by Saxon Andrew
Desmond paused and added, “It is absolutely critical that the aliens not learn about our newest weapons. So far, Admiral Dunhan’s command has not fired a cutter and we intend to only do that if it’s use can’t be reported back to their leaders. I’m issuing a direct order to everyone present that you will not open fire with a cutter blaster during this mission without direct orders to do so or if it’s the only way to prevent your ship from being destroyed. My job is to make sure none of you are put into a situation where that happens.” I’m sending you all the recordings Admiral Dunhan’s ships have collected and you will go over those recordings on the way out to the core.” Des paused and asked, “Do you have any questions?”
A Commodore stood up and Des nodded to him. He was handed a microphone and he said, “Sir, I was one of those that fought with you defending Melbourne. I am pleased that you’re leading us again.” Des smiled and nodded.
Another Officer stood up and was handed the microphone, “Is this Admiral Dunhan Rory Dunhan?”
Des smiled slightly, “Yes but not the one you think. He’s Rory and Abby Dunhan’s son.”
The Officer’s head went back, and he responded, “That makes him rather…young doesn’t it?”
Des nodded, “It does. But I have no issues following his orders. He’s an extraordinary officer and he’s out there for a reason; he’s the best one to do it.”
“How long do we have to delay them, Sir?”
“Eight months,” Desmond responded. “At that point we will withdraw our forces and prepare to immediately go to war with the Britannia Aliens.”
“What about the Fagan Civilization?” another officer asked.
“Our scientists believe that the Britannia Aliens will attack the Fagan prior to going after Earth. We will stay out of that confrontation and hope that the number of New Britannia Aliens’ warships are greatly reduced. If you wonder when we’ll enter the war, we believe it will be about a year to a year and a half from now. That’s why it’s critical that they don’t learn about our newest weapons; they would have time to develop defenses against them.”
“How do our Garrions match up to their Planet Killers, Sir?” another pilot asked.
“It’s a mixed bag. We have confirmed that the Garrions are not detectable. We’ve also determined that our heavy missiles can destroy their largest warships.” The pilots gave a collective sigh of relief and Desmond held up his hand. After they turned back to him, he added, “Once a Planet Killer is hit by a missile, all of the others surrounding it immediately fire a blaster barrage around them with a devastating cross-fire. Anything caught inside their formations will be destroyed. The range of their blasters is between eighty and a hundred and fifty miles. I know your Garrions have the new negative field around your ships that will protect you against the blasters from one Planet Killer for a short period, but it won’t be effective against their cross-fire. When the war starts, it will be the responsibility of our King Hare warships to disrupt and scatter their formations so your Garrions can take them on one-on-one.”
“Will they be able to do that?”
Desmond turned to the former General Commander of the Garrions sitting beside him. “The hull of the Garrions is one foot thick; the hulls on the Hares is six-feet thick. If they can’t do it, then we’re in for a lot of trouble.”
Admiral James Carter nodded and asked, “Will your Hares have the new negative shield installed on them?”
“It would serve no purpose, Admiral. The negative field deflects blaster beams at a sharp angle. It will only work on a ship as small as the Garrions; the Hares are too large.”
Carter nodded and smiled, “I want to personally welcome you to my command, and I look forward to learning from you, Sir.”
Des smiled, “Thank you.”
Louisa knew that any issues the Garrion officers had with Des were removed. They recognized that he knew what they were moving into and without him, they would be going in blind. Once again, she was proud of the man she chose to marry.
Chapter Fourteen
Angel leaned in to RJ and said, “An Admiral Frye is on the frequency demanding to speak with you.”
RJ’s brow furrowed and he nodded, “Put it on my console.” RJ turned to his display and expected to see Desmond but saw Kendal instead. His smile was immediate, “Kendal, it’s so good to see you after…”
Kendal interrupted him, “My Second-in-Command has just notified me that fifteen pilots from your unit have been promoted to command my Garrions during this mission. Is that true!?”
RJ’s smile disappeared as he saw Kendal’s angry expression, “Yes, it is,” he replied.
“As an officer in New Britannia’s Navy, you have no authority to make promotions in the Colonies fleets. I am countermanding those promotions immediately; I have my own commanders to lead my forces.”
RJ stared at Kendal and asked, “What’s going on, Kendal?”
“You will not be choosing who leads my Garrions. I’m forced to accept my father as their overall commander, but I will not allow you to take control of my Garrions.”
The crew of the Troke stopped what they were doing and turned around; they could hear Kendal’s loud voice emanating from RJ’s console. RJ’s expression changed and he asked, “Are you sure you want to handle this issue like this?”
“I am well within my authority to do this as the Commanding officer of the Colonies Carriers!”
RJ shook his head slightly, “So be it. Admiral, please look at your mission orders and tell me who is in overall command of all the forces sent here.” Kendal glared at RJ in silence and RJ added, “That is not a request, Admiral, it’s a direct order!”
