by Chris Hechtl
“Yup, you've been slacking off. Now it's time to sweat off some of that fat that's built up and prove your worth,” Cynthia quipped with a brief but tired smile.
“Cute,” the chief grumbled. He checked the tablet. “It looks like the next asteroid coming in is pretty thick with nickel and iron. I was hoping for more bauxite or titanium myself. We also need more materials to make plastics. Carbon is a big one,” he said.
“The first loads from the refinery platform should come in day after tomorrow,” Lieutenant Talon said tiredly as he sat back and closed his eyes. He rubbed at his face and eyes with his hands. “We'll probably eat through most of it in a day at this rate.”
“Probably,” Cynthia said. “Any headway on buying material from the natives?” she asked.
“They aren't up to our level by a long shot, ma'am, even with the Spacebees help. The Spacebees aren't working on their industrial plants or small craft either. That wasn't in the contract,” the lieutenant replied. “Apparently, that little goof has caught the attention of the natives,” he said with a smirk to her as he opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Ah,” Cynthia replied with a brief grin of mischief. “Darn,” she murmured wickedly.
“Yeah. So, if they want that stuff fixed they've got to pay for it. That should keep the economy going, though we'd have to find a way to shoehorn their repairs … additional repairs mind you,” the lieutenant said. “Into our already swollen priority list somehow. But it would give us additional material down the road … if they don't keep it all for themselves,” he said.
Humph,” Cynthia said, grimacing as she considered the problem. “We're the fulcrum, so I think …”
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The work of the engineers would continue to be ongoing, especially when some of the natives got wise and decided to open up previously closed and abandoned colonies. They got the minimum going and then requested help from the Federation forces. Shelby had taken a couple hours to consider their antics before she had gracefully given in but put them at the bottom of the list in priorities.
She had no intention of running her people ragged around the system. She also didn't want to finish the job and then have the natives tell her thanks and get out. One thing she was happy about was the completion of Mahoney's work in the star system. Before the ship had even returned to the slowly growing base, the doctors had started to agitate to get back on the path to the other worlds to stop the plague. Doctor Taylor became their spokesman.
Eventually Shelby had decided Phase 1 was working well enough to lay out her plans for some of the ships. She called a conference of all the captains. Their senior staff would be allowed to listen in but not participate directly. Doctor Taylor and some of Shelby's senior staff were in the wardroom with her. Many of the captains attended virtually. They had a hand sized holographic bust that hovered over the surface of the table.
Shelby laid out her first mission plan. There was grim approval for it.
“I'm going to dispatch Strike in the Dark, Puglia, the Commander Bentley, Lightening Strike, and Vixen to go back to Lebynthos to pick up the trail of Fourth Fleet and follow them.” She turned to face the respective captains. Boni had arranged for them to be grouped together prior to the conference. The Neochimp Captain Otto Corbin of the heavy cruiser Strike in the Dark was the ranking officer by date of seniority.
“Their orders are to find out where those ships went, hunt them down, and destroy them. They are to warn populations as they go, and they are to spread the cure if possible. They are not to jump into any uncharted systems,” she warned, eyes narrowing as she looked at Captain Loggins and then to the other captains. “I don't know if that will stop the spread of the plague, but it will stop them from spreading it,” she growled.
“Thank you for that, ma'am,” Captain Loggins said quietly.
“I mean it,” Shelby warned, holding up a warning finger. “If they jumped into an uncharted system you are to log it, then turn back around and come back. You are not to allow your ships to drop below 60 percent fuel in travel. If you get close to that point, you are to turn around and head back also. You have no support ships other than the courier, remember that. You are fast and light so you can use your speed to get ahead of them if necessary and then cut the bastards off.” That sparked a growl of approval from the assembly. “Use Vixen to keep me informed if necessary. The orders are being uploaded to your ships now,” Shelby said. Boni nodded on her HUD.
“What about the other trail, ma'am? Fourth Fleet's ships took the dead-end chain to Mykonos not to Delos and Samos. We don't know where they went after Mykonos,” Janice said. “But we do know that a series of ships passed through this system and went south to infect Delos and Samos as well as other star systems.”
“For the moment we'll have to wait,” Shelby said.
“But …”
“We can't fritter away our resources. I can't send all the warships out to run the enemy down and have nothing left in the cupboard here if someone comes a calling,” Shelby stated. Janice nodded.
“What about the hospital ship, ma'am?” Doctor Taylor asked.
“The problem is, we can't send Mahoney without support,” Shelby said, shaking her head. Doctor Taylor grimaced. “The hospital ship requires an escort, plus she requires a support vessel to be able to make the material she needs to supply the population. I need those factory ships here,” Shelby said, pointing her right index finger down to the table. “So that is out.” She frowned. “The question is, can Mahoney do the job without a factory ship? Loading up on external pods here and making due?”
“They'll have to. What sort of escort were you considering, ma'am?” Doctor Taylor asked hopefully.
“A destroyer. They can move faster without being tied down with gear on their exteriors, but that again cuts down on what they can bring with them.”
“Can you assign a Dora freighter to go with them? Make the material here and ship it with them?” Doctor Taylor asked.
