Lee thought of the Lieutenant who had apparently piloted the pirate ship back to Perigee Station. It had been Lee who had suggested to Chang that the rescued pilot be allowed to join the crew of the Liberty as a kind of spy to keep tabs on Jakes. She had jumped at the chance to throw off the conventions of military service and get her hand dirty. The last time Lee had seen the woman; she had shaved her hair short and dyed it white, but looked happy to be working for someone again.
“Okay, Commodore,” Lee said, trying to accept what he had been told. “I get it; we need to go to Karisia. Now what is this Alliance, Kama told me about?”
Chang looked for a moment as if he wanted to sigh. Like most lifetime military men, Chang disliked civilian authority when it was pressed upon him and it looked as if that was what had happened. The commodore sat up straighter and pursed his lips before replying.
“A few weeks ago,” the man started. “Banu Rao declared that Perigee Station had formed a government and formally separated us from the old Confederation. We held a council meeting and decided to call the new government the Alliance. Originally, some of the captains wanted to call it the Terran Alliance, but your friend Ortiz convinced them to keep our home planet out of it. He said we didn’t want to alienate other species.”
“That sounds like Alfredo,” Lee replied, thinking of his old friend’s sense of humor. “How much time do we have?”
“Not much, Lee,” Chang replied, looking away from the screen for a moment. “We can provision you from the hydroponics bay and try to restore what we can. It looks like you guys saw a lot of action on this trip.”
“Too much,” said Lee, thinking about the damage to his ship. “We can get her up to speed fast if we need to, Commodore.”
“That’s good,” replied Chang. “We have already sent the Terran Hope to Karisia as an evacuation vessel. She can hold over twenty thousand if we need her to.”
“Captain Ortiz?” Lee said, worried about his friend. “Did you send an escort?”
“Yes. We sent Mars with the Hope to keep the old girl safe,” Chang said with a grin. “Don’t worry; we know what we’re doing.”
“Sorry, Commodore,” replied Lee sheepishly. “It’s just that the Hope was my home and family for so long. You said Jakes stayed behind? Where are Melaina and Tuxor?”
“They stayed with Heyerdahl and the pirates on Karisia,” Chang answered. “Bonnie said they were doing alright and had landed on the surface.”
Lee thought of the olive skinned woman with fondness. She had once seemed to be falling for him back when they still lived on the Terran Princess, but he had chosen to pursue Alice instead. The woman was a brilliant scientist and a very gentle soul as far as Lee could tell and he hoped that she was being kept safe.
“I see,” Lee said, raising an eyebrow. “We’ll get docked as soon as we can, Commodore, but I really do have news for you that might be handy in our present situation.”
“You can report to me on the Baal after you dock, Lee,” Chang said. “I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be my first debriefing as a Commodore.”
“Ron, you really need to hear this now.” Lee said, emphasizing the importance of what he needed to say. “I think you will really…”
“Jump point opening behind us, Sir,” said Farthing from the Communications station. “It’s a big one, Captain.”
“Go to alert status, Kama,” said Chang on the screen. “Scrabble fighters and ready station defenses.”
“Commodore!” Lee yelled over the channel. “Stand down! It’s what I have been trying to tell you.”
Chang looked away from the screen to something on his own bridge. For a moment, Lee wasn’t sure that the man as even still listening to him, but finally the man turned back. Lee saw the defense console light up as targets started to form on his scanner. He noted that Perigee Station had turned on their shields and now glow a faint cyan.
“If you know something, Lee,” demanded Chang. “You had better speak up now.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, sir,” Lee said, standing. “I brought friends.”
The swirl of energy swirled behind the battleship, obscuring the local star from the view of the station. First through was the Carrier, Zeus followed by the battle cruiser Genghis Khan. After that came the destroyers and cruisers and finally the support and logistics ships. By the time the vortex closed, the number of ships in the local area had more than doubled and the commodore’s face had gone a shade paler. A small icon appeared in the corner of the view screen indicating that there was an incoming transmission and Lee had the screen split.
“This is Captain Dalton of the Confederation Carrier Zeus,” said the face appearing on the view screen. “Who is in command, here?”
“That would be me, Captain Dalton,” replied Chang, regaining his composure. “Welcome to the Alliance. We’ve been waiting for you.”
19
Lee Pearce strode along the central corridor of the battleship Resolute, surveying the repairs and comforting his crew. They had been through so much with him in the last few weeks and he was proud that when he announced their new mission, they did not hesitate to return to work without complaint. Now they were all focused on what was certainly going to be one of their toughest battles yet as the ship prepared to leave Perigee station. His chief engineer, a human named Roy Booth, had assured him that the ship would not only be space worthy, but that the Elves had taken time to improve many of the ship’s systems during the quick refit.
Chang had given them forty-eight hours to complete any repairs and resupply the ship. On the eve of a major battle that did not seem like enough, but Lee knew that with his crew, forty-eight hours was practically an eternity. He stopped his wanderings to help a crewman lift a support truss into place that ran over the corridor. The weapon that had hit them before they met up with Zeus had been nearly devastating to his old ship and even though the engineers had ensured him that the ship was structurally sound, there was still much work to do.
