“Probably serves the purpose of both,” agreed the Captain. “Look at that acceleration though. Has to be at least three hundred gravities.”
“We already know their inertial compensators are better than ours,” said the Exec in a low voice. “Probably everything they have is better. Doesn’t seem to be as far advanced as we expected. We’ve almost caught up in the time since last contact.”
“I wish they had waited another twenty years then,” said the Captain with a shrug. “Even ten. Then they might have been surprised.” We can still fight them, thought Suttler. Like World War I battleships fighting their World War II equivalents. We just have to bring a lot more tonnage to the party, when they possess that advantage as well.
“I think they already were surprised, sir,” said the Exec. “I don’t think they expected the fight they got here.” He highlighted some of the knocked out alien ships, drifting through space, intermingled with the wreckage of the Imperial force that had died here.
“Agreed,” said the Captain, who switched to another part of the link. “Get the entire take through the wormhole,” he said to the com tech.
Now we just continue to wait, he thought, wondering when the enemy would get around to noticing them.
Chapter One
Death waits for no man, or woman. We are not promised the days of our lives. Medical science tells us we will live over two hundred years, many people three hundred or more. No matter how hard we try we cannot extend the human life span past that, without the use of cloning or mind transfer. And what shows up then is not really what we would call human, though it possesses a mind and body. Death waits for no man, and even medical science cannot keep death at bay forever. Or in many cases even for very long, for we still live in a dangerous Universe, a fact that is forgotten by the many people who live on the supposedly safe surfaces of civilized planets, not knowing that things can appear from the heavens and render that supposed safety the illusion it really is.
Speech by Emperor Augustine I to Parliament, prior to New Year’s Eve, December 31st, 999.
MARCH 18TH, 1000. SPACE BETWEEN MASSADARA AND CONUNDRUM SYSTEMS.
Petty Officer Gabriella Martinez sat in the sensory compartment, on the early morning watch, her awareness almost totally taken up by the equipment she was linked with. This was considered boring duty on a boring watch. Gabriella considered New Madrid, one of the core worlds of the Empire and her home, boring. This was the adventure she had signed up for. The adventure of the Imperial Navy, guarding the space of the Empire within and without.
Sitting in the sensor room, linked into the ship and scanning all the equipment, still left a part of her mind free. She thought about how far she had come in the service, and the goals she had before her. Possibly officer school. She was, after all, good at what she did. She had originally wanted to serve on one of the big capital ships, a battleship or battle cruiser. The service had thought otherwise. They thought that the smaller scouting vessels needed talented operators even more than the big battle line ships. And so she had ended up on a Frigate, not even one of the newest of that class. But the adventures had been as promised, between the long stretches of boredom. She had seen things she never would have imagined. She had been in on hunts for pirates and alien spies that had brought her, the eyes of the ship, to the forefront. And now she got to sit in the large cubical staring into the space around her, and trying to pick up the faintest signal that might mean something.
HMS Freeport massed a little bit over ninety thousand tons, with a crew of two hundred and thirty, including her twenty man marine detachment. Her weapons would not make her much of a threat to any cruiser, much less a capital ship. She carried half a dozen antimatter warhead torpedoes, so theoretically she could destroy a battleship, with a lot of luck and some severely stupid reactions on the part of the bigger vessel.
Freeport sat between the stars at the moment, in normal space. A G2 primary was off her bow by three light years, while a K5 sat two light years to her stern. All of her active sensors were powered down. She was sitting there like a dog sniffing the grass, her ultra-sensitive passives collecting any and all energies that sluiced by, sampling them and feeding the results to Gabriella. The actual skin of the ship was the largest sensor aboard, though there were some specialized antennae and cameras. But the nano weave outer skin was registering the impact of all energy upon it, even the neutrinos that mostly went through the ship without slowing down.
Others were watching the visual displays. Gabriella did not even pay attention to them, because they would have distracted her from the other information that was flowing in. The space she was aware of was made up of flashes of energy, and sounds that were translations of the energy. It seemed like space was signing to her, the music of the spheres. She could also pick up the faint tones of far off ships moving through hyperspace, the sounds translating into meaningful information about the size and distance of the vessel, and the dimension of hyper the ship was moving through. There were also a lot of echoes through the ether. Echoes that told Gabriella of great energies being released, in normal space and hyper, probably weapons of some kind, though a few of the telltales were ships translating into or out of hyper.
“PO Martinez to bridge,” she said over the com, at the same time that she was processing the raw data into something they could observe with their own eyes.
“What is it, Martinez?” came back the voice of Lieutenant JG Watts, the duty officer. “All the noise out there giving you a meaning?”
“Yes sir,” said the petty officer, looking at the new raw data coming in, immersing herself into it. “Something really hairy is going on to the Galactic North of us. Sounds like some big ships beating the hell out of each other. Then there is something that feels like an Imperial battle cruiser passing to the north on Hyper VII. It’s booking, and there are a lot of rumblings through that dimension that indicate something else is trying to follow her.”
