The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 6. An action-packed follow-on story that sees the Earth's Space Navy in action.: ‘Into the Fire.’

by Gerry A. Saunders

  “Ensign Blake,” a tired looking engineer said, as his face appeared on the screen.

  “Ensign, I can see we’ve taken quite a few hits. But how are we doing on repairs?”

  “Pretty good, Captain. I think we’d all be scattered across space had it not been for the Neutrons upgrade package.”

  “Agreed. Okay, keep at it,” Campbell replied, and cleared the contact.

  Campbell figured that it would be five to six minutes before the Garoden’s warship arrived, assuming that it had followed them. So, now, for the first time in ages, he was able to relax. And, looking at his bridge, was surprised to see that it still seemed just as fresh as the day they’d accepted the ship, on completion of its acceptance trials. Then smiled as he remembered the pomp and ceremony of the actual handover of the vessel from the approvals authority.

  Thinking on, he decided that it was fortunate that he had realized how important the Neutron’s upgrade was going to be from the start.

  Ensign Blake had been right, though. His technicians had only just managed to install the Neutron’s Protective Shield upgrade in time. But, thankfully, it seemed to work surprisingly well.

  Nonetheless, he knew he had taken a chance in sending the upgrade information as an emergency package to Earth’s Space Federation, come Navy, even before the Michigan had tried out the update. So, maybe all three Navy ships had the upgrade fitted before leaving. Or, more likely, while in transit. It certainly looked as if they were using the update. Otherwise, they would have been completely wiped out, by now, he decided.

  Then his thoughts turned to the military. It had been hard for the crew to have had to accept the ranks imposed on them by the new military rulers. Calling someone by rank instead of their name had come hard to most Space Federation personnel. So, he could sympathize with them knowing that it had taken him a while to get used to the change. Nevertheless, they were military now, whether they liked it or not.

  -Ω-

  In the meantime, the Crillon Fleet 5’s Commander, Procard, was waiting for the Garoden warship to exit warp, and hoping that it would end up exactly where he needed it to be.

  Then Procard decided that perhaps it was a dangerous assumption to make. After all, the Garoden ship could just as easily exit further out.

  Nevertheless, not only did his own tactical AI predict that this particular exit point was ideal, and far enough out for the Garodens not to smell a rat. The proposed exit point in Richardson’s original plan was virtually identical.

  Richardson had been right so far. So, it made sense to him for the Crillon’s targeting AI’s to immediately direct and saturate the known weapons launching location of the Garoden missiles.

  These weapons had proved to be more devastating to Captain Akron’s Battleship, the Carga, than the Garoden’s particle beams had been. But he knew that it was imperative for his ships to overload the alien’s protective screen immediately it exited, and before its screen could reach full power.

  “Commander. We’re picking up a wormhole generation,” his sub commander informed him, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Good,” he replied. Then yelled the Crillon battle cry, “Vergrusa.”

  “Captain, the wormhole’s right where we predicted it would be, in our combat area.”

  “Excellent, we’re ready for it.”

  The mouth of the Garoden Star-Destroyer’s wormhole expanded. With its jet black center now ringed with frothy white vortexes of energy swirling around its rim.

  Then, the Garoden ship slid majestically out of its wormhole. And straight into the snare. Where it was immediately greeted with a hail of particle beams from the five Crillon warships.

  “Their shield strength is still rising,” Procard’s tactical AI warned.

  The Garoden Star Destroyer rocked as her protective screen struggled to absorb the hail of weapons fire from the Crillon ships.

  “Their energy shield is wavering,” Procard’s exec yelled.

  “Ships three and four. Antimatter. Now,” Procard ordered, not waiting for his tactical AI’s to action it.

  The two Crillon ship’s central tubes glowed for a split second. Then each of their Antimatter capsules hurtled out towards the Garoden ship, hitting the same spot as the particle beam onslaught.

  “Their rear shield is going down, Commander,” the tactical AI confirmed.

  “Got em,” Procard growled.

  “Nukes, away,” his AI informed him. As each of the ship’s tactical AI’s took over nuclear control.

  A nuclear-tipped missile shot out from Crillon three. Followed by a massive nuclear explosion, that ripped into the Garoden Star Destroyer's hull, blasting away a huge section that spun off into space amongst a mass of debris.

  With its protective screen down, the Garoden warship shuddered as the ferocious barrage of particle beams continued, cutting through her now unprotected hull.

  A series of explosions, from the weapons energy containment spheres and their reactors, caused fireballs that spread rapidly through the center of the ship. Melting bulkheads and feeding on the remains of its atmosphere as they went. Until, finally, her warp core exploded in a blinding flash. Sending life forms and debris, expanding outward, until, only a mangled skeleton of the Garoden Star Destroyer remained.

  -Ω-

  Second rendezvous point.

  The StarShips, Jefferson, Argonaut and Illustrious exited jump, eight light hours away from the remaining four Garoden ships.

  “No word from the Michigan, or the Crillons, Captain,” Lieutenant Farrow stated.

