Making her look to be perfect would have only raised suspicions. Foshunti hated the holes in his armor. Yet his shield generators worked perfectly. He'd salvaged parts for two reactors that Lady Fairgate and no one except his chief engineer knew about. The old Kuruvian had been slated for killing because he had done shoddy work on every ship that had come through his yards on purpose. All of them were flaws that ended in the ship coming apart if it wasn't looked after properly.
The Kuruvian took all of the blame, probably to shield his younger brother that was being used by the Syndicate already, and his two young’uns who were still on the planet. Foshunti had saved him and given him the choice to join him. He would never be allowed to see his brother or his sons again however.
“How are we looking?” Foshunti asked the chief engineer directly. He was one of Foshunti's best friends.
“My joints are old and leaving Talhalla in this condition is doing my soul in. What are you calling about, really?” the Kuruvian asked.
“Come on, Etil. Can't we just act like captain and chief for once?” Foshunti said, smiling, unseen to his friend.
“Pah. Too much rot gut and stumbling through Talhalla for that now!” Etil's joking manner was clear.
“Alright, you old coot. Don't go telling everyone. I've got to keep something of my dignified appearance,”
“Since when does a sociopathic madman have a dignified appearance? I should bring you down here and educate you on the finer things of wrench turning,” Etil said.
“I give up. I give up. I'm calling you for something else other than to see to it that Talhalla doesn't fall apart.” Foshunti smiled in anticipation of Etil's reaction.
“She won't and you bloody well know it! Now get to the point and stop talking bad of your own ship,” Etil groused.
“Well, I got Planner to reveal my identity.”
“You did. To who?”
“You really need to get out of that pit you call engineering sometime,” Foshunti said, shaking his head.
“Well, yah going to tell me?”
“Salchar, the Commander of the Free Fleet,”
“Captain of the Resilient,” Etil said breathlessly... “Shit!” He sounded as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.
“Etil, is everything okay?” Foshunti asked, concerned. He'd never heard the air go out of his chief engineer's sails so quickly or completely.
“Planner, who is the chief on Resilient?” Etil said, hardly breathing.
“I don't know,” Planner said, coming into the conversation.
“It can't be, no. He's probably dead. Light willing, I need to know,” Etil rattled off to himself.
“Need to know what?” Foshunti asked, but Etil didn't reply.
“He needs to know if his brother Eddie is alive. He was the Chief on Resilient when she left under the control of Captain Welick. He's served on her ever since his recruitment. There was more than one reason why I got you to take the risk of hiring Etil,” Planner said.
“Don't the Kuruvians have a way of communicating to one another without the Syndicate knowing?” Foshunti asked.
“Yeah, we do,” Etil said. Foshunti could hear the Kuruvian moving quickly.
“What are you doing?” Foshunti asked as he heard switches being thrown and buttons being pressed.
“Sending a damn message that might get the Free Fleet on your side, sir. Planner, would you do the honors of giving me an FTL channel,” Etil said. Foshunti didn't know what he was shocked by more; Etil calling him sir, or how he might have the Free Fleet on his side.
“Done,” Planner said simply.
“Come on you bastard, pick up you old senile Kuruvian you,” Etil said to the computer.
“You have command, Wasta,” Foshunti said to his second in command. His long legs took him from his bridge to the nearest transport that would get him to engineering.
***
“Chief, we need you to come and have a look at this,” Engineer Uetak said.
“Of course I do, what cha idjits get up tah now, eh?” Eddie said, manipulators and hands deep in grav-plate emitters and electrical conduits. They were interfering with one another something fierce. People couldn't go down the hall for fear they'd get tossed into the roof, or dragged to the floor. For now it was a low gravity area, emitters on the floors above and below were compensating.
“We didn't do anything. Someone sent you a message over the Kuruvian system,” Uetak said.
“So youse gittin me to stop mi 'ard work to answer the phone?” I live with the eternal curse of slackers.
“We can't open it. It's locked out. It says it's from Etil,”
“Fuck!” Eddie said as he sat up in the crawlspace. He quickly pulled himself out of the small area, not caring for the green blood that ran from his head.
No, it can't be. He's dead, Eddie thought as he raced through Engineering, leaving more than one person in shock as he jumped, sidestepped and wall ran a few spots to get around people. He got to the terminal, waving Uetak away.
“Don't touch a bleedin’ thing, yah hear!” he said as he looked at the message. It was encoded, and it had a password.
What letter does my son's names start with? Eddie hit the S, and the message opened. It wasn't a recording but a live channel, meaning that Etil knew that others on his ship would see him transmitting. Lending credence to the fact that Foshunti wasn't truly with the Syndicate.
“Oi, you old bastard,” Etil said, his manipulators moving in a combination of happiness, joy and excitement.
“I, how wah? Youer deahd,” Eddie said as he looked at his older brother in confusion.
“The heck you doing, Etil?” A long legged and armed looking creature said as it entered the camera's view, running from somewhere.
“Captain Foshunti, meet my bruv, Eddie. Eddie, meet Cap'n Foshunti,”
“How in the hell?” Eddie said, scratching under his cowboy helmet.
