The Memnon Incident: Part 4 of 4 (A Serial Novel)

by Marc DeSantis

  Triumph would anchor the battleline of the Engagement Force if it encountered hostile vessels. This formation need not literally be a line, though on occasion it had been found that a line of ships was very much tactically useful in some situations. The relative positions of friendly ships tended to matter little in space combat. With engagement distances extending over hundreds of thousands of kilometers, a ship's place among its peers had little bearing on whether its weapons could reach the enemy. However, a capital ship such as Triumph, with its vast suite of antifighter weaponry, could provide short-range protection against enemy machines for lesser ships that stayed within the protective volume covered by those guns.

  A wise commander had also to guard against the excessive defensiveness that having the Triumph might encourage. Battles were rarely won by sitting wholly on the defense, waiting for the enemy to smash itself on one's weapons. More often, a skillful commander, such as a Halifaxian, would stand off at long range initially and swamp an immobile enemy with missiles. Once an opposing fleet's defenses had been degraded past a certain point, he would then close in for the kill. If, on the other hand, the battleship and its group were deemed too formidable, he would likely avoid an engagement.

  A battleship, Donner had learned, both at the Academy and through his own reading, was best used in conjunction with other battleships, so that it and its brethren could form an irresistible concentration of force to be directed at targets that had to be defended by the enemy. Battleships were big, durable, and extremely potent, but also on the slow side, and so were of little use in the high-speed running battles that fleets most often fought. Because of the premium put on speed in modern naval warfare, the humble destroyer had become the workhorse of most fleets. Cruisers, light and heavy, had their places, usually as the flagships of squadrons of lighter ships, as did carriers, which contributed all-important fighter protection to a roving fleet as well as the ability to conduct attacks over extremely long distances. Yet it was the destroyer that had become most common warship and thus the basis of fleet tactics. A navy that could field destroyers in reasonable numbers was considered to be a major player, not to be trifled with, while those that did not field more than a few were dismissed as mere system defense forces. The Royal Memnonian Navy, for instance, had gone to great lengths to deploy a fleet consisting mainly of destroyers, and so had improved its standing among the powers of the Great Sphere. The Engagement Force's expedition to Memnon would be emerging in that system only at its extreme edge, and Donner hoped that they would not encounter any of the Memnonians' numerous destroyers and have to answer any uncomfortable questions as to why they were poking around inside their space.

  Donner next came to Splendid and Invincible, both heavy cruisers. The Splendid was of more recent vintage, the second ship in the Superb class. Splendid was a fine ship, carrying excellent firepower and powered by large maneuver drives. Had Triumph not been made part of the Engagement Force, Splendid would surely have been the command ship. Donner had a soft spot for heavy cruisers. Though not nearly as tough as a battleship, they were more flexible and could perform well on independent missions just as well as they functioned as part of a squadron or battlegroup. A popular vid series from his childhood, entitled ATS Magnificent, had followed a heavy cruiser of the Armada as it roamed the stars hunting pirates and setting matters aright on lawless border planets.

  The Invincible was an older heavy cruiser, but not elderly. A member of the Intrepid class, she was still a stout warship. New builds of her class were currently being offered for sale to the navies of smaller systems, though most had balked, put off by the expense of crewing and operating a such a large ship when a more modest destroyer could be had for half the price.

  The Noble Heart was a light carrier, the third ship in the Courageous class. Full-sized fleet carriers had been declining in popularity among Great Sphere navies for some time, and their places had been taken by smaller carriers embarking just two or three squadrons of fighters. Donner believed that this had more to do with the relative absence of large-scale battles in recent decades and not proof of any diminution in the value of a fleet carrier. The Ajax War had shown that fighters were desirable in large numbers and that carriers were often the prime objects of enemy attention in combat. The Armada had been forced to collect all of its light carriers together during that conflict so as to concentrate as many fighters as it could where needed. A single fleet carrier could have delivered as many fighters as four light carriers at the cost of fewer crewmen and experienced captains, neither of which were easily found. The fleet carrier was also better protected, and so the tragic losses of the Cameron, Gato, and Hayabusa in the Eleven Minutes Battle with Ajax might well have been avoided.

  Donner also understood that navies were not, and could not be, organized only to fight major fleet engagements. They were more often used in ensuring system security against a wide array of threats, many of which, such as pirates or the fleets of system warlords - Donner often had trouble seeing any distinction between them - consisted of fast raiding ships rarely larger than corvettes or sloops. The Armada needed to be able to catch them, and also had to be in the right places to do so. This meant that four light carriers had, at least in peacetime, more utility than one giant fleet carrier. These four ships could conduct patrols in several places at the same time, and do a better job of protecting intrasystem trade than could just one ship, no matter how much bigger it was or how many more fighters it carried. The need to have fighters on the spot had also been behind the inclusion of extensive launch and recovery facilities in newer battleships. Triumph, for example, could embark three complete squadrons totaling thirty-six fighters. While that detracted from her gun and missile power, it also granted her greater flexibility and did away with the necessity of having a light carrier accompany her wherever she went to provide her with fighter cover.

