The Price of Liberty (Empire Rising Book 4)

by D. J. Holmes

  Before they had to worry about themselves, Discovery’s bridge crew focused on watching their own missiles approach the Indian warships. A hail of point defense fire lashed out at the British missiles, destroying many of them, but four made it through the Indian fire and after they exploded among the Indian squadron only one destroyer and one frigate remained.

  “They’re decelerating,” Discovery’s sensor officer shouted as he pumped his fist. “They’re breaking off.”

  “A wise choice,” Gupta said. “Let’s make sure Fang doesn’t join the fate of those Indian ships.”

  As the Indian missiles approached, the British warships set up a wall of shrapnel with the flak cannons. Ten of the Indian missiles were destroyed. Then AM missiles and small plasma cannons enveloped the Indian missiles. Somehow, one of the Indian missiles managed to avoid everything that was thrown at it. As the missile reached attack range, it gave one final burst of acceleration from its impulse engine. The sudden increase in speed caught Flame’s navigation officer by surprise and before he was able to throw the destroyer into evasive maneuvers, the missile struck the destroyer, exploding on impact.

  “Shit,” Romanov shouted as the destroyer disappeared from the holo plot. It took several seconds for the exploration cruiser’s sensors to penetrate the wave of electromagnetic energy the explosion gave off. When they did the destroyer re-appeared.

  “She’s still alive,” Discovery’s sensor officer shouted. “But she’s falling out of formation.”

  The bridge crew watched Flame slowly fall behind as they waited to hear something from the destroyer. Finally, the flagship updated them about the situation. Once again Lightfoot’s face appeared on the main holo display.

  “I’m sending you back to New Delhi,” Lightfoot said to Gupta. “My sensor officer estimates that the large Indian battle fleet consists of one heavy cruiser, three other cruisers, two destroyers and two frigates. If this fleet gets back to New Delhi and joins up with whatever ships are still stationed there, they will be able to intercept our main fleet when it gets back to New Delhi. If Admiral Khan is still chasing Rooke, then Rooke will find himself trapped between two fleets when he returns to New Delhi. You need to get there ahead of this fleet and warn him. If there is no sign of the British fleet when you get to New Delhi, head up the shift passage to Magali and find them.”

  “What about you?” Gupta asked.

  “Flame has taken some heavy damage to her port amidships, but her reactors and engines are still intact. I don’t think she can exceed 0.32c, but we should be able to get her home. Retribution and Fang are going to escort her back to New Delhi. Hopefully we won’t be too far behind you and we will be able to join the rest of the fleet when they get there,” Lightfoot explained.

  “But what about the pursuing Indian battle fleet? They’re bound to have some ships that can catch you,” Gupta protested

  “We’ll just have to avoid them won’t we,” Lightfoot said with a smile, then his face hardened, “I’m not leaving any ships behind, especially after I ordered Flame into harm’s way. Now, get going, I want you to make New Delhi at your best possible speed. You are not going to wait around here with us.”

  Gupta wanted to protest Lightfoot’s order, the squadron would have a much better chance of getting back to New Delhi if Discovery and her two flak cannons stayed with them. However, she didn’t want to appear insubordinate, and the look on Lightfoot’s face suggested he wasn’t open to discussing his orders.

  “We will warn the fleet,” Gupta said instead. “Just make sure you get yourself back in one piece.”

  “I will,” Lightfoot replied. “Now get going,” he added as he cut the COM channel.

  “You heard our orders,” Gupta said to her bridge crew. “Leaving our friends behind isn’t any more pleasant to me than to you, but we need to warn the fleet. Set course for the shift passage back to Kerala, full speed.”

