Ark Royal 3: The Trafalgar Gambit

by Christopher Nuttall

  Percy rose to his feet. “Thank you, sir,” he said. He was certainly trying to be formal. “We will discuss it amongst ourselves and let you know.”

  James nodded, then watched as they filed out of the room. They’d do well whatever they chose, he was sure. And the aristocracy had thrived when it had finally started integrating talented commoners. Kurt Schneider had died a hero. His children would be sought after for marriages, if they chose to stay. And if they didn't ...

  He shook his head, then tapped the computer terminal. Uncle Winchester had sent him a detailed set of diagrams for the planned next generation carrier, one built after the lessons of the First Interstellar War were analysed and integrated into the design. She would look like the Old Lady, he knew, although she was also smoother in places, despite the ever-present weapons and sensor blisters. He smiled, then swallowed hard when he saw the nametag on the top of the diagram. HMS Theodore Smith.

  It was, he decided, precisely what humanity’s first interstellar naval hero deserved.

  The End

  Afterword

  Wow. Just wow.

  I posted Ark Royal on 15th January 2014. By the end of the month, I had sold over 10’000 copies, a success that left me absolutely stunned. I wrote The Nelson Touch – Book II – in March and sold 6000 copies in eight days. As of writing, Ark Royal has over 1000 reviews and has sold upwards of 65’000 copies. I am astonished and delighted and very – very – proud.

  And, when I asked readers to vote for Book III or a spin-off, the majority vote was for Book III. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  When I started to plot out this series, I fixed on two things. First, that I would leave the background history – future history – a little vague. I’ve seen books suffer from having a detailed history that later proved incorrect or was treated as terrifying by some readers. The Troubles, in particular, were left undefined. I may go back to that era and write a book set there and then, but it will be very different from Ark Royal – and intensely political.

  The second thing was that I would remember that the officers and crew of Ark Royal were human.

  Times of stress bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. War is very stressful. We can see acts of astonishing heroism like a man throwing himself on a grenade to ensure his comrades survive, mixed with disciplinary problems, prisoner abuse, and an indifferent attitude to local civilians. I wanted to show the crew suffering from stress, fighting to overcome (or not) their demons and, in the end, being human. Soldiers, sailors and airmen are not machines. They can and do break under the pressures of war – or make stupid decisions that come back to haunt them.

  And now a word about the future.

  Ark Royal’s story is concluded, along with the war, but there will be many stories to tell set in the post-war universe. I intend to write a second trilogy following a smaller ship patrolling the borders or fighting a minor war with other humans, as well as the planned spin-off covering the Battle of Earth. Please let me know what you would like to see next.

  As always, you can follow my work on my blog, post on my forum or simply sign up to my mailing lists for future announcements.

  Thank you for reading. If you liked this book, please don’t hesitate to leave a review, share the link and tell your friends .

  Christopher G. Nuttall

  Edinburgh, 2014

  Sample - Barbarians at the Gates

  Christopher G. Nuttall

  The Federation has endured for hundreds of years, but now it is dying, killed by the corruption and decadence of the Senate and the rising power of military warlords. The shipping lanes are coming apart, the colonists are revolting and outside forces are pressing against undefended borders. Now, as one warlord makes a bid for supreme power, the entire edifice is on the verge of falling apart. Two officers, bearers of a proud military tradition, may be all that stands between the Federation and total destruction.

  Admiral Marius Drake has fought for years to defend the Federation against the enigmatic outsiders. Now, he is charged with putting down a rogue warlord who has risen against the Senate and challenged its authority. If he fails, the schism will eventually rip the Federation apart. But with shadowy figures moving in the background, he knows it will not be easy to save the Federation from itself.

  Lieutenant Roman Garibaldi, newly-graduated from the Naval Academy, knows no other cause than the Federation. Human unity is a cause worth fighting for. But as he faces the grim reality of interstellar civil war, and the exploitation of humans and aliens underlying the Senate’s vast power, he comes to realise that the price of the Federation’s survival may be more than anyone can pay.

  But with the Senate suspicious of any competent commanding officers, purging the navy on the slightest excuse, their success may condemn them to an inglorious death.

  Read the free sample below, then purchase the ebook from the links on this page.

  Chapter One

  The Luna Academy is the sole source of officers for the Federation Navy. Every year, five thousand young men and women enter the academy; five years later, the survivors are allowed to start the long climb towards command. The rewards are great, but so is the pressure. It is no surprise that the Academy rarely graduates more than a thousand new officers every year.

  -An Irreverent Guide to the Federation, 4000 A.D.

  Luna Academy, Sol System, 4092

  "Cadet Garibaldi," Professor Kratman said, walking through the desks until he was standing right in front of his chosen victim, "I wish you to consider something for the benefit of your fellows. What do the First Battle of Zion, the Battle of Spider Bite and the Battle of Athens all have in common?"