Kendal pulled up her mission orders and read, “Admiral Rory Dunhan will be in command of all ships participating in the mission.”
“The next time you contact me telling me what I can and cannot do, I will contact Fleet Admiral Connor and request you be removed from your command, you got that!!” RJ replied harshly.
Kendal glared at RJ and answered tersely, “Yes Sir.”
RJ glared at her and lowered his head slightly, “I can see that you just don’t get it. Remember, you asked for this.” RJ turned to Angel and ordered loud enough for Kendal to hear, “Link Fleet Admiral Connor into this conversation.” RJ turned to his monitor and ordered, “You will remain on the frequency until Admiral Connor is linked in!” Kendal’s eyes widened and Rory looked away from her.
Ten-minutes later, Maranda appeared on the monitor along with Kendal and asked, “Is there a problem, Admiral. Drew just informed me that you were having an issue.”
Rory looked at Kendal and saw her trepidation. He decided to change his mind on how he was going to handle this problem, “Sir, I have Admiral Kendal Frye linked in to this conversation and she doesn’t understand why the Garrion officers in my unit have been promoted to lead her Garrions. I felt it would be good if you could explain why you promoted them.” Kendal flinched when she heard RJ say that Maranda had made their promotions.”
“You couldn’t explain this, Admiral.”
“Sir, I think she needs to hear it from you.”
Maranda glared at Rory and then turned to Kendal, “Admiral, the fifteen Garrions that were sent out with Admiral Dunhan’s unit to determine the Garrion’s capabilities at handling the aliens’ most advanced warships were on the top of the promotion list in Fleet. I informed Admiral Dunhan when I sent them that they would be promoted when they returned back to the colonies. Admiral Dunhan suggested that they should be promoted to lead the Garrions you brought out with you and I thought it was an excellent idea. They have been confronting the aliens and know what the Garrions can and cannot do. What is the issue, Admiral Frye?”
Kendal knew she had screwed up royally. “Sir, according to regulations, I’m supposed to be informed of any promotions under my command. I’ve received no notification of these pilots being placed in command of my Garrions.”
Maranda knew that Kendal was not playing w
ell with others. She started to remove her from Command, but RJ spoke up, “Sir, it’s my fault for not notifying her. I just wanted you to confirm that you had made those promotions and they were valid.”
Maranda turned her attention to RJ and saw him shake his head slightly. Maranda was angry but she thought about what should be done. After a moment, she turned to Kendal on the monitor, “Just so there is no future misunderstanding, Admiral Frye. Your carriers are assigned to Admiral Dunhan to use as he pleases. Any action he takes will have my, and Fleet’s, full approval!”
Kendal nodded, “Yes Sir, and thank you for taking a moment to clear this up.” Maranda glared at Kendal for a long moment, and then ended the contact.
RJ saw Kendal lower her head and asked her softly, “Kendal, what’s happened to you? You’re not the same person I grew up with.”
Kendal took a deep breath and replied, “I left New Britannia and built my life in the Colonies. I believed my parents deserted the ones that saved them.”
“That’s not true, Kendal.”
Kendal blew a heavy sigh, “I’ve been given information that I’m probably wrong about that, but I find all the foundations under me are crumbling. I see New Britannia taking control of my command and something inside me is fighting against it.”
RJ waited a moment until Kendal looked up at him, before saying, “Kendal, New Britannia is not taking your command from you; I am. And I need to know that you trust me to do the right thing to keep your sailors safe.”
Kendal nodded slightly, “I left everything behind when I left New Britannia. But the ones I’ve missed the most are you and Candy.”
RJ smiled, “We love you, Kendal. You were such a huge part of our formative years, and I always knew you were going to grow up to be someone very special, but I don’t see that person now.”
Kendal took another deep breath, before replying, “I will not be a problem in the future, Junior. Whatever you need, I’ll do my best to provide. I love you.”
The monitor went dark and Angel said, “You have a history with her.”
RJ nodded, “She’s eleven years older than me and she was the one that baby sat me many times. I admire her and her parents. I pray she can slay her demons.”
“You know you could have removed her from command?”
RJ stared at Angel and nodded, “I was planning to do just that but decided not to pull that trigger.”
Angel stared at him and finally said, “I hope you made the right decision about that.”
RJ sighed heavily, “So do I.”
• • •
The twelve units of Garrions left the carriers before they arrived at the Troke’s location and Desmond contacted RJ, “I will be arriving with six-thousand Garrions within twelve hours, Sir.”
“Take your units out from my location and have them spread out and search for any scouts between the aliens’ defensive lines and the location of the Stealth Civilization. Do not attack them until you’re certain you’ve found all of them. Take them all out simultaneously.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Once you’ve done that, assign four of the Garrion units to move to each side of my unit and prevent any alien scouts from moving in on my position. Des, we need to keep them blind about what’s out here confronting them.”
“Yes Sir. We’ll use those eight units to form a globe around the front of their lines you’re confronting. What about the other four units?”
