Rising Star

by Donald Nicklas

  “Thank you, Captain Slone,” Larisa Teplov said after saluting Slone. “I look forward to working with you, but you will need a larger fleet than this to overcome the Sinclair Mobile Fleet.”

  “We are awaiting a response from our government as to our orders. I suspect they will declare war on Sinclair Corp for their wanton destruction of our ship. General Golov, speaking for what is left of the Petrovian government has made your space a protectorate of ours. We will fight to drive the Sinclair forces out. It is now our duty to evaluate your information and determine the best way to proceed.” Slone then activated his communicator, “Tom, order all ship captains and primary centurions to a meeting in the conference room in one hour.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Larisa Teplov had been told by General Golov that there were children aboard the Romani ships, but she was reluctant to believe it until she saw Olivia. She wondered how they could justify placing such a lovely child in harm’s way. Before the invasion, she was going to marry the love of her life and have many children, then there was word of the plague that made women sterile and her fiancée was called to the invasion of New Wales. He returned with the survivors but died in the early days of the Sinclair invasion. She had not had a peaceful night’s sleep since then, when her dreams of a future ended. “Captain Slone, you have a beautiful daughter. I hope you realize how lucky you both are.”

  “We are well aware of that. We have a lot for which to be thankful. Sometime Alaya can fill you in. For now we have a meeting coming up.” Slone looked in the direction of Tavia, “Tavia, I want you at the meeting in an hour.”

  Tavia snapped to attention, “Yes, captain. Hatch let’s get the ship locked down before the meeting.”

  Hatch replied to her in serpent speak and they went back into the ship to batten it down after the long mission. Since there was still time before the meeting, Christopher and Alaya took the opportunity to give Lt. Col. Teplov a tour of the ship. She was very impressed with the combination of military capability and family comfort. What was difficult for anyone in corporate space to understand was the Romani concept that families took the same risks no matter the age of their members. The irony of this was the knowledge that during corporate wars the corporations had no problem dropping nuclear weapons on bases and not worrying about the ages of those they could not see. Corporations had no problem with collateral damage, so long as they could not see it. The tour ended at the conference room as the ships’ captains and primary centurions assembled.

  The next several hours were filled with discussions of the Sinclair Mobile Fleet as well as the ground forces. Several things soon became evident. The Sinclair Mobile Fleet was missing eight of its dreadnoughts. Should they suddenly appear, the fleet battle would be much harder. Slone may not have been among the Romani for long, but it was long enough to know that the 10th legion was the quickest to mobilize and put into place, since it spent its patrol time near Nova Romae. He had no idea how long it took for other legions to mobilize. Each Romani legion consisted of 10 Dreadnoughts, 10 cruisers and 20 destroyers with a total of 6000 infantry and 1000 marines. Corporate fleets do not have fixed screening ships for their dreadnoughts, so the cruiser and destroyer count will vary a great deal. However, no matter how they set up the war games, the result was always a loss for the Romani. Ten Romani dreadnoughts, no matter how powerful the Romani felt they were, could not win against 17 dreadnoughts. They were also outnumbered in cruisers, 10 Romani and 15 Sinclair. The only division in which they had an edge was in the destroyers, where the Romani had 20 versus 10 corporate. Ships were not all that mattered. There was also the cannon count.

  Just after the beginning of the third hour, Slone stood up and stretched the kinks out of his neck. He then said, “Ok here is where we stand. No matter how we game this, we cannot overcome the main problem. The 10th legion has a cannon count of 840 guns. If we add in the Rising Star we have an additional 84 for a total of 924 cannons.” Slone let that sink in for a moment. “The tally of guns on the Sinclair side is only 844.” This would make the advantage with the Romani, but many of the Romani cannons are on smaller ships. Dreadnoughts, when concentrated, can project a much harder punch than all of the smaller ships can. Slone continued, “If the missing eight dreadnoughts should appear, then we will have a much tougher fight. Boarding operations will have to wait until most of the enemy is immobilized. If the missing eight dreadnoughts do not show up, then it looks like a tough but an even fight. If they show up, then we will be at a major disadvantage.”

