by Chris Hechtl
“If they do we can overhaul them, sir. But …,” Riot turned a dubious look on the captain.
“Let's worry about that situation when it comes to it,” the captain replied. He didn't like the idea either.
“The two ships are picking up speed, sir. The Clydesdale is pulling ahead. No, they are splitting up,” Jim stated. He frowned and tapped at his computer console then looked at Ensign Ham.
“Can't figure it out?” the chimp asked, smiling slightly.
“I'm a techy not a nav,” the rating said, shaking his head.
“That's okay. We all have our faults,” she said with a voice dripping in mock soothing tones. He waited until she wasn't looking to stick his tongue out at her. “I saw that,” she said mildly. He snorted.
“The Clydesdale has set course for the B-97a jump point, sir. The Cygnus is limping, but she's going for Nuevo Madrid. We'll never catch them both now, sir.”
“Who do we go after?” Lieutenant Riot asked, turning to look at the captain.
---<>---<>---
The two ships had split up so the frigate couldn't overhaul both of them. Charlatan’s Prayer had the easier run to Nuevo Madrid jump point. The run was shorter, but the wounded ship lumbered like a limping animal.
Gaston had expected the enemy frigate to latch onto the more wounded of the two ships, but instead, she'd kept her course on Moldy Crow's tail. Apparently the ship's captain had shared his dim assessment of the Cygnus's chances to get to another port safely.
He didn't like being chased. It burned like lava. “We're supposed to be doing the chasing here!” he finally erupted, then began to pace.
“Yeah, well, someone didn't tell them that,” Captain Media said acidly, waving a hand to the enemy frigate. Their free run was over he thought moodily. The empire had a real threat on its hands; one it hadn’t' expected in the Rho sector. He wasn't sure why the empire had left it for so long. Sure they'd kept a low profile and the emperor hadn't elevated himself from supreme secretary until a few years ago. It had been according to some plan; some strategy he could dimly see. But apparently they hadn't anticipated much resistance so close to Rho. From the propaganda he had heard and bought into, they were supposed to roll over the sector and surrounding sectors like a tidal wave.
“I don't like being on the receiving end of this shit,” the earl snarled, purpling with his impotent rage.
“I don't either,” Captain Media said mildly, looking at the man and then away.
“Well, we're going to do something about it, just you wait and see, Captain,” the earl vowed.
“I just wish I could be there when it happens,” the captain growled, turning back to the earl.
“If I have anything to say about it, you will,” Gaston replied.
---<>---<>---
“Make sure Admiral Frost is aware of the threat and takes appropriate action. But do try to stress to him that it will be unwise to act impulsively,” Captain Media told Charlatan's Prayer over their laser link.
His chief engineer had spooled up their hyperdrive for the last two hours of their journey across the star system. Doing so had diverted some of the power from the sublight drive and other systems. They had lost some ground to the hunter coming up behind them, but the drive was primed to go early. They were in the process of braking to the jump point, however.
“We're losing communications due to the drive so goodbye and good luck,” he said, cutting the link. “To the both of us, he muttered.
He had taken the earl's advice and jinked several times, even accelerating once, getting the enemy ship to adjust course and pick up speed before he'd cut into the braking maneuver. The fake out had worked; the chasing ship had lost them momentarily due to the lens effect at going at such high velocities. The different speeds had apparently thrown their timing off just enough to give the lumbering ship a slight edge. A slight one he thought, checking the numbers again. He suppressed a shiver. Even with their slight lead, it would be close. If there was one slip-up when they jumped, it would be over he thought sourly.
When they got to the minimum edge of jump zone, they jumped just ahead of the frigate entering her outer engagement zone. To the earl it was almost heart stopping.
“Now that's what I call a run,” Captain Media said, shaking his head. He took out a handkerchief and blotted at his sweat stained head. The earl wrinkled his nose and looked away.
“All systems stable.”
“Will they follow?”
“I doubt it,” the captain replied. “Their heart wasn't in that chase. I believe they are going to picket the star system, however.”
