Stokes tapped a third portrait. “Thank you, Admiral. Do we have any plans to station any forward elements of our fleet?”
“No. At this point, all we plan to do is set up some additional sensor networks in the systems surrounding Lashmere. We’ll put them in a real-time communication grid with Lashmere. That should help eliminate a large part of our blind spots and also give us an enhanced range on our sensors.” Stokes saw the rest of the portraits that had been highlighted were no longer requesting to speak. Apparently, he’d answered all their questions. “Since there are no further questions, we depart tomorrow morning at oh-eight-hundred.” The screen went dark, and he returned his attention to the materials readiness report.
The next morning, the small fleet organized itself into a solid formation with the two battleships at the center, flanked by the assault cruisers, and with the destroyers ranging ahead and behind, screening the heavier units. The stealth corvettes flew just behind the battleships, staying ready to move out and drop mines or torpedoes.
Stokes was sitting in his command chair, watching the force move slowly across his main plot. He was pleased with the professionalism his assembled fleet had shown during their preparations for departure. He leaned back in his command chair, observing the quiet energy filling his bridge.
His thought wandered back to the Rampart. When he’d taken command, it was with the welcome idea that he would be peacefully exploring the space around Lashmere. It was unfortunate that he was now forced to do so under such dire circumstances. The looming threat of the Alliance and the Woduur made him worry about the future of his people. He leaned over and said, “Mister Bendel.”
Bendel turned from his console and said, “Yes, sir?”
“Put me through to Admiral Coffee.”
“Aye, sir.”
A few minutes later, the fleet admiral’s face appeared on the main plot. “Hello, Admiral,” Coffee said. “What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to alert you that we’re departing Lashmere in four hours, once we clear the defensive perimeter.” Lashmere had a curtain of satellites that created a distortion around the system. Any ship attempting to travel through it at faster than light speeds could be destroyed. “My ships are at one hundred percent, and we are eager to complete our mission.”
“Excellent, Admiral. Thank you for the status update. I’ve been watching your fleet movement on my screen. You carry the hopes of Lashmere with you. I wish you success in all of your endeavors.”
“Thank you, Admiral.” Coffee nodded and closed the comm channel. Stokes turned over to Bendel and said, “Steady on, Exec.”
He smiled and said, “Aye, sir.”
As Victorious approached the perimeter of the Lashmere system, Lieutenant Woodard, the science officer said, “Sir, I have a comm request from Gorgon.”
“Ah, good. Please put it up, Lieutenant.”
“Aye, sir.”
Patho’s face appeared on the main plot. “Admiral Stokes, I wanted to comm you and wish you a successful journey.”
“Thank you, Captain. I understand you’re heading out this evening yourself.”
“Yes, sir. Gorgon is headed to the Ulef system. It shouldn’t take more than a week to get there. I hope Captain Hanlon and Admiral Drogue are okay.”
Stokes nodded. “We lost a lot of good people with the expeditionary fleet. Bring them back if you can, Mister Patho.”
“I will, sir. Safe journey.”
“And to you as well, Captain.”
The screen turned off, and Patho leaned back in the command chair aboard Gorgon. He turned to his executive officer. “Mister Hilleman, what’s our estimated time to departure?”
“Three hours, sir. We’re still waiting for Siren to report full readiness.” Hilleman spun around in his command chair. “Do you think we should take more ships with us? If the Ulef have such a massive fleet, what can three tiny corvettes hope to accomplish?”
“We can’t defeat the Ulef, even with our entire fleet. They have thousands and thousands of ships. We must work covertly to secure the release of our people.”
Hilleman said, “Yes, sir. I was thinking we may also want to consider resupply or support against anything other than the Ulef.”
Patho considered the idea for a moment and said, “That’s a pretty good idea. Maybe I can convince Admiral Misato to release one of the drone carriers to us for support if we need it.”
“It can’t hurt. We could leave them well outside the Ulef system before we go in. They’ll be in range of FTL comms so we can tell them to withdraw if we get into an impossible situation. If we run into anything else, we can use their heavy drone compliment to help out.”
“Good thinking. Put a comm request in for Admiral Misato.”
A few minutes later, Misato responded. “Hello, Captain. What can I do for you?”
“Sir, I was thinking about our deployment. I’d like to take along one of the drone carriers. I know we’ve been holding them in reserve to help defend Lashmere, but I shouldn’t be gone for more than two weeks. I’d like a deeper tactical reserve than two additional stealth corvettes.”
“A drone carrier won’t be able to slip into the Ulef system unnoticed, Captain,” Misato said.
“Yes, sir. We’d leave it far enough away that it will be safe but within FTL comm range. It would allow us to call on the drones to resolve any small conflict and give us a way to send a signal out if we were in a situation we thought we might not escape from.”
Misato said, “Hmm. Give me a moment, Captain.” The screen switched to a comm standby logo.
Patho turned to Hilleman and said, “Let’s hope.”
Hilleman turned and gave Patho an encouraging nod.