  “What are the ground forces doing while the space battle is going on?” Lt. Col. Teplov stated.

  “I would leave that up to General Golov. Until the space battle is resolved, we will need the remaining ground troops for boarding and repelling boarders. After that, we can release troops to help you. All of this is contingent on the approval of the commander in chief when he arrives” When Slone was finished, he asked for further questions. There were none and he felt they had mapped out a good plan. He also knew he would again have to send his wife in ahead to report on the conditions just before the battle. He also hoped Consul Lorenzo, would approve of their plan. If so, they would save a lot of time in further preparations. The serpent crew continued learning the ins and outs of the Rising Star, as did the human bridge crew. It was felt there had to be a human bridge crew to respond to any hails as they approached the fleet. Time passed and the fleet waited, but no message arrived at the expected time and they waited some more. Just over two weeks after the time Slone expected to hear from Nova Romae, the off shift bridge crew called into his quarters. He was lying next to his wife and listening to her breathe, as she slept. Despite all adventures he had been on thus far, watching his wife breathe in her sleep was still the greatest adventure of all. “Captain to the bridge,” the intercom suddenly blurted out. Slone jumped out of bed and quickly put on a jumpsuit and headed to the bridge.

  “Report,” was his curt command as he entered the bridge and the officer of the deck relinquished the captain’s chair. Since Commander Price was now captaining the Rising Star, her position as the off ship captain was performed by the deck officer. Since nothing much happens in orbit, all they had to do was monitor the off shift techs as they went about their business.

  The tech sitting at the sensor station reported, “Captain, we picked up a large number of vessels entering from the inbound slipstream in the direction of the Border Worlds. Sensors indicate all ship classes.” After checking the console again, “Telemetry is now coming in. It is the rest of the 10th.”

  The communications tech then interrupted, “Incoming message, sir. It is Captain Lorenzo requesting permission to approach the fleet.”

  “Open a channel.” The communications tech reported the line open. As Slone looked out of the bridge bubble, he could see the other ships in orbit. “Welcome to the system, Captain Lorenzo. I look forward to your arrival.” Slone looked at the communications tech, “What is the message lag time?”

  “Just over two hours sir.”

  “Very well, transfer future messages to my quarters.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Slone returned to his quarters and went back to bed. His wife was now awake. “So Chris, are you going to fill me in or leave me hanging?”

  “Nothing much to tell. The rest of the legion will be in orbit in less than twelve hours. Then the hard work really begins.”

  “Good. I was getting bored. Now come back to bed and get some rest.”

  After several hours lag time, the response came back, and it was piped into Slone’s quarters. “Thank you, Captain Slone. Our transit time is close to twelve hours. I want all ships captains and primary centurions to report to the Longinus for a meeting one hour after our arrival.”

  “We will be there. We are in orbital formation alpha 2.”

  Again a long lag and then, “That formation is fine, I look forward to also seeing the lovely Captain Slone.”

  “I will make sure Alaya is with me
. She needs to report to you about conditions on Petrovia. She has already been there scouting.”

  After a slightly shorter lag time, “I’ll bet she has. I would have expected nothing less from my chief scout. Let your people have some rest, we have a long day of planning ahead of us.”

  “Sparks, send out acknowledgment and order all ships captains and primary centurions to report to the Longinus an hour after she enters orbit.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  “The ship will remain in rest until the end of the cycle. See you all in the morning. Carry on.” The Slones now tried to get a few more hours of uninterrupted sleep.

  The remaining nine dreadnoughts and their screening ships entered orbit in the time calculated and an hour afterwards, launches from all ships brought over the captains and primary centurions to the meeting. Christopher came over with Alaya and Lt. Col. Teplov, whom he introduced to the full room of officers aboard the Longinus. After the introductions were over, Captain Lorenzo stood up and began the meeting.

