'Commodore Strausser, this is Group Commander Tichtickree,' said Balroot.
Straus nodded and said, 'Group Commander, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for coming along when you did.'
After a moment Tichtickree received the translation. His head nodded and his mouth parts started moving. After a moment the translation came through. His voice was an octave higher than Straus expected and his diction had an obvious staccato rhythm.
'Sorry if our delay caused problems. It was... difficult to convince the council to become involved. Once it was pointed out we have already lost too many allies, they agreed we should do what we can to foster new ones.'
'Well that sounds like good news for us. I'm just a military man, but perhaps we can get our diplomats together to come to some sort of an arrangement.'
'The Group Commander and I have been discussing that. We have both been empowered to speak for our people,' said the admiral.
'Very good. Then perhaps you could accompany us back to our home planet, Earth, and we can put a meeting together.'
'That is acceptable,' said Tichtickree.
'Before we get to that however, we do have some unfinished business with the Drones. There are still five Drone capital ships with a compliment of a hundred fighters. We had lured them away from the planet to improve our odds. Now, however, they're heading back and will be here soon.'
'They will be destroyed,' said the Orion.
'Of course. We're sending our damaged carrier and the transports back before they get here. I suggest we stand by until they arrive,' said Straus.
'Very well,' said the Group Commander as he cut his connection.
'You will have to excuse Tichtickree. His race is cold-blooded and they just don't quite think the way warm blooded races do. He's a bit more... abrupt than normal because he's nervous around new people. Once he warms up to you, you'll see that he's friendly and even has a rather odd sense of humor.'
'It helps to have a sense of humor in our business.'
'Indeed. The shields on our cruiser were destroyed. We'd like to send it back with your ships.'
'Of course.'
'We'll be standing by,' said the admiral as he cut the connection.
'Ray, get me Flight Ops.'
'Kitteridge here.'
'Lieutenant, redeploy the fighters. I'd like the Dragons and Black Hats aboard the Suzaku and fill out the ranks with Phoenix. Put everyone else on the Adamant.'
'Will do, Sir.'
'Ray, connect me with Burke.'
'Burke, here.'
'Captain, as soon as the fighters are shuffled and back onboard, I want you and the transports to head back to Corvus. We have a little mopping up to do, then we'll be along as well. The Corvan cruiser will go back with you. It lost it's shields.'
'Roger that. We've effected some temporary repairs on the drives and should be able to make full speed.'
'Very good. See you back at the barn. Ray, connect me with Bernal back at Corvus.'
Ray went to work on the quantum transceiver panel and Bernal's face popped up on the comm screen.
'So how's it going out there?' he asked.
'It took a little doing, but we got through the worst of it. Still have a little mopping up to do. If it wasn't for the Corvans and Orions showing up, we wouldn't have stood a chance.'
'Orions, huh? Sounds like I'll be enjoying your report.'
'And the next Nat Geo special.'
'Ha ha ha. Yeah, that too.'
'Listen I'm sending the Adamant back. She's pretty beat up so put her into spacedock for repairs. A damaged Corvan cruiser is going back as well. See if there's anything you can do for it.'
'Roger that.'
'We'll also be bringing our new friends along. Let the Ambassador know that we'll need whatever key people are necessary in order to make some sort of treaty or alliance with these other races.'
'Very well. Are there any special environmental conditions that we need to set up?'
'Uh... I don't think so, but I'll double check and get back to you,' said Straus as he cut the connection.
Darla spoke up from the comm screen and said, 'Its probably safer not to meet in person anyway because of quarantine issues. The conference room is set up for holographic video conferencing.'
'That will be good for down the line, but I think it's important to meet face-to-face at least the first time. Besides, the decontamination field was effective for protecting us from any Corvan bugs. I'm guessing it will suffice this time.'
'It should. I'll check with the Corvans to see if it's effective with the Orions, and get back to you about environmental factors.'
'Please do.'
'Sir. Our ghost fleet is about five minutes out,' said Jenkins.
'Scramble the fighters. Have the Adamant and the transports move out now. Ray, get me the admiral and group commander on split screen.'
Lt. Ray went to work on the console and the image of the two aliens appeared on the comm screen.
'Our decoys are leading the drones straight for us. They'll be here in less than five minutes. We're preparing for the attack.'
'We'll be ready,' said the admiral.
Straus watched as the Black Hat and Dragon squadrons launched and gathered into their squadron formations. The Adamant, transports, and Corvan cruiser pivoted and warped out of sight. Then he noticed that the Orions had launched fifty of their own fighter-sized ships.
'Jenkins, give me a close scan of one of those Orion fighters.'
