Conflict!

by Dale Moorhouse

  “The good news is it will take them over fifteen light-kilocycles to get here, the bad news is there is a string of intact systems that can provide enough fuel for them to get close to Terra and make strikes against us.

  “That is not all of the bad news, on our way back we ran into the FTL swarm. We found them at a system on the inner edge of the arm ten light-kilocycles from here. They were fuelling up and mining regolith from one of the moons orbiting a large rocky world far out in the system. We saw them before they saw us, so I headed for where Chocolate and I had agreed to meet. As soon as she got there, I gave her all of the data we had collected and after she’d analysed it proposed we try to eliminate them or at least whittle them down some then run home for help. When I left, my fleet had killed most of their ships and damaged one of the globe ships. The other one jumped before we could hit it.

  “Chocolate ordered me home and is still there finishing off the last of the swarm. Just before I left, I killed the damaged globe ship and lost the last of my fighters doing it. I lost over half my Swift Fangs and will need about five thousand bombers to bring us back up to our full complement. I only took a few armoured freighters with me, and they burned through their missile load in nothing flat and sent them home. That was all the Cracker-3s we had available without dipping into the home fleet’s supply, I chose to go on patrol with what I had.”

  “I take it that you left copies of everything with Silent on your way here?”

  “Yes, Ser.”

  “Did you and Chocolate jump together when you went after the FTL swarm?”

  “No Ser, a few of her carriers were having some drive issues, and she was waiting on their crews to finish repairs before she jumped. I told her I would go on ahead and she could jump in when she was ready. I should have waited for her.”

  “Sarah, send your crews on twenty-five cycles downtime after you get your ships to Shipyard One for refit and refurbishment. Make arrangements for replacing your lost ships and then take downtime yourself—at least twenty-five cycles then report to me. Dismissed.”

  When she left my office, I could tell from the set of her shoulders she was upset with herself for being impatient and taking on more than she could chew. I was hoping some time off, and a visit with family would help settle her out a little. When she came back for her next assignment I was going to send her to Vanilla for a full psyche evaluation; if she was burning out, I needed to know now not after I’d sent her back into battle where she could lose her fleet. Ginger was due for a check-in visit, a habit She and Sol had developed since they were operating so close to Terra. I would ask her to start sniffing around for a replacement in case Sarah was marked down as unfit for duty. This was a part of the job that I really didn’t like. And then a thought struck me, perhaps she needed a stronger deputy commander, Ginger would have some recommendations there too.

  As though answering a call, Ginger showed up the next cycle. She, Elaine, Vanilla and I had a discussion about the events surrounding Sarah and what to do about it. Vanilla looked up Sarah's medical records and said, “According to this Sarah was due for her full fitness evals shortly after she left on her expedition. Our standing orders are if you are due for an eval within twenty cycles you are to report to the medbay two cycles before your departure. She was due for eval eighteen cycles after she left. I’m going to put a hold on her fleet access credentials, and when she leaves her ship, the only ships she will have access to are those heading for Mother of Peril. She won’t be able to board any of the ships in her fleet until the hold is lifted. I’ve had to do this before with others, and it has probably saved lives.”

  “She’s a good officer, I really don’t want to lose her, so do what you can to get her head right,” I replied.

  After Vanilla and Elaine left, Ginger told me she and Tuxedo would like to go to dinner before she had to head back to her fleet. She asked if Elaine and I could join them at Benji’s Place at 0730. I quickly commed Elaine, who replied she would love to. I told Ginger it was a date and she scurried off to take care of some fleet business.

  Ginger commed before I was heading to meet Elaine and walk her to Benji’s Place; she gave me one name for deputy commander to help take the load off Sarah—Pete Sandusky. I chuckled and said, “Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.”

  She replied, “Everyone he has served under or has served under him have nothing but good things to say about him, even my next best choice recommended him as the best candidate for the job.