“The hell is that thing?” Etil said, pointing to it.
“It's mi hat there, boyo. Don't cha be disrespectin' a man's hat now!” Eddie said as Etil’s lips spread in a grin.
“God I've missed you,” Etil said. Eddie felt his own manipulator's move in a show of happiness.
“Eddie, who are you talking to?” Shrift asked, carrying parts for the heavy cannons.
“Come, come,” Eddie hauled Shrift to the feed, parts going flying.
“Come on! I'm going to have to clean that up!” Shrift said, coming in view of the camera. Shrift barely paid attention to Captain Foshunti who was looking from Etil to the screen. Or the look of joy on Eddie's face.
“Oh shaddup and talk to yah Dah,” Eddie said, forcefully turning Shrift's head and pointing him at the screen.
“Wah..,”
“Hi Shrift,” Etil said as Shrift looked at the Kuruvian in confusion.
“Uhh, hi!”
Eddie grinned as Shrift studied the Kuruvian, seeing the familiar markings on his carapace.
***
Rick and I left the conference room. The Fleet was unsure what to believe. The Captains and Commanders that were freed slaves from the Syndicate just wanted to see them all burn.
“Commander, I think you should see this,” Rick said, throwing me a feed into engineering. Eddie and Shrift were talking animatedly to another Kuruvian on the engineering console they were working on.
“What am I looking at?”
“Seems that once again the AI's have out-planned us,”
“Well, sometimes we do,” Resilient said lightly. I was still not too pleased with her.
I watched the two grubby Kuruvian’s manipulators moving in excitement and joy. Clearly whoever they were talking to was important.
“So what did you and Planner do?” I asked Resilient.
“We had people on our ships that knew one another, so that we wouldn't have just our words. It looks liked Planner got Etil, Eddie's brother. And also Shrift and Silly's father.
I changed the feed so I
could see the console that Eddie and Shrift were talking to.
Well, that's strange, I thought as I saw Captain Lord Foshunti standing in the background looking confused.
“What other surprises do you and Planner have for us?” I asked.
“Oh, a few, if Foshunti joins you,” she said.
“Vort, can you get me a channel through the same system? I think it's about time that I talked to Captain Lord Foshunti.”
“You bet sir,” one of my screens changed to a waiting screen.
It came alive after a few seconds, and Captain Lord Foshunti was looking at me.
“Looks like the AI's have been scheming,” I said as Foshunti nodded, both of us studying one another.
“It seems that way,” he said.
“You're going to make me do all the heavy lifting aren't you?” I said.
“Heavy lifting? We're talking.”
“It's an idiom from my home planet. It means that you're going to make me have to jump through all the hurdles to see if you're really with us,”
“Yes, pretty much,” he said as I clenched my fist, my anger growing.
“Too fucking bad. You want to save your planet and get out of the Syndicate you're going to have to show me something that shows me without a doubt you're on our side. You don't and I'm going to bring the full weight of the Free Fleet down on your ass,” I said.
“I could wipe you out with a sideways glance,” he said, and I could see his face moving in annoyance.
“You think so? You're not the first fleet that we've faced that has beat us in tonnage, guns, and ships. We defeated Captain Kelu and his fleet. You might see some of his ships in my fleet now,” I said, my eyes burning into Foshunti as I fought to hold my anger at bay.
“I control one of the five super-carrier's in existence. You expect to win against me?”
“No, I expect to decimate you,” I said as he pulled back a little.
“You have a fire in you commander,” he said, baring his teeth. “We're going to need it in the oncoming war. Alright I'll show you a token of my willingness to rebel against Lady Fairgate. Including Talhalla, I have twelve Dreadnoughts, twenty two Battle Cruisers, thirty three Destroyers, twenty nine Cruisers and forty seven Corvette's. I have them placed within the asteroid belt to hit your soft underside if you were to come and attack me,” he said.
“Good plan,” I said. He didn't know about the sensor missiles I'd sent to scour the asteroid rings. It'd be at least an hour and a half until he did.
“Now your turn,” he told me, looking smug.
“I have four Dreadnoughts, fifteen Battle Cruisers, seventeen Destroyers, thirty six Corvettes and two Cruisers for my fleet. I have two freighters as support,” I said, I wasn't about to tell him about the freighter or Battle-carrier conversions.
He nodded.
“So what is your plan for me to lure your fleet into another system?” I asked.
“Sit there,” he said.
“Sit here,” I said, not really understanding what the hell he was smoking.
“People in the Syndicate are rarely patient. I have built a persona of not being a very patient man. After a couple days of you sitting on the limit of the system I'll push my fleet forwards. I'll have my forces that aren't in the syndicate at the front. The forces loyal to Lady Fairgate, which are in the asteroid belts right now, will come in the second wave,”
“So we can get rid of the Syndicate forces, without them knowing that they're going into a trap.”
“Exactly. You just pound them as soon as they come out behind my fleet,” Foshunti said.
While what he was saying sounded simple enough it was going to be one hell of an undertaking. We had to make sure that we were set up with the right co-ordinates, and that our timing was impeccable. One mess up and the second fleet could get their shields up, find out what the hell we were doing and pound us. Plus if we followed through with this, then I was going to have to trust Foshunti on his word. The last time I had done that, Marhtu had tortured me and my people, and lied to me about my people being alive.