The plot switched back to Misato’s office. “Okay, Captain. You have your drone carrier. I want you to keep it safe at all costs. The drone carriers are very large ships and take a lot of materials to build. If things get too dicey, you’re to order it to flee. You will use your stealth systems to maximize your survivability.”
“Understood, sir. Thank you.”
“I’m detaching the Stalwart to your command. Coordinate your departure with Captain Charis.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Good hunting, Captain. Misato out.” The screen switched to the default forward view of the exterior of the ship. Four hours later, Gorgon, Siren, Banshee and Stalwart left through their jump rings on the way to the system the Ulef were using as their main base.
At their first stop, Patho called Stalwart. Captain Charis responded. The man was a couple of years older than Patho and had a pleasant demeanor. He wore a friendly smile when he answered the call. “Captain Patho, I’m glad you managed to get me along on this trip.” He leaned forward towards the comm pickup and conspiratorially said, “I think my crew was going to mutiny out of boredom. Picketing our home system is just about the least exciting thing I’ve ever done.”
Patho couldn’t help but be taken in by Charis’ infectious humor. “Well, I’m glad to have saved you from that unseemly fate. I wanted to ask you if you have any of the sensor drone packs on hand.”
Charis nodded. “We sure do. I can deploy a sensor net of thirty drones whenever you want. I have enough materials to manufacture more of the sensor packs, but I’d rather not dig into my reserves if I can avoid it.”
Patho held up a hand and said, “No, thirty will do fine. That gives us good resolution out to about five light years. I just want to take a good look into the Ulef system before I go flying in there. With any luck, we’ll get a nice big sign that says ‘POW camp here, please rescue.’”
Charis laughed and said, “Great. We can only hope the Ulef are that helpful. Seriously, though, we might be able to isolate human life signs at that range. Maybe.”
“I’ll take any maybe I can get at this point,” Patho said.
“We could push in closer. Maybe as close as half a light year. We’d still be so far away that the Ulef probably won’t detect us. We can stop
further out and recon our target location as we approach. That way if the Ulef have any deep patrols, we’ll probably pick them up. Once we push in, we should be able to get a good location for any humans they still have.” Charis turned his attention to one side and nodded. “My exec thinks he can get a good read from half a light year. Let’s just be cautious about the approach.”
“Agreed. We’ll make several short jumps as we approach. We’ll get some good scans, and then Stalwart can withdraw to a predetermined rally point well outside any reasonable intercept range. That way I can contact you if needed.”
Charis nodded. “I hope that is one call I don’t have to take, Captain. Shall we get to it?”
Patho nodded and cut the comm signal. The four ships made several more jumps before refueling in a system about ten light years from the Ulef system. Once their fuel tanks were full, they made a shot point to point transit five light years out from their target. Stalwart launched its drone sensor net, and they waited for a considerable time before they completed a thorough scan of the area just half a light year from the Ulef system.
Patho was starting to chafe at the delay; he was eager to get in and find out what had happened to Drogue and Hanlon. Once the next location was cleared, they recovered their drones and made the jump to a point half a light year from the Ulef and, presumably, their missing people.
As before, Stalwart launched thirty sensor drones. Patho connected to the data feed and watched as the sensitive array carefully sifted through the various signals it received. After more than an hour of careful analysis, Hilleman said, “The sensors have completed two full scans of the system. They can’t pick out any human life signs. There are a lot of high energy signals, including some that we can’t make heads or tails of. There’s one signal that looks almost like a kind of brainwave but fixed to a faster than light carrier. That, all by itself makes it nearly impossible to detect any human life signs. The minute signals emitted by human brains is one of the main things we try to find to determine if there are any people in a given location.”
“Sounds like we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, then,” Patho said. “Signal Stalwart.”
“Aye, sir.”
Charis responded a moment later. “Looks like a pretty inconclusive scan, Captain.”
“That’s our conclusion as well. We’re going to go ahead and make a stealth infiltration of the system. Recover your drones and withdraw to the rendezvous point. Keep a close watch of the system. If the Ulef look like they’re making a move on your location or if you see my ships destroyed, go ahead and withdraw to Lashmere.”
“Will do, Captain. Good luck in there.”
Patho nodded and closed the channel.
“Mister Guiles, plot me a jump to just outside the cometary shield of the Ulef system.”
“Aye, sir,” Guiles said. He worked at his console for a moment before saying, “Jump coordinates on the main plot.”
“Very well. Mister Hilleman validate the jump coordinates. Helm, input the plotted jump and prepare to make a point to point transit.”
Hilleman and the helm acknowledged and Gorgon, along with Banshee and Siren diverted power to their point to point drives. Moments later, they vanished through a trio of jump rings. Stalwart left in an entirely different direction less than ten minutes after the stealth corvettes.
Gorgon arrived and began its cautious approach towards their target. Their first passive scans brought a variety of sensor data. Hilleman and Guiles started sifting the raw data into usable information.
There was a signal that was distorting long range scans; however, the main plot started to populate almost immediately. There was a fleet of approximately fifteen thousand Ulef ships littered throughout the system. There were also some large orbital structures and what appeared to be a pair of planets. One was a small gas giant that had a large orbital structure, and the other was a tiny ball of rock only a couple of thousand kilometers in diameter. There was something odd about that planet. It was oblong and emitted a whole range of bizarre signals.
