by Chris Hechtl
Ever since she'd taken the XO position, she'd gotten a lot less hands-on time than she'd like. Her day was depressingly filled with paperwork, walkabouts, training, overseeing junior crew, the occasional ceremony, dinners, and meetings.
“I don't see any problems. I've got another twenty minutes of playing hooky in my schedule. Care to take a spin around the other ships that have been designated for your task force?” Captain I'rll asked, turning an eyestalk to Cynthia.
“I'd love to help you keep a flexible schedule. Anything to befuddle the paper pushers who try to crowd our lives with meetings and such,” Cynthia said with a grin.
“Just what I thought. I know I shouldn't help you get out of their clutches, but what the hell. Why not. Now, we've got a few lined up in nearby slips …”
Cynthia leaned forward eagerly as the shuttle left Prometheus's dock and floated with bursts of chemical rocket fire across the void to a slip two slips away. She could see it lit up with the bow of an Arboth class destroyer in it. “Now, this one is one of the escorts …”
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“How'd it go?” Shelby asked when her XO returned. She could tell Cynthia was excited.
“How'd what go?” Cynthia asked absently, walking into the wardroom as if she was dazed and sleepwalking.
“The trip,” Shelby reminded her patiently as she set her coffee mug down.
“Oh, um, she's good. No problems. They'll start buttoning her up next shift,” the XO said as she got to the refreshment counter.
“Good to hear. We're still having issues with replacement personnel. You are going to have your hands busy if we get a bunch of green recruits fresh out of the academy and training schools,” Shelby said.
“Yeah,” Cynthia said as she poured herself a cup of coffee.
“Something on your mind?”
“It's just …,” Cynthia stopped herself and turned to her boss. “Sometimes it seems like a dream. Like … like we're not really here. You know? Like we're in a fantastic dream …,” she murmured, voice tapering off as she thought about it.
Shelby cleared her throat. Apparently, the wonder of the situation was catching up to the Trollop. “Get your head out of the clouds. We've got a lot of work to do still,” she said.
“I know. That's what gets me, I was buried in it but its trips like that,” she indicated the door she'd recently passed through. Shelby's eyes cut to it, then back to the XO as the blond woman picked up her cup, turned, and leaned her rear against the countertop as she cradled her cup and took a sip. “ … that puts it all in perspective. I was drowning in all the meetings and stuff; it's a nightmare. But seeing the ships … it sort of starts to feel real. Like we're not just doing some sick joke.”
“We're not there yet,” Shelby growled.
“True,” Cynthia said with a nod as she took a sip of coffee. “I see that they are taking what we learned … what others have learned to heart. There are some changes to the ships.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I saw one of the Arboths. It looks the same, but Captain I'rll told me about some of the changes. Most of them are minor, but she's going to give the Horathians fits when they see her! She's not going to fit any of their canned expectations …,” the XO said with a positively evil grin.
“Good!” Shelby said with an answering grin.
“I seriously think you need to do that too, Skipper. Just take an hour or so off the nitty gritty to see the big picture and how it is coming together. It sort of gets to you. Makes you think all this putting up with paperwork and crap is worth it,” Cynthia said with a nudge of her mug to indicate the tablet in front of the captain.
“I might do that. I've been reading reports and checking off things so much my eyes feel like they are ready to bleed. And with Prometheus busy and you off playing hooky, I'm stuck doing it on my own,” she said pointedly.
“Okay, okay, twist the other arm,” Cynthia said, rolling her eyes as she pulled a chair out and took a seat. “What'd I miss while I was gone?”
“Well if you really must know …”
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In-between meetings, Shelby did what she could to prep for the mission. She had a lot of homework to go over; she usually tried to fit it in-between meetings or while she was eating or getting ready for bed. She'd had some of it dumped into her implants of course, well, all of it, and she could set her implants up to sleep teach it to her, but there was something to be said about reading it and absorbing it the natural way.
