Convoy (The Shelby Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “Let's see if we can give it to them,” Shelby said, straightening herself.

  “Ma'am?”

  “We're going to try my plan,” Shelby said firmly. “See if this works,” she said, tamping down firmly on her nervousness. She nodded once. “Comm, contact the Black Death. Audio and video transmission only. Tell them we wish to parlay,” she ordered.

  “Ma'am?” Lieutenant Jardin asked, turning to her in surprise.

  “Do it. Keep the camera on me at all times,” Shelby said as she gripped the arms of her chairs. Her fingers flicked as Cynthia gave her a sidelong look. She ignored it, focused on looking professional while also keying up files she had culled from Lieutenant Slaterly's databases. “Let's see if this works,” she muttered. “We don't have much to lose to try it,” she said as the enemy flagship accepted the signal.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “Sir, we're getting a call from the enemy, it is audio and video. They say they wish to Parlay,” the comm rating reported.

  “Parlay!?” Captain Baker demanded, looking up in surprise from where he had been working with DCC to get a handle on the ship's damage. “Have you checked the signal?”

  “Sir, the signal is clean. It is also an omni broadcast,” the rating reported.

  “So everyone is listening in. Interesting,” the admiral said as his flag captain eyed him. “Open the channel, video and audio only,” he stated.

  “Sir?” Captain Baker asked but the admiral waved him off.

  “Tis parlay. Make what repairs you can,” the admiral said as the light above the camera near him turned from red to green. “To whom do I be speakin' to?” the admiral asked, flicking his ears.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  Shelby was grateful the plan had worked. For it to continue to work her people had to forgo any attempt to hack the enemy and not attack them while she talked with them. She had a presentation that she needed to get across to the other side if it was going to have any effect. Trust had to be built.

  It was interesting to talk with an enemy commander however; most likely she was the first in living memory to do so during an engagement or at least during the lull between engagements she thought. This Neo Vice Admiral Ishmael was something of a character. He was a massive specimen of Neo African lion with plenty of scars and an eye patch covering one eye. She could tell he wasn't completely stupid. He might be wearing Caribbean pirate style clothing, but it was over a skinsuit by the look of it. He also kept the bridge dim and liked theatrics.

  Hopefully her people, especially Fara managed to get her a better psychological profile of the cat as the discussion continued for however long it did. They were going to feed her cues to her implants so Boni could put them up on her HUD.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “My name is Commodore Shelby Logan, Federation Navy,” the human female replied a second later.

  “Tell me, Commodore, be you callin' with interest in surrendering?” the admiral drawled.

  “I was going to ask you the same thing,” Shelby replied dryly.

  “You are a wit, little woman, I'll give you that. Full of grit,” the admiral said, making a show of turning his hand over and extending his claws. “I be wonderin' what else you have in you,” he said.

  “Tell me, Admiral,” the woman paused to smile thinly. “Oh yes, I know who you are, Vice Admiral Leonidas Ishmael, Neolion, African Neolion from Horath itself,” Shelby said. “My people have noted the heavy cruiser Fancy as well as the freighter 8116 are among your group. I presume the heavy cruiser Seydlitz is elsewhere, most likely spreading the plague created by the Horathian Empire's department of Purity and Enlightenment.”

  Captain Baker gave the admiral a sidelong look. The admiral's lips quivered when he heard that accurate statement. “I bet they were surprised and dismayed when they saw you for the first time, weren't they? I bet you could smell the fear, the anger, and their disgust. I bet you wondered why,” the female rolled on. The Neochimp could see the woman's statements scoring within him as well as his admiral.

  “It makes sense,” he murmured. He saw the admiral look at him sharply. He nodded once. “The crews are all human,” the Neochimp rumbled. “It fits with the stuff we know about them. The stuff that didn't make sense …” the puzzle pieces finally came together to show him an image he didn't like. One he didn't want to face but knew he had to do it. Deep in his core, shock was turning to rage and betrayal.

  The admiral's nostrils flared. He began to growl softly, deep in his throat. “Now, my question,” the woman said. “Did they bring you mail from home? No? Not even a death notice of a single family member? How about an old friend? Replacement personnel? Family? How about news? It was rather cherry picked, wasn't it? Great big gaps in the timeline? Almost as if someone did some hasty editing to cover something up they didn't want you to see? How about movies and shows from home? I wonder how many people in your command are homesick and want that taste of home? Didn't get it, did they?”

  The Neochimp scowled. That was hitting rather close to home he knew. So far the woman was scoring big time, and he didn't like it.

  “How about your orders, I bet they had to be revised and weren't delivered promptly when they first met you,” Shelby said.

  That scored enough to make the admiral bar his fangs in barely suppressed rage, the betrayal ran deep. “See, we know about those ships because we stopped Admiral Von Berk and destroyed the rest of his Fourth Fleet some time ago. Not, I admit, without his command inflicting significant damage to civilian population centers,” the woman said.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “ …See, we know about those ships because we stopped Admiral Von Berk and destroyed the rest of his Fourth Fleet some time ago. Not, I admit, without his command inflicting significant damage to civilian population centers,” the woman said.