Patho said, “See if we can get an optical scan of that planet.”
“Aye, sir. It’s coming up, now,” Hilleman said. The planet was quite small, but it was covered by some type of massive membrane. The image was grainy, even with the computer enhancing it.
“Patho said, “What the heck is that thing surrounding the planet?”
“No idea, sir, it reads as organic. Maybe there’s something wrong with our sensors?”
“Let’s push in closer. Any sign of the expeditionary force?”
“No, sir,” Guiles said. “The signal that was distorting our long-range scans is making it impossible to detect human life signs.”
“Okay, plot a slow approach towards the gas giant. The radiation it emits will help mask us from any sensors they have. Tell Banshee and Siren to spread out and move to opposite sides of the system. I want them to make wide passes and monitor our progress. We’re on radio silence from here on out until we rendezvous.”
Patho set up a series of rally points at various times for all three ships to get back together and compare notes. Patho was going to slip through the center of the system while Banshee and Siren would circle the system at right angles, so they could get a good three-dimensional scan of the area.
Patho sat in his command chair and watched as optical resolution slowly got better and better on the strange structure around the third planet. It flexed slightly, and an object emerged from one end of the membrane.
“What’s that coming out, Exec?”
“If my sensors are working correctly, it reads as a Ulef cruiser.” Hilleman turned, and Patho saw he had a confused look on his face. “Could this be the way they manufacture ships, sir?”
“It must be. They surround a planet with that membrane, and it slowly consumes the planet, while producing ships. I wonder how they get enough crew to control so many ships.”
“Maybe we can ask them, sir. We have a patrol coming in on a nearly reciprocal vector. We’ll need to change course.”
Patho called up a navigational plot. “Okay, orbit to the far side of the gas giant. That will give us a lot better look at the station they have orbiting it.”
“Aye, sir,” Hilleman said. Gorgon drifted spinward along the plane of the ecliptic, and the gas giant started to loom ever closer. It wasn’t long before they could see it without magnification. It soon blocked sight of the smaller rocky planet. As Gorgon orbited the gas giant, a huge object they’d identified as a space station came into view. It was utterly black, reflecting no light. It was oblong, elliptical in one axis and circular in the other. Both ends came nearly to points. One end flared slightly and had a large opening. The opening was surrounded by three rounded bulges. Patho was transfixed by the sight of it.
“What… exactly is that thing?” He managed to say. When he got no response, he turned and saw Hilleman, Guiles and the rest of the bridge crew were staring at the thing. He tried to stand up, but his legs seemed not to want to obey him. He said, “Hilleman.” No response. “Commander!” He shouted.
Hilleman shook, and he turned to look at Patho. “Sorry, sir. I’m not sure why, but I can’t seem to look away from it.”
“Turn off the plot.”
As soon as the plot changed to a stylized tactical overlay of the system, everyone started to recover.
“What the heck was that?” Guiles asked no one in particular.
Hilleman tapped out a series of commands at his console. “That station is the source of the signal that’s blocking our life sign scans. Whatever it is, it’s emitting a signal that seems to interfere with our neurological function. I’m not sure why the effect was so amplified when it was visible on the plot, though.”
“Well, whatever it is, it seems to be dangerous. Let’s keep our distance. Even though I can’t see it anymore, I’m definitely feeling a bit out of sorts.
What’s our distance to the object, now?”
“We’re
at just under a hundred fifty thousand kilometers, sir,” Guiles said.
“Open range to two hundred thousand and don’t approach any closer without my express order.”
“Aye, sir.” Guiles turned and started to give the helm orders to reposition the Gorgon.
“Sir,” Hilleman said. “I think we may have a problem.
“What is it, Exec?”
“One of the Ulef battleships is approaching. It’s matched our maneuver to move away from that… thing.”
“If it matched our maneuver, it’s a good bet he’s managed to track us somehow.”
“I’m getting a comm signal from the battleship. It’s coming on our standard frequency.”
“Put it up. Maybe we can talk to them after all.” The main plot came on. Patho felt his mouth fall open in shock. “No way!”
Chapter 17
Hanlon felt herself gaining consciousness. She felt groggy and uncomfortable. She realized she was lying on her stomach, and whatever she was lying on was not particularly flat. She tried to open her eyes and realized with a start that her eyes were bound shut. She tried to move her hand and found herself restrained. Memory flooded back into her. She remembered the fight with the Ulef, and, with a lurch of her stomach, her hand being cut off. She could swear she felt her hand now, though. She could feel it respond to her mental command to open and close. She thought she might even feel something with her fingers if she opened them wide enough.
She tried to twist around, but there were multiple restraints on her arms, legs, and torso. She turned her head from the hard ridge that was pressing into it. Whatever she was lying it has not been meant for her to lay face down on it.
She heard a voice say, “Relax, Captain. Your restraints will be removed in just a moment.”
“Tolon?” Her voice came out a croak. She swallowed and tried again. “Tolon, is that you?”
The Deadly Pact Page 24
