by David Buck
‘We are heartened that you guide us or we you; we have withdrawn from the Maveen and our message of peace is set over time to permit acceptance.’
‘We invite and request for you; to allow us to protect you and take other ship to new sanctuary.’
‘Concern is noted; we leave first to protect the system until ship can flee.’
‘We implore and suggest to you; stay hidden as you seek Maveen, ancients and Traders to pass our message of new peace and renewal to all.’
‘We speak with knowledge and truths, the higher Maveen are now eternal helpers to all and eternal servants to none.’
Altarebe just knew he had to pass on the last piece of news regarding the Maveen to his father, as they had suspected that the Maveen had become different over the millennia’s. He now sent a short message and prepared leave the star system.
‘I am grateful to guide or to be guided; we will seek truths together as allies.’
‘I will talk later as time passes; I remain cloaked and follow you to second ship.’
Altarebe waited for several seconds and the Sspol globe turned and headed away for the original exit point he had selected earlier. In moments he was trailing the large ship at a distance before massive corona of light surrounded the Sspol ship, and it made the hyper drive jump to the next system where his father was located. He waited for a good half an hour before he followed to minimize the after effects of the larger ship’s mass on hyper space before he also jumped into the next system.
***
Steve and the remaining members of his team had wasted no time in reaching the bridge. He had informed Emeria as they walked up the side corridor that he wanted to ensure the last three Earth ships left for the colony. As they walked onto the bridge and stood behind the massive captain’s chair, Emeria asked the communications officer to bring up a view screen showing the Maveen gateway.
Steve watched as the three ships approached the gateway, but they hung back for several minutes as Maveen ships continued to leave Earth for the colony. He turned to Emeria and made another polite request.
‘Emeria, can I please speak with the Maveen Earth probe via your ship?’
Emeria looked at the communications officer, who looked nervously around for Captain Narindestat. Emeria spoke a couple of reassuring sentences in Trader to the nervous officer and in moments Steve was speaking to the Earth probe.
‘Earth probe, we really need those three ships taken across to the colony, and your stream of ships is stopping them entering the gateway.’
The metallic voice of the Earth probe answered as he continued to look at the gateway.
‘We are already behind in our preparations to leave and the Barus fleet will intercept us if they can do so. There is little room in their edicts for them to allow us to leave.’
Steve was however having none of it as he spoke again.
‘Now I will make myself perfectly clear probe, we will not accept the ships being left for the reasons I supplied earlier. Note that my command ship also holds copies of Trader technology that was traded to us. Please hear and consider my plea wisely, as the colony will only suffer harm by the lack of these ships.’
After a moments silence, the screen showed the Maveen ships break off entering the gateway, before the Maveen Earth probe replied again in a resigned manner.
‘We will wait for the three ships, but they are slow to move by our standards. We are also worried that the Barus fleet will attack your world if we remain much longer.’
Steve considered the last comment by the probe, as he watched the three surface ships nose towards the gateway, with one of the frigates now leading and now his ship following along second. He turned from the screen and made yet another request, even as he thanked the communications officer.
‘Well thank you for the conversation. Now I need to speak with Ian Ridge on the quarantine island to the north of us please.’
Steve was speaking in moments with Ian Ridge at the communications tent on Rat Island.
‘Sir, we have run into a problem with the Barus fleet arriving before the Maveen are ready to leave. As a result six of us including myself are going with the Trader ship to the colony. Can we go definitely ahead with what we considered earlier to delay the fleet to give the Traders and the Maveen time to flee?’
The prime minister was noncommittal on his reply and he pointed out the previous problem.
‘Steve that did not pan out well for us last time around, so what do you suggest we do this time around?’
Sanjay had been listening in and called Steve aside with Ian Mitchin for a few moments. Sanjay could see what Steve was getting at, and in few moments Ian gave them both a measured glance and briefly commented.
‘Steve, I think that could actually work. I would only assume that the work has already been done and includes the improvements.’
All three men moved back to the command chair, and Steve wasted no time in speaking to Ian Ridge on Rat Island again.
Ian now listened patiently, as Steve pointed out exactly what he knew of the current tactical situation according to what Captain Narindestat had told him. Steve was now sure that they had earlier overlooked something and Ian soon got the gist of his views.
‘Well Steve, I can ask our friends to go ahead based on what we now know. But I would not guarantee success by any means.’
Steve was ready for this comment and he carefully spoke again.
‘The admiral of the Barus fleet is not to know that and we should take any advantage we have available for us to use. Please just try prime minister, and hopefully I will speak to you again in space before we leave.’
Steve now watched as first one frigate and then his own ship entered the gateway several ship lengths apart. After several minutes the final frigate entered, and the stream of Maveen ships leaving Earth resumed their flight though the gateway. He turned to Emeria and had another request.
‘Emeria, I need to speak to the Earth probe again please.’
In moments he was again speaking with the Maveen probe to both thank him for allowing the ships through and to outlay his own plans. Captain Narindestat now appeared on the bridge and gave Steve a bemused look, as both Emeria and the communications officer updated him on the recent events. He looked at Steve as he picked up a data tablet, and decided that the report on the tablet could wait until later.
