by R. A. Ender
Richard looked at her. “Who knows, but I think we’ve won this one thanks to Abad.” And the smile on his face quickly began to quiver and his eyes began to water. The realization that they would probably survive this battle after he truly believed they were all doomed to death was too strong an emotion to hold back.
Robin’s smile got stiffer as she tried to control her emotions as well. A tear formed in her eye and quickly traced a streak down her cheek. She placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him closer for as much of a hug as was possible while still sitting beside each other.
“It is a great day! The first day of a new era. The post-war era. This will clinch it. I’m sure of it.” And with that, she pulled away from Richard. She gave another controlled smile, wiped her cheek and turned her attention back to her console with a big inhale and exhale to regain her calm.
Richard also turned his attention back, but not to his console but the main display. He changed the perspective on the tactical view, zooming out. He focused his attention in two areas. First, he was watching his fleet reassemble and saw that it was proceeding perfectly. Second, he was watching that huge IAE fleet continue to drive toward them.
And as he did, he saw the display flash again. Again it was showing that ships were exiting hyperspace. The tactical display zoomed into the area, which was slightly in front and to the side of the approaching IAE fleet. However, it was discreetly outside of the IAE weapons range. The sensors had yet to identify the ships as they were far away, but Richard assumed it was the surprise Abad had mentioned.
He has another fleet! Richard thought. I think it is time to reevaluate our intelligence on the Watabaeg Militia! Richard said to himself with some humor. Obviously, the estimates of their size and strength were quite wrong if they can field two fleets large enough to challenge a 1,200 ship IAE fleet!
An open comm signal sounded. Assuming it was Abad, Richard flipped it up onto the main speakers. At first, he couldn’t believe his ears, as the voice that came out of the speakers was not Abad’s. But it was a long lost voice that he knew well. And it was the surprise of his life.
Abad had not been joking! Richard reacted to himself.
“This is Commanding Admiral Nathan Dredmoore of the Confederated Union of Worlds Defense Force. We order all Imperial Alliance of Empires ships to immediately come to zero station and surrender. Our forces number over one thousand ships. Surrender or be destroyed!”
The message began to repeat again but Richard could not hear it even through his ear piece. The roar of celebration around him was beyond anything he had ever heard before. Hitting a couple of buttons, he replaced the comm line broadcasting the surrender order with a live audio feed combining every ship in his fleet. The sound of celebration was deafening!
From every command deck in his fleet, he could hear shouts of victory. He could hear screaming and hurrahs, laughter and martial calls.
As the celebration continued, he began to hear the sounds of crying, sobbing, and crews overcome with joy. All around him, he could hear his own crew breaking down, overwhelmed by a universal realization.
We have won! Richard thought to himself. The battles aren’t over yet but the IAE has lost. They cannot recover from this defeat and mount an effective offense. We have won!
That same thought had obviously swept through all the crews and all the ships. Though he could not hear audio from the Watabaeg Militia ships, he had no doubt they were equally proud of their victory, though perhaps not as emotionally invested as his crew was.
We have been on duty protecting, defending and freeing the Confederacy for over two years. I think an enormous weight has been lifted off of everyone simultaneously. What an incredible moment! Richard thought while also hitting his ship wide comm button.
“Hear this, hear this. Repeat, hear this, hear this.” Richard paused for a moment to give everyone time to quiet whatever room or compartment they were in.
“This is Admiral Richard Hilbornus. I want to officially announce that the battle is won, and the war is over!”
The cheers in response on the bridge were almost as deafening as before. Now, though, a steady and loud applause and chanting “Victory!” replaced the previous chaotic celebratory atmosphere. Richard let it continue for a few moments, knowing that the sound would be carried throughout the ship and replicated by many crew members.
As they quieted down, Richard continued.
“As of this moment, our tactical display shows our fleet at over 500 ships, fully armed and operational. The Watabaeg Militia fleet, which intervened and blazed the path to victory for all of us, numbers over 100 of the deadliest ships the IAE has ever seen. And, as many of you heard live, Commanding Admiral Nathan Dredmoore, on board his command ship the Septimius Severus Augustus…”
At which point Richard quickly looked at his tactical display to ensure that indeed the Commanding Admirals Council Agamemnon Class Base ship was indeed present. Seeing it appear surrounded by the newly arrived and previously unknown Defense Force fleet, was a beautiful sight.
“…has arrived with over 1000 Defense Force loyal vessels. Against this, the Imps have fewer than 900 operational ships. I have no doubt they will surrender or run like cowards!”
Again, Richard was forced to pause while chants of “Victory!” rang out around him and blasted from the speakers. Taking his cue from the crew he continued.
“Indeed, my shipmates, this means Victory! I have no question in my mind that this complete victory over the IAE Armada will mean they are unable to continue their invasion of our sovereign lands. I have no question that we will recapture our planets which have been held captive by the Imps, starting with Tionaga. And I have no question that for the past two years I have been the leader of the greatest crew in the history of the Confederated Union of Worlds!”