“I'll consider it,” Shelby said slowly. “I'm supposed to send the Liberty class transports and freighters back to Rho. I'm still considering my options there too,” she said. She had the germ of an idea but didn't want to articulate it at the moment for fear of being thrown off track.
“I see, ma'am.”
“What I want is for Mahoney and you to make up a list of everything they need to help a planet. No,” Shelby held up a restraining hand. “Two lists, a need and a wish list. Then I'm going to need an inventory of what is on Mahoney and if we can replicate the equipment and gear there.”
“For the hospitals here, ma'am?” Doctor Taylor asked.
“Yes. I'm also considering other options,” Shelby replied. “Captain V'z'xx, please work with your CMO and Doctor Taylor on that,” she said. The Veraxin signaled assent. “For the record, if I let Mahoney and an escort go, they'll only be going to planets along our backtrail. No venturing out into unexplored chains or jumps. To the Trajin cluster and back. I'll decide when they return and are resupplied where else they can go then.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Captain V'z'xx replied.
“It's not a done deal yet. I need to consider it carefully,” Shelby warned.
“What about Belfast, ma'am?” Captain Zeb asked.
Shelby turned to his holographic bust. “Hopefully, she'll turn up. Dasher might find them on her run. If I detach Mahoney and an escort, they might find her on her way to us. Mahoney will need to bypass star systems that do not have the plague when she isn't in need of fuel,” Shelby said, sitting back and drumming her fingers as she thought out loud.
“We'll have to refuel at least once to get to the end of the line and again on the return, ma'am,” Captain V'z'xx warned.
“I know. You'll also need to refuel in each of the star systems you visit and help. That should help,” Shelby mused.
“I have a template with the orders you've so far sketched out plugged in, ma'am,” Boni stated, showing her a mission brief document o
n her HUD.
“Okay, Boni and I will work on the orders and then get back to you on that. For the moment, we're going to make some adjustments to the picket forces,” Shelby said. “We don't have enough defenses to cover every jump so I want to cover the two most used for the time being.
“That leaves two uncovered,” Captain Zeb warned. “Unless you plan to cover them with ships?”
Shelby nodded. “I do indeed.”
“Five jump points,” Ensign Slatterly interjected. All eyes turned to her. “I was going to bring this up in this meeting. I've checked with CIC; they confirmed the ion trails to a fifth jump point but they couldn't nail down the exact location, just a search zone. Portia has been trying to help in that regard by nailing down what sort of effects an energy discharge does to a jump zone, how it pushes debris around or away.” She grimaced. “It doesn't just push the debris away; in some cases, it swirls it …,” she saw she was losing her audience and then waved a hand. “Anyway, with Lieutenant Prometheus's and Ensign Bonibi's help, I've been pouring over the cloned databases from the natives. They've recorded ships coming in from that same vector. We've got enough to narrow the search area,” she stated, using her implants to change the wardroom holo-projector to show a 3D map of the star system. “It puts it here,” she said, highlighting a ball of space over twenty million kilometers in diameter near the heliopause.
“And no way to nail it down?” Captain Kaluha asked.
“We're working on it, ma'am,” Lieutenant Prometheus said. “I have some processors working on it now, and I've distributed the load to the other ships to speed up the process,” the A.I. said. “Some observations from platforms and colonies in different locations can help us triangulate the space further.
“That we know it is there is important. We can station another ship,” Janice said carefully. “Or ships,” she said, eyeing Shelby.
Shelby hid a grimace. She'd heard about the possible fifth jump point but had hoped it would have been a false lead. So much for that, she thought to herself tartly. It also put her plans in jeopardy including the possible Mahoney mission.
“Based on what we've gotten so far from the databases, over half of the pirate traffic has passed through that jump point. In either direction,” Lieutenant Prometheus said, overlaying the map with a series of lines with arrows indicating direction.
“There has to be something interesting on the other side,” Captain V'll'no murmured thoughtfully, signaling second-level interest.
Shelby glanced at her CEV skipper and then to the tabletop map. “Agreed. Since that space seems to be the primary, we'll shift focus. I was going to split the defenses between the Tau-1929 jump point and Tau-35NFXL,” Shelby said as she rose and pointed to the two zones in the star system. They were highlighted. “I realize some of the traffic is coming in from a different vector here near the Tau-4534Z jump point. You still haven't nailed down where?” Shelby asked. The ONI spook shook her head. “I thought not. Okay, so that is out,” she mused.
“I know you want to keep Prometheus, most of the support ships in the convoy, and Admiral Sprague, the cruisers, gunboats, and tin cans here in the inner system to protect them and act as a ready reserve, ma'am, but that might not be viable,” Captain V'll'no said carefully. “Putting a frigate and corvette on each of the five most-traveled jump points won't do much against some of the enemy's weight of metal, ma'am,” he warned.
“I know. I'm considering my options. For the moment, we'll put the first picket defenses around this jump zone,” Shelby said, pointing to the large one. “I know they don't have enough to cover the entire volume. We'll put them here, along the face to cover the probable entry vector. Once we get a ship or two there to do an eyes-on survey, maybe they'll be able to narrow the field a bit. We'll put Zeng He there for that.” She turned with a nod to Captain Zeb briefly before she returned her attention to the room at large.
