Wolves at the Gate

by Shane Van Aulen

  “What about power from their engines?”

  “I’m not seeing any buildups in their fusion cores. I’d say that they are all running on batteries for their life support systems,” he answered still looking down at his scope.

  “What about Specialist Thach?” Mike inquired wondering if his escape pod was still out there.

  “No sir, I’m not reading his life pod or any Karduan ones either,” the maser operator replied.

  “He could have been picked up by the convoy before they escaped. It was along their route to the gravity well,” Pitt speculated.

  “Or maybe he is hiding in the head?” Curtis suggested as several of the bridge crew chuckled in response.

  Mike didn’t laugh and sat quietly for several minutes looking from the holo-map to the main viewer and then back to his chair’s readouts.

  “Try hailing the Karduan ships,” he suggested.

  “Aye sir,” Specialist Ryan replied as he started the computers’ translation program and hailed the damaged enemy ships.

  “Captain, the tumbling destroyer is on course to hit that dwarf planet that’s made up of metallic dust,” Ensign Pitt reported tracking the crippled destroyer’s path.

  “Confirmed,” PO2 Curtis said from his station.

  “No answer to our hails, sir,” Ryan said shaking his head as he spoke.

  “Patch me in and turn off the translator,” Mike ordered.

  “Aye sir, you are linked in and the translator is off,” he replied.

  Mike nodded and started speaking in Karduan.

  “This is Lieutenant Michael Collins, Captain of the Confederation starship, ISS Goliad. I am at this time demanding that all Karduan ships signal their surrender. Failure to do so will result in my ship firing on yours and destroying your fusion drives leaving you helpless. You have fought an honorable fight and I do not want to destroy you but I will not allow you the means to escape and rejoin your forces to continue your war efforts. Any ship that fires on us will be destroyed. Any ship that surrenders will be spared,” he informed and then cut off the link’s signal from his chair’s controls.

  “Sir, you speak Karduan!” Pitt exclaimed as all of his bridge crew had turned in their seat to stare at their young captain in surprise.

  “Of course,” he said casually touching his Werewolf commando badge.

  “No response yet, sir,” Ryan informed.

  “Re-broadcast that every five minutes,” he ordered.

  “Aye sir,” the specialist replied.

  Mike looked up at the screen and back to the floating holo-map.

  “Computer, show times to targets,” he said as the holo-map adjusted and now displayed the time from their current position to the enemy vessels. “Add phase lines for weapons engagement.” Again, the ship’s computer adjusted the holo-map putting blue, green and red phase lines to the nearest target.

  “Sir, the three damaged ships from the battle are all still moving from their initial inertia. Unless they fire braking thrusters or get their fusion drives back online they will eventually enter the nebula,” Curtis said looking up from his monitor.

  “Specialist Ryan, signal the tumbling destroyer and tell them they have four hours before they enter the gravity field of that dust world and are pull down to the planet’s surface,” Collins ordered.

  “Aye sir,” Ryan said relaying the message.

  When he was done his captain had another message for him.

  “Signal the three ships damaged from the battle and tell them that they are all heading for the highly radioactive nebula. Petty Officer Curtis, give Ryan the times and distance for each ship for him to relay to them.”

  Ensign Pitt turned from his station and looked back at Collins.

  “Sir, may ask what the plan is?” he inquired.

  Mike looked at him for a moment thinking that his XO was getting comfortable enough with him to ask such a question. Instead of answering he did what Captain Hope would have done.

  “What do you think I’m doing by letting our crippled enemy know where they are all heading?”

  Jeremy Pitt look confused for a moment but then nodded as he came up with a viable answer.

  “You are letting them know of their impending doom and of our willingness to help,” he said with a slight grin of having figured it out.

  “That’s right, and now you are thinking like a tactical officer,” Mike remarked.

  Pitt nodded in satisfaction and turned back to his controls.

  “Sir, we are receiving a message from the destroyer that is out of control and heading to the dust world, audio only,” the comm. station reported.