Cheering broke out again. Nothing wrong with some self-congratulatory cheering! Richard thought as he let the noise around him die down.
“I will take the time over the next few weeks to thank each and every one of you personally. You will see me frequently and after this adventure and struggle, I consider each of you my colleague, my equal and my friend. Continue your duties and show the Commanding Admiral why you are the best crew in the fleet. Richard out.”
And with that, he closed the comm line but left the speakers open to hear some final cheers and joy play out throughout his ship.
I guess I will be eating in the mess hall for the rest of the cruise, Richard thought to himself. But, I will make time to have smaller groups up for calda or dinners. I’ll get Robin to arrange that a little later so I don’t miss anyone. They deserve it, no doubt.
Looking back at the tactical display he saw a lot of updated information. Most of the ships in the new Defense Force fleet showed allegiance to the Northern Fleet.
“Robin,” Richard said aloud pointing at his tactical display. “I see Admiral Dredmoore had more luck getting ships out of Fleet Admiral Janus than we did!”
Richard’s smile slightly betrayed his true inner thought on the matter. If the IAE left the Northern Fleet alone and didn’t invade F’lwok as we all figured they did, where in hades has it been for the past two years.
Robin looked over. “Yup, looks like a good chunk of them. Nice of them to finally join the war.”
And in one simple sentence, Robin communicated all of Richard’s confused thoughts. Had that fleet joined over a year ago, much of the war could have unfolded differently.
Maybe, Richard thought, we would not have lost so many young lives. And now that line of thought was beginning to make Richard a little angry. With years of discipline, he suppressed that feeling and those thoughts and decided to wait to hear the answer. There was always an explanation.
A seemingly spontaneous cheer sounded out around him. Richard looked around briefly and then looked at the main display. All the enemy ships had suddenly flipped to a bright yellow color.
Their fleet commander has surrendered on mass! Richard th
ought. Looking at the display more closely, he saw that the last Dreadnaught had updated its information. It was commanded by Field Admiral Arcada Wilpetert. Not the Fleet Admiral! He must have been aboard the Dreadnaught the Watabaeg destroyed. Well, that is one Field Admiral who will not see much of a future career. IAE isn’t fond of surrendering.
As Richard was monitoring the IAE fleets movements to see if any of the ship commanders were failing to follow orders, his comm line began flashing again. Looking over, the caller was identified as Commanding Admiral Shelbus.
Excellent! I am sure glad he survived. For Robin’s sake as much as for our chances of finding out what the CAC has been up to. Richard pulled on Robin’s sleeve to bring her attention to his comm display, where he pointed with his other hand at the calling identification.
Robin’s face instantly had the biggest smile he had seen on it for years. Looking at him and eyes happily dancing, she said, “Tell him it is great to hear from him, finally!” The joking tone was clear.
“I’ll leave that type of joke to you,” Richard answered while pushing the button to connect with the Admiral. Moving his headset into a better position, he listened and spoke to the Admiral privately.
“Commanding Admiral Shelbus, it is a great pleasure to see you and your fleet. Thank you for the assistance, sir!”
“You are certainly welcome Admiral. How is my little girl?” Shelbus asked with the care and emotion of a father for his only child coming through loud and clear.
“She is doing great and busy running my ship.”
CHAPTER 44
…10 Years Later.
Richard leaned against a small piece of wall between two huge windows. It was one of the few free wall spaces in the huge reception hall. The vast semi-circle room was almost entirely glass. Only when you approached could you see that each window was indeed framed by a piece of metal no more than two or three pes wide which shot up about one story before forming into a point and ending. The rest of the way to the roof was pure glass. Eventually the panes of glass curved over to meet at the center of the ceiling in a point.
It was by far the largest and most spectacular room of the entire Senate building, the Curia Severii. The seat of the Confederated Union of Worlds Senate was the most spectacular architectural building in the Capital city of Rome. Sitting on the highest hill of the city, it looked down upon the lower city that was nestled in the valley created by the seven hills. A purely governing complex, the lower city contained only grand avenues, grander temples, museums, public spaces, and massive monuments to the Gods and the ancient Emperors. Meant to evoke pride, reverence, and tradition, Rome was a city of beauty and majesty that easily exceeded the splendor of its long lost predecessor. Even a series of large aqueducts existed to bring water into the area and remind all visitors, guests, and emissaries of the history of the people of the Confederacy.
Though the reception room was impressive, it was only a rarely used ceremonial room. With only one entrance, which was framed by a pair of massive double doors on the flat side of the semi-circle room, it led directly onto the floor of the Senate chamber it was an inconvenient location. The Senate chamber, by tradition, was where ceremonies were held in its beautiful space with ancient and ornate opus sectile mosaics of the ancient Roman standard matched with its contemporary cousin, the standard of the Confederacy. Above the large double doors, on the common wall with the reception room, was a reproduction of the Altar of Victory statue that stood in the Roman Senate chamber in ancient Rome. It still had the personification of victory extending a wreath, but she stood atop the galaxy instead of a globe.
