The Price of Liberty (Empire Rising Book 4)

by D. J. Holmes

  James hung his head over the desk he was sitting at and ran his hand through his hair. What can I do? Seeing what was about to happen was useless if he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Yet what can I do? He asked himself again, no one is going to listen to me, and no one is going to stand up to Rooke. We’re all going to die because he’s too scared to risk his fleet.

  Just before despair really threatened to overtake him, a beep on his office desk’s COM unit pulled James out of his thoughts. It was Captain Gupta from Discovery, she was requesting a COM channel with him. Guessing Gupta didn’t realize he had been removed from command, he nevertheless accepted the COM channel, thankful for the distraction.

  “Captain,” James said as he forced a smile, “I hear you had a pretty exciting couple of weeks.”

  “I think that could be said of us all,” Gupta responded. “Why aren’t you on your bridge?”

  “That’s a long story,” James answered. “Let’s just say that the Rear Admiral and I had one too many fallings out. I have been relieved of command. Mallory is Acting Captain now.”

  “What?” Gupta almost shouted, her surprise evident. “What did you do?”

  “What I thought was my duty,” James said. “Our fleet was passing up a golden opportunity to attack an Indian colony and I pointed this out to Rooke, he didn’t take my suggestions kindly.”

  “So, he relieved you of command?” Gupta responded. “There must be more to it than that.”

  “You already saw he doesn’t like me, he blames me for what happened to Hood in the first battle in New Delhi,” James replied. “I’m sure there’s more to it, but we don’t have time now. Admiral Khan’s fleet will be in missile range with their forward tubes in less than twenty minutes. What do you want to speak about?”

  “Right,” Gupta said nodding. “I had a couple of things I wanted to discuss, I will have to speak to Mallory I guess. But first, I wanted to know what’s going on here. Why aren’t we making to engage with that Indian battlecruiser? If we don’t take it out before Khan can get to grips with us, it will be able to move in and block our escape when we get to the Aror shift passage.”

  “That,” James replied, his despair rising, “is a question I cannot answer. Time and time again Rooke has refused opportunities to engage the Indians. I think the battle over New Delhi broke him, but that’s just a guess. If he can manage it, I think Rooke still hopes to escape New Delhi without engaging either Indian fleet.”

  “But that’s impossible,” Gupta almost shouted. “If we don’t engage one fleet now, they will be able to combine and take us on together.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” James responded. “But what exactly do you want me to do? I don’t even command my own ship anymore.”

  James almost switched off the holo projector when he saw the look of compassion in Gupta’s face. He didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him.

  “I see,” Gupta said. “I hadn’t thought about it from your perspective. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to be watching everything happen and not even have command of your own ship.”

  “Well, I’ve had plenty of time to get used to it. So unless you have some suggestion for how we can save the fleet, you can get in contact with Mallory,” James said gruffly.

  “I’m not sure I have many ideas,” Gupta said, taken aback by the fact that James had seemingly accepted their fate. “The other thing I was contacting you about, was that I’ve been reassigned to Endeavour’s flotilla. Discovery is to help protect the two heavy cruisers you are escorting. I was contacting you to see how best we can use our ships together. We’re going to have to fend off a lot of Indian missiles. It’s okay though, I’ll contact Mallory and discuss things with him.”

  As Gupta leaned forward to switch off her holo projector a wave of guilt washed over James. “Wait,” he said. “I’m sorry, I haven’t given up yet. I just don’t know what to do. I’ve already tried getting the other Captains to stand up to Rooke, but none of them will receive a COM message from me. They have all served with him for a long time, they won’t usurp his authority. I will keep thinking though.”

  “Good,” Gupta replied. “I’m glad to see the Captain I look up to so much hasn’t got lost in his own doubts. If you have any ideas you want to discuss with me, then you can contact me immediately.”

  “Thank you,” James said. “Now, go talk to Mallory. He has fought Endeavour well since taking command, but he is going to need all the help he can get. Working together, Discovery and Endeavour should be able to keep our two heavy cruisers alive, at least until the Indian fleets close in. You are now the senior captain, I have full confidence in you.”

  “And I you,” Gupta responded. “You’ve got us out of more difficult scrapes than this before. Forget about the last few weeks. Focus on today, I know you have an idea up your sleeve that could yet help us get out of this.”

  “I’ll try,” James responded, trying to put as much confidence into his voice as he could for Gupta’s sake. If she was going to die today, he at least wanted her to give her best. “Now go and get ready, the Indians will be opening fire soon.”

  “Aye, Aye Captain,” Gupta said with a salute before she cut the COM channel.

  Chapter 18 – A Call of Duty

  The Second Battle of New Delhi proved costlier to the British than the First.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

  13th August 2467 AD, HMS Endeavour, New Delhi.

