by David Tatum
He couldn’t ask that question, but maybe there were some he could ask. Foley suspected he would just be getting some sort of cover story, but at this point even the cover story could tell him something. “Where would someone get these fossils in the first place? This seems pretty elaborate for a hoax.”
For the first time, Karlsson looked uncomfortable, glancing over at the WISPR agent. “Yes, well, it’s possible that they really are human fossils that were altered and then transported to that location by someone else to discredit future finds.”
Well, that was certainly interesting. “Then, maybe we should start looking into bringing in forensics specialists to find the people who did this?” Foley suggested, wondering how they would respond.
“We are the forensics team,” Skorrjh growled throatily, and for the first time Foley realized he had always spoken through some sort of voice altering device in his mask. It was yet another layer to a puzzle that already had too many missing pieces. “And all of your scientists will need to leave the site immediately so we can do our job.”
Foley paled. Just what was it he had uncovered, anyway, that would bring in WISPR? “I’ll have my team start packing up their equipment, but it will take a little time. Besides, if you’re doing an investigation, shouldn’t someone stand guard until your team arrives to prevent—”
An alarm prevented Foley from finishing what he was saying. The communications system displayed an alert that a flash message was coming through, and such messages automatically took precedence over anything else they might have been talking about. Why the Science Directorate would be receiving flash messages, though, Foley couldn’t fathom.
Karlsson pulled the screen back around so he could see it and pressed a button. “Karlsson here. Report.”
A Naval officer, judging from his uniform, flickered onto the screen. “Sir, there’s a fleet of hostile ships incoming – sensor signatures read as Cygni warships. We—”
The transmission was abruptly cut off. Karlsson immediately attempted to reconnect, but the system wasn’t co-operating with him. After several failures he switched his station to show a system-wide tactical display, such as what might usually be found in a Naval headquarters.
“Well, well,” Skorrjh muttered, examining the screen. “It looks like you have a bit of a fight on your hands.”
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EAS Chihuahua
“Phase II has begun,” Emily Mumford announced. “And it looks as if Cygni is fighting a lot more effectively than we thought they would. They’re tearing through the enemy fleet.”
“Phase III begins in five minutes,” Rachel called into her mouthpiece, addressing the crew throughout the ship. Technically, that was a breach of silent running, but a minor one, and planned for. With the Pleiades ships distracted by the Cygni forces, it was unlikely they would notice. “Prepare to break from silent running. Rail gun crews, begin loading your weapons.”
Burkhard nodded slowly. “Is the enemy moving out as expected?”
“Detecting activity on board several ships,” Cohen replied. “We’ll need thirty seconds to determine exactly how many are pulled away, and whether any of those ships left behind are armed or not.”
“Keep me informed,” Burkhard sighed. “And I want someone to take optical stills every thirty seconds of the area in which that unknown ship was sighted – I want to know if it starts moving, and what it’s capable of.”
“Already in progress, sir,” Rachel said.
“Passive sensors are detecting that all the overtly armed ships from around these orbital facilities have begun moving,” Cohen called, highlighting several of their targets. “The stations themselves are supposed to be well armed with defensive satellites and the like, however, sir, and we don’t seem to have located all of those, either through passive sensors or visual checks.”
Rachel called. “No movement out of unidentified ship, yet, sir, nor any additional reaction which will show on our passive scans or visual reports. As far as we can tell, it’s not reacting to us at all. It may not even be manned.”
“Continue observation,” Burkhard ordered. “I want to know as quickly as possible if it does something.”
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Alcyone Star System, Pleiades Alpha, Hexagon Park
“This is ridiculous,” Director Karlsson said, shocked. “Our forces are equal in size and we have a technological advantage. We should at least be holding our own, but they’re killing our battleships almost two to one!”