Most of the homework was basic stuff pulled from the Encyclopedia Galactica. She'd already known it; she'd done some work in class as a child ages ago. Still, a refresher was definitely in order; she needed to be completely up to speed so she started with the basics.
Tau sector had been named after the galaxy's various sectors had been renamed and re-organized. To most people the layman thought that the name was due to the Tauren species that inhabited it. That wasn't the case, or at least, not the only reason. The sectors of the galaxy had been lettered in Terran in Roman letters. There were several sectors that were in Veraxin as well.
Tau sector was best known as an engineering sector and for having the Tauren core worlds. The outer Cygnus arm of the galaxy was populated by young stars; however, it had stumped scientists for years as to how and why the older species had managed to evolve on one of them and then spread out so quickly. The answer had finally come in information exchanges during the founding of the Federation.
The Taurens had been forced to relocate to the outer arm after being chased away from their home star system eons before the Federation. Some of the worlds in the sector had been terraformed during the Federation time period, but most of the settled star systems had a Tauren majority in its population. Only a century or so before the Xeno War had the population started to take on more of a metropolitan look as new terraformed worlds were opened up for all species.
She clicked a link to look at the species involved, starting with the most obvious. Taurens were natural engineers according to their bio and scuttlebutt. Many were gifted with engineering skills seemingly from birth. She knew that wasn't quite true, but the stereotype held firmly since most of the Taurens in the reborn Federation had some sort of engineering skill. At one point, they'd even thought that the Tauren species had gone near extinct with the fall of the Port-a-Prince space colony here in Pyrax she reminded herself. It was good to know the species was no longer listed as near extinct but was now listed as possibly endangered.
When they got to Tau, they'd find out once and for all if that was true or not she vowed. Hopefully not.
She clicked on a few of the other species … most were common. There were a few Veraxin colonies listed but not many. Veraxins had been enemies of Taurens for ages she knew. She frowned and then checked out the more up-to-date information, starting with the star charts.
She looked at the base chart from the Encyclopedia Galactica. It was in 2D form, but she could switch to 3D if she liked, then clicked the tabs to overlay the information they currently knew about the sector based on various sources of information. All of the Tauren core worlds and virtually every major population center had been destroyed in the Xeno War. That was pretty much par for the course in every sector, whether it was Tau, Pi, Rho, Sigma, or the other sectors.
Tau sector, like Pi and Sigma, have vast stretches of wasteland with destroyed star systems scattered throughout. In some cases, it was very hard to get through some of those areas without having to pass through a war zone or naturally dangerous star system. She nodded. That explained the limited traffic; only good quality ships could jump between the sectors. It was a long jump. Taurens might be up to it … if they had the parts and will. Since there weren't any known Tauren ships in Rho, apparently they lacked one or the other … or both.
Getting across the empty void was just step one. She had to find routes through or around the badlands. She grimaced and then tapped out a request for astrocartography to get a better
map of the sector. Perhaps a college kid could do it as a thesis? She wasn't certain … and wasn't certain she had the time to wait for a response. She had no choice however.
For the time being, all she had to go on was the base map and the updates ONI had provided. There were some notes. She clicked on one. There were sources mentioned in a few cases, some redacted. She nodded. The sources had additional links … she clicked on one and grimaced at all the qualifiers and odds of viability listed. So much for that she thought grumpily.
“But it's a start,” she murmured to herself thoughtfully.
Based on what they knew, a pattern was forming in her mind. With so many star systems destroyed, there were gaps in the jump locations that the natives had undoubtedly been forced to find workarounds. Refugees from those destroyed systems … she paused thoughtfully to look up. How many made it? How many had been lost? Of those who made it … did they just go from one burning planet to another a few months later? Did they bring a Xeno plague or A.I. with them? She shook her head. She didn't know. She refocused on what they did know.
Based on what they knew, the sector was sparsely populated, even less so than Rho. That was odd given the Tauren's persistence as engineers … but there might be something in their reproduction that was involved. There was little on the size of the populations. Some of the planet notations didn't have maps or attendant links in the Encyclopedia. Which was questionable right there. Clearly someone in ONI wasn't comfortable with that.
