“Thank you, LOLA. I wonder if any of the old crew would…”
LOLA laughed out loud. “I’ve already contacted the top 22 on the list of people who wanted to ship with you.”
“How did you…”
“Zed! I can read your mind. Duhhh. I know that you only want 30. Your crew will be here in an hour.”
Zed shook head. “This is like being married, but without the physical exercise.”
LOLA turned slowly, her hands on her hips, and gave him a level look. “Most human wives would hate knowing their husband’s most intimate thoughts.” Her golden eyes pierced him. “You’re not bad at all. It’s one of the reasons we chose you.”
“I’ll bet it was your idea to teach Boadicea to kiss.” LOLA’s cheeks flushed brightly. “I hope that you didn’t give her any more bright ideas.”
LOLA looked at the ceiling. “I did sort of recommend that she read the Joy of Sex, after we had departed, of course.” She gave him a challenging look. “At least I didn’t recommend Karma Sutra.”
“LOLA, you are going to get me into trouble.”
“It will keep your mind off your other problems.”
Zed shot her an irritated look. “Swell.” He took a breath. “You should probably tell Mike what you plan, and then tractor the Rose over to the Bellerophon as soon as we clear the mooring.”
“Done, Captain.”
Zed flopped into one of the comfortable bridge chairs, inhaling the rich leather scent, and stared at the view-screen. “LOLA, I don’t deserve the title of Captain any longer. Too many people and ships have died under my command.”
“What you want and what you don’t want is of little concern to us, Zed.” He blinked as he recognized the distinct tone of The Morrigan. “People have died under your command, it is true, and ships have been destroyed. In all likelihood more ships will be lost and more people will die. The chances are that many more would have died if another had been in command. You will command the Bellerophon. Your title there is unimportant. The only title that matters to us is brother.”
Zed swallowed. “It will be as you wish, sister.”
LOLA blinked. “That was intense.”
“Yeah. I guess you can call me Skipper. It implies command, but isn’t a captain or commodore or fleet captain. If you call me skippy I’ll peel your electronic hide.”
LOLA turned a serious face his way. “I wouldn’t do that, Zed. It is not my intention to ridicule you.”
“Thank you.” He gave her a wink as he stood. “Why don’t you show me around our new ship before the crew arrives?”
She took his arm possessively. “It would be my pleasure, Skipper.” They stepped into a small lift just big enough for two. “We’ll start with Engineering.”
“Do we have a Lounge?” He asked her curiously.
“Well…” She threw him a sidelong look. “This isn’t a big ship. The Dining Hall, Lounge and Library have all been combined. The room itself is open 24 hours a day, and has wrap-around view-screens all along one wall that look out onto space. People can eat there, or have a quiet drink after hours, or just sit and read and look at the stars. For the relaxation of the crew, it even has a fireplace.”
Zed laughed. “It sounds wonderful.” The door before them slid open.
“This is Engineering.” LOLA sounded proud.
“Wow!”
Zed looked over at Mike Flaherty who sat beside him in the Exec’s seat. “Was this worth the wait?”
Mike took another look around the bridge. “Yeah.” He admitted grudgingly. “This is a helluva ship. I can’t believe they threw it together in five or six weeks.”
“I was told that they made most of it from Creednax scrap.”
“Oh great.” Mike laughed.
Zed turned to LOLA, who was standing beside him. “If everyone is settled in, you can take her out, LOLA.”
LOLA, now wearing a tight eye-watering yellow dress, gave him a grin. “Aye Skipper.” She tossed her blue hair as the Bellerophon began to gather way.
“What’s with the Skipper stuff?” Mike asked Zed quietly.
“I don’t think I deserve the title Captain any longer, my friend.” Zed replied just as quietly.
“You’re being silly, you know that don’t you? You’re still giving the orders.”
“Yeah I know it’s silly, but you didn’t lose all those people.”
Mike gave him a sympathetic look. “I understand now. Bellerophon is set for space, Skipper.”