“Send them to my location and I’ll decide how to best use them. I want Commodore Troastle’s unit included with them. In the meantime, I’m counting on you to keep us hidden. I suspect they’ll be sending more scouts from either side of the front they have confronting the Stealth Civilization.”
“I’ll keep you informed of what’s going on.”
“It’s good to have you here, Des.”
RJ turned to Matt, “Send the incoming Garrions to the location I’ve chosen for them to get organized.”
“Yes Sir.”
Mallory turned in her chair and asked, “Sir, what do you expect to happen?”
RJ tilted his head and shrugged, “I think the aliens are currently working on sending out a fleet to attack the Stealth Civilization. We should be fine for the short term. However, once we remove all the scouts and take out any they send to replace them, the aliens will feel the need to launch the attack.”
“Then is it a good idea to remove their scouts now?”
“We have too many warships out here now, Mallory. We can’t run the risk of one of their scouts actually seeing one of our ships. The aren’t detectable but they can be seen from close range. First the scouts and then we’ll deal with whatever the aliens come up with.”
• • •
Grady ended his contact and Taffy asked, “What’s going on?”
“It appears Kendal is posing problems.”
Taffy shook her head, “Maranda never should have sent her out knowing Des and Louisa were going to be there.”
“I’d have done the same thing, Taffy.”
“For Pete’s sake why?”
“It’s better to face issues before this war kicks off than during it.”
Taffy’s eyebrows went up, “Surely Maranda knows Kendal’s feelings about New Britannia?”
“I’m not sure she does, Taffy. And it would make sense to send an Admiral out that would, on the surface, be a good match to work with Rory Junior. But you don’t have to worry about that, she knows now. She almost relieved Kendal of her command but Junior stopped her.”
“Why would he do that?”
Grady shrugged, “I don’t know. But I know he had a reason for stopping it.”
“How is the construction on the new missiles coming along?”
“It’s been a real bear to make progress.”
“Why, Grady?”
“The thickness of the new missile’s hull requires that they be constructed on New Britannia. Getting the hulls built and installing the critical electronic systems has really slowed us down. However, the Colonies are building the guidance systems now and they’ve sent ten-thousand engineers to install them, allowing us to focus on the hulls. The numbers being built each day has really accelerated.”
“How is Candy doing getting her fleet ready?”
“Quite well, Taffy. I don’t know what you said to her, but she is having numerous meetings with her subordinates questioning them on if she has missed anything. She’s apparently listening with an open mind and implementing any suggestions that have merit.” Grady looked intently at Taffy, “What did you say to her?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Come on, Taffy! She came out of that talk with you a changed person. What did you say to her?”
“Well, I did suggest that she is very much like me.” Grady’s head went back slightly, and Taffy raised her hands, “OK. I told her I’m pretty smart, but I often miss things and that you are what keeps me from really messing up. I suggested she open herself to others criticisms.”
“I’m sure you said a lot more than that!”
Taffy smiled slightly, “No…not really.” Grady huffed and made another call. Taffy smiled to herself; she wasn’t going to tell Grady that she told Candy he was smarter than her. He’d never let her forget it. She prayed Candy would be safe during her mission.
• • •
The Supreme War Leader was glaring at his Second and didn’t like what he was hearing. “Supremacy, we’ve lost every scout we had in the space confronting the Stealth Civilization. We’ve tried to send more than eight-hundred scouts from the other fronts and none of them have survived the effort.”
“WE MUST KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON!” The War leader replied loudly.
The Second winced at the War Leader’s volume, “If we continue to send the scouts from the other two fronts, we won’t know what’s happening to any of them. You know a scout can’t stand up to even a small warship.”
“I thought we were getting the Stealth Warships under control.”
<
br /> “It’s true their number of attacks have greatly diminished from what they were a year ago. But they have apparently developed a new stealth missile to use against us and are starting to ramp up their attacks,” the Second responded.
“I need to launch an attack against their home worlds.”
The Second shook his head, “If we pull ships out of our lines to do that, we’ll leave gaps that the Stealth Warships can exploit endangering our inhabited planets.”
“Then I’ll have to get them from somewhere else,” the War Leader replied.
“The other two fronts are also stretched to the limit holding off the other two enemies, Supremacy.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Then where will you find the necessary number of warships to launch an attack?”
The War Leader smiled and lifted his communicator.
• • •
RJ was snatched out of a deep sleep by the wall speaker loudly announcing, “The Admiral is needed on the bridge,” over and over. He shut down the speaker and jumped out of bed. He hastily put on his tunic and ran out of his quarters toward the bridge. He tucked his tunic in and fastened his belt just as he went through the portal to the bridge, “What’s going on!?”
Matt turned to him, “Sir, Captain Horton has an emergency communication.”
RJ went to his chair and saw Connie on his monitor. Angel rushed on the bridge and ran toward her chair as RJ said, “What’s going on, Connie?”