  “On speaker,” Mike said.

  “Confederation ship, do you read me?” Came the voice of a female Karduan.

  “This is Lt. Collins,” he said, “What can we do for you?”

  “This is the KD102, our Ship Mistress and command staff are all dead. I’m an engineering controller and I think the most senior mistress that is still alive,” she informed sounding uncertain.

  “Are you surrendering?” he prompted.

  “Yes … but we can’t regain control of our ship,” she said.

  “I suggest you use your escape pods and jettison as soon as you can,” Mike advised.

  “What will happen to us after we eject?” the controller asked.

  “I’ll take my ship into a pursuit course and we will pick up you and your people,” he said and added, “Make sure they are unarmed and don’t give us any problems as we won’t have a lot of time to waste.”

  “Yes, I will and we are grateful,” she said and ended her transmission.

  “Sir, what are we going to do with all of those prisoners?” Curtis asked.

  Mike looked to PO2 Baker, “Missile storage bay one is empty, correct?

  “Aye sir,” she answered with a nod.

  “We’ll put them in there for the time being,” he said thinking that it might be crowded as a destroyer had well over a hundred crew members.

  “It’s going to get messy in there,” Curtis, who was ever the optimist said with a cringe.

  “Helm, set pursuit course, full impulse,” he ordered.

  “Yes sir, full impulse speed,” Pitt called back.

  The Goliad was an old girl but with her refit came those fast fusion drives, the same engines that allowed Mike to out run and out range his enemies. Thank God, he had so many good teachers as well as the experience to make use of it all he thought as they closed on the badly damaged destroyer that they had first fought.

  Coming up on the damaged destroyer KD54, they still hadn’t received a surrender from any of the three ships that were heading for the nebula.

  “Specialist Ryan, give that destroyer one more warning,” Mike ordered and looked to PO2 Baker, “Prepare fusion cannons, active lock.”

  “Fusion cannons, aye,” she said.

  “Sir, still no response from the destroyer,” Ryan reported.

  “Ok, light them up and take out their maneuver drives,” Mike ordered needing to make an example of any ship that doesn’t immediately surrenders.

  The Battle Class frigate opened fire with her heavier hitting corvette-sized fusion turrets and pounded the crippled destroyer as they passed.

  “Reading massive damage to their fusion drives,” PO2 Curtis said with a hard grin from the sensors station.

  “Repeat our request for them to surrender,” Collins instructed.

  “Sir, they have surrendered,” Ryan reported.

  “Cease fire,” Mike said looking up at his floating holo-map. The destroyer escort was coming up next as they chased after the tumbling KD102. It already had severe damage to its engines from the previous battle and any more damage would leave the destroyer escort completely crippled or worse.

  “I have a positive weapons lock on the DE,” PO2 Baker said.

  “Ryan, send them our request again,” he said wishing that Karduan ship mistresses weren’t so stubborn.

  “Aye sir,” he re
plied as he worked his console.

  A moment later the comm. specialist reported back, “Sir, they have surrendered.”

  “Only the Vanguard is left,” Curtis said as they closed on the next ship.

  “Weapons lock and hail them,” their captain directed once more.

  “Sir, the Vanguard is moving,” the maser station operator called out.

  “Damn! I thought they were playing possum earlier but we had our hands full at the time,” Mike said his face looking like he had tasted something sour.

  “Orders?” Ensign Pitt asked.

  “Set pursuit course, full impulse,” he ordered.

  “Yes sir,” Jeremy replied having already set the course.

  “Lock fusion turrets on their maneuver drives and fire,” Mike said glancing at the weapons station.

  PO2 Baker fired as she replied, “Firing Fusions.”

  “There is no way for them to outrun us,” Pitt commented as they quickly closed on the damaged sloop.

  “Hits to her bender and fusion drives,” Baker said as she continued to fire.

  “Her engines are powering down,” Curtis said from the sensors station.

