.
“Almost three years,” Richard replied as they reached a large metal hatch. Richard entered a command code on the touch pad next to the hatch, and the large metal door swung open.
Stepping through, they walked along another short corridor, and after going through another hatch found themselves standing in one of the large construction bays. A Monarch Class Cruiser was currently in the bay being updated.
“So that’s a Monarch cruiser,” Amanda said looking at the large ship. She knew the cruiser was 800 meters long and 200 meters wide. When fully updated it would be a powerful addition to the fleet.
“That is the Crucible,” Richard informed Amanda pointing at the name of the ship on its bow.
Amanda gazed at the ship, noting numerous workers and construction robots swarming over the hull. The construction robots resembled giant spiders and could be programmed to do almost any construction job.
“How long before the refit is complete?”
“A little over two months,” replied Richard, wishing it could be done quicker. “We have to replace all of the hull armor and install completely new weapons systems. That’s just the beginning. We’re almost building a new warship.”
“What about the other Monarch cruiser we’re supposed to get. Is it here also?”
“Yes, it’s in the other construction bay. Both ships should be done with their refit about the same time.”
After asking a few more questions, Amanda followed Richard out of the bay, and they headed toward the station’s Command Center. The Command Center was located in the center of the massive station.
Stepping into the Command Center, Amanda was amazed at its size. As she gazed around, she could see dozens of consoles and screens scattered across the large room. The room was easily fifty meters across. There were a series of very large viewscreens on one wall. Looking at the screens, Amanda noticed that several screens were focused on the planet below. The others were focused into space. A few of the screens showed nothing but star scenes, and others showed different ships in orbit around the planet.
“We don’t only monitor our warships, we also keep track of all the civilian traffic in the system,” Richard explained. “Every ship that leaves the system must clear its flight with us. That way if a ship goes missing we know which ship it is, the time it should have taken for that ship to reach its destination, as well as its projected flight path.”
Looking around the large Command Center, Amanda noticed that everyone looked very professional in their jobs. She almost felt as if she was back on the battle cruiser in its Command Center, except this one was much larger.
�
�If the Hocklyns attack, the defense of this system will be coordinated from here. If they give us enough time, we will be a hard nut to crack.”
“I just hope they do give us the time,” replied Amanda, letting out a sigh. “We know so little about them.”
“We will learn more when and if they attack,” Richard replied in a confident tone. Then with a smile, he looked over at Amanda. “The officer’s mess is just down the corridor. Want to get a bite to eat? It’s been a long day.”
“Sounds great,” replied Amanda, realizing that she was ravenous. She hadn’t eaten since earlier that morning, and that had just been a quick snack.
The two went down the corridor and Amanda soon found herself enjoying a surprisingly good meal. Richard and she began talking, and she was pleasantly surprised to find out how much they had in common. He enjoyed traveling and loved to go diving. Amanda told him about her father’s house on Krall Island and the night dives he occasionally took her out on. For nearly an hour, they talked before Amanda informed Richard that she should get back to the StarStrike.
As she made her way back to the docking port, Amanda realized that Richard was someone she would like to get to know better. Perhaps over the coming months she might allow that to happen.
Chapter Five
Admiral Streth was in his quarters with Admiral Flaxen reviewing the latest readiness reports sent to him from Fleet Command. Admiral Kinseth was sending daily updates to the admirals of all four of the fleet’s battle cruisers in order to keep them apprised of current developments. It had been over six weeks since Hedon’s return from Stalor Four and already much had been accomplished. All four of the fleet’s powerful battle cruisers had been updated and redeployed. A battle cruiser and a fleet task force had been assigned to each colony system.
Of the fleet’s six battle carriers, three were still in the process of being updated and would be out of the shipyards in two more weeks. Two would be assigned to protect the home system, and one each would be assigned to the colony worlds. The Victory was due out of New Providence’s shipyard in two more days. That would significantly strengthen First Fleet.
The Slaver Wars: Alien Contact Page 10