  *

  Seven hours later, Discovery crossed Nicobar’s mass shadow and prepared to jump into shift space. Gupta looked at the holo plot of the Nicobar system, she calculated the rest of the British ships were about an hour behind. Whoever was commanding the Indian fleet had sent his fastest ships forward and, as Gupta watched, they fired six missiles at the British ships from their forward missile tubes. For the last hour she had been forced to watch her comrades fend off missile attack after missile attack. They had defended themselves admirably, but it would only take one lucky hit to cause a British ship to fall back into the clutches of the Indians. Worse, Gupta knew that Lightfoot’s squadron would face the same threat all the way back to New Delhi.

  She typed a COM message to be transmitted to the other British warships. May God be with you, she sent to her friends before she gave the order to jump to shift space.

  Chapter 17 – The Enemy Awaits

  My home planet of Avalon was colonized just over two hundred years ago. Even so, the population has now reached two billion. There are several Gomez class heavy battlestations in orbit and naval construction yards that can build warships as large as battlecruisers. Despite all this Avalon is a grain of sand in what is the Empire. For those who have never set foot off their planet of birth, the size of the Empire is unimaginable.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

  12th August, 2467 AD, HMS Endeavour, space between New Delhi and Nag Tiba.

  Startled, James sat up in his bed. For a second he looked around blankly, wondering what had woken him. A loud buzzing sound reverberated around his quarters. My COM unit, he realized. With one hand he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, while he used the other to switch off the COM unit built into the wall. He had set the unit to alert him if any new orders were sent to Endeavour from the flagship.

  A part of him just wanted to roll over and go back to bed. Whatever the orders were, Mallory would be the one responsible for carrying them out. The last few weeks had been a living nightmare, a part of him didn’t want to hear anything more about it. Yet, curiosity got the better of him. With a groan, he spun round and planted his feet on the floor. Then he got up and donned his captain’s uniform.

  As he walked into his office, he switched on the holo display in the middle of the room. It showed the British fleet arrayed around the flagship Hood. The fleet was more than ninety percent along the shift passage back to New Delhi. Every ship was in normal space charging its shift drive capacitors as they prepared for the final jump to the New Delhi system.

  What grabbed James’ attention was the single ship heading towards the fleet. It’s position clearly implied it hadn’t exited shift space with the other British ships. It must have been waiting here for us, James thought. As the sensor data firmed up, James recognized the ship easily. Discovery, I wonder what news Gupta has for us. It can’t be good if she’s been waiting here for us to pass by.

  With the flick of a switch, James opened a COM channel to the bridge. When no one answered, he clenched his right hand into a fist and almost slammed it on the desk before his self-control took over. No doubt everyone was too busy doing their duty to pay attention to a COM request from the Captain’s office. Still, he wanted to know what was going on.

  *

  “Just what are you doing here Captain?” Rear Admiral Rooke said to Captain Gupta over the COM channel he had opened up with her ship. “We have no time to spare, as soon as my ships have charged their capacitors, we are jumping to New Delhi.”

  “That’s why I’m here, Admiral,” Gupta responded. “Acting Commodore Lightfoot sent me ahead of his squadron. We encountered an Indian squadron in the Nicobar system. We think they came from Haven. In total there were thirteen ships in the squadron, one of which was a heavy cruiser. By my best estimate, they will be arriving in the New Delhi system in eight to ten hours. If they can join the ships already at New Delhi they could cause you problems. Lightfoot wanted me to warn you.”

  Instead of responding, Rear Admiral Rooke surprised Gupta by hanging his head. “Okay,” he replied in a tone
that didn’t inspire confidence. “This leaves me only one option then. Thank you, Captain. Are your shift drive capacitors fully charged?”

  “Yes Admiral,” Gupta replied. “We’ve been waiting here for almost fifteen hours, Discovery can jump out with the fleet.”

  “Good,” Rooke said. “You will receive new orders momentarily.”

  Gupta was left with many questions but didn’t know where to begin. The British fleet was clearly missing a number of ships, and many of those present looked as if they had taken damage. She hoped this meant the British fleet had defeated Admiral Khan. Yet, Rooke’s tone suggested otherwise. Either way, she didn’t get the feeling Rooke would appreciate her questions.