“These ships are not using the technology we gifted you, remember. You do appear to be slightly more advanced than these enemies, but being tied to a planet as a defensive force significantly limits the advantages many of your more advanced technologies provide,” Skorrjh pointed out. “There’s no opportunity for your forces to gain the element of surprise, and you’re maneuverability is very limited if you wish to protect your stationary assets. A number of your commanders were acting a bit overconfident at first, as well, but that has been knocked out of them, so they should start performing better soon.”
Foley just sunk into the background, trying not to draw attention to himself. Maybe he would be dismissed, thanks to the attack. Was this assault a direct result of his leaking information to Cygni? He’d been trying to prevent a war, not start one.
“Well, I certainly hope we don’t lose. We might not be able to meet certain ‘obligations’ we are responsible for if our home fleet is destroyed.”
Skorrjh stiffened. “Move. I’ll contact our ship. “
At that point, Foley decided that both the agent and Karlsson were ignoring him completely. The archaeologist thought it best to leave, slowly and quietly, before they remembered he was there. Perhaps he needed to go into hiding. The confusion of the battle going on above their heads might present certain opportunities, and there was no point in staying around and waiting for them to find out what he had done.
As he left, he began hearing odd, guttural words in a language he had never heard before coming from the desk. Looking back, he caught sight of the monitor from an odd angle, and it took him a moment to grasp what he was seeing. A face! A face to match the skull at the dig! A... a Neanderthal’s face! He quickly left the office. Now he knew he needed to get to his friends and family and move them to some kind of safety, and with haste.
This is big, and I can’t afford to be caught before I manage to tell... someone, he thought absently. What the hell was that creature they were talking to on the screen? It couldn’t have been human... could it? And who should I share this with?
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EAS Chihuahua
“We’re finally seeing some activity going on aboard the unknown ship,” Rachel called. “And... wow, she’s not bothering to disguise itself. Passive sensors are picking up huge power emissions from her. We still don’t know what those power emissions are for, though, as they’re much greater than needed for... oh, hell.”
“What?” Burkhard snapped.
“I may be misreading this, because it’s obviously operating on entirely different principles then our own, but... I think this unknown ship has an energy shield.” She frowned. “The mass sensors just went haywire. I think their shield is manipulating gravity, not magnetism. And it’s better than ours. I can’t detect any holes.”
Burkhard’s heart almost froze at that pronouncement. “Keep me fully informed. We have a mission to complete, and we can’t do anything about that ship until we’re done.”
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EAS Natsugumo
"How are Admiral Hrudey's forces faring?" Beccera asked from his position on the bridge of the Natsugumo, trying to make sense of the tactical map he was seeing. Zdeno Hrudey was his counterpart in the Cygni force, and technically was in overall command of the mission, but it was Beccera's job to manage Earth's forces in it... and he felt totally inadequate to the task. He couldn't even fully understand the graphics on the dis
play panels, much less such things as what tactics each side was employing or how well each side was performing.
"Better than expected," Captain Meier replied. "Mr. Farmburg, please explain it to him."
Farmburg was less than pleased to be in on this conversation. His people had managed to goad Meier into transferring Beccera from the Chihuahua to the Natsugumo, which he thought probably contained the worst tactical crew in the entire squadron. It would have been just what he wanted... if his people were still preparing to fight the Earth Alliance instead of joining them for an interstellar war. Now all the work he had done to undermine the Academy from within was backfiring on him. The 'Captain' of his ship was an obvious fraud -- for one thing, if she were as great of a tactical genius as she claimed, they would not now be struggling to work around her course plotting error -- and the Commodore was forced to rely on her and her staff for tactical advice.
And, while he might be a little egotistical for thinking so, Farmburg had arranged things so that he was the only person in the entire ship capable of giving anyone reasonable tactical advice. But he was only an 'acting-Lieutenant,' and it didn't exactly seem likely that he would be listened to very much. The only thing he could do, after almost begging Captain Meier to be put on the Commodore's staff as a 'technical advisor,' was to interpret the icons on a map. The Commodore knew Farmburg by reputation -- apparently from his time with the crew of the Chihuahua -- and clearly wouldn't trust him with anything more important.