  Admiral Khan’s fleet opened fire with their forward missile tubes less than twenty minutes after Gupta’s face disappeared. Stuck in his office with nothing to do, James could only watch as wave after wave of Indian missiles approached the British fleet. Each time the Indian missiles targeted at their flotilla were swatted away, James’ pride in his ship and his First Lieutenant grew.

  It looks like they don’t need me at all, James thought. His crew was like a well-oiled machine, every time the Indians launched more missiles they tracked them, prioritizing the ones targeted at the heavy cruisers. As soon as they got into range, flak cannon rounds exploded among the Indian missiles and AM missiles and plasma bolts tore into them.

  For an hour, the British fleet endured the Indian assault with only the occasional missile breaking through the point defenses. Rear Admiral Rooke had sent almost all of the smaller ships in the British fleet to the rear so their point defenses could help protect the slowest ships. The tactic was working. Even so, James knew it was just a matter of time. Either a cosmic particle strike would damage one of the British ships, causing it to fall back, or an Indian missile would get through the British defenses.

  Both of James’ fears were realized. Just over an hour after the first Indian missiles were launched, disaster struck. When the seventh Indian missile salvo was about to enter the point defense range of the British ships, an explosion rocked the British fleet. One moment the light cruiser Centurion was leading her flotilla of point defense ships into a new position in the fleet to take on the latest Indian salvo. The next, she was spinning out of formation, the front third of the cruiser having been ripped from the rest of the ship. Nothing but a large cosmic particle could have caused such damage. Centurion had been coordinating the fire of a destroyer and two frigates. With her sudden destruction, the ships in her flotilla failed to fire their flak cannons with the rest of the British ships.

  The Captains tried to correct the problem but their fire was just not as efficient. Three Indian missiles broke through the British fleet’s point defensive fire. One struck the destroyer Phoenix. The missile blasted a hole through the warship’s valstronium armor and destroyed two of its missile ports. Crucially, it caused a power surge throughout the ship. As fail safes kicked in, all of Phoenix’s reactors began their emergency shutdown procedures. Without power, Phoenix’s maneuvering thrusters were unable to compensate for the momentum imparted to it by the Indian missile. The destroyer broke away from the British fleet at a tangent, her momentum carrying her further and further from
her sister ships.

  “Come on, come on,” James said as he watched events unfold. Let us go protect her, he urged Rear Admiral Rooke. James knew no orders were going to come. With a curse, he smashed his fist into his office table. Without support, Phoenix was lost. For eight minutes, she steadily drifted further and further from the British fleet. For James, the seconds trickled by ever so slowly. If Phoenix could get her reactors back on line she still had a chance to make it back to the fleet.

  When a message came in from the stricken destroyer James’ shoulders dropped. Her Captain estimated that it would take another twenty minutes to regain power. Phoenix just didn’t have that much time. Sure enough, almost half of the sixty missiles in the Indians next salvo targeted the destroyer. Unwilling to watch the destruction of another British ship, James turned the holo projector’s visuals onto the British fleet.

  Damn him, James thought. Rooke could have ordered the fleet to alter course to protect Phoenix. It would have only cost us a couple of minutes. Not knowing what else to do, he cursed Rooke again. Then, he forced himself to watch the onslaught his colleagues were trying to endure.

  James’ focus was torn from the continuous barrage of Indian missiles to several new contacts appearing on the gravimetric plot. Three ships had suddenly accelerated from the far edge of the New Delhi system. They had just exited shift space from the Kerala shift passage.

  Lightfoot, James thought. He didn’t need to wait for the ship’s computer to analyze the acceleration profile of the ships. But if Lightfoot is only arriving now, then the ships Gupta spotted are likely to be right behind him. As the full significance of what Lightfoot’s arrival meant dawned on him, James felt his last shreds of hope fade.

  If the Indian fleet currently shadowing Rooke’s ships did not include the ships Lightfoot and Gupta had detected, then they must have come from the Sol system. That meant there was one more heavy cruiser and its escorts about to jump into the New Delhi system. They would be perfectly placed to join the New Delhi fleet and, once reinforced, James had no doubt that whoever was leading that fleet would close with Rooke. With Khan behind them constantly firing his forward missile tubes, and an entirely new Indian fleet able to bring their broadsides to bear, the British ships would be reduced to debris.

  James knew there was nothing Rooke could do. The circumstances were against him now. Even if he saw the danger and turned to engage the New Delhi fleet before it was reinforced, the commander of the New Delhi fleet could simply veer away, drawing Rooke deeper into the New Delhi system. All the Indians had to do was wait and gather their forces.

  An hour after Lightfoot’s ships appeared, eight new contacts appeared on the gravimetric plot at the exact point Lightfoot’s ships had first appeared. They accelerated after Lightfoot’s small flotilla, then, as their commander recognized what was going on in the system, the eight Indian ships turned onto an intercept course with the New Delhi fleet.