  “Good,” I said, “I’ll find a place for her current deputy but won’t make any changes until after her evals when she comes back on duty.”

  We had a wonderful dinner that evening and an enjoyable conversation and wound up invited to Jacky and Ishmael’s for a night-cap. We’d run into them at Benji’s, and I got a few signals from Ishmael, so when the suggestion came, I accepted while I commed Elaine who agreed.

  When we got to Jacky and Ishmael’s place, he poured us all drinks while the ladies brought out a dessert Jacky had made. When we sat, Ishmael said, “I thought you might like to know the results of our plebiscite which took longer than we’d initially planned to organize. The vote to leave Mother of Peril was eighty-seven per cent. Most of the naysayers are very old and wanted to move to our Ark until they learnt that all of those on the Ark were going to the new ship. Now they just want us to leave them on the Mother of Peril.

  “The numbers and holdouts seem to reflect what I saw when the Mmrrreeowwn held theirs a while back. Unlike the Mmrrreeowwn holdouts, ours are demanding to be allowed to stay on Mother of Peril even though we told them we were going to take the ship aboard when we leave. Wiley is annoyed with them, but they are his people, so he is embarking on a campaign to persuade them to play ball. I understand this is what your elders are doing to bring their holdouts on board. Is this correct Ginger?”

  “Yes, it is. All of the holdouts on Mother of Glory signed up as soon as we started to move the WTC onto the ship, that was a big help. It didn’t hurt that Benji announced he was opening a few places on board in preparation for the move, he’s promising free well drinks for twenty-five cycles once everyone is on board. When we took some of the holdouts aboard for a visit, many of them quickly changed their minds especially when they found out there were jobs for thousands of people on the new ship and would be for many cycles to come. Our few remaining holdouts will simply be placed in stasis and taken aboard just before we take the Mother of Glory to Terra to start loading volunteers there.”

  I jolted fully awake when I heard that and asked, “How are the pilots flying that thing going to bring that off? MoG was clearly never designed for atmospheric travel.”

  Ginger smiled and said, “She wasn’t designed for it, but that doesn’t mean she can’t do it, especially with the new gravitic drives and the improved inertia damping tech we have installed on her and on Mother of Peril. Finding places to land was a whole different kettle of fish. We finally decided on the Great Lakes for Canada. We can use shuttles to get the people there from other areas. Actually any fairly quiet large body of water will do, even the oceans in many parts of the world.”

  “Are we opening up immigration to everyone, or are we still screening?” Elaine asked.

  “No, we are still screening, and there are age limits. We are relaxing the educational and occupational requirements, but we are still going to be screening for antisocial tendencies. Because of this, we are expecting more volunteers. We will also be looking at other parts of Terra to try to attract immigrants. We are going to be looking for a world to colonize and we will have to be self-sustaining from day one. We are going to need farmers and ranchers. We will need foresters and experts on climate and many more biologists. We will in all likelihood need fishermen and construction workers, and I don’t know how many new occupations. Stan and Dimitri and some of the other Terrans are in a better position to tell us these things than anyone else aboard.”

  We were going to need a considerable amount of guid
ance, and we certainly weren’t going to be able to solve it all tonight. I said, “Well, let’s get our people all settled in first and then we can deal with the next steps one at a time.

  Ginger looked at her timepiece and said, “I better call it a night and head back to my ship. I need to be back on station with my fleet next cycle. Thank all of you for a pleasant evening, I’ll see you again in about twenty-five cycles when I come in for my resupply and R and R.”

  We all hugged and sent Tuxedo and Ginger on their way. Tux was going to escort her back to the Swift Fang she was using for a gig. He said, “I’ll stop by tomorrow and check in with you.”

  That was code for we have things to discuss. I just acknowledged with a nod, and they were on their way.