“Any idea what?” asked the Lt JG from the bridge. “Do I need to wake the Captain?”
“That’s your call, sir,” said the Petty Officer as more noise washed over her. She knew that she had talent, but trying to sift through all of this information was almost too much. Almost. She was determined that she would get through it, no matter what it took. “I’m still trying to parse all the data. But whatever it is, it doesn’t sound like someone is throwing a concert for charity.”
“OK,” said the watch officer. “Keep close observation on anything that happens and let me know. I ’m going to get the old man up.”
“Aye sir,” said Martinez, sitting up as some new resonances made themselves known to her. As the connection with the Exec terminated she leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and allowed her stream of consciousness to become one with the energy resonances that impacted the ship.
Energies that were initiated in normal space sent resonances through all levels of hyper as the gravitons that penetrated all the membranes of space. Even Hyper VIII, through which nothing material could pass, transmitted these resonances. They were very faint in eight, and only lasted for an hour or so. Since in VIII they traveled the proportional distance of over sixty-five thousand times that of normal space, they would propagate almost eight light years from their source. From the strength of the resonances she now picked up from the hyper sensor in the resonance chamber of the ship, she could tell they were almost at that limit.
“What do you have, Martinez?” asked Captain Jerry Ishida as he entered the com circuit. She could tell by his tone that he was still getting himself ready, but was probably already tapped into the ship’s systems.
“Hell of a battle to general galactic north of us, Skipper,” she replied through her own link. “Something big just moved by about six or seven light years to the north.”
“Would increased sensitivity help?” asked the Skipper.
Of course it would help, thought Gabriella. What he really meant was would it help enough to risk exposing them to an
enemy. The antennae that thrust into hyperspace was inside a vacuum bottle in the nose of the ship. It didn’t take much energy to keep the almost microscopic hole into hyper open, and that little bit of energy’s resonance wouldn’t do much to give them away. By convention the hole was opened into hyper VI, since that was the dimension most military and fast commercial traffic moved through. It also allowed them to communicate with other ships through hyper. The portal itself wouldn’t remain open in a strong gravity well, like a star’s. And it would take energy to move the opening up two dimensions into hyper VIII, or even to VII. That energy could give Freeport away to anyone that was sitting close and quiet. From all the noise raging through the dimensions she couldn’t imagine that happening.
“I recommend shifting the sensor up to VIII,” she said into the com link. “I think it is little risk, since I believe we will be moving soon anyway.”
“You’re so right, PO,” said the Captain. “As soon as we have a little better idea of what’s going on we’re going to move to the squadron commander and let her know. Just let me know as soon as you have a good idea as to what’s happening.”
The Captain signed off the link and Gabriella waited a few moments for the sensor shift. There was a loud burst of noise as the dimensional port moved. It was loud mostly because it was so close. Others would be able to pick it up, but only if they were closer than a light year and listening for just such an event.
The Universe clouded over as the signal was attenuated from the lower dimensions of hyper. At the same time it bloomed like a flower as signal strength from the upper dimensions increased. This was the dimension of energy. Nothing material could survive for more than a few moments, even when protected by the bubble of space-time ships surrounded themselves in to traverse hyper. Living things wouldn’t even survive a second. It was within theory that there might be even higher dimensions, and some evidence of it. But no one had been able to actually touch those higher dimensions, so they were really of only theoretical interest.
Now she could pick out more details from the resonances, much like an aficionado of the orchestra could pick out the individual instruments among hundreds. She shuddered as she caught the resonances of matter antimatter warheads going off what must have been hours ago. The smaller disturbances of nuclear weapons were interspersed, then the massive wave of a lot of antimatter going into a long, drawn out detonation. Obviously a large ship blown apart, its antimatter stores exposed to matter.
“Captain,” said Martinez, tapping back into the command circuit. “It sounds like a big battle. I mean big, dozens of capital ships. Hundreds of large warheads, and maybe a dozen ships, all going up.”
“Can you give me a direction,” said the Captain, tension in his voice.
“Approximately thirteen degrees by twelve degrees from Galactic North,” she said, her mind searching the data banks that she was sure others were as well. She’d apparently gotten it first. “Massadara would be on that heading. There’s a fleet base there.”
“Very well,” said the Captain, his voice resigned. “Prepare to get under way. Heading for squadron command. We need to get this information up the line.”
Gabriella listened with her own sinking feeling, mirroring the Captain’s tone. If they went into hyper, then everything within several light years would know where they were. But there was no helping it. The information was more important than they were in the scheme of things. That was their job. She stuck to her station and continued to listen as the ship went through powering up for hyper and making a direct jump into VI, her highest level. After achieving the new dimension the ship boosted forward at three hundred twenty gravities, her maximum without putting everyone in the tanks. The petty officer was happy that the order didn’t come down. She hated it in the tanks, like most sensible people. And it was difficult to fight a ship from within the confines of the tanks, despite the extra acceleration they allowed.