  James projected the new course of this third Indian fleet, he estimated it would combine with the New Delhi fleet in five hours. As soon as the ships met, he had no doubt they would close with the British fleet. Another British frigate had been destroyed by Khan. By the time the New Delhi fleet combined with these newcomers, James could only guess at how many more ships would be lost.

  Desperately, he tried to think of something the British fleet could do. Putting himself in Rear Admiral Rooke’s position he used his computer to simulate a number of potential tactics. Each one proved fruitless, the Indians just had too many ships. It didn’t help that the British fleet had now lost fifteen of the warships it had left Earth with.

  Then it struck him, there was something the British fleet could do, but it wasn’t something any Admiral would be able to order. He ran a simulation to confirm his idea. Once it was finished he took a second and bowed his head, thinking through what he was about to do. There’s no other way, he said to himself. With a renewed sense of purpose, he stood and strode out of his office, a grim look of determination on his face.

  “Captain,” Acting Second Lieutenant Becket said from Endeavour’s tactical station to alert everyone else to James’ presence as he strode onto the bridge.

  As every face turned to look at him, James caught various expressions of hope, surprise and concern from his subordinates. Pausing, he took a deep breath. “I’m assuming command,” he announced.

  For a second everyone froze and silence descended on the bridge. James had just announced he was effectively carrying out a mutiny. No one seemed to know what to do.

  Eventually Mallory broke the silence. “Of course,” he said as he jumped out of the Captain’s chair, a little too eagerly for someone who should have tried to stop James. A wide grin was on his face. “It’s about time.”

  “I have a plan,” James said as he moved to stand beside his chair. “It won’t get us out of here, but I think it will give the fleet a chance. Too many lives have already been lost today. What I’m going to propose will all but guarantee that ours are added to that list. But I know all of you are capable of reading the sensor data, if we don’t act now, I believe the entire fleet will be lost. If you follow me, I believe we can save some of the fleet. Are you with me?”

  “I am Captain,” Becket said as she brought a hand up into a salute.

  “As am I,” Mallory said as he came to stand beside James, also saluting his Captain. Seconds later, every member of the bridge crew had raised their hand in salute.

  “Very well,” James said, struggling to suppress a smile. “Open a COM channel to Discovery, I want to talk to Gupta. Then get ready to broadcast a message to the slower ships in the fleet.”

  “Aye, aye Captain,” Sub Lieutenant King replied.

  “And send a message around the rest of the crew,” Mallory added. “Let them know that Captain Somerville has taken command again.”

  James forced himself to look away from his crew as hope reappeared on more than one face. There was no hope for what he had planned for them, but at least it would give the rest of the fleet a chance.

  “I see you’re living up to your reputation,” Captain Gupta said, smiling as soon as her face appeared on the small holo display on James’ command chair. “I think re-assuming command after being relieved by a senior Admiral counts as insubordination.”

  “I guess it’s in situations like these that you find out who you really are,” James said with a grin. “There is no way I was going to live out my last few hours skulking in a back office.”

  “Can I assume you have a plan to get us out of this mess then?” Gupta asked.

  “I do, but it’s not one you are going to like. I have something to ask of you old friend, it’s not something I have the right to ask, but I need to ask it anyway,” James said solemnly.

  Gupta guessed what he had in mind. “You want us to turn and face the New Delhi fleet, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Yes,” James replied. “It’s our only option, Rooke could never order half of his ships to certain destruction. But, if we don’t do this, then none of the fleet will survive.”

  “Okay,” Gupta said after several seconds of silence. “I’m with you, but you know what this means don’t you?”

  “I know,” James replied. “We were both there when Jennings took on Admiral Zheng’s battleship. I can think of no better example for us to follow.”

  “You’re right,” Gupta said as she slowly nodded. “I will inform my crew, and give them a chance to compose any messages they want to send with the rest of the fleet. How will you persuade the other ships to follow you?”

  “I have an idea,” James replied. “We’ll have to force their hand, you follow my lead and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “It will be my pleasure,” Gupta said. “If we have to go down fighting, I can think of no one else I’d rather be fighting alongside.”

  “Neither can I Captain,” James said in return. “Now get going, I have to think about how I’m going to persuade the rest of the Captains.”
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  “Good luck,” Gupta said as she switched off the COM channel.

  “Open a COM channel to the entire ship,” James ordered.

  When Sub Lieutenant King signaled that the COM channel was open, James took another deep breath to steady himself. “Crew men and women of his Majesty’s Ship Endeavour,” he began. “It’s a pleasure for me to be leading you into battle one more time. You have fought bravely for me many times before, and every time, you have exceeded my expectations. Over these last few weeks as I have watched each of you carry out your duty from afar, my appreciation of your skills has only increased.