  “Aye, Aye, Admiral,” Gupta said. “Discovery is eager to re-join the fleet.”

  Instead of acknowledging her enthusiasm, Rooke simply reached over and cut the COM channel. In silence, Gupta looked around at her senior officers on Discovery’s bridge. None of them met her eye, they had all sensed something was wrong.

  *

  Just when James felt he was about to explode in frustration a text message appeared from Acting Captain Mallory.

  Sorry Captain, the flagship is keeping me too busy to speak to you right now. Here are our most recent orders.

  James wasn’t surprised to see what Rear Admiral Rooke was planning. The new ships Discovery had come to tell them about were a serious threat. But alone, Rooke’s fleet could easily deal with them. Nevertheless, Rooke’s latest orders showed he meant to run home with his tail between his legs. Instead of jumping along the final section of the shift passage to New Delhi in a way that would allow the British fleet to exit shift space on a vector towards the colony, they were now going to jump so as to enter the New Delhi system already traveling towards the shift passage to Aror and back towards Earth.

  This is going from bad to worse, James thought. Even if they tried to run away, Admiral Khan and his fleet were not going to be far behind. If these new Indian ships could join with Khan, then Rooke’s retreat could very quickly turn into a rout.

  *

  13th August 2467 AD, ISF Centaur, New Delhi System

  Admiral Kapoor, head of the Indian Space Fleet, sat in the auxiliary bridge of his new flagship the ISF Centaur. Centaur was the oldest battlecruiser in the Indian Navy. Just over a month ago her shift drive had been in such a state of disrepair she hadn’t even been able to leave the Sol system. Now she had a brand-new drive, along with as many of the latest technologies as the Indian engineers could fit into her in the time they had been given. Along with Centaur, Kapoor had brought the rest of the Indian Navy stationed in the Sol system. He had been sent by the Indian Prime Minister to ensure the British fleet invading his government’s colonies would not make it home.

  For the last three hours, his squadron had been cruising into the New Delhi system towards the New Delhi colony. He had received reports from the system commander on everything that had happened over the last few weeks. He was disappointed Khan had allowed the British to break away from his fleet and escape further into the colonies. The potential destruction the British fleet could do was unimaginable. Yet, the news Khan had been able to send back from his pursuit of the British, though more than a couple of weeks out of date, suggested he was doing a good job of limiting the damage the British fleet was doing. The reports he had received from the colonies of Kerala and Agra had him in a rage. Whoever was commanding the smaller British squadron was running rings round the ships defending those colonies. It was unacceptable.

  Dismissing them for the moment, he turned his attention to the matter at hand. Sooner or later the small squadron of British ships would be dealt with. He had to decide what to do now. In the next day or two he was expecting more reinforcements to arrive from Haven. Those ships, combined with the defensive fleet in orbit around New Delhi, would give him a powerful force. He just had to decide how to use it. He wanted the British fleet. Khan’s failure to defeat them meant they were still a serious threat. He knew if he could defeat them where Khan had failed, he would solidify his position as the Prime Minister’s favored Admiral. The tricky part was figuring out just where and how he could catch the British fleet and trap them between his fleet and Khan’s.

  A beeping noise from one of the command consoles on the auxiliary bridge distracted him from his thoughts. “What’s that?” he asked irritably. “Kindly shut it off, I’m trying to think,” he said with anything but a kindly tone.

  “It’s the gravimetric sensors,” one of his subordinates informed him. “We are picking up a ship accelerating from the Magali shift passage. It’s heading on vector seven seven five point three.”

  “Just one ship?” Kapoor asked as he racked his brain. Something about the ship’s vector caught his attention.

  “Yes Admiral,” the junior officer replied. “It looks like it’s one of the system patrol ships that was picketing the shift passage.”