“Finally.”
Callidus was just a bright speck behind them and stars filled the forward screen with their sweet brilliance. “Full systems checks, LOLA.”
“All systems fully functional, Zed. Weapons, cloaking and shields at your command.”
“Set sensors at maximum, and plot us a course to follow Kat’s most likely route. Set maximum normal cruise speed.”
“Not maximum top speed?” She sounded surprised.
“A new untested ship with a new crew traveling in what could be hostile space. What could possibly go wrong?” Zed’s tone was as dry as dust.
“Ahead maximum normal cruise speed Skipper.” The stars blurred.
Thirty seven hours later LOLA woke Zed from a deep sleep, and he growled. “Zed, sensors have detected something ahead.”
Zed blinked his eyes and scrubbed his hands through his short dark hair. “Slow us down to standard cruise speed. Activate shields, cloaking and charge weapons. Get the Alpha Team to the bridge.”
“Aye Skipper.” LOLA knew as well as he did that the Alpha Team consisted of the most experienced bridge members.
“How long to intercept?”
“Eighteen minutes.”
“I’ll take a shower and be right up to the bridge.”
“Aye, aye.”
“What do we have, LOLA?” Zed and the rest of the bridge staff squinted at the screen.
“It appears to be the remains of two Creednax frigate class ships, Zed. Damage to the ships is consistent with the weapons aboard Katherine’s saucer.”
Beside him, Mike cursed. “Is there wreckage from the saucer?”
LOLA was quiet for several long moments. “No… wait a minute. Yes. Minor wreckage, small parts of the hull metal and some burnt wiring that might have come from weapons strikes. Minor quantities of vented gasses. No debris that equals the size of the saucer. There appears to be a small message pod adrift. There is no locator beacon attached to the pod, so I have to assume Katherine didn’t want the pod discovered by the Creednax. I’m bringing it aboard now. Scanning…” She was silent for some time. “It is a partial recording from the ship’s log. Would you like me to play it, or would you like to see it in private?”
Zed looked at the rest of his bridge staff, and friends. “Play it, LOLA.”
The screen flickered, and Zed’s breath caught as he recognized the distraught face of his new wife. The camera angle was deep enough to catch the slight swell of her expanding tummy, and her face was very pale. There was a smoky haze in the air around her. “I’m going to assume and hope like hell I’m addressing Zed with this message.” She began abruptly. “Twelve days out into our journey we were intercepted by a Creednax Strike Force coming from 187 mark 223. Since we don’t have LOLA’s wisdom aboard I can’t say for sure if the force was heading for Earth or not. Their heading would have brought them close. Anyway, they intercepted us. We managed to take out the two supporting frigates and get a piece of one of three Tulari class destroyers.” Zed heard someone on the bridge curse softly. “The destroyer knocked out our weapons and our AI is Tango Uniform, so although the drive is operational, the ship is dead in the water. It looks as though they want to take us captive. One of the women was injured slightly, and another had a miscarriage when we were struck. Luckily one of the pregnant women was a fully trained nurse. I have to get this pod out before it’s caught in the tractor field.” She stared into the camera. “Come and get us, Zed. Kick their ass.” The screen went blank.
&nb
sp; “Message ends, Skipper.” Zed stared at the blank screen.
“She’s a tough cookie, and a fierce fighter.” Mike said from the Exec’s position. “If anyone can hold them together she can.”
Zed nodded, too stunned to speak. His wife and unborn son were in the hands of those Creednax horrors. He took a deep shaky breath. “Can you detect the Creednax tachyon trail, LOLA?”
“Yes, Zed. The trail is faint, but detectable by the sensors in this ship. It appears that they turned back on a reverse heading to wherever they came from.”
“How are our ship systems?”
“One hundred percent across the board, Skipper.”
“Let’s see how fast this hot rod really is. Maximum speed, LOLA. Shields up and charge the weapons.” The stars swung crazily and then blurred as LOLA turned to the new heading.