‘Your plan has merit and it could work, especially as the Barus admiral will see that we are not fighting you but fleeing ourselves.’
Steve gave no reply as he watched the last Maveen ships enter the gateway. In moments the gate way of three ships had reduced to a smaller gateway of two ships and the third gate ship fled earth with an escort of probes. The two remaining Maveen ships closed the gateway, and in minutes the probes had docked to the upper surfaces of the larger ships as they made their way back to the Trader ship. Three probes that could not dock with the gate ships flew ahead and made their way into the main cargo hold, and they were promptly secured to the floor by the Trader deck crew.
Steve watched as the two gate ships slowly approached the upper surface of the main ship and the unoccupied central docking pylons. He watched as first one gate ship carefully docked on the starboard center pylon, before the second gate ship just as carefully docked on the portside center pylon. Garendestat had walked onto the bridge as the second ship was verified as docked and locked down, and he reported on the hold status.
‘Captain the three probes in the hold are secured and the main cargo hold doors are now closed.’
Captain Narindestat wasted no time as he now sat down in his command chair.
‘Prepare the ship for atmospheric flight, and I want status checks on all thrusters and the aero spike engines. Engineering, I want shields at only five percent on the centre upper wing as I am worried about shield clashes with the Maveen gate ships. Bear in mind this has not been done before by any other race let alone us.’
Steve watched as the ship was readied for fligh
t and he decided again that this must be more interesting than going through a gateway. He then looked at the main monitor still showing the docked Maveen ships with concern, as arcs of lightening hit the Maveen ships and reflected back to the main Trader ship. Lieutenant Garendestat looked at the monitor and quickly commented.
‘Those are potentially serious shield clashes and we have to resolve them before we can take off.’
Captain Narindestat now called up a schematic of the ship on his command chair hologram. He gave a series of commands as he orientated the schematic to show the upper centre wing surface of the Trader ship around the two pylons holding the Maveen ships.
‘Drop all upper centre section shields and we will start again shield by shield at five percent strength. Unfortunately this will take a little time to resolve so that we can leave safely.’
Steve and his mission team kept out of the way as the Trader bridge crew completed their remaining checks of the ship status. Captain Narindestat and Lieutenant Garendestat continued to puzzle out the problems with activating shields from two different races on one ship.
***
Chapter 12
Probe three quietly checked the status of the cloaking device and the massive suppression shield, and then he resumed the patrol around Queen Angwene’s facility on the bottom of the Southern Ocean. Satisfied that all was working correctly, the Maveen probe continued slowly circling the huge dormant shapes of the ancient queen and her daughters. The ancients slumbered in a protective hibernation to both regenerate and avoid detection by the approaching Barus fleet. The probe knew that even if Maveen orbited this world they could not detect the ancients.
However all bets were off if a vassal race landed a sophisticated probe under the protective cover of the Earth’s oceans, as centuries of mining the sea floor had left very faint and distinctive markers of whom was responsible. Probe three paused and considered the Vorinne light cruiser gun for which so much had been risked recently.
Hopefully the risk would pay off and the ancients would leave this world within a few centuries. Indeed they would have to leave the world as soon as possible despite being much too large to pass through a Maveen gateway on a planet surface. The probe again reviewed the instructions from his superior, promoted to Earth probe, and now leaving with the other probes on the Trader ship for the new human colony.
‘Just keep the ancients alive and safe for two or three hundred Earth years as the daughters are nearly ready to leave. They have been safe here for thousands upon thousands of years. The ones that we originally sought cannot be far away and then the renewal will be beyond our wildest calculations. We though we would eventually find a dead queen and one or two live daughters, however we have found the queen very much alive and six daughters. Keep them safe probe three.’
Probe three thought on whom they had sought originally; the academic and his promising son had been escorted into the galaxy three thousand years ago, before vanishing during their initial search. He again evaluated the last conversations he had made with the now departed Dradfer probe. The logic of the elderly probe had also impressed both the Earth probe and the Sector probe before they had left. The probe resumed his long silent vigil around the dormant shapes asleep in the endless darkness of Earth’s deep ocean plains.
***
The Cephrit Station master suppressed a chirr of outrage and grief, but managed to flex his chitin body against the acceleration straps for long enough for the grating of body plates to sound around the bridge of his cruiser. His bridge crew, consisting of males and younger females kept at their stations, and did not acknowledge the repressed fury they could sense from his smell. The massive and fully grown female marines standing in their own straps at the armored door well behind the Station master kept still as statues. Both marines remained absolutely silent as they evaluated their commander.
One of them, a well decorated Marine, was ready to breed and had just been accorded close duty with the well respected Station master in the hope he would select her for a mate. All thought of that was fleeting, as the Station master loudly chirruped a series of precise orders. He continued to watch the massive battle unfolding on the view screen, and quietly viewed with silent approval the course change provided by the quick thinking tactical officer as he gave those orders.