  Captain Garret ignored his science officer’s comment. After all, he hadn’t been expecting any contact with the Michigan, or the Crillon fleet for that matter, until they actually arrived at this rendezvous point. So he hit Damage control’s tab.

  “Yes, Captain?” Ensign Blake queried.

  “Ensign, I can see the AI’s damage readout. But I want your assessment of the situation, please.”

  “One small hull breach in section forty-one, Captain. It's been temporarily sealed, and our droids are already on their way outside to make the repair.

  Otherwise, apart from getting our force field back up to full strength, we’re in pretty good shape considering what we’ve just been through.”

  “Okay. Keep at it.”

  “Do you need to talk to Lieutenant Travis?”

  “No. I don’t want to waste repair time,” Garret replied as he closed the contact.

  He then called Captains Derrick Patterson and Hector Serrell over the re-established All-Ships open link. And their live images appeared on-screen.

  By now, Captain Garrett was getting nervous, expecting Admiral Winton to take over command at any moment. But Winton quietly stood next to him, just listening.

  “Captain Serrell. What state is the Argonaut in?” Garrett asked.

  At first, Captain Serrell wondered why Winton hadn’t been asking the questions. Then shrugged, and answered Garrett.

  “A lot of our systems are touch and go, Captain. We’ve sent repair droids out to replace field emitters and some burnt out particle beam collimators,” Hector informed him, then paused a moment.

  “But, I’m not sure we could stand up to that sort of punishment again,” he warned.

  “I understand, Captain,” Garrett said as he turned his attention then spoke to Patterson.

  “Can I assume it’s the same for the Illustrious, Captain Patterson?”

  “Pretty well, Captain,” Derrick agreed. “We’re doing the same. But we can't fight a drawn out battle, and hope to survive.”

  “I understand, Captains. Keep my AI updated on your repair progress.” Both nodded and were gone.

  Admiral Winton finally spoke. “Captain. Correct me if I’ve missed something.

  So, now that we don’t have Richardson’s assets…, mind you, they would most likely be useless now that the aliens know how they work. At least, I assume they do,” he said

  “And, of course, we’ve shown these ali
ens that tagging us, might backfire on them,” he added.

  Garrett remained silent, hoping Winton would soon calm down and speak more coherently.

  “It, therefore, seems to me, Garrett. That we can’t expect to destroy them in a straight-forward engagement. And, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that, at some point, they’ll realize that all they have to do is to follow one of the hundreds of our wormhole threads, straight back to Earth,” he stated, then paused, considering their options.

  “Agreed, Admiral,” Garrett said, knowing that Winton was right so far.

  “But the Crillons seem to be doing better than us,” he added.

  “No, Captain. Richardson helped them the first time around. And, this time, we’re helping them.”

  “It doesn’t really matter, Admiral. If the other two Garoden ships return soon. Then, we’ll all be dead and gone, anyway.”

  Admiral Winton reluctantly nodded agreement. Like Captain Garrett, he could also see their new Navy going down the pan.

  “Admiral,” the ship’s AI interrupted. “Something is coming out of a wormhole thread. Something I cannot interpret.”

  Chapter 39

  Breathing space

  Viceroy Verice shook his head, trying to remove the blackness that had invaded his mind. He felt giddy and sick at the same time while attempting to hold onto something to steady himself.

  “Griken,” he cried out in pain. Something he had never known before.

  Although he was almost blinded, he could just see that his Science Officer was acting in the same way.

  In fact, looking around he could see that everyone on his ship’s bridge was gasping in pain like something had been ripped out of their bodies.

  Is it just on the bridge? He wondered.

  Then tried to picture his personal pod. But nothing happened. He trembled, realizing that he couldn’t teleport.

  Then he remembered the lessons he’d had on their Companion brain’s abilities, when in his teens.

  “Our companion brains power source has died,” he yelled as fear ran through his mind.

  Then he, and his crew struggled to change the way their brains functioned, now that they were on their own, and, without a Companion brain to execute their wishes and commands.

  His vision was slowly returning, as his body and implants adjusted to the new situation.

  “Cratic,” he called. “Double check that the Navigation AI hasn’t been compromised. Then plot a route out of here, and back to Garoden.

  “Yes, Excellency,” Cratic acknowledged, as he contacted the ship’s Navigation AI, to check that it was operational. Then began to verify coordinates with the AI.

  After which, he informed Verice that the AI hadn’t been compromised, before tapping in Jump fourteen’s coordinates manually on his input screen.

  “Griken, are you in good order?”

  “Just about, Excellency.”

  “Then, sync our ship with the other ships. On Cratic’s clearance mark.”

  “Yes, Excellency,” Griken replied.

  “Excellency, our monitoring link with Z186 has terminated,” he then warned Verice.

  “Then we must leave now. Oh, and Griken, send a message to Z188 and Z189. Tell them they are to return directly to Garoden on completion of their mission.”

  “Yes, Excellency.”

  Verice knew that the journey back to Garoden wouldn’t take as long as it had in getting here. The Pathfinder no longer existed so his ships wouldn’t be limited to a hundred light-year jump, they should easily be able to jump two hundred light-years at a time. Then Viceroy Verice sat back and closed his eyes, thinking about what had happened.