“Good to know,” the earl growled as he left the bridge.
Chapter 14
The moment the ansible kicked up John wanted to celebrate but also kick himself. He could tell the ships were okay by watching their end of the ansible. The destruction of many of the muons made him wince, but when a bunch had gone off all at once, Sprite had let him know that they were setting up the ansible, which made him kick the ships into motion he had been holding back.
That was what had bothered him he thought, holding those ships for so long. He could have had them in the pipeline behind TF 22 earlier. Or he could have sent a few more ships with Amadeus.
It took time to get their SITREP. He was pleased that they had taken the star system without losing a ship, but the fighter losses and most especially the marine losses were troubling. He could kick himself as far as the marine losses were concerned. He should have sent in a larger force. Lieutenant Lewis's success on Hidoshi's World had fooled him. They'd gone in fat dumb and happy and paid the price. He shook his head angrily as he forwarded the marine losses to Agnosta and then looked into scraping up more fighters and marines in Antigua for the resupply convoy he was about to send out.
He frowned thoughtfully and then shook his head. No, he had something better in mind than sending them in to the star system in dribs and drabs. His eyes cut to the Kittyhawk class escort carrier nearly half finished.
Sindri had wanted cruisers. He'd overruled the commander in favor of escort carriers. They could still retool the line to produce cruisers if they wished to do so later. Well, light cruisers anyway, he reminded himself. But the escort carriers were force multipliers. The fighters offered a strategic asset and tactical flexibility that a cruiser lacked. And since fighters were easier to replace … it was cold but it was war.
The escort carrier would take some time to finish and work up, he estimated another twelve to sixteen weeks, but she'd be a major force multiplier, far above the destroyers Amadeus currently had available. But one thing he would correct right away. He jotted out an order to put Xavier on the convoy. Like it or not Amadeus needed the ship. Task Force 1 would get by with the ships in the pipeline and working up.
Until Amadeus sent his fleet train back, if he did, John thought sourly, he would only have one transport and one large freighter to resupply Protodon and TF 22. But he did have some warships to send; ships undoubtedly Amadeus would strip off of the escort duty the moment he saw them. That was fine; he fully anticipated it. But Amadeus would have to cut the fleet train loose to keep them supplied he thought.
His attention turned to other matters. Things were looking up on the contact front. Taxes, supplies, and personnel were beginning to roll in from the various worlds that had signed on to the Federation. Regular runs to Seti Alpha 4, Gaston, Triang, and Agnosta were doing wonders for their economy and prospects. Not only were the worlds advancing in leaps and bounds for everything from industry to education and medicine, but their standard of living was spreading outward from their cities and space ports into the hinterlands of their worlds and to neighboring worlds.
Pyrax and Epsilon Triangula were the two sour notes as far as worlds were concerned. Well, to be fair so was Centennial, New Haven, and the missing Prometheus group. Hopefully something turned up soon.
As far as New Haven was concerned, he was letting Governor Randall's people do most of the fro
nt work now that the star system had an ansible in place. They were still pretty prickly, however.
Phil had sent out a small force to guard the small freighter that was carrying the ansible cores to neighboring star systems. He'd kept three in reserve. The other three were en route to Airea 3, Nightingale, and Epsilon Triangula. He wasn't comfortable with the southern loop route
Phil had set the two ships up on, but at least they would be showing the flag while underway. And besides with ET under a cloud and raiders in the area, he wasn't at all comfortable sending them through areas like Centennial anyway, even if Firefly was hunting in the area. The heavy cruiser could only be in one star system at a time he thought.
What Phil didn't understand from his perspective was that he was still learning his job too. He didn't want to admit it though. John shook his head. He shouldn't have to remind the man. Phil had certainly watched flag officers. He'd been on various staffs, and from time to time, he had run a naval station or even a star system. But that was very different than a major yard under the pressures they were under.