  40

  ELAINE AND I HAD AN early breakfast, she needed to get to the medbay, and I needed to get to my office and review the intelligence estimate Silent and his bunch had put together concerning the two settled star systems, our forward expedition had found. As I walked in my office, Jacky greeted me with the news that Leopard was inbound, and Chocolate would be in my office around mid-cycle. I thanked her and sat at my desk where there was a thumb-drive waiting for me. I could tell at a glance, it was the intelligence estimate, so I popped it in my workstation and began to read it. I was just finishing the executive overview when I heard a knock on the doorframe and looked up to see Tuxedo. I motioned him to take a seat and finished my reading.

  I stood up to stretch and moved over to the door and looked out. No one was around, so I closed it. My door is almost always open, and everyone knew if it was closed, don’t come knocking unless we were on fire. As I resumed my seat, I asked, “What do we need to talk about, Tux.”

  “I just wanted to touch bases with you to make sure you were ok with the conversation we had last night. You seemed a little off.”

  “Yeah, I guess I was a little, but it had nothing to do with last night. I’m concerned about one of my senior commanders, I think she may be broken, for lack of a better term. She shipped out without taking her fitness eval that was due shortly after she left and I’m concerned she may be heading for a breakdown. This is not a good time for one of my best people to go squirrelly on me particularly with a mega-swarm forming fifteen light-kilocycles down our back-trail and two possibly hostile star systems ahead of us by about the same amount. To cap it off we still have one FTL capable globe ship out there somewhere probably trying to reassemble a swarm to come at us once more. All I need now is to hear it has hooked up with the bunch farther back and teaching them all about FTL. That would just about cap my day.”

  “I guess I can see where that might get to a person,” he said, “but as I recall you saying on more than one occasion ‘No one is getting out of this life alive’. You just have to do what you can do and keep pressing on. It sounds trite, but it is true, nonetheless.

  “On another note, your new command centre is all set up on the new ship, and half your staff is ready to move to it as soon as you give the word. Silent wants to move over as soon as you say ok. He has people almost standing on each other’s shoulders and could really use the new spaces he has over there. You could do with a bit of distraction as well, and your staff should move with them. You two need to be close by each other more than any other groups. All of the logistical staff and their equipment can move over later. Since none of you has a lot of hard goods to transport, you could fly over there this afternoon and pick up right where you left off.”

  “What about Elaine, I asked.

  “Most of the research group has already moved over. That’s why you haven’t seen much of Vanilla, Peaches or Svetlana. They have all been there for ten or so cycles. Even Stan and Dimitri and all their folks have moved. You and Johnny are the last of the original Terrans still here.”

  “Crap, Tux. Where have I been that I didn’t notice all that?”

  “You’ve had your head down plugging along with your blinders on again. We love you for your dedication to the job but, as Johnny will tell you, you are not the job. The Cohort is moving today, and so are most of the cook staff, the rest are slated to go tomorrow. If you want to stay here, I’m sure we could make some arrangements, but it would be a hell of a lot easier on everyone else if you would just come along.”

  I thought about it for a few moments then commed Elaine, holding a finger up as Tux started to stand. When she answered, I asked, “Would you be up for moving to the new ship today?”

  She laughed and said, “Sure, why not. That way, I can get back on my projects directly instead of having to do everything by remote.”

  I was on private com with her and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me everyone was moving? Was I that, unreachable?”

  “Actually, you have been for a while. I know you have a lot on your mind, but when I tell you things and don’t get an acknowledgement from you, I figure it is time for me to shut up and take care of my own stuff, so I do.

  “If you are serious I’ll make the arrangements and have our suite packed up and moved to our new place. Bebe has her people ready to move us, all I need to do is give them the word.”

  I answered, “If you would take care of that little detail I’d appreciate it more than you know. When are you heading over?”

  She replied, “I was thinking right after we have lunch at Benji’s Place, which is right after your meeting with Chocolate. I will also have a surprise for you, so don’t be late.” She chuckled and closed the comm.

  I looked over at Tuxedo and said, “Well, it looks like I’m moving this afternoon right after I have lunch with the boss.”