She grimaced as she got to pages upon pages of qualifiers and reference material. Ships that had passed through the area had provided some information. Some secondhand, some third. Clearly whoever wrote the report was not comfortable with that. She agreed; they needed firsthand knowledge. Hopefully, the Belfast division would get it for her.
The redacted and assumed captured data she also found questionable. What they had seemed vague to almost the point of uselessness to her. There was very limited data on the jumps and populations. The files on enemy activity were missing.
She sat back and thought about it. The map itself was a bit of a concern for her; she didn't want to go into an area and get lost or run out of fuel. She grimaced and then typed out an email request for a more in-depth ONI briefing, preferably before the mission left Pyrax.
“This would be easier if we actually had an intel officer to hand this to,” she said looking up.
“Excuse me, ma'am?” Lieutenant Prometheus said. “Was that a question for me or …”
“For the moment, I'm putting you in charge of intelligence, Lieutenant,” Shelby said as she tapped her holo emitter and authorized the ship's A.I. to take it over.
“Thank you, I think, ma'am,” the A.I. said as his bust appeared. “If the XO can juggle several hats, I suppose I can try to do the same.”
“That's the spirit,” Shelby said.
“Unfortunately, I can't tell you more than you just read, ma'am. Some more details you may have overlooked, but not much. We could use a native guide or a more in-depth in brief,” the A.I. groused.
Shelby snorted. “Tell me about it. When you get word on that, let me know.”
“Yes, ma’am, I just inquired. ONI is swamped with what is going on up North plus prisoner interviews and the Eastern Front demands. They said they'd get back to me but left it open-ended.”
“Keep trying,” Shelby sighed.
]][#]]]{OO}===}==>
Shelby received a follow-up Intel briefing personally from Captain Teague. She was surprised when she noted the briefing had been inserted into her daily calendar and that the captain was the briefing officer.
The captain had assembled a lot of reading material for her to go over and take with her. Of particular interest was the opposition in the sector. The known opposition, Shelby corrected herself, which wasn't much.
Over the years, the navy had captured several copies of the Horathian war book. Each had different material in it since the ship had launched at different times than others or the crew had different things in mind when they got a download. Some of the material had been noted as out-of-date.
The Tau war book only had the ships that had come from Horath to the sector. That bothered her. “We don't know if they've salvaged ships, how many, what type, and what sort of support they've got. Nor do we know about prize ships that are also being kept in the sector and either outfitted as freighters or have been refitted as Q ships,” Irene said.
“So you are telling me what we don't know what to watch out for, ma'am,” Shelby said with a nod.
“Exactly. Remember, the information we've got is out-of-date,” Irene said. “Unfortunately, none of the ships we caught were going to Tau. Therefore, they weren't specifically loaded with what they knew about the sector.”
“So no star charts.”
“Correct. No intel, no locations of their bases in the sector. Everything we do know is out-of-date. Some of it by decades. Possibly a century or more in a few cases.”
“Lovely,” Shelby sighed.
“The good news is, it's the Gather Fleet that you are up against,” Irene said.
Shelby's right eyebrow went up. “That's good?”
“I know some consider them pushovers. Don't. Some are damn good. And some of those ships are far out. They haven't seen the light of Horath's sun in decades. Some may even have mixed crews on board.”
“Mixed crews? You're talking about … nonhumans? Is that even possible?”
“We're learning a lot about the Horathians. Their Xenophobia was progressive. It was mainly orchestrated by the Ramichov family, but the other ruling families were complicit as well.”
“Okay …”
“But they weren't always that way. Horath was a minor pirate friendly port in this sector before the Xeno war. A place they could fence their goods, also a haven for Mercs. They didn't want the Federation to know, of course.”
“So they wouldn't be a target. Right,” Shelby replied with a nod.