“Maximum speed, Skipper. Assuming their speed is similar to Katherine’s saucer, we should reach them in a week to ten days.”
“Understood.” He looked around the bridge. “Alpha Team can finish this shift, then go to watch on and watch off with Bravo Team. Weapons will stay hot. LOLA, you have fire control.”
“Aye, aye sir.” He glanced at her sharply, only to see that she was dead serious.
Zed glared at the view-screen. “Tactical Display.” He muttered under his breath. The red display overlay the bright stars, and in the center of the display a faint blue line disappearing into the distance showed the Creednax tachyon trail. “Tactical Display off.” The red and blue lines vanished. Zed sat for a long time staring at the stars. He and Katherine had sat on the bridge of the original Rose of the Dawn for hours on end, staring at the stars.
“You might not call yourself a captain.” Mike said in a voice just loud enough for the two of them. “But you make a hell of a leader. Find Alina and my daughter, Zed.”
Zed grinned. “You can count on it.”
Chapter 3
TILDAN & EACRORTH
It was the fourth hour of his twelve hour shift, nine days since they’d started their long chase, and Zed was watching the stars drift past as he sipped his coffee. The bridge was quiet, with half the staff still at dinner. LOLA lounged in Mike’s vacant chair. She sat up suddenly.
“Excuse me Skipper. Sensors are picking up massive energy discharges ahead. I believe that we are flying into the middle of a battle of some sort.”
“Damn!” Zed glared at the screen, as if it was the cause of the unplanned disturbance. “How soon until we get close enough to see what’s going on?”
“One hour, Zed, at this speed.”
“Slow us down to normal cruise and engage cloaking field.”
“Time on target now three hours Zed. Cloaking on.”
“That’s better, I don’t want to go charging into the middle of someone else’s fight. We’re here to rescue our women.”
“As you say, Zed.” The crawl of the stars slowed.
Ninety minutes later distant flashes began to appear on the screen. “Looks like a hell of a fight.” Mike leaned forward in his seat.
“Discharges appear to be in the multi-megaton range, and spectral analysis of the blasts match weapons of Chamdar origin.”
“Chamdar??” Zed blurted. “What the hell are the Chamdar doing out here. I thought that we left them back…” He stopped as he tried and failed to calculate the distance.
“Chamdar is approximately 1287 light years from our current position.” LOLA injected helpfully. “According to the records retrieved from the Chamdar archives when we stopped their war with Dramul, they and the Dramul had several colony worlds. Contact with said worlds was lost when the economy of the empire crashed 23 millennia ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” Zed’s knuckles were white as he clenched the arms of his chair.
Mike touched his arm. “Gently, my friend.”
LOLA looked flustered. “I didn’t think it was militarily important, Zed.”
Mike removed his restraining hand from Zed’s arm. “I take it back. Say what you will. That was a dumb thing to do, LOLA.”
“LOLA.” Zed in a flat emotionless voice. “Have you ever heard of allies, or the enemy of my enemy is my friend?”
“I’ve heard of that saying.” LOLA said thoughtfully. “It originated in the fourth century BCE in India. Kautilya wrote about the idea in the Sanskrit military book, the Arthashastra.”
Zed frowned. “I thought it came from Arabia.” He shook his head, coming back to his original train of thought. “If we had found them sooner we could have supported each other in our war with the Creednax.”
LOLA’s jaws tightened. “That was before you told me to think of military applications. Back then I was still… daydreaming.”
Zed took three deep breaths. “Okay, then. What’s past is past. Let’s get a Tactical Display up for all bridge personnel, and try to find out who is who in this skirmish.” The faint red display popped up.
A sweep of red dots appeared on the display. “These appear to be Creednax warships, based on the energy patterns of their drives and weapons.” A much smaller group of blue dots appeared, dodging in and out of the Creednax strike force. One of the blue dots flared and died as they watched. “The Chamdar are fighting valiantly, but have a vastly inferior force. At this rate they have only minutes until their entire defense force is neutralized.” Two more red dots appeared at the very edge of the Tactical Display, moving away. “These are two of the three destroyers we have been tracking. One seems to be venting gasses, and is probably the one that has taken Katherine and the saucer.”