"There are two points on any ship which you can attack without your enemy being able to launch a significant counterattack," Farmburg explained, bringing up the base external schematics of one of the enemy battleships. "Shipbuilders are always trying to make turrets which can target the enemy from any direction, but even the best have blind spots they can't cover along the spine, or rather the top of the ship. The other spot is at the bottom, or keel, of the ship. Again, turrets occasionally are added to provide some ability to return fire, but since the hydrogen collector and hyperspace sensors are most often mounted on a structural frame extending from a ship's keel, the blind spots that the turrets can't target are actually wider then what is usually found on the spine."
"In our case, by a stroke of uncanny fortune, the entire Cygni fleet exited from hyperspace inside firing range of the largest enemy concentration, facing their keel side. While the enemy fleet was able to return fire after making some quick maneuvers, the Cygni fleet took advantage of the opportunity to get off several devastating salvos first.
"But these opening moments are by no means decisive. These icons here illustrate where the Pleiades reserve ships, drawn off from our primary targets, are coming around to act as reinforcements against the Cygni fleet. It's entirely possible for Pleiades to recover and take the advantage, once the reserves join them, but as of this moment the Cygni forces are more than holding their own."
Beccera continued looking at the map, frowning. He had to grudgingly admit that Farmburg was a better officer than he'd been led to believe. "What's this blip, here?" he asked, pointing to something that was moving faster then anything else on the map.
Farmburg frowned and typed a few keys. "I'm afraid I don't know, sir. Configuration unknown, but it's obviously a ship, and it's putting out a lot of power. More then I would expect a ship that size to be capable of producing, by far."
That caught Meier's attention. "For what purpose?" she asked.
"Unknown, ma'am," Farmburg replied, although he had a rather uneasy feeling about the situation. "The data doesn't match any ship class we've ever seen before."
"Give me see a visual of it," Meier ordered. "Let's see if we can puzzle it out."
The image on the screen was distorted, as if looking at the ship through a drop of water, and the resolution was a bit weak, but the unidentified ship was clearly something none of them had ever seen the likes of before. The visual representation was demonstrating it capable of a degree of maneuverability that was practically unheard of as it approached the Cygni fleet. Nothing they had could match it... well, except possibly for the Chihuahua. Regardless, the unidentified vessel was clearly a remarkable craft.
"These visuals -- the distortion looks similar to how the Chihuahua does when it has its shields up," Farmburg noted in amazement. "Except the Chihuahua's shields leave a band through which you can see the image undistorted. I don't see any gaps in that image."
"Did Pleiades develop their own shieldclad ship?" Beccera asked, unintentionally using the term he had picked up from Desaix and Rachel. He watched as several particle cannon blasts and rail gun charges either bounced off or dispersed around the unknown ship. "Or is this based on our own design from the Wargame?"
"I'd say that ship was purpose-built to handle whatever that shield system is," Farmburg replied. "And I don't see any quantum wheel emitters like the ones needed for the Chihuahua's shields, though these spots in the image may be something similar. Regardless, this is a different technology altogether. We are aware, though, that Pleiades has been getting unusual advanced technology from somewhere... it's possible that this ship is the source. It could be a salvaged alien craft."
Beccera looked at Farmburg closely; he didn't remember the intelligence reports on Pleiades mentioning anything about that, and he wasn't sure how a Cadet Lieutenant would have learned more than he did. Burkhard's suspicions seemed to have some basis.
"Are they moving it away to protect it for further study, then?" Beccera questioned. "She hasn't fired yet, and I don't see any turrets or other obvious weapons. Plus it shouldn't be possible to fire through a shield, so--"
He cut off as the image on the screen did, in fact, fire off a single brilliant stream of white energy. Meier gaped at it before saying, "Track that -- what is she firing on?"
"Cygni Battleship Calypso, ma'am," Farmburg replied before her tactical officer could speak up. "Power output reads... " he paused, swallowing as the unidentified ship sent out another long burst. "Calypso is destroyed, ma'am. It took them twenty seconds to tear one of the largest battleships in the Cygni fleet in half."