  Roman Garibaldi fought hard to keep his expression under control. Professor Kratman wasn’t known for suffering fools gladly and the obvious answer—all three battles had been fought in space—was almost certainly not the right one. But then, there might not be a right answer; Kratman was hardly above throwing an unanswerable question at the class. The professor—his face was badly scarred by radiation burns, leading to much speculation outside class—was waiting patiently. Disappointing him was not an option.

  Roman considered it briefly, thinking hard. All three battles had been studied extensively during Second Year, right before the cadets had passed their first tests. The three battles were significant—two had marked the start of a war; the third had effectively ended one—but there were hundreds of other such significant battles in the Federation’s two thousand year history. He ran his hand through his blond hair and smiled as the answer came to him.

  "Sir," he said. "The three battles represent conceptual defeats."

  "Oh?" Professor Kratman said, peering down at him. "And were the defeats imaginary, then? Were the dead bodies floating in space delusions of an oxygen-starved mind?"

  Roman shook his head, ignoring the titters from his classmates. If nothing else, Professor Kratman taught cadets how to think on their feet.

  "No, sir," he said. "The defeats represented a failure of imagination by the losing side. They thought they knew everything and allowed themselves to be surprised by the enemy."

  "Interesting," Professor Kratman mused. He made a show of stroking his hairless chin. "And would you care to elaborate for the benefit of your fellow cadets?"

  "Yes, sir," Roman agreed. It wasn’t as if he had a choice. Besides, he was uncomfortably aware that he might just be giving the professor rope to hang him, as Kratman was also known for allowing cadets to trip themselves up in the hopes they would learn from the experience. "Prior to the First Battle of Zion, it was commonly believed that aliens would be peaceful, rather than being just as violent as humanity. When the Zion Defense Force encountered alien starships emerging from a previously undiscovered Asimov Point in the Zion System, they allowed themselves to be suckered into a position that allowed the Snakes to obliterate the entire force with ease. The result of this failure was the occupation of Zion and the Fir
st Interstellar War, which served as the catalysts for binding the Federation together."

  Of course, he thought as he took a deep breath, the Inheritance Wars are still a sore subject in the Federation.

  "In the Battle of Spider Bite, the...ah, loyalist commander knew that all he was facing were converted freighters and a handful of local defense starships. He charged through the Asimov Point, leading a fleet of battlecruisers and battleships, only to run into an enemy armed with compressed antimatter, a substance that had never before been used in combat. The result was the total obliteration of the Federation force and the Inheritance Wars.

  "In the Battle of Athens, the rebel commander knew the loyalist forces would have to come through one of the Asimov Points in the system and had drawn up his forces to contest the gateway, as military doctrine demanded after the discovery of the first Asimov Point. The rebels were taken completely by surprise when the loyalists, using the continuous displacement stardrive, bypassed the Asimov Point network and assaulted their positions from the rear. It was the decisive battle of the Inheritance Wars."

  Roman braced himself. "In all three battles, one side was presented with something completely outside its context," he concluded. "They suffered from a failure of imagination."

  "An interesting viewpoint," the Professor said. He looked around the room. "Would any of you care to comment?"

  "I would, sir," Cadet Blake Raistlin said.

  Roman rolled his eyes inwardly. Cadet Raistlin was from one of the wealthiest families on Old Earth, with ties that led all the way up to the Grand Senate, and when they’d first met, Raistlin had tried to put the RockRat in his place. He had been astonished to discover that Roman was not only able, but willing to fight back.

  But Raistlin had gone on. "How could any of the commanders have predicted that they would be faced with a threat outside their ... accepted context?"

  Professor Kratman, unlike some of the other academic staff, showed no inclinations to play favorites. "Would you care to elaborate, cadet?"

  Raistlin shot Roman a mischievous look. "The defenders of Zion expected to face human enemies, not aliens," he said. "Compressed antimatter was only a theory, as was the continuous displacement drive. How could they have prepared to face a threat they didn’t even know existed?"

  "Interesting point," Professor Kratman mused. He turned and faced Raistlin. "Do you believe that the universe is fair, cadet?"

  "No, sir," Raistlin said. It was one thing that had been drummed into their heads since they had entered Luna Academy. The universe was not fair. It simply didn’t care about humans—or aliens. "But you cannot blame a commanding officer for doing everything by The Book and then being defeated by something outside of The Book."

  "The Board of Inquiry might disagree with you," Kratman said dryly, referring to the inquiry held whenever a Federation starship was lost on active duty. "Let us consider the situation, just for a moment. Why did the defenders of Zion believe that aliens would be peaceful and friendly? Answer—the general belief at the time, encouraged by the discovery of Graveyard a few years prior to the First Interstellar War, was that a violent and aggressive race would not make it into space. Their logic was fundamentally flawed as humanity, a violent and aggressive race, had already made it into space. They thought of humans as being somehow...less than aliens. If we made it through the bottleneck and out into space, why couldn’t another violent race? Reasoning from a single example, like Graveyard, produces dubious results, not least because Graveyard might have been the result of an interstellar war."