  The Amity was a destroyer of the Concord class, and only now entering obsolescence. 'Obsolescence' was a relative term in the Great Sphere. Though not up to the standards of more recent classes, the Concord destroyers would serve, with periodic refits, for centuries to come. Older warships were rarely scrapped, as naval technology, though it did progress, did so only incrementally, and previous ships were not rendered useless. If not sold off to a friendly foreign navy, there was always a second-line squadron patrolling the darkness between the stars that could use such a reliable vessel. Pirates scarcely operated anything beefier than a corvette, and their ships tended to be patchworks of parts torn from a dozen different spacecraft. The Amity had been built to hunt such raiders and had done a fine job of it when new. She would do a fine job of it for many years more. As a part of the Engagement Force, she would serve as the eyes and ears of the squadron, racing ahead to intercept potential threats before they could close with Triumph or Noble Heart.

  Endurance was the newest ship in the Engagement Force, and possibly the newest in the entire fleet. She was the lead ship of the Endurance class of destroyers - a class of ships always took its name from the first of its kind - and possessed the full range of advanced Tartarean weapons and sensor technologies. She was untried in battle, but tests of the ship had indicated that she was a winner, and could hold her own with the best of the Republic of Halifax Navy, the standard-setter in the region for millennia.

  The last ships in the fleet came almost as an afterthought to Donner. The Hasty and the Gazelle. These were run-of-the-mill Greyhound class couriers, as had been the Black Moon. Ships of this type routinely accompanied fleets, ready to run the most important messages back home or between fleets separated by many light years. Fleet commanders were given wide latitude to make life-or-death decisions on behalf of their governments. Sometimes, however, it was absolutely critical that direct communication be established, and the courier was on hand to carry out that task.

  Hasty was the older of the two couriers. Donner knew nothing of the Gazelle or its captain. He swiped his compad, and then did the same to the holographic ima
gery that emerged before him. No information. It was odd that the name of its captain should be left out of the data concerning the ships of the Engagement Force. Likely an oversight that had not been corrected in the rush to get the flotilla on its way to Memnon. He would rectify the omission once they had dropped from hyperspace and he could get an answer.

  His thoughts turned once more to the disaster that befallen his nation. Someone, somewhere, with a huge amount of pull, had laid his hands on a million nukes, two Armada ships, and some of the most valuable antiquakraft ever found. All of these had been used, somehow, to ignite a war that would not be to the benefit of Tartarus. Donner promised himself that he would get to the bottom of what had happened in the Memnon system, and make those responsible pay the heaviest of prices for their treachery.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Aboard Morrigan

  Morrigan remained uncommunicative for a long time after she had disclosed that they were in orbit above Tiryns. The capital city of Havelock lay directly below, with the ancient ship maintaining position over it via a geosynchronous orbit. The world was in a panic, as Morrigan had broadcast several demands for surrender to the terrified populace on all available channels. Tiryns was nearly defenseless, as almost the whole of her fleet, but for a handful of corvettes and sloops, had been dispatched to the outer system to confront the Halifaxian interlopers. Urgent pleas for help had been broadcast to all corners, but at light speed, it would be about a year before they reached the fringe of the system where the RMN fleet was supposed to be. Two courier ships and a courier capsule had tried to displace, but each had made the fatal mistake of doing so within sensor range of Morrigan. All three had been atomized by her guns. Several merchantmen also fled from the besieged planet, but had the sense to run at high sublight speed far from Tiryns before they tried to displace. Morrigan spared these ships.

  "Morrigan's threatening to use antimatter weapons against Tiryns if King Maurice does not surrender unconditionally," Lieutenant Jenkins said. "Maurice's government is asking her what caused her to come to their world. She's not answering except by repeating her demand."

  "She isn't giving them much room in which to negotiate," Howell said.

  "She's overreacted to the missiles that struck her shields during the encounter," Chandler said. "She is assessing the RMN, and thus Memnon itself, to be an enemy."

  "And she is moving to eliminate that enemy, just as she would have done back when she was a Rigelian Empire ship."

  "This is a calamity," Venn complained. "She does not know what she is doing. She is wounded, and doesn't realize that no one here is her foe."

  "That's true," Chandler agreed, "but only up to a point. She has experienced the Tartareans, she's had us poking around her for weeks, she's seen off boarding parties from the RMN, and has just been hit by their nuclear missiles. From her perspective, she has been under attack for months."

  "We weren't trying to harm her," Howell protested. "We were extremely careful with her systems."

  Chandler nodded. "I concur. She seems to have removed us from the category of things in need of immediate extermination. That is good for us. Had she judged us as harshly as she has Memnon, she would probably have vented the atmosphere already, or cut off life support. Haven't you noticed that it's been hours and we're not dead? Nonetheless, from the perspective of an entity that has existed for fifty millennia, it is more likely than not that she sees all of our activities as extremely unwelcome and invasive."