His fingers plucked at his lower lip as he thought about the officers he'd picked up. Amadeus was green too. Both flag officers had been promoted to commodores during their tenure on Lemnos. Neither had ever exercised flag rank in the field nor in combat. He exhaled slowly. They had done some planning and even a few war games with Amadeus during their transit from Lemnos to Antigua and then while his forces finished working up in Antigua, but … he shook his head.
They wanted the perks, complained that they weren't getting the support they thought they should … he paced. They should be happy with what they had. Hell, he snorted. No, no they shouldn't. Every officer wanted more; it was perfectly natural not to be satisfied with what forces and equipment they had available. He rubbed his brow.
Well, they better figure things out soon and settle down. They had a closing window before Horath started to react. So far he was fairly confident they had been facing light forces because the empire hadn't taken them seriously. When word got back to them about Rico and Cartwright that would most definitely change. The gloves would come off.
He keyed up the last SITREP from Pyrax and checked on Bismark's progress. The rebuilt Tauren battleship was barely creeping along. They were going to have to do something about that, even if it meant shipping … no, he'd have to get the ship here. He'd have to ship in the parts for her hyperdrive and other sensors, then get the ship here and then tear into her to finish the rebuild. He shook his head. Obviously Phil didn't like the idea since he hadn't suggested it. He jotted out a note to Sprite to explore what it would take to make it happen anyway.
Once he was finished, he turned to the smaller ship construction rates in Pyrax. Pyrax was holding her own. She had more production lines than Antigua did of course, but all the poaching, the manning of the various ships plus all the transfers had taken a hefty toll. Hopefully Phil and Horatio would straighten it out.
Damocles … he checked the ship again and then grunted. Harris wanted out of Pyrax bad. He could understand the sentiment; his ship would be extremely useful to White. She would be wasted running convoys, however. He shook his head and put the decision off for a little while longer. For the moment Harris could cool his heels and continue to teach at the academy when his ship made him available.
His eyes cut to the local status board. It was gratifying, though he'd feel a lot better when they had a division mate for Maine. Maine was off in the asteroid belt doing exercises against a pair of newly constructed frigates. The division mates seemed to be acting as hunting dogs attacking the battle cruiser bear. He knew who he'd put money on though, he thought with a snort.
Captain Samuels was putting the BC through her paces beautifully. She was still young in rank for her position, but he knew she could handle the job. She was excellent at training and working her people as well as doing guest lectures at the college. That had been a bit above and beyond what the admiral had expected. He was glad to see her trying to pass her knowledge on to the next generation as widely as possible.
The yard was humming along, no problems there or on the horizon. The same for the small craft production lines, though they'd had a minor hiccup a few days ago. Everything was back on track however and running smoothly once more.
In the seventeen weeks of TF 22's absence, Antigua had built seventeen gunships, eight corvettes, and four frigates. As well as two-thirds of an Arboth destroyer. Pyrax had built fifteen gunships, six corvettes, three frigates before Phil had shown up and had four Arboth destroyers that were near completion. They also had a North Hampton in production and had been puttering around with some of the other hulls they had stockpiled.
He knew Amadeus would take them all and then some. Unfortunately, he knew the Neochimp knew that he couldn't get them all or even half. The navy had other commitments, other fronts to cover. They had to secure B101a1 for instance. From there, they had to secure B100 omega and get relief to Lewis on Hidoshi's World … Destria needed liberating. The list went on and on and on. It got longer every day.
Irons had allocated twelve of the gunships, four corvettes, two frigates, Xavier, the transport and the tender for the initial resupply force. Only four of the gunships would be able to be transported, however; the rest would have to wait for follow-on convoys. If Mary Apple showed up, he'd send her along too, or she'd be the escort of the next convoy.
He fully intended to send Bounty when she showed up in Agnosta. She could escort the marine reinforcements in since Dunatis was going to replace her as escort in the regular convoy run. Ian would be overjoyed with that he thought with a trace of a smile. The more the merrier, Irons thought as his smile broadened slightly for a moment. And at least Ian had combat experience, Amadeus should appreciate that. Fuentes was already en route to replace Mary Apple in the convoys, he made a note to check on the ship's progress.