‘Order the cruiser squadrons to cover each other as they immediately withdraw at high speed. The stragglers who cannot leave are to form up in and cover the retreat of ourselves and the main fleet.’
The Station master now knew that the senior officer of the Cephrit Navy was now dead. The Fleet master’s main fleet of four cruiser squadrons had already come under very heavy attack by swarms of Tilmud frigates. The Station master had arrived later in the system with the two cruiser squadrons he now commanded to provide support to the main fleet. The earlier attacks by the Tilmud had been a series of feints that had worked well for them, despite the losses of so many of their frigates. More troubling was the presence of heavy weapons that the Tilmud should not have on larger ships that they should not have either. He had retorted around the bridge at the time about this interesting turn of events.
‘As reported earlier, the Tilmud now have light cruisers and none of the vassal races, including us, suspected this would occur. Now I sense a great plot involving deception over many years and yet where are the Vorinne? And why do the Zronte not restrain their pets?’
The Station master had then watched appalled from a distance, as his friend and mentor’s ship was selectively attacked by several of the new Tilmud ships and eventually destroyed. The cost to the Tilmud was horrendous, by his calculations they had sacrificed entire fleets of frigates, and a score of their new larger ships lay in fragments in the midst of the battle. However the cost to the Cephrit was the cause of his earlier outburst, and he flexed his six legs to attempt to relax as he now chirred again.
‘The main fleet has lost nine cruisers and six more are badly damaged, plus the three crippled cruisers in my two squadrons. If we lose eighteen ships that is nearly an eighth of the entire Cephrit fleet with no more ships being ready for years.’
The Station master’s summary of the battle was broken off as the ring of Tilmud frigates made a futile effort to stop the mauled Cephrit cruisers from escaping. A series of smaller explosions erupted amongst several of the smaller Tilmud ships as they received concentrated fire from the cruisers and were rapidly destroyed. The concentration of force by the Cephrit had a telling effect at close range and the Station master considered this detail further as the cruisers fled towards the exit point with the Tilmud frigates in hot pursuit. The tactical officer, a seasoned lieutenant who had leave to address the Station master directly, gave an update on the fleet status.
‘Station master, many of the Tilmud are breaking off as they are seeking to recharge their shields. We are striking several of their ships at longer ranges and they are falling. Also the three ships from our squadron and three of the least damaged ships in the main fleet have managed to follow through our break out.’
The mood of the Station master changed for the better with the news, and he urged the lieutenant to highlight the outcome on the tactical display. Within moments the junior officer had made his suggestions, and the Station master waited expectantly as the tactical officer spoke again while drawing a fleet course line.
‘Station master if we turn to this course line we will have our best remaining ships covering the exit of the six damaged ships though we will have to slow slightly to do so. The course change is into an area were our firepower had the most effect earlier, so we will encounter damaged frigates.’
The Cephrit leader evaluated the risks for scant seconds before he replied.
‘Lieutenant, key in the course change immediately. If we can save six ships then that is big improvement from before our escape.’
The Cephrit ranks of cruisers made the sharp course change and bore down on the masses of Tilmud frigates at close range. The Cephrit officers cre
aking in their acceleration straps were the only sign of the sudden course change. Near solid beams of laser fire erupted from the formed line of cruisers and lashed across the enemy frigates, as point defense and mass driver weapons also added their firepower to the carnage against the Tilmud. Faced with such an unexpected and vigorous assault, the mass of surviving Tilmud ships broke off their attacks and attempted to withdraw to recover the strength in their shields.
As the damaged Tilmud ships withdrew from weapons range, another section of the Tilmud fleet attacked the Cephrit fleet from the rear. The six damaged cruisers formed up and passed through at speed a safe corridor that had been left open for them. Satisfied that the badly damaged ships had enough speed up to escape the battle, the tactical officer made another recommended course change on the display. The Station master considered the new course change for mere seconds before he authorized the command. The formed line of cruisers now rapidly swung around to the exit point and accelerated to full power. The maneuver wrong footed the Tilmud frigates previously attacking the rear of the cruisers. Another series of explosions was wrought through the frigates as the concentrated firepower from cruiser broadsides tore the attacking ships to pieces.
The Tilmud frigates reformed and disengaged from the Cephrit cruisers. The Station master watched them go for as he quietly evaluated the outcome of the battle. He also watched stonily as reports came in that the remaining three cruisers that had been crippled earlier were now destroyed. He was truly relieved that the rest of the fleet had escaped and saved six cruisers that star base 31 could return to fighting condition very quickly. The Station master paused for a minute then he addressed the bridge and in particular the tactical officer.
‘We have been bloodied in a historic battle with the Tilmud, who have suffered grievous losses of ships and crew. All their new and larger ships have been destroyed. We risked a bad defeat and heavy losses but for the quick skills of our tactical officer. Lieutenant, you have performed superbly today to earn the promotion to Commander. Now after we reach star base 31 you will transfer to cruiser four in blue squadron as they lost their commander.’