The corridors on a battleship of Resolute’s vintage were not like the ones on modern warships. Carriers, like Baal and Zeus were equipped with accelerated energy conduits that provided power to almost all of the daily systems. These conduits were hidden behind thick bulkheads that ran between decks and were protected from damage by layers of shielding. The Independence class battleships were smaller and had the power conduits lining the walls. It made the corridors more narrow and rectangular shaped in contrast to the wide, octagonal corridors of the newest ships.
He continued down the hallway, avoiding his crew as they rushed to their duty stations or carried equipment. He thought of the crew he had lost during this last mission and how much he had come to care for them. In a way, he was lucky, though, as a captain in this new Alliance. Very few of the crew had any family left and the ones that did were either at the station or on an alien world and unavailable to receive transmissions. It was a sad irony that in the age of technology surrounded by energy conduits and advanced weapons systems, that he could not write a simple letter of condolence for one of his crew.
Lee neared the end of the central corridor and stepped to the airlock doors that separated the main part of the ship from the Engineering deck. Sealed in case of accident, the entire rear quarter of the battleship was taken up with the powerful fusion reactor and plasma accelerators that powered most of the ship and her engines. He stepped into the airlock and waited for it to cycle. He felt his ears pop slightly as the pressure changed from the outside crew area to the refined atmosphere of the heart of his ship.
Entering Engineering, Lee was always amazed at the sheer size of the open space. Although he had been in larger areas such as the hangar deck of the Cruise ship Terran Princess, he had never remembered being in an area so totally dedicated to moving parts. The noise of the deck was incredible and Lee reached for the ear protection that always hung on a peg by the airlock door. After fitting the sound-dampening earphones, he stepped into the chaos of
the Engine Room.
Roy Booth was an average sized redhead with a constant harassed expression on his face. Like many engineers that Lee had met, he felt that it was his responsibility to protect the ship from its captain and crew who seemed hell-bent on destroying her. Although the man could be difficult to work with in times of stress, after hours, when the two men met in the Officer’s Mess, Booth could let loose like one of Jakes’ pirates on a rampage.
Lee searched for the man amid the rushing crewmen and firing pistons. The man was easy to spot over the heads of his own crew because of the unkempt shock of orange-red hair. Lee had once joked that Booth looked as if he had been set on fire by one of the accelerated plasma bolts that the battleship fired at the enemy. Booth had just scowled and stalked away, apparently thinking that his captain had thought the situation too much.
“Commander Booth,” yelled Lee over the sound of machinery. “Can I have a status update?”
Booth looked over to his captain with his familiar sour expression. He stopped for a moment to say something to one of his people and then walked over to see Lee. The captain noticed that he was chewing on what looked like a cigar as he made his way over. Lee had never heard of someone using tobacco on a battleship before and wondered why the Chief Engineer would introduce so obviously filthy habit into the otherwise pristine workplace.
“Is that a cigar, Commander?” Lee asked the man as he approached, still yelling to be heard with the headphones in place. “I can’t allow that in the Engine Room, Roy.”
Booth looked at Lee as if his captain was insane. He raised his meaty hand to his own headphones and tapped a control on the side. Lee reached up and pressed a small button on the left side. Booth then held up three fingers and Lee turned the small dial three positions. There was a snap and Lee could hear the other man breathing through the short range radio transceiver.
“Is nae a cigar, Captain,” said the engineer in a thick brogue. “I jes’ keep this thing here to give my mouth somthin’ to do rather than yell at the officers, sair.”
Lee saw the man take the object out of his mouth and twirl it around his fingers. It appeared to be a kind of thick rubber sponge that had thick bite marks on one end. He waved the cigar-thing away as Booth offered it to him, not wanting to touch the pacifier that had been in the engineer’s mouth.
“Are we going to be ready, Commander?” Lee asked. “We are leaving in two hours just behind the rest of the fleet.”
“Not if ye keep askin’ me that question, we won’t” Booth replied, sticking the cigar-surrogate back in his mouth. “I don’t have time ta’ be jawin’ with ye now, do I?”
“What about the new systems, will they be online when we leave?” Lee asked. “Do you need any additional assistance?”
“Captain, please,” Booth said, a tone of exasperation entering his voice. “The wee fairies are already crowdin’ out most of my men. If ye send any more creatures down here, they’ll jes’ get in the way.”
Lee looked at the rounded and shielded reactor core that sat centrally on the deck. There was a sense of movement from the giant sphere as it sat still on the deck. Lee had asked about the effect once and been told that the space warping effects of the M-space vortex projector made the reactor itself waver between real space and the membranous alternate dimension. A centrifugal torque generator compensated to keep the reactor from twisting itself out of the ship, but Lee still felt slight nausea as he looked at the modified fusion reactor.
There were several conduits transmitting energy to the other systems into the room and Lee could see the little white creatures crawling over the thick, shielded conduits like insects on a carcass. Their translucent hairs were streaming along the tubes, checking for micro-fractures that even Booth’s equipment could not detect. They seemed to be finishing their inspection as several of them dropped noiselessly to the floor and scurried off into another corner of the room.