In the Senate chamber, the semi-circle section of the room was filled with rows of seats for each of the two senators that represented each inhabited world in the Confederacy. It also had several sections of balconies for visitors and spectators. Unlike the reception room, though, on either side of the chamber were exit doors. The doors led to small hallways that curved around the outside of the building before rejoining at another set of double doors that led into an open temple rotunda.
The temple rotunda, a perfect circle, was completely open. Its great white domed roof was supported all around by pillars designed to evoke their ancient heritage. In the center, holding a torch, was a statue of Mars, the ancient god of war. When lighted, the torch illuminated the entire interior of the temple rotunda, even in the dead of night. That illumination revealed incredible bas reliefs that lined the inside of the domes ledge. The bas-relief was carved with the great history of the New Roman people, from their arrival on New Earth to their founding of the Confederacy. Throughout, symbols of peace, harmony, love and friendship were ever present. Mars’ torch was meant to always keep peace visible and protected, and it was never extinguished.
When he arrived, Richard had spent quite a bit of time in the temple rotunda looking down to the lower city. The sun had just begun to set and the sight had been spectacular. It was not often that one had the chance to visit the Senate building. It was freely accessible to any citizen, but the lines were always incredibly long, often requiring a whole day to see the building. Today was a special opportunity to tour the building without restrictions and without a staggering number of tourists milling about and taking pictures.
But, eventually, Richard and all the assembled guests had been ushered into the reception room to await the final armistice signing ceremony that was to take place on the senate floor.
And that was over an hour ago! Richard thought to himself as he took a small bite of his mini sandwich. I wonder if it is possible to live on these little bites forever, he thought to himself humorously.
Looking around the large room, Richard had trouble seeing individual faces. People were just too far away and the room was too crowded. What could clearly be seen was the uniforms of the people present, especially since similar uniforms seemed to be naturally grouped together.
Not too surprisingly, the majority were Defense Force uniforms clustered mostly close to the refreshment center. As this was an important interstellar event, every high ranking Admiral wanted to be present, but none of them seemed to be able to make it through the evening without a glass of wine in their hand. From a quick scan of the room, Richard realized that he was actually the only Defense Force attendee not huddled together with the refreshments or the small group of Senators.
The Senators were standing all together, formally, as they were required to do during important events. On formal occasions, the Senate was by tradition treated as a single body, not a collection of individual representatives. As such, the legislative body remained together, in a show of unity. The few Defense Force members standing with the Senators all appeared to be Commanding Admirals, who would naturally associate more with their political colleagues than the front line Admiralty.
On the opposite side of the room, quite tightly grouped together and not mixing with any other group, was the delegation from the Imperial Alliance of Empires. Though the fighting had ended over ten years ago with the surrender of all IAE forces inside Confederate space, only an armistice had held the peace. The war had yet to be formally concluded by means of a peace treaty. But that was expected to change today as the new IAE Emperor had come to New Rome to formally sign the peace treaty that had been negotiated for the past decade. Whether it was because they feared we still viewed them as aggressors, or because they were uncomfortable admitting defeat before their foes did, the IAE delegates were not socializing.
A few odd uniforms were also present in the room. The most numerous were the Watabaeg Militia members who were scattered around the room. In fact, now that Richard looked carefully, it looked like at least a few Watabaeg Militia personnel were attached to each group.
Probably all Watabaeg Militia intelligence officers, trying to find any way to hold onto as many of those conquered worlds as they could! Richard thought to himself.
Watabaeg’s actions during the last few weeks of the war had in fact been a major reason why it had taken a de
cade to sign a peace treaty. As selfless as General Abad's intervention had seemed at the time and in the moment of peril, the reality had proven far more selfish.
Once the Watabaeg government was aware that the Commanding Admirals Council had not only survived the invasion but had a full Defense Force fleet, they had quickly changed their policy. Cloaked as the decision-making process was, the evidence of the shift could be seen in the actions of the Militia. Watabaeg Intelligence had learned of the Defense Force presence in F'lwok and that that sector of space had not come under assault from the IAE.
Investigations had revealed after the war that the Fleet Admiral for the Northern Fleet based at F’lwok had been in the pay of the IAE. This shocking revelation had led to the first treason trials in the Confederacy. Inadvertently this fleet was kept neutral even after the CAC command ship arrived as they decided to retain the fleet in reserve. With that fleet neutralized, which is all the IAE wanted, they could pursue a “cut off the head” strategy which in hindsight clearly failed from the outset. Though they conquered worlds, they never had complete control of the Old Colony region, and they had not destroyed the Defense Force.
With the arrival of Richard and his fleet, Watabaeg had immediately shifted, changing policy from isolation to cooperation, though they pretended not to. Richard still harbored a good deal of resentment for Abad since he could have told him about the Northern Fleets status anytime but kept it secret instead. The Watabaeg thought they could use divided Defense force fleet to their own advantage, and they were right.