An hour into Hyper VI she picked up the tracing of two very large ships passing behind them. On the same course as the human capital ship she had picked up earlier.
“Captain,” she transmitted, at the same time sending the raw data to the bridge repeaters. “Something big going toward one of ours.”
“They look like they know we’re here?” asked the captain, his voice nervous.
“I don’t think so,” said the petty officer. “Couldn’t tell for sure, but at least their profile hasn’t changed.”
“Then keep monitoring, and let me know if anything changes.”
Gabriella acknowledged and did as she was ordered. She kept a close watch on those other contacts, but they continued on their way. With a sigh of relief she watched them go, happy that they weren’t the target, and wondering what was so important on the ship they were following that they kept on its tail and ignored the frigate.
* * *
“What is the status of the followers,” said Captain Dame Mei Lei, sitting in her command chair on the bridge of the Hyper VII battle cruiser Jean de Arc. She cast a worried glance at her precious cargo, the once High Prince Sean Romanov, who was in the guest chair to the side of hers. Once High Prince in that the murder of his father, mother and older brothers had left him the heir to the empty throne of the Empire, and the defacto Emperor. Until yesterday he was just another Lieutenant SG in the fleet, though a very well-known one with powerful connections. Now he was her Commander in Chief, as well as someone that she would give every life in her small command to protect. It was what they were all sworn to do, and the infuriating jackass wouldn’t allow them to do it. He wanted to participate in every danger with them, like he was still a junior officer and a spare heir.
“We still have four contacts on our tail,” said the sensor tech over the com link. “Definitions have firmed. All are four million ton vessels.”
Four of their damned heavy cruisers, she thought with a scowl. Two of them together were about the same mass as her vessel, and more than a match for her in firepower. Four of them would handle the hyper VII battle cruiser with ease. And the only help she had was the Hyper VII destroyer Dot McArthur, cruising alongside her. I could send the destroyer at them and hope he delayed them somewhat, she thought, dismissing it as she had it. The destroyer and its young captain had saved her and her ship the day before, when they were trying to escape the system. And all sending him back would accomplish was his death, for probably no purpose.
“What is their closure?” she asked, still staring intently at the screen.
“They will come into known weapons range in thirty one hours, fourteen minutes,” called out the navigation officer.
“So I need to come up with a solution before then,” she said out loud, then glanced at the Emperor with an embarrassed reaction as she realized he had overheard her.
“What are you going to do, Captain?” said the young man she had outranked a week ago, who now outranked her astronomically.
“I’m not sure,” she said, thinking over the possibilities. Her ship had been built to be a heavily armed scout, to go searching for information, to fight for it if need be. But not to go slugging it out like a battleship. And there were enemy battleships out here as well, somewhere.
“What was the enemy’s velocity when they came after us into hyper?” she asked her navigator.
“About point one nine nine light speed, ma’am,” answered the young man.
So they probably have similar limits for entering and exiting hyper, she thought. Imperial ships could only enter and leave hyper at twenty percent of light or less. That was about the limit that their hyperdrive could project an opening ahead of them. Any faster and they would be past the opening before it was ready for their transit. At best they would just miss it and have to try again further on down the line. At worst, they would hit the turbulence field of the nascent opening, which could cause damage to the ship. So the enemy couldn’t do any better it seemed. Now she just had to do the math, and see what they could pull out of their asses.
; After a couple of minutes of thought Mei huffed in frustration. She couldn’t find a way out that rescued both ships under her command. No matter what they did to slow down the enemy he would still be on their heels. They would either continue on and catch the Imperial ships before they could transition to normal space, pounding them with weapons in passing. Or they would slow to transition near to the pair and pound them in normal space. Only two solutions presented themselves, and neither were what she would call attractive.
“Your majesty,” said the Captain, looking over at the Emperor.
Sean took a moment to realize he was being addressed, not surprising since he had been a Lieutenant SG the day before. He finally realized he was being addressed and turned his attention toward the Captain with a bemused look.
“Sorry, Captain,” said Sean, a smile crossing his face. “It will take some time getting used to that title.”
“I understand,” she said, returning the smile with a feeling of true sympathy for the young man. She had been raised in a middle class family herself. Her exploits in the service had earned her a small patent of nobility, a knighthood. But it had taken several years before the mantel felt comfortable on her shoulders. “I have several solutions, neither of which makes me happy.”
“So I’m sure they won’t make me happy either,” he said, his boyish smile looking strained on his tired face. “So what are they?”
“One,” she said, ticking off a finger. “We send Dot McArthur back on a suicide attack on the enemy while we try and slip away.”
“And I’m sure the Captain and crew of the destroyer would be most appreciative of that strategy,” said the Emperor, his eyes narrowing as his voice grew cold.
“Your majesty,” said the Captain, leaning over toward him. “In your new position you will have to either order thousands, possibly millions, to their deaths, for the greater good. Or at least for the hope of the greater good. Or you will have to condone the actions of others who do so in your name.”
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm Page 3