“In the meantime,” Shelby said, pointing to the other jump points. “We'll put a frigate and corvette each on the other four jump points as you suggested. The four on the Tau-4534Z can cover each other. I'll consider a tin can on each of the other jump points in a moment, but we'd need a way to rotate them off duty, and I was planning on having the tin cans take turns with the smaller ships. Now, ideas on where we should put the fixed defenses?”
“Should we split them? Missile pods covering one point and weapon platforms covering another?” Captain Zeb asked.
“That's certainly an interesting idea,” Captain V'll'no said carefully. “Though they might not have enough throw weight to stop a cruiser.”
“No, but they can bloody its nose if one does poke itself in,” Captain Zeb replied. “And it allows us to cover two places. They'd be thin granted, but something is better than nothing, and we can do something about thickening up the defenses once the industrial plant is finished.”
“True,” Captain Runyon acknowledged as Shelby sat back and listened to them.
Chapter 33
Shelby nodded as the seven ships moved out. The Resolution class heavy cruiser Strike in the Dark was in the lead. Puglia brought up the rear of the diamond formation. The Arboth class destroyers Commander Bentley and Lightening Strike were on the low flanks while the destroyer Shrill Kill was on high covering the dorsal.
In the pocket ME Mahoney and two couriers, Vixen and Cupid road. It was hard seeing them go, she wasn't used to sending people off to risk without being within sight of her. Captain Corbin was senior officer of the Kill Force mission. He would escort the hospital ship's mission as far as Lebynthos before turning upward to trail and hopefully overtake Fourth Fleet's missing trio.
ME Mahoney, Cupid, and their escort Shrill Kill would continue on, stopping only at star systems that were infested with the plague in order to render aide.
“Comm, render a salute and then send this. Good Hunting,” Shelby ordered.
“Aye aye, ma’am,” Lieutenant Jardin replied quietly.
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Ariadne shook her head as she checked on the progress. Her colony had been one of the first rebuilt by the Federation forces. She had been impressed by their skills, their seemingly unending supply of parts, and their speed. They'd finished with her colony in a week and then moved on.
Then there was the space efforts going on around the second gas giant and in the inner and outer belt. She was deeply impressed by their seemingly frantic pace. It was like they had something to prove, like they had to get it all done before some real or imagined deadline. Already they'd made even more of an impact with the deployment of a series of satellites, some for communications, some for monitoring the star for activity. She couldn't help but feel shocked to see they were really doing it. She also felt a little guilty that she and her ancestors hadn't been able to do what they were doing. That they'd almost given up. She also resented those feelings. She knew she wasn't the only one feeling all that. Some of her people were talking about what they could do to get in on the action.
It had taken her a month to recognize that her people had been in a form of resignation, lethargy of apathy that had been dragging them down. The example the Feds were providing seemed to wake them like a clarion call to what was possible.
She was a bit worried about the ships that were departing the solar system. Dividing their forces, even if to stop the plague seemed premature to her. But if they seemed to do anything the Feds seemed to exude confidence.
She hoped they were right to have it.
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Cynthia checked the clock one more time. Like a lot of people in the convoy, she was a bit anxious to see the ships leaving. But that wasn't the only thing she was checking on. They were on their way; it was already too late to stop them she knew. No, there was something else going on, something elsewhere. The window for the expected arrival time of the Beta convoy's arrival in the Alpha star system of the Trajin cluster was about to begin.
“Five minutes to jump. All ships have charged their hype
rdrives. We have LOS,” Lieutenant Prometheus said from the overhead.
Cynthia grimaced and bent over her paperwork right up until a second interruption stopped her. She looked up and clicked open on the chat message. “Commander Troll, we're having a priority issue with the number two replicator. We're getting an argument on it again,” a noncom said in a text message.
“If I've got to be there to act the parent, someone's going to regret it,” she said ominously as she rose from her chair. “I'm on my way,” she growled.
“Yes, ma’am.”
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Ensign Slatterly was almost oblivious to all the activity on Prometheus. She spent a great deal of time in her quarters or in the wardroom working on sorting the bonanza of data they had collected and correlating and cross referencing it with the information they already knew. One thing that had come to her attention was the realization that from the observation reports in the new native's databases alone they had seen quite a few of the various pirate ships infesting the sector. They had enough information for her to fingerprint many of the ships and cross reference them with their copy of the Horathian war book. Some of the ships didn't match up with any known entries there.
She had noted that the pirates had more ships and bigger ships than the Admiralty had expected. Most of the ships were of older classes but a great percentage of them were heavy cruisers. She looked up to see the Kill Force and hospital ship group as they jumped out. Suddenly she was concerned that they might have bitten off more than they could chew.
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Once things were ticking away almost smoothly, Shelby decided it was time to throw in her first curveball. Her mission called for her to send back the Liberty class tenders and transports under escort once the base was established and they were emptied out. She was allowed to keep the Doras. She had never been happy about the idea; she'd wanted and had expected to keep them all since it was a pain in the ass to get shipping to and from Tau to begin with. But she'd been overruled.