  “First of all, let all present here know the wish of the Senate.” A hush fell over the room and Lt. Col. Teplov could see the reverence in the faces of all those at the table. She knew by now this was the governing body of the Romani, but no corporate citizen ever looked upon their government with anything but contempt. “The Senate and People of Nova Romae declare that Sinclair Corporation willfully lured the destroyer NW Broken Arrow using the Q-Ship Rising Star and a false distress signal. When the NW Broken Arrow raced to the rescue of what she thought were innocents in distress, she was willfully destroyed with all hands on board. Because of this wanton act of aggression, the Senate considers that a state of war now exists between Nova Romae and the Sinclair Corporation. Honor demands that we all do our duty.” There was a murmur of agreement at the table, which Captain Lorenzo allowed to die down of its own accord. “It is the will of the Senate that we drive all Sinclair forces out of Petrovian space and return the area to the Petrovians, who are now our allies and under our protection. This is the will of the Senate and it cannot be altered.” Again, there were many murmurs of agreement around the table. Lorenzo waited for the commotion to die down before continuing. “Captain Slone, I understand you have been war gaming the coming battle. Let’s discuss what you have come up with.”

  Slone laid out the battle plan he and the members of the reconnaissance fleet designed. Captain Juan Lorenzo went over the plans and approved the overall concept. However, he had a few comments.

  “As I see it, we have two unknowns here. First, we must find out if we are going to engage the Sinclair Mobile Fleet as we see it or if the missing eight dreadnoughts rejoin them. It will be a tough fight if they have a full complement of 25 dreadnoughts against our eleven. And the serpent dreadnought is a standard corporate design, so only one gun deck.”

  Slone now stood up to speak, “I agree with the assessment, Captain Lorenzo, therefore we will have to use some level of deception, hence, the Q-Ship. We have classified her as a Battleship. Commander Diana Gardner feels she could take out at least three dreadnoughts and, perhaps, a cruiser or two.”

  “She thinks she is that powerful?”

  “We think Sinclair has taken a huge leap forward in ship design. If they have anything like this in their Home Fleet, then we will have our job cut out for us if we have to engage that fleet.”

  “Our ship design people have been going over the blueprints you sent us from the Q-Ship’s computer, and I am afraid they agree with Diana Gardner’s assessment. She is very astute. So astute, that when this is over, the Senate would like her temporarily reassigned to ship design. If this battleship performs as well as she thinks it will, then we must make sure we have some in our fleet. We will move towards Petrovia at the end of the next rest period. Prepare your ships and crews for departure. War footing on all system transits. Once we leave this system, we will maintain invisibility. Before departure tomorrow, I want everyone to assemble here for a final briefing at 0800 hours. You are dismissed. Lt. Col. Teplov, please accompany us to the starliner.” Lorenzo took his wide brimmed hat with the large feather off the table and placed it on his head as he walked out of the conference room and led the way to the hangar deck. He asked Alaya to fly them over to the Rising Star in the Gladius, which had brought the Slones and Larisa Teplov over from the Invicta.

  Larisa Teplov did not know what to make of Juan Lorenzo. When the defeated Petrov forces returned home from their ill-fated conquest of Balin Corp, there was much talk about the leader of the Romani forces. How he was the equivalent of a CEO, yet he put himself in harm’s way in battle. How he dressed and looked like a pirate of old. Now that she met him, she realized that every story was true. What an unusual man. At his side was a woman in her 50s who had been introduced as Legatus Victoria Edmonton. General Golov had spoken volumes about her. She was commander of all the ground forces that fought the Petrovians on New Wales. Her leadership and battle plans were legend in the eyes of General Golov. She had spoken sparingly during the discussions, since most of the combat discussion dealt with space and not ground battle. However, she looked formidable in her armor. Larisa Teplov could also not understand the ranks used by the Romani. They were alien to the rank structure of the corporations. They boarded the Gladius and flew the short distance to the Rising Star. Even a ground commander could see how powerful this ship was. It was huge. Tavia brought the Gladius into the forward hanger bay and landed in an open area. Once the engines were shut down, she opened the wing door and Lorenzo came out along with the other humans and the serpent crew. The bridge crew was standing on the deck and snapped to attention, as did the engineering techs that were still learning the ins and outs of the vessel. The serpents, as usual, ignored the humans. The Romani had long since realized they were never getting a salute from the aliens, except for Tavia of course. As soon as she exited the ship they all gave her the usual salute and then went back to their business. Lorenzo had to chuckle to himself, especially as he watched Tavia’s face turn a bright shade of red every time this occurred.