  He knew that the Garoden’s High Command would reprimand him for losing some ships. Nevertheless, he would make damn sure that they sent a complete fleet of forty ships, next time.

  Then, they would crush these creatures like bugs. Their mental feats wouldn’t be able to help them.

  Yes. Now he had calmed down, he realized that he was looking forward to returning to this place.

  We’ll make them pay for this, he thought as anger boiled within him again. Revenge was what he, and the Garoden race would demand. And, revenge is what they would have, he decided.

  Navigation Officer Cratic went to press the Clear to Jump command to Verice, then remembered he had to speak the command.

  “Excellency, we’re synced, and ready to Jump.”

  “Good. Let’s go.”

  -Ω-

  Admiral Winton waited to see if his AI could decipher whatever it was that had come out of the wormhole thread.

  “Admiral, you’re not going to believe this,” Lieutenant Farrow exclaimed. “The four remaining Garoden ships have just jumped. But, it isn’t a local Jump.”

  “Are you sure, Lieutenant?”

  “Lieutenant Farrow is correct Admiral,” the ship’s AI confirmed.

  “They’ll be back, Admiral,” Captain Garrett said, believing that the Garodens would treat this as unfinished business.

  Winton pondered on Garrett’s remark.

  “But, if the Garodens are really going home, then Richardson’s group will be in grave danger,” he said. His face looking grave.

  “So will Captain Sitrea’s Solveron ship, Admiral,” Garrett added.

  “True. Damn it, the Garoden’s are bound to detect them,” Winton added, but knew there was nothing at all that they could do about it.

  “Captain, do we need to stay on full combat status?” Lieutenant Timborne asked.

  “It seems not Lieutenant,” Captain Garrett answered. “Concentrate on repairs. We’ll need to wait for the Michigan to arrive, then see what the Crillons are going to do.”

  “We'll all need to massively accelerate our shipbuilding program,” Winton said. “Time is not on our side.”

  “A message has just come in from Dpav4, Admiral,” Anna, the ships AI, interrupted. “There were five survivors rescued from the Derringer.”

  “Only five,” Admiral Winton remarked sounding disappointed.

  -Ω-

  Commander Procard’s Crillon fleet, along with the Michigan, exited warp space under full combat status, and well away from the two surviving Navy ships.

  Then Captain Campbell’s comms joined the ‘All ships’ open link again.

  “That was hairy, Admiral,” he said.

  “Very,” Winton agreed.

  “Have we lost contact with the Garodens?”

  “They seem to be going home, Captain,” Garrett informed Campbell.

  “Richardson’s idea about the energy bubble must have been correct. Otherwise, we’d have the Garodens all over us like a rash.”

  Then, the Crillon Commander, Procard, joined in.

  “Good outcome all round, is it not?” he voiced, pleased at the demise of the Garoden ship.

  “In one way, Commander,” Admiral Winton said. Not wanting to talk about his vision of what the future probably held for them all.

  “What do you mean, Admiral?” Procard asked.

  “It's obvious, Commander. I don’t think the Solverons will be in the equation any longer if the two Garoden ships reach Solvera. So, we both need to build more ships and fast.”

  “But, if Richardson reaches the Garoden’s homeworld and can repeat the crystal thing…,” Procard started to say.

  “My guess is that he won't make it,” Winton stated. “Those four Garoden warships, that we assume are heading back to their home planet, are bound to bump into him. He won't stand a chance, and neither will Captain Sitrea.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Procard replied.

  “Anyway, you can bet that the Garodens will come up with a solution to be able to protect their Companion brains in the future,” Procard commented.

  “Then, they’ll be back,” he added.

  “Yes, and no doubt they’ll have data recordings of our actions, to enable them to work out countermeasures,” Garrett pointed out.

  On hearing all of this, Commander Proca
rd realized that he’d forgotten to do the very thing that Frank Richardson had asked of him.

  Procard knew that he still had the Solveron Gatherer on his ship. But, as yet, he hadn’t tried to communicate with it.

  Not only that, he wasn’t even sure which wormhole threads were accessible.

  He cursed himself for letting his new friend down.

  Chapter 40

  The Delta Chamber

  Supervisor Javon was gazing at the stars he could see through the one-way Atom Glass window, of Delta’s forward Temporal Operations Centre.

  So beautiful, he thought.

  Then, sensed Platos, his senior Temporal Predictor, enter the room.

  ‘I see that the Timeline has been temporarily corrected, thanks to our two female operatives,’ Platos informed him, directing his thoughts. Knowing that neither of them needed to use spoken words.

  Supervisor Javon thought for a moment before commenting on his Temporal Predictor’s statement. Then turned to face him. ‘Yes, First Predictor. But it's also thanks to the humans.’

  ‘Bah, Javon. They’re still oblivious as to who we are,’ Platos dared to remark.

  ‘Perhaps you are right Platos,’ Javon conceded.

  ‘However, the Solveron’s planet being wiped out, like that, was not in your prediction,’ he couldn’t resist adding.