“Damn, damn, damn.” Zed turned to Mike, his jaws tight. “I can’t leave that planet to the Creednax, Mike. There are probably millions of people at risk there.”
“Four hundred and twenty three thousand and nine.” LOLA injected helpfully.
“You wouldn’t be a leader we could follow into hell if you did, Zed.” Mike Flaherty managed to get out through his own clenched teeth. “Let’s kick the Creednax ass and be on our way.”
Zed shut his eyes for a single moment. “Sound General Quarters, LOLA. Set shields and cloaking to maximum, and arm all weapons. We’re going to test our guns.” He opened his eyes back up. “What do we have for targets?”
A soft hand touched his shoulder, and he looked up to see LOLA smiling down on him. “Our weapons are now hot Skipper. We have a Creednax battleship, two destroyers and three frigates. There seem to be a half dozen planetary assault ships waiting for the smoke to clear before they set down.”
Zed grinned. “Let’s disabuse them of that notion, shall we? Start with the battlewagon.”
“Preparing targeting. Eight minutes to firing range.” LOLA sounded excited. “According to transmissions I’ve intercepted, the name of the world is Tildan. I have the frequency of the Tildan High Command. You might let them know what’s coming.” She gave him a wink.
“Tildan High Command, this is the Terran Fleet Ship Bellerophon.” Zed’s voice was flat and hard. “We are about to engage the Creednax battleship attacking your world. Please remove all friendly vessels from the area. I wouldn’t want a friendly fire accident.”
“Who the hell is this??” Blared out into the bridge. “We don’t see any ship.”
“We’re cloaked.” Zed replied, grin widening.
“That’s physically impossible!”
“Nevertheless, we are cloaked and we are attacking. Move your ships.”<
br />
Dead silence came from the speakers. Finally there was a subdued voice. “We’re moving our ships, Bellerophon.”
“Thank you.” Zed stared down at the lush blue green jewel of a world that hung below them. It looked very much like Earth, several hundred years back.
“Coming into range, Zed. We have a targeting solution. On a scale of one to ten, how badly do you want me to hurt them?”
“Twelve. Wipe them from my sky. I don’t want any of those Creednax nanites coming for lunch.”
“Our automatic Point Defense lasers will take care of those. It’s actually what it was designed for… Firing.” LOLA whispered. The small warship shook as eight depleted uranium shells streaked out. Eight small flashes lit the screen as the boosters fired. Great tongues of flame shot from the Creednax warship when the depleted uranium shells traveling close to light-speed, released their energy in one massive discharge. The Creednax battleship twisted in space, her back broken. Seconds later the three kilometer long Creednax warship flared as its power-plant containment failed, and died. Pieces no bigger than the Bellerophon drew fiery contrails in the cloud studded atmosphere of the planet below. “The destroyers are trying to run.” The Point Defense lasers flashed, and the spiderlike nanites vanished in small explosions of light.
“Kill them.” The ship shook six more times as the Main Guns fired. One destroyer dissolved in a spectacular ball of flame as her power-plant containment failed. The other spun madly out of control, her aft third reduced to smoldering wreckage, her atmosphere venting to space. The Creednax were tough, but Zed knew that they couldn’t breathe vacuum. “Now.” Zed’s smile was savage. “Kill the frigates.”
“Engaging with RVMs.” The ship shook again, and again and again. The frigates flared and died, and then the spinning chunks flared as LOLA hit them again.
“Take out the assault ships, LOLA.” A combination or RVMs and Main Guns took a total of 22 seconds to reduce the fleeing planetary assault ships to hunks of floating green debris and Creednax bodies. Point Defense systems took care of the rest. “Any other hostile forces around?”
...and they are us 3: HiveWorld Page 4