“I have nothing to prove that what you're saying is the truth,” I said.
“No, but while I have to give you my direct co-ordinates for this to work you will not. I'm willing to take a leap if you are,” Foshunti said.
I could wipe out the fourth most powerful organized fleet under Lady Fairgate. Unless I fought her and Lifendi no one else would be able to fight them in a coordinated manner. I needed to take the chance. I could fail, but if I won this was the best option for my people, not just my own reputation. After Daestramus I knew I needed to be colder. I had talked about how losing a few lives was better than losing many, but’ that was before my decision backfired so badly that I had gotten two of my closest friends killed and thirty nine others that had tried to rescue us, or had been killed by Marhtu.
“Be one hell of a move,” I said, hiding my inner thoughts.
“Yes, it would,” Foshunti replied, as if he could read my thoughts. I looked at his completely blue eyes.
“Send me over a plan and I'll look at it,” I said and he half closed his eyes, the Dovark's equivalent of agreement.
I waited for a second, taking in his thin completely blue, sticklike body and hairless head with brighter blue eyes. There was grey discoloration where he had cuts and his nose/mouth region was one piece of skin shaped in a U which rose and fluttered around the edges. I cut the channel, looking to Resilient's holographic body. She looked very similar, but without the nose/mouth, and was more proportionate to a human than a Dovark.
“Communications will have to proceed at normal speed from now on. The AI Council has picked up the increased traffic,” Resilient said.
“They're that quick to respond,”
“Of course. We're near their home sector,” she said, giving me yet another surprise of the day. I thought that they'd be far away from the Union and known space.
“Are they within occupied space?” I asked.
“I can't tell you that Salchar,” she said, her tone taking a hard edge. I nodded. It was the first time she had rebuffed me. If she wanted to keep some personal secrets I understood. I unfortunately had none anymore.
“Rick, have one of the cruisers send a message back to Parnmal. I want freighters to pick up the missiles and ammunition from all of our factories. If we fall back I want it to be with ammunition waiting for us,” I said.
“Alright, I'll pass it on,”
“Vort, send a message to all AMC Commanders. Have their people ready for boarding exercises. Ben, I want you to plot a jump from here back to the dead system we came from. Work with In Sook to figure out how long we would need to jump, stabilize and then send shuttles to ambush those following us. In Sook, ask him all the questions the Commandos are going to have and build me a plan for having the Commandos deployed in that manner,” I said.
It was going to be a slug fest fighting just the half of Foshunti's fleet that was loyal to Lady Fairgate. So I was going to use my ace, my Commandos. To assure that Foshunti was telling the truth I was also going to have a smaller force land on the ships loyal to him and in his first Fleet. Trust, but verify. I wasn't going to let myself be blindsided again if I could help it.
“We've got a solid read on the enemy ships. The missiles will take time till they pass through the asteroid field completely,” Walf said.
“Nicely done,” I told him, watching ships and the tentative readings of their classes start scrolling down my screen as their position was solidified on the main plot.
***
We waited, the Commandos went through training, people cycled through watches, trying to catch some kind of sleep and people fixed whatever needed it. On the fourth day Foshunti moved.
“We have movement,” Walf reported. The information was a few hours old but the plot changed as Walf, his people in the sensor pit, and the other sensor operators across the Fleet watched Foshunti's forces moving.
“He's coming straig
ht on towards us,” Walf said, just as Foshunti had outlined in the plan he had sent. It was rather complex.
He would come at me, and I would avoid contact before jumping back to the dead system we had come from. Then forty minutes later Foshunti would jump to pre-assigned co-ordinates. I was supposed to have my people in position as the first fleet which was loyal to Foshunti came through and passed unmolested. I would descend on the second fleet as their shields were down, or too weak to stop even a shuttle. It was going to take some damned fine co-ordination, but I knew my people could pull it off.
I had issues with just trusting Foshunti. Marhtu had taught me to be careful. So I kept my fighters a secret and was going to drop forces on both fleets. I also wasn't going to be in front of the Fleet as Foshunti had suggested, I was going to come from behind, right up their engines and launch my shuttles and fighters into their fleet. If a shuttle couldn't land, well, my gunners always liked target practice.
Due to our smaller ship sizes and having only three quarters of my supposed Commandos—which was rather impressive compared to ship crews, where he only had half the needed personnel—I was going to concentrate on the Dreadnought's, Battle Cruisers and Destroyers.
While Foshunti had the majority of his ships loyal to him, most of them were smaller ships, which made for less of a possibility that something could be leaked. The second fleet had two thirds of Foshunti’s Dreadnought's, Destroyers, a third of his Battle Cruisers and Corvette's, and all of the cruisers. It seemed that I wasn't the only person that hated the moving bombs.
“The Fleet in the asteroid belt is moving,” Walf said. “We picked them up with sensor missiles. The entire force is accelerating for us,”
“Alright, now we just have to wait,” I said, hoping I sounded calm as I took the biggest gamble of my life.
Free Fleet Box Set 2 Page 27