Jenkins zoomed in and the screen showed a ship that looked like a spearhead with two smaller spearhead shaped projections on the sides.
'Hmmm. Kinda looks like a trident,' said Straus.
'Seems to be the same hull material as the larger ships. No shields. Those projections seem to be both engines and weapons. Those decorative patterns seem to separate their squadrons.'
The three decoy transports warped into the area. Straus had them disengage their projections, and return to Corvus. They pivoted and streaked away.
'Full power to shields and weapons. Mr. Jenkins, target the railgun on the first Death Blossom, but don't fire until I give the word.'
'Aye Sir. Picking up energy fluctuations on the long range scanners. Here they come.'
'All squadrons break into your attack groups, and be sure not to accidentally target the Orion fighters.'
Five Death Blossom warped into the area, three in front of them and two behind. Immediately super-drones and drones detached from hulls of the capital ships where they are ferried over long distances. In all there were ten super-drones and ninety regular drones. There was the standard assortment, including Beetles, but luckily no Starfish. The drones pulled ahead, and the Death Blossoms began to deploy their petals.
'All ships hold your position and put all power to your forward shields. As soon as their ships are in range open fire,' ordered Straus.
'But we are ready to destroy them now,' said the Orion.
'What's your thinking?' asked the Admiral.
'Standby. Just a few more seconds.... Now Jenkins, fire!'
Straus felt the recoil as the projectile was fired and turned to the comm screen and said, 'If I got the timing right, in about 45 seconds we'll have eliminated over half of them.'
The enemy fighters were rushing forward from both the front and the rear while the capital ships maintained their course toward their position. The lead Death Blossom's emitter started to sparkle, and at that moment the projectile hit, setting off another giant energy wave. The three capital ships disappeared first, and it only took a few seconds for the wave to overtake and vaporize the fifty-odd drones approaching from the front.
Several seconds later the blast wave hit the fleet, but at 1250 miles, they were far enough away that their shields were able to protect them. The ships were buffeted without damage.
'All fighters engage the drones approaching from the rear.'
The fighters moved out, and the Suzaku's squadrons concentrated on the six
Beetles, while the Orion fighters went after the more powerful super-drones. Straus was amazed at how quick and agile the Orion trident fighters were.
'Wow. I'm going to have to get me one of those,' he said under his breath.
He then caught sight of the last two Death Blossoms. They were on the other side of the area where the fighters were engaged.
'Mr. Keitel, maneuver us in position where we can fire on those Death Blossoms.'
The Suzaku and the Corvan battleship moved to a higher orbit where they could get a clear shot. The Orions pivoted and warped in behind the Death Blossoms and opened fire with their power beams.
'Mr. Jenkins, lock on with starboard batteries and open fire.'
The Suzaku and the Corvan battleship both opened fire. Once the Death Blossom shields collapsed it wasn't long before they were reduced to smoldering debris.
Straus turned his attention back to the fighters and watched as the last dozen drones were destroyed by both groups. He looked over Jenkin's shoulder and confirmed that all drone energy signatures had been eliminated.
'Signal alert status yellow. Recall the fighters,' said Straus.
'The admiral is contacting us,' said Ray.
'Put it on the main screen,' said Straus.
Ray established the connection and both the admiral and the group commander's images replaced the external view.
'That seems to be the last of them Strausser. We're not picking up anything in the quadrant,' said the admiral.
'That weapon. We must have it,' said Tichtickree.
Straus smiled and said, 'Low tech still has it's uses. I'm sure we can work something out, Group Commander. For instance, we were very impressed with your fighters. Why don't we proceed back to Corvus Prime and... negotiate.'
'Yes,' said the Orion.
'Once our squadrons are all onboard we can proceed. It will take us about thirty hours to get back.'
'About that,' started the admiral. 'As you may have guessed, your ship is capable of more... much more. We felt that it was in everyone's best interest to give you time to adjust... a sort of training period, to get accustom to our technology.'
Straus tried to hide his disdain, and said, 'I see.'
'Do not be upset with us, Commodore. It was a desperate situation. We do not normally make contact with such a young race. Until we came along your greatest space achievement was reaching your own moon. You had no colonies, no interplanetary travel. You were just taking your first few baby steps.'
'That is true. We are babies when it comes to space technology. Then you dropped off some advanced technology and left. We nearly destroyed ourselves a couple of times trying to figure out how it works. Then when the drones attacked our world we lost fifty million people.'
'Tragic to be sure, however you speak of losing millions. We lost over ten billion and our home world. Our entire race was down to the last few hundred thousand and we were on the run. We had no right to give that technology to such a young race, but we were desperate. We knew the drones would be drawn by the power signature of our technology.'