“How they do what they do I’ll never know, Captain,” said Booth. “But I’m glad they’re doin’ it nonetheless. The ship will be ready for battle before we pull away from the station, Captain. I guarantee it myself.”
Lee nodded and looked around the cavernous space. The engineering crews were all wearing thick armored suits that protected them from some of the effects of the M-space engines. The suits were a bright orange with white controls for environmental controls in case of a breach in any of the ship’s systems. Lee knew that if there were a reactor breach, though, the suits would only protect the crew for a matter of seconds before they torn apart by the stresses of cross-dimensional warping.
“Thank you, Commander,” said Lee, turning to leave. “I’m sure you have everything under control. I’ll get out of your way.”
The Chief Engineer grunted as Lee began to depart. The captain entered the airlock again after hanging up his earphones. He waited for the lock to cycle and wondered how the engineer had ever made it through the academy with his attitude. In the long run, though, it didn’t matter. The man was a competent engineer despite his gruff disposition.
Leaving the airlock, Lee decided that he had put off his next task for far too long. He found the nearest lift and took it to the flight deck where Alice was supervising the placement of the advanced Peregrine fighters that the Demon Squadron flew. The hangar deck had nearly been destroyed by the Ch’Tauk attack and they had needed to jettison almost everything that had been in the bay except the fighters when they entered M-space. Now, the flight crews were busy trying to get their new tools in order and the fighters ready for combat. A new set of doors had betted hastily and they required alignment before the battleship could set off again.
Exiting the lift, he nearly collided with a felinoid ensign who was carrying a stack of trays. Lee stepped aside quickly to avoid getting gravy over his new navy blue uniform shirt and tan slacks. He had been issued the uniform after meeting with Chang upon their return. It seemed that Banu Rao had been very busy forming a civilian government; and making sure that the military knew that they worked for it. He had also been instrumental in the design of the new uniforms. Lee now knew that he worked for the newly named Alliance Military Fleet Service and that the former Terran Confederacy had become a true piece of the past.
Lee entered the small hangar bay to find the woman he loved hanging upside down from the scaffolding above his head. She was shouting at a crane operator who was trying to set a Peregrine fighter down onto the large painted circle in the center of the landing area. The man looked frustrated as Alice shouted orders at him not to set the fighter down there.
“If you put that ship down there,” she yelled, pointing over her head at the floor. “Then where do you expect to put number three?”
“Alice,” Lee shouted. “Would you let that man do his job?”
“I will when he starts to do it right,” she yelled back.
For a heart stopping moment, Lee thought that Alice had allowed her legs to slip and she was falling to her death in the bay. She had straightened her knees, allowing her body to fall away from the ceiling and towards the deck below. Halfway down, she twisted in the air and began to fall feet first. She decelerated during the maneuver just enough that when she landed on the floor, she did not break her legs in the process.
“I’ve got the gravity off above ten feet,” she said, seeing Lee’s reaction to the fall. “It was easier to move the ships around.”
She stepped over to him, leaning slightly to kiss him on the lips. He had asked her not to show affection for him in front of the rest of the crew, but she continued to slip him a peck or two now and then. He pulled back and looked at her face for a moment. She had not really aged since she had introduced herself over a year ago, but she did seem to have matured. She smiled at him when she noticed that he was looking at her.
“What is it, Lee?” Alice asked. “Is something wrong with the ship?”
“No,” he replied, sliding his hand down to clasp hers. “Everything will be ready. Booth just ran me out of engine
ering again.”
“That man is a tyrant,” she said. , squeezing his hand. “Did you need me for something?”
“Well, actually,” Lee stammered, feeling his heart begins to hammer in his chest. “I was hoping we could talk about something. Maybe we could go someplace a little quieter?”
“Okay, Lee,” Alice said, looking at him with a cocked head. “Let’s just go to the deck boss’ office. He’s a little busy moving my ship right now.”
The two stepped across the landing bay and entered the office of the man on the crane. When Lee had first met Alice, she had been the evening deck boss for the Terran Princess until she had proven herself to be an outstanding pilot. He wondered how often she now co-opted the man’s office and used it for her own purposes.
“So,” she said, hopping up onto the desk and looking at him. “What’s up?”
“Alice,” Lee said. “We’ve known each other for a year now and you are a really great pilot.”
“Thanks,” she said, a smile crossing her face. “But I am not accepting a commission. I like to keep my career options open.”
“Well, you may not have that choice, Alice,” he said, losing his train of thought. “Minister Rao is trying to get a lot of things organized and we may not be able to handle civilian fighter pilots much longer.”
“Lee,” she said, leaning forward to get her face right into his. “I don’t care what Banu says, you are my captain and if you don’t want me to be an ensign, or a lieutenant, then that is how it has to be. And you don’t want me to be an ensign or a lieutenant.”
“Alright, alright,” Lee said, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’ll see what I can do, but if Commodore Chang says I have to make you an officer, than I really have no choice.”
“Well, if Ron says so,” she said, mocking him with a salute. “Anyway, is that all, I really have to get back to my shouting.”
Resolute Omnibus (The War for Terra) Page 37