  Roman shivered. A few years after the discovery of the network of Asimov Points—which allowed instant travel between star systems—human explorers had stumbled across a dead world, destroyed by nuclear war. The level of devastation had been so high that no one knew what the inhabitants had called themselves. Their records had been so badly damaged that no one would ever know what had taken place to cause the war, or why it had been fought to such a dark finish.

  "The Battle of Spider Bite is also indicative of the dangers of stagnated thinking and unchallenged assumptions," Kratman continued. "The loyalist commander knew that the rebels didn’t have the firepower to take on his entire fleet. It should have occurred to him that they would not have declared independence and started the war without being sure that they had something that could tip the balance in their favor. And they did—compressed antimatter. The resulting disaster could have been avoided, if only by holding a formation that was more than a premature victory parade.

  "The Battle of Athens represents a third such example. After fighting the Inheritance Wars for so long, both sides were looking desperately for a silver bullet that would allow them to end the wars without further loss of life. The rebels were experimenting with automated missiles that would allow them to sweep the Asimov Point without risking ships and lives; it was not a great intellectual leap to wonder if the loyalists were doing the same. Indeed, the rebels had their own gravimetric research program that would have led to the stardrive if the Inheritance Wars hadn’t been terminated before they could put it into production. In short, the rebels allowed themselves to be pinned against the Asimov Point by a force that had entered the system from an unsuspected direction, and were obliterated."

  He grinned. "Let us consider another two battles, shall we? Cadet Raistlin: what do the pre-space Battle of Midway and the First Battle of Sapphire have in common?"

  Roman had to smile as Raistlin blinked in shock. If the Inheritance Wars were still a sore subject, the far more recent Blue Star War was effectively forbidden territory. Cadets were rarely encouraged to study the war, even in the privacy of Luna Academy, while relatively little material on the war had made it out into the civilian sphere. The bare facts, of course, couldn’t be covered up, but the precise details? The Federation Navy had restricted the data and covered up the reports, if only to spare the embarrassment. He wondered, absently, how the well-connected Raistlin would answer.

  "Sir," Raistlin said. He had clearly decided to plunge for honesty, rather than dissimulation. "Both battles—both defeats—were the result of massive overconfidence."

  "A very good answer, cadet," Kratman said sardonically. "An answer that is perfectly accurate, yet devoid of any actual detail. Please, would you elaborate for your fellow cadets?"

  "Yes, sir," Raistlin said. Somehow, he managed to regain his balance. "In the Battle of Midway, the Japanese had an overpowering advantage in almost every important category. They should have brushed their American opponents aside and taken Midway, smashing the remaining American carriers at the same time. Instead, their overall commander divided their force and the Americans caught four of their carriers and sank them. The result was the sudden cessation of the Japanese advance.

  "The First Battle of Sapphire, likewise, should have been a Federation victory. The fleet sent to secure the blue giant had enough firepower to take on the entire enemy force and crush it, but the commanding officer chose to break his fleet into three smaller forces and launch a simultaneous assault through two Asimov Points, while the third crossed interstellar space. The result of this...ah, poorly devised plan was the destruction of two of the assault forces, because they couldn’t actually provide mutual support in their advance."

  "And why did that happen, cadet?"

  "Because coordinating a battle across interstellar distances is impossible," Raistlin said. "The three assault forces couldn’t communicate with one another, while their opponents could use the advantage of the interior position to reinforce their defending forces—effectively smashing the attacking forces one by one."

  "In other words, the commanding officer tried to be clever," Kratman said. He smiled, a rather humorless expression. "Being too clever or too dumb can cost you victory, or worse."

  The Professor walked back to the front of the room and smiled at the cadets, this time with a hint of warmth. "There is actually a second point that both battles have in common. Both have been studied by military
strategists—the latter battle with rather less enthusiasm, I should add—and extensively wargamed. Would you like to guess at the results?"

  He paused, but no one took the bait. After a long moment, he went on.

  "The conclusion, in both battles, was that the side that lost should have won. Overconfidence led to disaster—or, as Admiral Vane put it during the First Interstellar War, war is a democracy. The enemy has a vote."

  He paused. "You have a question, Cadet Goldsmith?"

  "Yes, sir," Cadet Karen Goldsmith said, and nodded.

  Roman listened with interest. She rarely spoke, but when she did, she was always worth listening to. Besides, with long red hair and a remarkable smile, she was easy on the eyes as well.

  "As I understand it," Goldsmith said, "in both wars it was primarily a matter of production. The resources available to the Americans and to the Federation far outstripped those available to their enemies. Once the victors had mobilized for war, their victory was certain. If that is the case, why were the battles so important?"

  "If that is the case, cadet?" Kratman asked dryly.

  Goldsmith flushed, but said nothing. History, Military Strategy and Moral Philosophy was not a class to be unsure of one’s grounds.

  "In one sense, you are quite right," the Professor said. "The sheer weight of firepower and material available to the victors ensured that they would be victorious. In a different sense, you are wrong; firepower and material alone does not win wars. Wars are fought—and thought—by intelligent beings. You might as well ask why the losers chose to fight at all."