  “We are so fracked,” Lieutenant Troykov murmured over and over.

  Commander Misaki grimaced. She turned to look at Captain Layafette. She could tell he was cursing under his breath at the turn of events. The idea that the Federation had destroyed Fourth Fleet …

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “The reason you haven't gotten any of those messages and only a small sliver of a taste from home is simple. Did it ever make you wonder about those ships? How they can be crewed only by humans? You are a smart cat; I bet you suspected something was going on,” Shelby went on. “What about the plague they brought? It only affects Neos and non-human species. It attacks their brains, driving some mad. It turns them against their own family, their own pack. They go primal. Rabies and other weaponized diseases tend to do that,” she said witheringly. There were several sharp intakes of breath and growls from the bridge crew.

  “As you were,” the captain growled to them, looking around the room with his hard brown eyes.

  “Humans are of course exempt unless they have nonhuman genes within their DNA,” the human woman continued. “They see the others go mad and are forced to put them down.”

  The admiral growled deep in his throat.

  “I can transmit to you the material they use as propaganda. The simple answer to all those questions is that they've exterminated all Neos and other species from your homeworld. Well, all but those they feed into the gladiator pits for their so-called entertainment,” Shelby said ruthlessly. “Even Neo officers and enlisted were sent there to die,” she said.

  “Sir, we're getting video on a side channel,” a comm rating said quietly. The admiral walked over to the rating and leaned over the Neodog's shoulder to watch the video of a Neochimp with one arm chained behind his back fighting a group of humans. Other videos popped up with similar images. One was of a lion chained by the leg. The lion was whipped to death by a pair of humans while the crowd threw trash at the lion.

  “They denigrate your people. They torture them, even when your people served with honor. They are exterminating them on every planet they infest. Genocide. Once you are done doing their dirty work for them and spread
ing the plague here, do you think they'll give you a medal?” she demanded caustically. “No, they will turn and use it on you. You are just an inconvenience now, one Captain Layafette and the others who came with him were forced to adapt to and use to their own ends,” she said.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “ …denigrate your people. They torture them, even when your people served with honor. They are exterminating them on every planet they infest. Genocide. Once you are done doing their dirty work and spreading the plague, do you think they'll give you a medal?” she demanded caustically. “No, they will turn and use it on you. You are just an inconvenience now, one Captain Layafette and the others who came with him were forced to adapt to and use to their own ends,” she said.

  “Damn …” Captain Layafette murmured as his bridge crew turned to him.

  “Sir, what do we do?” Lieutenant Troykov asked carefully.

  “Attend to your stations and your duties,” the captain said, eyes looking around the room.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “You've been betrayed by your own. You have no home to go back to. There is a reason they haven't sent you anything in years. There is a reason that you haven't heard anything from your families, the loved ones you left behind. They are dead. Tortured for fun and amusement. They have been rewriting their own history to write you and your people out of it as if you never existed. If they get their way, that will become true. Your loyalty, your duty is to a system that will gladly stab you in the back. Should any of your ships return to Horath, they will be boarded and your crew will be fed into the meat grinder of the gladiator pits.”

  Shelby paused for a long moment. “So, why are you still fighting for them? Why are you still helping them?”

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “Well! This is a revolting development,” Lieutenant Troykov murmured. “Sir? We're sitting ducks here.”

  “We don't move. We do our duty,” Captain Layafette replied.

  “Right,” Lieutenant Troykov drawled. “I don't know who to shoot at anymore. We're outgunned.

  “Admiral Ishmael may not buy it,” Commander Misaki reminded him. “He might wait,” she said.

  “You really believe that?”

  “It's all we've got now,” the captain stated. “Man your post.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  The admiral stared at the various channels as more information came in. One was the Emperor Ramichov's speech condemning all species other than humans to death.

  “You have me at quite a loss lass. You've done me a favor if this be true,” the vice admiral finally said, feeling the weight of his age on his shoulders. “I am not often beholden to an enemy,” he said wryly.

  “I have to admit, I didn't expect to run into pirates who are Neos here or anywhere for that matter. I'm too used to the human variety, and I'm too used to serving with Neos and other species. I'm struggling to come to grips with this mess, and I'm betting you are as well, Admiral,” Shelby replied with a nod to him. “The question now is, what do you do? Where do we go from here?” she asked, cocking her head.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  She could tell she'd rattled him and his bridge crew. How much remained to be seen.

  His side of the video conference remained in shadow as the admiral went back to his seat and sat heavily. She could tell he was thinking as he drummed his fingers on the arm rest. Her enhanced hearing could pick up his almost subsonic growl.

  After a long moment, the tips of his claws came out and then his good eye narrowed to a slit and then glittered. He pulled a cigar out of his breast pocket and then leaned forward, clipped the end between two claws, then lit the cigar with an old fashioned wooden match. When the cigar took and the end flared, he then leaned back and puffed on it. Smoke wreathed his head before it was pulled away by the ventilation. Each of the puffs drew in oxygen to make the tip flare, briefly lighting his face. “You don't say,” he growled. “Well, I'll have to have a chat with public affairs about that,” he growled.