  As the junior officer had been speaking, it struck Kapoor why the ship had caught his attention. One of the system commander’s reports he had read had laid out a series of signals Khan had prearranged with the system pickets. He opened the file and scanned through to the point he was looking for.

  “What did you say the vector of that ship was?” He asked as soon as he found the point in the file he wanted.

  “Seven seven five point three,” the officer repeated.

  “Open up a COM channel to the fleet in orbit around New Delhi,” Kapoor ordered. “Order them to break orbit and form up with Centaur. The British fleet is returning.”

  They have made my decision for me, Kapoor thought with a smile as his junior officers burst into a hive of frantic activity.

  *

  A deep sense of foreboding settled on James as he surveyed the gravimetric sensor data. The British fleet had exited shift space right on the edge of New Delhi’s mass shadow. As soon as each ship jumped out of shift space they accelerated towards the Aror shift passage. As the passage home was on the other side of the system’s sun, it would take more than twenty-two hours to get to it. What James saw suggested they might not make it there at all.

  There was no mistaking the large ship in the middle of the Indian fleet forming up in the inner system. It was an Indian battlecruiser. Either more ships had arrived from Haven than Discovery had initially detected or that battlecruiser was from the Sol system. It didn’t matter. There was a formidable Indian force directly between the British fleet and safety. If any other British Admiral was in charge of the fleet, James would have had some hope. Even though many of their ships were damaged and morale was low, he knew their fleet could fight its way past the Indian ships in front of them. James doubted Rooke would try to fight. He was sure the Rear Admiral would try to run, yet, the sensor data in front of James told him that doing so would never work. The main Indian fleet under Admiral Khan would only be an hour or two behind them. As soon as they appeared, they would continue their pursuit of the British fleet. If Rooke tried to run for the Aror shift passage, then the new Indian battlecruiser and the fleet forming up around it could shadow them all the way there. They could remain at extreme missile range and pepper the British ships, causing them to slow down as they evaded incoming missiles. Slowly but surely, Admiral Khan would catch them and then it would all be over.

  It was as clear as day to James what they had to do. If they fought their way past this new Indian battlecruiser they could destroy a significant portion of the Indian fleet. The bulk of the British ships would survive and break for the Aror shift passage. Though the losses wouldn’t be insignificant, at least the fleet would escape and deal a deadly blow to the Indians. But, he feared Rooke was already blind to any action that involved a direct confrontation.

  Forty minutes later, James’ sense of foreboding increased as Admiral Khan and his fleet announced their presence in the system. Hedging his bets, Khan had jumped his fleet into the New Delhi system directly between the optimal points to travel to either the New Delhi colony o
r the Aror shift passage. As soon as his fleet detected the accelerating British ships, they turned and pursued.

  Going for Aror straight away bought us some time, James thought. But not enough. He figured it would take the Indian fleet two hours to close to missile range with Rooke’s ships. That was, assuming Khan didn’t order his ships to go faster than he had done in the previous systems. Rooke in turn could order his fleet to go further beyond their maximum safe velocity, but to do so all the way through the New Delhi system would be inviting disaster.

  As Khan’s fleet continued to close with the British, James focused his attention on the Indian fleet now designated on his sensor display as the New Delhi fleet. Instead of coming straight for the British, the single battlecruiser and the other twenty ships in its fleet slowly edged away from the New Delhi colony and moved towards a blocking position in front of the British fleet. Their intention was clear, instead of charging straight in, they were going to wait for Admiral Khan’s fleet to harass the British all the way across the New Delhi system. Then, just before the British fleet would be able to jump out of the system, the New Delhi fleet would crash into them and force them into a close engagement. James had no doubt that whatever was left of the British fleet by then would be able to give a good account of itself. Even so, any ship that took even a small amount of damage would fall back into the clutches of Admiral Khan. Between Khan’s fleet and the New Delhi fleet, the majority of the British warships under Rooke’s command would be ground down to nothing but space debris.