Captain Vargess hadn't been thrilled about losing Fuentes, but he had understood however. He was doing a good job running ops with Lieutenant Turner and Sprite. It was tempting to leave the man there for a while, but he was afraid he'd go stale. Like Commander Samuels he was occasionally doing guest lectures at the college. But Sprite had dropped a hint that the man seemed … seemed like he really wasn't putting his heart into it. He was a born ship commander.
He exhaled slowly. Sometimes you had to do stuff you didn't like, and to Vargess's credit the man hadn't complained about the assignment, nor loosing Fuentes. He couldn't say the same about Harris. Harris wasn't happy at all about being fired and kept firing off complaints and requests for clarification on his record. He didn't want it to negatively affect his career. Irons could understand and sympathize with the man, though he was getting on his nerves.
Briefly he considered sending Vargess to Protodon to back Amadeus up. The man was good in OPS, but he was best in ship command. He made a note to get the captain back into the saddle with the first major ship. Possibly the EC? He frowned thoughtfully before slowly shaking his head.
No, traditionally an EC was run by a lieutenant commander or a full commander. A junior captain was a bit heavy in rank to take that slot. He snorted. Up until six weeks ago that same junior captain had been skippering a Nelson!
No, the EC would work, but a heavy cruiser would be better definitely. He might have to ship Vargess back to Antigua for the first Resolution off their production line though. Then he'd have to work up there and then take the Kathy's World route to get to Protodon.
He checked their cruiser line progress and then shrugged. They had a ways to go before they got to the Resolutions. He didn't want to buck the system and have them change over from the North Hamptons now that they were getting the bugs out of the production. It would be a while before he lost the man's services if they went that route.
Of course, he could just ask the man if he preferred the EC or another ship command. He wondered if Vargess knew he was being groomed for flag rank as well. He snorted. He wouldn't put it past Vargess. He
was doing a pretty good job exercising in virtual sims against Naomi come to think of it.
Renee Mayweather was being groomed as well, but since she was in the field, her ship didn't get the chance to work up with other ships. She was out of contact for such great lengths of time.
His frown deepened as a thought occurred. If he swapped Renee for Vargess, Renee could use the time in staff or working up another ship. She certainly knew how to get the best out of a green crew! And she could train in groups or squadron command while Vargess got some saddle time in the field on Firefly. He nodded. That would solve that issue when it cropped up and give Renee's career more time to blossom. She needed some time as a captain senior grade and time working with a squadron before they started to push her up to flag rank.
Nara Thornby and Matilda's situation bothered him. Thornby was already en route, she'd be an incredible asset in Antigua. He could already envision her here sitting like a spider in the center of the ansible web coordinating the medical efforts of the sector as well as coordinating the training and logistics needed to back the doctors up. Once they got Epsilon Triangula online she could tap them as a resource too.
She didn't know it, but she was the senior most medical officer in the navy. Once she got her feet under her in Antigua he intended to promote her to captain's rank. She was going to have fun putting the administration together. At least she had the lessons she had learned in Pyrax and the template she had created there to work off of he thought.
Matilda was a different story. He could use her, but he had some good people in training already. She had them by date of rank of course … he frowned and then shrugged. He'd deal with it a little later. He knew Jersey wouldn't utilize her services fully. He was still holding a grudge against Matilda and Horatio over circumventing tradition by running marine officer recruits through their end without consulting him.
Speaking of Jersey … he frowned and rubbed his jaw. He'd gotten his hand slapped over slipping up and letting Nara know about Project Destiny, but he'd been right to point out that Irons hadn't put a tight enough lid on the situation. He'd rectified that with a classification cover. But the marines were growing … he couldn't stay a lieutenant colonel for much longer despite the reprimand. He wrote a memo to promote Jersey by the end of the month to full bird.