  Mike looked at the sloop’s route, “There still trying to get to the gravity well.”

  “It’s too far away,” the helmsman remarked.

  “Keep hitting them,” Collins commanded, “Order them to surrender or be destroyed.”

  “Too late,” PO2 Curtis said looking up from his monitor.

  The main viewer flashed white in a cloud of brilliance from the vanguard’s explosion. The screen slowing came back to normal as the ship’s debris floated away from the point of explosion as the ignited oxygen quickly burned off and dissipated.

  “Any escape pods?” Mike asked not looking away from the viewer.

  Petty Officer Curtis remained silent as he looked over the scanner.

  “No escape pods, no survivors,” he finally said.

  “Right, let’s go save some people that want to be saved,” Collins said.

  “Adjusting course,” Pitt announced as he brought the old frigate back after the tumbling destroyer.

  They moved behind the tumbling destroyer course as it headed to the dust world. They still had time but they still hadn’t detected any launches of life pods.

  “Signal the KD102 and find out what is wrong?” Mike instructed wondering if the enemy ships would try to escape or put up some kind of fight even if they had surrendered?

  The other destroyer KD54 and the DE definitely had severe damage to their engines and he doubted they were able to put up any kind of fight. KD102 was even worse off but they could still self-destruct and try to take their enemy with them. It was not unheard of to die an honorable death to kill your enemy.

  “No answer to our hails,” Ryan reported.

  “Reduce speed and ease us back,” Collins said not liking the feeling he was getting.

  “Yes sir, cutting impulse drives and engaging braking thrusters,” Ensign Pitt called out.

  “Continue hailing them and let’s keep our distance,” Mike instructed sitting back in his captain’s chair. If the Kardies didn’t start ejecting soon they would be pulled into the planet’s gravity along with their broken ship.

  “Sir, message coming through, audio only,” the comm. station stated.

  “Open channel,” he replied and waited a second before he started speaking. “What seems to be the problem Controller?” he asked.

  “Some of my people don’t believe what is happening or think you are going to kill us like you did the Vanguard,” the Engineering Controller voice explained.

  “The Vanguard refused to surrender and made to escape. You should know that humans honor their terms of surrender and have very specific rules about the proper treatment of prisoners. Also, if I wanted you all dead I could put a couple torpedoes into your ship or better yet just wait another thirty-four minutes until you are all pulled down into the dust world’s gravity field,” Mike said in Karduan.

  “I’ve already told them that but many still don’t believe me,” she answered.

  “Tell them that in the name of the Bright Lady, I swear that what I have said is true,” he said hoping that would convince them.

  “I’ll try,” she replied.

  “If you can’t get them all to agree then get as many off as possible and hurry,” he said before the line went dead.

  The bridge was silent for a few moments as they pondered what would happen next.

  “Orders, sir?” his pilot inquired.

  “Keep us at a distance, this will all be over in a half-hour,” Lt. Collins declared.

  “Yeah, one way or another,” Curtis added under his breath.

  Mike could hear him with his enhanced hearing but said nothing about it. The petty officer only said what everyone was thinking.

  Once more the room became as quiet as a morgue as they waited to see the fate of the destroyer’s crew.

  “Twenty minutes until they are in the planet’s gravity field,” Ensign Pitts said from the helm station.

  Silence again prevailed but only for a second.

  “Detecting multiple emergency pod launches,” Curtis said from his maser station.

  “Alright people, let get to work,” he said thinking that they had to get the pods recovered and the prisoners secured as quickly as possible.

  The destroyer continued tumbling even as it was caught in the dust world’s gravity field. It was then pulled down to the surface seemingly with quiet ease, for without an atmosphere there was no real resistance to its death fall. The destroyer hit the metallic dust of the dwarf planet causing a huge cloud of metal shards to be cast from the planet’s surface.