'You set us up?'
'Those making the decisions thought that in the worst case, the drones would defeat you. They would then mine your system for resources. It would take them decades, and in that time we hoped to establish a new home world and re-establish our fighting forces. Others, including myself, thought that maybe, just maybe you would take our technology and triumph over the drones. I am glad to see that I was right. Now that you have proven yourselves to be responsible... and ingenious, we are prepared to unlock all of our secrets. Starting with the interstellar drive.'
'Well, what's done is done. The important thing is that you and the Orions came when we called for help. We're very grateful.'
'That's what allies do.'
'Yes,' added Tichtickree.
'And now the baby makes three. We'll have to think up a good name for our new alliance, but we can talk about that when we get back. So, how do we access these hidden capabilities?'
'We've already unlocked them. You should notice the change on your navigation console.'
Straus looked to Keitel who was looking over the reprogrammed flight panel. He looked back to Straus and nodded.
'Set course for your station and select maximum velocity. It takes a while to accelerate. From here you'll reach less than half of maximum before the computer begins deceleration. We'll follow behind,' said the admiral as he cut the connection.
'Mr. Keitel, you heard the man. Set course for home and punch it.'
The ship pivoted onto a heading for earth and accelerated away. The view out the front began to narrow, and as they accelerated it looked as if they were entering a huge tunnel with all of the stars concentrated in the tunnel opening ahead. As they continued to accelerate the tunnel continued to narrow and the stars ahead concentrated down to a smaller spot that seemed farther away. The overall effect was like jumping into a bottomless pit and watching the surface opening recede into the distance.
Darla spoke up on the comm screen and jarred Straus back into the moment.
'I checked with the Corvans. The decontamination field that we have in place should protect everyone, and no special environment is needed. I took the liberty of informing Colonel Bernal. He wanted me to tell you that Ambassador McKay and a delegation will arrive in about two hours.'
'Very good. Thank you.'
Five minutes had elapsed and they began decelerating and the tunnel view began to open up. They decelerated into the outer perimeter of the station and came to a stop.
'Unbelievable,' said Straus.
Moments later the Corvan battleship and the Orion fleet warped into view a few thousand meters away. The rest of their ships were still over a day away plugging along at light speed.
'Ray give me the admiral. Captain Keitel get us docked.'
After a moment the admiral was on the comm screen and Straus said, 'That was amazing.'
'We trust that you will use it wisely. I'd suggest that you begin by exploring your neighboring systems. Your closest neighbor with any sort of intelligent life are the Orions at 92 light years.'
'Thank you, Admiral. We've learned to be careful. If you'd like to proceed to spacedock, we're prepared to help your people effect repairs to your ship... and the cruiser when they get here.'
'Thank you Commodore. Aside from two destroyers guarding the home front, this represents the last of our battle-ready fleet. It will dissuade those that thought it... ill-advised to send our last ships, to have most of them return.'
'Once we're through with them, they'll be better than new with upgraded shield and weapons emitters. Perhaps that will show the naysayers that putting your trust in us was the right move.'
'Indeed. Thank you, Commodore.'
'Our delegation is being assembled and will be coming up from the surface in a few hours. Do you know how many will be in your, and the Orions' parties, so we can prepare for your arrival?'
'We'll have four in our party, and the Orions usually have three or four in theirs.'
'Very good. We'll send a transport over to pick up your people when we're ready.'
'I'm looking forward to it.'
Once the ship was docked the pilots and crew disembarked and Straus bumped into Tómas and explained the situation.
'Alright, lets pull out all the stops. Dress uniforms, red carpet, the works. Have all available pilots formed into ranks. Who is McKay bringing up?'
'Three members of the U.N. Security council.'
'Good that's four. Then it should be you, me, Darla and Bernie representing us.'
'Ok. I'll let them know.'
Chapter 16
ONLY THE BEGINNING
Two hours later, Straus was in his dress uniform, standing between Tómas and Darla in the transport bay. Behind them were four full squadrons of pilots in their dress uniforms standing in ranks. Ambassador McKay and the members of the Security Council were off in front of them next to the end of the red carpet.
They watched as the transport Thames eased through the shield barrier and came to rest on the deck plating. The rear loading ramp lowered onto the far end of the red carpet.
'Atten – shun,' said Chief Wilson.
Everyone came to attention as the Corvans walked down the ramp. Straus recognized Admiral Barloot walking in front, with two other Corvans walking slightly behind him on both sides and one trailing behind. They were all slight built and the admiral was the tallest at about five and a half feet.
Corvus Prime: Escalation Page 21