  "We have to help her," Venn insisted. "She is hurt but not so far gone. When she talks to us she can reason. She's still around, and some part of her is whole. We can persuade her to stop this."

  "I hope that's possible," Jenkins said. "Tiryns is erupting as Morrigan's demand is being bounced all around the planet. They don't know what to do, and Morrigan isn't doing anything more than call for their surrender."

  "What if we talked to them?" Venn asked. "Morrigan has stopped jamming our comms, right?"

  "We don't dare," Jenkins replied, pointing to the insignia on his power armor. "What do you think would be the reaction of Memnon when they learned that there were dozens of Halifaxian personnel aboard this ship? They would think that Halifax launched a surprise attack on it. Next, word will eventually arrive here about what took place around the Oort Cloud. I doubt very much that many RMN ships made it out of there safely, but those that did are all going to be bearing the same message."

  "That we killed them, unprovoked," Howell breathed.

  "You can count on that," Jenkins said. "If we let them know of our presence, it will be taken as additional proof of our intent to carry out a war of aggression against this system."

  Chandler cocked his head to the side, an expression of intense concentration on his face. "That is a remarkably astute political analysis for a marine."

  Venn rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him, lieutenant. He is good at tech and not much else."

  Jenkins grinned. "I'll ignore that last remark then." He glanced at his wristcomp. "We're being hailed again. They really are frightened. But they're not running away." The marine lieutenant pointed out the blastglass windows on the bridge. "See there? They have sent up a couple of revenue cutters to get in the way of Morrigan."

  "Will that stop her?" Venn asked. "They look so small."

  Jenkins laughed heartily. "Oh, of course not, Doc. Morrigan could probably swat them with just one of her antifighter guns. Maybe even magnesand if she carries something like it. Cutters are used only to board inbound freighters to make sure they pay their docking fees and to prevent smuggling. They barely rate as ships in our fleet."

  "They're brave then," Venn said.

  Chandler crossed his arms. "And very silly. They won't accomplish anything."

  "Except go down fighting," Jenkins observed. "It's their homeworld. They'll fight for it."

  Over the next hour, the little revenue cutters were joined by dozens of other little ships and boats ranging from one antique corvette to pleasure yachts and tugs. This motley flotilla took up position in orbit around five kilometers from Morrigan, stationing themselves in between the ancient battleship and Tiryns.

  "They have guts." Sergeant Cone was standing close to the bridge windows, peering down at the other ships. "They've probably figured out that Morrigan is unlike anything else they've ever seen."

  "They must also know what happened to their fleet near the Oort Cloud by now," Jenkins added. "The Memnonians had to have dispatched a courier capsule bearing word of what was going on out there. Maybe a surviving ship has jumped back home to. They know that their fleet has been annihilated. They're likely soiling their pants. But they are not offering to surrender."

  "Would you surrender to this one ship?" Howell asked. "She's not answering any inquiries, just making a demand. Maybe they want to negotiate a surrender with conditions."

  Venn gave him a quizzical look. "Like what?"

  "They know what Morrigan is, at least in broad outline. She's older and more advanced than anything else they have ever seen. Maybe they think, or at least thought, that she was under Halifaxian control, but now they may be unsure. If we had control of her, we would be talking to them. Morrigan is not responding, so they are not certain of what they are dealing with."

  Chandler looked to Jenkins. "We can't let this continue. We have to open up communications with the Memnonians to let them know what is going on."

  The marine glowered. "I will lay you out cold if you try anything like that."

  "Okay, nevermind."

  Venn chuckled. "You put up a real fight there, Chandler."

  "He's bigger than me."

  "I am beginning to worry that the Memnonians may try something stupid the longer this goes on, Howell said.

  Jenkins was adamant. "As soon as we talk, they will know we are Halifaxians. They know our accents, just like we know theirs. Can you do a convincing Tartarean or Sellasian accent to confuse them? I didn't think so. Once they identify us, we are at war. I am a lieutena
nt, and starting a war is far above my pay grade." The marine looked away, his voice gloomy. "We may be already, depending on what the RMN fleet communicated to them in its final moments."

  There was a slight dimming of the lighting on the bridge. The blastglass windows suddenly darkened, blocking the view of surrounding space.

  "I want you to see something," Morrigan said.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  It had been a hard burn back to site of the shootout with the RMN. The destruction had been much worse than More had feared. Debris had been scattered across a huge volume of space, with chunks of yellow and gold Memnonian ships tumbling end over end through the void. Of Morrigan there was no sign. The most reasonable supposition was that she had displaced clear from the area. She might also have moved away at sublight. Scans had not shown any indication of her. Though it might be that she was now outside the lightspeed time-range of Steadfast's sensors, with returns not having yet had the time to reach a fleeing Morrigan and bounce back, More doubted that she had done anything but displace. Where had she gone? There were fifty-one Halifaxian personnel still aboard her. He wanted them back.