  All sight of Destroyer KD102 was quickly obscured in this black metal cloud. A few minutes after impact the cloud of shards was pulled back to the surface by the small world’s strong gravity and totally covered the now lost destroyer.

  “Only nineteen pods, sir,” Curtis reported.

  “Two-person pods so no more than thirty-eight survivors of a ship of at least a hundred and twenty,” PO2 Baker said quickly doing the math.

  This was both good and bad news as they had limited space for prisoners but it also meant that it was probably a great loss of life that was unnecessary.

  Turning command of the Goliad over to a reluctant Ensign Pitt. Mike recruited four crewmen and went to their lone shuttle bay. There had been a few short-lived arguments about the commander of the ship leading a recovery mission. He had quickly pointed out that he was the only skilled combat officer on board, that he was needed to pilot their Karduan shuttle and finally that he was the captain and he was going, so end of story.

  An hour into the rescue operation they had recovered nine pods and sixteen Karduans. They had been careful and had gone through a process of scanning each pod and person for explosives, weapons and booby traps. This was then followed by bringing it on board the shuttle and opening the pods with armed guards standing at the ready. The Blues were restrained, physically searched as well as being treated for injuries.

  Once their shuttle was crowded with prisoners they would head back to the Goliad to drop them off. They were on their second run back to the old frigate when Mike received word from his ship.

  “Sir, we are detecting activity at the gravity well,” Ryan reported.

  Mike knew his shuttle’s sensors didn’t have that kind of range.

  “So, what do we got?” he asked and added, “Relay your long-range sensor data to my shuttle.”

  “Coming through now,” the Specialist answered.

  “It is a Confederation Corvette,” Lt. Collins said looking at the sensor data in real time and at the same time his maser operator would be.

  “I’m signaling them,” Ensign Pitt said.

  “Don’t forget to tell them that this Karduan shuttle is under our control,” Mike said not wanting to have his shuttle blown up by an anxious corvette crew.

  “Sir, it is identifying
itself as the ISS Buyan and she is one of the 34th’s ships,” Specialist Ryan reported.

  “Great, I’ll hail her,” Mike said and signaled to the Corvette.

  “We’re reading you shuttle,” the comm. operator of the Buyan answered.

  “This is Lt. Collins of the Goliad, patch me through to your captain, please,” he said looking to his comm. system’s viewer.

  “Aye sir, hold one,” the communications specialist replied.

  The viewer switched pictures and he was now looking at a woman of Asian ancestry. She was somewhere between twenty-five and thirty years old in age, it being hard to tell as she appeared young but had an edge to her face denoting maturity. She wore the rank of a full lieutenant and she smiled slightly as she stared back at him from across the link.

  “I’m Lt. Jennifer Zhao, captain of the Buyan,” she said shaking her head in disbelief.

  “I’m Mike Collins, it’s good to see you. We could use a hand rounding up all of these prisoners,” he said.

  “We all thought you were dead. Your convoy said you had a destroyer chasing you inside some sort of radioactive nebula,” she informed.

  “So, Essex only sent a single corvette to help?” he replied a little mad but not all that surprised.

  “Sorry, we’re not here to help,” she said with a straight-face.

  Mike nodded, “You’re just here to take a quick look and bend right back,” he said for her.

  “Yep, just a looky-loo and then back to the fleet,” Lt. Zhao said.

  “Well, tell the Commodore I’m still alive and that the four Karduan ships have all been defeated.”

  “We’re only reading the debris of the Vanguard as well as a damaged destroyer escort and one standard destroyer. So where is the second destroyer?” she asked not wanting the Commodore to ask her and then fail to have the right answers.

  “The other destroyer got blown up in the nebula and then crashed to the dust planet’s surface,” he said leaving out the details.

  “And that would be four,” she stated with a nod, “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  “We’ll be here,” he replied and cut off the signal.

  He couldn’t blame her too much as the corvette disappeared back into the gravity well and bent out of the system. Her hands were tied by her orders and by the cowardice of a certain Commodore.