“Exactly,” Irene said looking away for a moment. “A den of thieves, pirates, murders, bounty hunters, spies, that sort of thing.”
Shelby wrinkled her nose. “Scum in other words.”
Irene shook her head. “Not quite all. Some like the bounty hunters served a legitimate purpose.”
“I bet they did. But they added an air of legitimacy to the others. And some had brutal methods that didn't put them very high over the people they hunted down,” Shelby pointed out.
“True,” Irene replied with an agreeing nod. “But we're getting a bit off topic.”
“Yes, I suppose,” Shelby said with a grimace. “So, mixed crews. We can't bank on spotting the Horathians from an all-human crew then.”
“No. Neos were the last to be exiled or executed on Horath. That happened about twenty-five years ago. So, any ship that left the star system prior to that might have a mixed crew. Unless it has been purged recently, which we doubt.”
“Joy.”
“But, as I said it is the Gather Fleet. Their usual MO, that's Modus Operandi,” she paused to eye the captain.
“I know what it means, Ma'am,” Shelby said dryly.
“Okay, well, their usual MO while ship hunting is to act as division pairs. Usually one ship acts as a beater to run the prey into the arms of the other. They tend to act as singles only when one ship is off escorting a prize and a target of opportunity is easily caught. Usually the escort and prize ship is on its way too or coming from the nearest pirate den or cache for supplies.”
“A den or cache. We haven't found any here,” Shelby said, eying the ONI officer.
“No,” Irene replied instantly. Shelby's eyes narrowed. Irene spread her hands apart. “Would I lie to you?” When Shelby cocked her head, she blinked taken aback. “Okay, don't answer that.”
“Spooks,” Shelby growled, rolling her eyes.
“Ahem, yes. Um, anyway, as I was saying, there are dens and caches in each sector. Space is vast as you know. We know the approximate location of two. Unfo
rtunately, we don't know the exact location. Only two of the personnel we have in custody went to Tau sector, but they didn't go in deep or interact with the Tau pirates much. That's where we got some of the other intel. But we have no supporting information in the captured databases. The pirates didn't load it.”
Shelby frowned. She didn't like going in on someone's word. “Why? I mean …”
“It's a method of security. You can't give away what you don't know. It's one of the sore points ONI has had for the past several years. People expect us to be omniscient since we've captured so many pirates and their databases. The easiest way to keep something secret is to not tell someone,” Irene explained patiently.
“Or dead men tell no tales,” Shelby stated.
Irene grimaced, then nodded. “Too true, especially with pirates,” she agreed.
“I think it came from pirates on Earth,” Shelby mused, looking up. “I think … Treasure Island?” she frowned thoughtfully. “I think I remember reading it somewhere. Dad would know.”
“Ahem, yes, staying on topic …,” Irene said, starting to sound cross.
“You know, I'm surprised you didn't have someone else brief me,” Shelby interrupted. “I mean a lieutenant or …,” she waved a hand.
“Another misconception about ONI. We've only got so many people to go around. The same for A.I. You know there is only two smart A.I. in this star system, right? That includes Captain Firefly. Three smart A.I. are in ONI all told at the moment. Sure, we've got some dumb A.I. but …,” She waved a hand. “Damn it, my turn to go off topic.”
“Feel free to unload and vent. I've got time it seems,” Shelby said, lounging back and resting her arm on the back of the chair.
“Well, I unfortunately don't. I've got a schedule I'm turning into a pretzel,” Irene replied, rubbing her temple. After a moment, she looked up. “Okay, a lot of what I'm telling you your ONI team will have. Which is an answer to your question albeit an oblique one,” she said.
“An answer to my …,” Shelby frowned as she gamed it out.
“ONI is a specialist branch. We've only got so many people. So many that can do the job. Many are interviewing prisoners or analyzing databases sure but not as many as we need. We're overwhelmed. Throw in personnel on planets and ships and stuff and …,” Irene waved a hand in annoyance. “I can only give you two of my people, both practically in diapers.”