  He smiled and said, “Now that’s the Jase Weatherby I remember, a smart man who knows who is always right.”

  Chocolate knocked on the open door, I motioned her to come in and close it, “Welcome back, Chocolate,” I said in greeting. “Take a seat and let me hear your report.”

  “Yes, Ser.

  “Most of my cruise was entirely uneventful until a few of my carriers developed drive issues. They were well past their service interval but, based on my chief engineer’s reports, I decided to take all of my vessels out knowing we could deal with almost any issue while we were gone. I had my strongest carriers escort the problematic ones until we found a small system whose planets we could mine should we need to fabricate parts we didn’t have with us.

  “We found a system untouched by the Plague but devoid of life and with several of my carriers in tow settled into orbit around a larger rocky world a couple of AU’s from its star. That system is eleven light-kilocycles from Terra, just outside the scouting radius we were using when waiting for the mega-swarm.

  “Anyway, we had been there for three cycles when Sarah rendezvoused with us and informed me she had found the two FTL capable globe ships that had escaped the battle in which she lost so many of her carriers. After I reviewed her data, we decided to attack them when my carriers were repaired and fit for action. After two more cycles, she commed and stated she was going to head back to the system the swarm was mining and keep an eye on them.

  “I asked her to wait a couple of decas until the last of my fleet was repaired, but she insisted she should leave right away, stating she didn’t want them to get away again. I relented and told her to go ahead that we would follow behind soon and would do our best to catch up.

  “I knew she was chafed over what happened to her command the last time she confronted this swarm, but I believed Sarah would heed my advice and wait for my backup before she attacked. The more I thought about it, the uneasier I felt so I had the two carriers still unable to fly stay with my fleet train and took three armoured freighters and my remaining carriers with me, jumping out about fifty centas later.

  “My fleet arrived just in time to see her freighters fire themselves dry then jump for Saturn to reload. Her attack managed to cripple one of the globe ships, and her bombers did a good job sowing the area around the harvesters and breaker/sorters with FTL damper missiles. The undamaged globe ship was alrea
dy moving and was able to shoot down the dampers heading its way and jump to FTL before I could get mine deployed. As near as I’ve been able to determine it had no escorts when it left.

  “All of her bombers had rearmed, and when they deployed again and had fired all of their Cracker-3s, I ordered her to withdraw while my fleet mopped up. One of her few remaining fighters was able to carry its Cracker-3s into the main launch portal of the damaged globe ship, it exploded. With its demise, the remaining vessels became little more than target practice, so I ordered her home and finished them off.

  “The surviving globe ship didn’t jump far. Three of my scouts were able to track it jumping after it in pursuit. One of them came back and informed me that the other two would continue to follow it and let us know when it settled in a system somewhere to refuel and rebuild. I sent it back to rejoin the other scouts with orders to maintain full stealth and send status every five decas. Since then, I’ve received three signals consisting of spatial coordinates. I’ve plotted them on a star map appended to my logs. My sensor operators have volunteered to remain aboard Leopard and relay the signals to Silent’s group until they are relieved.”

  “Well done. Please pass that to your crew as well. With your ships keeping track of the globe ship we have a shot at setting up an ambush and ending this for quite a while.

  “Let me take a look at your star map real quick, then if nothing jumps out at me, you and your crews can go on downtime for the next twenty-five cycles. I’ll have Silent send some of his specialists over to relieve your people in the next few centas.”

  I quickly commed Silent and gave him the broad strokes, and he replied he already had people on it. The next transmissions would be coming directly to his unit. Then he said, “Congratulations, Ser. I understand you will be moving aboard our new ship later this cycle. I believe you will be exceedingly pleased with your new set-up here, not to mention your new personal quarters. Your mate chose well, the location is close by headquarters and has a fine view across the parks. My mate was pleased to be asked to help coordinate housing and assisted her in picking out your new home.”