  Someone snickered off camera.

  Shelby realized he was sticking to his creed and wasn't going to surrender. “No honor among thieves?” Shelby asked mildly, crossing her arms to stare at him in disappointment.

  The admiral snorted. “No, there be honor. I'm just not taking your word for it, lady,” he replied. “We're still pirates,” he growled, leaning forward again to show his teeth and claws. That earned a surprised laugh from his bridge crew. Shelby's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. The Admiral rose from his seat, his tail thrashing. He put his foot up on the broken display station in front of his chair and then leaned against his knee, moving closer to the camera to let her see him closer up. “What, you thought because you told us this we'd lay down our arms and go quietly?” he laughed. Other people on his bridge laughed too. It was an ugly mocking sound.

  “No, I guess not,” Shelby said quietly. “Okay, so we do it the hard way,” she said with a shrug. “Your funeral.”

  The cat's eyes narrowed. “Ah, but like any self-respecting pirate I despise a fair fight,” he said.

  “What does …,” she stopped herself when the signal terminated. “Okay,” she drawled.

  “He's either going to stick to the code or turn this into his own death ground, ma'am,” Lieutenant Slatterly said. “I can't tell if what you said got through enough to throw him off his game. It will most likely affect him later. If there is a later for him.” She left unsaid the doubt that there might be a later for her and the others on the ship too.

  “Understood, Lieutenant,” Shelby said with a nod. “Fight to run away, that's the code, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Well, we've got the Tortuga jump point covered to some degree. He can still rip it open if he jumps that way,” she said.

  “True. Are you going to chase him?” the lieutenant asked warily.

  “There is an old saying about chasing a routed foe to ground and burying them. But there is another saying about be wary of a wounded animal,” Shelby replied, eyes on the plot.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  The vice admiral looked over the information that had been transmitted to him. What he saw he didn't like, but it gelled too well with what had happened in the past that he knew of … and it fit with his gut feeling.

  Captain Baker came over to his side as he stubbed his cigar out and then flicked it aside. “It fits, sir. If you look at the base trends, Horath has been turning Xenophobic for centuries. We had gotten rid of all non-Terran species by the time we left. It looks like they extended it to us.”

  “To the extreme,” the admiral rumbled, crossing his arms and tucking his chin down as he watched some of the videos again.

  “Yes, sir. It makes me wonder about my son and daughter,” Captain Baker said quietly, eyes straying to the playback.

  The admiral looked at him sharply. “That's right, you sent them to Horath, didn't you?”

  The captain looked bleak as he watched the playback of the Neochimp in the arena again. “Yes, sir. My son was in the tactical track. He did several stints as a professor at the academy …”

  The admiral nodded slowly. “Damn.”

  “Sir, what do we do?” the tactical officer asked.

  The admiral rubbed his chin. “We're not going to make any hasty decisions. We're going to think everything through. Honor is still at stake.”

  “Duty … to what, sir? To people who intend to kill us and our species?” the tactical officer asked plaintively. His ears were flat back, a clear sign of his distress.

  “Those who do not know the value of loyalty can never appreciate the cost of betrayal,” the admiral breathed.

  “Sir?”

  “An old quote I once read,” the admiral said, looking old. “We all knew the reality of the mistress we served. Loyalty to her? A drunken whore who would gladly turn on us … and apparently has.”

  “So what do we do now, sir?” Captain Baker asked carefu
lly. “It means we can't go home again.”

  “So we're cut off …” the Neodog said.

  “With this new Federation in-between us and them, yes,” the captain stated, turning from the tactical officer to the admiral. “A plan, sir? We need to deal with one thing at a time.”

  “Aye, that we do indeed. Put Fancy through to me,” the admiral ordered.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “Sir, we're getting a call from the flagship,” the comm rating reported carefully.

  “What do we do?” the XO breathed.

  “Don't panic. Just play it cool. I'll tell him it is propaganda. The important thing is not to panic,” the captain said. “Comm, put him through,” he said firmly.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “Ah, Cap'n Layafette, there you are,” the admiral purred.

  “Sir …”

  “Status of your ship, Captain?” the admiral demanded, good eye glittering.

  “We've taken some damage to our port side, sir,” Captain Layafette said with a cautious mental sigh of relief. “We have lost two missile tubes and three guns on that flank. DCC is working on the damage now.”

  “Understood,” the admiral rumbled thoughtfully. “Tuck that flank toward Black Death in the next engagement.”

  “Sir?”

  “You heard me,” the admiral said, voice cooling ever so slightly. “Flag out,” he said as he cut the channel.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “Will they do it, sir?” Captain Baker asked, wondering what the admiral intended. He couldn't mean to sacrifice the ship when they were staring at the enemy could he? Surely not … “Are we going to deal with them now, sir?” he asked carefully.

  “Ar, I be thinkin' about it,” the cat said. Kix eyed him and then snorted at his falling into character. “I be thinkin' we can continue to go after the navy or go where they are not,” the admiral said. “Horath is lost to us.”