  “As you were. Commander Price, I understand you have been flying this vessel since capture. I would like a tour of her.”

  “Yes, Captain Lorenzo, this way please,” and Elaine Price gave the group a tour of the battleship as the Rising Star was now known.”

  A thorough tour of the massive ship took close to four hours and ended on the bridge. Juan Lorenzo was impressed with every aspect of the ship. Especially when he considered this was only half of a ship of war. The battleship could hold twice as many troops and equipment if you include the part devoted to the cruise ship. In the engine room, Diana Gardner showed Captain Lorenzo the innovations made in engine design. Despite the size of the ship, it had the speed and handling of a cruiser. It could out distance and run circles around dreadnoughts. It also had twice the armor of a conventional dreadnought and one and a half times the armor of a Romani dreadnought. Overall, this ship was a beast. When they were finally on the bridge, those who had never been on it before couldn’t help but marvel at the 360 degree view of the area around the ship. Since the bridge formed a disk sitting atop the bow of the ship, there was nothing to block the view in any direction. When the tour party and the officers on the ship were assembled on the bridge, Juan Lorenzo had some questions for them.

  “Captain Price, you have been in command of this vessel during its journey here, how does she handle?”

  Commander Price was pleased to hear her given the title of Captain. In all navies it has always been customary to call the commander of a vessel captain, even if they hold a lesser rank. “She handles beautifully, Captain Lorenzo. Big as she is, she responds like a cruiser. We would need three legions to stand up to ten of these.”

  “That is both good news and bad news. Sinclair has managed to keep this advance a secret. Not one of our spies in Sinclair space has gotten even a whiff of this. How fast is she in the slipstream?”

  “As fast as any of our other military vessels. She
actually has three frill sails along with her push sail.”

  “I have one more question for you, Captain Price. Do you feel ready to command a dreadnought in battle along with your bridge crew?”

  “If it is your will, I am ready to do my duty, as is my crew.”

  “Excellent, you will receive your assignment tomorrow.”

  With that Captain Lorenzo ordered Tavia to return him and the Legatus to the Longinus. When they docked, he and the Legatus left the ship after telling the Slones he had a lot to consider. Tavia then flew them all back to the Invicta and Christopher made sure that all were aware of the coming departure. After weeks in orbit, all departments sprang into activity with the anticipation of action. The Slones made sure they spent most of the rest time with their daughter and Slone also ordered all families with children aboard to spend as much time as possible with them. This would be repeated during all slipstream passages to make sure families spent the maximum time together. The battle ahead was a tough one and many families would be losing family members. At the end of the rest period, as ship’s time approached 0800 hours, the Gladius ferried the Slones, Primary Centurion Claudius Pulcher, and Lt. Col. Larisa Teplov to the Longinus. The Lagarde agent, Jack Dalton, was also aboard, on the orders of Captain Lorenzo. They soon found themselves back in the conference room, only this time it was a little more crowded. Juan Lorenzo now wore his purple armor and purple cape as the second Consul of the Republic of Nova Romae. His twelve Lictors stood behind him. As each person entered the conference room, they snapped a salute and sat down. The guests were seated at the opposite end of the table from the Consul. Slone could tell by their expressions that they were not certain why there was a change in the relationships, nor what the Lictors represented. Since there were both military and political decisions to be made, Juan Lorenzo was required to appear in his role as co-leader of the Republic. Instead of his feathered hat, the Consul had his purple helmet with the golden eagle crest on the table.