"Analysis of the firing pattern suggests she only has the one weapon, ma'am," the Natsugumo's tactical officer piped in.
Even Beccera, whose Army training allowed him little more knowledge of naval tactics and abilities than the average civilian, knew how unimportant that was. "Son," he drawled. "If you can destroy a battleship in twenty seconds or less, and your enemy can't hurt you back, all you need is the one weapon. Anything more would be redundant. The Chihuahua would have been able to save the Keppler in half the time if she had a weapon like that."
Before that could sink in, the communications officer let out a call of his own. "Tight beam encoded transmission received from Chihuahua, ma'am, sir," he said, addressing both his Captain and the Commodore. "Reads as follows: 'Chihuahua turning to confront unidentified ship. Initial maneuvers being conducted as silently as possible. Suggest you continue mission as designed. Unable to await confirmation.'" There was a pause. "There's a postscript, as well, but I don't understand it."
"What does it say?" Beccera asked.
"I don't get the reference. 'Time to see if we're the Merrimack or the Monitor.'"
CHAPTER XXIX
EAS Chihuahua
“We’re now far enough from the squadron that we likely won’t give away their position by engaging engines,” Cohen reported.
“About time,” Burkhard snapped. “The Cygni fleet is going to barely be able to regain a stalemate at this rate – the Fortune was the fourth battleship they’ve lost in three minutes! Mr. Schubert, full power to engines. Shields up. Begin battle plan Alpha.”
“Commencing battle plan Alpha,” Schubert replied.
“Sir, their vector is changing again,” Rachel called. “They seem to be targeting the Zephyr this time.”
Burkhard felt a slight twinge in his stomach hearing that. The Zephyr was the Cygni flagship – if she was lost, his past experience told him that the remaining Cygni flee
t would turn tail and run. “Time to maximum firing range?” he asked cautiously.
“We’re traveling at our top speed with shields activated, but may need to make maneuvers depending on what the remaining enemy fleet does,” Rachel considered. “And they are moving in a somewhat unpredictable pattern. Given those variables, I’d say twenty five to thirty seconds.”
“Concentrate all fire on a single spot,” Burkhard ordered. “And fire as soon as that unidentified ship comes in range. Let’s try to draw it off of the other ships as quickly as possible.”
“Entering firing range in ten... nine... eight...” Cohen reported. Gradually, his countdown ticked away to zero, and the powerfully destructive energy blasts generated by the particle cannons lanced out from the bow of the Chihuahua. At first, it appeared that the streaming fire was just as ineffective as the single blasts generated by the Cygni fleet, but then the glow of the weapons’ energy started penetrating deeper into the field surrounding the unknown ship. The unknown ship continued to bear down on the Zephyr as long as it could, but soon Chihuahua’s cannons forced it to turn away before it could open fire, itself.
“Well, it looks like we can scare them at least,” Cohen said triumphantly as most of the bridge crew cheered.
“Not exactly,” Burkhard sighed. “Quit your celebrating – we’ve done nothing. There’s almost no way we can make them stand still long enough for our weapons to be effective. We can’t hurt it, but maybe we can drive it away from our allies.” He paused as the target turned course towards them. “And we have yet to see if our shields will hold.”
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EAS Natsugumo
Beccera, Farmburg, Meier, and several others on the tactical staff of the Natsugumo watched as the battle between the two shieldclads began in earnest. The Chihuahua had managed to pull the unknown ship away from the center of battle, freeing the Cygni fleet for its intended purpose of battling the bulk of the Pleiades fleet. However, the battle on both fronts wasn’t going well. Thanks to the devastation the unidentified ship had caused, Cygni was barely holding on to their initial advantage. The battle between Chihuahua and its foe was even less promising – the enemy ship was the Chihuahua’s equal in maneuverability, and apparently had stronger shields and a more powerful weapon.